| January 28, 2025 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | | | John Lothian
Publisher
John Lothian News | |
|
| | | | First Read | | |
| | 2025 Newsletter Subscriptions: | |
Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff
There are plenty of stories about DeepSeek in JLN this morning and about Liang Wenfeng, the man behind it. Here is a summary description of Liang from a story by Gregory Zuckerman and Raffaele Huang of The Wall Street Journal titled "DeepSeek Chief's Journey From Math Geek to Global Disruptor; The Chinese engineer built the AI company after founding a successful hedge-fund."
Liang Wenfeng, the founder and CEO of DeepSeek, is a Chinese engineer and entrepreneur whose journey from math prodigy to global disruptor has positioned him as one of the most influential figures in artificial intelligence. Born in 1985 in Zhanjiang, China, Liang excelled academically, teaching himself calculus in junior high before attending Zhejiang University. His passion for math and programming led him to develop AI algorithms to analyze market data, and in 2015, he co-founded High-Flyer, one of China's largest quantitative hedge funds managing $8 billion. Inspired by Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies, Liang pioneered the use of advanced AI techniques in medium-frequency trading, achieving consistent outperformance despite occasional setbacks.
Liang's transition into AI began in 2019, culminating in the founding of DeepSeek, whose AI chatbot has rivaled global competitors with remarkable efficiency and scalability. Liang's decision to make DeepSeek's code open-source underscores his mission to democratize technology and challenge big tech monopolies. Known for his hands-on leadership, Liang often works alongside his team, refining algorithms and tackling challenges. Despite his low profile, DeepSeek's rapid rise has made waves globally, catching even Silicon Valley off guard. Liang continues to push boundaries, focusing on DeepSeek's next-generation AI model while embracing his role as both an innovator and disruptor in the tech world.
A coalition of financial associations, including SIFMA, MFA, FIA, ISDA, and others, has urged the SEC to extend the implementation timeline for its Clearing Rule by at least 12 months. The rule mandates the clearing of cash transactions and repos involving U.S. Treasury securities, aiming to enhance market resilience and reduce risk. However, the associations highlight unresolved complexities, including issues around liquidity management, double margining, extraterritorial impact, and legal documentation. These hurdles require additional time for market participants, clearing agencies, and regulators to ensure an orderly transition. Without an extension, the associations warn of potential disruptions to the Treasury market.
The letter emphasizes the significant challenges firms face in building the infrastructure needed for compliance, including upgrading systems, addressing regulatory ambiguities, and finalizing "done-away" market structures. They also stress the importance of resolving issues like mixed CUSIP transactions, inter-affiliate exemptions, and capital requirements to avoid adverse impacts on market liquidity. The associations recommend extending key deadlines, such as the March 31, 2025, implementation date, to allow time for necessary adjustments and collaboration among stakeholders. While supporting the Clearing Rule's goals, they caution that an accelerated timeline could undermine its success and stability.
Nick Baker, a veteran journalist with Bloomberg and more recently CoinDesk, has written a freelance piece for TheDispatch.com titled "Trump's New Memecoins, Explained; The president and first lady's launch of their own cryptocurrencies has drawn attention and scorn from enthusiasts." Nick, who left CoinDesk amidst the recent editorial purge, does a good balanced job of explaining the role of crypto and memecoins. He even quoted from JLN and used quotes from me in the finishing flurry of his piece.
Sean Feeney has stepped down as head of US Options at Nasdaq, he announced on LinkedIn.
Guy Melamed, the co-founder and CEO of Exberry, announced on LinkedIn that he is stepping down as CEO of the firm.
Registration is open for the FIA Law & Compliance Division Conference 2025. The conference will be April 23-25 at the Gaylord National Resort, just outside Washington, DC.
Here are the headlines from in front of FOW's paywall from some recent stories: Former ECB chair Enria takes larger role at Bank of England, ANALYSIS: Euronext raises stakes in battle for Nordic power futures, ANALYSIS: Trade bodies wary of European active account reforms, New CFTC chair to target conflicts of interests, digital assets, Euronext to buy Nasdaq Nordic power arm months after EEX bid and DORA: Raising the bar for operational resilience.
One of the people who received a pardon from President Trump for their participation in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol was shot and killed in Indiana yesterday during a traffic stop when he resisted arrest while armed. The shooting is being investigated. I am just wondering if the J6 pardon crowd, who have other outstanding criminal legal issues, might find themselves confronting less than friendly law officers upset by the pardoning of people who attacked law enforcement personnel at the Capitol. It will be interesting to see if a trend develops between the emboldened J6 pardoned and law enforcement with a chip on their shoulder.
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:
- Wall Street Options Pros Play It Cool Before Key Earnings Week from Bloomberg.
- Trading Technologies Advances Data and Analytics from Traders Magazine.
- Traders Who Bought VIX Calls Last Week Get Protection From Rout from Bloomberg. ~JB
Subscribe to the JLN Options Newsletter HERE (it's free).
++++
| Sponsored Content |
Japan's Single Stock Options Markets Primed for Revitalization after Regulatory Improvements
The recent upturn in Japanese stock markets has drawn attention from domestic and overseas investors. Originally listed in 1997, Japan's Single Stock Options (JSSO) market is set for a dynamic revitalization, JSSOs are attracting both domestic and international investors. Together with Nikkei 225 and TOPIX derivatives, JSSOs are poised to be an important part of the Japanese equity derivatives markets.
In 2024, Osaka Exchange (OSE) has made groundbreaking changes:
1. Revised margin rules and dedicated SSO accounts to lower additional margin requirements for certain trades.
2. Expanded the number of eligible underlying assets, including popular stocks favored by retail investors.
3. Created an enhanced market-making environment for individual stock SSOs.
4. Improved rules for setting strike prices, making trading more attractive.
In addition to the existing local and international brokers, with the entry of new brokerage firms, the JSSO market is becoming more accessible to retail investors. This wave of improvements is expected to significantly boost market participation and liquidity.
Investors are encouraged to explore the exciting opportunities in Japan's revitalized SSO market, poised for substantial growth and offering diverse investment prospects. Join the momentum and capitalize on the emerging potential of Japan's Single Stock Options market today!
Click here for the full story!
|
++++
CQG Expands Global Footprint with MIAX Onyx Launch, AI-Powered Trading, and South American Growth Initiatives
JohnLothianNews.com
CQG is gearing up for the launch of the Miami Futures Exchange (formerly MGEX) launch in early 2025 of its Onyx platform, which CQG lent some expertise to help them develop, Alli Brennan, managing director, head of the Americas & EMEA told John Lothian News in an interview at FIA EXPO in November. Brennan was interviewed alongside CQG Vice President of Execution Technology Kevin Darby.
Watch the video »
Nick Johnson - IMX
Watch Video »
Suzanne Sprague - CME Group
Watch Video »
++++
FIA, FIA PTG, trade associations request extension of US Treasury clearing mandate
FIA
FIA, FIA Principal Traders Group and six other financial services trade associations wrote to the SEC requesting an extension of the US Treasury clearing mandate. Specifically, the letter requests extensions of at least twelve months for both the cash and repo clearing mandates - currently 31 December 2025 and 30 June 2026, respectively. The letter also encourages the SEC to maintain the 31 March 2025 deadline for FICC required access and risk management changes, while allowing impacted FICC members additional time to comply.
/jlne.ws/4hAfl5M
**** Here is a copy of the letter with footnotes.~JJL
++++
Trump's New Memecoins, Explained; The president and first lady's launch of their own cryptocurrencies has drawn attention and scorn from enthusiasts.
