2025-07-21 23:56
Lutnick confident US will secure EU trade deal Verizon boosts annual profit forecast, shares rise S&P 500 +0.14%, Nasdaq +0.38%, Dow -0.04% July 21 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq notched record high closes on Monday, lifted by Alphabet and other megacaps ahead of several earnings reports this week, while investors bet on potential trade deals to blunt economic damage from the Trump administration's global tariffs. Google-parent Alphabet (GOOGL.O) , opens new tab rallied 2.7% ahead of its quarterly report on Wednesday. It and Tesla (TSLA.O) , opens new tab, also reporting on Wednesday, kick off earnings from the so-called "Magnificent Seven", and their results may set the tone for other heavyweight companies reporting in the next several days. Sign up here. Tesla dipped 0.35%, while Apple (AAPL.O) , opens new tab gained 0.62% and Amazon (AMZN.O) , opens new tab rose 1.43%, both lifting the S&P 500 and Nasdaq. Verizon (VZ.N) , opens new tab rallied over 4% after the telecommunications company boosted its annual profit forecast. Analysts on average expected S&P 500 companies to report a 6.7% increase in earnings for the second quarter, with Big Tech driving much of that gain, according to LSEG I/B/E/S. "So far, companies that have reported have, in general, met or beat guidance from the prior quarter, and we haven't seen any degradation either in corporate profits or consumer spending," said Tom Hainlin, national investment strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management in Minneapolis. With U.S. President Donald Trump's August 1 tariff deadline approaching, the S&P 500 (.SPX) , opens new tab is up about 8% year to date, with investors betting the economic damage from tariffs will be less than feared. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Sunday he was confident the United States could secure a trade deal with the European Union, even as EU members explored possible countermeasures against the United States. Trump has threatened 30% tariffs on imports from Mexico and the EU, and sent letters to other trading partners, including Canada, Japan and Brazil, setting tariffs ranging from 20% to 50%. The S&P 500 climbed 0.14% to end the session at 6,305.60 points. The Nasdaq gained 0.38% to 20,974.18 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.04% to 44,323.07 points. Seven of the 11 S&P 500 sector indexes rose, led by communication services (.SPLRCL) , opens new tab, up 1.9%, followed by a 0.6% gain in consumer discretionary (.SPLRCD) , opens new tab. Volume on U.S. exchanges was relatively heavy, with 19.7 billion shares traded, compared to an average of 17.7 billion shares over the previous 20 sessions. The S&P 500 has gained about 7% in 2025, while the Nasdaq has climbed almost 9%. Investors focused on how tariff uncertainty is impacting the U.S. economy will scrutinize jobless claims data and the July business activity report, expected on Thursday. They will also watch a speech by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Tuesday for clues about when the Fed might cut interest rates, especially after mixed inflation signals last week. Traders have largely ruled out a July rate cut, and they now see a greater than 50% chance the Fed will cut by its September meeting, according to CME Group's FedWatch tool. Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones within the S&P 500 (.AD.SPX) , opens new tab by a 1.7-to-one ratio. The S&P 500 posted 17 new highs and 9 new lows; the Nasdaq recorded 97 new highs and 56 new lows. https://www.reuters.com/business/sp-500-nasdaq-notch-record-high-closes-lifted-by-alphabet-2025-07-21/
2025-07-21 23:23
MELBOURNE, July 21 (Reuters) - BHP Group (BHP.AX) , opens new tab has opted to sell its interest in the $942 million Kabanga nickel project in Tanzania to its partner Lifezone Metals (LZM.N) , opens new tab for as much as $83 million, Lifezone said. The NYSE-listed company will acquire BHP's 17% equity interest in Kabanga Nickel Limited (KNL), the majority owner of the Kabanga Nickel Project in northwestern Tanzania, Lifezone said in a filing late on Friday. Sign up here. The company issued a report on Friday that put pre-production capital costs for the project at $942 million and life of mine costs at $2.49 billion. It is expected to produce around 50,000 metric tons of nickel annually once fully ramped up, a process that will take six years including construction. A final investment decision on the project is due next year. BHP had agreed in 2022 to make an investment of as much as $100 million in the nickel mine and processing facilities if certain conditions were met. BHP still considers Kabanga to be one of the world's best undeveloped nickel sulphide projects, said a source with knowledge of the matter, but the uncertain nickel market outlook and the miner's capital allocation framework have made investments in greenfield nickel projects challenging. A BHP spokesperson declined to comment. BHP has shifted its view on nickel on the back of a boom in output from Indonesia in recent years. It put its Australian Nickel West operations on care and maintenance last year due to a poor outlook for nickel prices, and a decision on the future of those operations is due by early 2027. As a result of the transaction, Lifezone now owns 100% of KNL, which in turn holds an 84% interest in Tembo Nickel Corporation Limited (TNCL), the Tanzanian operating company for the Kabanga Nickel Project. The remaining 16% of TNCL is held by Tanzania's government. All existing agreements with BHP have been terminated and Lifezone has also assumed full control of 100% of the offtake from the Kabanga Nickel Project, it said. (This story has been corrected to fix the project capital costs to $942 million pre-production from $2.5 billion life of mine development costs in the headline and paragraphs 1 and 3) https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/bhp-exits-942-million-tanzania-nickel-project-partner-lifezone-says-2025-07-21/
2025-07-21 23:11
