| October 31, 2022 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | | | John Lothian
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Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff
The World Federation of Exchanges is frontrunning COP27 by holding a WFE webinar: "WFE-Borsa Istanbul ESG Conference", on Friday, November 4, 2022 from 12:00 to 15:00 GMT. The WFE says, "This conference aims to bring together academics, industry, and policy makers to discuss some of the recent industry developments in Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) in capital and derivative markets." This is a good kind of frontrunning, just for the record.
Covid is keeping a couple of the world's top bankers from the Hong Kong financial summit organized by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. Citigroup Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jane Fraser and Blackstone Inc. President Jonathan Gray tested positive for the virus and Barclays Plc Chief Executive Officer C.S. Venkatakrishnan just decided not to come to Asia this week, including to the summit, Bloomberg reported.
How the times change. When I was in high school, being called a "twit" was an insult. Now Elon Musk is calling himself the "chief twit" at Twitter in response to the question who is the CEO of Twitter after Musk fired the previous one. And evidently being the chief twit comes with a price, as Musk's purchase of Twitter knocked $10 billion from his fortune. He is a twit.
Hong Kong Fintech Week is this week, starting today and running to November 4. It is both in person and virtual. HKEX CEO Nicolas Aguzin will be a speaker, as will JPM, I mean SBF.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago is looking for applicants for its 2023 Summer Internship Program and the deadline to apply is Nov. 4. The Bank is seeking undergraduate and graduate students for interns accounting, finance, business, engineering, IT and other business areas.
Here is something for the old dogs. Prime Trading is looking to hire a senior options market maker for a Chicago position.
CME Group is looking to hire a senior content marketing specialist for its London office.
Kathy Wang is starting a new position as executive director - policy, regulatory relations at The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC). Previously, Wang was at the Federal Reserve Board as a financial services project leader.
Gregory Todd is starting a new position as general counsel, Latin America, co-general counsel, Europe, Middle East, and Africa at Bank of America. He is relocating to London in early November.
Former Chicago Mercantile Exchange member Chris Lautenslager has written a book, "The Prosperity Loop: A Wealth Creation Model for Socially Conscious Leaders, Their Teams, and Their Communities", that is available to pre-order on Amazon. Chris is the CEO of Get Looped. There is an interview from August 7 with Chris titled "Social Impact Authors: How & Why Author Chris Lautenslager of Get Looped Is Helping To Change Our World," by Yitzi Weiner on Medium.com.
Another day, another vaccination. I received my flu shot on Sunday, following getting my Covid booster last week. With the flu season the worst in 13 years already, and Covid-19 expected to flare up over the holidays again, I wanted to be prepared.
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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This half day event will gather exchange CEOs from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), notable emerging Asia investment professionals, and US institutional investors to discuss the investment dynamics of this fast-growing region. Places are limited and will be allocated on a first come first serve basis.
For more information, and to register please visit: http://ow.ly/iH2N50Lgp4I
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MWE SHORT: Bill Looney - The Champions' Mindset
JohnLothianNews.com
Bill Looney is a real Renaissance Man - institutional sales trader, client services executive, jazz drummer, amateur pilot and professional golfer. He also knows the stuff of which champions are made.
Watch the video »
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The nuclear threats that hang over the world; Even a limited strike in Ukraine would have catastrophic global effects
Gideon Rachman - Financial Times
"A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought." That joint statement was issued at the beginning of this year by China, France, Russia, the UK and the US - the five official nuclear weapons states. The following month, Russia invaded Ukraine. Ever since, world leaders have been grappling with the threat that a nuclear war might indeed be fought - quite soon.
/jlne.ws/3DO0ymX
***** There is not a good outcome that involves a nuclear war. So let's keep them right where they are tucked in their silos and bunkers.~JJL
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Hong Kong eyes return to global financial map with summit amid talent crunch, geo-tension
Scott Murdoch, Kane Wu and Selena Li - Reuters
Hong Kong aims to restore its reputation as a global financial hub by playing host to a bevy of top Wall Street executives this week, defying critics who say a talent crunch and geopolitical tension will hobble its ambition. The high-profile summit is the first in almost three years in the city since anti-government protests, the imposition of a sweeping national security law and strict COVID-19 containment measures clouded its status as a premier financial centre.
/jlne.ws/3WhgOE5
****** Smart move by Hong Kong. Let's see if it works.~JJL
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Fast Company chooses Purdue University as a 'Brand That Matters' for second year in a row
Purdue University
For the second year in a row, Purdue University is the only university selected by Fast Company as one of its "Brands That Matter," a list honoring companies and organizations for communicating their brand's mission and ideals with intention and authenticity. One of only 13 two-time honorees, Purdue shares this year's honor with internationally recognized brands like Nike, Salesforce.org and Fender.
/jlne.ws/3SR9Pi0
****** Purdue's brand rocks like Fender because it just does it.~JJL
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Talking to strangers might make you happier, a study on 'relational diversity' finds
Ayesha Rascoe, Ailsa Chang, Juana Summers, Ilana Masad, Matt Ozug and Manuela López Restrepo - NPR
Next time you consider striking up a conversation with a stranger in line at the grocery store or while waiting at the laundromat, keep in mind that it might be beneficial for your well-being. A recent study by a group of researchers found that there is a link between happiness and a term that the researchers coined called "relational diversity." Using public data from sources like the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the World Health Organization, the researchers were able to analyze data sets and survey responses from people who had shared their daily habits, schedules and interactions. They noticed a clear relationship between relational diversity and overall levels of satisfaction.
/jlne.ws/3fiRflr
***** I should be one of the happiest people on earth, according to this study. I am always talking to strangers. I am a stranger-talker. ~JJL
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After Record Year, University-Endowment Returns Drop Into Negative Territory; Endowments post their worst losses since 2009 as stocks, bonds, other assets decline
Juliet Chung and Melissa Korn - The Wall Street Journal
Investment returns for university endowments have fallen back to earth after scoring their biggest gains in a generation the year before, reflecting a dramatically changed investment environment in which stocks, bonds and other assets have sold off sharply. The endowment of Washington University in St. Louis lost 10.6% in the fiscal year ended June 30 after notching a 65% gain the prior year, the school told The Wall Street Journal, shrinking its size to $13.3 billion. Other schools that have reported big swings in their multibillion-dollar endowments include Stanford University, which lost 4.2% after gaining 40.1% previously; Brown University, down 4.6% after posting a 51.5% increase; and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, down 5.3% after rising 55.5%.
/jlne.ws/3SPep0f
******Maybe you should not feel so bad about your portfolio being down this year, assuming it is. After all, here are some of the brightest minds managing money and their performance is negative.~JJL
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Friday's Top Three
Our top story Friday was the Wall Street Journal's SEC Favors Midpoint Prices on Investor Stock Trades in Rules Overhaul. Second was a tie among MarketsMedia's CME Defends FCM Application, Bloomberg's HKEX Starts Carbon-Trading Platform Matching Rival Singapore, and MarketWatch's The Phillies made the World Series - is a stock-market crash next? Why some see this baseball team's success as a bad omen. Third was a tie between Bloomberg's Chicago Bets on Quantum Tech as 'Next Big Thing' for Its Future and The Wall Street Journal's Stuck in a Wine Rut? You're Certainly Not Alone.
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| All MarketsWiki Sponsors» | | | | | | | 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
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| Lead Stories | Can Gary Gensler solve every problem in American finance?
The Economist
Everyone in finance has an opinion of Gary Gensler. To many, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (sec), America's main financial regulator, is meddlesome and overreaching. Mention him in crypto circles and you invite a convoluted description of a token or project, followed by the speaker hissing: "How can that be a security?!" His plans have raised the eyebrows of other policymakers, alarmed lobbyists in Washington and panicked much of Wall Street. One bank boss sneers that his agenda is ridiculous. So broad are his aims, "he must think he is an Avenger," assuming he can "swoop in and fix every problem in finance."
/jlne.ws/3DmmnZd
Under Biden Administration, Wall Street Watchdog's Fines Surge; SEC levied fines totaling $2.2 billion against listed U.S. companies in last fiscal year
Dave Michaels - The Wall Street Journal
Wall Street's top watchdog this year collected some of its highest fines ever from firms accused of wrongdoing, underscoring the Biden administration's tougher regulatory stance. The Securities and Exchange Commission imposed 13 fines greater than $100 million on public companies during its latest fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, up from the prior year's three cases at that level. In some other recent years, the SEC didn't levy any fines that large.
/jlne.ws/3gVLbjk
Esma's Verena Ross: safeguarding the EU's financial markets; The regulator has helped guide the agency through its early turbulent days and a pandemic, but her greatest challenge lies ahead
Laura Noonan - Financial Times
Verena Ross struggles to put her finger on the most challenging time in an almost 30-year regulatory career that began in the UK before bringing her to mainland Europe as executive director of the EU's new markets regulator in 2011, and its chair in 2021. Was it her earliest days in Paris, when the European Securities and Markets Authority was trying to expand from a 35-person start-up while also shepherding the EU's markets through an unprecedented sovereign debt crisis?
/on.ft.com/3SPp6Qz
Investors urge US Treasury to boost bond market liquidity with buyback scheme; Fed's aggressive monetary policy has added to volatility in the normally boring $24tn market
Kate Duguid and Colby Smith - Financial Times
US government bond investors are urging the Treasury department to intervene in the market, hoping for signals this week of possible buybacks after months of wild prices swings and poor liquidity. The Federal Reserve's aggressive increases in interest rates and quantitative tightening programme this year have amplified the drama in the normally staid $24tn Treasury market. Investors want the Treasury to provide clues of its plans when it makes its fourth-quarter funding announcement in the coming days.
/jlne.ws/3SMaqBD
US drops rate-rigging charges against ex-Citi and UBS trader Tom Hayes; Prosecutors abandon case after appeals court overturns Libor convictions of two former Deutsche Bank traders
Kate Beioley - Financial Times
A New York judge has thrown out criminal charges against Tom Hayes, the former UBS and Citigroup trader who served more than five years in prison in the UK for conspiring to manipulate the Libor benchmark interest rate. The scandal over Libor - the London Interbank Offered Rate - sent shockwaves through global financial markets more than a decade ago. Several banks were required to pay fines for rigging the benchmark in their favour.
/jlne.ws/3UciYmx
OPEC Sees Booming Oil Demand Until Middle of Century; Cartel raises long-term demand forecasts on rising developing world demand
Will Horner - The Wall Street Journal
OPEC called for trillions of dollars worth of investments in the oil industry over the next two decades to meet what it expects to be booming demand for fossil fuels stretching far into the middle of the century. In an annual report on long-term energy trends, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said the oil industry would need investments totaling $12.1 trillion by 2045-$300 billion more than expected last year-to satisfy demand and keep global energy-security concerns at bay.
/on.wsj.com/3Wf9dG1
Saudi Swagger Stands Apart in World Full of Doom-Laden Forecasts; Kingdom displays fruits of oil boom as it hosts finance chiefs; Saudis pour billions into plan for rapid reboot of economy
Salma El Wardany, Nicolas Parasie, and Zainab Fattah - Bloomberg
Pessimism about the state of the world has been front and center as leaders of global finance gather in Saudi Arabia this week, but with the host nation a striking exception to the general gloom. The kingdom is enjoying its moment, with oil money gushing in to drive the fastest growth rate in the Group of 20 major economies, and a sense -- tangible in the hallways of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Riyadh, where the Future Investment Initiative wraps up on Thursday -- that Saudi Arabia is in the ascendant.
