| August 21, 2024 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | | | John Lothian
Publisher
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Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff
Mea culpa! When I was looking for an FIA news piece yesterday, I grabbed the wrong one. I grabbed a July 18 release of "FIA releases best practices for automated trading risk controls and system safeguards" rather than the one I was looking for "FIA responds to SEBI consultation on strengthening the index derivatives market." (John removes egg from his face.)
The FIA release we should have included from August 19th says: "FIA has submitted a response to the Securities and Exchange Board of India's (SEBI) consultation paper on measures to strengthen the index derivatives framework for increased investor protection and market stability. In the response, FIA expressed support for the underlying intent of these measures and offered several suggestions to enhance these proposals. FIA also urged SEBI to carefully consider any potential unintended consequences of the proposed measures and emphasized the importance of fostering a balanced development of India's derivatives ecosystem."
There is non-news news in the member class action lawsuit against the CME. In the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, Chancery Division, the court has canceled the status date previously set for August 22, 2024, at 9:30 AM. The parties are instructed to work with the court's clerk to arrange a new status date.
When the price of gold traded above $2500 an ounce and a 400 ounce bar was worth $1 million for the first time, the CBOT's old Kilo Gold contract, 32.5 ounces, was worth over $80,000 for the first time.
Here are excerpts from in front of FOW's paywall from some recent stories: Investors are increasingly turning to hedge funds for "heroic diversifiers," stocks that perform well in declining markets, according to Toby Goodworth of bfinance. Meanwhile, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) reported flat revenue for the first half of the year, with gains in commodities markets failing to offset declines in cash and warrants markets. In Europe, a review of commodity derivatives under the MiFID aims to enhance transparency and sustainability, as noted by Capco. Additionally, the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) is advocating for a cautious approach to regulating artificial intelligence to maintain a balance between safety and innovation.
The Financial Times published an article titled "'Netflix of volunteering' eases burden of corporate charity work" with the subheadline ''New apps allow employees to help out 'on their own terms' - but do they give non-profit groups what they need?" The article discusses how new apps like OnHand are making corporate volunteering easier by allowing employees to choose volunteer opportunities, much like selecting a movie on Netflix. Despite many companies offering paid volunteer leave, only a small percentage of employees use it. Platforms like OnHand aim to boost participation by providing convenient, flexible options. However, there's a mismatch between what companies want (easy, fun activities) and what charities actually need (specialized skills). While these platforms can help increase volunteer engagement and serve as a recruitment tool, the real impact depends on aligning corporate goals with charity needs.
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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Host and Editor Rollie Williams asks "Who's taking America's Water?" in the latest episode of Climate Town. The answer might surprise you. It's a humorous look at a serious subject. Give it a view here.~SAED
Our most read stories from our previous edition of JLN Options were:
- Oil Options Show Market's Middle East Worries Starting to Ease, from Bloomberg
- Citi Says Hedge Funds Are Using Dollars for New Carry Trades, from Bloomberg
- The Market Volatility Has Calmed Down-or Has It?, from Barron's ~JB
Subscribe to the JLN Options Newsletter HERE (it's free).
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Breaking Records and Comfort Zones: Rama Pillai's Kilt Challenge Journey
JohnLothianNews.com
In a lively interview at FIA's IDX in London, John Lothian News sat down with SGX Managing Director Rama Pillai to discuss his participation in the FIA's IDX Gala Kilt Challenge, a fundraising effort that is part of the charity event supporting Futures for Kids. The conversation explored Pillai's motivations, experiences, and the impressive fundraising success he achieved.
Watch the video »
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Navigating Regulatory Challenges: An Interview with CFTC Commissioner Summer Mersinger
JohnLothianNews.com
In a recent interview at FIA's IDX, John Lothian News sat down with CFTC Commissioner Summer Mersinger for the JLN Industry Leader series. The interview covered a wide range of topics relevant to the current state and future of commodity futures trading regulation.
Watch the video »
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LaSalle Street Move Scouts Forward Fundraiser
www.tinyurl.com/LaSalle4Scouts
On September 25, the Pathway to Adventure Council of the Boy Scouts of America is hosting the LaSalle Street Move Scouts Forward event at the Chicago Board of Trade Building. This annual tradition, dating back to 1971, brings together professionals from LaSalle Street to support Scouting in our community. The highlight of the evening will be a pinewood derby race. You'll have the opportunity to build your own car or lease one at the event. It's a fantastic way to tap into your competitive spirit while enjoying cocktails and delicious food with colleagues and friends. Your participation will directly benefit Scouting programs that help develop leadership skills and character in our youth. There are various sponsorship levels available to suit your preferences. The event will be held at Ceres, with plans to move outdoors if weather permits. It's a perfect opportunity to network, have fun, and make a difference.
Click Here to Register »
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Majority of Fintech Partner Banks Report Losses Over Compliance; Some sponsor banks are reporting losses of $1 million or more; Over 25% of FDIC actions directed at sponsor banks in 2024
Teresa Xie - Bloomberg
In the age of digital banking, an increasing number of financial-technology companies are partnering with small and midsize "sponsor banks," to provide services - but not without a cost. An estimated 75% of such sponsor banks have suffered losses of $100,000 or more as a result of compliance violations, according to identity risk management platform Alloy's "2024 State of Embedded Finance" report. That includes fines associated with regulatory enforcement actions against the banks, as well as direct financial losses associated with the compliance failures.
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***** You need to know the rules and play by them.~JJL
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Starbucks' new CEO will supercommute 1,000 miles from California to Seattle office instead of relocating
Anjali Sundaram - CNBC
Newly appointed Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol won't be required to relocate to the company's headquarters in Seattle when he joins the coffee giant next month. Instead, Starbucks says Niccol can live in his home in Newport Beach, California and commute to Starbucks' head office 1,000 miles away on a corporate jet, according to the new CEO's offer letter, which was made public in an SEC filing last week.
/jlne.ws/3WSJSTt
****** I used to supercommute, but only from Wisconsin.~JJL
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A Lincoln Park mansion was once listed at $50 million. Here's what it sold for 8 years later.
Dennis Rodkin - Crain's Chicago Business
A palatial home on Burling Street sold today for $15.25 million, the highest home price in the Chicago area so far in 2024 and the year's only sale over $10 million. Even so, the sale comes at a loss in the tens of millions of dollars for Richard and Michaela Parrillo, who built the 25,000-square-foot mansion on eight city lots in 2010. The Parrillos first put the mansion up for sale at $50 million in December 2016, but had cut the asking price by more than half, to $23.5 million, by the time it went under contract to the buyers in July. The sale price is a little more than 30% of the Parrillos' asking price from eight years ago and about 65% of their final asking price.
/jlne.ws/3XbHCrJ
****** The sellers put more than $65 million into this mansion, including the land. The buyer bought it for less than the price of the land.~JJL
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From Grain to Glass: Diageo Sustainability Chief Takes Holistic Approach to Net Zero; Ewan Andrew says growing up in the Scottish borders distilled in him a love of the environment that he brings to his role at the maker of Johnnie Walker whisky and Guinness beer
Perry Cleveland-Peck - The Wall Street Journal
If you are one of the world's foremost makers of alcoholic drinks, supplies of clean, fresh water are paramount to the survival of your business. Little wonder then that the chief sustainability officer of Diageo-the company behind world-famous brands including Johnnie Walker whisky and Guinness beer-says that most of his sleepless nights are spent worrying about water wastage.
