Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] Welcome to the John Lothian News daily Update podcast for May 6, 2024. I'm your host, John Lothian. This podcast is brought to you by John Lothian News, the home of markets wiki and markets wiki Education. Thank you for joining us. Here are the hits and takes comments from today's JLN on Friday, just as we were sending out JLN, IEX sent out a press release announcing the hiring of Brian Harkins as president and IEX co founder Ronan Ryan moving to the role of group chief operating officer. Also, IEX promoted Florian cipherer to Group chief strategy officer. This is an excellent hire by IEX. Brian is a longtime innovator and leader in the equities world and was missed greatly in the space. Congratulations to Brian and to IEX and also to Florian and Ronan on their new roles. May Day is typically celebrated on May 1, but in the UK the first Monday of May is celebrated as the May Day bank holiday. May Day is rooted in ancient traditions celebrating the arrival of spring. Traditionally, May Day observed on May 1 includes various festivities such as May pole dancing, crowning the May Queen, and Morris dancing. The holiday was institutionalized as a bank holiday in the late 20th century, providing a day off work for many people to enjoy the spring weather and partake in local customs and celebrations. The early May bank holiday is an opportunity for communities across the UK to engage in outdoor activities and celebrate the changing season. I hope my uk friends and family are enjoying the May Day bank holiday. Your company is invited to join my block, my hood, my city as a host, destination or sponsor for the July 13 city wide event to bring together 1000 young people aged 13 to 22 for an exploration of downtown. Each participant will be equipped with a $50 exploration card to spend on delicious food, cultural goods and activities such as movie screenings and a cultural concert. A contribution of $250 will support two youth, providing them with a $50 gift card to enjoy various activities and delicious meals in our beautiful downtown. For more information, go to www. Form my block.org.
[00:03:01] Downtown day the US securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, announced it has appointed Nathaniel H. Benjamin as the new director of the Office of Minority and Women Inclusion OmwI, effective May 5, 2024. Previously, Benjamin served as the chief diversity and inclusion officer at Americorps. Allison Wise, who has been acting director since October 2023, will be succeeded by Benjamin. After OIC, Cheryl, Robbie and I traveled to Beckley, West Virginia for my daughter Catherine's graduation from West Virginia University Institute of Technology with a degree in adventure recreation management. Tim was unable to join us when his plane in St. Louis developed mechanical issues and he could not make the connecting flight. Robbie flew home to Columbia, Missouri on Sunday morning. Then Cheryl and I decided to begin our return journey on Sunday as well, as storms are expected across the middle of the US today and this week we returned home late last night.
[00:04:17] Our most read stories from our previous edition of JLN Options, where CBO posts higher profit as market volatility boosts option trading from Reuters CBO annual report from CBO and society general defends risk controls after unauthorized trading incident from the Financial Times subscribe to the free JLN Options newsletter with the link in today's JLN. Here are more stories from the first read section of today's JLN. Here's a story from Reuters. Swiss national bank exploring ways to tokenize financial assets the Swiss national bank is examining the best way that financial assets can be digitally tokenized as a way of making payments more secure and efficient, chairman Thomas Jordan said on Monday. Jordan said central banks needed to decide how best to engage in the developments, which advocates say will speed up and make payments cheaper.
[00:05:18] I can remember when tokenizing things was a bad thing. Here's another story, this one from Bloomberg the headline about the t one rule making us stock trade settle in a day even in an age of instant communication and live financial data, investors still have to wait days to take ownership of the stocks they purchase or receive payment for the stocks they sell. That's about to change. Starting on May 28, us trades will settle complete the exchange of dollars for stock in one day. Rather than two us banks, brokers and investors have been forced to review all of their post trade technologies and procedures to ensure they are ready for the new pace of stock trading. That change poses a special challenge to investors outside the US who need to buy dollars as part of their stock trades. My comment 22 days to go. Are you ready?
[00:06:22] Here's a story from Golf week. The story is titled CME Group CEO moves on from last year's LPGA leadership misstep to elevate women's sport even higher.
