| August 05, 2024 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | | | John Lothian
Publisher
John Lothian News | |
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Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff
There is a bear emerging, and I am not talking about the dead bear cub Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. dropped off in Central Park. Markets are down, with Japan dropping in the biggest rout since the 1987 stock market crash. It is an ugly morning. Fasten your seatbelts.
Friday's option volume hit a record 71.4 million contracts as markets fell after a weak jobs report and Intel layoffs, Cboe's Henry Schwartz shared on LinkedIn over the weekend. The first hour saw 22 million contracts, surpassing the 2019 daily average by nearly 3 million. As the VIX reached levels unseen since March 2023, traders moved into crisis mode, pushing index option volume to a record 8 million contracts, 88% above normal. Single stock options traded 38 million contracts (42% above average), and ETFs 25 million (33% above average), with volatility doubling since early July and SPX put/call skew rising from historic lows to 6.5 points.
Do you want to take a look at the data from trading from the first half of 2024? FIA is hosting a webinar on August 7 that will provide insights into trading activity in the global listed derivatives markets in the first half of the year. Guest speaker Scott Klipper, a portfolio manager for GreshamQuant, the systematic arm of Gresham Investment Management, will join FIA's Will Acworth to discuss trends in trading activity. Register HERE.
The Eurex Three-Month Euro STR futures have traded more than 15 million contracts since their launch in January of 2023, and sport a market share of 60% and record open interest of 137,750 contracts, Eurex shared on LinkedIn.
IEX is launching a new series of short episodes titled "Boxes and Lines Lite," starting with a discussion on 24/7 trading. In this episode, John Ramsay and Ronan Ryan explore the implications of round-the-clock trading, as retail brokers like Robinhood and Interactive Brokers already offer 24-hour trading on weekdays, and a new start-up seeks SEC approval for an always-on exchange. Tune in to hear their insights and share your thoughts on these shorter episodes in the comments. Full-length episodes with guests will continue as usual.
G. H. Financials (GHF) has appointed Raymond Wong as managing director of G. H. Financials (Hong Kong) Limited, effective September 2nd, the firm shared on LinkedIn. Currently based in London, Wong will relocate to Hong Kong to lead the firm's growth in the Asia-Pacific region. Wong joins GHF after eight years at Hong Kong Exchange and Clearing (HKEX), where he was head of EMEA business development. He previously worked as an equity derivatives broker at Qantex Capital Markets and Vantage Capital Markets, beginning his career in 2006.
Marex Capital Markets Inc has joined LCH SwapClear as the first non-bank FCM clearing member. As a diversified global financial services platform, Marex will now offer OTC client clearing services for interest rate swaps on LCH's SwapClear. Marex will benefit from LCH SwapClear's services, including trade compression, portfolio margining, and the ability to post various types of collateral.
Ian Mawdsley is starting a new position as head of international business development at Broadridge, he shared on LinkedIn.
Here are news excerpts from FOW from in front of its paywall: The European Energy Exchange (EEX) reported a spike in July power derivatives trading volumes driven by its European and Japanese markets. The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) is optimistic about the UK's readiness for the upcoming European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) Refit, citing successful execution in the EU and strong UK firm engagement. Marex cleared its first interest rate swaps, marking a significant step in its sector ambitions. Former BNP COO Kee-Meng Tan joined London-based AI firm TurinTech as COO. G.H. Financials appointed Raymond Wong, former HKEX European head, as managing director, effective next month. Cboe Global Markets anticipates increased international demand for its US options products. CME reported a 24% increase in July trading volume, setting a record for the fourth consecutive month.
Have a great day and stay safe and treat people the same way you want to be treated: with respect, equality and justice.~JJL
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"The Role of Futures Markets in the Transition to Net Zero" is the editor's pick from the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) August issue of Focus Magazine. Written by Monique Bell, commodities product manager at the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), the article discusses the ways exchanges are ideally situated to provide the necessary products, transparency, and connectivity for customers to manage transitional price risks. By building on its core Australian and New Zealand electricity market, ASX intends to deliver an integrated transitional ecosystem across electricity, gas and environmental products to help the market manage uncertainty and risk. To support this, ASX is waiving fees on all environmental futures transactions from July 29 to October 31, 2024. You can read this article and other WFE news on the website HERE. ~SAED
Our most read stories from our previous edition of JLN Options were:
- Frenzied options trading offers minimal benefits: Sebi's Ananth Narayan from Mint.
- Flextrade VP Rob Brogan Discusses AI, Zero-Day Options, and Algo Innovations at Options Conference from John Lothian News.
- Vix surges to 15-month high as jobs report spark recession worries from Investing.com. ~JB
Subscribe to the JLN Options Newsletter HERE (it's free).
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Steve Sosnick of Interactive Brokers Discusses Trends and Risks in the Options Market at the Asheville Conference
JohnLothianNews.com
In a recent interview at the Options Industry Conference in Asheville, NC, Steve Sosnick, Chief Strategist at Interactive Brokers, shared his insights on the evolving landscape of the options industry with John Lothian News. The interview, part of the JLN Industry Leader video series sponsored by OCC, highlighted several key trends and concerns shaping the market.
Watch the video »
Former ABN AMRO Executive Mike Dennis Discusses Market Trends and Opportunities in Crypto and Fixed Income at Options Conference
Watch Video »
Flextrade VP Rob Brogan Discusses AI, Zero-day Options, and Algo Innovations at Options Conference
Watch Video »
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Nasdaq 100 Futures Indicate Gauge's Worst Open in Four Years
Henry Ren and Kurt Schussler - Bloomberg
The Nasdaq 100 is set for its biggest opening drop in more than four years, with investors bracing for days of volatility amid rising concerns over a slowing US economy and overheated gains in the tech sector. Contracts on the Nasdaq 100 fell as much as 6.5% before paring losses to about 4.5%. That puts the tech-heavy index on track for its worst open since the pandemic days of March 2020. S&P 500 futures were down 2.7% while those tracking the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 1.6%.
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***** Mondays!~JJL
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STA Arizona: A Growing National Footprint
Jim Hyde - STA
We are thrilled to officially announce the launch of the STA Arizona Chapter (STAZ)! Formed through the collaboration of local and national leaders in the STA community, we're excited to bring this meaningful opportunity to engage with STA on a regional level to those in the Arizona area. STAZ will initially operate as a committee under the STA umbrella with the goal of becoming an independent affiliate in the future. This transition from committee to affiliate will be led by Vinnie LaMacchia, Managing Director at Canaccord Genuity and an Arizona resident for over 20 years. Vinnie will be joined by a five-person board composed of senior leaders from some of the biggest names in financial services.
/jlne.ws/4frzJWn
****** Arizona is joining STA. What took so long?~JJL
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The battle over who makes the rules for US companies; Lawyers, judges and legislators are locked in a war of words in Delaware, the legal home of more corporations than any other state
Sujeet Indap - Financial Times
In October 2022, Tesla founder Elon Musk grudgingly completed the $44bn acquisition of Twitter, a transaction he had spent the summer trying to wriggle out of. Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick, the Delaware judge who adjudicated in the dispute between Musk and Twitter's shareholders, was lauded for her finesse in guiding the litigants to settle a resolution between themselves, without recourse to an expensive trial. The efficiency of the Delaware Court of Chancery, where the Twitter merger contract stipulated any disagreement between the parties must be heard, meant that within just a few months Musk got his day in court and then Twitter shareholders got their money, as per the original terms of the buyout.
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****This story highlights the growing tension between Delaware's corporate-friendly legal system and recent court rulings that have challenged established practices, potentially threatening the state's dominance as a preferred incorporation location for major U.S. companies.~JJL
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Friday's Top Three
Our top story Friday was the John Lothian News video interview Former ABN AMRO Executive Mike Dennis Discusses Market Trends and Opportunities in Crypto and Fixed Income at Options Conference. Second was This 23-Floor Manhattan Office Building Just Sold at a 97.5% Discount, from The New York Times. Third was Cboe Global Markets Reports Results for Second Quarter 2024, a Cboe press release.
