| February 28, 2025 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | | | John Lothian
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Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff
Condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Helen Nicol, who recently passed away. Nicol was the head of product for CloudMargin at the time of her death. She also worked for Lombard Risk as product director for collateral, clearing and optimisation strategy and business development. She was a graduate of Guildford College of Law and University College London (UCL). CloudMargin posted a message about her on LinkedIn that begins: "With deep sadness, we share the loss of Helen Nicol, our beloved teammate and Head of Product. Hels was more than just a leader and an expert in her field - she was a mentor, a champion of growth, and a constant source of support for everyone around her."
Veteran journalist Terry Savage is retiring from the CME Group board in May, along with some other board colleagues, as the board shrinks in size. Savage has been a board member for more than 20 years, including during the public offering of "The Merc." She started as a young IMM trader and used her knowledge of the interest rate markets to forge an impressive media career that has spanned newspapers, radio and television. She told JLN, "It's been a wonderful trip!"
Operational and cyber resilience in the futures industry remains a top priority for the FIA. Last fall, FIA's Don Byron moderated a panel at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago's conference on operational resilience, featuring insights from financial market infrastructures, regulators, and industry leaders. Check out FIA's latest work on operations, execution & technology here: FMG Operational Resilience Seminar: Event Summary.
NFA will host Member Regulatory Workshops for commodity pool operator (CPO), commodity trading advisor (CTA), futures commission merchant (FCM), retail forex exchange dealer (RFED), and introducing broker (IB) Members on March 5 in Chicago at BMO Tower and on March 18 in New York at The Westin New York at Times Square. The workshops will cover various topics including common exam findings, preparation for NFA exams, e-communications, and updates to cybersecurity requirements. NFA staff will lead the discussions on these and other relevant subjects. The workshops are free to attend, but space is limited, so early registration is encouraged.
WilmerHale has launched its Crypto News Center, offering a curated collection of key crypto-related news and a weekly digest distributed each Friday. Concurrently, the SEC's Crypto Task Force, led by Commissioner Peirce, has released a statement containing 48 specific questions seeking feedback on ten critical areas of focus in the crypto space. These areas include the security status of crypto assets, jurisdictional limits, coin and token offerings, and cross-border sandbox initiatives. The Task Force's request for input, which builds on Commissioner Peirce's earlier statement from February 4th, aims to gather diverse perspectives, including from skeptics, on pressing issues in the cryptocurrency regulatory landscape. Interested parties can provide written submissions or request meetings with the Task Force, with both forms of input generally being made public on the Crypto Task Force's website.
It could have been you, and if it was, don't take any of the money. Citigroup mistakenly credited a customer's account with $81 trillion instead of $280 in April, taking several hours to reverse the error, the Financial Times reported. The mistake, missed by two employees before processing, was caught by a third employee an hour and a half later. No funds left the bank, and Citi disclosed the incident to regulators, emphasizing that its controls identified and corrected the issue. The bank has faced ongoing regulatory scrutiny over risk management and data governance, with 10 similar "near miss" incidents over $1 billion last year. Citi has been investing in compliance improvements following fines of $136 million in 2023 and $400 million in 2020.
Here are the headlines from in front of FOW's paywall from some recent stories: SEC's Peirce slams Coinbase action as watchdog drops lawsuit, Clearing risk chiefs back European push to speed-up approvals, HKEX to list single stock options in March after record 2024, Improved dealer liquidity has boosted futures market - experts, European exchange-traded fund options market lagging US - panel and HKEX sees volatility continuing amid 'revitalisation' in Hong Kong.
Michelle Petersen is starting a new position as executive director, education and retail marketing at CME Group, she shared on LinkedIn.
U.S. President Donald Trump has signed an executive order making English the official language in the United States, The Wall Street Journal reported. The Journal said, "The U.S. has never had a national language in its nearly 250-year history." This is going to be a problem for me as my editor-in-chief, Sarah Rudolph, has repeatedly questioned whether English is my first language given some of the scribblings I have jotted down over the years.
Have a great day and stay safe and treat people the same way you want to be treated: with respect, equality and justice.~JJL
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Our most read stories from our previous edition of JLN Options were:
- India's Volatility Index Shows Traders Not Panicking from Bloomberg.
- Money Managers Return to a Levered Trade That Went Bust in 2008 from Bloomberg via Yahoo Finance.
- Bitcoin ETFs Are Hit by a Record $1 Billion Outflow in One Day from Bloomberg. ~JB
Subscribe to the JLN Options Newsletter HERE (it's free).
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OpenAI Releases GPT-4.5 Model Aimed at Better Writing and Coding
Rachel Metz - Bloomberg
OpenAI is rolling out an early version of a long-awaited new artificial intelligence model called GPT-4.5 to select users after hitting stumbling blocks in developing the AI system last year. In a blog post Thursday, the San Francisco-based AI startup said GPT-4.5 is better at picking up on and responding to subtle cues from users' written prompts and is particularly adept at chatting, writing and coding.
/jlne.ws/4ikEcuE
***** My English as a second language is bound to get better now.~JJL
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Wild Cocoa Markets Push Europe's Historic Chocolatiers to the Brink; Poor harvests in West Africa have driven the price of cocoa to record highs, forcing heritage confectionary brands out of business.
Maddie Parker and Mumbi Gitau - Bloomberg
Paris's oldest chocolate shop has occupied a street corner in the ninth arrondissement since 1761. Ownership of A la Mere de Famille has changed hands from family to family over the centuries, but it has endured through occupation and revolution thanks to the Parisian appetite for confectionery. The store's current owners, the Dolfi family, took it over in 2000 and now sell more than 150 varieties, from nougat to pralines to marzipan, from 16 outlets across the French capital. "This is 100% a family business," said Steve Dolfi, one of the four siblings who run the chocolatier. "We produce 100% of everything we're selling."
/jlne.ws/41k4eHB
****** If only those businesses had domesticated the cocoa markets.~JJL
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Skype to Shut 14 Years After Microsoft's $8.5 Billion Purchase
Matt Day - Bloomberg
Microsoft Corp. is signaling the end of the line for Skype, the iconic internet calling and chat service it bought almost 14 years ago. Once a byword for digital calls that bypassed long-distance charges, Skype was surpassed in recent years by smartphone-native communication apps and Zoom video calls. When Microsoft tried to stretch the Skype brand into the workplace, it lost out to Slack Technologies Inc.
/jlne.ws/3D7K9w1
****** When Skype was first out, you would see Skype interviews on CNBC or other television networks and the video quality was terrible. This was one of the reasons that John Lothian News added video as a skill, to bring a higher quality of video to our audience. Our work was noticed and Eurex and ICE asked us back in 2011 to shoot and edit some video for them for use during some conferences or inhouse communications. That eventually led to us putting out a shingle, John Lothian Productions, which we still have out today. John Lothian Productions is currently producing the FIA Hall of Fame intro videos for the ceremony at FIA Boca50. John Lothian Productions is also the engine behind the various historical video series for MarketsWiki Education that is supported by our GoFundMe campaign. ~JJL
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Unmatched Expertise Behind Vermiculus Next-Generation Trading System
Vermiculus
Vermiculus strengthens its trading team with Johan Noren and David Antman, both recognized for their extensive experience in developing high-performance trading systems for leading exchanges. Their expertise further reinforces the team's strong foundation of knowledge and experience. Together, we are driving the development of a cutting-edge solution for the trading industry. Vermiculus' trading system VeriTrade is the result of decades of experience from some of the industry's most recognized experts. Developed by a team with a proven track record of designing and delivering trading solutions for major exchanges-such as the American Stock Exchange (AMEX), the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), and Turquoise (LSEG)-VeriTrade combines cutting-edge technology with deep market expertise. Built on a microservice architecture for flexibility and scalability, it is designed for ultra-low latency, deterministic order matching, and top performance. Supporting all asset classes, it operates 24/7 to meet the demands of modern marketplaces.
/jlne.ws/41cy54o
***** I would hire these people.~JJL
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Thursday's Top Three
Our top story Thursday was BNY, America's Oldest Bank, Signs Multiyear Deal With OpenAI, from The Wall Street Journal. Second was New 'Dream Exchange' Aims to List Black-Owned Companies, also from The Wall Street Journal. (Dream Exchange was also our MarketsWiki Page of the Day on Thursday.) Third was CORSIA: Reducing international aviation net CO2 emission, from the Intercontinental Exchange.
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| Lead Stories | SEC Staff Says Memecoins Like Collectibles Not Securities; Transactions do not need to be registered with the SEC; Buyers of memecoins not protected by federal securities laws
Nicola M White - Bloomberg
Speculative cryptocurrency assets known as memecoins are not considered securities, the staff of the US Securities and Exchange Commission said Thursday, even though the assets generate buzz. This means people who offer and sell these digital assets do not need to register with the SEC, according to the statement. It also means buyers aren't protected by federal securities laws. Memecoins are a type of crypto asset that are seeded by an internet meme or a joke. They're inspired by memes, characters, current events or trends, but carry no fundamental value. Owners buy them for entertainment and speculation.
