CFTC Considers Blocking CME’s 24/7 Oil Contract Bid | John Lothian News

First Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff My appearance on CoinDesk’s The Policy Protocol with Renato Mariotti and Rebecca Rettig can be heard HERE. If you must see my poor performance on video, you can watch it HERE on YouTube. The title of the episode, which also features Kalshi’s Udesh Jha, is […]

By @JohnLothian · June 15, 2026 · 76 min read

First ReadHits & TakesJohn Lothian & JLN StaffMy appearance on CoinDesk’sThe Policy ProtocolwithRenato MariottiandRebecca Rettigcan be heardHERE. If you must see my poor performance on video, you can watch itHERE on YouTube. The title of the episode, which also features Kalshi’sUdesh Jha, is titled “Are Crypto Perpetuals Futures or Swaps? Kalshi vs. John Lothian. ”The US Supreme Court’s latest ruling in FS Credit Opportunities Corp. v. Saba Capital Master Fund delivered a significant win to Wall Street while signaling a broader shift in how federal rights can be enforced in court,Bloomberg Columnist Stephen L. Carter wrote. In a 6–3 decision written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the Court held that Section 47(b) of the Investment Company Act of 1940 does not create a private right of action for investors seeking to rescind contracts they say violate the Act, limiting that enforcement power primarily to the Securities and Exchange Commission and two narrow categories of private suits explicitly mentioned in the statute. Writing in Bloomberg Opinion, Yale law professor Stephen L. Carter notes that the outcome aligns with industry arguments warning of “chaos” if shareholders could broadly sue regulated funds, but he says the deeper story is the majority’s insistence that only Congress can authorize such lawsuits, reflecting a decades-long retreat from implied private rights of action under federal law. In dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, pointed to statutory language allowing rescission “at the instance of any party” as evidence Congress meant to let investors sue, yet Carter suggests the real fault line is over whether courts will continue to infer remedies for individuals under rights‑protecting statutes, citing last year’s decision closing the courthouse door to Medicaid patients challenging a state’s exclusion of abortion providers. For investment funds, the decision curbs shareholder litigation risk; for investors and civil-rights advocates, Carter warns, it underscores a growing possibility that key federal protections may exist largely on paper if agencies scale back enforcement and courts refuse to let private plaintiffs step in. Do you have your beach blanket ready? Andrew Hill of the Financial Timeshighlights eight standout business books for summer 2026,ranging from historical critiques of management and capitalism to urgent explorations of technology, labor and the environment. In Control Science, Henry Snow traces how managerial “market fundamentalism” has shaped work from slave plantations to modern warehouses, while Eric Ries’s Incorruptible examines why well-intentioned companies lose their principles and how some break free. Xiao Hai’s memoir Adrift in the South offers a grim, ground-level view of life in China’s factory boom, and Justin Baer’s House of Fidelity opens up the secretive Johnson dynasty behind the US investment giant. Beth Gardiner’s Plastic Inc. and Nicolas Niarchos’s The Elements of Power both probe the environmental and human costs of plastic and battery supply chains, respectively, while Gabriel Sherman’s Bonfire of the Murdochs revisits the family drama and global impact of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire. Rounding out the list, Vivienne Ming’s Robot-Proof argues that cultivating human traits such as empathy and resilience is key to thriving in an AI-transformed labor market. The Financial Times’“Business Education: Financial Training”special report spotlights how a tougher jobs market and rapid technological change are reshaping Masters in Finance education in 2026. The package is anchored by “The FT’s 2026 Masters in Finance Ranking” and“French business schools lead FT Masters in Finance 2026 ranking,”which finds ESCP at the top as more graduates “go back to school for finance masters in (a) tough job market” to bolster employability. Other features explore how“Finance students’ ‘near-peer’ mentoring raises school pupils’ financial literacy,”why“Students push business schools to beef up private markets teaching,”and which“skills young financiers will need to thrive in the age of AI,”stressing human capabilities alongside technical know-how. The series also weighs“Immersion vs flexibility: full- or part-time masters in finance,”argues in“Why finance workers need soft skills more in harder times”that financiers must become better advisers and storytellers, and explains the“Masters in Finance 2026 ranking: methodology. ”Rahul Varmahas retired from federal service after a 16-year career that included three years at theFederal Energy Regulatory Commission(FERC) and 13 years at theU. S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission(CFTC), where he most recently served as acting director of the Division of Market Oversight. In a LinkedIn post,Varma said he “thoroughly enjoyed” his time in government, emphasizing the high caliber, integrity and dedication of his colleagues and describing the collegial, supportive environment he experienced at both agencies. He highlighted the relationships he built with “smart, knowledgeable” professionals as the greatest gift of his federal career and thanked current and former coworkers as he embarks on his next chapter. CFTCChairmanMichael S. Selighas appointed Donald Battle as chief data innovation officer and J Matthew Haws as senior advisor in the Office of the Chairman and Chicago Regional Administrator,the CFTC announced. Battle joins from the SEC, where he worked on the Crypto Task Force and in the Enforcement Division’s Data Science Group, bringing expertise in data science, blockchain forensics, AI solutions, and financial crime enforcement. Selig said Battle’s skills will help the agency adapt to an evolving technological landscape, while Battle called it an honor to “help…be a force multiplier for integrity and innovation. ” Haws, a former senior legal counsel at Marex and partner at Katten Muchin Rosenman, adds more than a decade of experience advising global financial institutions on derivatives and regulatory risk, and will help drive the CFTC’s market integrity and responsible innovation agenda from Chicago. Here are the headlines from in front of FOW’s paywall from some recent stories:TT to embed ICE pricing data into new multi-asset fixed income systemCloudMargin hires Nico Busch as chief product officer amid leadership rejigLME enhances offshore renminbi collateral treatment, expands role of metal warrantsANNA reappoints Cristina Sorensen as director of management bodyICE proposes adding eight additional sovereign issuers to CDS clearing serviceLTP secures Australian license in a tokenisation pushEurex expands European derivatives trading via Payward-owned NinjaTraderSingle stock options launches dominate new listingsASX pays A$20. 5m to settle CHESS claim with regulatorRetail interest drives US options trading in APACSpaceX perps become Binance’s second most traded productMENA, Swiss fintech groups sign deal to advance cross-border collaborationCFTC issues no-action guidance on removing expiration dates for perpsGary Gensler files amicus brief against CFTC’s authority over prediction marketsICE hits new record for its European interest rate derivativesCFTC sues New Mexico over sports prediction markets crackdownHave a great day and stay safe and treat people the same way you want to be treated: with respect, equality, and justice. ~JJL*****Our most-read stories from our previous edition ofJLN Optionswere:SpaceX Options to Begin Trading on Tuesday After IPOfrom Bloomberg. Everything You Need to Know About the SpaceX Trading Debutfrom The Wall Street Journal. These SpaceX Funds Are for Active—and Brave—Traders Onlyfrom Barron’s. ~JBSubscribe to the JLN Options NewsletterHERE(it’s free). ++++Carbon Market Pioneers Recount Building a Price for the AtmosphereJohnLothianNews. comSARASOTA, FL (JLN) — JUNE 15, 2026: When John Lothian News sat down over Zoom with Richard Sandor and Paula DiPerna, the two authors of Carbon Hunters, the conversation kept returning to a deceptively simple question: how do you put a price on something you cannot see, touch, or hold?Watch the video »++++Tradier Bets on Automation, Education to Power Next Wave of TradersJohnLothianNews. comPALM BEACH GARDENS, FL (JLN) – June 15, 2026: Tradier is building its brokerage around a simple idea: better traders come from better education, and increasingly, from better automation. “Trading and education go hand in hand,” said Dan Raju, co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Tradier, in a John Lothian News Industry Leader video series interview, sponsored by OCC, at the Options Industry Conference. “You cannot have a good trading firm without coupling it with good education. ”Watch the video »++++Griffin, Ross Donate 1,200 World Cup Tickets to Florida KidsDaniel Cancel – BloombergBillionaires Ken Griffin and Stephen Ross have made a donation to pay for 1,200 tickets for children in South Florida to attend World Cup games in Miami. The donations will be made through the Florida Council of 100 group in which the two businessmen are heavily involved and be distributed to local Boys & Girls Clubs, according to an emailed statement. /jlne. ws/4fNeVev****** Noble idea to help fill some empty seats. ~JJL++++Schwab reveals surprising shift in AI fraud tacticsDamilola Esebame – TheStreetA few years ago, you could spot most financial scams by their broken grammar, misspelled logos, or generic language that felt nothing like legitimate correspondence. Charles Schwab’s financial crimes team says those distinctive signs have largely vanished, replaced by attacks driven by artificial intelligence and built around actual personal data. The brokerage published an article on June 5, 2026, in its Onward education series describing how AI has flipped fraud from a volume game into a precision operation. Its findings suggest that criminals no longer rely on casting a wide net, because the technology now helps them research and customize each attack individually. /jlne. ws/4a0wKTG****** Unfortunately, AI is not always smart enough to realize it is being used for nefarious purposes. ~JJL++++Exclusive | Charlie Javice Has Been Seeking a Pardon From Trump After Defrauding JPMorgan; The entrepreneur sold her startup Frank to the bank for $175 million and was sentenced in September to over seven years in prison for fraudAlexander Saeedy and AnnaMaria Andriotis – The Wall Street JournalThe entrepreneur Charlie Javice has been seeking a presidential pardon for her criminal conviction for defrauding JPMorgan Chase when she sold her company to the bank for $175 million, people familiar with the matter said. Javice and people close to her have looked to solicit support from people close to the Trump administration for a possible pardon, the people familiar with the matter said. /jlne. ws/4uycT5x****** What is the cost of a pardon today?