July 17, 2023 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | | John Lothian Publisher John Lothian News | |
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Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff The New York Times has an update on the Canadian wildfires and the impact on the U.S. this week, with an interactive map showing where the most impacted areas will be. The New York Times reported that "Air quality alerts were issued for multiple areas, including the Midwest, the Great Lakes, central Tennessee and North Carolina, as well as the Northeast." And if you are not impacted by smoke in the north, you are being scorched in the southern U.S. with a relentless heatwave that is sending temperatures to triple-digits, The New York Times reports. According to the crypto news organization Forkast, "The municipal government of Beijing plans to train 10,000 engineering talents each year in emerging technologies including blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI) and big data, Chinese state media Xinhua News Agency reported Sunday." According to Yahoo Finance, House Republicans have introduced a number of bills whose "ideas range from making it easier for corporate leadership to summarily dispatch shareholder proposals, to limits on the role of the SEC." Meanwhile in a move in the opposite direction, BlackRock, the world's top asset manager, "said it will offer proxy voting choices to U.S. retail investors of its biggest exchange-traded fund, expanding a strategy that could blunt criticism of how the firm considers environmental, social and governance (ESG) matters," Reuters reported. Scott Nations, president of Nations Indexes, Inc., and a best-selling author, has been named the latest Writer-in-Residence (WIR) of the Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park. Nations will serve as the WIR during the 2023-2024 term and "will assist in advancing the foundation's mission through both traditional media and social platforms, support the development of our educational programming, and mentorship of our student scholarship recipients." Speaking of Oak Park, which is not only home to Ernest Hemingway but to many homes designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, the last home Wright designed that is occupied by the man he designed it for is not in Oak Park but in Pleasantville, N.Y. The Wall Street Journal has the story of Roland Reisley, who has lived in the Wright-designed home for 71 years. One of the problems with today's young people is that not enough of them play golf. Golf courses all across the country have been shutting down in recent years and some of the courses have been repurposed. However, KemperSports and Roger Steele are trying to make golf cool for youth. KemperSports, a leading golf, sports, entertainment and hospitality company, announced last week the first-ever "KemperSports Youth Golf Week" scheduled to take place July 24 - 30 at KemperSports facilities across the country. Youth golf advocate Roger Steele, KemperSports' new community advisor for the #MakeGolfCool initiative is spearheading the program. Former Goldman CEO and U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson has written a commentary in the Financial Times titled "We must stop climate solutions from killing biodiversity" with the subheading "Without thinking through where we put wind and solar facilities, we risk accelerating nature's destruction." Last week there was a story about ugly furniture that is passed down generations. Now The Wall Street Journal has a story about an app that helps capture that story of family heirlooms. The story includes references to several apps that help. I grew up sailing on Geneva Lake in Wisconsin out of the Lake Geneva Yacht Club, the same club that had the late Buddy Melges as a member. I learned to sail from great sailors, including a bond pit trader who would become a co-founder of a major principal trading group. Sailing is a great sport and the Financial Times has weighed in for New Yorkers with a story titled "Join the jetty set: four of New York's best sailing clubs." The subheading is "From novices to skippers, here's where to hoist the mainsail and take in NYC's sights, skyline and sunsets on the water." Have a great day and stay safe and treat people the same way you want to be treated: with respect, equality and justice.~JJL ***** Refinitiv, a business of the London Stock Exchange Group, is hosting a webinar called "ESG due diligence for investments: Identify and monitor ESG risks across the investment lifecycle." The free webinar is available Tuesday or Wednesday, July 18 and July 19, at 10 a.m. ET. You can learn more and register here.~SAED HEAT.gov is the web portal for the National Integrated Heat Health Information System. A collaboration of NIHHIS Federal partners, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Centers for Disease Control, Environmental Protection Agency and others, the site provides information about current weather conditions throughout the United States including news and events; tools and information; and funding opportunities. Visit the portal here.~SAED Our most read stories last Friday on JLN Options were: - Rally-Chasing Day Traders Now Dominate Market for Call Options - European Gas Prices Have Biggest Weekly Loss of the Year - Trading VIX vs. VSTOXX around US debt ceiling negotiations ~JB ++++
Adam Solomons talks about how having a base in London helped RJO grow globally JohnLothianNews.com Adam Solomons, the deputy managing director at R.J. O'Brien Limited, spoke with JLN Correspondent Julie Ros at the IDX 2023 Conference in London in a video interview. He talked about RJO's growth in London over the past 4-5 years and how having a fully functioning FCM there has allowed the company to expand globally. Watch the video » ++++ Goldman Sachs accused of culture of bullying that made staff 'sob through meetings' Simon Foy - The Telegraph Goldman Sachs' former recruitment chief has accused it of creating a "culture of bullying" that caused staff to "sob" through meetings and led to him having a mental breakdown. Ian Dodd, who left the bank in 2021, claimed that Goldman employees frequently "express distress" by crying and that "sobbing through meetings" was common behaviour, according to documents filed in the High Court. /jlne.ws/3DeIbGw ****** Northwestern University can probably find their next football coach from a Goldman alum if this is the case.~JJL ++++ How the ultra-rich use trusts to protect the family fortune if their heirs get sued or divorced Hayley Cuccinello - Insider The rich often use trusts to pass on wealth to their heirs and pay as little tax as possible. Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of the Apple founder, saved at least $200 million in estate and gift taxes using trusts, per ProPublica. Nike founder Phil Knight has used trusts to transfer billions of dollars worth of Nike shares to his heirs tax-free. But taxes are not the only big advantage of trusts, lawyers to the uber-wealthy told Insider. /jlne.ws/44KmKc6 ***** The ultra-rich are different from you and me. We put our trust in people.~JJL ++++ The Big Money behind the Fight to Ban Environmentally and Socially Conscious Investing Jessica Church - Inequality.Org In a recent Gallup poll, the vast majority of Americans surveyed said they were not even "somewhat familiar" with the term "ESG." But on Capitol Hill, Republicans have developed a fixation on the issue, holding not one but two intensely partisan hearings on the topic. "Republicans Are Losing Their Minds Over ESG" read one headline. "Anti-ESG talk leads to partisan fireworks" read another. Now you may be wondering, what the heck is ESG? What's anti-ESG? What the heck is "woke" capitalism? And why should I care? /jlne.ws/3pZuyYC ******This story was originally published on Takeonwallst.com. Interestingly, on their site there is no contact information. The author of the article, who is the "Advocacy and Political Manager" for Take On Wall Street, is a third degree connection on LinkedIn, which means no one I know knows her. No one on their site has any Wall Street experience. ~JJL ++++ Tourists flock to Death Valley to experience possible world-record heat of 55C degrees Jack Evans and Yaron Steinbuch - news.com.au It's the ultimate tourist hotspot. Some people seek refuge from the heat, while others want to steam in it - including tourists flocking to Death Valley National Park for an expected mind-melting world heat record that could be set this weekend. The park straddling California and Nevada is well known for its torrid temps, but sweat aficionados want to experience what's in store at Furnace Creek, where the visitor centre is located, Forbes reported. /jlne.ws/3rwndAq ***** Stupid is as stupid does. H/T Forrest Gump. ~JJL ++++ Friday's Top Three Our most-read story Friday was The Wall Street Journal's Can Men Ever Wear Shorts to the Office? What About Baseball Caps? Our Poll Results May Surprise You. Second was SEC dealt legal setback in effort to tame crypto market, from the Financial Times, about the Ripple case. Third was JLN's Matrix Executions COO Allen Greenberg on Options Trends, 24-hour Trading, and How Tony Saliba Got the Band Back Together, an OIC 2023 video interview John Lothian did with Greenberg. ++++ MarketsWiki Stats 27,376 pages; 245,683 edits MarketsWiki Statistics ++++
