2024-09-03 21:04

TSX closes down 1.3% Materials and energy lead the sectoral losses Canadian manufacturing activity lifts to a five-month high Sept 3 (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index closed more than 1% lower on Tuesday, tracking declines in materials and energy stocks, ahead of the Bank of Canada's monetary policy decision on Wednesday. The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index (.GSPTSE) , opens new tab ended down 303.73 points, or 1.3%, at 23,042.45, its worst day since Aug. 2. Materials (.GSPTTMT) , opens new tab led sectoral losses with a 4.2% drop as gold prices declined. Copper prices fell to a two-week low and the energy sector (.SPTTEN) , opens new tab fell 2.1% after oil prices dropped more than 3% on news of sluggish economic growth in China. China's manufacturing activity sank to a six-month low in August as factory gate prices tumbled and owners struggled for orders, an official survey showed. At least nine major sectors pared losses. Healthcare (.GSPTTHC) , opens new tab and capped communications (.GSPTTTS) , opens new tab were the only outliers, rising 1% and 0.3%, respectively, with Bausch Health Companies' (BHC.TO) , opens new tab 3% gain supporting healthcare stocks. On Wall Street, the main indexes fell more than 1% as investors assessed factory activity data that edged up in August from an eight-month low in July. Markets will be watching the Bank of Canada's policy meeting on Wednesday, in which it is widely expected to lower its policy rate by 25 basis points for the third time in a row. "Lending rates are still very high. So, to me, it's the start of an interest rate decreasing cycle that will continue going forward, until the Bank of Canada finds that neutral rate whatever that may be," said Allan Small, senior investment advisor at Allan Small Financial Group with iA Private Wealth. Canadian manufacturing activity rose to a five-month high to 49.5 in August as production and new orders fell at slower rates. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/tsx-futures-fall-oil-prices-decline-2024-09-03/

2024-09-03 20:51

Mexico's Supreme Court joins work stoppage against judicial reform Reform proposes election of judges, reducing Supreme Court size and terms Critics fear reform weakens judiciary, impacts markets MEXICO CITY, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Mexico's lower house of Congress launched into a debate on a controversial judicial reform on Tuesday despite a rare, last-ditch work stoppage by Supreme Court judges in protest. By a majority of eight votes to three, the judges of the Supreme Court decided to join a work stoppage that has seen thousands of judicial workers go on strike, the court said in a statement. Mexico's lower house of Congress began the debate on the judicial reform, which has strained relations with the United States and sparked market volatility. The decision by the Supreme Court judges to join the work stoppage has never happened before in the institution's history, according to a Supreme Court source. The backbone of the constitutional reform, proposed by outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, calls for the election by popular vote of more than 7,000 judges and magistrates, including the Supreme Court. Supreme Court judges in Mexico are currently nominated by the president, and then affirmed by the Senate. The proposal is expected to sail through with Congress' approval where the ruling Morena party enjoys a majority in both chambers. The reform, supported by President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum, Lopez Obrador's protégé, proposes reducing the number of Supreme Court judges to nine from 11, reducing their terms to 12 years and cutting required work experience by half to qualify for ministerial positions. Lopez Obrador has argued the reform is necessary to hold judges accountable and reduce corruption. Critics, however, have said the reform will not impact prosecutors, police and public ministries, which they blame as the real culprits of impunity and corruption. The reform has generated concern among investors and the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, who worry it would weaken a crucial check and balance of the executive branch and damage the business climate in Latin America's second-largest economy. Judicial workers, who have widely protested the reform through demonstrations and a work stoppage, blocked the entrance to the lower house, forcing lawmakers to hold the debate session in a sports venue in capital Mexico City. A judge on Saturday ordered the lower house of Congress to suspend discussions on the reform in response to concerns about judicial workers' labor rights. Morena party leader in the lower house, Ricardo Monreal, however, dismissed the judge's order as "undue and rude interference" and said lawmakers would continue with the debate. Morena Congress members plan to discuss and approve the reform in Tuesday's session. On Wednesday, the reform is expected to move on to the Senate, where Morena is just one senator short of a supermajority needed to approve Constitutional reforms. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/mexicos-supreme-court-votes-join-work-stoppage-over-judicial-reform-2024-09-03/