/jlne.ws/3YUtKnc
****** Net zero is just not adding up like it used to. ~JJL
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Tuesday's Top Three
Our top clicked item Tuesday was FIA releases best practices for automated trading risk controls and system safeguards from the FIA. Second was City traders depend on Bloomberg - but there is a new plot to smash its dominance, from The Telegraph. Third was the obituary for Dennis Murray, which was our top story on Monday.
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| Lead Stories | Bond Traders Amassing Historic Level of Risk on Rate-Cut Bet
Edward Bolingbroke - Bloomberg
Bond traders are taking on a record amount of risk as they bet big on a Treasury market rally fueled by expectations the Federal Reserve will embark on its first interest-rate cut in more than four years. The number of leveraged positions in Treasury futures has risen to an all-time high ahead of the central bank's annual economic symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, which will commence on Thursday. At the event, Fed Chair Jerome Powell will speak and provide more insights into the central bank's monetary policy path for the rest of this year.
/jlne.ws/4dxvW8t
Hong Kong bourse logs first profit rise in three quarters, IPOs pick up
Selena Li - Reuters
Hong Kong's bourse has booked its first profit increase in three quarters, marking record revenue and income for an April-June period as new listings and trading activity picked up. Net income for Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) climbed 9% from a year earlier to HK$3.16 billion ($405 million) while revenue rose 7%.
/jlne.ws/3yNBixd
Gold hits record highs as investors bet on rate cuts; US and European buyers position for lower borrowing costs after sitting out much of precious metal's rally
Leslie Hook and Harry Dempsey - Financial Times
Western investors have piled back into gold as they position for US interest rate cuts this year, helping to drive prices to record highs this week. Prices reached $2,531 per troy ounce in Tuesday trading, taking gold's gains for the year to more than a fifth, boosted by purchases by institutional investors and bullish hedge fund bets.
/jlne.ws/4cuV8vb
Liquidnet to launch multi-asset trading desk; As part of the new expanded offering Liquidnet has appointed a new head of multi-asset services as well as a head of multi-asset execution alongside several other trading-focused hires, The TRADE can reveal.
Claudia Preece - The Trade
Liquidnet has launched a new multi-asset trading desk, providing its members with one centralised desk which gives access to liquidity across a variety of asset classes, The TRADE can reveal. Speaking to The TRADE, Chris Jackson, global head of equity strategy and head of equities, EMEA, explained: "There's a number of different pieces that we're drawing together. We operate in over 50 markets and block trading in equities is our main calling card so to speak. It is a business that we have evolved beyond just block trading, with a set of execution services, including algorithmic trading and high touch.
/jlne.ws/46TOD3Q
Judge Tosses FTC Ban on Noncompete Agreements; Commission doesn't have the authority to issue the ban, judge finds
Dave Michaels - The Wall Street Journal
A federal judge in Texas on Tuesday struck down a landmark regulation issued by the Federal Trade Commission that sought to ban employers from using noncompete agreements to prevent most workers from joining rival firms. U.S. District Judge Ada Brown ruled the commission lacked authority to write regulations restricting what the law calls "unfair methods of competition." The FTC ban, issued in April, was part of FTC Chair Lina Khan's effort to crack down on tactics that restrict the ability of workers to switch jobs.
/jlne.ws/4cBOQtD
ASX in IPO pipeline fever-dream
Mark Di Stefano - AFR
One thing the current crop of clowns over at the ASX don't lack is optimism. Take the ASX's listings executives Blair Beaton and his offsider James Posnett. The bourse brothers seem to be on alternating duties, taking turns to tell investors about the absolutely promising, fantastic, wonderful IPO pipeline. "The pipeline is building quite nicely now," Posnett told The Sydney Morning Herald this week. "My view is [that we are now] through the worst or the lowest part of the cycle." When would the pipeline start gushing? "We'll start seeing a lot more activity [at] the start of next year," he predicted.
/jlne.ws/4fTBI5V
Euro currency emerges a winner from market turmoil
Sruthi Shankar and Alun John - Reuters
The euro is trading at its highest this year against the dollar, emerging as a clear winner from the recent ructions in global currency markets that have unsettled a strong dollar and halted a relentless slide in Japan's yen. Having broken decisively above the symbolic $1.10 level , the euro's more than 2.5% gain in August sets the currency up for its best month since November. Traders, distracted up until now by the yen's sudden surge after a surprise July 31 Bank of Japan rate hike and a broad-dollar pounding as expectations for U.S. interest rate cuts grow, are paying attention.
/jlne.ws/4duJ0eF
Charles Schwab Wants to Fix Its Struggling Bank. Investors Are Skeptical; Roughly half of the brokerage's revenue comes from banking
Hannah Miao - The Wall Street Journal
Charles Schwab's biggest moneymaker is its bank. It is also a sore spot the company is trying to fix. Schwab's playbook of making easy money on customer deposits was upended when interest rates rose rapidly and people moved their cash to chase higher yields. Now, Schwab is looking to change how it uses customer deposits, and make more money from lucrative services including loans and financial advice.
/jlne.ws/4dSZ1uK
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| Ukraine Invasion | | News about the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and its military, economic, political and humanitarian impact | Ukraine attacks Moscow in one of largest ever drone attacks on the Russian capital
Guy Faulconbridge and Lidia Kelly - Reuters
Ukraine attacked Moscow on Wednesday with at least 11 drones shot down by air defences in what Russian officials said was one of the biggest drone strikes on the capital since the war in Ukraine began in February 2022. The war, largely a grinding artillery and drone battle across the fields, forests and villages of eastern Ukraine, escalated on Aug. 6 when Ukraine sent thousands of soldiers into Russia's western Kursk region.
/jlne.ws/4fWfZum
Ukraine advances in Russia as Moscow mayor accuses Kyiv of 'one of largest ever' drone attacks
Jessie Yeung, Paul P. Murphy and Isaac Yee - CNN
Ukraine's bold cross-border advance in Russia has seen troops continue to take out key bridges in the western part of the country, while on Wednesday Moscow's mayor accused Kyiv of attempting to launch "one of the largest ever" drone attacks on the capital. Since the Ukrainian incursion began nearly two weeks ago, its forces are inching forward in Kursk and destroying key bridges in an effort to cripple Moscow's logistical capabilities and disrupt supply routes.
/jlne.ws/3MdkGSI
Russia and Ukraine Can't Mount Major Offensives Against Each Other, US Says
Tony Capaccio - Bloomberg
Ukraine and Russia both lack the military assets to mount major offensives against each other, the Pentagon's intelligence agency said in new assessments that suggests the two sides are headed toward stalemate. The Defense Intelligence Agency assessments conclude that Ukraine still doesn't have the munitions to match Russia's ability to fire some 10,000 artillery rounds a day, even after the US Congress unlocked fresh military aid in April. Ukrainian forces remain capable of defensive operations but won't be able to launch large-scale counteroffensives for at least six months.
/jlne.ws/4dv6twx
Ukraine Has a Germany Problem Again. Here's How to Fix It; Kyiv's Kursk operation was aimed less at the battlefield than Berlin and other allies.
