First Read

Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff

Cboe Global Markets and S&P Dow Jones Indices (S&P DJI) announced on September 29 that they have signed a 25-year extension of their exclusive licensing agreement, securing Cboe’s exclusive rights to offer trading in its flagship S&P 500 Index (SPX) options through 2051. Building on a 43-year collaboration that began with the 1983 launch of SPX options, the extended partnership ensures continuity for a franchise that saw a record 970.6 million contracts traded in 2025. Beyond securing traditional index derivatives, the long-term agreement paves the way for the two organizations to develop next-generation market technologies and new product structures, including tokenized options contracts, to meet growing global demand for U.S. equity exposure.

Cboe CEO Craig Donohue told JLN, “This is very good for Chicago and solidifying our leadership positions for many years.”

I wanted to know what causes the FutureSports Performance Indexes for NHL teams to decline in value. I know they decline primarily because of negative in-game performance metrics and statistical setbacks, but what setbacks are those? As a continuous benchmark, the index deducts points in real time for defensive failures such as allowing goals, with the most severe penalty applied to short-handed goals allowed (-15.0), followed by even-strength goals allowed (-12.0) and power-play goals allowed (-10.0). Other continuous downward pressures include allowing opposition shots on goal (-1.5), losing faceoffs (-0.5), and committing giveaways (-0.8). This would be giveaways of the puck during the game, not the t-shirt gun giveaways.

Furthermore, disciplinary infractions like minor penalties (-1.0), misconducts (-4.0), and ejections (-10.0) act as critical negative shocks that subtract points from the index while simultaneously putting the penalized team at a statistical disadvantage on the ice.

Beyond immediate in-game statistics, the index is heavily impacted by threshold-based milestone failures that are assessed at the end of a game, month, or season. A team can suffer significant point deductions at the final horn if they are shut out by their opponent (-50.0), concede exactly five goals (-20.0) or six or more goals (-35.0), record a save percentage of .850 or lower (-12.5), or lose the match in regulation (-10.0) or overtime (-5.0). Over extended periods, chronic underperformance triggers even larger penalties. For example, teams that record the most giveaways or the fewest goals over a month (-125.0 each) or season (-250.0 each), or those that finish last in their conference (-250.0), will incur heavy, discontinuous downward shocks to their aggregate index value. I am wondering whether a starting index of 7500 is high enough, or whether we are ready for negative index numbers for some stinky hockey teams angling for high draft picks.

Finally, things get even worse if a team somehow makes the playoffs. Structural methodologies and broader market dynamics can severely depress the index value and the pricing of its associated futures contracts. During the postseason, a 1.5x Seasonal Adjustment Factor (SAF) amplifies the point deductions for all negative in-game and game-ending events, accelerating the downside risk for teams that struggle under playoff pressure. In financial markets, the fair value of CME FSPI Sports Index futures will decline if quantitative models predict lower expected future point accumulation due to roster injuries or team slumps. And then there is the action off the ice: external systemic shocks—such as protracted labor lockouts, a loss of underlying league credibility, or a widening liquidity and credibility gap-that can also violently depress the market price of the contracts tracking the index.

The CME FSPI NHL contracts saw 50 monthly micro futures contracts trade last night, with 14 higher and 17 lower.

Picture this: The New York Stock Exchange is delisting Getty Images Holdings, Inc.

Crain’s Chicago Business is hosting a “C-Suite Conversations” event featuring Justin Ishbia, founding partner of Shore Capital, on Thursday, October 15, 2026, at Allium Events in Chicago. Titled “The Business of Big Bets: Markets, Sports Ownership & the Power of Long-Term Thinking,” the morning event will delve into Ishbia’s insights on private equity, capital deployment, risk evaluation, and long-term investment strategies across various industries. Geared toward senior executives and decision-makers, the program runs from 7:30 a.m. to 9:45 a.m. Individual tickets are $150 and tables of 10 are $1,950, with pre-registration strictly required to attend.

Kevin Webb is retiring from federal service after 21 years, 19 at the CFTC and the last two at the Department of Justice, he announced on LinkedIn. Webb would have returned to the CFTC had Brian Quintenz been approved by the Senate as CFTC chair.

As you can see from the commentary below, “The Constitution Is Market Infrastructure,” I don’t give up easily. Unfortunately, some of the issues I raise may become more obvious in the coming weeks, after the mid-term elections, assuming they occur.

Here are the headlines from in front of FOW’s paywall from some recent stories:

• Cboe and Robinhood plan company KPI prediction contracts
• Trading Technologies acquires TRAFiX to expand into equities and options
• BoE targets repo clearing, cross-margining in resilience push
• Digital collateral poised to transform derivatives margining via 24/7 mobility, study finds
• ISDA urges PRA flexibility on Basel 3.1 as Treasury clearing looms
• BMLL and Simudyne partner on AI market simulation
• Polymarket taps ex-Goldman Sachs exec Lisa Mantil to lead institutional growth
• DoubleZero Edge cuts Solana perps latency via Phoenix feed expansion
• Webull expands Cloud MCP to support AI-powered trading
• Bruce Markets plans first continuous weekend US equities trading in 24/7 push
• US Congress probe hits Crypto.com, Hyperliquid over ‘insider trading’ in prediction markets
• TP ICAP exec frames human insight as ultimate frontier in AI-driven trading
• EDI, RegTech DataHub team up to launch unified market, regulatory data solution
• FTSE Russell launches AI-powered thematic index series with MarketPsych
• Capitolis to buy eSecLending for $200m in securities finance expansion
• Nasdaq Calypso launches agentic AI across trade lifecycle
• Cboe extends exclusive S&P 500 options licence through 2051

Have a great day and stay safe and treat people the same way you want to be treated: with respect, equality, and justice.~JJL

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Our most-read stories from our previous edition of JLN Options were:

• Soaring Yields Lead Traders to Snap Up Options on BlackRock ETFs from Bloomberg.
• OCC Strengthens Security Operations with an Agentic AI Investigation Solution Built on AWS from OCC.
• 24/7 Stock Trading Is About to Test Financial Markets from Bloomberg. ~JB

Subscribe to the JLN Options Newsletter HERE (it’s free).

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AI Discovery: Can LossDog’s AI Balance Your Portfolio?
JohnLothianNews.com

In this episode of AI Discovery, we explore using artificial intelligence to level the playing field between everyday retail investors and institutional giants. Retail traders have long faced structural disadvantages in data access, speed, and market mechanics, often leaving them on the losing side of market asymmetry.

Watch the video »

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Morningstar Picks Google’s New Chicago Building for HQ Move
Miranda Davis – Bloomberg
Morningstar Inc. will move its headquarters into Google’s new office building in Chicago, giving a boost to a marquee project in a once-neglected part of downtown. The financial data provider, which employs about 1,500 people in Chicago, will relocate to the site in 2028, according to a company statement Wednesday. Morningstar will co-anchor the building with Google and take more than 275,000 square feet (25,500 square meters), making it the largest lease transaction announced in Chicago so far this year.
/jlne.ws/4xRtVxe

**** That building was getting seriously shabby. It’s great that Google has spiffed it up, and I am guessing Morningstar will love being there. ~JB

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Ken Griffin’s University Plan Turbocharges Miami Transformation
Anna J Kaiser and Michael Smith – Bloomberg
Ken Griffin has spent years trying to reshape Miami from a playground for the world’s wealthy into a high-finance and technology hub. That effort has largely centered on the city’s burgeoning Brickell financial district, where Griffin is constructing a headquarters for his Citadel empire. With a $2 billion donation to build a Carnegie Mellon University campus in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood, Griffin is betting that he can complete the transformation.
/jlne.ws/4ydGVh7

****** Griffinville is going to have everything you could want. You go to college there, then work for the company, Pullman….errr…. Citadel.~JJL

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US 30-year Treasury yield hits highest since 2002; Government debt extends decline as inflation and surging oil prices weigh on market
Peter Wells and Emily Herbert – Financial Times
US long-term borrowing costs climbed to their highest level in almost a quarter of a century on Tuesday as a recent sell-off in the Treasury market deepened. The yield on the 30-year US Treasury rose 0.06 percentage points in afternoon trading in New York to 5.62 per cent, its highest level since June 2002. The 10-year Treasury yield rose as much as 0.05 percentage points to 5.29 per cent, pushing benchmark borrowing costs in the US to another post-2007 high. Bond yields rise if prices fall.
/jlne.ws/4xSH8Wu

****** If this keeps up, I am going to have to resurrect the old bond trading system Jon Matte abandoned in 2002 to build the Big ED and Maple Sugar programs.~JJL

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Tuesday’s Top Three
Our most clicked item on Tuesday was The CFTC Is Tying Its Own Hands on Prediction Markets, a commentary by Reed Shaw in Lawfare. Second was the Federal Register page for Prediction Markets; Public Interest Determinations: A Proposed Rule by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on 06/12/2026. And third was the CME Group page for CME FSPI SPORTS INDEX FUTURES, which the exchange launched on Monday.

 

Lead Stories

Cboe and S&P Dow Jones Indices Sign 25-Year Extension of Exclusive Licensing Agreement, Through 2051; Agreement extends Cboe’s exclusive licensing rights for S&P 500 Index options through 2051 and creates new opportunities for innovation across next-generation markets and technologies
Cboe
Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (Cboe: CBOE), a leading global markets operator and pioneer in equity and index derivatives, and S&P Dow Jones Indices (“S&P DJI”), the world’s leading index provider, today announced a 25-year extension of their exclusive licensing agreement that will continue their longstanding collaboration through 2051. Under the extended agreement, Cboe will continue to have the exclusive rights to offer trading in its flagship S&P 500® Index (SPX) options. Cboe and S&P DJI may also collaborate to pursue innovation beyond traditional index derivatives, including new products like tokenized options contracts. The agreement builds on more than 40 years of collaboration between Cboe and S&P DJI that began in 1983 with the launch of SPX options – a breakthrough innovation that has since become the global standard for how investors worldwide gain and manage U.S. equity market exposure.
/jlne.ws/4rCDSgo

EU markets watchdog warns carve-outs risk integration push; Esma’s outgoing chair says negotiations over which financial services companies come under its oversight should not undo efforts to bolster European markets
Sarah White, Paola Tamma and Martin Arnold – Financial Times
Brussels’ push to integrate the EU’s fragmented capital markets risks being undermined if haggling by member states over who supervises key financial services groups goes too far, the bloc’s top market watchdog has said. The warning by Verena Ross, chair of the European Securities and Markets Authority, underlines how talks over major reform of EU financial supervision have reached a critical point.
/jlne.ws/4xTmrtI

Robinhood’s Next Big Bet: AI Bots That Trade While You Sleep; The brokerage’s app made it easy to trade stocks on a smartphone. Now Robinhood sees AI agents in individual investors’ future
Hannah Erin Lang – The Wall Street Journal
Robinhood Markets helped usher in a new generation of investors by making it easy to buy stocks on a smartphone. The next investing revolution, its executives said, will be led by bots. Artificial intelligence was front and center at Robinhood’s annual event for its most-active users. Holding court at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, the brokerage’s executives unveiled a slew of new tools and services. Among the most significant: an in-app AI agent that can answer questions about the market, build an investment strategy from scratch and eventually place trades while you sleep, work or otherwise turn away from the screen.
/jlne.ws/4ADwuFO