~JJL++++Friday’s Top ThreeOur most clicked story Friday wasCommission of 1: A top Wall Street regulator gains new sway over crypto, prediction markets under Trump, subtitled “Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Michael Selig’s influence over Wall Street is on the rise under President Donald Trump. Not everyone is on board,” from Politico. Second wasSEC Seeks to Scrap Best-Price Rule,subtitled “The agency proposes the elimination of the trade-through rule,” from The Wall Street Journal. Third wasTrump Taps Wall Street Top Cop Clayton as Intelligence Chief,from Bloomberg. Lead StoriesCFTC Considers Blocking CME’s 24/7 Oil Contract BidNicola M White and Mia Gindis – BloombergThe US Commodity Futures Trading Commission is considering whether to block CME Group Inc. ’s bid to launch a round-the-clock oil contract, heightening tensions between the market stalwart and its regulator. CME Group Inc. announced on Thursday that it would debut 24-hour, seven-days-a-week trading in some crude and gold futures contracts. The news caught the US derivatives regulator by surprise, a senior agency official said, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential deliberations. /jlne. ws/3S9G95lChina tees up digital payments system to compete with dollar; Beijing’s cross-border currency platform will be backed by central banks of Hong Kong, Thailand, UAE and Saudi ArabiaJoe Leahy and Cheng Leng – Financial TimesChina is getting ready for the commercial rollout of a digital currency programme that could reshape cross-border transactions, reduce reliance on the dollar and draw Beijing closer to its “Belt and Road” trading partners. The Beijing-led platform, known as mBridge, is backed by the central banks of mainland China, Hong Kong, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. A Hong Kong-based entity will be set up to oversee its operations, people familiar with the matter said. /jlne. ws/49ZXmUOGermany seeks Deutsche Börse exemption from EU supervision; Stock exchange would have option to remain under domestic authority as part of new EU markets regimePaola Tamma and Anne-Sylvaine Chassany – Financial TimesGermany has secured an exemption for Deutsche Borse during talks between the EU’s biggest economies over shifting supervision of large stock exchanges from national regulators to the Paris-based European Securities and Markets Agency. The German exchange group would retain the option to remain under the authority of its national regulator as part of plans recently agreed between Berlin, France, Italy, Poland, Spain and the Netherlands to overhaul supervision of financial markets. /jlne. ws/4vepZX1China slams Indonesia investment climate over nickel curbs; Regulatory changes could threaten $50bn of investment, embassy warnsA. Anantha Lakshmi and Diana Mariska – Financial TimesIndonesia’s top investor China has warned that $50bn of investments in the country could be at risk from policy changes that it says stand to disrupt the huge nickel industry in south-east Asia’s largest economy. Chinese companies dominate Indonesia’s nickel industry, which has expanded rapidly in recent years on growing demand for the mineral critical to manufacturing stainless steel and EV batteries. Jakarta controls more than two-thirds of global refined nickel supply. /jlne. ws/3QHOqNmSingapore to launch gold clearing system in bid to become precious metals hub; City-state seeks to shake up trade dominated by London, New York and SwitzerlandOwen Walker – Financial TimesSingapore will launch an over-the-counter clearing system for gold this year, along with a vault service for central banks, as the city-state attempts to establish itself as a global trading hub for precious metals. Several international banks, including JPMorgan, Deutsche and DBS, will take part in the system, deputy prime minister Gan Kim Yong said on Monday morning. /jlne. ws/3S0EJtVASIC Says ASX Agrees to Pay Fine Over Misleading Chess StatementCarmeli Argana and Ainslie Chandler – BloombergASX Ltd. admitted that a 2022 statement about its clearing and settlement system replacement was misleading and will face a A$20. 5 million ($14. 5 million) penalty, Australia’s securities regulator said, resolving legal proceedings tied to the project. The exchange exposed market participants to the risk of financial harm by saying that the upgrade of its Clearing House Electronic Subregister System, known as Chess, was “progressing well” in February 2022, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission said Monday. The regulator and ASX will ask the Federal Court to find that the company contravened the law, impose the fine and order the firm to pay A$3 million toward ASIC’s costs. /jlne. ws/43wH8yWKalshi Builds AI Agent to Stress-Test Prediction Market BetsEmily Nicolle – BloombergKalshi Inc. has developed its own AI agent to help deal with a number of internal processes, including some of the thorniest issues it faces around the wording of its prediction market contracts. The company has been using the tool — known internally as Harrison — to help avoid hiccups on the millions of wagers it handles every day on the outcomes of events like elections, sports games and award ceremonies, co-founder Luana Lopes Lara said in interview. /jlne. ws/3S9A0pNCoalition sues to block Kentucky prediction markets tax; Kalshi, Crypto. com, Polymarket, and others argue the charge is unconstitutional, unfairly targeted, and overridden by federal lawQuartzA coalition of prediction market operators filed a lawsuit in state court challenging a first-of-its-kind Kentucky excise tax on prediction market transaction fees, according to The Associated Press. Passed by the Kentucky General Assembly this past April, the 14. 25% tax drew a legal challenge from the Coalition for Fair Markets, whose members include Kalshi, Crypto. com, and Polymarket. Central to the complaint is a comparison with what the plaintiffs describe as a “favored incumbent industry”: horse racing, which faces only a 9. 75% tax on wagers, according to the AP. /jlne. ws/4uyL25aWarsh’s debut Fed press conference may reveal his strategy for inflation, ratesHoward Schneider – ReutersNew Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh has talked at length in recent years about the U. S. central bank’s balance sheet, the need to say less about interest rates and why it should not dip into issues like climate change. A Fed press conference on Wednesday, though, will mark his first substantive comments from the chairman’s perch about what’s happening with inflation, unemployment and the economic outlook as he makes a rhetorical turn from the abstract words of a policy analyst to ‌the concrete, potentially market-moving words of the world’s most important central banker. /jlne. ws/49XeGKbSBJ Betting: ‘Rules of the road’ coming for prediction marketsSports Business JournalHere’s a must-watch interview if you’re following the prediction markets kerfuffle. Gary Gensler, who led the CFTC from 2009-14 and more recently chaired the SEC, asserts that Congress never intended for the agency to regulate sports betting when it extended its powers under Dodd-Frank Wall Street reforms in 2010. He filed an amicus brief supporting state shutdowns of Kalshi in the 6th Circuit on Thursday afternoon. /jlne. ws/4eICkf9Michael Selig Is Reshaping U. S. Crypto Policy as Sole CFTC Commissioner | Bitget NewsBitgetMichael Selig has been the CFTC chairman for less than six months. In that time, he has approved the first regulated Bitcoin perpetual futures contract, moved to vacate a Biden-era settlement with Gemini, pulled back on crypto enforcement actions, and challenged multiple states trying to crack down on prediction markets. He has done all of this as the sole sitting member of what is legally supposed to be a five-person bipartisan commission. The remaining seats are empty, giving Selig unilateral authority over everything from Kalshi and Polymarket to oil futures to the entire $2 trillion crypto market. /jlne. ws/4xm38KBSpaceX and OpenAI Are Ending Wall Street’s Era of Stock ScarcityLu Wang and Carmen Reinicke – BloombergFor the better part of two decades, a defining feature of the US stock market has been scarcity. Year after year, shares disappeared from public hands, with buybacks by S&P 500 companies alone erasing nearly $12 trillion worth. Now, investors are about to discover what happens when the supply suddenly comes rushing back. According to JPMorgan Chase & Co. , IPOs, secondary offerings and other share sales are poised to add roughly $1. 5 trillion of stock to the US equity market over the next two years, even after accounting for buybacks. If realized, it would mark the strongest period of net equity issuance since at least the late 1990s. /jlne. ws/4alk2iHOil Executives Are Sounding the Alarm Over Dwindling StockpilesCollin Eaton, Benoît Morenne and Michael R. Gordon – The Wall Street JournalPresident Trump’s deal with Iran is set to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, but how quickly it can arrest a steep decline in oil stockpiles will determine the trajectory of energy prices in the coming weeks. For more than 15 weeks, the U. S. and other countries around the world have had to dip into oil tanks, salt caverns and strategic reserves to make up for the millions of barrels of oil trapped behind the strait. Now, the stocks are nearing critical levels, and energy executives say without an influx of more oil, prices will have to surge to stop the run on supplies. /jlne. ws/4vOd0LmTrading Technologies and ICE Data Services Reach Agreement for ICE Market Data and Reference Data to Power New TT® Fixed Income EMSTrading TechnologiesTrading Technologies International, Inc. (TT), a global capital markets technology platform services provider, announced today that it has entered into an agreement with ICE Data Services, which is part of Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), to use its foundational evaluated prices and reference data in TT’s new buy-side Fixed Income execution management system (EMS). Additionally, TT will offer ICE’s “Continuously Evaluated Price” (CEP) market data feed to TT clients. /jlne. ws/3QffaERThe Supreme Court Handed Wall Street a Win With Bigger StakesStephen L. Carter – Bloomberg OpinionWall Street is likely breathing a bit easier after the US Supreme Court’s ruling last week tightly restricting the ability of anyone but the federal government to sue regulated investment companies. Yet for all the attention the decision has garnered in the financial press, I suspect that the six justices in the majority and three in dissent weren’t really arguing over lawsuits between investment funds, but over the looming demise of a related line of cases — one that lets individuals sue under federal laws protecting basic rights. /jlne. ws/4eHJnWhThe inescapable return of an old financial framework; Understanding both the ‘sources and uses’ of investible capital will become paramount as competition for funds risesMohamed El-Erian – Financial TimesWhen I began my career in economics and later finance, the “sources and uses of funds” exercise was an analytical anchor. Whether assessing a country’s balance of payments or evaluating how markets meet sovereign and corporate needs, maintaining an analytical handle on capital supply and demand was essential. It helped identify structural imbalances before they led to market disruptions, enabling policy and portfolio adjustments. This approach was sidelined during a long era of abundant liquidity. In the run-up to the 2007-8 great financial crisis, capital markets functioned as all-out liquidity and credit factories, delivering wave after wave of financing that pushed leverage and debt to unsustainable levels. When that regime collapsed, it was replaced by a prolonged period of extraordinary central bank balance sheet expansion and floored interest rates. Even as this regime hits an inflation wall, endogenous private-sector liquidity has been rushing back in. /jlne. ws/4a2I3uzHow a warning from Amazon led the White House to shut down Anthropic’s Mythos modelBeatrice Nolan – FortuneA warning from Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy, concerns about unauthorized Chinese access, and cybersecurity fears all reportedly led the Trump administration to cut off foreign access to Anthropic’s powerful new AI model, Fable 5. According to multiple media reports, Jassy first raised concerns about the model with senior administration officials on Thursday after Amazon researchers used a series of prompts to get the Mythos-class model to provide information about cyberattacks that was supposed to be restricted. /jlne. ws/4vH5dPmHow Kalshi’s Lopes Lara Turned Kylie Jenner Gossip Into BillionsEmily Nicolle – BloombergWhen prediction markets were little more than an idea on Wall Street, Kalshi Inc. co-founder Luana Lopes Lara found inspiration in an unlikely place: the womb of Kylie Jenner. It was early 2018 and the internet was abuzz with speculation as to whether Jenner, the reality TV star-turned-cosmetics-founder, was with child. Lopes Lara was interning at Five Rings, a New York trading firm, learning the art of making markets. She asked her peers what they thought of the hype — sensing an opportunity to create a novel wager — but none of the other interns had even heard of Jenner. /jlne. ws/44buVzOTrade War and TariffsGlobal imbalances need not lead to trade wars; The world’s benign arithmetic will turn malign if countries do not adjustHélène Rey – Financial TimesFor almost two decades, global imbalances were small enough to ignore. That reprieve is over. In 2025 the US ran a current account deficit of 3. 