September 2022 - Page 2 of 6

Genmab A/S (NASDAQ:GMAB) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Genmab A/S (NASDAQ:GMAB – Get Rating) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the twelve analysts that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, seven have assigned a hold recommendation and two have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $547.62.

GMAB has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Genmab A/S from $29.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 15th. TheStreet upgraded shares of Genmab A/S from a “c+” rating to a “b” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 31st. SVB Leerink increased their target price on shares of Genmab A/S from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 11th. HC Wainwright boosted their price target on Genmab A/S from $49.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 22nd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets initiated coverage on Genmab A/S in a research report on Thursday, June 23rd. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $34.73 price objective for the company.

Genmab A/S Price Performance

Shares of GMAB opened at $31.83 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $35.68 and its 200-day moving average is $33.96. The company has a market capitalization of $20.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.37, a P/E/G ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.85. Genmab A/S has a fifty-two week low of $26.19 and a fifty-two week high of $47.28.

Genmab A/S (NASDAQ:GMAB – Get Rating) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 10th. The company reported $0.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.21 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $452.86 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $435.40 million. Genmab A/S had a return on equity of 17.12% and a net margin of 38.42%. Equities research analysts expect that Genmab A/S will post 1.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of GMAB. Covestor Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Genmab A/S during the 4th quarter worth about $37,000. International Biotechnology Trust PLC acquired a new position in shares of Genmab A/S in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $57,000. Captrust Financial Advisors grew its position in Genmab A/S by 62.0% during the 1st quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 2,658 shares of the company’s stock worth $96,000 after acquiring an additional 1,017 shares during the last quarter. Private Capital Group LLC increased its holdings in Genmab A/S by 14.1% during the 2nd quarter. Private Capital Group LLC now owns 2,677 shares of the company’s stock valued at $87,000 after purchasing an additional 331 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Seaport Global Advisors LLC bought a new position in Genmab A/S in the 4th quarter valued at $1,142,000. 5.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Genmab A/S Company Profile

(Get Rating)

Genmab A/S develops antibody therapeutics for the treatment of cancer and other diseases primarily in Denmark. The company markets DARZALEX, a human monoclonal antibody for the treatment of patients with multiple myeloma (MM); teprotumumab for the treatment of thyroid eye disease; ofatumurnab, a human monoclonal antibody to treat chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and multiple sclerosis; and Amivantamab for advanced or metastatic gastric or esophageal cancer and NSCLC.

3 Tokens to make you a Millionaire in 2022: Binance Coin, Stellar and Moshnake

It should come as no surprise that several cryptocurrency investors are unsure about which coin to invest in light of the recent declines in price seen throughout the cryptocurrency industry.

However, even without the price declines, hundreds of cryptocurrencies are in circulation today, enough to overwhelm an investor.

Despite the ongoing bear market, some cryptocurrencies provide a high return on investment that can be purchased now.

Several new crypto enterprises are attracting significant financial interest due to their unique methods and use cases.

Moshnake (MSH), one of these efforts, has a tremendous amount of untapped potential and is working toward its ultimate goal of competing with one of the most important cryptocurrencies, Binance Coin (BNB).

Binance Coin (BNB)

Binance Coin (BNB) is the native coin of the Binance exchange (one of the biggest mainstream crypto exchanges on the planet).

And holding BNB grants customers a slew of benefits on Binance, including cheaper fees and access to a range of additional services.

It is also a token with a spending utility that can be quickly and cheaply transferred to other Binance users.

BNB holders now have even more options with the recent launch of BNB Vault. This gives BNB consumers instant access to a range of staking and investment choices at the press of a button while also removing some entry barriers for other cryptocurrency-based revenue enterprises.

It is the third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, excluding USDT and USDC stable currencies. Binance Coin began as an ERC-20 token based on Ethereum (ETH). It has officially launched its mainnet and is based on PoS consensus.

Binance Coin (BNB) had a market capitalisation of $39 billion on June 27, 2022, and one BNB was worth $238.27.

Stellar (XLM)

Stellar (XLM) is a decentralised blockchain system that enables users to create, trade, and transport any money, including conventional, crypto, NFTs, and meme currencies.

The network also features its own cryptocurrency, XLM, which can be used for staking and other transactions. When installing dApps, developers can expect excellent documentation and technical support.

Stellar (XLM) recently announced that its partner business, Bitso, processed $1 million in remittances between Mexico and the United States in the first half of 2022, representing a 400% increase over the same period in 2021.

Moshnake (MSH)

Any Play-to-Earn game may record a large number of transactions each day. Since Moshnake (MSH) is an entertaining and thrilling blockchain game modelled on the traditional snake game, it is expected that the participants will execute many transactions.

For this reason, creating an architecture that facilitated speedier transaction processing without requiring players to pay excessive gas prices was crucial. BNB Smart Chain is one of the quickest and most affordable blockchain networks, with an average throughput of 300 TPS.

Moreover, doing a transaction on the BNB Smart Chain is relatively inexpensive. The gas price is as low as 0.00001876 U.S. dollars.

To optimise the effectiveness of Moshnake (MSH), it was essential to provide the players with a familiar setting.

