2024-09-30 20:04

Forty dead in North Carolina's Buncombe County National death toll over 100 and expected to climb Hundreds unaccounted for due to severed communications, closed roads Biden to visit Wednesday, may seek more recovery funds from Congress BAT CAVE, North Carolina, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Crews on Monday airlifted emergency food and water into remote North Carolina towns that were cut off and devastated by tropical storm Helene that turned the western part of the state into a "post apocalyptic" landscape. Helene was a hurricane when it slammed into the Florida Gulf coast on Thursday, tearing a destructive path through southeastern states for days on end, ripping up roads, tossing homes about and severing lines of communication. In its wake, hundreds of people were unaccounted for and many feared dead. The storm killed more than 100 people in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee and Virginia. The death toll is expected to rise once rescue teams reach isolated towns and emergency telecommunications assets come online. Throughout North Carolina, some 300 roads were closed, more than 7,000 people registered for U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency assistance, and the National Guard was flying 1,000 tons of food and water to remote areas by plane and helicopter, officials told the news briefing. Among the demolished towns was the tiny hamlet of Bat Cave, about 100 miles (160 km) west of Charlotte, where in what climate scientists are describing as a 1,000-year event the Broad River rose to unprecedented levels, washed away homes and broke through the town's bridge. In the aftermath of the storm, people gingerly crossed a gap in the bridge on a wobbly plank. Aaron Smith, 31, his wife and two young sons sat in front of the Bat Cave fire station with one suitcase among them. It was all they could save after the Hickory Creek rose into a torrent, demolishing three of the four walls of their home and sending a boulder through a bedroom wall. "There's no roads, there's no evidence of roads, there's no trees, it's just water and stuff," Smith said. "When it comes to where we going to go from here, I guess anywhere but here. I don't see anything to go back to." Private helicopters tried to land in Bat Cave to evacuate people, but locals waved them away from a bridge that appeared ready to collapse. Firefighters spray-painted "DON'T LAND" on the structure. Bat Cave is just upstream from the village of Chimney Rock which was largely destroyed by the wall of water surging down the Broad River, according to emergency responders. The river flows into Lake Lure, which was full of the remains of homes, trees and other debris. Charlotte City Councilman Tariq Bokhari posted a video on X showing the devastation at Lake Lure, calling it "post-apocalyptic." "It's so overwhelming. You don't even know how to fathom what recovery looks like, let alone where to start," Bokhari wrote. 'BEYOND BELIEF' The U.S. government, states and localities were engaged in a massive recovery effort throughout the southeast. People were stranded without running water and 1.8 million homes and businesses remained without power on Monday, according to the website Poweroutage.us. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp said on Monday at least 25 people in his state had died, including a firefighter responding to emergency calls during the storm and a mother and her 1-month-old twins who were killed by a falling tree. South Carolina reported at least 29 dead. CNN put the national death toll at 128, citing state and local officials, including 56 in North Carolina. In North Carolina's mountainous Buncombe County, which includes the tourist destination of Asheville, 40 people have died, the county manager said at a news briefing. North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper took an aerial tour of the damage and said "significant resources" would be needed in the short and long term. "The devastation was beyond belief, and even when you prepare for something like this, this is something that's never happened before in western North Carolina. Search and rescue teams are continuing to work," Cooper told a news briefing. Some 1,200 federal personnel were on the ground in addition to state and local responders, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was planning major debris removal. About 3,000 federal personnel were deployed throughout the region, FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell told CNN. President Joe Biden, attributing the storm's devastation to climate change, said he would visit North Carolina on Wednesday and Georgia and Florida soon after. He may also ask Congress to return to Washington for a special session to pass supplemental aid funding. "There's nothing like wondering, 'is my husband, wife, son, daughter, mother, father alive?'" Biden said at the White House. "Many more will remain without electricity, water, food and communications, and whose homes and businesses are washed away in an instant. I want them to know we're not leaving until the job is done." Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/hurricane-helene-leaves-dozens-dead-many-missing-across-us-southeast-2024-09-30/

