| July 17, 2024 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | |  | John Lothian
Publisher
John Lothian News | |
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Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff
Miami International Holdings, Inc. (MIH) announced that the SEC has approved MIAX Sapphire LLC's application to become a national securities exchange. MIAX Sapphire, MIH's fourth national securities exchange for U.S. multi-listed options, will feature both an electronic exchange, launching on August 12, 2024, and a physical trading floor, opening in 2025. This will be the first national securities exchange to establish a presence in Miami, Florida, and will include advanced trading facilities, office space, conference rooms, and media broadcast areas.
Bloomberg is reporting new research from a senior fellow at the Wharton School challenges the idea that the correlation between wealth and happiness plateaus after reaching a certain income level. Matthew Killingsworth's updated study finds that millionaires and billionaires are significantly happier than those earning over $500,000 annually, extending the positive association between money and well-being far up the economic ladder. This study builds on previous work, including a reanalysis with psychologist Daniel Kahneman, disputing a 2010 paper that suggested happiness levels off at incomes between $60,000 and $90,000. Killingsworth's findings indicate that people with higher net worths report significantly greater life satisfaction compared to those with lower incomes, highlighting a substantial difference in happiness between the richest and middle-income groups.
If you don't have the money to be happy, you might check out Dr. Ruth Westheimer's tips for a happy life, courtesy of The New York Times.
Stephanie Dobbs Brown posted to LinkedIn that after seven years and much reflection, she has decided to step down as chief marketing officer at ICE and NYSE. We thank her for all her great work and wish her well at what she does next, which I know will also be terrific.
In his July 15th column, Bloomberg's Matt Levine explores the potential for lucrative non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) in finance, particularly in the context of whistleblower protection rules enforced by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Levine humorously suggests a scenario where one could profit by reporting confidentiality agreements to the SEC, which interprets such NDAs as potentially obstructive to whistleblowing. The SEC can fine companies for these NDAs, and whistleblowers may receive a substantial portion of the fine as a reward.
Additionally, Levine touches on various topics including sports gambling limits, the fintech company Stripe, and the evolving landscape of stablecoins and memecoins. He provides insights into how these elements interact within the broader financial and regulatory environment, reflecting his extensive background in finance and law.
MEMX recently made some changes to their equity fee tiers because of a surge in activity with stocks priced under $1. In June, these sub-$1 stocks made up 17% of all trades, and MEMX captured a significant 46.2% of the TRF market share. The month also saw higher-than-usual auction volumes due to index rebalances, making up 13.9% of the total volume.
MEMX's options market is also doing well, with a 4.3% share of regular electronic trading in June, which has increased to 5.4% so far in July. In terms of popular ETFs, MEMX's regular electronic options market share this month is 7.8% for SPY, 4.9% for QQQ, and 6.8% for IWM. Notably, MEMX Options' quoting performance has improved significantly, ranking second out of 17 exchanges for SPY trading this month.
On July 17, FOW reported several noteworthy updates behind its paywall. The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) is seeking new members for its ISDA Futures Leaders in Derivatives (IFLD) programme to conduct research on collateral and liquidity. CME Group announced it will delist its Bloomberg-administered BSBY futures on October 11, marking its exit from the controversial credit-sensitive rate market. Wells Fargo has become the latest member to join LCH ForexClear, making it the third new member in the past year. European regulators plan to establish a cyber attack coordination committee ahead of new regulations coming into effect next year. Lastly, global FX derivatives volumes plummeted in the second quarter of 2024 due to significant rule changes in India, severely impacting the world's largest FX market.
On July 16, FOW reported several significant stories that are behind its paywall. Marex has appointed Makenzie Billings from CME Group to head its new division overseeing introducing brokers in derivatives. Additionally, Marex hired Malcolm Bradford from Bank of America Merrill Lynch to enhance its futures, options, and OTC clearing sales, following its recent Nasdaq listing. The European Energy Exchange (EEX) saw a significant increase in power futures volumes in the first half of the year, driven by high demand for German, French, Italian, and Spanish power futures, as well as Dutch natural gas futures. Horizon Trading Solutions expanded its services to Asian clients by launching mutualised hosting services via Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX), building on recent successes in North America. Lastly, CME Group's expansion in its rates franchise is showing promising results, with a notable surge in options trading on US Treasuries, reflecting a broader shift in market structure.
CoinDesk is reporting that after the recent court case, Craig Wright has added an admission to his website that he is not Satoshi Nakamoto, the alleged inventor of Bitcoin. He has also added a notice to his website that he is, however, Batman.
Have a great day and stay safe and treat people the same way you want to be treated: with respect, equality and justice.~JJL
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Our most read stories from our previous edition of JLN Options were:
- BlackRock Says Active ETFs Poised to Hit $4 Trillion by 2030 from Bloomberg.
- Crypto Options Traders Can Soon Target Bets on US Presidential Results from Bloomberg.
- My Skepticism Persists Despite BlackRock's Larry Fink Reversing Stance, Declaring Bitcoin a Legitimate Financial Instrument from John Lothian News. ~JB
Subscribe to the JLN Options Newsletter HERE (it's free).
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Options Education Goes Mobile: How Mat Cashman Is Bringing Wall Street to Your Pocket
JohnLothianNews.com
In the dynamic world of financial derivatives, Mat Cashman of the Options Industry Council (OIC) is on a mission to demystify the complex realm of options trading. As part of the OIC's investor education team, Cashman is at the forefront of a digital revolution in financial literacy, adapting to the changing habits of a new generation of traders.
Watch the video »
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That's Why We Did That: The Case For Chicago
Metrotrade
Chicago has been taking it on the chin for a few years, so we felt it was time to go on offense and review why we chose to make the City of Big Shoulders our corporate home.
We decided to start our business in Chicago for three strategic reasons: Chicago's financial background as a hub and center of expertise for the futures business.The ecosystem of supporting businesses, exchanges, and infrastructure that background has created and sustains. The strategic location and connectivity Chicago provides.
/jlne.ws/467nkm2
****** David Klotz and I have one thing in common for sure. We love Chicago.~JJL
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FIA June 2024 Highlights
FIA, Inc. via LinkedIn
On 17-19 June, FIA hosted its annual International Derivatives Expo in London, bringing together the clearing firms, exchanges and vendors that drive the growth of the cleared derivatives industry in Europe and around the world. FIA held panels, keynotes, fireside chats and debates on regulation, the future of markets, operational efficiency and resilience, commodities markets in Europe and the latest innovative technology. FIA President and CEO Walt Lukken set the tone for the conference during his opening remarks, highlighting the good news stories in our industry, from growing volumes and competition to the transformative technologies impacting our markets for the better.
/jlne.ws/3xQK11n
***** The FIA was busy in June.~JJL
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Trust matters
Byron Gilliam - Blockworks
History's first known currency is thought to be barley, which was used in ancient Mesopotamia from around 3,000 BC as both a unit of account and means of exchange - a seminal first step away from barter-based economies and towards market-based ones.
/jlne.ws/4cDRC2i
***** An interesting look at trust and trustlessness.~JJL
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Hearing in Secret Trial of Falsely Accused WSJ Reporter Evan Gershkovich Brought Forward; Proceedings initially scheduled to take place on Aug. 13 are now slated for July 18
Georgi Kantchev - The Wall Street Journal
Proceedings in the secret trial of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich are set to resume Thursday, almost a month earlier than originally scheduled after a request from his defense team, according to the Russian court where he faces a false accusation of espionage. The 32-year-old American journalist has been imprisoned since March of last year, when he was arrested by the country's Federal Security Service, or FSB, while on a reporting assignment in Yekaterinburg, around 900 miles east of Moscow.