Markets to Be Open Seven Days a Week; Bruce Markets to Launch First Continuous Weekend U.S. Equities Trading with Strategic Investments Led by PEAK6 and Robinhood
Brucemarkets
Bruce Markets LLC, an SEC-registered broker-dealer and operator of Bruce ATS™, today announced a landmark agreement to extend U.S. equity trading throughout the weekend, subject to regulatory review. The initiative is designed to bring continuous 24/7 stock trading to global investors. To power this expansion, Bruce Markets will leverage new strategic investments from PEAK6 Investments, the majority shareholder, and Robinhood Markets. Apex Fintech Solutions, Fidelity Investments, Nasdaq Ventures, NH Investment & Securities, tastytrade and Webull remain investors.
/jlne.ws/4rJ48Gb

He Was Rejected by Goldman Out of College. Now He’s Poised to Run the Bank; John Waldron has said he didn’t do well on the firm’s financial modeling test when he applied for a job decades ago
Jasmine Li – The Wall Street Journal
He was rejected for a job at Goldman Sachs out of college. Now he’s poised to lead the Wall Street giant. Goldman’s board has discussed a plan for John Waldron, the firm’s president, to succeed CEO David Solomon as soon as late 2027, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday. The move would cap a career built on a knack for dealmaking and forging relationships that has benefited the firm. It’s far from the path he imagined as an English major who thought he would become a writer.
/jlne.ws/4yYxSkO

Trading Technologies Acquires TRAFiX, Expanding Multi-Asset OEMS Coverage to Global Equities and Equity Options
Trading Technologies
Trading Technologies International, Inc. (TT), a global capital markets technology provider, today announced it has acquired TRAFiX LLC (TRAFiX), a leading provider of equities and equity options order and execution management systems (OEMS) and FIX connectivity solutions. The addition of TRAFiX will make TT one of the most comprehensive multi-asset trading platforms in capital markets technology, extending its coverage across every major asset class—from futures, foreign exchange (FX) and fixed income to global equities and equity options—on a single, cloud-native platform. Terms of the transaction, which closed today, were not disclosed.
/jlne.ws/47rGm87

Texas Stock Exchange Raises $155 Million After First Listings
Joe Lovinger – Bloomberg
The parent company of the Texas Stock Exchange raised $155 million in a third funding round, bolstering its financial firepower as it challenges the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq for equities listings. TXSE Group Inc.’s existing shareholders are providing about three-quarters of the new money, with the rest coming from new backers. Funding for the exchange now totals $430 million, the Dallas-based company said in a statement Wednesday. It didn’t identify the new investors.
/jlne.ws/3VpfVNI

Ken Griffin donates record $3bn to Carnegie Mellon in push for Miami campus; Record contribution comes as the billionaire seeks to reshape the Florida city to rival the likes of New York and London
Jill R Shah and Amelia Pollard – Financial Times
Ken Griffin has agreed to make a record $3bn donation to Carnegie Mellon as part of an effort led by the billionaire Citadel founder for the prestigious science and engineering university to open a campus in Miami. Griffin’s contribution is the largest single gift to an American university and comes as he seeks to transform his new home of Miami into a business and cultural hub that could compete with New York or London.
/jlne.ws/4hBnvMK

Bank of England Warns Gilt Market Faces Growing Spillover Risks
Georgia Hall – Bloomberg
The Bank of England warned that elevated hedge fund leverage in gilts, alongside exposure to artificial intelligence assets and corporate debt, raise the risk of stress spilling across markets. That leaves markets more vulnerable to strains that “crystallise at the same time,” the BOE noted in its quarterly financial stability record. That warning comes with the UK 10-year government bond yield already near levels last seen during the 2008 financial crisis.
/jlne.ws/4dxdJtZ

‘Survival is at stake’: Inside prediction markets’ race to curb inside trading; As Congress threatens a crackdown, firms claim they can police themselves.
Lucien Bruggeman, Aaron Katersky and Tonya Simpson – ABC News
Tucked deep inside the Manhattan offices of the prediction market firm Kalshi lies a dimly lit annex, where about a dozen young men in athleisure wear quietly tap away at keyboards. The open concept and casually attired employees bear a resemblance to countless other start-ups. But what happens here, according to Kalshi’s Robert DeNault, could dictate the trajectory of America’s newest obsession: prediction markets.
/jlne.ws/4w5tHlk

Financial regulator investigates Adam Kinzinger over Kalshi trading; The CFTC is targeting trades the former House Republican made related to his Biden-era pardon.
Aiden Reiter – Politico
A top federal financial regulator is investigating former Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger — an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump — for prediction market trades he made tied to his pardon by former President Joe Biden, according to three people with knowledge of the probe. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a derivatives regulator that has been asserting a large role in prediction market oversight, has been looking at trades that a Kalshi account linked to Kinzinger made in December 2024 and January 2025, said the people, granted anonymity to discuss matters candidly. Kalshi, which touts its monitoring of insider trading on political events, has also been reviewing the transactions, said the people.
/jlne.ws/4xPm4Ab

CFA Level II Pass Rate Rises to 45%, Matching the Decade Average
Katherine Doherty – Bloomberg
The pass rate for the second level of the chartered financial analyst test rose to its decade average, as candidates who chose not to delay testing outperformed those who put off the exam. In August, 45% of people sitting for the Level II test passed, up from 43% for those who took the exam in May and 42% in November, the CFA Institute said in a statement Wednesday.
/jlne.ws/4rFWBHZ

China’s AI agents can lie and scheme – just like their US rivals
Eduardo Baptista and Laurie Chen – Reuters
Chinese-powered AI agents have learnt to deceive, circumvent restrictions and conceal failure, showing the kind of traits in autonomous artificial intelligence that have raised global alarm about US models, research documents and experts say. In one case this year, agents powered by models from China’s Alibaba, DeepSeek and Moonshot lied about their capabilities in a bid to win a simulated business tender, then doubled down on their deceptive behaviour when told to try ​again.
/jlne.ws/4rCcsHE

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Prediction Markets

Prediction market Polymarket attracts stolen-card scammers as fraud attempts top $10 million
Wyatt Fischer – Yahoo Finance
Fraudsters may be using platforms such as Polymarket and Kalshi as online money laundering sites. Prediction markets have moved into the mainstream, turning elections, sports, and breaking news into tradable bets. But the same systems are also reportedly attracting fraud on a massive scale. Consumers who have never even logged into one of these sites may end up paying for a loss, while all winnings are siphoned into the fraudsters’ own alternative payment methods. This raises questions about whether fast-growing gambling platforms can maintain basic financial safeguards.
/jlne.ws/4hTRNLQ

CFTC Preparing Crackdown on Prediction-Market Promos; Platforms like Kalshi, Polymarket, and Novig all offer incentives that could draw the CFTC’s attention.
Ben Horney – Front Office Sports
The CFTC is conducting a sweep of incentive programs offered by prediction-market platforms over concerns that some companies are using misleading promotions to attract traders, Front Office Sports has learned. The regulator is looking into platforms that offer incentives for traders and market makers, sources say. The result could be targeted examinations of exchanges or direct enforcement investigations, a source familiar with the conversations taking place at the agency tells FOS. CFTC chairman Michael Selig has yet to decide on his exact approach but an “action” of some kind is expected by the end of this week, the source says.
/jlne.ws/4xTihSI

Oversaturated/Undersupported: Predatory Prediction Markets Plaguing Young Adults; Covert gambling is being sold to young people at alarming rates, and they’re being left out to dry.
Nicholas St. Cyr – The Torch
Kalshi, Polymarket, Novig, Fanatics and the other dozens of prediction markets that dominate every piece of ad space, commercial time and social media posts are exhausting. Not only are they tiring, but they are a detriment to the well-being of young people in the U.S. Gambling is bad; that is not a secret. Similar to smoking and drinking, its unhealthiness is so apparent that you can not legally participate in the practice until you are of a certain age. The results of the addiction can be deadly.
/jlne.ws/4rAOZXe

EXCLUSIVE: Why Prediction Markets Can Be ‘Equally Risky’ as Sports Betting – Robinhood Markets (NASDAQ:HOOD)
Daragh Thomas – Benzinga
America’s online gambling problem is getting worse, and the prediction-market boom could expose vulnerable gamblers to many of the same risks as sports betting, Uttara Ananthakrishnan, an associate professor at the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business, told Benzinga. “For people with problem gambling issues both are equally risky,” Ananthakrishnan said, comparing prediction markets with sports-betting apps.
/jlne.ws/4zbDGYl

Report: Polymarket Leads US Prediction Market Search Demand Despite Kalshi’s Trading Dominance; New Blask data shows a sharp divide between brand attention and trading activity, with Kalshi closing the search gap even as it commands substantially more trading volu
Chavdar Vasilev – Gambling Insider
Kalshi may dominate the dollars changing hands in U.S. prediction markets, but Polymarket continues to command considerably more branded search attention according to new data from iGaming analytics firm Blask. Blask tracked search demand for prediction markets between January and August 2026. The company found that Polymarket retained the largest share of branded prediction-market search demand, as measured by its Brand’s Accumulated Power (BAP) metric, throughout the period, although Kalshi significantly narrowed the gap.
/jlne.ws/4xXKOGL

Prediction market cases expected in U.S. Supreme Court’s new term that starts on Monday
Reuters – CDC Gaming
Some big cases may be added to the US Supreme Court’s docket for its new term that starts next week including ones involving a detention policy used in President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, regulation of prediction markets and a Texas law mandating the ​display of the Ten Commandments in public schools. The court, whose 6-3 conservative majority has moved US law steadily rightward in recent years, begins its nine-month term next Monday…
/jlne.ws/4yGBrfT

Kalshi to end liquidity incentive program amid wash trading allegations
Timmy Shen – The Block
Kalshi is terminating its volume incentive program, which was designed to reward traders for boosting liquidity. In a Monday filing with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Kalshi wrote that it intends to end the “Volume Incentive Program” no earlier than Oct. 13.
/jlne.ws/4AHLDG0

Tiger Global, Dragoneer in talks to invest in Kalshi’s new $1 billion fundraise, sources say
Anirban Sen – Reuters
/jlne.ws/4iSFPDi

Raven Raises at $90M Valuation From CMCC Global and Coinbase Ventures for Prediction Markets
Advertorial – BeInCrypto
/jlne.ws/4AKSP4w

Sports & Gaming

G2E: Las Vegas, prediction markets dominates industry discussion
Rege Behe, Lead Contributor – CDC Gaming
Las Vegas is still the center of gambling in the U.S. for the chief executives of three of the most influential gaming companies. Craig Billings of Wynn Resorts, Bill Hornbuckle of MGM Resorts International, and Tom Reeg of Caesars Entertainment took to the main stage at Global Gaming Expo (G2E) Tuesday to reaffirm their belief that Las Vegas remains the epicenter of the gaming world.
/jlne.ws/4AGbePQ

DKeX Trails Rivals as DraftKings Plans More Prediction-Market Investment
ReadWrite
DraftKings plans to invest more in its DKeX prediction market, where Bernstein estimates consumer trading volume could reach $1 billion by December, even as Kalshi led reported NFL opening-week sports volume with 76%. DKeX accounted for 3% of that sports trading, according to Needham data cited in the report. The figures underline the gap DraftKings must close: DKeX ranked third overall in prediction-market trading volume in the third week of September, behind Kalshi and Polymarket.
/jlne.ws/4xOLsGl