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| Lead Stories | Grim Milestones Pile Up as Asia Bears Brunt of Stock Selloff
Abhishek Vishnoi, Youkyung Lee and John Cheng - Bloomberg
Asian equities tumbled as fears of a deeper US economic slowdown and an extended rout in Japanese shares sapped risk appetite, with matters made worse by a violent rotation away from heavyweight tech stocks. Many equity indexes across the region hit bleak milestones on Monday, with those in export-reliant markets of Japan, Taiwan and Korea suffering the most - their benchmarks sank more than 10% each intraday. Circuit breakers temporarily suspended trading of futures for the Topix as well as the Nikkei 225 Stock Average multiple times, while trading was also briefly halted for the Kospi and Kosdaq cash and futures markets in Seoul.
/jlne.ws/3YylZD8
Japan's Nikkei sees biggest rout since 1987 Black Monday
Ankur Banerjee and Junko Fujita - Reuters
Japanese stocks collapsed on Monday in their biggest single day rout since the 1987 Black Monday sell-offs, driven by last week's plunge in global stock markets, economic concerns and worries investments funded by a cheap yen were being unwound. The Nikkei share average shed a staggering 12.4% as Friday's dismal jobs data heightened worries of a possible recession, and as the yen rallied to 7-month highs versus the dollar. This was the index's worst showing in percentage terms since the October 1987 crash.
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***Here is the story from the Financial Times.
Magnificent Seven set to shed $1 trillion in value, led by Apple, Nvidia
Reuters
Apple and Nvidia led a sell-off in technology stocks on Monday as U.S. recession fears and Berkshire Hathaway's decision to cut its stake in the iPhone maker punctured a months-long rally in the sector. High-performing shares of Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms, Microsoft and Tesla fell as much as 12.2% in premarket trading. The losses in the Magnificent Seven stocks were set to wipe out nearly $1 trillion from the combined market value of the companies.
/jlne.ws/3SwcMar
TSMC Drags Down Taiwan as Index Suffers Worst Day in 57 Years
Charlotte Yang and Betty Hou - Bloomberg
Taiwan's benchmark stock index plunged by a record, as tech-heavy gauges in Asia took the brunt of a selloff triggered by fear of a deeper US economic slowdown. The Taiex gauge ended 8.4% lower in Taipei, marking its worst selloff since 1967. The decline was led by AI-chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., which plunged by 9.8%, also a record daily decline. Its rivals in South Korea tumbled.
/jlne.ws/3ysLfQI
Buffett's Butterfly Turns Into Terror Over Tokyo; So did US employment data, the Fed's delays on rates cuts, and a flock of evidence that makes investors see recession.
John Authers - Bloomberg
What Just Happened?
Tokyo markets have opened the week with great drama - and it's best to think of it as chaos theory at work. A butterfly flapping its wings in Wall Street (with some help from Warren Buffett, the Federal Reserve, and innumerable retail investors) has created a Tokyo typhoon (or morphed into a giant, markets-destroying Mothra, if you're a fan of Japanese monster classics). To explain why, we must start with the expectations embedded before prices started to churn. The July survey of global fund managers produced by Bank of America Corp. showed high confidence in a soft landing for the global economy (expected by 68%). The chance of a hard landing was put at only 11%, although this did represent a rise from earlier in the year:
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ICE Rejects Proposal to Include EU Debt in Sovereign Indexes; There was 'nothing close to a consensus' on EU's status: ICE; Bloc is classified as a supranational rather than a sovereign
Greg Ritchie - Bloomberg
Intercontinental Exchange Inc. rejected a proposal to include debt issued by the European Union in its government bond benchmarks, the latest blow to the bloc's quest to attract a larger pool of investors. The index provider and owner of the New York Stock Exchange said it wouldn't alter its definition of a sovereign issuer, which would have allowed for the change. The decision follows a similar move by MSCI Inc. in June.
/jlne.ws/3SBmqJg
Bill Ackman's grand vision unravels; Plus, cash piles up, investing in classic cars, and school's out for summer
Harriet Agnew, Asset Management Editor - Financial Times
Pershing Square USA's week to forget Bill Ackman descended on downtown Omaha in early May for what UBS billed as a "special fireside chat". It was an opportunity to get Ackman and his partner Ryan Israel in front of the kinds of investors who had stuck with Warren Buffett for decades, investors who might be interested in the pair's soon-to-be listed closed-end fund, Pershing Square USA. The following day, Buffett himself would be taking the main stage across the street, with tens of thousands of Berkshire Hathaway shareholders - not to mention corporate chieftains including Citi's Jane Fraser and Apple's Tim Cook - flying in for the Oracle of Omaha's annual general meeting. An adoring crowd met Ackman at the UBS event.
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Why global investors find it so easy to sell Japan; Speed and ferocity of Tokyo market correction is eye-catching
Leo Lewis - Financial Times
Just a few months ago, Tokyo's dealing floors were in celebratory mode - to the point of inviting journalists into their inner sanctums to watch the numbers on their giant screens soaring past the once untouchable 1989 all-time high. Japan was back, or so it seemed. But - despite all the signs of a sustainable Japan recovery for once - maybe this time was not so different after all.
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Climate Protesters Are Bringing the Fight to Wall Street Bankers; The 'Summer of Heat' demonstrators outside of Citigroup targeting lending for fossil fuels, in photos.
Miranda Jeyaretnam - Bloomberg
Climate activists have converged on the shady, tree-lined plaza at Citigroup Inc.'s headquarters in New York in a series of demonstrations this summer. Some have come dressed in orca suits. Others have linked their arms, slicked with sweat, to form a barricade in front of the bank's entrance, or they've held up signs that read "Hot People Hate Wall Street." On July 8 a group of older activists, shown in the photos below, held a march and mock die-in. Dozens laid down passively so officers of the New York City Police Department could arrest them.
/jlne.ws/4dvxv6E
Bitcoin Plunges, Ether Has Worst Drop Since 2021 as Crypto Sinks; Risk aversion in global markets drags down crypto prices; Bitcoin already posted biggest weekly fall since FTX crisis
Suvashree Ghosh and Ryan Weeks - Bloomberg
Cryptocurrencies reeled from a bout of risk aversion in global markets on Monday, at one point sending Bitcoin down more than 16% and saddling second-ranked Ether with the steepest fall since 2021. Top token Bitcoin traded 14% lower at $51,130 as of 7:08 a.m. in New York, adding to a 13.1% drop last week that was the worst since the period when the FTX exchange imploded. Ether shed over a fifth of its value before paring some of the slide to change hands at $2,246. Most major coins nursed losses.
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Private Equity Drought Has Made Investors More Reliant on Stocks; Stock portfolios met cash needs last year, institutions say; PE's appeal has waned as distributions have dried up
Marion Halftermeyer - Bloomberg
The slump in private equity returns has increasingly pushed US pensions and endowments to lean on an old and familiar investment: Stocks. Large public pension funds including California Public Employees' Retirement System, Alaska Permanent Fund, and Teacher Retirement System of Texas, and endowments at Ivy League schools such as Columbia University, have been heavily reliant on public market investments to both bolster performance and free up cash.
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US Farmland Values Hit New Highs Despite Tumbling Grain Prices; Average hits $4,170 per acre in fourth straight year of gains; Increase comes even as net farm income expected to drop
Michael Hirtzer - Bloomberg
American farmland values keep going up, despite expectations that tumbling crop prices and elevated interest rates will pressure agriculture investments. A price measurement of all land and buildings on US farms gained 5% from a year ago to an average of $4,170 per acre, the US Department of Agriculture said Friday in a report. While that's the fourth straight year of gains, it's also the smallest increase since 2021.
