| July 01, 2024 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | |  | John Lothian
Publisher
John Lothian News | |
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Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff
Today is the day Robbert Booij officially becomes the CEO of Eurex AG. Booij is now the CEO of Eurex Frankfurt AG, succeeding Michael Peters. Booij will lead Eurex alongside Erik Muller, CEO of Eurex Clearing AG, focusing on trading, clearing, and risk management with innovative products. Peters, after nearly 18 years at Eurex, will remain on the executive board until his retirement at the end of September. Best of luck to Michael on his retirement and whatever productive things he still seeks to accomplish.
In a ceremonial passing of the torch, Peters and Booij slapped hands as they rode in opposite directions on their bicycles around the Eurex headquarters, captured in this LinkedIn video.
Dan Carter, the CEO of KRM22, reported on LinkedIn that the recent David Setters Cricket Trophy at Blackheath raised £33,000 for the Motor Neurone Disease (MND) Association. He thanked sponsors London Metal Exchange, ICE, Trading Technologies, KRM22, ABN AMRO Clearing Bank, and winners StoneX Group Inc., and gave a special thanks to shirt sponsors Broadridge and Ethypharm. This brings the total raised since 2017 to £162,000.
Acuiti's Will Mitting, who is featured today in JLN in a JLN Industry Leaders video from our Boca series sponsored by Wedbush, is acting as an ambassador for Go Dharmic's Humankind Challenge, He is raising funds to provide 2 million meals for vulnerable families and homeless individuals. Go Dharmic, which has already distributed 22 million meals, planted 260,000 trees, and supported 108 schools, is currently aiding flood victims in Manipur, India. Please donate to his fundraising page to help him achieve this goal and bring relief and hope to those in need.
Thank you to David Klotz for being our guest editor last week, giving me some time off while I was traveling to Europe and back. My trip back to the U.S. was a bit longer than expected, as I missed my connection in London to Chicago and was rerouted to Philadelphia. Then my connection in Philadelphia sat on the tarmac until it timed out because of weather and was eventually canceled and I had to wait until the same 9:05 pm flight the next night to return home.
My trip to IDX was successful. We shot about 10 videos at the conference. I have asked Robbie Lothian, the UK version, to try his hand at editing them, with some help from Patrick Lothian, in order to take some of the pressure off of Patrick while he is working on other projects and the other Robby Lothian is busy with his full-time job.
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:
- Traders Are Flocking to Risky Zero-Dated Options. 'You Can Go Completely Broke.' from Barron's.
- New Era of Stock Supremacy Turns Tail-Risk Hedging Upside Down from Bloomberg via Yahoo Finance.
- T+1 to increase costs and volumes in ETF securities lending from the Financial Times. ~JB
Subscribe to the JLN Options Newsletter HERE (it's free).
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Acuiti CEO Will Mitting Reveals Innovative Peer-to-Peer Model Reshaping Derivatives Market Intelligence
JohnLothianNews.com
In a bustling conference center foyer at the Boca Resort at the International Futures Industry Conference in Boca Raton, Florida, Will Mitting, the CEO of Acuiti, sat down with John Lothian News to discuss the growth and evolution of his market intelligence firm. The interview, part of the JLN Industry Leaders video series sponsored by Wedbush, offered insights into Acuiti's unique approach to information sharing in the derivatives industry.
Watch the video »
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SIFMA's Ellen Greene Discusses Key Concerns and Expresses Optimism at Options Industry Conference
JohnLothianNews.com
Ellen Greene, managing director of equity and options market structure at the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), shared insights on key industry concerns at the Options Industry Conference in Asheville, North Carolina, in an interview with John Lothian News sponsored by the OCC.
Watch the video »
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Europe Set to Get Hot Again With Greece Still Battling Wildfires; Hot temperatures to return after cooler weather this week; Extensive flooding hit Switzerland, Italy over the weekend
Saksha Menezes and Sotiris Nikas - Bloomberg
Temperatures across most of Europe will rise again next week after a brief respite. In coming days, cooler-than-average weather will bring relief from the recent heat in northwest Europe. Minimum temperatures in Berlin will drop to 11.5C (52.7F) Wednesday and about 10C in London later in the week. But hot weather will return next weekend, with the southeast in focus again. Wildfires are still raging in Greece, where authorities are under pressure to tackle dozens of blazes fueled by strong winds. Conditions are expected to improve Monday, with the island of Crete being the only region still on very high fire alert.
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***** I am glad I came back to the U.S. when I did to get away from the crazy weather.~JJL
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Record-Breaking Hurricane Beryl Is Getting Stronger on a Path to Grenada; Dangerous hurricane will sweep the region's islands Monday; Storm will later track west toward Mexico and Belize
Brian K Sullivan - Bloomberg
Record-breaking Hurricane Beryl is intensifying as it churns through the Caribbean south of Grenada, where it's forecast to unleash catastrophic winds, life-threatening storm surge and flooding rains. Beryl regained Category 4 strength after briefly weakening, the US National Hurricane Center said in an advisory at 8 a.m. local time. It was about 70 miles east of Grenada with top winds of 130 miles (209 kilometers) per hour.
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****** Maybe it is crazy all over, and not just the weather. ~JJL
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Friday's Top Three
Our top story Friday was The Washington Post's The new work etiquette: If you can't spot the jerk, it might be you. Second was The Wall Street Journal's Supreme Court Curbs SEC's Enforcement Powers. Third was AI and heat waves pose dual threats to the power grid: Morning Brief, from Yahoo!Finance.
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| Lead Stories | 24-Hour Stock Trading Is Booming - and Wall Street Is Rattled; Momentum in the overnight market is building, but some are concerned there could be trouble after dark.
Lu Wang and Katherine Doherty - Bloomberg
Wall Street pros are feeling uneasy about retail investors again. Only this time it's not about the trades they're making - it's about when they're making them. The amateur-investing revolution that has swept US markets since the pandemic is helping fuel a boom in overnight stock trading. It's playing out at the likes of Robinhood Markets Inc. and Interactive Brokers Group Inc., which have adopted ways to offer the buying and selling of American shares 24 hours a day, five days a week. That has effectively eliminated the traditional eight-hour overnight break, and the move has proved so popular that others are taking note. Even the infamous "pink sheet" market - the over-the-counter home of companies who can't or won't join a major exchange - is set to enter the non-stop fray in July.
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Citi was money launderers' favourite bank, US law enforcement officials say; Alleged drug traffickers fed $36,000 into cash machines, indictment claims
Joe Miller and Stephen Gandel - Financial Times
Drug traffickers chose to launder money through Citigroup because they believed the bank was "more favourable", with less robust fraud controls, according to senior US law enforcement officials. In an indictment unsealed last week, US prosecutors detailed how two California residents, who allegedly worked with the notorious Sinaloa cartel, deposited tens of thousands of dollars at Citi ATMs. On at least three separate occasions in January 2021, they allegedly fed a total of almost $36,000 in illicit cash into the machines, a few hundred dollars at a time, waiting just a minute or two between each transaction.
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Bedrock Wall Street Rules Threatened by Supreme Court Ruling; SEC among agencies affected by rolling back Chevron deference; Industry push against regulator gets lift from court decision
Austin Weinstein and Will Kubzansky - Bloomberg
Wall Street is poised to win more battles with the US Securities and Exchange Commission after the Supreme Court weakened a decades-old legal doctrine that gave federal agencies expansive leeway to interpret the law. The high court's 6-3 decision may turbocharge challenges to the agency's efforts on everything from crypto to insider trading. The new limits add to a string of court setbacks for Chair Gary Gensler as the SEC moves to implement some of the most comprehensive - and controversial - regulations in decades.
/jlne.ws/4btE3ku
Financial services shun AI over job and regulatory fears; Industry leaders say concerns over impact of technology are outweighing benefits such as productivity gains and cost cuts
Cristina Criddle and Akila Quinio - Financial Times
Financial services are failing to implement artificial intelligence successfully, European fintech executives have claimed, even as evidence mounts that the hyped technology will boost productivity and cut costs. Job loss fears, regulatory concerns and institutional inertia are among the factors deterring bankers from fully embracing the systems that underpin products such as ChatGPT. "The big banks will definitely not adopt [the technology] as quickly as any of the fintech," said Tom Blomfield, co-founder of Monzo and group partner at Silicon Valley start-up incubator Y Combinator. Generative AI will however "make banks more efficient and able to provide the same products at a cheaper cost".
