2024-10-30 11:14

TSX ends down 0.2% at 24,507.79 Materials group falls 1% Technology ends 0.8% lower Loonie touches a 12-week low at 1.3940 Oct 30 (Reuters) - Canada's commodity-linked main stock index ended lower on Wednesday as investors took profit in high-flying metal mining shares and weighed the potential for a weaker Canadian dollar to revive inflation. The S&P/TSX composite index (.GSPTSE) , opens new tab ended down 54.76 points, or 0.2%, at 24,507.79, its seventh decline in eight trading days since notching a record closing high. "Canada is following global sentiment which is a little bit weaker," said Ben Jang, a portfolio manager at Nicola Wealth. "It's investors taking profits where they can." Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem and Senior Deputy Governor Carolyn Rogers were due to appear before the Standing Senate Committee on Banking, Commerce and the Economy after the closing bell. The central bank has eased interest rates by one and a quarter percentage points since June to support the economy. "We need to cut rates but if we cut rates too aggressively, we'll weaken the (Canadian) dollar too much ... the weaker dollar effectively importing inflation," Jang said. The Canadian currency has weakened 3.5% since late September to 1.39 per U.S. dollar or 71.94 U.S. cents. Earlier on Wednesday it touched a 12-week low at 1.3940. The materials sector, which includes fertilizer companies and metal mining shares, fell 1% even as the price of gold extended its record-setting run. The sector has advanced 34% since the start of the year. Technology was also a drag, falling 0.8%. Industrials ended 0.4% lower. Not all sectors lost ground. Consumer staples rose 1.3%, while energy added 0.3% as the price of oil settled 2.1% higher at $68.61 a barrel. Shares of Secure Energy Services Inc (SES.TO) , opens new tab jumped 9.9% after the company reported third-quarter results. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/tsx-futures-fall-ahead-us-economic-data-2024-10-30/

2024-10-30 11:04

BERN, Oct 30 (Reuters) - The Swiss National Bank will develop a new banknote series, the central bank said on Wednesday, underscoring the country's love affair with physical money despite the rise of mobile payment apps and cashless payments. Around one in three payments in Switzerland is made with cash, the SNB said, adding it was convinced that cash will remain a widely used means of payment in future. "It is impossible to imagine Switzerland without cash," said SNB Chair Martin Schlegel. "Cash is and will remain a popular method of payment. "While cards and apps are being used ever more frequently for payments, there is no question that the Swiss population continues to hold cash in high regard," he told a press conference in Bern. The SNB, which last launched a new range of bank notes between 2016 and 2019, said the new notes would likely be introduced in the early 2030s. "The SNB is convinced that cash will continue to play an important role as a payment method and store of value in the future," Schlegel said. "Therefore ongoing development in terms of security technology and the redesign of the banknotes is of pivotal importance." Cash is still used in 25.7% of transactions in Switzerland, only slightly less than debit cards (26.2%) while mobile payments are now the most popular payment method with 26.8%, according to a study by the Zurich University of Applied Sciences and the University of St Gallen. Elsewhere the demand for paper money is declining with British consumers and businesses using cash in just 12% of transactions last year, a record low. In the United States, a Federal Reserve survey showed cash made up 16% of payments last year, down from 31% in 2016, while a European Central Bank study found cash was still used for 59% of face-to-face transactions in the euro zone in 2022. A competition will be held for the designs for the new notes, which will have the theme "Switzerland and its altitudes", recognising the country's Alpine landscape. The draft designs will be presented to the public next year, and the winners announced in 2026. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/swiss-national-bank-develop-new-banknote-series-2024-10-30/