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SocGen to sell UK and Swiss private bank units for EUR900mn; Disposals to Union Bancaire Privée are latest move by chief executive Slawomir Krupa to refocus French lender
Sarah White - Financial Times
France's Societe Generale has agreed to sell its British and Swiss private banking divisions for EUR900mn to Union Bancaire Privée as part of a drive by chief executive Slawomir Krupa to ditch less profitable businesses. On Monday, France's third-biggest bank by market value said it was selling SG Kleinwort Hambros in the UK and Societe Generale Private Banking Suisse to Geneva-based UBP. The divisions have about EUR25bn in assets under management between them. The disposals are the latest in a series initiated by Krupa since taking over last year, as he seeks to refocus the French lender and build up its capital after a series of restructurings over the past 15 years.
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Fannie, Freddie Are Poised to Tighten Real-Estate Lending Rules; Move comes as federal regulators and prosecutors step up efforts to root out commercial mortgage fraud
Gina Heeb - The Wall Street Journal
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are preparing to impose stricter rules for commercial-property lenders and brokers, following a budding regulatory crackdown on fraud in the multitrillion-dollar market. Lenders would have to independently verify financial information related to borrowers for apartment complexes and other multifamily properties, according to people familiar with the preliminary plans.
/jlne.ws/4fqJvYR
Wall Street Goes to the Olympics: Business of Sports
Gillian Tan and Hugo Miller - Bloomberg
Wall Street Dash
G'day, it's Gillian. Forget the Hamptons, Nantucket or Capri - Paris is the place to be for titans of Wall Street. "It's a bit like Davos with some Olympics events in between," said Mary Erdoes, who leads JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s asset and wealth management business. The 17-day event, which officially began last Friday, is similar to a marathon, she said, describing non-stop client meetings and unplanned run-ins with CEOs in sporting arenas. Erdoes' self-professed favorite event is gymnastics, in part because her daughter is a UCLA athlete, but she has watched archery and swimming, and witnessed France's Leon Marchand's historic dual-gold medal winning feat.
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| Ukraine Invasion | | News about the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and its military, economic, political and humanitarian impact | Satellite Images Show LNG Ship at Sanctioned Russian Plant
Stephen Stapczynski - Bloomberg
A large vessel docked at Russia's liquefied natural gas export plant in the Arctic last week, according to satellite images, in what appears to be the first move to circumvent US sanctions against the facility. Novatek PJSC, which leads the facility, has not commented on the arrival of a vessel, and the images, taken by the Sentinel 2 satellite, do not confirm LNG is being loaded.
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Ukraine finally deploying US-made F-16 fighter jets, Zelenskiy says
Anastasiia Malenko - Reuters
Ukrainian pilots have started flying F-16s for operations within the nation, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday, confirming the long-awaited arrival of the U.S.-made fighter jets more than 29 months after Russia's invasion. The Ukrainian leader announced the use of F-16s, which Kyiv has long lobbied for, as he met military pilots at an air base flanked by two of the jets, with two more flying overhead. "F-16s are in Ukraine. We did it. I am proud of our guys who are mastering these jets and have already started using them for our country," Zelenskiy said at a location that authorities asked Reuters not to disclose for security reasons. The arrival of the jets is a milestone for Ukraine, though it remains unclear how many are available and how much of an impact they will have in enhancing air defences and on the battlefield.
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A Gas Carrier Faking Its Location Helps Russia Avoid Sanctions; Deck appearance and dimensions match a dark fleet ship; Moscow is assembling LNG vessels to circumvent restrictions
Stephen Stapczynski - Bloomberg
A liquefied natural gas tanker that's docked at a sanctioned Russian gas facility has no known insurer, is managed by a little known Indian company and is pretending to be somewhere else. Samir Madani, co-founder of TankerTrackers.com, identified the ship recently docked at the Arctic LNG 2 export plant as the Pioneer vessel, citing deck appearance and dimensions. He also said it was sending signals showing it's 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) away, a move known as spoofing that's a classic hallmark of the shadow fleet.
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| Israel/Hamas Conflict | | News about the recent (October, 2023) conflict between Israel and Hamas | Hezbollah launches 50 rockets at Israel
The Telegraph
Hezbollah launched dozens of rockets from Lebanon, as fears of full-scale war with Israel continue to mount. The Iran-backed group said it was acting in response to Israel's attacks on Kfarkela and Deir Siriane in Lebanon which, it said, had injured civilians there. Some 50 rockets were reportedly fired from southern Lebanon towards upper Galilee, according to Israeli media.
/jlne.ws/4d9jMT1
Iran Says It Will Punish Israel But Wants to Avoid All-Out War
Arsalan Shahla and Patrick Sykes - Bloomberg
Iran signaled it wants to avoid all-out war with Israel, even as it threatened to retaliate for last week's assassination of a leading Hamas figure in its capital. Tehran, which had already vowed revenge for the killing of Ismail Haniyeh, said it aimed to deter Israel from repeating similar moves. Israel's neither confirmed nor denied being responsible.
/jlne.ws/4dtYejY
Widespread boycotts in Muslim countries hammer western brands; Rejection of goods based on perceived political agendas over Israel-Gaza conflict hitting revenues
Financial Times
Boycotts of western food and drinks brands in Muslim countries are hitting the revenues of multinationals and their franchise operators, exacerbating the impact of a global consumer slowdown on their bottom line. From Egypt to Indonesia and Saudi Arabia to Pakistan, consumers are shunning goods produced by companies such as Coca-Cola, KFC, Starbucks, Mondelez and Pizza Hut, in protest against their perceived support for Israel in the war in Gaza.
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| Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | Intercontinental Exchange Reports July 2024 Statistics
Intercontinental Exchange, Inc.
Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE:ICE), a leading global provider of technology and data, today reported July 2024 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. July highlights include: Total average daily volume (ADV) up 26% y/y; open interest (OI) up 20% y/y Energy ADV up 22% y/y; OI up 25% y/y, including record OI of 64M lots on July 25 Total Oil ADV up 16% y/y; OI up 20% y/y Brent ADV up 11% y/y; OI up 15% y/y WTI ADV up 54% y/y; OI up 32% y/y, including record futures OI of 794k lots on July 17 Gasoil ADV up 16% y/y; OI up 48% y/y, including record OI of 1.2M lots on July 1 Other Crude & Refined products ADV up 17% y/y; OI up 19% y/y Murban ADV up 126% y/y
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ICE Mortgage Monitor: As Tappable Equity Hits Record High of $11.5T, 3 of 5 Mortgage Holders Have at Least $100K to Borrow Against
Intercontinental Exchange, Inc.
Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE:ICE), a leading global provider of technology and data, today released its August 2024 ICE Mortgage Monitor Report, based on the company's industry-leading mortgage, real estate and public records data sets. Though the ICE Home Price Index (HPI) has shown a general slowdown in the rate of home price growth through June - and in some locales, price declines driven by surplus inventory - mortgage holders' equity levels continue to hit new heights. As Andy Walden, ICE Vice President of Research and Analysis, explains, there is more outstanding mortgage debt today than at any point in history, but at the same time, overall market leverage remains near all-time lows.
/jlne.ws/3YwKssA
B1G Numbers July 2024: Key Figures from SIX Swiss Exchange; Watch the new "B1G Numbers" video and get first-hand information about the trading and listing activity in the past month on the Swiss stock exchange.
SIX
In July, the Swiss blue-chip index SMI, which had closed just below 12,000 points in June, climbed above this mark and reached its provisional annual high of 12,434 points on 15 July. It closed the month at 12,317.4 points, up 2.7% on June and 10.6% since the beginning of the year. With regards to trading activity on SIX Swiss Exchange, turnover rose by 3% to CHF 94.9bn in July, while the number of transactions increased significantly: at over 4mn, it was 14.4% higher than in the previous month.