Nick Baker - TheDispatch.com
Cryptocurrencies were created as a new way to make payments, built atop an innovative ledger technology known as blockchain. After existing for a decade and a half, they have largely not achieved their goal of upending how money moves around the globe. However, they have become a hot asset class for investors to stash money in and encompass a whole lot of territory beyond that well-known turf-and stir befuddlement for most everyone besides true believers in the digital assets. As they move closer to the mainstream, with major financial firms adopting them and a friendly administration taking control of the White House this month, outlining the differences among types of cryptocurrency can shed light on what makes them popular-and risky.
/jlne.ws/3PTf81r
***** You might remember Nick from my interview with him: Nick Baker's Big, Interesting and Weird Stories at CoinDesk Turn Consequential With FTX Scoops and CoinDesk's Comprehensive Coverage.~JJL
++++
Monday's Top Three
Our top story on Monday was Bloomberg's The Three Forces Shifting the Investment Landscape, an opinion piece by Mohamed A. El-Erian. Second was Another Publicly Traded Firm Starts Stockpiling Bitcoin, from Decrypt. Third was Spain warns far right is exploiting anger over climate disasters, from the Financial Times.
++++
|
| | | | |
| Lead Stories | Euronext to acquire Nasdaq's Nordic power futures business
Euronext
Euronext (Euronext: ENX), the leading European capital market infrastructure, and Nasdaq (Nasdaq: NDAQ), a leading transatlantic market operator and global technology company, today announced the signing of a binding agreement under which Euronext will acquire Nasdaq's Nordic power futures business, subject to receipt of applicable regulatory approvals. The agreement entails the transfer of existing open positions in Nasdaq's Nordic power derivatives, currently held in Nasdaq Clearing, to Euronext Clearing, with approval of the members. Trading of power futures will be operated from Euronext Amsterdam and will be cleared through Euronext Clearing.
/jlne.ws/3PUbNiQ
Memecoin ETF filings spark concerns over 'casino-type' speculation; Proposed funds are among multiple cryptocurrency ETFs filed in wake of Trump's victory
Steve Johnson - Financial Times
Three US asset managers are preparing to launch exchange traded funds investing in so-called "memecoins" linked to US President Donald Trump and his acolyte Elon Musk. The proposed funds are among a flurry of exotic cryptocurrency ETFs that could be unleashed in the US in the wake of Trump's election victory. The latest filings are likely to prove controversial, though, given that memecoins are a particular kind of digital asset that has no cash flow, business model or practical use underpinning their valuations.
/jlne.ws/3Ediudf
Judgment Day for the AI rally; Machine God has forsaken the US stock market
Alexandra Scaggs - Financial Times
Here's a parable: A powerful king decided he wanted to make a Machine God that would be omniscient and omnipotent. After lots of experimentation, the king started to make progress. Miracles started to occur. People feared that this Machine God would be unmerciful and make humanity irrelevant, or possibly end all life entirely. The early successes only made the king more radical, however, and fuelled his obsession. Huge amounts of time, energy and ideas were sacrificed in hopes of the wealth and prosperity the Machine God could bring. Another king nearby was working on a Machine God of his own. But he decided omniscience and omnipotence weren't his goal. Instead he wanted to make a Lesser Deity that could perform miracles that would be similar to Machine God, but without its ravenous hunger for sacrifice. Once the Lesser Deity was unveiled, the Machine God's people were very displeased. Why, they wondered, did they sacrifice so much to try to create a potentially apocalyptic and cruel Machine God - who still doesn't exist - when benefits could easily be reaped with less sacrifice?
/jlne.ws/40UbQBG
DeepSeek Challenges Everyone's Assumptions About AI Costs; The Chinese upstart says its rival to ChatGPT comes at a fraction of the cost, raising questions about the rationale for stratospheric AI budgets
Shirin Ghaffary and Rachel Metz - Bloomberg
As the heads of the biggest artificial intelligence companies gathered in the Swiss Alps last week, all eyes were looking east. In panel discussions and private conversations on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, tech executives stressed the need for the US and its allies to build more data centers and strike the right balance on regulations to stay ahead of China on AI development. "We're probably a year-plus ahead in models," Ruth Porat, president and chief investment officer at Alphabet Inc., told Bloomberg News at the event. But, she added, "it isn't a foregone conclusion" the US holds on to its advantage.
/jlne.ws/4hzZpQG
Chinese Quant Whiz Built DeepSeek In The Shadow Of a Hedge Fund Rout; Liang Wenfeng's hedge fund firm had early success with AI; DeepSeek's breakthrough wiped out $1 trillion in market value
Bloomberg News
Three years ago, Liang Wenfeng's quantitative hedge fund firm apologized profusely to investors for losing money during a tumultuous period for China's stock market. It was a surprising stumble for Zhejiang High-Flyer Asset Management, which used artificial intelligence to pick stocks and had grown rapidly to become one of the country's largest quant funds. As the firm navigated through that crisis and its assets shrunk by more than a third from a peak of more than $12 billion, behind the scenes Liang was laying the groundwork for a new AI startup, DeepSeek.
/jlne.ws/3PWnzt3
UK financial watchdog will not issue WhatsApp rules to banks, says head; Hands-off approach by FCA is part of 'different relationship' between regulator and companies, according to Nikhil Rathi
Martin Arnold - Financial Times
The UK's financial watchdog has decided not to introduce rules to prevent City bankers from using WhatsApp and other encrypted apps for unauthorised business communications. Nikhil Rathi, chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority, said its decision not to impose a blanket approach was part of a shift away from detailed rulemaking.
/jlne.ws/4geofEJ
How China's DeepSeek Outsmarted America; AI startup developed a top system by relying on inexperienced engineers and a loophole in U.S. export controls
Stu Woo and Raffaele Huang - The Wall Street Journal
Take a team of young Chinese engineers, hired by a boss with disdain for experience. Add some clever programming shortcuts, and a loophole in American rules that allowed them to get advanced chips. That is the formula China's DeepSeek used to shock the world with its artificial-intelligence programs. Conventional thinking held that developing leading AI required loads of expensive, cutting-edge computer chips-and that Chinese companies would have trouble competing because they couldn't get those chips. DeepSeek defied those predictions with a resourcefulness that led to a $1 trillion bloodbath on Wall Street and is spurring Silicon Valley to rethink its approach.
/jlne.ws/40Cpmbu
DeepSeek Chief's Journey From Math Geek to Global Disruptor; The Chinese engineer built the AI company after founding a successful hedge-fund
Gregory Zuckerman and Raffaele Huang - The Wall Street Journal
Some call him China's Sam Altman. Others compare him to Jim Simons, the pioneer of quantitative investing. Liang Wenfeng shares a lot with both innovators, and his impact might end up being as great. Artificial-intelligence models from China's DeepSeek, the company led by Liang, have taken the world by surprise, racing to the global top 10 in both performance and popularity. The company has done it with less-advanced chips than those available in the U.S., jolting technology executives in Silicon Valley, politicians in Washington and investors around the globe.
/jlne.ws/40NqRVI
Iosco pre-hedging review: more RFQs than answers; Latest proposals leave observers weighing new clampdown on pre-hedging
Samuel Wilkes - Risk.net
Consultation papers are like tea leaves or runes: observers study them for clues to future actions or events. Such is the case with Iosco's latest consultation paper on the controversial practice of pre-hedging. The document, released last November, has raised niggling concerns among market participants that the global standard-setter may be weighing tighter rules on pre-hedging, particularly for trades conducted using request-for-quotes, or RFQs.
