2025-08-13 01:57

SINGAPORE, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Singapore-based fintech firm OpenEden said on Wednesday it has appointed U.S. financial firm BNY (BK.N) , opens new tab as the investment manager and primary custodian for assets backing its tokenised U.S. Treasury fund. The fund, launched in 2023, provides investors with direct exposure to a pool of short-dated U.S. Treasury bills and overnight reverse repurchase agreements through the minting of Treasury bill tokens. It has nearly $300 million of assets under management. Sign up here. Doni Shamsuddin, head of Asia Pacific at BNY Investments, said this arrangement is the first time BNY is offering both investments and custody services to tokenised funds. BNY, or the Bank of New York Mellon Corporation, will manage the fund and invest in Treasury bills, money market funds and similar assets that will back the tokens issued by OpenEden. The move comes at a time of rising demand for tokenised money market funds and as big U.S. banks debate expanding into cryptocurrencies following strong endorsements from regulators. Tokenisation generally refers to the process of turning financial assets such as bank deposits, stocks, bonds, funds and even real estate into cryptocurrency assets listed on the blockchain. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/bny-appointed-investment-manager-openedens-tokenised-us-treasury-fund-2025-08-13/

2025-08-13 00:46

TAIPEI, Aug 13 (Reuters) - A large swathe of southern and eastern Taiwan shut down on Wednesday and hundreds of flights were cancelled ahead of the arrival later in the day of Typhoon Podul, with thousands of people evacuated. Taiwan is regularly hit by typhoons, generally along its mountainous, sparsely populated east coast facing the Pacific. Sign up here. The mid-strength Typhoon Podul, packing wind gusts as strong as 191 kph (118 mph), was heading for the southeastern city of Taitung as it intensifies and was expected to make landfall nearby on Wednesday afternoon, weather officials said. "Destructive winds from typhoon expected. Take shelter as soon as possible," read a text message alert issued to cellphone users in parts of Taitung early on Wednesday. The alert warned people of gusts above 150 kph (93 mph) in the coming hours. Nine cities and counties announced the suspension of work and school for Wednesday, including the southern metropolises of Kaohsiung and Tainan. In the capital Taipei, home to Taiwan's financial markets, there was no impact. Authorities are also working to evacuate those whose homes were damaged by a July typhoon that brought record winds and damaged the electricity grid in a rare direct hit to Taiwan's west coast. The government said almost 5,000 people had been evacuated ahead of the typhoon's arrival. All domestic flights were cancelled on Wednesday, while Taiwan's two main international carriers China Airlines (2610.TW) , opens new tab and EVA Air (2618.TW) , opens new tab cancelled a handful of international flights as well. After making landfall, the storm is expected to hit Taiwan's much more densely populated western coast before heading for China's southern province of Fujian later this week. As much as 600 mm (24 inches) of rain was forecast in southern mountainous areas over the next few days, the Central Weather Administration said. More than a year's rainfall fell in a single week this month in some southern areas, unleashing widespread landslides and flooding, with four deaths. https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/southern-taiwan-shuts-down-ahead-arrival-typhoon-podul-2025-08-13/

2025-08-13 00:17

MEXICO CITY, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Carriers Delta (DAL.N) , opens new tab and Aeromexico on Tuesday argued against winding down their antitrust agreement, as proposed by the U.S. Department of Transportation, while asking for an extension to do so if needed. The two, in a filing to authorities, requested the deadline be extended to March 28 of next year, the end of the sector's "winter season," from the current October 25. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/delta-aeromexico-request-extension-wrap-up-antitrust-agreement-2025-08-13/

