2025-07-29 21:43
MEXICO CITY, July 29 (Reuters) - Mexican state company Pemex exported 39% less crude oil year-over-year in June, reaching the lowest level in decades, official data showed, as processing at local refineries and fuel production increased significantly. It exported 458,103 barrels per day (bpd) in June, compared to 753,539 bpd in the same month a year earlier, company data updated late on Monday showed. Sign up here. This was the lowest level since records started in 1990. In May, Pemex's international trading arm, PMI, forecast that the company would export less this year because more would be sent to local refineries, including to its new Olmeca refinery in the port of Dos Bocas. Pemex gave no explanation for the decline. However, in its quarterly earnings report on Monday it said it imported less gasoline and diesel because more was being refined locally. In June, it imported 475,047 bpd of refined products, a 38% year-over-year decrease. Pemex, which owes about $120 billion to both investors and suppliers, has also struggled with a sharp decline in production. Its seven local refineries processed 1.12 million bpd, helped by the new Olmeca refinery, which took in 191,585 bpd. In recent years, the Mexican government has sought to achieve what it calls "energy sovereignty" by drastically reducing exports of crude oil and refining it locally. Pemex executives reiterated to investors after the quarterly earnings report that the company was working towards achieving its production goal of 1.8 million bpd. Mexico is still far from reaching this goal. Production of crude oil and condensate has been declining, hovering around 1.6 million bpd. The government and Pemex executives have said that production will rebound with the help of partnerships with private companies, but have not shared details. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/mexico-exports-39-less-crude-oil-june-lowest-level-decades-2025-07-29/
2025-07-29 21:38
Trip, including U.S. transits, had been expected next month Trump trying to negotiate a deal on trade with China Source told Reuters trip not being canceled but postponed State Department says transits consistent longstanding policy GUATEMALA CITY/ASUNCION, July 29 (Reuters) - Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te will delay an expected trip to remaining allies in the Americas that would have taken place next month, embassy officials told Reuters on Tuesday, due to damages from a typhoon and as the island faces more torrential rains. Lai was expected to travel to the Americas next month, as his government seeks to shore up support in a region where many countries have cut diplomatic ties in favor of relations with China, which claims Taiwan as its territory. Sign up here. However, embassy officials in Guatemala and Paraguay said the visit had been postponed until further notice. "It had to be postponed because of the typhoon that caused many natural disasters. There is no new date to reschedule the visit," an embassy official in Guatemala City told Reuters. A spokesperson at Taiwan's embassy in Paraguay's capital Asuncion, where Lai had also been expected to visit, told Reuters the Taiwanese leader did not currently plan to travel abroad. Earlier on Tuesday, Paraguayan ruling party congressman Hugo Meza said that the country was "wasting time" maintaining diplomatic relations with the Taiwanese. Paraguay is the only country in South America that still recognizes Taiwan. Lai had also been expected to make stops in Belize and the United States. Sources told Reuters earlier this week Lai would delay the diplomatically sensitive trip his team had floated to the Trump administration for August. The United States has traditionally facilitated transits by Taiwanese leaders, but Lai's trip was bound to infuriate Beijing at a time when U.S. President Donald Trump is trying to negotiate a deal on trade with China. Beijing regularly denounces any shows of support for Taipei from Washington. One of the sources who spoke to Reuters earlier this week said Lai is set to delay the trip until at least later this year for a handful of reasons, including the need to organize his government's response to extreme weather in Taiwan. A person with direct knowledge of the matter said the trip was not being canceled, and eventual U.S. stopovers were likely to include Texas and another city in the U.S. mainland. Lai had considered stopping in New York and Dallas on the way to and from Latin America. Asked about a delay, U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told a regular news briefing no travel plans had been announced so the issue was "hypothetical." "At this point, there have been no ... travel plans for the president (Lai). There has been, as a result, nothing canceled," she said, while reiterating that U.S. transits by high-level Taiwanese officials "were fully consistent with our longstanding policy and practice." "This has not changed," she said. Taiwan is still recovering from Typhoon Danas, which struck its densely populated west coast this month with record winds and brought widespread damage to its electricity grid and some houses. More recent flooding has submerged streets and buildings in several towns across southern Taiwan this week, and its weather administration has warned that more intense rain could trigger more landslides. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/taiwans-president-lai-postpones-americas-visit-after-typhoon-2025-07-29/
2025-07-29 21:27