2024-09-30 20:04

CVS gains after report Glenview to meet with executives Investors digest Powell comments at conference Indexes up: Dow up 0.04%, S&P 500 up 0.4%, Nasdaq up 0.4% NEW YORK, Sept 30 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 sputtered to a record high close on Monday, rebounding from a brief setback after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the U.S. central bank is in no hurry to implement further interest rate cuts. The Dow also posted an all-time closing high. The three major U.S. stock indexes registered gains for the quarter and for the month. Powell, at a National Association for Business Economics conference in Nashville, Tennessee, said he sees two more rate cuts, totaling 50 basis points, this year as a baseline if the economy evolves as expected. "The majority of investors think all of the Fed's activities are baked in for the remainder of the year. (But) I think there's more to 2024 Fed than maybe we know about," said Jake Dollarhide, chief executive officer of Longbow Asset Management in Tulsa, Oklahoma. "In fact, the soft landing could actually happen." The Fed earlier this month began a new easing cycle with a large 50 basis point rate cut. Traders are pricing in a 35% chance of a 50 basis point reduction in November, down from around 37% before Powell's speech and 53% on Friday, the CME Group's FedWatch Tool showed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) , opens new tab rose 17.15 points, or 0.04%, to 42,330.15. The S&P 500 (.SPX) , opens new tab gained 24.31 points, or 0.42%, at 5,762.48 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) , opens new tab advanced 69.58 points, or 0.38%, to 18,189.17. For the month, the S&P 500 gained 2% and posted its best September since 2013 and a fifth straight month of increases. For the quarter, the S&P 500 rose 5.5%, the Nasdaq gained 2.6% and the Dow climbed 8.2%. The S&P 500 extended losses following Powell's remarks but recovered heading into the close. Strategists said quarter-end activity could have also helped the market late in the day. "You've got momentum trading and classic window dressing at the end of the quarter, where you're buying the winners and selling the losers," Dollarhide said. Quincy Krosby, chief global strategist at LPL Financial in Charlotte, North Carolina, noted that the Fed will have much more data to review before its November meeting. Key economic reports due this week include jobless claims and monthly payrolls. CVS Health (CVS.N) , opens new tab rose 2.4% after a report showed hedge fund Glenview Capital Management will meet top executives at the healthcare company to propose ways to improve operations. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by a 1.06-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.00-to-1 ratio favored advancers. The S&P 500 posted 30 new 52-week highs and two new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 82 new highs and 88 new lows. Volume on U.S. exchanges was 12.64 billion shares, compared with the 11.93 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/wall-st-eyes-lower-start-data-loaded-week-powells-comments-awaited-2024-09-30/

2024-09-30 19:42

Fed's reverse repo facility sees quarter-end surge Facility likely to shrink again Reverse repos ebbing amid Fed balance sheet contraction NEW YORK, Sept 30 (Reuters) - The New York Federal Reserve said eligible firms on Monday parked the largest amount of cash in its reverse repo facility since late June, in a move almost certainly tied to the end of the third quarter. The regional Fed bank said $465.6 billion was placed in its reverse repo facility, the highest level of inflows since the end of the last quarter, when on June 28 reverse repo usage stood at $664.6 billion. Quarter-end dates generally see surging inflows that quickly abate, and that's what analysts and market participants expect to see happen this time. The Fed's reverse repo facility takes in cash mainly from money market funds, with the interest rate offered on the facility setting a soft floor underneath all short-term rates. The reverse repo facility has been widely looked to as a proxy for excessive liquidity in the financial system. The overall level of the reverse repo facility has been falling for some time as the Fed has removed pandemic-era stimulus by allowing Treasury and mortgage securities it owns to expire and not be replaced. That's taken overall Fed holdings down from a peak of around $9 trillion in the summer of 2022 to the current level of about $7.1 trillion. Most of the Fed's balance sheet reduction so far has taken place on the back of cash leaving the reverse repo facility in search of better private market rates. The reserve repo facility, after seeing effectively zero inflows at the start of 2021, peaked at just over $2.6 trillion at the end of 2022. Since that summit, the overall trajectory of the facility has been toward uneven contraction. The main question is whether the reverse repo tool will return to negligible usage at some point, as many officials at the Fed expect. Market participants generally believe that for a variety of reasons some firms may have decided to keep some cash with the Fed rather than in the private market. When the reverse repo facility reaches its nadir, ongoing central bank balance sheet contraction will turn toward draining what has so far been largely a steady level of bank reserves. The Fed's overall strategy is to withdraw enough liquidity to maintain control over its benchmark overnight interest rate and to allow for normal money market volatility. Officials do not know where that point is, however, even as Fed policymakers believe they still have some distance to go in shedding bond holdings. On Friday, Roberto Perli, who leads the implementation of monetary policy at the New York Fed, said "I believe there is plenty of room to continue shrinking" Fed holdings amid evidence of still ample liquidity in markets. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/final-day-quarter-sees-cash-surge-into-reverse-repo-facility-2024-09-30/

