| November 18, 2024 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | |  | John Lothian
Publisher
John Lothian News | |
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Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff
Welcome to FIA EXPO Week, and WFE General Annual Meeting Week, and CME Group's GFLC Week and Benzinga's Future of Digital Assets '24 conference day. It is a busy week one way or another for many people in the derivatives and capital markets.
JLN will be starting our week by attending a regulatory spotlight forum and networking event sponsored by Eventus and Paul Hastings LLP, which will feature special guest Ian McGinley, director of enforcement at the CFTC. I will be at the opening cocktails for the FIA EXPO later at the Sheraton Grand Riverwalk, where the EXPO is being held.
We will be set up for our video interviews inside the entrance to the exhibit hall to the left, as we were last year. We have a busy schedule of interviews with a diverse group of industry executives. If you get the chance, stop and say hello.
CFTC Commissioner Kristin N. Johnson is scheduled to participate in a panel discussion titled "Impact of Technology and Modernization of Clearing" at the Futures Industry Association's Futures & Options Expo 2024. The session will take place on Tuesday, November 19, 2024, at 1:40 p.m. CST (2:40 p.m. EST) at the Sheraton Grand Chicago Riverwalk.
A deeper dive into the numbers behind the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's (FDIC) 2023 National Survey of Unbanked and Underbanked Households revealed that 4.8% of U.S. households engaged with cryptocurrencies or digital assets in the past year. Notably, 92.6% of these households viewed these assets as investments, while a mere 4.4% used them for payments. The survey also highlights that 4.2% of households remain unbanked, with minority groups disproportionately affected. Additionally, 14.2% of households are underbanked, relying on nonbank financial services despite having bank accounts.
Here are the headlines from in front of FOW's paywall from some recent stories: FCMs question US Treasury clearing timeline - Acuiti, Droit launches listed derivatives reporting tool, GME looks to expand commodities with Fastmarkets tieup, European authorities set April for IT registrations, Spot commodity ETF options are securities - CFTC and ANALYSIS: Eurex eyes second wave of Euro Stoxx daily options growth.
Have a great day and stay safe and treat people the same way you want to be treated: with respect, equality and justice.~JJL
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Our most read stories from our previous edition of JLN Options were:
- CBOE defends VIX against BIS criticisms from GlobalTrading.
- Cboe's New Approach to Global Markets and Options for Retail Investors from Benzinga via MSN (Video).
- LME to Triple Clearing Members Capital Needs After Nickel Crisis from Bloomberg. ~ JB
Subscribe to the JLN Options Newsletter HERE (it's free).
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From Pit to Profit: One Trader's Journey from Market Crash to Market Maker
JohnLothianNews.com
When Kevin Jamali first stepped onto the trading floor of the Chicago Board of Trade, he wasn't just reaching for financial success-he was seeking redemption for a childhood trauma he barely understood.
Watch the video »
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Picking a Broker: Futures Discovery EP 16
JohnLothianNews.com
Choosing the right broker is fundamental to your trading success. This process involves several important considerations to ensure you select a broker that meets your needs and helps you achieve your trading goals. First and foremost, it's essential to verify the broker's regulatory compliance. Make sure they are registered with appropriate regulatory bodies, such as the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, CFTC. This registration is a mark of legitimacy and ensures brokers adhere to the industry standards and regulations.
Watch the video »
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The Legal Mind Behind Futures Industry Landmarks, Part Four
JohnLothianNews.com
In the final segment of the John Lothian Profiles interview, veteran attorney William Nissen shared his thoughts on more landmark cases and the evolution of CFTC enforcement practices and their impact on the industry.
Watch the video »
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Disruption Won't Work at Treasury; Musk gives bad advice to Trump on financial policy-making.
The Editorial Board - The Wall Street Journal
Donald Trump's cabinet nominees so far reveal a desire to disrupt Washington, and disruption is needed in many places. But as he mulls his choices for Treasury and the economic-policy posts, the question markets will ask is whether he will disrupt the policy mix that was successful in his first term. The voter election surveys make clear that Mr. Trump won his second term above all else on the economy. Voters rejected the results of Bidenomics, especially inflation and a decline in real incomes. They recalled the strong investment and job market and rising wages across all income levels of the pre-Covid economy. Mr. Trump's second term success or failure will depend on restoring those results.
/jlne.ws/3YS4wnS
****** There will be disruption one way or another.~JJL
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Ken Griffin and the Big Miami Real-Estate Mystery; The Citadel CEO owns a 4-acre site in Miami, but not a 22-story condo there. Now someone has been amassing units.
Deborah Acosta - The Wall Street Journal
At the center of Ken Griffin's 4.2-acre development and office site in the financial district, Miami's most intriguing real-estate mystery is unfolding. The hedge-fund executive assembled the land in 2022. He is building a 54-story glass tower to be the splashy new headquarters for his investment firm Citadel. The 1.7 million-square-foot building will also feature restaurants, a rooftop hotel, a public waterfront terrace and maybe even a dock along Biscayne Bay when it breaks ground next year.
/jlne.ws/4eykc5j
**** My money is on Mr. Griffin as the mystery buyer.~JJL
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The Best Thing About Retirement, According to WSJ Readers; Some are living their healthiest lives, while others have found new passions or rediscovered old favorites
Demetria Gallegos - The Wall Street Journal
The transition to retirement isn't always easy. There can be a loss of identity. Financial woes. Boredom. Such negatives get a lot of attention-leading many people to say they never plan to retire. But there's another side to this story, one that isn't heard as often. And that is the one told by the many people who love retirement. These retirees speak of finally having the chance to learn who they are without a defined workweek. They describe having the time to travel, to learn a language, and being able to pursue hobbies that were always just out of reach while they were working or raising a family.
/jlne.ws/3Oht0lv
******* What is the worst thing about retirement? Oh, there are too many to list?~JJL
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Friday's Top Three
Our top clicked item Friday was the summary of the LANGER V. CME GROUP, INC. Class Action Lawsuit. Second was John Lothian's LinkedIn post announcing that The CME Group Langer class action lawsuit with its members that has dragged on for 10 years finally has a court date. Third was SpiderRock Connect Launches a Modern and Powerful Trading System and an Options ATS, Designed to Bring Increased Automation, Competition, and Transparency to Global Institutional Options Trading, from SpiderRock.
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| Lead Stories | The new titans of Wall Street; The rise of innovative traders increases competition for banks - and work for authorities
The editorial board - Financial Times
Trillions of dollars of financial securities change hands every day. A few decades back, exchanges took place in raucous trading pits where dealers would bellow out prices to match buyers and sellers. Then the banks went electronic. Today, the task of market-making has evolved into a competitive and highly lucrative computerised sport beyond the banking sector, where wits, speed and technology are helping players gain an edge. And as the Financial Times' New titans of Wall Street series has outlined, a handful of innovators have mastered it, leaving the biggest names in banking in the dust.
/jlne.ws/3OdbwGL
The Race to Lead Trump's Treasury Dept. Is Becoming a Cliffhanger; Howard Lutnick? Scott Bessent? Marc Rowan? Kevin Warsh? The president-elect's list of candidates has grown longer, clouding the future of the department.
Andrew Ross Sorkin, Ravi Mattu, Bernhard Warner, Sarah Kessler, Michael J. de la Merced and Lauren Hirsch - The New York Times
Few of the unfilled positions in Donald Trump's cabinet are as important as Treasury secretary. But the question of who will fill the role is only getting cloudier. Allies of two candidates, Howard Lutnick, the transition co-chair, and Scott Bessent, a top economic adviser, publicly stumped for them this weekend. But The Times reports that the president-elect himself wants somebody "big" for the role and is now considering Marc Rowan, the C.E.O. of Apollo Global Management, and Kevin Warsh, a former Fed governor.