/jlne.ws/3XoVVJn
How the Trump admin transformed the U.S. into the financial Wild West in a matter of weeks
Marit Rodevand - Fortune
The foundation for much of what we now know as anti-money laundering (AML) originated in 1970 with a piece of U.S. legislation that went largely ignored for a decade: the Bank Secrecy Act. This law requires financial institutions in the United States to assist government agencies in detecting and preventing money laundering by forcing them to report transactions of over $10,000 and maintain a paper trail of them. It took until the mid-1980s for banks to genuinely adopt the law, but in the following decades, and with subsequent codification of more AML practices, the U.S. became known as the global lodestar in the fight against financial injustice, thiefdoms, and criminality.
/jlne.ws/43drbyJ
SEC Publishes Memecoin Stance Reinforcing Hester Peirce's Comments Memecoins aren't securities, the agency said on Thursday.
Cheyenne Ligon - CoinDesk
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is officially washing its hands of memecoins. The federal securities regulator said that memecoins - which it defined as a "type of crypto asset inspired by internet memes, characters, current events or trends for which the promoter seeks to attract an enthusiastic online community to purchase the memecoin and engage in its trading" - are more like collectibles than securities, according to a staff statement from the SEC's corporate finance division published on Thursday. Because memecoins have "limited or no use or functionality," they do not meet the definition of a security under the Howey Test and are therefore outside the SEC's jurisdiction.
/jlne.ws/3XltA6L
****For the New York Times' version of this story, go here.
North Korea's $1.5 Billion Heist Puts the Crypto World on Notice; Hackers drained Ether, other tokens from "cold" crypto wallet; Exchanges must step up spending on security, experts say
Bloomberg News
As news started spreading about a massive hack on crypto exchange Bybit last Friday, cybersecurity researchers quickly concluded that the era of giant digital-asset heists had entered a new and potentially ruinous phase. It wasn't just the size of the exploit, although at close to $1.5 billion, it was the biggest ever by a wide margin. Within hours, it was clear that the attack - which the Federal Bureau of Investigation attributed to North Korea's Lazarus Group - was far more ambitious, and difficult to prevent, than any that preceded it.
/jlne.ws/4ilVjvR
China puts brakes on US stock listings for homegrown companies; Beijing's securities regulator concerned about IPOs of companies with small capitalisation and weak fundamentals
Sun Yu and Cheng Leng - Financial Times
China's securities regulator has clamped down on small companies' listings on New York stock exchanges after many of them became vehicles for price-rigging, causing heavy losses for US investors. The rate of China-approved applications for US initial public offerings has slowed noticeably in the past year, falling from 22 in the first half of 2024 to 11 since June. Four people close to the China Securities Regulatory Commission said it intended to impose "tighter control" this year over US IPOs of Chinese companies with small capitalisation and weak fundamentals, viewing them as prone to market manipulation. The CSRC was concerned about whether these small-cap companies listed in the US truly need to raise funds. "Not only the Chinese regulators but also other market participants have questioned why these firms require offshore listings," said a person familiar with the CSRC's latest thinking.
/jlne.ws/4ilT4cf
Milei, $Melania and Memecoins: Unraveling Argentina's Crypto Fiasco; A new cryptocurrency called $Libra bilked investors out of $250 million. It had been promoted by President Javier Milei.
Jack Nicas and David Yaffe-Bellany - The New York Times
The scandal began with a tweet. "The world wants to invest in Argentina," Javier Milei, Argentina's president, posted at 7:01 p.m. on Valentine's Day, offering a code to buy a new cryptocurrency. The digital coin was called $Libra, and it had been created 23 minutes earlier. Over the next few hours, thousands of people invested. $Libra's value skyrocketed. Then it swiftly collapsed. The largest stakeholders had sold their coins, leaving almost everyone else with a collective $250 million in losses.
/jlne.ws/3F0cB3p
Trump administration struggles to rehire fired bird flu employees
Marcia Brown - Politico
The Trump administration touted a nearly $1 billion plan Wednesday to combat the spread of avian flu and mitigate skyrocketing egg prices as the outbreak rips through poultry flocks across the United States. But the measures come as the Agriculture Department is struggling to rehire key employees working on the virus outbreak who were fired as part of the administration's sweeping purge of government workers. Roughly a quarter of employees in a critical office testing for the disease were cut, as well as scientists and inspectors. The dismissals have already helped trigger a partial shutdown at one of the department's research facilities, according to two USDA employees, interrupting some workers' efforts to fight bird flu and help livestock recover from illness.
/jlne.ws/4kyMhhl
Investors have more choice - but are the new offers any good? Innovations may be a costly trap
Philip Coggan - Financial Times
Thirty years ago, investment management was largely a boutique business where fund managers graciously agreed to pass on their wisdom to clients in return for a hefty annual fee. These were great days for star managers. I interviewed Jeff Vinik back in 1995, then running the world's largest mutual fund, Fidelity Magellan. He let slip to me that the fund had added a billion dollars in value that morning. Good news for Fidelity's fee income.
/jlne.ws/4blmGE5
Why investors should be worrying about Trump and impoundment; The buzzword looks set to become a weapon in the budget wars
Gillian Tett - Financial Times
When Donald Trump won the American election last year, a consultancy called Penta created a "war room" to track what policies really mattered. "Where there's a wealth of information, there's often a poverty of attention," Kevin Madden, a Penta strategist told the FT. "The challenge for corporate leaders is prioritising." Too true. This week has delivered a wild whirl of announcements: a putative 25 per cent tariff on Europe; an outrageously exploitative mineral deal with Ukraine; threatened firings of federal workers. And so on.
/jlne.ws/4kmGLOo
Hong Kong's 'superman' billionaire and the battle over the Panama Canal; The company founded by 96-year-old Li Ka-shing is caught up in Donald Trump's complaints about China's influence
Chan Ho-him - Financial Times
If anyone can take the long view on Donald Trump, it is Li Ka-shing, the 96-year-old Hong Kong billionaire who fled the Sino-Japanese war as a child and built a global empire from scratch. The US president has said "China is operating the Panama Canal", pointing to CK Hutchison's operation of two ports there, a claim that echoes concerns first voiced when the group secured the contracts in 1997.
/jlne.ws/43o2ZcK
Elon Musk's risqué Grok AI chatbot offers challenge to risk-averse rivals; Billionaire's xAI start-up creates model with fewer 'guardrails' on adult content, seeking to differentiate itself from OpenAI
Cristina Criddle and Hannah Murphy - Financial Times
Elon Musk's xAI is pushing its artificial intelligence model towards giving users more risqué answers than its risk-averse competitors, in an effort to attract users with adult content. The start-up released its latest model, Grok 3, this month boasting comparable performance to competitors from OpenAI, Google and Anthropic. xAI's model underpins its Grok chatbot, which has fewer "guardrails" than rivals, in an effort to align with Musk's mission of being a "maximally truth-seeking AI". Over the weekend, xAI launched the ability to converse over voice with the chatbot, including preset personalities such as "romantic", "sexy" and "unhinged" - the latter two labelled as "18+". By contrast, OpenAI's voice mode, which was released last year, offers a range of different voices and personalities without specific adult-centred experiences.
/jlne.ws/3QCceyy
Buy Infowars for the Memes; Also asking questions about Tesla, bribing auditors and Never Alone Capital.
Matt Levine - Bloomberg
Bankruptcy bidding
Here's a thing I have never seen before: An artificial intelligence entertainment company asked a Texas bankruptcy court to reopen the sales process for right-wing conspiracist Alex Jones' Infowars media company. WOW.AI LLC is supporting a new process to sell the assets of Free Speech Systems LLC, the parent company to Infowars, according to a filing Wednesday in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. The request comes a couple months after a judge rejected a bid for Infowars' assets by satirical news site the Onion.
/jlne.ws/3QDdLEI
JPMorgan Thought Bank of America Wanted to Buy Javice's Firm, Banker Says; Leslie Wims Morris testified at Charlie Javice's fraud trial; Wims Morris led bank's vetting of $175 million acquisition
Bob Van Voris and Jazper Lu - Bloomberg
The senior JPMorgan Chase & Co. executive who led due diligence on its $175 million acquisition of student-loan startup Frank testified that the bank wrongly guessed that Bank of America Corp. was its rival for Charlie Javice's firm. In her second day of testimony in Javice's fraud trial, Leslie Wims Morris, JPMorgan's former chief of corporate development, offered insight into the bank's thinking as it approached the deal. She said Thursday that the bank made its bid based on what Frank's financial adviser, LionTree LLC, said would be required to beat out the competition.
/jlne.ws/4i4j63R
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| Trade War and Tariffs | | A roundup of today's trade war and tariff news and the global economic ripple effects shaping markets, industries, and investment strategies. | Trump's Tariff Onslaught Is Coming Faster Than His Team Can Carry It Out; Administration officials are privately indicating that the full reciprocal action will take longer than April timeline to implement
Gavin Bade - The Wall Street Journal
The Trump administration is moving at warp speed to announce new tariffs. Implementing them is another story. The president has peppered his first weeks in office with a litany of far-reaching trade actions, such as imposing tariffs on China, threatening duties on Canada, Mexico and the European Union, and announcing duties for a handful of major industrial sectors. All those announcements are creating a bottleneck at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and the Commerce Department, which are in charge of implementing the tariffs, according to people familiar with the dynamics, prompting a race among staff to implement the president's orders on an accelerated timeline.
