2024-08-26 22:14
GENEVA, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Sea level rises in the Pacific Ocean are outstripping the global average, a World Meteorological Organization (WMO) report showed on Tuesday, imperiling low-lying island states. Globally, sea level advances are accelerating as higher temperatures driven by the continued burning of fossil fuels melt once-mighty ice sheets, while warmer oceans cause water molecules to expand. But even compared to the global average rate rise of 3.4 millimetres a year over the past three decades, the WMO report showed that the average annual increase was "significantly higher" in two measurement areas of the Pacific, north and east of Australia. "Human activities have weakened the capacity of the ocean to sustain and protect us and – through sea level rise – are transforming a lifelong friend into a growing threat," said WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo in a statement to coincide with the release of the regional State of the Climate report 2023 at a forum in Tonga. Already, such rises have brought a surge in the frequency of coastal flooding since 1980, with dozens of instances happening in islands like the Cook Islands and French Polynesia which previously reported just a handful of such cases annually. Such events are sometimes caused by tropical cyclones which scientists think could also be intensifying due to climate change, as sea surface temperatures climb. Over 34 hazards like storms and floods were reported in the Pacific region in 2023, resulting in more than 200 deaths, the WMO report said, adding that only a third of small island developing states had early warning systems. A WMO spokesperson said that the impact of rising water levels on Pacific islands was disproportionately high since their average elevation is just a meter or two (3.3 to 6.5 feet) above sea level. To raise awareness of the dangers, Tuvalu's foreign minister gave a speech to the U.N. climate conference in 2021 while standing knee-deep in seawater, making global headlines. But the WMO report said further rises across the planet would "continue for centuries to millennia due to continuing deep ocean heat uptake and mass loss from ice sheets". Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/sea-levels-rising-faster-pacific-than-elsewhere-says-wmo-report-2024-08-26/
2024-08-26 21:52
Aug 27 (Reuters) - A look at the day ahead in Asian markets. World markets are entering a period of nervous uncertainty as investors try to determine whether upcoming U.S. interest rate cuts will be benign and in tandem with a "soft landing," or mitigation against a more damaging economic downturn. Asian markets leaned towards the former on Monday and traded positively. But risk appetite steadily whittled away as the day progressed, pushing Wall Street into the red and setting the tone for a more jittery session on Tuesday. The Asia and Pacific calendar on Tuesday is light, with Japanese producer prices and trade figures from Hong Kong and Thailand the major economic indicators on tap. Australian mining giant BHP's annual results are the main corporate highlight. Global market dynamics will therefore be the more important drivers for Asia as investors continue to digest the implications of Fed Chair Jerome Powell's policy pivot at Jackson Hole on Friday. Fears of U.S. recession and a continued rise in unemployment are keeping a 50 basis point rate cut from the Fed next month on the table. This is putting U.S. stocks on the defensive and fueling demand for Treasuries, although bonds and the dollar were generally flat on Monday. World stocks ended slightly lower on Monday, but not before hitting a new record high. Nvidia shares slid ahead of the AI darling's quarterly results on Wednesday, pushing Wall Street lower but not before registering a fresh six-week high. Gold hugged recent record peaks, while oil prices rose again on Monday as production cuts in Libya added to supply concerns stemming from reports of escalating conflict in the Middle East. Oil is now up 8% in three days. So it is a mixed bag for Asia on Tuesday. This is the backdrop to a re-emergence of trade tensions between China and the West, as the Biden administration prepares to announce final implementation plans for steep tariff increases on certain Chinese imports. U.S. manufacturers have asked for the higher tariff rates on a range of goods from electric vehicles to electric utility equipment to be reduced, delayed or abandoned, and for potential exclusions to be greatly expanded. The White House had said initially the new tariffs would take effect on Aug. 1 but that was delayed. The politically-loaded decision on what form they will take will be made by the end of the week. Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday said that Canada will impose a 100% tariff on the import of Chinese electric vehicles, including Teslas, and will also impose a 25% tariff on imported steel and aluminum from China. Here are key developments that could provide more direction to Asian markets on Monday: - Japan services PPI (July) - Thailand and Hong Kong trade (July) - Australia BHP annual results Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/asia/global-markets-view-asia-graphic-pix-2024-08-26/
