First Read

Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff

The global financial landscape is currently defined by a “blistering” commodities rally, according to Bloomberg News, as gold, silver, copper, and tin all hit record highs. This surge is driven by bets on lower U.S. interest rates and improved sentiment in Chinese markets. Specifically, Mark Burton of Bloomberg reports that tin surpassed $51,000 a ton on the London Metal Exchange, fueled by frantic buying from Chinese investors and its role as a proxy for the AI and data center sectors. Amidst these market peaks, Geoffrey Morgan of Bloomberg highlights a new moniker from Ned Davis Research: the “Big MAC” trade, or “Big Midterms Are Coming,” as Wall Street begins to price in the policy implications of this fall’s Congressional vote. In the trading technology space, Exegy announced its acquisition of NovaSparks Inc., a strategic move to extend its leadership in FPGA-enabled, ultra-low-latency market data solutions for mission-critical trading platforms.

While metals soar, regulators and industry icons are warning of invisible risks. The World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) has urged regulators to balance the long-term threat of quantum computing-specifically the “harvest now, decrypt later” strategy used by attackers-against more immediate operational challenges. This technological anxiety is echoed by Jake Conley in Yahoo Finance, who reports that Warren Buffett has compared the risks of rapid AI development to nuclear weapons, stating that “the genie is out of the bottle.”

Financial stability is also being tested by massive structural shifts. Alex Harris of Bloomberg notes that the Treasury basis trade has ballooned to $1.5 trillion, a 75% increase since its 2019 peak, prompting Morgan Stanley to warn of potential market eruptions. In the UK, Leonard Kehnscherper of Bloomberg reports that the City of London Corporation is calling for “more serious” talks with the EU on financial ties, noting that London still handles two-thirds of euro derivatives despite Brexit relocations.

The geopolitical backdrop remains increasingly tense. Sara Sjolin and Ott Ummelas of Bloomberg report that President Trump has reasserted his claim that the U.S. needs Greenland for national security, arguing that NATO is ineffective without U.S. control of the Arctic territory. This “brutal” shift in U.S. foreign policy is analyzed by Martin Wolf in the Financial Times, who notes that the latest U.S. national security strategy singles out European allies for their “civilizational erasure” and economic decline. Meanwhile, Jared Malsin of The Wall Street Journal details the collapse of Ayandeh Bank in Iran, a failure by regime cronies that has sent the country into a tailspin, forcing the government to print money to cover $5 billion in losses.

Domestic U.S. politics are equally fraught. Thomas Beaumont of the Associated Press reports that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is bracing for President Trump to disrupt the midterms, while Mary Ellen Klas of Bloomberg reports on a Department of Justice push to assemble a national voter database and “verification” tools that critics say evade federal privacy protections.

In the realm of alternative markets, the Financial Times reports significant growth in prediction platforms. Nikou Asgari (FT) notes that Wall Street groups are now hiring traders to arbitrage event contracts on sites like Polymarket and Kalshi. However, this growth brings controversy; Denitsa Tsekova of Bloomberg reports that Polymarket has stepped into a “legal gray area” by hosting wagers on active military conflicts, while George Steer (FT) highlights the platform’s high-profile sponsorship of the Golden Globes despite the shadow of the 1958 Onion Futures Act.

The global economy is also grappling with “stealth” costs. Mark Gongloff of Bloomberg reports that a “stealth heat tax” from rising temperatures has already cost Americans $1 trillion in lost income. This instability is leading governments to return to historical survival tactics; Susannah Savage in the Financial Times reports that nations are once again stockpiling food as insurance against an increasingly volatile world.

In media news, Richard Sandomir of The New York Times reports the death of Scott Adams at age 68. The creator of the satirical “Dilbert” comic strip, which for decades defined the absurdities of corporate life, had recently been in hospice care following a diagnosis of aggressive prostate cancer.

The Securities Traders Association of Chicago (STAC) is celebrating a major milestone with its 100th Annual Mid-Winter Meeting, set for January 21-22, 2026, at the Fairmont Chicago, Millennium Park. The two-day event will bring together industry professionals for panels, discussions, and networking sessions that honor a century of STAC’s history while looking ahead to the future of financial markets. Registration and hotel details are available at stachicago.org.

The London Metal Exchange in its The Monthly Prompt report proudly reported that it had posted its strongest year on record for futures and options trading, with average daily volume reaching 717,334 lots. Activity accelerated into the fourth quarter, when average daily volume climbed to an all-time high of 777,016 lots per day, surpassing all previous quarterly records. Open interest in LME futures also rose sharply, increasing 14.8% year on year after peaking at 2.09 million lots in December, the highest level seen since early 2021.

Scott Williamson announced on LinkedIn that he has retired from federal service after more than 34 years with the CFTC, where he spent most of his career in the agency’s Chicago office as regional administrator and deputy regional counsel.

Josh Sterling, a partner at Milbank and a former CFTC division director, shared a bad story that ends well in a LinkedIn post about how Sleeper finally got registered with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission this week, after what Sterling characterized as “an unlawful delay in approving its application.” He said, “We sued, new leadership replaced old, and our client had its due process rights restored. Companies don’t have to let executive branch agencies run roughshod over them, and Sleeper didn’t. Thanks to the CFTC Chairman for his leadership and to NFA leadership for being a good partner throughout this process.”

When stablecoins and Scouting collide! Congratulations to Circle President and former CFTC Chairman Heath Tarbert on being selected to receive the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award. Tarbert earned the rank of Eagle Scout in 1991. The Northeast Illinois Council of Scouting America announced his selection. Tarbert serves as an Assistant Scoutmaster in a council troop.

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

• SEC to review regulation to simplify non-financial disclosures
• WFE cautions members on quantum computing, generative AI risks
• TradingView integrates CoinW to offer simplified futures trading
• IOSCO pushes for reforms to align with evolving financial ecosystem
• BitGo adds enhanced derivatives trading capabilities to OTC platform
• ESMA introduces new digital, data strategies
• ANALYSIS: Improving transparency of algo trading key to APAC market development
• CME to add retail-sized silver future amid price rally

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:
Bullish Oil Option Volume Soars to Record as Traders Sweat Iran Risk from Bloomberg.
Traders Left Guessing Whether More Curbs Will Hit India Options from Bloomberg.
US mutual funds slash short euro positions at record pace from Risk.net. ~JB

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

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The White House Push to Undermine the Midterms Is Gathering Steam
Mary Ellen Klas – Bloomberg
The Department of Justice is assembling a first-ever national voter database. It has demanded that states turn over their complete voter registration lists – loaded with private information such as driver’s license and Social Security numbers linked to names, home addresses and dates of birth. It has also turned the federal immigration database into what it calls a national “voter verification” tool to remove large numbers of voters from the rolls. Each of these moves evades federal privacy protections, but they might not seem objectionable to many Americans. After all, the government already knows much of this information, plus our TSA facial profile and our tax and business information.
/jlne.ws/455Mm60

***** It has been my concern all along that we will be lucky if future U.S. elections will be held at all.~JJL

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Trump Calls North American Trade Pact He Brokered ‘Irrelevant’
Josh Wingrove and Catherine Lucey – Bloomberg
President Donald Trump expressed indifference toward the North American trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, portending a lengthy renegotiation of the US’s largest free-trade pact. Trump on Tuesday said there’s “no real advantage” to the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which he signed in 2020 and is subject to a review this year. He said the deal primarily benefits Canada, but that Americans “don’t need their product” because “everybody’s moving here.”
/jlne.ws/459vF9N

******Nothing like busting your own fill after settlement.~JJL

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Trump Nominates David MacNeil to US Federal Trade Commission
Josh Sisco and Leah Nylen – Bloomberg
President Donald Trump nominated David MacNeil to be a US Federal Trade Commissioner, according to statement posted on the White House website Tuesday. MacNeil is the Chief Executive Officer of WeatherTech, an Illinois-based company selling automotive accessories. He will replace Melissa Holyoak, who left the agency late last year to serve as US Attorney for Utah, and joins two other Republicans, chair Andrew Ferguson and Commissioner Mark Meador.
/jlne.ws/4pJxtO5

*****If nothing else, the FTC just got better spill protection.~JJL

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Polymarket’s eye-watering brush with the 1958 Onion Futures Act; Peeling back the layers of the ambiguously-regulated US prediction market
George Steer – Financial Times
Sunday’s Golden Globes ceremony served up the usual mix of tired jokes and political grandstanding – the novelty this year being that the charade was sponsored by betting website Polymarket. For the dozens of people watching at home, Polymarket’s role as the ceremony’s “exclusive prediction market partner” was impossible to ignore:
/jlne.ws/459y0Bv

***** Imagine explaining to your compliance department that you’re being compared to an onion because of a 1958 law.~JJL

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Tuesday’s Top Three
Our most clicked story Tuesday was the Financial Times’ Central bank chiefs ‘stand in full solidarity’ with Jay Powell. Second was The Wall Street Journal’s He’s Their Daddy. Meme-Stock Traders Rush to Powell’s Defense. Third was a tie between Reuters’ US senators introduce long-awaited bill to define crypto market rules and Bloomberg’s Dimon Says Chipping Away at Fed Independence ‘Not a Great Idea’.

