2024-08-20 02:49

MUMBAI, Aug 20 (Reuters) - The Indian rupee is expected to inch higher on Tuesday after the dollar index slumped to its lowest level in seven months, but is likely to underperform its regional peers. The 1-month non-deliverable forward indicates that the rupee will open at 83.85 to the U.S. dollar, compared to its previous close of 83.87. The dollar index dropped to 101.76 in Asian hours, the lowest in more than seven months. Asian currencies, meanwhile, added to Monday's advance, with most up between 0.3% to 0.5%. The situation has reversed from a few days ago when Asian currencies were broadly struggling, a currency trader said. At that time, the Reserve Bank of India "heavy intervention" made sure rupee did not weaken past 84. "Now it is to be expected that rupee will not participate much to the dollar's decline, definitely not to the extent other Asians will." The Reserve Bank of India has in recent days been selling dollars at 83.97 to support the rupee, according to traders. One of the impacts of RBI's "incessant intervention" over the last several months has been that rupee will underperform when dollar declines and will outperform when dollar rallies, a treasure official at a bank said. FED RATE CUTS The dollar's drop has been attributed by analysts to expectations around Federal Reserve rate cuts. The Fed is expected to cut rates by 100 basis points this year, beginning in September. The upbeat risk mood has been another factor cited for the slump in the safe haven dollar. Investors are eyeing Fed Chair Jerome Powell's comments on Friday at Jackson Hole. Expectations are for Powell to acknowledge the case for a rate cut. The current dollar weakness may be a prelude to this week’s Jackson Hole speech by Chair Powell, ING Bank said in a note. KEY INDICATORS: ** One-month non-deliverable rupee forward at 83.93; onshore one-month forward premium at 7.5 paisa ** Dollar index at 101.88 ** Brent crude futures down 0.4% at $77.3 per barrel ** Ten-year U.S. note yield at 3.87% ** As per NSDL data, foreign investors bought a net $142.5 mln worth of Indian shares on Aug. 16 ** NSDL data shows foreign investors bought a net $54.8 mln worth of Indian bonds on Aug. 16 Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/rupee-likely-underperform-regional-peers-amid-dollars-slide-2024-08-20/

2024-08-20 00:35

Aug 20 (Reuters) - Oil prices fell about 1% to a two-week low on Tuesday as Middle East supply concerns eased after Israel accepted a proposal to tackle disagreements blocking a ceasefire deal in Gaza, and as economic weakness in China weighed on fuel demand. Brent futures for October delivery fell 46 cents, or 0.6%, to settle at $77.20 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for September delivery fell 33 cents, or 0.4%, to settle at $74.04 on its last day as the front-month. The more actively traded WTI futures for October , which will soon become the front-month, lost about 49 cents to $73.17 per barrel. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Egypt and pushed for progress toward a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal. Major differences still need to be resolved in talks this week. "There was probably around $4 to $8 of geopolitical premium baked into the price of crude oil before negotiations began on Thursday," Bob Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho, said in a note. Israel retrieved the bodies of six hostages from the Gaza Strip as negotiations continued in an effort to bring back more than 100 captives remaining in the besieged Palestinian enclave. "Despite ongoing ceasefire negotiations, clashes between Israel and Hamas continue, and the markets will remain highly sensitive to any developments in the region," said Rystad Energy's senior analyst Svetlana Tretyakova. "If the market fundamentals don't break this bearish trend soon, OPEC+ may be hesitant to unwind their voluntary cuts anytime soon." OPEC+, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies like Russia, has said global oil demand growth must accelerate in coming months or the market will struggle to absorb the group's planned increase in supply from October. OPEC member Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, said crude exports fell to 6.047 million barrels per day (bpd) in June from 6.118 million bpd in May. Data from China, the world's second-largest economy, showed new home prices fell in July at their fastest pace in nine years, industrial output slowed, export and investment growth dipped and unemployment rose. Worries about fuel demand in the U.S., the world's biggest economy, pressured prices for U.S. heating oil futures to their lowest since May 2023 for a second straight day. The heating oil crack spread , which measures refining profit margins, stayed near its lowest since November 2021. Prices for U.S. gasoline futures fell to their lowest since February 2024. "Following Q2 (second quarter) earnings, multiple refinery companies have responded to (price and demand) concerns by announcing cuts to capacity rate, including PBF Energy (PBF.N) , opens new tab, Phillips 66 (PSX.N) , opens new tab and Marathon (MPC.N) , opens new tab," analysts at energy consulting firm Gelber and Associates said in a note. U.S. OIL INVENTORIES Weekly U.S. oil storage data is due from the American Petroleum Institute (API) trade group on Tuesday and the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday. Analysts projected U.S. energy firms pulled about 2.7 million barrels of crude out of storage during the week ended Aug. 16. , If correct, that would be the seventh time U.S. crude stocks declined in the past eight weeks. There was a withdrawal of 6.1 million barrels during the same week last year and an average decrease of 3.4 million barrels over the past five years (2019-2023). (This story has been refiled to add the missing word 'be' in paragraph 4) Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/oil-prices-tick-down-hopes-middle-east-ceasefire-eases-supply-worries-2024-08-20/