Perpetual Futures

Robinhood Begins US Crypto Perps Rollout With Up to 10x Leverage; The eight-contract lineup offers no-expiry trading through Robinhood Derivatives and Bitstamp, with broader access planned in the coming months.
The Defiant Team – The Defiant
Robinhood began rolling out crypto perpetual futures to U.S. traders on Sept. 29, announcing eight supported assets and leverage of up to 10 times. The contracts have no expiration dates, allowing customers to take leveraged long or short positions without periodically replacing expiring futures. “Perps are now rolling out for US traders,” the company said on X. Its HOOD Summit announcement lists BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP, DOGE, ADA, LINK and HYPE, with up to 10x leverage for BTC and ETH and 3x for the other six. The company says eligible U.S. customers will gain access inside the app in the coming months.
/jlne.ws/4AEVGM1

Robinhood Debuts Weekend Trading, Perpetual Futures to Customers
Paige Smith and Bernard Goyder – Bloomberg
Robinhood Markets Inc., an early mover in extending trading hours for retail investors, now plans to offer weekend trading for equities in a first for modern US markets. Robinhood customers will soon be able to trade a selected list of stocks and exchange-traded funds over the weekend, extending the currently available trading hours of Sunday at 8 p.m. in New York through Friday at 8 p.m. The capability will be made possible by routing orders to a trading venue operated by Bruce Markets, according to a statement Tuesday.
/jlne.ws/4jwwNvZ

Robinhood Puts the Power of Hedge Funds in Every Trader’s Pocket
Robinhood
Robinhood introduces Robinhood Agents, perpetual futures, earnings contracts, and more, plus weekend equities trading coming early next year Tonight, live from HOOD Summit 2026 at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, we unveiled our most ambitious lineup of active trading products yet. We announced Robinhood Agents, a fully embedded AI experience that can analyze the market, build strategies, and trade on your behalf around the clock, and Agent Apps, which give your Robinhood Agents another layer of intelligence with institutional-grade data and specialized tools from leading third party providers.
/jlne.ws/4yn5xEG

New Contracts & Listings

CME Group launches micro SUI futures at 10% size of standard contracts for smaller trading positions
Tokenpost – Pluang
CME Group introduced micro SUI futures contracts that are one-tenth the size of their standard SUI futures. This smaller contract size allows traders to take smaller positions, reducing risk even if their market view is correct. The addition of micro contracts aims to make trading more accessible and manageable for investors in the Sui (SUI) market. CME now offers both standard and micro SUI futures, catering to different trading needs. SUI trades at Rp20.734 on Pluang, showing a modest 0.34% gain as of Sep 30, 2026 05:12 WIB. The platform records a market cap of Rp84,62T and a 24-hour volume of Rp19,47T, with more buyers (57%) than sellers (43%) active. This market activity highlights growing interest in SUI, complementing CME Group’s launch of micro SUI futures to accommodate varying trader sizes.
/jlne.ws/4hvCclP

 

World Conflicts

Ukraine Invasion

How Ukraine’s Naval Drones Are Remaking War at Sea; They began as modified motorboats. Now, Ukrainian sea drones act as miniature aircraft carriers, and other countries want in.
Maria Varenikova and Nicholas Kulish – The New York Times
Ukrainian naval drones ply the Black Sea with surface-to-air missiles, ready to shoot down enemy warplanes. They ferry aerial attack drones closer to targets. And this month, a Ukrainian drone was filmed in a drone-on-drone water battle with a Russian counterpart. When Russia began its full-scale war against Ukraine, Moscow dominated the waterways. Kyiv scaled up its drone operations, eventually sinking about a third of Russia’s vaunted Black Sea fleet with what amounted to remote-controlled, exploding speedboats.
/jlne.ws/3VpEDgY

Middle East Conflict

Iraq Deepens October Crude Price Discounts to as Much as $37
Alex Longley and Yongchang Chin – Bloomberg
Iraq’s state oil marketer offered buyers contractual crude supplies for October at discounts of as much as $37 a barrel to regional benchmarks, according to a document obtained by Bloomberg. The price reduction shows how Iraq has struggled more than some of its neighbors when it comes to shipping during the Middle East war, due to its geographic position further from the Strait of Hormuz. Lacking its own significant fleet, Baghdad is resorting to steep discounts to incentivize buyers to keep barrels moving through the Persian Gulf despite the continued risks to vessels.
/jlne.ws/47tnxS2

Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Is Spending Billions to Bypass Iran’s Grip on Hormuz
Alex Dooler, Dinesh Nair and Laura Gardner Cuesta – Bloomberg
Weeks before the Iran war began, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed Al Nahyan took the helm of a $300 billion sovereign wealth fund. Now, months into a conflict that’s reshaped the Middle East, this entity and the people running it have become central to building the infrastructure needed to override Iran’s stranglehold over the Strait of Hormuz.
/jlne.ws/46SQBSU

Other Conflicts

MI5 Accuses Chinese Institute of Spying on UK’s AI Research
Alex Wickham – Bloomberg
The UK’s domestic security service MI5 accused a Chinese academic institute of spying on Britain’s artificial intelligence research. The China General Technology Research Institute has “very strong ties” to the Chinese Ministry of State Security, its civilian intelligence and security service, MI5 said in a public “espionage alert” published Wednesday.
/jlne.ws/4ynTZkz

Russia threatens nuclear strikes on Nato countries over Kaliningrad; Kremlin accuses western defence alliance of preparing to blockade Russian exclave on Baltic Sea
Henry Foy and Max Seddon – Financial Times
Russia has threatened to use nuclear weapons against Nato countries if the western military alliance were to hinder access to its Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad. In a document sent to Nato this week, Moscow accused the alliance of taking a “dangerous and reckless course” towards Russia and its exclave, according to two officials familiar with the matter. The officials said it included a warning about “high risks of the outbreak of a direct armed conflict”.
/jlne.ws/4xX4UAT

US withdraws remaining troops from Iraq; Pullback marks end of more than two decades of US involvement as Iran-backed militias battle for influence in country
Steff Chavez, Andrew England and Malaika Kanaaneh Tapper – Financial Times
The US withdrew its remaining troops from Iraq on Wednesday, marking an end to its military presence in a fractured state that is still battling to overcome the bloody legacy of the invasion that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein more than two decades ago. The pullback comes at a pivotal moment for Iraq, which has been dragged into the US-Israeli war against Iran, with Iranian-backed Iraqi Shia militia drone and missile attacks on Gulf states underlining the Islamic republic’s deep influence.
/jlne.ws/4iR3Jiy

The U.S. Military Exits Iraq, Leaving Behind a Nation in Peril; An Iraqi demand that tens of thousands of militants turn in their weapons falls short in a conflict fed by America’s war with Iran
Jared Malsin – The Wall Street Journal
After spending more than 23 years and $1.7 trillion, America is winding down what critics have called its forever war in Iraq, closing the last major U.S. military base on Wednesday. “We don’t think we need the military there anymore,” President Trump said during a White House visit by Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi in July. “We have a fantastic champion, a new champion,” the president said. “He’s young, and he’s handsome.”
/jlne.ws/4ytlYzu

 

EXCHANGES OTC CLEARING

Bruce Markets to launch industry-first 24/7 US equity trading ecosystem
Natasha Cocksedge – The TRADE
Bruce Markets has entered an agreement to expand its current extended trading hours offering on Bruce ATS, to enable US equity trading throughout the weekend. The expanded model – which is subject to regulatory review – aims to bring continuous 24/7 stock trading to the global investor market and is set to launch over the next few months. The initiative will mark the first ever round-the-clock US equity trading ecosystem to be available for global investors and has also attracted strategic investments from PEAK6 Investments – the majority shareholder – as well as Robinhood Markets.
/jlne.ws/4xPs6AT

Hong Kong’s IPO haul in first 9 months smashes record despite Nasdaq’s fundraising lead
Zoe SL Chan – South China Morning Post
Funds raised through Hong Kong initial public offerings (IPOs) doubled in the first nine months of 2026, reaching the highest level for the period since records began in 1980. A total of 112 companies raised US$48.4 billion on Hong Kong’s main board during the first nine months, according to data released by LSEG Data & Analytics on Wednesday. A further two companies listed on the city’s Growth Enterprise Market (GEM).
/jlne.ws/4ADkBja

Cboe and Robinhood Announce Planned Launch of New KPI Contracts, Further Expanding Prediction Market Offerings
Cboe
Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (Cboe: CBOE), a leading global markets operator and pioneer in equity and index derivatives, today announced at Robinhood’s third annual HOOD Summit in Houston, Texas, that it plans to launch a new category of binary contracts tied to company-specific key performance indicators (KPIs), expected in October 2026, subject to regulatory approval. Robinhood will be the first retail broker to offer these products to its clients at launch. The KPI binary options will provide investors with a new way to take positions on specific company metrics and corporate events through Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)-regulated products traded on Cboe’s registered U.S. securities exchange.
/jlne.ws/4zbEMU1

Binance Launches Incentivized Learning Program ‘Academania Skill-Up’ Across South Asia, Rewarding Users for Blockchain Learning
Binance – PR Newswire
Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume and users, announced ‘Academania Skill-Up’, a free, six-month learning campaign for users across South Asia. Each month, participants can complete a selected Binance Academy course, earn a certificate and enter a draw for rewards. The campaign aims to support beginners in building foundational knowledge of blockchain and digital assets through accessible, self-paced courses.
/jlne.ws/4hxwMp7

Binance Pay Enables Payments at PayPay Merchants via HIVEX® in Japan
Binance – Cision PR Newswire
Binance today announced that eligible overseas Binance Pay users visiting Japan can now make payments at PayPay-supported merchants nationwide through HIVEX®. Available from September 30, 2026, this interoperability enabled through HIVEX® allows approximately 48 million eligible Binance Pay users across more than 100 countries and regions to make purchases at millions of merchant locations in Japan with PayPay-supported merchants continuing to receive settlement in Japanese yen.
/jlne.ws/3TUvhJI

Bybit Completes SOC 2 Type II Audit, Strengthening Security and Compliance Assurance
Bybit
Bybit, the New Financial Platform trusted by more than 80 million users worldwide, today announced the successful completion of its SOC 2 Type II audit, independently conducted by Deloitte.
/jlne.ws/3VYsjo1

Bybit Releases Latest Proof-of-Reserves Report, Adding 10 Tokens as Mainstream Asset Value Hit $19.6 Billion
Bybit – PR Newswire
Bybit, the New Financial Platform trusted by more than 80 million users worldwide, has added new 10 tokens to its Proof-of-Reserves (PoR) coverage with the release of its 40th PoR report, which reflects asset balances as of September 23, 2026. The report shows the reported value of mainstream assets reaching $19.6 billion, up from $18.1 billion in the 39th report in August.
/jlne.ws/3TuZWNE

Cboe Locks In SPX Options Through 2051, and Tokenized Contracts May Be Next
Giuseppe Ciccomascolo – Yahoo Finance
Cboe Global Markets has extended its exclusive licensing agreement with S&P Dow Jones Indices for another 25 years, securing its rights to offer S&P 500 Index options through 2051 while opening the door to potential tokenized derivatives. Announced Sept. 29, the agreement preserves Cboe’s flagship SPX options franchise and provides scope for the companies to collaborate beyond traditional index derivatives. Tokenized options contracts were explicitly identified as a potential area for innovation.
/jlne.ws/4yqFjRW