/jlne.ws/4f4ah9d
***** FREE EVAN NOW!!!~JJL
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Tuesday's Top Three
Our top story Tuesday was the Washington Post's Rep. Wexton, confronting degenerative disease, finds her voice through AI. Second was Pity Hedge Funds That Lost in Electricity Chaos - No, Really, an opinion piece from Javier Blas at Bloomberg. Third was OCC's Tech Overhaul Poised to Reshape Options Trading, a JLN video interview with Mike Hansen of OCC.
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| Lead Stories | Wall Street Starts Calling Time on ESG Labels After Backlash
Saijel Kishan - Bloomberg
At Institutional Investor, keeper of Wall Street's version of the Oscars for financial analysts, the winner in one category this year is - nobody. The red carpet is being formally rolled up for the three letters, ESG. The 57-year-old II has dropped the label, short for environmental, social and governance, from its annual analyst rankings. In its place is "sustainability," a synonym many banks and money managers are using instead, amid the increasingly politicized debate over climate change and corporate diversity in the US.This is how it is these days for ESG in American finance. The label, which emerged from obscurity only to be hyped by Wall Street and then attacked by Republican politicians, is being scrubbed from some investment products and job titles.
/jlne.ws/3zVMdoH
A Fintech's Collapse Raises Questions About a Hot Business Model; Tech companies found a way to sell FDIC-backed accounts without being banks-then one firm lost track of customers' money.
Paige Smith - Bloomberg
Over the past decade, dozens of financial-technology companies have linked up with small and midsize banks across the country. The idea: The fintechs would create slick smartphone apps and offer useful new services to lure customers, and banks would hold on to the deposits, generating lucrative fees from transactions. Importantly, the arrangement allowed the fintechs to tout protection from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. But now, as millions of dollars' worth of deposits remain frozen months after the collapse of a company called Synapse Financial Technologies, that supposed FDIC protection has come into clearer focus. And those partnerships are facing tough questions.
/jlne.ws/3WpYRFh
Charles Schwab Sinks After Vowing to Shrink Bank Over Time
Paige Smith - Bloomberg
Charles Schwab Corp. shares suffered their biggest intraday drop since the depths of last year's regional-bank crisis after the investing giant warned it will have to shrink itself in order to protect profits. Going forward, Schwab is planning to rely more on off-balance sheet arrangements to house customers' deposits, Chief Executive Officer Walt Bettinger said on a conference call with analysts. By relying on partners like Toronto-Dominion Bank, such deals would allow Schwab to more efficiently use capital, he said.
/jlne.ws/3WaV39w
HSBC Names Elhedery CEO, Picking Insider for Top Job; Bank continues tradition of picking insiders for top job; HSBC to name Elhedery's successor as CFO in due course
Harry Wilson and Denise Wee - Bloomberg
HSBC Holdings Plc named Georges Elhedery its next chief executive officer, continuing the lender's tradition of picking insiders to run the bank. Elhedery will take over as CEO from Sept. 2, the London-headquartered bank said in a statement on Wednesday. He replaces Noel Quinn, who in April announced his surprise decision to retire from HSBC after a more than three-decade career, including five years as CEO.
/jlne.ws/3LtOQka
****** Here are the Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal versions of this story.~JJL
Paris Hedge Fund Staffer Suspected of Giving Brother Insider Stock Tips; Officials raided Syquant employee's home, took laptop, iPhones; Paris case concerns small profits yet unusual number of stocks
Gaspard Sebag - Bloomberg
A staffer at Paris hedge fund Syquant Capital is suspected of funneling insider tips to his brother to make a spate of winning trades on stocks such as ArcelorMittal SA and Alstom SA just before market-moving announcements. Investigators at France's stock regulator raided the financier's home last September, scanning his laptop and three iPhones as well as his Instagram and Facebook accounts for evidence, according to a ruling earlier this month rejecting his challenge to the inspections.
/jlne.ws/4cEsTLg
Fund managers forgo billions in fees in race to the bottom; Demand for the 'cheapest of the cheap' remains fierce, according to Morningstar
Emma Boyde - Financial Times
Asset managers missed out on billions of dollars in fees from US fund investors last year as exchange traded funds ate into revenues from mutual funds, research suggests. Morningstar's annual US fund fee study indicates US investors saved nearly $3.4bn in fund expenses last year compared to the previous year as the average asset-weighted expense ratio edged down from 0.37 per cent to 0.36 per cent, continuing a multi-decade downward trend.
/jlne.ws/3LqtpAH
Clear Street set to pick up Instinet's Fox River algo trading business; The deal, once approved, will see Clear Street enhance its equity trading capabilities for the buy- and sell-side; transaction expected to close in Q3 2024.
Claudia Preece - The Trade
Clear Street has entered to a definitive agreement to acquire Instinet's Fox River algorithmic trading business in a bid to enhance its equity trading capabilities for the buy- and sell-side. The transaction is expected to close in Q3 2024.
/jlne.ws/3WqGhwS
Standard Chartered-backed Zodia Markets to acquire Elwood Technologies' OTC trading business; Through the acquisition of Elwood Technologies, Zodia Markets will "significantly" enhance its digial asset services and the diversification of its offering; following close the new entity will be known as Zodia Markets Jersey.
Claudia Preece - The Trade
UK-based digital asset trading business Zodia Markets - backed by Standard Chartered - is set to acquire Elwood Technologies' OTC business. Elwood provides digital asset execution and portfolio management software. Its OTC trading business is based in Jersey and regulated by Jersey Financial Services Commission.
/jlne.ws/4cJOcv4
Why the Nobel-Laureate Pioneer of Microfinance Risks Life in Jail; Muhammad Yunus is lauded in the West and revered by millions at home in Bangladesh. But the government there says he's corrupt.
Kai Schultz and Arun Devnath - Bloomberg
Muhammad Yunus had barely left his office overlooking Dhaka when dozens of men pushed past the security guards. Flooding the lobby of the modern 13-story complex in Bangladesh's capital, they jumped over turnstiles and piled into elevators. Shouting at staff, the men detained managers for hours of questioning and secured doors with bicycle locks. For several days in February, they occupied the building, home to social businesses chaired by Yunus, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his pioneering work in microfinance-tiny loans for the world's poorest people.
/jlne.ws/4d8FnLb
IRS Makes Good on Its Promise to Make Millionaire Tax Evaders Pay
Kenneth Corbin - Barron's
The IRS has passed a milestone in its campaign to crack down on wealthy tax evaders, a centerpiece of its mission following an influx of funding from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. Dreamstime The agency announced that it has collected more than $1 billion in past-due taxes from millionaires since last fall, when it began targeting high-income filers with large outstanding balances. "Our increased work in this area means these past-due tax bills from high-end taxpayers are no longer being left on the table, like they were too often in the past," says IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel.
/jlne.ws/3ycFOoC
Bill Ackman Can Tweet His New Fund; Also insurers buy mortgages, Deutsche Bank prefers larger fees and an LLM learns Excel.
Matt Levine - Bloomberg
The PSUS thesis
If you are a US equity fund manager, your job is to buy stocks listed in the US. Which stocks should you buy? Well, stocks you think will go up, good companies, companies with good managers and good businesses, that sort of thing. Here's a stock called SPY. It was up 24% last year; it had a rough 2022, but it was up double digits each of the three previous years and has a long track record of pretty good returns. Should you buy it? Probably not, no. SPY is the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, an exchange-traded fund that owns the stocks in the S&P 500 stock index. Your job, as a fund manager, is to pick good stocks, not to just buy someone else's index fund.
