| August 26, 2021 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | | | John Lothian
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John Lothian News | |
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Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff
When you have enough egg on your face to make an omelette, it is a problem. We had some juxtaposed numbers for the date of the Annual Chicago Conference on Futures and Derivatives. It will be held on September 29, 2021 from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Central time. We previously said the 13th annual conference was on September 13, 2021.
Also, in my commentary about the rumor that the CME was buying Cboe, there was a typo. The story said William Brodsky joined the CBOE in 1982, when in fact he joined the CME in 1982. Bill was the one to spot the error. My apologies for the errors.
There are big changes happening at the site of the FIA International Conference in Boca Raton, Florida. Bloomberg has the story of how the Boca Resort and Club is being transformed into a Bahamas-style mega-resort now to be named The Boca Raton.
Across the pond, the exchange leaders panel for IDX this year will feature some new faces and some returning ones. The exchange leader panel features Stephane Boujnah, CEO and chairman of Euronext; Matthew Chamberlain, CEO of LME; Zubin Ramdarshan, head of equity and index product design at Eurex; Murray Roos, CEO of capital markets, LSEG; Derek Sammann, senior managing director, global head of commodities and options products, CME Group; Bjorn Sibbern, president, European markets at Nasdaq; and Stuart Williams, president, ICE Futures Europe. -- FIA
By the way, if you are ordering new golf clubs for use at an upcoming conference, you'd better be prepared to wait for them. Bloomberg is reporting "Supply Chain Shortages Force Golfers to Wait Months for New Clubs." It is taking up to 12 weeks for new clubs to arrive. -- Bloomberg
The governor of Illinois, J.B. Pritzker, is expected today to announce a statewide mask mandate for people age 2 and above in indoor locations, the Chicago Tribune reported. -- Chicago Tribune
SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, via his Twitter account, @GaryGensler, remembered the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution 101 years ago. He said, "As we celebrate the courageous women who fought & continue fighting to protect women's rights, we also remember the struggle for gender equality and equal opportunity continues." Spoken like a man who loves his daughters.
The NFA submitted the following rule submission letters to the CFTC:
- August 23, 2021 - Proposed Amendments to NFA's Interpretive Notice: Registration Requirements: Branch Offices
- August 23, 2021 - Proposed Amendments to NFA Financial Requirements Section 10 to Impose Late Fee for Certain Swap Dealer Filings and Proposed Interpretive Notice entitled Financial Requirements Section 17: Initial Margin Model Ongoing Monitoring Reports
Peter Mulmat is now the chief executive officer at IG US, part of IG Group Holdings. -- LinkedIn
I am working on a page in MarketsWiki on the new concept of "shadow trading." In a recent case, the SEC charged an executive with insider trading for using positive news for his company that he believed would also help the stock price of a competitor. The executive bought call options on the competitor's stock based on that information. Buying a related or correlated company's stock based on insider information about your own company is shadow trading, a form of insider trading.
My family plays a car game when we are all traveling together. Different cars have different values, though many of them are no longer in production. You instantly win the game if you see the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile, and dad loses (in more ways than one) if anyone sees a police car with its lights on. Well, now Chicagoans can get a Lyft in the Wienermobile. The Chicago Tribune is reporting, "Passengers who request a Lyft XL in Chicago Wednesday through Friday may be surprised with a free Wienermobile pickup by Oscar Mayer Hotdoggers." Talk about winning! -- Chicago Tribune
There were no new donations to the JLN MarketsWiki Education GoFundMe campaign yesterday. I guess my feeling(s) was wrong.
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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The Federal Reserve's 2021 Economic Policy Symposium, "Macroeconomic Policy in an Uneven Economy," is virtual this year (an in-person conference had been planned, then scrapped), on Friday, August 27. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell's remarks will be livestreamed and available to the public at 9 a.m. CT/10 a.m. ET via the Kansas City Fed's YouTube channel here. The meeting's full agenda will be published this evening (Thursday) at 7 p.m. CT/8 p.m. ET on the Kansas City Fed's website here. ~SC
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Florida Is Getting Its Own Baha Mar-Style Mega-Resort in Boca Raton; The 337-acre resort complex previously known as the Boca Resort is getting a total overhaul, and the result is unlike anything else in the region—unless you include the Bahamas.
Nikki Ekstein - Bloomberg
On a Wednesday morning in late July, Daniel Hostettler looks out his second-floor office window to watch the demolition of the Boca Raton Resort and Club's iconic porte cochere, an oval asphalt entryway with an Italianite fountain and soaring palm trees. Besides the Breakers a few miles north in Palm Beach, the currently closed building is the closest thing South Florida has to a grand dame, although these days it's adorned with dump trucks and bricklayers rather than Aston Martins and Maseratis.
/bloom.bg/3sP47BV
*****The transformation is aimed at bringing more people in their 40s instead of their 60s to the resort. I was 40 when I first attended the FIA Boca conference and now I am 60. Great!~JJL
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From intern to software engineer and campus tech recruiter: Youmna Rabie on early career decision-making
PEAK6
Youmna Rabie is helping the next generation of women in tech discover early career path success.
Youmna Rabie joined PEAK6 in May 2020, right after graduating from Berkeley. And I do mean right after. She took her last exam and then boarded a plane for Chicago. A pandemic and work-from-home prevented her from being in the actual office as she'd expected, but it certainly hasn't dampened her curiosity, her drive, or her passion for helping other underrepresented tech and finance jobseekers. Youmna, now a software engineer on the trading execution team, was a recent intern with PEAK6's Technology Experience for Women. She now finds herself often on the other side of the hiring table—as a key player in supporting our campus recruiting team.
