| February 13, 2023 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | | | John Lothian
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Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff
Messages like this are never good. The United States has told its citizens to leave Russia immediately due to "the threat of arbitrary arrest and or harassment by Russian law enforcement agencies," Reuters reported.
Ukraine's Minister of Finance Serhiy Marchenko has written an opinion piece in the Financial Times titled "It is time to cut Russia out of the global financial system; Moscow's invasion of Ukraine and financing of terrorism makes a mockery of the idea of a 'rules-based order.'" Here is the last paragraph from his commentary:
Russia has been allowed to undermine the system from the inside for too long. The international order can only survive if the rules are followed. We have powerful mechanisms available to enforce these rules. The time has come to use them.
The Guardian reported that the U.S. Military shot down an "octagonal" shaped object flying over military sites in Michigan. That was actually a prototype flying trading pit that utilizes AI, VR and floating traders inside a helium filled octagonal trading pit balloon, OR NOT.
Are you getting ready for conference season? Well, Pilita Clark of the Financial Times has a commentary for you titled "How not to be the panellist from hell; Start off by obeying the basic ground rules that popular panel speakers know well."
Here is a timely offering from our friends at Exchange Analytics. They have a new Cybersecurity Course "featuring the expertise of Robert Bigman, former CISO for the Central Intelligence Agency, addresses the significant threats that every firm faces. The course is designed to satisfy the annual training requirements mandated by the NFA and Finra." You can click HERE for more information.
Ken Griffin is inspiring investors who want to work from the beach, according to a Bloomberg headline. Miami, Florida, tops the investor wish list of where they would like to work from globally if they were relocated, the story said.
Chicago's LaSalle Street is not the only financial district to have buildings stressed by the post-pandemic work-from-home world. According to a Bloomberg story, the Donald Trump-owned 40 Wall Street building has been put on a lender watch as its vacancies and costs rise. The building has a mortgage of $126.5 million, Bloomberg reported.
Mark Esposito is starting a new position as McMillan options mentoring instructor at McMillan Analysis Corp.
Randy Fox is starting a new position as director for Americas-relationship manager, strategic accounts at Moody's Analytics.
The second episode of Bevon Joseph's new podcast series The Social Capital Guy Podcast is up and features an interview with one of his mentees, Manny Gonzalez.
Congratulations to the Northwestern Wildcats men's basketball team that beat the Purdue Boilermakers on Sunday, a few hours before the Super Bowl, in a game in Evanston, IL. Northwestern beat a number one ranked team for the first time in their history on Sunday, a historic event for the Cats. Luckily for me, I only had the responsibility of buying lunch riding on the outcome of the game.
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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Traders Magazine reports that Russell Investments has selected Zach Buchwald to serve as chief executive officer and chairman of its board of directors. Buchwald will take over on May 1, succeeding Michelle Seitz, who left the firm late last year. He will be based in Seattle. Buchwald was previously head of North American institutional business at BlackRock.~SR
The Derivatives Forum Frankfurt will be March 22-23 in the Congress Center Messe, Frankfurt, Germany. The forum will focus on trading and clearing for derivatives and securities financing across asset classes, and will feature 35 panels, discussions and keynotes. A networking reception will take place on the evening of the first day. You can participate in person or virtually. The agenda for the Derivatives Forum Frankfurt is now live and you can view it and learn more here.~SAED
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Salomon Trader's Debt-Funded Empire Left Reeling by Russian Hack
Donal Griffin, Mark Burton and Isis Almeida - Bloomberg News
A cyberattack that wreaked havoc across derivatives firms last week has left Andrea Pignataro, the Italian tycoon who heads the software company at the heart of the storm, grappling with something he has avoided for decades: publicity. The former Salomon Brothers bond trader who helped set up ION Trading in the mid-1990s has largely shunned the limelight, rarely speaking at events and never once giving an interview to the English-language media. While ION staff worked around the clock to resolve the cyberattack and reassure clients as their systems were being held to ransom by Russian hackers Pignataro, 52, remained out of sight.
/jlne.ws/3E2cbpX
****The FIA Smartbrief headline for this story was "ION head Pignataro forced into public eye by cyberattack." Andrea Pignataro continues to be one of the most searched pages on MarketsWiki. In 2022, he was the 10th most searched page, and ION Group itself was the 2nd most searched term on the site. ~JJL
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Staking-as-a-Service | Office Hours with Gary Gensler
SEC - YouTube
Today, the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission charged Kraken for the unregistered offer and sale of securities thru its staking-as-a-service program. Whether it's through staking-as-a-service, lending, or other means, crypto intermediaries must provide the proper disclosures & safeguards required by our laws.
/jlne.ws/3RUiSjy
****** Gary Gensler trying to slice his way through the staking news.~JJL
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Mars Wrigley fined after workers fall into vat of chocolate
Associated Press
Federal workplace safety authorities have fined a central Pennsylvania confectionary factory more than $14,500 following an accident last year in which two workers fell into a vat of chocolate. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited Mars Wrigley in the June accident at the Elizabethtown M&M/Mars factory, saying the workers were not authorized to work in the tanks and weren't trained on the proper safety procedures for the equipment.
/jlne.ws/3XpJPfZ
****** The workers had to be cut out of the bottom of the giant vat.~JJL
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Black farmers call for justice from the USDA
Ximena Bustillo - NPR
Nearly two decades ago a class action lawsuit led by Black farmers against the U.S. Department of Agriculture was settled. Then there was a class action from Native Americans. And one from Hispanic farmers. And then women farmers filed their own. They all alleged, through various years of examples, that the USDA discriminated against them by denying them access to low-interest rate loans and loan servicing, grant programs and assistance, causing them hundreds of millions of dollars in economic loss and record-breaking land loss through foreclosures.
/jlne.ws/3IjjnjP
****** We need farmers. No farmer should have to call for justice.~JJL
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Jared Kushner's private equity firm concealed the origins of Saudi-backed funds and used the SEC's own rules to help them do it, report says
Hannah Getahun - Business Insider
Immediately after leaving the White House, former Senior Adviser Jared Kushner created a company that would eventually become a private equity firm with ties to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. But because of SEC rules on reporting assets from investors of private equity funds, Kushner was able to legally conceal the identity of his investors and list them only as "non-United States persons" according to a new report from the Washington Post.
/jlne.ws/3XqfjD0
****** My only question is, "Does Jared Kushner have a laptop?"~JJL
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Friday's Top Three
Our top story on Friday was Banks should abandon their blockchain fantasies, a commentary from Financial News. Second was ION brings clients back online after ransomware attack - source, from Reuters. Third was a tie between The World Bank Must Take Bolder Action on Climate, an opinion piece from Michael Bloomberg, in Bloomberg, and SEC Intensifies Crypto Enforcement With Exchange Settlement, from The Wall Street Journal.
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MarketsWiki Stats
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| All MarketsWiki Sponsors» | | | | | | | John Lothian News (JLN) is the news division of John J. Lothian & Company, Inc. (JJLCO). The online media and financial services firm is staffed by derivatives industry, journalism and technology professionals. | | | | | | | John Lothian News Editorial Staff: | | | John Lothian
Publisher | | | Sarah Rudolph
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| Lead Stories | New SEC Rules Target Corporate Insider Trading; Loopholes will close for executives selling company stock
Jonathan Weil - The Wall Street Journal
For the last two decades, officers and directors at U.S. public companies seeking to trade illicitly on inside information had an almost infallible get-out-of-jail-free card. All they had to do was use prearranged trading plans when they bought and sold their companies' shares. The odds the government would target them for enforcement actions were slim. It was an unintended consequence of a 2002 regulation called Rule 10b5-1 that academic research shows was abused by some executives.
/jlne.ws/3E4fGMJ
Insider traders use ETFs to front-run M&A deals, academics say; Research identifies $2.75bn worth of potential 'shadow trades' in US between 2009 and 2021
Steve Johnson - Financial Times
Insider traders have used exchange traded funds to conceal billions of dollars' worth of trades, according to a team of academics who say their finding may be just the "tip of the iceberg". Their analysis suggests at least $2.75bn worth of anomalous trades occurred in US-listed ETFs before merger and acquisition announcements between 2009 and 2021.
/jlne.ws/3XzWjSE
Three Arrows Founders Start Crypto Bankruptcy Claims Exchange; Open Exchange would let users trade claims of failed crypto companies
Weilun Soon and Caitlin Ostroff - The Wall Street Journal
The founders of failed hedge fund Three Arrows Capital Ltd. have resurfaced with a $25 million crypto-exchange venture that will let users trade bankruptcy claims from insolvent platforms and funds, including their own. Open Exchange, or OPNX, was created by Su Zhu and Kyle Davies-who set up Three Arrows together-and the two founders of crypto exchange CoinFLEX. The new platform is expected to launch by the end of this month, Mr. Su said. It has begun accepting applications from individuals who want to be among the first to trade their crypto claims; Mr. Su tweeted on Sunday that there were more than 3,600 sign-ups so far. U.S. residents are among those that aren't eligible for the wait list, the company said.
