2024-08-29 22:07

NEW YORK, Aug 29 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency extended the emergency waiver for the second time in response to fuel shortages in four Midwest states where the gasoline supply has been impacted by the outage of Exxon Mobil's (XOM.N) , opens new tab 251,800 barrel-per-day refinery in Joliet, Illinois. The waiver for Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana and Illinois will continue through Sept. 15, the EPA said. WHY IT IS IMPORTANT The waiver, which suspends federal anti-smog rules that require the sale of more expensive gasoline in the summer, should help curb gasoline prices. Midwest gasoline prices have surged in recent weeks due to the refinery shutdown. CONTEXT Exxon took the Joliet refinery offline in mid-July due to a power outage after a storm. Exxon began restarting select refinery units three weeks after it lost power. On July 31, the EPA issued an emergency waiver through Aug. 20 in response to the fuel supply emergency, and extended it earlier this month through Sept. 1. The refinery produces around 9 million gallons a day of gasoline and diesel, the company website shows. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-epa-extends-fuel-waiver-second-time-midwest-states-2024-08-29/

2024-08-29 21:51

Aug 29 (Reuters) - A U.S. bankruptcy court judge approved on Thursday a $45 million bid for the assets of failed residential solar company SunPower by rival Complete Solaria. WHY IT'S IMPORTANT Approval of the "stalking horse" bid means California-based Complete Solaria will snap up SunPower's major assets if no higher offers emerge in the coming weeks. Assets included are the company's business for solar on new homes, a sales business for non-installing dealers, and the Blue Raven division it acquired in 2021 for $165 million. SunPower was a pioneer of the U.S. residential solar market but it collapsed earlier this month following a subpoena from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission about its accounting practices and the departure of its CEO. The U.S. residential solar industry has also been struggling broadly with higher interest rates and a reduction in incentives in the top market, California. WHAT'S NEXT Judge Craig Goldblatt of Delaware bankruptcy court set a Sept. 10 deadline for additional bids, and will hold an auction on Sept. 16 if necessary, court documents showed. The court also set a sale objection deadline of Sept. 20. Maxeon, the Singapore-based solar panel maker spun off from SunPower in 2020, objected to the stalking horse bidding rules, saying it owns the rights to SunPower trademarks outside of the United States. The objection was overruled. A Maxeon spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-bankruptcy-court-approves-stalking-horse-bid-sunpower-assets-2024-08-29/

2024-08-29 21:50

WASHINGTON, Aug 29 (Reuters) - Ghana on Thursday signed an agreement with a U.S. developer for a nuclear reactor using technology from NuScale Power (SMR.N) , opens new tab, the U.S. State Department said on Thursday, as the country seeks its first atomic power plant. Nuclear Power Ghana and Regnum Technology Group signed the agreement to deploy a NuScale VOYGR-12 small modular reactor, or SMR, at a U.S.-Africa nuclear energy summit in Nairobi. SMRs are smaller than today's reactors and can be built in a factory. But there are lingering questions , opens new tab about whether they will ever be widespread commercially. WHY IT IS IMPORTANT The U.S. is looking to promote technologies it considers to be clean energy and sell them to developing countries. The administration of President Joe Biden believes that nuclear energy, which generates power virtually emissions free, is critical in the fight against climate change. Nuclear power, on the other hand, produces long lasting nuclear waste. NuScale is the only company with a license to build a U.S. SMR. Last year it canceled its only project in the U.S. amid rising costs. WHO WAS VYING TO SIGN WITH GHANA? Other contenders for the plant included France's EDF, and China National Nuclear Corporation, an energy ministry official in Ghana said in May. South Korea's Kepco and its subsidiary Korea Hydro Nuclear Power Corporation, as well as Russia's ROSATOM were also competing for the contract expected to span the next decade, the official said at the time. KEY QUOTE “Ghana and many other African countries are pursuing nuclear energy to achieve their economic development, energy security, and decarbonization goals," said Aleshia Duncan, deputy assistant secretary for international cooperation at the U.S. Department of Energy. “It’s imperative that the United States remain a strong and engaged partner, offering technical expertise and resources to ensure the successful deployment of nuclear energy across the continent.” Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/ghana-signs-agreement-build-small-nuscale-nuclear-reactor-2024-08-29/

2024-08-29 21:45

MONROVIA, Aug 29 (Reuters) - Liberia's Environmental Protection Agency shut down on Wednesday the operations of China Union's iron ore Bong Mines for violating several environmental regulations, the regulatory agency said on Thursday. China Union took over the Bong Mines, located around 150 km (94 miles) northeast of the capital Monrovia, with a $2.6-billion investment in 2008. It made its first shipment of iron ore in 2014. The agency said it shut down Bong Mines for operating without an effluent discharge license, building a processing plant without a permit and discharging tailings into a wetland. It said it had flagged these violations twice since June and fined the company, to which it did not respond. "China Union blatantly ignored the EPA warnings and continued to operate without any environmental permits, continuing its environmental degradation and pollution," the agency said in a statement. The shutdown will remain in force "until full compliance is achieved and the identified environmental concerns are duly addressed", it added. China Union could not be immediately reached for comment outside office hours. Iron is abundant in Liberia but the sector was decimated by decades of under-investment. Production at the Bong Mines stopped during a conflict that lasted from 1989 to 2003. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/liberia-shuts-down-china-union-iron-ore-bong-mines-environmental-violations-2024-08-29/

