2025-08-28 21:37

WASHINGTON, Aug 28 (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration plans to cancel leases on its satellite offices in the Washington area as it consolidates operations and moves headquarters staff into a building that houses the U.S. Transportation Department. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said in a previously unreported email to staff seen by Reuters that the move would improve collaboration. Sign up here. "We will work more effectively when we're together, rather than spread across six different office locations," Bedford wrote. "This will significantly reduce operating costs and enhance collaboration." Bedford said the timing of the moves of each office will soon be finalized. On Tuesday, USDOT said it planned to relocate thousands of FAA employees at its headquarters to the department's main office in Washington and consolidate agency IT and other systems. The FAA is one of several agencies in USDOT. The department plans to move several thousand employees that work at the Orville and Wilbur Wright headquarters buildings to its department headquarters in southeast Washington. One open question is how many FAA functions -- potentially purchasing, IT, human resources and others -- will be folded into USDOT and if the consolidation will result in workforce cuts. The FAA, by far the largest part of USDOT, has around 44,200 of the department's nearly 53,000 total employees. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told employees this week the department will begin sunsetting legacy systems and embracing advanced technologies as it works to "streamline our processes, consolidate administrative functions, and modernize our infrastructure." Duffy said the FAA building is in serious disrepair, with employees unable to even drink the water there. "I think it's important for cooperation and collaboration to be under one roof," Duffy told reporters. He said some FAA employees might not want to move "and be an entity unto ourselves that's not responsive to anybody in government." President Donald Trump's administration has been moving to consolidate office space and shrink the federal workforce. https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/us-faa-plans-close-satellite-offices-washington-it-consolidates-operations-2025-08-28/

2025-08-28 21:35

FCA probes biomass sourcing statements from Jan 2022-March 2024 Drax previously probed by Ofgem over misreported biomass data Shares drop over 12% Aug 28 (Reuters) - Britain's financial watchdog is investigating Drax Group's (DRX.L) , opens new tab biomass sourcing disclosures following last year's investigation by the country's energy regulator, sending its shares down more than 12% on Thursday. Drax, which supplies about 5% of Britain's electricity via biomass-converted coal plants and has received billions of pounds in green energy subsidies from the UK government, was fined 25 million pounds ($33.77 million) by Ofgem for misreporting data on wood sourced from forests in Canada. Sign up here. Drax has faced criticism from environmental groups about sourcing wood from Canadian forests but has said it only uses wood residuals or byproducts from trees primarily used for lumber and that demand for wood from sustainable managed forests can help to increase forest growth. The FCA's investigation includes Drax's 2021–2023 annual reports and their compliance with financial disclosure rules. The power producer said it is cooperating with the FCA, but provided no further details. Ofgem's investigation found no evidence of a breach of sustainability obligations by Drax or that it had incorrectly issued renewable obligation certificates. The FCA's investigation covers statements made between January 2022 and March 2024. The new probe puts Drax "back in the spotlight", Jefferies analysts said in a note, and increases political scrutiny of the government's post-2027 biomass support plan, which will halve subsidies for the company during 2027–2031. Drax shares fell as much as 12.4% to 617 pence, but pared losses to 9.2% by 0748 GMT. Environmental groups have questioned the sustainability of biomass power plants, which generate electricity by burning wood pellets. Drax aims to reach net zero carbon emissions across its entire value chain by the end of 2024. Britain plans to largely decarbonise its electricity sector by 2030 which will require many new renewable power projects and infrastructure, including pylons to connect them to the grid. ($1 = 0.7402 pounds) https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/uks-fca-investigates-energy-company-drax-over-biomass-sourcing-disclosures-2025-08-28/

