First Read
SunGard Files Registration Statement for Proposed Initial Public Offering
Sungard
SunGard announced today that it has filed a registration statement on Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission relating to a proposed initial public offering of its common stock. The number of shares to be offered, the price range and the stock exchange listing for the proposed offering have not yet been determined.
jlne.ws/1KGkVhl
***** If you believe Sungard has a monopoly, or is part of a duopoly, then here is your chance to own them.
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Report: Women produce about a third of US news content
AP
Men are behind more news stories than women by a nearly 2-to-1 margin across print and television platforms, though there was a slight increase in bylines and credits for women last year, a new study says. The Washington-based Women’s Media Center released its study Thursday as part of its fourth annual report on “The Status of Women in U.S. Media.”
jlne.ws/1APtyG4
***** There are some stories you should just not comment on.
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There Might Be No Saving the World’s Top Banana
Bloomberg Business
Six decades after a banana-killing fungus all but wiped out plantations across Latin America, a new strain threatens to destroy global harvests. While the fungus has been around since the 1990s and has yet to affect top exporter Ecuador, Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc. called it a potential “big nightmare.” The United Nations says the disease threatens supply, and Latin American growers are taking steps to limit the risk.
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***** There is a fungus among us.
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Mortgage-Bond Yields Rise to Highest Since October in Debt Rout
Bloomberg Business
A global bond-market slump pushed yields on benchmark U.S. mortgage securities to the highest level in more than seven months, signaling potential pressure on the American housing market amid its peak selling season.
jlne.ws/1APuuKI
***** I really need to lock in my construction loan soon.
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Why Big Companies Have Started to Send Their Employees to College
Bloomberg Business
Two years ago, Starann Freitas had no college degree. “I’d always wanted one, but life responsibilities got in the way,” says Freitas, 52. She worked as an administrative assistant for health insurer Anthem, answering phone calls and scheduling meetings. Eight months later, that had changed. Freitas enrolled in an online associate’s degree program at Southern New Hampshire University’s College for America in May 2013 and graduated the following spring.
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***** An educated workforce is an empowered workforce.
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Investing in a Broadway Show Is a Fun Way to Lose a Lot of Money
Bloomberg Business
The producers of Broadway and the brokers of Wall Street, 15 minutes apart by train, don’t socialize much, but they do have one thing in common. They’d love to invest your money for you. The producers have more to offer than dividends or capital gains. In exchange for your $50,000 check, they might hand over tickets to opening night or introduce you to Sting. They’re also far more likely to lose every cent you invest.
jlne.ws/1APvnD3
***** I believe this concept was made into a Broadway show and movie. Springtime for whom???
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MarketsWiki
MarketsWiki Page of the Day
Stacey Cunningham
MarketsWiki Recent Updates
People
William D. Cunningham; Stacey Cunningham; Lou Eccleston; Neda Nabavi; Sree Sreenivasan; Ransom W. Dunham; Stig Hubertsson; Samuel Skinner; Patrick H. Arbor; Mary Savoie; Samuel H. McCrea; Steven Wolf; Patrick C. Lothian
Companies, Organizations and Groups
TMX Group Inc.; NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc.
Statistics
63,633,157 pages viewed, 8,194 articles, 192,093 edits
MarketsWiki Statistics
Lead Stories
Bond Market Yet to Crack How to Electronically Trade Big Orders
Matthew Leising, Bloomberg
The $7.8 trillion U.S. corporate bond market has yet to figure out how to trade large chunks of debt electronically, according to industry executives. Alerting other investors that you want to buy or sell a certain security is the problem, said Robert Douglass, chief operating officer of U.S. corporate debt trading at Barclays Plc. Once that’s done, your competitors can steal a potentially profitable trade by executing an order ahead of yours.
jlne.ws/1APuzxR
***** There is some cool new technology being developed. Don’t give up yet.
Tom Hayes says senior UBS staff were ‘aware’ of Libor rigging
Lindsay Fortado and Laura Noonan, FT.com
Tom Hayes told investigators that “awareness” of Libor manipulation at UBS was at a senior level and that he discussed rigging the rate at a meeting attended by Carsten Kengeter, a top executive at the Swiss lender.
jlne.ws/1APudr2
Bitcoin Rules Completed by New York Regulator
By MICHAEL J. de la MERCED, NY Times
With just weeks to go before he steps down, Benjamin M. Lawsky, New York’s top financial regulator, on Wednesday released rules for running a Bitcoin business in the state. In a speech at the BITS Emerging Payments Forum in Washington, Mr. Lawsky announced the final set of rules that govern virtual-currency businesses, concluding a nearly two-year effort to regulate the growing Bitcoin industry.