/jlne.ws/40wucHn
Morgan Stanley overtakes BofA as third-largest FCM by margin in 2024; Marex and Deutsche see sharpest upticks in required client margin for F&O, while Wedbush and Mizuho fall furthest
Joshua Walker - Risk.net
In 2024, the landscape of futures commission merchants (FCMs) experienced notable shifts, with some firms achieving substantial growth in margin requirements for futures and options (F&O), while others faced significant declines, analysis by Risk Quantum shows. While JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs remained firmly anchored to their respective first and second places by this metric, Morgan Stanley overtook Bank of America to end the year in the third spot with $29.5 billion in required margin - just
/jlne.ws/3CnBkxN
Mediobanca Board Rejects Monte Paschi Bid as 'Destructive'
Sonia Sirletti and Alberto Brambilla - Bloomberg
Mediobanca SpA has rejected Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA's takeover bid, turning the unsolicited approach into a hostile one. The takeover offer presented by Monte Paschi last week "is devoid of industrial and financial rationale and is therefore destructive for Mediobanca," its board of directors said in a statement on Tuesday. The bid is "contrary to the interests," of the lender, it said.
/jlne.ws/3Ef4Ciz
Wall Street hopes to get rid of a bad Elon Musk bet
David Hollerith - Yahoo Finance
Wall Street banks are hoping this is the week when they can start to recover more from the bad bets they made on Elon Musk's Twitter buyout. Morgan Stanley (MS) and Bank of America (BAC) are among the banks that plan to sound out investors in the coming days to buy portions of debt initially provided to Musk in 2022 to take over the social media platform now known as X, according to people familiar with the matter.
/jlne.ws/3WB9pBa
Options on French Companies Pick Up Steam as Index Lags Behind
Christian Dass - Bloomberg
While interest in trading options on France's main index has lagged behind European gauges - especially the benchmark Euro Stoxx 50 index - activity on single names has picked up. Trading volume on Euro Stoxx 50 options is about flat over the past decade, with an average daily options volume of almost 1 million lots representing about EUR50 billion ($52.1 billion) notional value per day.
/jlne.ws/40vQwkt
|
| | | |
|
| Ukraine Invasion | | News about the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and its military, economic, political and humanitarian impact | North Korean cannons designed to flatten Seoul head to front line in Ukraine
Iona Cleave - The Telegraph
North Korea is preparing to send Russia more than 100 artillery systems - originally designed to flatten Seoul - to be used in its war against Ukraine. The 170mm M1989 Koksan howitzers, among the longest-range artillery systems in the world, are known as "juche cannons", and were built to pound the South Korean capital in the event of a conflict.
/jlne.ws/3CEey4C
ING to Take EUR700 Million Profit Hit in Exit From Russia; Dutch lender said it conducted 'extensive due diligence'; Other lenders still struggle to exit three years into war
Sarah Jacob - Bloomberg
ING Groep NV agreed to sell its operations in Russia, effectively ending its presence in the country almost three years after the invasion of Ukraine. The Dutch lender plans to sell ING Bank (Eurasia) JSC to Global Development JSC, a Russian company owned by a Moscow-based financial investor, ING said in a statement Tuesday. It expects the transaction to result in a hit of about EUR700 million ($730 million) to profit.
/jlne.ws/3CreIwe
Deadly Chips: How a Belarusian State Firm Bypasses Sanctions and Helps Russia Prolong Its War
The Moscow Times
This article is an adapted version of an investigation by the Belarusian Investigative Center.
A Belarusian state-owned firm is supplying Russia with microchips needed to build rockets using Western equipment, components and raw materials in defiance of international sanctions, a new investigation by the Belarusian Investigative Center has revealed. The Western sanctions imposed on Russia in response to its full-scale invasion of Ukraine were designed to cut off Moscow's access to the technology and materials needed to produce missiles and precision weapons.
/jlne.ws/4aIonv5
|
| | | |
|
| Middle East Conflict | | News about the current conflict in the Middle East that began with the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. | Palestinians celebrate their return to northern Gaza after 15 months of war
Wafaa Shurafa, Abdel Kareem Hana and Samy Magdy - AP News
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians streamed into Gaza's most heavily destroyed area on Monday after Israel opened the north for the first time since the early weeks of the war with Hamas, a dramatic reversal of their exodus 15 months ago. As a fragile ceasefire held into a second week, Israel was told by Hamas that eight of the hostages to be freed during the deal's first phase are dead.
/jlne.ws/3CsrjiH
|
| | | |
|
| Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | Application for Gold, Gold (Enhanced Delivery), Silver, Platinum, and Palladium Regularity
CME Group
Notice is hereby given that StoneX Precious Metals LLC has applied to become an Approved Depository for gold, gold (enhanced delivery), silver, platinum, and palladium at the following location:
/jlne.ws/4jxUaD2
Deutsche Borse Photography Foundation and German Photographic Society award prizes for academic writing on photography
Deutsche Borse Photography Foundation
Esther Gabrielle Kersley wins the DGPh Award for Innovative Publication "Writing Photography"; The Deutsche Borse Photography Foundation and the German Photographic Society (Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Photographie, DGPh) have jointly awarded their two prizes for research and journalism in the field of photography. The awards recognise contributions that enrich and promote the academic dialogue on the medium of photography.
/jlne.ws/3CqAjoB
Risk Management Arrangement Relating to the Capital Adjustment of Haitong Securities Co., Ltd. Stock Options Contracts
HKEX
Reference is made to the circular (Reference: MO/DT/021/25) dated 24 January 2025, trading of Haitong Securities Co., Ltd. ("HAI") Stock Options contracts will be suspended from 6 February 2025 to D+12, both days inclusive, and capital adjustment as a result of the merger will be made to the positions of HAI Stock Options contracts which exist after the market close on D+12. Accordingly, the margin intervals for HAI Stock Options class will be increased after the close of business on 4 February 2025. Please refer to the Appendix for the increased margin interval. Please be reminded that the above minimum margin rates are for your firm's financially strongest clients. Exchange Participants should set their margin requirements according to each client's individual circumstances.
/jlne.ws/4aDgC9y
ICE Announces Plans to Launch Environmental Registry Technology Services to Bring State-of-the-Art Infrastructure to Support the Growth of Carbon Markets
Intercontinental Exchange
Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE:ICE), a leading global provider of technology and data, and the world's largest operator of environmental derivatives markets, today announced plans to launch an environmental registry technology service to bring best in class infrastructure to registries and registry users and support the adoption of carbon credits as an asset class. ICE's service, called ICE GreenTrace, is expected to launch in late 2025 and is designed to support registries and registry users across the life cycle of a carbon credit.
/jlne.ws/3CzUKPS
SA has R4.5bn worth of unclaimed dividends
JSE
There's an estimated R4.5bn in unclaimed dividends currently held by listed companies in SA. To address this challenge, the JSE, together with its listed companies, has launched a nationwide initiative called 'Claim It', aimed at identifying and returning unclaimed dividends to their rightful owners.
/jlne.ws/3PT5EmV
LSEG announces the launch of LSEG Research & Insights
LSEG
LSEG announces the launch of LSEG Research & Insights available through a new app on LSEG Workspace. This app provides a seamless, efficient way to access LSEG's extensive range of research and insights for the first time in one centralised location. It will serve as a one-stop shop for insights into a multitude of different topics, enhancing discoverability of invaluable content and enabling informed investment and trading decisions to drive alpha generation, across customer communities.
