| February 12, 2025 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | |  | John Lothian
Publisher
John Lothian News | |
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Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff
Former CFTC Commissioner Brian Quintenz is President Trump's pick as the new CFTC chairman, Bloomberg reported yesterday. JLN reported the news on LinkedIn based on the same document Bloomberg's report cited. Quintenz previously headed the CFTC Technology Advisory Committee, of which I was a member.
The Chicago Stock Exchange, now known as NYSE Chicago, is moving to Texas to be reincorporated and will be known as NYSE Texas, ICE said in a press release. Clearly this move is meant to blunt the upcoming launch of the Texas Stock Exchange (TXSE), which has been a straight shooter about taking on the NYSE.
Also, Intercontinental Exchange and Reddit are collaborating to create and distribute data products for the capital markets, ICE announced yesterday. ICE "announced an agreement for Intercontinental Exchange to leverage Reddit's Data API to research, create and distribute new data and analytics products for the financial industry."
What is interesting about this is that it represents a new source of data, something CNBC's Bob Pisani mentioned in part three of his interview with John Lothian News. Part three will be published later today, but here is a short clip in which he talks about the influence of AI on investing and how new data sets could be a differentiating factor. We have part two of his interview in today's newsletter.
Your traditional breakfast staples are becoming increasingly expensive, with egg, orange juice, and coffee prices soaring, Yahoo Finance reports. In January, egg prices hit a record high of $4.95 per dozen, up 53% year over year, due to avian flu outbreaks reducing hen populations. Retailers like Trader Joe's have imposed purchase limits, while Waffle House added a $0.50 per egg surcharge. Orange juice prices are rising due to hurricanes, citrus greening disease, and El Nino weather, impacting production in Florida and Brazil. Coffee futures have surged, with supply shortages in Brazil, Colombia, and Vietnam driving up costs. Coca-Cola (KO), J.M. Smucker (SJM), and Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP) expect further price hikes, with premium coffee pods already at record highs.
It is no wonder that the price of coffee is soaring, as Charles Schwab announced it was expanding 24-hour trading to all of its clients, increasing the number of trading insomniacs exponentially.
Or, if you like to sip bourbon and trade, maybe this is your thing. Sazerac Co. is auctioning a full barrel of 15-year-old Pappy Van Winkle bourbon, expected to yield 125 bottles of 107-proof whiskey, alongside other rare bourbons to benefit California wildfire relief efforts, Bloomberg reported. With Pappy bottles fetching $1,700 each, the barrel could be worth over $212,500, but its exclusivity may drive bids even higher. This marks the first-ever Pappy barrel auctioned by Buffalo Trace, personally selected by the Van Winkle family. Bidding starts at $10,000 on Feb. 13, with $1,000 minimum increments. Additional rare bottles, including the 2024 Pappy Collection and Eagle Rare 25, are available via a lottery system, with entries at $50 per ticket. All proceeds support World Central Kitchen and Another Round Another Rally.
One of the world's great competitions was this week and the winner was Monty. Monty, a dignified giant schnauzer, claimed Best in Show at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, triumphing over top contenders, including a Shih Tzu named Comet and a German shepherd named Mercedes, The New York Times reported. Entering as the nation's top-ranked dog, Monty had previously reached the final round but fell short in past years, making this victory especially sweet. His regal presence, dramatic beard, and polished performance secured him the prestigious title, cementing his place as a Westminster champion.
Here are the headlines from in front of FOW's paywall from some recent stories: LME volumes slip 2% in January as nickel continues rebound, ANALYSIS: Deutsche Boerse wants a key role in new European agenda, ANALYSIS: Exchanges eye OTC flows for growing FX markets, European fixed income experts to discuss market trends, Trump picks former commissioner Quintenz to run CFTC and FIA backs new European commissioner to boost productivity.
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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Our most read stories from our previous edition of JLN Options were:
- 'No Limit' Hedge Fund Fees Eat Up Most Client Gains from Bloomberg.
- VIX Expansion Separating Reality from Fear from tastylive.
- Tuttle Capital files for 'alien tech' ETF from the Financial Times. ~JB
Subscribe to the JLN Options Newsletter HERE (it's free).
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 Bob Pisani: Veteran CNBC Journalist Reflects on Electronic Trading, Investor Biases JohnLothianNews.com In part two of a wide-ranging interview with John Lothian News, veteran trader Bob Pisani of CNBC reflected on the dramatic changes he's witnessed in the financial markets over his decades-long career, highlighting the impact of technology, behavioral finance, and the challenge of market prediction. Pisani, who has covered the markets for CNBC since 1990, pointed to electronic trading as one of the most significant advancements. "Electronic trading destroyed that business, what we call the open outcry model," Pisani said, recalling the bustling trading floors of the past. "It was a more efficient way of transacting. It dramatically increased trading volumes." He also cited decimalization, the move to trading in pennies, as another key development that "dramatically reduced the cost of trading." Watch the video »
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Trading Technologies named to Chartis RiskTech Energy50 rankings of world's major players in energy and risk technology
Trading Technologies
Trading Technologies International, Inc. (TT), a global capital markets technology platform services provider, today was named to the Chartis RiskTech Energy50 ranking of the world's major players in energy and risk technology. Ranked at #14 in its first appearance on the list, TT also won the award for Trade Surveillance: Energy Exchange Traded Markets. Every year, the Energy50 assesses the top 50 energy technology vendors, focusing on their ability to innovate in risk trading analytics, compliance and operational efficiency. The detailed analysis considers factors such as firms' market influence, technological advances and strategic direction, to provide "a complete view of the ways in which these market leaders are driving transformation in the sector."
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***** That multi-asset thing Keith Todd keeps talking about is working.~JJL
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Lutnick Is Exploring 'Trade Tools' to Target ESG Rules in EU; EU rule called CSDDD imposes 'significant burden,' he says; Lutnick made comments last month in meetings with GOP senators
Frances Schwartzkopff - Bloomberg
The US may use "trade tools" to retaliate against European ESG regulations that affect American companies, said Howard Lutnick, US President Donald Trump's pick to become commerce secretary. Lutnick was referring specifically to the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. He told Republican senators last month that he's concerned by the extent to which environmental, social and governance regulations formulated in Brussels are impacting US businesses.
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****** How dare the EU ask the USA to do good?~JJL
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Tuesday's Top Three
Our top clicked story Tuesday was RJ O'Brien reaches strategic agreement with commodities fintech, from FOW. Second was 'Dating or Defrauding?' a Joint Effort to Alert Online Daters, Social Media Users of Relationship Investment Scams, a press release from the CFTC. Third was the Notice of Disciplinary Action from the CME Group against Derrick D'Angelo Edwards for violating COMEX Rule 432 by failing to appear for an interview in a disruptive trading investigation.
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| Lead Stories | Trump Plans to Pick Quintenz as Head of US Derivatives Regulator
Lydia Beyoud, Paige Smith and Nicola M White - Bloomberg
President Donald Trump plans to pick Brian Quintenz, the head of policy at Andreessen Horowitz's a16z crypto arm, to lead the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, according to a document sent by the White House to Capitol Hill that was reviewed by Bloomberg News. Quintenz served as a Republican commissioner at the CFTC during the first Trump administration before joining the venture capital firm. The agency is the primary US watchdog for the roughly $400 trillion swaps market and other derivatives.
/jlne.ws/4aWLKB8
The New York Stock Exchange to Launch NYSE Texas
Intercontinental Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange, part of Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE: ICE), a leading global provider of technology and data, today announced plans to launch NYSE Texas, a fully electronic equities exchange, headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Pending the effectiveness of regulatory filings, NYSE Chicago will reincorporate in Texas and be renamed NYSE Texas, offering companies the opportunity to list their securities on NYSE Texas. "As the state with the largest number of NYSE listings, representing over $3.7 trillion in market value for our community, Texas is a market leader in fostering a pro-business atmosphere," said Lynn Martin, President, NYSE Group. "We are delighted to expand our presence in the Lone Star State, which plays a key role in driving our U.S. economy forward." Building on the NYSE's 230 years of experience as the world's leading exchange operator, the launch of NYSE Texas will provide public companies with a listing and trading venue centered within the vibrant economy of the southwestern U.S.
