2025-03-10 20:54

HOUSTON, March 10 (Reuters) - Kazakhstan is in discussions with oil majors to cut output to bring the country's supply back in line with targets set by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies (OPEC+), its energy minister Almasadam Satkaliyev said on Monday. "We are in phases of discussions with the majors, we are having an open dialogue", Satkaliyev said on the sidelines of the CERAWeek conference in Houston. OPEC+ member Kazakhstan raised its crude and gas condensate output in February to a record high of 2.12 million barrels per day (bpd). Speaking at an online briefing last week, officials from Kazakhstan, which has frequently exceeded the OPEC+ production quotas, pledged to cut output in March, April and May to compensate for pumping above targets in previous months. Last week, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak suggested OPEC+ could reverse the output increase after April, if there are market imbalances. "There is no final decision (on that) and it depends on the situation with the market," Satkaliyev said. The OPEC+ April hike will see output increase by 138,000 bpd, according to Reuters calculations. "All of the figures depend on how much we will cut, for Kazakhstan," Satkaliyev said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/ceraweek-kazakhstan-talks-with-oil-majors-cut-output-energy-minister-says-2025-03-10/

2025-03-10 20:51

Crypto stocks fall on lower bitcoin prices HSBC downgrades US stocks S&P 500 closes below 200-day moving avg Nasdaq sees biggest one-day drop since Sept 2022 Indexes down: Dow 2.08%, S&P 500 2.70%, Nasdaq 4.00% NEW YORK, March 10 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks plunged on Monday as relentless tariff wrangling and mounting anxieties from a possible federal government shutdown gave rise to fears that the U.S. economy could be careening into recession. The previous week's steep selloff resumed, gathering momentum as the session progressed, with all three major U.S. indexes suffering sharp declines. The S&P 500 had its biggest one-day drop since December 18 and the tech-loaded Nasdaq slid 4.0%, its biggest single-day percentage drop since September 2022. The S&P 500, coming off of its biggest weekly percentage drop since September, is 8.6% below its record closing high reached less than a month ago. On Thursday, the tech-loaded Nasdaq dipped more than 10% below its record closing high touched on December 19, confirming that it has been in a correction since then. The bellwether S&P 500 closed below its 200-day moving average, a closely watched support level, for the first time since November 2023. "It's a material drop for one day but we're seeing the normal sort of drawdown that you see in an upmarket," said Tom Hainlin, national investment strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management in Minneapolis. "Concerns are mounting and investors are moving to the sidelines, but we haven't seen growth worries manifest in data yet." On Sunday, Trump declined to comment on the negative market reaction to his on-again, off-again tariff actions against the biggest U.S. trading partners, and whether anxieties related to his erratic policy shifts could nudge a softening economy into recession. HSBC downgraded U.S. stocks, citing uncertainty around tariffs. But a Reuters poll of economists reflected the growing risks of recession for the United States, Canada and Mexico. Tech stocks are under pressure from a stronger Japanese yen and a spike in sovereign bond yields, as investors unwind yen carry trades on expectations of an upcoming interest rate hike in Japan. The carry trades involve borrowing yen at a low cost to invest in other currencies and assets offering higher yields, and that unwinding is at least partially responsible for the selloff in tech stocks such as the "Magnificent 7" group of artificial intelligence-related megacaps. "If you want to know what's going on with the U.S. market, stop paying attention to tariffs and start paying attention to Japanese government bond yields," said Thomas Hayes, chairman at Great Hill Capital in New York. "The carry trade is unwinding, and all that hot money was in Mag 7. So that's why tech is down." Adding instability to the mix, lawmakers on Capitol Hill are scrambling to pass a spending bill to avert a government shutdown. China's retaliatory tariffs on select U.S. imports are set to take effect on Monday, while U.S. tariffs on certain base metals are anticipated later in the week. The CBOE Volatility Index (.VIX) , opens new tab, often called the "fear index," surged to its highest close since August 2024. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) , opens new tab fell 890.01 points, or 2.08%, to 41,911.71, the S&P 500 (.SPX) , opens new tab lost 155.64 points, or 2.70%, at 5,614.56 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) , opens new tab dropped 727.90 points, or 4.00%, to 17,468.32. Among the 11 major sectors of the S&P 500, tech shares lost the most, falling 4.4%. Growth stocks (.IGX) , opens new tab fell 3.8%, their biggest one-day slide since September 2022. Tesla (TSLA.O) , opens new tab plunged 15.4%, the stock's largest single-day drop since September 2020, as the electric carmaker's luster dimmed in the wake of billionaire CEO Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency firings and protests arising from his support of far-right political parties in Europe. Coinbase (COIN.O) , opens new tab and MicroStrategy (MSTR.O) , opens new tab, tracking bitcoin weakness, dropped 17.6% and 16.7% respectively. Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 3.64-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. There were 77 new highs and 290 new lows on the NYSE. On the Nasdaq, 796 stocks rose and 3,641 fell as declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 4.57-to-1 ratio. The S&P 500 posted 25 new 52-week highs and 17 new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 32 new highs and 290 new lows. Volume on U.S. exchanges was 18.77 billion shares, compared with the 16.42 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/futures-lower-tariff-worries-continue-tesla-falls-2025-03-10/