/jlne.ws/43dc605
Trump makes US copper mining a focus of his domestic minerals policy
Mead Gruver - AP
President Donald Trump is taking a step toward granting the U.S. mining industry's biggest wishes by singling out one metal as a focus of his domestic minerals policy: copper. From talk of acquiring Greenland and its vast mineral wealth to prodding Ukraine for minerals in exchange for help fending off Russia's invasion, Trump has made the raw materials of modern life a pillar of his foreign policy. An executive order Trump signed Tuesday calls for boosting the domestic copper industry by investigating the national security implications of imports and weighing tariffs as a response.
/jlne.ws/3QFOklG
Trump Plans Another 10% Tariff on Products From China; President cited the country's role in the fentanyl trade
Gavin Bade - The Wall Street Journal
The U.S. next week will impose an additional 10% tariff on imports from China over its role in the fentanyl trade, President Trump said. The move, slated to take effect Tuesday, doubles up on the previous 10% of additional tariffs the president placed on Chinese products earlier this month.
/jlne.ws/41wcEge
All the Ways China Could Respond to Trump's Ramped Up Trade War
Bloomberg
After a slower than expected start, the trade war between the US and China has begun to heat up, with President Donald Trump announcing a dizzying series of actions against China in the past seven days - and more to come over the next month. Beijing's response has been muted, with tariffs nowhere near what the US has threatened and other measures calibrated. But President Xi Jinping has many ways to strike back should the new threats become policy, even if these options may risk a conflict that could be harder to contain or deepen China's own economic woes.
/jlne.ws/3D2gt3s
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| World Conflicts | | News about various conflicts and their military, economic, political and humanitarian impact. | Ukraine Invasion
A Mineral Deal Ukraine Can't Refuse; The agreement gives the U.S. a stake in the country's peaceful future.
The Editorial Board - The Wall Street Journal
Volodymyr Zelensky visits the White House on Friday to nail down a mineral rights deal between the U.S. and Ukraine, and it's an offer the Ukrainian President couldn't refuse. But regardless of President Trump's bullying demands, the deal gives the U.S. a stake in Ukraine's future. Ukraine is in many ways an underdeveloped country, and that includes its natural resources. The country has Europe's largest supply of uranium, second-largest supply of natural gas, and substantial reserves of lithium and other rare-earth minerals. These resources are valued at about $1 trillion, and about a third are in Russian-occupied territory in eastern Ukraine.
/jlne.ws/3DoeN4a
Putin will need to give (back) land to get peace
Post Editorial Board - New York Post
President Trump said that the US will attempt to get Russian President Vladimir Putin to give up as much land as possible back to Ukraine in order to negotiate an end to the war. AP President Trump has spoken nicely about Vladimir Putin as he brokers a peace deal between Moscow and Kyiv, but he's also gently letting Vlad know he'll need to make some real concessions, too: Ukraine should get its land back. On Wednesday, Trump told reporters he aims "to make the best deal we can for both sides," which "for Ukraine" means getting "as much back as possible." Good.
/jlne.ws/3F0LxkH
Trump tried to extort Zelenskyy and was impeached - now he may succeed; The Ukrainian president is expected at the White House on Friday to sign a multimillion-dollar minerals deal with echoes of a notorious 2019 phone call
David Smith in Washington - The Guardian
Alexander Vindman remembers the phone call - and what he did next. Serving on the national security council (NSC), he went to see his twin brother, who was the council's senior ethics official, closed the door and told him: "Eugene, if what I'm about to tell you ever becomes public, Donald Trump will be impeached." Vindman had set up a call between Trump and Ukraine's new president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in July 2019. He heard the US president attempt to leverage US military aid to the country in return for Zelenskyy launching an investigation into Joe Biden's son, Hunter, over his position at a Ukrainian gas company.
/jlne.ws/41C1iHI
Ukraine special forces take out Russian platoon, weapons caches: video
Ronny Reyes - New York Post
Ukraine's Special Operations Forces (SSO) eliminated a Russian platoon and weapons storage facilities along the frontlines, intense new video shows. Footage of the skirmish, uploaded to Facebook on Wednesday, shows an SSO drone and armored vehicle battalion corner and take out Russian soldiers fighting in an industrial complex in the Donetsk region. One of the Russian invaders could be seen moving around the entrance of a dilapidated building with his rifle in tow, only for an explosives-laden Ukrainian drone to immediately spot him and ram itself forward, blowing up the entire doorway.
/jlne.ws/43A9Pwf
Middle East Conflict
West Bank Operation Tests Palestinian Leaders' Ability to Root Out Militants; The Palestinian Authority wants to prove it can handle security in Gaza, even if it means working in parallel with a destructive Israeli campaign that has displaced tens of thousands.
Adam Rasgon and Fatima AbdulKarim - The New York Times
The Palestinian Authority was carrying out one of the most extensive security operations in its history, pursuing armed militants in the West Bank city of Jenin. For weeks, the authority's forces slowly advanced on the militants' densely populated stronghold, Palestinian officials said. When the Israeli military launched its own wide-scale raid there in January, the authority was expected to abandon its operation.
/jlne.ws/3DbfPR7
West Bank Operation Tests Palestinian Leaders' Ability to Root Out Militants; The Palestinian Authority wants to prove it can handle security in Gaza, even if it means working in parallel with a destructive Israeli campaign that has displaced tens of thousands.
Adam Rasgon and Fatima AbdulKarim - The New York Times
The Palestinian Authority was carrying out one of the most extensive security operations in its history, pursuing armed militants in the West Bank city of Jenin. For weeks, the authority's forces slowly advanced on the militants' densely populated stronghold, Palestinian officials said. When the Israeli military launched its own wide-scale raid there in January, the authority was expected to abandon its operation. But it did not.
/jlne.ws/3DbfPR7
Other Conflicts
As Ramadan Nears, Syrians Feel the Pinch of a Cash Shortage; The Assad dictatorship is out, but Syria's economy is in chaos after a civil war and recent policy shifts.
Raja Abdulrahim - The New York Times
Days before the start of Ramadan, lines of people snaked down the stairs outside a bank in Syria's capital, Damascus, waiting for hours to withdraw the equivalent of about $15 for the requisite holiday shopping. The new government has imposed severe daily withdrawal limits of about that amount at Syrian banks, dampening what would usually be a festive time as many struggle to buy even the basics for the holy fasting month.
/jlne.ws/41csbAg
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| Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | Boerse Stuttgart Digital partners with DekaBank to offer crypto trading to its institutional clients
Boerse Stuttgart Digital
Boerse Stuttgart Digital, Europe's leading infrastructure partner for financial institutions, supports DekaBank in starting its own crypto offering, which is exclusively aimed at institutional clients. Leveraging its fully regulated brokerage infrastructure, Boerse Stuttgart Digital provides DekaBank's institutional clients with seamless, secure, and reliable access to cryptocurrency trading. This exclusive partnership helps expand DekaBank's service offering and product portfolio, enabling its institutional clients to capitalize on cryptocurrencies as a new asset class. Boerse Stuttgart Digital ensures that DekaBank benefits from blockchain technology, while maintaining the highest security standards. DekaBank joins the growing list of leading financial institutions in Europe trusting in Boerse Stuttgart Digital's proven and fully regulated infrastructure as they venture into the cryptocurrency market.
/jlne.ws/3EWDJjP
HKEX to Introduce New Stock Option Classes
HKEX
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) is pleased to announce today (Friday) the launch of six new stock option classes effective on Monday, 17 March 2025. In 2024, HKEX's derivatives market saw a 15 per cent increase in average daily volume (ADV), reaching a record of 1,550,593 contracts. Notably, Stock Options were one of the most actively traded products, with ADV hitting a record of 720,297 contracts and the addition of weekly expiries for selected contracts in November 2024.
/jlne.ws/43kFIZl
First Initial Access Document on BME Scaleup from JHG DOMUS SOCIMI
BME-X
The Market Coordination and Incorporations Committee considers that JHG DOMUS will meet the requirements to join BME Scaleup. The Board of Directors of the company, which is the fourth to register an Initial Access Document to the growth markets of BME this year, has taken as a reference for the start of trading of the shares a price of EUR1 per share, which implies a total valuation of the company of EUR6 million. This price matches the one agreed upon during the company's formation. The company's Registered Advisor is ARMABEX Asesores Registrados, part of the ARMANEXT Group.
/jlne.ws/41zvMK5
New Product Summary: Initial Listing of Five (5) Crude Oil (EMDA) Futures Contracts - Effective April 14, 2025
CME Group
Initial Listing of Five (5) Crude Oil (EMDA) Futures Contracts
/jlne.ws/4bkxKRT
Performance Bond Requirements: FX and Metal Margins - Effective February 28, 2025
CME Group
As per the normal review of market volatility to ensure adequate collateral coverage, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc., Clearing House Risk Management staff approved the performance bond requirements for the following products listed in the advisory at the link below. The rates will be effective after the close of business on February 28, 2025.