/bit.ly/3sJWhd0
*****PEAK6 is one of the most interesting and innovative firms in our industry. I love what they are doing to recruit women to the markets.~JJL
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Pediatric Covid hospitalizations surge to highest on record in U.S. as doctors brace for more
Berkeley Lovelace Jr. and Nate Rattner - CNBC
Children are now being hospitalized in record numbers across the United States, and doctors are warning that it could get worse as schools begin to reopen and the swift-moving coronavirus delta variant drives cases higher. New Covid hospital admissions for kids have reached their highest levels since the U.S. started tracking pediatric cases about a year ago, peaking at an average of 303 new admissions per day over the week ended Aug. 22, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows.
/cnb.cx/2WjNByl
***** This is not just a number trending the wrong way, this is the number of children getting COVID-19 each day and being admitted to the hospital. Children are at risk because we adults can't get our sh+t together enough to stop this pandemic. We can ALL do better. ~JJL
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'The Worst Thing I Can Ever Remember': How Drought Is Crushing Ranchers; North Dakotans can't grow enough feed for their cattle, so they're selling off the animals before they starve.
Henry Fountain - NY Times
Darrell Rice stood in a field of corn he'd planted in early June, to be harvested in the fall and chopped up to feed the hundreds of cows and calves he raises in central North Dakota. "It should be six, seven, eight foot tall," he said, looking down at the stunted plants at his feet, their normally floppy leaves rolled tight against their stalks to conserve water in the summer heat.
/nyti.ms/3mwmpHb
*****Don't go West, young man, don't go West.~JJL
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Wednesday's Top Three
For its fourth time in the top three, ION Group's The structured, the nimble, and the delegator; A tale of data from the BrokerTec migration to CME was our most-read story on Wednesday. Second was Regulators Scrutinize a Robinhood Marketing Ploy: Free Shares, from the Wall Street Journal, about Robinhood, which started trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange on July 29. Third was the press release Mysteel Singapore Contracts with Trading Technologies to Launch Interdealer Broker Trading Venue for Metals Futures, via Businesswire.
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MarketsWiki Stats
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| Lead Stories | Abaxx Clearing Receives Approval in Principle Notification from the Monetary Authority of Singapore
GlobeNewswire
Abaxx Technologies Inc. (NEO:ABXX) (OTCQX:ABXXF) ("Abaxx" or the "Company"), a financial software (fintech) company, majority shareholder of Abaxx Singapore Pte. Ltd. the Abaxx Commodity Exchange (ACX), and producer of the SmarterMarkets™ Podcast, announces that it has reached a milestone towards plans to launch a commodity futures exchange and clearing house.
/bit.ly/3jecRyy
Currency Traders Reneging on Deals Frustrate $7 Trillion Market
Greg Ritchie - Bloomberg
Last look lets dealers back out, irking firms like Vanguard; Plodding crackdown has some mulling more currency regulation
An end to the global currency market's four-year quest to crack down on a controversial trading practice that allows dealers to back out of transactions if prices move against them looks further away than ever. The committee overseeing a voluntary code of conduct in a market worth nearly $7 trillion a day released new guidelines on so-called last look earlier this month, but these principles have only stoked a new wave of push back from traders frustrated at their framing. Liquidity provider XTX Markets, a member of the Global Foreign Exchange Committee's working group on last look, critiqued the consultative process and labeled the paper a missed opportunity to settle the issue.
/bloom.bg/3sMD62h
The Climate Future We Envisioned Is Already Here; After a two-week California vacation, the phrase 'climate change' no longer seems adequate.
Nathaniel Bullard - Bloomberg
Leaving Yosemite National Park and traveling west along California State Route 140, you'll wind down out of the Sierras, into the rolling foothills, and eventually cross the table-flat Central Valley. If you were driving that route on August 12, as I was, you would have been stopped in traffic Merced River by a fairly dramatic operation.
/bloom.bg/3jkiv22
SEC's Gensler Taps Wall Street Critic Barbara Roper as Senior Adviser; Investor-protection advocate Roper has called for a more aggressive stance toward Wall Street
Paul Kiernan - WSJ
Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler named an outspoken investor-protection advocate to his inner circle of advisers Wednesday, the latest sign he is gearing up to take a more adversarial approach toward Wall Street.
/on.wsj.com/2WmfqWe
Chair Gensler Announces Addition of Barbara Roper to Senior Staff
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced the appointment of Barbara Roper as Senior Advisor to the Chair. Ms. Roper's focus will be on issues relating to retail investor protection, including matters relating to policy, broker-dealer oversight, investment adviser oversight, and examinations. She is currently the Director of Investor Protection for the Consumer Federation of America (CFA).
/bit.ly/2WmlX3I
Singapore Exchange Plans Mandatory Climate-Related Disclosures
Chanyaporn Chanjaroen - Bloomberg
Regulator to ask listed firms to enhance governance, diversity; Guidelines to be in line with G-20 task force recommendations
Singapore will require mandatory climate-related disclosures for listed companies under proposals that aim to meet rising investor demand for commitments to tackle climate change.
/bloom.bg/3jjmFaA
The World Economy's Supply Chain Problem Keeps Getting Worse
Cindy Wang and Enda Curran - Bloomberg
Shipping shortages spark bidding wars by factory owners; Rising costs push exporters to raise prices, stoking inflation
A supply chain crunch that was meant to be temporary now looks like it will last well into next year as the surging delta variant upends factory production in Asia and disrupts shipping, posing more shocks to the world economy. Manufacturers reeling from shortages of key components and higher raw material and energy costs are being forced into bidding wars to get space on vessels, pushing freight rates to records and prompting some exporters to raise prices or simply cancel shipments altogether.