Marc Champion - Bloomberg
Not for the first time, Ukraine is having problems with support from Berlin. It also has a France, US and even a UK problem. Taken together, they go a long way to explaining why President Volodymyr Zelenskiy made the high-risk gamble of sending troops to fight in Russia, at a time when he had barely enough to hold the line at home. It's easy to pick on Germany, the nation that at first offered Ukraine just helmets to help defend itself against Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022. The "Zeitenwende" that Chancellor Olaf Scholz then boldly announced to transform German energy and security policies changed all that. But with this week's Frankfurter Allgemeine report that the finance ministry plans to halve the budget for Ukraine aid next year and slash it further thereafter, Scholz's "turning point" is looking a little more like a swerve.
/jlne.ws/3AxhWwZ
How a General's Blunder Left Russia's Border Vulnerable; Col. Gen. Alexander Lapin dismantled a council that oversaw security in the Kursk province in the months before Ukrainian troops invaded
Thomas Grove - The Wall Street Journal
In the spring of this year, Moscow's new military appointee overseeing security in the Kursk province dismantled a council tasked with protecting the vulnerable border region. Col. Gen. Alexander Lapin said the military alone had the strength and the resources to protect Russia's border, according to an official in Russian security services. That plan left yet another hole in Russia's weak border defenses, which crumbled earlier this month when Ukrainian troops executed a lightning offensive across the border into Kursk. Ukrainian troops crossed the border to find Russian troops in disarray. They surged ahead and now say they occupy more than 400 square miles of Russian territory.
/jlne.ws/3XniS01
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| Israel/Hamas Conflict | | News about the recent (October, 2023) conflict between Israel and Hamas | Israel-Hamas war latest: Hezbollah fires more than 50 rockets, hitting Israeli-annexed Golan Heights
The Associated Press
Lebanon's Hezbollah has launched more than 50 rockets, hitting a number of private homes in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights. The attack on Wednesday came a day after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with fellow mediators Egypt and Qatar as he pressed ahead with the latest diplomatic mission to secure a cease-fire in the war in Gaza, even as Hamas and Israel signaled that challenges remain.
/jlne.ws/3MldGmF
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| Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | FICC's Government Securities Division Achieves New Milestone, Clearing USD$8.8 Trillion in Daily Activity; FICC's Sponsored Service generated an aggregate average of approximately $500bn daily in balance sheet savings across the industry in July 2024
DTCC
The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), the premier post-trade market infrastructure for the global financial services industry, today announced its Fixed Income Clearing Corporation's (FICC's) Government Securities Division (GSD) has reached a new milestone, successfully processing USD$8.8 trillion in daily activity on July 31. The increase represents a jump of over 30% year-over-year.
/jlne.ws/3yPBRGW
Reminder Regarding Compliance with Certain Exchange Rules in Connection with the Execution and Reporting of Open Outcry Spread and Combination Transactions on the Trading Floor
CME Group
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Performance Bond Requirements: Energy - Effective August 20, 2024
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 August 20, 2024.
/jlne.ws/4dBEwDd
Regularity Approval for Aluminum, Lead, and Zinc
CME Group
The Commodity Exchange, Inc. ("COMEX" or "Exchange") has received and approved the application of B. Pacorini S.p.A dba PGS for regularity for the storage of aluminum, lead, and zinc deliverable against the respective COMEX Aluminum, Lead, and Zinc futures contracts at their location in Gwangyang, Republic of Korea (PGS G2).
/jlne.ws/4dtYy2l
Regularity Approval for Aluminum
CME Group
The Commodity Exchange, Inc. ("COMEX" or "Exchange") has received and approved the application of B. Pacorini S.p.A. dba PGS for regularity for the storage of aluminum deliverable against the respective COMEX Aluminum futures contract at their location in Gwangyang, Republic of Korea (PGS G6 OY).
/jlne.ws/4fVTQvS
2024 Interim Results, Interim Dividend and Closure of Register of Members
HKEX
/jlne.ws/4dyOxB6
Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements for the Six Months Ended 30 June 2024
HKEX
/jlne.ws/4dRHmDL
Coronation Lists Three More AMETFs on the JSE
JSE
Coronation Fund Managers today expanded its Actively Managed Exchange Traded Fund (AMETF) offering with three new listings on the Main Board of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), namely the Coronation Global Capital Plus Prescient Feeder AMETF, Coronation Global Managed Prescient Feeder AMETF and Coronation Global Equity Select Prescient Feeder AMETF.
/jlne.ws/4cyzJRQ
24 021 LME Clear Margin Parameters August 24
LME
LME Clear Members are advised that new SPAN1 margin parameters have been set.
/jlne.ws/3SVloaQ
NYSE Bonds - Addition to the List of Traded Bonds
NYSE
The following bonds will be added at the opening of trading on Thursday, August 22, 2024. These bonds have been added as "NYSE traded bonds" pursuant to an SEC exemption that allows the NYSE to trade certain non-convertible debt of NYSE listed companies and their wholly owned subsidiaries, without the issuer having listed those securities on the NYSE.
/jlne.ws/4fR0cg9
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| Fintech | | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | Elon Musk's Twitter deal may be the worst leveraged buyout deal for banks since Lehman, raising risks to Tesla
Christiaan Hetzner - Fortune
Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter could go down as the worst leveraged buyout (LBO) deal for banks since the 2008 global financial crisis in the latest worrying sign the deal is proving costly to Tesla (TSLA) shareholders. While more than half of the $44 billion price tag came from Elon Musk, some $13 billion had to be raised from a consortium of lenders in order not to overwhelm Tesla shareholders after the entrepreneur liquidated billions of dollars in Tesla stock.
/jlne.ws/3XbkEkr
The banks that loaned Musk $13B to buy Twitter might be having regrets
Kyle Wiggers - TechCrunch
X, formerly known as Twitter, looks like a pretty bad investment right about now. As readers might recall, Elon Musk borrowed $13 billion from Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and five other major banks to help finance its $44 billion acquisition. According to the WSJ, the deal has since become the worst merger-finance deal for banks since the 2008-2009 financial crisis. Why? When banks lend money for takeovers, they usually sell that debt on to others, earning fees on the transaction. That hasn't been possible with X because of its weak financials, so the loans have weighed the banks down, becoming, in industry parlance, "hung deals."
/jlne.ws/3AwrfNz
CrowdStrike hits out at rivals' 'shady' attacks after global IT outage; Botched update that hit millions of computers leads to claims of 'ambulance chasing' by competitors
Stephanie Stacey - Financial Times
CrowdStrike's president hit out at "shady" efforts by its cyber security rivals to scare its customers and steal market share in the month since its botched software update sparked a global IT outage. Michael Sentonas told the Financial Times that attempts by competitors to use the July 19 disruption to promote their own products were "misguided". After criticism from rivals including SentinelOne and Trellix, the CrowdStrike executive said no vendor could "technically" guarantee that their own software would never cause a similar incident.
/jlne.ws/46XvqxZ
OpenAI to Let Companies Customize Its Most Powerful AI Model
Rachel Metz - Bloomberg
OpenAI is releasing a new feature that will let corporate customers use their own company data to customize the artificial intelligence startup's most powerful model, GPT-4o. The move comes as startups face rising competition for their AI products for business, and businesses face growing pressure to demonstrate the gains from investment in AI.
