| July 03, 2025 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | | | John Lothian
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Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff
Pay attention to your holiday trading schedule, as markets close early today for the U.S. Independence Day holiday, which is observed tomorrow.
John Lothian News will publish its annual Declaration of Independence edition of JLN tomorrow in place of the normal news content.
The CME Group-Langer class action lawsuit is set to go to trial next week, commencing on Monday, July 7. I have started to get calls about the case again. I have refrained from writing more about this recently, despite a terrible itch to do so. I hope this chapter in the Chicago derivatives markets will pass into history sooner rather than later and that a just decision, or decisions, are delivered.
BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) has surpassed the firm's iconic iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV) in annual revenue, despite managing just a fraction of the assets. As reported by Helene Braun of CoinDesk, IBIT, with $52 billion in assets under management, brings in approximately $187.2 million annually through its 0.25% management fee, edging out IVV's $187.1 million in annual fees from its much larger $624 billion asset base and lower 0.03% fee. Launched in January 2024, IBIT quickly became the largest spot bitcoin ETF on the market, reflecting surging investor demand for regulated bitcoin exposure from established financial institutions like BlackRock. The fund's rapid growth and higher fee structure underscore the appeal of gaining bitcoin access without the technical or security challenges of direct ownership, while also highlighting the shifting revenue dynamics within the ETF industry.
Regulatory arbitrage by event contract exchanges-offering futures contracts without a clear economic purpose-risks opening the door for critics to attack U.S. futures markets and push for a tax to align them with the gambling industry. In "Gamblers Raise Alarm Over $1.1 Billion Tax Hike in Trump's Bill," Yash Roy and Steven T. Dennis report for Bloomberg that a provision in the Senate GOP's tax bill would limit gamblers' ability to deduct losses to 90% of their net income, potentially taxing them even when they break even or lose. The measure, expected to raise $1.1 billion through 2034, has drawn sharp opposition from both professional and amateur gamblers, who warn it will significantly reduce profits and could have a chilling effect on the booming U.S. gaming sector, which saw $72 billion in commercial revenue last year. While casinos and gaming firms like DraftKings, FanDuel, and Kalshi stand to benefit from extended corporate tax cuts, the new rule-if enacted-could set a precedent for taxing financial products that blur the line between trading and gambling, especially as event contract exchanges test the boundaries of regulatory oversight.
On July 1, Nasdaq, Inc. announced the election of all nominated directors to the boards of its U.S. exchanges, including The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC, Nasdaq PHLX LLC, Nasdaq BX, Inc., Nasdaq ISE, LLC, Nasdaq MRX, LLC, and Nasdaq GEMX, LLC. The newly elected board members are Kathlyn Card Beckles (Verisk Analytics), Michael J. Curran (retired Boston Stock Exchange CEO), Anne Marie Darling (Barclays), Kevin Kennedy (Nasdaq), Thomas A. Kloet (retired TMX Group CEO), Anita Lynch (formerly with New Relic), David Rosato (Eastern Bancshares), Andrew J. Schultz (Susquehanna International Group), Elizabeth Wideman (Comcast), and Thomas A. Wittman (retired Nasdaq executive).
If deception by Fed chairs were grounds for dismissal, history suggests none would have lasted long in the job. In her Bloomberg story, Paige Smith reports that Bill Pulte, head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, has called on Congress to investigate Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, alleging that Powell's recent Senate testimony about the central bank's costly headquarters renovation was "deceptive." Pulte's accusations, made on social media, were quickly amplified by President Donald Trump, who renewed his demand for Powell's immediate resignation and intensified pressure for lower interest rates. Powell, disputing media reports about the renovation's expenses and features, told senators that many claims were "misleading and inaccurate," and said he was open to further discussions with lawmakers. While House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan said Congress would "take a look" at the issue, the Supreme Court recently limited the president's power to remove Fed officials, and Powell's term as chair runs through next year.
I am in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, today and hope to spend most of July here, enjoying the family home by Geneva Lake. Other than some doctor's appointments and the opening of the CBOT Museum, which is on July 8, you can expect to find me on the shores of one of the world's best freshwater sailing lakes. There was a time when you would find me out in a C-scow fighting for position on the starting line of a race on a Wednesday or Friday night, or Saturday morning.
Now my sailboat sits on my driveway, having been idle for many years. I plan to donate it to a nearby charity at the end of the summer, but the boat needs some fixing up to make it worthy of a new owner. That is one of my personal projects for July.
If you're in the Lake Geneva area during July and would like to grab a cup of coffee or another suitable drink, please let me know.
Here are the headlines from in front of FOW's paywall from some recent stories: Banks could save $50bn from tokenisation - ISDA, Nickel shines as LME hits 11-year quarterly volume high, CME's first wheat delivery raises stakes with Miami International and CME reports second quarterly record on energy and rates activity.
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:
- Oil futures, options trade at record levels in Q2 as investors navigate volatility from Reuters.
- The bold place bets on VIX: Research finds investors turn to 'fear index' trading despite potential for high returns from MSN.
- India's new light touch on FX volatility spurs hedging ramp-up from Reuters. ~JB
Subscribe to the JLN Options Newsletter HERE (it's free).
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Trading Technologies Sees Renewed Institutional Crypto Demand, Expands US Equity Options Access, Green Says JohnLothianNews.com LONDON, UK-(JLN)-July 3, 2025-Trading Technologies (TT) is seeing a surge in institutional interest in crypto trading and continued strong demand for advanced risk management and cross-asset trading tools, according to Alun Green, executive vice president and managing director of futures & options, in an interview with John Lothian News at FIA IDX in London. Watch the Alun Green Video » Michael Haigh - Societe Generale Watch the Michael Haigh Video » Nils-Robert Persson - Vermiculus Watch the Nils-Robert Persson Video »
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The Middle Ages Are Making a Political Comeback; Increasingly medieval language from the world's leaders does not bode well for the rest of us.
Adrian Wooldridge - Bloomberg
In one of the most memorable scenes in "Pulp Fiction," a film replete with memorable scenes, a Los Angeles gangster, Marsellus Wallace, turns the tables on a man who has kidnapped and abused him. He's going to get a couple of friends to go to work on his assailant "with a pair of pliers and a blow torch," he says, and ensure that he spends "the rest of his short life in agonizing pain." In short, he's going to "get medieval" on him. There has been an awful lot of "getting medieval" in the world recently. The "twelve-day war" between Israel and Iran was all about the most modern weapons of mass destruction humanity has devised. Yet it was frequently discussed in a language that is more resonant of the Middle Ages than the scientific laboratory.
/jlne.ws/3GwfGJz
****** This is nothing to joust about.~JJL
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The Man Tasked With Ending Citigroup's Fat-Finger Blunders
Todd Gillespie - Bloomberg
Just before Citigroup Inc.'s tech chief faced his first global town hall meeting, he got some pointed advice from his teenager: Make sure the technology works. That hasn't always been a given at Citigroup. For the past year, Tim Ryan - an earnest, soft-spoken Bostonian who was once told in high school he'd never amount to much - has been untangling legacy software and data systems that have irked the bank's moneymakers and regulators, and have at times made it an industry punchline. The most notorious moments: "fat-finger" errors that accidentally credited fortunes to recipients.
/jlne.ws/3GqHCi2
****** His nickname is "Stubby."~JJL
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Why the world's superyachts are getting bigger and bigger
Francesca Marchese - BBC
Business is booming in the luxury world of superyachts, with the super-rich wanting ever bigger floating palaces. Paola Trifiro knows a thing or two about superyachts - she and her husband have owned more than a dozen over the years. The Italian couple, who have made their fortune in law, and continue to run a global legal firm, like to sail around the world in the height of luxury.
/jlne.ws/44bTtts
******* Are some yachting billionaires having issues compensating for other issues?
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Wednesday's Top Three
Our top clicked story Wednesday was Global firms Grapple with North American T+1: New Study Reveals Early Impacts, a Vermiculus press release regarding a new report from Vermiculus and GreySpark Partners. Second was The WFE's 11th Sustainability Survey, which found that exchanges have a strong and expanding commitment to play an active role in promoting sustainable finance, from the World Federation of Exchanges. Third was the actual T+1 report from Vermiculus and GreySpark Partners, titled "New Report: International implications of the North American T+1 Settlement."