6 per cent of GDP, and China’s surplus climbed back above 3 per cent of output, propelled by a goods trade surplus approaching $1. 2tn. The euro area remains in persistent surplus, and America’s net liabilities to the rest of the world have reached an extraordinary 90 per cent of GDP. These are numbers that history teaches us to respect, and the G7 has rightly taken notice. President Emmanuel Macron has placed the restoration of balanced and sustainable growth at the heart of France’s G7 presidency; my colleagues and I have set out the diagnosis and the cure in a memo. /jlne. ws/4e9Lq5pMacron maintains France will not bend to Trump over digital taxJohn Irish and Sybille de La Hamaide – ReutersPresident Emmanuel Macron said France would not bow to pressure from President Donald Trump and scrap its digital tax on U. S. tech giants, hours before the two meet at a summit on Monday. Before ‌setting off for the G7 leaders summit, which Macron is hosting on the shores of Lake Geneva, Trump warned that the U. S. would “have no choice” but to apply 100% tariffs on French wine unless Paris eliminated its digital tax. /jlne. ws/4e9lC9wFrench wine exporters say Trump’s latest tariff threat is bad newsReutersFrench wine and spirits exporters said on Monday U. S. President Donald Trump’s threat of 100% tariffs ‌on French wine and champagne was bad news for an export-dependent industry caught in a dispute beyond its control. Trump warned the United States would “have no choice but ⁠to charge a 100% tariff on all champagnes and all wines coming out of France”, unless Paris scraps a digital tax of 3% on U. S. tech giants. /jlne. ws/3S8ijacWorld ConflictsWall Street Is Gaining Access to New Catastrophe Models to Help Predict WarsGautam Naik – BloombergAs Wall Street races to incorporate war into its risk scenarios, the same people modeling natural catastrophes are now adapting their methodology to help investors, banks and insurers predict military conflicts. Since 2008, the number of countries engaged in external conflicts has nearly doubled to just over 100, while the economic impact of violence now stands at almost $22 trillion, according to the Institute for Economics and Peace. That’s equivalent to more than 10% of the world’s gross domestic product. /jlne. ws/4em2XWSUkraine InvasionKyiv Comes Under Russian Attack Hours After Putin-Trump CallOlesia Safronova – Bloombergmissile attack early Monday, hours after Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump held a phone call. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said apartment buildings in several parts of the city were set ablaze and Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, a historic former monastery in the capital’s center, was also hit. About 140,000 households were without power due to the “enemy attack,” Klitschko said on Telegram. /jlne. ws/4uUWAQNRussia damages historic Kyiv cathedral in massive missile strike; Firefighters seen battling flames at Unesco-listed Dormition Cathedral after Moscow’s overnight attackFabrice Deprez – Financial TimesRussia has attacked Ukraine’s capital with a massive barrage of missiles and drones, damaging a 950-year-old cathedral and monastery, just hours after an hour-long phone call between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. At least five people were killed and 34 injured in the attack on Kyiv, Ukrainian authorities said. They also published images of debris from what they said was a Russian Geran-2 long-range drone that struck the cathedral, setting its roof on fire. /jlne. ws/3SGiREcRussia bombards Kyiv with drones and missiles, sets fire to historic cathedralDavid Brennan – ABC NewsRussian drones and missiles targeted Kyiv in a major attack on Sunday night, Ukrainian officials said on Monday morning, killing several people in the capital and setting a fire at a historic cathedral and UNESCO world heritage site. At least five people were killed and 28 people injured by the strikes on Kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in posts to social media. Zelenskyy said that Russia launched more than 60 missiles at the capital. /jlne. ws/4eu9hf5Ukraine Targets Russian Chemical Plant, Fuel Depot in StrikesGreg Sullivan – BloombergUkrainian forces targeted a Russian fertilizer and chemical plant in the Tula region and an oil storage facility in the Yaroslavl region, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, the latest in a series of strikes deep within Russia. The Azot plant in Tula carries out operations critical to Russia’s explosives capabilities, Zelenskyy said Sunday on X. Tula region Governor Dmitry Milyaev said wreckage from a drone fell on the territory of an industrial plant in Novomoskovsk, and the nature of the damage was being assessed, the Interfax news service reported. /jlne. ws/4eJeXmBMiddle East ConflictDeal is reached to end Iran war and Trump orders stop to US naval blockadeMunir Ahmed, Julia Frankel, Abby Sewell And Will Weissert – Associated PressThe United States and Iran have reached an agreement to end the war and open the Strait of Hormuz, offering relief to the global economy more than three months since fighting began. Full details of the deal were not immediately available. The signing will be Friday in Switzerland. /jlne. ws/4vOx68bTrump Leaves the Hard Part for Later in Long-Awaited Iran DealEric Martin and Jen Judson – BloombergThe US and Iran needed more than two months of fitful, strained negotiations to agree on a deal to halt their fighting and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Now comes the hard part. /jlne. ws/3SbgxozFertilizer Ships Face Long Backlog Even If Hormuz ReopensEleanor Thornber – BloombergAn interim US-Iran deal to end their months-long war and potentially fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz is unlikely to immediately ease fertilizer flows as shipowners wait for more details to assess the safety of transits. A vital conduit for global commodity trade, Hormuz has been effectively closed since the first strikes on Iran at the end of February. Even once there is more clarity on the resumption of trade through the waterway, market watchers expect movement of the crop nutrients to be gradual as hundreds of vessels stranded in the region — carrying a variety of cargo — compete for access. /jlne. ws/4xqimOJA fragile Iran peace follows a war without victors; Trump’s deal reflects the failure of the military option in IranGideon Rachman – Financial TimesWhat better way to celebrate a peace deal than with a cage fight on the White House lawn? Donald Trump has always had a strong preference for performative conflict over prolonged violence. Now, he finally has his long-heralded agreement to end the war with Iran. But any peace is likely to be fragile. However Trump chooses to sell it, the deal that is scheduled to be signed in Geneva on Friday is not a permanent settlement. It is an extension of the current ceasefire for 60 days — allowing the Strait of Hormuz to reopen gradually and the US blockade on Iran to be lifted. There is a promise to resolve nuclear issues through negotiation linked to a pledge for a phased lifting of sanctions on Iran. /jlne. ws/4eqm41WTrump gets the peace deal he wants and rages against Israel’s Netanyahu: ‘He has no f—ing judgement. I let him know that’Jim Edwards – FortunePEACE! Iran deal: Oil down, stocks up, world exhales President Trump, Iranian officials, and Pakistani mediators have all said publicly that a deal has been reached to end the conflict in the Middle East. Stocks in Asia and Europe rose on the news as the price of oil fell. Few details have been made available as to what, exactly, is in the deal. Here’s what is being reported this morning:/jlne. ws/4glBXcCPalestinian death toll tops 73,000 despite ongoing Gaza truceSouth China Morning PostThe Palestinian death toll from the Israel-Gaza war has surpassed 73,000, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, as Israeli military operations continue despite a stalled and fragile ceasefire in place since October. Israel says it is targeting Hamas and other militants who pose a threat, and in response to ceasefire violations, including occasional attacks. Nearly 1,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the start of the ceasefire, the health ministry said on Sunday. Five Israeli soldiers have been killed since the truce. /jlne. ws/4vbv95RTrump’s Iran Deal Set to Draw Scrutiny From Allies at G-7; Allies have yet to see the text of pact aimed at ending a war that has weighed on the global economyAlexander Ward and Robbie Gramer – The Wall Street JournalPresident Trump is set to arrive in France on Monday having just announced a peace deal with Iran that the public hasn’t seen and is likely to dominate high-stakes discussions with allies. Trump will spend three days in Evian-les-Bains for a summit of the Group of Seven leading nations nominally about technology, trade and global economic imbalances. But the high-level discussions are certain to center on the interim agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, lift the U. S. blockade and pause the war for at least 60 days, leaving thornier negotiations about Tehran’s nuclear work for future technical talks. /jlne. ws/3SGg2TAOther ConflictsGermany and Japan Are Rearming Again, 80 Years After World War IIJim Tankersley and Javier C. Hernández – The New York TimesIn 1940, the imperial regimes of Germany and Japan joined what would be known as the Axis powers, bound by mutual opposition to the United States. They fought a world war, and they lost it, and their populations spent the next 85 years with shrunken militaries and a heavy reliance on their former enemy, America, for security. Now, both countries’ wariness of America has resurfaced, alongside heightened fears about a surging world power, China, and an aggressive Russia. Tokyo and Berlin are rushing to rebuild their militaries. And, once again, they are strengthening ties. /jlne. ws/4xvY8TuExchanges, OTC & ClearingASX admits to misleading on CHESS software upgrade, agrees to $14. 5 million penaltyNichiket Sunil and Jasmeen Ara Islam Shaikh – ReutersAustralia’s ASX admitted to making misleading statements regarding the progress of a troubled software upgrade on Monday, while agreeing to pay a penalty of A$20. 5 million ($14. 50 million), subject to the Federal Court’s approval. The Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC), the country’s corporate regulator, sued ASX in August 2024, alleging that statements made in 2022 about the ⁠previous Clearing House Electronic Subregister System (CHESS) project, which was scheduled for launch in 2023, misled the public. /jlne. ws/4epaGDBASX settles ASIC legal proceedingsASXASX Limited today announced it has settled proceedings brought by ASIC in relation to statements made in 2022 on the status of the previous CHESS project. ASIC commenced civil proceedings against ASX in August 20241 alleging three statements that were made in 2022 regarding the previous CHESS project were misleading and contravened ss 12DA and 12DB of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001 (Cth). Under the agreement with ASIC, ASX admits that it contravened these provisions of the ASIC Act when it made the “progressing well” representation. ASIC is no longer pursuing allegations of misleading statement in relation to representations the Project was “tracking to the Published Plan” and “Tracking to Go-Live in April 2023”. /jlne. ws/3So04gQCBOE bags SEC approval to offer extended trading hours for select multi-listed equity optionsMSNCboe Global Markets (CBOE) has secured the approval of the Securities and Exchange Commission to begin offering extended trading hours for select multi-listed equity options. The company’s options exchange plans to begin offering the extended trading hours on July 13. The new trading hours will include a pre-market session from 7:30 AM ET to 9:25 AM ET and a post-market session from 4:00 PM ET to 4:15 PM ET, Monday to Friday. /jlne. ws/3SHajwNEurex Derivatives Now Live on NinjaTrader For European TradersDeutsche Börse GroupEurex has today announced that a selection of its benchmark European derivatives are now available to European traders on the NinjaTrader platform. NinjaTrader, a Payward company, is a global leader in retail futures and trading technology. The launch is the latest deliverable of the larger strategic partnership between Deutsche Borse Group and Kraken, which aims to give professional and retail traders unified access across traditional and digital asset markets. It follows the integration of 360T’s FX liquidity into Kraken and the launch of xStocks on 360X. /jlne. ws/43BrlPqEurex benchmark derivatives become available to European traders on NinjaTraderMaria Nikolova – FX News GroupEurex today announced that a selection of its benchmark European derivatives are now available to European traders on the NinjaTrader platform. The launch is the latest deliverable of the larger strategic partnership between Deutsche Borse Group and Kraken, which aims to give professional and retail traders unified access across traditional and digital asset markets. It follows the integration of 360T’s FX liquidity into Kraken and the launch of xStocks on 360X. /jlne. ws/4uGdv9oGlobal Exchanges See Divergent Performance In May Amid Record Trading Volumes, Reports Mondo VisioneMondovisioneGlobal exchanges experienced a paradoxical month in May 2026, with record-high trading volumes failing to translate into stock price growth for many operators. According to the latest data from Mondo Visione, macroeconomic anxiety and political uncertainty are overshadowing strong transactional activity, causing a significant divergence in exchange performance. The FTSE Mondo Visione Index, which tracks the performance of listed exchanges and trading platforms, closed May at 97,274. 