2024-10-30 11:01

WASHINGTON, Oct 30 (Reuters) - The Bill Gates' funded reactor company TerraPower and ASP Isotopes (ASPI.O) , opens new tab said on Wednesday they have struck a deal to produce a new fuel, now only made in commercial amounts in Russia, for an expected next generation of nuclear power plants. WHY IT'S IMPORTANT Nuclear power gets support from both major U.S. political parties, but Russia is the only major supplier of the fuel, called high assay low enriched uranium, or HALEU, for the new reactors companies plan to build. U.S. companies are racing to make HALEU for a potential wave of next-generation small modular reactors including TerraPower's $4 billion Natrium plant in Wyoming, planned to be built at an old coal plant. After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, TerraPower had to delay the start date of Natrium by about two years to 2030. The U.S. wants to support new HALEU suppliers and this month started issuing contracts to four U.S.-based companies for HALEU. WHERE WOULD THE HALEU PLANT BE BUILT? The companies did not disclose where the HALEU plant would be built. A corporate source said it would likely be built in South Africa. KEY QUOTE The head of TerraPower said the facility will complement a variety of HALEU suppliers in development. "We know the HALEU supply was seen as a challenge and we're kind of solving it with a belt and suspenders approach," Chris Levesque, TerraPower's president and chief executive told Reuters. BY THE NUMBERS The companies did not reveal financial details of the deal, which they called a "term sheet." APSI's chief executive Paul Mann said the facility could be started with tens of millions of dollars instead of billions of dollars needed for some plans to make HALEU. HALEU is uranium fuel enriched up to 20% compared to fuel used in today's U.S. reactors which is only enriched up to about 5%. Non-proliferation experts have warned that HALEU could be a weapons risk if it got into the wrong hands, and that fuel enriched to 10% to 12% would be safer. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/gates-backed-reactor-company-asp-isotopes-plan-plant-make-nuclear-fuel-2024-10-30/

2024-10-30 10:44

Oct 30 (Reuters) - Shell (SHEL.L) , opens new tab on Wednesday said it had completed a clean-up of the channel between Bukom Besar and Kechil Islands near the original source of an oil leak in Bukom, Singapore on Tuesday. "A joint inspection with authorities was conducted yesterday and authorities have signed off on the status of our completion effort," it said in a statement. The company had reported on Oct. 20 that there was an oil leak from a land-based pipeline at Shell Energy and Chemicals Park Singapore on Bukom island. The company noted that there had been no impact to operations after around 30-40 metric tons of a mixture of oil and water leaked into the sea. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/shell-says-clean-up-effort-completed-after-oil-leak-bukom-singapore-2024-10-30/