/jlne.ws/3WROgDB
EEX Press Release - EEX Group Monthly Volumes - July 2024
EEX
EEX Group Global Power markets continued their upward trend with a monthly volume of 814.6 TWh (+35% year-on-year). Strong growth of 61% was achieved on the European power derivatives markets with a total of 591.3 TWh. Czech Power Futures reached a new monthly record of 3.2 TWh. Volumes in French (97.7 TWh), Spanish (14.2 TWh) and Hungarian Power Futures (13.5 TWh) more than doubled year-on-year.
/jlne.ws/3SBkVe6
Product modification Summary: Availability of Additional Treasury Invoice Swaps and Spreads - Effective August 05, 2024
CME Group
Availability of Additional Treasury Invoice Swaps and Spreads.
/jlne.ws/3WlSyBJ
Decommission of Deprecated Interest Rate Risk Data Files (Optimizer inputs) starting October 28, 2024
CME Group
Consistent with this advisory, CME is decommissioning the publication of certain deprecated interest rate risk data files previously supported by the Optimizer software. The files will no longer be distributed by CME starting Monday, October 28, 2024 and users who have processes retrieving these files should review and update their systems before October 28, 2024 to prevent errors.
/jlne.ws/3yrsNrt
Moscow Exchange Trading Volumes in July 2024
MOEX
In July 2024, total trading volume across Moscow Exchange's markets was RUB 128.0 trln (RUB 103.7 trln in July 2023). Unless stated otherwise, all figures below refer to performance for July 2024 and all comparisons are with the same period last year.
/jlne.ws/3WwLH8u
Companies with the highest number of complaints
pending.
NSE
Out of the companies whose securities are traded on NSE, there is one company with the number of complaints greater than or equal to 10, pending for more than 2 months OR the aggregate value of the complaints pending for more than 2 months is equal to or greater than Rs.5 lakhs for 5 or more complaints as on July 31, 2024.
/jlne.ws/3SwctfN
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| Fintech | | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | AI Is Getting Cheaper. That Won't Fix Everything; There's still a broad question of how useful generative AI can be to a business's bottom line.
Parmy Olson - Bloomberg
For a technology that promises to help businesses cut costs, artificial intelligence has had a big problem with being so costly. AI's scaling laws, which say that you need more computing power to make more powerful models, have put tech companies on a race to spend billions of dollars building vast data centers and buying powerful chips - costs they can't help passing on to their customers. Google's AI tool for generating documents or emails for office workers is not cheap. It adds $20 to their employer's monthly $6 bill for the company's Workspace suite, per staff member. Microsoft Corp.'s Copilot AI assistant costs $30 a month per worker.
/jlne.ws/3yhpRhg
Big Tech's AI Promises Become a 'Show Me' Story For Investors; Earnings growth has cooled dramatically for Mag 7 so far; Investors balked at heavy spending on AI without results
Carmen Reinicke - Bloomberg
After a jam-packed week of earnings reports from megacap technology companies one thing is clear: as profits slow, investors aren't impressed by artificial-intelligence promises anymore. They want to see results. With six companies inside a group known as the Magnificent Seven already having reported, year-over-year earnings growth has slowed to nearly 30% in the second quarter, down from 50% in the prior period. Analysts expect that rate to decelerate further, to about 17% for those companies in the third quarter.
/jlne.ws/3WRgYo3
Wall Street will support heavy AI spending as long as everything else is going great
Hamza Shaban - Yahoo Finance
Sifting through the financial wreckage of last week's pullback illuminates an evolution in the AI trade. As Big Tech giants reported results this earnings season, Wall Street didn't mind heavy AI spending, but with one key caveat: Everything else in the business had to be humming along.
/jlne.ws/46xxFbk
Delay to Nvidia's new AI chip could affect Microsoft, Google, Meta, the Information says
Reuters
Design flaws could cause a delay of three months or more in the launch of chip giant Nvidia's upcoming artificial-intelligence chips, tech-focused publication the Information said on Friday. The setback could affect customers such as Meta Platforms, Alphabet's Google and Microsoft, which have collectively ordered tens of billions of dollars' worth of chips, it said, citing people who help produce chip and server hardware for Nvidia.
/jlne.ws/3WuBvNP
Elon Musk revives lawsuit against Sam Altman and OpenAI, filing shows
Reuters
Elon Musk has revived a lawsuit against ChatGPT maker OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman on Monday, saying that the firm put profits and commercial interests ahead of the public good. The new lawsuit is the latest attempt by Musk to oppose the company he co-founded in 2015. He alleges that once OpenAI's technology started to transform generative artificial intelligence, Altman "flipped the narrative and proceeded to cash in."
/jlne.ws/3LTgHKX
AI chip startup Groq lands $640M to challenge Nvidia
Kyle Wiggers - TechCrunch
/jlne.ws/4fumDaT
Tencent Joins $300 Million Financing for China's AI Unicorn; Moonshot is valued $3.3 billion after closing the latest round; The startup also secured fresh funding from Alibaba, Gaorong
Zheping Huang - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/4dcfWZi
Surging AI power demand boosts utility stocks; Investors have found a cheaper way to play the market's hot new obsession
Will Schmitt in New York and Myles McCormick in Houston - Financial Times
/jlne.ws/4dpJeEd
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| Cybersecurity | | Top stories for cybersecurity | How I got 'hacked' and what that says about the banking system; A mysterious breach of a small bank in Arkansas shows fintech needs to focus more on its plumbing
Stephen Gandel - Financial Times (opinion)
The hack of a small community bank in Arkansas and a related fight over as much as $95mn in missing customer funds that has increasingly drawn the ire of bank regulators and lawmakers has ensnared a surprising, personally at least, victim: Me. Last week, my wife got an email from Evolve Bank & Trust, which is based in West Memphis, Arkansas, saying a data breach at the bank had exposed our personal information to hackers, but that our funds remained safe.
/jlne.ws/3WquVYA
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| Cryptocurrencies | | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | Crypto Is Booming Again in New York as Sentiment Turns Positive
Muyao Shen - Bloomberg
Crypto startup Concrete recent decamping to New York's Meatpacking District from the San Francisco Bay Area may be emblematic of a budding digital-asset renaissance in the Big Apple. More than a dozen crypto-related companies, big and small, have opened or are planning to open offices this year. Much of the change is due to the overall sentiment toward crypto becoming more favorable as the sector recovers from several years of turmoil. Then there's Silicon Valley turning its attention to the latest hot sector - artificial intelligence.
/jlne.ws/4drmL9d
Crypto's Trump Bandwagon Has Plenty of Empty Seats; Bitcoin 'doesn't care who's president,' says one crypto exec; Some hope for softer regulatory touch even if Harris wins
Teresa Xie - Bloomberg
At first glance, it may look like the entire US cryptocurrency community will be lining up to vote for Donald Trump in November's presidential election. Yet the loudest voices in the room don't always represent unanimity. Even when Trump spoke at the largest Bitcoin conference in the US last weekend, where many sported red MAGA and "Make Bitcoin Great Again" hats, there was a whiff of dissent among those who worried that crypto's anti-government ethos was perishing before their eyes.
/jlne.ws/3SB0hdL
Crypto Lender Genesis Completes Restructuring, Begins Payouts; Bitcoin creditors will receive 51% recovery on in-kind basis; Genesis distributions come soon after Mt Gox repaid billions
Olga Kharif - Bloomberg
Crypto lender Genesis Global and related companies completed its bankruptcy restructuring and began distributing about $4 billion in digital assets and cash to creditors. Bitcoin creditors will receive 51.28% recoveries as valued on an in-kind basis, and Ether creditors will receive 65.87% recoveries, the entities said in a statement Friday. Solana creditors will receive 29.58% recoveries as valued on an in-kind basis.
