2025-10-31 06:19

HOI AN, Oct 31 (Reuters) - The death toll from the heavy floods in central Vietnam has risen to 13, the government said on Friday, as residents of the flooded Hoi An started clean-up operations as the water levels began to subside. Floods triggered by record levels of rainfall have inundated a large swath of central Vietnam over the past days, with the UNESCO-listed former imperial capital Hue and Hoi An the worst hit. Sign up here. Photos circulating on state media showed that much of the two locations remained under flood water, with some houses submerged up to their roofs. Vietnam is prone to often deadly storms and flooding that cause widespread property damage, especially during the storm season from June until October. In Hoi An, a well-preserved ancient town that was once a bustling Southeast Asian trading port from the 15th to 19th centuries, floodwater began to recede Friday. "I have witnessed floods many times, and this is the worst I've ever seen," Hoi An resident Tran Van Tien, 60, told Reuters. Most of the tourists have cancelled their hotel bookings for Hoi An, which last year received more than 4.4 million visitors, including nearly 3.6 million foreign tourists. "Floodwater rose too quickly, causing significant property damage," said Nguyen Thi Thuy, a hotel manager, whose hotel has been closed since Monday. The floods have also left 11 people missing, inundated more than 116,000 houses and 5,000 hectares of crops, and damaged roads and railways, cutting off traffic and power in several areas, the government's disaster agency said in a report. Heavy rain is forecast to continue in central Vietnam, with daily rainfall exceeding 500 millimetres in some areas from early Friday until late Saturday, according to the report. "I hope that floods won't happen again so that we can reopen our hotel... We all rely on tourism here," Thuy said. https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/vietnam-flood-death-toll-rises-13-with-11-others-missing-2025-10-31/

2025-10-31 06:04

Amazon surges nearly 10% on strong cloud revenue growth Fed officials' comments boost dollar, dampen rate cut expectations Global stocks set for seventh straight monthly gain NEW YORK, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Global stocks were on pace for their third straight week of gains and seventh consecutive monthly advance on Friday buoyed by strong gains in megacap Amazon after its quarterly earnings, while the dollar climbed after hawkish comments from some Federal Reserve officials. Amazon (AMZN.O) , opens new tab surged 9.6% after reporting cloud revenue rose at the fastest clip in nearly three years, enabling the company to forecast quarterly sales above estimates. Sign up here. Meanwhile, Apple shares edged down 0.4% to $271.37, paring gains after reaching an intraday record of $277.32 after it reported quarterly earnings and forecast holiday-quarter iPhone sales and overall revenue that surpassed Wall Street expectations thanks to strong demand for its iPhone 17 models. The results cap off a run of earnings this week from several megacap companies, included in the so-called Magnificent Seven group of stocks, that made clear the massive build of infrastructure surrounding artificial intelligence shows no signs of abating. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average <.DJI> closed up 40.75 points, or 0.09%, to 47,562.87, the S&P 500 <.SPX> advanced 17.86 points, or 0.26%, to 6,840.20 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> climbed 143.81 points, or 0.61%, to 23,724.96. Stocks closed well off earlier highs, however, as several Fed officials further echoed comments from Chair Jerome Powell earlier in the week, who dented expectations the central bank would cut rates at its December meeting following a 25 basis point cut on Wednesday. "The theme today is pretty similar to what we saw yesterday. It's earnings coming in a little better than expected but tempered by a little more hawkish commentary from the Fed," with James Ragan, Co-CIO and Director of Investment Management Research at D.A. Davidson. Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic said a December rate cut is not locked in while Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Beth Hammack said she was open to reforming the interest rate target used by the Fed to implement monetary policy. Markets are pricing in a 65% chance for a 25 basis point cut at the December meeting, down from almost 92% a week ago, according to CME's FedWatch Tool , opens new tab. Each of the three major Wall Street indexes were on track for a third straight weekly gain, while the Nasdaq was set for its seventh straight monthly climb, its longest streak since January 2018. MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe (.MIWD00000PUS) , opens new tab inched up 0.81 point, or 0.08%, to 1,005.99, and was on track for a seventh straight monthly climb, its longest run since August 2021. The pan-European STOXX 600 (.STOXX) , opens new tab closed down 0.51% after a round of mixed quarterly earnings and a benign euro zone inflation report that reinforced the European Central Bank's view that price pressures remain contained but notched its fourth straight month of gains. In currencies, earlier comments from Fed officials also supported the greenback. Kansas City Fed President Jeffrey Schmid said he dissented against cutting interest rates this week out of concern that continued high inflation and signs of price pressures spreading in the economy could raise doubts about the central bank's commitment to its 2% inflation target. In addition, Dallas Federal Reserve President Lorie Logan said the Fed should not have cut interest rates this week and should not do so again in December. The dollar index , which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, rose 0.31% to 99.78, with the euro down 0.31% at $1.1529. The greenback was on pace for a second straight weekly gain and a monthly climb of about 2%. The Japanese yen edged 0.02% higher against the greenback to 154.10 per dollar. Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama said the government has been monitoring foreign exchange movements with a high sense of urgency after the yen plunged to around 154 per U.S. dollar. Economic data showed core inflation in Japan's capital accelerated in October and stayed above the central bank's 2% target, keeping market expectations for a rate hike from the Bank of Japan intact. This week, the Bank of Japan held interest rates steady despite many economists predicting a hike. The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes rose 0.2 basis point to 4.095% while the 2-year note yield, which typically moves in step with rate expectations for the Fed, slipped 1.6 basis points to 3.598%. The 10-year yield was up nearly 10 basis points on the week, its biggest rise since the week ended April 11 while the 2-year yield was up more than 11 basis points on the week, its biggest rise since the first week of July. U.S. crude settled up 0.68% to $60.98 a barrel and Brent settled at $65.07 per barrel, up 0.11% on the day. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/global-markets-wrapup-1-2025-10-31/

