2024-12-11 00:03

MANILA, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Developing Asia is likely to grow more slowly than previously thought this year and next, and the outlook could worsen if President-elect Donald Trump makes swift changes to U.S. trade policy, the Asian Development Bank said on Wednesday. Developing Asia, which includes 46 Asia-Pacific countries stretching from Georgia to Samoa - and excludes Japan, Australia and New Zealand - is projected to grow 4.9% this year and 4.8% next year, slightly lower than the ADB's forecasts of 5.0% and 4.9% in September. The downgraded growth estimates reflect lacklustre economic performance in some economies during the third quarter and a weaker outlook for consumption, the bank said. Growth forecasts for China remain unchanged at 4.8% for 2024 and 4.5% for 2025, but the ADB lowered its projections for India to 6.5% for 2024 from 7.0% previously, and to 7.0% for next year from 7.2%. "Changes to U.S. trade, fiscal, and immigration policies could dent growth and boost inflation in developing Asia," the ADB said in its Asian Development Outlook report, though it noted most effects were likely to manifest beyond the 2024-2025 forecast horizon. Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, has threatened to impose tariffs in excess of 60% on U.S. imports of Chinese goods, crackdown on illegal migrants, and extend tax cuts. "Downside risks persist and include faster and larger U.S. policy shifts than currently envisioned, a worsening of geopolitical tensions, and an even weaker PRC (People's Republic of China) property market," the ADB said. The ADB lowered its inflation forecasts for 2024 and 2025 to 2.7% and 2.6%, respectively, from 2.8% and 2.9% previously, due to softening global commodity prices. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/asia/adb-trims-developing-asias-growth-forecast-flags-us-policy-risks-2024-12-11/

2024-12-10 23:54

NEW YORK, Dec 10 (Reuters) - BlackRock Inc (BLK.N) , opens new tab, the world's largest asset manager, is looking for opportunities to expand its technology capabilities including in the area of artificial intelligence, its chief operating officer said on Tuesday. "There's always pockets of capabilities that you can improve upon," said BlackRock COO Rob Goldstein, speaking in an interview at the Reuters NEXT conference in New York. Goldstein pointed to particular opportunities in AI. "In this world of artificial intelligence, I think there's a lot more you can do with regard to not only data, but importantly automating a lot of processes," Goldstein said. BlackRock, which manages $11.5 trillion in assets, which struck nearly $30 billion in acquisitions this year. Last week, it unveiled plans to buy private credit firm HPS Investment Partners for about $12 billion. The HPS deal comes after BlackRock in October finalized its $12.5 billion acquisition of infrastructure investment firm Global Infrastructure Partners, while it anticipates completing the $3.2 billion purchase of private markets data provider Preqin by year-end. To view the live broadcast of the World Stage go to the Reuters LIVE page: https://www.reuters.com/business/reuters-next-live-goldman-sachs-ceo-supermicro-boss-other-business-leaders-2024-12-10/ Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/blackrock-coo-looking-improve-tech-ai-capabilities-2024-12-10/

