2024-04-22 11:41
RABAT, April 22 (Reuters) - Moroccan phosphate and fertiliser producer OCP has begun an investor roadshow for an international bond of up to $2 billion to fund its development plan, a company source said on Monday. The company has appointed BNP Paribas, Citi and JP Morgan to manage the bond, the source added. The bond would be the first since OCP announced in 2022 a $13 billion strategy to shift fully to renewable energy to power its industrial processes. The company also plans investments in green hydrogen to produce ammonia and has been investing in desalination. OCP's most recent international bond was a dual-tranche issue worth $1.5 billion in 2021. Get a look at the day ahead in U.S. and global markets with the Morning Bid U.S. newsletter. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/moroccos-ocp-starts-roadshow-up-2-bln-bond-2024-04-22/
2024-04-22 11:38
MUMBAI, April 22 (Reuters) - India's cut and polished diamond exports in 2023/24 plunged 27.5% from a year ago to a $15.97 billion due to sluggish demand from the United States, China and the United Arab Emirates, a leading trade body said on Monday. The fall in exports forced the world's biggest diamond polisher to reduce imports of rough diamonds by 18% from a year ago to $14.27 billion in the financial year ended March 31, the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) said. In response to lower demand for exports, the industry voluntarily suspended rough diamond imports for two months from Oct. 15, 2023. The suspension of rough diamond imports helped address demand-supply imbalances, leading to a positive impact on polished diamond prices in the March quarter, said Vipul Shah, chairman of the GJEPC. "GJEPC is discussing with global diamond miners to increase investments in enhancing generic promotion of diamonds and diamond jewellery in the United States, China, Middle East including India," Shah said. India's plain gold jewellery exports surged nearly 62% in 2023/24 to $6.79 billion as shipments to United Arab Emirates (UAE) more than doubled due to the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, signed between India and the UAE, Shah said. Get a look at the day ahead in U.S. and global markets with the Morning Bid U.S. newsletter. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/indias-polished-diamond-exports-drop-275-key-markets-falter-2024-04-22/
2024-04-22 11:29
TAIPEI, April 23 (Reuters) - More than 80 earthquakes, the strongest of 6.3 magnitude, struck Taiwan's east coast starting Monday night and into the early hours of Tuesday and some caused shaking of buildings in the capital Taipei, the island's weather administration said. The quakes were centred on the largely rural eastern county of Hualien, where on April 3 at least 14 people died after a 7.2 magnitude temblor. Taiwan has been jolted by hundreds of aftershocks since then. The fire department in Hualien said early on Tuesday that a hotel which had already been damaged on April 3 and was no longer in operation was now slightly leaning on its side. However, there were no reports of any casualties. Taiwan lies near the junction of two tectonic plates and is prone to earthquakes. More than 100 people were killed in a quake in southern Taiwan in 2016, while a 7.3 magnitude quake killed more than 2,000 people in 1999. Coming soon: Get the latest news and expert analysis about the state of the global economy with Reuters Econ World. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/taiwan-rattled-by-earthquake-eastern-county-2024-04-22/
2024-04-22 11:26
LONDON, April 22 (Reuters) - Global hedge fund borrowing rose to a five-year high in the week to April 19, a Goldman Sachs (GS.N) New Tab, opens new tab note showed, as hedge funds ramped up trading to take advantage of the first sharp dip in U.S. and European stocks this year. Banks give hedge funds leverage, essentially a loan to fund investing, which amplifies hedge fund returns but can also increase losses. Gross leverage, or total borrowing, reached 270% after rising 2.6 points from the prior week, Goldman said in a note released Friday and seen by Reuters on Monday. Hedge funds' overall net leverage, which measures a fund's total assets including borrowing against what it actually owns, ticked up 0.5 points to 73% last week, said Goldman Sachs. Stock picking hedge funds not using algorithms to trade were the type of hedge fund that ratcheted up leverage levels, the note added. It did not give a number for systematic hedge fund leverage. Leverage can be used to take bets against stocks but also to fund the derivatives trades that bet their values will rise. A short trade bets that an asset will fall in value. Hedge funds U-turned stock bets on Wednesday and Thursday last week after three straight weeks of selling and bought the dip in global equities particularly in the U.S. and Europe, said the bank. The S&P 500 (.SPX) New Tab, opens new tab last week fell more than 5% from its March 28 closing high, its biggest retreat since October, while the broadest European index of stocks fell 1.2% in its biggest weekly decline since mid-January (.STOXX) New Tab, opens new tab. Though rare, sharp dips and recoveries are not uncommon: the S&P 500 has experienced an average of three pullbacks of 5% or more every year since 1929, a Bank of America analysis showed. Hedge funds focused bullish trades on technology companies, which had the highest level of net buying in two months. But traders remained short consumer discretionary stocks, such as luxury and travel, the Goldman note said. Hedge funds bought stocks in most sectors including healthcare, tech, real estate and industrials, it added. Single stocks saw the largest notional long buying in over a year, while macro products were net sold for the third straight week led by short sales, Goldman said. North America and Europe were net bought on the week, while Asia was net sold. Get a look at the day ahead in U.S. and global markets with the Morning Bid U.S. newsletter. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/hedge-flow-hedge-fund-borrowing-hits-five-year-peak-goldman-sachs-says-2024-04-22/
2024-04-22 11:16
