2026-01-23 04:29
Global stocks rise slightly with Fed, geopolitics, earnings in focus Oil settles up almost $2 with Trump threatening Iran Yen spikes against dollar, with traders on intervention watch Dollar falls broadly, U.S. Treasury yields dip NEW YORK/LONDON, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Japan's yen spiked sharply higher against the dollar on Friday as traders evaluated the possibility of an intervention to support the currency, while oil prices rallied after U.S. President Donald Trump ratcheted up pressure against Iran. Safe-haven gold was at record highs and MSCI's global equities gauge was modestly higher with muted Wall Street moves after a choppy week while U.S. Treasury yields fell. Sign up here. The yen was volatile, with two sudden spikes raising market speculation that authorities had conducted a rate check, often a precursor to intervention. The Japanese currency suddenly swung from a loss to a gain versus the dollar before U.S. trading hours. In U.S. afternoon trading it sharply extended gains. This was after the New York Federal Reserve performed dollar/yen rate checks around midday, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. Earlier, the Bank of Japan had signaled readiness to continue raising still-low borrowing costs in a politically charged atmosphere, ahead of a snap election next month. The jury was out among strategists on whether the afternoon move reflected an actual intervention or investor positioning for one. Earlier, Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama said she was watching currency markets closely, but declined to comment on speculation. “I’m not hearing confirmation of official buying activity yet, but if it looks like an intervention duck, walks like an intervention duck, and quacks like an intervention duck, it’s probably an intervention duck,” said Karl Schamotta, chief market strategist at Corpay in Toronto. “The dollar is declining in a broad-based manner, but the yen’s move in the last few hours has been uniquely rapid and significant, suggesting that Japanese authorities are stepping in — or that traders are front-running an expected move.” Against the Japanese yen , the dollar weakened 1.66% to 155.77. The dollar index , measuring the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, fell 0.84% to 97.47. The euro was up 0.61% at $1.1826 while sterling strengthened 1.04% to $1.364. Wall Street equities had a lackluster end to a week punctuated by a selloff at the start and then a relief rally linked to Trump's withdrawal of tariff threats and ruling out seizing Greenland by force. Investors are still waiting for details of Greenland negotiations between the U.S. and European leaders. With a busy week ahead, including a Federal Reserve meeting, key economic releases and earnings reports, Gene Goldman, chief investment officer at Cetera Investment Management in El Segundo, California said that investors were taking a "wait-and-see approach." The CIO also noted that traders may be wary of the potential for market-moving weekend news, after last weekend's comments from Trump pushed stocks lower at the start of the week. In energy markets, oil prices settled up almost 3% after rising to their highest in more than a week after Trump ramped up pressure on Iran through sanctions on vessels that transport its oil, and an announcement that an "armada" was heading toward the Middle Eastern nation. The pressure served as warnings to Tehran against killing protesters or restarting its nuclear program. U.S. crude settled up 2.88%, or $1.71, at $61.07 a barrel while Brent settled at $65.88 per barrel, up 2.84%, or $1.82 on the day. Fed funds futures are pricing an implied 97% probability that the U.S. Federal Reserve will hold rates steady next week, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool. Intel (INTC.O) , opens new tab shares fell on Friday, the day after a disappointing forecast. Investors were awaiting reports from megacaps Microsoft (MSFT.O) , opens new tab, Meta Platforms (META.O) , opens new tab and industrial giant Caterpillar (CAT.N) , opens new tab among others next week. Investors also were watching U.S.