2025-10-31 06:02

PERTH, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Australia's largest power producer AGL (AGL.AX) , opens new tab said on Friday it will cut jobs as part of a move to cleaner energy and a mid-2030s closure of its coal-fired power plants. The Mining and Energy Union (MEU) said it had been told 300 jobs would go across management and operational roles at AGL's Bayswater and Loy Yang A power stations. Sign up here. "As we transition our portfolio, and connect our customers to a sustainable future, we need to ensure that today's business remains productive and competitive in this changing market while we continue to invest in our business for tomorrow," an AGL spokesperson said. The AGL spokesperson did not confirm exactly how many jobs out of its total workforce of about 4,200 would be cut. "We understand this may be a difficult time for our people and we're committed to communicating with transparency and respect and providing support throughout the consultation process," the spokesperson said. The company, which generates and sells power, has said previously that it plans to spend up to A$20 billion ($13 billion) in the next decade to build out clean energy and storage capacity to replace its ageing coal fleet. AGL, which has the highest carbon emissions footprint in Australia, separately said on Friday it will buy four new gas turbines from Siemens AB for its Kwinana gas peaking power plant in Western Australia for A$185 million. MEU General Secretary Grahame Kelly said in a statement the restructure plans were "a kick in the guts" for workers in the lead-up to Christmas. "Coal-fired power station workers around the country are already facing stress and uncertainty with moving timelines for closures. News that hundreds of jobs will be cut as soon as this December is a further blow." https://www.reuters.com/business/world-at-work/australias-agl-cut-jobs-part-clean-energy-push-2025-10-31/

