| April 22, 2024 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | |  | John Lothian
Publisher
John Lothian News | |
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Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff
Today JLN has two videos from FIA Boca, Doug Cifu of Virtu and Luc Fortin of TMX Group. We also have a roundtable podcast titled "Is ESG Dead" featuring ICE's Gordon Bennett, Laetitia Hamon, head of Sustainable Finance at the Luxembourg Stock Exchange (LuxSE), Tomas Thyblad - head of ESG Solutions, European Markets, and vice president at Nasdaq and Nandini Sukumar, chief executive officer of the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE).
We also have a story I wrote about the CFTC Whistleblower's Office and its new head, Brian Young
CFTC Commissioner Kristin N. Johnson is set to engage in a panel discussion on innovation within futures and derivatives markets at the upcoming FIA Law & Compliance Division Conference. Moderated by Yvette Valdez from Latham & Watkins, the event is scheduled for Thursday, April 25, 2024, at 11:15 a.m. Eastern Time. Joining fellow industry experts at the Gaylord National Resort in Oxon Hill, MD, Commissioner Johnson will share insights and perspectives on advancements shaping the financial landscape.
CME Group issued a notice of disciplinary action involving Morgan Stanley & Co., LLC - NEX SEF-TP21-MGS2. The violation was for SEF Rules (Legacy): Rule 407(h): It shall be an offense for a Participant or Customer to: (h) fail to supervise its employees or agents in the conduct of the Participant's or Customer's business related to the Facility. The penalty the panel ordered was a fine of $90,000 for Morgan Stanley.
Forbes is reporting "The World's Best Single Malt Scotch Whisky-According To The 2024 London Spirits Competition." Quite frankly, I think this is a very personal decision and one that should be made by each individual after a trip to Scotland and visits to various distilleries and tasting sessions. But, according to Forbes, "The award goes to...Dun Cana Sherry Quarter Cask Release from Isle of Raasay Hebridean Distillers."
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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New research from the Net Zero Tracker Initiative (NZT) found that two-fifths, or 40, of the world's largest 100 private firms have net zero targets, compared with 70/100 of their publicly-owned peers. This discrepancy could pose challenges for private firms in meeting upcoming climate regulations, such as the EU's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. View the research HERE. ~SAED
Our most read stories from our previous edition of JLN Options were:
- Jane Street Wants Its Secrets Back from Bloomberg.
- US Stock Volatility Resurfaces With Tensions in the Middle East from Bloomberg.
- Currency Traders Turn to Options Market for Geopolitical Havens from Bloomberg. ~JB
Subscribe to the JLN Options Newsletter HERE (it's free).
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Is ESG dead? ICE's Bennett, LuxSE's Hamon, Nasdaq's Thyblad and the WFE weigh in
JohnLothianNews.com
The question "Is ESG dead?" has become a meme in the business press - it's ubiquitous, eye-catching and controversial - convincing some that the movement is with certainty on its way out. Contributing to this doomsday scenario are headlines like these: "ESG is beyond redemption: may it RIP; The investing framework is now facing a mountain of troubles, almost all of them of its own making," from the Financial Times; "Step Aside, ESG. BlackRock Is Doing 'Transition Investing' Now. The world's biggest asset manager has abandoned the acronym while pumping billions of dollars into clean energy," from The Wall Street Journal; and "ESG takes a $14 trillion hit as financial firms pull back on commitments," from Marketplace.
Watch the video »
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TMX's Luc Fortin Discusses AI Integration and Global Expansion Plans at FIA Conference
JohnLothianNews.com
At the FIA International Futures Industry Conference in Boca Raton, FL, Luc Fortin, president and CEO of Montréal Exchange (MX) and global head of trading of TMX Group, revealed to JLN that TMX is actively exploring the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into its trading operations. The exchange, which is a prominent player in Canada and the West, views AI as a significant trend worth close attention. The interview was part of the JLN Industry Leader video series, sponsored by Wedbush.
Watch the video »
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New Head of CFTC's Whistleblower Office Highlights Potential Rewards for Reporting Fraud
JohnLothianNews.com
Sixty years ago, Fred Schwed penned "Where Are the Customers' Yachts?" The title was inspired by a tale from over a century ago when a visitor in New York marveled at the lavish yachts owned by Wall Street insiders who profited from dispensing financial advice. This visitor pondered the absence of yachts belonging to the customers themselves, highlighting the stark reality that providing financial advice yields far more profit than receiving it. Today, there are new contenders for lavish yachts; whistleblowers.
Listen to the podcast »
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Virtu Financial CEO Doug Cifu Talks With JLN About Regulation, the SEC, and Spot Bitcoin ETFs at FIA Boca
JohnLothianNews.com
JLN spoke with Doug Cifu, the CEO of Virtu Financial Inc., at the FIA Futures Industry Conference in Boca Raton in March about which market structure problems are the biggest cause of concern right now, the SEC requirement that proprietary traders who deal with government bonds register as broker-dealers, what's driving demand for Bitcoin ETFs, and more.
Watch the video »
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Wall Street Has Abandoned Wall Street; JPMorgan closes a branch and cuts ties with what was once the heart of American finance
Alexander Saeedy - The Wall Street Journal
America's biggest bank is calling it quits on the street where American finance was born. JPMorgan Chase closed its branch Friday at 45 Wall St., ending more than 150 years of physical ties between the bank and the street that is a catchall term for the global money business. The move won't register for most tourists visiting the area. The majority of the banks and brokerages that once populated Wall Street are already gone, finding new homes across Manhattan or beyond. The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks a few blocks away spurred an exodus, which the Covid-19 pandemic helped to further speed along.
/jlne.ws/3Usyr4S
***** "Wall Street" is not just a physical location; it's a symbol and metonym for the financial industry and the American economy as a whole. While physically located in Lower Manhattan in New York City, "Wall Street" represents much more than just the buildings and institutions situated there. It embodies the power, influence, and complexities of global finance, including stock markets, investment banking, hedge funds, and other financial activities. Beyond its literal geography, "Wall Street" is a cultural icon and a shorthand for high finance, wealth, and capitalism. It's where major financial decisions are made, where fortunes are won and lost, and where economic trends are often set. Additionally, the term "Wall Street" is frequently used in discussions about economic policy, market behavior, and corporate governance.~JJL
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Ken Griffin's trading firm blasts Trump Media boss as 'loser'; Citadel Securities attacks Devin Nunes after letter to Nasdaq raises concerns over naked short selling
George Steer and Jennifer Hughes - Financial Times
Billionaire Ken Griffin's Citadel Securities has called the former congressman who runs Donald Trump's media business a "loser" after he named the powerful trading firm in a letter suggesting that an illegal form of short selling was responsible for its plummeting stock price. Devin Nunes, chief executive of Trump Media & Technology Group, wrote to the head of the Nasdaq exchange this week "to bring your attention to potential market manipulation" of the company's stock, according to a filing on Friday.
/jlne.ws/448xZvW
****** Don't pull on Superman's cape, don't spit into the wind and don't mess with Citadel Securities.~JJL
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Friday's Top Three
Our top story Friday was Bloomberg's AI-Driven Power Demand Is Set to Jump 900% in Chicago Area, Exelon CEO Says. Second was a tie between the MIAX press release Miami International Holdings Announces Untimely Passing of MGEX CEO Mark Bagan, which was our most-read item on Thursday, and Jane Street Wants Its Secrets Back, an opinion piece from Matt Levine at Bloomberg. And third was 'Flash Boys' Ditch Happy Hour to Compete With Chess Grandmaster, also from Bloomberg.
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| Lead Stories | New York Stock Exchange tests views on round-the-clock trading; Poll comes as US regulators review Steve Cohen-backed proposal for a 24/7 exchange
Jennifer Hughes - Financial Times
The New York Stock Exchange is polling market participants on the merits of trading stocks around the clock as regulators scrutinise an application for the first 24/7 bourse. The survey by the NYSE, part of Intercontinental Exchange, was put out by its data analytics team rather than its management, but it highlights the growing interest in trading the likes of Nvidia or Apple overnight between 8pm and 4am Eastern time.