/jlne.ws/3QJXVrD
Performance Bond Requirements - Agriculture Margin - Effective February 28, 2025
CME Group
As per the normal review of market volatility to ensure adequate collateral coverage, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc., Clearing House Risk Management staff approved the performance bond requirements for the following products listed in the advisory at the link below. The rates will be effective after the close of business on February 28, 2025.
/jlne.ws/41ju7XR
Forfeiture of Unclaimed Second Interim Dividend for 2018
HKEX
As provided in the Articles of Association of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited ("HKEX"), any dividend unclaimed after a period of six years from the date for payment of such dividend shall be forfeited and shall revert to HKEX. Accordingly, HKEX's second interim dividend for 2018 of HK$3.07 per share, payable on 15 April 2019 and remaining unclaimed on 15 April 2025, will be forfeited and will revert to HKEX.
/jlne.ws/3QGezbQ
Delisting of Securities of Adamas One Corp.; Hempacco Co., Inc.; Iris Acquisition Corp; Aura FAT Projects Acquisition Corp.; Newbury Street Acquisition Corporation; Arogo Capital Acquisition Corp.; Compass Digital Acquisition Corp.; Gritstone bio, Inc.; Notable Labs, Ltd.; and Zapata Computing Holdings Inc. from The Nasdaq Stock Market
Nasdaq
Nasdaq announced today that it will delist the common stock of Adamas One Corp. Adamas One Corp.'s stock was suspended on September 05, 2024 and has not traded on Nasdaq since that time. Nasdaq also announced today that it will delist the common stock of Hempacco Co, Inc. Hempacco Co., Inc.'s stock was suspended on September 06, 2024 and has not traded on Nasdaq since that time.
/jlne.ws/3XKO2yb
Notice on Expanding the Investment Scope of Qualified Foreign Investors in Commodity Futures and Options
Shanghai Futures Exchange
To all concerning parties: To facilitate the further participation of Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors and RMB Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (hereinafter collectively referred to as "Qualified Foreign Investors", or QFIs) in the trading of commodity futures and options of Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE), SHFE is hereby notifying the following matters:
/jlne.ws/4hYOUHd
Shanghai International Energy Exchange has released its Circular on Expanding the Investment Scope of Qualified Foreign Investors in Commodity Futures and Options
Shanghai Futures Exchange
Shanghai International Energy Exchange has released its Circular on Expanding the Investment Scope of Qualified Foreign Investors in Commodity Futures and Options as follows: With the approval of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), starting from March 4, 2025 (i.e. from the continuous trading session on March 3, 2025), Shanghai International Energy Exchange (INE) will expand the investment scope of Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors and RMB Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (hereinafter collectively referred to as Qualified Foreign Investors, QFI) to include the following commodity futures and options contracts:
/jlne.ws/3QF5Neb
SGX-listed companies have 'significant room for improvement' in whistle-blowing policies: NUS study; It finds that less than half of primary-listed issuers say that all whistle-blowing complaints are even reviewed
Ranamita Chakraborty - Business Times
Listed companies are not doing nearly enough when it comes to whistle-blowing policies, according to a study by the Centre for Investor Protection (CIP) at NUS Business School. For example, less than half of primary-listed issuers said that all whistle-blowing complaints are even reviewed. And most did not specify how they would safeguard whistle-blowers' identities. There is "significant room for improvement for most issuers, both on the mainboard and Catalist, regardless of size," said Professor Mak Yuen Teen, director of CIP, at the launch of the report on Thursday (Feb 27).
/jlne.ws/41DGUWI
Amendments to the Reporting of Exchange of Futures for Related Product Transactions and Orders
TMX
On February 25, 2025, the President and CEO of Bourse de Montreal Inc. (the "Bourse") approved amendments to the rules of the Bourse on reporting Exchange of Futures for related Product Transactions and Orders. Comments on the proposed amendments must be submitted at the latest on March 27, 2025.
/jlne.ws/4iiDY7f
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| Fintech | | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | Quantum computing is struggling to reach its silicon moment; Despite breakthroughs from Amazon and Microsoft, the industry is still a long way from building practical machines
Richard Waters - Financial Times
In 1947, the first transistor, the basic building block for a digital computer, was made using a semiconducting material thought to be ideal for the task: germanium. The idea of using silicon didn't come up until midway through the next decade, and it wasn't until 1960 that a thin layer of oxidised silicon, found in today's most widely used transistors, was added.
/jlne.ws/4hSwQi2
BMLL Data Lab Wins 'Best Trading Analytics Platform' at the TradingTech Insight Awards Europe 2025
BMLL
We are delighted to announce that BMLL has won 'Best Trading Analytics Platform' at the TradingTech Insight Awards Europe 2025. These awards recognise excellence in trading solutions, services and consultancy for capital markets, and focus on vendors providing exceptional trading infrastructure, trading technology, and data solutions. BMLL was awarded "Best Trading Analytics Platform" for the BMLL Data Lab, a scalable Python research sandbox where users can harness nanosecond, message-by-message data, with unlimited cloud computing power and a full suite of analytics libraries to generate actionable insight and alpha.
/jlne.ws/3DpbJ7U
MEMX Technology Helps Improve Venue Performance
Shanny Basar - Traders Magazine
Blue Ocean ATS, which trades US stocks overnight, and the Long-Term Stock Exchange (LTSE) for companies committed to long-term value creation, both migrated to MEMX technology in 2024 in order to improve performance of their venues and make them more scalable. Blue Ocean ATS clients can trade US National Market System stocks between 8pm ET and 4am ET from Sunday to Thursday, which allows Asian investors to buy and sell US stocks during their trading day. The ATS had launched in October 2021 and chief executive and president Brian Hyndman told Markets Media that they selected MEMX technology as their platform given that it provides the capacity to process 35 billion messages.
/jlne.ws/4h57jkq
NinjaTrader Launches Competition Series for Retail Traders, New App
Anna Lyudvig - Traders Magazine
NinjaTrader, a fintech platform for retail futures trading, has announced the limited debut of the NinjaTrader Arena, an innovative futures trading challenge series that enables retail traders to compete against one another in a simulated trading environment, and the launch of the enhanced NinjaTrader mobile app for both Apple and Android.
/jlne.ws/41wRIWl
Banks urged to track vendor AI use, before it's too late; Veteran third-party risk manager says contract terms and exit plans are crucial safeguards
Menghan Xiao - Risk.net
Banks risk being caught unawares if they fail to keep an eye on which direction their vendors are taking in the fast-changing world of artificial intelligence, says veteran risk manager Jeannie Pumphrey. Since the release of US interagency guidance on third-party risk management (TPRM) in 2023, banks have continued to reassess and update their TPRM frameworks.
/jlne.ws/41cqL96
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says the company is 'out of GPUs'
Kyle Wiggers - TechCrunch
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that the company was forced to stagger the rollout of its newest model, GPT-4.5, because OpenAI is "out of GPUs." In a post on X, Altman said that GPT-4.5, which he described as "giant" and "expensive," will require "tens of thousands" more GPUs before additional ChatGPT users can gain access. GPT-4.5 will come first to subscribers to ChatGPT Pro starting Thursday, followed by ChatGPT Plus customers next week.
/jlne.ws/41zyX4w
Tencent releases new AI model, says replies faster than DeepSeek-R1
Reuters
Chinese tech giant Tencent on Thursday released a new AI model that it says can answer queries faster than global hit DeepSeek's R1, in the latest sign the startup's domestic and overseas success is putting pressure on its larger competitors in China. The Hunyuan Turbo S is able to reply to queries within a second, distinguishing itself "from DeepSeek R1, Hunyuan T1, and other slow thinking models that need to 'think for a while before answering'", Tencent said in a statement.
/jlne.ws/41gr5nn
MIT Harnesses AI to Accelerate Startup Ambitions; Budding entrepreneurs can develop a fleshed-out business plan drawing on market research in a few days.
Robb Mandelbaum - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/4hZW2Dm
Help is coming in the AI copyright wars; Artificial intelligence companies must decide how to pay for the human-generated content they need
John Thornhill - Financial Times
/jlne.ws/41AEDez
Hong Kong embraces RISC-V open-source chip design to secure spot in China semiconductors
South China Morning Post
/jlne.ws/3DfycEt
UBS Whitepaper Advocates for Blockchain-Driven Capital Markets
Anna Lyudvig - Traders Magazine
/jlne.ws/43g0md2
ChinaAMC launches Hong Kong's first retail tokenised money market fund in Web3 push
South China Morning Post
/jlne.ws/43iaItc
Meta in talks to raise $35 billion for data center financing led by Apollo, Bloomberg News reports
Reuters
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| Cybersecurity | | Top stories for cybersecurity | Cybersecurity recommendations for the Trump administration
Wei Chen - Security Magazine
Cyber threats continue to evolve at an unprecedented pace, presenting significant challenges to America's digital infrastructure from sophisticated nation-state actors. In President Trump's first term, the administration released a National Cyber Strategy that took steps to secure Federal networks and information, secure critical infrastructure, combat cybercrime, and improve incident reporting, while supporting a vibrant and resilient digital economy.
