2025-02-25 03:04

MUMBAI, Feb 25 (Reuters) - The Indian rupee is likely to decline at open on Tuesday in the wake of renewed worries over U.S. tariffs, which helped the dollar claw back losses. The 1-month non-deliverable forward indicated that the rupee will open at 86.75-86.78 to the U.S. dollar compared with 86.6950 in the previous session. The Indian currency "has broadly resolved" itself into a 86.50 to 87 range for the time being, a currency trader at bank said. The hurdle for it to move past 86.50 "is a lot higher" than for it to slip past 87, he said. The realized volatility on the rupee has cooled off largely in part due to the Reserve Bank of India's heavy intervention near the 88 level. The 1-month realized volatility is now at 3.3%, having hit more than 4% two weeks back. The dollar index , having climbed to an over 2-month low of 106.35 on Monday, recovered to 106.70. Asian currencies dipped and risk appetite soured amid the return of worries over U.S. tariffs. U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday said that tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports are "going forward on time and on schedule" in reply to a question whether Canada and Mexico had done enough to avoid the 25% U.S. duties. The U.S. president had previously agreed to a 30-day pause on the tariffs. Meanwhile, there was more disappointing U.S. data with regional manufacturing faltering amid uncertainty on tariffs. This follows the weak reading on a U.S. business activity index. "While markets wait with bated breath on the exact shape and magnitude of tariffs, the broader macro backdrop seems to suggest that U.S. economic activity is slowing down and more importantly disappointing market's expectations," MUFG Bank said in a note. KEY INDICATORS: ** One-month non-deliverable rupee forward at 86.96; onshore one-month forward premium at 17 paise ** Dollar index down at 106.65 ** Brent crude futures up 0.4% at $75.1 per barrel ** Ten-year U.S. note yield at 4.37% ** As per NSDL data, foreign investors sold a net $396mln worth of Indian shares on Feb. 21 ** NSDL data shows foreign investors sold a net $279.9mln worth of Indian bonds on Feb. 21 Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/rupee-set-weaker-opening-dollar-recovers-amid-tariff-worries-2025-02-25/

2025-02-25 00:23

SAO PAULO, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Brazilian fuel distributor Vibra Energia (VBBR3.SA) , opens new tab on Monday posted a 84.5% tumble in its fourth-quarter net profit when compared to a year earlier, landing at 510 million reais ($88.3 million), also below the 555 million reais estimated by analysts polled by LSEG. The company approved the distribution of a total of 1.07 billion reais interest on equity to be payed in February, May and August of 2025. WHY IT'S IMPORTANT Vibra is one of the largest fuel distributors in Latin America, operating a chain of gas stations and also selling fuel directly to companies. BY THE NUMBERS Vibra's adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) came in at 1.3 billion reais, down 44% from a year earlier. Its adjusted EBITDA margin dropped near 43% year-on-year to 145 reais per cubic meter. Sales volumes dropped 1.7% in the quarter ended in December to 9 million cubic meters. Vibra's financial leverage - as measured by net debt/EBITDA remained stable at 0.9 times from a year earlier, down from the 1.1 time a year earlier. KEY QUOTES In the report, Vibra said it fourth quarter sales volumes and EDITDA reflect the company's "ability to maintain profitability at high levels even in a more challenging environment." ($1 = 5.7785 reais) Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/brazilian-fuel-distributor-vibras-fourth-quarter-net-profit-tumbles-85-2025-02-24/

2025-02-25 00:07

Feb 24 (Reuters) - Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Austan Goolsbee on Monday said the U.S. central bank is currently in a "wait-and-see" mode and needs more clarity on the total economic impact of the Trump administration's new policies including tariffs, immigration, tax cuts, government spending cuts, federal workforce reductions and others before it can act. "There's a lot of uncertainty, a lot of kind of dust in the air, and before the Fed can go back to cutting the rates, I feel and have expressed that we got to get a little dust out of the air," Goolsbee said in an interview on Chicago public TV station WTTW. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/fed-needs-more-clarity-before-it-can-go-back-cutting-rates-says-goolsbee-2025-02-25/