/jlne.ws/3Etmh6b
Intercontinental Exchange and Reddit Collaborate to Create and Distribute Data Products for Capital Markets
Intercontinental Exchange, Inc.
Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE: ICE), a leading global provider of technology and data, and Reddit, Inc., a community of communities, today announced an agreement for Intercontinental Exchange to leverage Reddit's Data API to research, create and distribute new data and analytics products for the financial industry. The products will leverage Intercontinental Exchange's extensive data science expertise and the vast data available through Reddit's Data API to offer innovative datasets and analytics to participants in capital markets. "The conversations that take place on Reddit on any given day or any given minute can offer a real-time look at the news and trends that are happening around the world," said Jonathan Flesher, VP Business Development and Partnerships, Reddit. "These conversations could be a valuable tool for commercial partners such as ICE to offer new products to their customers to help improve and inform trading strategies or algorithms, or understand public sentiment of markets as they are happening in real time."
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Deutsche Boerse Seeks Pitches for IPO of ISS Stoxx; Exchange operator could list analytics unit in Frankfurt; There's a possibility of listing ISS Stoxx in the US
Swetha Gopinath, Eyk Henning, and Aaron Kirchfeld - Bloomberg
Deutsche Boerse AS has asked for bank proposals for a potential initial public offering of its governance data and analytics unit ISS Stoxx, according to people familiar with the matter. The German exchange operator has asked for pitches on listing ISS Stoxx in Frankfurt, with a possibility of also floating the business in the US, the people said. While Deutsche Boerse is moving ahead with the IPO preparations, it's still considering the option of buying out General Atlantic's 20% stake in ISS Stoxx, the people said.
/jlne.ws/4hQTsiw
America's Most Famous Stock-Market Measure Is More Broken Than Usual; Dow Jones Industrial Average draws outsize attention, presenting a distorted picture of what's going on with stocks
James Mackintosh - The Wall Street Journal
The Dow has always been flawed, but it held on to its status as the iconic gauge of American stocks because a mix of luck and design meant it mostly matched the broader market. No longer. Far from tracking the S&P 500 index of the top U.S. companies, the Dow Jones Industrial Average for the past two years has been left in the shade. It lagged behind the S&P by more than 10 percentage points in 2023 and 2024, a dismal performance matched in only two years since the S&P 500 was introduced in 1957. (Both, 1980 and 1998, were times of economic turmoil.)
/jlne.ws/42UrGNQ
Trump Advisers Eye Bank Regulator Consolidation After Targeting CFPB; Pathways under discussion would attempt to merge FDIC, OCC without Congress
Gina Heeb, Brian Schwartz and AnnaMaria Andriotis - The Wall Street Journal
Trump administration officials are discussing plans to curtail and combine the power of banking regulators-without Congress's input. In recent discussions, Trump advisers and allies have examined whether it is possible to collapse the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. into the Treasury Department, according to people familiar with the matter. They have also discussed combining the FDIC's regulatory role with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency under Treasury. The Trump administration has already taken aim at one financial regulator, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. President Trump over the weekend installed Russell Vought, the head of the Office of Management and Budget, as acting head of the CFPB. Alongside the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, Vought moved at breakneck speed to close the CFPB headquarters and order staff to halt work.
/jlne.ws/40XUDGc
Citadel's Griffin on Trump tariff talk: 'It's a huge mistake'
David Hollerith - Yahoo Finance
Hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin doesn't sound happy with Donald Trump's tariff policies. The founder and CEO of investment firm Citadel on Tuesday called aggressive trade talk from the new administration a "huge mistake," producing chaos that in Griffin's view poses an "impediment" to economic growth. "From my vantage point, the bombastic rhetoric, the damage has already been done, and it's a huge mistake to resort to this form of rhetoric when you're trying to drive a bargain, because it like imprints, it sears into the minds of CEOs, policymakers," Griffin said during an appearance at a UBS conference in Miami.
/jlne.ws/4aYj9eS
Trump trade war about 'to get nasty' as EU plots retaliatory tariffs
Chris Price - The Telegraph
The trade war between America and Europe is "going to get nasty", a European investment bank has warned. Inga Fechner and Ewa Manthey, at ING, warned that "a clash with Europe is inevitable" as Donald Trump ramps up tariffs on the EU and other countries. They said: "President Trump has laid the foundations for further trade escalations. This will not be the last tariff move. Retaliation is on, and it's going to get nasty."
/jlne.ws/419IoYq
BlackRock Now Wants to Become Private Equity's Key Financier
Silla Brush - Bloomberg
BlackRock Inc., the world's largest asset manager, now wants to be a financier for private equity and alternative investment firms. Fresh off a year of almost $30 billion of deals to become a force in managing private credit, financial data and infrastructure assets, Chief Financial Officer Martin Small is starting to sketch out a plan that goes beyond investing client money to include managing capital for alternatives firms.
/jlne.ws/4jSwObo
Trump Advisers Look to Shift US Foreign Aid to Wall Street Ally; Potential shift could give Wall Street a greater role; Comes as Elon Musk dismantles main instrument of US soft power
Shawn Donnan, Joe Deaux, and Daniel Flatley - Bloomberg
President Donald Trump's advisers have discussed shifting billions in funding from USAID to a government-run agency due to be headed up by the dealmaker son of Apollo Global Management co-founder Leon Black, part of an overhaul of how the US wields economic power internationally. The new approach would see reduced humanitarian assistance and a greater role for private equity groups, hedge funds and other investors in projecting economic might as the US competes for influence and strategic projects overseas with China. It comes as billionaire Elon Musk has been pushing - with Trump's blessing - to shut down the $43 billion US Agency for International Development, long a centerpiece of aid efforts.
/jlne.ws/42Y1B0B
WFE FY24 Market Data: Americas Region Leads Global Markets
WFE via Traders Magazine
New data published by the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE), the global industry group for exchanges and CCPs, shows the buoyancy of the Americas region, which continues to lead global markets, despite the lowest level of IPOs worldwide in the last 5 years. The number of IPOs globally fell to the lowest level in the last 5 years, driven by the APAC and EMEA regions, but the number of IPOs in the Americas increased. The Americas and APAC regions reached record trading volumes and market capitalisation, whilst EMEA declined across both indicators. The Americas region reached its highest market capitalisation in the last 5 years, driven mostly by gains in tech stocks.
/jlne.ws/3CO8erp
Singapore Retail Traders Shun Stocks at Home for Buzzy US Market; City-state is trying to revitalize its equity market; Percentage of Singaporeans trading in local stocks is dropping
Audrey Wan - Bloomberg
Kelvin Tan began investing online in 2018, and like many Singaporeans, put all of his money into local stocks. Two years later, he had switched entirely into US equities. "The US market was going very high - individual stocks were just flying up," said Tan, a 38-year-old content creator who trades on Interactive Brokers. "I realized Singapore stocks' returns were not as good." Tan is among a growing group of Singapore investors shifting away from local stocks in favor of US markets. Among Tiger Brokers' Singapore retail clients, trading in local stocks has declined more than 11 percentage points in the past four years, while the majority trading in US stocks has increased.
/jlne.ws/3QdQ9pJ
Charles Schwab Expands 24-Hour Trading to All Its Retail Clients
Georgia Hall - Bloomberg
Charles Schwab Corp. is expanding overnight trading to all of its retail clients as it seeks to capture demand from investors piling into US stocks amid elevated prices. Schwab's retail clients will be able to trade a wider range of securities 24 hours, five days a week, the firm said in a statement. Those include shares of companies in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 as well as hundreds of exchange-traded funds, according to the Westlake, Texas-based company.
/jlne.ws/4jUYTyM
EU 'completely overshooting' on green rules, Siemens Energy boss warns; Brussels faces backlash over regulations as Donald Trump's agenda deepens concerns over region's competitiveness
Laura Pitel - Financial Times
European companies will not become "an inch" more competitive unless the EU radically simplifies environmental regulations, the boss of Siemens Energy has warned, as Donald Trump's nationalist economic agenda heaps pressure on the bloc to respond. Christian Bruch, chief executive of the German maker of wind turbines, power plant turbines and transformers for power grids, said the burden on businesses from rules intended to measure their impact on the environment was "disproportionate" to the benefits.