/jlne.ws/3YO3IOT
US regulator orders halt to minting Binance-branded token; NYDFS moves to intervene at stablecoin operator Paxos
Scott Chipolina - Financial Times
US financial regulators have shut down further issuance of the Binance-branded stablecoin as the clampdown on the crypto sector gathers momentum. Paxos, the stablecoin company behind the issuance of the $16bn token BUSD, said on Monday it would end its relationship with Binance over the token, which is used to help traders move more quickly in and out of the crypto market. The halt to minting BUSD from February 21 was called by the sector's regulator, the New York Department of Financial Services, and comes as US authorities step up their scrutiny of crypto market practices.
/jlne.ws/3XvS9Lg
US fintech FIS to spin off Worldpay payments business
James Fontanella-Khan and Ortenca Aliaj - Financial Times
US-based financial technology group FIS said it will spin-off Worldpay, the payments business it acquired for $43bn just four years ago, after it failed to successfully integrate the two companies. The Jacksonville, Florida-based company, formally known as Fidelity National Information Services, said the tax free split would unlock shareholder value, a claim that contradicts the arguments it made in 2019 when it combined the groups to create one of the largest providers of financial infrastructure that underlie the bank payments system.
/jlne.ws/3lyYd8N
It's Still Hard to Spot 'Pink Sheets' Carbon Offsets: Sparklines; Competing carbon market participants agree that better transparency and a universal definition of quality is needed for offset demand to grow.
Nathaniel Bullard - Bloomberg
Last year was a bit tumultuous for the global carbon offsets market. Volumes diverged from the trend of the last half-decade, quality and durability came under scrutiny, and some trading strategies vanished completely. There were scandals. There were fires. The market is still poised to grow into billions of tons of carbon dioxide equivalent every year, as countries and companies pursue net zero goals. But the space between today's hundreds of millions of tons, and the future's billions of tons, is both fluid and fascinating. It is a parley of market visions and ultimate standards.
/jlne.ws/3lnnDpw
How Lack of Copper Could Slow the Energy Transition
James Attwood - Bloomberg
Avoiding a climate catastrophe is often portrayed as a question of political willpower. Yet the shift to net-zero carbon emissions is also a daunting technical challenge. For one thing, retooling power systems built around fossil fuels so they can run on renewable energy will require far more copper - the essential artery of power networks and electrical equipment - than the companies able to produce it are currently equipped to deliver. It's far from clear whether a traditionally cautious mining industry will embrace the scale of investment needed to rewire the world. Failure would throw the energy transition off course.
/jlne.ws/3E2F1GC
Why Metals Keep Going Missing in Commodity Trading
Bloomberg News
Trader Trafigura Group is facing more than half a billion dollars in losses after realizing that cargoes it bought didn't contain the nickel they were supposed to, sending fresh shockwaves through an industry that has been rocked by several high-profile frauds in recent years. In August, a group of Chinese merchants found that a copper trader in the nation wasn't holding almost $500 million worth of ore that was meant to be their collateral. And there was a June episode involving missing aluminum. They all highlight rising risks in commodity financing and carry worrying echoes of a much bigger scandal in 2014 - the Qingdao fraud - that triggered a sweeping overhaul of the commodities business at international banks and trading houses.
/jlne.ws/3K3vjYf
Natural Gas: Fasten Your Seat Belts; The buffers that keep America's natural-gas price fluctuations at bay are eroding
Jinjoo Lee - The Wall Street Journal
Last year, natural-gas prices were-by some measures-the most volatile since the U.S. shale boom began about a decade earlier. Despite the recent plunge in prices, it could be just a preview of coming attractions. Here is one way to quantify the wild swings: There were 18 days last year when the benchmark Henry Hub futures contract's daily closing prices moved by more than 10%, the most since the Nymex natural-gas contract made its debut more than three decades ago, according to Eli Rubin, senior energy analyst at EBW Analytics Group.
/jlne.ws/3YM4H2d
Stan the Man; How one man still exerts immense influence over an entire generation of central bankers
Robin Wigglesworth - Financial Times
Stanley Fischer is the pocket-sized colossus of modern central banking. Although Fischer himself is long retired, it now looks like yet another of his disciples is to pick up the reins of major central bank. As our colleagues reported on Friday, Japan's government is expected to nominate Kazuo Ueda as the next governor of the Bank of Japan. Most of the immediate coverage focused on whether Ueda will continue the BoJ's yield curve control policy. But to us it hammered home how many leading central bankers have been advised, taught or worked with Fischer.
/jlne.ws/3jVoU6Q
Regulator Orders Crypto Firm Paxos to Stop Issuing Binance Stablecoin; Company to continue to manage redemptions of dollar-pegged BUSD token
Patricia Kowsmann and Caitlin Ostroff - The Wall Street Journal
New York regulators directed a crypto company to stop issuing one of the largest dollar-pegged cryptocurrencies, as a government clampdown on the sector widens. The New York Department of Financial Services ordered Paxos Trust Co., which issues and lists Binance's dollar-pegged cryptocurrency, to stop creating more of its BUSD token, Binance said in a statement. Paxos will continue to manage redemptions of the product, the crypto exchange added.
/jlne.ws/3RTel0E
Binance and Crypto Markets Rattled as Paxos Ordered to Stop Issuing Exchange's Stablecoin
Jack Denton - Barron's
Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, faced increased regulatory pressures over the weekend as the issuer of its U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin said it will stop issuing Binance USD after an order from regulators. Amid a recent round of banking and finance headwinds facing Binance, it has the potential to be the most disruptive to wider crypto markets.
/jlne.ws/3HUwx5y
Binance Says BUSD 'Funds are Safu', but a Regulatory Cloud is Forming Over the U.S.
Sam Reynolds - CoinDesk
The Securities and Exchange Commission's attack on crypto has continued for a second week. Just as Asia got to work on Monday, the Wall Street Journal had a bombshell: the SEC was going after Binance-branded stablecoin BUSD.
/jlne.ws/3RS1kVf
Paxos Will Halt Minting New BUSD Tokens
Paxos
Existing Tokens Remain Fully-Backed and Redeemable Through Paxos Trust Company Through At Least February 2024
Paxos, the leading regulated blockchain and tokenization infrastructure platform, announced it will end its relationship with Binance for the branded stablecoin BUSD. Effective February 21, Paxos will cease issuance of new BUSD tokens as directed by and working in close coordination with the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS). Paxos Trust, a regulated institution overseen by the NYDFS and audited by a top-four accounting firm, will continue to manage BUSD dollar reserves. All BUSD tokens issued by Paxos Trust have and always will be backed 1:1 with US dollar-denominated reserves, fully segregated and held in bankruptcy remote accounts. BUSD reserves are fully-backed and the instruments held by Paxos in reserve as of close of business February 10, 2023 are also available here.
/jlne.ws/3XtBWX9
A $92 Billion Crypto Profit Maker Is in Line for a Shake-Up
Emily Nicolle - Bloomberg
A lucrative corner of crypto that's fast becoming the lifeblood of the way many networks operate got a shock to the system this week. The US Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday signaled a crackdown on platforms offering rewards to their customers via a process called staking, as it reached a settlement with trading platform Kraken for $30 million and won agreement from the exchange to shut down those offerings domestically. It's possible other providers such as larger rival exchange Coinbase Global Inc. may feel the heat and follow suit in discontinuing their own staking services, experts said - or move them offshore.
/jlne.ws/3jQWjzL
OPEC Chief Tells Climate Negotiators to 'Look at the Big Picture'; Al Ghais's comments come after a surge in fossil fuel prices; Much more oil investment needed to keep market stable, he said
Salma El Wardany - Bloomberg
OPEC's top official urged countries to invest much more in oil to meet the world's future energy needs and said climate policies need to be more "balanced and fair." "It is imperative that all parties involved in the ongoing climate negotiations pause for a moment; look at the big picture," Haitham Al-Ghais, secretary-general of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, said Sunday at an energy conference in Cairo. They must "work towards an energy transition that is orderly, inclusive and helps ensure energy security for all."
/jlne.ws/3HZ4YrK
Fed's Waller calls crypto 'nothing more than a speculative asset'
Jennifer Schonberger - Yahoo! Finance
Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said Friday he views crypto as a speculative asset that's worth whatever the next person is willing to pay for it and says he, personally, wouldn't hold it. "To me, a crypto-asset is nothing more than a speculative asset, like a baseball card," Waller said in a speech at a crypto conference at the Global Interdependence Center in La Jolla, California.
/jlne.ws/3E4Txh0
Who controls crypto? Digital assets and Web3 test the boundaries of intellectual property
Jeff John Roberts - Fortune
When the internet became mainstream in the mid-1990s, it created a spate of novel intellectual property (IP) issues that forced courts to decide how rules designed for the era of books and industrial machines should apply to things like web domains, online mash-ups, and smartphone technology. The IP rules of the internet eventually became a little clearer, but often it took years of waiting until the Supreme Court could get involved.
/jlne.ws/3jWgufF
After Telling Millions of Taxpayers to Hold Off Filing, IRS Says Go Ahead
Ashlea Ebeling - The Wall Street Journal
A week after telling millions of Americans to hold off filing their tax returns, the Internal Revenue Service provided guidance on the taxability of certain state payments Friday to clear up the confusion. Most taxpayers who received state refunds and rebates in 2022 related to the pandemic and its consequences won't owe federal taxes on the money, the IRS said. Tax professionals and elected officials had criticized the IRS for not addressing ambiguity over the payments.
