Derivs - People and Markets

Concerns are mounting among some US options market participants that regulation is having adverse effects on their business and fueling a rift between financial market performance and economic data.

Mizuho Securities USA, the US investment banking subsidiary of Mizuho Financial Group has expanded its US equity platform with senior hires in equity derivatives and convertibles.

UBS has asked Markit to administer and calculate its investible indices, as the bank looks to meet Europe’s regulatory push to improve transparency and oversight of industry benchmarks.

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), looking to make acquisitions, has made senior management changes that include promoting its ICE Futures US chief operating officer to a newly created job.

Euronext plans to launch a sugar futures contract later this year, as the European Union plans to abolish production quotas.

US stock futures fell on Monday amid mixed markets, after Asian equities rallied but oil fell more than a dollar, to nearly $31 per barrel.

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has granted full registration to 18 swap execution facilities (SEFs), upgrading them from the temporary registrations they held before.

The biggest players in the international swaps market look to face an impossible race this year to meet European margin requirements, thanks to delays by regulators in putting the plans together.

Falling oil prices and China concerns sent credit spreads to the record wides of recent years this week as equity markets plummeted, with a credit index options expiry coming right at the sharp end of the spike and adding to the turmoil.

The latest push lower in oil prices caused additional pain for investors this week after forced liquidations in two levered exchange-traded notes (ETNs) linked to the energy sector locked in losses just as oil prices marked fresh multi-year lows.

The economies of Italy and China do not appear to have much in common. Italy’s government would welcome a GDP growth rate of 1%, while China expands at less than 7% and investors take flight. One is a sclerotic, decaying Western country, the other is a dynamic Asian tiger. Such is the conventional wisdom.

Iran's return to the world market is exacerbating pressure on oil prices and pushing commodity traders and producers to prepare for more disruption