| August 25, 2022 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | |  | John Lothian
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Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff
Cboe Global Markets this morning announced its equity partners for the Cboe Digital business that includes the recently acquired ErisX.
Former NADEX CEO Timothy McDermott has been named the chief executive officer at TeraExchange
TMX Group announced they have achieved Phase 1 of the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business's Progressive Aboriginal Relations (PAR) certification which confirms corporate performance in Indigenous relations.
TMX said in a statement: "We humbly celebrate reaching this stage in our reconciliation journey, and take it as inspiration to continue our work to increase access to our markets and create new opportunities for Indigenous entrepreneurs and businesses to thrive, all aligning with our purpose of Making Markets Better & Empowering Bold Ideas."
The NIBA is holding its Annual NIBA - DePaul University Symposium on September 15, 2022 at Depaul's downtown campus. Register at www.TheNIBA.com.
Don't forget to register for the FIA's Washington Update to be held in Chicago at the Union League Club on September 13 from 3:30 to 6 p.m. CT.
EEX is holding its EEX Sustainability Conference on September 8 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the NED Hotel in London. Click HERE for more details.
The London Metal Exchange has a channel on Vimeo and has published a video titled "Explained: How are LME contracts settled?"
Light-speed data transmission provider Zayo put out a blog post a while ago with the claim "Zayo Makes Connecting to Euronext Faster Than Ever." They launched their new "Zeus subsea route." Now, I may not be an expert on Greek mythology, but I thought Zeus lived on a mountain and Poseidon lived in the sea. Anyway, Zayo says they have delivered the "industry's fastest route connecting the key financial exchanges of the Deutsche Börse in Frankfurt FR2 and the Swiss Exchange SIX in Zurich ZH4, as well as from the Euronext located in Bergamo IT3 to the Swiss Exchange in Zurich."
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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The FIA's MarketVoice has an article titled "Innovators Pavilion 2017 - Where are they now?" that catches up with 10 fintech startups (out of 19) who took part in FIA's 2017 Innovators Pavilion. Many of the startups have achieved additional funding rounds, expanded services and outright acquisitions. You can see what they've been up to here. The article comes as FIA opens up the application process for this year's Innovator's Pavilion. You can go here to apply.~SR
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MWE SHORT: Julie Winkler - Innovation in the Futures Industry
JohnLothianNews.com
Einstein's definition of insanity was repeating the same task over and over and expecting a different result each time. Julie Winkler of CME Group explains how innovation in the financial industry must also avoid repeating the same process over and over again in order to create change. Winkler defines innovation and gives examples of how companies like CME Group have been pioneers in their field. She also discusses designing successful new products and how innovation can start at the internship level.
Watch the video »
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Gen Z Shows TikTok What Life's Like on Wall Street, Where Confidentiality Is Key; Interns and entry-level analysts are increasingly posting about their lives in an industry characterized by its confidentiality.
Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou and Paulina Cachero - Bloomberg
When Naeche Vincent's employer told her she had to start coming to the office last year, she decided to make a TikTok video about preparing to step foot inside the Wall Street investment bank for the first time. The 24-year-old, whose videos have garnered more than 2.4 million likes, had been working from home since she started as an analyst in 2020 and wanted to make a good first impression. She needed to buy new work clothes, get her eyebrows done and switch to a less dramatic manicure. "I cannot have claws, like in the corporate world claws just aren't happening, not with the people I work with," she said in the video, waving her long nails.
/jlne.ws/3CpTGvE
***** The bottom line of life on Wall Street is that it goes by fast, just like TikTok.~JJL
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A Cross-Industry Consensus on the EU Equity Consolidated Tape Proposal Statement of Principles
EFAMA, AFME, BVI, Cboe
The provision of an appropriately constructed EU Equities Consolidated Tape ("CT") will democratise access to equities (as proposed by the EU Commission) for all investors, regardless of resources or sophistication, with a comprehensive and standardised view of EU equities prices
/jlne.ws/3a9xNEx
****** I have a hard time agreeing with myself sometimes; getting a consensus like this is impressive.~JJL
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Google Finds 'Inoculating' People Against Misinformation Helps Blunt Its Power; British researchers and a team from Google found that teaching people how to spot misinformation made people more skeptical of it.
Nico Grant and Tiffany Hsu - The New York Times
In the fight against online misinformation, falsehoods have key advantages: They crop up fast and spread at the speed of electrons, and there is a lag period before fact checkers can debunk them. So researchers at Google, the University of Cambridge and the University of Bristol tested a different approach that tries to undermine misinformation before people see it. They call it "pre-bunking." The researchers found that psychologically "inoculating" internet users against lies and conspiracy theories — by pre-emptively showing them videos about the tactics behind misinformation — made people more skeptical of falsehoods afterward, according to an academic paper published in the journal Science Advances on Wednesday. But effective educational tools still may not be enough to reach people with hardened political beliefs, the researchers found.
/jlne.ws/3clkUJg
****** JLN is where you come for your daily booster.~JJL
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SEC Whistleblower Awards Program Might Have a Revolving-Door Problem, Study Says; A legal researcher argues that a disproportionate share of awards is going to a concentrated group of "well-connected, repeat players"
Mengqi Sun - The Wall Street Journal
Over the past several years, the Securities and Exchange Commission's whistleblower awards program has been championed by lawyers and politicians for offering powerful incentives to tipsters to come to the regulator with evidence of wrongdoing. A new study, however, finds that almost a quarter of the SEC's whistleblower awards have gone to law firms with attorneys who have close connections to the regulator, potentially deterring other whistleblowers from coming forward.
/jlne.ws/3cfuyx6
****** Great, it is the same law firms getting paid.~JJL
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Why Is This Colorful Little Wheel Suddenly Everywhere in Japan? It's the logo of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. And Japan is all in.
Ben Dooley and Hisako Ueno - The New York Times
A few years ago, a colorful new accessory suddenly began to appear on the lapels of dark-suited salarymen across Japan: a small badge, shaped like a roulette wheel and divided into 17 rainbow-colored sections.
/jlne.ws/3KrKKrx
****** I want one.~JJL
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Wednesday's Top Three
Our most clicked story Wednesday was Bloomberg's Hidden Cost of Free Trading? $34 Billion a Year, Study Says, about how small execution price variations among brokers can add up. Second was How to Prepare Your House for Climate Change, also from Bloomberg. Third was Billionaire hedge fund manager Julian Robertson dies at 90- spokesman, from Reuters. Robertson led Tiger Management, which was once among the world's biggest and most successful hedge funds.
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| All MarketsWiki Sponsors» | | | | | | | John Lothian News (JLN) is the news division of John J. Lothian & Company, Inc. (JJLCO). The online media and financial services firm is staffed by derivatives industry, journalism and technology professionals. | | | | | | | John Lothian News Editorial Staff: | | | John Lothian
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| Lead Stories | Wall Street Friendship Ends in Betrayal, Insider-Trading Charges; Brijesh Goel and Akshay Niranjan rose on Wall Street together; Then Niranjan turned on his buddy and wore a wire to meetings
Greg Farrell - Bloomberg
They were business school buddies who landed at top Wall Street firms -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Barclays Plc -- lived for a time in the same Manhattan high-rise, played squash regularly and partied overseas together. And then one of them wore a wire and recorded his friend allegedly asking him to delete incriminating text messages. Former Goldman banker Brijesh Goel was arrested last month for insider trading. His friend, ex-Barclays trader Akshay Niranjan, is "co-conspirator 1" in the criminal complaint against Goel, and the man who turned on his buddy, according to people familiar with the matter.
/jlne.ws/3AJoF4q
Pace of Climate Change Sends Economists Back to Drawing Board; They underestimated the impact of global warming, and their preferred policy solution floundered in the United
Lydia DePillis - The New York Times
Economists have been examining the impact of climate change for almost as long as it's been known to science. In the 1970s, the Yale economist William Nordhaus began constructing a model meant to gauge the effect of warming on economic growth. The work, first published in 1992, gave rise to a field of scholarship assessing the cost to society of each ton of emitted carbon offset by the benefits of cheap power — and thus how much it was worth paying to avert it.
/jlne.ws/3pHztK8
NFA Board Appoints Dale Spoljaric As New Vice President, Capital & Exams
NFA
NFA's Board of Directors approved the appointment of Dale Spoljaric as Vice President, Capital & Exams at its August meeting. "We are extremely pleased to promote Dale to this important leadership position," says NFA's CEO and President Thomas Sexton. "With his significant regulatory experience and expertise in futures commission merchant and swap dealer capital, segregation and margin, Dale will play an important role leading our rigorous regulatory oversight programs." Mr. Spoljaric has been with NFA for close to ten years. He has served as a Managing Director in both NFA's Futures Compliance and OTC Derivatives Compliance departments.
/jlne.ws/3QRmotA
Hong Kong Short Squeeze Is Rising Risk for Morgan Stanley Quants
Sofia Horta e Costa - Bloomberg
The amount of bearish bets against Hong Kong stocks has risen to levels that could trigger a surge in share prices as traders rush to close out their positions, according to quantitative analysts at Morgan Stanley. Hedge funds and other short sellers say they're either covering bearish wagers or planning to do so, strategist Gilbert Wong wrote in emailed comments Wednesday. Short-selling activity was running at just under 20% of total turnover on the city's stock market this week, a level not seen since May, calculations by Bloomberg based on exchange data showed.
/jlne.ws/3TsOVrp
Cboe Global Markets Announces Planned Equity Partners for Cboe Digital Business
Cboe Global Markets
Equity partners expected to receive minority ownership stake, join roster of planned commercial partner firms committed to development of ErisX and Cboe Digital markets; Firms expected to form Digital Advisory Committee tasked with collaborating with Cboe on client-driven solutions to help increase adoption of digital assets and further mature the market; Partnerships expected to be finalized in the coming weeks
Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (Cboe: CBOE), a leading provider of global market infrastructure and tradable products, announced the initial group of firms that intend to become equity investors in the Cboe Digital business.
/jlne.ws/3cinRtW
Jackson Hole Should Be a Mea Culpa for Central Bankers; Policy makers need to acknowledge their past mistakes, as well as detail the trade-off between growth and inflation.
