| April 15, 2025 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | |  | John Lothian
Publisher
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Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first class of commissioners at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), FIA President and CEO Walt Lukken reflected on the agency's remarkable journey and enduring relevance. He penned a personal viewpoint highlighting the distinctive role the CFTC plays in the financial markets and the foundational importance of its guiding statute, the Commodity Exchange Act. Lukken emphasized how this unique regulatory body, born out of the 1970s commodity boom, has adapted over the decades to oversee increasingly complex and global derivatives markets while remaining grounded in its core mission to foster fair, transparent, and financially sound trading environments.
As part of the celebration, Lukken also hosted a special edition of the MarketVoice podcast, featuring a lively discussion with three esteemed CFTC veterans: Andrea Corcoran, De'Ana Dow, and Rick Shilts. Together, they explored the agency's rich history, the evolution of its regulatory approach, and the culture of professionalism and innovation that defines the CFTC. Their collective insights offer a rare, behind-the-scenes look at how the commission has navigated market transformation, political change, and technological disruption - emerging each time with its reputation for integrity and relevance intact. Tune in to hear their reflections on the agency's legacy and its role in shaping the future of global derivatives markets.
The Kilt Challenge donation totals supporting the Futures For Kids charity continue to rise. The retired industry stalwart Mike Dawley chipped in $5000 yesterday and James Gilchrist of Lighthouse L&D Consulting added $100 to bring the total raised to GBP 56,214. The goal is to beat the amount raised by last year's Kilt Challenge champion Rama Pillai of SGX, and the Mission (Im)possible team of Alicia Crighton of Goldman Sachs and Chris Edmonds of ICE is looking like they will make the impossible possible. Thank you to Mike and to James for your generosity. Help make Alicia and Chris's mission for Futures For Kids come true.
Wall Street's top banks generated nearly $37 billion in trading revenues in Q1 2025-their best quarter in over a decade-driven by market volatility sparked by Donald Trump's second-term policy shifts, especially around tariffs, the Financial Times reported. JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley led the charge, with standout gains in equities trading (up 34% year-over-year), while fixed income revenues rose 6% to $21 billion, their highest since mid-2020. Goldman retained the top spot in equities trading, though Morgan Stanley narrowed the gap with a 45% surge. Meanwhile, Citi and Bank of America posted smaller trading gains but still saw double-digit profit growth. Despite the trading boom, investment banking revenues rose just 2%, as geopolitical uncertainty and tariff fears dampened M&A activity, with executives warning that Trump-era unpredictability could continue to stall dealmaking.
In a sharp message to European allies, FCC chair Brendan Carr - a top Trump administration official - urged Europe to choose between U.S. and Chinese communications technologies, pressing them to adopt Elon Musk's Starlink over any alternatives aligned with China, the Financial Times reported. Carr positioned the choice as a geopolitical litmus test, warning of a growing technological divide between "CCP-aligned countries" and the West, especially in AI and satellite infrastructure. His comments follow European skepticism of Starlink's reliability, particularly after Washington threatened to cut off access in Ukraine, and reflect a broader push to pressure European companies like Nokia and Ericsson to shift manufacturing to the U.S. under the shadow of Trump's renewed tariff policies.
Carr's zero-sum framing - either you're with the U.S. or you're with China - highlights a troubling pattern in today's global discourse: **binary thinking** that ignores nuance, partnership diversity, and innovation from alternative sources. This "us vs. them" rhetoric oversimplifies complex technological ecosystems and pressures allies into ideological alignment rather than encouraging open markets and strategic autonomy. It's a clear example of what's wrong with the world - reducing choices to false dichotomies when collaboration and multi-polar solutions are not only possible, but essential.
I will be conducting a fireside chat at the upcoming Pan Asian American Business Council Global Cyber Security Initiative conference GCSI 2025 at IIT Chicago Kent College of Law, 565 W. Adams St, Chicago on April 23, 2025. To register, go HERE.
Here are the headlines from in front of FOW's paywall from some recent stories: HKEX chief welcomes LME Hong Kong warehouse approval, FCA establishes presence in US, Asia to boost regional ties, ANALYSIS: StoneX to 'streamline' with RJ O'Brien after $900m deal and ANALYSIS: European crypto regulation encouraging trust - panel.
Geneva Trading is hiring a new discretionary trader in Chicago, Illinois. Find out more with this LINK.
Nolan Schiff has been promoted to deputy chief operating officer at Eventus, he shared on LinkedIn. He previously served as vice president operations, global head sales engineering.
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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Our most read stories from our previous edition of JLN Options were:
- Zero-day options are fueling the unprecedented volatility on Wall Street amid tariff chaos from CNBC.
- Bullish trade in Apple options reaps gains as shares jump on tariff exemption from Reuters.
- Cboe Begins Trading in S&P 500® Equal Weight Index Options on April 14, 2025 from Cboe. ~JB
Subscribe to the JLN Options Newsletter HERE (it's free).
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 Marex Executives Outline Growth Strategy, Plan North American Expansion JohnLothianNews.com BOCA RATON, Fla. (JLN) - April 15, 2025 - Marex Group has transformed its clearing business from a small, unprofitable operation into the cornerstone of its global financial services platform, according to Thomas Texier, head of clearing at the firm. Speaking to John Lothian News at the FIA Boca50 conference, Texier highlighted the dramatic growth of the division. Watch the Thomas Texier and Paolo Tonucci Video »
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Why My Firm Is Standing Up for the Constitution; Big Law should remain independent rather than have the government dictate who it represents.
Adam Unikowsky - The Atlantic
On March 25, 2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order entitled "Addressing Risks From Jenner & Block," the firm where I am a partner (though I write this article in my personal capacity). Among other things, the executive order limits "official access from Federal Government buildings to employees of Jenner," limits "Government employees acting in their official capacity from engaging with Jenner employees," and requires "Government contractors to disclose any business they do with Jenner and whether that business is related to the subject of the Government contract." The president has issued similar executive orders against other law firms as well, with additional executive orders reportedly still to come.
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***** I am really happy to see Jenner & Block stand up for the Constitution and fight for their rights and the rights of all other law firms under attack by the Trump administration.~JJL
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Social Security Is Protection From Volatility; The program is insurance against risk, which is suddenly very real for the millions of Americans with retirement savings in the market.
Kathryn Anne Edwards - Bloomberg (opinion)
Kathryn Anne Edwards is a labor economist and independent policy consultant.
This month's roller-coaster ride through the markets has been more frightening than exhilarating for many Americans, who have more than $44 trillion invested in retirement accounts. As a result, the internet has been flooded with financial advice, most of it saying some version of "don't panic." What almost all this advice is missing is a reminder that every working American has insurance coverage for exactly this type of situation. Saving for retirement has inherent risks, and losing money on investments (or losing money at the wrong time) is just one of them. Luckily, this insurance coverage has an enviable track record and provides nearly all policy holders a minimum level of economic security and independence in old age.
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****** Can someone write me a Social Security Default Swap?~JJL
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Monday's Top Three
Our top story Monday was StoneX agrees landmark $900m deal to acquire RJ O'Brien, from FOW. Second was the R.J. O'Brien press release R.J. O'Brien Agrees to Acquisition by StoneX Group from PR Newswire. Third was Canadians Are Cashing Out Their American Vacation Homes, from The Wall Street Journal.
