2025-09-05 10:24

Sept 5 (Reuters) - Futures tied to Canada's main stock index inched up on Friday, ahead of the much-anticipated U.S. and Canadian employment data that could influence the September interest-rate decision by the countries' central banks. Futures on the S&P/TSX index gained 0.12% to 1,717.40 points by 06:00 a.m. ET (1000 GMT). The benchmark index ended higher for the seventh straight session on Thursday, notching another record rally. Sign up here. U.S. and Canadian jobs data, due at 8:30 a.m. ET, could prove pivotal in shaping upcoming policy decisions by the Bank of Canada and the Federal Reserve. Economists forecast Canada's economy added 10,000 jobs in August and the unemployment rate rose to 7% from 6.9% a month earlier. Meanwhile, forecasts for tepid U.S. job growth in August and a rise in unemployment to 4.3%, if accurate, would confirm a softening labor market and seal the case for an interest rate cut from the Fed this month. Money markets see a 71.7% chance of a 25-basis-point interest-rate cut by the BoC on September 17. The benchmark rate is at 2.75%. In commodities, oil extended decline into a third session while gold prices edged higher and copper posted modest gains on Friday. In corporate news, Strathcona Resources (SCR.TO) , opens new tab bought additional 6.04 million common shares of rival MEG Energy (MEG.TO) , opens new tab for about C$172.7 million ($124.99 million). FOR CANADIAN MARKETS NEWS, CLICK ON CODES: TSX market report Canadian dollar and bonds report CA/ Reuters global stocks poll for Canada , Canadian markets directory https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/tsx-futures-edge-higher-ahead-employment-data-2025-09-05/

2025-09-05 10:24

BUENOS AIRES, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Argentina's President Javier Milei is facing increasing pressure over a bribery scandal and growing unease over public spending as he enters a pivotal election season that could define his government's grip on power. The fiery, shaggy-haired leader campaigned on an anti-establishment, anti-corruption platform. He won hefty voter support in the 2023 presidential election over his pledges to cut state spending and dramatically reduce what he calls the "cancer" of inflation to get Argentina's economy back on track. Sign up here. Milei has indeed successfully driven down the monthly inflation rate - from 25% when he took office to about 2% in July - and achieved a budget surplus for the first time in more than a decade. But his government is facing mounting pressure as a corruption scandal has dominated headlines, raising questions over the political fallout for upcoming legislative elections. At the end of August, local media published audio recordings that appeared to feature a senior government official discussing bribery and suggesting Milei's sister and chief of staff, Karina Milei, was getting kickback payments. Javier Milei has dismissed the allegations as lies and Karina Milei has not commented on them. The president's approval rating was already on the decline, which political scientists attributed to frustration with his tight austerity measures. It dropped to 39% in August, according to a poll by Trespuntozero taken after the corruption allegations emerged - the lowest it had recorded for Milei to date and a drop from 48% in July. Another recent survey by Management & Fit found that 73% of people were concerned by the bribery scandal. The local stock market benchmark index (.MERV) , opens new tab fell over 14% last month, and this week touched its lowest since early April. Still, it is unclear how much real effect the turmoil will have on the election. Many of Milei's supporters have shrugged off the allegations, echoing the president's assertion that he is the victim of an operation orchestrated by the opposition. "They are all lies," said Freddie Correa, 75, as he helped carry a large banner with Milei's face at a campaign event on Wednesday in Buenos Aires province. "They are only allegations to take our votes." ENDING KIRCHNERISMO Milei has pitched this weekend's Buenos Aires province legislative elections and October's midterm elections as an opportunity to squash Kirchnerismo, the opposition movement led by former president Cristina Kirchner. Facundo Cruz, a political consultant in Buenos Aires, said that the divided political climate means that Milei won't lose much support over the scandal. "It's a very polarized election," he said. "There's this idea that you need to defend the government despite this." The September 7 elections in Buenos Aires province, where nearly 40% of the country's voters reside, will be a challenge for Milei in what has traditionally been a stronghold of the Peronist opposition. On October 26, Argentines will vote to fill seats in Congress, where Milei's government currently has a minority. A bigger congressional bloc would give him a freer hand to more easily block opposition measures seeking to strike down his reforms. In the face of Milei's austerity policies, opposition legislators have sought to increase spending on health and education, and on Thursday for the first time overturned his veto, on a bill to increase the budget to help people with disabilities. A weak showing in the elections would increase uncertainty about his ability to enact reforms that many investors seek. With markets on edge, Argentina's Treasury said it would begin to intervene in the foreign exchange market this week, seeking to stabilize the peso - a move that clashes with Milei's free-market ideology. "I think an isolated case of corruption is one thing, but... when mixed with economic turbulence and political difficulties, that is a much more difficult combination for the government," said Buenos Aires-based political consultant Ana Iparraguirre. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/pressure-grows-milei-ahead-argentina-midterm-elections-2025-09-05/