WASHINGTON, July 29 (Reuters) - The women-only U.S. dating advice app Tea has suspended direct messaging following a series of security breaches that exposed its users' personal details and sensitive communications, the company said on Tuesday. In a series of posts to TikTok, Tea Dating Advice said it had taken messaging offline "out of an abundance of caution" after discovering the breach. The announcement followed a report last week in tech publication 404media that the company had inadvertently exposed the names, selfies, and identity documents of thousands of women, and a second report earlier on Tuesday that direct messages - including sensitive conversations around abortions and infidelity - had similarly been exposed , opens new tab. Sign up here. The app - which boasts 4.6 million users - is pitched as a "dating safety platform" that women can use to steer clear of men who are adulterous, dishonest, or worse. As a TikTok video put out by the company last year put it, the app "makes the FBI work for us girlies so much easier." Women on Tea are encouraged to share details about prospective dates, create alerts against men's names, and put red flags against men who are alleged to be unscrupulous and green flags against those who are not. "Everything is anonymous," the app promises users on sign-up. Reuters could not establish why the selfies and ID card data had lingered online. Tea did not respond to requests seeking further comment. In its TikTok message, the app said the FBI was investigating the circumstances around the breach. The FBI declined to comment. Eva Galperin, the director of cybersecurity at San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, said the premise behind the app - creating a kind of massive whisper network powered by anonymous users - was already "a little bit sketchy." She said the app's makers had made it worse by being "honestly negligent" about their security and that the disaster was compounded because "women are encouraged to share extremely sensitive information about themselves and others." https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/women-only-us-dating-advice-app-tea-suspends-messaging-following-breaches-2025-07-29/
2025-07-29 21:27
NEW YORK, July 29 (Reuters) - The head of Americas gasoline for French energy major TotalEnergies' trading arm, Atlantic Trading & Marketing Inc, has left the firm to join a hedge fund, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday. Gregory Galimberti, a veteran U.S. gasoline trader who spent nearly eight years at ATMI, resigned from his position in recent days to join Verition Fund Management, a Greenwich, Connecticut-based hedge fund, two of the sources said. Sign up here. The sources requested anonymity to discuss confidential personnel moves. Galimberti did not immediately respond to a request on LinkedIn for comment. TotalEnergies, ATMI, and Verition also did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Galimberti had been manager of light fuels such as gasoline and naphtha for the Americas at ATMI since January 2020, according to his LinkedIn profile. Prior to joining ATMI, he worked at rival trading firms Mercuria Energy and Glencore, his profile showed. Commodities traders have reaped record profits in recent years, riding a wave of volatility injected into the markets by Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. That has renewed interest in the sector from hedge funds and other financial speculators. Verition, founded in 2008, has grown rapidly in recent years and bolstered its ranks by adding senior traders across its various focus areas, like equities, credit, and fixed income. The hedge fund had around $12.5 billion in assets under management as of April, according to public records. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/head-americas-gasoline-totalenergies-trading-arm-departs-hedge-fund-sources-say-2025-07-29/
2025-07-29 21:17
Utility expects to sign first deal by end of year In early talks to supply an additional 4 GW for data centers July 29 (Reuters) - Detroit-based power utility DTE Energy (DTE.N) , opens new tab is in advanced talks to supply more than 3 gigawatts of electricity to Big Tech data centers and expects to sign its first major deal by the end of the year, company executives said on Tuesday. U.S. power companies have been inundated with requests since early last year to provide electricity to the energy-intensive data centers needed for the technology industry's rapid artificial intelligence expansion. Sign up here. The super-sized power demands are pushing power consumption to record highs and prompting utilities to ramp up spending on infrastructure. "Our intention is to get a deal done by the end of the year, and we are making nice progress," COO Joi Harris said on a company earnings call. The developers of the data centers in need of the 3 GW of electricity have already secured land and various permits for the facilities. And DTE is in early discussions to potentially supply an additional 4 GW of data center capacity. To provide power to the businesses, DTE will use its existing infrastructure and construct new battery storage, Harris said. Longer term, new natural gas-fired power generation and other infrastructure will likely be needed to meet data center demand, she added. DTE missed Wall Street estimates for second-quarter profit on Tuesday, hurt by lower income from its gas and energy trading segment. However, the company's electric segment - its largest unit by net income - reported earnings of $318 million in the April-to-June quarter, compared to a profit of $279 million a year ago. The utility reaffirmed full-year 2025 adjusted profit in the range of $7.09 per share to $7.23 per share. Analysts expect full-year profit to be $7.22 per share, according to data compiled by LSEG. DTE reported an adjusted profit per share of $1.36 for the three months ended June 30, compared with analysts' estimates of $1.40 per share. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/dte-energy-talks-supply-3-gw-power-big-tech-data-centers-2025-07-29/
2025-07-29 21:04