/jlne.ws/3Wn3IHs
China Central Bank Uses Hedge Fund Tactic to Tame Bond Bulls
Tania Chen, Shulun Huang and Ruth Carson - Bloomberg
China's central bank is readying a bold new experiment in global monetary policy - taking a leaf out of the hedge fund playbook and arranging to short sell bonds. As President Xi Jinping and his top Party colleagues prepared for this week's once-in-five-year Third Plenum to chart the broad economic path ahead, Governor Pan Gongsheng's People's Bank of China has been busy lining up "hundred of billions" of government bonds it could sell to prevent a bubble forming in the nation's $4 trillion debt market.
/jlne.ws/3WpJHjj
Classic Hedge Fund Trade Is a Winner in China's Two-Speed Market
Henry Ren and Charlotte Yang - Bloomberg
Chinese stocks have been among the world's worst performers over the past year, but they are beating their major peers based on one hedge-fund strategy. Investing in Chinese equities using the classic long-short trade returned more than 10% through late June this year, according to data compiled by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. That compares with gains of about 7% in the US, and less than 6% in Europe, the data show.
/jlne.ws/3zOydgD
An Ominous Hurricane Season Will Test New AI Weather Forecasting; Startups are using sophisticated balloons and improved analytics techniques to model weather with promising results.
Brian Kahn - Bloomberg
With the pull of a cord, a balloon laden with sensors careens into the cloudless sky above a parking lot in Palo Alto, California. Below, the three co-founders of WindBorne Systems Inc., an artificial intelligence weather-forecasting startup, crane their necks to watch what looks like a jiggling jellyfish begin a multiday journey across the US and potentially beyond. The sensors on the balloon will monitor wind speed, temperature and atmospheric pressure as it travels through the atmosphere for as many as 12 days. It's part of WindBorne's multipronged strategy to make better weather predictions by collecting data, which it sells primarily to energy traders looking to get ahead of potential strain on the grid. Since 2021 the startup has also been working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is testing whether the balloon data can improve its forecasting abilities.
/jlne.ws/3LuOiKQ
Wall Street reports best quarter for investment banking in 2 years; Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and Citigroup reported $8.2bn in fees
Joshua Franklin and Stephen Gandel - Financial Times
Wall Street has posted its best quarter for investment banking in more than two years, in what bankers said were the "early innings" of a sustained recovery. The five largest investment banks - Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and Citigroup - together reported investment banking fees of $8.2bn in the second quarter, a 40 per cent increase from a year earlier and the highest since the start of 2022.
/jlne.ws/4bInDoN
Struggling bitcoin miners seek deals with AI companies; Data centres are being repurposed for artificial intelligence-processing as crypto revenues flag
Nikou Asgari and Tim Bradshaw - Financial Times
Bitcoin miners are rushing to sign deals with artificial intelligence developers in a bid to revive their flagging revenues by finding new customers for their vast data centres. Crypto miners run powerful computing sites, often covering acres of land, where they solve complex mathematical puzzles in order to authenticate transactions and produce digital coins. But with high energy and computing costs, and with the rewards for mining having recently halved, many are struggling to turn a profit.
/jlne.ws/3Y8uswO
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| Ukraine Invasion | | News about the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and its military, economic, political and humanitarian impact | Zelenskiy proposes legislation to strip awards from Ukrainian 'traitors'
Reuters
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged parliament on Tuesday to pass legislation that would define procedures to strip "traitors" of state awards previously bestowed on them, including the country's highest honours. Zelenskiy, in his nightly video address, named no individuals that would be subject to the proposed legislation to alter Ukraine's criminal code. He said the measure sought to "restore justice" by targeting those who "as a result of their actions, have lost the right to any respect from Ukrainians". "A legal mechanism is needed to effectively strip such individuals of all state awards of Ukraine and honorary titles," he said.
/jlne.ws/3WrrCSf
Russian Games Make Secret Tanker Oil Switching Harder to Trace; Secret cargo switching shows oil buyers wary of US sanctions; Second time a US-sanctioned tanker has secretly transfered oil
Julian Lee - Bloomberg
Two near-identical oil tankers trying to beat western sanctions. A secret transfer of Russian crude halfway between Iran and Oman. A supertanker giving a false location. Welcome to the modern trade in Russian petroleum as western sanctions get tougher. Earlier this month, the 1,089-foot supertanker Oxis collected about 1 million barrels of Russia's flagship Urals crude from another vessel. The delivering ship was one of two owned and operated by Russia's state tanker company Sovcomflot PJSC, according to TankerTrackers.com Inc, which specializes in detecting secretive cargo movements.
/jlne.ws/4cAxjCV
Russia and Ukraine Exchange 190 Prisoners in UAE-Brokered Deal; Two sides said 95-for-95 swap took place with UAE mediation; Gulf state has helped free nearly 1,400 captives this year
Bloomberg News
Russia and Ukraine exchanged a total of 190 prisoners in a swap mediated by the United Arab Emirates, the sixth such transfer this year. The Defense Ministry in Moscow said it handed over 95 Ukrainian prisoners and received 95 of its own military personnel. The UAE provided "humanitarian mediation" for the exchange, the ministry said in a statement Wednesday on Telegram. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy confirmed the swap in a separate post on Telegram, and thanked the UAE for its role in the transfer.
/jlne.ws/3Sb9glK
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| Israel/Hamas Conflict | | News about the recent (October, 2023) conflict between Israel and Hamas | Israel-Hamas Truce Talks Said to Face Four Key Sticking Points; Details of hostages slated for release still to be resolved; Strike on Hamas military chief clouds diplomacy efforts
Dan Williams - Bloomberg
Negotiations aimed at winding down Israel's nine-month war on Hamas in Gaza face four key sticking points, including which hostages should be released, according to people with knowledge of the talks. Other issues include whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sticks to his demands that Hamas be barred from northern Gaza, according to the people, who asked not be identified because they aren't authorized to speak publicly. Additionally, Netanyahu wants his forces to retain control of a key southern border corridor and that he should not be bound to an indefinite cease-fire.
/jlne.ws/3W0smMs
Damaged Internet Subsea Cables Repaired in Red Sea Amid Militant Attacks on Ships; Vessel owned by UAE-based telco making repairs amid conflict; Fixes to internet cables delayed by geopolitical friction
Olivia Solon and Mohammed Hatem - Bloomberg
Repairs have finally commenced on three subsea telecommunications cables that were damaged in the Red Sea in February, even as Houthi militants escalate their attacks on ships in the area. The AAE-1 cable, a 25,000-kilometer (15,500 miles) fiber optic link between Asia and Europe, was repaired by a ship owned by E-Marine, a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi-based Emirates Telecommunications Group. The cable came online this week, a Yemeni government official said. The same ship, Niwa, remains in Yemeni waters to repair the remaining two cables, Seacom and EIG.
/jlne.ws/4bIT9CR
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| Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | Miami International Holdings Announces SEC Approval of MIAX Sapphire Exchange
MIAX
Miami International Holdings, Inc. (MIH), a technology-driven leader in building and operating regulated financial markets across multiple asset classes and geographies, today announced the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved MIAX Sapphire LLC's (MIAX Sapphireâ„¢) application for registration as a national securities exchange. MIAX Sapphire will be MIAX's fourth national securities exchange for U.S. multi-listed options and will operate both an electronic exchange and physical trading floor. The electronic exchange is expected to launch on August 12, 2024, with the opening of the physical trading floor to follow in 2025. The MIAX Sapphire trading floor will be the first national securities exchange to establish operations in Miami, Florida, and will include a next-generation trading floor, ancillary office space for MIAX employees and market participants, conference facilities and broadcast media space.
/jlne.ws/3zLePBb
CQG Offers Clients Access to Newly Launched Abaxx Exchange
Abaxx
CQG, a leading global provider of high-performance technology solutions for market makers, traders, brokers, commercial hedgers and exchanges, announced that it has partnered with Abaxx Exchange to provide its clients with access to trade new benchmark futures on energy, metals and other energy transition-focused commodities. Abaxx, the new global commodity futures exchange and clearinghouse based in Singapore, launched on June 28 with five physically deliverable futures contracts in liquified natural gas (LNG) and carbon markets, soon to be followed by solutions for battery metals. The exchange's offering is designed to help market participants execute their energy transition strategies, with improved price discovery and enhanced risk management tools.
