2024-12-04 20:10

Loonie trades in a range of 1.4053 to 1.4083 Price of U.S. oil settles 2% lower Canada's services PMI rises in November Bond yields fall across the curve TORONTO, Dec 4 (Reuters) - The Canadian dollar steadied against its U.S. counterpart on Wednesday, keeping some distance from a recent 4-1/2-year low, as oil prices fell and investors continued to bet on a Federal Reserve interest rate cut this month. The loonie was trading nearly unchanged at 1.4065 per U.S. dollar, or 71.10 U.S. cents, after trading in a range of 1.4053 to 1.4083. Last month, the currency touched its weakest level since April 2020 at 1.4177 as investors grappled with the threat of U.S. trade tariffs. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the U.S. economy is stronger than it had appeared in September when the central bank began cutting interest rates, allowing policymakers to potentially be more cautious in lowering rates further. His remarks did little "to alter the market's view that the Fed will likely trim rates on December 18," Sal Guatieri, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets, said in a note. The price of oil , one of Canada's major exports, settled 2% lower at $68.54 a barrel as traders awaited an imminent OPEC+ decision on supply. Canada's services economy expanded for a second straight month in November as firms added staff, S&P Global's Canada services PMI data showed. The headline business activity index rose to 51.2 from 50.4 in October. Still, investors expect the Bank of Canada to continue its easing campaign at an interest rate decision next week, with the market pricing in a roughly 50% chance of another unusually large 50-basis-point move. Canadian bond yields moved lower across the curve, tracking moves in U.S. Treasuries. The 10-year was down 3.2 basis points at 3.086%. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/canadian-dollar-keeps-distance-recent-4-12-year-low-2024-12-04/

2024-12-04 19:18

Trafigura board member begins defence for trading firm Former Trafigura COO Mike Wainwright takes the stand He denies signing paperwork for intermediary firm BELLINZONA, Switzerland, Dec 4 (Reuters) - A Trafigura board member on Wednesday said prosecutors should focus on one of the company's former executives, who has already been convicted on bribery charges elsewhere, when asked about corrupt payments at a trial in Switzerland. The Swiss case is the first time the country's top criminal court will rule on a company's liability for corrupting a foreign official. Swiss prosecutors allege that Trafigura and three other defendants paid bribes to an Angolan official worth over $5 million to win oil deals between 2009-2011. Trafigura has said the anti-bribery and anti-corruption controls and the compliance programme in place at its parent company at the time met both legal requirements and good practice standards. Taking the stand for the first time on behalf of the company since the trial opened this week, Trafigura director Mark Irwin said that a former executive, Mariano Marcondes Ferraz, who is a key witness in the case, was "the only explanation" for payments to the Angolan official. Irwin, who is not a defendant in the case, was a Trafigura supervisory board member at the time. Ferraz was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2018 for oil corruption charges in Brazil. Reuters has not been able to establish his whereabouts, and he did not immediately respond to attempts to reach him. Lawyers who represented him in the past also did not respond. Asked by Judge David Bouverat to account for the payments to the Angolan official, Irwin said: "The only explanation is that Mariano Ferraz ... was the common factor in this pattern of events." He referred to Ferraz's senior role in Trafigura's Angola joint venture DT Group, which Swiss prosecutors say was involved in transferring payments that went to the Angolan official via intermediaries. Earlier this week, the company failed to have Ferraz's evidence in the Swiss case struck off on the grounds that he had reached an illegal deal with Swiss prosecutors. The prosecutors say Ferraz's testimony was obtained in line with Swiss law. A former Trafigura executive and accountant Mike Wainwright, 51, who is a defendant in the case also took the stand on Wednesday. His presence is a rare instance of a former top executive of a trading firm being tried in a corruption case. Sitting with his arms folded, the Briton told the court via an interpreter that he did not remember or author a document that was used to open a key intermediary company used for the alleged payments. He also said he was not responsible for opening bank accounts on behalf of Trafigura as Swiss prosecutors had previously implied. Asked why he was involved in some of the financial transactions cited in the case file, he said: "The best explanation is: it's who I am. I like to understand what happens in the business." His lawyers have said he rejects all the allegations against him and is confident the case will be dismissed. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/trafigura-director-deflects-blame-swiss-corruption-trial-2024-12-04/