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Lead Stories | South Korean 'ant' traders battle hedge funds in swarm on battery shares; Retail investors have driven nine-fold rise in EcoPro's shares this year in echo of US meme stock craze Song Jung-a and Christian Davies - Financial Times An army of South Korean retail traders has sparked a nine-fold rise in the shares of a battery materials producer as it takes on hedge funds betting against the company's stock. The individual investors - known locally as "ants" - have bought a net Won3.1tn ($2.45bn) of shares in EcoPro and its subsidiary, cathode producer EcoPro BM, in an episode with echoes of the US "meme stock" craze, where small traders used platforms such as Reddit to whip up enthusiasm for previously unloved stocks. /jlne.ws/3K0UhXr There Is a Long-Term Danger Lurking in Financial Markets; The premium investors demand for holding longer-maturity assets remains very low. Markets could be in for a wallop if it returns to historical averages. Jon Sindreu - The Wall Street Journal Contrary to popular belief, financial markets have a long-term bias. This isn't always a good thing. There is much talk among investors of a "new regime." Those words headline BlackRock's recent midyear outlook, for example, which emphasized how the trends of the past decade-low interest rates and volatility, with bonds cushioning stock selloffs-have reversed in the past two years. /jlne.ws/44udTeR The SEC Leaves Wall Street Research In a Jam Bill Alpert - Barron's As of this month, many stock analysts might find themselves outlaws. For five years, American regulators shielded Wall Street's research from a European rule that bans money managers from paying for research through trading commissions-a long-established payment arrangement known as "soft dollars." On July 3, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission let that protection lapse. /jlne.ws/44uwcR4 Market maker Citadel set to accelerate credit trading transformation; High-frequency firm started offering US investment-grade bond trading to clients in June Hudson Lockett, Harriet Clarfelt and Nikou Asgari - Financial Times Citadel Securities' entry into America's $10tn corporate bond market looks set to turbo charge an electronic trading revolution in an asset class once dominated by large banks and telephone transactions, say investors and industry executives. /jlne.ws/46Qcp08 Mike Sleightholme Appointed President of Broadridge International Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:BR), a global Fintech leader, today announced the appointment of Mike Sleightholme as President of Broadridge International. Sleightholme, who is based in London, will be responsible for delivering Broadridge's world class customer support along with its rapidly growing portfolio of technology and data solutions throughout the EMEA and Asia Pacific regions - including solutions supporting the capital markets trade lifecycle, global governance and communications, and asset management. /jlne.ws/3ro3Glu Quant funds move into unfettered pink sheet stock trading Nicholas Megaw and Madison Darbyshire - Financial Times Computer-driven investment firms are increasingly trading over-the-counter US stocks, attempting to bring modern algorithmic strategies to a realm traditionally seen as one of the riskiest corners of equity investing. So-called quant hedge funds and proprietary traders are being drawn towards this corner of the market by a combination of improved liquidity and the increasing difficulty they face making money in the large-cap markets they have previously focus on, say investors, market makers and exchange executives. /jlne.ws/43tN4Gj Director of CFTC's Whistleblower Program Steps Down; Christopher Ehrman, who has led the program since 2013, will next represent whistleblowers as a lawyer in private practice. Christina Mengqi Sun - The Wall Street Journal Christopher Ehrman, the director of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's whistleblower program since 2013, is leaving the agency effective immediately and will begin representing whistleblowers as a lawyer in private practice. The derivatives-market regulator said Christina McGlosson, who recently returned to her role as associate director of the whistleblower office after two years in the private sector, will serve as acting director. /jlne.ws/3Q2gHvy Treasury's Sanctions Chief Is Appointed Director of Financial Crimes Bureau; Andrea Gacki, who has directed the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, will be moving over to head the agency's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network Dylan Tokar - The Wall Street Journal The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday said it was appointing Andrea Gacki, who has led the agency's economic-sanctions program, to be director of its Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. Gacki's appointment to lead FinCEN comes as the Treasury division juggles a series of weighty government mandates, from helping to crack down on Russia sanctions evasion to building a corporate ownership database to tamp down on the use of anonymous shell companies. FinCEN serves as the U.S.'s financial-intelligence unit and as an important banking regulator. /jlne.ws/3JZDm7P Global rules leave crypto firms with no place to hide, says G20 watchdog Huw Jones - Reuters Globally agreed rules leave crypto firms with no option but to introduce basic safeguards to prevent the blow-ups seen at FTX exchange and other crypto casualties, the G20's Financial Stability Board said on Monday. The FSB published on Monday final recommendations requested by the G20 on supervising firms that trade cryptoassets such as bitcoin. The watchdog also revised its existing recommendations for stablecoins in light of the demise of TerraUSD/Luna coins. /jlne.ws/3OgLB1F BlackRock offers a vote to retail investors in its biggest ETF; Index fund providers have come under fire from both left and right over their influence on US companies Brooke Masters - Financial Times BlackRock will give retail investors in its biggest exchange traded fund the chance to participate in proxy voting in 2024, as the $9.4tn asset manager moves to rebut Republican claims that it pursues a "woke agenda". /jlne.ws/3OgA9Dc Russia pulls out of Black Sea grain deal; Moscow's move puts at risk tens of millions of tonnes of food exports from Ukraine Max Seddon, Henry Foy and Adam Samson - Financial Times Russia has formally withdrawn from a UN-brokered deal to export Ukrainian grain across the Black Sea, potentially imperilling tens of millions of tonnes of food exports from the war-torn country. President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters on Monday that the agreement had "essentially stopped" and Russia would no longer co-operate with the deal. /jlne.ws/3ryaaP3 Bond King, Felon, Billionaire Philanthropist: The Nine Lives of Michael Milken Miriam Gottfried - The Wall Street Journal Michael Milken wants to live forever. The billionaire, who made his name in the 1970s and '80s as the architect of the high-yield bond market before pleading guilty to securities and tax violations and spending nearly two years in