/jlne.ws/3HVqk9x
A Closer Look at the Winklevoss Twins and Gemini (Podcast); The twins adopted Bitcoin early on, launched the Gemini crypto exchange and also have a cover band.
Sharon Beriro - Bloomberg
If you've heard the name Winklevoss, it's likely that you've watched 'The Social Network'. The movie featured a memorable depiction of the Harvard twins and Olympic rowers who sued Mark Zuckerberg for allegedly stealing their idea for a social media platform. Or, you might know that Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss set up a crypto exchange called Gemini, which is involved in a very public dispute with the folks over at Genesis. Both Genesis and Gemini - we know, so many G-names - are facing serious allegations from US regulators about their products and services.
/jlne.ws/3XlF2MM
The Devaluation Run in Emerging Markets Is Just Getting Started; Indebted frontier nations need devaluations for IMF funding; Argentina, Bangladesh, Nigeria seen likely to devalue next
Karl Lester M Yap, Colleen Goko and Zijia Song - Bloomberg
A fresh round of IMF bailouts is underway, and some of the world's most indebted nations will have to sacrifice their currencies to get them. The year has already seen three debt-laden countries - Egypt, Pakistan and Lebanon - drop their exchange rates to unlock International Monetary Fund assistance. That may be just the beginning.
/jlne.ws/3Il81Mz
Why are BP, Shell, and other oil giants making so much money right now?
Ben King - BBC News
The big oil companies - from the UK-based BP and Shell to international giants such as ExxonMobil and Norway's Equinor - have been announcing astonishing profit figures. They are all benefitting from the surging price of oil and gas following the invasion of Ukraine. While they rake in the profits, people around the world are struggling to pay their energy bills and fill up their cars - leading to calls for higher taxes on these companies.
/jlne.ws/3JZCfWn
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| Ukraine Invasion | | News about the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and its military, economic, political and humanitarian impact | Ukraine releases video appearing to show Russian troops beating own wounded officer
Luke Harding - The Guardian
Ukraine has released extraordinary video footage that appears to show Russian fighters dragging their badly wounded commander away from the battlefield, and then beating him violently with what appear to be shovels. A Ukrainian drone captured the incident near the eastern city of Bakhmut, where intense fighting has been raging for months.
/jlne.ws/3xgLQR9
Russia could take two years to capture Ukraine regions, Prigozhin says
Mark Trevelyan - Reuters
The head of Russia's Wagner mercenary group has said in a rare interview that it could take two years for Moscow to control the whole of two eastern Ukrainian regions whose capture it has stated as a key goal of the war. Yevgeny Prigozhin said his understanding of Russia's plan was that it needed to fully control the Donetsk and Luhansk regions that Moscow last year claimed as "republics" of Russia, in a move condemned by most countries of the United Nations as illegal.
/jlne.ws/3K58BiM
Ukraine Says Russia Is Delaying New Mobilization Amid Stepped-Up Offensive; Moscow seeks to break through Ukrainian lines in the east ahead of war's first anniversary
Matthew Luxmoore and Evan Gershkovich - The Wall Street Journal
Ukraine said Russia was ready to launch a new mobilization but was struggling to integrate troops it had already drafted and was waiting to gauge the success of a stepped-up offensive ahead of the first anniversary of its invasion later this month. "Everything is ready," the deputy head of Ukraine's military intelligence, Maj. Gen. Vadym Skibitsky, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. "The personnel is in place, the lists are ready, the people tasked with carrying out recruitment and training are on standby."
/jlne.ws/3IlXqRv
Ukraine claims its first kill of Russia's 'Terminator' armored vehicle, believed to be one of Putin's most advanced weapon systems
Alia Shoaib - Insider
Ukraine claims to have destroyed a prized Russian BMP-T armored vehicle, nicknamed the "Terminator," in Luhansk. Serhiy Haidai, the governor of the Luhansk region, shared several aerial photos appearing to show the vehicle being blown up and destroyed on his Telegram channel. He said that Russian propagandists had boasted about the vehicle and said it was impossible to destroy, and shared a clip from Russian state TV showing off the vehicle in the forest near the Russian-occupied city of Kreminna in Luhansk.
/jlne.ws/3HYVQnf
For Fear or Money, Consumer Giants Are Staying in Russia; P&G, Unilever, Colgate continued operations after invasion; Companies at risk if the Kremlin adopts a 'wartime economy'
Dasha Afanasieva and Daniela Sirtori-Cortina - Bloomberg
It's been nearly a year since Russia invaded Ukraine, but shoppers in Moscow can still get ahold of Activia yogurt and Oral-B electric toothbrushes and L'Oréal serums. Some products are left over from the days before President Vladimir Putin sent troops across the border, but many goods continue to be supplied by American and European companies with outposts in the pariah state.
/jlne.ws/3XsDfWi
They Are Russians Fighting Against Their Homeland. Here's Why.
Michael Schwirtz - The New York Times
The soldier knelt in the snow, aimed a rocket launcher and fired in the direction of Russian troops positioned about 1 mile away. He was set up at a Ukrainian firing position and looked just like the other Ukrainian troops fighting south of the city of Bakhmut in one of the most brutal theaters of the war. But he and his comrades are not Ukrainian. They are soldiers in a Ukrainian military unit made up entirely of Russians who are fighting and killing their own countrymen.
/jlne.ws/3jRcGfw
Russians slowly take ground around Bakhmut
Orla Guerin - BBC News
"Stay close to the wall. Move fast. Single file. Just a few at a time." The staccato instructions come from the Ukrainian army escort taking us to a military position in battle-scarred Bakhmut, a city once famed for its sparkling wines. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has called the eastern city "our fortress".
/jlne.ws/3luVXiP
Russian soldier death rate highest since first week of war - Ukraine
Laura Gozzi - BBC News
Russian soldiers are dying in greater numbers in Ukraine this month than at any time since the first week of the invasion, according to Ukrainian data. The Ukrainian data shows 824 Russian soldiers dying per day in February. The figures were highlighted by the UK's Ministry of Defence. The figures cannot be verified - but the UK says the trends are "likely accurate". The increase comes as Ukrainian officials say that Russia has launched a "big offensive".
/jlne.ws/3XzilF6
'Our Losses Were Gigantic': Life in a Sacrificial Russian Assault Wave
Andrew E. Kramer - The New York TimesCreeping forward along a tree line late at night toward an entrenched Ukrainian position, the Russian soldier watched in horror as his comrades were mowed down by enemy fire. His squad of 10 ex-convicts advanced only a few dozen yards before being decimated. "We were hit by machine-gun fire," said the soldier, a private named Sergei. One soldier was wounded and screamed, "Help me! Help me, please!," the private said, although no help arrived. Eight soldiers were killed, one escaped back to Russian lines and Sergei was captured by Ukrainians.
/jlne.ws/3E45nrS
Ukraine war turns Russia into a nation of gold bugs; Demand for gold coins and bars jumps as VAT on purchases is scrapped and foreign currency becomes scarce
Anastasia Stognei and Leslie Hook - Financial Times
After Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the country's invasion of Ukraine last February, Natalia Smirnova's phone started ringing off the hook. The financial adviser's Russian clients were panicking. "Should I buy gold?" one asked her. "If worst comes to worst, at least I can bury it." That attitude was shared by many - and turned Russia into an unexpected nation of gold bugs almost overnight.
/jlne.ws/3xkjd5u
JP Morgan reaches agreement with Ukraine's Zelensky on rebuilding infrastructure
Charles Gasparino - NY Post
JP Morgan, the nation's largest bank, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy with the eye on attracting private capital for a new investment fund to rebuild Ukraine's infrastructure that has been destroyed in its war with Russia, FOX Business has learned.
/jlne.ws/40P9Ubp
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| Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | CME Group Chief Financial Officer and Deputy Chief Financial Officer to Present at Credit Suisse Conference
CME Group
CME Group, the world's leading derivatives marketplace, today announced Chief Financial Officer John Pietrowicz and Deputy Chief Financial Officer Lynne Fitzpatrick will participate in a fireside chat at the Credit Suisse 24th Annual Financial Services Forum on Tuesday, February 14, at 12:45 p.m. (Eastern Time).
/jlne.ws/3HYCjDm
Fixed Income market briefing February 2023; Futures volumes continue to benefit from higher volatility in the front end of the curve
Lee Bartholomew - Eurex
The tailwinds from 2022 continued into the start of 2023, with volumes higher across the Fixed Income and Currencies portfolio. The persistent higher-than-historical inflation weighed on markets, together with further Central Bank tightening that underpinned the rates and FX segments.
/jlne.ws/3YsO2km
Qatar Stock Exchange Signs MoU with Saudi Tadawul Group
Qatar News Agency
The Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) signed Sunday a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Saudi Tadawul Group with the goal of strengthening their partnership and establishing a foundation for cooperation between the two parties. The MoU was signed by Abdul Aziz Nasser Al Emadi, the Acting CEO of the Qatar Stock Exchange, and Eng. Khalid Al Hussan, the CEO of the Saudi Tadawul Group.
