2025-08-20 17:56

SANTIAGO, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Chilean lithium producer SQM (SQMA.SN) , opens new tab expects prices and sales volumes to rise in the third quarter, executives said on Wednesday, after the miner missed estimates for second-quarter net profit. The world's second-largest lithium producer reported a 59% decline in quarterly profit, with lithium prices down around a third year-on-year. Sign up here. Net profit of $88.4 million missed analysts' estimates of $143.01 million, according to data compiled by LSEG, while revenue of $1.04 billion was broadly in line with the estimate of $1.064 billion. Chief Executive Ricardo Ramos in a statement said lithium prices had in some cases hit the lower limits of sales contracts, affecting agreed volumes. Executives on a call with analysts declined to give further details about how the company had adjusted contracts, citing confidentiality. They predicted an uptick in sales volumes of at least 10% in the third quarter from the second quarter, and pointed to potential supply reductions in China as a good sign for prices. "We expect that with the recent price recovery in China, our sales price in Q3 should be higher than in Q2," said Felipe Smith, SQM's commercial vice president for lithium. He noted that Asia prices outside of China have also been strengthening, although more slowly. Global prices for lithium, a critical component of electric vehicle batteries, have plunged nearly 90% from a late-2022 peak, leading producers to slash workforces and pull back on plans. SQM began laying off 5% of its Chilean workforce in June, and Moody's last month lowered the miner's outlook to "negative" due to lithium revenue uncertainty. SQM also makes fertilizers and industrial chemicals on Chile's Atacama salt flat, one of the highest concentration lithium deposits in the world. The company said it is on track to finalize a partnership with Chilean state-run copper miner Codelco (COBRE.UL) as soon as September or October. The deal still requires approval from regulators in China, after other countries signed off. SQM also said it expects approval for a major revamp of its lithium operations in the first half of 2030 as it works to submit an environmental impact report to authorities next year. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/chiles-sqm-expects-lithium-price-boost-third-quarter-2025-08-20/