/jlne.ws/43gxDFa
Farm and Food Cybersecurity Act reintroduced to protect food supply chain from cyber threats
IndustrialCyber
U.S. lawmakers from the Senate and House of Representatives have reintroduced the Farm and Food Cybersecurity legislation that focuses on protecting America's food supply chain by identifying cybersecurity vulnerabilities in the agricultural sector and improving protective measures of government and private entities against cyber threats. The Farm and Food Cybersecurity Act is supported by the Chamber of Commerce, Operational Technology Cybersecurity Coalition, North American Millers Association, National Cattlemen's Beef Association, USA Rice, National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, and American Farm Bureau Federation.
/jlne.ws/3XoW3sl
Cybersecurity M&A Roundup: SolarWinds Acquired for $4.4bn
Kevin Poireault - Infosecurity Magazine
Following a busy January, the cybersecurity M&A market remained active in February 2025, with several key mergers and acquisitions (M&As) announced. The month saw continued consolidation in cloud security, API security, and identity access management. Large acquisitions by Sophos and SolarWinds were also completed in February.
/jlne.ws/41LKxtL
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| Cryptocurrencies | | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | Crypto prices tumble as Trump-fuelled euphoria fades
Tommy Reggiori Wilkes and Hannah Lang - Reuters
Cryptocurrency prices are down sharply in recent weeks and not expected to rebound soon, with some of the biggest digital currencies erasing nearly all of the gains they made after Donald Trump's election win triggered a wave of excitement across the industry. Some analysts said the market is likely to remain subdued while waiting for a bullish signal, such as indications that the U.S. Federal Reserve plans to cut interest rates or a clear pro-crypto regulatory framework from the Trump administration.
/jlne.ws/43fXUTS
Bitcoin Down 25% From All-Time High as Crypto Rout Worsens
Suvashree Ghosh and Richard Henderson - Bloomberg
A rout in Bitcoin deepened on Friday as investors rushed to safe assets in the wake of US President Donald Trump's latest tariff threats, marking a dramatic reality check for one of the most popular Trump trades. The cryptocurrency tumbled as much as 7.2% on Friday to the lowest since early November and is down some 27% since it hit an all-time high less than six weeks ago. The selloff came amid a broad plunge in cryptocurrencies, with Ether, Polkadot and XRP all dropping more than 7% on Friday.
/jlne.ws/3EWEnOt
Crypto Trading Platform BitMEX Is Looking for a Buyer: Sources; BitMEX appointed boutique investment bank Broadhaven late last year to assist with the sales process, according to sources.
Ian Allison, Will Canny - CoinDesk
BitMEX, the cryptocurrency exchange and derivatives trading platform co-founded in 2014 by Arthur Hayes, is looking for a buyer, according to two people with knowledge of the plans. The storied exchange, which arguably made perpetual futures the most popular product among leverage-hungry crypto traders, appointed boutique investment bank Broadhaven Capital Partners late last year to assist with the sales process, the people said.
/jlne.ws/3XnBg8p
Trump supporters lose $12bn as president's cryptocurrency collapses
James Titcomb - The Telegraph
Donald Trump's supporters have lost more than $12bn (£9.5bn) in a month after the value of the president's cryptocurrency collapsed. $Trump, a so-called "meme coin" unveiled on Jan 17, three days before Mr Trump's inauguration, has lost more than 80pc of its value since its peak on Jan 19. This has led to its overall worth falling from a peak of $15bn to $2.7bn on Thursday, as it suffered amid a wider crypto rout.
/jlne.ws/4hXMM2C
A Crypto Scam Swindled Argentines. What Did the President Know?; A new cryptocurrency called $Libra bilked investors out of $250 million. It had been promoted by President Javier Milei.
Jack Nicas and David Yaffe-Bellany - The New York Times
The scandal began with a tweet. "The world wants to invest in Argentina," Javier Milei, Argentina's president, posted at 7:01 p.m. on Valentine's Day, offering a code to buy a new cryptocurrency. The digital coin was called $Libra, and it had been created 23 minutes earlier. Over the next few hours, thousands of people invested. $Libra's value skyrocketed.
/jlne.ws/3F0cB3p
The benefits of CBDCs are too great to ignore; While concerns over privacy and control are not without substance, there are strong economic gains to be had
Toby Nangle - Financial Times
Objections to central bank digital currencies are legion and vociferous. And the concerns raised over privacy and control are not without substance. In 2020, Fan Yifei, then deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, boasted that the digital renminbi would provide the central bank with access to full transaction data, allowing artificial intelligence to scan for illegal and terrorist activities. From that, it is easy to see how a CBDC could be used as another tool in the kitbag of an authoritarian government.
/jlne.ws/3D0IJDB
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| Politics | | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | Is Elon Musk After Total World Domination? The billionaire's control of several key technologies and DOGE gives him vast influence, but it's hard to say what his endgame is.
Jessica Karl - Bloomberg
Ooooh-weee this is getting messy: On one hand, there's not much more I can say about Elon Musk's near-total takeover of the US government: 18 out of the 28 newsletters I've written this year have mentioned him by name. DOGE threatens this, DOGE ruined that. Elsewhere on the internet, countless pixels are dedicated to documenting how the unelected billionaire and his quasi-agency of 20-something DOGE bros are hacking away at democracy.
/jlne.ws/3D7McAd
DOGE is now dramatically raising the potential for a government shutdown; Adding Musk's cuts to spending talks could help satisfy hard-liners but alienate Democrats whose votes will be needed to fund the government.
Meredith Lee Hill and Rachel Bade - Politico
Senior Republicans are seriously exploring how to include cuts made by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency in an upcoming government funding bill - a move that would skyrocket tensions with Democrats and drastically raise the potential for a government shutdown. Top GOP leaders and President Donald Trump's team have been discussing the idea, which is far from finalized, according to three people who were granted anonymity to discuss the conversations.
/jlne.ws/3F0KktF
How Trump Is Trying to Undo the Inflation Reduction Act
Simmone Shah - TIME
Since his first day in office, President Donald Trump has been quick to attack climate initiatives and the green energy transition. The Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University has identified more than 50 actions made by the administration to scale back or wholly eliminate federal climate mitigation and adaptation measures since the end of January. Among the biggest targets was the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), a multi-billion dollar investment into climate and clean energy, which the Trump administration quickly paused funding on.
/jlne.ws/4bkLMD6
How Sam Altman Could Break Up Elon Musk and Donald Trump; Two of the most powerful tech executives in the world are desperate for the president's approval.
Matteo Wong - The Atlantic
The rivalry between Sam Altman and Elon Musk is entering its Apprentice era. Both men have the ambition to redefine how the modern world works-and both are jockeying for President Donald Trump's blessing to accelerate their plans. Altman's company, OpenAI, as well as Musk's ventures-which include SpaceX, Tesla, and xAI-all depend to some degree on federal dollars, permits, and regulatory support. The president could influence whether OpenAI or xAI produces the next major AI breakthrough, whether Musk can succeed in sending a human to Mars, and whether Altman's big bet on nuclear energy, and fusion reactors in particular, pans out.
/jlne.ws/4h2LJgB
Exclusive: Senators ask Trump's Air Force nominee to respond to allegations of favoring Musk's SpaceX
Marisa Taylor and Alexandra Ulmer - Reuters
Two members of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday asked President Donald Trump's Air Force secretary nominee whether he unfairly favored Elon Musk in a classified, multibillion-dollar spy satellite contract. In a letter sent Thursday, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Tammy Duckworth, both Democrats, asked nominee Troy Meink how his role in the contract solicitation may have favored SpaceX, Musk's rocket and satellite company.
/jlne.ws/3D2h5WO
This Company Gets 98% of Its Money From the U.S. Government. DOGE Is Coming for Firms Like It.; Memo calls for review of $65 billion in contracts that go to Booz Allen Hamilton and other big firms that do government work
Chip Cutter - The Wall Street Journal
The Trump administration is looking to cut federal contracts. Few companies stand as exposed as Booz Allen Hamilton. The venerable Washington, D.C., area firm works on projects across the U.S. government. It operates a website visitors use to reserve campsites at national parks. It is modernizing healthcare records for veterans, beefing up technology at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and rolling out a suite of artificial-intelligence and cybersecurity tools across the Department of Defense and other federal agencies.
/jlne.ws/3EVR5wC
Indifference or Hostility? Trump's View of European Allies Raises Alarm; Debate is building over just how deep the Trump administration's antagonism runs, and whether the real goal is to destroy the European Union.
Steven Erlanger - The New York Times
/jlne.ws/4hWDzHD
Norway's Leader Says Europe Should Buy More Weapons Together; European defense should be handled by NATO, not EU, PM says; Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store speaks in Bloomberg interview
Oliver Crook and Heidi Taksdal Skjeseth - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/43bjmJP
Exclusive-Russia's seizures offer warning to Western firms hoping for Trump-inspired return
Anna Hirtenstein and Alexander Marrow - Reuters
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| Regulation & Enforcement | | Stories about regulation and the law. | FBI investigating Trump EPA claims of fraud in $20B Biden grant fund; While career prosecutors in two U.S. attorney offices and a U.S. judge balked at a court-ordered freeze, Citibank has locked down billions without explanation
Spencer S. Hsu, Maxine Joselow and Nicolas Rivero - The Washington Post
FBI agents this week questioned Environmental Protection Agency employees regarding a Biden administration grant program for climate and clean-energy projects, escalating a criminal probe that already caused one veteran prosecutor to resign, according to two people familiar with the matter. The move came after the Justice Department in recent weeks took unusual steps to advance the investigation, having a Trump-appointed U.S. attorney submit a warrant request when career prosecutors were unwilling and seeking prosecutors in other offices who would agree to participate in the case, people familiar with the matter said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to disclose internal deliberations about an ongoing criminal investigation.