/jlne.ws/3xiN2ni
SGX RegCo directs Lorenzo International Limited to be delisted
SGX
Singapore Exchange Regulation ("SGX RegCo") refers to Lorenzo International Limited's ("the Company") announcements of 13 August 2019 and 11 December 2020 on the proposed disposal of its wholly-owned subsidiary, Lorenzo Furniture (Kunshan) Co., Ltd ("Lorenzo Kunshan"). Lorenzo Kunshan was incorporated in the People's Republic of China in 2006 with the principal activity of manufacturing and trading of wood-based furniture.
/jlne.ws/3YHLNJK
Toronto Stock Exchange, TSX Venture Exchange, TSX Alpha Exchange and Montreal Exchange Closed for Family Day
TMX
Toronto Stock Exchange, TSX Venture Exchange, TSX Alpha Exchange and Montréal Exchange will be closed on Monday, February 20, 2023 for Family Day. The Exchanges will re-open and resume regular trading on Tuesday, February 21, 2023.
/jlne.ws/3K8D0Nb
MIAX Warns that "MIAXAX" Website is not Affiliated
with MIAX or any of its Subsidiaries
MIAX
Miami International Holdings, Inc. (MIH), owner of Miami International Securities Exchange, LLC (MIAX®), MIAX PEARL, LLC (MIAX Pearl®), MIAX Emerald, LLC (MIAX Emerald®), Minneapolis Grain Exchange, LLC (MGEXTM), The Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSXTM), and Dorman Trading LLC has been made aware of a company and website operated at "www.miaxax.com" through which an entity using the name "MIAX" has been marketing its platform and services to consumers. Please be advised that any entity or person associated with this website is not connected or affiliated in any way with MIAX or its subsidiaries. Any assertion of such a connection or affiliation was and is false and misleading.
/jlne.ws/3YnIaZM
Moscow Exchange launches group chats in the MOEX Trade SE terminal; Starting February 13, 2023, group chat functionality became available to users of the MOEX Trade SE terminal of the Moscow Exchange.
MOEX
Group chats allow users - employees of professional market participants to exchange information using secure communication channels, communicate in a free form, and pre-negotiate the conditions for concluding targeted and negotiated transactions with securities.
/jlne.ws/3HZvjpN
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| Fintech | | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | MBA lessons from Elon Musk's 'hardcore' work demand; The backlash to changes at Twitter highlights growing resistance to 'hustle culture' in tech
Siddharth Venkataramakrishnan - Financial TImes
Soon after Elon Musk took over Twitter last October, he made a comment that signalled a pivotal moment for the company and wider work practice. He warned that employees must commit to an "extremely hardcore" working culture or quit. Musk's approach to work could be seen as an almost platonic ideal of "hustle culture" taken to its extreme - a vision in which self-worth is defined by relentless work and striving. But workaholism can have bad consequences.
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Alibaba Is Out of Indian Fintech Giant Paytm With Final, $167 Million Stake Sale
Rebecca Feng - The Wall Street Journal
Alibaba has sold the last of its shares in the company that owns the Indian mobile-payments business Paytm for about $167 million, closing out an eight-year investment. The connection harks back to a different era, back when investors were exuberant about the prospects of financial-technology startups, and before a worsening of relations between China and India.
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Wirecard's Markus Braun voices 'deepest regret' but denies knowledge of fraud; Former chief of collapsed German payment group rejects 'all charges' at Munich trial
Olaf Storbeck - Financial Times
Wirecard's former chief executive Markus Braun has denied any knowledge of fraud at the German payments company that collapsed in 2020 in one of Europe's largest accounting scandals, telling judges in Munich on Monday that he was rejecting "all charges" against him. The testimony of Braun, whose personal credibility will be key in the case, comes more than two months after the start of the mammoth trial.
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FINBOURNE wins tender for joint consolidated tape project; Bloomberg, MarketAxess and Tradeweb selected the fintech against a number of other competitors to build the technology infrastructure for their consolidated tape for fixed income in Europe.
Laurie McAughtry - The Trade
Fintech firm FINBOURNE Technology has won the recent tender process to become the technology infrastructure provider for the joint consolidated tape (CT) project for fixed income in Europe, first launched by Bloomberg, MarketAxess and Tradeweb in June 2022.
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European trading volumes heading 'anywhere but the primary', finds Liquidnet report; In its latest liquidity landscape report, Liquidnet finds entrenched themes such as the move away from the lit markets and the migration to the Close became increasingly pronounced last year.
Annabel Smith - The Trade
European trading volumes are heading "anywhere but the primary", Liquidnet's latest liquidity landscape report has found. While this is by no means a new trend, Liquidnet's report found the situation is worsening with the proportion of notional volume when excluding auctions falling from 40% in the first quarter of 2020 to 30% in the fourth quarter of 2022.
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| Cybersecurity | | Top stories for cybersecurity | Cyberattack on ION Derivatives Unit Had Ripple Effects on Financial Markets; Last week's ransomware attack showed big financial firms can also be harmed by breaches at fintechs and other third parties that provide even small pieces of the technical machinery underlying the markets
James Rundle - The Wall Street Journal
A ransomware attack on a technology company that helps underpin the financial markets gave the sector a preview of the havoc a large-scale attack might inflict. The cyberattack of the cleared derivatives unit of Dublin-based ION Trading Technologies Ltd. sent financial institutions scrambling to confirm trades manually after Jan. 31, when the strike occurred and the firm took its systems offline. ION builds software that automates the matching of both sides of a trade and clearing the transaction.
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Using the blockchain to prevent data breaches
Jenelle Fulton-Brown - VentureBeat
Data breaches have, unfortunately, become an all-too-common reality. The Varonis 2021 Data Risk Report indicates that most corporations have poor cybersecurity practices and unprotected data, making them vulnerable to cyberattacks and data loss. With a single data breach costing a company an average of $3.86 million and eroding a brand's reputation and its consumers' trust, mitigating the risks is no longer a luxury.
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Chinese Tonto Team Hackers' Second Attempt to Target Cybersecurity Firm Group-IB Fails
Ravie Lakshmanan - The Hacker News
The advanced persistent threat (APT) actor known as Tonto Team carried out an unsuccessful attack on cybersecurity company Group-IB in June 2022. The Singapore-headquartered firm said that it detected and blocked malicious phishing emails originating from the group targeting its employees. It's also the second attack aimed at Group-IB, the first of which took place in March 2021.
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| Cryptocurrencies | | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | Binance stablecoin backer ordered to stop issuing token
Tom Wilson and Elizabeth Howcroft - Reuters
New York's chief financial regulator has ordered Paxos, the company behind the stablecoin of major crypto exchange Binance, to stop issuing the token, Paxos and the regulator said in separate statements on Monday. The Binance USD (BUSD) stablecoin, one of the world's biggest, is issued and redeemed by New York-based Paxos Trust Company, both of which are regulated by the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS).
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Biggest Crypto Staker Warns on DeFi Challenges After SEC's Kraken Crack Down; DeFi project Lido has the largest staking service for Ether; Andreessen Horowitz and Coinbase Ventures among Lido investors
Muyao Shen - Bloomberg
One of the individuals behind Lido Finance, the largest DeFi application for staking cryptocurrency, warned that service providers such as Lido are facing a new range of implications in the wake of the US Securities and Exchange Commission's clampdown on the sector. "I have been getting a lot more questions about 'does this impact Lido, what are your thoughts on this?'" said Jacob Blish, head of business development at the decentralized autonomous organization, or DAO, that manages Lido Finance.
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Restrictive Crypto Rules for EU Banks Confirmed in Published Legal Draft
Jack Schickler - CoinDesk
EU banks would have to place the maximum possible risk weight on crypto assets under a draft law published by the European Parliament on Friday. The planned rules could determine how the traditional financial sector engages with digital assets. Under the deal, as previously reported by CoinDesk, banks would have to disclose their direct and indirect exposure to crypto, while the European Commission prepares more fine-grained rules for the sector.
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IRS Should Focus on Centralized Exchanges: Blockchain Exec
Stacy Elliott - Decrypt
It's been two years since most people have thought about what Kristin Smith says will be the "biggest regulatory item for the year." The executive director of the Blockchain Association was referring to the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure plan that President Joe Biden signed into law on November 15, 2021. With it, he created a new tax rule that redefines a "broker" as "any person who is responsible for regularly providing any service effectuating transfers of digital assets on behalf of another person." At the time, the crypto industry worried that that would include miners, developers, stakers and others who don't have a typical customer relationship with the people whose transactions they help facilitate.
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Coinbase CEO says he will "happily defend" crypto staking service against claim it's a securities product
Danny Park - CoinDesk
Brian Armstrong, the chief executive officer of the Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange, said on Twitter Monday that the company will "happily defend" its staking services in court against claims that they need to be classified as securities. Coinbase, which trades on the Nasdaq, is the biggest crypto exchange in the U.S. Its shares last traded at US$57.09 on Friday, down 2.5%.
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DeFi Protocol Clearpool Chooses Polygon Network for Its Institutional Lending Platform
Krisztian Sandor - CoinDesk
Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Clearpool will deploy its institutional credit platform Prime exclusively on Ethereum scaling tool Polygon network, the protocol told CoinDesk in a statement. "We have been working closely with the Polygon team since we launched the permissionless protocol on Polygon in June," Rob Alcorn, CEO and co-founder of Clearpool, said in an email. "We have a strong relationship and continue to work together to deliver institutional DeFi products."