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SIFMA Proposes Best Interests Standard for Broker-Dealers
SIFMA
Today, SIFMA president and CEO Kenneth E. Bentsen, Jr. announced the industry’s “Proposed Best Interests of the Customer Standard for Broker-Dealers,” which, if adopted, would establish a best interests standard for broker-dealers serving retail clients. This proposal follows the industry’s long established support for such a standard.
jlne.ws/1AM2TdA
Hong Kong investors deal lesson in sobriety to China
Josh Noble — Hong Kong, FT
If you can keep your head when all around you are losing theirs, then you may have a future as a Hong Kong fund manager.
Chinese stocks have continued their long and frantic march higher this week, with the Shanghai index adding another 7 per cent and Shenzhen gaining 9.7 per cent over the past five days.
jlne.ws/1JsHCGV
Single-name CDS solutions lack consensus, says Citi
Joe Rennison, FT
Industry attempts to increase volumes in a deteriorating part of the credit derivatives market lack a common approach, according to Citigroup.
jlne.ws/1KGecUy
Harsh realities dawn on Switzerland’s private banks
Laura Noonan, FT
By 2013, Banque Cramer knew it had a problem. With just SFr2bn of client money, the 300-year-old Swiss private bank was too small to weather the radical changes sweeping through its industry.
jlne.ws/1APz1g1
Citigroup: Here’s How El Niño Could Derail Monetary Policy
Bloomberg Business
Indonesia, India, and the Philippines are three countries the bank says are particularly vulnerable to inflation, given the weight of food in their price indexes
jlne.ws/1APuXwf
Four People Arrested and Charged in Cross-Country Insider Trading Scheme
US Department of Justice
The owner and operator of a stock trading operation and three of his associates were arrested today on charges arising from their alleged participation in a multi-year insider trading scheme that netted more than $3.2 million in illicit profits, announced today by U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman for the District of New Jersey.
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Huge fines loom for environmental offenders
Jane Croft, FT
Large companies should expect to face multimillion pound fines akin to those imposed in the financial services sector if they consistently break environmental laws, the Court of Appeal has said. Fines should reflect the financial circumstances of the company, including its profitability, three judges argued.
jlne.ws/1M7o0r6
SEC Bickering Stalls Mary Jo White’s Agenda; Pledge to ‘expeditiously’ finalize postcrisis rules thwarted by quarrelling among members
By ANDREW ACKERMAN and ARUNA VISWANATHA, WSJ
Mary Jo White took the helm of the Securities and Exchange Commission vowing to “expeditiously” finalize its mountain of postcrisis rules. Two years later, that pledge has been thwarted by bickering among its five members.
jlne.ws/1IfQ1vW
IKEA pledges 1 billion euros to help slow climate change
Reuters
IKEA, the world’s biggest furniture retailer, pledged on Thursday to spend 1 billion euros ($1.13 billion) on renewable energy and ways to help poor nations cope with climate change, in a new sign of companies upstaging governments on the issue.
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EBS daily trading volumes steady below $100 billion in May
Reuters
Foreign exchange spot volumes on the EBS trading platform were almost unchanged at $95.9 billion a day in May compared with April, owner ICAP said in a statement on Thursday.
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Regulatory
U.S. House, Senate Democrats push for alternative financial bill
Sarah Lynch, Reuters
Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives teamed up with their counterparts in the Senate on Wednesday to promote a banking regulatory relief bill they say is better than a broader version pushed by Republicans.
jlne.ws/1MoPzwT
UK watchdog proposes new rules to avoid excessive fees for benchmarks
Huw Jones, Reuters
Britain’s financial watchdog has proposed rules to ensure that widely-followed market benchmarks like Libor interest rates, gold or oil are available to all at a fair price.
jlne.ws/1MoPKs4
Here’s What Elizabeth Warren And The SEC Are Really Fighting About
Huffington Post
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) stunned Wall Street this week with a scathing letter to Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Mary Jo White. The letter said White had been soft on high finance felons, but raised eyebrows in the nation’s captial for another reason — publicly accusing White of “misleading” Warren in a private meeting.
jlne.ws/1APttlT
FINRA Launches National Ad Campaign Promoting BrokerCheck
FINRA
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) today launched a national ad campaign promoting BrokerCheck (brokercheck.finra.org), FINRA’s free online tool that allows investors to access information about every broker’s employment history, certifications and licenses, as well as regulatory actions, violations or complaints made against them.
