| June 30, 2025 | | | |  | Jeff Bergstrom
Editor
John Lothian News | |
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| | |  | | | | Lead Stories | | | FOMO-Driven Call Buying Soars as Traders Chase S&P 500's Furious Run
Esha Dey - Bloomberg
Traders keen to seize on further gains after the S&P 500 Index hit its first record since February are betting on stock-market darlings that they expect will surpass the index's ascent. The signals from derivatives trading are clear, strategists said, as investors last week aggressively bought call options - a wager that an asset's price will keep increasing. Among the highlights: a rush into Nvidia Corp. on Wednesday that pushed the volume of call contracts on the stock to almost triple that of bearish puts, the biggest gap since January; a jump to a four-month high in the call-put ratio on the Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund; and a drop to a two-month low in the cost of hedging against a selloff in Meta Platforms Inc. (META).
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Trump-Fueled Bitcoin Mania Leaves Most of Crypto in the Dust
Kirk Ogunrinde and Sidhartha Shukla - Bloomberg
On the face of it, 2025 looks like a banner year for crypto: Bitcoin hitting a record, an industry-boosting US president whose family is venturing headlong into the sector, and key legislation widely expected to be passed by Congress.
But look beyond the bullish headlines and the rally in Bitcoin, and a vastly different landscape comes into view. Most of the so-called altcoins once touted as competitors to the original cryptoasset are nursing steep declines, with more than $300 billion of market value wiped out so far this year.
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Volatility Creeps Up as Investors Weigh Up Trade Talks
George Glover - Barron's
Investors were feeling a little more edge on Monday, although the mood on Wall Street remained calm as one of the most unpredictable quarters in recent memory draws to a close.
The Cboe Volatility Index, or VIX, climbed 0.7 points to just over 17 in early trading. The widely followed fear gauge tracks S&P 500 options contracts, with any reading of below 20 tending to indicate relatively low volatility.
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ECB Warns Inflation Set To Become More Volatile
AFP - Agence France Presse - Barron's
The European Central Bank on Monday warned of "new challenges" -- from trade tensions to AI -- that could make inflation more volatile, and pledged flexibility in its monetary policy.
The warning came in the first major review of the ECB's strategy since 2021, and follows several tumultuous years in which the central bank has had to battle a historic surge in consumer prices.
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India RBI Cuts Short Forex Derivative Book to $65.2 Billion
Subhadip Sircar - Bloomberg
India's central bank lowered short dollar positions in the derivatives market for a third successive month in a rejig of its intervention strategy under new chief Sanjay Malhotra. The net book was $65.2 billion short in the forwards market as of May, Bloomberg calculations from RBI data showed. This compares with $72.6 billion as of end-April and a record of $88.8 billion in February. The Reserve Bank of India has been extending the maturity of its forwards book to above three months segment. Bulk of the dollar repayments due stood in the three-month to one year bucket at $30 billion. The higher than one-year category was at $20.1 billion due to buy/sell swaps conducted by the RBI.
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Hedge funds seek to expand into private credit; Millennium, Point72 and Third Point among those seeking to push into popular asset class
Amelia Pollard and Eric Platt and Harriet Agnew - Financial Times
Big hedge funds are pushing into private credit as they seek to establish themselves as diversified financial institutions, with Millennium Management, Point72 and Third Point all looking to launch new funds and strategies. Third Point, a $20bn firm with a history as an activist investor, plans to launch a publicly traded private credit fund next month called Third Point Private Capital Partners, which will lend directly to businesses.
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| | | | Exchanges | | | CME Group to Launch FX Tape+ to Provide Centralized Reference Prices for the FX Market
CME Group
CME Group, the world's leading derivatives marketplace, today announced that it will launch CME FX Tape+ to provide centralized reference prices and a comprehensive view of FX market liquidity from its transparent central limit order book (CLOB) marketplaces, including FX futures, EBS Market, FX Spot+ and FX Link. FX Tape+ is set to launch later this year.
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ICE's Natural Gas and Oil Markets at Record Open Interest
Intercontinental Exchange, Inc.
Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE:ICE), a leading global provider of technology and data and home of the most liquid energy markets in the world, today announced that its global natural gas and oil markets are at record open interest (OI). ICE's natural gas futures markets hit record OI of 24.17 million on June 25, 2025, while ICE's global oil futures and options markets hit record OI of 17.57 million on June 24, 2025, including record oil options OI of 7.3 million. The two complexes include the global benchmarks for natural gas and oil relied on by participants around the world as trusted price reference points, as well as markets to source physical natural gas and oil. ICE benchmark records in June include:
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| | | | Strategy | | | Cboe iBoxx Credit Futures Unpacked - Examining the Key Drivers Behind Their Record Market Adoption
Cboe
The corporate bond market is undergoing a profound transformation, driven by electronification and a demand for more efficient, standardized instruments. Reflecting this evolution, Cboe iBoxx Credit Futures have recently experienced unprecedented growth in market adoption. Open interest in IBHY futures has skyrocketed by 4.5 times year-over-year to $1.2 billion, while IBIG futures have seen a 4.4-fold increase to nearly $600 million.
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Here Are 4 Options Strategies You Can Try Right Now to Earn Extra Income
Gordon Scott - Investing.com
For professional traders, paying close attention to the market's everyday price swings is generally a full-time commitment. For casual traders with day jobs that make it difficult to follow the markets, there are a number of trading strategies available that allow you to generate income while having a day job elsewhere, and they entail selling options.
Unlike buying options, where traders usually try to speculate on an imminent price move, strategies for selling options are aimed at generating periodic income and often benefit from the passage of time. The best options brokers make selling just as easy as buying. In this article, we'll introduce you to four popular strategies for earning extra income selling options.
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| | | | John Lothian News (JLN) is the news division of John J. Lothian & Company, Inc. (JJLCO). The online media and financial services firm is staffed by derivatives industry, journalism and technology professionals. | | | | | | | John Lothian News Editorial Staff: | | | John Lothian
Publisher | | | Sarah Rudolph
Editor-in-Chief
| | | Jeff Bergstrom
Editor
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