2025-05-16 23:53

Indexes up: Dow 0.78%, S&P 500 0.70%, Nasdaq 0.52% Charter Communications rises after co to buy Cox Communications U. Mich consumer sentiment index at 50.8 vs 53.4 estimate Applied Materials falls after Q2 revenue miss May 16 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes rose on Friday for their fifth straight day, buoyed by the U.S.-China tariff truce earlier in the week even as economic survey data showed a deterioration in consumer sentiment. The S&P 500 steadily added to gains from late morning, while investors took weak data in their stride. The University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers said its Consumer Sentiment Index slumped further in May while one-year inflation expectations surged to 7.3% from 6.5% last month. Sign up here. Exchange-traded funds that track the S&P 500 and Nasdaq fell about 1% in extended trade after Moody's cut the U.S. credit rating by one notch, citing rising debt and interest payments that outpace those of similarly rated sovereigns. The S&P 500, Nasdaq and Dow Jones Industrial Average boasted weekly gains after starting out with a steep rally on Monday, after Washington and Beijing agreed to a 90-day pause in their escalating trade war. This was days after the U.S. president and British prime minister announced a limited bilateral trade agreement. Lindsey Bell, chief market strategist at Clearnomics, New York, said Friday's advance was a "carry on from the de-escalation in the trade conflict." With a solid economy combined with pessimistic investors, Bell expects more volatility ahead as tariff headlines come out, and added "data could change in coming months." "I don't think we're out of the woods yet. We're going to have to take it on a day-by-day, week-by-week basis," she said. Paul Christopher, head of global investment strategy at Wells Fargo Investment Institute, said the market is "cautiously optimistic" about the softening stance on trade, but waiting to see where the U.S. eventually lands on tariffs. "We haven't even begun to see what happens when those tariffs really bite, when firms have to raise their prices to consumers and consumers see fewer goods and less variety on the shelves," Christopher said. Investors were also left waiting for clarity on U.S. tax policy as Trump's sweeping tax bill failed to clear a key procedural hurdle as hardline Republicans demanding deeper spending cuts blocked the measure in a rare political setback in Congress for Republican President Donald Trump. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) , opens new tab rose 331.99 points, or 0.78%, to 42,654.74, the S&P 500 (.SPX) , opens new tab gained 41.45 points, or 0.70%, to 5,958.38 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) , opens new tab gained 98.78 points, or 0.52%, to 19,211.10. For the week, the S&P 500 gained about 5.3% while the Nasdaq rose 7.2% and the Dow added 3.4%. Among the S&P 500's 11 major industry indexes, most advanced with energy (.SPNY) , opens new tab the sole loser, down 0.18%. The biggest gainer was healthcare (.SPXHC) , opens new tab, which ended up 1.96% for the day after a volatile week. One of its biggest index point boosts was from UnitedHealth Group Inc (UNH.N) , opens new tab, which regained ground, rising 6.4% on Friday and leading S&P 500 percentage gains, after eight straight days of steep losses. Investors were warily expecting strategic changes at the insurer after the Wall Street Journal reported it was under a criminal probe by the Justice Department. Among other individual stocks, Applied Materials (AMAT.O) , opens new tab shares slipped 5.3% after the provider of equipment for chip manufacturing missed estimates for second-quarter revenue. Charter Communications (CHTR.O) , opens new tab shares rose 1.8% after the cable company said it would buy privately held rival Cox Communications for $21.9 billion. Shares in Verizon Communications (VZ.N) , opens new tab rose 1.7% after the Federal Communications Commission said on Friday it was approving its $20 billion purchase of fiber-optic internet provider Frontier Communications (FYBR.O) , opens new tab after the largest U.S. telecom company agreed to end its diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.72-to-1 ratio on the NYSE where there were 207 new highs and 34 new lows. On the Nasdaq, 2,792 stocks rose and 1,607 fell as advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.74-to-1 ratio. The S&P 500 posted 28 new 52-week highs and no new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 62 new highs and 73 new lows. On U.S. exchanges, 17.61 billion shares changed hands on Friday compared with the 17.04 billion average from the last 20 sessions. https://www.reuters.com/business/us-stock-futures-rise-trade-optimism-lingers-2025-05-16/

