Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] Speaker A: Welcome to the John Lothian News daily.
[00:00:08] Speaker B: Update podcast for March 5, 2024.
[00:00:11] Speaker A: I am 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 in the CME Group's February 2024 volume report reflects robust growth and record breaking performance across various asset classes, driven by increased trading activity and market participation. Interest rate contracts reached a record average daily volume ADV of 17.2 million contracts, marking a 6% increase from the previous year. Equity index AdV stood at 6.6 million contracts, while options trading reached a new high with 6.4 million contracts traded across asset classes. Energy contracts saw a notable surge, reaching an adv of 2.5 million contracts, representing a 20% increase compared to February 2023. Agricultural contracts also experienced growth, reaching an adv of 1.8 million contracts, showing a 19% increase year over year. Foreign exchange AdV reached 854,000 contracts, while metals AdV stood at 587,000 contracts. Additionally, record us treasury futures and options ADV of 10.9 million contracts were observed, with substantial increases in ten year, five year, and two year US treasury note futures AdV options trading saw an 8% increase with significant growth in equity index, energy and agricultural options Adv micro products, including micro Emini equity index futures and options represented a notable portion of overall Adv. Furthermore, Brokertech US repo witnessed a 2% increase in average daily notional value ADNV to $298.6 billion, while international trading advised by 9% to 8.1 million contracts. With EMEA advice my nephew Patrick Lothian, who is JLN's head of videography, canceled his plans to come to the hall of Fame ceremony during FIA Boca as part of a long needed vacation to Florida because of the outbreak of measles.
[00:02:57] Speaker B: In parts of South Florida. This is not a Covid situation by any means, and nothing for most adults.
[00:03:04] Speaker A: Or anyone who has been vaccinated for measles or had them before to worry about. Patrick has two small daughters, one of whom is under the age when one.
[00:03:15] Speaker B: Gets the first measles vaccination, so her.
[00:03:19] Speaker A: Pediatrician recommended that the family stay home. The outbreak in Florida involves ten reported.
[00:03:25] Speaker B: Cases, with six of them in one.
[00:03:28] Speaker A: Elementary school in Broward county. The New York Post reported that the.
[00:03:34] Speaker B: US in 2024 has already surpassed the cases of measles in 2023, with 82.
[00:03:41] Speaker A: Cases reported, 41 in January and 41 in February.
[00:03:47] Speaker B: In 2023, there were 58 cases of measles in the US. The CDC said this breakout was years in the making as some counties stopped.
[00:03:58] Speaker A: Giving the vaccine during the COVID pandemic.
[00:04:02] Speaker B: The New York Post said.
[00:04:04] Speaker A: I had the vaccine as a child.
[00:04:07] Speaker B: But decided to have my resistance levels checked just in case, since some of.
[00:04:12] Speaker A: My maladies could have affected my immune system. The test I took showed that my.
[00:04:18] Speaker B: Resistance to measles is strong and I was not in need of a booster.
[00:04:24] Speaker A: So at least I have that going for me. Here's something I missed from November of.
[00:04:29] Speaker B: 2023 I was recently working on markets wiki updating Sibo and its new executives, and I noticed that John Deeters was no longer listed. Dieters is no longer with Sibo here is the Sibo filed notice with the SEC in November of 2023, and there's.
[00:04:51] Speaker A: A link for it in the newsletter.
[00:04:53] Speaker B: Effective November 6, 2023, John F. Deeter's employment as executive vice president and chief.
[00:05:00] Speaker A: Strategy officer of Sibo Global Markets, Inc. The company was terminated.
[00:05:06] Speaker B: Mr. Dieter's termination was without cause and not due to any disagreement with the Company or any matter relating to its operations, policies or practices.
[00:05:18] Speaker A: Mr. Dieters will receive severance payments and.
[00:05:22] Speaker B: Benefits pursuant to the terms of the company's amended and restated executive severance plan.
Bitcoin exchange traded funds etfs have surged.
[00:05:36] Speaker A: In popularity, contributing to a frenzy that drove the cryptocurrency's price towards a record high yesterday.
[00:05:43] Speaker B: Since their launch on January 11, investors have rapidly poured into these funds, with the total assets of the ten us spot bitcoin funds reaching nearly $50 billion. BlackRock's iShares bitcoin Trust has surpassed $10.
[00:06:00] Speaker A: Billion in assets, achieving this milestone faster.