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| Lead Stories | Celebrating the Commodity Futures Trading Commission; The CFTC remains uniquely positioned to keep pace with our ever-changing markets
Walt Lukken, FIA's President and CEO
April 15, 2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the first Commission of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Next year we also celebrate the 90th anniversary of the Commodity Exchange Act, the statute governing the regulation of the derivatives markets and administered by the CFTC. Despite their ages, both the agency and the CEA have held up remarkably well and remain uniquely positioned to keep pace with our ever-changing markets. We have experienced a great deal of growth and innovation in the listed derivatives markets the last several years. Existing futures exchanges have ventured beyond the traditional asset classes of equities, fixed income and commodities into new products like carbon offsets, event contracts and cryptocurrencies. And new futures exchanges have formed and registered with the CFTC to offer futures contracts on these innovative products.
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Webull Shares Jump 375% in Second Session After SPAC Merger
Matthew Griffin - Bloomberg
Webull Corp. shares more than quadrupled on Monday after the online brokerage went public last week by merging with a blank-check vehicle. The shares closed at $62.90, a 375% increase from the closing price in its first day as a public company. Webull began trading Friday after merging with SK Growth Opportunities Corp., a special-purpose acquisition company. A subsidiary of Korean conglomerate SK Inc. was the anchor investor in the SPAC's sponsor.
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Britain's financial watchdog sets up in US and Asia to attract firms to UK
Reuters
Britain's Financial Conduct Authority has appointed staff in the United States and the Asia-Pacific region for the first time, to help overseas firms to enter the British market and boost exports of UK financial services, the watchdog said on Tuesday. Former investment banker Tash Miah started in April at the British embassy in Washington, DC, and will support financial firms in the U.S. with navigating British regulations, the FCA said. Camille Blackburn will open the FCA's regional office in Australia from July this year, the FCA said, as it seeks to support firms operating between Asia-Pacific and Britain.
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How Wall Street got Donald Trump wrong; Titans of finance and business are beginning to realise they misread the president's second-term priorities
Antoine Gara, Amelia Pollard, James Fontanella-Khan and Eric Platt - Financial Times
In mid-February, some of Wall Street's most powerful investors and business titans - controlling hundreds of billions in personal wealth and trillions in assets - lined up like teenagers before a rock concert. The headliner was Donald Trump. In a cramped Miami Beach auditorium, plutocrats and CEOs waited up to three hours for the president's first in-person address to the business world at a Saudi-backed conference.
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Bank Trading Desks Are Minting Money From Trump's Tariff Chaos; Bank of America and Citigroup joined other banks reporting higher trading revenue
AnnaMaria Andriotis - The Wall Street Journal
Wall Street is raking in even more money from trading than it did during the market's Covid-19 era swings. Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley all said a surge in trading revenue helped lift their profits in the first quarter and beat expectations. Bank trading desks have been collecting more fees from investors scrambling to reduce or dial up the risk in their portfolios on any new clue about how President Trump's tariffs might ultimately play out. Combined, the three banks earned more than $12 billion in fees in their equities businesses, the desks that run stock-market related activities for clients. That tops the trading boom that followed some of the pandemic's worst days.
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Crypto's Newest Stablecoin Is Inflation-Linked Bond Alternative
Elizabeth Stanton - Bloomberg
A new cryptocurrency aims to occupy the final frontier of investor safety - cash that doesn't lose purchasing power to inflation. USDi, being launched by two veterans of US inflation-protected and foreign-exchange derivatives, is a dollar tracking stablecoin whose value is determined by the increase in the US consumer price index since December 2024. On April 15, it was $1.00863.
/jlne.ws/4j969Gm
Blackstone Moves to Extend Its Reach Into Everyday Investors' Portfolios; The firm is joining with Vanguard and Wellington to offer portfolios with public and private assets
Miriam Gottfried - The Wall Street Journal
Blackstone is teaming up with two big traditional asset managers to develop investment products, a move that could extend its reach into the portfolios of everyday investors. The private-markets giant has formed an alliance with Vanguard and Wellington Management, with the goal of offering individuals access to multiasset portfolios, with private and public assets, that have otherwise only been available to institutional investors, the companies said.
/jlne.ws/43Ql8QZ
Zero-Day Options Show How VIX Undersells Tariff-Fueled Turmoil
Bernard Goyder - Bloomberg
As equity traders await the next barrage of tariff headlines from President Donald Trump, one corner of the options markets showed just how extreme the volatility can get. Traders reluctant to speculate on long-term market moves have continued to pile into options that expire within 24 hours as turbulence swept stocks this month. A measure of one-day equities volatility eclipsed the more closely watched Cboe Volatility Index, or VIX - which doesn't take into account zero-day options - for the longest stretch since the boom in these types of derivatives started in 2022.
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Anthony Scaramucci's worst day of his career wasn't being fired from the White House-it was finding out Sam Bankman-Fried was a 'fraud'
Preston Fore - Fortune
Anthony Scaramucci knows a thing or two about getting knocked down. The baby boomer financier is perhaps best known for his 11-day stint as Donald Trump's White House communications director, but that was far from the lowest point of his career. The biggest punch to the gut came when Scaramucci learned the news about Sam Bankman-Fried. "I think the worst day I had professionally was discovering that Sam Bankman-Fried was a fraud," Scaramucci told Fortune. "I mean, getting fired from the White House, okay-it's politics. I'm a big boy, you know, get over it, it'll be fine. But when he got exposed as a fraud, that was a blow to me because I trusted the guy. I liked him."
/jlne.ws/4iibM3Q
ADM quits China domestic crop trading, adding to global job cuts
Alfred Cang, Hallie Gu, Martin Ritchie and Michael Hirtzer - Bloomberg
Archer-Daniels-Midland Co., one of the world's largest crop traders, is shrinking its operations in China as part of a company-wide restructuring effort following a downturn in profits and a bruising accounting scandal. Citing a "challenging environment," the company said Monday in a statement that it's phasing out domestic trading at its Topefer Shanghai unit. Thin margins in China, the world's top commodities consumer, pushed the company to make the reductions, according to people familiar with the matter. Dozens of employees, many of whom worked in Toepfer Shanghai, were informed on Monday that their jobs had been cut, the people added, asking not to be identified because they aren't authorized to speak to the media.
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CME sells OSTTRA, its joint venture with S&P Global, to KKR in $3.1 billion deal
Mark Weinraub - Crain's Chicago Business
CME Group sold OSTTRA in a deal with private-equity firm KKR, valuing the joint venture with S&P Global at $3.1 billion. The deal for OSTTRA, which provides post-trade services in derivatives and foreign exchange markets, is expected to close in the second half of this year, the exchange operator said in a statement.
/jlne.ws/4lArUkg
Tax Day Arrives With the Implications of a Trump-Era IRS Still Taking Shape
Erik Wasson and Carter Johnson - Bloomberg
The conclusion of the tax filing season Tuesday is about to provide early clues toward resolving a nagging question hanging over the US Treasury: How honest will Americans be about their income when there are suddenly fewer auditors to check them? The answer has ramifications extending from Treasury debt markets already embroiled in tariff-related turmoil to legislative struggles in Washington over the debt ceiling and a proposed new round of tax cuts.
/jlne.ws/4jbXQda
Risky corporate borrowers shut out of bond market since Trump's tariff blitz; Slowdown in high-yield bond market issuance threatens a tentative rebound in dealmaking
Eric Platt and Will Schmitt - Financial Times
America's risky corporate borrowers have been shut out of the bond market since Donald Trump's tariff blitz, in a freeze that is reverberating across Wall Street and which threatens a tentative rebound in dealmaking. Lowly rated companies have failed to sell any debt in the $1.4tn US high-yield bond market since the president unleashed market turmoil and raised fears of a US recession with the wave of tariffs he announced earlier this month.