Marcus Ashworth - Bloomberg
The great and the good of the central banking world gather Thursday for the annual Federal Reserve Symposium at Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The snappily-titled theme is "Reassessing Constraints on the Economy and Policy." There needs to be an honest reflection on the causes of the rampant inflation most of the world finds itself battling. The track record of central bank economic forecasting is in tatters, as is confidence that our monetary overlords know what they are doing. Missteps this week risk triggering market dislocations.
/jlne.ws/3wtmD5Y
London's Stock Market Misery Grows; Allied Minds consulting on canceling its London listing; IPO market struggles to find its feet after banner 2021
Swetha Gopinath and Kat Van Hoof - Bloomberg
A rise in companies fleeing the UK stock market is another blow to London's status as Europe's top financial center, adding to the gloom around a lack of initial public offerings. US-based tech investor Allied Minds Plc said Wednesday it wants to delist from the London Stock Exchange, blaming its exit on the "prohibitively high" cost of maintaining a premium listing. Mining giant BHP Group earlier this year scrapped its top-tier quotation in the UK in favor of a primary listing in Australia, giving up its place in Britain's blue-chip FTSE 100 index.
/jlne.ws/3Al3pk8
NFTs worth $100 million stolen in past year, Elliptic says
Elizabeth Howcroft - Reuters
Thieves stole over $100 million worth of non-fungible tokens in the year to July, blockchain research firm Elliptic said on Wednesday, as the fast-emerging digital asset became a new front in crypto's hacking problem. NFTs are blockchain-based assets that represent digital files such as images, video or text. The market surged in 2021 as crypto-rich speculators spent billions of dollars on the assets, hoping to profit as prices rose. But since cryptocurrency prices crashed in May and June this year, NFT prices and sales volumes have plunged.
/jlne.ws/3RdFc6l
NFTs Are Increasingly Targeted by Criminals, Report Says; More than $100 million worth of nonfungible tokens were stolen over the past year, according to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic
Mengqi Sun - The Wall Street Journal
Nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, are increasingly sought by criminals looking to either steal them or use them to launder illicit gains, a new report from blockchain analytics firm Elliptic said on Wednesday. More than $100 million worth of these blockchain-based assets were reported stolen in scams over the past year, according to the study. Over 4,600 NFTs were stolen in July, the most in any month since Elliptic began tracking the data in 2017, the report said.
/jlne.ws/3cn8ZdU
Wall Street Giant DTCC Launches Private Blockchain Platform to Settle Trades More Quickly
Oliver Knight - CoinDesk
New York-based post-trade financial services company, The Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. (DTCC), which processes all trades in the U.S. stock market, has launched a private blockchain project aimed at settling trades more quickly for clients, according to a press release Monday. The DTCC acts as the counterparty for most trades in the U.S. and underpins the entire public securities market. Project Ion was first created as a pilot program in 2020 and moved into a development program in September. DTCC says it is now processing an average of over 100,000 bilateral equity transactions per day in a parallel processing environment, and almost 160,000 on peak days. DTCC's subsidiary, The Depository Trust Company, remains the authoritative source for transactions.
/jlne.ws/3T8af54
Fund managers oppose changes to SEC's 'names rule'; Feedback on US regulator's proposal includes concerns about companies being forced to be more active or passive
Dervedia Thomas - Financial Times
Asset management companies are opposing proposed changes to the US Securities and Exchange Commission's "names rule", with active managers arguing that it could water down their processes. Index managers have also raised concerns, saying that the proposed changes could make their funds too much like actively managed strategies. The proposal applies the SEC's existing "names rule" to investments suggested in a strategy's name, requiring that 80 per cent of a fund's assets adhere to the approaches specified in the fund's moniker. The proposed change would apply to strategies such as growth, value, geography, industry or one or more environmental, social and governance factors.
/jlne.ws/3AMx0ob
SPAC Winter Is So Bad One Adviser Opened a Liquidation Business
Bailey Lipschultz - Bloomberg
Just how bad are things in SPAC land? On Wednesday, ICR, an advisory firm that worked on more than 100 blank-check deals during the boom over the last two years, announced a new business venture: Helping sputtering SPACs shut down. "Whether it is the Sponsor's only SPAC, or if they have sponsored multiple SPACs, there are reputational considerations to consider when announcing the decision to liquidate," Phil Denning, a partner at ICR, said in the statement.
/jlne.ws/3AoT7zl
Alameda Co-CEO Trabucco Steps Down From Crypto Trading Firm; Firm has ties to distressed crypto lenders Voyager, Celsius; Caroline Ellison becomes sole CEO of Alameda after departure
Hannah Miller - Bloomberg
Alameda Research Co-Chief Executive Officer Sam Trabucco is stepping down, saying he's chosen "to prioritize other things" and that he couldn't "continue to justify the time investment" of being an integral part of the crypto trading firm. Caroline Ellison, the co-CEO, will lead the company and Trabucco will serve as an adviser, he announced in a series of tweets Wednesday. Alameda, the trading affiliate of FTX crypto exchange controlled by Sam Bankman-Fried, confirmed the changes. FTX is one of the world's largest platforms for trading digital-assets.
/jlne.ws/3QR6Tlr
The actual 'retail price' of stock trades with zero commission
Ines Ferré - Yahoo! Finance
No-fee trading has transformed the retail trading landscape, making it possible for everyday traders to participate in the markets. Payment For Order Flow (PFOF) — fees for trades paid to brokerages by market makers like Citadel Securities and Virtu — have garnered increased attention since the GameStop (GME) saga grabbed national attention last year. A new study aimed at identifying variation in price execution across different brokers using six accounts found a large variation among platforms such as Robinhood (HOOD) and E-trade. "There's just a huge difference in execution between the six different brokers that we used," said Christopher Schwarz, University of California Irvine professor of finance and faculty director of the Center for Investment and Wealth Management.
/jlne.ws/3KnbrOg
Crypto VC Electric Capital Names Ex-SEC Chair Clayton as Adviser; A former Fed governor and Meta VP also named advisors; The VC firm raised $1 billion for crypto investments this year
Hannah Miller - Bloomberg
Former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton has joined venture firm Electric Capital as an advisor, part of a growing wave of ex-regulators flocking to the crypto space as the industry faces increasing scrutiny. Kevin Warsh, a former member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, and Pratiti Raychoudhury, vice president and head of research at Meta Platforms Inc., were also named as advisors, Electric Capital said Wednesday.
/jlne.ws/3AMhdpq
Ethereum 'Bug Bounties' Jump to $1 Million Before Software Upgrade; Foundation wants to reduce the number of issues during change; The Merge is seen taking place between Sept. 10th and 20th
Olga Kharif - Bloomberg
The non-profit foundation behind the Ethereum blockchain is quadrupling the rewards it will pay to friendly hackers who uncover bugs in the code of its much ballyhooed software upgrade to as much as $1 million. Until now, the so-called bug-bounty program was offering payments of up to $250,000 and a place on its leaderboard to hackers who uncovered critical errors. The increase was announced in a blog post Wednesday.
/jlne.ws/3wpFfUs
US Crop Tour Stokes Fears of Looming Corn Shortage; Yield outlooks trail 2021 averages as drought shrinks plants; Futures in Chicago climb to two-month high on supply concerns
Tarso Veloso Ribeiro and Kim Chipman - Bloomberg
Parched soils. Grasshopper infestations. Scorching heat. Hail damage. This year's US corn crop has been put through the wringer -- and it shows. Things are so bad that scouts currently on a four-day tour through the Midwest are finding plants that are stunted and browning. Scores of fields have visible impact from pests. Cobs of grain are unusually small, and sometimes, stalks aren't producing the ears at all. The rough conditions have shriveled crops in the western corn belt. Some scouts were holding out hope that perhaps better acres in the eastern half could salvage the national harvest. Now, that optimism is fading. Instead, there's growing concern over a corn shortage.
/jlne.ws/3QO5EUb
Russia's Gas Threat Is a Bluff; Its reputation and economy both depend on keeping the Nord Stream pipeline operational.
Paul Roderick Gregory and Ramanan Krishnamoorti - The Wall Street Journal
Vladimir Putin relishes blackmailing an apprehensive and intimidated Europe with access to natural gas. His game: threatening that Russia will deliver only 40%, 20%, maybe even zero if you don't do what he wants. Governments hang on his words without asking whether his threats are credible. The International Energy Association warns that Mr. Putin might cut off gas to the European Union entirely. But that would require a complete shutdown of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, and every petroleum engineer knows the consequences for Mr. Putin would be dire. In gas markets, a gathering system transports gas from fields. This system connects to a pipeline, which transports gas to customers. Transactions between buyers and sellers are usually governed by long-term contracts that promise sufficient revenue for construction, operating costs and profits to satisfy demand at the other end of the pipeline.
/jlne.ws/3KjQQu0
China's Water Crisis Is Three Crises in One; Its drought has implications for power generation and global climate, and of course there are nasty feedback loops.
Mark Gongloff - Bloomberg
Apocalypses are, by definition, bad. But in popular culture and imagination, they are usually at least understandable, if not manageable. With zombies and plagues, for instance, all you've got to do is avoid getting eaten/sick, and you can rebuild society, and you'll have a much easier time making dinner reservations. The climate apocalypse kind of felt that way for a while. Sure, we would all get hotter and the seas would rise, but humanity would figure it out, like it always does. Just give everybody solar-powered air-conditioning and build big sea walls around all the cities. Simple!
/jlne.ws/3Knwno3
Thai lender SCBX scraps $500 million acquisition of crypto exchange Bitkub
Reuters
Thailand's oldest lender, SCBX Pcl, said on Thursday it was pulling out of a $500 million deal to buy crypto exchange Bitkub, saying the start-up needed time to fix regulatory issues.
/jlne.ws/3KmxQLn
US Set to Ship Record Crude Into 2023 as Energy Crisis Deepens
Sheela Tobben and Devika Krishna Kumar - Bloomberg
US crude sales overseas are set to hit fresh records through next year as American oil increasingly takes market share in Europe. Earlier this month, weekly government figures showed an unprecedented 5 million barrels a day of US crude being exported. Shipments are poised to average over 4 million barrels a day over the next few months and into next year, according to the most optimistic in the oil industry.
