First Read
Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff
The former headquarters of Cboe Global Markets, or the CBOE as it was known when the building was constructed, has been sold to a joint venture of Chicago real estate firms Prime Group and Capri Investment for $12 million, Crain’s Chicago Business reported. The sale was first reported by CoStar, a real estate information service. Cboe vacated the 350,000-square-foot 400 S. LaSalle St. building in 2022 after moving its headquarters to the Old Post Office in 2020. Cboe also relocated its trading floor back to the CBOT Building, where it had originally been. It appears Cboe had to sweeten the deal to persuade the real estate firms to take the building, as Crain’s reported that a Cboe-led venture provided a $7 million loan to finance the deal.
The plans for the building include transforming it into a giant data center, which makes a lot of sense. The building has access to megawatts of electricity and cooling from its days as an exchange-two critical requirements for data centers. Additionally, given that the elevated train tracks are just outside the front door on the north side of the building and LaSalle Street Station for the Rock Island District line is just south of the building, noise pollution is not a significant concern. It is already present.
What is remarkable is how quickly Chicago Loop real estate has deteriorated in value, despite the continued importance of location. Directly across the street from the former Cboe headquarters is the CBOT Building, where the CME Group sold its remaining holding, the 333 S. LaSalle Street Building, to ComEd in 2022 for $39.5 million. ComEd is converting the former “Arboretum” trading floor and related spaces into a power substation, expected to be completed in 2026, according to this 2022 Chicago Sun-Times story. The 333 S. LaSalle Building is just across Van Buren Street from the 400 S. LaSalle Building, which sold for only $12 million, despite having 350,000 square feet compared to 333’s 300,000 square feet. Both buildings have similarly uninspiring box-like architecture.
Of course, Chicago is not alone in this commercial real estate deflationary phenomenon. The New York Times today reports that a 23-Floor Manhattan office building just sold at a 97.5% discount. The office building at 135 West 50th Street in Midtown Manhattan, which is only 35 percent full, sold for $332 million.
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former US Marine Paul Whelan have been released by Russia in a multi-country prisoner swap, Bloomberg reported. The men are en route to destinations outside of Russia, Bloomberg said. Oddly, The Wall Street Journal had no story about this release or about Bloomberg’s story.
Here are excerpts from stories from in front of FOW’s paywall:
The US options market hit a record daily volume in July, driven by increased activity in single stock and ETF derivatives, according to Cboe Global Markets data. Meanwhile, the US Office of Financial Research launched a new hedge fund monitor tool to aggregate and visualize hedge fund data from various sources. In Asia, Singapore Exchange reported over 500 contracts traded in the first week of its new Tokyo Overnight Average Rate (TONA) futures. BGC Group’s CEO Howard Lutnick expressed confidence in launching US interest rate futures on FMX and clearing through LCH next month, challenging CME’s dominance. Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing added Gold Standard’s Verified Emission Reductions to its Core Climate carbon marketplace. LSEG’s CEO dismissed concerns about the FMX-LCH partnership in US treasury futures, while ICE’s head of communications, Josh King, is set to leave the firm after six and a half 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:
– High-frequency traders, brokerage firms to face brunt of regulatory curbs on options from Reuters.
– Brokers Brace for Impact as India Plans Tighter Stock Derivatives Rules from Bloomberg.
– Quant Funds Face Profit Risk as India Moves to Curb Options Boom from Bloomberg. ~JB
Subscribe to the JLN Options Newsletter HERE (it’s free).
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Flextrade VP Rob Brogan Discusses AI, Zero-day Options, and Algo Innovations at Options Conference
JohnLothianNews.com
Rob Brogan, vice president of equity derivatives at Flextrade, was interviewed by John Lothian News at the Options Conference in Asheville, NC, for the JLN Industry Leader video series sponsored by the OCC. Brogan shared his thoughts on the conference, Flextrade’s algo offerings, and artificial intelligence.
Watch the video »
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Unlocking Market Potential: Frank Somma Discusses SIX Clearing’s Innovative Solutions and T+1 Impact
JohnLothianNews.com
Frank Somma, senior sales manager at SIX, recently shared insights on the benefits of central counterparty (CCP) clearing and SIX Clearing’s offerings in an interview with John Lothian News at FIA’s International Derivatives Week in London.
Watch the video »
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Adroit Trading Technologies Appoints Michael Kraines as Chief Growth Officer; Former Trading Technologies President and Digital Currency Group CFO to lead next phase of growth
Adroit Trading Technologies
Adroit Trading Technologies, a leading buy-side execution management system (EMS) provider in fixed-income cash and derivatives, today announced the appointment of Michael Kraines as the firm’s first-ever Chief Growth Officer. Kraines will focus on bringing Adroit’s leading tech-driven trading solutions to the increasingly electronified institutional trading marketplace. He will report to Adroit CEO Anil Jaglan as they lead the company through the next phase of its growth. Kraines joins Adroit after successful executive roles with several leading financial technology companies, including serving as President of Trading Technologies (TT), CFO of Digital Currency Group (DCG), and Managing Director at Sandler O’Neill and Wasserstein Perella in their FinTech investment banking groups.
***** Congratulations to Michael Kraines. I can remember when his former firm, TT, or Trading Technologies, was very sensitive about firms in this space using the words “Trading Technologies” in their name. Vela comes to mind.~JJL
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How Gen Z became so nihilistic about money
Lillian Stone – BBC
The “buy everything, own nothing” generation has seen the cost of living soar. They’re “vibing” their way into adulthood, and some experts say they’ve got it right. My younger sister, Sophie, isn’t worried about retirement – but she’s not exactly optimistic about it, either. “We’ve got climate change, war – it’s like, are we even going to be here to retire?” she muses on a recent phone call, adding: “I don’t necessarily feel worried. It’s more like helplessness.” At 23, Sophie falls firmly into Gen Z, the cohort born between 1997 and 2012. She suspects that her generation may never own homes, accumulate comfortable retirement savings or achieve other traditional financial milestones. She’s not alone: Gen Z content creators are loudly airing their nihilism on TikTok and expressing frustration at what they call unattainable financial goals. But experts say the disgruntled TikToks don’t tell the whole story.
/jlne.ws/3SsWOy3
***** There has never been greater opportunity in the whole world than there is today.~JJL
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Wednesday’s Top Three
Our top story Wednesday was The globalization of natural gas gains momentum, a commentary by Trabue Bland, SVP of ICE Futures Exchanges, from ICE. Second was the notice for the FIA Forum: Commodities 2024; Commodity Derivatives: Volatility, Liquidity, Regulation and Enforcement, to take place September 16-18 in Houston, TX. And speaking of Texas, our third story was 103 earthquakes in one week: What’s going on in west Texas? from USA Today.
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Lead Stories
Power-Hungry Data Centers Are Gobbling Up Texas Amid AI Boom; A state’s infamously strained electric grid faces a new threat.
