| February 14, 2025 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | | | John Lothian
Publisher
John Lothian News | |
|
| | | | First Read | | |
| | 2025 Newsletter Subscriptions: | |
Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff
The latest Financial Times commentary by Mohamed El-Erian warns that policy volatility under Trump could undermine U.S. economic exceptionalism and stall corporate investment. While businesses initially welcomed deregulation and tax cuts, the rapid-fire pace of tariffs, immigration policies, and regulatory shifts is now causing hesitation.
Companies face rising uncertainty on costs, supply chains, and labor markets, making long-term planning risky. The broader economic picture is also fragile, with Europe teetering on recession and China slow to act on policy reform. Meanwhile, global regulatory harmonization is unraveling, adding complexity for multinational firms.
El-Erian cautions that without greater policy clarity, businesses may cut spending and investment, dragging U.S. growth down to weaker global levels instead of leading the world economy. Business thrives on stability, not chaos, and without it, America risks squandering its economic advantage.
The Wall Street Journal has a story today titled "Why Your Valentine's Chocolate Is Getting More Expensive" with the subheadline "Cocoa futures have climbed more than 80% since this time last year." Chocolate lovers are facing sticker shock this Valentine's Day as cocoa prices have soared, with futures up 86% from last year, reaching $10,538 per metric ton. The price surge stems from bad weather, plant diseases, and aging cacao trees in West Africa, which dominates global production. New EU deforestation laws and low grower returns have further restricted supply, leaving the industry in its fourth straight year of shortages. Big chocolate brands like Hershey and Mondelez are absorbing some costs, but smaller chocolatiers are raising prices. Roni-Sue's Chocolates in NYC made its first price hike in years, with owner Rhonda Kave noting that customers still crave high-quality treats. While some analysts suggest shifting production beyond West Africa, cacao trees take years to mature, making quick fixes impossible. Until supply recovers, prices will likely remain high-forcing some consumers to opt for fewer chocolates or splurge on roses instead.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been controversial since it was created as part of the Dodd-Frank legislation. However, it has made an impact for consumers, those controversial for the banks and other parties. The Wall Street Journal has a story today talking about its impact titled "A Consumer Financial Watchdog's Fate Is Unclear. Here's What's at Stake" with the subheadline "An $8 cap on credit-card late fees and proposed rule on selling customer data are among protections in doubt." The CFPB has effectively paused operations, leaving key consumer protections uncertain. Under President Trump, the agency's Washington headquarters was shut, and staff were ordered to halt enforcement and supervisory work. Among the rules at stake are an $8 cap on credit-card late fees, a $5 cap on overdraft fees, and a ban on medical debt reporting, all of which face legal challenges from the banking industry. A proposed consumer data privacy rule requiring companies to obtain explicit consent before selling customer information is unlikely to move forward, while a recent rule regulating payment apps like Apple Pay and Venmo remains in effect but could be weakened. Additionally, lawsuits against banks, including one alleging Capital One misled customers on savings rates, are now on hold. The fate of these protections hinges on Trump's nominee for CFPB leadership and ongoing court battles, leaving consumers in regulatory uncertainty.
The Onion News Network took aim at the tech investor Peter Thiel, IPOs and the New York Stock Exchange in a satirical video posted a couple of days ago titled "GigSlave Goes Public With $84 Billion Valuation." The story says that "The popular slave-hailing app made its Wall Street debut today with a highly anticipated IPO that could grow the slave sharing company's value by more than 80%." Another funny aspect of the video was when the host of ONN threw the story over to a reporter on the floor of the NYSE named "Bob Pasetti." Did the Onion just prank CNBC's Bob Pisani too? He should play that for all it is worth to help him sell a few more copies of his book "Shut Up and Keep Talking: Lessons on Life and Investing from the Floor of the New York Stock Exchange."
Here are the headlines from in front of FOW's paywall from some recent stories: FOW International Awards Winners 2025 Announced, ASX preps derivatives technology launches as futures drive revenue, European optimism remains fragile due to potential risks in 2025 - ESMA, ANALYSIS: Societe Generale dissects Europe's active account requirement, Euronext to launch first fixed income futures in September and ANALYSIS: Risk-free rates to play key role in European futures - FOW panel.
Our interview schedule for FIA Boca50 is starting to take shape. Let me know if you or your firm wants to participate in the JLN Industry Leader video series, sponsored by OCC.
Have a great day and stay safe and treat people the same way you want to be treated: with respect, equality and justice.~JJL
*****
Our most read stories from our previous edition of JLN Options were:
- 3x ETFs and zero-day options: Is the asset management industry becoming more predatory? from Business Insider.
- The Secretive Hedge Fund Rewriting the Rules of $4.5 Trillion Industry from Bloomberg.
- Record Stock 'Fragility' Sends Warning to Broader Market from Bloomberg. ~JB
Subscribe to the JLN Options Newsletter HERE (it's free).
++++
OCC's Andrej Bolkovic Discusses Zero-Dated Options, Industry Growth, and Clearing Innovations at FIA Expo
JohnLothianNews.com
The rise of zero-day options and the evolving landscape of clearing were key themes in an interview with Andrej Bolkovic, CEO of The Options Clearing Corporation (OCC), at FIA Expo in November. Bolkovic addressed risk management, industry growth, and OCC's clearing system modernization efforts, providing insights into the shifting derivatives landscape.
Watch the video »
++++
ICE's Paul Hamill on Treasury Clearing Mandate, Market Liquidity, and Technology at FIA Expo
JohnLothianNews.com
Paul Hamill, chief commercial officer ICE Clear Credit at ICE Clear Credit, discussed the Treasury clearing mandate, liquidity improvements, and ICE's clearing model in an interview at FIA Expo in November. Hamill emphasized ICE's commitment to enhancing market structure and risk management, drawing from innovations in the swaps and futures markets.
Watch the video »
++++
CNBC's Bob Pisani Reflects on Investing Mistakes, Market Biases in JLN Interview
JohnLothianNews.com
CNBC's Bob Pisani candidly shared his biggest investing mistake and the impact of behavioral biases in a part three of a recent interview with John Lothian News. Reflecting on his overconfidence in General Electric (GE) under Jack Welch, Pisani admitted to putting 50% of his 401(k) into GE stock by 1999, despite knowing the risks.
Watch the video »
Bob Pisani - CNBC
Watch Video »
Bob Pisani - CNBC
Watch Video »
++++
Reddit Chat Rooms Poised to Help Drive Hedge Fund, Investor Bets
Katherine Doherty - Bloomberg
Amateur investors who banded together on Reddit during the meme-stock saga are poised to help hedge funds and asset managers place their market bets. That's because of an agreement between Intercontinental Exchange Inc. and Reddit Inc. to develop new data products for the financial industry that leverage the swathes of daily posts, comments and videos on the social-media firm's forums. Just like any other data point, Reddit's content will be analyzed to help detect trends impacting capital markets, Chris Edmonds, president of fixed income and data services at ICE, said in an interview. These could inform trading strategies, algorithms and gauge public sentiment of markets in real time.
/jlne.ws/3QkP53I
*****This was a highly strategic move by ICE, as Reddit has become the leading community for market and company discussions. Meanwhile, another once-useful data source, Twitter/X, has declined in value since Musk's acquisition.~JJL
++++
Penny Hunters Eye Profit From Trump Coin Attack With Melting Bet; Copper content fuels investor interest in older one-cent coins; President's call to halt production awakens new speculation
Joe Lovinger - Bloomberg
Adam Youngs is looking to make a lot from truckloads of the little red cent. His company, Portland Mint, sells old pennies in bulk - 40,000 pounds (18,100 kilograms) at a time - to investors angling to profit on the copper that makes up 95% of the coins minted before 1983. A cache of one-cent pieces from Portland Mint with a face value of roughly $60,000 sells for about $120,000. The wager is that those older pennies contain copper that would be worth about $180,000 at current prices. One snag: It's illegal to melt a mass of Lincoln cents to harvest the metal. But penny hoarders gained fresh hope that their bets will one day pay off when President Donald Trump said this week that he ordered the Treasury secretary to stop minting the coins.