2024-09-30 19:41

Sept 30 (Reuters) - New York Governor Kathy Hochul said an impending East Coast and Gulf Coast port strike set to start early on Tuesday could result in significant disruptions but urged residents not to stockpile food. "We're deeply concerned about the impact a strike could have on our supply chains, especially when it comes to critical goods like medical supplies and others," Hochul told a news conference on Monday saying the state "fully anticipates" a strike will take place. The gates of the marine terminals in New York and northern New Jersey will be closed at 5 p.m. ET (2100 GMT) ahead of a work stoppage, said Rick Cotton, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. If 45,000 union members walk off the job at ports stretching from Maine to Texas, it would be the first coast-wide strike by the International Longshoremen's Association since 1977, affecting ports that handle about half the nation's ocean shipping. Cotton said close to 100,000 cargo containers will be stored at the port during the strike with another 35 ships headed to the port over the next week. They would remain at anchor during the strike under the supervision of the U.S. Coast Guard. People should not be concerned about losing access to essential goods if a strike begins, Hochul said. "We don't think there will be a disruption to the food supply," the New York governor said, but she added that if a work stoppage goes on for an extended period, it could impact shipments like bananas. "We don't anticipate shortages of essential goods anytime soon." Hochul said the state recently reminded hospitals and nursing homes across New York of the requirement to maintain a 60-day stockpile of personal protective equipment and other critical goods. "We're really focused on medical supplies," Hochul said. She said some consumers might not get an automobile on the same timetable they are expecting or other consumer goods. "This will be a major disruption for thousands and thousands of independent truckers as well," Hochul added. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/new-york-governor-says-state-is-bracing-ports-strike-impact-2024-09-30/

2024-09-30 19:27

Network disruptions are fully restored, Verizon says Chicago and Seattle among hardest-hit cities, iPhone users stuck in 'SOS' mode Outage began at 9:30 am ET, peaked at 105,000 reports by 11:19 am ET, according to Downdetector.com WASHINGTON, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Verizon has fully restored a network disruption that impacted thousands of customers in the U.S. The Federal Communications Commission said earlier on Monday it was investigating the company's network outage across the U.S. after thousands of users reported outages. Verizon said in a statement later on Monday that the service has returned to normal levels. Chicago and Seattle were among the hardest-hit cities and some iPhone users were stuck in "SOS" mode. According to the tracking website Downdetector.com, the outage began at around 9:30 a.m. ET and there were 28,842 reports as of 5:02 p.m. ET, with regions including Minneapolis, Phoenix, Omaha and Denver among the most reported areas being affected. Verizon Communications (VZ.N) , opens new tab said earlier in the day that its engineers were making progress on the network issue and service has started to be restored. "We apologize for any inconvenience some of our customers experienced today," Verizon said, without providing further details on the reason behind the outage. There were about 105,000 reports around 11:19 a.m. ET, at the peak of the outage, according to Downdetector.com. The FCC said it was "working to determine the cause and extent of these service disruptions." Some Verizon users said on social media platform X that their phones were stuck in "SOS" mode. "SOS" appears in the status bars of iPhones if the device is not connected to a cellular network but can still make emergency calls through other carriers, according to Apple's (AAPL.O) , opens new tab website. The outage tracking website also showed 448 incident reports by AT&T (T.N) , opens new tab users as of 5:15 p.m ET, but the carrier said it was not experiencing a nationwide outage and the network was operating normally. "Downdetector is likely reflecting challenges our customers are having attempting to connect to users on another network," AT&T said. Sector rival AT&T faced nationwide wireless outages in February that lasted over 12 hours and impacted more than 70,000 customers. The FCC is investigating the AT&T outage, which blocked more than 92 million voice calls and prevented more than 25,000 attempts to reach 911, the agency said. News of the Verizon outage came hours after the company announced a deal to give infrastructure firm Vertical Bridge rights to lease, operate and manage 6,339 mobile towers across the U.S. for $3.3 billion. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/verizons-network-down-thousands-users-downdetector-shows-2024-09-30/

