2025-06-11 11:18
TAIPEI, June 11 (Reuters) - A 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck off Taiwan's east coast on Wednesday, the island's Central Weather Administration said. The quake had a depth of 30.9 km, it added. There were no immediate reports of damage. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/magnitude-64-earthquake-hits-off-taiwans-east-coast-agency-says-2025-06-11/
2025-06-11 11:13
JOHANNESBURG, June 11 (Reuters) - The death toll from floods in South Africa's Eastern Cape province has risen to 49, the head of the province said on Wednesday. Parts of South Africa have been lashed by heavy rain and snow since the weekend, in a severe winter cold front that has disrupted transport and power networks. Sign up here. "The status has escalated to 49 (deaths)," Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane told a press conference. Earlier, a school bus was swept away by floods near Mthatha and a provincial safety official said eight bodies were recovered. Mabuyane said the report he had received said six people on the bus had been discovered dead and four were still missing. The vehicle had been carrying 13 schoolchildren and two adults. Flooding has become more common and severe in South Africa as the impacts of climate change are felt. A storm on the East Coast in April 2022 killed about 400 people and left thousands homeless. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/eight-bodies-recovered-after-south-african-school-bus-swept-away-by-floods-2025-06-11/
2025-06-11 11:02
LONDON, June 11 (Reuters) - What matters in U.S. and global markets today I'm excited to announce that I'm now part of Reuters Open Interest (ROI) , opens new tab, an essential new source for data-driven, expert commentary on market and economic trends. You can find ROI on the Reuters website , opens new tab, and you can follow us on LinkedIn , opens new tab and X. , opens new tab Sign up here. After all the hype, this week's trade talks between the United States and China turned into something of a damp squib, producing a 'framework' for progress and little in the way of concrete details. Investor attention will now quickly switch to today's U.S. consumer price inflation report and two big auctions of long-term Treasury debt, including $39 billion of 10-year Treasury notes. I'll discuss this and the rest of today's market news below. Plus, today's column explains why Italy's surprising bond market revival challenges its reputation as a debt outlier and what this means for the rest of the G7. Today's Market Minute * U.S. and Chinese officials said on Tuesday they had agreed on a framework to get their trade truce back on track and remove China's export restrictions on rare earths, while offering little sign of a durable resolution to longstanding trade tensions. * Billionaire businessman Elon Musk said on Wednesday he regretted some of the posts he made last week about U.S. President Donald Trump as they had gone "too far". * Several U.S. cities braced for protests on Wednesday against Trump's sweeping immigration raids, as parts of the country's second largest city Los Angeles spent the night under curfew in an effort to quell five days of unrest. * Beijing's restrictions on rare earth exports have exposed the West's dependency on Chinese supplies of these esoteric metals and the magnets they help power. Part of the solution may be to simply use less of them, says ROI metals columnist Andy Home. * Seismic shifts in immigration are distorting the U.S. employment picture, making it harder for investors and policymakers to know exactly how much the labor market is actually slowing. Find out more in the latest from ROI markets columnist Jamie McGeever. U.S.-China framework underwhelms U.S. markets were underwhelmed by the outcome of the U.S.-China talks, with stock futures slipping back into the red early Wednesday. Chinese stocks (.CSI300) , opens new tab, (.HSI) , opens new tab, by contrast, took a more positive view of the London talks and advanced almost 1% to a three-week high. The CSI Rare Earth Index (.CSI930598) , opens new tab jumped nearly 4%, as Chinese rare earths magnet producer JL MAG Rare-Earth (300748.SZ) , opens new tab said it had obtained export licences to regions including the U.S., Europe and Southeast Asia for products including magnets, motor rotors and components. There are currently few details available about the discussions between Washington and Beijing. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the framework puts "meat on the bones" of a stalled agreement in Geneva last month, with the aim of removing restrictions on Chinese exports of rare earths and magnets and some of the recent U.S. export restrictions "in a balanced way". But there was no additional information about the sky-high bilateral tariffs imposed - and paused - in recent months. Whatever agreements the two parties came to will now go back to their respective presidents for approval. In the background, JPMorgan lifted its end-of-year forecast for China's onshore yuan , citing moderating risks around the trade war and a global theme of so-called de-dollarization. The U.S. investment bank revised its dollar/yuan target to 7.15 from 7.30, seeing a "gentle downtrend" to 7.10 by mid-2026. There was better news on the trade front back in the Americas. The United States and Mexico are negotiating a deal to reduce or eliminate Trump's 50% steel tariffs on imports up to a certain volume, industry sources said late Tuesday. That appeared to underscore the rise in Mexico's peso this week to its best level since August last year. Meanwhile, MCSI's all-country stock index (.MIWD00000PUS) , opens new tab managed to eke out another small gain to hit a new record high, which is impressive given the latest world economic forecasts. The World Bank slashed its global growth forecast for 2025 by 0.4 percentage point to 2.3%, saying that higher tariffs and heightened uncertainty posed a "significant headwind". In its twice-yearly Global Economic Prospects report, the bank lowered its forecasts for nearly 70% of all economies, including the United States, China and Europe, as well as six emerging market regions. While the World Bank stopped short of forecasting a recession, it said growth this year would be the weakest outside of a recession since 2008. It forecast that GDP growth would average just 2.5% by 2027, the slowest pace in any decade since the 1960s. Speaking in Beijing, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said coercive trade policies will fail to resolve financial imbalances and that the risk of mutual damage is so great that all sides must weigh policy adjustments to resolve the tensions. Nevertheless, over in the UK, the blue chip FTSE100 (.FTSE) , opens new tab rose to within a whisker of record highs set in March as investors awaited UK finance minister Rachael Reeves' latest government spending review on Wednesday. Reeves will allocate more than 2 trillion pounds ($2.7 trillion) of public spending to different