Category: 3. Business

By Vivien Lou Chen

A stronger yen and rising Japanese bond yields could pull capital away from the U.S. equity and bond markets

Bank of Japan governor Kazuo Ueda.

Bank of Japan governor Kazuo Ueda delivered a speech on Monday that was heard by investors all around the world.

The BOJ official caused a stir in global markets by suggesting that the central bank could raise interest rates again as soon as later this month. The remark caused Japanese bond yields to rise sharply, while yields on other global sovereign bonds, from the U.S. to Europe and the rest of Asia, quickly followed suit.

Speaking to business leaders in Nagoya, Ueda said that the BOJ “will consider the pros and cons” of raising its policy interest rate at its upcoming policy meeting, which ends Dec. 19. The central bank last raised interest rates to 0.5% from 0.25% in January, bringing borrowing costs to their highest level in 17 years.

Ueda’s remarks, which come at a time when the Japanese economy is experiencing a moderate recovery, triggered a global bond-market selloff that impacted debt trading in Australia and New Zealand, as well as in France, Italy, Greece and the U.S. In the bond market, yields move in the opposite direction to prices, and rise whenever government debt sells off.

“The Bank of Japan is finally signaling an end of an era after decades of ultraloose policy,” said Ryan Jacobs, founder of Florida-based advisory firm Jacobs Investment Management. “American investors should pay close attention. A stronger yen and rising Japanese yields could pull capital away from the U.S. bond and equities markets, tightening financial conditions globally.”

On Monday, Japan’s 2-year yield BX:TMBMKJP-02Y spiked just above 1% and its 10-year yield BX:TMBMKJP-10Y jumped to almost 1.88% – the highest levels in at least 17 years. Meanwhile, the yen (USDJPY) strengthened against the U.S. dollar DXY by about 0.5%.

Yields and currencies tend to move alongside interest-rate expectations for specific countries, and rising Japanese bond rates were stoking concerns about a possible replay of the August 2024 unwind of the yen carry trade, which created a wave of volatility across global markets.

In the U.S., yields on the 10-year BX:TMUBMUSD10Y and 30-year BX:TMUBMUSD30Y Treasurys spiked by 7 basis points each to 4.09% and 4.74%, respectively, data showed. Meanwhile, major U.S. stock indexes DJIA SPX COMP moved lower in afternoon trading.

Between 1999 and early 2024, Japan was known for keeping interests at rock-bottom levels, and even below zero for eight of those years, as it pursued a monetary policy aimed at combating persistent deflation and stoking economic growth.

Before Ueda’s comments on Monday, investors had been more focused on the prospect of aggressive fiscal stimulus under Japan’s first female prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, and the possibility that a subsequent rise in yields might make the country’s bond market look more attractive relative to the U.S. and the rest of the world. But on Monday, Ueda gave investors another reason to push Japanese bond yields even higher.

Read: Why trouble for the biggest foreign buyer of U.S. debt could ripple through America’s bond market

“The market went into the weekend with the expectation that, given the new prime minister in Japan, the BOJ might be more hesitant before deciding its next move. It turned out to be the other way around and the BOJ appears to be ready to hike in December,” said Daniel Tenengauzer, a senior macro analyst at InTouch Capital Markets in New York.

With the yen still undervalued, Ueda’s comments about a potential rate hike were creating a desire by some investors to rebuild long positions in Japan’s currency, according to Tenengauzer. “If the BOJ is somewhat more hawkish, people will want to price this in across other markets.”

The Bank of Japan was not the only thing impacting the Treasury market on Monday, however.

In Tenengauzer’s view, a quarter-point rate cut by the Federal Reserve next week has been mostly priced in, leaving traders with little else to do but unwind long-bond exposures. In addition, anecdotal economic information about the U.S. suggests that “maybe things are not as bad as expected,” he said.

Thirdly, President Trump announced over the weekend that he has made his choice on who will next lead the Fed, and prediction markets are betting that Kevin Hassett, the director of the National Economic Council, will be the president’s pick. Hassett is expected to support aggressive rate cuts, raising some concerns that this may end up inadvertently boosting inflationary pressures.