/bloom.bg/3yl9R7R
Crypto Market-Data Network Pyth Going Live on Solana Blockchain
Joanna Ossinger - Bloomberg
Jump Trading-affiliated Pyth is launching on Solana mainnet; FTX, DRW Cumberland, Virtu Financial, IEX among contributors
Real-time market data provider Pyth Network is going live on one of the fastest growing crypto blockchains, which will allow developers to integrate its feeds across decentralized finance platforms and applications.
/bloom.bg/3ye1tqA
Scammers and Hackers See New Frontier in NFT Art; Fake art, stolen credit-card numbers and phishing schemes: Impostors take advantage of security loopholes in the rapidly growing marketplace
Kelly Crow - WSJ
Serbian artist Milos Rajkovic was floored last month when his social-media fans started touting an online sale of his animated, digital portraits as NFTs, or nonfungible tokens. Mr. Rajkovic, who goes by Sholim, had watched NFTs take over the art world, but he had never toyed with them. Horrified, he pulled up the platform OpenSea and found an impostor trying to sell off 122 of his works as NFTs for as much as $50,000 combined.
/on.wsj.com/3mwjcaB
This Video Game Is Turning the Pandemic Jobless Into Crypto Traders; Investors see an onramp to crypto and NFT adoption. Detractors see a flimsy business model and potential for abuse.
Kristine Servando and Ian C Sayson - Bloomberg
When Vincent Gallarte was laid off in July, the Manila IT analyst found an unusual financial lifeline: an online game that rewards players in cryptocurrency. In his first two weeks of Pokémon-like questing and battling, Gallarte earned more than 37,000 pesos ($732), three times what he would have made at his "real job."
/bloom.bg/3jl2vgq
Employee benefits: Financial firms 'are kind of waking up' to providing better perks
Julie Hyman - Yahoo Finance
Mary Childs was at dinner almost three years ago with a group of girlfriends who worked in finance. Being ambitious women of a certain age, they were discussing the intersection of careers with parenthood. But they realized, as they talked, they lacked key pieces of information: There was a troubling lack of transparency around employee benefits.
/yhoo.it/3Bd9mP2
El Salvador Gets Ready for a Risky Bitcoin Experiment; Impoverished nation is defying warnings against using volatile crypto asset as official currency alongside U.S. dollar
Santiago Pérez and Caitlin Ostroff - WSJ
In less than two weeks, El Salvador will become the first country to adopt bitcoin as a national currency. No one knows what comes next. The government of the impoverished Central American nation aims to spend up to $75 million as part of a plan to hand out $30 to people who sign up to an e-wallet called Chivo, or "Cool." That software-based system would allow an estimated 2.5 million Salvadorans to buy goods or pay for services in U.S. dollars or bitcoin, El Salvador's two official currencies as of Sept 7.
/on.wsj.com/3BiWyXt
The breakneck speed of fixed income market structure change
The Trade
One of the well-documented pandemic outcomes for bank trading desks was the accelerated pace of electronification in fixed income trading. The move to a virtual environment required shifts in how liquidity was sourced for asset managers, how traders interacted with their colleagues and how the banks themselves interacted with clients.
/bit.ly/2XTIQvv
Best Lawyers in America 2022 Recognizes 92 Steptoe Lawyers
Steptoe
Steptoe has received 68 individual nods in the 2022 edition of The Best Lawyers in America©, with six partners named "Lawyer of the Year." An additional 24 lawyers have been recognized in the second edition of Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch.
/bit.ly/2UQ29F3
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| Wellness Exchange | | An Exchange of Health and Wellness Information | Unvaccinated LA residents were 29 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19: CDC study
Adriana Belmonte - Yahoo Finance
A new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) bolsters the argument that unvaccinated individuals are at a much higher risk of experiencing the worst outcomes of COVID-19 than vaccinated individuals. "These data indicate that authorized vaccines protect against SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe COVID-19, even with increased community transmission of the newly predominant Delta variant," the CDC report stated.
/yhoo.it/3BgABbv
Emergency physician warns against questioning vaccine efficacy: 'You're betting against the house'
Seana Smith - Yahoo Finance
While recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) studies show COVID-19 vaccines are less protective against the Delta variant, it's still more important than ever to get the shot to protect against severe symptoms and hospitalization, according to Dr. Calvin Sun, an emergency medicine attending physician.
/yhoo.it/38cDAVP
Get Shots or Get Out, U.S. Employers Are Telling Workers
Jonathan Levin, Skylar Woodhouse, and Kara Wetzel - Bloomberg
Delta Air Lines to charge unvaccinated employees $200 monthly; After FDA gives full approval to vaccine, a surge of new rules
Vaccine mandates are beginning a march across the U.S., constricting the places that people who have shunned the shots can work, shop and play. A day after the federal Food and Drug Administration approved the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine, institutions central to their regions announced tougher -- perhaps bellwether -- rules. In New York, a city driven by finance, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. required bankers to prove they'd been vaccinated. In football-crazed Baton Rouge, Louisiana State University will demand vaccines or negative Covid tests to see a game at Tiger Stadium, capacity 102,000.
/bloom.bg/3jifqQ4
Greek Health Care Workers Protest Against Mandatory Vaccines
Elena Becatoros - AP
Workers at public hospitals in Greece held a five-hour work stoppage Thursday to protest a government decision making vaccination against COVID-19 mandatory for all health care workers in the public and private sector.
/bloom.bg/38gpOBC
Illinois governor to order statewide mask mandate and require vaccines for educators from kindergarten to college
Rick Pearson - Chicago Tribune
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker is expected to double down Thursday on his efforts to deal with a resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic's delta variant as schools reopen by requiring all educators from kindergarten through college to be vaccinated. Additionally, Pritzker plans to require a statewide mandate of masking of people age 2 and above in indoor locations, according to two sources familiar with the governor's actions, as the variant has led to increasing hospitalizations among younger people and the unvaccinated, along with increasing reports of "breakthrough cases" among those who are vaccinated.
