| August 29, 2023 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | |  | John Lothian
Publisher
John Lothian News | |
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Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff
Episode 375 of Inside the ICE House is titled "Virtu's Vinnie Viola, Legendary Master of Markets, on his Journey from West Point to Wall Street to the Stanley Cup." This is the episode I previewed yesterday in "Exclusive: JLN ICE House Vinnie Viola NYSE Interview by Josh King."
Also, as promised I published the Paula DiPerna podcast yesterday, though it took me until 11 PM to publish it. DiPerna has written a book, "Pricing the Priceless: The Financial Transformation to Value the Planet, Solve the Climate Crisis, and Protect Our Most Precious Assets."
I was beaten to the punch of publishing a podcast of DiPerna by none other than Josh King and the Inside the ICE House Podcast with episode 374 titled "Paula DiPerna on Pricing the Priceless and the Rise of Carbon Markets."
For the record for my friends at FIA, I think DiPerna would make an excellent lunch time speaker for EXPO if they don't have one booked yet.
I was delayed in getting to the podcast by several things, including a wake and celebration of life service for a former Cub Scout of mine who died at the age of 24. He had gone on to earn the rank of Eagle, though not in my troop. It was a very sad situation.
The world is full of acronyms, some of them new acronyms/initialisms to meet our current world. In football we have dynamic quarterbacks like the Chicago Bears' Justin Fields. Fields will often run an RPO, or a run-pass-option. An RPO is also a "Recovery Point Objective," which involves how much data you need to recover from a backup in the case of a disaster. There is also now an RTO, which stands for "Return To Work." It also stands for "Recovery Time Objective," which is how much time you need before you are fully operational after a disaster.
The Wall Street Journal has a video titled "Why Banned Cotton From China Is So Hard to Keep Out of the U.S." in today's online edition.
The Journal also has a story titled "28 Things Every Student Needs to Pack for College" that includes only one thing I was told I needed when I went to college: a fan. No one told me I needed a COVID-19 kit, or a laundry backpack. I did have an air pop popcorn popper, a refrigerator, a hotpot and a typewriter.
Cboe Global Markets is looking for a vice president of tokenization strategy. You can find the details for the job HERE.
Have a great day and stay safe and treat people the same way you want to be treated: with respect, equality and justice.~JJL
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Our most read stories yesterday on JLN Options were:
- Zero-day options have arrived for Europe's most popular stock market index from Marketwatch
- Coinbase pushes deeper into derivatives-but how many people want to buy them? from Fortune
- Lessons for next time after Nvidia's stock didn't surge, and options tanked, following blowout earnings from MarketWatch ~JB
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Paula Diperna's Inherent Contradiction And Paradox Book: Pricing The Priceless
JohnLothianNews.com
Author Paula DiPerna has been in the room where it happened with such luminaries as Jacques-Yves Cousteau, and George W. Bush. She was inspired by Sandor to try to do something to deal with climate change after hearing him at an event after the Rio Summit. As the president of the Joyce Foundation in Chicago, she helped Sandor start the Chicago Climate Exchange and served on the CCX board and as president of CCX - International.
Listen to the podcast »
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OpenAI Unveils ChatGPT for Businesses, Stepping Up Revenue Push; The new version of its best-known product offers extra privacy safeguards, longer text prompts
Rachel Metz - Bloomberg
OpenAI launched a corporate version of ChatGPT with added features and privacy safeguards, the startup's most significant effort yet to attract a broad mix of business customers and boost revenue from its best-known product. As with consumer versions of the company's artificial intelligence-powered chatbot, users can type in a prompt and receive a written response from ChatGPT Enterprise. The new tool includes unlimited use of OpenAI's most powerful generative AI model, GPT-4, as well as data encryption and a guarantee that the startup won't use data from customers to develop its technology. It also offers the ability to type in much longer prompts.
****** "ChatGPT has been used by more than 80% of Fortune 500 companies since it was rolled out in November, OpenAI said."
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How a Man in Prison Stole Millions from Billionaires; With smuggled cell phones and a handful of accomplices, Arthur Lee Cofield, Jr., took money from large bank accounts and bought houses, cars, clothes, and gold.
Charles Bethea - The New Yorker
Early in 2020, the architect Scott West got a call at his office, in Atlanta, from a prospective client who said that his name was Archie Lee. West designs luxurious houses in a spare, angular style one might call millionaire modern. Lee wanted one. That June, West found an appealing property in Buckhead-an upscale part of North Atlanta that attracts both old money and new-and told Lee it might be a good spot for them to build. Lee arranged for his wife to meet West there.
/jlne.ws/3EAqDWd
****** Nothing like a good old fashioned crime caper. ~JJL
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Monday's Top Three
Our top story Monday was The Wall Street Journal's The 'Fidelity Mafia' Behind Big Crypto. Second was Starting the day like Jamie Dimon set me up for success, from the Financial Times. Third was Exclusive: JLN ICE House Vinnie Viola NYSE Interview By Josh King, John Lothian's review of an ICE video interview of Virtu founder and former NYMEX chairman Vincent Viola.