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| Lead Stories | CEOs Start Saying the Quiet Part Out Loud: AI Will Wipe Out Jobs; Ford chief predicts AI will replace 'literally half of all white-collar workers'
Chip Cutter and Haley Zimmerman - The Wall Street Journal
CEOs are no longer dodging the question of whether AI takes jobs. Now they are giving predictions of how deep those cuts could go. "Artificial intelligence is going to replace literally half of all white-collar workers in the U.S.," Ford Motor Chief Executive Jim Farley said in an interview last week with author Walter Isaacson at the Aspen Ideas Festival. "AI will leave a lot of white-collar people behind." At JPMorgan Chase, Marianne Lake, CEO of the bank's massive consumer and community business, told investors in May that she could see its operations head count falling by 10% in the coming years as the company uses new AI tools.
/jlne.ws/4luxzYe
JPMorgan Is Revamping Its Bank for the Superrich to Cater to Global Clientele; David Frame named global head of the private bank, helping deep-pocketed clients invest more abroad
Alexander Saeedy - The Wall Street Journal
JPMorgan Chase is reorganizing its private bank to better serve the world's richest people, who want to safeguard their wealth by spreading it around the globe. With a minimum required balance of $10 million, JPMorgan's white-glove bank for the superrich is one of the preferred places for the world's elite to store their wealth. These customers are demanding that JPMorgan invest more of their money abroad, not just in the country where they spend the bulk of their time. Growing conflicts in the Middle East and the risk of a global trade war have made top clients more wary of keeping their money in one country or region of the world. Investors outside the U.S. also want to diversify their portfolios, attracted by the boom in private markets.
/jlne.ws/4eRncM9
BOE's Bailey Warns Stablecoins Threaten Public Trust in Money
Tom Rees - Bloomberg
Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey warned that the rise of stablecoins risks undermining the public's trust in money as experts warn of the threats posed by the expanded use of dollar-backed cryptocurrencies. Central banks need to "watch carefully" for payment innovations introducing new fragilities into the money system, Bailey said in the text of a speech published Thursday. "If, for instance, stablecoins emerge as a new form of money, we have to decide how to ensure the singleness of money and therefore trust in money in this world, and what role the notion of reserve currency should play here," he said at the Andrew Crockett Memorial Lecture.
/jlne.ws/4lvrHOk
The Stocks Will Be Tokenized; Also BlackRock and privates, Vanguard and privates, the Paramount settlement and Enron 2.0.
Matt Levine - Bloomberg
'Tokenization'
Here's a stylized history of US public stock markets. In the olden days, anyone could raise money for a project by selling stock to the public, and lots of people did, often by making false promises. This crested in the 1920s, as people rushed to buy stocks and borrow money to juice their speculative bets. Then there was a crash and a Great Depression. To restore confidence in markets, Congress passed some laws - particularly the Securities Act of 1933 and the Exchange Act of 1934 - to regulate public stock markets. From now on, a company that wanted to sell stock to the general public had to explain its business and publish audited financial statements and disclose important events, so that public investors would know what was going on.
/jlne.ws/44LmCfe
Fed Chair Should Be Investigated by Congress, FHFA Head Says
Paige Smith - Bloomberg
Bill Pulte, who leads the Federal Housing Finance Agency, called on Congress to investigate Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, alleging that his recent testimony to the Senate about the central bank's planned renovations to its headquarters was "deceptive." "I am asking Congress to investigate Chairman Jerome Powell, his political bias, and his deceptive Senate testimony, which is enough to be removed 'for cause,'" Pulte said Wednesday in a post on social media platform X, alleging that Powell made inaccurate statements without providing evidence.
/jlne.ws/44JdCHn
Bitcoin's Original Appeal Fades With Volatility at 2-Year Low
Kirk Ogunrinde - Bloomberg
With Bitcoin stuck in a narrow trading range for much of the year, one of key attractions of the largest digital currency since its earliest days is waning. A closely-watched measure of price swings known as implied volatility has declined to the lowest level in about two years, according to Deribit's BTC Volatility Index. The guage monitors the 30-day forward-looking annualized expectations of volatility. "Bitcoin is becoming less speculative and more akin to a volatile macro asset," said Michael Longoria, a research analyst at the crypto investment firm GSR.
/jlne.ws/4laKMFI
SEC's Atkins Says Rules on Blank-Check Companies to Be Reviewed
Lydia Beyoud - Bloomberg
Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul Atkins said the agency will examine rules that had stepped up oversight of US blank-check companies. Atkins told CNBC on Wednesday that the regulations for special purpose acquisition companies had been "rather controversial" and that the SEC would review them. Last year, the agency tightened its oversight of SPACs to require more disclosure, crack down on conflicts of interest and try to speed up the dealmaking process.
/jlne.ws/46wiwc2
BitGo, Ripple Join Wave of Firms Applying for US Bank Charters
Paige Smith, Teresa Xie, and Emily Mason - Bloomberg
Payments and stablecoin firm Ripple Labs Inc. and crypto custodian BitGo Inc. have applied for national bank charters, joining a crush of upstart financial services companies seeking such approval. BitGo, which custodies billions of dollars in cryptoassets for clients, is weighing an initial public offering as soon as this year, Bloomberg News previously reported. The custodian's corporate structure already includes two state-regulated trust companies, one in New York and one chartered in South Dakota.
/jlne.ws/3Tn7rm4
Mexican banks face cascading consequences following US sanctions
Megan Janetsky - Associated Press
Three Mexican financial institutions sanctioned by the Trump administration last week have felt a cascade of economic consequences following the allegations that they helped launder millions of dollars for drug cartels. The U.S. Treasury Department announced that it was blocking transactions between U.S. banks and Mexican branches of CIBanco and Intercam Banco, as well as the brokering firm Vector Casa de Bolsa. All three have fiercely rejected the claims.
/jlne.ws/44raI8T
Independence Is the Worst Form of Central Banking; Except for all the others. Trump needs to get out of the way.
John Authers - Bloomberg
In 1997, the triumphant New Labour duo of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown celebrated their arrival in Downing Street by making the Bank of England independent. Until then, UK monetary policy was set by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, an elected politician. The Tory Kenneth Clarke, a lovable bruiser of British politics, was thereby turned into the last chancellor who also controlled the Bank's monetary policy. He was irate. "Why has the Right Honorable Gentleman so swiftly changed a system in which my decisions as chancellor produced the United Kingdom's best performance on inflation for 50 years?" he asked Brown in the House of Commons. He went on:
/jlne.ws/3G6sy9m
Ripple Seeks a U.S. Banking License, Adding to List of Crypto Companies; A national banking charter would make the OCC a regulator of Ripple's stablecoin
Vicky Ge Huang - The Wall Street Journal
Ripple has applied for a national banking license, joining the rush of cryptocurrency companies seeking to cross the divide into mainstream finance. Ripple, which manages cross-border payments and a dollar-backed stablecoin called RLUSD, filed its application Wednesday with the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Stablecoins are typically pegged to the dollar or other government-issued currencies, and store reserves in cash or safe assets such as Treasurys to keep a one-to-one exchange ratio in place.
/jlne.ws/4002BPk
Major investment firm offering Ripple, Circle shares at risk of bankruptcy
Anand Sinha - TheStreet
Linqto, an investment firm that offers shares of private companies like Ripple, could file for a bankruptcy filing, the Wall Street Journal reported on June 30. A San Francisco Bay Area-based investment platform, Linqto was founded by a couple, William and Vicki Sarris, in 2010. It maintains nearly $500 million on behalf of thousands of investors spread across the world.
/jlne.ws/45NBeM9
Trump's immigration crackdown could make it harder to interpret the jobs numbers.
Colby Smith and Ben Casselman - The New York Times
Officials at the Federal Reserve, under pressure from President Trump to restart interest rate cuts after an extended pause, say they are prepared to lower borrowing costs if the labor market weakens. But Mr. Trump's own immigration policies risk making it much harder for those policymakers to know whether that is happening, putting a divided central bank in an even more fraught position as it debates when and by what magnitude to lower borrowing costs.
/jlne.ws/4nsxeal
Indian Companies' Bond Sales May Be Hampered by Portal Upgrade
Divya Patil - Bloomberg
Rupee-denominated bond sales by companies may slowdown for a few days next week as the Indian government upgrades an online portal used by firms to file regulatory documents. Starting July 9, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs website will be unavailable for companies to file a so-called PAS-3 form, or "return-of-allotment" form, as the administration upgrades its platform. Firms tend to file the PAS-3 form on the day bonds are alloted because it enables them to use the money on the same day.
/jlne.ws/40x2U4k
'People pay to be told lies': the rise and fall of the world's first ayahuasca multinational; Alberto Varela claimed he wanted to use sacred plant medicine to free people's minds. But as the organisation grew, his followers discovered a darker reality
Sam Edwards - The Guardian
The first time Dalia* took ayahuasca nothing happened. The second time it changed her life. It was 2017, and she had joined a dozen strangers in a chalet outside Barcelona. Everyone was searching for something. For many it was a way out of misery: an escape from years of addiction, or a last-ditch attempt to survive crippling depression. Dalia, a therapist in her early 30s, hoped ayahuasca would help her process the recent death of her mother. "I felt completely alone at that time," she said. "And I think in some form that's how everyone there felt."