2024-10-30 10:15

A look at the day ahead in U.S. and global markets from Mike Dolan Markets struggling which way to look will be dizzy again in an event-strewn Wednesday but the spotlight first thing drops on Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) , opens new tab impressive earnings beat and a relief-rally in election-bruised U.S. Treasuries. A critical fortnight for investors includes next week's U.S. election and Federal Reserve meeting, GDP updates later on Wednesday, the October employment report on Friday, a Bank of Japan policy meeting and pivotal first budget from Britain's new government. With a torrent of top corporate earnings reports streaming in to boot, the overnight focus was on Google-parent Alphabet's update - the second of the so-called Magnificent Seven of U.S. megacaps to report so far. Microsoft and Meta are due out later. Alphabet stock was up about 2% ahead of the bell after the beat with the firm saying its artificial intelligence spend was "paying off" alongside a 35% surge in its cloud business and an election-related jump in YouTube ad sales. Even though all the megacaps were higher overnight in sympathy, Alphabet's stock rise was tempered from an initial 5% gain - due in part to more mixed earnings news elsewhere. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.O) , opens new tab, for example, skidded 7% after it forecast revenue just shy of estimates, even as it upped its AI chip sales forecast to $5 billion for 2025. AI-watchers also homed in on news that OpenAI is working with Broadcom (AVGO.O) , opens new tab and TSMC (2330.TW) , opens new tab to build its first in-house chip designed to support its AI systems. With the tech-heavy Nasdaq (.IXIC) , opens new tab outperforming on Tuesday to clock its first record close since July, U.S. stock index futures more broadly were slightly higher ahead of Wednesday's open. Helping the mood was a retreat in restive U.S. Treasury yields , as news of a softening of U.S. job openings last month was twinned with strong demand for a $44 billion sale of 7-year notes. Those sold at a high yield of 4.215%, almost 2 basis points below where they traded before the auction, and the take-up was above average at 2.74 times the debt on offer. Even though U.S. consumer confidence readings for October were better than forecast, the 10-year benchmark yield has recoiled more than 10 bp from Tuesday's peak to hover about 4.22% first thing. U.S. GDP updates and private sector jobs numbers top the slate on Wednesday - with brisk 3.0% growth expected to be confirmed for the third quarter alongside headline inflation readings near the Federal Reserve's target. EUROPEAN ECONOMY Overseas, there was better news than expected in Europe - with Germany defying forecasts of a contraction in Q3 and advancing 0.2% instead, while Spain's equivalent readout also surprised to the upside and jumped an annual 3.4%. France did better too, but Italy stalled over the quarter. And yet dark clouds over the European economy were hard to shift as the European Union on Tuesday decided to increase tariffs on Chinese-built electric vehicles to as much as 45.3% at the end of its highest profile investigation that has divided Europe and prompted retaliation from Beijing. The prospect of an EU/China trade war was compounded by U.S. election risks as Republican candidate Donald Trump insisted the EU would have to "pay a big price" for not buying enough American exports if he won the Nov. 5 election. Also facing a barrage of earnings updates in the region, European stocks (.STOXXE) , opens new tab fell almost 1% - with Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) , opens new tab underscoring auto sector anxieties by reporting a 42% drop in third-quarter profit that is prompting plant closures and threats of a workers strike. And yet the combination of softer U.S. yields and the German GDP beat saw the euro regain some ground against the dollar, whose broader index (.DXY) , opens new tab slipped back. Post-election U.S. tariff fears dragged on Chinese stocks (.CSI300) , opens new tab, (.HSI) , opens new tab too, with both mainland and Hong Kong indexes down 1% or more. A top Chinese leadership meeting next week could reveal stimulus details and Reuters has reported it is considering the sale of over 10 trillion yuan ($1.4 trillion) in extra debt in the next few years to revive its economy - possibly more depending on the outcome of the U.S. election where Trump has pledged 60% tariffs on all Chinese imports. The offshore yuan bounced back from Tuesday's 2-month low against the softer dollar. Elsewhere, sterling was steady to firmer and UK gilt yields calmer ahead of the other big event of the day - budget plans from British finance minister Rachel Reeves. Reeves' tax rises and investment spending plans are expected to push UK government bond issuance towards 300 billion pounds ($389 billion) this fiscal year, a roughly 6% increase on the existing target, according to a Reuters poll of bond dealers. Ahead of the widely telegraphed set piece, Reeves said on Tuesday Britain's minimum wage for most adults would increase by 6.7% from April next year, above prior independent estimates of a 3.9% rise. Britain's blue-chip FTSE stock index (.FTSE) , opens new tab was slightly in the red ahead of the budget, hampered by a 3.5% drop in pharma giant GSK (GSK.L) , opens new tab after it warned that its vaccine sales would fall this year. Other big earnings reports included a UBS beat (UBSG.S) , opens new tab that sent the stock of the Swiss banking behemoth up 1%. Key developments that should provide more direction to U.S. markets later on Wednesday: * US Q3 GDP and related inflation measures, October ADP private sector payrolls, September pending home sales * US corporate earnings: Microsoft, Meta Platforms, Eli Lilly, Amgen, AbbVie, BioGen, Metlife, Prudential Financial, Caterpillar, Kraft Heinz, Paycom Software, Global Payments, Automatic Data Processing, Gen Digital, Cognizant Technology, Verisk, Clorox, Ventas, GE Healthcare, Equinix, Allstate, Hess, Garmin, Booking, MGM Resorts, Otis, Illinois Tool Works etc * British finance minister Rachel Reeves presents first budget of new Labour Party government * European Central Bank board member Isabel Schnabel speaks; Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem speaks Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/global-markets-view-usa-pix-2024-10-30/

2024-10-30 09:59

LONDON, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Gauges of expected volatility in currencies jumped on Wednesday as investors braced for the U.S. presidential election, which could result in big changes to economic policy and swings in the dollar. Single-week implied volatility in the euro-dollar currency pair surged to its highest level since March 2023, when the U.S. was dealing with a mini-banking crisis, LSEG data showed. It was set for its biggest one-day rise since 2017. Implied single-week sterling-dollar volatility also hit its highest since March. The measures are derived from the prices of options, which investors use to hedge against - and bet on - moves in the underlying currencies. One-week options contracts now cover the day after the election on Nov. 5, in which Republican former president Donald Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris are neck and neck in polls. Investors in recent weeks have taken their cues from betting markets, however, which have shown increased chances of a Trump victory that could lead to higher tariffs and fiscal deficits, both potentially pushing up U.S interest rates and boosting the dollar. "The binary nature of next week's contest implies significant FX moves after the event," Barclays strategists, led by Marek Raczko, said in a research note. "The market expects the bulk of the FX reaction to materialise in the week around the election. This can be justified by two things: first, the result might still be uncertain on the day after the election, and second, the Fed (U.S. Federal Reserve) is scheduled to meet this same week." The dollar index rose to a three-month high of 104.63 on Tuesday, driven partly by recent strong U.S data and partly by investors' rising expectations of a Trump victory. Past U.S. elections have elicited an even bigger response in the run-up to the event. The week before the 2016 election, which Trump won, one-week euro implied volatility hit nearly 14%, while one-week sterling implied volatility topped 13%. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/currency-volatility-surges-before-us-election-2024-10-30/