2024-09-20 07:15
Sept 20 (Reuters) - The Polish Football Association (PZPN) has announced a fund of more than $450,000 to help clubs affected by severe floods in central Europe, the worst deluge the hit the region in two decades. At least 24 people have died due to the floods, including seven in Poland, with Wroclaw, Poland's third-largest city, facing widespread damage. "Together with the presidents of the provincial associations, we have decided to donate 1.75 million Polish zloty to help the clubs affected by the flood," PZPN president Cezary Kulesza wrote on X on Friday. Top-flight club Slask Wroclaw postponed Monday's home game against Stal Mielec and turned their stadium into a place for collecting donations for those affected by the floods. The club also launched a fundraiser for flood relief, while players and coaches visited flood-affected areas to distribute essential items. The European Union has pledged to make billions of euros available to help the region, with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk saying the country could get 5 billion euros ($5.59 billion). ($1 = 3.8217 zlotys) ($1 = 0.8950 euros) Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/sports/soccer/polish-football-association-announces-financial-help-flood-affected-clubs-2024-09-20/
2024-09-20 06:47
BEIJING, Sept 20 (Reuters) - China and Japan reached a consensus in August on the discharge of radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Friday. The two sides agreed on Japan establishing a long-term international monitoring arrangement and allowing stakeholders to conduct independent sampling and monitoring, the ministry said in a statement. China stressed during talks that independent sampling should be conducted first before "gradually" resuming any imports of Japanese aquatic products, the statement added. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/china-japan-reached-consensus-aug-fukushima-water-discharge-cctv-says-2024-09-20/
2024-09-20 06:47
MUMBAI, Sept 20 (Reuters) - The Indian rupee rallied on Friday to climb above 83.50 per U.S. dollar for the first time since late July, boosted by dollar sales by foreign banks and a rise in most of its Asian peers. The rupee was at 83.4850 against the U.S. dollar as of 12 noon IST, its strongest level since July 9. The currency was up 0.2% on the day and on course to post its best single day since May 2024. Two-large U.S. based banks have been "present on offer (on USD/INR)," since early in the session, likely on behalf of custodial clients, a foreign exchange trader at a state-run bank said. Indian benchmark equity indices scaled record highs on after an outsized interest rate reduction by the U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday and the anticipation of a soft landing for the world's largest economy boosted risk appetite. Asian currencies were mostly higher between 0.1% to 1%. The dollar index fell 0.2% to 100.43 and was hovering close to its year-to-date low. State-run banks were spotted bidding for dollars intermittently, which is likely related to a "mix of (dollar) buying," for their importer clients and on behalf of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), a senior trader at a foreign bank said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/indian-rupee-strengthens-above-8350usd-first-time-over-two-months-2024-09-20/
2024-09-20 06:45
Sept 20 (Reuters) - Indonesia's Barito Renewables Energy (BREN.JK) , opens new tab plunged by its daily limit of 20% on Friday after global index provider FTSE Russell said it would remove , opens new tab the geothermal energy giant from its indexes because of "high shareholder concentration". Barito Renewables, Indonesia's biggest company by market value, will be added to the FTSE Global All Cap Index series and associated gauges on Sept. 23, as planned, but will be removed at the start of the next session. Four shareholders control 97% of Barito Renewables' total shares, FTSE Russell said. The company is majority-owned by Barito Pacific (BRPT.JK) , opens new tab, from which it was spun off late last year. Billionaire Prajogo Pangestu owns around 71% of Barito Pacific. Singapore-based Green Era Energy, a renewable energy investment arm of the Pangestu family, owns 23.6% of Barito Renewables. Jupiter Tiger Holdings and Prime Hill Fund own about 4.4% each. "This decision from FTSE has triggered panic selling among investors, particularly in Prajogo Pangestu's companies, which led to a decline in the Indonesia Stock Exchange Composite Index," Christine Natasya, equity research analyst at Bahana Sekuritas, said. Barito Renewables fell 20% to its lowest since mid-August on Friday, marking its worst day since early January. Thermal coal miner Petrindo Jaya Kreasi (CUAN.JK) , opens new tab, in which Pangestu owns an 85% stake, lost nearly 20% before recovering some of the losses. Chandra Asri Pacific (TPIA.JK) , opens new tab, another Pangestu-owned company, fell around 9%. That weighed on the Indonesian benchmark (.JKSE) , opens new tab, which declined up to 2% during the session to mark its worst day since early August. It was last trading 1.4% down at a one-week low. Barito Renewables has had an extremely volatile run since going public in October last year. In the nine months since its trading debut, the stock surged more than 1,100%, interrupted by two periods when it declined more than 50%. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/indonesias-barito-renewables-tanks-ftse-russell-exclusion-2024-09-20/