/jlne.ws/3G89QOD
Why stablecoins are shifting from crypto fringe to corporate strategy; Niche corner of finance is a pet project of the US administration and a hot topic for business
Philip Stafford and Akila Quinio - Financial Times
Until six months ago, stablecoins were a niche pursuit, used mostly in crypto trading and criminal activity. But these digital currencies, called "stable" because they are backed by real-world assets like the dollar, have now become a pet project of the US administration and a hot topic in corporate boardrooms.
/jlne.ws/3U0uwLr
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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. | Lutnick Nears Crunch Time to Deliver on His Trade-Deal Swagger
Catherine Lucey and Nancy Cook - Bloomberg
With President Donald Trump's budget megabill all but wrapped up and the Iran crisis subsiding, trade wars are back center-stage in Washington - putting Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick where he's happiest: in the thick of the action. It also piles pressure on the billionaire former Cantor Fitzgerald boss, a longtime Trump friend. He's among the top officials tasked with landing a slew of trade deals before the president's July 9 deadline. Only two framework agreements - with the UK and China - have been signed so far. Trump on Wednesday announced a new one with Vietnam, which Lutnick hailed as a "massive win for America's businesses, manufacturers, and farmers."
/jlne.ws/44tNhvT
Dairy supply management could sour Canada-US trade talks
Ed White - Reuters
Canada canceled a digital service tax on U.S. technology companies this week in order to preserve trade talks with U.S. President Donald Trump, but another irritant, in agriculture, could be a bigger thorn in the ongoing negotiations. Analysts said ditching the digital services tax was politically easy for Prime Minister Mark Carney compared to even discussing Canada's supply management system that since the 1970s has tightly controlled supplies of dairy, eggs and poultry by restricting production and limiting imports through onerous tariffs.
/jlne.ws/4kjTrnW
President Trump announces trade deal with Vietnam that will let US goods into the country duty-free
Paul Wiseman and Aniruddha Ghosal - Associated Press
President Donald Trump announced a trade deal with Vietnam Wednesday that would allow U.S. goods to enter the country duty-free. Vietnamese exports to the United States, by contrast, would face a 20% levy. On his Truth Social platform, Trump declared the pact "a Great Deal of Cooperation between our two Countries.''
/jlne.ws/3TjZn5F
ECB president Christine Lagarde says stablecoins will lead to the 'privatization of money,' undermining central bankers 'public good'
Paolo Confino - Fortune
The rise of stablecoins risks eroding the role of central banks in governing their nation's monetary policy, European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde said. Stablecoins, which are digital assets usually pegged to fiat currencies, have grown in popularity. Their rise as relatively stable assets in the world of cryptocurrency have made them appealing both to investors and issuers. As a result, central banks across the world have been forced to contend with how to regulate stablecoins.
/jlne.ws/40BnUab
Trump Aims to Shut Trade Loopholes China Uses to Evade Tariffs
Claire Jiao, Philip Heijmans, and Katia Dmitrieva - Bloomberg
President Donald Trump's two-tiered trade deal with Vietnam aims squarely at practices China has long used to skirt US tariffs: The widespread legal shifting of production to Southeast Asian factories and the murkier and illegal "origin washing" of exports through their ports. The agreement slaps a 20% tariff on Vietnamese exports to the US and a 40% levy on goods deemed to be transshipped through the country. With details still scarce, economists said much will hinge on the framework Washington establishes to determine what it sees as "Made in Vietnam" and what it sees as transshipments.
/jlne.ws/4lhwTWy
Vietnam Trade Deal Takes Aim at Back Door for Chinese Goods; The deal with Vietnam seeks to stop Chinese-made goods from transiting through the Southeast Asian country to avoid higher duties
Jason Douglas and Jon Emont - The Wall Street Journal
A tariff agreement with Vietnam emphasizes one of the White House's top priorities in this frantic round of dealmaking over global trade: slamming shut any backdoor routes for Chinese goods to enter the U.S. A key provision of the Vietnam deal announced by President Trump Wednesday is that goods "transshipped" to the U.S. through Vietnam would be subject to a punitive 40% tariff, twice the 20% rate Trump said he is applying to regular imports from Vietnam.
/jlne.ws/3G8phX7
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| World Conflicts | | News about various conflicts and their military, economic, political and humanitarian impact. | Ukraine Invasion
Trump Stiffs Ukraine on Arms; The decision means more death and more Russian gains.
The Editorial Board - The Wall Street Journal
American deterrence should be a rising stock after President Trump's successful strikes on the Iranian nuclear program and a NATO commitment to spend big on defense. But the Commander in Chief is now displaying weakness against Russia, which won't produce a strong and lasting peace in Ukraine. News leaks this week say the Administration is denying Ukraine much-needed weapons. Our sources tell us they include Patriot air-defense missiles, Hellfire missiles, some 8,500 Howitzer rounds and other ammunition. Some were already in Poland awaiting delivery. So this is a conscious decision to deny Kyiv weapons it was counting on before Russia's summer assaults. It's a hostile act that favors Vladimir Putin.
/jlne.ws/4lx6tQ1
Zelenskiy to Discuss Halt in US Weapon Deliveries With Trump
Daryna Krasnolutska - Bloomberg
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is likely to hold a phone call with Donald Trump on Friday to discuss the US decision to pause the transfer of artillery rounds and air defenses to Ukraine, a person familiar with the matter said. The decision by Washington earlier this week caught Kyiv and its allies off guard and came just days after Russia hit Ukraine with a record air strike since the full-scale invasion began nearly three-and-half years ago.
/jlne.ws/44wKbY3
Republicans tear into Pentagon's Ukraine weapons freeze
Joe Gould and Connor O'Brien - Politico via Yahoo Finance
Republican lawmakers are slamming the Trump administration's decision to halt some U.S. missile and munitions shipments to Ukraine, warning it risks emboldening Russia at a pivotal point in the war. Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, co-chair of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus, said he would be "aggressively looking into this matter" following the White House's acknowledgment that the Pentagon froze deliveries of critical air defense weapons due to concerns over shrinking U.S. stockpiles.
/jlne.ws/4lf7Jb1
Middle East Conflict
Iranian Oil Production Booms Amid the Bombs; All those petrodollars will facilitate reconstruction from US-Israeli air strikes.
Javier Blas - Bloomberg
As the debate plays out over the damage done to the Iranian nuclear program by US and Israeli strikes, one reality is clear: The country's booming energy sector, the cash cow of the regime, emerged unscathed. The numbers don't lie. Iranian oil output reached a 46-year high in 2024, according to recently released data. If anything, all available information for the first six months of 2025 suggests this year will see another increase in production.
/jlne.ws/4lCzBFN
Iran Says Cooperation With UN Nuclear Inspectors to Continue
Patrick Sykes - Bloomberg
Iran will continue to engage with the UN's nuclear watchdog even after it announced the suspension of cooperation, the country's top diplomat said, boosting hopes for oversight of its contested atomic program despite Israel's attacks. "Cooperation with @iaeaorg will be channeled through Iran's Supreme National Security Council for obvious safety and security reasons," Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on X. He was responding to a post by the German Foreign Office that criticized a law passed in Tehran last week that said cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency had been suspended.
/jlne.ws/46plGyg
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| Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | Euronext in talks to buy Athens Stock Exchange for $470 million
Reuters
Euronext (ENX.PA) is in talks to buy up to 100% of the Athens Stock Exchange in a 399 million euro ($470 million) all-share deal that would be the latest for a group that already operates stock markets in countries including France and the Netherlands. Euronext said on Tuesday it planned to offer one new share for every 21 shares held by investors in the Athens Stock Exchange (ATHEX) (EXCr.AT), valuing ATHEX stock at 6.90 euros a piece.
/jlne.ws/44ywfN3
BME Welcomes Vols Partners as a New Member of the Pre-Market Environment
BME-X
BME's Pre-Market Environment (EpM) has today welcomed Vols Partners, raising to 32 the total number of companies that are part of this initiative, whose objective is to facilitate companies' access to financial markets. This new addition confirms the positive momentum that the EpM is currently experiencing. In March alone, BME's initiative added eleven new companies and three new partners. Since its creation, nine companies that have participated in the Pre-Market Environment have made the leap to the capital markets, out of a total of 53 companies that have been part of the program. In this ecosystem, partners also play a fundamental role by accompanying and advising companies during their preparation process for going public.
