First Read
Hits & Takes
JLN Staff
OCC’s rebranding video has a very “Birdman”-esque percussion accompaniment. (But then again, I’m a biased drummer.) The full lowdown on the OCC’s rebranding can be found here.~SD
FIA is a recruiting a new director of compliance and regulation for its European policy and regulation team in London. The new hire will replace Robert Barnes, who is leaving his role as director of regulation later this summer to rejoin the UK regulator, FCA, as part of its Brexit team.
Rob originally joined FIA in 2013 from FCA, where he had been part of the OTC derivatives and post-trade policy team and subsequently was on the equities supervision team.
The new hire will report directly to Corinna Schempp, vice president of European Regulation and Policy, who recently set up FIA’s new Brussels office, and will be responsible for assisting her with issues related to exchange-traded derivatives and cleared swaps across a range of compliance and operational policy areas. The work includes liaising with members on issues relating to compliance, reporting, pre-and post-trade issues, benchmarks development, and other issues as they may arise.
More information about the role and contact details are available HERE.~JJL
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Finding Opportunity: Peter Lenardos, CFO, Cinnober Says Growth and Profitability Are Coming
Jim Kharouf – JLN
Cinnober has built its reputation in the industry as a pioneer and an opportunistic company that looks for new ways to address market needs. So in many ways it was not surprising the firm hired Peter Lenardos as its new CFO two weeks ago. With his background in investment research at Royal Bank of Canada and elsewhere, he has watched the industry through a specific lens that focuses on the financial condition of a company, as well as its strategic positioning.
/goo.gl/fwgcct
**Refreshing candor from a CFO, who has listened to lots of CFOs.~JK
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Saturday’s CFA exams blighted by various washroom disasters
Sarah Butcher – eFinancialCareers
Saturday was CFA exam day. To judge by the post-exam comments of some of the 227,031 people who sat the notoriously difficult examinations, it was also a day blighted by problems of a scatalogical sort.
/goo.gl/LBhCXA
****The industry has enough liquidity concerns without bathroom issues.~SD
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Your biggest investment mistake will be the failure to prepare for failure
Michael Batnick – MarketWatch
The best investors are just like you and me.
They get greedy. At times they’re overconfident. They fear missing out.
We all deal with the same emotional challenges when our hard-earned money is at stake. That’s why I wanted to write a book that puts those experiences into context. Mistakes are going to happen. They’re an unavoidable part of investing.
/on.mktw.net/2KhDwtJ
****This seems to be something everyone knows but not everyone does.~JB
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Here’s what you need to know about the big European carbon dioxide shortage
Victor Reklaitis – MarketWatch
Will your investment portfolio and taste buds survive the big European carbon dioxide shortage of 2018? Brewers, along with producers of soft drinks, chicken and other packaged foods, have been grappling this month with a hit to CO2 supplies.
/on.mktw.net/2Kp6F6e
****Global warming is caused by an over-abundance of CO2, so perhaps we can solve two problems at once here. Just saying…~JB
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Monday’s Top Three
Our top story on Monday was Bloomberg’s piece on Chris White’s corporate bond platform in
Ex-Goldman Exec Pushes ’70s Fix for Bond Market’s Big Problem. Second was a story that led on Friday and Monday, Marketwatch’s Day trader tries out ‘demo’ platform, ends up with actual $5 billion position. Third was Greenwich Associates’ report Order and Execution Management Systems Increasingly Indispensable
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MarketsWiki Stats
128,600,720 pages viewed; 23,165 pages; 213,693 edits
MarketsWiki Statistics
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Lead Stories
Goldman Sachs has created a new team to take on high-speed traders like Virtu and Citadel at their own game
Dakin Campbell and Frank Chaparro – Business Insider
Goldman Sachs is hoping a brand new technology team will help the trading giant better compete with the fastest traders on Wall Street; Raj Mahajan, who joined the firm in 2015, will run the new group alongside Konstantin Shakhnovich and Ezra Nahum.
Goldman Sachs is taking a bold step to improve teamwork in its securities division and better compete with the fastest traders on Wall Street.
