2025-10-22 23:02

MOSCOW, Oct 23 (Reuters) - The death toll after an explosion at a military plant near the Russian Urals city of Chelyabinsk on Wednesday rose to twelve with five people injured, Russia's Izvestia news outlet reported on Thursday. Aleksei Teksler, governor of the Chelyabinsk region, had previously announced that the incident had occurred in the city of Kopeisk, just to the east of Chelyabinsk. Sign up here. He said a fire at the plant, which he did not name, had been extinguished. Russian investigators said on Thursday that they had opened a criminal case into the incident. Local media, citing eyewitnesses, reported that the explosion had occurred at the 'Plastmass' plant, which is controlled by Russian state corporation Rostec. There was no indication that the incident was linked in any way to drone activity, the governor, Teksler, said. Rostec was not available for immediate comment. https://www.reuters.com/world/explosion-plant-urals-city-kills-four-regional-governor-says-2025-10-22/

2025-10-22 21:50

US sanctions Rosneft and Lukoil, in a change of approach Russia says it held exercise with strategic nuclear weapons US says Putin-Trump summit plans on hold MOSCOW/KYIV/WASHINGTON, Oct 22 (Reuters) - The United States hit Russia's major oil companies with sanctions on Wednesday and accused the Russians of a lack of commitment toward ending the war in Ukraine, as Moscow conducted a major training exercise involving nuclear arms. The new sanctions were unveiled one day after plans for a summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin fell apart. Trump told reporters he cancelled the meeting because "it didn't feel right to me." Sign up here. The U.S. Treasury Department said Russia's two largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, were targeted in a bid to damage Moscow's ability to fund its war machine. The move marked a sharp turnaround for the White House, which has veered between pressuring Moscow and taking a more conciliatory approach aimed at securing peace in Ukraine. Only last week Trump appeared ready to hold off on new actions targeting Moscow. "Now is the time to stop the killing and for an immediate ceasefire," U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said. Oil prices extended gains after Bessent's comments, rising by more than $2 a barrel. For months, Trump has resisted pressure from U.S. lawmakers to impose energy sanctions, hoping that Putin would agree to end the fighting. But with no end in sight, he said he felt it was time. Trump said he was still not ready to provide Ukraine with long-range Tomahawk missiles, which Kyiv has requested. Talking to reporters as he met NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Trump said it would take the Ukrainians at least six months to learn how to use them. Ahead of a meeting next week with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea, Trump said he would like to see Xi use his influence on Putin to halt the fighting. Xi and Putin have formed a strategic alliance between their countries. In a fresh show of force, the Kremlin released video showing General Valery Gerasimov, head of the General Staff, reporting to Putin on the drills. Russia said it fired missiles from ground launchers, submarines and aircraft, including intercontinental ballistic weapons capable of striking the United States. Russia's Defence Ministry said its long-range Tu-22M3 strategic bombers flew over the Baltic Sea, escorted at various points by fighter jets from foreign - presumably NATO - states. At key moments in the war in Ukraine, Putin has issued reminders of Russia's nuclear might as a warning to Kyiv and its Western allies. NATO has also been conducting nuclear deterrence exercises this month. EU countries also approved a 19th package of sanctions against Russia for its war against Ukraine, which includes a ban on Russian liquefied natural gas imports, the Danish rotating presidency of the EU said on Wednesday. The Wall Street Journal said the United States lifted a restriction on Ukraine's use of some long-range missiles provided by Western allies, which would allow Ukraine to increase attacks on targets inside Russia. In a social media post, Trump denied the report. On Wednesday, Sweden said it had signed a letter of intent to export Gripen fighter jets to Ukraine, as European governments act to boost Kyiv's defences in a war that has ground on for three years and eight months since Russia's full-scale invasion, and shows no sign of ending soon. Ukrainian pilots have been in Sweden to test the Gripen, a rugged and relatively low-cost option compared to aircraft such as the U.S. F-35. Kyiv aimed to receive and start using Gripens next year and expected to acquire at least 100, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said during a visit to Swedish defence manufacturer Saab (SAABb.ST) , opens new tab. TRUMP DOESN'T WANT WASTED MEETING Russia and Ukraine pounded each other with heavy overnight missile attacks as renewed uncertainty enveloped the U.S.-led peace effort. After months of stalled diplomacy, Putin and Trump spoke last week and unexpectedly announced they would hold a summit in Hungary soon. But following a phone call on Monday between the two countries' top diplomats, the White House said the next day that Trump had no plans to meet Putin "in the immediate future". Trump said he did not want to have a wasted meeting - something the Kremlin said Putin also wanted to avoid. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, departing Washington for the Middle East on Wednesday, told reporters the United States would still like to meet with Russia. Russian officials said that preparations continued for a summit. "The dates haven't been set yet, but thorough preparation is needed before then, and that takes time," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters. The summit delay came after Russia reiterated to the U.S. its previous terms for reaching a peace deal, including that Ukraine cede control of the whole of the southeastern Donbas region, three sources told Reuters. That amounted to a rejection of Trump's statement last week that both sides should stop at the current front lines. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted by state news agency RIA as saying he could not confirm that Moscow had conveyed its position as reported by Reuters. SHARES IN EUROPEAN DEFENCE COMPANIES RISE Through the first nine months of his second term, Trump has pressed for an end to the conflict, the deadliest in Europe since World War Two. Sharply critical at times of Zelenskiy, he has also expressed frustration with Putin. European defence shares rose on the delay to the Putin-Trump summit. Most European governments strongly back Kyiv and have pledged to raise military spending to help Ukraine meet its defence needs. European Union leaders are due on Thursday to discuss a proposal to use frozen Russian assets to extend a $163 billion loan to Ukraine. Moscow says the scheme amounts to theft and has vowed to retaliate. https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/russia-ukraine-launch-overnight-missile-strikes-after-trump-putin-summit-delay-2025-10-22/