/jlne.ws/4nw3cm1
CME Group Completes First Delivery Cycle of Hard Red Spring Wheat Futures
CME Group
CME Group, the world's leading derivatives marketplace, today announced that it has completed its first physical delivery cycle of Hard Red Spring Wheat futures, with 182 contracts delivered on July 1, 2025, the first delivery date since the product's April 14 launch.
/jlne.ws/3GuaIwT
EBS Market on CME Globex Notice: June 30, 2025
CME Group
/jlne.ws/3Iq0zSu
FICC Successfully Processes USD$11.8 Trillion in Daily Volume, Marking New One-Day Record
DTCC
The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), the premier post-trade market infrastructure for the global financial services industry, today announced that its Fixed Income Clearing Corporation (FICC) subsidiary processed through its Government Securities Division (GSD) a new peak volume of USD$11.8 Trillion in cleared transactions on June 30. This is the highest GSD volume recorded since April 9, when peak volume reached USD$11.4 Trillion.
/jlne.ws/3IbR49F
HKEX Introduces Order Routing Service on Integrated Fund Platform
HKEX
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) is pleased to announce today (Thursday) the launch of the Order Routing Service on its Integrated Fund Platform (IFP), marking an important step forward in connecting key participants in the fund distribution lifecycle and enhancing the efficiency of Hong Kong's fund management industry.
/jlne.ws/46sC1Cr
Intercontinental Exchange Reports June Statistics; Record Q2 total Futures & Options ADV, including records across Global Commodities, Energy and Financials
Intercontinental Exchange, Inc.
Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE:ICE), a leading global provider of technology and data, today reported June 2025 trading volume and related revenue statistics, which can be viewed on the company's investor relations website at https://ir.theice.com/ir-resources/supplemental-information in the Monthly Statistics Tracking spreadsheet. "The record traded volume across ICE's markets during the first half of 2025 - including record traded volumes across energy and interest rate derivatives - highlights the importance of ICE's benchmark contracts and the deep liquidity these offer to customers. This liquidity increases trading efficiency for all participants, whilst bringing price discovery our customers trust. We thank all of our customers for continuing to choose ICE to hedge their exposure," said Ben Jackson, President of ICE.
/jlne.ws/3TU01H3
TSE to Provide Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation with Direct Connectivity between CONNEQTOR and "SmartBridge Advance"
JPX
Tokyo Stock Exchange, Inc. ("TSE") began providing SmartBridge Advance ("SBA") and CONNEQTOR direct connectivity to Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation ("Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking") on May 26, 2025.
/jlne.ws/4exIxtL
Fujitsu to develop ETF trading platform based on TSE's CONNEQTOR and provide it to Australian Securities Exchange
JPX
The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), the Tokyo Stock Exchange, Inc. (TSE), and Fujitsu Limited on June 2, 2025 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to develop a SaaS-based Request for Quote (RFQ) platform. Fujitsu will develop the platform based on "CONNEQTOR," an RFQ platform for the ETF market developed by TSE and Fujitsu, and provide it to ASX.
/jlne.ws/4lbFEBa
LME Data Highlights: Q2 2025
Mondovisione
LME futures and options average daily volume (ADV) in Q2 2025 reached 733,620 lots, the highest quarterly ADV since Q2 2014. Volumes marginally exceeded ADV in Q2 2024 when new sanctions on Russian metal saw volumes surge to levels close to matching those of Q2 2014. April 2025 was a record month for the LME with ADV reaching 834,580 lots and surpassing the previous record of 831,710 lots seen in April 2018. On 7 April, the LME saw its highest ever daily ADV with 1,478,107 lots traded. Four of the top five LMEselect trading days by volume also occurred in April 2025.
/jlne.ws/44vUNGm
Here Are 11 Top Performing ETFs Driving Investor Returns
NGX
The Nigerian stock market has seen a remarkable rally in recent weeks, and for investors with little know-how, Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) are the easiest way to participate. ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) are exactly as the name implies: funds that trade on exchanges, generally tracking a specific index.
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Delisting of Securities from The Nasdaq Stock Market
Nasdaq
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OCC June 2025 Monthly Volume Data
OCC
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| Fintech | | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | Artificial Intelligence
Congress just backed off an AI regulation moratorium-Here's how states like California are trying to regulate 'robo bosses' at work
Brit Morse - Fortune
AI is well on its way to becoming intertwined in almost every facet of work, from recruiting job candidates to evaluating employee performance. But a new bill out of California would put some guardrails around exactly how much power artificial intelligence is allowed to have over human beings in the office. The "No Robo Bosses" Act, also known as SB 7, written by California Assembly members Sade Elhawary and Isaac Bryan, was introduced in March and introduced by State Sen. Jerry McNerny. The bill is endorsed by organized labor including the California Federation of Labor Unions, an affiliate of the AFL-CIO.
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Tokenization
Tokens to Access Private Companies, or to Investor Trouble? Robinhood is the latest to offer investors a novel, and potentially risky, investment opportunity: crypto that's meant to give exposure to the likes of OpenAI.
Andrew Ross Sorkin, Bernhard Warner, Sarah Kessler, Michael J. de la Merced and Danielle Kaye - The New York Times
The trouble with tokens
For years, Wall Street fund managers have talked about opening private markets to ordinary investors. Some tech companies are rolling out what they say are ways to help investors get into hot, privately held start-ups like OpenAI. In truth, what's happening in many cases appears to be an end run around rules to protect investors. It's about so-called tokenization. This week, Robinhood began offering "tokens" in OpenAI and SpaceX that are supposed to reflect the valuations of the privately traded companies. In other words, it is pitching them as offering stocklike exposure to start-ups that average people can't buy into otherwise.
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Connectivity/Data Centers
Oracle, OpenAI Expand Stargate Deal for More US Data Centers
Brody Ford and Rachel Metz - Bloomberg
OpenAI has agreed to rent a massive amount of computing power from Oracle Corp. data centers as part of its Stargate initiative, underscoring the intense requirements for cutting-edge artificial intelligence products. The AI company will rent additional capacity from Oracle totaling about 4.5 gigawatts of data center power in the US, according to people familiar with the work who asked not to be named discussing private information. That is an unprecedented sum of energy that could power millions of American homes. A gigawatt is akin to the capacity from one nuclear reactor and can provide electricity to roughly 750,000 houses.
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Technology Firms
Connamara Technologies Wins "Best Matching Engine for Trading Venues" at the 2025 TradingTech Insight USA Awards
Street Insider
Connamara Technologies has been named Best Matching Engine for Trading Venues at the TradingTech Insight USA Awards. The award recognizes Connamara's innovation, reliability, and performance in delivering advanced trading technology for global exchanges. Selected by a global audience of trading technology professionals-including customers, prospects, and industry peers-the win highlights Connamara's rising influence and proven leadership in the exchange technology space. Since Connamara Technologies was founded in 2022, EP3 has become the go-to technology platform for innovative new exchanges around the globe.
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| Cybersecurity | | Top stories for cybersecurity | US Probes Whether Negotiator Took Slice of Hacker Payments
Jake Bleiberg - Bloomberg
Law enforcement officials are investigating a former employee of a company that negotiates with hackers and facilitates cryptocurrency payments during ransomware attacks, according to a statement from the firm, DigitalMint. DigitalMint President Marc Jason Grens this week told organizations it works with that the US Justice Department is examining allegations that the then-employee struck deals with hackers to profit from extortion payments, according to a person familiar with the matter.
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| Cryptocurrencies | | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | Deutsche Bank Plans to Introduce Crypto Custody With Bitpanda Next Year: Bloomberg
Jamie Crawley - CoinDesk
Deutsche Bank (DB) is planning to debut a crypto custody service next year, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. Germany's largest bank has enlisted cryptocurrency exchange Bitpanda to help build the offering, according to the report, citing people familiar with the matter. Deutsche's prior involvement in crypto custody has largely been through Swiss custodian Taurus, of which the German bank is both an investor and a client. It is not clear how this relationship would develop should Deutsche begin offering its own service in-house.
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The Protocol: Ethereum's Vitalik Buterin Says the Ecosystem Is At Risk If Decentralization Is Just a Catchphrase
Margaux Nijkerk - CoinDesk
BUTERIN: CRYPTO MUST MATURE: Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin wants the crypto industry to grow up fast - stressing that the industry is at an "inflection point." Speaking in front of a packed room at the Ethereum Community Conference, in Cannes, France, Buterin used his keynote to deliver a clear-eyed reality check: decentralization, he argued, must evolve from a catchphrase to a concrete set of user guarantees - or risk becoming another hollow promise.