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America's most valuable company is about to be crippled by Trump; The president's poorly planned, poorly designed, poorly executed policies are hurting US businesses
Matthew Lynn - The Telegraph (UK)
Tariffs were supposed to bring manufacturing back into the American heartlands. They would create hundreds of thousands of skilled, well-paid jobs. And they would bring down the trade deficit at the same time as making the country more secure. It is possible, at least if you think hard enough, to come up with a few rational arguments for Donald Trump's imposition of tariffs on everything imported into the United States. There is, however, a major flaw in the plan. Apple, America's most successful company, can't afford to manufacture in its home country, and neither can many other companies at the top end of the market - and you can't "make America great again" by destroying your most successful businesses.
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| Trade War and Tariffs | | A roundup of today's trade war and tariff news and the global economic ripple effects shaping markets, industries, and investment strategies. | US Will Impose 21% Tariff on Mexican Tomatoes Starting in July
Millie Munshi - Bloomberg
The US will begin imposing tariffs of more than 20% on most imports of tomatoes from Mexico, citing "unfairly priced" shipments from the country. A current trade agreement with Mexico for tomatoes failed to protect US growers, the Department of Commerce said in a statement released Monday. It slapped a 20.91% anti-dumping duty on most shipments of the commodity that will begin on July 14.
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Trump trade war dries up sorghum sales to China but US farmers plan to plant more
Tom Polansek - Reuters
U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war with China comes at a bad time for sorghum growers like Dan Atkisson in Kansas, who is nevertheless preparing to increase plantings by 25% this spring. China accounted for nearly 90% of U.S. sorghum exports last year, ramping up purchases of the crop it uses to feed livestock and make fiery baijiu liquor. Those purchases have largely ground to a halt, as tit-for-tat tariff increases by the U.S. and China cripple trade between the world's two largest economies.
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Japan seeks full removal of US tariffs ahead of trade talks
Leika Kihara and Makiko Yamazaki - Reuters
Japan will seek full removal of additional tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump, its top negotiator Ryosei Akazawa said on Tuesday, ahead of his scheduled three-day visit to Washington. Japan, a long-time U.S. ally, has been hit with 24% levies on its exports to the United States although these tariffs have, like most of Trump's sweeping "reciprocal" tariffs, been paused for 90 days.
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Trump vows tariffs on pharma imports
Chris Price - The Telegraph
Donald Trump has vowed to hit imports of pharmaceuticals with new tariffs in a major setback for one of Britain's largest export industries. Speaking in the Oval Office on Monday night, the US President said he would announce the charges on foreign drugs in the "not too distant future". It would mark a landmark moment for the industry, which has been exempt from tariffs for decades, following a World Trade Organisation agreement to ensure countries can get affordable access to medicines.
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Trump team has not said what it wants in trade talks, says EU; Top negotiators met in Washington on Monday to discuss how to remove so-called reciprocal tariffs
Andy Bounds - Financial Times
The US has not told the EU what it wants to lift trade tariffs, the European Commission said, after a two-hour meeting between the two sides' trade negotiators made little progress. EU trade commissioner MaroÅ¡ Å efÄoviÄ met commerce secretary Howard Lutnick on Monday to discuss how to remove the so-called reciprocal tariffs imposed by the US, along with steel, aluminium and car levies, but the US side failed to set out its demands.
/jlne.ws/3XWwVJJ
Trump Initiates Chips and Drug Probes Ahead of More Tariffs
Madison Muller and Jennifer A Dlouhy - Bloomberg
President Donald Trump's administration pressed forward with plans to impose tariffs on semiconductor and pharmaceutical imports by initiating trade probes led by the Commerce Department. The moves, announced Monday in the Federal Register, are a precursor to imposing tariffs and threaten to broaden the president's sweeping US trade war.
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Diamond industry in crisis as Trump tariffs rock market; Traders warn of 'standstill' as shipments through Antwerp drop 85%
Leslie Hook - Financial Times
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Goldman Sachs chief optimistic Trump will listen to corporate America; David Solomon warns of 'material risks' on US and global economy posed by effects of trade war
Joshua Franklin - Financial Times
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| World Conflicts | | News about various conflicts and their military, economic, political and humanitarian impact. | Ukraine Invasion
Trump blames Zelensky for 'millions' of deaths in Russian invasion
AFP
US President Donald Trump resumed his attempts Monday to blame Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky for Russia's invasion, falsely accusing him of responsibility for "millions" of deaths. Trump -- who had a blazing public row in the Oval Office with Zelensky six weeks ago -- said the Ukranian shared the blame with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who ordered the February 2022 invasion, and then-US president Joe Biden. The Republican told reporters that there were "millions of people dead because of three people."
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US Derails G-7 Condemnation of Russian Missile Strike on Ukraine
Donato Paolo Mancini and Alberto Nardelli - Bloomberg
The US has told Group of Seven allies it won't endorse a statement condemning Russia's deadliest attack on Ukraine this year because it wants to keep negotiations with Moscow on track. Russia fired two short-range ballistic missiles, including one equipped with cluster munitions, at Ukraine's northeastern city of Sumy on Palm Sunday morning as Ukrainians attended church services. At least 35 people were killed and 119 injured in the attack, including children, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.
/jlne.ws/42ihMFi
Kremlin says there is no outline yet for US-Russia deal on Ukraine, but political will is there
Reuters
The Kremlin said on Tuesday that there is not yet a clear outline of a potential U.S.-Russia deal on Ukraine, but that the political will to move in the direction of an agreement is there. In a call with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that contacts with the U.S. had been positive and useful, but that Moscow would not give a possible timeline for a peace settlement.
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Trump blames Zelensky for starting war after massive Russian attack
Yang Tian & Ian Aikman - BBC News
Donald Trump has blamed Volodymyr Zelensky for starting the war with Russia - a day after a massive Russian attack killed 35 people and injured 117 others in Ukraine. The US president said the Ukrainian leader shared the blame with Russian President Vladimir Putin for "millions of people dead" in the Ukraine war. "You don't start a war against someone 20 times your size and then hope that people give you some missiles," he told reporters at the White House, also blaming former US President Joe Biden for the conflict.
/jlne.ws/4lxRVAG
Russia forces aren't as strong as they claim, say captured Chinese fighters
Niamh Robinson - The Telegraph
Two Chinese citizens captured fighting against Ukraine said they were "fed lies" by Russia and that Vladimir Putin's forces were not as strong as they claimed. Wang Guanjung and Zhang Renbo were captured fighting for Russia in eastern Ukraine earlier this month. Handcuffed and wearing military fatigues at a briefing organised by Ukrinform, the Ukrainian national news agency, the pair said: "All Russia fed us are lies. They're fake. Russia isn't as strong as they claim, and Ukraine isn't as backward as they say."
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| Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | Cboe expands options on S&P 500 Equal Weight Index; The new options come amid increased interest in options due to US equity market exposure and volatility; Belvedere Trading will be the lead market maker.
Natasha Cocksedge - The Trade
Cboe Global Markets has expanded its S&P product suite with the launch of trading options for S&P 500 Equal Weight Index (EWI), to provide greater investor choice and diversification opportunities. The derivatives and securities exchange network has said that the launch will complement Cboe's S&P 500 Index (SPX) options. The expansion comes following increasing conversations around equity index exposure in recent years, as well as growing interest in options to manage US equity market exposure and volatility.
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Cboe Begins Trading in S&P 500 Equal Weight Index Options on April 14, 2025
Cboe
Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (Cboe: CBOE), the world's leading derivatives and securities exchange network, today announced it has launched for trading S&P 500 Equal Weight Index (EWI) options. The new options are the latest addition to Cboe's S&P 500 toolkit and provide investors additional choice and diversification opportunity through broad-based U.S. equity market exposure. The S&P 500 EWI (Bloomberg index ticker: SPW) is the equal-weight version of the S&P 500 Index, with each constituent of the S&P 500 EWI allocated a fixed weight of 0.2% of the index total at each quarterly rebalance. While including the same constituents, the S&P 500 EWI and the capitalization-weighted S&P 500 Index often differ in sector and factor exposures including smaller-cap vs. mega-cap stocks, momentum bias, and realized volatility.