/jlne.ws/3QcdfNY
Commodity traders bet on big data and AI; Sector pushes to harness latest tech tools as competition from hedge funds intensifies
Tom Wilson and Malcolm Moore - Financial Times
The world's largest commodity traders are investing heavily in data processing and analysis in a race to develop a technological edge over rivals. Groups such as Vitol and Trafigura, which traditionally relied on political connections, handshakes and logistical skill to move natural resources from remote locations to willing buyers, are increasingly focused on how to apply artificial intelligence in the most physical of industries.
/jlne.ws/3vUoGTM
Russia warns of direct clash with West over Ukraine
Guy Faulconbridge - Reuters
Russia said on Monday that U.S., British and French military support for Ukraine has pushed the world to the brink of a direct clash between the world's biggest nuclear powers that could end in catastrophe. President Vladimir Putin's 2022 invasion of Ukraine has touched off the worst breakdown in relations between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, according to Russian and U.S. diplomats.
/jlne.ws/4b925Sl
Wall Street Bank Raider Quits Job as Top Tax Scandal Prosecutor; Brorhilker says German system lets 'big fish' avoid punishment; German law enforcement is too weak and lacks backing, she says
Karin Matussek - Bloomberg
The German prosecutor who led tax raids on some of Wall Street's biggest banks is quitting her role probing the EUR10 billion ($10.7 billion) Cum-Ex tax scandal - citing a lack of political backing for the fight against financial crimes. Anne Brorhilker told public broadcaster WDR that Germany makes it too easy for the most powerful players to escape punishment.
/jlne.ws/3QecCDP
Climate Change-Linked Health Hazards Hits 2.4 Billion Workers
Zoe Schneeweiss - Bloomberg
More than 2.4 billion workers - or 70% of the global workforce - are exposed to climate change-related health hazards, according to the International Labour Organization. The report, published Monday, also estimates that 18,970 lives and 2.09 million disability-adjusted life years are lost annually to 22.87 million occupational injuries attributable to excessive heat. "Thousands more die from pesticide poisoning, workplace air pollution, solar UV radiation and parasitic and vector-borne diseases," the ILO said.
/jlne.ws/3QeIF6j
Liquidnet unveils SuperBlock initiative to bolster block trading; With the launch of SuperBlock Matching, Liquidnet aims to enhance the technology available to facilitate exceptionally large or illiquid trades.
Wesley Bray - The Trade
Liquidnet has launched SuperBlock Matching, an enhancement to its equities application which allows traders to signal and participate in exceptionally large or illiquid block trades with a single click. Liquidnet stated that SuperBlock minimum trade size will vary by market and each stock's market capitalisation, focused on assisting with the most difficult executions and orders.
/jlne.ws/3W7cidC
Europe Is Being Scorched and Flooded by Growing Climate Extremes; The continent, which is warming faster than any other region on the planet, is continuing to break temperature records, new scientific findings show.
John Ainger - Bloomberg
The European Union endured its joint-hottest year on record in 2023, according to new scientific analysis, pointing to a more perilous future for what is already the world's fastest-warming continent. Europe experienced its largest wildfire on record last year, as well as one of its costliest-ever floods, according to scientists at the Copernicus Climate Change Service and World Meteorological Organization said in their annual roundup of the region's climate. There's been no relief from extreme weather across the globe this year, including severe floods that hit Dubai and parts of Russia.
/jlne.ws/3w2QDIU
Hong Kong finance chief Paul Chan hails move by mainland China's securities regulator to ease trading rules with city; China Securities Regulatory Commission on Friday announced five measures to further enhance connectivity between mainland and Hong Kong capital markets; Financial Secretary Paul Chan says measures will attract more international capital to Hong Kong, strengthening and enhancing city's status
Ng Kang-chung - South China Morning Post
Hong Kong's finance chief has hailed a move by mainland China's securities regulator to ease trading rules with the local capital market, saying it demonstrates Beijing's support in further boosting the city's status as an international financial centre. Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po on Sunday also noted the China Securities Regulatory Commission would step up communication and coordination among government agencies to help more leading mainland companies list in Hong Kong.
/jlne.ws/3W9TSJs
Regulators Restart Bid to Curb Bonus Pay on Wall Street; Incentive-compensation rules are required by the 2010 Dodd-Frank law but have yet to be put in place
Andrew Ackerman - The Wall Street Journal
Long-dormant efforts to restrict Wall Street pay have returned to the agenda as regulators make another push to address unfinished business from a 2010 financial overhaul. Banking regulators are planning to revive a proposal that would require big banks to defer compensation for executives and take back more of their bonuses if losses pile up, according to people familiar with the matter.
/jlne.ws/44nweLD
Wall Street Bonus Rules Return to Regulatory Agenda in Third Try; FDIC to vote on incentive-compensation rules in coming weeks; Two prior campaigns to pass the Dodd-Frank requirements failed
Lydia Beyoud and Katanga Johnson - Bloomberg
US financial watchdogs plan to take another crack at regulating Wall Street executives' pay - an outstanding requirement of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act that has repeatedly failed to materialize. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. aims to vote on a measure in coming weeks, according to people with knowledge of the initiative, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential deliberations. Still, the rules would have to clear a half-dozen regulators before taking effect. Two prior campaigns to do so ended unsuccessfully.
/jlne.ws/3vQV7m4
FTX Investors Settle With Bankman-Fried to Pursue Promoters; Pact would release crypto exchange co-founder from claims; In return he would help them pursue celebrities who pushed FTX
Ava Benny-Morrison and Jef Feeley - Bloomberg
A group of FTX investors and customers has agreed to drop their claims against co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried in exchange for his cooperation against other defendants in a sprawling set of lawsuits over the cryptocurrency exchange's collapse. The agreement, if approved by a judge, would free Bankman-Fried from civil liability only weeks after he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for fraud for stealing billions of dollars from FTX. According to the settlement, filed Friday in federal court in Miami, plaintiffs in the multi-district litigation would resolve all claims against him now and in the future.
/jlne.ws/3UafBhz
Glencore and Trafigura's Sanctions Games Are Draining the LME; Orders to withdraw aluminum jumped sharply this week; US and UK have announced new restrictions on Russian metal
Mark Burton and Jack Farchy - Bloomberg
The world's two biggest metals traders are moving to withdraw large volumes of aluminum from the London Metal Exchange in a complex trade made possible by new UK sanctions on Russian metal, raising questions about unintended consequences from the new rules. Trafigura Group and Glencore Plc plan to withdraw the metal to profit from a new multi-tiered system created by the sanctions, according to people familiar with the matter. The trade involves ordering out Russian metal and then re-registering it on the LME under a new, less-desirable category, while striking profit-sharing deals with warehouses to receive a sliver of the rent paid by future owners for as long as it sits there. (The longer it sits, the more money they stand to make.)
/jlne.ws/44dK5np
FICC takes flak over Treasury clearing proposal; Latest plans would still allow members to bundle clearing and execution - and would fail to boost clearing capacity, critics say Risk.net montage
Paulina Pielichata - Risk.net
A proposal to overhaul the way investors access the services of the sole central counterparty for US Treasuries will do little to increase clearing capacity as dealers will still be allowed to bundle their clearing and execution services, say market participants. "We and a lot of other people were pushing to decouple access to clearing and executing counterparty as part of this change. They did not do that," says a regulatory executive at a market-making firm.
/jlne.ws/3UbJkXm
Denmark Starts Its Largest-Ever Offshore Wind Power Tender; Tender will expand offshore capacity by at least 6 gigawatts; Danish state will take 20% stake, copying model for oil
Sanne Wass - Bloomberg
Denmark has kicked off its largest-ever wind power tender that will more than triple its offshore capacity by the end of the decade. The tender will establish at least 6 gigawatts of wind power at sea in six parks by 2030, in addition to the Nordic country's existing 2.7 gigawatts of offshore supply, the Danish Energy Agency said on Monday.
/jlne.ws/49VnvS0
Carbon Removal Registry Meets Milestone Verifying Its First Project; As corporate climate standards for offsets come under scrutiny, Isometric is forging ahead with plans to verify durable forms of carbon removal.
Michelle Ma - Bloomberg
Carbon removal registry Isometric launched Monday, issuing its first credits to the Stripe-led fund dubbed Frontier. The number of tons Isometric has verified so far is small compared to traditional carbon offset registries, but it could be a step toward fixing an industry recently besieged by controversy. Isometric's first verified removals come from Vaulted Deep, a company that uses a slurry injection technology to sequester carbon-filled organic waste deep underground. A number of other companies, including Equatic and Charm Industrial, have also made agreements with Isometric and are currently undergoing the verification process, according to Isometric founder and Chief Executive Officer Eamon Jubbawy.