2025-10-22 21:36

WASHINGTON, Oct 22 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday imposed Ukraine-related sanctions on Russia for the first time in his second term, targeting oil companies Lukoil and Rosneft as his frustration grows with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the war. The U.S. Treasury Department said it was prepared to take further action as it called on Moscow to agree immediately to a ceasefire in Russia's war in Ukraine, which began in February 2022. Sign up here. "Given President Putin’s refusal to end this senseless war, Treasury is sanctioning Russia’s two largest oil companies that fund the Kremlin’s war machine," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. "We encourage our allies to join us in and adhere to these sanctions." The sanctions are a major policy shift for Trump, who had not put sanctions on Russia over the war and instead relied on trade measures. Trump imposed additional 25% tariffs on goods from India in retaliation for it purchasing discounted Russian oil. Trump has not imposed such measures on China, another major buyer of Russian oil. A $60 price cap on Russian oil imposed by Western countries after Russia's invasion has shifted Russia's oil customers in recent years from Europe to Asia. Trump's measure on Wednesday followed Britain's sanctioning of Rosneft and Lukoil last week. The Russian embassy in Washington and the Russian mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the sanctions. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-announces-sanctions-russian-oil-companies-rosneft-lukoil-2025-10-22/

2025-10-22 21:19

BRUSSELS, Oct 22 (Reuters) - The European Union is drafting measures to control prices in its new carbon market, in response to governments' concerns that the emissions-cutting scheme could increase fuel bills, the bloc's climate chief said in a letter seen by Reuters. The policy is designed to impose a price from 2027 on planet-heating emissions produced by heating and transport fuels, to encourage the shift to electric vehicles and cleaner home heating systems. Revenue from the scheme would be spent on helping people pay bills, subsidise electric cars and energy-saving home renovations. Sign up here. However, some governments fear the measure will stoke opposition to climate change policies from citizens, if it is perceived as raising their bills. A group of 19 countries including the Czech Republic, France and Germany asked Brussels this year to introduce stricter price controls to address this. "I understand the concerns regarding uncertainties on future price levels and price volatility in ETS2 (the upcoming carbon market) and share those to a large extent," EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra said, in a letter responding to the demands. The new EU carbon market is designed so that if the CO2 price hits 45 euros, extra CO2 permits will be released into the market to tame prices. PROPOSAL TO DOUBLE NUMBER OF PERMITS RELEASED Hoekstra said the Commission will propose doubling the number of permits released in this scenario to potentially reach up to 80 million per year in 2027, 2028 and 2029. "This will more decisively address unwarranted price rises and improve market confidence, which is key to plan decarbonisation investments," said the letter, dated October 21. The Commission will also propose launching carbon permit auctions early, in 2026, to provide governments with funds to kick-start investments to help people shift to cleaner technologies. Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala on Wednesday welcomed the plans, but said he wanted Brussels to go further and delay the carbon market's launch. EU countries' leaders will discuss the bloc's new climate target for 2040 at a summit on Thursday, with a focus on what funding or policies are needed to ensure businesses and citizens can meet the goal. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/eu-plans-price-controls-new-carbon-market-2025-10-22/