/jlne.ws/3GkvcYu
LME approves first warehouse facilities in Hong Kong
The London Metal Exchange
The London Metal Exchange (LME) is pleased to announce its approval of the first four LME-licensed warehouse facilities in Hong Kong. This follows the LME's approval of Hong Kong as an LME warehouse location on 20 January 2025. Matthew Chamberlain, LME CEO, said: "Being able to confirm the listing of our first warehouse facilities so swiftly after announcing Hong Kong as an LME delivery point is an exciting development for the LME. We are grateful for the strong level of interest from warehouse companies and service providers, as well as from metal owners looking to access Hong Kong storage and logistics.
/jlne.ws/3G6arzK
Forfeiture of Unclaimed Second Interim Dividend for 2018
HKEX
On 28 February 2025, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited ("HKEX") announced that, pursuant to HKEX's Articles of Association, the second interim dividend for 2018 of HK$3.07 per share, payable on 15 April 2019 and remaining unclaimed on 15 April 2025, would be forfeited and would revert to HKEX. Accordingly, the unclaimed second interim dividend for 2018 amounting to HK$15,493,077.70 is forfeited and reverts to HKEX today.
/jlne.ws/4ij0QTA
HKEX and SFC Co-Host Inaugural International Carbon Markets Summit
HKEX
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) and the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) co-hosted today (Tuesday) the first-ever International Carbon Markets Summit, reflecting the collaborative effort to build trusted and effective carbon market ecosystems in Hong Kong and beyond. The Summit welcomed over 200 distinguished guests from around the world, with representatives from local and overseas regulators, carbon trading platforms, corporates and the investment community, where they discussed the opportunities and challenges in developing global voluntary carbon markets, as well as ways to promote market connectivity and collaboration for cross-border carbon asset trading.
/jlne.ws/3G4GHmP
Notice Regarding Potential Leak of Email Information
JPX
It has come to our attention that the "IIJ Secure MX Service" provided by Internet Initiative Japan Inc. (hereinafter referred to as "IIJ"), which is the email security service used by our group (Japan Exchange Group, Inc. and its subsidiaries), was subject to a cyberattack by a third party,* and some of our email information may have been leaked. We are currently working in cooperation with IIJ to investigate the facts surrounding this incident. We have been informed by IIJ that their countermeasures have been completed and that there will be no further information leaks in the future. We will promptly make another announcement if any new facts that need to be communicated come to light.
/jlne.ws/3XZbMhY
LSEG Announces Co-Heads of Global Data & Analytics Division
LSEG
LSEG today announces the appointments of Gianluca Biagini and Ron Lefferts as Co-Heads of its Data & Analytics division. Ron joined LSEG in 2021 and has been a member of the Executive Committee since 2023. Gianluca joins from S&P Global on 18 August 2025 and will also be a member of LSEG's Executive Committee. Reporting to David Schwimmer, Gianluca and Ron will jointly lead LSEG's global data & analytics businesses which serve more than 44,000 customers in over 170 countries. They will also spearhead the continued growth of LSEG's flagship Workspace product.
/jlne.ws/3Y1FnaC
SGX Securities welcomes Vin's Holdings Ltd to Catalist
SGX
SGX Securities is pleased to welcome Vin's Holdings Ltd to Catalist under the stock code "VIN". Established since 1987, Vin's Holdings is an integrated automotive solutions provider in Singapore that offers automobile sales and related services, after-sales services, financing and related services, as well as rental and leasing services. Vin's Holdings has embarked on significant IT investments and digital transformation initiatives that have substantially enhanced its operational efficiency and customer service capabilities. With digital transformation at the core of its growth strategy, Vin's Holdings is well placed to increase its market presence and seek new expansion opportunities.
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| Fintech | | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | Case Study: How the Bermuda Stock Exchange Unlocked a Future-Proof Depository System in Record-Time
Vermiculus
The Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSX) needed to replace its legacy CSD system with a modern, feature-rich solution that could seamlessly integrate with existing systems. In this case study, learn how Vermiculus delivered in less than a year a scalable, adaptable platform with intuitive user interfaces — ready to support BSX’s business ventures and expansion.
/jlne.ws/4jwhboZ
Japan Orders Google to Stop Forcing Phone Makers to Use Apps
Takashi Mochizuki - Bloomberg
Japan's Fair Trade Commission ordered Alphabet Inc.'s Google to stop alleged abuse of its market power over local smartphone manufacturers, just ahead of high-stakes trade negotiations with the US this week. The Tuesday order reiterates the FTC's earlier finding that the US tech giant took advantage of its position as the provider of the Google Play app ecosystem - the only viable alternative to the iPhone's App store. Google is improperly forcing phone makers to prioritize its apps and services on their devices in exchange for allowing them to put the app store on phones sold in Japan, the regulator said. The US company said in a statement it was disappointed with the findings and will review the order before deciding next steps.
/jlne.ws/3EmgBLH
Microsoft's Data Center Pause Caught Ohio Officials by Surprise
Brody Ford - Bloomberg
Microsoft Corp.'s decision to pause work on data centers in Ohio surprised local officials because the company had agreed to develop the sites as recently as two months before - suggesting a sudden pivot. In January, the city of Heath, Ohio, inked agreements to improve infrastructure such as roads and water lines for Microsoft's planned data center in the city, according to documents seen by Bloomberg. Late last month, the software company informed officials it would be halting the projects in Heath and two nearby cities, according to people familiar with the situation.
/jlne.ws/4cyfu89
Nvidia commits $500 billion to AI infrastructure buildout in US, will bring supercomputer production to Texas
Laura Bratton - Yahoo Finance
Nvidia (NVDA) on Monday said it will produce up to $500 billion of AI infrastructure in the US within the next four years as the tech industry looks to bolster its domestic manufacturing footprint in the face of Trump's approach to trade policy and desire to onshore more US heavy industry. As part of this $500 billion commitment to the AI supply chain, Nvidia said it is building two new supercomputer manufacturing plants in Texas in partnership with contract manufacturers Foxconn (2354.TW) and Wistron (3231.TW).
/jlne.ws/4cukBq0
****Here is the story from The Washington Post.
Coinbase's Lucas Matheson on Why Canada Needs a Blockchain Strategy
Afra Wang - CoinDesk
As Canada approaches a pivotal election on April 28, 2025, Lucas Matheson, CEO of Coinbase Canada, is positioning the cryptocurrency giant for influence in a market he believes is primed for blockchain innovation. I spoke with him about the cryptocurrency exchange's expanding presence in Canada, the unique characteristics of the Canadian market, and his vision for the country's crypto future. Our conversation revealed not only Coinbase's strategic ambitions but also Matheson's personal passion for advancing blockchain adoption in his home country.
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JPMorgan Adds GBP Support to Its Blockchain Payments Service Kinexys
Francisco Rodrigues - CoinDesk
JPMorgan (JPM) has added support for British pound-denominated accounts to its blockchain-based payments network Kinexys, as the bank targets a gap left by the stablecoin market's overwhelming focus on the U.S. dollar. Launched in 2019 under the name JPM Coin, Kinexys allows corporate clients to move funds between JPMorgan accounts and settle foreign exchange trades at any hour.