/jlne.ws/3CQO9AN
EU weighs temporary gas price cap to counter diverging costs with US; Proposal draws backlash from industry, warning it could damage 'trust'
Alice Hancock and Henry Foy and Philip Stafford - Financial Times
Brussels is weighing new powers to temporarily cap EU gas prices, which have recently hit record levels compared with the US. European natural gas prices traded at the highest in more than two years this week, in part because of low temperatures and a lack of wind that has hampered renewable energy production. They are between three and four times higher than in the US, providing a critical handicap to European companies.
/jlne.ws/3COOPH2
UK trader wins fight against extradition to US on insider trading charges; UK Supreme Court on Wednesday quashed extradition of Joseph El-Khouri, curbing the reach of US prosecutors
Alistair Gray - Financial Times
The UK Supreme Court has quashed the extradition to the US of a trader accused of insider trading in an unusual decision by British judges to curb the reach of American justice. The UK's highest court on Wednesday ruled in favour of Joseph El-Khouri, who US prosecutors claimed netted $2mn in profits from an insider trading conspiracy. El-Khouri, a dual British and Lebanese national who lives in the UK, was charged in New York in 2019 and accused of obtaining inside information about prospective mergers and acquisitions of New York-listed companies.
/jlne.ws/40NDy1m
Goldman Sachs abandons IPO board diversity pledge; Wall Street bank is latest major US company to roll back DEI initiative
Joshua Franklin - Financial Times
Goldman Sachs has abandoned a pledge to only take public companies with a certain number of diverse board members, underscoring the increasingly harsh environment in the US around diversity programmes. The Wall Street bank had said in 2020 that it would work on an initial public offering of a company in the US or western Europe only if it had at least one diverse board member, defined broadly as a non-white man. A year later this requirement was lifted to two diverse board members, one of which had to be a woman. The investment bank is now rolling that back. A spokesperson for Goldman referred to a recent US court decision that vacated a Nasdaq requirement for companies to publicly disclose board-level diversity statistics annually and to have, or explain why they do not have, diverse board members.
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| Ukraine Invasion | | News about the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and its military, economic, political and humanitarian impact | Russia says it will never swap Ukrainian territory for Kyiv-held parts of Kursk region
Reuters
The Kremlin said on Wednesday Russia will never discuss trading the Ukrainian territory it holds for areas in Russia's western Kursk region held by Kyiv. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told the Guardian newspaper that he planned to offer Russia a straight territory exchange to help bring an end to the war, including offering pockets of Kursk that Ukraine holds.
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Trump is forcing Europe to a reckoning on Ukraine; The worst nightmare of leaders on the continent is a deal between Putin and the US president done over their heads
Sylvie Kauffmann - Financial Times (opinion)
At the end of a lecture on history and freedom delivered last week in a magnificent 19th-century hall at the Sorbonne university in Paris, the American historian Timothy Snyder had this message for Europeans: if a ceasefire agreement is reached in Ukraine, "you should throw in everything you have to Ukraine - EU membership, troops, massive investment. Otherwise you will live in the shadow of war permanently. This is the hour of Europe, because the US will do nothing."
/jlne.ws/4gFGMds
Hegseth Says NATO Membership Not Realistic for Ukraine; Pentagon chief rules out deploying US troops as part of deal; Defense ministers meet in Brussels to discuss Ukraine
Courtney McBride and Andrea Palasciano - Bloomberg
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the US is committed to a sovereign Ukraine but that a peace deal allowing for eventual NATO membership isn't a realistic outcome. Hegseth also said Wednesday that US troops won't be deployed to Ukraine as any part of security guarantees and that it's not feasible to return Ukraine to its pre-2014 borders, before Russia's invasion of Crimea.
/jlne.ws/4hq8uvT
The Fiercest Fighting of the Ukraine War May Be in Russia; The Times interviewed Russian soldiers who said they face a brutal fight to dislodge determined Ukrainian forces from a sliver of Russian land. Trapped civilians fear catastrophe.
Nanna Heitmann, Anatoly Kurmanaev and Ekaterina Bodyagina - The New York Times
A Russian special forces commander served on four battlefronts across eastern Ukraine after joining Russia's invasion nearly three years ago. He said the most ferocious fighting he has seen is now unfolding back home, as the Russian Army he serves struggles to liberate a sliver of national territory from Ukrainian forces. The protracted battle for the occupied Russian town of Sudzha and the surrounding countryside has unexpectedly emerged as one of the focal points of a war fought over the fate of the Ukrainian state. Both sides have committed a significant share of their limited reserves to control Sudzha, a once sleepy county seat in the Kursk region, near the two countries' border.
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| Middle East Conflict | | News about the current conflict in the Middle East that began with the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. | Why Trump Hit the International Criminal Court With Sanctions
Cagan Koc and Sarah Jacob - Bloomberg
The International Criminal Court sparked an angry response from Israel in 2024 when it issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the nation's former defense minister for alleged war crimes in the Gaza Strip. The government denied the charges, saying its conduct in the conflict is in line with international law, and Netanyahu's office said the ICC's decision was "motivated by anti-Semitic hatred of Israel." Coming to their defense upon his return to the Oval Office, US President Donald Trump called the warrants "baseless" as he authorized sanctions on ICC officials who investigate the US and its allies. The White House said that the ICC drew "a shameful moral equivalency" between Israel's leaders and Hamas, which is designated a terrorist group by the US and launched the deadly attack on Oct. 7, 2023 that sparked the fighting.
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Israel and Hamas Are Teetering Toward War; The combatants have backed themselves into a corner with dueling ultimatums, but even bigger disputes loom
Anat Peled and Summer Said - The Wall Street Journal
Just over three weeks into a cease-fire that has brought the Gaza Strip relative peace, Israel and Hamas are already moving toward a return to war. The combatants have backed each other into a corner, with Hamas saying it won't release hostages until it gets more humanitarian supplies, and Israel saying it will hit pause on the agreement and start fighting again if the militant group doesn't let the hostages go free.
/jlne.ws/3Qin6l7
The Horror Show of Hamas Must End Now
Bret Stephens - The New York Times
On Saturday, Hamas gunmen paraded three skeletally thin Israeli hostages for a propaganda video in which they were forced to thank their captors before their handover to the Red Cross. One of the hostages, Eli Sharabi, returned to Israel to learn that his wife, Lianne, and their teenage daughters, Noiya and Yahel, had been murdered on Oct. 7. It was heartbreaking and grotesque. Other hostages are reported by The Times to have spent their captivity bound, tortured, deprived of food and denied medical care for shrapnel wounds and other injuries. Some have barely seen sunlight in nearly 500 days.
/jlne.ws/4gBXJFG
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| Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | The New York Stock Exchange to Launch NYSE Texas
NYSE
The New York Stock Exchange, part of Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE: ICE), a leading global provider of technology and data, today announced plans to launch NYSE Texas, a fully electronic equities exchange, headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Pending the effectiveness of regulatory filings, NYSE Chicago will reincorporate in Texas and be renamed NYSE Texas, offering companies the opportunity to list their securities on NYSE Texas. "As the state with the largest number of NYSE listings, representing over $3.7 trillion in market value for our community, Texas is a market leader in fostering a pro-business atmosphere," said Lynn Martin, President, NYSE Group. "We are delighted to expand our presence in the Lone Star State, which plays a key role in driving our U.S. economy forward."
/jlne.ws/3Etmh6b
Cash Turnover in Indian Stock Market Slumps as Selloff Continues; Daily turnover on key bourses falls to lowest in over a year; Decline underscores growing pessimism over Indian shares
Ashutosh Joshi - Bloomberg
Trading activity in the cash segment of India's equity market slumped to the lowest in more than a year as a selloff in shares continues on slower economic growth and rising global volatility. The combined daily turnover on India's two key bourses is about $10 billion this week based on the five-day moving average, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The level was previously touched in November 2023 and represents a sharp drop from a record of nearly $26 billion in June.
