Keeping cautious.

Passengers embark a Shinkansen bullet train in Tokyo, Japan. Photo: Soichiro Koriyama | Bloomberg

.Stocks in Asia look poised for a cautious open after another down day for US equities, with Treasury yields at the highest level since the global financial crisis. Wariness around economic challenges saw the S&P 500 swing from a gain of more than 1% to an almost equivalent loss. Meanwhile, the yen weakened past the 150 per dollar level and hit a fresh 32-year low, boosting speculation that more intervention will be needed to support the Japanese currency. And China’s yuan is expected to weaken further after the Communist Party Congress ends this weekend, as the central bank loosens its grip on the currency.

Is it time to surrender hope? You can always watch Netflix. Photo: Valerie Macon | AFP/Getty

Begging markets to capitulate, better to rebound: John Authers

Lots of investors want the Federal Reserve to pivot, as you might have read recently. They’re almost equally desperate for markets to capitulate — give up all hope, hit rock bottom, admit that all fears are coming to fruition, and create a sound base to buy. (Bloomberg Opinion | Oct 19)

Recession fears hit risky mortgage debt amid default concerns

Investors are unloading securities sold by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that shift the risk of mortgage defaults away from taxpayers, a sign of growing concern about defaults if rising interest rates cause a severe recession. The securities, called credit-risk transfers, could incur losses if rising defaults creep into the massive swaths of mortgage debt backed by the housing-finance giants. (The Wall Street Journal | Oct 19)

SEC climate rules pushed back amid bureaucratic, legal woes

The SEC is months away from finalizing expansive new climate disclosure requirements as the agency juggles investor demands for more transparency, tech glitches and a tough Republican legal threat. The Securities and Exchange Commission will miss a self-imposed October deadline for final rules as it continues to sift through thousands of public comments and factors in a June Supreme Court ruling that endangers the agency’s normally broad authority to regulate Wall Street. (Bloomberg Law | Oct 19)

Businesses expect economy to weaken, Fed's 'Beige Book' says

U.S. businesses are becoming more pessimistic about economic conditions in the face of high inflation and rising interest rates, the Federal Reserve said in a Wednesday report. The Fed’s 12 regional reserve-bank districts said business contacts noted “growing concerns about weakening demand,” according to the central bank’s latest compilation of economic anecdotes from around the country, known as the Beige Book. (The Wall Street Journal | Oct 19)

Wild currency swings take $34 billion bite from company profits

A surging dollar and weakness abroad whacked North American corporate profits by an unprecedented amount in the second quarter, foreshadowing an even worse hammering this earnings season. Currency volatility cost North American companies $34.3 billion in the April to June period, the highest loss on record in data going back to 2013, according to Kyriba Corp., a treasury-management software company. (Bloomberg Markets | Oct 18)

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‘Financial hacking’ plagues DeFi in latest setback for crypto

Decentralized finance, the once red-hot slice of the crypto universe that was at the center of this year’s collapse of the digital-asset world, is facing a rapidly increasing new challenge: financial hacking. After being plagued for years by hackers seeking to exploit coding flaws to siphon funds from crypto projects, more assailants are now using the automated software programs that power DeFi platforms to manipulate transactions to gain control of the millions of dollars in assets locked in various protocols that allow users to borrow and lend without intermediaries. 

— Bloomberg Technology | Cybersecurity

Microsoft exposed data about business transactions

Information about potential business transactions between Microsoft and customer prospects was vulnerable through a misconfigured server open to the internet, the company disclosed Wednesday.

— Bleeping Computer

Dutch police trick Deadbolt ransomware gang

Dutch National Police and Amsterdam-based cybersecurity company Responders.NU tricked the Deadbolt ransomware gang into handing over decryption keys, providing the victims an opportunity to get encrypted files back without paying a ransom. Using the keys, they can unlock files for free.

— Hackread

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Photo: Adam Kuylenstierna | EyeEm/Getty Images

Americans reclaim 60 million commuting hours in remote-work perk

Americans who are working from home have reclaimed 60 million hours that they used to spend commuting to an office each day. Instead of being stuck in traffic, workers are getting more rest and spending additional time with family. That’s the takeaway from research by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which analyzed data from the American Time Use Survey to see what US workers spent their time on when they weren’t stuck on a crowded train or locked in traffic.

— Bloomberg Work Shift | Work in Progress

Inmate stole $11 million in gold coins scheme while in prison

A Georgia inmate used a contraband phone to impersonate a billionaire, secured more than 6,000 gold coins and then arranged to buy a multimillion-dollar house, according to court records. Contraband cellphones are invaluable to inmates, but in the hands of Arthur Lee Cofield, who is serving a 14-year sentence for armed robbery at a Georgia state prison, a mobile phone turned out to be worth $11 million, federal prosecutors said.

— The New York Times

How the world will know if Russia is preparing to launch a nuke

Officials from the US and the UK have emphasized that they do not see indications that Russia is actively preparing to launch a nuclear strike. And the signals the global community has to draw on in monitoring the Russian nuclear weapons program, while not infallible, are robust. That means the world would likely know if a nuclear attack were imminent.

— Wired