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| Lead Stories | SEC Probes Major Lender Over Mortgage-Backed Securities Sold to Wall Street; The Change Company facing scrutiny over securities products; Firm says it's unaware of SEC investigation; denies wrongdoing
Heather Perlberg, Austin Weinstein, and Tom Schoenberg - Bloomberg
The US Securities and Exchange Commission is probing The Change Company, a California lender that pledges to promote homeownership in underserved communities, over its mortgage-backed securities, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter. As part the investigation, the regulator is also looking into some of the actions of its chief executive officer, Steven Sugarman, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing the investigation that hasn't been made public. Buyers of instruments backed by The Change Company's loans have included some of Wall Street's largest money managers, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
/jlne.ws/3spI2hc
Cyber security experts lament west's failure to learn lessons from Ukraine; US and its allies struggle to copy Kyiv's collaborative efforts, say delegates at world's biggest cyber security conference
Mehul Srivastava - Financial Times
Viktor Zhora, the public face of Ukraine's success against Russian cyber attacks, received a hero's welcome earlier this month on stage at Black Hat, the world's biggest cyber security gathering, in Las Vegas. "The adversary has trained us a lot since 2014", the year that Russia annexed Crimea, said the deputy chair at Ukraine's special communication and information protection service. "We evolved by the time of the full-scale invasion [in February last year] when cyber became a major component of hybrid warfare."
/jlne.ws/3YUTFJi
Can China arrest the renminbi's slide? Currency has fallen 5% this year but investors expect further declines
Hudson Lockett - Financial Times
China's renminbi is flirting with its lowest level against the dollar since the 2008 financial crisis and analysts expect its strength to be further tested in the coming weeks as the country's rebound from the pandemic splutters. The currency has dropped more than 5 per cent against the dollar this year, touching Rmb7.29 to the greenback and just shy of the high of Rmb7.32 hit last year, which marked the currency's weakest level in more than 15 years.
/jlne.ws/45G23Pe
FTX's Bankman-Fried appeals jailing as trial nears
Luc Cohen - Reuters
Sam Bankman-Fried has appealed a decision to jail him for alleged witness tampering ahead of his Oct. 3 trial over the collapse of his FTX cryptocurrency exchange. In a filing late on Friday night with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Bankman-Fried's lawyers said the 31-year-old former billionaire simply exercised his First Amendment rights by sharing writings by his former colleague and romantic partner Caroline Ellison with a New York Times reporter.
/jlne.ws/3YRyOXj
Goldman Is Selling a Wealth-Advisory Unit to $240 Billion Money Manager; Goldman unwinds $750 million United Capital deal struck in '19; Move marks Goldman's renewed focus on ultra-wealthy clients
Sridhar Natarajan - Bloomberg
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. struck a deal to sell an investment-advisory business aimed at the mass-affluent market to Creative Planning LLC, a wealth-management firm that oversees about $240 billion. The bank agreed to sell the business, with $29 billion in assets, that grew out of United Capital, a registered investment adviser it purchased for $750 million, according to a statement.
/jlne.ws/45OpbuU
Loans Still Aren't Securities; Also NFT offerings, ESG bonuses and SVB wine.
Matt Levine - Bloomberg
The rule in the US is that corporate bonds are "securities" and corporate loans are not. Bonds are subject to the securities laws and regulated by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, and if the issuer of a bond lies to a buyer then that's securities fraud. Loans are not subject to securities laws, not regulated by the SEC, and lying about loans is probably some sort of fraud, but not securities fraud.
/jlne.ws/3EhhG3D
Credit Suisse's Banker to Russian Billionaires Retained by UBSl; Dastmaltschi was go-to guy for Abramovich, Usmanov, Vekselberg; DOJ investigating both banks over alleged sanctions evasions
Hugo Miller and Marion Halftermeyer - Bloomberg
Credit Suisse's go-to banker for Russian billionaires has been retained by UBS Group AG, in one of the highest-profile moves yet for the merged bank's wealth management business. Babak Dastmaltschi is working at a new unit in UBS's wealth division that regroups an elite crop of senior private bankers from both UBS and Credit Suisse who handle some of the most important client relationships, according to people familiar with the matter who didn't want to be named discussing personnel decisions.
/jlne.ws/3qIbjn7
UBS settles Credit Suisse lawsuit against popular Zurich finance blog; Deal with Inside Paradeplatz is the latest move by Swiss bank to clear up legacy legal disputes
Financial Times
UBS has settled a lawsuit brought by Credit Suisse against a popular Zurich finance blog over what the failed lender claimed were unvetted and abusive reader comments under stories. The settlement is the latest move by UBS to clear up legacy legal disputes since its rescue of Credit Suisse five months ago. The group will publish its second-quarter results on Thursday, where chief executive Sergio Ermotti will set out his vision for the combined business.
/jlne.ws/3YXkRHx
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| Ukraine Invasion | | News about the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and its military, economic, political and humanitarian impact | Past Drones and Sea Mines, a Merchant Ship's Perilous Journey in Ukraine; Ukraine's Danube River ports have become key arteries for grain exports. But threats from Russia and costly delays have made some shippers rethink their operations in the Black Sea.