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Bankrupt Genesis Unveils Plan to Pay Back Creditors
Mathew Di Salvo - Decrypt
Bankrupt crypto broker Genesis has filed details on how it will pay back its creditors. A Friday filing shows that Digital Currency Group (DCG) plans to turn its Genesis Global Trading equity over to Genesis Global Holdco to eventually sell both companies and pay back clients. DCG is the parent company of Genesis, which is made up of two entities.
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CEO Of Cryptocurrency And Forex Trading Platform Pleads Guilty To Over $240 Million Scheme To Defraud Investors
Nicholas Biase - United States Department of Justice
Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today the guilty plea of EDDY ALEXANDRE, the leader of a purported cryptocurrency and foreign exchange ("forex") trading platform called EminiFX, who solicited more than $248 million in investments from tens of thousands of individual investors after making false representations in connection with the EminiFX trading platform. U.S. District Judge John P. Cronan accepted the defendant's guilty plea.
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Crypto Firms' In-House Tokens Are Coming Under More Scrutiny; FTX used its own token, FTT, to fuel its growth before it filed for bankruptcy, regulators say
Vicky Ge Huang - The Wall Street Journal
In-house crypto tokens play a big role in the crypto economy, allowing companies to attract users and expand their businesses. But the November collapse of FTX has brought them growing scrutiny. FTX companies used the in-house token, FTT, as collateral to obtain billions of dollars of loans, The Wall Street Journal has previously reported. That left FTX with few sources of funding when the price of FTT went south.
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Cantor Fitzgerald Helps Oversee Tether's $39 Billion in Treasury Holdings
Peter Rudegeair and Ben Foldy - The Wall Street Journal
Billions of dollars in Treasurys that back the world's most traded cryptocurrency are being run on Wall Street. Tether Holdings Ltd., the secretive Hong Kong-based owner of stablecoin tether, is using Cantor Fitzgerald to help oversee its $39 billion bond portfolio, according to people familiar with the matter. Details of how Tether managed those assets haven't been widely known.
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Crypto's humanitarian sales pitch in Turkey and Syria; Plus, a bad week for crypto exchanges and a word on the dark web
Scott Chipolina - Financial Times
After the devastating earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria at the start of this week, the crypto industry has tried to do its part by rounding up millions in donated tokens. Blockchain records show wallet addresses shared by AHBAP, a local non-profit, have received more than $3mn in donations this week. Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis estimates that more than $5mn in crypto donations have been sent to Turkey and Syria.
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Bankruptcy Is The Newest Cryptocurrency
William Anderson - Forbes
"A $20 billion market of claimants is desperately looking for a solution. This list includes FTX, Voyager, Celsius, Genesis, BlockFi, Mt Gox, and many others. Over 90% of these claimants haven't even filled in their information yet." Reads the opening of Open Exchange's manifesto. This new project, a soon-to-launch cryptocurrency exchange site, is targeted at investors who have lost money or have money tied up in frozen or defunct crypto currency exchange platforms.
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NFTs Are Bloating Bitcoin, Creating Risks And Opportunities For Investors
Leeor Shimron - Forbes
Ordinals, a controversial new protocol deployed on Bitcoin, enables non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to be appended to Bitcoin transactions, effectively bringing NFTs to the largest crypto network by market capitalization. Launched in January, the Ordinals project enables images and other types of data to be inscribed directly on satoshis (the smallest denominational units of Bitcoin - each is worth 0.00000001 BTC) on the Bitcoin blockchain without requiring a separate sidechain or token.
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| Politics | | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | U.S. sanctions six Chinese tech companies for supporting spy balloon programs
Chelsey Cox and Christina Wilkie - CNBC
The Commerce Department announced a new round of sanctions Friday targeting six Chinese aerospace companies that it identified as supporting the nation's military's reconnaissance balloon program. The firms will join a growing list of companies based in China that the U.S. says pose serious threats to national security.
/jlne.ws/3HPPc2q
Schumer Says Banning TikTok in the US 'Should Be Looked At'; Concern in Congress that Chinese government might access data; Senate majority leader has been critical of TikTok in the past
Tony Czuczka - Bloomberg
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said a US ban on TikTok is worth looking at, citing Chinese ownership of the company behind the video-sharing platform. A group of Senate lawmakers recently revived legislation to ban TikTok in the US in response to concern that data it collects could end up with the Chinese government. "It's something that should be looked at," Schumer said on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday.
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Memes, Tweets, Snark Are the FDA's New Public Health Weapons; FDA commissioner has made social media a key part of outreach; Agency aims to counter misinformation without amplifying it
Fiona Rutherford - Bloomberg
When Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed during a National Football League game in January, dozens of Twitter trolls quickly blamed it on Covid-19 shots. "Snake-oil salesmen" seized on the event, said Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf in an interview. The #diedsuddenly hashtag, which appeared in tweets about the incident, is often used to discredit vaccines by linking them to deaths and injuries without evidence.
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Citing security risks, US states move to bar Chinese land purchases and projects with China ties
Mark Magnier - South China Morning Post
Odell Hutson let out a sigh as he recalled his nearly four decades employed at the massive Dan River textile mill here in southern Virginia, watching it slide from revered icon to bankrupt hulk, leaving in its wake rising crime, unemployment and shattered dreams. Since its 2004 bankruptcy, local officials have worked hard to reboot Danville - recently ranked Virginia's poorest city - only to receive a major setback last month when Gov. Glenn Youngkin nixed a potential Ford Motors project with thousands of well-paying jobs because of its Chinese partner.
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Rishi Sunak Is Privately Drafting Plans to Rebuild Britain's Ties With the EU
Alex Wickham - Bloomberg
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has privately asked senior ministers and officials to draw up plans for rebuilding the UK's relations with the European Union after years of acrimony since Brexit. Driven in part by the fallout from Russia's invasion of Ukraine, senior civil servants have been drafting proposals for how Britain can work more closely with EU nations across a range of policy areas. The work focuses on defense, migration, and so-called economic statecraft which includes issues such as trade, energy and international standards.
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It is time to cut Russia out of the global financial system; Moscow's invasion of Ukraine and financing of terrorism makes a mockery of the idea of a 'rules-based order'
Serhiy Marchenko - Financial Times
In the aftermath of the cold war, world powers put in place systems of global governance. The goal was to protect liberal values, human rights and the world economy, and to extinguish the threat of nuclear annihilation. The unquestionable success of this new rules-based international order was its reach, bringing in Russia and post-Soviet Union states as well as other burgeoning economies such as China and India.
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Bye to the West? Hong Kong Monetary Authority eyes Middle East bonds and investment, banks on Gulf states' need to diversify risk amid tensions
Natalie Wong - South China Morning Post
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) is ramping up efforts to lure businesses from the Middle East to issue local bonds and invest in mainland China through the city, with its deputy head saying Gulf state operators have a need to diversify from the West amid geopolitical tensions. "We have all kinds of investment vehicles here. What we need to do now is to catch their eyes.
/jlne.ws/3YKoL57
Japan Says Sayonara to Idea of Central Banker as Rescue Hero
Peter Landers and Megumi Fujikawa - The Wall Street Journal
The next Bank of Japan governor is likely to find a challenge similar to the one that faced departing Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda when he arrived a decade ago: stubbornly low inflation and a sluggish economy to go with it. The difference is that Kazuo Ueda, expected to be nominated Tuesday to succeed Mr. Kuroda, will take office with less confidence that Japan's central bank can fix those problems, which date to the 1990s.
/jlne.ws/3YuoVhe
G20 exploring cryptocurrency regulation, India's finance minister says
Nikunj Ohri - Reuters
The Group of 20 (G20) big economies is exploring whether the group could collectively regulate cryptocurrencies, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Saturday. Given the sophisticated technologies involved with these virtual assets, countries must discuss whether a given regulation is needed, said Sitharaman, whose country is this year's G20 president.
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| Regulation & Enforcement | | Stories about regulation and the law. | Regulating Crypto by Enforcement and Stealth Will Set the US Back
Michael J. Casey - CoinDesk
Call me naive, but I've always resisted the conspiracy theory that the anti-crypto stance adopted by certain U.S. regulators is meant to strangle this industry and protect the financial establishment it seeks to disrupt. I've preferred to see it as a wrong-headed but well-intended effort to protect consumers. Recent events have me wondering if something more sinister isn't afoot. (And that maybe I am naive.)
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CFTC Issues Statement on the Ongoing Impact to Reporting
CFTC
Staff of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission Divisions of Clearing and Risk, Market Participants, Data, and Market Oversight today released the following statement to update the public on reporting delays due to the cyber-related incident at ION Cleared Derivatives (a subsidiary of ION Markets), a third-party service provider of cleared derivatives order management, order execution, trading, and trade processing:
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CFTC Postpones Traders' Report for Second Week After Cyberattack
Gerson Freitas Jr. - Bloomberg Law
A key report on how traders are positioned across futures markets for everything from soybean and oil to foreign currencies has been postponed by a second straight week after the recent ransomware attack on ION Trading UK. U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission won't publish its Commitment of Traders report due on Friday, the regulator said by email. It will continue to be delayed until all trades can be reported, the agency said.