2024-08-29 21:38

ATHENS, Aug 29 (Reuters) - As salvage operations began on an abandoned Greek-flagged oil tanker with deck fires still burning from Houthi rebel attacks, the EU's Red Sea naval mission Aspides said on Thursday that no oil spill has been detected. Yemen's Houthi militants carried out multiple assaults, including planting bombs on the already disabled 900-foot (274.2-meter) Sounion that is laden with about 1 million barrels of oil. On Wednesday, the Iran-aligned militants said they would allow salvage crews to tow the ship - which has been on fire since Aug. 23 - to safety. "It would appear, at least for now, that cooler heads prevailed," Lars Jensen, CEO of industry consultancy Vespucci Maritime, said on LinkedIn. The Houthis have sunk two vessels in their 10-month drone and missile campaign against commercial shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. The attacks are in solidarity with Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip and likely will continue if a ceasefire is not reached. The EU mission vowed to "facilitate any courses of action" in coordination with European authorities and neighboring countries to avert a catastrophic environmental crisis and rescue Sounion. On Thursday, Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said the barrels of crude oil on the Sounion were intact, that the vessel itself was leaking some oil from where it was hit, and that multiple fires were still burning. The Houthis' decision to grant rescue crews safe access to the Sounion came after multiple countries voiced humanitarian and environmental concerns. The move may help avoid what experts warned could be a devastating spill of 150,000 tonnes of crude oil into the Red Sea. A spill of that volume would be more than half the size of the largest ever recorded from a ship - 287,000 tonnes from Atlantic Empress in 1979, according to the International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation. Despite the respite in hostilities, risks to crew members, vessels and the environment from Houthi attacks remain. "Even if the (Sounion) can be towed away and we avoid an environmental disaster the threat has not disappeared," Jensen said, adding that there are dozens of oil tankers and other merchant ships still operating in high-risk areas of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/eus-red-sea-mission-says-still-no-oil-spill-tanker-hit-by-houthis-2024-08-29/

2024-08-29 21:31

Investors' high expectations lead to disappointment Other AI chip stocks such as Broadcom, AMD turn positive Nvidia could lose nearly $120 bln in market value, if losses hold Aug 29 (Reuters) - Nvidia (NVDA.O) , opens new tab shares dropped more than 6% on Thursday after its forecast fell short of lofty expectations, though some believe the modest sell-off showed investors still remain confident in the generative AI boom that has powered the chip giant's stock higher all year. The company on Wednesday forecast third-quarter gross margins that could miss market estimates and revenue that was largely in line. But some investor concerns were allayed after the company said it expects production of its next-generation Blackwell chips to ramp up in the fourth quarter. Shares of other chip companies were mixed after some reversed gains from earlier in the session. Broadcom (AVGO.O) , opens new tab shares ended 0.8% lower while those of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.O) , opens new tab fell 0.6%. Shares of Arm rose 5.3%. Nvidia’s shares remain up 137% this year, making the company a pillar of the rally in U.S. stocks. Those gains have been driven in part by a series of blowout quarterly revenue forecasts, leading investors to build up ever greater expectations for its growth. "They beat but this was just one of those situations where expectations were so high. I don't know that they could have had a good enough number for people to be happy," said JJ Kinahan, CEO of IG North America and president of online broker Tastytrade. The forecast followed strong second-quarter earnings that topped Wall Street expectations, and the AI bellwether announced a new $50 billion share buyback as well. "Investors want more, more and more when it comes to Nvidia," said Dan Coatsworth, investment analyst at AJ Bell. "It looks like investors might not have taken the average of analyst forecasts to be the benchmark for Nvidia's performance, instead they've taken the highest end of the estimate range to be the hurdle to clear." Nvidia forecast revenue of $32.5 billion, plus or minus 2%, for its fiscal third quarter, compared with analysts' estimates of $31.8 billion, according to LSEG data. That revenue forecast implies 80% growth from the year-ago quarter, but was below the top-end of market estimates at $37.90 billion. BUYING OPPORTUNITY? Some analysts saw the dip as a buying opportunity. "Nvidia has had much bigger drawdowns on (earnings) reports ... we think the sell-off is an opportunity to accumulate the stock," said Nancy Tengler, CEO of Laffer Tengler Investments. Some Big Tech stocks shrugged off the weakness, suggesting that investors may not see the report as a bad sign for the AI boom. Shares of Amazon.com (AMZN.O) , opens new tab and Apple (AAPL.O) , opens new tab closed higher on Thursday while Alphabet (GOOGL.O) , opens new tab dipped 0.7%. "The long-term AI story is still sort of intact. It's just a bit of a relief that the numbers weren't disastrous," said Ben Barringer, analyst at Quilter Cheviot. Worries about slow payoffs from hefty AI investments have dogged large technology companies in recent weeks, with shares of Microsoft (MSFT.O) , opens new tab and Alphabet trading lower since their quarterly reports last month. A delay in the production ramp-up of Nvidia's next-generation Blackwell chips until the fourth quarter was not a big concern, analysts said, with the company seeing strong demand for its current-generation Hopper chips. However, some analysts were worried about rising regulatory scrutiny after Nvidia disclosed requests for information from U.S. and South Korean regulators, adding to inquiries from the EU, UK and China previously. "After the DOJ win over Google, large-cap tech has got to be more cognizant of regulatory intervention ... historically, the threat was a little bit toothless," Barringer said. "But now that they've got this win over Google, investors have to pay a bit more attention." The lackluster response to Nvidia's earnings report could help set the tone for market sentiment heading in to what is historically a volatile time of the year. The S&P 500 has fallen in September by an average of 0.8% since World War Two, the worst performance of any month, according to CFRA data. Nvidia was valued at 36 times earnings ahead of its quarterly report, inexpensive compared with its average of 41 over the past five years. The S&P 500 (.SPX) , opens new tab is trading at 21 times expected earnings, compared with a five-year average of 18. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/technology/nvidias-forecast-dampens-ai-enthusiasm-other-tech-stocks-2024-08-28/