[00:06:04] Speaker B: Than any other new ETF. Fidelity's fund, which now holds over $6 billion in assets, has become the asset manager's third largest ETF and has been a major contributor to its net ETF inflows this year, the Wall Street Journal reported. Bitcoin may be the new gold, but the old gold is having a day.
[00:06:27] Speaker A: Too, setting a new all time high.
[00:06:30] Speaker B: Yesterday with bullion rising as much as 1.3% to $2,141.79, beating the previous record.
[00:06:41] Speaker A: Of 2135 dollarsthirty, $0.09 set on December.
[00:06:46] Speaker B: 4 last year, Bloomberg reported. Bloomberg's story, shared via Crane Chicago business about Mayor Brandon Johnson's plan to carry on plans from the previous mayor for the LaSalle Street Canyon included this quote the mayor has been trying to appease the business community. After a rocky start just last week, he announced plans to boost the loop that included a Chicago board of trade museum. He also gave more than $1 million in grants to six downtown restaurants, including the storied series Cafe, where dealers used to flock in the heydays of the city's trading floors. Thank you to Steve Stasak and Cliff Heistead for contributing to the JLN Markets wiki GoFundMe campaign yesterday. Steve was featured in a John Lothian's profile video in June of 2019. Following his retirement, Matthew Sheehan is starting a new position as public relations manager.
[00:07:54] Speaker A: At Lentham and Watkins, he shared on LinkedIn.
[00:07:59] Speaker B: Laura Diorio is starting a new position as social media associate at NYSE, she shared on LinkedIn. She was previously social media coordinator at NYSE.
Niall Gibney recently moved into a new role at Euronext as head of equity.
[00:08:17] Speaker A: Sales for UK and Ireland, he shared on LinkedIn.
[00:08:21] Speaker B: He was previously head of sales for the sell side.
Julie Lynn Charlote has died at the age of 101. Who was she? She was the wife of a viscount.
[00:08:33] Speaker A: She was a former Hollywood singer, and.
[00:08:36] Speaker B: She was the creator of the poodle skirt, an embellished circle skirt that was the popular 1950s creation that became the visual shorthand for the entire decade, the New York Times reported.
The FIA responded to a public consultation issued by the International Organization of securities Commissions, or IAScO, outlining a proposed set of, quote, good practices, unquote, to promote the integrity and orderly functioning of voluntary carbon markets.
FIA commended Iasco for fostering a much needed dialogue on the issues surrounding the development of vcms. The global trade agency emphasized that listed derivatives markets have a strong track record in scaling markets for a variety of asset classes and product types, and expressed optimism that collaboration among exchanges, market participants, regulatory authorities and industry led efforts to bring greater integrity to carbon markets will contribute positively to the development of robust vcms, read the FIA response with a.
[00:09:55] Speaker A: Link in today's newsletter.
[00:09:57] Speaker B: Here are the most read stories from our previous edition of JLN options.
The first story is CME Group reports February Adv of 29.6 million contracts from CME Group. Second, low Vix caused by etfs, not.
[00:10:15] Speaker A: Option hungry day traders, says the abyss.
[00:10:19] Speaker B: From MarketWatch and third, cash market trading volumes in February 2024 from Deutsche Porsche. Subscribe to the free JLN Options newsletter with a link in today's JLN. Here are more stories from the first.
[00:10:34] Speaker A: Read section of today's JLN. Here's a story from the Wall Street Journal.
[00:10:38] Speaker B: The headline two years on Ken Griffin's plan for a Miami headquarters finally begins to take shape Citadel plans an iconic building, including a luxury hotel. Billionaire Ken Griffin made a splash when he said that his giant hedge fund firm, Citadel, was moving its headquarters from Chicago to Miami. It was the most significant relocation of.
[00:11:02] Speaker A: Any financial firm to Miami. Now, nearly two years later, a waterfront.
[00:11:07] Speaker B: Site Griffin purchased for his planned $1 billion headquarters remains empty. Citadel employees still tap away on keyboards at temporary space in the financial district, and the firm has yet to replace the developer it parted ways with last spring. My comment he should build a citadel.
[00:11:29] Speaker A: Here's another story, this one from the Financial Times.