/jlne.ws/40MigTE
Founder of Crypto 'Mixer' Helix Sentenced to Three Years; Larry Dean Harmon was also ordered to forfeit more than $400 million worth of assets
Richard Vanderford - The Wall Street Journal
Larry Dean Harmon, who ran the cryptocurrency mixer Helix and a darknet search engine called Grams, was sentenced Friday in federal court in Washington, D.C., according to prosecutors. Harmon was also ordered to serve three years of supervised release and to forfeit cryptocurrency, real estate and other assets worth more than $400 million. Prosecutors had recommended a 75-month sentence. Mixers such as Helix combine bitcoin from multiple sources and redistribute them to make it harder to trace transactions. Harmon pleaded guilty in 2021 to conspiracy to commit money laundering.
/jlne.ws/3CvwbmV
Crypto Prediction Markets Have a Cloudy Future; Platforms like Polymarket had a good election, but the hype is overdone.
Lionel Laurent - Bloomberg Opinion
The ancients used oracles and inspected animal entrails to predict the future. Gen-Z has Polymarket, a crypto platform where (almost) anyone can bet on (almost) anything. It turned out to be the way to pick the winning horse this election year, correctly calling Donald Trump's clean sweep - unlike most pollsters and pundits - and making a star out of anonymous trader "Theo," whose multiple bets netted an estimated $85 million by reportedly focusing on indicators like neighbors' voting intentions that went unnoticed by a lot of pros.
/jlne.ws/3Ofbs9C
Goldman Readies Plans to Spin-Out Its Digital Assets Platform; The bank is looking to create separate industry-owned company; Tech allows firms to issue and settle assets on the blockchain
Anna Irrera - Bloomberg
Goldman Sachs Group Inc is speaking with potential partners as it plans to spin out its digital-assets platform into a new company for large financial firms to create, trade and settle financial instruments via blockchain technology. The bank is in talks with a number of market participants on the plans as it continues to build out the platform's capabilities and develop new commercial use cases, Mathew McDermott, Goldman's global head of Digital Assets, said in an interview. Plans for the new company are in the early stages, but the long term goal is to execute the spin-out within the next 12 to 18 months, subject to regulatory approvals, McDermott said.
/jlne.ws/4ftU2C7
How Fraudsters Are Bilking the Government Out of Billions of Dollars; Elon Musk, listen to this episode.
Tracy Alloway and Joe Weisenthal - Bloomberg
After his victory, Donald Trump announced that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy would be leading up a new Department of Government Efficiency in order to crack down on wasteful, fraudulent spending inside the federal government. Setting aside the question of how effective this particular endeavor will be, the basic premise of cracking down on waste and going after fraudsters should generally be non-controversial. So what does fraud look like? How do companies bilk programs like Medicare and Medicaid for billions of dollars every year? And what can be done about it? On this episode, we speak with Jetson Leder-Luis, an assistant professor at the Questrom School of Business at Boston University and a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Jetson walks us through such things as ambulance fraud, identity theft, and other techniques that are used to milk the system. He also explains the tactics and strategies that the government can deploy to reduce billions in wasted spending.
/jlne.ws/4fNaCMQ
Trump Broadens Hunt for Top Treasury Job After Jostling Became Messy; Posturing between longtime front-runners had irritated advisers, and new names are now in the mix
Brian Schwartz and Andrew Restuccia - The Wall Street Journal
Donald Trump's advisers are weighing a new slate of contenders for Treasury secretary amid a messy fight over the crucial economic position that has irritated the president-elect and his team in recent days. Among the people now being discussed by Trump's advisers for the role, according to people familiar with the matter: Kevin Warsh, an economic-policy adviser to President George W. Bush who later served on the Federal Reserve's board of governors, and Apollo Global Management Chief Executive Marc Rowan.
/jlne.ws/3UWJYcE
Oil Trader Faces Suit Over Company Hit by US-Iran Sanctions; Mazzagatti accused of diverting funds from Mehr Petrochemical Francesco; Mazzagatti denies allegations in suit filed by API
Jonathan Browning - Bloomberg
The energy trader seeking to buy UK gas assets from Shell Plc and Exxon Mobil Corp. was sued over allegations that he diverted money from an Iranian petrochemical company that was later banned from doing business in the US. Francesco Mazzagatti is accused in a London lawsuit of profiting from an indirect ownership of Mehr Petrochemical Co., an Iranian maker of plastic resin. The US Treasury said last year that Mehr was at the heart of a vast "shadow banking network" that helped other companies continue to do business on behalf of the Iranian regime.
/jlne.ws/3OeYFE7
ECB split over report showing big EU banks' capital requirements lower than US rivals; Officials say US rules would increase minimum capital levels by double-digit percentage for biggest EU banks
Martin Arnold - Financial Times
The European Central Bank is debating whether to publish sensitive research showing capital requirements for big EU lenders would rise by a double-digit percentage if they had the same rules as large Wall Street rivals. Some senior policymakers at the ECB are pushing for it to publish the report, or at least some of its findings, to counter heavy lobbying by the banking sector to water down rules implementing the Basel agreement on global capital requirements in the sector.
/jlne.ws/3YQw2lD
CFTC Clears Way for Spot Bitcoin ETF Options
MarketsMedia
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's Division of Clearing and Risk issued a staff advisory relating to the clearing of options on spot commodity Exchange Traded Funds. These options are on shares of the ETFs registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission as securities and the shares are listed and traded on a SEC-registered national securities exchange. These ETF options are cleared and settled by the Options Clearing Corporation as the sole issuer of all equity options.
/jlne.ws/4ezF64e
***** Here is a link for the CFTC Advisory.~JJL
Column: Suing to recover billions, FTX's receiver discloses the stunning scale of its grift - and stupidity
Michael Hiltzik - LA Times
Once the highest-flying of cryptocurrency highfliers, the FTX crypto exchange is now in bankruptcy. Its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, is in prison, along with a couple of his cronies. Its customers will receive some of their money back, but are still toting up their losses. You might think that all means an end to the FTX story. You would be wrong. From Nov. 4 through Nov. 10, the current management of FTX - in essence, its receivers - filed 26 lawsuits to recover about $2 billion in payments made to former partners, investors, customers and philanthropies prior to the firm's collapse.
/jlne.ws/3Zaxh09
Stock Connect at 10: it began with notes on a tablecloth - what will a new decade bring? The exchange link between Shanghai and Hong Kong went live on November 17, 2014
Zhang Shidongin and Enoch Yiu - South China Morning Post
On an afternoon in December 2012, Charles Li Xiaojia, the CEO of Hong Kong's stock exchange operator, sat with Shanghai bourse chairman Gui Minjie in a Shenzhen teahouse. During their discussion, which lasted less than an hour, they scribbled down plans to link Asia's two largest stock markets - on the corner of a tablecloth. What started on that teahouse tablecloth has become a conduit through which international investors can access China's US$10 trillion onshore stock market, while their counterparts on the mainland can diversify their portfolios by trading Hong Kong-listed equities.
/jlne.ws/3Ol66tf
ICE Delays Changes on Uncertainty Over EU Deforestation Plan
Ilena Peng - Bloomberg
Intercontinental Exchange Inc. is holding off on planned changes in coffee and cocoa markets to comply with the European Union's deforestation regulation amid uncertainty over when the laws would take effect. The EUDR, originally slated to be implemented at the end of 2024, is already facing a proposed one-year delay. The timing was further complicated on Thursday after the European Parliament asked for more changes to the laws. That makes it "unclear at this time if the delay will be adopted or if the EUDR will enter into application" on Dec. 30, ICE said in a Friday statement.
