| April 26, 2023 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | | | John Lothian
Publisher
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Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff
This morning Cboe Global Markets rang their opening bell in celebration of 50 years of options trading. It is not only 50 years for Cboe, or CBOE, but also for the options industry and the Cboe Clearing Corporation, which became the Options Clearing Corporation at the insistence of the SEC. Congratulations to Cboe and OCC on their 50-year anniversaries and all the pioneers that made it happen.
One of the key people who made it happen was the chairman of the Chicago Board of Trade when the idea of an equity options exchange was first brought to the CBOT board of directors. That man was William Mallers, Sr., a former employer of mine. I have written a piece this morning titled "A Forgotten Rogue CBOT Chairman Who Helped Launch The Cboe And The Options Industry" to tell his story and explain why I think he is a futures industry Hall of Fame member to me.
Ever gotten into a pickle with the NFA? Well, watch out, the NFA is upping their pickle game. The NFA recently held its first ever staff pickleball tournament with over 50 staff attending the event. The staff also donated canned goods to the Greater Chicago Food Depository and over 100 pieces were donated on behalf of the NFA. Nice work, picklers!
Tradier and MIAX are holding a Trading Innovation Event on May 3 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. EDT. The event will show you how to capitalize on market volatility. For more information and to register, click HERE.
Thank you to MIAX for their hospitality last night at a private gathering on the first night of the Options Industry Conference. Thank you also to FIA Tech for sponsoring the food and refreshments yesterday afternoon, with live music, for people to enjoy after they gathered their registration materials at the conference.
According to OCC sources, the Grand Hyatt in Nashville was not even built in 2019 when Nasdaq selected it as the site for this year's Options Industry Conference. The hotel is built, though some green space behind it never did get completed due to the pandemic.
A word of caution; if you go to Hattie B's in Nashville for hot chicken and select mild, your idea of mild, or I should say my idea of mild and Hatties might not be the same. Wow!
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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CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ: CME) today reported record financial results for the first quarter of 2023. The exchange reported the highest quarterly adjusted net income and adjusted earnings per share ever. View the news release here.~SAED
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A Forgotten Rogue CBOT Chairman Who Helped Launch the CBOE and the Options Industry
JohnLothianNews.com
In the late 1960s, there were two rogue candidates who ran for the role of chairman of Chicago's leading futures exchanges. One was Leo Melamed, head of the "Young Turks" at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the other was William Mallers, Sr. the youngest man ever elected chairman of the Chicago Board of Trade. This infusion of young blood into these stodgy organizations would transform Chicago's financial markets and change the course of its place in the global financial markets. Melamed would lead the creation of the International Monetary Market, a separate exchange that would later be rolled back into the CME. Melamed's accomplishments during his career are legendary.
Read the rest of the story »
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CloudMargin CEO Stuart Connolly and John Lothian News discuss the growth of the collateral management platform and how it meets the needs of the cleared OTC markets
JohnLothianNews.com
Stuart Connolly, CEO at CloudMargin, was interviewed by John Lothian News at the FIA International Futures Conference in Boca Raton, FL. Connolly talked about the growth of the firm, its single-instance collateral management platform, and its evolution to meet the needs of the cleared OTC markets. Cloudmargin recently closed on a strong fiscal year with revenue growth and new clients. He said CloudMargin has had a strong growth narrative that has given the company momentum over the last 24-36 months. "It kind of just has a gravitational pull," Connolly said, "where more clients can see what we're doing, what we're solving for, for the industry."
Watch the video »
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Options Discovery Episode 16: Intro to Algorithmic Trading; Experienced Algo Trader and Chief Investment Strategist at Blackthorne Capital Management Breaks Down Algo Trading for Options With JLN's Alex Teng
JohnLothianNews.com
In this episode of Options Discovery, Alex Teng introduces the concept of algorithmic trading in the world of options. Alex then sits down with Scott Morris, the chief investment strategist of Blackthorne Capital Management, to dig deeper into the history of algorithmic trading for options and how it is implemented today.
Watch the video »
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Black-Scholes at 50: how a pricing model for options changed finance; Formula supported the development of trading in the instruments after Chicago Board Options Exchange launch
Donald MacKenzie - Financial Times
Fierce hostility was the first reaction to the Chicago Board of Trade's proposal to set up an organised market in stock options in the early 1970s. There were "absolutely unsurmountable obstacles", said one Securities and Exchange Commission official, according to the Board's Joe Sullivan, who tells me that the same official went so far as to make the somewhat tasteless comparison that options were held in the same regard as "marijuana and thalidomide".
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***** Longtime JLN subscriber Professor Donald MacKenzie in the FT.~JJL
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The rapid rise of generative AI threatens to upend US patent system; Intellectual property laws cannot handle possibility artificial intelligence could invent things on its own
Richard Waters - Financial Times
When members of the US supreme court refused this week to hear a groundbreaking case that sought to have an artificial intelligence system named as the inventor on a patent, it appeared to lay to rest a controversial idea that could have transformed the intellectual property field.
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****** Just give up, there is no beating AI.~JJL
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Tuesday's Top Three
Our top story Tuesday was Twitter poses a risk to the financial system and helped fuel the SVB run, says first major study to investigate the topic, from Fortune. Second was University of Chicago Is First to Settle in Financial Aid Price-Fixing Lawsuit, from Teen Vogue. And third was 'How to Buy Gold' Hits a Google Record as Crypto Investors Chase World's Oldest Asset, from The Wall Street Journal.
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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
Publisher | | | Sarah Rudolph
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| Lead Stories | Cboe Global Markets Celebrates 50th Anniversary with Reinvigorated Brand Identity and $500,000 in Charitable Donations
Cboe Global Markets
Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (Cboe: CBOE), the world's leading derivatives and securities exchange network, today marked its 50th anniversary and kicked off celebrations to honor five decades of innovation and growth. The company will commemorate its milestone anniversary with an Opening Bell and Closing Bell ceremony on its Chicago trading floor, award its first of five $100,000 charitable donations and launch a new creative brand campaign. Additionally, Cboe will host a series of events over the coming months in its offices around the globe, in honor of its deep heritage, customers, employees and alumni.
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FTX Sells LedgerX to Miami Exchange Owner for $50 Million; CEO of FTX vows to monetize assets to deliver recoveries; Deal subject to bankruptcy court approval in May hearing
Yueqi Yang and Katherine Doherty - Bloomberg
FTX has agreed to sell LedgerX, its crypto-derivatives platform, to the owner of Miami International Securities Exchange for about $50 million. LedgerX was one of the few solvent pieces of Sam Bankman-Fried's former empire. The deal would give the exchange, known as MIAX and owned by Miami International Holdings Inc., a registered platform to expand its presence in the crypto industry.
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A New Generation of Ultrawealthy Merges Finance with Tech; The New Finance Rich List; Step aside, Buffett. Today's money moguls are moving fast.
Tom Maloney - Bloomberg
From the Medicis to the Morgans, the business of lending, trading or investing money has long been a path to astonishing riches. The largest fortunes go to the risk-takers and innovators who are comfortable at the cutting edge of mainstream finance. To learn how such wealth is built today, Bloomberg Markets identified 25 financial titans* who've ascended to the top of the list within the past decade.
