Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign welcome to the John Lothian News Daily Update podcast for December 9, 2024, where we share with you the highlights of today's John Lothian Newsletter and were irreverent but never irrelevant. I'm your host John Lothian. In today's episode, we'll explore highlights from the Hits and Takes section, the First Read section, and the top three headlines of today's JLN and more. Don't forget to subscribe to the John Lothian Newsletter and follow us on johnlothian news.com, marketswiki.com, linkedIn, Facebook, Instagram X and threads. Let's dive in. Here are the hits and takes comments from today's JLN I'm headed to New York from Florida at the end of the week and will be there on December 16th and 17th. I have not been to New York City since before the pandemic. Of course, my timing could not be worse in some regards, as the Wall Street Journal today has a story titled it has never been more expensive to visit New York City. Tourists are canceling dinner plans, seeking cheaper activities and booking rooms farther from the city center. The Financial Times has published a special report on active management, exploring various aspects of the evolving investment landscape. The report includes an article on special situations Funds Hit by Retreat from Active Investing, which discusses how these flexible funds are struggling to attract investors due to their lack of clear mandate. Another piece, Investors Weigh if Meetings or Selling Out Most Influences Green Goals, examines the debate between active and passive strategies in sustainable investing. The report also covers active ETFs gain ground on more passive benchmark trackers, highlighting the significant growth in assets and potential advantages over traditional mutual funds. Additionally, the report addresses how the rise of tech giants skews active fund portfolios, detailing the impact of major tech companies on index weightings and fund correlations.
[00:02:22] The fixed income market is becoming increasingly challenging to navigate as market participants recognize that the stable, low interest environment of the past 15 years was an anomaly. Meanwhile, asset managers are making a significant push into private assets, with many executives viewing this move as crucial for their survival in the evolving investment landscape.
[00:02:48] Anthony J. Parotta Jr. Announced the launch of Paragon Market Advisors PMA, a unique boutique advisory firm which he said aspires to change the traditional consulting model in the capital markets. In A post in LinkedIn in sports news, the baseball player Juan Soto, formerly of the New York Yankees, San Diego Padres and Washington Nationals, is going to sign the richest known contract in sports history by signing a 15 year, $765 million contract. The contract's escalator clauses could take it to $800 million, which grossly exceeds the 10 year, $700 million contract of Shohei Ohtani that has deferred money, which values the contract at $460 million. Additionally, Purdue University named Barry Odom its new head football coach. Odom had been head coach at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, UNLV for the past two years and previously served as Missouri's head coach. I had expected Purdue to hire another former Missouri coach, Matt Eberfluss, the former Chicago Bears head coach, as its new head coach. Here are the headlines from in front of Fow's paywall from some recent stories 4 top trading firms back GFO X launch in Q1 2025 ICE challenges EEX with first Japan power futures contracts SGX latest to report strong November volumes up 23% ice launches long EU Bond Future Japanese Power FOW data CFTC to discuss proposals on US treasury basis trades and analysis LSEG sees foreign exchange reorg as key to platform's push Our most read stories from our previous edition of JLN Options were OIC attends Benzinga Fintech event and receives 2024 Best in Financial Education Award from OIC.
[00:05:05] The stock market's fear gauge is trading at lows. Why Retail Investors should take note from MarketWatch Bitcoin options show traders are already hedging after a record rally to $100,000 from Bitcoin. Subscribe to the free JLN Options newsletter with a link in today's JLN Hear more stories from the First Read section of today's gln. Here's a video from our FIA Expo coverage. Chris Edmonds ICE Enhances user experience with ICE Connect Platform Intercontinental Exchange, or ice, has unveiled significant improvements to its ICE Connect platform, according to Chris Edmonds, President of Fixed Income and Data Services at ice. In a recent interview with John Lothian News At FIA Expo 2024, Edmonds highlighted the platform's evolution and its competitive edge in the market. You can watch this video on John Lothian news.com here's another video from our Expo coverage.
[00:06:11] Former prosecutor shares insights at FIA Expo event on CFTC's future enforcement approach Renato Mariotti, a former prosecutor and defense attorney, collaborated with Aventus to host a gather industry participants and legal experts at the W Hotel in the Financial District on the Monday of FIA's Expo in Chicago. Later in the week, John Lothianu spoke with the Paul Hastings attorney at FIA Expo to hear his insights on the event, the topics discussed, and the perspectives shared. Watch this video on johnlothianews.com Here's a story from the Wall Street Journal. The headline it's never been more expensive to visit New York City. Tourists are canceling dinner plans, seeking cheaper activities and booking rooms farther from the city center.
[00:07:04] There's the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, as well as ice skating at Bryant park and walking the Brooklyn Bridge. But the things that do come with a price tag are causing visitors sticker shock. This year, New York City hotel prices have hit new highs with an average daily rate of $345 in recent weeks, according to one price tracker. The city recorded its highest ever monthly rate in September, when hotels charged $417 a night. On average, hotels are fuller than a year ago, with almost nine out of every 10 rooms occupied in November, according to Costar. My comment this is the first time I have traveled to New York City by car and had to park my car there while staying in the city. It is nearly the cost of a hotel room in some small towns to park my car in New York City. Here's another story, this one from the Journal.