2025-09-05 10:23

MUMBAI, Sept 5 (Reuters) - The Indian rupee hit a lifetime low on Friday, pressured by worries over U.S. tariffs, leaving traders on edge even as likely central bank intervention helped limit losses. The Asian currency fell 0.14% to 88.2650 against the U.S. dollar, from 88.1450 in the previous session. Sign up here. Friday’s move ended a volatile week, during which the rupee largely stayed below the 88-mark, weighed down by persistent portfolio outflows and U.S. tariff-related uncertainties. Washington imposed a 50% tariff on key Indian exports from August 27 over what the White House sees as India's opportunistic purchases of cheap Russian oil. The rupee, which slipped past the 88-mark for the first time last week, slipped to its record low of 88.36 on Friday, as foreign banks and oil companies bought dollars and traders covered speculative positions. Foreign portfolio investors have pulled out $1.4 billion from Indian equities so far in September, taking the total outflow so far this year to over $16 billion. On the day, the Reserve Bank of India likely intervened in the forex market through state-run banks, which were spotted selling dollars above the 88.30 mark, traders said. Market participants expected support for the rupee at 88.70 levels, but the RBI came in much earlier to cap the slide, said Apurva Swarup, a vice president at Shinhan Bank. "Uncertainty around U.S. tariff is still spooking the market even as the Indian government is devising ways to counter the impact," Swarup said. India hopes to conclude a bilateral trade agreement with the U.S. by November. Meanwhile, Asian currencies strengthened against the dollar as traders positioned for a Federal Reserve rate cut this month. The Korean won led gains. The dollar index was 0.22% lower at 98.014. Traders await the U.S. nonfarm payrolls data, due after market hours. https://www.reuters.com/world/india/rupee-hits-record-low-tariff-jitters-central-bank-caps-decline-2025-09-05/

2025-09-05 10:04

Cutting FY25 output by tens of thousands of tons from earlier plans Will unveil long-term plans to shrink smelting capacity Seeking to invest in upstream projects to secure rare metals TOKYO, Sept 5 (Reuters) - JX Advanced Metals (5016.T) , opens new tab will likely cut copper production by tens of thousands of metric tons in fiscal 2025 compared with earlier plans and unveil a roadmap to reduce smelting capacity by March, President Yoichi Hayashi said, as shrinking fees erode margins. Japanese copper smelters are grappling with tumbling treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs) and shrinking smelting margins due to a shortage of concentrate supply and growing smelting capacity in China. In June, some Chinese smelters agreed to process copper for Chilean miner Antofagasta (ANTO.L) , opens new tab at no charge. Sign up here. "In the short term, we plan to slash annual electrolytic copper output by several tens of thousands of tons from our earlier estimate as we can't purchase concentrates under current conditions," Hayashi told Reuters this week. JX, one of Japan's top copper smelters with 450,000 tons of annual production capacity, warned in June that cuts were possible. Its fiscal year ends in March. Longer term, it intends to shrink capacity to reduce risks in concentrate procurement and smelting, Hayashi said, though he gave no scale. Roughly half of JX's refined copper is exported, mainly to China, where demand could weaken as new domestic smelters ramp up. Rival Mitsubishi Materials (5711.T) , opens new tab is also weighing reductions. Asked if lower copper output would affect domestic industries, Hayashi said there would be no immediate impact, as only half is used domestically. If more capacity was needed, the government should provide support, he said. Despite cutbacks, Hayashi stressed that smelting remains essential for recovering rare metals, such as tantalum, critical to semiconductor materials, a key growth business. "We are reviewing the optimal scale from various perspectives, including the use of recycling materials," he said. Mid-year negotiations between Japanese smelters and global miners broke off without a TC/RC settlement, forcing firms to skip contracted term supplies, industry sources said. Hayashi said some miners are willing to negotiate different terms with Japanese firms from the Chinese benchmark deals to help sustain the world's fourth-largest smelting sector. JX is accelerating its pivot away from mining and smelting toward semiconductor materials. In June, it said it would acquire a stake in the Copi mineral sands project in Australia, led by RZ Resources (RRZ.AX) , opens new tab, to secure rare metals used in chip materials. "We are actively seeking new projects," Hayashi said, adding that future upstream deals would be far smaller than its past Chilean copper mine investment, which resulted in heavy impairment losses. Since its March listing, JX has streamlined decision-making and enhanced investor engagement. It recently raised its full-year earnings forecast, with Hayashi expressing confidence in achieving fiscal 2027 goals, including an operating profit margin of 12% to 17%. By 2040, JX aims to more than double operating profit to 250 billion yen ($1.7 billion). "Achieving our 2040 goal will require not only organic growth but also large-scale M&A starting in fiscal 2028," Hayashi said. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/major-japanese-copper-smelter-cut-output-capacity-margins-erode-2025-09-05/