/jlne.ws/4fxgYjZ
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| Ukraine Invasion | | News about the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and its military, economic, political and humanitarian impact | Biden authorizes Ukraine to use US-supplied longer range missiles for deeper strikes inside Russia
Aamer Madhani - Associated Press
President Joe Biden has authorized Ukraine to use U.S.-supplied missiles to strike deeper inside Russia, easing limitations on the longer range weapons as Russia deploys thousands of North Korean troops to reinforce its war, according to a U.S. official and three other people familiar with the matter. The decision allowing Kyiv to use the Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMs, for attacks farther inside Russia comes as President Vladimir Putin positions North Korean troops along Ukraine's northern border to try to reclaim hundreds of miles of territory seized by Ukrainian forces. Biden's move also follows the presidential election victory of Donald Trump, who has said he would bring about a swift end to the war and raised uncertainty about whether his administration would continue the United States' vital military support for Ukraine.
/jlne.ws/4fCsXwM
Poland's Duda says U.S decision on arms may be decisive for Ukraine
Reuters
Polish President Andrzej Duda said on Monday that a U.S. decision to allow Ukraine to use U.S.-made weapons to strike deep into Russia may be a decisive moment in the war. Two U.S. officials and a source familiar with the decision revealed the significant reversal of Washington's policy in the Ukraine-Russia conflict on Sunday.
/jlne.ws/3UY8GcC
Russia resells more gas in Europe after cutting off Austria, sources, data show
Jason Hovet, Thomas Escritt and Dmitry Zhdannikov - Reuters
Russian gas flows to Austria were suspended for a second day on Sunday because of a pricing dispute, but other buyers in Europe stepped in to snap up unsold volumes, companies and sources said and data showed. Russia, which before the Ukraine war was the biggest single supplier of gas to Europe, has lost most of its buyers on the continent as the EU tries to cut its dependence on Russian energy.
/jlne.ws/4fPx7kq
Zelensky says Ukraine war will end 'faster' under Trump presidency
Maria Kostenko and Sophie Tanno - CNN
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday said Russia's war in Ukraine will end "faster" when Donald Trump takes over as US president. Speaking in a radio interview with Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne, Zelensky admitted to a difficult situation on the battlefield, where Russia has been pressing its advantages in manpower and weaponry.
/jlne.ws/40T6abw
In wartime Russia, some men may be worth more dead than alive, economist says
Jason Ma - Fortune
As Russia's invasion of Ukraine heads toward its three-year anniversary, the military's payments for those who die on the battlefield are presenting a grim calculus for families. Russian economist Vladislav Inozemtsev has estimated that the family of a 35-year-old man who serves for a year and is killed in action would receive about 14.5 million rubles, or $150,000, in the form of salary and death compensation, according to the Wall Street Journal. That doesn't include other bonuses and insurance payouts.
/jlne.ws/3Zaym8a
G7 confirms pledge to impose severe costs on Russia for Ukraine war
Reuters
Leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) major democracies on Saturday reiterated a pledge to keep imposing severe costs on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, through sanctions, export controls and other measures, and vowed to support Kyiv for as long as it takes. "Russia remains the sole obstacle to just and lasting peace," said a joint statement published on Saturday, adopted "in support of Kyiv as the thousandth day of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine approaches."
/jlne.ws/3YTjc63
Killer Robots Are About to Fill Ukrainian Skies; Kyiv's drone suppliers are ramping up production of computer-guided drones that are cheap and can't be electronically jammed
James Marson and Daniel Michaels - The Wall Street Journal
/jlne.ws/3ZajqXD
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| Israel/Hamas Conflict | | News about the recent (October, 2023) conflict between Israel and Hamas | Israeli Strikes in Beirut's Center Shatter a Tenuous Sense of Security; The strikes, the first in weeks inside Lebanon's capital, forced residents to come to grips with another escalation of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
Christina Goldbaum and Hwaida Saad - The New York Times
The typically congested streets of Beirut were unusually empty on Monday morning. Schools that had temporarily shuttered earlier this fall when war first escalated were closed again. Many people who had come back to Lebanon's capital after fleeing to the northern mountains a month ago had headed north once more. Since Israeli airstrikes hit two neighborhoods within Beirut on Sunday, a sense of disbelief and frustration has washed over the city. In recent weeks, the initial shock of the intensified war between Hezbollah and Israel had given way to a feeling that relative safety had returned to Beirut, as the pace of strikes slowed and the city center remained largely unscathed.
/jlne.ws/3Zbp2AX
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| Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | Clearing bottlenecks blamed for muted volumes at FMX; Regulatory hurdles and market conditions have also hampered CME rival since its September launch
Bernard Goyder and Lukas Becker - Risk.net
Limited clearing options, restrictions on non-US users and volatile market conditions have contributed to a slow start for FMX Futures Exchange, which launched on September 24 with aspirations of challenging CME Group's dominance in US rates derivatives. The BGC-owned exchange's volumes have so far been underwhelming compared with rival CME Group's rates complex. Open interest in three-month FMX futures linked to the US secured overnight financing rate (SOFR) stood at 1,807 contracts on November
/jlne.ws/3Ay3pBG
Abaxx to Increase Strategic Ownership in MineHub to 19.99%
Abaxx
MineHub Technologies Inc. (TSXV: MHUB) (OTCQB: MHUBF) ("MineHub" or the "Company"), a leading provider of digital supply chain solutions for the commodity markets, is pleased to announce the Company and Abaxx Technologies Inc. (Cboe CA: ABXX) (OTCQX:ABXXF) ("Abaxx") have entered into a Letter of Intent ("LOI") wherein Abaxx will increase its strategic ownership in Minehub from its current 10.83% interest to 19.99%. Abaxx will acquire 8,810,000 common shares of MineHub at a deemed price per share of $0.35 (the "MineHub Shares"), in exchange for $3,083,500 in cash (the "Abaxx Cash Payment") or the issuance of 237,192 Abaxx common shares (the "Abaxx Shares") at Abaxx's sole election prior to closing (the "Transaction").
/jlne.ws/48Y4a3p
New Product Summary: Eligibility of Basis Trade at Index Close ("BTIC") for Bloomberg U.S. Corporate Investment Grade Duration-Hedged Index Futures - Effective December 16, 2024
CME Group
Eligibility of Basis Trade at Index Close ("BTIC") for Bloomberg U.S. Corporate Investment Grade Duration-Hedged Index Futures.
/jlne.ws/3Oc4kL0
Higo Bank Selects DTCC's ITP Services, Streamlining and Accelerating Post-Trade Processing; Adoption of DTCC's Institutional Trade Processing (ITP) solutions enables the firm to accelerate the trade lifecycle, as jurisdictions around the world consider moving to T+1 settlement.
DTCC
New York/London/Hong Kong/Singapore/Sydney, November 18, 2024 The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), the premier post-trade market infrastructure for the global financial services industry, announced today that Japan's Higo Bank has adopted DTCC's ITP services to automate their middle and back office, helping them achieve no touch processing across domestic and cross-border transactions.
/jlne.ws/3YXushE
Investors Eye IPO Access as Hong Kong Stock Link Turns 10
Bloomberg News
A decade after China opened up its exchanges to a broad swath of international investors through a trading link with Hong Kong, investors are craving deeper access. With billions of dollars worth of trading volume flowing across the border between Hong Kong and Shanghai and Shenzhen on a daily basis, the stock connect has been a success. While the link was later expanded to include bonds, exchange traded funds and interest rate swaps, it has yet to allow investors to access the primary market, or initial public offerings.
/jlne.ws/4fQghSz
HKEX's Chan: Long "To-Do" List on Building Connect
Bloomberg video
Bonnie Chan, CEO at Hong Kong's exchange operator HKEX, says there is a lot of interest in IPO connect plans. She discusses the progress of expanding the exchange's connect programs with Stephen Engle. She speaks on "Bloomberg: The Asia Trade" from the sidelines of an event marking the 10th anniversary of the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect.