/bit.ly/3yj3S3n
As Delta Variant Surges, So Does Demand for At-Home Covid-19 Tests; The tests have been available for months but in recent weeks have been harder to find online and on pharmacy shelves
Brianna Abbott - WSJ
Demand for at-home Covid-19 tests has risen sharply in recent weeks as the Delta variant surges across the U.S., causing test makers to scramble to keep pace. Abbott Laboratories ABT -0.61% said it expects supplies of its at-home test to be limited in the next few weeks as it hires workers and reboots factory lines that were slowed or idled earlier this summer. Availability on Amazon.com of Abbott's BinaxNOW test and a similar test made by Quidel Corp. QDEL -0.39% has been spotty, and an at-home test made by Ellume USA LLC was out of stock as of Wednesday. The tests, which detect fragments of viral proteins called antigens, can be found with patchy access on store shelves and websites.
/on.wsj.com/3BcLefk
Thousands of Covid Patients Are Being Turned Away From Japan's Hospitals
Lisa Du and Grace Huang -Bloomberg
Ambulances can't find hospitals for the sick amid worst surge; System boasts strong preventative care, but hasn't adapted
Japan's worst Covid-19 outbreak yet has thrown a spotlight on the inability of the country's otherwise highly regarded medical system to adapt quickly to emergencies and its lack of reform to meet such needs.
/bloom.bg/3znrV2l
Heart Problem More Common After Covid-19 Than After Vaccination, Study Finds; The research did not assess the risks specifically for young males, who are the most likely to develop the rare side effect.
Emily Anthes and Noah Weiland - NY Times
The Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine is associated with an increased risk of myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle, a large new study from Israel confirms. But the side effect remains rare, and Covid-19 is more likely to cause myocarditis than the vaccine is, scientists reported on Wednesday.
/nyti.ms/3jj9mH7
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| Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | JPMorgan taps CME Group's SOFR forward rate in novel trade deal
American Banker
JPMorgan Chase executed a novel trade-finance transaction tied to the CME Group's forward rates for the Secured Overnight Financing Rate, marking an advancement in the use of the Libor replacement. The trade, arranged between two of the bank's clients, was the first ever fully automated deal in that sector of the firm's business that was tied to term SOFR, JPMorgan said in a statement. It was linked to CME Group's 90-day forward for SOFR and was between Mumbai, India-based Reliance Industries Ltd. and an energy firm based in Singapore.
/bit.ly/3Dl2FMq
NZX senior leadership changes
NZX
NZX has the ambition to be a diversified financial markets infrastructure and services business. Our purpose is to deliver enduring markets, capital pathways and investment opportunities that help deliver economic success for New Zealand.
We see opportunity to deliver additional value for our business, and support the development of New Zealand's capital markets more generally, by leveraging further the products, services and capability we have across our business areas.
To deliver on this opportunity, NZX Chief Executive, Mark Peterson has completed a review of the NZX Senior Leadership Team and has made several adjustments to better position the business to deliver on its strategic ambitions.
/bit.ly/38cVFmE
SGX RegCo charts the way forward on mandatory climate reporting, wants board diversity disclosures
SGX
Singapore Exchange Regulation (SGX RegCo) is proposing a roadmap for climate-related disclosures to be made mandatory in issuers' sustainability reports (SRs) amid urgent demand for such information from lenders, investors and other key stakeholders. Other matters SGX RegCo is consulting the public on include requiring assurance of SRs and one-time sustainability training for all directors.
/bit.ly/3DjhoYu
Keynote Address by Tan Boon Gin, CEO of SGX RegCo, at the launch of the Company Secretaries Network by Singapore Institute of Directors
SGX
Thank you everyone for the kind invitation for me to speak today. Let me start by applauding this new network SID has formed for company secretaries. I think it is a very good way to connect, exchange ideas, and support each other, especially because you play such an important role in ensuring good corporate governance. I certainly look forward to working with all of you as part of the community to achieve our common goal of promoting trust and confidence in our markets.
/bit.ly/3gCVwxk
- EBS Market Integration Notice: New and Updated Content -- CME
- CME STP Notices: August 26, 2021 - CME
- CME Globex Notices: August 23, 2021 - CME
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| Fintech | | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | A Deep Dive into the World of Ethical Fintech
Nathan Gore - The Fintech Times
Fintech, or rather the world of business in general, is changing a lot at the moment - this may be a permanent shift. From the impact of Environment, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG), to the creation of fintech startups that are all about bringing about positive, ethical change, both consumers and service providers are making their way into a new, socially conscious future. Whilst this is a global issue that spans generations, it's particularly concentrated with regards to millennials and fintech startups.
/bit.ly/3mOEWif
Valued to be $28.8 Billion by 2026, Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Fintech Slated for Robust Growth Worldwide
Yahoo Finance
A new market study published by Global Industry Analysts Inc., (GIA) the premier market research company, today released its report titled "Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Fintech - Global Market Trajectory & Analytics". The report presents fresh perspectives on opportunities and challenges in a significantly transformed post COVID-19 marketplace.
/yhoo.it/3kIpMIH
Explosion in electronic payments powers fintech boom in Nigeria
Neil Munshi - Financial Post
Down an alley off Kukawa Street in Lagos Island, across from a building abandoned mid-construction, Paulo Communications does a brisk trade. On an average day, dozens of customers walk past fried food and fresh fruit stands to visit his street-side shop and top up their mobile phones or pay their monthly satellite TV bills.