Jenny Gross and Valerie Hopkins - The New York Times
For five weeks, almost everything seemed to go wrong for one commercial vessel waiting in the Danube River to load Ukrainian grain bound for Spain via the Black Sea. First, Russian drones exploded mere miles away from where the vessel was anchored. Then, heavy congestion on the river led to weeks of delays, costing the vessel's operator $8,000 a day in extra running costs. Finally, around midnight after its cargo of over 12,000 metric tons of grain had finally been loaded, Russian drones hit grain warehouses in an hourlong raid at the port the vessel had just left.
/jlne.ws/3qK4L7s
Ukraine live briefing: Putin does not plan to attend Wagner funerals; Paul Whelan appears in video
Kelly Kasulis Cho, Ellen Francis, Natalia Abbakumova and Robyn Dixon - The Washington Post
The Kremlin says Russian President Vladimir Putin does not plan to attend the funeral of Wagner Group chief Yevgeniy Prigozhin and that it has no details about a possible ceremony. Russian investigators have now confirmed that Prigozhin and top members of his mercenary group died in a plane crash, weeks after leading a short-lived mutiny against Russian military leaders. The Kremlin has dismissed speculation of its involvement in the crash, amid suspicion among Russia's elite that Prigozhin's death was an assassination.
/jlne.ws/3sykQxD
Russia-Ukraine War; Ukraine Steps Up Evacuation Calls as Russia Attacks in Northeast
The New York Times
Only 1,400 people out of 11,000 have left the Kupiansk area since regional authorities issued evacuation orders this month, Ukrainian officials say.
/jlne.ws/3YTkldi
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| Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | Blue Ocean ATS Extends into Japan
Shanny Basar - MarketsMedia
Blue Ocean Technologies has formed a partnership with Tokyo Stock Exchange as its ATS, which provides overnight trading of US stocks, has experienced a 30-fold increase in volumes this year. Asian investors can trade US stocks during their daylight hours during the Blue Ocean ATS session which operates between 8PM ET and 4AM ET in the US, from Sunday to Thursday.
/jlne.ws/3EjSeux
CRSP Selects ICE's Uniform Entity Sectors for CRSP Market Indexes and Historical Equity Research Database
Intercontinental Exchange, Inc.
Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE:ICE), a leading global provider of data, technology, and market infrastructure, today announced that the Center for Research in Security Prices, LLC (CRSP) will use ICE's Uniform Entity Sectors classification system for the CRSP Market Indexes (CRSPMI) Sector Indexes and will be one of the sector codes available in the CRSP Research Products (CRSPRP) historical equity research database, ensuring a consistent framework that supports multi-asset risk and performance attribution analysis. CRSP, an affiliate of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, will employ ICE's Uniform Entity Sectors methodology for its cap-based, industry sector, and ESG indexes.
/jlne.ws/47PklPJ
LSEG Inaugurates New Flagship Office in Kuala Lumpur
London Stock Exchange Group
LSEG (London Stock Exchange Group) announced the opening of a new flagship office in Kuala Lumpur. The step reinforces LSEG's commitment to nurturing local talent and fostering economic growth in Malaysia. Since 2002, LSEG has been a key player in Malaysia's financial landscape, delivering vital indices, global data, analytics, and capital markets services while contributing to the growth of the nation's economy.
/jlne.ws/3OWx9Lv
Moscow Exchange creates information and analytical center
MOEX
The Moscow Exchange is creating an Information and Analytical Center (IAC), which will regularly provide customers with price and analytical data on over-the-counter goods in Russia and the CIS countries. The IAC will accumulate and analyze information on the oil and oil refining industries, chemistry and petrochemistry, metals and agricultural products markets. The database of price indicators and statistics, which will be managed by the IAC, will allow clients to build their own analytical reports and combine the information received with the company's internal data.
/jlne.ws/45OI94w
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| Fintech | | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | Google to Add AI Models from Meta, Anthropic to Its Cloud Platform
Davey Alba and Julia Love - Bloomberg
Alphabet Inc.'s Google is adding artificial intelligence tools from companies including Meta Platforms Inc. and Anthropic to its cloud platform, weaving more generative AI into its products and positioning itself as a one-stop shop for cloud customers seeking to tap into the technology.
/jlne.ws/45uvUu1
Private Equity Borrows Billions to Bring You Broadband Internet; Fiber-optic network companies owned by private-equity firms are using asset-backed bonds to expand in areas where high-speed internet connections are spotty
Matt Wirz - The Wall Street Journal
Wall Street is churning out billions of dollars in complex bonds to bankroll construction of broadband fiber-optic networks, part of a nationwide push to widen high-speed internet access. Telecom companies have already sold more than triple the number of so-called fiber bonds they borrowed in all of last year. That has helped pay for expanding high-speed internet into small and midsize cities where residents and businesses previously had only one choice-expensive and spotty service from cable monopolies.
/jlne.ws/3YTVmXm
Google Chases Microsoft, Amazon Cloud Market Share With AI Tools; Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian to announce AI enhancements for corporate Gmail customers for $30 a month
Miles Kruppa - The Wall Street Journal
Google is selling broad access to its most powerful artificial-intelligence technology for the first time as it races to make up ground in the lucrative cloud-software market. Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, is planning to outline the offerings to thousands of customers at Google's annual cloud conference in San Francisco on Tuesday, while making widely available a number of tools that can help draft emails or summarize lengthy documents stored in the cloud.