/jlne.ws/3yukkE3
Morgan Stanley to Allow Advisers to Offer Bitcoin ETFs to Wealthy Clients; Advisers can offer BlackRock's IBIT and FBTC to clients; Bitcoin ETFs have seen $18 billion in net inflows this year
Isabelle Lee - Bloomberg
Morgan Stanley gave thousands of financial advisers the green light to solicit eligible clients to purchase spot-Bitcoin exchange-traded funds as soon as next week, according to a person familiar with the matter. The company in a memo told its 15,000-strong adviser base they can offer some clients to buy either BlackRock Inc.'s iShares Bitcoin Trust (ticker IBIT) or the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC), the person said. Morgan Stanley declined to comment on the approval, which was reported earlier by CNBC
/jlne.ws/46uHuXz
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| Politics | | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | Political Wagers Are Soaring in a Volatile US Election Season; With Harris in the race, a deluge of new gamblers are betting on outcomes in a fast-changing presidential cycle.
Paulina Cachero and Claire Ballentine - Bloomberg
First, he won $12,000 betting on Donald Trump picking JD Vance as his running mate. Then, another $40,000 predicting Joe Biden would drop out of the presidential race. Now, Caleb Davies has set his sights on who Kamala Harris will add to the Democratic ticket. In an era when retail traders lever up on options, meme stocks rocket from the bowels of Reddit and sports betting has shifted into the mainstream, a record flood of gamblers are trying to capitalize on the volatility of this year's chaotic election season by wagering on politics.
/jlne.ws/4furNnb
Trump hikes Mar-a-Lago membership to $1m raising concerns of selling access
Richard Luscombe - The Guardian
Donald Trump has set a million-dollar price tag for the ability to whisper in his ear should he win back the presidency in November, prompting ethics watchdogs to worry that the Republican nominee is selling access and political influence for personal gain. Trump is making available four new and rarely available memberships at his exclusive Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where he mingled freely with unvetted patrons during his first term of office and accepted policy advice from guests scrawled on cocktail napkins.
/jlne.ws/3X1eAv7
Forty-Eight Hours at the MAGA-fied Crypto Lovefest; The crowd at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville hopes Trump can make crypto great again.
Zeke Faux - Bloomberg
On July 17, about a week before Donald Trump took the stage in front of 8,000 or so Bitcoin fans in Nashville, David Bailey, the chief executive officer of Bitcoin Magazine, giddily explained how he and his friends had gotten the candidate to come. Bailey, a baby-faced 33-year-old with a bushy beard, was appearing on a podcast called Galaxy Brains, and he was telling the host, a crypto researcher, that it was so crazy he'd started writing a diary of sorts to keep track of everything that was happening. "You could never publish this, because literally no one would ever believe that this was a real thing," Bailey said.
/jlne.ws/3SwdwML
Musk-backed PAC under investigation for potential violations of Michigan laws
Reuters
A political action committee backed by billionaire Elon Musk is under investigation in Michigan for possible violations of state laws, a spokesperson for the Michigan secretary of state's office said in a statement on Sunday. Tesla CEO Musk has previously said he did create a PAC focused on supporting candidates but has not pledged anything to anyone. The Musk-backed America PAC has been acquiring detailed voter information from those living in Michigan and other states after people have submitted their personal data through a section on the PAC's website that says "register to vote," CNBC reported earlier.
/jlne.ws/3YwvqCT
A Father-Daughter Dynasty Looms Large in Texas Oil and Politics
David Wethe and Mitchell Ferman - Bloomberg Markets
In the West Texas oil capital of Midland, Tom Craddick's name is everywhere. The Nadine and Tom Craddick Highway helps drivers skirt the (not-very-heavy) traffic downtown. At the local hospital, physicians' suites occupy the two-story Craddick Medical Office Building. And at Midland College, on the north side, you'll find Craddick Hall, named for a local oil kingpin who also happens to be the longest-serving state legislator in Texas history.
/jlne.ws/3A9i7yr
Beware the march of the childless voter; JD Vance's attack on people without kids flies in the face of demographic reality
Pilita Clark - Financial Times
I feel being a mum means you have a very real stake in the future of our country. I have children who are going to have children who will directly be a part of what happens next, so it really keeps you focused. Those 43 words were uttered in 2016 by the UK's then energy minister, Andrea Leadsom, as she tried to persuade Conservative party voters to make her their next leader instead of the childless Theresa May.
/jlne.ws/3LUhSKe
UK Says Musk's 'Civil War Is Inevitable' Post Is Unjustified
Alex Wickham - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/4d6U6GE
North Korean leader marks the delivery of 250 nuclear-capable missile launchers to frontline units
Kim Tong-Hyung - Associated Press
/jlne.ws/4fuBHFo
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| Regulation & Enforcement | | Stories about regulation and the law. | Hong Kong regulators, banks struggle to contain damage from financial fraud
South China Morning Post
One Sunday afternoon in June, May Lee* received eight phone calls from people who claimed to be the customer support staff from WeChat, the ubiquitous Chinese super app that provides everything from social networking to e-payments and investments. Lee's credit cards and bank account had been frozen, the callers falsely asserted, because she had provided inaccurate data when she tried to unsubscribe an insurance policy on WeChat's wealth management platform. To free her account, she had to raise her daily remittance limit to HK$1 million (US$128,000) and make a handful of transfers to verify her identity, the callers said.
/jlne.ws/3SAZQjD
Vietnamese billionaire tycoon found guilty of defrauding stockholders, sentenced to 21 years
David Rising and Hau Dinh - Associated Press
A prominent Vietnamese business tycoon was found guilty Monday of defrauding stockholders of nearly $150 million by falsely inflating the value of his company, in a case that comes as the government cracks down on widespread corruption in the country. The Hanoi People's Court sentenced Trinh Van Quyet, 48, to 21 years in prison after a two-week trial that included 49 defendants who were named as accomplices, state-run VN Express reported. It was not immediately clear whether Quyet, who was arrested in 2022, would appeal.
/jlne.ws/3YwahZy
Glencore Ordered to Pay $150 Million by Swiss in Criminal Probe
Hugo Miller and Sabrina Willmer - Bloomberg
Glencore Plc was ordered to pay $150 million for failing to take sufficient measures to prevent bribery over its acquisition of mining assets in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Swiss prosecutors said as they closed a four-year investigation into the case. "Glencore's failure to take all necessary and reasonable organizational measures" warranted a 2 million Swiss franc ($2.4 million) fine and the further $150 million in compensation, the Swiss Attorney-General's Office said in a statement on Monday.
/jlne.ws/4dyTOIF
CFTC Exempts Additional Singapore Recognized Market Operators from SEF Registration Requirements
CFTC
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission today announced it unanimously approved an amended order that exempts two recognized market operators (RMOs) authorized within Singapore from CFTC swap execution facility (SEF) registration requirements. The exempted RMOs are FMX Securities (Singapore) Pte. Limited and LMAX Pte. Ltd.
/jlne.ws/3LXjJh2
SEC Proposes Joint Data Standards Under the Financial Data Transparency Act of 2022
SEC
Securities and Exchange Commission today proposed joint data standards under the Financial Data Transparency Act of 2022 that would establish technical standards for data submitted to certain financial regulatory agencies. Eight additional agencies have proposed or are expected to propose the joint standards: the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Department of the Treasury, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the National Credit Union Administration, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
/jlne.ws/4c9f0DH
Statement on Financial Data Transparency Act Proposed Joint Rulemaking
Chair Gary Gensler - SEC
Today, the Commission is proposing joint data standards for information collected by nine financial regulators (the "Agencies"). Through the Financial Data Transparency Act of 2022 ("FDTA"), Congress mandated that the Agencies propose such standards. In fulfilling the Congressional mandate, I'm pleased to support this proposal, as it will make financial data collected by the Agencies more accessible, uniform, and useful to the public. Consistent data standards will make it easier for financial institutions to file reports across multiple agencies. They also will help regulators be more effective and efficient in carrying out our oversight functions. The proposal puts forward standards with regards to data identifiers, as well as ways to transmit and structure data.