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Deutsche Bank Trader Fired Over Libor Sues for Past Bonuses
Bloomberg Business
Yves Paturel filed the suit along with a second trader, Gavin Black, in a London court in January, months before the pair were dismissed in April as part of Deutsche Bank’s settlement for manipulation of the London interbank offered rate with the New York Department of Financial Services. Black has withdrawn his claim, according to his lawyer.
jlne.ws/1APuQ41
SEC Warns of Purported Financial Professionals Using False Credentials to Attract Investors
SEC.gov
The Securities and Exchange Commission today warned investors to thoroughly check the claimed credentials of people soliciting their investments to ensure they are not falsifying, exaggerating, or hiding facts about their backgrounds. The agency has brought several recent enforcement cases along these lines, including two actions announced today.
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SIFMA President and CEO Kenneth E. Bentsen, Jr. Remarks as Prepared for the SIFMA DOL Fiduciary Seminar
SIFMA
jlne.ws/1IfRIcR
A Regulator’s Tough Investment Luck
By MATTHIAS RIEKER, WSJ
For Americans who aren’t rich, obtaining financial advice can be difficult, even if you are one of the nation’s top brokerage regulators.
“I was turned down by investment advisers because I couldn’t bring enough assets to the table,” Robert Colby, chief legal officer at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, revealed during the agency’s annual conference last week. Most financial advisers focus on wealthy clients because they generate higher fees and commissions. However, Mr. Colby, who worked at the SEC and law firm Davis Polk before joining Finra in 2012, gave small investors a perhaps unexpected face. His boss, Finra chief Richard Ketchum, joked that Mr. Colby’s brokers must feel “somewhat exposed” by the disclosure they wouldn’t take on a senior regulator as a client.
jlne.ws/1FvY9oZ
CFTC Requests Public Comment on a Petition by ASX Clear (Futures) Pty Limited for Exemption from Registration as a Derivatives Clearing Organization
CFTC
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (Commission) is asking for public comment on a petition by ASX Clear (Futures) Pty Limited for exemption from registration as a derivatives clearing organization (DCO).
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Remarks of Chairman Timothy Massad before the Global Exchange and Brokerage Conference (New York)
CFTC
jlne.ws/1KGhzeb
Exchanges & Trading Facilities
ICE TRADE VAULT EUROPE APPROVED BY ESMA AS TRADE REPOSITORY FOR FX DERIVATIVES
ICE
Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE: ICE), the leading global network of exchanges and clearing houses, announced today that the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) approved ICE Trade Vault Europe Limited (ICE Trade Vault Europe) to extend its Trade Repository registration for the reporting of foreign-exchange (FX) derivatives trade data. The approval meets requirements of the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR). ICE Trade Vault Europe will assume the collection of FX derivatives data, which includes futures, options and forwards, with immediate effect.
jlne.ws/1MoHcBm
Hong Kong Exchange Bets Chinese Traders Are Just as Good as High-Frequency Ones
Bloomberg Business
Hong Kong’s stock exchange is counting on hundreds of millions of mainland Chinese investors, traders and speculators to provide the liquidity that high-frequency traders supply in most other major markets.
jlne.ws/1APuZo4
Pico to Provide Nasdaq Futures Data
MarketWatch
Nasdaq and Pico, a provider of multi-asset electronic trading technologies, today announced that Pico will provide market data infrastructure to its clients to access Nasdaq Futures, Inc. (NFX), the exchange group’s U.S.-based designated contract market (DCM). Through NFX, Nasdaq will expand its commodities business with futures and options on key energy benchmarks including oil, natural gas and U.S. power, which will launch in mid-2015.
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Nasdaq, dawn raids and data centres
By Tim Cave, Financial News
On one morning in late June 2011, officers at Sweden’s anti-trust authority Konkurrensverket arrived unannounced at Nasdaq’s European headquarters in the port district of Frihamnen, some distance from Stockholm city centre.
