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 | Jeff Bergstrom
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| Lead Stories | | | Wall Street Fear Index Creeps Up as Investors Assess Iran Strikes
George Glover - Barron's
The most widely-followed barometer of market volatility ticked up on Monday, as investors tried to make sense of how the crisis in the Middle East will impact stocks.
The Cboe Volatility Index, or VIX, rose 0.3 points to just under 21 ahead of the U.S. opening bell. The fear gauge tracks S&P 500 options contracts to measure traders' stress levels. Any reading of above 20 tends to indicate relatively high volatility.
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Why markets are weirdly calm after the US bombed Iran
Theron Mohamed - Markets Insider
Investors were bracing for a wild day of trading on Monday after the US bombed Iran on Sunday, but world markets are surprisingly calm.
As of 12:15 p.m. ET, the main US stock indexes, benchmark 10-year Treasury yield, gold, and the US Dollar Index are nearly flat.
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Companies Look to Borrow Before Yields Rise on Iran Retaliation
Tasos Vossos, Ronan Martin, and Josyana Joshua - Bloomberg
Some investors are growing cautious, with signs of rising fear and selectivity in credit markets, and may ask for extra compensation when buying corporate debt due to potential volatility.
Companies in the US and Europe cautiously waded into credit markets, launching a series of debt sales as they looked to lock in relatively low borrowing costs and before retaliation from Iran jolts bond yields.
In the US, six companies, including computer chip-maker Marvell Technology Inc., are electing to sell debt in the investment-grade market on Monday. A dozen corporations launched sales of leveraged loans, a brisk pace in line with recent Mondays. Eight issuers sold high-grade notes in Europe.
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US banks' FX notionals hit record $66trn on forwards frenzy; JP Morgan leads record derivatives surge amid Q1 market volatility
Lorenzo Migliorato - Risk.net
US banks' notional amounts of foreign exchange derivatives surged 19.2% to a record $65.76 trillion in the first quarter, as volatility-wary market participants sought refuge in forwards. More than a quarter of the $10.61 trillion aggregate increase accrued to JP Morgan, which reported a $2.7 trillion rise in FX notionals - or 21%. Morgan Stanley followed with a $2.42 trillion increase - the
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Vanguard cuts fund fees as competition in Europe heats up; World's second-largest asset manager estimates reduction will save investors $3.5mn a year
Emma Dunkley - Financial Times
Vanguard, the world's second-largest asset manager, is cutting fees on nearly half of its bond exchange traded funds in Europe as part of a push into the fixed income market and as competition among the biggest fund providers heats up. The US-based asset manager, which oversees more than $10.5tn globally, is reducing the charges on seven of its total 15 fixed income ETFs in Europe, in an attempt to attract more customers to its bond funds and win a greater market share.
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Hedge Fund Executives Eye $100 Million to Accumulate BNB Token
Ryan Weeks - Bloomberg
A team of crypto hedge fund executives are in advanced talks to raise $100 million for investing in a token linked to Binance Holdings Ltd. through a publicly listed company they control, in the latest spin on the Bitcoin treasury blueprint pioneered by Michael Saylor's Strategy. Former Coral Capital Holdings executives Patrick Horsman, Joshua Kruger and Johnathan Pasch are behind the pitch, according to an investor document reviewed by Bloomberg News. They aim to complete the fundraising this month and then rename the unidentified Nasdaq-listed company Build & Build Corporation and start accumulating the BNB token, the materials show.
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Hedge fund leverage reaches five-year high, buying bank stocks, Goldman Sachs says
Nell Mackenzie - Reuters
Hedge fund leverage hit a five-year high last week, with speculators buying banks, trading companies and insurance firms, Goldman Sachs data showed, after U.S. interest rates held steady and just before U.S. attacks on Iran's nuclear sites. The U.S. Federal Reserve held interest rates steady on Wednesday last week and indicated they were in no rush to cut interest rates.
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| | | | Regulation & Enforcement | | | Industry bids 'good riddance' to SEC rules; Plus, Scottish Widows cuts UK exposure, emerging markets outperform, and Jenny Saville at the National Portrait Gallery
Harriet Agnew - Financial Times
A pair of scoops to start: Chancellor Rachel Reeves is exploring reversing a decision to charge UK inheritance tax on the global assets of non-doms, following a spate of departures and lobbying by the City of London. Hedge fund Millennium Management is working with Goldman Sachs' Petershill division to sell a 10-15 per cent stake to external investors at a $14bn valuation, as it presses ahead with plans to open up its ownership for the first time.