-brokered trilateral talks over the Russia-Ukraine war. Negotiators met in Abu Dhabi on Friday to tackle the vital issue of territory, with no sign of a compromise. Russian airstrikes plunged Ukraine into its worst energy crisis of the four-year war. On Wall Street the Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) , opens new tab fell 285.30 points, or 0.58%, to 49,098.71, the S&P 500 (.SPX) , opens new tab rose 2.26 points, or 0.03%, to 6,915.61 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) , opens new tab rose 65.23 points, or 0.28%, to 23,501.24. For the week, the S&P 500 fell 0.35%, the Nasdaq declined 0.06%, and the Dow fell 0.53%. MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe (.MIWD00000PUS) , opens new tab rose 1.52 points, or 0.15%, to 1,037.55 but was eyeing a slight weekly decline. Earlier the pan-European STOXX 600 (.STOXX) , opens new tab index finished down 0.1% and snapped a five-week winning streak, which was its longest since May. Despite a mid-week rebound, the index closed 1.1% lower for the week as investor sentiment was soured by flaring geopolitical uncertainties. In precious metals markets, silver and gold set new records with silver prices rising above $100 an ounce for the first time and gold hitting another record and approaching $5,000/oz as investors continued to pile into safe-haven assets amid geopolitical turmoil. Spot gold rose 0.91% to $4,981.43 an ounce. U.S. gold futures rose 0.55% to $4,936.00 an ounce. Elsewhere in metals, Copper rose 2.92% to $13,128.50 a tonne. Three-month aluminum on the London Metal Exchange rose 1.31% to $3,173.50 a tonne. In Treasuries, prices rose as investors waited for the Fed post-meeting update due on Wednesday. The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes fell 2 basis points to 4.231%, from 4.251% late on Thursday while the 30-year bond yield fell 1.8 basis points to 4.8305%. The 2-year note yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations for the Federal Reserve, fell 1.6 basis points to 3.598%, from 3.614%. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/global-markets-global-markets-2026-01-23/
2026-01-23 04:10
JAKARTA, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Indonesian rescuers on Friday had found the bodies of 10 passengers on a fishery surveillance plane that went missing in Indonesia's South Sulawesi province at the weekend, the country's search and rescue agency said. The ATR 42-500 turboprop owned by aviation group Indonesia Air Transport (IAT) lost contact with air traffic control on Saturday at about 1:30 p.m. local time (0530 GMT) around the Maros region in South Sulawesi. Sign up here. There were seven crew members and three passengers on board the plane, which was chartered by Indonesia's Marine Affairs and Fisheries Ministry to conduct air surveillance on its fisheries. The passengers were ministry staff members. Andi Sultan, an official at South Sulawesi's rescue agency, said through tears during a video statement that authorities found the ninth and tenth bodies early on Friday, adding that the evacuation process was still ongoing. The agency said separately on its Instagram account that 10 victims have been found. Local rescuers previously discovered the wreckage of the plane in different locations around Mount Bulusaraung in the Maros region, about 1,500 km (930 miles) northeast of the sprawling island nation's capital, Jakarta. Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT), which probes transport accidents, is currently investigating the contents of the recently-found black box, its chief told local media this week. It was Indonesia's first deadly crash involving the ATR 42, manufactured by Franco-Italian planemaker ATR (AIR.PA) , opens new tab, (LDOF.MI) , opens new tab, in more than a decade. In 2015, a Trigana Air Service ATR 42-300 crashed into a mountainside in Indonesia's Papua region, killing all 54 people on board. A Boeing (BA.N) , opens new tab 737-500 jet operated by airline Sriwijaya Co crashed into the Java sea in 2021, killing 62 people. https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/indonesia-finds-bodies-10-passengers-crashed-surveillance-plane-2026-01-23/
2026-01-23 00:30
ORLANDO, Florida, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Talk of the "Sell America" trade has returned, and even if it quiets after news of U.S. President Donald Trump's potential Greenland deal, it's fair to assume it's not going away. We've been here before. Last year, "de-dollarization" was the buzzword, as Trump's tariff-based trade war sparked fears that investors would slash their exposure to U.S. assets. Sign up here. That didn't happen. Official U.S. Treasury figures show that foreigners bought a net $1.27 trillion of U.S. securities in the first 11 months of last year, spearheaded by a flood of money into Wall Street from private-sector investors gripped by the artificial intelligence frenzy. November feels like ages ago, though. The blizzard of controversial policy steps from Trump since then – which have effectively upended the U.S.