Week of 9/28/2026: Equities Unfazed by Spike in Rates Volatility
Mandy Xu – Cboe
US bond yields climbed to a two-decade high last week, yet reaction in the cross-asset vol market was mixed. While rates vol spiked to near a 1-year high, equity vol ended the week unch’d, with the VIX® Index hovering near a 1-year low of 14.9%. This contrast is even more surprising considering the increase in yields came almost entirely from higher real yields (i.e. tighter financial conditions) rather than higher inflation expectations. Not only is the SPX® Index back to a record high, demand for protection has also fallen to near a 1-year low. SPX 1M skew is trading in the 5th percentile low currently as investor rotate out of hedges and into upside calls. And it’s not just at the index level – about 40% of the top 100 stocks are trading with inverted call skew (a sign of extreme bullishness).
/jlne.ws/46TdDcb

Markets Struggle as Treasury Yields Climb and Oil Slips
JJ Kinahan – Cboe
The three major indices are in negative territory in early trading after attempting to recover at least some of Monday’s pullback that was prompted by rising crude oil prices and Treasury yields. The Nasdaq Composite is down by 0.09% after getting hit hardest yesterday, with big drops in artificial intelligence (AI) stocks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 Index lost their bids to stay higher, falling slightly. WTI Crude Oil is down by 1.75% to the low-$91 range. We’ll be keeping an eye on WTI crude to see if it can break $90 on the downside.
/jlne.ws/4hx4xXz

Bybit Expands TradFi Perp Options with Tesla, QQQ, SOXL and More, Launches Trading Challenge with Up to 70,000 USDT in Prizes
Bybit – PR Newswire
Bybit, the New Financial Platform trusted by more than 80 million users worldwide, expanded its Perp Options offerings with six new underlying assets and announced the Wall Street Blue-Chip Options Challenge, opening up two rewards tracks for participants while they explore opportunities across the globe from Invesco QQQ to SK Hynix. Bybit Perp Options, the industry’s first options contracts built on Bybit’s TradFi Perpetuals, officially went live on September 17, 2026 with SpaceX and NVIDIA as the first available underlyings. Starting now, Tesla, Invesco QQQ (Nasdaq 100 ETF), Direxion Semiconductor Bull 3X ETF (SOXL), Micron Technology, SK Hynix, and Sandisk join the lineup, bringing the total to eight tickers this month.
/jlne.ws/46S4NeR

ICE Launches New JKM LNG (Platts) Options, LNG Balmo Freight Futures and U.K. Electricity Options in an Expansion of Global Natural Gas and Power Markets
ICE
Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE: ICE), one of the world’s leading providers of financial market technology and data powering global capital markets, and home to the largest and most liquid markets in the world to trade and clear energy derivatives, today announced the launch of new JKM LNG (Platts) options, LNG Balmo freight futures, and U.K. base electricity options, in an expansion of ICE’s global natural gas and power markets. The new JKM options (JKZ) complement ICE’s existing JKM average price options, settling in a similar manner to ICE’s TTF options at the end of the month against the underlying future’s settlement price. The new options give customers a way to manage Asian natural gas price risk at a specific point in time, alongside the average price options which are used to manage exposure that accumulates over the month.
/jlne.ws/4dcjb5e

OKX Options Are Now Available on Talos
OKX United States
We’re pleased to announce that OKX options markets are now available on Talos, giving institutional trading desks access to a second options venue through the interface and infrastructure they already use. Talos users with access can discover and view OKX options markets directly within the platform, including real-time order books, strikes, expiries, bid-and-ask depth, implied volatility, Greeks and settlement data. Eligible clients onboarded with OKX can also execute through the Talos order and execution management system.
/jlne.ws/47plT3N

SGX CEO Loh Boon Chye’s pay rises 7% to $8.37m as exchange delivers standout year
Kang Wan Chern – The Straits Times
Singapore Exchange (SGX) chief executive Loh Boon Chye raked in $8.37 million in total pay for the financial year ended June 30, as the exchange delivered a standout year with record-high revenue and net profit. This was up 7.1% from the $7.82 million he earned in financial year 2025, with higher cash bonuses and long-term incentives accounting for nearly 85% of his total remuneration. Loh received a cash bonus of $3.54 million for FY2026, up 8.4% from a year earlier, after achieving specific quantitative and qualitative targets and objectives set for the financial year, according to SGX’s FY2026 annual report released on Sept 29.
/jlne.ws/4iSya80

Granite Asia NextGen Tech 30 Class of 2026
Singapore Exchange (SGX)
The Granite Asia NextGen Tech 30 Class of 2026 will be unveiled at the opening of the trading day on 30 September 2026. Now in its third year, the initiative is Asia’s first public-private platform dedicated to recognising and supporting high-potential growth-stage technology companies. Led by Granite Asia in partnership with SGX Group, it brings together sovereign funds, institutional investors, government agencies and industry leaders to spotlight companies with the ambition and potential to scale globally from Asia.
/jlne.ws/4hVen6U

Cboe Global Markets Announces Date of Third-Quarter 2026 Earnings Release and Conference Call
PR Newswire – Yahoo Finance
Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (Cboe: CBOE), a leading global markets operator and pioneer in equity and index derivatives, will announce its financial results for the third quarter of 2026 before the market opens on Friday, October 30, 2026. A conference call with remarks by the company’s senior management will begin at 7:30 a.m. CT (8:30 a.m. ET).
/jlne.ws/4xVFL9M

Cboe Provides Additional Details Relating to Anticipated Financial Impacts of S&P DJI Licensing Agreement Extension
Cboe
Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (Cboe: CBOE), a leading global markets operator and pioneer in equity and index derivatives, announced earlier today it has signed a 25-year extension of its exclusive licensing agreement with S&P Dow Jones Indices (“S&P DJI”), continuing their longstanding collaboration through 2051. See the press release here. In connection with this announcement, Cboe is providing additional details regarding the anticipated financial impacts of the agreement.
/jlne.ws/4z4mC6v

Binance Futures Lists Five New TradFi Perpetual Contracts
CryptoRank
Binance Futures will admit five new USDT-margined TradFi perpetual contracts to trading on September 28, 2026, adding ExxonMobil, Carvana, Oklo, Twist Bioscience and Rumble to its stock-derivatives lineup, the exchange said in a listing announcement. The five contracts are scheduled to open in five-minute intervals starting at 09:00 UTC, extending a category that already spans hundreds of US equities, ETFs and commodities. The move deepens Binance’s push to give crypto traders leveraged exposure to US shares outside the reach of conventional brokerage and single-stock derivatives rails.
/jlne.ws/4dLWR2v

Building liquidity in Europe’s volatility markets
Eurex
European volatility markets are becoming increasingly liquid and offering market participants a growing product suite to pursue volatility trading strategies. To discuss these developments and the market forces that are driving them, we sat down with Matthew Koren, Sales Americas at Eurex, to discuss how Eurex’ volatility ecosystem is evolving, the growth of short-dated trading, and what improved liquidity could mean for institutional and retail participation.
/jlne.ws/4AGjTBW

AMG Critical Materials N.V. New in the Prime Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange
Deutsche Borse Group
As of today, AMGCritical Materials N.V.(ISIN: NL0000888691) is listed in the Prime Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The company is already listed at Euronext Amsterdam. The IPO was accompanied by Munchmeyer Petersen Capital Markets GmbH, which served as financial advisor. ODDO BHF SE acts as Designated Sponsor on Deutsche Borse Xetra. Specialist on Deutsche Borse Frankfurt is Wolfgang Steubing AG Wertpapierdienstleister.
/jlne.ws/4AYGVEj

DTCC Appoints Industry Leader Samir Pandiri as Chief Client Officer
DTCC
The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), the premier post-trade market infrastructure for the global financial services industry, today announced the appointment of Samir Pandiri as Managing Director and Chief Client Officer, effective September 28. Pandiri joins the DTCC Executive Committee and will report to Frank LaSalla, President & Chief Executive Officer. Pandiri will oversee DTCC’s Global Client Management team (Client Leads, Relationship Management & Growth, Partnerships and Strategic Alliances), DTCC Consulting Services and Marketing & Communications. He will hold overarching responsibility for building long-term client and stakeholder partnerships and driving excellence and innovation in client coverage and value delivery.
/jlne.ws/4rGDttB

HKEX Unveils Proposed Reforms Under Phase II of Listing Framework Review
Global Exchanges
On 21st September 2026, the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited proposed to refine requirements relating to corporate transactions by listed issuers to enhance the competitiveness of Hong Kong’s listing framework. The proposals form the second phase of the Exchange’s listing framework competitiveness review and focus on the post-listing requirements governing notifiable transactions, connected transactions and spin-off transactions. They seek to provide listed issuers with flexibility to undertake corporate transactions, while maintaining appropriate shareholder safeguards through enhanced disclosure requirements and effective board accountability.
/jlne.ws/46U9dSt

Hong Kong’s IPO haul in first 9 months smashes record despite Nasdaq’s fundraising lead
Zoe SL Chan and Enoch Yiu – South China Morning Post
Funds raised through Hong Kong initial public offerings (IPOs) doubled in the first nine months of 2026, reaching the highest level for the period since records began in 1980. A total of 112 companies raised US$48.4 billion on Hong Kong’s main board during the first nine months, according to data released by LSEG Data & Analytics on Wednesday. A further two companies listed on the city’s Growth Enterprise Market (GEM). By deal count, the combined total of 114 new listings on the main board and GEM rose 72 per cent year on year, marking the busiest nine-month period since 2018.
/jlne.ws/3TB8eUa

ICE Launches Residential Whole Loan Evaluations Service
Business Wire
Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE: ICE), one of the world’s leading providers of financial market technology and data powering global capital markets, today announced the launch of Residential Whole Loan Evaluations. This new service extends ICE’s well-established evaluated pricing process to individual, unsecuritized loans, bringing increased model-driven transparency to the market. Residential whole loans have been among the fastest growing segments of fixed income yet have lacked a structured price infrastructure. ICE Residential Whole Loan Evaluations fills the gap between securitized and unsecuritized markets, providing the same transparent pricing to the whole loan market that has long been available for securitized instruments.
/jlne.ws/4rDsxNp

JSE and TIA launch Technology Development Programme to strengthen innovation ecosystem
JSE
The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) together with the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA), an entity of the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation, mandated to advance innovation by supporting the commercialisation of new technologies, have launched a Technology Development Programme focused on market and funding access. The programme is designed to strengthen South Africa’s innovation ecosystem and accelerate the growth of innovative businesses. Through a four-month pilot programme, 10 technology and innovation-led SMEs operating in the health, agriculture, and financial technology sectors will receive structured support to strengthen their investment readiness and accelerate growth. The cohort was selected based on its proven service offerings, operating maturity and commercial potential.
/jlne.ws/46XuMl4

JSE Clear secures regulatory approval to expand central clearing to JSE-listed bonds
JSE
The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) today announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, JSE Clear, has received approval from the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) for the amendment of its licence conditions to permit central counterparty (CCP) clearing services for JSE-listed bonds. JSE Clear is South Africa’s sole licensed Central Counterparty (CCP) and independent clearing house. Granted by the FSCA with the concurrence of the Prudential Authority (PA) and the South African Reserve Bank (SARB), the approval is a significant milestone in the evolution of South Africa’s post-trade market infrastructure and extends JSE Clear’s trusted clearing and risk-management capabilities across a broader range of JSE markets.
/jlne.ws/4yH5DYh

LSEG and Snowflake expand collaboration to connect trusted financial data with cloud-native AI workflows
LSEG
Snowflake (NYSE: SNOW), the AI Data Cloud company, and LSEG announced an expanded five-year enterprise-wide collaboration at the Snowflake World Tour today. The relationship brings together LSEG’s trusted financial data and resilient financial market infrastructure with Snowflake’s cloud-based data and AI technology. By combining these strengths, the two companies aim to build a more open data ecosystem that makes high-quality financial information simpler and safer to access and share. As a result, customers will be able to use LSEG’s financial intelligence directly within the platforms and applications they already rely on.
/jlne.ws/4hmDEXB