/jlne.ws/3W6vDvg
China's central bank moves to address bond frenzy; Officials are increasingly uncomfortable with a rally pushing borrowing costs to lowest level in decades
Cheng Leng - Financial Times
China's central bank plans to intervene directly in bond markets in a sign of officials' growing discomfort with a rally that has pushed borrowing costs to the lowest level in two decades. The People's Bank of China said on Monday it would "borrow sovereign bonds from primary traders in the open market in the near future". The decision was made on "prudent observation and evaluations of current market situations" in order to "maintain the stable operation of the bond market".
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Brussels explores antitrust probe into Microsoft's partnership with OpenAI; EU executive arm drops merger review into US tech companies' alliance
Javier Espinoza and Tim Bradshaw - Financial Times
Brussels is preparing for an antitrust investigation into Microsoft's $13bn investment into OpenAI, after the EU decided not to proceed with a merger review into the most powerful alliance in the artificial intelligence industry. The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, began to explore a review under merger control rules in January, but on Friday announced that it would not proceed due to a lack of evidence that Microsoft controls OpenAI. However, the commission said it was now exploring the possibility of a traditional antitrust investigation into whether the tie-up between the world's most valuable listed company and the best-funded AI start-up was harming competition in the fast-growing market.
/jlne.ws/45PvHm0
Dash for last orders on stock markets stirs concentration fears; Regulators on watch as exchange closing auctions suck up daily share trading volumes
Nikou Asgari - Financial Times
Fund managers are intensifying late-day dashes to trade shares in the US and Europe, raising concerns the heavy burst of activity leaves some of the world's largest stock markets highly exposed during a malfunction. The proportion of daily EU equities trading that takes place in stock exchanges' end-of-day auctions hit a record 29 per cent in the first quarter, according to analytics firm big xyt. That compared with 22.5 per cent in the first quarter of 2021, the data provider said. The closing auction is a 5-10 minute period when final share prices of the day are set.
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Defaults on leveraged loans soar as BoE warns on private equity's 'challenges'; Central bank concerned that risks in sector backing 2mn UK private-sector employees could spill over to rest of economy
Ortenca Aliaj - Financial Times
Defaults on loans to risky borrowers, a lifeline for companies owned by private equity, have leapt 250 per cent, the Bank of England said as it warned that the sector was "facing challenges in the higher rate environment". Global defaults on leveraged loans jumped 5 percentage points, from about 2 per cent in early 2022 to about 7 per cent, the BoE said on Thursday in its twice-yearly Financial Stability Report. About 73 per cent of these types of loans are extended to companies backed by private equity, according to the central bank. There is still some way to go before defaults on leveraged loans reach the peak of 12 per cent hit during the financial crisis, it added.
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CLOs Have Too Much Money and Are Running Out of Things to Buy; Leveraged loan issuance isn't keeping up with demand from CLOs; CLO managers are increasing their bond holdings to compensate
Carmen Arroyo and Eleanor Duncan - Bloomberg
The $1.3 trillion collateralized loan obligation market is about to become a victim of its own success because managers can't create the bonds fast enough to meet demand and are running out of things to buy. A slowdown in mergers and acquisitions after borrowing costs rose is continuing to deprive the lenders of the leveraged loans that the industry was built on. About $311 billion of M&A deals have been announced and completed so far this year, roughly $1 trillion below the same level two years ago when interest rates began to rise, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
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BlackRock Buys Preqin for $3.2 Billion in Private Data Push
Silla Brush, Matthew Monks and Ryan Gould - Bloomberg
BlackRock Inc. will acquire private capital database provider Preqin for £2.55 billion ($3.2 billion) in cash, as the world's largest money manager accelerates its push to become a major player in alternative assets. The acquisition deepens BlackRock's ability to oversee risks and analyze data across fast-growing markets for private assets, and also expands its Aladdin technology systems, the New York-based firm said in a statement on Sunday.
/jlne.ws/3RQSaK1
Prime Broker Hidden Road Adds Major Crypto Exchanges, Expands Use of BlackRock's BUIDL Token
Ian Allison - CoinDesk
Hidden Road, a global credit network for institutions that includes trading in digital assets, said it added a clutch of major exchanges to its prime brokerage platform. It also expanded the use of BlackRock's BUIDL token by accepting it as collateral across its network. The company is now integrated with Coinbase International Exchange (following a tie-up with Coinbase Exchange in 2022), OKX (including Nitro Spreads), Deribit (including options), Bitfinex, Bullish (the owner of CoinDesk), AsiaNext and SIX Digital Exchange, the company said in a press release on Monday.
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FDIC Marks Important Milestones in Culture Change Efforts
FDIC
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) today announced important updates regarding the ongoing work to improve the agency's workplace culture following an independent review of allegations of sexual harassment and other interpersonal misconduct. At its meeting on June 20, the FDIC Board of Directors (the Board) approved the creation of two new, independent offices, reporting directly to the Board. The FDIC's Office of Professional Conduct (OPC) will intake, investigate, and report on complaints of harassment, interpersonal misconduct, and retaliation, and determine and enforce discipline. The Office of Equal Employment Opportunity (OEEO) will intake, investigate, and report on complaints of discrimination and retaliation under the laws enforced by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Both offices will utilize independent third-party investigators. The Board will appoint a Director to each office following a competitive hiring process. Job announcements for these two positions will be published to USAJobs.gov.
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Justices Limit Power of Federal Agencies, Imperiling an Array of Regulations; A foundational 1984 decision had required courts to defer to agencies' reasonable interpretations of ambiguous statutes, underpinning regulations on health care, safety and the environment.
Adam Liptak - The New York Times
The Supreme Court on Friday reduced the power of executive agencies by sweeping aside a longstanding legal precedent, endangering countless regulations and transferring power from the executive branch to Congress and the courts. The precedent, Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the most cited in American law, requires courts to defer to agencies' reasonable interpretations of ambiguous statutes. There have been 70 Supreme Court decisions relying on Chevron, along with 17,000 in the lower courts. The decision is all but certain to prompt challenges to the actions of an array of federal agencies, including those regulating the environment, health care and consumer safety.
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*****Here is the story from AXIOS, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and The Associated Press.
US Supreme Court set to decide fate of Texas, Florida social media laws
John Kruzel - Reuters
The U.S. Supreme Court is expected on Monday to rule on the legality of Republican-backed laws in Florida and Texas intended to restrain social media companies from curbing content the platforms deem objectionable - statutes the industry has argued violate the free speech rights of these businesses. The justices have been asked to decide whether the two laws run afoul of protections under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment against government restriction of speech, as the industry argued, by interfering with the editorial discretion of social media companies. The 2021 laws would put limits on content-moderation practices by large social media platforms.
/jlne.ws/4eOfjqm
Banks will beat Basel III for all the wrong reasons; Higher equity capital makes sense, but won't be worth it until after we need it
Todd H. Baker - Financial Times
A few days back, the news broke that the Federal Reserve Board is ready to weaken its so-called "Basel III Endgame" capital rules, which had projected a huge increase in capital requirements for the largest and most complex banks. This is no surprise.
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Central banks should set a 'high bar' for interest rate cuts, BIS warns; Umbrella body for central banks highlights risk of flare-up in services prices and wage growth
Sam Fleming and Martin Arnold - Financial Times
Central banks should avoid cutting interest rates too soon owing to the risk of a fresh flare-up in inflation, the Bank for International Settlements has warned, as policymakers around the world weigh up how quickly to ease monetary policy. The Basel-based umbrella body for central banks said in its annual report that the global economy looked set for a "smooth landing" as inflation cooled and growth remained resilient.