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AI Could Spell the End of Big Business; The leading companies in artificial intelligence tend to be small, and many big ones will use it to get smaller.
Tyler Cowen - Bloomberg
Big business has been a fixture of American life since the late 19th century, and today more Americans work for big companies than for small ones. 1 That could be about to change - in part because of the rise of artificial intelligence. Consider the most prestigious service that generates images using AI, a company called Midjourney. It has a total of 11 full-time employees. Perhaps more are on the way, but that is remarkably few workers for a company that is becoming widely known in its field.
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Quants Are 'Out of Ammo' for Buying Stocks, Goldman Warns; Trigger signal flashed for CTAs with S&P 500 dropping Tuesday; Stocks seen facing $276 billion selling in event of big rout
Lu Wang - Bloomberg
Amid resurgent banking angst, rattled stock markets may have to live without a key source of buying power. That's the warning from Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s Scott Rubner, whose data show systematic money managers have loaded up on more than $170 billion worth of global shares in the past month, driving the funds' exposure to the highest level since early 2022.
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Bankrupt Crypto Lender Genesis Seeks Mediator as DCG Deal Hits Impasse; Crypto lender is filing a motion for mediation in dispute; Firm submitted term sheet in February outlining a settlement
Emily Nicolle - Bloomberg
Bankrupt crypto lender Genesis Global Holdco LLC asked the judge overseeing its reorganization to appoint a mediator in order to save the outline of a deal with its parent, Digital Currency Group. Genesis is seeking mediation to take place over a two-day period prior to May 9, and ahead of a mid-May due date on $630 million of debt owed to Genesis by DCG.
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Binance US walks away from proposed $1bn deal for Voyager Digital assets; Bankrupt crypto lender says it is 'disappointed' as exchange ends long-running acquisition effort
Scott Chipolina - Financial Times
Binance US is abandoning its proposed $1bn acquisition of assets belonging to Voyager Digital, bringing to an end the exchange's long-running effort to purchase the bankrupt crypto lender's assets. Binance US - the American arm of crypto conglomerate Binance - has sought for months to convince regulators to give the green light to the acquisition. Its efforts have run into several road blocks, including opposition from the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US, or Cfius, an inter-agency panel that screens proposed acquisitions for national security risks.
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Binance Faces Mounting Pressure as U.S. Crypto Crackdown Intensifies; The scrutiny on Binance, the giant cryptocurrency exchange, has sent new tremors through a market that is still bruised by the implosion of FTX.
David Yaffe-Bellany, Emily Flitter and Matthew Goldstein - The New York Times
For years, the giant cryptocurrency exchange Binance has had a reputation for dodging regulators and skirting financial rules, all without significant consequences. Now the world's largest crypto exchange is facing mounting legal pressure.
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Mizuho Capital Markets ordered by CFTC to pay $6.8 million for violating swap Business Conduct Standards; The US regulator found that Mizuho failed to make adequate disclosures to customers related to deal-contingent FX forwards from June 2018 to December 2020.
Wesley Bray - The Trade
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has issued an order filing and settling chargers against Mizuho Capital Markets for trade practice violations of the Swap Dealer Business Conduct Standards in the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and CFTC regulations.
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First Republic's Survival Plan Could Come at the Cost of Its Prized Wealth Unit; Measures to shore up finances may crimp wealth management; Lender remains 'fully committed' to business, CEO Roffler says
Jennifer Surane, Max Reyes and Suzanne Woolley - Bloomberg
First Republic Bank spent decades building its wealth-management franchise into a $290 billion behemoth. Now, that business may become a casualty of the bank's efforts to save itself. As part of an attempt to shore up its finances amid a rush of customer withdrawals, First Republic is reversing two key pieces of its old strategy. It's vowing to rely less on big depositors, who are more likely to yank their money in times of trouble. And it will focus on loans that can be sold on the secondary market - hardly the interest-only jumbo mortgages that attracted legions of wealthy borrowers.
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Sharp sell-off in First Republic shares causes alarm in Washington; Government officials and regulators scramble to come up with plan to stabilise ailing lender
James Fontanella-Khan, Colby Smith, Stephen Gandel and Brooke Masters - Financial Times
Shares of First Republic continued to fall on Wednesday as regulators in Washington and financiers on Wall Street scrambled to come up with a plan to stabilise the ailing bank. The California-based lender's stock price, which is down by more than 93 per cent this year, fell by a further 14 per cent in premarket trading on Wednesday. The shares closed 49.4 per cent lower on Tuesday, a day after First Republic revealed its customers had withdrawn $100bn of deposits during last month's turmoil.
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Ken Griffin Gives $25 Million to New York's Success Academy Schools; The Citadel founder has been on a education-focused donation spree recently, including a $300 million gift to Harvard University.
Amanda L Gordon - Bloomberg
Billionaire Ken Griffin is giving $25 million to Success Academy, New York City's largest charter-school operator. Success is looking to add 10,000 slots for students in the next five years - a 50% increase over current enrollment - and the gift will assist those expansion goals, founder and Chief Executive Officer Eva Moskowitz said Monday night during a benefit honoring Griffin. The organization has the charters to do so, and doesn't depend on the ban on new licenses in New York City being lifted, she added.
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Credit Suisse Crisis Plans Greenlit by Swiss Regulator Last Year; Finma publishes report on banks' emergency preparedness; Credit Suisse had full marks just months before UBS rescue
Hugo Miller - Bloomberg
Credit Suisse Group AG earned solid marks for crisis preparedness as recently as last year, underscoring how quickly the plunge in confidence blindsided regulators and investors before the bank's near collapse. "It is clear that there are important lessons to be learned from the Credit Suisse crisis for future crisis preparations," Urban Angehrn, Chief Executive Officer of Swiss financial markets regulator Finma, said in a statement on Wednesday. The regulator will "contribute to this objective," he said.
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It's Taking Longer for Startups to Raise Money From VCs Investors are waiting longer before betting on new companies - if they do at all.
Priya Anand - Bloomberg
The long hustle
There's a saying in the startup industry: Founders are always fundraising. It refers to the venture capital treadmill for young companies, perpetually hunting for investors to bankroll their next phase of growth. But now that tech funding is sinking, the adage is truer than ever.
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Man Group Pulls in $1.1 Billion, Defying Industry Outflows; Inflows driven by alternative funds getting $1.6 billion; Hedge funds industry suffered outflows in the first quarter
Nishant Kumar - Bloomberg
Man Group Plc pulled in fresh cash during the first quarter, defying wider outflows from the hedge funds industry that has suffered from surging volatility as fears of a banking crisis spread across continents. The world's biggest publicly listed hedge fund firm said clients allocated a net $1.1 billion to its funds in the three months through March, beating analyst estimates. Combined with $700 million in performance gains, assets under management rose to $144.7 billion, the firm said in a statement Wednesday.