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BATS CHI-X EUROPE REPORTS STRONGEST MONTH FOR MARKET SHARE SINCE OCTOBER 2013 WITH 24.4%; SETS ANOTHER MONTHLY MARKET SHARE RECORD IN SPANISH STOCKS; Market share rises year-on-year in 14 of the 15 markets in which the exchange operates
BATS
BATS Chi-X Europe today reported May data and highlights, including the company’s
best month since October 2013 for European equities with market share of 24.4%.
jlne.ws/1H3Eh0I
MIAX Options Exchange Rule Change Notice – FINRA Arbitration Rules
MondoVisione
FINRA has amended Rules 12214 and 12601 of its Code of Arbitration Procedure for Customer Disputes and Rules 12214 and 12601 of its Code of Arbitration Procedure for Industry Disputes.
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NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE EXPANDS SENIOR LEADERSHIP TEAM, APPOINTS STACEY CUNNINGHAM CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER
ICE
The New York Stock Exchange, part of the Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE:ICE) global network of exchanges, today announced Stacey Cunningham has been appointed Chief Operating Officer. She reports to NYSE Group President Tom Farley. Prior to serving as President of NYSE Governance Services, Cunningham was Head of Sales and Relationship Management for NYSE Group.
jlne.ws/1HMsfVy
CME Group Clearing Advisories
CME Group
Credit Event Advisory- Credit Event declared for Sabine Oil & Gas Corporation
Product Modification Summary: Delisting Australian, Canadian and Pacific Rim Weather Contracts – June 1, 2015
New Product Summary: TAS in Grain & Oilseed Products – June 15, 2015
(No Link)
CME to amend trading hours for livestock outcry options contracts
Reuters
The CME Group, the world’s largest livestock trading exchange, will amend the open outcry trading hours on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange trading floor for cattle and hog options, the exchange said on Wednesday.
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Hedge Funds & Managed Futures
Hedge fund manager John Paulson gives $400m to Harvard University
Stephen Foley, FT.com
John Paulson, the hedge fund manager famed for betting against US housing in 2007, has made the largest ever donation to Harvard University, giving $400m to expand its School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
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John Paulson Gives $400 Million to Harvard for Engineering School
By TAMAR LEWIN, NY Times
Harvard announced Wednesday that the billionaire hedge fund manager John A. Paulson had given a $400 million endowment to support the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences — the largest gift in the university’s history.
jlne.ws/1czlWvQ
Draghi says ‘get used to’ bond volatility
FT.com
Mario Draghi fuelled a sharp sell-off in eurozone bonds on Wednesday, after the European Central Bank president said debt markets had to “get used” to volatility in an era of ultra-low interest rates.
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There’s a Big Disagreement Between Bond and Stock Traders About Interest Rates
Bloomberg Business
Bond traders have a long-running reputation for being more pessimistic than their stock market counterparts, and it looks as if that disagreement is becoming more pronounced. The ratio of rates volatility to equity volatility is at a post-financial crisis high, according to a note from Torsten Sløk, Deutsche Bank’s chief international economist.
jlne.ws/1dLZ5ia
Commodities’ glut to drag on, BHP chief warns
James Wilson, Mining Correspondent, FT
Oversupply of many commodities is likely to be prolonged, the chief executive of the world’s most valuable mining company has warned in a stark assessment of the gloomy outlook for the industry.
jlne.ws/1eR1JmV
Mutual funds chase head start on hit IPOs with pre-public investing
BY TIM MCLAUGHLIN AND ROSS KERBER, Reuters
U.S. mutual funds are placing bigger bets on privately held companies to get a head start finding the next IPO superstar, a strategy that has yielded some dramatic payoffs and flameouts.
jlne.ws/1G8FhQz
Bund sell-off pushes yield just shy of 1 per cent
Michael Hunter and Katie Martin, FT
Investors intensified selling of German government debt on Thursday, sending yields on 10-year Bunds just shy of the significant level of 1 per cent, while the euro rose above $1.13 to the dollar.
jlne.ws/1eQYXOz
Man GLG reopens Harker’s Japan CoreAlpha fund
Anna Fedorova, InvestmentWeek
Man GLG is to remove investment restrictions on its flagship Japan CoreAlpha fund, citing an improvement in Japanese equity market liquidity.
jlne.ws/1eQYpZ7
AIG Sells $3.7 Billion in AerCap Stock as CEO Builds Capital
Bloomberg Business
American International Group Inc., the largest commercial insurer in the U.S. and Canada, sold $3.7 billion in AerCap Holdings NV stock in a larger-than-planned transaction as it builds capital to buy back its own shares.