/jlne.ws/3wrkesI
Business in 67 Shanghai-traded ETFs halted by Hong Kong typhoon delay
Reuters
The Shanghai Stock Exchange said subscription and redemption in 67 exchange-traded funds (ETFs) would be halted on Thursday due to a trading suspension in Hong Kong triggered by a typhoon.
/jlne.ws/3R4KaSC
Crypto Takes Leading Role in Illegal South Korea Currency Trades; Crypto linked to nearly 75% of suspected illicit forex deals; That covers cases this year involving about $1.1 billion
Hooyeon Kim - Bloomberg
Illicit foreign-exchange transactions in South Korea are increasingly dominated by cryptocurrency-linked deals, according to government data.
/jlne.ws/3AmwXhl
The Highs and Lows of Being a Bitcoin Maximalist; Michael Saylor bet big on Bitcoin as MicroStrategy's CEO, but when the downturn came, so did the consequences.
Victoria Vergolina - Bloomberg
Some of the biggest and brashest figures in crypto have faced staggering losses as markets slumped. Multiple crypto companies have filed for bankruptcy and more than one high-flying crypto CEO has found themselves out of a job.
/jlne.ws/3pJbWbL
Pension Funds Are Selling Their Office Buildings; Big investors unwind bets on office space as changing work environment raises prospect many downtown buildings will be less used
Heather Gillers - The Wall Street Journal
Major U.S. and Canadian pension funds are cutting back investments in office buildings, betting that prices will likely fall as the five-day office workweek becomes a thing of the past. Retirement funds are still buying property, partly in a bid to reduce the impact of inflation. But those investments are more focused on warehouses, lab space, housing and infrastructure such as airports.
/jlne.ws/3PJ6osk
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| Ukraine Invasion | | News about the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and its military, economic, political and humanitarian impact | How Putin Botched the Ukraine War and Put Russia's Military Might at Risk
William M. Arkin - Newsweek Magazine
The Ukraine war has hit a shocking milestone: Six months after Vladimir Putin invaded, it's still on. Virtually nobody—and certainly not Putin himself—thought Ukraine could hold the mighty Russian military at bay, from late February through August, with only a moderate infusion of weapons from the West, some supportive declarations from Western leaders and a smattering of "We Stand with Ukraine" signs on U.S. lawns. Ukrainian defenders have indeed been ferociously determined, while Russian troops have had to contend with bad battlefield leaders, inferior weapons and an unworkable supply chain.
/jlne.ws/3AnMoWq
Threat of nuclear catastrophe in Ukraine adds to global energy chaos
Adam Taylor - The Washington Post
Few countries understand the risks posed by nuclear energy like Ukraine. Just a couple of hours' drive from Kyiv is the now-decommissioned Chernobyl power plant, the site of perhaps the worst-ever nuclear accident and certainly the most notorious. Yet despite the Chernobyl disaster, Ukraine never gave up on nuclear energy. The country has four separate nuclear power plants operating 15 different reactors. It is one of the most nuclear-reliant countries on earth. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, these plants provided 51 percent of Ukraine's electricity in 2020 — a vital source for a middle-income country.
/jlne.ws/3QPHwR7
Majority of Americans say U.S. should back Ukraine until Russia withdraws
Ivana Saric - Axios
Just over half of the people in the U.S. believe it should continue to support Ukraine until the complete withdrawal of Russian troops, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll.
/jlne.ws/3ckI1Uc
Ukrainians, weary but defiant, mark Independence Day amid fears of new attacks
Tom Balmforth - Reuters
Ukrainians revelled in a surreal display of burnt-out Russian tanks and armour laid out this week as war trophies in central Kyiv to mark the 31st anniversary of independence, but fears of fresh Russian attacks lurked behind their show of defiance. An air raid siren perforated an eerie calm in Kyiv on the morning of Wednesday's Independence Day following dire warnings that Russia could launch fresh attacks on major cities. Kyiv has warned Moscow of a powerful response if that happens. The public holiday, which falls six months into Russia's invasion, is usually marked with a military parade, but fearing attacks on mass rallies, Kyiv has banned public events in the city this year and the streets were much quieter than normal.
/jlne.ws/3pJMwe6
U.S. Goes in for the Long-Haul With Latest Ukraine War Aid
W.J. Hennigan - TIME
The $3 billion military aid package that President Joe Biden announced for Ukraine Wednesday shows his administration expects the war with Russia to last for many months or years, and signals Washington is in the fight for the duration. The latest aid package is the largest to date and includes weaponry that won't appear on the battlefield for a year or more. The promise of ongoing shipments of sophisticated, American-made weaponry well into the future, in contrast to previous tranches designed to help with ongoing battles or imminent counter-offensives, signals to Western allies, Ukraine and Russia that the U.S. intends to stick with the war, regardless of daily gains or losses.
/jlne.ws/3KrfFo0
Zelenskiy: Ukraine will retake Donbas and Crimea 'whatever the path may be' - video
The Guardian
Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has vowed to regain territories taken by Russia in a speech marking 31 years since the end of Soviet rule and six months since the war began.
/jlne.ws/3dUHhFP
Ukraine spy chief says Russian offensive slowing due to fatigue
Max Hunder; editing by Tom Balmforth and Bill Berkrot - Reuters
Ukraine's top military intelligence official said on Wednesday that Russia's military offensive was slowing because of moral and physical fatigue in their ranks and Moscow's "exhausted" resource base. The remark on television by Defence Intelligence agency chief Kyrylo Budanov was one of the strongest signals by Kyiv that it believes Russia's offensive power may be waning. "Russia has rather seriously slowed down the tempo of its assault. The reason for this is the exhaustion of their resource base, as well as a moral and physical fatigue from the fighting," he said.
/jlne.ws/3R6A2J9
Russian attack kills 22 civilians on Ukraine's Independence Day, Kyiv officials say
Tom Balmforth and Valentyn Ogirenko - Reuters
A Russian missile attack killed 22 civilians and set a passenger train on fire in eastern Ukraine, officials in Kyiv said, with missile strikes north of the capital as Ukraine marked its Independence Day under heavy shelling. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had warned of the risk of "repugnant Russian provocations" ahead of the 31st anniversary on Wednesday of Ukraine's independence from Moscow-dominated Soviet rule, and public celebrations were cancelled. The holiday also coincided with six months since Russian forces invaded Ukraine, touching off Europe's most devastating conflict since World War Two.
/jlne.ws/3CAy4wN
Natural gas is the most important story to watch as Russia goes for 'mutually assured destruction' with Europe, a top RBC strategist says
Zahra Tayeb - Business Insider
Investors should keep a close eye on natural gas as prices break records and Moscow sticks to its strategy of "mutually assured destruction" with Europe, a top Royal Bank of Canada strategist said on Monday. "I think nat gas is the most important story to be watching right now in this market," Helima Croft, RBC's head of global commodity strategy, told CNBC. "I mean, look what is happening, where we just keep breaking previous highs."
/jlne.ws/3CvUC1m
Ukraine's Wheat Is Flowing Again But Fears Grow About Next Crop; Low local prices, land lost to war are threatening plantings; Seaborne trade has resumed, but exports lags last year's pace
Megan Durisin, Volodymyr Verbyany, and Aine Quinn - Bloomberg
The good news is that Ukraine's crucial grain is leaving its ports again. The bad news is that farmland lost to the war and weak local prices are threatening its next wheat harvest.
/jlne.ws/3TiB72k
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| Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | ICE to Launch UK Carbon Allowance Options
ICE
Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE: ICE), a leading global provider of data, technology, and market infrastructure, today announced that it plans to launch options on UK Carbon Emission Allowances (UKA Options) on October 10, 2022, subject to regulatory approval. "The launch of UK Carbon Options follows the successful launch of the UK carbon market last year and should provide a meaningful new tool for our customers to manage carbon emissions price risk," said Gordon Bennett, Managing Director of Utility Markets at ICE.
/jlne.ws/3TiwQvO
Greenwashing and the Mis-Selling of ESG
Paul Andrews - Nasdaq
In June of this year, the Securities and Exchange Commission published proposed rules for Enhanced Disclosures by Certain Investment Advisers and Investment Companies about Environmental, Social, and Governance Investment Practices. At more than three hundred pages, the proposed rules take a deep dive into how registered funds subject to the Investment Company Act of 1940 and registered investment advisors (RIA) subject to the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, disclose and market their use of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors in their investment process. The topic has become one of the most pervasive and acrimonious issues in investment management.
/bit.ly/3wy6egD
HKEXVoice On Emerging Business Opportunities - Carbon And ESG Data
MondoVisione
HKEX's vision is to build the marketplace of the future. And we're always looking for emerging business opportunity to take advantage of exciting megatrends that are shaping our markets.
/bit.ly/3AKLTXR
Crypto ATM Operator Bitcoin Depot to List on Nasdaq in $885M SPAC Deal
Jamie Crawley - CoinDesk
Bitcoin Depot, the world's largest operator of crypto ATMs, plans to go public with a listing on Nasdaq by merging with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) GSR II Meteora at an estimated value of $885 million, according to a statement shared with CoinDesk.
/jlne.ws/3Aj0BEh
ASX Limited - Notice Of Annual General Meeting
ASX
ASX will hold its 2022 Annual General Meeting (AGM) at 10:00am (Sydney time) on Wednesday, 28 September 2022. The AGM will be conducted as a hybrid meeting with shareholders able to attend and participate in person in the ASX Auditorium or online via the online platform.
/bit.ly/3sGw54D
Nasdaq Announces Mid-Month Open Short Interest Positions in Nasdaq Stocks as of Settlement Date August 15, 2022
Nasdaq
At the end of the settlement date of August 15, 2022, short interest in 3,454 Nasdaq Global MarketSM securities totaled 10,108,978,643 shares compared with 10,421,775,644 shares in 3,424 Global Market issues reported for the prior settlement date of July 29, 2022. The mid-August short interest represent 2.71 days average daily Nasdaq Global Market share volume for the reporting period, compared with 3.25 days for the prior reporting period.