/jlne.ws/3CMtBJL
Cboe Global Markets Declares First-Quarter 2025 Dividend
Cboe
Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (Cboe: CBOE), the world's leading derivatives and securities exchange network, today announced its Board of Directors has declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.63 per share of common stock for the first quarter of 2025. The first-quarter 2025 dividend is payable on March 14, 2025, to stockholders of record as of February 28, 2025.
/jlne.ws/40YOdGP
CME Group Inc. Reports All-Time Record Annual Revenue, Adjusted Operating Income, Adjusted Net Income and Adjusted Earnings Per Share for 2024
CME Group
CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ: CME) today reported financial results for the fourth quarter and full year of 2024. The company reported revenue of $1.5 billion and operating income of $947 million for the fourth quarter of 2024. Net income was $875 million and diluted earnings per common share were $2.40. On an adjusted basis, net income was $919 million and diluted earnings per common share were $2.52. Financial results presented on an adjusted basis for the fourth quarter of 2024 and 2023 exclude certain items, which are detailed in the reconciliation of non-GAAP results.1
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Performance Bond Requirements - Metal Margin - Effective February 12, 2025
CME Group
As per the normal review of market volatility to ensure adequate collateral coverage, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc., Clearing House Risk Management staff approved the performance bond requirements for the following products listed in the advisory at the link below. The rates will be effective after the close of business on 2/12/2025.
/jlne.ws/4gAkUjx
Important Updates to CME CORE Web-based User Interface - Effective February 13, 2025
CME Group
CME is pleased to announce enhancements to CME CORE, CME's interactive margin calculator tool. Enhancements are being made to the "Margin Calculator" â†' "Rates" page including UI workflow improvements for interest rate swaps and related interest rate futures and options in margin or optimization analysis. A minor but required change is also scope for the test environment direct URL. All enhancements can be tested from February 13 in the test environment and are described below in more det
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Deutsche Borse ends financial year 2024 with strong organic growth and announces new share buyback program
Deutsche Borse Group
Deutsche Borse Group has just published its preliminary financial results for 2024. Please scroll down for the link to the entire report.
/jlne.ws/4gCarEj
IEX Grows Displayed Market Share;
Equities exchange IEX has tripled its displayed market share since June 2024 after introducing new pricing tiers, but said it has maintained market quality.
Shanny Basar - MarketsMedia
Bryan Harkins, president of IEX Group, told Markets Media: "We are particularly proud of our displayed market share as market quality has not been sacrificed for growth. On the contrary, our displayed growth has improved the performance of our dark venue."
/jlne.ws/40UiVAP
JX Advanced Said to Plan March Listing in $3 Billion Tokyo IPO
Yasutaka Tamura - Bloomberg
JX Advanced Metals Corp. is planning to list on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's prime section on March 19 after a share sale that may raise up to ¥460 billion ($3 billion) for its owner, according to people familiar with the matter. The announcement is likely to be made as soon as this week, and the market cap is expected to be about ¥800 billion, according to the people, who declined to be named as the information isn't public. Eneos Holdings Inc., which owns all of JX shares, is looking to sell 50.1% of its stake, or as much as about 58% including an over-allotment option, they said. Details are being worked out and may still change.
/jlne.ws/3EzMnEF
Busan Stock Shape Correction
LME
This notice informs the market that the nickel stock report published on 12 February 2025 will show a delivery-in of 102 tonnes nickel and a delivery-out of 102 tonnes of nickel in Busan. Please be advised that no physical movement of metal will have taken place, rather this is to correct an earlier administrative error whereby nickel warrants were created with the wrong shape.
/jlne.ws/40VmLcT
LSEG Completes Major Coverage Expansion of Tick History - PCAP and Real-Time- Direct Products
LSEG
LSEG (London Stock Exchange Group) has significantly expanded its data offering with the addition of 105 feeds to its historical market data product, Tick History - PCAP, data captured at exchanged data centres with nanosecond precision, and 37 new markets to its Real-Time -Direct (RTD) services, our fastest low latency market data solution. This expansion significantly enhances the depth and breadth of data available to our customers, enabling them to make more informed decisions with real-time and historical data.
/jlne.ws/40Vn2wr
Kicking off 2025 with strong equity and options volume; Strong Volume in January; One-Cent Tick Size Hurts Exchange Competitiveness
Highlights & Recent Developments
MEMX
In January, consolidated industry volume increased by 34% year-over-year to 15.4 billion average daily shares. Higher retail activity in sub-$1 stocks and pre-market activity contributed to volume growth. Sub-$1 activity accounted for 17.0% of industry volume in January 2025, compared to 14.5% in January 2024. Additionally, pre-market activity increased to 6.2% of industry volume, up from 3.5% in January 2024.
/jlne.ws/42RzDTW
MEMX Regulatory Notice Regarding All Exchanges
MEMX
Regulatory Circular 25-04: CAT Clock Synchronization Certification Reminder - Due March 15th
Per the Exchanges' Consolidated Audit Trail ("CAT") Compliance Rules, Industry Members must complete an annual certification for Business Clock Synchronization by March 15th of each year.
/jlne.ws/3CPkuYP
Nasdaq Announces End-of-Month Open Short Interest Positions in Nasdaq Stocks as of Settlement Date January 31, 2025
NASDAQ
At the end of the settlement date of January 31, 2025, short interest in 3,109 Nasdaq Global MarketSM securities totaled 12,170,722,591 shares compared with 12,402,417,655 shares in 3,099 Global Market issues reported for the prior settlement date of January 15, 2025. The mid-January short interest represents 2.69 days compared with 2.56 days for the prior reporting period. Short interest in 1,621 securities on The Nasdaq Capital MarketSM totaled 2,410,655,463 shares at the end of the settlement date of January 31, 2025, compared with 2,424,890,788 shares in 1,635 securities for the previous reporting period. This represents a 1.00 day average daily volume; the previous reporting period's figure was 1.00.
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SIX Launches New Service to Transform Crypto Collateral Management
SIX via BME-X
SIX launched the new Digital Collateral Service (DCS) today, permitting financial institutions to post selected cryptocurrency assets as collateral alongside traditional collateral. The new product offers a solution through which clients can manage traditional securities and cryptocurrency collateral. Firms managing both bonds and bitcoin, for example, can now post both as collateral to cover a single exposure. This will simplify operations for traders and their counterparts significantly, enhancing portfolio management efficiency and minimizing counterparty risk. SIX has developed this service by combining and leveraging expertise from different areas in its international custody business and SDX.
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TMX Group Names Judy Dinn CIO
TMX
TMX Group Limited today has named Judy Dinn as the company's Chief Information Officer (CIO), effective April 1, 2025. Ms. Dinn will be responsible for the strategic leadership of all aspects of technology at TMX, and play an important role in the evolution and execution of the corporate strategy and global growth agenda over the coming years.
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| Fintech | | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | 360T Partners with Quantitative Brokers For FX Algos
Editorial Staff - Traders Magazine
360T, a Foreign Exchange (FX) trading platform and technology provider, and Quantitative Brokers (QB), a provider of advanced execution algorithms and data-driven analytics, have announced a partnership that will make QB's newly launched suite of FX algos available via 360T. Both 360T and QB are part of the Deutsche Borse Group.
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Prosecutors drop some charges against former Wirecard chief; Decision announced in effort to speed up case that has been under way since December 2022
Olaf Storbeck - Financial Times
Munich prosecutors have dropped some of the criminal charges against former Wirecard chief executive Markus Braun as they believe he is all but certain to receive a long prison sentence for the remaining charges in the case. The prosecutors made the decision, announced in a statement by the Munich district court on Wednesday, in an effort to speed up a case that has been under way since December 2022.
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Bloomberg Invests In Daphne
Editorial Staff - Traders Magazine
Bloomberg has announced a strategic partnership with, and investment in, Daphne Technologies (Daphne), an AI powered platform purpose-built for alternative asset managers to normalize and share private markets data. As part of the partnership, Daphne will establish connectivity with Bloomberg to enable straight through data processing by which alternative asset managers can publish private markets data directly to the Bloomberg Terminal.
