2025-07-04 20:15

SAO PAULO, July 4 (Reuters) - Ethanol producer Inpasa said on Friday that a fund linked to its founder's family had invested in Brazilian fuel distributor Vibra (VBBR3.SA) , opens new tab, adding that the investment has strictly financial goals and no relation to Inpasa operations. Late on Thursday, news outlet Brazil Journal reported that Inpasa, which was founded in Paraguay and is the largest producer of corn ethanol in Brazil, had been acquiring shares in Vibra, coming up to a 3% stake and wanting to increase it further. Sign up here. In a statement, Inpasa did not disclose the size of the stake in Vibra owned by the fund. "This fund has a diversified portfolio, with stakes in several listed companies, including Vibra, without this representing any corporate, strategic or partnership link with Inpasa," the firm said. Vibra declined to comment. Sao Paulo-traded shares of Vibra settled up 2.7%, which positioned the firm as the top gainer among stocks on Brazilian equities benchmark index Bovespa (.BVSP) , opens new tab in the session. ($1 = 5.4226 reais) https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/inpasa-says-founders-family-invested-vibra-financial-goals-2025-07-04/

2025-07-04 20:13

Authorities search for girls from Christian summer camp Guadalupe River transformed into life-threatening torrent July Fourth fireworks shows canceled across rain-soaked region July 4 (Reuters) - Torrential rains unleashed flash floods along the Guadalupe River in Texas on Friday, killing at least 24 people as rescue teams scrambled to save dozens of victims trapped by high water or reported missing in the disaster, local officials said. Among the missing were 23 to 25 people listed as unaccounted for at an all-girls Christian summer camp located on the banks of the rain-engorged Guadalupe, authorities said. Sign up here. At a news conference late on Friday, almost 18 hours after the July Fourth crisis began, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said search-and-rescue operations would press on through the night and into Saturday. Abbott said resources devoted to the effort would be "limitless." Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One at the end of a day of public events, President Donald Trump said "we'll take care of them," when asked about federal aid for the disaster. The U.S. National Weather Service declared a flash flood emergency for parts of Kerr County in south-central Texas Hill Country, about 65 miles (105 km) northwest of San Antonio, following thunderstorms that dumped as much as a foot of rain. Dalton Rice, city manager for Kerrville, the county seat, told reporters the extreme flooding struck before dawn with little or no warning, precluding authorities from issuing advance evacuation orders as the Guadalupe swiftly rose above major flood stage. "This happened very quickly, over a very short period of time that could not be predicted, even with radar," Rice said. "This happened within less than a two-hour span." State emergency management officials had warned as early as Thursday that west and central Texas faced heavy rains and flash flood threats "over the next couple days," citing National Weather Service forecasts ahead of the holiday weekend. But the weather forecasts in question "did not predict the amount of rain that we saw," W. Nim Kidd, director of the Texas Division of Emergency Management, told a news conference on Friday night. July Fourth fireworks displays ended up being canceled in flood-stricken communities throughout the region, including Kerrville, where the waterfront site for Friday night's planned U.S. Independence Day celebration was submerged by the rain-swollen river. At Friday night's briefing, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said 24 flood-related fatalities had been confirmed, up from 13 tallied earlier in the day. One more person found dead in neighboring Kendall County was not confirmed to be a flood-related casualty, Leitha said. PRAYERS FOR THE MISSING Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick said on Friday afternoon that authorities were searching for 23 girls listed as missing from among more than 750 children at summer camp sites along the banks of the Guadalupe River when the area was inundated by floodwaters at around 4 a.m. local time. The missing campers had all been attending Camp Mystic, a private Christian summer camp for girls. "We're praying for all those missing to be found alive," Patrick said. It was not clear whether anyone unaccounted for might have ended up among the deceased victims tallied countywide by the sheriff. Otherwise, all other campers were safe, authorities said, with campers being evacuated throughout the day. "Everybody is doing everything in their power to get these kids out," Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly, the top local elected official, had said at a news briefing on the disaster hours earlier. Kelly said a number of scattered residential subdivisions, recreational vehicle parks and campgrounds were hit hard. Pressed by reporters why more precautions were not taken with stormy weather in the forecast, Kelly insisted a disaster of such magnitude was unforeseen. "We have floods all the time. This is the most dangerous river valley in the United States," Kelly said. "We had no reason to believe this was going to be anything like what's happened here. None whatsoever." In an alert on Thursday, the Texas Division of Emergency Management said it had increased its readiness level and "activated additional state emergency response resources" as parts of west and central Texas braced "for continued heavy rainfall and flash flooding threats heading into the holiday weekend." Lieutenant Governor Patrick said the Guadalupe River had risen 26 feet (8 m) in 45 minutes as heavy showers soaked the region. As of Friday night, emergency personnel had rescued or evacuated 237 people, including 167 by helicopter. With additional rain forecast in the region, Patrick warned that an ongoing threat for possible flash flooding extended from San Antonio to Waco for the next 24 to 48 hours. On Friday night, Governor Abbott signed a disaster declaration to hasten emergency assistance to Kerr and a cluster of additional counties hardest hit by the floods. Personnel from the U.S. Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency also were activated to assist local authorities in confronting the crisis, officials said. https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/officials-confirm-deaths-after-flash-floods-central-texas-2025-07-04/

