HSBC announced yesterday that, 5 years after its controversial deferred prosecution agreement with the DOJ following the Swiss bank’s 2012 $1.9 billion payment over money-laundering allegations, it’ll be released from those criminal charges – NYTimes and WSJ
The Journal explores the limits of hedge funds trying to use machine learning to guide its trading strategies. While a couple funds have succeeded, the majority have had a harder time, as the “yearslong struggle of Voleon” exemplifies – WSJ
The Fed is all but sure to raise short-term interest rates following its FOMC session this week. Helpful, but then what? – NYTimes and WSJ
We heard yesterday that Paul Singer’s back at it against Alexion. Today, we know that Carl Icahn isn’t going to let him have all of the activist fun with news that he’s launching a board fight with Xerox – WSJ
How about this novel [in this day and age] dilemma facing UK central banker Mark Carney—too much inflation for a change – Bloomberg
Speaking of novel, the Journal argues that web-based comparison shopping [thanks, Amazon] is part of the answer to the persistently low inflation question bedeviling the Fed – WSJ
The DOJ is on record before a NY federal court arguing that its case against 3 London-based Forex may proceed because their activity had a substantial-enough connection to the US – Law360
Disney’s anticipated big-ticket bid for a good-sized chunk of 21st Century Fox will likely be announced by the end of the week – Bloomberg and MarketWatch
Soooo… definitely not a bubble on this whole ICO thing, right? – Bloomberg [and NYTimes]
KKR is replacing Blackstone Group and assuming control as manager of FS Investment Corp, a BDC with $4.1 billion in assets – WSJ
Here’s a very 2017 job for you: insurance company climate disaster tester (aka, the team that gets to “break, burn and throw stuff” in the name of research) – NYTimes