December 01, 2020 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | | John Lothian Publisher John Lothian News | |
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$16,711/$300,000 (5.6%) ++++ Editor's Note: Yesterday some of our readers, mainly those who use Gmail, got a warning on our newsletter that, "This message seems dangerous." We can assure you there was nothing dangerous about that email. Unfortunately, the very nature of our newsletter (long with many links) triggers many automated spam filters into thinking our email is spam. This is unfortunate because it is anything but. All of our recipients opt in for the newsletter and we vet every story in it as from a legitimate source. If you wish to avoid this problem in the future simply add us to your safe sender's list. For Gmail, hover your cursor over our name in your inbox and wait for the popup. Select "Add to Contacts" from that popup and that is it. For other email clients you may find instructions to put us on your safe list here. If you have an email client not on the list feel free to email us and we can help. If you are using your company's email, contact your IT department and they can do this easily (or they can contact us for details). ++++ FIA Asia-V: "Timetable is a very tricky thing" Thom Thompson - John Lothian News At Asia-V's panel on the challenges and opportunities for cross border trading and clearing in the region, Managing Director Sharon Shi from G.H. Financials talked about how her global customers are thinking about access to trading in China. She said that, unlike earlier when customers were deciding whether they wanted to get involved in Chinese markets, institutional customers are now evaluating how to do it. G.H.'s customers from outside the region are watching closely as Chinese regulators modify and streamline the Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) programs that have existed since 2002. According to Shi, the customers are looking at whether the legal environment created by the reforms will provide them enough protections for them to feel comfortable to trade in China. To read the rest of this story, go here. ++++ Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff FIA Asia-V kicked off with comments from Bill Herder, Ian Nissen and Walt Lukken. This is the first remote or virtual FIA Asia conference. The advantages include having people who would not travel to Singapore participate in the event, including the China Securities Regulatory Commission Vice Chairman Fang Xinghai and the JLN editorial team. What I love about FIA Asia-V is being able to watch all the panels, fireside chats and speeches when I want. I know I am sacrificing the social element of the conference, which I miss dearly, but there are advantages like access to all this sharing of intellectual property that help offset some of this loss. It allows me and other participants to think more strategically about issues surrounding Asia. The kind people at FIA have gifted me three FREE FIA Asia-V passes to give away. If you are interested, please email me at [email protected] The first panel for FIA Asia-V was "The Outlook for Asia-Pacific Exchanges." There were two polling questions during the panel. The first was "What new product category are you most interested in for 2021?" The results this morning showed 41% ESG, 9% Volatility, 0% Single stock futures & options, 16% Mini contracts, 16% Technology indices and 19% New Asia country indices. The second question was "What area for process improvement would you most like attention to in 2021?" The answers were 15% Execution, 19% Give-up/in process, 50% Margining and 15% Non-cash Collateral. ICE has set an exchange-wide open interest record with futures open interest hitting 46.8 million contracts and open interest in global energy up 8% and natural gas up 14% year-over-year. Ketan B. Patel, a Policy Advisor and Head of Financial Markets Risk Analysis at the Chicago Federal Reserve Financial Market Group has published a paper on funding cyclicality and CCPs. It is Giving Tuesday today. One charity to consider giving to today is The Greenwood Project, whose mission is to introduce Black and Latinx students to the finance industry. You can donate HERE. The Financial Times has a Special Report: Risk Management: Exchanges, Trading and Clearing today. The stories are all in the lead section below. Have a great day and stay safe and treat people the same way you want to be treated: with respect, equality and justice.~JJL Rockefeller Center in New York City has limited the time for viewing their epic Christmas Tree to five minutes in order to limit the spread of COVID-19. There were no new donations to the JLN MarketsWiki Education GoFundMe campaign.~JJL Have a great day and stay safe and treat people the same way you want to be treated: with respect, equality and justice.~JJL ***** From FIA President and CEO Walt Lukken's opening remarks for the FIA Asia-V conference: "FIA recently published a white paper that examines the increases in initial margin at derivatives clearinghouses during the March timeframe. While margin increases are expected during volatile times, we must make sure that margin levels are calibrated to be predictable and not overly procyclical, adding undue stress during these times of market turbulence. FIA's paper makes several suggestions, which aim to promote an important dialogue within the industry and regulatory community on whether improvements need to be made." ~SR FIA also recently published a policy paper on"How derivatives markets are helping the world fight climate change." The paper highlights existing industry solutions and potential partnerships to help build a more sustainable economy.~SR They say multitasking is bad for you, but it seems since so many people are relying on video chat while working from home, a lot of folks are doing it anyway. During the "ETD Operations: Adapting to the New Normal" panel at FIA Asia-V, the presenters asked audience members if they multitask during online meetings or webinars. 87 percent of respondents said 'yes'. ~MR The American Financial Exchange (AFX) Monday said that it has formed a strategic alliance with Citi. It said the bank has agreed to join AFX, engage in position hedging in AMERIBOR futures and serve as a market maker in AMERIBOR interest rate swaps. AFX is an electronic marketplace that also facilitates the calculation of AMERIBOR, a benchmark interest rate that serves as an alternative to LIBOR. For more information, please see the release. ~SC The Options Industry Council (OIC) has emailed out its save the date for the Options Industry Conference 2021, which is currently planned for April 28 - 29, 2021. It seems they aren't taking any chances this year - the event will be totally virtual. You can email the event organizers at [email protected] for details. The email notice said registration and sponsorship info are to follow. ~MR ++++
++++ AFX Forms Strategic Alliance with Citi American Financial Exchange AFX has formed a strategic alliance with Citi in which the Bank will join the American Financial Exchange (AFX). Citi will also engage in position hedging using AMERIBOR futures and provide market-making in AMERIBOR interest rate swaps. /jlne.ws/33t457x *****Big win for AFX.~JJL ++++ Millionaire Kelly Loeffler mocked for ad claiming she knows what it 'feels like waiting on that paycheck' Graeme Massie - The Independent Millionaire Senator Kelly Loeffler was mocked for an ad claiming she knows what "it feels like waiting on that paycheck." Ms Loeffler, who is fighting to retain her Georgia seat, is married to the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, Jeffrey Sprecher. She is reportedly the wealthiest member of congress with a fortune estimated at between $800m and $1bn, according to Forbes. /jlne.ws/36qxIbp *****Sen. Kelly Loeffler is throwing out some harsh political statements and is getting it thrown right back at her. I believe this is called politics. Here is a story from Salon which mocks Sen. Loeffler. You don't want to know the hashtags attached to some of the criticism of her.~JJL ++++ 1918 Germany Has a Warning for America; Donald Trump's "Stop the Steal" campaign recalls one of the most disastrous political lies of the 20th century. Jochen Bittner - NY Times It may well be that Germans have a special inclination to panic at specters from the past, and I admit that this alarmism annoys me at times. Yet watching President Trump's "Stop the Steal" campaign since Election Day, I can't help but see a parallel to one of the most dreadful episodes from Germany's history. /jlne.ws/2L06WP3 *****We can learn from history. But we need to pay attention.