[00:11:33] Speaker B: The headline are things going backwards for women on Wall street? Those with the chops to make it to senior management in banking may not want to sit around or wait their turn. It's been more than 25 years since the biggest names on Wall street started being hit by massive sex discrimination claims. Each time they ponied up millions of dollars. Bank leaders piously promised to make their firms more hospitable to women who wanted an equal shot at success in a high paying, mostly male industry. These days, the company that faced the most egregious allegations, Citigroup, is run by Jane Fraser, the first woman to become chief executive of a major us bank at Morgan Stanley, another company that settled 40% of total staff and 47% of its entry level hires are women. And Goldman Sachs, which paid $215,000,000 just last year to settle long running gender discrimination claims, can also brag that its most recent class of new partners was the most diverse yet, with 29% women. My comment it's not so much a step backwards for women as a chacha. It's a dance to get around the barriers in front of them.
[00:13:00] Speaker A: Here's another story.
[00:13:01] Speaker B: This is from Chris Edmonds, president of fixed income and data services at Ice via LinkedIn. The headline for fixed income asset managers a better way to reduce tracking error. Combining data science with proprietary pricing models can help meaningfully reduce tracking error.
As someone with a long career in fixed income, some seismic events have shaped my thinking about the asset class, the market upheaval of Covid-19 and more dramatically, the credit crisis of 2008. Nine each underscored what many see as a shortcoming of fixed income, a lack of transparency. It's a characteristic which reflects the sheer complexity and size of the market, where many securities are thinly traded and risk can be hard to assess on a systemic level. A dynamic which underpinned the 2008 credit crisis was this. People couldn't manage their risk because they couldn't see the risk which was there. Part of the answer to this challenge is providing access to quality data. My comment when ICE talks about data, you should listen. Here are the top three stories from Monday's JLN. Our most clicked item Monday was OCC February 2024 volume data from the OCC.
Second was finance lobby calls for bolder overhaul of wealth management Connect scheme to boost chinese investments from the South China Morning Post. And third was a tie between Bloomberg's uranium firm's revive forgotten mines as price of nuclear fuel source and South China Morning Post. Chinese state media warns against cryptocurrency trading as domestic interests surge on bitcoin rally here are the top three stories from.
[00:15:01] Speaker A: The lead section of today's JLN.
[00:15:03] Speaker B: The first story is from the trade the headline Deutsche Bors launches regulated spot platform for crypto assets targeting institutional clients named Deutsche Bors Digital Exchange. The platform will offer a fully regulated ecosystem for trading, settlement and custody of crypto assets. Deutsche Bors Group has launched a crypto spot platform for institutional clients named Deutsche Bors Digital Exchange. DBDX DBDX claims to provide a fully regulated secure ecosystem for trading, settlement and custody of crypto assets, leveraging existing connectivity to market participants. The platform will also offer a suite of secure financial solutions for digital assets from a single point of access and across the value chain.
And then here's a story from the Wall Street Journal. The headline bitcoin funds pull in money at record pace BlackRock's ETF is fastest ever to reach $10 billion in assets. Bitcoin exchange traded funds have been a smash hit, helping to feed into a frenzy that has sent the cryptocurrency's price towards a record high. Investors have piled into the funds at a historic clip since their January 11 launch, with total assets in the ten spot bitcoin funds on the market swelling to nearly $50 billion.
And then finally, here's a story from Bloomberg. The headline gold climbs to record as momentum builds on bets over Fed pivot bullion has rallied about $100 over past five sessions. Risk of stock market correction may have prompted buying gold jumped to an all time high as speculation over a Federal Reserve pivot and geopolitical risks underpinned a rally in the precious metal. Bullion rose as much as 1.3% to 2141 dollarsventy nine cents an ounce before pairing its gains. It beat the previous record of 2135 dollarsthirththirty $0.09 set on December 4 last year. Gold has added about $100 in the past five sessions, fueled by a combination of expectations for monetary easing, geopolitical tensions and the risk of a pullback in equity markets. The scale of the recent move has surprised some market watchers, who say it may be partially driven by momentum. We're grateful for your attentive listening to the John Lothian news daily update. Please spread the word about our podcasts among your friends. We would greatly appreciate it if you could spare a moment to leave a review on Apple Podcasts or whatever platform upon which you access this podcast. Your reviews play a crucial role in introducing our content to new listeners. Also, if you haven't subscribed to the Daily John Lothian newsletter, email yet, you can enjoy a complimentary trial by visiting forward slash trial.
[00:18:21] Speaker A: Thank you for your valued support.
[00:18:24] Speaker B: 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.