2024-09-03 20:43

CAIRO, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Libya's two legislative bodies agreed on Tuesday to appoint jointly a central bank governor, potentially defusing a battle for control of the country's oil revenue that has slashed production. The House of Representatives based in Benghazi, in eastern Libya, and the High State Council in Tripoli in the west signed a joint statement after two days of talks hosted by the U.N. Support Mission in Libya. They agreed to appoint a central bank governor and board of directors within 30 days. Libya's central bank is the sole legal repository for Libyan oil revenue, and it pays state salaries across the country. The two chambers also agreed to extend consultations for five days, concluding on Sept. 9. Libya has had little peace since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising and it split in 2014 between eastern and western factions. Major warfare ended with a ceasefire in 2020 and attempts to reunify, but divisions persist. The House of Representatives parliament and the High State Council were both recognised internationally in a 2015 political agreement, although they backed different sides for much of Libya's conflict. The standoff began when the head of the Presidency Council in Tripoli moved last month to oust veteran central bank Governor Sadiq al-Kabir and replace him with a rival board. This prompted eastern factions to declare a shutdown to all oil production, demanding Kabir's dismissal be halted. The dispute threatened to end four years of relative stability. Some oil output has since resumed, and oil prices dropped nearly 5% on Tuesday to their lowest levels in almost nine months in a sign that traders expect the latest agreement to get more oil flowing. Libya's central bank has been paralysed by the battle for its control, leaving it unable to conduct transactions for more than a week. Underlying the issue is the country's fractured political landscape of rival governing institutions with tenuous claims to legitimacy. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/libya-factions-agree-appoint-central-bank-governor-bid-ease-crisis-2024-09-03/

2024-09-03 20:43

LAKE MORNOS, Greece, Sept 3 (Reuters) - From beneath the shrinking Lake Mornos in central Greece, the muddied remains of homes are reemerging nearly 45 years since the village that once stood here disappeared underwater. After a winter of hardly any snow, a summer of punishing heatwaves and months of little rain and drought across much of Greece, the huge man-made lake which supplies water for nearly half the Greek population has dwindled to its lowest level in decades. "Day by day, the water goes down," said Dimitris Giannopoulos, mayor of the broader Dorida municipality, who said nothing similar had been seen for 33 years. Long stretches of cracked soil surround the ruins of the lost village of Kallio, which was flooded in 1980 to create a lake to meet the ever-increasing water needs of the capital, some 200 km away. Bricks lie among mounds of seashells. Greece's arid Mediterranean climate has made it particularly susceptible to the effects of global warming, which has worsened summer wildfires including blazes that reached the outskirts of Athens last month. Scientists say extreme weather linked to climate change is now driving the decline of the lake. "It is an alarm bell," said Efthymis Lekkas, professor of disaster management at the University of Athens. "We don't know what will happen in the coming period. If we have a rainless winter, things will get difficult." Giannopoulos gestures towards Mount Giona towering over the lake, which used to be snow-capped but saw none last winter, Greece's warmest on record. On the lake's receding rim, trees have taken on a yellowish hue. "They lack water. This has never happened before," he said. Wells in the area are drying up and surrounding villages, which do not take water from the lake, suffered water cuts this summer, he said. A local firefighter chief said the risk of wildfires loomed as the forests became drier. The lake's surface area has shrunk from around 16.8 square km in August 2022 to just 12.0 square km this year, according to satellite images released by Greece's National Observatory. Water reserves there and at the three other reservoirs supplying Attica, a region of around 4 million people which includes Athens, had dropped to 700 million cubic metres in August down from 1.2 billion cubic metres in 2022, the environment ministry said. The state-run Athens water company EYDAP had begun supplying the network with additional sources of water, it said. Former residents of Kallio were surprised to see the village again, but saddened at its state. "I used to see it full and say it was a beach. Now all you see is dryness," said 90-year-old Konstantinos Gerodimos. His 77-year-old wife Maria chimes in: "If it continues like this, the entire village will appear, all the way to the bottom, where the church and our home was." (This story has been corrected to fix the population of Attica region in paragraph 12) Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/sunken-village-emerges-greece-drought-dries-up-lake-2024-09-03/