/jlne.ws/3OY11XO
The Rise of Large Language Models in Financial Markets
A-Team Insight
When OpenAI introduced ChatGPT to the public in November 2022, giving users access to its large language model (LLM) through a simple human-like chatbot, it took the world by storm, reaching 100 million users within three months. By comparison, it took TikTok nine months and Instagram two and a half years to hit that milestone.
/jlne.ws/3YWUuBo
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| Cybersecurity | | Top stories for cybersecurity | Japan's cyber security agency suffers months-long breach; Infiltration comes as allies scrutinise Tokyo's defences against hacking
Leo Lewis - Financial Times
The organisation responsible for Japan's national defences against cyber attacks has itself been infiltrated by hackers, who may have gained access to sensitive data for as much as nine months. According to three government and private sector sources familiar with the situation, Chinese state-backed hackers were believed to be behind the attack on Japan's National Center of Incident Readiness and Strategy for Cybersecurity (NISC), which began last autumn and was not detected until June.
/jlne.ws/3PhNZ99
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| Cryptocurrencies | | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | Bitcoin ETF Deadlines Loom Again for SEC Ahead of Labor Day Weekend; 'We can expect to see more delays,' projects VettaFi's Islam; Bitwise's application is set for consideration on Sept. 1
Vildana Hajric - Bloomberg
The journey to a potential Bitcoin ETF has so far been long and arduous. But some key decisions in the race are likely coming this week as crypto faithful await to see how things play out this time. The US Securities and Exchange Commission is expected to respond to filings from Bitwise, BlackRock, VanEck, WisdomTree and Invesco right before the Labor-Day weekend, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.
/jlne.ws/45LAAvs
Bitcoin Mining Revenue Gauge Nears Record Low as Prices Stagnate; Miners keep expanding operations despite low Bitcoin prices; More competition among them further compresses profit margins
David Pan - Bloomberg
One closely-watched measure of Bitcoin mining revenue is hovering around a record low as the price of the largest digital asset stagnates and competition heats up. The so-called hashprice fell to $0.06 for a unit of computing power per day on Sunday, according to Hashrate Index data. That is close to the record low seen around late 2022 when major publicly-traded mining companies warned of a liquidity crunch and some declared bankruptcy.
/jlne.ws/3qNAeWh
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| Politics | | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | The rule of law is in more trouble than democracy; Liberals fret too much about dictatorship and not enough about chaos
Janan Ganesh - Financial Times
Had Donald Trump "found" those extra ballots in 2020, do we think the 81mn Americans who voted for Joe Biden would have shrugged and moved on? Or that federal civil servants would have carried out the executive orders of the loiterer in the White House? Or that allied nations would have treated him as the rightful US leader, in defiance of Democratic complaints (and, no doubt, warnings about future diplomatic relations)?
/jlne.ws/45ySNMX
Italy's hard-right government is starting to look more radical; Georgia Meloni indulges in cultural and economic populism
The Economist
Admirers of Giorgia Meloni and her Brothers of Italy (fdi) party like to describe them as "Latin conservatives"-no more radical than, say, Britain's Tories. For the most part, the Italian prime minister has indeed been reassuringly pragmatic since coming into office last year. But the comparison ignores two significant differences: a widespread hostility among the Brothers to social diversity, be it ethnic or sexual; and a deep distrust of free markets and enthusiasm for vigorous state intervention.
/jlne.ws/3OTtrSQ
Erdogan Plans to Meet Putin Next Week to Discuss Grain Deal
Firat Kozok and Selcan Hacaoglu - Bloomberg
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to meet Vladimir Putin in Russia next week to discuss reviving the Black Sea grain deal. Erdogan could possibly go to Russia on Sept. 8, before traveling to India to attend the Group of 20 Summit in New Delhi, according two Turkish officials familiar with the matter. The Turkish presidency declined to comment.
/jlne.ws/3qRydIA
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| Regulation & Enforcement | | Stories about regulation and the law. | SEC Charges Archipelago Trading Services with Failing to File Suspicious Activity Reports
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against Archipelago Trading Services Inc. (ATSI) for failing to file hundreds of legally required reports of suspicious financial transactions, known as Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs), between August 2012 and September 2020. The charges were related to transactions in over-the-counter (OTC) securities executed on ATSI's alternative trading system (ATS). ATSI, a Chicago-based broker-dealer, has agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle the charges.
/jlne.ws/47QFhG4
NFTs & the SEC: Statement on Impact Theory, LLC
Hester M. Peirce, Mark T. Uyeda - SEC
Today the Commission brought its first non-fungible token (NFT)[1] enforcement action. We dissented in part because we disagreed with the application of the Howey analysis. Regardless of what one thinks of the Howey analysis, this matter raises larger questions with which the Commission should grapple before bringing additional NFT cases.
/jlne.ws/3qQckJK
SEC Charges LA-Based Media and Entertainment Co. Impact Theory for Unregistered Offering of NFTs
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Impact Theory, LLC, a media and entertainment company headquartered in Los Angeles, with conducting an unregistered offering of crypto asset securities in the form of purported non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Impact Theory raised approximately $30 million from hundreds of investors, including investors across the United States, through the offering.