2024-08-20 00:12

Aug 19 (Reuters) - Raging floodwaters killed two women in Connecticut after heavy rains tore up roads and downed trees, forcing rescuers to retrieve some stranded victims by boat, officials said on Monday. Weekend rain caused major flooding in western Connecticut and turned deadly at the Little River in the town of Oxford, about 40 miles (65 km) southwest of Hartford. In two separate incidents on Sunday, one woman was killed in her car and the other as she was attempting to cling to a sign, Oxford Fire Chief Scott Pelletier told a press conference on Monday. In both cases, firefighters were on scene and attempting to rescue the women when floodwaters swept the victims away, Pelletier said. Governor Ned Lamont, calling it a "historic storm," declared a state of emergency to help expedite state and federal recovery funds. "It's just a reminder that we have to hang together at a time like this," Lamont said. Commanding Officer Daniel Loughman of Connecticut state police announced the two deaths. Media reports, citing police, identified the women as Ethelyn Joiner, 65, and Audrey Rostkowski, 71. Their bodies were recovered on Monday after officials first responded to their distress on Sunday, Loughman said. State police were able to rescue by boat an unspecified number of people stranded in two separate locations, Loughman said. Search dogs and drones continued to comb the area on Monday, Loughman said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/raging-floodwaters-kill-two-women-connecticut-officials-say-2024-08-20/

2024-08-19 23:36

SANTIAGO, Aug 19 (Reuters) - A strike by a workers' union at Lundin Mining's (LUN.TO) , opens new tab Caserones copper mine in Chile that has dragged on for more than a week is not showing any signs of resolution, the union's president said on Monday. The union, which represents around 300 workers, or 30% of the total workforce at the mine controlled by the Canadian company, began the stoppage last Monday after negotiations over a new contract failed. "We have been on strike for a week, and since last Wednesday when we had a meeting at the (labor ministry's regional office), we have not had any other type of interaction with the company," union head Marco Garcia told Reuters. "They agreed to present us with an offer to be able to move on and lift the strike, but to date we haven't had any sort of dialogue," Garcia said. The workers are prepared to drag out the strike for more than 40 days if needed, according to Garcia, despite rain and snow in recent days. "Things are starting to get complicated at the mine," he said. "Output is at less than half of capacity, and that obviously makes things complicated for them," Garcia said, adding he hoped the company would reach out to the union this week. Lundin did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Caserones mine produced 139,520 metric tons of copper in 2023. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/strike-lundins-caserones-copper-mine-showing-no-signs-resolution-after-week-2024-08-19/