/jlne.ws/2KnDcJL
Investors losing faith in global economic upswing; Fall in growth expectations leaves asset managers facing ‘cognitive dissonance’
Kate Allen in London – FT
Investors’ confidence in the global economic upswing is fading but this has not yet fed through into their expectations for financial assets, according to new research.
/jlne.ws/2K7zkgJ
Has the Big Yuan Short Finally Arrived?
Nathaniel Taplin – WSJ
Chinese markets are in trouble once again. China’s currency is down nearly 1% from Friday’s close, wiping out the yuan’s gains for the year, after the People’s Bank of China cut reserve requirements for banks over the weekend. Slowing growth and rising trade tensions are pummeling Chinese shares, with the Shanghai Composite entering a bear market Tuesday. And rising defaults are testing the country’s gargantuan debt market.
/on.wsj.com/2KrRF7K
Spreading Trade Tension Infects Tech Stocks
Stephen Gandel – Bloomberg
The U.S.- China trade dispute seems to have an odd casualty: tech stocks.
The market dived on Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling nearly 500 points before rebounding by the end of the day after President Donald Trump said he would deploy investment limits against China, which has already been responding to U.S. tariffs with those of its own. Markets may also have been spooked by motorcycle maker Harley-Davidson Inc., which said it was moving jobs overseas because of trade war concerns. A group of Bank of America strategists, led by chief investment strategist Michael Hartnett, said new and proposed tariffs would boost U.S. protectionism to levels not seen since the mid-1940s.
/bloom.bg/2KjkTFL
US tariffs tip soyabean balance in Brazil’s favour; As trade war grows, deals are shifting southwards for bulwark of world food supplies
Gregory Meyer in New York – FT
After the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, then US president Jimmy Carter retaliated in 1980 with an embargo on American grain and soyabean sales to the socialist superpower.
/jlne.ws/2Kc0yTg
Upstarts Crash Wall Street’s $7 Billion Capital-Markets Party; Ex-bankers from Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan hang out shingles to advise companies on securities offerings
Maureen Farrell and Liz Hoffman – WSJ
When Twitter Inc. was looking to raise $1 billion from investors earlier this month, it put out the usual calls to Wall Street banks.
/jlne.ws/2KoCBHC
With Cryptocurrencies in Free Fall, One Big Firm Doubles Down
Nathaniel Popper – NY Times
Even with the cryptocurrency markets in an extended slump, the most prominent venture capital firm in the sector is doubling down. Andreessen Horowitz, the well-known firm that made early bets on Instagram and Reddit, said on Monday that it was creating a $300 million fund focused exclusively on projects inspired by the original virtual currency, Bitcoin. One of the leaders of the new fund will be the firm’s first female general partner, Kathryn Haun, a former federal prosecutor.
/jlne.ws/2KpdPHB
Steer clear of diluting the Volcker rule and repeating mistakes; The ban on proprietary trading by big banks helps keep the markets safe
Jeff Merkley – FT
The 2008 financial crisis and the recession that followed were caused, in large part, by the biggest global banks taking huge risky bets that went bad. Now, a decade later, US regulators are considering a proposal to gut the Volcker rule, a post-crisis regulation that was written to prevent that problem from happening again. The consequences could be as damaging as they are predictable.
/jlne.ws/2KkUaIR
The Biggest Digital Heist in History Isn’t Over Yet; Carbanak’s suspected ringleader is under arrest, but $1.2 billion remains missing, and his malware attacks live on.
Charlie Devereux, Franz Wild and Edward Robinson – Bloomberg
As night fell in Taipei on July 10, 2016, most people in the city were hunkered down to ride out the end of a typhoon. Not Sergey Berezovsky and Vladimir Berkman. The two Russians made their way through the rain to an ATM at First Commercial Bank, one of Taiwan’s top lenders. Wearing hats and antipollution masks, they loitered at the machine for a moment. Then, as the astonished couple in line behind them later told the police, the ATM started disgorging cash without either man touching it. The men shoved the bills into a satchel and brushed past them. As the Russians drove off in a black sedan, the couple spotted something on the ground: One of the guys had dropped his bank card.