[00:08:05] It's not just Ken Griffin. Rich Chicago residents are losing their shirt on real estate. Wealthy homeowners in the Windy City are selling at a loss and looking for someone to blame. For nearly a decade, billionaire hedge fund magnate Ken Griffin and Illinois Governor J.B. pritzker have been locked in a highly public feud. So it came as no surprise when Griffin, after selling a portion of his Chicago penthouse for a dramatic 44% loss last month, was quick to take a shot at Pritzker, blaming failed political leadership in Illinois for rising crime and declining luxury real estate values in the Windy City. The saga took a bizarre turn, however, when the mystery buyer of Griffin's 9 W. Walton St. Penthouse turned out to be none other than Pritzker himself. My comment Reportedly Pritzker was attracted to the undeveloped penthouse because it lacked toilets.
[00:09:08] Here's another story, this one from Bloomberg. The headline A Bitcoin reserve could be the biggest Crypto Scam Yet Government crypto purchases would merely enrich current holders at the public's expense. Does the US Government need a strategic reserve dedicated to bitcoin, as President Elect Donald Trump seems to be contemplating?
[00:09:30] At risk of oversimplifying, no. In fact, the idea looks like the biggest crypto ripoff yet. Bitcoin has soared more than 50% since November 4, topping $100,000, in part on hopes that crypto advocates having donated some $135 million to Trump and dozens of successful congressional campaigns will persuade Trump to make the reserve a reality. Much depends on the details. My comment there's no good reason for a bitcoin reserve except to reward the people who helped elect you using the money they made from bitcoin by convincing other people that bitcoin was worth a lot of money. If they are looking for government handouts, they must be running out of greater fools.
[00:10:24] Here are the top three stories from Friday's jln. Our top clicked item on Friday was CFTC Staff Issues advisory related to use of Artificial Intelligence by the CFTC Registered Entities and Registrants, a CFTC press release. Second was the 28 best Christmas gifts for him from $10 to 200 from Yahoo Life. Third was the page to buy tickets for MHUB industry disruptors Matt Halzeiser and Jenny just taking place on Thursday, February 13th from 5:30 to 8pm at M Hub in Chicago. Tickets are $20. Here are the top three stories from the lead section of today's JLN. The first story is from the Wall Street Journal. The headline Young Men Are Making Risky Bets on Crypto and Politics Raking it In. Right now, markets are booming, but investments and bets that disproportionately draw young men are leaving everything else in the dust.
[00:11:28] Byron Hayes has lost so much money on meme stocks, crypto and betting that he goes by the name Financial Failure on online forums he might need to rebrand. His six figure cryptocurrency portfolio jumped more than 30% since election day. The gold he owns has increased 28% this year. The investment accounts where he trades stocks and bet on the presidential election were up around 6% in November alone. Young men hold a disproportionate share of the kinds of risky and volatile investments that financial professionals tend to warn against. Right now they are hitting paydirt, a hypothetical portfolio holding equal amounts of bitcoin gold and meme stock. GameStop and the sports betting stock DraftKings returned 62% in the first 11 months of the year. That is more than triple the returns of a traditional portfolio of 60 stocks and 40% bonds, according to an analysis by the financial firm Old Group. Here's another story, this one from the Times London Stock Exchange Boss, we must make people proud to own shares Dame Julia Hoggett opens up about her mission to save the LSE when she decided to come out at work and why she is desperate for the IPO gates to reopen. Dame Julia Hoggett is on a mission. This 5 foot 1 inch glasses wearing gay woman, her description is trying to save the London Stock Exchange. This is a critical mission, too. So far this year, There have been three times as many companies leaving the 250-year-old LSE, either through takeovers or mergers, as the new ones joining. And there is little sign of the pressure easing. An activist investor in Rio Tinto is calling on the mining giant to shift its main listing from London to Sydney, while the fast growing payments app Revolut has declared it would be more likely to list in New York than London.
[00:13:48] Here's another story, this one from Bloomberg. The headline IPOs are so passe. Here's how employees are getting rich now more than $6 billion of stock in private companies has been sold this year. For years, the biggest startup founders would dream of an initial public offering. It was the key to raising capital, drumming up attention, and rewarding longtime employees and early investors with a big payout. Not anymore. These days, many founders happily avoid the cost, disclosure requirements, scrutiny and regulations of going public. Many big startups are already well funded and famous. The one hitch their employees still want to get rich. They're finding the solution is the tender offer, an arrangement where shares are sold to a set of investors in a prearranged trade and employees and early investors can cash out some of their holdings. Elon Musk's rocket maker SpaceX and payments giant and Stripe are marquee repeat users. This podcast is brought to you by John Lothian News, the home of Markets Wiki and Markets Wiki Education. Thank you for joining us. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review on your preferred listening platform. Have a great day and stay safe and treat people the same way you want to be treated with respect, equality and justice. This has been Jon Lothian Goodbye. This podcast has been produced by Andrew Lothian.