/jlne.ws/4d93RV7
In conversation with... AWS's John Kain; The TRADE sits down with John Kain, head of worldwide financial services market development at AWS to discuss the continuing growth of cloud adoption across the trading world, unpacking the evolution of its use in key strategies, market readiness, and how things are set to continue to develop going forward.
Claudia Preece - The Trade
Many of the major exchanges have established formal partnerships with a cloud services provider or have received a significant investment from one in the last couple of years. What's driving this?
/jlne.ws/3wdYGTc
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| Ukraine Invasion | | News about the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and its military, economic, political and humanitarian impact | House approves Ukraine, Israel aid bills
The Washington Post
The House approved a $95 billion package of foreign aid bills that would provide funding for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, among other priorities. The bills moved forward despite a far-right threat to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) if he advanced Ukraine aid.
/jlne.ws/3vPVrBy
Russia Oil Refining Curbed by Flood as Drone Damage Persists; The nation processed 5.22 million barrels a day on April 11-17; Flooding in Urals region has temporarily closed Orsk refinery
Bloomberg News
Russian weekly oil refining is near an 11-month low as flooding hampers operations and repairs to plants affected by drone attacks slow down. Russia processed 5.22 million barrels of crude a day April 11-17, according to a person with knowledge of industry data. That's about 10,000 barrels a day, or 0.2%, below the average of the prior seven days, Bloomberg calculations show.
/jlne.ws/3Q9UlY4
European nations with Patriots hesitate to give their missile systems to Ukraine
Lorne Cook - Associated Press
European Union countries possessing Patriot air defense systems appeared hesitant on Monday to give any to Ukraine, which is desperately seeking at least seven of the missile batteries to help fend off Russian air attacks. Russia's air force is vastly more powerful than Ukraine's, but sophisticated missile systems provided by Kyiv's Western partners can pose a major threat to Russian aviation as the Kremlin's forces slowly push forward along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line in the war.
/jlne.ws/49HL0xL
Prague flash mob advocates Ukraine solution via the Estonian plan
Associated Press Videos
Dozens of volunteers used flags to stage a flash mob in Prague on Sunday to perform the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and to suggest a possible solution through a so-called "Estonian plan." The Estonian plan stresses that Western countries can help Ukraine overcome Russia with minimal effort if they come together. Essentially, it believes that if Western countries commit to supporting Ukraine for at least 0.25% of GDP for four years, Ukraine should be able to defeat Russia.
/jlne.ws/44bIFtv
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| Israel/Hamas Conflict | | News about the recent (October, 2023) conflict between Israel and Hamas | Opinion: The unspoken story of why Israel didn't clobber Iran
David Ignatius - The Washington Post
One rule for containing a crisis is to keep your mouth shut, and the United States, Israel and Iran were all doing a pretty good job at that Friday after Israeli strikes near the Iranian city of Isfahan. Maybe the silence was the real message - a desire on all sides to prevent escalation by word or deed. Over the past week, we've seen what looks to me like a considered decision by Israel to subtly reshape its strategy for deterring Iran and Iranian proxies Hamas and Hezbollah. Israeli deterrence is usually about massive use of offensive military force - a roundhouse punch that seeks to compel compliance through coercion.
/jlne.ws/4d5nKN0
Israel's chief of staff approves continuation of war in Gaza; Part of the plans include a military operation in Rafah on border with Egypt, Israeli media reported. Evacuation of civilians are 'to be expected soon'; Gaza's civil defence said on Sunday that dozens of bodies had been found buried at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, previously raided by Israel
South China Morning Post
Israeli Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi has approved plans to continue the war in Gaza, the military said on Sunday evening. Halevi "authorised the further steps" on Sunday, army spokesman Daniel Hagari said. The Israeli Kan channel reported that part of the plans included a military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah on the border with Egypt. An evacuation of the civilian population is apparently to be expected soon.
/jlne.ws/4b7v1Kv
Israeli Military Intelligence Chief Resigns Over Oct. 7 Failure
Henry Meyer and Galit Altstein - Bloomberg
The Israeli military said the head of its intelligence division quit over the failure to prevent the Oct. 7 invasion by Hamas, an attack that left about 1,200 dead and triggered the ongoing war in Gaza. Aharon Haliva, head of military intelligence, handed in his resignation after 2 1/2 years in the role, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement Monday. He's the first senior Israeli official to step down over the assault by Hamas, an Iran-backed group designated a terrorist organization by the US and European Union.
/jlne.ws/49PVdYK
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| Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | ICE Futures Abu Dhabi reports spike in trading
Luke Jeffs - FOW
Intercontinental Exchange has reported a jump in trading activity on its Gulf-based crude oil market three years after launch. The US group said on Friday trading activity at ICE Futures Abu Dhabi has been ticking up this year, with March's average daily volume (ADV) of 21,500 lots up 152% on the same month last year. IFAD, which launched in March 2021, traded 1.1 million contracts of Murban crude oil futures in the first three months of this year, an increase of 120% on the first quarter of last year.
/jlne.ws/49LTpjM
ICE Environmental Contracts Traded the Equivalent of $1 Trillion in Notional Value for the Third Consecutive Year
Intercontinental Exchange
Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE:ICE), a leading global provider of technology and data, today announced that 2023 marked the third consecutive year where ICE carbon allowance volumes traded the equivalent to $1 trillion in notional value. Trading activity in ICE's global environmental markets is up over 30% year-over-year (y/y) with open interest up 20% y/y. ICE's EU Carbon Allowance (EUA) futures and options, the world's most liquid carbon market and the global benchmark price for emissions, reached record participation throughout 2023 and during Q1 2024.
/jlne.ws/3Ju65AX
ICE First Look at Mortgage Performance: Serious Delinquencies at Lowest Since Mid-2006 as Foreclosures Drop, Prepayments Rise
Intercontinental Exchange
Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE:ICE), a leading global provider of technology and data, reports the following "first look" at March 2024 month-end mortgage performance statistics derived from its loan-level database representing the majority of the national mortgage market.
/jlne.ws/4dbaExB
DTCC Comments on Industry's Affirmation Progress, With T+1 Implementation One Month Away
DTCC
Today, April 22, 2024, DTCC issued the following statement: The implementation of a T+1 settlement cycle in the U.S. is a little over one month away, and market participants continue to prepare for the May 28, 2024, deadline. As firms consider their implementation approach, many are focusing on the importance of achieving same-day affirmation. Our latest analysis shows that in March 2024, 74.95% of transactions were affirmed by the DTC cutoff time of 9:00PM ET on trade date, an increase from 74.5% in February. When considering specific market segments as of the end of March 2024: Prime Broker Affirmation Rate: 83% (flat from February. As more Prime Brokers move to real time affirmation, this rate is expected to increase in April.
/jlne.ws/49PRzhw
Public opinion collection on revision of KOSDAQ IT index industry classification
The Korea Exchange plans to revise the industry-specific index industry classification in accordance with the 11th revision of the Korean Standard Industrial Classification by Statistics Korea. And we will consider revision* to the KOSDAQ industry-specific index industry classification, which is currently divided into (i) general index industry classification (according to the Korean Standard Industrial Classification) and (ii) IT index industry classification (according to the Information and Communication Classification).
/jlne.ws/44bNiUp
Verafin Enhances Financial Crime Management Solutions Suite with Launch of Entity Research Copilot - First of Its Integrated Copilot Capabilities
Nasdaq
Proven Solutions with Integrated GenAI Copilot Features Significantly Improve Investigator Efficiency with up to 90% Reduction in Alert Review Time Compared to Legacy Approaches. Verafin, a Nasdaq company, renowned for its expertise in applying artificial intelligence (AI) and big data technologies to fight crime, announces the launch of Entity Research Copilot, the first of its integrated Copilot capabilities, bolstering its suite of financial crime management solutions. Building on 20 years of technology expertise for anti-money laundering, countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) and fraud detection, Verafin continues its commitment to innovation with the introduction of integrated Copilot features designed to further optimize compliance workflows and streamline operations for financial institutions worldwide.