/jlne.ws/2yHSHYv
Exchanges, OTC and Clearing
Election of FESE President and Vice President
FESE
On 20th June 2018, the FESE General Assembly unanimously agreed to re-elect Deirdre Somers, CEO, Euronext Dublin as FESE President for a further three years. The Assembly also unanimously agreed to the election of Petr Koblic as Vice President. Mr Koblic is a Board member of CEESEG, Board member of Vienna Stock Exchange, Chairman and CEO of the Prague Stock Exchange, Chairman of Power Exchange Central Europe, Chairman of CSD Prague and has served on the FESE Board for a number of years.
/jlne.ws/2K6PmaJ
Mauritian Exchange Sees $6.5 Billion Gold Trading in Five Years
Kamlesh Bhuckory – Bloomberg
Mindex expects to be trading 156 tons of bullion by 2023; Operations will include a vault, derivatives trading
A Mauritian commodity exchange that plans to start operating in the fourth quarter expects to trade $6.5 billion of gold annually within five years, part of the Indian Ocean island nation’s plan to become a financial gateway to Africa, its chairman said.
/jlne.ws/2tAeyv3
Fintech
HPR Extends Platform to Include Support for Shanghai-Hong Kong and Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connects
Globe Newswire
Hyannis Port Research (HPR), provider of advanced capital markets infrastructure (CMI) technologies, today announced the expansion of its award-winning market access platform to include support for the Shanghai-Hong Kong and Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connects. With the move, HPR becomes the first firm to provide trading access through the platforms using an ultra-high-performance pre-trade risk gateway.
/goo.gl/2CKa93
AI early adopters work with small budgets, but ramp up expected
MarketBrains
Among early adopters, organizations have not truly deployed AI and budgets are being spent on smart services or developing the constituent technologies of AI, according to a survey by Constellation Research.
And AI budgets remain relatively modest, with over 90% of survey respondents reporting plans to spend less than $5 million in 2018.
/goo.gl/ng9eQD
Ingenico Next on Takeover Radar Amid Europe Fintech Frenzy
Ruth David, Manuel Baigorri, Dinesh Nair, and Sarah Syed – Bloomberg
Private equity firms are setting their sights on French payments processor Ingenico Group SA as they scout the market for their next target among Europe’s hottest fintechs, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
/bloom.bg/2KnfZY8
Nordic investment bank signs multi-year deal with Torstone Technology; ABG Sundal Collier will use Torstone Technology’s Inferno platform for capturing trade data and data management.
Hayley McDowell – The Trade
ABG Sundal Collier has signed a multi-year deal with post-trade and derivatives processing services provider Torstone Technology.
/jlne.ws/2KoUJRY
Are black millennials a blind spot for fintech firms?
Mary Wisniewski – American Banker
Around the time the retired Los Angeles Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant launched a venture capital tech fund, Mensa Pounds heard about BREAUX Capital — a fintech company that was just getting started on its big goal to disrupt financial services for black millennials.
bit.ly/2Kmikmk
Ex-Treasury Official Touts the Promise of Fintech ‘Sandboxes’
Jonah Crane – ThinkAdvisor
Regulatory “sandboxes” are in the spotlight this week as the fintech brouhaha took center stage at various industry events.
I caught up with former Treasury Department official Jonah Crane on Tuesday – who’s now an advisor to FinTech companies and also Regulator in Residence at the FinTech Innovation Lab in New York – to get the rundown on the current fintech/regtech environment in the U.S. and what’s ahead innovation-wise on these two fronts.
bit.ly/2Kmwcgk
Cryptocurrencies
Andreessen Horowitz Launches $300 Million Crypto Fund Co-Led By Its First Female General Partner
Alex Konrad – Forbes
Andreessen Horowitz announced on Monday that it had hired Kathryn Haun as a general partner and one of the two lead investors of a16z crypto, a new $300 million fund that will invest in cryptocurrency companies, coins and protocols. Chris Dixon, the firm’s longtime crypto-focused investor behind Coinbase and Polychain Capital, is the other leader of the new fund.