2025-08-28 21:28

DUBAI, Aug 28 (Reuters) - Abu Dhabi's ADNOC raised $317 million in an institutional placement of a 3% stake in its logistics and services unit through a bookbuild offering, it said on Thursday. The United Arab Emirates state oil company said that it completed the pricing of a placement to institutional investors of approximately 222 million shares in ADNOC L&S (ADNOCLS.AD) , opens new tab at 5.25 dirhams ($1.43) per share, a discount of 3.3% compared to Thursday’s closing price of 5.43 dirhams. Sign up here. The company added the offering drew “exceptional demand” from Gulf and international institutional investors, with around 7x oversubscription in a four-hour accelerated bookbuild, one of the region’s highest for a secondary sell-down. The deal is expected to increase ADNOC L&S's free float to 22% and improve liquidity for the unit's shares, the company said. Created in 2016, ADNOC L&S exports crude oil, refined products, dry bulk and liquefied natural gas from Abu Dhabi to more than 100 customers in over 50 countries. ADNOC raised $769 million in 2023 with an initial public offering for the unit and now holds an 81% stake. Other recent secondary offerings for ADNOC units include its gas business (ADNOCLS.AD) , opens new tab, which raised $2.84 billion in February in one the biggest share sales in the Middle East in recent years. First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB.AD) , opens new tab, JPMorgan (JPM.N) , opens new tab and China International Capital Corporation (601995.SS) , opens new tab were among banks appointed as joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners for the offering. ($1 = 3.6726 UAE dirham) https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/adnoc-raises-317-million-via-secondary-share-sale-its-logistics-services-unit-2025-08-28/

2025-08-28 21:09

De minimis exemption for global package shipments to US ends on Friday US customs agency to collect full duties on all packages starting on Friday Change is permanent, Trump administration official says US has collected $492 million in duties on China, Hong Kong small packages since May WASHINGTON, Aug 28 (Reuters) - The U.S. tariff exemption for package shipments valued under $800 ends permanently on Friday, with a six-month transition period under which postal service shippers can opt to pay a flat duty of $80 to $200 per package depending on the country of origin, Trump administration officials said. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency will begin collecting normal duty rates on all global parcel imports, regardless of value after 12:01 a.m. EDT (0401 GMT) on Friday. The move broadens the Trump administration's cancellation of the de minimis exemption for shipments from China and Hong Kong earlier this year. Sign up here. "President Trump's ending of the deadly de minimis loophole will save thousands of American lives by restricting the flow of narcotics and other dangerous prohibited items, and add up to $10 billion a year in tariff revenues to our Treasury," White House trade adviser Peter Navarro told reporters. "This is a permanent change," said a senior administration official, adding that any push to restore the exemptions for trusted trading partner countries was "dead on arrival." The de minimis exemption has been in place since 1938 and was raised from $200 to $800 in 2015 as a means to foster small business growth on e-commerce marketplaces. But direct shipments from China exploded after President Donald Trump raised tariffs on Chinese goods during his first term, creating a new direct-to-consumer business model for e-commerce firms Shein and Temu (PDD.O) , opens new tab. Many of these packages entered without screening, and the Trump administration has also blamed the exemption for allowing fentanyl and its precursors to flow into the U.S. CBP has estimated that the number of packages claiming the de minimis exemption jumped nearly 10-fold , opens new tab from 139 million in fiscal 2015 to 1.36 billion in fiscal 2024. A second senior Trump administration official said that CBP has collected more than $492 million in additional duties on packages shipped from China and Hong Kong since their exemptions were eliminated on May 2. The official said that full tariff rates will apply to all packages shipped by express carriers such as FedEx (FDX.N) , opens new tab, United Parcel Service (UPS.N) , opens new tab and DHL, with the firms collecting the duties and processing the paperwork. Foreign postal agencies can opt to collect and process the duties based on the value of the package contents, or opt for the flat rate method by collecting a flat tax based on Trump's "reciprocal" tariff rates currently in place on goods from the country of origin. Based on CBP guidance , opens new tab issued on Thursday, parcels would be charged $80 from countries with Trump-imposed duty rates below 16%, such as Britain and the European Union, $160 from countries between 16% and 25%, such as Indonesia and Vietnam, and $200 from countries above 25%, including China, Brazil, India and Canada. But postal services must shift to full "ad valorem" duty collection based on the value of the shipments by February 28, 2026, the second official said. This official acknowledged that some foreign postal services have suspended mail to the U.S. but said the administration was working with foreign partners and the U.S. Postal Service to minimize disruptions. The official said that Britain, Canada and Ukraine have confirmed that their shipments are continuing. https://www.reuters.com/business/end-us-low-value-package-tariff-exemption-is-permanent-trump-officials-say-2025-08-28/