/jlne.ws/3yD88B5
Nvidia eyes return to record as AI spending bonanza continues
Ryan Vlastelica - Bloomberg
With questions swirling around Federal Reserve policy, the state of the economy and the US presidential race, at least one thing seems clear on Wall Street: spending on artificial intelligence remains a central priority. Companies are pouring tens of billions of dollars into building out AI infrastructure and services, making the beneficiaries - notably Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) - close to a sure thing in terms of their growth prospects. The chipmaker's results next week will provide further clarity on AI demand, and could vault the shares back into record territory.
/jlne.ws/3WSufvo
Conde Nast, OpenAI Strike Multiyear Partnership in New AI Deal
Shirin Ghaffary - Bloomberg
Conde Nast has penned a multiyear agreement with OpenAI to license the magazine company's content, the latest high-profile media deal for the artificial intelligence startup. OpenAI, which makes ChatGPT and other AI tools, will display content from brands like Vogue, the New Yorker and Wired within its products, the company said Tuesday. The deal also allows OpenAI to use Conde Nast's content to help train its AI models, which require vast amounts of data to learn. The announcement marks an expansion of OpenAI's efforts to cut deals with media companies, rather than battle them over how the company uses news articles and other content in its AI tools. Financial terms were not disclosed.
/jlne.ws/3MfooLF
The case for appointing AI as your next COO; Technology has reached levels of sophistication and power unimaginable just a decade ago
Rupert Younger - Financial Times
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| Cybersecurity | | Top stories for cybersecurity | US Firms Warn Against 'Unprecedented' Hong Kong Cyber Rules
Newley Purnell - Bloomberg
US firms have warned that proposed cyber regulations could grant the Hong Kong government unusual access to their computer systems, highlighting the latest challenge to Western tech giants in the city. The Asia Internet Coalition, which includes Amazon.com Inc., Alphabet Inc.'s Google and Meta Platforms Inc., is among the bodies that have in recent weeks criticized new rules that officials say are designed to protect critical infrastructure from cyberattacks.
/jlne.ws/3yMxix3
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| Cryptocurrencies | | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | A Goldman Sachs and BlackRock vet is now CEO of crypto giant Grayscale. Is he up to the job?
Leo Schwartz - Fortune
On Thursday, Peter Mintzberg stepped into the top job at Grayscale. The move, first announced in May, meant that one of the oldest firms in crypto-an industry that once denounced traditional finance-was handing the reins to a consummate Wall Street insider. The appointment of Mintzberg, who has held senior positions at Goldman Sachs and BlackRock, raises questions both about the future of Grayscale and what leadership in the crypto industry will look like going forward.
/jlne.ws/4czRjot
ETF Dealmaking Continues With Bitwise Acquisition of ETC Group; Digital-assets firm deal will aid Bitwise's Europe expansion; Transaction is latest to advance consolidation in ETF industry
Vildana Hajric - Bloomberg
Crypto exchange-traded fund provider Bitwise Asset Management is buying ETC Group, a digital-assets issuer based in London, adding to a spate of deals within the ETF industry. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed. At the close of the transaction, San Francisco-based Bitwise will manage $4.5 billion, the company said in a statement Monday. London-based ETC Group, whose products include a physically backed Bitcoin fund, has around $1.1 billion of assets under management, according to its website.
/jlne.ws/3YUrTyK
Crowded Bitcoin Derivatives Bets Spur Warning of 'Short Squeeze'; K33 says perpetual futures flash a signal last seen in 2023
Sidhartha Shukla - Bloomberg
A signal from the Bitcoin derivatives market points to the growing risk of a "short squeeze" that can stoke sharp rallies in the largest digital asset, according to cryptocurrency specialist K33 Research. The metric is the funding rate for Bitcoin perpetual futures, which helps to gauge how bullish or bearish speculators are. K33 said the seven-day average annualized funding rate on Aug. 20 was the lowest since March 2023 - when US bank failures rattled investors - indicating a prevalence of downside wagers. "Perpetual swap funding rates have averaged at negative levels over the past week, while open interest has sharply increased," K33 analysts Vetle Lunde and David Zimmerman wrote in a note. "This suggests aggressive shorting, structurally creating a setup ripe for a short squeeze."
/jlne.ws/4fRInO6
Bitcoin Miner Bitfarms Buys Stronghold for $125 Million in Stock Transaction; Shareholders will receive 2.52 shares for each share held; Industry is consolidating after revenue rewards were reduced
David Pan - Bloomberg
Bitcoin mining company Bitfarms Ltd. agreed to acquire Stronghold Digital Mining Inc. for about $125 million in stock while it fends off a takeover attempt by Riot Platforms Inc. Stronghold shareholders will receive 2.52 Bitfarms shares for each share held, the companies said in a statement Wednesday. That's a premium of around 70% of Stronghold's 90-day volume-weighted average price on Nasdaq as of Aug. 16. The transaction includes assumed debt of about $50 million.
/jlne.ws/3SZqqmR
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| Politics | | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | How a Campaign Contribution Got This Advisor Firm in Trouble With the SEC
Kenneth Corbin - Barron's
With election season kicking into high gear, wealth management firms might want to revisit their policies on employees making campaign contributions. The Securities and Exchange Commission has censured and fined a large registered investment advisor, Obra Capital Management, $95,000 after learning that an associate of the firm had donated money to a government official who helped oversee a pension fund that was an investor in an Obra fund.
/jlne.ws/3WSDXxQ
Trump downplays Fed pressure: 'It's fine for a president to talk'
Jennifer Schonberger - Yahoo Finance
Donald Trump downplayed his prior assertion that a president should have "a say" in setting interest rates, a comment that set off a debate between the two presidential campaigns about the independence of the Federal Reserve. "I think it's fine for a president to talk," the Republican presidential candidate told Bloomberg in an interview Monday. "It doesn't mean that they have to listen."
/jlne.ws/3MaJWZX
Trump's Latest Scheme to Beat Harris May Have Crossed Legal Lines
Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling - The New Republic
He may not be in office, but Donald Trump has been speaking with the powers that be about Israel's war on Gaza-but it's not in an effort to end the genocide. Instead, Trump has allegedly been talking with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to avert a cease-fire deal, fearing that doing so could help Vice President Kamala Harris win in November, according to PBS.
/jlne.ws/3yUixbq
Trump Is About to Get the All-Clear to Cash In on Media Shares
Bailey Lipschultz - Bloomberg
Donald Trump is a month away from being able to turn his paper social-media fortune into cold, hard cash. The question is, will he? The former president will be able to start selling bits and pieces of his $2.6 billion ownership in Trump Media & Technology Group Corp., whose share price has fluctuated wildly since going public through a special-purpose acquisition company merger in March.
/jlne.ws/3X93Cnb
Democratic convention: Influencers battle journalists for space and access
Stephanie Kelly - Reuters
Scores of social media influencers are fighting journalists for access, prestige and workspace at a national convention this week where the Democratic Party is counting on the influencers' viral online videos to boost Kamala Harris' U.S. presidential hopes. The Democratic National Convention credentialed more than 200 "content creators" for this week's four-day celebration of Harris at the United Center arena, home to Chicago's basketball and hockey teams. It's a first-ever Democratic convention embrace of the power of YouTube, TikTok and Instagram users who reach tens of millions of Americans directly, many of them younger voters who don't read or watch traditional news.