/jlne.ws/411M4dc
*****The Trump penny purge has sparked a speculative frenzy, with investors hoarding pre-1983 copper pennies in hopes of cashing in if the melting ban is lifted. Companies like Portland Mint are selling bulk loads of these coins at double their face value, betting on future profits. However, melting remains illegal, and experts doubt whether the logistics and costs make financial sense. Despite skepticism, demand for copper-rich pennies is surging, driven by nostalgia, metal prices, and the allure of a potential penny gold rush - even if, for now, it's just a pile of spare change.~JJL
++++
Think you're too smart to be caught by scammers? Think again; From 'pig butchering' to 'CEO scams' - Nick Stapleton uncovers a new breed of stings aimed at the wealthy, many using AI
Claer Barrett - Financial Times
If you haven't fallen for a scam yet, it's not because you're too clever - it's because you're lucky, says Nick Stapleton. Eventually, the right scam will get you on the wrong day. The investigative journalist and presenter of the BBC television series Scam Interceptors is renowned for battling with scammers as he races to thwart real life online fraud attempts on the show, revealing increasingly sophisticated techniques - and tech - that cyber criminals have at their disposal. He can see, he adds, how artificial intelligence is taking scams to the next level.
/jlne.ws/3QirGzH
***** Doveryai, No Proveryai.~JJL
++++
They Were VIP Gamblers With Betting Problems. Now, They're Suing DraftKings.; Gamblers claim in recent lawsuits that the online betting company used VIP hosts to fuel spending while ignoring addiction
Katherine Sayre - The Wall Street Journal
A Pennsylvania psychiatrist who lost thousands of dollars playing online casino games while being showered with betting credits is suing DraftKings, alleging that its VIP program fueled her addiction and ignored signs of trouble. Kavita Fischer, who was profiled in a Wall Street Journal article and lost more than $400,000 in one year playing casino games on several betting apps, sued DraftKings Wednesday, claiming negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress. She alleges that DraftKings' VIP tactics led her to lose about $153,000 in four months in 2023.
/jlne.ws/3WXaTGk
****** Was there an event contract predicting this?~JJL
++++
Thursday's Top Three
Our top story Thursday was Bloomberg's The Secretive Hedge Fund Rewriting the Rules of $4.5 Trillion Industry. Second was CME Group Outlook for 2025 By: Terry Duffy, Chairman and CEO, CME Group Feb 2025, from CME Group. Third was 'Deregulation by Firings': Breaking Down the Cuts to Financial Oversight, from The New York Times.
++++
|
| | | | |
| Lead Stories | AI to transform wealth management, Microsoft executive says
Oliver Hirt - Reuters
Artificial intelligence will bring major upheaval to wealth management, a Microsoft executive said, as the technology's potential to process information vastly reduces the hurdles required to compete with established banks. AI's ability to condense financial data will allow just a few people to offer services that previously occupied entire teams in a bank, said Martin Moeller, head of AI & GenAI for financial services, EMEA, at Microsoft.
/jlne.ws/40VTVct
Hedge Fund Startup That Replaced Analysts With AI Beats the Market
Harry Brumpton and Georgina McKay - Bloomberg
A hedge fund startup that uses artificial intelligence to do work typically handled by analysts has outperformed the global stock market in its first six months while slashing research costs. The Sydney-based firm, Minotaur Capital, was founded by Armina Rosenberg and Thomas Rice. Rosenberg previously managed a global equities portfolio for tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes and ran Australian small-company research for JPMorgan Chase & Co. when she was 25. Rice is a former portfolio manager at Perpetual Ltd.
/jlne.ws/3Qf1S7L
Euronext CEO Sees Trump as Potential Boon for European Investment
Claudia Cohen - Bloomberg
Euronext NV Chief Executive Officer Stephane Boujnah said US President Donald Trump's return to the White House could present a boon for the pan-European bourse and regional companies, as Europe is "now perceived as a great investment opportunity." "The first weeks in office of Donald Trump show that we have entered a time of unilateral, disinhibited decisions," he said in an interview with Bloomberg News. "These decisions will affect global economies, but mainly the US one. There are more and more discussions among investors since the start of the year on European companies, whose valuations are significantly below US valuations."
/jlne.ws/4aYYKGp
JPMorgan's Dimon wants Washington to 'look at all the rules and regulations' affecting big banks
David Hollerith and Jennifer Schonberger - Yahoo Finance
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon made it clear during a visit to Washington, D.C., on Thursday that he is in favor of a restructuring of the financial regulatory agencies that oversee his bank and his industry. "I think it's time, in my view, to take a step back and look at all the rules and regulations put in place," he told reporters after a closed-door meeting with Republican lawmakers and other top bank CEOs on the issue of whether big lenders are "debanking" certain customers. "You have got to take a step back and look at the whole thing."
/jlne.ws/4hYzeU1
Euronext chief calls Donald Trump's economic barrage a 'wake-up call' to Europe; Head of Paris-based stock exchange says shock of new US administration is forcing competitiveness gap to be tackled
Nikou Asgari - Financial Times
US President Donald Trump's barrage of economic policies is a "real, genuine fundamental wake-up call" that is forcing Europe to address its competitiveness problem, according to the chief executive of the region's biggest stock exchange operator. Stéphane Boujnah, head of Paris-based Euronext, said recent reports from Mario Draghi and Enrico Letta on competitiveness and the future of the single market, "combined with the shock created by the initial decisions announced by the Trump administration", had led European policymakers to address "the structural weaknesses in Europe".
/jlne.ws/4gBT5aJ
Dimon, Moynihan Among CEOs in Talks With Senate GOP on Debanking
Steven T. Dennis and Alicia Diaz - Bloomberg
Senate Banking Chairman Tim Scott is leading a roundtable Thursday with committee Republicans and bank executives on debanking, underscoring the increased focus on the issue in Washington. President Donald Trump has taken up the cause of perceived political debanking, accusing some big banks of not doing business with conservatives. The issue was also the topic of a Senate Banking Committee hearing last week.
/jlne.ws/3X2xDo6
Macro Hedge Fund With 76% Gain Says Market Is Mispricing US Rates; Magnitude of 2026 rate cuts underpriced, Kaifeng's Gao says
Bei Hu - Bloomberg
The market is underpricing the potential magnitude of US interest-rate cuts in 2026, said the co-manager of a macro hedge fund that gained 76% last year. Next year, President Donald Trump is expected to nominate a more dovish Federal Reserve chair, just as the economy softens on the back of a widening trade war, said Gao Bin of Kaifeng Investment Management, which oversees about $1.3 billion. Rate prospects this year are clouded by uncertainty about how much Trump would follow through on his tariff threats and the resulting inflation picture.
/jlne.ws/4hwNXWu
SEC Delays Short-Selling Disclosure Regime
Anna Lyudvig - Traders Magazine
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has delayed its first-ever short-selling disclosure regime by one year, pushing Rule 13f-2's initial reporting deadline to February 2026. As a result of the exemption, filings on initial Form SHO reports from institutional investment managers that meet or exceed certain specified thresholds will be due by February 17, 2026, for the January 2026 reporting period. The effective date for Rule 13f-2 and Form SHO was January 2, 2024, and the compliance date for such rule and form was January 2, 2025, with initial Form SHO filings originally due by February 14, 2025.
/jlne.ws/40Ucuh3
JPMorgan claims a millennial founder tricked them into buying her student loan startup. Now Charlie Javice is getting her day in court
Luisa Beltran - Fortune
Charlie Javice is finally getting her day in court. On February 18, the millennial founder will try to rebut criminal allegations that she lied to JPMorgan Chase as part of a ploy to get the nation's biggest bank to buy her startup for $175 million. The criminal trial, which will take place in lower Manhattan, caps a stunning fall from grace for Javice. In 2021, she was riding high as a media darling who sold her startup, Frank, to JPMorgan Chase after touting it as the "fastest growing college financial planning site." (You can read Fortune's full story of Javice and JPM here.) In a press release announcing the acquisition, the bank said Frank served five million students at more than 6,000 colleges across the country.
