2025-11-11 23:13

Nov 11 (Reuters) - Venture Global (VG.N) , opens new tab said on Tuesday it signed a long-term agreement with Japanese trading house Mitsui (8031.T) , opens new tab to supply 1.0 million tonnes per annum of liquefied natural gas (LNG). Japan, the second-largest LNG importer after China, is seeking stable and flexible energy supplies to support a growing buildout of data centers. Sign up here. Those facilities are forecast to use as much electricity as 15 million to 18 million households by 2034, driving 60% of Japan's power demand growth, according to Wood Mackenzie analysts. The agreement is Venture Global's third with a Japanese buyer. It signed a supply deal with JERA in 2023 and inked an agreement with INPEX in 2022. The move also advances U.S. President Donald Trump's efforts to expand U.S. LNG exports, with the United States already the world's top shipper of the super-chilled fuel, to help domestic producers and improve the trade balance with Japan. Under the agreement, Mitsui will purchase the fuel from Venture Global for 20 years beginning in 2029. The announcement came on the same day that Venture Global fell 11% on news that Shell (SHEL.L) , opens new tab had challenged its arbitration loss to Venture Global, weeks after rival BP (BP.L) , opens new tab won a similar case worth more than $1 billion. Both arbitration cases concern Venture Global's (VG.N) , opens new tab failure to deliver LNG under long-term contracts while selling on the spot market as prices soared after the start of the war in Ukraine. Shell said in a new filing that, while the bar to challenge arbitration decisions is high, it believes an appeal is justified because Venture Global withheld crucial evidence. Venture Global has increasingly signed supply deals with global energy companies. So far in 2025, it has secured 6.75 MTPA of long-term contracts. Over the last week, the U.S. LNG company signed new 20-year supply deals with Spain's Naturgy (NTGY.MC) , opens new tab and Atlantic-SEE LNG Trade of Greece, adding to recent agreements with Petronas, SEFE Energy and Eni (ENI.MI) , opens new tab. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/venture-global-inks-20-year-lng-supply-deal-with-japans-mitsui-2025-11-11/

2025-11-11 22:32

MEXICO CITY, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Mexico on Tuesday implemented a new tariff for sugar imports due to falling international prices and a risk of oversupply in the domestic market, according to the country's Official Gazette. The new tariff of 156% per kg applies to all types of sugar, including beet sugar and syrups. Refined liquid sugar will be subject to a 210.44% tariff, according to a decree , opens new tab signed by President Claudia Sheinbaum and published in the Official Gazette on Monday night. Sign up here. Until now, imported sugar faced tariffs of between $360 and $390 per ton. Mexico is typically not a sugar importer, although in the last three sugar production cycles, foreign sugar purchases have risen significantly due to bad weather conditions that caused a drop in local production, along with lower exports to the United States. "This tariff scheme provides greater protection for domestic product," Carlos Blackaller, the head of Mexico's main sugarcane producers' organization, told Reuters. The tariff would give Mexican sugar a "slightly higher price season" in the local market for the 2025/26 season, which is just beginning. "It practically eliminates the possibility of sugar imports into Mexico," he said, adding that sugar imported in the last three seasons totaled just over one million tons. Mexico produces an average of around 5 million tons of sugar per year, of which just over 4.0 million are destined for local consumption and the rest for export to the U.S. and the world market - which pays a lower price than the U.S. The sugar industry association, which represents sugar mill owners, did not respond to a request for comment. According to the decree, the new 156% tariff is ad valorem, meaning it includes insurance, freight and costs, Blackaller said. For the 2025/26 sugar cycle, production is estimated at 5.2 million tons of sugar, a recovery from the 4.7 million tons of the previous harvest. However, the current sugar export quota to the U.S. is only 188,000 tons. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/mexico-imposes-156-tariff-sugar-imports-2025-11-11/