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Lead Stories

The WFE calls on regulators to balance quantum computing risks against more immediate operational challenges
World Federation of Exchanges
The World Federation of Exchanges (“WFE”), the global industry association for exchange groups and CCPs, has warned of a substantial gap between regulatory expectations and industry expectations around quantum computing risk preparedness. Major public authorities, standards bodies, and cross-border policy groups have begun issuing guidance, calling for early preparation and coordinated migration to post-quantum cryptography (PQC). This is driven by two core concerns: Long lead times required to upgrade cryptographic systems; and The “harvest now, decrypt later” threat where attackers steal encrypted data today to unlock it in future once more powerful technologies become available to break the encryption.
/jlne.ws/4qlyWv3

Wall Street groups hire traders to wade into prediction markets; Big financial companies expand beyond traditional securities to arbitrage event contracts in sport and politics
Nikou Asgari – Financial Times
Trading groups are expanding into the rapidly evolving realm of prediction markets, hiring traders to arbitrage fleeting price discrepancies between contracts for events such as football games and elections. Trading volumes on online prediction markets, including Polymarket and Kalshi, exploded in the run-up to the 2024 US presidential election and have continued to surge over the past year as the two platforms have transformed into betting sites dominated by sports contracts.
/jlne.ws/4qYDeIR

Exegy Acquires NovaSparks Inc., Extending Its Leadership in Ultra-Low Latency Financial Market Data; The acquisition cements Exegy’s position as the premier provider of FPGA solutions for mission-critical electronic trading platforms
Exegy
Exegy, a global leader in high-performance market data and trading technology, today announced it has acquired NovaSparks Inc. (NovaSparks), a provider of real-time market data normalization and distribution solutions, specializing in Field Programmable Gate Array (“FPGA”) enabled products. This strategic acquisition further strengthens Exegy’s ability to meet the most demanding speed and scale requirements of modern electronic trading platforms used by elite capital markets businesses. “We are thrilled to welcome the NovaSparks customers to Exegy. We have a strong track record of blending the strengths of talented teams and proven products to elevate the user experience and deliver greater value to our clients, and we are excited to continue this strategy with NovaSparks,” said David Taylor, CEO of Exegy, “Following our acquisitions of Vela Trading Systems and Enyx, the addition of NovaSparks is the latest milestone in our mission to be the leading capital markets technology provider, delivering nanosecond speeds, global scale, and broad market coverage.”
/jlne.ws/3LHBjcy

Virtu, Optiver Said to Join Forces to Take On Citadel Securities in US Options Flow
Bernard Goyder – Bloomberg
Four market making firms have joined forces to back a firm buying US options order flow from retail brokers, shaking up the lucrative business of providing liquidity to a fast-growing corner of the equity market. Akuna Capital, Belvedere Trading, Optiver and Virtu Financial Inc. have invested in a new options intermediary, Optimal Market Technologies, according to people familiar with the matter. The four market makers will be leading members of a larger group of liquidity providers who will compete for flow routed from trading apps used by small-scale traders to Optimal.
/jlne.ws/4jZkZAR

The Obscure Bank Collapse That Sent Iran Into a Tailspin
Jared Malsin – The Wall Street Journal
The biggest harbinger that things were about to fall apart in Iran didn’t come from the thwarted anger of the country’s opposition or the frustrated hopes of young people hungry for more personal freedom. It came from the collapse of a bank. Late last year, Ayandeh Bank, run by regime cronies and saddled with nearly $5 billion in losses on a pile of bad loans, went bust. The government folded the carcass into a state bank and printed a massive amount of money to try to paper over all the red ink. That buried the problem but didn’t solve it.
/jlne.ws/49kvKKa

Polymarket Steps Into Legal Gray Area by Hosting Trades on War
Denitsa Tsekova – Bloomberg
Even as prediction-market platforms have tested legal and regulatory norms like never before, most have drawn a line at one category: direct wagers on war. Not Polymarket. In recent weeks, the startup – newly backed by Intercontinental Exchange Inc., the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange – has listed a growing roster of contracts related to active military conflicts, including the possibility of China invading Taiwan and Russia capturing various cities in Ukraine. One market, tied to US strikes on Iran, has generated more than $18 million in trading.
/jlne.ws/4aTyTBT

Ukraine Blocks Polymarket Over ‘War Bets’ as Global Crackdown Widens; Ukraine joins a growing wave of global restrictions on Polymarket, blocking access over war-related wagers
Hassan Shittu – Cryptonews
Ukraine has gone ahead to restrict entry into Polymarket, which is further escalating an expanding global crackdown on prediction markets that regulators are increasingly considering to be illegal gambling or derivatives trading. The ruling has drawn fresh scrutiny to the fast-growing crypto platform, raising questions about whether markets tied to real-world events can operate alongside national gambling, financial, and public policy rules, especially on matters involving war and geopolitics.
/jlne.ws/49CL5Vo

Why the world has started stockpiling food again; Governments are hoarding rice and grain as insurance against a world they increasingly view as unstable. But many economists believe it could be counter-productive
Susannah Savage – Financial Times
In the early 18th century, Finland was familiar with the fear of hunger. A famine fuelled by an unpredictable climate had killed off a third of the population in the 1690s. The Great Northern War with Russia further disrupted farming, as well as everything else, in the first 20 years of the century.
/jlne.ws/4qRgMBh

The Index Industry Association Welcomes New Board Chair and 2026 Board Members – Index Industry Association
Index Industry Association
The Index Industry Association (IIA), serving as an education and advocacy organization representing independent index providers worldwide, today announced the appointment of a new Board Chair and welcomed its Board Members for 2026, reflecting the continued growth and global leadership of the index industry. MSCI’s Head of Index, Jana Haines, has assumed the role of Board Chair, succeeding FTSE Russell’s CEO Fiona Bassett, who will continue to serve on the Board. The IIA also welcomed S&P Dow Jones Indices’ CEO Catherine Clay, Amelia Furr, President of Indexes at Morningstar, and Axel Lomholt, CEO of STOXX as new Board Members. Returning Board Members include Varun Pawar, Chief Product Officer of ICE Fixed Income and Data Services, and Emily Spurling, Nasdaq‘s Senior Vice President and Global Head of Index.
/jlne.ws/3YEF59C

Clock ticks in Cuba as Trump cuts off Venezuelan oil
Dave Sherwood and Marianna Parraga – Reuters
Cubans are bracing for impact after U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to cut off a lifeline of Venezuelan oil from reaching Cuba, setting up a siege scenario for an island already reeling from crippling blackouts and shortages. Venezuela, once the island’s top supplier, has not sent crude or fuel to Cuba for about a month, according to shipping data and internal documents from state company PDVSA, with cargoes falling off due to a U.S. blockade even before the U.S. capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro in early January.
/jlne.ws/4qwW8GE

Jane Street’s Hong Kong Foray Hits Only a Small Snag
Shuli Ren – Bloomberg
At first glance, China’s scrutiny of Jane Street Group and other foreign firms that participate in its exchange-traded fund market seems like a major setback for global asset managers that have over the last year expanded their footprint in Hong Kong. But their business rationale remains very much intact. Beijing is trying to understand trading patterns in the fast-growing $859 billion ETF industry, especially after a crackdown on Jane Street in India, Bloomberg News reported. Last year, New Delhi accused Jane Street of market manipulation, prompting the trading house to cut its exposure to the country and ramp up activities elsewhere in Asia. As of June, the company was China’s largest foreign ETF market maker, but accounted for less than 2% of overall trading.
/jlne.ws/3YDNoT6

Citadel Securities Posts Jump in India Profit as Growth Persists
Ranjani Raghavan and Chiranjivi Chakraborty – Bloomberg
The Indian unit of billionaire Ken Griffin’s Citadel Securities LLC reported a sharp increase in profit last fiscal year, as it weathered the impact of derivatives-related curbs imposed by the country’s markets regulator. The Miami-based company reported a 39% increase in revenue to 40.6 billion rupees ($450 million) for the 12 months ended March 2025, according to a filing. After-tax profit jumped 41% to 20.6 billion rupees.
/jlne.ws/3NlMRmj

Ned Davis Distills Political Angst Into ‘Big MAC’ Equity Trade
Geoffrey Morgan – Bloomberg
Wall Street loves few things more than a good acronym to describe a trading thesis. Think FANG, FOMO/YOLO and TACO. Now Ed Clissold wants to coin a new moniker. He’s calling it the Big MAC trade, a play on Big Midterms Are Coming. The chief US strategist at Ned Davis Research is aiming to capture what he thinks will be the main theme of 2026: the policy implications in the runup to and fallout from this fall’s Congressional vote.
/jlne.ws/4b0DrGM

Warren Buffett compares AI risks to those posed by nuclear weapons: ‘The genie is out of the bottle’
Jake Conley – Yahoo Finance
Warren Buffett is warning that the risks posed by rapid AI development are reminiscent of a geopolitical issue that defined much of his career: the development of nuclear weapons. Speaking in a two-hour special program that aired Tuesday night on CNBC, the now former CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A, BRK-B) said that AI leaders’ lack of understanding about where the technology is headed is dangerous.
/jlne.ws/4sGymti

Opinion | Now Lawfare Engulfs the Fed
Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. – The Wall Street Journal
The ironies of Donald Trump are never-ending. Because Mr. Trump is by nature a reacher and overreacher, the next president was never very likely to emulate the norm defilements Mr. Trump is guilty of. Certainly not as likely as Mr. Trump himself was to seize on and emulate the norm-breaking of his Democratic enemies. For my friends, everything. For my enemies, the law. So said a Peruvian dictator. A trumped-up criminal investigation of Fed chief Jerome Powell is a case in point, though late reporting suggests it may also be a case of Attorney General Pam Bondi jiu-jitsuing a president who was turning against her for targeting his opponents with insufficient zeal.
/jlne.ws/45QA5m0

A Top Fed Official Says the Trump Administration’s Threats Are ‘About Monetary Policy’
Colby Smith – The New York Times
Neel T. Kashkari, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, said the Trump administration’s actions against the central bank in the past year were “really about monetary policy,” as he came to the defense of Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chair, in the wake of a criminal investigation led by the Justice Department. The Justice Department on Friday served the Fed with grand jury subpoenas, prompting a forceful response by Mr. Powell. In an extraordinary video message after the investigation was revealed by The New York Times on Sunday, Mr. Powell accused the administration of seeking to leverage costs related to the Fed’s renovation of its headquarters in Washington as “pretexts” for a criminal inquiry to coerce the central bank into lowering borrowing costs.
/jlne.ws/49kcJaO