/jlne.ws/3WPF8iw
Statement on Financial Data Transparency Act Proposed Joint Data Standards
Commissioner Mark T. Uyeda - CFTC
As part of the Financial Data Transparency Act of 2022 ("FDTA"),[1] Congress directed the Commission and other financial regulatory agencies to jointly propose data standards for (1) certain collections of information reported to each agency by financial entities and (2) the data collected from the agencies on behalf of the Financial Stability Oversight Council.[2] Today, the Commission is proposing joint standards with the other agencies.[3] One part of the proposal establishes International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 17442-1:2020, Financial Services - Legal Entity Identifier ("LEI"), as the joint standard for the legal entity identifier. While LEI satisfies the FDTA's requirements for a joint data standard, I have concerns were the Commission[4] and other agencies to ultimately mandate the exclusive use of LEI from a specific organization.
/jlne.ws/3WQXyzG
Data Beta: Statement on Financial Data Transparency Act Joint Data Standards Proposal
Commissioner Hester M. Peirce - SEC
I support issuing this proposal, which is the first step in implementing the Financial Data Transparency Act ("FDTA"), which seeks to enhance the accessibility, usefulness, and interoperability of data reported to federal financial regulators. Together with other US financial regulators, we are proposing joint data standards, which we will then apply to our respective rulebooks in agency-specific rulemakings.
/jlne.ws/3Adki3Z
Court orders Noumi pay $5 million penalty for breaching continuous disclosure obligations
ASIC
The Federal Court has ordered food manufacturer Noumi Limited to pay a penalty of $5 million after it admitted to breaching its continuous disclosure obligations by overstating the value of inventory. The Court found Noumi, when it was trading as Freedom Foods, failed to disclose material information about the value of inventories in its financial reports for the full year ending 30 June 2019 (FY19) and the half year ending 31 December 2019 (HY20). Those accounts were overstated by $31.77 million in FY19 and $36.6 million in HY20 as a result of the inclusion of the unsaleable inventory.
/jlne.ws/3WzyQCp
Australian Securities and Investment Commission signs MoU with State Securities Commission Viet Nam
ASIC
On 2 August 2024, the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) signed its first Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the State Securities Commission (SSC) Viet Nam in Sydney to support information sharing arrangements under a formalised capacity building program supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (the Program). The MoU was signed by ASIC Chair Joe Longo and SSC Chairwoman Madam Vu Thi Chan Phuong and witnessed by senior Viet Nam government officials.
/jlne.ws/3SB6gzi
Unauthorised mortgage broker and others ordered to pay £4m by High Court
FCA
The FCA has secured an order of £4m against an unauthorised mortgage broker and its associates who exploited vulnerable consumers. London Property Investments (U.K) Limited (LPI) arranged mortgages while NPI Holdings Limited (NPI) bought properties and rented them back to the sellers, both without FCA authorisation. Daniel Stevens, the director of LPI and NPI, and his father, Tony Stevens, were also found liable.
/jlne.ws/4fyxKzC
Wanted core member of ramp-and-dump syndicate arrested
SFC
A suspected core member of a sophisticated ramp and dump syndicate, wanted by the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) and subject to an arrest warrant since October 2022, was arrested today in a joint operation of the SFC and the Police. The 55-year-old man, who had been placed on the "Have you seen these people?" on the SFC's website, was arrested after a report was filed to the SFC (Note 1). The suspect is detained pending the hearing in the Eastern Magistrates' Court tomorrow. Eleven other individuals including suspected masterminds connected to the case had been charged earlier. They will be tried in the District Court (Note 2).
/jlne.ws/3YuVYEI
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| Investing & Trading | | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | The 401(k) Investors Convinced That Target-Date Funds Miss the Mark
Anne Tergesen and Oyin Adedoyin - The Wall Street Journal
A group of investors are shunning the most popular retirement investment on Wall Street. Target-date funds are a professionally managed portfolio of stocks and bonds that recalibrates the mix as we hurtle toward retirement age. These funds now attract 64 cents of every dollar that flows into 401(k) plans, Vanguard Group data shows, and hold trillions in assets.
/jlne.ws/3A4iytB
Carry Trade Unwind Extends as Peso Sinks, Yen and Yuan Surge
Matthew Burgess - Bloomberg
The yen and yuan pushed higher Monday, while the Mexican peso's slump extended as traders continued to unwind emerging market carry trades. The peso fell as much as 2% against the dollar in Asian trading, extending its loss into a third straight day. The slump came as the yen surged more than 1% while China's yuan strengthened 0.7%, two currencies used to fund the popular trading strategy.
/jlne.ws/4dNB7B9
Japan's Nikkei 225 stock index plunges 12.4% as investors dump a wide range of shares
Associated Press Finance
Japan's Nikkei 225 stock index plunged more than 12% on Monday as investors worried that the U.S. economy may be in worse shape than had been expected and dumped a wide range of shares. The Nikkei index fell 4,451.28 points to 31,458.42. It dropped 5.8% on Friday and has now logged its worst two-day decline ever, dropping 18.2% in the last two trading sessions.
/jlne.ws/4d0Y2J3
Forced Margin Selling Seen Exacerbating Japan Market Rout
Hideyuki Sano - Bloomberg
The swift downturn in the Japanese stock market likely triggered a massive wave of forced selling among retail investors, deepening the rout. The Topix index plunged more than 7% with companies such as Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial diving more than 15%. The scale of selloff is such that some market players think individual investors are now being forced to dump stocks they had bought on margin.
/jlne.ws/3SDfCdX
Bunge, ADM to benefit as US farmers sell cheap crops in 'haul of shame'
Tom Polansek and P.j. Huffstutter - Reuters
A spike in bargain-basement crop sales by U.S. farmers needing to make room in storage bins for autumn harvests could boost profitability at grain handlers such as Archer-Daniels-Midland and Bunge Global. Both companies, which trade and process soybeans and corn and benefit from geographic differences in supply, recently flagged slow farmer selling as a drag on second-quarter earnings. Eight farmers in the key Midwestern crop-growing states of Iowa, Indiana, Illinois and Ohio told Reuters they are emptying storage bins of corn and soybeans harvested in 2023 after holding tight to supplies all year, as favorable weather for crop development finally dashes their hopes for higher prices. Farmers earlier resisted sales as corn and soy futures prices sank to 2020 lows this year under pressure from large supplies.
/jlne.ws/4cbLg9u
Record Volume Day for Options, as VVIX and VIX Indexes Rise More than 42% in Two Days
Matt Moran via LinkedIn
Headlines on the August 2nd noted: "Jolted by Soft Jobs Report, Stocks Tumble to End a Turbulent Week" in the New York Times, and "S&P 500, Dow, Nasdaq end sharply lower as weak jobs report triggers recession fears" in USA Today. Spurred by the financial news on jobs and stock prices, on August 2nd the U.S. options markets had a record trading volume day with 71,768,294 contracts traded.
/jlne.ws/46y2Q69
Williams College Joins Higher Ed Bond Boom Amid Investor Demand; Massachusetts school's $108 million debt sale gets Aa1 rating; Proceeds will go toward a new art museum, recreation center
Sri Taylor - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/46z5BnS
Blessed are the bean counters - except when it comes to growth; Accounting rules are holding back investment just as it needs to meet growth and net zero requirements
Andy Haldane - Financial Times (opinion)
/jlne.ws/3YwDUKw
Tyson Foods tops quarterly estimates as meat sales rebound
Reuters
/jlne.ws/3WAYhUl
Why pension funds should not be patriots; Next spring's expected UK pensions bill would be a good opportunity to boost auto-enrolment contributions
Patrick Jenkins - Financial Times (opinion)
/jlne.ws/3WR0cW8
How Investors Can Use Stocks' Moving Averages to Improve Returns; Moving averages can also smooth out daily volatility to give investors a clearer view of a stock's health
Russ Britt - The Wall Street Journal
/jlne.ws/3SCPRKG
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| Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance | | Stories about environmental, social and governance investing | Climate Protesters Are Bringing the Fight to Wall Street Bankers; The 'Summer of Heat' demonstrators outside of Citigroup targeting lending for fossil fuels, in photos.