/jlne.ws/3qRHdNP
Court finds former Quintis director did not breach duties
ASIC
After a four-week contested trial, the Federal Court has found Frank Cullity Wilson, former managing director of Quintis Limited (Quintis), did not breach his duties as director regarding disclosure of the termination of key contracts.
/jlne.ws/3qHn2lS
Banning of Queensland director for failing to meet fit and proper person requirements stayed pending appeal
ASiC
ASIC has banned Queensland director Maree Narelle Hawcroft from controlling an entity that carries on a financial services business and performing any functions involved in the carrying on of a financial services business for one year from 14 March 2023.
/jlne.ws/3QZbsNC
ASIC suspends AFS licence of Australasian Capital Pty Ltd
ASIC
ASIC has suspended the Australian financial services (AFS) licence of Australasian Capital Pty Ltd (Australasian) ACN 143 093 832 for one year, until 25 August 2024. The licence authorised Australasian to provide financial services to wholesale clients.
/jlne.ws/3qSuqL8
SFC and ICAC conduct joint operation against suspected market manipulation syndicate and Restriction Notices issued by the SFC to six brokers to freeze client accounts
SFC
The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) and the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) conducted a joint operation today involving two companies listed on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited on suspicion that their shares were being manipulated from December 2022 to August 2023 (Note 1).
/jlne.ws/3OX6jTl
Regulators conclude consultation on revising OTC derivative Clearing Rules
SFC
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) today issued their joint consultation conclusions on proposed amendments to the Clearing Rules for over-the-counter (OTC) derivative transactions (Note 1). Under the proposal, certain interest rate swap transactions referencing alternative reference rates (ARRs) would be subject to the clearing obligation under specified conditions. At the same time, the regulators would repeal the current requirement to clear certain interest rate swap transactions referencing interbank offered rates (IBORs) which are or will no longer be published or considered representative. This is in line with global interest rate benchmark reforms, particularly the transition from the use of IBORs to ARRs.
/jlne.ws/3PiwMfQ
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| Investing & Trading | | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | Spiraling Meme Stock Mania Puts Korea Market Regulators on Alert; Signs of overheating in Kosdaq on retail inflows, Goldman says; Short rally of meme stocks over changing themes may continue
Youkyung Lee - Bloomberg
South Korean retail investors are cycling through meme stocks so quickly that it's alarming regulators. In the span of eight weeks, they've driven short-lived rallies in the superconductor, salt and seafood sectors, following a months-long frenzy over anything related to EV batteries. The risks of margin calls is high, and leverage is worrying, Goldman Sachs Group analysts said.
/jlne.ws/47OSfEi
World's Best Large IPO of 2023 Is Indonesia Miner With 150% Gain; Amman Mineral top among 32 global offerings over $500 million; Company owns second-largest gold, copper mine in Indonesia
Filipe Pacheco and Fathiya Dahrul - Bloomberg
An Indonesian miner has been the world's best-performing large initial public offering this year, as analysts tout its appealing valuation, earnings prospects and potential inclusion in a key local index. Shares of PT Amman Mineral Internasional, which owns the second-largest gold and copper mine in the Southeast Asian country, are up 153% since their debut on July 7.
/jlne.ws/3YS1TC0
Australia Sends Barley Shipment to China After Tariffs End; CBH CEO says first cargo about 55,000 tons of maximus variety; Trade minister confident other trade curbs will be removed
Keira Wright - Bloomberg
Australia has sent its first shipment of barley to China after Beijing scrapped tariffs this month, with the nation's trade minister confident that restrictions on other products will be removed as relations improve. "The first shipment has been dispatched from Kwinana and it's gradually working its way towards China," Agriculture Minister Murray Watt said during a press conference in Western Australia on Tuesday. Kwinana is a major export terminal for grains south of Perth that's operated by CBH Group.
/jlne.ws/3KWEbPh
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| Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance | | Stories about environmental, social and governance investing | America Is Using Up Its Groundwater Like There's No Tomorrow; Overuse is draining and damaging aquifers nationwide, a New York Times data investigation revealed.
Mira Rojanasakul, Christopher Flavelle, Blacki Migliozzi and Eli Murray - The New York Times
Global warming has focused concern on land and sky as soaring temperatures intensify hurricanes, droughts and wildfires. But another climate crisis is unfolding, underfoot and out of view. Many of the aquifers that supply 90 percent of the nation's water systems, and which have transformed vast stretches of America into some of the world's most bountiful farmland, are being severely depleted. These declines are threatening irreversible harm to the American economy and society as a whole.
/jlne.ws/47LI0Rb
New Google tools to map rooftop solar potential and air quality
Stuart Stone - BusinessGreen
Google has today launched three new mapping tools drawing on the tech giant's artificial intelligence (AI), aerial imagery, and environmental data to help businesses and cities accelerate decarbonisation efforts. The tech giant this afternoon used its at Google Cloud Next '23 conference to unveil an expansion to the sustainability offering currently hosted on its Maps platform, including a trio of new tools to designed to provide more up-to-date information on solar power potential, air quality, and pollen levels.