Building the game on top of the BNB Smart Chain, which is EVM-compatible and enables players to utilise Ethereum-based decentralised wallets such as MetaMask, which has more than 30 million active users across the world, contributed significantly to this endeavour

With the immense popularity of MetaMask, it is anticipated that Moshnake players will be able to connect and engage with the BNB Smart Chain quickly to send funds or complete game-related Transactions.

5 investments that every MDR should make

Managed Detection and Response (MDR) services play a hugely valuable role for their clients.

Some clients lack the resource to have in-house cybersecurity teams — and others choose to simply side-step this process and outsource their safeguarding to the experts (a wise and scalable move for many).

Even when clients do choose to finance a fully in-house cybersecurity team, there can be a lag from taking the first steps towards setting this up, to the time that it’s fully operational. This lag time leaves the business vulnerable and susceptible to breaches.

MDRs offer a solution to these challenges and more. And when a client’s business, customers, and reputation are on the line, then an MDR needs to deliver.

A great MDR service brings together the power of technology with the human intelligence needed to analyze, locate, and resolve the threats that reside within the cyber landscape. It’s within any MDR’s interests to empower their staff and provide a platform for their development, both now and in the future.

5 investments that make MDRs more valuable to clients

1. Software

MDRs should be using a complementary combination of SIEM (Security Information and Event Management), SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation and Response), and UEBA (User Entity and Behavior Analytics) to better protect their clients. This will provide a wide range of tools from which to draw the most informative data.

To be effective, an MDR team should amalgamate telemetry information alongside email, cloud, and network data for a comprehensive view of the client’s cyber environment.

Machine learning is an integral attribute of a cybersecurity platform that enables MDRs to cope with ever-changing situations. As a form of AI, ML’s smart analysis gives an MDR an advantage when scouring through reams of data in search of potential dangers.

Hackers and malevolent actors can navigate more easily around the cybersecurity mechanisms of old, as they are more rigid and less able to flag anomalous or suspicious patterns.

Without AI, MDRs are good at protecting organizations when combined with software. However, when machine learning is added into the mix, the competence of MDR escalates hugely.

2. Research and development

MDR professionals need to stay one step ahead of cyber threat trends and the technologies used for criminal behavior. MDRs that make use of their own new technologies will be best equipped to deal with the modern tactics deployed by cyber criminals.

To appeal to — and protect — future clients, MDR services should incorporate data gathered from a global network and be transparent about their methodologies. They should also invest in dedicated research and development efforts within their cyber protection setup.

Closely analyzing the threats that risk a client’s security, and those that actually breach, will ensure that they stay up to date with what’s currently happening in the landscape. They should then use their findings to evolve in line with the online environment and optimize their tooling to tackle future threats.

Further to this, a dependable MDR provider will have tested their responses to attacks in the field. As a result, they should be well practiced and effective at delivering a swift and well-ordered response that’s able to mitigate any dangers on a client’s behalf.

3. Endpoint security (EDR)

Endpoint detection and response (EDR) tools offer advanced threat detection, investigation, and response to protect each of a business’s endpoints — be that an in-office computer workstation, at-home laptop, CEO’s cell phone or tablet, and so on. EDR tooling has become increasingly crucial as a result of distributed workforces, where a client’s team will now be working from multiple, off-site locations and potentially accessing company data on unprotected networks.

With greater visibility over all of a client’s endpoints, MDRs can identify threat behavior even as bad actors attempt to breach the environment, stopping them instantly.

4. News, network, and community

Fellow MDR professionals can be rivals, but they can also be valuable sources of insight and best practices — providing lessons from their successes and their failures alike.

There are obvious external communities to be involved in: LinkedIn, newsletters, conferences/events, and industry news publications. But an MDR team may choose to set up their own communities within the business itself. If some members of the team are dedicated to one client industry, they may have knowledge that applies and adds value to other parts of the business or for other client groups.

Make the most of external and internal knowledge to improve your standard and service.

5. Culture

As we mentioned in the intro, Managed Detection and Response teams add value by bringing next-gen tech and human intelligence together. That means that the human element of an MDR team can make all the difference to current and future clients.

Clients will be looking to assess an MDR partner’s track record, size, and stability as factors when choosing who to work with. But they will also be looking for the right people to trust with their business. To secure new clients and provide value, MDRs should ask themselves if their team is collaborative, supportive, and dedicated in the eyes of a potential customer. The way an MDR works and the people they hire communicates just as loudly — and has just as much sway on the service they deliver — as the tech and tooling they have in place.

If you’re looking to start or optimize your MDR service, then Logpoint has the software you need to hit the ground running. Book a demo of Logpoint’s Converged SIEM (SIEM, SOAR, UEBA and BCS for SAP) platform today.

S’pore Man Cheats Strangers Of Money At MRT Stations For 4 Years, Faces Jailtime

Man Cheats Strangers Of Money At MRT Stations Since 2019

Most Singaporeans would have no qualms about helping someone who’s in need and will not think much beyond the initial deed.

However, this was likely the very mindset that a certain Singaporean man preyed on throughout a four-year period, during which he cheated 78 strangers of their money.

Often preying on younger girls and students at MRT stations, the man would claim that he didn’t have money to get back home and would ‘borrow’ money from his victims.

Source: winds lu on Flickr. For illustration purposes only.

In total, he cheated his victims of about S$28,000 to cover for his purported expenses.

On Friday (23 Sep), he pleaded guilty to five counts of cheating and was sentenced to one year’s jail.