/jlne.ws/4bt9Jqv
The Six Billion Dollar Gold Scam podcast review - 16 carats of intrigue, greed and epic deceit; The tale of a jackpot hidden in the Indonesian jungle has been told before but a mind-blowing theory adds a new shine
Fiona Sturges - Financial Times
What was going through the mind of Filipino geologist Michael de Guzman as he boarded a helicopter to Busang in Indonesian Borneo in the spring of 1997? His destination was the site of what was said to be the largest gold discovery in history. Twenty minutes after take-off, the pilot heard a popping sound and felt a whoosh of air. When he turned around, one of the rear doors was open and de Guzman's seat was empty. Did he jump, was he pushed or is there another explanation? These are the questions underpinning The Six Billion Dollar Gold Scam, a podcast produced by the BBC World Service and CBC and hosted by Canadian journalist Suzanne Wilton, who has been reporting on the case on and off for 25 years.
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| Ukraine Invasion | | News about the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and its military, economic, political and humanitarian impact | Russia attacks Ukraine's two largest cities, Kyiv and Kharkiv
Reuters
Russian forces attacked Ukraine's two largest cities on Sunday, with missile fragments falling on a suburban Kyiv apartment building and a guided bomb killing one person in Kharkiv. More than 28 months into Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Russian forces maintain regular attacks on Ukrainian cities as well as on energy infrastructure.
/jlne.ws/4ctZ0xm
'Flood' of cheap Russian fertiliser risks Europe's food security, industry says; Growing dependence gives Moscow more leverage over European crop production
Susannah Savage and Shotaro Tani - Financial Times
A flood of cheap Russian fertiliser risks driving European producers out of business or out of the continent, posing a risk to long-term food security, the crop nutrient industry has warned. The flow of Russian natural gas into the EU slowed significantly after the country's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and European countries have shifted to other sources of supply. But Russia has continued to use its gas to produce, and export to Europe, cheap nitrogen-based fertiliser.
/jlne.ws/3xJ9zNN
For Ukraine and Russia, a Deadly Summer Lies Ahead With Little Hope of Big Gains; Thousands likely to die as warring forces seek openings along a largely static front line
James Marson and Daniel Michaels - The Wall Street Journal
As Russia's invasion of Ukraine enters a third summer, the 700-mile front line is the site of a bloody chess match, with each side moving pieces around in search of an advantage without conceding ground elsewhere. Ukraine's army, which recently blunted a dangerous Russian offensive that ran short on troops, is counterattacking in villages on its northeastern border.
/jlne.ws/3W3jxmy
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| Israel/Hamas Conflict | | News about the recent (October, 2023) conflict between Israel and Hamas | Israel tests Hamas-free 'bubbles' plan for post-war Gaza; Pilot in northern neighbourhoods described by insiders as a 'fantasy' scheme that will struggle to take hold
Neri Zilber - Financial Times
Israel is preparing to test an experimental model for running postwar Gaza, by creating a series of "bubbles" that are designed to be Hamas-free but have been met with incredulity by many people briefed on the plans. The pilot scheme for the "humanitarian enclaves" - a template for what Israel imagines would follow the war - will soon be launched in the northern Gaza neighbourhoods of Atatra, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia, according to six people with knowledge of the plan.
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| Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | The New York Stock Exchange Leads Industry in Global IPO Proceeds for the First Half of 2024
Intercontinental Exchange, Inc.
The New York Stock Exchange, part of Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE: ICE), a leading global provider of technology and data, today reported an industry-leading $12 billion in IPO proceeds for the first half of 2024, setting the pace globally as IPO activity regained momentum compared to the prior two years. The NYSE listed 7 of the 10 largest U.S. transactions so far this year, including the two largest IPOs: Viking Holdings (NYSE: VIK) and Amer Sports (NYSE: AS). The exchange also led the re-emergence of technology IPOs in 2024, with transactions including Rubrik (NYSE: RBRK), Reddit (NYSE: RDDT) and Ibotta (NYSE: IBTA). Altogether, the NYSE's 2024 IPO proceeds in the first half exceeded total proceeds raised on the exchange in each of the past two years.
/jlne.ws/4eL2EUU
Record Notional Value of Shares Traded on the Nasdaq Closing Cross During the 2024 Russell US Indexes Reconstitution
Nasdaq
Nasdaq Closing Cross continues to play an integral and innovative role in capital markets; Global growth in trading volumes demands increasingly scalable and flexible technology architecture. Nasdaq, Inc. (Nasdaq: NDAQ) today announced the Nasdaq Closing Cross had a record day as it was used to rebalance Nasdaq-listed securities in the entire family of Russell US Indexes, part of global index provider FTSE Russell, during its annual reconstitution. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Russell 3000® Index and the 21st year that the Closing Cross has been used to calculate the Russell Reconstitution.
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SIX Leads European IPO Revival in the First Half of 2024
SIX
The first half of 2024 has positioned SIX at the forefront of Europe's IPO revival, in particular in Spain. Bjoern Sibbern, Global Head Exchanges at SIX, and Beatriz Alonso-Majagranzas, Global Head Equity Listings Exchanges, discuss how Puig's EUR 2.6 billion debut on BME Exchange, the largest IPO in the world in H1/2024, is poised to create a positive momentum. SIX operates the stock exchanges in Switzerland and Spain. How satisfied are you with the listing activity on your markets in the first half of 2024?
/jlne.ws/3W607NV
SIX Exchanges Figures: June 2024
BME
SIX publishes the monthly key figures for SIX Swiss Exchange and BME Exchange about the trading and listing activity in Switzerland and Spain
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CME Group Launches euroSTRWatch to Help Clients Manage Risk Around ECB Policy Decisions
CME Group
CME Group, the world's leading derivatives marketplace, has today launched EURSTRWatch, which enables clients to understand the potential impact of ECB rate decisions on futures settlement prices and builds on the success of CME Group's FedWatch, SOFRWatch and TreasuryWatch tools. Using EuroSTRWatch, clients will be able to analyze their expectations of the impact of ECB policy decisions in upcoming meetings, providing a view of where CME Group euroSTR futures prices could settle if their expectations prevail. Given the high correlation between the ECB's deposit facility rate and the euroSTR rate, the tool takes into account the spread between these rates to project forward euroSTR rates.
/jlne.ws/45P87Gn
Clearstream, DekaBank and DZ Bank successfully issue tokenized bonds on DLT as part of ECB tests
Deutsche Boerse
First institutional issues in Germany with DLT and settlement in central bank money; Bonds fully processed on DLT; Conducted during ECB tests in productive environment. Clearstream, DekaBank and DZ Bank have jointly issued two tokenized bonds worth EUR 5 million each using distributed ledger technology (DLT). The issues took place as part of the tests conducted by the European Central Bank (ECB) to examine the potential of DLT for the settlement of central bank money in wholesale banking. The processes run entirely on Deutsche Boerse's D7 DLT.
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Notice of Disciplinary Action; NON-MEMBER: Benjamin Roth
CME Group
CME RULE VIOLATIONS: Rule 575 ("Disruptive Practices Prohibited") (in part)
A. No person shall enter or cause to be entered an order with the intent, at the time of order entry, to cancel the order before execution or to modify the order to avoid execution. PENALTY: In accordance with the settlement offer, the Panel ordered Roth to pay a fine of $20,000, pay disgorgement in the amount of $20,825, and serve a 40-business day suspension from access to any trading floor owned or controlled by CME Group and from direct and indirect access to any designated contract market, derivatives clearing organization or swap execution facility owned or controlled by CME Group, beginning on the effective date below and continuing through and including August 23, 2024.
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Notice of Disciplinary Action; MEMBER: Budo Trading LLC
CME Group
CME RULE VIOLATIONS: Rule 432. General Offenses (in part)
It shall be an offense: W. for any party to fail to diligently supervise its employees and agents in the conduct of their business relating to the Exchange. FINDINGS: Pursuant to an offer of settlement in which Budo Trading LLC ("Budo") neither admitted nor denied the rule violations or factual findings upon which the penalty is based, on June 26, 2024, a Panel of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Business Conduct Committee ("Panel") found that from at least November 14, 2022, through February 28, 2023, Budo entered numerous opposing buy and sell orders, both manually and using an automated trading system, for the same account in various Micro Bitcoin and Micro Ether futures contracts that matched opposite each other on more than an incidental basis.