2025-08-12 23:47

CoreWeave reports quarterly revenue of $1.21 billion Net loss of $290.5 million, compared with estimates of $190.6 million CEO says significant challenge right now is accessing power shells CoreWeave is seeing rising demand for AI inference Aug 12 (Reuters) - CoreWeave (CRWV.O) , opens new tab easily topped quarterly revenue estimates on Tuesday as the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence tools boosted demand for its cloud services, but a bigger-than-expected net loss sent its shares slumping 10% after the bell. The company currently operates 33 AI data centers across the U.S. and Europe and offers access to backer Nvidia's (NVDA.O) , opens new tab chips, which are highly coveted by enterprises to train and run large AI models amid intense competition. Sign up here. CoreWeave posted second-quarter revenue of $1.21 billion, beating estimates of $1.08 billion. It also reported a revenue backlog of $30.1 billion as of the end of June, compared with $25.9 billion on March 31. "Demand is humming, but it is the cost of growth that tempered the stock down in aftermarket trading," said Michael Ashley Schulman of Running Point Capital Advisors. Operating expenses jumped to $1.19 billion in the second quarter, from $317.7 million a year earlier. The company posted a net loss of $290.5 million, compared with analysts' average estimate of $190.6 million, according to data compiled by LSEG. "We are scaling rapidly as we look to meet the unprecedented demand for AI," CEO Michael Intrator said. "There's a lot of different pieces that are constrained, but ultimately the piece that is the most significant challenge right now is accessing power shells that are capable of delivering the scale of infrastructure that our clients are requiring." The company reiterated the benefits of its $9 billion all-stock deal for crypto miner Core Scientific (CORZ.O) , opens new tab, which will help it secure the firm's entire 1.3 GW power under contract and future pipeline. The comment comes as Two Seas Capital, the largest shareholder of Core Scientific, said last week it would vote against the sale. Investors have also focused on the company's reliance on a few big customers. CoreWeave said it has also expanded contracts with hyperscalers in the past few weeks to meet their growing internal and external demand. "The backlog surge to $30B+ suggests demand visibility well beyond 2025, but the concentration in mega-customers like OpenAI means those relationships remain both the crown jewel and the single point of failure," said eMarketer analyst Jeremy Goldman. CoreWeave has seen rising demand for AI inference, especially when models use chain-of-thought reasoning to go through a problem in a logical sequence — a technique doubled down on by frontier labs such as OpenAI. "The actual quality of the intelligence was improved so much by the chain-of-reasoning models, but it also requires an incredible increase in the amount of computing to be able to drive that level of accuracy," Intrator said in an interview. The Livingston, New Jersey-based company raised its annual revenue forecast to be between $5.15 billion and $5.35 billion. It had previously projected $4.9 billion to $5.1 billion. Shares of the company, which reaffirmed its annual capital expenditure projection, were trading at $133.71 after hours. The stock has gained nearly three-fold since the IPO in March. https://www.reuters.com/business/coreweave-revenue-beats-estimates-ai-boom-shares-fall-bigger-loss-2025-08-12/

2025-08-12 23:14

BRASILIA, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Tuesday that a proposal to regulate social media platforms in the country is ready and will be sent to Congress. In an interview with news outlet BandNews, Lula said the proposal will be on his desk on Wednesday afternoon, so the government can send it to Congress. Sign up here. U.S. President Donald Trump imposed 50% tariffs on imports of Brazilian goods this month, linking the move to a "witch hunt" against former President Jair Bolsonaro and "unfair trade practices" by Brazil, particularly on U.S. companies' digital trade. Lula said he hopes to one day meet Trump and that they can talk in a civilized way, as two heads of state. The Brazilian leader on Tuesday said that he had sent a letter to Trump inviting him to global climate summit COP30, which is set to be held in Brazil later this year. Lula also said that next week he plans to call leaders from France, Germany and the European Union to speak about the deal being discussed between the EU and South American bloc Mercosur. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazils-lula-says-proposal-regulate-social-media-platforms-is-ready-2025-08-12/