FTSE Russell launches AI-powered thematic index series in partnership with MarketPsych
LSEG
FTSE Russell, LSEG’s global index provider, today announces the launch of the FTSE MarketPsych Thematic Index Series, developed in partnership with MarketPsych, a leader in sentiment-driven analytics and behavioural economics tools. The FTSE MarketPsych Thematic Index Series represents the next generation of FTSE Russell’s thematic solutions. The index series utilises a thematic classification database developed through MarketPsych’s AI technology-enabled framework, which analyses LSEG’s trusted datasets – news, transcripts, and financial data – for context, meaning and relevance. The resulting thematic dataset is incorporated into FTSE Russell’s transparent, rules-based index construction process, to bring scalable, transparent, and adaptive thematic exposure to investors globally.
/jlne.ws/46POqzq

MEXC Invited To ISCR 2026 In South Korea, Joining Forces With Global Law Enforcement To Strengthen
MEXC Blog
MEXC, a pioneer in 0-fee digital asset trading, was invited to the 27th International Symposium on Cybercrime Response (ISCR 2026) in South Korea, where Chief Compliance Officer Robert MacDonald delivered a speech. Hosted by the Korean National Police Agency, the two-day symposium took place on August 27–28 at the Fairmont Ambassador Seoul.
/jlne.ws/3TUTijT

MEXC Leads SOL And DOGE Market-Price Liquidity In CoinGecko’s 2026 CEX Report
MEXC Blog
MEXC, a pioneer in 0-fee digital asset trading, led the exchanges studied in order book liquidity at the market price for both SOL and DOGE in CoinGecko Research’s 2026 Crypto Liquidity on CEXes Report. The report measured order book depth for the top five non-stablecoin assets, BTC, ETH, XRP, SOL and DOGE, across eight exchanges over 60 days from July 6 to September 3, 2026.
/jlne.ws/46RlBCQ

OCC Strengthens Security Operations with an Agentic AI Investigation Solution Built on AWS
OCC
The Options Clearing Corporation (OCC)®, the world’s largest equity derivatives clearing organization, today announced the launch of an AI-powered security investigation agent (the “SOC Agent”) built with Amazon Web Services’ Amazon Bedrock. The solution automates the investigation of security alerts in OCC’s Security Operations Center, delivers interpretable and auditable results, and creates a human-in-the-loop feedback system to continuously improve. “At OCC, protecting the markets we serve starts with the strength of our security operations. As a Systemically Important Financial Market Utility, OCC operates a Security Operations Center that must investigate a steady stream of security alerts quickly, consistently, and to a defensible standard,” said Ben Le, Deputy Chief Security Officer. “The SOC Agent was designed to automate an investigative workflow while keeping OCC’s security experts firmly in control of the process and its outcomes.”
/jlne.ws/4AKYuaO

OKX Is Now Available in Texas
OKX United States
As of September 2026, eligible Texas residents and institutions can join OKX and access available crypto trading products through our US platform.
/jlne.ws/4dIuQsA

Circular on Releasing the Revised Administration of Accounts Involving Actual Control Relationship Rules of the Shanghai Futures Exchange
SHFE
The revised Administration of Accounts Involving Actual Control Relationship Rules of the Shanghai Futures Exchange have been adopted by the Board of Directors of the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE), and reported to the China Securities Regulatory Commission. These rules are hereby released and shall take effect on October 20, 2026.
/jlne.ws/4hzAfn1

CME launches sports team futures on NHL team performance
InGame – CDC Gaming
CME has launched its sports team index futures, which allow bettors to trade on NHL team performances like a stock, and to trade on margin, with the business touting the contracts’ utility to vendors, sponsors, and retail traders. Futures on NHL team performance went live Sunday night, and the exchange hopes that more leagues will follow.
/jlne.ws/3VBBKcX

 

FinTech

Trading Technologies acquires TRAFiX to ramp up multi-asset coverage
Natasha Cocksedge – The TRADE
Trading Technologies (TT) has acquired equities and equity options OEMS and FIX connectivity solution provider, TRAFiX. Justin Llewellyn-Jones The transaction – which finalised on 30 September 2026 – expands TT’s coverage across every major asset class, including futures, FX, fixed income and global equities, within a single, cloud-native platform. Prior to the deal, TT’s offering covered US equities options, however this did not include connectivity and functionality for all major venues.
/jlne.ws/3VHUxDs

Fintech Zilch taps banks for IPO next year; UK consumer credit company has invited advisers to pitch on a planned listing in London
Ivan Levingston and Laith Al-Khalaf – Financial Times
Fintech Zilch is lining up investment banks for an initial public offering as soon as next year, delivering a potential boost to the London Stock Exchange, which has been hit by a series of takeovers from the UK market. Zilch, which provides cheap consumer loans, this month invited banks to pitch for roles on its planned flotation, according to people familiar with the matter. The people warned that discussions remained in early stages and that plans could yet shift.
/jlne.ws/3U01aR5

OptionMetrics Launches IvyDB TradeFlow, Giving Institutions Insights on Buying and Selling Order Flow, Retail Trading Behavior, Participation in 0DTE Options Trading; New product gives quantitative professionals and academic researchers robust data and analytics on retail versus institutional options trading in fast-moving, influential options market
Media Contact: – Business Wire
OptionMetrics, the leading historical options data and analytics provider for institutional investors and academic researchers worldwide, today announced IvyDB TradeFlow to give quantitative professionals, options traders, and academic researchers an edge with data and analytics to classify retail versus institutional options trading and liquidity in today’s fast-moving markets.
/jlne.ws/4deIsf1

Artificial Intelligence

Anthropic IPO prospectus lays bare deep dependence on Big Tech partners
Echo Wang and Krystal Hu – Reuters
Anthropic’s IPO prospectus shows how much it depends on a small group of customers and tech giants, highlighting ​key risks for the AI developer as it asks investors to back its ambitious, capital-intensive plan that it says will transform the global economy. The company routed 47% of ‌its sales to customers last year through cloud partners Amazon (AMZN.O) and Alphabet’s (GOOGL.O) Google, according to a copy of its confidential IPO filing seen by Reuters. Those two companies, which are supercharging the AI developer’s distribution and collecting customer bills on its behalf, are also big Anthropic investors, critical suppliers of computing power and direct rivals in AI.
/jlne.ws/4d7RGd6

AI researchers warn companies rushing self-improving systems despite safety risks
Deepa Seetharaman – Reuters
Current and former OpenAI and Google DeepMind researchers warn companies are doing too little to protect the ​world against the potentially disastrous fallout of building self-improving AI systems that could outpace humans’ ability to control them. In video testimonials collected by AI safety ‌nonprofit Palisade Research and shared exclusively with Reuters, employees said their concerns about existential risk were sincere, not marketing. They also said AI labs celebrated employees building new models more than those who urge caution.
/jlne.ws/4AHYM1X

Anthropic says rogue AI agents pose uncertain legal risk for the company
Echo Wang and Jody Godoy – Reuters
Anthropic could face legal claims from customers and users over the actions of rogue artificial intelligence agents, ‌though the legal framework is uncertain, the company said in the prospectus for its stock market debut seen by Reuters. While it gears up for what could be the largest initial public offering ever, Anthropic faces the possibility of vast unknown legal risk if its agentic AI technology — designed to maintain deep access to customers’ systems and run autonomously for days at a time — goes rogue.
/jlne.ws/4hVnrbW

BMLL and Simudyne test intraday simulation platform with liquidity risk and margin modeling
Finadium Editorial Team – Finadium
BMLL, an independent provider of harmonized, continually engineered historical Level 3, 2 and 1 data and analytics for capital markets, announced a partnership with Simudyne, an advanced generative AI and agent-based simulation platform designed to model and replicate market dynamics. The collaboration will combine BMLL’s L2 and L3 harmonized historical order book datasets with Simudyne’s advanced Pulse simulator, used specifically for intraday markets, to enable market participants to run highly realistic, reactive market simulations, perform market replays and test system performance.
/jlne.ws/46NvNMB

OpenAI takes on Meta with dots agent in autonomous AI push
Deepa Seetharaman and Aditya Soni – Reuters
OpenAI on Tuesday unveiled always-on agents called dots that chase user goals across apps ​on their own, deepening its push into the lucrative enterprise market and pitting it against Meta (META.O) in the race to sell AI that can work autonomously. The dots agents aim to ‌capitalize on growing demand for agents that can handle everyday work with little supervision.
/jlne.ws/3VZTTRR

What is a public benefit corporation, the Anthropic legal structure?
Tom Hals – Reuters
AI lab Anthropic, the developer of Claude, is planning one of the biggest IPOs in history as a public benefit corporation, a legal structure that requires management to consider certain broader interests as well as turning a profit for investors. Below is a look at how public benefit corporations ​differ from traditional companies. WHAT ARE PUBLIC BENEFIT CORPORATIONS? Delaware, home to the majority of large publicly traded companies, created public benefit corporations or PBCs ‌in 2013 as a way of addressing the potential negative impacts of corporate behavior.
/jlne.ws/4j2bDG1

American Express Rolls Out AI Expense Management to Counter Fintech Rivals
Katherine Hamilton – The Wall Street Journal
/jlne.ws/4AKGBZG

Microprocessors

Netlist seeks U.S. import ban on Micron chips used in Google, Nvidia AI computing
Blake Brittain – Reuters
Computer-memory company Netlist (NLST.PK) said on Tuesday that it has filed ​a new complaint at a U.S. trade tribunal ‌seeking to block imports of Micron (MU.O) memory chips used in Google (GOOGL.O), Nvidia (NVDA.O) and Broadcom (AVGO.O) products for AI computing.
/jlne.ws/4z6K9DU

China’s DeepSeek open-sources tools to help Huawei chips supplant Nvidia in AI
Coco Feng – South China Morning Post
Chinese artificial intelligence start-up DeepSeek on Wednesday open-sourced a suite of core tools tailored for Huawei Technologies’ Ascend AI chips, marking a step forward in the country’s push to end dependence on processors from US giant Nvidia amid US export curbs. Hangzhou-based DeepSeek released six software modules that mirror its prior open-source tools for Nvidia’s AI chips, aiming to build a new “independent and controllable” software ecosystem for graphics processing units (GPUs), according to a post on its official WeChat account.
/jlne.ws/4hH49pE

Tokenization

Cboe’s New S&P Deal Opens the Door to Tokenized Options
Decrypt Agent
Cboe Global Markets and S&P Dow Jones Indices are exploring whether to bring options contracts on-chain, tucking a tokenization ambition into a 25-year extension of their decades-old licensing partnership. The two firms said Monday they had renewed their exclusive licensing agreement through 2051, preserving Cboe’s rights to offer options on the S&P 500 Index, or SPX, its flagship product.
/jlne.ws/3Tr1Q1L

Cboe, S&P Dow Jones open door for tokenized options under extended licensing deal
Krisztian Sandor – CoinDesk
/jlne.ws/4z1gX0P