/jlne.ws/3RfI44F
Millions have been left behind by the payday loans crackdown; Evlo is relaunching but many subprime lenders have closed after a wave of compensation claims
John Gapper - Financial Times
Everyday Loans is getting a facelift. The subprime personal lending company that typically offers £3,000 loans last month rebranded as Evlo and the signs on its branches are being replaced. "This is a good business that has had some bumps and scrapes," insists Jono Gillespie, chief executive. While Evlo has been repaired, much of the UK high-cost credit sector was written off in a regulatory and reputational crash. What was a thriving, if little respected, industry is far smaller than before the downfall of commercial lenders such as Wonga, Amigo Loans and Provident Financial. Price caps, compensation claims and a torrent of bad publicity have diminished it.
/jlne.ws/3Ept5lN
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| Cybersecurity | | Top stories for cybersecurity | China accuses US of launching 'advanced' cyberattacks, names alleged NSA agents
Laurie Chen, Farah Master and Liz Lee - Reuters
China accused the United States National Security Agency (NSA) on Tuesday of launching "advanced" cyberattacks during the Asian Winter Games in February, targeting essential industries. Police in the northeastern city of Harbin said three alleged NSA agents to a wanted list and also accused the University of California and Virginia Tech of being involved in the attacks after carrying out investigations, according to a report by state news agency Xinhua on Tuesday.
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Minister's X account hacked to promote crypto scam
Becky Morton - BBC
Government minister Lucy Powell's X account has been hacked to promote a scam "House of Commons" cryptocurrency. A string of now deleted posts on the House of Commons leader's account described the "$HCC" coin as "a community-driven digital currency bringing people's power to the blockchain". The MP's office confirmed her account was hacked on Tuesday morning and said "steps were taken quickly to secure the account and remove misleading posts". Other public figures with a large number of followers who have been targeted in a similar way by online hackers recently include BBC journalist Nick Robinson.
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Social Security Administration Implements New Anti-Fraud Measures to Enhance Telephone Claim Processing
Social Security
Social Security Administration LogoThe Social Security Administration (SSA) recently announced the implementation of enhanced fraud prevention tools for claims filed over the telephone, further modernizing the agency's services and strengthening program integrity. Beginning April 14, 2025, SSA will allow individuals to complete all claim types via telephone, supported by new anti-fraud capabilities designed to protect beneficiaries and streamline the customer experience.
/jlne.ws/3GazB0k
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| Cryptocurrencies | | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | Crypto Exchange Kraken Now Offers Stock and ETF Trading
DJ Shaw - etf.com
Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has expanded beyond digital assets to offer U.S. stock and ETF trading, as the company seeks to venture outside of crypto markets. According to the company's Monday announcement, Kraken has begun rolling out commission-free trading for more than 11,000 listed stocks and ETFs to clients in select states, including New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island and seven others. The company plans to eventually make the offering available to all eligible U.S. clients before expanding to Europe and Australia.
/jlne.ws/4jxYP7a
Bitdeer Prioritizes Mining to Weather Tariff Turmoil
Sidhartha Shukla - Bloomberg
Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin mining firm Bitdeer Technologies Group is doubling down on its self-mining operations while pushing ahead with plans to make machines in the US, as it confronts a cooling crypto market and mounting uncertainty over US trade policy. With demand for Bitcoin mining rigs faltering, Singapore-headquartered based Bitdeer will focus on using its rigs to mine Bitcoin for itself - rather than selling them to other miners, according to Jeff LaBerge, head of capital markets and strategic initiatives at the company.
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Binance among crypto exchanges hit by Amazon Web Services outage
Reuters
Crypto exchange Binance said it briefly stopped allowing users to withdraw from the platform on Tuesday, due to an issue involving an Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centre, while other crypto exchanges also reported problems. Binance posted on X that withdrawals were suspended "to keep safe", before posting around ten minutes later that withdrawals had resumed. A spokesperson for Binance said withdrawals were suspended for around 23 minutes. AWS's service dashboard showed a "connectivity issue" affected its Tokyo cloud region at 1.15 a.m. PDT (0815 GMT). The issue was resolved by 1.51 a.m. PDT (0851 GMT). "The issue has been resolved and the service is operating normally," an AWS spokesperson said. Another crypto exchange, KuCoin, also said it was experiencing "temporary disruptions".
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SEC Delays Decisions on In-Kind Redemptions, Ether ETF Staking
Helene Braun - CoinDesk
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is not yet ready to make a decision on two critical features that issuers of the spot crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are hoping to add to their products. The regulator delayed a decision on whether it will allow in-kind redemptions for WisdomTree's Bitcoin Fund (BTCW) and VanEck's Bitcoin Fund (BITB) and Ethereum Fund (ETHW) on Monday. It also moved its deadline for a decision in regards to a proposal by Grayscale to allow staking its Ethereum Trust (ETHE) and Mini Ethereum Trust (ETH), which the asset manager's exchange, NYSE Arca had requested in February.
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Bitcoin Mining Profitability Down 7.4% in March as Prices, Transaction Fees Fell: Jefferies
Will Canny - CoinDesk
Bitcoin (BTC) mining profitability fell 7.4% in March, investment bank Jefferies said in a research report Friday. The drop was due to a 11.2% decline in the average bitcoin price and a 9.1% drop in transaction fees, the report said. U.S.-listed miners mined 3,534 bitcoin in March versus 3,002 in February, Jefferies said, and these companies accounted for 24.8% of the total network last month, compared to 23.6% the month previous.
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Inside 'An Ethereum Story': Filming Vitalik Buterin, Crypto's Most Reluctant Star
Margaux Nijkerk - CoinDesk
Vitalik Buterin, the original creator of the Ethereum blockchain, is one of the most recognizable figures of the cryptocurrency industry. He's often admired in the ecosystem for being highly technical while also deeply philosophical about technology's role in society. For those that do not follow crypto closely, Buterin starkly contrasts the stereotypical image of a flashy cryptocurrency billionaire with his minimalism in his personal style as well as his geeky and awkward mannerisms.
/jlne.ws/3GcHeDp
Visa Is Joining the Paxos, Robinhood Stablecoin Consortium: Sources
Ian Allison - CoinDesk
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| Politics | | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | Opinion: America is dangerously close to being run by a king who answers to no one
Rex Huppke - USA TODAY
President Donald Trump and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele sat in the Oval Office like a pair of smarmy abusers and openly mocked U.S. courts that have ordered the return of a wrongfully deported Maryland man. Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a father and sheet metal worker, was deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador due to what the Trump administration admitted in court was an "administrative error." You don't have to care about him or his family - though anyone with a hint of morality would - but you darn well better care about a U.S. president openly defying a U.S. Supreme Court order while yukking it up in the White House with a South American leader who dubbed himself "world's coolest dictator."
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Trump is halfway to making America a police state; The president's refusal to accept a Supreme Court ruling on illegal deportation is a turning point
Edward Luce - Financial Times
At around noon on April 14 2025, America ceased to have a law-abiding government. Some would argue that had already happened on January 20, when Donald Trump was inaugurated. On Monday, however, Trump chose to ignore a 9-0 Supreme Court ruling to repatriate an illegally deported man. He even claimed the judges ruled in his favour. The US president's middle finger to the court was echoed by his attorney-general, secretary of state, vice-president and El Salvador's vigilante president Nayib Bukele. The latter is playing host to what resembles an embryonic US gulag.
/jlne.ws/42IWd0y
Trump Is Ramping Up His War With The Press As He Demands Media Praise
Lydia O'Connor - HuffPost
Another Trump Major Whiplash & WalkbackScroll back up to restore default view.
President Donald Trump has been escalating his war with the media, allowing members of his administration to take turns bashing a reporter, denying journalists access to the Oval Office and calling for networks to be punished. In his latest installment, Trump lashed out at CNN White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins before she could even finish asking him a question on Monday.