2025-11-11 22:32

LONDON, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Britain plans to ban companies from providing services such as shipping and insurance for Russian liquefied natural gas exports, in its latest attempt to help Ukraine in its war against Russia by trying to choke off Kremlin revenue. In October, the European Union approved new sanctions against Russia that ban Russian LNG imports from January 1, 2027, and Britain and the U.S. targeted Russia's two largest oil companies, Lukoil and Rosneft. Sign up here. The UK government said on Tuesday it wanted to go further, by cutting off Russian access to companies that provide services for LNG exports. "The ban will be phased in over 2026 in lockstep with our European partners," Britain's Foreign Office said in a statement ahead of a Group of Seven foreign ministers meeting in Canada on Tuesday and Wednesday. Britain also announced 13 million pounds ($17.5 million) of funding to help repair Ukraine's energy sector and deliver support to Ukrainians worst-hit by the loss of heating and power. ($1 = 0.7451 pounds) https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/uk-ban-maritime-services-russian-lng-exports-2025-11-11/

2025-11-11 22:03

ORLANDO, Florida, Nov 11 (Reuters) - U.S. tech was the major outlier in an otherwise buoyant day for global stocks on Tuesday, as relief around the expected end of the U.S. government shutdown lifted the Dow to a record closing high and other indices to new peaks too. More on that below. In my column today I look at the Japanese yen, and how its slide toward 155 per dollar is raising the risk that Tokyo intervenes to support it. Imminent action is perhaps unlikely, but investors should be vigilant. 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 Today's Talking Points * AI's slight returns AI spending is expected to run into the trillions of dollars in the coming years, meaning the bar for return on that investment is high. A deep-dive analysis from JPMorgan this week will intensify the debate even further. Among the nuggets of the report 'AI Capex - Financing The Investment Cycle' garnering most attention is this: "Big picture, to drive a 10% return on our modeled AI investments through 2030 would require ~$650 billion of annual revenue into perpetuity, which is an astonishingly large number." As the authors note, that's 58bp of global GDP, or $34.72/month from every current iPhone user, or $180/month from every Netflix subscriber. * UK rate cut bets soar UK labor market figures for the third quarter on Tuesday were much weaker than expected, with unemployment rate rising to 5% for the first time in nearly five years. Gilt prices jumped, and the probability of a Bank of England rate cut next month leaped to 75%. Rates futures are fully pricing in 50 basis points of cuts by April. JPMorgan's Allan Monks went one step further - he now expects three more cuts, in December, March and June, taking rates down to 3.25% by the middle of next year. His previous call was for a 3.5% terminal rate. * 50-year U.S. mortgages? Sticky inflation, sky-high rents, and the cost of living crisis in the United States are having political consequences - the Democrats scored notable mayoral and gubernatorial electoral successes last week, and President Donald Trump's approval ratings are tanking. One way to ease housing affordability could be 50-year mortgages, an idea floated by the Trump administration over the weekend but already drawing sharp criticism from politicians and economists of all stripes. With next year's mid-term elections looming into view, this won't be the administration's last trial balloon. Yen intervention warnings flash amber The yen's fall against the U.S. dollar is raising the specter of Japanese intervention to slow or reverse the slide. While imminent action is unlikely, investors should remain on high alert. The Japanese currency is already below levels that prompted Tokyo to intervene to support it in the recent past, and is now hovering close to the 155 per dollar level that many Japanese companies say is a pain threshold. Last year's record low near 162 per dollar isn't all that