2025-10-22 21:03

ORLANDO, Florida, Oct 22 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks fell on Wednesday, as a Reuters report that the U.S. is considering curbs on a wide range of exports to China ratcheted up U.S.-Sino trade war fears and added to the gloom surrounding Netflix's earnings miss. More on that below. In my column today, I look at what is driving U.S. Treasury yields lower. In short, investors are all in on Fed Chair Jerome Powell's view that employment risks trump inflation risks. 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 * U.S.-Asian heavyweights trade talks heat up U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent head to Malaysia to meet Chinese officials, with the U.S.-Sino trade war at an extremely delicate phase, especially after Reuters' exclusive report on potential U.S. controls on exports to China. Will Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping meet face to face in South Korea next week? Meanwhile, Japan's government led by new prime minister Sanae Takaichi is finalizing a purchase package, including U.S. pickups, soybeans and gas, to present to Trump when he visits Japan next week. And India is reported to be close to agreeing a deal to slash U.S. tariffs on Indian imports to 15%-16% from 50%. * U.S. Big Tech's legal clouds Netflix on Tuesday blamed its Q3 profit miss on a $619 million charge linked to a tax dispute in Brazil, and on Wednesday Apple was hit with a complaint to EU antitrust regulators by two civil rights groups over the terms and conditions of its App Store and devices. This could pose another headache for Apple, which was fined 500 million euros in April. The sums for both companies aren't cripplingly large, but they aren't helpful, and shares in both underperformed the broader market on Wednesday. * Earnings power The U.S. third-quarter earnings season is going up through the gears, with around 90 companies in the S&P 500 reporting this week and some 180 next week. So far, around 87% have reported 'beats', running well above the average over the last 30 years of around 67%. As ever, there have been some standout beats and misses. Netflix's shares plunged 10% on Wednesday after its miss, enough to drag the broader market lower even before the latest U.S.-China trade twist. With benchmark indices still near all-time highs, are they more vulnerable to misses than beats? Plunging Treasury yields signal investors hear Powell loud and clear The slide in Treasury yields in the face of record-high stock prices, tight credit spreads, and sticky inflation suggests investors have accepted Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's steer that policy is being driven by employment, not inflation. So much so, there's a risk that a self-sustaining feedback loop takes hold, whereby labor market concerns depress yields, exacerbating fears that the economy is slowing, which could, in turn, maintain the downward pressure on yields. Investors, starved of official economic data during the three-week-long government shutdown, get one rare bit of guidance on Friday, CPI inflation. The trouble is, it's not the data they want. Friday's report is expected to show that core annual inflation held steady at 3.1% in September. That's more than a percentage point above the Fed's 2% target. Annual core CPI has been 3% or higher almost every month for nearly five years. The bond market is likely to greet this with a shrug. The two-year Treasury yield last week fell to its lowest point since August 2022, reflecting investors' belief that the Fed will cut interest rates again next week, in December, and into next year. The 10-year yield is now below 4.00%, clocking its lowest daily closing level in more than a year on Tuesday. So even if inflation comes in on the firm side, this is unlikely to spark a jump in yields. ASSESSING THE FRAGILE LABOR MARKET With no official economic data in the three-week government shutdown, investors have been filling in the gaps with their own gloomy scenarios. If there's any one thing they've been stewing on, it is the slump in job growth. Although the dramatic drop in job creation has until now mostly been offset by shrinking labor supply, it is alarming. Goldman Sachs economists on Monday outlined five main reasons why job creation was shrinking so rapidly: a slowdown in immigration; reduction in government hiring and funding; adoption of artificial intelligence technology; tariff-related costs and trade uncertainty; and macroeconomic risks. They reckon underlying trend payrolls growth now is just 25,000 a month, some 125,000 per month fewer than their projections in January. It is also well below the "breakeven" pace of job growth needed to stabilize the unemployment rate, which they put at around 75,000. And that's on the high side of breakeven estimates. Anton Cheremukhin, economist at the Dallas Fed, puts it around 30,000, down from around 250,000 only two years ago. The problem is a low breakeven level of job growth may help cap the unemployment rate from rising too fast too soon, but it masks a deeper fragility in the labor market. It won't take much of a deterioration for slender net job growth to turn into net job losses. MESSAGE IN A BARREL The Fed is clearly aware of this risk, with Chair Powell indicating last month that the fear of rapid labor market deterioration was largely behind the decision to resume cutting interest rates even with inflation above the 2% target. And both the Fed and investors may have other reasons to look past the still-elevated inflation rate. For one, there's the signaling from the oil market. Granted, the connection between crude price and inflation is weaker than it used to be, but it shouldn't be ignored. Oil is languishing at five-month lows, with Brent crude near $60 a barrel. That's down around 15% from the same period last year. Most energy analysts, including those at the International Energy Agency, are forecasting a persistent imbalance between supply and demand in the coming year, both because of increased production and weakening demand. If Eurasia Group analysts are right, this glut could push prices as low as $55 a barrel by the end of this year, which would be a five-year low. Moderate oil prices have exerted downward pressure on inflation almost all year. Cheaper crude won't bring inflation back to the Fed's 2% target, of course, but it is one more factor that can help explain why the Fed and investors have shifted their focus from inflation to the creaky labor market. 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/asia-pacific/global-markets-trading-day-graphic-2025-10-22/