The shop's biggest business is mobile transactions. It completes dozens of withdrawals, deposits and payments for customers every day, using half a dozen different systems offered by telecommunications giants, big banks and the fintech companies that have made Lagos — Nigeria's commercial capital — Africa's hottest start-up scene, accounting for roughly a fifth of the continent's total venture capital funding in 2020.
/bit.ly/3DkpmAp
Half of asset managers to rely on cloud and AI for post-pandemic recovery, survey finds; Temenos study found that 56% of asset managers will focus investment on technology and data infrastructure in the next year.
Wesley Bray - The Trade
Half of asset managers plan to focus their investment on technology and data infrastructure to drive their post-pandemic recovery, a report by Funds Europe and Temenos has found. Of those surveyed, 56% said these areas will be the focus of their investment over the next year while 47% said they will focus on ensuring compliance with environmental social and corporate governance (ESG).
/bit.ly/3Diz7z7
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| Cybersecurity | | Top stories for cybersecurity | Big Tech groups make cyber security pledges after White House summit; Google and Microsoft unveil plans to spend billions of dollars to shore up US digital defences
Dave Lee - FT
Several Big Tech companies made multibillion-dollar commitments to shore up lacklustre US cyber security defences following a White House summit on Wednesday.
/on.ft.com/3DhIj6T
Cyber Attacks Are Making Work-From-Home Expensive for Businesses
Carolynn Look - Bloomberg
Home WiFi connections are typically easier to hack than company networks, and only 16% of German companies ramped up their IT security budgets during the pandemic, according to a separate survey by the Federal Office for Information Security. Many companies across the globe are now considering implementing permanent work-from-home arrangements to offer employees greater flexibility.
/bloom.bg/38gAgZS
Cybersecurity Warning: Realtek flaws expose dozens of brands to supply chain attacks
Louis Prives - Texas News Today
A chipset flaw recently released by Taiwanese semiconductor company Realtek has been targeted by a botnet based on the old IoT malware Mirai. This flaw is in the Realtek Software Development Kit (SDK) and is currently being attacked by a group using Mirai, a variant of IoT malware designed to work with budgeted processors and low memory devices. If the attack is successful, the attacker has full control over the Wi-Fi module and gains root access to the device's operating system.
/bit.ly/3gzh1zl
Cybersecurity market soaring as threats target commercial and govt organizations
Louis Prives - Texas News Today
Over the past year, it's been impossible to ignore the rising tide of threats targeting government and commercial organizations around the world, and the cybersecurity market is reacting. Ransomware, for one, increased 148% year over year with an estimated 2.9 million ransomware attacks so far in 2021, Momentum Cyber reveals. Beyond the numbers, these attacks have manifested in significant and increasingly concerning ways.
/bit.ly/3sPEBN4
Solving the healthcare cybersecurity crisis
Tori Taylor - Security Boulevard
Right now, the entire country is experiencing deja vu and saying, "Here we go again" as COVID-19 cases are on the rise due to the Delta variant. The United States alone is averaging over 100,000 new cases per day - the highest rate since early February 2021. Last year, hospitals and healthcare organizations suffered brutal ransomware and phishing attacks during the COVID-19 pandemic. Attacks came from all sides and caught healthcare facilities off guard from the aggressiveness and sheer volume of attacks and cyber threats.
/bit.ly/3mC1PVQ
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| Cryptocurrencies | | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | Crypto data project backed by big high-speed traders set to launch; Pyth Network seeks to use digital ledger to distribute conventional and crypto market information
Philip Stafford - FT
A crypto project built by some of the world's largest high-speed traders will launch on Wednesday, the first step its backers see as a "potential game changer" for trading stocks and other assets on blockchain technology.
/on.ft.com/2XNJsCS
Billionaire Nixon's Family Office Plans to Boost Crypto Bets
Benjamin Stupples - Bloomberg
Nixon co-founded price-comparison site Moneysupermarket.com; Entrepreneur's family office looking to hire crypto analyst
Billionaire Simon Nixon wants to increase his crypto investments as more of the world's ultra-rich embrace digital assets.
His family office -- Seek Capital -- is aiming to increase its "allocation to crypto as we feel it is an important area for the future," Adam Proctor, a managing director for Nixon's London-based firm said in a statement. It's looking to hire an analyst to focus on the sector, said Proctor, who joined this year from Citigroup Inc.'s private bank.
/bloom.bg/2Wqvvds
Crypto-Savvy U.S. Senator Sees the Future in Wyoming; Cynthia Lummis wants the federal government to follow her state's regulation-lite approach to digital currencies.
Sophia Cai - Bloomberg
In 2013 then-Representative Cynthia Lummis first heard about a new form of currency from her daughter and son-in-law, who helped Lummis buy her first Bitcoin for $330. Eight years later the first-term Republican senator from Wyoming has become one of Capitol Hill's most ardent supporters of cryptocurrencies and the blockchain technology that powers them. Her state is at the forefront of trying to regulate the fast-evolving digital asset sector after the passage of a slate of crypto-friendly laws in 2018 and 2019.
/bloom.bg/3yq144E
NFTs Supplant Rolexes and Lambos as the New Digital Savvy 'Flex'
Olga Kharif, Vildana Hajric and Justina Lee - Bloomberg
Cartoonish images make their way into profile pictures, apps; Daily sales of NFTs reached an all-time high in August
Bitcoin's back up to around $50,000. DeFi is seeking to go mainstream. But all anyone in the digital-asset world wants to talk about are NFTs. Non-fungible tokens, which allow holders of art and collectibles to track ownership, are staging a resurgence after fading from the headlines during Bitcoin's springtime swoon. Whether it's crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun paying $500,000 for a picture of a rock, or cartoonish depictions of penguins and apes, NFTs -- born of the blockchain technology that powers cryptocurrencies -- are again at the center of the speculative buzz that drives digital markets.