~JJL ++++ Trump Raises $170 Million as He Denies His Loss and Eyes the Future; The president's campaign has ratcheted up its appeals for cash, but the first 75 percent of every contribution is going to a new political action committee that could fund his next political move. Shane Goldmacher and Maggie Haberman - WSJ President Trump has raised about $170 million since Election Day as his campaign operation has continued to aggressively solicit donations with hyped-up appeals that have funded his fruitless attempts to overturn the election and that have seeded his post-presidential political ambitions, according to a person familiar with the matter. /jlne.ws/3qhj1zn ******$170 million is a lot of money to get a message out.~JJL ++++ Monday's Top Three Our top story Monday was The Wall Street Journal's S&P Global Agrees to Buy IHS Markit for About $44 Billion. As if coffee drinkers need more encouragement, the second most read story was from Greatist, Is coffee actually good for you then? Third was a story expressing the problems facing families with children in Bloomberg's My Son's School Has Closed Again. Stop This. ++++ MarketsWiki Stats 194,046,179 pages viewed; 24,638 pages; 227,063 edits MarketsWiki Statistics ++++
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Lead Stories | Libor's Delayed Demise Rewards Slow-Moving U.S. Bankers; Why switch to the alternative if regulators will keep moving the goalposts? Brian Chappatta - Bloomberg When it comes to overseeing Wall Street, regulators must know that if they give an inch, banks and other large financial institutions will take a mile. That's part of the reason the years-long global effort to phase out the London interbank offered rate by the end of 2021 has been both impressive and nerve-wracking. On the one hand, the world's policy makers have had more than three years to develop and adopt alternative lending benchmarks to replace Libor, which as of 2018 was tied to some $400 trillion of financial contracts. And yet, as recently as October, or roughly 14 months before Libor's supposed demise, financial markets were spooked by the prospect of a "big bang" shift on interest-rate swaps to the top U.S. alternative: The secured overnight financing rate, or SOFR, which has gained some traction but is still just a sliver of Libor's reach. /jlne.ws/3fUAKaT Exchanges M&A returns as holding companies diversify; Bullish owners seek scale and breadth as they ride out Covid-19 Philip Stafford - FT For the exchanges that run the world's biggest and most critical financial markets, it has sometimes seemed this year's pandemic has had little effect. In August, Intercontinental Exchange, the US trading, clearing and data provider, announced the $11bn purchase of mortgage software group Ellie Mae. /jlne.ws/37j7oPK Nasdaq to Advance Diversity through New Proposed Listing Requirements; Standardized disclosure framework to drive greater transparency on corporate governance Nasdaq Nasdaq (Nasdaq: NDAQ) today filed a proposal with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to adopt new listing rules related to board diversity and disclosure. If approved by the SEC, the new listing rules would require all companies listed on Nasdaq's U.S. exchange to publicly disclose consistent, transparent diversity statistics regarding their board of directors. Additionally, the rules would require most Nasdaq-listed companies to have, or explain why they do not have, at least two diverse directors, including one who self-identifies as female and one who self-identifies as either an underrepresented minority1 or LGBTQ+. Foreign companies and smaller reporting companies would have additional flexibility in satisfying this requirement with two female directors. /jlne.ws/39xBSQz Nasdaq Ventures Announces Strategic Investment in Matter; Further advances sustainable investing capabilities through transparent ESG information, analytics and reporting Nasdaq Nasdaq Ventures, Nasdaq's (Nasdaq: NDAQ) investment arm, announced today a strategic investment in Matter, the sustainability analysis and reporting provider, as it continues to innovate capabilities that help enlighten sustainable investing decisions. Nasdaq's investment in Copenhagen-based Matter further extends and complements its existing partnership with Matter via Nasdaq's European data business. The Nasdaq ESG Footprint solution is powered by Matter's analytics technology and provides retail and institutional investors with in-depth insight of the ESG impact of their portfolios. /jlne.ws/2HVybJa Banks set to be granted reprieve on US Libor cut-off deadline; Benchmark underpinning $200tn in contracts will be published as late as 2023 under new plan Joe Rennison and Colby Smith - FT Financial groups that rely on US dollar Libor will have longer to break away from the scandal-tainted interest rate that underpins $200tn in contracts under a new plan announced on Monday by its administrator. IBA, which compiles and oversees Libor, said it intended to cease publication of one-week and two-month US dollar Libor at the end of 2021. It will, however, extend the publication of the other more widely used US dollar Libor benchmarks until June 30, 2023, subject to consultation. /jlne.ws/3qhyMGw Top Finance Execs Tell Us How the Pandemic Will Change the Industry; We asked five executives which pandemic-driven changes will be lasting. These are their answers. Lananh Nguyen and Yalman Onaran - Bloomberg The coronavirus pandemic and unprecedented economic lockdowns have changed a lot of things, including how people deal with money and investing. But which shifts will prove lasting? We asked some executives for their views on what aspects of the financial industry will never look the same again. /jlne.ws/36uUWNP ErisX Introduces Cash Contracts to Enable Short Positions in Crypto Markets and Protect Against Market Volatility ErisX Protect against market downside with ErisX's cash-collateralized Bounded Futures contracts. Upper and lower bounds cap maximum potential losses, and trading these products may require less collateral than other contracts. Bounded Futures enable short positions and protect position holders against large price movements in the underlying market. These contracts are entered into and settled in cash allowing customers who may be otherwise restricted from holding crypto assets directly, to gain exposure. /jlne.ws/3oankus How Wrong Was Milton Friedman? Harvard Team Quantifies the Ways Saijel Kishan - Bloomberg Professor stresses impacts on society over shareholder value; Analysis would add or cut billions from corporate bottom lines George Serafeim wants to revolutionize the way businesses calculate their success. Profit and loss aren't enough, says the Harvard Business School professor. Serafeim aims to do what no one has done before: Put a dollar value on the impact of products and operations on people and the planet, then add or subtract it from companies' bottom lines. /jlne.ws/3fXJZHE U.S. Banks Urged to Stop Using Libor on New Loans by End of 2021; Regulators support plan to end benchmark in June 2023, allowing most existing transactions to mature By Andrew Ackerman - WSJ U.S. regulators on Monday pressed banks to stop using the London interbank offered rate on new transactions by the end of 2021 while backing a plan to allow many existing transactions to mature before Libor fully winds down in June 2023. /jlne.ws/3qgmNsI Credit Suisse picks António Horta-Osório as chairman; Appointment of outgoing Lloyds Bank chief comes as Swiss lender reveals potential $680m losses from US civil suit Owen Walker, Stephen Morris and Oliver Ralph - FT Credit Suisse has appointed António Horta-Osório as its next chairman, picking the outgoing chief executive of Lloyds Bank to help steer the lender through the fallout from the coronavirus crisis. /jlne.ws/2VmAmbV S&P Global's $44bn deal shows data is the oil of the 21st century; Joint entity with IHS Markit might be big enough to take on Bloomberg as data drives finance sector Robin Wigglesworth and Eric Platt - FT When Standard & Poor's hooked up a Datatron computer to Wall Street's stock ticker machines to launch a continuously-calculated index of America's biggest companies in 1957, it arguably signalled the beginning of finance's electronic era. /jlne.ws/33xxIES How 2020 turmoil will reshape the future of Hong Kong