/jlne.ws/4ftSBUn
HKEX Celebrates 10th Anniversary of Connect Programme
HKEX
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) today (Monday) welcomed over 400 distinguished guests at HKEX Connect Hall to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Connect, the landmark mutual access programme that has transformed the region's financial markets and facilitated two-way capital flows between Mainland China and the world. At the first-ever HKEX Connect Summit, HKEX Chairman Carlson Tong and Chief Executive Officer Bonnie Y Chan hosted a celebration ceremony alongside guests of honour that included Acting Hong Kong Chief Executive Eric Chan, Financial Secretary Paul Chan, China Securities Regulatory Commission Vice Chairman Li Ming, the Director-General of the Economic Affairs Department of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the HKSAR Xu Weigang, Deputy Commissioner of the Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the PRC in the HKSAR Li Yongsheng, Securities and Futures Commission Chairman Kelvin Wong, Hong Kong Monetary Authority Chief Executive Eddie Yue, Shanghai Stock Exchange President Cai Jianchun, Shenzhen Stock Exchange President Li Jizun, and China Securities Depository and Clearing Corporation General Manager Yu Wenqiang.
/jlne.ws/4fAlqP0
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| Fintech | | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | Revolut to Launch UK, EU Stock Trading With New License; Company has been developing the technology for the new service London startup to enter a crowded market of retail brokers
Emily Nicolle - Bloomberg
Revolut Ltd., Europe's most valuable fintech, will offer trading of UK and EU-listed stocks from next year, as competition among retail brokers serving British investors intensifies. The London-headquartered company - which recently secured a UK banking authorization - has received approval from the Financial Conduct Authority as an investment firm which permits it to expand its services, it said in a statement Monday. The FCA declined to comment.
/jlne.ws/4fPZajz
Revolut gets UK trading license, set to offer UK & EU stock trading
Reuters
Fintech Revolut said on Monday it has got a UK trading license from the British financial regulator that will allow the company to offer trading of UK and EU-listed stocks and exchange-traded funds from 2025. The company, which recently secured a $45 billion valuation making it one of Europe's most valuable fintechs, will now compete with companies such as Trading 212, Freetrade, Hargreaves Lansdown and AJ Bell in the UK trading market.
/jlne.ws/4frIteC
TikTok Parent ByteDance Valued at About $300 Billion, WSJ Says
John J Edwards III - Bloomberg
TikTok parent ByteDance Ltd. is valuing itself around $300 billion, one of the highest valuations ever for the Chinese tech company, even as it fights to maintain its popular social-media app's presence in the US, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday. The valuation came in a recent buyback offer by ByteDance, the Journal said, citing unidentified people with knowledge of the matter. TikTok would be banned in the US under a federal law unless ByteDance sells the app to an American owner by mid-January.
/jlne.ws/4fQ37Vr
Tim Berners-Lee Wants the Internet Back; The inventor of the World Wide Web is on a laudable mission to give everyone control of their online data. He's fighting an uphill battle.
Parmy Olson - Bloomberg Opinion
Tim Berners-Lee has a radical proposition. Instead of leaving our online data vulnerable to harvesting by large tech platforms and governments, we should control it. Our own little piece of the web or "personal cloud" should need permission to be accessed. The idea sounds reasonable in theory, though in practice it's a big ask. The internet today isn't the vibrant, motley network that came into being after Berners-Lee first fashioned it in 1989, but a landscape dominated by huge companies like Alphabet Inc.'s Google and Meta Platforms Inc.'s Facebook. In many parts of the world, Facebook is the internet and the only experience that people have of the web. Most apps function as gatekeepers of our personal data.
/jlne.ws/40Mf8Ho
New Nvidia AI chips overheating in servers, the Information reports
Reuters
Nvidia's new Blackwell AI chips, which have already faced delays, have encountered problems with accompanying servers that overheat, causing some customers to worry they will not have enough time to get new data centers up and running, the Information reported on Sunday. The Blackwell graphics processing units overheat when connected together in server racks designed to hold up to 72 chips, the report said, citing sources familiar with the issue.
/jlne.ws/48Wd6Xa
A Powerful AI Breakthrough Is About to Transform the World; The technology driving ChatGPT is capable of so much more. What's coming next will make talking bots look like mere distractions.
Christopher Mims - The Wall Street Journal
The AI revolution is about to spread way beyond chatbots. From new plastic-eating bacteria and new cancer cures to autonomous helper robots and self-driving cars, the generative-AI technology that gained prominence as the engine of ChatGPT is poised to change our lives in ways that make talking bots look like mere distractions. While we tend to equate the current artificial-intelligence boom with computers that can write, talk, code and make pictures, most of those forms of expression are built on an underlying technology called a "transformer" that has far broader applications. First announced in a 2017 paper from Google researchers, transformers are a kind of AI algorithm that lets computers understand the underlying structure of any heap of data-be it words, driving data, or the amino acids in a protein-so that it can generate its own similar output.
/jlne.ws/4fwgL0f
AI Investments Are Booming, but Venture-Firm Profits Are at a Historic Low; Investors hope the Trump administration will make tech acquisition deals easier
Berber Jin - The Wall Street Journal
/jlne.ws/3Z9FVfA
Tech investor Xavier Niel urges Europe's AI start-ups not to cash out; French billionaire warns that if region misses AI boom it will be 'a very small continent abandoned for a few generations'
Leila Abboud and Adrienne Klasa in Paris - Financial Times
/jlne.ws/4foeEM1
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| Cybersecurity | | Top stories for cybersecurity | Black Friday turning into Black Fraud Day, says UK cybersecurity chief; Criminals using AI to trick shoppers as data shows more than £11.5m lost to fraud during festive period last year
Zoe Wood - The Guardian
Black Friday is fast becoming Black Fraud Day with the discount period now "prime time" for scammers, according to Britain's cybersecurity chief, who said criminals were using artificial intelligence to trick shoppers. With online criminals taking advantage of an eagerness to save money amid the cost of living crisis, last Christmas people in the UK were scammed out of more than £11.5m, figures show, almost £1m more than in the same period in 2022. Fake clothing or high-end tech listings on social media were among the common ploys used to dupe people.
/jlne.ws/4hScNAM
Rethinking Cybersecurity From Cost Center To Value Driver
David DeWalt - Forbes
In an era of digital transformation revolutionizing businesses, cybersecurity is often viewed as a cost center-a necessary evil to be managed during the process rather than embraced. However, as the cyber risk landscape evolves, organizations must rethink this perspective and recognize cybersecurity as a value-add and integral to driving innovation and competitive advantage.
/jlne.ws/3CBy0yL
Why the Demand for Cybersecurity Innovation Is Surging; Companies that recognize current market opportunities - from the need to safely implement revolutionary technology like AI to the vast proliferation of cyber threats - have remarkable growth prospects.
Marcus Bartram - Dark Reading
Companies have never faced a wider and more dynamic array of cyber threats than they do right now. From rapidly rising costs associated with data breaches and other cyberattacks to the exploitation of artificial intelligence (AI) to make attacks more effective than ever, the cyber-threat landscape is constantly evolving. This has led to a drastic increase in cybersecurity spending, as well as a wave of innovation in the sector.
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| Cryptocurrencies | | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | Underbanked Us Households Use Crypto More Than Banked: FDIC Reports; Cryptocurrency Cryptocurrency Adoption FDIC FDIC's 2023 survey highlights that 6.2% of underbanked households in the U.S. used cryptocurrency, outpacing the 4.8% of fully banked households.
Jimmy Aki - Cryptonews
A recent survey by the FDIC found that 6.2% of underbanked households in the U.S. used cryptocurrency, surpassing the 4.8% of fully banked households who did so in 2023. Surveying nearly 60,000 households in 2023, the FDIC report showed that younger, higher-educated, working-age, Asian, and white households are more likely to adopt cryptocurrency.