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Keynote Address by Commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero at FIA & SIFMA Asset Management Derivatives Forum; Adjusting the Sails for Cyber and Climate Resilience
CFTC
Thank you to FIA and SIFMA. It is a daunting task to give a keynote on a Friday that is the last day of a conference-particularly a conference that has had engaging substantive heavy content. It's been such heavy content that some of you plunged yourselves into the freezing cold ocean after yesterday's panels. Please don't do that after my speech, where I am going to talk about cyber risk and climate risk- two topics that I will admit can feel daunting.
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Keynote Address of Commissioner Kristin Johnson at UC Berkeley Law Crypto Regulation Virtual Conference; Post Crypto-Crises: Consider Pathways for Protecting Customers and Preserving Market Integrity
CFTC
Thank you, Frank [Partnoy], Robert [Bishop], and Gina-Gail [Fletcher] for the kind invitation to join you today. I would also like to extend my sincere thanks to the Berkeley Center for Law and Business, Berkeley Center for Responsible, Decentralized Intelligence, and International Institute of Law and Finance. An anticipated disclaimer, the remarks that I will share today reflect my views and not those of my fellow CFTC Commissioners or staff.
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CFTC Picks a New IT Infrastructure Contractor
Eugene Grygo - Financial Technologies Forum
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) reports that it has transitioned core IT infrastructure and operations support services to GovCIO, an IT and digital solutions provider to the federal government, replacing General Dynamic IT (GDIT), which had been serving the regulator since 2015.
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CFTC, Winklevoss-Led Gemini Spar Over Discovery In Suit
Aislinn Keely - LAW360
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has resisted handing over key documents that led it to bring an enforcement action last summer against Gemini Trust Co., the cryptocurrency exchange owned by billionaire twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, according to a recent letter to the New York federal court overseeing the matter.
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Mormon Church's Investment Arm Under Investigation by SEC; The $100 billion portfolio of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was long a secret in the investment world
Dave Michaels and Jonathan Weil - The Wall Street Journal
The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating the Mormon Church's past efforts to keep its giant investment portfolio a secret, a practice that ended after a former employee revealed in 2019 that the church had amassed $100 billion of holdings. The SEC's investigation has focused on whether the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as LDS, complied with disclosure requirements for large money managers. It is at an advanced stage and is likely to lead to a settlement in the coming months, people familiar with the matter said. The SEC historically has punished violations of money-manager reporting rules by levying fines. https://jlne.ws/3IckEJz
SEC is neutral on crypto staking but focused on investor protection, Gensler says
Anushree Dave - MarketWatch
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair, Gary Gensler, defended his agency's move against crypto exchange Kraken on CNBC's Squawk Box Friday morning, saying that it was necessary to protect the public from undisclosed risks. "What Kraken was doing is asking the American public for their coins, crypto tokens, and saying 'I'll give you a return of 4 to 21 percent returns.' The problem was that they were not disclosing to the investing public the risk that the investing public was entering into," said Gensler.
/jlne.ws/40OiRlf
SEC Chief Gensler Warns Crypto Firms to Comply With Rules After Kraken Shutters US Staking Program
Sandali Handagama - CoinDesk
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler is warning other platforms to "take note" of crypto exchange Kraken's move to halt its staking service in the country and cough up a $30 million fine. "Companies like Kraken can offer investment contracts and investment schemes, but they have to have full, fair and truthful disclosure. And this puts the investors who watch your program in a better position.
/jlne.ws/3Ikguzy
Are the Remaining Crypto Giants Staring Down the Barrel of the US Government's Gun?
Jesse Hamilton - CoinDesk
The latest action from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against Kraken is probably only the first stirring of a U.S. government campaign to come for the major remaining crypto exchanges, according to industry lawyers, consultants and former regulators. The San Francisco-based exchange inked a ground-shaking settlement with the SEC on Thursday, with Kraken agreeing to shutter its U.S. staking services and pay a $30 million fine amid agency accusations that the services amounted to a sale of securities.
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SEC Chair Gary Gensler Blames Kraken for 'Choosing' Not to Follow the Law
Andrew Throuvalas - Decrypt
The crypto industry uproar following the SEC's crackdown on staking services has been heard far and wide-yet the agency's chairman isn't budging an inch. Speaking with CNBC's Squawk Box on Friday, SEC Chair Gary Gensler blamed Kraken for failing to register its staking-as-a-service product with the Commission, and for not providing the relevant risk disclosures. He also dismissed the common criticism that there is a lack of clear rules that govern crypto, or that there is no clear path to register such products.
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What Is Crypto Staking and Why Is the SEC Cracking Down?
Olga Kharif, Lydia Beyoud and Allyson Versprille - Bloomberg
In the latest of a string of actions brought by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the crypto exchange Kraken agreed to pay $30 million to settle allegations that it broke the agency's rules by offering a service that allowed investors to earn rewards by "staking" their coins. The SEC is pushing to bring crypto operators within the US under the same regulatory framework that governs the sale of all sorts of securities - to treat the tokens much like stocks and bonds.
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More bluster and defiance from Coinbase, just daring the SEC to act - what a disastrous strategy.
John Reed Stark - LinkedIn
Big Crypto's characteristically antagonistic approach is always the same: Rally the online mob with inflammatory misinformation and anti-government rhetoric in an attempt to bully the SEC into moving on. For instance, Coinbase's Staking posture seems like a direct challenge for the SEC to investigate Coinbase's staking program and then issue a Wells Notice to Coinbase. This is exactly what the SEC did with Coinbase's Lend program, when the SEC forced Coinbase to shut Lend down before it was ever even launched.
/jlne.ws/3YKmC9z
The WhatsApp showdown between SEC and money managers; US regulators want more prescriptive rules to apply to private equity and hedge funds
Brooke Masters - Financial Times
US regulators have been on the warpath about WhatsApp and private messages since they discovered that traders and dealmakers were using these "off-channel communications" but their employers weren't saving them. When the enforcers complained that this would hamper future investigations and lawsuits, the big investment banks including JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Barclays capitulated. Twelve of them have paid out more than $2bn in penalties so far.
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Crypto Firm Paxos Faces SEC Lawsuit Over Binance USD Token; The agency has been intensifying its enforcement of major crypto players
Vicky Ge Huang, Patricia Kowsmann and Dave Michaels - The wall Street Journal
The Securities and Exchange Commission has told crypto firm Paxos Trust Co. that it plans to sue the company for violating investor protection laws, according to people familiar with the matter, the latest move in the agency's escalating campaign in crypto enforcement. The SEC's enforcement staff issued a letter to Paxos known as a Wells notice, which the agency uses to inform companies and individuals of a possible enforcement action, according to the people.
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| Investing & Trading | | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | Sorry investors, the AI hype that's gripped the stock market is premature and the bubble will probably burst this year
Jennifer Sor - Markets Insider
Sorry investors, you might be jumping the gun on your rush to snap up anything related to the budding world of artificial intelligence, and you should be prepared for the bubble to burst this year. Wall Street in recent weeks has become fixated on the potential for AI to reshape whole industries, and the corresponding moves in a handful of stocks that are even just adjacent to the space have been huge. But to one analyst, the hype is overblown, at least for now.
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Biden's Stock Buyback Tax Would Hit the Little Guy; Mutual-fund investors would pay, and the result would be less-efficient allocation of capital.
Burton G. Malkiel - The Wall Street Journal Opinion
In his State of the Union address last week, President Biden proposed quadrupling the stock buyback tax from 1% to 4% of the value of the stock bought. This proposed increase would have pernicious consequences for efficient capital allocation throughout the economy by impairing how markets function. Stock buybacks don't take money away from pro-growth investments. Most buyback funds are reinvested in the stock market and in private equity, where they can be put to more productive use.
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'$100 Billion Per Month'-Legendary Trader Makes Surprise Crypto U-Turn After Huge Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB, XRP, Cardano, Dogecoin, Polygon And Solana Price Swings
Billy Bambrough - Forbes
Bitcoin, ethereum and other major cryptocurrencies have suffered a downturn this week as fears swirl over a possible shock U.S. ban. The bitcoin price, down around 50% from this point last year, has added 30% since the beginning of 2023, branded a "year of opportunity." Ethereum and other top ten cryptocurrencies BNB, XRP, cardano, dogecoin, polygon and solana have also rallied, with BXRPinance chief executive Changpeng "CZ" Zhao issuing an "existential" warning.
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A 29-year-old stock trader who returned 132% in 2022 and remained profitable for 4 straight years shares his top 6 tips for profiting no matter what the market conditions are
Laila Maidan - Insider
Trading stocks wasn't something Sean Ryan stumbled upon. His father, David Ryan, had been a successful trader, winning the US Investing Competition four years in a row, according to Norman Zadeh, the competition's founder. After witnessing his father's success, Ryan decided early in his life that he wanted to make trading a full-time career. This would enable him to make money from anywhere in the world, allowing him to travel and enjoy his life.