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| Fintech | | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | India blockchain forum plans to chart future with governments, regulators
Pradipta Mukherjee - Forkast
Stakeholders in India's blockchain space have created a new forum with more than 40 influencers to liaise with governments and regulators for blockchain and Web 3.0 adoption in the country. According to a local media report, India Blockchain Forum is setting up Special Interest Groups (SIGs) in areas such as central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), the metaverse, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and others. The forum plans to create community chapters across India as well as collaborate with academia and research institutes to support adoption of Web3 technologies.
/jlne.ws/3ALPPru
Ant Group, Malaysian investment bank Kenanga develop crypto wealth app
Timmy Shen - Forkast
Ant Group, Chinese tech giant Alibaba's fintech affiliate, has partnered with Malaysian investment bank Kenanga to launch a wealth management app with features to trade cryptocurrencies.
/jlne.ws/3cmVM4O
Trumid appoints Liquidnet alumnus in emerging markets sales role; New appointment brings several years' experience in emerging markets to the firm, having previously served at Liquidnet, NatWest Markets and MarketAxess.
Wesley Bray - The Trade
Fixed income platform provider Trumid has appointed Daniel Swaby in an emerging markets sales role, The TRADE can reveal. Swaby joins Trumid from Liquidnet, where he operated in an emerging markets credit sales and trade execution role for nearly four years.
/jlne.ws/3wwv8gB
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| Cybersecurity | | Top stories for cybersecurity | A Place for Women in Cybersecurity
Dice Guest
Despite the progress made in the last decade or so, there are still far too few women in the cybersecurity field—even as the field struggles to find skilled candidates. In fact, while women comprise 51 percent of the population, they represent less than 25 percent of the cybersecurity workforce. And compounding this situation further, women have been disproportionately impacted by pandemic-driven unemployment. When we consider these factors together, it's clear that there's an opportunity for alignment—getting more women into the cybersecurity space. It's a win-win.
/jlne.ws/3CABRKx
As cybersecurity costs rise, lenders ask: How much is enough?
Andrew Martinez - National Mortgage News
Mortgage firms weighing painful and public layoffs in response to the market's downturn are quietly reckoning with another essential, rising expense. Cybersecurity is a critical tool for the trillion-dollar industry facing increasingly pervasive and severe data breaches. Lenders and servicers in the past 12 months have been hit hard by data breaches compromising sensitive information on millions of customers, which forced them to bear untold costs for responses. The price of digital tools and labor to combat cyberthreats is climbing, experts said, and cyber insurance policies are rising as much as 40% leading some companies to drop policies altogether. Cybersecurity professionals are urging mortgage firms to tread carefully in making difficult balance sheet decisions.
/jlne.ws/3CwrKWX
This company paid a ransom demand. Hackers leaked its data anyway; It's always recommended that ransomware victims don't give in to ransom demands - and this real-life case demonstrates why.
Danny Palmer - ZDNET
A victim of a ransomware attack paid to restore access to their network - but the cyber criminals didn't hold up their end of the deal. The real-life incident, as detailed by cybersecurity researchers at Barracuda Networks, took place in August 2021, when hackers from BlackMatter ransomware group used a phishing email to compromise the account of a single victim at an undisclosed company. From that initial entry point, the attackers were able to expand their access to the network by moving laterally around the infrastructure, ultimately leading to the point where they were able to install hacking tools and steal sensitive data.
/jlne.ws/3PWKbY4
The Unique Cybersecurity Challenges In Blockchain
Arnav Sahu - Forbes
While digital currencies have shown early promise in going mainstream, security and compliance challenges could hinder their long-term adoption. Given the anonymous nature of the blockchain network, digital currencies are especially appealing for illicit activity (such as darknet markets, terrorism and money laundering). For blockchain solutions to achieve their potential, regulators, fintech and financial institutions must address its flaws through better security standards and policies. According to WSJ, in 2021 alone, around $14 billion of digital asset transactions went to illicit entities. Not surprisingly, the European Union has called the digital currency market the "Wild West."
/jlne.ws/3QOS42T
Embattled spyware firm becomes 'cautionary tale' for industry
Ines Kagubare - The Hill
The embattled Israeli spyware firm NSO Group is replacing its CEO and cutting 13 percent of its workforce as it tries to recover from being blacklisted by the U.S. government.
Experts say the longtime industry leader has become a "cautionary tale," after allowing its flagship Pegasus spyware to become a high-profile threat to global security and human rights, with media outlets worldwide detailing how governments were abusing its tools.
/jlne.ws/3AoAJXn
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| Cryptocurrencies | | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | Co-CEO of Crypto Trading Firm Alameda Research Sam Trabucco Steps Down
Nelson Wang - CoinDesk
Sam Trabucco, the co-CEO of crypto trading firm Alameda Research, is stepping down from his leadership role and becoming an adviser, Trabucco tweeted Wednesday. Like crypto exchange giant FTX, Alameda was started by Sam Bankman-Fried, and the company operates a vast network of trading, yield farming, startup investments and market making.
/jlne.ws/3wvRXRw
Crypto exchanges tout 'staking as a service' as Ethereum 2.0 upgrade to proof-of-stake moves closer
Georgina Lee - South China Morning Post
More crypto exchanges are allowing cryptocurrency investors to earn yields on pledged stakes using newly minted tokens as a reward for helping blockchains transition to a faster, cheaper and greener validation technology known as proof-of-stake. The most widely anticipated of these transitions is the upgrade to Ethereum 2.0, slated to be completed in mid-September after suffering several delays. Rather than relying on the current proof-of-work model, which requires solving complex mathematical problems, proof-of-stake allows validators to stake a minimum amount of crypto to earn a reward for properly validated transactions, or risk losing their tokens.
/jlne.ws/3QQKGns
Voyager Gets Bankruptcy Court Approval on $1.6 Million in Key Employee Bonuses
Jeremy Hill - Bloomberg
Voyager Digital Ltd. won a bankruptcy judge's permission to pay $1.6 million in bonuses to employees deemed critical to the insolvent crypto lender's future. The payouts will go to 34 Voyager employees -- none of whom are top executives -- who work in areas like accounting and IT infrastructure, according to court papers. The bonuses are equal to 22.5% of each employee's annual salary. Voyager's official creditor committee had earlier attacked the bonus plan as unnecessary, but dropped its objection after the crypto lender agreed to take steps including slashing the size of the bonus pool and to quickly cut $4.6 million of annual costs elsewhere.
/jlne.ws/3pOjFFi
Tornado Cash Seen as Key Laundering Tool for NFT Scams Before US Sanctions; Before ban, 52% of proceeds laundered through mixer: Elliptic; Reports says trend illustrates need for sanctions screening
Allyson Versprille and Olga Kharif - Bloomberg
Tornado Cash, a cryptocurrency mixer that was recently slapped with US sanctions, was the preferred tool for laundering illicit proceeds from nonfungible token scams prior to the ban, according to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic Enterprises. The mixer "was the source of $137.6 million of cryptoassets processed by NFT marketplaces and the laundering tool of choice for 52% of NFT scam proceeds before being sanctioned," the firm wrote in a report released Wednesday. Services offered by platforms like Tornado Cash can be used to mask transactions by mixing tokens from different sources before transferring them to the ultimate recipients -- making them a popular tool among illicit actors. Tornado Cash didn't immediately return a request for comment.
/jlne.ws/3QQA9sr
Warning As 'Selfish' Husband Set To Blow Half His Inheritance on Bitcoin
Kate Fowler - Newsweek
Aman's plan to spend half of his inheritance on cryptocurrency has been slammed online after his wife raged about the decision. The wife took to popular forum Mumsnet to gain opinions on her situation, following a row about how her husband should spend a £15,000 ($17,600) inheritance. Squabbles about money are far from rare. In fact, according to research by Ramsey Solutions, money is the number one issue that married couples argue about. The issue doesn't only affect those who have tied the knot. A survey by finance site Cashlorette found that 48 percent of Americans in a serious relationship argue about finances.
/jlne.ws/3wtlLhY
The date for crypto's 'The Merge' is locked in; Things are going to be different in the crypto world.
Mike Pearl - Mashable
The Merge, the most anticipated crypto event of the year, finally has an official date: Sept. 6, along with an estimated time of 7:34 a.m. ET, according to an update on the official Ethereum Foundation blog. The announcement initiates a countdown to the long-anticipated transition in the Ethereum blockchain from the greenhouse-gas-spewing proof-of-work protocol, to relatively greener proof-of-stake. At its inception this changeover called for a giant, ambitious change in Ethereum's computerized infrastructure — specifically the combining of the Ethereum Mainnet with the Beacon Chain, which allows for ETH transactions and Ethereum-based NFT verifications to happen via the new protocol.
/jlne.ws/3AgDlqm
Ex-SEC Chair Jay Clayton Joins Crypto Investor Electric Capital as Adviser: Report
Brandy Betz - CoinDesk
Electric Capital, a crypto-focused venture capital firm that raised $1 billion for two new funds earlier this year, has named former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chariman Jay Clayton as an adviser, according to a Bloomberg report. The crypto investor also named two other advisers: Kevin Walsh, former member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors; and Pratiti Raychoudhury, vice president and research head at Meta Platforms (META). Clayton isn't new to the crypto space since leaving the SEC. He is an adviser at digital assets custodian Fireblocks and at investment manager One River Asset Management.
/jlne.ws/3CrYxMQ
Crypto Prices Are Fanned by Flawed Economics and Conspiracy Theories; CBDCs Are Immune: Bank of Finland Governor
Sandali Handagama - CoinDesk
The volatile prices of private cryptocurrencies are "fanned by popular misunderstanding of monetary economics and even conspiracy theories," while central bank money in digital form can be trusted implicitly, the governor of Finland's central bank says. "Some have joked that a central bank digital currency is 'a solution looking for a problem.' While I may not be an outright fan of CBDCs, I think the detractors unfairly downplay the potential merits," Olli Rehn, governor of the Bank of Finland, said during a panel at the University of California, Berkeley on Tuesday.