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Musk's Bid to Control OpenAI Complicates For-Profit Transition
Shirin Ghaffary - Bloomberg
A decade ago, Sam Altman, Elon Musk and a group of other founders launched OpenAI as a nonprofit with a mission to build artificial intelligence that benefits humanity. Now, Altman and OpenAI are pushing to restructure as a more conventional for-profit business - and Musk is using every tool at his disposal to stop it.Musk, who has since launched a rival AI firm, has fired off angry posts about Altman on his social media platform, filed two lawsuits against the company for allegedly straying from its founding principles and asked a court to block the ChatGPT maker's restructuring efforts. Last week, a judge said she was reluctant to immediately issue such an order in a case pitting "billionaires versus billionaires."Following that setback, Musk is shifting his battle with OpenAI from the courtroom to the boardroom. Musk has enlisted a group of wealthy allies for an unsolicited $97.4 billion bid to buy the assets of the nonprofit that controls OpenAI. In a statement, Musk said he hopes to return OpenAI to being "the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was."
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Alibaba Becomes China's New AI Darling With $87 Billion Rally
Bloomberg News
The frenzy over Chinese artificial intelligence is turning Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. into an investor favorite again, injecting new life into an e-commerce giant that had nearly sunk into obscurity following a years-long regulatory crackdown. Alibaba's Hong Kong-listed shares have surged 46% since hitting a 2025 low on Jan. 13, expanding its market value by nearly $87 billion and exceeding the Hang Seng Tech Index's 25% gain in the same period. That makes the stock by far the best performer in China's Big Tech universe in the new year, outshining rivals Tencent Holdings Ltd., Baidu Inc. and JD.com Inc.
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How Did DeepSeek Build Its A.I. With Less Money? The Chinese start-up used several technological tricks, including a method called "mixture of experts," to significantly reduce the cost of building the technology.
Cade Metz - The New York Times
Last month, U.S. financial markets tumbled after a Chinese start-up called DeepSeek said it had built one of the world's most powerful artificial intelligence systems using far fewer computer chips than many experts thought possible. A.I. companies typically train their chatbots using supercomputers packed with 16,000 specialized chips or more. But DeepSeek said it needed only about 2,000.
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ClearDox Recognized for Innovation in Risk Trading Analytics, Compliance, and Operational Efficiency; Prestigious Chartis Research Energy50 Ranking Awarded to The Only Intelligence Platform Designed for Commodities Trading Operations
ClearDox
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| Cybersecurity | | Top stories for cybersecurity | North Korean Hackers Exploit PowerShell Trick to Hijack Devices in New Cyberattack
Ravie Lakshmanan - The Hacker News
The North Korea-linked threat actor known as Kimsuky has been observed using a new tactic that involves deceiving targets into running PowerShell as an administrator and then instructing them to paste and run malicious code provided by them. "To execute this tactic, the threat actor masquerades as a South Korean government official and over time builds rapport with a target before sending a spear-phishing email with an [sic] PDF attachment," the Microsoft Threat Intelligence team said in a series of posts shared on X.
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DeepTempo Completes BNY Ascent Program to Advance AI-Driven Cybersecurity Innovation
Company collaborates with BNY on deep-learning solution for advanced threat protection
BusinessWire
DeepTempo announced today that it has completed the BNY Ascent Program. As part of the program, DeepTempo worked with BNY on evaluating through a proof-of-concept (POC) deployment its LogLM-based software for cybersecurity incident identification. The Ascent program seeks out exceptional early-stage companies worldwide to create new capabilities for BNY and its clients by collaborating on solutions and conducting a POC. "By engaging with cutting-edge companies such as DeepTempo, we have earlier insight to solutions that address challenges and convey competitive advantages," said Joseph Sieczkowski, CIO, Architecture and Engineering at BNY. "The Ascent program streamlines our engagement, creating a collaborative experience benefiting both start-ups and BNY. Our collaboration with DeepTempo highlights our commitment to infrastructure investment, our culture of innovation, and our dedication to testing solutions at the forefront of technology."
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| Cryptocurrencies | | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | Crypto Custody Firm BitGo Said to Weigh IPO as Soon as This Year; The firm was valued at $1.75 billion in a 2023 funding round; Deal in 2021 to be acquired by Novogratz's Galaxy was scrapped
Olga Kharif and David Pan - Bloomberg
BitGo Inc. is considering an initial public offering, according to people familiar with the matter, joining a flood of crypto companies anticipating more support for their plans from regulators. The Palo Alto, California-based company is in talks with potential advisers on a listing as soon as the second half of this year, one of the people said, asking not to be identified as the information isn't public. BitGo raised $100 million in 2023 from new investors at a $1.75 billion valuation. Its backers have included Goldman Sachs Group Inc., DRW Holdings, Redpoint Ventures and Valor Equity Partners, an April statement showed.
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Can Trump make bitcoin useful?; The US president is embracing the cryptocurrency, exciting enthusiasts and concerning sceptics
Nassos Stylianou, Nikou Asgari, Dan Clark, Sam Joiner in London and Irene de la Torre Arenas in Madrid - Financial Times
Holding bitcoin is cool again. President Donald Trump has vowed to make America the "crypto capital of the planet", words that have helped supercharge the token's price to eye-watering six-figure highs. Wall Street banks and money managers are preparing to jump in. Investors hope Trump will turn the often-derided token into a mainstream financial asset and herald a golden era for crypto. The president has signed an executive order to "promote US leadership in digital assets" and this month, crypto and AI tsar, venture capitalist David Sacks, laid out plans for upcoming legislation.
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| Politics | | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | Judge adjusts ruling blocking Musk, DOGE from Treasury Department payment systems
Zach Schonfeld - The Hill
A federal judge Tuesday clarified that a ruling preventing Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing the Treasury Department's payment systems does not extend to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. President Trump and his allies denounced the original sweeping ruling, issued early Saturday before the government could respond. Though U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas agreed to slightly loosen the restrictions, which were ordered by a separate judge, she did not accept the Justice Department's bid to dissolve them entirely. Vargas kept intact restrictions that block political appointees and special government employees, like Musk and DOGE personnel, only exempting Bessent and other senior department leaders whose roles require Senate confirmation.
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Trump to Order Federal Job Cuts as Part of Musk's Downsizing
Hadriana Lowenkron and Gregory Korte - Bloomberg
President Donald Trump plans to direct agencies to work with Elon Musk's government cost-cutting effort to slash their workforces, his latest move to gut the federal bureaucracy. Trump is expected to sign an executive action on Tuesday that orders agency heads to coordinate with Musk's Department of Government Efficiency to "significantly reduce the size of the government" and "limit hiring to essential positions," according to a fact sheet seen by Bloomberg News.
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'Cost and chaos': Donald Trump's metal tariffs sweep across corporate America; Executives grapple with uncertainty and price volatility even before levies come into effect
Claire Bushey in Chicago and Amanda Chu and Gregory Meyer in New York - Financial Times
Donald Trump's threat to impose big tariffs on steel and aluminium is rippling across US industry, with companies ranging from manufacturers to oil and gas drillers facing increasing costs for the metals. Many executives are rushing to find ways to mitigate the political tumult and fallout from rising prices, even though the 25 per cent tariffs will not come into effect for another month. "So far what we're seeing is a lot of cost and a lot of chaos," said Ford chief Jim Farley at an automotive conference on Tuesday.
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What Is SALT, the Tax Deduction Dividing Congress?
Zach C Cohen - Bloomberg
For as long as Americans have paid federal income taxes, they've been able to subtract some of what they pay to their state and local governments from their taxable income. This federal deduction for state and local taxes - the SALT deduction, for short - has a big influence on how the tax burden is divided. It tends to help taxpayers in wealthier, more urban states, where sales taxes are higher and real estate costs more. President Donald Trump's 2017 tax law capped the SALT deduction at $10,000 - the first across-the-board cap on the deduction in its history.
