2025-04-15 17:32
Canadian dollar falls 0.7% against the greenback Annual inflation rate slows to 2.3% Home sales and house prices decline 2-year yield eases four basis points TORONTO, April 15 (Reuters) - The Canadian dollar weakened against its U.S. counterpart on Tuesday as the greenback posted broad-based gains and cooler-than-expected inflation data supported bets for additional interest rate cuts by the Bank of Canada this year. The loonie was trading 0.7% lower at 1.3975 per U.S. dollar, or 71.56 U.S. cents, extending its pullback from a five-month high at 1.3827 during Monday's session. Sign up here. Canada's annual inflation rate slowed in March to 2.3% from 2.6% in February, largely due to lower gasoline and travel prices. Analysts had expected inflation to remain at 2.6%. "Even if it is not enough to drive a rate cut in April, it does speak to inflation momentum that's fading," said Andrew Kelvin, head of Canadian and global rates strategy at TD Securities. "Once we start to see the negative data really pile up due to trade disruptions, I do think the Bank of Canada will begin to reduce interest rates again." Investors saw a 57% chance that the BoC pauses its interest rate-cutting campaign on Wednesday but expected the central bank to resume easing in June and were pricing in two additional cuts in total by the end of 2025. The BoC's benchmark interest rate is currently at 2.75%. Separate data showed that Canadian home sales and house prices declined in March as U.S. tarrifs and countermeasures threatened to upend the domestic economy. Canada will allow some relief to domestically based automakers and manufacturers in specific sectors from counter-tariffs provided they meet certain conditions, the Finance Ministry said. The U.S. dollar (.DXY) , opens new tab clawed back some recent declines against a basket of major currencies and the price of oil , one of Canada's major exports, was trading 0.4% lower at $61.30 a barrel. Canadian bond yields fell across much of a steeper curve. The two-year was down four basis points at 2.539%, after earlier touching its lowest level since Wednesday at 2.532%. https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/canadian-dollar-pulls-back-5-month-high-inflation-cools-2025-04-15/
2025-04-15 15:24
LIMA, April 15 (Reuters) - Peru's economy grew 2.68% in February, data from the nation's INEI statistics agency showed on Tuesday, falling short of estimates despite most sectors logging growth. The February data landed below the 3.5% estimate of analysts polled by Reuters. Sign up here. The Andean nation's key mining and energy sector shrank 1.36%, with utilities and telecommunications services also contracting. Peru is the world's third-largest copper producer. The farming and the smaller fishing sectors advanced 4.35% and 24.64%, respectively. Manufacturing industry expanded by 1.94% and transportation was up 5.66%. The central bank's top economist said last week that the nation's economy would face a moderate hit from newly implemented tariffs from the U.S. Economist Adrian Armas said the Peruvian economy likely grew around 4% in the first quarter. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/peru-economy-undershoots-expectations-february-2025-04-15/
2025-04-15 14:49
BEIJING, April 15 (Reuters) - The head of China's General Administration of Customs on Tuesday encouraged import and export businesses to rise to the challenges presented by sweeping U.S. tariffs by expanding in diverse markets. Speaking at a meeting with representatives from companies and industry associations on Tuesday, Sun Meijun said she hopes that entrepreneurs can make good use of both international and domestic markets to "counter external uncertainties with the certainty of their own development". Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/chinas-customs-administration-encourages-companies-expand-diverse-markets-2025-04-15/
2025-04-15 14:21
LONDON, April 15 (Reuters) - European credit ratings agency Scope has warned that the United States could be downgraded if a lengthy trade war erodes long-term trust in the dollar, or if President Donald Trump implements even more extreme measures such as capital controls. The fallout from Trump's trade tariffs has included the dollar's sharpest year-to-date fall against other major currencies in more than 50 years, while credit default swap (CDS) markets, which investors use to hedge risk, are pricing in as many as five U.S. rating downgrades. Sign up here. Berlin-based Scope, which is used alongside S&P Global, Moody's and Fitch by the European Central Bank to judge creditworthiness, said one of the most exposed countries to the trade war was the U.S. itself, particularly in more extreme scenarios. Those include a protracted tariff fight and/or the introduction of U.S. capital controls - or taxes on foreign investment - which could then lead to "viable alternatives" to the dollar as the world's dominant currency. "If doubts about the exceptional status of the dollar were to increase, this would be very credit negative for the U.S.," Scope's head of sovereign ratings, Alvise Lennkh-Yunus, said in a report published on Tuesday. It is the first agency to deliver such a stark warning about a possible U.S. rating downgrade in the wake of Trump's shake-up of the post World War II global economic order. Scope currently rates the U.S. AA with a "negative" outlook. That is lower than the AA+ scores of S&P and Fitch, and of Moody's, which is the only major agency to still rate the U.S. a top-grade "triple A". Lennkh-Yunus