04 points, a 3. 4% decrease from its April close of 100,734. 89 points. This dip occurred even as markets saw unprecedented trading activity. /jlne. ws/4vQGLLDHQ AMÉRICA Joins BME Scaleup on June 17BME Bolsas y Mercados EspañolesThe BME Scaleup Management Committee has approved the listing of HQ AMERICA SOCIMI on June 17, following a review of all documentation submitted by the company and the issuance of a favorable evaluation report by the Market Coordination and Listings Committee. /jlne. ws/4eIOwgPMatador Enhances Capital Markets Presence with Listing on SIX Swiss ExchangeBME Bolsas y Mercados EspañolesMatador Secondary Private Equity AG (“Matador”), a Swiss company specialized in secondary private equity investments, commenced trading today under the ticker symbol SQL. Based on an reference price of CHF 3. 85 per share, the market capitalization of the company’s listed shares stood at approximately CHF 57. 7 million. /jlne. ws/3QiCi5oBorsa Istanbul: Announcement Regarding The Update Of BIST Market Cap Weighted Stock Indices MethodologyMondovisioneClick for the Announcement. Click for BIST Market Cap Weighted Stock Indices Methodology, track-changes format. Click for Latest Version of the BIST Market Cap Weighted Stock Indices Methodology. /jlne. ws/4ejcBJSPartner Perspectives: J. P. Morgan’s Alessia Frontalini on Credit Index FuturesDeutsche Börse GroupAs Credit Index Futures continue to reshape the landscape of credit derivatives trading, Eurex is proud to spotlight the voices of our most influential partners. In this exclusive series, we sit down with leading market participants from firms that have played a pivotal role in the development, adoption, and evolution of Credit Index Futures at Eurex. /jlne. ws/4uGlsLDLME Clear enhances CNH cash and warrants as collateralThe London Metal ExchangeLME Clear has today announced enhancements to its margin collateral services. Members will now benefit from more flexibility and efficiency in their use of Offshore Renminbi (CNH) and Warrants as Collateral. The amount of CNH that can be held as collateral by each member has been increased by 50%. This change follows an increase to the interest paid on CNH held as collateral that was introduced in October last year to make the use of CNH more attractive and increase options for members. The revised interest rate will be retained until at least the end of 2026. /jlne. ws/4vUTpJHStrong Momentum in Fixed Income Markets: Switzerland Has Become a Core Funding Hub GloballySIXThe fixed income primary market at SIX Swiss Exchange is experiencing exceptional momentum in 2026. Following a record year in 2025, activity has accelerated further, with May marking one of the strongest months in recent history. In a new interview, Stefan Bosshard, Senior Manager for the Fixed Income Primary Market at SIX Swiss Exchange, explains what is driving this development. /jlne. ws/4uQGJTjTradeweb Launches TARA, an AI-Powered Research Assistant for Institutional Credit TradingTradewebTradeweb Markets Inc. (Nasdaq: TW), a global leader in electronic trading across asset classes, today announced the launch of TARA (Tradeweb AI Research Assistant), a conversational AI-powered assistant designed to help institutional U. S. credit market participants transform trading data into actionable real-time market intelligence and trading insights. /jlne. ws/4owD1wzWiener Börse AG With Record Result – Austria’s Capital Market Potential Still To Be DevelopedMondovisioneWiener Borse AG has closed the 2025 financial year with record figures, confirming its successful growth trajectory as the region’s key capital market infrastructure. This momentum was driven by the Austrian equity market, which reached new record highs and outperformed major international indices by a significant margin. In 2025, the stock exchange group recorded three new listings on the direct market plus for SMEs and two IPOs on the Prague Stock Exchange. With the planned registration of the direct market plus as an EU SME Growth Market, the Vienna Stock Exchange is further facilitating access to the capital market for SMEs, subject to regulatory approval. In the debt listing sector, Vienna Stock Exchange underpinned its position as Europe’s most active listing venue with around 31,500 primary listings in 2025. /jlne. ws/4uv1wvbNotice on Trading Adjustments for the Dragon Boat Festival 2026SHFEAll related parties,In accordance with the Trading Schedule during National Holidays for Year 2026, Shanghai Futures Exchange (hereinafter referred to as “SHFE”) hereby notifies the trading adjustments for the Dragon Boat Festival 2026 as follows:/jlne. ws/4uAy72GFinTechCloudMargin Appoints Nico Busch as Chief Product Officer, Announces Senior Organisational Changes to Position for FutureCloudMarginCloudMargin, the only collateral and margin management solution purpose-built for the cloud, announced today the appointment of Nico Busch, a veteran capital markets, fintech and data product executive, as Chief Product Officer, effective today. The hire coincides with a series of senior management organisational changes and promotions designed to help the firm capture new opportunities in the marketplace, including AI-native products and services. /jlne. ws/49X5ipVCarmen Li’s Plan to Build a Futures Market for ComputeJoe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway – Bloomberg Odd Lots podcastWhen we spoke to DRW’s Don Wilson last year, he talked about building out a GPU market that might be bigger than oil. Now, a year later, he is working with Carmen Li to do just that. Li is the CEO of two companies — Silicon Data and Compute Exchange (where she works alongside Wilson). The former company is building the index for GPU pricing while the latter is a spot marketplace for GPU procurement. Today’s episode — recorded at our live show at City Winery in New York — gets into how Li is building a whole new market for GPUs at her two companies. We talk about the challenge of standardizing compute, GPU price volatility, if used GPUs are like used cars, what goes into constructing a GPU index, and what it means to win the GPU lottery. /jlne. ws/4osDX4RThe MENA Fintech Association and Swiss Fintech Association Forge Strategic Alliance to Accelerate Global Fintech Integration, Cross-Border Innovation, and Ecosystem EmpowermentLauren Towner – Fintech FinanceWHY THIS MATTERS: The global fintech narrative is rapidly shifting from domestic scalability to international interoperability. As markets mature, the most significant barrier to growth is no longer local capability, but the regulatory gridlock that prevents seamless expansion across borders. By linking the MENA region—a burgeoning hub of capital and adoption—with Switzerland’s mature, sophisticated banking infrastructure, this partnership signals a vital move toward deeper regulatory harmonization. This initiative goes beyond simple networking; it aims to establish a standardized framework for digital finance that allows startups to scale across continents without hitting localized barriers. For stakeholders, this indicates a pivot toward “global-first” fintech strategies, where proximity to high-growth markets and mature financial centers is becoming the new competitive edge in the race to capture international market share. /jlne. ws/4v6mC4cCoders Were Tech’s MVPs. Now They’re Fighting to Stay in the Game. From living the high life to a career adrift, software workers cope with sudden vulnerabilityKonrad Putzier – The Wall Street JournalAfter Christopher Pack earned a master’s degree in computer science in 2022, he immediately landed a software job in California’s Bay Area. Hiring was booming. His tech degree felt foolproof. Four years later, the 27-year-old has grown much more wary about his future. “I feel like I got on the last plane out of Vietnam,” Pack said, even though he has managed to hold on to his job. “I don’t think I can plan for a normal-length career, at least in this field. ”/jlne. ws/3S8mgvyArtificial IntelligenceAnthropic scrambles after Trump administration freezes its top AI models; Export controls on Fable and Mythos raise doubts over how US will police the most powerful AI systemsMadhumita Murgia, George Hammond and Rafe Rosner-Uddin and Joe Miller – Financial TimesThe Trump administration’s decision to force Anthropic to suspend its most advanced AI models, days after the $900bn company released them to the public, has blindsided the AI industry and raised questions over Washington’s approach to the technology. The Department of Commerce on Friday imposed export controls on Anthropic’s newest models, Fable and Mythos, barring foreign nationals from using the technology and prompting the company to suspend both systems for all users. /jlne. ws/4v6ucM9Anjney Midha’s Plan to Radically Lower the Price of ComputeJoe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway – Bloomberg Odd Lots podcastAnjney Midha wrote the first check to Anthropic. He teaches a viral course at Stanford on how AI works. And he was, until recently, a partner at a16z. In other words, he is AI-industry royalty. Midha’s new project is AMP PBC, a company that believes it can radically lower the price of compute. To accomplish that, he is working on building a compute grid that turns GPUs into a standardized utility. But right now, compute is too fragmented. It’s too heterogeneous. And given the way contracts are structured, he says that labs are being forced to spend money on capacity that often goes unused. In other words, small labs are forced to pay up for big, long-term contracts, even though their own demand (particularly during model training) may be very spiky. On this episode, Midha explains how the market for compute currently works and why he believes there’s a software solution that could significantly improve compute utilization. /jlne. ws/3Qfr3KZExclusive | Anthropic Sued Over Limits on Its $200-a-Month AI Plans; Federal lawsuit alleges the company oversold usage allowances on its priciest Claude chatbot tiersHarriet Torry – The Wall Street JournalA consumer is demanding that Anthropic reimburse customers of its priciest artificial intelligence subscription plans, alleging in a new lawsuit that the company oversold the usage allowances it offered. A federal lawsuit, filed Monday on behalf of Washington, D. C. -based customer Karl Kahn, claims that the maker of Claude AI misled consumers about the usage limits of its premium “Max 5x” and “Max 20x” subscription plans. The suit is seeking class-action status on behalf of individuals like Kahn who have purchased the plans since April of last year. /jlne. ws/3QmygZyAnthropic Dispatches Staff