2024-11-22 02:49

MUMBAI, Nov 22 (Reuters) - The Indian rupee is expected to stay on the back foot on Friday, pressured by a rebound in the dollar amid uncertainty about the pace of rate cuts in the United States, while persistent portfolio outflows also remain a worry for the local currency. The one-month non-deliverable forward indicated that the rupee will open little changed at 84.48-84.49 against the U.S. dollar. The rupee weakened to an all-time low of 84.4925 on Thursday, pressured by outflows from local stocks. Foreign investors net pulled out more than $600 million from Indian stocks on Thursday, according to provisional exchange data. Intervention by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) helped the rupee limit its losses amid pressure from the outflows. "At these levels, the central bank is likely to remain active and only allow gradual rise (in USD/INR) of no more than 6-8 paisa in a day," a trader at a large private bank said. The dollar index, meanwhile, rose to its highest level in more than a year on Thursday and was last quoted marginally lower at 107.06 in Asia trading. Recent comments from some U.S. Federal Reserve officials have indicated the central bank may slow its rate cuts, helping the dollar. Data on Thursday showed that the number of Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefits fell to a seven-month low, signalling resilience in the U.S. economy. "Interest rate differentials and geopolitical concerns in the Russia Ukraine war continued to work in favour of the dollar," MUFG Bank said in a note. Russia fired a missile at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Thursday in response to the U.S. and UK's decisions allowing Kyiv to strike Russian territory with advanced Western weapons. Asian currencies were mixed on the day, with the Thai baht down 0.2%, while the Korean won, Indonesian rupiah and Philippine peso nudged higher. KEY INDICATORS: ** One-month non-deliverable rupee forward at 84.61; onshore one-month forward premium at 12.25 paisa ** Dollar index at 107.06 ** Brent crude futures up 0.4% at $74.6 per barrel ** Ten-year U.S. note yield at 4.42% ** As per NSDL data, foreign investors sold a net $227.2mln worth of Indian shares on Nov. 19 ** NSDL data shows foreign investors bought a net $4.9mln worth of Indian bonds on Nov. 19 Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/dollar-rebound-persistent-outflows-keep-rupee-under-pressure-2024-11-22/

2024-11-22 02:29

Wall Street stocks finish higher Euro hits two-year low on poor data, higher gas prices Gold rises above the $2,700 Bitcoin on verge of $100,000 threshold NEW YORK, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Global stocks registered a strong weekly gain on Friday while U.S. Treasury yields slipped as markets eyed President-elect Donald Trump's likely policies and their impact on the U.S. economy, even as bitcoin traded near the $100,000 threshold. Traders are bracing for Trump's agenda after he takes office in January, which is expected to include tariffs, tax cuts and deregulation. Trump has been nominating senior officials in his administration, and markets are awaiting his pick for Treasury secretary. All three Wall Street indexes finished higher and each notched a weekly gain. Industrials, consumer discretionary, financials and consumer staples drove gains while communication services, utilities and technology equities were the biggest losers. Nvidia (NVDA.O) , opens new tab, the world's most valuable company, ended down 3.2% after the artificial intelligence chipmaker reported strong quarterly results but issued lacklustre sales forecasts. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) , opens new tab rose 0.97% to 44,296.51, the S&P 500 (.SPX) , opens new tab rose 0.35% to 5,969.34 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) , opens new tab rose 0.16% to 19,003.65. Europe's Stoxx 600 (.STOXX) , opens new tab share index ended the week 1% higher, snapping four straight weeks of losses. MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe (.MIWD00000PUS) , opens new tab rose 0.33% to 854.22 and gained about 1.4% for the week. "The earnings of Nvidia were really solid and the market traded off a little bit but I don't think it was a major event that it could have been," said Mark Malek, chief investment officer at SiebertNXT in New York. "So we put that behind us and when we look at what else might be driving the market this week ... People are starting to think about what has happened to the market since Trump was elected and some of the appointments he's been making." The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes fell 1.4 basis points to 4.418%, as markets reassess future rate cuts from the Federal Reserve given expectations that some of Trump's policies could be inflationary. The market is now pricing in a 53% probability the Fed will cut rates by 25 basis points in December. Bets that Trump's administration will take a lighter-touch approach to regulation also propelled bitcoin to the brink of $100,000 for the first time. The world's largest cryptocurrency gained 1.33% to $99,384.00. Ethereum declined 1.59% to $3,295.40. The euro fell to a two-year low while the dollar gained after gauges of business activity were released in each region. A gauge of the U.S. manufacturing sector compiled by S&P Global increased to 55.3 this month, the highest level since April 2022. A similar gauge for the euro zone sank to a 10-month low of 48.1 in November. The dollar index , which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, rose 0.43% to 107.52, with the euro down 0.56% at $1.0414 after falling to $1.0333, its lowest since Nov. 30, 2022. Oil prices climbed about 1%, settling at a two-week high, driven by the intensifying Russia-Ukraine conflict. Brent futures rose 1.3% to settle at $75.17 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose 1.6% to settle at $71.24. Gold prices breached the $2,700 threshold for the first time in two weeks, on track for their biggest weekly gain in over a year. Spot gold rose 1.37% to $2,706.39 an ounce. U.S. gold futures settled 1.4% higher at $2,712.20. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/global-markets-wrapup-1-2024-11-22/