2025-09-05 10:00

Anutin Charnvirakul elected Thai PM after political upheaval Former health minister championed cannabis legalisation His pragmatic politics bridge conservative, populist interests BANGKOK, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Anutin Charnvirakul waited just hours after the June leak of a phone call that would bring down Thailand's prime minister before kicking into higher gear his manoeuvring to take power. The veteran politician swiftly walked out of the ruling coalition led by the Pheu Thai party's Paetongtarn Shinawatra, made an initial outreach to the main opposition, and stood back to bide his time. Sign up here. On Friday, a week after a court decision dismissed Paetongtarn as premier and triggered a political maelstrom, parliament overwhelmingly voted to elect Anutin as the next prime minister. Anutin himself abstained from voting and, having secured a decisive win, received telephone calls and posed for photographs with his lawmakers on the floor of the house. The 58-year-old's rise has been decades in the making, starting with his entry into politics with the Thai Rak Thai party founded by Paetongtarn's billionaire father, Thaksin Shinawatra. In recent years, Anutin's growing influence in Southeast Asia's second largest economy has been mainly wielded through the Bhumjaithai party, a relative newcomer in Thai politics with roots in the farming communities of the lower northeast region. For two election cycles, in 2019 and 2023, pundits tipped Anutin among candidates for the premiership, most likely seen as leading a coalition government, given his pull across party lines. That did not happen and Anutin rose instead to prominence as health minister for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, and championing Thailand's legalisation of cannabis in 2022. "I am younger, more fresh and I understand politics in a democratic system," he told Reuters in 2023, making no bones about his ambition for the top job and expectations of a big win. Bhumjaithai secured only 70 of the 500 seats on offer but, after helping to block the election-winning Move Forward party from taking power, it teamed up as Pheu Thai's junior partner to form a government that held power for two years. Anutin and his party are a rare bridge spanning powerful family clans that dominate provincial politics and sections of the influential royalist-conservative establishment, said analyst Napon Jatusripitak. "He is very much a pragmatic politician, cut from the same cloth as Thaksin Shinawatra," Napon, a visiting fellow at Singapore's ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, said of Anutin, an avowed royalist committed to preserve the revered monarchy. "Now, he has positioned his own party in a way that places it as the most credible guardian of conservative interest in Thailand." An unrelenting battle between the conservative establishment and populist parties backed by Thaksin has defined Thailand's politics, triggering military coups and court verdicts that unseated six elected prime ministers in the last 25 years. HIGH-FLIER Born to an influential politician-businessman, Anutin studied at an all-boys private school in Bangkok before heading to university in the United States for an engineering degree. In 1990, he joined his father's construction firm, Sino-Thai, and served as its president before stepping away from the private sector to enter government as deputy minister of public health under Thaksin in 2004. Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai party was dissolved in 2007 by a court order that also handed a five-year ban to Anutin, who returned to politics as leader of Bhumjaithai in 2012. In the decade since, Anutin has leveraged not only the connections of Bhumjaithai founder Newin Chidchob to shore up provincial support, but also his own influence with the conservative elite to place his party in successive governments. Since 2023, he served as interior minister in two administrations led by Pheu Thai prime ministers. "Bhumjaithai has been part of the government for many, many years, almost in every single cabinet, and usually controls lucrative ministries," said Napon. Anutin's path to power, however, has required the support of the People's Party, the successor of the progressive Move Forward that he blocked from forming the government in 2023 but will now provide outside support to Bhumjaithai's coalition. "We know that the People's Party has cooperated and made sacrifices in finding a solution for Thailand during a period of crises," Anutin told reporters on Wednesday, after securing the endorsement. Outside of business and politics, Anutin's interests include collecting Buddhist amulets and recreational flying, which he sometimes uses to facilitate emergency organ donations. With Thailand's stuttering economy facing serious headwinds, tensions with neighbouring Cambodia on knife-edge after a deadly border war and the spectre of more political turmoil, an ability to handle turbulence could prove useful in Anutin's new job. https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/thailands-anutin-charnvirakul-cannabis-crusader-prime-minister-2025-09-05/