to D. C. , Racing to Resolve AI Export Restrictions; Startup seeks a deal to end export restrictions that led to shutdown of its most powerful AI modelsAmrith Ramkumar and Robert McMillan – The Wall Street JournalAnthropic is racing to resolve its latest conflict with the Trump administration, meeting with officials and dispatching top technical staff to Washington over the weekend in pursuit of a deal to end export restrictions on its most powerful artificial-intelligence models. The Trump administration on Friday banned foreign governments, companies and individuals from using Anthropic’s Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models, which prompted Anthropic to shut off access to everyone in order to comply. Anthropic said at the time that many foreign governments, companies and individuals, including some foreign-born Anthropic employees, fell under the restriction. /jlne. ws/4uv6xE1BlockchaintZERO Provides an Update on Its IP Portfolio Enforcement and Highlights Additional Patented Inventions Supporting the Evolution of Tokenized Capital MarketstZEROtZERO Group, Inc. , a leader in blockchain-based financial infrastructure since 2014, today provided an update on enforcement actions it has recently taken as part of its on-going strategic review of its intellectual property assets. The company is also highlighting additional patent families from its intellectual property portfolio that support regulated digital asset securities and tokenized financial markets. On April 30, 2026, tZERO provided an update on its portfolio review and information about a subset of its 105-patent strong portfolio, highlighting 10 patents across 5 families, including Self-Enforcing Security Token Compliance System, Upgradable Security Token Architecture, Splittable Security Token Structure, Federated PII Service for Broker-Dealers, and Crypto Integration Platform. /jlne. ws/3S4FMsNCybersecurityFinancial losses from scams hit £1. 3bn a year as criminals turn to AIKevin Peachey – BBCCases of fraud in the UK have surged with criminals using AI to manipulate people and even marrying victims of romance scams to steal more money. More than four million cases in which money was lost were reported last year – the equivalent of nearly eight on average every minute, according to new figures. The total has increased by more than one million in two years, with almost £1. 3bn stolen by scammers in 2025, according to an annual report by UK Finance. /jlne. ws/4osOn4DUK consumer losses as a result of financial fraud hit 4-year high in 2025; Figures will intensify pressure from banks for government to force tech groups to crack down on fraudulent activityMartin Arnold – Financial TimesUK financial fraud increased last year, driving losses to a four-year high despite recent reforms to tackle the problem by requiring refunds for consumers who are tricked into transferring money to criminals. Rapid growth in investment scams, romance fraud and ecommerce hoaxes pushed up overall losses from UK financial frauds by 4 per cent last year to £1. 28bn, according to data provided by banks and payment companies to trade body UK Finance. /jlne. ws/4en5WhBCrypto Token’s 50% Wipeout Shows Magnitude of AI-Hacking ThreatDavid Pan – BloombergWhen Eli Ben-Sasson helped create the Zcash cryptocurrency nearly a decade ago, the cryptographer worried about human adversaries. He didn’t expect that machine intelligence would one day expose a flaw that had eluded years of expert human judgment. That reality rattled investors recently after a security researcher working with Zcash used Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4. 8 to uncover a critical vulnerability that had gone undetected for more than four years. After Zcash disclosed the flaw on June 4, the token — which traded at far higher levels just weeks earlier — tumbled about 50% as traders reassessed the security of one of crypto’s most prominent privacy networks. /jlne. ws/4emnWJ5CryptoKalshi, Polymarket and other prediction market platforms jointly sued Kentucky over a 14. 25% trading tax｜Kalshi, PolymarketChainCatcherAccording to Abcnews, several prediction market platforms including Kalshi, Crypto. com, and Polymarket have formed an alliance and filed a lawsuit in state court this Friday, attempting to block Kentucky’s newly implemented 14. 25% prediction market transaction tax. This tax was passed by the Kentucky legislature in April of this year, targeting transaction fees on prediction market platforms, with a rate of 14. 25%, which is higher than the local horse racing industry’s tax burden of about 9. 75%. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit claim that the tax is discriminatory, unconstitutional, and may conflict with federal law. /jlne. ws/4vSDR9meToro exploring acquisitions amid push into traditional banking services; Digital trading platform could apply for banking licenceLaith Al-Khalaf – Financial TimeseToro is eyeing multiple acquisitions and plotting an expansion into traditional payments services that could see it apply for banking licences. The Nasdaq-listed trading firm is working with investment bankers to buy two businesses “soon” according to the group’s chief executive and co-founder Yoni Assia. Assia said the intended targets were wealth-technology businesses, with one in the US and another elsewhere. /jlne. ws/43Azjs0Taurus Welcomes FalconX to Taurus-NETWORK to Enhance Liquidity and Financing SolutionsTaurusTaurus, a global leader in digital asset infrastructure for banks and financial institutions, announced that FalconX, a leading institutional digital asset prime brokerage, has joined Taurus-NETWORK, the institutional interbank settlement and collateral system for digital assets. As a member of Taurus-NETWORK (“TN”), FalconX will provide liquidity and financing solutions to other network members globally through the network’s infrastructure. FalconX will also support the development of new use cases across collateral management, lending and borrowing, as well as derivatives. This strategic collaboration allows Taurus-NETWORK participants to connect with FalconX for liquidity and financing solutions, further expanding institutional access and streamlining engagement across the digital asset ecosystem. /jlne. ws/4uC90wCPoliticsThe ‘Potential Risks’ of AI Singled Out in Draft G7 StatementAlberto Nardelli – BloombergThe Group of Seven leaders will “further discuss emerging opportunities and potential risks arising from AI, notably in the financial sector,” according to a draft statement seen by Bloomberg that’s subject to change. France’s Emmanuel Macron is hosting fellow G7 leaders in French Alpine town of Evian this week. Reaching consensus around communiques is no longer a priority given divisions with the US on issues from trade to climate. The focus has been to get US President Donald Trump to attend. /jlne. ws/3Qq7GidTrump’s many unhappy returns; No kings. No The Rock. No gratitude. Jemima Kelly – Financial TimesIt is a special day. Donald Trump is celebrating his 80th birthday, while the putatively democratic republic over which he reigns supreme is celebrating its 250th. To mark the twin milestones, the octogenarian-in-chief has chosen the obvious tribute: a cage fight on the South Lawn of the White House in front of several thousand people. In a stirring tribute to America’s immigrant heritage, the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s “Freedom 250” spectacular is set to be headlined by a Brazilian, a Georgian, a Frenchman and a half-Mexican American who will punch, kick, throw down and choke one another inside an octagon-shaped chain-link cage until one of them can bear it no longer. But the pomp and circumstance at the family-friendly event does not stop there: in the name of gender equality, the six “bouts” of human cockfighting will also feature a bevy of “octagon girls” clad in resplendent red, white and blue hot pants and bustiers, as previewed in lads’ mag Maxim. /jlne. ws/4vjhEkYU. S. AdministrationTrump’s critical minerals pricing plan faces skeptical G7, divided industryJulia Payne and Ernest Scheyder – ReutersThe Trump administration’s push to boost critical minerals production by regulating prices is facing skeptical G7 allies and a divided mining industry, with negotiations for a Western trading bloc stumbling over concerns about the plan’s cost and governance, according to diplomatic sources and a Reuters analysis of corporate policy recommendations. First proposed by U. S. Vice President JD Vance in February, the trading bloc aims to help the West wean itself off China, which became the world’s largest minerals producer by operating at a loss and dampening prices for the building blocks of semiconductors, computer servers, military equipment and myriad other products. /jlne. ws/4vbt9unTrump Again Picks Personal Lawyer for a Top Job, as U. S. Attorney in ManhattanMaggie Haberman, Benjamin Weiser and Alan Feuer – The New York TimesPresident Trump said on Saturday that he would nominate James M. McDonald to be the next U. S. attorney in the Southern District of New York, again choosing one of his personal lawyers for one of the nation’s most powerful legal positions. Mr. Trump praised Mr. McDonald, pointing to his extensive credentials. He is “a former Assistant U. S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York, and served as Director of Enforcement at the U. S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission during my First Term,” Mr. Trump wrote. Mr. McDonald was also a law clerk to Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. /jlne. ws/3QsDGCiTrump’s Iran Truce Has the Hallmarks of DefeatMarc Champion – Bloomberg OpinionA deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz is set for signature on Friday, and Donald Trump is already congratulating himself on being the first US president to have made peace with Iran since the country’s 1979 revolution. That’s wrong. He is the first to have taken America to war with Iran, and therefore the first to have needed a truce to stop one. The peace his predecessors sought and failed to achieve has yet to come. /jlne. ws/4vmR0awU. S. CongressAI Deepfakes Are Getting Weirder and Harder to Spot in the Midterms; Wave of fake videos and ads fuels worries about misinformationAmrith Ramkumar – The Wall Street JournalPolitical campaigns are employing artificial intelligence in a range of campaign ads to elevate candidates and attack opponents, fueling concerns that the wave of fake content will undermine the midterm elections. In recent weeks, one video portrayed Texas Senate candidate James Talarico singing a rendition of “My Favorite Things” praising transgender children, while another showed Mike Rogers, a Michigan Senate hopeful, as a Hulk-like figure rescuing people from a collapsing building. There also was a viral video of Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt as Batman saving the city from an incumbent depicted as the Joker. /jlne. ws/4vcY0XuCanadaCanadian Prime Minister Mark Carney says US AI restrictions underscore risks of dependence/apnews. com/author/rob-gillies – – Associated PressCanadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Sunday U. S. restrictions on Anthropic’s newest AI models show the dangers of overreliance on a limited number of American providers. AI giant Anthropic said Friday it has taken its latest artificial intelligence models, known as Fable 5 and Mythos 5, offline to comply with a directive from the Trump administration to prevent their use by foreign nationals. /jlne. ws/4e8WqzZUnited KingdomScottish Bonds to Create ‘Financial Referendum’ on IndependenceGreg Ritchie, Georgia Hall and Laura Avetisyan – BloombergThe Scottish government is for the first time giving the bond market a say over the risks of the nation breaking away from the UK. The semi-autonomous administration in Edinburgh plans to sell its debut bonds — nicknamed kilts after the UK’s gilts — in the coming months. For the ruling Scottish National Party, which supports breaking up the three-centuries old union with England, it’s a way of getting investors and bankers to deal directly with Scotland rather than via Westminster — and by extension making them more comfortable with the idea of secession. /jlne. ws/4e8AoNQThe winners of Brexit; Even in a decade marked by economic damage, some players have thrived from the