Miranda Jeyaretnam - The Wall Street Journal
Climate activists have converged on the shady, tree-lined plaza at Citigroup Inc.'s headquarters in New York in a series of demonstrations this summer. Some have come dressed in orca suits. Others have linked their arms, slicked with sweat, to form a barricade in front of the bank's entrance, or they've held up signs that read "Hot People Hate Wall Street." On July 8 a group of older activists, shown in the photos below, held a march and mock die-in. Dozens laid down passively so officers of the New York City Police Department could arrest them.
/jlne.ws/3A7d950
Brazil minister warns carbon credit buyers to beware fraud; Environment minister Marina Silva says alleged criminal schemes in Amazon could harm reputation of credits
Michael Pooler - Financial Times
Brazil's environment minister has urged greater caution from international buyers of carbon credits, after police in the South American country uncovered allegedly fraudulent emissions-offset schemes on stolen land in the Amazon. Marina Silva said recent revelations about criminal enterprises suspected to have illegally sold millions of dollars of carbon certificates from the world's largest rainforest were a "serious problem" that could harm the reputation of a tool supporters say helps fight global warming.
/jlne.ws/4dq04SE
Climate change deniers make up nearly a quarter of US Congress; Climate denialists - 23 in Senate and 100 in House - are all Republicans and make US an outlier internationally
Oliver Milman and Dharna Noor - The Guardian
US politics is an outlier bastion of climate denial with nearly one in four members of Congress dismissing the reality of climate change, even as alarm has grown among the American public over dangerous global heating, an analysis has found. A total of 123 elected federal representatives - 100 in the House of Representatives and 23 US senators - deny the existence of human-caused climate change, all of them Republicans, according to a recent study of statements made by current members.
/jlne.ws/4fIemAi
As Heat Waves Grow Deadlier, Power Becomes a Must; More states pass laws banning utilities from shutting off customers during extreme heat
Phred Dvorak - The Wall Street Journal
After Hurricane Beryl swept through the Houston area in early July and knocked out power for millions of residents, the temperature started to rise. Fifty-year-old Candie York, a resident east of the city with bad knees and a lung disease, did what she could to keep cool. She called Houston's main utility three times, as she had done in the past to press for fast restoration of service. She went to a friend's house and hung out in her air-conditioned car.
China's Sweltering Heat Pushes Shanghai Power Demand to Record; Grid is holding up with widespread outages so far averted; Solar and hydropower increasingly vital to supporting coal
Bloomberg News
Punishing heat throughout southern China is stressing power networks and farmland as extreme weather continues to exact a deadly toll in the world's second-biggest economy. Electricity demand in Shanghai has hit a record as temperatures surged to 40.4C (105F) on Sunday, close to the city's all-time high of 40.9C first recorded in 1873 and repeated two years ago. Nearby provinces are also closely tracking the heat to ensure power supplies, while officials have warned rice farmers in Jiangxi and tropical fruit growers in Fujian to protect crops from the blistering conditions.
/jlne.ws/3YyKss8
Racked by Extreme Heat, One Worker Died on the Job. His Story Is a Warning.; Cory Foster's death shows perils of prolonged exposure to extreme heat worsened by climate change
Arian Campo-Flores - The Wall Street Journal
Justin "Cory" Foster, a lineman who often traveled to storm-ravaged communities to help restore electricity, was used to working in searing summer weather as he perched atop utility poles to install wires. But as the heat index climbed to 113 degrees Fahrenheit on a job in Marshall, Texas, last year, the temperature baked his body. His head hurt, his legs cramped, and he threw up, Foster told his fiancée, Amanda Hightower. Co-workers drove him back to their hotel, where he drank fluids, stripped off his clothes and took a cold shower.
/jlne.ws/3LUQvPW
Rio Tinto-backed start-up seeks funds for lithium breakthrough to cut reliance on China; Analysts say new techniques could double production of key battery material and have similar impact to shale on oil sector
Nic Fildes - Financial Times
An Australian start-up backed by the miner Rio Tinto is raising funds to develop a lithium extraction technology that could open up new reserves of the key battery ingredient and reduce the world's reliance on China to refine the commodity. ElectraLith, spun off from Melbourne's Monash University, said it had successfully produced battery-grade lithium hydroxide from a variety of raw lithium types. After attracting investment from Rio Tinto and Britain's IP Group, it now intends to raise $15mn to build its first facility for further development and commercialisation of the technology.
/jlne.ws/4fADPLZ
Memo to the Supreme Court: Clean Air Act Targeted CO2 as Climate Pollutant, Study Says
Nicholas Kusnetz - Inside Climate News
/jlne.ws/4dsBUHk
APEC businesses propose new climate bonds, carbon credit network
Leika Kihara - Reuters
/jlne.ws/4ddgq1A
Saudi Arabia Raises Oil Prices to Asia in Sign of Faith in Demand
Sherry Su and Alex Longley - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/4drq0gQ
Libya's Biggest Oil Field Sharara Fully Halts Production; Output falls to about 100,000 barrels a day: people familiar; Nation's energy infrastructure has faced repeated disruptions
Salma El Wardany - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/3yoOaK8
UK Govt wants to block legal case on environmental harms of Australia trade deal, say campaigners
Sidhi Mittal - edie
/jlne.ws/4d9Tpwo
Chevron, in Snub to California, Will Move Its Headquarters to Houston
The New York Times
/jlne.ws/3LPPWHc
Agency Votes to Replace Official Accused of Rushing Start of Seabed Mining
The New York Times
/jlne.ws/46woo3h
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| Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | Deutsche Bank Sells Down Coal Mine Loan to Private Credit Funds; Income Asset, Regal buy loan to back Illawarra acquisition; Private funds increasingly fund coal projects as banks shun
Megawati Wijaya and Sharon Klyne - Bloomberg
Deutsche Bank AG has sold a portion of a $600 million loan being used to finance an Australian coal mine's acquisition to some private credit funds, according to people familiar with the matter. The German lender in recent weeks sold about $120 million - half of its exposure - to Australian and Asian credit funds including Income Asset Management Group Ltd., Regal Funds Management, and Keyview Financial Group, said the people, who requested anonymity as the matter is private.
/jlne.ws/3WRsdfW
BNP's 5.1 Billion Euro Axa Deal Is One Monster of a Bolt-On; The French bank's expansion in asset management makes strategic sense, but the financials are less than clear.
Paul J. Davies - Bloomberg
BNP Paribas SA has had billions of euros in spare capital burning a hole in its corporate pocket since the sale of its US retail arm, Bank of the West, last year. The French bank said its guiding principle for deploying this war chest was primarily to invest in its existing businesses and also to scout for potential bolt-on acquisitions. Now, it's in exclusive talks to splash EUR5.1 billion ($5.5 billion) in one go on Axa SA's investment-management arm. The deal fits BNP's aim of expanding insurance and wealth businesses that generate fee income on low capital requirements. Still, an acquisition this size is one hell of a bolt-on!
/jlne.ws/3WwA4hF
Chinese firms' overseas expansion drive opens up opportunities for Citigroup
South China Morning Post
Chinese companies are in a rush to go global amid a competitive domestic landscape and overall slower consumption at home. Even with many cultural hurdles to overcome, a global expansion presents lucrative opportunities for medium to large Chinese companies, both in terms of making profits and diversifying risks, creating business opportunities for lenders such as Citigroup, according to a top executive.
