2025-09-09 16:07

Sept 9 (Reuters) - A federal judge approved Vanguard Group's $25 million settlement of a lawsuit accusing the U.S. mutual fund company of improperly saddling investors in its target-date funds with inflated tax bills. U.S. District Judge John Murphy in Philadelphia granted preliminary approval on Monday, calling the settlement sufficiently fair, reasonable, and adequate, after rejecting a $40 million settlement on May 19. Sign up here. Murphy objected because Vanguard could have offset the $40 million from its related January settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and investors would be better off with the SEC accord because there were no legal fees. Lawyers for the investors said the $25 million is in addition to a $133 million fair fund set up in the SEC case. Target-date funds contain mixes of stocks, bonds, and cash that are designed to become less risky as investors get older, and to be tax-efficient. Vanguard was sued after deciding in December 2020 to reduce the minimum investment in lower-cost fund classes meant for institutional clients to $5 million from $100 million. Many investors moved to those fund classes from higher-cost retail classes. This forced retail funds to sell assets to meet redemptions and pass taxable capital gains to the plaintiffs and other remaining investors. Vanguard denied wrongdoing in agreeing to settle. The Valley Forge, Pennsylvania-based firm had $11 trillion of assets under management as of July 31. Murphy scheduled a January 6, 2026, hearing to consider final settlement approval. The case is In re Vanguard Chester Funds Litigation, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, No. 22-00955. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/judge-approves-vanguards-revised-settlement-over-mutual-fund-tax-bills-2025-09-09/

2025-09-09 15:23

Sept 9 (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve will likely resume cutting short-term rates next week and continue on for the rest of the year to shore up a labor market that may have begun cooling well before President Donald Trump began imposing sharply higher tariffs, traders bet on Tuesday. The Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics' preliminary annual revision to its payrolls data showed the U.S. economy likely created 911,000 fewer jobs in the 12 months through March than previously estimated, suggesting average monthly payrolls gains were likely less than half of the 147,000 that had been reported. Sign up here. Coupled with recent labor market data that shows monthly employment gains have slowed even further, the report "gives the Fed another reason to lower rates next week," BMO economist Sal Guatieri wrote, and likely cements the case for more rate cuts by year-end than the two that Fed policymakers had projected back in June. After the data, traders stuck to their overwhelming bets that the Fed will reduce the policy rate from its current 4.25%-4.50% by a quarter of a percentage point at the central bank's September 16-17 meeting, and for a same-sized reduction at the Fed's following meeting in October. While traders continue to see a third rate cut in December as far more likely than a pause, they pared their bets slightly on that meeting and further for 2026, slicing the probability of a fourth rate cut by January to less than 40% from nearly 50-50 before the revised data was released. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said last month that rising downside risks to the job market may warrant some cautious policy easing, but central bankers remain wary of easing too much while inflation remains above their 2% goal and upside risks from Trump's tariff policy remain. The Fed gets a pair of inflation reports later this week expected to reflect ongoing upward price pressures. https://www.reuters.com/business/fed-seen-track-three-rate-cuts-this-year-starting-next-week-2025-09-09/

2025-09-09 14:40

LONDON, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Investors snapped up traditional safe-haven assets on Tuesday, sending gold briefly to a new record high, after the Israeli military said it carried out an attack on Hamas leadership in Qatar, marking an escalation of the conflict in the region. The Japanese yen held on to the day's gains, while the price of oil jumped by around $1 to $67 a barrel . Sign up here. COMMENTS: JANE FOLEY, HEAD OF FX STRATEGY, RABOBANK, LONDON: "It's difficult at this stage for the markets to examine this particular geopolitical risk in the context of the risk that is already on the table. Clearly there is a possibility that there is an escalation but I think the market will be fairly cautious about making that assumption until more details are known." MICHAEL BROWN, SENIOR RESEARCH STRATEGIST, PEPPERSTONE, LONDON: "The immediate reaction of a spike in crude benchmarks and some further upside in spot gold makes considerable sense." "It seems unlikely that there will be any significant retaliation from the strikes, especially amid reporting that the U.S. gave their backing for them to take place, while Qatar's immediate response gives no indication that they are seeking to retaliate, or escalate tensions further." "I'd expect the rally in crude to fade relatively rapidly, as we've tended to see with geopolitically-induced gains over the last few months, as focus the dust settles, calmer heads prevail, and focus returns to the fundamentals of an already-oversupplied market, into which OPEC+ are adding even more barrels from the start of next month." CARLO FRANCHINI, HEAD OF INSTITUTIONAL CLIENTS, BANCA IFIGEST, MILAN: "Targeting countries that are trying to mediate is far from ideal at this moment. Stock markets aren't reacting much, but gold is: it's at an all-time high. Things appear to be taking a turn for the worse. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/instant-view-oil-spikes-gold-hit-fresh-record-after-israel-attacks-qatar-2025-09-09/