disruptionPeter Foster and Madeleine Speed and Andy Bounds – Financial TimesThe overwhelming consensus among economists is that Brexit has damaged the UK, hitting goods exports and curtailing business investment. Yet the upheaval also created some winners. As the 10th anniversary of the Leave vote approaches, the FT identifies some of those who gained from the UK’s departure from the EU — despite, and often because of, the wider losses. Not all of the beneficiaries are British, nor are they as promised by the Leave campaign. /jlne. ws/4xw82obBritain’s return to the EU is only a matter of time; There are no alternatives the people would favour. Increasingly, they know itMartin Sandbu – Financial TimesA decade ago next week, the people of the UK decided to leave the EU. Shortly after the referendum, I wrote the following: “The UK will no longer have a seat at the table where Europe’s policies are made, but it will continue to be at the mercy of those choices as much as before . . . I predict that within a decade, the powerlessness of this position will become painfully obvious; and that within two, the UK may be set on a course back into the EU. ”/jlne. ws/4veb6UBUK ban on TikTok and YouTube will make children ‘happier’, says Keir Starmer; PM announces that he expects ban on under-16s using some platforms to be in place early next yearJim Pickard, Chris Smyth and George Parker – Financial TimesSir Keir Starmer has unveiled a ban on under-16s using social media platforms including Snapchat, YouTube and TikTok, insisting that it would “make our children happier” and “change the conversations” that parents have with their children. The prime minister announced the measure on Monday, as he sought to cement his policy legacy in the face of a potential leadership challenge from Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham. Burnham hopes to win a by-election on Thursday and replace Starmer as prime minister later this year. /jlne. ws/4eqsL44European UnionGerman Bank Chief Warns Rising Extremism Threatens InvestmentKamil Kowalcze – BloombergThe head of Germany’s state development bank warned that a rising tide of political extremism poses a threat to foreign investment in Europe’s biggest economy. The far-right Alternative for Germany has moved to the top of polls in the country, with support that could give it governing power in an eastern German region later this year. Stefan Wintels, the chief executive officer of the Frankfurt-based KfW, said surging support for parties on the political fringes risks putting off international investors. /jlne. ws/3SqoczoSwitzerland Rejects Proposal to Cap Population at 10 MillionBastian Benrath-Wright – BloombergSwitzerland rejected a proposal to cap its population at 10 million people, as warnings about economic damage if the radical measure was introduced outweighed concerns about immigration. In a national ballot on Sunday, 55% of Swiss voted against the idea, according to the government. Some 45% backed the initiative. The ballot on Sunday was the culmination of months of campaigning during which right-wing groups said Switzerland’s rapidly rising population is causing overcrowding and straining the country’s resources. The population isn’t too far off their proposed limit, having risen by almost 2 million this century to 9. 1 million. /jlne. ws/4ecKYn6Regulation & EnforcementBond Investor Ken Leech Pleads Guilty to Obstructing SEC Probe; Prosecutors accused former chief investment officer of Western Asset Management of leading a cherry-picking fraud schemeJoseph De Avila – The Wall Street JournalLongtime bond investor Ken Leech pleaded guilty in connection with a cherry-picking investment-fraud case just days before he was set to go to trial. Leech, the former chief investment officer of Western Asset Management, pleaded guilty Friday to a single new charge of obstructing a regulatory proceeding. His federal trial in New York’s Southern District was set to start Monday. /jlne. ws/3SbwXgHAppeals court upholds FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s fraud convictionLarry Neumeister – Associated PressA federal appeals court has upheld the conviction of cryptocurrency entrepreneur and FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried, finding that the 2023 trial that led to his 25-year prison sentence was not unfair. The 2nd U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said Friday the government’s evidence against the once high-profile player in the cryptocurrency industry was “conservatively stated, robust. ”/jlne. ws/4ux8K21Predictably, Sam Bankman-Fried’s Fraud Conviction Appeal Has Been DeniedLawrence Bonk – EngadgetA federal appeals court has upheld the fraud conviction of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, according to Reuters. Bankman-Fried was convicted of running one of the largest financial frauds in history, involving his crypto-exchange FTX. He was also convicted of money laundering and is currently in prison. /jlne. ws/4oA8JJ9US lenders brace for results of Trump regulator’s probe of alleged politically driven account closuresSaeed Azhar, Nupur Anand and Chris Prentice – ReutersBig U. S. lenders are bracing for further public scrutiny over whether they improperly closed customer accounts as a top watchdog wraps up a review that is expected to name and shame banks and result in disciplinary action, said several people with knowledge of the matter. /jlne. ws/4vdlegoLawsuit challenges constitutionality of Tennessee’s new tax on overseas money transfersAudrey Mayer – Yahoo NewsA lawsuit is challenging the constitutionality of a new Tennessee law requiring a fee on some money transfers sent overseas. Gov. Bill Lee signed HB2502 into law just last month. The law places a tax on some financial transactions sent from Tennessee to a location outside the United States. /jlne. ws/4gfmkn2CFTC’s Selig: ‘Clear standards’ coming for sports prediction marketsSports Business JournalThe 267-page rules proposal that the CFTC released Wednesday regarding prediction markets largely deals with a “public interest” test that the commission wants to apply to contracts now traded in areas once declared out of bounds for the suddenly popular derivatives. As part of 2010 regulatory reforms that expanded CFTC oversight of the contracts created as hedges against risks such as drought, Congress approved a “special rule” allowing the agency to prohibit those in five emerging areas that it saw as problematic, or even toxic: terrorism, assassination, war, gaming and illegal activity. /jlne. ws/43CSq4JFailed SpaceX IPO Allocation Prompts Korea to Widen Mirae ReviewYoukyung Lee – BloombergSouth Korea’s financial watchdog has expanded an inspection of Mirae Asset Securities Co. to examine the brokerage’s failure to secure an allocation of SpaceX shares in the company’s initial public offering, according to people familiar with the matter. Mirae Asset, one of the IPO’s underwriters, had offered access to the stock to select investors. But it ultimately received no shares. The Financial Supervisory Service had already begun inspecting the brokerage last week to determine whether investors who signed up for the SpaceX shares met eligibility requirements for registered professional investors, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is not public. /jlne. ws/3S9xccfGerman Prosecutors to Seek UniCredit Communications on Commerzbank OfferKarin Matussek, Sonia Sirletti and Arno Schuetze- BloombergUniCredit SpA and Commerzbank AG descended deeper into hostilities as the Italian lender continues its takeover pursuit of the German rival, with both sides accusing the other of distorting information and both appealing to regulators to step in. German prosecutors are also getting involved in an effort to seek details of UniCredit’s statements to the regulator BaFin over allegations that its disclosure on the status of its takeover proposal may have misled markets, a spokesman for the prosecutors said. No probe has been opened. /jlne. ws/4vOhMZgPolice seize HK$7. 2m of drugs, target syndicate recruiting using online gamingMatthew Cheng – South China Morning PostHong Kong police have arrested four men and seized 9. 5kg (20. 9lbs) of suspected drugs worth about HK$7. 2 million (US$918,850) in a case involving two mainland Chinese men allegedly recruited by a syndicate through online gaming platforms. Police said on Saturday that the operation began on Thursday, when officers intercepted a suspicious 21-year-old man from the mainland who attempted to flee in Tsim Sha Tsui. /jlne. ws/4uCtANuCFTC Sues New Mexico as the State Becomes the Latest Attempting to Infringe on Federal JurisdictionCFTCThe Commodity Futures Trading Commission today filed a lawsuit in federal court against the state of New Mexico, seeking to block the state’s efforts to apply state gaming laws against CFTC-registered contract markets. Just last week, New Mexico filed a lawsuit in a state court against CFTC-registrant KalshiEX LLC, alleging that its prediction market offerings amount to unlawful online sports betting while attempting to “evade state gaming laws. ” The state’s complaint seeks injunctive relief to halt Kalshi’s operations within its borders and to prevent Kalshi from further offering sports-related event contracts. /jlne. ws/4xsNXPLCFTC Issues No-Action Letter for DCMs Converting Existing Perpetual-Style Digital Commodity Futures into True Digital Commodity Perpetual FuturesCFTCThe Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Division of Market Oversight today announced it has issued no-action relief to designated contract markets seeking to convert their existing perpetual style digital commodity futures contracts into true digital commodity perpetual futures. /jlne. ws/4vINKWSSEC Appoints John Moses as Director of the Office of Investor Education and AssistanceU. S. Securities and Exchange CommissionThe Securities and Exchange Commission has appointed John Moses as Director of the agency’s Office of Investor Education and Assistance, which provides services and resources to help investors build their financial futures and protect against investment fraud. /jlne. ws/4xkYMTQSEC Obtains Default Judgment Against Santos Kidd for Role in Alleged Fraudulent Real Estate Investment SchemeSECOn June 1, 2026, the U. S. District Court for the Western District of Texas entered a final judgment by default against Santos Kidd, whom the Securities and Exchange Commission previously charged for participating in an alleged fraudulent mobile-home investment scheme. /jlne. ws/4fMqlzgSEC Obtains Final Judgment as to Former Registered Representative Charged with Defrauding CustomersSECOn June 1, 2026, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas entered a final judgment as to Rajesh Markan in connection with the SEC’s civil enforcement action against him. /jlne. ws/4uzMGneASIC permanently bans Abdullah Popal from financial services and creditASICASIC has made two orders permanently banning Abdullah Popal of Rouse Hill NSW from engaging in financial services and credit activities, following fraud convictions. On 11 February 2026, Mr Popal was convicted of two counts of dishonestly obtaining a financial advantage by deception and was sentenced to 12 months of imprisonment to be served by way of intensive correction in the community. In addition, Mr Popal was ordered to perform 220 hours of Community Service Work. /jlne. ws/43Bw6bKASX admits misleading conduct relating to CHESS replacement projectASICASX Limited (ASX) has admitted that its 10 February 2022 market announcement which stated that the CHESS replacement project was “progressing well” was misleading and exposed market participants to the risk of financial harm. ASIC and ASX will ask the Federal Court to find that ASX contravened the law, impose a penalty of $20. 