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Boaz Weinstein Preps for Credit Crunch After Wins on Banking Turmoil; Saba founder sees 'huge problem' brewing in private credit; Banks already deleveraging to prepare for corporate distress
Denitsa Tsekova and Justina Lee - Bloomberg
Even after netting a tidy profit from the recent banking turmoil, Boaz Weinstein isn't gloating. In fact, he says, the big gains for those wagering on a credit crunch are only just getting started. That's how his hedge fund, Saba Capital Management, is positioned - with bets on stress he says is probably already ripping through private credit and insurers. Saba runs a tail-risk strategy that thrives in dislocated markets, one of a handful that feed his flagship fund which gained 73% in 2020's pandemic. The $4.3 billion hedge fund clocked up returns in March from banking turmoil including a trade on Credit Suisse Group AG, according to a person familiar with the matter.
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Coinbase trading volumes fall as regulatory uncertainty weighs; Nasdaq-listed exchange sues SEC as it seeks more clarity on crypto regulations
Scott Chipolina - Financial Times
Coinbase has suffered a further drop in trading volumes even though the price of bitcoin has rallied, raising the stakes for the exchange as it tries to fend off a probe from the US markets regulator while launching its own legal action. Monthly trading volume at the Nasdaq-listed group has fallen to $26.8bn so far in April, on track for its lowest level in 16 months, despite bitcoin surging and crypto traders shifting funds away from US banks.
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U.S. Treasury Looks to Curb 'De-risking' at Banks; The practice of broadly avoiding customers with perceived links to illicit activities-or de-risking-can end up denying banking services to law-abiding nonprofits, money-transmitting firms and underserved communities, the Treasury said
Mengqi Sun - The Wall Street Journal
The Biden administration is looking to address actions taken by U.S. banks to unbank certain customers and groups over their perceived connections to higher money-laundering risks. Banks' decisions to limit exposure to certain categories of customers over increased illicit finance risks could hurt those communities and pose a national security risk by driving financial activities out of the regulated banking system, the U.S. Treasury Department said.
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UBS Can Only Move So Fast on Credit Suisse; The bank's quarterly results gave shareholders a timeline for its evaluation of Credit Suisse's books, but not for the crucial question of capital returns
Stephen Wilmot - The Wall Street Journal
UBS didn't give investors what many wanted to hear in Tuesday's first-quarter results: updated numbers for its acquisition of Credit Suisse. But they don't have long to wait. UBS said it would send a registration document to the Securities and Exchange Commission next month with theoretical "pro forma" numbers for the combined entity. These will include key measures of capital adequacy and liquidity, and, crucially, a so-called purchase price allocation amounting to the company's first read on what Credit Suisse's balance sheet is actually worth.
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| Ukraine Invasion | | News about the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and its military, economic, political and humanitarian impact | Russia Seizes Foreign-Owned Utilities After EU Asset Moves; Kremlin takes 'temporary' control of Fortum, Uniper units; Russia had threatened to nationalize assets of 'unfriendlies'
Bloomberg News
Russia took control of utilities owned by Finland's Fortum Oyj and Germany's Uniper SE, the first such move from the Kremlin in retaliation for asset freezes by European countries over its invasion of Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree late Tuesday that allows the government to introduce "temporary" state control over the assets of companies or individuals from "unfriendly" states - which include the US and its allies - in response to similar moves, or the threat of them, by those countries.
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Widespread Russian Oil Price Violations Likely Took Place in Asia in the First Quarter; First-quarter price at Pacific ports averaged $73.14 a barrel; Price threshold on Russian crude exports is $60 a barrel
Alaric Nightingale - Bloomberg
Widespread breaches of the Group of Seven oil price cap likely took place in Asia in the first quarter, according to a team of researchers who analyzed official data on Russia's foreign trade alongside shipping information.
/jlne.ws/40FRUyP
Lawyer Laundered Russian Oligarch's Money by Paying Bills for His NY Homes; Robert Wise pleaded guilty to conspiring to launder money; Properties included Long Island mansion, Manhattan home
Chris Dolmetsch - Bloomberg
A New York lawyer admitted in court that he illegally helped manage six luxury properties for sanctioned oligarch Viktor Vekselberg as the US continues to put pressure on those accused of helping wealthy Russians hide assets.
/jlne.ws/3VaaTkb
Horses, art and private jets: the charmed life of Russian warlord's family; Western governments have struggled to impose costs on relatives of the Wagner founder, even though they have been heavily involved in his businesses
Miles Johnson - Financial Times
When a 77-year-old St Petersburg grandmother signed up to painting lessons in 2017, she might have appeared to classmates like just another retiree enjoying a late-life hobby. But just one year later, Violetta Prigozhina had opened her own art gallery, called Colours of Life, in the city's central Bolshoi Prospekt. Soon she was exhibiting her own paintings, hosting launch parties and attracting national media attention.
/jlne.ws/3n9xVLh
Xi Jinping holds long-awaited call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy; Ukrainian leader says conversation with China's president was 'long and meaningful'
Christopher Miller - Financial Times
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday he had held "a long and meaningful phone call with [Chinese] President Xi Jinping", the first conversation between the leaders since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Zelenskyy has long wanted direct talks with Xi to seek China's help in ending the war, which follows Moscow's invasion in February 2022.
/jlne.ws/41Wnh9s
Western price caps cut into Russian oil revenue; Study finds three quarters of sales drop can be linked to G7 and EU restrictions
Anastasia Stognei - Financial Times
Russia's revenue from oil exports fell by almost a third in the first quarter of this year, indicating that western price caps were starting to squeeze the lucrative trade for Moscow, according to oil sales records compiled by the Kyiv School of Economics.
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| Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | Quarterly Results: For The Three Months Ended 31 March 2023
Hong Kong Exchanges
Nicolas Aguzin, Chief Executive Officer said: "The year has got off to a very good start, with HKEX reporting one of its best quarters ever. Our clear strategy, commitment to offering our customers around the world more choice and opportunity and our resolute focus on our unique strength of connecting China and the World, is producing results. Despite economic fragility impacting market volumes around the world, this quarter our derivatives market has gone from strength-to strength, we announced a range of important new strategic initiatives such as our new Specialist Technology Company listing regime and Stock Connect eligible stocks and trading calendar enhancements, and we welcomed a host of new issuers and products to our markets. As we look forward to the rest of the year, we will continue to execute on our strategy, ensuring that we are active proponents of global dialogue and connectivity, working with all our regional and international stakeholders to deliver shared sustainable success. We remain fully committed to prudently investing in our people, our operations and our markets, reinforcing our relevance and role at the heart of one of the world's leading international financial centres.
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Financial year 2022: EEX Group strengthens global market position in a turbulent environment
EEX Group News
In 2022, EEX Group was able to expand its global position in all business areas. The international exchange group headquartered in Leipzig increased its total revenues by 33% to EUR 482.4 million (2021: EUR 362.4 million). Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) rose to EUR 239.2 million, an increase of 74% compared to 2021. EEX Group recorded strong growth in particular in natural gas trading and in the North American commodity markets. The services of the clearing house ECC were a strong foundation for the company's success.
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Nasdaq Announces Mid-Month Open Short Interest Positions in Nasdaq Stocks as of Settlement Date April 14, 2023
Nasdaq
At the end of the settlement date of April 14, 2023, short interest in 3,408 Nasdaq Global MarketSM securities totaled 10,642,155,793 shares compared with 10,672,927,941 shares in 3,429 Global Market issues reported for the prior settlement date of March 31, 2023. The mid-April short interest represents 3.13 days compared with 2.68 days for the prior reporting period.