2025-07-04 19:48

Management of Russian-occupied station says power restored Ukrainian minister says Russian shelling caused the outage Ukrainian energy distribution company says it restored power VIENNA, July 4 (Reuters) - All external power lines supplying electricity to the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine were down for several hours on Friday, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said, but the station's management later said power had been restored. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, acknowledged that power had been restored after 3 1/2 hours. But he added in a statement on X that nuclear safety "remains extremely precarious in Ukraine." Sign up here. Ukraine's energy minister blamed Russian shelling for severing the last power line to the plant and its six reactors. The country's power distribution operator said its technicians had taken action to restore it. Europe's biggest nuclear power plant, which is not operating but still requires power to keep its nuclear fuel cool, switched during the outage to running on diesel generators, the IAEA said. The organization has repeatedly warned of the risk of a catastrophic accident at Zaporizhzhia, which is located near the front line in the war in Ukraine. Its reactors are shut down, but the nuclear fuel inside them still needs to be cooled, which requires constant power. The plant's Russia-installed management issued a statement on Telegram saying the high-voltage line to the plant had been restored. The statement said there had been no disruptions to operations at the plant, no violations of security procedures and no rise in background radiation levels beyond normal levels. The IAEA had earlier said that the plant had lost all off-site power for the ninth time during the military conflict and for the first time since late 2023. "The ZNPP currently relies on power from its emergency diesel generators, underlining (the) extremely precarious nuclear safety situation," it said. Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galuschenko wrote on Telegram that a Russian strike had cut off the plant. "The enemy struck the power line connecting the temporarily occupied (Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant) with the integrated power system of Ukraine." Ukrenergo, the sole operator of high-voltage lines in Ukraine, said its specialists had brought it back into service. "Ukrenergo specialists have brought back into service the high-voltage line which supplies the temporarily occupied power station," it said on Telegram. Neither the IAEA nor the plant's Russian-installed management initially cited a cause for the cut-off. Russian forces seized the Zaporizhzhia station in the first weeks of Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Each side regularly accuses the other of firing or taking other actions that could trigger a nuclear accident. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/power-cut-ukraines-zaporizhzhia-nuclear-power-plant-kyiv-blames-russian-strike-2025-07-04/

