2024-04-27 07:03

HYDERABAD, April 27 (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is gathering information on products of Indian spice makers MDH and Everest after Hong Kong halted sales of some of their products for allegedly containing high levels of a cancer-causing pesticide. "The FDA is aware of the reports and is gathering additional information about the situation," an FDA spokesperson told Reuters on Friday. Hong Kong this month suspended sales of three MDH spice blends and an Everest spice mix for fish curries. Singapore ordered a recall of the Everest spice mix as well, saying it contains high levels of ethylene oxide, which is unfit for human consumption and a cancer risk with long exposure. Reuters is the first to report the U.S. FDA's review of alleged contamination of Indian spice products. MDH and Everest did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment on this matter. Everest has previously said its spices are safe for consumption. MDH has not responded to queries about its products so far. MDH and Everest spices are among the most popular in India and are also sold in Europe, Asia and North America. India's food regulator, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), is now checking the quality standards of the two companies, following the moves in Hong Kong and Singapore. India's Spices Board, the government's regulator for spice exports, said on Wednesday it had sought data on MDH and Everest exports from authorities in Hong Kong and Singapore, and was working with the companies to find the "root cause" of the quality issues as inspections started at their plants. In 2019, a few batches of MDH's products were recalled in the U.S. for salmonella contamination. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/india/us-food-regulator-gathering-information-indian-spices-after-alleged-2024-04-27/

2024-04-27 06:05

BAGHDAD, April 26 (Reuters) - Four expatriate workers were killed in a drone attack targeting the Khor Mor gas field in Iraq's Kurdistan region on Friday, an advisor to the Iraqi Kurdish prime minister told Reuters. Production has also been suspended, the advisor to the Iraqi Kurdish prime minister and a senior Kurdish politician said. The four expatriate workers killed in the attack were from Yemen, a statement from the Kurdish regional government said. Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid, in a Saturday post on X, condemned the attack that resulted in "multiple deaths and injuries, and has impacted the local electricity supply network." The drone attack on the Khor Mor gas field halted gas supplies to power plants, resulting in a reduction of approximately 2,500 MW of power generation. The Pearl Consortium - which includes United Arab Emirates energy firm Dana Gas (DANA.AD) New Tab, opens new tab, and its affiliate, Crescent Petroleum - has the rights to exploit Khor Mor and Chemchemal, two of Iraq's biggest gas fields. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/two-expatriate-workers-killed-by-drone-attack-iraqs-khor-mor-an-advisor-iraqi-2024-04-26/

2024-04-27 05:19

NICOSIA, April 27 (Reuters) - Aid shipments to Gaza from Cyprus resumed late on Friday, a Cypriot source and a UAE official said, with a ship carrying food to the besieged Palestinian enclave after a pause following Israel's killing of seven aid workers. The World Central Kitchen NGO had paused aid to review its activity in the territory after the early April attack, halting direct shipments into Gaza from Cyprus. A small cargo vessel left the port of Larnaca on Friday night with aid donated by the United Arab Emirates, the Cypriot source and the UAE official said. "The UAE confirms the departure of its humanitarian ship from Cyprus carrying 400 tonnes of food aid for the people of Gaza," the official said. "The UAE continues to explore all avenues with its regional and international partners to address the urgent humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip and maximize the delivery of aid to the Strip by land, air and sea." Israel's six-month old war against Hamas in Gaza, in response to an attack by the militant group in southern Israel, has killed more than 34,000 people, Palestinian health authorities say, and caused a humanitarian disaster for the enclave's more than 2 million inhabitants. The U.S. has started construction of a floating jetty on Gaza's Mediterranean coast that will enable aid deliveries pre-screened in Cyprus with Israeli oversight. Once that aid reaches Gaza, it will still need to pass through Israeli checkpoints on land. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/gaza-aid-cyprus-resumes-after-pause-following-aid-worker-killings-source-says-2024-04-27/

2024-04-27 00:36

April 26 (Reuters) - Canada's Aamjiwnaang First Nation declared a state of emergency due to a chemical release from INEOS Styrolution's plastic manufacturing plant in Sarnia, Ontario, the Indigenous group said. The Frankfurt-based company, a unit of privately owned INEOS Group (INEOSE.UL) was issued a compliance order by the provincial environment ministry on April 18 to investigate the cause of the leak at its Ontario factory, which began earlier in April. The state of emergency will stay in place unless the discharge of benzene drops to acceptable levels, the First Nation said late Thursday. The company shut down its facility on April 20 and the Ontario government is working with the First Nation to ensure public safety, the provincial environment ministry said. INEOS confirmed in a statement on Saturday that it had shut down the Sarnia plant for maintenance and to address an unspecified mechanical issue. It did not address the extent or cause of the chemical release. The plant produces raw material for products used in medical devices, automotive components and toys, according to its website. Ontario's environment department said it is investigating the elevated benzene emission. Aamjiwnaang First Nation, which has 1,000 residents, is surrounded by industrial facilities. The state of emergency will allow the community to acquire more resources to tackle the situation, Aamjiwnaang Chief Christopher Plain said in a Facebook post. Darren Henry, an Aamjiwnaang First Nation councillor, told Reuters that at least 10 people have visited hospital in the past two weeks with scratchy eyes, breathing troubles and headaches. The emergency declaration comes as thousands of delegates gathered in Ottawa this week to attend United Nations talks to rein in soaring plastic pollution. Janelle Nahmabin, an Aamjiwnaang councillor who is attending the talks, said the incident underscores why some countries and environmental groups want to make sure the treaty also addresses how plastics are made. "I'm hopeful that us being here and this unfortunate example opens the eyes of the decision-makers in the room, as well as all global citizens," she said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/canadas-first-nation-declares-emergency-due-excessive-chemicals-emission-2024-04-27/

