2024-12-28 11:20

OSLO, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Finnish authorities said on Saturday they are moving an impounded tanker closer to port after boarding the vessel carrying Russian oil earlier this week on suspicion it had damaged an undersea power line and four telecoms cables. Baltic Sea nations have been on high alert after a string of outages of power cables, telecom links and gas pipelines since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, and NATO said on Friday it would boost its presence in the region. The Cook Islands-registered ship, named by authorities as the Eagle S, was boarded on Thursday by a Finnish coast guard crew that took command and sailed the vessel to Finnish waters, a coast guard official said. Finnish police believe the Eagle S may have caused the damage to undersea cables the previous day by dragging its anchor along the seabed. "The police begin an operation to transfer the Eagle S tanker from the Gulf of Finland to Svartbeck, an inner anchorage near the port of Kilpilahti," the Helsinki police department said in a statement on Saturday. This would be a better place to carry out investigations, it added. Finland's customs service believes the ship is part of a "shadow fleet" of ageing tankers being used to evade sanctions on the sale of Russian oil. The Kremlin said on Friday Finland's seizure of the ship was of little concern to it. In the past, Russia has denied involvement in any of the Baltic infrastructure incidents. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/finland-moves-tanker-suspected-undersea-cable-damage-closer-port-2024-12-28/

2024-12-28 03:38

SHANGHAI, Dec 28 (Reuters) - China will reduce import tariffs on ethane and certain recycled copper and aluminium raw materials from next year, the government said on Saturday. The Ministry of Finance announced adjustments to various import tariff categories, effective Jan. 1, aimed at increasing imports of high-quality products, expanding domestic demand and promoting high-level opening-up, it said in a statement. Provisional import tariffs below the most-favoured-nation rates will be applied to 935 items, the ministry said. Import tariffs will be reduced on ethane and certain recycled copper and aluminium raw materials to advance green and low-carbon development. Tariffs will rise on commodities including molasses and sugar-containing pre-mixed powders will increase but be reduced on items such as cyclic olefin polymers, ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymers and automatic transmissions for special-purpose vehicles such as fire trucks and repair vehicles. Import tariffs will also be reduced on items such as sodium zirconium cyclosilicate, viral vectors for CAR-T tumour therapy, and nickel-titanium alloy wires for surgical implants. The China-Maldives Free Trade Agreement will come into effect on Jan. 1, with tariff reduction implementations, the ministry said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-cut-import-tariffs-some-recycled-copper-aluminium-raw-materials-2024-12-28/

2024-12-28 00:23

Stocks drop in broad sell-off; Dow snaps 5-session win run Top 45 S&P 500 performers YTD all end down Indexes down on Friday: Dow 0.77%, S&P 500 1.11%, Nasdaq 1.49% All three up for week: Dow 0.36%, S&P 500 0.7%, Nasdaq 0.75% Dec 27 (Reuters) - Wall Street's holiday cheer ended abruptly on Friday, with all three main benchmarks closing lower in a broad-based sell-off affecting even tech and growth stocks that had driven markets higher through much of the shortened trading week. The decline ended the Dow Jones Industrial Average's (.DJI) , opens new tab five-session winning streak that had followed a 10-session decline, its worst losing stretch since 1974. The Dow fell 333.59 points, or 0.77%, to 42,992.21. The S&P 500 (.SPX) , opens new tab lost 66.75 points, or 1.11%, to finish at 5,970.84 points, while the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) , opens new tab dropped 298.33 points, or 1.49%, to end at 19,722.03. "Today feels like there is quite a bit of profit-taking across the board," said Michael Reynolds, vice president of investment strategy at Glenmede. "We are more than two years into a pretty strong bull market ... so it's really not surprising to see some people taking their profits and rebalancing their portfolios ahead of the new year." Highlighting the profit-taking theme, the 45 top performers year-to-date on the S&P 500 all finished lower on Friday. The sell-off thwarted the seasonal Santa Claus rally, in which stocks traditionally rise during the last five sessions of December and the first two of January. Since 1969, the S&P 500 has climbed 1.3% on average, according to the Stock Trader's Almanac. Thursday's session hinted at momentum stalling, with both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq posting marginal losses to end multi-session winning runs. Rising U.S. Treasury yields had been catching investors' attention, with the benchmark 10-year note hitting a more than seven-month high in the previous session. The yield hovered close to that mark on Friday, at 4.63%. Higher yields are seen as hampering growth stocks, as they raise borrowing costs for business expansion. These stocks, especially the so-called Magnificent Seven technology megacaps which had been key drivers of the market's 2024 rally, were also caught up in Friday's sell-off. For the second successive day, Tesla (TSLA.O) , opens new tab led decliners among the group, dropping 5%. Among the other members, Nvidia shed 2.1% while Alphabet (GOOGL.O) , opens new tab, Amazon.com (AMZN.O) , opens new tab and Microsoft (MSFT.O) , opens new tab all slipped more than 1.5%. "We have a higher cost of capital whenever rates go up like this, and they have gone up pretty significantly over the last month or so," said Glenmede's Reynolds. "Investors may just be reassessing the bets they are taking when the cost of capital is higher, perhaps looking at some of the valuations on the Mag 7 and wondering whether they can find better value elsewhere." All of the 11 major S&P sectors fell. Friday's worst performers were the three indexes which have been 2024's leading lights: consumer discretionary (.SPLRCD) , opens new tab, information technology (.SPLRCT) , opens new tab and communication services (.SPLRCL) , opens new tab. The trio dropped between 1.1% and 1.9% on the day. Despite Friday's declines, all three indexes recorded weekly gains. For the week, the S&P 500 advanced 0.7%, the Dow edged up 0.36% and the Nasdaq climbed 0.75%. News events helped some stocks to buck the market sell-off. Amedisys (AMED.O) , opens new tab gained 4.7%, its best one-day advance since July 1, after the home health service provider and insurer UnitedHealth (UNH.N) , opens new tab extended the deadline to close their $3.3 billion merger. Lamb Weston climbed 2.6% after a filing showed activist investor Jana Partners is working with a sixth executive to push for changes at the French fry maker, a move which could result in a majority of the company's board being replaced. Trading volumes in this holiday-shortened week have been below the average of the last six months and are likely to remain subdued until Jan. 6. The next major focus for markets will be the December employment report due on Jan. 10. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/wall-st-futures-ease-strong-holiday-shortened-week-draws-close-2024-12-27/