Brooke Sutherland, Naureen S Malik, and Julie Fine – Bloomberg
One business may finally be getting too big for Texas: data centers, those whirring warehouses packed with the electricity-sucking computer servers that power the modern internet and the development of artificial intelligence. Up until now, the business-friendly state has welcomed their growth, which has been a boon for land values and property taxes. Texas offers vast tracts of land and a broad supply of cheap energy sources, including wind and solar. But the boom in data centers threatens to gobble up quite a bit of both.
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Oil Traders Load Up on Most Options Since April on Mideast Risks; More than 300,000 lots of Brent call options traded Wednesday; Odds of regional escalation rise as Israel and Iran face off
Yongchang Chin – Bloomberg
Oil traders have loaded up on call options as a spike in tensions in the Middle East raises the possibility of a surge in prices. More than 300,000 Brent call option contracts traded on Wednesday, the largest one-day amount since the last round of elevated regional tensions in April. The volume was dominated by large call spreads, which offer cheaper ways to profit from a rally, including $87 and $90 spreads for October, as well as $110 and $130 spreads for November. Brent was last near $81.
/jlne.ws/3Wq78bj
Alleged 9/11 mastermind Khaled Sheikh Mohammed reaches US plea deal; Two other defendants accused of role in terrorist attacks to also avoid trial after years of detention
Steff Chavez and Joe Miller – Financial Times
The alleged mastermind of the September 11 2001 attacks on the US will be spared the death penalty as part of a plea agreement that aims to end years of legal wrangling over his treatment by the CIA and interrogation under torture in Guantánamo Bay. Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, who is accused of plotting with the late al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden to hijack planes and fly them into the World Trade Center and Pentagon, will now receive a minimum sentence of 2,976 years in a military tribunal, the 59-year-old’s lawyer said on Wednesday.
/jlne.ws/3WJHAXZ
Europe’s energy crisis is over, signals Shell boss; Gas, crude and power prices have dropped back and stabilised to levels before Ukraine war, notes Wael Sawan
Malcolm Moore – Financial Times
The energy crisis in Europe is finally over, the chief executive of Shell signalled, as market prices and volatility return to levels before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. “We have seen that across the energy complex this quarter, maybe more so than any of the previous ones in recent times, that we are moving back to a normalised price and margin level that is pre-2022,” said Wael Sawan in an interview with the Financial Times, adding that gas, crude and power prices had all dropped back and become more stable.
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HSBC Study Points to Stalling Global Investor Interest in ESG; Findings coincide with other data points indicating a retreat; Fund managers are increasingly avoiding ESG label, data show
Ishika Mookerjee – Bloomberg
Investor interest in ESG is showing signs of stalling as fund managers instead focus more on tackling an increasingly challenging political and economic climate, according to a survey published by HSBC Holdings Plc. “Global events continue to distract from long-term sustainability challenges,” analysts led by Wai-Shin Chan, HSBC’s head of ESG research, wrote in the report. The survey, which looked at responses from 150 firms with a combined $6.7 trillion in assets, revealed “weakened” reasons for monitoring environmental, social and governance risks “across the board.” At the same time, there was also evidence that “sustainability remains partly as an objective across many funds.”
/jlne.ws/3WKQBzQ
Ripple to Allocate $10M to Tokenized U.S. Treasury Bills on XRP Ledger; This is part of a larger fund that Ripple will allocate to tokenized T-bills provided by OpenEden and other issuers.
Shaurya Malwa – CoinDesk
Payments network Ripple will allocate $10 million to a tokenized version of U.S. Treasury bills (T-bills) that will become available on the XRP Ledger for the first time. The short-term U.S. government debt is being issued as TBILL tokens by the tokenization platform OpenEden, according to a Thursday release. Assets backing the tokens will be invested in short-dated U.S. Treasuries and reverse repurchase agreements (repos) collateralized by U.S. Treasuries. Repos are securities sold with an agreement to repurchase them at a higher price at a specified future date.
/jlne.ws/3YnsCYV
London Listings to Get a Boost From FCA Reforms, LSEG Boss Says; Regulators likely to announce more changes, Schwimmer says; Global IT outage this month doesn’t alter Microsoft tie-up
Charlotte Hughes-Morgan – Bloomberg
London Stock Exchange Group Plc’s boss said the UK’s recent capital markets reforms are making the financial hub “more competitive” and “more attractive” for listings. Regulators last month overhauled their listing rules, making it easier for companies looking to make their public debut in London, as part of a concerted effort to draw more initial public offerings to the City.
/jlne.ws/46reMGV
Societe Generale Can’t Catch a Break
Patricia Kowsmann – The Wall Street Journal
Societe Generale isn’t out of the woods yet. The French bank has struggled to gain traction with investors, despite installing a new chief executive last year. The incoming CEO, Slawomir Krupa, promised to lead a “rock-solid and sustainable top tier European bank.” But his vision failed to impress investors, who sold down the shares. The stock recovered earlier this year, after the bank reported strong first-quarter results, only to fall again over a political crisis in its home country in June.
Altman’s $3.7 Billion Fusion Startup Leaves Scientists Puzzled; With significant backing from OpenAI’s billionaire CEO, Helion Energy promises to deliver a fusion power plant by 2028. Its results so far remain mysterious.
Annie Massa – Bloomberg
Sam Altman, the billionaire chief executive officer of OpenAI, is staking a sizable chunk of his personal wealth on a startup chasing the holy grail of nuclear fusion – the elusive, theoretically limitless clean-energy source that, he says, is key to an artificial intelligence-enabled future. While other billionaires, including Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and George Soros, have backed fusion ventures, Altman has made his largest personal investment in Helion Energy, which stands out for its audacious timeline. It plans to open the world’s first fusion power plant by 2028 and to supply Microsoft Corp. with energy from it soon after.
/jlne.ws/3WWPbmh
LSEG capital markets revenues contribute to H1 growth despite ‘anticipated headwinds’; Total income at the exchange group rose 7.1% to £4.2 billion in H1 2024.
Annabel Smith – The Trade
The London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) achieved a strong H1 according to results released on Thursday, with growth across capital markets, data and analytics, post-trade and its index business. “We have finished the first half strongly, maintaining our momentum in Q2 with every business line contributing to revenue growth,” said LSEG chief executive David Schwimmer.
/jlne.ws/4d3lPIs
Ukraine Invasion
‘Whole world’ wants Russia at next peace summit: Zelensky
AFP
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine and the entire world wants to see Russia take part in global forums aimed at ending the grinding conflict in Ukraine. Leaders and top officials from more than 90 countries gathered at the Swiss resort of Burgenstock in June for a first peace summit, which Russia derided as a waste of time.
/jlne.ws/3Sv7WdE
Putin Doubles Army Recruitment Bonus as Russian War Losses Mount; President raises payment to 400,000 rubles for new recruits; Russian army has incurred huge casualties in war in Ukraine
Bloomberg News
President Vladimir Putin ordered officials to double a bonus for people willing to join Russia’s war in Ukraine, offering fresh evidence that the military is struggling to meet recruitment targets. New recruits to the army will receive a one-time payment of 400,000 rubles (around $4,600) until the end of the year, according to a presidential order published Wednesday. Putin also called on regional authorities to match the federal government payment, which was previously set at 195,000 rubles.