/jlne.ws/3WBgemy
MarketAxess Elects Roberto Hoornweg to its Board of Directors
MarketAxess via PR Newswire
MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: MKTX), the operator of a leading electronic trading platform for fixed-income securities, today announced the election of Roberto Hoornweg to its Board of Directors, effective March 1, 2025. Mr. Hoornweg will serve on the Board's Risk Committee and Finance Committee. Mr. Hoornweg brings extensive global financial markets expertise, fixed-income knowledge and leadership experience from a number of financial institutions.
/jlne.ws/42vghno
Nasdaq Announces Mid-Month Open Short Interest Positions in Nasdaq Stocks as of Settlement Date January 15, 2025
Nasdaq
At the end of the settlement date of January 15, 2025, short interest in 3,099 Nasdaq Global MarketSM securities totaled 12,402,417,655 shares compared with 12,137,206,474 shares in 3,085 Global Market issues reported for the prior settlement date of December 31, 2024. The mid-January short interest represents 2.56 days compared with 2.50 days for the prior reporting period. Short interest in 1,635 securities on The Nasdaq Capital MarketSM totaled 2,424,890,788 shares at the end of the settlement date of January 15, 2025, compared with 2,331,105,942 shares in 1,643 securities for the previous reporting period. This represents a 1.00 day average daily volume; the previous reporting period's figure was 1.00.
/jlne.ws/4azRaSs
|
| | | |
|
| Fintech | | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | Trading Technologies Advances Data and Analytics
Editorial Staff - Traders Magazine
Crisil Coalition Greenwich cited "insatiable" demand for market data as a top market structure trend to watch in 2025. "Market participants once again expect to spend more on market data in the year ahead," the consultancy said in a report. "Whether moving into a new country, a new asset class or a new investment strategy, the first step is always gaining access to new data."
"The data itself is only the first step in that journey," the report stated. "New delivery mechanisms (e.g., cloud for real-time market data), better analytics (AI anyone?) and tools to make that data actionable on the trading desk are all areas of critical investment that support the demand for more market data."
/jlne.ws/40O9YtQ
There's a DeepSeeking Whale in Nvidia's Moat; The chipmaker that dominated the AI landscape (and stock market) as we knew it has now been deeply disrupted.
John Authers - Bloomberg Opinion
News about the biggest US tech groups has become a macro event. Wednesday will see the Fed's Jerome Powell talk to the press on monetary policy, within an hour of results from Tesla Inc., Microsoft Corp., and Meta Platforms Inc., and it's not at all clear which will be more important. But most spectacular was the leviathan splash made by the Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek (whose logo is a whale), which suddenly emptied the monopoly moat that has protected Nvidia Corp.'s domination of the AI landscape. On Monday, DeepSeek was more or less solely responsible for cleaving $589 billion from the chipmaker's market value, and even move currency and bond markets as well. No other single company has ever lost so much in value in one day.
/jlne.ws/40AUdFj
Why DeepSeek Could Change What Silicon Valley Believes About A.I.
Kevin Roose - The New York Times
The artificial intelligence breakthrough that is sending shock waves through stock markets, spooking Silicon Valley giants, and generating breathless takes about the end of America's technological dominance arrived with an unassuming, wonky title: "Incentivizing Reasoning Capability in LLMs via Reinforcement Learning." The 22-page paper, released last week by a scrappy Chinese A.I. start-up called DeepSeek, didn't immediately set off alarm bells. It took a few days for researchers to digest the paper's claims, and the implications of what it described. The company had created a new A.I. model called DeepSeek-R1, built by a team of researchers who claimed to have used a modest number of second-rate A.I. chips to match the performance of leading American A.I. models at a fraction of the cost.
/jlne.ws/4jxZYwa
DeepSeek could dethrone OpenAI's ChatGPT. Here's why; With an actual open source model, China's AI leader just whupped America's AI leader. Can Sam Altman fight back?
Chris Taylor - Mashable
A Chinese manufacturer just shocked a larger, complacent U.S. rival with a cheaper product that is significantly more customizable. News at 11. In many industries, in the 21st century so far, this statement would not in fact be news; it would be such a familiar tale, few would bother mentioning it. But the old tale is noteworthy in this latest instance, thanks to the industry being Artificial Intelligence. Which, ironically, now seems to be an industry that was not very intelligent about obvious developments coming down the pike.
/jlne.ws/4aFKour
Meta and Microsoft Show AI Spending Can Be a Double-Edged Sword; Meta's capex is seen as a sign of strength, supporting shares; DeepSeek is seen as the latest risk to Microsoft's AI payoff
Ryan Vlastelica - Bloomberg
On a day US tech stocks lost nearly $1 trillion on concerns about artificial intelligence spending, Meta Platforms Inc. hit a record high - signaling that investors were keeping the faith when it came to its own AI plans. The Facebook parent saw its stock undeterred by the perceived challenge posed by Chinese startup DeepSeek - whose AI model is open sourced, like Meta's Llama. Meta's recent strength stands in contrast to Microsoft Corp., which has seen its shares falter on concerns about heavy AI spending - including its stake in OpenAI, a key competitor to DeepSeek.
/jlne.ws/42tJ8IL
DeepSeek Undercuts Belief That Chip-Hungry U.S. Players Will Win AI Race; More AI competition will make it hard for Big Tech to generate the oligopoly-like profit margins that investors hope for
James Mackintosh - The Wall Street Journal
Anything vaguely related to artificial intelligence was smashed on Monday after investors spent the weekend frantically googling DeepSeek-R1, the low-cost Chinese AI model released last week. The new generative-AI model, which claims performance on a comparison with OpenAI's latest, stuck a knife into two beliefs that have come to dominate investment in the past two years. First, that AI needs massive amounts of new infrastructure, energy and microchips, mostly from Nvidia. And second, that the winners of AI will be the dominant American technology companies.
/jlne.ws/4gmTo94
Cloud services market 'is not working', says UK regulator; CMA decision comes as Microsoft and Amazon face probes into their dominance of the market
Suzi Ring - Financial Times
/jlne.ws/3EqEocQ
UK Probes Amazon, Microsoft's Cloud Service Offerings; CMA publishes provisional views in cloud services study; Intervention comes as UK government seeks to spur growth
Eleanor Thornber and Upmanyu Trivedi - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/4he8XRE
Microsoft stifling competition in cloud services market, finds UK regulator; CMA decision comes as the US tech giant and Amazon face potential probes into their dominance of the market
Suzi Ring and Tim Bradshaw - Financial Times
/jlne.ws/3EpN1Ez
AI's Electricity Demand Means Cool New Tech Is Coming to Boring Grids; The rush to power data centers is helping startups developing superconducting cables and real-time grid information find new investors.
Akshat Rathi - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/42rc8kx
|
| | | |
|
| Cybersecurity | | Top stories for cybersecurity | Facebook flags Linux topics as 'cybersecurity threats' - posts and users being blocked
Mark Tyson - Tom's Hardware
Facebook is banning posts that mention various Linux-related topics, sites, or groups. Some users may also see their accounts locked or limited when posting Linux topics. Major open-source operating system news, reviews, and discussion site DistroWatch is at the center of the controversy, as it seems to be the first to have noticed that Facebook's Community Standards had blackballed it.