/jlne.ws/3AJgB3O
US Traders Account for Most Crypto Exchange Website Visits
CoinDesk
U.S. traders are the most active participants in the crypto markets, according to new data from Arcane Research. The analytics firm tracked website traffic for 35 of the largest crypto exchanges around the world and found that U.S. investors represented more than 14% of all crypto exchange visits. "All About Bitcoin" host Adam B. Levine breaks down the Chart of the Day.
/jlne.ws/3R7xACi
Tether says didn't freeze sanctioned Tornado Cash addresses so as to not interfere in investigations
Lachlan Keller - Forkast
Tether Holdings Ltd.,the issuer of USDT, the world's largest stablecoin by market capitalisation, Wednesday said freezing the sanctioned addresses might interfere with ongoing investigations despite no clear instruction to do so by law enforcement.
/jlne.ws/3Cx1QSX
Crypto: Celsius Accuses ex-Fund Manager of Stealing Millions
The Street
Crypto: Celsius Accuses ex-Fund Manager of Stealing Millions
Crypto lender is under pressure from individual investors who want their money back after it froze withdrawals and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
/jlne.ws/3AhfQNU
Crypto Lender Voyager Can Pay Employees 'Retention' Bonuses, US Judge Rules
Nikhilesh De - CoinDesk
A federal judge ruled that crypto lender Voyager Digital, which is undergoing bankruptcy proceedings, can pay more than 30 employees a collective $1.6 million as a "retention" award.
/jlne.ws/3PONAbc
Shanghai Data Exchange launches untradeable NFTs
Ningwei Qin- Forkast
The Shanghai Data Exchange has debuted blockchain-based digital assets without allowing secondary trading, a day after the exchange began digital asset trading on Wednesday.
/jlne.ws/3R9DbrH
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| Politics | | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | Democracies must use AI to defend open societies; Authoritarian regimes will not hesitate to misuse the technology
John Thornhill - Financial Times
The world would have been a far darker place had Nazi Germany beaten the US to build the world's first atomic bomb. Mercifully, the self-defeating hatred of Adolf Hitler's regime sabotaged its own efforts. A 1933 law sacking "civil servants of non-Aryan descent" stripped one quarter of Germany's physicists of their university posts. As the historian Richard Rhodes noted, 11 of those 1,600 scholars had already earned, or would go on to earn, the Nobel Prize. Scientific refugees from Nazi Europe were later central to the Manhattan atomic bomb project in the US.
/jlne.ws/3CBl5eh
Biden to Cancel $10,000 in Student Debt; Low-Income Students Are Eligible for More; The debt forgiveness comes after months of deliberations in the White House over fairness and fears that the plan could make inflation worse ahead of the midterm elections.
Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Stacy Cowley and Jim Tankersley - The New York Times
President Biden announced a plan on Wednesday to wipe out significant amounts of student loan debt for tens of millions of Americans, saying he would cancel $10,000 in debt for those earning less than $125,000 per year and $20,000 for those who had received Pell grants for low-income families. The debt forgiveness, although less than what some Democrats had been pushing for, comes after months of deliberations in the White House over fairness and fears that it could exacerbate inflation before the midterm elections. "All of this means people can start finally to climb out from under that mountain of debt," Mr. Biden said in remarks from the White House. "To finally think about buying a home or starting a family or starting a business. And by the way, when this happens, the whole economy is better off."
/jlne.ws/3wtK2o5
DeSantis Claims Win in Campaign Against E.S.G.
Andrew Ross Sorkin, Vivian Giang, Stephen Gandel, Bernhard Warner, Michael J. de la Merced, Lauren Hirsch and Ephrat Livni - The New York Times
Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida yesterday advanced his campaign against environmental, social and governance investing. The State Board of Administration, on which he sits, adopted his proposal to ban the consideration of "social, political or ideological interests" when making investment decisions for the state's pension fund. "Corporate power has increasingly been utilized to impose an ideological agenda on the American people through the perversion of financial investment priorities under the euphemistic banners of environmental, social and corporate governance and diversity, inclusion and equity," DeSantis, a Republican, said in a statement. The resolution imposes broad limits on the pension fund's investments. State administrators will be instructed to prioritize "the highest return on investment for beneficiaries, without consideration for nonpecuniary beliefs or political factors."
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Texas accuses BlackRock of energy company boycott in ESG clampdown; Ten financial groups face potential pension fund divestment after claim by US oil-producing state
Patrick Temple-West and Brooke Masters - Financial Times
Texas has declared that BlackRock and nine listed European financial groups "boycott" the fossil fuel industry, a designation that could lead state pension funds with billions of dollars under management to divest shares held in the groups.The announcement by Glenn Hegar, Texas comptroller, escalates the campaign against environmental, social and governance investing in Republican-led US states. Florida on Tuesday passed a resolution banning its pension fund managers from taking ESG considerations into account with their investing strategies.
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Anti-ESG Firm Strive Plans Four New ETFs After First Fund Draws $250 Million; Strive files for four new funds two weeks after DRLL debut; Interest rises in how managers vote shares: ETF Store's Geraci
Katherine Greifeld and Elaine Chen - Bloomberg
After the rapid success of its inaugural anti-ESG exchange-traded fund, Strive Asset Management is striking while the iron's hot. The firm, which launched in 2022 with backing from billionaire investors including Peter Thiel and Bill Ackman, filed for four additional equity ETFs with US regulators on Tuesday. The filings land just two weeks after the Strive US Energy ETF (ticker DRLL) launched, which has already accumulated nearly $250 million in assets. While DRLL and the planned funds are passively managed and track indexes, Strive has a clear aim: accumulate enough assets to hold sway in corporate boardrooms. As outlined in Tuesday's filings, Strive will "generally vote against board members and proposals that advance social or political agendas unrelated to providing excellent products and services to customers" -- which in DRLL's case, means encouraging oil companies to drill more. That pits the issuer against the likes of BlackRock Inc., which has launched a wave of environmental, social and governance-focused funds in recent years.
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Senate Committee Plans Hearings on Response to Monkeypox Outbreak; Senate oversight hearing slated for mid-September, people say; HELP Committee Chair Murray sent letter on monkeypox Tuesday
Madison Muller and Jeannie Baumann - Bloomberg
US lawmakers will look to press Biden administration health officials on their response to the growing monkeypox outbreak in a Senate hearing planned for next month, according to people familiar with the matter. The Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee is planning the hearing on monkeypox for mid-September, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the information isn't public. Concerns about monkeypox are rising, with both Republican and Democratic lawmakers pushing the Biden administration for information on its work to quell the outbreak and secure vaccine supplies. In a letter dated Aug. 23, HELP Committee Chair Patty Murray of Washington state asked US health officials "to outline a clear and comprehensive strategy" to ensure supplies of Bavarian Nordic A/S's Jynneos shot for monkeypox.
/jlne.ws/3TfTFAj
BlackRock, UBS Among Firms Named Energy-Industry Boycotters by Texas; State comptroller names 10 companies after months-long inquiry; Others include BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse and Danske Bank
Amanda Albright, Shelly Hagan, and Danielle Moran - Bloomberg
Texas is taking steps that could cost BlackRock Inc., UBS Group AG and eight other finance firms business with the state after finding them to be hostile to the energy industry. Glenn Hegar, the Republican state comptroller, on Wednesday named the firms he considers to "boycott" the fossil fuel sector. The move ends roughly six months of suspense that led Texas municipal-bond issuers to avoid banks whose status was unclear amid the office's probe into companies' energy policies. Governmental entities should use the list as a "filtration system" when entering contracts, Hegar said in an interview.
/jlne.ws/3TdUiKO
The challenge of investing in the face of state anti-ESG legislation
Lance Dial, Elizabeth Goldberg and Rachel Mann - Reuters
Interest in environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing has exploded in recent years and, at the same time, has garnered the attention of global regulators. Given the ambiguities in terminology around ESG, certain global regulators are concerned that investment managers may be "greenwashing" their investment products, or overemphasizing the ESG features of these products. In Europe, ESG investment products are subject to disclosure requirements coming from the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has proposed its own rules regarding the disclosures required for U.S. mutual funds and conditions under which such funds can adopt names suggesting an ESG focus. In recent months, this regulatory interest has broadened to include individual states that opened their own front with respect to the regulation of ESG investing. Some of these states are using their legislative power to limit ESG investing, citing concerns that ESG investing is putting policy and social objectives ahead of financial objectives, or even concerns relating to the impact ESG investing could have on their local economies.
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Anti-ESG Firm Plans New ETFs After First Fund Draws $250 Million; Strive files for four new funds two weeks after DRLL debut; Interest rises in how managers vote shares: ETF Store's Geraci
Katie Greifeld and Elaine Chen - Bloomberg
After the rapid success of its inaugural anti-ESG exchange-traded fund, Strive Asset Management is striking while the iron's hot.
/bit.ly/3TdLkNz
GOP Fury Over ESG Triggers Backlash With US Pensions at Risk; Politicians from Florida and Texas go on the attack against investment firms that weigh risks tied climate change and other societal issues.
Frances Schwartzkopff - Bloomberg
Investment professionals are warning that a Republican campaign seeking to wipe ESG off the financial map puts at risk the savings of ordinary Americans caught in the political crossfire. Environmental, social and governance investing is now under attack in the world's largest economy. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis this week banned state pension funds from screening for ESG risks. Texas is seeking to isolate financial firms it says are hostile toward the fossil-fuel industry. And in Arizona, Republican Senate nominee Blake Masters has characterized ESG scores as an existential threat to America.
/jlne.ws/3R65reI
Wall Street hunts for ways to skirt Biden's share buyback tax; Efforts threaten one of main sources of revenue for president's climate and health bill
Eric Platt and Nicholas Megaw - Financial Times
??Bankers and lawyers on Wall Street are hunting for ways to help companies buy back shares next year without having to pay millions of dollars in extra tax, a move that risks blunting one of the main revenue generators in President Joe Biden's climate and health package.