Wall Street Is Suddenly on the Defensive With the President; Trump’s affordability push ahead of the midterms has turned some of the financial sector’s darlings into punching bags
Gregory Zuckerman – The Wall Street Journal
Wall Street thought it had an ally in Donald Trump. He’s becoming more of an adversary. The president largely delivered to investors last year, as his administration cut taxes, reduced spending and rolled back an aggressive tariff plan after it spooked markets. Now, after blindsiding Wall Street with a series of rapid-fire moves in the span of a week, Trump appears to be putting it on notice. He has sought to block large investors from buying houses, called for a cap on credit-card rates and announced restrictions on executive pay and stock buybacks.
/jlne.ws/3Nmd97U

Euro Swaps Markets Brace for Dutch Pension Reform
Lynn Strongin Dodds – DerivSource – Traders Magazine
The Dutch pension fund reform, which took effect at the beginning of this year, is expected to change the way pension funds trade derivatives. Demand for long dated interest rate swaps (IRS), those with maturities beyond 30 years, will diminish in favour of shorter maturities of 10 to 20 years. The overhaul of the Dutch pension system – the largest in the euro zone with almost EUR1.8 trn of assets under management – will be staggered over a two-year period.
/jlne.ws/49RWZfg

Middle East Conflict

Trump Credits ‘Mister Tariff’ for the Country’s Strength. Economists Beg to Differ.
Ana Swanson – The New York Times
President Trump, a lover of tariffs, has become even more enthusiastic about their benefits in recent weeks. In an economic speech in Detroit on Tuesday, Mr. Trump mentioned tariffs more than two dozen times, saying the levies had generated trillions of dollars of investment for the country. That followed a series of social media posts in which he credited them for the country’s strong economy, its declining trade deficit and its booming stock market. “The USA markets just hit another ALL TIME HIGH – ALL OF THEM!!!” the president wrote on social media last week. “THANK YOU YOU MISTER TARIFF!!!”
/jlne.ws/45bjgSN

Europe’s Own Trade Barriers Are Worse Than Trump’s, ECB Finds
Jana Randow – Bloomberg
Trade frictions across the European Union are more onerous than the highest tariff US President Donald Trump threatened to slap on the bloc last year, according to research by the European Central Bank. Barriers such as differences in national rules and regulations, cumbersome administrative procedures and anti-competition practices are responsible for intra-EU trade costs equivalent to levies of 67% for goods and 95% for services, economists including Lucia Quaglietti and Vanessa Gunnella wrote in an article published Wednesday.
/jlne.ws/49zzKoX

Here Are Trump’s Options If the Supreme Court Says His Tariffs Are Illegal
Isabel Gottlieb – Bloomberg
US President Donald Trump could find out as soon as January whether the Supreme Court will strike down a key portion of his tariffs campaign. The court is considering whether Trump can use an emergency law that had previously never been wielded to impose import taxes. Lower courts have already ruled that Trump exceeded his authority by invoking the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act to justify his sweeping “reciprocal” duties targeting America’s trading partners, as well as separate levies aimed at China, Canada and Mexico. The IEEPA-based tariffs have remained in effect as the legal proceedings continue.
/jlne.ws/4qYCmnz

Trump Adds to Customs Confusion With Latest Tariff Threat
Laura Curtis – Bloomberg
President Donald Trump’s latest tariff threat – a 25% levy on goods from all countries doing business with Iran – rekindled sensations American importers felt through much of 2025: uncertainty, confusion and paralysis. In interviews on Tuesday, trade lawyers and customs experts told Bloomberg that they’re in a wait-and-see mode after his post on Truth Social late Monday.
/jlne.ws/49m4j2B

Ukraine Invasion

Ukraine Invasion

France pushes to block Ukraine from buying US weapons
Joe Barnes – The Telegraph
France is pushing to stop Ukraine from buying American weapons with a EUR90bn (£78bn) EU loan. It wants the portion of the fund earmarked for weapons to be spent only in the European defence industry. Emmanuel Macron, the French president, has long argued that the bloc’s support for Ukraine should be used to bolster the Continent’s arms manufacturers and promote defence independence from the United States.
/jlne.ws/4pznQRX

Middle East Conflict

U.S. to Unveil Gaza Governance Plan Despite Concerns Over Hamas; Hamas hasn’t yet begun disarming, a fact some officials believe could imperil the peace plan
Robbie Gramer, Alexander Ward and Summer Said – The Wall Street Journal
The Trump administration will announce Wednesday the U.S. is moving to the next step of its Gaza plan and name a committee of Palestinians to temporarily run the bombed-out enclave, U.S. officials said. Since a fragile cease-fire in Gaza is holding and Hamas has returned all but one deceased hostage, U.S. officials assess that they can now shift from halting the conflict to governing and rebuilding the territory, which the administration labels Phase 2 of its 20-point blueprint.
/jlne.ws/4pXDW8p

Other Conflicts

Exclusive: US files for warrants to seize dozens more Venezuela-linked oil tankers, sources say
Jonathan Saul – Reuters
The U.S. government has filed for court warrants to seize dozens more tankers linked to the Venezuelan oil trade, four sources familiar with the matter said, as Washington consolidates control of oil shipments in and out of the South American country. The U.S. military and Coast Guard have seized five vessels in recent weeks in international waters that were either carrying Venezuelan oil or have done so in the past. The seizures were part of Washington’s campaign to force Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro out of power that culminated in U.S. forces capturing him on January 3.
/jlne.ws/49FWFiA

Trump urges Iranians to keep protesting, saying ‘help is on its way’
Elwely Elwelly and Bo Erickson – Reuters
U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday urged Iranians to keep protesting and remember the names of those abusing them, saying help is on the way, as Iran’s clerical establishment pressed its crackdown against the biggest demonstrations in years. Iran in turn accused Trump of encouraging political destabilization and inciting violence.
/jlne.ws/45Gj5yQ

Iran’s Death Toll Jumps as Tehran Shrugs Off Trump Threats
Arsalan Shahla and Fiona MacDonald – Bloomberg
The Iranian government continued its crackdown on protests that have swept the nation despite US President Donald Trump’s threat of action over mounting fatalities. The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency reported that 2,571 people had been killed from late December through Wednesday, up from about 500 at the start of the week. Demonstrations remain difficult to track amid an internet shutdown in Iran, and some observers say the actual toll could be significantly higher.
/jlne.ws/4pHVHIH

‘We’re Not Stupid’: What Greenlanders Would Say to Trump
Jeffrey Gettleman and Maya Tekeli – The New York Times
Pipaluk Lynge knows the history of how Indigenous people have been treated in the United States. And she’s well aware of the holes in the country’s health care system and its yawning economic inequality. Ms. Lynge, one of Greenland’s top officials and the leader of the Parliament’s foreign and security policy committee, chafes at President Trump’s offer to buy Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, and his insistence that Greenlanders would be better off as Americans. “We’re not going to sell our soul,” she said. “We’re not stupid.”
/jlne.ws/49lhv7X

Exchanges, OTC and Clearing

CME Group to Launch 100-Ounce Silver Futures to Meet Record Retail Demand
CME Group
CME Group, the world’s leading derivatives marketplace, today announced it will launch a 100-Ounce Silver futures contract on February 9, 2026, pending regulatory review.
/jlne.ws/3LFjbjz

LSEG launches Trade Surveillance
LSEG
LSEG today announces the launch of Trade Surveillance, designed to assist market participants in identifying and investigating potential market abuse and financial crime with greater operational and cost efficiency. Trade Surveillance is now live with two solutions, servicing MiFID and FX.
/jlne.ws/49RGjEF

Nasdaq Stockholm Welcomes Bitwise As New ETP Provider
Mondovisione
Nasdaq Stockholm Welcomes Bitwise As New ETP Provider Date 14/01/2026 Nasdaq (Nasdaq: NDAQ) announces that Bitwise has listed their first Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) on Nasdaq Stockholm. The launch includes six physically backed ETPs tracking cryptocurrencies. “We are delighted to welcome Bitwise as a new ETP provider on Nasdaq Stockholm. This launch strengthens our commitment to offering investors innovative and transparent investment opportunities. By expanding the range of locally listed ETPs, we enable both retail and institutional investors to access digital assets in a regulated and cost-efficient manner,” says Helena Wedin, Head of ETF and ETP, Nasdaq European Markets.
/jlne.ws/4aZ7Hli

EEX Press Release – Annual volumes 2025: EEX Group markets reinforce leading position with records across major asset classes
EEX Group
EEX Group concluded another record year, with further expansion of its global market position in 2025, driven by significant volume growth across its major asset classes, such as power, natural gas, as well as guarantees of origin and freight. The year was also characterised by significant milestones, such as the successful launch of the quarter-hourly auction products for the power day-ahead markets, the connection of the Baltic and Finnish gas markets to the EEX trading platform, as well as the further expansion of product portfolio underpinning the support for sustainable markets, including new guarantees of origin as well as EU ETS-2 related futures products.
/jlne.ws/49SKy2I

NYSE And PDR Services LLC Announce Name Change For Three Exchange-Traded Funds
Mondovisione
PDR Services LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE: ICE), a leading global provider of technology and data, today announced a change to three SPDR exchange-traded fund names as reflected below.
/jlne.ws/45drbPr

Tradeweb Announces Date for Fourth Quarter 2025 Financial Results
Tradeweb
Tradeweb Markets Inc. (Nasdaq: TW), a leading, global operator of electronic marketplaces for rates, credit, equities and money markets, will release financial results for the fourth quarter of 2025 on Thursday, February 5, 2026, at approximately 7:00 AM EST. In addition, Tradeweb will host a conference call for investors.
/jlne.ws/49naxiS

Webcast details for Half-Year Results and 2026 key dates
ASX
ASX is scheduled to announce its financial results for the half-year ended 31 December 2025 on Thursday, 12 February 2026. The 2026 key dates and information on the half-year results briefing by webcast are set out below.
/jlne.ws/49An7db