/jlne.ws/3gXo5c3
Oil Giants Face Backlash for Handing Record Profits to Investors; Dividends, buybacks exceed capital spending by $20 billion; President Biden calls for profits to be used to cut prices
Kevin Crowley and Will Mathis - Bloomberg
Big Oil's record profits are a huge hit on Wall Street but increasingly provocative in the corridors of power from Washington to London as politicians lash out against executives for funneling windfall profits to investors. The controversy this week was not so much about the gargantuan dollar amounts earned but what the world's largest energy companies chose to do with them. Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., Shell Plc and TotalEnergies SE are handing almost $100 billion to shareholders annually in the form of buybacks and dividends while reinvesting just $80 billion in their core businesses this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
/jlne.ws/3Fvah2w
Exxon Tops Tech Giants as Biggest Cash Producer in S&P 500
David Wethe, Tom Contiliano, and Kevin Crowley - Bloomberg
In the latest chapter in Big Oil versus Tech, Exxon Mobil Corp. posted $24.4 billion in operating cash flow for the third quarter thanks to booming commodity prices, pushing the oil giant to the top of the S&P 500 Index, just edging out Apple Inc. Exxon's record profit in the period comes after America's tech giants spent much of the past decade supplanting the oil industry at the top off the index. More than half of S&P 500 companies have reported so far this earnings season.
/jlne.ws/3gZUbnD
Task to build new EU gas benchmark will be 'demanding', admits regulator; Search for more 'representative' way to track prices to reflect replaced Russian gas proves tricky
Nikou Asgari and David Sheppard, Alice Hancock - Financial Times
The regulator charged with building a planned new EU benchmark for imported gas has admitted the ambitious project will be difficult to put into practice. Acer, the EU's energy regulator, has joined traders and analysts casting doubt on a plan from Brussels for a new regional standard that would more accurately track the price of liquefied natural gas being shipped into the bloc.
/on.ft.com/3WiKdhi
IRS has been missing out on $500 billion in taxes owed annually - and the gap between what's owed and paid is projected to widen
Andrew Keshner - MarketWatch
There's a difference between the amount of taxes that people and businesses owe the Internal Revenue Service and the amount they actually pay. From 2014 to 2016, that multibillion-dollar gap widened, and the divide will likely get even wider later in the decade, the IRS said Friday. For each of those years, taxpayers failed to pay an estimated $496 billion in owed taxes, the agency said Friday. That shortfall was fueled by three things: nonfiling; underpayment of what's due; and, the most significant of the three, underreporting.
/jlne.ws/3Nowstq
British Pound's Plunge Sparks Retail-Trading Frenzy; New research from eToro found that more investors - many of them first-timers - have been playing the currency market amid this year's fiscal chaos.
Charlie Wells - Bloomberg
The economic turbulence in the UK is pushing more retail investors to try their hand at currency trading. With the government in crisis and stocks tumbling, the number of UK investors on the online brokerage eToro who traded the British pound versus the US dollar spiked 114% in September versus the month prior and 143% versus the average monthly total for 2022. October is already on track to top the latter figure, with a 155% jump versus this year's monthly average, according to data from the company.
/jlne.ws/3TWpVbF
Prediction Market Kalshi Signals It Sees CFTC's Blessing for Midterm Election Bets
Nick Baker - CoinDesk
Prediction market Kalshi is hinting strongly Friday that it expects U.S. regulators to approve its request to debut contracts linked to the Nov. 8 U.S. election. At the top of its homepage, under the heading "Countdown to election markets," there's a clock counting down to midnight in the U.S. There is a caveat, though: a note saying "Pending regulatory approval."
/jlne.ws/3TStI9N
Pension Funds Or Cryptocurrency, What's The Bigger Scam?
Edward Siedle - Forbes
Lack of transparency at our nation's public pensions makes scamming easier than cryptocurrency fraud. Public pension funds or cryptocurrency, what's the bigger scam? The surprising answer is pension funds, according to Anessa Santos, a Florida attorney and Special Magistrate who specializes in blockchain and fintech, and the reason why has everything to do with transparency, she says.
/jlne.ws/3NjzheY
Leaders in Trading 2022: Meet the nominees for... Outstanding Alternative Liquidity Provider; Learn more about the five firms shortlisted for our Editors' Choice Award for Outstanding Alternative Liquidity Provider: including Citadel Securities, Flow Traders, Hudson River Trading, Jane Street and XTX Markets.
Annabel Smith - The Trade
The TRADE is delighted to announce the shortlisted nominees for the 2022 Editors' Choice Outstanding Alternative Liquidity Provider Award. Shortlisted this year are Citadel Securities, Flow Traders, Hudson River Trading, Jane Street and XTX Markets. Learn more about what they've been up to below.
/bit.ly/3Dl10rf
The World's Food Security Is at Stake as Russia Exits Grain Deal; Wheat is set for a price swing upward as market opens in Asia; Leaders scramble to save pact that helped stabilize market
Kim Chipman and Tarso Veloso Ribeiro - Bloomberg
Traders are bracing for a fresh spike in grain prices after Russia's exit from a deal allowing Ukraine crops to move from the Black Sea to the countries most in need of them roils markets anew. The sudden move by Russia has left leaders scrambling to rescue the UN-and-Turkey-brokered agreement credited with saving vulnerable populations from risk of starvation.
/jlne.ws/3NkZ2M4
Musk's Role as 'Chief Twit' Knocks $10 Billion From Fortune; Musk overpaid for Twitter based on decline in index of peers; Those who cashed out pocket gains and avoided market swings
Tom Maloney - Bloomberg
In the hours before finalizing his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter Inc., Elon Musk said he bought the social-media platform to help humanity, not to make more money. Indeed, by finalizing the deal, the world's richest person, who now calls himself "Chief Twit," took an instant $10 billion hit to his net worth, according to calculations by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
/jlne.ws/3WhzUd3
Twitter, Once a Threat to Titans, Now Belongs to One
Kevin Roose - The New York Times
A decade ago, when Twitter - then a scrappy, young microblogging service - burst into the mainstream, it felt like a tool for challenging authority. Pro-democracy activists in Libya and Egypt used Twitter to help topple dictatorships. Americans used it to occupy Wall Street. And in 2013, after George Zimmerman was acquitted of killing an unarmed Black teenager named Trayvon Martin, #BlackLivesMatter took root on Twitter.
/jlne.ws/3Wk8HGX
Western leaders blast Russia's exit from grain deal that's helped ease global hunger
Franco Ordonez - NPR
The European Union called on Russia on Sunday to reverse its decision to suspend participation in a grain deal brokered by the United Nations that has helped ease the global food crisis. Western leaders are condemning Moscow's actions, which are triggering a new wave of fears about global hunger and rampant inflation.
/jlne.ws/3FEcgBA
Credit Suisse's Saudi Backer Rules Out Raising Stake for Now
Yousef Gamal El-Din - Bloomberg
Credit Suisse Group AG's Saudi backer is bullish on its investment in the struggling Swiss lender, but ruled out pumping more money into the bank for now. Saudi National Bank "likes" Credit Suisse's new leadership and their resolve to execute on its turnaround plan, though any additional equity for the moment is "out of the question," Chairman Ammar Al Khudairy said in an interview with Bloomberg TV.
/jlne.ws/3NjsXEu
Barclays CEO Says You Won't See Him Spinning Out Investment Bank
Francine Lacqua and Tom Metcalf - Bloomberg
C.S. Venkatakrishnan concedes his first twelve months as Barclays Plc chief executive officer have been an education. But one of his convictions has only strengthened: the lender's global investment banking operation is critical to its success.
/jlne.ws/3Wkxf2g
Digital Yuan Needs to Strike Balance on Privacy, China's Central Bank Governor Says
Bloomberg News
China's centralized digital yuan should balance the privacy of its users with the need to prevent people from using the currency to commit crimes, China's central bank governor said. "Anonymity and full disclosure are not as simple as black and white," said Yi Gang, governor of the People's Bank of China, in a virtual speech Monday to the Hong Kong FinTech Week conference. He added that officials must "strike a delicate balance between protecting privacy and combating illicit activities."
/jlne.ws/3WbgyXf
Blockchain firm Valereum gets approval to buy Gibraltar exchange
Reuters
Blockchain company Valereum said on Monday it has received regulatory approval to buy the Gibraltar Stock Exchange (GSX) and turn it into a gateway to European capital for fledgling companies from the Middle East, India and Africa. Valereum said it has received consent from the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission to complete the acquisition.
/jlne.ws/3DHsWpB
US accounting standards boss hits back at critics over pace of rulemaking; FASB chair Rich Jones says it is important to listen to many stakeholders
Stephen Foley. - Financial Times
The head of the US accounting standards body has hit back at critics who say the organisation is too slow at making new rules, and rejected proposals to give investors a bigger role. The Financial Accounting Standards Board came under fire last month from a group of investors who said the rules governing financial statements were failing to keep up with changes across corporate America.
/jlne.ws/3UcfuQZ
Hong Kong Govt. Reconsiders Stance on Virtual Asset ETFs, Tokenised Securities, and Retail Investors
Lavender Au - CoinDesk
Hong Kong's Financial Services and Treasury Bureau issued a policy statement on virtual assets at the opening of the city's flagship tech conference Hong Kong FinTech Week on Monday. Hong Kong is "ready to engage" with global virtual asset service providers and invite them to the city, the statement says. The Legislative Council of Hong Kong, a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, is currently reviewing Hong Kong's new VASP licensing regime as part of proposed amendments to the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance. The regime is set to come into effect March 1 next year.
/jlne.ws/3DqsNqj
The Supreme Court Will Make It Harder to Hire a Diverse Team; Two cases pending before the justices involve affirmative action at universities, but there are clear implications for companies.
Noah Feldman - Bloomberg
Today, the Supreme Court is hearing two cases that are widely expected to overturn long-standing precedent and reject diversity as a rationale for considering race in university admissions. One case involves Harvard University, and the other the University of North Carolina. The ruling not only heralds major changes for higher education, but for private corporations as well.
/jlne.ws/3Np6OEU
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| Ukraine Invasion | | News about the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and its military, economic, political and humanitarian impact | Russia's hope for Ukraine win revealed in battle for Bakhmut
Inna Varenytsia and Sam Mednick - AP News
Russian soldiers pummeling a city in eastern Ukraine with artillery are slowly edging closer in their attempt to seize Bakhmut, which has remained in Ukrainian hands during the eight-month war despite Moscow's goal of capturing the entire Donbas region bordering Russia. While much of the fighting in the last month has unfolded in southern Ukraine's Kherson region, the battle heating up around Bakhmut demonstrates Russian President Vladimir Putin's desire for visible gains following weeks of clear setbacks in Ukraine.
/jlne.ws/3UdFg7g
As temperatures begin to fall, Russia steps up attacks on Ukraine's vulnerable power grid
Michael Weiss and James Rushton - Yahoo! News
Large parts of the Ukrainian capital have been experiencing rolling blackouts in recent weeks, after increased Russian attacks over the past month that have destroyed an estimated 30% of Ukraine's power and heating generation capacity. Kyiv has accused Russia, which continues to suffer a string of embarrassing setbacks on the battlefield, of pursuing a determined strategy of targeting such facilities in order both to increase Ukrainian refugee flows into Europe and to freeze the population at home into submission.
/jlne.ws/3sKv9LC
Ukrainians are dreading the 'darkest winter' as Russia takes aim at the power grid
Ivana Kottasova, Olga Voitovych and Nic Robertson - CNN
As winter edges ever closer in Ukraine, Alla Melnychuk and her neighbors are racing against the time to save what little they have left. Their apartment building in Irpin was hit during some of the heaviest fighting in March. Most of the windows are still shattered, the roof is gone and the sewer shafts have burned down, meaning there's no water supply and no sewage outlet. Heavy rains in September caused even more damage, but Melnychuk is determined to push ahead with the repairs. "I still plan to spend the winter in Irpin," she told CNN.
/jlne.ws/3WaMJWN
'Absolute f**king hell': Putin's front line soldiers reeling in new video
Erin Burnett - CNN
In a video shared by a Ukrainian journalist, Russian soldiers appear to be complaining that they do not have the basic tools to survive on the front lines. CNN cannot independently verify the video.
/jlne.ws/3NnfL1f
Ukrainians use phone app to spot deadly Russian drone attacks; Citizen-spotters can report missiles at the push of a button with ePPO on their mobiles
Dan Sabbagh - The Guardian
A simple mobile phone app has been developed by Ukrainian volunteers to allow civilians to report sightings of incoming Russian drones and missiles - and, it is hoped, increase the proportion shot down before they hit the ground. The app, ePPO, relies on a phone's GPS and compass, and a user only has to point their device in the direction of the incoming object and press a single button for it to send a location report to the country's military.