/jlne.ws/4cFwRSV
Billionaires Timothy Mellon and Mike Bloomberg inject massive sums into 2024 super PACs
Ben Kamisar and Bridget Bowman - NBC News
Railroad magnate Timothy Mellon outside an inspection train during a property tour in 1981.
Wealthy businessman Timothy Mellon and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg wrote huge, eight-figure checks in July to support major Republican and Democratic super PACs, respectively, gearing up for the 2024 election. Mellon, who donated $50 million in May to Make America Great Again Inc., the super PAC that supports former President Donald Trump's presidential bid, doubled down last month with another $50 million donation to the group. Mellon, who had previously given millions to a super PAC supporting independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has now donated more than $150 million to political organizations this cycle.
/jlne.ws/4cuNGQJ
Vance Attacks Harris on Energy by Cherry-Picking Facts; It's dishonest to focus on affordability and ignore the risks - and costs - associated with emissions-driven climate change.
Liam Denning - Bloomberg Opinion
/jlne.ws/3Atnc4y
China opens anti-subsidy probe into EU dairy imports in push back against EV tariffs
Mei Mei Chu and Joe Cash - Reuters
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| Regulation & Enforcement | | Stories about regulation and the law. | New Zealand regulator lambasts banks for 'sporadic' competition
James Eyers - AFR
Australia's banks face new pressures in New Zealand, after the country's competition regulator called for an acceleration of the open banking regime across the Tasman and criticised their underinvestment in technology. A final report on personal banking services, released by the New Zealand Commerce Commission on Tuesday, also wants the Luxon government to invest more in Kiwibank, the government-owned NZ lender, noting it "lacks the scale and capital backing" to become a "maverick" competitor like Macquarie in Australia.
/jlne.ws/4cuMn41
Nigeria's SEC to Licence Crypto Exchanges as Adoption Surges; Regulator to issue first virtual-asset licenses this month; Regulation seeks to empower youths, check currency abuse
Emele Onu and Jennifer Zabasajja - Bloomberg
Nigeria's top finance regulator plans to license providers of virtual assets including cryptocurrencies to tap opportunities and protect investors as adoption rates surge in the West African nation. The Abuja-based Securities and Exchange Commission is looking to issue its first licenses for digital service and tokenized assets this month, Director-General Emomotimi Agama said.
Big Tech wants AI to be regulated. Why do they oppose a California AI bill?
Greg Bensinger - Reuters
California legislators are set to vote on a bill as soon as this week that would broadly regulate how artificial intelligence is developed and deployed in California even as a number of tech giants have voiced broad opposition. Here is background on the bill, known as SB 1047, and why it has faced backlash from Silicon Valley technologists and some lawmakers:
/jlne.ws/3WSwMFU
CFTC Orders Unregistered Pool Operator and its Managing Member to Pay More than $520,000 for Fraud Violations
CFTC
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission today issued an order simultaneously filing and settling charges against Get Money Tradez LLC (GMT), and its managing member, Jeffrey Carmon, Jr. a/k/a Jeffery Carmon, Jr. (Carmon), both based in the Houston, Texas area. The order finds the respondents violated anti-fraud and registration provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) by fraudulently soliciting 19 pool participants to participate in two forex trading pools the respondents controlled and operated.
/jlne.ws/3WX78jh
NFA orders Puerto Rico-based commodity pool operator Ikigai Strategic Partners LLC and its principal Anthony Robert Emtman to jointly pay a $150,000 fine
NFAA
August 20, Chicago--NFA has ordered Ikigai Strategic Partners LLC (Ikigai Strategic), an NFA Member commodity pool operator located in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico, and Anthony Robert Emtman, a principal and associated person of Ikigai Strategic, to jointly pay a $150,000 fine.
/jlne.ws/4dxPg5s
SEC Charges Transfer Agent Equiniti Trust Co. with Failing to Protect Client Funds Against Cyber Intrusions; Equiniti, formerly known as American Stock Transfer & Trust Company, lost millions of dollars of client funds
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced settled charges against New York-based registered transfer agent Equiniti Trust Company LLC, formerly known as American Stock Transfer & Trust Company LLC, for failing to assure that client securities and funds were protected against theft or misuse. Those failures led to the loss of more than $6.6 million of client funds as a result of two separate cyber intrusions in 2022 and 2023. American Stock Transfer was able to recover approximately $2.6 million of the losses and fully reimbursed the clients for their losses. To settle the SEC's charges, Equiniti agreed to pay a civil penalty of $850,000.
/jlne.ws/4dTEXJ0
SEC Approves New and Updated PCAOB Audit Standards and an Amendment to the PCAOB's Contributory Liability Rule; Changes address general responsibilities of an auditor conducting an audit as well as technology-assisted analysis and contributory liability rule for associated persons
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that it has approved two Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) proposals updating audit standards regarding general responsibilities of the auditor and use of technology-assisted analysis in conducting an audit. The SEC also approved a proposal amending a PCAOB ethics rule governing the liability of an associated person when they directly and substantially contribute to audit firm violations.
/jlne.ws/4dOY5Yq
SEC Obtains Emergency Relief, Charges CEO and Her Convicted Felon Spouse in $56 Million South Florida Real Estate Ponzi Scheme
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that it filed an emergency action and obtained an asset freeze against Wells Real Estate Investment, LLC ("Wells"), based in West Palm Beach, Florida, its CEO Janalie C. Bingham and undisclosed control person and previously convicted financial fraud felon Jean Joseph. The SEC's complaint charges them with fraudulently raising at least $56 million from approximately 660 investors nationwide, a substantial portion of which came from investors' retirement savings. The complaint also names 23 Wells-affiliated companies as relief defendants.
/jlne.ws/472vMDO
ASIC releases workshop summary document on servicing First Nations communities with a ASIC
ASIC has published a summary document regarding its June 2024 industry workshop on servicing First Nations communities with a focus on culture, community and engagement.
The workshop explored insights from financial services industry representatives on existing approaches, and guidance for how industry can develop more meaningful services in remote locations.
/jlne.ws/4eaiurh
FMA statement on Statutory Management for Du Val corporations
FMA
The Financial Markets Authority - Te Mana Tātai Hokohoko - today confirmed that the Governor-General, on the advice of the Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs given in accordance with a recommendation from the FMA, declared a number of entities within the Du Val group be placed in statutory management under the terms of the Corporations (Investigation and Management) Act 1989 (the Corporations Act).
/jlne.ws/3Mdxicw
FCA calls on insurers to ensure they demonstrate fair value and good customer outcomes
FCA
Insurers and brokers have improved governance and oversight of how products are designed, managed, reviewed, and distributed, but many still cannot show how they are providing fair value to customers or that they were receiving good outcomes. In a report published today, the FCA set out issues with information sharing between insurers and brokers, and in identifying target markets.
/jlne.ws/3AGPicE
SFC warns public of "ICE Global Professional Station" for impersonation and suspected virtual asset-related fraud
SFC
The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) today warns the public of a suspicious access link through which investors can gain access to a mobile application of "ICE Global Professional Station" (Note 1).