financial hub; Pandemic, protest and paused Ant IPO hit hard but the territory still has a refashioned role Hudson Lockett - FT In the weeks leading up to the planned public offering from Ant, the Chinese fintech group controlled by billionaire and Alibaba founder Jack Ma, bankers in Hong Kong radiated confidence. Here, the argument went, was undeniable proof that the city's future as a financial hub was secure. /jlne.ws/3qiTMwn Equivalence row looms over London ETF hub role; Delayed EU decision is raising frustration rather than fear in the City Chris Flood - FT London's role as the most important hub in Europe's rapidly expanding $1tn exchange traded fund industry is clouded by uncertainty by the absence of a post-Brexit agreement over financial services between the UK and EU. /jlne.ws/3qjuoa7 Friction hampers EU drive to switch clearing from the UK; Eurozone sovereign debt and repo market work has shifted but other targets have met resistance Philip Stafford - FT Since the Brexit referendum four years ago, politicians and policymakers in Europe have worried that responsibility for market stability of the eurozone would lie outside the bloc. /jlne.ws/2VpchBj New exchanges bring ambition to reshape US equity market; Three contenders take on incumbents and aim to amplify industry voice on regulation Richard Henderson - FT Three new stock exchanges launched in September have begun to alter the shape of the world's biggest equity market, challenging the trio of incumbents that dominate US share trading. /jlne.ws/39zeHFE Foreign exchange data wars heat up as rivals take on 'Big Two'; As competition grows and trading volumes fall, do dominant incumbents' fees still add up? Eva Szalay - FT Influential foreign exchange trading venues that act as the reference price for currencies are facing a battle to maintain lucrative charges for their market data feeds, as growing competition and declining trading volumes threaten their position. /jlne.ws/33xerDk Dispute brews between EU and currency traders on Mifid reform; FX professionals warn of an exodus of trading from European centres if rules are tightened Eva Szalay - FT EU regulators risk pushing currency trading abroad and saddling local market participants with costly new burdens if they press ahead with proposals to regulate cash foreign exchange markets, according to some industry veterans. /jlne.ws/33A4VPI Holding Group Behind Crypto Exchange BitMEX Names Höptner CEO Joanna Ossinger - Bloomberg The holding group behind BitMEX has appointed Alexander Höptner as chief executive officer, two months after the founders of the cryptocurrency exchange were charged with skirting U.S. laws that prevent money laundering. Höptner, 50, will lead 100x Group, the holding group for BitMEX owner HDR Global Trading Ltd., according to a statement from the company. He joins from Boerse Stuttgart GmbH and Euwax AG, where he was CEO. "Crypto is a very quickly developing market," Höptner said in an interview, adding growing adoption and institutional interest as well as the prospect of regulatory change make the sector interesting for "a classical exchange guy like me." /jlne.ws/3ltiUwO
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Coronavirus | Stories relating to the COVID-19 pandemic | U.S. Covid Cases Found as Early as December 2019, Says Study Bloomberg News Testing has found Covid-19 infections in the U.S. in December 2019, according to a study, providing further evidence indicating the coronavirus was spreading globally weeks before the first cases were reported in China. /jlne.ws/36qzJED People Fleeing Big Cities Risk Overwhelming Small Towns; From rum factory towns to historic gold rush centers, formerly quiet backwaters are reeling as the work-from-home trend gathers momentum. Van Badham - Bloomberg The property market is running red hot in small-town Australia. Buyers are snapping up houses — sometimes sight unseen — as city folk bet the era of working in an office fulltime won't return. That's filling some locals with horror. /jlne.ws/2JxJfNe CDC warns Americans not to travel to Mexico as airlines see increased demand Mina Kaji, Amanda Maile - ABC News The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning Americans against all travel to Mexico as coronavirus cases continue to rise in the country. In the past two weeks, Mexico surpassed 100,000 deaths due to the virus and reported over 1 million cases since the beginning of the pandemic. The agency assigned Mexico its highest advisory, saying travel there "may increase your chance of getting and spreading COVID-19." /jlne.ws/36neMdz It Only Takes This Long to Get COVID in a Room With Someone Who Has It Zachary Mack - Yahoo You know the basic guidelines put forth by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to wear a face mask, keep six feet apart from others, and avoid large crowds by heart. Unfortunately, they're not a bulletproof solution. While following these simple health guidelines can greatly lower the risk you'll be infected, the real world is much more complicated than that. Now, new research is shedding light on how many minutes it would take to catch COVID from spending time in a room with someone infected with the virus, whether they're close contacts or strangers standing further away. /jlne.ws/3fRb7rG Covid vaccinations in EU unlikely to start before next year; European regulators due to give opinion on Pfizer/BioNTech shot on December 29 and Moderna jab on January 12 Donato Paolo Mancini, Joe Miller - FT European regulators have pushed back formal assessments of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, potentially delaying distribution of the jabs in EU countries to next year. /jlne.ws/2JrvLT3 Pfizer, Moderna Request Covid-19 Vaccine Authorization in Europe; EU agency says its officials will work through Christmas to review data from trials Bojan Pancevski and Drew Hinshaw - WSJ Pfizer Inc. PFE 2.90% partner BioNTech and U.S. drugmaker Moderna Inc. MRNA 20.24% both applied for their coronavirus vaccines to be approved in the European Union, the EU's chief medicines regulator said Tuesday, with officials expected to make a decision on at least one of the vaccines by the end of the month. /jlne.ws/3msqSI5 A New Setback for Big Cities as Return to the Office Fades; The low level of employees back at their workplaces is intensifying pain for cities geared toward office life Peter Grant - WSJ U.S. employees started heading back to the office in greater numbers after Labor Day but that pace is stalling now, delivering another blow to economic-recovery hopes in many cities. The recent surge in Covid-19 cases across the country has led to an uptick in Americans resuming work at home after some momentum had been building for returning to the workplace, property analysts said. Floor after floor of empty office space is a source of great frustration for landlords and companies, which have invested millions of dollars in adapting building plans and developing new health protocols to make employees comfortable with a shared location. /jlne.ws/36o8Zoe Sweden recommends children of Covid sufferers should stay at home; Public health agency makes U-turn after criticism that it underestimated potential for asymptomatic transmission Richard Milne - FT Sweden's public health agency has made another policy U-turn, bowing to critics who have argued it has underestimated the potential for asymptomatic transmission of Covid-19. /jlne.ws/36qVofN California at COVID-19 'tipping point' as Trump administration hopes for vaccines by Christmas Dan Whitcomb, Maria Caspani - Reuters California's governor said on Monday the state was at a "tipping point" in the COVID-19 pandemic that would soon overwhelm hospitals as political leaders nationwide turn to increasingly aggressive measures to hold back the latest surge. /jlne.ws/33wGxi5