/jlne.ws/41h5FI1
US looking at currency manipulation in tariff row, Treasury chief says
Reuters
The Trump administration is looking beyond tariffs and non-tariff barriers to examine currency manipulation as it studies the issue ahead of an April deadline, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Friday. "We're also looking at currency manipulation," Bessent said in an interview on Fox Business Network. "The U.S. has a strong dollar policy, but because we have a strong dollar policy, it doesn't mean that other countries get to have a weak currency policy."
/jlne.ws/3EAQiB3
No One Agrees on the Best Way to Deal With White-Collar Criminals; Decades after Enron's fall, the author of The Smartest Guys in the Room reconsiders sentences handed out to the company's executives.
Bethany McLean - Bloomberg
Enron was a stock market darling back in 2001 when Bethany McLean wrote a skeptical article about the company's financial statements. Soon after, Enron was in a death spiral, its name a byword for corporate malfeasance. The book McLean co-authored about Enron's demise, The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron (Portfolio Trade, 2003), chronicled the nefarious activities of the company's executives, several of whom ended up facing jail sentences. In this Next Chapter, decades after the scandal, McLean asks whether the punishments truly fit the Enron crimes. On Dec. 2, 2001, the energy firm Enron declared bankruptcy. The pursuit of justice was aggressive. Enron's accounting firm, Arthur Andersen, was charged with obstruction of justice and put out of business. Criminal charges were also brought against dozens of individuals. Both of Enron's former CEOs, Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling, were sentenced to jail, Skilling for 24 years. "As the many victims have testified, his crimes have imposed on hundreds if not thousands a life sentence of poverty," said Judge Sim Lake, who presided over the trial, when explaining the lengthy sentence.
/jlne.ws/4hS2lJj
EU to switch to single-day settlement of stock and bond trades in 2027; Move aligns bloc with similar shift in UK and Switzerland as commission seeks to revitalise capital markets
Paola Tamma in Brussels and Nikou Asgari - Financial Times
The EU will cut the time it takes to settle stock, bond and fund trades from two days to one from October 2027, the European Commission confirmed on Wednesday, in a move designed to boost liquidity in the bloc's capital markets. "A shorter settlement cycle would enhance the attractiveness of EU markets," the commission wrote. It comes as the EU is seeking to re-energise its markets by encouraging more domestic and international investment and boosting liquidity.
/jlne.ws/4hFLbyq
The mounting risks to US exceptionalism; Trump's fire hose of policy changes could make companies more cautious on spending and investment
Mohamed El-Erian - Financial Times
Imagine trying to make important business decisions in the US with long-term consequences amid the fire hose of news and policy changes coming out of Washington right now. Understandably some corporate leaders might be cautious. How much so is an uncertainty that comes on top of a global economic and financial outlook that is, already, far from normal. Many in the US business community were originally very enthusiastic about the new Trump administration but the current situation is starting to fuel worries that companies may take more of a wait-and-see attitude on investment and spending more generally.
/jlne.ws/40T2pB4
How the Trumps Turned an Election Victory Into a Cash Bonanza; First lady's documentary deal with Amazon, president's legal settlements and other transactions near $80 million so far; Trump library a major beneficiary
Rebecca Ballhaus, Dana Mattioli and Annie Linskey - The Wall Street Journal
When Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos dined with Donald Trump and his wife Melania at Mar-a-Lago in December, there was a lot at stake for both men: Bezos, a titan of industry whose company is crucial to the U.S. economy, was rebuilding his relationship with a resurgent and powerful soon-to-be president. A lot was at stake for Melania, too: She was looking for a buyer for a documentary about her transition back to first lady. Her agent had pitched the film, which she would executive produce, to a number of studios, including the one owned by Amazon. As the meeting approached, Melania consulted with director Brett Ratner on how to sell her idea to the world's third-richest man. Melania regaled Bezos and his fiancee, Lauren Sanchez, with the project's details at dinner. Just over two weeks later, Amazon, a company that prides itself on frugality and sharp negotiating, agreed to pay $40 million to license the film-the most Amazon had ever spent on a documentary and nearly three times the next-closest offer.
/jlne.ws/3X2FJ0a
Crypto Boom Fuels Sales and Profit Boost for Coinbase
Vicky Ge Huang - The Wall Street Journal
Coinbase Global reported a surge in revenue and profit, benefiting from a post-election rally fueled by investor optimism about a crypto golden age under the Trump administration. The biggest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange earned $1.3 billion last quarter, nearly fivefold what it made a year earlier. Net revenue more than doubled to $2.2 billion. Both figures were considerably ahead of consensus estimates, a FactSet analyst poll showed.
/jlne.ws/3CN1nyD
|
| | | |
|
| Ukraine Invasion | | News about the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and its military, economic, political and humanitarian impact | Vance Wields Threat of Sanctions, Military Action to Push Putin Into Ukraine Deal; In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, the vice president says Ukraine must have 'sovereign independence'
Bojan Pancevski and Alexander Ward - The Wall Street Journal
Vice President JD Vance said Thursday that the U.S. would hit Moscow with sanctions and potentially military action if Russian President Vladimir Putin won't agree to a peace deal with Ukraine that guarantees Kyiv's long-term independence. Vance said the option of sending U.S. troops to Ukraine if Moscow failed to negotiate in good faith remained "on the table," striking a far tougher tone than did Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who on Wednesday suggested the U.S. wouldn't commit forces. Vance said the U.S. could pursue a range of measures, giving President Trump ample negotiating flexibility with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
/jlne.ws/4jReLlQ
Ukraine says it will not accept US-Russia peace deal reached without Kyiv
Reuters
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday Ukraine would not accept any bilateral agreement on its fate reached by Moscow and Washington without Kyiv's involvement, and called for Europe to have a seat at the table in negotiations to end the war. The Ukrainian leader made the comments at a nuclear plant on his way to the Munich Security Conference, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump spoke to Russian leader Vladimir Putin Zelenskiy and announced the start of negotiations.
/jlne.ws/4hYtnOx
Peace Through Weakness in Ukraine? Against Putin unlike everywhere else, Trump makes concessions first.
The Editorial Board - The Wall Street Journal
President Trump has begun his promised effort to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine, and the initial signs are discouraging. He's making concessions to Vladimir Putin without anything in return, and he's informing Ukraine after the fact. Does Mr. Trump want to negotiate peace with honor that will last, or peace through weakness that will reward the Kremlin? Let's stipulate that Joe Biden left Mr. Trump a bloody mess. Early in the war the Ukrainians fought the Russians back from Kyiv, Kharkiv and Kherson and later drove Mr. Putin's Black Sea fleet into retreat. But further counteroffensives were crippled by the U.S. failure to provide adequate or timely arms. The Biden policy boiled down to giving Kyiv just enough weapons not to lose in a rout but not enough to win. And never properly explaining to Americans the stakes or a strategy.
/jlne.ws/3COhZpG
Russian Drone Sets Fire to Chernobyl's Containment Shield; Radiation levels remain normal at the site of the 1986 nuclear meltdown, according to the IAEA
Ian Lovett - The Wall Street Journal
A Russian drone struck the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant early Friday, setting fire to the shelter that contains radiation from the site of the largest nuclear disaster in history, according to Ukrainian officials. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the fire had been extinguished and no increase in radiation levels had been recorded. Speaking to reporters at the opening day of the Munich Security Conference, Zelensky said the drone flew at about 280 feet, below radar level.
/jlne.ws/3QkOwGQ
|
| | | |
|
| Middle East Conflict | | News about the current conflict in the Middle East that began with the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. | Trump Wants the U.S. to Control Gaza. So, Who Owns It Anyway?; Figuring out the enclave's ownership is possibly one of the world's hardest territorial questions
Rory Jones - The Wall Street Journal
President Trump wants the U.S. to control the Gaza Strip, but it isn't even clear who owns it. Determining that might be among the most complicated territorial questions on Earth. The Palestinian enclave has an almost unique status, as well as a long history of changing hands, making figuring out who ultimately owns the tiny territory a matter of unpacking overlapping land laws laid down over centuries.