/jlne.ws/3QeJhZF
Trading schedule on the Moscow Exchange during the May holidays
MOEX
The Moscow Exchange reminds about the regulations for the operation of markets during the May holidays in 2024. On holidays, April 29-30 and May 10, trading will be held on the foreign exchange market, precious metals market, stock market, deposit market, loan market, derivatives market and standardized derivatives market (SDFI). Concluding over-the-counter transactions with a central counterparty (CCP) on the SPFI market on these dates will be carried out with settlements for all instruments, with the exception of SPFI contracts that provide for obligations expressed in Russian rubles.
/jlne.ws/44qGJhf
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| Fintech | | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | Trading Technologies expands TT Premium Order Types offering with new multi-leg spread execution algo
Trading Technologies International, Inc.
Trading Technologies International, Inc. (TT), a global capital markets technology platform provider, today announced the introduction of TT Splicer, a new TT Premium Order Type that provides industry-first functionality for synthetic multi-leg spread trading. Joe Signorelli, EVP & Managing Director, Quantitative Trading Solutions, said: "TT Splicer combines the ease and flexibility of TT's market-leading Autospreader with the power of our best-in-class execution algos to uniquely minimize slippage and optimize trade execution when trading synthetic multi-leg spreads. This is an exciting development that gives our clients the ability to create a host of new trading opportunities and applications that meet their needs."
/jlne.ws/3Qb2gEo
The Job Drought in Finance and Tech Is Ending; An 18-month slump in hiring for white-collar professionals is finally showing signs of stabilizing.
Conor Sen - Bloomberg
The solid economic growth of the past few years hasn't translated for professionals looking for white-collar jobs. A hiring boom in 2021 turned into a slump by the second half of 2022 as rising interest rates and a post-pandemic hangover in key industries led companies to focus on controlling costs. Labor market conditions now appear to be somewhere between stabilizing and improving for these workers, pointing to better times ahead.
/jlne.ws/4b5iVBC
Explainer | How environmental concerns may interrupt Hong Kong's planned border tech hub
Kahon Chan - South China Morning Post
A Hong Kong innovation and technology hub near Shenzhen faces an uncertain future after 10 green groups warned of legal challenges earlier this week if authorities accept the project's "flawed" environment impact assessment report. The Post takes a look at the concerns and how it may affect the city's ambition to increase its advanced technology prowess.
/jlne.ws/3Jv2rXs
OpenAI Slams Musk's 'Revisionist History' in Bid to Toss Lawsuit
Robert Burnson - Bloomberg
OpenAI says Elon Musk's claim that the company has abandoned its altruistic principles in pursuit of profits is nothing more than "revisionist history" and an effort to boost his competing artificial intelligence company. Musk, one of OpenAI's early funders, sued the company and chief executive officer Sam Altman in March, saying it had breached its founding promise to build responsible artificial intelligence when it entered into a partnership with Microsoft Corp.
/jlne.ws/3UadQ3P
Imandra launches new AI assistant for FIX Connectivity suite; Named FIX Wizard, the new offering aims to address shortcomings of LLMs and to provide an AI assistant that reasons logically.
Wesley Bray - The Trade
Imandra has today launched the firm's first artificial intelligence (AI) assistant for its FIX Connectivity suite used by banks and trading firms. Named FIX Wizard and built on Imandra's neuro-symbolic architecture, the new offering automatically reasons complex financial protocols and APIs, serving as an AI assistant for onboarding clients in capital markets.
/jlne.ws/49MfhLM
No Link Too Tenuous for Retail Traders in China AI Gold Rush; Hunt is on for potential homegrown winners - however obscure - as China builds out an alternative ecosystem.
Bloomberg News
Chinese retail investors don't have Reddit. But they do have something else just as associated with stock market hype: exchange-backed Q&A platforms. In recent weeks, these forums were buzzing about one thing: The likely winners as China builds out an alternative AI ecosystem. Since February, users have peppered listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchange boards with over 11,000 AI-related queries, according to data complied by Bloomberg News.
/jlne.ws/4aB6WvA
Meta's AI Push Needs to Efficiently Deliver a Lot More Ad Growth; Facebook parent's valuation has surged, creating new pressure to keep growth up and costs down
Dan Gallagher - The Wall Street Journal
/jlne.ws/3xUlU17
Josh Wolfe: The ChatGPT of Robotics is Coming; What's next in the world of AI?
Tracy Alloway and Joe Weisenthal - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/49MmueD
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| Cybersecurity | | Top stories for cybersecurity | FBI Director Wray Issues Dire Warning on China's Cybersecurity Threat; Chinese actors are ready and poised to do "devastating" damage to key US infrastructure services if needed, he said.
Jai Vijayan - Dark Reading
FBI Director Christopher Wray this week delivered what might be the starkest warning yet on the threat that China-backed hackers pose to US national and economic security.
In remarks at a Vanderbilt University-hosted summit on modern conflict and emerging threats, Wray described Chinese hackers as outnumbering FBI personnel by at least 50 to 1 and standing poised to "wreak havoc" on US critical infrastructure at a moment's notice.
/jlne.ws/44a8J8w
New Research Shows Accelerating AI Adoption is Critical to Public and Private Sector Resilience Against Evolving Cyber Threats
Business Wire via Yahoo Finance
Eighty percent of cybersecurity decision makers say accelerating artificial intelligence adoption is critical to their organization's resilience against evolving threats, but only 31 percent say their organization is using AI today, according to a new study from MeriTalk, government IT's top digital platform, and RSA Conference, the world's leading information security conferences and expositions.
/jlne.ws/4aK4Yt0
Harnessing AI to bolster public sector cybersecurity
Kynan Carver - Security Magazine
The landmark Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence, released in October 2023, encourages federal agencies to use their existing authorities to leverage AI and effectively deploy it to defend against cyber threats.
/jlne.ws/3Q9VvTq
How a Massive Hack of Psychotherapy Records Revealed a Nation's Secrets; Aleksanteri Kivimaki was a hacker wunderkind with a mean streak. Now he's on trial for the largest crime in Finland's history.
Drake Bennett - Bloomberg
The suburb of Courbevoie sits just west of Paris on the left bank of the Seine. It's home to La Défense, a thicket of skyscrapers visible from the city that forms a distant, unlovely terminus to the grand axis extending from the Louvre up the Avenue des Champs-Élysées and through the Arc de Triomphe. Just a short walk from Courbevoie's office towers, at 7:20 a.m. on Feb. 3, 2023, local police arrived at a short-term rental in a modern beige apartment block. They were responding to a domestic violence call.
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| Cryptocurrencies | | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | IRS Unveils Form Your Broker May Send Next Year to Report Your Crypto Moves; The rule that calls for the new 1099-DA isn't finished, yet, but the U.S. tax agency has shared what the form might look like to report brokered sales of digital assets.
Jesse Hamilton - CoinDesk
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has previewed what crypto investors' future tax form might look like when it finishes its much-debated rule on how cryptocurrency transactions should be reported to the federal government. The IRS offered a draft of the 1099-DA form that would be meant to figure out the taxable gains or losses when brokered digital assets change hands. The form reveals the agency will likely have an array of individual token codes that can be filled in, and it includes spaces for wallet addresses and where to find transactions on the relevant blockchain.
/jlne.ws/4dhJnKa
An embargo is an agreement, not a crypto PR hype tactic; Crypto PRs have seized on embargoes to promote their clients; Their misuse of embargoes is hurting reporting on the industry.
Robert Holloway - DL News
One of the least understood aspects of journalism is the news embargo. Not all journalists know how it works. Most readers are probably unaware that it exists. Embargoes were originally agreements between reporters and government agencies or academic journals. "Embargoes used to be a mutual agreement to help distribute complex material in an accurate way," DL News' Editor in Chief Trista Kelley told me.
/jlne.ws/3UqbShi
Bitcoin 'Halving' Cuts Supply of New Tokens in Threat to Miners
Preprogrammed code update cuts daily production to 450 Bitcoin
Miners stand to lose billions of dollars in revenue a year
David Pan - Bloomberg
A highly anticipated Bitcoin software update called the "halving" has been completed, dealing a potential blow to the companies that make money by ensuring that the digital currency functions smoothly and securely. The once-every-four-years event cut in half the so-called mining reward, which is the amount of Bitcoin released from the network to compensate companies known as miners for validating transactions. The modification went into effect as of 8:10 p.m. Friday evening New York time, according to data from analytics website mempool.space and Blockchain.com. The price of Bitcoin was little changed near the $64,000 level following the halving.
