Opening Bell: 8.24.15
From Panic to Judgment Day, Investors Struggle to Describe Rout (Bloomberg)
As global markets tumbled, investors, strategists and asset managers across the world struggled for words to describe the selloff that wiped $490 billion from emerging-market equities, dragged Saudi stocks into a bear market and pushed Russia’s ruble toward its lowest closing level on record. David Welch, the head of equity sales trading at Reorient Group in Hong Kong: “I’m trying to process the whole thing. It’s just ugly.”
AshleyMadison Data Used in Extortion Attempts, Police Say (Bloomberg)
Blackmail attempts have been made against people whose personal information may have been included among data released by the hackers last week, Toronto Police Acting Staff Superintendent Bryce Evans said at a news conference Monday. There also have been two unconfirmed reports of suicides related to the data release, he said.
China fears wipe quarter of a trillion euros off Europe's blue-chips (Reuters)
The index sank to its lowest level since January, having lost over a trillion euros in market value since the start of the month as China's devaluation of the yuan stoked fears of global economic deflation.
Wall Street ready to fight against high-speed trading ‘spoofers’ (NYP)
Regulatory brass at American exchanges are ready to unleash a new high-tech campaign to isolate and wipe out international high-speed trading “spoofers” who manipulate the US markets from the relative safety of their non-US perches, The Post has learned.
Brent Oil Falls Below $45 for First Time Since 2009 on Supplies (Bloomberg)
Crude in London slid below $45 a barrel for the first time since March 2009 on concerns Chinese demand is slowing just as Iran and the U.S. threaten to expand a global glut.
Brad Katsuyama’s Next Chapter (Bloomberg)
Not even famous-for-Wall-Street famous. He was Canadian, for heaven’s sake. He’d worked at Royal Bank of Canada, not Goldman Sachs or JPMorgan. He was running a startup—and not one that made anything you could download from the App Store. So even after Michael Lewis interviewed him for Flash Boys, even after Lewis flew to Toronto to talk to his parents and high school friends, even after he discovered Lewis had actually made him—Brad Katsuyama—the book’s hero, even after the 60 Minutes camera crew showed up … even then, Katsuyama says, he didn’t quite grasp what was about to happen. “I thought I could kind of blend in,” he says between spoonfuls of granola and yogurt at a lower Manhattan restaurant. “You know, Asian guy, normal haircut.”
Porn Star Kayla Kupcakes Flashes Judge In Florida Courtroom (HP)
A Florida judge got to see more evidence than he expected Thursday when an accused woman flashed her breasts in court. Susan Surrette, 54, was arrested Wednesday for disorderly intoxication in Fort Lauderdale. She appeared in a Broward County bond court Thursday via a video feed, NBC Miami reports. At one point during the hearing, Judge John Hurley asked Surrette what she did for a living. She replied that she worked as an escort and porn star under the name "Kayla Kupcakes." During the hearing, Surrette alleged she was the victim of police brutality and lifted up her shirt to offer proof, according to WPTV.