/jlne.ws/3TQfdU7
More signs indicate Russia's invasion of Ukraine could be unraveling
Holly Williams - CBS News
There are more and more signs that Russia's invasion of Ukraine could be unraveling. One of the most glaring setbacks in its war is its recent big call-up of more troops - a plan that doesn't appear to be working. Russia's mobilization has caused anger at home, forcing the old and inexperienced into uniform, with claims they're short of even basic equipment. The call-up followed weeks of embarrassing setbacks for Russian forces, as Ukraine has retaken swaths of its territory. And in the Russian-occupied city of Kherson, officials appointed by Moscow have evacuated civilians ahead of another expected Ukrainian counter-offensive.
/jlne.ws/3FzGt4S
Ukrainian forces are inching closer to Russian-controlled territory. See what the front line is like
CNN
Russian state media report the situation in the Kherson region of Ukraine is stabilizing, with less frequent artillery fire and no counterattacks from Ukrainian forces. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says the Russians will be besieged if they stay in the Kherson region. CNN's Frederik Pleitgen visits the front line to get a first-hand look.
/jlne.ws/3Wf9zwh
In the grips of war, Ukraine faces bleak demographic future; The refugee crisis is exacerbating Ukraine's irreversible demographic decline, which began in the Soviet era.
Al Jazeera
Halyna Tarasevych is not coming back home to Kyiv. The 38-year-old fled Ukraine with her two children in March, weeks after the Russian invasion began. They spent three months in an overcrowded refugee centre in neighbouring Moldova until Switzerland granted them asylum.
/jlne.ws/3Nj02QW
Ukraine's Patchwork Air Defense Faces New Threat From Cheap Iranian Drones; Western help is hindered as U.S. and allies have neglected air defenses
Stephen Kalin and Michael R. Gordon - The Wall Street Journey
Ukraine is relying on a hodgepodge of air-defense systems to counter the Russian threat from the sky that has intensified with Moscow's use of drones that Ukraine and Western governments say have been supplied by Iran. Kyiv has pleaded for more air-defense help from the U.S. and other Western backers. The top U.S. military officer, Gen. Mark Milley, and other allied officials have promised to help Ukraine acquire additional systems and connect them into an integrated network. But that assistance is coming slowly, leaving Ukraine vulnerable to continued attacks from drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles.
/jlne.ws/3zw6AGd
UN Says Food Vessels to Resume Moving on Monday
Bloomberg
Ukrainian food shipments are set to resume moving through a maritime corridor on Monday, challenging Russia's decision to back out of a safe-passage deal for Ukraine's grain exports. The United Nations announcement followed talks including Turkey and Ukraine during which the Russian delegation was informed of the plan.
/jlne.ws/3NoUTH8
Turkey, UN Try to Save Ukraine Grain Export Deal as Russia Quits; Moscow announced Saturday it was suspending safe-passage pact; Russia's defense ministry suggests drones fired from Odesa
Selcan Hacaoglu, Agnieszka de Sousa, and Daryna Krasnolutska - Bloomberg
Turkey, the UN and others looked for ways to salvage the Ukrainian grain export initiative after Moscow said it would pull out indefinitely following an attack on its Black Sea naval fleet. A Russian official didn't definitely rule out a return, adding to uncertainty around the pact, which has seen more than 9 million tons of grains and other foodstuffs shipped since August. Russia said Saturday it was suspending the agreement after its ships off Sevastopol in annexed Crimea were hit by aerial and underwater drones it blamed on Ukraine. The extent of damage to the vessels remains unclear.
/jlne.ws/3DNqNtJ
One Missile Shook Ukraine's Grain Trade. Another Might Kill It; Oleksiy Vadaturskyy tried to find a permanent fix to Russia's hold over grain exports out of Ukraine's Black Sea ports, and it made him a target.
Marc Champion and Daryna Krasnolutska - Bloomberg
Andriy Vadaturskyy was in France when he got the call he'd long feared: A Russian missile had destroyed his parents home in southern Ukraine, killing his mother. For three impossibly long hours he held out hope for his father, the revered founder of one of Ukraine's largest agricultural businesses, but then he too was found dead under the rubble.
/jlne.ws/3SPHnNJ
'Terrifying' Putin Driven by 'Evil Forces,' ECB's Lagarde Says
Bloomberg
Vladimir Putin is "a terrifying person," European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said, referring to her past meetings with the Russian president, though "he was not as sick as he is today." "Why would you do things like that, invading a country, having people killed, destroying the fabrics of a society, and failing?" she said in an interview on Irish national broadcaster RTE's Late Late Show on Friday. "Anyone who is behaving in that way must be driven by evil forces."
/jlne.ws/3NjhLrt
Ukrainian Food Shipments to Keep Moving in Pushback to Putin; Russia tells UN-brokered talks it can discuss pressing issues; Pullout from grain-export deal condemned by Ukraine, allies
Daryna Krasnolutska - Bloomberg
Ukraine, Turkey and the United Nations agreed to have vessels carrying food from Ukrainian ports sail on Monday, pushing back against Russia after its withdrawal from a deal to allow safe passage of Ukraine's grain exports. The announcement followed a round of talks that included Russian delegates, who were informed that ship movements would resume after a pause on Sunday, the UN said in a statement.
/jlne.ws/3TQiGlB
Zelenskyy says Russia's 'blackmailing the world with hunger' by suspending grain deal with Ukraine. Live updates.
Susan Miller and Jorge L. Ortiz - USA Today
A chorus of international condemnation echoed Sunday over Russia's sudden decision to halt participation in a grain export deal with Ukraine, raising fears of a global food crisis. The Russian Defense Ministry, citing an alleged Ukraine drone attack on Russia's Black Sea Fleet off the coast of occupied Crimea, announced the suspension Saturday. Ukraine denied the attack, blaming Russia for mishandling its own weapons.
/jlne.ws/3gXGsgJ
Russia Is Mostly Failing in Race to Find New Oil Markets; Moscow must redirect 1.4 million barrels a day of crude from Europe by year-end
Julian Lee - Bloomberg
Moscow has mostly failed to line up the fresh markets for its crude that it needs to secure by the time European Union sanctions on its seaborne exports come into effect on Dec. 5. Beyond the three countries that stepped in initially - China, India and Turkey - other buyers haven't materialized to any meaningful extent.
/jlne.ws/3NkWc9I
Putin Stirs European Worry on Home Appliance Imports Stripped for Arms; There's been a boom in European exports of washing machines, refrigerators and even electric breast pumps to Russia's neighbors since Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine.
Alberto Nardelli, Bryce Baschuk, and Marc Champion - Bloomberg
A sudden and surprising spike in European exports of washing machines, refrigerators and even electric breast pumps to Russia's neighbors is raising concerns among officials the trade boom may be helping Vladimir Putin's war machine in Ukraine. Armenia imported more washing machines from the European Union during the first eight months of the year than the past two years combined, according to data compiled by Bloomberg from the EU's Eurostat database. Kazakhstan imported $21.4 million worth of European refrigerators through August, more than triple the amount for the same period last year.
/jlne.ws/3Wiwc2X
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| Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | Kyodai-Kawakita/JPX Japan Index to be Launched
JPX
Kyoto University and JPX Market Innovation & Research, Inc.（JPXI）have jointly developed a new "Kyodai-Kawakita/JPX Japan Index" for long-term investors and have announced that its calculation will begin from January 30, 2023. The Collaborative Research Chair for Securities Investment at the Graduate School of Management of Kyoto University and Tokyo Stock Exchange, Inc. have jointly conducted research in developing a new stock price index for the Japanese equity market, with the common goal of creating a new frontier for stock price indices. This index is based on formulations by Professor Emeritus Dr. Hidetaka Kawakita of Kyoto University, who has conducted research based on theory and practices for securities investments for many years.
/jlne.ws/3zx3bqq
CME Group Announces First Day of Trading of €STR Futures
CME Group
CME Group, the world's leading derivatives marketplace, today announced the first day of trading of a new suite of overnight index futures based on the Euro Short-Term Rate (€STR). €STR futures provide an efficient way to hedge European money market rates, with contracts including €STR 3-Month futures and €STR 3-Month Single Contract Basis Spread futures, complemented with €STR vs SOFR inter-commodity spreads. These contracts enable granular price discovery across the forward curve, IBOR/OIS basis trading, as well as managing cross-country basis spreads and price differentials between the E.U. and U.S. interest rates.
/jlne.ws/3DOZXBr
China Shows the LME There Are Still Buyers for Russian Metal; Copper orders come as period for responding to LME closes; Exchange has indicated that metal buyers' stance will be key
Jack Farchy, Mark Burton, and Alfred Cang - Bloomberg
As the London Metal Exchange agonizes over what to do about supplies from Russia, some metal buyers in the biggest market for commodities have been voting with their wallets. More than half of the copper in LME warehouses -- much of which was of Russian origin -- has been ordered out for delivery in the past three weeks, mostly by traders planning to deliver it to Chinese buyers, according to people familiar with the matter.
/jlne.ws/3WfUKcX
Together with the Goethe-Institut Paris, the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation is showing works by the students of Beate Gütschow and Alex Grein
Deutsche Boerse Group
The opening of the group exhibition "The End / Not the End?" as part of the exhibition series "La jeune photographie allemande" will take place on Thursday, November 10, 2022 at 6:30 p.m. at the Goethe-Institut Paris. The series shows eight artistic positions by students at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne (KHM). A press tour will take place on Thursday, November 10, 2022 at 5 p.m. at the Goethe-Institut Paris.
/jlne.ws/3DnN9jR
GPW Benchmark decided to create Treasury Bond Index Family
GPW
GPW Benchmark decided to create Treasury Bond Index Family, which includes TBSP.Index and 5 new fixed income indices including bond portfolios of different maturity dates; Publication of the indices will start on November 28, 2022. GPW Benchmark decided to create Treasury Bond Index Family, which includes TBSP.Index and 5 new fixed income indices including bond portfolios of different maturity dates.
/jlne.ws/3zultZx
The development of the carbon units market was discussed at the Moscow Exchange
MOEX
On October 28, 2022, the Moscow Exchange hosted a round table dedicated to the development of the Russian market for carbon credits. The event was attended by Director of the Financial Market Infrastructure Department of the Bank of Russia Larisa Selyutina, Acting Director of the Department for Competition, Energy Efficiency and Environment of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation Irina Petrunina, Vice President, Head of the Center for the Implementation of Sustainable Development Principles of Gazprombank Evgeny Khilinsky, General Director of JSC Kontur Oksana Gogunskaya and Director of the National Commodity Exchange Nikita Zakharov, as well as representatives of companies from the financial and industrial sectors of the Russian economy.
/bit.ly/3WizEdV
Market for Underlying Security Used for Openings on MIAX Options, MIAX Pearl Options and MIAX Emerald Options for Newly Listed Symbols Effective Monday, October 31, 2022
MIAX
Please refer to the Regulatory Circulars listed below for newly added symbols and the corresponding market for the underlying security used for openings on the MIAX Exchanges. The newly listed symbols will be available for trading beginning Monday, October 31, 2022.
/bit.ly/3NlNsQM
MIAX Exchange Group - Options Markets - New Listings Effective for October 31, 2022
MIAX
The attached option classes will begin trading on the MIAX Options Exchange, the MIAX Pearl Options Exchange, and the MIAX Emerald Options Exchange on Monday, October 31, 2022. Market Makers can use the Member Firm Portal (MFP) to manage their option class assignments. All LMM and RMM Option Class Assignments must be entered prior to 6:00 PM ET on the business day immediately preceding the effective date. All changes made after 6:00 PM ET on a given day will be effective two trading days later.
