Bad day for Binance

The US Securities and Exchange Commission accused Binance and its Chief Executive Officer Changpeng Zhao of mishandling customer funds, misleading investors and regulators and breaking securities rules. In a 136-page complaint filed Monday in a Washington DC federal court, the agency laid out a range of alleged violations against the world’s biggest crypto exchange and its leader. “Zhao and Binance entities engaged in an extensive web of deception, conflicts of interest, lack of disclosure and calculated evasion of the law,” SEC Chair Gary Gensler alleged in a statement. “The public should beware of investing any of their hard-earned assets with or on these unlawful platforms.” —Natasha Solo-Lyons

The S&P 500 Index was heading toward a bull-market milestone after stocks rallied on optimism the US Federal Reserve is nearing the end of interest-rate hikes. But on Monday, equities edged lower after both tech and energy stocks erased earlier gains. Here’s your markets wrap.

Morgan Stanley strategists warn earnings per share for the S&P 500 are set to drop 16% this year. That’s one of the more bearish predictions among those tracked by Bloomberg, and contrasts with bullish forecasts from the likes of Goldman Sachs, which anticipates mild growth.

Everyone from sovereign wealth funds to venture capitalists are spouting Wall Street’s favorite buzzword: private credit. Higher rates, a bank-lending retreat and strong fees are bringing a raft of newcomers to a product that’s quickly turned from a niche to a must-have. But not everyone is so optimistic.

Apple set a fresh all-time high on Monday (before falling back down a few bucks) ahead of its most significant product launch event in almost a decade. The company unveiled its long-awaited mixed-reality headset, capping more than seven years of development and vaulting Apple into a market that could someday transform computing.

Top China diplomat Wang Yi and Emmanuel Bonne, an adviser to French President Emmanuel Macron, agreed to create conditions which might allow for a “political settlement” of Russia’s war on Ukraine, according to the Chinese government. Beijing, a close ally of the Kremlin, has ramped up efforts to be seen as a peacemaker. But the US and other Ukraine allies have dismissed some floated terms as rewarding Russian aggression. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s long-awaited counteroffensive may have begun.

US regulators revoked emergency authorization for Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine after the company’s Janssen unit requested it. Janssen informed the Food and Drug Administration that shots bought by the government had expired and there was no demand for them in the US, the regulator said. In New York City, infections may be rising again.

On Wall Street, bosses be forewarned. Some of your employees would go as far as quit rather than spend more time in the office. That’s according to the latest Bloomberg Markets Live Pulse survey, which found that roughly one in two people who work in finance would change jobs (or already have) if their managers—as many of them have been doing—required them to come in more.

As geopolitical tension encroaches on the Arctic, the US is once again experiencing a Sputnik moment. Global warming is crumbling the Arctic’s walls of ice, raising hopes of access to its resources and new sea routes to project power and influence. A 2008 report from the US Geological Survey also called it the “largest unexplored prospective area for petroleum remaining on Earth.” Old World riches like gold and the building blocks of new technologies such as rare earths and graphite are scattered around up there. Russia is campaigning to carve out a large zone of economic exclusivity in the Arctic and has invested heavily in rebuilding its military capabilities in the region. Then there’s China, which has artfully declared itself a “near-Arctic nation.” As a result, Washington’s gaze has been drawn northward with an intensity not seen in decades.

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