/jlne.ws/3EyfurW
|
| | | |
|
| Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | MIAX Named Best Trading Platform, Receives Technology Innovation Award at Fund Intelligence Operations and Services Awards 2025
MIAX
Miami International Holdings, Inc. (MIH), a technology-driven leader in building and operating regulated financial markets across multiple asset classes, today announced that MIAX was named "Best Trading Platform" for the third consecutive year and the recipient of the "Technology Innovation Award" at the Fund Intelligence Operations and Services Awards 2025.
/jlne.ws/4k03Rug
Euronext publishes Q4 and full year 2024 results
Euronext
Euronext delivered double-digit revenue growth in 2024 thanks to its diversified revenue profile and confirms the achievement of its 2024 targets. Euronext reached record adjusted EPS in 2024 through cost discipline and strategic capital allocation. 2025 will be a year of investment for innovation and growth.
/jlne.ws/412kVqP
ASX Limited - 2025 Half-Year Results Market Release
ASX
Attached is a copy of the market release relating to the 2025 Half-Year Financial Results.
/jlne.ws/4gG7JgX
Performance Bond Requirements: Agriculture, Energy, Interest Rate and Metal Margins - Effective February 14, 2025
CME Clearing
As per the normal review of market volatility to ensure adequate collateral coverage, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc., Clearing House Risk Management staff approved the performance bond requirements for the following products listed in the advisory at the link below. The rates will be effective after the close of business on February 14, 2025.
/jlne.ws/41fUGhQ
Performance Bond Requirements - Interest Rate, Metal Margin - Effective February 14, 2025
CME Group
As per the normal review of market volatility to ensure adequate collateral coverage, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc., Clearing House Risk Management staff approved the performance bond requirements for the following products listed in the advisory at the link below. The rates will be effective after the close of business on February 14, 2025
/jlne.ws/42P4kt4
DAX derivatives: global exposure and anticipated volatility during the German elections
Eurex
As the German parliamentary elections on 23 February 2025 draw near, global investors are eyeing potential prospects. One of such possibility lies in DAX derivatives, which could be an efficient risk management tool for navigating the election cycle. The DAX index, now consisting of 40 major German companies, is not just a barometer of the German economy but also a reflection of global economic trends. With roughly 20 percent of DAX companies' sales generated within Germany, the index is significantly influenced by international markets. This global exposure makes DAX derivatives a compelling choice for traders looking to capitalize on both domestic and international political events.
/jlne.ws/3X130Q8
Micro futures, broader trading possibilities; Q&A: Navigating market volatility: Trade German benchmark with Micro and Mini-DAX Futures
Eurex
The futures on the German index (DAX) are highly liquid, boasting an average daily volume of EUR 24.58 billion in 2024, making them a popular choice among traders. The introduction of Micro and Mini-DAX futures broadened the appeal of DAX futures to a wider range of market participants due to their smaller contract sizes. This development has been particularly beneficial for clients of Madrid-based fintech broker iBroker. In this article, Enrique Marti, CEO of iBroker, and Vincenzo Zinna, Equity & Index Sales EMEA at Eurex, explain how these products - and others in the pipeline - enable investors to trade on the strength of one of Europe's economic fulcrums.
/jlne.ws/4gEFSOf
Notice on Changes to Index Constituents Data Product File Specifications
KRX
Korea Exchange (KRX) plans to adjust the specifications of index constituent data product files in accordance with the introduction of the KRX Mid-Price Order Type. As a result, the method of providing closing prices in certain files will be revised.
/jlne.ws/4aYIYLS
|
| | | |
|
| Fintech | | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | TT platform named Derivatives Trading System of the Year at FOW International Awards; Third consecutive win in category for Trading Technologies
Trading Technologies International
Trading Technologies International, Inc. (TT), a global capital markets technology platform services provider, has won the award for Derivatives Trading System of the Year for its TT platform at the FOW International Awards. The recognition, presented at a dinner ceremony in London last night, marked the firm's third consecutive win in the category at the awards.
/jlne.ws/3QhENRK
CloudMargin Wins Collateral Management Solution of the Year at FOW International Awards 2025
CloudMargin
CloudMargin, a leading global collateral management technology company, last night won the FOW International Award for Collateral Management Solution of the Year. The honour, presented in London at a ceremony following the FOW Trading London 2025 conference, marked the fifth win in the collateral management category for the company, which celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2024.
/jlne.ws/4b7GeMk
Firstrade's Overnight Trading to Launch in Q1
Anna Lyudvig - Traders Magazine
Firstrade, a commission-free online trading platform, has partnered with Blue Ocean Technologies to introduce overnight trading capabilities via Blue Ocean ATS. Stephen Callahan "We will uphold the same high standards for overnight trading as we do for traditional market hours," said Stephen Callahan, Trading Behavior Specialist at Firstrade. "Execution prices and order fills will be timely and accurate-nothing less for our clients," he told Traders Magazine.
/jlne.ws/40VW8Vb
Quantum Computing Is Closer Than Ever. Everybody's Too Busy to Pay Attention; A technology that feels like it's 'always five years away' may suddenly be two years away-but businesses are a little preoccupied
Isabelle Bousquette - The Wall Street Journal
PsiQuantum says it will have a commercially useful quantum computer available as soon as 2027. But whether businesses are ready to take advantage of that accelerated timeline is another story, according to a poll of tech executives at a Wall Street Journal event here. The Palo Alto, Calif., startup is working to build quantum computers in Australia as well as Chicago, where it will be the anchor tenant of the planned Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park. And it is doing so by tapping into existing infrastructure used to build more conventional computers to help speed development, said Pete Shadbolt, a company founder and its chief scientific officer.
/jlne.ws/4b2Fs2R
DeepSeek Doesn't Scare OpenAI, Thanks to the 'Jevons Paradox'; The economic theory, which traces to 1865, says that as a resource becomes more efficient to use, demand will increase. It came up a lot in A.I. circles last month.
Talmon Joseph Smith - The New York Times
Economic jargon is usually confined to textbooks and business school seminars. But every once in a while, something happens in the world that drives the lingo out of obscurity and into popular discussions. One such emergence happened late last month when, following a weekend of alarm over the viability of A.I. investments, Microsoft's chief executive, Satya Nadella, told followers in a post on X: "Jevons paradox strikes again! As A.I. gets more efficient and accessible, we will see its use skyrocket, turning it into a commodity we just can't get enough of."
/jlne.ws/41elgb0
How Stripe's billing experiment propelled a $500 million AI-fueled business
Allie Garfinkle - Fortune
In 2010, Patrick and John Collison were experimenting. The brothers were writing code and brainstorming product ideas before doubling down on payments in 2011-ultimately building a company now valued at $70 billion.
/jlne.ws/4hDcIjJ
Please Stop Inviting AI Notetakers to Meetings; Using artificial intelligence to summarize meetings raises questions around etiquette, privacy and the purpose of meeting in the first place.
Chris Stokel-Walker - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/3X3TawH
EU scales back tech rules to boost AI investment, says digital chief; Henna Virkkunen says efforts to cut red tape are not prompted by US pressure
Barbara Moens and Henry Foy - Financial Times
/jlne.ws/3X1yJQW
Arm to launch its own chip in move that could upend semiconductor industry; SoftBank-owned group secures Meta as one of its first customers for new initiative
Matthew Garrahan and Tim Bradshaw, David Keohane - Financial Times
/jlne.ws/4gEdV9f
|
| | | |
|
| Cybersecurity | | Top stories for cybersecurity | Phishing Tests, the Bane of Work Life, Are Getting Meaner; Researchers say the ruses, aimed at teaching gullible employees about the dangers lurking online, don't even work
Robert McMillan - The Wall Street Journal
It was a Sunday morning in August, about a month before the start of classes, when Alicia Riley got the email about an Ebola outbreak at the University of California, Santa Cruz. "Oh, my God!" thought Riley, a sociologist who studies infectious diseases. She texted a friend-a former epidemic intelligence officer-to see if they'd heard anything. Then she clicked on the link. That's when she learned that Ebola wasn't the problem; she was. The email was a phishing test. A ruse crafted by the university's information technology department to teach gullible workers about the dangers lurking in scam emails.