2025-02-25 00:00

LONDON, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Anglo American's (AAL.L) , opens new tab sale of its Brazilian nickel business to China's MMG Ltd (1208.HK) , opens new tab is a corporate win-win. Anglo gets to deliver on its promise to shareholders to simplify its portfolio and pockets up to $500m. MMG, which is already a major producer of copper, cobalt and zinc, gets to diversify into another metal and expand its geographic footprint into Brazil. It is also buying into the one part of the nickel market that is showing signs of price resilience amid a glut of over-supply. But it's not such good news for Western countries looking to escape China's tightening grip on the global nickel supply chain. Chinese companies already control around 75% of refining capacity in Indonesia, which has rapidly emerged as the world's largest supplier. And with two other Western producers looking to offload their nickel operations due to low prices, China's market dominance could yet grow further. PRICE DEVASTATION Anglo's Brazilian assets comprise two mines and two processing plants with annual combined capacity of 40,000 metric tons of nickel. Both plants produce ferronickel for the stainless steel sector, which is still the largest consumer of nickel despite the metal's growing use in electric vehicle batteries. This segment of the nickel market was the first to feel the full force of Indonesia's production boom, which initially came in the form of a competitor stainless steel input called nickel pig iron (NPI). Such Class II nickel products always trade at a discount to the high-purity Class I refined metal traded on the London Metal Exchange (LME) But Indonesia's production surge caused the discount to LME prices to balloon from an average 8.4% in 2001 to 27.2% in 2023, according to MMG's investor presentation on the deal. It was a double whammy for Class II producers since the LME price was simultaneously collapsing. Around half of the world's ferronickel production outside of China and Indonesia is now suspended, according to Macquarie Bank analyst Jim Lennon. CARBON EDGE Anglo's Brazilian operations are among the survivors. They are low-cost and still cash-flow positive despite the collapse in the London Metal Exchange (LME) nickel price to four-year lows below $16,000 per ton. Anglo's ferronickel sells at a premium relative to other Class II products due to its quality and green credentials relative to Indonesian NPI. Carbon footprint is assuming greater significance in the stainless sector. The European Union's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, which will tax higher-carbon imports, is due to come into force next year. TURNAROUND Even as the LME nickel price has continued sinking under the weight of rising inventory, much of it Chinese and Indonesian, the Class II market has turned. The discount to the LME nickel price narrowed to an average 25% over the first half of last year, according to MMG. That for Anglo material tightened to 15.9% from 20.8% in 2023. Supply has been constrained both by the mass closure of capacity in the West and a change of product mix in Indonesia. Many Indonesian operators have switched their furnaces from producing NPI for the stainless steel sector to producing either nickel matte or mixed hydroxide for the battery sector. Macquarie's Lennon estimates the Class II market was at best balanced last year as Indonesian surplus transferred to the Class I segment of the market. The glut is now all too visible in the form of LME warehouse stocks, which more than doubled last year and have risen another 30,000 tons to 192,828 tons so far this year. STRATEGIC METAL MMG is betting the supply glut won't last beyond this decade, when a combination of steady growth in global stainless steel production and exponentially higher demand from the battery sector will create supply deficits. If so, the company will be well positioned to reap the rewards. Anglo's nickel assets sit on the world's third largest resource of the metal, capable of transforming MMG into one of the world's largest producers outside of Indonesia. And although the Brazilian operations currently produce ferronickel, that doesn't mean they couldn't go down the Indonesian route and be reconfigured to produce battery inputs. China is evidently still taking a strategic view of nickel, even though it has lost much of its battery metal lustre in the West. Brazil's Vale (VALE3.SA) , opens new tab has just booked a $1.4 billion impairment against its Thompson nickel operations in Canada and launched a strategic review of the business. It's unlikely the Canadian government would tolerate Chinese ownership but Thompson is not the only nickel asset up for grabs. Australian miner South32 (S32.AX) , opens new tab is also looking to sell its Cerro Matoso ferronickel operations in Colombia "in response to structural changes in the nickel market," it said in its Q4 2024 report. Those structural changes have been wrought by Chinese investment in Indonesia. The resulting supply tsunami and price collapse means China can now double down on its long-term bet that nickel is still a critical metal for the energy transition. The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/chinas-grip-global-nickel-supply-tightens-with-anglo-sale-andy-home-2025-02-24/