far away either. Tokyo's first yen-buying intervention in over a decade came in September and October of 2022 when it spent around $60 billion boosting the currency, first after dollar/yen rose above 145 and then again as it approached 152. The Ministry of Finance also spent some $36 billion in July last year buying yen as the dollar pushed multi-decade highs near 162 yen. Does that mean intervention is imminent? Not necessarily. That's primarily because of the fundamentals putting pressure on Japan's currency. The yen's current swoon partly reflects the stabilization of the U.S. dollar since mid-year and recent appreciation as traders bet that the Federal Reserve is cooling on interest rate cuts. Domestic policy is also playing a role. The yen's drop has accelerated in the past month on expectations that the new Japanese government could be preparing a fiscal stimulus package worth close to $100 billion, while the Bank of Japan's rate-hiking cycle seems to have stalled. These dynamics were brought into sharp focus on Monday by new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. She sketched out plans to allow for more flexible spending in the years ahead, essentially watering down Japan's commitment to fiscal consolidation, and renewed calls for the BOJ to go slow with any tightening. Little wonder the yen is falling. Given how these fundamentals are stacked up against the currency, Japan's Ministry of Finance is unlikely to sanction yen-buying intervention, as it would likely be ineffective. What's more, it's unclear if Japan would get buy-in from Washington, no matter how much the Trump administration would probably like the dollar to weaken. CORPORATE PAIN THRESHOLD That said, the close correlation between dollar/yen and U.S.-Japanese bond yield spreads has completely broken down, suggesting the yen may be unusually weak. Analysts at Mizuho say current spreads are consistent with dollar/yen below 145.00. Meanwhile, Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama said last week the government continues to monitor "one-sided and rapid movements" in the yen with a "high level of urgency." And Takaichi's nod on Monday to more accommodative fiscal and monetary policies pushed the dollar back up to within touching distance of 155.00 yen. That's potentially a key level. A survey carried out last year by Nikkei Research for Reuters showed that it was a pain point for around half of the 229 companies that responded. None of the firms in the survey saw a dollar/yen rate above 160.00 as favorable. So the yen is in recent intervention territory. WEAK YEN IS STOKING INFLATION Inflation dynamics are worth considering too. Although BOJ officials see business and consumer inflation expectations settling around 2%, actual inflation is still around 3%. The yen is already historically weak, so one wonders how much more currency weakness authorities are willing to accept. Economists at Mizuho estimate that a 1% depreciation in the yen increases core inflation by around 0.05%. So a move in dollar/yen to 160.00, perhaps the peak in Tokyo's tolerance, from 147.00 early last month, would therefore increase inflation by around 0.4 percentage points. That's meaningful. Right now, though, analysts are reasonably confident nothing is imminent. The yen's slide hasn't been excessively rapid and Japanese policymakers' 'verbal' intervention hasn't yet reached the most serious alert levels. What will change that calculus? Deutsche Bank analysts reckon a quick dollar burst above 157.00 yen might do it. They say a 10-yen move in a month is a decent intervention trigger - so far, the dollar is in a fairly normal 6-7 yen move territory. Analysts at Goldman Sachs are more sanguine. They say the yen isn't particularly weak right now, although that would change if the dollar were to spike to 161-162 in short order. History suggests Tokyo is likely to intervene if market conditions - speculators' positioning, flows, and the speed of the yen's move - give it a chance of succeeding. The stars may not be aligned right now. But they could be soon. 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-graphic-2025-11-11/