prison, next year plans to begin unveiling a 300,000-square-foot monument to social mobility and capitalism in Washington, D.C. /jlne.ws/3DeGWak US Virgin Islands to seek $190mn from JPMorgan in Jeffrey Epstein trial; Territory is suing bank for allegedly facilitating disgraced financier's sex crimes Joe Miller and Joshua Franklin - Financial Times The US Virgin Islands will seek a payout of at least $190mn from JPMorgan Chase in a looming trial over the bank's alleged facilitation of Jeffrey Epstein's human trafficking in the territory. The demand, contained in a brief filed in court on Friday, comes just over a month after JPMorgan agreed to pay $290mn to settle a similar but separate claim brought by an unnamed Epstein victim on behalf of dozens of other women who allege they were abused at the hands of the late financier. /jlne.ws/3pWefvF Could the Ripple Ruling Spell the End of Regulation by Enforcement? John Rizzo - CoinDesk Opinion The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently had a no-good, very bad day because of a district judge's ruling in the SEC's action against Ripple's XRP token. Despite issuing a statement filled with bravado and the kind of detachment from reality that might make even Donald Trump think twice before pressing send, the SEC likely knows how serious of a rebuke its overall approach to crypto received in a federal court. /jlne.ws/46U5TFu Why It Matters Whether Crypto Coins Like Ripple's Are Considered Securities Lydia Beyoud, and Allyson Versprille - Bloomberg Cryptocurrency traders have been put on notice that the US Securities and Exchange Commission considers a range of widely traded digital assets to be securities, a position that could impose regulatory requirements that many boosters say could be crippling. But figuring out what does or doesn't make a coin a security is a complicated question. /jlne.ws/3rxVCPl Massive US Oil Caverns Sit Empty and Will Take Years to Refill Ari Natter - Bloomberg Stroll through the West Hackberry oil facility on the US Gulf Coast and there's not much to see: some pipelines and other industrial equipment. But buried deep beneath the surface are storage caverns so massive they're tall enough to house the Empire State Building with plenty of room to spare. /jlne.ws/3DigVXO Swiss investor group lawsuit to seek compensation over UBS-Credit Suisse deal Reuters A Swiss investors' association is planning to file a lawsuit seeking compensation for former Credit Suisse shareholders, the latest legal action triggered by the bank's emergency takeover by its cross-town rival UBS. "Due to the large number of inquiries, the Swiss Association for the Protection of Investors (SASV) has decided to coordinate a lawsuit under Art. 105 of the Merger Act," the group said in a statement. /jlne.ws/3pPKr3R One-Third Of Americans Under Heat Alerts As Blistering Weather Spreads To California Eugene Garcia and Janie Har - HuffPost More than a third of Americans were under extreme heat advisories, watches and warnings Thursday as a blistering heat wave that's been baking the nation spread further into California, forcing residents to seek out air conditioning or find other ways to stay cool in triple-digit temperatures. The sweltering conditions were expected to build Friday and through the weekend in Central and Southern California, where many residents should prepare for the hottest weather of the year, the National Weather Service warned. /jlne.ws/3ryKTUQ SEC Formally Accepts BlackRock Spot Bitcoin ETF Application for Review Ryan Ozawa - Decrypt BlackRock's application to offer a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) has been added to the official docket of the Securities and Exchange Commission as part of its proposed rule change process. The move, recorded late Thursday, advances the most closely-watched Bitcoin-related proposal to the SEC to date. /jlne.ws/3XTi3KG Gem Hunters Found the Lithium America Needs. Maine Won't Let Them Dig It Up Alana Semuels - Times The world's richest known lithium deposit lies deep in the woods of western Maine, in a yawning, sparkling mouth of white and brown rocks that looks like a landslide carved into the side of Plumbago Mountain. /jlne.ws/43sMJDU Why it's dangerous to assume banks are profiteering; A minimally profitable banking system is unlikely to prove convincingly robust Patrick Jenkins - Financial Times Print this page"It is taking too long for the increases in interest rates to be passed on to savers." So said UK chancellor Jeremy Hunt this month, responding to the fact that, following the Bank of England base rate hikes of recent months, banks have not increased the interest on savings accounts as fast as they have hiked mortgage rates. /jlne.ws/3pKQzur Hong Kong Is Bullish on Crypto. Its Banks Aren't So Sure; Risk-management models, money-laundering fears have deterred large banks Elaine Yu - The Wall Street Journal Crypto firms used to talk about disrupting the financial system. Now some of them are struggling to find traditional banks that will take their money. That is so even in Hong Kong, where government officials and regulators have launched a charm offensive to win crypto business. Their efforts have included scrapping a yearslong ban on cryptocurrency trading by small investors and launching a new licensing regime for crypto exchanges. /jlne.ws/3DieTa4 This Was the Week Hollywood Elevated AI to Supervillain Status Jesse Levine - Bloomberg The week began with news of a lawsuit from comedian Sarah Silverman and other authors against OpenAI and Meta Platforms Inc. They claim the companies trained their artificial intelligence software using the authors' copyrighted work without permission. By the end of the week, Hollywood actors were on strike, joining screenwriters in their opposition of, among other issues, the use of AI in movie and TV production. /jlne.ws/3DnwxZP
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Ukraine Invasion | News about the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and its military, economic, political and humanitarian impact | Ukraine counter-offensive on brink of 'major breakthrough' The Telegraph Ukraine is on the verge of achieving a major breakthrough as it pushes east on its counter-offensive, Estonia's intelligence chief has said. Ukrainian pressure is beginning to weigh on Russia's demoralised front lines and they could soon crack, Colonel Margo Grosberg said, noting that troops had destroyed Russian command posts and made headway around Bakhmut. /jlne.ws/3rsia3P Russia's Putin Moves to Dismantle Wagner Paramilitary Group Thomas Grove - The Wall Street Journal Russian President Vladimir Putin said the Wagner paramilitary group led by Yevgeny Prigozhin "simply doesn't exist," as he moves to dismantle an organization that was critical to Moscow's war effort in Ukraine before it turned on the Russian establishment in a short-lived mutiny last month. Putin's comments, in an interview published late Thursday in Russian newspaper Kommersant, came days after Russia's Defense Ministry said it had taken control of Wagner tanks, artillery and guns after its involvement in the biggest challenge to Putin in his 23 years in power. /jlne.ws/44OZzO2 Moscow seizes Russian subsidiaries of Danone and Carlsberg's Baltika Polina Ivanova and Adrienne Klasa - Financial Times Moscow has taken control of the Russian subsidiaries of Danone and of Carlsberg's Baltika Breweries, according to a decree signed into law by President Vladimir Putin on Sunday. The decree said Russia was taking under "temporary administration" the shares of Russian companies owned by the French food group and the leading Russian beer producer. /jlne.ws/3XXoXio Russia Pulls Out of the Black Sea Grain Deal; The Kremlin paused its participation in an agreement that allowed Ukraine to export its grain by sea despite a wartime blockade, a deal seen as essential to keeping global food prices stable. Matthew Mpoke Bigg, Daniel Victor and Ivan Nechepurenko - The New York Times Russia said on Monday that it was pausing its participation in an agreement that had allowed Ukraine to export its grain by sea despite a wartime blockade, upending a deal seen as essential to keeping global food prices stable. /jlne.ws/46Uq1aw Explosions on Crimean Bridge Disrupt Key Link to Russia; Russia blames Ukraine for attacking a vital bridge in occupied Crimea. The New York Times A predawn assault on a critical bridge linking the occupied Crimean Peninsula to mainland Russia forced the temporary closure on Monday of a main artery used by its military to support its troops in southern Ukraine, in yet another blow to a Russian military command that was already dealing with internal strife. /jlne.ws/46UYS7q