/jlne.ws/411y1V6
Norway to Build Data Cable to Arctic Islands to Boost Security
Ott Ummelas - Bloomberg
Norway plans to build a new undersea data connection with the Arctic archipelagos of Svalbard and Jan Mayen, partly to improve the national defenses of Russia's Nordic neighbor. The combined link to the two groups of islands would replace the existing fiber cable with Svalbard, which is nearing the end of its lifespan, while ensuring a more robust connection with Jan Mayen, instead of relying on communication by satellite, the government said in a statement on Friday. It's asking lawmakers to authorize the cable, at an estimated cost of 2.8 billion kroner ($250 million).
/jlne.ws/4gJkqYy
|
| | | |
|
| Cryptocurrencies | | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | How Hong Kong Can Seize the Mantle as Asia's Crypto Hub
Vivien Wong - CoinDesk
Which market offers the most favorable environment for virtual assets? This distinction remains highly contested, with various financial centers competing to become leading hubs for digital assets, aiming to attract innovation, investment and jobs. In Asia, two of the most prominent players in this space are Hong Kong and Singapore. Hong Kong's regulatory environment will be the lynchpin to its success. The right regime will not only provide guidelines to stakeholders but attract them in the first place. And though entrepreneurs and corporations are often the focus of such policy-making, regulators need to give as much attention to retail and institutional investors. After all, investors provide the financial backing that businesses need to succeed in what is typically a capital-intensive market.
/jlne.ws/4hZA1UG
Two Estonian Nationals Plead Guilty in $577M Cryptocurrency Fraud Scheme; Scheme Victimized Hundreds of Thousands of People in United States and Abroad
Office of Public Affairs, U.S. Dept. of Justice
Two Estonian nationals pleaded guilty yesterday for their operation of a massive, multi-faceted cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme that victimized hundreds of thousands of people from across the world, including in the United States. As part of the defendants' guilty pleas, they agreed to forfeit assets valued over $400 million obtained during the conspiracy. According to court documents, Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turõgin, both 40, sold contracts to customers entitling them to a share of cryptocurrency mined by the defendants' purported cryptocurrency mining service, HashFlare. Cryptocurrency mining is the process of using computers to generate cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin, for profit.
/jlne.ws/4hW5c3p
Coinbase rides crypto bull run to $1.3 billion in Q4 profit
Ben Weiss - Fortune
The U.S.'s most prominent crypto exchange reported a surge in revenue and trading volume to close out its second-best year on record. Coinbase almost doubled its net revenue to $2.2 billion in Q4 from the prior quarter, beating analysts' expectations of $1.8 billion.
/jlne.ws/42WQ9lJ
US Bitcoin Miners Disrupted by Chinese Supplier Under Scrutiny; Bitmain rakes in billions of dollars from mining machine sales; The Beijing-based company is also a leading AI chip developer
David Pan - Bloomberg
Crypto miners in the US are experiencing delays receiving deliveries of new equipment, threatening their competitiveness and profit margins, as the Chinese juggernaut that supplies the bulk of their machinery comes under scrutiny amid a trade war. Recent shipments of machines made by Beijing-based Bitmain Technologies Ltd. to US clients have been delayed due to heightened Customs and Border Protection scrutiny, according to half a dozen industry executives. The delays coincide with the US Commerce Department's blacklisting of Bitmain's artificial-intelligence affiliate Xiamen Sophgo Technologies Ltd. in January, when it accused the firm of "acting at the behest of Beijing to further the PRC's goals of indigenous advanced chip production."
/jlne.ws/3WTC6JF
Tether May Be Forced To Sell Bitcoin To Meet Proposed U.S. Stablecoin Rules, Says JPMorgan
Ayesha Aziz - CoinMarketCap
JPMorgan analysts have warned that Tether may need to sell off non-compliant assets, including Bitcoin, precious metals, corporate paper, and secured loans, to meet the requirements of proposed U.S. stablecoin regulations. The company currently holds about 83,758 Bitcoin, worth over $8 billion, which could be affected by these regulatory changes. Two bills have been introduced in the U.S. to regulate stablecoin issuers. The Stablecoin Transparency and Accountability for a Better Ledger Economy (STABLE) Act in the House and the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act in the Senate both propose licensing requirements, stricter risk management rules, and 1:1 reserve backing. JPMorgan's report indicates that only 66% of Tether's reserves would be compliant under the STABLE Act, while 83% would meet the requirements of the GENIUS Act. Analysts also pointed out that Tether's compliance ratio has dropped since mid-2024, coinciding with a surge in stablecoin supply.
/jlne.ws/42Q29FE
|
| | | |
|
| Politics | | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | Trump Will Force the Supreme Court to Face Its Biggest Fear; Throughout US history, the judiciary has worried that a president might simply ignore its decisions.
Greg Stohr - Bloomberg
The US Supreme Court was an untested institution in 1801 when businessman William Marbury filed a lawsuit there seeking to finalize his appointment as a justice of the peace in the District of Columbia. Marbury had been part of a tranche of "midnight judges" appointed by John Adams in the last hours of his presidency. But the outgoing administration missed a final step amid the frenzy, failing to deliver Marbury's signed commission to him. The lawsuit asked the Supreme Court to order the new secretary of state, James Madison, to perform what Marbury said was the routine and legally required step of delivering the document.
/jlne.ws/4gXrNMd
US relations with Europe will never be the same after Trump's call with Putin
Analysis by Stephen Collinson - CNN
The watershed highlights Trump's "America First" ideology and his tendency to see every issue or alliance as a dollars and cents value proposition. It also underscores his freedom from establishment advisors steeped in the foreign policy mythology of the West, who he thinks thwarted his first term. Although Hegseth recommitted to NATO, something fundamental has changed.
/jlne.ws/4hCwH1Y
Elon Musk Questions Congress Members' Wealth: 'Where Did They Get All The Money?'
Chris Katje - Benzinga
Billionaire Elon Musk targeted members of Congress who enjoy rising wealth amounts while in office, which comes as retail traders place larger emphasis on politicians' stock and options trading activity. What Happened: Members of Congress can buy and sell stocks, options and cryptocurrency as long as they disclose the transactions in a timely manner. This activity has drawn increased scrutiny in recent years as trades made by members of Congress often appear to be conflicts of interest based on non-public knowledge and can sometimes be stocks related to government-funded contracts.
/jlne.ws/41bGEhb
Trump's Funding Freezes Bruise a Core Constituency: Farmers; A rapid-fire array of directives by the Trump administration have left farmers and businesses in rural America reeling.
Linda Qiu and Julie Creswell - The New York Times
Skylar Holden, a cattle rancher in Missouri, had signed a $240,000 cost-sharing contract with the Agriculture Department to add fencing and improve the watering system for his property. But after the Trump administration abruptly froze federal funding, Mr. Holden said, he was suddenly out tens of thousands of dollars and on the hook for tens of thousands more in labor and material costs, and risked losing his farm. "Whenever my farm payment comes due, there's a good chance that I'm not going to be able to pay it," he said in an interview.
/jlne.ws/4k1Rkqi
Newman: Trump's biggest economic vulnerability has emerged
Rick Newman - Yahoo Finance
Three weeks into his second presidential term, Donald Trump is largely getting his way on Cabinet nominees, deregulation, deportation and Elon Musk's dismantling of the federal bureaucracy. His biggest priority, a huge set of tax cuts requiring Congressional legislation, is coming into focus. One thing, however, is not going according to plan: Interest rates. And it's already getting under Trump's skin. "Interest rates should be lowered," Trump posted on social media on February 12. "Something which should go hand in hand with tariffs." Markets don't see it that way-and unlike the many politicians Trump is steamrolling in Washington, markets can't be bullied. Stubbornly high interest rates, in fact, could end up the bane of Trump's second term.
