Wall Street Mounts Pushback on Trillion-Dollar Stablecoin Boom | John Lothian News

First Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff Pat Kenny, whom I have long called the most interesting man in the world, has stepped away from Broadridge this summer after seeing the CQG acquisition through to its close — ending a 16-year run at CQG that began in July 2010 and culminated in […]

By @JohnLothian · July 13, 2026 · 77 min read

First ReadHits & TakesJohn Lothian & JLN StaffPat Kenny, whom I have long called the most interesting man in the world, has stepped away fromBroadridgethis summer after seeing theCQGacquisition through to its close — ending a 16-year run at CQG that began in July 2010 and culminated in the firm’s management buyout in November 2023 and its subsequent acquisition by Broadridge in spring 2026. Kenny’s career in derivatives and trading technology spans four decades, taking him from the trading floors of theCBOT, where he became a member in 1983 after stints at Geldermann, through institutional sales roles atHarris Bank,ABN AMRO, andPrudential Securities, and into a defining chapter as managing director atPatsystemsbefore joiningCQG, where he rose to senior vice president. The origin story has Geneva Lake at its center: Pat andTerry Duffy, the future chairman and CEO ofCME Group, were bartending together at Chuck’s Lakeshore Inn in Fontana, Wisconsin when a futures trader and regular namedVince Schreibersaw something worth cultivating in both young men and pointed them toward the exchanges. Kenny is now spending the summer at Geneva Lake, where he also serves as village president of Fontana-on-Geneva Lake, recharging with family and grandchildren, and plans to return to the industry in an advisory or leadership capacity in the fall. Here is the whole story,“Pat Kenny Didn’t Retire. He Just Walked Away. ”Delbert Heath Jr. , a veteran of the Chicago futures industry who helped shape the regulatory infrastructure of theChicago Board of Tradeand theBoard of Trade Clearing Corporation,has died at age 90 at his home in Mokena, Illinois. Heath was one of three individuals, along with Bob Lunsford and Bob Thinnes,recruited by the CBOT in 1974 to build the exchange’s Office of Investigations and Auditsin response to the creation of theCommodity Futures Trading Commission, and he rose to lead the department as administrator. When BOTCC presidentWalter W. Brinkmanand executive vice presidentJames E. Johnsonresigned in September 1984 amid a federal investigation into illegal corporate campaign contributions, the first big industry story this I covered as a reporter withCommodity News Servicereporting daily from the CBOT grain floor, the Clearing Corporation’s board of governors tapped Heath to step in as interim president. He subsequently joined the BOTCC full time as executive vice president whenRoger Rutzwas hired as permanent president, and Heath held that role until his retirement in the early 2000s. NIBA, celebrating 35 years, will meet this week at DePaul University in downtown Chicago for its annual conference. To promote the event, I posted to LinkedIn several video shorts from NIBA supporters, includingDr. Richard Sandor,Dr. Mark Shore,Mark Haraburda,John Bannan,andDr. Carl Luft. Something I missed during the historic bell-ringing ceremony in the Oval Office was President Donald Trumpreferring to ICE Chairman & CEO Jeffrey Sprecher’s wife, Kelly Loeffler, as Nicki Minaj. Trump had earlier made remarks about Minaj’s attractiveness, and when he mentioned Loeffler and the great job she was doing as head of the Small Business Administration, he referred to her as “Nicki Minaj. ” Jeff loves a good trade, but I am not sure that he would trade Kelly for a rapper. AttorneyRenato Mariottiof Paul Hastingsreported on his CoinDesk video programthat roughly 500,000 artificial, non-organic streams of Malcom Todd’s songs were generated to obtain a payout on a prediction market. Here are the headlines from in front of FOW’s paywall from some recent stories:Henry Hub call buying fades as Middle East risk premium easesNSE launches Nifty index tracking firms aligned with non-violence principlesTechnology vendors come under joint supervision of UK regulatorsWebull solidifies European crypto footprint with key MiCA licenseKatten expands London derivatives team with third partner hireTAIFEX trading activity surges 94% in JuneCircle receives OCC approval to establish national trust bankESMA launches first phase of ESAP data collectionHKEX to launch 18 single stock options in AugustASIC penalises Deutsche Bank for misreporting derivative tradesPolymarket applies for FCM license to offer margin trading in US -reportSGX’s June derivatives volumes surge 31%CCP Global urges for ‘same activity, same risk’ approach to fintechsHave a great day and stay safe, and treat people the same way you want to be treated: with respect, equality, and justice. ~JJL*****Our most-read stories from our previous edition ofJLN Optionswere:While Wall Street Empties Its Desks, Prediction Markets Are Just Getting Startedfrom John Lothian News. Goldman Sachs is banning employees from betting on prediction marketsfrom Quartz. Polymarket Seeks License to Offer Margin Trading Legally in USfrom Bloomberg. ~JBSubscribe to the JLN Options NewsletterHERE(it’s free). ++++Pat Kenny Didn’t Retire. He Just Walked AwayWILLIAMS BAY, WI (JLN) — July 13, 2026: Pat Kenny, the most interesting man in the world, as I have repeatedly called him, did not retire. That word would be too small for what he is doing and too final for a man whose career has always taken surprising turns. What he did do is walk away from Broadridge this summer, having seen the CQG deal through to its completion. The acquisition, which was announced in February 2026 and closed in the spring, united CQG’s 46-year legacy as one of the last independent trading technology firms with Broadridge’s global scale, and Pat, as senior vice president, was there for the last 16 years of it. ++++MexDer Sees 24/7 as Inevitable but Eyes Bonds, Tech Upgrade FirstJohnLothianNews. comLONDON (JLN) — July 10, 2026: Gary Flagler is candid about where MexDer stands in the race to round-the-clock trading: watching from the starting line, intentionally. “There’s a race to be able to offer 24/7 trading,” Flagler, head of international business development for markets and data at MexDer and the broader Grupo BMV, told FOW’s Zachary Jakubowski in an interview filmed by a John Lothian News video team at the FIA International Derivatives Expo in London. “My personal thought is it’s inevitable. The MexDer view and the Grupo BMV view is that we’re not going to be first to market on that. We’re going to wait and see how it goes. We have too many other initiatives right now. ”Watch the Gary Flagler Video »++++Kalshi Launches Advanced Trading TerminalKalshi NewsKalshi, the next-generation financial exchange, today announced the public release of Kalshi Pro, a professional-grade desktop trading workstation. Kalshi Pro runs on the same account, the same balance, and the same exchange as the standard Kalshi app, but has professional trading tools for users who want a more convenient interface for advanced trading activity: people trading dozens of markets at once, reacting in real time during live events, or managing resting orders as a business. Both Kalshi’s prediction markets and perpetual futures are available to trade on Pro. /jlne. ws/4yhHasv***** This is a big advancement for Kalshi. ~JJL++++Robinhood built a blockchain for real-world assets. Memecoin traders showed up for the cat coin insteadBen Weiss – FortuneWhen crypto last boomed in 2024 and 2025, memecoins were all the rage. Traders flocked to blockchains like Solana or the app Pump. fun to launch their own dog-themed, cat-themed, or frog-themed tokens. Even two presidents got involved. (While President Donald Trump’s memecoin made a killing, Javier Milei’s landed the Argentine president in hot water. )/jlne. ws/4fh22HO****** It is hard for me to take anything involving cats seriously, as I am terribly allergic to them, even in coin format. ~JJL++++Friday’s Top ThreeOur top story on Friday wasWhile Wall Street Empties Its Desks, Prediction Markets Are Just Getting Startedby John Lothian in JLN. Second wasPrediction Market Bets Surge on World Cup Mania, from Bloomberg. Third wasRe: Request for Information: Identifying Regulations To Facilitate Innovation and Competition to Financial Products and Services for Fintech Firms, from CCP Global. Lead StoriesWall Street Mounts Pushback on Trillion-Dollar Stablecoin BoomAnna Irrera – BloombergFor years, banks largely watched stablecoins evolve from a niche cryptocurrency product into a payments network moving tens of trillions of dollars annually. Now they’re dusting off the same collaborative playbook that produced Zelle, betting shared infrastructure is the best way to stop digital dollars from encroaching further on their business. A consortium of major lenders including JPMorgan Chase & Co. , Bank of America Corp. , HSBC Holdings Plc. , Citigroup Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co. recently unveiled plans for a shared network connecting tokenized bank deposits. Those are digital versions of money housed in commercial banks that move over payments rails called blockchain, which the crypto industry first introduced. /jlne. ws/44nx0cjJane Fraser’s ruthless remake of Citigroup; The bank has sold assets, cut jobs and made controversial new hires while cultivating a closer relationship with Trump. Is it enough to get back into the big time?Akila Quinio – Financial TimesCitigroup boss Jane Fraser addressed shareholders at her bank’s Manhattan headquarters in May in an upbeat mood. Over the preceding 12 months, Citi — once one of Wall Street’s most prestigious institutions — had finally regained the market value it had last enjoyed before the 2008 financial crisis, with shares outperforming rivals such as JPMorgan and Bank of America. “We have rebuilt the engine,” said Fraser. “Now we will show you what it can deliver. ”/jlne. ws/4f0uX3SThe Quarter-Trillion-Dollar Onslaught of AI Bonds Is Testing Investors’ LimitsSam Goldfarb – The Wall Street JournalWall Street is sending a message to tech companies engaged in a historic borrowing spree to fund investments in artificial-intelligence infrastructure: for pity’s sake, please slow down. Over the past several weeks, the investment-grade corporate bond market has struggled to absorb a combined $75 billion of bond issuance from Nvidia, SpaceX and Amazon. com. That marks a shift from earlier in the year, when investors were generally happy to hand money to so-called AI hyperscalers by any possible means. /jlne. ws/4vuvm3BExclusive | Trump Regulators Seek to Discourage Loans to Undocumented Immigrants; Guidance from nation’s financial regulators urges banks to consider risks of offering loans to immigrants not authorized to work in the U. S. Dylan Tokar – The Wall Street JournalThe Trump administration is continuing its push to limit undocumented immigrants’ access to the U. S. banking system, urging banks to consider loans to them as potentially risky. Earlier this year, officials began discussing ways to use the banking system to boost the president’s mass deportation campaign, The Wall Street Journal first reported. Those discussions led to an executive order in May directing financial regulators to use a range of existing rules to achieve the administration’s goals. /jlne. ws/3SX6fZGIran turmoil lifts CCP margin to new peak; Ice, JSCC and ECC among clearing houses posting sharp Q1 increasesJoshua Walker – Risk. netRequired initial margin (IM) held at 25 central counterparties (CCPs) climbed 9. 2% to $1. 4 trillion in the first quarter, its highest level on record. The largest increase came in unnetted client accounts, where IM rose 11. 9% to $657. 2 billion. House accounts increased 7. 5% to $596. 