2024-09-30 17:07

Bostic focused on any signs of labor market weakness Atlanta Fed chief sees 'orderly' easing in next 15 months It is useful for policy to still be restrictive, he says NASHVILLE, Tennessee, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Atlanta Federal Reserve President Raphael Bostic said on Monday he would be open to another half-percentage-point interest rate cut at the U.S. central bank's meeting in November if upcoming data show job growth slowing faster than expected. "A surprise to the weak side .... would pull me much further into really needing another dramatic move," Bostic said in an interview with Reuters. Bostic said his baseline outlook was for an "orderly" Fed easing over the next 15 months that would end with the central bank's policy rate in the 3.00%-3.25% range at the end of 2025 - a level he thinks would have a neutral impact on the economy and which would be 1.75 percentage points below the level set by the Fed at its Sept. 17-18 meeting. At the policy meeting earlier this month, Bostic said he penciled in just a single further quarter-percentage-point rate cut this year beyond the half-percentage-point reduction he and his colleagues approved. But he said his mind is open depending on how fast inflation slows from here and, in particular, what upcoming job reports say about the state of the labor market, beginning with the release on Friday of the U.S. employment report for September. Data last week showed headline inflation, based on the Fed's preferred personal consumption expenditures price index, slowed to 2.2% in August, near the central bank's 2% target, and "the big takeaway for me was that the risks of inflation are continuing to fall," Bostic said. "If the story is that inflation is continuing its drop and the labor market is staying strong, I think we have the luxury of being a bit more patient" with rate cuts, said Bostic, who has a vote on the Fed's interest rate policy this year. "If, on the other hand, the labor market comes in much weaker, I think that would add urgency to this." Bostic said he did not "want to get caught in some degree of over-confidence that the pathway on inflation is short," and noted that the PCE price index stripped of food and energy costs, the so-called "core" measure of inflation that is regarded as a good indicator of future price pressures, was still running at 2.7% last month. "It is useful and positive for us to still be in a restrictive posture" until there is more data showing inflation in decline, Bostic said. KEY JOB GROWTH LEVEL Bostic's comments and changing outlook over the course of the year highlight the balancing act underway at the Fed right now as concerns grow about how quickly the U.S. job market might soften. Earlier this year Bostic said he did not expect rate cuts would be warranted until late this year, but he supported the large cut in September, with more to come, after inflation eased faster than he anticipated. He said he regarded recent inflation readings that on a month-to-month basis have been below the Fed's 2% target as "a positive," and did not regard them as "dangerously low" or a sign that monetary policy had been kept too tight for too long. In terms of the job market, Bostic said he will be focused on whether the economy is "still producing net jobs" and, in particular, whether monthly job growth stays around 100,000 positions or above - the level he feels is needed to absorb entrants to the labor market. If job growth falls below that "we'll ask another layer of questions to understand ... is that pointing to something that's more fundamental?" Bostic said. Business contacts in his southeastern Fed district continue to say they are not anticipating layoffs, Bostic said, and that "really does tell me that labor markets, while they're slowing, they're not slow." If that continues, he said the journey to a more neutral rate of interest will unfold "in due time ... in a way that ensures that inflation is back at target, and in a way that minimizes the disruption in labor markets. The month-to-month data that come in will tell to what extent we've achieved that, and that'll guide how fast I think we will need to move." Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/feds-bostic-open-another-large-rate-cut-if-job-market-weakens-2024-09-30/