/jlne.ws/4cxhxcN
Wall Street Just Learned How to Influence Trump
Bloomberg Opinion (podcast)
Wall Street CEOs like Jamie Dimon, Ken Griffin and Bill Ackman convinced the White House to pause higher tariffs on dozens of countries. Flattery gets the job done with President Trump, explains Bloomberg Opinion columnist Beth Kowitt.
/jlne.ws/3RVZH9H
Harvard's Vow to Resist Trump Sets Up $9 Billion Funding Fight
Janet Lorin and Brooke Sutherland
After weeks of saying he's willing to work with the Trump administration to combat antisemitism, Harvard University President Alan Garber emerged Monday as the highest-profile challenger to the government's effort to force change at elite US colleges. The retribution was swift.
/jlne.ws/4jxQ2lE
Trump calls for deporting some citizens to El Salvador, testing US law
Gram Slattery and Sarah Morland - Reuters
President Donald Trump said on Monday he wants to deport some violent criminals who are U.S. citizens to Salvadoran prisons, a move that experts said would violate U.S. law. Trump's comments marked the clearest signal yet that the U.S. president is serious about deporting naturalized and U.S.-born citizens, a proposal that has alarmed civil rights advocates and is viewed by many legal scholars as unconstitutional.
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What Trump really wants from Canada
Anthony Zurcher - BBC
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Carney Rides Anti-Trump Sentiment on Campaign Trail, and Voters Like It
Brian Platt - Bloomberg
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India develops 'Star Wars' laser gun to shoot down drones
Samaan Lateef - The Telegraph
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| Regulation & Enforcement | | Stories about regulation and the law. | Judge orders Bank of America to pay $540 million in FDIC lawsuit
Jonathan Stempel - Reuters
A federal judge ordered Bank of America to pay $540.3 million in a long-running Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation lawsuit accusing the second-largest U.S. bank of underpaying what it owed for deposit insurance. In a decision made public on Monday, U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan in Washington, D.C., said the payment covers assessments from the second quarter of 2013 through the end of 2014, plus interest.
/jlne.ws/3YrT3M3
CFTC Staff Issues Interpretation Regarding U.S. Treasury Exchange-Traded Funds as Eligible Margin Collateral for Uncleared Swaps
CFTC
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's Market Participants Division today issued an interpretation to clarify the types of assets that qualify as eligible margin collateral for certain uncleared swap transactions under CFTC regulations. CFTC Regulation 23.156 lists the types of collateral that covered swaps entities can post or collect as initial margin (IM) and variation margin (VM) for uncleared swap transactions. The regulation, which includes "redeemable securities in a pooled investment fund" as eligible IM collateral, aims to identify assets that are liquid and will hold their value in times of financial stress.
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SEC Publishes New Data and Analysis About Registered Investment Companies and Money Market Funds
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today published new data and analysis in a pair of reports that provide the investing public with updated key information about registered investment companies and money market funds. "It is important that the Commission publicly shares the information it collects in a clear and transparent way," said Acting Chairman Mark Uyeda. "These two reports will provide the public with key information about the approximately $41.5 trillion investors trust to funds and the approximately $7.39 trillion invested in money market funds."
/jlne.ws/44pLk4X
The Mother: Opening Remarks for Trading Roundtable
Commissioner Hester M. Peirce - SEC
Welcome to everyone watching in person or online to the second in a series of roundtables dedicated to discussing regulatory challenges and opportunities in the crypto asset market. I would like to thank all the staff who are making these roundtables possible. Thanks also to the folks who have submitted responses to our requests for information and to the folks who have come in to meet with the Crypto Task Force. These materials and discussions have been informative, and I hope you all will continue to engage with us. I found the first roundtable useful in shaping my thoughts on when crypto assets implicate the securities laws. Given the expert panelists who have graciously agreed to participate today, I am confident that this discussion will be just as informative and engaging as the first.
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SEC Obtains Final Judgments Against Two Former Hemp Company Executives for Fraudulent Offerings
SEC
On April 10, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York entered final judgments against Frank Barone and Kirill Chumenko, both former Senior Vice Presidents of Sales & Marketing at CanaFarma Hemp Products Corp., enjoining them from violating certain provisions of the federal securities laws and imposing five-year officer-and-director and penny stock bars.
/jlne.ws/4cAXz0H
Blackthorn Finance Ltd enters special administration
FCA
On 14 April 2025, Blackthorn Finance Ltd entered special administration. Adam Stephens, Philip Hemming and Kevin Ley of S&W Partners LLP were appointed joint special administrators. Blackthorn Finance Limited (Blackthorn) is authorised by the FCA to provide payment services to a range of corporate and individual customers. On 17 November 2023, the FCA imposed restrictions on Blackthorn's activities and an asset requirement. On 29 August 2024, Blackthorn entered Members Voluntary Liquidation, a solvent form of winding up.
/jlne.ws/4is1Hle
Operational resilience: beyond regulatory raincoats
Suman Ziaullah - FCA
When was the last time you got caught in the rain? It happens to me from time to time. I've forgotten my umbrella or dashed out without my coat, only to be greeted by an unexpected downpour. I should have anticipated it - checked my weather app, packed an umbrella, noted the foreboding grey clouds - but sometimes even the prepared get caught out. My personal experience captures the essence of what I've been thinking since our operational resilience policy deadline passed on 31 March 2025. Firms need to expect the unexpected and be prepared to maintain their services in all severe but plausible scenarios to prevent intolerable harm - in my case, merely drenched clothes, but for firms, potentially significant market disruption and customers left high and dry.
/jlne.ws/3Gb2md9
Individual charged with carrying on an unauthorised business and misleading investors
FCA
The FCA has charged John Burford for carrying on an unauthorised business and dishonestly misleading investors. He is suspected of generating over £1m. Between 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2023, Mr Burford is alleged to have accepted money from more than 100 investors, and advised and managed investments on their behalf without authorisation. Mr Burford was the sole director of Financial Trading Strategies Limited (FTS). Through its website, he promoted paid subscription services involving the provision of daily trade alerts which gave advice on trading opportunities as well as investments in 3 'Tramline' funds.
/jlne.ws/3RPcgDP
FCA establishes presence in the United States and Asia-Pacific
FCA
Under its new strategy, the FCA is establishing a presence in the United States (US) and Asia-Pacific (APAC) for the first time. In the US, Tash Miah started in April at the British Embassy in Washington, DC. Tash will work closely with the Department for Business and Trade to advance UK-US financial services policy and regulatory cooperation, and support financial firms in the US to navigate UK regulation. Based in Australia, Camille Blackburn will establish a regional office from July 2025 as the FCA's director - Asia-Pacific. The role will focus on supporting financial services firms to navigate regulation to enter the UK market or raise capital and provide UK firms with support expanding into the APAC region.
/jlne.ws/3Rj41zK
FCA probes banks on bereavement and power of attorney policies
Momodou Musa Touray - Money Marketing UK
The Financial Conduct Authority is probing banks on their bereavement and power of attorney policies and its impact on customers. The regulator's consumer charter the Consumer Duty, which came into force in 2023, has increased scrutiny for financial services firms including banks. The FCA said it wants to see banks and building societies improve their processes in the way they deal with customers affected by bereavement or registering a power of attorney.
/jlne.ws/42oOMf7
FSA Weekly Review No.633
FSA
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SFC and HKEX co-organise inaugural International Carbon Markets Summit
SFC
The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) and the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) co-organised the International Carbon Markets Summit today, the first of its kind in Hong Kong. More than 200 participants from local and overseas regulators, carbon trading venues, corporates and investors gathered at the summit to discuss the challenges in scaling of global voluntary carbon markets, the expansion of cross-border transactions and the role of technology in facilitating linkages.
