Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] Welcome to the John Lothian News daily Update podcast for February 28, 2024. 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. The Senate finally did it on February 26, 2024. The Senate confirmed summer K. Mersinger from South Dakota as a commissioner of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, with their term set to expire on April 13, 2028. This is a new full term for the commissioner. Mersinger had previously been nominated by Joe Biden on December 15, 2021, and confirmed by the Senate to fill one of the republican spots on the CFTC Intercontinental exchange announced plans to adjust the ICE Midland WTI the HoU futures contract specifications to closely match the quality of Midland WTI crude oil as included in the dated Brent basket. Changes involved setting specific maximum contents for iron, nickel and vanadium and increasing the reed vapor pressure limit. These adjustments, effective from June 2024, aim to ensure that the crude oil quality of ICE's HoU futures aligns with the globally recognized quality standards on physical cargoes for export from the US Gulf coast to Europe. Today, trading technologies announced it has established connectivity to the European Power Exchange Epex spot, Europe's largest power exchange, via the TT platform. This new connection enables clients to trade in the european fiscal power markets on the TT platform for the first time, FIA announced. You can register for the LNC 2024 FIA's Law and Compliance Division conference taking place at the Gaylord National Resort in National Harbor, Maryland, from April 24 to 26th. Curated by legal and compliance experts, this year's program tackles important developments in markets, law and technology.
[00:02:40] The team at Wilmer Hale has published an alert titled CFTC Year in Review, 23 takeaways from 2023 and predictions for 2024. The law firm says the alert lays out 23 of our key takeaways from the CFTC's past year and offers insights on what might take place in the coming months. We project what to expect with respect to rulemaking, enforcement and policymaking in key areas like digital assets and voluntary carbon credit markets. Those contributing to the alert included Matthew B. Culkin, chair of futures and derivatives practice Elizabeth N. Mitchell, a partner Rowan Gretchen, partner Timothy F. Silva, chair, investment management practice Tiffany J. Smith, cochair of blockchain and cryptocurrency working group Dino Wu, partner, Matthew Beville, special counsel Joseph Tanner, special counsel Benjamin Lobly, senior associate, Alexandria L. Rahil, senior associate Andy V. Reynolds, senior associate Ayanna Dow, associate and Joshua Nathanson, associate. The Financial Times has a visual story titled Inside the miracle of Modern Chip Manufacturing, with the sub headline after coming up against the limits of physics, scientists are rethinking chip architecture like never before.
[00:04:22] There is a great story in the athletic, which is owned by the New York Times, about Purdue's seven foot four inch center, Zach Edie, titled Toronto tall tales of Zach Edie on the ice, the diamond and what's a Purdue Mother Nature decided to send WGN channel nine weatherman Tom skilling into retirement with a full slate of weather, as yesterday's soaring 72 degree fahrenheit high temperature led to high winds, severe thunderstorms and tornadoes in Chicagoland last night. Today, the temperatures are expected to drop to a low of 23 degrees, or eight degrees. With the wind chill, skilling can't retire soon enough.
[00:05:08] The YouTube channel Veritasium posted a video, the trillion dollar equation, 31 minutes long. The video details the history of the math that led to the black Scholes Merton equation that made options trading mainstream. It will not teach you to trade options or use the equation, which I suspect most reading this already know. What it does is show the fascinating line between physics and the trading we do today more broadly, how math jumped disciplines. It's a fun history lesson. Did you know the earliest options were bought around 600 BC on the use of oil presses? The video is well worth watching. Our most read stories from our previous edition of JLN options were traders spent over $20 billion on Nvidia options last week from the Wall Street Journal Euronext launches daily options on CAC 40 index from Euronext and BlackRock says new regime calls for more active management from Bloomberg 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. We have a sponsored content contribution from our friends at Footsie Russell Russell 2000 Index Quarterly chart book, February 2024 the Russell 2000 Index provides live index tracking with historical performance dating back to January 1984. Academic and practitioner research confirms that large cap stocks behave differently to small cap stocks and performance is variable. There are subperiods during which the Russell 1000 outperforms the Russell 2000 and vice versa. Quarterly performance assessments provide valuable data points for understanding market sentiment and us economic activity. View the report with the link in today's newsletter.
[00:07:16] Here's a podcast from Sally Duros. Six is Martina McPherson discusses the cyclical nature of ESG and new green assessment tools for small business Martina McPherson the head of ESG product management at Six, the Swiss Exchange Group, now Europe's third largest stock exchange operator, spoke with Sally Duros for the John Lothian news ESG podcast. In a wide ranging conversation, McPherson discussed her background and what brought her to Six and ESG investing and its evolution.