8 billion, while netted client accounts dropped 1% to $137 billion. /jlne. ws/4gAXcraHow Once-Struggling SK Hynix Became a Trillion-Dollar CompanyYoolim Lee – BloombergSK Hynix Inc. is hardly a household name. But the maker of memory chips, which two decades ago was struggling to survive, is now South Korea’s second-most valuable listed company, just behind Samsung Electronics Co. With the artificial intelligence boom fueling enormous demand for advanced memory chips, the company’s share price has risen roughly 13-fold since the start of 2025, with its market value hitting $1 trillion in May. On July 10, SK Hynix American depositary receipts started trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market in the US, exposing the company to an even deeper pool of capital. The debut was met with strong demand, and the ADRs closed their first day about 13% above the offer price. /jlne. ws/4w1445OWashington Is Looking to Keep China From Training Its AI on US ModelsMaggie Eastland – BloombergWhen Anthropic PBC introduced Fable 5, the latest version of its large language model, in early June, the artificial intelligence pioneer outlined its strategy for undercutting attempts to use its technology to carry out cyberattacks or build biological or chemical weapons. It also raised concerns about an activity known as distillation. While distillation may not mean much to laypeople, it’s generating alarm among US tech companies and policymakers, who see it as a primary tool of China’s efforts in the AI arms race. /jlne. ws/4pfTTrLPeter Thiel and other tech billionaires are publicly shielding their children from the products that made them richMarco Quiroz-Gutierrez – FortuneDespite building an increasingly screen-focused world, billionaire tech leaders are keeping their own children away from the tech they helped create. As far back as 2010, Apple cofounder Steve Jobs told a New York Times reporter his kids had never used an iPad and that “we limit how much technology our kids use at home. ” Since then, the trend of Silicon Valley billionaires keeping their families away from technology has become even more pronounced, thanks in part to the rise of social media and short-form video. Excessive device use among children has grown more common in recent years as busy parents turn to screens to find some peace. The trend has accelerated so much that some young children accustomed to extensive screen time have been dubbed “iPad kids. ” On average, children in the U. S. ages 8 to 18 spend 7. 5 hours per day watching or using screens, according to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. /jlne. ws/4guNLcJBank of England hit by internal divisions over shake-up; Critics say failure to give clear signals is ‘confusing’ and risks wrongfooting the bond marketsDelphine Strauss and Sam Fleming – Financial TimesDeep splits of opinion on the Bank of England’s rate-setting committee are making it harder to rebuild the central bank’s credibility after five years of inflation running above target. Critics — some of them on the nine-member Monetary Policy Committee itself — complain of a fragmented outlook from the bank that emphasises the individual views of rate setters at the expense of a collective voice. /jlne. ws/44r7XFeAlex Karp Is Saying What Every Angry CEO Is Thinking About AITim Higgins – The Wall Street JournalAlex Karp—describing himself as a “madman”—has brought the simmering tension between fast-rising AI giants and established tech players to a boil. In both nuanced and dramatic fashion, the Palantir Technologies chief executive is drawing attention to concerns over the power and insight AI labs derive from their business customers’ data and decision-making—the magic sauce behind what makes a company successful. This past week, Palantir released a dense white paper—entitled: “Institutional Sovereignty in the Age of AI”—that laid out 15 steps companies and governments could take to protect themselves from the likes of OpenAI and Anthropic. /jlne. ws/4wGuzO0China opens door to CGBs as initial margin; CCDC’s new rules expected to drive use of CGBs as collateral in non-cleared and cross-border tradesJiefei Liu – Risk. netChina Central Depository and Clearing is “very close” to finalising its initial margin (IM) rules, paving the way for Chinese government bonds (CGBs) to be posted as collateral for non-cleared over-the-counter derivatives domestically and internationally. “We are expecting imminently for those revised CCDC rules to come into effect, or to become formalised, so that will kick-start the process of/jlne. ws/4wJUmoGBowman shuns CECL. Friends say it just needs a little help; How far should FASB go in reforming credit-loss accounting rules?Arthur Bautzer and Menghan Xiao – Risk. netRegulators don’t often push to overhaul rules more than bankers want. Oddly though, Michelle Bowman, vice-chair for supervision at the Federal Reserve Board, may want to go further than the industry in reforming the measurement of lenders’ loan losses. During a roundtable hosted by the Financial Accounting Standards Board in May, Bowman berated the offending accounting standard for failing to meet/jlne. ws/4feX4uYUK Accelerated Settlement Taskforce Review – Q2 2026Shanny Basar – Markets MediaAs we reach the halfway point of 2026, the UK’s transition to T+1 moves inexorably closer. During the past quarter, the Taskforce has focused on providing greater clarity for market participants as we move beyond planning and into implementation. With around 15 months until the UK’s move to T+1 on 11 October 2027, the message remains consistent: the market has made encouraging progress, but it is absolutely essential that plans turn into delivery. Firms should ensure that their programmes are fully funded, key dependencies are being addressed, and preparations are progressing towards being ready to test in early 2027. Market readiness continues to improve/jlne. ws/44mVq5EKathryn Ruemmler Digs In at Goldman, Complicating Search for Next General Counsel; Investment bank’s lawyer defends her long relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and blames Goldman executives for leaksAnnaMaria Andriotis and Erin Mulvaney – The Wall Street JournalWhen Goldman Sachs general counsel Kathryn Ruemmler decided she would be stepping aside after coverage of her ties to Jeffrey Epstein had grown too burdensome, executives expected they had put a distraction behind them. They hadn’t. Ruemmler didn’t leave Goldman at the end of June and is instead staying on in an advisory role and to help the transition to her successor, the bank told employees last month. That decision reignited concern among some inside the bank and has complicated the effort to find a successor, according to people familiar with the matter. /jlne. ws/4fe6LtANovel ProductsPrediction MarketsWorld Cup bets on prediction markets may get tax edge over gamblingCaitlin Reilly and Bloomberg – FortuneAmericans using prediction markets to bet on the World Cup may face a lighter tax burden than peers wagering through sportsbooks thanks to tax breaks aimed at investments. /jlne. ws/4pfVQ7zFIFA’s Prediction-Market Partner Gets Off to Rocky StartAlexander Osipovich and Caitlin Ostroff – The Wall Street JournalVukasin Petrovic was elated when FIFA’s official prediction-market partner told him he was set to win a ticket to the World Cup. But the ticket was never delivered. Now, the 24-year-old crypto trader from Serbia is one of a growing number of ADI Predictstreet users angered by the fledgling platform’s shaky start. ADI Predictstreet, which is owned by Abu Dhabi’s royal family, was virtually unknown until it struck the high-profile deal with FIFA three months ago. Now its logo is prominently displayed at a World Cup that has drawn hundreds of millions of television viewers worldwide. /jlne. ws/4wGnnkYWhy prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi often fail the average investorMark Hulbert – MarketWatchThere is a 19% probability that the Dow Jones Industrial Average will eclipse 59,000 at some point between now and the end of the year, according to a contract that trades on the Kalshi prediction market. That represents a 23% gain over the DJIA’s current level. /jlne. ws/3RxDu5mPrediction market users spend nearly $200 million on midterm election bets: ReportMax Rego and The Hill – KTALnews. comPrediction market users have wagered in excess of $197 million on midterm election results, according to NBC News. The outlet analyzed 1,408 open markets on Kalshi and Polymarket for its report, published on Friday. On both platforms, users can bet on a variety of topics, including sports, global events and political elections. /jlne. ws/4fbVdHcLA therapists are seeing more young patients with gambling problems. They blame KalshiMaya Mukherjee – LAistWith a week left in the World Cup, fans may have noticed ads with soccer stars telling them they could win tickets to the final using their sports knowledge. Those ads are for Kalshi, a prediction market that accounts for 90% of the U. S. market share. Right now, $1. 1 billion worth of contracts are trading on who will win the World Cup. And it’s not just sports — Kalshi contracts can get as fine-grained as the exact margin of victory between Spencer Pratt and Nithya Raman in the L. A. mayoral primary. /jlne. ws/4fxkH3hGibraltar Launches Prediction Market RegulationsVanja Mitic – World Casino NewsGibraltar has introduced a standalone regulatory regime for prediction markets, positioning the territory as the first jurisdiction worldwide to do so. The new framework, called the Prediction Market Regulations 2026, separates prediction market activities from traditional gambling, providing a distinct category within the Gibraltar Gambling Act 2025. Nigel Feetham KC MP, Gibraltar’s Minister for Justice, Trade and Industry, described the initiative as an effort to “regulate innovation responsibly by providing a clear regulatory framework for operators that wish to conduct prediction market activities under this regime, where it is the appropriate regulatory framework for their business. ” He emphasized that the framework prioritizes market integrity, participant protection, transparency, financial crime prevention, and operational resilience. /jlne. ws/4eXLXI5Google bans prediction market Chrome extensionsAlla Basentsyan – AffPapa/jlne. ws/4vrtpowKalshi Is Crushing Everyone In App DownloadsDustin Gouker – Event Horizon/jlne. ws/4eXMda1The new frontier of investing lets you bet on the future. But is it really investing?Lora Grady – Toronto Star/jlne. ws/4fbwm6pWhy all the Buzz About Prediction Markets?Special Contributor – Easy Reader & Peninsula/jlne. ws/4eZCL64Plus500 revenue surges as US prediction markets drive growthMaisie Grice – City AM/jlne. ws/4vv8ykmSports & GamingFanDuel sent a personal message from Phillies star Bryce Harper to a customer with a gambling addictionDavid Gambacorta – The Philadelphia InquirerAs the 2020 NFL season kicked off, Terry Thompson picked up his phone and placed a wager with FanDuel Sportsbook on his favorite team, the Philadelphia Eagles. It was his first time gambling through an app, and he soon started placing microbets, which are in-game wagers on something as small as whether the next play would be a pass or run. /jlne. ws/3QOJxCtPerpetual FuturesRemittix Adds Perpetual Futures Platform as RTX Push Moves Beyond Crypto PaymentsCryptoProwl – Yahoo FinanceRemittix (CRYPTO: $RTX) is expanding beyond crypto-to-fiat payments with a new perpetual futures platform, adding a trading product to the RTX ecosystem as onchain derivatives continue to pull in more activity. The project said Friday that Remittix Markets will introduce perpetual futures alongside its PayFi platform, which is designed to let users send crypto while recipients receive fiat directly into bank accounts. /jlne. ws/4vp7U7WSK Hynix Demonstrates Growth of Pre-IPO PerpetualsShanny Basar – Markets MediaA number of pre-IPO perpetual futures were launched on SK Hynix, the South Korean computer chip manufacturer, which raised $26. 5bn on Nasdaq in the largest listing by a foreign company in the U. S. The company said in a filing on 9 July 2026 that it had sold 177. 9 million American depositary receipts (ADRs) for $149 each. A depository bank that holds shares in an overseas company can issue ADRs which represent this holding. Once ADRs are listed on a U. S. exchange they can be traded in the same way as a domestic U. S. stock. In the case of SK Hynix, each ADR represents once tenth of a share traded in South Korea. /jlne. ws/4fBoVWHKalshi launches ‘Pro’ product for users trading multiple markets at same time, perpetual futuresDavis Giangiulio – CNBCPrediction market platform Kalshi is launching a product for its highly active traders on Monday, the company told CNBC. Kalshi Pro, now available to the public, is designed for speculators who trade multiple markets at the same time and or move with speed during live events, according to a memo provided to CNBC. The platform is also designed to support those who run resting orders, trades that don’t execute until certain prices are met, the memo said. /jlne. ws/4gBEK1xPerp DEXs Had One Job: Prove Perpetual Futures Could Work On-ChainAudrey Nesbitt – hackernoon. comIn 2025, decentralized perpetual futures platforms processed nearly $8 trillion in trading volume, according to DefiLlama, roughly tripling the previous year’s total. What began as an experiment has become one of the fastest-growing segments in digital assets. Those numbers settle one argument: perpetual futures can work on-chain. The debate has shifted from whether they work to how well they work. /jlne. ws/4bGqwsOPepperstone Expands Perpetual CFD Suite Beyond SpaceX to Metals, Indices and OilFinancial and Business News | Finance MagnatesPepperstone said today (Monday) it will extend its perpetual CFD range beyond a single SpaceX contract into metals, stock indices and energy, building trading products with no fixed expiry around the pitch of round-the-clock markets. Only the SpaceX contract trades today, with gold, silver, Nasdaq, S&P 500, WTI and Brent Crude versions listed as planned. /jlne. ws/4vWyKoPHyperliquid’s real-world asset open interest hits $3. 