/jlne.ws/3UTuW7m
Goldman Sachs plans to spin-out its digital assets platform, Bloomberg News reports
Reuters
Goldman Sachs is speaking with potential partners as it plans to spin out its digital-assets platform into a new company for large financial firms to create, trade and settle financial instruments via blockchain technology, Bloomberg News reported on Monday. Plans for the new company are in the early stages, but Goldman aims to execute the spin-out within the next 12 to 18 months, Mathew McDermott, the bank's global head of digital assets, said, according to the report.
/jlne.ws/48WF2Kz
Trump's win has bitcoin soaring. The 'normies' want in.; The president-elect's promises of making the U.S. the 'crypto capital of the planet' has set off a gold rush.
Lisa Bonos - The Washington Post
Daniel Manson had been hesitant to put his money into cryptocurrency. The 21-year-old New Jersey college student watched friends dabble in digital assets, but he felt it was too risky. Manson changed his mind after a small wager on an online prediction market that former president Donald Trump would win reelection netted a $6,200 windfall. He poured his winnings into bitcoin.
/jlne.ws/4ftQXSz
MicroStrategy's $26 billion bitcoin cache is larger than IBM, Nike cash holdings
Monique Mulima - Bloomberg
Michael Saylor's unorthodox decision to hold Bitcoin (BTC-USD) instead of cash on MicroStrategy Inc.'s (MSTR) books has vaulted the once obscure software maker into the upper echelon of the wealthiest corporations when it comes to financial assets. The Tysons Corner, Virginia-based firm's approximately $26 billion Bitcoin cache is larger than the cash and marketable securities of global market leaders such as International Business Machines Corp., Nike Inc. and Johnson & Johnson, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Only about a dozen companies, led by Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc., hold more assets in their corporate treasuries.
/jlne.ws/3YVdGzP
MicroStrategy Buys $4.6 Billion of Bitcoin in Largest Purchase
Dave Liedtka - Bloomberg
MicroStrategy Inc. bought about 51,780 Bitcoin for around $4.6 billion, the largest purchase by the crypto hedge-fund proxy since it began acquiring the digital-asset more than four years ago. The enterprise software maker, whose corporate strategy includes buying the cryptocurrency, bought the tokens between Nov. 11 and Nov. 17, according to an US Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Monday. It now holds more than $29 billion in Bitcoin.
/jlne.ws/3YUdNvt
A big Wall Street winner from Trump's bitcoin bump: BlackRock
David Hollerith - Yahoo Finance
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink was once a "proud skeptic" of bitcoin, but now his money management giant is emerging as one of the biggest beneficiaries of a post-election surge in enthusiasm for the world's largest cryptocurrency. BlackRock's spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (IBIT) has swelled by $13 billion since Donald Trump's win on Nov. 5, according to Yahoo Finance data, pushing iShares Bitcoin Trust past $40 billion in assets just 10 months following its launch.
/jlne.ws/3AI54od
CAT Token Expands to Solana, Setting Up Long-Term Bullish Move; The vault has been filled in excess of an initial $100,000 target as of Asian morning hours, with $240,000 worth of stablecoins deposited for CAT on Solana, data shows.
Shaurya Malwa - CoinDesk
/jlne.ws/3Zc4BUM
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| Politics | | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | Musk appears to pressure Trump on Cabinet and tariffs, irking advisers; Elon Musk, the billionaire who has become Donald Trump's "first buddy," appeared to publicly pressure the president-elect on economic policy and a key Cabinet pick.
Jacqueline Alemany, Jeff Stein and Maegan Vazquez - The Washington Post
Elon Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX billionaire who has become President-elect Donald Trump's "first buddy," appeared to publicly pressure Trump on economic policy and a key Cabinet appointment Saturday. In a Saturday morning post on X, the social network he owns and runs, Musk praised a foreign leader's decision to cut tariffs - the same import taxes that Trump wants to raise to the highest level in a century. Several hours later, Musk posted that Howard Lutnick, Trump's co-transition chair, would be a better choice than hedge fund executive Scott Bessent for treasury secretary.
/jlne.ws/3Z8RPpY
Wall Street is 'optimistic' about Trump 2.0
Madison Mills - Yahoo Finance
The vibe on Wall Street post Donald Trump's re-election: bring on the good times. "This election was about whether you were more scared of four years of the same or more scared of four years of change," Apollo Global (APO) co-founder and CEO Marc Rowan said at Yahoo Finance's Invest conference, adding that the "market's verdict's been rendered." Added Rowan, "I think this administration has a remarkable chance to really pivot the country to take advantage of all the inherent positives that we have." Rowan's optimism matches that of the market, with the S&P 500 rallying above 6,000 in the best post-election day melt up of all time. The rally is based in part on Trump policy proposals around making tax cuts permanent and loosening regulations, experts say.
/jlne.ws/3ZaYyj2
The unconventional economic theory behind Trump's sweeping tariff plans; A Wall Street veteran who teaches finance in Beijing has a contrarian view of the root cause of trade imbalances.
David J. Lynch - The Washington Post
President-elect Donald Trump's plan to impose tariffs on all foreign goods relies on an economic theory that challenges traditional thinking about what causes chronic U.S. trade deficits and what can - or should - be done to shrink them. Get a curated selection of 10 of our best stories in your inbox every weekend. For most of the past 40 years, the United States has imported more products from abroad than it has exported to other countries. Many economists say the resulting trade deficits contributed to the loss of more than 5 million factory jobs beginning in the late 1990s.
/jlne.ws/3CzgStz
What Trump's frontrunners for Treasury Secretary say about crypto; Donald Trump hasn't named his Treasury Secretary yet, but the top four candidates are certainly not anti-crypto.
Ben Weiss - DL News
Trump hasn't picked his Treasury Secretary yet. The race to become Treasury Secretary under Donald Trump is heating up. Just last week, Howard Lutnick, CEO of financial firm Cantor Fitzgerald, and Scott Bessent, founder of investment firm Key Square Capital Management and one of George Soros' former lieutenants, were leading candidates, according to Reuters. Now, Marc Rowan, CEO of Apollo Global Management, and Kevin Warsh, a former member of the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors, are in the running, according to the New York Times.
/jlne.ws/4eAn0ij
Trump adds more Treasury secretary candidates, media reports
Reuters
President-elect Donald Trump added former Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh and billionaire Marc Rowan to the list of candidates to become his Treasury secretary, the New York Times and Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. A former investment banker, Warsh, 54, served on the Federal Reserve Board from 2006 to 2011. He was seen as both a fiscal hawk and a proponent of higher savings rates.
/jlne.ws/3CzhyPu
Trump picks fracking firm CEO Chris Wright to be energy secretary
Evan Halper, Maxine Joselow, Maegan Vazquez and Josh Dawsey - The Washington Post
President-elect Donald Trump announced on Saturday that he has selected Chris Wright, the head of fracking company Liberty Energy and a skeptic of mainstream climate science, to lead the Department of Energy and to serve on a new National Energy Council.
/jlne.ws/3CBufJF
Trump's Scoreboard Is the S&P 500, and It's Wall Street's Best Hope
Carmen Reinicke and Esha Dey - Bloomberg
If Wall Street learned one thing during Donald Trump's first term as president, it's that the stock market is a way he keeps score. At various points he took credit for equities rallies, urged Americans to buy the dip, and even considered firing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who he blamed for a selloff.