Man cheats 78 strangers S$28,000 at MRT stations

According to TODAY, Byron Yeaw – now 26 – exploited the kindness of strangers for over four years since early 2019.

His tactics would usually involve waiting at MRT stations and approaching passersby, lying that he had to travel to a distant part of the country.

After that, he’ll ask them to check the cost of a taxi or private-hire vehicle to the location.

With the premise set, he’ll tell his victims that he has to arrange the rides himself to claim the sum from his employer.

The victims would then send him the amounts after receiving assurances through the form of his identification documents.

Yeaw would subsequently use the money transferred by his victims on his personal expenses.

This reportedly went on for four years and the sum scammed totalled about S$28,000.

Arrested thrice during his cheating spree

Yeaw’s motivation behind his crimes was reportedly due to personal financial issues.

In 2019, when he started his cheating spree, Yeaw was reportedly an employee with Singtel.

He was arrested in Mar 2020, and once again in 2021. The latter resulted from attempting to cheat strangers of larger funds to fund his gambling habits.

Although he was eventually released for the second time in Aug 2021, Yeaw continued to cheat till Mar 2022, when he was remanded.

Cheats an NSF for almost all his money

One of his more prominent victims was an NSF he duped of S$2,000.

Yeaw reportedly met the NSF at Yew Tee MRT Station in Feb 2022 and told him that he only had S$0.50 in his bank account.

He then told a story of how his human resources department had not given him his S$3,000 salary on time and that he needed to borrow money to survive till the end of the month.

Despite only having S$2,100 in his bank account, the NSF gave most of that to Yeaw.

The victim only wisened up and lodged a police report after Yeaw attempted to ask for the remaining S$100.

Incognito mode in metaverse defined

Metaverse represents a dream that almost all of us solely thought doable in motion pictures. It’s a persistent on-line digital world that lets the customers expertise it with appropriate VR {hardware} as a substitute of the common keyboard and mouse.

Nevertheless, information privateness considerations steadily accompany discussions on metaverse. Thus, options emerge to ease such worries. On this piece, we’ll clarify the not too long ago introduced incognito mode within the metaverse.

What’s the incognito mode?

The idea of utilizing a digital area in a manner that it doesn’t monitor you as a lot will not be revolutionary. You need to use a personal or incognito mode in your telephone or PC net browsers to forestall web sites from figuring out you and your system from storing your searching historical past.

Nonetheless, the incognito mode has its limits. As an example, your Web Service Supplier can nonetheless monitor you. In the event you genuinely need to safe your connection, utilizing different instruments along with incognito mode is greatest. As an example, a VPN obtain is one resolution that customers choose to guard their actions.

A Digital Personal Community masks your IP deal with to cover this identifier. Moreover, it encrypts and reroutes site visitors, making it far tougher to maintain tabs in your searching. As an example, Web Service Suppliers received’t be capable to learn details about on-line actions. Nevertheless, they’ll see that you simply use a VPN.

So, if the present incognito has its limits, what can we anticipate from it within the metaverse?

How does it differ for the metaverse?

If you use the web via a browser, you generate only some MB of knowledge that accommodates the historical past of the visited pages, your click-through price (CTR) for particular domains, and some behavioral parameters. The metaverse can current much more vital privateness considerations. It might probably choose up the noise out of your microphone and analyze your actions to create an correct physique profile.

Subsequently, the info quantity from utilizing the metaverse is way more than merely searching the web. As such, you want extra inventive methods to not solely conceal the consumer information but additionally do it in a way that neither the server nor the opposite customers can discover. That was an enormous problem that Daybreak Tune (UC Berkeley), Vivek Nair (UC Berkeley), and Gonzalo Munilla Garrido (Technical College of Munich) got down to conquer. And, finally, they did.

Technique of going incognito within the metaverse

The increase that the trio got here up with is named the MetaGuard. They primarily based it on the idea of differential privateness, through which a knowledge set is shared with the servers for statistical evaluation. Nonetheless, there isn’t a sensible solution to re-identify the consumer via it. The group has submitted their findings in a analysis paper to the celebrated Arxiv division of Cryptography and Safety, which is a part of Cornell College.

MetaGuard is constructed utilizing an open-source C# extension that’s appropriate with the Unity sport engine. Given that almost all VR worlds in the present day are created utilizing Unity, this device is accessible to anybody keen to browse the metaverse anonymously.

For preliminary assessments, the group used the prototype model of MetaGuard in VRChat, certainly one of in the present day’s most outstanding social VR worlds. As per their evaluation, the extension might decrease the consumer’s pitch by 85 Hz and lift it by 255 Hz. The customers additionally had their geolocation offset by 500 Kilometers (310 miles).

Can MetaGuard be used on a big scale?

To this point, MetaGuard has solely been utilized in a managed setting, and it has some efficiency glitches to work out. There may be nonetheless a while earlier than it turns into operational on a big scale. The crew has expressed considerations over the way it can put an excessive load on medium and lower-end machines.

The paper explains that MetaGuard is meant to be a protected commercial device that doesn’t let firms gather extra information on their audience than they should. Because the service supplier can nonetheless monitor the exercise and information bandwidth, the extension is extra like an incognito mode slightly than a VPN.