/jlne.ws/42v7Low
Cybersecurity Threats Hit Mid-Market Firms Where It Hurts: The Bottom Line
PYMNTS
When it rains, it pours, especially for middle-market companies caught in the crosshairs of uncertainty. Sandwiched between a competitive landscape full of startups with agility and large corporations with deep pockets, mid-market companies already have their hands full with operational considerations, such as fluctuating demand, supply chain disruptions and macroeconomic volatility. To add insult to injury, the latest findings from PYMNTS Intelligence's The 2025 Certainty Project revealed that mid-market firms are also disproportionately affected by cybersecurity threats, leading to financial losses, stalled innovation and a more pessimistic outlook.
/jlne.ws/3WCRUAz
Cybersecurity jobs are in high demand. Execs in the field explain why.
Ana Altchek - Business Insider
The launch of ChatGPT just over two years ago sparked an AI race among tech companies. The resulting easy access to the AI tools also ushered in new risks that have led to increased demand for cybersecurity talent. "Every time you create something for good or for growth, some adversary is going to use that," Chris Schueler, CEO of cyber solution provider Cyderes, told BI.
/jlne.ws/4hpoduO
|
| | | |
|
| Cryptocurrencies | | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | KuCoin to Pay Nearly $300 Million for Operating an Unlicensed Money Transmitter in the U.S.; Two of the crypto exchange's Chinese co-founders also each entered into a deferred-prosecution agreement
Mengqi Sun - The Wall Street Journal
Cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court Monday and agreed to pay nearly $300 million to settle allegations it operated as an unlicensed money-transmitting business in the U.S. As part of the settlement, KuCoin has agreed to exit from the U.S. market for the next two years. The company said its U.S. users can still withdraw their funds but are banned from trading on the platform.
/jlne.ws/3Cv5IWV
New ETFs Bet Investors Are Way Too Careful-Even When Buying Bitcoin; ETFs that cap the cryptocurrency's upside and downside are the latest example of products that remove too much risk to actually make sense
Jon Sindreu - The Wall Street Journal
Irrationally exuberant investors who lose their shirts get a lot of attention. But there is another way to manage your money poorly: taking so little risk that you end up with little reward. Enter the Calamos Bitcoin Structured Alt Protection ETF, which started trading under the "CBOJ" ticker last Wednesday. The fund uses a combination of safe investments and options on other bitcoin vehicles to guarantee that initial backers won't lose any money over the following year, despite investing in one of the most speculative assets in existence. The flip side is that it also limits the maximum returns they will receive over this period at 11.65%.
/jlne.ws/4hvYQaI
|
| | | |
|
| Politics | | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | Bessent Wins Senate Confirmation to Be US Treasury Secretary; Hedge fund veteran inherits trajectory of wide fiscal deficits; Bessent faces immediate challenge in debt management
Viktoria Dendrinou and Daniel Flatley - Bloomberg
The US Senate confirmed Scott Bessent as the next secretary of the Treasury, becoming the chief economic spokesman for President Donald Trump and his sweeping agenda of tax cuts, deregulation and trade rebalancing. The former hedge fund manager won confirmation by a vote of 68 to 29 Monday. Besides the support of all Republican senators, Bessent secured the backing of one independent and 15 Democrats, in a sign the minority party might be more willing to cooperate with the administration on certain economic matters than during Trump's first term. Trump's first Treasury chief, Steven Mnuchin, garnered a single Democratic vote in his 2017 confirmation.
/jlne.ws/4hR6n4f
Scott Bessent pushes gradual 2.5% universal US tariffs plan; Trump's Treasury secretary wants levies to rise month by month in order to give businesses time to adjust
Aime Williams and Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington - Financial Times
Donald Trump's Treasury secretary Scott Bessent is pushing for new universal tariffs on US imports to start at 2.5 per cent and rise gradually, said four people familiar with the proposal. The 2.5 per cent levy would move higher by the same amount each month, the people familiar with it said, giving businesses time to adjust and countries the chance to negotiate with the US president's administration.
/jlne.ws/3WB55lw
Trump and the Dr Strangelove experiment; The president revels in his unpredictability but over time he risks sowing distrust in America's good faith
Edward Luce - Financial Times
Do as I say or I might be crazy enough to blow everyone up. That is the essence of the Dr Strangelove playbook - that acting the madman will scare your enemies into concessions. In the movie, budget-constrained US generals save dollars by nuking the Soviet Union. Donald Trump is highly unlikely to launch nuclear weapons. But he would surely be happy if others thought that he might. Nor is he insane for believing the Strangelovian approach might work. It has served him well for his first 78 years.
/jlne.ws/40OJnwY
Philips CEO Warns EU Not to Block AI Innovation With Regulation
Cagan Koc - Bloomberg
Royal Philips NV urged the European Union not to create regulatory hurdles that might slow progress in artificial intelligence, amid growing concern about the continent's absence in the race to develop the technology. "We must be careful not to create unintended regulatory consequences that slows innovation in Europe during the global AI revolution," Philips Chief Executive Officer Roy Jakobs said at the ICT & Health World Conference in Maastricht on Tuesday. "To some, even many, Europe risks falling behind, at a time when we need to be strong and decisive, and much more competitive."
/jlne.ws/4hd8103
|
| | | |
|
| Regulation & Enforcement | | Stories about regulation and the law. | European Commission sets date for derivatives consolidated tape tender; Some of the groups which have already confirmed plans to bid for the bond consolidated tape are also considering participation in the derivatives tape tender, The TRADE understands.
Claudia Preece - The Trade
The European Commission (EC) has confirmed the EU derivatives consolidated tape tender process will begin in Q1 2026. The 'delegated act on derivative identifiers' highlights that this decision has been taken specifically to allow the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) "enough time to specify how identifying reference data should be reported and for the necessary adjustments to IT systems". The appointment of a single consolidated tape provider (CTP) specifically concerns OTC derivatives and relevant subclasses of OTC derivatives.
/jlne.ws/4jxh0L4
Hong Kong's SFC fines Hang Seng Bank US$8.5 million for misconduct
South China Morning Post
Hong Kong's markets watchdog has fined Hang Seng Bank HK$66.4 million (US$8.5 million) for regulatory failures and overcharging clients. The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) said on Monday there were serious regulatory failures on the part of the bank regarding the sale of collective investment schemes (CIS) and derivative products and charging its clients excessive fees between February 2014 and May 2023.
/jlne.ws/4ghRQwY
Acting Chairman Pham to Launch Public Roundtables on Innovation and Market Structure
CFTC
Commodity Futures Trading Commission Acting Chairman Caroline D. Pham is launching a series of public roundtables on evolving trends and innovation in market structure, including issues such as affiliated entities and conflicts of interest, prediction markets, and digital assets. Pham renewed calls for open public engagement and increased transparency by the CFTC on its policy approach to changes in derivatives markets last year.
/jlne.ws/3Ep5sJx
Federal Court Orders Lions of Forex and Owner to Pay $685,000 For Foreign Currency Fraud
CFTC
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission today announced the Southern District of Florida entered orders of default final judgement against Roberto Pulido aka Berto Delvanicci and his company, Lions of Forex LLC, both of Miami, Florida.
The orders stem from the CFTC's complaint filed Sept. 28, 2023, charging Pulido with fraudulently soliciting at least four clients to trade leveraged or margined retail off-exchange foreign currency (forex) and charging LOF with aiding and abetting Pulido's fraudulent scheme [See CFTC Press Release No. 8795-23].