/jlne.ws/3YTgwFc
At Case Western, Student Activists Want the Administration to Move More Decisively on Climate Change; It's part of a national movement to have universities' divest all holdings in fossil fuels. The university says its efforts to minimize climate change have been "innovative" and "consistent."
Danish Bajwa - Inside Climate News
As the fall semester approaches, student groups at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland continue pushing for divestment from fossil fuels, among other environmentally conscious measures, as part of a larger movement that has extended throughout the nation's college campuses. Over 100 colleges and universities in the United States have been led by student organizations in committing to divest from fossil fuels and work toward more environmentally friendly practices.
/jlne.ws/3R6J9wu
UK Watchdog Cracks Down on Junk Carbon Offsets as Stranded Assets Surge; Advertising Standards Authority is taking action 'immediately'; Watchdog finds some climate claims are 'entirely unqualified'.
Natasha White - Bloomberg
Britain's watchdog overseeing corporate marketing claims says it's aware of a number of companies making false green statements after purchasing carbon offsets that aren't fit for purpose. "Some organizations are making carbon neutral and net zero claims that are entirely unqualified," said Matt Wilson, media and public affairs manager at the Advertising Standards Authority. Such claims "are likely to breach existing rules" and the ASA is "taking proactive action immediately to crack down on such claims," he said in statement to Bloomberg.
/jlne.ws/3YTn2f0
Vanguard's backing for green and social proposals falls to 2%; Asset manager joins BlackRock in cutting support for investor resolutions it considers 'overly prescriptive'
Madison Darbyshire and Brooke Masters - Financial Times
Vanguard backed just 2 per cent of environmental and social shareholder proposals this year because of a rise in the number of resolutions the asset management giant considered "overly prescriptive" and overreaching. The tiny share of votes for such proposals during the 2023 proxy season was down precipitously from 12 per cent in 2022, it said on Monday. Vanguard, with $7.2tn in assets, said many of the shareholder proposals this year went too far, for example by seeking "specific actions from companies including changes in company strategy or operations", or were redundant.
/jlne.ws/3OTFa40
London Is Now the World's Largest Low-Emissions Zone. Was the Fight Worth It?; The city now has fewer dirty cars and better air quality, and while the expansion of the Ultra Low Emission Zone has sparked controversy in the UK, it's inspired mayors around the world to consider similar plans.
Jess Shankleman and Olivia Rudgard - Bloomberg
Every driver in London, as of Tuesday, is now subject to strict pollution rules, completing one of the world's most ambitious vehicle emissions policies and taking the British capital closer to having healthy air. While the final expansion of the ULEZ, or ultra low emissions zone, is only a continuation of clean air charges that have been tightening since 2008 - under Boris Johnson when he was mayor of London and now his successor Sadiq Khan - this last phase has been the most controversial. That's because the £12.50 ($15.72) per day levy for most non-compliant vehicles now hits those living in outer boroughs of London, where people tend to be more car dependent and have lower incomes.
/jlne.ws/3PcCe3D
There's a Whiff of Rebellion in London's Air; Raising the cost of driving high-polluting vehicles in London is testing the mayor's convictions.
Matthew Brooker - Bloomberg
London will start nudging the most-polluting vehicles off the entirety of its roads on Tuesday. They aren't going quietly. The expansion of the capital's ultra-low emission zone to cover the whole of Greater London has sparked an insurgent campaign of civil disobedience, with hundreds of the roadside cameras that will be used to identify offending vehicles damaged, stolen or otherwise disabled. One video featured in British media shows a hooded man using a tree lopper - a pair of clippers with an extendable arm - to cut the cables on cameras. Others have been covered with stickers.
/jlne.ws/3OSilO1
Global Standards Needed for Human and Worker Disclosures
ESG Investor
/jlne.ws/3OWXAAB
Developed countries urged to 'step up' contributions to global nature fund; Canada and UK only donor countries to contribute so far, leaving scheme short of $40m to formally launch
Patrick Greenfield - The Guardian
/jlne.ws/3qWghfN
Crypto ETF Drags 'ESG' Into Wildly Volatile World of Bitcoin; Bitcoin ETF uses controversial certificates to back ESG claim; Jacobi Asset Management says its ETF is the first of its kind
Lisa Pham - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/3KYexcI
Hindustan Zinc Eyes Jump in Output Under Chair Agarwal Hebbar; Company has aggressive target to boost production by 2025; Plans to spend $1 billion in next decade on decarbonization
Swansy Afonso - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/3sogNUg
Alternative investments lose steam as fundraising slows down; Investor says 'it's all changed' as inflows drop by hundreds of billions of dollars
Madison Darbyshire - Financial Times
/jlne.ws/45kycvL
Asia-Focused Carbon Offsets Registry Launches in Singapore; Asia Carbon Institute in talks for more than 20 projects; Registry to focus on green technology and infrastructure
Sheryl Tian Tong Lee - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/3OUgbgS
'The burns can cook them': searing sidewalks cause horrific injuries in US; The recent heatwaves in Arizona, stoked by the climate crisis, have led to a spike in contact burns from asphalt almost as hot as boiling water
Amy Silverman - The Guardian
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| Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | Goldman Sachs sells financial planning unit as part of consumer retreat
Stephen Gandel and Ortenca Aliaj - Financial Times
Goldman Sachs has agreed to sell one of its personal financial management divisions as chief executive David Solomon continues to unwind a botched foray into consumer banking. The unit, which has about 200 employees, is being sold to Creative Planning, an investment and retirement adviser. The division offers financial planning to well-off customers who are not super-rich, servicing individuals with accounts that tend to range from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars.