Conclusion

The event of digital areas is in full swing, with a number of video games and social platforms already pushing the boundaries of VR expertise. As such, advertisers from huge firms and sinister hacker teams are already gearing as much as gather consumer information for their very own functions. In such a state of affairs, having a couple of instruments to train information privateness can solely profit every consumer. Though, extra effort is required to maneuver the software program into extra open and uncontrolled digital environments.

Disclaimer: Any data written on this press launch or sponsored put up doesn’t represent funding recommendation. Thecoinrepublic.com doesn’t, and won’t endorse any data on any firm or particular person on this web page. Readers are inspired to make their very own analysis and make any actions primarily based on their very own findings and never from any content material written on this press launch or sponsored put up. Thecoinrepublic.com is and won’t be chargeable for any harm or loss brought about straight or not directly by way of any content material, product, or service talked about on this press launch or sponsored put up.

Morning Preview: September 22, 2022

Early Look

Thursday, September 22, 2022

Futures	Up/Down	%	Last
Dow	63.00	0.21%	30,345
S&P 500	4.25	0.12%	3,808
Nasdaq	7.50	0.07%	11,717

U.S. equity futures are edging higher after stocks tumbled Wednesday, and the dollar gained as Fed Chair Jerome Powell vowed officials would crush inflation after they raised interest rates by 75 basis points for a third straight time and signaled even more aggressive hikes ahead than investors had expected. The Fed decision, which was unanimous, takes the target range for the benchmark federal funds rate to 3% to 3.25%, the highest level since before the 2008 financial crisis. The dot plot was revised higher across the board, with the key 2023 median dot moving up to 4.625% and majority in favor of hiking above 4.25% this year. The shorter end of the yield curve rose as the Treasury 2-year yields hit highs above 4.1% before slipping (highest since 2007) but the longer end yields declined, widening the inversion gap to near 50bps. The statement also provided some dour economic projections, including weak GDP growth of 0.2%, and unimpressive 1.3% growth next year. The unemployment rate is now expected to rise 0.7% to 4.4% by the close of 2023. In non-Fed news, geopolitical clouds rumbled in the background as Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered 300,000 troops to help turn around his war effort against Ukraine and warned that his threats to use nuclear weapons is “not a bluff,” provoking a strong rebuke from U.S. President Joe Biden. The S&P 500 fell 1.7% today, its 29th decline of the year of between 1% and 2%.

In Asian markets, The Nikkei Index fell -159 points to 27,153, the Shanghai Index slipped -8 points to 3,108, and the Hang Seng Index slides nearly -300 points to 18,147. In Europe, the German DAX is down -0.5% to 12,700, while the FTSE 100 is down =0.25% to 7,215. Lots of central bank action this morning after the FOMC 75 bps rate hike yesterday, with the SNB Bank raising rates, the BOJ staying steady but intervenes in FX market and the Bank of England rate decision coming up later.

Market Closing Prices Yesterday

· The S&P 500 Index dropped -66.00 points, or 1.71%, to 3,789.93

· The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell -522.45 points, or 1.70%, to 30,183.78

· The Nasdaq Composite tumbled -204.86 points, or 1.79%, to 11,220.19

· The Russell 2000 Index declined -25.35 points, or 1.42% to 1,762.16

Economic Calendar for Today

· 8:30 AM ET Weekly Jobless Claims…est. 218K

· 8:30 AM EST Continuing Claims…est. 1.40M

· 8:30 AM ET Current Account for Q2…est. (-$260.6B)

· 10:00 AM ET Leading Index M/M for August…est. (-0.1%)

· 10:30 AM ET Weekly EIA Natural Gas Inventory Data

· 11:00 AM ET Kansas City Fed manufacturing for September

Earnings Calendar:

· Earnings Before the Open: CVA DRI DYNT FDS FLUX

· Earnings After the Close: AIR CAMP COST FDX IBEX RSSS

Other Key Events:

· DA Davidson Annual Diversified Industrials & Services Conference, 9/22-9/23 in Nashville

· Salesforce User Conference: Dreamforce 2022, 9/20-9/22, in San Francisco, CA

· Sidoti Fall Small Cap Conference (virtual), 9/21-9/22

· Wells Fargo 5th Annual Consumer Conference, 9/20-9/22, in CA

Macro	Up/Down	Last
Nymex	0.42	83.34
Brent	0.41	90.24
Gold	1.00	1,676.70
EUR/USD	0.0037	0.9874
JPY/USD	-1.28	142.75
10-Year Note	+0.022	3.534%

World News

· The Bank of Japan (BOJ) leaves short-term rate target unchanged at -0.1%, maintains 10Y JGB yield target around zero; decides to end pandemic relief program as scheduled; decision on YCC was unanimous; will take additional steps without hesitation as needed while watching pandemic’s impact; need to be vigilant on financial/FX moves and the impact on economy and prices; core inflation likely to accelerate towards year end and slow thereafter

· Bank of Japan intervened in the foreign exchange market on Thursday to buy yen for the first time since 1998, in attempt to shore up the battered currency after the Bank of Japan stuck with ultra-low interest rates. The move sent the dollar plunging over 2% to around 140.3 yen, after trading more than 1% higher earlier on the BOJ’s decision to stick to its super-loose policy stance

· The Swiss National Bank raised interest rates by 75 basis points – its second increase in 15 years – and effectively ending a decade of negative interest rates in Europe. The franc slid against the dollar and euro, while Swiss government bond yields surged