Bitcoin Risks Another 'Sell-the-News' Market Move After Halving; JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank say event is mostly priced in already; Token saw letdowns after US ETF approval, record-high run
MarÃa Paula Mijares Torres - Bloomberg
Bitcoin's propensity to rally ahead of much-touted industry milestones is raising the risk that the software modification known as the halving slated for later Friday may turn into another "sell-the-news" event. "Everything that is known is already discounted into the price," Joel Kruger, market strategist at LMAX Group, said in a statement. "With that said, anyone who would have wanted to be buying Bitcoin because of the halving event has already done so, which suggests in the short-term aftermath of the halving, we could see a 'sell-the-news' type of reaction."
/jlne.ws/3UbYXOy
Bitcoin Miners Reap Windfall as 'Runes' Debut Sends Transaction Fees to Record Highs
Bradley Keoun - CoinDesk
Bitcoin's once-every-four-years "halving," which took place late last week, was supposed to bring a steep cut in revenue for crypto miners, since their rewards for new data blocks would drop by 50%. Instead, the simultaneous launch of Casey Rodarmor's new Runes protocol - for minting digital tokens on top of the oldest and largest blockchain - has proven so popular that it's caused massive network congestion, sending transaction fees to record levels and showering Bitcoin miners with a windfall like never before.
/jlne.ws/3Use7Az
Bitcoin Transaction Fees Come Crashing Down Post Halving; After the halving, fees spiked to $146 for a medium-priority transaction and $170 for a high-priority transaction.
Sam Reynolds - CoinDesk
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Stablecoins Could Help Ease T+1 FX Concerns
Shanny Basar - MarketsMedia
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| Politics | | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | Trump Media Suggests Illegal Shorts Are Cratering Its Stock; It's asking Nasdaq to check on 'potential market manipulation'; Shares backing Truth Social trade at about half of recent high
Katherine Doherty - Bloomberg
Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. says an illegal form of short selling might be behind the battering of its stock and it's asking regulators at Nasdaq Inc. to step in. The company backing former president Donald Trump's Truth Social network penned a letter to Nasdaq Chair Adena Friedman asking her to ensure market makers are following rules that prevent "naked" short sales. Trump Media pointed to data that it claims is an indication of "potential market manipulation."
/jlne.ws/446z6fF
Biden Trades Alaskan Oil Tomorrow for Progressive Votes Today; The logic at play is simple: New restrictions in the National Petroleum Reserve won't raise pump prices this summer but could motivate the younger voters the president needs.
Liam Denning - Bloomberg
President Joe Biden's approach to the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska puts ever heavier emphasis on the reserving bit. "Preserve" might be more of an accurate description at this point. The White House just announced a final rule effectively preventing oil development across more than half the 23 million acre area on Alaska's North Slope. It is the latest chapter in Biden's tightrope walk between pump prices and progressives' priorities.
/jlne.ws/3UpRxJ0
This G.O.P. Senate Candidate Says He Grew Up on a Family Farm. Not Exactly; David McCormick has often spoken about his modest upbringing on a farm in Pennsylvania. A close look at his past tells a different story.
Katie Glueck - The New York Times
David McCormick's origin story goes something like this: He grew up in rural Pennsylvania, southwest of Scranton. He baled hay, trimmed Christmas trees and otherwise worked on his family's farm. And from those humble beginnings, he rose to achieve the American dream. "I spent most of my life in Pennsylvania, growing up in Bloomsburg on my family's farm," Mr. McCormick, now a Republican candidate for Senate, told Pittsburgh Quarterly in 2022.
/jlne.ws/4dliCof
Opinion Having exhausted the other options, the House did the right thing on Ukraine
Max Boot - The Washington Post
The last U.S. aid bill for Ukraine was approved in December 2022 when Democrats still controlled both houses of Congress. The Biden administration has been requesting another aid package, with growing urgency, since last August. Now, nearly four months after almost all U.S. aid shipments ran out, the Republican-controlled House finally approved on Saturday a $61 billion aid bill for Ukraine as part of a larger foreign-assistance package. This would seem to vindicate the aphorism (often wrongly attributed to Winston Churchill) that America can always be counted on to do the right thing after having exhausted all the alternatives.
/jlne.ws/3QeiP2u
Pancakes and dancing: how Russia and China are trying to take cultural ties to new heights; Leaders Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin have agreed that 2024 and 2025 are to be Years of Culture; Exchanges between people are 'as important' as political relations between countries, analyst says
Laura Zhou - South China Morning Post
On a windy afternoon in March, as the election was under way in Russia, a crowd of mostly young Chinese celebrated the end of winter in Beijing - Russian-style.
Alongside Russians in traditional costume, they danced and ate pancakes to mark Maslenitsa, an Eastern Slavic folk holiday.
/jlne.ws/3W7hUVa
Norilsk Nickel to move copper smelter from Russia to China as sanctions bite; Vladimir Potanin says metals group will start production in China from 2027 due to difficulties in international payments
Harry Dempsey and Max Seddon - Financial Times
Norilsk Nickel, the metals group controlled by Russia's richest man Vladimir Potanin, will move some copper smelting production from its home country to China, as western sanctions restrict access to key pieces of equipment and cut profitability. Potanin said in an interview with state media outlet Interfax that the mining major plans to replace copper smelting capacity at the Nadezhda plant in the Russian Arctic with new facilities in China from 2027 onwards.
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Lavrov Says Russia, China Almost Dedollarized Their Trade: Tass
Bloomberg News
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What an Indian Deepfaker Tells Us About Global Election Security;
Jillian Deutsch, Saritha Rai, Emily Birnbaum and Shirin Ghaffary - Bloomberg
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| Regulation & Enforcement | | Stories about regulation and the law. | SEC illegally tracking Americans who invest in the stock market, lawsuit claims
Fox News via The New York Post
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is illegally collecting data of every citizen who invests in the stock market, according to a new lawsuit. The New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA) filed the suit Tuesday against the SEC claiming that the agency, through its "Consolidated Audit Trail," or "CAT," program, is collecting mass amounts of personally identifiable data by forcing brokers, exchanges, clearing agencies and alternative trading systems to capture and send detailed information on every investor's trades in U.S. markets to a centralized database.
/jlne.ws/3UrTPah
Global banking regulator sounds out investors on suitability of AT1s; Debt instrument has been in spotlight since holders of Credit Suisse additional tier 1 bonds lost $17bn last year
Owen Walker - Financial Times
The global banking regulator has held high-level meetings with bank executives, investors and credit rating agencies in recent weeks to assess the suitability of a form of debt that was controversially wiped out when Credit Suisse collapsed last year. Bondholders who invested in additional tier 1 - or AT1 - securities lost $17bn when UBS took over its rival Credit Suisse last March.
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FDIC ponders tighter checks on big 'passive' investors in US banks; Proposals would demand asset managers show they are not seeking to control lenders in which they have large stakes
Stefania Palma and Brooke Masters and Stephen Gandel - Financial Times
The US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is working on proposals aimed at ensuring asset managers do not seek too much influence over the banks in which they hold large stakes. Republican board member Jonathan McKernan and the Democratic chair Martin Gruenberg are each crafting measures that would demand new requirements of funds that hold more than 10 per cent of a bank's shares to ensure they remain "passive" investors. One or both could come before the banking regulator's governing body this month.
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Debanking complaints to UK financial ombudsman surge; Thousands of customers take issue with accounts that have been frozen or closed and more cases have been upheld
Akila Quinio - Financial Times
Complaints about debanking in the UK have surged in the past year as more customers turn to the industry ombudsman over concerns their accounts have been frozen or closed. Figures published on Sunday showed individuals and businesses made almost 3,900 complaints about account closures to the Financial Ombudsman Service in the year to April 5 - an increase of 44 per cent from the approximately 2,700 received the previous financial year.
/jlne.ws/3QdgpRy
FCA faces backlash over plan to 'name and shame' companies under investigation; Proposal has angered ministers and City bosses who fear it will drive businesses out of UK
George Parker and Suzi Ring - Financial Times
The UK's top financial regulator is facing a fierce backlash from the government and City executives over its plan to "name and shame" companies under investigation more frequently and at a much earlier stage. The move has caused anger in ministerial circles, fuelling fears that the Financial Conduct Authority's approach to regulation is harming the City of London and driving business abroad.