/jlne.ws/2K8x0pz
Robinhood: Sovereign nations will make crypto their default currency
JP Mangalindan – Yahoo Finance
Cryptocurrencies are the future.
That’s what Robinhood co-CEO Baiju Bhatt believes, so much so that sovereign nations will one day make cryptocurrencies their default currencies.
“I think it’s inevitable, whether that happens next year or in the next 15 years,” Bhatt told Yahoo Finance earlier this month at its live All Markets Summit: Crypto in San Francisco.
/yhoo.it/2KmvqzW
Crypto Influencers Pump Up Markets With $105,000-a-Pop Tweets
Justina Lee – Bloomberg
By day, Paul Angus is an engineer. But by night, he’s Cryptonomatron: a producer of hot takes on the latest initial coin offerings who has more than 8,000 subscribers on YouTube. The 43-year-old Scot’s online alter-ego is mostly a labor of love, yet it sometimes comes with an added perk: payment in digital tokens.
/bloom.bg/2KhHW3N
Chinese Police Arrest Crypto Miner for Power Theft
Madeline Meng Shi – Coindesk
Authorities in China have arrested a man for allegedly stealing a significant amount of power in order to fuel a clandestine cryptocurrency mine.
/jlne.ws/2KlxLLs
Big changes may be coming to Robinhood’s crypto platform, and market experts say Coinbase should be worried
Frank Chaparro – Business Insider
Robinhood, the California broker known for pioneering free stock-trading, is looking to dive deeper into the market for digital currencies. And Coinbase, one of the largest platforms for crypto trading, should be worried, market observers tell Business Insider.
/jlne.ws/2KbXR46
Galaxy, the crypto-bank founded by Mike Novogratz, is investing hundreds of millions of dollars in projects that’ll lure Wall Street to bitcoin
Frank Chaparro – Business Insider
Michael Novogratz’s merchant bank Galaxy Digital has access to hundreds of millions of dollars to invest in crypto companies; Its venture arm is eyeing companies that are building infrastructure solutions to lure Wall Street to the market for digital coins.
Famed hedge funder-turned-crypto enthusiast Mike Novogratz launched merchant bank Galaxy Digital earlier this year and its venture capital arm is already hard at work.
/jlne.ws/2yFYRZ8
LSEG’s former strategy chief backs crypto startup exchange; David Lester, who was with LSEG for 16 years, has joined Archax as the startup launches its institutional-grade cryptocurrency exchange.
Hayley McDowell – The Trade
A London-based cryptocurrency exchange targeting institutional investors has been backed by the former chief strategy officer at the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG).
/jlne.ws/2KnGzjT
Politics
Tech Industry Wonders What’s Next as U.S.-China Trade Dispute Intensifies; American companies are unsure how to prepare as White House threatens new measures against China
Jay Greene – WSJ
American companies are bracing for new, tougher White House rules on exports that could cover broad swaths of technology, raising the stakes in an already heated U.S. trade battle with China and leaving the tech industry uncertain of what’s next.
/jlne.ws/2KakgyL
Dealmaker-in-Chief Cuts Deal to Annihilate American Business; This is not how those tariffs were supposed to work out.
Bess Levin – Vanity Fair
When Donald Trump was running for president, he spent an incalculable number of hours grousing about how America was getting taken for a ride, and Uncle Don was the only one who could put a stop to it. “We need a leader that wrote The Art of the Deal,” he said while announcing his candidacy in 2015. He elaborated during a 2016 Republican debate, falsely insisting, “I’ve done very well over the years through negotiation.” Of particular importance to the would-be president was trade, on which he was fond of proclaiming America was “getting killed.” In addition to trashing agreements like the Trans Pacific Partnership and NAFTA, and promising to use his aforementioned deal-making prowess to strike new, better deals, Trump vowed to slap indiscriminate tariffs on countries around the world, in order to show everyone who’s boss. Seventeen months into the job, how’s that working out? Not great!
