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☆ Inflation is getting less hot - and the best-case scenario for stocks just played out.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The stock market just had its best day of the year. We can chalk that up to the Thursday morning inflation data that showed prices cooled faster than expected in October. Specialist trader Chris Malloy (C) gives a price to traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, October 18, 2013. As far as a single day is concerned, yesterday looked like a perfect storm for the stock market. Does the latest inflation report change your outlook on the economy or predictions for what the Fed will do next?

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☆ Factbox: Global regulatory actions against FTX
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

FTX and its local units, had already attracted scrutiny from regulators around the world. The Securities Commission of the Bahamas said on Thursday it would freeze the assets of FTX Digital Markets, the group's local unit, and also appointed a provisional liquidator for the unit. EUROPE/CYPRUSCyprus's Securities and Exchange Commission asked FTX EU to suspend its operations on Nov. 9, the regulator said on Friday. FTX announced in September it had received approval from the Cypriot regulator to operate as a Cyprus Investment Firm, allowing the company to fully own a local investment firm it had previously acquired. The local unit resumed withdrawals on Friday.

☆ FTX files for bankruptcy and Sam Bankman-Fried steps down as CEO after crypto exchange fails to secure bailout
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

FTX announced it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy along with Alameda Research and affiliated companies. Sam Bankman-Fried resigned from his role as CEO of FTX, though he will remain to assist an orderly transition. The bankruptcy includes Alameda Research and 130 additional affiliated companies, which together are called "FTX Group." FTX appointed John J. Ray III as the new CEO of FTX Group. "The FTX Group has valuable assets that can only be effectively administered in an organized, joint process.

☆ 'My hands were tied': Sam Bankman-Fried breaks his silence days after the dramatic collapse of his crypto exchange
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Matthew Fox | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Sam Bankman-Fried broke his silence days after his crypto exchange FTX International imploded in spectacular fashion. Bankman-Fried attributed FTX's collapse to higher-than-expected leverage and a waterfall of withdrawals. I thought it was way lower," Bankman-Fried said in explaining how his estimates of FTX's leverage were off by so much. Bankman-Fried said FTX is spending the week "doing everything we can to raise liquidity." But I'm going to try," he vowed, adding that he is in talks with a number of players about letters of interest and term sheets.

☆ Indonesia plans to tighten oversight of crypto market, task OJK with regulation
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

JAKARTA, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Indonesia plans to move the regulation, supervision and oversight of cryptocurrency investments to the Financial Service Authority (OJK) to better protect investors, its finance minister said on Thursday. The new plan, laid out by Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, is part of financial sector legislation that is being debated in parliament. Sri Mulyani said as of June, there were 15.1 million cryptocurrency investors in the country, an exponential rise from just 4 million in 2020. That compared with 9.1 million investors in the stock market as of June. The new bill would empower OJK to regulate and supervise "digital asset activities, including crypto assets and financial sector technology innovation," Sri Mulyani added.

☆ Sam Bankman-Fried secretly transferred FTX customer funds to Alameda Research after his trading firm suffered losses in the spring, report says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Brian Evans | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Sam Bankman-Fried transferred at least $4 billion in FTX funds to Alameda Research earlier this year, sources told Reuters. The money included customer funds as well as those backed by FTX's native token FTT and shares in Robinhood. The transfer came after Alameda suffered steep losses on crypto deals in May and June, the report said. CoinDesk first reported last week that Alameda Research held a large amount of illiquid FTT on its balance sheet, spurring speculation that the trading firm lacked sufficient liquidity. In a series of tweets early Thursday, Bankman-Fried issued a broad mea culpa regarding FTX, and said Alameda is "winding down" its trading.

☆ Crypto is a 'significantly non-compliant' market and investors need better protections as FTX faces collapse, SEC chief Gary Gensler says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Carla Mozée | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

There must be stronger protections in place for investors in the crypto market, SEC Chair Gary Gensler said Thursday on CNBC. He appeared as crypto exchange FTX was on the verge of collapse in facing a potential shortfall of up to $8 billion. The crypto industry is "significantly non-compliant," but regulations "are often very clear," said Gensler. He appeared as contagion fears have been running high in the cryptocurrency market as investors watched FTX — the third-largest crypto exchange — veer toward collapse. And if we need, going to be the cop on the beat, going into court, putting the facts and the law in front of judges."

FTX token - which gives holders discounts on FTX trading fees - was last trading at $5.33, having slumped by more than three-quarters. Tuesday's developments left FTX investors scrambling to figure out what the deal with Binance means for their investment in FTX, according to people familiar with the matter. In late 2019, Binance invested in FTX, then a far smaller exchange, before exiting the investment in July last year. By then FTX had mushroomed into a growing rival to Binance, which dominates the crypto industry with over 120 million users. "A *huge* thank you to CZ, Binance," Bankman-Fried wrote.