· The bull-bear spread in the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII) weekly survey was -43.2 vs -19.9 last week. Bulls fall to 17.7% from 26.1%, Neutrals fall to 21.4% from 27.9%, and Bears rise to 60.9% from 46%

· Goldman Sachs cut China’s 2023 growth forecasts to 4.5% from 5.3%, citing continued adherence to the zero covid policy with any opening unlikely before Q2 2023

Sector News Breakdown

Consumer

· KB Homes (KBH) Q3 EPS $2.86 vs. est. $2.69; Q3 revs rose 26% y/y to $1.84B vs. est. $1.87B; Q3 homes delivered increased 6% to 3,615, qtr-ending backlog value up 9% to $5.26B; sees Q4 housing revenues in the range of $1.95B-$2.05B and average selling price expected to be approximately $503,000

· Lennar Corp. (LEN) Q3 EPS $5.18 vs. est. $4.88; Q3 revs rose 29% y/y to $8.9B vs. est. $9.0B; Q3 deliveries increased 13% to 17,248 homes, new orders decreased 12% to 14,366 homes; new orders dollar value decreased 11% to $6.7B, backlog of 25,734 homes – consistent with prior year and gross margin on home sales improved 190 basis points to 29.2%

· Steelcase (SCS) cuts quarterly dividend to 10c from 14.5c; Most backlog of customer orders was about $946 m at Q2 end; 2Q adj EPS $0.21 vs est. $0.13 on revs $863.3Mm vs est. $882.75Mm; guides 3Q adj EPS $0.17-0.21 vs est. $0.23 with revs $825-850Mm vs est. $856.7Mm

· PlayUp Ltd. is merging with a special purpose acquisition company in a deal that will value the online betting operator at $350 million. The transaction with IG Acquisition Corp. will help fund expansion of the business and is expected to close in the first quarter – Bloomberg

Energy, Industrials and Materials

· BP PLC (BP) said two employees have died after suffering injuries in a fire at its Husky Toledo Refinery in Ohio; said that it had shut down the refinery, which it operates. It owns a 50% stake in the facility

· Generac (GNRC) positive mention in Barron’s saying shares have been falling sharply this year, and that creates an opportunity for investors to pick up a growth stock at a value-stock price. https://bit.ly/3DPpued

· HB Fuller (FUL) Q3 adj EPS $1.06 vs. est. $1.05; Q3 revs +13.8% y/y to $$941.2M vs. est. $944.2M; increasing FY22 adj ebitda expectations to a range of $540M-$550M or 16% to 18% growth up from the previously provided range of $530M-$550M; sees FY organic revenue growth in range of 17%-18% excluding the impact of the extra week

· TOP Ships (TOPS) announced that it has determined to affect a 1-for-20 reverse stock split of the Company’s issued common shares

· Ideanomics (IDEX) files to sell 151.5M shares of common stock for holders

Financials

· Credit Suisse (CS) has drawn up plans to split its investment bank in three, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, where under proposals to the board, the bank is looking to sell profitable units such as its securitized products business to prevent a damaging capital raise

· Deutsche Bank (DB) CFO said origination and advisory has had a very difficult year; still at high end of range of 26-27 billion euros revenue in 2022; said Q3 revenue at investment bank in range of 2-2.5 billion euros; would expect origination and advisory business to come back in h2 2023; loan growth continuing in Q3 in corporate and private bank

· Coinbase (COIN) Tested Group to Speculate on Crypto. The company completed a $100 million transaction before ending the effort. It says that it hasn’t engaged in proprietary trading – WSJ https://on.wsj.com/3fcw2cw

Healthcare

· Eli Lilly (LLY) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at UBS with a price target of $363, up from $335 as now views Eli Lilly as the most attractive name in large cap pharma, with the greatest potential upside to estimates

· Merck (MRK) announced that the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia ruled in favor of the company in a patent infringement suit against Viatris (VTRS) related to sitagliptin, an active ingredient in Januvia, Janumet and Janumet XR

Technology, Media & Telecom

· Accenture (ACN) Q4 EPS $2.60 vs. est. $2.58; Q4 revs $15.42B vs. est. $15.43B; expects FY revenue growth to be in the range of 8% to 11% in local currency. Accenture expects operating margin for the full fiscal year to be in the range of 15.3% to 15.5%; sees FY23 EPS $11.09-$11.41, below consensus $12.00; board approves additional $3B share repurchase plan

· The U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday rejected a bid by Amazon.com Inc (AMZN) to quash demands that both Chief Executive Andy Jassy and Executive Chairman Jeff Bezos testify at investigative hearings.

· Loop Media (LPTV) 2.4M share Secondary priced at $5.00

Argentine Airline Flybondi to Adopt NFT Technology for Ticket Issuance

Flybondi, a low-cost Argentine airline, is introducing blockchain tech in its operations. The company announced recently it will start issuing tickets as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), broadening the possibilities of what customers can do with them. Users will be able to sell or transfer the tokens to other travelers up to three days before the applicable flight, for example.

Flybondi to Issue NFT Tickets

More companies are including NFTs as part of their business models due to the perceived benefits and advantages they can bring. Flybondi, a low-cost Argentine airline, has also decided to use blockchain tech in its operations, announcing it will issue tickets as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), broadening the scope of what customers can do with them.