2024-11-22 02:11

India's Gautam Adani charged in US over alleged bribes SEC investigation dates back at least two years FBI seized Adani nephew's electronics in 2023 NEW YORK, Nov 21 (Reuters) - In June of 2020, a renewable energy company owned by Indian billionaire Gautam Adani won what it called , opens new tab the single largest solar development bid ever awarded: an agreement to supply 8 gigawatts of electricity to a state-owned power company. But there was a problem. Local power companies did not want to pay the prices the state company was offering, jeopardizing the deal, according to U.S. authorities. To save the deal, Adani allegedly decided to bribe local officials to persuade them to buy the electricity. That allegation is at the heart of U.S. criminal and civil charges unsealed on Wednesday against Adani, who is not currently in U.S. custody and is believed to be in India. His company, Adani Group, said the charges were "baseless" and that it would seek "all possible legal recourse." The alleged hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes promised to local Indian officials caught the attention of the U.S. Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission as Adani's companies were raising funds from U.S.-based investors in several transactions starting in 2021. This account of how the alleged scheme unfolded is drawn from federal prosecutors' 54-page criminal indictment , opens new tab of Adani and seven of his associates and two parallel civil SEC complaints , opens new tab, which extensively cite electronic messages between the scheme's alleged participants. In early 2020, the Solar Energy Corporation of India awarded Adani Green Energy (ADNA.NS) , opens new tab and another company, Azure Power Global (AZREF.PK) , opens new tab, contracts for a 12-gigawatt solar energy project, expected to yield billions of dollars in revenue for both companies, according to the indictment. It was a major step forward for Adani Green Energy, run by Adani's nephew, Sagar Adani. Up until that point, the company had only earned roughly $50 million in its history and had yet to turn a profit, according to the SEC complaint. But the initiative soon hit roadblocks. Local state electricity distributors were reluctant to commit to buying the new solar power, expecting prices to fall in the future, according to an April 7, 2021 report , opens new tab by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, a think tank. Sagar Adani and the Azure CEO at the time discussed the delays and hinted at bribes , opens new tab on the encrypted messaging application WhatsApp, according to the SEC. When the Azure CEO wrote on Nov. 24, 2020, that the local power companies "are being motivated," Sagar Adani allegedly replied, "Yup ... but the optics are very difficult to cover. In February 2021, Sagar Adani allegedly wrote to the CEO, "Just so you know, we have doubled the incentives to push for these acceptances." The SEC did not name the Azure CEO as a defendant, but Azure's securities filings show the CEO at the time was Ranjit Gupta. Gupta was charged by the Justice Department with conspiracy to violate an anti-bribery law. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Azure said on Thursday it was cooperating with the U.S. investigations, and that the individuals involved with the accusations had left the company more than a year ago. 'SUDDEN GOOD FORTUNE' In August of 2021, Gautam Adani had the first of several meetings with an official in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, to whom he allegedly ultimately promised $228 million in bribes in exchange for agreeing to have the state buy the power, according to the Justice Department's indictment. By December, Andhra Pradesh had agreed to buy the power, and other states with smaller contracts soon followed. Other states' officials were promised bribes as well, U.S. authorities said. During a Dec. 6, 2021 meeting at a coffee shop, Azure executives allegedly discussed "rumors that the Adanis had somehow facilitated signing" of the deals, according to the SEC. Gautam Adani said , opens new tab on Dec. 14, 2021, the company was on track "to become the world's largest renewables player by 2030." "The sudden good fortune for Azure and Adani Green prompted speculation in the marketplace about the contract awards," the SEC wrote in its complaint. LETTER FROM THE SEC Before long, the SEC began to probe. The agency sent a "general inquiry" letter to Azure - which at the time traded on the New York Stock Exchange - on March 17, 2022, asking about its recent contracts and if foreign officials had sought anything of value, according to the Justice Department indictment. According to the Department of Justice, Gautam Adani told representatives of Azure during a meeting in his Ahmedabad, India office the next month that he expected to be reimbursed more than $80 million for the bribes he had paid officials that ultimately benefited Azure's contracts. Some Azure representatives and a leading investor in the company decided to pay Adani back by allowing his company to take over a potentially profitable project. The representatives and investor allegedly agreed to tell Azure's board of directors that Adani had requested bribe money, but hid their role in the scheme, prosecutors said. All the while, Adani's companies were raising billions of dollars in loans and bonds through international banks, including from U.S. investors. In four separate fundraising transactions between 2021 and 2024, the companies sent investors documents indicating that they had not paid bribes - statements prosecutors say are false and constitute fraud. FBI SEARCH During a visit to the United States on March 17, 2023, FBI agents seized Sagar Adani's electronic devices. The agents handed him a search warrant from a judge indicating that the U.S. government was investigating potential violations of fraud statutes and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. According to prosecutors, Gautam Adani emailed himself photographs of each page of the search warrant on March 18, 2023. His companies nonetheless went through with a $1.36 billion syndicated loan agreement on Dec. 5, 2023, and another sale of secured notes in March 2024, and once again furnished investors with misleading information about their anti-bribery practices, according to prosecutors. On Oct. 24, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn secured a secret grand jury indictment against Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani, Gupta, and five others allegedly involved in the scheme. The indictment was unsealed on Nov. 20, prompting a $27 billion plunge in Adani Group companies' market value. Adani Green Energy promptly canceled a scheduled $600 million bond sale. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/india/how-indian-billionaire-gautam-adanis-alleged-bribery-scheme-took-off-unraveled-2024-11-22/