[00:07:56] Here's a press release from trading technologies International referred to earlier trading technologies extends energy trading capabilities with connectivity to the european intraday physical power markets on Epex. Trading Technologies International, a global capital markets technology platform provider, today announced connectivity to the European Power Exchange, or Epex spot, the largest power exchange in Europe, through the TT platform. The connection gives clients the ability to trade the european physical power markets for the first time on the TT platform. In collaboration with the large european energy supplier, TT offers the new continuous intraday power trading capability to clients globally as a fully collated service. Operating out of Paris, EpEc Spot is an independent subsidiary of the European Energy Exchange EEX, covering power markets in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Finland, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, the UK and Switzerland. Clients trading Epex spot intraday markets on TT can leverage the platform's sophisticated algorithmic and other automated trading tools, as well as its risk management capabilities across the trade life cycle. My comment brings new meaning to powering up your TT terminal. Here's another story, this one from fortune the headline JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon warns no one will be able to escape the clause of AI, and that sets it apart from.com bubble. This is not hype when it comes to artificial intelligence, there are two camps, those who are skeptical about how much AI will impact our future and those who believe it will change the world forever. JP Morgan Chase's CEO Jamie Dimon falls firmly into the latter group. Whether or not you currently work with technology. The billionaire boss of the New York based bank has even insisted that nearly all professions will get an AI makeover. My comment ask the trading floor runners and the deck holders how the change to electronic trading worked out for them.
[00:10:24] Here's another story, this one from Bloomberg. The headline Texas fires threaten nuclear weapons plant to oil refining firefighters in Texas face, quote, another tricky day, unquote, as rampaging wildfires threatened everything from oil refineries to cattle ranches after prompting an evacuation of the main U. S. Nuclear weapons assembly plant. Shifting winds may push the blazes in new directions, and humidity will stay low enough so they can keep spreading, said David Roth, a senior branch forecaster with the US Weather Prediction center. Rain and snow overnight may eventually give firefighters some help. My comment just when you thought things in Texas could not get any worse. You're proven wrong. Here are the top three stories from Tuesday's JLN our top story Tuesday was Warren Buffett says the stock market is increasingly, quote, casino like, unquote, and young investors need to remember that one fact of life to avoid the mess from Fortune via Yahoo finance. Second was Nvidia bets dominate us options market as AI fervor grows from Reuters and third was how index evolution propels further growth in derivatives from Eurex. Here are the top four stories from the lead section of today's JLN. The first story is from Barron's. The headline crypto social media scams are on the rise, state regulators warn state securities regulators are seeing a surge in technology driven scams involving digital assets and social media. The North American Securities Administrators association on Tuesday released its latest enforcement survey, reflecting cases member agencies investigated and took actions to stop in 2022. State securities regulators are on the front lines of the fight to stop bad actors from harming investors. As we often say, we are the cops on the beat, Claire McHenry, NASA president and deputy director of the Nebraska department of Banking and Finance, said in an online event discussing the report. The data in this year's report shows a tremendous commitment of resources put towards stopping schemes tied to precious metals and other commodities, digital assets and Internet and social media fraud.
[00:12:56] Here's another story, this one from Bloomberg. The headline man who laundered billions in bitcoin says bitcoin fog was a help Bloomberg Ilya Liechtenstein, one of the crypto industry's most high staked criminals, is now helping federal prosecutors in their case against bitcoin fog, one of the mixing services he said he used to conceal assets. Liechtenstein, known for the multibillion dollar bitfinex hack of bitcoins worth $3.6 billion when he pleaded guilty to money laundering last year, appeared this week in a Washington, DC trial of accused operator of the mixing service associated with dark web criminality, according to a report from Bloomberg News.
[00:13:47] And then here's another story, this one from the Wall Street Journal. The headline investing platform Webull to go public through SpAC deal the brokerage, which surged in popularity during the GameStop mania, had previously considered an IPO digital brokerage. Webull said it has struck a deal to go public through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company. Webull said it would merge with SK growth opportunities, which trades on the Nasdaq under the ticker Skgr.
[00:14:23] After the deal's closing, the combined company will be listed on the Nasdaq as Webull Webull expects to begin trading under a new ticker around September, according to Webull group president Anthony Denier. Here's another story, this one from the Financial Times. The headline traders amass a big bet on falling grain prices after bumper harvest biggest short bet in 20 years in corn, wheat and soy futures, suggests market slump could continue. Commodity traders have increased their bets on a slump in grain prices as bumper harvest led to a global supply glut of corn, wheat and soya beans. Hedge funds and other speculators have accumulated a net short position of 546,000 futures contracts across the three crops, the largest negative bet in nearly 20 years, according to the latest figures from the Kamali Futures Trading Commission. We're 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 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 haven't subscribed to the Daily John Lothian 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.