2025-09-09 14:38

NEW YORK, Sept 9 (Reuters) - The U.S. economy likely created 911,000 fewer jobs in the 12 months through March than previously estimated, the government said on Tuesday, suggesting job growth was already stalling before President Donald Trump's aggressive tariffs on imports. Economists had estimated that the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics could revise the level of employment from April 2024 through March 2025 down by between 400,000 and 1 million jobs. The level of employment for the 12 months through March 2024 was downgraded by 598,000 jobs. Sign up here. MARKET REACTION STOCKS: U.S. stocks were last down on the day. S&P slipped 0.1% (.SPX) , opens new tab. BONDS: U.S. Treasury 10-year yield briefly dropped after the report, but was last up 3.4 basis points at 4.078% FOREX: The dollar index extended gains, and last traded up 0.2% at 97.63. COMMENTS: PAUL NOLTE, SENIOR WEALTH ADVISOR AND MARKET STRATEGIST, MURPHY & SYLVEST, CHICAGO: "Certainly the Fed is already geared to cut rates based on weaker jobs, the job situation as a whole. This does nothing to dissuade the Fed from moving 25 basis points. It's a little bit more than expected. We don't know month by month and won't for a few more months yet, but it points out that labor is weak." "This is, though, in contrast to the weekly jobless claims numbers, which have pretty much been in line with periods of decent economic growth. And we still have consumer spending still in pretty good shape. So I think this is a piece of the puzzle. It's by no means a complete puzzle in an indication of how the economy is doing." MICHAEL JAMES, MANAGING DIRECTOR FOR EQUITY TRADING, ROSENBLATT SECURITIES, LOS ANGELES: "The job revision furthers the Fed rate cut narrative. We'll get a little more data Thursday morning from the (Consumer Price Index) CPI but meaningful reduction in labor growth, furthers the narrative for the Fed rate cut cycle to begin later this month. That's keeping a better bid for equity markets overall this morning." MICHAEL BROWN, SENIOR RESEARCH STRATEGIST, PEPPERSTONE, LONDON: "In all honesty, I don't think this really changes much in terms of the market or Fed policy outlook. Clearly a chunky downward revision, which leads you to believe that the labor market might well have been stalling, or at least losing momentum, for longer than we'd previously expected, but that's about all one can gleam from the data." "It's all rather stale so it won't move the needle for policymakers on the FOMC, who remain on track to cut 25 bps next Wednesday, nor for markets, with swaps having hardly budged across the curve since the figures crossed." "If it tells us anything, it's that the BLS really do need to improve their data collection methods ASAP, as that's now 2 chunky downward benchmark revisions in consecutive years, though President Trump clearly has his own ideas - possibly misplaced ones - about how they can do that." BRIAN JACOBSEN, CHIEF ECONOMIST, ANNEX WEALTH MANAGEMENT, MENOMONEE FALLS, WISCONSIN: "The preliminary benchmark revision was a lot bigger than expected. The final revisions won’t be released until February. Most likely, the BLS was over-guessing how many new businesses were being formed in 2024. The flipside is that the BLS could be underestimating how many new businesses are currently being formed." "The Fed's decision to deliver a super-sized cut in September 2024 is vindicated since payroll growth in August 2024 will likely be revised to a negative 5,000. If the Fed was justified in cutting 50 bps in September 2024, it could be justified in cutting 50 bps in September 2025. The more likely course is for the Fed to deliver an October and December cut rather than trying to deliver a catchup cut in September." https://www.reuters.com/business/view-us-payrolls-growth-through-march-revised-sharply-lower-2025-09-09/

2025-09-09 14:06

LONDON, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Hedge fund returns were buoyed in August as stock markets raced to fresh highs, particularly in the United States and Asia, and shares in health care and technology industries rallied, bank reports and sources familiar with the funds suggest. World stocks rose to record highs last month and climbed over 3.5% (.MIWD00000PUS) , opens new tab. Sign up here. Hedge fund stock pickers returned over 2.2% in August and are up just over 10% for the year so far, a Goldman Sachs note to clients this week showed. Systematic hedge funds, which use algorithms to trade, returned almost 2.4% for the month and are now up 12.3% for the year to August-end, the note showed. Hedge fund leverage, an indication of how actively hedge funds trade, declined across all regions into September, suggesting hedge funds turned cautious despite the anticipated U.S. rate cut later in September, said the Goldman note. Trading flows declined, added a separate note by JPMorgan. Hedge funds sold stocks in all regions apart from China and to a lesser extent Taiwan, India and South Korea. Emerging markets Asia, which includes these countries, saw record hedge fund stock buying, Goldman said. British hedge fund Marshall Wace, which manages over $70 billion in assets, returned 0.41% in its Eureka Fund in August and 1.95% in its Market Neutral Tops fund. U.S. multi-strats also returned positive results with Citadel's Wellington fund up 0.9% for August and 4.8% higher for the year so far. Millennium Management returned 1.2% for August and was up 4.4% for the year to August-end. https://www.reuters.com/business/hedge-funds-ride-august-highs-keep-returns-positive-2025-09-09/

2025-09-09 12:37

NEW YORK, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Stablecoin issuer Figure Technologies is increasing the size and upping the price of its initial public offering as retail investors bid up crypto-related stocks, a person familiar with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. The company is considering a new IPO price range of $20 - $22 a share – from $18 - $20 a share – and raising the number of shares to 31.5 million from around 26 million, this person said, asking not to be identified because the information isn't public yet. Sign up here. The new pricing will raise roughly $693 million, up from $526 million. The exact amounts were still in flux late Monday night and could be adjusted again before its IPO on Thursday, this person said, cautioning that the decision to revise the IPO plan wasn't yet final. Figure didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. The blockchain firm, which initially targeted a valuation of $4.1 billion, is scheduled to start trading on the NASDAQ on Thursday under the symbol FIGR. The Trump administration's embrace of the crypto industry has prompted investors to pour money into digital assets, especially following the successful debuts of crypto exchange Bullish (BLSH.N) , opens new tab, and stablecoin issuer Circle (CRCL.N) , opens new tab in recent weeks. Co-founded in 2018 by technology entrepreneur Mike Cagney, Figure operates a blockchain-native platform for lending, trading and investing in consumer credit and digital assets. The company says it funds home equity loans in just 10 days, compared to the industry average of 42 days. It swung to a profit of $29 million for the six months ended June 30, compared with a loss of $13 million in the same period a year earlier. https://www.reuters.com/business/stablecoin-issuer-figure-technologies-set-upsize-ipo-demand-crypto-related-2025-09-09/