2024-11-22 00:19

Dec 13 (Reuters) - British consumer morale hit a four-month high in December as households grew cheerier about their finances, a survey showed on Friday, in good news for finance minister Rachel Reeves after other indicators showed a post-budget slide in business sentiment. The monthly consumer confidence index from market research firm GfK rose to -17 in December from -18 in November, the highest reading since August. A Reuters poll of economists had pointed to an unchanged reading. GfK's measures of past and future financial confidence also rose to four-month highs, while the other components - economic confidence and major purchase intentions - were steady. Overall the readings added to signs that consumers remain relatively confident about the outlook, in contrast to a sharp dip in business confidence after Reeves' Oct. 30 budget imposed sharp tax increases on employers. A separate YouGov/Cebr survey published on Wednesday showed consumer confidence ticked higher this month, despite a drop in perceived job security. Neil Bellamy, consumer insights director at NIQ GfK, said consumers were still uncertain about making big-ticket purchases and highlighted consumers' relatively weak confidence about the overall economy compared to their own finances. "We will need to see robust improvements in these perceptions of the economy before we can start talking about sustained improvements in the consumer mood," Bellamy said. Most forecasters think Reeves' budget will temporarily improve Britain's economic growth rate next year, although recent data - such as retail sales - has disappointed of late. Gross domestic product data for October is due at 0700 GMT. The GfK survey of 2,015 people was conducted between Nov. 28 and Dec. 9. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk-consumers-cheer-up-bit-budget-nerves-lift-gfk-survey-shows-2024-11-22/

2024-11-22 00:14

SAO PAULO, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Brazilian meatpacker JBS (JBSS3.SA) , opens new tab said on Thursday it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Nigeria's government for a $2.5 billion investment plan in the African country, including the building of six new factories. In a statement, JBS said three of the factories would deal in poultry, two in beef and one in pork. Based on the memorandum of understanding, JBS said it will build up a five-year investment plan in Nigeria, including feasibility studies, budget estimates and an action plan for local supply chain development. The government of Nigeria, in turn, would ensure the economic, sanitary and regulatory conditions needed for the project's viability, JBS added. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/brazilian-meatpacker-jbs-agrees-invest-25-bln-nigeria-build-six-factories-2024-11-22/