5 million, and order ASX to pay $3 million towards ASIC’s costs. /jlne. ws/4vn3pLCOpening Speech by Mr Gan Kim Yong, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry, and Chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, at the 9th Asia-Pacific Precious Metals Conference on 15 June 2026MASWe meet at a time when the global economic landscape is becoming more contested and fragmented. a. Capital and goods continue to move across borders, but they now do so amid greater geopolitical uncertainty, sharper policy divergence, and heightened concerns over resilience and security. b. In this environment, trust becomes a form of infrastructure. c. Global investors, including institutional and high-net-worth investors, are not only looking for yield and liquidity. They are also looking for places where assets can be held safely, transacted reliably, and governed transparently. /jlne. ws/4g5ivB1Investing & TradingRetail investors face tighter limits than funds in SpaceX IPO flippingSabrina Valle and Echo Wang – ReutersIndividual investors in the SpaceX (SPCX. O) IPO hoping to quickly sell their shares for a profit face stricter conditions than large funds over the practice known as flipping – and risk losing access to hot future listings such as OpenAI and Anthropic if they run afoul of these limits. Platforms like ‌Fidelity, Robinhood, E*TRADE and SoFi restrict small investors from selling shares within 15 to 30 days of trading. Penalties range from temporary bans to participate in future IPOs to a permanent platform ban. /jlne. ws/3S0iyEaWall Street Veteran Says S&P Traders Miss Mounting Policy RisksGeoffrey Morgan – BloombergNo matter how rosy Wall Street’s expectations on the economy have been lately, they generally underestimated the reality, supporting risk-on moods that propelled the stock market advance. That pillar of support may be dwindling soon. A model developed by Jim Paulsen, a closely followed investment industry veteran, shows months of elevated crude prices and bond market volatility will soon start to slow economic momentum. That may be a hindrance to the S&P 500 Index that has added $9 trillion in value since late March. /jlne. ws/4oNfac9SpaceX IPO adds a dash of volatility to index-investing recipeSuzanne McGee and Lewis Krauskopf – ReutersLast week’s stock market debut of Elon Musk’s SpaceX (SPCX. O) is forcing providers of equity indexes to reconcile two often-conflicting objectives: Do they stick to their inclusion rules or revise them to reflect changes in the market they are targeting? Financial advisers and asset managers agree that both goals can be in the interests of investors – but navigating the tension between the two ‌requires forethought about the risk tolerance and appetite for volatility implicit in indexing decisions that have often been presented as one-size-fits-all. /jlne. ws/4e9efPrETFGI Reports Accelerating Growth In Use Of Gold ETFs In India Driven By Retail Investors And Strategic Allocation DemandMondovisioneETFGI, reports the latest industry data from India highlights a clear divergence in growth profiles, investor composition, and usage between Gold ETFs and non‑gold ETFs, underscoring their distinct but complementary roles within portfolios. In March 2026, nearly 42. 2% of the assets invested in gold ETFs were held by high-net-worth and retail investors, source from Association of Mutual Funds in India. ETFGI, is a 14 year old leading independent research and consultancy firm renowned for its expertise in subscription research, consulting services, 6 annual ETFGI Global ETFs Insights Summits, and ETF TV on global ETF industry trends. (All dollar values in USD unless otherwise noted. )/jlne. ws/4oqZv1ISocial Security faces steep cuts. These senators want to bet on stocks and $27 trillion in debt to save it—but ‘the gamble does not always pay off’Jason Ma – FortuneLawmakers have long known that Social Security faces a day of reckoning but have dodged any reforms that would cut benefits, hike taxes, or do both. The dilemma gained more urgency when new projections this month showed that the Social Security trust fund will run out of money sooner than previously thought, meaning benefits would face a 22% cut by 2032 unless adjustments are enacted. For years, revenue from payroll taxes has been insufficient to fund current benefits, and the trust fund covered the gap. But once it runs out, Social Security will only be able to distribute what comes in. /jlne. ws/4vcWxAsEquity Funding Squeeze Driven By AI Rally, SpaceX IPO Stretches BanksYiqin Shen and Bernard Goyder – BloombergThe cost to fund US equity positions is surging unexpectedly, as a combination of the AI-driven stock rally, the massive growth of leveraged ETFs and SpaceX’s $75 billion public listing tests Wall Street’s market plumbing. The financing spreads embedded in S&P 500 Index futures, or what an investor pays to gain economic exposure to the index without having to put up all the money, have climbed sharply over the past few weeks. That’s opened the biggest gap to Treasury financing rates since late 2024 when stocks and crypto surged after the US election. /jlne. ws/4oqmzxCESGHow geopolitics is driving Japanese energy investments in ScotlandJeremy Grant – The ScotsmanDrive south from the village of Nigg at the entrance to the Cromarty Firth and a picture unfolds that’s typical of the coastal Highlands: sheep grazing in neatly cropped fields and flocks of geese gathering for winter at the water’s edge. A little further on, however, the outline emerges of vast, hangar-sized buildings spread across 400,000 square metres and various large quaysides. /jlne. ws/4fGH5rBInvestment firms join Donald Trump’s $100bn race for Venezuelan oil; Lionheart Capital and Keo Energy create Nasdaq-listed company to pursue assets in Latin American nation. Jamie Smyth and Antoine Gara and Joe Daniels – Financial TimesUS investment groups are racing to capitalise on Donald Trump’s ousting of communist leader Nicolas Maduro in January, setting up funds and targeting underutilised oilfields in the Latin American nation. Lionheart Capital, a Miami-based investment fund founded by Ophir Sternberg, is among the early movers. It has signed a letter of intent aimed at merging its publicly listed affiliate Lionheart Holdings with Keo Energy, a group with oil assets in the Maracaibo Basin in northwestern Venezuela. /jlne. ws/3S8wHz6Opinion | The Tiny Solar Panel That Could Change AmericaRobinson Meyer – The New York TimesIt’s not so easy to harvest the sunshine if you live in America. Homeowners can hire someone to install solar on their rooftops, but it can take many years for it to pay for itself. You might be able to buy a share in a nearby solar farm, but only if you’re lucky enough to live in a place where community solar is available. If you live in an apartment or condo, forget it — in many states, you have no options at all. But that might be changing soon in more than half the country. A technology — known as plug-in, balcony or garden solar — is already enormously popular in Germany, in part because you can buy a kit for less than $600 at IKEA. It’s a small solar panel system, often producing up to 1,200 watts of electricity, or a little more than a refrigerator consumes, that you can affix to a wall, hang on a railing or prop up in a garden — and then plug directly into a wall socket. With the help of a small device called a micro inverter, it pumps electricity into your household circuits to offset your power demand. /jlne. ws/4ozyaL6Electrification jumps up corporate agenda after energy crisis, survey finds; Security and cost concerns elevate business push for overhaul of power systemsAttracta Mooney – Financial TimesGeopolitical instability has made electrification more urgent for four in five business executives responding to one of the biggest corporate polls since the Middle East energy crisis. The struggle to absorb energy charges has thrust the issue up the agenda for companies focused on how to electrify their operations cost-effectively. /jlne. ws/4owc3VGChina Moves the Price of Oil, Even When It Buys LessLisa Friedman and Alexandra Stevenson – The New York TimesAfter the war in Iran cut off a fifth of the world’s oil supply, oil prices jumped, at one point reaching nearly $120 a barrel. But they didn’t spike higher, even though some analysts warned ominously of $200 oil, and prices have since come down. At more than $80 a barrel, oil is expensive. But it could be a lot higher. One major reason was China. /jlne. ws/3QmtSd2UK’s High Energy Bills Prompt Factories to Consider Move AbroadJess Shankleman – BloombergAround a quarter of British factories have either moved or are considering relocating some of their output overseas because of soaring energy bills, according to an industry survey. The UK has some of the highest energy costs in the developed world, with prices remaining elevated in the years since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and coming under renewed pressure from the war in the Middle East. /jlne. ws/4uI0T1zFloods Threaten Texas and Louisiana This WeekBrian K Sullivan – Bloomberg/jlne. ws/3SrYNFzBanks, Brokers & Managed fundsA $600 Billion Experiment Kicks Off at the Biggest US Pension FundMartin Z Braun – BloombergStephen Gilmore’s 40-year tour of global finance has given him a front-row seat to the Russian debt crisis, the bailout of a financial giant and the rise of sovereign wealth funds. It’s also taken him to a war zone. As the International Monetary Fund’s representative in Tajikistan in the 1990s, Gilmore hunkered down in his office for three days as a militia advanced on the capital city of Dushanbe. /jlne. ws/3S8wGLyGoldman Brings Google to Prepaid Energy Market After Equity DealErin Hudson and Amanda Albright – BloombergOn the heels of arranging a record $85 billion equity-raise for Alphabet Inc. , Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has scored a lesser-known victory for the tech giant in the municipal bond market. The muni market is best known for borrowings by US states and cities, but a structure known as prepaid energy bonds is allowing companies like Google parent Alphabet and Realty Income Corp. , a massive real estate investment trust, to raise financing. As part of the financial engineering of such deals, utilities lock in cheaper natural gas or electricity for decades, while companies like Alphabet that participate in the transaction as financial intermediaries access cheaper funding and a new investor base. /jlne. ws/4ovairUHSBC’s Hong Kong Mobile Banking App Down in Second OutageDenise Wee – BloombergHSBC Holdings Plc’s services in Hong Kong have been restored after the bank’s mobile banking app experienced an outage on Monday morning, leaving customers unable to access their accounts in what marked the lender’s second disruption this year. “All our services returned to normal before 2 p. m. today,” the bank said in a statement. “We again apologise for any inconvenience caused. ”/jlne. ws/4ejkv5WHSBC, Hang Seng mobile apps restored after Hong Kong users were locked outSouth China Morning PostHSBC and its subsidiary Hang Seng Bank had resumed mobile phone service operations by early Monday afternoon after an outage in the morning locked customers out of their accounts for several hours. HSBC, the biggest lender in the city with over 7 million customers in Hong Kong, had its mobile banking service interrupted, with many customers complaining they could not log on to the system on Monday morning. More than 10 HSBC customers contacted the South China Morning Post, saying they were unable to log into the mobile banking since 9am. /jlne. ws/4oBQJ1aUniCredit Rejects Commerzbank’s Claims of Unusual Tender BehaviorAimee Look – The Wall Street JournalUniCredit rejected Commerzbank’s claims over unusual tender behavior on the final day of its bid for the German bank. Last week, Commerzbank said it had seen abnormal tender behavior connected to UniCredit’s offer. After UniCredit disclosed a 10. 95% acceptance level of its proposal, the German bank said it hadn’t identified any institutional investor tendering shares into the offer. Commerzbank added that tendered shares are almost exclusively from entities connected to UniCredit. The Italian lender on Monday rejected suggestions made that the actual number of tendered shares is lower due to borrowing mechanisms. /jlne. ws/4vTvcn2Milanese magic: how UniCredit won support for its lowball Commerzbank bid; Tender offer tactics used by investment banker Andrea Orcel deliver latest twist in 21-month takeover battleOlaf Storbeck and Ortenca Aliaj and Simon Foy – Financial TimesWhen UniCredit’s tender offer for Commerzbank closes on Tuesday, it will mark a milestone in one of the most contentious bids in German takeover history — and not just because management and the German government vehemently oppose it. As well as warring over strategy and the bid premium, the two banks have been fighting over how Andrea Orcel’s bank has so far managed to secure the support of 11. 