-Vivien Lou Chen

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

  (END) Dow Jones Newswires

  12-01-25 1348ET
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India’s telecoms ministry has privately asked smartphone makers to preload all new devices with a state-owned cybersecurity app that cannot be deleted, a government order showed, a move likely to antagonise Apple and privacy advocates.

In tackling a recent surge of cybercrime and hacking, India is joining authorities worldwide, most recently in Russia, to frame rules blocking the use of stolen phones for fraud or promoting state-backed government service apps.

Apple, which has previously locked horns with the telecoms regulator over development of a government anti-spam mobile app, is among the companies, such as Samsung, Vivo, Oppo and Xiaomi bound by the new order.

The 28 November order gives major smartphone companies 90 days to ensure that the government’s Sanchar Saathi app is pre-installed on new mobile phones, with a provision that users cannot disable it.

For devices already in the supply chain, manufacturers should push the app to phones via software updates, the ministry said in its order, which was not made public and was sent privately to select companies.

A lawyer specialising in technology matters said India’s move was cause for concern, however.

“The government effectively removes user consent as a meaningful choice,” said Mishi Choudhary, who works on internet advocacy issues.

Privacy advocates criticised a similar requirement by Russia in August for a state-backed messenger app called Max to be pre-installed on phones.

One of the world’s largest telephone markets, India has more than 1.2 billion subscribers, and government figures show the app, launched in January, has helped recover more than 700,000 lost phones, including 50,000 in October alone.

The government said the app was essential to combat “serious endangerment” of telecom cybersecurity from duplicate or spoofed IMEI numbers, which enable scams and network misuse.

Apple’s iOS powered an estimated 4.5% of 735m smartphones in India by mid-2025, with the rest using Android, according to Counterpoint Research.

While Apple pre-installs its own proprietary apps on phones, its internal policies prohibit installation of any government or third-party app before sale of a smartphone, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said.

“Apple has historically refused such requests from governments,” said Tarun Pathak, a research director at Counterpoint.

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“It’s likely to seek a middle ground: instead of a mandatory pre-install, they might negotiate and ask for an option to nudge users towards installing the app.“

Apple, Google, Samsung and Xiaomi did not respond to requests for comment. India’s telecoms ministry also did not respond.

A 14- to 17-digit number unique to each handset, the IMEI, or International Mobile Equipment Identity, is most commonly used to cut off network access for phones reported to have been stolen.

The Sanchar Saathi app is mainly designed to help users block and track lost or stolen smartphones across all telecom networks, using a central registry. It also lets them identify, and disconnect, fraudulent mobile connections.

With more than 5m downloads since its launch, the app has helped block more than 3.7m stolen or lost mobile phones, while more than 30m fraudulent connections have also been terminated.

The government says the software helps prevent cyberthreats and assists tracking and blocking of lost or stolen phones, helping police to trace devices, while keeping counterfeits out of the black market.

Zillow, the US’s largest real estate listing site, has removed a feature that allowed people to view a property’s exposure to the climate crisis, following complaints from the industry and some homeowners that it was hurting sales.

In September last year, the online real estate marketplace introduced a tool showing the individual risk of wildfire, flood, extreme heat, wind and poor air quality for one million properties it lists, explaining that “climate risks are now a critical factor in home-buying decisions” for many Americans.

But Zillow has now deleted this climate index in the wake of complaints from real estate agents and some homeowners that the rankings appeared arbitrary, could not be challenged and harmed house sales. The complaints included those from the California Regional Multiple Listing Service, which oversees a database of property data that Zillow relies upon.

Zillow said it remains committed to help Americans make informed decisions about properties, with listings now containing outbound links to the website of First Street, the nonprofit climate risk quantifier that had provided the on-site tool to Zillow.

Matthew Eby, founder and chief executive of First Street, said that removing the climate risk information means that many buyers will be “flying blind” in an era when worsening impacts of extreme weather are warping the real estate market in the US.

“The risk doesn’t go away; it just moves from a pre-purchase decision into a post-purchase liability,” Eby said. “Families discover after a flood that they should have purchased flood insurance, or discover after the sale that wildfire insurance is unaffordable or unavailable in their area.

“Access to accurate risk information before a purchase isn’t just helpful; it’s essential to protecting consumers and preventing lifelong financial consequences.”