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Revision in methodology of Nifty equity indices for handling corporate actions involving demerger
NSE
NSE Indices had floated a market consultation paper on treatment of merger/demerger in Nifty equity indices on October 18, 2022. Based on the feedback received from the market participants, the Index Maintenance Sub-Committee (Equity) of NSE Indices Limited had on November 18, 2022 announced revision in methodology of Nifty equity indices for treatment of mergers.
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Trading schedule on the Moscow Exchange during the May holidays
MOEX
The Moscow Exchange has determined the rules for the operation of markets during the May holidays in 2023.
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| Fintech | | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | ChatGPT's Secret Weapon Is Artificial Emotional Intelligence; The race to plug chatbots into search engines makes little sense when they are better at mimicking empathy than recalling facts.
Parmy Olson - Bloomberg (opinion)
Earlier this year, Princeton Computer Science Professor Arvind Narayanan set up a voice interface to ChatGPT for his nearly four-year-old daughter. It was partly an experiment and partly because he believed AI agents would one day be a big part of her life. Narayanan's daughter was naturally curious, often asking about animals, plants and the human body, and he thought ChatGPT could give useful answers to her questions, he told me. To his surprise, the chatbot developed by OpenAI also did an impeccable job at showing empathy, once he told the system it was speaking to a small child.
/jlne.ws/3V9ji79
British Chip Firm With CIA Ties Sees Future in US or China Founder says 'balancing act' between UK prospects, investment Cambridge-based Pragmatic backed by CIA VC firm In-Q-Tel Scott WhiteSource: Pragmatic Semiconductor
Thomas Seal - Bloomberg
A British chip-making startup funded by the CIA's venture capital firm says that if the UK government doesn't come up with a supportive semiconductor strategy, it may shift its operations abroad. Pragmatic Semiconductor Ltd. makes tiny, flexible circuit boards that can be embedded into almost anything, from packaging to clothing. Its founder Scott White says the UK's efforts to fund more domestic chip production may fall short of what the Cambridge, England-based company needs to build more factories.
/jlne.ws/3L6WLDG
OpenAI Offers New Privacy Options for ChatGPT; The startup will let people decide whether AI will train on the data they give the chatbot.
Rachel Metz - Bloomberg
OpenAI is letting people opt to withhold their ChatGPT conversations from use in training the artificial intelligence company's models. The move could be a privacy safeguard for people who sometimes share sensitive information with the popular AI chatbot.
/jlne.ws/420gVWI
Liquidnet partners with TP ICAP Midcap to improve block liquidity in small and mid-cap equities; The pair aim to increase block liquidity in European SMEs using their combined networks and technology, The TRADE can reveal.
Annabel Smith - The Trade
Liquidnet and TP ICAP Midcap have partnered to improve block liquidity in the European small and mid-cap equities space. The agency broker and dark pool operator and the broker and investment bank said their combined forces will help generate opportunities in the market, solving a challenge voiced by most asset managers.
/jlne.ws/4452T7N
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| Cybersecurity | | Top stories for cybersecurity | Lookout sells its consumer cybersecurity business to F-Secure for $223M and goes all-in on the enterprise
Paul Sawers - TechCrunch
Lookout's long-running transition to becoming an enterprise security company is all but complete, revealing today that it's selling its consumer mobile security business to Finland's F-Secure in a deal valued at around $223 million. Founded out of Boston in 2009, Lookout originally started out as a consumer-focused smartphone security and data backup business, garnering millions of users and hundreds of millions in funding from esteemed investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Accel, Greylock, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Telekom, and Jeff Bezos.
/jlne.ws/3LvVM0W
There's No Silver Bullet for Cybersecurity
Thomas P. Vartanian - Harvard Business Review
Summary. Governments are incapable of fixing the insecurity of the internet by themselves, and businesses are unlikely to do it until the economic pain of ignoring the insecurity of the internet becomes greater than the profits it can earn from it. There are no silver bullets beyond restructuring the internet to rely more on new secure private networks, particularly for the operation of critical infrastructure. That will require businesses, governments, and users in democratic nations to act together to transform the internet into networks that rely on the authentication of people rather than IP addresses, mandate strict rules of online behavior, and maintain cyber police (human or machine) to enforce them.
/jlne.ws/3oEVA6J
Charming Kitten's New BellaCiao Malware Discovered in Multi-Country Attacks
Ravie Lakshmanan - The Hacker News
The prolific Iranian nation-state group known as Charming Kitten targeted multiple victims in the U.S., Europe, the Middle East and India with a novel malware dubbed BellaCiao, adding to its ever-expanding list of custom tools. Discovered by Bitdefender Labs, BellaCiao is a "personalized dropper" that's capable of delivering other malware payloads onto a victim machine based on commands received from an actor-controlled server.
/jlne.ws/3Av9drL
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| Cryptocurrencies | | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | Binance US Ends $1 Billion Deal to Buy Bankrupt Crypto Firm Voyager; FTX had agreed to buy Voyager before its own collapse; Abrupt deal reversal comes after earlier objections from SEC
Yueqi Yang and Steven Church - Bloomberg
Binance.US terminated an agreement to purchase the bankrupt crypto broker Voyager Digital Holdings Ltd., less than a week after federal regulators dropped their efforts to halt the deal in court. The decision came after months of wrangling and the intervention of multiple federal and state regulators over the deal. In a statement, Binance.US said "the hostile and uncertain regulatory climate in the United States has introduced an unpredictable operating environment impacting the entire American business community."
/jlne.ws/3oEBd9L
Crypto Bros Hailing EU Red Tape Are In for a Nasty Surprise; New European regulations may stymie, not support, the world of digital finance.
Lionel Laurent - Bloomberg
On April 20, the day that the European Parliament approved a sweeping package of cryptocurrency rules known as MiCA, a new euro-denominated stablecoin was unveiled on the continent. "CoinVertible" seeks to bridge the gap between traditional and digital finance, is available only to institutional investors, and is designed not by hoodie-wearing techies but French banking giant Societe Generale SA.
/jlne.ws/3HfCZEQ
Circle's Allaire Faults US Financial Risks After $13 Billion Drop in Stablecoin USDC; Allaire flags a push by investors to 'de-risk out of the US'; He says the US is behind other jurisdictions on crypto rules
Haslinda Amin, Rishaad Salamat and Suvashree Ghosh - Bloomberg
A push by investors to "de-risk out of the US" amid banking sector and regulatory challenges contributed to the drop in the market value of stablecoin USD Coin, according to the chief executive of the token's issuer. "We are seeing a huge amount of concern globally about the US banking system," Jeremy Allaire, CEO of Circle Internet Financial Ltd., said in an interview on Bloomberg Television on Wednesday. "We are seeing concern about the regulatory environment in the US."
/jlne.ws/3oO9pQb
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| Politics | | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | Poll finds nearly 90 percent of Americans rely on public figures for their news
Lauren Sforza - The Hill
A new poll has found that a vast majority of Americans follow a public figure to get their news, a finding that comes amid evidence showing declining confidence in news organizations. According to the new poll from Gallup and the Knight Foundation, about nine in 10 Americans follow at least one public figure to keep up with news and for other information.