86 per cent of Commerzbank shareholders during the six-week offer period. /jlne. ws/4uBtDJiCommerzbank CEO ‘taken aback’ by UniCredit claimsReuters/jlne. ws/4xqsNlnPrivate MarketsECB Expands Probe on Private Credit to More Banks as Fears MountLaura Noonan and Nicholas Comfort – BloombergThe European Central Bank has doubled the number of banks covered by a probe into links with private credit, as the sector faces a slump in investor confidence. This year, the ECB is asking more than 20 banks for more details on their exposures, up from a dozen in previous exercises, people familiar with the matter said. Those with meaningful ties to private credit will have to report details on an annual basis, the people said, who asked to remain anonymous as the interactions aren’t public. An ECB spokesman declined to comment. /jlne. ws/4va5XN3Losers in ‘creditor-on-creditor violence’ left with crumbs; Moody’s analysis of adversarial corporate debt exchanges shows losers recover just 14 cents on the dollarSujeet Indap – Financial TimesSenior lenders who lose out in contentious restructuring fights ultimately recover just pennies on the dollar should borrowing companies eventually end up in bankruptcy, according to a new Moody’s analysis. When there had been a fight between creditors, the losers recovered just 14 cents on the dollar in a study of 13 subsequent bankruptcies between 2022 and 2026, Moody’s found. /jlne. ws/4ayY5wpStudents push business schools to beef up private markets teaching; Executives say their industry has diversified faster than the curriculumSeb Murray – Financial TimesPrivate capital has been one of the hottest parts of the financial services industry in recent years, with investors and employees flocking to the sector. But despite that growing profile, private markets group Hamilton Lane says it still needs to do plenty of on-the-job training when new graduates walk through the door. “There are more classes dedicated to private markets, but it’s a bit behind,” says John Stake, head of portfolio management at the Pennsylvania-based group. “You still spend a lot of time teaching those individuals. ”/jlne. ws/4aNrpiMPrivate EquityBillionaire Partners Group Founder Moves to Split Family OfficeAllegra Catelli and Jan-Henrik Foerster – BloombergUrs Wietlisbach, one of the three billionaire founders at Swiss private equity firm Partners Group Holding AG, is carving out an independent unit within the family office that’s managed their fortunes for over a decade, in an early sign of the executive’s succession planning. The entity at the founders’ PG3 AG firm will be led by Jascha Forster, current chief investment officer of Swiss billionaire Thomas Schmidheiny’s family office Spectrum Value Management Ltd, according to people familiar with the matter. /jlne. ws/4fMkOsmMatador Enhances Capital Markets Presence With Listing On SIX Swiss ExchangeMondovisioneMatador Secondary Private Equity AG (“Matador”), a Swiss company specialized in secondary private equity investments, commenced trading today under the ticker symbol SQL. Based on an reference price of CHF 3. 85 per share, the market capitalization of the company’s listed shares stood at approximately CHF 57. 7 million. /jlne. ws/4awAigAWork Management‘The cost of compute is far beyond the costs of the employees’: Nvidia exec says right now AI is more expensive than paying human workersSasha Rogelberg – FortuneRecent tech layoffs would initially appear to indicate the great labor shift from human workers to AI may already be happening. Meta announced in a memo earlier this year it plans to lay off 10% of its workforce, about 8,000 employees, as well as scrap plans to hire for 6,000 open positions. It’s part of an effort to “run the company more efficiently and to allow us to offset the other investments we’re making,” according to the memo. Microsoft has offered thousands of its own employees a voluntary buyout, the largest the company has ever offered. Other tech headers, however, suggest that right now, AI isn’t saving companies money on labor; it’s actually costing them more than the humans they currently employ. /jlne. ws/43Avl2IAI job disruption is here. The problem may be compounded because nearly 75% of people don’t apply for unemployment benefitsJacqueline Munis – FortuneIt’s been a tough year for tech workers as the industry has been hit a record number of layoffs. Nearly 120,000 tech workers have been let go this year as companies slim down their staffs in the name of AI productivity. As consensus grows in Silicon Valley and Wall Street about an incoming artificial intelligence “job apocalypse,” there are few answers on what comes next. /jlne. ws/4vb8tmlRaise Social Security Taxes — and Cut Benefits, TooAllison Schrager – Bloomberg OpinionThere are two processes that we cannot escape: aging and math. This applies not only to human beings but also to large government social-insurance programs. Last week the Social Security Administration released its annual trustees report, and the news was not good. Starting in the fourth quarter of 2032, one quarter earlier than previously projected, Social Security is set to pay only 78% of benefits. Such a broad cut is unlikely — Social Security is too popular, and the elderly rely on it too much. Even missing a cost-of-living increase is unthinkable. So something else has to happen. /jlne. ws/43Dz3INJob interviews are becoming AI tests; Candidates must prove how they would use tech tools in non tech rolesEmma Jacobs – Financial TimesMcKinsey’s assessments of aspiring junior consultants include a “problem-solving” interview that presents candidates with a typical client challenge. This might be how to reallocate and retrain beauty advisers for a cosmetics company, or whether a truckmaker should invest in electric fleets. “We are trying to mirror the problems they will encounter,” says Marie Christine Padberg, partner of talent attraction at the consultancy. /jlne. ws/4vUeIeuAI Turns Coders, Lawyers and Analysts Into Ghosts of London’s PastIrina Anghel – BloombergSearch for “finance analyst” and you’re likely to find around 80 vacancies in London, according to a prominent recruitment website. If that seems like a surprisingly low number for one of the world’s biggest banking and corporate hubs, it’s because it is — four years earlier, the same website featured more than 350 of these roles. The job has become one of the main victims of artificial intelligence. It’s a fate shared with other white-collar positions as the suit-clad workers that once packed into London’s offices, pubs and Tube carriages increasingly look like ghosts of the Square Mile’s past. /jlne. ws/4atUoIoWellness ExchangeHow ultra-processed foods increase dementia risk, and ‘healthy’ items to avoidAnthea Rowan – South China Morning PostThis is the 91st instalment in a series on dementia, including the research into its causes and treatment, advice for carers, and stories of hope. What we put on our plates does far more than fuel our bodies – it affects our heart health, inflammation levels, hormone regulation, blood pressure, sleep quality and mood. Each of these elements is a major risk factor for dementia. Dr Helen Macpherson, an associate professor at Deakin University’s Faculty of Health in Australia, rates diet an 8. 5 out of 10 in terms of its importance for long-term brain health. /jlne. ws/4uxRGJfA New Option for Long-Term Care Costs; Washington has launched the first program to help cover home care and other supports. A number of states are paying attention. Paula Span – The New York TimesKelly Haggett figures that a mandatory surcharge added to Washington State’s payroll tax cost her about $500 last year. But she doesn’t really mind. “On a scale of 1 to 10 of my annoyance with taxes in general, this one is about a 2,” she said. “I see the benefits. ” The small surcharge on wages provides the funding for Washington Cares, the nation’s first state-operated program for long-term care insurance. It will begin distributing benefits next month. If Ms. Haggett, 67, a systems administrator who lives in Auburn, Wash. , needs help with daily activities as she ages — bathing, dressing, grocery shopping, managing medications — she’ll be able to use the benefit she has accrued through WA Cares, as the program is known. /jlne. ws/4oxIWkTRegionsHong Kong Issuers Seek to Boost Trading in Overlooked StocksKiuyan Wong – BloombergHong Kong stock issuers are looking to boost trading in some stocks suffering from thin volumes, which they say is hurting the ability of companies to access financing through follow-on offerings. They are targeting more than a thousand companies on the Hong Kong stock exchange, including some based outside the city, with advice on increasing investor coverage, said KC Chan, the head of the Chamber of Hong Kong Listed Companies. A new group of specialists within the chamber will also look to advise companies looking to raise funds in the city, he said. /jlne. ws/49ZbgGKDon’t Let Wall Street Crush Japan’s Soft PowerGearoid Reidy – BloombergWould you pay 99 cents to make Super Mario jump higher? In an infamous 2014 letter to Nintendo Co. , activist fund Oasis Management Co. proposed that the company should make mobile games with just such a mechanic — something that might sound good to investors, but lands with a thud for players. /jlne. ws/4aMH95CHow a Tiny British Island Fell Into an International Gambling ScandalJack Adamović Davies – BloombergOn a cool April morning in 2024, dozens of British police boarded a ferry on England’s northwest coast bound for the Isle of Man. Their arrival was kept secret. Only the most senior officials on the island, a self-governed state overseen by the UK, had been notified, according to a person debriefed after the raid — for fear of jeopardizing the largest law enforcement operation in the island’s history. /jlne. ws/4elNsOGSingapore to Begin Gold Clearing This Year in Push to Become HubYihui Xie – BloombergSingapore plans to launch a gold-clearing system this year, with banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Deutsche Bank AG set to participate in the city-state’s push to become a hub in the global bullion market. The Singapore Exchange will establish the over-the-counter clearing mechanism by the end of 2026, with inter-bank trading expected to build up from next year, said Gan Kim Yong, the country’s deputy prime minister and chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore. /jlne. ws/4uBTOiWIndonesia Awaits MSCI Verdict That Risks $13 Billion OutflowsBernadette Toh and Prima Wirayani – BloombergIndonesia faces a crucial test this month when MSCI Inc. decides whether to follow through with a downgrade, with investors already questioning the resilience of the world’s worst-performing equity market. Should the index compiler reclassify Indonesia as a frontier market, instead of emerging, some analysts say global funds could withdraw as much as $13 billion in outflows. It would also further pressure the benchmark Jakarta Composite Index, which has fallen nearly 31% this year on worries about the decision coupled with concerns over economic management under President Prabowo Subianto. /jlne. ws/44aZlSMJapan’s Top Bond-Trading Regional Bank Buys JGBs After DecadeTaiga Uranaka – BloombergThe Japanese regional bank with the best recent record for trading bonds has started buying Japanese government debt for the first time in a decade. Iyogin Holdings Inc. started testing the $7 trillion market in April with small purchases of super-long bonds, marking the bank’s first JGB investment in 10 years, according its CEO Kenji Miyoshi. /jlne. ws/43zRC0sMiscKash Patel Keeps Suing the PressErik Wemple – The New York TimesIn 2019, Kash Patel, then a White House aide, objected to how news outlets portrayed his role in President Trump’s dealings with Ukraine. “It’s time that I began fighting back,” Mr. Patel said at the time. He sued Politico, The New York Times and CNN. In 2023, Mr. Patel, then a roving pro-Trump commentator, took offense to the work of a blogger who had bashed his record and called him a “chud,” a derogatory term progressives use to describe MAGA followers. He sued the blogger, Jim Stewartson, for $10 million in damages. /jlne. ws/4vMRN4t

Source: johnlothiannews.com