2024-09-25 14:18
Six policymakers see tie-up favourably Say little ECB can do to influence outcome FRANKFURT, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Six European Central Bank policymakers told Reuters they were broadly in favour of a tie-up between Italy's UniCredit and Germany's Commerzbank and viewed Berlin's opposition to a deal as running against the principle of European integration. The German government is putting pressure on UniCredit (CRDI.MI) , opens new tab to drop its plan to merge with Commerzbank (CBKG.DE) , opens new tab, criticising the Italian bank's "aggressive" tactics and backing efforts by Germany's second-largest lender to stay independent. The ECB's 26 policymakers will have the final say on whether any deal can go through. Conversations with half a dozen of them revealed frustration at Germany's attitude, which some said was hypocritical. All spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorised to comment on individual banks. They pointed to Germany's stated support for creating a banking union in the European Union and regional champions in other sectors, such as defence, as well as its defence of free market principles in matters including monetary policy , opens new tab. The policymakers said that in principle they are in favour of a deal they view as building a larger banking group operating in multiple European countries - a longstanding ECB goal. The ECB acts as supervisor of the euro zone's biggest banks. But they said the ECB could do little to influence the outcome of the political tussle, other than reaffirming the importance of a banking union. An ECB spokesperson declined to comment. UniCredit, with a market value three times as large as Commerzbank's, is seeking the ECB's approval to raise its stake in the German bank to 29.9%, having built it up to close to 21% through a mix of shares and derivatives. That decision will be made by the ECB's Supervisory Board. Chaired by Germany's Claudia Buch, it includes representatives from 21 countries and focuses on prudential aspects such as capital, liquidity, business plans and governance. The ECB's Governing Council, comprised of President Christine Lagarde, five board members and central bank governors of the 20 euro zone countries, will then have the final say, in a so-called "non-objection procedure". The sources said they have yet to see the details of UniCredit's plans, a crucial element in gaining their ultimate support in a decision that is still many weeks away. Commerzbank, with more than 25,000 business customers, almost a third of German foreign trade payments and more than 42,000 staff, is a linchpin of the German economy, Europe's now-stuttering industrial motor. The bank says its role as key lender to the mid-sized "Mittelstand" companies seen as Germany's economic backbone is grounds to resist UniCredit's overtures, which are also opposed by trade unions fearing job cuts. UniCredit's CEO Andrea Orcel said on Wednesday his bank's share in Commerzbank was "an investment, nothing else", and that while all options -- including walking away -- were on the table he would like to engage in talks with the German government. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/six-ecb-governors-say-they-support-unicredit-commerzbank-deal-principle-2024-09-25/
2024-09-25 12:57
TORONTO, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Cyclic Materials, a recycler of critical metals such as the rare earths used to manufacture magnets for electric vehicles and wind turbines, has raised 53 million U.S. dollars from investors including BMWi and Hitachi Ventures. It is the Canadian startup's second funding round as it pursues global expansion plans, despite a slowdown in electric vehicle (EV) sales. Proceeds will be used to open commercial facilities in the United States and Europe, said CEO and Co-Founder Ahmad Ghahreman. The funding round was led by ArcTern Ventures, BDC Capital, Zero Infinity Partners, Climate Investment, and Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund. Previous investors which participated in the Series B fund included Fifth Wall, BMWi Ventures, Energy Impact Partners, and Planetary Technologies. In the last 12 months the company has raised total equity of more than $83 million. Cyclic Materials' technology extracts critical raw materials from end-of-life electric vehicle motors, wind turbines, MRI machines, and data center electronic waste. The company is one of a handful aiming to capture a bigger share of the rare earth supply chain as Western governments back domestic players in attempt to break China's hold on the market, of which it controls about 95%. "When it comes to critical metals and specifically rare earth metals, we desperately need them outside of China...the story of electrification is so strong we need those metals," Ghahreman said, adding that fundraising had been tough nonetheless. The company had allowed nine months to complete the funding but closed the round in just three, something Ghahreman said indicated a demand for these metals beyond auto makers. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/canadian-rare-earth-recycler-cyclic-materials-raises-50-mln-bmwi-hitachi-2024-09-25/