2025-08-20 17:46

NEW YORK, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Tech stocks led declines on Wall Street, with worries about AI spurring debates about its future. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.2% over the last two days, the worst two-day fall since August 1st. The semiconductor index was down 1.4% (.SOX) , opens new tab, while the information technology sector (.SPLRCT) , opens new tab was the second biggest decliner in the S&P 500, sliding 1% on Wednesday. Sign up here. Market participants attributed the selloff to a range of factors including a technical pullback after driving much of the stock market's recovery in the weeks after the April 2nd "Liberation Day." Aside from AI concerns, analysts also cited deepening fears of government interference with companies, as the Trump administration looked into taking equity stakes in chip companies such as Intel in exchange for grants under the CHIPS Act. COMMENTS: CHRISTOPHER MURPHY, CO-HEAD OF DERIVATIVES STRATEGY, SUSQUEHANNA, PENNSYLVANIA: "I think it's more likely this is an overstretched pause than the beginning of a new rotation. The most notable trade midday was a seller of 20k+ Dec 100 puts as SPX rebounded sharply, suggesting investors are taking advantage of the pullback via selling puts rather than signaling a wholesale shift. For now, flows point to taking advantage of the sell-off as opposed to a clear reallocation of capital into new sectors." CHRISTOPHER VECCHIO, HEAD OF FUTURES & FOREX, TASTYLIVE, NEW YORK: "Tech stocks are sliding as investors pare back risk ahead of the Fed's Jackson Hole meeting, with traders reluctant to chase valuations higher into a Powell speech that will likely fall short of promising a September rate cut." "Fresh concerns over the durability of the AI boom, after an MIT study highlighted weak corporate returns and comments from OpenAI's Sam Altman cited excess buildout in the space, have added to the pressure." "If it's the start of a rotation, it's less of a 'growth shifting to value' or 'smalls caps over mega caps' shift and more of a 'classic defensive' posturing around economic weakness: bonds, gold, healthcare, and consumer staples are leading the way. If there was a time of the year for a pullback, it's now: over the past 10- and 20-years, the S&P 500 has averaged losses of -1.7% and -1.2%, respectively, during the August to October window." ART HOGAN, MARKET STRATEGIST, B. RILEY WEALTH MANAGEMENT, BOSTON: "Technology in general is up 40% from its April lows, and the group clearly got ahead of itself. Also, if there's anything to the market consensus that we'll see a Fed rate cut, then there will be room for other things to work as well – and there are 493 other stocks in the S&P 500 that are lagging the Mag 7 right now. So I think there's a bit of a rotation." "I don't know how long it will last, but if it does keep going, well, August and September (are) the weak period seasonally in which it could do so. Also, there are some people who are beginning to question the pace at which we need to be chasing AI capital spending. If you put all this together: when technology stocks take a breather, this is what it looks like. Nvidia and other blue chips in the group are seeing relatively steady drawdowns, but things on the speculative edge are clearly seeing more selling pressure. Palantir has gone from trading at 200 times sales to 150 times its sales, for instance." MICHAEL ASHLEY SCHULMAN, CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER, RUNNING POINT, EL SEGUNDO, CALIFORNIA: "Tuesday' s U.S. technology stock swoon and its continuation today looks like multiple compression meeting a little margin math, but the timing makes it hard to ignore the new elephant in the server room. Names that had been sprinting on AI dreams pulled back hard, with Nvidia, AMD, and Palantir Technologies among the drags." "DeepSeek's update landed on Tuesday represents a serious cocktail of capability and availability and traders well remember the original harsh tech-market pullback DeepSeek caused when it was first broadly recognized in January of this year." BRIAN JACOBSEN, CHIEF ECONOMIST, ANNEX WEALTH MANAGEMENT, BROOKFIELD, WISCONSIN: "When you go from rally to rout, it shows how vulnerable the names were to even a scent of bad news. It could have been (Sam)Altman's valuation warning and then Meta restructuring its AI division threw fuel on the fire." SETH HICKLE, PORTFOLIO MANAGER, MINDSET WEALTH MANAGEMENT, INDIANAPOLIS: "I think we are starting to see a little bit of rotation. It's always healthy to see a little bit of a pullback to that way, the markets can kind of get re-oriented." "To me, tech was overbought. Maybe it was justified, but it could have been kind of a buy on the rumor, sell it on the news type of thing where we had tech runup into earnings. We had really good earnings, and now it's kind of natural for the market just to sell some of that good news." "I wouldn't be surprised if we see a little bit of rotation into some smaller cap or into healthcare names, or consumer staples. And to me, that's kind of a healthy rotation. But honestly, I don't believe it will be a longer-term trend. It'll probably be a shorter-term trend. I think we'll see money flow back into tech in the next couple months." PHIL BLANCATO, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, LADENBURG THALMANN ASSET MANAGEMENT, NEW YORK: "It's much more about profit-taking and temporary rebalancing here. If you get a Federal Reserve cut or a mention of it on Friday, this will reverse pretty quickly, but this is a lot to do with names pushed up to really lofty levels and profit taking across the board." STEVE SOSNICK, CHIEF STRATEGIST, INTERACTIVE BROKERS, CONNECTICUT: "The tech-led selloff that we saw yesterday resumed this morning. That said, dip buyers stepped in around 11am EDT and we've now recovered about half our losses. It's somewhat inevitable to expect them to arrive promptly, though it did take a bit longer than usual." "I believe that some of the early declines are related to profit-taking and risk squaring ahead of (Fed Chair Jerome)Powell's speech on Friday. That is merely rotation and relatively benign, though it gets magnified because of megacap tech stocks' heavy weighting in key indices. But some of the ferocity of the early drop was related to the President's calls for Lisa Cook's resignation." "Note that futures broke through their pre-market lows shortly after he posted on Truth Social. Markets were not perturbed that there are inquiries into the propriety of her personal mortgage applications. She gets a presumption of innocence until proven guilty, like any other person. But when the President weighed in even before the process began, then it raised the specter of politicization. That put markets on the wrong foot early, and negative momentum ruled again – at least for a couple of hours." ADAM SARHAN, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, 50 PARK INVESTMENTS, NEW YORK: "To see a little pullback here after a big move up is perfectly normal and healthy. If the selling gets worse then you'll see a rotation out of tech and into undervalued areas of the market like biotech stocks or healthcare stocks or small cap stocks because those areas have not participated this year." https://www.reuters.com/business/nasdaq-drops-2nd-day-ai-jitters-rattle-tech-investors-2025-08-20/

2025-08-20 16:40

Aug 20 (Reuters) - Jewelry retailer Claire's said on Wednesday it would sell its North American business to private equity firm Ames Watson for $104 million in cash, in a deal that will keep at least 795 retail locations in business. The sale agreement will "allow the Claire’s brand to remain a prominent retailer for teens, tweens, and young girls around the world," Claire's said in a court document filed on Wednesday. Sign up here. Ames Watson, a private holding company that owns athletic apparel brands including Champion Teamwear and Lids, is acquiring Claire's brand and up to 950 Claire's stores, according to court documents. Claire's has halted "going out of business sales" at all stores that could be sold, but it will continue liquidation sales at other locations. Claire's, which sells earrings and fashion accessories for teens and young girls, filed for earlier this month with more than $690 million in debt. The company, which previously filed for , operates more than 2,300 stores across 17 countries in North America and Europe. Ames Watson co-founder Lawrence Berger said in a statement that the firm was "committed to investing in its (Claire's) future by preserving a significant retail footprint across North America." Ames Watson will also provide noncash considerations as part of the sale, such as taking on liabilities owed to Claire's vendors and landlords, continuing to employ current retail staff at acquired Claire's stores, and extending $36 million in credit that the bankrupt company can use to address some of its pre-existing debt. Claire's will seek approval of the sale on Thursday at a court hearing in Wilmington, Delaware. Claire's has suffered in recent years from increased competition, high rent costs, and new tariffs on imports from supplier nations such as China, Thailand and Vietnam. https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/bankrupt-jewelry-retailer-claires-sell-its-north-american-business-2025-08-20/