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Investors back legal petition against Shell directors over climate goals; Pension funds support action to hold individual board members to account
Camilla Hodgson, Attracta Mooney and Tom Wilson - Financial Times
A legal claim has been filed in the UK against Shell directors individually by an environmental group with backing from institutional investors, alleging board members had failed to prepare the oil and gas company adequately in response to the risks of climate change and were legally accountable. ClientEarth, a non-profit organisation in environmental law and a Shell shareholder, is supported by a small band of pension fund and asset managers, including London CIV, Swedish national pension fund AP3 and Danske Bank Asset Management, though they are not joined in the action.
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Why Investors Are Piling Into Funds That Promise Not to Beat the Stock Market
Jason Zweig - The Wall Street Journal
Finally, you can earn income of 4% or more on cash and bonds. What if you could earn monthly dividends on stocks at an annual rate of at least 11%? That's the pitch for exchange-traded funds that are generating eye-popping yields by selling options contracts. These ETFs, known as covered-call or option-income funds, also shielded investors from some of the pounding that stocks took last year.
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| Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance | | Stories about environmental, social and governance investing | Activists Make European CEO Heads Roll on $225 Billion Warpath; European companies from Vodafone to Temenos are switching CEOs; Activist investors still waiting for deeper, structural change
Swetha Gopinath and Dinesh Nair - Bloomberg
Activist investors are finding their European targets more willing to do away with management than heed calls for dramatic change-for now. A wave of campaigns launched in the last 18 months has been followed by the exits of chief executive officers at companies with a combined market capitalization of more than $225 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. These range from British telecom giant Vodafone Group Plc to Swiss software developer Temenos AG.
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Hydrogen is elemental to U.S.-EU green compromise
Rebecca Christie - Bloomberg (opinion)
Heated trade tensions could cool if the United States and the European Union make concessions on hydrogen. Washington's Inflation Reduction Act includes subsidies that could slash the cost of the element's sustainably produced "green" version by 2030. If the EU can negotiate better access to America's production chain while attractively managing its future import needs, it could help defuse a wider transatlantic spat.
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Can Crypto Ever Be Sustainable? On this episode of Getting Warmer, Kal Penn meets Justin Ballard, a "crypto cowboy" trying to change Bitcoin mining's dirty reputation.
Sophia Chalmer - Bloomberg TV
Can crypto mining ever be green, or will it always be a big contributor to fossil fuel emissions? On the second episode of Getting Warmer With Kal Penn, we meet "crypto cowboy" Justin Ballard, who claims Bitcoin mining can stabilize the delicate Texas power grid while using up surplus energy.
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Minnesota Has Passed a Landmark Clean Energy Law. Which State Is Next? New Jersey, Michigan and Maryland are among the ones to watch, but one seems more likely than the others to pass energy major legislation this year.
Dan Gearino - Inside Climate News
With remarkable speed, Minnesota lawmakers have passed a bill requiring 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2040. The legislation, signed by Gov. Tim Walz on Tuesday, means Minnesota joins a group of 10 states (California, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Virginia and Washington) plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, in having laws that require a transition to 100 percent carbon-free or renewable electricity.
/jlne.ws/3S1UUDa
How Lack of Copper Could Slow the Energy Transition
James Attwood - Bloomberg
Avoiding a climate catastrophe is often portrayed as a question of political willpower. Yet the shift to net-zero carbon emissions is also a daunting technical challenge. For one thing, retooling power systems built around fossil fuels so they can run on renewable energy will require far more copper - the essential artery of power networks and electrical equipment - than the companies able to produce it are currently equipped to deliver. It's far from clear whether a traditionally cautious mining industry will embrace the scale of investment needed to rewire the world. Failure would throw the energy transition off course.
/jlne.ws/3IkTOiE
Renewables will be world's top electricity source within three years, IEA data reveals
Simon Evans - Carbon Brief
Renewables will cover almost all of global electricity demand growth out to 2025, becoming the world's top source of electricity within three years, new figures reveal.Carbon Brief analysis of figures in the International Energy Agency (IEA) electricity market report 2023 shows that renewables, combined with resurgent nuclear power, will more than cover growth in electricity demand between 2022 and 2025.
/jlne.ws/3HXYbhY
Exxon Mobil is plowing into energy trading and has everything it needs-except the right culture
Devika Krishna Kumar, Kevin Crowley and Bloomberg - Fortune
Exxon Mobil Corp.'s ambitious plan to storm the world of energy trading is getting a skeptical reaction from seasoned market observers who say the oil giant could be a formidable foe - but only if it takes risks it hasn't been willing to stomach before. Exxon's array of physical assets and huge balance sheet give it advantages over even the world's top trading houses, who've reaped record profits since the pandemic.
/jlne.ws/3lkBrkD
It's Still Hard to Spot 'Pink Sheets' Carbon Offsets: Sparklines; Competing carbon market participants agree that better transparency and a universal definition of quality is needed for offset demand to grow.
Nathaniel Bullard - Bloomberg
Last year was a bit tumultuous for the global carbon offsets market. Volumes diverged from the trend of the last half-decade, quality and durability came under scrutiny, and some trading strategies vanished completely. There were scandals. There were fires. The market is still poised to grow into billions of tons of carbon dioxide equivalent every year, as countries and companies pursue net zero goals. But the space between today's hundreds of millions of tons, and the future's billions of tons, is both fluid and fascinating. It is a parley of market visions and ultimate standards.
/jlne.ws/3YGb5YK
Hong Kong Hires Banks For Debut Digital Green Bond Sale; Bond tokenization to reduce issuance cost: city official; Hong Kong has sought to become Asia's digital-asset capital
Alice Huang - Bloomberg
Hong Kong's government has hired banks to arrange its debut sale of digital green bonds, expanding the use of a nascent technology that promises faster settlement and payment.
/jlne.ws/3RRzgBv
Commodities Risk Lurking in ESG Funds Grows Too Big to Ignore
Alastair Marsh - Bloomberg
The dark side of ESG investing has the potential to undermine a whole generation of clean-tech strategies. Adam Matthews, chief responsible investment officer at the Church of England Pensions Board, said the risks posed to the renewables boom via the mining industry aren't getting nearly enough attention. The upshot, according to the 47-year-old, is that portfolios intended to uphold environmental, social or good governance principles may end up being exposed to human-rights abuses and environmental damage via supply chains.
/jlne.ws/40NYxk2
To rein in ESG and protect investors, follow the Florida model
Sarah E. Hunt - The Hill (opinion)
In recent years, a number of financial firms have taken what some consider a sharp turn to the left, marrying so-called environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria to traditional investment strategies. Many saw supporting an energy transition towards renewables as a slam dunk both for short-term and long-term returns. That honeymoon, however, ended abruptly last year when global disruptions battered many of the resulting funds. This left investors and retirees feeling deceived. Republican-led state legislatures pounced.
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Republicans' Anti-ESG Crusade Could Hurt Retirees' Savings; Forty-nine GOP senators-plus Joe Manchin-are backing a resolution that could damage pension fund returns, just to stick it to the libs.
Kate Aronoff - The New Republic
As Republicans settle into their control over the House of Representatives, the right's crusade against ESG-an umbrella term for a suite of strategies corporations use to account for environmental, social, and governance factors-is going national. The House Financial Services Committee has launched an ESG working group to "combat the threat to our capital markets posed by those on the far-left." Forty-nine Republican Senators, joined by Democrat Joe Manchin, have signed on to a resolution pushing back against a recent Department of Labor ruling that allows federal pension funds to consider ESG factors in their investment decisions, including whether the effects of climate change might pose a risk to portfolios. Twenty-five state attorneys general are also now suing the Department of Labor over the rule, which went into effect this week.
/jlne.ws/3E47oUP
UK fund manager Osmosis wins $4.5bn green transition investment mandate; Contract awarded by Dutch pension fund Pensioenfonds PGB is one of the biggest ESG mandates
Chris Flood - Financial Times
London-based boutique asset manager Osmosis has won a contract to run a $4.5bn sustainable investment strategy on behalf of a Dutch state pension fund in one of the largest allocations of its type ever to be awarded. The bespoke global equity portfolio that Osmosis will oversee on behalf of Pensioenfonds PGB aims to deliver environmental benefits and higher returns than the MSCI World index by investing in companies that score well on metrics including carbon emissions, water consumption and waste output.
/jlne.ws/3jYjZSD
Cutting carbon and growing careers: business schools in charts; FT data specialists focus on net zero targets, ESG teaching and alumni career progress
Sam Stephens and Leo Cremonezi - Financial Times
As the Financial Times updates the Global MBA Ranking methodology to put greater emphasis on environmental concerns, data specialists look at business schools' net zero targets and teaching on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. Plus favoured sectors for graduates and career progress.
/jlne.ws/3jMvVXT
Energy retailers grapple with PR crisis; Lossmaking sector bears brunt of anger over wider industry's profits at a time of consumer hardship
Nathalie Thomas - Financial Times
Gemma Hatvani has worked in the energy industry for 20 years but has not experienced anything like the past couple of months as struggling households flock to her Facebook-based service, Energy Support and Advice UK. "It's horrendousâEUR‰.âEUR‰.âEUR‰.âEUR‰the demand from people needing food parcels, top-up vouchersâEUR‰.âEUR‰.âEUR‰.âEUR‰I know we hear this word a lot but it's unprecedented," said Hatvani, a former business analyst for energy supplier Eon.
