2025-01-08 00:10
SEOUL, Jan 8 (Reuters) - South Korea's acting President Choi Sang-mok on Wednesday said the government will work with the central bank and regulators to respond swiftly to any financial market volatility and focus on communicating with the incoming U.S. administration. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/skorea-acting-president-says-government-will-respond-swiftly-market-volatility-2025-01-08/
2025-01-07 23:10
Exxon's profits likely to be well below consensus Asset impairments could cost about $600 million Global fuel demand lags expectations HOUSTON, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) , opens new tab signaled on Tuesday that sharply lower oil refining profits and weakness across all its businesses would reduce its fourth-quarter earnings by about $1.75 billion from the prior quarter. The oil major also said in an SEC filing that upstream asset sales would benefit results by about $400 million, but overall impairments would cost about $600 million. The company's filing did not specify a reason for the impairments. Exxon's snapshot is closely watched for clues to how other oil majors will fare when they begin releasing results this month. Exxon is expected to post a profit of $1.76 a share for the fourth quarter, down from $2.48 a share, in the same quarter last year, according to financial firm LSEG. Exxon's earnings snapshot signaled profits "well below consensus," said Biraj Borkhataria, an oil analyst with RBC Capital Markets, in a note to investors. The forecast showed "significant headwinds" in refining, he added. The company indicated oil refining margins would cut earnings by between $300 million and $700 million from the third-quarter level. It also signaled timing effects would lop off another $500 million to $900 million. Demand for gasoline and diesel has lagged expectations globally and the start of new oil refineries in Asia and Africa led to excess supplies in the market. U.S. fuel stockpiles grew in the quarter as refiners keep their utilization rates high and demand was weaker than expected. Oil prices declined about 6% in the quarter ended Dec. 31 from the prior three months, and down nearly 12% from a year-ago, as traders worried about global oil demand. The drop was partially offset by higher U.S. prices for natural gas, which were up about 30% from the prior quarter. The industry bellwether had posted $8.6 billion in earnings for the third quarter, and an adjusted profit of $9.96 billion in the year-ago fourth quarter. Exxon also said that lower margins in its chemicals business would lower earnings by about $400 million compared to the third quarter. The company will release final results on Jan. 31, the filing said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/exxon-mobil-expects-fourth-quarter-upstream-earnings-ease-2025-01-07/
2025-01-07 22:22
BUENOS AIRES, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Argentina's economy is seen expanding by 4.5% in 2025 while the country's inflation rate is estimated to end this year at 25.9%, according to the average forecast of analysts surveyed by the central bank's market expectations survey published on Tuesday. South America's second-biggest economy has suffered a prolonged slump, marked by one of the world's highest rates of creeping consumer prices and only recently showing signs clawing its way out of recession. Its inflation rate in particular has been in triple digit territory since early 2023, peaking near 300% last April but easing to 166% in November, according to official data. The bank's market expectations survey expects last December's monthly inflation rate to inch up to 2.7%, compared to the prior month, before slowing to 2.5% in January. The Argentine economy grew 3.9% in last year's third quarter, compared to the prior quarter, marking its first quarterly expansion since slipping into a technical recession at the end of 2023. The surveyed analysts expect economic growth around 1% through the first half of 2025, but speeding up to an annualized rate of 4.5% by the end of the year. The peso currency, meanwhile, is expected to finish 2025 at 1,205 pesos per U.S. dollar, while the government's primary fiscal surplus is seen at 11.2 trillion argentine pesos ($10.8 billion). ($1 = 1,035.0000 Argentine pesos) Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/argentina-economy-seen-growing-45-inflation-cooling-under-26-2025-01-07/
2025-01-07 22:08
SAO PAULO, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Brazilian planemaker Embraer (EMBR3.SA) , opens new tab delivered 75 aircraft in last year's fourth quarter, similar to the same period in 2023, the company said in a securities filing on Tuesday. The world's third-largest planemaker delivered 31 commercial jets and 44 executive jets during the three-month period ending in December. Embraer delivered a total of 206 aircraft last year, 14% higher than in 2023, and is expected to release full fourth-quarter earnings on February 27. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/brazils-embraer-delivered-75-planes-fourth-quarter-2025-01-07/
2025-01-07 22:00
Wildfires rip through upscale Pacific Palisades, Pasadena Strong, dry winds fuel fire forecast to worsen Evacuations cause traffic jams, residents flee on foot National Weather Service warns of extreme fire conditions LOS ANGELES, Jan 7 (Reuters) - A rapidly growing wildfire raged across an upscale section of Los Angeles on Tuesday, destroying numerous buildings and creating traffic jams as more than 30,000 people evacuated, while a second blaze doubled in size some 30 miles inland. At least 2,921 acres (1,182 hectares) of the Pacific Palisades area between the coastal towns of Santa Monica and Malibu had burned by the Palisades Fire, officials said, after they had already warned of extreme fire danger from powerful winds that arrived following extended dry weather. A fire official told local television station KTLA that several people were injured, some with burns to faces and hands. The official added that one female firefighter had sustained a head injury. The second blaze dubbed the Eaton Fire broke out some 30 miles (50 km) inland near Pasadena and doubled in size to 400 acres (162 hectares) in a few hours, according to Cal Fire. Almost 100 residents from a nursing home in Pasadena were evacuated, according to CBS News. Video showed elderly residents, many in wheelchairs and on gurneys, crowded onto a smokey and windswept parking lot as fire trucks and ambulances attended. Fire officials said a third blaze named the Hurst Fire had started in Sylmar, in the San Fernando Valley northwest of Los Angeles, prompting evacuations of some nearby residents. PALISADES FIRE Witnesses reported a number of homes on fire with flames nearly scorching their cars when people fled the hills of Topanga Canyon, as the fire spread from there down to the Pacific Ocean. Local media reported the fire had spread north, torching homes near Malibu. Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley had earlier told a press conference that more than 25,000 people in 10,000 homes were threatened. Firefighters in aircraft scooped water from the sea to drop it on the nearby flames. Flames engulfed homes and bulldozers cleared abandoned vehicles from roads so emergency vehicles could pass, television images showed. The fire singed some trees on the grounds of the Getty Villa, a museum loaded with priceless works of art, but the collection remained safe largely because of preventive efforts to trim brush surrounding the buildings, the museum said. With only one major road leading from the canyon to the coast, and only one coastal highway leading to safety, traffic crawled to a halt, leading people to flee on foot. Cindy Festa, a Pacific Palisades resident, said that as she evacuated out of the canyon, fires were "this close to the cars," demonstrating with her thumb and forefinger. "People left their cars on Palisades Drive. Burning up the hillside. The palm trees - everything is going," Festa said from her car. Before the fire started, the National Weather Service had issued its highest alert for extreme fire conditions for much of Los Angeles County from Tuesday through Thursday, predicting wind gusts of 50 to 80 mph (80 to 130 kph). With low humidity and dry vegetation due to a lack of rain, the conditions were "about as bad as it gets in terms of fire weather," the Los Angeles office of the National Weather Service said on X. Governor Gavin Newsom, who declared a state of emergency, said the state positioned personnel, firetrucks and aircraft elsewhere in Southern California because of the fire danger to the wider region, he added. The powerful winds changed President Joe Biden's travel plans, grounding Air Force One in Los Angeles. He had planned to make a short flight inland to the Coachella Valley for a ceremony to create two new national monuments in California but the event was rescheduled for a later date at the White House. "I have offered any federal assistance that is needed to help suppress the terrible Pacific Palisades fire," Biden said in a statement. A federal grant had already been approved to help reimburse the state of California for its fire response, Biden said. Pacific Palisades is home to several Hollywood stars. Actor James Woods said on X he was able to evacuate but added, "I do not know at this moment if our home is still standing." Actor Steve Guttenberg told KTLA television that friends of his were impeded from evacuating because others had abandoned their cars in the road. "It's really important for everybody to band together and don't worry about your personal property. Just get out," Guttenberg said. "Get your loved ones and get out." Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/los-angeles-wildfire-prompts-evacuations-amid-extreme-winds-2025-01-07/
2025-01-07 21:51
Jan 8 (Reuters) - A look at the day ahead in Asian markets. Investors go into Wednesday's market trading in Asia with their appetite for risk smothered by the rise in global bond yields. As ever, U.S. Treasury yields are front and center for markets that are more exposed than most to dollar-denominated debt and U.S. borrowing costs. Especially on medium- to longer-dated maturities. The 10-year U.S. yield is its highest in eight months, the '2s/10s' curve is the steepest in nearly three years, and the 30-year yield is within 10 basis points of 5.00%. It has climbed 60 bps in a month. Longer-dated yields are rising globally even though many central banks are lowering policy rates - Britain's 30-year gilt yield is the highest since 1998. The U.S. Treasury's sale on Wednesday of $22 billion of 30-year bonds could have a major impact on world markets. There are times when signs of U.S. economic resilience lift the global outlook and risk appetite picks up, but the release of surprisingly strong U.S. job opening figures on Tuesday was not one of them. It was a case of 'good news is bad news', U.S. yields and the dollar rose, and stocks tumbled. That's the global backdrop for Wednesday's trading, which is likely to set the tone in Asia given how light the local economic calendar is. There is little sign that Japan's yen or China's yuan is emerging from their recent funk, and currency traders in Asia will be on heightened alert for intervention from Japan after the dollar on Tuesday rose as high as 158.40 yen. That's the highest since July last year and close to the psychologically significant 160.00 yen level, and comes after Japanese finance minister Katsunobu Kato on Tuesday warned against what he said is speculative, one-sided yen selling. Traders will note that a break of the 160 per dollar level prompted yen-buying intervention from Japanese authorities last year. The weak yen helped the Nikkei rise 2% back above 40,000 points on Tuesday but futures are pointing to a fall of as much as 1% at the open on Wednesday. The news flow around China, meanwhile, is still on the bleak side, offering investors little incentive to start buying beaten down Chinese assets. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday doubled down on his commitment to slap hefty tariffs on goods imported from major trading partners, and figures on Tuesday showed China's FX reserves fell by $64 billion in December. That was the biggest monthly fall since April 2022, and one of the steepest since the yuan slide and waves of capital flight in 2015-16 Chinese stocks are down 5% so far this year, significantly underperforming their regional and global peers. The yuan is its weakest against the dollar since September 2023, and Chinese bond yields are collapsing. Here are key developments that could provide more direction to markets on Wednesday: - Australia inflation (November) - South Korea current account (November) - Japan consumer confidence (December) Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/asia/global-markets-view-asia-graphic-2025-01-07/