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Exclusive: Coinbase buys token manager Liquifi as crypto M&A heats up
Ben Weiss - Fortune
In 2024, the U.S.'s largest crypto exchange acquired three companies. This year, Coinbase has already bought five, including its most recent acquisition: the token management platform Liquifi. Aklil Ibssa, head of corporate development at Coinbase, declined to disclose the terms of the deal, which the company announced on Wednesday. Liquifi last raised $5 million in a 2022 seed round led by the venture capital firm Dragonfly, with participation from crypto luminaries like Katie Haun and Balaji Srinivasan. Well-known crypto companies like the Uniswap Foundation, OP Labs, Ethena, and Zora use the platform to track who owns what stake of a cryptocurrency, distribute tokens after vesting periods, and manage the intricacies of tax withholdings.
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Bitcoin
Scaramucci Says Bitcoin Treasury Trend Will Fade Despite Saylor's Success
Helene Braun - CoinDesk
Anthony Scaramucci, the founder and managing partner of hedge fund SkyBridge Capital, says the wave of companies adopting a bitcoin (BTC) treasury strategy is just a passing trend. In an interview with Bloomberg, Scaramucci said he expects the approach to lose momentum in the coming months. "Right now we're having this replicative treasury company idea," Scaramucci said. "So, you know, it will fade." He implied that investors may start to wonder why they're paying extra for a company to hold an asset they could simply buy themselves.
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BlackRock Bitcoin ETF Drives More Revenue Than Its S&P 500 Fund
Isabelle Lee - Bloomberg
At the world's biggest asset manager, a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund now generates more revenue than its signature tracker of the S&P 500 Index. The roughly $75 billion iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (ticker IBIT) has seen a torrent of cash from institutional and retail investors alike, drawing inflows in all but one of the last 18 months. With an expense ratio of 0.25%, the fund brings in an estimated $187.2 million in annual fees, based on back-of-the-envelope math calculated by Bloomberg as of July 1. That slightly edges out the $187.1 million made by BlackRock's iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV), which is nearly nine times larger at around $624 billion in assets, and charges just 0.03%.
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Stablecoins
Coinbase Is Driving Adoption of Circle's USDC for Payments, Financial Services: Bernstein
Will Canny - CoinDesk
Crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) is moving beyond its role as a USDC distributor, positioning itself as a key driver of stablecoin adoption across payments and financial services, Wall Street broker Bernstein said in a research report Wednesday. The company recently launched Coinbase Payments, built in collaboration with Stripe and Shopify, and also introduced Coinbase Business, targeting startups and smaller companies. Both services use Circle's USDC stablecoin.
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Ripple Expands Stablecoin Infrastructure Partnership as It Seeks Bank License
Francisco Rodrigues - CoinDesk
Ripple has partnered with London-based fintech firm OpenPayd to build a stablecoin and payments infrastructure for businesses looking to move money across borders quickly and at lower costs. The news comes the day Ripple said it applied for a national banking license at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). This license would allow the company to expand its crypto services and operate across state lines under federal regulation.
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OpenPayd, Ripple forge stablecoin payments alliance
GlobalData
Financial infrastructure provider OpenPayd and Ripple have formed an alliance to enhance payment solutions for enterprise clients. The partnership will integrate OpenPayd's global fiat infrastructure, which includes real-time payment rails, multi-currency accounts, and virtual IBANs, into Ripple Payments, facilitating transactions in EUR and GBP.
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DeFi
Bitcoin DeFi Project BOB Launches BitVM Bridge Testnet
Jamie Crawley - CoinDesk
Layer-2 network BOB debuted a BitVM testnet alongside a host of other major crypto firms ahead of the mainnet going live in the fourth quarter. Describing itself as a hybrid layer 2, BOB's aim is to combine Bitcoin's security and reserves with Ethereum's programmability using the BitVM computing paradigm to create a decentralized finance (DeFi) hub. BitVM was introduced in late 2023 by Robin Linus as a means of enabling rollups atop Bitcoin, thus allowing faster and cheaper transactions without compromising the network's security.
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| Politics | | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | Pakistan pitches Nobel, crypto and rare earths to woo Donald Trump; Cash-strapped Islamabad tries to stave off trade tariffs and deepen ties with White House
Humza Jilani - Financial Times
Pakistan is pitching itself as a bitcoin mining hub, a source of rare earths and offering its support for a Nobel Peace prize for Donald Trump, as a cash-strapped Islamabad seeks to stave off hefty trade tariffs and deepen ties with the White House. Its finance ministry is battling to secure a trade deal with the US, the country's largest export partner, and hopes to avert tariffs, which could go as high as 29 per cent on July 9.
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U.S. Administration
USAID cuts could lead to 14 million deaths over the next five years, researchers say; An analysis published Monday in the medical journal The Lancet projects that cuts to the agency will lead to more deaths from diseases like AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.
Aria Bendix - NBC News
More than 14 million people could die over the next five years because of the Trump administration's dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development, according to an analysis published Monday in the medical journal The Lancet. Researchers calculated the lifesaving benefits of USAID funding over a 21-year period, then used the data to determine how many lives would be lost without USAID funding in the future.
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Trump's $620 Million of Quick Crypto Riches Reshapes His Fortune; The Trumps have used their name and connections to profit from digital assets at a quicker clip than from their traditional real estate business.
Tom Maloney, Annie Massa, and Demetrios Pogkas - Bloomberg
On the surface, Donald Trump's personal net worth looks remarkably unchanged since retaking the White House: $6.5 billion on Election Day, $6.4 billion now. But digging deeper into the figures reveals an unprecedented and unmistakable shift in how he and his family are buttressing their empire - and how much more quickly they stand to potentially profit from their fame, influence and power.
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Trump's Justice Department wants to denaturalize citizens. Can he do that?
Alex Woodward - The Independent
A recently unveiled memo from the Department of Justice indicates Donald Trump's administration plans to "maximally pursue" denaturalization of American citizens, marking a radical expansion of the president's anti-immigration agenda. According to the June 11 memo, the Justice Department's civil division will "prioritize and maximally pursue denaturalization proceedings in all cases permitted by law and supported by the evidence." The agency intends to take action against citizens who it believes "pose a potential danger to national security," or who officials claim have acquired their citizenship through "material misrepresentations." The division also notes that it could pursue denaturalization in "any other cases" that officials believe are "sufficiently important to pursue."
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Trump Is Now More Responsible for the Economy Than Biden, Voters Say; A new poll finds a jump in Trump voters saying the state of the economy rests more with him
Joe Pinsker - The Wall Street Journal
Voters now agree: It's President Trump's economy. Trump voters are now likelier to say that he is more responsible for the current state of the economy than to say that former President Joe Biden is, by a margin of 46% to 34%, according to YouGov survey data gathered for The Wall Street Journal between June 17 and 20. Trump voters had been likelier to pick Biden before last month. People who voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris have overwhelmingly said Trump was more responsible for the economy since YouGov put the question to Americans in March.
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Powell Silence on His Future Complicates Trump Fed Chair Search
Saleha Mohsin, Joshua Green, and Amara Omeokwe - Bloomberg
As President Donald Trump and his advisers begin weighing replacements for Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, they're running into one significant complication: It's not clear that Powell will leave the US central bank next year.
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Other U.S. Politics
Harvard Is Staring at a Billion-Dollar Budget Shortfall From Clash With Trump; University has engaged in talks with administration and has tried to drum up money from private sources
Heather Gillers and Juliet Chung - The Wall Street Journal
Harvard University would face a budget shortfall of about a billion dollars a year if President Trump follows through on all of his plans and threats spanning research funding, tax policy and student enrollment, according to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal. That grim math helps explain why Harvard has taken steps toward negotiating with the administration after months of defiance. The Journal's estimate, based on publicly available data, is for a worst-case scenario in which Harvard loses all federal research funding, federal student aid and its ability to enroll international students, and Congress hikes its annual endowment tax to 8%.
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European Union
European CEOs urge Brussels to halt landmark AI Act; The heads of Airbus and BNP Paribas join intense lobbying effort against new regulations
Barbara Moens and Tim Bradshaw - Financial Times
The chief executives of large European companies including Airbus and BNP Paribas have urged Brussels to halt its landmark artificial intelligence act, as the EU considers watering down key elements of the law due to come into force in August. In an open letter, seen by the Financial Times, the heads of 44 major firms on the continent called on European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to introduce a two-year pause, warning that unclear and overlapping regulations are threatening the bloc's competitiveness in the global AI race.