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Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | Nasdaq Pushes for Diversity in the Boardroom; It will ask the S.E.C. to approve a new rule requiring more diverse corporate directors. Andrew Ross Sorkin, Jason Karaian, Michael J. de la Merced, Lauren Hirsch and Ephrat Livni - NY Times Nasdaq will ask the S.E.C. this morning for permission to adopt a new requirement for the 3,249 companies listed on its main U.S. stock exchange: have at least one woman and one "diverse" director and report data on board diversity — or face consequences. /jlne.ws/3oaBU58 ICE Sets Exchange-wide Open Interest Record; Futures Open Interest hits record 46.8 million contracts; Open interest in Global Energy +8% and Natural Gas +14% year-over-year Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE:ICE), a leading operator of global exchanges and clearing houses and provider of mortgage technology, data and listings services, today announced that on November 24, 2020, ICE set an open interest (OI) record of 46.8 million across all futures contracts. /jlne.ws/3lzUxxT CTBC Investments and ICE Data Services to Collaborate on ESG Products; Agreement Creates Opportunity for Future ESG Products Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE: ICE), a leading operator of global exchanges and clearing houses and provider of mortgage technology, data and listings services, today announced that ICE Data Services and CTBC Investments Co., Ltd. ("CTBC Investments") will collaborate to develop environmental, social and governance (ESG) indices and financial products for market participants. /jlne.ws/39wpvVa MarketAxess completes Deutsche Börse regulatory reporting hub takeover; The Deutsche Börse regulatory reporting business was acquired through Trax NL, a subsidiary of MarketAxess in the Netherlands. Annabel Smith - The Trade Fixed income trading platform provider MarketAxess has completed its acquisition of Deutsche Börse's regulatory reporting hub business. MarketAxess agreed in September to purchase the German exchange's reporting business through its Trax subsidiary in the Netherlands. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. /jlne.ws/2KXM4I7 Deutsche Börse completes sale of Regulatory Services GmbH to MarketAxess Deutsche Börse AG Deutsche Börse AG completed the transaction to sell Regulatory Services GmbH - the Regulatory Reporting Hub (RRH) - to MarketAxess Holdings Inc. on November 30th. Deutsche Börse's regulatory reporting services division will be taken over by the Dutch Trax NL BV, a wholly-owned subsidiary of MarketAxess. Both parties announced an agreement on the sale in September 2020 . /jlne.ws/3lr7Q3t Tokyo Stock Exchange chief resigns due to market outage; Miyahara Koichiro has resigned effective immediately following a hardware malfunction that caused a day-long blackout at the Tokyo Stock Exchange in October. Annabel Smith - The Trade The chief executive officer of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) has resigned after taking responsibility for a major day-long market outage in October caused by a technical failure. TSE's parent company, Japan Exchange Group (JPX), confirmed that president and CEO of the Tokyo exchange, Miyahara Koichiro, has requested to resign from his position effective immediately. /jlne.ws/2Jxa5F4 Eurex Exchange Readiness Newsflash | Updates December 2020 Eurex Dear Eurex Participant, With this Newsflash, we would like to draw your attention to the upcoming publications, events and necessary actions for the ongoing initiatives: /jlne.ws/37uODJo Liquidity Provisioning: Annual prolongation of the Product Specific Supplements to the Liquidity Provider Agreement Eurex Eurex Circular 094/20 Liquidity Provisioning: Annual prolongation of the Product Specific Supplements to the Liquidity Provider Agreement /jlne.ws/3qrUs2S HKEX Launches STAGE, its Sustainable and Green Exchange HKEX STAGE will anchor Asian sustainable finance ecosystem, providing greater access and transparency on products and also resources on sustainable finance-related information;Online Green and Sustainable Product and Resource Repository and introduction of additional voluntary reporting for Asia's sustainable finance products;Supports Hong Kong Government's commitment for the city to become the Green Finance hub of the Greater Bay Area and beyond Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) is today pleased to announce the official launch of the Sustainable and Green Exchange (STAGE), Asia's first multi-asset sustainable investment product platform, supporting fast-growing global demand for sustainable finance. /jlne.ws/3qebWQ2 TSX Venture Exchange Announces Changes to Capital Pool Company Program; Key changes to the Exchange's most popular go-public vehicle aimed at deal makers TSX TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV) today announced changes to its Capital Pool Company (CPC) program, following extensive consultation with stakeholders across the TSXV community. The CPC program is a unique listing vehicle exclusively offered by TSXV and accounted for almost 50% of new TSXV listings in the past 10 years. /jlne.ws/37rXZ8D Reminder: CME Optimizer Software Version 15 Release, Mandatory Upgrade Required CME Group As a reminder, in conjunction with CME expanding the Portfolio Margin program to include Options on Eurodollar Futures, CME is releasing a new build of the Optimizer software, version 15. Optimizer users must upgrade to the newest build by the production deadline December 7, 2020. Firms who do not upgrade on the production deadline will experience subsequent Optimizer failures. /jlne.ws/3qpqn43 Performance Bond Requirements: Agriculture, Energy, Equity, FX, & Metal Margins - Effective December 01, 2020 CME Group As per the normal review of market volatility to ensure adequate collateral coverage, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc., Clearing House Risk Management staff approved the performance bond requirements for the following products listed in the advisory at the link below. Please email any questions to [email protected]. /jlne.ws/3lsZQPi Production: CME Inclusion of Options on Eurodollar Futures in Portfolio Margin Program with Interest Rate Swaps (IRS) Products - Effective December 07, 2020 CME Group As referenced in advisory #20-416, CME is expanding its portfolio margining offering for IRS Products to include several Options on Eurodollar Futures in addition to existing eligible Futures products: Eurodollar Futures, Fed Funds Futures, Treasury Futures and Deliverable Swap (MAC) Futures. This expansion is scheduled to be enabled in the Production environment on December 7th , 2020, subject to regulatory approval. Note that the inclusion of Listed Options has been available for testing in CME's test environment since October 28th, 2020. /jlne.ws/3qgJzk6 Performance Bond Requirements: Energy, Agriculture - Effective December 01, 2020 CME Group As per the normal review of market volatility to ensure adequate collateral coverage, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc., Clearing House Risk Management staff approved the performance bond requirements for the following products listed below. /jlne.ws/3lyaggU Chrome Browser Support for FTP Site Discontinued, January 26th CME Group Please be advised that Google Chrome browser will no longer support public ftp services. This is not limited to CME ftp site but will impact ftp services in general. This will affect users who connect and download data files like SPAN, Settlement and other public data files from ftp.cmegroup.com site. Users who utilize ftp tools like FileZilla, Microsoft Edge, Apple Safari or other browsers are not impacted and may still access this information without a CME Login. This will not impact the CME Secure SFTP server. /jlne.ws/39DGzIC File Format Change - CST550IM New Column - Effective: December 14, 2020 CME Group Starting at Intraday (ITD) on December 14, 2020, a new column will be added immediately following the 'AssetPBAmountApplied' column. The new column is named 'ReqCovered'; this column indicates the amount of margin requirement covered by the asset in the 'AssetPBAmountApplied' column. /jlne.ws/39CiWk1 Trading Overview in November 2020; Japan Exchange Group released Trading Overview in November 2020. JPX Cash Equity Market - In November 2020, the daily average trading value for the TSE 1st Section (domestic common stocks) was JPY 3.3949 trillion. - The daily average trading value for the ETF market was JPY 319.3 billion. Derivatives Market - In November 2020, total derivatives trading volume was 32,863,057 contracts. /jlne.ws/3fSLx5H Shenzhen Stock Exchange Holds 2020 Technology Conference To Co-Write A New Chapter For Capital Market Digitalization Mondovisione On November 27, Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE) held 2020 Technology Conference with the theme of "Technology Leading Digitalization New Chapter", which was the fourth consecutive technology conference in the industry. T /jlne.ws/2KNTKwi To Provide Warm And Targeted Regulatory Services - Shenzhen Stock Exchange Issues Reference Text For Regulations On Corporate Bondholders' Meetings Mondovisione