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| | | | Technology | | | ION unveils partnership with GFO-X; The integration follows the launch of GFO-X in May 2025, and follows growing institutional demand for centrally cleared cryptocurrency trading and digital asset trading.
Natasha Cocksedge - The Trade
ION has partnered with GFO-X, the UK's first regulated and centrally cleared trading venue for digital asset derivatives. The collaboration will see ION powering market access, clearing and margin processing for GFO-X's ecosystem, through the provision of software and infrastructure. The firm has said that the move is set to meet the increasing institutional demand for secure and compliant crypto futures and options. GFO-X will also be supported by ION's front-to-back cleared derivatives technology, such as XTP Execution, XTP Clearing, and the firm's trade-processing platform, XTP.
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| | | | Moves | | | Gary Hunt is starting a new position as senior director at Cboe Global Markets, he shared on LinkedIn. He was previously at BAML for 26 years. ~JJL
JP Morgan derivatives expert joins Broadridge as global head of futures and options trading
Incoming individual has also previously worked at Barclays Capital and Lehman Brothers.
Natasha Cocksedge - The Trade
Broadridge has named Kenneth MacHarg as its new managing director, global head of futures and options trading, effective 23 June. The move will see MacHarg leading Broadridge's futures and options (F&O) platform as part of a push to enhance the solution's leadership. He will also be based out of New York in the role and report to Frank Troise, president of Broadridge Trading and Connectivity Solutions.
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| | | | Strategy | | | These are the areas where markets are complacent and risks lurk
Jules Rimmer - MarketWatch
Economist Hyman Minsky argued that stability itself was a destabilizing force in financial markets because it bred complacency and whetted risk appetite. A report published Monday by Deutsche Bank's macrostrategist Henry Allen argued that investors are overlooking certain risks. He highlighted the dislocations that have built up in markets and may be ripe for correction.
The most obvious area where traders ignore risks at their peril is the inflation outlook. Deutsche's note highlighted how the risk isn't just represented by geopolitical turbulence and booming oil prices, but also by the threat of fresh U.S. tariffs with the reciprocal arrangement set to expire on July 9. Not only that, but in Europe, there is significant fiscal stimulus as military spending is boosted and the European Central Bank has cut rates eight times in the last year.
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Oil Stays Volatile as Markets Weigh U.S. Attacks on Iran; The dollar strengthened amid potential safe-haven demand
Sherry Qin - Business Insider
Oil prices had a volatile start to the week in Asia, rising before paring gains as markets watch to see how Iran will respond to U.S. attacks on three of its nuclear sites over the weekend.
Oil rose nearly 3% in the morning on news of the weekend strikes by the U.S. on three Iranian sites that represent the core of the country's nuclear infrastructure. President Trump said on Truth Social that "monumental damage" was done.
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AQR's Cliff Asness Sides With Jim Chanos in Critique of Michael Saylor's Strategy
Yiqin Shen - Bloomberg
AQR Capital Management's Cliff Asness says he's in agreement with famed short seller Jim Chanos when it comes to his criticism of Strategy founder Michael Saylor's claim that the use of convertible debt affords the leveraged Bitcoin proxy downside protection while continuing to accumulate the cryptocurrency. The critique is centered around whether there is "recourse" for the company formally known as MicroStrategy Inc. to pay back holders of its convertible bonds, through which Strategy raised roughly $10 billion to fund Bitcoin purchases. While Saylor said this type of debt "is not going to get called" and can be paid off with stock if the price of Bitcoin tumbles, both Asness and Chanos disagreed. In a Friday post on social media platform X, Asness said Chanos "is of course right."
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| | | | Miscellaneous | | | Gen Z and millennial day traders tell us about switching from the 9-to-5 experience to full-time stock investing
Jennifer Sor - Business Insider
Carmine Rosato, a 26-year-old based in New Jersey, has never worked a traditional 9-to-5, but his alternative path has been lucrative.
According to income statements he showed Business Insider, Rosato has managed to make as much as six figures in a month.
There are ups and downs, but he's become used to the swings in his time as a full-time day trader, he said.
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