2024-08-19 23:02

AMD up on plans to acquire ZT Systems for $4.9 bln Fed Chair Powell to speak at Jackson Hole on Friday Democratic National Convention gets underway in Chicago Indexes up: Dow 0.58%, S&P 500 0.97%, Nasdaq 1.39% NEW YORK, Aug 19 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks advanced on Monday, building on their largest weekly percentage gain of the year as investors focused on the Democratic National Convention and the upcoming Jackson Hole Economic Symposium. The tech-heavy Nasdaq led all three major U.S. stock indexes to a higher close, with help from Nvidia (NVDA.O) , opens new tab, Microsoft (MSFT.O) , opens new tab and Alphabet (GOOGL.O) , opens new tab. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq extended their winning streak to eight consecutive sessions, the longest in 2024, as equities continued to rebound from a steep sell-off two weeks ago driven by recession fears. The rally builds on the U.S. stock market's biggest weekly gains of the year, in which the three major indexes jumped between 2.9% and 5.3%. Recent data has shown consumer resiliency despite economic softening, boosting expectations that the Federal Reserve will start lowering interest rates at its September policy meeting by cutting the Fed funds target rate by 25 basis points. "What's behind (this rally) is the hope that the spigots will continue to be open with the Fed potentially cutting rates in September," said Paul Nolte, senior wealth advisor & market strategist at Murphy & Sylvest in Elmhurst, Illinois. "Money is looking for a place to go, and it's going into the equity markets." A slim majority of economists polled by Reuters say the Fed will implement three 25-basis-point rate cuts by the end of the year, and the economy will probably be able to avoid recession as inflation abates. The Jackson Hole Economic Symposium kicks off on Thursday, and Fed Chair Jerome Powell's remarks on Friday will be parsed for clues regarding the U.S. central bank's path from restrictive to neutral monetary policy. "I think (Powell) is going to reiterate some of the talking points that the Fed made, that they're getting a little bit more comfortable with the fact that inflation is coming down to target," Nolte added. "They're comfortable with the economy doing reasonably well, and that will be interpreted by the markets as a door-opener for a September rate cut." The Democratic National Convention in Chicago, which starts on Monday, could fuel market volatility that is already heightened due to light, late-summer trading volume. The CBOE market volatility index (.VIX) , opens new tab a gauge of investor anxiety, retreated at a record pace last week from a four-year high amid growing optimism of a soft landing. Goldman Sachs lowered the odds of a U.S. recession in the next 12 months to 20% from 25% following the latest weekly jobless claims and retail sales reports. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) , opens new tab rose 236.77 points, or 0.58%, to 40,896.53. The S&P 500 (.SPX) , opens new tab gained 54 points, or 0.97%, at 5,608.25 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) , opens new tab added 245.05 points, or 1.39%, at 17,876.77. All 11 of the major S&P 500 ended higher, with communication services (.SPLRCL) , opens new tab enjoying the biggest percentage gain. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.O) , opens new tab rose 4.5% after the chipmaker said it plans to acquire server maker ZT Systems for $4.9 billion to expand its artificial intelligence portfolio to better compete with Nvidia. B. Riley Financial (RILY.O) , opens new tab slid 5.8%, extending a drop of over 65% last week. Co-founder and co-CEO Bryant Riley had offered to buy the bank on Friday after it warned of a hit from its investment in Vitamin Shoppe-owner Franchise Group. Quarterly results from cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks (PANW.O) , opens new tab, retailer Target (TGT.N) , opens new tab and home improvement chain Lowe's (LOW.N) , opens new tab are due later this week. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by a 3.54-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.71-to-1 ratio favored advancers. The S&P 500 posted 32 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 105 new highs and 65 new lows. Volume on U.S. exchanges was 10.30 billion shares, compared with the 12.24 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/futures-slip-following-last-weeks-rally-jackson-hole-sight-2024-08-19/

2024-08-19 22:29

WELLINGTON, Aug 20 (Reuters) - The New Zealand government said on Tuesday it would more than halve the number of units it makes available to offset carbon emissions between 2025 to 2029, as part of a plan to restore confidence in the emissions trading scheme market. Auctions for New Zealand units, which represent one metric tonne of carbon dioxide, or the equivalent of any other greenhouse gas, have consistently failed over the past year due to oversupply leading to a loss of confidence in the system. Climate Change Minister Simon Watts said in a statement that the government had decided to reduce the number of units available between 2025 and 2029, from 45 million to 21 million. "There is an oversupply of units held by participants which has contributed to a depreciated price of carbon. This has led, in part, to the failure of recent auctions to clear, and poses a risk to achieving our climate targets and emissions budgets," he added. This limit is for units provided by the government for industrial allocation and purchase at auction but does not limit the volume of units that are issued to those removing greenhouse gases from the environment such as forest owners. The government said it would retain the current auction floor price, the cost containment reserve price, and current reserve volumes of New Zealand units. "These settings are doing their job and should be left alone," Watts said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/new-zealand-reduce-availability-emission-credits-2025-2024-08-19/