/jlne.ws/4ikwobT
District Court set trial date for sophisticated ramp-and-dump syndicate
SFC
The District Court trial of Mr Stevens Yip Chi Fai, Ms So Lung Ying, Mr Lau Ka Wing and Ms Chan Sin Ying, key members of an alleged sophisticated ramp-and-dump syndicate will begin on 14 September 2026. The criminal proceedings arose from an investigation by the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC).
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| Investing & Trading | | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | Investors Haven't Been This Bearish in 30 Years, BofA Poll Shows
Michael Msika - Bloomberg
Investor sentiment regarding economic prospects is the most negative in three decades, yet fund managers' pessimism isn't fully reflected in their asset allocation which could mean more losses for US stocks, a Bank of America Corp. survey shows. Fund managers are extremely gloomy, with 82% of respondents to BofA's monthly survey expecting the global economy to weaken. Consequently, a record number intend to reduce exposure to US equities, according to the poll.
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Jamie Dimon sells about $31.5 million worth of JPMorgan shares
Reuters
JPMorgan Chase & Co CEO Jamie Dimon has sold about $31.5 million worth of the bank's shares, according to a regulatory filing. Dimon had also offloaded some shares last year in his first such sale since taking over the top role in 2005. JPMorgan, the largest U.S. lender, last week surpassed its first-quarter profit estimates on record equities trading and higher fees from debt underwriting and advising on mergers.
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| Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance | | Stories about environmental, social and governance investing | GIX trading platform becomes first green securities exchange to gain SEC approval; Sustainability-focused exchange expects to begin trading in early 2026.
Claudia Preece - The Trade
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved the Green Impact Exchange's (GIX) Form 1 application, with the platform gearing up to begin trading early next year. Through becoming a registered securities exchange, GIX will become the firm stock market in the US focused on the $35 trillion sustainability economy. Speaking to interest in the sustainability-focused exchange, Charles Dolan, co-founder and president, previously told The TRADE that important conversations were underway with key buy-side players, explaining: "Our discussions with major buy-side firms have revealed a high level of interest in our initiative. They believe our direction will significantly influence asset allocation decisions and other industry practices, making it a game-changer for the entire sector." The GIX trading platform is set to be powered by MEMX technology and offer non-tiered, competitive liquidity and quoting programs.
/jlne.ws/3GlGkEu
SEC Gives Nod for First Green Stock Exchange to Begin Trading Next Year
Olivia Raimonde - Bloomberg
A new stock exchange dedicated to sustainable investing moved a step closer to opening after receiving backing from the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The Green Impact Exchange (GIX) said in a statement on Monday that the SEC approved an amended application to register as a national securities exchange. An SEC spokesperson confirmed the the application approval. The exchange expects to begin trading early next year.
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Inside Trump's Plan to Halt Hundreds of Regulations; The White House will soon move to rapidly repeal or freeze rules that affect health, food, workplace safety, transportation and more.
Coral Davenport - The New York Times
At the Department of Health and Human Services, Trump administration officials want to reverse a regulation that has required nursing homes to have more medical staff on duty. At the Mine Safety and Health Administration, powerful lobbying groups have asked the administration to eliminate a rule to protect miners from inhaling the dust of crystalline silica, a mineral that is used in concrete, smartphones and cat litter but that can be lethal in the lungs.
/jlne.ws/3G4JWL1
AI to Prop Up Fossil Fuels and Slow Emissions Decline, BNEF Says; The world's efforts to cut emissions over the next decade will be slowed by the rise of AI.
Shoko Oda, Mark Chediak, and Josh Saul - Bloomberg
The world likely hit peak energy-related emissions in 2024. But the decline in the coming decade will be slowed due in large part to data center expansion powered by fossil fuels, according to the latest New Energy Outlook report from BloombergNEF.
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Bank Climate Group Says Strategy Pivot Wins `Overwhelming Support'; NZBA signatories will be held to less stringent standard for reducing the emissions enabled by their lending.
Alastair Marsh - Bloomberg
Most banks in the industry's biggest climate alliance endorsed a proposal that will refocus the group on providing financial support for the energy transition and also hold signatories to a less stringent standard for reducing the emissions enabled by their lending. Shargiil Bashir, chair of the steering group for the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, said in an interview that "well above" two-thirds of members voted on implementing a new strategy, and of those, more than 90% support the new direction. While he declined to provide a breakdown by region or disclose how specific banks voted, Bashir said the plan had "overwhelming support" from the group's approximately 130 members.
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Environmental Groups Sue Trump Administration Over Removing Climate Websites; The groups are accusing several federal agencies of wiping out online tools used to map environmental threats facing disadvantaged communities.
Zahra Hirji - Bloomberg
The Trump administration is facing a legal challenge over removing multiple tools for mapping climate, pollution and other overlapping risks facing the American public, particularly disadvantaged communities, from federal websites. In a suit filed Monday in Washington, DC federal court, the Sierra Club and three other environmental groups accused the Trump administration of removing these climate and environmental justice web resources used by the public, academia, green groups and government officials to guide policy making and community planning, among other tasks. The removal of these tools violated the Paperwork Reduction Act and the Administrative Procedure Act, the suit alleges.
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UK Approves Grid-Queue Overhaul in Race to Clean Up Power System
Will Mathis and Eamon Farhat - Bloomberg
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EU explores legal options for ending Russian gas deals; Brussels says invoking 'force majeure' clause would allow contract termination without penalties
Alice Hancock and Andy Bounds - Financial Times
/jlne.ws/4ij7XeK
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| Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | Nomura Is Said to Sell Tokyo Building to Real Estate Affiliate
Ryo Horiuchi and Taro Fuse - Bloomberg
Nomura Holdings Inc. sold a training center in central Tokyo to its real estate affiliate, people with knowledge of the matter said. The buyer, Nomura Real Estate Holdings Inc., plans to demolish the building and develop luxury condominiums on the site, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is confidential. Representatives for the two companies declined to comment.
/jlne.ws/3G6dxUo
BofA Stock Traders Notch Record Quarter, Loan Revenue Rises
Katherine Doherty - Bloomberg
Bank of America Corp.'s stock traders posted a record quarter as the company reaped the benefits of volatile markets and net interest income topped analysts' estimates. Revenue from equity trading rose 17% to $2.18 billion in the first three months of the year, the company said in a statement Tuesday. That helped Bank of America beat analysts' estimates for per-share earnings. Trading of fixed income, currencies and commodities came in close to expectations, bringing in $3.46 billion.
/jlne.ws/4j9WFL4
BNP Paribas explores GenAI for securities services business; The bank recently released a new web app for its client portal to modernize its tech stack.
Emma Hilary Gould - Waters Technology
BNP Paribas is exploring whether it could use generative AI to automatically create client reports on NeoLink, the French bank's securities services client portal launched in 2008. In March, BNPP released My Reporting, a new web app to improve client reporting in NeoLink, introducing a single dashboard, an improved user interface, and a structured library of documents and templates. "This could be one of the next steps," Jean-Marc Freiss, chief digital services offer for BNPP's securities services
/jlne.ws/3XWi6a8
Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo Join Wall Street Borrowing Blitz
Caleb Mutua - Bloomberg
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co. are borrowing from the US investment-grade market Tuesday, joining rivals Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase & Co. in selling bonds after reporting first-quarter earnings. Wells Fargo is selling bonds in as many as four parts, while Goldman is marketing a three-part offering, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The longest portion of Wells Fargo's offering, an 11-year security, may yield as much as 1.5 percentage points above Treasuries, said a person, who asked not to be identified as the details are private.