LONDON, April 22 (Reuters) - Flourishing activity in the electric vehicle, power infrastructure, AI and automation sectors will lead to at least 10 million metric tons of additional copper consumption over the next decade, commodity trader Trafigura told Reuters. Technological developments such as artificial intelligence and automation, and the energy transition, which includes electric vehicles and renewable energy, have already driven up demand prospects for copper cable used to conduct electricity. Estimates of new demand from these applications vary, but Graeme Train, head of metals analysis at Swiss-based Trafigura, said one third of the 10 million tons of new demand would come from the electric vehicle sector. "A third is electricity generation, transmission and distribution, and the rest is for things like automation, manufacturing capex and cooling systems within data centres," he said. Growth in data centres is related to AI. Accelerating production of electric vehicles, solar panels and grid investment in China, and a pick-up in manufacturing activity in the top consumer, has already boosted demand for copper used in the power and construction industries. That combined with tight supplies of refined copper metal and concentrate has propelled copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) to two-year peaks near $10,000 a ton. Copper industry sources say part of the reason for the price surge are sliding stocks in LME registered warehouses , which at 121,200 tonnes have dropped more than 35% since October last year. Tight supplies of mined copper or concentrate, the feedstock for copper metal, due to disruptions such as the closure of First Quantum's (FM.TO) New Tab, opens new tab Cobre mine in Panama last year have also helped fuel copper's upward price momentum this year. Analysts have been revising their forecasts of the copper market balance since in December when Anglo American (AAL.L) New Tab, opens new tab also cut its production guidance, and some now expect significant shortages in the copper market estimated at around 26 million tonnes this year. Train expects copper demand to be bolstered by industrialisation and urbanisation in the emerging world, particularly in India where consumption per person per year is only half a kg. In China and the developed world, per capita copper consumption is 10 kgs and seven kgs respectively, he said. Get a look at the day ahead in U.S. and global markets with the Morning Bid U.S. newsletter. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/copper-demand-boom-new-technology-drives-power-consumption-trafigura-says-2024-04-22/
2024-04-22 10:40
BOJ decision expected 0230-0430 GMT Friday after 2-day meeting Board seen revising up inflation forecasts for fiscal 2024, 2025 New forecasts to show inflation staying around 2% in fiscal 2026 Consumption, service price data key to next rate hike timing Governor Ueda likely to hold post-meeting briefing at 0630 GMT TOKYO, April 22 (Reuters) - The Bank of Japan is expected to project inflation will stay around its 2% target for the next three years in new forecasts due on Friday, signalling its readiness to raise interest rates again this year from current near-zero levels. But governor Kazuo Ueda will probably stress the BOJ's resolve to tread carefully and take a data-dependent approach in deciding the next rate hike given uncertainties on whether wage hikes will broaden and drive up prices in the services sector. "We will proceed cautiously, initially assessing the impact of our recent policy changes on the economy and inflation, then considering further adjustment as deemed appropriate," Ueda told a seminar in Washington last week. Having made a landmark exit from its radical stimulus just last month, the BOJ is widely expected to keep its short-term interest target unchanged in a range of 0-0.1% after a two-day meeting that ends on Friday. It is also not expected to change its plans to buy government bonds at the current pace of roughly 6 trillion yen ($38.8 billion) per month as a precaution to avoiding sharp rises in bond yields. In fresh quarterly projections due after the meeting, the nine-member board is likely to cut its economic growth forecast for the current year that began in April due to weak output and consumption, five sources familiar with its thinking said. But the board may slightly raise its forecasts for inflation, as measured by an index excluding the effect of fresh food and fuel costs, to around 2% in fiscal 2024 and 2025 due to the prospect of sustained wage hikes, they said. The BOJ is expected to project inflation will stay around 2% in fiscal 2026, the sources said. Under current forecasts, the BOJ expects inflation to hit 1.9% in both fiscal 2024 and 2025. It will announce estimates for 2026 for the first time on Friday. The central bank ended eight years of negative rates and other remnants of its unorthodox policy last month, making a historic shift away from its focus on reflating the economy with decades of massive monetary stimulus. Markets are looking for clues on how soon the BOJ will hike rates again. Many economists expect it to happen either in the third or fourth quarter, after Ueda's recent comments signalling the chance of another hike around summer or autumn this year. While the projected upgrade in inflation forecasts would keep alive market expectations of a near-term rate hike, the timing of such a move would be swayed more by data on whether prospects of wage hikes could push up prices particularly for services, analysts say. The strength of consumption, which remains weak as rising living costs hurt households, is also key to how soon the BOJ could raise rates. The weak yen complicates the BOJ's policy path with some market players betting the central bank could come under pressure to hike rates sooner than it wants to slow the currency's decline. While Ueda has ruled out directly targeting yen moves in guiding policy, he said a weakening currency could push up trend inflation by boosting import prices. "If the impact becomes too big to ignore, it might lead to a change in monetary policy," he told a press conference last week, signalling the possibility of another rate hike. Many analysts expect the BOJ to spend at least a few more months to gauge whether trend inflation will steadily accelerate toward its target, and durably stay there, as it projects. While an expected revival of consumption will give the BOJ room to increase rates, it should tread cautiously given various risks surrounding the outlook, Nada Choueiri, the International Monetary Fund's Japan mission chief, told Reuters. "I think gradualism is really important," because the risks to growth and inflation are equally balanced, Choueiri said last week. ($1 = 154.7000 yen) Get a look at the day ahead in Asian and global markets with the Morning Bid Asia newsletter. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/asia/boj-project-inflation-will-stay-around-target-signal-chance-rate-hike-2024-04-22/