Eby claimed that the push to delist the First Street ratings from Zillow is linked to a challenging real estate environment, with a lack of affordable housing and repeated climate-driven disasters that are causing insurers to raise premiums or even flee states such as California.

“All of that adds pressure to close sales however possible,” he said. “Climate risk data didn’t suddenly become inconvenient. It became harder to ignore in a stressed market.”

As the US, along with the rest of the world, has heated up due to the burning of fossil fuels, worsening extreme weather events have taken their toll directly upon people’s homes, as well as other infrastructure.

Last year, disasters likely amplified by the climate crisis caused $182bn in damages, one of the highest on record, according to a government database since taken offline by the Trump administration.

As a consequence of these mounting risks, the home insurance required for buyers to obtain a mortgage is becoming scarcer and more expensive across much of the US. These changes are running headlong into an opposing trend whereby more Americans are moving to places like Florida and the south-west, which are being increasingly beset by threats such as ruinous hurricanes and punishing heatwaves.

But assigning climate risks to individual properties has been controversial within the real estate industry, as well as some experts who have questioned whether such judgments can be made at such a granular level.

Warnings of such perils deterred some buyers, especially if the home was particularly costly anyway. Last year, a sprawling Florida mansion was put on sale for $295m, making it the most expensive property in the country and in a place also ranked as one of the most at-risk in the US for flooding. After several cuts to the asking price, the house has been taken off the market.

Jesse Keenan, an author and expert in climate risk management at Tulane University, said many scientists and economists have argued that “proprietary risk models that provide highly uncertain assessments can have the perverse effect of undermining the public’s confidence in climate science.”

“There has been a growing bipartisan recognition that the government should play a more active role in supporting and standardizing risk assessment for properties,” Keenan said. “At the same time, the science is limited in its capacity to assess property-by-property assessments.

“I do not believe that this is a sign that the brokerage industry is trying to hide climate risks,” he added. “Brokerage firms know they cannot stop the transmission of climate risk information because climate impacts are already being felt far and wide in the sector.”

Eby defended First Street’s methods and accuracy, pointing out that the models used are built on peer-reviewed science and validated against real-world outcomes.

“So when claims are made that our models are inaccurate, we ask for evidence,” he said. “To date, all the empirical validation shows our science is working as designed and providing better risk insight than the tools the industry has relied on historically.”

Shopify reported Monday that its platform was suffering from multiple service outages, as Cyber Monday sales kicked off.

Some merchants that use Shopify’s service to sell goods online may experience an issue with checkouts through the company’s point-of-sale system, the company said on its status website.

Businesses that run on Shopify could also have trouble logging into their administrative portals.

In 2024, merchants using Shopify services recorded $11.5 billion in sales from Black Friday through Cyber Monday, the company said, with more than 76 million customers buying from businesses powered by the platform.

Shopify provides website design tools, online checkout services and digital advertising products to businesses of all sizes. The company says that millions of merchants use its services.

While Shopify’s share of Cyber Monday sales may be limited, smaller businesses that rely on the company to process their transactions could miss out on crucial sales at the start of the all-important holiday season.

Total Cyber Monday sales are expected to be more than $53 billion, according to Salesforce.

Shopify did not immediately return a request for comment.

As of 1:25p.m. ET, Shopify shares were down 5%.

The future of work is changing fast. Future Focus cuts through the noise with three trends each week that matter most to HR and business leaders. When everything else is in flux, stay focused with Future Focus.

How People Feel About Vaccines Is Now Largely Political (Time) 

What to Know: A new survey of 5,000+ Americans shows vaccine attitudes are sharply polarized: 59% don’t plan to get the latest COVID-19 shot, including 83% of Republicans versus 44% of Democrats. Awareness of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s updated COVID-19 guidance is low, and support for school vaccine mandates — especially among Republicans — has fallen despite most still agreeing that vaccines’ benefits outweigh risks.  

Where to Focus: Vaccine sentiment is now a political signal, not just a health preference, making it a potential flashpoint in workplace interactions.  Political differences are among the top 5 sources of workplace incivility, according to the SHRM Q3 2025 Civility Index. This means that vaccine-related health communications and policies can trigger polarized reactions. 