/bit.ly/3TQT6gj
Nadex Self-Certifies Cryptocurrency Products
Nadex
The Commission may recall that Nadex has listed both Binary and Call Spread Contracts
based on the Underlying bitcoin market at various times since 2014. As the public interest in cryptocurrency continues to grow, Nadex continues to expand its product offering to meet public demand. Nadex has decided to focus its' digital currency offering on the two most popular crypto coins - bitcoin and Ether - and to structure the contracts as "Touch Bracket Contracts."
/jlne.ws/3zuoOYy
Nasdaq Quarterly ESG Report: Differentiating Amongst the Crowd
Nasdaq
With the help of Nasdaq's proprietary Natural Language Processing (NPL) tools, data shows that the earnings call has solidified its spot as a key venue for issuers to communicate their ESG strategy. As we head towards a future where more companies are discussing ESG on their earnings call, it's the companies that watch the data on both an aggregate and sector levels that may be best positioned to differentiate themselves amongst the crowd.
/bit.ly/3DK1hp6
Special Change in KOSDAQ 150, etc.
KRX
KRX will change the constituents of KOSDAQ 150 index and its subordinate indices since LX Semicon(108320) will move from KOSDAQ market to KOSPI market.
/bit.ly/3FAiwdI
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| Fintech | | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | GM Temporarily Suspends Twitter Advertising After Musk Takeover
David Welch - Bloomberg
General Motors Co. is temporarily suspending advertising on Twitter Inc. after the social media platform was acquired by Elon Musk, the head of rival automaker Tesla Inc. The Detroit automaker, which is racing to catch up with Tesla in electric vehicle development, said Friday it's talking with Twitter to discuss how the platform will change and will stop advertising until it has a better understanding of what will happen to it with Musk now at the helm.
/jlne.ws/3Fsdzni
Horizon Software announces strategic new position in APAC region
Horizon Software
Horizon Software, a leading provider of electronic trading solutions and algorithmic technology, today announces the promotion of Francois-Xavier Detourniere to Head of Product Management, to bolster APAC offering. Horizon has witnessed significant growth in the Asia-Pacific region, including recently opening a new office in Singapore. Francois-Xavier has been responsible for developing Horizon's OMS product with all customers in Thailand since 2015.
/jlne.ws/3DnlFuT
Bitcoin Software Company Synonym Launches Bitkit, a Bitcon Wallet Powered by Slashtags Protocol; The firm claims Slashtags will enable web portability and "passwordless" authentication.
Frederick Munawa - CoinDesk
Synonym, a Bitcoin software company, has launched Bitkit, a new Bitcoin wallet app that features portable web profiles and passwordless web accounts. The official announcement took place on Saturday at the PlanB Forum Bitcoin conference. Bitkit is Lightning-compatible and leverages Synonym's Slashtags protocol. Slashtags is a system that uses Bitcoin cryptographic seeds to create portable web profiles (that can be used across multiple platforms), automatically updated contacts, contact payment preferences and authentication without a password.
/jlne.ws/3DoANYG
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| Cybersecurity | | Top stories for cybersecurity | Security breach in Shas database could expose information of millions; Although the breach in question has been blocked, there is no way to know whether the information in the system was leaked before it was patched.
Roman Meitav - Jerusalem Post
A serious security breach in the Shas Party's computerized election management system has left it vulnerable to easy exploitation, even by those with only basic knowledge of cybersecurity, according to tech experts. The breach in the system, which contains not just the data of Shas supporters and activists but rather the information of all Israeli citizens who are eligible to vote, was revealed Sunday following an anonymous leak received on the CyberCyber podcast hosted by Ido Kinan and Noam Rotem. The findings were then verified by software architect Ran Bar-Zik.
/jlne.ws/3sHzdwn
US Warns Ransomware Attacks Are Outpacing Ability to Stop Them; White House official warns of increasing pace, sophistication; Major firms like Mandiant, Microsoft to join US-hosted summit
Jack Gillum - Bloomberg
The pace and sophistication of ransomware attacks is increasing faster than the US's ability keep up with efforts to disrupt and recover from them, a senior Biden administration official said Sunday. In the face of continued attacks against governments and the private sector, the US is hosting the International Counter Ransomware Summit that begins Monday. The summit brings together nearly three dozen countries to tackle the pernicious rise of one of the most challenging cybersecurity threats, which can paralyze hospitals and shut down major gas pipelines.
/jlne.ws/3Wlv7HB
Analysis: In Australia, a hacking frenzy spurred by an undersized cybersecurity workforce
Byron Kaye and Lewis Jackson - Reuters
A swathe of hacks on some of Australia's biggest companies has made the country a target for copycat attacks just as a skills shortage leaves an understaffed, overworked cybersecurity workforce ill-equipped to stop it, technology experts said.
As Monday saw the disclosure of another potential breach of sensitive data - a ransomware attack on a communication platform for military personnel - cybersecurity experts put a wave of high-profile breaches down to a common factor: human error.
/jlne.ws/3Ubkbup
'Complex threat environment' ahead of midterm elections, top cybersecurity official says
Tyler Clifford - Reuters
Election officials in the United States have been alerted to safe-proof their voting systems and be vigilant about political violence amid a "very complex threat environment," top U.S. cybersecurity official Jen Easterly said on Sunday in the wake of an attack on the husband of a leading Democratic lawmaker last week.
Easterly, the director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), in an appearance on CBS "Face the Nation" said the agency is concerned about a range of threats, including cyber, insider, physical and disinformation even as it sees no "specific or credible" threats.
/reut.rs/3FtOrwv
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| Cryptocurrencies | | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | Bitcoin Breakout Stalls With Daily Trading Volume Also Tumbling; Crypto products volume fell 34% this month: CryptoCompare; Doge has jumped more than 30% this week amid Musk optimism
Vildana Hajric - Bloomberg
Cryptocurrency price increases have mostly stalled following two days of gains that had spurred optimism for a more sustainable rally. Bitcoin, the largest token by market value, declined as much as 1.5% on Thursday to once again trade around $20,000, a level it's been stuck around for weeks. Ether was little changed, while an index tracking the 100 largest coins also fell.
/jlne.ws/3FwiWSC
Binance Will Help Elon Musk Use Crypto to Battle Twitter Bots
Mathew Di Salvo - Decrypt
Binance is creating an internal team to help Twitter fight bot accounts using blockchain and crypto, the exchange confirmed to Decrypt on Friday. The world's biggest cryptocurrency exchange today announced itself as an equity investor in Twitter, pledging $500 million towards helping bridge social media and news to Web3. Elon Musk on Thursday completed a $44 billion acquisition of Twitter. The world's richest man and CEO of electric car company Tesla has repeatedly complained about spam accounts on the social media platform.
/jlne.ws/3TST07Z
Matt Damon's 'Fortune Favors the Brave' commercial turns one. Here's how much you would've lost if you bought crypto then.
Weston Blasi - MarketWatch
Remember that Crypto.com commercial titled, "Fortune Favors The Brave" that featured movie star Matt Damon? In case you don't, here's a refresher. Damon did a now-infamous commercial for the cryptocurrency platform that got roasted on social media when it came out, and feelings toward it haven't improved much in the year since the commercial originally debuted, on Oct. 28, 2021.
/jlne.ws/3sFMnKh
Bankman-Fried May Get $100 Million From Musk's Twitter Buy: The Block
Susanne Barton - Bloomberg
Sam Bankman-Fried may receive up to $100 million from Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter, The Block reported. The chief executive officer of crypto exchange FTX owned about $50 million to $100 million worth of Twitter stock before the acquisition closed last week, The Block reported, citing a person with direct knowledge of the matter.
/jlne.ws/3WsFv0u
Crypto Exchange Binance Is Creating a Team That Aims to Help Twitter With Things Like Bots; Group will try to help Musk 'realize his vision': Binance; Topics to be addressed may include proliferation of bots
Joanna Ossinger - Bloomberg
Binance Holdings Ltd., which is an equity investor in Elon Musk's deal for Twitter, is forming a team to look at ways that blockchain and cryptocurrencies could help the social-media platform. The world's largest crypto exchange appears to be seeking an active role in how Twitter is run, after on Friday confirming that it had made an investment as part of Musk's takeover of the platform.
/jlne.ws/3WiTJAY
Ethereum Founder Vitalik Buterin: Crypto Industry Shouldn't Be 'Enthusiastically Pursuing Institutional Capital'
André Beganski - Decrypt
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin weighed in Sunday on the regulatory debate surrounding crypto, providing his thoughts on what industry rules should-and should not-include. Regulation could make crypto more palatable to mainstream financial institutions and legitimize cryptocurrencies as an asset class. But new rules and policies could also alter the industry's DNA, particularly as it relates to principles like censorship resistance and decentralization.
/jlne.ws/3DndnD9
Apollo holds crypto for clients as it expands in digital assets
Hannah Lang - Reuters
Apollo Global Management Inc has begun holding cryptocurrency on behalf of its clients through a partnership with digital asset platform Anchorage Digital, in a major push by one of the world's largest asset managers to bring crypto to institutional investors.
/jlne.ws/3zuOT9U
Sam Bankman-Fried says Hong Kong could become Asia's Web 3 hub
Dylan Butts - Forkast
The founder of crypto exchange FTX, which moved out of Hong Kong in 2021, said that the city could emerge as a Web3, blockchain and cryptocurrency hub during a webinar at Hong Kong's FinTech Week 2022 on Monday. "If you look at what the crypto hubs will be in the world, I think the Bahamas looks like one of them, Dubai looks like one of them, but if you look at the East, it's not as obvious", said Bankman-Fried.
/jlne.ws/3TWU62r
Hong Kong proposes allowing retail trade in cryptocurrencies
Georgina Lee - Reuters
Hong Kong's government has proposed allowing retail investors to trade in cryptocurrencies and crypto exchange-traded funds - a move it hopes will help it rebuild its fintech hub status. The city, which previously proposed limiting crypto trade to professional investors, has seen planned rules for digital assets heavily criticised for stifling innovation, prompting a slew of start-ups to move to other markets such as Singapore and Dubai.
/jlne.ws/3sNsuRv
Singapore's digital marketplace Alta buys Hg Exchange
Pradipta Mukherjee - Forkast
Singapore-based Alta, a digital marketplace for alternative investments, has acquired private digital securities exchange Hg Exchange (HGX) for an undisclosed amount. Hg Exchange will be renamed Alta Exchange and will continue to be led by HGX CEO Willie Chang, while the existing Hg Exchange team will merge with Alta, the company said in a statement emailed to Forkast.
/jlne.ws/3sGh6a5
Terra Co-Founder Do Kwon Faces $57M Class-Action Lawsuit in Singapore
Andrew Asmakov - Decrypt
Terraform Labs CEO and co-founder Do Kwon faces yet another legal battle-this time in a Singapore court, which is set to hear a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of more than 350 international investors. They claim to have lost about $57 million in the collapse of the algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD (UST) and its ecosystem, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
/jlne.ws/3fmgJ1i
In True Halloween Form, Zombie Coins Just Won't Die; While not entirely active, these virtually defunct tokens are still multiplying.
Victoria Vergolina - Bloomberg
You've likely heard of Bitcoin and Ether as digital tokens, but there's actually tens of thousands of cryptocurrencies you probably haven't heard of. In fact over 12,000 of those coins are virtually defunct. Not that they're 'dead' per say, but they're also not considered 'alive' or active.
/jlne.ws/3FvKdnW
Crypto Lobbyist Group Blockchain Association Asks Court for Permission to Support Ripple Against SEC Case
Nikhilesh De - CoinDesk
The Blockchain Association, a crypto lobbying organization based in Washington, D.C., filed for permission to support Ripple as a friend of the court in its ongoing defense against the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) late Friday. The SEC sued Ripple at the end of 2020 on allegations that it sold XRP as an unregistered security. The case has gone through a number of procedural motions since, and the parties recently filed their motions for summary judgement. On Friday, the Blockchain Association asked the court overseeing the case for permission to join the case, as well as the actual amicus brief.