2024-04-26 23:40

CAIRO/LOS ANGELES, April 27 (Reuters) - Yemen's Houthis said on Saturday their missiles hit the Andromeda Star oil tanker in the Red Sea, as they continue attacking commercial ships in the area in a show of support for Palestinians fighting Israel in the Gaza war. U.S. Central Command confirmed that Iran-backed Houthis launched three anti-ship ballistic missiles into the Red Sea from Yemen causing minor damage to the Andromeda Star. The ship's master reported damage to the vessel, British maritime security firm Ambrey said. A missile landed in the vicinity of a second vessel, the MV Maisha, but it was not damaged, U.S. Central Command said on social media site X. Houthi spokesman Yahya Sarea said the Panama-flagged Andromeda Star was British owned, but shipping data shows it was recently sold, according to LSEG data and Ambrey. Its current owner is Seychelles-registered. The tanker is engaged in Russia-linked trade. It was en route from Primorsk, Russia, to Vadinar, India, Ambrey said. Iran-aligned Houthi militants have launched repeated drone and missile strikes in the Red Sea, Bab al-Mandab Strait and Gulf of Aden since November, forcing shippers to re-route cargo to longer and more expensive journeys around southern Africa and stoking fears the Israel-Hamas war could spread and destabilise the Middle East. The attack on the Andromeda Star comes after a brief pause in the Houthis' campaign that targets ships with ties to Israel, the United States and Britain. The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier sailed out of the Red Sea via the Suez Canal on Friday after assisting a U.S.-led coalition to protect commercial shipping. The Houthis on Friday said they downed an American MQ-9 drone in airspace of Yemen's Saada province. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/yemens-houthis-say-their-missile-hit-andromeda-star-oil-ship-red-sea-2024-04-26/

2024-04-26 23:09

NEW YORK, April 26 (Reuters) - Richly valued U.S. stocks are leaving investors with little tolerance for disappointment, raising the stakes ahead of a week in which two more technology and growth giants are set to report. Strong reports from Microsoft (MSFT.O) New Tab, opens new tab and Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL.O) New Tab, opens new tab on Thursday helped propel the S&P 500 (.SPX) New Tab, opens new tab to its biggest weekly gain since early November following its first 5% pullback of the year. The S&P 500 is up about 7% in 2024 and some 24% since late October. But investors punished a disappointing forecast from Meta Platforms (META.O) New Tab, opens new tab. The Facebook parent's stock tumbled over 10% on Thursday after its report. A sales warning saw shares of industrial bellwether Caterpillar (CAT.N) New Tab, opens new tab fall 7%. More broadly, S&P 500 companies that have topped analyst earnings estimates this quarter have seen their shares outperform by a median of just 0.2%, JPMorgan strategists said. By contrast, those that have missed earnings estimates have had their shares lag by a median of 4%, the biggest such underperformance for misses in at least eight years. Earnings reports have been "pretty good," said Rick Meckler, partner at Cherry Lane Investments. But "anyone that's missed in any way is paying a pretty heavy price." More earnings are in store in the coming week from the so-called Magnificent Seven group of companies that drove markets higher last year. Amazon (AMZN.O) New Tab, opens new tab reports on Tuesday and Apple (AAPL.O) New Tab, opens new tab on Thursday. On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve will release its latest monetary policy statement after concluding its two-day meeting. Some believe the market’s nearly unabated run higher over the past six months has made investors less forgiving of earnings setbacks. The S&P 500 trades at 20 times forward earnings estimates, well above its historic average of 15.7, according to LSEG Datastream. "We cautioned that potential earnings beats might not lead to equity upside during the results season, given the already strong equities run leading up to the earnings season, and stretched positioning...," the JPMorgan strategists said. "Indeed, stock price reactions in the US (have) been underwhelming so far." Shares of Tesla (TSLA.O) New Tab, opens new tab surged 12% earlier in the week after the company said it would introduce new models by early 2025. Some investors attributed that to bargain hunting after a painful selloff this year, which left the bar for good news much lower. Tesla shares remain down over 30% for the year. Rising Treasury yields could be another factor. Companies’ projected future profits are more heavily discounted in analysts’ models when bond yields rise, as investors can now get a higher reward from risk-free government debt. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield hit 4.74% this week, its highest level since early November, following more evidence of stronger than expected inflation. Overall, however, 78% of S&P 500 companies have topped analysts' earnings estimates for the first quarter, with earnings on pace for a 5.6% rise from a year earlier, LSEG IBES said on Friday. Solid corporate results have grown more important as climbing Treasury yields and stubborn inflation have raised uncertainty about stocks, said Chuck Carlson, chief executive officer at Horizon Investment Services. Corporate profits are "coming through at a level that can provide support for the market and kind of overcome some of the wobbliness in the inflation and the interest rate environment here," Carlson said. Earnings could take a backseat if bond yields keep marching higher or inflation data remains stronger than expected. While investors do not expect any interest rate action from the Fed at next week’s meeting, they will be listening for the central bank’s insights on recent evidence of stronger than expected inflation. Expectations for interest rate cuts, which had been a key driver of the rally, have faded following signs of economic strength and sticky inflation. Futures markets on Friday showed investors pricing in just 35 basis points in rate cuts for 2024, compared to more than 150 priced in January. Earnings have "been a positive, but what the market's more concerned about, I would argue, is inflation and what the Fed's going to do about it," said Scott Wren, senior global market strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute. (This story has been corrected to say that the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield hit 4.74%, not 5.74%, this week, in paragraph 10) Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/wall-st-week-ahead-lofty-us-stocks-leave-investors-punishing-earnings-2024-04-26/