/jlne.ws/3JwdZdg
Earthquakes, Eclipses, and Enigmas: Remarks at the SEC's 43nd Annual Small Business Forum - Catching up with Small Caps: Lessons learned going public and staying public
Commissioner Hester M. Peirce - SEC
Good afternoon and thank you to the participants in the Commission's 43rd Annual Government-Business Forum on Small Business Capital Formation and to today's panelists. This annual forum gives the Commission direct insights from the companies, practitioners, and entrepreneurs that grapple with our complex regulatory regime. Before I begin, I must remind everyone that my views are my own as a Commissioner and not necessarily those of the Securities and Exchange Commission or my fellow Commissioners.
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Remarks at the 43rd Annual Small Business Forum; Catching up with Small Caps: Lessons Learned from Going Public and Staying Public
Commissioner Jaime Lizarraga - SEC
Good afternoon. It is a pleasure to address the 43rd Annual Small Business Forum.
In 1980, Congress required this annual Forum to assess the state of play in small business capital formation - one of the three fundamental pillars of the SEC's statutory mission. With U.S. equity markets representing nearly half of the world's equity market cap, today's discussions on lessons learned from going public and staying public are timely and on point.
/jlne.ws/3UsBz0C
SEC Charges Founder of Artificial Intelligence Start-Up with Defrauding Investors
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission filed charges today against Michael Brackett ("Brackett"), the founder and CEO of purported artificial intelligence start-up Centricity, Inc., for allegedly engaging in a multimillion-dollar offering fraud.
/jlne.ws/3UboF5F
'Big Tech a priority' says FCA Chief Executive
FCA
In a speech delivered today, the FCA's Chief Executive Nikhil Rathi announced the regulator's plans to examine how Big Tech firms' unique access to large sets of data could unlock better products, more competitive prices and wider choice for consumers and businesses. The speech at a Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum (DRCF) event outlined Nikhil Rathi's focus on Big Tech as Chair of the DRCF, as well as the FCA's response to the Government's White Paper on Artificial Intelligence (AI), also published today.
/jlne.ws/3W4evGN
FCA cancels KBFS Financial Limited's authorisation
UK FCA
We have cancelled the permissions of KBFS Financial Limited (KBFS), preventing them from providing any financial services. KBFS failed to engage with us in an open and cooperative way. KBFS also failed to pay redress awarded to former members of the British Steel Pension Scheme (BSPS) by the Financial Ombudsman Service. Our final decision notice sets out further details.
/jlne.ws/49OsILl
FCA publishes response to British Steel Pension Scheme complaints
UK FCA
We've been investigating a number of complaints, under our complaints scheme, about our actions or inactions in relation to the British Steel Pension Scheme (BSPS). Members of the BSPS worked hard during their employment and have experienced significant worry regarding their financial security in retirement. We found that many BSPS members suffered financial loss after being advised to transfer out of the scheme. Our evidence suggests 46% of all transfers were unsuitable.
FCA looks for members for its advisory committee on secondary markets
UK FCA
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is looking for expressions of interest from market participants to join our advisory committee. The committee was established in 2022 and we are renewing the membership in line with our terms of reference. The purpose of the committee is to support our work in wholesale secondary markets for equities, derivatives, fixed income and commodity derivatives.
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Navigating the UK's Digital Regulation Landscape: Where are we headed?
Nikhil Rathi, Chief Executive - UK FCA
In 2000, the 4 biggest US corporations by market value were General Electric (founded in 1892), Exxon Mobil, drilling for oil since 1911, Pfizer producing medicines since 1849 and Citigroup with origins since 1812. The fifth was Microsoft founded in 1975. Today the top 5 are Microsoft, Apple, Alphabet (parent company of Google) Amazon and Nvidia with Meta not far behind. Microsoft and Apple founded in the 1970s, the others in the 1990s or early 2000s. Just in the 4 years since the DRCF was born, we have seen 5G, generative AI and 4 versions of ChatGPT take hold.
/jlne.ws/3Ur4nXn
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| Investing & Trading | | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | Traders Are Cashing Out of Markets En Masse; Traders just pulled billions out of stocks and junk bonds; Elevated market valuations are now stirring investor angst Denitsa Tsekova and Isabelle Lee - Bloomberg
The great market rally of 2024 looks dangerously close to unraveling as Wall Street's once-invincible bull brigade begins to withdraw its winnings. With Treasury yields breaking out, Federal Reserve hawks ascendant and Middle East strife flaring, money has just been pulled out of equities and junk bonds at the fastest rate in more than a year. Dip-buyers have been muzzled. The S&P 500 fell every day this week as the top seven tech behemoths closed nearly 8% lower, with equity volatility climbing.
/jlne.ws/3w60zBt
Four Financial Questions for Passover; Looking at assumptions on war in the Middle East, the US economy's resistance to rates, risk to Magnificent Seven outperformance, and gold's rising price.
John Authers - Bloomberg
Passover is upon us. On Monday and Tuesday nights, the world's Jews gather to hold their annual seder - a stylized meal in which they tell the story and commemorate the Hebrew slaves' exodus from Egypt. It's become the backbone of other religions. Jesus's Last Supper was a seder, which involves the consumption of unleavened bread and wine, just as in a Mass. Each seder begins with the youngest person present singing four questions to ask why they are doing things differently from all other nights. It's meant to explain the importance of the exodus, but it's also part of the Jewish tradition of questioning assumptions.
/jlne.ws/4aLUmtq
How JPMorgan's Cash Call Beat Bank of America; Jamie Dimon's bank kept much of the pandemic-era gusher of cash in money markets or at the Fed, while BAC invested in bonds.
Paul J. Davies - Bloomberg
When the Federal Reserve flooded the economy with cash during the Covid-19 pandemic it exacerbated a problem for America's largest banks: What to do with all the extra deposits. mNow that interest rates are set to fall four years later, the payoffs from the differing approaches at JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. are abundantly clear: The former's choice to keep spare cash in money markets or at the Fed turned out to be the much more lucrative strategy than investing in bonds.
/jlne.ws/3UcuDmO
Ray Dalio's Famous Trade Is Sputtering and Investors Are Bailing; Post-pandemic era caps a long run of lackluster returns; Funds have lagged 60/40 portfolios for the last five years
Justina Lee - Bloomberg
It was an irresistible pitch. Give us your money, executives at Ray Dalio's Bridgewater Associates and other hedge funds said, and we'll funnel it into a money-minting, sure-thing strategy for the long haul. But now, after five years of sub-par returns, many of the institutional investors who sunk large sums into risk-parity funds, as they're known, are demanding the money back. Investors including public pensions in New Mexico, Oregon and Ohio have yanked out cash, slashing the size of the funds by an estimated $70 billion from their peak three years ago. For many, the pleas from firms for more time - that the next decade in markets is unlikely to resemble the last - ring hollow.
/jlne.ws/4d9Gfju
Trump's biggest flop ever; The collapse of Trump Media came even quicker than I expected.
Emily Stewart - Business Insider
I'm not saying that I am the next Jim Cramer, but I had a point when I wrote just a few weeks ago that former President Donald Trump's social-media company was probably not going to be an awesome stock pick. Was this completely foreseeable and deeply obvious? Absolutely. Trump Media & Technology Group, which owns the conservative Twitter clone Truth Social, went public via SPAC in late March. (For those not familiar, a SPAC, or special-purpose acquisition company, is a shell company that goes public with the intention of buying an actual company later. In the Trump case, the shell company Digital World Acquisition purchased TMTG.) When the merger was completed, the stock - which trades under the ticker DJT - popped to over $70 a share. TMTG's market cap topped $9 billion, and the former president's net worth, on paper, jumped to $7 billion.
/jlne.ws/4d7DcYU
US Dollar's Extended Reign Delivers Stark Wake-Up Call for Markets; Bloomberg dollar index has gained more than 4% this year; US exceptionalism, geopolitical risks underpin the greenback
Ruth Carson, Naomi Tajitsu, Carter Johnson, and Tania Chen - Bloomberg
The world's financial markets are encountering a force they didn't bet on for 2024: A strong dollar is back and looks set to stay. Having entered the year predicting the greenback would decline, investors have been forced into a rethink by a red-hot US economy and sticky inflation requiring the Federal Reserve to hold off cutting interest rates.
