2025-01-10 04:39
NEW DELHI, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Indian capital Delhi was shrouded in thick fog on Friday, reducing visibility to zero in some areas and disrupting flights at the main airport. India's weather office issued an orange alert for Delhi on Friday, the second highest warning level, predicting dense to very dense fog in many areas which could affect airports, highways and railway routes in the region. Airport authorities said on social media site X that airline departures were impacted by dense fog and warned that flights lacking the CAT III navigation system that enables landing despite low visibility could face difficulties. "Dense fog across the northern belt is impacting flights taking off and landing in Delhi, and some flights may need to be cancelled as the day progresses," India's largest airline IndiGo said in a social media post. Delhi, which has been battling smog and poor air quality since the beginning of winter, ranked second among the world's most polluted capitals in Friday's live rankings by Swiss group IQAir. The region's air quality was rated "severe", with an index score of 408 at 0905 am local time, the country's pollution control body said. Levels from zero to 50 are considered "good". Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/india/dense-fog-disrupts-flights-indian-capital-delhi-2025-01-10/
2025-01-10 01:11
NEW YORK, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Bank of America's (BAC.N) , opens new tab bonus pool for investment bankers will probably rise 10% for last year, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. While the average increase will be 10%, some investment bankers will get smaller payouts in the mid-to-high single digits, while other top performers would exceed the 10% range, two other sources told Reuters. The bonuses will be paid out in February after the bank announces its fourth-quarter earnings on Jan. 16, one of the sources said. Global banks have benefited from an increase in dealmaking last year led by mergers, acquisitions, and a surge of underwriting for bonds and equities. Bloomberg earlier reported on the BofA increases. BofA Securities ranked third on the global deals for investment banking fees in the fourth quarter, earning $1.4 billion in revenue, up sharply from $958 million in same period in 2023, according to Dealogic data. Compensation consultancy Johnson Associates said in November that Wall Street firms are expected to pay heftier bonuses for 2024, the first increase since a bumper year in 2021. Payouts will probably rise after financiers benefited from several factors in recent months: a recovery in transactions, the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates and equity markets surging to record highs, said the consultancy's founder, Alan Johnson. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/bank-america-bonuses-investment-bankers-rise-about-10-source-says-2025-01-09/
2025-01-10 00:56
Jan 9 (Reuters) - Pipeline operator Kinder Morgan Inc (KMI.N) , opens new tab said that two of its fuel pipelines in Los Angeles have been shut since Jan. 8 due to power outages, as the most destructive wildfires in the city's history continued to burn uncontained on Thursday. The company said the 515-mile (828.8 km) SFPP West pipeline and 566-mile CALNEV pipelines are not directly impacted by the fires, and it expects them to resume service once power has been restored. "Yikes! That's how product gets to Phoenix, Las Vegas and San Diego," a West Coast fuel trader said on hearing of the shutdown. SFPP West transports fuel from the Los Angeles Basin to Colton, and Imperial, California, and to Phoenix, Arizona. CALNEV moves gasoline, diesel and jet fuel from Colton, California to terminals in Barstow, California, and Las Vegas, Nevada, according to Kinder Morgan's website. "They should be able to catch up, but it depends on the inventory situations," the trader said, requesting anonymity as they are not authorized to speak publicly about another company's operations. California refineries had about 5.2 million barrels of CARB gasoline in stockpiles as of Jan. 3, according to data from the California Energy Commission. So far there have been no reports of refinery outages in the state due to the wildfires. More than 300,000 customers were without power in California as of Thursday, according to figures from utility Southern California Edison. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/kinder-morgan-fuel-pipelines-shut-due-power-outages-southern-california-2025-01-10/
2025-01-09 23:35
LIMA, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Peru's central bank trimmed its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to settle at 4.75% on Thursday, surprising analysts who expected the country's monetary authority to hold the rate steady at 5%. Peru has since September 2023 gradually eased the key lending rate from a high of 7.75% it held through the first part of that year. In a statement, the central bank said the cut moves the rate to a level it estimates to be "neutral" while adding future rate adjustments will track new data on inflation and its derivatives. The bank's decision to lower borrowing costs came after December's inflation rate inched up by 0.11% month-on-month, bringing price increases to 1.97% last year - within the bank's target range of 2% plus or minus once percentage point. Prices were down from the 3.24% annual inflation rate recorded in 2023 and far below the 8.46% in 2022. December's annualized rate was also down from 2.27% the previous month. Peru boasts one of Latin America's lowest benchmark interest rates. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/peru-central-bank-cuts-benchmark-interest-rate-475-2025-01-09/
2025-01-09 23:33