/jlne.ws/3xqtMYI
Portugal Capital Markets Day: connecting investors and opportunities in the capital markets
Euronext
Co-organised by Euronext and AEM. Euronext, the leading pan-European market infrastructure, and AEM, the Portuguese Issuers Association, today announced the success of the first edition of the Portugal Capital Markets Day, an initiative dedicated to highlighting the wealth of opportunities available within the Portuguese economy, with a particular focus on the capital markets. This initiative, supported by AON as the main sponsor, and VdA - Vieira de Almeida and JP Morgan as sponsors, aims to connect investors, corporations and financial institutions, fostering stronger investment ties and economic growth. The primary objectives of the Portugal Capital Markets Day are to promote investment opportunities in Portugal, with a focus on listed companies, by showcasing major economic structural trends, as well as relevant insights into selected sectors that are currently experiencing growth and transformation.
/jlne.ws/3VHMSRV
27four Debuts First Actively Managed ETF on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange; South African financial services group, 27four, today listed its first Actively Managed Exchange Traded Fund (AMETF), the 27four Large Cap Equity AMETF, on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE).
Johannesburg Stock Exchange
This listing marks the beginning of the group's strategic rollout of four AMETFs designed to provide retail and institutional investors with enhanced exposure to the country's largest and most liquid companies. The 27four Large Cap Equity AMETF is designed to achieve long-term, sustainable capital growth by investing in some of the largest and most stable companies listed on the JSE. By managing risk effectively, it aims to minimise the impact of volatility in the markets while seeking to maximise returns. This strategy involves a careful selection of investments that closely follow the fund's benchmarks but allows for slight adjustments in sector allocation and investment style to capitalise on market efficiencies.
/jlne.ws/3RO2ja2
Trading Overview in June 2024 & First Half of 2024 (January to June)
Japan Exchange Group
Japan Exchange Group released Trading Overview in June 2024 & First Half of 2024 (January to June). Cash Equity Market: In the first half of 2024, the daily average trading value for the Prime Market (domestic common stocks) was JPY 5.2228 trillion. In the first half of 2024, the daily average trading value for ETFs was JPY311.1 billion. In June 2024, the daily average trading value for the Prime Market (domestic common stocks) was JPY 4.574 trillion. The daily average trading value for the ETF market was JPY 259.8 billion.
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All members, warehouse companies and their London agents, and other interested parties
London Metal Exchange
Ref: 24/206. Classification: Membership. Date: 28 June 2024. Subject: Membership Application: Sucden Financial Hamburg GmbH. Notice is hereby given that the following application for membership has been approved by The London Metal Exchange (the "LME").
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Amendment in existing policy for processing of claims received against defaulter / expelled members
MCX
The Exchange vide circular no. MCX/ISD/055/2021 dated January 27, 2021, and circular no. MCX/ISD/600/2021 dated September 17, 2021, had informed all Members of the Exchange and their constituents, inter alia, about the policy, which states the conditions in which the claim against defaulter member shall be rejected. The Exchange has amended the said policy on rejection of claims by adding the following two (2) norms which are as under:
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Nasdaq Halts Canna-Global Acquisition Corp
Nasdaq
The Nasdaq Stock Market (Nasdaq: NDAQ) announced that the trading halt status in Canna-Global Acquisition Corp (Nasdaq: CNGL, CNGLU and CNGLW) was changed to "additional information requested" from the company. Trading in the company's stock had been halted on June 27, 2024 at 16:45:36 Eastern Time for "news dissemination" at a last sale price of $10.45 (Nasdaq: CNGL), $10.99 (Nasdaq: CNGLU), and $0.0105 (Nasdaq: CNGLW).
/jlne.ws/3Y4CAOT
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| Fintech | | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | A fintech collapse is rippling through a small corner of the banking world
David Hollerith - Yahoo Finance
The unraveling of fintech upstart Synapse is rippling through a small corner of the banking world, leaving thousands of customers without access to their money and a mystery about millions of dollars that went missing. Four small US banks have some of the money. No one is sure where the rest went. The saga surrounding the bankruptcy of Synapse, a 10-year-old fintech firm, puts a new spotlight on how loose webs of partnerships between venture-backed upstarts and FDIC-backed lenders can go so wrong
/jlne.ws/4cnTf3U
New record set by Exegy & AMD with up to 49% faster tick-to-trade execution using an off-the-shelf solution in latest STAC benchmark; The new benchmark for trade execution latency of up to 13.9 nanoseconds is less time than it takes light to travel through 3 meters of optical fibre*
Exegy
Exegy, a leading developer of high-performance trading solutions for capital markets, in collaboration with AMD, today announced a record-breaking actionable latency of up to 13.9 ns for the execution of a trade in the latest STAC T0 report. For the first time ever, this was achieved using an off-the-shelf solution with an asynchronous implementation for the critical path of the algorithm and network stack. With up to a 49% latency reduction, this is the lowest tick-to-trade (the time it takes for an order to be sent to the exchange in response to a market data update) latency performance of any published STAC-T0 benchmark.
/jlne.ws/45PlWo1
Qualcomm Sponsors Manchester United Amid Bigger Consumer PC Push; Deal is part of chipmaker's effort to spotlight its brand; Qualcomm's tech is powering interactive experiences for fans
Ian King - Bloomberg
Qualcomm Inc. has become the new front-of-shirt sponsor for Manchester United Football Club - an attempt to boost awareness of its Snapdragon brand among consumers amid a broader push into personal computing. The California-based chipmaker is paying for a prominent brand position with one of the best-known clubs in the world's most popular sport. One home game for the UK Premier League team will give Snapdragon as much exposure as a Super Bowl ad, the company said.
/jlne.ws/3L3r9zb
AI-focused tech firms see big jump in market cap in June
Reuters
Artificial intelligence-focused companies, mostly chipmakers, saw big gains in their market capitalization at the end of June, with Nvidia (NVDA) briefly overtaking Microsoft (MSFT) to become the most valuable company in the world. Nvidia shares rose as much as 27% in June, boosting its market capitalization to $3.34 trillion, before giving up some of their gains later in the month, due to profit booking and concerns over its high valuations.
/jlne.ws/45UD5N9
Turkey Turns to AI to Crack Down on Rampant Tax Evasion; Finance Czar Simsek talks of plans in BloombergHT interview; Government in public outreach campaign for new tax bill
Beril Akman - Bloomberg
Turkey is seeking to harness artificial intelligence to crack down on tax evasion, joining the likes of Italy and the US in enlisting advanced technology to reduce cases of avoidance and fraud. "We will increasingly implement more algorithms and artificial intelligence" in auditing companies, Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek said on Monday in a TV interview with BloombergHT.
/jlne.ws/3WfEjQ5
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| Cybersecurity | | Top stories for cybersecurity | How Secure-By-Design Products Strengthen Your Cyber Resiliency
Jim Richberg - Forbes
At a time when many organizations still struggle to recruit and retain qualified cybersecurity talent, adversaries are moving faster than ever. According to the FortiGuard Labs 2H 2023 Threat Landscape Report, cybercriminals are now exploiting new vulnerabilities 43% faster than before. While security and IT teams can take critical steps to mitigate this challenge-such as improving patch management processes and implementing regular software updates-vendors have a vital role in helping their customers mitigate risk.
/jlne.ws/3W5jSVS
'I can't get paid.' Cyberattack affecting car dealerships brings chaos for sellers, buyers and workers
Samantha Delouya - CNN
As the ongoing systems outage at software provider CDK Global stretches into its second week, car dealerships are racking up millions of dollars in losses, according to a new estimate. Workers across the US automotive industry told CNN that the software blackout, which the company said was caused by a cyberattack, has made it difficult for dealers to track customer interactions, orders and sales, hurting their ability to earn a living. "It's going to affect payroll here," said Bernard Irvin, a salesperson at a Ford dealership in Greenville, South Carolina. "Why wouldn't I receive my normal pay? I don't really understand what this is all about."