2025-03-10 20:48

S&P 500 down over 8% from Feb 19 all-time high Nasdaq confirmed 10% correction from its Dec peak last week S&P 500 P/E moderates but still high vs historical average Delta Air Lines cuts forecast on growing economic uncertainty Tesla loses more than $125 bln in value in one day NEW YORK, March 10 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s tariffs have spooked investors, with fears of an economic downturn driving a stock market sell-off that has wiped out $4 trillion from the S&P 500’s peak last month, when Wall Street was cheering much of Trump's agenda. A barrage of new Trump policies has increased uncertainty for businesses, consumers and investors, notably back-and-forth tariff moves against major trading partners like Canada, Mexico and China. "We've seen clearly a big sentiment shift," said Ayako Yoshioka, senior investment strategist at Wealth Enhancement. "A lot of what has worked is not working now." The stock market selloff deepened on Monday. The benchmark S&P 500 (.SPX) , opens new tab fell 2.7%, its biggest daily drop of the year. The Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) , opens new tab slid 4%, its largest one-day decline since September 2022. The S&P 500 on Monday closed down 8.6% from its February 19 record high, shedding over $4 trillion in market value since then and nearing a 10% decline that would represent a correction for the index. The tech-heavy Nasdaq ended Thursday down more than 10% from its December high. Trump over the weekend declined to predict whether the U.S. could face a recession as investors worried about the impact of his trade policy. "The amount of uncertainty that has been created by the tariff wars with regard to Canada, Mexico and Europe, is causing boards and C-suites to reconsider the pathway forward," Peter Orszag, CEO of Lazard, speaking at the CERAWeek conference in Houston. "People can understand ongoing tensions with China, but the Canada, Mexico, and Europe part is confusing. Unless that gets resolved over the next month or so, this could do real damage to the economic prospects of the US and M&A activity," Orszag said. Delta Air Lines (DAL.N) , opens new tab on Monday slashed its first-quarter profit estimates by half, sending its shares down 14% in aftermarket action. CEO Ed Bastian blamed heightened U.S. economic uncertainty. Investors are also watching whether lawmakers can pass a funding bill to avert a partial federal government shutdown. A U.S. report on inflation looms on Wednesday. "The Trump administration seems a little more accepting of the idea that they're OK with the market falling, and they're potentially even OK with a recession in order to exact their broader goals," said Ross Mayfield, investment strategist at Baird. "I think that's a big wake up call for Wall Street." The percentage of total corporate equities and mutual fund shares that are owned by the bottom 50% of the U.S. population, ranked by wealth, stands at about 1%, while the same measure for the top 10% of the population by wealth stood at 87%, according to Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis data as of July 2024. The S&P 500 tallied back-to-back gains of over 20% in 2023 and 2024, led by megacap technology and tech-related stocks such as Nvidia (NVDA.O) , opens new tab and Tesla (TSLA.O) , opens new tab that have struggled so far in 2025, dragging major indexes. On Monday, the S&P 500's technology sector (.SPLRCT) , opens new tab dropped 4.3%, while Apple (AAPL.O) , opens new tab and Nvidia both fell about 5%. Tesla tumbled 15%, shedding about $125 billion in value. Other risk assets were also punished, with bitcoin dropping 5%. Some defensive areas of the market held up better, with the utilities sector (.SPLRCU) , opens new tab logging a 1% daily gain. Safe-haven U.S. government debt saw more demand, with benchmark 10-year Treasury yields, which move inversely to prices, down to about 4.22%. INVESTOR UNEASE The S&P 500 has given up all gains recorded since Trump's November 5 election, and it is down nearly 3% in that time. Hedge funds reduced exposure to stocks on Friday at the largest amount in more than two years, according to a Goldman Sachs note released on Monday. Investors had expressed optimism that Trump's expected pro-growth agenda including tax cuts and deregulation would benefit stocks, but uncertainty over tariffs and other changes including federal workforce cuts, has dampened sentiment. "It was the overwhelming consensus that everything was going to be