/jlne.ws/3WopGdc
CME launches term SOFR curve as clearing talks ebb; Give-and-get pricing tool addresses pressing transparency need in $2.5 trillion swaps market
Helen Bartholomew - Risk.net (paywalled)
CME has developed a new pricing curve for swaps linked to a term version of the secured overnight financing rate, or SOFR, in a bid to bolster transparency in a market where strict trading curbs mean there are no electronic price streams. The initiative comes amid rapid growth in the market for term SOFR, which now underpins $9 trillion of financial contracts, including $2.5 trillion of swaps notional.
/jlne.ws/3WofjGf
Abaxx Commodity Futures Exchange and Clearinghouse Selects Baymarkets Clara Clearing System to Support New Commodities Exchange
Abaxx
Baymarkets AS ("Baymarkets"), and Abaxx Technologies Inc. (NEO:ABXX)(OTCQX:ABXXF) ("Abaxx"), today announced that Abaxx's indirectly held, majority-owned Singapore-based exchange ("Abaxx Exchange") and clearinghouse ("Abaxx Clearing"), has chosen the award-winning Baymarkets clearing technology and platform, Clara, to power their newly-launched, Singapore-based Abaxx Commodity Futures Exchange and Clearinghouse, licensed as a Recognised Market Operator ("RMO") and Approved Clearing House ("ACH") with the Monetary Authority of Singapore ("MAS"). Abaxx Clearing is leveraging Baymarkets' clearing expertise and innovative technologies to support their initial suite of five new, centrally-cleared, physically-deliverable commodities futures contracts in liquefied natural gas (LNG) and carbon, to be soon followed by solutions for battery metals and provide better price discovery and risk management tools for these transition-critical commodities.
/jlne.ws/4bSxqZk
Instituto BME signs collaboration agreement with the Catholic Bolivian University "San Pablo"
BME
Agreement reinforces BME's commitment to quality training in Spain and Latin America
Instituto BME, BME's training centre, has signed a collaboration agreement with the Catholic Bolivian University "San Pablo" to strengthen the collaboration between the two institutions. The agreement will enable various initiatives to be carried out for students and professionals from both institutions. One of the highlights of the agreement is the International Week, which will take place in the second half of 2024. Students from the Bolivian Catholic University will travel to Madrid for five days, where they will receive training at the BME Institute, visit market members and business schools.
/jlne.ws/4f8qfze
Application for Aluminum Regularity
CME Group
Notice is hereby given that ISTIM Singapore Pte Ltd has applied for regularity for aluminum deliverable against the COMEX Aluminum futures contract:
/jlne.ws/3WsL7J1
Settlement Cycle Results UI Move from C21 to BAMS - Production Live Date - Effective July 16, 2024
CME Group
Clearing Members currently utilize the C21 Settlement Firm user interface (UI) in the CME portal to view settlement cycle results including variation margin pay/collect and initial margin call information. The settlement cycle results UI is migrating into the Banking, Asset Management & Settlement (BAMS) Clearing Firm UI which has been in use since 2022 for collateral management. The production cutover to the new settlement cycle results screen in BAMS will occur for the end-of-day cycle on July 26th, 2024.
/jlne.ws/4f6HEbm
REMINDER - 2024 Annual Attestation and Inspection Programme - Selfattestation of HKEx
Reference is made to the circular dated 19 June 2024 (Ref. No.: MSM/003/2024) regarding the 2024 Self-attestation of Compliance Questionnaire (the "Questionnaire"). The Exchange would like to remind all Participants1 that the deadline to submit the Questionnaire, via the Electronic communication Platform2 (the "ECP") at https://ecp2.hkex.com.hk/, is 7 August 2024.
/jlne.ws/3LN8ubj
JSE She Invests 2024: Empowering Women to Invest for A Prosperous Future; All roads lead to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) on 17 August for the seventh edition of the annual #JSESheInvests event, a distinctive investment and empowerment initiative for women.
JSE
The event has been promoting financial literacy for seven successive years and continues to inspire women on their investment journey. This year's event will focus on equipping women with the tools and knowledge to build prosperous investment portfolios and more importantly, investing for a prosperous tomorrow. Studies show that women make over 70% of household buying decisions and feel a bigger sense of responsibility to spend their money responsibly. However, they often shy away from investments often due to lack of knowledge and confidence. Despite the wealth gap between men and women narrowing, many women still don't feel adequately equipped to make the right decisions that will ensure financial growth and retirement protection.
/jlne.ws/4c3eozL
Trading Value in Dark Pools Related to Stock Index Futures (until June 2024)
JPX
In June 2019, the Working Group on Financial Markets under the Financial System Council indicated measures for increasing the transparency of dark pool transactions, such as the close monitoring of dark pool usage. Accordingly, the Cabinet Office Order on Financial Instruments Business and the Comprehensive Guidelines for Supervision of Financial Instruments Business Operators were revised on June 19 2020, and OSE has introduced a flag system to identify orders matched in dark pools that are routed to the J-NET market to contribute to increased dark pool transparency.
/jlne.ws/3xZ9BBk
Matching Mechanism for the First Day of Listing: Cados Corporation
JPX
Cados Corporation (code: 211A) will be listed on Jul. 18. The matching mechanism to be applied to Cados Corporation until the initial price is determined is shown below. This special matching mechanism is applied to first-time listed issues until its initial price is determined.
/jlne.ws/3WnKv8q
Special Change in ESG index, for Asiana Airlines
KRX
KRX will change the constituents of KRX Governance Leaders 100 index, reflecting the adjustment in ESG ratings by the KCGS
/jlne.ws/46aXihG
Product modification Summary: Conversion of Open Interest from the Three-Month Bloomberg Short-Term Bank Yield Index Futures to Three-Month SOFR Futures - Effective October 13, 2024
CME Group
Conversion of Open Interest from the Three-Month Bloomberg Short-Term Bank Yield Index Futures to Three-Month SOFR Futures.
/jlne.ws/3zHEL0t
Settlement Cycle Results UI Move from C21 to BAMS - Production Live Date - Effective July 16, 2024
CME Group
Clearing Members currently utilize the C21 Settlement Firm user interface (UI) in the CME portal to view settlement cycle results including variation margin pay/collect and initial margin call information. The settlement cycle results UI is migrating into the Banking, Asset Management & Settlement (BAMS) Clearing Firm UI which has been in use since 2022 for collateral management. The production cutover to the new settlement cycle results screen in BAMS will occur for the end-of-day cycle on July 26th, 2024.
/jlne.ws/3SaGhyK
Delisting of Securities of CONX Corp.; Priveterra Acquisition Corp. II; Yield10 Bioscience, Inc.; Aesthetic Medical International Holdings Group Ltd.; Breeze Holdings Acquisition Corp.; Quadro Acquisition One Corp.; DermTech, Inc.; TRACON Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; eFFECTOR Therapeutics, Inc.; Dynatronics Corporation; and Canna-Global Acquisition Corp. from The Nasdaq Stock Market
Nasdaq
The Nasdaq Stock Market announced today that it will delist the common stock, units, and warrants of CONX Corp. CONX Corp.'s securities were suspended on May 6, 2024, and have not traded on Nasdaq since that time. Nasdaq also announced today that it will delist the common stock, units, and warrants of Priveterra Acquisition Corp. II. Priveterra Acquisition Corp. II's securities were suspended on May 10, 2024, and have not traded on Nasdaq since that time.