/jlne.ws/3VP8MD7
Cybersecurity leadership for small businesses
News
Adam Pilton - TechRadar
For a small business, having a fully-fledged cybersecurity team is highly unlikely, due to budgetary constraints. This does not however mean that small businesses aren't getting attacked.
/jlne.ws/3XLgwIT
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| Cryptocurrencies | | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | PayPal Ventures-backed fintech Mesh partners with Italy's crypto wallet Conio
Reuters
Mesh, a U.S. fintech whose investors include PayPal Ventures, will provide customers of Italian digital asset wallet Conio access to several leading crypto exchanges, such as Binance or Coinbase, the two companies said on Monday. The partnership will allow Conio's 430,000 Italian customers to access 10 leading crypto currency trading platforms through the Conio App, the companies said. Customers will be able to instantly transfer any bitcoin they buy on the exchanges into their Conio wallet, rather than having to scan a QR code or go through other measures as at present.
/jlne.ws/3zmuRRD
Sony gets ready to launch crypto exchange in Japan with acquired Amber platform
Danny Park - The Block
Japan's multi-industry conglomerate Sony is getting ready to launch a cryptocurrency exchange subsidiary by revamping local trading platform WhaleFin which it acquired last year, according to a Monday press release on PR Times. WhaleFin has been renamed to S.BLOX Co., which plans to collaborate with Sony Group's other businesses to generate additional value for its crypto trading services, according to the statement.
/jlne.ws/4coW1WD
Abra Launches Treasury Service for Corporates That Want to Hold Crypto
Will Canny - CoinDesk
Abra, the digital asset prime services and wealth management platform, has launched Abra Treasury, a service for corporates that want to hold crypto on their balance sheet as a reserve asset, the company said in a press release on Monday. The service will be operated by Abra Capital Management, which is an SEC-registered investment advisor, and will provide corporates, family offices, and non-profits with a range of digital asset treasury management solutions. Abra Treasury's offering combines custody, trading, borrowing, and yield services and clients can hold their crypto in separately managed clients, allowing them to retain title and ownership over their digital assets, the company said.
/jlne.ws/4eKL6bo
2024 MiCA Research Report; The Impact of MiCA on Crypto Market Surveillance: Insights and Challenges
Eventus
Unlock valuable insights into the European Union's Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA) with our comprehensive report. This essential guide explores the impact of MiCA on market surveillance, compliance challenges, and operational strategies for both TradFi and crypto-native firms. Key insights include: A move to establish market surveillance systems is taking place across the industry, including among 57% of the firms that don't expect to be covered under MiCA; 25% of firms in scope for MiCA have not begun preparations, while only 9% say they are fully ready to go; 64% of firms coming under MiCA are planning to use third-party software for their market abuse and transaction monitoring processes
/jlne.ws/45JxOYR
Bitcoin Investors Begin to Ponder What's Next After ETF Mania Cools; Largest cryptocurrency fell for first time in three quarters; Demand for ETFs have slowed from record inflows after debut
Benjamin Taubman - Bloomberg
As the second-quarter draws to a close, crypto investors are left wondering what's next for Bitcoin after it retreated from the all-time highs registered during the height of the mania over exchange-traded funds. The original cryptocurrency is down about 13% since March, a sharp contrast from the 67% and 57% surges seen, respectively, in the previous two quarters. Bitcoin, which reached a record $73,798 on March 14, is closing the quarter at around $61,000.
/jlne.ws/4eO5OqU
'Boring' Bitcoin Sends Weekend Trading Volume to All-Time Lows; Weekend trading drops to 16% of total volume, Kaiko says; ETFs, dwindling volatility lessen appeal, researcher says
Benjamin Taubman - Bloomberg
The proportion of Bitcoin traded over weekends has declined to an all-time low of 16% this year, according to cryptocurrency research firm Kaiko. The drop comes in the wake of the launch of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded-funds, which appears to have shifted the periods when Bitcoin is traded to be more in line with the schedule of traditional equity exchanges and has lowered its price volatility.
/jlne.ws/3L7c3Zf
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| Politics | | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | Crypto lobbyists are polluting the US election; Three years after saying bitcoin seems like a scam, Donald Trump appears newly enamoured
Jemima Kelly - Financial Times
It is not particularly fashionable to point out when Donald Trump gets something right (whether accidentally or not). But for the record, back in 2021 he was right about crypto. Having two years earlier pointed out that crypto is "not money" and that its value is "based on thin air", the former president said bitcoin "just seems like a scam", suggested crypto was "a disaster waiting to happen", and said "the bitcoins of the world" should be regulated "very, very high" [sic].
/jlne.ws/3VNVXZz
Labour Shouldn't Get a Free Ride to No. 10; The party should have been given far more scrutiny during the election campaign. Its policies on education, wealth creation and public-sector management are naive and sometimes dangerous.
Adrian Wooldridge - Bloomberg
On July 4, the British people are likely to do something remarkable: hand the Labour Party almost absolute power without subjecting it to even rudimentary scrutiny. The British political system is what the Tory grandee Lord Hailsham once described as an "elective dictatorship": The prime minister doesn't confront the system of checks and balances that are common in liberal democracies, most obviously in the US. The second chamber is unelected, the Supreme Court is a novelty and local government is weak. And Starmer is likely to enjoy both a huge majority and the support of the civil service and the wider intelligentsia.
/jlne.ws/4bwLSWK
Farage Plots Path to Power With Trump-Style Takeover of Britain's Tories; The UK's anti-immigration disruptor wants to become the leader of the country's opposition. First, he has to get elected.
Jack Ryan and Alex Wickham - Bloomberg
Nigel Farage is in his element. With Eminem's Without Me blasting and pyrotechnics flaring, the engineer of Brexit, friend of Donald Trump and now key protagonist in Britain's election is welcomed like a hero. As he walks into a packed auditorium in Clacton, a deprived town on England's east coast where polls suggest he will become its member of the UK Parliament next week, the 60-year-old disruptor is greeted by cheers and hoots. He regales them with gags about his fondness for beer and naked appearance on a TV reality show, all while mocking his opponents.
/jlne.ws/3XMEsvl
Why no one trusts politicians any more; The central issue eroding faith in government is lack of accountability
Camilla Cavendish - Financial Times (opinion)
Does it matter if a few parliamentary candidates broke the law by betting on the election? "Gamble gate" may seem trivial in comparison to substantive policy issues but it plays into the narrative that all politicians are in it for themselves - which corrodes our politics. When Westminster looks fifth-rate and you suspect you could do a better job yourself, it's not surprising that trust in politics has hit a record low. The people "having a flutter" were unprofessional and colossally stupid. Their actions fit with the long cycle of mediocrities drunk on power and casual with the truth: Brexit lies and Partygate, the Scottish National party embroiled in embezzlement charges, the Welsh Labour leader taking £200,000 from a criminal donor, the dubious honours.
/jlne.ws/3W6vXtY
How not to blow up your bond market Political powers in France and UK need to demonstrate competence that keeps markets on side
Katie Martin - Financial Times
Politicians on both sides of the English Channel are about to be tested on the first rule of bond markets: There's a big difference between borrowing lots of money in a suit and borrowing lots of money in a clown outfit and brandishing a supersized water pistol. The former is a good idea. The stability in sterling and in gilts prices in the run-up to the UK election suggests that investors are pretty sure Rachel Reeves understands this important distinction. The betting right now is that if, as opinion polls suggest, the former Bank of England economist becomes chancellor from July 5 and if, further down the line, she decides to raise bond issuance targets, markets will cope just fine. Borrowing costs might rise, but in all likelihood, not disastrously so.
/jlne.ws/3L6Wukn
Macron's reckless gamble leaves French voters with invidious choice; Millions will have to opt between supporting the far right or a bloc dominated by the far left in parliamentary elections
Ben Hall - Financial Times
One data point is enough to show how French President Emmanuel Macron's snap election gamble went spectacularly wrong. In the first round of parliamentary elections in 2022, 4.2mn French people voted for the far-right Rassemblement National party; on Sunday, that number was around 11mn, according to estimates by pollster Ipsos.