2025-08-28 21:02

ORLANDO, Florida, Aug 28 (Reuters) - TRADING DAY Making sense of the forces driving global markets Sign up here. By Jamie McGeever, Markets Columnist Wall Street rose on Thursday as investors looked favorably on tech despite a mixed reaction to Nvidia's results, while the prospect of U.S. rate cut next month from a more dovish Fed pushed the dollar lower against nearly every major and emerging currency in the world. More on that below. In my column today, I look at the rotation out of tech stocks and into small caps that accelerated in August, and ask whether it can continue into September. If you have more time to read, here are a few articles I recommend to help you make sense of what happened in markets today. Today's Key Market Moves Today's Talking Points: * U.S. GDP resilience Second-quarter U.S. GDP growth was unexpectedly revised up to an annualized 3.3% from 3.1% and PCE inflation in the quarter was revised slightly lower to 2.5% from 2.6%. On the margins, this may point to more of a 'Goldilocks' scenario and temper some of the 'stagflation' fears that continue to swirl. Does this alter Fed expectations? Probably not - there are some key data before the September 17 decision, starting with July PCE inflation on Thursday, that will have much bigger sway. But it does show that the impact from tariffs on activity and prices hasn't been properly felt yet. * Big government Contrary to what we were told on the campaign trail and led to believe with Elon Musk's 'DOGE' moment in the Washington sun, the Trump administration is taking a very active role in many aspects of U.S. economic, policymaking and industrial life. From taking stakes in big companies like Intel and others to letting Nvidia sell its H20 chips to China in exchange for 15% of those sales, and from trying to stuff the Fed board with loyalists to targeting law firms and academic institutions, the administration's footprint seems to be expanding, not shrinking. * Yuan steps beyond The Chinese yuan - onshore spot and offshore - leapt to its highest level against the U.S. dollar this year, precisely since November 6, the day after the U.S. election. The PBOC's USD/CNY fixing is on course for its biggest weekly move since September. Beijing is clearly steering the yuan higher, not lower, as many observers predicted would be its response to the economy's deflationary pressures and looming trade war with the U.S. Maybe Beijing is focusing more on bolstering domestic demand than exports? U.S. small caps quietly notch historic outperformance vs tech Amid the Federal Reserve drama and deluge of corporate earnings in August, one clear but overlooked trend emerged in U.S. equities: the rotation out of expensive tech stocks and into cheaper small caps. As the month draws to a close, the big question is whether this can continue. The Nasdaq 100 is currently on track for a monthly gain of 1.5% while the Russell 2000 small cap index is headed for a 7.3% rise, signaling an underperformance of 580 basis points for the tech-heavy index. According to Stuart Kaiser, head of equity trading strategy at Citi, that relative monthly performance for the Nasdaq 100 is in the bottom 5% since 1985. And if we look at ETFs, tech's underperformance looks even more striking. This month, the Invesco QQQ exchange-traded fund tracking the Nasdaq 100 is flat, while the iShares Russell 2000 ETF is up 7%. FED BOOST So what's responsible for this dramatic divergence? It may partly just reflect investors seeking to rebalance their concentrated and lopsided portfolios. But the split was clearly turbo-charged by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's Jackson Hole speech on August 22, when he opened the door to an interest rate cut next month. Manish Kabra, head of U.S. equity strategy at Societe Generale, says the Russell 2000 index's outperformance against the broader S&P 500 that day was the biggest since the U.S. election on November 6 last year that returned Donald Trump to the White House. Powell's dovish pivot is helping small caps outperform because these companies tend to benefit more from lower interest rates given that they rely on borrowing to grow and expand. Larger firms, especially 'Big Tech' megacaps, often have huge cash reserves and easier access to other sources of financing. To be sure, lower rates wouldn't just be good news for small caps. The rising tide of liquidity and investor sentiment would typically be expected to lift all boats, including the 'Magnificent Seven' megaships. As analysts at UBS point out, past equity bubbles have often been burst by rising interest rates, so a resumption of the central bank's easing cycle would appear to minimize that particular risk for high-priced tech stocks. But, regardless, small caps may still continue to get more of a Fed boost in the near term. AI DOUBTS Another catalyst for the rotation has been creeping doubts about AI's ability to deliver returns commensurate with the bubble-like frenzy surrounding the new technology. Tech stocks remain on the pricey side. That's justified, argue UBS analysts, by the potential revenue from AI-generated efficiencies, which they estimate could reach around $1.5 trillion a year globally. Others are less optimistic. If value creation on this massive scale fails to materialize, then tech companies will struggle to generate a return on the trillions of dollars of global capex expected in the coming years. That's why all eyes were on $4.4 trillion Nvidia's earnings on Wednesday. How investors interpret the global AI leader's results will help determine whether tech's underperformance continues into September. The company's revenue, profit and forecasts looked solid, but uncertainty surrounding the suspension of its business with China and skepticism around the revenue outlook are giving investors pause. UNDER THE RADAR For now, market momentum remains with smaller firms. Francis Gannon, co-CIO and managing director at Royce Investment Partners, calls it a "stealth summer" for small caps, the recent outperformance of which has gone "mostly unnoticed" amid the daily headlines centered on economic uncertainty, geopolitical worries, and new highs in the larger cap-led indices. Indeed, the Russell 2000 has yet to revisit last November's peak, while the Nasdaq and S&P 500 have been printing new highs for weeks. Whether or not small caps start hitting new records will likely be determined by what happens at the Fed. So the big macroeconomic events to watch next month will be the August employment report due on September 5, August CPI inflation data on September 11, and then, of course, the Fed's policy decision on September 17. Small caps have enjoyed a pleasant end to the summer. Let's see what happens when investors all get back to their desks next month. What could move markets tomorrow? Want to receive Trading Day in your inbox every weekday morning? Sign up for my newsletter here. Opinions expressed are those of the author. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles , opens new tab, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/global-markets-trading-day-graphic-2025-08-28/