/jlne.ws/4do19KJ
Israel/Palestine Conflict
Fears of Wider Mideast Conflict Deepen, With U.S. Seen as ‘Not in Control’; American officials said they had no advance warning of the attack on the Hamas leader in Iran, raising worries of a power vacuum that could lead to a broader geopolitical crisis.
Mark Landler – The New York Times
For months, diplomats and analysts in foreign capitals have worried that prolonged political upheaval in the United States could invite aggression abroad, whether in Russia’s waging of war in Ukraine, North Korea’s rogue nuclear ambitions or China’s expansionist designs in the South China Sea.
/jlne.ws/3SwTBxA
Israel Says It’s Confirmed Hamas Number Two Deif Was Killed; Announcement comes day after killing of Hamas political leader; Killings may frustrate efforts to broker truce in 10-month war
Alisa Odenheimer and Omar Tamo – Bloomberg
Israel said it had confirmed that Mohammed Deif, Hamas’ military chief, was killed in a strike in Gaza last month, an announcement that came a day after the group’s political head Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Tehran. The military had previously said it was all but certain Deif had died in its July 13 attack in the southern city of Khan Younis. Hamas said at the time that the strike killed about 100 people, but denied Deif was among them. It hasn’t reacted to the latest announcement.
/jlne.ws/4dlbGXP
Exchanges, OTC and Clearing
SIX Swiss Exchange resumes trading following four hours down; Trading disruption comes amid increased regulatory pressure on trading venues to strengthen processes following a number of recent outages across the EU and UK.
Claudia Preece – The Trade
After four hours of suspended trading, SIX Swiss Exchange resumed trading at 1.30pm BST on Wednesday 31 July following technical issues with its SIX MDDX Multi-Dimensional Data fluX (SIX MDDX) data feed. Currently, the cause of the issue is still being analysed by the exchange, with a message sent out to the market that order maintenance is possible for the time being.
/jlne.ws/3WNloMK
Abaxx and MineHub Announce Strategic Partnership to Transform Commodities Markets
Abaxx
MineHub Technologies Inc. (TSXV: MHUB, OTCQB: MHUBF) (“MineHub” or the “Company”), a leading provider of digital supply chain solutions for the commodities markets, is pleased to announce that it has entered into a share exchange agreement (the “Share Exchange Agreement”) with Abaxx Technologies Inc. (Cboe: ABXX, OTCQX:ABXXF) (“Abaxx”) for the purposes of developing a strategic partnership to drive digitization more broadly within the physical commodities markets. Abaxx, an indirect majority-owner of Abaxx Exchange and Abaxx Clearing, has developed and deployed technologies that unlock latent value in global markets with products that make communication, trade, and transactions easier and more secure. The companies share a joint mission to improve data transparency and empower market participants with better tools to meet the ever evolving commodities landscape, which is facing new challenges such as the energy transition and increasing regulatory pressure. Comprehensive digital tools are more necessary than ever to adapt to a changing market environment.
/jlne.ws/3WMK87C
FMX Futures Says Margin Savings with LCH will Exceed CME
Shanny Basar – Markets Media
BGC Group, the brokerage and financial technology firm, said that its new futures venue is ready to launch in September this year and that its partnership with LCH will have the opportunity to offer greater capital savings than CME Group. Howard Lutnick, chairman and chief executive of BGC Group, said on the second quarter results call on 30 July that FMX Futures is scheduled to launch SOFR futures in September this year. US treasury futures will follow in early 2025 with full approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
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EBS Market on CME Globex Notice: August 1, 2024
CME Group
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EEX publishes revised 2024 and new 2025 calendars for EUA auctions
EEX Group
The European Energy Exchange (EEX) has published the revised 2024 and the new 2025 auction calendars for the auctioning of the EU emission allowances (EUA), in coordination with the European Commission, the EU Member States and the EEA EFTA States auctioning on the common auction platform (CAP3) as well as with the competent authorities of Germany (DE), Poland (PL) and the United Kingdom on behalf of Northern Ireland (NI). The 2024 auction calendar has been adjusted for the period of September to December 2024 in accordance with the Auctioning Regulation, due to the operation of the Market Stability Reserve (MSR), based on the 2023 total number of allowances in circulation.
/jlne.ws/46L4jGF
Fee reduction for customer accounts in EURO STOXX 50 End-of-Day Index Options
Eurex
We are excited to announce that Eurex will be implementing a significant reduction in transaction fees on A-Accounts for the EURO STOXX 50 End-of-Day Index Options (OEXP). This fee reduction will be effective from September 1, 2024, to August 31, 2025.
/jlne.ws/3A2D3XA
HKEX To Introduce Gold Standard Carbon Credits on Core Climate
HKEX
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) is today (Thursday) pleased to announce the inclusion of Gold Standard’s Verified Emission Reductions (GS-VERs) on the Core Climate platform, HKEX’s carbon marketplace, with effect on 1 August 2024. HKEX Co-Head of Markets Glenda So said: “We are delighted to add Gold Standard’s Verified Emission Reductions to our carbon market ecosystem. The addition will allow a more diverse range of internationally certified climate projects to be available on the Core Climate platform and reflects our commitment to providing investors and corporates with more options to support climate projects as they progress in their net zero transition journeys.”
/jlne.ws/4ceHhJ8
Intercontinental Exchange Reports Strong Second Quarter 2024
Intercontinental Exchange
Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE: ICE), a leading global provider of technology and data, today reported financial results for the second quarter of 2024. For the quarter ended June 30, 2024, consolidated net income attributable to ICE was $632 million on $2.3 billion of consolidated revenues, less transaction-based expenses. Second quarter GAAP diluted EPS were $1.10. Adjusted net income attributable to ICE was $876 million in the second quarter and adjusted diluted EPS were $1.52. Please refer to the reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures included in this press release for more information on our adjusted operating expenses, adjusted operating income, adjusted operating margin, adjusted net income, adjusted diluted EPS and adjusted free cash flow.
/jlne.ws/4ceHb45
Intercontinental Exchange Approves Third Quarter Dividend of $0.45 per Share
Intercontinental Exchange
Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE: ICE), a leading global provider of technology and data, announced today a $0.45 per share dividend for the third quarter of 2024, which is up 7% from the $0.42 per share dividend paid in the third quarter of 2023. The cash dividend is payable on September 30, 2024 to stockholders of record as of September 16, 2024. The ex-dividend date is September 16, 2024.
/jlne.ws/4drtU9C
Parktown Boys’ Team Claims JSE Investment Challenge Top Spot for June; A team of four pupils from Parktown Boys’ High School has claimed the top spot in the Equity Portfolio category for the June edition of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) Investment Challenge.
JSE
The team, ‘TRADING TITANS’, consisting of pupils Aarhush Siddapur, Joshua Chuza, Kai Lamond, and Letho Mazibuko, achieved an impressive 7.80% growth in their equity portfolio by focussing their trades on stocks with high price-to-earnings ratios. “Stocks that are expected to experience high growth rates often have high Price-to-Earnings ratios and we thought it was the simplest way for our stocks to grow. We all had slightly different ideas of what our portfolio should look like, but we overcame this by allowing each person to pick a certain number of stocks, so we all had a say,” said the team.