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Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | Cboe launches new sweep order types to bolster liquidity targeting for traders; Effective from today, the new sweep order types will allow participants to access the dark, periodic auction and lit order books without the need to submit multiple orders. Wesley Bray - The Trade Cboe has introduced new periodic auction book (PAB) to lit sweep order types, which will allow participants to sweep the local Cboe PAB or dark book, before sweeping the local Cboe lit book - in an effort to improve liquidity targeting for users. The new order types are available in the Cboe UK and Cboe NL PABs effective today, The TRADE can reveal. /jlne.ws/3rDNYTi Palm Oil Monthly Update - July 2023 CME Group CME USD Malaysian Crude Palm Oil futures volume and open interest In June 2023, CME Group crude palm oil volume totaled 26,584 lots (664,600 metric tons) and the end-of-month open interest was 47,965 lots (1,199,125 metric tons). /jlne.ws/43sgvbR HfG Photo Promotion Prize 2023 of the Deutsche Boerse Photography Foundation awarded to Madlen Strebel Deutsche Boerse The Deutsche Boerse Photography Foundation has awarded the HfG Fotoförderungspreis 2023 to Madlen Strebel for her project "Two Hours Per Hour". The prize is awarded annually to students at the Offenbach am Main University of Design (HfG) who deal with the medium of photography. As part of its commitment to promoting young contemporary artists, the Foundation has been awarding the euro 3,000 prize annually since 2010. The award ceremony took place as part of the traditional HfG tour on July 14 in Offenbach. This year's jury members were Anne-Marie Beckmann, director of the Deutsche Boerse Photography Foundation, and the Frankfurt gallery owner Peter Sillem. /jlne.ws/3OjalGw Intercontinental Exchange and Black Knight Announce Agreement to Sell Black Knight's Optimal Blue Business to Constellation Software Inc. Intercontinental Exchange Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE: ICE) and Black Knight, Inc. (NYSE: BKI) today announced that, in connection with their previously announced merger agreement for ICE's acquisition of Black Knight, they have agreed to sell Black Knight's Optimal Blue business to a subsidiary of Constellation Software Inc. (TSX: CSU). Under terms of the divestiture agreement, Constellation will acquire Black Knight's Optimal Blue business for $700 million. The structure of the proposed transaction includes a payment by Constellation of $200 million in cash, with the remainder financed by a $500 million promissory note issued by Constellation to Black Knight, as a subsidiary of ICE, at the closing of the transaction. /jlne.ws/46V3HOj Busan Stock Report Copper Delivery In London Metal Exchange 1. Please note that due to an issue with the running of the copper stock report, today's published stock report (14 July 2023) does not show a delivery-in of 500 tonnes of copper in Busan and consequently does not show a delivery in of 500 tonnes for the total copper stock. /jlne.ws/3vimcfa SGX Group to report FY2023 results on 17 August 2023 SGX Group Singapore Exchange (SGX Group) is reporting its full year results for Financial Year 2023 (FY2023) before the market opens on 17 August 2023. The announcement will be posted on www.sgx.com and the details of the results briefing are as follow: /jlne.ws/3PWIhKn Taiwan Futures Exchange Newsletter Taiwan Futures Exchange News and Events. Registration Open for FIA Forum: Taipei 2023. Taiwan Futures Exchange (TAIFEX) and Futures Industry Association (FIA) will jointly host FIA Forum: Taipei 2023 at Shangri-La's Far Eastern Plaza Hotel, at 1:30 pm on August 31. The FIA Forum features two panels: "The Exchanges: What's next?" and "Navigating a Volatile Global Environment," and gathers exchange leaders, industry professionals and experts to delve into the impact of megatrends, such as new technologies, digital assets and ESG, as well as the driving forces and emerging changes that are shaping the markets, and obstacles that impede sustainable growth. More than 300 local and international participants are expected to flock to Taipei to join the Forum and to explore the latest trends, the potential business opportunities as well as to refresh connections. /jlne.ws/44HOmhS
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Fintech | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | Eventus Wins Best Market Surveillance Provider for second consecutive year in 2023 Waters Rankings Eventus Eventus, a leading global provider of multi-asset class trade surveillance, market risk and algo monitoring solutions, has won the award for Best Market Surveillance Provider for the second consecutive year in the Waters Rankings 2023 Awards. Thousands of WatersTechnology's market participant readers across the buy side and sell side voted in this year's Waters Rankings. The honor recognizing the company's software and service is the sixth award Eventus has received from WatersTechnology. /jlne.ws/3K2YPge Trading Technologies wins 2023 Waters Rankings Award for Best Algorithmic Trading Provider Trading Technologies Trading Technologies International, Inc. (TT), a global capital markets technology platform provider, today won the 2023 Waters Rankings Award for Best Algorithmic Trading Provider. The Waters Rankings Awards, in which "best-in-class service providers" are determined by votes from thousands of sell-side and buy-side market participants, recognized the firm for its TT Premium Order Types offering for algorithmic trading. /jlne.ws/3Q03u6d Musk Says Twitter Cash Flow Still Negative, Lifts Rate Limit; He previously said Twitter could be cash-flow positive in Q2; Twitter is facing new competition from Zuckerberg's Threads Alicia Diaz - Bloomberg Twitter owner Elon Musk said the company still has a negative cash flow because of its heavy debt load and a roughly 50% drop in advertising revenue. The social media site will "need to reach positive cash flow before we have the luxury of anything else," Musk said in a tweet. Separately, the billionaire announced late Saturday the platform will increase the number of tweets verified accounts can see each day by 50%, following complaints from users. /jlne.ws/46UG6Nu Microsoft to face EU competition probe over Teams and Office bundling; Investigation would centre on claims US tech giant is unfairly linking its videoconferencing app with popular software Javier Espinoza - Financial times Microsoft is set to be formally investigated by the EU over claims it is unfairly bundling its Teams videoconferencing app Teams with its Office software, as the European Commission turns up the heat on the tech giant. /jlne.ws/3JWOEth Beijing to train 10,000 engineers in digital technologies, including blockchain, each year Tom Zuo - Forkast The municipal government of Beijing plans to train 10,000 engineering talents each year in emerging technologies including blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI) and big data, Chinese state media Xinhua News Agency reported Sunday. /jlne.ws/3OiyOMs