[00:06:36] What a different a year makes one year ago, CME Group chairman and CEO Terry Duffy was exceptionally disappointed in how events outside the ropes unfolded at the CME Group Tour championship. The future of one of the most lucrative events on the LPGA schedule was uncertain after not one player showed up to Duffys Tuesday night dinner. Duffys beef was more with tour leadership than with the players.
[00:07:07] They better get their act together, Duffy told Golf Week last year.
[00:07:13] Because theyre going to lose people like me over stuff like this.
[00:07:19] My comment Terry Duffy's leadership in women's golf can overcome a dinner that no players showed up to and more. Here are the top three stories from Friday's JLN our top story Friday was the obituary for Joseph Mazurik, a longtime futures industry broker who passed away on April 28, 2024, at the age of 67, from the Katutsky funeral home. Condolences to all who knew him. Second was the Josh King ice NySE story on LinkedIn of 18 year old Luke Grettenberger of Michigan, who rang the NYSE's opening bell as a result of the Make a wish organization. Third was Cibo Global Markets reports results for first quarter 2024 from CEBa here are the top three stories from the lead section of today's JLN. The first story is from IEX mentioned earlier.
[00:08:20] Brian Harkins joins IEX co founders as group president to lead IEX commercial growth. IEX strengthens organization through new leadership appointments, seasoned exchange and capital markets executive IEX co founder Ronan Ryan steps into the role of group chief operating officer IEX promotes Florian Cipherer to Group chief Strategy Officer IEX Inc. Today announced the appointment of Brian Harkins as its president, Ronan Ryan as its chief operating officer and Florian Cipher as its chief strategy officer. Harkins is a great addition to the already strong IEXt team. With his extensive background in multi asset exchange trading, fintech and capital markets, he brings exceptional experience in advancing product development and driving growth of trading platforms. Before joining IEX, Harkins held roles as the EVP head of markets at CBO Global Markets, overseeing equities, derivatives and foreign exchange trading was the president of bids trading, the EVP and head of markets at Bats Global Markets, the chief operating officer of directedge and the chief revenue officer of Trumit.
[00:09:49] Here's another story, this one from Bloomberg. The headline zero day options boom will only grow, even as some investors fear disaster. Two years after Wall Street's love affair with fast twitch stock options began, Bloomberg's latest markets live pulse survey suggests an unprecedented boom still has room to run, even as almost half of the respondents fear an eventual blowup. With a notional value of zero days to expiration contracts tied to the s and P 500 hitting roughly $862 billion in April, almost 90% of the 300 mliv pulse respondents said they expect the growth to continue. The twist? They're about evenly split on whether it will go steadily or end in calamity.
[00:10:45] Here's another story, this one from Bloomberg. The headline at 2 million /minute treasuries meant cash like never before. With the Federal Reserve in no hurry to cut interest rates, investors are flocking back to fixed income assets in major reset for Wall street. For the first time in nearly a generation, fixed income is living up to its name. This, at a certain level, is simply the consequence of benchmark rates in the US jumping from zero to 5% in a span of two years. But at the same time, when all of Wall street seems fixated on whether the Federal Reserve will actually cut interest rates this year, and heated arguments break out over whether the ten year us bond should yield 4.5 or 4.65, it's easy to lose sight of one important fact, that after being held hostage by zero rate policies for almost two decades, us treasuries are finally reverting back to their traditional role in the economy.
[00:11:52] Were grateful for your attentive listening to the John Lothian News Daily update. Please spread the word about our podcast among your friends. We would greatly appreciate it if you could spare a moment to leave a review on Apple Podcasts or whatever platform on which you access this podcast. Your reviews play a crucial role in introducing our content to new listeners. Also, if you havent subscribed to the daily Journal newsletter email yet, you can enjoy a complimentary 90 day trial by visiting johnlothiannews.com trial. Thank you for your valued support. 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. John Lothian Goodbye. This podcast has been produced by Andrew Lothian.