/jlne.ws/4jxQUGQ
Citi's Traders Nudge Fraser Closer to Profitability Target
Todd Gillespie - Bloomberg
Citigroup Inc. inched closer to a key profitability target in the first quarter as the firm's traders surpassed expectations and the bank drew a record haul from its wealth and retail businesses. The trading division rode a wave of volatility in global markets to notch $6 billion in revenue for the period, helped by an 8% jump in fixed income and a 23% gain in equities trading. That topped the $5.74 billion average of analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
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'Buy Canada' Extends to Equity ETFs With Biggest Flow Since 2021
Curtis Heinzl - Bloomberg
Investors poured money into exchange-traded funds focused on Canadian equities last week at a rate not seen in four years. ETFs holding primarily Canadian stocks saw net inflows of C$2.5 billion ($1.8 billion) between April 7 and 11, the most since May 2021, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The surge comes after US President Donald Trump's April 2 announcement of so-called reciprocal tariffs on 185 countries and territories.
/jlne.ws/4lx7HM0
JPMorgan's Cash-Hoarding Man Makes Move Amid Bond-Market Mayhem
Ye Xie - Bloomberg
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| Work & Management | | Stories impacting work and more about management ideas, practices and trends. | DOGE is collecting federal data to remove immigrants from housing, jobs; Officials working with the U.S. DOGE Service are pushing agencies to turn over information on where people work, study and live.
Rachel Siegel, Hannah Natanson and Laura Meckler - The Washington Post
The Trump administration is using personal data normally protected from dissemination to find undocumented immigrants where they work, study and live, often with the goal of removing them from their housing and the workforce. At the Department of Housing and Urban Development, for example, officials are working on a rule that would ban mixed-status households - in which some family members have legal status and others don't - from public housing, according to multiple staffers who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution.
/jlne.ws/4jDZDHP
7 reasons why email remains the top-performing channel for internal communications
Michael DesRochers - Ragan
According to data from more than 200 interviews with internal communicators, the top three most effective internal communication channels are internal email (72%), company and team meetings (49%), and meetings with direct managers (48%). While some people may be surprised that email and meetings outperform intranets and apps, here's what the research shows.
/jlne.ws/3YvPPqY
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| Wellness Exchange | | An Exchange of Health and Wellness Information | Is Covid Rewriting the Rules of Aging? Brain Decline Alarms Doctors; Millions of long-Covid patients continue to struggle with cognitive difficulties
Sumathi Reddy - The Wall Street Journal
Five years after the pandemic's start, millions of Americans are still struggling with long-lasting symptoms of Covid-19. Cognitive difficulties are among the most troubling and common symptoms in people both old and young. These ailments can be severe enough to leave former professionals like Ken Todd unable to work and even diagnosed with a form of mild cognitive impairment. I first spoke with Todd, a 56-year-old former Showtime executive in New York City, in 2022 for a column on long-Covid patients grappling with crippling fatigue.
/jlne.ws/42JFtpU
Climate change is supercharging pollen and making allergies worse
Amanda Ruggeri - BBC
Seasonal allergy sufferers are being hit with more pollen over a longer season due to rising temperatures, but global warming is also triggering alarming extreme allergy events, say experts. People could see the thunderstorm, but they couldn't see what was going on inside it. Trillions of pollen particles, sucked up into the clouds as the storm formed, were now being splintered by rain, lightning and humidity into ever-smaller fragments - then cast back down to Earth for people to breathe them in.
/jlne.ws/4ja5411
How healthy are you compared to others your age?; Calculate how well you're doing compared to your peers
Meike Eijsberg, Data journalist; Mariana Hallal, Visual Journalist; Rachel Matthews - The Telegraph (UK)
Britain's health is showing signs of strain. Obesity rates are increasing, deaths from alcohol are at a record high, and mental health services are under severe pressure. Yet, according to the latest census data up until the age of 29, more than 90pc of men and women would describe themselves as being in "Good" or "Very good" health. However, around the pension age, that figure declines to below 70. But this census data is based on self-assessment. So how healthy are you really? And how do you compare to your peers?
/jlne.ws/4jE0Wqd
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| Regions | | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | Trump's Trade War With China Could Be Good for India. But Is It Ready?; While India dreams of becoming a new factory to the world, its manufacturers are struggling to find skilled workers, secure components and overcome red tape.
Alex Travelli and Hari Kumar - The New York Times
Even when India was staring down the barrel of a 27 percent tariff on most of its exports to the United States, business executives and government officials saw an upside. India's biggest economic rival, China, and its smaller competitors like Vietnam were facing even worse. India has been pushing hard in recent years to become a manufacturing alternative to China, and it looked as if it had suddenly gained an advantage.
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India Is First Major Market to Erase Losses From April 2 Tariffs
Abhishek Vishnoi - Bloomberg
Indian stocks rallied as trading resumed after a long weekend, with the benchmark equity index erasing all the losses triggered by US President Donald Trump's reciprocal tariffs earlier this month.
/jlne.ws/44ul2P9
China's murky bankruptcies expose hazards for foreign investors
Engen Tham - Reuters
When a Chinese pork producer filed for bankruptcy in 2019, the news came as a jolt to Alan Hill. The retired Apple executive from Albuquerque had invested about $100,000 last decade in Dalian Chuming Meat Processing through a U.S.-listed holding company, Energroup Holdings. Chuming had not paid dividends for many years, but it supplied pork to Walmart and had been profitable at least as recently as 2016.
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China Shadow Bank That Oversaw $108 Billion Faces Liquidation
Bloomberg News
Zhongrong International Trust Co., one of China's largest shadow banks before it defaulted on billions of dollars of wealth products, is facing liquidation after its two state-appointed custodians concluded the firm is insolvent, according to people familiar with the matter. A winding-up proposal for Zhongrong, which had 786 billion yuan ($108 billion) of assets under management as of 2022, was recently submitted to regulators by Citic Trust Co. and CCB Trust Co., said the people, asking not to be identified as the matter is private. No final decision has been made by the authorities, the people said.
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At China's largest trade fair, exporters say US markets are 'frozen'
Ellen Zhang and Kevin Krolicki - Reuters
Candice Li says that after Washington raised tariffs on Chinese goods by 145%, U.S. orders for the medical devices her firm is making have vanished. "It's a matter of life and death because 60-70% of our business is with American clients," said Li, marketing manager of Conmo Electronic Co. "Goods cannot be exported and money cannot be collected. This is very severe." Li was at her firm's booth at the Canton Fair, China's biggest trade expo held twice-a-year in the southern city of Guangzhou, where more than 30,000 exhibitors showcase their products over an area larger than 200 football fields.
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CEO Explains How He Faked Results in $300 Million Meltdown; Agritech venture eFishery was one of Asia's brightest startups with money from the likes of SoftBank and Temasek. Then it all came crashing down.
David Ramli, Olivia Poh, and Faris Mokhtar - Bloomberg
As Gibran Huzaifah stared at the Excel spreadsheet on his laptop, he was looking into the void. eFishery, the Indonesian startup he'd built from a fish-feeding prototype to a 100-employee extension of himself, was just three months away from running out of cash. Slowly, he started plugging fake numbers into the financial report. Within an hour, he had done what five years of hard work couldn't - turn his business into a winner, at least on paper. He hit the send button to show his investors, certain he'd get caught.
/jlne.ws/42AySNn
High UK visa costs deter international scientists and engineers
Sachin Ravikumar - Reuters
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| Miscellaneous | | Stories that don't quite fit under the other sections | Chicago Booth renaming executive MBA program after alum donates $100M
Robert Channick - Chicago Tribune
A Russian-born entrepreneur and private equity investor whose career was launched at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business is paying it forward with a $100 million donation to the executive MBA program that made it possible. Konstantin Sokolov, 49, who is celebrating the 20th anniversary of his graduation this month, is hoping the gift will open doors and change lives for the next generation of business leaders, as it did for him, a young Russian immigrant at the dawn of the new millennium.
/jlne.ws/4j5aSZP
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