/jlne.ws/46vPmbd
London Stock Exchange Group plc Interim results for six months ended 30 June 2024; Delivering on all fronts in H1: consistent growth, improving profitability, strong product pipeline and significant shareholder return
David Schwimmer – LSEG
“We have finished the first half strongly, maintaining our momentum in Q2 with every business line contributing to revenue growth. This reflects the strength of our proposition, the improvements we have made to our products and the depth of our relationships with customers.
/jlne.ws/4donMPp
Bitvavo Adopts Nasdaq Market Surveillance to Enhance Integrity of its Digital Asset Exchange
Nasdaq
Bitvavo, the largest cryptocurrency Euro spot exchange globally, and Nasdaq (Nasdaq: NDAQ) today announced an agreement that will see the digital asset exchange use Nasdaq’s Market Surveillance technology across its platform. With this agreement, Bitvavo is seeking to further enhance the trust, transparency, and integrity of its marketplace by enabling its compliance framework to keep pace with the rapid growth and development of the business.
/jlne.ws/46vQknR
TMX Group Limited Reports Results for Second Quarter of 2024
TMX Group
TMX Group Limited [TSX:X] (“TMX Group”) announced results for the quarter ended June 30, 2024.
/jlne.ws/3LKWveh
TMX Group Limited Declares Dividend of $0.19 per Common Share
TMX Group
The Board of Directors of TMX Group Limited today declared a dividend of $0.19 on each common share outstanding. This dividend is payable on August 30, 2024 to shareholders of record at the close of business on August 16, 2024. TMX Group hereby advises that this dividend is designated as an “eligible dividend” for Canadian income tax purposes.
/jlne.ws/3WJgW1g
Fintech
What generative AI can learn from the primordial swamp; Synthetic data risks ‘model collapse’ but may spur renewed interest in robotics
John Thornhill – Financial Times
First, we learn that generative AI models can “hallucinate”, an elegant way of saying that large language models make stuff up. As ChatGPT itself informed me (in this case reliably), LLMs can generate fake historical events, non-existent people, false scientific theories and imaginary books and articles. Now, researchers tell us that some LLMs might collapse under the weight of their own imperfections. Is this really the wonder technology of our age on which hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent?
/jlne.ws/3Std2r2
China’s Robotaxi Dreams Spark Economic Anxiety Over AI’s Threat; Wuhan’s experiment with driverless taxis could help China lead the world on the emerging technology. It also risks putting thousands of people out of work.
Bloomberg News
On a recent summer night in central China, a couple on a motorcycle swerved in front of a driverless cab, forcing the vehicle to brake rapidly. At an intersection, it hesitantly performed a three-point turn, careful to avoid a man with a bike gawking at the new technology from the roadside. Welcome to Wuhan, the city of 14 million people that’s shaking off its Covid-19 stigma to position itself at the vanguard of smart-car technology – and the difficult questions it raises about the impact artificial intelligence could have on jobs in China and around the world.
/jlne.ws/4ftZRjb
CrowdStrike sued by shareholders over global outage
Joao da Silva – BBC
A faulty CrowdStrike update crashed 8.5 million Microsoft Windows computers CrowdStrike is being sued by its shareholders after a faulty software update by the cybersecurity firm crashed more than eight million computers and caused chaos around the world. The lawsuit accuses the company of making “false and misleading” statements about its software testing. It also says the company’s share price dropped 32% in the 12 days after the incident, causing a loss in market value of $25bn (£14.5bn). CrowdStrike denies the allegations and says it will defend itself against the proposed class action lawsuit.
/jlne.ws/46wBkWO
Meta’s revenue growth reassures investors as Zuckerberg plots AI spree; CEO of Facebook and Instagram parent has been trying to put his company at the forefront of the emerging technology
Hannah Murphy – Financial Times
Mark Zuckerberg said on Wednesday that strength in Meta’s core advertising business will allow the company to continue spending heavily on artificial intelligence next year and beyond, reassuring Wall Street as shares rose as much as 8 per cent. Zuckerberg, Meta’s chief executive and founder, was eager to show that investments in AI were bearing fruit during an earnings call with analysts on Wednesday, pointing to examples such as improvements to its recommendations engine. The company’s Meta AI chatbot was also on track to become the most-used AI assistant in the world by the end of the year, he said.
/jlne.ws/3YtTrdY
Reddit Acquires Generative AI Startup Memorable AI; Acquisition is Reddit’s first since going public in March; Memorable AI helps marketers create better ads using AI
Aisha Counts – Bloomberg
Reddit Inc. is acquiring Memorable AI, a startup that uses generative artificial intelligence to help marketers create better ads, in its first acquisition since going public in March. Memorable AI has built technology to help advertisers find the most effective text, images and videos to use in their sponsored messages, and Reddit hopes the acquisition will improve the quality of ads on its service.
/jlne.ws/4dtK8iz
Understanding China’s pragmatic AI plan; While the US ecosystem has the edge in groundbreaking innovations, the Chinese one excels in execution
Jen Zhu Scott – Financial Times
The two most important artificial intelligence ecosystems in the world are the US and China. Geopolitical tensions make it tempting to view the pair in opposition. Chinese AI has been described as both lagging and leading the US. In fact, the two countries are pursuing distinct strategies. Admittedly, this is partly due to necessity. Since US start-up OpenAI launched chatbot ChatGPT in November 2022, the world has been consumed by a fevered race to build the large language models that fuel generative AI. China is handicapped in this race by two factors: lack of access to advanced US chips and censorship of information.
/jlne.ws/3ymGV5i
Venmo and Zelle May Not Be Free for Much Longer; Popular payment services are as convenient for fraudsters as they are for you.
Marc Rubinstein – Bloomberg
With new technologies come new rules governing how they are used. Often, policy is framed via analogy: Are social media platforms publishers or are they town squares? Are instant messages water-cooler chatter or are they formal communication? So it is with peer-to-peer electronic payments. Last week a US Senate committee joined the debate over whether they’re analogous to cash or to bank-payment channels. It’s an essential distinction — for both consumers and the companies that provide this free service.
/jlne.ws/3A3Wzmx
Musk’s xAI Approached Startup Character.AI About Acquisition
Katie Roof, Edward Ludlow, and Julia Love – Bloomberg
Elon Musk’s xAI has discussed acquiring artificial intelligence chatbot startup Character.AI, according to people familiar with the matter. Musk’s xAI approached the startup about a deal, said one of the people, all of whom asked not to be identified discussing private information. It wasn’t immediately clear if the talks had progressed, or if a deal has been seriously discussed.
