2025-04-09 19:31
April 9 (Reuters) - The World Bank's private investment arm, International Finance Corporation, will provide $300 million in debt financing for Pakistan's Reko Diq copper-gold mining project, an IFC disclosure said on Wednesday. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/world-bank-investment-arm-commits-300-million-loan-pakistans-reko-diq-mining-2025-04-09/
2025-04-09 18:51
NEW YORK, April 9 (Reuters) - A sharp selloff in U.S. Treasuries this week has remained orderly despite continued uncertainty stemming from the U.S. administration's trade policies, said Dan Ivascyn, group chief investment officer at U.S. bond giant PIMCO on Wednesday. U.S. Treasuries, a building block of the global financial system, came under heavy pressure this week as turmoil unleashed by U.S. tariffs prompted forced selling and a dash for cash. But the selloff was less violent than what markets experienced at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, said Ivascyn. Sign up here. "Anytime you have big moves like this there's going to be some pain in certain places," he said. However, the deleveraging taking place across markets - which happens when hedge funds trim debt-fueled trades - had remained "quite orderly", he added. The Treasury sold $39 billion 10-year notes on Wednesday in an auction that was closely watched by investors as a test of continued appetite for U.S. government bonds. The auction met good demand, with Treasury yields - which move inversely to prices - declining in the immediate aftermath of the sale. "It was a positive sign for the market that had already been a lot weaker," said Ivascyn in an interview. PIMCO is a debt-focused investment firm with nearly $2 trillion in assets. A key question for markets has always been the administration's willingness to calibrate policies based on market signals, and to understand that what could work over the long term can be disruptive in the short term, said Ivascyn. President Donald Trump's announcement on Wednesday of a 90-day pause on many new tariffs on trading partners was good news for economic and market stability, he said. Still, he added that economic uncertainty remained high and risks could be building up in areas of the market such as private credit that could be more vulnerable to a stagflationary shock caused by U.S. trade policies. "You can't think of much worse of a scenario for ... direct lending to more economically sensitive borrowers than a stagflationary shock leading to a very high probability of recession in a world of disruption and significant global friction," Ivascyn said. https://www.reuters.com/markets/rates-bonds/global-markets-bonds-pimco-urgent-2025-04-09/
2025-04-09 18:24
April 9 (Reuters) - Traders on Wednesday sharply trimmed their bets on Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts after U.S. President Donald Trump said he was further increasing tariffs on China but pausing for 90 days the big tariff increases he had announced last week for most other countries. Traders of futures that settle to the Fed policy rate now see the Fed waiting until June to start to interest-rate cuts, and to deliver just 75 basis points of reductions over the course of the year. Sign up here. Earlier on Wednesday, as stock-market turmoil and a sharp rise in Treasury yields expressed investors' fear of an economic downturn, traders had placed heavy bets on a May start to Fed rate cuts and four, if not more, quarter-point rate cuts over the course of 2025. https://www.reuters.com/markets/rates-bonds/traders-slash-bets-may-fed-rate-cut-after-trumps-tariff-pause-2025-04-09/
2025-04-09 18:22
US 10-year note priced below rate forecast Bid-to-cover was highest since December Indirect bidders, which include foreigners, see record demand Next up: auction of $22 billion in 30-year bonds NEW YORK, April 9 (Reuters) - A U.S. Treasury debt auction of $39 billion in benchmark 10-year notes was well received on Wednesday, showing solid investor demand even after a bond market sell-off driven by an escalating trade war between the United States and its major trading partners led by China. The U.S. Treasury's auction came in better than expected, priced at a high yield of 4.435%, lower than the rate forecast at the bid deadline. Sign up here. After the auction, the 10-year yield was last at 4.38% , down from 4.466% just before the 1300 EDT auction. That said, the 10-year has risen sharply this week by 37 basis points, on track for its largest weekly gain since June 2013. "The 10-year Treasury auction went better than expected certainly against a backdrop where the bond market had been trading very weakly over the course of the last week," said Jeffrey Palma, head of multi-asset solutions and macro research, at Cohen Steers in New York. "That strong result at least in the short run is a positive for sentiment. The longer-term questions still remain around the impact from tariffs and so forth on growth. But at least for the short run it's a bit of welcome good news against what has been a tough backdrop." The auction statistics were robust across the board. The bid-to-cover ratio, another gauge of demand, was 2.67, the highest since December, solidly above the 2.53 average. Indirect bidders, which include foreign central banks, took up a record 87.9% of the bids, up from 67.4% last month. Dealer participation was at 10.7%, lower than the 13.1% in the previous month and the 14.5% average. High dealer participation in Treasury auctions suggests lack of interest from other investors, meaning dealers had to step in to absorb the note. Investors have been worried about the prospect of a major trade