/jlne.ws/3Av6s9X
Grandma didn't pay taxes. Now her house is focus of property rights test case
Nina Totenberg - Morning Edition
The U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments Wednesday in the case of a 94-year-old Minneapolis woman whose condominium was seized by Hennepin County for failure to pay property taxes. At issue is the way at least a dozen states handle the sale of homes to pay off overdue taxes.
/jlne.ws/40HBqqb
Jury to deliberate in major Jan. 6 case against Proud Boys
Michael Kunzelman - Associated Press
The seditious conspiracy case against former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and four lieutenants went to the jury on Tuesday after dozens of witnesses over more than three months in one of the most serious cases to emerge from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
/jlne.ws/3n13NSq
House Republicans, Grasping for Votes, Alter Debt Limit Plan; After a late-night haggling session, it was still not clear whether Speaker Kevin McCarthy could pass his fiscal plan, which would tie a yearlong debt ceiling increase to spending cuts and policy changes.
Catie Edmondson and Carl Hulse - The New York Times
House Republican leaders on Wednesday were scrounging for the votes to pass legislation to raise the debt ceiling while cutting spending and unraveling major elements of President Biden's domestic agenda, after a late-night haggling session in which they revised their fiscal plan in an effort to win over holdouts in their ranks. The measure, which would cut federal spending by nearly 14 percent over a decade, would undo some of Mr. Biden's clean energy tax credits and his student loan cancellation plan and impose stricter work requirements for federal nutrition and health programs. It would be dead on arrival in the Democratic-led Senate and at the White House, where Mr. Biden's advisers have warned that it would draw his veto.
/jlne.ws/40VG9ER
Former Eskom chief refuses to name high-level politicians linked to corruption; Andre de Ruyter says he wants to avoid compromising any probe into graft at South African energy group Joseph Cotterill - The Financial Times
The former chief executive of South Africa's broken Eskom electricity monopoly refused to name politicians alleged to be involved in looting of the blackout-plagued utility, in his first appearance before South African lawmakers since he was removed from his role. Andre de Ruyter told a parliamentary hearing on Wednesday that he stood by an explosive claim before his sacking this year that a high-level politician was involved in graft at Eskom, but said that he wanted to avoid compromising any ongoing investigations by giving names.
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| Regulation & Enforcement | | Stories about regulation and the law. | ECB quizzes lenders over risk of Silicon Valley Bank-style losses; Chief supervisor says unrealised losses on bond holdings are 'point of attention' after sharp rise in interest rates
Martin Arnold - Financial Times
Europe's financial authorities are quizzing lenders about their exposure to rapidly rising interest rates, as they investigate how much this risk may spread beyond the banking sector.
/jlne.ws/40zGooI
UK's Antitrust Regulator Threatens Innovation and M&A; The Competition and Markets Authority's coming decision on Microsoft's takeover of Activision Blizzard has the power to kill several deals and distort competition.
Ed Hammond - Bloomberg (opinion)
The UK's Competition and Markets Authority will soon tell Microsoft Corp. whether it can proceed with its $69 billion takeover of video game-maker Activision Blizzard Inc., maker of the Call of Duty franchise. The decision has the power to kill several deals and redraw the map of global merger regulation. The CMA's review is exploring what healthy competition should look like in the nascent market for cloud gaming. In other words, the decision will come down to the watchdog's interpretation of how something that hasn't happened might impact something that it thinks could happen someday.
/jlne.ws/447Hc7p
Japan Regulator Asks Banks to Examine Social Media Risks After SVB; Rapid deposit outflows at US banks put technology in focus; Japanese officials want lenders to bolster risk management
Sumio Ito and Yuki Hagiwara - Bloomberg
Japan's Financial Services Agency has urged banks to check their readiness to respond to risks from social media and internet banking after the collapse of several US banks, according to people familiar with the regulator's thinking. The FSA asked lenders to prepare crisis management manuals and examine their liquidity and risk management systems, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is confidential.
/jlne.ws/3Nf0RMn
Lawyer Laundered Russian Oligarch's Money by Paying Bills for His NY Homes; Robert Wise pleaded guilty to conspiring to launder money; Properties included Long Island mansion, Manhattan home
Chris Dolmetsch - Bloomberg
A New York lawyer admitted in court that he illegally helped manage six luxury properties for sanctioned oligarch Viktor Vekselberg as the US continues to put pressure on those accused of helping wealthy Russians hide assets. The lawyer, Robert Wise, on Tuesday pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit international money laundering before US District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors.
/jlne.ws/421k4p0
FTX Fiasco Leads Bahamas to Propose a Stronger Crypto Rulebook
Suvashree Ghosh - Bloomberg
The Bahamas plans to tighten crypto regulations that were tarnished by the collapse of the FTX exchange, which was based on the island nation along with the platform's fallen founder Sam Bankman-Fried. The Securities Commission of the Bahamas invited feedback on the proposed changes to the Digital Assets and Registered Exchanges Act. Its goals include strengthening financial and reporting requirements for crypto businesses.
/jlne.ws/3V7CF0s
Swap Dealer Pays Over $6.8 Million for Violations of Swap Dealer Business Conduct Standards
CFTC
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission today issued an order simultaneously filing and settling charges against New York-based, provisionally registered swap dealer Mizuho Capital Markets LLC for trade practice violations of the Swap Dealer Business Conduct Standards in the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and CFTC regulations. The violations arise from Mizuho's failure to make adequate disclosures to customers in connection with certain foreign exchange forward transactions.
/jlne.ws/3LtmSGa
CFTC Charges Precious Metals Dealers and Their Owner in Multimillion Dollar Fraud Targeting the Elderly
CFTC
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced today it has filed a civil enforcement action in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York against two affiliated precious metals dealers located in Los Angeles, California, Fisher Capital LLC and AMS Consulting Solutions LLC d/b/a Fisher Capital (collectively Fisher Capital), and Fisher Capital's principal, Alexander Spellane a/k/a Alexander Overlie, for perpetrating a precious metals investment fraud targeting elderly persons nationwide. The complaint charges defendants with defrauding hundreds of elderly persons into investing more than $30 million in gold and silver coins worth far less than the defendants led victims to believe.
/jlne.ws/442KwR6
Illicit Finance and Other Key Risks of Digital Assets: Keynote at City Week 2023; CFTC Commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero in London
CFTC
Thank you to the Organising Partners and Patrons for the invitation to speak here at City Week on key risks of digital assets. Tomorrow is reportedly the 12th anniversary of the day that Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin and blockchain, sent his final message to developers.[1] It has long been speculated that he left disillusioned after PC-World published that Bitcoin could be used for payments to WikiLeaks after it was blacklisted by banks. He walked away the day after messaging, "It would have been nice to get this attention in any other context. WikiLeaks has kicked the hornet's nest, and the swarm is headed towards us."[2]
/jlne.ws/3LvHCNz
Eric R. Werner Named Director of Fort Worth Regional Office
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Eric R. Werner has been named Regional Director of the Fort Worth Regional Office, effective immediately. Mr. Werner is currently the Acting Co-Regional Director and has served as the Associate Regional Director of Enforcement in the Fort Worth office since 2018. He succeeds David L. Peavler, who left the agency in December.