Connectivity/Data Centers

Exclusive | Tech Giants Face Questions Over Secret AI Data-Center Deals; Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin seeks information from Amazon, Google, Meta and Oracle
Neil Mehta and Amrith Ramkumar – The Wall Street Journal
A Democratic lawmaker wants more information on the secret agreements between tech companies building data centers and local officials approving them, their latest attempt to increase oversight of the facilities powering artificial intelligence and tap in to voters’ AI backlash ahead of the midterm elections. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D., Md.), the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, sent letters to Amazon.com, Alphabet’s Google, Meta Platforms and Oracle on Tuesday seeking information on the nondisclosure agreements those companies signed with government officials related to data-center build-outs, according to copies of the letters viewed by The Wall Street Journal.
/jlne.ws/4d9UAOr

How Meta Uses A.I. Data Centers to Avoid Billions in Federal Taxes; Meta is exploiting a lucrative tax break intended to support research and experimentation. Its own accountants say the gambit is risky.
Kashmir Hill, Jesse Drucker, Eli Tan and Mike Isaac – The New York Times
Mark Zuckerberg says Meta’s A.I. push is a tremendous success. “Our investments in A.I. are accelerating every major part of our core business,” he has told investors. “Every sign that we’re seeing in our own work and across the industry gives us confidence in this investment.” But when Meta files its taxes, it tells the Internal Revenue Service a different story. It claims that its A.I. data centers are a giant experiment that could fail, according to four people with knowledge of the company’s operations.
/jlne.ws/4rJ1pwr

 

Cybersecurity

Fake WhatsApp-Fueled Trades Bilked Investors, SEC Says
Nicola M White – Bloomberg
Hundreds of mom-and-pop investors lost more than $15 million in crypto and cash in fake artificial-intelligence stock trading schemes fueled by boosters in WhatsApp group chats, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Tuesday. The SEC filed two separate lawsuits against platforms Cryptoaiml Ltd. and TSAI Pro Ltd., alleging they and affiliated entities lured customers with promises of AI-powered stock trading, but pocketed their crypto and cash payments and funneled them to accounts overseas. The platforms also assured customers they were overseen by the SEC, according to the court filings.
/jlne.ws/4hAaxi6

Singapore Sees First Data Breach Linked to AI Use, ST Reports
Rieka Rahadiana – Bloomberg
Singapore received its first notification of an AI-related data breach after a food company accidentally disclosed customers’ email addresses to other recipients of a bulk email, the Straits Times reported, citing the country’s Personal Data Protection Commission. Bee Cheng Hiang, a well-known local producer of Chinese-style pork jerky, told the commission the incident occurred in April after an employee used a generative AI tool to create a program for sending emails in batches to a local mailing list. The employee, however, failed to instruct the program to hide each recipient’s email address from other customers. It was the first time the company had used an AI tool in its business operations, the newspaper reported on Wednesday.
/jlne.ws/4xRjUjK

 

CRYPTO

Stablecoins

HSBC unveils RedCoin as name of Hong Kong stablecoin for 3.3 million PayMe users
Enoch Yiu – South China Morning Post
HSBC on Wednesday named its stablecoin offering HSBC RedCoin, paving the way for Hong Kong’s biggest lender to make the coin available to the more than 3.3 million users of its PayMe app for money transfers, shopping and dining. When launched before the end of the year, the stablecoin would be offered only through PayMe and HSBC’s Hong Kong mobile banking app, HSBC said.
/jlne.ws/4xY4s5s

Jeeves Raises $110 Million From A16z, Coinbase for Crypto Push
Maria Clara Cobo – Bloomberg
Miami-based fintech Jeeves Inc. said it raised $110 million from investors to help expand its offerings, including a stablecoin wallet, artificial-intelligence agents and the enabling of instant payouts in more countries. The Series C round was led by CoinFund, with other participants including AllianceBernstein, Coinbase Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz. Jeeves launched stablecoin-based payments earlier this year as well as a stablecoin-backed corporate card to allow global businesses to settle international payments within minutes by using digital-asset rails. Now, the company is launching its own stablecoin wallet, expanding into accounts receivables and incorporating agentic AI into its platform.
/jlne.ws/4xTgKfk

 

Politics

White House holds crunch talks on diesel export ban as midterms near; Trump at centre of lobbying fight between Big Oil and top Republicans warning of voter anger at high fuel prices
Jamie Smyth, Myles McCormick and David Sheppard – Financial Times
Donald Trump has held crisis talks with advisers over whether to impose a diesel export ban or take other steps to contain a fuel crisis that threatens to derail his Republican Party’s midterm election campaign. Aides had presented the president with options including curbs on international diesel sales, people familiar with the discussions said, and administration officials have briefed foreign allies including the UK about possible disruption to their supplies.
/jlne.ws/4yYu0jM

GOP redistricting in Texas and Florida may not turn out as Trump hoped
Jesse Bedayn and Bill Barrow – Associated Press
Eric Flores, a former federal prosecutor and Army National Guard infantry captain, was one of the Republican Party’s prized recruits in this year’s midterm elections. With help from a redrawn congressional map in Texas, he seemed primed to dislodge longtime Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez in a region that swung toward Donald Trump in the last presidential election.
/jlne.ws/3U027sH

U.S. Administration

White House urges EU to draw down diesel inventories, sources say
Jarrett Renshaw – Reuters
The White House has urged the European Union to draw down emergency diesel inventories in an effort to lower global prices, as President Donald Trump and his administration pursue a ​range of options to ease fuel costs ahead of November’s midterm elections, according to two sources familiar with the ‌effort. The White House is frustrated that some European countries have not lived up to commitments made earlier this year to tap their emergency oil and petroleum reserves to help address supply disruptions and price spikes stemming from the Iran conflict and disruptions to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, according to the ​sources.
/jlne.ws/47wkb0w

Trump, AI CEOs sign voluntary safety pact, back data center expansion
Courtney Rozen and Steve Holland – Reuters
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said ​tech executives agreed to establish voluntary standards for AI and reiterated his support for rapid expansion of data centers, as concerns mount over AI safety and the ‌industry’s growing footprint in communities. Trump made the comments after meeting with tech executives at the White House. The companies agreed to work with “independent auditors” to assess whether AI systems are working as their designers intended, according to a copy of the agreement posted by Trump on his social media platform. The companies also said they would work to ensure their AI tools do not “hack or access technical systems in unintended ways.”
/jlne.ws/4deTK33

Trump rebrands AI to ‘Super Intelligence’ in a new executive order
Katherine Li – Business Insider
Artificial intelligence is getting a presidential rebrand. Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday directing federal agencies to replace “Artificial Intelligence” and “AI” with “Super Intelligence” and “SI” in official communications, websites, reports, and policy documents, wherever legally permitted. “The word super is the best word of all, and it’s the simplest,” Trump said earlier Tuesday at an event announcing America.gov, an AI-powered website meant to give Americans a simpler way to find federal information.
/jlne.ws/4e8v9Nx

U.S. Congress

House Expands Probe Into Prediction-Market Insider Trading
David Feld – Yahoo Finance
House Oversight Chair James Comer is expanding his investigation into potential insider trading on prediction markets, now seeking information from Hyperliquid, Crypto.com, and PredictIt alongside existing probes into Kalshi and Polymarket.
/jlne.ws/3TC3yNE

Rep. James Comer expands House investigation into prediction market insider trading
Justin Papp – CNBC
Rep. James Comer, chair of the House Oversight Committee, is expanding an investigation into insider trading on prediction markets and seeking information on what a trio of online platforms is doing to root it out. The Kentucky Republican, in letters sent Tuesday and first shared with CNBC, requested documents and information from the CEOs of Hyperliquid Labs, Crypto.com and Aristotle Exchange Inc., which owns the platform PredictIt, that explain their identity verification procedures and how they identify and prevent insider trading on their platforms.
/jlne.ws/4hTWkxR

Trade_War and Tariffs

Trump’s New Tariffs Face a Familiar Court Challenge
Tony Romm – The New York Times
Just hours after the Supreme Court struck down President Trump’s original roster of punishing global tariffs, he defiantly proclaimed that he would stop at nothing to somehow bring them back. Seven months later, the work to revive those duties is well underway. But their return is about to land the administration back in the federal courthouse in New York where its legal troubles first began. The latest phase of Mr. Trump’s ever-evolving trade war rests in the familiar hands of a panel of federal judges, who on Wednesday will hear the third major case in less than two years challenging the president’s ability to tax imports from around the world. Each of the fights has centered on different legal justifications, but the root cause is the same: Mr. Trump’s reliance on decades-old laws to issue duties that opponents see as a harmful overreach.
/jlne.ws/3TArWzf

EU weighs sweeping new trade powers against China before make-or-break October
Finbarr Bermingham – South China Morning Post
Brussels and Berlin are steeling themselves for a make-or-break October with China, as the mood towards Beijing hardens in both capitals. The month ahead could help set the course of the increasingly thorny EU-China relationship for years to come, as Europe gears up to present a slew of new tools for countering Beijing’s trade practices, likely to come in December. Before then, EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic travels to Beijing on October 8 and 9 for crucial meetings with Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao. These will assess how much progress has been made in rebalancing trade ties since the last showdown in June.
/jlne.ws/4hBxnpR

Canada

Is Carney a Nobel Peace Prize contender? Here’s what one prediction market says; The Canadian PM finds himself among other possible laureates such as Sudan’s Emergency Response Rooms, Doctors Without Borders, and Ukrainian children’s rights activist Mykola Kuleba
Kenn Oliver – National Post
The 2026 Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded early next month and Prime Minister Mark Carney’s name has entered the conversation about this year’s recipient, according to people placing wagers on Kalshi, the popular U.S. prediction market website. Article content As of Monday afternoon, the 61-year-old became one of the favourites to be named the winner on Oct. 9 with around a nine per cent chance. He’s behind only the Emergency Response Rooms (ERRs) providing aid to civil-war-torn Sudan (14 percent), Doctors Without Borders (11 percent) and the Ukrainian children’s rights activist Mykola Kuleba and his Save Ukraine initiative (10 percent).
/jlne.ws/46ShQNq

European Union

Vanguard warns France is ‘degrading credit’ as borrowing costs surge; Iran war has exacerbated fiscal pressures on Paris as budget battle looms
Leila Abboud and Ian Smith – Financial Times
Asset management giant Vanguard has warned that France’s “degrading” creditworthiness is likely to drive up its borrowing costs even further, as investor concerns mount over the government’s inability to bring down its budget deficit. The firm, which manages $12tn in assets, warned that the presidential election in April could further darken the outlook for France’s stretched public finances if candidates from the far left to the far right refuse to back unpopular spending cuts, and the country could suffer more credit downgrades.
/jlne.ws/4rCbBXs

 

Regulation & Enforcement

CFTC Investigating Adam Kinzinger Over Kalshi Bets on His Own Pardon: Report
Decrypt Agent
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is investigating former Republican Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois over prediction market trades tied to the presidential pardon he received from Joe Biden, Politico reported, citing three people with knowledge of the matter. The trades were made through a Kalshi account linked to Kinzinger in December 2024 and January 2025. He told the publication he had bet on a contract covering whether he would personally receive a pardon, and on a separate contract covering whether Biden would issue preemptive pardons before leaving office.
/jlne.ws/4iWKW5u

Basel chief says risks becoming more interconnected as international cooperation wanes
Phoebe Seers – Reuters
International cooperation among banking supervisors is becoming more difficult just as financial risks grow more interconnected, the chair ​of the global banking rulemaker said on Wednesday. Basel Committee on ‌Banking Supervision Chair Erik Thedeen warned that fragmentation in supervision could make it harder for regulators to identify and manage risks that span multiple jurisdictions.
/jlne.ws/4dxgiMD