this great environment once President Trump came into office," said Michael O’Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading. "Every time you have structural change you're going to have uncertainty and you're going to have friction," O'Rourke said. "It's understandable people are starting to be a little concerned and starting to take profits." Even with the recent selloff, stock market valuations remain significantly above historic averages. The S&P 500 as of Friday was at just above 21 times earnings estimates for the next year, compared to its long-term average forward P/E of 15.8, according to LSEG Datastream. "Many people have been worried about elevated valuations among U.S. equities for some time and looking for the catalyst for a market correction," said Dan Coatsworth, investment analyst at AJ Bell. "A combination of concerns about a trade war, geopolitical tensions and an uncertain economic outlook could be that catalyst." Investors' equity positioning has fallen in recent weeks, dipping to slightly underweight for the first time since briefly hitting that level in August, Deutsche Bank analysts said in a note on Friday. A further retreat to the bottom of the historic range for equities weighting, as seen during Trump's U.S.-China trade war in 2018-2019, could drag the S&P 500 to as low as 5,300, or down another 5.5% from current levels, they added. In another sign of growing investor unease, the Cboe Volatility index (.VIX) , opens new tab on Monday reached its highest closing level since August. The administration is "still trying to figure out how to define a win politically, economically, and what is the right timeframe," said Edward Al-Hussainy, senior interest rate and currency analyst at Columbia Threadneedle Investments. "And until they do that, it's going to be like this every week." Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/investors-flee-equities-trump-driven-uncertainty-sparks-economic-worry-2025-03-10/

2025-03-10 20:07

MADRID, March 10 (Reuters) - A Spanish judge placed the former head of Valencia's emergency services under investigation on Monday as part of a probe into who is to blame for the late alert about catastrophic floods that killed at least 225 people, a regional court said. Nuria Ruiz, a judge in a court in Catarroja, one of the affected towns, said Salome Pradas was the highest authority in the emergency services. "The problem doesn't lie in the absence of information... but in the fact that in the face of this information, either it was ignored, its scope was not understood... or the relevant decisions were not taken by those who had the power to make them," Ruiz said. Flash floods on October 29 swept away people in cars and inundated underground car parks and ground floor homes on the outskirts of Spain's third-biggest city in one of the worst natural catastrophes in its modern history. Three people are still missing. Pradas in a statement posted on Facebook later on Monday said she will "always be willing to help uncover the whole truth about the circumstances surrounding the management of the emergency of the natural disaster." Local residents have been fiercely critical about the failure by authorities to warn people in time about the risks of the storm and its resulting floods. Ruiz is investigating whether there is evidence of crimes of homicide and injuries caused by negligence that may have led to avoidable deaths. A text alert sent by Valencia's regional government after 8 p.m. on the day of the floods warning people to take shelter arrived when buildings were already under water and many people were drowning. More than half of the bodies recovered from the flooding were found in enclosed spaces, mainly inside houses and garages, the court said. Ruiz said the alert "was late and wrong" and that the emergency coordination meeting, which started at 5 p.m., should have been convened in the morning. The judge rejected a request for regional leader Carlos Mazon to testify unless he decides to do so voluntarily. Mazon, who has been under fire for how he handled the emergency, has special protection and can only be investigated by a higher court. Nearly 60,000 homes, some 105,000 cars, and over 10,000 shops were destroyed or damaged, according to government data. Those damages are not part of the judicial investigation as the judge said they were unavoidable. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/spanish-court-investigate-former-valencia-emergency-services-head-over-deadly-2025-03-10/