/jlne.ws/4hFI0H0
Trump DOJ's order to drop Eric Adams case sparks mass resignations
Luc Cohen and Sarah N. Lynch - Reuters
Six senior Justice Department officials, including Manhattan's top federal prosecutor, resigned on Thursday rather than comply with an order to dismiss corruption charges against New York City's mayor, according to internal Justice Department letters seen by Reuters and people familiar with the matter. The departures mark a sign of resistance from career Justice Department officials to President Donald Trump's efforts to overhaul the agency to end what he calls its weaponization against political opponents. Critics say Trump's changes threaten to subject criminal prosecutions to political whims.
/jlne.ws/4gAQgXi
'The W.T.O. Is Toast.' What Happens to Global Trade Now.; President Trump, who disabled the World Trade Organization during his first term, is going after international free trade rules in place since the 1940s.
Keith Bradsher - The New York Times
/jlne.ws/41dj1oC
Trump threatens a 100% tariff on 'dead' BRICS group if they 'play games with the dollar'
Nicholas Gordon - Fortune
/jlne.ws/3ECNSC9
Senators Say Bessent Misled Them on DOGE's Treasury Access; Warren, Wyden, Reed demand a 'complete and public accounting'; DOGE tried to implement 'broad funding freeze,' senators say
Jamie Tarabay and Saleha Mohsin - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/42PdtSo
Trump's illegitimate power grab brings US closer to dictatorship
Robert Tait in Washington - The Guardian
/jlne.ws/41dAVrh
Doge tech bro, 25, handed control of US Treasury payments 'by mistake'; Marko Elez, one of Elon Musk's team of 'baby-faced assassins' overhauling the federal government, had access to a sensitive system handling $5 trillion a year
Will Pavia, New York - The Times of London
/jlne.ws/4hDdDkb
Germany says its warships were sabotaged as concerns mount that Russia is waging a hybrid war
Matthew Loh - Business Insider
/jlne.ws/3CFgA4R
Saudi Prince Steps In as Power Broker in Trump's New World Order; MBS is set to be likely host of Trump-Putin summit in Riyadh; Kingdom is critical to Arab response to US leader's Gaza plan
Sam Dagher, Fiona MacDonald, and Peter Martin - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/4gOZ1NK
|
| | | |
|
| Regulation & Enforcement | | Stories about regulation and the law. | Barclays Faces Probe From U.K. Regulator Over Money-Laundering Controls; The London-based bank said it is cooperating with the investigation
Richard Vanderford - The Wall Street Journal
Barclays faces an investigation from the U.K.'s financial watchdog over its anti-money-laundering and financial crimes controls, the London-based institution has disclosed. The Financial Conduct Authority, the U.K.'s main financial services regulator, is conducting a civil enforcement investigation into Barclays's controls, the bank said Thursday in its annual report. Barclays is cooperating with the investigation, it said. The FCA didn't respond to a request for comment.
/jlne.ws/4b1oGkQ
China explores relaxing rules to allow multi-asset ETFs; Regulator aims to achieve 'significant growth' in index-based investment
Roxanne Liu - Financial Times
China's securities regulator is exploring expanding index-based investing by allowing fund firms to launch multi-asset exchange traded funds and other innovative index products. The potential moves are part of China's efforts to boost longer-term stock holdings and revive its capital markets, which in January included telling fund firms to increase their A-share holdings by at least 10 per cent annually over the next three years.
/jlne.ws/3COuFgi
US Office Of The Comptroller Of The Currency Releases Dodd-Frank Act Stress Test Scenarios For 2025
Mondovisione
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) released economic and financial market scenarios for use in the upcoming stress tests for covered institutions. The supervisory scenarios include baseline and severely adverse scenarios. Covered institutions are required to use the scenarios to conduct stress tests. The results of the company-run stress tests provide the OCC with forward-looking information used in bank supervision and assist the agency in assessing a covered institution's risk profile and capital adequacy. Section 165(i)(2) of the Dodd-Frank Act, as amended by the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, requires certain financial companies, including certain national banks and federal savings associations, to conduct periodic stress tests.
/jlne.ws/4k2TLJ9
SEC Obtains Final Judgment Against Massachusetts Man Found Liable in Multi-Year Insider Trading Scheme
SEC
On January 30, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts entered a final judgment against defendant Charlie Jinan Chen after jurors returned a verdict in February 2020 finding that Chen engaged in illegal insider trading in advance of five earnings announcements of Massachusetts-based company Vistaprint N.V.
/jlne.ws/3Qk3I78
FSA Weekly Review No.623; What's New on the FSA Website
FSA
/jlne.ws/3QDYNyl
SFC convenes inaugural Virtual Asset Consultative Panel meeting
SFC
The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) today convened the inaugural meeting of the Virtual Asset Consultative Panel (VACP) for licensed virtual asset trading platforms (VATP). The VACP, which is chaired by the SFC's Executive Director of Intermediaries Dr Eric Yip and comprises all licensed VATPs represented by members of their senior management, will provide invaluable contribution to the SFC's formulation of regulatory policy to further facilitate the development of a sustainable and resilient virtual asset ecosystem. Through collaboration with its members, the VACP will identify the policy priorities, paving way for market and regulatory developments backed by investor safeguards.
/jlne.ws/41qrxkl
|
| | | |
|
| Investing & Trading | | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | Goldbug FOMO Is Setting Up the Market for a Fall; The yellow metal's rise defies economic gravity - and reason.
Marcus Ashworth - Bloomberg Opinion
Markets always look their very best at the top - that's increasingly the case with gold as it nears $3,000 a troy ounce. It's behaving like a Veblen good, an item for which, contrary to the laws of economics, demand increases with price. Can the momentum be sustained? One key sign of froth is plausible-sounding pet theories for extra cavalry coming over the hill. A couple of beauties are doing the rounds presently. First, there's speculation that the Trump administration will revalue its gold deposits, now booked at $42 per ounce, up to the current spot price. This magically would add around $800 billion to the asset side of the US balance sheet. The net effect is that less debt would need to be sold, which is a positive for Treasury bonds and the dollar, but the logic for this being a boost for gold escapes me.
/jlne.ws/3CPTt7z
Degree of influence 2024: volatility and credit risk keep quants alert; Quantum-based models and machine learning also contributed to Cutting Edge's output
Naomi Cardona Castellanos - Risk.net
Volatility modelling is a topic that continues to fascinate and frustrate quantitative finance experts, as Risk.net's Cutting Edge section demonstrated in 2024. Among the 22 papers published last year, volatility modelling was a recurring theme. Julien Guyon, professor of finance at France's Ecole nationale des ponts, established an arbitrage-free continuous-time model, which maintains accurate smile calibrations for pricing and hedging exotic options.
/jlne.ws/4b2wYJ3
'More questions than answers' in race to build repo plumbing; Complexity could slow the development of necessary matching and credit-checking tools for US Treasury trades
Paulina Pielichata - Risk.net
The Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) mandate to clear US Treasury trading aims to bring greater stability to the market. However, for the repo trading platforms that must build key parts of the apparatus to make clearing happen, the mandate has led to anything but. As these execution venues work through the practical steps necessary to make clearing work, a key area - the administration of trade matching and credit checks on so-called done-away repo trades - stands out as especially
/jlne.ws/41duKn5
Autocall curbs hit long-dated Nikkei and HSCEI options; Collapsing Asia structured products inventory saps market-makers of long-dated vol supply
Chris Davis - Risk.net
Long-dated options on popular Asia stock indexes are becoming a rare sight on exotics desks lately. The reason, dealers say, is that Mrs Watanabe is no longer supplying volatility. Regulatory clampdowns on the sale of retail structured products in Japan and South Korea have seen autocallable bond issuance on once-popular underlyings including the Nikkei 225 and China's HSCEI come to a near standstill, choking off the supply of longer-dated volatility on these indexes.