6B, total open interest reaches $11B in 2026pluang. comHyperliquid, a decentralized perpetual futures exchange, has achieved a record $3. 6 billion in real-world asset (RWA) open interest, contributing to a total open interest peak of $11 billion in 2026. This surge reflects growing market confidence and Hyperliquid’s expanding role in tokenized assets like oil futures and equities. Investors are optimistic about Hyperliquid potentially reaching a $100 price target by the end of 2026, with future performance and market developments closely watched. /jlne. ws/3T0oxcrPerpetual Futures Are Coming to a Popular Solana Crypto Wallet. That’s Why I’m Considering Buying Solana Right Now. Alex Carchidi, The Motley Fool – AOL. com/jlne. ws/4eUTuY8What Is a Perp DEX and Why Traders Are Leaving Centralized ExchangesDave Barr – Fortune/jlne. ws/4ykvGobWorld ConflictsUkraine InvasionUkraine Says It Hit More Oil and Dry-Cargo Ships in Sea of AzovBloombergUkrainian forces hit seven Russian fuel tankers, five dry-cargo vessels and a batch of other ships in the Sea of Azov as Kyiv expands the scope of its maritime attacks in the area. “The tankers are used to transport Russian oil and petroleum products in circumvention of international sanctions,” Ukraine’s General Staff said in a statement on Monday. “Dry-cargo ships and tugboats provide transportation of military cargo, equipment, material and technical means,” ensuring Russia’s maritime logistics, the Kyiv-based military authority said. /jlne. ws/4yfhGfmUkraine presses allies for resupply as Russia launches ballistic missilesReuters – South China Morning PostRussia attacked Ukraine with missiles and drones on Saturday, killing two and wounding 19 others, officials said, as Kyiv awaits supplies of air defence munitions after a shortage has ‌left it exposed to Russian attacks. Eleven people were wounded in the capital, Kyiv, by an attack that used ballistic and cruise missiles as well as drones. /jlne. ws/4yebSTzZelenskiy says Ukraine officials will be held accountable for weapons storeReuters – Yahoo NewsUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday that officials who allowed weapons warehouses ‌to operate in a residential area outside ‌Kyiv where explosions killed 10 people had been identified and would be held accountable. A Russian strike this week on the small town of Vyshneve on Kyiv’s western outskirts hit a warehouse housing arms, setting off a series of ‌secondary explosions. Hundreds ⁠of houses were damaged. /jlne. ws/4eYwNSYLightweight drones stretch Putin’s defences all the way to SiberiaMemphis Barker – The TelegraphThe Ukrainian drones flew for more than 12 hours before they tilted their wings and smashed into the oil refinery in the Siberian city of Omsk. Their 1,500-mile journey was the longest-range strike yet by the Ukrainian army – the equivalent of three trips across the length of Great Britain. /jlne. ws/4bF0PJ7Deutsche Bank and UniCredit sue Linde over Russia sanctions losses; est case will determine whether lenders can recover hundreds of millions of euros seized by courtsFlorian Muller – Financial TimesLeading banks including Deutsche Bank and UniCredit are suing industrial gases group Linde in a test case over who should bear the cost of western sanctions against Russia, as they seek to recover hundreds of millions of euros in assets seized by Russian courts. The first will be heard in a Frankfurt court on Tuesday, where Deutsche Bank is seeking about €260mn in compensation from Linde for assets confiscated when the German engineering group withdrew from a €10bn gas project in north-western Russia. /jlne. ws/4ffcpvIInside the Secret Factory That Supplies Ukraine’s War DronesVivienne Walt – The New York TimesAt a secret location in southern Germany, the manager of a drone factory owned by Helsing SE — Europe’s most valuable artificial-intelligence defense start-up — hands me a lethal killing machine to cradle in my arms. Weighing just 26 pounds, the black, hard-foam attack drone is so light and looks so simple that it is easy to forget its role in a surging multibillion-dollar industry, the Russia-Ukraine War — and maybe even in Europe’s future security. /jlne. ws/4eUPiYoUkraine’s drone swarms test Moscow air defences; Kyiv intensifies deep-strike campaign against Russia after attacks on refineries sparked fuel crisisChristopher Miller and Max Seddon – Financial Times/jlne. ws/4aQPBkFMiddle East ConflictRenewed Iran Woes Flip Script for Traders Betting War Risks OverMatthew Griffin – BloombergA day after making an investment call tied to subsiding Middle East tensions, BCA Research’s Marko Papic had to scrap his recommendation at a loss. Donald Trump had said the war in Iran was back on. On Tuesday, the firm’s chief investment strategist advised clients to short US stocks and buy shares in Europe and Japan instead. American equities that provided relative shelter during peak geopolitical tensions had since lost some of their appeal, he said. The next day, Trump abruptly declared the US-Iran ceasefire “over,” forcing Papic to close his recommendation for a 1. 1% loss. /jlne. ws/3RBkvH7Wall Street Can’t Ignore the $3 Trillion Saudi-UAE RiftDinesh Nair, Omar El Chmouri, Laura Gardner Cuesta and Zainab Fattah – BloombergThe Iran war has dominated headlines this year. Behind closed doors, however, conversations with more than a dozen Wall Street bankers and private equity executives reveal a different concern — one that has barely registered in public debate but has the potential to upend global investment flows. The growing rift between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the two biggest Gulf economies and among the world’s deepest pools of capital, has prompted executives to work on contingency plans to counter any fallout if things get materially worse. For banks such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley to investment firms such as BlackRock Inc. , Brookfield Corp. and KKR & Co. , the trajectory of the relationship is especially crucial. /jlne. ws/4vrUbgyTrump’s instructions if Iran assassinates him: ‘Literally bomb them at levels that they’ve never seen before’Alex Woodward – The IndependentAfter spending several days labeling himself Iran’s “No. 1 target” and warning that he is under constant threat of assassination, President Donald Trump stressed that he left his advisers specific instructions should anything ever happen to him. “I’ve left instructions — if anything happens, to just literally bomb them at levels that they’ve never seen before,” he told The New York Post on Friday. /jlne. ws/3SQyGbKIran widens attacks on US bases in Gulf, Hormuz tensions lift oil pricesElwely Elwelly, Eman Abouhassira and Tala Ramadan – ReutersU. S. and Iranian forces exchanged heavy missile and drone attacks over the weekend and into Monday, with Tehran saying it had struck U. S. military facilities across the Gulf and kept the Strait of Hormuz closed, driving oil prices higher. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Monday they had targeted U. S. military facilities ‌in Bahrain and Kuwait, destroyed radar systems in Oman, and hit fuel tanks and ammunition depots at Prince Hassan Air Base in Jordan in response to U. S. strikes. /jlne. ws/4gAPJbvOther ConflictsRocket Shortage Leaves Europe Defenseless in Space Wars; Global powers are pouring resources into projecting military power into orbit. Europe risks getting left behind because it lacks the indigenous launch vehicles to match the pace of its competitors. Gerry Doyle and Alan Crawford – BloombergOn the northwest coast of a mountainous Arctic island, facing the Norwegian Sea, lies arguably the world’s most dramatic launch site for rockets. The stream of political leaders visiting the Andøya Spaceport in northern Norway shows its vital importance: it may be Europe’s best shot at catching up in the race to militarize space while breaking free from dependence on Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Launching satellites into orbit “is a capability that is important for Norway, for the EU, for Europe,” Ketil Olsen, the chief executive officer of Andøya Space and formerly a Norwegian vice admiral, said in an interview. “For us it’s about strategic autonomy, it’s about sovereignty, and it’s about European independence. ” It’s also yet to come to fruition. /jlne. ws/4f8ff5tThe wild, gripping story of the Nord Stream pipeline bombingThe EconomistThe bombs were hidden in divers’ cylinders and lowered into the Baltic Sea. In freezing darkness they were fixed to the pipes that snaked along the sea floor from Russia to Germany. The timers were set. As Bojan Pancevski shows in his new book, the resulting explosions shook Europe’s economy and the Western alliance. Revisited today, those tanks are also time capsules, messages in a bottle from an already remote past. Known as Nord Stream 1 and 2, the twin tubes comprised the world’s longest undersea pipeline network when they were laid in 2011 and 2021 respectively. They were always controversial. By bypassing Ukraine, they made it easier for the Kremlin to cut off its gas supplies without interrupting deliveries farther west. As Mr Pancevski writes in “The Nord Stream Conspiracy”, they were “giant tentacles” which “tied Germany and much of Europe to Russia” through dependence on Russian energy. /jlne. ws/44nsTNpEXCHANGES OTC CLEARINGThere’s an IPO Gold Rush—and Texas Is Coming for New YorkCorrie Driebusch – The Wall Street JournalIn the fall of 2022, the governor of Texas went to dinner in Houston with a half-dozen friends. Before the plates were cleared, Greg Abbott told his buddies around the table that there was something else he wanted to order—and it wasn’t on the menu. He’d like the Lone Star state to have its own stock exchange. Sitting across from the governor, James Lee was just the man to build it. Even for a state that takes pride in making everything outsized, the idea was a big one. When Nasdaq launched in the 1970s it took the exchange two decades to become competitive with the New York Stock Exchange. This week, traders from Goldman Sachs and Citadel Securities, traded mock symbols in practice runs on the Texas Stock Exchange. On Friday, at 9:30 a. m. , a handful of small stock symbols began trading and TXSE—“tex-ee” as they say—was up and running for real. /jlne. ws/4pf6ICmNew ownership at Cboe Australia could challenge the ASXLachlan Colquhoun – FinanceAsiaThe dominance of the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) in domestic equities trading could soon be challenged by the smaller Cboe Australia, with regulatory changes and new ownership giving fresh impetus to the rival exchange. /jlne. ws/3R9BNLmClimate Impact X Completes First Multi-Party Carbon Futures Delivery as Eligible Custodian for Abaxx ExchangeAbaxx TechnologiesAbaxx Technologies Inc. (TSX:ABXX)(OTCQX:ABXXF) (“Abaxx” or the “Company”), a financial software and market infrastructure company, and indirect majority shareholder of Abaxx Singapore Pte Ltd. (“Abaxx Singapore”), which owns Abaxx Commodity Exchange and Clearinghouse (individually, “Abaxx Exchange” and “Abaxx Clearing”), today announced the successful completion of a 120-lot delivery under Abaxx Exchange’s CORSIA Phase 1 Carbon Offset Unit Futures (“CP1”) contract. Completed on July 3, 2026, the delivery marks the first multi-party Abaxx Exchange carbon futures delivery to include Climate Impact X (“CIX”) as an eligible Custodian. /jlne. ws/4guOXgdBME Approves the Admission of Molins to the Madrid Stock Exchange and its Simultaneous Inclusion in the SIBEBME Bolsas y Mercados EspanolesBME has approved the listing of Molins shares on the Madrid Stock Exchange and their simultaneous inclusion in the Spanish Stock Market Interconnection System (SIBE). Until now, the company, with a market capitalization of 2. 