/jlne.ws/3ztveu0
Edouard Carmignac says markets will keep French far right on 'tight leash'; Fund manager expects political gridlock and market discipline to limit 'meaningfully' what Rassemblement National can do
Harriet Agnew - Financial Times
/jlne.ws/45PsX8q
UniCredit Seeks Clarity From Court After ECB Orders Russia Cuts
Sonia Sirletti and Nicholas Comfort - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/3L7Nn2X
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| Regulation & Enforcement | | Stories about regulation and the law. | FinCEN Proposes Rule to Strengthen and Modernize Financial Institution Programs Designed to Fight Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing
FINCEN
Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) announced a proposed rule to strengthen and modernize financial institutions' anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) programs. While financial institutions have long maintained AML/CFT programs under existing regulations, this proposed rule would amend those regulations to explicitly require that such programs be effective, risk-based, and reasonably designed, enabling financial institutions to focus their resources and attention in a manner consistent with their risk profiles. The proposed amendments are based on changes to the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) enacted by the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Act of 2020 and are a key component of Treasury's objective of a more effective and risk-based AML/CFT regulatory and supervisory regime.
/jlne.ws/4eTkfKy
SEC Sues Crypto Firm Consensys for Not Registering as Broker;Regulator says software company broke securities rules; SEC says firm made millions on securities transactions
Austin Weinstein and Olga Kharif - Bloomberg
The US Securities and Exchange Commission said crypto firm Consensys Software Inc. broke its rules when it failed to register as a brokerage and improperly collected millions of dollars in fees. Consensys, which operates the popular crypto wallet MetaMask, handled millions of transactions for clients without proper regulatory oversight, the SEC said.
/jlne.ws/3W5mGlS
Vietnam Stock Fraud Trial of Ex-FLC Chairman to Begin This Month
Linh Vu Nguyen and Nguyen Dieu Tu Uyen - Bloomberg
The stock manipulation trial of real estate developer FLC Group JSC's former chairman Trinh Van Quyet and 49 other defendants will begin July 22, according to a posting on the government's website. Quyet, his sister Trinh Thi Minh Hue, and others are accused of earning an illicit profit of about 723 billion dong ($28.4 million) by manipulating five stocks, according to the posting.
/jlne.ws/45OH51J
Statement of Commissioner Caroline D. Pham on SEC v. Jarkesy
CFTC
Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Commissioner Caroline D. Pham released the following statement on the U.S. Supreme Court decision in SEC v. Jarkesy: "As I've said before, 'administrative proceedings, where the agency is the prosecutor, judge, and jury, lack the checks-and-balances imposed by separation of powers between the executive and judicial branches of government to ensure a fair hearing and due process.' The Court's opinion explicitly recognizes this truism, and reinforces the law of the land. There's more work to be done at the Commission to ensure that our adjudications and settlements can withstand scrutiny, particularly when they deprive others of property without appropriate due process and in violation of the Constitution. I'll continue pushing to bring greater accountability and transparency to our administrative proceedings so that our stakeholders have the utmost confidence in the CFTC's actions to promote safe and fair markets."
/jlne.ws/4cFtkEN
SEC Charges Consensys Software for Unregistered Offers and Sales of Securities Through Its MetaMask Staking Service; Company Also Charged for Operating as an Unregistered Broker
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Consensys Software Inc. with engaging in the unregistered offer and sale of securities through a service it calls MetaMask Staking and with operating as an unregistered broker through MetaMask Staking and another service it calls MetaMask Swaps.
ASIC urges AFS licensees to correct records on the Financial Advisers Register
ASIC
ASIC is calling on AFS licensees to assess the accuracy of records about their financial advisers on the Financial Advisers Register after a spot check identified errors and inconsistencies in some of the information provided. Issues identified relate to qualifications and training courses being marked as 'approved' on the Financial Advisers Register, when in many cases, this marking was incorrect.
/jlne.ws/3L3oxRT
Remaining synthetic US dollar LIBOR settings - 3 months to go
FCA
We issue a reminder of the expected cessation of the remaining synthetic US dollar LIBOR settings at the end of September 2024. It's now 3 months to go until the 1-, 3- and 6-month synthetic US dollar LIBOR settings are expected to cease after publication on Monday 30 September 2024. These are the last remaining synthetic LIBOR settings and the last remaining LIBOR settings overall. Their cessation will mark the final milestone in the transition away from LIBOR.
/jlne.ws/4cmP5t6
Progress in Common Data Platform and Next Steps
FSA
The Financial Services Agency (FSA) and the Bank of Japan (BOJ) have been taking initiatives toward data integration with a view to further enhancing their monitoring capabilities and reducing the burden on financial institutions. In fiscal 2023, the FSA and the BOJ considered practical operations and started to collect granular data in a phased manner to establish a novel framework for data collection and management (common data platform).
/jlne.ws/3W6jV3q
Singapore Refreshes the Terrorism Financing National Risk Assessment and National Strategy for Countering the Financing of Terrorism
MAS
Singapore published today its updated Terrorism Financing (TF) National Risk Assessment (NRA) and National Strategy for Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) as part of its continuous efforts to deal with the threat of terrorism.
/jlne.ws/4btE5Jp
Civil Penalty Action Taken Against Tay Joo Heng for Insider Trading
Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)
MAS has imposed a civil penalty of S$70,000 on Mr Tay Joo Heng for insider trading in the shares of GS Holdings Limited (GHL). This follows a joint investigation by CAD and MAS into the case.
/jlne.ws/3VPZlDl
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| Investing & Trading | | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | Survey details 'stark differences' between younger and older wealthy investors; Young, wealthy investors are increasingly skeptical that a traditional mix of stocks and bonds will generate above-average returns.
Maya Benjamin - Yahoo Finance
Bank of America Private Bank's biennial survey of wealthy Americans revealed a generational divide in the perceived greatest opportunities for asset investment and growth. "What we found was some stark differences in approaches to investing and mindset toward overall investing," Michael Pelzar, head of investments at Bank of America Private Bank, told Yahoo Finance.
/jlne.ws/3xJ4V2j
Chewy Surges After Keith Gill Discloses $245 Million Stake
Subrat Patnaik - Bloomberg
Chewy Inc. shares spiked as much as 29% in premarket trading Monday after Keith Gill - known online as "Roaring Kitty" - disclosed a 6.6% passive stake in the online pet food and product retailer. The disclosure with the US Securities and Exchange Commission shows Gill owns roughly 9 million Class A shares, worth about $245 million based on Friday's closing price. Shares of Chewy and Petco Health and Wellness Co. briefly soared last week after Gill posted a cartoon image of a dog on X.
/jlne.ws/4eJXZ5G
Why Cheap Toilet Paper Sets Off Alarm Bells Among Some Investors; Companies selling everyday goods say lower-income consumers are struggling, but better-off households are spending freely
Aaron Back - The Wall Street Journal
Sellers of everyday consumer goods are experiencing a growing divide in their customer base between the more and less affluent. How they respond depends in part on where their products sit in the pecking order. Both packaged-food companies and makers of household goods such as cleansers and paper towels are describing a bifurcation whereby higher-income consumers are spending freely, but those with lower incomes are feeling increasingly pinched by the cumulative impact of years of inflation.
/jlne.ws/4cGgaaA
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| Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance | | Stories about environmental, social and governance investing | Supreme Court Overturns Chevron Doctrine: What it Means for Climate Change Policy; The high court sweeps away a 'Goliath' of modern law, weakening agencies' legal authority as courts weigh Biden's policies to cut greenhouse gases.
Marianne Lavelle - Inside Climate News
Just as federal regulators move forward with a climate change policy rooted in dozens of complex provisions of law, the Supreme Court on Friday overturned the principle that has guided U.S. regulatory law for the past 40 years. That principle held that a federal agency's interpretation of the law should be honored, as long as it is reasonable, in cases where there is any question about the law's meaning. Now, the so-called Chevron doctrine has been swept aside by a 6-3 court split along ideological lines.