On November 27, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE) issued the Guidelines for Preparing Rules Governing Corporate Bondholders' Meetings (Reference Text) ("Reference Text"), providing preparation guidance for the rules governing on corporate bondholders' meeting convening, holding, resolutions and other work that have wide market attention recently. /jlne.ws/3odKIap SIX Exchange Regulation: Sanction Proposal Against Rapid Nutrition PLC Mondovisione SIX Exchange Regulation AG (SER) has submitted a request for a sanction to the Sanctions Commission of SIX Group against Rapid Nutrition PLC concerning alleged violations of the applicable accounting standards IFRS in the 2017/2018 annual and 2018/2019 interim financial statements. /jlne.ws/2Jsu3kL Shenzhen Stock Exchange , Shanghai Stock Exchange And HKEX Reach A Consensus On Expanding The Scope Of Stocks Eligible For Trading Under The Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect And The Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect Mondovisione To further refine interconnectivity mechanisms, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE), the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) and the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) have reached a consensus on the following arrangements for expanding the scope of stocks eligible for trading under the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect and the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect: /jlne.ws/37sWOpz Jointly Foster A Rational Investment Culture And A Sound Market Ecosystem Shenzhen Stock Exchange Holds The Securities Culture Development Forum & The Awarding Ceremony Of The 2nd National Animation & Comics Contest For Investor Education Mondovisione To further promote the organic integration and mutual facilitation between investor education and cultural creativity, open a window into finance through animation & comics, build an educational bridge through culture and help cultivate a sound capital market ecosystem, on November 28, under the guidance of the Investor Protection Bureau of China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), SZSE, together with People's Daily's Satire and Humor and Securities Times, jointly held the Securities Culture Development Forum & the Awarding Ceremony for the 2nd National Animation & Comics Contest for Investor Education with a theme to "Jointly Foster a Rational Investment Culture and Cultivate a Good Market Ecosystem". /jlne.ws/33xltYQ IntelligentCross ATS To Hold Charity Trading Day To Benefit Tuesday's Children; Imperative Execution's AI-powered IntelligentCross Levers its Significant Growth to Give Back to the Community on December 1st Charity Drive Tuesday's Children Imperative Execution, Inc. - the financial technology company that created IntelligentCross, an AI-powered alternative trading system built to reduce market impact - a key institutional trading cost - announced that, for the second consecutive year, it will be hosting a charity trading day on Giving Tuesday, December 1. Imperative Execution will donate IntelligentCross's net commissions for December 1, 2020 to Tuesday's Children, the organization formed in the wake of 9/11 that provides a lifetime of healing for families who have been forever changed by terrorism, military conflict or mass violence. /jlne.ws/39Ao7Rh
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Fintech | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | Michael Moritz named chairman of Swedish fintech Klarna; Appointment of veteran Silicon Valley venture capitalist comes as Europe's most valuable private fintech pushes into the US Richard Milne - FT Veteran Silicon Valley venture capitalist Michael Moritz will be the next chairman of Klarna as the Swedish fintech continues its push into the US by considering becoming a bank there ahead of a likely stock market listing. /jlne.ws/39uDafp Watchdog suspects EY knew it issued 'factually inaccurate' Wirecard audit; Big Four auditor under increasing pressure over its role in German accounting fraud Olaf Storbeck - FT Germany's audit watchdog suspects EY partners knew they were issuing a "factually inaccurate" audit for Wirecard in 2017, according to four people familiar with the matter. Apas, the Berlin-based audit oversight body, has reported EY to prosecutors, telling them that the firm may have acted criminally during its work for Wirecard, which collapsed into insolvency earlier this year in one of Europe's largest fraud scandals. /jlne.ws/39C4KaJ BlackRock launches Aladdin Climate to support sustainable portfolios; Upon launching Aladdin Climate for measuring climate risk, BlackRock has also expanded the platform's ESG data through new partnerships with Refinitiv and Sustainalytics. Hayley McDowell - The Trade Global asset manager BlackRock has launched a software application via its flagship investment operations platform Aladdin to allow investors to quantify climate risk within their portfolios. /jlne.ws/3lvEaC5 ALPIMA launches next-generation investment strategy design platform; Notebooks 2.0 from ALPIMA will be available to a group of enterprise clients with a broader roll-out scheduled for January next year. Annabel Smith - The Trade Buy-side software as a service (SaaS) platform provider ALPIMA has launched an enhanced version of its Notebooks investment strategy design and implementation platform. /jlne.ws/37s3SlY TORA adds Liquidnet IA Trader analytics tool to OEMS; The integration with Liquidnet IA Trader will provide TORA OEMS users access to advanced data analytics tools and trading algorithms. Annabel Smith - The Trade Trading systems provider TORA has expanded its order and execution management system (OEMS) with access to artificial intelligence-based data analytics tools and trading algorithms from Liquidnet. /jlne.ws/33A4QM1
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Cryptocurrencies | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | Bitcoin's 'Integrity' Flaws May Lead to Failure, Gary Cohn Says Sridhar Natarajan - Bloomberg Former Goldman exec says the coin has 'no transparency to it'; He's set up a vehicle to buy companies to own for a long time Don't pin your hopes on the Bitcoin boom holding up, according to Gary Cohn, a former economic chief to Donald Trump. "For all the reasons it's a strong developing asset class, it may fail," Cohn, the ex-Goldman Sachs Group Inc. honcho, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. /jlne.ws/2JsE3do Bitcoin Jumps to Record High as Bulls Say This Time Is Different Vildana Hajric - Bloomberg Largest cryptocurrency surpasses high set in December 2017; Digital asset was launched in October 2008 by unknown creator Bitcoin climbed to a record, taking less than three years to replicate the euphoric ascent that catapulted the cryptocurrency into the mainstream consciousness. /jlne.ws/3lldl3C Record-setting bitcoin faces test after volatile week; Investors reel after cryptocurrency sets all-time high before slumping Eva Szalay - FT Bitcoin is set for a crucial few weeks to determine whether its record-breaking rally this year marks a rerun of the cryptocurrency bubble that burst in 2017 or the first leg of a long-term ascent. /jlne.ws/37lpiS4 Coinbase to incentivize market makers for improving the liquidity of less liquid trading pairs Yogita Khatri - The Block Crypto exchange Coinbase has announced a new reward program for market makers who would improve the liquidity of its less-liquid trading pairs. The program is aimed at incentivizing participants "for diversifying their activity across a wide set of trading pairs," including low-liquidity and new trading pairs. Market makers would have to meet certain conditions to qualify for the program. First, they will have to trade above a certain threshold in the trailing 30-day adjusted maker volume (AMV). The AMV multipliers for low-liquidity and new trading pairs are 15x, medium-liquidity (10x), and high-liquidity (1x), suggesting that Coinbase wants to improve the liquidity for the first two categories of trading pairs. /jlne.ws/3lmWEVn Eth2 Phase 0 launches as beacon chain goes live for ETH staking Yogita Khatri - The Block The long-awaited launch of Ethereum 2.0's Phase 0 has just happened. The event marks the roll-out of the beacon chain — a kind of backbone for the Ethereum 2.0 network, or Eth2, with the genesis block produced at 12:00 UTC on December 1. The beacon chain has enabled ether (ETH) staking rewards for initial depositors, who