/jlne.ws/3TgSFw0
'Trussonomics' Gets a Reality Check; There's a chasm between campaign economics and the governing kind explained by Panmure Gordon's Simon French.
Sommer Saadi - Bloomberg
The Tory leadership contest is inching closer to its end as Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak round up their campaigns in the fight for No. 10 Downing Street. In the few short weeks since the two began on their road trip to win over Tory members, the economic outlook has gone from bad to worse. The winner is now facing inflation topping 18 percent next year by at least one estimate. Average households are likely to be paying £6,000 a year for gas and electricity. And the pound hit its weakest level since March 2020.
/jlne.ws/3AHFwVj
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| Regulation & Enforcement | | Stories about regulation and the law. | CFTC Orders Chicago Trader to Pay $100,000 for Spoofing in Natural Gas and RBOB Futures
CFTC
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission issued an order today simultaneously filing and settling charges against Eric Schwartz of Chicago, Illinois, for engaging in multiple instances of spoofing.
Specifically, the order finds that Schwartz spoofed—defined in the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) as bidding or offering with the intent to cancel the bid or offer before execution—in calendar spreads involving Natural Gas (NG) and Reformulated Blendstock for Oxygenate Blending Gasoline (RBOB) futures contracts on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on multiple occasions from approximately April 2020 to July 2020.
/jlne.ws/3AmWjeX
NFA Board appoints Dale Spoljaric as new Vice President, Capital & Exams
NFA
NFA's Board of Directors approved the appointment of Dale Spoljaric as Vice President, Capital & Exams at its August meeting.
"We are extremely pleased to promote Dale to this important leadership position," says NFA's CEO and President Thomas Sexton. "With his significant regulatory experience and expertise in futures commission merchant and swap dealer capital, segregation and margin, Dale will play an important role leading our rigorous regulatory oversight programs."
/jlne.ws/3QRmotA
SEC Charges Promoter of California Cannabis Company with Fraud
SEC
The SEC today charged Nicolas Arkells, a promoter for a California-based cannabis company, with fraudulently selling over $475,000 worth of unregistered securities to six retail investors while acting as an unregistered broker. The investors lost all of their invested funds.
/jlne.ws/3pHuMju
SEC Publishes Draft FY22-26 Strategic Plan for Public Comment
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today released for public comment a draft strategic plan for fiscal years 2022 to 2026.
"We can't take our leadership in capital markets for granted," said SEC Chair Gary Gensler. "Technology and business models always are changing, and it is important for our agency to evolve in kind. Through the goals we've laid out in this strategic plan, we will continue to bring a skilled and steady hand to the capital markets of a changing world. We look forward to reviewing public comments."
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Important Measures-Financial Supervisory Commission
Financial Supervisory Commission, R.O.C.
1.Date the fine was imposed:August 23, 2022
2.Recipient of the fine: Clean Air Technology Limited
3.Legal basis of the fine: Paragraphs 1 (2) of Article 36, Paragraph 1(4) of Article 178 and Article 179 of the Securities and Exchange Act
4.Facts of the violation and reasons: Clean Air Technology Limited failed to complete the Q2 2022 financial statement in accordance with Paragraph 1(2) of Article 36 of the Securities and Exchange Act.
5.Resulting fine: Sentenced to the fine, NT$240,000, in accordance with Paragraphs 1(1)(2) of Article 36, Paragraph 1(4) of Article 178 and Article 179 of the Securities and Exchange Act.
/jlne.ws/3IrQAIC
Singapore Authorities Take Actions Against Noble Group Limited and Former Directors of Noble Resources International Pte Ltd
Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA), and Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) of the Singapore Police Force (SPF) have concluded their joint investigations into Noble Group Limited (NGL) and Noble Resources International Pte Ltd (NRI), which was NGL's wholly owned subsidiary in Singapore at the material time.
/jlne.ws/3R7tkm9
ASIC statement on publication of FRAA report
ASIC - Australian Securities and Investments Commission
ASIC welcomes the release of the Financial Regulator Assessment Authority's (FRAA) report, Effectiveness and Capability Review of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
The FRAA's review looked at strategic prioritisation, planning and decision-making, surveillance and licensing, as well as ASIC's use of data and technology in these areas.
/jlne.ws/3pG7smi
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| Investing & Trading | | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | Speculative is out, boring is in: 5 red flags to differentiate an investment from a gamble, according to Morningstar's vice president of research
Lisa Kailai Han - Insider
2021 was the year of speculative investing frenzy, as the valuations of assets that are traditionally considered more volatile — cryptocurrencies, NFTs, special purpose acquisition companies (SPACS), and meme stocks — skyrocketed. Today, it's a starkly different landscape as the market heads into a potential recession and investors try to determine the market's trajectory. Multiple bubbles have popped and fizzled in the last few months, and the speculative investing furor has died down substantially. In an economy marked by heightened uncertainty, investors and analysts alike have decided that boring assets are in, and speculative assets are out.
/jlne.ws/3wpVEIn
CTG Duty Free Slips After Biggest Hong Kong Listing of the Year; Shares trade near the listing price after delayed start; The world's largest travel retailer raised $2.1 billion
Filipe Pacheco and Pei Li - Bloomberg
China Tourism Group Duty Free Corp. slipped early in its Hong Kong trading debut, after raising HK$16.2 billion ($2.1 billion) in the Asian financial hub's biggest listing this year. Shares of the world's largest travel retailer dropped to HK$155 as of 1:27 p.m. local time. They were sold at HK$158 each, above the mid-point of a marketed range. An initial small trade of just 100 shares was registered at HK$120 at the open, data compiled by Bloomberg showed. The debut was delayed to the afternoon after Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd. scrapped its morning trading session due to tropical storm Ma-on.
/jlne.ws/3RdI9Up
IRS Waives $1.2 Billion in Late-Filing Penalties for Income-Tax Returns
Ashlea Ebeling - The Wall Street Journal
The Internal Revenue Service said Wednesday it was waiving late-filing penalties and issuing refunds to 1.6 million taxpayers who missed extended filing deadlines for tax year 2019 and 2020 federal income-tax returns. The automatic refunds of penalties and interest to individual and business taxpayers will total $1.2 billion. That works out to an average refund of about $750. Tax preparers said the decision was a rare step from the agency. It has traditionally kept deadlines in place and even extended the two years' tax-filing deadlines. In the end, the IRS said Covid-19 pandemic struggles, both for taxpayers and the agency, were the reason for the decision.
/jlne.ws/3pJKBX6
Invesco Sees 'Rude Awakening' With Oil, Food Set to Spike Soon; End of SPR release this fall to push oil prices up, Bloom says; Strategist predicted in 2019 inflation would move higher
Emily Graffeo and Natalia Kniazhevich - Bloomberg
One commodities strategist has a message for those hoping declining food and energy prices mean inflation woes are waning: not so fast. To Invesco's Jason Bloom, autumn will be a "rude awakening" to the market as a number of headwinds push commodities prices higher, including Washington's end of the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve releases in October, which will constrain oil supply just as the winter season ushers in more demand for energy.
/jlne.ws/3Ki1BNz
TikTok like cocaine, could 'ruin' internet, Wall Street analysts warn
Alex Mitchell - NY Post
Wall Street analysts released a detailed report on the ever-so-popular video app TikTok and its effects on users. The results are in: TikTok's addictiveness is comparable to that of the heavy stimulant, Business Insider reported. Analysts at Bernstein Research wrote that TikTok gives a "sensory rush" as "the algorithm pushed the most viral content directly to the user delivering endorphin hit after hit with each swipe."
/jlne.ws/3R8s16C
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| Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance | | Stories about environmental, social and governance investing | Why keeping girls in school is a good strategy to cope with climate change
Anya Kamenetz - NPR
Tawonga Zakeyu is the oldest of 13 siblings. She grew up in Machinga District in the southern region of Malawi, the 12th-poorest country in the world. Zakeyu is working for an organization called CAMFED - the Campaign for Female Education - on a key, often-overlooked strategy in the fight against the climate crisis: women's and girls' education. And her own life story is an illustration of the many different benefits of this strategy. Thanks to CAMFED, she finished high school and college, studied abroad in Costa Rica and learned Spanish, and at the age of 24, she lives on her own, does work she loves, sends extra money back home and isn't thinking about getting married any time soon.
/jlne.ws/3pEUntv
Mega-Polluter Australia Is Finally Becoming a Green Superpower; Australia is finally getting serious about emissions and green-energy companies from around the world are seeing an opportunity.
Swati Pandey - Bloomberg
Australia is finally getting serious about global warming and everyone from oil majors to billionaire mining magnates are looking for a way to capitalize on the transformation. Signs of change are everywhere on the continent. A new government has been elected, pledging to cut greenhouse-gas emissions faster; the nation's biggest power grid has a multibillion-dollar plan to dump coal; and some of the country's richest people who made their fortunes in mining and technology are lining up huge green-energy projects designed to pivot the nation from fossil-fuel king to a global supplier of green energy and the metals needed to build electric vehicles.
/jlne.ws/3CvVZxo
Can Japan Learn to Love Nuclear Power Again?; The government is backing the construction of new reactors for the first time since Fukushima. It will have to convince a skeptical public first.
Gearoid Reidy - Bloomberg
A nuclear renaissance might be happening in the most unlikely of places. Just over a decade on from Fukushima, the northern Japanese region that became globally synonymous with the dangers of nuclear power, Tokyo seems ready to embrace atomic energy once more. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is set to push not just for the restart of operations including Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, the largest nuclear power facility in the world — he's also looking to reverse a decade of policy and mull the building of new nuclear plants. The country will also consider extending the lifespan of existing reactors beyond the current 60 years.
/jlne.ws/3PMnzsT
VCs' Bad Diversity Track Record Gets Worse in the Downturn; Only a few Black-led companies have reached unicorn status.