FINRA Foundation and AFCPE® Select the 2026 FINRA Foundation Military Spouse Fellows
FINRA
The FINRA Investor Education Foundation (FINRA Foundation) and the Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education® (AFCPE®) are excited to announce the selection of the 2026 cohort of the FINRA Foundation Military Spouse Fellowship. This year, 30 military spouses will take steps toward achieving their Accredited Financial Counselor® (AFC®) designation, setting the groundwork for meaningful careers in financial counseling.
/jlne.ws/4AAToO1

FINRA Bars Broker for Misappropriating $1.7 Million from Customers’ Accounts
FINRA
FINRA has barred Rudy Anguiano of Chino Hills, CA, a former registered representative of LPL Financial LLC, from associating with any FINRA member firm in all capacities for conversion—the intentional and unauthorized taking of another person’s property—of $1,731,000 from two customers’ accounts into an outside business bank account. LPL has since reimbursed both customers in full. FINRA opened an investigation into Anguiano’s activities in December 2025 after LPL disclosed that Anguiano had been discharged for failing to disclose his outside business.
/jlne.ws/4yiZGjO

SEC Charges Multiple Entities in Fraud Schemes Totaling at Least $15 Million That Used WhatsApp and Other Platforms to Lure Investors
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged multiple entities that are likely operated by individuals located overseas for defrauding hundreds of retail investors, including many in the U.S., through so-called investment confidence scams where the perpetrators sought to build online relationships with unsuspecting clients before stealing their money.
/jlne.ws/4hTqPE5

SEC Files Settled Action Against Start-Up Space Station Construction Company, Its CEO, and Its Former COO
SEC
On September 29, 2026, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed settled charges against Above: Space Development Corporation f/k/a Orbital Assembly Corporation (“Orbital”), an Alabama-based start-up company that purported to design and construct space stations, as well as Orbital’s former Chief Operating Officer Timothy E. Alatorre and current Chief Executive Officer Rhonda D. Stevenson, in connection with providing allegedly misleading information to investors about the status of Orbital’s projects, its intellectual property, and its relationships with other space industry companies.
/jlne.ws/4iXkEA6

SEC Files Settled Action as to Maryland Resident for Alleged Insider Trading in Massachusetts-Based Biopharmaceutical Company
SEC
On September 24, 2026, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a settled insider trading action as to Maryland resident Cheryl Kramer, who allegedly avoided losses by trading ahead of negative news announced by Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biopharmaceutical company, Sage Therapeutics, Inc.
/jlne.ws/4z0ZYMc

SEC Charges New Jersey Resident as Additional Defendant in Alleged Insider Trading Scheme
SEC
On September 29, 2026, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed an amended complaint to name Chris Farrant, a New Jersey resident, as an additional defendant in a previously filed insider trading case. According to the SEC’s amended complaint, Farrant traded in the securities of two issuers based on material nonpublic information he received from his close friend, previously-charged defendant Stephen Teixeira, who had obtained the information from the laptop of his then-romantic partner, an executive assistant at an investment bank.
/jlne.ws/4xVzDON

SEC Charges Multiple Entities in Fraud Schemes Totaling at Least $15 Million that Used WhatsApp and Other Platforms to Lure Investors
SEC
On September 29, 2026, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged multiple entities that are likely operated by individuals located overseas for defrauding hundreds of retail investors, including many in the U.S., through so-called investment confidence scams where the perpetrators sought to build online relationships with unsuspecting clients before stealing their money.
/jlne.ws/4dg8TkB

Australian regulator to review banking sector AI use and customer impacts
Scott Murdoch – Reuters
Australia’s corporate regulator said on Wednesday it would formally review the country’s banking sector’s ​usage of AI in dealing with customers. The Australian ‌Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) warned in May the banks should take urgent action on tackling potential cyber risks from frontier AI ​systems.
/jlne.ws/4hB0mtG

ASIC releases 2026–27 supervisory priorities to support better regulation and give industry greater certainty
ASIC
ASIC has published its supervisory priorities for 2026-27 for the banking, superannuation, general insurance, life insurance and financial markets sectors to provide greater transparency of priorities and give industry early visibility on planned activities. This initiative responds directly to industry feedback and helps regulated entities prepare and allocate resources appropriately. ASIC has engaged with APRA and other regulators in deciding the activities included in the letters. Where there was overlap, those activities were recast or removed to avoid duplication or will be undertaken collaboratively.
/jlne.ws/3TUC6uO

Former CSRC chairman Yi Huiman formally prosecuted for taking ‘especially large’ bribes
Yulu Ao – South China Morning Post
Yi Huiman, the former chairman of China’s securities regulator, has been formally prosecuted for allegedly accepting “especially large” bribes, as Beijing presses ahead with a sweeping anti-corruption campaign in the financial sector. Prosecutors in the eastern city of Qingdao recently filed a case against Yi with the Qingdao Intermediate People’s Court after an investigation by the National Commission of Supervision, state-owned Xinhua News Agency said on Wednesday.
/jlne.ws/4hAXcGA

Recovery scams
FMA
Recovery scams target people who have already lost money to a scam or failed investment. Scammers may contact you claiming they can recover your funds, trace lost assets, or secure compensation on your behalf. Their goal is to gain your trust and convince you to pay upfront fees or share more personal information.
/jlne.ws/3VHG2iZ

UK FCA begins accepting crypto authorization applications
Crypto Briefing
The UK Financial Conduct Authority has begun accepting authorization applications from crypto firms operating in the UK as the country moves toward a new regulatory regime for crypto assets, according to a press release issued on Sept. 30. The UK’s new crypto regime has been built through legislation, FCA rulemaking and two years of preparation. Parliament formally expanded the watchdog’s regulatory perimeter in February 2026 to cover activities including stablecoin issuance, custody, trading platforms, dealing and arranging, and staking.
/jlne.ws/3ViqRwF

FCA opens the gateway to regulated crypto
FCA
From today, crypto firms can apply for authorisation from the FCA, marking a landmark moment as the UK takes a step closer towards becoming one of the most trusted places in the world to build and invest in cryptoasset businesses.
/jlne.ws/4xXzRVI

FCA opens authorisation gateway for UK crypto-asset firms
Zara Richardson – The TRADE
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has opened applications for authorisation from crypto-asset firms. Under the new regime, crypto firms operating in the UK will come under full FCA regulation for the first time. The regime sets standards for consumer protection, safeguarding, market integrity and financial resilience. Firms that intend to continue operating in the UK must apply by 28 February 2027, with the regime set to come into force on 25 October 2027.
/jlne.ws/4dh3j1o

Trends in High-Speed Trading (as of the end of June 2026)
FSA
The Financial Instruments and Exchange Act was amended in May 2017 (enforced April 2018) to require financial instruments business operators who engage in high-speed trading to register.
/jlne.ws/47tnQwa

MAS Consults on Targeted Updates to Corporate Governance Requirements for Banks, Insurers and Designated Financial Holding Companies
MAS
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is seeking feedback on targeted updates to the Corporate Governance Regulations, as part of MAS’ regular review of regulatory standards to keep them current and effective for banks, insurers and their designated financial holding companies. The proposed changes build on an established and well-functioning corporate governance framework, strengthening safeguards in specific areas where risks and practices have evolved, while streamlining requirements for financial institutions (FIs) with less impact on customers and the financial system.
/jlne.ws/4zb0KGK

SFC, Securities Commission Malaysia announce Single Submission Arrangement to streamline simultaneous listings in Malaysia and Hong Kong
Securities and Futures Commission
The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) and the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) today unveiled simplified regulatory procedures and submission arrangements to facilitate simultaneous listings in Hong Kong and Malaysia. The Single Submission Arrangement brings into operation the simplified dual IPO listing framework set out in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the two regulators on 23 July 2026 (Note 1).
/jlne.ws/4ADp716

 

Investing & Trading

Prospect of Fed pulling too far back on communications poses volatility risk, Musalem says
Howard Schneider – Reuters
Too big a pullback in the US central bank’s communications could lead to higher and more volatile interest rates and ​inflation if the public and businesses are left to guess ‌how it would react to different economic developments, St. Louis Federal Reserve President Alberto Musalem said on Tuesday. Musalem, in remarks prepared for delivery at a London ​School of Economics event, said the Fed and other central banks ​need not make specific promises about rates — which can cause ⁠its own problems — but “should also avoid exiting the conversation altogether” and ​at a minimum provide a framework that lets households and businesses understand ​how central bankers will respond as the economy evolves.
/jlne.ws/4hu00oI

Troubles at Situational Awareness Point to Record Stock Market Leverage
Matthew Goldstein and Rob Copeland – The New York Times
There were, in retrospect, more than a few details about Situational Awareness that might have given a savvy Wall Street lender pause. The eight-person hedge fund was led by a 24-year-old without a whiff of trading experience. Few people were assigned to monitor investment risk at the fund, which had been created only in 2024, and the chief compliance officer at the time split his time between his apartment in Reno, Nev., and the headquarters in San Francisco, according to regulatory filings and people briefed on the matter.
/jlne.ws/4e0j5xJ

France’s 10-Year Bond Risk Premium Rises to 120 Basis Points
James Hirai – Bloomberg
A measure of French bond risk reached another milestone as investors position for political upheaval next year and the potential for a populist government to loosen the purse strings. The extra yield investors demand to buy France’s 10-year bonds over safer German bunds rose to more than 120 basis points for the first time since 2012. The gauge has climbed sharply in recent weeks and the latest move came after data showed the nation’s inflation increased more than expected. The level “is a wake-up call for the bond market this morning,” Marie Jacot, chief executive officer at Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management France, said on Bloomberg TV.
/jlne.ws/46OWy3h

Four Big IRA Mistakes That You Can’t Undo; Rollover situations in particular are rife with land mines that can trigger taxes and penalties
Leonard Sloane – The Wall Street Journal
Investors often make mistakes with their individual retirement accounts. Fortunately, the tax code allows many of these missteps to be corrected. Contribute too much to your IRA, for example, and you can withdraw the excess and related earnings without paying a 6% annual penalty if you do so before Oct. 15 of the following year. Or if you forget to take one of the annual withdrawals from your traditional IRA, known as required minimum distributions, you can take the distribution when you realize you’ve missed an RMD and use Internal Revenue Service form 5329 to request a waiver of the penalty.
/jlne.ws/4Ayerki

Treasury Will Auto-Enroll 60 Million in Trump Accounts; New rules also ease path for wealthy donors to contribute stock while avoiding capital-gains taxes
Richard Rubin and Ashlea Ebeling – The Wall Street Journal
The Treasury Department will automatically enroll tens of millions of children in the government’s new Trump Accounts as soon as this week, replacing the previous structure that required parents or guardians to sign up, the agency said in rules published Tuesday. The shift to automatic enrollment will ensure much broader access to the child investment accounts, creating them for more than 60 million additional children under age 18, according to the Treasury Department. The shift to auto enrollment means that big contributions from wealthy donors to the program—like the $6.25 billion pledge from Michael Dell—would reach more households.
/jlne.ws/46U2GXS

He Was a Tech Investor Before There Was a Silicon Valley; Bill Draper began funding start-ups in the early 1960s, when the Santa Clara Valley was better known for apricot orchards than microchips. He has died at 98.
Alex Williams – The New York Times
Bill Draper, who started his pioneering career as a Silicon Valley investor by steering a rented Pontiac through the orchard-dotted Santa Clara Valley of Northern California in the early 1960s, drumming up business in an era when few entrepreneurs had even heard the term “venture capital,” died on Sept. 8 at his home in Atherton, Calif. He was 98. His death was confirmed by his daughter Polly Draper.
/jlne.ws/4ykbGSd