departments, outlining the government's priorities for the coming year. The FTSE was helped by sterling's swoon this week after softer data on wages and jobs raised expectations for at least two more Bank of England interest rate cuts this year. The pound remained on the backfoot on Wednesday, near its weakest level against the euro in a month. Elsewhere, Tesla shares climbed more than 2% ahead of the bell after its billionaire owner Elon Musk said he regretted some of the posts he made last week about President Trump. But domestic U.S. tensions simmered as several U.S. cities braced for protests against Trump's sweeping immigration raids. On the economic front, U.S. consumer prices are likely to have increased moderately in May given the relatively low price of gasoline, but tariffs probably started filtering through to other goods, potentially spurring underlying inflation pressures. Core CPI inflation is expected to have hit 0.3% last month, which would push up the annual core rate to 2.9% from 2.8% in April. Make sure to check out today's column, which looks at the remarkable drop in Italy's bond market risk premium versus Germany's. Chart of the day China holds a near monopoly on rare earth magnets, a crucial component in electric vehicle motors, and its decision in April to suspend exports of a wide range of critical minerals and magnets upended global supply chains. In May, Washington responded by halting shipments of semiconductor design software and chemicals and aviation equipment, revoking export licences that had been previously issued. Two days of talks in London between the two biggest economies attempted to break this logjam. Today's events to watch * U.S. May consumer price report (8:30 AM EDT), US May Federal budget (2:00 PM EDT) * UK finance minister Rachel Reeves to announce multi-year spending plan * U.S. Treasury auctions $39 billion of 10-year notes * U.S. corporate earnings: Oracle * European Central Bank board member Piero Cipollone and Irish central bank chief Gabriel Makhlouf speak 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/business/finance/global-markets-view-usa-2025-06-11/
2025-06-11 11:00
(Reuters) June 11 - Sterling fell against a firmer dollar on Wednesday, as markets geared up for a multi-year UK spending review due later in the day from British finance minister Rachel Reeves, who is set to reveal how public spending will be divided up. The pound was last down 0.2% versus the dollar at $1.3472, and was weaker against the euro, which rose 0.1% to 84.68 pence . Sign up here. The dollar edged up against a range of currencies after U.S. and Chinese trade representatives wrapped up two days of talks in London where they agreed on a framework to bring their tariff truce back on track. Reeves will set out the allocation of around 2 trillion pounds ($2.7 trillion) of public spending, with plans for allocations for research and development, public transport, a new nuclear power station, nuclear submarines and prisons already announced. "When it comes to day-to-day spending, there's still probably not enough cash to go around, so more money would need to be found in the autumn budget," said Francesco Pesole, FX strategist at ING. "The take-away for markets today will simply be confirmation that there is very little fiscal headroom." The only risk for sterling would come from changes in the gilt market, which can be more sensitive to anything related to UK budgets, Pesole said. Sterling has soared almost 8% in 2025 and is not far off a three-year high of $1.3593 hit on May 26 with trade jitters and wariness over the global economic outlook underpinning dollar weakness. Meanwhile, the fact that Britain is the only country to strike a trade agreement with the U.S. has lent support to the pound. But the outlook for the British economy remains murky. Jobs data on Tuesday showed pay growth slowed sharply and unemployment rose to its highest level in nearly four years in the three months to April. The Bank of England is still expected to keep rates on hold at next week's meeting, with markets placing a 90% likelihood on that outcome. Commerzbank analysts said in a note the jobs data showed the UK's real economy is not as stable as suggested by stronger than expected first-quarter growth figures published last month. Also complicating the picture was a hotter-than-expected inflation print for April, which at the time dampened the prospect of a delay to cuts from the BoE. https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/sterling-ticks-lower-ahead-closely-watched-uk-spending-review-2025-06-11/
2025-06-11 10:30
FRANKFURT, June 11 (Reuters) - The European Central Bank will cut red tape for banks in areas such as buybacks and new appointments, but lenders should not expect wholesale deregulation, the ECB's top supervisor Claudia Buch said on Wednesday. The ECB is facing growing calls from banks to ease the supervisory burden it places on them, as U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has pledged to do with its own lenders. Sign up here. Buch said the ECB would simplify the way in which it approves banks' purchases of shares and bonds, their internal models and securitisations, as well as new board members and investors. "We can improve the system and make it less complex," Buch said in her most detailed speech on the subject. The ECB's annual Supervisory Review and Evaluation Process of banks was also being simplified, with improvements phased in over three years. Buch was keen to rein in hopes of sudden, radical change. "There will be no 'Big Bang'," she said. In a sign of the mounting pressure on European regulators from the industry, the European Commission has delayed new, global rules governing banks' trading again to address fears from banks that they would be at a disadvantage to U.S. rivals. And the ECB's policy-making Governing Council has also launched a task force, chaired by Vice President Luis de Guindos, that would look at the simplification of rules. Buch said this task force would complement supervisors' work and called on lawmakers at the national and European level to do their part by getting rid of overlapping regulation. "National reporting requirements that duplicate or contradict European ones should be phased out," she said. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/ecb-cut-red-tape-banks-dont-expect-big-bang-buch-says-2025-06-11/
2025-06-11 09:54
FRANKFURT, June 11 (Reuters) - The European Central Bank's latest rate cut will help inflation bounce back to its 2% goal after an expected sag over the next year and a half, the ECB's chief economist Philip Lane said on Wednesday. "This cut helps ensure that the projected negative inflation deviation over the next eighteen months remains temporary and does not convert into a longer-term deviation of inflation from the target," Lane said. "This cut also guards against any uncertainty about our reaction function." Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/ecbs-latest-rate-cut-will-help-inflation-back-2-lane-says-2025-06-11/