5 billion euros, had been trading on the open outcry market of the Barcelona Stock Exchange, where it has been present since 1942. The company closed Friday’s session with a share price of 39 euros. /jlne. ws/454m5EoBringing real-time US options analytics to APAC market participantsThe TRADE (Sponsored by Cboe)As participation in US options markets expands beyond domestic investors, demand for institutional-grade analytics is following suit. Cboe Global Markets discusses how extending real-time options analytics into Asia Pacific is helping firms make more informed trading and risk management decisions while simplifying access to complex market intelligence. /jlne. ws/4yi4cj3CME Group fines, suspends retail trader for COMEX rule violationsMaria Nikolova – FX News GroupInternational derivatives marketplace CME Group has posted a notice of disciplinary action against Sea Lee, a retail trader located in South Korea. On February 4, 2026, the Chief Regulatory Officer of CME Group’s Market Regulation Department issued charges against Sea Lee for violating COMEX Rule 539. A. based on allegations that between August 30, 2024, and September 3, 2024, Lee executed a series of prearranged trades in the DEC24 and JAN25 Gold options markets opposite particular traders. /jlne. ws/4fymXHuBi-annual Check of Ongoing Free Float adequacy & Assessment of Companies under Suspension for a period exceeding one yearEuronext AthensEuronext Athens, during today’s session of its Listings and Market Operation Committee, examined the case companies regarding: A) Bi-annual check of ongoing Free Float adequacy H2 2026 Following the regular check regarding the ongoing free float adequacy for Companies whose shares are listed on the Regulated Market, according to §3. 1. 4. 4 of the Euronext Athens Rulebook and the relevant Resolutions, and taking into account the average free float for the reporting period from 01. 01. 2026 to 30. 06. 2026, it has been determined that: i) One Company, MIG HOLDINGS S. A. , will be granted an initial six-month extension, until 31/12/2026, for the achievement of the required free float, in accordance with the provisions of §3. 1. 4. 4 of the Euronext Athens Rulebook. /jlne. ws/4yjWZPuDeutsche Borse Photography Foundation gives HfG Rundgang Award 2026 to Kerstin WeiserDeutsche Borse GroupKerstin Weiser receives this year’s HfG Rundgang Award 2026 by the Deutsche Borse Photography Foundation for her project “Von Sandburg zu Sandburg” (“From sandcastle to sandcastle”). Presented annually, the prize recognises students at the Offenbach University of Art and Design (HfG Offenbach), whose work engages with the medium of photography. As part of its commitment to supporting emerging artists, the Foundation has presented the €3,000 award since 2010. The ceremony took place on 10 July, during the University’s annual Rundgang exhibition in Offenbach. This year’s jury comprised photographer Barbara Klemm, Alexandra Lechner, Director of Fotografie Forum Frankfurt, and Cornelia Siebert, Junior Curator at the Deutsche Borse Photography Foundation. /jlne. ws/4wKB0jbSMAG Mobile Antenna Masts AG Joins the Scale Segment of the Frankfurt Stock ExchangeDeutsche Borse GroupAs of today, SMAG Mobile Antenna Masts AG (ISIN: DE000A42FR12) is listed in the Scale segment of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Scale is the growth segment in the Open Market for small and medium-sized companies (SME). The first price of the share was €35. 00. The current share price is available via Deutsche Borse. Cantor Fitzgerald acted as sole Global Coordinator and Bookrunner. The designated sponsor and specialist on the trading venue Deutsche Borse Frankfurt is Steubing. /jlne. ws/4ya9g90HKEX to Introduce 18 Stock Option Classes with Weekly and Monthly ExpiriesHKEXHong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) is pleased to announce today (Monday) the introduction of 18 single stock option classes in three batches, on 10 August, 17 August and 31 August 2026, respectively. Both weekly and monthly expiries will be available for these new contracts from the first day of trading, broadening investor choice and enabling market participants to select the expiry profile that best matches their trading and risk management needs. /jlne. ws/4yjEHxMSENELEC brings SLBs with green financing features to LGXLuxSEThis issuance marks Africa’s first securitisation by a public utility, reinforcing the continent’s growing capital markets maturity in a transaction that combines innovative financing with sustainability goals. /jlne. ws/4vwehq2Indian options market grows at 56% CAGR over FY20-26; contributes 70% of exchanges’ revenue: JefferiesChitranjan Kumar – Fortune IndiaIndian equity options market is catching up with the cash equity segment, with derivatives accounting for around 70% of Indian exchanges’ operating revenues in FY26, according to a latest report by Jefferies. The foreign brokerage said the average daily options premium turnover (ADTO) stood at around ₹77,200 crore in FY26, nearly 70% of the daily cash market turnover. The equity options market grew at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 56% between FY20 and FY26, compared with 19% CAGR in cash market turnover. /jlne. ws/4ydE6gZSGX Group’s strong volume growth in June caps stellar FY2026 performanceSGX GroupSGX Group (Singapore Exchange) today reported double-digit volume growth in June across its derivatives offering as global investors leaned on trusted risk-management tools. Securities turnover expanded significantly, capping a stellar performance for the 2026 financial year. Derivatives traded volume rose 31% year-on-year (y-o-y) in June to 34. 3 million contracts, as daily average volume (DAV) climbed 27% y-o-y to 1. 6 million contracts. For July 2025 to June 2026 (FY2026), total volume gained 15% from FY2025 to 363. 5 million contracts, with DAV increasing 14% y-o-y to about 1. 5 million contracts. Securities market turnover jumped 72% y-o-y for the month to S$44. 6 billion, while securities daily average value (SDAV) also rose 72% y-o-y at S$2. 1 billion. In FY2026, turnover climbed 35% y-o-y to S$455. 7 billion, with SDAV gaining 35% y-o-y to S$1. 8 billion – the highest in 18 years. /jlne. ws/4fap0QHThe Inevitable: The DTCC Tokenized Russell 1000 Stocks. Recognition Is the Settlement Layer. The Insumer ModelJuly 2026: the DTCC, the utility that settles nearly every American share, custodying $114 trillion and processing $4. 7 quadrillion in transactions a year, began limited production trades of tokenized Russell 1000 stocks, index ETFs, and US Treasury bills, notes and bonds, with full launch set for October 2026. The rules make access itself the product. Transfers are permitted to registered, whitelisted wallet addresses only. No transfers to non-whitelisted wallets are allowed. Every wallet is OFAC-screened before activation, with DTC holding override keys. A working group of 50-plus firms including BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, J. P. Morgan, Circle, Ondo Finance and Ripple Prime is validating that tokenized entitlements move only between approved wallets across multiple chains. /jlne. ws/4ykwNUTFinTechChinese hard tech giants see value surge in first half as global investors pour in capitalDaisy Wu – South China Morning PostOverseas capital has poured into China’s hard technology champions at an unprecedented pace, driving the market value of their mainland equity holdings to an all-time high by the end of the second quarter. Global investors have increased their exposure to China’s advanced manufacturing and technology companies, helping push the northbound holdings under the mainland-Hong Kong Stock Connect scheme to a record high of 3. 13 trillion yuan (US$461. 65 billion) by the end of June, according to financial data provider Choice, the highest quarterly level since the launch of the programme. /jlne. ws/4peJVXnFlexTrade and Portx partner to enhance FlexONE OEMSClaudia Preece – The TRADEFlexTrade has bolstered its portfolio risk and analytics capabilities through a strategic partnership with Portx. Aaron Levine Specifically, Portx’s real-time portfolio construction, optimisation, and risk analytics capabilities have been incorporated into FlexTrade’s integrated buy-side order and execution management system (OEMS) – FlexONE. Aaron Levine, head of OEMS product at FlexTrade, said: “Our partnership with Portx expands and enhances the portfolio intelligence available within FlexONE, giving clients access to sophisticated portfolio construction tools and real-time risk insights directly within their OEMS. /jlne. ws/4yidT0JArtificial IntelligenceResearchers Raise Concerns That AI May Atrophy Human SkillsJo Constantz – BloombergThere’s no evidence yet that AI is making humanity dumber. There is, however, considerable worry that it will. In a recent article in Nature Medicine, a cadre of physicians, researchers and medical school professors raised the specter and concerns about “never-skilling. ” Or, as they put it: “the failure to develop foundational competencies during formative training when AI substitutes a majority of the cognitive effort required to build independent clinical reasoning. ” The warning follows AI assistants’ explosion in popularity among physicians who use them as thought partners and as sophisticated search engines of clinical research. One such company, OpenEvidence, has seen swift adoption and already counts over half of US doctors as users. /jlne. ws/4guvgoOAI Is Breaking the Memory Chip Business ModelParmy Olson – Bloomberg OpinionInvestors who piled into SK Hynix’s $28 billion blockbuster Nasdaq debut on Friday should be aware: The business model on which the world’s leading memory chip makers are thriving is set to shift to one that requires a bit more strategic and financial gambling. So far, SK Hynix Inc. is making all the right moves but it’s unclear how well the field’s leading players will deal with that disruption. The trigger is of course the artificial intelligence boom. More powerful AI systems have pushed memory chips to their limits in their job of moving data to and from the processor, the brain of a computer or server. /jlne. ws/44ZZYiwChatGPT’s Upgraded Voice Mode Captures the Imperfections of Real ConversationsAustin Carr – BloombergTech Across the Globe TSMC doesn’t miss: The world’s foremost AI chipmaker met lofty expectations with revenue rising 36% in the June quarter. TSMC brought in almost $40 billion in sales over the three months. Apple sues OpenAI: The iPhone maker accuses the AI company of trade secret theft. The lawsuit adds to an already fractured relationship. US relaxes chip rules: The Trump administration plans to ease export restrictions on the United Arab Emirates. It clears the way for the Gulf state to buy powerful AI semiconductors. /jlne. ws/4vsjajICan AI Make Better Drugs? Not on Wall Street’s TimelineDavid Wainer – The Wall Street JournalArtificial intelligence has proven it can speed up what humans already know how to do: write software, summarize earnings calls and automate routine tasks. Whether it can help discover what humans don’t yet know is the trillion-dollar question. Nothing would validate AI’s promise more than improving the process of creating medicines for diseases like Alzheimer’s and cancer. Yet drug development is also where AI collides with the stubborn reality of human biology. Wall Street is waiting for evidence that AI can change the economics of making drugs. Until that happens, investors have little reason to reward drugmakers the way they have rewarded the companies building AI tools. /jlne. ws/3QUl9PPApple Sues OpenAI for Trade Secret Theft in Blockbuster CaseMark Gurman – BloombergApple Inc. sued OpenAI for trade secret theft, accusing the artificial intelligence startup and its hardware chief of engaging in a coordinated campaign to steal information about upcoming products. The iPhone maker said in a suit Friday that OpenAI encouraged Apple employees to share information, components, drawings and other materials related to upcoming products — part of efforts by the AI company to develop its own suite of devices. /jlne. ws/4ygkXuQMassive AI buildout poses latest inflation threat as consumers pay more for laptops and electricityChristopher Rugaber – Associated PressAmerican consumers — and the Federal Reserve — are being hit with another high-cost headache. The gusher of investment in data centers — likely topping $700 billion this year — to power artificial intelligence has made memory chips, computer processors and other equipment, as well as electricity, more expensive. Economists expect it will continue to push up inflation at least through the end of this year. /jlne. ws/4w7rO8ITrump’s Bet on Intel Is Starting to Pay Off | The 10-Point for July 11Emma Tucker – The Wall Street Journal/jlne. ws/44XtHsnThe ‘innovators and disrupters’ hired to bring AI to the UK public sector; Government fellowship scheme places tech experts on ‘high-impact tours of duty’ to improve servicesLucy Fisher – Financial Times/jlne. ws/3RxRVGzSound Practices for Responsible Adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI): Consultation reportFinancial Stability Board/jlne. ws/3SXvgnvMicroprocessorsTSMC Sales Surge 36% in Fresh Sign of AI Spending MomentumDebby Wu – BloombergTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. reported a 36% jump in quarterly sales, meeting elevated expectations while signaling global demand for AI computing remains intact. The main chipmaker for Nvidia Corp. and Apple Inc. reported revenue for the June quarter of NT$1. 