/bloom.bg/3yf43fT
Central banks need to go slow on digital currencies; New technologies will transform global banking but rushing risks great harm to the system
Megan Greene - FT
The emergence of central bank digital currencies is inevitable. Research on CBDC design and implementation is under way around the world. China is seven years into the process and has pilot programmes for the e-CNY, or digital yuan. The European Central Bank aims to introduce one by 2025. The Bank of England and Federal Reserve, however, are moving more slowly. And I think they're right. What's inevitable isn't necessarily what's optimal.
/on.ft.com/3konheo
Crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried says NFTs are shooting into the mainstream despite investors having no idea what they're holding
Shalini Nagarajan - Markets Insider
Crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried said non-fungible tokens are going mainstream faster than anything he's seen, but most people who own them don't know what the future for those digital assets could be.
/bit.ly/2UTbWKy
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| Politics | | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | Vaccinated Democratic Counties Are Leading the Economic Recovery; Data show America's output is concentrated in counties that Biden won—which are better protected against delta.
Joshua Green - Bloomberg
With Covid-19 cases once again rising across the country, the U.S. is struggling to curb the latest, delta-driven surge, as hospitalizations and deaths have steadily climbed. But at least so far, the economy has proved highly resilient. There are many reasons for this, ranging from generous stimulus checks to the Federal Reserve's commitment to buying bonds and holding interest rates low.
/bloom.bg/3jfRpt0
Losing the generation game: could economic setbacks radicalise graduates? Hit hard by the pandemic, young adults feeling marginalised by mainstream politics are mobilising around issues such as climate change
Bethan Staton, Domitille Alain, Davide Ghiglione in Rome and Taylor Nicole Rogers - FT
Krista Burton had a moderate Democrat outlook before arriving at New York University to study politics. But after watching America's healthcare system become overwhelmed by coronavirus cases and seeing the surge in unemployment during the pandemic, her views became more radical. "Seeing how much [the system] failed so many people, I just lost a little bit of that hope I had," she says.
/on.ft.com/3BhfS7w
Gas Shortage Boosts Russia's Sway Over Europe's Energy Markets; Russia's Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Germany nears completion as natural gas trades at all-time highs
Joe Wallace and James Marson - WSJ
Europe is facing a natural-gas shortage just as Russia is completing a controversial pipeline to Germany, increasing President Vladimir Putin's leverage over the continent's energy flows. Europe's gas stores are at their lowest levels for years after demand rebounded from a pandemic-induced low that had led producers to slash output. As a result, prices are hitting record levels and utilities are firing up coal-fired power stations to keep their own costs down.
/on.wsj.com/2XOkAuL
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| Regulation & Enforcement | | For more regulatory, visit MarketsReformWiki, our website focused on current market reform efforts. | SEC Obtains Emergency Relief, Charges Investment Adviser and Its Principal with Operating $110 Million Ponzi Scheme
SEC
On Aug. 20, 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed an emergency action to stop a fraudulent Ponzi scheme allegedly perpetrated by Marietta, Georgia resident John Woods and two entities he controls: registered investment adviser Livingston Group Asset Management Company, d/b/a Southport Capital (Southport), and investment fund Horizon Private Equity, III LLC (Horizon). On Aug. 24, 2021, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia granted a temporary restraining order and asset freeze with respect to defendants Woods and Horizon and ordered expedited discovery with respect to Southport, among other relief.
/bit.ly/2WpgVmm
SEC Charges Former CEO of Technology Company With $80 Million Fraud
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Manish Lachwani, the former CEO of HeadSpin Inc., a Silicon Valley-based private technology company, with defrauding investors out of $80 million by falsely claiming that the company had achieved strong and consistent growth in acquiring customers and generating revenue.
/bit.ly/3jfpDg0
Tech startup CEO charged with allegedly cooking books to pump up 'unicorn' valuation
Lukas I. Alpert - MarketWatch
The co-founder of a venture-backed Silicon Valley startup has been charged with significantly inflating the company's revenue to convince investors to value the business at over $1 billion, prosecutors and the SEC said.
/on.mktw.net/3yo5lW2
Ex-CEO of tech startup HeadSpin accused of bilking investors out of $80M
Reuters
Federal authorities on Wednesday charged a co-founder and former chief executive of HeadSpin with defrauding investors out of as much as $80 million by overstating the Silicon Valley startup's revenue and other key financial metrics. Manish Lachwani was accused of lying to HeadSpin investors from 2018 to early 2020 about the ability of his privately held provider of mobile-app-testing services to attract and retain business, including from major Silicon Valley companies.
/bit.ly/3mASJsw
CFTC's Energy and Environmental Markets Advisory Committee to Meet September 15
CFTC
CFTC Commissioner Dan M. Berkovitz, the sponsor of the Energy and Environmental Markets Advisory Committee (EEMAC), today announced that the EEMAC will hold a public meeting on Wednesday, September 15, 2021. The meeting will begin at 9:00 a.m. (EDT) and be held via videoconference in accordance with the agency's implementation of social distancing due to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic.
/bit.ly/3sMp4NT
Thailand's SEC Proposes New Rules for Crypto Custodians
Eliza Gkritsi - Coindesk
Thailand's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has drafted new rules for custody of digital assets intended to strengthen investor protections, the SEC said in a statement.
/yhoo.it/2XLheIX
U.S. Authorities Probing Deutsche Bank's DWS Over Sustainability Claims; Investigation by Justice Department, SEC follow allegations from ex-sustainability chief that firm overstated efforts on environment, other issues
Patricia Kowsmann, Corinne Ramey and Dave Michaels - WSJ
U.S. authorities are investigating Deutsche Bank AG's DB 1.20% asset-management arm, DWS Group, after the firm's former head of sustainability said it overstated how much it used sustainable investing criteria to manage its assets, according to people familiar with the matter.