/jlne.ws/3L701Pb
ASIC's Moneysmart helps Australians manage the rising cost of living
ASIC
Key points: Australians are turning to Moneysmart to help manage their money, with over 3.2 million visiting Moneysmart so far this year. ASIC encourages all Australians to engage with their finances and research their options, so they can make informed financial decisions.
/jlne.ws/3Hgr5dF
Gaudi Regulated Services Limited in administration
FCA
On 25 April 2023 the directors of Gaudi Regulated Services Limited appointed Sean Bucknall and Andrew Watling of Quantuma Advisory Limited as joint administrators. The administrators are qualified insolvency practitioners. Gaudi Regulated Services Limited (Gaudi), is a self-invested personal pension (SIPP) operator authorised and regulated by the FCA. We set out the steps Gaudi clients should take and advice on how to protect against scams.
/jlne.ws/3HgriNZ
Publication of the "Action Program for Accelerating Corporate Governance Reform: From Form to Substance"
FSA
The Council of Experts Concerning the Follow-up of Japan's Stewardship Code and Japan's Corporate Governance Code (Chairman: Hideki Kanda, Professor, Gakushuin University Law School) has now published the opinion statement No.6 "Action Program for Accelerating Corporate Governance Reform: From Form to Substance".
/jlne.ws/44hSRkb
Network of Central Banks and Supervisors Meet in Singapore to Discuss Greening the Financial System
MAS
Singapore, 26 April 2023... The Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) held a series of meetings in Singapore on 25 and 26 April 2023 to discuss issues related to the assessment and management of climate-related financial risks and transition financing for a more sustainable economy. The meetings were hosted by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and chaired by Mr Ravi Menon, Managing Director, MAS and Chair of the NGFS.
/jlne.ws/41IFqYE
"The Work of the NGFS in Four Emerging Issues in Climate Change" - Opening Remarks by Mr Ravi Menon, Managing Director, Monetary Authority of Singapore and Chairman, Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS), at the NGFS Workshop on 26 April 2023
MAS
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I am delighted to welcome you to the inaugural NGFS Workshop in Singapore. We held our annual NGFS Plenary meeting yesterday. We discussed how the NGFS can continue to push the envelope in greening the financial system:
/jlne.ws/3oBOobo
SFC bans Peter Law Chi Kin for 10 years and fines him $535,500
SFC
The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has banned Mr Peter Law Chi Kin, a former licensed representative of Convoy Asset Management Limited (CAML), from re-entering the industry for 10 years from 26 April 2023 to 25 April 2033 for taking part in a stock manipulation scheme. The SFC also fined Law $535,500, equivalent to the profit that he gained from participating in the scheme (Note 1).
/jlne.ws/3Hg0Tju
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| Investing & Trading | | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | FX Market Conditions Briefly Impacted by Banking Crisis: BofA
Colin Lambert - The FullFX
The latest Global FX Microstructure in Review paper from Bank of America, highlights a first quarter of 2023 in FX markets characterised by a gentle narrowing of spreads, a similar decline in volatility and an increase in depth of market - with the mid-March banking crisis providing only a relatively brief deterioration in conditions.
/jlne.ws/3LGeK5r
Yuan Overtakes Dollar as China's Most Used Cross-Border Currency; Local currency's share of China transactions rises to record
Bloomberg News
China passed another milestone in its bid to reduce reliance on the dollar, as yuan usage in its cross-border transactions jumped ahead of the greenback's for the first time in March. The local currency's share of China's cross-border payments and receipts rose to a record high 48% at the month end from nearly zero in 2010, according to research by Bloomberg Intelligence citing data from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange. The dollar's share declined to 47% from 83% over the same period, the figures showed.
/jlne.ws/3HeV59V
Biggest Treasury Buyers Turn to Swaps to Flee Price Swings; Popular trade involves turning fixed rates into floating ones; Swap trade works best for 20-year and 30-year Treasuries
Garfield Reynolds and Masaki Kondo - Bloomberg
Japanese investors are turning to creative trades using interest-rate swaps to try and squeeze some yield from a volatile global bond market. One such maneuver that's gaining popularity seeks to lock in the yield premium longer-dated Treasuries have over equivalent swaps, by essentially going long the former and short the latter. Investors buy Treasuries and use the income from the bond to pay the fixed-rate leg of an interest-rate swap and pocket the difference.
/jlne.ws/3oEBkSJ
UK Gets Record Demand for Bonds Hedging Against Inflation; Investors flood DMO with £46 billion in orders for 2045 bond; UK inflation has been stubbornly stuck in double digits
Abhinav Ramnarayan and Greg Ritchie - Bloomberg
The UK received a record level of demand for debt that acts as protection against inflation, with concerns mounting that rising prices aren't slowing down, despite the Bank of England's interest rate hikes.
/jlne.ws/442lS2Z
Druckenmiller takes aim at dollar in sole conviction trade; Billionaire investor says last year's dollar rally was the 'biggest miss' of his career
Katie Martin and Robin Wigglesworth - Financial Times
Billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller is betting against the US dollar as his only high-conviction trade in what he believes is the most uncertain environment for markets and the global economy in his 45-year career. Druckenmiller, who as George Soros's right-hand man helped break the Bank of England in an assault on the pound in 1992, said he felt confident taking a negative position against the greenback because of his dim view of US policymaking.
/jlne.ws/3n31jCQ
Passive ETFs are cheap, but stockpickers cannot be ignored; Active fund performance has been patchy, yet some hope the tide has turned, or point to the funds' specialist edge
Dave Baxter - Financial Times
Traditional passive exchange traded funds are cheap. An investor looking for passive exposure to a mainstream market such as the S&P 500 or FTSE 100 can now expect to pay fund charges of less than 0.1 per cent, while price wars have continued to drive down fees on products such as gold ETFs in recent years.
/jlne.ws/3HfIH9Q
'Tyranny of the majority': creditor infighting comes to $1.4tn leveraged loan market; Serta Simmons bankruptcy ruling has opened the door to aggressive new tactics
Eric Platt, Sujeet Indap and Harriet Clarfelt - Financial Times
When a debt-laden company gets into financial distress, the fights between creditors are often ugly, but investors in leveraged loans could usually watch from the sidelines while more junior claimants haggled over what they would be repaid. Not any more.
/jlne.ws/40FVdWL
SPACs Delivered Easy Money, but Now Companies Are Running Out; Businesses are burning through cash raised in SPAC deals with few ways to fill the gap
Amrith Ramkumar and Shane Shifflett - The Wall Street Journal
The SPAC boom took hundreds of risky companies to the stock market. The next stop for many is bankruptcy court. Dozens of companies that merged with SPACs are running out of cash, joining at least 12 that have already gone bankrupt after combining with special-purpose acquisition companies.
/jlne.ws/3AtMw7d
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| Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance | | Stories about environmental, social and governance investing | The U.S. Wants a Rare-Earths Supply Chain. Here's Why It Won't Come Easily.
New tax credit bill seeks to challenge China's dominance in the processing of critical minerals
Yusuf Khan - The Wall Street Journal
A bipartisan bill set to be introduced in Congress this week would offer a tax credit for establishing rare-earth magnet production in the U.S., a crucial component for the clean-energy transition. MP Materials efforts to build a local supply chain demonstrate the challenge for American producers.
