2025-09-01 07:38
NEW DELHI, Sept 1 (Reuters) - India's top court on Monday dismissed a petition challenging the government's move to roll out 20% ethanol-blended fuel across the country. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/indias-top-court-dismisses-petition-challenging-move-ethanol-blended-fuel-2025-09-01/
2025-09-01 07:18
MUMBAI, Sept 1 (Reuters) - The Indian rupee fell to a record low on Monday, reflecting the cumulative impact of elevated hedging by importers and increased short positions by market participants in response to higher U.S. tariffs. The rupee dropped to 88.33 against the U.S. dollar on Monday, breaching Friday’s all time low of 88.3075. Analysts said the move was an extension of the pressure seen late last week. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/india/indian-rupee-slides-all-time-low-surge-hedging-speculative-bets-2025-09-01/
2025-09-01 07:17
PARIS, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Steps by U.S. President Donald Trump to remove Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell or Fed governor Lisa Cook would represent a "very serious danger for the U.S. economy and the world economy", said European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde on Monday. Trump has repeatedly attacked the Fed's chair, Jerome Powell, for not cutting the short-term interest rate and threatened to fire him. Trump is also attempting to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. Sign up here. "If U.S. monetary policy were no longer independent and instead dependent on the dictates of this or that person, then I believe that the effect on the balance of the American economy could, as a result of the effects this would have around the world, be very worrying, because it is the largest economy in the world," Lagarde told Radio Classique. Lagarde also told Radio Classique that a ruling on Friday by a U.S. appeals court that most of Donald Trump's tariffs were illegal were adding a "further layer of uncertainty" to the global economic outlook. https://www.reuters.com/business/ecbs-lagarde-warns-risk-world-economy-via-trump-interference-fed-2025-09-01/
2025-09-01 07:01
Putin scolds West over NATO enlargement Putin says a fair security balance needed Putin: 'root causes' of the war must be eliminated Putin says Trump summit understandings opened a way to peace TIANJIN, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin, after talking with China's Xi Jinping and India's Narendra Modi, said on Monday the issue of NATO's eastward enlargement would have to be addressed for there to be sustainable peace in Ukraine. Putin ordered tens of thousands of troops to invade Ukraine in February 2022 after eight years of fighting in eastern Ukraine between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian troops. Russia currently controls a little under one fifth of Ukraine. Sign up here. Ukraine and Western European powers describe the invasion as a brutal imperial-style land grab. Putin casts the war as a battle with a declining West, which he says humiliated Russia after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 by enlarging NATO eastwards. On the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting in Tianjin, Modi held Putin's hand as they walked towards Chinese President Xi. All three smiled as they spoke, surrounded by translators. Speaking at the summit, Putin said the West had tried to bring Ukraine into the West's orbit and then sought to entice the former Soviet republic into the U.S.-led NATO military alliance. "In order for a Ukrainian settlement to be sustainable and long-term, the root causes of the crisis, which I have just mentioned and which I have repeatedly mentioned before, must be eliminated," Putin said. "A fair balance in the security sphere" must be also restored, Putin said, shorthand for a series of Russian demands about NATO and European security. At the 2008 Bucharest summit, NATO leaders agreed that Ukraine and Georgia would one day become members. Ukraine in 2019 amended its constitution committing to the path of full membership of NATO and the European Union. Reuters reported in May that Putin's conditions for ending the war include a demand that Western leaders pledge in writing to stop enlarging NATO eastwards and lift a chunk of sanctions on Russia. Putin said that "understandings" he reached with U.S. President Donald Trump at a summit in Alaska in August opened a way to peace in Ukraine, which he would discuss with leaders attending the regional summit in China. "We highly appreciate the efforts and proposals from China and India aimed at facilitating the resolution of the Ukrainian crisis," Putin told the forum. "The