2024-11-21 23:59

LONDON, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Donald Trump has described the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) as a "green scam" and vowed to repeal it after he returns to the White House in January. This is bad news for sectors such as electric vehicles (EV) and wind power, which have been major recipients of the Biden administration's signature $369 billion energy transition legislation. But some of the "new green deal" money has also been channeled to the U.S. industrial base, such as the $75 million , opens new tab allocated for an upgrade of Constellium's aluminium rolling mill in West Virginia. Will this too be clawed back? It seems unlikely because when it comes to rebuilding U.S. industrial capacity and cutting the country's critical minerals dependency on China, there is remarkable cross-party consensus. Indeed, it was then-President Trump who in 2020 declared the country's "undue reliance" on "foreign adversaries" for critical minerals a national emergency , opens new tab. Trump in his second presidency is unlikely to reverse the drive to metallic self-sufficiency. He may even prove to be an accelerator. INVESTING IN AMERICA Both the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Department of Defense (DOD) have pumped billions of dollars into rebuilding U.S. metals capacity. The DOE has largely channeled funds to EV battery inputs such as lithium, manganese and graphite. The DOD has sprinkled the cash far more widely, targeting a spectrum of esoteric elements ranging from antimony , opens new tab to zirconium , opens new tab, including an unidentified "critical material" incongruously described as essential both for "the protection of human lives" and ammunition packaging. The Biden administration boasts that thanks to government largesse companies have announced $120 billion in investment in domestic battery and critical minerals capacity. Yet most of that investment has been concentrated on the downstream part of the supply chain. Seventeen new U.S. battery plants have been announced since the IRA came into effect in July 2022, boosting pipeline capacity by 68% through 2030, according to research house Benchmark Mineral Intelligence. When it comes to investing in the metals needed to supply those gigafactories, most of the projects receiving federal funds are those looking to enhance existing recycling capacity. New primary smelting projects remain conspicuous by their absence. Century Aluminum (CENX.O) , opens new tab has been awarded a potential $500 million to build a new aluminium smelter but there has been no update since the original announcement in March. Even the DOD's high-priority rare earths processing venture with Australia's Lynas Rare Earths (LYC.AX) , opens new tab has run into trouble. Earthworks at the Seadrift site in Texas have been put on hold due to problems getting a wastewater permit, Lynas said in its latest quarterly report. STUCK IN THE GROUND New smelting capacity needs new mines to supply it and that's where the U.S. minerals investment boom is still struggling to build momentum. Most of the funds committed to the mining sector have been directed at lithium, both for new mines such as Lithium Americas' (LAC.TO) , opens new tab Thacker Pass and multiple projects experimenting with direct extraction technology. South32's (S32.AX) , opens new tab Hermosa zinc-manganese project in Arizona is a non-lithium stand-out, qualifying for both DOD and DOE funds and the first mine to qualify for the Fast-41 , opens new tab accelerated permitting process. Many others, however, remain mired in the country's tortuous permitting process. The Biden administration has struggled to reconcile its desire to produce the metals needed for the green energy transition with its environmental credentials. Big copper projects such as the Pebble mine in Alaska and the Twin Metals project in Minnesota have been killed off. Trump has already promised to reverse Biden's 20-year ban on mining in the Superior National Forest in Minnesota in "about 10 to 15 minutes" of taking office. That in itself won't be a green light for the Twin Metals project, which would still have to get state permitting sign-off, but it's a sign that the Trump administration won't be hobbled by the green-on-green cabinet conflict that characterised the last four years. FOCUS ON CHINA A new Trump administration is also likely to take a much tougher line on critical metal imports from entities linked to China. Talon Metals (TLO.TO) , opens new tab has been allocated funds by both the DOD and DOE to progress its Tamarack nickel project in Minnesota and explore for more resource in the state. It's a tough time to be in the nickel business, though, as a mining boom in Indonesia has crushed prices and forced many existing operators out of business. Most of Indonesia's nickel capacity is controlled either directly or indirectly by Chinese entities, which has not stopped U.S. carmakers such as Ford (F.N) , opens new tab from joining the Indonesian nickel rush. Price has trumped politics when it comes to securing a key metal for EV batteries. Depending on the structure of the joint venture between Ford, Vale and China's Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt, the nickel from the new plant in Indonesia could even count as IRA-compliant and qualify for federal EV subsidies. Such sourcing ambiguity seems unlikely to survive the Make America Great Again focus of a new Republican administration. Indeed, every sign so far is that Trump 2.0 will double down on the U.S. minerals self-sufficiency drive, even if it means accepting that not all of the IRA funds are a "green scam". The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/trump-20-wont-reverse-bidens-critical-minerals-push-andy-home-2024-11-21/