Eileen Gbagbo - Bloomberg
It's a complicated time to be a Black entrepreneur. Some Black founders in recent years have created formidable startups with towering valuations. But there are still shockingly few large VC-backed startups with Black leaders, and recent months' chaos in the venture capital market has taken a disproportionate toll on their companies—wiping out diversity gains in fundraising. On the heels of the Black Lives Matter movement, Black entrepreneurs raised record amounts of venture funding. In the second quarter of last year, they took in $866 million according to Crunchbase data, almost double the previous year's US total. But in the second quarter of this year, Black-founded companies raised just $324 million, a 63% drop. Meanwhile, the decline in the VC industry as a whole was not nearly as stark: PitchBook data shows that overall VC funding in the US fell by just 23% in the same period.
/jlne.ws/3chKL4D
Ex-RBC Worker Arrested for Death Threats to Women Colleagues; 'I know where u sleep,' George Shind allegedly told one woman; Shind pleaded not guilty to a federal cyberstalking charge
Chris Dolmetsch - Bloomberg
A fired employee of Royal Bank of Canada was charged with cyberstalking and making death threats against at least four female ex-colleagues. Gawargyous "George" Shind, 31, of Jersey City, New Jersey, was arrested Wednesday and accused of sending text messages via prepaid burner phones in which he threatened to kill the women and their families, federal prosecutors said. "Don't ever forget I know where u sleep," Shind allegedly wrote in a message to one of the women. "I know what train line u take, and I know where u work." He told the woman that he was a "predator" and she was his "prey," according to the criminal complaint.
/jlne.ws/3dXAQBX
Endless Demand Spurs U.S. Natural-Gas Prices to Shale-Era Highs
Ryan Dezember - The Wall Street Journal
The 14-year highs reached this week by U.S. natural-gas futures show the unceasing demand for U.S. shale gas across the Atlantic—and likely point to rising prices and market volatility ahead. The latest price spike came in response to Russia's plans to shut down one of Europe's main fuel arteries for a few days at the end of the month. The closure announced Friday is either the latest episode of unplanned maintenance along the vital Nord Stream gas pipeline or an act of economic warfare on Russia's part in retaliation for Western Europe's support for Ukraine.
/jlne.ws/3QNxJeo
Ron DeSantis' proposed ban on ESG investments would be another blow for diverse fund managers
Dominic-Madori Davis - TechCrunch
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is taking aim at ESG investing as part of his ongoing war on things he considers "woke." While the Florida executive is popular with his base, his work to discredit ESG investing could prove detrimental to the startup investing landscape, especially for diverse founders and fund managers. In late July, DeSantis released a statement announcing a proposal to ban State Board of Administration (SBA) fund managers — the people who manage Florida's $200 billion reserve from the Florida Retirement System — from taking environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into account when investing.
/tcrn.ch/3KmQLWg
Looming Regulation Hasn't Slowed a Boom in ESG Labels; Managers are still keen to introduce new funds that promote environmental, social and governance characteristics, even though they are likely to face more scrutiny.
Tim Quinson - Bloomberg
In the US, the Securities and Exchange Commission may soon start requiring managers to disclose additional information about how environmental, social and governance principles fit into their investment strategies. Industry trade groups, including the Investment Company Institute, and some asset managers are already opposing parts of the SEC's plan. And in Europe, almost a quarter of funds claiming to "promote" sustainability were stripped of their ESG labels by influential market researcher Morningstar Inc. because they fall short of applicable standards.
/bloom.bg/3clVCL4
'Sleeping' ESG Loans Are a Worrying Trend, BNP Says; BNP's Gourc seeks more transparency on sustainability goals; Loans by Grosvenor and Raven Housing have raised concerns
Jacqueline Poh - Bloomberg
Companies that get loans with an ESG label but no immediate sustainability targets are a worrying new trend, according to BNP Paribas SA. Agnes Gourc, the head of sustainable capital markets at the French bank, told Bloomberg News that some borrowers want the benefits of tying loans to environmental, social and governance goals without disclosing specific targets or performance metrics until a later date.
/jlne.ws/3AoAprD
The carbon footprint fixation is getting out of hand; Voluntary climate initiatives may distract from what is really needed
Simon Mundy - Financial Times
Do you remember where you first heard the term "carbon footprint"? Neither do I. For many of us, the term was slipped into our subconscious by an advertising campaign that ran for two years from 2004 and was funded by oil giant BP. "What on earth is a carbon footprint?" read one ad, emblazoned with the company's green-and-yellow sunflower logo. "Every person in the world has one."
/jlne.ws/3pFD5wl
Why sustainable investors may rue going passive; Any fund manager not assessing a company's ESG credentials is flying blind
Rory Bateman - Financial Times
Growing social and environmental pressures are reshaping economies before our very eyes, creating both risks and opportunities for investors. A forward-looking view of our fast-evolving world, rather than a reliance on past drivers of investment success, will prove critical to profitable portfolio management.
/jlne.ws/3PPDTsX
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| Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | Hedge Fund Founder Och Sues Sculptor Over CEO's 'Ever-Escalating' Pay; Plaintiffs say CEO Jimmy Levin was paid $145.8 million in 2021; They're seeking emails and other documentation tied to his pay
Hema Parmar and Anders Melin - Bloomberg
Sculptor Capital Management Inc. founder Dan Och and other former executives sued the hedge fund firm over Chief Executive Officer Jimmy Levin's "escalating compensation awards." The plaintiffs are seeking emails, text messages and other records related to Levin's promotion to CEO and how the board determined his pay, which totaled $145.8 million last year even as Sculptor's main fund trailed peers, according to a complaint filed Wednesday in Delaware Chancery Court. Levin, 39, has two separate contracts: one for the top job and the other for his role as chief investment officer.
/jlne.ws/3wsDUfA
Billionaire investor Daniel Och targets Sculptor CEO over 'escalating pay'; Founder says ex-protégé received $145.8mn last year despite 'less than mediocre performance'
Ortenca Aliaj and Antoine Gara - Financial Times
Daniel Och, the billionaire investor who founded Sculptor Capital Management, has accused the group's chief executive of leveraging power over the board "to extract ever-escalating pay packages" that dwarf those of the likes of JPMorgan Chase's Jamie Dimon and David Solomon of Goldman Sachs.
/jlne.ws/3dZgIzr
Morgan Stanley Joint Venture With MUFG Tops First-Half Japan M&A
Taiga Uranaka and Takako Taniguchi - Bloomberg
Morgan Stanley's joint venture with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. was the top adviser for Japanese mergers and acquisitions in the first half, a period marked by a sharp fall in deals amid growing uncertainty in the global economy. Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities advised on 16 deals with a combined value of 1.86 trillion yen ($13.6 billion), according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The total value of all deals involving Japanese companies in the six months through June was roughly 12 trillion yen, down about 20% from a year earlier.
/jlne.ws/3CsSEPx
Hedge funds suffer big outflows in Q2 - data
Nell Mackenzie - Reuters
Investors yanked a net $7.8 billion out of hedge funds in the second quarter, industry data published on Wednesday showed, as volatile markets sent many looking for safer places to keep their cash.
/jlne.ws/3dUAtrE
TD Reaps Benefit of Climbing Rates With More Gains to Come; 'We expect our margin to continue to rise' with rates: CFO; Rival CIBC also topped analysts' estimates on loan growth
Kevin Orland - Bloomberg
Toronto-Dominion Bank, which has struck two major deals to expand in the US this year, reaped the benefit of higher interest rates and sees more gains to come as central banks continue their fight against inflation. Net interest income rose 17% to C$7.04 billion ($5.45 billion) in the fiscal third quarter, the Toronto-based company said in a statement Thursday. Analysts estimated C$6.62 billion, on average. Overall profit also beat projections.
/jlne.ws/3PPcM1j
CIBC Tops Estimates as Rising Interest Rates Boost Loan Income
Kevin Orland - Bloomberg
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce posted fiscal third-quarter profit that topped analysts' estimates as rising interest rates and the country's housing market boosted lending income. Net interest income rose 12% to C$3.24 billion ($2.51 billion) in the three months through July, the Toronto-based company said in a statement Thursday.
/jlne.ws/3dRBl0e
Hedge funds build biggest bet against Italian debt since 2008; Investors are worried about the fraught political situation and rising economic challenges
Laurence Fletcher and Nikou Asgari- Financial Times
Hedge funds have lined up the biggest bet against Italian government bonds since the global financial crisis on rising concerns over political turmoil in Rome and the country's dependence on Russian gas imports.
/jlne.ws/3dVxBuP
Citigroup to wind down Russian consumer and commercial operations; US bank fails to find buyer in wake of international sanctions after Putin's invasion of Ukraine
Stephen Morris and Imani Moise - Financial Times
Citigroup has decided to wind down its consumer and local commercial banking operations in Russia after failing to find a buyer for the businesses, with most potential suitors under sanctions after Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.
/jlne.ws/3pJBp4N
Goldman global quantitative execution services head departs for Abu Dhabi Investment Authority; Departing executive had been with Goldman for five years; previously served at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Panta Capital, Winton Capital Management, FGS Capital and Barclays Global Investors.
Annabel Smith - The Trade
Global head of execution services at Goldman Sachs, Michael Steliaros, has left the investment bank to join the Abu Dhabi Investment Association (ADIA), The TRADE can reveal. According to an update on social media, Steliaros has joined ADIA as global head of equity portfolio engineering and trading.
/jlne.ws/3AfEgXW
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| Wellness Exchange | | An Exchange of Health and Wellness Information | New York counties gear up to fight a polio outbreak among the unvaccinated
Ari Daniel - NPR
Polio is the disease most people thought we had put behind us here in the United States. But earlier this summer, an individual in Rockland County, N.Y., contracted the virus likely from exposure in this country, and ended up paralyzed. The last time there was community transmission of polio in the U.S. was 1979. The Americas were declared polio free in 1994. Though it's just one case of paralysis at the moment, public health officials — both locally and nationally — are taking the news very seriously. Wastewater testing and genetic sequencing have shown the virus has been quietly circulating in a couple New York counties since at least May. And it recently was detected in New York City's wastewater. "Even a single case of paralytic polio represents a public health emergency in the United States," the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared in a recent report.
