2024-09-11 17:51
Canadian dollar gains 0.2% against the greenback Touches its weakest since Aug. 21 at 1.3622 Price of U.S. oil increases 2.8% Bond yields rise across a flatter curve TORONTO, Sept 11 (Reuters) - The Canadian dollar rebounded from a three-week low against its U.S. counterpart on Wednesday as oil prices rallied and despite American inflation data that tempered expectations for an oversized interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve. The loonie was trading 0.2% higher at 1.3580 to the U.S. dollar, or 73.64 U.S. cents, after earlier touching its weakest level since Aug. 21 at 1.3622. "The correlation between oil and the Canadian dollar is increasing," said Bipan Rai, head of ETF and structured solutions strategy at BMO Global Asset Management. "That could be an important theme to follow into the end of this year." The price of oil, one of Canada's major exports, clawed back some recent declines as a drop in U.S. crude inventories and concern about disruptions to U.S. output from Hurricane Francine countered concerns about weak global demand. U.S. crude oil futures were up 2.8% at $67.60 a barrel. U.S. consumer prices rose slightly in August, but underlying inflation showed some stickiness amid higher costs for housing and other services, further dashing hopes of a half-point interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve next week. "It really does look like 25 basis points from the Fed next week should be the base case scenario," Rai said. The Bank of Canada has cut its benchmark interest rate three times since June, lowering the rate by a total of 75 basis points to 4.25%. Growth in Canada's economy is likely to fall well short of the central bank's forecast in the third quarter, economists said this week. Canadian government bond yields moved higher across a flatter curve, tracking moves in U.S. Treasuries. The 10-year was up 2.7 basis points at 2.925%, after earlier touching its lowest level since May 2023 at 2.872%. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/canadian-dollar-bounces-3-week-low-oil-rallies-2024-09-11/
2024-09-11 15:23
Sept 11 (Reuters) - India led the way in global adoption of cryptocurrencies for the second straight year as investors braved the country's tough regulatory stance and steep trading taxes, a report , opens new tab from blockchain analytics company Chainalysis showed on Wednesday. The report, which tracks adoption across four sub-categories in 151 countries, showed India ranked high on usage of centralized exchange and decentralized finance assets from June 2023 to July 2024. India has taken a tough stance against cryptocurrencies since 2018, with the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) issuing show-cause notices to nine offshore cryptocurrency exchanges in December 2023 for non-compliance with local rules. "India has also got a fairly wide spread level of adoption across different assets of crypto despite restrictions, implying new participants to crypto would have been participating via services that were not banned," said Eric Jardine, research lead at Chainalysis. "Now we've started to see some of those restrictions get rolled back, for example with Binance, which is probably just going to amplify adoption in the country." Binance, the world's biggest crypto exchange, was hit with a fine of 188.2 million rupees ($2.25 million) in June a month after it registered with the FIU in an effort to resume operations in the country. Crypto exchange KuCoin had registered with the watchdog in March but faced a smaller penalty amount of 3.45 million rupees. Seven of the top 20 countries in Chainalysis' global adoption index were central and South Asian countries such as Indonesia, Vietnam and Philippines. Overall decentralized transaction volume carried out in retail-sized transfers, under $10,000 worth of crypto were recorded in countries with lower purchasing power per capita, the report said. Trading was robust in Indonesia, which has banned the use of cryptocurrencies as a means of payment, but allows investment in the assets. The country recorded $157.1 billion inflows in trading of digital assets in the 12 months to July, the report said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/technology/india-leads-crypto-adoption-second-straight-year-report-shows-2024-09-11/
2024-09-11 15:19
Sept 11 (Reuters) - U.S. central bankers will likely start long-awaited interest rate cuts next week with a quarter-of-a-percentage-point reduction, as they seek to reduce the odds of a recession even as stubbornly intact underlying price pressures put them off more aggressive action. Traders now see less than a one-in-five chance of a half-percentage-point rate cut at the Fed's Sept. 17-18 policy meeting. That is down from a better-than one-in-four chance before the release of data on Wednesday that showed the consumer price index rose 2.5% in August from a year earlier, down from July's 2.9% increase. Excluding volatile food and energy, prices rose 3.2%, the same pace as the prior month. Economists look at so-called core inflation to get a sense of the trajectory of prices. Shelter costs, where gains had been moderating in recent months, accelerated on a year-over-year basis for the first time since March 2023. "I don't know if it's a blip, but this report shows core inflation is still a question mark," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities. "It probably seals a quarter-percentage-point rate cut from the Fed." Fed policymakers have kept the U.S. central bank's policy rate in the 5.25%-5.50% range since July of last year to keep downward pressure on inflation