/jlne.ws/3yCfhBH
SFC, ICAC and Macao Judiciary Police conduct joint operation against suspected cross-boundary fraud and misconduct in listed company
SFC
The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) and the Macao Judiciary Police jointly mounted an operation codenamed "Demarcation" on 19 and 20 August 2024 in relation to suspected cross-boundary fraud and misconduct. Senior executives of a listed company in Hong Kong were allegedly involved in fictitious transactions and false accounting totalling around HK$120 million.
/jlne.ws/4dOH5BC
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| Investing & Trading | | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | Nvidia helped the stock market storm back, but this summer's broadening theme never went away
Josh Schafer - Yahoo Finance
The S&P 500 (^GSPC) is back near all-time highs. A recent rally in tech, including a nearly 30% pop in Nvidia (NVDA), has helped bring the index up more than 7% since its Aug. 5 bottom. In that time, the "Magnificent Seven" tech stocks - Apple (AAPL), Alphabet (GOOGL, GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon (AMZN), Meta (META), Tesla (TSLA), and Nvidia (NVDA) - have added more than $1.4 trillion in market cap, nearly half of the S&P 500's $3.2 trillion market cap gain since Aug. 5.
/jlne.ws/3MdCZXX
Whatever happened to the wisdom of the bond market?; This supposedly brainy sector has been displaying memestock-like tendencies for a while now
Katie Martin - Financial Times (opinion)
The bond market has lost its cool. And it's not coming back any time soon. The latest flip-out came earlier this summer, when one iffy jobs report from the US briefly opened the jaws of hell across all major asset classes. July's non-farm payrolls report did clearly fall shy of expectations, with the US adding 114,000 jobs over the month, against expectations for 175,000. It was a big miss, making the argument that maybe US interest rates have been held too high for too long. But it was just one report, with some potentially problematic weather-related effects built in; and in any case, trying to predict payrolls accurately and consistently is a fool's errand.
/jlne.ws/3MgryyK
Covid Hobbled a Profitable Bond Trade. High Interest Rates Are Reviving It; More debt is headed for junk status, giving new momentum to the fallen angel investment strategy.
Natasha Doff - Bloomberg
For decades, credit rating agencies have unintentionally provided bond investors with an almost guaranteed way to turn a profit: When the firms demote companies from investment-grade, many money managers are forced to sell, because they have mandates forbidding them from owning junk debt. Such sales typically happen fast, pushing prices below those for bonds with similar ratings-and people who face no such restrictions rush in to buy, aiming to benefit as the debt returns to equilibrium.
/jlne.ws/3yCYleh
Yen Carry Trade Data Suggest Cautious Return of Retail Investors; Bets on Mexican peso, Turkish lira against yen rebounding; Japan investors' 'wounds have healed,' Traders' Iguchi says
Daisuke Sakai - Bloomberg
Net short positions in the yen against the Mexican peso and Turkish lira recovered to levels last seen on Aug. 2 , according to data on the Tokyo Financial Exchange's Click 365 platform as of Monday. Those positions betting on the yen's drop versus the peso rebounded 19% to 67,808 contracts from Aug. 5, when positions sank 47% in a single day after the Japanese currency surged around the start of the month.
/jlne.ws/3MfpcjF
Indian Farmers Boost Planting of Rice and Pulses on Good Rain
Pratik Parija - Bloomberg
Sowing of rice and pulses crops has increased in India as monsoon rains have been higher than average so far in the season. Rice has been planted on about 36.91 million hectares (91.2 million acres) of land, up 5.6% from a year earlier, the farm ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. India is the world's biggest exporter of the food grain. The area under pulses rose to 12.02 million hectares, up 5.7% from a year earlier. Plantings for corn and oilseeds have also increased.
/jlne.ws/3MfhkP2
Norway Salmon Farmers Hit by Muted US Demand, Fish Sickness; Grieg shares drop most since 2022 after earnings report; Mowi sees US market improving gradually from subdued demand
Stephen Treloar - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/46Wp6ab
B. Riley's Money Machine Ensnared Retail Investors $25 at a Time; The beleaguered firm used an unusual debt product known as baby bonds to raise cash from small-time investors. Now their money is at risk.
Jill R Shah and Claire Ballentine - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/3yPXLK5
A San Diego couple thought they'd invested in gold. Instead, they and hundreds of others say they were scammed. Their new proposed class-action lawsuit accuses a Beverly Hills company of closing its doors and disappearing with millions of investors' dollars.
Jeff McDonald - The San Diego Union Tribune
/jlne.ws/3SVkpYc
How to Plan for Retirement if You're Behind on Saving in Middle Age; Many financial advisers say those in their 40s and 50s still have time to lift their savings rate and map their later years
Hannah Miao - The Wall Street Journal
/jlne.ws/3WSpnGE
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| Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance | | Stories about environmental, social and governance investing | How Tech Companies Are Obscuring AI's Real Carbon Footprint; Tech giants leading the AI race have found a way to conceal the climate impact of their growing electricity use: unbundled renewable energy certificates.
Akshat Rathi and Natasha White - Bloomberg
Tech companies' relentless push into artificial intelligence is coming at an undisclosed cost to the planet. Amazon, Microsoft and Meta are concealing their actual carbon footprints, buying credits tied to electricity use that inaccurately erase millions of tons of planet-warming emissions from their carbon accounts, a Bloomberg Green analysis finds. Recently Microsoft reported that its emissions are 30% higher today than in 2020, when it set a goal to become carbon negative. Other tech companies' emissions are rising, too. However, Microsoft and other AI leaders insist that the increase is because of the carbon-intensive materials used to build data centers - cement, steel and microchips - and not because of the massive amount of energy AI requires. That's because they have said the power is mostly or all from zero-carbon sources, such as solar and wind.
/jlne.ws/4dIeXjA
Big Oil Is the Big Winner on Carbon Credit Expansion; The prime beneficiary of looser rules on offsets could be the industry largely responsible for the global climate disaster.
Alastair Marsh - Bloomberg
The prime beneficiaries of plans to allow corporations more license to use carbon credits to cut total emissions may end up being the main perpetrators of the global climate disaster: oil and gas companies. The fossil fuel industry is "the elephant in the room when we talk about Scope 3 emissions," according to Catherine McKenna, Canada's former minister of environment and climate change. There is plenty of talk in the climate community right now about Scope 3 emissions - the greenhouse gases produced by customers and supply chains. The trigger for all this chatter was a controversial statement in April by the board of the Science Based Targets initiative, the world's largest verifier of corporate climate goals. SBTi surprisingly changed its tune on carbon credits - increasingly seen by experts as a greenwashing tool - saying they should be used to abate these value-chain emissions.
/jlne.ws/4dOg7di
BNP and CIBC to Lead Financing of Major German Hydrogen Project; The decision is a sign that HH2E project is seen as bankable; Funding is for hydrogen plant in the Baltic port of Lubmin
Petra Sorge, Priscila Azevedo Rocha, and Arno Schuetze - Bloomberg
BNP Paribas SA and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce are among banks that have committed to backing one of Germany's largest hydrogen projects. The decision is a sign that startup HH2E AG is seen as bankable and takes it closer to its aim of a final investment decision on its 100-megawatts green hydrogen production plant in the Baltic port of Lubmin by October.