/jlne.ws/3STLuIu
Three Indian cryptocurrency companies are mired in a drug trade investigation
Mimansa Verma - Quartz
India is probing three digital asset management companies for their alleged involvement in the narcotics trade. The enforcement directorate and the income-tax department are leading the probe which has so far tracked transactions worth 28,000 crore rupees ($3.4 billion), The Economic Times newspaper reported yesterday (Oct. 27).
/jlne.ws/3SLCPI1
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is betting on 'work in the metaverse'
Alexandra Garfinkle - Yahoo! Finance
Meta's (META) shares sank this week after its disappointing third-quarter earnings report and as the company's pivot to the metaverse draws increasingly negative sentiment. In the year since Facebook became Meta, the company has spent billions investing in its metaverse plans. That investment has yet to pay off. For one, the division that oversees the company's metaverse efforts, Reality Labs, has been losing money, clocking a loss of $3.7 billion last quarter alone.
/jlne.ws/3TSIBZY
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| Politics | | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | Political betting: Is it a 'gambling den' or 'better than polls'?; A band of Washington insiders, business titans and top economists is urging regulators to let Americans wager on elections, despite warnings from watchdogs.
Declan Harty - POLITICO
Pundits, ready your wallets: A tiny startup may soon bust open the doors for political betting in the U.S. just in time for the midterms. A band of Washington insiders, business titans and top economists is urging regulators to let Americans wager on elections, despite warnings from watchdogs that it would cause gambling to proliferate.
/politi.co/3No2buo
Musk's Twitter Roils With Hate Speech as Trolls Test New Limits; Hateful and racist rhetoric swelled on the network as some politicians rejoiced. 'Free speech. Liberal tears.'
Davey Alba - Bloomberg
In the wake of Elon Musk buying Twitter Inc., a tide of slurs and racist memes swelled on the platform, sparking concern that the site is entering an era of hateful speech. Twitter has long wrestled with how to enforce content policies fairly on its platform in order to appease the advertisers, users and powerful world leaders that use its service. But as Musk, a self-styled "free speech absolutist," took over ownership of the company, some conservative officials, partisan extremists and conspiracy peddlers saw reason to celebrate the change.
/jlne.ws/3SYVwIE
I.R.S. Gets Interim Leader at Pivotal Moment for Tax Collector; The White House has yet to nominate a full-time commissioner as the agency embarks on an $80 billion overhaul.
Alan Rappeport - The New York Times
The Treasury Department said on Friday that the deputy commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, Douglas O'Donnell, would become the acting commissioner next month when Charles P. Rettig's term ends, filling a void at the top of the tax collection agency as it embarks on an $80 billion overhaul.
/jlne.ws/3DJOuTE
Saudi ruler Mohammed bin Salman is seeking to humiliate Biden as part of a global power play
Tom Porter - Insider
This week, a diplomat spat between the US and Saudi Arabia degenerated into petty name-calling, a public sign of the dire state of relations between the two countries. The exchange, fueled by a dispute over oil production, is a further blow to an alliance which for decades has been marked by predictability: The US provides arms and security to the Saudis, and gains a key strategic partner in a volatile region in return.
/jlne.ws/3zqtQFq
Barrack says he hoped Trump ties would appeal to UAE; denies being agent
Luc Cohen - Reuters
Tom Barrack, a onetime fundraiser for Donald Trump, acknowledged under cross-examination on Thursday that he hoped his ties to the then-president would encourage a United Arab Emirates official to invest with his company, but said he did not agree to exchange political access for a business relationship. Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn say Barrack, 75, used his influence with Trump's campaign and administration in 2016 and 2017 to promote the United Arab Emirates' interests without informing the U.S. attorney general he was acting as an agent of the country, as required by law.
/jlne.ws/3Wla3Bk
The Trump Tapes: Bob Woodward's chilling warning for US democracy; The Washington Post Watergate veteran's 20 interviews with the now former president prove to be must-listen material
Lloyd Green - The Guardian
Bob Woodward has witnessed more than 50 years of depredation on the Potomac. Together with Carl Bernstein, he helped push Richard Nixon out the door. Only one president, however, left the veteran Washington Post reporter fearing for the future of the republic and democracy.
/jlne.ws/3FvT2OM
Senate Republicans want the SEC to explain why staff are quitting
Nell Mackenzie - Reuters
Senate Republicans want the SEC to explain why staff are leaving the nation's corporate watchdog at the highest rate in 10 years amid a flurry of proposed rules, according to a letter seen by Reuters on Sunday. The private letter dated Oct. 27 from Senate Republicans to the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Gary Gensler, adds to mounting criticism that the U.S. regulator lacks the internal firepower it needs to accomplish its ambitious rulemaking plans.
/jlne.ws/3gVwNHE
Klobuchar Says Tech Firms Should Be Liable for 'Amplifying' Hate; 'I do not' trust Musk to run Twitter, Democratic senator says; Calls for changing legal immunity Congress granted in 1996
Mike Dorning - Bloomberg
Senator Amy Klobuchar, a leading Democratic voice on tech regulation, said she doesn't trust Elon Musk to run Twitter and called for legislation stripping tech companies of legal immunity when they "amplify" hate speech or election falsehoods. In the wake of an assault on Paul Pelosi, the House speaker's husband, Klobuchar said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that technology companies are "making money off of this violence."
/jlne.ws/3sHAcwz
JPMorgan, Macy's and Other Companies Reveal What They Pay Workers as Deadline Looms; A law taking effect in NYC will change the way some employers hire, while others look for ways to avoid compliance
Chip Cutter - The Wall Street Journal
New York City employers are starting to comply with a new salary transparency law taking effect this week that will require nearly all job listings to include a pay range, a move expected to reshape workplaces and how companies hire. The measure, aimed at closing gender pay gaps and other disparities, requires companies to include salary ranges if they hire in New York or advertise for remote roles that could be done in the city. Similar laws have either gone into effect or are set to be implemented across the country, from Colorado to California.
/jlne.ws/3gSzIAW
Digital Assets Defined: Federal Agencies Weigh Response to President Biden's Executive Order on Digital Assets
Jones Day
On March 9, 2022, President Biden issued Executive Order 14067, "Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets." The EO, which we discussed in "White House Issues Executive Order Calling for Inter-Agency Study of Digital Assets," required a number of federal agencies to issue reports regarding issues raised by digital assets with respect to each agency's area of jurisdiction. Those agencies have now issued nine reports, covering topics ranging from central bank digital currencies to anti-money laundering to the climate and energy implications of creating and using digital assets.
/jlne.ws/3FvVrJ3
Canada Eyes Individual Investors for Top-Rated Ukraine Aid Bond; The country is seeking feedback from bond dealers on timing; Government to provide a loan to Ukraine for equivalent amount
Esteban Duarte - Bloomberg
Canada's government is targeting individual investors with a new triple-A rated bond to help Ukraine and is asking bond dealers to make significant efforts to market it to them, according to a memo from the finance department. The so-called Ukraine Sovereignty Bond will be in effect a five-year government security of Canada, which will lend the proceeds to the Ukrainian government at the same interest rate to help fund basic services such as pension payment. The securities will have the same rating as Canada's top-rated regular bonds.
/jlne.ws/3frk4Mp
Britain's new Prime Minister is surprisingly American
Andy Serwer with Dylan Croll - Yahoo! Finance
Maybe you've glossed over the wild news coming out of the U.K. recently, but it's actually important stuff, especially as it concerns the country's new prime minister, Rishi Sunak, whose backstory has deep and surprising American ties. I'll get to that good stuff on Sunak in a second, but first a word about the bond between America and England. France or Israel might believe they have a special relationship with the U.S.-but they're fighting for second place. We've had ties with England going back to the ill-fated Virginia colony in 1584 and over the ensuing five centuries no country has been closer.
/jlne.ws/3zpKDZl
Rishi Sunak Shows the Growing Influence of Indian Talent in the West; India is by far the world's most significant source of undiscovered and undervalued skills.
Tyler Cowen - Bloomberg
With Rishi Sunak as prime minister of the UK, it is now impossible to deny what has been evident for some while: Indian talent is revolutionizing the Western world far more than had been expected 10 or 15 years ago. You might think UK leadership is an exception, but consider the US. It is entirely possible that there will be a presidential election in 2024 or 2028 between Kamala Harris (who is half Indian-origin) and Nikki Haley, who is of Indian origin. Few people consider that the most likely matchup, but it is very much within the realm of possibility.
/jlne.ws/3NsFPIn
UK Government Urged to Investigate Reports of Liz Truss Phone Hacking
Sophie Wingate, The Press Association - Bloomberg
The Government has been urged to launch an urgent investigation following reports that Liz Truss's phone was hacked. The breach was discovered when then-foreign secretary Ms Truss was running for the Tory leadership in the summer, but details were suppressed by then-prime minister Boris Johnson and Cabinet Secretary Simon Case, The Mail on Sunday reported.
/jlne.ws/3NspMdK
Energy Market Is the Big Threat Hanging Over UK's New Leader; The cost of gas and electricity for households could double in April and fuel inflation in the already fragile British economy.
Rachel Morison, Olivia Fletcher, and Will Mathis - Bloomberg
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has been in office less than a week, but the clock is already ticking on what could prove to be the most dramatic economic intervention he needs to make in coming months. After predecessor Liz Truss's short-lived government scaled back its original support package for energy bills, a decline in the wholesale gas market and unseasonably warm temperatures have bought Sunak some time to come up with a new plan for when a price freeze guarantee ends in April. Costs for the average household are forecast to potentially double, and economists expect inflation would exceed 15% without government action.
/jlne.ws/3DNUr1Y
Truss's Flop Carries Price Tag for UK Economy, BE Forecasts Show; Economy is likely to be 2% smaller than pre-tax-cut prediction; Bloomberg Economics sees GDP falling by 1.4% in 2023
Simon Kennedy - Bloomberg
Prime Minister Liz Truss's brief time in office will carry a sizable price tag for the UK economy, according to Bloomberg Economics. Gross domestic product is likely to be about 2% smaller next year relative to the forecast before her government unveiled controversial tax cuts on Sept. 23, new projections released on Monday show.
/jlne.ws/3UftqtH
Rishi Sunak on collision course with City over 'intervention power'; PM to proceed with plan to give ministers the ability to overrule regulators' decisions
George Parker and Laura Noonan - Financial Times
Rishi Sunak is on a collision course with City of London regulators after the government confirmed he will press ahead with a new "intervention power" to enable Treasury ministers to overrule the watchdogs. The proposed new power has alarmed Britain's most powerful regulators, including at the Bank of England, who believe it will undermine their independence and weaken confidence in London as a financial centre.
/on.ft.com/3Dno5cP
Russia Moves to Pull Out of Ukraine Grain Deal After Blasts Hit Crimean Port; Moscow cites attack on occupied Black Sea city of Sevastopol
Ann M. Simmons, Jared Malsin and Isabel Coles - The Wall Street Journal
Russia said Saturday that it would suspend participation in the export of agricultural products from Ukrainian ports, in response to an attack on the occupied Black Sea port of Sevastopol that it blamed on the government of Ukraine. The Defense Ministry said in a statement published on Telegram that ships of the Black Sea Fleet and civilian ships involved in ensuring the security of the so-called grain corridor had come under attack. As a result, "the Russian side suspends participation in the implementation of agreements on the export of agricultural products from Ukrainian ports," the statement said.
/jlne.ws/3fl0nWF
Russia is ready to supply up to 500,000 tonnes of grain to poorest countries, TASS reports
Reuters
Russia is ready to supply up to 500,000 tonnes of grain to poor countries in the next four months, with assistance from Turkey, TASS news agency cited Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev as saying on Saturday. Russia said on Friday that only 3% of food exported under a U.N.-brokered deal to release grain from blockaded Ukrainian ports has gone to the poorest countries, with Western countries accounting for half of all shipments.
/jlne.ws/3zuQWuN
Indonesia considers Opec-style cartel for battery metals; World's largest nickel producer exploring governance structure similar to that used by oil group
Harry Dempsey and Mercedes Ruehl - Financial Times
Indonesia is studying the establishment of an Opec-like cartel for nickel and other key battery metals, highlighting the geopolitical confidence of nations that are rich in resources needed to make electric cars. Bahlil Lahadalia, the country's investment minister, said Jakarta was looking at mechanisms similar to those used by Opec, the group of 13 oil-producing nations, that could be employed in the supply of metals that are central to the energy transition.