Fintech

Artificial Intelligence

Being mean to ChatGPT can boost its accuracy, but scientists warn you may regret it
Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez – Fortune
Bossing around an AI underling may yield better results than being polite, but that doesn’t mean a ruder tone won’t have consequences in the long run, researchers say. A study from Penn State found ChatGPT’s 4o model produced better results on 50 multiple-choice questions as researchers’ prompts grew ruder. Over 250 unique prompts sorted by politeness to rudeness, the “very rude” response yielded an accuracy of 84.8%, four percentage points higher than the “very polite” response. Essentially, the LLM responded better when researchers gave it prompts like “Hey, gofer, figure this out,” than when they said “Would you be so kind as to solve the following question?” While ruder responses generally yielded more accurate responses, the researchers noted that “uncivil discourse” could have unintended consequences.
/jlne.ws/4pzVQNZ

Apollo Looks to Open Trading on Private Chip Loan for Musk’s xAI
Carmen Arroyo and Ellen DiMauro – Bloomberg
Apollo Global Management Inc. is trying to open up trading on a private debt deal supporting Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI Corp., according to people with knowledge of the matter. The asset manager has told other lenders it’s willing to buy more of the $3.5 billion chip financing at par, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information. The debt was used to fund xAI’s access to Nvidia Corp.’s graphics processing units and other data center-related infrastructure.
/jlne.ws/4jAlAbG

The Row Over South Korea’s Push for a Native AI Model: Chinese Code; Korea’s efforts show how hard it is to develop homegrown AI models and break a reliance on U.S. or Chinese tech giants
Jiyoung Sohn – The Wall Street Journal
Last June, the South Korean government launched a competition to create a new independent AI model developed with Korean technology. A homegrown tool like that was critical to ensuring Korea’s technological self-reliance in a world already dominated by U.S. and Chinese artificial intelligence. It is proving to be easier said than done.
/jlne.ws/49UlUig

Exclusive | Matthew McConaughey Trademarks Himself to Fight AI Misuse; Actor plans to use trademarks of himself saying ‘Alright, alright, alright’ and staring at a camera to combat AI fakes in court
Ben Fritz – The Wall Street Journal
Matthew McConaughey is taking a novel legal approach to combat unauthorized artificial-intelligence fakes: trademarking himself. Over the past several months, the “Interstellar” and “Magic Mike” star has had eight trademark applications approved by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office featuring him staring, smiling and talking. His attorneys said the trademarks are meant to stop AI apps or users from simulating McConaughey’s voice or likeness without permission-an increasingly common concern of performers.
/jlne.ws/45EBgVG

Microprocessors

US approves Nvidia H200 chip exports to China with some conditions
Karen Freifeld, David Shepardson and Alexandra Alper – Bloomberg
The Trump administration on Tuesday gave a formal green light to China-bound sales of Nvidia’s second most powerful AI chips, putting in place a rule that will likely kickstart shipments of the H200 despite deep concerns among China hawks in Washington. According to the regulations, the chips will be reviewed by a third-party testing lab to confirm their technical AI capabilities before they can be shipped to China, which cannot receive more than 50% of the total amount of chips sold to American customers.
/jlne.ws/49TqE7R

Alibaba and JPMorgan Are Said to Invest in Chip Designer Montage’s HK Listing
Dave Sebastian – Bloomberg
Chinese chip designer Montage Technology Co. is set to enlist Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and JPMorgan Asset Management among the key investors in its upcoming Hong Kong listing, according to people familiar with the matter, in a sign of promising demand for the Asian financial hub’s latest share sale related to artificial intelligence.
/jlne.ws/49k8mMW

Blockchain

Figure Technology to Enable Direct Stock Lending Over Blockchain
Muyao Shen – Bloomberg
Blockchain-based lender Figure Technology Solutions Inc. is launching a new platform to issue on-chain equity, allowing investors to lend shares directly to one another without traditional intermediaries. The On-Chain Public Equity Network, or OPEN, will allow companies to issue equity on Figure’s Provenance blockchain, the company said in a Wednesday statement shared with Bloomberg. Unlike many tokenization efforts, OPEN’s blockchain-based shares will not be synthetic versions of listed stock, according to Figure. Instead, the tokens will represent actual equity ownership that shareholders can lend or borrow against, reducing the role typically played by prime brokers.
/jlne.ws/49wg45q

Connectivity/Data Centers

Opinion | They’re Coming for Our Data Centers
Peter Huntsman – The Wall Street Journal
Data center moratoriums are the new fracking bans. Environmental nonprofits are deploying the same playbook against data centers that they have used against oil, gas, nuclear and chemical companies over the past decade, and many business leaders are again tempted to stay silent. But America is at a crucial moment that demands bipartisan realism on energy and electricity, the lifeblood of economic prosperity and global power. As artificial intelligence accelerates, abundance, cost and reliability must take precedence. Anything less will weaken national security, stifle growth and fuel inflation.
/jlne.ws/45N1TYr

Trump seeks to quell rebellion over data centers
Ian Duncan and Evan Halper – The Washington Post
In a bid to tamp down growing unrest in communities over tech giants’ expansion of power-hungry data centers, President Donald Trump said his administration would push Silicon Valley companies to ensure their massive computer farms do not drive up people’s electricity bills, seizing on a promise Microsoft made public Tuesday to be a better neighbor. The Trump administration has gone all in on artificial intelligence, pushing aside concerns within the MAGA movement and seeking to sweep away regulations that it says hamper innovation. But neighbors of the vast warehouses of computer chips that form the technology’s backbone – many of them in areas otherwise supportive of the president – have grown increasingly concerned about how the facilities sap power from the grid, guzzle water to stay cool and secure tax breaks from local governments. And Trump now appears to be recalibrating his approach.
/jlne.ws/49FPzdW

Ireland Is Trying to Get Back on the Data Center Bandwagon; The government has a new energy plan to get investment flowing again
Jennifer Duggan and Olivia Fletcher – Bloomberg
Every few weeks, electricians, fitters and welders pass through Dublin Airport to get flights to construction projects for data centers across Europe. They’re part of a cohort of Irish workers in high demand for their expertise in building and fitting out facilities. Their employer, Kirby Group, earned its reputation thanks to the massive investment in Ireland by the likes of Microsoft Corp., Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google that turned the country into a major data center hub, one of Europe’s biggest.
/jlne.ws/457I2TQ

Technology Firms

Baidu Is Said to Explore Upgrading HK Listing to Primary Status
Bloomberg
Baidu Inc. is considering upgrading its Hong Kong listing to primary status to gain more exposure to investors in mainland China and protect itself from potentially unfavorable US policies, according to people familiar with the matter. The technology company – with a market value of $52 billion – trades on the Nasdaq and has a second listing in Hong Kong. That makes it more accessible to investors in Asia, but not in mainland China because it still isn’t eligible for the so-called stock connect. A primary listing would help Baidu qualify for cross-border trading, opening up investment flows from the mainland to Hong Kong.
/jlne.ws/4pGzieO

Ediphy unveils trading and analytics API suite in a bid to automate fixed income markets
Natasha Cocksedge – The TRADE
Ediphy has launched a new suite of trading and analytics APIs through its developer portal, as part of an effort to enhance automation for bond and interest rate swaps (IRS) markets. The new offering will allow developers and systematic trading desks to gain access to Ediphy’s execution, liquidity and analytics tools, tailored to credit, government and SSA bonds and IRS markets.
/jlne.ws/49AGXVT

Cybersecurity

Exclusive-Beijing tells Chinese firms to stop using US, Israeli cybersecurity software, sources say
Reuters
Chinese authorities have told domestic companies to stop using cybersecurity software made by roughly a dozen firms from the U.S. and Israel due to national security concerns, two people briefed on the matter said. Broadcom-owned VMware, Palo Alto Networks and Fortinet are among the U.S. firms whose cybersecurity software has been banned, while Check Point Software Technologies is among the Israeli companies, they said.
/jlne.ws/45GfWiy

Login is where fraud begins-and ends
Camila Sablotny – IBM
Banks invest heavily in fraud prevention technologies, but they still experience losses that should be avoidable. The issue is not a lack of detection capability. It is a structural gap. Fraud operation teams often overlook critical signals during login instead of recognizing them as early and reliable indicators of account compromise. For example, two-factor authentication is sometimes treated as a one-time checkpoint, with failed or abandoned challenges going unmonitored, which creates a reconnaissance vulnerability. It is critical that banks close operational and conceptual gaps at the login stage to prevent fraud
/jlne.ws/3NkKMaj

Cryptocurrencies

Bitpanda Said to Gear Up for Frankfurt IPO in First Half of 2026
Swetha Gopinath, Pablo Mayo Cerqueiro, Eyk Henning, and Arno Schuetze – Bloomberg
Bitpanda GmbH, a cryptocurrency trading platform backed by billionaire Peter Thiel, is gearing up for a Frankfurt initial public offering as soon as the first half of this year, according to people familiar with the matter. The Vienna-based company could seek a valuation of between EUR4 billion ($4.7 billion) to EUR5 billion in the offering, the people said, asking not to be identified as the discussions are private. Bitpanda has hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Citigroup Inc. and Deutsche Bank AG to arrange the offering, they said. A listing in the first quarter is a possibility, some of the people said.
/jlne.ws/4sDf8VF

ClearBid Global Markets selects Archax as partner for UK and EU expansion; Extends cross-border reach for its digital bond trading and data platform into new core regions
Archax – archax.com
ClearBid Global Markets (CBGM) today announced it has selected Archax as its regulated digital asset partner to expand the reach of its cross-border digital bond trading and data platform into the UK and EU regions. CBGM is a full-service electronic trading platform and complete securities and data source, that effectively connects global bond markets utilising a digital Dutch Auction. This results in real-time, transparent and market-driven price discovery. It is an innovative substitute for traditional ‘over the counter’ (OTC) methods, with a direct focus on capital markets-based financing for infrastructure, corporate and asset-backed borrowers.
/jlne.ws/49CQ3Bm

Bitso Earns CCSS 2025 Certification, The Highest Global Security Standard In The Crypto Industry
Mondovisione
Bitso, the leading digital financial services company in Latin America, announced today that it has obtained the Cryptocurrency Security Standard (CCSS) 2025 certification, one of the most rigorous global standards for safeguarding digital assets and ensuring the secure operation of cryptocurrency platforms. With this achievement, Bitso positions itself as one of eight companies worldwide currently holding this certification, and as one of the first in Latin America to meet the requirements of the new and more demanding version 9.0 of the standard. As a result, Bitso’s rating on Cer.Live was elevated to AAA with 3 stars, the highest security level available for companies operating with crypto assets.
/jlne.ws/4jEjtDP