2024-09-25 12:47
DUBLIN, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Flutter (FLTRF.L) , opens new tab, , the world's largest online betting company, said on Wednesday it expects to more than double its core profit by 2027 and that it had authorised a share buyback of up to $5 billion to be deployed over that period. Flutter, which has forecast full-year profit of around $2.5 billion this year, said that figure should reach more than $5 billion by 2027, with almost half of it coming from the booming U.S. market that it now sees growing at a faster-than-expected pace. Flutter's London-based shares were 5.2% higher at 1230 GMT. The Irish betting group said ahead of an investor day in New York that it expected to launch the buyback following its third-quarter earnings in November and that it would be deployed over the next three to four years. Flutter's growth has been transformed by the gambling boom in the U.S., where its FanDuel brand has become the market leader following the lifting of a ban on sports betting in 2018. Based on the U.S. states where it currently operates, the company now expects core profit there to treble to $2.5 billion in 2027 from the $680 million to $800 million forecast for this year and the $167 million reported for 2023, which represented Flutter's first full year of profitability following years of heavy investment. It sees the total U.S. market growing to $63 billion by 2030 compared to the $40 billion it forecast two years ago. Flutter, whose market leading brands elsewhere include Paddy Power and Betfair in Britain and Sportsbet in Australia, expects core profits to grow to around $3 billion in the rest of the world, helped by its recent acquisitions in Italy and Brazil. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/technology/flutter-sees-profits-doubling-by-2027-authorises-5-bln-share-buyback-2024-09-25/
2024-09-25 12:44
Sept 24 (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil and product stockpiles were expected to have fallen last week, an extended Reuters poll showed on Tuesday. Ten analysts polled by Reuters estimated on average that crude inventories fell by about 1.4 million barrels in the week to Sept. 20. The poll was conducted ahead of reports from the American Petroleum Institute industry group at 4:30 p.m. EDT (2030 GMT) on Tuesday and from the Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the U.S. Department of Energy, at 10:30 a.m. EDT (1430 GMT) on Wednesday. Crude inventories fell by 1.6 million barrels to 417.5 million barrels in the week ending Sept. 13, the EIA said, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 500,000-barrel draw. Analysts estimated stockpiles of gasoline (USOILG=ECI) , opens new tab edged down by 20,000 barrels last week, while distillate inventories (USOILD=ECI) , opens new tab, which include diesel and heating oil, were expected to have decreased by about 1.6 million barrels. The rate of refinery utilization (USOIRU=ECI) , opens new tab was estimated to have decreased by 0.7 percentage point from 92.1% of total capacity in the previous week, the poll found. All figures for stocks are in millions of barrels. Refinery rate changes are measured in percentage points. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/us-crude-product-inventories-likely-fell-last-week-2024-09-24/
2024-09-25 12:37
NEW DELHI, Sept 25 (Reuters) - India imported 2% more thermal coal in April-July from a year earlier to boost its power generation, the federal coal ministry said in a statement on Wednesday. Overall coal imports, including coking coal mainly used by steel producers, rose 0.9% from a year ago to 90.51 million metric tons during the first four months of this fiscal year that began in April, said the statement. India's thermal power generation in April-July rose by 11.1% from a year ago to 483.82 billion units. Consumption by imported coal-based power plants during the period rose by about 75% to 17.69 million tons, the coal ministry said. India has the world's fifth largest coal reserves but its local production lags demand as thermal power is used for over half of India's 448 gigawatt installed capacity. The nation's coal production during April-July rose 9.6% from a year ago to 321.40 million tons. India will raise its coal-fired power generation until 2035 to meet the country's growing need, federal power minister Manohar Lal Khattar said earlier this week. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/indias-thermal-coal-imports-rise-2-yy-april-july-govt-data-says-2024-09-25/
2024-09-25 11:53