/on.ft.com/3fiWUI6
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| Regulation & Enforcement | | Stories about regulation and the law. | Audit Regulator Steps Up Enforcement Under New Leader; PCAOB is significantly increasing penalties but faces constraints
Jean Eaglesham - The Wall Street Journal
The U.S. audit regulator is getting tougher on rule-breaking accountants after years of criticism for its alleged light touch. But there are limits to how much it can change. The shift is being led by the new chair of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, Erica Williams, who said, "When people cheat, you need to...make sure that there are serious consequences."
/jlne.ws/3Nj1djk
Once Silicon Valley's 'Party Animal,' Rothenberg Goes to Trial for Fraud
Priya Anand and Malathi Nayak - Bloomberg
Mike Rothenberg, the venture capitalist once described as Silicon Valley's "party animal," now is fighting to stay out of prison. In a criminal trial that begins Monday, Rothenberg faces charges of fraudulent conduct and making false statements that federal prosecutors say helped him misappropriate almost $19 million. He's accused of lying to banks about his wealth while trying to obtain loans and taking fees beyond what investors agreed to. The government expects his jury trial in Oakland, California, to last at least a week.
/jlne.ws/3DNrDqn
Google Case Before High Court Could Reshape Internet Economy; Tech industry fears legal rulings could weaken the liability shield that allowed internet platforms to flourish
John D. McKinnon - The Wall Street Journal
The liability shield and other legal protections that fueled the fortunes of Google, Facebook increase; green up pointing triangle and other internet giants are facing a long-anticipated day of reckoning-but it is the Supreme Court, and not Congress, that will be calling the shots. That has the tech industry worried that an unfavorable ruling by the high court could shake the foundations of the internet economy by imposing a new set of ground rules.
/jlne.ws/3sN17Hf
Offshore fund centres tighten oversight after UK's LDI crisis; Ireland and Luxembourg increase surveillance in face of financial instability risks
Josephine Cumbo, Laura Noonan and Chris Flood - Financial Times
Financial market regulators in Europe's main fund hubs have stepped up surveillance of derivative-linked funds used by UK pension schemes in an effort to prevent a repeat of the turmoil that roiled the gilt market last month. The Central Bank of Ireland has begun asking asset managers running so-called liability-driven investment (LDI) strategies for UK pension schemes to tell regulators before they do anything that would increase the leverage in those funds, people familiar with the situation told the Financial Times.
/on.ft.com/3sNBWUZ
Private Equity Firms Probed by US on Overlapping Board Seats; Antitrust division demanded information from multiple PE firms; Officials examining whether board overlaps hurt competition
Leah Nylen and Dawn Lim - Bloomberg
Blackstone Inc., Apollo Global Management Inc. and KKR & Co. are among private equity firms that are facing a Justice Department investigation into whether they influence boards across corporate America in ways that violate antitrust laws, according to people familiar with the matter. Federal investigators are examining whether private equity firms' practice of placing executives on boards of companies in the same sector harms competition, said the people, who asked not to be named discussing a confidential inquiry.
/jlne.ws/3FqPYmZ
CFTC Staff Issues No-Action Letter Regarding Certain Swap Reporting Requirements of Parts 45 and 46
CFTC
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's Division of Market Oversight (DMO) today issued a no-action letter extending the no-action position of CFTC Letter No. 20-37 concerning certain swap reporting requirements of Part 45 and Part 46 of the CFTC's regulations.
/jlne.ws/3sHrVbO
CFTC Staff Issues No-Action Letter Regarding Certain Swap Reporting Requirements of Parts 45 and 46
CFTC
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's Division of Market Oversight (DMO) today issued a no-action letter extending the no-action position of CFTC Letter No. 20-37 concerning certain swap reporting requirements of Part 45 and Part 46 of the CFTC's regulations.
/jlne.ws/3sHrVbO
Statement of Commissioner Summer K. Mersinger Regarding Extension of Staff No-Action Letter 20-37
CFTC
I support the relief that is being provided through the extension of Staff No-Action Letter 20-37. But I am concerned that the Commission is continuing to avoid doing the hard work necessary to address the underlying issue here. Today's letter extends until December 1, 2025, (or earlier, if a comparability determination is issued) relief that was originally provided in 2013.[1] Twelve years of no-action relief is inappropriate. The Commission owes market participants a permanent solution, not a perpetual cycle of requesting and granting staff no-action relief.
/bit.ly/3fiUrgO
SEC adopts rules on fund shareholder reports and fee information
Lene Powell - Jim Hamilton's World of Securities Regulation
The SEC adopted rule amendments to improve open-end mutual fund and ETF shareholder reports. Covered funds will have to provide "concise and visually engaging" annual and semi-annual reports and make more in-depth information available upon request. Other amendments facilitate user-friendly presentations and require the use of XBRL data tagging. The amendments aim to increase the usefulness of fund reports, which can run to hundreds of pages and be difficult to navigate (Tailored Shareholder Reports for Mutual Funds and Exchange-Traded Funds; Fee Information in Investment Company Advertisements, Release No. 33-11125, October 26, 2022).
/jlne.ws/3frT13w
SEC's Hester Peirce: Regulatory Ambiguity Means NFT Projects Must Be 'Very Careful'
Sander Lutz - Decrypt
The Securities and Exchange Commission may be poised to crack down on the multi-billion dollar NFT industry-but one of its own doesn't believe the SEC should be so quick to bring down the hammer. The SEC, according to reports, is currently investigating Yuga Labs-the $4 billion company behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club-for securities violations. But the Commission has thus far issued zero statements regarding its position on NFTs specifically, leaving creators feeling uncertain and frustrated about how to navigate what they consider to be an ambiguous regulatory environment.
/jlne.ws/3Fv3yFT
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| Investing & Trading | | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | Rocky Treasury-Market Trading Rattles Wall Street; Mounting illiquidity raises concerns over a key market's functioning should a crisis erupt
Matt Grossman and Sam Goldfarb - The Wall Street Journal
Rising friction in the trading of U.S. government debt has investors worried about the health of a $24 trillion market that is critical to the functioning of the broader financial system. The ranks of traders ready to buy and sell Treasurys are shrinking. Individual trades are moving prices more. Treasury securities with similar characteristics are trading at larger-than-normal price differences. Major players, including the big banks and asset managers that have long been significant buyers, are in retreat.
/jlne.ws/3DNrKCi
Investors Are Abandoning ETFs for Direct Indexing. Should You?
Ashlyn Brooks - SmartAsset
ETFs made their debut in the '90s as a popular security that allowed investors to have an alternative to traditional stock purchases and mutual funds. Through ETFs, investors could obtain a passively managed portfolio with no minimum investment and various assets. Today, ETFs are still a popular option but quickly becoming outpaced by the benefits direct indexing offers.
/jlne.ws/3Fzg72W
The Outlook for 60/40 Stock-Bond Portfolio Is Best Since 2018, UBS Says; Analysts see 7.2% annualized return over next five years; "This is the good news about bad markets," they noted
Elaine Chen and Isabelle Lee - Bloomberg
The brutal selloff across asset classes this year now makes the famed 60/40 stock-bond portfolio ripe for its best outlook in years, according to UBS analysts. A 60/40 mix of global shares and bonds is expected to produce a 7.2% annual nominal return over the next five years and a 4.4% real return, the greatest projected performance since at least 2018, the analysts wrote in a note Thursday.
/jlne.ws/3NkM0Ox
The Lithium Market Is Hotter Than Ever and Traders Are Moving In; Commodity traders are turning their attention to lithium, as surging demand shakes up the way the battery metal is bought and sold
Mark Burton, Archie Hunter, and Yvonne Yue Li - Bloomberg
When the oil market liberalized in the 1970s, a group of commodity trading buccaneers led by the infamous Marc Rich made fortunes by connecting buyers and sellers and surfing the price swings of this newly tradable commodity. Half a century later, some of Rich's spiritual descendants are hoping to pull off a similar trick in lithium. A vital component in most electric-vehicle batteries, lithium is becoming one of the world's most important commodities. Prices have soared to unprecedented levels as demand forecasts keep growing, leaving automakers scrambling to secure future supplies.
/jlne.ws/3sKBTcw
Treasury Sold $3.4 Billion in I Bonds This Week as Investors Rushed to Get 9.62% Rate; The interest rate on inflation-adjusted I Bonds is expected to drop to around 6.47% starting Nov. 1
Veronica Dagher - The Wall Street Journal
Oct. 28 is investors' last chance to buy I Bonds that earn a 9.62% interest rate. Yet a surge in demand for the inflation-adjusted bonds has overwhelmed the TreasuryDirect site and the Treasury Department said it cannot guarantee orders will be completed in time. Many investors managed to beat the clock and the tech issues. As of 4 p.m. ET, nearly 69,000 accounts had been created and more than $710 million in I Bonds purchased on Friday alone, Treasury said. That brings this week's I Bond sales to about $3.4 billion so far, Treasury said. Five thousand new accounts were created per hour Friday, Treasury said.
/jlne.ws/3DNxNGE
Twitter Frees Up Billions for Arbitrage Traders Seeking Next Win; Microsoft-Activision, Broadcom-VMware in focus, survey shows; Deals with widest spreads offer biggest potential upside
Yiqin Shen - Bloomberg
Billions of dollars in arbitrage capital is looking for a new home after Elon Musk finally closed his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter Inc. Merger arbitrage traders, who make money betting on the outcome of dealmaking among public companies, are now setting their sights on transactions involving Activision Blizzard Inc., VMware Inc. and Albertsons Cos. after enduring a months-long roller-coaster ride by Twitter's stock, according to a Bloomberg News survey of 10 event-driven and risk-arbitrage trading desks this week.
/jlne.ws/3SMC3KV
Jittery Stock Traders Eye Four Days That Will Sow Market's Fate; Rate decision, jobs and CPI updates, midterm elections coming; Spells no reprieve from turbulence set off by earning reports
Elena Popina and Jess Menton - Bloomberg
Investors just got over a hectic week, contending with a blitz of earnings from some of America's biggest companies as well as a pile of uncertain economic and geopolitical news. But what's coming may be even worse. In the span of just seven trading sessions, there will be four major events that could shape the market's outlook for the rest of the year -- and potentially prompt a rapid about-face by confounding expectations.
/jlne.ws/3DLLh5O
Emerging Stocks Are Flashing a 2008 Financial Crisis Signal; MSCI EM metric trailing P/E falls below forward ratio; Earnings estimates fall faster than actual profits at firms
Srinivasan Sivabalan and Farah Elbahrawy - Bloomberg
An equity valuations signal suggests things are about to get a lot worse for emerging-market investors before getting better. The price-earnings ratio of the benchmark MSCI Emerging Markets Index, based on trailing 12-month profits, has fallen below its price-earnings ratio based on estimated earnings for the next 12 months, showing that analysts expect earnings to fall faster in the future than currently.
/jlne.ws/3DnoVq7
Copper bosses warn of supply threat to climate ambitions; Freeport-McMoRan chief says shortage will make it 'very difficult to meet aspirations'
Harry Dempsey and Leslie Hook - Financial Times
Global plans to electrify economies and cut carbon emissions could be slowed down by copper shortages, the head of the world's largest listed producer of the metal has warned. Richard Adkerson, chief executive and chair of US mining group Freeport-McMoRan, said surging global demand for copper for the rapid rollout of electric cars, renewable electricity and power lines would cause a shortfall.
/on.ft.com/3TNCu98
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| Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance | | Stories about environmental, social and governance investing | One Way to Boost Profits and Reduce Inequality? Turn Workers Into Owners; KKR partner Pete Stavros says giving employees skin in the game is difficult to do, but it pays off.