/jlne.ws/2KoOnlA
Trump’s trade war triggers recession fears
Ben White – Politico
President Donald Trump could be running a “Morning in America” midterm campaign strategy, bragging about an economy growing as consistently as it has in over a decade with an unemployment rate tied for the lowest level in nearly half a century.
Instead, he’s banking on hard-line trade and immigration policies that could excite his base while undoing economic gains from other Trump policies and nudging the U.S. toward a recession.
/politi.co/2KpHsIL
Harley-Davidson will move some production out of US after retaliatory tariffs
Nathaniel Meyersohn – CNN
Trump’s tariffs backfire on Harley-Davidson
President Donald Trump’s trade policy is backfiring on Harley-Davidson.
/jlne.ws/2K9bgdk
Don’t Slam the Door on Chinese Students; Reducing student visas for foreigners is self-defeating and un-American.
Editorial Board – Bloomberg
As part of its continuing campaign to prevent China from stealing American intellectual property, President Donald Trump’s administration is considering restrictions on the number of Chinese citizens enrolled at U.S. colleges and universities. Targeting foreign students will undermine U.S. competitiveness, not enhance it.
/jlne.ws/2KmQy8Z
Mueller Poised to Zero In on Trump-Russia Collusion Allegations
Chris Strohm and Shannon Pettypiece – Bloomberg
Special counsel to focus once he resolves obstruction inquiry; The meetings with Russians stretched as far back as 2015
Special Counsel Robert Mueller is preparing to accelerate his probe into possible collusion between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and Russians who sought to interfere in the 2016 election, according to a person familiar with the probe.
/jlne.ws/2Kbrvqo
Regulation
Index Proliferation: Time for SEC Regulation?
Andrew Beer – WealthManagement
There are more than 70 times as many stock market indices as there are actual stocks, many created by selective backtests and used by asset managers to market new funds, with minimal disclosures or oversight.
/goo.gl/zH5y5U
U.S. top court rejects Nomura and RBS appeal in mortgage-backed securities case
Reuters Staff
The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear an appeal brought by Nomura Holdings Inc and the Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC seeking to overturn an order requiring them to pay $839 million for making false statements while selling mortgage-backed securities to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
/jlne.ws/2K7vSTj
Wells Fargo accused of misconduct again
Matt Egan – CNN
Wells Fargo is once again being accused of misconduct, this time because it allegedly used complex financial investments to take advantage of mom-and-pop investors.
The Securities and Exchange Commission said on Monday that between 2009 and 2013, Wells Fargo (WFC) reaped large fees by “improperly encouraging” brokerage clients to actively trade high-fee debt products that were intended to be held to maturity.
/cnnmon.ie/2Kp5vYq
Regulators Publish Reform Report
MarketsMedia
The International Swaps and Derivatives Association, Inc. (ISDA), the Association of Financial Markets in Europe (AFME), International Capital Market Association (ICMA) and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) and its asset management group (SIFMA AMG) have published a new report that assesses the issues involved with benchmark reform, and makes recommendations on steps firms can take to prepare for the transition from interbank offered rates (IBORs) to alternative risk-free rates (RFRs).
/goo.gl/h9so7i
Federal Court Orders Jody Dupont of Anderson, South Carolina, and His Company, Open Range Trading LLC, to Pay $192,000 for Defrauding Customers in Connection with Offering and Selling Futures Trading System
CFTC
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced that Judge Timothy M. Cain of the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina entered a Consent Order against Defendant Jody Dupont of Anderson, South Carolina, and an Order of Default Judgment against his company, Open Range Trading LLC (Open Range), also of Anderson. Neither DuPont nor Open Range has ever been registered with the CFTC.
/jlne.ws/2yH4fen
CFTC Fines Range Trading and Its owner Over Futures Trading Software; The false claims included that the system, out of 37 months, earned $700 to over $13,000 monthly in 30 months.
Aziz Abdel-Qader – Finance Magnates
On Monday, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced that it received a California federal judge’s blessing to fine Jody Dupont and his company nearly $200,000 for fraud and failing to register with the CFTC.