Turkey says current Iraq pipeline deal to end in July 2026 Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline has been out of operation since 2023 due to dispute Iraq oil ministry official says Turkey submitted draft energy agreement proposal ANKARA, July 21 (Reuters) - Turkey has submitted a draft proposal to Iraq to renew and expand an energy agreement between the two countries to include cooperation in oil, gas, petrochemicals and electricity, an Iraqi oil ministry official told the state news agency late on Monday. The statement came after Ankara announced the end of a decades-old agreement covering the Kirkuk-Ceyhan oil pipeline. Sign up here. "The Ministry of Oil is in the process of reviewing the draft agreement sent by the Turkish side and negotiating with them regarding it to reach a formula that serves the interests of Iraq and Turkey", the Iraqi oil ministry official added. The 1.6 million barrel-per-day Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline has been offline since 2023 after an arbitration court ruled Ankara should pay $1.5 billion in damages for unauthorised Iraqi exports between 2014 and 2018. Turkey is appealing the ruling. Turkey still wants to revive the oil pipeline with Iraq, a senior Turkish official told Reuters earlier on Monday. In a decision published in its Official Gazette on Monday, Turkey said the existing deal dating back to the 1970s - the Turkey-Iraq Crude Oil Pipeline Agreement - and all subsequent protocols or memorandums would be halted from July 27, 2026. Iraq and Turkey have been working to resume oil flows from the pipeline. Ankara said in late 2023 that the pipeline was ready to receive Iraq's oil but talks between Baghdad, Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government and independent oil producers were not able to reach an agreement on terms. The Turkish official said the pipeline had the potential to become a "highly active and strategic pipeline for the region". The person added that Turkey had invested heavily in its maintenance, and noted its importance for regional projects like the Development Road - a planned trade route involving Turkey and Iraq. "A new and vibrant phase for the Iraq-Turkey pipeline will benefit both countries and the region as a whole," the Turkish official said, without giving details of what Ankara wanted the new agreement to include. Turkey sees the Development Road initiative - a high-speed road and rail link, running from Iraq's port city of Basrah on the Gulf to the Turkish border and later to Europe - as an opportunity to extend the pipeline further south. Baghdad allocated initial funding for the project in 2023. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/turkey-submits-draft-proposal-iraq-renew-expand-energy-agreement-2025-07-21/
2025-07-21 21:52
SAO PAULO, July 21 (Reuters) - Brazilian planemaker Embraer (EMBR3.SA) , opens new tab said on Monday its firm order backlog ended the second quarter at $29.7 billion, a record high for any quarter and up 40% from a year earlier, according to a securities filing. Embraer, the world's third-largest planemaker, said its commercial jet segment reached a backlog of $13.1 billion, rising 16%, while the executive jet business ended the quarter with a $7.4 billion backlog, jumping 62%. Sign up here. The company said earlier this month that it delivered 61 aircraft in the second quarter. Embraer also registered a total $4.9 billion backlog from its services and support unit, as well as $4.3 billion from its defense segment. Embraer, whose chief executive last week said that U.S. tariffs announced against Brazil could have a pandemic-like impact on the firm, is set to unveil its full second-quarter earnings on August 5. https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/brazil-planemaker-embraer-ends-q2-with-record-30-billion-backlog-2025-07-21/
2025-07-21 21:50
BRASILIA, July 21 (Reuters) - Brazil's Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes authorized an investigation into the alleged use of privileged information on foreign exchange transactions before the announcement of the 50% U.S. tariff on all Brazilian imports in July, according to a Monday court filing. On Saturday, the solicitor general's office, known as AGU, had requested Supreme Court authorization to look into the trades after a news report suggested a significant volume of Brazilian reals were sold in anticipation of the tariff announcement, which could suggest insider trading. Sign up here. The news report was based on a chart posted by Spencer T. Hakimian, founder at New York-based hedge fund Tolou Capital Management, that showed how the Brazilian real moved on July 9, when Trump announced a 50% tariff on imports from Brazil. He told Reuters on July 10 that he had no further data or information to back his comments. Tolou manages $82 million in a global macro hedge fund strategy. "I am very happy to see Brazil looking into something suspicious. I wish the U.S. would be responsible enough to do the same," Hakimian said, after learning about the probe. The new probe is part of the investigation into the use of international tariffs to coerce Brazil's court system to drop the case against former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro for plotting a coup after he lost the 2022 presidential elections. Brazil's attorney general is investigating Eduardo Bolsonaro, the son of the former president, over allegations that he courted interference by Trump. The crisis also prompted Brazil's Supreme Court to issue new restrictive measures against the former president, such as wearing an electronic ankle monitor. (This story has been corrected to fix both dates to July, from June, in paragraph 3) https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/brazil-investigate-suspected-fx-insider-trading-us-tariffs-2025-07-21/
2025-07-21 21:40
July 21 (Reuters) - Steel Dynamics (STLD.O) , opens new tab on Monday posted second-quarter results below Wall Street estimates, as raw material costs increased and uncertainty around U.S. trade policy impacted demand. Shares of the Fort Wayne, Indiana-based company fell more than 4% after hours. Sign up here. U.S. steelmakers stand to benefit from President Donald Trump's tariffs on steel imports pushing up prices, but the levies also threaten to raise raw material costs. "The uncertainty regarding trade policy continues to cause hesitancy in customer order patterns across our businesses, despite healthy underlying demand factors," CEO Mark Millett said in the statement. "We strongly believe that as individual country trade agreements are negotiated and trade policy is generally stabilized in the coming months, strong pent up demand for our products will result." Steel Dynamics also reiterated an inventory overhang in its coated flat rolled products due to imports. The company's second-quarter adjusted profit of $2.01 per share came in below analysts' estimate of $2.10, according to data compiled by LSEG. Revenue for the quarter ended June 30 was $4.56 billion, missing Wall Street expectations of $4.76 billion. https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/steel-dynamics-posts-downbeat-quarterly-results-raw-material-costs-2025-07-21/
