News

Algorithmic trading technology provider, Pragma, has launched a set of execution algorithms that use AI deep-learning technology following a beta trial last year. The programme was initiated by Pragma in 2018 to explore whether deep neural networks could govern routing, sizing, pricing and timing of orders within an execution algorithm’s micro-trading engine.

The hedge fund industry witnessed outflows of $30bn in 2020 — the third consecutive year of outflows and the fourth year of outflows in the last five years. JPMorgan analysts, in a report dated 19 January, noted the trend as hedge funds have struggled to match the returns of so-called passive funds that track the performance of some of the major indexes.

European biotech firms are flocking to the U.S. this year to raise equity capital, lured by the world’s largest pool of money and lofty valuations, with some skipping a listing in their home market entirely. This month, four clinical-stage biotechs based in Europe have said they plan to float on the Nasdaq exchange in New York, including initial public offerings for drug developers Immunocore and Pharvaris, and a secondary listing for France’s Biophytis SA, which focuses on age-related disease therapies.

After gutting buybacks to conserve cash, American corporations are repurchasing shares again. Corporate officers, on the other hand, are showing a bit less enthusiasm for their employers’ shares. In the first two weeks of the new year, a total of 1,000 insiders sold their own stock and 128 bought shares, leaving the sell-to-buy ratio poised for the highest monthly reading in data going back to 1988, according to Washington Service. Meanwhile, corporations announced $29 billion of buybacks over the stretch, up 46% from a year earlier, data compiled by Birinyi Associates show.

The Justice Department will not criminally charge Sen. Richard Burr in connection with stock trades that the North Carolina Republican executed on the heels of being briefed about Covid-19 last year, shortly before the coronavirus pandemic rocked the U.S. economy.