Paul Keegan - Bloomberg
What's the best way to combat wealth inequality, increase employee engagement and boost profits? Give workers an ownership stake, says Pete Stavros, co-head of US private equity at KKR & Co. Stavros recently started a nonprofit called Ownership Works to assist companies in creating employee equity plans, which he says help focus workers on a common mission. The interview has been edited for clarity and length.
/jlne.ws/3U5Yxrk
Rich Nations Still Far From Funding Target Ahead of COP27; Report tracks climate financing for developing countries; Nations committed to reach $100 billion goal by 2025
Petra Sorge and Jennifer A Dlouhy - Bloomberg
Rich countries are still far from reaching their pledge of $100 billion a year of financing for poor nations, a report released by Germany and Canada prior to COP27 in Egypt shows. It's an evaluation of the so-called Delivery Plan, under which developed countries committed more than a decade ago to mobilize that sum in public and private funds annually for climate adaptation and renewable energies in less developed countries. As the target was missed in 2020 at COP26 in Glasgow, the nations reaffirmed their determination to reach it by 2025.
/jlne.ws/3TT4ubl
Thawing permafrost exposes old pathogens-and new hosts; Climate change could unearth frozen viruses and transport them elsewhere.
Grace Browne, WIRED.com - Ars Technica
The Arctic-that remote, largely undisturbed, 5.5 million square miles of frozen terrain-is heating up fast. In fact, it's warming nearly four times quicker than the rest of the world, with disastrous consequences for the region and its inhabitants. Many of these impacts you probably know from nature documentaries: ice caps melting, sea levels rising, and polar bears losing their homes. But good news! There is another knock-on effect to worry about: the warming landscape is rewiring viral dynamics, with the potential to unleash new pathogens.
/jlne.ws/3DNp0Vx
Women Lost Ground on S&P 500 Bank Boards as Men Gain Seats; Bank of America, SVB Financial, and First Republic add men; Female directors remain below the 35% high mark set this year
Jeff Green - Bloomberg
While the number of female directors at members of the S&P 500 Banks Index was unchanged in September from the previous month, women lost ground overall as banks added three male directors. Bank of America Corp., SVB Financial Group and First Republic Bank each appointed a new male director last month, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Women have had a net increase of just one seat for the year at the 18 banks in the index.
/jlne.ws/3NnlT9D
Finance's Largest Net-Zero Club Needs New Talking Points for COP; The world's biggest financial coalition for eliminating carbon emissions may find it difficult to get their message heard at November's climate talks in Egypt.
Alastair Marsh - Bloomberg
"Net zero" was virtually the only talking point when finance luminaries gathered at the United Nations climate conference in Glasgow last year. Rishi Sunak, then UK chancellor and now prime minister, spent finance day at COP26 speaking of the need to create a net-zero-aligned financial center. Mark Carney, former Bank of England governor, announced finance firms with $130 trillion of assets were committed to net-zero financed emissions. And European Central Bank executive board member Frank Elderson said central banks were prepared to support the transition to net zero.
/jlne.ws/3sI1geP
New Laws Force Honesty About Pay. Companies Are Catching Up.
Emma Goldberg and Sarah Kessler - The New York Times
For a long time, pay gaps were discussed in hushed conversations in the bathrooms and halls. Spreadsheets circulated surreptitiously. But a wave of new pay transparency laws means that figuring out how much a job pays is no longer dependent on a handful of fearless colleagues. Starting Tuesday, companies with at least four workers that post a job that may be performed in New York City will be required to include salary ranges, whether they advertise jobs online, in a job fair flier or on internal bulletin board. Similar laws for job ads have been enacted in Colorado, California and Washington State.
/jlne.ws/3sFQEgN
'Go Forward'; Refers to workers who will keep their jobs as opposed to those who will be laid off. A euphemism that attempts to make abstract what is unpleasant.
Lora Kelley - The New York Times
If you have a job right now, congratulations: You are in a "go forward" role. If you lose your job, sorry: You are no longer in a go-forward role. It's not you. It's the go-forward structure. This summer, the term, which is sometimes used in the world of mergers and acquisitions to describe the fates of employees after a deal is completed, crept into mainstream layoff vocabulary.
/jlne.ws/3TUJ266
Corporate Boards Are Getting Younger Thanks to Retiring Boomers
Richard Abbey - Bloomberg
The Great Resignation. The Big Quit. The Great Reshuffle. Call it what you want, but a spate of early retirements brought on by the pandemic helped make corporate boards younger. According to Bloomberg ESG data, the average age of board members at Russell 1000 companies dropped to 61.8 years through Oct. 2022, down from a high of 62.5 years in 2019. The average age of US board members has now decreased for three straight years, reversing a decades-old trend that saw corporate boards consistently growing older.
/jlne.ws/3U8UpHg
John Kerry's Latest Test Will Be Facing Victims of Climate Change; The top US climate diplomat heads to COP27 with historic legislation to combat rising temperatures, but there are growing calls to shell out billions to countries suffering the worst impacts.
Jennifer A Dlouhy - Bloomberg
Much of Pakistan was still submerged last month as John Kerry, the top US climate diplomat, met with officials from the flooded country inside a cramped room at New York's Plaza Hotel. Pakistan's foreign affairs minister soberly described the devastation: a third of the country underwater, 600,000 pregnant women displaced, residents ducking inside their boats to avoid perilously close power lines. The unprecedented monsoon rains that started in spring have left more than 1,700 dead and driven some 33 million people from their homes. "It's truly sort of apocalyptic," Bilawal Bhutto Zardari told Kerry. Bilawal emphasized the country's commitment to a green transition but noted the obvious: Because Pakistan is responsible for less than 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions today, "even if tomorrow we all run on solar and wind, that is not going to solve much of the problem."
/jlne.ws/3FwRB2G
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| Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | Is Credit Suisse a Canary in the Financial Industry Coal Mine?
David Z. Morris - CoinDesk
Credit Suisse on Thursday released a restructuring plan in an effort to push back against a narrative recently dominated by huge losses and bizarre scandals. Investors were deeply unimpressed, sending Suisse stock tumbling more than 15% after an earnings report that also included big losses, and a fundraising plan that would massively dilute current shareholders.
/jlne.ws/3DMfdyP
Credit Suisse Looks to Rainmaker to Revive Investment Bank; Former Citigroup banker Michael Klein advised princes and CEOs before finding a new perch on Wall Street
Margot Patrick, Julie Steinberg and Justin Baer - The Wall Street Journal
Michael Klein has been a matchmaker to some of the world's most powerful companies and investors since leaving Citigroup Inc. more than a decade ago. Now, he has found his own match-as soon-to-be chief executive of Credit Suisse increase; green up pointing triangle Group AG's newly incarnated investment banking unit, CS First Boston-in a third act that enables him to become a major Wall Street CEO.
/jlne.ws/3DqfuGe
The end of the line for Credit Suisse
Axios
Up until this week, Credit Suisse could credibly lay claim to being a bulge-bracket bank, alongside maybe eight others in the world. It might have been a troubled bank, but it was huge, and tried to offer a full menu of financial services to its customers.
/jlne.ws/3sHe1GC
Credit Suisse Is Said to Tap 20 Banks for Capital Increase; Goldman, Citi, JPMorgan, Santander, BNP joining consortium; Rights issue to raise $4 billion for new restructuring plan
Jan-Henrik Foerster and Swetha Gopinath - Bloomberg
Credit Suisse Group AG has invited at least 20 banks to join the syndicate for a 4 billion francs ($4 billion) rights issue that should help the lender finance another multi-year restructuring program, according to people familiar with the plan. The Swiss bank's new Chief Financial Officer Dixit Joshi held a due diligence call for the capital increase -- dubbed as project Ghana -- with a group of FIG and ECM bankers on Friday evening after Credit Suisse's announcement of a new turnaround plan the day before, the people said.
/jlne.ws/3sMZ1qR
HSBC's Canada unit loses National Bank, CIBC as bidders, Global and Mail reports
Reuters
National Bank of Canada and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) have dropped out as bidders for HSBC Holdings PLC's business in Canada, while Bank of Montreal is still pursuing the deal, according to a report in The Globe and Mail newspaper. HSBC disclosed on Oct. 4 that it was considering selling HSBC Bank Canada, a unit that analysts estimate to be valued around C$8 billion ($5.88 billion) to C$10 billion ($7.35 billion).
/jlne.ws/3U85vw2
Morgan Stanley Names Doyle, Garcia Belmonte to Lead Tech ECM
Gillian Tan - Bloomberg
Morgan Stanley named Diana DiBernardo Doyle and Lauren Garcia Belmonte co-heads of technology equity capital markets in the Americas, succeeding Lauren Cummings who resigned for a role at private equity firm Hellman & Friedman, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Doyle joined Morgan Stanley in 2007 and previously led technology convertibles and equity solutions, while Belmonte, who joined in 2011, formerly led the industrials ECM team, LinkedIn shows. They report to Colin Stewart, Morgan Stanley's vice chairman and global head of technology equity capital markets, said one of the people, all of whom requested anonymity as the appointments aren't yet public.
/jlne.ws/3zpOeXl
Goldman's Marcus Hikes High-Yield Interest Rate to Highest on Record; Popular high-yield savings accounts has been upping its return this year, in line with the Federal Reserve's rate increases.
Claire Ballentine - Bloomberg
Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s consumer bank Marcus just raised the interest rate for its high-yield savings account to the highest on record. The bank's flagship product will now return 2.5% each year, up from 2.35% previously, according to its website. As the Federal Reserve has tightened monetary policy this year to battle inflation, interest rates on savings accounts have jumped as well, with competitors vying to offer the most attractive returns.
/jlne.ws/3SSUAW1
Apollo Turns to Smaller Firms for Investing Acumen in High-Growth Areas; The asset manager is backing smaller specialist private-equity firms rather than developing expertise in-house
Chris Cumming - The Wall Street Journal
Apollo Global Management Inc. is taking an unusual approach to harnessing investing talent outside its traditional areas of expertise: backing smaller private-equity firms. Executives of the New York-based alternative-asset giant, which manages about $515 billion, often emphasize the firm's cost-conscious approach-a principle of avoiding market bubbles or overpaying for investments. Originally known for snapping up struggling companies at a discount, Apollo is now one of the world's biggest private-credit managers and has a large and rapidly growing insurance business.
/jlne.ws/3Fx5UUS
Swiss National Bank posts $143 billion loss over nine months
Xavier Fontdegloria - MarketWatch
The Swiss National Bank posted a loss for the first nine months of the year as the appreciation of the Swiss franc and rising interest rates hit its investments in gold, foreign exchange and capital markets. Switzerland's central bank posted a loss of 142.37 billion Swiss francs ($142.94 billion) for the first nine months of the year, it said in a statement Monday. The bank made a CHF41.43 billion profit the same period a year earlier.
/jlne.ws/3gXsGuM
Asset managers pay vastly unequal fees for using indices; Study highlights opacity of pricing models used by providers such as MSCI and S&P Global
Chris Flood - Financial Times
Index providers charge some asset managers 13 times as much as other clients for similar bundles of products and services, according to research into the opaque pricing models that could lead to higher costs for investors. Trillions of dollars are benchmarked to financial indices, but the costs paid for access to them remains a tightly guarded secret. Index providers often bundle products and services, which makes accurate like-for-like comparisons problematic for asset managers to find.
/on.ft.com/3zxwQjn
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| Wellness Exchange | | An Exchange of Health and Wellness Information | Flu Season Hits Early With High Hospitalizations, Child Death; Accelerated start to season worries experts on coming winter; More than 2,000 flu admissions in week ending Oct. 22
Immanual John Milton - Bloomberg
US influenza hospitalizations are the highest they've been in the last 12 years at this point in the season, according to a government report that bodes poorly for the coming season. More than 2,300 patients were admitted to US hospitals during the week ending Oct. 22 for the viral infection and at least one child has died of the flu since the current season began, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The US Southeast and South-central regions are hotspots for the outbreak, according to data posted Friday on the CDC website.
/jlne.ws/3FtUEs6
I Just Got Boosted. Why Did I Catch Covid?