/jlne.ws/3MdfnCH
The new wave of climate claptrap; From Musk to Project 2025, the twaddle keeps on coming
Pilita Clark - Financial Times
You can sum up the world in just one word today: hot. Powerful heatwaves have struck every continent over the past year. At least 10 countries have recorded daily temperatures above 50C in more than one place. Wildfires are scorching unusually large areas of the globe and coral reefs have been hit by the fourth global bleaching event on record. Luckily, there is no need to hurry up and tackle the climate change fuelling these extremes - only alarmist climate ideologues think otherwise. So goes the latest climate claptrap, the misleading, misinformed or just plain baffling utterances that continue to gush forth in the face of an increasingly evident problem.
/jlne.ws/3yNG4L9
BlackRock's support for ESG measures hits new low; Asset manager's support for environmental and social shareholder proposals has hit a new low
Brooke Masters - Financial Times
BlackRock's support for shareholder proposals on environmental and social issues hit a new low in the 2023-24 proxy season, it disclosed on Wednesday. In the 12 months to the end of June, BlackRock supported just 20 of the 493 environmental and social proposals put forward by shareholders, or about 4 per cent of the total, according to its annual investment stewardship report.
/jlne.ws/46Zsr8j
Germany's Power-Grid Impasse Is Stalling Billions in Deals; EnBW and RWE delay plans to sell stakes in high-voltage grids; Government scrapped plans to buy full German unit of Tennet
Arno Schuetze, Petra Sorge, and Priscila Azevedo Rocha - Bloomberg
Two of Germany's biggest utilities are putting deals worth billions of euros on hold after the government failed to buy part of Tennet Holding BV, operator of the country's biggest power-grid network. EnBW Baden-Württemberg AG and RWE AG have delayed plans to sell their stakes in German transmission grids while they await clarity on Berlin's next steps, according to people familiar with the matter.
/jlne.ws/3Xb19Zg
US Coal Miner Consol to Merge With Arch in $2.3 Billion Deal
Christine Buurma and David Carnevali - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/4dNaKLo
Solar Panel Imports to US Hit Record High Before Biden's Tariff Waiver Ended
Will Wade - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/4cu7e7P
DEI Has a New Nemesis - And He's Good at His Job; Conservative commentator Robby Starbuck bullied Harley-Davidson into dropping DEI. His strategy is clever - but it's based on a fallacy.
Beth Kowitt Beth Kowitt - Bloomberg Opinion
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| Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | Exclusive-Citic, CICC among 10 brokerages included in China's Greater Bay Area wealth scheme, sources say
Selena Li and Xie Yu - Reuters
China and Hong Kong are set to expand a pilot wealth scheme that allows residents to invest cross-border by adding the first batch of 10 securities firms, including the countries' largest brokerages, two people with direct knowledge told Reuters. The 10 securities companies include Hong Kong-listed China CITIC Securities, China International CorporationCompany (CICC), Huatai Securities and GF Securities, according to the people.
/jlne.ws/46WSEEx
R Star Star Wars Episode II: Fiscal Policy Strikes Back; Fiscal R* and fiscal-monetary tensions
Marijn Bolhuis, Jakree Koosakul, and Neil Shenai - Financial Times
Marijn Bolhuis, Jakree Koosakul, and Neil Shenai are economists at the International Monetary Fund. All views expressed are theirs, and don't represent the opinions of the IMF, its Executive Board or management. Central banks have embarked on the most aggressive and synchronised rate hiking cycles in decades. At the same time, fiscal deficits and debts in advanced economies continue to climb upward. This has led many observers to note the potential tensions between monetary and fiscal policies: the combination of tight monetary policy and large deficits are damaging for fiscal sustainability, while loose fiscal policy can fuel inflationary pressures, complicating monetary policy.
/jlne.ws/3XdMX1C
JPMorgan Drops Proposal to Cut China's Share in Key Emerging-Market Bond Index
Greg Ritchie - Bloomberg
JPMorgan Chase & Co. has dropped a proposal to change the way it calculates its flagship emerging-market bond index that would have reduced China's share by almost half. The bank is seeking feedback from clients on potential amendments to its GBI-EM index, the local-currency developing nation debt benchmark tracked by hundreds of billions of dollars. Under one radical option initially floated in its annual consultation process, China's share in the gauge would have dropped to 6% from 10%.
/jlne.ws/4dvg7Pw
MUFG sheds $1bn in U.S. Bancorp shares; Japanese megabank will maintain smaller stake, bolster partnership
Yuki Nakamura - Nikkia
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group has sold 24 million shares of American regional bank U.S. Bancorp (USB) on the market, the Japanese company said Tuesday, for an amount expected to reach $1 billion based on the current stock price. MUFG believes the financial anxiety that followed the 2023 collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in the U.S. has subsided, and so the group aims to improve capital efficiency by releasing the additional funds it injected into USB that year.
/jlne.ws/3SVD0U6
TD's US Retail Bank, Once Prized, Now Drags Down Its Stock Price; Market gives 'negative value' to branch operation: Scotia; Veritas analyst says return on equity is worse than TD reports
Christine Dobby - Bloomberg
Toronto-Dominion Bank's expensive foray into the US was supposed to supercharge its growth. Instead, it's become a drag on profitability and badly dented the lender's reputation. A busted $13.4 billion takeover of First Horizon Corp., a money-laundering probe into its US branches and anemic returns across its stateside operation have investors turning sour on Canada's second-largest bank. Despite some positive momentum in recent weeks, its stock has way underperformed all other major Canadian banks.
/jlne.ws/3Au7K8y
Asset Managers Must Invest in Private Markets Now, Bain Says; Private-market assets under management to reach $65 trillion; Bain calls it 'the biggest opportunity in financial services'
Loukia Gyftopoulou - Bloomberg
A wide variety of asset managers need to look at investing in private markets if they want to avoid wipe-out, while revamping their entire strategies to ride the wave, according to Bain & Co. The business models relied upon by fund firms that have traditionally invested in public markets are becoming obsolete, with margins dropping to 8 basis points by 2022 from 15 basis points in 2007, and management fees declining as well, Bain said in a report Wednesday. As a result, many such companies are piling into private markets, an area that requires different capabilities and significant investment.
/jlne.ws/3XaCSCS
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| Work & Management | | Stories impacting work and more about management ideas, practices and trends. | Looming Canadian railroad work stoppage threatens U.S. supply chains; A labor dispute between Canada's two largest railroads and the Teamsters could lead to a lockout as soon as Thursday morning.
Lauren Kaori Gurley - The Washington Post
A looming rail work stoppage in Canada is worrying U.S. businesses and threatening deliveries of cars, timber, petroleum products, grains and other crucial supplies. Canadian Pacific Kansas City and Canadian National railroads, the country's two largest railways, plan to lock out Teamsters members as soon as 12:01 a.m. Thursday. Already, scheduled shipments of perishable and hazardous products, such as frozen food, propane, and chemicals used to purify water, have been halted, according to the companies.