2024-12-10 23:39

Oracle slides after Q2 revenue, profit miss estimates Chip stocks fall with China's Nvidia probe in focus Alaska Airlines jumps after raising Q4 profit forecast Indexes fall: Dow 0.35%, S&P 500 0.30%, Nasdaq 0.25% Dec 10 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes closed lower on Tuesday as technology sector losses offset gains in communications services while investors waited for key inflation reports that may influence the Federal Reserve's next interest rate decisions. Among the S&P 500's 11 major industry sectors, only three ended with gains a day ahead of the November reading of the Consumer Price Index, one of the last major reports ahead of the Fed's Dec. 17-18 meeting. Headline inflation is expected to have risen slightly in November to 2.7% from 2.6% in October. The Producer Price Index report will follow on Thursday. "There's a little bit of wait-and-see in the market ahead of the CPI and PPI data this week," said Mona Mahajan, head of investment strategy at Edward Jones. "Markets want to see a number that won't be too disruptive to the Fed next week." If the CPI comes in line with estimates, investors will expect an "all clear" for the Fed to lower rates by 25 basis points next week, she added. Traders see an 86% chance for a cut next week, CME's FedWatch Tool showed. Bets had jumped after Friday's news of an uptick in unemployment along with a rebound in job growth, which had slowed in October. Noting the S&P 500's roughly 27% gain for the year so far, Lindsey Bell, chief strategist at 248 Ventures in Charlotte, North Carolina, said investors are cautious ahead of the economic data and Fed meeting. "We're in a seasonally strong period of the year and investors are just kind of taking a breather," said Bell. Market participants will be watching out for signs that the U.S. central bank will pause its easing cycle in January, after a host of Fed officials last week hinted at a slower pace of monetary policy easing on the back of a resilient economy. "It's less about what the Fed does next week but what they say about the future trajectory of interest rates," said Bell. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) , opens new tab fell 154.10 points, or 0.35%, to 44,247.83. The S&P 500 (.SPX) , opens new tab lost 17.94 points, or 0.30%, at 6,034.91 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) , opens new tab fell 49.45 points, or 0.25%, to 19,687.24. Communication services (.SPLRCL) , opens new tab, up 2.6%, was the biggest percentage gainer among S&P 500 sectors with help from a 5.6% rally in shares of Google-parent Alphabet (GOOGL.O) , opens new tab after it unveiled a new chip. The biggest percentage decliner was real estate (.SPLRCR) , opens new tab, falling 1.6%. The S&P's biggest index point drag was from technology (.SPLRCT) , opens new tab, down 1.3%. It was weighed down by a 6.7% drop in Oracle (ORCL.N) , opens new tab shares after the cloud computing company missed Wall Street estimates for second-quarter results. Adding pressure to technology, the Philadelphia semiconductor index (.SOX) , opens new tab fell 2.5% after China's Monday announcement of an investigation into Nvidia(NVDA.O) , opens new tab over suspected violations of anti-monopoly law. The probe was widely seen as retaliation against U.S. curbs on China's chip sector. Shares in Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA.O) , opens new tab rallied 17.7%, making it the S&P 500's biggest percentage gainer after reports that it is in talks to sell itself to private equity firm Sycamore Partners. The S&P 500's biggest percentage decliner was Moderna Inc (MRNA.O) , opens new tab, which fell 9.1% after BofA reinstated coverage of the company with an 'underperform' rating. Alaska Airlines (ALK.N) , opens new tab shares rose 13% after it raised its fourth-quarter profit forecast, while Boeing (BA.N) , opens new tab gained 5.5% after Reuters reported the planemaker restarted production of its 737 MAX jets last week. Among individual stock movers, software firm MongoDB (MDB.O) , opens new tab fell 16.9% despite raising its forecast for annual results. In mid-caps, luxury homebuilder Toll Brothers (TOL.N) , opens new tab shares fell 6.9% after its quarterly results beat expectations but its current quarter forecasts disappointed. Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.88-to-1 ratio on the NYSE where there were 117 new highs and 42 new lows. On the Nasdaq, 1,655 stocks rose and 2,671 fell as declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.61-to-1 ratio. The Nasdaq Composite recorded 87 new highs and 86 new lows while the S&P 500 posted 10 new 52-week highs and three new lows. On the volume side, on U.S. exchanges 13.35 billion shares change hands compared with the 14.35 billion average for the last 20 sessions. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/futures-stall-investors-await-inflation-data-2024-12-10/

2024-12-10 23:24

NEW YORK, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Investors are expected to increase their allocations to stocks and bonds from cash after even "modest" Federal Reserve interest rate cuts, BlackRock's chief financial officer said on Tuesday. Expectations earlier this year that the U.S. central bank would cut interest rates aggressively after hiking them to fight inflation have moderated in recent months as the U.S. economy continues to show momentum despite high borrowing costs. "I think even modest rate cuts are going to fuel a very healthy amount of investor re-risking," said BlackRock CFO Martin Small, speaking at the Goldman Sachs U.S. Financial Services conference on Tuesday. Lower interest rates are expected to eventually pull yields in money markets down from well above 4%, which is where cash-like instruments like T-bills currently stand. So far, however, there has been little evidence that investors are abandoning cash. Assets in U.S. money markets stood at $6.77 trillion as of last week, data from the Investment Company Institute showed, up from $6.3 trillion in early September. "There's still enough political and economic uncertainty in the world that cash is an attractive safe haven for clients," Small said. "Market expectations for rate cuts ... are shallower and fewer," he said, adding that these and other factors had made money market fund balances stickier. The U.S. central bank started cutting interest rates in September by 50 basis points. That was followed by another 25 basis point cut last month, with investors now betting on an additional quarter of a percentage point cut later this month. After that, further easing is largely expected to depend on economic data as well as the path of inflation. Investors now expect interest rates of about 3.7% by the end of next year, which would be about 90 basis points higher than what was priced in September. Still, Small said investors that favor cash were underperforming traditional investment portfolios that blended equities and bonds. "That fear of missing out ... is contributing meaningfully to re-risking," he said. BlackRock's fixed-income products such as bond exchange-traded funds had seen strong inflows this year, he added. "It's not the floodgates ... but we've definitely seen more normalized allocations legging into fixed income," he said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/blackrock-sees-investor-shift-cash-after-even-modest-rate-cuts-2024-12-10/

