Good morning. The Securities and Exchange Commission has expanded an investigation into cryptocurrency platform FTX following its sudden implosion this week, a person familiar with the matter said. The investigation, which has been continuing for months, is focused on the company’s U.S. subsidiary, FTX.US, which lists dozens of crypto tokens.

Regulators believe some of these assets, as well as FTX’s lending product, might constitute securities under U.S. law that should have been registered with the SEC before being sold to U.S. investors. If that is the case, then the company’s handling of customer assets might also violate laws governing U.S. exchanges.

Meanwhile, crypto exchange Binance reversed course on a rescue offer for FTX, leaving the second-largest crypto exchange with an uncertain future.

Binance chose not to go ahead with the acquisition following a review of the company’s finances, the exchange said.

“In the beginning, our hope was to be able to support FTX’s customers to provide liquidity, but the issues are beyond our control or ability to help,” Binance said.

• Dow Falls More Than 600 Points Amid Crypto Selloff, Midterm Results

Speakers at the WSJ Risk & Compliance Forum on Nov. 16 include Brian Nelson from the U.S. Treasury Department and Robert Silvers from the Department of Homeland Security, along with multiple experts on corporate risk and compliance. Sign up here for discussions on economic sanctions, forced labor, climate change regulation, whistleblowers and cybersecurity.

Voters across the U.S. decided the fate of dozens of consequential ballot measures, from legalizing marijuana to taxing the rich.

In 37 states, people weighed in on familiar issues including gambling, guns and immigration. The 130 measures voted on Tuesday also included minimum-wage hikes and addressing constitutional language on slavery.

Also, voters supported abortion access in a politically diverse mix of states on Tuesday, delivering victories to reproductive-rights advocates on ballot measures in Michigan, California, Vermont and Republican-leaning Kentucky.

California voters rejected a ballot measure that sought to tax the state’s rich for its planned transition to electric vehicles and other green initiatives, dealing a blow to ride-hailing company Lyft Inc. and the environmental groups that had backed the proposition.

Credit Suisse Group AG pleaded guilty in 2014 to conspiring to help thousands of Americans cheat on their taxes. Eight years later, a set of problematic customer accounts still haunts the bank.

U.S. Justice Department officials have found deficiencies in the bank’s handling of its 2014 plea agreement, according to people familiar with the case. In a sign of the seriousness the bank places on the tax case, new general counsel Markus Diethelm attended recent meetings with the DOJ to give personal pledges toward reaching a resolution.

• Semiconductor whiz Gerald Yin left the U.S. and spent 18 years in China building what he said would be a worldwide powerhouse in chip-making equipment. Now the American citizen’s lifework has been thrown into uncertainty as U.S. restrictions undermine the global industry integration he celebrated.
   
• Wall Street’s private-equity giants are the latest companies to face regulatory investigations over deal makers’ use of banned communication channels. Apollo Global Management Inc., KKR & Co. Inc., and Carlyle Group Inc. disclosed Tuesday that they face investigations over whether their employees used messaging apps such as WhatsApp to do business. They are the most prominent asset-management firms so far to reveal their exposure to a regulatory sweep that examines compliance with record-keeping rules.

A Europe-wide moratorium on surveillance software such as NSO Group’s Pegasus and similar products is needed to clamp down on abuses, according to a draft report from European Union lawmakers published Tuesday.

The report was authored by Sophie in ‘t Veld, a Dutch member of the European Parliament, who chairs a special committee that has been investigating the use of spyware in the 27 EU countries.

Russia and Iran’s security chiefs pledged Wednesday to deepen the military cooperation between the two countries, further cementing ties that have seen Tehran supply drones to bolster Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine. 

During a meeting in Tehran, Russian security council secretary Nikolai Patrushev and his Iranian counterpart Ali Shamkhani said they would jointly fight what they called Western interference in their countries, and expand economic ties in a mutual effort to evade sanctions.

• Russia Orders Withdrawal From Kherson

Prices charged by Chinese companies at the factory gate recorded their first annual fall in almost two years, another downbeat signal for the global economy as bulging inventories and cautious consumers in the West hit overseas demand for Chinese-made goods.

Chinese producer prices fell 1.3% in October compared with a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said Wednesday, the country’s first year-over-year decline in producer-price inflation since December 2020.

• Australia will review its rules aimed at deterring former military personnel from aiding foreign adversaries, as U.S. allies grow concerned that China has recruited Western pilots and benefited from their technical expertise.
   
• North Korea continued its torrid pace of weapons testing on Wednesday, launching a short-range ballistic missile off the country’s east coast after vowing to take overwhelming measures in response to recent U.S.-South Korea military exercises.
   
• The U.S. outlined a new carbon-credit plan that aims to pump billions of dollars into developing countries’ energy transition, while some businesses expressed caution over investing in the program.

• Goldman Sachs Group Inc. promoted 80 bankers into its partnership on Wednesday, the biggest class since Chief Executive David Solomon took over in 2018.
   
• Elon Musk has already dumped the gray “official” check mark. Hours after Twitter Inc. started rolling out the label verifying the authenticity of a user’s account, Mr. Musk, Twitter’s new owner, said he was getting rid of it.
   
• Former Peloton Chief Executive John Foley is trading exercise bikes for something closer to the ground: rugs.
   
• Hasbro Inc. Chief Financial Officer Deborah Thomas plans to retire from the toy and entertainment company.

• China’s manufacturing hub of Guangzhou locked down more of the city as the country struggles to contain the worst coronavirus outbreak in more than six months, underscoring the challenge to leader Xi Jinping’s zero-Covid policy from new, more transmissible variants.
   
• Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world’s largest contract chip maker, is preparing another multibillion-dollar factory investment in Arizona, people familiar with the plans said. 
   
• Retailers this holiday season are focusing on delivering packages to customers on specific dates, rather than competing on speed of delivery.