2024-09-20 06:04
LONDON, Sept 20 (Reuters) - Tight monetary policy coupled with a penny-pinching fiscal agenda usually results in currency appreciation, and sterling is surging on the prospect. But it's far from clear why the UK government or the Bank of England want a rising pound right now. This week's BoE decision to hold off on its second interest rate cut of the year was billed by many central bank watchers as an expected "non-event". But the freeze is more meaningful - and even a little head-scratching - given what the BoE's G7 peers are doing - not least the Federal Reserve's outsize half point rate cut the previous day and the European Central Bank's second rate cut of 2024 last week. Keeping the UK policy rate at 5% may simply be a matter of messaging, as the BoE seemed to suggest. It could be a signal to wage bargainers that they need to curtail their expectations and a call for service sector firms to tamp down on still-high price rises. Or it may just be reasonable hesitation, as the BoE is waiting for the concrete data it'll get in the new Labour government's first budget, set to be released next month. But with the BoE's repeated stress on stamping out inflation "persistence", it took a distinctly more hawkish tone than other big central banks have recently - so much so that markets now think the chance of a BoE cut in November is below 70%, compared to a sure thing before the meeting. And where markets see the UK's easing cycle ending up is just as harsh. The implied "terminal rate" is currently around 3.4%, which the central bank is expected to reach by the end of next year. That is almost 50 basis points higher than the Fed's equivalent rate, 150 bps above the ECB's and Bank of Canada's and 300 bps over the Bank of Japan's. These policy rate premiums are all higher than they were in the decade before 2022's worldwide scramble to tighten. It's not entirely clear what justifies this. Are today's underlying UK inflation pressures really that much worse that those in other major economies? Has the UK's historical vulnerability to inflation resurfaced? Or has Brexit thrown a spanner in the works in the interim? The market's longer-term rate horizon also seem puzzling when considering other details of the central bank's outlook. In its meeting statement , opens new tab, the BoE downgraded its GDP growth forecasts for the current quarter, said services inflation would ease further by year-end, and noted that surveys show public inflation expectations are falling back to pre-pandemic levels as headline inflation skirts its target 2%. The economic drag should be bigger if the upcoming government budget is true to early indications and tightens fiscal policy with a mix of tax rises and spending cuts needed to fill a much-touted 20 billion pound ($26.55 billion) hole in public finances. STERLING STARRING Sterling seems to love it. The promise of relatively tight monetary and fiscal policy has pushed the pound to its highest level against the dollar in more than two years. And it's a whisker from its two-year highs against the euro. Sterling's trade-weighted index is up more than 3% this year alone, and is a stone's throw from its highest point since the Brexit referendum in 2016. Given that trade-related Brexit problems are at least part of the UK's growth problem, a surging pound can hardly be all that helpful right now. Even if a strong pound puts downward pressure on imported energy or commodity inflation, that hardly helps the BoE. Its stated concern is domestic services and wages, which are largely unrelated to the exchange rate. The BoE did note that the pound's effective exchange rate had appreciated more than 1% since its previous meeting, though it blamed the U.S. rate shifts and related dollar move for most of that. 'IDIOSYNCRATIC' If it's all simply a question of timing, then the BoE will have to accelerate its easing eventually and some economists think it will. "If the government is more stringent on fiscal policy, we think the Bank will be forced to increase the pace of the cutting cycle to offset the hit on both households' and businesses' finances," said AXA Investment Managers economist Gabriella Dickens, adding there was an outside chance of two cuts by year-end. And the central bank may find itself with some considerable catching up to do. Jefferies economist Modupe Adegbembo said while there may be "idiosyncratic" reasons for UK inflation persistence, pressure on the BoE to deliver two more cuts this year will rise meaningfully if the Fed were to ease by yet another 50 bps at its next meeting. So the pound may have good reason to be where it is right now - but this strength could evaporate quickly if it's relying solely on such a high BoE landing zone. The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters ($1 = 0.7534 pounds) Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/sterling-feeds-peculiarly-high-boe-terminal-rate-mike-dolan-2024-09-20/