/jlne.ws/4a3e9nj
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| Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance | | Stories about environmental, social and governance investing | A Century of Bad Choices Will Haunt Earth for 100,000 Years; Humanity's climate impact is hard to wrap your head around. Calling this era the Anthropocene is a useful way to capture it.
F.D. Flam - Bloomberg
One of the many things to appreciate about our home planet is that buried in its layers of rock is a kind of time machine. These strata tell us so much about our tumultuous history of glaciers, volcanoes and asteroid impacts, as well as the plants and animals that lived, evolved and died over eons. There's no doubt that future geologists or archaeologists will find a lot to interest them in the layer being laid down right now - weird materials from plastic to plutonium and dramatic changes in the nature of fossilized plants and animals. And yet recently, a group of scientists rejected a proposal to give our current epoch a new name: the Anthropocene, derived from the Greek word for human.
/jlne.ws/3QbASWW
Dubai Floods Expose Weaknesses to a Rapidly Changing Climate; Extreme rains brought to a halt one of the hottest and driest cities on Earth.
Laura Millan, Coco Liu, and Zainab Fattah - Bloomberg
The heavy rains that flooded Dubai this week halted air traffic, damaged buildings and streets - and left climate experts and common citizens asking whether one of the world's hottest and driest cities should be better prepared for extreme storms. Weather forecasters knew days in advance that a major storm was heading for the United Arab Emirates and authorities issued warnings asking citizens to stay home. Yet its largest city Dubai was still brought to a halt this week, with one of the worst rain events in decades flooding streets, homes and highways.
/jlne.ws/49LyWLQ
US pushed behind scenes for approval of corporate carbon offset plan; Kerry advisers lobbied for carbon offset approval to channel funds to clean-energy projects in poorer countries
Kenza Bryan - Financial Times
Advisers to former US climate envoy John Kerry's heavily lobbied the world's top corporate climate targets oversight group to reverse its opposition to the use of controversial carbon credits, according to sources familiar with the process. Officials involved in shaping a US clean-energy scheme to channel funds to developing countries made repeated requests to the leadership of the Science-Based Targets initiative over a period of more than two years. The push came ahead of a policy decision by SBTi announced last week to allow companies to use carbon credits to offset their pollution.
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SBTi chief expresses 'deep regret' at corporate carbon offset row
Michael Holder - BusinessGreen
Climate standards-setting body confirms it is pressing ahead with plans to consult on potential changes that could see companies expand the use of carbon credits to tackle value chain emissions. The CEO of the Science-Based Targets initiative has said he deeply regrets the "concern and distress" triggered by the ongoing row over whether the climate standards-setting body should allow companies greater scope for using carbon credits to offset their supply chain emissions.
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What Is ESG Investing and What Financial Risks Does It Highlight?
Saijel Kishan - Bloomberg
In one sense, defining "ESG" is easy - it's an approach to finance and investing focused on managing risks from environmental factors, social issues and questions of corporate governance. Sorting out the differences between ESG and similar, sometimes overlapping strategies is harder, in part because the term has come to mean different things to different people. A boom in the use of ESG factors has fed skepticism that the approach is nothing more than a marketing gimmick, fueling a backlash and regulatory crackdown.
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Extreme weather threatens Irish potato output; Climate change blamed for difficulties facing world's biggest consumers
Jude Webber - Financial Times
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Rooftop solar panels are flooding California's grid. That's a problem; As electricity prices go negative, the Golden State is struggling to offload a glut of solar power
Shannon Osaka - The Washington Post
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The danger of the very serious person
Pilita Clark - Financial Times
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Heatwave-linked deaths in Europe reported up 30% over past 20 years; Meteorological agencies indicate coming June, July and August 'more likely than not' to be warmer than average
Attracta Mooney and Steven Bernard - Financial Times
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EU regulator urges action on climate threat to insurance; Eiopa head says rise in losses from natural catastrophes needs to be addressed by firms and member states
Ian Smith - Financial Times
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China's 'sinking' big coastal cities at risk of floods as sea levels rise, study warns
Holly Chik - South China Morning Post
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Carbon Removal Registry Meets Milestone Verifying Its First Project
Michelle Ma - Bloomberg
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China Is Keeping the Wind Power Revolution Blowing; The West must spend more money on clean technology to rewire the world's energy systems.
David Fickling - Bloomberg
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Heat Pump Makers Woo Contractors in Effort to Spur US Sales; Manufacturers are using free classes and social media to turn contractors into evangelists for energy-efficient heating and cooling.
Stephen Lee - Bloomberg
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World's workers increasingly at risk as climate changes, ILO says
Emma Farge - Reuters
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European firms, banks must boost investment in critical minerals, official says
Eric Onstad - Reuters
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Clean Creatives: Over 1,000 advertising and PR firms promise to reject fossil fuel clients
Cecilia Keating - Business Green
/jlne.ws/3UpW12f
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| Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | Brokers Woo 'Snowball' Buyers With 40% Returns After China Stock Market Rout; Growing price war threatens to erode brokerages' profits; Some investors have lost faith in derivatives after selloff
Bloomberg News
Chinese securities firms are dangling near record-high returns to lure investors back into the market for derivatives that fueled the nation's stock selloff earlier this year, as fallout from the meltdown cuts deeper into their profits from the business. Two "snowball" products issued last month offered coupon rates of more than 40%, a level unseen since at least 2022, according to data compiled by Galaxy Technologies, which didn't identify the issuers. Five brokerages raised the yields on products linked to the CSI 1000 Index in March from the previous month, while six others including CSC Financial Co. joined the competition to offer snowballs tied to the gauge, pushing a GalaTech measure of the average price to a record high, the data show.
/jlne.ws/3WeZB0B
London Broker Peel Hunt Trims Workforce With IPOs Still in Slump; Cuts will affect less than 10 employees, person familiar says; Investment bank expects to report second annual loss in a row
Leonard Kehnscherper - Bloomberg
UK investment bank Peel Hunt Ltd. is cutting some roles across its workforce as the drought in capital markets activity enters its third year. The reduction will affect less than 10 staffers, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named discussing personnel information. A representative for Peel Hunt declined to comment.
/jlne.ws/49Mnf7t
Ken Griffin's Citadel calls Trump Media CEO a 'loser' after he wrote a letter to NASDAQ claiming to be a victim of potential market manipulation
Eleanor Pringle - Fortune
Citadel Securities has blasted the CEO of Trump Media-the parent company of Truth Social-after the executive accused the Ken Griffin-founded company of "potential market manipulation."
/jlne.ws/3Uw2Rn2
BNP Paribas hires 30 to build up new China securities unit; The Paris-based lender is leveraging its European status to slowly expand in China even as some Wall Street firms scale back amid growing US-China tensions; In the past two years, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan have all made rounds of job cuts in Hong Kong and China
Bloomberg via South China Morning Post
BNP Paribas has hired close to 30 people to launch its securities operation in China, re-entering the market after exiting a local joint venture 17 years ago, people familiar with the matter said. The French bank will initially focus on building out its brokerage, research and asset management units after receiving regulatory approval last week. The firm has opted not to expand its onshore investment-banking business due to the excessive costs and a dismal outlook for deals, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private matters.
/jlne.ws/3xMmcY6
Swiss Banks Face $440 Million Hit on Higher SNB Reserve Rule; Central bank raised ratio to 4% from 2.5% from July 1; Jordan had flagged he was mulling the move last year
Bastian Benrath - Bloomberg
The Swiss National Bank is requiring banks to hold more money at the institution, a move that will cut how much interest it pays to them. The central bank is increasing the minimum reserve ratio to 4% from 2.5%, it said in a statement on Monday.
/jlne.ws/3UhtSJA
Rich nations pledge $11bn to World Bank for climate and global crises; Contributions will boost lending to poorer countries as pressure grows
Aime Williams - Financial Times
Eleven wealthy countries have pledged a combined $11bn to fund World Bank efforts to tackle global challenges such as climate change and pandemics. The contributions from countries including the US, Japan, France, Germany and the UK will help to fund the bank's portfolio guarantee scheme, which allows rich countries to pay borrowers' debts, and its hybrid capital instrument.
