2024-04-26 18:38

MEXICO CITY, April 26 (Reuters) - Mexican broadcaster Televisa (TLEVISACPO.MX) New Tab, opens new tab plans to merge its satellite TV unit Sky with its cable TV and internet service Izzi as soon as possible, the head of the new unit said on Friday. Televisa is aiming to trim its financial expenses, and Izzi has had trouble staying competitive in recent quarters. Francisco Valim, who will run the unit, said the combination will help Televisa to optimize the two business by allowing it to "homogenize regions, sales channels, (and) commission frameworks and better manage the customer base." He said the bulk of the integration would take place between April and the end of June. Benefits from the merger should become clearer in the third quarter of 2024, he said, when the firm expects to save some 400 million Mexican pesos ($23.37 million) in operating expenses. Shares were up 6.5% at 10.8 pesos each in morning trading. But both Sky and Izzi suffered setbacks over the quarter, with analysts at J.P. Morgan noting that Sky had "significant video subscriber losses", as it reported 250,600 organic disconnections in the quarter. The Mexican firm earlier this month reached an agreement to buy out AT&T's T.N stake in Sky, giving Televisa full control of the firm. Sky's ratio of capital expenditures to sales should come in below 14% in 2024 as the restructuring is carried out. On Thursday, Televisa reported net profits of 951.9 million pesos for the first quarter, reversing two consecutive quarters of losses, largely due to a reduction in financial expenses. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/televisa-merge-sky-cable-as-soon-possible-2024-04-26/

2024-04-26 18:30

Canadian dollar weakens 0.1% against the greenback For the week, the loonie advances 0.6% Flash estimate shows wholesale trade falling in March Canadian bond yields ease across the curve TORONTO, April 26 (Reuters) - The Canadian dollar edged lower against its U.S. counterpart on Friday as U.S. inflation data suggested the Federal Reserve could turn more hawkish compared to the Bank of Canada and some other major peers, but the currency still notched a weekly gain. The loonie was trading 0.1% lower at 1.3665 to the U.S. dollar, or 73.18 U.S. cents, with the currency pulling back after it touched its strongest level since April 10 at 1.3633. For the week, the loonie strengthened 0.6%. "It is getting harder for the Fed not to sound hawkish given the inflation data surprises since January," strategists at TD Securities, including Jayati Bharadwaj, said in a note. "On the flip side, recent progress on inflation in other major developed markets including CA (Canada), UK, EU probably mean that those central banks would be able to cut before the Fed and provide the USD a support from relative rate divergence," the strategists said. U.S. monthly inflation rose moderately in March, but stubbornly higher costs for housing and utilities suggested the Fed, which is due to make a policy decision on Wednesday, could keep interest rates elevated for a while. In contrast, money markets see a roughly 50% chance the Bank of Canada could begin easing as soon as June. Canadian wholesale trade fell 1.3% in March from February, a preliminary estimate from Statistics Canada showed, adding to evidence of a slowdown in the domestic economy. The price of oil , one of Canada's major exports, was up 0.4% at $83.90 a barrel, drawing support from Middle East tensions. Canadian government bond yields moved lower across a flatter curve. The 10-year was down 3.4 basis points at 3.835%, after it touched on Thursday its highest intraday level in nearly six months at 3.891%. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/c-trims-weekly-gain-us-inflation-remains-sticky-2024-04-26/

2024-04-26 18:27

HOUSTON, April 26 (Reuters) - U.S. and European oil companies reported weaker first quarter results on Friday due to a sharp drop in natural gas prices compared with a year ago. Results at oil and gas firms are still retreating from record levels in 2022 that were boosted by a surge in demand after the COVID-19 pandemic and then when prices spiked after Russia invaded Ukraine. In the U.S., Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) New Tab, opens new tab missed Wall Street earnings targets on fuel derivatives and Chevron (CVX.N) New Tab, opens new tab beat tempered expectations with better-than-expected U.S. oil production. French oil major TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA) New Tab, opens new tab also slightly beat analysts forecasts as good refining margins partially offset a steep drop in profits from natural gas. "European gas prices declined by 35%, reflecting a mild winter and high storage levels," said TotalEnergies Chief Financial Officer Jean-Pierre Sbraire. Exxon's profit fell 28%, Chevron decreased 16% and TotalEnergies was down 22% year-on-year, with the two U.S. oil majors also taking a toll from weaker profits from gasoline and fuels. Henry Hub futures New Tab, opens new tab, the benchmark for U.S. gas, has been trading below $1.70 per million British thermal unit (mmBtu), and earlier this year dropped to a 3-1/2-year low on warm weather and oversupply. Global benchmark Brent crude prices were largely flat against a year ago at $81.76 a barrel in the quarter. But higher oil prices — currently trading around $90 — means lucrative oil refining margins from early this year are set to fall, with TotalEnergies expecting its refining business to be less profitable in the second quarter and beyond due to geopolitical tensions and OPEC+ production limits. Last year's strong profits led Exxon, Chevron, Occidental Petroleum (OXY.N) New Tab, opens new tab to bid for rivals hoping to generate higher oil and gas production. Exxon posted an $8.5 billion profit, its second highest for the first quarter in more than a decade, while Chevron earned $5.5 billion and TotalEnergies delivered $5.1 billion in adjusted net. Share prices reflected the profit drops, with Exxon down 2.6% and Chevron falling less than 1% in late New York trading. TotalEnergies' shares closed up 2.09% in Paris after it reconfirmed a $2 billion share buyback. Executives offered no new guidance on their production outlooks for coming quarters on conference calls, giving investors less reason to cheer. In part, the two largest U.S. oil companies' outlook depends on pending approvals for two bid deals. Exxon aims to close its purchase of Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD.N) New Tab, opens new tab in the current quarter, it said. Chevron said its offer for Hess (HES.N) New Tab, opens new tab is moving ahead. The deal is expected to be put for shareholder vote in late May, and an arbitration process with Exxon that is blocking the sale should be concluded in the fourth quarter. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/earnings-big-oil-backpaddle-natgas-prices-tumble-2024-04-26/