and get it on track to their 2% target. Nearly all of them say they want to dial that back soon to keep from slowing the labor market too much. Data last week showed U.S. hiring has slowed in recent months, but the drop in the unemployment rate to 4.2% in August provided some reassurance that the job market does not need immediate forceful Fed support. The CPI report on Wednesday, the last major bit of economic data before the Fed's meeting next week, gave policymakers added reason to reduce rates, but to move cautiously. "We are not seeing evidence that inflation is reaccelerating, but there is less evidence of continued disinflation in this data compared with the prior three months," Thomas Simons, senior economist at Jefferies, wrote. Traders of rate-futures contracts are now pricing a year-end policy rate of 4.25%-4.50%, a path that would include one half-percentage-point rate cut at one of the Fed's final two meetings of the year. The Fed will release policymakers' individual expectations for the path of rates at the end of next week's meeting. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/rates-bonds/fed-seen-cutting-policy-rate-by-25-bps-next-week-2024-09-11/
2024-09-11 12:41
BENGALURU, Sept 11 (Reuters) - UK-based Vedanta Resources, parent of India's Vedanta (VDAN.NS) , opens new tab, has raised $900 million in its first dollar bond issue in more than two years at a coupon of 10.875%, the miner said on Wednesday. The proceeds will be used to repay Vedanta's existing bonds and related transaction costs, the company said. The bonds are expected to be rated "B-" by S&P Global Ratings. The issue received final orders of $1.45 billion from investors, an oversubscription of over 1.6 times, Vedanta said. More than 102 investors took part in the subscription, where 41% bonds were allocated to Asia, 4% to Europe, Middle East and Africa, and 35% to the United States. Barclays, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, J.P. Morgan and Standard Chartered Bank acted as joint global coordinators and managers for the issue. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/vedanta-resources-raises-900-million-via-dollar-bonds-2024-09-11/
2024-09-11 12:36
NEW DELHI, Sept 11 (Reuters) - India will impose tariffs of between 12% and 30% on some steel products imported from China and Vietnam in a bid to safeguard and boost local industry, an Indian finance ministry order showed. Welded stainless steel pipes and tubes exported by China, the world's largest producer of steel, and Vietnam, will be taxed for the next five years, the order from New Delhi issued on Sept. 10 showed. Ties between the world's two most populous nations have been strained since their militaries clashed on their disputed Himalayan border in 2020, prompting New Delhi to tighten scrutiny of Chinese investments and halt major projects. However, Indian foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said on Tuesday that New Delhi was "not closed to business from China" but noted the issue was rather in which sectors and on what terms Beijing did business, without elaborating. The Indian government initiated an anti-dumping investigation in August on certain steel products imported from Vietnam. Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Vietnam's new leader To Lam in Beijing last month, in a sign that they are keen to strengthen ties as trade and investment grow and despite occasional clashes over boundaries in the South China Sea. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/india-impose-up-30-tariffs-some-steel-imports-china-vietnam-2024-09-11/
2024-09-11 12:21
DUBAI, Sept 11 (Reuters) - A BlackRock-managed fund (BLK.N) , opens new tab has bought a minority stake in a pipeline linking Saudi Arabia and Bahrain from Bahrain state oil firm Bapco Energies, the two firms said on Wednesday, as the small Gulf state tries to extract value from its energy assets. A fund managed by BlackRock's Diversified Infrastructure business bought the stake in Saudi Bahrain Pipeline Company (SBPC), they said in a joint statement. No value was disclosed for the deal, which marks Bapco Energies' first asset monetization and is set to support Bahrain, the region's most indebted economy and among its smallest oil producers. Bahrain has been introducing reforms to make doing business easier, create more jobs, and attract foreign investment to boost economic growth. Earlier this month, it introduced a Domestic Minimum Top-up Tax, effective Jan. 1, 2025, that will ensure a minimum 15% tax rate on profits for certain multinational enterprises. "We are implementing a range of projects and initiatives that support comprehensive national development and capitalizing on our asset and operations management," Bapco Energies' CEO Mark Thomas said in the statement. The deal follows similar moves by private equity firms targeting pipeline assets in neighbouring Saudi Arabia and the UAE, where in 2019 BlackRock and KKR (KKR.N) , opens new tab bought a 40% stake in the entity that leases ADNOC's oil pipelines for $4 billion. In April, the stake was sold to Abu Dhabi investor Lunate. BlackRock and Bapco Energies said the energy firm will retain a majority stake and governance over SBPC, which owns a portion of the 112-km pipeline supplying crude oil from Saudi Aramco to Bapco Refining, Bahrain's national refinery. The BlackRock-managed fund and Bapco Energies have also signed an MoU "to explore collaboration on future Bahraini infrastructure and decarbonization projects," the firms said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/blackrock-managed-fund-buys-stake-saudi-bahrain-pipeline-2024-09-11/