2025-02-24 23:42

WASHINGTON, Feb 24 (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Democrats on Monday asked Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin to end his campaign to claw back funds previously granted for greenhouse gas reduction projects, saying that effort is illegal. The senators, who sit on the Senate environment and public works committee, said Zeldin's well-publicized social media campaign to seize $20 billion appropriated through the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act defies legal authority and will destroy jobs created as a result of that funding throughout the US. "Your announcement is the latest example of the Trump Administration and its government efficiency 'experts' using unfounded claims of waste, fraud, and abuse as a smokescreen to ignore congressional spending authority and ignore court orders in order to freeze or terminate programs designed to reduce carbon pollution," said the letter, signed by the nine Democrats on the committee led by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse. Democrats are stepping up pressure on the EPA and Justice Department for illegally trying to seize money that was appropriated by Congress. Last week, four senators asked the office of the inspector general to investigate these efforts. Zeldin has touted what he has called the agency's discovery of billions of dollars awarded through the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund aimed at supporting clean energy projects in communities across the U.S. that he said was fraudulently disbursed, and accused the Biden administration of obligating the money "in a rush job with reduced oversight." Trump administration officials had instructed Denise Cheung, a prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney's office, to start a criminal probe of the funding in an effort to claw back the money that is currently held by Citibank, which holds a financial agency agreement with the Treasury. Cheung resigned from the U.S. Attorney's office last week, saying she believed the request was not supported by evidence. The senators said in their letter that Zeldin's accusation that the Biden administration rushed to get billions out the door was undermined by the fact that the agency had announced its selection of Citibank as the manager of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund grants in a public press release in April 2024, seven months before election day. The senators asked Zeldin to respond by March 3 to explain how the agency plans to end the financial agency agreement with Citibank and what would be done with the funds held by Citi that were not yet drawn down by grantees. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/senators-seek-answers-epa-effort-claw-back-20-billion-climate-funds-2025-02-24/

2025-02-24 23:39

Woodside to benefit from Trump's trade agenda, CEO O'Neill says Louisiana LNG project has "competitive advantage", to be FID ready in Q1 2025 Shares rise 2.8% on better-than-expected earnings and dividend SYDNEY, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Woodside Energy (WDS.AX) , opens new tab, Australia's top gas producer, is well positioned to capitalise on demand for U.S. liquefied natural gas driven by President Donald Trump’s trade policy and pro-fossil fuel agenda, CEO Meg O’Neill told Reuters on Tuesday. She said the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce the trade deficit by pressuring allies to buy more U.S. goods was already generating potential business for Woodside’s Louisiana LNG project, which it acquired for $1.2 billion last year. “Many of the customers we talked to or tendered to are progressing LNG procurement deals with us because they want to be able to then say, 'We've adjusted our balance of trade',” she said in an interview after the company released its annual results. “If you're a foreign nation and you're asking what are the sorts of things I can buy from the U.S. to adjust balance of trade, energy - LNG in particular - is low hanging fruit.” Woodside bought Tellurian to develop the 27.6 million metric tons a year Louisiana LNG project, formerly called Driftwood, and reaffirmed on Tuesday it expected to be ready to make a final investment decision from the first quarter of 2025. Concerns about Woodside's U.S. acquisitions, including a major ammonia project, have weighed on its shares, which have sharply underperformed peers over the past year. But the stock rose 2.8% on Tuesday on the company's better-than-expected earnings and dividend. Woodside reported a 13% drop in annual underlying profit to $2.88 billion on weaker oil and gas prices, slightly ahead of the Visible Alpha consensus of $2.83 billion. It declared a final dividend of 53 cents per share, beating a consensus of 51 cents. O’Neill told investors on an earnings call that Louisiana LNG had a “competitive advantage” over other U.S. exporters on cost, commercial and schedule grounds and that the project could command a price premium. “We're at least a year ahead of everybody else in the U.S., and we continue to attract a premium from many players who are interested or seriously interested in U.S. LNG,” she said. The Tellurian deal was initially poorly received by investors, but now “Woodside’s giving signals that give the market more confidence,” said MST Marquee senior energy analyst Saul Kavonic. “The marketing and sell down process for Louisiana LNG is advancing well. A final investment decision is all but inevitable,” he said. Reuters earlier this month reported Woodside had held talks with several potential buyers including Tokyo Gas (9531.T) , opens new tab, Japan's JERA and Saudi Aramco-backed MidOcean Energy to sell as much as half its stake in the project. O’Neill said Trump’s promotion of oil and gas was a “very clear pro” for Woodside, as the company faces “red and green tape” for projects in Australia. She dismissed concerns about potential competition from a proposed Alaska LNG project to supply North Asia. “It’s very expensive to develop and will take a very long time,” she said. “I'm not particularly concerned about developments that will come online in a decade's time.” ($1 = 1.5746 Australian dollars) Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/woodside-energys-annual-profit-declines-13-2025-02-24/