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Cybersecurity | Top stories for cybersecurity | Thousands of Russian officials to give up iPhones over US spying fears Anastasia Stognei - Financial Times Russian authorities have banned thousands of officials and state employees from using iPhones and other Apple products as a crackdown against the American tech company intensifies over espionage concerns. The trade ministry said that from Monday it will ban all use of iPhones for "work purposes". The digital development ministry as well as Rostec, the state-owned company that is under sanction by the west for supplying Russia's war machine in Ukraine, have said they will follow suit or have already introduced bans. /jlne.ws/3PUFnWF Generative Artificial Intelligence: A DevOps Cybersecurity Threat? Meredith Bell - Forbes New tools bring extended capabilities, but they also introduce new vulnerabilities. Business and IT leaders must understand the full implications of onboarding new tools before they allow team members to utilize them on a wide scale. /jlne.ws/3PY9Ina White House Launches Cybersecurity Implementation Plan Karl Greenberg - TechRepublic U.S. President Biden's administration this week released the first iteration of the National Cybersecurity Strategy Implementation Plan, which was announced in March 2023. The plan aims to boost public and private cybersecurity resilience, take the fight to threat actors, beef up the defense of infrastructure and draw a clear national roadmap of cybersecurity responsibilities. /jlne.ws/3NVR4d9 Typo leaks millions of US military emails to Mali web operator; Common spelling error has misdirected sensitive Pentagon messages to a company running Mali's internet domain Jacob Judah, Chris Cook, Mehul Srivastava and Max Harlow and Felicia Schwartz - Financial Times Millions of US military emails have been misdirected to Mali through a "typo leak" that has exposed highly sensitive information, including diplomatic documents, tax returns, passwords and the travel details of top officers. /jlne.ws/3K3hus2
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Cryptocurrencies | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | FTX Sues to Recover $323 Million Spent in Deal for Swiss Firm; FTX significantly overpaid for Swiss firm, suit alleges; Lawsuit expands effort to recover funds for FTX customers Jonathan Randles - Bloomberg Former FTX executives massively overpaid to acquire a Swiss firm where a close associate of Sam Bankman-Fried worked, the failed crypto platform alleged in a lawsuit that seeks to recover at least $323.5 million from beneficiaries of a deal that expanded the platform in Europe. FTX Trading Ltd. said in a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Delaware bankruptcy court that Bankman-Fried and other executives conducted no due diligence, nor engaged in price negotiations before offering to purchase financial services firm Digital Assets DA AG, which was later renamed FTX Europe. /jlne.ws/473u4Se Brazilian CBDC Allows Government to Freeze Funds, Developer Finds Pedro Solimano - Decrypt A blockchain developer has reverse-engineered the code behind the Brazilian Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) and discovered an unsettling feature: the government has built in the ability to freeze funds and adjust balances. /jlne.ws/3KoBt4X Bitcoin Miners Face 'Stress Test' in Next Halving: JP Morgan Ryan Ozawa - Decrypt Bitcoin miners will face headwinds as the hash rate reaches new record highs ahead of the upcoming halving event next spring, with volatile electricity costs and competition among miners pushing up the cost of production, according to analysts at global financial giant JP Morgan. /jlne.ws/3NTjtjP MAS shares recommendations for banks dealing with crypto-related clients Claire Huang - The Straits Times The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has shared a set of guidelines that banks can consider when they deal with clients who have links to digital assets such as exchanges, and individuals whose wealth comes from cryptocurrencies. Developed by an industry working group and issued on Tuesday, the non-mandatory guidelines are a set of best practices to help financial institutions manage crypto-related money laundering, terrorism financing and sanctions risks. /jlne.ws/3pHTHY0 Biggest DeFi Lender Aave Set to Launch Decentralized Stablecoin; Move comes as DeFi advocates double down on stablecoin efforts; Aave says its GHO token will 'diversify' stablecoin landscape Muyao Shen - Bloomberg Aave, a peer-to-peer crypto lender, is jumping into the increasingly crowded stablecoin industry. Aave's lending platform cuts out traditional intermediaries like banks and operates on blockchains including Ethereum, where it sets interest rates based on supply and demand. Stablecoins, which are typically pegged at a value of $1, are popular on such platforms /jlne.ws/3NVnqob Crypto Exchange Binance Finalizes Bitcoin Lightning Network Integration Andrew Asmakov - Decrypt /jlne.ws/3OhMTcQ XRP Ruling a 'Landmark' Judgment, Weakens SEC's Stance Against Crypto: Bernstein Will Canny - CoinDesk /jlne.ws/46UDlM8 Ripple Labs Ruling Throws U.S. Crypto-Token Regulation into Disarray Preston J. Byrne - CoinDesk /jlne.ws/3OrvFKp Ripple's Legal Win Means It's Time for Crypto to Stand Up to the SEC Bill Hughes - CoinDesk /jlne.ws/44rbYYE Ripple XRP Sold to Public Not Securities, Judge Says; Judge said XRP token is a security only in institutional sales; Closely-watched case could shape future of crypto regulation Chris Dolmetsch, Yueqi Yang, and Austin Weinstein - Bloomberg /jlne.ws/3DegE8c
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Politics | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | These Wall Street Execs Are Donating to Trump's Biggest GOP Challengers Erik Uebelacker - Daily Beast A swarm of Wall Street executives have already made big donations to Trump's biggest Republican rivals ahead of the 2024 presidential primary, according to Federal Election Commission filings. CNBC reports the new tallies show that Ron DeSantis has been a popular target for donations from the financial industry; his campaign received the primary election maximum of $3,300 from Goldman Sachs vice president Justin Siegel and venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale. /jlne.ws/44sPhDm Wall Street execs make first bets against Donald Trump in 2024 Brian Schwartz - CNBC A wave of executives in the finance sector made early donations to Donald Trump's primary opponents in the second quarter, as many on Wall Street look for an alternative to the former president to lead the Republican Party in 2024. /jlne.ws/3K0W2ny House Republicans want to change the way shareholder meetings work. Here's how. Ben Werschkul - Yahoo! Finance House Republicans unveiled a push last week aimed at changing how shareholder meetings work as part of their larger campaign against socially-conscious investing. The effort included a whopping 13 bills as well as two separate Congressional hearings devoted to the subject. Some ideas would make it easier for corporate leadership to quickly dispatch shareholder proposals without a vote. /jlne.ws/43umtZC US 'under no circumstances' will pay climate reparations, Kerry says Reuters The United States will not pay reparations to developing countries hit by climate-fueled disasters, John Kerry, the U.S. special envoy on climate change, told a congressional hearing on Thursday. /jlne.ws/3JY17wY UK pension reform push relies on a big bet; Jeremy Hunt's plans to increase allocations to private equity assume returns will stay high with fees falling Toby Nangle - Financial Times The goals of the pensions reforms outlined last week by UK chancellor Jeremy Hunt are noble enough - they are to lift both productivity and pension savings. The reforms seek to do that with a pact among a number of large financial service firms to allocate at least 5 per cent of their defined contribution default fund client assets to unlisted equities by 2030. /jlne.ws/3Dicn3C EU Working on E-Bus for Lithium Deal With Latin American Nations; Seeks to counter China stronghold on green energy supply chain; EC working on a consortium to supply e-buses to Latin America Jorge Valero - Bloomberg /jlne.ws/3rvTc3A New Zealand Urges China to Help De-escalate Pacific Tensions Tracy Withers - Bloomberg /jlne.ws/3Q1ZIti How China's Renewables Boom Is Fueling Its Coal Expansion; Spending on clean and dirty energy go hand in hand due to an antiquated market structure. David Fickling - Bloomberg Opinion /jlne.ws/43BMG92 Goldman Sachs says India will overtake the U.S. to become the world's second-largest economy by 2075 Lee Ying Shan - CNBC /jlne.ws/43vnJvR Modi and Macron Agree on 25-Year Plan to Deepen Cooperation; India's prime minister says defense key to Franco-Indian ties; Modi is guest of honor at French Bastille Day celebrations Ania Nussbaum, and Sudhi Ranjan Sen - Bloomberg /jlne.ws/44nKCm2 India Considers Banning Most Rice Exports on Inflation Fears; Top shipper plans to stop overseas sale of non-Basmati rice; Move may push global prices even higher amid El Niño threat Siddhartha Singh, and Pratik Parija - Bloomberg /jlne.ws/3Q0beoJ