/jlne.ws/4hzTOKc
Sheep in the Steep: Remarks before the Northwestern Securities Regulation Institute
Commissioner Hester M. Peirce - SEC
Thank you, Dixie [Johnson], for that introduction and thank you to the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law for hosting this conference. It is a particular honor to give the Alan B. Levenson Keynote Address. Thank you to everyone in the audience for being here this morning in southern California. Our hearts go out to people who have lost loved ones, homes, or livelihoods not too far away in the Los Angeles wildfires. I must begin with my disclaimer: my views are my own as a Commissioner and not necessarily those of the SEC or my fellow Commissioners.
/jlne.ws/4jzlwsf
Euribor Panel to include Finland's OP Corporate Bank and the National Bank of Greece
ESMA
/jlne.ws/3EnX6lo
Japan Weeks 2025
FSA
The Government of Japan is advancing its initiatives to establish Japan as an international financial center and promote Japan as a leading asset management center. As part of these efforts, the Government of Japan held the Japan Weeks in the fall of 2023 and 2024. During Japan Weeks 2023 and 2024, various events were held with the participation of overseas investors and asset management companies.
/jlne.ws/3E7pOa7
|
| | | |
|
| Investing & Trading | | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | Nvidia-ETF Complex Faces Moment of Truth as Levered Bets Plunge; Leveraged Nvidia funds face steep selloff amid AI market rout; Retail investors have bet billions on risky momentum trades
Vildana Hajric and Denitsa Tsekova - Bloomberg
Day traders spent last year shoving billions of dollars into leveraged Nvidia Corp. ETFs in a bid to amp up their gains on the hottest stock on the planet. Now those wagers are in peril. Get-rich-quick funds that offer to amp up returns in Nvidia started the week with a record rout, after China's DeepSeek sparked a selloff in technology stocks. As the chipmaker sank, a trio of Nvidia-focused funds - led by the GraniteShares 2x Long NVDA Daily ETF (ticker NVDL) - collectively incinerated about $2 billion in value, the data show. Leveraged ETFs as a whole were hit by a $10 billion loss in Monday trading, according to an analysis by Athanasios Psarofagis at Bloomberg Intelligence.
/jlne.ws/4gb4cXO
Black Swan's Taleb Says Nvidia Rout Is Hint of What's Coming
Sonali Basak - Bloomberg
The Black Swan author Nassim Taleb is warning that Monday's brutal selloff in Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) is just a taste of what's in store for investors who blindly piled into Wall Street's AI-driven stock rally. Future pullbacks could be two- or even three-times bigger than the 17% slump posted by Nvidia at the start of this week, Taleb said on the sidelines of what's become known as Hedge Fund Week in Miami. That drop wiped $589 billion from the chip maker's valuation, making it the worst in market history.
/jlne.ws/4gpgDzy
The promise and peril of an offshore digital (government) dollar; Trump's recent executive order is shortsighted
Vincient Arnold - Financial Times (opinion)
Vincient Arnold is a researcher at the Yale Program on Financial Stability and publishes research notes on his blog, Discursive Etc. The views expressed herein are his own.
The United States would seriously like to maintain the supremacy of the US dollar as an international reserve currency, and BRICS coin - unseriously - would like to replace it. Whatever the (lack of) merits of a BRICS coin, there are real, lurking challenges to the dollar's role abroad. A forward-looking response to the dollar threats of tomorrow, not just today, would be to lead the pack in the development of a cross-border wholesale central bank digital currency (wCBDC): ie, the offshore digital dollar. However, President Trump just signed an executive order banning the development of all CBDCs in the US, while supporting the development of stablecoins.
/jlne.ws/40Qskuj
Nvidia's Stock Crash Solves a Wall Street Puzzle; Why have investors been handed outsized returns for holding the most-profitable US companies?
Nir Kaissar - Bloomberg Opinion
DeepSeek, a Chinese artificial intelligence startup, has developed a model that can apparently answer questions as well as any chatbot in the US. It might even help answer a long-running question on Wall Street without being asked. For many years, so-called quality stocks in the US, which are essentially shares of the most highly profitable companies, have been among the best performing investments. The MSCI USA Quality Index has returned an enviable 15% a year since 2015, including dividends, nearly 2 percentage points a year better than the S&P 500 Index.
/jlne.ws/3PTgJVe
Wall Street's AI 'bubble' echoes dotcom excesses, Ray Dalio warns; Billionaire investor says US stocks are in 'very similar' position as lead-up to internet bust at turn of millennium
John Foley and Adam Samson - Financial Times
Investor exuberance over artificial intelligence has fuelled a "bubble" in US stocks that resembles the build-up to the dotcom bust at the turn of the millennium, billionaire investor Ray Dalio has warned. Dalio told the Financial Times that "pricing has got to levels which are high at the same time as there's an interest rate risk, and that combination could prick the bubble".
/jlne.ws/4jwG6tr
Asia Grabs Europe's Oil After Russia Sanctions Redraw Trading
Sherry Su and Archie Hunter - Bloomberg
Millions of barrels of oil that would normally be preserve of oil refineries in Europe are instead heading to Asia as US sanctions on Russia revive one of the market's great arbitrage trades. Asian companies are already on course to collect almost 400,000 barrels a day of oil from the North Sea and Kazakhstan next month, vessel tracking and trading data compiled by Bloomberg show. That puts shipments on course for a 10-month high and revives a trade that had been largely dormant for months. A major Indian refiner has also been buying large amounts of oil from West Africa and the US.
/jlne.ws/4jviJAp
Elon Musk clashes with Norway wealth fund CEO; 'friends are as friends do'
Reuters
/jlne.ws/4ggmqHl
Retail investors bought record amount of Nvidia stock in DeepSeek rout
Reuters
/jlne.ws/3Wwm34j
Glencore Should Give Ground to Secure a Merger With Rio Tinto; Iron Ore, coal and copper underpin the logic that makes creating "GlenTinto" compelling.
Javier Blas - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/4az7K4O
|
| | | |
|
| Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance | | Stories about environmental, social and governance investing | Climate change increases threat of heat deaths in European cities; Global warming will lead to 2.3mn additional temperature-related fatalities in most extreme scenario, research finds
Michael Peel and Attracta Mooney - Financial Times
Rising temperatures threaten to kill millions of European city dwellers by 2099 without "stringent" efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change, new research has warned. In the most extreme scenario, global warming would lead to 2.3mn additional temperature-related deaths, mostly in southern European cities such as Athens, Madrid and Rome. But those fatalities could be cut by at least two-thirds if preventive measures were taken, said the forecast for 854 urban centres across 30 countries on the continent.
/jlne.ws/4gjPvSr
Middle East becomes fastest-growing renewables market outside China; UAE's Masdar and Saudi Arabia's Acwa Power lead build out of huge solar farms
Malcolm Moore in Abu Dhabi - Financial Times
Until this month, the oil-rich United Arab Emirates had modest ambitions when it came to renewable energy: to install roughly as many solar panels each year as the UK. But then Masdar, the country's state-owned renewable energy company, decided to make a splash at a huge trade fair in Abu Dhabi. In front of the UAE president, it announced it would build a $6bn 5 gigawatt solar plant backed with more than 19GWh of battery storage - the largest such project ever attempted. When it starts in two years' time, its batteries will give the country a constant output of 1GW, enough to power more than 700,000 homes without having to rely on gas-fired plants when the sun is not shining.