/jlne.ws/3RLXz52
How conservative judges secured a 'chain saw' to derail environmental rules; A recent string of Supreme Court decisions could constrain the government's ability to tackle climate change and pollution for decades to come.
Maxine Joselow - The Washington Post
Three years ago, President Biden promised to "deliver a whole-of-government approach to the climate crisis," including by making half of all new cars electric by 2030. Now the Supreme Court has imperiled that broad agenda - and possibly other climate and environment rules for decades to come. In recent rulings, particularly two last week, the high court added obstacles to the government's ability to regulate air pollution, water pollution and the greenhouse gases that are heating Earth. The decisions could empower conservative judges on lower courts throughout the country to block even more environmental regulations - not only under Biden but presidents who follow him.
/jlne.ws/3SdWVNZ
A String of Supreme Court Decisions Hits Hard at Environmental Rules; Four cases backed by conservative activists in recent years have combined to diminish the power of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Coral Davenport - The New York Times
A spate of decisions over the past two years by the Supreme Court has significantly impaired the Environmental Protection Agency's authority to limit pollution in the air and water, regulate the use of toxic chemicals and reduce the greenhouse gasses that are heating the planet. This term, the court's conservative supermajority handed down several rulings that chip away at the power of many federal agencies.
/jlne.ws/3xFrUv2
Let's not go overboard' on worries about AI energy use, Bill Gates says; Microsoft co-founder argues Big Tech's investment in power-hungry artificial intelligence systems is spurring a boom in clean electricity
Attracta Mooney and Camilla Hodgson - Financial Times
Bill Gates has defended the rapid rise in energy use caused by artificial intelligence systems, arguing the technology would ultimately offset its heavy consumption of electricity. Speaking in London, Gates urged environmentalists and governments to "not go overboard" on concerns about the huge amounts of power required to run new generative AI systems, as Big Tech companies such as Microsoft race to invest tens of billions of dollars in vast new data centres.
/jlne.ws/3znnqtJ
Hollywood Pushes Climate Stories and Solutions Toward Center Stage; Policymakers are looking for the entertainment industry's help in telling better climate stories, even as the sector works to address its own carbon emissions.
Ali Juell - Bloomberg
In a one-on-one conversation about climate change, US Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm talked about growing clean energy production. But her counterpart wasn't a policy wonk; it was Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins. It was a typically atypical pairing at the Hollywood Climate Summit, putting a Washington power player with the director of a film that IMDB says grossed more than $824 million. The four-day event held this week highlighted how the entertainment industry can tell better climate stories while also addressing sustainability on set.
/jlne.ws/3VLJUvR
Norway Restricts Arctic Property Sale Citing National Security
Stephen Treloar - Bloomberg
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US Home Insurance Still Priced Too Low for Climate Risk, Says Swiss Re Chair; Jacques de Vaucleroy said despite recent increases, premiums will have to climb further to encourage risk aversion.
Leslie Kaufman - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/3xuLH0p
Activist investors mount record number of campaigns but win fewer board seats
Svea Herbst-Bayliss - Reuters
/jlne.ws/45Pw3cn
Seven dead after storms lash France, Switzerland and Italy; Three people died when tree crushed car they were travelling in, while torrential rains triggered landslides
Agence France-Presse - The Guardian
/jlne.ws/3RM0AlS
China Stops Publishing Data Highlighting Solar Power Constraints
Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/4blOc2Q
Google buys stake in Taiwan solar power firm owned by BlackRock
Simon Jessop and Susanna Twidale - Reuters
/jlne.ws/4ciRHIy
Russia Extends Gasoline Export Permits on Ample Home Supply
Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/3W3RZ0f
China to buy another African mine as it elbows in to lead global green energy revolution
South China Morning Post
/jlne.ws/3W4kJWA
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| Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | Prime Broker Hidden Road Adds Major Crypto Exchanges, Expands Use of BlackRock's BUIDL Token; Hidden Road is now integrated with Coinbase International Exchange, OKX, Deribit, Bitfinex, AsiaNext, SIX Digital Exchange and Bullish.
Ian Allison - CoinDesk
Hidden Road has expanded the use of BlackRock's BUIDL token by accepting it as collateral across its network. In addition to the new crop of exchanges, liquidity providers B2C2, IMC and Laser Digital, and software vendors Talos and TT have also joined Hidden Road. Hidden Road, a global credit network for institutions that includes trading in digital assets, said it added a clutch of major exchanges to its prime brokerage platform. It also expanded the use of BlackRock's BUIDL token by accepting it as collateral across its network. The company is now integrated with Coinbase International Exchange (following a tie-up with Coinbase Exchange in 2022), OKX (including Nitro Spreads), Deribit (including options), Bitfinex, Bullish (the owner of CoinDesk), AsiaNext and SIX Digital Exchange, the company said in a press release on Monday.
/jlne.ws/3VPugiS
HSBC Fights UBS for Asia Wealth Under Former Wall Street Banker; Company lost title to UBS when Credit Suisse was taken over; 'We want to be Asia's leading wealth manager,' Spring says
Benjamin Stupples and Harry Wilson - Bloomberg
The head of HSBC Holdings Plc's private bank is planning a fresh recruiting drive as part of her bid to regain the title of Asia's biggest wealth manager from UBS Group AG. Annabel Spring is looking to deepen the presence of Europe's biggest lender in Asia across at least half a dozen territories, partly through recruiting extra staff after already poaching wealth advisers from rivals including Deutsche Bank AG, UBS and Credit Suisse over the past year.
/jlne.ws/4eOFTzl
UBS completes merger of UBS Switzerland and Credit Suisse (Schweiz); Following the merger, Credit Suisse (Schweiz) will no longer exist as a separate entity.
Wesley Bray - The Trade
UBS has completed the merger of UBS Switzerland AG and Credit Suisse (Schwiez) AG. From today, Credit Suisse (Schweiz) AG has been deregistered from the Commercial Register of the Canton of Zurich and will no longer exist as a separate entity. According to a statement, UBS Switzerland AG has succeeded all the rights and obligations of Credit Suisse (Schweiz) AG.
/jlne.ws/3VQ5jnJ
BlackRock to buy UK data group Preqin for $3.2 billion
Reuters
BlackRock has agreed to buy UK data firm Preqin for 2.55 billion pounds ($3.23 billion) in cash in a further expansion by the world's biggest asset management company into alternative investments. BlackRock, which manages more than $10 trillion, is seeking to capitalise on a boom in demand from investors for alternative assets, which includes anything from private equity to infrastructure. In January BlackRock announced a deal to buy Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) for $12.5 billion, while other investment firms have also struck recent deals. The asset manager beat out rival potential bidders, which sources told Reuters last month included London Stock Exchange Group, and S&P Global, for Preqin following a bidding process and after its owners had decided on a full sale of the business.
/jlne.ws/4eJYkW0
Morgan Stanley to join Goldman and JPMorgan in scrapping UK bonus cap; Group is latest Wall Street lender to change pay policy after curbs dropped in post-Brexit push to boost City of London
Owen Walker and Ortenca Aliaj - Financial Times
Morgan Stanley has joined the rush of Wall Street lenders changing their pay structures in response to the UK's decision last year to scrap its cap on banker bonuses. The bank, which has not yet informed staff of the decision, said in regulatory filings that it would replace the previously mandated limit with "an appropriate internal bonus cap", but did not provide further details about how it would be structured. "We continue to pay competitively and reward strong performance," it said in a statement to the Financial Times.
/jlne.ws/4eJ5lq1
Hedge Funds Are Hoarding Cobalt Amid Battery Metal Slump
Yvonne Yue Li, Mark Burton, Jack Farchy and Archie Hunter - Bloomberg
Hedge funds including Anchorage Capital Advisors and Squarepoint Capital LLP have been building positions in cobalt by buying up physical material, as tumbling spot prices and a more liquid futures market create new trading opportunities in the battery metal. Cobalt is a relatively tiny and specialized market compared with commodities like copper or oil, and prices have dropped to the lowest in more than seven years as the market is flooded with production from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia.