Why Is It So Hard to Pay Cross-Border Employees In Europe (Fast Company)

What to Know: Hiring Europeans remains administratively complex: national labor, tax, and social security rules differ. Layer on inconsistent EU directives and misclassification risks amid the persistent talent shortage, and the hiring regulatory landscape just got a little more complicated. 

Where to Focus: Growth increasingly depends on accessing global talent, yet the operational drag of entity setup, social security coordination, and tax residency rules can erase speed-to-hire advantages. With EU labor shortages expected to worsen and demand for specialized talent up 112% in three years, organizations will need to upskill teams and draw from domestic untapped talent pools to close critical gaps.

Research: The Global Skills Mismatch

How Campbell’s Leaked Audio Turned a Pantry Staple Into a PR Crisis (Fortune)

What to Know: A leaked audio recording of a Campbell executive mocking Indian workers, disparaging customers, and referencing “bioengineered” or “3D” meat triggered swift public backlash over Thanksgiving weekend. The company confirmed the recording’s authenticity and removed the leader, but allegations in a related lawsuit suggest deeper questions about internal reporting culture and leadership oversight. 

Where to Focus: This moment highlights the direct link between leadership conduct and organizational trust. Leaders should revisit reporting pathways along with escalation protocols and prepare for the reality that unguarded moments can shape brand trust in seconds. Reinforcing crisis communications and training leaders on values-aligned behavior are essential steps to prevent isolated misconduct from escalating into an enterprise-level crisis.

Be the First to Know What’s Next 

Get Future Focus delivered weekly through Tomorrowist, your shortcut to smarter decisions in a changing world of work.

Our next Heroes of the Storm patch is live! Read on for more information.

NOTE: Orange text indicates a change between PTR and Live notes.

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General

• New Skin: Warthog Gear Head Thrall

• Players will now receive an announcement when a quest milestone is reached. This will only announce to the player who achieved the milestone.
• Ranges of abilities on numerous Heroes have been updated to be more consistent. This may cause certain abilities ranges to reduce or increase.
• Brawl

  • Starting January 2026, Brawls will only be open the first 5 days of every month.

• Updated Homescreen and Startup Music.

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Map Updates

• General
  

  • A new Fallback Tower has been added to the longer lanes on each of the following battleground maps. This new tower will die when its corresponding Fort dies: Alterac Pass, Battlefield of Eternity, Blackheart’s Bay, Braxis Holdout, Cursed Hollow, Dragon Shire, Garden of Terror, Hanamura Temple, Infernal Shrines, Sky Temple, Tomb of the Spider Queen, Volskaya Foundry, and Warhead Junction.
  • Attacks from the Core, Keeps, Forts, Fallback Towers, and Towers near Keeps will now reduce Hero armor, and the reduction has been increased from -10/-20 Armor to -20/-40 Armor.
  • Fallback Towers have the same HP and Attack Damage as Keep Towers.
  • Forts, Keeps, and the Core will no longer grant Allied Heroes that take damage in their radius 35 Armor for 4 seconds.
  • The comeback system has been slightly magnified, particularly at wide level gaps.

• Alterac Pass

  • Objective capture timer reduced by 5 seconds in each phase. The first phase only spawns a single defending unit.
  • Cavalry now gain more health in the later stages of the game.
  • Cavalry now take 60% damage from structures (up from 50%).

• Braxis Holdout

  • Early objectives have lowered in health by 15%, but scaling has been increased significantly after 15 minutes.

• Garden of Terror

  • Garden Terror health scaling increased.
  • Garden Terror structure disabling plant bulb now damages itself at 10% per second (up from 6%).

• Infernal Shrines

  • Early objectives have lowered in health by 15%, but scaling has been increased significantly after 15 minutes.

• Warhead Junction

  • Nuke damage has been changed to flat, scaling damage. Scaling is updated when a Warhead is picked up.
  • Nukes now deal double damage versus Forts, Keeps, and the Core.

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Balance Update

General

• Pinnacle Rewards have been added to mutiple Heroes. These will be hard to obtain but provide powerful rewards.

Heroes

Falstad

Base

• Lightning Rod [W]
  

  • Cooldown reduced from 13 seconds to 12 seconds.