/jlne.ws/4b9jEBP
Blackstone Makes New $1.5 Billion Proposal to Buy Hipgnosis; Competition heats up for Blondie, Kaiser Chiefs catalog owner; Hipgnosis earlier recommended Apollo-backed Concord's offer
Michael Msika - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/3QeUr0x
BlackRock steps up security for Larry Fink after 'anti-woke' backlash; Asset manager's CEO has become a popular target for criticism over its ESG investing stance
Louis Ashworth and Brooke Masters - Financial Times
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BlackRock Extends Dominance in Fast-Growing Corner of ESG; Morningstar says transition funds' assets rose 25% last year; BlackRock had four of the five best-selling transition funds
Frances Schwartzkopff - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/3xKdVE7
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| Work & Management | | Stories impacting work and more about management ideas, practices and trends. | Thriving, Not Just Surviving: Time Management and Wellbeing for Hybrid Workers
Deanna Ritchie - Entrepreneur
It is no secret that hybrid work models have transformed the professional landscape. According to Gallup, 54% of Americans work in hybrid arrangements. Moreover, six in ten remote employees want hybrid work arrangements. Additionally, eight out of ten employees who are capable of working remotely expect to work in a hybrid or fully remote environment.
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How to be a better manager to Gen Z; Gen Z workers are often misunderstood. However, there are steps you can take to better understand, and support, Gen Z.
Amelia Dunlop - Fast Company
People who were born between 1997 and 2012, otherwise known as the members of Gen Z, are expected to make up more than a quarter of the workforce by 2025. Moreover, teen employment recently reached a 14-year high. As the number of Gen Zers entering the workforce climbs by the day, the conversation has been dominated by how to acclimate these passionate individuals into an ever-changing workplace. And yet, when we talk about Gen Z, they continue to be misunderstood and underestimated.
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The New Rules For Increasing Engagement At Work
Tracy Brower, PhD Senior Contributor - Forbes
Engagement has hit an 11-year low, especially among the youngest workers and those who work remote or hybrid. It's a critical metric and one that leaders and organizations pay close attention to-for good reason. It's correlated with greater productivity, retention, customer service, safety, quality of work and profitability. But engagement is also linked with better experiences for people. When employees are engaged, they tend to be healthier and have higher levels of esteem, fulfillment and happiness.
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| Wellness Exchange | | An Exchange of Health and Wellness Information | Man had rare Covid infection that lasted 613 days, showed extensive mutations; Cases like this increase the risk of more dangerous coronavirus variants emerging, researchers say; The patient eventually died from a flare-up of a previous illnesses and is not known to have infected anyone with his mutated Covid-19 strain
South China Morning Post
Researchers from the Netherlands have reported an extremely long Covid-19 infection in a man who died last year - and warn of the emergence of more dangerous variants of the coronavirus. The elderly man, who was immunocompromised due to previous illnesses, was admitted to a hospital in Amsterdam in February 2022 with a Covid-19 infection, according to a statement.
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The pandemic cost 7 million lives, but talks to prevent a repeat stall
Frances Stead Sellers - The Washington Post
In late 2021, as the world reeled from the arrival of the highly contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus, representatives of almost 200 countries met - some online, some in-person in Geneva - hoping to forestall a future worldwide outbreak by developing the first-ever global pandemic accord. The deadline for a deal? May 2024. The costs of not reaching one? Incalculable, experts say. An unknown future pathogen could have far more devastating consequences than SARS-CoV-2, which cost some 7 million lives and trillions of dollars in economic losses.
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EU approves new antibiotic to tackle rise of superbugs; Pfizer's Emblaveo to be aimed at some of the most dangerous drug-resistant bacteria
Ian Johnston and Michael Peel - Financial Times
The EU has approved a new antibiotic for serious illnesses such as pneumonia and urinary tract infections, marking a step forward in the drive to combat the growing resistance of "superbugs" to existing drugs. Emblaveo, marketed in Europe by US pharmaceutical company Pfizer, combines two existing medicines to tackle so-called Gram-negative bacteria that are among the leading drug-resistance threats.
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Bird Flu Is Infecting More Mammals. What Does That Mean for Us? H5N1, an avian flu virus, has killed tens of thousands of marine mammals, and infiltrated American livestock for the first time. Scientists are working quickly to assess how it is evolving and how much of a risk it poses to humans.
Apoorva Mandavilli and Emily Anthes - The New York Times
In her three decades of working with elephant seals, Dr. Marcela Uhart had never seen anything like the scene on the beaches of Argentina's Valdés Peninsula last October. It was peak breeding season; the beach should have been teeming with harems of fertile females and enormous males battling one another for dominance. Instead, it was "just carcass upon carcass upon carcass," recalled Dr. Uhart, who directs the Latin American wildlife health program at the University of California, Davis.
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| Regions | | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | China's Season of Magical Thinking and Accounting; Beijing's statistics may or may not be cooked. The big numbers still don't tell you how ordinary people are doing.
Howard Chua-Eoan - Bloomberg
Lies, Damn Lies and Geopolitics. The news out of China sounds good: First quarter gross domestic product growth at 5.3% was higher than expected, according to the country's National Bureau of Statistics, handily beating the 5% official target. While some analysts adjusted their China assessments upward, skepticism prevails. Shuli Ren says it's not just because the People's Republic has a reputation for economic numbers that are suspicious, but even if the headline growth figure is accurate, it doesn't reflect how ordinary folks are faring. For one thing, the 5.3% is real GDP, which is adjusted for inflation and, as Shuli says, "doesn't offer useful insights into stagnant income growth experienced by workers and corporations" because China's economy is "experiencing its longest deflationary streak since 1999." She points out that the country's CSI 2000 Index "whose small-cap companies are more sensitive to business cycles, is down 20% for the year."
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China passes mass production milestone in carbon-14 isotope output; Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant in Zhejiang expected to be able to make enough of the material to meet the country's demand; China has been reliant on imports, sourcing supplies from various countries including Canada and Russia
Dannie Peng - South China Morning Post
China has started mass production of a radioactive isotope widely used in science and medicine, putting the country on the path to ending its near-total reliance on imports. State-run China Science Daily reported on Sunday that a commercial nuclear reactor in the eastern province of Zhejiang was mass producing carbon-14, an isotope with applications ranging from detecting bacterial infections to monitoring water quality.
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Beijing wants to make it easier for Chinese companies to list in Hong Kong as the city suffers through its slowest IPO market since 2009
Nicholas Gordon - Fortune
Hong Kong's struggling stock market will get support from mainland Chinese regulators, as the international financial hub tries to snap a four-year losing streak and reinvigorate a moribund IPO market.
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Indonesia's sovereign wealth fund eyes green energy transition in $1bn investment plan; Talks over EV and geothermal energy deals aim to support government's hub ambitions
A. Anantha Lakshmi - Financial Times
Indonesia's sovereign wealth fund is aiming to invest up to $1bn this year with green energy as one of its priorities, as the south-east Asian country aims to become a hub for energy transition on the back of its vast nickel reserves. The Indonesia Investment Authority (INA) is in talks over potential investment in the electric vehicle ecosystem and geothermal energy, and is providing financing for early retirement of coal-fired power plants, chief financial officer Eddy Porwanto told the Financial Times.
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TotalEnergies to Build LNG Hub in Oman Eyeing Marine Fuel Market
Francois De Beaupuy - Bloomberg
TotalEnergies SE and Oman National Oil Co. will build a liquefied natural gas plant aimed at becoming the first hub serving the LNG marine fuel market in the Middle East. The Marsa LNG project, 80%-owned by TotalEnergies and 20% by Oman's OQ SAOC, includes upstream gas production, a 1 million-ton-per-year liquefaction plant to be built in the port of Sohar and a 300-megawatt solar plant to reduce the facility's emissions, the French company said in a statement Monday.
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Austria Lets ESG Investors Dodge Bank Fees With Direct Offering; Investors can tap notes ranging from one month to a decade; Funds earmarked for renewable energy, power grid expansion
Marton Eder - Bloomberg
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Africa's Largest Early-Stage VC Fund Raises $154 Million to Expand Into Egypt; Investors include Allianz, European Investment Bank, Visa; TLcom to use fund for Egypt expansion, invest in more startups
Ruth Olurounbi - Bloomberg
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Bankers Fly in to Take Stock of MBS's Desert Dream
Adveith Nair - Bloomberg
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Colombian Fund Managers Eye $750 Million Fee Bonanza After Senators Tweak Pension Bill; Pension funds will be allowed to charge 0.7% on assets managed; 'Obligatory' funds manage $104 billion for 19 million clients
Oscar Medina - Bloomberg
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