/jlne.ws/3Zfrzug
Investors want more urgency from Europe in tackling its economic problems; Competition with the US looks set to intensify with Donald Trump heading to the White House again
Katie Martin - Financial Times
The Eurozone debt crisis a decade ago was grim for all concerned. Even aside from the impact on people's lives, every lurch lower in the euro felt a step towards the brink of an even greater calamity. One striking feature of that period, though, was that it showed Europe does take decisive action when its markets - particularly its bonds and currency - are in freefall. In that narrow sense, investors in the region could really do with a flashback to that time now.
/jlne.ws/40TmKIi
Trump's Tariffs Threaten Commodity Prices, BofA's Blanch Says
Elizabeth Elkin and Jonathan Ferro - Bloomberg
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China's Dream of 'Powerful Currency' Runs Into Trump's Return; Trade war risks have fueled yuan short bets after US election; Some analysts expect CNY to fall as much as 10% against dollar
Bloomberg News
/jlne.ws/3AMD4Qe
Moody's Cuts Bangladesh Further Into Junk on Political Risks
Arun Devnath and Malavika Kaur Makol - Bloomberg
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| Regulation & Enforcement | | Stories about regulation and the law. | Why Big Oil Doesn't Mind Big Regulation; Trump's call to undo Biden-era regulation isn't welcome news for all fossil-fuel producers
Jinjoo Lee - The Wall Street Journal
Donald Trump has promised to remove Biden-era regulatory barriers to drilling oil and gas, and that has become even easier with Republicans' House majority. Over the weekend, Trump nominated Chris Wright, an outspoken fossil-fuel champion, as energy secretary, further cementing the new administration's pro-drilling stance. It isn't exactly music to the ears of the biggest oil producers, though.
/jlne.ws/3OkVpa5
Singapore oil trader sentenced to 17 years for 'cheating' HSBC over $112mn; Octogenarian Lim Oon Kuin handed long jail term as 'deterrent' in city-state's fight against commodity trading corruption
Owen Walker, Singapore Correspondent - Financial Times
An octogenarian oil trader has been given a 17-and-a-half-year jail sentence in Singapore for defrauding HSBC, in a long-running case that sent shockwaves through the city-state's commodity trading sector. Lim Oon Kuin, known as OK Lim and once one of Singapore's richest men, was sentenced on Monday after being convicted in May of "cheating" HSBC and abetting forgery. The 82-year-old founder of Hin Leong Trading was accused of encouraging a company executive to forge documents that tricked the bank into disbursing nearly $112mn.
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CFTC Staff Issues an Advisory Related to Clearing of Options on Spot Commodity Exchange Traded Funds
CFTC
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's Division of Clearing and Risk today issued a staff advisory relating to the clearing of options on spot commodity Exchange Traded Funds. These options are on shares of the ETFs registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission as securities and the shares are listed and traded on a SEC-registered national securities exchange. These ETF options are cleared and settled by the Options Clearing Corporation as the sole issuer of all equity options.
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Remarks at PLI's 56th Annual Institute on Securities Regulation
Sanjay Wadhwa, Acting Director, Division of Enforcement - SEC
Since 2021, Gurbir and I frequently discussed, including at conferences like this one, that we would prioritize restoring investor trust and confidence in the financial markets by emphasizing robust enforcement that works to promote a culture of compliance among market participants.[1] We explained that this included empowering frontline Enforcement staff by largely deferring to their judgment on various issues in our investigations and our recommendations to the Commission.[2] We explained that we would do this because Enforcement staff (i) are immensely talented and possess great experience and judgment and (ii) are in the best position to know the ins-and-outs of their investigations, the quality of their evidence, and the tenor and substance of interactions with defense counsel.
/jlne.ws/4ftzSrO
ASIC sues NAB for failing customers facing financial hardship
ASIC
National Australia Bank (NAB) failed 345 of its customers at their most vulnerable when they applied for hardship support from the bank, according to documents filed by ASIC in the Federal Court today. ASIC alleges that between 2018 and 2023, NAB and its subsidiary AFSH Nominees Pty Ltd (AFSH) did not respond to 345 hardship applications within the 21-day timeframe required by law.
/jlne.ws/4fSjkJI
FCA bans director following grievous bodily harm conviction; The FCA has banned Mr Ari Harris from working in financial services.
FCA
In July 2020, Mr Harris was convicted of inflicting grievous bodily harm without intent after stabbing a man twice in the neck. He was sentenced to 3 years' imprisonment in July 2022. Mr Harris and Reeds Motors Ltd (the firm), of which he was sole director, deliberately failed to notify the FCA of his offending, conviction and custodial sentence, despite obligations to do so. They deliberately provided false and misleading information to cover up the fact that he was in prison.
/jlne.ws/40Tj4WP
New speech by Kelvin Wong: Keynote speech at HKEX Connect Summit
SFC
A speech titled "Harnessing Mutual Strengths in a Decade of Connectivity" delivered by Dr Kelvin Wong at the HKEX Connect Summit (Chinese version only) was posted on the SFC website today. For reference, please note that all published speeches and synopses can be found at the "Published resources > Speeches" section of the SFC website.
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| Investing & Trading | | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | Investors Are Betting on a Market Melt-Up; They have flocked to stock funds at a pace rarely seen since 2008, but some warn that shares look expensive historically
Gunjan Banerji - The Wall Street Journal
A roaring market rally since the U.S. presidential election has driven up the price of everything from shares of technology and manufacturing giants to cryptocurrencies. Many investors are betting it has room to run. Investors have stampeded into funds tracking U.S. stocks and picked up trades that would profit if the rally that recently sent the S&P 500 above 6000 for the first time reaches new heights.
/jlne.ws/48SB1a3
Goldman Says 'Go for Gold' as Central Banks Buy, Fed Cuts in '25; Bank reiterates forecast for jump to $3,000 an ounce next year; Trump's policies may augment metal's bull case, Goldman says
Jake Lloyd-Smith - Bloomberg
Gold will rally to a record next year on central-bank buying and US interest rate cuts, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which listed the metal among top commodity trades for 2025 and said prices could extend gains during Donald Trump's presidency. "Go for gold," analysts including Daan Struyven said in a note, reiterating a target of $3,000 an ounce by December 2025. The structural driver of the forecast is higher demand from central banks, while a cyclical lift would come from flows to exchange-traded funds as the Federal Reserve cuts, they said.
/jlne.ws/4ftNNOP
EU proposes October 2027 for T+1 switch; Migration aligns with the UK's proposed switch, with ESMA pointing to the efficiency and resiliency benefits of the move.
Chris Lemmon - The Trade
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has proposed a move to T+1 in the EU by Q4 2027 - in line with the UK. Published in the watchdog's final T+1 recommendations, ESMA recommends that the migration to T+1 occurs simultaneously across all relevant instruments - with a coordinated approach across the continent "desirable".
/jlne.ws/4hN1FFn
Trade protectionism masquerading as currency policy is harmful; How about just getting macro policy right and ignore the dollar?
Mark Sobel - Financial Times
Mark Sobel is US chair of OMFIF and former deputy assistant secretary for International Monetary and Financial Policy at the US Treasury.
Team Trump wants a weaker dollar. But it seems confused on how to get it. Tariffs and expansionary fiscal policy are a recipe for a stronger, not weaker, dollar. Nor is both demanding a dollar devaluation and threatening taxes on countries shunning dollars a way to fulfil the Republican promise to protect the dollar's global dominance. It would jack up US government borrowing costs and undermine the use of the dollar as a lever for financial sanctions. It flies in the face of the old dictum - you can't devalue your way to prosperity.
/jlne.ws/3Ogr9x6
There are 'no natural sellers' in stocks: BlackRock's Rick Rieder
Julie Hyman - Yahoo Finance
Stocks stalled out last week following their post-election pop, but strategists, including Rick Rieder of BlackRock and John Stoltzfus of Oppenheimer, are still longer-term bulls. "There are no natural sellers," Rieder said at the recent Yahoo Finance Invest conference. He's the chief investment officer of fixed income for the asset management giant, and his remit also includes overseeing $150 billion of equities.