Talents

• Level 1
  

  • Dishonorable Discharge
    

    • REWORK: No longer reduces CD. Bonuses are now provided at 20/45/75 hits. At 20 hits, gain 30% damage. At 45 hits, gain an additional 75% damage and reduce the cooldown by 2 seconds. Pinnacle Reward: At 75 hits, Lightning Rod provides 2 additional strikes and Stuns for 1.25s on its last strike.

  • Frequent Flyer

    • REWORK: Reduced attack speed bonus from 40% to 25%. Now provides 1 stack per minion and 5 stacks per Hero. At 50 stacks, gain 20 Attack Damage. At 125 stacks, gain an additional 50 Attack Damage. Pinnacle Reward: At 300 stacks, gain an additional 125 Attack Damage.

  • Gathering Storm

    • REWORK: Bonuses are now provided at 30/80/150 stacks, rather than incremental gains. At 30 stacks, gain 30% damage. At 80 stacks, gain an additional 50% damage. Pinnacle Reward: At 150 stacks, gain an additional 70% damage.
    • REWORK: Lose 8 stacks on death, but can not lose milestones that have already been completed.

• Level 7

  • Charged Up

    • Moved to be a Level 13 Talent.
    • No longer provides additional hits, but instead provides cooldown refresh on Hero takedowns.

• Level 13

  • Thunderstrikes

    • Moved to be a Level 7 Talent.

Guldan

Base

• Corruption [E]
  

  • Mana cost increased from 80 to 90.

Talents

• Level 1
  

  • Echoed Corruption
    

    • Increased stack requirement to 60. Pinnacle Reward: At 100 stacks, Corruption now heals for 50% of the damage dealt.

  • Pursuit of Flame

    • Increased radius from 10% to 15%.
    • Reworded to say “Fel Flame’s area is increased by 33%”.
    • Progress is now reset upon death and can not lose progress upon completion.

Johanna

Base

• Punish [Q]
  

  • Slow on enemies reduced from 60% to 50%.

  
  

Talents

• Level 4
  

  • Subdue
    

    • Slow on enemies reduced from 80% to 70%.

    
    

Kael’thas

Talents

• Level 1
  

  • Convection
    

    • REWORK: Every 20th Hero hit permanently increases Flamestrike damage by 150 and Kael’thas’s maximum Health by 50.

    
    

Kerrigan

Base

• Primal Grasp [E]
  

  • Cooldown reduced from 10 to 8.
  • Delayed damage reduced from 195 to 165.
  • Initial damage increased from 25 to 40.

• Ravage [Q]

  • Damage reduced from 130 to 115.
  • Now includes a baseline quest: Kill enemies within 1.5 seconds of hitting them with Ravage. Minions grant 1 progress and Heroes grant 5. At 75 stacks, Ravage gains 125 damage. Pinnacle Reward: At 125 stacks, Ravage gains 200 additional damage.

• Impaling Blades [W]

  • Cooldown reduced from 12 seconds to 9 seconds.
  • Damage reduced from 165 to 140.
  • Radius increased from 1.5 to 1.65.
  • Stun duration reduced from 1 second to .75 seconds.

• Assimilation [D]

  • Increased the amount of shield gained from Basic Attacks from 10% to 20% of damage dealt.

Talents

• Level 1
  

  • Fury of the Swarm
    

    • No longer increases shields gained from Basic Attacks.

• Level 4

  • Sharpened Blades
    
  • Ravaging Ferocity

    • NEW: Gain 25% attack speed for 3 seconds after using Ravage.

• Level 7

  • Boundless Fury

    • Cooldown increased from 10 seconds to 12 seconds.

  • Queen of Blades

    • Cooldown reduction increased from 3 seconds to 4 seconds.

• Level 10

  • Summon Ultralisk

    • Damage reduced from 250 to 225.

• Level 13

  • Chrysalis

    • HP lowered from 750 to 650.
    • Reduced the amount of health regenerated from 5% max health per second to 4%.

• Level 16

  • Painful Spikes

    • Damage reduced from 70 to 60.

• Level 20

  • Omegastorm

    • Increased extended duration from .25 seconds per hit to .4 seconds per hit.