had locked in more than $500 million worth of ETH in the Eth2 staking deposit contract. "Today is the day rubber hits the road," Justin Drake, Eth2 researcher at the Ethereum Foundation, told The Block. "It is pretty crazy we have four production-grade Eth2 clients — Lighthouse, Nimbus, Prysm, and Teku — from day one." /jlne.ws/39xREey Google Searches for 'Bitcoin Price' Hit 18-Month High Omkar Godbole - Coindesk General interest in bitcoin looks to have risen alongside the top cryptocurrency's rally to a new peak price. As of last week, Google Trends, a barometer for gauging general or retail interest in trending topics, returned a value of 21 for the worldwide search query "bitcoin price". That's over double the value of 10 observed roughly a month ago and the highest level since June 2019. Bitcoin set a new record high of $19,850 on Monday, having narrowly missed the previous lifetime high of $19,783 last week. The cryptocurrency surged over 40% in November to register its biggest monthly gain since May 2019. /jlne.ws/37qEFIK Canaan Reports $12M Q3 Loss, Says There's 'Rebounding Demand' for Mining Machines Zack Voell - Coindesk Mining hardware manufacturer Canaan Creative reported a Q3 net loss of $12.7 million, or 54 cents per share, more than quadruple the size of Q2's $2.38 million loss, or 10 cents per share. Total net revenue in Q3 for the Hangzhou, China-based company fell 5% to $24 million since the previous quarter, per an unaudited financial report released Monday. The price of bitcoin gained 18% in Q3. Cash held by Canaan grew nearly 18% in Q3 to over $26 million, up from barely $22 million in the previous quarter. /jlne.ws/3qefBxg DeFi protocol Yearn.Finance announces fifth merger, this time with Uniswap fork SushiSwap Yogita Khatri - The Block Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Yearn.Finance has announced yet another merger, this time with SushiSwap, a fork of decentralized exchange Uniswap. As part of this deal, Yearn and Sushiswap's development resources will merge, and their total value locked (TVL) would combine. The current TVL of Yearn is around $455 million, and SushiSwap's TVL is about $730 million, according to tracker DeFi Pulse, making it Yearn's biggest merger thus far. The protocol recently announced mergers with four other protocols — Pickle Finance, Cream Finance, Cover, and Akropolis. /jlne.ws/2Jp0Iro Coinbase Brokered MicroStrategy's $425M Bitcoin Purchase, Exchange Says Sebastian Sinclair - Coindesk U.S. cryptocurrency platform Coinbase facilitated MicroStrategy's $425 million bitcoin buy earlier this year, the exchange said. In an announcement Tuesday, Coinbase revealed that MicroStrategy's initial $250 million investment, which occurred over a five-day period in August, came via Coinbase Prime, the exchange's crypto brokerage arm formed following the acquisition of Tagomi in May. /jlne.ws/37s2kIX Christine Lagarde Bashes Bitcoin and Libra Bilal Jafar - Finance Magnates Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank (ECB), published an article on Monday mentioning the risks associated with the use of privately-owned cryptocurrencies. Lagarde criticised bitcoin and other stablecoins but spoke positively about the digital euro. The official article published on 30 November in L'ENA hors les murs magazine stated that crypto users cannot rely on digital assets to maintain a stable value. Lagarde bashed the speculative and highly volatile nature of cryptocurrencies. /jlne.ws/3o4TgjU Bitcoin's Rally Spurs Wall Street to Question Future of Gold Eddie Spence and Yvonne Yue Li - Bloomberg Investors are starting to think of crypto in asset allocation; But whether Bitcoin can rival gold still remains to be seen Bitcoin has shot to a record just as billions of institutional dollars have fled gold. Whether that's a simple coincidence or the start of a rotation that would have a profound impact on crypto and the precious-metals market is impossible to know for sure. But the debate is now heating up on whether the world's largest digital currency can one day rival bullion as an inflation hedge and portfolio diversifier. /jlne.ws/3qgkGoM
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Politics | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | Democrats Just Got the Digital Machine They Need to Keep Winning; EveryAction, a Salesforce-like platform for liberal campaigns and causes, has acquired the organizing company Mobilize, creating a political tech juggernaut. Joshua Green - Bloomberg Many Democrats have spent the weeks since the election bickering about who's to blame for a result that ousted President Trump but also saw the party fall short in its efforts to gain strength in Congress and statehouses. The debate has obscured one area of unquestionable Democratic success: In the four years since Trump's election, progressives have built an organizing and fundraising behemoth, which just delivered a record 80 million votes for President-elect Joe Biden. Democrats' fortunes in the Biden era and beyond will hinge on whether they can maintain and grow this juggernaut. /jlne.ws/2VjGOjQ The Georgia Senate races that will define Joe Biden's presidency; Republicans worry Donald Trump's claims about a "rigged" election will alienate voters Lauren Fedor - FT The civil rights activist and longtime congressman, who died in July at the age of 80, first came on to the national stage at the March on Washington in 1963, speaking alongside Martin Luther King, Jr. He went on to represent Clayton, a heavily African-American county just south of Atlanta, Georgia, in Congress for more than three decades. /jlne.ws/3qfXNBZ Boris Johnson faces uphill battle to make UK global green finance hub; Analysts are optimistic on London's green bond market even as it trails behind EU Camilla Hodgson - FT Boris Johnson has injected enthusiasm into the UK's green bond market, but analysts say the country has a challenge ahead to catch up with rivals across the English channel. /jlne.ws/37n4zgG BlackRock poised to replace Goldman Sachs inside the White House Thornton McEnery - NY Post Forget "Government Sachs" — it's BlackRock that's shaping up to become Wall Street's new elephant inside the White House. President-elect Joe Biden is raising eyebrows with chatter that he's poised to name two executives from BlackRock — the asset-management colossus headed by billionaire Larry Fink, with more than $7 trillion in holdings — for top posts on his economic team. /jlne.ws/39uLr2X Billionaires Urge Tax Reform to Unlock $1.1 Trillion for Charity Ben Steverman - Bloomberg Klarman, Arnold, Novogratz argue for new philanthropy rules; Ford, Hewlett and Kresge foundations sign on to proposal A coalition of billionaires, academics and large foundations say the U.S. could unlock far more money for charity just by tweaking a few tax rules. Wealthy contributors get big tax breaks for donations even if the money then languishes in foundations or other vehicles for decades without reaching charities. The new Initiative to Accelerate Charitable Giving -- which includes wealthy donors John Arnold, Michael Novogratz and Baupost Group's Seth Klarman, along with the Ford, Hewlett, Kresge and W.K. Kellogg foundations -- argues Congress should change the law to prod funders like them to get resources to nonprofits more quickly. /jlne.ws/3qgOmSC Johnson Offers Cash for England Pubs Told to Close Due to Covid Tim Ross - Bloomberg PM facing revolt from Tory MPs in vote on new restrictions; Three-tier Covid curbs for England due to come in from Dec. 2 Boris Johnson will promise cash grants to traditional English pubs forced to shut under new pandemic rules as he seeks to persuade critics in his party to back him in a vote on Tuesday. /jlne.ws/2KQYT6N