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| Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance | | Stories about environmental, social and governance investing | G20 talks in Rio reach breakthrough on climate finance, sources say
Jake Spring and Lisandra Paraguassu - Reuters
Diplomatic tensions over global warming spilled over into the G20 summit negotiations in Brazil this week, with sources saying the 20 major economies reached a fragile consensus on climate finance that had eluded U.N. talks in Azerbaijan. Heads of state arrived in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday for the G20 summit and will spend Monday and Tuesday addressing issues from poverty and hunger to the reform of global institutions. The talks must now also grapple with how to address escalating violence in Ukraine after a deadly Russian airstrike on Sunday.
/jlne.ws/4eA5T04
A Global Fund for Climate Disasters Is Taking Shape in Trump's Shadow; The U.N. climate summit in Azerbaijan has cleared the way for aid to flow when lower-income countries are hit.
David Gelles - The New York Times
A long-awaited fund designed to help lower-income countries respond to natural disasters is finally taking shape at the U.N. climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan. Wealthy nations agreed to create the fund at the 2022 climate summit in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, after decades of resistance. Last year, a group of nations, including the United States and the European Union, made the first financial commitments.
/jlne.ws/3Czx2TB
European oil giants step back from renewables path
Ron Bousso - Reuters
Almost five years ago, BP embarked on an ambitious attempt to transform itself from an oil company into a business focused on low-carbon power. The British company is now trying to return to its roots as a big oil and gas player with a growth story to match rivals, revive its share price and allay investor concerns over future profits. Rivals Shell and Norway's state-controlled Equinor are also scaling back energy transition plans set out earlier this decade.
/jlne.ws/4hV6hcA
Russia Takes Aim at US Nuclear Power by Throttling Uranium
Jonathan Tirone, Ari Natter and Will Wade - Bloomberg
Russia is temporarily limiting exports of enriched uranium to the US, creating potential supply risks to utilities operating American reactors that generate almost a fifth of the nation's electricity. The Russian government didn't provide details of the restrictions or their duration in a Friday statement on Telegram. Utilities tend to make purchases well in advance, so any impact is unlikely to be immediate.
/jlne.ws/48Q6v0x
Offshore oil is back. At what cost? Years after one of the worst spills in history, companies in search of new discoveries are drilling even deeper into the seabed
Myles McCormick in the Gulf of Mexico and Jamie Smyth in New York - Financial Times
About 150 miles south-east of the US city of New Orleans, Shell's newest oil platform looms above the choppy waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Dubbed Vito, the structure embodies a new approach to offshore drilling both for the company - and the industry at large. "Vito represents the future of Shell in the Gulf of Mexico," says Ireti Omotoso, Shell's general manager for US growth assets, over the roar of compression equipment. "She is faster, leaner, creates less emissions and is technologically more advanced than earlier platforms," he claims. "She does a lot more for less."
/jlne.ws/4hPIyu9
Why Oil Companies Are Walking Back From Green Energy; As leaders gather for a global climate summit, investors are rewarding oil giants like Exxon Mobil that did not embrace wind and solar.
Rebecca F. Elliott - The New York Times
When oil and gas companies made ambitious commitments four years ago to curb emissions and transition to renewable energy, their businesses were in free fall. Demand for the fuels was drying up as the pandemic took hold. Prices plunged. And large Western oil companies were hemorrhaging money, with losses topping $100 billion, according to the energy consulting firm Wood Mackenzie. Renewable energy, it seemed to many companies and investors at the time, was not just cleaner - it was a better business than oil and gas.
/jlne.ws/3UXsfS6
Hydrogen Wildcatters Are Betting Big on Kansas to Strike It Rich; A growing number of startups are searching for geologic hydrogen from the US Midwest to Australia and hoping for a "Spindletop moment."
Michelle Ma and David R Baker - Bloomberg
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Global offshore wind industry poised to miss big targets as obstacles mount
Nichola Groom and Nina Chestney - Reuters
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France's LNG Imports From Russia Hit Record With German Help; Shipments to Dunkirk terminal near Belgian border soar
Anna Shiryaevskaya, Francois De Beaupuy, and Petra Sorge - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/4ew7vYV
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| Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | Trading assets at US banks cross $1tn for first time since financial crisis; Much of the increase has been in equities but exposure to structured credit has been growing as well
Stephen Gandel - Financial Times
The trading accounts of US banks topped $1tn in the third quarter - their highest level in more than 16 years and close to an all-time high - as the nation's largest financial firms seek to profit from rebuilding their market-making businesses. That growth has at the same time left the banks, particularly the largest ones, more exposed to market moves than at any time since the financial crisis as they hold ever-greater inventories of price-sensitive securities.
/jlne.ws/4fMLPJz
The yawning investability gap between US banks and UK peers; British lenders face a competitive threat from Trump's plans for regulatory bonfires
Patrick Jenkins - Financial Times
Optimists express confidence that the "special relationship" between the US and UK will survive even Donald Trump's most anarchic instincts. Perhaps. But our governing values and fortunes are now an ocean apart at least in the short-term, underpinned by an ascendant US libertarianism on the one hand and on the other a more paternalistic UK government. Nowhere is that more evident than in the financial sector. Consider the performance of the countries' biggest banks over recent weeks. Wall Street has been on a tear. All the big US banks have enjoyed double-digit percentage share price jumps, led by Goldman Sachs, up 15 per cent since the November 5 election.
/jlne.ws/4frEL4G
HSBC Managers Are Competing to Keep Their Jobs in CEO's Revamp
Ambereen Choudhury and Harry Wilson - Bloomberg
HSBC Holdings Plc has asked hundreds of managers to reapply for jobs in the firm's newly formed corporate and institutional banking division as Chief Executive Officer Georges Elhedery continues his hunt for ways to make the bank run more efficiently. Interviews are already underway, according to people familiar with the matter, essentially pitting senior staff who came from the commercial banking division against those from the global banking and markets unit to compete for the jobs available in the combined CIB division.
/jlne.ws/3CBsCvx
Raiffeisen Offers AT1s After Sale Failed Over Russia Link Lenders also completes SRT linked to EUR2.8 billion in loans
Tasos Vossos and Marton Eder - Bloomberg
Raiffeisen Bank International AG is trying to raise new capital to replace an Additional Tier 1 bond more than six months after an earlier deal failed due to the lender's struggle to exit its Russian operations. The Austrian bank is offering EUR650 million ($685.6 million) of new AT1 bonds on Monday, with the coupon set at 7.375%, down from initial price talks of around 7.75%, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified. Raiffeisen is also offering to buy back an older issue for the same amount at 101.875% of its face value, it said in a notice. The older note's price jumped.
/jlne.ws/40MbhtU
FDIC Survey Finds 96 Percent of U.S. Households Were Banked in 2023; Record low 5.6 million households remain unbanked
Julianne Fisher Breitbeil - FDIC
Nearly 96 percent of all U.S. households were banked in 2023, according to just-released national survey by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The 2023 FDIC National Survey of Unbanked and Underbanked Households found that 4.2 percent of U.S. households (representing 5.6 million households) lacked a bank or credit union account.
/jlne.ws/3Zd3K5W
BlackRock Gets Abu Dhabi License Weeks After Nod for Saudi HQ
Nicolas Parasie - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/4fyC8hq
Bain Capital Raises $5.7 Billion for Global Special Situations; That's on top of cash firm previously raised for Asia, Europe Unit focuses on capital solutions, hard assets and distress
Gillian Tan - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/3AC0CHF
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| Work & Management | | Stories impacting work and more about management ideas, practices and trends. | GenAI Tools and Decision-Making: Beware a New Control Trap; Generative AI tools promise to help leaders make better decisions. But they may also cause trouble by nudging leaders toward a control-based style, research shows.