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Regulation & Enforcement | Stories about regulation and the law. | Analysis-Crypto firms facing US SEC charges find hope in Ripple ruling, experts say Jody Godoy and Chris Prentice - Reuters A cryptocurrency developer's landmark legal victory against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will galvanize Coinbase and other companies to resist the agency's attempt to assert its jurisdiction over the industry, experts said. /jlne.ws/44Msl1x SEC Moves to Tighten Cash Requirements for Brokerage Firms Kenneth Corbin - Barron's The Securities and Exchange Commission is proposing to adjust the rules governing how broker-dealers ensure they have enough cash on hand to cover clients' holdings in the event the firm fails. In a unanimous vote, all five of the agency's commissioners advanced a rule-making proposal that would require broker-dealers to calculate each day how much cash they have in a reserve bank account, an increase from the current weekly calculation schedule. /jlne.ws/3OhXbd0 SEC's Strategy for Regulating Crypto Stumbles in Ripple Case; Judge rules some sales of token aren't covered by Supreme Court test Dave Michaels and Paul Kiernan - The Wall Street Journal The Securities and Exchange Commission thought it had a way to regulate crypto-a 77-year-old Supreme Court test that created a catchall definition for obscure securities. The SEC applied the so-called Howey test to go after crypto startups that issued tokens, exchanges that traded them, and even parties that pool investors' coins and lend them out. /jlne.ws/3DeZ7wq Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse Calls SEC a 'Bully' Fresh Off XRP Token Ruling; Judge said XRP is not a security when sold on exchanges; XRP has been relisted on some exchanges after decision Olga Kharif, and Matthew Miller - Bloomberg Ripple Labs Chief Executive Officer Brad Garlinghouse said that a federal court decision Thursday means that its crypto token XRP "is not a security," giving the digital-payments company more freedom to pursue various business opportunities. Speaking on Bloomberg TV, Garlinghouse said the ruling means he no longer has to worry about promoting the various use cases for Ripple and its technology. /jlne.ws/43qkTbj Commissioner Goldsmith Romero Announces Agenda for July 18, 2023 Technology Advisory Committee Meeting Addressing Responsible Artificial Intelligence, Decentralized Finance, (including DAOs), and Cyber Resilience CFTC Commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero, sponsor of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's (CFTC) Technology Advisory Committee (TAC), today announced a detailed agenda for the TAC's July 18, 2023 meeting at the CFTC's headquarters. At that meeting, the TAC will discuss and hear presentations regarding: responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI) in regulated financial services; a deep-dive exploration of regulatory issues facing decentralized finance (DeFi), including decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) and the CFTC's Ooki DAO case; and cyber resilience for financial markets. /jlne.ws/3rnXnhO Director of the Whistleblower Office to Leave the CFTC CFTC The Commodity Futures Trading Commission today announced the Director of the Whistleblower Office Christopher Ehrman will step down from his role today. Mr. Ehrman has led the Whistleblower Office since joining the agency in 2013. /jlne.ws/44u90SX Commissioner Goldsmith Romero Announces Technology Advisory Committee (TAC) Subcommittee Co-Chairs and Members CFTC Commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero, sponsor of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's (CFTC) Technology Advisory Committee (TAC), today announced the co-chairs and members of the TAC's three subcommittees, saying, "It is my pleasure to announce the co-chairs and members of the TAC subcommittees, including recognized technology experts in artificial intelligence, digital assets, blockchain, cloud technology, electronic trading, and cybersecurity. Each of the subcommittee co-chairs and members is an existing member of TAC." /jlne.ws/3DfeYeH SEC Charges Celsius Network Limited and Founder Alex Mashinsky with Fraud and Unregistered Offer and Sale of Securities SEC The Securities and Exchange Commission charged Celsius Network Limited (Celsius) and its founder and former CEO, Alex Mashinsky, for violating registration and anti-fraud provisions of the federal securities laws, including by failing to register the offers and sales of Celsius's crypto lending product, the Earn Interest Program; making false and misleading statements to investors of the Earn Interest Program and Celsius's own crypto asset security, CEL; and engaging in market manipulation as it relates to CEL. /jlne.ws/3DdowXD SEC Obtains Final Judgment Against Former SPAC CFO for Orchestrating $5 Million Fraud Scheme SEC The Securities and Exchange Commission announced today that it obtained a final judgment in a previously-filed case against Cooper J. Morgenthau, the former CFO of African Gold Acquisition Corp., a SPAC or special purpose acquisition company, for orchestrating a scheme in which he stole more than $5 million from the company and from investors in two other SPACs that he incorporated. /jlne.ws/3K1rxhp
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Investing & Trading | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | It's Been a Good Stretch for the Markets, but Not as Good as It Looks Jeff Sommer - The New York Times It has been a fine half year for stocks, money market funds and, to a lesser extent, bonds - so good, in comparison with last year, that you may feel like celebrating when you look at your quarterly portfolio statement. But this rosy picture doesn't capture the entire situation for the mutual funds and exchange-traded funds used by most American investors. /jlne.ws/3OeVRHU Emirates Gold suspended from UAE and UK bullion markets; Gulf state has come under greater scrutiny as a hub for money laundering Harry Dempsey, Simeon Kerr and Joseph Cotterill - Financial Times The UAE has blocked one of the country's biggest gold refineries from delivering into Dubai's bullion market, as the Middle Eastern nation comes under greater scrutiny as a hub for money laundering. Emirates Gold DMCC, which has refined and manufactured gold in the Gulf commercial hub for more than three decades, has been suspended from the UAE Good Delivery list of approved refineries, according to an official document available on the UAEGD website. /jlne.ws/3pPbb4w BlackRock predicts 'trillions' in fixed income investment as profits rise Brooke Masters - Financial Times BlackRock predicted a surge of investment into bond funds once the US Federal Reserve stops raising interest rates as the money manager beat earnings expectations and reported assets under management had recovered to $9.4tn. Investors have flocked to money market funds to take advantage of rising interest rates - pushing the total in US MMFs above $5tn - but BlackRock said much of that horde was poised to shift into fixed income once investors feel sure that yields would not be hit by further Fed action. /jlne.ws/43wohS5 ETFs shrug off pending multitrillion dollar Nasdaq 100 revamp; There is no evidence yet of front-running despite decision to massively reduce weightings of tech giants Steve Johnson - Financial Times A multitrillion-dollar revamp of one of the world's largest stock market indices looks set to be a bit of a damp squib in the exchange traded fund world. The combined weighting of six vast technology behemoths - Microsoft, Apple, Alphabet, Nvidia, Amazon and Tesla - in the Nasdaq 100 index is due to be slashed from the 50.9 per cent they reached at the close of trading on July 7, when the "special rebalance" was announced, to just 40 per cent. /jlne.ws/3pS9BPn XTX profits hit record £1.1bn after volatile markets boost trading firm; Revenues from group's three UK entities jumped 68% last year Nikou Asgari - Financial Times XTX Markets made a record £1.1bn profit last year from its UK entities, cementing the trading firm's position as one of the world's top financial market players. Profits at the London-based company jumped 64 per cent in 2022 compared with 2021, according to figures seen by the Financial Times that have been filed at Companies House. XTX benefited from market volatility triggered by shifting expectations for global central bank policies, sharply rising interest rates and volatility in commodity markets following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. /jlne.ws/3Oj7pK0 How whistleblower Andrew Left became the short-selling villain of the meme stock market craze Charles Gasparino - NY Post One of the oddities of modern securities regulation is just how much you can get away with if you crush small investors by touting speculative penny stocks and how much heat you attract if you warn them about the dangers of these dubious stock pumps. /jlne.ws/44ti5LM