/jlne.ws/4kiil8U
US securities regulator files to dismiss lawsuit against Coinbase
Hannah Lang - Reuters
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday filed to dismiss its lawsuit against Coinbase, the largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange, putting an end to a legal battle as the regulator moves to change course under President Donald Trump. The SEC sued Coinbase in 2023, alleging the exchange flouted the agency's rules and facilitated trading in at least 13 crypto tokens that it said should have been registered as securities.
/jlne.ws/3EZSFO6
Singapore Charges Three After Probe Into Nvidia Server Fraud
Gao Yuan and Philip J. Heijmans - Bloomberg
Singaporean police charged three men for allegedly defrauding an unnamed supplier of computing servers, casting a spotlight on local intermediaries' role in funneling Nvidia Corp. chips around the world. The case centers on whether the trio played a role in misleading the server supplier, including by misrepresenting the actual end-user of the hardware, according to their charge sheets. Two Singaporean men, 41 and 49, were charged for criminal conspiracy to commit fraud, while a Chinese national, 51, was charged for committing a fraud.
/jlne.ws/4il4XyS
State Street, Apollo's Private Credit ETF Raises SEC Concern
Carmen Arroyo and Silas Brown - Bloomberg
New for subscribers: Sign up for Going Private, Bloomberg's twice-weekly newsletter about private markets and the forces moving capital away from the public eye. The US Securities and Exchange Commission expressed concerns over a much-anticipated private credit exchange-traded fund from Wall Street giants State Street Corp. and Apollo Global Management Inc., asking the firms for more information in a letter Thursday.
/jlne.ws/3QGgfSG
Japan to Crack Down on Booming Market for JGB-Backed Loans
Taiga Uranaka - Bloomberg
Japan's financial regulator plans a sweeping crackdown on $67 billion of high-yield loans backed by government bonds and other assets that have gained popularity among regional banks even after officials warned about their risks. The Financial Services Agency will scrutinize banks that have increased purchases of Japanese government bonds that are repackaged into loans over the past year, said Toshinori Yashiki, director-general of the agency's strategy development and management bureau. Brokerages that are actively pitching these products to lenders will also be in the regulator's crosshairs, he said in an interview on Thursday.
/jlne.ws/4bntQrA
Revolut Needs License to Do Business in Ukraine, Regulator Says
Nicholas Comfort - Bloomberg
Revolut doesn't have a license to operate in Ukraine, the country's central bank said in reaction to an announcement by the UK firm earlier this month that Ukrainian residents can now open accounts with it. "The only permissible forms of doing banking business in Ukraine are by establishing a foreign bank's branch or by obtaining a Ukrainian-issued banking license," the National Bank of Ukraine said in a statement Thursday, which it said came in response to Revolut's new offer in the country. "Either of these options requires the NBU's permission."
/jlne.ws/41iWq8Q
Crypto 2.0: Regulatory Whiplash
Commissioner Caroline A. Crenshaw - SEC
[1]Today the Commission moved the Court to dismiss its enforcement action against Coinbase, a crypto trading platform. This reverse-course midstream - coupled with recent high-profile stays of other litigations - is not only unprecedented, it ignores 80 years of well-established law. We say we are dismissing the action because of future recommendations that may be made by the "crypto task force dedicated to helping the Commission develop the regulatory framework for crypto assets."[2] But, whatever the law may be tomorrow, market participants should not be able to avoid the law as it stands today.
/jlne.ws/43gmTq4
Staff Statement on Meme Coins
Division of Corporation Finance - SEC
As part of an effort to provide greater clarity on the application of the federal securities laws to crypto assets, the Division of Corporation Finance is providing its views[1] on "meme coins." A "meme coin" is a type of crypto asset[2] inspired by internet memes, characters, current events, or trends for which the promoter seeks to attract an enthusiastic online community to purchase the meme coin and engage in its trading. Although individual meme coins may have unique features, meme coins typically share certain characteristics. Meme coins typically are purchased for entertainment, social interaction, and cultural purposes, and their value is driven primarily by market demand and speculation. In this regard, meme coins are akin to collectibles. Meme coins also typically have limited or no use or functionality. Given the speculative nature of meme coins, they tend to experience significant market price volatility, and often are accompanied by statements regarding their risks and lack of utility, other than for entertainment or other non-functional purposes.[3]
/jlne.ws/3XgWkx9
SEC Announces Dismissal of Civil Enforcement Action Against Coinbase
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that the Commission has filed a joint stipulation with Coinbase Inc. and Coinbase Global Inc. to dismiss the ongoing civil enforcement action against the two entities. On January 21, 2025, the Commission announced the formation of the Crypto Task Force, which is dedicated to helping develop a comprehensive and clear regulatory framework for crypto assets. Given the pending work of the Crypto Task Force, the Commission is dismissing this matter.
/jlne.ws/3QCuLdY
Getting Back on Base: Statement of Commissioner Hester M. Peirce on the Dismissal of the Civil Enforcement Action Against Coinbase
Commissioner Hester M. Peirce - SEC
Today the Commission settled its case against Coinbase by dismissing it with prejudice. I did not support the action against Coinbase. Among other things, I was concerned that it was part of the Commission's larger strategy to use its enforcement tool to regulate the crypto industry. Typically, developing regulations to address new industries and business practices is the province of the Commission's capable, expert policy divisions. The decision by the previous Commission to shift this function to the Division of Enforcement by engaging in a large-scale regulation-by-enforcement initiative harmed the American public, adversely affected the industry, and impeded the ability of the Commission's skilled and dedicated professional staff to use their expertise as it was intended to be used.
/jlne.ws/4kcLsdE
SEC Investor Advisory Committee to Examine the Disclosure of AI's Impact on Company Operations; and Retail Investor Fraud in America at March 6 Meeting
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission's Investor Advisory Committee will hold a public meeting at the SEC Headquarters in Washington, D.C., on March 6, at 10 a.m. ET. The meeting will also be webcast on the SEC website.
/jlne.ws/41zzsLT
SEC Charges Justinas Butkus with Orchestrating $4 Million Fraud; Butkus used fraudulent investment firms TBO Capital and Gray Capital to scam investors
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today filed charges against Justinas Butkus, of Lithuania, and two companies he owned and controlled, HMC Trading LLC and HMC Management LLC, for fraudulently raising approximately $4.1 million from 64 investors by selling interests in mutual funds that did not exist.
/jlne.ws/4h3XkMc
Court Finds in Favor of Two Remaining Defendants in Fraud Scheme
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced today that an enforcement action filed in June 2022 against six defendants has concluded with a judgment entered on February 6, 2025, in favor of the remaining two defendants, Roger Bendelac and Thomas Capellini of New York, after a four-day bench trial conducted in October 2024 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. The SEC's claims against the other four defendants, Trends Investments Inc., Clinton Greyling, Leslie Greyling, and Brandon Rossetti, have been resolved.
/jlne.ws/4bCVIZ3
SEC Charges Alan Burak, Founder of Never Alone Capital, with Fraud
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Alan Burak, founder of Never Alone Capital LLC, with orchestrating a fraudulent scheme that raised approximately $4 million, most of which Burak misappropriated for personal expenses.
/jlne.ws/41gvDdr
SEC Granted Partial Summary Judgment and Obtains Final Judgment Against Founder of Blockchain Marketplace Company for Unregistered and Misleading ICO
SEC
On February 4, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York entered a final judgment against Sergii "Sergey" Grybniak and his blockchain marketplace company, Opporty International, Inc.
/jlne.ws/4i4gdA3
ASIC shuts down 130 investment scam websites per week
ASIC
Online scammers are squarely in ASIC's cross hairs with new data revealing more than 10,000 investment scam websites and online advertisements have been shut down by the agency[1]. nASIC's latest Enforcement and regulatory update shows 10,240 of the most common sites removed include 7,227 fake investment platform scams, 1,564 phishing scam hyperlinks and 1,257 cryptocurrency investment scams.
/jlne.ws/41mTRTl
Allianz and AWP convicted and fined $16.8 million for making false or misleading statements
ASIC
The Supreme Court of NSW today convicted and imposed criminal fines of $13.5 million against Allianz Australia Insurance Limited and $3.3 million against AWP Australia Pty Ltd for making false or misleading statements. Allianz Australia Insurance was sentenced for six counts of disseminating information that was false or misleading and AWP was sentenced for one count of disseminating misleading information, contrary to the Corporations Act.
/jlne.ws/41CaImk
Federal Court freezes assets of First Guardian Master Fund and director David Anderson
ASIC
ASIC has obtained interim orders freezing the assets of Falcon Capital Limited, the First Guardian Master Fund and David Anderson. Falcon is the responsible entity for First Guardian and David Anderson is a director of Falcon. ASIC sought the orders to help protect investor funds while an investigation is continuing.