J. Mauricio Galli Geleilate and Beth K. Humberd - MIT Sloan
As artificial intelligence technologies develop, managers are striving to reap the benefits. Today's generative AI tools can aid managers in strategic decision-making and assist with problem-solving in a variety of contexts, ranging from product development to employee conflicts. ChatGPT - a common GenAI tool - is even being used as a debating partner for managerial decision-making processes.
/jlne.ws/3Zamq6l
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| Wellness Exchange | | An Exchange of Health and Wellness Information | Nomination of RFK Jr. reflects a broader shakeup in the politics of health
Simon Montlake - Christian Science Monitor
During his first term in office, Donald Trump relaxed nutritional standards on school meals, undoing an Obama-era initiative to feed students with whole grains and fresh produce. He also put officials from the chemical industry in charge of environmental policymaking. Under his watch, food and drug regulators eased up on enforcement. That was then. Last week, Mr. Trump nominated Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a former Democrat who ran as an independent presidential candidate, as secretary of Health and Human Services. The president-elect said that Mr. Kennedy, an outspoken critic of the U.S. agriculture, chemical, and pharmaceutical industries, would "end the Chronic Disease epidemic" and "Make America Great and Healthy Again!"
/jlne.ws/3YXsTjO
Baku COP29 advances health-climate commitments with new coalition
World Health Organization
The United Nations Climate Change Conference Baku (COP29) marked a significant milestone in the global effort to integrate health and climate action. COP29 is building on commitments made at previous UN Climate Change Conferences (COPs) and pushing forward the agenda to protect health in the face of climate change. At the heart of this progress was a high-level event, COP Presidencies bringing Health at the Centre of Climate Agenda, hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO), Spain, Azerbaijan and the COP29 Presidency. Leaders underscored the need for continuity and synergy in climate-health initiatives, with a critical emphasis on translating past pledges into action. A highlight of the COP29 proceedings was the signing of the Letter of Intent officially establishing of the Baku COP Presidencies Continuity Coalition for Climate and Health.
/jlne.ws/3UYoImO
3 Days of Healing, Hope and 'Snake Oil' With the Wellness Elite; Thousands of health seekers, many of them distrustful of the medical system, made a pilgrimage to Florida to commune with the influencers and the self-proclaimed healers they believe in most.
Lisa Miller - The New York Times
On the weekend between Halloween and Election Day, more than 2,000 people gathered within the capacious, dim meeting rooms in the Palm Beach Convention Center in Florida to learn and teach about improving one's health. They flew in from Boston and Vancouver, Dallas and New York City, Boulder and the Bay Area. Some brought their mothers. A few, their dogs. They wore amulets and Oura rings, dressed in stretch pants or long, flowing dresses that evoked beach parties and summertime. I was there, too, curious about why health and wellness were, in these final months of 2024, suddenly receiving the Lollapalooza treatment.
/jlne.ws/3AKD8jA
Wellness influencers love bovine colostrum - but what is it?; One popular brand boasts the supplement can 'revive whole body health'. But can an aesthetically packaged powder actually achieve that?
Madeleine Aggeler - The Guardian
Wellness influencers have a new obsession: bovine colostrum. Goop and Poosh (Kourtney Kardashian's version of Goop) have covered it, and celebrities Sophia Richie and the Kid Laroi include it in their signature Erewhon smoothies. But what is it? Colostrum is a form of milk that mammals produce in the days after they give birth. What does this mean for the body? According to one popular brand, their bovine colostrum supplement can "strengthen your skin, lung and gut barriers, rebuild your microbiome, and activate cellular health and performance to revive whole body health".
/jlne.ws/4hWr3Za
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| Regions | | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | Singapore Ends Pursuit of Money Launderers Who Forfeited $1.4 Billion
Low De Wei and Chanyaporn Chanjaroen - Bloomberg
Singapore police ended their pursuit of 15 people involved in the country's largest-ever money laundering scandal, after the suspects agreed to surrender a total of S$1.85 billion ($1.4 billion) worth of assets to authorities. A total of 17 individuals, who are all foreign nationals, have been at large since local police made a series of high-profile arrests of 10 other money launderers in August 2023. The suspects who agreed to forfeit assets have been barred from returning to Singapore, according to a statement from the Singapore Police Force on Monday.
/jlne.ws/3Z9YJLG
Australian gold miner to pay Mali $160mn over tax dispute; Resolute Mining says it is working to release three executives from detention
Nic Fildes - Financial Times
Resolute Mining is to pay the Mali government $160mn to resolve a tax dispute that led to the detention of the mining company's chief executive. The Anglo-Australian gold miner said on Monday that it had made an initial payment of $80mn to settle claims related to tax, customs levies and offshore accounts. It said it would pay the remainder in coming months.
/jlne.ws/3ACjqGJ
'You are under digital arrest': Inside a scam looting millions from Indians
Pawan Kumar - BBC
For a harrowing week in August, Ruchika Tandon, a 44-year-old neurologist at one of India's top hospitals, was ensnared in what felt like a high-stakes federal crime investigation. Yet, it was an elaborate scam - a web of deceit spun by scammers who manipulated her every move and drained her and her family's life savings. Under the pretence of "digital arrest"- a term fabricated by her perpetrators - Dr Tandon was coerced to take leave from work, surrender her daily freedoms, and comply with nonstop surveillance and instructions from strangers on the phone, who convinced her she was at the centre of a grave investigation.
/jlne.ws/4fSMAA9
Who wins when Nigeria's richest man takes on the 'oil mafia'?
Will Ross - BBC
Aliko Dangote's $20bn (£15.5bn) state-of-the-art oil refinery ought to be some of the best business news Nigeria has had in years. But many Nigerians will judge its success on two key questions - firstly: "Will I get cheaper petrol?" Sorry, but probably no - unless the international price of crude drops. And secondly: "Will I still have to spend hours watching my hair turn grey in a hypertension-inducing fuel queue?" Hopefully those days are gone but it might partly depend on the behaviour of what Mr Dangote calls "the oil mafia".
/jlne.ws/3OdreBO
Newmont Sells Canadian Gold Mine for $850 Million in Latest Deal; Deal with Orla Mining comes as Newmont divests non-core assets; Transaction expected to close in the first quarter of 2025
Mark Burton - Bloomberg
Newmont Corp. agreed to sell its Musselwhite gold mine in Ontario to Orla Mining Ltd. for up to $850 million as part of a divestment campaign designed to boost shareholder returns. The deal with Orla is expected to close in the first quarter of next year, and will raise Newmont's gross proceeds from sales of non-core assets to more than $2 billion, it said in a statement on Monday. The world's top gold miner began offloading smaller mines across Australia, Africa and North America following its acquisition of Newcrest Mining in 2023. With its share price trailing a blistering rally in the gold market this year, proceeds from the sales are being used to pay down debts and repurchase shares.
/jlne.ws/4hPQgV7
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| Miscellaneous | | Stories that don't quite fit under the other sections | Highland Cattle Stir Debate on Scottish Golf's Tourist Trail; Club members vote on removing farm animals as costs increase
Maddie Parker - Bloomberg
Ali Massey sizes up her shot into the 12th green at Brora Golf Club - slight breeze, 130 yards to the hole. Maybe a 7-wood, she thinks. Except that there's a hairy Highland cow sitting in the way, and a calf. "This is one of the things that makes Brora so very special," she says. "It's fun." Maneuvering a small ball past cattle and sheep is one of the unexpected hurdles of playing golf on this stretch of seaside turf of northeastern Scotland. But it's a challenge that's set to end next year if a motion passes at a special meeting next week.
/jlne.ws/3CsTVYM
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