27 trillion ($39. 6 billion), according to Bloomberg’s calculations, matching the average analyst estimate. It got a boost from a 68% jump last month alone. /jlne. ws/4eXvQu5China’s optical chip breakthrough boosts AI speed 100-fold using fraction of compute powerZhang Tong – South China Morning PostChinese researchers have developed a new all-optical interconnect system linking standard electronic chips, boosting AI distributed inference speeds by over 100 times while using just one-ninth of the typical computational resources. AI models are permeating ever more applications, expanding the industry’s appetite for computational power. The conventional response has been to pile on more GPUs and build ever-larger data centres in a seemingly endless race for energy and brute force. /jlne. ws/4vV1jmAKen Griffin Warns Losing TSMC Chips Could Trigger a ‘Great Depression:’ They’re in ‘Every High-End Product’Rishabh Mishra – BenzingaSpeaking at the Goldman Sachs Apex Symposium, Citadel founder and CEO Ken Griffin warned that losing access to Taiwanese semiconductor chips would cause the U. S. gross domestic product (GDP) to decline by 8% within six months, triggering a modern “Great Depression” because Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. microchips are embedded in “every high-end product” manufactured today. /jlne. ws/4piGcs2Nasdaq Says SK Hynix Bonanza Opens Path to More Foreign ListingsEdward Ludlow – BloombergNasdaq Inc. President Nelson Griggs said SK Hynix Inc. ’s blockbuster listing is spurring other international companies to consider the US for either initial public offerings or the sales of American depositary receipts. Fresh off a trip to Europe that included meetings with companies, Griggs said Friday that foreign issuers interested in the US market can be grouped into two buckets: Early-stage companies that have not yet listed anywhere, and established firms with existing local listings that are considering adding ADRs. /jlne. ws/3T9FiSvHow SK Hynix just pulled off the second-largest U. S. share sale by quietly powering the AI boomNicholas Gordon – FortuneSK Hynix, the world’s leading manufacturer of high-bandwidth memory, debuted on the Nasdaq yesterday, after raising $26. 5 billion in the largest U. S. listing ever by a foreign company and the second-largest share sale in U. S. history, trailing SpaceX’s $86 billion IPO last month. Shares rose 12. 8% in their first day of trading. /jlne. ws/4aNBcWhIntel announces $5. 7 billion AI-driven capital investment in IrelandPadraic Halpin – Yahoo FinanceIntel has begun a 5 billion Euro ($5. 7 billion) capital investment to upgrade its Irish campus and expand its ‌European output to meet growing global demand for AI and high-performance computing, ‌the U. S. chipmaker said on Monday. Intel said the move would upgrade and maximize capacity at its facility in Leixlip outside Dublin that produces Intel 3 silicon wafers, which the company says is the most advanced semiconductor manufacturing facility of its kind in Europe. /jlne. ws/4ba75IXWhen the ducks are quacking, feed them; Memory mania reduxAdam Shaw – Financial Times/jlne. ws/4aLLx55BlockchainCircle CEO Jeremy Allaire Says AI Agents and Blockchain Will Merge Into a Single Global EconomyGiuseppe Ciccomascolo – Yahoo FinanceCircle co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire has published a wide-ranging personal treatise arguing that artificial intelligence and blockchain technology are converging into a single economic system that could reshape companies, labor markets, payments and global finance. In The Agentic Economy, Allaire describes AI as an “operating system for intelligence” and blockchain as an “operating system for the economy. ”/jlne. ws/4fxGojKSpeeding up digital finance shift ‘could deliver £33bn boost’ to UK economy; Chair of new task force predicts ‘huge prize’ if progress is made in areas such as issuing sovereign bonds on blockchainMartin Arnold – Financial TimesThe UK could benefit from a £33bn economic boost if it accelerates plans to digitise its financial markets, said the chair of a new task force, adding that the country has a “better story than people give it credit for” in tokenising assets. Chris Woolard, who the Treasury appointed this year as wholesale digital markets champion, told the FT there was “a huge prize” for the UK if it pressed ahead in areas such as issuing a sovereign bond on the blockchain and confirming it can be used as collateral. /jlne. ws/4ffcDmyTokenizationAre Crypto Exchanges Abandoning Meme Coins for Tokenized Assets?Kamina Bashir – BeInCryptoTokenized assets became the most-listed category across major centralized exchanges in the first half of 2026. Nearly 1 in 5 new listings fell into the group. CryptoRank noted that 2026 marked the first year tokenized real-world assets became the fastest-growing listing category, a break from the meme coins or GameFi tokens that led earlier cycles. /jlne. ws/4hajPCRUK to Scale Tokenisation of Wholesale Financial MarketsShanny Basar – Markets MediaThe UK’s Wholesale Digital Markets Champion, Chris Woolard, has published his inaugural report to the Chancellor, setting out how the UK could accelerate the adoption of tokenisation and related technologies across wholesale financial markets – and generate significant economic growth for UK Plc. Wholesale financial markets are a fundamental driver of economic growth, directly supporting jobs and financing activity in the wider economy. Tokenising wholesale markets will boost the UK’s competitiveness, generating additional liquidity and revenues, securing cost and capital efficiencies, enabling innovation, and strengthening the resilience of the financial system. /jlne. ws/4pBLajTConnectivity/Data CentersMeta’s Louisiana Data Center to Surpass $250 Billion Price TagRiley Griffin – BloombergMeta Platforms Inc. has committed to spending an additional $40 billion on its sprawling data center campus in Louisiana, pushing its total expected investment beyond $250 billion for the site as it continues to grow its artificial intelligence computing footprint. Meta announced Monday that it will expand the project in rural Louisiana to at least 5 gigawatts of computing power at a cost of $50 billion. It had previously announced a $10 billion investment for the data center and surrounding community. /jlne. ws/4fyG7wQMeta expands Louisiana data center to 5 gigawatts, investment crosses $50 billionReuters – ReutersMeta said on Monday its data center in Richland Parish, Louisiana, will expand to 5 gigawatts of compute capacity, ‌with investment in the project increasing to more than $50 billion. The planned ‌data center, known as Hyperion, was earlier projected to deliver more than 2 gigawatts of compute capacity to support training of large language models, the technology behind tools such as ChatGPT. /jlne. ws/4aLuRL8A New Foe Has Emerged for Data Centers: FarmersPatrick Thomas – The Wall Street JournalAbout 30 miles from Clint McRae’s southeastern Montana ranch, a local utility company bought roughly 6,000 acres of cattle grazing land. After scouring job postings online and talking with local ranchers, he’s deduced that the land might soon be transformed into one of the many large-scale data centers moving into Montana over the past year. McRae’s primary concern is water. It is essential for cattlemen in the western plains who have for years been shrinking their cattle herds in response to droughts. /jlne. ws/3R7D6uiCybersecurityWho’s to blame when AI commits a crime?Gerrit De Vynck – The Washington PostSince the days of Isaac Asimov in the 1950s, science fiction has tackled the question of whether artificial intelligences and the companies that create them can be held liable for crimes. With the rapid spread of AI chatbots and agents today, the debate has reached the real world. Over the past year, lawsuits have been piling up against AI companies in courts across the United States and abroad, alleging that chatbots encouraged people to harm themselves or provided advice on how to commit crimes. Now, as the AI industry moves from selling chatbots to providing agents that can complete complex tasks autonomously over long periods of time, the question of who should be held responsible when something goes wrong is only becoming more urgent. /jlne. ws/4vWxYrVWho’s Scamming the Scammers?Rachel Sugar – BloombergFor me the texts come in waves, weeks without any, then a deluge: “Hello! [waving-hand emoji] I’m Sophia with Amazon’s talent acquisition team. ” She explains that there’s a “versatile part-time role” available and for “1-2 hours a day” I could earn “$200-$540 daily. ” Then: “Final Court-Ordered Mandatory Collection Notice. ” It’s the State of Michigan, declaring my “traffic violation account” to be “OFFICIALLY DELINQUENT AND IN DEFAULT,” such that I’m risking “AUTOMATED AND IRREVERSIBLE ENFORCEMENT. ”/jlne. ws/4aSTUfgCRYPTOMaster of coin: Trump made a fortune on his crypto business — thousands of investors lost their shirtsJosh Marcus – The IndependentPresident Donald Trump rang the opening bells of the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq exchanges remotely from the Oval Office Monday morning to tout the launch of “Trump accounts,” which will use federal money and private donations to start newborns off with $1,000 in savings. But the dynamics of that move — the country’s first billionaire president leveraging his financial experience to help the masses — could not be more at odds with the unprecedented crypto enterprise Trump and his sons have been running over the last year. /jlne. ws/451hKlsTrump invested crypto gains in stocks and bonds, filings showTom Bergin – Yahoo FinancePresident Donald Trump’s financial disclosures show that even as he and his two eldest sons were encouraging investors to plow their money into crypto projects — which resulted in steep losses for retail buyers — his money managers were investing a significant portion of the proceeds into safer harbors. /jlne. ws/4wIX6m8Stablecoin Market Cap Sees Largest Drop in Four Years This June: What On-Chain Liquidity Data Is Telling UsGate. comIn June 2026, the stablecoin market experienced an unusually large contraction not seen in recent years. According to CoinDesk, the total stablecoin market capitalization dropped by $7. 7 billion that month—the largest single-month decline since the Terra-Luna collapse in May 2022. Since the peak in May, the stablecoin market has shrunk by about $10 billion. This data has not only raised concerns about on-chain liquidity but also prompted investors to reassess risk appetite and capital flows within the current crypto market. /jlne. ws/4wZO8RJThe Funding: Why Japan’s SBI Holdings is investing big in cryptoYogita Khatri – The BlockOver the past few weeks, Japan-based financial conglomerate SBI Holdings has made a series of major crypto investments. Earlier this week, it became the sole investor in Gauntlet’s $125 million Series C and EDX Markets’ $76 million Series C. Last month, it agreed to acquire Japanese crypto exchange Bitbank for nearly $289 million and, in February, a controlling stake in Singapore-based crypto exchange Coinhako. SBI also recently backed Digital Asset’s $355 million funding round, Morpho’s $175 million token round and Circle’s $222 million token presale for its Arc blockchain, among several other investments. Last month, SBI launched JPYSC, Japan’s first trust bank-backed yen stablecoin. /jlne. ws/4ya8ZD0Crypto fatwa sparks debate over Pakistan’s digital asset frameworkZack Abrams – The BlockPakistan’s top crypto regulator called for digital assets to be assessed individually under Islamic law after meeting with a prominent scholar whose recent fatwa broadly rejected purchases made with cryptocurrency. Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA) Chairman Bilal bin Saqib said Saturday that he held a “constructive discussion” with Mufti Taqi Usmani about digital assets and the continuing debate over their Sharia status. /jlne. ws/44mSi9VBitcoinBitcoin whale moves $188 million in BTC after seven-year dormancy: onchain dataDanny Park – The BlockA bitcoin whale moved roughly $188 million worth of BTC BTC-2. 24% to a new address on Sunday, ending about seven years and nine months of inactivity. According to Onchain Lens, citing Arkham data, the wallet “356my…BAsmK” moved 2,931 BTC to an unmarked address, “bc1qn…8gp25,” at around 3:41 p. m. ET. The recipient address has not moved the bitcoin since. /jlne. ws/4bF2JJLStablecoinsBank of Thailand audits high-volume stablecoin trades to crack down on illicit finance: reportDanny Park – The BlockThe Bank of Thailand and the country’s Securities and Exchange Commission have reportedly initiated audits of high-volume stablecoin transactions as part of a broader crackdown on illicit finance and the shadow economy. According to local news outlet Thansettakij, BOT Governor Vitai Ratanakorn said the central bank and the SEC have begun using data analytics tools to examine abnormal trading activity in stablecoins, specifically focusing on Tether’s USDT. /jlne. ws/4vwfw8pJapan’s Lawson convenience store pilots stablecoin payments with JPYC: reportDanny Park – The BlockJapanese convenience store chain Lawson is reportedly launching a pilot to allow customers to pay with stablecoins. According to a Monday report from Nikkei, Lawson’s Takanawa Gateway City location in Tokyo is set to start accepting payments in yen-denominated stablecoin JPYC from early August. /jlne. ws/44mOJR4Housing bill that includes a CBDC ban passed into law without Trump’s signatureSarah Wynn – The BlockA major housing bill called the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which includes a provision that bans the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency, has become law. On Friday, that bill became law even after President Donald Trump said he would not sign it unless Congress first passes legislation requiring proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections. The housing bill passed 85-5 out of the Senate and 358-32 out of the House last month. On Friday morning, Trump said he would not sign it. /jlne. ws/4fl7AkGDeFiDeFi’s Big Robinhood Chain WinnersWilliam M. Peaster – BanklessIf you sort the top 100 cryptocurrencies by 7-day gains right now, a handful of DeFi heavyweights jump out. Indeed, among the biggest risers on the week were Lighter (LIT +16%), Morpho (MORPHO +15%), Arbitrum (ARB +13%), and Uniswap (UNI +9%). These projects are in different verticals, of course, but they share an obvious tactical throughline regarding their momentum, namely that each of them has factored, in a big way, into Robinhood Chain’s explosive launch. /jlne. ws/4f7nv5SPoliticsDragging the Constitution Into Every Political Fight Will Kill ItClive Crook – Bloomberg OpinionThe US constitutional order has been miraculously successful. It has endured, it has adapted and it has been the foundation for unsurpassed prosperity and material advance. The world has found no better system and, as almost all Americans understand, setting it aside would be catastrophic. For these reasons, a certain reverence — entailing a degree of blindness to its defects — is prudent. Lately, though, one such defect has become harder to ignore. Disagreements over policy are reflexively pitched as arguments about constitutional foundations. As a result, rhetoric escalates and polarization intensifies. /jlne. ws/4h9SwZtA Summer Reading List to Grasp the Geopolitical Shifts Shaping the FutureShawn Donnan – BloombergBecoming a grandfather is reinvigorating because your focus again turns to the future and all the hope you have for the new life just begun. That’s the theory I’m embracing at least, having welcomed my first grandchild into the world last week. Alongside, of course, a new boyish desire to dive once more into all the things from my own childhood that my grandson will soon enjoy, from fishing and sailing to beach cricket and backyard wiffle ball. Though I’m far from the only one thinking about the future these days. Even as the new chair of the Federal Reserve is dismissing the need for “forward guidance” on monetary policy, a lot of eminent folks have offered their vision of the future shape of the global economy recently. /jlne. ws/3TvIqZ0Opinion – Trump’s Board of Peace is all hat, no cattle, to no one’s surpriseDavid Wippman and Glenn C. Altschuler, opinion contributors – Yahoo NewsIn January, while still threatening to seize Greenland, President Trump announced the formation of a “Board of Peace,” proclaiming it “the Greatest and Most Prestigious Board ever assembled at any time, any place. ” The United Nations Security Council endorsed the board as part of a “Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict,” but the board’s charter claims a far broader mission: securing “peace in areas affected or threatened by conflict. ”/jlne. ws/4vZnhVFThe Memo That Killed the PennyJason Leopold – BloombergThe US Mint, part of the Treasury Department, makes the nation’s coins. Once they’re produced, it’s the job of the Federal Reserve to distribute them into circulation through banks and other financial institutions. It was actually Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (now defunct) that called attention to the skyrocketing costs of producing the penny — a day after Trump was sworn into office. It wasn’t the first time the practicality of the lowly coin was debated. /jlne. ws/3RskFAATrump accused of trying to ‘rig’ elections after firing federal commissionersJoseph Gedeon in Washington and Rachel Leingang in Minneapolis – The GuardianDonald Trump has been accused of trying to “rig” the upcoming US midterm elections after he fired the last three members of an independent federal commission. Trump’s extraordinary move to paralyze the US Election Assistance Commission (EAC) wipes out the only federal agency devoted solely to election administration months before the US midterm elections. /jlne. ws/4eXj6UcThe Podcasting Tech Investor Now Busy Hyping Trump Accounts; Hedge-fund manager Brad Gerstner has been making the rounds championing the new investment accounts for childrenPeter Rudegeair – The Wall Street JournalBrad Gerstner is a prolific podcaster, opining on topics from artificial intelligence to the Epstein files. On social media, he argues with politicians and recently posted a video with influencer Jake Paul. Then this past week, he stood with President Trump in the Oval Office to hail the launch of his passion project: Trump Accounts, an idea he championed to help American children build wealth. /jlne. ws/3TvUZUcU. S. AdministrationTimes Journalists Subpoenaed as Trump Escalates Pressure on MediaMichael M. Grynbaum – The New York TimesThe Trump administration issued subpoenas on Friday to several journalists for The New York Times, after the news outlet reported this week on security concerns involving President Trump’s new Qatari-donated Air Force One. The subpoenas — which seek to force the reporters to testify before a federal grand jury in Manhattan on Wednesday — were an extraordinary escalation in President Trump’s efforts to threaten and intimidate independent news organizations. In some cases, the subpoenas were delivered by federal agents who showed up at reporters’ homes. /jlne. ws/4ynLjeE‘Islamic Republic of Japan’: Trump’s verbal flubs are piling upAaron Blake, CNN – RNZAnalysis: US President Donald Trump has not been charitable about politicians’ verbal gaffes. He once played a video of Joe Biden’s verbal stumbles at a 2022 rally. During the 2024 campaign, he ridiculed Biden for mixing up Trump and Kamala Harris, saying, “Great job, Joe!” And in 2018, Trump joined in the longstanding conservative lampooning of Barack Obama’s misstatement that he had visited 57 states. “Can you imagine if I said that,” Trump posted on X, adding: “story of the year!” In fact, Trump has now said things like that over and over again. /jlne. ws/3SSCrxnPresident Trump calls Nicki Minaj director of the US Small Business AdministrationYouTube/jlne. ws/4vVcGuJU. S. CongressDimon pressed over whether he lobbied UK government on Epstein’s advice; US Senator Elizabeth Warren demands JPMorgan boss explain any links with paedophile over proposed tax on bankers’ bonusesJoshua Franklin, Jim Pickard and Lauren Fedor – Financial TimesDemocratic Senator Elizabeth Warren has called on JPMorgan Chase boss Jamie Dimon to say whether he lobbied the UK government against a tax on bankers’ bonuses on the advice of child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Dimon, who has been chair and chief executive of the largest US bank for two decades, said under oath in 2023 that he had never met Epstein and was not involved in any internal decisions to retain the disgraced financier as a JPMorgan client after concerns were raised about his sex crimes. /jlne. ws/4pseKbhChinaAI is not enough to arrest China’s decline; There are other, more powerful forces weighing on the country’s economyRuchir Sharma – Financial TimesFor all the worry about how America has become one big bet on AI, a similar but perhaps more alarming story is unfolding quietly in the other economic superpower. China’s vaunted AI prowess is concealing deep rot elsewhere in its economy. Though many forecasters keep expecting China to surpass the US as the world’s leading economy, its growth peaked in 2021. Since then, China’s share of global GDP has fallen in nominal terms from 18 to 16. 5 per cent, while the US share has risen to 26 per cent. China’s growth rate has dropped below the rest of the world, including the US. In real terms, independent estimates now put China’s growth in real terms closer to zero than to the official target of 4. 5 to 5 per cent. /jlne. ws/4wClQMyRegulation & EnforcementGerman Tax Trades Fallout May Cost Firms €7 Billion, BaFin SaysNicholas Comfort – BloombergGerman financial watchdog BaFin said financial companies that engaged in two controversial strategies to game dividend taxes are facing related legal and fiscal liabilities of as much €7. 01 billion ($7. 99 billion). That’s the total of realized and potential future hits from demands of tax authorities and other affected parties, according to a BaFin survey of banks, insurers, pensions funds and firms from the securities industry that engaged in the trades known as Cum-Ex and Cum-Cum. Some 41% of that relates to potential future costs tied to the trades, known as Cum-Ex and Cum-Cum, the watchdog said in a statement on Monday. Respondents have built €638 million of reserves related to Cum-Cum and €288 million for Cum-Ex, BaFin said. /jlne. ws/4wETkKfEx-Virgin Money Boss Gadhia Picked to Chair UK Audit WatchdogJames Booth – BloombergFormer banking boss Jayne-Anne Gadhia has been picked to chair the UK’s audit regulator, the government announced on Monday. Gadhia, who ran Virgin Money for over a decade, is the preferred candidate to replace Jan du Plessis as chair of the Financial Reporting Council, according to a statement. The FRC, led by Chief Executive Officer Richard Moriarty, has an uncertain future after the government scrapped longstanding plans to replace it with a new audit watchdog in January. /jlne. ws/4piKks0Big Four Flag Gaps in SEC Plan to Drop Quarterly Report MandateAmanda Iacone and Jorja Siemons – news. bloomberglaw. comAuditors would be less involved in scrutinizing corporate financial disclosures under a US plan that would allow companies to relax how often they need to report to investors, increasing the risk of missed errors and weak reporting guardrails, the Big Four accounting firms told the SEC. Publicly traded companies could choose to file financial reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission every six months instead of quarterly under a plan released in May as part of SEC Chairman Paul Atkins’ agenda to encourage businesses to go and stay public. Corporate managers who choose to report less frequently could still keep investors informed through earnings releases or other communications. /jlne. ws/4gxCtVgUS to Drop Charges for Alleged $722 Million Crypto Fraudster (1)Ben Penn – news. bloomberglaw. comJustice Department leaders plan