/jlne.ws/3LyPcHm
Heat Waves, Cyclones Are Impacting Stock Markets Across Asia; Floods, harsh summers impacting agricultural patterns in Asia; Demand-supply prediction becoming more complex: analyst
Georgina McKay and Ashutosh Joshi - Bloomberg
Stock pickers in some of Asia's key markets are being battered by a series of extreme weather events from heat waves to flooding, signaling the difficulties ahead as El Nino-related risks rise and climate change accelerates. In resource-rich Australia, Newcrest Mining Ltd.'s Telfer gold mine was closed earlier this month and the company's shares fell from more than a two-year high after the biggest cyclone to hit the Western Australian coast in almost a decade made landfall. That followed heavy rain and flooding that hampered coal production for miners such as Whitehaven Ltd. and BHP Group late last year.
/jlne.ws/3AuJwrn
Money-Market Managers Rebrand Almost $1 Trillion of Funds as ESG; The most liquid investment assets are redrawing the ESG map; Development comes as use of ESG labels attracts scrutiny
Natasha White and Frances Schwartzkopff - Bloomberg
Money market funds targeting European clients have quietly been reclassifying their legal status to market themselves as promoters of ESG, with close to $1 trillion of highly liquid client assets now registered as such. The designation in question is known as Article 8, which under European Union rules means a financial product "promotes" environmental, social and good governance goals. Asset managers have been attaching it to funds that specialize in ultra-short-term assets at a pace that's transformed the market since European ESG investing rules were first enforced in 2021.
/jlne.ws/3L8gd2J
Analysis: Half the global population saw all-time record temperatures over past decade; Carbon Brief reveals visually just how much the world's most populous regions have been affected by extreme heat since 2013
Dr Zeke Hausfather - Carbon Brief
More frequent and intense extreme heat is one of the major impacts of climate change. As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) sixth assessment confirmed, it is "virtually certain" that "there has been increases in the intensity and duration of heatwaves and in the number of heatwave days at the global scale from 1950".
/jlne.ws/3mXfdqk
CDP Plastics Disclosures Heighten Transparency for Investors
Jack Grogan-Fenn - ESG Investor
High-impact plastic sectors have been invited to disclose through the platform, but focus on water security may undermine usefulness Planet Tracker warns. Non-profit CDP has increased transparency over plastics impact by enabling companies to disclose data on the production, use and disposal of plastic through its global environmental disclosure platform, but some say its focus on water security fails to tackle the issue from all angles.
/jlne.ws/40Go0dK
Principles for Responsible Banking; Shaping the future of banking
UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative
6 Principles for Responsible Banking. Created by the United Nations in partnership with founding banks, the Principles are designed to be integrated into banks' strategies and across their portfolio of activities, bringing purpose, vision and ambition on sustainable finance to the core of the organisation.
/jlne.ws/44208Eq
Ambitious UK-Morocco Power Cable Gets UAE and Octopus Backing; Ambitious project would send renewable power to Britain
Todd Gillespie - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/3Hf14vx
The Risks Brands Take When Touching on Social Issues; The outcry over Bud Light's partnership with a transgender advocate could cause brands to rethink whether and how they address contentious social issues
Suzanne Vranica and Patrick Coffee - The Wall Street Journal
The outcry over Anheuser-Busch InBev SA's partnership with a transgender advocate could cause brands to rethink whether and how they address contentious social issues, putting in question an increasingly common strategy for marketers as they try to reach younger consumers.
/jlne.ws/3AvMFqN
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| Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | Senior Citi banker departs after report of Jeffrey Epstein meetings; Wall Street bank says it was 'unaware' of Paul Barrett's 'association' with disgraced financier
Joshua Franklin and Stephen Gandel - Financial Times
A senior executive at Citigroup has left the bank, days after it was reported that he had met with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein on several occasions while working at JPMorgan Chase. In response to a query from the Financial Times, Citi confirmed that Paul Barrett, head of the North American private capital group at its private bank, was no longer employed by the company.
/jlne.ws/3naQOxh
First Republic Bank to Weigh Up to $100 Billion in Asset Sales; Shares of the bank tumble on proposed sales, deposit slump; Buyers might be offered incentives to pay above-market rates
Gillian Tan and Matthew Monks - Bloomberg
First Republic Bank is exploring divesting $50 billion to $100 billion of assets as the beleaguered lender attempts to rescue itself from the turmoil that engulfed the industry last month.
/jlne.ws/43ZfJop
Nomura Profit Falls for Third Straight Year Under CEO Okuda; Weak client sentiment and dealmaking hit revenue at brokerage; Raid in Germany adds to headwinds for CEO amid turnaround
Takashi Nakamichi and Nao Sano - Bloomberg
Nomura Holdings Inc.'s profit fell for the third straight year since Kentaro Okuda became its chief executive officer, as market turmoil adds to headwinds for his turnaround.
/jlne.ws/3ArY9Ma
StanChart CEO Blames Regulators Unprepared for Confidence Crisis
Harry Wilson - Bloomberg
The boss of Standard Chartered Plc said regulators weren't ready to respond to the March turmoil that hit the banking industry and caused the collapse of Credit Suisse Group AG and various US lenders.
/jlne.ws/421qBjw
Credit Suisse Crisis Plans Greenlit by Swiss Regulator Last Year; Finma publishes report on banks' emergency preparedness; Credit Suisse had full marks just months before UBS rescue
Hugo Miller - Bloomberg
Credit Suisse Group AG earned solid marks for crisis preparedness as recently as last year, underscoring how quickly the plunge in confidence blindsided regulators and investors before the bank's near collapse. "It is clear that there are important lessons to be learned from the Credit Suisse crisis for future crisis preparations," Urban Angehrn, Chief Executive Officer of Swiss financial markets regulator Finma, said in a statement on Wednesday. The regulator will "contribute to this objective," he said.
/jlne.ws/3L939u7
Redburn merges with Atlantic Equities to create London-headquartered transatlantic broker; Deal is expected to be completed in the third quarter; will bring Atlantic Equities under the Rothschild & Co umbrella.
Annabel Smith - The Trade
European agency broker and equities research specialist Redburn and US equity brokerage Atlantic Equities have agreed to merge their operations under Redburn's parent company Rothschild & Co to create a London-headquartered transatlantic broker.
/jlne.ws/3LvQG53
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| Work & Management | | Stories impacting work and more about management ideas, practices and trends. | So Many Ways to Communicate at Work, So Many Ways to Misfire; Workplaces become saturated with ways to talk, often breeding mistakes and misunderstandings
Anne Marie Chaker - The Wall Street Journal
Lisa Donovan was juggling pings from multiple Slack channels and email windows when she inadvertently sent a sensitive company document to the wrong person. The part-time accountant for a Virginia-based academic coaching firm toggles between 30 instant-messaging channels, four client-email accounts and at least a dozen phone or video calls a day, she says. "It's, like, 'Are we on Zoom? Are we on Teams? Did I respond to that? Did I say it right?'" says Ms. Donovan, who works from Richmond, Texas.