2025-03-10 20:07

HOUSTON, March 10 (Reuters) - Fatih Birol, the director of the Paris-based International Energy Agency, said on Monday there is a need for investment in oil and gas fields to support global energy security. The comment puts the energy watchdog for industrialized nations more in line with President Donald Trump's pro-drilling agenda, after it came under pressure from fossil fuel advocates years ago for proposing an end to new oil and gas projects. "I want to make it clear ... there would be a need for investment, especially to address the decline in the existing fields," he said at the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston. "There is a need for oil and gas upstream investments, full stop," he said. Birol has been under pressure from Trump's administration and from the president's fellow Republicans in Congress for the IEA's shift in recent years toward a focus on clean energy policy. In 2021, the IEA said companies should not invest , opens new tab in new coal, oil and gas projects if the international community wants to reach net zero emissions by mid-century to fight climate change. Countering global warming was a key priority for the administration of former President Joe Biden. The IEA has been the energy watchdog to industrialized governments for more than half a century, guiding policy on energy security, supply and investment. The IEA says it has to focus on whatever its members see as important for future energy security. The U.S. provides around a quarter of the group's funding. Birol underscored at the conference that underinvestment in existing oil and gas fields is a problem as fossil fuels are important to meet global energy demand. He said that of the total $400 billion in investments in global oil and gas, about $360 billion goes into offsetting the decline in existing oil and gas fields. "There is no discussion on the decline in the fields, existing fields," Birol said. The IEA's former oil industry and market chief in January criticized the agency's focus on the global energy transition and said the agency should concentrate on oil and gas supplies. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/ceraweek-iea-director-birol-says-there-is-need-investment-existing-oil-gas-2025-03-10/

2025-03-10 20:06

Alberta could increase oil exports to US by 2 million barrels per day Tariff threats highlight need for Canada to find new oil markets, such as Spain and India Alberta seeks faster pipeline approvals to boost oil production March 10 (Reuters) - Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said on Monday that the Canadian province would continue to supply crude oil to the United States but that U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff threats also underscored the need for new markets. She said U.S. tariffs currently do not apply to Canadian crude oil, but that producers were being required to fill out paperwork to prove their supplies are in compliance. "I think that we should have a zero tariff on this critical resource," she said at the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston. Canada could increase its oil pipeline export capacity to the U.S. by 2 million barrels per day, Alberta's premier added. "Alberta is and will continue to supply energy to the United States and support America's ambitions of global energy dominance," she said, a phrase touted by the Trump administration. "There's a number of different pipeline projects that would allow us to increase the amount of oil coming to the United States, if they're interested in partnering with us. But of course, none of those conversations can begin in earnest while we're in the middle of a tariff fight," the premier said. Alberta is on a path to double its oil and gas production, the premier added without giving a timeline. Smith said that Canadian producers have not cut production in response to tariffs. "I suspect what will happen is we'll just look for new markets, if we have to," pointing to Spain and India as potential buyers of Canadian heavy oil. The premier urged faster approvals for pipeline projects, saying regulations and permit delays must not hinder future expansion. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/ceraweek-canada-could-boost-oil-supplies-us-also-needs-new-markets-alerta-2025-03-10/