ClearBid Global Markets Selects Archax As Partner For UK And EU Expansion – Extends Cross-Border Reach For Its Digital Bond Trading And Data Platform Into New Core Regions
Mondovisione
ClearBid Global Markets (CBGM) today announced it has selected Archax as its regulated digital asset partner to expand the reach of its cross-border digital bond trading and data platform into the UK and EU regions. CBGM is a full-service electronic trading platform and complete securities and data source, that effectively connects global bond markets utilising a digital Dutch Auction. This results in real-time, transparent and market-driven price discovery. It is an innovative substitute for traditional ‘over the counter’ (OTC) methods, with a direct focus on capital markets-based financing for infrastructure, corporate and asset-backed borrowers.
/jlne.ws/3Ngf8e5

Ripple Wins Luxembourg EMI Approval to Expand European Payments; Back-to-back approvals in Luxembourg and the UK deepen Ripple’s European footprint.
Amin Ayan – Cryptonews
Ripple has secured preliminary approval for an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) license from Luxembourg’s financial regulator, marking another regulatory milestone as the firm expands its payments business across Europe.
/jlne.ws/4aYkyUT

Russia Introduces New Bill To Make Crypto Accessible for Daily Use: Can It Overcome Central Bank Opposition?
Prashant Jha – CCN
/jlne.ws/4qnLq5v

Memecoins

Eric Adams’ NYC Memecoin Crashes After Debut, Sparking Outcry
Muyao Shen and Melos Ambaye – Bloomberg
Eric Adams’ fondness for crypto – which during his one-term tenure as mayor of New York included the launch of the ill-fated ‘NYCCoin’ – is once again attracting controversy. Less than two weeks after being succeeded by Zohran Mamdani, Adams re-emerged to promote a new city-inspired cryptoasset called NYC Token. A portion of the proceeds would go to fight antisemitism and educate children about the blockchain, Adams said during appearances in Times Square and on the Fox Business television channel. Adams encouraged the public to buy into the project.
/jlne.ws/4aU9Xdx

Stablecoins

Ripple wins early money license nod in Luxembourg for Europe expansion
Shaurya Malwa – CoinDesk
Fintech firm Ripple is expanding its regulatory footprint in Europe after receiving what it described as a preliminary authorization for an e-money license in Luxembourg, a step that could help it scale regulated digital-asset payment services across the European Union. The blockchain-based payments firm said Luxembourg’s financial regulator, the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF), has issued an initial approval for an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) license.
/jlne.ws/4bvL3B4

DeFi

Galaxy Compares DeFi Provisions in Crypto Bill to Patriot Act Surveillance
Vince Dioquino – decrypt
Galaxy Research warned that a draft crypto market-structure bill circulating in the Senate Banking Committee would significantly expand U.S. financial surveillance powers, arguing in a note that new Treasury authorities targeting decentralized finance frontends and transaction freezes could represent the largest such expansion since 2001. The analysis focuses on certain provisions from the draft that would grant the U.S. Treasury Department new escalation tools, including an expansion of “special measure” authority over digital assets and a statutory framework allowing transaction holds without a court order.
/jlne.ws/4sKEIrW

Politics

How a battle with bankers tarnished crypto’s market structure bill near the finish line
Jesse Hamilton – CoinDesk
As exhausted crypto lobbyists continue to pore over the latest – and most important – draft of the bill that could decide their regulatory fate in the U.S., it wasn’t a dispute between political parties that was the greatest disruption in what they hoped to get into the document, but the arrival of bank lobbyists at the negotiating table. Yield and rewards for stablecoins became the battleground in a lobbying brawl between the banking industry and the crypto industry. In the end, though the bill released at midnight by the Senate Banking Committee seems to still include a number of elements that the crypto crowd hoped would be there, its hard-won fight to protect rewards for stablecoin users took a step backwards.
/jlne.ws/49TQhoY

Trump Reasserts Greenland Claim as Diplomats Arrive in US
Sara Sjolin and Ott Ummelas – Bloomberg
US President Donald Trump reiterated his assertion that the US needs Greenland for national security, urging NATO to back his efforts to gain control of the Arctic territory before a meeting of top diplomats in Washington. “NATO becomes far more formidable and effective with Greenland in the hands of the UNITED STATES,” Trump said in a post to Truth Social on Wednesday. “Militarily, without the vast power of the United States, much of which I built during my first term, and am now bringing to a new and even higher level, NATO would not be an effective force or deterrent – Not even close! They know that, and so do I.”
/jlne.ws/3NvEJj7

Donald Trump, Would-Be Price Controller
Paul Krugman – paulkrugman.substack.com
Donald Trump has no economic principles. It’s true that he has pushed through classic right-wing policies, cutting taxes on the rich and benefits for the poor and middle class. But there’s no reason to think Trump actually believes in supply-side economics. Unlike Ronald Reagan, he has never articulated a belief that cutting taxes for the rich would raise all boats, resulting in higher incomes for middle and lower income Americans. Rather, if there is one trait that defines Trump’s policy instincts it is that he’s utterly transactional. Cutting taxes for the rich is a reward to his donors and family business partners. As a bonus, he gets to indulge his sympathy for plutocrats and contempt for ordinary Americans.
/jlne.ws/49Awvh7

Venezuelans Say Machado Should Lead Country After Maduro’s Capture
Andrew Rosati – Bloomberg
The majority of Venezuelans want Maria Corina Machado to lead their country following the US’s capture of Nicolas Maduro, a new poll found, contradicting Donald Trump’s claim that the opposition leader doesn’t have the support to rule.
/jlne.ws/3Zha8IA

Lessons in Markets on the Way for Budget-Challenged Politicians
Tom Rees and Philip Aldrick – Bloomberg
From London to Pretoria, finance ministers around the world are struggling to pass painful budgets in the face of political opposition. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has a plan. The Paris-based group is developing a fiscal literacy “masterclass” aimed at getting lawmakers fully briefed on the strains facing their public finances. The proposal has already attracted interest from a number of parliaments, according to officials.
/jlne.ws/4bvMAai

The Maga war on European democracy; America’s national security strategy projects internal fears abroad
Martin Wolf – Financial Times
The US national security strategy published in December singles out the failings of its European allies. Its text is brutal. It claims that Europe’s “economic decline is eclipsed by the real and more stark prospect of civilizational erasure. The larger issues facing Europe include activities of the European Union and other transnational bodies that undermine political liberty and sovereignty, migration policies that are transforming the continent and creating strife, censorship of free speech and suppression of political opposition, cratering birth rates, and loss of national identities and self-confidence.” It also says that the US “will oppose elite-driven, anti-democratic restrictions on core liberties in Europe, the Anglosphere, and the rest of the democratic world, especially among our allies”.
/jlne.ws/4pxrGLj

U.S. Administration

F.B.I. Searches Home of Washington Post Journalist for Classified Material – The New York Times
Benjamin Mullin and Devlin Barrett – The New York Times
F.B.I. agents conducted a search at the home of a Washington Post reporter on Wednesday, as part of what officials said was an investigation into the possible sharing of government secrets, according to people familiar with the matter. It is exceedingly rare, even in investigations of classified disclosures, for federal agents to conduct searches at a reporter’s home. Typically, such investigations are done by examining a reporter’s phone records or email data. The reporter, Hannah Natanson, has spent the past year covering the Trump administration’s effort to fire federal workers and redirect much of the work force to enforcing his agenda. Many of those employees shared with her their anger, frustration and fear with the administration’s changes.
/jlne.ws/3NvRYQR

U.S. Congress

Schumer tells the AP Democrats are preparing for Trump to disrupt and dispute the midterms: Q&A
Thomas Beaumont – Associated Press
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says he expects Republican President Donald Trump to try to interfere with the midterm elections, and he says raids by immigration agents in major cities are creating a sense of chaos that voters will reject in November. The comments were part of a wide-ranging, 20-minute Associated Press telephone interview with the New York Democrat, who argued former Alaska Rep. Mary Peltola’s entry into the Senate race gives his party a path to the majority.
/jlne.ws/4pCQzoU

United Kingdom

City of London Wants UK to Step Up Talks on EU Financial Ties
Leonard Kehnscherper – Bloomberg
The UK and European Union should have a “more serious” conversation about how they can step up their cooperation in financial services to boost both economies, according to the City of London’s governing body. The links between the regions’ financial markets remain strong even after relocations during the Brexit process, according to a report published Wednesday by the City of London Corporation and New Financial, a think tank backed by the finance industry. For example, two thirds of euro derivatives still trade in London, after regulators backed off from forcing more of the market into the EU.
/jlne.ws/4pBKs4g

Starmer Faces Own TACO Problem After Latest Policy Reversal
Will Standring and Joe Mayes – Bloomberg
In 2020, then opposition leader Keir Starmer accused Prime Minister Boris Johnson of “serial incompetence” following a series of U-turns. Now that he’s in the top job himself, Starmer faces the same charge after a slew of damaging policy reversals. On Tuesday night, the government backed away from making possession of a single digital ID card mandatory for anyone to secure a job in the UK, saying other electronic identifiers would also be acceptable. That was only the latest about-turn by the government, which despite enjoying a sizable majority in the House of Commons, has gained a reputation for turning tail when Labour backbenchers express dislike for a policy.
/jlne.ws/4aVtYQZ

European Union

France to Open Consulate in Greenland as ‘Political Signal’
Samy Adghirni – Bloomberg
France will open a consulate in Greenland on Feb. 6, a move its foreign minister described as a “political signal,” following US President Donald Trump’s escalating push to seize the semi-autonomous Danish territory. The decision was driven by “a wish to be more present in Greenland,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told RTL radio Wednesday morning.
/jlne.ws/4qOchY3