/jlne.ws/3SypQw2
Cybersecurity
Suspected Chinese Hackers Hit Taiwanese Research Center; Passwords among data stolen from government-affiliated institute
Charles Gorrivan – Bloomberg
A hacking group believed to be linked to the Chinese government stole passwords and documents from a Taiwanese government-affiliated research center that specializes in computing, cybersecurity researchers at Cisco Systems Inc. said Thursday. The attackers used a kind of malicious software tool that’s almost entirely used by China-based groups, after they gained access to the unnamed research center as early as July 2023, Cisco’s Talos threat intelligence group said in a report shared exclusively with Bloomberg News. Based on that and other techniques, Cisco believes with “moderate confidence” that the hackers are part of a state-sponsored espionage group called APT41, which US officials have linked to China’s Ministry of State Security.
/jlne.ws/3AhC7P9
Cryptocurrencies
Coinbase Quarterly Rebound Likely Hampered by Cooling Volatility; Exchange expected to return to profit, post revenue gain; Lower volatility likely led to volume drop from first quarter
Olga Kharif – Bloomberg
Despite expectations for a doubling in revenue and a jump in profit, Coinbase Global Inc. is at risk of falling victim to a drop in volatility when it releases second-quarter results. The unpredictable nature of token price swings have been one of the bigger challenges for the largest US cryptocurrency exchange since it was first listed as a public company in April 2021. Coinbase’s trading volume and revenue are forecast by analysts to drop from the first quarter, and the exchange appears to have lost market share. “I think people would pay some attention to the sequential decline, and pay less attention to year-over-year improvement,” said Owen Lau, an analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., who has an “outperform” rating on Coinbase’s shares.
/jlne.ws/46t88A2
Trump Bitcoin Reserve Plan Seen as Just ‘Symbolic Little Stash’; Former president pledges not to sell existing stockpile; Market is preoccupied with on-chain movement of seized tokens
Teresa Xie – Bloomberg
Donald Trump’s recent pledge to create a “strategic national Bitcoin stockpile” may turn out to be not as large of a commitment as the hype surrounding the announcement makes it seem. “Trump’s proposal is extremely modest,” said George Selgin, director emeritus of the Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives at the Cato Institute, a Washington-based public policy group. “It doesn’t have much of an economic implication.”
/jlne.ws/4c6Yap9
Ether ETFs Look for Some Bitcoin-Style Love; On this episode of Trillions, we discuss the launch of the latest crypto exchange-traded funds.
Eric Balchunas and Joel Weber – Bloomberg
Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, introduced earlier this year after intense regulatory scrutiny, are already among the most successful ETF debuts ever. For months it seemed spot ETFs for Ether-the second-largest cryptocurrency-might first have to linger in a similar purgatory. But instead, after some back and forth with issuers, regulators blessed them. About ten products began trading in mid-July, and they’ve seen healthy inflows (though Bitcoin ETFs were in a different league).
/jlne.ws/46BZ3Fa
Tether generates a record $5.2 billion profit in first half of the year
Daniel Kuhn – The Block
Leading stablecoin firm Tether released its latest quarterly attestation Wednesday, reporting a record net profit of $5.2 billion for the first half of 2024. The company also reached a net operating profit of $1.3 billion in the second quarter, largely due to its yield-bearing investments and reserves, according to its press release. The attestation was conducted by BDO, a global independent accounting firm.
/jlne.ws/3YyTDbI
Tether Stablecoin Issuer Says 2Q Profit Was $1.3 Billion; Firm says it held more than $97.6 billion in Treasuries; An audit remains a priority, Tether CEO says in an interview
Olga Kharif and Emily Nicolle – Bloomberg
Tether Holdings Ltd., the operator of the largest stablecoin, said it posted net operating profit of $1.3 billion in the second quarter, as interest earned from its holdings of US Treasuries helped to offset a decline in the value of Bitcoin. The market value of Tether’s USDT token has climbed to above $114 billion, as the demand for the stablecoin rose during this year’s crypto rally. The British Virgin Islands-incorporated company didn’t disclose how net operating profit is derived in the statement it released Wednesday. Net profit was a record $5.2 billion in the first half the year, the company said.
/jlne.ws/3y9DVta
Politics
US Reporter Freed by Russia in Multi-Country Prisoner Swap; Wall Street Journal reporter Gershkovich let go in deal; US, Russia had held extensive talks on prisoner exchange
Jennifer Jacobs and Cagan Koc – Bloomberg
Russia released Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former US Marine Paul Whelan as part of a major prisoner swap with the US, according to people familiar with the situation. The men, jailed in Russia on espionage charges they and the US deny, are en route to destinations outside of Russia. The US and its allies will return prisoners to Russia that they hold under the deal, the people said, asking for anonymity to discuss matters that aren’t yet public.
/jlne.ws/4drb1n7
How Thousands of Middlemen Are Gaming the H-1B Program; New data reveal how companies that farm out IT workers exploit flaws in the visa lottery while other US businesses and talented immigrants lose out.
Eric Fan, Zachary Mider, Denise Lu, Marie Patino – Bloomberg
Each year in April, the US government conducts a lottery that shapes the lives of hundreds of thousands of people – and America’s future as an economic power. It’s a drawing for a limited number of skilled-worker visas known as H-1Bs. Tech giants, startups, banks and drugmakers all vie for slots, hoping to snap up international graduates of top US universities who must otherwise leave the country. Most don’t get picked. The game, it turns out, is rigged. New federal data obtained by Bloomberg News reveal how thousands of companies got an unfair advantage by helping themselves to extra lottery tickets.
/jlne.ws/46wMGKd
DC Welcomes Ex-OpenAI Board Member After Sam Altman Drama; Helen Toner is building a reputation in the nation’s capital as a trusted expert on artificial intelligence.
Shirin Ghaffary – Bloomberg
Helen Toner finds out she isn’t going to have to hand over her private communications to Elon Musk while walking through Washington, DC, on an afternoon in June before the brutal heat has set in for summer. Toner, five months pregnant and on a mission to grab some food before a speaking engagement, proclaims herself “very, very glad” upon hearing the news, after I deliver it to her by reading aloud from a news alert on my phone as we head to a cafe in Penn Quarter.
/jlne.ws/3YzuoWK
Trump Promises Lower Interest Rates, but the President Doesn’t Control Those; The Federal Reserve sets interest rates, and it operates independently of the White House. But rates could come down as inflation cools.
Jeanna Smialek – The New York Times
Former President Donald J. Trump, the Republican candidate for the 2024 presidential race, promised lower interest rates – which a president does not actually control – if he is elected. Asked on Wednesday what he would do on “Day 1” of a new presidency during a panel at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Chicago, Mr. Trump said one priority would be to “drill, baby, drill,” the shorthand tagline he has adopted for promoting oil and gas production in the United States.
/jlne.ws/3LPJMag
Crackdown on Chinese Students Raises Fears for UK Tech Ambitions; Some business leaders and academics worry that a campaign to protect universities from espionage puts the country’s scientific ambitions at risk.
Yazhou Sun – Bloomberg
Chinese national Luo, 23, was thrilled when he was accepted into Cambridge University’s electrical engineering PhD program in 2021. All he needed before starting was clearance from a UK government agency that vets postgraduate students who study topics that could have military applications. Luo considered that a formality, he told Bloomberg in an interview, considering he’d already been green-lit for his masters degree at the same school.