Sylvanas

Base

• Black Arrows [D]
  

  • Black Arrows now refers to what was previously called “Banshee’s Curse”.
  • New Baseline Quest: Deal damage to Heroes or Structures with 3 stacks of black arrows. At 250 stacks, increased the damage bonus of Black Arrows to 50%. Pinnacle Reward: At 400 stacks, heal for 25% of damage dealt against enemies with 3 stacks of Black Arrows, doubled against Heroes.
  • Reduced base damage bonus of Black Arrows to 15%.
  • Activatable portion of Black Arrows has been removed.

Talents

• Level 1
  

  • Unfurling Shadows
    
    
  • Unrelenting Torment

    • NEW: Increases the damage of Shadow Dagger by 20% and increase its duration by 1 second.

• Level 4

  • Haunting Arrows

    • NEW: You can now activate Black Arrows to cause all damage dealt to stun non-heroes. 90 second cooldown, reduced by 3 seconds when attacking a structure.

  • Possession

    • Now a Baseline ability. 25 seconds to restore each charge, 2 seconds cooldown. Max 4 charges.

• Level 7

  • Barbed Shot

    • Bonus damage increased from 350% to 400%.

  • Lost Soul

    • REWORK: Reduces the cooldown of Shadow Dagger when attacking non-minions with 3 stacks of Black Arrows by .75 seconds, doubled against Heroes.

• Level 13

  • Windrunner

    • Recast window reduced from 5 seconds to 4 seconds.

Thrall

Talents

• Level 1
  

  • Crash Lightning
    

    • REWORK: Bonuses are now provided at 15 and 30 stacks. At each milestone, Chain Lightning gains 270 damage. Lose 6 stacks on death, but can not lose milestones that have already been completed.

  • Echo of the Elements

    • REWORK: Bonuses are now provided at 20/40/100 stacks. At 20 stacks, reduce mana cost of Chain Lightning by 20. At 40 stacks, Chain Lightning gains an extra charge and will bounce one additional time. Pinnacle Reward: At 100 stacks, Chain Lightning will fork to an additional target each time it bounces.

  • Rolling Thunder

    • Moved to be a Level 7 Talent.
    • No longer increases Chain Lightning bounces by 1.

• Level 7

  • Maelstrom Weapon

    • Moved to be a Level 1 Talent.
    • REWORK: Bonuses are now provided at 20/40/100 stacks, rather than incremental gains. At 20 stacks, gain 20 damage and increase the movespeed bonus to 40%. At 40 stacks, gain an additional 40 damage and Thrall permanently gains 15% increased movement speed. Pinnacle Reward: At 100 stacks, Frostwolf Resilience now provides +200% Healing.

• Level 16

  • Tempest Fury

    • No longer provides additional quest stacks.

  • Thunderstorm

    • Increased damage bonus provided at max stacks from 25% to 30%.

• Level 20

  • Wind Rush

    • Cooldown increased from 80 seconds to 90 seconds.

Tyrael

Talents

• Level 1
  

  • Ardent Restoration
    

    • Maximum healing stacks reduced from 10 to 8.

    
    

• Level 4

  • Reciprocate

    • Damage reduced from 190 to 170.

    
    

• Level 7

  • Burning Halo

    • Damge per second reduced from 15 to 12.

    
    

• Level 10

  • Sanctification

    • Cooldown reduced from 90 seconds to 85 seconds.
    • Mana cost reduced from 75 to 70.

    
    

• Level 20

  • Aspect of Justice

    • Cast time reduced from 1.5 seconds to 1.25 seconds.
    • Cooldown reduction per enemy Hero hit increased from 10% to 15%.

    
    

Zul’jin

Base

• Basic Attack Damage decreased from 96 to 94.
• You Want Axe? [D]

  • No longer has a cap on stacks.
  • Now causes Zul’jin to lose 3 stacks (15 hits) on death.

Talents

• Level 1
  

  • Headhunter
    

    • Increased damage bonus per hero kill from 2% to 2.5%.

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Bug Fixes

Map

• Blackheart’s Bay
  

  • Fixed an issue that caused the Battleground Objective to not start if a particular chest is the last destroyed chest.
  • Fixed an issue that caused the help text for attacking the Treasure Chest to not disappear if a particular chest is attacked.

• Warhead Junction

  • Fixed Warhead Junction Nuke Damage Dealt tracking.

Heroes

• Cho’gall
  

  • Base
    

    • Eye of Kilrogg [Skill 1]
      

      • Fixed an issue that caused the Eye of Kilrogg’s cast range indicator to be slightly larger than the ability range.