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Singapore
Singapore Ruling Party Slams Opposition Leader's Interview
Andrea Tan - Bloomberg
Singapore's ruling party criticized the opposition leader after his interview with a Malaysian podcaster, saying his conduct "raises serious questions." "Singapore's domestic affairs should be debated and decided by Singaporeans, within Singapore," the ruling People's Action Party said in a statement on Thursday. "Politics should stop at the water's edge." Pritam Singh, who leads the largest opposition Workers' Party, spoke on a political podcast hosted by former Malaysian health minister Khairy Jamaluddin and uploaded on June 24. In the podcast, Singh said he doesn't want to be prime minister, though his party should one day be a viable alternative to the ruling PAP.
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| Regulation & Enforcement | | Stories about regulation and the law. | SEC Issues New Crypto ETF Disclosure Rules
DJ Shaw - etf.com
The Securities and Exchange Commission's Division of Corporation Finance issued new guidance Monday detailing disclosure requirements for crypto asset exchange-traded products, marking the regulator's most detailed framework yet for the crypto ETF market. The guidance addresses how federal securities laws apply to crypto ETFs, which are investment products that hold digital assets like Bitcoin or use derivative instruments tied to crypto prices, according to the statement. These products trade on national securities exchanges and are typically structured as trusts.
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ASIC releases estimated industry funding levies for 2024-25
ASIC
ASIC today issued its 2024-25 Cost Recovery Implementation Statement (CRIS), which outlines how ASIC will recover regulatory costs from industry under the industry funding model. For the 2024-25 financial year, ASIC's total estimated recoverable costs are $349.3 million - a 6% increase from the $328.1 million recovered in 2023-24. This increase reflects additional funding to support key Government priorities, including:
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ASIC proposes to remake deposit product disclosure relief instrument
ASIC
ASIC is inviting feedback on its proposal to remake a legislative instrument that provides relief from certain disclosure requirements that apply to deposit products. ASIC Corporations (Deposit Product Disclosure) Instrument 2015/683 exempts deposit products from the obligations to disclose:
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ESMA selects fairCT as bonds consolidated tape provider; The group, co-ordinated by Ediphy, consists of Google Cloud, UBS, TP ICAP, Cboe Global Markets, FactSet, and Norges Bank Investment Management.
Natasha Cocksedge - The Trade
Ediphy (fairCT) has been selected by the European Securities and Markets Authority to be the first consolidated tape provider (CTP) for bonds in the EU. The decision comes after a six-month application assessment process, with ESMA stating that Ediphy was selected upon meeting all Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (Mifir) selection criteria and reaching the overall highest award criteria score.
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UK and Singapore mark the 10th UK-Singapore Financial Dialogue with Strengthened Collaboration in Digital Finance & Innovation and Sustainable Finance
MAS
The United Kingdom (UK) and Singapore held the 10th UK-Singapore Financial Dialogue in London yesterday. The discussions highlighted the strong and continued collaboration between the UK and Singapore, with a focus on several key themes, including digital finance and innovation, sustainable finance, capital markets and international regulatory developments.
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MAS Revokes the Capital Markets Services Licence of Xen Capital Asia Pte. Ltd. and Reprimands its Executive Director for Failing to Discharge her Duty and Function as an Executive Director
MAS
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has revoked the Capital Markets Services (CMS) Licence of Xen Capital Asia Pte Ltd (XCAPL), a capital markets service (CMS) licence holder, and reprimanded its Executive Director (ED) and former Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Ms Katrina Marie Ku Cokeng (Ms Cokeng), for breaches of the Securities and Futures Act (SFA), Securities and Futures (Licensing and Conduct of Business) Regulations (SFR), Securities and Futures (Financial and Margin Requirements for Holders of Capital Markets Services Licences Margins) Regulation (FMR), MAS Notice on Lending of Singapore Dollar to Non-Resident Financial Institutions for Holders of CMS Licence (SFA 04-N04), and its licence conditions.
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SFC welcomes launch of Order Routing Service on Integrated Fund Platform
SFC
The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) is pleased to welcome Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited's (HKEX) launch of its Order Routing Service on the Integrated Fund Platform (IFP) (Notes 1 and 2). The launch of the Order Routing Service marks a key milestone in the development of the IFP as it will facilitate communication between market participants in the retail funds industry and can help promote greater collaboration across Hong Kong's fund distribution network.
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| Investing & Trading | | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | Oil futures, options trade at record levels in Q2 as investors navigate volatility
Georgina Mccartney - Reuters
Total oil futures and options lots traded on the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) hit record highs in the second quarter, as U.S. President Donald Trump waged a trade war and geopolitical conflicts in the Middle East escalated. WHY IT'S IMPORTANT Significant volatility in the second quarter had global benchmark Brent crude futures dropping to a four-year low of $60.23 a barrel on May 5 and then surging to $78.85 on June 19, the highest since January, according to data from LSEG.
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ETFs That Let You Invest in the Future; Attempting to emulate Cathie Wood's ARKK ETF, some issuers are hoping to attract investors looking for the next big idea. (podcast)
Eric Balchunas - Bloomberg
You just might be able to experience the financial future today. A recent trend in investing has exchange-traded fund issuers creating funds focused on futuristic themes like humanoid robots, alien technology and quantum computing. The hope is to attract investors looking for the next big idea. But needless to say, not all of them will pan out-remember Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse?
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Del Monte Foods Files for Bankruptcy After Post-Pandemic Consumer Pullback; The packaged-foods company has lined up $165 million in new bankruptcy loans and hopes to sell its assets as going concerns
Soma Biswas and Colin Kellaher - The Wall Street Journal
Packaged-foods maker Del Monte Foods, a U.S. unit of Del Monte Pacific, filed for bankruptcy Tuesday, after a pullback from a pandemic-driven surge in consumer demand for groceries. The Walnut Creek, Calif.-based company had struggled with a decline in demand for its canned fruits and vegetables following galloping demand that continued into 2023, according to a court filing by Jonathan Goulding, chief restructuring officer at Del Monte Foods. The company has also battled increasing interest burdens on more than $1 billion in debt in recent years, he said.
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The Best Way to Take RMDs From Your Retirement Accounts; New research suggests an equal-installment strategy is best. Although a lump-sum approach works at times, it's risky.
Derek Horstmeyer - The Wall Street Journal
As investors enter retirement, the U.S. government currently requires them to start taking required minimum distributions from their 401(k) and traditional individual retirement accounts at age 73. But which way is best to take those distributions? Should one take money out at the end of each year so that it sits in the market as long as possible and earn the potential extra return that one can get by staying in the market? Or should one take money out at equal installments throughout the year to spread out exposure to market conditions? Or a hybrid strategy of both?
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Stocks Are Approaching Manic Levels, But Advisers Say It's Not Too Late to Buy; Experts still see promising areas of investment, even with stocks at all-time highs.
Claire Ballentine - Bloomberg
In a matter of weeks, market sentiment has moved from panic to nearly manic. Back in April, recession odds were more than 50% and the stock market was in free fall. But after fears concerning the president's trade wars and economic policy eased, stocks have return to all-time highs in record time. It took just 57 days for the S&P 500 to claw its way out of a bear market to hit an intraday high - igniting animal spirits - but financial advisers surveyed by Bloomberg say everyday investors should tread lightly. Wall Street pros caution that many risks remain. But there are still promising areas of investment.
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SPACs Regain Popularity as IPO Alternative for Smaller Firms
Anthony Hughes - Bloomberg
After years out in the cold, special purpose acquisition companies are again positioning themselves as an alternative to traditional initial public offerings for businesses that have been left out of the nascent recovery in first-time stock sales. Only nine of the 100 traditional IPOs priced in 2025 have raised more than $500 million, while two-thirds of these brought in less than $50 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The figures highlight the IPO market's barbell shape this year, consisting of large, well-established companies on the one hand and riskier small-cap companies on the other.
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Dr. Phil's Media Company Files for Bankruptcy Amid Dispute
Hannah Miller and Dorothy Ma - Bloomberg
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First Solana staking ETF hits $12M in 'healthy' first trading day; REX-Osprey's groundbreaking Solana staking ETF overcame SEC hurdles and posted $33 million in first-day volume.
Martin Young - CoinTelegraph
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Is the US heading for a debt crisis? Billionaire hedge fund manager Ray Dalio sounds the alarm
FT Podcast
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| Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance | | Stories about environmental, social and governance investing | Ocean technology startup that sold 200,000 carbon credits faces scientists' doubts: 'Trust us, it sinks'
Helen Wieffering - The Associated Press via Fortune
The startup Gigablue announced with fanfare this year that it reached a historic milestone: selling 200,000 carbon credits to fund what it describes as a groundbreaking technology in the fight against climate change. Formed three years ago by a group of entrepreneurs in Israel, the company says it has designed particles that when released in the ocean will trap carbon at the bottom of the sea. By "harnessing the power of nature," Gigablue says, its work will do nothing less than save the planet.