/jlne.ws/3S82sFy
IPO first-timers vs ex-listcos eyeing second bite of cherry: Let's prioritise the former; There is no shortage of companies looking to IPO, evidenced by how five Singapore-based companies have already listed in the US in the first half of 2024
Benjamin Cher - The Business Times
JUST earlier this month, Temasek-backed investment firm 65 Equity Partners said it had invested S$100 million into precision manufacturer Hi-P International as a prelude for an eventual listing, most likely on the Singapore Exchange (SGX). This is good news given the dearth of meaningful initial public offering (IPO) candidates locally. Hi-P is well-known in the technology sector and one of the largest players in Singapore. The money will come from the Local Enterprise Fund, 65 Equity Partners' joint S$1-billion-fund with the Singapore government to develop local companies into regional players.
/jlne.ws/3S9wSXY
IRS Electronification: 20 Years in the Making
Bhas Nalabothula - Tradeweb
With the 20th anniversary of Tradeweb's interest rate swaps (IRS) marketplace around the corner, the firm's head of US institutional Rates, Bhas Nalabothula, looks back at the key challenges and tailwinds that have defined the electronification of one of the most complex products in financial markets.
/jlne.ws/4famsBd
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| Fintech | | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | Wintermute Continues TradFi Expansion, Integrating Digital Asset Spot and Derivatives Liquidity into oneZero EcoSystem Amid Growing Demand; oneZero's vast network of traditional banks and institutions can access deep liquidity for 350+ spot and CFD crypto trading pairs and offer clients advanced crypto trading capabilities
Wintermute Asia Pte. Ltd
Wintermute Asia Pte. Ltd ("Wintermute"), the digital asset derivatives trading arm of Wintermute Group, the leading global algorithmic trading firm, and liquidity provider in digital asset markets, today announced that it has completed the integration of its spot and CFD liquidity into the oneZero EcoSystem. oneZero is the leading multi-asset class enterprise trading technology provider for banks and financial institutions. In addition to the oneZero integration, Wintermute has introduced the market's first multi-currency collateral support, allowing counterparties to post any cryptocurrency or fiat as margin collateral for CFD trading.
/jlne.ws/3Y931mj
Fintechs Fly Planes of Cash Into Zimbabwe to Meet Demand for Dollars; Mobile money services are booming as citizens are reluctant to adopt the country's new currency
Loni Prinsloo, Antony Sguazzin, Ray Ndlovu, and Godfrey Marawanyika - Bloomberg
At least once a month - and sometimes as often as three times a week - a private plane lands in a secure part of Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport on the outskirts of the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, carrying millions of US dollars. The pallets of cash are unloaded, broken down into packages, and then distributed to transfer points across the country. This unusual but legal operation, organized by the country's biggest mobile money app, Mukuru, illustrates how far companies will go to accommodate customers seeking to avoid the local currency in one of the world's most dysfunctional economies.
/jlne.ws/3zX05yY
Anthropic and Menlo Ventures Partner on $100 Million AI Fund; The VC firm's new fund will back companies using Anthropic products with money, advice and credits.
Rachel Metz - Bloomberg
Anthropic is assisting Menlo Ventures with a new $100 million fund for artificial intelligence startups - and its chatbot, Claude, will recommend potential deals. Menlo Ventures' Anthology Fund, the latest entrant in a crowded field of new AI backers, is for companies that are using Anthropic's Claude AI models to build their products. Menlo Ventures, which is one of Anthropic's investors, will supply all the capital for the fund, with investments starting at $100,000 for early-stage companies, the firm announced Wednesday. Anthropic won't take a stake in the companies, but will provide networking opportunities and credits for using Claude.
/jlne.ws/46aHnjN
'Godmother of AI' Fei-Fei Li builds $1bn start-up in 4 months; Stanford computer scientist's 'spatial intelligence' venture wins backing from investors including Andreessen Horowitz
Tabby Kinder and George Hammond and Eleanor Olcott - Financial Times
Stanford University's artificial intelligence leader Fei-Fei Li has quietly built a billion-dollar start-up in just four months, joining the fierce race across the tech industry to commercialise the technology. Li, a computer scientist who has been dubbed the "godmother of AI", created a company called World Labs in April, according to three people with knowledge of the move.
/jlne.ws/3zMYhZD
Island of riches: Taiwan reaps benefits of AI boom; Country's world-leading tech companies spread wealth among wider cohort of employees
Kathrin Hille - Financial Times
Peter was part of the crowd that piled into Fuyu Fuyu, a development of high-rise apartments in the northern Taiwan municipality of Taoyuan, one Sunday this month. By day's end the young engineer, who does not want to be fully identified, had signed up to spend NT$20mn (US$630,000) on a 120 square-metre apartment - his second.
/jlne.ws/3zX4iCM
Waves Blockchain Ecosystem Founder Launches Units.network Testnet; The founder of the Waves blockchain ecosystem has announced the launch of a fully functional testnet for Units.network, an ecosystem of interoperable blockchains built on top of Waves. This new development is set to provide a comprehensive Layer 2 solution, resolving existing challenges and offering new opportunities for decentralization and transparency within the blockchain community.
Waves via Zawya
The visionary behind the Waves blockchain ecosystem, Sasha Ivanov, has launched the fully functional testnet for Units.network, an innovative ecosystem of interoperable blockchains built atop the Waves platform. This significant development introduces a comprehensive Layer 2 solution, designed to overcome existing challenges and unlock new opportunities for decentralization and transparency within the blockchain community.
/jlne.ws/4dlN8NZ
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| Cybersecurity | | Top stories for cybersecurity | IBM Wins Contract to Strengthen USAID Cybersecurity Response in Europe and Eurasia
PR Newswire
IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that it has secured a five-year contract with $26 million in initial funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to support its Cybersecurity Protection and Response (CPR) program aimed to expand and enhance the agency's cybersecurity response support for host governments in the Europe and Eurasia (E&E) region. IBM's multidisciplinary team will provide the continuous assistance needed to help USAID strengthen the ability of host government agencies and critical infrastructure operators to identify, protect, detect, respond to, and recover from cyberattacks.
/jlne.ws/4f8Bo32
Cybersecurity Funding Jumps 144% In Q2
Chris Metinko - Crunchbase News
Venture funding to cybersecurity startups had its best quarter since Q1 2022 - surging 144% year to year - and seemingly building off a strong start to the year. The increase in venture dollars was mainly due to a significant jump in nine-figure rounds - illustrating that even as investors may be pulling back on investing in young startups, they are willing to double down on more mature companies looking for growth rounds.
/jlne.ws/4bPvDnI
Purdue partners with ThriveDX to help close a talent gap in cybersecurity
Rachel Barton - Purdue University
Purdue University is partnering with ThriveDX, a global leader in cyber training and talent development, on a program to find and train new personnel or reskill existing employees for roles in cybersecurity. The partnership stems from ThriveDX's selection as one of the organizations providing "Related Technical Instruction" for Apprenti, a nonprofit focused on technology-oriented apprenticeship that won a $23.5 million dollar grant through the U.S. Department of Commerce's Good Jobs Challenge.
/jlne.ws/4bPonIK
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| Cryptocurrencies | | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | FTX and CFTC agree to $12.7 billion settlement following months of negotiations
Sarah Wynn - The Block
Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission have agreed to a $12.7 billion settlement, pending approval from a Delaware judge. The two have been negotiating over the past few months, according to a court document filed on July 12 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.
/jlne.ws/3WpaQTv
FTX and CFTC agree to $12.7B settlement, subject to court approval; The US commodities regulator didn't seek a civil monetary penalty, meaning the entire $12.7 billion would be used to pay back FTX's creditors.