The solution, which was developed by Travelx, a blockchain tech development company, will allow customers to trade, transfer, and sell the tickets, changing the names of the users up to three days before the flight.

The alliance also introduced the possibility of purchasing these tickets using Binance Pay with stablecoins, including USDC at the beginning. However, Travelx announced that other stablecoins will be included to provide more possibilities to customers.

Regarding the benefits users may enjoy with the change, Travelx stated:

This innovation in the industry will allow greater flexibility for travelers who will be able to anticipate their travel plans by accessing better rates without the risks associated with purchasing tickets well in advance.

The inclusion of Web3 tech and NFTs in such operations will open secondary markets for customers. About the use of these new technologies, Travelx stated the move brings a new phase “where the travel industry and the world of the new web3 come together to provide a much more flexible experience for travelers, while generating new sources of revenue and a strong reduction in transactional costs for airlines.”

According to Flybondi’s statements, the company is one of the pioneer organizations implementing this kind of functionality and expects others to follow if this experiment proves successful.

Projects using NFTs as part of their operations have multiplied this year. On September 8, the European Union announced a plan to use NFTs to protect intellectual property and fight counterfeiting. In August, a report issued by Grand View Research, a market research company, estimated the NFT market will grow to reach $200 billion in 2030.

Comments on Fed rate rise

The full Board of the central bank voted unanimously to approve a 75 bps hike, while Chairman Jerome Powell warned of more pain to come because of the ongoing challenge of inflation.

MAPFRE AM was approached for comment:

Alberto Matellán, Chief Economist at MAPFRE Asset Management, says:

“The 75 bps hike is as expected, and they say the ongoing pace is appropriate. Economic activity is already cooling down but, paradoxically, that could make aggressive hikes even more necessary.”

“That’s because they have to fight inflation first, before trying to kickstart the economy, so they must reach their terminal rate as quickly as possible. This way they will have the chance to lower rates later, and the impact can be felt earlier.”

“Actually, contrary to Europe, US inflation now seems widespread and sticky; not only based on supply chain problems, but also on the huge amount of dollars printed in recent years. Given this context, cutting liquidity might not be enough, but a significant slowdown in the pace of GDP should be achieved to bring inflation down. That’s the “pain” Powell talked about.”

“The so-called terminal rate is now at 4.6%. That’s the peak they expect to reach while fighting inflation, which is actually significantly higher than in previous meetings. This is the most important rate for markets, since it is the one that shapes longer term expectations.”

“The big question now is whether such rate will be enough to bring inflation down to circa 2% without causing a major recession. All in all, If they finally manage to do what they intend, which is to reach the end of 2023 with rates around 4.6% and inflation down significantly, we would be in a situation much more similar to historical averages than that experienced in the last ten years. That would be healthy so long as unemployment projections are also right, that is, still very low. It is possible, but I’d be skeptic given how sticky inflation is becoming and how aggressive they seem.”

Jonathan Boyar, Principal Advisor to the MAPFRE AM Forgotten US Value Fund, says:

“My view is that investors should stop trying to guess what the Federal Reserve is going to do and focus instead on the fundamentals and valuations of the businesses they own.”

“We think investors owning a portfolio of undervalued stocks that have catalysts for capital appreciation – which is what the Mapfre AM US Forgotten Value Fund holds – will do quite well over the next 2-3 years.”

MAPFRE is a global insurance company. It is the benchmark insurer in the Spanish market and the largest Spanish multinational insurance group in the world. The number one Non-Life insurance group in Latin America and the sixth in Europe by Non-Life premium volume. MAPFRE employs almost 32,500 professionals and in 2021, the company’s revenues totaled almost 27.3 billion euros, with net earnings of 765 million euros (+45.3%).

Opinion: What’s Italy’s front runner for prime minister really up to?

Editor’s Note: Francesco Galietti is the founder of Policy Sonar, a Rome-based political risk consultancy. He has held senior posts with Italian public institutions including the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Galietti is a columnist with the Italian current affairs magazine Panorama. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. Read more opinion on CNN.

I am often asked what Giorgia Meloni – leader of the national conservative Brothers of Italy party, and likely next prime minister of the country – is really up to.

What comparables should we be looking at? Hungary, Poland, Brazil and even the United Kingdom (not to mention the United States under Donald Trump) are all countries where the “destra” or “right wing” seized power at least in part on the back of nationalist sentiment.

But 45-year-old Meloni, who is the favorite to become Italy’s youngest and first female prime minister in Sunday’s election, does not fit into neat definitions. Her meteoric rise is perhaps best described as an audacious balancing exercise.

On the one hand, Meloni has attempted to brush away the post-fascist aura of her party, whose past includespolitical operators who were self-admittedly fascist or felt nostalgic about Benito Mussolini. On the other hand, she has been blowing kisses to capital markets, pledging to stick to the fiscal discipline and European Union budget rules of outgoing prime minister and staunch Euro-Atlanticist, Mario Draghi.

Despite her young age, Meloni has been in politics for quite some time. In 2008, she got her baptism of fire, serving as minister of youth under Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. The cabinet position she held back then was a relatively minor one, but the consensus was that Meloni was being groomed for power.