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Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance | Stories about environmental, social and governance investing | Extreme heatwave live: millions in Europe, US and Asia hit by severe heat; China records its highest ever temperature Sam Jones, Rebecca Ratcliffe and Emily Wind - The Guardian Italy told to prepare for most intense heatwave 'of all time'; Sanbao, in western Xinjiang region, reaches 52.2C. Millions in US under warnings as record heat expected to continue. Southern Europe braces for second heat storm in a week. China has confirmed a record temperature of 52.2C (126F) in the north-west of the country on Sunday. Italian health officials intensified heat warnings as the mercury in Rome was forecast to near 40C (104F). California's Death Valley, often among the hottest places on Earth, reached a near-record 52C on Sunday. Firefighters are battling wildfires in the Canary Islands and Greece. /jlne.ws/44tn27A *****More coverage of the global heatwave from Scientific American, The Independent, Politico, DailyMail, and Euronews Climate graphic of the week: Global warming is supercharging weather events, say scientists Aime Williams, Chris Campbell and Steven Bernard - Financial Times Climate change is driving ever more extreme weather events, scientists say, including changing rainfall patterns that caused fatal flooding in the US, South Korea, India and Japan over the past week at the same time as an extreme heatwave called Cerberus is forecast for southern Europe. South Korean rescuers on Sunday pulled bodies from a flooded tunnel where around 15 vehicles were trapped in muddy water, agencies reported, as days of heavy rain triggered flash floods and landslides. An estimated 37 people had died and thousands since heavy rain started a week ago. /jlne.ws/3XWsDAO Extreme wildfires are here to stay. Can human beings really fight them? Henry Mance - Financial Times The fire is in front of me. Wind drags the smoke into my eyes. One of the firefighters steps back, overwhelmed by the fumes. The rest of the line continues to work almost robotically: 10 people swatting with beaters, made of metal and rubber. "Up! Down! Move! Step!" our group leader chants, above the crackle of burning grass. With that rhythm, we try to suffocate the fire. /jlne.ws/3DnwJbv Insurer's Retreat in Florida Signals Crisis With No Easy Fix; Farmers is ending some policies in the Sunshine State as insurers struggle with the rising costs of covering climate change-related damage. No one can agree on whom to blame. Emily Flitter - The New York Times Insurers are trapped in a riddle: In a world where the risk of costly disasters is rising but high premiums are squeezing policyholders and angering state regulators, how can they continue to make money? That question was at the center of the decision by Farmers Insurance this week to stop renewing almost a third of the policies it has written in Florida, becoming the latest insurer to pull business from a state as the industry grapples with the rising costs of covering damage tied to floods, hurricanes, wildfires and other climate-related disasters. /jlne.ws/3pVmgRy Oil giant led by COP28 boss 'to emit close to China's annual emissions by 2050'; The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company is on course to emit more than 11 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases in the next 25 years. Rebecca Speare-Cole - Independent The oil giant headed by COP28's president will emit close to the amount China does annually between now and 2050, a new analysis suggests. The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) is on course to emit more than 11 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases in the next 25 years, according to campaign group Global Witness' analysis of data from industry monitor Rystad Energy. /jlne.ws/3Og38Gn UAE sets 'mid-century' goal for fossil fuel phase-down in climate summit agenda Attracta Mooney, Camilla Hodgson and Alice Hancock - Financial Times /jlne.ws/3NVDXbV ESG Summit explores secret sauce for ethical and profitable economic future Arn Menconi - The Aspen Times /jlne.ws/43oyYWV Tucker Carlson's show on Twitter makes ad deal with anti-ESG shopping app Brian Schwartz - CNBC /jlne.ws/3Q3bTpx
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Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | Citigroup profit drops 36% as trading slump casts cloud over earnings Reuters Citigroup's profit tumbled 36% in the second quarter as weakness in the Wall Street bank's trading business blunted gains from its personal banking and wealth management unit. Wall Street traders have hit a rough patch, joining investment bankers whose businesses have been weighed down for months by a slump in dealmaking. Citi's markets revenue fell 13% to $4.6 billion on more subdued activity in fixed income and equities, while its investment banking fees plunged 24% to $612 million. /jlne.ws/3NYgkQ1 Credit Suisse Offers Rare Example of Bank Disclosing EM Debt Natasha White - Bloomberg Credit Suisse is one of a handful of global banks publicly disclosing some loans to poor countries, as most of the rest of the industry instead clings to secrecy, according to a fresh study. The Swiss bank, which was absorbed by UBS Group AG in a government-engineered takeover earlier this year, stands out for its relative transparency around such lending, according to research by UK nonprofit Debt Justice, which looked at multiple data sets spanning the past half decade and through the first half of 2023. /jlne.ws/3DhV16Y JPMorgan, Wells Fargo Bulk Up Reserves for Office Loan Losses; Banks are warning of weakness in the market for offices; JPMorgan assures that office exposure is 'quite small' Natalie Wong, and Max Reyes - Bloomberg Major US banks are warning about the potential for further losses across their commercial real estate lending businesses. JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. boosted allowances for losses tied to commercial-property loans in the second quarter, driven mostly by their exposure to offices, according to earnings releases Friday. Wells Fargo flagged a $949 million increase in their credit loss allowance, primarily for office loans. /jlne.ws/46SBiYV JPMorgan Eyes Sale of $350 Million Loan on Manhattan's HSBC Tower; Lender seeks to offload debt tied to Midtown's HSBC Tower; Bank is offering potential financing to sweeten the deal Natalie Wong - Bloomberg JPMorgan Chase & Co. is looking to sell a loan backed by Manhattan's HSBC Tower as banks face heightened pressure from regulators to reduce exposure to office real estate. The bank has approached potential buyers to take over its roughly $350 million loan on 452 Fifth Ave., according to people familiar with the matter. /jlne.ws/3rvybpK UBS hands EY one of biggest audit deals in global banking Owen Walker and Michael O'Dwyer - Financial Times UBS executives have chosen EY for one of the world's most lucrative banking audit contracts after deciding to retain the Big Four firm following its takeover of Credit Suisse. EY, which has been UBS's external auditor since 1998, will audit the enlarged bank from 2024, according to people with knowledge of the decision. The size of the contract means EY will have to call in staff from other countries to work on the audit, two people said. /jlne.ws/3pQEaoI HSBC Votes Against Big Oil More Often Than Peers, Analysis Shows Alastair Marsh - Bloomberg /jlne.ws/44tdGbY CDS panel rules UBS is sole successor to Credit Suisse after merger Reuters /jlne.ws/46P3EU6 Searchlight Capital buys UK asset manager Gresham for £470mn; Shares in London-listed group soar more than 50% after agreeing to takeover by US investment firm Arjun Neil Alim and Sally Hickey - Financial Times /jlne.ws/3NVTQPB Goldman agrees to take edtech Kahoot private; Transaction that includes private-equity investors General Atlantic values Norwegian group at $2bn Ivan Levingston - Financial Times /jlne.ws/3rwn4No