/jlne.ws/40Re0BS
Oceans Are Warming Faster and Faster as the Earth Traps More Energy; New findings provide early evidence that burning fossil fuels played a major role in the worrying spike in ocean temperatures in 2023 and 2024.
Danielle Bochove - Bloomberg
The world's oceans are warming four times faster than they were in the late 1980s, according to a new study. The alarming acceleration helps explain why 2023 and 2024 saw unprecedented ocean temperatures - and more extreme storms. The findings have enormous ramifications for ocean health, as rising temperatures impact everything from coral reefs to fisheries. The longer-term knock-on impacts are even more concerning, including higher sea levels, more extreme storms, and more frequent and severe fires, said Christopher Merchant, lead author of the study, which was published in Environmental Research Letters on Tuesday.
/jlne.ws/42wbiCU
French Power at Record Discount to Germany on Cheap Nuclear; Nuclear generation is helping to curb power prices in France; Germany's reliance on gas exposes country to price spikes
Eamon Farhat - Bloomberg
French year-ahead power prices traded at a record discount to those in Germany, underlining France's strong nuclear generation and its neighbor's continued reliance on gas. French power futures for 2026 are about 27% cheaper than the equivalent contract in Germany, according to data from European Energy Exchange. Nuclear power output in France reached its highest level since 2019 this month, pushing down futures to a three-year low.
/jlne.ws/3CgnGMX
Hungary Seeks Small Modular Nuclear Reactors After UK Talks
Veronika Gulyas - Bloomberg
Hungary plans to use small modular nuclear reactors as part of its energy mix, Foreign Minister Peter Peter Szijjarto said after holding talks with UK counterpart David Lammy. The two nations signed a strategic cooperation agreement on Tuesday, with Szijjarto citing Rolls Royce Holdings Plc as a leader in the so-called SMR industry. Hungary is ready to take part in the technology's development and eventual use, he said.
/jlne.ws/4jvlh1r
DeepSeek's AI Model Just Upended the White-Hot US Power Market; The Chinese company is rapidly changing assumptions about individual models' power needs, but the AI sector's emissions are still a concern.
Michelle Ma and Mark Chediak - Bloomberg
It took just a single day's trading for Chinese artificial intelligence company DeepSeek to upend the US power market's yearlong hot streak premised on a boom in electricity demand for artificial intelligence. AI's energy needs have led companies such as OpenAI, Alphabet Inc. and Microsoft Corp. to seek new sources of power, such as shuttered nuclear plants. It has also complicated their ambitious climate goals. DeepSeek's model appears to be more efficient and can achieve the same results for a fraction of the energy use, which may mean AI will have a smaller climate impact than thought.
/jlne.ws/40C0kte
German demand soars for Russian LNG via European ports; Deals from hubs such as Dunkirk show difficulty of tracing Russian gas after Berlin eschewed direct shipments
Alice Hancock in Brussels and Shotaro Tani in London - Financial Times
/jlne.ws/3PTv5Vt
German Watchdog Floats Scrapping Green Metric Loathed by Banks
Nicholas Comfort - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/4hAGqFV
|
| | | |
|
| Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | TradeStation Securities Becomes First US Broker to Launch Options Trading on TradingView; New and existing clients of TradeStation Securities and TradingView now can trade options directly from the TradingView platform
TradeStation Securities, Inc.
TradeStation Securities, Inc. ("TradeStation Securities"), an award-winning self-clearing online brokerage firm for trading stocks, options, futures, and futures options, announces that it will be the first US broker to launch options trading on TradingView, a charting and trading platform, and social network for traders and investors. "TradeStation will be the first US broker for options trading as TradingView introduces this asset class to its platform," said John Bartleman, President and CEO of TradeStation Group, Inc., the parent company of TradeStation Securities. "With the options integration, new and existing TradeStation clients can leverage direct-market access, free real-time and Level 2 data as well as Market Depth trading, all through one single connection on the TradingView platform. This collaboration reinforces TradeStation Securities' role as a catalyst for traders looking to create their ultimate trading experience."
/jlne.ws/42xWZ10
HSBC to Shutter Some Investment Banking Units in Europe, US; Equity underwriting, advisory to wind down in Americas, Europe; Bank will focus more on debt underwriting, leveraged finance
Harry Wilson and Helene Durand - Bloomberg
HSBC Holdings Plc will wind down some of its investment banking operations in Europe, the UK and the Americas in the latest sign that Chief Executive Officer Georges Elhedery is willing to be ruthless in his ongoing restructuring of the bank. Europe's largest lender will no longer provide equity underwriting and advisory services outside of its core operations in Asia and the Middle East, according to a memo seen by Bloomberg News. "We will retain more focused M&A and equity capital markets capabilities in Asia and the Middle East, and we will look to wind-down those activities in Europe, the UK and the Americas," the company said in the memo.
/jlne.ws/4axfPal
Why JP Morgan's Santos wants to make bad news travel fast; Asset management CRO says sharing information early holds the key to avoiding surprises
Rob Mannix - Risk.net
In early October last year, Luciano Santos, JP Morgan Asset Management's chief risk officer, convened a snap 20-minute meeting with several of the firm's chief investment officers, two of its portfolio managers, the operations head and the firm's chief administrative officer. Israel had launched an incursion into Lebanon in the preceding days and Iran had retaliated with missile strikes. The meeting was to share views on why markets were reacting so little to events.
/jlne.ws/40CQS8K
Wells Fargo's regulatory burden eases further as CFPB terminates 2022 punishment
Reuters
Wells Fargo said on Tuesday its 2022 consent order with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau related to automobile lending, consumer deposit accounts and mortgage lending has been terminated. The termination, which is the seventh consent order closed by Wells Fargo's regulators since 2019, is a win for CEO Charles Scharf, who has worked to address the U.S. banking giant's longstanding regulatory issues.
/jlne.ws/4aEVoIK
HSBC plans biggest investment banking retrenchment in decades
Sinead Cruise - Reuters
HSBC plans to wind down its M&A and some equities businesses in Europe and the Americas, the bank said on Tuesday, accelerating a shift to Asia in its biggest retrenchment from investment banking in decades. "Our intention is to move to a more competitive, scalable, financing-led model," Michael Roberts, CEO HSBC Bank said in a memo sent to staff seen by Reuters, which said the lender would retain more focused M&A and equity capital markets capabilities in Asia and the Middle East.
/jlne.ws/3CicsaK
JPMorgan in Talks to Rent Credit Suisse's Former Canary Wharf HQ; Lender negotiating to rent overflow space in 1 Cabot Square; Bank has mandated a return to full time office work from March
Jorgelina Do Rosario and Jack Sidders - Bloomberg
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is in negotiations to lease space at the Canary Wharf office that once housed Credit Suisse's UK headquarters. The Wall Street giant is seeking to rent about 150,000 square feet (13,935 square meters) at 1 Cabot Square, people with knowledge of the talks said. UBS Group AG has been seeking to sublet the space since it acquired Credit Suisse and assumed responsibility for the lease, the people said, asking not to be identified as the talks are private.
/jlne.ws/4hAJRft
CIBC asset management CEO to retire
Clare O'Hara - The Globe and Mail
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce's chief executive of asset management is retiring from the bank this spring after a decade of leading the retail and institutional businesses. David Scandiffio, president and CEO of CIBC Asset Management, will depart the bank on April 30, according to an internal memo reviewed by The Globe and Mail.