/jlne.ws/2KbnLFm
Judge Dismisses Climate Suits Targeting Big Oil Companies; San Francisco and Oakland sought to compel Exxon, BP, Chevron and others to pay for climate change-related expenses
Bradley Olson and Timothy Puko – WSJ
A federal judge on Monday dismissed lawsuits by the cities of San Francisco and Oakland alleging that five of the world’s largest oil companies should pay to protect the cities’ residents from the impacts of climate change.
/jlne.ws/2KmUhUc
Investing and Trading
Chinese Stocks Enter Bear Market as Trade, Growth Risks Increase
Richard Frost and Jeanny Yu – Bloomberg
Shanghai benchmark has fallen more than 20% from recent high; Yuan weakens to six-month low, adding to investor jitters
Chinese stocks fell, with the benchmark gauge entering a bear market, amid growing concern about the country’s resilience to a trade war with the U.S.
/jlne.ws/2KmQV3n
Harvard Billionaires Bail Out Alma Mater From Poor Fund Returns
Michael McDonald, Janet Lorin, Ivan Levingston – Bloomberg
Three years ago, hedge fund billionaire John Paulson offered his alma mater, Harvard Business School, an enormous gift. Nitin Nohria, the school’s dean, responded in a way that would shock most other charitable organizations: Thanks, but we don’t need it. Instead, Nohria suggested that Paulson direct the money toward Harvard’s engineering school, according to people familiar with the exchange. So, in 2015, Paulson did just that, giving $400 million, a gift the university called its largest ever.
/jlne.ws/2KbOwth
Asia Junk Bond Rout Divides Veterans on $121 Billion Market
Denise Wee – Bloomberg
Lombard Odier sees value while ANZ expects junk to trade wider; Asia junk bond spreads blow out to highest in nearly 2 years
Asian junk bonds have sold off amid defaults and concerns over refinancing risks, dividing veterans on where the $121 billion market is headed.
/jlne.ws/2K8sQOB
Zinc’s Horror Run Continues on Rising Supply, Trade-War Angst
Thomas Biesheuvel – Bloomberg
Zinc continued to slide after entering a bear market amid concern about increased supply and declining demand.
The industrial metal fell for a ninth day — its longest losing streak in more than three years — to trade at $2,833 a metric ton on Tuesday, the lowest in 10 months. It’s the worst-performing base metal this year.
/bloom.bg/2Kl7BIN
Is Hedge Fund Love in Our DNA?
Mark Gilbert – Bloomberg
The benefits of low-cost index tracking for most investors are by now well-rehearsed, yet a disproportionate amount of money remains in the well-remunerated grip of active funds. Maybe the idea of achieving higher returns by investing passively just seems too good to be true — meaning stock-pickers will remain alive and kicking even if their performance after fees continues to destroy value for customers.
/bloom.bg/2Kl7iO9
Institutions
Banks Failing Stress Tests? Not for Much Longer; The Fed is expected to eliminate pass/fail grades as soon as 2019
Ryan Tracy – WSJ
Some big banks are worried about failing the Federal Reserve’s stress tests on Thursday. It may be one of the last times that can happen.
/jlne.ws/2Kay9Nx
Ex-HSBC Trader Will Have to Put Up More Money to Get Out of Jail
Patricia Hurtado and Bob Van Voris – Bloomberg
Johnson seeks to return to U.K. while awaiting appeal ruling; Ex-currency traders to appear in New York ahead of trial
Former HSBC Holdings Plc currency boss Mark Johnson won’t be walking out of prison until he puts up more money to ensure his return to the U.S.
/jlne.ws/2KiR7AO
Morgan Stanley Hires Electronic Trading Vet for Bond Effort
Sonali Basak – Bloomberg
Morgan Stanley hired Phil Allison, previously of KCG Holdings Inc., to lead the automation of its fixed-income business.
/goo.gl/QLsivE
Regions
Italy’s Crunch Moment in the Bond Market
Marcus Ashworth – Bloomberg
Italy’s auction of five and 10-year government bonds on Thursday will be the most important test of investor appetite since the country’s political crisis subsided. Buyers are understandably skittish.