2024-04-26 17:17

MEXICO CITY, April 26 (Reuters) - Mexican state energy company Pemex reported on Friday that its financial debt had fallen to $101.5 billion at the end of the first quarter after what Chief Executive Officer Octavio Romero called "unprecedented support" from the government. Throughout his term in office, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, an energy nationalist, has thrown the heavily indebted driller billions of dollars in lifelines, including capital injections and tax reductions. Even so, Pemex remains the world's most indebted energy company and owes both national and international service providers $21.9 billion more. "It is important that future governments support Pemex the way it requires," Romero told analysts after the results were published on Friday. In the first quarter alone, Pemex received $4.6 billion in support from the government. Pemex is still the largest contributor to state coffers even though production has fallen from the heights of decades earlier as fields are being depleted and newer discoveries have failed to compensate for the decline. During the January-to-March period, Pemex produced crude oil and condensate at an average of 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd), the results showed, and processed an average of 985,000 bpd in its six national refineries. While production had fallen from the same quarter a year earlier, processing had increased. It reported a net profit of 4.7 billion pesos ($284.3 million), down 91.7% from the year earlier period, amid lower sales and higher costs, and an EBITA of 92.4 billion. Its revenues stood at 405.9 billion pesos, down 3% from the year before, driven mainly by a drop in crude prices. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/mexicos-pemex-q1-net-profit-plummets-92-2024-04-26/

2024-04-26 16:12

April 26 (Reuters) - U.S. Federal Reserve policymakers sifting through the latest inflation data will find little to fuel a sense of urgency to cut interest rates, but also nothing to rule out the likelihood of rate reductions starting later this year. That was the view from financial markets and analysts following a government report on Friday that showed inflation rose last month largely in line with economist expectations, and with what Fed officials themselves had said they anticipated. The year-over-year rise in personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, which the U.S. central bank targets at 2%, accelerated to 2.7% in March from 2.5% in February. Core PCE, a measure of underlying inflation, came in at 2.8%, the same as February. "Phew," wrote Inflation Insights' analyst Omair Shariff. A report Thursday showing economic growth had slowed in the first quarter but inflation had accelerated had stoked fears of a resurgence of price pressures that analysts had worried would be confirmed in Friday's report, and that could defer, or even end, hopes for Fed policy easing this year. "The fact that it came in closer to consensus could be viewed with a sigh of relief," Shariff said. After the report, futures contracts that settle to the Fed's policy rate interest-rate futures prices pointed to about a 60% chance of a rate cut at the U.S. central bank's mid-September meeting, slightly more than before the report. Traders continued to see about a 50-50 chance of a second rate cut by the end of the year. Fed policymakers meet next week and are nearly universally expected to keep the policy rate in its current 5.25%-5.5% range, and to continue to signal no urgency on cuts. Fed Chair Jerome Powell has said the central bank needs more confidence that inflation is heading towards their 2% goal before cutting rates. While Friday's data did not do further damage to that confidence, it did not do much to boost it either, analysts said. The report showed housing and transportation costs continued to push upward on prices. "Given the momentum for the economy and prices, we don’t expect the Fed to strongly consider easing monetary policy until its September meeting at the earliest," wrote Nationwide economist Ben Ayers. "There is also a risk that the further economic resilience pushes off any rate declines until 2025, a key downside risk for growth next year." Rate futures are pricing in about a 17% chance of no rate cuts at all this year, down about 20% before the report but elevated compared with a few weeks ago, when two or even three rate cuts this year was seen as most likely. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/traders-add-bets-september-start-fed-rate-cuts-2024-04-26/

2024-04-26 15:53

MOSCOW, April 26 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin has placed the Russian subsidiaries of Italian water heating company Ariston and Germany appliance maker BSH Hausgeraete under the temporary management of a Gazprom entity, according to a decree published on Friday. JSC Gazprom Household Systems will act as a temporary manager for the two businesses. Russia has placed the assets of a handful of Western companies under "temporary management" since the start of the war in Ukraine, justifying such moves as retaliation for actions by other countries against Russian businesses. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/putin-transfers-local-russian-units-italys-ariston-germanys-bsh-hausgeraete-2024-04-26/