2024-12-10 11:10
Dec 10 (Reuters) - Farmers in the European Union will be able to get more state aid without regulatory oversight under new rules approved on Tuesday, the European Commision said. The new rules amend existing regulations that exempt small amounts of support in the agricultural sector from state aid control, since they are deemed to have no impact on competition and trade, the commission said. National caps for aid without these controls have been increased to 2% from 1.5% of farming output, with a longer reference period to reflect the increased value of production in recent years. The maximum amount a company can receive without having to notify the EU has been doubled to 50,000 euros over three years. The new rules will apply until the end of 2032. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/eu-eases-rules-small-amounts-state-aid-farmers-2024-12-10/
2024-12-10 11:09
LONDON, Dec 10 (Reuters) - British oil and gas major Shell (SHEL.L) , opens new tab on Tuesday settled a London lawsuit it brought against environmental group Greenpeace after activists boarded a Shell oil production vessel last year. Greenpeace said it had agreed to pay 300,000 pounds ($382,650) to the Royal National Lifeboat Institute (RNLI), a charity that runs a search and rescue service. The group also said it would stop protesting for a period at four Shell sites in the northern North Sea, which Greenpeace referred to as "mostly declining fields", though Shell described them as "key oil and gas platforms". Shell said Greenpeace's agreement to make a payment to the RNLI recognised its concern that Greenpeace's protest at sea was "a serious risk to safety and life". Greenpeace, however, said Shell had settled because suing environmental campaigners "became a PR millstone tied around its neck". Shell took legal action after Greenpeace activists boarded a vessel in January 2023 near the Canary Islands off the Atlantic coast of northern Africa to protest against oil drilling, travelling on it as far as Norway. The vessel was destined for the Penguins oil and gas field in the North Sea, which is not yet in production. Four Greenpeace activists used ropes to hoist themselves onto the vessel from inflatable boats that chased the ship at high speed. Greenpeace previously said Shell was seeking up to $2.1 million, including costs related to shipping delays and expenses for extra security, though Shell's lawsuit sought slightly less than $1 million. Protests at sea against oil, gas and mining infrastructure have long been part of Greenpeace's operations. Greenpeace is separately involved in a legal challenge to Britain's approval for the development of Shell's Jackdaw gas field, which was heard in a Scottish court last month. ($1 = 0.7840 pounds) Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/legal/shell-settles-lawsuit-against-greenpeace-over-activists-boarding-oil-vessel-2024-12-10/
2024-12-10 11:07
A look at the day ahead in U.S. and global markets from Mike Dolan Helped by a backup in U.S. Treasury yields, the dollar has rediscovered its mojo ahead of a wave of overseas interest rate cuts this week, with China's markets giving only a hesitant welcome to Beijing's new policy orientation. As Treasury debt sales resume in earnest later on Tuesday and Wednesday's consumer price inflation report is awaited, 10-year yields have nudged back above 4.2%. That follows a three-week swoon of more than 30 basis points from post-election highs and a puncturing of bond volatility gauges (.MOVE) , opens new tab to their lowest in more than two years. The foothold for yields helped lift the dollar (.DXY) , opens new tab too, especially against currencies facing another round of central bank easing this week. The greenback hit its highest against the Canadian dollar since April 2020, as traders mull whether the Bank of Canada will cut its main interest rate by another 50bps on Wednesday - not least as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's tariff threats hit sentiment there. But with the European Central Bank and Swiss National Bank also expected to cut rates again this week, the euro and Swiss franc were also back under pressure. Even though the Reserve Bank of Australia held the line overnight, there were enough dovish noises there to drag the Aussie dollar lower too. In China, the full market reaction to Monday's historic Politburo shift in monetary and fiscal direction was a bit underwhelming - in part because the latest sweep of economic reports show just how badly more stimulus is needed. China's exports slowed sharply and imports unexpectedly shrank in November, another worrying sign for the world's No. 2 economy as Trump's imminent return to the White House brings fresh trade risks. While markets had recently been encouraged by surveys showing manufacturing sentiment at its best in seven months, they also warned they were receiving fewer export orders. And all that follows fresh price data this week showing the country still dallying with deflation more broadly. Monday's late announcement on the new policy tack had lifted Hong Kong stocks (.HSI) , opens new tab by more than 2% but they gave back about 0.5% of that today. Mainland indexes (.CSI300) , opens new tab were closed by the time Monday's reports hit but gained less than 1% today. Ten-year Chinese government bond yields plumbed new record lows below 1.9%, but the offshore yuan held steady. More broadly, the worrying Chinese trade numbers dragged oil prices back down and basic resources (.SXPP) , opens new tab stocks led European indexes lower too. Continued political tensions in South Korea, meantime, saw the won fall again even though the KOSPI stock benchmark (.KS11) , opens new tab bounced back about 2%. South Korea's opposition-controlled parliament on Tuesday passed a government budget bill for 2025 that was slashed from the government's proposal and triggered President Yoon Suk Yeol's short-lived martial law decree last week. The Indian rupee slipped to a record low and government bond yields fell on Tuesday, as the appointment of career bureaucrat Sanjay Malhotra as the next governor of the Reserve Bank of India prompted traders to up bets on rate cuts. In Brazil, there may be some anxiety over the health of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who