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Wall Street banking giant targets carbon credit market
Anushka Basu - TheStreet
JPMorgan Chase & Co. has launched a blockchain initiative to facilitate the tokenization of carbon credits, collaborating with three major carbon registries to enhance the efficiency and transparency of the voluntary carbon market's credit trading process. The bank's blockchain division, Kinexys, will work with S&P Global Commodity Insights, EcoRegistry, and the International Carbon Registry on a pilot to transform historic carbon credits into digital tokens.
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Attempts to kill DEI have inadvertently made corporate diversity stronger
Andrew Behar - Fortune via Yahoo Finance
Andrew Behar is CEO of As You Sow, a nonprofit promoting environmental and social corporate responsibility.
DEI is everywhere these days. Perhaps you attended Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion training at work or heard the loaded term "DEI hire" on cable news. Advocates argue diversity initiatives dismantle systemic biases that keep the best workers from being hired and promoted. Critics say these programs are discriminatory and leave white workers behind. Executives and board directors have had to walk a fine line, but ultimately, they report to shareholders. As this year's proxy voting season approached, the business community wondered: Would investors vote to dismantle or defend DEI?
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Mount Everest's Trash-Covered Slopes Are Being Cleaned by Drones; High-flying unmanned aircraft are being used to whisk away garbage at one of the mountaineering camps on the highest peak on Earth.
Sheryl Tian Tong Lee - Bloomberg
Human waste, empty oxygen cylinders, kitchen leftovers and discarded ladders. Sherpas working on Mount Everest carry all that and more - 20 kilograms (44 pounds) per person - navigating a four-hour hike that traverses crumbling glacial ice and treacherous crevasses to bring trash back to base camp. During the most recent climbing season, they had new assistance from two giant SZ DJI Technology Co. drones, which can complete the same journey in six minutes, sharing the task of clearing an expanding volume of refuse piling up on the world's highest peak.
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How hopeful can we be about AI climate tech? Results that look great in a lab sometimes struggle in real life
Pilita Clark - Financial Times
Can artificial intelligence stop the planet burning? There is both good and less good news about the answer to this question. But since this column is being written at the end of yet another sweltering UK heatwave, let's start with the more pleasing thought that AI could soon help to cut a non-trivial chunk of global transport, power and food emissions every year.
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Meta's AI climate tool raised false hope of CO₂ removal, scientists say; Big Tech group accused of using inaccurate data in effort to identify materials that can attract carbon dioxide from the air
Kenza Bryan - Financial Times
Meta has been accused of using faulty data to train an artificial intelligence climate tool, with scientists claiming the Big Tech group raised false hopes about the feasibility of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere at scale. The tech company said last year that it had helped researchers with the elusive problem of identifying materials to efficiently remove carbon dioxide from air, by publishing a "groundbreaking" data set on which it also trained free-to-use machine learning models.
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BlackRock Weighs Selling Stake in Saudi Aramco Gas Pipelines
Dinesh Nair and Alex Dooler - Bloomberg
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Australia's green hydrogen ambitions in doubt as CQ-H2 plant stalls; Project unable to move forward after conservative state government ends support
Rurika Imahashi - Nikkei Asia
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Stop telling women they are cautious investors; As the gender investment gap rises, it's time to make lazy gender categorisations a thing of the past
Alice Ross - Financial Times
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| Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | Citadel Securities appoints head of equity and equity derivatives strategy; Individual joins the firm following almost ten years at Goldman Sachs.
Natasha Cocksedge - The Trade
Citadel Securities has named Scott Rubner the firm's new head of equity and equity derivatives strategy. Rubner will be based out of Miami in his new role and joins the firm after almost ten years at Goldman Sachs, where he most recently worked as a managing director, covering global equity macro, emerging markets, equity derivatives and tactical flow of funds. He also served as a vice president at the firm from October 2015 to January 2022.
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Liquidators File $2.7 Billion Lawsuit Against Standard Chartered Bank Over 1MDB Role; The 1MDB scandal is one of the largest financial frauds in history
P.R. Venkat and Amanda Lee - The Wall Street Journal
Court-appointed liquidators have filed a $2.7 billion lawsuit against Standard Chartered Bank, alleging its involvement in the 1MDB scandal. The lawsuit was filed in the High Court of Singapore, according to a statement on Tuesday from the board of 1Malaysia Development Bhd., the state-controlled economic development company known as 1MDB. Financial services firm Kroll is acting as liquidator for 1MDB.
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JPMorgan names insider David Frame global CEO of private bank
Reuters
U.S. banking giant JPMorgan Chase on Thursday named insider David Frame as the global CEO of its private bank, effective immediately. Housed within the largest U.S. bank's broader asset and wealth management business, the private bank offers investment solutions to high-net-worth individuals and families. Private banking has become an increasingly important business for global lenders as they seek to deepen relationships with wealthy clients and tap into the growing pool of global wealth.
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Barclays names Anne Marie Darling, who retired from Goldman Sachs in 2024, as co-COO
Luisa Beltran - Fortune
Anne Marie Darling, one of several high-profile partners who exited Goldman Sachs last year, was named, along with Craig Bright, group co-COO for Barclays. Darling and Bright are replacing Alistair Currie, who is leaving the UK bank to pursue a board portfolio career. Darling and Bright will also serve as co-CEOs of Barclays execution services, the bank's back-office services company, according to a July 1 statement. Darling joined Barclays in April following a 25-year career at Goldman where she was a partner for the last 12 years. Bright, a former Citi executive who also worked at Westpac, has served as Barclays group chief information officer since 2020.
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Deutsche Bank Reorganizes Its Origination and Advisory Business
Ruth David, Sonia Sirletti, and Arno Schuetze - Bloomberg
Deutsche Bank AG is reorganizing its global origination and advisory business division in a move to simplify the structure and drive growth. The lender is moving from a product-based structure to a regional one, according to an internal memo signed by Alison Harding Jones, the bank's global head of Origination & Advisory division, seen by Bloomberg. No jobs will be cut as part of the reorganization.
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How Goldman Sachs won big in the Fed's annual stress test; Easier scenario and changes to requirements allowed Wall Street bank to ratchet up shareholder payout
Joshua Franklin - Financial Times
Goldman Sachs stood to lose just $300mn in an economic shock under the Federal Reserve's stress test scenario this year, vastly less than the $18bn forecast a year earlier - and a big reason for the bank's outsized shareholder payouts. The sharp drop is a reflection of Goldman's effort in recent years to reduce risk-taking, which requires the bank to set aside more capital to guard against volatility. But it also reflects technical changes to the Fed's test that made it easier for Wall Street's biggest banks. This led to a flood of dividend increases and share buybacks for investors announced on Tuesday.
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Hedge Funds
BlackRock equity trader departs; Individual was one of The TRADE's Rising Stars of Trading and Execution in 2024.
Claudia Preece - The Trade
Simon Toulon has left BlackRock after almost four years with the firm, The TRADE can reveal. He most recently served as an equity trader, working under Nick Craze, head of EMEA equity trading. Toulon was recognised as one of The TRADE's Rising Stars of Trading and Execution in 2024, an initiative which recognises key buy-side individuals who go above and beyond in the industry.
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Asia Hedge Funds Win Bigger Allocations at Manager Bought by BNP
Bei Hu - Bloomberg
Axa IM Prime, part of the global asset manager recently acquired by BNP Paribas SA, has been boosting its allocation to Asia hedge fund managers in the past five years, when the retreat of US institutions left the regional industry starved of fresh cash. Various portfolios of Axa IM Prime's $5 billion hedge fund business have between 20% and 30% of their assets invested in Asia specialists, up from zero before 2020, Global Head of Hedge Funds Johann Ropers said in an interview. The unit also started a program that provides $100 million of multi-year capital each to fledgling firms to help them reach a scale where they can attract more institutional money.
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Private Equity
AustralianSuper Boosts Private Equity With Four New Deals Coming
Richard Henderson - Bloomberg
AustralianSuper is increasing its allocation to unlisted assets as the country's biggest pension fund works to finalize four private equity deals by the end of the year, according to the firm's investment chief. "We are looking to put on four new private equity managers over this calendar year period and it looks like that is well in train," Mark Delaney said in an interview on Thursday. "The team know these managers from working previously with them and they have really good long-term track records in straight-down-the-line, conventional, private equity."