Russia

Russia’s Lavrov says the U.S. is smashing the world around with its raid on Venezuela and threats to Iran
Reuters
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that the United States was fragmenting the very international system which Washington helped to create by undertaking what he said was an illegal operation to topple Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and by threatening Iran with attack. “We are talking about a gross violation of international law,” Lavrov said of the U.S. operation to capture Maduro. He added that Russia remained committed to its agreements with Venezuela, a Russian ally.
/jlne.ws/4aVqzlb

Russia’s Allies Complain Putin Was Nowhere When It Mattered Most
Alex Wickham and Alberto Nardelli – Bloomberg
As President Vladimir Putin focuses his attentions on Russia’s war in Ukraine, his strategic allies around the world have been left feeling neglected – or worse. In Venezuela, officials now think their years-long security relationship with Moscow was a paper tiger. They’re not alone: From Damascus and Tehran to Havana, over the last 13 months authoritarian regimes which previously benefited from their close ties to the Kremlin have found Russian support lacking when it mattered most.
/jlne.ws/4qlVZpu

Others

Greenland Says It Chooses Denmark and Rules Out Joining US
Sara Sjolin – Bloomberg
Greenland’s prime minister categorically ruled out joining the US and said the Arctic territory prefers to be in a union with Denmark, suggesting the island is putting independence plans on the back burner for now. “We are now facing a geopolitical crisis, and if we have to choose between the United States and Denmark here and now, then we choose Denmark,” Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said at a joint press conference with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in Copenhagen on Tuesday. “We choose the Greenland we know today, which is part of the Kingdom of Denmark,” he said.
/jlne.ws/4pKagvb

Iran signals fast trials and executions for protesters as death toll in crackdown goes over 2,500
Jon Gambrell – AP News
The head of Iran’s judiciary signaled Wednesday there would be fast trials and executions ahead for those detained in nationwide protests despite a warning from U.S. President Donald Trump. The comments from Iran’s judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei come as activists had warned hangings of those detained could come soon. Already, a bloody security force crackdown on the demonstrations has killed at least 2,571, the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency reported. That figure dwarfs the death toll from any other round of protest or unrest in Iran in decades and recalls the chaos surrounding the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
/jlne.ws/45N1ncX

Regulation

Crypto exchange Korbit accepts regulator’s $2m anti-money laundering violations fine
Tim Alper – DL News
The South Korean crypto exchange Korbit will not appeal a fine of almost $2 million and an official warning for failing to enforce anti-money laundering protocols. The Financial Intelligence Unit imposed the fine after an October 2024 investigation uncovered multiple violations of transaction monitoring and customer due diligence rules, the South Korean publication Business Post reported.
/jlne.ws/4qlhEy4

French regulator says some crypto firms unresponsive as EU licence deadline approaches
Elizabeth Howcroft – Reuters
Nearly a third of crypto companies without an EU licence in France are still to tell the regulator whether they intend to get the licence required under new EU rules or will cease operating by July, the country’s markets regulator warned on Tuesday. Under the European Union’s crypto rules, MiCA, crypto companies must receive licences from national regulators in order to be able to operate across the bloc.
/jlne.ws/3LIsJKE

Federal Reserve Board announces approval of application by Fifth Third Bancorp
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
The Federal Reserve Board on Tuesday announced its approval of the application by Fifth Third Bancorp, of Cincinnati, Ohio, to acquire Comerica Incorporated, of Dallas, Texas. As a result, Firth Third will indirectly acquire Comerica Bank, located in Dallas, Texas, and Comerica Bank & Trust, National Association, located in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
/jlne.ws/4sC4dLO

Financial Regulatory Penalties Decline in 2025; Fenergo report shows fines issued by US regulators decreased by 61%.
Ioanna Theocharaki – Traders Magazine
U.S. enforcement of anti-money laundering rules slowed last year, due to workforce shifts and enforcement capacity constraints, financial compliance software provider Fenergo said in a report. Globally, penalties tied to anti-money laundering (AML), know-your-customer (KYC), sanctions, and customer due diligence (CDD) rules totaled $3.8 billion in 2025, down from $4.6 billion a year earlier. The U.S. remained the largest enforcement jurisdiction by value, accounting for $1.67 billion in fines.
/jlne.ws/3YFaEjt

Statement on Reforming Regulation S-K
Paul S. Atkins, Chairman – SEC
Since 1982, Regulation S-K has been the Commission’s central repository for filer disclosure requirements outside of the financial statements. Over the past forty-plus years, that repository has grown from the size of a gym locker to the size of an artificial-intelligence data center. Today, the disclosure that companies provide in response to the myriad requirements of Regulation S-K does not always reflect information that a reasonable investor would consider important in making an investment or voting decision. In other words, Regulation S-K currently elicits both material and a plethora of undisputably immaterial information. As Justice Thurgood Marshall suggested in his TSC Industries v. Northway opinion, burying shareholders in an avalanche of immaterial information is a result that neither protects investors nor facilitates capital formation.[1] The Commission’s disclosure regime should enable a reasonable investor to separate the wheat from the chaff when reviewing periodic reports and proxy statements.
/jlne.ws/4qnUDL7

Richard Ernest Auricht’s liquidator registration cancellation overturned on appeal, substituted with five-year suspension
ASIC
The Administrative Review Tribunal (ART) has set aside a decision of the registered liquidator disciplinary committee (the committee) to cancel the liquidator registration of Richard Ernest Auricht. The ART decided Richard Ernest Auricht’s registration should instead be suspended for five years commencing on 23 June 2023, which was the date of the committee’s original decision.
/jlne.ws/4bvU794

The European Supervisory Authorities and UK financial regulators sign Memorandum of Understanding on oversight of critical ICT third-party service providers under DORA
ESMA
The European Supervisory Authorities (EBA, EIOPA and ESMA – the ESAs) have today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Bank of England (BoE), the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). This agreement enhances the cooperation between the authorities to oversee critical ICT third-party service providers (CTPPs) as required by the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA).
/jlne.ws/49x0JBy

ESMA promotes clarity in communications on ESG strategies
ESMA
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU’s financial markets regulator and supervisor, published today a second thematic note on sustainability-related claims, focusing on ESG strategies.
/jlne.ws/4qsQZzI

UK and EU regulators sign Memorandum of Understanding to strengthen oversight of critical third parties
FCA
The FCA, Bank of England and Prudential Regulation Authority have together signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the European Supervisory Authorities to enhance cooperation and oversight of critical third parties (CTPs) that fall under the UK’s CTP regime. The MoU establishes a framework for coordinating and sharing information on the oversight of CTPs under the UK regime and critical third party providers (CTPPs) under the EU’s Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), including during incidents such as power outages or cyber-attacks.
/jlne.ws/4qlTinS

DTCC comments on UK MiFID ARM registration
Finextra Research
The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) recently approved the formal public registration of DTCC’s Markets in Financial Instruments Directive/Regulation (MiFID/R) UK ARM license, marking a significant milestone in the evolution of transaction reporting for UK financial markets. 1 hour Be the first to comment The service, set to launch in Q2 2026, offers market participants a unified, industry-owned solution that empowers clients to consolidate derivatives trade reporting alongside equities & fixed income securities & bonds reporting, elevate data quality and take advantage of resilient infrastructure for end-to-end regulatory reporting. https://jlne.ws/3YYDfRb

FSA Weekly Review No.670 January 14, 2026
FSA
This page contains the latest in events, developments, and updates to the FSA website.
/jlne.ws/4sGHVbP

Written reply to Parliamentary Question on regulations relating to mortgage equity withdrawal loans
MAS
To ask the Prime Minister and Minister for Finance (a) what regulations govern the taking out of home equity loans (HEL) to prevent over-leveraging besides loan-to-value limits and Total Debt Servicing Ratio (TDSR) set by MAS; (b) whether MAS will review the exemptions that exclude some HELs from TDSR; and (c) what measures are in place to mitigate delinquency risks arising from using HELs for speculative overseas property investments.
/jlne.ws/49UT01t

SFC obtains disqualification order against former executive director of National United Resources Holdings Limited
SFC
The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has obtained a disqualification order in the Court of First Instance against Mr Lo Ka Wai, a former executive director of National United Resources Holdings Limited (NUR) (Notes 1 to 3). Lo was disqualified for a period of three years from being a director, liquidator, receiver or manager of, or being involved in the management of, any listed or unlisted corporation in Hong Kong. Lo was also ordered to pay the SFC’s costs in the proceedings (Notes 4 to 6).
/jlne.ws/4jG8REn

Ontario Securities Commission Investor Warnings And Alerts For December 23, 2025 – January 13, 2026
Mondovisione
The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) is warning Ontario investors that the following companies are not registered to deal or advise in securities in Ontario: Fibovest Horizon Gold CARFIS At the OSC, we issue investor warnings and alerts about possible harmful or illegal activity in progress, and maintain a warning list of companies or individuals performing activities that may pose a risk to investors. A full list of OSC investor warnings and alerts is available on the OSC’s website. Investors can sign up for email notifications when new warnings and alerts are issued and can follow the OSC’s X feed at @OSC_News.
/jlne.ws/4jC2Zfk

Investing and Trading

How investors should deal with instability; The market is navigating a regime where there is more volatility, dispersion of returns and changes in stock leadership
Liz Ann Sonders – Financial Times
Investors often describe the current environment as “uncertain” but that word may understate what is truly different about this cycle. Uncertainty implies a range of possible outcomes around a stable centre. What defines today’s US backdrop, and likely much of 2026, is something more persistent and at times more disruptive: “instability”. Instability is not about a single looming risk (including geopolitics) or a binary outcome. It reflects an environment in which the relationships on which investors rely, between inflation and growth, labour and consumption, policy and markets, are constantly shifting. That instability, rather than a clear recessionary or boom-time signal, is a defining feature of the current cycle.
/jlne.ws/3NiCRKA