2025-11-11 21:22

Paramount Skydance gains on cost-cut, investment plans Japan's SoftBank offloads Nvidia shares CoreWeave drops after trimming annual revenue forecast S&P 500 +0.21%, Nasdaq -0.25%, Dow +1.18% Nov 11 (Reuters) - The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged to a record high close on Tuesday, lifted by progress toward ending the longest U.S. government shutdown, while Nvidia and other artificial intelligence-related companies fell on renewed concerns about elevated valuations. Fueling gains in the Dow and S&P 500 index, members of the U.S. House of Representatives headed back to Washington after a 53-day break for a vote that could end the shutdown, with the Polymarket betting platform fully pricing in a resolution this week. Sign up here. "Expectations are that the shutdown is over. ... People will get back to work, economic data will be released once again and uncertainty will be behind us," said CFRA Chief Investment Strategist Sam Stovall. Adding to jitters about AI-related stocks that have fueled the market's rally in recent years, Japanese technology investor SoftBank Group (9984.T) , opens new tab disclosed its sale of Nvidia (NVDA.O) , opens new tab shares for $5.8 billion, and the chipmaker lost almost 3% in Tuesday's trading. Nvidia-backed CoreWeave's (CRWV.O) , opens new tab shares slumped over 16% after the cloud computing firm trimmed its annual revenue forecast due to data center hiccups. Sentiment was dampened by a weekly update of ADP's preliminary payroll figures showing that private employers shed an average of 11,250 jobs a week for the four weeks ended October 25. U.S. President Donald Trump warned of an economic and national security disaster if the Supreme Court ruled against his use of an emergency powers law to impose sweeping tariffs. The S&P 500 climbed 0.21% to end at 6,846.61 points. The Nasdaq declined 0.25% to 23,468.30 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.18% to 47,927.96 points. The Dow has gained almost 13% in 2025, lagging the S&P 500's 16% rise and the Nasdaq's nearly 22% increase. Ten of the 11 S&P 500 sector indexes rose, led by health care (.SPXHC) , opens new tab, up 2.33% and lifted by gains of more than 2% each in Eli Lilly (LLY.N) , opens new tab, Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) , opens new tab and AbbVie (ABBV.N) , opens new tab. Occidental Petroleum (OXY.N) , opens new tab edged up 0.1% after the shale producer beat third-quarter profit expectations. Paramount Skydance (PSKY.O) , opens new tab surged almost 10% after the newly merged media firm announced more cost cuts and plans to invest $1.5 billion in its streaming and studio divisions. Advancing issues outnumbered falling ones within the S&P 500 (.AD.SPX) , opens new tab by a 2.2-to-one ratio. The S&P 500 posted 30 new highs and two new lows; the Nasdaq recorded 104 new highs and 128 new lows. U.S. bond markets were closed for the Veterans Day holiday. Volume on U.S. exchanges was light, with 15.3 billion shares traded, compared with an average of 20.8 billion shares over the previous 20 sessions. https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/us-futures-retreat-tech-concerns-resurface-federal-reopening-awaited-2025-11-11/

2025-11-11 21:16

Nov 11 (Reuters) - Oil and gas producer Occidental Petroleum (OXY.N) , opens new tab said on Tuesday it expects flat production growth in 2026 and spending to fall below current-year levels, as crude prices slide. U.S. shale producers are weathering a global oil slump, with prices hovering in the low $60-per-barrel range, pressured by OPEC+ output hikes and slowing global demand. Benchmark Brent crude has fallen about 12.7% so far this year. Sign up here. Occidental expects 2026 production to be flat to up 2%, driven primarily by unconventional Permian operations, Chief Financial Officer Sunil Mathew said on a conference call, a day after the company beat third-quarter profit expectations on higher output. Unconventional resources are hydrocarbons tightly trapped inside layers of rock and can only be accessed using advanced techniques such as horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. The company forecasts 2026 capital expenditure between $6.3 billion and $6.7 billion, compared with its 2025 projection of $7.1 billion to $7.3 billion. Occidental plans to invest up to $400 million in U.S. onshore operations in 2026, primarily located in the Permian Basin and the Rockies region. Allocating more capital to such projects is likely to provide it greater flexibility if macro conditions worsen, Mathew said. The company also intends to increase investment in the "Gulf of America", referring to the Gulf of Mexico, and Oman by $250 million, while reducing allocation to its low-carbon portfolio. Additionally, Mathew said Occidental remains focused on cutting its debt load, built up after big-ticket acquisitions of Anadarko Petroleum and CrownRock, while boosting shareholder returns. "We will be opportunistic with the share repurchase program ... we plan to resume the redemption of the preferred (shares) in August 2029," Mathew said. Shares of the company closed up marginally at $41.85. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/occidental-petroleum-forecasts-flat-production-lower-spending-2026-2025-11-11/