ORLANDO, Florida, July 29 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and Nasdaq ground out new highs on Tuesday but closed in the red, as earnings optimism faded and investors took chips off the table ahead of the Federal Reserve's policy decision and steer on Wednesday. More on that below. In my column today I look at the key part retail investors are playing in Wall Street's rise and how it may be different from previous market rallies. Sign up here. If you have more time to read, here are a few articles I recommend to help you make sense of what happened in markets today. Today's Key Market Moves Stocks stumble, dollar up as Fed looms A day of consolidation and reversal across major equity and bond markets on Tuesday saw Wall Street ease and Treasury yields fall back as investors braced for Wednesday's Fed meeting and press conference from Chair Jerome Powell. No change on rates is the near-unanimous expectation across markets. So the focus will be on how Powell assesses the recent U.S. trade deals with Japan and Europe, the tariff impact on growth and inflation, and perhaps more intriguingly, the barrage of criticism flowing his way from President Donald Trump. Data on Tuesday showed that the U.S. goods trade deficit unexpectedly shrank to a near-two-year low in May, auguring well for a rebound in growth in the second quarter. Goldman Sachs economists upgraded their annualized Q2 GDP growth tracking estimate to 3.1% from 2.6%. The International Monetary Fund lifted its global growth forecasts too, signaling that the worst-case tariff scenarios have faded from view. But huge trade uncertainty still persists, on top of geopolitical tensions, a murky interest rate outlook and large fiscal deficits. Much of the immediate trade uncertainty centers on the U.S.-China nexus. High-level talks in Stockholm ended on Tuesday with both countries agreeing to seek an extension of their 90-day tariff truce. But if Trump doesn't agree to extend the August 12 deadline, tariffs could "boomerang" back to April 2 levels or maybe higher, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said. The currency market, however, showed no sign of reversal on Tuesday. The dollar rose for a second day following the U.S.-European Union trade deal, a solid rebound that suggests the greenback may be shedding its elevated trade risk premium. A stronger dollar is not in the Trump administration's playbook though, and it will be fascinating to see how the White House responds if it continues to appreciate. Given Trump's views on the Fed, calls for lower rates would be a reasonably safe bet. All eyes now turn to the Fed and Powell's press conference on Wednesday, a day jam-packed with other major events. They include: second quarter U.S. and euro zone GDP estimates, an interest rate decision from Canada, and U.S. earnings reports from Meta and Microsoft. Retail replaces 'smart money' as Wall Street rocket fuel Retail investors are often late to Wall Street parties, only catching the rally once it's established and "smart money" is looking for the exit. But that doesn't appear to be the case this time around. Flow and survey data show that – far from playing catch-up – retail investors are a key force behind the latest U.S. equity whoosh that has been lifting the S&P 500 and Nasdaq to new highs on a near-daily basis. Retail investor participation as a share of total S&P 500 flow last week reached 12.63%, according to calculations by Goldman Sachs analysts. That's the highest share since February and well above the recent average, as retail participation has rarely exceeded 13% in the last few years, their figures show. Retail investors have been the "primary" driver of the current rally, Barclays equity strategists suggest, pouring more than $50 billion into global stocks over the last month. And their enthusiasm for equities is continuing to build, while institutional participation remains "muted", Barclays strategists note. "Re-risking seems to be the priority for small investors as improved sentiment into 2Q25 earnings, resilient macro data and Fed cut speculation combine to outweigh still-lingering tariff threats and deficit concerns," they wrote last week. This optimism was underscored in Morgan Stanley's latest quarterly survey of retail investors published last week. It shows 62% of those polled are now bullish U.S. equities, and 66% reckon the U.S. market will rise by the end of the quarter. These are both the highest levels since the survey was launched two and a half years ago. LONG KRISPY KREME This surge in retail activity could be a positive development. At a basic level, broader participation and democratization of the market is to be welcomed. And some analysts reckon the retail investor community has matured since 2021 when the "meme stock" frenzy spilled over into the wider market. But current retail trading still includes some of this highly speculative, often options-related meme stock activity, with the main targets this time around being heavily shorted names like Krispy Kreme, GoPro and Kohl's. Indeed, Bank of America analysts note, "zero-day to expiry" options that are popular with retail investors recently accounted for more than 60% of all S&P 500 options trading activity. And the longer the rally continues, the more fears of a major correction that crushes the retail community are bound to grow. These fears are not unwarranted. The latest figures from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) show that margin debt in U.S. stocks has crossed the $1 trillion mark for the first time. This represents both retail and institutional investors’ activity, but according to JP Morgan analysts, the retail cohort is predominantly responsible for the rise. Of course, investors' margin debt would be expected to rise over time in line with inflation and the underlying equity indices, particularly in a bull market. But some analysts still consider rising margin debt a sign of market froth or outright over-exuberance. REGULATORY EASING On top of all this, retail investors may soon get a helping hand from Washington. A series of what Bank of America analysts call "financial regulation policy-easing" measures are being lined up that will facilitate retail investors' trading in equities and other less-liquid markets. For example, the Trump administration is drawing up an executive order to allow retail investors to add private equity into 401(k) retirement funds. Media reports also suggest FINRA is considering proposals to ease the "Pattern Day Trading Rule" – which was set up to limit highly speculative trading practices – by slashing investors' minimum margin account balance requirements to $2,000 from $25,000 currently. Of course, with deregulation comes higher risk and lower protection for investors. But for now, retail investors are in the driver's seat and enjoying the ride. What could move markets tomorrow? Want to receive Trading Day in your inbox every weekday morning? Sign up for my newsletter here. Opinions expressed are those of the author. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles , opens new tab, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/global-markets-trading-day-2025-07-29/