2025-10-31 06:00

LONDON, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Copper's just made the headlines again with the London Metal Exchange price punching out an all-time nominal high of $11,200 per metric ton on Wednesday. Macro and micro drivers have both turned price-positive and fund managers have jumped back in on the long side, adding financial potency to the bull cocktail. Sign up here. Investment fund long positioning on the LME copper contract has risen to levels last seen in March, just before U.S. President Donald Trump's "Liberation Day" tariff tsunami. The threat of a full-blown trade war between the United States and China, the world's largest copper consumer, was decidedly bad news for copper. The partial truce just agreed by Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping lifts some of the macro weight. While copper's demand prospects brighten, its supply challenges accumulate. A string of copper mine disasters this year is likely to result in a refined metal shortfall in 2026, according to the International Copper Study Group. Add inventory dislocation to the mix and it's not hard to understand why Doctor Copper is back on the investment radar. For now. FUNDS RETURN Fund managers gave copper a wide berth after March as the market was buffeted by tariff turbulence, both general and specific in the form of a possible U.S. import tariff on refined copper. Investor positioning on the CME's U.S. copper contract, which was at the heart of the tariff storm, shrank to decade lows in August. Volumes and open interest tumbled as investors rotated into red-hot precious metals markets. LME copper volumes benefited from the disruption to global physical supply-chains but the rise in industrial activity masked an equally sharp drop in fund participation. All that changed in August as the LME price started building upwards momentum against a steady backbeat of production downgrades from some of the world's largest mines, Funds have boosted long positions from an August low of 55,325 contracts to 87,152 contracts. Short positions have been simultaneously cut, resulting in a sharp shift, equivalent to over a million metric tons, in investor positioning to the long side. If fund money is returning to the London market, it is almost certainly also doing so on the CME contract but it's hard to say since the weekly Commitments of Traders Report has been suspended due to the government shutdown. The last available positioning picture, dating from the end of September, showed funds tentatively re-entering the market on the long side after the implosion of the U.S. premium in July, when the Trump administration deferred a decision on refined copper tariffs until next year. Open interest on the CME contract has since surged to four-month highs in tandem with a recovering price, suggesting more investors have returned to the fray. DISLOCATION Investor short positioning on the LME copper contract has almost halved since April. The recent rally will no doubt have played its part in forcing momentum-based funds to cover back shorts. But low LME stocks are also a powerful disincentive to run a short copper position, as someone found out earlier this month when the cash premium over three-month metal briefly flared out to $224 per ton. That spread has since flipped back to contango but at $25 per ton, it's a far cry from the $90 plus levels seen as recently as August. That's because the unwind of the U.S. tariff trade has got stuck. Even though any possible U.S. import tariff on refined metal has been pushed back to July next year at the earliest, the CME spot price is still trading at a hefty $300-per ton premium over the LME price and higher still on a forward basis. The import arbitrage is still open and the United States continues to draw in copper, Richard Holtum, chief executive of trade house Trafigura, told the LME Week Seminar earlier this month. The pace of shipments to U.S. ports has likely slowed but the knock-on effect is continued downward pressure on LME stocks. A burst of Chinese deliveries to LME warehouses in July lifted LME inventory to 159,000 tons but registered stocks have since dropped back to just 135,350 tons with only a small 30,477-ton extra cushion in off-warrant storage. The China tap seems to have been turned off for now. Exports of refined copper surged to 118,400 tons in July, the second highest monthly tally this century, but September's count was a lowly 26,400 tons, much of it destined for Thailand and Vietnam, neither of which hosts LME warehouses. TURBULENCE AHEAD The resilience of the CME premium over the LME international price attests to the continued influence of tariffs in the copper price mix. That may yet come back to haunt the funds which have just re-entered the market because the current alignment of macro and micro could still easily be blown off course in today's ever-shifting trade landscape. Markets, including copper, are not sure whether what Trump described as his "amazing" meeting with the China's Xi marks anything more than a tactical pause in hostilities. The copper price was back below $11,000 per ton on Thursday morning as traders digested the latest turn of the tariff roulette wheel. Copper's micro narrative may be compellingly bullish, but the macro outlook remains highly unpredictable. This year's tariff price turbulence may be far from over. Andy Home is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/lme-copper-hits-record-highs-funds-fundamentals-align-2025-10-30/