2024-08-26 21:45
Aug 26 (Reuters) - Emergency crews in the Alaska tourist hub of Ketchikan braced on Monday for more landslides after a large, rain-drenched slope gave way on Sunday, killing one person, injuring three others and leaving dozens of homes damaged and without power. Photos from the aftermath of the slide showed a wide tract of a steep, thickly wooded hillside stripped of vegetation, and a tangle of twisted, broken pine trees and other debris that lay heaped against several buildings at the bottom of the slope. Four or five homes were heavily damaged or destroyed, and about four dozen dwellings were placed under mandatory evacuation and left without electricity, according to Cynna Gubatayao, an emergency operations center official. "In my 65 years in Ketchikan, I have never seen a slide of this magnitude," Mayor Dave Kiffer said in a statement posted online. One man was confirmed killed, and three other people were injured, two of whom were hospitalized, according to a joint statement from the Ketchikan Gateway Borough and the city of Ketchikan. Officials later identified the man who died as Sean Griffin, a senior maintenance technician for the city public works department who was clearing stormwater drains with another crew member when they were caught in the landslide. Griffin's age was not given. No one was reported missing from the disaster. Authorities said the area around the slide remained unstable, with a potential secondary landslide zone identified south of the original site and emergency response teams standing by. Gubatayao told Reuters by phone that Sunday's slide, which occurred at about 4 p.m., followed a day of heavy downpours. Forecasts called for showers to continue across the region through Monday. Ketchikan, the sixth most populous city in Alaska with some 8,000 residents, lies at the southern tip of the coastal channel known as the Inside Passage connecting the Gulf of Alaska to Puget Sound in Washington state. The town is surrounded by the Tongass National Forest, one of the world's last remaining intact temperate rain forests. A hub of tourism and commercial fishing in Alaska's scenic southeastern panhandle, Ketchikan is known as the gateway to the Misty Fiords National Monument, one of the area's major outdoor attractions. The slide came less than three weeks after more than 100 homes in Alaska's capital Juneau, about 235 miles (378 km) to the northwest, were damaged by a burst of glacial flooding, an increasingly frequent phenomenon exacerbated by climate change. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/deadly-alaska-landslide-upends-life-tourist-town-ketchikan-2024-08-26/
2024-08-26 20:50
Aug 26 - Facebook owner Meta Platforms (META.O) , opens new tab struck a deal to buy geothermal power from Sage Geosystems to supply its U.S. data centers, it said on Monday, as it races to build out the infrastructure to support its massive investments in energy-hungry artificial intelligence. The first phase of the 150-megawatt project should be operational by 2027 and "significantly" expand the use of geothermal power in the United States, the social media company said. The location has yet to be determined, but the companies said it will be east of the Rocky Mountains. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Geothermal power is a renewable energy source that uses the Earth's internal heat to produce electricity and heat water. One-hundred and fifty megawatts is roughly enough electricity to power 38,000 homes. Meta's announcement, made as part of a U.S. Department of Energy event on geothermal development, comes as President Joe Biden's administration is asking big technology companies to invest in new clean power generation to cover their surging electricity demand. That surge has been driven by the adoption of technologies like generative AI that require large amounts of electricity to power data centers, a development that could complicate Biden's target of decarbonizing the power sector by 2035 to fight climate change. Sage, which is based in Houston, is a four-year-old startup developing next-generation technology that it says can be deployed in more locations than traditional geothermal, which requires naturally occurring underground reservoirs of hot water and accounts