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Trump's Sons Back Friend's Penny Stock, Spurring 84% Price Jump; Trump Jr. and Eric Trump are investing in Dominari Holdings; They will also join firm's advisory board as it pivots to AI
Annie Massa - Bloomberg
Two of President Donald Trump's sons are investing in a small, unprofitable biotechnology firm-turned-investment bank headquartered in Trump Tower, adding to the first family's growing list of business interests from within its own orbit. Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump also joined the advisory board of the firm, Dominari Holdings Inc., according to a statement Tuesday. The news sent shares of Dominari - which traded below $1 as recently as December - surging as much as 84%. That followed a 91% gain on Monday.
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Justice Department's Adams Order Cues Showdown With Wall Street Prosecutors; Move challenges independence of Manhattan US attorney's office; Trump DOJ backed mayor's argument that case was political
Ava Benny-Morrison and Bob Van Voris - Bloomberg
The Trump Justice Department's order that Manhattan federal prosecutors drop the corruption case against New York Mayor Eric Adams sets up an early showdown over the independence of the government lawyers who police Wall Street. Along with white-collar crime, the US attorney's office for the Southern District of New York has long pursued public corruption cases against both Republicans and Democrats. Most recently, it won a bribery conviction against former US Senator Robert Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat who was sentenced last month to 11 years in prison.
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| Regulation & Enforcement | | Stories about regulation and the law. | BlackRock, FDIC Seek to End Regulatory Row Over Bank Stakes
Katanga Johnson and Silla Brush - Bloomberg
BlackRock Inc. and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. are trying to resolve a months-long dispute over the asset manager's stakes in US banks, according to people familiar with the matter. Negotiations began before a Feb. 10 deadline for BlackRock to sign a so-called passivity agreement to comply with new oversight of its stakes.
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Japan Regulator Warns Banks on Risks of Repackaged JGBs; The financial instruments don't have to be marked to market; FSA warns regional lenders they need proper risk management
Taiga Uranaka and Takashi Nakamichi - Bloomberg
Japan's financial regulator urged the country's regional banks to pay closer attention to the risks of investing in so-called repackaged government bonds, which are gaining popularity, people familiar with the matter said. At a regular meeting with regional bank heads on Wednesday, a senior official at the Financial Services Agency told lenders that they should make sure they have proper risk management in place for the financial instruments.
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Philippines Nears Exit From Watchdog's Dirty Money 'Gray List'; Potential removal may bolster Southeast Asian economy; Financial Action Task Force to vote on the matter next week
Ditas B Lopez and Ben Bartenstein - Bloomberg
The Philippines may be removed from a global dirty-money list as early as next week, a potential boost to the Southeast Asian nation following a reform push to counter money laundering and terrorist-financing risks. An on-site visit last month by a team from the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force noted significant progress, according to people familiar with the matter. That means the Philippines could come off the watchdog's so-called gray list on the final day of the FATF plenary on Feb. 21, said the people, who requested anonymity as the deliberations are private. No final decisions have been made.
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Statement on Pause in Litigation Concerning the Climate-Related Disclosure Rule
Commissioner Caroline A. Crenshaw
SEC
Today acting Chairman Uyeda, without the input of the full Commission, has instructed the staff to ask the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals to delay scheduling oral arguments in litigation challenging the Climate-Related Disclosure Rule.[1] The Commission's briefs, "do not reflect [the acting Chairman's] views," he wrote in a statement. As such, the court should be "notified" of certain changes, such as the change in composition of the Commission, and the recent Presidential Memorandum regarding a Regulatory Freeze.[2]
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SEC Obtains Final Judgment Against Trader in Stock Manipulation Scheme
SEC
On January 29, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts entered a final consent judgment against defendant Xiaosong Wang for his role in a stock manipulation scheme that generated millions in illegally obtained proceeds on the trading of stock in more than 3,900 publicly traded securities. The entry of the final consent judgment resolves all claims arising out of the SEC's amended complaint, filed on December 23, 2019 to add two defendants and eight additional relief defendants to the complaint originally filed October 15, 2019, which charged eighteen traders. The amended complaint alleged that the traders manipulated the prices of thousands of thinly traded securities by creating the false appearance of trading interest and activity in those stocks, thereby enabling them to reap illicit profits by artificially boosting or depressing stock prices.
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Financial advice update - February 2025
ASIC
The Financial advice update is a round-up of regulatory developments and issues affecting financial advice.
It covers all areas of financial advice regulation and includes a broad range of content relevant to Australian financial services (AFS) licensees who are advice licensees and financial advisers.
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FMA provides clarity to e-money/payment services providers on licensing requirements
FMA
The FMA is pleased to clarify the licensing requirements for e-money and payment service providers. In short, there is no specific licence for e-money institutions or payments service providers in New Zealand. Instead, providers will have a range of obligations under New Zealand's financial services regulatory regime, either through the Financial Markets Conduct Act, or the Non-bank Deposit Takers Act. The level of regulation will largely depend on whether providers are issuing debt securities as part of their service offering. This would be the case if, in connection with the e-money or payments service, providers accept customer deposits or other repayable funds (other than on trust).
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Joint session of the 54th general meeting of Financial System Council and the 42nd meeting of Sectional Committee on Financial System
FSA
Joint session of the 54th general meeting of Financial System Council and the 42nd meeting of Sectional Committee on Financial System will be held on February 19, 2025 as follows.
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MAS and ABS to Establish New Payments Entity to Position National Payment Schemes for Next Stage of Growth
MAS
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) today jointly announced that a new entity will be set up to consolidate the administration and governance of Singapore's national payment schemes[1] to position these schemes for the next stage of growth. The entity will also collaborate with MAS on the development of Singapore's national payments strategy, ensuring a safe, efficient and innovative payments infrastructure.
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Industry Standards Recognition Manual
SEBI
SEBI had launched a pilot programme for Industry Standards Fora (ISF) in July, 2023, to formulate implementation standards for regulatory instructionsissued by SEBI. To begin with, ISFs were set up to formulate implementation standards for listed companies and Stock Brokers. Subsequently, based on thefeedback from various market participants and Industry Bodies, similar standard setting fora were set up on a pilot basis for other stakeholders of the securities markets such as the Portfolio Managers, Custodians and Designated Depository Participants, Alternative Investment Funds, etc.
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NZ regulator clarifies licensing requirements for e-money and payment service providers
Finextra
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| Investing & Trading | | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | Margin standards are here - and clearing firms aren't happy; Clearing members complain that latest transparency proposals would force them to act as middlemen by providing margin simulation tools for clients
Luke Clancy and Paulina Pielichata - Risk.net
You asked for it. Now you've got it. After years of lobbying for new rules on margin transparency, clearing firms finally had their wish when supranational regulators released draft standards on the topic in January. But the proposals have raised a fresh set of concerns. Parties are unsure whether final rules will match up across different countries and regions. Clearing firms have also expressed fears that the rules impose extra, unwanted demands on them.
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Traditional index trackers shunned in January; US ETF flows Old-school passive vehicles grabbed less than 25% of new money, losing out to active rivals
Steve Johnson - Financial Times
Traditional index-tracking exchange traded funds bagged less than a quarter of the new money flooding into US-listed domestic equity ETFs in January, according to data from Citi. The flows may be a sign that the traditional low-cost passive bedrock of the ETF world is being challenged by the combined forces of actively managed ETFs, derivatives-heavy products that seek to limit risk, factor-based "smart beta" ETFs and sector funds.
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XTX Markets hires Brook for Emea market-making; Sam Brook previously worked on buildout of NatWest's e-FX liquidity desk
Joe Parsons - FX Markets
Non-bank market-maker XTX Markets has hired Sam Brook for its European foreign exchange and equities trading team. Brook joins from NatWest Markets, where he spent nine years in the UK bank's electronic FX trading unit, primarily working on the buildout of its e-FX market-making desk. As part of the Europe, Middle East and Africa distribution team at XTX, Brook's role will focus on providing customised and low-market-impact liquidity to clients.
