The Securities and Exchange Commission has removed crypto asset-related services as a primary focus in its 2026 examination priorities, shifting to fiduciary duty, standards of conduct and customer data privacy. "Examinations are an important component to accomplishing the agency's mission, but they should not be a 'gotcha' exercise," SEC Chair Paul Atkins says. "Today's release of examination priorities should enable firms to prepare to have a constructive dialogue with SEC examiners and provide transparency into the priorities of the agency's most public-facing division."

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The Securities and Exchange Commission is evaluating potential adjustments to its US Treasury central clearing rule as firms prepare for the upcoming transition. At the 2025 US Treasury Market Conference, Commissioner Mark Uyeda said the SEC is considering whether to broaden the interaffiliate exemption to cover cash transactions and additional types of affiliates. The agency is also assessing how the exemption could address internal liquidity and collateral-management challenges flagged by market participants. These discussions come as the SEC works to clarify implementation issues ahead of the rule's compliance deadlines.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced changes to the process by which companies can seek to exclude votes on shareholder resolutions, potentially making it more difficult for investors to force votes on certain topics. The SEC will no longer rule on common proxy objections until at least June 2026, citing administrative burden and resource allocation.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India is preparing new measures to draw foreign investors, including faster registration, lower trading costs, and eased short-selling rules. Chair Tuhin Kanta Pandey said SEBI will also review cash-market margins and defer same-day settlement plans while assessing the impact of recent derivatives curbs aimed at cooling speculative trading.

Assets in the US exchange-traded fund industry reached a record $13.08 trillion at the end of last month, with net inflows for the month totaling $186.19 billion, ETFGI says. This has helped push year-to-date inflows to $1.14 trillion, also a record.

US-listed spot bitcoin ETFs saw $869 million in outflows Thursday, their second-largest on record, as bitcoin fell below $100,000 and market risk aversion increased. The funds have lost $2.64 billion over the past three weeks, with ether ETFs also seeing their biggest withdrawal in a month.

In the third quarter, several major hedge funds trimmed their stakes in the "Magnificent Seven" Big Tech stocks, such as Nvidia, Amazon, Alphabet and Meta. These moves reflect a broader pullback from the sector as valuations retreated following the earlier artificial intelligence-driven surge.

BlackRock is reportedly revamping flagship quant hedge fund BlackRock is adding stockpickers to its flagship quant hedge fund, Systematic Total Alpha, to rival industry giants such as DE Shaw, Citadel and Millennium. The fund, which has $7 billion in capital, has returned 14% annually since its June 2022 launch, BlackRock is not recruiting externally for the initiative.

Major hedge funds are shifting their strategies by expanding from publicly traded markets into private credit and other less liquid financial sectors. This move is motivated by the shrinking pool of public companies and the cap on assets they can manage in traditional hedge funds. The shift represents a major evolution in the hedge fund industry's approach to generating returns.