2024-09-03 19:43

ROME, Sept 3 (Reuters) - The Arch of Constantine, a giant ancient Roman arch next to the Colosseum, was damaged after a violent storm hit Rome, conservation authorities said on Tuesday. In a statement to Reuters, which first reported on the accident, the Colosseum Archaeological Park confirmed that the monument was hit by lightning. The triumphal arch was built in the 4th century AD to celebrate the victory of Constantine - the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity - over his rival, Maxentius. It is about 25 metres (82 feet) high and is located in the same pedestrian area where the Colosseum stands, a major tourist hotspot. "A lightning strike hit the arch right here and then hit the corner and we saw this fly off," a tourist told Reuters, pointing to a large block of stone fallen to the ground. Reuters video images showed other blocks of stone and rubble lying around the monument, and archaeological park staff working to collect them. "All fragments were recovered and secured. Damage assessments have already begun and the analyses will continue tomorrow morning," the archaeological park said. The arch was hit on its southern side, where pre-scheduled conservation work had started two days ago and which will now also focus on repairing the damage, it added. The accident took place during a heavy thunderstorm that felled trees and branches and flooded several streets of the Italian capital. The Civil Protection agency said 60 millimetres (2.36 inches) of rain fell on central Rome in less than one hour, about as much as would normally fall in a month during autumn. The freak weather was a so-called "downburst", Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri said, referring to the kind of severe storm, featuring powerful downward winds, believed to have also caused last month's sinking of British tech tycoon Mike Lynch's yacht off Sicily. "The event that hit Rome is truly unprecedented, because it was so powerful and concentrated in a very short time and in some areas of the city, starting from the historic center," Gualtieri said in a statement. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ancient-roman-arch-constantine-damaged-after-violent-storm-2024-09-03/

2024-09-03 19:34

Sept 3 (Reuters) - Artificial intelligence could hurt oil prices over the next decade by boosting supply by potentially reducing costs via improved logistics and increasing the amount of profitably recoverable resources, Goldman Sachs said on Tuesday. WHY IT'S IMPORTANT The impact of AI on energy and metals has mostly focused on the demand side given the expected boost to power demand. Negative impact on oil prices could decrease incomes of producers like the members of Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, known as OPEC+. KEY QUOTES "AI could potentially reduce costs via improved logistics and resource allocation ... resulting in a $5/bbl fall in the marginal incentive price, assuming a 25% productivity gain observed for early AI adopters," Goldman Sachs said in a note. Goldman expects a modest potential AI boost to oil demand compared to demand impact to power and natural gas over the next 10 years. "We believe that AI would likely be a modest net negative to oil prices in the medium-to-long term as the negative impact from the cost curve (c.-$5/bbl) - oil's long-term anchor - would likely outweigh the demand boost (c.+$2/bbl)," Goldman said. BY THE NUMBERS According to Goldman Sachs' estimates, about 30% of the costs of a new shale well could potentially be reduced by AI. Additionally, an AI-induced 10% to 20% increase in the low recovery factors of U.S. shale could boost oil reserves by 8% to 20% (10-30 billion barrels). CONTEXT Brent crude futures were down $3.51, or 4.5%, to $74.02 a barrel, the lowest level since December. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were down $2.97, or 4.1%, at $70.58 - their lowest price since January. U.S. technology companies are pursuing energy assets held by bitcoin miners to secure a shrinking supply of electricity for their rapidly expanding artificial intelligence and cloud computing data centers. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/ai-likely-weigh-oil-prices-over-next-decade-goldman-says-2024-09-03/