Sterling Hits $1.2960 on Election Optimism; Short Positions Decline – Reuters
Sterling rose above $1.2960 on Monday after Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that all Conservative Party candidates in the upcoming election have pledged to back his Brexit deal. Johnson told the Telegraph newspaper in an interview published on Saturday that all 635 Conservative candidates standing in the UK election would vote in parliament to pass the withdrawal agreement.
Will the Federal Reserve Confirm a Pause in its Rate-Cutting Cycle? – Financial TimesOn Wednesday, minutes from the Federal Reserve’s October meeting on monetary policy will be released, giving investors a better sense of the central bank’s appetite for additional interest rate cuts later this year.
Wall Street Thrills to Idea of Michael Bloomberg Presidency – Financial TimesStephen Schwarzman, the Blackstone founder and Wall Street powerhouse, was not ready to predict victory for Michael Bloomberg in next year’s presidential election — let alone the Democratic primary race.
Fed Flags Elevated Asset Prices, High Debt as U.S. Financial Risks – The Wall Street Journal
The Federal Reserve identified elevated asset prices and historically high debt owed by U.S. businesses as top vulnerabilities facing the U.S. financial system, according to the latest copy of the central bank’s financial stability report.
The Fed cited potential risks tied to borrowing by companies not in the financial sector, particularly leveraged loans—a $1.1 trillion market that the Fed warned is growing quickly despite consistently “weak” credit standards.
Hong Kong is being pushed to the brink of its worst recession since the 1997 handover, as the city is being “swallowed up” by violence and hatred amid the ongoing anti-government protests, finance chief Paul Chan Mo-po has warned.
- Lam Urges Besieged Protesters to Heed Police: Hong Kong Update – Bloomberg
- Fierce Clashes in Hong Kong as Police Lay Siege to University – Financial Times
There is a long run list for this week’s In the FICC of It podcast, which kicks off with some welcome listener input into last week’s questions of algos intentionally losing money to throw the “order sniffers” off the scent and the challenges facing Singapore’s efforts to build an FX liquidity hub.
Time for a New Approach to Currency Hedging? – Profit & Loss
The fact that FX volatility has largely remained subdued despite plenty of geopolitical turmoil has implications regarding how firms think about currency hedging, said speakers at Profit & Loss Forex Network Chicago.
Central Bank Trades Prompted Rival FX Traders to Share Info – Financial Times
Currency traders at rival banks traded information in an attempt to counter “unprofessional” behaviour from central banks that would “spray the market” with orders, a London tribunal was told on Friday.
Regulatory News
EU Commission Confirms Plans to Extend Temporary Equivalence of UK CCPs – The Trade
The European Commission has confirmed its intentions to renew the temporary equivalence and recognition of UK central counterparties (CCPs).
New York Fed Adds $68.343 Billion – The Wall Street Journal
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York added $68.343 billion to financial markets on Friday. The liquidity came in the form of a repurchase agreement operation that will expire on Monday.
U.S. Charges Another ex-JPMorgan Executive with Alleged Market Manipulation – Reuters
The Department of Justice has charged another former JPMorgan Chase & Co executive with alleged racketeering and manipulating precious metals prices between 2008 and 2016, the latest in a string of similar prosecutions.
Fed Says U.S. Financial System Resilient; Flags Low Rates, ‘Stablecoin’ as Risks – Reuters
The U.S. Federal Reserve on Friday flagged high levels of corporate debt, the impact of an extended period of low global interest rates, and emerging “stablecoin” cryptocurrency proposals as potential risks to the financial system.
Crypto News
JP Morgan Automates Derivatives Margin Payments with DLT – The Trade
US investment bank JP Morgan has developed a distributed ledger technology (DLT)-powered platform to redeploy cash and collateral balances to global clearinghouses more efficiently.
Business Development Exec Involved with Gemini Stablecoin Exits – The Block
Sarah Olsen, a managing director at Gemini who played a role in the exchange’s stablecoin effort, has left the cryptocurrency exchange, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Bitcoin Falls Through Key Average as Traditional Markets Hit Record Highs – CoinDesk
Bitcoin (BTC) is at risk of another sell-off after its price fell beneath a key moving average on Nov. 15, as a relatively strong performance by traditional assets caught investor attention.
China is Poised for Another Crypto Trading Crackdown as Speculative Fever Returns – CoinDesk
Regulators in each district of Shanghai must search and inspect local crypto exchange-related services before Nov. 22 and report to the central bank for further actions, according to an official notice signed by the Shanghai Internet Finance Rectification Agency and the Shanghai Bureau of the People’s Bank of China.
Perhaps Google Will Kill Bitcoin, After All – Forbes
The bitcoin and cryptocurrency industry was spooked earlier this year by reports search giant Google had achieved so-called quantum supremacy, something that could potentially break bitcoin’s cryptography (but likely won’t).
Company News
U.S. Banks are Stocking Up on MDs in Frankfurt and Paris – eFinancial Careers
Slowly but surely, there are signs that banks other than BofA are adding senior staff in Frankfurt and Paris. Local banks may need to reconsider their remuneration as a result.
Women Desert Trading Floors as Bias Blocks Path to Management – Bloomberg
Camilla Sutton climbed through the ranks to become global head of foreign exchange at Scotiabank in Toronto. Along the way, she put up with being asked if she ought to travel while she had small children at home and being mistaken for a junior employee. And then there was the day when she was the only woman in a top-level meeting – yet again.
Like many other women in the $6.6-trillion a day currency market, Sutton eventually left trading. She now works for a company aiming to improve gender diversity.
So Much for Big Tech’s Banking Aspirations – Barron’s
Google will soon offer checking accounts, The Wall Street Journal reported this past week. For parent Alphabet, that’s the most exciting venture since drone-based delivery. Or balloon-based broadband. Or kite-based wind power.
At Wells Fargo, Derivatives Exposures Climb $13bn in Q3 – Risk
Wells Fargo’s derivatives exposures leapt 17% in the third quarter, far more than at any other US global systemically important bank (G-Sib). The San Francisco-based lender reported $93.7 billion of derivatives exposures in its latest quarterly supplementary leverage ratio (SLR) disclosure, up from $80.2 billion in Q2. Its the most exposures the bank has reported since public disclosure began in Q4 2016.
Ion Group Buys Currency Software Supplier MarketFactory – Financial Times
Ion Group, a UK provider of critical infrastructure for global financial markets, has extended an acquisition spree with a deal to buy currency software supplier MarketFactory.
Market Savvy
Euro Sees Sigh of Relief as Dollar Weakens on US-China Trade Deal Hopes – Reuters
The euro enjoyed a small respite on Monday, jumping to an 11-day high versus the U.S. dollar, on expectations that Washington and Beijing can soon sign off on a deal to end a trade war that has been a drag on global economic growth.
Bond Market’s Fate Hangs in Balance Before Trade-War Crunch Time – Bloomberg
Treasury investors just got one week closer to locking in their best annual performance since 2011.The reflation wager that had 10-year yields on the brink of eclipsing 2% for the first time in months faltered last week.
How Latin America’s Oasis Was Felled by a Stunning Market Rout – Bloomberg
It was the best house on a bad block, the saying in financial circles went, an oasis in a region deemed too tumultuous for most investors. Now the house is on fire, the neighborhood is going downhill and those investors are struggling to comprehend what an unparalleled wave of violence and protest mean for Chile’s economic and financial future.