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Cannabis Industry Faces Debt Reckoning Without Bankruptcy Help
Steven Church and Reshmi Basu - Bloomberg
If it were like most companies on the losing end of a boom and bust cycle, Schwazze could just turn to the US bankruptcy court to keep its creditors at bay while renegotiating its debt. But unlike most businesses, its product - marijuana - is still illegal in the eyes of the federal government. That disadvantage will make it harder for Schwazze and other cannabis companies to win concessions from lenders just as a wave of debt that the industry borrowed in recent years to expand in states where weed is legal comes due. The biggest companies, those that operate in more than one state, have as much as $6 billion in debt maturing next year, according to Beau Whitney, chief economist at Whitney Economics, which specializes in the cannabis market.
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Balancing Technology and Relationships: Russell Investments' Approach to Equity Trading
Anna Lyudvig - Traders Magazine
In the dynamic world of financial markets, trading desks play an integral role in ensuring that financial assets are managed and traded efficiently. At Russell Investments, a global investment management firm and broker-dealer with $331bn AUM, and over $2 Trillion executed across all asset classes per year, the trading desk operates around the clock, focusing on maintaining fluid access to highly liquid markets and ensuring seamless execution for a range of financial assets. As the desk operates in developed, emerging, and frontier markets, it is structured to address the unique needs of equity, fixed income, currencies, and derivatives, all while minimizing risk and optimizing execution costs.
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Trump Tariff Spat Has Stock Dip Buyers Obsessed With Wednesdays
Jessica Menton - Bloomberg
Investors can rely on one crucial day of the week to deliver strong dip-buying opportunities for the S&P 500 Index thus far in 2025: Wednesdays. Traders lately have been selling first and asking questions later to lock in gains ahead of the weekend as stocks zig-zag on President Donald Trump's tariff plans. That's why Wednesdays this year have racked up gains that - if annualized - would reach 127%, according to data compiled by Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at Carson Group. The weeks generally start and end badly, with Mondays and Fridays delivering annualized losses that exceed 40%.
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US Firms Tapping Europe's Cheaper Bond Market Like It's 2007
Ronan Martin - Bloomberg
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| Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance | | Stories about environmental, social and governance investing | Greenpeace sues US energy group in test of new EU freedom of speech rules; It alleges pipeline operator Energy Transfer is using spurious legal actions to silence and bankrupt the organisation
Amanda Chu and Jamie Smyth in New York, Kenza Bryan in London - Financial Times
Greenpeace International is suing US pipeline operator Energy Transfer in a Dutch court, alleging the fossil fuel company is using spurious legal actions to try to silence and bankrupt the organisation in a test of new EU rules on freedom of speech. The lawsuit, filed at the District Court of Amsterdam on Tuesday, is the latest salvo in an eight-year transatlantic legal battle between the global campaign group and Energy Transfer, which was co-founded by Kelcy Warren, a prominent donor to Donald Trump.
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Brookfield hunts for green energy bargains after Trump sell-off; Asset manager bets fears over threat to solar and wind power from US administration are overdone
Antoine Gara in New York - Financial Times
Brookfield, one of the world's largest owners of renewable power, is hunting for bargains in the solar and wind sector, in a bet that investor panic over Donald Trump's anti-green agenda has been overdone. Brookfield's president Connor Teskey said the group, which manages $126bn in renewable energy and lower-carbon investments, was actively looking for big listed sustainable energy producers to buy. His comments are a vote of confidence in a sector that has been hit by Trump's sweeping cuts to green energy initiatives, as the new president moves to dismantle Joe Biden's climate and industrial legacy.
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The great climate disconnect; New attempts to prolong the fossil fuel era have come at precisely the wrong time
Pilita Clark - Financial Times (opinion)
What a world to live in. Never before has the danger of climate change been so evident and the response so cavalier. If you doubt this, consider the events of last week. As the Trump administration was freezing funding for electric car charging programmes, gutting the USAID agency that helps countries deal with weather extremes, and scrubbing mentions of climate change from government websites, scientists unveiled some dismaying data. It showed last month was the hottest January on record, despite the arrival of cooling La Nina ocean conditions that had been expected to lower the average global temperature.
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German Coal Operator Sues Regulator Over Plants' Standby Status; Energy regulator ordered Steag to keep units in grid reserve; Steag wants coal plants to return to the market temporarily
Eva Brendel - Bloomberg
German utility Steag GmbH said it's suing the country's energy regulator for putting its coal-fired power plants on standby instead of switching them off entirely. The lawsuit comes after the Federal Network Agency ordered Essen-based Steag to keep the units in a so-called grid reserve to cover electricity shortages. The utility lodged a complaint against the agency last year, saying the stations are unprofitable as they can't participate in the daily power market. "It is difficult to find people to operate these facilities, and we cannot make a profit from the plants in the reserve," Steag's spokesperson Daniel Mühlenfeld said in an interview on Tuesday.
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France, India Plan to Jointly Develop Mini Nuclear Plants
Sudhi Ranjan Sen and Rajesh Kumar Singh - Bloomberg
India plans to jointly develop a new generation of nuclear reactors with France, signaling New Delhi's intent to partner with other nations for cutting-edge technology as the US threatens to upend global trade. The two nations have decided to partner on building advanced modular reactors and small modular reactors for civil use, according to a statement Wednesday from India's Ministry of External Affairs.
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Global Oil Glut Seen Expanding on Stronger Production Growth
Julia Fanzeres and Alex Longley - Bloomberg
The US expects bigger oil surpluses than it previously projected for this year and in 2026, driven by continued growth in American and non-OPEC production and projections that sanctions won't likely dent Russian output. World oil markets are expected to average a surplus of 1 million barrels a day in 2026, the Energy Information Administration said Tuesday, up from the 800,000 barrel-a-day surplus it projected in last month's report. The forecast is twice as big as the glut the EIA expects this year, which also was revised up from its previous report.
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India Is Building a Sanctions-Proof Supply Chain for Russian Oil
Rakesh Sharma and Jack Farchy - Bloomberg
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Russia Pitches Sanctioned Arctic LNG Cargoes to Indian Buyers; Arctic LNG 2 was sanctioned by US government in 2023; No cargoes from the project have landed at foreign ports
Stephen Stapczynski and Rakesh Sharma - Bloomberg
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Petrobras Can Cope With Cheaper Oil Under Trump, CEO Says
Mariana Durao and Menaka Doshi - Bloomberg
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Shell Sees AI Revolutionizing Energy System in New Outlook; Energy demand in 2050 can be nearly a quarter higher than now; Oil demand to grow 3 to 5 million barrels a day into 2030s
Mitchell Ferman - Bloomberg
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EU May Need 350 Extra LNG Cargoes to Replenish Reserves, Equinor Says; Sees storages 30% full at end of winter in worst-case scenario; Equinor is one of Europe's top gas suppliers via pipelines
Priscila Azevedo Rocha and Anna Shiryaevskaya - Bloomberg
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Goldman Sachs Abandons IPO Diversity Pledge With US DEI Goals Under Fire
Sridhar Natarajan and Todd Gillespie - Bloomberg
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| Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | TD Bank to Plow Money Into Canada Unit After $14 Billion Schwab Sale
Christine Dobby - Bloomberg
Toronto-Dominion Bank's Canadian operations and capital-markets franchise will be priorities under new Chief Executive Officer Raymond Chun, who will soon have a stockpile of cash to spend after exiting the lender's stake in Charles Schwab Corp. The sale of Toronto-Dominion's 10.1% interest in Schwab will net the Canadian bank $13.9 billion after taxes and fees, executives said on an investor call Tuesday.
/jlne.ws/3QfzLVL
Hong Kong Activist Investor Webb Says He Has Months to Live; British-born Webb will shut down his eponymous website; He made his fortune in the city's small and mid-cap market
Foster Wong - Bloomberg
David Webb, Hong Kong's most vocal activist investor whose investigations into corporate malfeasance triggered regulatory probes, said he has months left to live after battling prostate cancer over the past few years. "When I disclosed my metastatic prostate cancer in June 2020, I didn't expect to live as long as I now have," Webb wrote in a blog post on Webb-site.com, his eponymous website where he has blasted stock exchange and regulatory officials over the years on various market failings. "I have now reached the point where outcomes are measured in months rather than years and my symptoms and side-effects are making it harder to function."