/on.wsj.com/3Dj9U7Q
NAB to pay $18.5 million penalty for fee disclosure statement failures
ASIC
The Federal Court has ordered National Australia Bank Limited (NAB) to pay an $18.5 million penalty for failures relating to misleading fee disclosure statements. The Court also declared NAB contravened its obligations as an Australian financial services licence holder to act efficiently, honestly and fairly by failing to have procedures and systems in place to provide timely and effective fee disclosure statements.
/bit.ly/3Bgolri
ASIC publishes Corporate Plan 2021-25
ASIC
ASIC's Corporate Plan 2021-25 outlines our priorities over the next four years to achieve a fair, strong and efficient financial system for all Australians. The Corporate Plan is consistent with ASIC's new Statement of Intent released today in response to the Australian Government's Statement of Expectations.
/bit.ly/3mEzPkn
SEC Obtains Emergency Relief, Charges Investment Adviser and Its Principal with Operating $110 Million Ponzi Scheme
Litigation Release No. 25181 / August 25, 2021; Securities and Exchange Commission v. John J. Woods, Livingston Group Asset Management Company d/b/a Southport Capital, and Horizon Private Equity, III, LLC, No. 1:21-cv-03413-SDG (N.D. Ga. filed August 20, 2021)
SEC
On August 20, 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed an emergency action to stop a fraudulent Ponzi scheme allegedly perpetrated by Marietta, Georgia resident John Woods and two entities he controls: registered investment adviser Livingston Group Asset Management Company, d/b/a Southport Capital (Southport), and investment fund Horizon Private Equity, III, LLC (Horizon). On August 24, 2021, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia granted a temporary restraining order and asset freeze with respect to defendants Woods and Horizon and ordered expedited discovery with respect to Southport, among other relief.
/bit.ly/3Dkv2e0
SEC Charges Promoters of Offering Fraud Targeting Practitioners of Alternative Medicine and Transcendental Meditation
Litigation Release No. 25183 / August 25, 2021; Securities and Exchange Commission v. Carl Jensen and Stephen W. Gold, Defendants, and Kerry Margolis and Michael Hock, Relief Defendants, No. 2:21-civ-06817 (C.D. Cal. filed August 24, 2021)
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that it has filed an injunctive action against Carl Jensen, a Canadian citizen residing in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, and his associates, for an alleged offering fraud that raised more than $7 million from at least 75 retail investors in the United States and worldwide, targeting practitioners in the fields of alternative medicine and transcendental meditation, including retirees.
/bit.ly/3gC6tiJ
SEC Charges Netflix Insider Trading Ring; Securities and Exchange Commission v. Sung Mo Jun, Joon Jun, Junwoo Chon, Ayden Lee, and Jae Hyeon Bae, o. 2:21-cv-01108 (W.D. Wash. filed August 18, 2021)
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced insider trading charges against three former Netflix, Inc. software engineers and two close associates who generated over $3 million in total profits by trading on confidential information about Netflix's subscriber growth.
/bit.ly/3Bte3o7
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| Investing & Trading | | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | Will gold have its day as a crisis hedge? Palantir's investment in bullion bars raises questions for retail savers
Stefan Wagstyl - FT
What is it that Palantir Technologies knows that the rest of us don't? Quite a lot, if we are to judge by the number of governments that are prepared to pay for the US high-tech company's data-crunching service.
/on.ft.com/3mwNZEc
Welcome to the great speculative era; There are plenty of tools for investors, including Spacs and cryptocurrencies
Philip Coggan - FT
In popular accounts of the South Sea Bubble in the early 18th century, one tale is often told. A dodgy company that was launched in that era was described merely as "an undertaking of great advantage but nobody to know what it is". The story is, alas, apocryphal. But step forward three centuries and the financial sector has delivered the real thing.
/on.ft.com/3gymfv0
10m pensioners risk running out of money — poll; Retirees unsure about managing their funds but resist advice
Josephine Cumbo - FT
Nearly 10m British pension savers risk running out of money in retirement because they do not know how to make their savings last, according to new analysis which sheds fresh light on the complex choices facing retirees.
/on.ft.com/3kvuZDt
How to Teach the WSJ Investing Challenge; Incorporate the five-week email course into your classes this fall
Bourree Lam - WSJ
The Wall Street Journal launched a five-week newsletter course this year with our best lessons for understanding how to invest in the stock market, from how to pick a stock to why diversification matters. The course, written by the columnists of WSJ's Heard on the Street, is now making its way into classes around the world to teach young people five important principles of investing as interest in retail investing and meme stocks continues to grow.
/on.wsj.com/3kvOOKZ
U.S. Crops Wither Under Scorching Heat; Inventories of grains world-wide are dwindling, further pushing up already high prices for corn and wheat
Kirk Maltais - WSJ
Drought is blistering key U.S. cash crops, further elevating prices for staples including corn and wheat. The punishing dynamics of a torrid summer were evident this month on the Pro Farmer Crop Tour, an annual event in which farmers visit key growing areas across the grain belt to gather data on the coming harvest. Driving along state Route 14 outside of Verdigre, Neb., Randy Wiese turned to see a farmer harvesting hay. The piles were small.
/on.wsj.com/2WsPSXJ
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| Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance | | Stories about environmental, social and governance investing | Pardee Center Hosts Two-Day Conference on the Future of Carbon Pricing
BU.edu
On July 30 and 31, 2021, the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future at Boston University's Pardee School of Global Studies hosted a two-day virtual conference of panels and keynote addresses exploring the future of carbon pricing. The first day, which featured a keynote address by Geoffrey M. Heal (Professor of Social Enterprise, Columbia University Business School), focused on economic and technical research on carbon pricing measures required to meet the Paris Agreement goals of a 1.5° to 2.0° C rise in global temperatures. The second day, which featured a keynote address by Matto Mildenberger (Associate Professor of Political Science, University of California at Santa Barbara), focused on the social and political implications of our transition to a more sustainable future.