/jlne.ws/3NaLV20
How to spot corporate rot; CBI scandal has prompted business leaders to re-examine their culture and treatment of staff
Emma Jacobs and Andrew Hill - Financial Times
After Antony Jenkins took over as Barclays chief executive in 2012 following the Libor scandal, he moved quickly to axe the bank's structured capital markets unit, responsible for controversial tax avoidance strategies. "I felt [the division] was clearly inconsistent with the values we were trying to set," Jenkins, who now runs financial technology company 10x Banking, told the Financial Times this week. Describing the culture you seek is not enough on its own, he explained. The next step must be to use the values to guide decisions.
/jlne.ws/3AuO5BZ
The mindset of 'trying' is self-defeating. Here's how to change it; A professional coach explains that Efforting or trying, which is basically thinking about doing something is passive without actually taking any steps.
Kristin Brownstone - Fast Company
"Do or do not. There is no try." - Yoda. A friend was telling me recently about a class he took where everyone was instructed to throw a pencil on the floor. The teacher then said to try and pick it up. Everyone dutifully bent over and picked up their pencil. She said "No, I didn't tell you to pick it up; I told you to try to pick it up," which resulted in everyone posturing to think about or move toward picking it up without actually doing so. This is of course ridiculous and a waste of effort, because there is either pick up the pencil (do) or leave the pencil on the floor (do not). There is no try.
/jlne.ws/443VrtK
Best of: So, your boss is a narcissist... But is narcissism always a bad thing?
Working it Podcast - Financial Times
We've probably all had one: a boss whose traits include a grandiose sense of self-importance, a need for excessive admiration, a lack of empathy and a sense of entitlement. They're all traits of a narcissist. Psychologist Ramani Durvasula, an expert on the subject, tells host Isabel Berwick why so many narcissists end up in positions of leadership, and how to handle them. Plus, psychotherapist Naomi Shragai, author of 'The Man Who Mistook His Job For His Life', explains why some narcissistic traits are essential to getting ahead at work. This is a repeat of an episode first published on October 25 2022.
/jlne.ws/3oLSxtH
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| Wellness Exchange | | An Exchange of Health and Wellness Information | Are repeat COVID infections dangerous? What the science says; Researchers disagree over how bad it is to be reinfected, and whether COVID-19 can cause lasting changes to the immune system.
Cassandra Willyard - Nature
When the coronavirus pandemic began in early 2020, the SARS-CoV-2 virus was a strange and terrifying adversary that plunged the world into chaos. More than three years later, the infection's symptoms are all too familiar and COVID-19 is here to stay - part of a long list of common diseases that infect humans. Experts estimate that the majority of the world's population has been infected at least once; in the United States, some estimates suggest that as many as 65% of people have had multiple infections1. And it's likely that in the decades to come, we're all destined to get COVID-19 many more times.
/jlne.ws/3LtDYmf
Fauci reflects on missteps, successes of the US Covid-19 pandemic response
Brenda Goodman - CNN
Since Dr. Anthony Fauci retired late last year as head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, effectively ending his role as America's Doctor during the Covid-19 public health emergency, he has been reflecting in a series of new interviews on the missteps - and missed opportunities - that characterized the pandemic response. How could the United States, one of the wealthiest, best-resourced nations on Earth, rack up more than 1.1 million deaths from Covid-19 in just three years, a death toll that outpaced those of most other countries?
/jlne.ws/3oLTcLx
Apple Plans AI-Powered Health Coaching Service, Mood Tracker and iPad Health App
Mark Gurman - Bloomberg
Apple Inc. is working on an artificial intelligence-powered health coaching service and new technology for tracking emotions, its latest attempt to lock in users with health and wellness features.
/jlne.ws/40HNQxY
The Bad Side of 'Good' Cholesterol
Tanya Lewis, Josh Fischman, Jeffery DelViscio, Alexa Lim - Scientific American podcast
Very high HDL cholesterol levels almost double your risk of heart problems. On the show today, we've got some surprising news about cholesterol. The so-called "good" kind is supposed to protect your heart and arteries. But it actually makes things worse under certain circumstances. And doctors are just figuring this out.
/jlne.ws/3n8ioeA
Florida board may ban Disney from imposing COVID mask or vaccine rules
Dawn Chmielewski and Lisa Richwine - Reuters
An oversight board in Florida on Wednesday will consider a ban on future COVID-19 mask or vaccine mandates at Walt Disney World, part of an effort by state Republicans to assert more control over Walt Disney Co's (DIS.N) theme parks in Orlando.
/jlne.ws/40IF8Qd
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| Regions | | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | Top Gas Exporter Australia Seeks to Extend Domestic Price Cap; Price cap of $12 per gigajoule could be extended to mid-2025; Global gas buyers have voiced concerns over Australian policy Ben Westcott - Bloomberg
Australia may extend a domestic price cap on natural gas until at least 2025, as part of regulations that have already drawn protest from the country's powerful fossil fuel industry and raised concern among buyers from one of the world's biggest exporters of the fuel. The government proposed extending the limit of A$12 per gigajoule ($7.60 a million British thermal units) imposed in December for the East Coast market, with a first review planned to start by July 2025, it said in a draft paper on Wednesday. It plans to finalize the measures by the new fiscal year, which starts on July 1.
/jlne.ws/446ROmG
Yuan Overtakes Dollar as China's Most Used Cross-Border Currency; Local currency's share of China transactions rises to record;Share in global transactions was little changed in March
Bloomberg News
China passed another milestone in its bid to reduce reliance on the dollar, as yuan usage in its cross-border transactions jumped ahead of the greenback's for the first time in March. The local currency's share of China's cross-border payments and receipts rose to a record high 48% at the month end from nearly zero in 2010, according to research by Bloomberg Intelligence citing data from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange. The dollar's share declined to 47% from 83% over the same period, the figures showed.
/jlne.ws/3HeV59V
South Africa Grants Permit for Offshore Oil Exploration Study; TotalEnergies, Africa Oil, hold blocks in Orange Basin area; Exploration activity has been opposed by civil society groups
Paul Burkhardt - Bloomberg
South Africa granted an environmental permit for exploration activity in the Orange Basin off the nation's west coast, adding to other work planned offshore.
/jlne.ws/40HqwAG
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| Miscellaneous | | Stories that don't quite fit under the other sections | Cities Keep Building Luxury Apartments Almost No One Can Afford; Cutting red tape and unleashing the free market was supposed to help strapped families. So far, it hasn't worked out that way.
Prashant Gopal and Patrick Clark - Bloomberg
Emily Young throws open the shades of the three-bedroom penthouse. "This is amazing," she says, walking past the wine fridge and wet-dry bar. "Look at that fireplace." Young, a real estate agent with a Marc Jacobs handbag on her hip, is giving a tour of one of the most luxurious apartment buildings in Austin. At the Hanover Republic Square, there's a "vinyl parlor" with a DJ-quality turntable; a movie theater; a dog-Âgrooming spa; and a rooftop pool on the 44th floor. There, you can gaze at sunsets-and a neighboring skyscraper. Nearly complete, it rises 66 stories and will have a pool to rival the Hanover's. Actually, that's not quite right-it's "pools," plural. There will be three of them.
/jlne.ws/3HdDOhn
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