2025-09-05 08:51

Sept 5 (Reuters) - The prospect of a change in leadership and policy making at the U.S. Federal Reserve, in France, Japan and Norway will keep markets on alert, while the European Central Bank meets and investors brace for data from the U.S., China and Japan. Here's your week ahead in global markets by Alden Bentley in New York, Rocky Swift in Tokyo, Yoruk Bahceli, Dhara Ranasinghe and Karin Strohecker in London. Sign up here. 1/ THE PRICE YOU PAY Investors have a lot riding on Thursday's August U.S. inflation report. A rate cut at the Federal Reserve's September 16-17 meeting is priced in but not a foregone conclusion, especially if the Consumer Price Index rises more than the 0.3% expected after July's 0.2% rise. Some policymakers, including Fed Chair Jerome Powell, have signalled that an easing for the first time since December is likely, maybe this month - depending on data. The long expected pass-through from tariffs has yet to be really felt by consumers paying for imported goods. U.S. Treasury auctions will be another test of where long-term interest rates are headed, especially Thursday's 30-year bond sale. T-bond yields rose above the psychological 5% level for the first time in seven weeks in recent days, enticing bond buyers and should indicate support for bidding at the long-end. 2/ MONEY'S TOO TIGHT (TO MENTION) Who would envy being finance minister of France or Britain right now? Economic growth is weak, debt uncomfortably high. Try and cut public spending and you have a revolt on your hands, signal you take fiscal discipline anything but seriously, and bond vigilantes swoop. France holds a confidence vote in parliament on Monday, called precisely because its prime minister wants backing for an unpopular debt-reduction plan. He's unlikely to win, fuelling political uncertainty and difficulties bringing an over 5% budget deficit down. Britain's fiscal challenges have hurt gilts and sterling. A November budget is shaping up as a key risk event. Meanwhile, ruling party lawmakers in Japan prepared their bids to replace outgoing premier Shigeru Ishiba on Monday, as financial markets recoiled on the political uncertainty and the possibility of his successors ramping up government spending. Norwegians vote on Monday on the final day of a parliamentary election that has seen investments in Israel in focus, sparking an unusual public debate over how the Scandinavian country's sovereign wealth fund - the largest in the world - operates. 3/ POKER FACE The ECB meeting is set to hold rates on Thursday. Traders reckon the central bank is done cutting this year. A hawkish tone at July's meeting, an EU-U.S. trade deal and better-than-expected data since then have wiped bets on further easing. Traders now see around a 30% chance of a rate cut by December, having nearly fully priced that move before the July meeting. Economists polled by Reuters , opens new tab also reckon the ECB is done for 2025. Policymakers last time wanted to remain "deliberately uninformative , opens new tab" about future decisions. Markets will face another guessing game as traders try to read between the lines during ECB chief Christine Lagarde's news conference. Expect her to also be pushed on what renewed political turmoil in France and the risk of a deterioration in U.S. Federal Reserve independence means for the euro zone economy. 4/ BIG IN JAPAN Data from China and Japan will be closely watched for signs of how U.S. President Donald Trump's mercurial tariff policy is impacting Asia's biggest economies. China trade data is due on Monday for August when talks between Beijing and Washington went down to the wire to extend a trade truce and forestall the imposition of more than 100% tariffs on each other's goods. The previous print showed Chinese exports grew a better-than-expected 7.2% in July, but a breakthrough with the Trump administration remains distant. Wednesday's Reuters Tankan index of Japanese manufacturers' sentiment, tracking the central bank's own gauge, may offer clarity on how Japan Inc is weathering the trade turmoil. Uncertainty over the tariff hit has stayed the Bank of Japan's hand on rate hikes. 5/ BLACK AND GOLD Gold has again scaled record highs, boosted by uncertainty around the global economic outlook, U.S. trade policy and the fate of King Dollar after Trump's battle with the Fed triggered a high-stakes legal challenge and raised fresh concerns over central bank independence. Analysts predict the run isn't quite over yet for the ultimate safe haven after spot gold prices hit a record high of $3,578.50 in recent days, and central banks joining the push to stock up on the precious metal. But there's less of a shine on oil. On Sunday, OPEC+ agreed to further raise oil production from October as its leader Saudi Arabia pushes to regain market share, while slowing the pace of increases compared with previous months due to an anticipated weakening of global demand The deal also means OPEC+ - which pumps half the world's oil - has begun to unwind a second tranche of cuts of about 1.65 million bpd by eight members more than a year ahead of schedule. https://www.reuters.com/business/take-five/global-markets-themes-update-1-graphic-2025-09-05/