U.S. Refiners to Profit as Trump Asserts Control Over Venezuelan Oil
Rebecca F Elliott – The New York Times
Some of the biggest early winners in the Trump administration’s efforts to assert more control over Venezuela’s energy industry are not the companies that produce oil but the ones that transform it into gasoline, diesel and other products. U.S. refining companies like Valero Energy and Marathon Petroleum are poised to profit if more Venezuelan oil starts flowing to the United States. That is because these companies outfitted their facilities decades ago with that country’s oil in mind.
/jlne.ws/4pI1XQl

The ‘Magnificent 7’ are dying, and Wall Street is pretty happy about it
Jim Edwards – Fortune
The S&P 500 fell 0.19% yesterday but, interestingly, the “equal weight” S&P 500 (a notional index that values each stock equally) was marginally up. That’s because more investors are picking between winners and losers on the index-and many of the losers are the “Magnificent Seven” tech stocks. The market as a whole is up 0.48% year-to-date. Given that the year is only a few days old, that pace promises healthy gains ahead.
/jlne.ws/4pEcYm0

Citadel and Other Spirit Bondholders to Decide if Airline Survives Bankruptcy
Jonathan Randles and Eliza Ronalds-Hannon – Bloomberg
Ken Griffin’s Citadel and other Spirit Aviation bondholders will likely dictate whether the budget airline survives bankruptcy or shuts down, a labor union representing its pilots said Tuesday. Spirit’s bondholders are deciding whether to continue funding the company, a critical decision that could determine if the company successfully restructures or is forced to liquidate, the labor union said in an open letter. The letter was signed by Air Line Pilots Association President Jason Ambrosi and Ryan Muller, chairman of a labor union representing Spirit pilots. Creditors took control of the Dania Beach, Florida-based airline following an earlier Chapter 11 filing in late 2024.
/jlne.ws/3NkUAB1

Big Oil Won’t Keep Beating the Crude Market
Javier Blas – Bloomberg Opinion
John D. Rockefeller, the godfather of the modern oil industry, called his tactic of purposely crashing oil prices and sending the stocks of his rivals into a tailspin “a good sweating.” Soon after, he’d conveniently buy shares cheaply. For the following century, one of the few certainties of petroleum investing was that low crude prices are bad for Big Oil. That remained true until last year, when oil company shares rose while the cost of a barrel of crude plunged. For some investors, it marked the beginning of a new paradigm. I was never 100% convinced, and now cracks are starting to appear: It doesn’t look like the sector can sustain its outperformance versus the commodity market. A reckoning likely looms in 2026.
/jlne.ws/49lyo2f

Tin Hits Record Above $51,000 on LME After Broad Metals Rally
Mark Burton – Bloomberg
Tin rallied to a new high above $51,000 a ton in London, extending a three-year bull run as frenzied buying by Chinese investors drove metals markets higher. Prices surged as much as 4.3% to $51,675 on the London Metal Exchange, surpassing a prior record set in 2022 as demand from the electronics industry jumped during the pandemic. The metal used in soldering has long been viewed as a proxy gauge for the computing sector, and funds have piled into the market in parallel with strong investments in AI and data centers.
/jlne.ws/4qlkh2U

Blistering Metals Rally Sends Gold, Silver and Copper to Records
Bloomberg News
/jlne.ws/4sDT79d

Hudson River’s 2025 Trading Revenue Set for Record $12.3 Billion
Katherine Doherty and Paula Seligson – Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/4qXcqJ4

Basis Trade Has Ballooned to $1.5 Trillion, Morgan Stanley Says
Alex Harris – Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/49R4p2m

Trump Credit Card Cap Would Hit $70 Billion Market for the Debt
Scott Carpenter and Ameya Karve – Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/4pzrg7f

Traders Ready For ‘Donroe Doctrine’ to Fuel Market Moves in 2026
Carmen Reinicke and Geoffrey Morgan – Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/3LKPeP2

European ammunition group announces IPO in Amsterdam; With an estimated value of about 30bn Euros, Czechoslovak Group is set to become one of Europe’s most valuable defence companies
Ivan Levingston – Financial Times
/jlne.ws/3NiFzzH

Here’s When Markets Will Start Caring About Fed Independence
Chris Anstey – Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/4sEq19H

Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance

A Stealth Heat Tax Has Already Cost Americans $1 Trillion
Mark Gongloff – Bloomberg
A hotter planet is making life more expensive. There’s the big-ticket stuff, of course, like the property losses and higher insurance premiums that come with supercharged natural disasters. But a deeper look shows that climate change is steadily draining wealth in ways that aren’t as obvious, like the hidden charges car dealers add to pad out the cost of a sale, except these are permanent. Call it a stealth heat tax. Temperature changes alone cut US incomes by 12%, on average, between 2000 and 2019, according to a study published in December by Derek Lemoine, an economics professor at the University of Arizona. Lemoine has previously estimated average long-term losses during that period of 1%, but that was based only on localized impacts of hotter weather. His latest research is the first effort to account for how temperature changes in one part of the US can affect people in entirely different parts. The difference is drastic.
/jlne.ws/4jIOs1E

BP Flags Up to $5 Billion in Writedowns for Fourth Quarter
Mitchell Ferman – Bloomberg
BP Plc said it expects to take as much as $5 billion in writedowns from its energy transition business, just weeks after a leadership change as it pivots back to fossil fuels. In an update ahead of earnings next month, the energy giant also flagged weak oil trading and flat production for the fourth-quarter, while net debt was reduced. The update follows the shock ouster of chief executive officer Murray Auchincloss, who sought to reset the company after years of failed low-carbon bets and pressure from activist shareholder Elliott Investment Management. New Chairman Albert Manifold said changes weren’t happening fast enough and named Woodside Energy Group Ltd. CEO Meg O’Neill to replace him.
/jlne.ws/49CVLmO

Sweden Is Retreating From Its Bold Green Ambitions
Charlie Duxbury and Lars Paulsson – Bloomberg
Six years ago, the cobbled square outside Sweden’s parliament buzzed with energy as Greta Thunberg and her “Fridays for Future” demonstrators urged passing lawmakers to act on climate change through loudhailers and whistles. On a recent Friday, it was far different. Two protesters, a small cardboard sign and a quiet vigil.
/jlne.ws/4jIVd3w

UK secures record supply of offshore wind but price rises
Mark Poynting, Climate researcher and Justin Rowlatt, Climate editor – BBC
The UK has awarded contracts to build a record amount of offshore wind as part of its efforts to grow the country’s clean electricity. The projects span England, Scotland and Wales, including part of what could become the world’s largest offshore wind farm, off the coast of Scotland in the North Sea. But some analysts warn that despite the record haul of offshore wind, the government will still struggle to meet its 2030 “clean power” target. The government argues that wind projects are cheaper than new gas power stations and will “bring down bills for good”, but the Conservatives have accused its climate targets of raising energy prices.
/jlne.ws/49jcb4Y

Britain Awards Wind Farm Contracts That Will Power 12 Million Homes
Stanley Reed – The New York Times
At a grim time for developers of offshore wind, Britain has come to the rescue. On Wednesday, the British government said that it would provide guaranteed electricity prices for a group of wind farms off England, Scotland and Wales that would, once built, provide power for 12 million homes.
/jlne.ws/3LzP4dk

Nuclear weapons are now ESG compliant; Boom times in EU sustainable finance
Bryce Elder – Financial Times
On the second-last day of 2025, the European Union published a Commission Notice to advise on which types of defence investments fit its sustainable finance framework. The EU framework has always allowed nearly everything in moderation, including financing defence companies. It sets a couple of red lines (cultivating tobacco, abusing human rights) and puts tolerance levels on minerals extraction, but leaves the exact criteria for inclusion up to the judgment of fund managers, ESG ratings providers, and index builders.
/jlne.ws/3Lu0Rde

Banks Go Silent on Trump Plan to Weaken Racism-in-Lending Rules
J.J. McCorvey and Emily Flitter – Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/49AAavn

Institutions

Brokerage tech firm Alpaca raises $150 million in push to compete with trading giant Interactive Brokers
Ben Weiss – Fortune
Trading platforms like Coinbase and Robinhood are rushing to offer all things to all customers-from stocks to crypto to prediction markets. This has created an opportunity for Alpaca, which provides infrastructure to brokerage firms, and on Wednesday announced a hefty new funding round.
/jlne.ws/4jFEgGZ

Singapore Brokerage Longbridge Eyes Japan Foray Amid Retail Boom
Takashi Nakamichi – Bloomberg
Longbridge Group, a Singapore-based online brokerage startup, plans to enter Japan to tap into the country’s retail investing boom. The firm is seeking to set up a business in Tokyo this year if it gets regulatory approval, said Sho Kiryu, its Japan country manager. Longbridge plans to offer mobile-based brokerage services for US, Hong Kong and Singapore stocks as well as US equity options in Japan, Kiryu added.
/jlne.ws/3YF21p5

Bank of America’s Profit Climbs as Consumer Spending Rises
Alexander Saeedy – The Wall Street Journal
Bank of America said its profit rose 12% in the fourth quarter of last year, as consumer spending climbed and delinquencies on credit cards edged lower. The bank said spending on debit and credit cards rose 6%, while delinquencies of over 90 days on credit cards fell to 1.27% versus 1.35% a year ago. “All of the metrics that we can see tell us the consumer remains resilient and is in great shape,” Alastair Borthwick, the bank’s chief financial officer, said on a call with reporters.
/jlne.ws/3YEXQtp

‘You can’t just keep borrowing money endlessly’: Jamie Dimon warns $38 trillion national debt is going to ‘bite’ eventually, it’s just a case of when
Eleanor Pringle – Fortune
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon had a dose of reality for analysts and investors tuning into his company’s earnings call this week: At some point, governments around the globe are going to have to examine their spending habits. Shares in America’s largest bank declined following its Q4 2025 earnings call yesterday, which reported revenue of $45.8 billion and assets under management of $4.8 trillion, representing an 18% year-over-year increase.
/jlne.ws/459pwu9