-European alliance and rules-based world order of the last 80 years – has revived talk of shorting Uncle Sam. And the world has a lot of U.S. assets to sell - around $27.6 trillion on a net basis, as per the last official count. That's the difference between the $68.9 trillion of U.S. assets owned by overseas investors and the $41.3 trillion of foreign assets owned by Americans. In economic jargon, this is America's net international investment position (NIIP). It is the largest on record, both nominally and as a share of GDP at over 90%. In trading parlance, this means the world is net "long the USA" to the tune of $27.6 trillion. It's a lopsided position, particularly the equity portion, and is increasingly being seen as a "Sword of Damocles" hanging over U.S. markets. With Trump's bellicose policy agenda causing global consternation, especially in European capitals, the question now is whether the world is willing to maintain that stretched position, or start to reallocate. MUTUALLY ASSURED FINANCIAL DESTRUCTION The answer won't reveal itself quickly. Some Scandinavian pension funds have indicated they will reduce their holdings of U.S. bonds, but as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent somewhat disparagingly noted this week, they are too small to move the needle. This debate is reviving talk of "mutually assured financial destruction," a concept previously associated with fears that China might dump its Treasuries to push up U.S. yields and hurt Washington. It is now being applied to Europe. But the China example is instructive. Beijing has gradually reduced its exposure to Treasuries in recent years without triggering the feared spike in yields, largely thanks to strong demand from European countries like Britain, Belgium and Ireland filling the void. Deutsche Bank's George Saravelos estimates that European nations own $8 trillion of U.S. stocks and bonds, almost twice as much as the rest of the world combined. Europe may no longer consider the U.S. a reliable partner, but forging new trade links, supply-chain networks, and strategic partnerships takes time. A quick decoupling from the U.S. would be both hard to achieve and highly risky. For starters, there are no other markets as large or liquid as those in the U.S. – and shunning American equities would also mean betting against many of the world's most valuable, innovative companies. "There's no way to restructure the global economy without a lot of wealth destruction in the process," says Sarah Bauerle Danzman, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. "Everyone knows that, which is why Trump has been able to go so far on his threats." REMEMBER THE DEFICIT? A mass exodus is unlikely, but it only requires the pace of inflows to slow enough to depress the value of U.S. assets and erode the "American exceptionalism" narrative. And the U.S. needs to plug its massive current account deficit. To be sure, that gap has narrowed sharply over the last two quarters, and Trump's protectionist trade policies could ensure it continues to shrink. But net capital inflows of $1 trillion or more a year from overseas are still required. Inflows last year were substantial, but can they be sustained? Of the net $1.27 trillion of U.S. securities bought by foreigners in the first 11 months of last year, $663 billion was in stocks, Treasury figures show. That's more than triple the $205 billion bought in the same period in 2024. "The world is incredibly long the U.S.," says Brad Setser, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. "It's not so much that people need to be convinced to hold onto their U.S. assets, but to buy more." Given the geopolitical whirlwind emanating from Washington, convincing the world to stick with the U.S. right now may be a tough sell. With the global regime shifting, the financial balance underlying it may start to change as well. (The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters) Enjoying this column? Check out Reuters Open Interest (ROI), , opens new tab your essential new source for global financial commentary. Follow ROI on LinkedIn, , opens new tab and X. , opens new tab And listen to the Morning Bid daily podcast on Apple , opens new tab, Spotify , opens new tab, or the Reuters app , opens new tab. Subscribe to hear Reuters journalists discuss the biggest news in markets and finance seven days a week. https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/will-world-cut-its-27-trillion-long-usa-position-2026-01-22/
2026-01-23 00:24