/jlne.ws/4eJAj1k
BlackRock Enters Booming Market for Stock ETFs With a 100% Hedge
Emily Graffeo - Bloomberg
BlackRock Inc. is the latest asset manager to launch an exchange-traded fund that offers a way to ride the stock rally - while hedging 100% of the downside if markets plunge. The iShares Large Cap Max Buffer Jun ETF is set to begin trading under the ticker MAXJ on Monday. Using options, it will provide investors with upside exposure to the S&P 500 to a cap of around 10.6% and hedge all of the downside over a 12-month period. Such offerings may appeal to investors looking to tap into stocks' record-setting rally even as worries mount around the outlook for growth and earnings. At the same time the Federal Reserve is signaling plans to keep interest rates elevated, while the US presidential election adds another potential wild card for markets.
/jlne.ws/4cJtueh
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| Work & Management | | Stories impacting work and more about management ideas, practices and trends. | 5 Healthy Ways To Manage Your Anger At Work
Caroline Castrillon - Forbes
With burnout hitting record highs, employees are reaching a breaking point. A whopping 88% of workers say they are burned out, according to a recent survey conducted by MyPerfectResume. What's even more shocking is that, as a result, many of us are expressing anger at work. In the last six months, 87% of respondents have had an outburst at work, with half confessing to multiple outbursts. Yet these fits of anger don't come without remorse. Nine in 10 employees say they regret having temper tantrums at the office.
/jlne.ws/3ROB0fQ
Managers Need To Embrace Uncertainty Of New Workplace
Roger Trapp - Forbes
Consultants and management gurus are apt to overplay what they like to call "paradigm shifts," but it is hard to argue with the central premise of Julia Hobsbawm's new book, Working Assumptions. "The scale of the disruption we're experiencing now has not been seen in the workplace for a hundred years," she writes early on. Just how chaotic and unpredictable the world of work has suddenly become since the change in habits accelerated by the pandemic combined with the rapid rise of artificial intelligence is demonstrated by how far things have moved on in the just two years since her earlier book, The Nowhere Office. Hobsbawn, who has been writing about and advising on the world of work for many years, was brave enough in that work to suggest - when others were predicting a swift return to normality - that things would not end up back in the same place they started, but she could not have expected either the pace or the extent of the changes that are playing out.
/jlne.ws/45KgL8V
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| Wellness Exchange | | An Exchange of Health and Wellness Information | Toxic PFAS absorbed through skin at levels higher than previously thought; Absorption through skin could be 'significant source of exposure' to toxic forever chemicals, study shows
Tom Perkins - The Guardian
New research "for the first time proves" toxic PFAS forever chemicals are absorbed through human skin, and at levels much higher than previously thought. Though modeling and research has suggested the dangerous chemicals are absorbed through skin, University of Birmingham researchers say they used lab-grown tissue that mimics human skin to determine how much of a dose of PFAS compounds can be absorbed. The paper shows "uptake through the skin could be a significant source of exposure to these harmful chemicals", said lead author Oddny Ragnarsdoettir.
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| Regions | | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | Chinese Mutual Funds Ask Bond Brokers to Lower Trading Fees
Jackie Cai - Bloomberg
Some of China's biggest mutual funds are asking bond brokers to lower their trading fees, according to people familiar with the matter. The funds used to pass those fees to investors, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the matter is private, but a rule from the China Securities Regulatory Commission taking effect in July has put a stop to the practice.
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UK start-ups turn to Silicon Valley to fill void left by risk-averse pension funds; Bolder reform of retirement funds is a contentious part of attempts to reboot Britain's capital markets
Harriet Agnew and Michael O'Dwyer - Financial Times
Matthew Scullion is crystal clear that the turning point for the UK software company he founded was when it won the backing of two US venture capital firms. In 2018, Scale Venture Partners and Sapphire Venture led a funding round in Matillion, then a seven-year-old start-up headquartered in Manchester. UK investors contributed a small amount, but Scullion credits the injection of Silicon Valley cash and knowhow for helping propel Matillion into a select club: one of the UK's unicorns, or private companies worth at least $1bn.
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Shen Wenrong, Who Rose From Repairman to Steel Magnate, Dies at 78; The former repairman built an empire from a single steel mill; Billionaire rode the wave of China's fast-paced urbanization
Alfred Cang - Bloomberg
Shen Wenrong, a steel magnate who went from machine repairman to owner of one of China's largest private companies, has died. He was 78. He died on Sunday after an unspecified illness, according to a notice posted on the company's website. Board chairman of Jiangsu Shagang Group Co., Shen was a rare entrepreneurial success story in China's steel industry, largely dominated by state-owned behemoths. His fortune tracked the economy's own, surging as urbanization took hold and the country went through the most remarkable growth spurt in history.
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China AI Startups Head to Singapore in Bid for Global Growth; AI founders lured by access to foreign capital, technologies; Young AI companies finding it hard to go global from China
Jane Zhang and Saritha Rai - Bloomberg
When Wu Cunsong and Chen Binghui founded their artificial intelligence startup two years ago in Hangzhou, China, they quickly ran into obstacles, including dearth of venture capital. This March, they did what scores of other Chinese AI firms have done and moved their company, Tabcut, 2,500 miles southwest to Singapore. The business-friendly country offers Wu and Chen better access to global investors and customers at a time when elevated geopolitical tensions keep many US and international firms away from China. Equally crucial for an AI startup, they can buy Nvidia Corp.'s latest chips and other cutting-edge technologies in the politically neutral island nation, something that would have been impossible in China because of US export controls.
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Hedge-Fund Whales Rocking Latin America Are Exposed in Mexico
VinÃcius Andrade and Michael O'Boyle - Bloomberg
Early in the morning of June 7, interest-rate futures spiked wildly in Mexico. All week long, they had held steady even as the peso plunged in the wake of the ruling leftist party's landslide election victory. But now, the selloff was suddenly spilling into the rates market. As yields soared throughout that day - over a quarter percentage point on some contracts - word spread quickly across trading desks in Mexico City: "It's the Brazilians."
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Philippines courts investors for 'China-free' nickel supply chain; Manila pitches itself as alternative for western countries seeking to diversify sources of EV battery material
A. Anantha Lakshmi - Financial Times
The Philippines is scouting for western investment to further develop its nickel reserves, pitching itself as an alternative to the China-dominated supply chain for the critical battery metal. The country, which is the world's second-largest producer of nickel, is seeking a critical minerals agreement with the US and investment from foreign companies to build more refining plants, as it taps into rising concerns over China's control of the electric vehicle ecosystem.
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Tanzania to Sell 650,000 Tons of Corn to Drought-Hit Zambia
Fumbuka Ng'Wanakilala - Bloomberg
Tanzania will sell 650,000 tons of corn to Zambia after El Niño brought a severe dry spell in the neighboring country. The state-run National Food Reserve Agency signed an agreement in Dar es Salaam with its Zambian counterpart Saturday. "NFRA will sell the maize to Zambia within the next eight months," Tanzania's Agriculture Minister Hussein Bashe told reporters. Bashe said the East African nation plans to export 1 million tons of corn this year to neighbors facing shortages of the staple food. Tanzania has produced 8.1 million tons of corn this season, against a national demand of less than 6 million tons, according to its Agriculture Ministry.
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| Miscellaneous | | Stories that don't quite fit under the other sections | The Fried Chicken Sandwich Wars Are More Cutthroat Than Ever Before; Here's why everyone from fast-casual chains to chefs at Michelin-starred restaurants are trying to one-up each other.
Deena Shanker - Bloomberg
Something curious recently happened at my go-to office lunch spot. Dig, the fast-casual restaurant where I buy freshly assembled bowls of greens, roasted broccoli, and crispy tofu-seared salmon if I'm feeling fancy-added an unexpected menu item: a crispy chicken sandwich. For a chain that offers endless combos of mostly anything as long as it can fit in the confines of a bowl, a bulging fried chicken sandwich smothered in a special sauce was an "interesting direction," concedes Tracy Kim, Dig's chief executive officer. It works well for high school kids, she says. More important, the chain, which has nearly three dozen locations in the Northeast, was responding to what customers wanted. "We got a lot of requests, especially through catering, for a handheld offering," Kim says.
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