understandings reached at the recent Russia–U.S. meeting in Alaska, I hope, also contribute toward this goal." He said he had detailed to Xi on Sunday the achievements of his talks with Trump and the work "already underway" to resolve the conflict and would provide more detail in two-way meetings with the Chinese leader and others. China and India are by far the biggest purchasers of crude from Russia, the world's second largest exporter. Trump has imposed additional tariffs on India over the purchases but there is no sign yet that either India or China are going to stop purchasing Russian oil, a key export of Russia's war economy. (This story has been refiled to fix the byline) https://www.reuters.com/world/china/after-talks-with-xi-modi-putin-says-nato-enlargement-has-be-addressed-ukraine-2025-09-01/
2025-09-01 06:54
Fed's Daly says it'll soon be time to recalibrate policy Silver rises more than 2% to trade above $40 per ounce Platinum up more than 1% Sept 1 (Reuters) - Gold hit a more than four-month high on Monday, as increased bets for a U.S. Federal Reserve interest rate cut this month lifted bullion's allure, while silver rose above $40 per ounce for the first time in more than a decade. Spot gold rose 1.2% to $3,486.86 per ounce by 0641 GMT, hitting its highest point since April 23. U.S. gold futures for December delivery gained 1.1% to $3,554.60. Sign up here. "Dovish comments from San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly helped traders looked past a higher core PCE (Personal Consumption Expenditures) read on Friday, and kept the door open for a 25-basis-point rate cut this month," City Index senior analyst Matt Simpson said. A U.S. appeals court has also deemed most of U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs illegal, weighing further on the dollar and sending gold to a four-month high, Simpson said. Data showed that the U.S. PCE price index rose 0.2% month-on-month, and 2.6% year-on-year, both in line with expectations. In a social media post on Friday, Daly reiterated her support for a rate cut, given the risks to the labour market. Non-yielding gold typically performs well in a low-interest-rate environment. On the trade front, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on Sunday the Trump administration is continuing its talks with trading partners despite a U.S. appeals court ruling that most of Trump's tariffs are illegal. Spot silver jumped 2.2% to $40.56 per ounce, the highest level since September 2011. "The U.S. bank holiday is contributing to thinner liquidity, which is also exacerbating some of the moves in gold and silver," said KCM Trade's chief market analyst, Tim Waterer. "Silver is making a move higher in response to expectations of lower U.S. rates, while a tight supply market is helping to maintain an upward bias." Platinum gained 1.5% to $1,384.68 and palladium climbed 0.8% to $1,118.06. https://www.reuters.com/world/india/gold-climbs-us-rate-cut-bets-silver-hits-14-year-high-2025-09-01/
2025-09-01 06:52
MUMBAI, Sept 1 (Reuters) - The Indian rupee dipped on Monday, hovering near an all-time low, with analysts expecting its underperformance versus other Asian currencies to persist amid high U.S. tariffs. The rupee was quoting at 88.27 to the U.S. dollar, just shy of its lifetime low of 88.3075 hit on Friday. The unit is the worst performing Asian currency year-to-date, down about 3% against the dollar. Sign up here. In comparison, the Thai baht, Singapore dollar, and Korean won have rallied more than 6% and the offshore Chinese yuan has risen 3%. The rupee's underperformance is expected to continue as India faces the highest U.S. tariffs on its exports among Asian countries. With "the latest U.S. tariff developments, their macroeconomic impact, and the flow picture, we think the rupee should remain under pressure and underperform other carry candidates" and its Asian peers in the near-term, Goldman Sachs said in a note. Economists at Goldman Sachs estimate that the total effective U.S. tariff rate is now around 32% on India goods. The tariffs could widen the trade deficit by constraining shipments in key sectors such as textiles and gems and jewellery. Slower export growth could dampen GDP growth, which in turn would hurt portfolio flows and amplify pressure on the rupee. Foreign investors have pulled out $2.4 billion from Indian equities over the past three sessions, including nearly $950 million on Friday, when the rupee hit a record low of 88.3075. Continued outflows are expected to exacerbate volatility in the currency and equity markets. https://www.reuters.com/world/india/rupee-hovers-near-all-time-low-likely-keep-underperforming-asia-2025-09-01/