/jlne.ws/43hT3Sf
FMA succeeds in continuous disclosure claims against CBL chief financial officer
FMA
The High Court has found former CBL Group Chief Financial Officer, Carden Mulholland, to have breached the continuous disclosure provisions of the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013 (FMCA), following the public listing of CBL Corporation (CBLC) in October 2015 and its subsequent collapse in February 2018. The judgment follows a trial in the Auckland High Court before Justice Gault, which commenced in late June 2024 and concluded in early August 2024. The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) - Te Mana TÄtai Hokohoko - proceeded to trial against Mr. Mulholland, having reached in-court settlements with CBLC, its Managing Director Peter Harris, and its former independent non-executive directors in 2023 and 2024, which saw them admit multiple contraventions and the Court make pecuniary penalty orders.
/jlne.ws/3QZqSjP
Good governance key to adopting AI while managing risks
FMA
At the FMA, we want to speak to firms on how we can help facilitate the responsible adoption of AI. We want to work with firms to ensure that they have the appropriate oversight to mitigate these risks and provide quality service to their customers. I had the privilege of speaking at the 9th Annual EU-Asia Pacific Forum on Financial Regulation as part of the regional committee meetings of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) in Da Nang, Vietnam last week.
/jlne.ws/4imWMCp
The Gordian knot of growth; Speech by Nikhil Rathi, chief executive, at the Association of British Insurers roundtable.
FCA
Thank you, Hannah, for the invitation. I must confess to a degree of trepidation: I read your ABI Dinner speech, where you called for Alexander the Great's sword to be raised over regulators, and for bold strokes to be taken. So I had to wonder for a moment, what fate may lay before me this morning, surrounded by 40 of your chief executive cavalry - a friendly breakfast or a last meal? You were, in fact, making a very important point about, in your words, the 'Gordian knot of regulation'.
/jlne.ws/3EYR8YK
The FSA publishes the status of loans held by all banks as of the end of September 2024, based on the Financial Reconstruction Act
FSA
Loans based on the Financial Reconstruction Act (FRA) The total amount of loans held by all banks as of the end of September 2024, based on the definition in the FRA (Act No. 132 of 1998), is 9.1 trillion yen. The figure decreased by 0.5 trillion yen from 8.8 trillion yen from 9.6 trillion yen as of end-March 2024.
/jlne.ws/3DfST39
Joint Advisory on Scammers Impersonating Shopee, Unionpay Staff and Officers from Monetary Authority Of Singapore
MAS
The Singapore Police Force and Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) would like to alert members of the public to remain vigilant against scams involving impersonation of staff from Shopee, UnionPay and MAS. Since January 2025, the police have received 12 cases of reports, with total losses amounting to at least S$1.4 million.
/jlne.ws/4idFUhT
SFC proposes to relax position limits for key exchange-traded derivatives
SFC
The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) today launched a consultation proposing to increase the position limits for exchange-traded derivatives based on the three major stock indices in Hong Kong to keep pace with market development. To facilitate hedging activities of market participants, the proposals will lift the current position limits for the futures and options contracts by 50% to 15,000 position delta for Hang Seng Index, 108% to 25,000 position delta for Hang Seng China Enterprises Index, and 43% to 30,000 position delta for Hang Seng TECH Index (Note 1).
/jlne.ws/3EU5wRS
SFC commences insider dealing prosecution against Wong Pak Ming
SFC
The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) today commenced criminal proceedings at the Eastern Magistrates' Court against businessman Mr Wong Pak Ming for insider dealing involving the shares of Transmit Entertainment Limited (formerly known as Pegasus Entertainment Holdings Limited) (Pegasus) (Notes 1 and 2). Wong is suspected to have counselled or procured another person to deal in the shares of Pegasus around 25 August 2017 to 17 October 2017 while he was the chairman and the controlling shareholder of Pegasus and having information which he knew was inside information in relation to Pegasus. No plea was taken and the Court adjourned the case to 27 March 2025.
/jlne.ws/41y8e8C
Launch of 'Bond Central' - A Centralised Database Portal for Corporate Bonds
SEBI
Today, Chairperson, SEBI launched 'Bond Central' - a CentralisedDatabase Portal for Corporate Bonds. The portal has been developed by Online Bond Platform Providers Association (OBPP Association) in collaboration with Market Infrastructure Institutions (MIIs-Stock Exchanges and Depositories)
/jlne.ws/4ilbiua
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| Investing & Trading | | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | Why Trump Losers Are the Biggest Stock-Market Winners; Investors need to decide whether the market rotation-Trump stocks included-is a healthy switch or a sign of deeper trouble ahead
James Mackintosh - The Wall Street Journal
Wouldn't it be ironic if the 2025 Trump trade was an anti-Trump trade, buying stocks in the places President Trump targets? This year Canadian, Colombian, Mexican, European and Chinese technology stocks are all outpacing the S&P 500, the dollar is down and the Magnificent Seven big tech companies-five of whose CEOs stood behind the president at his inauguration-have stopped leading the U.S. market up and turned into laggards.
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Analysis-Why the US exceptionalism trade is faltering
Lewis Krauskopf and Laura Matthews - Reuters
Going into the year investors were betting that President Donald Trump's policies would spur U.S. stocks and the dollar to outperform their global peers. That assumption is increasingly getting tested. The Trump administration's revamp of the government and massive moves on trade and other policies have instead injected uncertainty, with consumers and businesses worrying about the economy, threatening the narrative of U.S. exceptionalism.
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Approximate risk parity with return adjustment and bounds for risk diversification
Viraat Singh and Ali Hirsa - Risk.net
Traditional risk parity provides a way of diversifying a portfolio while preventing an excessive concentration of risk, providing a way to construct portfolios with a good risk diversification. The volatility of the risk-parity portfolio lies somewhere between the minimum variance and 1 / n portfolios, which have been studied extensively. While risk-parity portfolios or equal risk contribution (ERC) portfolios are easy to compute and implement, they depend only on the covariance matrix of the asset universe and are agnostic to the assets' returns.
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Traders Seek Russia Bets As Trump Warms to Moscow
Sujata Rao and Natasha Doff - Bloomberg
From his office in midtown Manhattan, securities lawyer Grigory Marinichev is fielding calls from clients across the world with one question: How can we trade Russian markets? His answer is simply that you can't, with hundreds of billions of assets still frozen under US sanctions. But as speculation swirls that the re-opening of Russian financial markets is perhaps just weeks away, the desire to get in early means that for some, Marinichev's warning is just a call to find a workaround.
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European trade settlement outage resolved after incident reverberates through market on Thursday; Hardware component impacts communication channels, DvP cut-off and penalty mechanisms throughout Thursday causing disruption to Europe's settlement system.
Jonathan Watkins & Chris Lemmon - The Trade
The European Central Bank (ECB) has resolved an outage with its pan-European settlement system T2S, which caused commotion across the securities services industry throughout Thursday. The T2S operated said the incident had been caused due to a hardware component. The ECB closed communication channels with network service providers at 10:06 but reopened them at 18:20 CET.
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| Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance | | Stories about environmental, social and governance investing | Wells Fargo Abandons Net Zero Targets Amid Wall Street Retreat
Alastair Marsh - Bloomberg
Wells Fargo & Co. has formally abandoned its net zero commitment, marking a major reversal from a key climate objective. "As of today, we are discontinuing our sector-specific 2030 interim financed emissions targets and our goal to achieve net zero by 2050 for financed emissions," the bank said in a statement on Friday.
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BlackRock Ends Diversity Goals, Merges DEI Staff Into New Team; Hiring managers no longer required to interview diverse slate; DEI team being rolled into new 'Talent and Culture' group
Silla Brush - Bloomberg
BlackRock Inc. scrapped its "aspirational workforce representation" objectives, reversing course on earlier goals after President Donald Trump moved to end diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, practices. The world's largest asset manager will abandon specific targets to increase the representation of employees in its workforce and will no longer require hiring managers to interview a diverse slate of job candidates, the company's senior executives said in a Friday memo.
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Goldman Sachs Removes Diversity Goals After Trump DEI Order; Bank had set targets to reach a more diverse workforce by 2025; Move follows Trump pressure on federal contractors to end DEI
Todd Gillespie - Bloomberg
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. erased diversity targets from a key regulatory filing, becoming the latest Wall Street firm to turn away from specific goals for a more representative workforce after an executive order by President Donald Trump. "We have made certain adjustments to reflect developments in the law in the US," Chief Executive Officer David Solomon said in an emailed statement Thursday. "We strongly believe that merit and diversity are not mutually exclusive. Our people are a powerful example of that and that's why we will continue to focus on the importance of attracting and retaining diverse, exceptional talent."
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Chevron Wind-Down Would Send Venezuela Back to Oil Market's Dark Side; Trump's threatened move seen boosting corruption under Maduro; PDVSA is likely to divert sales to Asia with a steep discount
Bloomberg News
US President Donald Trump's plan to revoke Chevron Corp.'s operating license in Venezuela threatens to force the nation's oil sector back into the shadows, paving the way for corruption and huge discounts in the Asian market. The presence of the Houston-based oil giant brought much-needed transparency to Venezuela after a period of sanctions imposed during Trump's first term. In those days, the country relied on ghost cargoes and small traders, resulting in billions of dollars of lost revenue for state-run Petroleos de Venezuela SA between 2020 and 2022.
