2024-04-03 19:11

April 3 (Reuters) - Costco Wholesale (COST.O) , opens new tab will offer its members access to weight-loss programs, including prescription drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, from online healthcare services provider Sesame, as the companies expanded their partnership. The wholesale retailer's members can subscribe to Sesame's weight-loss program for $179 for three months, compared with $195 for non-members, Sesame said in a blog post on Tuesday. Under the program, a clinician would help the patients with diet, exercise and lifestyle modifications, and may subscribe medications, subject to availability, the blog post said. The subscription does not cover costs of medication or lab work. The clinicians will work with eligible patients for medication on a pre-authorization, which could reduce cost further, the company told Reuters in statement. Demand for GLP-1 agonists, a class of highly effective diabetes and obesity drugs, has surged in the last few years, with thousands of prescriptions being filled out every week in the United States. The membership-only retail chain did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for additional comment. Costco had 130 million members as of Feb. 18, as per the company's website. Sesame first partnered with Costco last September to offer outpatient medical care to its members. In March, Costco missed expectations for second-quarter revenue, hurt by lower gasoline prices impact and soft discretionary spend from consumers. Big-box retailers such as Amazon (AMZN.O) , opens new tab and Walmart (WMT.N) , opens new tab have been offering healthcare services following the pandemic. Amazon offers virtual primary care service for Prime members through One Medical, which it bought in 2022. Walmart runs primary care centers at its stores and its membership warehouse club retail chain, Sam's Club, sells GLP-1 drugs through its pharmacies. Keep up with the latest medical breakthroughs and healthcare trends with the Reuters Health Rounds newsletter. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/costco-offering-members-access-weight-loss-programs-including-medication-2024-04-03/

2024-04-03 19:10

NEW YORK, April 3 (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve is likely to start cutting interest rates midyear but the easing cycle will be more gradual in the United States than in other developed markets, U.S. bond giant PIMCO said on Wednesday. PIMCO favors bond markets in countries such as Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom because inflation risks are less pronounced there than in the U.S., Tiffany Wilding, an economist, and Andrew Balls, chief investment officer for global fixed income, wrote in a 6-12 month outlook report. "Central banks, which tightened policy in unison to curb the pandemic inflationary spike, will likely follow varied paths when cutting interest rates," they said. "While many large, developed market economies are slowing, the U.S. has maintained its surprisingly strong momentum, with several supportive factors poised to persist." Such factors include larger pandemic-related stimulus measures, elevated fiscal deficits, and the artificial intelligence boom. The economic policies of the candidates in the upcoming U.S. presidential election are also seen as potentially supportive of U.S. economic growth and detrimental for growth elsewhere, said PIMCO. "Those factors supporting relative U.S. growth are also likely to contribute to stickier inflation in the U.S. in 2024," it said. Fed officials have projected three rate cuts this year, but a string of recent strong economic data could delay the expected shift to a less restrictive policy rate. PIMCO expects a so-called soft landing for the U.S. economy - a scenario where high interest rates cool inflation without tipping the economy into a recession - but said the risks of an economic contraction or stickier-than-expected inflation remained elevated. "In the U.S., persistent inflationary risks look most elevated. Elsewhere, recession risks are still a chief concern," it said. In credit markets, it sees U.S. agency mortgage-backed securities as attractive and prefers high-rated corporate debt to higher-yielding but riskier bonds of companies more sensitive to a potential economic downturn. The Reuters Daily Briefing newsletter provides all the news you need to start your day. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/rates-bonds/us-bond-manager-pimco-sees-fed-rate-cuts-midyear-gradual-easing-2024-04-03/

2024-04-03 19:06

STANFORD, California, April 3 (Reuters) - Federal Reserve officials including U.S. central bank chief Jerome Powell on Wednesday continued focusing on the need for more debate and data before interest rates are cut, a move financial markets expect to occur in June. "Recent readings on both job gains and inflation have come in higher than expected," Powell said in a speech to the Stanford Graduate School of Business. While policymakers generally agree that rates can fall later this year, he said this will happen only when they "have greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably down" to the Fed's 2% target. His remarks repeated language the Fed has adopted as it tries to balance the risks of cutting interest rates before inflation is truly controlled with the risks of suppressing economic activity more than is needed. As new data arrives, however, as many questions have been raised as answered. In separate comments to CNBC on Wednesday, Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic said rates should likely not be reduced until the fourth quarter of this year. Bostic anticipates only one quarter-percentage-point cut will be appropriate in 2024, well below the three or more cuts most of his colleagues anticipate. "We've seen inflation kind of become much more bumpy," Bostic said. "If the economy evolves as I expect, and that's going to be seeing continued robustness in GDP and employment, and a slow decline in inflation over the course of the year, I think it will be appropriate for us to start moving down at the end of this year, the fourth quarter." Few other Fed officials have been as specific in their public remarks about the interest rate outlook as Bostic, however. Fed Governor Adriana Kugler, for one, agreed with the assessment from Bostic, Powell and other officials that recent progress on inflation has been "bumpy." Still, Kugler said in comments at Washington University in St. Louis, "I expect the disinflationary trend to continue" and help pave the way for rate cuts over the course of the year. "If disinflation and labor market conditions proceed as I am currently expecting, then some lowering of the policy rate this year would be appropriate," she said, without commenting on the timing or extent of policy easing she expects. The Fed last month held its benchmark overnight interest rate steady in the 5.25%-5.50% range, where it has been since July. 'LATER THIS YEAR' Powell's prepared remarks and answers to questions at the event in Stanford, California, broke no new policy ground. As he did at his press conference at the end of the Fed's last policy meeting on March 20, Powell maintained the baseline outlook that rates will fall "later this year," and said that recent data did not "materially change the overall picture which continues to be one of solid growth, a strong but rebalancing labor market, and inflation moving down toward 2% on a sometimes bumpy path." But neither has he hinted at when the Fed might loosen its grip on credit, with upcoming jobs data, including the March nonfarm payrolls report on Friday, and incoming inflation readings next week important in shaping the outlook for the central bank's April 30-May 1 and June 11-12 policy meetings. "Given the strength of the economy and progress on inflation so far, we have time to let the incoming data guide our decisions on policy," Powell said, with decisions made "meeting by meeting. Inflation, based on the Fed's preferred measure, remains half a percentage point or more above the central bank's 2% target, and recent progress has been minimal. "January and February showed a bit of firming in the inflation data," Kugler said. But she also said recent inflation numbers "featured some atypical or seasonal factors that suggest a need to withhold judgment" before deciding that last year's rapid progress back to the Fed's 2% target had indeed slowed. Rather, Kugler said, she felt there was "still a bit of room" for supply improvements to slow the pace of price increases, "especially in the services sector, where solid labor supply growth will continue to ease wage and inflation pressures." The Reuters Daily Briefing newsletter provides all the news you need to start your day. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/rates-bonds/feds-powell-repeats-there-is-time-deliberate-over-rate-cuts-2024-04-03/