/jlne.ws/4cWmNpL
Kamala Harris Snags Top Treasury Official for Campaign Against Trump
Josh Wingrove and Viktoria Dendrinou – Bloomberg
Vice President Kamala Harris has hired Treasury Department official Brian Nelson for her campaign, the first major staff addition since taking over the operation following President Joe Biden’s decision to bow out. Nelson will serve in a senior role in the campaign against Republican nominee Donald Trump with a focus on policy, according to people familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
/jlne.ws/4d4Egwl
Irish Finance Minister Signs Order for New Sovereign Wealth Fund; Fund has the potential to grow to EUR100 billion, ministry says; Budget surplus to be used to protect against future downturns
Jennifer Duggan – Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/3A7KRHK
Regulation
Gag rules stifle financial journalism
Freedom of the Press Foundation
The Securities and Exchange Commission requires defendants who settle cases it brings to contract away their right to deny the SEC’s allegations. So does the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. That means potential sources can’t speak to financial journalists. We wrote for The Hill about why it’s a problem when financial regulators – known for occasionally crashing the global economy – use their leverage to stifle criticism.
/jlne.ws/4fqCNSA
South Africa to Publish Proposed New Financial Rules by Year End; Changes ‘to address existing limitations,’ adopt best practice; FSCA said last week OTC derivatives are earmarked for scrutiny
Adelaide Changole and Ntando Thukwana – Bloomberg
South Africa’s National Treasury said it is close to finalizing long-awaited changes to the nation’s financial markets regulations, and plans to publish proposed amendments for comment by the end of the year. The Financial Sector Conduct Authority said last week that the new rules, which have been under consideration for several years, will put greater focus on over-the-counter derivatives, as well as increasing visibility into unlisted financial market activity.
/jlne.ws/3Szhi8d
SEC Charges Founder of Social Media Company “IRL” with $170 Million Fraud
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Abraham Shafi, the founder and former CEO of Get Together Inc., a privately held social media startup known as “IRL,” with defrauding investors by making false and misleading statements about the company’s growth and concealing his and his fiancée’s extensive use of company credit cards to pay for personal expenses.
/jlne.ws/4fsRrZl
Founder of SoftBank-backed app IRL accused of fraud by SEC; Abraham Shafi allegedly hoodwinked backers and spent millions of dollars on personal expenses
Joe Miller – Financial Times
The founder of a SoftBank-backed social media app targeted at Gen Z users has been sued by US authorities for allegedly deceiving investors and burning millions of their dollars on his wedding, flights and luxury hotels. The Securities and Exchange Commission alleged in a lawsuit on Wednesday that 37-year-old Abraham Shafi, who founded a platform called IRL in 2018, fraudulently convinced backers to plough $170mn into the app while failing to disclose that it had “boosted its perceived popularity” by spending almost $6mn on advertisem*nts that incentivised downloads.
/jlne.ws/3SrJgCH
SEC Announces Settlement of Regulation Best Interest Matter with Western International Securities, Inc. and Five Individual Brokers
SEC
The SEC announced today that it had filed a Motion by consent to settle the ongoing litigation in SEC v. Western International Securities, Inc. et al., alleging violations of Rule 15l-1(a)(1) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Reg BI”) based on the sale of high-risk debt securities known as L Bonds, which were issued by GWG Holdings, Inc. The SEC filed its complaint in June 2022 against Western International Securities, Inc. (“Western”) and five of its registered representatives.
/jlne.ws/46vRqjt
SEC Charges California Holding Company and its Organizer in Alleged Ponzi Scheme
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged South Bay Acquisitions, LLC (“South Bay”) and its principal, John N. Matson of San Diego, California, with defrauding five investors, including some of his former brokerage customers.
/jlne.ws/4d6PiB7
Remarks by Mr Lim Tuang Lee, Assistant Managing Director (Capital Markets Group), Monetary Authority of Singapore at the Singapore Governance and Transparency Forum on 1 August 2024
MAS
Ladies and gentlemen, a very good morning to you. I am delighted to join you at the SGTI awards this morning. I would like to congratulate the award winners, who have made significant headway in their corporate governance disclosures and practices. I noticed that the theme for today is “Navigating Sustainable Governance”. The title is very apt, given that the topic of sustainability has been discussed at great length in recent years. It is an important global priority that we must address together. Today, sustainability is not only a topic on governments’ agendas or multilateral treaties. It is now a part of boardroom discussions and frequently on the minds of investors and individuals.
/jlne.ws/4cp74yB
Investing and Trading
Two of Trafigura’s Top US Oil Traders Are Leaving the Company
Devika Krishna Kumar, Sherry Su and Jack Farchy – Bloomberg
Two senior oil traders at Trafigura Group in the US are leaving the firm, the latest departures as the commodity trading giant undergoes a management succession while energy trading profits normalize after an unprecedented boom. Kevin Jebbitt was the head of US crude trading and is retiring, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing private information. He was part of a team that spearheaded Trafigura into a heavyweight in US crude exports. “Kevin has been a larger than life character within Trafigura for some 13 years,” global head of oil Ben Luckock said in an internal memo announcing his retirement, describing him as “a mentor to many” whose “sense of a market opportunity is second to none.”
/jlne.ws/3LKhgGZ
Huang’s Fortune Rises by Most Ever as Nvidia Comes Roaring Back; Chipmaker’s CEO is now the 14th-richest person in the world; Nvidia rallied as much as 14% following intense volatility
Diana Li – Bloomberg
Jensen Huang added nearly $12 billion to his fortune Wednesday, a record tally to match Nvidia Corp.’s record day. It was the biggest one-day dollar gain for Nvidia’s co-founder and chief executive officer, exceeding the $9.6 billion he made on Feb. 22 when the chipmaker’s shares spiked after strong earnings, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. It also pushed him back above the $100 billion mark for the first time in a week, bringing his total net worth to $102.8 billion.
/jlne.ws/4fuhkby
Three Big Differences Between the AI and Dot-Com Bubbles; It’s looking a bit like summer 2000.
John Stepek – Bloomberg
We’re witnessing another tech bubble burst
Let’s turn our heads from local politics for the moment (we’re no wiser as to which taxes UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves plans to raise after all) and turn to something much more important for investors: global markets. You might have noticed that there’s been a bit of shift in the wider market. King of the AI “picks and shovels” plays, Nvidia, is now in a bear market. That is, the share price is down more than 20% since it last peaked in the middle of June. You can quibble over how useful that definition is, but it’s certainly a big drop.
/jlne.ws/3yysgnA
The IPO window is open! (For some); “Well-positioned businesses are pricing their IPOs above price talk and are trading well in the aftermarket”
Louis Ashworth – Financial Times
To Our Clients, Friends and Colleagues: The two of us have regular contact with venture capital and private equity partners, as well as CEOs and other business leaders and owners. For the past year and even in the past week, a good number of them ask us: “When will the IPO market return?” When we tell them that the market is open today, some are skeptical. The bottom line is this: the IPO market is OPEN and there is meaningful demand for companies that are priced appropriately and have strong management, durable business models and solid long-term prospects. Well-positioned businesses are pricing their IPOs above price talk and are trading well in the aftermarket. If we are right in our belief that we are in the early innings of a normal capital markets cycle, then taking a company public in the next twelve months would be excellent timing, particularly for owners who would like to partially or fully exit their positions over the next 18 to 36 months.