/bit.ly/38ex2Gk
Team ESG fights back; Some people think I'm wrong, somehow
Robert Armstrong - FT
Welcome back. My piece about Tariq Fancy and the case against ESG generated a great deal of mail. At least half of it was positive, mostly in the "thanks for pointing out that the emperor has no clothes" vein. A small minority made ad hominem attacks, which is even more encouraging for a journalist than praise. I'll respond to the most popular counterarguments in the remaining letters below.
/on.ft.com/3kvKdZf
Oil and gas pipeline groups attempt reinvention with carbon capture plans; US government says 68,000 miles of new CO2 networks are needed to reach emissions goals
Justin Jacobs - FT
The US oil and gas pipeline industry is looking for new opportunities to lay steel in the ground with pipes that carry the carbon dioxide produced when fossil fuels are burnt.
/on.ft.com/3Bgf0je
Oil Financier Goes Green and Hopes Its Clean-Energy Past Doesn't Repeat; Investors have given Riverstone more than $1 billion for blank-check firms to merge with renewable energy businesses
Ryan Dezember and Amrith Ramkumar - WSJ
Riverstone Holdings AP4 -0.81% LLC rode the shale boom to big profits. Now the New York investment firm is betting on technologies that would cut demand for fossil fuels, hoping for better results than its earlier push into renewables.
/on.wsj.com/3kowfYZ
How Should the Fed Deal With Climate Change? When the economy hits hard times, survey data shows, people are less likely to worry about the environment.
Neil Irwin - NY Times
The climate crisis is at high risk of becoming an economic crisis. That is an increasingly widespread view among leading economic thinkers — that a range of economic and financial problems could result from a warming planet and humanity's efforts to deal with it. But if you believe that to be true, what should the United States' economist-in-chief do about it?
/nyti.ms/2Wkh4rV
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| Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | TD Beats Estimates With Economic Rebound Boosting Canadian Loans
Kevin Orland - Bloomberg
Toronto-Dominion Bank's focus on consumer banking paid off last quarter, with a reopening of the economy in Canada boosting lending results.
/bloom.bg/2WvrEvW
Deutsche Bank's DWS Shares Fall as U.S. Opens Probe on ESG Claims
Steven Arons - Bloomberg
Investigation adds to headaches for Deutsche Bank CEO Sewing; DWS CEO has made sustainability a key plank of his strategy
Deutsche Bank AG's asset-management arm DWS Group slumped the most in almost 18 months after a U.S. probe into the sustainability claims of its funds, in a further sign that authorities are taking a tougher stance on potential greenwashing of investment products.
/bloom.bg/38flB11
Deutsche Bank Requires Vaccines for Staff on U.S. Trading Floors
Steven Arons - Bloomberg
Social distancing difficult on trading floors, spurring policy; Many of bank's U.S. competitors have vaccine, mask mandates
Deutsche Bank AG is allowing only those employees fully vaccinated against Covid-19 onto its U.S. trading floors, joining a growing number of financial firms restricting access for staff who don't get the shots.
/bloom.bg/3zmvXbc
Wells Fargo clearing head retires after 27 years; George Simonetti has retired after a 27-year stint at the bank, most recently serving as head of markets clearing and futures execution.
Annabel Smith - The Trade
Wells Fargo's head of markets clearing and futures execution, George Simonetti, has retired from his role after serving more than 27 years at the bank. Wells Fargo declined to comment on his departure.
/bit.ly/3kqjXPQ
REVEALED: 22 questions from Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to help prep prospective interns for intense 'superday' interviews
Reed Alexander - Insider
The summer-internship pathway in investment banking is a competitive process that begins as early as 18 to 24 months before opportunities kick off. The road to an internship typically culminates in a "superday" — a competitive, rapid-fire sequence of multiple interview rounds conducted by senior bankers like managing directors and vice presidents. At this phase, human-resources professionals or campus recruiters are less likely to be involved than they were at the outset of the recruiting process.
/bit.ly/38cYFzq
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| Regions | | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | Chinese Billionaire-Linked Companies Convicted of Fraud in U.S.
Joe Schneider - Bloomberg
Six companies tied to Chinese billionaire Liu Zhongtian were convicted in the U.S. of disguising aluminum shipments to avoid paying $1.8 billion in customs duties and to boost the value of China Zhongwang Holdings Ltd.
/yhoo.it/3Dl4zwz
Tech Fund Becomes Biggest China ETF Even as Stock Rebound Stalls
Sam Potter and Elena Popina - Bloomberg
KWEB posted record price jump Tuesday in high trading volumes; KraneShanes product has overtaken broader iShares fund MCHI
An embattled tech fund that plunged 58% in Beijing's corporate crackdown has just roared back to life to become the biggest U.S. ETF betting on the Asian nation.
/bloom.bg/3ydZC56
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| Miscellaneous | | Stories that don't quite fit under the other sections | Josephine Baker makes history in Paris once more; In a popular move, President Macron is elevating the black American singer and activist to the Pantheon of French greats
Victor Mallet - FT
Some foreign visitors may have no idea who she was, but there is already a Josephine Baker Square and a Josephine Baker swimming pool in Paris, and Josephine Baker streets in towns across France. For Ernest Hemingway, she was the "most sensational woman anybody ever saw. Or ever will". Charles de Gaulle attended her first concert in the French capital after the city was liberated from the Nazis.
/on.ft.com/3gB7bN9
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