2025-09-04 12:30
WASHINGTON, Sept 4 (Reuters) - The Trump administration's widely anticipated report from President Donald Trump's "Make America Healthy Again" commission will be released next week, White House adviser to "MAHA" Calley Means said on Thursday. "We need to get back to whole food and away from ultra-processed food," Means told Fox News' "Fox & Friends" program. "So we -- and you'll see this with the MAHA Commission report next week... -- this administration is evangelizing ranchers, evangelizing farmers and working to put whole food on the child's plate." Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/maha-commission-report-due-next-week-white-house-adviser-says-2025-09-04/
2025-09-04 12:27
Gold hits all-time high at $3,578.50/oz on Wednesday Silver eases from highest level since September 2011 US non-farm payrolls data due on Friday Sept 4 (Reuters) - Gold prices declined on Thursday, pulling back from a record high as investors locked in profits as attention shifted to U.S. jobs data for further insight into the Federal Reserve's policy path. Spot gold was down 0.3% at $3,547.18 per ounce as of 1207 GMT, while U.S. gold futures for December delivery dipped 0.8% to $3,605.90. Sign up here. On Wednesday, spot gold peaked at $3,578.50 amid rising bets for a Fed rate cut and lingering geopolitical and economic uncertainties. "The market was way overbought and needed to correct," StoneX analyst Rhona O'Connell said. The focus is now on weekly jobless claims and the ADP report due later in the day, and U.S. non-farm payrolls data due on Friday. "If the jobless claims are way out of line, then we could see a reaction (in prices) – down if below, up if high," O'Connell said. A Labor Department report showed on Wednesday that job openings fell more than expected to 7.181 million in July. Meanwhile, several Fed officials said labour market worries continue to animate their beliefs that rate cuts are imminent. The market is now pricing in a 98% chance of a 25 basis-point rate cut this month, CME Group's FedWatch tool showed. Non-yielding gold typically performs well in a low interest-rate environment and in times of uncertainty. Questions about the Fed's independence will take centre stage on Thursday when President Donald Trump's economic advisor Stephen Miran testifies at a Senate Banking Committee hearing on his nomination to the U.S. central bank's seven-member governing board. "Should private investors diversify more heavily into gold, we see potential upside to gold prices to well above our $4,000 mid-2026 baseline," Goldman Sachs said in a note on Wednesday. Elsewhere, spot silver fell 0.6% to $40.95 per ounce, after hitting its highest since September 2011 on Wednesday. Platinum lost 1.9% to $1,394.40 and palladium shed 1% to $1,136.19. https://www.reuters.com/world/india/gold-eases-record-high-all-eyes-us-jobs-data-2025-09-04/
2025-09-04 12:13
Sept 4 (Reuters) - Lesotho's biggest diamond mine, Letseng, has laid off 240 workers, a fifth of its workforce, as it battles persistently low gem prices due to weak demand and an uncertain global economic environment, parent company Gem Diamonds (GEMD.L) , opens new tab said on Thursday. Diamonds are vital to Lesotho's economy, with the sector contributing up to 10% of its GDP and providing employment for thousands in the country of just over 2 million people. Diamonds are also Lesotho's major export commodity, along with textiles and clothing. Sign up here. Gem Diamonds said its Letseng mine, which produces some of the world's largest and most valuable gems such as the 910-carat "Lesotho Legend", had revised its mine plan and cut jobs to reduce costs. "Sustained pricing pressure, softer demand in key markets, ongoing macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty, and tariff uncertainties in respect of India, combine to create difficult trading conditions," Gem Diamonds CEO Clifford Elphick said in a statement. Gem Diamonds on Thursday reported a half-year loss of $11.7 million, compared to a $2.1 million profit a year earlier, after revenue plunged 42% on the back of weaker prices. It booked a $10.7 million impairment on the value of Letseng due to the weak diamond prices. The company realised an average price of $1,008 per carat in the six months to June 30, 26% lower than last year. Its half-year production was 47,125 carats, compared to 55,873 carats during the same period last year. Diamond prices have fallen about 35% from early 2022 highs due to changing consumer preferences and the rise of lab-grown gems, according to the Zimnisky Global Rough Diamond Price Index. Miners have responded by curbing output, cutting jobs and halting projects. https://www.reuters.com/business/world-at-work/lesothos-biggest-diamond-mine-cuts-20-workforce-price-slump-persists-2025-09-04/