/jlne.ws/3L0ikX2
A Large Family Fortune Starts a Risky Transition; As Mukesh Ambani's children join the board of flagship Reliance, the market wonders if they can unlock value from the tycoon's bold bets.
Andy Mukherjee - Bloomberg Opinion
The flagship of Asia's richest tycoon is looking a tad overburdened with businesses that are mature enough to be cast off on their own. Successful public floats of telecom and retail units will do more than make Mukesh Ambani a centi-billionaire - they may well determine the hold of the family-run conglomerate on India's broader economy when control passes to the next generation.
/jlne.ws/47ROH3V
Bank of Montreal Takes Hit on Credit Losses, Tighter Margins
Stephanie Hughes - Bloomberg
Bank of Montreal set aside more money for potentially sour loans and severance costs as it absorbs Bank of the West during a difficult period for US regional lenders. The Canadian bank earned C$2.04 billion ($1.89 billion) on an adjusted basis in the fiscal third quarter, weighed down by weaker results in its US personal and commercial division. The profit of C$2.78 per share was short of the C$3.13 expected by analysts in a Bloomberg survey.
/jlne.ws/3L0ZP4T
At Goldman Sachs, Bonuses Can Buy Solomon Love; The CEO is facing mutinous ranks after leading the bank into a costly bad bet.
Paul J. Davies - Bloomberg
Everyone loves a soap opera and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has been delivering endless intrigue and anonymous backstabbing in rolling media reports of Chief Executive Officer David Solomon's purported personal failings. But there's something a little empty about it all. William Cohan, author of a 2011 history of the firm, said it best on Bloomberg TV last week: Investment bankers are pretty simple, if their bonuses go up this year, the griping will die down.
/jlne.ws/3P2O1R0
UBS Settles Credit Suisse Legal Fight With Zurich Blog
Marion Halftermeyer - Bloomberg
UBS Group AG and Zurich-based finance blog Inside Paradeplatz have reached a settlement in a lawsuit initiated by Credit Suisse over allegations of abusive reader comments attached to articles on the site. As part of the settlement, which was reached on Aug. 24 in the Zurich Commercial Court, Inside Paradeplatz deleted reader comments and deleted or adjusted three parts in two articles on its website, according to an article published on the site detailing the settlement.
/jlne.ws/47Pd3LR
Nomura AM to launch Japan's first active ETFs; The products will be subject to daily disclosures and inverse active funds are not permitted
Sandra Heistruvers - Financial Times
Nomura Asset Management has been granted approval by the Tokyo Stock Exchange to list the first two actively managed exchange traded funds in Japan. The Next Funds Japan Growth Equity Active Exchange Traded Fund and the Next Funds Japan High Dividend Equity Active Exchange Traded Fund are scheduled to start trading on the Tokyo bourse on September 7.
/jlne.ws/45uq77J
Liontrust offer for GAM declared 'unsuccessful' as asset manager extends immediate short-term financing; The current GAM board is set to stand down at the upcoming Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM), with new directors to be proposed.
Claudia Preece - The Trade
The board of GAM Holding has announced that Liontrust Asset Management's offer for the business has been unsuccesful and an agreement made with Rock Investment SAS and Newgame to finance the business' liquidity needs. NJJ Holding-owned Rock is part of an investor group, also consisting of companies Newgame and Bruellan, which controls 9.6% of GAM Holding.
/jlne.ws/44ti8Xh
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| Work & Management | | Stories impacting work and more about management ideas, practices and trends. | Citadel Vets 69,000 Intern Applicants to Find Next Math Geniuses; Griffin's financial empire is going all out in the battle for "truly exceptional" new hires.
Lulu Yilun Chen - Bloomberg
In a hotel ballroom overlooking the South China Sea, 24-year-old Taylor sits with 13 other university students in hoodies and sneakers coding away on laptops during their school break. The two jacked-up security guards sitting outside the hall signal this is no ordinary summer camp: The students flew business class from as far away as California and Singapore to spend several nights at the five-star Fullerton Ocean Park Hotel in Hong Kong.
/jlne.ws/3YWgVq9
Knowledge Workers Are Now Panopticon Prisoners; Ubiquitous monitoring technology is giving Frederick Taylor's 20th-century theory of "scientific management" a new lease on life, and managers a new source of power.
Adrian Wooldridge - Bloomberg
Frederick Winslow Taylor was the most influential management thinker of the 20th century. His The Principles of Scientific Management (1911) quickly put management on a new foundation: replace rule-of-thumb work methods with rules based on the objective study of work; divide work into discrete tasks; provide "detailed instruction and supervision of each worker in the performance of that worker's discrete task"; measure the worker according to his ability to comply with this ideal; make liberal use of punishments and rewards.