/jlne.ws/3SWvcl0
Remote work has been a boon for older workers with disabilities
Sabri Ben-Achour, Chris Farrell, and Alex Schroeder - Marketplace
The push and pull between employers and their employees continues: How much remote work is allowed now that we're out of the worst of the COVID pandemic? Recent data from Kastle, which operates security systems for office buildings and tracks swipes in and out, showed that about half of workers are coming in. This trend has held for a while now, which means lots of people are still working remotely at least a couple of days each week. While the balance between in-person and remote work settles, we're getting more research about how the rise of remote work has changed the labor force. One new report shows a clear winner in all of this: older workers with disabilities.
/jlne.ws/4fUuG0F
5 steps to turn invisible work and small wins into your next promotion; It's essential to not only record your small wins but to identify ways for those achievements to accelerate your career.
Octavia Goredema - Fast Company
Let's imagine a common workplace situation. You work remotely on a team that recently onboarded many new hires. In addition to your primary responsibilities, your days are increasingly filled with resolving conflicts, answering cascading questions on Slack, and helping to fix broken communication between departments. Your tenure on the team, and direct experience with the contrasting personalities across various departments, have enabled you to prevent potential issues from escalating. However, your manager works in another time zone, and it feels like you're on totally different planets. Your boss is primarily focused on overall project outcomes and client feedback, which means they are usually completely unaware of the daily headaches you're handling.
/jlne.ws/4dBQM6H
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| Wellness Exchange | | An Exchange of Health and Wellness Information | Mpox Africa Outbreak Needs More Testing, Europe CDC Chief Says; While risks to Europeans are low, agency is monitoring closely; Outbreak isn't like Covid-19, ECDC Director Rendi-Wagner says
Janice Kew and Francine Lacqua - Bloomberg
A mutated strain of the virus that causes mpox, which is fueling an outbreak in several African countries, is likely to lead to sporadic imported cases in Europe, the chief of the region's main health-advisory body said. "What we can expect and must expect actually is more sporadic, imported cases to the European continent," European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control Director Pamela Rendi-Wagner said on Bloomberg Television Wednesday. "The member states, the surveillance systems, the medical facilities have to be prepared."
/jlne.ws/3yUYYzK
The People Getting New Knees and Hips in Their 40s; The population of patients under 65 getting joint replacements grew by about 200% over the past two decades
Alex Janin - The Wall Street Journal
The average age of hip- and knee-replacement patients is getting younger. As average life expectancy ticks up, many Americans are no longer willing to sacrifice decades doing their favorite activities, such as skiing, hiking or playing pickleball, to sit in pain, doctors say. And staying sporty into your 50s and 60s is good for your physical and mental health. Certain intense, high-impact fitness activities can increase the chances of injury and arthritis-leading to more procedures.
/jlne.ws/3yPIjxE
Teens' Energy-Drink Habit Is Amping Anxiety, Disrupting Class and Triggering Seizures; Young people are staying up late, consuming excess caffeine and crashing during school
Julie Jargon - The Wall Street Journal
Middle- and high-school students across the country are chugging energy drinks like water. Teens often begin the day with a can after staying up late studying, gaming or texting, teachers and principals say. They drink more throughout the day to stay alert in class, and still more in the evening to grind through homework. When schools ban the drinks, students often pound them before class or hide them in other containers.
/jlne.ws/3yN7rFc
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| Regions | | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | China's PBOC Dials Back Support for Yuan as Currency Steadies; Gap between fix and estimates shrinks to smallest in a year
Iris Ouyang and Neha D'Silva - Bloomberg
China set its daily reference rate for the yuan broadly in line with expectations for the first time in more than a year, signaling its comfort with current currency levels following a rebound. The People's Bank of China set the so-called fixing just seven pips away from the estimates in a Bloomberg survey of analysts and traders. The gap was the smallest since June 2023.
/jlne.ws/3SYIoFY
'Rotten-tail kids': China's rising youth unemployment breeds new working class
Ryan Woo, Ethan Wang - Reuters
Rising unemployment in China is pushing millions of college graduates into a tough bargain, with some forced to accept low-paying work or even subsist on their parents' pensions, a plight that has created a new working class of "rotten-tail kids". The phrase has become a social media buzzword this year, drawing parallels to the catchword "rotten-tail buildings" for the tens of millions of unfinished homes that have plagued China's economy since 2021.
/jlne.ws/4dRNjRb
A $2 Trillion Reckoning Looms as Ports Become Pawns in Geopolitics; The gateways to global trade face costly conversions to retool in new era of rivalry, automation and green energy
Bloomberg News
For centuries, control of the world's biggest shipping centers helped expand empires, spark and settle wars, ease poverty and build middle classes while giving international companies access to cheap workers and cash-flush consumers in distant markets. Along the way, maritime ports evolved from trading posts and naval bases into economies within economies that supercharged globalization, becoming vital junctions for energy flows, hubs for infrastructure like rail lines and power stations, and clusters for industrial production, warehousing and distribution.
/jlne.ws/46WIunB
Time to rethink exchange rate orthodoxy for open economies; The Singaporean model could serve as a valuable template for many countries
Eric Parrado - Financial Times (opinion)
The writer is chief economist at the Inter-American Development Bank. From the collapse of Argentina's convertibility regime in the early 2000s to recent discussions about the case for greater exchange rate flexibility for China, the past two decades have seen a vigorous debate about the optimal exchange rate regime for economies large and small. This debate has been underpinned by an influential academic consensus that the only sustainable regimes are hard pegs of one currency to another or free floating exchange rated - the so-called "bipolar view".
/jlne.ws/3WOwUpM
Yuanta and Uni-President fined for 'misleading' Taiwan ETF adverts; Regulator criticises use of phrases such as 'interest falls like rain' and 'uninterrupted cash flow'
Sinyi Au, Ignites Asia - Financial Times
Taiwan's Financial Supervisory Commission has fined Yuanta Funds and Uni-President Asset Management for using unsuitable advertising in the promotion of their high-dividend exchange traded funds, which broke fundraising records earlier this year. Yuanta Funds, Taiwan's largest local ETF issuer, has been fined NT$900,000 ($27,864) for the inappropriate advertisement of its Yuanta Funds' Taiwan Value High Dividend ETF, according to an announcement from the FSC's Securities and Futures Bureau.
/jlne.ws/4cCvdlb
Cholamandalam to Sell Largest India Perp Bond by Private Lender; The shadow lender will raise 10 billion rupees via notes; The notes have a call option at end of 10 years, 9.50% coupon
Divya Patil - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/4dxHkBc
The US-backed railway sparking a battle for African copper; Washington's support for a minerals train connecting the DRC to the Atlantic illustrates its desire to compete with China
Andres Schipani - Financial Times
/jlne.ws/3AGMo7K
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| Miscellaneous | | Stories that don't quite fit under the other sections | Six Rules for Traveling in Retirement; We have found that travel can be satisfying without being exhausting. But it has helped to follow these guidelines.
Robbie Shell - The Wall Street Journal
Ask any person about plans for retirement, and the word "travel" will most likely be high on the list. That was the case some years ago when I decided to step back from a full-time career. But that simple word "travel" has turned out to have a lot of trial-and-error packed into it, especially when it comes to traveling in retirement. It has taken a while, but my husband, who is still working part time, and I have learned not just where we want to travel but, just as important, how.
/jlne.ws/3AuX61b
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