2025-08-20 16:27

SAO PAULO/PARIS, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva spoke by phone on Wednesday with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron and discussed U.S. tariffs and the Mercosur-European Union trade deal, Brazil's government said in a statement. Lula voiced his opposition to tariffs on Brazilian goods, and the two leaders committed to concluding negotiations on the long-awaited deal between the South American bloc and the EU by the end of the year, the statement said. Sign up here. Lula had previously said he was hopeful the two parties would be able to finalize the deal in the second half, when his country holds the rotating presidency of Mercosur, which also includes Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay. The trade pact was agreed in principle in December, but has faced pushback from countries such as France, which says the deal's terms would harm its agricultural sector. In a post on X, Macron said he reiterated to Lula his readiness for an "ambitious" EU-Mercosur agreement, "as long as it safeguards the interests of our French and European agriculture, and serves our respective economies." "We also spoke at length about economic issues, particularly tariffs, as well as our bilateral cooperation in the fields of defense and transport," Macron added. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/lula-macron-discuss-us-tariffs-mercosur-eu-deal-phone-call-2025-08-20/

2025-08-20 12:39

MUMBAI, Aug 20 (Reuters) - India's monetary policy committee members flagged evolving risks from global trade tensions and tariffs as a key drag on growth but said the economy remains resilient with the inflation outlook benign, minutes of the August meeting showed on Wednesday. The Reserve Bank of India held its key repo rate steady at 5.50% earlier this month, after cutting rates by 100 basis points so far in 2025. Sign up here. The six-member Monetary Policy Committee voted unanimously to retain a "neutral" stance, citing the need for flexibility amid domestic and global uncertainties. "Growth projected at 6.5% is resilient," RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra wrote in the minutes, but added the projection was "certainly lower than what we can achieve." He warned that uncertainty in external demand, driven by tariffs and geopolitical tensions, remained a major drag on growth. India faces as much as 50% tariff on exports to the United States starting August 27 after U.S. President Donald Trump imposed an additional 25% tariff earlier in the month citing New Delhi's continued imports of Russian oil. Malhotra said the moderation in food inflation since the June meeting was larger than expected, but cautioned that the uncertainties around tariffs were still evolving. He added that the neutral stance would provide the necessary flexibility to respond to changing conditions. India's retail inflation rate dropped to its lowest level in eight years in July, as falling food prices, especially vegetables and pulses, squeezed farmers' incomes. Deputy Governor Poonam Gupta said the moderation in inflation was not broad-based and was primarily driven by food prices falling. "Core inflation is likely to remain above 4% in the near to medium term, barring any major negative shock to input prices," she wrote. MPC member Ram Singh said the average CPI inflation outlook for 2025–26 had become "very benign," though core inflation was expected to stay above the target range. He flagged sustained growth in construction, trade and services, but warned of high uncertainty on both inflation and growth fronts. External member Nagesh Kumar said the case for stimulating private investments and urban demand remains strong while the benign inflation outlook also provides policy space. But considering trade policy uncertainties, it is better to wait and watch before looking at any policy decisions at the October meeting, he said. External member Saugata Bhattacharya said monetary policy has to address multiple, often conflicting, objectives and optimise the consequent trade-offs. He highlighted the trade-off between loan and deposit rates as one of the key considerations. The central bank has a 4% inflation target, with a tolerance band between 2% and 6%. India reports GDP growth data on August 29. (This story has been corrected to change to 'August 29' from 'Friday' in paragraph 13) https://www.reuters.com/world/india/india-rate-panel-says-us-tariffs-key-drag-growth-flags-benign-inflation-outlook-2025-08-20/

2025-08-20 12:30

Aug 20 (Reuters) - China’s Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical Co (600688.SS) , opens new tab swung to a net loss in the first half of 2025 as weaker demand hit sales of refining and chemical products, the company reported late Wednesday. Sinopec reported a net loss of 462.1 million yuan ($64.40 million) for the period from January to June, according to the report. That compares with 27.9 million yuan profit the prior year. Sign up here. Net sales were 33.498 billion yuan, down 10.66% year-on-year, with net sales of refining products and chemicals falling 16.14% and 3.21%, respectively. The company said the market remains challenging, with strong supply and weak demand, rising penetration of new-energy vehicles squeezing fuel demand, and the chemical sector still at a cyclical low. Weaker market demand drove a 6.72% decline in refining product sales volumes. With crude prices falling, weighted average selling prices across all segments also declined from a year earlier, the company said. Refinery throughput was 6.33 million metric tons in the six-month period, down 4.93% year-on-year. Diesel production fell 13.56% and aviation fuel declined 8.62% year-on-year, while gasoline slightly rose 0.14%. Output of ethylene, a key building block for petrochemicals, rose 24.34% to 273,300 tons in the first half. Capital expenditure was 408 million yuan in the first half of 2025, mainly allocated to construction work for the Shanghai Petrochemical cogeneration unit clean-efficiency upgrade. Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical’s Shanghai-listed shares closed at 2.90 yuan on Wednesday, up 1.75% on the day. The stock is down 4.3% year-to-date, while the SSE Composite Index has risen 12.37% over the same period. ($1 = 7.1757 Chinese yuan renminbi) https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/chinas-sinopec-shanghai-petrochemical-first-half-profit-slides-2025-08-20/