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Regulation & Enforcement | For more regulatory, visit MarketsReformWiki, our website focused on current market reform efforts. | UK competition watchdog warns of overcharging after pandemic; CMA finds less pressure on companies to keep prices low and consumers also less willing to shop around Chris Giles and Kate Beioley - FT The coronavirus crisis is likely to leave consumers more vulnerable to overcharging in the years ahead, with the first signs of a decrease in competition between companies already visible, the Competition and Markets Authority warned on Monday. In a new report on the state of UK competition, the markets watchdog noted that there had been a decrease in the pressure on companies to keep prices low compared with 20 years ago, something that also occurred during the 2008-09 financial crisis. /jlne.ws/2HWwriR U.K. Court Freezes Up to $5 Billion Tied to Alleged Kazakhstan Bank Theft; The order, related to a long-running legal saga, goes after stakes in fancy hotels, Burger King restaurants and bank accounts in half a dozen countries Bradley Hope - WSJ A U.K. civil court froze up to $5 billion in assets including stakes in luxury hotels, cash in bank accounts in half a dozen countries and a Burger King franchise, as part of an international legal saga that ensnared Kazakhstan's richest businessmen, according to court documents. /jlne.ws/39vVTY3 ASIC commences proceedings against CBA for overcharged interest - Royal Commission case study ASIC ASIC has today commenced civil penalty proceedings in the Federal Court against the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) for charging a rate of interest on business overdraft accounts substantially higher than what its customers were advised. /jlne.ws/2VmFkW5 FINRA Alerts Firms to Phishing Email Using Invest-FINRA.org Domain Name FINRA FINRA warns member firms of an ongoing phishing campaign that involves fraudulent emails that include the domain "@invest-finra.org". FINRA recommends that anyone who clicked on any link or image in the email immediately notify the appropriate individuals in their firm of the incident. /jlne.ws/2KWpRtX Reminder - TRAQS and API Testing FINRA This is a reminder that the FINRA test region (NTF) is now available for access to TRAQS using FINRA's new Multi Factor Authorization (MFA) entitlement method. As part of its Transparency Services improvement initiatives, FINRA is introducing a new method for users to gain secure access to the TRAQS website and will be introducing a new system infrastructure. /jlne.ws/33xQQm9 CFTC Staff Extends No-Action Relief from Compliance with Certain Timing Requirements for Submitting Fiscal-Year End Reports CFTC The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's Division of Market Oversight (DMO) today extended previously provided no-action relief to swap execution facilities (SEFs) from the timing requirements to file fourth-quarter financial reports, as required in CFTC Regulation 37.1306(d), and to submit annual compliance reports, as required in CFTC Regulation 37.1501(f)(2), as written in CFTC No-Action Letter No. 17-61. /jlne.ws/3msBvut CFTC and CONSOB Sign MOU for Supervision of Cross-Border Firms CFTC The Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa (CONSOB) today announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) regarding cooperation and the exchange of information in the supervision and oversight of regulated firms that operate on a cross-border basis in the United States and in Italy. /jlne.ws/2VAwlAV Statement on Developments Related to the LIBOR Transition Chairman Jay Clayton - SEC Today's announcements establish a pragmatic, market-oriented path for managing the transition away from LIBOR. We encourage registrants to proactively transition to market-based reference rates and stand ready to assist market participants. /jlne.ws/3qhMaug 1 month to go: FCA reminds firms to be ready for end of transition period UK FCA The FCA has reminded firms to be ready for the end of the transition period in 1 month's time. /jlne.ws/3ocmY6t FCA response to IBA's proposed consultation on intention to cease US$ LIBOR UK FCA ICE Benchmark Administration (IBA), the FCA-regulated and authorised administrator of LIBOR, has today announced that it will consult in early December on its intention to cease US$ LIBOR. IBA intends that, subject to confirmation following its consultation, one week and two month US$ LIBOR settings will cease at end-2021, and that the US$ LIBOR panel will cease at end-June 2023. /jlne.ws/39w3upx Investment firms report a quadrupling of cases of fraudsters 'cloning' them and using their legitimate reputation to trick victims; Industry body suspects organised criminals are behind huge rise in scams; They warn of bogus websites, forged documents and fake adverts; Names and near-identical emails of real finance industry workers are being used So how do you guard against a 'clone' scam? Find out below Tanya Jefferies - This is Money Top investment firms warn cases of sophisticated fraudsters 'cloning' their legitimate operations and products to steal people's cash have soared in the past few months. /jlne.ws/2JqgwKj
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Investing & Trading | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | Euro-Area Inflation Stuck Below Zero Adds to Case for ECB Action Alexander Weber - Bloomberg Consumer prices drop annual 0.3%, more than 0.2% forecast; Reading comes ahead of expected boost to monetary stimulus Consumer prices in the euro area continued to fall in November, adding to the case for more European Central Bank stimulus next week. The inflation rate came in at -0.3%, below the median estimate of -0.2% in a Bloomberg survey. A measure that includes volatile items such as food and energy remained at a record-low 0.2%. /jlne.ws/3lurXxA Tesla to join S&P 500 in one swoop; Index provider had considered addition in intervals given carmaker's hefty market capitalisation Michael Mackenzie - FT Tesla will enter the S&P 500 next month in one swoop, reflecting confidence that Wall Street traders will be able to handle a record arrival to the index followed by trillions of dollars of passive investment funds. /jlne.ws/3fVdVUP ExxonMobil slashes capex and will write off up to $20bn in assets; Latest cuts follow brutal six months for US oil industry and world's formerly most valuable company Derek Brower and Myles McCormick -FT ExxonMobil slashed its spending plans, postponed an earnings growth target and will write off up to $20bn of assets in the fourth quarter as it reviews its portfolio in the wake of the pandemic-induced oil price crash. /jlne.ws/3msoSzz Zoom's Pandemic-Fueled Boom Continues; Videoconferencing company lifted its outlook for a third time as it reported record sales Aaron Tilley - WSJ Zoom Video Communications Inc. ZM 1.43% posted another quarter of record sales and again lifted its outlook as remote working and distance schooling drags on during the pandemic, but the growth has come with higher costs that disappointed investors. /jlne.ws/36q2GjM
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Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance | Stories about environmental, social and governance investing | Gasoline Car Bans Show Why Market Forces Aren't Always Enough; Old habits and old technologies often find a way to stick around Akshat Rathi - Bloomberg It's been a strange year, so you'd be forgiven for missing an odd thing that happened in the U.K. last month. When Prime Minister Boris Johnson, leader of the Conservative Party, banned sales of new internal combustion engine cars from 2030, the decision was supported by the likes of oil giant Royal Dutch Shell Plc and the Confederation of British Industry, a powerful business group. /jlne.ws/3muY01N Peak Oil is Suddenly Upon Us Tom Randall and Hayley Warren A year ago, if anyone in the petroleum business had suggested that the moment of Peak Oil had already passed, they would have been laughed right off the drilling rig. Then 2020 happened. /jlne.ws/3lrKKcM More Women in Boardrooms Mean Better Climate Policy, BNEF Says Heesu Lee - Bloomberg Firms with diverse leadership rate higher on ESG scores: study; Improved gender data seen aiding investors and companies Companies with greater gender diversity in their boardrooms show better performance on developing policies and methods to address climate change risks, according to BloombergNEF. /jlne.ws/3qgkl5u Partner content: Five reasons to choose indexing for sustainable investing iShares via FT For professional clients only. Capital at risk. This information should not be relied upon as investment advice, or a recommendation regarding any products, strategies. The environmental, social and governance ("ESG") considerations discussed herein may affect an investment team's decision to invest in certain companies or industries from time to time. Results may differ from portfolios that do not apply similar ESG considerations to their investment process. /jlne.ws/3mFencp Fidelity reports progress in sustainable investment and stewardship in China Institutional Asset Manager The gradual opening of the onshore market in China is bringing with it a greater focus on the importance of good stewardship. As investors around the world increase their allocations to Chinese A-shares, a current and detailed understanding of the state of voting and engagement in China's onshore markets is increasingly important. /jlne.ws/3lsF02L How wind and solar toppled Exxon from its place as America's top energy company Tim McDonnell - Quartz In early October, the world passed a milestone in the clean energy transition that, until very recently, seemed unthinkable: Exxon was unseated as the most valuable energy company in America. And not by Chevron, its closely-trailing oil and gas competitor. No, Chevron got leapfrogged too—by NextEra Energy, a company that has built the world's largest collection of wind and solar farms. /jlne.ws/39xWqZw