/jlne.ws/3Klk6CT
Adani Shock Rips Through ESG Funds as Strategy Fails Latest Test; Adani stocks are spread across large numbers of ESG funds; ESG fund exposure to fraud risk raises doubts about policies
Natasha White - Bloomberg
The scandal gripping the Gautam Adani empire is turning into another bad milestone for ESG. Stocks bearing the Adani name appear in more than 500 so-called Article 8 funds that are supposed to "promote" environmental, social and governance goals under European Union rules, data compiled by Bloomberg show. About 80 of those exposures are via direct holdings, while the rest are mainly through funds of funds or index trackers, according to the data, which correct for duplicate holdings.
/jlne.ws/3lBxwjq
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| Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | Two Male Private Equity Heads Aren't Better Than One Woman; Are two male private equity heads better than one woman? Unlikely.
Lionel Laurent - Bloomberg
How do you replace one of the few top female leaders in French finance? Put two men in charge instead. That's not a joke. The Decaux family has wrested leadership control from Virginie Morgon at private equity firm Eurazeo SE - where she was dubbed finance's "wonder woman" after a decade-long rise to the top job - and replaced her with a new executive board chaired by Christophe Baviere and William Kadouch-Chassaing.
/jlne.ws/3K7SUr7
Credit Suisse CEO Fights on All Fronts as He Faces Lost Year; Swiss lender suffers slump in confidence on restructuring; Outflows underscore urgency for success in turnaround plan
Steven Arons and Myriam Balezou - Bloomberg
When Ulrich Koerner unveiled a plan to salvage Credit Suisse Group AG in October, the chief executive officer promised to create a new bank. His subsequent failure to reverse a stampede of client funds has raised doubts that "new" means "better." Credit Suisse lost an unprecedented 111 billion Swiss francs ($120 billion) worth of assets during the three final months of last year, most of which departed in the run up to the big strategy announcement on Oct. 27.
/jlne.ws/3RWomKB
Blackstone's Big New Idea Leaves It Bruised
Miriam Gottfried, Peter Grant and Rebecca Feng - The Wall Street Journal
Blackstone Inc. became one of the world's most powerful financial firms by investing on behalf of large institutional investors. To boost growth, it decided to offer its products to individuals. Its new fund was a huge success, becoming the biggest Blackstone had ever raised. Then it became a crisis.
/jlne.ws/3lxWqAM
Janet Yellen steps up pressure for World Bank overhaul as it lags behind on climate finance
Aime Williams - Financial Times
US Treasury secretary Janet Yellen has stepped up pressure on the leadership of the World Bank by urging it to "quickly" put in place reforms to free up more money to address climate change among other global challenges. The US is the largest shareholder in the international finance institution that provides funding for developing countries and has pushed for an overhaul along with several other major shareholders including Germany.
/jlne.ws/3xhVbIp
Credit Suisse at a make-or-break moment
Owen Walker and Stephen Morris - Financial Times
The renowned banker Michael Klein has a new deal in his sights. Compared with his record of megadeals bringing together Barclays and Lehman Brothers, Dow Chemical and Dupont, and Glencore and Xstrata, this will be a small one. But if successful, it might do something few in the investment banking industry think is possible: take the dysfunctional, scandal-plagued lender Credit Suisse and turn it into a banking powerhouse.
/jlne.ws/3Ij44rp
Credit Suisse reports 443% decline in profits year-on-year; The bank reports another set of dire earnings results, with losses amounting to CHF3.3 billion in 2022.
Wesley Bray - The Trade
Credit Suisse has released its Q4 earnings, reporting a fourth quarter and annual net loss which was labelled as 'completely unacceptable' by the bank's CEO. Fourth quarter net revenues at the bank dropped significantly by 33% to CHF3.1 billion compared to the same quarter in 2021 - which Credit Suisse attributed to lower net revenues in the investment bank, the Swiss Bank and wealth management.
/jlne.ws/3Il1GAH
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| Work & Management | | Stories impacting work and more about management ideas, practices and trends. | Marc Andreessen says remote work has 'detonated' the way we connect and it's young professionals who will suffer the most
Steve Mollman - Fortune
Remote work looks like it's here to stay. Whether that's good for young professionals in the long run is up for debate. More companies are indeed demanding workers return to the office. But even RTO orders from big-name CEOs are often just for three days a week; meanwhile, many corporate offices are downsizing, and it's increasingly common for remote workers to be hired and eventually let go having hardly met anyone in the company face to face.
/jlne.ws/3E0LBxe
Here Comes the 60-Year Career
Carol Hymowitz - The Wall Street Journal
Get ready for longer careers. Probably much longer. Charlotte Japp is setting the groundwork for it. Since graduating from college 10 years ago, Ms. Japp has worked in marketing at three companies in different industries and simultaneously launched Cirkel, a startup that connects younger and older employees for two-way career support.
/jlne.ws/3YsENAI
Goldman Chief Says Bank's Job Cuts Should Have Been Earlier: FT; CEO also touts Goldman's underlying strengths in private talk; Goldman last month said it would shed about 3,200 positions
Kim Chipman - Bloomberg
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Chief Executive Officer David Solomon said he should have gone with his instincts and acted sooner to cut jobs, the Financial Times reported. In a private meeting in Miami with about 400 of the bank's partners, Solomon said he was too slow in reducing the bank's workforce even as signs of headwinds began to emerge in the second quarter of last year, people familiar with the comments told the newspaper.
/jlne.ws/3XkZcGI
How State Street Has Used AI to Find 'Hidden Gems' Since 2018; Natural-language processing used in stock picking: Bartolini; Wanted something forward-looking, dynamic, he says of the ETF
Vildana Hajric and Michael P. Regan - Bloomberg
ChatGPT has taken the internet by storm, triggering a new wave of speculation surrounding how artificial intelligence can disrupt various industries and markets. Yet AI has already been at work for years on Wall Street, where State Street and other companies have grasped onto the concept to help put together innovative exchange-traded funds.
/jlne.ws/3RTzNCM
Wanted: Interns Who Can Make TikTok Hits
Sapna Maheshwari - The New York Times
When Mary Clare Lacke, a 20-year-old student at the University of Missouri, interned at Claire's last summer, one of her tasks was to help the teen accessories company with its nascent TikTok account. It didn't take long for her to produce a hit - though it wasn't one that the retailer saw coming. In an 11-second video, Ms. Lacke riffed off a pranking trend inspired by Kris Jenner to promote a style of the retailer's earrings.
/jlne.ws/3jMBKVb
Ken Griffin's Miami Move Inspires Investors Who Want to Work From the Beach; Some investors see a double-digit fall in US home prices from their peak.
Felice Maranz - Bloomberg
Finance professionals all over the world would like to follow Ken Griffin to Miami. Florida - where Griffin relocated his Citadel hedge fund - tops the investor wish list when asked where they would move if they could work from anywhere globally. The sunny southern locale with low taxes, and specifically Miami, is also coming up as a rival to Singapore and New York for the title of the hottest residential market this year, according to the latest MLIV Pulse survey.
/jlne.ws/3S1ZRfe
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| Wellness Exchange | | An Exchange of Health and Wellness Information | US registers rise in highly infectious norovirus causing stomach illness
Lauren Aratani - The Guardian
The US is seeing a rise in the norovirus informally called the stomach flu or stomach bug, according to the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), with positive tests for the contagious illness peaking at 16% in January. The rise in infections spans the US, according to the healthcare agency, with infection rates not seen since last spring.
/jlne.ws/3YsETby
For Older Americans, the Pandemic Is Not Over; Seniors are increasingly left to protect themselves as the rest of the country abandons precautions: "Americans do not agree about the duty to protect others."
Paula Span - The New York Times
In early December, Aldo Caretti developed a cough and, despite all his precautions, came up positive for Covid on a home test. It took his family a couple of days to persuade Mr. Caretti, never fond of doctors, to go to the emergency room. There, he was sent directly to the intensive care unit. Mr. Caretti and his wife, Consiglia, both 85, lived quietly in a condo in Plano, Texas. "He liked to read and learn, in English and Italian," said his son Vic Caretti, 49. "He absolutely adored his three grandchildren."
/jlne.ws/3xkeReU
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| Regions | | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | The untold story of the world's most resilient currency; After Thailand became ground zero in the Asian financial crisis, the baht achieved a long-running stability
Ruchir Sharma - Financial Times
In February of 1998, 25 years ago this month, I was in Bangkok, ground zero of the Asian financial crisis. The implosion of the Thai baht had triggered a serial meltdown of currencies and markets with protesters in the streets across the region and chaos spreading. As world leaders raced to slow the global contagion, Thailand and its neighbours had sunk into a depression.
/jlne.ws/3HP7lgE
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| Miscellaneous | | Stories that don't quite fit under the other sections | Trump's Prized 40 Wall Street Building Is On 'Lender Watch' Amid Dropping Income: Report
Mary Papenfuss - HuffPost
Donald Trump's heavily mortgaged skyscraper at 40 Wall Street is on "lender watch" amid plummeting income and increasing costs, Bloomberg reported Friday. The vacancy rate at the 72-story building - Trump's most valuable - jumped to almost 18% in the third quarter of last year, according to a monthly filing on the building's remaining $126.5 million mortgage, Bloomberg reported.
/jlne.ws/3Xqbb5Q
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