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Hundreds Fired at Weather Agency as US Faces Storm Warnings
Lauren Rosenthal, Brian K. Sullivan and Ari Natter - Bloomberg
The Trump administration fired hundreds of employees at the top US agency overseeing weather prediction and climate research, raising concerns about the nation's preparedness amid wildfire and tornado warnings. The cuts affect the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which includes the National Weather Service and a vast observational system that supplies free data to commercial forecasters. The move is part of broad effort by the administration to shrink the size of the federal government.
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| Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | Goldman Names Overbay CFO of $3.1 Trillion Asset Manager Unit
Todd Gillespie - Bloomberg
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. named Elizabeth Overbay the chief financial officer of its critical $3.1 trillion asset and wealth management division. Overbay succeeds Thomas Manetta, who will join the bank's human resources team overseeing corporate compensation, according to a memo to staff seen by Bloomberg News.
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Japan Post Bank's liquid deposits reach largest ever share; A decade since its privatisation, the bank has seen a shift in its deposit structure
Joshua Walker - Risk.net
Japan Post Bank reported its highest proportion of liquid deposits on record at the end of last year, continuing a decade-long shift that began with its privatisation. As of December 31, the lender held ¥127.1 trillion ($850.4 billion) in liquid deposits - which include transfer, ordinary and savings accounts - equivalent to 66.2% of its total deposits. This represents an increase from 65.4% in the previous quarter and 64% at the end of 2023.
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NatWest's Biggest Shareholder is No Longer the UK Government
Jennifer Suranen - Bloomberg
The UK is no longer the biggest shareholder in NatWest Group Plc more than sixteen years after rescuing the bank. The government's holding dropped to 5.93%, according to a statement on Friday. That would put it behind BlackRock Inc., which has a 6.4% stake, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
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The relativity of the fractional Gamma Clock; Bank of America quant expands his Gamma Clock model with a fractional Brownian motion
Lyudmil Zyapkov - Risk.net
The bivariate Gamma Clock model introduced a novel technique of exposing the relative nature of the passage of time in financial markets. Here Lyudmil Zyapkov overlays the construction of a stochastic volatility model based on two correlated Gamma processes with a fractional Brownian motion, the long-term memory of which is conducive to reflecting the market-observable phenomenon of volatility persistence.
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Gold-Backed ETFs in China Lure Inflows as Metal Sets Pace
Yihui Xie - Bloomberg
Gold-backed exchange-traded funds in China - the largest bullion market - are swelling as the metal sets records, investors seek alternative assets, and local rules are tweaked to allow greater access.
/jlne.ws/4gXYxos
BlackRock, Fidelity Challenge Hedge Funds With Trend-Chaser Bets
Justina Lee and Lu Wang - Bloomberg
Trend-chasing hedge funds are facing a fresh wave of competition from the ETF world, as asset managers make their latest push to open up strategies to the masses that were once reserved for the financial elite. BlackRock, Invesco and Fidelity have all recently filed to launch so-called managed futures ETFs, which use derivatives to surf momentum across a variety of asset classes. By adapting to changing market conditions with their systematic models, these funds aim to act as a bulwark against pullbacks in traditional portfolios.
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| Work & Management | | Stories impacting work and more about management ideas, practices and trends. | Algorithms Drive Management-Free Workplaces
Joe McKendrick - Forbes
How do things work out when people are managed by algorithms, versus actual human beings? Likely, jobs get shredded into microtasks. At this time, algorithmically managed jobs tend to be contract or gig roles. But the day may come in which full-time jobs will be guided, to some degree, by algorithms - for better or worse. Can people accomplish work without direct supervision by live human bosses? This is a question that has been studied by Lindsey Cameron, professor at the Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania. A lack of direct human oversight can be freeing, and at the same time, frustrating to workers, she explained in a recent interview published by Knowledge@Wharton.
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SmartSuite: $38 Million Raised For Work Management Platform
Amit Chowdhry - Pulse 2.0
SmartSuite, a next-generation work management platform, announced a major global expansion driven by $38 million in funding. The latest funding includes a new $13 million Series A round led by Canapi Ventures, with participation from Sorenson Capital and High Alpha. Last year, SmartSuite achieved 300% growth, with its user base surpassing 50,000 professionals across more than 5,000 businesses in over 100 countries. And the company's platform is trusted by a diverse range of organizations, including Apple Bank, Credit One Bank, UCLA, Georgetown University, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Sunday Riley, Lyneer Staffing Solutions, Datawatch, and UC Berkeley. The funding will further fuel SmartSuite's mission to redefine work management, accelerate global adoption, scale go-to-market initiatives, and enhance its unified no-code platform.
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| Wellness Exchange | | An Exchange of Health and Wellness Information | New Treatments Give Hope to Patients With One of the Deadliest Cancers; Half of all pancreatic cancer patients live less than a year after diagnosis. But researchers say there is potential for change.
Brianna Abbott - The Wall Street Journal
Pranathi Perati was running out of time to treat her stage-four pancreatic cancer when she found out she would get another shot: a clinical trial testing a new experimental drug. Perati's odds were slim-3% of late-stage pancreatic-cancer patients are still alive after five years. And half of all pancreatic-cancer patients live for less than a year after their diagnosis. For Perati, the drug, daraxonrasib from Revolution Medicines, has helped keep her alive for 17 months and counting.
/jlne.ws/4hVBjkc
Measles Was Eradicated in the US. How Did It Make a Comeback?
Jessica Nix and Jason Gale - Bloomberg
Thanks to the introduction of a vaccine in 1963, measles was considered eliminated in the US in 2000. Yet the highly contagious disease has reemerged as a threat as declining vaccination rates have fueled outbreaks around the country. In Texas, an unvaccinated child died on Feb. 26 in the first reported US death from the disease in a decade. Other clusters of cases have occurred in recent years, including a large outbreak in New York State in 2019.
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What the Blue State Covid Fighters Got Wrong; Five years after the start of the pandemic, a new book argues that liberal America's deference to expertise morphed into intolerance for dissenting views.
Justin Fox - Bloomberg
As Covid-19 began to sweep across the US five years ago, states run by Democratic governors were quicker than those run by Republicans to shut down schools, offices and restaurants. As the pandemic wore on, they were slower to reopen, and more willing to impose mask mandates and other precautionary measures.
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| Regions | | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | AllianceBernstein Japan chief says nation could become a key financial hub; CEO stresses importance of corporate governance reforms, creating investment culture
Lisa Kim - Nikkei Asia
The chief executive of investment firm AllianceBernstein's Japan arm says the country has the potential to become Asia's top asset management center, fueled by corporate governance reforms and efforts to create a culture of investing. Japan has been pushing to elevate its position as a global finance hub since capital and talent started leaving Hong Kong in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
/jlne.ws/3QGfLvQ
IBM shuts China research arm after lay-offs and revenue decline; IBM (China) Investment was established in 1992 to oversee local research and development operations
Coco Fengin in Guangdong - South China Morning Post
US computing giant IBM is shutting down one of its major entities in China, 32 years after it was established to manage local research and development operations. The decision follows last year's lay-offs of over 1,000 employees at the IBM China Development Lab and China Systems Lab across several cities. IBM (China) Investment Company Limited had "completed its mission" of carrying out development in China and would cease operation, a company representative said by email on Friday.
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EU racing to comply with active account rules; Industry wants simpler route to exemptions ahead of 'challenging' deadline for new clearing regime
Paulina Pielichata - Risk.net
The schedule for complying with the European Union's new regime governing the location of derivatives clearing poses challenges for the industry and regulators alike. The rules require eligible EU firms to maintain an operational active account for derivatives clearing onshore, from June 24 this year. "People are still very much in the design phase of what they want to do," said Gaspard Bonin, deputy global head of derivatives clearing and execution at BNP Paribas.
/jlne.ws/3FbbD4j
Zimbabwe Does Not Have a Forex 'Problem,' Central Bank Boss Says; Governor says supply of dollars exceeded market demand; Gold-Backed ZiG has struggled to win people over in Zimbabwe
Godfrey Marawanyika and Ray Ndlovu - Bloomberg
Zimbabwe has ample dollars to supply demand, according to the head of the central bank, who assured the southern African nation that it does not have a currency "problem." "Yesterday we went into the market as a central bank to sell forex, we went in with about $20 million," Governor John Mushayavanhu told the state broadcaster ZTN on Friday. "The banks were only able to buy $15 million. In other words that was the demand that was there in the market."
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| Miscellaneous | | Stories that don't quite fit under the other sections | White House Correspondents' Association cedes control of pool reports to Trump administration; The move breaks from decades of cooperation between the White House and the journalists who cover the president.
Ben Johansen - Politico
Reversing decades of precedent, the White House Correspondents' Association announced Wednesday that it would no longer coordinate shared coverage of President Donald Trump in an escalating dispute over press access to official events. The association, which represents more than 60 news organizations that regularly cover the president, said it would no longer manage the rotating cast of reporters who attend White House events or compile the shared accounts of news that are widely used in American political journalism.
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