jlne.ws/1APvgr3
Pimco Lays Out the New, New Normal
By PAUL VIGNA, WSJ
The new normal hasn’t gotten old yet. That was the broad conclusion of Pimco’s 2015 Secular Forum, its annual staff-wide confab in which the firm attempts to build an outlook for the next three to five years. It also included a notable roster of outside speakers, led by former Fed chair Ben Bernanke, and including former ECB head Jean-Claude Trichet, former CIA director Leon Panetta, author Daniel Yergin, and Stanford professor Anat Admati.
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Banks & Brokers
ICAP Said to Consider Circuit Breakers for Treasury Bond Trading
Bloomberg Business
ICAP Plc, which runs one of the world’s biggest electronic Treasury trading platforms, is considering circuit breakers as a safeguard against extreme volatility, according to a person familiar with the matter.
jlne.ws/1AOc9gY
Brokers were “tool in my armoury” for ex-trader Hayes, court told
BY KIRSTIN RIDLEY, Reuters
Tom Hayes, the first trader to face a jury trial over alleged Libor rate-rigging offences, told British investigators brokers in other firms became “a tool in my armoury” when they offered to help move rates for him, a London court heard on Wednesday.
jlne.ws/1IfTJWk
UBS and Deutsche defend opposing FICC strategies
By Sarah Krouse, Financial News
Executives at two European investment banks that have stood on either side of the debate over the future of fixed income trading have defended their strategies, with each claiming to have been proven right.
jlne.ws/1MoA9J5
Market-making specialist hire swells KCG’s ex-UBS ranks
By Tim Cave , Financial News
Trading group KCG Holdings has added another ex-UBS executive to its ranks, recruiting a former senior market-making executive who had until now spent his entire career at the Swiss bank, where he worked with KCG’s current European chief executive.
jlne.ws/1H3DJrZ
Judge limits JPMorgan’s liability for soured WaMu mortgages
BY JONATHAN STEMPEL, Reuters
A federal judge on Wednesday limited JPMorgan Chase & Co’s potential liability to buy back soured mortgages tied to the main unit of Washington M
jlne.ws/1FwWSNu
Clearing & Settlement
CFTC Requests Public Comment on a Petition by ASX Clear (Futures) Pty Limited for Exemption from Registration as a Derivatives Clearing Organization
The Commission is considering for the first time a petition for exemption from registration pursuant to its authority under Section 5b(h) of the Commodity Exchange Act, which permits the Commission to exempt a clearing organization from DCO registration for the clearing of swaps to the extent that the Commission determines that such clearing organization is subject to comparable, comprehensive supervision by appropriate government authorities in the clearing organization’s home country.
jlne.ws/1APsEtg
ICE Trade Vault Europe Approved by ESMA as Trade Repository for FX Derivatives – MarketWatch
Intercontinental Exchange ICE, -0.70% the leading global network of exchanges and clearing houses, announced today that the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) approved ICE Trade Vault Europe Limited (ICE Trade Vault Europe) to extend its Trade Repository registration for the reporting of foreign-exchange (FX) derivatives trade data. The approval meets requirements of the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR). ICE Trade Vault Europe will assume the collection of FX derivatives data, which includes futures, options and forwards, with immediate effect.
jlne.ws/1MoHcBm
New proposal to boost OTC derivatives market
TODAYonline
To further safeguard investor interest in the over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives market here, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has proposed a framework to regulate intermediate parties dealing in such contracts.
jlne.ws/1MoHkRj
China Swaps Rise to Four-Week High on Interbank Market Opening
Bloomberg Business
Yuan clearing and settlement banks based abroad that are permitted to trade bonds on the interbank market will be allowed to borrow through repurchase agreements, according to a People’s Bank of China statement on its website Wednesday.
jlne.ws/1MoHNmJ
Indexes & Products
ETF Mashups Are the Financial Equivalent of a Cronut
Bloomberg Business
Welcome to the era of ETF mashups, whose issuers act like Dr. Frankenstein and combine popular strategies hoping the result will be greater than the sum of its parts.
jlne.ws/1APuNVG
FTSE Russell and Johannesburg Stock Exchange Announce ESG Partnership
FTSE Russell, the global index provider, has announced it is working with Johannesburg Stock Exchange (“JSE”), Africa’s largest exchange, to develop a new environmental, social and governance (ESG) index series.