Jan 22 (Reuters) - As geopolitical tensions soar and government debt loads rise in many nations, digital assets investment firm Bitwise and Proficio Capital Partners, a division of a Florida-based multi-family office, are rolling out an exchange-traded fund designed to invest in alternatives to the dollar and other currencies, ranging from gold to bitcoin. The Bitwise Proficio Currency Debasement ETF (BPRO.P) , opens new tab, launched on Thursday, will offer investors a blend of those alternatives, starting with a minimum of 25% of its assets in gold, which has climbed to record highs this year. But the fund's backers said the logic behind the fund is not just about capturing a momentum trade in gold but about finding assets not tied to any individual currency or set of national monetary and fiscal policies. Sign up here. "I believe you have to view these as representing their own asset class," one that is distinct from stocks or bonds denominated in dollars or other government-issued currencies, said Bob Haber, chief investment officer and a founder of Proficio. "And when you're not really being compensated for the risk of owning government bonds or assets denominated in dollars, euro or whatever, it makes sense to look for alternatives." In addition to gold and bitcoin, the ETF will offer exposure to silver, platinum and palladium, as well as the mining companies that produce these and other metals. Even if gold and silver prices pause their rally, Haber said he expects a growing number of investors to demonstrate interest in owning what he refers to as "hard currencies." "This is a long-term secular shift in the market," he said. https://www.reuters.com/business/bitwise-proficio-capital-partners-etf-targets-gold-metals-bitcoin-alternative-2026-01-23/
2026-01-23 00:13
Second day of gains after Trump's Greenland tariff u-turn Indexes up: Dow 0.63%, S&P 500 0.55%, Nasdaq 0.91% Procter & Gamble gains after earnings Abbott has biggest daily drop since 2002 on weak outlook Jan 22 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes finished higher on Thursday, the second straight day of gains, as investors bought shares after U.S. President Donald Trump rescinded tariff threats on European allies while data highlighted American economic resilience. The advance came the day after the S&P 500's (.SPX) , opens new tab biggest daily percentage gain in two months, when Trump stepped back from imposing tariffs as leverage to seize Greenland and said the framework of a deal to end a dispute over the Danish territory was in sight. Sign up here. Investors have quickly returned to stock markets after Trump's Wednesday U-turn. Still, two days of gains have yet to fully erase losses the three U.S. benchmarks took on Tuesday, when Trump's tariff threats sent shivers through global markets. Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite are down 0.4% for the week, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average essentially flat. "It's very weird to wake up every day as a money manager and you do not know whether it is Christmas morning or Friday the 13th," said Gregg Abella, CEO at Investment Partners Asset Management. Abella said geopolitical issues are creating additional focus on managing client portfolios through volatility, and emphasizing the importance of diversification away from certain names, sectors and asset classes. Reflecting such diversity, and increased risk appetite among investors on Thursday, the small-cap Russell 2000 index (.RUT) , opens new tab rose 0.8% to a record closing high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) , opens new tab rose 306.78 points, or 0.63%, to 49,384.01, and the S&P 500 (.SPX) , opens new tab advanced 37.73 points, or 0.55%, to 6,913.35. The Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) , opens new tab gained 211.20 points, or 0.91%, to 23,436.02. EARNINGS A PROVING GROUND The earnings season is picking up pace, and could test market sentiment as companies detail how consumer demand, cost pressures and a bumpy macro backdrop shaped their year-end performance. Many of the so-called Magnificent Seven stocks are set to report earnings next week. Given their weighting on indexes, their performances have outsized influence on overall market direction. Their outlooks will be closely watched to see how much juice remains in the growth stories which so far have justified their sky-high valuations. All seven were gainers on Thursday, led by Meta (META.O) , opens new tab which shot up 5.7% and Tesla (TSLA.O) , opens new tab, which climbed 4.2%. Banking stocks have generally performed well in response to earnings, although Huntington Bancshares (HBAN.O) , opens new tab fell 6% on Thursday after posting fourth-quarter numbers weighed