/jlne.ws/46tGdji
Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance
ASX Debuts Environmental Futures Contracts for Carbon Markets
Jennifer L – CarbonCredits.com
ASX has launched three Environmental Futures contracts, marking a significant development for carbon and renewable energy markets in Australia and New Zealand. These new contracts enable participants to price and hedge emissions reduction risk as the economy transitions to a lower carbon footprint. These contracts are the first carbon futures contracts to debut in Australia and New Zealand.
/jlne.ws/3A0jSh6
CME expands weather product range, with seasonal strip futures and options
Steve Evans – Artemis
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME Group) has expanded its range of weather risk transfer products, with the recent launch of seasonal strip weather futures and options contracts.The CME has been trading weather derivatives and other weather and climate risk transfer products for many years now, but this is the first launch of new products to expand its offering in quite a while.
/jlne.ws/3YpkxCY
Climate Cash Pivots to New Reality of a Hotter, Wetter Planet; Funding for climate adaptation is surging as mitigation efforts fall short
Amrith Ramkumar – The Wall Street Journal
Efforts to address the cause of climate change have fallen short so far. That is leading to a big push to treat the symptoms. Government and private money is pouring into plans to control flooding, address extreme heat and shore up infrastructure to withstand more severe weather caused by climate change.
/jlne.ws/3SvNM3c
Bank of England reports 20% emissions drop, but tweaks climate risk disclosures for financing
Sidhi Mittal – edie
The Bank of England (BoE) has released its annual climate-related disclosures report, highlighting considerable year-on-year emissions reductions and confirming that it is on track to meet its 2030 targets.
/jlne.ws/4fvyAwQ
Wildfire intensity rises across northern hemisphere; Boreal forest blazes are being fuelled by warmer and drier conditions across Russia, Canada and the northern US
Martha Muir – Financial Times
Wildfires burning across the northern hemisphere in parts of Canada, Russia and the US since the start of the summer have led to a surge in carbon dioxide emissions and smoke trail as their intensity rises. Scientists at international agencies have been tracking emissions and monitoring a significant increase in daily total fire radiative power, which indicates the intensity of the fires.
/jlne.ws/4doqZhV
Exxon Almost Walked Away From Its $1 Trillion Oil Discovery; A few geoscientists pushed a reluctant energy giant to take a chance on Guyana.
Kevin Crowley – Bloomberg
Scott Dyksterhuis was convinced. Or as convinced as you can be when predicting what lies more than 3 miles beneath the seabed. The then 32-year-old geoscientist for Exxon Mobil Corp. figured there was a good chance a vast trove of oil lay buried off the coast of Guyana, near where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Caribbean Sea. Now came the hard part. He had to persuade his bosses to drill a well that would prove it. “It was high-risk,” ÂDyksterhuis says. “But Guyana was a casino you wanted to play in because when you win, the profits are so high.”
/jlne.ws/3WwyiwW
World’s Deepest Offshore Oil Well Planned for Colombia This Year; Offshore drilling seeing ‘remarkable renaissance’: ISI’s West; Komodo-1 well to be drilled in 13,000-foot seas in Caribbean
David Wethe and Andrea Jaramillo – Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/4dpEQVb
This Scientist Wants to Block the Sun to Cool the Earth
David Gelles – The New York Times
/jlne.ws/4c8S1bO
US Forest Service failing to protect old growth trees from logging, critics say; Biden’s efforts to save mature trees are not getting enough Forest Service support, according to some conservationists
Oliver Milman – The Guardian
/jlne.ws/3SybXOJ
Big truckmakers bet on hydrogen to extend combustion engine life
Christina Amann and Nick Carey – Reuters
/jlne.ws/3WrB0nv
Antarctic temperatures soar 50 degrees above norm in long-lasting heat wave; This historic warm spell in East Antarctica is an ominous example of the temperature spikes this polar climate could experience more of in a warming world.
Kasha Patel – The Washington Post
/jlne.ws/3Swfz3A
Institutions
Jefferies CEO Sells 100,000 Shares for Charity
Katherine Doherty – Bloomberg
Three of Jefferies Financial Group Inc.’s top leaders trimmed their stakes in the investment bank for charity, relinquishing a total of 300,000 shares. Chief Executive Officer Rich Handler, Chairman Joseph Steinberg and President Brian Friedman disposed of 100,000 shares apiece, according to regulatory filings on Wednesday, which didn’t disclose the recipients. Altogether, the stock was worth more than $17.5 million, based on the day’s closing price.
/jlne.ws/3SuWZc9
European Banks Join in Year’s $30 Billion Stock-Trading Haul; Barclays, SocGen equities-trading revenue top estimates; They join rivals across Wall Street in beating expectations
Jennifer Surane – Bloomberg
Barclays Plc and Societe Generale SA joined in the stock-trading bonanza that’s helped big banks reap more than $30 billion in revenue so far this year. Both companies reported equities-trading revenue that topped analysts’ expectations for the second quarter. While US banks continue to dominate the league tables for the business, Barclays and SocGen reported revenue gains that topped a raft of rivals, including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp.
/jlne.ws/3LMSupp
Barclays Unveils £750 Million Buyback, Boosts Guidance; Full-year net interest income now expected to be £11 billion; Bank’s equities traders, underwriters, offset FICC decline
Jan-Henrik Foerster and Jennifer Surane – Bloomberg
Barclays Plc said it will repurchase as much as £750 million ($963 million) of shares as Chief Executive Officer C.S. Venkatakrishnan makes good on his promise to improve the bank’s payouts to investors. The buybacks come after Barclays reported better-than-expected income in the second quarter, aided by a surge in revenue from some of its Wall Street operations.
/jlne.ws/3YnLgzS
SocGen retail bank gloom overshadows equities trading bonanza; Lender downgrades outlook for French retail bank even as investment bank helps deliver profit beat
Sarah White – Financial Times
Societe Generale cut the outlook for its French retail bank, even as a booming quarter for equities trading helped it beat second-quarter profit forecasts. Chief executive Slawomir Krupa, who was appointed a year ago to get the French lender back on track after a series of restructurings, is hoping SocGen’s investment bank can help drive a turnaround.
/jlne.ws/3AhFgyr
Ackman’s IPO Dream Implodes From $25 Billion to Zero in Weeks; A plan to tap into social media and guide a new fund onto the New York Stock Exchange ends in a humbling setback.
Annie Massa and Katherine Burton – Bloomberg
Bill Ackman had taken to X again, this time to hail a fan who’d posted an image of him as a Roman general out of Gladiator. “Welcome to the posse,” the hedge-fund billionaire replied. “Let’s roll.” It was January, and Ackman, as usual, was spoiling for a fight. Tweeting night and day to his roughly 1 million followers, the investor had become a leading voice in the conservative campaign against campus “woke-ism” and, in the process, a Wall Street phenom on X.