to drop charges against the alleged mastermind of a cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme that prosecutors said defrauded investors of $722 million, reversing course on a 2019 indictment that was nearing trial. The deputy attorney general’s office in Washington recently ordered the New Jersey US attorney’s office to dismiss the prosecution with prejudice, although final terms are still being hashed out before the parties inform the court, said two people familiar with the matter. The reprieve for a Colorado man who, according to court filings, once described his model as built “on the backs of idiots,” comes during President Donald Trump’s retreat on crypto industry enforcement. Matthew Goettsche created and operated an advanced crypto mining operation, BitClub Network, that rewarded investors for recruiting new members. Prosecutors were scheduled to take him to trial in October, before Goettsche’s lawyers informed the judge July 8 that they’d reached an “agreement in principle to resolve the pending charges. ”/jlne. ws/4fawP95Exxon Supports SEC Proposal to End Mandatory Quarterly ReportsKevin Crowley – BloombergExxonMobil Holdings Corp. supports a US Securities and Exchange Commission proposal to replace quarterly financial reporting with semiannual disclosures, bucking the trend among most respondents the regulator’s request for comments. Companies regularly provide financial information to investors through a “wide range of channels” such as webcasts and presentations, rendering mandatory quarterly reporting outdated, Chief Financial Officer Neil Hansen wrote in a letter to the SEC dated June 24. /jlne. ws/4bi81uCSEC Office of Municipal Securities Updates FAQs for Registration of Municipal AdvisorsSECThe Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of Municipal Securities today announced it has updated its Registration of Municipal Advisors FAQs webpage to offer more clarity on municipal advisor registration and recordkeeping requirements. /jlne. ws/4pg6knrSEC Settles Litigation with Individual Charged in Microcap Fraud SchemeSECOn July 7, 2026, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a consent and proposed final judgment as to defendant Steve Bajic in a previously-filed action against 15 defendants alleging a fraudulent microcap scheme. /jlne. ws/4ydGRyRSEC Files Proposed Final Judgments Against Former Investor Relations Executive and Two Friends Charged with Insider TradingSECOn July 8, 2026, the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed proposed final consent judgments as to defendants Robert Alan Yedid, Andrew Kaufman, and Mark Jacobs, whom the SEC previously charged with insider trading that allegedly resulted in more than $500,000 in combined illegal profits. /jlne. ws/3TdFUqgDeutsche Bank pays $2 million penalty for systemic trade reporting failuresASICMultinational investment bank Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft (Deutsche Bank) has paid a penalty of $2 million for misreporting more than 260,000 over-the-counter (OTC) derivative transactions, undermining the accuracy of data used to monitor Australia’s financial markets. ASIC issued an infringement notice to Deutsche Bank after identifying breaches of the ASIC Derivative Transaction Rules (Reporting) 2024 (ASIC Rules) between 21 October 2024 and 15 August 2025. /jlne. ws/4peW4eVASIC disqualifies Queensland director David Fanning for 5 yearsASICASIC has disqualified Queensland director David Shane Fanning from managing corporations for the maximum period of five years due to his involvement in the failure of four companies. /jlne. ws/4vZcQBgESMA to Review Crypto Custody ServicesShanny Basar – Markets MediaThe European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU regulator and supervisor, is launching a Common Supervisory Action (CSA) focusing on the digital operational resilience of Crypto-Asset Service Providers (CASPs), with a specific emphasis on custody services. The CSA will assess the maturity of CASPs’ digital operational resilience frameworks in relation to custody activities. It will focus on risks inherent to distributed ledger technology (DLT), including governance arrangements, key and storage management, transaction controls, incident detection and response, smart contract risks, and dependencies on third-party providers. /jlne. ws/4ykqOiIInvesting & TradingApple’s $600 Billion Rally Fueled by Traders Fleeing AI SelloffRyan Vlastelica – BloombergInvestors are flocking back to Apple Inc. as nervousness about artificial intelligence spending weighs on the stocks of chipmakers and cloud-computing giants. The iPhone maker’s shares slumped last month in the wake of a disappointing presentation of upcoming AI features but have rallied 15% since bottoming on June 25, adding almost $600 billion in market value and pushing shares back to record territory. Over the same stretch, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index is down 7%, S&P 500 Index is up 3% and the technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index has gained just 1. 3%. /jlne. ws/3SYgQDEChina Expands Strategic Mineral Toolkit With New Investment FirmAnnie Lee and Heng Xie – BloombergA new, Beijing-backed mining investment vehicle is aimed at bolstering China’s grip on overseas resources, as the country pushes back against US and European efforts to curb its dominance of the mineral supply chain. Chinese companies have been aggressive buyers and builders of overseas mining assets for more than a decade, with a few champions leading the way. At a time when Western rivals were under shareholder pressure to cut spending, firms from the world’s top metals consumer expanded in Congo’s copper and cobalt production, took stakes in key iron ore projects and transformed Indonesia’s nickel industry. /jlne. ws/4fe8oaYA Trump Account could make your kid a millionaire by 45—but financial experts say the app’s projections come with a catchSydney Lake – Yahoo FinanceEnter a $250-a-year contribution, and the app shows the user would have $19,000 by age 18 or a whopping $878,000 by age 55. Bump it up to the $5,000 annual max, and the numbers jump to $271,000 and $13 million, respectively. /jlne. ws/44lPrxYTrump Accounts Prompt Parents to Start Saving Early for Their KidsCharlotte Cowles – The New York TimesOn a recent June morning, Savannah McConneaughey, age 7, joined three other children at Kellogg’s Diner in Brooklyn to discuss their investment portfolios. “I’m saving for new clothes, new shoes, toys and maybe —” she paused to think, “a mansion. ” Next to her, 12-year-old Naima McElroy lamented the financial habits of her peers. A lot of her classmates have trouble saving, she said, because they spend all their money on Robux (the currency used in the online game Roblox), NeeDohs (squishy toys) and Squishmallows (other squishy toys). “It’s harder to make good money decisions because of the internet,” she said with a sigh. Savannah agreed. “Like, you can spend your money on stuff that you want, but don’t spend all your money on stuff that you want. ”/jlne. ws/4ftwRdvWatch Gensler: Big Deals a Sign of ‘High-Valuation Market’Bloomberg videoGary Gensler, Former SEC Chair and professor at MIT Sloan School of Management, joins Romaine Bostick and Katie Greifeld on Bloomberg’s ‘The Close’ and discusses the significant return of IPO activity including SK Hynix, which raised $26. 5 billion in the largest foreign debut in the US, Google’s $85 billion capital raise and SpaceX going public. He says these big deals are a sign of ‘high-valuation market. ’/jlne. ws/3QRFCotESGUS Cost for Gas Power at 17-Year High and Climbing, Lazard SaysEmily Forgash – BloombergThe cost of power from natural gas-fired plants in the US hit the highest level in at least 17 years, and is poised to climb even higher as demand surges from new data centers. That’s according to George Bilicic, global head of power, energy and infrastructure at Lazard Inc. , which tracks the so-called levelized cost of energy. That’s the long-term electricity price a power-plant must get to break even. For combined cycle gas plants, that rose to $90 a megawatt-hour in 2026, according to a report Monday. That’s up from $78 a year earlier and the highest since 2009, the earliest year in the data, when the cost was $83. /jlne. ws/3SXedC1America’s clean energy expansion isn’t doomedEditorial Board – The Washington PostIt’s easy for supporters of clean energy to fall into despair these days. Republicans phased out tax credits for solar and wind projects last year, and the Trump administration is boosting fossil fuels. But the effect of these policies on the expansion of clean energy is not as significant as some of the sky-is-falling rhetoric would lead you to believe. What will happen in the 2026 midterms? Sign up for Margin of Victory That’s the conclusion of a recent report published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research. It uses a mathematical model to compare the development of new electrical capacity over the next decade in two scenarios: one under the country’s current trajectory, and another in which the Biden administration’s policies, including the Inflation Reduction Act’s energy subsidies, were allowed to continue. /jlne. ws/4pibU8xHeat Wave Dries Up German Rhine Chokepoint to Strain Fuel SupplyRachel Graham – BloombergWater levels at a key waypoint on the Rhine River have fallen to the lowest for the time of year in decades as Europe struggles with intense heat waves, limiting fuel flows into southern Germany and Switzerland. Levels this month at the closely watched Kaub chokepoint that’s west of Frankfurt have slid below those in 2022, when drought disrupted commercial navigation on rivers across Europe. The barge clearance level there is at its lowest for this time of year since at least 1990, according to the earliest German federal data compiled by Bloomberg. /jlne. ws/4gFKsQ9EU buys record amount of Russian gasHans van Leeuwen – The TelegraphEurope has handed Vladimir Putin a €6bn (£5bn) boost this year after buying a record amount of gas from a key Siberian plant. Russia’s Yamal export hub sent 136 tankers of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to European buyers in the first half of this year, with the largest volumes going to France, Belgium and Spain. That haul of almost 10 million tonnes marked a 16pc surge from the same period last year, as Europe scrambled to beat a looming Brussels ban on Russian gas imports. Russia is enjoying its highest LNG revenue since Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022, according to data from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air. /jlne. ws/4h9hGavBrussels is beating a retreat from net zero orthodoxyHans van Leeuwen – The TelegraphThis Friday, the European Commission will issue a blueprint to accelerate the Continent’s shift from dirty oil and gas to green electricity. It sounds like just another day at the office for the technocrats in Brussels, churning out yet another law or policy, and flogging a weary Continent towards net zero. But business and climate campaigners are both watching this one extra closely. The European Union’s journey to net zero is at a crossroads, and the electrification plan could shed light on which way the bloc is heading. /jlne. ws/44qw8DGClimate Tech Sees Record-High Deals as Power Demand Fuels Market AppetiteCoco Liu – BloombergThe global climate technology sector recorded its busiest first half on record for public listings and acquisitions, a milestone that may boost investor confidence and unlock fresh capital for decarbonization technologies. A total of 153 transactions were announced during the first six months of 2026, according to a report published Monday by market research firm Currence. That marks a 70% increase from the same period a year earlier. /jlne. ws/4wDp42vEurope’s slow electrification is a ‘major mistake’, warns IEA chief; atih Birol says EU should have moved faster to achieve energy independence after 2022 gas crisisIan Johnston and Henry Foy – Financial Times/jlne. ws/4pm8kujEU buys record amount of gas from Russia’s flagship plant; Europe purchased almost all the LNG produced by the Yamal facility in the first half of 2026 ahead of import banVerity Ratcliffe and Anastasia Stognei – Financial Times/jlne. ws/4ha6YkaUS states push to repurpose abandoned oil wells; Pennsylvania, Oklahoma and others are finding ways to turn an expensive and polluting problem into a new opportunityMegan Snaith – Financial Times/jlne. ws/3RgCAdgFrequent Oil Draws From U. S. Strategic Reserve Push Old System to Breaking PointBenoit Morenne – The Wall Street Journal/jlne. ws/3TxOfoMBANKS BROKERS MANAGED FUNDSVanguard names new head of investment management for EuropeClaudia Preece – The TRADEVanguard has named Rachel Baxter head of investment management, Europe, following a decade with the firm. She was most recently co-head of the US Bond Index team, overseeing more than $1. 