/jlne.ws/3YSSxpo
What to Do With a 45-Story Skyscraper and No Tenants; HSBC's plan to leave its Canary Wharf tower for a smaller site shows the global challenges ahead in repurposing unwanted office space for a post-pandemic world.
Helen Chandler-Wilde - Bloomberg
Two bronze lions, each sitting atop eight lucky coins, flank the entrance to the HSBC Tower in London's Canary Wharf, meant to bring prosperity and good luck to the bank and roughly 8,000 workers inside its global headquarters.
/jlne.ws/3EiJSDw
Office Mandates Pit Spouse Against Spouse; Men took on more household responsibilities during the pandemic, but work attendance rules risk undercutting that progress.
Sarah Green Carmichael - Bloomberg
The return-to-office tug of war is playing out not only between bosses and employees but between spouses. Corporate insistence that workers show up at the office sets up a conflict between two-career couples at home.
/jlne.ws/3syc7LN
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| Wellness Exchange | | An Exchange of Health and Wellness Information | Covid Closed the Nation's Schools. Cleaner Air Can Keep Them Open. Scientists and educators are searching for ways to improve air quality in the nation's often dilapidated school buildings.
Apoorva Mandavilli - The New York Times
On a sunny afternoon in a cluttered music room at East High in Denver, two sophomores practiced violin while their music teacher, Keith Oxman, labored over a desk in an adjoining office. The ceiling fans were off to prevent the sheet music from scattering. The windows were sealed shut. East High is Denver's largest high school and among the oldest, and there is no modern ventilation system.
/jlne.ws/47Qw5l2
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| Regions | | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | North Korea denounces 'gang bosses' of US and allies amid drills
Soo-Hyang Choi - Reuters
The United States, South Korea and Japan staged joint naval missile defence drills off the Korean peninsula on Tuesday, as North Korea denounced the "gang bosses" of Washington and its allies for increasing the risk of nuclear war. The three nations staged exercises in international waters off South Korea's southern Jeju island to improve their ability to detect and track targets, and share information in the event of provocation by Pyongyang, South Korea's military said.
/jlne.ws/3L21PKl
US 'does not seek to decouple' from China, says Gina Raimondo; Commerce secretary meets Premier Li Qiang in Beijing as countries aim to revive dialogue
Joe Leahy - Financial Times
US secretary of commerce Gina Raimondo has told China's number two official Premier Li Qiang that Washington does not want to decouple from the world's second-largest economy and hopes to expand trade. Her meeting in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing with Li, a close confidant of President Xi Jinping and the head of China's cabinet, comes as the US and China seek to restore dialogue after months of deteriorating bilateral relations.
/jlne.ws/44pDBAx
Saudi Shift in Investment Priorities Pushes Reserves to 2009 Low
Abeer Abu Omar - Bloomberg
Saudi Arabia's foreign reserves dropped by over $16 billion last month, as the kingdom sets aside less for the central bank and funnels a greater share of its oil wealth into riskier holdings. Net foreign assets fell to 1.53 trillion riyals ($407 billion) after increases in May and June, according to the central bank's monthly report on Monday. It's the sharpest drop since the depths of the pandemic, when oil revenues sank and the kingdom dipped into its hoard to fund bets on a rebound of US stocks.
/jlne.ws/3szbRvZ
What Gas Crisis? Europe's Best Friend Is Also Its Worst Enemy; High prices do solve high prices. But always there's a cost.
Javier Blas - Bloomberg
In the doldrums of August, the European natural gas market has perked back to life. The risk of strikes in Australia, the world's largest producer of liquefied natural gas (LNG), was enough to send prices up 50% at one point. Coming weeks before the Oct. 1 start of the heating season, the price jump certainly is concerning. However, don't panic yet.
/jlne.ws/3Ek8awR
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| Miscellaneous | | Stories that don't quite fit under the other sections | New York's Weed Stores Are Exposing Banks to Illegal Drug Sales; The growth of unlicensed stores across Manhattan and the other boroughs has exposed lenders and building owners to illegal drug sales.
Patrick Clark and Laura Nahmias - Bloomberg
The proliferation of unlicensed marijuana stores across New York City the last two years has had an unexpected consequence for banks and real estate owners: Many are now intertwined in the cannabis business. The shops appeared slowly and then seemingly all at once, with the unlicensed sellers taking advantage of a regulatory vacuum in the aftermath of the state's 2021 legalization of recreational marijuana. There are now as many as 2,000 in the five boroughs, even though the unauthorized sale of cannabis products is illegal.
/jlne.ws/3L0lXfR
The Port of Chicago is not just a scar on the city's shoreline and a threat to the environment. It's a drag on economic growth.
John Lippert - Chicago Tribune
For 15 years, Chicago has tried and failed to win a federal grant to rebuild the principal dock at its main Lake Michigan port. During this time, the 113-year-old dock has never stopped crumbling. Dark vertical cracks appear at several points along its 3,000-foot facade. They get wider and deeper as they reach down into the Calumet River, likely releasing toxins from blast furnaces and coke ovens that operated on the site for decades. Sinkholes have also opened along the concrete deck of the dock, according to the Illinois International Port District, the dock's owner. One is big enough for a minivan.
/jlne.ws/3YUVlT6
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