2024-12-27 23:41

Dec 27 (Reuters) - Germany's BayWa (BYWGnx.DE) , opens new tab said on Friday that it has reached a restructuring agreement, set to last until 2027, with its major shareholders and financiers. Under the agreement, a capital increase with a volume of around 150 million euros ($156.41 million) will be implemented in the first quarter of 2025. The Munich-based trader of farming supplies and produce has been grappling with rising borrowing costs, forcing it to embark on a major restructuring, including job cuts, after racking up a consolidated nine-month net loss of 640.8 million euros. The restructuring plan includes shedding around 1,300 full-time positions out of almost 8,000 by the end of 2027, and BayWa intends to close 26 out of 400 locations. The firm also revealed plans to sell its stake in Austria's RWA for 176 million euros via its subsidiary, which is expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2025. Earlier this month, Reuters reported that the group is trying to raise 4 billion euros by selling most of its foreign assets by 2027. It also plans to sell a majority stake in New Zealand-based T&G Global (TGG.NZ) , opens new tab in 2026. The legally binding conclusion and entry into force of the restructuring agreement are expected by the end of April 2025 at the latest, the statement added. ($1 = 0.9590 euros) Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/germanys-baywa-reaches-restructuring-agreement-until-2027-2024-12-27/

2024-12-27 21:02

Dec 27 (Reuters) - U.S.-based utility Duke Energy (DUK.N) , opens new tab said on Friday it had filed a plan with the Florida Public Service Commission (FPSC) to recover about $1.1 billion in direct costs associated with the company's emergency activation and response to hurricanes Debby, Helene and Milton. Severe storms this year forced major U.S. utilities to shut down or slow power plant operations. Duke, the largest utility covering North and South Carolina, said the hurricanes hit its service territories and ripped away miles of transmission lines and power poles, leaving tens of thousands of its customers without electricity. The company said that residential customers' monthly bills will increase by about $21 per 1,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity in March 2025 compared to February 2025, and that storm costs will remain on bills through the end of February 2026. Operating and maintenance (O&M) costs for utilities increase during adverse weather conditions due to damages to infrastructure such as power lines, which cause disruptions to service in the form of outages. Duke said that given the severity of the three storms, the filing covers a range of costs, such as deploying hundreds of crews across the company's service territories and acquiring significant assistance from the country and Canada. In October, utility NextEra Energy's (NEE.N) , opens new tab subsidiary, Florida Power & Light Company (FPL), also filed to recover nearly $1.2 billion in hurricane restoration costs with the FPSC due to widespread damage caused by Hurricane Milton. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/duke-energy-files-recover-11-bln-hurricane-costs-2024-12-27/

2024-12-27 20:34

NEW YORK, Dec 27 (Reuters) - BP's (BP.L) , opens new tab 435,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) Whiting, Indiana, refinery was operating normally following a leak from a pipeline that transports liquid material, the company said. On Thursday, the refinery experienced a leak from a pipeline within the tank field, a company spokesperson said. A liquid was released and may have resulted in odors in the area, the spokesperson added. "BP is monitoring air emissions for elevated levels of contaminants that could pose a risk to public health," the company said in a statement. Emergency crews were immediately dispatched to respond to the incident and the leak has been stopped. The Whiting refinery, the largest in the U.S. Midwest, produces a wide range of liquid fuels, including gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/bp-says-whiting-indiana-refinery-operations-normal-after-leak-2024-12-27/