/jlne.ws/40RObSj
|
| | | |
|
| Work & Management | | Stories impacting work and more about management ideas, practices and trends. | AI Recruiting Startup Mercor Rockets to $2 Billion Valuation; The company, which helps match experts with contract jobs at AI companies, was valued at $250 million a few months ago
Yuliya Chernova - The Wall Street Journal
Recruiting startup Mercor raised new funding at a $2 billion valuation, according to people familiar with the situation, the latest example of venture investors' enthusiasm about generative AI. The young company matches experts in fields such as law, medicine and others with contract jobs to help develop generative artificial intelligence models, which are the advanced algorithms behind chatbots such as OpenAI's ChatGPT. Venture firm Felicis led the Series B round, the people said.
/jlne.ws/3WCRbzl
Can AI Help Managers Love Their Jobs (Again)?; A study of 190,000 software developers by Frank Nagle shows how AI can help managers reduce administrative work and focus on the tasks they enjoy most.
Ben Rand - Harvard Business School
Becoming a manager usually means spending more time on process and paperwork and less time doing what you love. Now, a novel study shows that generative artificial intelligence (AI) could give managers some balance back. Researchers from Harvard Business School analyzed the activities of more than 187,000 software developers over two years to see how using AI tools changed their workdays. The study offers an intriguing finding: AI didn't just help developers code more efficiently, it empowered them to approach their jobs differently and follow their interests, says HBS Assistant Professor Frank Nagle.
/jlne.ws/42wim2o
|
| | | |
|
| Wellness Exchange | | An Exchange of Health and Wellness Information | Flu Season Is in Full Swing. When Do You Need Tamiflu?; With cases of the flu on the rise, we asked experts what you need to know about an antiviral medication that can ease symptoms.
Dani Blum - The New York Times
The flu is raging across the United States - and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expect cases will remain high over the next few weeks. "It's out of control," said Dr. Sean Liu, an associate professor of infectious diseases at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. The C.D.C. estimates that there have been at least 12 million flu infections so far this season, leading to 160,000 hospitalizations and 6,600 deaths.
/jlne.ws/4jKEPPI
The Vaccine Schedule Is Under Fire. What's the Evidence for It?; Here's why doctors recommend getting specific shots at specific times - as well as what happens when parents stray from that advice.
Isobel Whitcomb - The New York Times
Before their immune systems mature, young children are especially vulnerable to infections - and to falling far more ill than adults might with certain common illnesses. That's why childhood vaccination programs have been such a boon for public health. In the past 30 years, recommended childhood vaccines have prevented an estimated 1.1 million deaths and 32 million hospitalizations in the United States.
/jlne.ws/3WB5415
Drugmakers Show Restraint on Price Increases in New Trump Era; Companies raised prices a median 4%, though some drugs will cost thousands of dollars more
Jared S. Hopkins - The Wall Street Journal
Drugmakers raised the list prices of more than 800 prescription drugs for blood pressure, cancer and other conditions by a median 4% at the start of this year. The modest size of the annual increases could help companies avoid criticism of gouging from President Trump while seeking his administration's support for such priorities as taking aim at the rebates given to middlemen and altering a federal program providing discounts to certain hospitals. Last year's median price increase was 4.5%. Prices rose on brand-name medicines sold by companies ranging from Pfizer to Novartis and Bristol-Myers Squibb, according to an analysis for The Wall Street Journal by 46brooklyn, a nonprofit drug-pricing research group.
/jlne.ws/3Ee5tQE
|
| | | |
|
| Regions | | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | DeepSeek's tech breakthrough hailed in China as answer to win AI war; 'We should have confidence that China will eventually win the AI war with the US,' Qihoo 360's Zhou Hongyi said in a Weibo post
Ben Jiangin in Beijing and Bien Perezin in Hong Kong - South China Morning Post
DeepSeek, extolled by some as the "biggest dark horse" in the open-source large language model (LLM) arena, now has a bull's eye on its back, as the start-up is being touted as China's secret weapon in the artificial intelligence (AI) war with the US. The Hangzhou-based company sent shock waves across Wall Street and Silicon Valley for developing AI models at a fraction of the cost compared with OpenAI and Meta Platforms, which prompted US President Donald Trump to call the breakthrough a "wake-up call" and "positive" for America's tech sector. At home, Chinese tech executives and various commentators rushed to hail DeepSeek's disruptive power.
/jlne.ws/4jrJdCS
World Bank's Power Access Drive Wins Backing From 27 African Nations; Program seeks to bring electricity to 300 million Africans; A dozen nations presented plans to summit in Tanzania
Antony Sguazzin - Bloomberg
Leaders and senior officials from 27 African nations endorsed a multi-billion dollar program backed by the World Bank to boost access to electricity on the continent. Dubbed Mission 300, the initiative involves pledges from the World Bank and African Development Bank that will be spent on projects across sub-Saharan Africa in return for countries putting in place regulations to attract private investment. Including private capital, and assistance from philanthropies such as the Rockefeller Foundation, the program could see expenditure of as much as $85 billion, although it was difficult to give a precise estimate, Ajay Banga, the World Bank's president, said in an interview.
/jlne.ws/40D59m3
Fintech Galaxy achieves regulatory approval to test open banking in Jordanian sandbox; Fintech Galaxy has received the Central Bank of Jordan's (CBJ) approval to enter the regulatory sandbox, JoRegBox, to test and deploy Open Banking services in the Kingdom within a controlled real-market framework.
FinExtra ("External Content")
This decision marks a significant milestone for Fintech Galaxy as it becomes the first Open Banking company to receive regulatory approval in Jordan. This initiative is part of CBJ's broader vision for financial technology and innovation, launched in August 2023 under the Executive Program for the Economic Modernization Vision (2023-2025). The program aims to position Jordan as a regional hub for financial innovation and a destination for investment in advanced financial technologies.
/jlne.ws/4gb7M4c
Europe's IPO Pipeline Expands as Volatility Ebbs, PitchBook Says; Firm sees over 370 European VC-backed firms likely to do IPOs; Backlog is weighted toward UK, pharma sector: analyst
Julien Ponthus - Bloomberg
Higher valuations and subsiding volatility are laying the groundwork for a significant increase in initial public offerings in Europe this year, according to PitchBook. The market research firm said that more than 370 European venture capital-backed firms have a high probability of undertaking first-time share sales in 2025, an increase of about 24% since April last year. A recovery in valuations and improved clarity on issues such as interest rates and geopolitics will aid activity, PitchBook said.
/jlne.ws/3Ec6AAt
|
| | | |
|
| Miscellaneous | | Stories that don't quite fit under the other sections | The Spanish Investment Banker Vying to Run the Olympics; The International Olympic Committee meets on Thursday to grill presidential candidates. One of them, Juan Antonio Samaranch - whose father ran the IOC - is pledging to set up a $1 billion investment fund if he wins.
Hugo Miller - Bloomberg
Juan Antonio Samaranch was just 12 when his father took him to his first Olympics in 1972. The Munich Games should have been remembered for Mark Spitz's seven-gold medal haul in the swimming pool but was ultimately overshadowed by the murder of 11 Israeli athletes - memories of both have stuck with him. Samaranch, now 65, says he recalls vividly how his father - an International Olympic Committee executive at the time - insisted he write a diary in exchange for tagging along. "I remember Spitz, I remember the terrorist attack, I remember seeing the helicopters fly over the city," he recalls in an interview in Geneva. "I remember sitting like a fly on the wall as my father and other IOC members were discussing what to do."
/jlne.ws/4hgcMGe
|
| | | |
|
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. |
|
|