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Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | Credit Suisse Sees Higher Provisions in $680 Million Mortgage-Backed Bonds Case Marion Halftermeyer - Bloomberg Bank plans to set aside more funds to cover mortgage case; U.S. court ordered Swiss bank to submit damage estimates Credit Suisse Group AG signaled it may need to set aside an additional $380 million in the fourth quarter to cover a 2009 U.S. case involving guarantees for residential mortgage-backed securities, the latest financial hit after a hedge fund loss last month. /jlne.ws/36qcYk4 More Women in Boardrooms Mean Better Climate Policy, BNEF Says Heesu Lee - Bloomberg Firms with diverse leadership rate higher on ESG scores: study; Improved gender data seen aiding investors and companies Companies with greater gender diversity in their boardrooms show better performance on developing policies and methods to address climate change risks, according to BloombergNEF. /jlne.ws/3mEKr01 Billionaire Hedge Fund Hintze's Deal With Spinoff Team Falls Apart Nishant Kumar - Bloomberg CQS planned to take an equity stake and give money to Landseer; The asset manager instead started a stock hedge fund alone A deal between Michael Hintze's CQS and its equity hedge-fund spinoff has collapsed as the billionaire renews focus on his core credit investing roots in a turbulent year marred by record losses. /jlne.ws/3mt0IEW Hedge Fund Revises Bid for India Shadow Bank to Skirt RBI Delay Bijou George and Suvashree Ghosh - Bloomberg Revamp follows delays in regulatory approval for deal; Reworked deal focuses on purchase of assets from lender Ares Management Corp.-backed hedge fund SSG Capital Management has revised the structure of its bid for an Indian shadow lender to help sidestep delays in regulatory approval. /jlne.ws/36oarqu JPMorgan Traders Set for Up to 20% Bonus Jump After Record Year By Michelle F Davis and Sridhar Natarajan - Bloomberg Compensation likely to drop across bank's other businesses; Bank planning to freeze raises for VP-level workers and above JPMorgan Chase & Co. is planning to boost annual bonuses for its sales and trading workers even as payouts are set to decline across the company. /jlne.ws/33taZJZ
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Regions | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | Turkey Wealth Fund to Retry Bond Sale Ercan Ersoy - Bloomberg Fund weighing share sale of stock exchange, oil and gas firm; Sovereign fund wants to become regular bond issuer, CEO says Turkey's sovereign wealth fund will retry a Eurobond issuance next year after its debut was shelved two months ago due to weak investor demand, and is also considering selling shares in some of its assets. /jlne.ws/3fSmTlH Africa's cocoa farmers and Big Chocolate clash over poverty fighting measures; Confectioners including Mars and Hershey accused of trying to circumvent 'living Neil Munshi and Emiko Terazono - FT Ghana and Ivory Coast have hit out at several big chocolate companies and traders including Mars, Hershey and Olam, accusing them of trying to circumvent a premium on cocoa meant to help fight farmer poverty in west Africa. /jlne.ws/33x2s8U
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Brexit | Financials stories regarding the decision of the United Kingdom to leave the European Union | London 'Thrown to the Lions' as Brexit Finance Deal Unlikely Viren Vaghela - Bloomberg Growing signs of trading, assets and people moving to Europe; London's long-standing advantages may help soften Brexit The golden age of the City of London began with a big bang. It's ending with a whimper. Fears that the finance powerhouse that emerged from Margaret Thatcher's 1986 deregulation -- known as the Big Bang -- will gradually be dismantled have deepened with a recent flurry of announcements about some business heading to the European Union as Britain enters the last month of the Brexit transition period without a financial-services deal in sight. /jlne.ws/2JrsdQJ No-trade deal Brexit is still possible, UK minister says Guy Faulconbridge, Elizabeth Piper - Reuters A senior British minister said on Tuesday there was still a chance of a turbulent Brexit without a trade deal as talks with the European Union had snagged on fishing, governance rules and dispute resolution. Just 30 days before Britain leaves the EU's orbit following a standstill transition period since it formally quit the bloc, the sides are trying to agree a trade deal to avoid a rupture that could snarl almost $1 trillion in annual trade. With each side urging the other to compromise, a French official said Britain must clarify its positions and "really negotiate", and cautioned that the EU would not accept a "substandard deal". /jlne.ws/3lA2fbj Brexit: Will the borders be ready? Chris Morris - BBC News With a month to go until the end of the post-Brexit transition period, there's still no clarity about exactly how the UK's borders will operate outside the EU's economic zone - the single market and the customs union. The government says "huge advances" have been made in its preparations, but businesses that trade across the border are extremely concerned. Duncan Buchanan, the policy director of the Road Haulage Association, says he is expecting something "between shocking and a catastrophe". /jlne.ws/2Vk7np4 Farm animals antibiotics data raises post-Brexit trade fears Fiona Harvey - The Guardian The overuse of antibiotics on farm animals is rife in some of the key countries with which the UK is hoping to strike a post-Brexit trade deal, a new report shows, raising fears that future deals will jeopardise public health and British farming. The US, Australia, New Zealand and Canada all allow farmers to feed antibiotics routinely to livestock to make them grow faster, and in the US and Canada farm antibiotic use is about five times the level in the UK, data compiled by the Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics shows. /jlne.ws/3o98JPZ EU tensions build over when to present no-deal Brexit plans Jim Brunsden - FT Brussels is facing mounting frustration from EU member states over its reluctance to immediately present emergency measures that would mitigate chaos should Brexit trade talks fail. The European Commission on Monday refused to be drawn on when it might present temporary contingency measures, such as short-term rights for EU-UK flights to continue and for hauliers to transport goods across the English Channel, despite increasing irritation in national capitals at Brussels' unwillingness to provide more certainty. /jlne.ws/3fT8Ufa Brexit Talks Tricky But Should End Soon, Von Der Leyen Says Ian Wishart - Bloomberg Trade talks between the U.K. and European Union are "so tricky and so difficult" but there could be a positive outcome in the next few days, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said. With face-to-face talks continuing in London, the German head of the bloc's executive said on Tuesday there are still important questions to resolve around the so-called level playing field, a set of rules designed to ensure fair competition between businesses. /jlne.ws/3o992dB
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Miscellaneous | Stories that don't quite fit under the other sections | Reddit Claims 52 Million Daily Users, Revealing a Key Figure for Social-Media Platforms The disclosure comes as the tech company pursues new advertisers Sahil Patel - WSJ Reddit Inc. said it averaged 52 million daily active users in October, up 44% from the same month a year earlier, disclosing for the first time a metric used by other social-media companies to define the size of their audiences. /jlne.ws/2I0tkGO *****Reddit is the usenet of today.~JJL
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