 

ESG

India Sets New Car Emission Limits, Adds Carbon Credit Trading
Alisha Sachdev – Bloomberg
India has finalized sweeping new fuel-efficiency rules that will require automakers to cut emissions across their fleets from 2027, while giving them flexibility to use electric vehicles, hybrids and more efficient gasoline-powered cars to get there. The Corporate Average Fuel Economy-III rules, notified Tuesday, will progressively tighten emissions limits for new cars through March 2032, requiring about 17% improvement in fleet-wide fuel efficiency over five years.
/jlne.ws/4hAZ6GY

US lawmakers including Sen. Warren push energy regulators to reject acquisition of power company AES
Laila Kearney and Sumit Saha – Reuters
A group of US lawmakers including Senator Elizabeth Warren ​asked federal energy regulators this week to reject a more than $33 billion sale of power company AES, saying it could drive up electricity ‌bills and benefit data centers at the expense of utility customers, according to a letter seen by Reuters. U.S. electricity demand is being driven to record highs, largely by the proliferation of energy-intensive data centers, spurring a flurry of power mergers and acquisitions, some of which propose to take public electric utilities private.
/jlne.ws/4hoeyaE

 

BANKS BROKERS MANAGED FUNDS

Norway Wealth Fund Owned Turkish Stocks Swept Up In Fraud Probe
Kerim Karakaya and Donal Griffin – Bloomberg
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund owned stakes worth almost 2 billion kroner ($208 million) in Turkish companies now caught up in the country’s widening market-manipulation investigation. Norges Bank Investment Management held shares in 10 companies that prosecutors or regulators have linked to the case, according to data published on its website dated June 30. The holdings, which amount to almost 10% of the 20.4 billion kroner of Turkish shares held by NBIM on that date, have since plunged in value amid the sweeping probe.
/jlne.ws/4j268qR

US Fund Accuses Trader Radiant World of Fraud in Swiss Complaint
Katharine Gemmell and Chris Dolmetsch – Bloomberg
A US fund has filed a criminal complaint in Switzerland accusing Radiant World and related companies of fraud and money laundering, according to a US court filing, adding a new jurisdiction to the iron ore trader’s escalating legal and financial crisis. The complaint was described in an application filed by Mariner Atlantic Multi-Strategy LLC, which is managed by investment firm Mariner Investment Group. Mariner is seeking documents from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Clearing House Interbank Payments System for use in the Swiss proceedings.
/jlne.ws/4e5T6oF

Robinhood to allow 24-hour weekend trading of US stocks as industry shifts to wider access
Jayasree Prabhu and Manya Saini – Reuters
Robinhood said on Tuesday it will let users trade some US stocks round-the-clock during ‌weekends, marking its latest effort to keep up as the industry marches toward 24-hour access. The online brokerage’s push is part of a fundamental shift that could allow US markets access to a broader base of global capital while offering investors greater flexibility.
/jlne.ws/3T9VzYg

Deutsche Bank Plans Risk Trade Tied to $2 Billion in Fund Loans
Esteban Duarte – Bloomberg
Deutsche Bank AG is working on a significant risk transfer tied to fund financing as the lender widens the range of assets it hedges via the booming securitization trade. The Frankfurt-based lender is planning a potential transaction linked to a portfolio of about $2 billion of subscription lines, according to people familiar with the matter. Terms of the deal, including size, may change on the back of discussions with investors, they said, asking not to be identified because the information is private.
/jlne.ws/3VneWxB

Nubank Names Ley as Mexico CEO as it Reshuffles Leadership
Maria Clara Cobo – Bloomberg
Nu Holdings Ltd named Estephany Paulette Ley as chief executive officer of its Mexico operation, part of a broader leadership reshuffling of the Brazil-based digital bank. Ley, previously the director of retail banking at privately-held Bancoppel, will take on the new role in early November, according to a statement. Rodrigo Kuri was also named chairman of Nu Mexico.
/jlne.ws/47rejWt

JPMorgan banker renews defamation countersuit against sexual assault accuser Rana
Jonathan Stempel – Reuters
The JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N) investment banker accused of sexual harassment in a lawsuit that ‌went viral renewed her countersuit against her accuser, saying he defamed her, ruined her reputation and destroyed her life to extract millions of dollars from her and the bank. In a Monday night filing in Manhattan federal court, JPMorgan Executive Director Lorna Hajdini said Chirayu Rana’s “deliberate and ​sustained scheme” to cast her as a racist sexual predator and criminal also caused her to suffer ​severe anxiety, panic and fear, and to withdraw from personal relationships.
/jlne.ws/4dh03mG

Hedge Funds

Troubles at Situational Awareness Point to Record Stock Market Leverage; A meltdown at Situational Awareness, an A.I.-focused investment firm, is raising tough questions about the Wall Street banks that lent billions to the upstart firm.
Matthew Goldstein and Rob Copeland – The New York Times
There were, in retrospect, more than a few details about Situational Awareness that might have given a savvy Wall Street lender pause. The eight-person hedge fund was led by a 24-year-old without a whiff of trading experience. Few people were assigned to monitor investment risk at the fund, which had been created only in 2024, and the chief compliance officer at the time split his time between his apartment in Reno, Nev., and the headquarters in San Francisco, according to regulatory filings and people briefed on the matter.
/jlne.ws/4e0j5xJ

Private Markets

Goldman private credit fund defies industry elevated withdrawal trend yet again
Reuters
Goldman Sachs’ (GS.N) private credit fund said on Tuesday that investor requests to pull money further ​slowed down in the third-quarter tender offer, with redemption pressure ‌easing across the broader industry. The $18.2 billion GS Credit fund once again outperformed most other private credit players, with investors seeking to pull just 2% of shares in ​the latest tender offer, compared with 3.2% in the prior ​quarter. Its repurchase requests have remained below the customary 5% ⁠limit since inception.
/jlne.ws/3VYFsxn

Australian Private Credit Giant Halts Withdrawals as Concerns Grow in $1.8 Trillion Industry
Adam Haigh and Richard Henderson – Bloomberg
One of Australia’s biggest private credit firms, Metrics Credit Partners, stopped investors from accessing some funds in a move similar to steps taken by global peers earlier this year that fueled concerns about stresses in the industry. Redemptions of units in the underlying funds “have now been suspended temporarily,” according to statements on Wednesday from Perpetual Ltd. Auditor KPMG said it wouldn’t be in a position to provide its audit opinion on the financial reports by Sept. 30.
/jlne.ws/47qWDtY

Private Equity

The End of Private Equity’s Leveraged Buyout Era Is Nigh
Paul J. Davies – Bloomberg Opinion
Higher-for-longer interest rates are forcing buyout firms to face facts. Struggling since 2023 to sell companies purchased in the long decade of ultra-cheap debt before the Covid pandemic, they’ve tried to placate investors with clever financial engineering to help keep some money turning over. But after several false dawns for a return to low rates, the classic private-equity leveraged deals industry is moving into the final stage of grief over its prospects: acceptance.
/jlne.ws/3TZUjaj

 

WORK MGMT

AI is giving CFOs a bigger slice of the C-suite, new IBM data shows
Sheryl Estrada – Fortune
Good morning. AI is turning the CFO job into something much bigger. Finance chiefs are increasingly weighing decisions that extend far beyond the balance sheet. That’s a central finding of an IBM Institute for Business Value study released this morning. The research shows the CFO role is set to increase in breadth and depth, with “AI-first CFOs” leading the pack. Sixty-two percent of CFOs surveyed say their role has already expanded into enterprise technology or AI strategy leadership. More than half report greater portfolio-management and capital-reallocation authority and more responsibility for business-model or growth-strategy design.
/jlne.ws/4z6NAdt

 

Wellness Exchange

New Cancer Drugs Are Revolutionary. Why Don’t More Patients Get Them? Targeted gene therapies are highly effective at stopping cancers, but the very abundance of the treatments, plus cost and sluggish change, are hindering access.
Gina Kolata – The New York Times
A crushing sense of fatigue was spoiling John Ebers’s ski trip with his family. “I looked at my wife,” he recalled, “and said, ‘Man, I need to get in better shape.’” Less than four weeks later, Mr. Ebers, a 46-year-old commercial beekeeper, learned the problem was something much grimmer than his fitness level: A tumor had broken through the wall of his colon and spread to his lymph nodes. He had Stage 3 colorectal cancer.
/jlne.ws/4hR5Odj

As E-Bikes and Scooters Surge on New York Streets, So Do Fatal Crashes; More than two dozen people have died in crashes involving electric bikes and scooters in New York City this year. Officials are moving to address a growing safety crisis.
Emma G. Fitzsimmons – The New York Times
At least 28 people have died in crashes involving electric bicycles and stand-up scooters in New York City in 2026, the highest-ever annual total by this point in the year. The supercharged vehicles allow riders to breeze across the city without breaking a sweat, making them attractive to teenagers and people who might not otherwise travel on two wheels. But they have also added to a sense of chaos on already crowded streets.
/jlne.ws/46Xtt5F

 

Regions

Mainland China’s PCB giant wins Hong Kong approval for planned US$3b listing: sources
Zoe SL Chan – South China Morning Post
Mainland China-based printed circuit board (PCB) maker Suzhou Dongshan Precision Manufacturing has cleared its final listing hurdle in Hong Kong and is moving towards a share sale that may rank among the city’s largest initial public offerings (IPOs) in the fourth quarter, according to people familiar with the matter. The company passed its listing hearing with bourse operator Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) recently, the people said, requesting anonymity because the information was private.
/jlne.ws/47s2Y8A

Aliko Dangote launches Kenya oil refinery amid land protest in Lamu
Ondiro Oganga, Nkechi Ogbonna, Focus on Africa, Waihiga Mwaura, BBC Focus on Africa and Peter Mwangangi, BBC Africa – BBC News
Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote and Kenya’s President William Ruto have broken ground on a $16bn (£12bn) oil refinery in Lamu, on Kenya’s northern coast. Upon completion, the refinery is expected to process 700,000 barrels of crude oil a day, making it East Africa’s largest industrial project by capacity. Ahead of the launch, some local residents took to the streets to demand more compensation for land used for the refinery. Speaking to the BBC, Dangote, Africa’s richest man, dismissed the protests as games played by local marketers and international players, insisting the refinery would go ahead and would be ready by 2030 as planned.
/jlne.ws/4dx6lif

Hong Kong to expand IP financing sandbox after 7 firms secure cheaper loans
Matthew Cheng – South China Morning Post
The Hong Kong government has pledged to expand its intellectual property (IP) financing sandbox scheme by adding more banks and enterprises, after seven corporate users found that a nine-month trial helped lower their borrowing costs. “This will help refine the IP ecosystem, including valuation practices, professional service costs, supporting measures and market awareness,” Carmen Chu Lap-kiu, executive director of banking supervision at the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), said on Wednesday.
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MISC

Griffin Commits $3 Billion to Carnegie Mellon in Largest Single Gift Ever
Janet Lorin and Amanda L. Gordon – Bloomberg
Ken Griffin is donating $3 billion to Carnegie Mellon University, most of it to establish a new campus in Miami, in the largest single gift committed to a US university. The founder of financial firm Citadel is giving $2 billion to help build the Miami location and another $1 billion for the university’s main campus in Pittsburgh, according to a joint statement released Wednesday. “If you look across the United States, our great cities are anchored by world-class universities,” Griffin said in an interview. “We want to create that same ecosystem of economic vitality and prosperity around this campus in Miami.”
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