Week InReview
Friday | Nov 12, 2021
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The Grinch That Stole New Year's. |
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THANKS TO whoever created an obscure piece of New York Stock Exchange red tape – officially known as Rule 7.2 – U.S. equity markets won’t commemorate the start of 2022 with a holiday.
The rule stipulates that when a holiday falls on a Saturday, the market will close on the preceding Friday — unless, that is, “unusual business conditions exist, such as the ending of a monthly or yearly accounting period.” Since Dec. 31 marks the end of the month, quarter and year, that means a full session on New Year’s Eve and no day off on the following Monday.
— Bloomberg Markets
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Wall Street’s top regulator is considering new rules to bring sunshine to the private-funds market, including more disclosure about fees and conflicts of interest. The Wall Street Journal | Nov 11
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SEC Chair Gary Gensler has tapped past Democratic administrations and civil servants to craft a new U.S. audit regulator that is expected to set a more progressive agenda and to sharpen its oversight of accounting firms. Bloomberg Tax | Nov 9
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Wall Street is fighting back as SEC Chair Gary Gensler considers policy changes that threaten to upend a lucrative business model. The Wall Street Journal | Nov 8
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After U.S. prices climbed by the most in three decades, there’s even worse news ahead for households and policy makers: Inflation likely has further to rise before it peaks. October's annual rate was 6.2%, the highest since 1990, as price increases spread well beyond the parts of the economy most disrupted by pandemic closures. Key drivers, like hot housing markets and a global energy crunch, show few signs of fading away soon — leading economists to predict even bigger jumps in the coming months. (Bloomberg Economics | Nov 10)
The trading climate in the $22tn U.S. government bond market has become less hospitable, adding to choppy moves in securities that act as a foundation of the global financial system. Liquidity has deteriorated in recent weeks, data show. That has added to the pressure on regulators to improve a market long viewed as a haven during times of trouble. But regulators are far from any solution, according to a progress report released this week by a federal working group charged with assessing the structure of the U.S. Treasury bond market. (Financial Times | Nov 10)
Just weeks ago, Wall Street analysts and central bankers were quick to assure investors that a collapse by China Evergrande Group wouldn’t be a Lehman moment. Now concern is growing about the potential risk to the global financial system. The U.S. Federal Reserve made that link explicit in a report on Monday. (Bloomberg Markets | Nov 9)
Every day in the early afternoon, money-market traders are glued to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s website to see the results of the overnight reverse-repurchase agreement facility. But they’re no longer the only ones. While there’s no way for most everyday traders to use the facility, its results are now appearing on Reddit, and influencing trading. (Bloomberg – The Big Take | Nov 9)
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Gensler signals new rules for private equity, hedge fund fees |
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SEC Chair Gary Gensler said he has asked his staff to consider ways to improve transparency by private-fund advisers. Photo: Jose Luis Magana/Reuters |
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(Nov 10) — U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler said Wednesday he’s asked the agency’s staff whether new regulations are needed to boost transparency for private investment funds.
- In prepared remarks for the Institutional Limited Partners Association Summit, Gensler says it might be time to “bring more sunshine and competition to the private funds space”
- Gensler calls for more transparency around fees investors pay
- He also says he’s asked SEC staff to look into what the agency can do to bring more sunlight to fund performance metrics
- Gensler says that the SEC could “freshen up” the information included in Form PF, which private funds must file with the agency
Source: Ben Bain/Bloomberg Government
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Image: Cathryn Virginia/Motherboard |
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The booming underground market for bots that steal your 2FA codes
Whereas fooling victims into handing over a login or verification code previously would often involve the hacker directly conversing with the victim, perhaps pretending to be the victim’s bank in a phone call, these increasingly traded bots dramatically lower the barrier of entry for bypassing multi-factor authentication. The bots convincingly and effortlessly help hackers break into Coinbase, Amazon, PayPal, and bank accounts.
Why the time has come for Zero-Trust model of cybersecurity
The concept of Zero-Trust has been around for a while. While this model has been widely recognized as an effective approach to prevent data breaches and mitigate the risk of supply chain attacks, its adoption across the private and public sectors has been slow and inconsistent. This is about to change.
U.S. joins global cybersecurity partnership
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Illustration: Mitch O'Connell |
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Don't be that colleague: A guide to office etiquette
4 simple indicators your employees are happy (for real)
All those 23andMe spit tests were part of a bigger plan
CEO Anne Wojcicki wants to make drugs using insights from millions of customer DNA samples, and doesn’t think that should bother anyone.
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