by costs related to recent acquisitions. Some larger regionals which had risen in recent days also saw pullback on Thursday, with Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB.O) , opens new tab down 3.7% and Regions Financial (RF.N) , opens new tab 1.3% lower. Procter & Gamble (PG.N) , opens new tab gained 2.6% following quarterly results, and Intel (INTC.O) , opens new tab - which reported numbers after the bell - edged up 0.1% to take its 2026 gains to 47.2%. Abbott (ABT.N) , opens new tab slid 10%, its largest one-day percentage drop since 2002, after the medical device maker forecast current-quarter profit below Wall Street expectations. GE Aerospace (GE.N) , opens new tab slipped 7.4% despite forecasting its annual profit above estimates. Cholula hot-sauce maker McCormick (MKC.N) , opens new tab dropped 8.1% after forecasting weak annual profit in 2026 on higher costs related to tariffs and other inputs. ECONOMIC DATA IN SPOTLIGHT The latest economic data releases were also supportive of positive momentum. U.S. consumer spending increased solidly in November and October, likely keeping the economy on track for a third straight quarter of strong growth, the personal consumption expenditures index showed. Separate data showed initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased less than expected last week, while the U.S. economy grew by a slightly more-than-expected 4.4% in the third quarter of 2025. The number of shares changing hands on U.S. exchanges was 18.30 billion, compared with 16.91 billion average over the last 20 trading days. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/futures-rise-further-greenland-relief-2026-01-22/
2026-01-22 23:49
Teenagers among the missing after landslide hits campsite Police say rescue effort could last days Chinese citizen among two killed in another landslide WELLINGTON, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Two teenagers were among six people missing after a landslide hit a busy campground on New Zealand's North Island, authorities said on Friday, as rescuers worked round the clock to locate survivors under the rubble. Heavy rains triggered Thursday's landslide at Mount Maunganui on the island's east coast, bringing down soil and rubble at the site in the city of Tauranga, crowded by families on summer holidays, but no deaths have been confirmed. Sign up here. "We have 25 personnel working with contractors and their diggers and police dogs, as well as police operations to ensure that every inch of soil removed is worked through," said David Guard, a fire and emergency official. The scale of the disaster and risks at the site could delay the rescue effort, however, New Zealand Police Commissioner Richard Chambers told the New Zealand Herald newspaper. "It could be days, and we appreciate that everybody is anxious and waiting for their loved ones, and for some answers, but we also have to be very careful," Chambers said. AUTHORITIES LOOKING TO REACH THREE MORE The youngest of the missing was aged 15, police commander Tim Anderson told a press conference, adding that authorities were scrambling to contact an additional three people. "We don't believe they're here, but we've still got to do that inquiry," Anderson said. No signs of life have been detected from the rubble since voices initially heard by first responders on Thursday, Anderson added. Video images showed recreational vehicles and at least one structure crushed at the campsite. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon visited the site on Friday and met affected families. "They are grieving incredibly hard, and I know that New Zealand grieves with them," he said. Luxon promised government funds for affected areas once they reckoned up damages. Fielding reporters' questions why the campsite evacuation had not been swifter, he said there would be with a public review into the circumstances. ANOTHER LANDSLIDE KILLS TWO The heavy rain that lashed almost the entire eastern seaboard of the North Island unleashed another landslide in the neighbouring suburb of Papamoa, killing two. One was a Chinese citizen, Chinese Ambassador Wang Xiaolong said on X on Friday. Roads stayed closed in some of the worst-hit areas, cutting off some towns from contact by land. On social media, civil defence authorities in the district of Tairawhiti warned people seeking to collect emergency supplies of water and food not to pick their way over landslides as it risked triggering further movement of rock and soil. https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/new-zealand-continues-hunt-victims-campground-hit-by-landslide-2026-01-22/