/jlne.ws/4dwAwmW
MUFG Drops by Record as Japan Banks Lose $85 Billion in Value; Banks are among the worst-affected stocks during rout; Declining bond yields, weak yen put pressure on earnings
Yui Hasebe and Hideki Suzuki - Bloomberg
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. and Mizuho Financial Group Inc.'s shares fell the most on record on Monday as a stock-market rout sent Japanese banks tumbling. MUFG, the nation's biggest lender, saw its stock sink 18% at the close of trading in Tokyo, while Mizuho slid 20% and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. dropped almost 16%, also a record. The three companies lost about 12 trillion yen ($85 billion) in market value in the past two trading days.
/jlne.ws/3SALJei
Are Banks Sweeping Dud Property Loans Under the Rug? New accounting rules should give investors an earlier warning, but surprises are cropping up and there could be more to come
Jonathan Weil - The Wall Street Journal
After the last major financial crisis, when scores of banks failed or took government bailouts while sporting seemingly pristine balance sheets, America's accounting rule makers got working on a new system for reporting credit losses that was supposed to make lenders recognize them more quickly. That new set of rules has been in place for a little over four years. Investors could be forgiven for wondering if it is working any better than the former one.
/jlne.ws/46xyFfs
Carlyle's Profit Tied to Deal Exits Dips 12% in Muted Market
Dawn Lim - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/3YDUtE6
Private equity group Carlyle doubles fundraising to more than $12bn; Firm is attempting turnaround under chief executive Harvey Schwartz
Amelia Pollard - Financial Times
/jlne.ws/4dpDvhH
Thrive Capital Raises $5 Billion for Venture Funds on Heels of OpenAI Bet; The fundraising reflects optimism over artificial intelligence despite the startup sector's broader struggles
Berber Jin - The Wall Street Journal
/jlne.ws/4du2TlY
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| Work & Management | | Stories impacting work and more about management ideas, practices and trends. | The Cities Where 20-Somethings Are Still Getting Hired; Young professionals are launching careers in Southern cities such as Raleigh, Austin and Atlanta.; 'I don't want to be broke in a sexy city.'
Ray A. Smith and Sanvi Bangalore - The Wall Street Journal
Go South, young grad. In a frustrating season for college graduates looking for entry-level jobs, some smaller cities, especially in the South, stand out for their brisk hiring, good salaries and affordability. Raleigh, N.C.; Austin, Texas; Baltimore; Atlanta; and Charlotte, N.C., rank as the top five most promising locations to find work for newly minted college graduates, according to a new study by payroll provider ADP. Researchers weighed cost-of-living-adjusted wages in 55 U.S. metro areas against hiring rates for people who typically have a four-year degree. Salt Lake City, Seattle and Portland, Ore., were among cities that ranked in the bottom 10 due to their slower hiring rates and lower wages once cost of living is factored in.
/jlne.ws/3AcJCqG
So, Human Resources Is Making You Miserable? Get in line behind the H.R. managers themselves, who say that since the pandemic, the job has become an exasperating ordeal.; "People hate us," one said.
David Segal - The New York Times
Show of hands: Who's fed up with human resources? Maybe you're irked by the endless flow of memos and forms, many of which need to be filled out, pronto. Maybe you're irritated by new initiatives that regularly emerge from H.R., which never seems to run out of new initiatives, not all of them necessary or especially wise, in your opinion. Or you've got some problem with management and you don't trust that H.R. representatives will actually help. They sure are friendly, but they get paid by the suits. In a crunch, it's pretty clear whose side they are on.
/jlne.ws/3YylgSC
'Gone are the days of taking a phone call in the open': why office pods are everywhere; Adaptable architecture and modular furniture are fine-tuning spaces to workers' needs
Bethan Staton - Financial Time
They may have a reputation as cramped and antisocial but redesigned private office booths are proving an unlikely hit. Snug, soundproofed, Scandi-designed pods are part of a design shift helping employers make offices more attractive to a broader range of workers. Modular furniture and adaptive architecture - from pods and moveable meeting rooms to whole floor plans built from click-together walls - allow companies more flexibility to balance large open-plan offices with space for private work, and to accommodate hybrid workforces.
/jlne.ws/3WwpxmU
Colleges Race to Ready Students for the AI Workplace; Non-techie students are learning basic generative-AI skills as schools revamp their course offerings to be more job-friendly
Milla Surjadi -The Wall Street Journal
College students are desperate to add a new skill to their résumés: artificial intelligence. The rise of generative AI in the workplace and students' demands for more hirable talents are driving schools to revamp courses and add specialized degrees at speeds rarely seen in higher education. Schools are even going so far as to emphasize that all undergraduates get a taste of the tech, teaching them how to use AI in a given field-as well as its failings and unethical applications.
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| Wellness Exchange | | An Exchange of Health and Wellness Information | 'Game changer' AI detects hidden heart attack risk
Katharine Da Costa - BBC News
Technology that identifies people at risk of a heart attack in the next 10 years has been hailed as "game changing" by scientists. The artificial intelligence (AI) model detects inflammation in the heart that does not show up on CT scans, which involve a combination of X-rays and computer technology. A pilot project, supported by NHS England, is running at five hospital trusts in Oxford, Milton Keynes, Leicester, Liverpool and Wolverhampton. A decision on its use within the NHS is expected within months.
/jlne.ws/4dw0qHG
TikTok Pulls Program EU Warned Could Make Kids App Addicts; EU ends case over controversial rewards program on Lite app; Case is first to be dropped under the new Digital Services Act
Lyubov Pronina - Bloomberg
The European Union closed a case against ByteDance Ltd.'s TikTok after the Chinese social media giant pulled a controversial feature that regulators warned could be addictive for children. The bloc's executive arm said ByteDance committed to permanently withdraw its controversial rewards program on its Lite app from the EU to comply with the bloc's tough new Digital Services Act. TikTok also pledged not to launch any other program rewarding screen time and carrying risks of addiction for users, which would circumvent the withdrawal.
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| Regions | | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina resigns, interim government to be formed
Ruma Paul and Sudipto Ganguly - Reuters
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned on Monday and fled the country, as more people were killed in some of the worst violence since the birth of the South Asian nation more than five decades ago. Army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman announced Hasina's resignation in a televised address to the nation and said an interim government would be formed. Media reports said Hasina, 76, was flown in a military helicopter with her sister and was headed to India. The CNN News 18 television channel said she had landed in Agartala, the capital of India's northeastern state of Tripura, across the eastern border of Bangladesh.
/jlne.ws/4d8zuh7
US rejects Vietnam's bid for 'market economy' status in blow to trade ties; Classification would have boosted exports and reduced tariffs on goods from country that is rising supply chain alternative to China
A. Anantha Lakshmi - Financial Times
The US has rejected Vietnam's bid to be designated as a "market economy", thwarting Hanoi's diplomatic push to deepen trade ties with its most important export market as it grows in clout as a manufacturing alternative to China. The upgrade from Vietnam's current designation as a "non-market economy" would have further boosted exports and reduced punitive tariffs on products such as shrimp from the south-east Asian country.
/jlne.ws/4ceWpWQ
UK's Starmer to hold emergency meeting as riots intensify
Reuters
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will hold an emergency meeting with police chiefs on Monday after days of violent anti-immigration protests intensified, with buildings and vehicles torched and hotels holding asylum seekers targeted. Riots have erupted across towns and cities in the last week after three girls were killed in a knife attack in Southport in northwest England, with 420 people arrested so far.
/jlne.ws/3SAXjGr
Venezuelans march over contested election, number of detained rises
Mircely Guanipa and Vivian Sequera - Reuters
Thousands of Venezuelans marched across the South American country on Saturday over its contested election, as President Nicolas Maduro told supporters some 2,000 people had been arrested during protests against the results. Venezuela's electoral authority, blasted by critics as favoring the ruling socialists, proclaimed Maduro the winner in last Sunday's vote, saying on Monday he obtained 51% compared to 46% for opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez. The authority reaffirmed a similar margin on Friday.
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