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Work & Management | Stories impacting work and more about management ideas, practices and trends. | IRS Delays New Payout Rules for Inherited Retirement Accounts Again; Inheritors subject to a new 10-year payout window don't have to take required minimum distributions for 2023 Ashlea Ebeling - The Wall Street Journal The Internal Revenue Service on Friday said it would continue to delay enforcing new rules related to inherited retirement accounts, enabling some inheritors to forgo taking a required distribution for 2023. The confusion for inherited IRA owners comes after Congress changed the rules for inherited retirement accounts in 2019. /jlne.ws/3PZUvC5 Binance Lays Off Over 1,000 Employees; Crypto exchange reduces workforce as Justice Department investigation continues Patricia Kowsmann and Caitlin Ostroff - The Wall Street Journal Binance, the giant crypto exchange, is cutting a big chunk of its workforce during a federal crackdown in the U.S. Over 1,000 people have been fired in recent weeks, according to a person familiar with the moves. The exercise, which is continuing, could result in Binance losing more than a third of its staff, the person said. More employees were laid off this week, according to former employees, who said customer-service workers were heavily affected. /jlne.ws/43t9yY7 How to Build a Blameless Work Culture Vijay Pereira, Benjamin Laker, Jack Tillotson, and David Collings - Ascend We all make mistakes. Forgetting about the water we put to boil 30 minutes ago. Leaving the iron turned on when we're rushing out in a hurry. Remembering the "dinner tonight?!" message from our friend only at lunch the next day. Do we penalize ourselves for these? Probably not. At work, too, it's important to remember that mistakes and misses happen. As a new manager, how you react and respond to them can influence the culture of your team. /jlne.ws/46RYRkz Why You Should Work Less and Spend More Time on Hobbies Gaetano DiNardi - Harvard Business Review As professionals around the world feel increasingly pressed for time, they're giving up on things that matter to them. A recent HBR article noted that in surveys, most people "could name several activities, such as pursuing a hobby, that they'd like to have time for." /jlne.ws/3rvDeqh Microsoft's Sudden AI Dominance Is Scrambling Silicon Valley's Power Structure; The company has quietly cornered the emerging software market, and it's preparing to cash in. Max Chafkin and Dina Bass - Bloomberg There are two ways of looking at ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence chatbot that hundreds of millions of people have tried out since its release late last year. One view, preferred by many politicians and journalists as well as the company that created the app, is that its release was an historic development on par with the Industrial Revolution-or, more troublingly, the atomic bomb. /jlne.ws/42InInT How much is it worth to retain a star CEO? William Cohan - Financial Times /jlne.ws/44reGNO Bias in AI is real. But it doesn't have to exist. Mohar Chatterjee - Politico /jlne.ws/3DhTXjt
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Wellness Exchange | An Exchange of Health and Wellness Information | Drink More Water; The dos and don'ts of hydrating in a heat wave Rachel Sugar - The Atlantic The heat-miserable and oppressive-is not abating. Today, a third of Americans are under a heat alert as temperatures keep breaking records: Phoenix has hit 110 degrees Fahrenheit for two weeks straight, while this weekend Death Valley in California could surpass the all-time high of 130 degrees. Even less extreme heat than that can be dangerous. Recently, in Texas, Louisiana, part of Arizona, and Florida, there have been reports of deaths from heat, and many more hospitalizations. /jlne.ws/43qki9z Pressure Doesn't Have to Turn into Stress Nicholas Petrie - Harvard Business Review When I was in my late twenties, I was diagnosed with stomach cancer. Doctors operated and told me to hope for the best. I returned to Japan, where I was working, and tried to forget about it. The tumors returned a year later, this time in my liver. After a long search, the surgeons found a new procedure to remove them, but I knew this was, again, perhaps only a temporary fix. /jlne.ws/3Ognro1
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Regions | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | Hong Kong Scraps Monday Trading Because of Typhoon Talim Olivia Tam and Dominic Lau - Bloomberg Hong Kong canceled trading in the city's $5.2 trillion stock market on Monday because of typhoon Talim. Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearings Ltd. made the move as the No. 8 signal - the government's third-highest warning on a scale of five - remained in force throughout trading hours. The local observatory lowered the signal by one level to No. 3 at 4:20 p.m. /jlne.ws/43C1mFa Three inconvenient truths about the critical minerals race; China is so far winning the global scramble for metals needed in the green transition The editorial board - Financial Times Few consumers are likely to be familiar with the uses of gallium or germanium. But the chemicals - which are used in solar panels, as well as optical fibres - have acquired newfound fame this month after China announced it would be restricting their export from August 1. The curbs, which seek to preserve Beijing's "national security and interests", are a reminder that the west needs to bolster its efforts in the global scramble to secure metals and minerals that are critical for the green transition and new technologies. /jlne.ws/3OgP3JF Canadian Wildfires Burn a Record 25 Million Acres With No End in Sight; Firefighter killed as wildfires rage in British Columbia; Some 900 active fires reported, most still out of control Mathieu Dion - Bloomberg Canadian wildfires have scorched more than 10 million hectares (25 million acres) this summer, an area about the size of Iceland, with no end to the burning expected anytime soon. About 900 active fires were reported as of Saturday, most of which remain out of control, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center. One firefighter was killed Thursday after a tree fell on her. /jlne.ws/3DgBNhX Oil Capital of Canada Sees Home Prices Jump as Newcomers Rush In; Arrivals from abroad, other provinces boost Alberta population; Calgary home prices less than half those in Toronto, Vancouver Kevin Orland - Bloomberg Home prices in Canadian oil country are surging, driven by a rush of newcomers from abroad - as well as from more expensive markets across the nation. Calgary - the largest city in the oil-rich province of Alberta - saw its benchmark home price in June rise 1.5% from a month earlier, according to data from the Canadian Real Estate Association released Friday. /jlne.ws/3ryMXfy
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Miscellaneous | Stories that don't quite fit under the other sections | Rev. Jesse Jackson handing the reins of Rainbow/PUSH to Dallas pastor Darcel Rockett and Robert Channick - Chicago Tribune The Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., who was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease eight years ago, is stepping down from the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, the influential Chicago-based civil rights organization he founded through its predecessor, Operation PUSH, more than 50 years ago. After ceding day-to-day operations last year, Jackson, 81, is formally handing the reins to his successor, the Rev. Frederick Douglass Haynes III, a senior pastor of friendship at West Baptist Church in Dallas. /jlne.ws/3DiQ79U
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