☆ FTX faces federal probes on handling of client funds as asset shortfall could top $6 billion, report says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-09 | by ( Brian Evans | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

FTX is facing down federal probes, which began months ago, into how it handled client funds, sources told Bloomberg. Both the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission are looking into the trading platform. Binance is re-evaluating its takeover of FTX as the gap between liabilities and assets could top $6 billion. Meanwhile, Binance is highly unlikely to move forward with its proposed acquisition of FTX amid solvency worries, Coindesk reported Wednesday. Bloomberg reported separately that Binance executives looking into FTX's financials found a massive gap between liabilities and assets that could exceed $6 billion.

☆ U.S. probes FTX over handling of client funds - Bloomberg News
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Nov 9 (Reuters) - Two top U.S. financial regulators are probing whether crypto exchange FTX.com properly handled customers' funds, and its relationship with other parts of Sam Bankman-Fried's crypto empire, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday. The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission are probing FTX.com’s relationship with its American counterpart FTX U.S. and Bankman-Fried's trading firm Alameda Research, the report said. The report, citing people familiar with the matter, comes a day after crypto exchange Binance said it would acquire FTX.com. The SEC and FTX.com did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment. Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju SamuelOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

loadingHe said Binance, the world's biggest crypto exchange, will conduct due diligence in the coming days as the next step toward an acquisition of FTX.com. By then FTX had mushroomed into a growing rival to Binance, which dominates the crypto industry with over 120 million users. FTX token - which gives holders discounts on FTX trading fees - was last trading at $5.33, having slumped by more than three-quarters. On Sunday, Zhao said his firm would liquidate its holdings of the FTX token due to unspecified "recent revelations." "A *huge* thank you to CZ, Binance," Bankman-Fried wrote.

ORLANDO, Fla., Nov 6 (Reuters) - Hedge funds have given up the ghost on a Fed pivot coming any time soon. A short position is essentially a wager that an asset's price will fall, and a long position is a bet it will rise. In bonds and rates, yields fall when prices rise, and move up when prices fall. The two-year yield on Friday hit a fresh 15-year high of 4.80%, up a staggering 80 basis points from a month earlier. They upped their end-2022 two-year Treasury yield forecast by 20 bps to 4.90%.

☆ Dollar drops as U.S. nonfarm payrolls show mixed results
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

U.S. nonfarm payrolls increased 261,000 last month, data showed on Friday. However, the unemployment rate rose to 3.7% from September's 3.5%. The odds of a 75-basis-point rise went as high as 64% immediately after the payrolls data. Despite the strong jobs data, Fed officials on Friday said a smaller rate increase is still on the table for the December policy meeting. read moreThe dollar fell 1.1% against the yen to 146.65 yen , posting losses for a third straight week.

Nov 4 (Reuters) - Even as global central banks rapidly tightened financial conditions this year, U.S. households, banks and businesses have so far been able to adapt, Federal Reserve Vice Chair Lael Brainard said as the Fed released its semiannual report on financial stability. More than half of those participating in the survey cited market liquidity and stress as a "salient risk," an issue not mentioned at all in the Fed's May financial stability report. TREASURY MARKET CONCERNS REVISITEDThe report noted deteriorating liquidity in the Treasury market, but said that overall it had functioned smoothly over the last few months. Liquidity conditions were particularly poor for older vintages of bonds - so-called "off the run" securities - and for Treasury Inflation Protected Securities, the report found. The Inter-Agency Working Group on Treasury Market Surveillance - comprising officials from the Fed Board, Treasury, New York Fed, Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission - is expected to provide an update on its progress toward enhancing the resilience of the Treasury market, the Fed said, though it did not provide a timeline for that.

☆ U.S. needs to 'put in the work' and have better crypto regulations, says CFTC commissioner
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailU.S. needs to 'put in the work' and have better crypto regulations, says CFTC commissionerCaroline Pham of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission says this will not only protect customers, but ensure that any growth in the market is compliant, fair and responsible.

☆ Analysis: With Fed in view, dollar rally dented but not quite done, investors say
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Saqib Iqbal Ahmed | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

A less hawkish-than-expected message from the Fed at Wednesday’s monetary policy meeting, however, could exacerbate the currency's recent decline. That has made investors like Paresh Upadhyaya, director of fixed income and currency strategy at Amundi US, wary of calling an end to the dollar rally. Some central banks have already delivered smaller than expected rate increases in recent weeks, including the Bank of Canada and Reserve Bank of Australia. "If the Fed pulls back that will allow (other central banks) to pull back as well," said UBS's Draho, who expects more dollar strength in coming months. Still, with the dollar near a 20-year high, further dollar gains are likely to be accompanied by increased volatility, analysts said.