conflict, which has sparked worries about demand for what is supposed to be a global safe haven. Those fears may have eased for now after U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he would pause many of his new tariffs for 90 days, even as he raised them further on imports from China. On Tuesday, the U.S. Treasury sold $58 billion in three-year notes and it was poorly received by the market. The note was priced at 3.784%, higher by over 2 bps than what the market indicated, suggesting investors demanded a premium to buy the three-year debt. In bond market parlance, the three-year note auction "tailed". Last month's 10-year note auction came in within expectations as well, with end-user demand stable. The bid-to-cover ratio, another gauge of demand, was 2.59, the highest since December. Wells Fargo had earlier pointed out in a research note that 10-year note auctions in April usually tend to be weak. The last five 10-year reopening auctions had been softer than anticipated, with the largest tail in n 2024 at 3.1 bps. The average tail over the last five years was 1.8 bps, Wells Fargo wrote. On Thursday, the U.S. Treasury will sell the last supply for the week: $22 billion in 30-year bonds . The long-term bond has been massively sold off in the cash market pushing their yields to the highest since November 2023. The 30-year bond yield was last up 7.7 bps at 4.791%. https://www.reuters.com/markets/rates-bonds/us-treasury-10-year-note-auction-outcome-shows-strong-demand-2025-04-09/
2025-04-09 17:55
NEW YORK, April 9 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasuries, the bedrock of the global financial system, were hit by fresh selling pressure earlier Wednesday, in a sign that investors were dumping their safest assets after the U.S. roiled markets by introducing sweeping trade tariffs. MARKET REACTION: Sign up here. TREASURIES: U.S. Treasury benchmark yields declined after a government auction of $39 billion 10-year notes on Wednesday, suggesting good demand. The auction came amid a bond market rout that was sparked by the tariffs and prompted forced selling and a dash for cash. COMMENTS: JAMIE COX MANAGING PARTNER, HARRIS FINANCIAL GROUP, RICHMOND VA "This was an A+ auction today that should sideline the concerns of systemic risk in the system." JEFFREY PALMA, HEAD OF MULTI-ASSET SOLUTIONS AND MACRO RESEARCH, COHEN & STEERS, NEW YORK "The 10-year Treasury auction went better than expected certainly against a backdrop where the bond market had been trading very weakly over the course of the last week. That strong result at least in the short run is a positive for sentiment. The longer-term questions still remain around the impact from tariffs and so forth on growth. But at least for the short run it’s a bit of welcome good news against what has been a tough backdrop." VAIL HARTMAN, ANALYST ON U.S. RATES STRATEGY TEAM, BMO CAPITAL MARKETS "Today's 10-year auction was very strong... Before the auction, 10-year notes were under pressure with yields just off the session peak of 4.51% and rates headed into 1pm EST roughly 17 bp higher on the day. Since the results, Treasuries have rallied in the follow-through." (This story has been refiled to add the missing word 'selloff' in the headline) https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/us-treasury-auction-allays-concern-about-selloff-2025-04-09/
2025-04-09 17:46
April 9 (Reuters) - Autonomous driving technology startup Nuro said on Wednesday it fetched a valuation of $6 billion after raising $106 million in its latest funding round, as investors bet on what is often touted as the future of mobility. The funding — backed by T Rowe Price Associates, Fidelity Management and Research, Tiger Global, Greylock Partners and XN — comes more than three years after Nuro's last round that valued it at $8.6 billion at the height of venture-capital frenzy. Sign up here. Valuations sobered up in the following years, and the company conducted two rounds of layoffs as an impending U.S. recession and the energy crisis in 2022 forced it to cut costs. Since then, the self-driving industry, which boasts of some high-profile champions such as Tesla (TSLA.O) , opens new tab CEO Elon Musk, has shifted from bold promises to cautious progress as startups push ahead to commercialize the technology. Nuro's funding underscores that despite subdued conditions elsewhere, investor appetite for hot sectors persists. U.S. President Donald Trump also wants to ease deployment barriers for self-driving vehicles. Musk had said in January Tesla would roll out "autonomous ride-hailing for money" in Austin by June, while Alphabet (GOOGL.O) , opens new tab unit Waymo rolled out its robotaxi services exclusively on Uber's platform in the city last month. Nuro, which combines self-driving AI and hardware into its Nuro Driver platform, expanded its business model in September by offering automakers and mobility licenses for its autonomous vehicle technology. The Mountain View, California-based company signed a 10-year partnership with Uber Eats in 2022 to test food delivery via unmanned vehicles in some U.S. locations. Founded by former lead engineers from Google's self-driving car project, now Waymo, Nuro had previously partnered with U.S. companies such as Kroger (KR.N) , opens new tab, Walmart (WMT.N) , opens new tab, Domino's Pizza and Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG.N) , opens new tab. Nuro said it would use the funds from the latest round to scale its AI technology and advance commercial partnerships. https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/nuro-valued-6-billion-latest-funding-round-2025-04-09/