/jlne.ws/4b1Sn5k
Opinion: The stock market is ignoring what could be its No. 1 threat; How 'tail risk' - uncertainty over inflation, tariffs, political chaos and other unknowns - could trigger a chaotic market downturn
Cam Hui - MarketWatch
Stock prices have held up remarkably well in the face of worries about DeepSeek, tariffs, geopolitics and other economic developments. But U.S. stock-market investors seem to be ignoring tail risk, and that is an increasingly disturbing development. Wednesday's hot CPI report is an example. Core CPI came in higher than expected, dampening any expectations for the U.S. Federal Reserve to cut interest rates in the near future. But both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 fell only slightly, while the Nasdaq Composite was basically flat.
/jlne.ws/4hYYIAQ
Cocoa stockpiles plunge to record low; Chocolate makers grab available reserves to counter acute global shortage
Susannah Savage - Financial Times
Stocks of cocoa in London and New York have plunged to all-time lows in the latest sign of a shortage that has forced chocolate makers desperate to meet Valentine's Day demand to seek alternative ingredients. Traders and chocolate manufacturers have withdrawn most of the lower-quality surpluses at the world's largest commodity exchanges as the market struggles to cope with years of poor global harvests.
/jlne.ws/42Vibhi
|
| | | |
|
| Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance | | Stories about environmental, social and governance investing | 'Sustainable' Investors Flee References to Climate Change
Saijel Kishan - Bloomberg
For more than a decade, money manager Garvin Jabusch would show a chart of the planet's rising temperatures when pitching investment ideas to clients, saying they could help save the planet and still make money. These days, he no longer uses the chart and avoids talking about climate change. "I've given up on anyone ever caring about that," said Jabusch, investment chief of Green Alpha Investments, which manages about $300 million. He isn't the only climate-focused investor downplaying references to global warming and related topics. Parnassus Investments, the biggest US sustainable-investing firm, has removed references on its website that its funds are "fossil-fuel free."
/jlne.ws/3EAQu3f
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon wants to cancel some DEI spending after the bank spent billions on racial equity: 'I was never a firm believer in bias training'
Amanda Gerut - Fortune
JPMorgan Chase chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon isn't all that sold on unconscious bias training and he might just be on his way to canceling it, according to comments reported by Bloomberg from a town hall in Ohio this week. Dimon reportedly told employees in the discussion that the bank has probably spent excessively on some DEI-related programs. "I was never a firm believer in bias training," Dimon said, according to a recording heard by the news outlet.
/jlne.ws/3X159LG
Cheap solar power is sending electrical grids into a death spiral; Pakistan and South Africa provide a warning for other countries
The Economist
In 1812 Frederick Winsor, a madcap entrepreneur, invented the public utility. The idea behind his Gas Light and Coke company, which would supply residents of London, was that instead of each household buying its own energy-bags of coal, bits of firewood-the stuff would be piped directly to them from a central location. More customers, with differing patterns of demand, would allow power plants to be used more efficiently. It was a natural monopoly: scale would spread the cost of the gasworks, the pipes and so on across large numbers of customers, each spending less than they would individually to consume just as much. The idea of "energy as a service" spread across the world.
/jlne.ws/3Qh6iL4
Giant gas field discovery could power Britain for a decade
Jonathan Leake - The Telegraph
A giant gas field has been discovered under Lincolnshire that could fuel the UK's entire needs for a decade, reducing dependence on imports and generating tens of thousands of jobs, an energy company has claimed. Egdon Resources, the business behind the discovery, is to formally announce its findings at an energy industry conference later this month. Its preliminary work suggests that the field, centred on the market town of Gainsborough, is so large that it could benefit the whole UK economy, boosting growth through more jobs, increased tax revenue and cheaper energy.
/jlne.ws/4jVzp4r
Dimon Says He'd Be Cutting 'Stupid' DEI Costs Even Without Trump
Bernadette Toh and Ambereen Choudhury - Bloomberg
Jamie Dimon said JPMorgan Chase & Co. will scale back spending on some diversity initiatives that he sees as a waste of money, while he also reiterated the bank's commitment to working with Black, Hispanic and LGBTQ communities. Dimon, one of Wall Street's most outspoken leaders, was responding to an employee's question about JPMorgan's diversity, equity and inclusion programs during a townhall discussion on Wednesday in Columbus, Ohio. Dimon said the plans to cancel some initiatives were about costs that went too far, rather than blowback from the new Trump administration.
/jlne.ws/4b2mz05
|
| | | |
|
| Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | HSBC to unveil $1.5 billion of annual cost savings on February 19, FT reports
Reuters
HSBC is preparing to report $1.5 billion of annual cost savings from the changes implemented under its broad restructuring initiatives, the Financial Times reported on Thursday. The bank's Hong Kong shares fell 0.4% on Friday as the broader Hang Seng Index gained 2.5%.
/jlne.ws/41fbc1u
Banks on the Hook for Sanofi Buyout Face Agonizing Wait to Sell; They have to wait months until Opella Q4 financials are ready; Episode recalls 2022's 'hung' loan to CD&R for Morrisons
Claire Ruckin and Eleanor Duncan - Bloomberg
Deal-starved banks lined up to make concessions to get a slice of Europe's biggest buyout debt deal last year. They also put themselves in a position where their balance sheets are in effect being rented out for free by Clayton Dubilier & Rice. Twenty-two lenders including Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley extended an upfront commitment to CD&R last year so the firm could buy part of Sanofi SA's consumer arm, Opella. Like with any fully underwritten deal, the financing they've pledged is sitting on their balance sheets until they can pass it onto investors in the form of loans and bonds.
/jlne.ws/3EEFxOf
Barclays Hands £50 Million of Stock Awards to Staffers
Jennifer Surane - Bloomberg
Barclays Plc is granting thousands of staffers almost £50 million ($63 million) of stock awards in order to more closely link their performance to the bank's share price. The special grants worth about £500 each will go to 90,000 of the firm's employees, Chief Executive Officer C.S. Venkatakrishnan said on Thursday. Managing directors and the firm's material risk takers are excluded from the awards. "To align their efforts fully with our shareholder interests our colleagues need to participate in the ultimate outcome of their efforts: the change in our share price," Venkatakrishnan said on a call with journalists after the bank's earnings. "I have long felt that this type of alignment between shareholders and employees through equity participation strengthens business outcomes."
/jlne.ws/42VIbJz
Accelex, FactSet Research Shows Private Market Data Challenges for Fund Administrators
Press Release via Traders Magazine
Accelex and FactSet publish research revealing rising data headaches for fund administrators amid private markets growth Over half of fund administrators surveyed struggle with data acquisition and governance New York, 12 February 2025: Accelex, a leading provider of AI automation for private markets data acquisition, reporting and analytics and FactSet, a global financial digital platform and enterprise solutions provider, have published a new research report that reveals how the rapid growth of private markets is intensifying data challenges for fund administrators.
/jlne.ws/4hzX20U
Weinstein's Doomed UK Trust Campaign Is Still Making Money
Leonard Kehnscherper - Bloomberg
Activist hedge fund manager Boaz Weinstein's campaign against seven UK investment trusts has resulted in a series of very public defeats. Privately, it could yet net handsome returns. Weinstein's Saba Capital Management has waged an intense battle to gain control of the trusts, urging shareholders to replace the boards and offered himself as a candidate for a board seat. A decision Friday by investors in the Edinburgh Worldwide Investment Trust to reject Saba's proposals means the hedge fund has now lost all seven of its ballots.
/jlne.ws/4gHqPDi
Elliott Pushes Big Cost Cuts at BP to Preserve Its Independence
Swetha Gopinath, Aaron Kirchfeld, Mitchell Ferman and Ruth David - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/4k1OnFV
Hedge Fund Altana Misused JV Partner's Trade Secrets, UK Court Says
Upmanyu Trivedi and William Shaw -Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/3EEpct3
|
| | | |
|
| Work & Management | | Stories impacting work and more about management ideas, practices and trends. | How Flunking a Personality Test Can Cost You Your Dream Job; The thing that prevents you from landing your next job might be your 'fit' or what a test supposedly reveals about it
Callum Borchers - The Wall Street Journal
You try not to take rejection personally when looking for a job, but that's tough to do as more companies add personality tests to their hiring screens. Just ask Nick Malik, who's been given online personality assessments by three prospective employers in recent months while applying, unsuccessfully so far, for senior-level engineering roles. "I've gotten some really weird questions," he says. "I understand the desire to know a little bit about your applicants, but I don't think running their answers by a bot is very effective." Malik isn't sure whether his test results, age (he's 59), or something else is holding him back. But his experience reflects companies' fixation on "fit"-the biggest buzzword in hiring.