jlne.ws/1MoHZST
FTSE Russell launches dividend-focused indices
InvestorDaily
The FTSE RAFI Equity Income Index Series will track high-dividend paying stocks that are screened to target sustainable income, an FTSE Russell statement said.
jlne.ws/1MoI6hk
Full weight of MSCI’s A shares decision will depend on Beijing
Financial Review
It is not quite like waiting for white smoke over the Vatican but, for anyone investing in emerging markets, it comes close. Next Tuesday we will find out the results of the latest reshuffle of the MSCI Emerging Markets index and so will know whether Chinese A shares have been added.
jlne.ws/1MoIagX
Technology
Small Firms Shift Toward Cloud-Based Software; Many business owners increasingly want to access data from mobile devices
By ANGUS LOTEN, WSJ
Owners of small businesses, from clothing retailers to restaurants, are increasingly signing up for subscriptions to cloud-based software, representing a fundamental shift in the way they use technology.
jlne.ws/1AM3iwH
Sheryl Sandberg on mourning: ‘I want to choose life and meaning’
Chicago Tribune
Sheryl Sandberg is marking the end of a 30-day period of mourning following the death of her husband by saying “I want to choose life and meaning.”
jlne.ws/1KOuI8l
Deutsche Bank to Launch Tech Innovation Labs
Waterstechnology.com
German bank announces the opening of three innovation labs around the world. Deutsche Bank announced it will open three innovation labs in collaboration with technology partners.
jlne.ws/1G8IyPJ
Marco Polo New World launches MPFX – new direct FX market access platform
LeapRate
Marco Polo New World, a New York and London based provider to global brokers, high frequency trading firms, and other financial institutions is pleased to announce the launch of MPFX – their new platform that provides access to FX liquidity from both bank and non-bank sources.
jlne.ws/1MoLx7y
Enforcement
SEC Charges Four With Insider Trading Ahead of Secondary Offerings
SEC.gov
The SEC alleges that a former day trader living in California, Steven Fishoff, schemed with two friends and his brother-in-law to pose as legitimate portfolio managers and induce investment bankers to bring them “over the wall” and share confidential information about an upcoming secondary offering. After promising they wouldn’t disclose the nonpublic information to others or trade an issuer’s stock before an offering was announced, they violated the agreements and tipped each other about the upcoming offerings expected to inherently depress the price of the issuer’s stock.
jlne.ws/1M54V8T
RICKY JAMES HASKELL
NFA
Final Order Conditioning Registration: On June 3, 2015, a Subcommittee of NFA’s Membership Committee issued a Final Order to Haskell after a hearing was held. After considering all the evidence submitted by the parties in light of the appropriate standards, the Subcommittee found that Haskell is disqualified from registration under Section 8a(3)(D) of the Act and also found that Haskell has met the burden of showing, by the preponderance of the evidence, that subject to certain conditions his registration would not pose a substantial risk to the public. Therefore, the Subcommittee grants Haskell’s application for registration as an associated person subject to certain conditions. The Final Order becomes effective on July 6, 2015.
jlne.ws/1EY8PLB
CHAD STREIFEL
NFA
DECISION: On June 3, 2015, pursuant to a settlement offer submitted by Streifel, he was ordered not to apply for NFA membership, associate membership or principal status with any NFA Member for two years from the date of his withdrawal.
jlne.ws/1H3CvNg
Insider Traders Made Some Easy Money on Stock Offerings
Bloomberg View
One thing that I like to say about insider trading is that people think it is illegal because it is unfair, but it is actually illegal because it is theft. Unfairness is just a fact of life, and of markets: People who are better at research will do better research, smarter people will have smarter insights, people with faster computers will trade faster, etc. Random individual hobbyist investors are not entitled to trade on a level playing field with people who invest billions of dollars for a living. Much regulatory lip service is paid to the idea that they are, for reasons that elude me, but it is obviously untrue.
jlne.ws/1APuGJL
Environmental & Energy
ICE Endex Collaborates with GME and Snam to Introduce Italian Natural Gas (PSV) Futures Contracts in September 2015
Business Wire
Intercontinental Exchange, the leading global network of exchanges and clearing houses, today announced that ICE Endex expects to introduce physically delivered Italian natural gas futures contracts (Punto di Scambio Virtuale – Virtual Trading Point; PSV) in cooperation with Gestore dei Mercati Energetici S.p.A (GME) and Snam S.p.A., and in compliance with Italian law. The contract will launch on September 14, 2015, subject to regulatory approvals.