/jlne.ws/3Te8vaw
Hong Kong Considering Tighter Covid Restrictions as Cases Climb; Officials are worried about health-care system capacity; City reported 7,884 total new Covid-19 cases Wednesday
Tania Chen - BloombergHong Kong health officials said tighter social distancing restrictions could be considered if rising Covid-19 cases increase the pressure on the city's medical system. The financial hub reported 7,884 new Covid cases Wednesday, the highest number since the end of March and up from fewer than 5,000 a month ago. Increasing hospitalizations have put pressure on the health-care system, prompting hospitals to scale back non-emergency services and spurring the reopening of community isolation facilities.
/jlne.ws/3Td2drN
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| Regions | | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | China's Chongqing extends power curbs as drought drags on
Reuters
The sprawling Chinese region of Chongqing, home to several large global automakers, has extended power curbs at factories as a prolonged heatwave and drought continue to wreak economic and environmental damage throughout the country's southwest. Industrial firms were originally ordered to restrict output from Aug. 17 until Aug. 24, but formal curbs have been extended until Aug. 25, according to a notice issued by the Chongqing authorities on Wednesday. Curbs will be gradually relaxed "in an orderly manner" once weather conditions have improved, it said.
/jlne.ws/3ALqCgV
China Credit Market Offers Cheapest Money Ever If You Can Get It
Loretta Chen and Ailing Tan - Bloomberg
China's $12.4 trillion local credit market is flooded with cheap money—but a growing number of weaker borrowers are struggling to obtain it. A spiraling property debt crisis and the fallout from Covid lockdowns have prompted policy makers to pump cash into the financial system to support the economy. That's dragged local benchmark yields for 3-year corporate bonds rated AAA to record lows relative to government debt, according to data going back to 2006.
/jlne.ws/3KrezIU
Hong Kong Scraps Morning Trading Because of Storm Warning
Simran Vaswani and Belinda Cao - Bloomberg
Hong Kong delayed the open of its $5.1 trillion stock market and suspended classes on Thursday because of tropical storm Ma-on. Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd. scrapped trading of stocks and derivatives during the morning session because of the severe weather warning that was in place, it said in a statement. The afternoon session will begin on time at 1 p.m. in accordance to its rules, it said. The Hong Kong Observatory lowered its storm warning to signal No. 3 from No. 8 at 9:20 a.m. It will consider canceling all warnings depending on how much winds subside, the weather service said.
/jlne.ws/3AMgjt2
Covid Crisis Helps Vault Chinese Tycoon to Billionaire Status; United Imaging's strong market debut has sent founder Xue Min's fortune to more than $5 billion.
Venus Feng - Bloomberg
The world is largely moving on from Covid, with Singapore scrapping indoor mask rules, Japan welcoming more visitors and employees returning to offices from Madrid to New York. But in China, where strict anti-pandemic policies remain in place, the health emergency just helped produce the country's latest billionaire.
/jlne.ws/3pJMrqY
China Reopens to Foreign Students After More Than Two Years
Belinda Cao and Linda Lew - Bloomberg
China is opening the door to foreign students for the first time in more than two years, easing restrictions on their entry imposed after the outbreak of Covid-19. Foreign nationals holding a valid Chinese residence permit for study or an APEC business travel card will be allowed to enter China starting Wednesday, the nation's US embassy said in a statement posted on WeChat late Tuesday. Similar statements were made by China's embassies in Japan and India. While the country has been allowing some students to enter on an ad-hoc basis for some time, the move shows Beijing is attempting to normalize aspects of the economy -- while holding fast to its Covid Zero approach. Anyone entering China still faces one of the most intensive pandemic border regimes left globally, with mandatory traveler quarantines still in place.
/jlne.ws/3wtk18n
Singapore Sees More US-Listed Chinese Firms Coming to Its Shores; Expect more listings in fiscal year through June: SGX CEO; Exchange signed an agreement with NYSE for more dual listings
Ishika Mookerjee - Bloomberg
Singapore Exchange Ltd. sees more listings in coming months by Chinese issuers that already trade American depository receipts, even as it grapples with delayed deals amid a global valuation slump. Following Nio Inc.'s technical listing in May, investors can expect others will follow suit, Chief Executive Officer Loh Boon Chye said in an interview. If market conditions are supportive for the rest of the exchange's fiscal year through June, "there would be fund-raising, but if they are not as conducive, it will be a technical secondary listing," he added.
/jlne.ws/3QR7y6n
China's Cnooc More Than Doubles Profits on Higher Oil Prices
Bloomberg News
Cnooc Ltd. more than doubled its first half profits from a year ago as China's biggest offshore driller benefited from sky-high oil and gas prices. The firm posted 71.9 billion yuan ($10.5 billion) in profits in the first half of the year, more than doubling the 33.3 billion yuan earnings it made in the same period last year, according to an exchange filing. Last month it flagged that net income would be 70.5 billion to 72.5 billion yuan in a preliminary filing.
/jlne.ws/3PKmjGJ
India on Alert as Rare Viral Illness 'Tomato Flu' Spreads; More than 100 children infected with hand-foot-mouth disease; Infection is self-limiting and requires no specific treamment
Bibhudatta Pradhan - Bloomberg
India's health ministry has issued testing and prevention guidelines to states following a surge of a new influenza virus variant, commonly known as tomato flu, with more than 100 infections reported among children over the last few months.
/jlne.ws/3KiJFlV
Europe's Energy Crisis Risks Dwarfing $279 Billion Rescue Cash
Ewa Krukowska and Anna Shiryaevskaya - Bloomberg
Europe's politicians have already earmarked about 280 billion euros ($279 billion) to ease the pain of surging energy prices for businesses and consumers, but the aid risks being dwarfed by the scale of the crisis. With Russia squeezing gas deliveries and power-plant outages further sapping supply, wholesale energy prices have soared to more than 10 times their seasonal average over the past five years. Tensions have intensified as Moscow prepares to shut the key Nord Stream pipeline on Wednesday for maintenance, reviving concerns about a long-term halt that would threaten efforts to secure sufficient reserves for the winter.
/jlne.ws/3ALVgXq
Qatar Wealth Fund Plans $3 Billion Investment in Pakistan; QIA may invest in South Asian nation's airports, hospitality; Pakistan is trying to shore up its finances to avoid a default
Archana Narayanan and Faseeh Mangi - Bloomberg
Qatar's sovereign wealth fund plans to invest $3 billion in key sectors of Pakistan's economy as the gas-rich Gulf state extends its support to the cash-strapped South Asian nation. The $445 billion Qatar Investment Authority is evaluating strategic investments in the country's main airports in Islamabad and Karachi, as well as in the renewable energy, power and hospitality sectors, according to people familiar with the matter. The investments from the QIA may partly overlap with the $2 billion in bilateral support Qatar has already planned for Pakistan, one of the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. The fund may end up investing more or less than $3 billion depending on the asset valuations and opportunities, the people said, without sharing a time frame.
/jlne.ws/3pGFw1y
Europe's Utilities Seek Fresh Debt As Tough Winter Looms; Germany's Eurogrid sold euro green bonds on Wednesday; Utilities have raised a third of August's company debt sales
Ronan Martin - Bloomberg
Utilities are leading a return of companies to Europe's debt market as the region braces for a winter energy crunch. Germany's Eurogrid GmbH sold euro green bonds due in nine years on Wednesday, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because they're not authorized to speak about it. The utilities sector has accounted for well over a third of August's 6 billion euros ($6 billion) of non-financial bond issuance, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
/jlne.ws/3pJINNO
Denmark, Home to Lurpak, Wants to Investigate Butter Prices; Government to probe rising cost of consumer goods, energy; Lurpak prices in Denmark have risen by almost half this year
Christian Wienberg - Bloomberg
Denmark, where the Lurpak butter brand originates, will ask its competition watchdog to probe recent price increases to ensure consumers aren't being fleeced. Like in most countries across the globe, inflation has skyrocketed in Denmark, bringing the annual rate to 8.7%, the highest in four decades. The Social Democratic government, which faces general elections within a few months, said on Thursday it wants to investigate if consumer prices are rising more than they should.
/jlne.ws/3KkuIQ8
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| Miscellaneous | | Stories that don't quite fit under the other sections | Another brick in the Wall Street as Blackstone seeks Pink Floyd catalogue; Deal through Hipgnosis fund could value songs at as much as $500mn
Kaye Wiggins and Anna Nicolaou - Financial Times
US private equity group Blackstone is vying to buy Pink Floyd's back catalogue, a big bet on music rights that could value the band's songs at almost half a billion dollars. The buyout group would strike the deal through Hipgnosis Song Management, the company founded by Elton John's former manager Merck Mercuriadis in which Blackstone owns a majority stake, according to corporate filings. A Pink Floyd deal would burnish Blackstone's credentials as a main player in the music rights business. The band is one of the best-selling groups of all time and its catalogue is sought after, with Sony Music, Warner Music, KKR-backed BMG and Oaktree-funded Primary Wave also bidding, five people with knowledge of the matter said.
/jlne.ws/3TfkOn2
In New Holocaust Doc, Ken Burns Traces Culpability of US Corporations; A Q&A with the famed filmmaker ahead of "The US and the Holocaust."
Martine Paris - Bloomberg
What US leaders knew about the plight of millions of Jews escaping the Nazis during World War II—and when they knew it—is the subject of Ken Burns's searing documentary The US and the Holocaust. From 1933 through 1945, fewer than 250,000 visas were granted by the US as 6 million Jews perished across Europe; of his almost 40 films over the past 40 years for PBS, Burns has said he'll never work on one more important than this. It wasn't just a few powerful men at the top responsible for the lack of aid, the film argues. Antisemitism was rampant in the US: Jews were barred from employment, education, and housing as leading capitalists such as Henry Ford called for their marginalization.
/jlne.ws/3dTC5C7
German Winemakers Expect First-Rate Vintage After Torrid Summer
Iain Rogers - Bloomberg
Germany's winemakers are anticipating an excellent vintage this year even as the country swelters through a drought that dries up rivers and poses major challenges for many farmers. "The prospects for a high-quality 2022 vintage are very promising," the German Wine Institute said Thursday in a statement on its website, citing healthy grapes and an absence of major storms so far this summer.
/jlne.ws/3T9YJq1
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