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MSCI Ousts More Chinese Stocks From Indexes Despite Rebound; The index compiler announced results of quarterly review; China's weight in global indexes has fallen over the years
Abhishek Vishnoi - Bloomberg
MSCI Inc. further trimmed Chinese stocks from its global benchmarks, underscoring the market's diminishing appeal among investors despite a recent rebound. The index compiler will axe 20 stocks from the MSCI China Index, following more than 200 removals last year. Eight new constituents will be added. The changes, effective after the close on Feb. 28, will also apply to the MSCI All Country World Index.
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EU banks show basic instinct for credit valuation adjustments; Simpler approach to CVA appeals even to some already using more complex models for counterparty risk
Samuel Wilkes and Ben St. Clair - Risk.net
Steve Jobs famously said it takes a lot of hard work to make something simple. But equally, something simple can save a lot of hard work. From January 1 this year, a suite of new capital rules came into force for banks in the European Union. These large-scale amendments to the bloc's Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR) implement the final elements of the post-financial-crisis rulebook developed by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision - Basel III.
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Buyout Titans Face Early Trump Tests, From Tariffs to Taxes; Trump's tariff policies have reignited inflationary fears PE firms look for clues on new US antitrust approach
Ryan Gould - Bloomberg
Private equity firms are facing early tests to the theory that Donald Trump's return to the White House is a net win for America's dealmakers. Executives at some of the largest buyout firms, who were among those predicting that Trump would supercharge the mergers and acquisitions market, are now searching for clues on whether his administration's hot-button policies might do the opposite. The threat of tariffs has amplified concerns about inflation and potential knock-on effects on Federal Reserve rate actions. Trump's M&A antitrust approach could be more heavy-handed than first thought. And private equity firms are confronting the prospect of Trump cracking down on carried-interest, cutting into the portion of returns kept by dealmakers.
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Dalio's Ex-Family Office CIO Joins Firm for Corona Beer Billions; Bruce Zimmerman started recently at Tresalia Capital; He manages investments for Mexico's Aramburuzabala family
Benjamin Stupples and Daniel Cancel - Bloomberg
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Anatomy of a deal: What goes into a $50 million hedge fund portfolio manager hire
Alex Morrell - Business Insider
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How Vanguard plans to play disruptor again
Brooke Masters - Financial Times
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| Work & Management | | Stories impacting work and more about management ideas, practices and trends. | JPMorgan Chase workers launch petition to halt 5 day back-to-office rule
Luisa Beltran - Fortune
JPMorgan Chase workers are calling on chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon to retain the hybrid-work model that the bank has used for years, and to invest resources so that more workers can enjoy a flexible schedule. The request comes at a time when the bank is ditching the hybrid model and requiring its more than 300,000 employees to return to the office five days a week starting early next month. To further their campaign, a group of JPMorgan Chase employees, who called themselves the "JPMC Workers," have launched a publicly visible petition that went live on Feb. 9. Their petition, addressed to Dimon, calls for better working conditions for all JPM employees, and makes a case for staying with the bank's hybrid-work model.
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Office attendance is becoming a performance metric; Return to work mandates can weed out underperforming staff but risk pushing away valued workers
Emma Jacobs and Anjli Raval - Financial Times
There is a new front in the return to office battle. Some companies are not just stiffening their mandates but are increasingly monitoring attendance and using the data gathered in performance and pay reviews. After several years of employees calling the shots on working habits, especially when the labour market was tight, bosses are seeking to exert more influence. "Companies are getting more prescriptive," including linking pay and promotions to the return to the office, said Maria Colacurcio, chief executive of Syndio, a pay software company. "I am noticing it."
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| Wellness Exchange | | An Exchange of Health and Wellness Information | Trump's W.H.O. Exit Throws Smallpox Defenses Into Upheaval; Health experts see his retreat from international cooperation as disrupting the safe-keepers of one of the world's deadliest pathogens.
William J. Broad - The New York Times
In 1999, William J. Broad and two colleagues wrote a comprehensive article on the past, present and future of the smallpox virus.
President Trump's order that the United States exit the World Health Organization could undo programs meant to ensure the safety, security and study of a deadly virus that once took half a billion lives, experts warn. His retreat, they add, could end decades in which the agency directed the management of smallpox virus remnants in an American-held cache.
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The 5 Wellness Travel Trends of 2025
AthletechNews
Athletech News shines a light on five of the health and wellness travel trends from Tripadvisor's Trendiest 2025 report. If anyone has insight into current and future travel trends, it's Tripadvisor. The online travel review and booking platform has released its first-ever 2025 Trendcast, analyzing millions of reviews, bookings and discussions to uncover what's shaping tourism now-and what's next. Unsurprisingly, several of Tripadvisor's key travel trends align with the growing focus on fitness and wellness.
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| Regions | | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | Argentina Market Veterans Launch New Brokerage Amid Milei Rally
Jorgelina do Rosario - Bloomberg
Senior executives Walter Stoeppelwerth and Nicolas Chiesa obtained a brokerage license in Argentina and will kick off operations this month as investors keep flocking into the country's assets under Javier Milei's government. Stoeppelwerth and Chiesa, who both held top roles at Buenos Aires-based brokerage Portfolio Personal Inversiones, partnered to create Grit Capital Group, according to a phone interview with the duo.
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India's crackdown on derivatives frenzy to hit online brokers; Intervention to curb options trading has brought down volumes by 70%
Krishn Kaushik in Mumbai - Financial Times
Indian online brokerages face a hefty hit to their revenues, say industry executives, after the regulator intervened to curb retail investors' frenzied trading of risky derivatives markets. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) became concerned last year about millions of young Indians gambling in the derivatives markets to try to quickly profit from the country's soaring stock market. With nine out of 10 losing money, it unveiled plans to raise barriers to trading and temporarily ban some prominent "finfluencers" that young people looked up to for financial advice.
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U.S. demand squeezes India's gold supply, leasing rates rise to record
Rajendra Jadhav - Reuters
Gold leasing rates in India have doubled within a month to a record high, following the overseas market, where rates jumped due to a supply crunch as global banks divert the precious metal to the United States, industry officials told Reuters. Higher leasing rates are driving up jewellery production costs in the world's second-largest gold consumer and could squeeze margins of jewellers such as Titan, Kalyan Jewellers, and Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri.
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India Central Bank Punishes Rupee Speculators in Surprise Move
Anup Roy, Subhadip Sircar and Malavika Kaur Makol -= Bloomberg
The Reserve Bank of India intervened in the foreign exchange market this week to curb speculation in the rupee, according to a person familiar with the central bank's thinking, surprising traders who expected a more hands-off approach on the currency from the new governor. After hitting a series of record lows in recent weeks, the rupee gained nearly 1% against the dollar on Tuesday, its biggest rally in more than two years and the most among Asian peers. The currency rose as much as 0.5% to 86.4238 in early Wednesday trading.
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Malaysia Central Bank Says Ready to Curb Ringgit Volatility
Netty Ismail - Bloomberg
Malaysia's central bank said it's ready to manage excessive moves in the ringgit and expects inflows by state-linked firms and the country's economic prospects to buoy the currency in the longer term. The ringgit has relinquished almost all of its gains from January after President Donald Trump rattled global markets with a series of trade levies. Bank Negara Malaysia said its presence in the foreign exchange market is to manage excessive volatility and ensure orderly market conditions.
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South Korea's Mint Halts Gold Bar Sales as Supply Tightens
Sybilla Gross - Bloomberg
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China's Vast Energy Market Swallows DeepSeek Impact; AI has been touted as a major driver of power demand in the West; less so in China where manufacturing behemoths take the lion's share.
Dan Murtaugh - Bloomberg
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Central African Republic's Trump-style memecoin crashes after launch; '$CAR' crypto token plunges in value amid concerns over project's authenticity
Aanu Adeoye in Lagos and Nikou Asgari in London - Financial Times
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