2025-01-27 07:17
WARSAW, Jan 27 (Reuters) - An underground tremor occurred early on Monday morning in Polish mining group PGG's Marcel coal mine in Radlin, southern Poland, the state-owned PAP news agency reported. There were 29 people in the tremor area and an estimated six or seven people could be injured, with the withdrawal under way, according to a mining official cited by PAP. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/tremor-polish-coal-mine-injures-several-miners-2025-01-27/
2025-01-27 07:03
DeepSeek has investors questioning rich valuations for tech, AI Nvidia shares up 5% in premarket Tuesday, Nasdaq futures up 0.4% Tokyo tech stocks deepen slide, but European tech up 1% Safe-haven currencies retreat, tariff talk also boosts dollar 10 year Treasury yield up 4 bps at 4.57% SINGAPORE/LONDON, Jan 28 (Reuters) - U.S. stock futures and European shares steadied on Tuesday, after the previous day's dramatic, tech-led selloff, and traders walked back some moves to safe-haven government bonds, though investors across asset classes remained jittery. Chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA.O) , opens new tab dived 17% on Monday, wiping off nearly $593 billion in the biggest one-day market capitalisation loss in history, and the Philadelphia semiconductor index (.SOX) , opens new tab, down 9.2%, suffered its biggest loss since March 2020, Behind the rout was the emergence of a low-cost Chinese artificial intelligence model, DeepSeek, that made investors question the dominance of AI bellwethers and their suppliers, which have sent shares of tech companies and chip firms soaring. In a sign that Tuesday might be a little calmer, Nvidia rose around 5% in premarket trading, Nasdaq futures were 0.5% higher, and European tech stocks (.SX8P) , opens new tab gained 1%. But it was not all calm, as selling pressure remained in Japan for a second day with Nvidia supplier Advantest (6857.T) , opens new tab now down 19% in two days, and investors and strategists continued to grapple with what it all meant. "When you look at valuations, we all know that they are expensive, especially tech valuations, but they are expensive for a reason, namely earnings growth," said Yvan Mamalet, senior economist at Kleinwort Hambros. "The news yesterday was saying maybe the earnings growth will not be as good as what the market was expecting," he said. "The point is AI is a massive disruption, and, in the past, when you had disruption, you always had new players coming in and trying to challenge the major players. That's the game all these companies are in," Mamalet added. The news will also heighten investor interest in this week's earnings at Microsoft (MSFT.O) , opens new tab, Tesla (TSLA.O) , opens new tab and Meta (META.O) , opens new tab. Executives can expect to be asked whether they still plan to spend so much on computing power. In a further sign of how elevated valuations are, the stabilisation in the broad European STOXX 600 benchmark helped it up 0.7% to a new record intraday high. (.STOXX) , opens new tab U.S. Treasuries, which rallied on Monday as part of the risk-off move, reversed course and benchmark 10 year yields were last four basis points higher at 4.57%. Of note in European rates markets was that the spread between French and German 10-year yields, which blew out last year on French political uncertainty, narrowed to 72 bps, its tightest since mid November, as investors hope the current government may be able to pass a budget. DON'T FORGET TARIFFS While DeepSeek gave investors something to think about other than President Donald Trump's tariff and other policies, trade tensions remained in the mix, and also supported the dollar. New U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is pushing for a gradual rise in universal tariffs starting from 2.5%, and potentially up to 20%, the Financial Times reported, and Trump later said that he wants “much bigger” tariffs than 2.5% and is considering targeted duties on products like steel, copper and semiconductors. The euro was down 0.6% at $1.042, while safe-haven currencies, which had appreciated Monday, gave back their gains. The dollar was last up 0.6% on the Japanese yen at 155.38, and up 0.5% on the Swiss franc at 0.9062. There are also central bank meetings to grapple with. The Federal Reserve is expected to keep rates steady at its meeting which concludes Wednesday, and the European Central Bank is expected to cut rates by 25 bps on Thursday. Oil prices recovered some of Monday's losses, with benchmark Brent crude futures up 0.8% at $77.75 a barrel and gold , which had slipped as investors liquidated bullion to cover losses, hovered around $2,742 an ounce. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/global-markets-wrapup-1-2025-01-27/