2025-05-16 23:37

NJ Transit rail engineers strike after contract talks fail First mass transit strike to hit New Jersey since 1983 Negotiations deadlock over union demands for higher wages NEW YORK, May 16 (Reuters) - New Jerseycommuter rail engineers walked off the job on Friday after marathon contract talks deadlocked, idling a train system that serves some 350,000 passengers a day, including tens of thousands bound for New York City. The New Jersey Transit strike, the first in more than 40 years to hit a commuter rail operation that now ranks as the third busiest in North America, went into effect at 12:01 a.m. EDT (0401 GMT) as the union deadline for meeting its wage demands lapsed without a deal. Sign up here. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, which represents 450 NJ Transit engineers who drive the agency's commuter locomotives, said a 15-hour bargaining session broke off when management negotiators walked away from the talks at 10 p.m. on Thursday. The engineers' demands for higher pay were the key sticking point. The union has said it was aiming to raise the engineers' salaries to achieve parity with other commuter railroads in the region. NJ Transit has said it cannot afford the pay raises the engineers are seeking because 14 other unions that negotiate separate labor contracts with the agency as part of "pattern bargaining" would then demand higher wage rates as well. Each side has accused the other of bargaining in bad faith and precipitating the strike. Although no further talks were formally scheduled, the two parties were expected to resume negotiations by Sunday afternoon, if not sooner, with federal mediators joining in. As the morning commuter rush got underway on Friday, delays on the bridges, tunnels and ferries crossing the Hudson River into Manhattan were light, according to 511.gov, a website that monitors traffic flows. Fewer commuters typically travel into New York on Fridays than other days of the week. Many commuters also apparently heeded transit agency advice to work from home on the first day of the strike. PICKET LINES AND LITIGATION In a potential widening of the work stoppage, railway workers belonging to other unions refused to cross picket lines that went up on Friday, prompting legal action by NJ Transit. The rail system filed suits in federal court on Friday challenging what the transit agency called "sympathy strikes" by other unions as a violation of the national Railway Labor Act. The suits sought court orders requiring unionized dispatchers and overhead power-line operators and Teamsters-represented track inspection and maintenance crews to return to work. NJ Transit said both groups of workers were vital to keeping its 544-mile rail system safe for 50 private freight operators, as well as commuter rail traffic. It remained unclear how long the transit strike, the first to hit New Jersey since a three-week walkout in 1983, might last. Kris Kolluri, president and CEO of NJ Transit, said management was willing to resume negotiations at any time but that meeting the union's wage demands would put the agency into a fiscal "death spiral." Mark Wallace, national president of the union, said management, not his members, was responsible for triggering the walkout and the union also was ready to return to the bargaining table. While transit officials have proposed restarting talks at 1 p.m. on Sunday, "our goal is to press them to continue to try to move that up," union spokesperson Jamie Horwitz said. To ease the strike's impact, NJ Transit increased bus services on existing lines and chartered private buses to run from several satellite parking lots, but warned buses would only be able to handle around 20% of rail customers. At the Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan, several commuters from New Jersey said their buses were not overly crowded. "I got a seat to myself this morning," said Anthony Wilkerson, 34, a tech worker who lives in West Orange and typically takes the train. But he wondered whether next week would bring more crowding. The labor clash came weeks after negotiators had agreed on a potential deal in March, only for the union's members to vote overwhelmingly to reject it. NJ Transit says the engineers currently make $135,000 per year on average and that management had offered a deal that would yield an average salary of $172,000. But the union has disputed those figures, saying the current average salary is actually $113,000. https://www.reuters.com/business/world-at-work/new-jersey-transit-rail-strike-first-four-decades-begins-wage-talks-stall-2025-05-16/