underwent surgery overnight in Sao Paulo to drain a bleed on his brain linked to a fall at home in October. The surgery was successful and the 79-year-old Lula is "well" and being monitored in the intensive care unit, doctors said. Back on Wall Street, the CPI vigil and a 3-year Treasury note sale are accompanied by the latest NFIB small business survey that should give a glimpse of post-election sentiment. Fed futures still price about a 90% chance of another rate cut next week, while stock futures held steady despite Monday's modest pullback from new records. The S&P500 slip was led by Nvidia (NVDA.O) , opens new tab after China said on Monday it had launched an investigation into the U.S. chip giant over suspected violations of the country's anti-monopoly law - a probe widely seen as a retaliatory shot against Washington's latest curbs on the Chinese chip sector. Key developments that should provide more direction to U.S. markets later on Tuesday: * U.S. November NFIB small business survey, Q3 unit labor costs and productivity revisions * US corporate earnings: Autozone * European Union finance ministers meet in Brussels on draft budget plans, with European Central Bank Vice President Luis de Guindos * U.S. Treasury sells $58 billion of 3-year notes Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/global-markets-view-usa-2024-12-10/
2024-12-10 09:45
Dec 10 (Reuters) - Sterling rose against the euro towards its highest level in over 2-1/2 years as investors expect the European Central Bank to cut rates and provide some dovish guidance on Thursday, with the Bank of England seen keeping its current policy next week. BoE Governor Andrew Bailey was quoted as saying Britain's central bank has incorporated four rate cuts in 2025 into its most recent economic forecasts. Meanwhile, markets expect the ECB to cut by 25 bps on Thursday and to deliver more than 100 bps of cuts by July 2025. Analysts expect U.S. tariffs to hurt the euro area's economy and the single currency. However, the impact on the United Kingdom is unclear, as BoE policymaker Megan Greene argued. The budget of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is also in the spotlight. A BoE survey showed last week more than half of British employers plan to raise their prices and cut jobs in response to the new government's first budget, under which social security contributions will be increased. Starmer said he had kept up his ambition for Britain to become the fastest-growing economy in the Group of Seven. Sterling rose 0.15% versus the euro to 82.62 pence per euro. It hit 82.58 on Nov. 11, its highest level since mid-April 2022. "This raises the question as to whether sterling can achieve pre-Brexit referendum levels versus the euro in the foreseeable future," said Jane Foley, senior forex strategist at Rabobank, after recalling that before the Brexit referendum in June 2016, the trading range for EUR/GBP was mainly below 0.80. "We anticipate that the euro will be under pressure next year, which is likely to allow EUR/GBP to remain on its slow downside trajectory. This suggests that pre-Brexit levels may creep into the sights." Political uncertainty in France and Germany, in addition to a dovish ECB monetary easing path, could weaken the single currency in 2025. Sterling was down 0.05% versus the dollar at $1.2741 . The greenback steadied before Wednesday's inflation data, with analysts still assessing whether President-elect Donald Trump's policies will lead the Federal Reserve to tilt to a more hawkish direction after an expected rate cut of 25 bps in the next policy meeting. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/sterling-rises-towards-highest-over-2-12-years-versus-euro-2024-12-10/
2024-12-10 07:56
COPENHAGEN, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Norway's Equinor (EQNR.OL) , opens new tab said on Tuesday that the startup of its Arctic Johan Castberg oilfield has been postponed to January or February from the end of 2024 due to adverse weather conditions in the Barents Sea. The oilfield in the Norwegian sector of the Barents Sea is expected to produce for some 30 years, and will serve as a hub to tie in nearby discoveries in the future. So far, 14 wells have been drilled on the field, and 12 are ready for production, which is sufficient to meet the plateau capacity of 220,000 barrels per day (bpd), Equinor said in a statement. Equinor operates the Castberg field and owns 50%, together with Eni's (ENI.MI) , opens new tab Vaar Energi and Norway's Petoro, which own 30% and 20%, respectively. Vaar separately said that due to the revised plan the company's full year production for 2024 will be at the lower end of its guided range of between 280,000 to 290,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd). Vaar's production target for the end of 2025 of around 400,000 boepd was not affected by the delayed start-up, it added. Estimated recoverable volumes at Johan Castberg are between 450 million and 650 million barrels of oil, according to Equinor. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/equinor-postpones-start-arctic-castberg-oilfield-early-2025-2024-12-10/
2024-12-10 07:46
BEIJING, Dec 10 (Reuters) - China's former agriculture minister and party secretary Tang Renjian has been arrested for suspected bribery, the nation's top prosecutor on Tuesday. "Recently, the Supreme People's Procuratorate made an arrest decision on Tang Renjian on suspicion of taking bribes in accordance with the law," the Supreme People's Procuratorate said in a statement. The case, which has been concluded by the National Supervisory Commission, is being further processed, it said. Tang, 61, was removed from the leadership roster of the ministry's website in May and expelled from the Communist Party six months later. The move to investigate Tang was unusually swift and follows similar investigations of former defence minister Li Shangfu and his predecessor Wei Fenghe as China cracks down on corruption. Tang was governor of the western province of Gansu from 2017 to 2020 before being named minister of agriculture and rural affairs, according to official biographies. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/chinas-former-agriculture-minister-tang-renjian-arrested-suspected-bribery-state-2024-12-10/