2025-01-27 06:11
MUMBAI, Jan 27 (Reuters) - The Indian rupee resumed its downtrend on Monday, pegged by likely equity outflows and corporate hedging. The rupee quoted at 86.3675 to the U.S. dollar at 11:24 am IST, down from 86.2050 on Friday. The local currency had managed a 0.5% recovery last week, hitting the highest in two weeks, on relief in the emerging market currency space over U.S. tariffs after U.S. President Donald Trump did not immediately levy tariffs on its trading partners. "Each passing day with no tariff-related announcement (for major partners) brings hope that Trump might move slowly on aggressive policies," Srinivas Puni, managing director at QuantArt Market Solutions, said. USD/INR had managed a pullback "correlating with the dollar softness. That softness in the dollar is contingent on the Federal Reserve remaining neutral and Trump delaying aggressive action on tariffs," he said. The further decline in Indian equities on Monday did not help the rupee. The Nifty 50 Index (.NSEI) , opens new tab fell about 1%. Foreign investors have taken out $7.5 billion worth of stocks from India so far this month. The persistent equity outflows and hedging by corporate clients suggest that rallies in the rupee will be short-lived, a currency trader at a bank said. FOCUS ON FED The Fed this week is widely expected to make no changes to the policy rate and with no new projections on inflation and rates due at this meeting, the focus will be on Fed Chair Jerome Powell's presser. In the press conference, we will listen for hints about whether the further decline in inflation we expect in coming months could open the door to rate cuts.. and how the Fed intends to navigate uncertainty about potential tariff increases now and their impact on prices later, Goldman Sachs said in a note. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/rupee-back-losing-ways-likely-outflows-corporate-hedging-2025-01-27/
2025-01-27 05:32
A look at the day ahead in European and global markets from Kevin Buckland For two years, investors and analysts have pondered what - if anything - could take some of the steam out of the AI stocks rally. China may have just come up with the answer. Futures in the tech-centric U.S. Nasdaq Composite index had tumbled 1.8% by around midday Monday in Asia, as investors weighed the implications of Chinese startup DeepSeek's release of a rival to ChatGPT that it claims is cheaper and may on some metrics be better. Pan-European STOXX 50 futures slipped half a percent. Trump was also roiling currency markets again at the start of the week, hitting Colombia with punitive levies and sanctions for turning away military planes carrying deported migrants. Just hours later, Washington was announcing an about-face from Bogota, which agreed to all of Trump's terms. Colombia's peso hadn't traded in Asian time but Mexico's currency slid as much as 1.2% and Canada's loonie weakened 0.3%. The offshore yuan eased 0.4%. Compared with Trump's strong-arm tactics over immigration, however, his approach to China so far has been more nuanced. Although he has threatened 10% tariffs from Feb. 1, that was a far cry from the 60% duties he pledged on the campaign trail and less even than the 25% levies that neighbours Canada and Mexico may face on the same date. Maybe it's the rekindled bromance with Xi Jinping: Trump went so far as to say he'd rather not resort to tariffs in dealing with Beijing, after what he called a "good, friendly conversation" with China's leader by phone earlier this month. As for DeepSeek's roiling of tech share prices, the jury is still out on how much of a threat it may actually pose to its U.S. rivals, but market players look like they'd rather sell first and hear the verdict later. Ironically, it's a challenger of America's own making, after years of chip-related sanctions and now renewed tariff threats under President Donald Trump, which encouraged a self-sufficiency push by Beijing that is now bearing fruit. Trump has made no mention of the potential threat to his own half-trillion-dollar AI initiative but traders may be keeping a close eye on his Truth Social account. The DeepSeek news could also focus more attention than usual on Big Tech's quarterly health check this week, with four of the so-called Magnificent Seven reporting financial results: Apple (AAPL.O) , opens new tab, Microsoft (MSFT.O) , opens new tab, Facebook-owner Meta Platforms (META.O) , opens new tab and Tesla (TSLA.O) , opens new tab. Also this week, a host of central banks globally will set policy, including the Fed on Wednesday and the ECB a day later. For Asia, though, a lot of this happens in the vacuum of lunar new year holidays. Mainland Chinese bourses will be closed from tomorrow through Tuesday of next week. Other developments that could influence markets on Monday: -Germany ifo surveys (Jan) -UK Nationwide house prices (Jan) -ECB President Lagarde speaks at Holocaust remembrance event in Frankfurt Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/global-markets-view-europe-2025-01-27/
2025-01-27 05:31
Gold traded near record high levels on Friday Tech tailspin on China's AI drive hammers Wall Street Fed likely to hold rates steady this week Palladium fell over 3% earlier in the session Jan 27 (Reuters) - Gold prices declined more than 1% on Monday, retreating from near-record highs seen in the last session, as investors liquidated bullion positions, along with a broader market sell-off sparked by rising interest in Chinese AI start-up DeepSeek. Spot gold was down 1.3% at $2,736.75 per ounce as of 01:49 p.m. ET (1849 GMT). Prices had risen to near-record high levels on Friday. U.S. gold futures settled 1.5% lower at $2,738.40 per ounce. The sharp declines in global equity markets have driven risk-averse moves across other asset classes, with U.S. Treasury yields dropping to three-week lows and the dollar index hitting its lowest levels since Dec. 18. "This (sell-off) is very much driven by the broad equity market rather than just the normal interest rates or currency. We're seeing a bit of a liquidity crunch," said Bart Melek, head of commodity strategies at TD Securities. "Some people need to maybe create liquidity in the market and maybe some of the stocks that they were leveraged on or had margin against had a big move, so I think it's a liquidity issue and gold is being sold along with other risk assets." The sell-off came ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve's first policy meeting of the year, where policymakers are largely expected to keep interest rates steady on Wednesday, according to the CME FedWatch tool. However, investor focus will be on any cues regarding future policy decisions as U.S. President Donald Trump begins his second term, with his tariff policies likely to fuel inflation. "Gold remains fairly well bid. Safe haven demand is going to continue to support... We will ultimately break out to new all-time highs as there's ongoing uncertainty about the Trump administration's policy agenda," said Peter Grant, vice president and senior metals strategist at Zaner Metals. Spot silver fell 1.7% to $30.10 per ounce, after logging a 0.9% increase last week. Palladium dipped 2.9% to $959 per ounce and platinum fell 0.3% to $945.80 per ounce. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/gold-retreats-dollar-firms-fed-meeting-looms-2025-01-27/
2025-01-27 05:24
Jan 26 (Reuters) - Bangladesh's central bank has hired three "Big Four" accounting firms - EY, Deloitte and KPMG - to audit banks it says lost $17 billion to business people close to the regime of former leader Sheikh Hasina, the Financial Times reported on Sunday, citing bank governor Ahsan Mansur. In an interview with the newspaper, Mansur said the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit had also formed 11 joint investigation teams to track down and reclaim assets it believes were bought with the funds siphoned out of the banks and to help prosecute those responsible. EY and Deloitte did not respond to requests for comment outside regular business hours. Efforts to contact KPMG for a comment through their website were not successful. Mansur, who was appointed central bank governor by interim national leader Muhammad Yunus after Sheikh Hasina fled to India in August, said to the FT the investigations would look at 10 leading Bangladeshi businesses as well as the ousted former leader and her relatives. Mansur, a former economist at the International Monetary Fund, has been tasked with helping to stabilise Bangladesh’s economy. He is also beginning the process of recovering what he estimates is at least 2 trillion taka ($16.46 billion) taken from the banks during the 15 years when Hasina and her Awami League party were in power, the FT said. ($1 = 121.5000 taka) Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/asia/bangladesh-cbank-hires-big-four-audit-firms-review-banks-it-says-lost-17-bln-ft-2025-01-26/