Kristen V Brown - Bloomberg
Hi folks, it's Kristen, writing from my sunny homeland of Orange County, California, where my whole family is frantically Covid testing before a cousin's wedding. As we enter sniffle season, I've been fielding lots of questions on the best ways to avoid getting sick and why Covid can sometimes evade our defensive measures. First off, our reader deserves congratulations for making it so long without catching Covid. At this point, the vast majority of Americans have had the virus - some more than once.
/jlne.ws/3gQANcp
Flu season has hit 13-year record in US, CDC reports; Infections began to spread through the south and southeast US, and will likely continue to spread up the Atlantic coast
Graig Graziosi - Independent
The flu is hitting the US hard, with 880,000 cases of lab-confirmed influenza illness, 6,900 hospitalisations and 360 flu-related deaths recorded in the nation this year. According to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the last year there was a comparable flu "burden" was 2009 during the H1N1 swine flu pandemic. The flu burden is a metric used by the CDC to determine the severity of the flu.
/jlne.ws/3sHk3an
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| Regions | | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | An American Helped Build a Business Inside China. Clients Want Him to Leave.
Jason Douglas and Stella Yifan Xie - The Wall Street Journal
It took Jacob Rothman two decades to build a Chinese manufacturing business with his friends and family. Now the 49-year-old American executive says customers want him to make some of his grilling tools and kitchen products elsewhere. He knows it isn't going to be easy.
/jlne.ws/3gXqEdU
Financial Crisis Haunts Korea as It Confronts a Credit Meltdown; Developer default sends yields in money market to 13-year high; Fears mount about parallels to 2011 crisis with savings banks
Sam Kim and Whanwoong Choi - Bloomberg
Past financial crises are haunting South Korean policy makers as they rush to support a local credit market that's quickly gone from one of the world's safest to teetering on the brink. As Korea gets swept into a global debt market rout, corporate treasurers and market regulators in Seoul are staring down one of the most rapid deteriorations in the nation's credit market ever. The rout is one of the worst in Asia's local-currency markets amid a broader fixed-income slump this year.
/jlne.ws/3Dkon4d
Malaysia's RHB Aims to Launch Digital Bank in 2023, CEO Says; Joint venture with Axiata's Boost to invest up to $212 million; RHB plans to offer full mobile banking app in Cambodia
Elffie Chew - Bloomberg
RHB Bank Bhd. plans to introduce its digital banking platform as early as the second half of next year, its top executive said, as Malaysia's fifth biggest lender looks to hold back a tide of fintech startups. The bank and its partner Boost, an arm of communications giant Axiata Group Bhd., could invest as much as 1 billion ringgit ($212 million) in the venture, RHB's Chief Executive Officer Mohd Rashid Mohamad said in an interview at his office in Kuala Lumpur.
/jlne.ws/3sHgeSq
Iron Ore's Collapse Deepens as China Factory Data Deals New Blow
Liz Ng - Bloomberg
Iron ore slumped more than 7% on Monday to touch its lowest since early 2019, extending a long rout as factory data in China added to demand pessimism. The raw material for steel is heading for its worst month in more than a year as China's economy shows few signs of a decisive recovery and its steelmakers face deepening losses. China's official gauge of factory activity for October misse
/jlne.ws/3zuZFwJ
Derivatives Worth $1.9 Billion at Risk After HSCEI Breaks 5,000
Youkyung Lee - Bloomberg
About 2.7 trillion won ($1.9 billion) worth of equity-linked securities sold mostly to retail investors in South Korea are estimated to be at risk of capital losses due to the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index's drop below 5,000, according to Samsung Securities Co. analyst Jun Gyun.
/jlne.ws/3DKirmy
Japan Spent Record $42 Billion in October to Prop Up Yen; Finance ministry intervention data shows 6.3 trillion yen used; Tokyo has stopped announcing market entry to conceal its hand
Yoshiaki Nohara and Emi Urabe - Bloomberg
Japan spent a record 6.3 trillion yen ($42.4 billion) in October to counter the yen's sharp slide against the dollar, as it tried to limit speculative moves adding to pressure on the currency. The finance ministry disclosed on Monday data for the period between Sept. 29 to Oct. 27. Central bank figures and market estimates of money flows with the government had suggested that a suspected intervention on Oct. 21 cost around 5.5 trillion yen ($37.2 billion).
/jlne.ws/3fikW6e
Darkest Days of Winter Have Finland Bracing for Blackouts; Authorities have warned Nordic country may see rolling outages; End of Russian power imports have made Finland more vulnerable
Kati Pohjanpalo and Leo Laikola - Bloomberg
In the dead of winter, Finland can be a miserable place. Temperatures often dip below -20C, and in the darkest months of the year, Helsinki gets less than six hours of light a day. To fight the elements, Finland has become the most energy-intensive economy in the EU. But with winter approaching, the country is bracing for rolling blackouts, planned in response to Russian energy cuts. Although Russian energy only made up a small fraction of Finland's total supply, its loss threatens to have a huge impact, and Finns are being forced to choose between bad options.
/jlne.ws/3sLq7i8
Why Changing Clocks Could Exacerbate Europe's Energy Crisis; Ending the autumn time shift as daylight saving ends would generate financial and environmental savings for Europe just when the continent needs it most, according to new research.
Feargus O'Sullivan - Bloomberg
It happens every year. As daylight saving time ends in late autumn and standard time resumes, large parts of the northern hemisphere are plunged abruptly into early evening darkness. And millions of people ask if this discombobulating annual clock change is truly necessary. Linked to productivity slumps and increases in heart attacks, car crashes and even crime, this relic of attempts to maximize working hours during World War I has somehow hung on despite expert doubts of its value and widespread unpopularity.
/jlne.ws/3fgUc67
With Energy Crisis Looming, U.K. Weather Agency Is Set to Say How Cold Britain's Winter Could Get; U.K.'s Met Office is poised to release its closely watched seasonal outlook, on the verge of a winter without Russian gas
Denise Roland and Joe Wallace - The Wall Street Journal
The national weather service here makes a big call Monday: Will Britain's winter be mild and wet, or cold and dry? The U.K. Meteorological Office is poised to update its seasonal winter outlook next week. The routine report is typically fodder for weather junkies and ski resorts. Amid Europe's energy crisis, the release is attracting a much wider audience. A cold, dry and windless winter could drain the Continent's natural-gas storage, which European governments scrambled to build up in recent months in an attempt to wean themselves from Russian energy.
/jlne.ws/3WfYMly
European Moves to Cap Gas Prices Are Hypocritical, Qatar Says; Qatar's energy minister says free market "best solution"; Qatar Energy aims to become world's biggest liquid gas trader
Simone Foxman and Verity Ratcliffe - Bloomberg
European proposals to set limits on the price paid for natural gas are "hypocritical," Qatar's energy minister Saad Al Kaabi said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. The European Commission intends to propose a cap on gas prices using a dynamic price mechanism, which could be in place as soon as this winter, in an effort to curb volatile fuel costs. But interfering in markets contradicts the competition rules that Europe previously applied to producers, said Kaabi, who is also chief executive of the world's biggest liquefied natural gas producing company, Qatar Energy.
/jlne.ws/3Wfbu3X
Britain's NHS Faces a Winter of Staff Shortages and 'War Rooms'; Steve Barclay back as health secretary after summer stint; Nurses consider striking over below-inflation pay offer
Helen Chandler-Wilde, Irina Anghel, and Dong Lyu - Bloomberg
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Britain's health service is back in the hands of Steve Barclay, who initially took on the role in July when Sajid Javid quit as health secretary and triggered the summer's Conservative leadership contest. Barclay was replaced last month when Liz Truss became prime minister but now returns to the job as part of Rishi Sunak's new government. It's a topsy-turvy set of events, but one that's typical of the UK's political instability and deepening social discontent.
/jlne.ws/3gWYWy8
Africa Shows How Hard It's Becoming to Pump Crude Oil; Crude production in western Africa has fallen by one-third since 2010 and will drop again this year.
Julian Lee - Bloomberg
The world's infrastructure to pump crude out of the ground is creaking, and nowhere is that more apparent than off the west coast of Africa. Years of under-investment, theft, sabotage and civil strife have combined with harsh operating conditions to undermine the region's oil production, sending it into a slump from which it may never recover. In 2010, west African countries were pumping close to 5.5 million barrels a day of crude and condensate, about 7% of global production. By 2021, that had fallen to little more than 3.5 million barrels a day, and the region's share of the total had dropped by two percentage points. This year will see levels fall further.
/jlne.ws/3fl2BFv
El Salvador, Lugano Sign Agreement to Help Spread Bitcoin Adoption and Education
Stephen Alpher - CoinDesk
The country of El Salvador and the Swiss city of Lugano have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) aimed at boosting bitcoin adoption in their own regions as well as neighboring states and countries. Appearing at Lugano's Plan B Forum on Friday, Milena Mayorga, El Salvador's ambassador to the U.S., also announced her country's opening of a "bitcoin office" in Lugano staffed with a new Honorary Consul to proselytize for bitcoin in the city, Italy and Europe.
/jlne.ws/3zxnjsK
Some US Farms Are So Dry the Dirt Is Repelling Fertilizer; Grains for 2023 harvest are at risk as dry conditions expand; Winter wheat is sprouting up at a slower-than-average pace
Kim Chipman and Dominic Carey - Bloomberg
Drought is rapidly expanding across America's crop belt, making it so dry that in some grain fields fertilizer is evaporating from the soil and plants are struggling to grow. Almost three-quarters of US farmland for winter wheat is in moderate to intense drought, the highest since at least 2000, according to government data. Other crop regions are in similarly bad shape, with the country's corn belt at 70%.
/jlne.ws/3W9rG6O
Frackers Jockey With Potash Miners for Space to Grow in Top U.S. Oil Field; Drilling in New Mexico encroaches on harvesters of a key fertilizer ingredient made scarce by sanctions on Belarus and Russia
Collin Eaton - The Wall Street Journal
Frackers in America's busiest oil field are butting heads with miners working to boost production of a vital crop nutrient in short supply following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Relentless drilling in the Delaware basin has pushed New Mexico's oil production up faster than in any other state over the past 10 years. But the Delaware, part of the Permian oil field that straddles West Texas and southeastern New Mexico, also contains vast deposits of potash, a key fertilizer ingredient for corn, cotton, sugar, wheat and many other commodities.
/jlne.ws/3Ua2dbB
Natural-Gas Prices Have Plunged Into Autumn; A big driver of inflation is down about 40% in two months as U.S. inventories have swelled since air-conditioning season ended
Ryan Dezember - The Wall Street Journal
Natural-gas prices have fallen more than 40% since hitting shale-era highs in late August, reducing the risk of budget-busting heating bills this winter for millions of Americans and potentially easing a major cost pressure for manufacturers. The decline is due to warm autumn weather, record domestic production and gas-storage facilities that have filled up fast since the end of air-conditioning season. Now, one of the big drivers of inflation costs roughly the same as it did a year ago.
/jlne.ws/3gKPEVJ
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| Miscellaneous | | Stories that don't quite fit under the other sections | Musk Lays Groundwork for Layoffs at Twitter, Asking Managers to Draw Up Lists; Managers asked to draw up lists of people who could be let go; Twitter's new owner has denied plans to cut 75% of staff
Edward Ludlow - Bloomberg
Elon Musk has begun laying the groundwork for a round of layoffs at Twitter Inc. days after taking ownership of the social media platform. The billionaire entrepreneur, who completed his $44 billion acquisition Thursday, has asked managers to draw up lists of team members who could be let go, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. The person asked not to be identified discussing private conversations.
/jlne.ws/3TUHd9g
Musk Says He's Chief Twit, 'No Idea' Who Twitter's CEO Is
Leonard Kehnscherper - Bloomberg
Elon Musk has "no idea" who Twitter Inc.'s chief executive officer is, he said in a tweet on Sunday. The billionaire entrepreneur responded to a post from a user asking Musk for how long he intends to stay on as Twitter CEO.
/jlne.ws/3UaKl0l
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