jlne.ws/1MoJ50Z
Why ADM can shrug off the EPA’s latest retreat on ethanol use—and corn farmers can’t
By JOE CAHILL, Crain’s Chicago Business
The ethanol combine suffered another setback last week, when Environmental Protection Agency officials unveiled proposed rules that cut the amount of the alternative fuel refiners must use.
jlne.ws/1KGfdvS
Glencore attacks anti-coal lobby
Jamie Smyth in Sydney, FT
Glencore has criticised global leaders for neglecting investment in “clean coal” technologies and adopting “populist policies” that ignore the world’s reliance on the fuel.
jlne.ws/1eQZoIG
China’s national carbon market: When, where and how?
By Ed King – RTCC (Responding to Climate change)
Traders are banking on Beijing’s plans for a national carbon market being a success, but challenges in its design remain.
jlne.ws/1HLHzSz
Oil majors’ climate call exposes U.S.-Europe rift on carbon pricing
Reuters
The failed attempt by the world’s oil majors to speak on climate change action with one voice has laid bare disagreement between U.S. and European companies on putting a price on carbon.
jlne.ws/1APaec5
Asia-Pacific
Hong Kong investors deal lesson in sobriety to China
FT.com
If you can keep your head when all around you are losing theirs, then you may have a future as a Hong Kong fund manager.
jlne.ws/1MoJUXu
China’s Alibaba Pictures to Raise $1.6B in Stock Sale
Hollywood Reporter
Alibaba Pictures, the film unit of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, will seek to raise $1.6 billion by selling 4.2 billion new shares in Hong Kong to help finance future media-related acquisitions.
jlne.ws/1MoJXTn
Shenzhen stocks next ‘short of a lifetime': Bill Gross
CNBC
China’s red-hot Shenzhen stocks are the next “short of a lifetime”, closely watched investor Bill Gross announced late Wednesday, however many strategists beg to differ.
jlne.ws/1MoK3dw
SGX welcomes Singapore O&G to Catalist
SGX
Singapore Exchange (SGX) today welcomed Singapore O&G Ltd (SOG) to Catalist under the stock code “41X”.
jlne.ws/1FVOhqY
Frontier Markets
“The biggest story in the history of capitalism”
Yahoo Finance
“Some people call it the biggest story in the history of capitalism, and it’s a big story. There’s a billion people joining the consumer class,” said Kevin Carter, the founder of the Emerging Markets Internet & Ecommerce ETF (EMQQ). Carter is referring to the rising middle class in emerging markets. “They’re moving up the income spectrum and as they’re moving up, they’re consuming more, better food, they’re wearing better clothing… and increasingly they’re doing that online.”
jlne.ws/1MoKZi4
StanChart’s Shankar to launch Africa-Asia private equity fund Financial Services
Zawya
The fund is intended to provide late-stage growth capital to emerging market firms looking to break into other emerging or frontier markets, added Shankar, who has been at Standard Chartered for 14 years.
jlne.ws/1MoLedc
Americans scour for assets as Iran opens up
THE DAILY STAR
Sporting a monogrammed tie in tie-less Tehran, he could not have been mistaken for a local. As an American who remembers well the U.S. hostage crisis, he might have been forgiven some skepticism about investing in Iran. But he has been struck, he said, by the “enormous, consistent love and admiration” toward the U.S. he has felt from Iranians and the “good deals” and “nice jewels” to be scooped up on financial markets long off the radar of the world’s money managers.
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Miscellaneous
Chicago Tribune cuts jobs
By LYNNE MAREK, Crain’s Chicago Business
The Chicago Tribune, the biggest metropolitan newspaper in the Midwest, is cutting its newsroom staff and shedding other workers as it seeks to shore up profits amid declining advertising revenue. Sources familiar with the situation said the company has cut about 10 employees in its newsroom, in addition to recently offering buyouts to workers in its press room in the hopes that a few will take them…
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Cargill pleased with Ohio lawsuit dismissal; State, Cargill and Morton reach settlement
Cargill said it was pleased that a lawsuit filed against it and Morton Salt by the Ohio Attorney General has been dismissed.
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