2025-05-16 23:11

May 16 (Reuters) - U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright issued an emergency order on Friday that will allow Puerto Rico's state-owned utility to plug chronic electricity shortfalls on the island with electricity from oil-burning power plants without running afoul of environmental laws. WHY IT MATTERS Puerto Rico has long dealt with regular and widespread power outages due to the island's crumbling infrastructure, the 2017 bankruptcy of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), and a string of devastating hurricanes. It experienced an island-wide blackout a month ago, followed by an outage that hit 134,000 customers this week. Sign up here. CONTEXT The Biden administration said in January that billions of dollars in government funding had supported more than 200 projects to improve Puerto Rico's grid, including battery systems, emergency gas generators, smart meters, and solar energy projects. Those projects were largely aligned with former President Joe Biden's focus on clean energy as part of his climate change agenda. President Donald Trump has pledged to undo Biden-era climate initiatives and boost domestic fossil fuel production. KEY QUOTES "Access to energy is essential for all modern life, yet the current energy emergency jeopardizes Puerto Ricans' access to basic necessities. This system is unsustainable, and our fellow citizens should not be forced to suffer the constant instability and dangerous consequences of an unreliable power grid," Wright said in a statement. "This Administration clearly understands the urgency of the crisis and is utilizing available, existing emergency authorities to put words into action," said Puerto Rico Governor Jenniffer González Colón. BY THE NUMBERS Wright issued two orders under section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act, which effectively overrides federal and state environmental laws for a brief period to address an emergency shortage of electricity. The first order applies to eight fuel oil power plants and more than a dozen temporary generators installed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The second order directs PREPA to manage overgrown vegetation that is contributing to failures on the island's transmission system. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/us-order-allows-puerto-rico-shore-up-ailing-power-grid-with-fuel-oil-plants-2025-05-16/

2025-05-16 22:06

NEW YORK, May 16 (Reuters) - Foreign holdings of U.S. Treasuries soared to a record high in March, data from the Treasury Department showed on Friday, rising for a third straight month, as demand for U.S. government debt remained robust a few months after President Donald Trump took office. Holdings of U.S. Treasuries surged to $9.05 trillion in March, an all-time peak and up more than $233 billion from $8.81 trillion in February. Compared with a year earlier, Treasuries owned by foreigners rose nearly 12%. Sign up here. Some analysts said that trend could change in April as the Trump administration introduced a massive trade shock on April 2nd that saw effective tariff rates surge, particularly on Chinese goods. That fueled a U.S. Treasuries sell-off that, at one point, pushed benchmark 10-year yields more than 70 basis points (bps) higher to nearly 4.6% over the April 3-11 period. The selloff may have included selling from foreign investors, analysts said. Trump has since paused the imposition of tariffs for 90 days, and the Treasuries market has stabilized somewhat, although foreign investors are likely to have remained leery of U.S. assets. Data also showed that UK investors have overtaken China as the second largest non-U.S. holder of Treasuries, with holdings of $779 billion. UK is typically considered a custodial account, which is generally a proxy for hedge funds. Other countries used by hedge funds for custody services include Cayman Islands and the Bahamas. Japan remains the biggest Treasury debt holder, with a stash of $1.13 trillion in March, up about 0.4% from the $1.126 trillion held in February. Japan's load of Treasuries rose for a second straight month. China, on the other hand, reduced its stash of Treasuries to $765.4 billion in March, down from $784.3 billion the previous month. In December last year, China's holdings were $759 billion, the lowest since February 2009 when the country's stock of Treasuries dropped to $744.2 billion. Treasury holdings by Chinese investors have been on a downward trajectory since 2018, analysts said. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield started the month of March at 4.18% and ended it slightly higher at 4.425%. Major U.S. asset classes also showed a mix of inflows and outflows during the month, the data showed. On a transactional basis, holdings of Treasury bonds and notes showed a net inflow of $123 billion in March, following inflows of $106.2 billion in February. Foreign investors continued to buy U.S. corporates, with $60.4 billion in inflows, with agencies showing outflows of $10.4 billion, data showed. U.S. equities, meanwhile, posted inflows of $10.4 billion in March, down from $24.7 billion in the previous month. Overall, net foreign acquisitions of long- and short-term securities, including banking flows, showed a net outflow of $254.3 billion in March, up slightly from $248.9 billion posted in February. https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/foreign-holdings-us-treasuries-top-9-trillion-march-data-shows-2025-05-16/