At the time, I was a young consigliere at the Italian Treasury, and I felt that perhaps there was more to Meloni. She looked as if she had literally consecrated her life to politics; it seemedmore a vocation for her, a calling, than a profession. Because of this, she did not strike me at all as another prot?g? of a party leader trying her hand at government.

Years later, in 2021, Meloni’s autobiography came out. I rushed to buy a copy. In vivid detail, the book explains how painful Meloni’s youth was, and how important it was for her to become a party militant. Meloni’s father had abandoned both her and her sister Arianna, and the right-wing Italian Social Movement filled this gap. (She later helped found the breakaway political movement Brothers of Italy).

Learning about Meloni’s upbringing, I thought that my earlier impressions were somewhat confirmed: The trauma of a lost father put Meloni on a mission to seek a sense of purpose. All of a sudden, Meloni looked like Bruce Wayne, who embarked on a journey to become Batman after his parents’ assassination. And yet, Batman is a vigilante who sets out to rid the streets of Gotham City of its many villains, whereas Meloni flirted several times with the idea of becoming the mayor of her city, Rome, but never actually went for it.

The trauma of a lost father put Meloni on a mission to seek a sense of purpose.

Francesco Galietti

In 2016, Meloni first threw her hat into the ring but eventually pulled out from the mayoral race. In 2021, Meloni again did not step up, instead backing right-wing candidate Enrico Michetti, who lost out to Roberto Gualtieri of the center-left Democratic Party. It is generally assumed that if Meloni herself had run in the 2021 race, the chances of success of the right would have been very high. So why then hasn’t she gone for it? After all, Rome isn’t like any other Italian municipality and enjoys global visibility like few other cities in the world. Did Meloni deliberately decide to “sacrifice” Rome to play the long game?

There is little doubt that Meloni’s rise in polls reflects widespread disgruntlement and protest votes, which in Italy we have seen at least since 2013. In fact, this was already the case with anti-establishment parties such as the Five Star Movement and Matteo Salvini’s League of recent years. Not unlike them, Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party has risen very quickly in the polls, from single-digit levels to around 25%.

Meloni’s timing looks better than previous upstarts. In fact, if one considers the overall conditions of Italy’s right these days, Berlusconi, who will turn 86next week, is not going to play in the sandbox for much longer. Moreover, Salvini’s limits are clear and his “pivot to Russia” stance have made him politically radioactive, after PresidentVladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. This means that Meloni cannot only dream of becoming Italy’s first female prime minister – but also of consolidating Italy’s conservative bloc.

Both tasks will probably require keeping moderates on board, and bringing in new ones. Just how serious is Meloni about all this? Meloni is still actively using her nativist, anti-woke storytelling repertoire. She also rallied to populist Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s side earlier this month, when the European Parliament voted to denounce the “existence of a clear risk of a serious breach” by Hungary of core EU values.

But Meloni also isn’t afraid of normalizing her party, and she could follow the example of her former boss and mentor Gianfranco Fini. In 2003, Fini chose to normalize his party’s relations with Israel and made a highly symbolic visit there. Arguably, back in the day, this move was not received well by some of Fini’s supporters. And yet, it changed the party’s perception for good.

Today, Meloni routinely describes Moscow’s invasion as an “unacceptable large-scale act of war by Putin’s Russia against Ukraine,” and advocates sending weapons to the government in Kyiv. Indeed, with the wind in her sails, Meloni is messaging a larger public, both to woo potential voters and to calm eventual critics. In fact, she knows that without a strong Atlanticist stance it would be impossible for her party to run the country these days. Meloni, moreover, seems to have a flowing dialogue with the outgoing prime minister and hugely respected former president of the European Central Bank, to the point where we have already seen insinuations that Draghi has become Meloni’s own “leadership coach” and guarantor.

Of course, as is often the case with Italian politicians who are touted for top jobs, Meloni is quite the charmer – so many are convinced they have an “exclusive” dialogue with her. Draghi-ites are confident that, given the chaos around Italy, they have Meloni’s ear, and that this will be the case for some time.

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And yet, Steve Bannon, the global alt-right guru, also regularly chats with Meloni. In an effort to help Meloni tell her story, Bannon just rolled out an unprecedented Italian franchise of his “War Room” show. Inevitably, this warrants the question: Who is the real Meloni? Is she the responsible party leader who has been on an evolutionary path to morph Brothers of Italy into a post-populist party, or Viktor Orban’s friend in Rome? Only time will tell.

Nigeria drops out of world crypto adoption prime 10 record

Nigeria and Kenya have dropped out of the highest ten nations globally which have adopted cryptocurrencies, in response to the 2022 International Crypto Adoption Index report launched by Chainalysis, a blockchain analytics platform.

Nigeria, Africa’s largest crypto market, moved from the fifth place in 2021 to the eleventh place whereas Kenya dropped to nineteenth from sixth. Morocco, which was not within the rating final yr, overtook Kenya, Togo, South Africa and Ghana to presently occupy the 14th place.

Why the decline?

Most business observers is perhaps curious as to what triggered the decline by Nigeria. However evaluation of the report confirmed that it was because of the change in metrics utilized by Chainalysis for the 2022 International Crypto Adoption Index.

The 2021 version of the report used crypto adoption of the common particular person and transactions, new circumstances, and particular person financial savings. Conversely, the 2022 index centered on institutional exercise, that means the place customers are placing probably the most vital a part of their cryptocurrency cash.