/jlne.ws/3A9rU7C
Hedge Fund Walleye Capital Shuts Houston Office While Trader Exits; Energy trader Jim Rowe, formerly with Chevron, is leaving firm; Walleye will continue to trade in commodities, sources say
Devika Krishna Kumar – Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/3YwdQz1
Number of US households that own mutual funds jumps; ICI finding stands in contrast to broader narrative of significant outflows from the wrapper
Madison Hall – Financial Times
/jlne.ws/3WNhgMo
Work & Management
Work Advice: When to report office affairs and when to keep mum; Readers respond to last week’s debate on whether it’s okay to tell HR and higher-ups about adultery at the workplace
Karla L. Miller – The Washington Post
Readers have been divided over whether a recent advice seeker should tell the wife of a co-worker that her husband was cheating on her at work. Some readers strongly felt the letter writer should stay out of it. Others, many of whom had been in the wife’s position, felt just as strongly that the letter writer should clue her in, even though they barely know each other. Get a curated selection of 10 of our best stories in your inbox every weekend. But one phrase kept coming up in the discussion: “hostile work environment,” which the reader worried about being accused of creating. On the other side, some commenters argued it was the reader who was being subjected to a “hostile work environment” after stumbling upon the affair partners in a supply closet.
/jlne.ws/3A6ZkUl
This 23-Floor Manhattan Office Building Just Sold at a 97.5% Discount; The sale price of 135 West 50th Street in Midtown, which is only 35 percent full, was a sign of how much the pandemic upended the market for office buildings in New York City.
Matthew Haag – The New York Times
In 2006, the hulking office building at 135 West 50th Street in Midtown Manhattan sold for $332 million. Tenants occupied nearly every floor; offices were in demand; real estate was booming. On Wednesday, it changed hands again, in an unusual online auction – for $8.5 million. The staggeringly low sale price of the 23-story glass behemoth that was once the headquarters of Sports Illustrated is the latest and perhaps most surprising sign of how the pandemic has upended the state of office buildings in New York City, home to the largest central business district in the United States.
/jlne.ws/3ypg7l0
Wellness Exchange
Gen X and millennials at higher cancer risk than older generations; Cancer rates for 17 of the 34 most common cancers are increasing in progressively younger generations, a large new study shows.
Lindsey Bever – The Washington Post
Generation X and millennials are at an increased risk of developing certain cancers compared with older generations, a shift that is probably due to generational changes in diet, lifestyle and environmental exposures, a large new study suggests. In a new study published Wednesday in the Lancet Public Health journal, researchers from the American Cancer Society reported that cancer rates for 17 of the 34 most common cancers are increasing in progressively younger generations.
/jlne.ws/4cb9Kj8
Hong Kong researchers say aspirin can lower risk of pregnancy condition causing hypertension; Chinese University of Hong Kong study shows early screening and low-dose aspirin reduces risk of preterm pre-eclampsia and fetal deaths
Fiona Sun – South China Morning Post
A study led by a Hong Kong team covering 10 Asian regions has found that early screening and low doses of aspirin can lower the risk of pregnant women developing a serious complication that causes high blood pressure. Researchers from the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) on Thursday said those interventions could reduce the risk of preterm pre-eclampsia by more than 40 per cent, and could also reduce by over 60 per cent the risk of perinatal mortality – deaths occurring between 24 weeks of a fetus’ gestation and a week of an infant’s birth.
/jlne.ws/4d6NAzH
Shingles vaccine linked with lower dementia risk, study shows; The research adds to growing recognition that infectious agents may play a role in the development of some types of dementia.
Elizabeth Cohen – The Washington Post
The shingles vaccine, recommended for people 50 and older to fight the painful viral infection, might also decrease the chances of developing dementia, according to data presented at a medical conference Tuesday. The study, which looked at the health records of hundreds of thousands of people across the United States, shows that those who received the shingles vaccine were 20 percent less likely to be diagnosed with dementia in the five years following vaccination compared with a control group of people who received a vaccine for a different illness. Pharmaceutical giant GSK, which makes the Shingrix vaccine, funded and performed the research, and presented it at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Philadelphia.
/jlne.ws/3ycKc7p
Medical Bills Catch Almost Half of Insured US Adults by Surprise
Sophia Vahanvaty – Bloomberg
Forty-five percent of US adults say they’ve been billed in the past year for medical care that they thought was covered by their insurance, leaving many footing the bill for insurance-company errors. Less than half of those who received surprise bills wound up challenging them, according to a report Thursday from the Commonwealth Fund, an independent health research foundation. Many who didn’t challenge say that’s because they weren’t aware it was an option or feared it wasn’t worth their time.
/jlne.ws/3A8xVBv
Regions
Hong Kong Businesses Turn to Mandarin, Xiaohongshu for Survival; Increasing reliance on Chinese money changing marketing tools; Chinese make up bulk of immigrants and tourists in the city
Shirley Zhao and Krystal Chia – Bloomberg
Hong Kong real estate broker Habitat Property used to count on the city’s Western professionals for the bulk of its business. Things are different nowadays. Mainland Chinese clients now make up 40% of transactions, compared with 10% before Covid, said founder Victoria Allan. Another 40% are from Hong Kong, while clients from the West are down to just 20%. “Literally everyone now I want to employ has to speak Mandarin,” said Allan, who founded Habitat in 2001. Many articles on Habitat’s website, previously English-only, are now available in Mandarin. Social-media posts are subtitled and cover topics of interest to the Chinese community, such as bilingual international schools.
/jlne.ws/3LQoeKk
China must ensure future of stock markets to fund innovation: prominent economist Economist Lian Ping says a thriving stock market can boost upstream venture capitalists and provide confidence to the downstream banking industry
Mia Nulimaimaiti – South China Morning Post
A prominent Chinese economist has urged Beijing to recognise the stock market’s positive role in raising long-term funds to support China’s innovation amid the ongoing downward spiral of the exchanges within the world’s second-largest economy. Lian Ping said that the prolonged downturn in the capital market, particularly the stock market, had severely impacted direct financing for companies, with no sign of improvement. “What is more critical now is to address the stock market’s issues to ensure it flourishes and protects investors’ interests, providing them with sustainable and satisfactory returns on their investments,” the chairman of the China Chief Economists Forum – a government advisory think tank – told a conference in Guangzhou on Thursday.
/jlne.ws/3A8xDKV
EU issues UK with list of demands if it wants better relationship; Brussels claims Britain has failed to implement key Brexit divorce deal
Peter Foster in London and Andy Bounds in Brussels – Financial Times
Brussels has warned the UK it must fully implement existing Brexit agreements on Northern Ireland and the rights of EU citizens living in Britain if it wants to build an improved relationship with the bloc. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said his government wants to repair the UK’s relations with the EU through a new broad-based security pact while also seeking better trading terms. However, the European Commission has issued a list of eight demands, seen by the Financial Times, that the UK must fulfil to “demonstrate real UK government commitment” to honouring its Brexit divorce deal with Brussels.
/jlne.ws/4d0gLo2