2025-05-16 21:40

Leaders from across Europe meet in Tirana EU threatens Russia with more sanctions over Ukraine Zelenskiy says his priority is obtaining unconditional ceasefire TIRANA, May 16 (Reuters) - The European Union is working on a new package of sanctions to increase pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday as leaders from across Europe met in Albania. The European Political Community Summit, which includes non-EU countries, convened in the Albanian capital Tirana as Russian and Ukrainian negotiators met in Istanbul for their first direct peace talks in more than three years, under pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump. Sign up here. The EU, sidelined amid U.S. efforts to end the war, has already adopted 17 sanctions packages against Russia - the latest one this week - and diplomats say it is increasingly difficult to get the necessary unanimity among the bloc's 27 members to pass new measures. "He does not want peace, so we have to increase the pressure, and this is why we are working on a new package of sanctions," von der Leyen said, referring to Putin. "This package will include for example sanctions on Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2. It will include working on listing more vessels of the Russian shadow fleet and also lowering the oil price cap, and will include more sanctions on the financial sector in Russia." Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2, each consisting of two pipes, were built by Russia's state-controlled Gazprom to pump natural gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea. They were ruptured by a series of blasts in 2022. Officials and diplomats have said that the major new sanctions European leaders have threatened over the past days would need U.S. support to succeed. Speaking to other European leaders in Tirana, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine's first priority was to secure an unconditional ceasefire to create a basis for future talks on a peace deal. 'UNACCEPTABLE' On Sunday, Putin proposed direct talks with Ukraine in Turkey, but he spurned a challenge from Zelenskiy to meet in person, instead sending a team of mid-ranking officials to the talks. The Istanbul talks ended after less than two hours, with no apparent sign of progress so far in narrowing the gap between the sides, and a Ukrainian source called Moscow's demands "non-starters". NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte had said earlier in the day that Putin had "made a mistake by sending a low-level delegation" to Istanbul. "What we saw yesterday and overnight is yet more evidence that Putin is not serious about peace," British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said. Starmer and the leaders of France, Germany and Poland agreed with Zelenskiy in Tirana that Russia's position in peace talks was "clearly unacceptable" and also consulted with Trump, Starmer said later in the day, adding that they were all closely coordinating their responses. Germany's new chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said that Europe must increase its defence capacities, adding that the region needs to work with the United States to end war in Ukraine. "We have to undertake all efforts to keep the Americans on our side," Merz said. "We cannot substitute or replace what the Americans still do for us on our continent." In an apparent bid by the summit host, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, for a bit of a lighter mood, at the start of the meeting the leaders were shown a cheeky video portraying them all as babies saying "Welcome to Albania". https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/eu-readying-new-sanctions-increase-pressure-russia-von-der-leyen-says-2025-05-16/

2025-05-16 21:35

May 16 (Reuters) - The United States has issued emergency orders to address "critical grid security issues and improve grid resiliency" in Puerto Rico, the Energy Department said in a statement on Friday. The DOE also said it would review $365 million in funding from the Puerto Rico Energy Resilience Fund to make sure all assistance "is used to support practical fixes to the grid and benefits all residents of Puerto Rico." The orders will unlock emergency protocols to address immediate programs, according to the statement. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-issues-emergency-orders-address-puerto-rico-grid-security-issues-2025-05-16/