2025-10-22 20:37

TSX ends up 0.3% at 29,982.98 Energy adds 1.5% as oil settles 2.2% higher Consumer staples gain 0.8% Teck Resources shares fall 1.8% after earnings report Oct 22 (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index clawed back some recent declines on Wednesday as higher oil prices boosted energy shares, but the move was limited as trade tensions rose. The S&P/TSX composite index (.GSPTSE) , opens new tab ended up 94.16 points, or 0.3%, at 29,982.98. On Tuesday, the index posted its lowest closing level since October 10 as gold's sharpest single-day drop in five years pressured metal mining shares. Sign up here. Wall Street lost ground on Wednesday as investors assessed mixed earnings and reports that the Trump administration is considering curbs on exports to China made with U.S. software. "Comments on trade didn't help," said Allan Small, senior investment advisor of the Allan Small Financial Group with iA Private Wealth. "Everybody is waiting for this market to pull back." The TSX has advanced 21.25% since the start of the year and notched a record closing high as recently as last Wednesday. Energy (.SPTTEN) , opens new tab rose 1.5% as the price of oil settled 2.2% higher at $58.50 a barrel on growing U.S. energy consumption. Industrials (.GSPTTIN) , opens new tab also notched gains, adding 0.5%, and consumer staples (.GSPTTCS) , opens new tab ended 0.8% higher. The operator of Canada's Trans Mountain pipeline and oil shippers are in talks to resolve a shipping cost dispute that has deterred usage of Canada's only east-west pipeline and hindered the government's plan to sell it. The materials group, which includes metal mining shares, was up 0.1%. The price of gold fell 0.5%, adding to the previous day's decline. Still, gold was up about 57% since the start of the year as mounting economic and geopolitical uncertainty alongside expectations of further interest rate cuts by the U.S. Federal Reserve supported demand for the precious metal. Gold rose "too high, too fast," Small said. Teck Resources TECKb.TO , opens new tab beat third-quarter profit estimates, lifted by higher copper and zinc prices. Still, its shares ended 1.8% lower. https://www.reuters.com/business/tsx-futures-fall-precious-metals-extend-losses-2025-10-22/