2025-09-04 12:07
LONDON, Sept 4 (Reuters) - British businesses have cut employment by the largest amount in nearly four years and expect wage growth to slow - but do not think this will translate into much lower inflation, according to a Bank of England survey published on Thursday. The BoE's Decision Maker Panel survey of around 2,000 firms with at least 10 staff showed businesses reported that employment levels in the three months to August were 0.5% lower than a year earlier, the biggest drop since the third quarter of 2021. Sign up here. This is in line with the annual fall in payrolled employees in July reported in tax office data released last month, although other official data - which has suffered from low response rates - suggest this fall has been offset by higher self-employment. The BoE forecast last month that inflation will climb to 4% in September. Policymakers are divided about how fast it will return to its 2% target and whether further interest rate cuts are warranted after August's quarter-point reduction to 4%. Thursday's survey offers ammunition for both camps. Businesses surveyed by the BoE in the three months to August said they expected to raise their own prices by 3.7% over the coming year - although more volatile monthly data showed a drop to 3.5% in August alone from 3.9% in July. Companies said they planned to raise wages by an average 3.6% over the coming year - less than the 4.6% they said they had over the past 12 months and the joint-lowest since the BoE started regularly asking this question in May 2022. But Rob Wood, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said the rate at which planned wage growth was falling had slowed and that businesses were responding to higher employment costs by cutting staff rather than wages. "The DMP survey shows stubborn wage and price pressures despite falling employment, continuing to suggest that structural economic changes and supply weakness are keeping inflation high," he said, predicting no more rate cuts this year. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/sustainable-finance-reporting/uk-firms-report-biggest-drop-employment-since-2021-boe-survey-2025-09-04/
2025-09-04 12:05
BERLIN, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Oil flows through the Druzhba pipeline to Germany's PCK refinery are expected to return to normal by the end of this week following the repair of damages, Rosneft Germany, the refinery's largest shareholder, said on Thursday. Ukrainian drones struck an oil pumping station in Russia's Tambov region, leading to supply disruption via the Druzhba pipeline last month. Sign up here. Germany's PCK refinery - one of the country's largest - in the northeastern town of Schwedt is supplied in part by Kazakh crude transported via the pipeline, after a stop in Russian oil deliveries in the wake of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. Rosneft Germany spokesperson Burkhard Woelki said the company imports 120,000 tons of oil from Kazakhstan every month, adding that talks with Kazakhstan regarding expanding and extending the oil imports beyond 2025 were on track. German news agency DPA reported the return of flows first. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/oil-flows-germany-via-damaged-druzhba-pipeline-normalise-rosneft-germany-says-2025-09-04/
2025-09-04 12:00
JAKARTA, Sept 4 (Reuters) - The Indonesian government will hold discussions with private fuel distributors, an official said on Thursday, as supply runs low at petrol stations operated by Shell and BP-AKR. Shell and BP-AKR, the operator of BP's fuel stations, said they had inventory shortages for some gasoline products. Sign up here. Shell said last week some of its products would not be available at some fuel stations for an undetermined period. The market share of private fuel distributors, which sell only unsubsidised fuels, is small compared to those controlled by state firm Pertamina. However, restrictions in sales of subsidised fuel have caused demand shifts to Shell and BP, local media reported. The government will meet with all privately-run fuel distributors next week to discuss the issue, energy ministry senior official Laode Sulaeman told Reuters. Laode said this year, private distributors have been given a fuel import quota 10% higher than in 2024. Energy minister Bahlil Lahadalia encouraged private firms to partner with Pertamina to address the problem. BP-AKR said it was experiencing limited stock of BP's 92-octane and 95-octane fuels, while Shell was coordinating with the energy ministry to ensure fuel availability, a spokesperson said. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/indonesia-discuss-fuel-supply-issue-with-private-distributors-official-says-2025-09-04/