2025-07-04 19:20

Stock rally largely driven by retail investors and share buybacks Institutional positioning in equities remains underweight Avoiding a major tariff escalation could help ease near-term market worries Upcoming economic data and Q2 results key for assessing the U.S. economic outlook NEW YORK, July 4 (Reuters) - Investors will be keeping a close eye on tariff headlines out of Washington next week, as a temporary suspension of punitive import levies is set to expire. If that Wednesday deadline passes without an increase in trade tensions, it could prove positive for the markets. Negotiators from more than a dozen major U.S. trading partners are rushing to reach agreements with U.S. President Donald Trump's administration by July 9 to avoid even higher tariffs, and Trump and his team have kept up the pressure in recent days. Sign up here. On Wednesday, Trump announced a deal with Vietnam that he says will impose a lower-than-promised 20% tariff on many Vietnamese exports. While the administration has teased a forthcoming deal with India, talks with Japan, the sixth-largest U.S. trading partner and closest ally in Asia, appeared to hit roadblocks. Investors have shifted from panicking about tariffs to relief buying, recently lifting the U.S. stock market back to record highs, with corporate earnings and the U.S. economy holding up better than many had expected through a period of dramatic policy change. The S&P 500 has risen about 26% from April 8, when stocks bottomed following Trump's draconian April 2 tariff announcement. But much of the rally has been driven by retail market participants and corporate share buybacks, even as institutional investors have been more reticent. Despite the S&P 500 making new highs, equity positioning is far below February levels as investors remain underweight stocks, according to Deutsche Bank estimates. "This has definitely been a junkier rally, a more speculative rally," Lisa Shalett, chief investment officer at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. "In the last week or so, it's been driven a lot more, I think, by retail than it has been by institutions. Institutional positioning is really just average," she said. While many factors are keeping investors cautious, including worries about U.S. economic growth and lofty stock market valuations, getting past the tariff deadline without a major escalation in tensions would be one less thing to worry about in the near term, analysts said. "I think that there may be some threats and saber-rattling, but I don't really think that any of that now poses a major danger to the market," said Irene Tunkel, chief U.S. equities strategist, BCA Research. Still, investors don't expect the tariff deadline to put an end to trade tensions for good. "I don't view it necessarily as a hard deadline," said Julian McManus, portfolio manager at Janus Henderson Investors. "The 90-day pause itself was instituted because the markets were falling apart, and I think policymakers needed breathing room and time to try and negotiate these deals or find some kind of off ramp," he said. Investors' cautious approach to boosting equity exposure now is reminiscent of their behavior immediately after the pandemic market drop of March 2020, when allocations to stocks recovered more slowly than major market indexes, Deutsche Bank strategist Parag Thatte, said. "It does mean that there is room for exposures to keep rising, which is a positive for equities all else equal," Thatte said. After a roller-coaster first half, the S&P 500 is entering a historically strong period. Over the past 20 years, July has been the strongest month for the benchmark index with an average return of 2.5%, according to a Reuters analysis of LSEG data. Investors will also be keeping an eye on economic data - especially inflation numbers - and second quarter results in coming weeks for clues to the health of the U.S. economy, and the Federal Reserve interest rate outlook. "We're right at the point where institutions are going to have to decide one way or the other, do they believe the rally or not," Morgan Stanley's Shalett said. Wall St Week Ahead runs every Friday. For the daily stock market report, please click https://www.reuters.com/business/wall-st-week-ahead-investors-eye-tariff-deadline-us-stocks-rally-2025-07-04/

2025-07-04 19:12

ISTANBUL, July 4 (Reuters) - Turkish authorities arrested ten suspects in relation to wildfires that broke out across the country over the past week, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on Friday. The wildfires killed at least two people in western coastal province of Izmir as fire extinguishing teams supported by planes and helicopters struggled to contain the blazes. Sign up here. High temperatures, strong winds and low humidity also caused swift spread of the fires. Authorities determined that some of the 65 fires that broke out since June 26 were due to welding and agricultural machinery usage near the forest area and burning garden waste. Legal proceedings for 15 more suspects continue, Yerlikaya said. Forestry Minister Ibrahim Yumakli said nine out of ten wildfires that teams were battling on Friday were largely under control while efforts to contain the fire in southeastern Hatay province will continue overnight. https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/turkey-arrests-ten-suspects-after-wildfires-interior-minister-says-2025-07-04/

2025-07-04 18:59

SAO PAULO/BRASILIA, July 4 (Reuters) - Brazil's trade surplus in June missed analysts' expectations, government data showed on Friday, as imports kept their recent growth path and the government cut its own yearly surplus outlook. Latin America's largest economy's monthly surplus declined near 7% from a year earlier to $5.89 billion, according to the Ministry of Development, Industry and Trade, missing the $6.45 billion forecast in a Reuters poll of economists. Sign up here. Exports rose 1.4% year-over-year to $29.1 billion, as higher prices of coffee and stronger beef exports helped to offset declines in soy, oil and iron ore. Meanwhile, imports increased by a pace of 3.8% to $23.3 billion, amid increased purchases of multiple products, including fertilizers, auto parts, medicine, aircrafts and machines. The ministry also cut its 2025 trade surplus estimate by nearly a third to $50.4 billion, from $70.2 billion previously, increasing the projection for imports and cutting the exports outlook. Year-to-date, Brazil's trade surplus has plunged almost 28% from the same period in 2024 to $30.1 billion. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazil-posts-lower-than-expected-trade-surplus-june-2025-07-04/