added that doubts around the dollar's status would be fuelled if China and the European Union deepen their trade ties; if China opens up its economy; and if the EU can convince its citizens to invest more into the bloc's priority projects. "These developments are unlikely to happen swiftly," Lennkh-Yunus said. There was a broader warning about other countries with significant trade surpluses and/or financial exposure to the U.S. too. They include open economies like Ireland, which ride global business cycles, those sensitive to higher financing rates such as Italy, oil exporters, and countries with weak currencies like Turkey and Georgia. "The eventual impact on growth, inflation, public debt, external credit metrics and thus sovereign credit ratings, will ultimately depend on the macro-economic environment," Scope's report said. https://www.reuters.com/markets/european-rating-agency-scope-sends-us-downgrade-warning-2025-04-15/
2025-04-15 13:49
On a monthly basis, the consumer price index rose by 0.3% Analysts had forecast CPI at 2.6% annually, 0.6% monthly Inflation slowed by lower gasoline and travel tour prices Currency markets see 52% chance of a pause in rate cut OTTAWA, April 15 (Reuters) - Canada's annual inflation surprisingly slowed in March to 2.3%, three notches below the prior month, largely helped by lower gasoline and travel tour prices, data showed on Tuesday. The lower than expected number on inflation slightly increased the chances of a rate cut on Wednesday, although the majority in the market still tilted towards a pause as economists were divided on the course for monetary policy. Sign up here. The core measures of inflation, which are closely tracked by the Bank of Canada and strip off volatile items, however, stayed elevated, Statistics Canada said. "Does (the bank) look in the rear view mirror at still relatively sticky core inflation, or does it look forward knowing that the consumer and business sentiment has crumbled and the economy is likely to weaken in this quarter? That's a tough call," said Doug Porter, chief economist at BMO Capital Markets. "I don't think anyone's going to question their wisdom if they decide to trim tomorrow," he said. The BoC will announce its monetary policy decision on Wednesday and currency markets have trimmed their bets for a pause in its interest rate cutting cycle to around 52% from 60% before the data was released. U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs on a variety of Canadian imports and Canada's retaliatory measures are expected to increase prices but also suppress economic growth, putting the central bank in a bind on whether to cut or increase rates. On a month-on-month basis, inflation rose by 0.3%, Statscan said. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected the year-on-year inflation rate to remain at 2.6%, and on a monthly basis to rise by 0.6%. The rate of increase of consumer prices in Canada has shown signs of acceleration after seven months of staying at a level of 2% or below. A sales tax break from mid-December to mid-February helped mask the actual price increases. This was evident in the price increase of food and alcoholic beverages, which reversed a previous contraction and jumped in March. Food prices rose by 3.2% and alcoholic beverages increased by 2.4% on an annual basis. But this increase was largely offset by a deceleration of 1.6% in the price of gasoline. Without gasoline, the consumer price index rose by 2.5% in March, Statscan said. "The decline was largely a result of lower crude oil prices amid concerns of slowing global oil demand and slowing economic growth related to the threat of tariffs," the statistics agency said. Year over year, prices for travel tours declined 4.7% in March and air travel costs fell 12.0%. The drop in air travel prices coincided with decreased Canadian trips to the United States, Statscan said. The Canadian dollar was trading down 0.28% at 1.3911 to the U.S. dollar, or 71.89 U.S. cents. Yields on two-year government bonds dropped 4.2 basis points to 2.537%. One of the core measures of inflation, CPI-median - or the centermost component of the CPI basket when arranged in an order of increasing prices - was at 2.9% in March, same as the prior month. The other core measure CPI-trim, which excludes the most extreme price changes, slowed a tad to 2.8%, Statscan said. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/canadas-inflation-march-surprisingly-slows-23-core-measures-elevated-2025-04-15/
2025-04-15 13:38
SAO PAULO, April 15 (Reuters) - Brazilian airline Gol has postponed the deadline for investors to analyze proposals for a $1.9 billion financing, it said in a statement on Tuesday, citing the volatility created by tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump. The deadline for the so-called "exit financing" from the firm's judicial reorganization process was postponed from April 19 to May 15, the statement said. Sign up here. Potential Gol investors were notified about the extension by Seabury Securities, which acts as the investment bank for the company due to "significant fluctuations" caused by the tariffs announced by Trump on April 2, Gol said. The disclosure was mandatory amid the judicial reorganization process Gol is undergoing in the United States, the firm said, noting that if market conditions improve the deadline for binding commitments from investors could be brought forward. https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/brazils-gol-postpones-deadline-proposed-19-billion-financing-2025-04-15/