2025-08-28 21:01

WASHINGTON, Aug 28 (Reuters) - The U.S. government's energy statistics arm, which has experienced staff cuts this year, said on Thursday it will delay publishing key energy data on uranium as well as its international outlook this year. The Energy Information Administration said its annual uranium marketing report that had been scheduled to come out in June will be published in September, while its International Energy Outlook may not be published until January, an agency spokesperson told Reuters. Sign up here. The EIA did not respond to questions about whether the staff cuts were the cause of the delays. The EIA has also proposed to discontinue a solar energy report on photovoltaic module shipments, according to a notice in the Federal Register, because it no longer believes the value of the data "exceeds the burden of collecting and publishing it." The EIA has lost a substantial number of staff due to federal job cuts and buyouts. Earlier this year, Reuters reported that the EIA was set to lose over 100 employees this year, around 40% of its workforce. Bloomberg first reported on the report delays. An EIA spokesperson said the International Energy Outlook likely won’t be published in 2025 but that "doesn’t necessarily mean we’re canceling this iteration" - just that it may publish it in January instead of October. The EIA publishes weekly, monthly and annual data on oil and gas output, crude and fuel inventories, and price forecasts, all used by traders and energy companies as indicators of supply and demand. The reports often move global oil prices. Sources told Reuters earlier this year that staffing losses would lead the EIA to change publication schedules and reassess which reports it would continue to publish. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-energy-data-agency-after-staff-cuts-delays-reports-uranium-international-2025-08-28/