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Thoma Bravo Agrees $2 Billion Deal to Take Olo Private
Ryan Gould - Bloomberg
Thoma Bravo has struck a $2 billion deal to acquire restaurant software maker Olo Inc. in a sign that private equity firms are still able to find bargains in hot equity markets. The buyout firm is paying $10.25 a share in cash for Olo, according to a statement Thursday, representing a 65% premium over Olo's share price on April 30 - the day before Bloomberg News reported the company was working with an adviser to explore a sale.
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| Work & Management | | Stories impacting work and more about management ideas, practices and trends. | Former OpenAI Board Member Questions Zuckerberg AI Hiring Spree
Saritha Rai and Haslinda Amin - Bloomberg
Meta Platforms Inc.'s lavish multimillion-dollar budget for recruiting top AI talent may not guarantee success, said Helen Toner, former OpenAI board member and director of strategy at Georgetown's Center for Security and Emerging Technology. The poaching of artificial intelligence researchers from the likes of OpenAI - with salaries in the tens of millions of dollars - and the debut of Meta's new Superintelligence group comes after the Facebook operator developed a reputation for "having a dysfunctional team," Toner said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. The practice of luring away high performers from each other's AI labs has intensified among Silicon Valley companies since the launch of ChatGPT, she said.
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Would You Trust Your Job Search to a Bot?; An AI startup will recommend jobs and even fill out applications for you
Emma Haidar - Bloomberg
As artificial intelligence creeps into every aspect of the hiring process - from candidate screenings to video interviews - a new AI agent released by the startup Jobright.ai is aiming to make endless scrolling on job sites a thing of the past. The bot is part of a growing supply of AI-powered job search tools, tapping into applicants' frustrations with protracted job searches and a stagnant labor market. Here's how it works: Once a user uploads a resume, informs the bot of the kinds of jobs they are looking for and answers some basic questions, the bot starts compiling job postings which match the applicant's criteria and will send up to 50 listings each week.
/jlne.ws/4eGBHSQ
CEOs have a new AI flex
Sharon Goldman - Fortune
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said in a recent interview that AI now does up to 50% of all work at the company, in key functions like engineering, coding, and customer support. In May, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said 20% to 30% of the tech giant's code is now written by AI coding assistants. And in April, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said over 30% of code at Google is now generated by AI. It's the latest CEO flex: Citing numbers showing that AI is doing heavy lifting internally. The move presents the company as being ahead of the AI curve and invariably grabs the attention of people who matter. Investors hear the magic words that the business is on track to save money-presumably accomplished-but rarely explicitly stated, through future job cuts. It also signals to clients of the Big Tech companies making the pronouncements that they should open their wallets, pronto, to incorporate more AI into their operations, or risk falling behind.
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| Wellness Exchange | | An Exchange of Health and Wellness Information | RFK Jr.'s top FDA vaccine official restricts 2 COVID vaccine approvals against advice of agency scientists
Matthew Perrone - The Associated Press via Fortune
The government's top vaccine official working under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently restricted the approval of two COVID-19 vaccines, disregarding recommendations from government scientists, according to federal documents released Wednesday. The new memos from the Food and Drug Administration show how the agency's vaccine chief, Dr. Vinay Prasad, personally intervened to place restrictions on COVID shots from vaccine makers Novavax and Moderna.
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How the Risks of Drinking Increase in Older Age; Alcohol can present health problems for even light or occasional drinkers.
Mohana Ravindranath - The New York Times
Drinking is harmful to your health at any age. But as you get older, the risks become greater - even with the same amount of drinks. Alcohol affects "virtually every organ system in the body," including the muscles and blood vessels, digestive system, heart and brain, said Sara Jo Nixon, the director of the Center for Addiction Research & Education at the University of Florida. "It particularly impacts older adults, because there's already some decline or impact in those areas." "There's a whole different set" of health risk factors for older drinkers, said Paul Sacco, a professor of social work at the University of Maryland, Baltimore who studies substance use and aging. People might not realize that the drinks they used to tolerate well are now affecting their brains and bodies differently, he said.
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| Regions | | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | Private Bankers Ride India's Wealth Boom to $600 Million Fortune; Karan Bhagat, who heads one of the country's largest wealth management firms, is on the cusp of a major deal with UBS to expand his business.
Chanyaporn Chanjaroen, Advait Palepu, and Preeti Singh - Bloomberg
When Karan Bhagat was a 25-year-old broker, he used to drive through New Delhi's priciest neighborhoods, cold-calling on mansions in the hopes of finding his first super-rich client. More than two decades later, Bhagat leads one of India's largest wealth managers. His 360 One WAM Ltd., which oversees $68 billion in assets, is close to clinching a deal to take over the local operations of UBS Group AG. In return, the Swiss bank plans to acquire nearly 5% of Bhagat's firm, a sliver worth around $250 million.
/jlne.ws/44fOsQA
Chinese Firm in Talks to Import Distillers Grains From Brazil
Clarice Couto - Bloomberg
Commodity trader Xiamen C&D Inc. is in talks to import distillers grains from Brazil as China prepares to begin sourcing the protein-rich feed ingredient from the South American nation. The company is seeking crop processors with combined capacity to supply more than 500,000 metric tons a year of distillers dried grains, a byproduct of corn ethanol production used in livestock feed, according to Liu Wei, a general representative for C&D in Brazil. The business is also weighing investment in Brazilian producers of DDGs, as the feedstock is known.
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Merz Rules Out Pooled Deposit Protection in Banking Union Blow
Nicholas Comfort and Michael Nienaber - Bloomberg
Chancellor Friedrich Merz rejected the idea of joint European Union deposit insurance, a scheme large banks and many officials view as key to forging closer financial ties and ultimately strengthening the sovereignty of the bloc. "Let me make this very clear: we've discussed deposit guarantee systems in Europe long enough," Merz said Thursday in a speech at a banking forum in Berlin. "And there's absolutely no reason to pool functioning liability systems at the member-state level within the EU."
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Do Latin America Bankers Know Patience Is a Virtue?; For the region's central banks, there is little to be lost in waiting for hard data showing the recent rise in inflation rates is temporary before easing further.
Juan Pablo Spinetto - Bloomberg Opinion
Even with a cold spell advancing from the south, Latin America is feeling unusually sticky these days in one aspect. Of the region's top five central banks with inflation-targeting policies, only Peru's has managed to slow price increases consistently to target five years after the start of the global pandemic. That's in contrast to Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and Chile, where price pressures in the service sectors, robust economic growth, strengthening labor markets and looser fiscal impulses have combined to put an end to a deflationary trend that began in late 2022. Worse, Brazil and Mexico - the two largest economies - have suffered an uptick in inflation rates in 2025, putting policymakers in bit of a pickle.
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For Brazil's Criminals, Coffee Beans Are the Target; Farmers and industry groups are warning that the harvest season now underway could go down as the worst heist year in recent memory.
Sam Cowie - Bloomberg
Donizete Guidini was transporting 30 metric tons of coffee along a country highway in São Paulo on an April night when a car full of armed men forced him to stop. The hijackers directed him to a nearby gas station at gunpoint, stole the truck and cargo, and left Guidini blindfolded in a sugarcane field. Brazil, the world's largest producer and exporter of coffee, has long grappled with bean thefts by petty criminals and organized gangs alike. But with prices for the commodity sharply elevated compared with past years, farmers and industry groups are warning that the harvest season that runs from late May through September could go down as the worst heist year in recent memory.
/jlne.ws/45TXpR0
Canada Goods Trade Deficit Narrows on Higher Gold Shipments
Randy Thanthong-Knight - Bloomberg
Canada's share of exports destined for the US shrank to the smallest proportion since at least 1997, excluding the Covid pandemic. Shipments to other countries reached a new high, led by gold exports. With US tariffs crushing exports and imports between Canada and its biggest trading partner, exports to other countries helped narrow the nation's trade deficit to C$5.9 billion ($4.3 billion) in May, from a record C$7.6 billion in April, according to Statistics Canada data Thursday. May's smaller trade gap was in line with the median projection in a Bloomberg survey of economists.
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| Miscellaneous | | Stories that don't quite fit under the other sections | Trump's Lawfare Against the Free Press; He suggests prosecuting CNN, while pressuring a settlement out of CBS.
The Editorial Board - The Wall Street Journal
President Trump has taunted the media for years, and some of his jibes are deserved given the groupthink in most newsrooms. What's happening now, though, is different: The President is using government to intimidate news outlets that publish stories he doesn't like. It's a low move in a free country with a free press. On Tuesday Mr. Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem suggested CNN might be prosecuted for publishing a report about an app called ICEBlock, which lets users flag locations where they've spotted operations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
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