According to the FT:
Tether, the world’s biggest stablecoin company, has held talks about investing in gold mining, seeking to deploy its vast crypto profits into bullion. -> FT: "The company has held discussions with mining and investment groups about investing in the entire gold supply chain, from mining and refining to trading and royalty companies, according to four people familiar with the recent talks. While gold has been a physical store of value for thousands of years and bitcoin has only existed as a digital instrument since 2009, there is a growing affinity between some industry executives. Tether chief executive Paolo Ardoino has likened gold to “natural bitcoin”. “I know people think that bitcoin is ‘digital gold’,” he said in a speech in May. “I prefer to think in bitcoin terms, I think gold is our source of nature.” However, within the conservative gold mining sector, Tether’s interest has been greeted with surprise and questions about whether the unconventional newcomer will succeed. “They like gold. I don’t think they have a strategy,” said one mining executive. Source: FT
A bunch of tech CEOs had dinner with President Trump
Including: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Apple CEO Tim Cook, AMD CEO Lisa Us and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Note that Tesla CEO Elon Musk is not around the table. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is missing as well. Key takeaways: 1) Trump said he would be placing semiconductors tariffs “very shortly,” and that they will be “fairly substantial.” 2) Trump also signaled that companies that invest in the U.S., like Apple, would be safe from the brunt of the tariffs. 3) President Donald Trump congratulated Google CEO Sundar Pichai on his company’s Tuesday antitrust penalties ruling, which came in lighter-than-expected and caused Alphabet shares to jump. Pichai said he is “glad it’s over” and thanked Trump for dialogue and resolution. Source: Evan on X
As highlighted by Otavio Costa, this is the environment we are in:
US 2-year yields approach multi year lows as commodities approach all time highs. The Fed is likely to cut rates to service debt. And the price to pay inflation expected to run hotter. Source: Tavi Costa, Bloomberg
From the FT >>>
XTX Markets, Alex Gerko’s money-printing forex high-frequency trading heavyweight, posted a job ad last week for a rolling 12–14 week AI Research Internship with a salary of $35,000 a month + a “generous sign-on bonus”! Admittedly, it’s aimed at a pretty high standard of prospective intern. Candidates are required to be pursuing an advanced degree, “ideally Ph.D., in computer science, electrical engineering, mathematics, or a related quantitative field” with at least a year until their graduation. They also need “solid” programming skills and “a proven publication record in leading machine learning and AI venues”. But still, it looks like the race for super-star interns keeps getting fiercer Source: FT Link to article >>> https://lnkd.in/gWeCPJK7
The U.S. Justice Department has launched a criminal mortgage fraud probe into Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook
It has issued grand jury subpoenas out of both Georgia and Michigan, according to documents seen by Reuters and a source familiar with the matter. The investigation followed a criminal referral from Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte, and is being conducted by Ed Martin, who was tapped by Attorney General Pam Bondi as a special assistant U.S. attorney to assist with mortgage fraud investigations involving public officials, along with the U.S. Attorneys' offices in the Northern District of Georgia and the Eastern District of Michigan, according to the person, who spoke anonymously since the matter is not public. Source: Reuters
Crypto treasury stocks slide as Nasdaq moves to tighten oversight of firms using raised funds to buy crypto:
• $SBET -9% • $BMNR -7% • $MSTR -3% Source: Shy Boloor on X
🚨 Goldman Sachs has doubled down on its optimistic forecast for gold, maintaining a structural bullish view on the precious metal
The investment bank predicts gold will reach $3,700 per ounce by the end of 2025 in its base case scenario, with further growth to $4,000 by mid-2026. Goldman’s analysis indicates that a recession could accelerate ETF inflows and drive prices even higher to $3,880. More dramatically, extreme risk events such as challenges to Federal Reserve independence or shifts in U.S. reserve policy could potentially catapult gold prices to $4,500 by year-end 2025. Source: www.goldsilver.com https://lnkd.in/eCau26HP
ADP: US private payrolls rose just 54K in August, down from 106K in July
That's below consensus estimates of 68k, that’s well below the 2010–2025 average of 148K. For context: the series hit a record 1.25M in Aug ’21 and plunged to -6.1M in April ’20.