/bloom.bg/2KoNn0w
Coca Cultivation in Colombia Reaches New High; Growth in plant behind most U.S. cocaine imports is likely to renew Trump administration pressure on Latin American ally
Louise Radnofsky – WSJ
Colombian coca cultivation rose again in 2017, reaching a new high, according to an official U.S. assessment released Monday that is likely to fuel fresh consternation against a key Latin American ally.
/jlne.ws/2KiOwH4
Irish Banks Are Poised to Face Increased Capital Demand
Peter Flanagan – Bloomberg
Counter cyclical buffer set at zero since introduction; Cental bank decision expected to be made within next 10 days
Irish banks are set to be forced to hold more capital to cope with a future economic downturn, according to a person familiar with the matter.
/jlne.ws/2KoOoWu
Saudi Stocks Are the Most Expensive Versus Dubai in Seven Years
Filipe Pacheco and Dana El Baltaji – Bloomberg
Shares in Riyadh surged this year amid EM upgrade bets; In Dubai, concerns tied to real estate market pressure stocks
The valuation gap between stocks in Saudi Arabia and Dubai has expanded to the widest since 2011.
/jlne.ws/2KcctAA
1MDB Audits Don’t Show `True and Fair’ Assessment, KPMG Says
Pooi Koon Chong – Bloomberg
2010, 2011, 2012 reports don’t provide true, fair assessment; KPMG retracts reports after access to withheld documents
/goo.gl/uY4gt9
Brexit
Brexit Polls Were Only for Hedge Funds; Hedge funds made money on private polls the public was barred from seeing.
Matt Levine – Bloomberg
The basic meta-rule of insider trading is that professional investors are supposed to do research to figure out what will happen and reflect those expectations in asset prices, but they are not supposed to cheat by getting inside information about what will happen. This is not the law, exactly, and we talk endlessly about how the nuances of U.S. insider trading law do not line up with that intuition. But it is a decent enough starting point.
/jlne.ws/2K9oSFF
Two Years After the Brexit Vote, No Regrets; Britain’s most depressed regions don’t want Europe’s help.
Guy Martin – Bloomberg
Britain’s former mining areas in South Wales voted overwhelmingly to leave the European Union in the June 2016 Brexit referendum. Unemployment rates there are some of the highest in the nation, and although it has a relatively low foreign-born population by U.K. standards, tensions have built there over immigration.
/jlne.ws/2KoBzve
Banks Must Step Up ‘Inadequate’ Brexit Preparations, EBA Says
John Glover – Bloomberg
A no-deal Brexit is ‘a plausible bad outcome’ to negotiation; Financial institutions shouldn’t rely on government action
Banks’ preparations for the U.K. crashing out of the European Union without even a transitional deal are “inadequate” and must be stepped up, the bloc’s top banking regulator said.
/jlne.ws/2Kq5Iuc
Brexit concerns have halved UK car investment, says SMMT; SMMT pushes for urgent rethink on customs union
Peter Campbell in London – FT
Investment in Britain’s car industry has halved because of uncertainty about the UK’s future relationship with Europe, the country’s motor industry lobby group said on Tuesday.
/jlne.ws/2K8zyUF
Miscellaneous
M.B.A. Graduates Enter Tougher Job Market; Employers recruit less, while more grads start own firms or seek work outside finance and consulting
By Kelsey Gee – WSJ
Newly minted M.B.A. graduates are stepping into a job market with the smallest share of companies planning to hire them in years.
/jlne.ws/2Ke9J60
REIT Industry Hits Diversity Record With Female Board Appointees
Esther Fung – WSJ
The real-estate investment trust sector has named a record number of women to board positions in 2018, a sign that this mostly male-dominated industry is reacting to pressure on American corporations to diversify.
/on.wsj.com/2KmuV92
The post Goldman Sachs has created a new team to take on high-speed traders like Virtu and Citadel at their own game appeared first on John Lothian News (JLN).