☆ Breakingviews: Bank of Japan fiddles while bond market burns
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( Pete Sweeney | Thomson Reuters | Asia Economics Editor Pete Sweeney Joined Reuters Breakingviews In Hong Kong In September Previously He Served As Reuters' Chief Correspondent For China Economy | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

HONG KONG, Oct 31 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Bank of Japan (8301.T) Governor Haruhiko Kuroda is playing with forex fire. With consumer costs spiking in Western economies, the Federal Reserve has been hiking borrowing rates, but in Japan inflation remains relatively tepid and growth anemic. Annual consumer inflation, at 3%, is subdued by global standards, but it is not the kind of demand- and wage-driven price rises the Bank of Japan has been trying to deliver. The central bank already owns roughly half of the total sovereign market; its holdings of long-term government bonds have risen to 560 trillion yen ($3.8 trillion) in 2022 from 40 trillion yen in 2008. Japan’s annual consumer inflation rate was 3% in September.

☆ Bank of Japan fiddles while bond market burns
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( Pete Sweeney | Thomson Reuters | Asia Economics Editor Pete Sweeney Joined Reuters Breakingviews In Hong Kong In September Previously He Served As Reuters' Chief Correspondent For China Economy | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

chartchartA short position is essentially a wager that an asset's price will fall, and a long position is a bet it will rise. In aggregate, funds' short position of almost 125,000 contracts is the largest since November last year. But it failed to materially reduce the net speculative wager because funds also substantially reduced their long yen position. Ultimately, funds trimmed their net short yen position by only a few thousand contracts following the Sept. 22 intervention. The latest CFTC data shows they evidently felt confident enough to load up on short yen positions again.

Through Friday, CBOT soybean oil futures had risen 16% this month and Malaysian palm oil futures was up 20% as global vegetable oil supply concerns persist. Managed money net position in CBOT soybean oil futures and optionsBoth soyoil and soymeal futures notched 4% gains in the last three sessions, lifting soyoil above 70 cents per pound. Money managers in that period reduced their net long in CBOT corn futures and options by about 13,000 to 254,261 contracts. Funds’ net long in corn is larger than in the same weeks in 2021 and 2020, both of which were around 220,000 contracts. Money managers cut nearly 2,600 contracts from their CBOT wheat net short, which fell to 22,051 futures and options contracts.

☆ U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission levied $2.5 bln in fines last year
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON, Oct 20 (Reuters) - The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Thursday said it had imposed over $2.5 billion in restitution, penalties and ill-gotten gains during the fiscal year ending September 30. The CFTC filed 82 enforcement actions in fiscal 2021, with fraud cases representing the largest number of actions, the agency's data showed. More than 20% of the year's cases related to digital assets, the CFTC said in a statement. The CFTC also brought cases related to market manipulation, including its largest ever benchmark manipulation case against Glencore Agriculture B.V. and Glencore Ltd on charges of manipulation of U.S. and global oil markets. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Chris PrenticeOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

This was the fourth straight week that funds have reduced their collective bet on rising U.S. interest rates. A short position is essentially a wager that an asset's price will fall, and a long position is a bet it will rise. Funds are now holding the smallest net short three-month SOFR position since July, and it has pretty much halved in the last six weeks. There have only been 11 weeks of bigger net short positions since the contract's launch over 30 years ago. "With 2s already at 4.5% and the terminal Fed funds rate in March 2023 almost at 5%, it seems unlikely that 2s can sell-off much more in the near term.

☆ Hedge fund Three Arrows being probed by U.S. regulators - Bloomberg News
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Oct 17 (Reuters) - Crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC), which filed for bankruptcy in July, is being probed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission on whether it misled investors, Bloomberg News reported on Monday. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register3AC, CFTC and SEC did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment. 3AC was one of the more prominent crypto firms before its fall following a broad downturn in the digital currency market and the collapse of Terra blockchain. As the token's collapse spread across the broader crypto market over the following weeks, 3AC was unable to meet margin calls from its lenders and eventually declared insolvency. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Yuvraj Malik in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra EluriOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ The stock market crash is exposing Wall Street's biggest charlatans
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-16 | by ( Linette Lopez | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

In a market bubble, it's easy to confuse opportunity for genius. While many of these new investors invested wisely, a pack of them got swept up in a social-media-driven market mania. For the past decade-plus, the stock market loved this. It's really never a good sign when you see celebrities hanging around the stock market, and during the bubble they were everywhere, pumping crypto and investing in SPACs. Good information about the stock market does not come easy, and Gordon Gekko was right to say that if you want a friend on Wall Street, you should buy a dog.

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