2025-08-12 23:05

HONG KONG, August 13 (Reuters) - Overcapacity has made its way into China’s domestic market, with price wars leading to collapsing profitability and accelerating deflation. The government has responded by launching a so-called “anti-involution” program to combat deflationary price wars. It’s had some early wins, but this could be a lengthy battle. The Chinese internet slang for “involution” originally referred to competitive pressures faced by young Chinese in education and the workplace. Since early 2024, however, the word has come to describe supposedly excessive, unsustainable competition among Chinese firms, where more resources are being invested without increasing higher returns. Sign up here. The Chinese government began to highlight the economic dangers of involution as early as June 2024 , opens new tab in the face of declining corporate margins and profitability across diverse sectors such as electric vehicles, solar panels, lithium batteries, steel, cement and food delivery. Critiques of "excessive" competition grew much louder in the first half of 2025 as several price wars escalated. In particular, EV leader BYD(002594.SZ) , opens new tab started sharply cutting prices, and food delivery giant Meituan (3690.HK) , opens new tab and new ecommerce platform JD.com(9618.HK) , opens new tab began offering discounts and subsidies. Increased competition in China also appears to be amplifying deflationary pressures. While China’s Producer Price Index (PPI) has been in negative territory for much of the last three years, hopes of escaping this morass were ignited in mid-2024 as domestic demand appeared to be recovering. However, that optimism was doused this year as price wars intensified, with PPI falling by 3.6% year-on-year in the most recent report. EARLY DAYS China’s government, recognising that industrial overcapacity is a potential danger to the domestic economy, launched a multi-pronged anti-involution campaign in July. The program seeks to channel investment funds to advanced manufacturing, control production in highly competitive industries like steel, oversee pricing and subsidies in EVs and food delivery, and continue phasing out obsolete industrial capacity. It’s early days, but some nascent impacts are visible. Carmakers’ average price discount declined in July, and Meituan, JD.com and Alibaba (9988.HK) , opens new tab recently agreed to end aggressive discounting in food delivery and promote "fair competition". Industry consolidation has accelerated as well. Polysilicon manufacturers are discussing the creation of a $7 billion fund to acquire and shut down almost one-third of their production capacity and restructure part of the loss-making sector. Additionally, the country’s largest coal miner, China Shenhua Energy (601088.SS) , opens new tab , stated its intention to acquire various assets from the subsidiaries of its controlling shareholder to improve operational efficiency. CHALLENGES AHEAD China’s anti-involution program faces myriad hurdles, however. For one, most of the targets of the anti-involution program are in the private sector, which means they will be making voluntary pledges to maintain pricing discipline and thus could revert to aggressive tactics in the face of market pressure. Importantly, Beijing’s previous supply-side structural reforms from 2015-17 reduced excess capacity among state-owned firms, over which Beijing, by definition, had much more control. Moreover, many of China’s local governments are highly indebted and may prioritise short-term revenue generation over long-term reform, potentially offering subsidies to firms to attract investment even in industries targeted by the anti-involution campaign. Innovation in emerging technologies could also be a casualty if deterring overlapping investments hinders experimentation with different approaches. And tighter oversight on pricing and capacity could dampen private capital’s investment enthusiasm overall. Finally, one of the biggest risks to the implementation of the program is the possibility of job losses as industries consolidate and become more inefficient. While China’s youth unemployment rate has declined recently, it remains high and could increase over the next few months as over 12 million new university graduates join the workforce. And the private sector – the target of the anti-involution program – generates the vast majority of China’s incremental employment. UPDATED PLAYBOOK China’s anti-involution efforts have had some success, but this will likely not be a short fight. First, to truly absorb excess capacity in various industries, Beijing will almost certainly have to stimulate domestic consumption more aggressively than it has in the past. Sentiment among Chinese consumers remains quite low, implying that the monetary and fiscal stimuli undertaken by China’s government over the past year have had only a limited impact. The government could also consider more innovative, hitherto untested policies. For example, it could mandate superior product quality to weed out players who compete purely on cost to encourage industry consolidation. However, defining “low quality” and enforcing standards would be challenging, and this strategy may be less effective in services industries. Another way to reduce the incentives for extreme competition would be encouraging collaboration between firms through technology sharing and mutual equity holdings. And the increased availability of patient long-term capital could obviate the need for companies to ramp up production and revenues rapidly. The anti-involution program marks a new phase of China’s pursuit of high-quality development. Enforcing pricing discipline and market stability in furiously competitive industries will be no easy task. That means an updated playbook may be needed. (The views expressed here are those of Manishi Raychaudhuri, the founder and CEO of Emmer Capital Partners Ltd, and the former Head of Asia-Pacific Equity Research at BNP Paribas Securities). Enjoying this column? Check out Reuters Open Interest (ROI), , opens new tab your essential new source for global financial commentary. ROI delivers thought-provoking, data-driven analysis of everything from swap rates to soybeans. Markets are moving faster than ever. ROI, , opens new tab can help you keep up. Follow ROI on LinkedIn, , opens new tab and X. , opens new tab https://www.reuters.com/markets/asia/chinas-fight-against-price-wars-is-an-uphill-battle-2025-08-12/