for 0.4% of U.S. power generation. The company is backed by oil and gas firms Chesapeake Energy (CHK.O) , opens new tab and Nabors Industries (NBR.N) , opens new tab and venture capital firms Virya and Helium-3 Ventures. The project for Meta would be Sage's largest to date by far. The company said it first validated the technology in the field just two years ago. A Meta spokesperson told Reuters the company expected the Sage Geosystems energy to feed the power grid, rather than directly supplying any specific data center. Meta has been scrambling to overhaul and build out infrastructure to accommodate its push into generative AI for the last several years, refashioning its data centers to support the types of chips best suited to AI workloads. That AI push has caused the company's expenses to spike. Last month, Meta forecast 2024 capital expenditure would come in between $37 billion and $40 billion, while cautioning that infrastructure costs would continue to be a "significant driver" of expense growth in 2025. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/meta-strikes-geothermal-energy-deal-with-sage-geosystems-power-data-centers-2024-08-26/
2024-08-26 20:46
NEW YORK, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Bank of New York Mellon has agreed to pay $5 million to settle U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission charges for repeatedly failing to correctly report millions of swap transactions, violating a previous order, the regulator said in a statement on Monday. Bank of New York Mellon, which contains the swap dealing business of parent company Bank of New York Mellon Corp (BNY)(BK.N) , opens new tab, failed to correctly report at least 5 million swap transactions and failed to properly supervise its swap dealer business from about 2018 through 2023, the CFTC said in its statement. Many of those failures violated a previous CFTC order against the firm from 2019, the regulator said. Bank of New York Mellon also decided to retain an independent compliance consultant to review its compliance program, in addition to paying the civil penalty, the CFTC said. "BNY takes its regulatory responsibilities seriously and is pleased to have resolved this matter," a spokesperson said in a statement. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/bank-new-york-mellon-pay-5-mln-over-swap-reporting-supervision-failures-cftc-2024-08-26/
2024-08-26 20:35
TSX ends up 0.3% at 23,348.97 Moves past Friday's record closing high Energy rallies 1.6%; oil settles up 3.5% Technology falls 0.6% Aug 26 (Reuters) - Canada's main stock rose to an all-time high on Monday as a jump in oil prices boosted energy shares, and ahead of quarterly earnings this week from five of Canada's six major banks. The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index (.GSPTSE) , opens new tab ended up 62.89 points, or 0.3%, at 23,348.97. It eclipsed the record closing high posted on Friday when Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell endorsed the start of U.S. interest rate cuts. "It seems like more of a rotation toward commodities and out of some of the technology areas and that's good for the TSX," said Greg Taylor, a portfolio manager at Purpose Investments. The energy sector climbed 1.6% as the price of oil settled 3.5% higher at $77.42 a barrel, with production cuts in Libya adding to supply concerns. The materials group, which includes metal miners and fertilizer companies, was up 0.2%. "The rest of the market is just waiting for the banks," Taylor said. Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS.TO) , opens new tab and Bank of Montreal (BMO.TO) , opens new tab are due to report on Tuesday, followed by Royal Bank of Canada (RY.TO) , opens new tab and National Bank of Canada (NA.TO) , opens new tab on Wednesday and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce on Thursday. Last Thursday, Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD.TO) , opens new tab reported its first loss in over two decades after setting aside an extra $2.6 billion to cover expected fines from U.S. regulators. Just two of 10 major sectors posted declines, including technology, which fell 0.6% in sympathy with declines for U.S. tech stocks. A decision obliging more than 9,000 Canadian rail workers to stay on the job is a win for the railways and could impact bargaining in other federally regulated sectors like aviation, the head of a Canadian rail workers' union told Reuters. Shares of Canadian National Railway Co (CNR.TO) , opens new tab and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd (CP.TO) , opens new tab both ended higher. Air Canada (AC.TO) , opens new tab added 0.5%. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/tsx-futures-edge-up-higher-commodity-prices-2024-08-26/