NEW YORK, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Proxy advisory firm Glass Lewis on Thursday recommended that Air Products and Chemicals (APD.N) , opens new tab investors elect all four of Mantle Ridge's board candidates, lending support to the activist investor in the year's first big board challenge. Mantle Ridge argues the industrial gases company needs to lay out a succession plan for its octogenarian CEO Seifi Ghasemi, who has served at the helm for a decade, allocate its capital differently and scale back on risky projects. It said its four candidates, including the hedge fund's founder, Paul Hilal, would ensure greater order on the board. Investors will vote on Jan. 23 unless the sides reach a compromise before then. Glass Lewis wrote that Mantle Ridge "advanced a highly credible slate of candidates who appear well suited to the challenge at hand." It also said the nomination follows years of "poor performance fueled by a spate of high-cost, low visibility strategic expeditions pointedly departing from the company's core risk profile." The company said it strongly disagreed with Glass Lewis' "sloppily-compiled" view, noting that Mantle Ridge's nominees would create a "destabilizing amount of change" and remove relevant expertise from the board. "We believe following Glass Lewis would be value-destructive for shareholders," the company said in a statement. This is the second time Mantle Ridge's Hilal has tangled with Air Products. A decade ago Pershing Square Capital Management, where Hilal was a partner, helped install Ghasemi onto the company's board before he was elevated to CEO. Hilal signaled early in the current fight that he was working with former top executives at Air Products' rival Linde (LIN.DE) , opens new tab, including Eduardo Menezes, whom the hedge fund manager identified as a possible replacement for Ghasemi. Menezes is not a proposed director candidate. The company said last year it would replace two directors who are retiring this year and one of the newcomers would be Bhavesh "Bob" Patel, a former CEO of chemical companies W.R. Grace and LyondellBasell (LYB.N) , opens new tab. Patel has been mentioned as a possible replacement for Air Products' current CEO. Glass Lewis is the first proxy advisory firm to issue its recommendation. Investors are now waiting for Institutional Shareholder Services, Glass Lewis' bigger rival, to issue its report. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/glass-lewis-recommends-air-products-investors-back-all-mantle-ridges-board-2025-01-09/
2025-01-09 23:28
NAPERVILLE, Illinois, Jan 9 (Reuters) - If anything can derail a price rally, it is a curveball from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Chicago corn futures have ticked slightly lower to start the year, but they had climbed nearly 12% in the final two months of 2024, an unusually strong late-year run. Speculators now hold their most bullish corn view in two years, and luckily for them, the trade has already accepted that last year’s U.S. corn yield was a whopper. Friday will feature USDA’s biggest data release of the year, with primary focus on the most recent U.S. corn and soybean harvests. U.S. quarterly stocks, U.S. winter wheat seedings and routine global supply and demand updates will also compete for attention. U.S. CORN AND BEANS On average, analysts peg U.S. corn yield at 182.7 bushels per acre, down from 183.1 in November. The trade estimate is more than 5 bushels above last year’s record and above USDA’s initial trendline yield for the first time in six years. Bearish yield outcomes are less likely when the estimates are already large, and only four of 19 polled analysts see corn yield rising from November. However, the range of trade estimates (2.4 bpa) is smaller than usual, flagging the potential for surprise. In the last decade, analysts anticipated the wrong direction of U.S. corn yield in January only once (2019). They did so three times for soybean yield (2016, 2019, 2022). But bets are somewhat off for U.S. soybean yield outcomes because USDA’s slashing of the forecast in November was the month’s largest cut in 31 years. Trade estimates indicate some uncertainty around U.S. soybean production as the ranges for both yield and harvested area are historically wide. Regardless, U.S. soybean supplies are expected to remain ample and at multi-year highs. However, USDA last month pegged 2024-25 U.S. corn ending stocks below the prior year’s level for the first time. If USDA cuts U.S. corn ending stocks on Friday as expected, it would be the agency’s seventh consecutive monthly reduction. Such a streak has not been observed in at least two decades, reflective of the strong demand that has recently lifted corn prices. From a market reaction standpoint, these demand dynamics could be somewhat insulating if the U.S. corn crop comes in larger than expected. The last two times CBOT corn had a distinctly negative reaction on January report day were 2012 and 2024, the latter sparked by a huge yield above all trade estimates. U.S. WHEAT USDA will not officially issue 2025-26 outlooks until May, but the wheat market will receive its first piece of 2025-26 U.S. crop intel on Friday with the winter wheat planting survey. Total U.S. winter wheat acres are pegged at 33.37 million, very close to both last year and the five-year average. Analysts have had a rough time anticipating the planting survey in the last two years, coming in almost 1.4 million acres too high last year but lowballing by nearly 2.5 million acres in 2023. Wheat traders have struggled to find viable bullish narratives despite wheat stocks among major exporters seen dropping to 17-year lows, so another big miss in the U.S. wheat acreage could either support or undermine the recent sentiment. SOUTH AMERICA The U.S. crops will probably dominate the headlines on Friday, but it is not too early to watch out for forecast changes in South America. Analysts see USDA upping Brazil’s 2024-25 soybean harvest to a record 170.28 million metric tons from the previous 169 million. USDA has increased Brazil’s soy crop in three of the last eight Januarys, both on area and yield improvements, and many industry participants have already been factoring in a number north of 170 million tons. For Argentina, there are already fears that ongoing dry weather could eventually warrant more significant cuts to soybean and corn crops than are anticipated for Friday. American and European weather model runs on Thursday remained stingy with the rainfall over the next two weeks. USDA already hiked Argentina’s soybean output last month on higher area. The agency increased the crop last January but reduced it in the prior three Januarys. Current crop conditions are slightly worse than a year ago but better than in the prior three years. Karen Braun is a market analyst for Reuters. Views expressed above are her own. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/will-usda-data-dump-spoil-bullish-party-corn-braun-2025-01-09/