2024-12-10 22:16

BRASILIA, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Brazilian and Italian authorities said they launched two joint operations on Tuesday aimed at dismantling a transnational plot to transport cocaine from South America to Europe using cargo ships or airplanes. The authorities issued 18 arrest warrants in Brazil and one in Spain against suspected members of criminal groups linked to international drug trafficking. In Italy, police said in a statement that five people were arrested. A source directly involved in the operation in Brazil told Reuters the main target of the operation remains at large, while the other 17 in Brazil had been detained. The main target, which investigators indicated had ties to one of Brazil's largest crime gangs, Primeiro Comando da Capital, commonly known as PCC, had 12 properties blocked. In Brazil, authorities are also executing 46 search and seizure warrants at addresses in seven states. In total, authorities sought to freeze the assets of 36 people and 43 companies, according to the source involved in the operation. The plot involves a partnership between Primeiro Comando da Capital and Italy's most powerful mafia group, the Ndrangheta, according to the office of Brazil's prosecutor general and a Brazilian source with knowledge of the case. Brazilian federal police and the prosecutor general's office allege that the criminal organization maintained a complex money laundering network which, according to estimates, made financial transactions of more than 2 billion reais ($330.4 million) between 2018 and 2022. The Brazilian and Italian courts ordered the blocking of assets and the seizure of real estate properties worth 126 million reais, following requests from prosecutors in both countries. The investigations show that the criminal group took advantage of Brazilian shipping infrastructure to transport large quantities of cocaine to Europe using the southern port of Paranagua. The drugs were hidden in containers carrying ceramics, sanitary ware or wood and were destined mainly for the port of Valencia in Spain. Some cocaine was also smuggled by private aircraft to airports in Belgium, according to authorities. Investigations show the crime network arranged for the goods where the drugs were hidden to be removed before airport inspections. ($1 = 6.0534 reais) Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/brazil-italy-cocaine-smuggling-probe-targets-over-20-people-three-countries-2024-12-10/

2024-12-10 22:00

Yellen says tariffs could raise prices for consumers, businesses Yellen says Congress should find offsets for tax-cut extensions Bessent to find strong analysis from Treasury staff, Yellen says Trump could undermine Fed by criticizing it, Yellen says WASHINGTON, Dec 10 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Tuesday she was worried that President-elect Donald Trump's plans to levy broad import tariffs could derail progress in quelling inflation and raise costs for households and businesses. Yellen, at a Wall Street Journal CEO Council event, also said she was concerned about U.S. fiscal sustainability and said Congress needed to look for ways to pay for any extensions of Trump's 2017 individual and small-business tax cuts, which are due to expire in 2025. Trump's plans to impose new tariffs of 60% on Chinese imports and 10% to 20% on goods from elsewhere would "raise prices significantly for American consumers and create costs pressures" on companies," Yellen said. "So it would have an adverse impact on the competitiveness of some sectors of the United States economy and could significantly raise costs to households," Yellen added. "So this is a strategy I worry could derail the progress that we've made on inflation and have adverse consequences on growth." Regarding the U.S. fiscal picture, Yellen said that extension of all expiring provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act would add $5 trillion to U.S. deficits over 10 years, and that Congress needed to find offsets to avoid an "explosion" of debt. The Biden administration turned in a $1.83 trillion budget deficit for the 2024 fiscal year ended Sept. 30, the largest outside of the COVID-19 era, as debt interest costs topped $1 trillion for the first time. "I am concerned about fiscal sustainability, and I am sorry that we haven't made more progress," Yellen said. "I believe that the deficit needs to be brought down, especially now that we're in an environment of higher interest rates." DEDICATED STAFF Yellen said she had a conversation with Trump's choice for secretary, hedge fund manager Scott Bessent, and discussed the Treasury's broad responsibilities, including for economic and tax policy, and international alliances. She said she told him "what he would find at Treasury is a staff, and particularly civil servants, who are analytical, proficient, professional, operate with high integrity and produce analysis that can be relied on that is important to financial markets and to the economy." She said she told Bessent that the department's analysis and policies related to the $28 trillion U.S. Treasury debt market help the U.S. economy and financial markets function better. On the Federal Reserve, Yellen said she was a "strong proponent of an independent, and non-partisan, non-political Fed." Trump was free to comment on Fed policy, Yellen said, but recent Democratic administrations have refrained from doing so, while at the same time the Fed has become more communicative, providing more forward guidance about its policy logic, which has helped it steer clear of political influence. "I think it's a mistake to become involved in commenting on the Fed and certainly taking steps to compromise its independence," she said. "I believe it tends to undermine the confidence of the financial markets and ultimately of Americans in an important institution." Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/yellen-says-trumps-tariffs-could-derail-us-inflation-progress-raise-costs-2024-12-10/