2025-10-31 05:33

A look at the day ahead in European and global markets from Ankur Banerjee A whirlwind October is set to end with investors unsure of the global monetary policy path in the near term, while a trade truce between the world's top two economies calmed market nerves even as a mixed bag of mega-cap earnings kept momentum in check. Sign up here. The action-packed week started with signs of cooling tensions between the U.S. and China. It also had the Federal Reserve delivering an expected rate cut, but with a warning from Chair Jerome Powell that this cut might be the last one in 2025. That helped firm up the dollar, which is on pace for a nearly 2% gain for the month. The yen, on the other hand, was loitering around its lowest level since February at just under 154 per dollar, spurring some verbal jawboning by Tokyo officials. The Bank of Japan held rates steady on Thursday as expected, but markets interpreted comments from Governor Kazuo Ueda as dovish even though he dropped hints that a rate hike remains on the table. The slump in the yen, down nearly 4% in October, has been a boost for the Nikkei (.N225) , opens new tab, which breezed past another record high and is on pace for a 16% surge in the month, its strongest monthly performance since January 1994. The "Takaichi trade" in all its glory. South Korea's Kospi (.KS11) , opens new tab, the best-performing stock market in the world this year, is on course for a 20% rise in October, the biggest surge since January 2001. Much of the enthusiasm in the stock market this year has been about artificial intelligence. The earnings season has sketched out a mixed picture so far, with investors desperately seeking a clearer sense of how the massive - and still growing - capex binge around AI will boost future earnings. Amazon (AMZN.O) , opens new tab shares soared as cloud revenue rose at its fastest pace in nearly three years, lifting Nasdaq futures and setting up a strong Halloween for tech stocks. The online retailer benefited as businesses continue to spend relentlessly on AI software development. Watch out for a boost from Apple (AAPL.O) , opens new tab as well after the iPhone maker gave forecasts for holiday quarter revenue that surpassed Wall Street expectations. Key developments that could influence markets on Friday: Economic events: October inflation data for euro zone and France, September retail sales for Germany https://www.reuters.com/world/china/global-markets-view-europe-2025-10-31/

2025-10-31 05:32

MUMBAI, Oct 31 (Reuters) - The Indian rupee fell on Friday but managed to hold above its all-time low on the back of intermittent dollar sales by state-run banks that also helped the currency end the month on a quiet note. The rupee had rallied to a peak of 87.6250 earlier this month following heavy-handed intervention by the central bank, but has since shed those gains to once again hover close to its record low of 88.80, hit in late-September. Sign up here. The currency ended Friday's session slightly lower at 88.7650 and was little changed month-on-month. India's benchmark equity indexes, the BSE Sensex (.BSESN) , opens new tab and Nifty 50 (.NSEI) , opens new tab, were both down 0.4% each, tracking weakness in Asian peers, but were set to end October over 4.5% higher - their best monthly gain since March. While traders expect the Reserve Bank of India to continue keeping a lid on rupee volatility, the broad bias is geared towards depreciation in the absence of clear progress on a U.S.-India trade deal. A pact between New Delhi and Washington is "very near," a senior government official said last week. Elsewhere, signs of cooling U.S.-China trade tensions helped support Asian currencies this week, even as a hawkish tilt in the U.S. Federal Reserve's commentary boosted the dollar and U.S. bond yields. "Measures of FX volatility have fallen to fresh year to date lows this week highlighting that current market conditions remain supportive for FX carry trades," MUFG said in a note. Carry trades involve borrowing low interest currencies to buy currencies with better yields. The dollar index was last at 99.54, on course to end the month 1.8% higher, while Asian currencies were mostly stronger. The rupee was down 1% for the week. Traders will keep a close watch on portfolio flows related to initial public offerings next week that could help the rupee find modest relief. https://www.reuters.com/world/india/rupee-likely-inch-higher-asian-cues-rbi-support-hopes-2025-10-31/