/jlne.ws/3X0hSOC
Gen Z is rejecting Boomer work rules in 5 key ways that will help them win at work
Emma Burleigh - Fortune
Gen Z is sick of being told they're "lazy" and "entitled." They're upending how the workplace has run for decades under baby boomer leadership-and their elders could learn a thing or two. The newest cohort of workers grew up with the classic instructions of the American Dream: go to college, do unpaid internships, then catapult into a job with a living wage. But as college tuition has skyrocketed, household expenses are climbing, and many white-collar jobs are on the fritz, that dream is crushed. So the young workers are adopting a new way of work-and baby boomers are bewildered.
/jlne.ws/4gJIvOX
Return-to-office mandates cause logistics chaos; Workers complain of pressures on desk space and parking as employers demand they quit working from home
Taylor Nicole Rogers - Financial Times
Return-to-office mandates are easier issued than realised. Workers called back to offices recently have found buildings are not always prepared to host their entire workforces for 40 hours each week. Some have reported inadequate desk space, too few parking spaces and even additional congestion through big cities.
/jlne.ws/4k1chBm
ICE Raids Send Chill Through Migrant Workforces; Trump administration's crackdown on undocumented immigrants causing headaches for businesses that rely on foreign-born workers
Arian Campo-Flores and Chao Deng - The Wall Street Journal
Escalating immigration raids and deportations are prompting some migrants to stay home from work, unsettling employers in industries that have long relied on foreign-born labor. After Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained workers at a seafood depot in Newark, N.J., in late January, four documented immigrants employed at nearby Top Burger restaurant didn't show up for their shifts, said owner Klaytson Braga. He and his wife ended up having to work the kitchen and cash register on their own. "Oh, my God, it's terrible now," Braga said. "Legal or illegal, everyone's scared."
/jlne.ws/41fpL59
Trump Layoffs Hit Federal Workers With Less Than a Year on Job; The latest cuts focus on roughly 200,000 probationary employees
Scott Patterson, Lindsay Ellis and Sadie Gurman - The Wall Street Journal
The Trump administration on Thursday stepped up the firing of federal workers who have been on the job for less than a year, the next phase of its personnel cuts that could affect hundreds of thousands of people. It wasn't immediately clear how many workers in probationary periods-who have served less than one year, or less than two years for "excepted service"-were fired on Thursday. More than 200,000 employees, or nearly 10% of the civilian federal workforce, have been on the job for a year or less, according to Office of Personnel Management data.
/jlne.ws/4hBbNAh
|
| | | |
|
| Wellness Exchange | | An Exchange of Health and Wellness Information | RFK Jr.'s top health and wellness priorities as doctors share input; The new HHS secretary aims to improve food, healthcare, medical freedoms and more
Melissa Rudy and Angelica Stabile - Fox News
With the Thursday confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the spotlight is on the new secretary's plans to "Make America Healthy Again." "The future of public health is about to change forever," Kennedy's team wrote in an email announcing his confirmation. "This is a turning point for our nation. With RFK Jr. at the helm, the battle for accountability and real health reform is just getting started."
/jlne.ws/4bhw6Rj
Corporate Wellness Market Forecasts Report 2024-2030
Yahoo Finance
The "Corporate Wellness Market - Forecasts from 2025 to 2030" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global corporate wellness market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 4.01% over the forecast period, increasing from US$59.756 billion in 2025 to US$72.723 billion by 2030.
/jlne.ws/42Vhjt2
Do bans on smartphones in schools improve mental health?; What the early evidence suggests about the effect on students
The Economist (paywalled)
France has not allowed smartphone use in primary or secondary schools since 2018, claiming that it would help children focus, reduce their social media use and mitigate online bullying. The Netherlands initiated a similar ban in January 2024. Hungary followed suit later that year. Legislators in Britain are considering similar measures. The key question facing them is whether banning smartphones in schools offers any benefits to mental health.
/jlne.ws/42Uyye2
|
| | | |
|
| Regions | | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | Japan's Biggest IPO Since SoftBank Seeks to Raise $3 Billion
Yasutaka Tamura - Bloomberg
An initial public offering from a key global supplier of semiconductor materials is seeking to raise about ¥460 billion ($3 billion) in what would be Japan's biggest such deal since 2018. JX Advanced Metals Corp., a unit of oil giant Eneos Holdings Inc., set an indicative price of ¥862 per share, according to a company filing to the Ministry of Finance Friday. Final pricing will be on March 10, and JX will list on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on March 19.
/jlne.ws/410egND
China Has Record Foreign Investment Outflow as $168 Billion Exit
Bloomberg
China saw record outflows of foreign direct investment last year, an exodus that threatens to persist after the resumption of a trade war with the US. Net FDI dropped by $168 billion in 2024, according to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, the biggest capital flight in data going back to 1990. Foreign investment into China has slumped in recent years after hitting a historical high of $344 billion in 2021.
/jlne.ws/412mDZ8
China Money Markets Face $411 Billion Crunch as Congress Nears
Bloomberg
China's money markets are expected to see a liquidity withdrawal of more than 3 trillion yuan ($411 billion) over the remainder of this month, helping to keep funding costs elevated before key meetings of lawmakers in March. The bulk of the liquidity drain will come from the 2.4 trillion yuan needed to pay back the maturities of so-called policy loans from the central bank. A further 820 billion yuan is expected to be absorbed by bond issuance from local governments, based on monthly estimates from brokerage Huachuang Securities and data compiled by Bloomberg.
/jlne.ws/3Ezl1yG
Turkey Starts Probe Into Top Banker in Latest Sign of Crackdown; Omer Aras to be investigated over comments on recent arrests; Turkey is cracking down on opposition politicians, journalists
Beril Akman - Bloomberg
Turkish authorities started an investigation into Omer Aras, a top banking executive and a chairman of the country's influential business group TUSIAD, state-run Anadolu Agency reported. The probe comes after Aras, who is also the executive chairman of the Istanbul-based Turkish unit of Qatar National Bank, criticized a number of recent developments in Turkey, including arrests and investigations into opposition politicians and mayors.
/jlne.ws/4k2O2D9
Glencore held talks over sale of multibillion-dollar African copper mines; Potential disposals in DR Congo and Kazakhstan could be biggest by Swiss miner since Gary Nagle took charge in 2021
Leslie Hook, Camilla Hodgson, Tom Wilson and Harry Dempsey - Financial Times
Glencore has held preliminary discussions about selling its multibillion-dollar copper and cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in what would be a significant shift in strategy by the biggest western investor in the African country. The FTSE 100 group last month rejected an unsolicited bid for the mines from a potential buyer in the Middle East because the offer was too low, according to people familiar with the matter.
/jlne.ws/4k2U8Dx
|
| | | |
|
Disclaimer: All John Lothian Newsletters, JohnLothianNews.com, MarketsWiki.com and MarketsReformWiki.com are products of John Lothian News, a division of John J. Lothian & Company, Inc. The opinions expressed in all John J. Lothian & Company, Inc. publications are strictly those of their respective editors. They are intended solely for informative purposes and are not to be construed, under any circumstances, by implication or otherwise, as an offer to sell or a solicitation to buy or trade in any commodities or securities herein named. Information is obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but is in no way guaranteed. No guarantee of any kind is implied or possible where projections of future conditions are attempted. Security futures are not suitable for all customers. Futures and options trading involve risk. Past results are no indication of future performance. Nothing on any John J. Lothian & Company site should be considered an endorsement by any sponsor of any website or newsletter content.
© 2025 John J. Lothian & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. |
|
|