Brayden Lindrea - CoinTelegraph
Bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX and the United States commodities regulator have agreed to a $12.7 billion settlement, resolving a 19-month long lawsuit. The agreement comes after months of back-and-forth negotiations and is now only subject to court approval, a recently released July 12 filing shows. "The Proposed Settlement is an integral and valuable component of the Debtors' proposed chapter 11 reorganization plan," said Commodity Futures Trading Commission senior trial attorney Carlin R. Metzger and FTX's CEO John. J Ray III. "It resolves ongoing litigation and disputes with one of the largest creditors of the Debtors, avoids the cost and delay of further litigation, and mitigates a significant risk of diminution of the assets available for distribution to creditors." The CFTC sued FTX, its former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX's sister trading firm Alameda Research in December, 2022 - claiming the firm committed fraud and made misrepresentations by marketing FTX.com as a digital commodity asset platform.
/jlne.ws/3xWURD1
After Court Order, Craig Wright Updates Website With Admission He Is Not Bitcoin Creator Satoshi
Cheyenne Ligon - CoinDesk
Australian computer scientist and one-time Satoshi Nakamoto claimant Craig Wright has been forced to update the homepage of his personal website with a legal notice declaring that he is not the inventor of Bitcoin. The notice - which must be displayed on Wright's website for six months - declares that Wright lied "extensively and repeatedly" in court proceedings where he claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto, and "attempted to create a false narrative by forging documents 'on a grand scale'." Wright's web of lies, spun through "multiple legal actions" constitute a "most serious abuse" of the legal systems in the U.K., Norway, and the U.S., the declaration reads. It also links visitors to the full judgment against Wright, and "its appendix detailing various forged documents created by Dr. Wright."
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| Politics | | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | Trump on Taxes, Tariffs, Jerome Powell and More; Bloomberg Businessweek sat down with the ex-president at Mar-a-Lago for an exclusive interview.
Nancy Cook, Joshua Green and Mario Parker - Bloomberg
It's late June, and Donald Trump is plotting his next presidency in the gilded offseason isolation of the Mar-a-Lago Club. The adoring club members may have decamped to cooler climates, but Trump is still in a good mood. Polls show a very tight race between him and President Joe Biden, but his fundraising is through the roof. It's also now clear his 34 felony convictions haven't upended the race. A big shock will come two days later, at the first presidential debate, and it will be Biden who's left reeling. Then a bigger one will arrive on July 13, when Trump narrowly dodges an assassin's bullet.
/jlne.ws/4f4L6mS
The independence of the Fed is critical for the US; Political capture of the central bank would have profound implications for how future fiscal policy might affect the economy
Ernie Tedeschi - Financial Times
Budget scorekeeping typically is never top of mind for markets. To the extent markets track policy, central banks are usually king. Central bankers are followed with all the rapt attention of royalty. By the same token, monetary policy is an afterthought in fiscal analysis. Conventional "budget scores" that analyse the impact of government spending don't consider the Federal Reserve at all. And dynamic scores, which use models to incorporate macroeconomic feedback effects, usually demote the central bank to a single equation.
/jlne.ws/3Y1avb4
Abolish the Federal Reserve? Here's What Conservatives' Project 2025 Would Do.
Nicholas Jasinski - Barron's
A widely circulated conservative policy platform for the next presidential administration would put major constraints on the Federal Reserve's mandate and monetary policy tools. The conservative Heritage Foundation think tank's so-called Project 2025's primary recommendations for the Fed include a unitary focus on controlling inflation, winding down its balance sheet, and ending its lender-of-last-resort function. Further proposals would return the U.S. to a gold standard or abolish the Fed entirely.
/jlne.ws/3WaQlsm
Trump weighs tapping JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon for Treasury secretary, won't remove Fed's Powell: report
Reuters via the New York Post
Donald Trump will not seek to remove Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell before the central banker's term ends and would consider JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon for Treasury secretary if he won the Nov. 5 election, the former president told Bloomberg in an interview published on Tuesday. JPMorgan declined to comment on Trump's remarks. Powell's term as chairman runs through Januray 2026, and his position as a Fed governor continues until 2028. The interview was conducted in late June, according to Bloomberg.
/jlne.ws/4f4kItn
Tony Blair Should Stop Fueling the AI Hype Now; The former premier's consultancy-style institute is making unhelpful claims about what AI can actually do.
Parmy Olson - Bloomberg
With the world mired in confusion about how useful the AI boom really is, an odd contribution has come from Britain's former prime minister, Tony Blair. Days after the Labour Party he once led returned to power, his Tony Blair Institute for Global Change hosted an AI-focused conference on the future of Britain, where he urged Keir Starmer's new government to embrace AI as the "biggest technological revolution since the Industrial Revolution." But look closely: Blair's platitudes sound like consultancy speak, and his claims that 40% of UK public-sector work could be done by AI came from a dubious source: ChatGPT.
/jlne.ws/3W5sb2F
France Football Rights Sale Is a Financial Warning; There are limits to television viewers' appetite for the beautiful game.
Matthew Brooker - Bloomberg
A British comedy sketch from the 2000s lampoons the frantic promotion of live soccer broadcasting, with a presenter proclaiming "24-hour yearlong endless" matches as he entreats viewers to "Watch the football! Watch it! Watch it!" France, rather than England, has just provided the stiffest test of the notion that audience demand is insatiable enough to justify any level of investment.
/jlne.ws/4fa1D9k
Russia holds a UN meeting about global cooperation. US calls it 'hypocrisy' after Ukraine invasion
Edith M. Lederer - Associated Press
Russia's foreign minister accused the United States on Tuesday of holding the entire West "at gunpoint" and impeding international cooperation, a claim the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations denounced as "hypocrisy" by a country that invaded neighboring Ukraine. The finger-pointing came at Russia 's showcase event during its presidency of the U.N. Security Council this month, and it chose the topic - "Multilateral cooperation for a more just, democratic and sustainable world order." Russia's top diplomat, Sergey Lavrov, flew in from Moscow to preside.
/jlne.ws/4d0eysi
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| Regulation & Enforcement | | Stories about regulation and the law. | CFTC Commissioner Warns That CCOs May Face Personal
Alston & Bird - Via JD Supra
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has indicated that chief compliance officers (CCOs) of firms registered with the CFTC - which includes many investment fund managers - may face personal liability for a firm's noncompliance with CFTC rules and regulations. This position would harmonize the CFTC with the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), which has a long history of imposing personal liability on CCOs for failures of a firm's compliance program.
/jlne.ws/4eZzIsB
Hong Kong to Prepare Stablecoin Legislation as Public Consultation Ends; Hong Kong authorities plan to introduce a bill into the Legislative Council before the year-end.
Amitoj Singh - CoinDesk
Hong Kong's regulators published the conclusions from their consultation on a stablecoin regime. The next step is to prepare a bill for the Legislative Council. Hong Kong's financial regulators said they plan to present a bill on fiat-referenced stablecoins to the Legislative Council later this year. The Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau (FSTB) and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) published the results of a consultation, and concluded that the stablecoin regime would "primarily focus on representations of value which rest on ledgers that are operated in a decentralised manner" in which "no person has the unilateral authority to control or materially alter its functionality or operation." The consultation paper for stablecoin guidelines published at the end of last year received 108 submissions from stakeholders. The regulators plan to take suggestions from respondents before finalizing the bill for the legislative process.
/jlne.ws/3W8nchN
India's markets regulator proposes new asset class for high-risk investors
Reuters
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is proposing a new asset class that allows investors to take on higher risk through a regulated product, the Indian market regulator said in a consultation paper released on Tuesday. The asset class would fall between mutual funds meant for retail investors and portfolio management services that are targeted at high-net-worth individuals.