4 trillion in AUM. Speaking about the appointment, Jon Cleborne, head of Europe, Vanguard, said: “Rachel is exceptionally well placed to lead the next stage of our development in Europe. She brings a rare combination of investment expertise, leadership experience and a deep understanding of our clients’ needs. /jlne. ws/4wKxwNDCLO Fund’s 50% Tumble Fuels Power Struggle That Spills Into OpenScott Carpenter – BloombergA fight over who gets to run a $580 million credit fund has erupted into an unusually public Wall Street brawl, pitting claims of poor performance against accusations of a cash grab ahead of a proxy vote later this month. Octagon Credit Investors is sending letters to shareholders urging them to resist efforts to have it removed as the day-to-day manager for the XAI Floating Rate & Alternative Income Trust, a closed-end fund that offers public-market investors a way to make leveraged bets on CLOs and risky loans. /jlne. ws/4gvOI4wInnovation Rises as ETF Issuers Enter New Asset ClassesShanny Basar – Markets MediaExchange-traded fund issuers are increasingly comfortable extending the ETF wrapper into ever more complex strategies, while tokenisation is emerging as one of the most important long-term shifts facing the industry, the latest Acuiti ETF Management Insight Report has found. The quarterly ETF Management Insight Report is based on a survey of the Acuiti ETF Expert Network, a group of senior executives from the buy-side, proprietary trading firms, issuers, authorised participants and the sell-side. /jlne. ws/4vscIteWhat Fundforum Reminded Us About The Future Of Asset ManagementNorthern TrustThis is the first in a new blog series by Clive Bellows and Guy Gibson, Co-Presidents, Asset Servicing. Alternating for each edition, ‘From the Road’ offers their perspectives on what they are hearing as they engage with the global institutional investment community – capturing themes from real conversations and insights from the front line of our industry. Here, Clive reflects on the key takeaways from a recent gathering of industry leaders, what they reveal about the future of asset management, and why such forums continue to matter. /jlne. ws/44WaBTwShadow bank collapse triggers surge in insolvenciesTom Saunders – The TelegraphThe collapse of the British shadow bank Market Financial Solutions (MFS) amid allegations of fraud has triggered a surge in insolvencies across the financial services sector. The number of finance companies entering administration in the first half of the year rose by 63pc compared to 2025, according to consultancy Kroll. Overall, 49 finance firms collapsed in the first half of the year, up from 30 during the same period a year earlier. However, almost half of those that failed in the first half of 2026 were related to the fall of MFS. /jlne. ws/4vwjkXwWarren Asks Dimon to Detail His Epstein Interactions, FT SaysTom Metcalf – BloombergElizabeth Warren has written to Jamie Dimon requesting clarification over the extent of JPMorgan Chase & Co. ’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and the banker’s knowledge of those ties, according to the Financial Times. Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, wrote to Dimon last week to press him on whether he took advice from Epstein while lobbying against a UK tax on banker bonuses, the FT said, citing the letter. /jlne. ws/4vLwujDWall Street feasts on fees from SpaceX IPO and mega-mergers; Top US banks benefit from revival of large deals as AI optimism and strong consumer fuel market rallyAkila Quinio and Joshua Franklin – Financial Times/jlne. ws/4fb9owtWORK MGMTEmployers pushed staff to use AI more. That has backfired; Incentives to use new tools are changing as costs start to hit homeAndrew Hill and Emma Jacobs – Financial TimesSome Amazon developers must be suffering whiplash about how they use AI. The technology group sets targets for most of its developers to use AI tools. This year it started monitoring consumption and posting usage figures on internal leader boards. But after the FT wrote in May that some workers were automating non-essential tasks to improve their ranking, Amazon took the leader boards offline. “Please don’t use AI just for the sake of using AI,” Amazon senior vice-president Dave Treadwell told staff. /jlne. ws/3QUq5nPThe Next Labor Crisis May Be Too Few Workers. Could AI Help Pick Up the Slack?Justin Lahart – The Wall Street JournalThe advent of artificial intelligence has led to worries that the U. S. faces a future where there will be too few jobs for workers to fill. But the challenge for the economy could be just the opposite: a sharp slowing in the number of people entering the workforce that leads to an unprecedented era of labor scarcity. It is a development that could profoundly reshape how the economy operates, according to an analysis by Steven Ruggles, a leading demographer. Ruggles says the shift could bolster workers’ bargaining power and drive wages higher. It could also mean that for the economy to stay healthy it will need the kind of productivity boost AI might bring. /jlne. ws/44mPXvHThe Near-Minimum-Pay Job That New Yorkers Wait Years to GetChao Deng – The Wall Street JournalThe most coveted job in New York City might not be on Wall Street or Broadway, but underground, cleaning the subway. Transit cleaning is no path to riches and can be grueling work. But it offers stability and solid benefits in an economy where both are hard to come by. The wait to snag a job sweeping up trains and platforms can be up to four years. Openings for the position are so rare that those who land one say it is akin to winning the job lottery. When the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, or MTA, which currently employs nearly 3,700 transit cleaners, called for applicants in 2022, more than 75,000 people applied over about eight weeks. When it opened applications again for the position in February 2025, it received nearly 49,500 of them. /jlne. ws/451GMAUWellness ExchangeExtreme Heat Is a Fact of Summer. Its Health Harms Don’t Have to BeLisa Jarvis – Bloomberg OpinionAs yet another heat dome settles over part of the US, a depressingly predictable news cycle is unfolding. This week, the headlines will warn of dangerously high temperatures; next week, they’ll chronicle the human toll. Even more depressing: That won’t capture the full force of the heat’s devastation. The deaths reported will surely be a vast underestimate. And most people will never see their local emergency rooms straining to respond to an influx of patients suffering from heat-related illnesses. /jlne. ws/4guLNZTLow-inflammation diet can cut dementia risk by almost 30%, new study says. Here’s howAnthea Rowan – South China Morning PostThis is the 93rd instalment in a series on dementia, including the research into its causes and treatment, advice for carers, and stories of hope. Can your diet help override the early biological warning signs of Alzheimer’s disease? A new study says yes. Following more than 1,800 adults for up to 15 years, researchers at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden discovered that eating a low-inflammation diet can lower dementia risk by 29 per cent – even in people who already test positive for the blood biomarkers that signal the onset of Alzheimer’s years before symptoms appear. What is more, participants who had a high-risk Alzheimer’s biomarker but strictly followed the anti-inflammatory diet lived nearly one full year longer without dementia (0. 89 years) compared to those with low adherence. /jlne. ws/4aLpoE6Europe recorded 10,000 excess deaths in late-June heatwaveReuters – South China Morning PostEuropean countries reported more than 10,000 excess deaths during ⁠the record-breaking heatwave that engulfed ⁠the west of the continent in ⁠late June, official data showed. The vast majority – more than 9,000 – were among people aged 65 and above, according to data published by EuroMOMO, a network backed by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the World Health Organization. Extreme heat can kill by ‌causing heatstroke, or aggravating cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, with older people among the most vulnerable. /jlne. ws/3TvLmouHere’s the most common cause of nighttime urination — and how to treat itLindsey Bever – The Washington PostAt some point, you’ve probably had to wake up in the night to pee. Pregnancy, drinking too much water before bed or certain conditions that tend to be more common as you age can make middle-of-the-night trips to the bathroom more common. Get concise answers to your questions. Try Ask The Post AI. In general, occasionally waking up at night with an urge to urinate, known as nocturia, is not a problem. However, if it routinely happens more than twice per night or interferes with your sleep, doctors might recommend simple lifestyle changes or, if needed, medication. /jlne. ws/3R7LERURegionsRussia’s economy is an ‘illusion’ built on debt, and a banking crisis is ready to explode, intel report says, while the Kremlin may seize pensionsJason Ma – FortuneAn energy crisis is already ravaging Russia’s economy, and a banking crisis may soon erupt as a mountain of debt weighs on consumers and businesses. /jlne. ws/4yhFortThe new space race: how China plans to break SpaceX’s launch monopoly with IPO pushThemis Qi – South China Morning PostTo challenge the global launch market dominance of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Beijing is adopting a coordinated, multi-company “wolf-pack” strategy fuelled by recent engineering breakthroughs in reusable rocketry. The milestones come as a wave of aerospace firms push to secure the capital needed to scale operations and capture global market share. /jlne. ws/4wFkD7tBig Brother or big help? Japan trials AI facial recognition cameras to find missing peopleKyodo – South China Morning PostA Tokyo ward has installed outdoor AI cameras with facial recognition capabilities to help locate missing children and elderly people, a move aimed at improving public safety but also raising privacy concerns in Japan. Arakawa ward installed 33 artificial intelligence-equipped security cameras on pylons along the main street and elsewhere near the JR Nippori Station in April to test whether the technology could speed up searches for missing persons. /jlne. ws/4fijU55UK wildfire threat hits ‘exceptional’ levels with heatwave set to lastdpa – South China Morning PostParts of the United Kingdom are at “exceptional” risk of wildfires as the heatwave continues, experts have warned. Areas in southern England and the Midlands are highlighted as being at the highest risk, according to Natural England. Its fire severity index shows the area of “exceptional” risk is set to increase and spread to the southeast and east of England by the middle of the week, while most of the rest of England and Wales is deemed to be of “very high” risk over the coming days. The Met Office said the scorching heatwave conditions experienced by much of the UK are expected to last into the coming week, with most areas set to stay dry, sunny, and very hot. /jlne. ws/4yk1glMWhy global investors are tussling over UK companies; Plus, Japan pension fund urged to invest at home, investors cut back on Asian chipmakers and Roy Lichtenstein: Like NewAlan Livsey – Financial TimesAny hopes that 2026 would usher in a burst of activity in the UK initial public offering market have already fizzled out. However, that has not stymied the interest of overseas buyers in local companies large and small. There have been just seven local listings in the first half of the year, raising £577. 2mn in total, according to data from professional services company EY. /jlne. ws/4yfmoKdHeat dome to topple records in drought-stricken Plains and Western statesBen Noll – The Washington PostAnother heat dome is coming. And it’s about to elevate fire risks and topple temperature records, with heat and/or fire weather alerts in effect for around 33 million people living in stretches of Western and Central states as of early Friday. This heat dome will first sizzle drought-stricken parts of the Intermountain West this weekend before expanding into the northern Plains and Upper Midwest next week. /jlne. ws/4ftBUKY

Source: johnlothiannews.com