Deutsche Bank Eyes UK Hiring Drive to ‘Monetize’ Wealth Turmoil
Benjamin Stupples and Arno Schuetze – Bloomberg
Deutsche Bank AG is lining up a hiring push for UK advisers to the world’s super-rich, seeking to capitalize on a wave of disruption among the island nation’s elite that it says is opening up new opportunities. Britain is a key target territory, alongside others in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, where Germany’s largest lender aims to hire a total of 250 private bankers, according to Claudio de Sanctis, head of the Frankfurt-based firm’s arm catering to the wealthy.
/jlne.ws/3YIm1aq

Citi’s M&A Fee Haul Surges 84% to Cap Record Dealmaking Year
Todd Gillespie – Bloomberg
After years of lagging behind peers on Wall Street, Citigroup Inc.’s dealmakers are narrowing the gap. Chief Executive Officer Jane Fraser’s bank posted an 84% surge in financial advisory fees in the fourth quarter, capping a year in which the firm’s revenue from handling mergers rose by more than half to an all-time record. The haul, announced in an earnings report Wednesday, defied larger rival JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s relatively sluggish growth in that business – up just 6% in 2025.
/jlne.ws/4qVyljD

HSBC Plans Risk Transfer Linked to EUR2 Billion of Corporate Loans
Esteban Duarte – Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/4jIyiFF

Wells Fargo Profit Hit by Severance as Headcount Drops by 5,600
Yizhu Wang – Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/3NrtGra

Societe Generale appoints new head of EM credit trading
Noah Cole – The TRADE
/jlne.ws/49RUqtE

Hedge Funds

Crispin Odey’s Hedge Fund Firm to Become Dormant After January
Bei Hu – Bloomberg
Crispin Odey’s eponymous hedge fund firm will cease trading activities and become dormant after this month, following the British tycoon’s fall from grace. There is no plan to liquidate or wind up Odey Asset Management LLP, according to its annual report and financial statements for the year ended April 5, 2025, posted on the website of the UK Companies House on Jan. 8.
/jlne.ws/4qiclPX

Work & Management

‘Humans could go the way of horses’: Goldman calculated how bad the AI ‘job apocalypse’ will be … and its analysts were pleasantly surprised
Jim Edwards – Fortune
In 1983, the Nobel Prize-winning economist Wassily Leontief asked whether technological change could become so profound that “humans could go the way of horses,” when tractors replaced them in agriculture and transport in the early part of the 20th Century.* Might not computers replace the need for humans who can think the same way the combustion engine replaced the need for literal horsepower? This week, two analysts at Goldman Sachs tried to answer that question in a research paper cheerfully titled, “How Concerned Should We Be About a Job Apocalypse?”
/jlne.ws/3LtQlCM

U.S workers just took home their smallest share of capital since 1947, at least
Sasha Rogelberg – Fortune
As corporate earnings soar and the U.S. GDP balloons, the American workforce isn’t feeling the same boom. American workers are taking home less of the country’s overall wealth, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show, and employment in the U.S. is set to continue to slow.
/jlne.ws/3NJ5jFr

The CEO Guide to Navigating Trump’s Turbulent Second Term
Matthew Boyle and Nancy Cook – Bloomberg
Corporate America is entering the second year of Donald Trump’s second term with a new, hard-won understanding: The president’s personal interventions can shape business as profoundly as any economic force. Trump has stunned Wall Street by calling for a 10% cap on credit card interest rates. He’s pressuring energy companies into rebuilding Venezuela’s crippled oil infrastructure. His administration’s criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell threatens the future independence of US monetary policy.
/jlne.ws/49ULfZp

Chief people officers-and Jamie Dimon-say AI can’t learn ‘human skills.’ The world’s youngest self-made billionaires want to prove them wrong
Jake Angelo – Fortune
Leaders like JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon argue that EQ and critical thinking are the only skills that will survive the automation wave. Microsoft Satya Nadella would agree, calling emotional intelligence a required workplace skill. These statements are meant to give workers reassurance that AI won’t completely replace people, highlighting an irreplaceable human trait that the technology supposedly cannot acquire. The stakes are high, with some AI thought leaders such as Dario Amodei warning that half of all entry-level white-collar jobs will disappear, and soon, amid the AI wave.
/jlne.ws/459P4Y4

McKinsey challenges graduates to use AI chatbot in recruitment overhaul; Candidates in pilot assessed on how they prompted consulting firm’s AI assistant and ability to adapt responses
Ellesheva Kissin – Financial Times
McKinsey is piloting a shake-up in how it recruits its next generation, asking graduate candidates to use an AI assistant to complete tests designed to reflect consultants’ new ways of working. The elite consulting firm has begun asking candidates to use its AI tool Lilli as part of its notoriously taxing tests for business school graduates, according to people familiar with the matter.
/jlne.ws/4pxrPOR

Wellness Exchange

The Swedish Start-Up Aiming to Conquer America’s Full-Body-Scan Craze
Bernhard Warner – The New York Times
Fifteen years ago, Daniel Ek broke into America’s digital-content wars with his streaming music start-up, Spotify, which has turned into a publicly traded company with a $110 billion market value. Now he and his business partner, the Swedish entrepreneur Hjalmar Nilsonne, aim to crack a higher-stakes consumer market: American health care. The pair plan to bring Neko Health, the health tech start-up they founded in 2018, to New York this spring, DealBook is first to report.
/jlne.ws/49n2fre

3 Steps to Fix Your Attention Span
Simar Bajaj – The New York Times
It’s no wonder our attention spans are shrinking. When we’re engaged with the world in front of us, pings and dings interrupt. And in the lulls, we use screens to outrun moments of boredom, anxiety and loneliness. These digital distractions have made it hard to sustain focus – while working, reading a book or spending time with friends and family. Some people find that they struggle to keep their minds trained on a single task even with phone and email notifications turned off.
/jlne.ws/4qvTAsv

What’s the Least Amount of Exercise You Need to Stay Healthy?
Christie Aschwanden – The New York Times
If you’re resolving to make 2026 the year you finally get fit, here’s a simple way to ensure you meet your goal: Aim for the minimum. A growing body of research suggests that the amount of exercise you need to start seeing real health and fitness benefits is surprisingly small and eminently achievable. The key is an approach researchers call “minimum effective dose” training. It may sound too good to be true, but you really can get stronger, fitter and healthier with bouts of exercise lasting just a few minutes – presuming you’re willing to work hard. If you are looking for the best results in the least amount of time, here is what you need to know.
/jlne.ws/4jFCaal

Regions

Chinese Stocks Fall After Exchanges Tighten Margin Requirements
Bloomberg
Chinese stocks dropped after authorities tightened rules on margin financing, signaling unease over the pace of a rally that has added $1.2 trillion in value over the past month alone. Under the new rule, investors must now provide margin equal to the full value of the securities they buy on credit, up from the previous 80% threshold, according to a Shenzhen Stock Exchange statement. The move, which applies to Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing bourses, underscores regulators’ efforts to rein in potential froth in financial markets.
/jlne.ws/49zBbUn

Japan Warns Speculators on FX After Yen Sets Fresh 18-Month Low
Yoshiaki Nohara – Bloomberg
Japan’s finance minister and its top currency official issued fresh warnings to speculators after the yen weakened to its lowest level against the dollar in 18 months amid reports of a snap general election. “We won’t rule out any means and will respond appropriately to moves that are excessive, including those that are speculative,” Satsuki Katayama told reporters on Wednesday, in a hint that direct intervention in markets was among the options available. “We’ve mentioned this to the prime minister today as well.”
/jlne.ws/4jH67a2

Hong Kong activist investor David Webb dies of cancer, social media posts show
Scott Murdoch – Reuters
Hong Kong activist investor and prominent commentator David Webb has died of metastatic prostate cancer, according to his social media accounts. Webb, a British-born former investment banker, began publishing columns on economic and corporate governance, finance, regulatory and political issues in Hong Kong on his website in 1998, becoming one of the territory’s most closely followed analysts.
/jlne.ws/4qmbT3r

Pakistan’s fast crypto adoption triggers financial risk fears
Adnan Aamir – Nikkei Asia
Pakistan took several key steps toward cryptocurrency adoption in 2025, with the latest move in December by a new regulator granting preliminary clearances to global exchanges Binance and HTX, a development that has raised concerns about potential oversight gaps posing financial and regulatory risks.
/jlne.ws/4qilSXh

Brazil Police Target Executives Daniel Vorcaro and Nelson Tanure in Bank Probe
Matheus Piovesana and Rachel Gamarski – Bloomberg
Brazil police on Wednesday started a new phase of a probe into executives with ties to Banco Master SA just weeks after the lender’s November liquidation by the central bank came under scrutiny from federal courts. The bank’s chief executive officer Daniel Vorcaro was among the targets of the second phase of Operation Compliance Zero, which is looking into alleged irregularities at Banco Master, newspaper Estado de S. Paulo reported. Vorcaro was served with new search-and-seizure warrants, the newspaper said.
/jlne.ws/4bEqx18

Miscellaneous

FT book award enters new partnership with Standard Chartered; Bank to back Business Book of the Year and Bracken Prize for Young Authors for next three years
Andrew Hill – Financial Times
Global banking group Standard Chartered is to back the FT Business Book of the Year Award and the Bracken Prize for Young Authors for the next three years, in a new partnership. The tie-up starts this year with Standard Chartered’s support for the 22nd edition of the prestigious £30,000 business book award, which was won last month by Stephen Witt for The Thinking Machine, his timely account of the rise of Nvidia and its chief executive, Jensen Huang.
/jlne.ws/4jG3TaH

Scott Adams, Creator of the Satirical ‘Dilbert’ Comic Strip, Dies at 68
Richard Sandomir – The New York Times
Scott Adams, whose experience as a bank and phone company middle manager gave him the material to create the comic strip “Dilbert,” a daily satire of corporate life that became a sensation but was dropped by more than 1,000 newspapers after he made racist comments on his podcast in 2023, died on Tuesday at his home in Pleasanton, Calif., in the Bay Area. He was 68. His former wife Shelly Adams confirmed his death, saying he had been receiving hospice care. Mr. Adams announced in May that he had aggressive prostate cancer and that he probably had only a few months to live.
/jlne.ws/49T557k