/jlne.ws/4d5jaNT
Remarks at the Southern African Securities Regulators Regional Training Conference
Commissioner Mark T. Uyeda - SEC
Good morning and welcome to the regional training conference for securities regulators in Southern Africa.[1] Thank you for your attendance, which reflects your commitment to developing regional capital markets to support economic growth on this continent. [2] I would like to thank the Capital Markets Commission of Angola ("CMC"), and its leader, President [Vanessa] Simoes, Dr. [Sebastiao] Manuel, Advisor to the CMC's Executive Board, and Professor [Joao Manuel] Fernandes, Chairman of the ISPTEC, for their partnership in planning and hosting this event. My colleagues and I from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") are pleased to participate and hope that our efforts will contribute to making this event a success.
/jlne.ws/3y1lwOS
ASIC permanently bans former financial adviser Anass Abdalla
ASIC
ASIC has permanently banned Queensland based financial adviser Anass "Caesar' Abdalla from providing any financial services, performing any function involved in the carrying on of a financial services business and from controlling an entity that carries on a financial services business.
/jlne.ws/3zKq5hj
Former Goldman Banker Pleads Not Guilty to Charges of Bribing Ghanaian Officials; Asante Berko's arraignment comes three years after the Goldman banker settled a related civil case with U.S. securities regulators
Dylan Tokar - The Wall Street Journal
A former Goldman Sachs banker appeared in federal court in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Tuesday and pleaded not guilty to charges he bribed Ghanaian government officials to secure a lucrative power-plant contract for a client. The arraignment of Asante Berko, a dual citizen of the U.S. and Ghana, comes after the banker fought his extradition from the U.K., where he worked at Goldman's London subsidiary. He was arraigned before U.S. Magistrate Judge Vera Scanlon in the Eastern District of New York and released on $600,000 bail, a court spokesman said.
/jlne.ws/4cHvpR6
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| Investing & Trading | | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | Walgreens hit with lawsuit over recent stock tank
Katherine Davis - Crain's Chicago Business
Walgreens Boots Alliance and some senior executives are being sued by an investor for allegedly mispresenting revenue and growth expectations in its pharmacy segment ahead of instituting a guidance cut last quarter that sent the pharmacy retail giant's stock price into a tailspin. The proposed class-action lawsuit centers on Walgreens' most recent earnings disclosure, in which executives also revealed the Deerfield-based company intends to shrink its footprint amid persistent headwinds.
/jlne.ws/3zDynXZ
Nvidia's market cap will soar to $50 trillion-yes, trillion-says early investor in Amazon and Tesla
Sasha Rogelberg - Fortune
Nvidia's rise has been astronomical-it's grown its market capitalization from $1.1 trillion to $3.1 trillion in the past 12 months-and a tech investor who predicted the early success of Amazon and Tesla said this is just the beginning. "The potential scale of Nvidia in the most optimistic outcome is both way higher than I've ever seen before and could lead to a market cap of double-digit trillions," James Anderson, former partner at investment giant Baillie Gifford, told the Financial Times. "This isn't a prediction but a possibility if artificial intelligence works for customers and Nvidia's lead is intact."
/jlne.ws/4bLUWHt
'AI Laggards' Find Favor as Magnificent Seven Stocks Lose Luster; Melius says AMD, Intel, and IBM could see a catch-up trade; Earnings growth for tech megacaps is expected to decelerate
Ryan Vlastelica - Bloomberg
Wall Street is looking beyond the obvious megacap stocks to find the next leg of the artificial intelligence trade. Betting that the Magnificent Seven may be running out of steam after an 18-month rally, some investors are turning their attention to what Melius Research dubbed "AI laggards." This group, which includes Intel Corp., Advanced Micro Devices Inc., and International Business Machines Corp., have exposure to the AI theme but failed to keep up with gains for the biggest AI winners in the first half of the year.
/jlne.ws/3Y6HEBZ
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| Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance | | Stories about environmental, social and governance investing | Strict EU sustainable finance rules deter emerging market investment, banks say; Development finance chief says Middle Eastern and Chinese groups are filling the gap
Alice Hancock - Financial Times
Stringent EU rules on sustainable finance are preventing investment in emerging markets, the head of one of the EU's largest development banks has said, warning that Chinese and Middle Eastern groups are filling the gap.n"The requirements are so strict for the moment that the chances of potential clients in emerging markets moving to other financiers, for instance from east Asia, is really serious," said Michael Jongeneel, chief executive of FMO, the Dutch development finance institution.
/jlne.ws/3Y7w3Tj
World Bank eyes first 'drought' bond in next 12-18 months
Karin Strohecker and Marc Jones - Reuters
The World Bank is looking to issue its first drought bond in the next 12-18-months and broaden its offering of catastrophe bonds supporting countries suffering devastation from storms and earthquakes, a senior executive at the lender said.
The drought bond would be a new instrument in the multilateral lender's suite of so-called cat bonds - fixed income instruments that pay out to countries in the event of a natural disaster.
/jlne.ws/46pH5FT
Risks of violent conflict will rise as the green transition picks up speed
Governments should ensure that expanded use of renewable technologies goes hand in hand with peacebuilding
Andrew Gilmour - Financial Times
Climate change exacerbates conflict, something that will only increase as temperatures continue to rise. But our responses to climate change, via the energy transition, can also generate conflict, and in ways we haven't yet begun to address.
/jlne.ws/3LyVtlb
UK green taxes on electricity bills deter EV take-up, say energy suppliers
Octopus and EDF say shifting the charges to gas bills would encourage families to invest in new cars
Rachel Millard and Jim Pickard - Financial Times
Green taxes on household electricity bills are holding back families from buying electric cars or switching to heat pumps, two of the UK's largest energy suppliers have warned. EDF Energy and Octopus Energy said eco levies should be shifted from domestic electricity to household gas bills to incentivise families to shift to cleaner technologies.
/jlne.ws/3xRV4aC
Protecting London a matter of 'national security' if extreme weather hits; Climate preparation must be embedded into government's growth strategy to avoid 'catastrophic' impacts, warns review
Attracta Mooney - Financial Times
Protecting London from extreme weather is a matter of "national security", according to an independent report, which found that flooding, drought and wildfires were putting the UK capital's economy and citizens at risk. Preparation for more frequent and extreme climate risks was "non-negotiable", the London Climate Resilience Review said on Wednesday, estimating that global warming could hit the city's GDP by 2-3 per cent per year by the middle of the century.
/jlne.ws/3WrhtVu
Fact-Checking the Republican National Convention on Energy Claims; Several speakers focused on the sharp rise in gas and electricity prices under President Biden. We scrutinized their statements.
Brad Plumer and Lisa Friedman - The New York Times
The rising price of energy was a major theme of the first day of the Republican National Convention, with several speakers blaming President Biden's policies for the spike in gasoline and electricity prices since 2021. Here's a look at some of their claims.
/jlne.ws/4d194xx
Climate advocates fear picking JD Vance for VP is 'a dangerous step backward'; Vance's record shows 'pattern of prioritizing fossil fuel interests' over the climate crisis, environmentalist says
Nina Lakhani - The Guardian
/jlne.ws/3xRVM7M
NATO Report Outlines Growing Climate Risks to Global Security; Extreme weather is fueling global conflict-and hampering NATO's ability to address it, according to a new analysis.
Kiley Price - Inside Climate News
/jlne.ws/3WrQd9e
King's Speech: Government responds to 'the urgency of the global climate challenge' with wave of new green bills
James Murray - BusinessGreen
/jlne.ws/3y0UXJG
Russia Faces Power Outages After Nuclear Plant Malfunction
Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/3LtLi1k
Germany Plans to Cut Renewable Subsidies as State Costs Soar
Petra Sorge - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/3zMQPh7
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| Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | Northern Trust's profit surges on fee income boost, accounting gain
Reuters
Asset and wealth manager Northern Trust posted a more than two-fold jump in second-quarter profit on Wednesday, thanks to higher fee income and an accounting gain of $878.4 million from a stock exchange deal with Visa. Hopes of a soft landing for the U.S. economy and investor frenzy around artificial intelligence have lifted the stock market to record highs this year, leading to a spurt in Northern's assets under custody.