2024-12-04 18:00

Britain's NCA says 84 people arrested Network spanned 30 countries Five individuals, four entities hit by U.S. sanctions WASHINGTON/LONDON, Dec 4 (Reuters) - The U.S. and Britain announced on Wednesday they had disrupted what they described as a global money laundering ring used by rich Russians to evade sanctions, and which London said laundered cash for drug traffickers, criminals and spies. Britain's National Crime Agency said the internationally coordinated law enforcement effort codenamed 'Operation Destabilise' had disrupted the network spanning 30 countries. The operation also involved authorities in France, Ireland and United Arab Emirates, the NCA said. It had so far led to 84 arrests, and the seizure of over 20 million pounds ($25 million) in cash and cryptocurrency. The network's reach spanned Britain and mainland Europe to the Middle East and South America, supporting serious and organised crime around the world, the NCA said. The U.S. Department of Treasury said it had imposed sanctions on members of the group, which it said helped elite Russians use cryptocurrency to evade sanctions imposed after the Feb. 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Five individuals and four entities tied to "a sprawling international network of businesses and employees that have facilitated significant sanctions circumvention", known as the TGR Group, were hit with Treasury sanctions. "Through the TGR Group, Russian elites sought to exploit digital assets — in particular U.S. dollar-backed stablecoins — to evade U.S. and international sanctions, further enriching themselves and the Kremlin,” Acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Bradley Smith said in a statement. Britain's NCA said the TGR group operated alongside another network known as "Smart", helping Russians under sanctions access the financial system. "For the first time, we have been able to map out a link between Russian elites, crypto-rich cyber criminals, and drugs gangs on the streets of the UK," said Rob Jones, Director General of Operations at the NCA. "The thread that tied them together – the combined force of Smart and TGR – was invisible until now." CASH EXCHANGE The U.S. Treasury statement said Smart was headed by Ekaterina Zhdanova, already previously sanctioned by the U.S. Office for Foreign Assets Control for helping a Russian client transfer cash into western Europe through a fraudulently opened investment account and real estate purchases. Her whereabouts were not known, it said. The Treasury said it was also targeting George Rossi, a Ukrainian national born in Russia, who it said was believed to control the TGR Group. Britain's NCA said the Smart network was used to fund Russian espionage operations in the past. Both Smart and TGR were heavily enabled by the use of cryptocurrency, the NCA said. As an example, it said criminal groups in Russia with cryptocurrency would connect with drugs gangs with the same amount of money in cash elsewhere. The networks would then arrange for the gangs to be paid in virtual currency in exchange for their cash, which would then be laundered out of the country through cash-rich businesses, such as construction companies. After the exchange, the gangs could use the crypto to buy more drugs or firearms without the need to move any physical money across borders, the NCA said. U.S. Treasury sanctions generally prohibit any U.S. persons or entities from conducting any transactions with sanctioned targets and freeze any U.S.-held assets belonging to the sanctioned individuals or entities. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/russia-related-sanctions-target-illicit-digital-finance-network-us-treasury-says-2024-12-04/

2024-12-04 17:46

Dec 4 (Reuters) - Soitec (SOIT.PA) , opens new tab will supply GlobalFoundries (GF) (GFS.O) , opens new tab with its RF-SOI wafers for GF's latest radio platform. The French semiconductor manufacturer said it would provide 300mm RF-SOI wafers for GF's radio solution, 9SW, which will be used to make future 5G and Wi-Fi chips. "The transition from 5G to 5G-Advanced, and eventually 6G, requires ever-higher performance and energy efficiency, as well as increasing compactness for next-generation devices," Soitec said in a statement. The company, whose customers include TSMC (2330.TW) , opens new tab, UMC (2303.TW) , opens new tab, Sony (6758.T) , opens new tab, and STMicroelectronics (STMPA.PA) , opens new tab, has faced sharp inventory corrections in a sluggish smartphone market. Soitec said during its first-half earnings that it saw a rebound in the smartphone market lifting sales of its RF-SOI wafers, as orders have picked up from the low levels recorded in the first quarter of the year. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/technology/soitec-supply-wafers-globalfoundries-9sw-platform-2024-12-04/

2024-12-04 17:24

Dec 4 (Reuters) - The BlackRock Investment Institute (BII) said on Wednesday that it had gone further "overweight" on U.S. equities as greater adoption of AI unlocks buying opportunities across sectors, even with U.S. stocks trading at record highs. The BII, a research and analysis arm of the world's largest asset manager, said in its outlook note for 2025 that it sees persistent U.S. inflationary pressures from rising geopolitical fragmentation, big spending on AI and low-carbon transition. BII maintained its "overweight" rating on Japanese stocks, pointing to tailwind from corporate reforms, the return of mild inflation as well as corporate pricing power. In emerging markets, it liked India and Saudi Arabia. In debt market, BII raised its weighting on short-term U.S. Treasuries to "neutral" from "underweight", saying market pricing now roughly match its expectations for interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve next year. "We think it will cut further in 2025, and growth will cool a little, but with inflation still above target the Fed won't have room to cut much past 4%, leaving rates well above pre-pandemic levels," BII said in its outlook. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/blackrock-investment-institute-goes-further-overweight-us-equities-2024-12-04/

2024-12-04 17:09

LONDON, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Global stock and currency markets helped European hedge funds finish November with positive results, as markets surged on a U.S. election win for Donald Trump and the Republicans, performance numbers seen by Reuters on Wednesday showed. These performance details included some hedge funds that profited from so-called Trump trades which punished tariff-sensitive assets from European exporters to Mexico's peso and drove investment towards U.S. stocks and the dollar. Sharp moves globally in currencies and stocks helped the $700 million Paris-based Metori Capital Management to an estimated month-end performance of 4.6% for November in its Metori Epsilon Diversified fund, taking the 2024 return up to 13.4%, said a source familiar with the fund's performance. British hedge fund Marshall Wace posted a 2.8% return in its Eureka fund and is up almost 14.5% on the year. The $69 billion hedge fund's Market Neutral Tops fund, meanwhile, returned 1.75% in November contributing to a 21.49% year return, said a separate source with knowledge of the fund's performance. The $13 billion Winton Capital returned 0.3% in its multi-strategy fund adding to an 8.8% performance for 2024. In its Diversified Macro fund, November's return came in at 0.2% to add to a 2.9% performance for the year, a third source said. Returns for Capital Fund Management's funds ranged from just over 8% in the CFM Stratus Fund to 18.88% in the $15.5 billion hedge funds' IS Trends fund, said a fourth source. Global hedge fund performance came in at 1.4% for the month of November following two months of flat returns, said a JPMorgan prime brokerage note on Tuesday, seen by Reuters on Wednesday. Stock trading hedge funds globally both posted around a 2% return, helped by investments in North American stocks, it said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/stocks-currencies-boost-european-hedge-fund-returns-november-sources-say-2024-12-04/