  • Level 1

    • We See You!

      • Fixed an issue that caused We See You’s range increase tooltip value to display incorrectly after being selected.

• D.Va

  • Fixed an issue that caused D.Va’s Mech to not respawn with the correct amount of Blackheart’s Bay Doubloons.
  • Base

    • Defense Matrix [W]

      • Fixed missing icon in D.Va’s Quick Cast setting for Retarget Defense Matrix.

• Gazlowe

  • Level 16

    • Firin’ Mah Lazors

      • Fixed an issue that caused Firin’ Mah Lazorz’s warning to not display correctly.
      • Fixed an issue that caused Big Top Gazlowe’s Firin’ Mah Lazorz to create permanent visuals.

• Kael’thas

  • Base

    • Living Bomb [W]

      • Living Bomb will not activate its effects on a target that becomes immune to Living Bomb.
      • Living Bomb will now apply its effects if the target dies with Living Bomb.

• Raynor

  • Base

    • Adrenaline Rush [E]

      • Fixed an issue that caused Adrenaline Rush to not display the base duration in its tooltip after selecting Give Me More.

• Stukov

  • Level 1

    • Reactive Ballistospores

      • Fixed Reactive Ballistospores tooltip.

• Tychus

  • Base

    • Overkill [Q]

      • Overkill retarget can now also be targeted in a direction. When clicking near or on a target, it will attach to that target, but if no targets are nearby, Overkill will start firing in that direction. If Overkill hits a target while firing in a direction, that target will become Overkill’s primary target.
      • If Overkill is active when there are no possible targets, Overkill will no longer be cancelled, and instead will start firing in the direction of the last primary target.
      • Fixed an issue that caused mounting to not interrupt Overkill.

• Valla

  • Base
    
  • Level 20

    • Storm of Vengeance

      • Fixed an issue that caused Storm of Vengeance to not grant 2% Attack Speed per Hatred stack.

• Zagara

  • Level 1

    • Infest

      • Fixed Infest active current bonus tooltip.

  • Level 16
    

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Linklaters has advised the Futures Industry Association (FIA), the leading global trade organisation for the futures, options and centrally cleared derivatives markets, on the European Agent Trustee Model (EATM), an alternative clearing model in Europe.

The EATM is designed to broadly replicate the Futures Commissions Merchant clearing model in the US, with the aim of increasing the clearing capacity of globally systemically important bank clearing members, particularly for over‑the‑counter derivatives.

Today marks an important milestone in the multi-year project between FIA, Bank of America, Barclays, Citi, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan, as well as LCH Ltd, Eurex Clearing and Linklaters, with the new model now live at leading clearing house, LCH Ltd, for its SwapClear service.

UK-based clearing members of SwapClear can now offer the EATM to their clients, irrespective of their clients’ location. Under the EATM (English law), clearing members may enter trades with a CCP on behalf of their clients and hold those trades on trust for them. This differs from Europe’s predominant ‘principal model’ in which clearing members act as financial intermediaries between their clients and the CCP.

The Linklaters team was led by Capital Markets Partner Michael Voisin and Capital Markets Counsel Sarah Willis, working with Managing Associate Hannah Pilkington and Associate Megan Gosling. They were by supported by Tax Partners Rhian Parker and Gabriel Grossman, Tax Counsel Ulrich Johann and Omer Harel and Trusts Counsel Leah Parry. Work on a German law version of the EATM, was led by Capital Markets Partner Burkhard Rinne and Capital Markets Counsel Marc Voelcker. Both the English and German law versions of the EATM brought together legal expertise from England and Wales, Germany, the US and other jurisdictions.

Michael Voisin, Capital Markets Partner at Linklaters, commented:

“We are delighted to have helped the industry bring such a complex project to a successful conclusion. We began working on the legal analysis which underlies the EATM over 10 years ago and, over the last five years, have built on our initial feasibility study to design and implement the model.”

Sarah Willis, Capital Markets Counsel at Linklaters, commented:

“Bringing the EATM to life at LCH is a landmark moment for cleared derivatives in Europe. We’re proud to have been a part of this new alternative clearing model, which will increase the clearing capacity of globally systemically important bank clearing members.”