/jlne.ws/3Y22PW1
U.S. Bancorp's adjusted profit falls as deposit costs hurt interest income
Reuters
U.S. Bancorp's adjusted profit fell about 10% in the second quarter on Wednesday, hurt by a decline in interest income due to higher deposit costs and muted loan demand. Lenders in the U.S. have been offering higher interest rates to retain deposits in recent months as customers increasingly seek better returns by placing their money in higher-yielding alternatives such as money-market funds.
/jlne.ws/4d6atTq
HSBC to deepen China ties with appointment of first Mandarin-speaking boss
Lucy Burton - The Telegraph
HSBC has named its first Mandarin-speaking chief executive amid investor pressure to shift its headquarters to China. Europe's biggest bank has promoted finance chief Georges Elhedery to replace Noel Quinn, who unexpectedly stepped down this year to pursue a better work-life balance.
/jlne.ws/3zJ1s4z
HSBC's Next CEO Georges Elhedery Is Taking on Two Jobs; Noel Quinn's successor will likely see the bank's chairman depart too.
Paul J. Davies - Bloomberg
Georges Elhedery was the favorite to become HSBC Holdings Plc's next chief executive officer even before Noel Quinn in April suddenly announced his decision to leave. Elhedery takes the job at an inflection point for the UK-based bank as it moves from a period of remodeling into one of looking for growth. Ultimately, though, the biggest challenge for the new boss is that he isn't replacing one leader, but two.
/jlne.ws/3WqyG1h
Bond Kings Draw Record $44 Billion to Actively Managed ETFs
Michael Mackenzie and Silla Brush - Bloomberg
The moment bond powerhouses have been waiting for is coming into view, and the payoff is record sums of client cash flowing into actively managed ETFs. With the Federal Reserve poised to cut rates as soon as September, investors poured $245 billion overall into active and index mutual funds and exchange-traded funds in the first half of the year, according to Morningstar Direct. That's compared to about $150 billion in the first half of 2023.
/jlne.ws/4faq71V
BlackRock Says Active ETFs Poised to Hit $4 Trillion by 2030
Vildana Hajric - Bloomberg
BlackRock Inc. is optimistic about the growth of actively managed ETFs after investors across the globe poured more than $160 billion into such strategies this year. It projects that global assets in active exchange-traded funds could reach $4 trillion by 2030 from the current $920 billion. Regulatory changes in the US, the growth of ready-made portfolios for advisers, and the rise of self-directed investors could all contribute to the trend, the firm says in a new report titled Decoding active ETFs.
/jlne.ws/3W5VXnP
Ares Management Expands Office Space on Manhattan's Park Avenue; Asset manager is leasing eight floors at SL Green's 245 Park; Financial tenants flocking to area near Grand Central Terminal
John Gittelsohn - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/3WoyBLI
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| Work & Management | | Stories impacting work and more about management ideas, practices and trends. | Remote Work Statistics And Trends In 2024
Kathy Haan - Forbes
Thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, the paradigm of traditional workspaces has undergone a seismic shift. As a result, remote work has emerged as a dominant trend, requiring human resources departments to pivot faster. This comprehensive analysis presents the most recent remote work statistics shaping the professional world and working environments nationwide.
/jlne.ws/3S9pqfm
Work from home could lead to more homes in vacant offices
Samantha Delouya - CNN
Most Americans know the No. 1 rule in real estate: "location, location, location." But for some developers, there's a new winning strategy: "recycle, recycle, recycle." A growing number of office buildings have found second lives as apartments, boosted by the Covid-era work-from-home movement that slashed office attendance and thinned out cities' downtowns. But breaking up sterile, expansive workspaces into inviting homes is harder than you might think. Real estate developers say these projects can be like working out a puzzle: Office buildings are designed with very different considerations than apartment dwellings. Some conversions aren't possible, and unexpected costs can add up.
/jlne.ws/3y4NxFp
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| Wellness Exchange | | An Exchange of Health and Wellness Information | The New Holy Grail for Weight-Loss Drugs Is Sleep Apnea; Popular anti-obesity medicines are in testing for a range of other diseases. Positive results could prompt more insurers to pay up.
Peter Loftus - The Wall Street Journal
Whether millions of people will be able to afford one of the hot new weight-loss drugs could hinge on whether they cure the sleep apnea of people like Damon Sedgwick. Sedgwick, a technology business analyst in Sydney, enrolled in a clinical trial in 2022 to test whether taking weekly injections of Eli Lilly's anti-obesity drug Zepbound would alleviate the sleep apnea that had plagued his nights for years. The medical thesis: Hefty weight loss from the drug would help open the airways of Sedgwick and other study subjects, reducing the frequent stops and starts to breathing while they slept.
/jlne.ws/3y1ini2
Night owls' cognitive function 'superior' to early risers, study suggests; Research on 26,000 people found those who stay up late scored better on intelligence, reasoning and memory tests
Anna Bawden - The Guardian
The idea that night owls who don't go to bed until the early hours struggle to get anything done during the day may have to be revised. It turns out that staying up late could be good for our brain power as research suggests that people who identify as night owls could be sharper than those who go to bed early. Researchers led by academics at Imperial College London studied data from the UK Biobank study on more than 26,000 people who had completed intelligence, reasoning, reaction time and memory tests.
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| Regions | | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | US dollars exit China's VC market, ending 2-decade marriage that enabled rise of start-ups
South China Morning Post
A sea change is taking place in China's venture capital (VC) industry as the two-decade marriage between US investors and mainland start-ups comes to an end, casting a shadow over the country's technology landscape, according to industry insiders and market data. While US dollar funding from global investors, brokered by a generation of Chinese dealmakers who shuttled back and forth across the Pacific, facilitated the rise of the country's most successful tech firms over the past decade, the money is quickly drying up. Foreign capital in China's venture capital industry plunged 60 per cent year on year to US$3.7 billion in 2023, just 10 per cent of the peak in 2021, according to research firm Dealogic.
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China looks to South African food exports as way of reducing reliance on US and Australia
South China Morning Post
For decades, South Africa has been China's top source for metals such as gold, diamonds and platinum but now Beijing is opening up to more agricultural exports as it moves to reduce its dependency on countries such as the United States and Australia. The newly appointed Chinese ambassador, Wu Peng, told local media that Beijing was implementing measures to fast-track food exports
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Russian farmers fight to salvage harvest as major region cuts forecast
Sergei Pivovarov and Olga Popova - Reuters
Under the sweltering sun and in temperatures of 50 degrees Celsius, farmers in the Rostov region, Russia's breadbasket, toil to salvage a harvest battered by heatwave, frosts and floods. Accounting for 11% of Russia's total grain harvest last year, Rostov is one of the key regions that Russia's agriculture ministry has said it is monitoring to make further adjustments to an already soft 2024 crop forecast.
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| Miscellaneous | | Stories that don't quite fit under the other sections | Why the Social Security Administration may want you to update your personal account online
Lorie Konish - CNBC
The Social Security Administration is updating its online services. To make sure you can continue to access your account, the agency is urging you to log in, particularly if you created your online "my Social Security" account before Sept. 18, 2021. These account holders will soon have to transition to a Login.gov account to access online Social Security services. Five steps for a mid-year financial checkup The online my Social Security accounts enable both beneficiaries and people who are not yet receiving benefits to access services, including requesting Social Security card replacements, estimating future benefits, checking on the status of benefit applications and managing current benefits.
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