A look at the day ahead in U.S. and global markets from Mike Dolan The unexpected downturn in U.S. household confidence this month and growing anxiety about jobs has spurred aggressive interest rate cut bets anew - dragging Treasury yields, the dollar and stock futures lower into Wednesday's open. Feeding mostly off the employment signals in Tuesday's consumer survey, rate futures now price some 40 basis points off Federal Reserve rates at its next meeting - just days after November's election. That now puts the chances of a half point cut rather than a quarter point move at more than 50%. After a decent auction of new paper late yesterday, two-year Treasury yields are within a whisker of 3.5% for the first time in two years. A 'bull steepening' of the 2-10 year yield curve - which sees two-year yields drop more than falling 10-year yields - pushed the newly positive gap above 20bp for the first time since June 2022. The constellation sapped the dollar index (.DXY) , opens new tab, which is now a hair's breadth from its low for the year, and the surprising disturbance in the growth picture has dragged U.S. stock futures off record highs ahead of Wednesday's bell. The cat among the pigeons came from the Conference Board's latest consumer survey, which revealed the biggest drop in confidence in three years in September amid mounting fears over the labor market. The share of households viewing jobs as "plentiful" dropped to the lowest since March 2021. The survey's so-called labor market differential, derived from data on respondents' views on whether jobs are plentiful or hard to get, fell to 12.6 - the narrowest in 3-1/2 years. And the rush to loosen interest rates gathered momentum around the world, with China following Tuesday's monetary easing blitz of mortgage rate cuts and stock buying incentives with a hefty 30bps cut to its medium-term loan rate . Chinese stocks (.CSI300) , opens new tab, (.HSI) , opens new tab and the yuan added to Tuesday's surge, the latter hitting another 16-month high, on fresh hopes the authorities may finally be prepared to go big in stimulating the wavering economy. While Beijing's latest moves are getting the benefit of the doubt so far, most overseas investors feel the credit easing will only have a chance of turning around the demand picture and property bust if combined with more serious fiscal action on the housing situation. A necessary but not yet sufficient move, in the parlance of economics wonks. While the yuan's rise on the deep rate cuts seems odd, it appears to be riffing more off growth hopes and stock market stimulus. Chinese government bond yields , ticked higher too. The property market isn't China's only concern, however. Beijing on Wednesday urged the United States to stop "unreasonable suppression" of its companies, in response to U.S. proposals to ban Chinese software and hardware in vehicles on its roads due to national security concerns. Few places would welcome a recovery of Chinese demand more than Europe, where this week's September business surveys from Germany and across the bloc revealed an alarming relapse in business and manufacturing into contractionary territory. So much so that money market bets put the chances of a third European Central Bank rate cut of the year as soon as next month above 50% for the first time. With the euro flirting with the year's high of $1.12 against a waning dollar, there's increasing room to cut again. What's more, an ECB study Wednesday said wage pressures are easing across the euro zone, driven in great part by lower additional compensation paid on top of negotiated wages and likely contributing to a further moderation of inflation. Sweden's central bank is not hanging about, and the Riksbank cut its key policy rate on Wednesday by another quarter point to 3.25% - its third of the year - adding that if the inflation outlook remained favourable it could ease policy at a faster pace in the months ahead. Despite the Reserve Bank of Australia holding the line this week, news that Australian headline inflation fell back into the central bank's target zone last month will have been encouraging there too. The Swiss National Bank, meantime, is set to cut again on Thursday. The latest soundings from Bank of England hawk Megan Greene, on the other hand, continued to suggest the BoE would not rush into further sharp easing. And sterling continues to climb. Elsewhere, the latest U.S. election polling continues to indicate a tight race, although the most recent Reuters/IPSOS rolling survey did indicate a widening gap in favor Democrat Kamala Harris - with some 47% support as against 40% for rival Donald Trump. In company news in Europe, SAP SAPG.DE shares declined 3.6% after a report said the German software developer was under investigation in the United States for alleged price-fixing. Key developments that should provide more direction to U.S. markets later on Wednesday: * U.S. August new home sales * Federal Reserve Board Governor Adriana Kugler speaks * US corporate earnings: Costco, Micron Technology * US Treasury sells $70 billion of 5-year notes, auctions 2-year floating rate notes * United Nations General Assembly in New York (This story has been corrected to say more than a 50% chance of a half point cut, not 80%, in paragraph 2) Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/global-markets-view-usa-2024-09-25/