2024-09-20 06:01
Wall St finishes week higher, near record highs Fed governors offer opposite views on inflation Dollar regains strength, governor comments weigh Yen eases after Bank of Japan stands pat NEW YORK, Sept 20 (Reuters) - Wall Street closed flat on Friday, hovering near the previous session's record-high close for the Dow and S&P 500, while the dollar firmed as investors digested the Federal Reserve's 50-basis-point cut midweek that started a rate reducing cycle. Days after the rate cut, two Fed governors aired opposing views , opens new tab over prospects for inflation, underlining the scale of debate over a move Chair Jerome Powell positioned as safeguarding a resilient economy rather than an emergency response to weaker jobs data. All three major U.S. stock indexes ended the week higher, not far off all-time peaks hit on Thursday as buyers piled in to riskier assets. Markets are fully pricing in a cut of at least 25 bps in November, with expectations for a cut of 50 bps given a 48.9% chance, according to CME's FedWatch Tool. The 50 bps rate cut has made investors think about "risks below the surface they do not know about" and want to position for "risks of the unknown", said Michael Matousek, head trader at U.S. Global Investors. "The other question is if the soft landing is going to work, so that might be wearing on investors a little bit, raising some concerns," he added, referring to the ideal economic scenario where inflation cools without triggering a recession. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) , opens new tab closed up 0.09%, to 42,063.36, the S&P 500 (.SPX) , opens new tab ended down 0.19%, to 5,702.55 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) , opens new tab rounded out the week 0.36% lower, at 17,948.32. The Dow's gains were powered by Nike (NKE.N) , opens new tab, whose shares climbed after saying former senior executive Elliott Hill will rejoin the company to succeed John Donahoe as CEO. The MSCI index of world stocks (.MIWD00000PUS) , opens new tab drooped 0.21%, to 837.69 after jumping on Thursday to a record high. Utilities outperformed, with the (.SPLRCU) , opens new tab boosted by Constellation Energy (CEG.O) , opens new tab whose stock soared more than 20% on news of a deal with Microsoft (MSFT.O) , opens new tab to reopen part of a mothballed nuclear plant to power artificial intelligence projects. U.S. OUTLOOK ECHOES ABROAD Rounding off a busy week for monetary policy, the Bank of Japan left rates unchanged. Markets had been expecting rates to remain steady, but Governor Kazuo Ueda tempered expectations around imminent rate hikes. The U.S. economic outlook also rippled into the Bank of Japan's meeting. Ueda said uncertainty around the world's largest economy and market volatility could impact its policy moves. The yen eased after the meeting and was last seen 0.94% weaker against the greenback to 143.97 per dollar. The dollar climbed to a two-week high against the yen after Ueda's remarks. The dollar gained ground after suffering losses earlier in the week. The index , which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, was up 0.12% to 100.79. European stocks (.STOXX) , opens new tab had fallen earlier from two-week highs, with automakers leading the slide after Mercedes-Benz (MBGn.DE) , opens new tab cut a profit margin target, citing weakness in China. In China, the central bank kept its benchmark lending rates on hold, countering expectations for a move lower. Chinese blue chips (.CSI300) , opens new tab edged up 0.2% but remained close to a seven-month low touched earlier in the week. Downbeat data in recent days has raised hopes of aggressive stimulus to prop up the world's second largest economy. Sterling initially weakened after the Bank of England held rates steady on Thursday before turning around and strengthening 0.23% to $1.3314. Data on Friday showed British retail sales rose by a more than expected in August. Commodities also held on to their weekly gains. Gold touched a record high at $2,614 an ounce. Two major oil benchmarks ended lower on the day, but more than 4% higher on the week. Brent futures settled down 0.52%, at $74.49 a barrel. U.S. WTI crude futures settled down 0.4%, to $71.92. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/global-markets-wrapup-1-2024-09-20/