In Nigeria, recall that in January 2017, the Central Financial institution of Nigeria (CBN) positioned a ban on transacting in cryptocurrencies or facilitating cost for cryptocurrency exchanges. Though a big variety of P2P transactions go on within the nation, there’s nonetheless an absence of serious institutional actions.

The rationale for the decline in response to Senator Ihenyen, the President of Stakeholders in Blockchain Affiliation of Nigeria (SiBAN) is because of the 2022 metrics that are removed from Nigeria’s sturdy areas.

“The most important cause Nigeria shouldn’t be within the first 10 is that the Chainalysis report seemed past the areas the place Nigeria is understood to be very sturdy. As an example, whereas Nigeria scores extremely in grassroots adoption with its ever-growing P2P market, Nigeria shouldn’t be as sturdy relating to different areas equivalent to centralised retail transactions, DeFi, and institutional adoption”, he explains.

He reiterated Nigeria has a low buying energy in comparison with different nations on the record equivalent to the USA, Indonesia and Brazil. So Nigeria depends on crypto to remit cash, hedge inflation and pay for cross-border companies principally by P2P change.

“That is the place we’re strongest. And that is why for instance the USA, which is presently ranked third on the worldwide crypto index, ranks 111th when P2P transactions are solely thought-about. Nigeria even beats Vietnam, the no. 1 nation in crypto adoption, in P2P crypto transactions.”

“Institutional adoption in Nigeria, so long as the CBN is but to vary its stance on crypto, will proceed to be impaired. Though with the brand new SEC guidelines on digital belongings in Nigeria, I anticipate some little positive aspects in institutional adoption, however once more if the CBN helps the SEC by guaranteeing licensed operators have entry to financial institution accounts”, he provides.

Extra on the 2022 International Crypto Adoption Index

The 2022 International Crypto Adoption Index, is part of the 2022 Geography of Cryptocurrency Report by Chainalysis that will likely be launched later.

The index considers the adoption of digital belongings throughout 154 nations and compares them utilizing 5 completely different “sub-indexes,” together with on-chain cryptocurrency worth acquired at centralised exchanges, the on-chain retail worth acquired at centralised exchanges, peer-to-peer (P2P) change commerce quantity, on-chain cryptocurrency worth acquired from DeFi protocols, and on-chain retail worth acquired from DeFi protocols.

The 5 completely different sub-indexes are all weighted by buying energy parity (PPP) per capita, a metric economists use to check requirements of residing between nations. The purpose of releasing the report yearly, in response to the Chainalysis report is to assist nations maintain tabs on their cryptocurrency efficiency yr on yr:

“The purpose of this sub-index is to rank every nation by whole cryptocurrency exercise occurring on centralised companies, and to then weight the rankings to favour nations the place that quantity is extra vital based mostly on the wealth of the common particular person and worth of cash usually throughout the nation.”

The report confirmed that though international adoption of cryptocurrency reached its all-time excessive in Q2 2021. Since then, adoption has moved in waves – it fell in Q3, which noticed crypto worth declines, rebounded in This autumn when the costs rebound to new all-time highs and has fallen in every of the final two quarters as we’ve entered a bear market. Nonetheless, it’s necessary to notice that international adoption stays nicely above its pre-bull market 2019 ranges.

The info additionally means that the individuals who had been attracted by rising costs in 2020 and 2021 caught round, and proceed to speculate a big chunk of their belongings in digital belongings.

Massive, long-term cryptocurrency holders proceed to carry by the bear market, and so whereas their portfolios have misplaced worth, these losses aren’t locked in but as a result of they haven’t bought— the on-chain knowledge suggests these holders are optimistic the market will bounce again, which retains market fundamentals comparatively wholesome.

Vietnam retained its place final yr as the worldwide main nation for cryptocurrency and was adopted by the Philippines and Ukraine.

Different noteworthy modifications on the highest 10 lists had been India on the 4th, the USA on the fifth, Thailand at eighth and China again within the tenth place (that is regardless of the Chinese language authorities’s crackdown on cryptocurrency exercise, which features a ban on all cryptocurrency buying and selling introduced in September 2021).

Here’s a view of the highest 20 nations on the index.

The 2022 Index signifies that the crypto adoption price has slowed down globally general. That is because of the incessant bearish market situations. Though costs of crypto cash are nonetheless higher than what they had been on the earliest time of the crash.

Rising markets dominate the index. The report used the World Financial institution categorisation of nations into one in all 4 based mostly on revenue ranges and general financial growth: excessive revenue, higher center revenue, decrease center revenue, and low revenue.

Ten are lower-middle revenue: Vietnam, Philippines, Ukraine, India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Morocco, Nepal, Kenya, and Indonesia.

Eight are upper-middle revenue: Brazil, Thailand, Russia, China, Turkey, Argentina, Colombia, and Ecuador.

Two are high-income: the USA and the UK.

The report emphasised the aim of the adoption of cryptocurrency by customers within the decrease center and higher middle-income nations. “…Customers in these nations depend on cryptocurrency to ship remittances, protect their financial savings in occasions of fiat forex volatility, and fulfil different monetary wants distinctive to their economies. These nations additionally are inclined to lean on Bitcoin and stablecoins greater than different nations.”

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Month: September 2022