2024-04-03 19:01

MILAN, April 3 (Reuters) - Energy storage group VTTI will get a 70% stake in Italy's biggest liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal, with grid operator Snam (SRG.MI) , opens new tab owning the rest, the Milan-listed group said on Wednesday, announcing a deal to be finalised by year-end. Snam, which is controlled by the Italian government, said in a statement it had exercised its pre-emption right to increase its stake in the infrastructure dubbed Adriatic LNG to 30% from 7.3%. The move comes after ExxonMobil (XOM.N) , opens new tab and QatarEnergy last week agreed to sell their stakes in the terminal to a consortium led by Dutch group VTTI. It confirms what two sources had told Reuters. "This operation strengthens Snam's presence in LNG infrastructure, which is increasingly strategic for the security and diversification of Italy's energy supplies," Snam CEO Stefano Venier said, adding the group would support the terminal's expansion projects. Snam did not give financial details for the deal while sources had previously said the deal would value the entire terminal around 800 million euros ($866 million) including debt. REPLACING RUSSIAN GAS The terminal is located about 9 miles (15 km) off the Veneto coastline and has a regasification capacity of 9 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas per year. Europe has increased LNG imports after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 drastically curtailed gas coming through pipelines. Snam holds stakes in all the remaining LNG terminals currently operating in Italy for a total regasification capacity of about 23 bcm. The group will set up an additional floating LNG terminal offshore the city of Ravenna at the beginning of next year, increasing Italy's regasification capacity to 28 bcm, equal to the gas Italy used to import from Russia via pipeline. The closing of the transaction is subject to regulatory authorisations. Commodity trader Vitol -- which is a shareholder in VTTI together with Australia's IFM and Abu Dhabi's ADNOC -- has also agreed to buy Italian oil refiner Saras (SRS.MI) , opens new tab. ($1 = 0.9234 euros) (This story has been corrected to change the total regasification capacity to 28 bcm from 29 bcm in paragraph 9) The Reuters Power Up newsletter provides everything you need to know about the global energy industry. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/vtti-control-italys-biggest-lng-terminal-snam-get-30-2024-04-03/

2024-04-03 18:44

April 3 (Reuters) - The Indian government has raised its windfall tax on petroleum crude for the fifth time since February to 6,800 Indian rupees ($81.43) a metric ton from 4,900 rupees with effect from April 4, the government said in a notification on Wednesday. The windfall tax, which is revised fortnightly, remains at zero for diesel and aviation turbine fuel. On March 15, the government raised the windfall tax on petroleum crude to 4,900 rupees a metric ton from 4,600 rupees. India introduced the tax in July 2022 on crude oil producers, and on exports of gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel, because private refiners wanted to sell fuel overseas to gain from robust refining margins instead of selling locally. ($1 = 83.5035 Indian rupees) 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/india-hikes-windfall-tax-petroleum-crude-2024-04-03/

2024-04-03 18:03

Canadian dollar gains 0.3% against the greenback Trades in a range of 1.3512 to 1.3588 Price of U.S. oil climbs to highest since October Downturn in Canada's services sector deepens TORONTO, April 3 (Reuters) - The Canadian dollar strengthened against its U.S. counterpart on Wednesday as the greenback gave back some recent broad-based gains and investors turned attention to a Bank of Canada policy decision next week. The loonie was trading 0.3% higher at 1.3525 to the U.S. dollar, or 73.94 U.S. cents, after trading in a range of 1.3512 to 1.3588. "It's a broad dollar move," said Erik Nelson, a macro Strategist at Wells Fargo Securities in London. "We had relatively benign U.S. data here in the last little bit." The U.S. dollar (.DXY) , opens new tab fell against a basket of major currencies as U.S. services industry growth slowed further in March and a measure of prices paid by businesses for inputs dropped to a four-year low, which bodes well for the inflation outlook. Adding to support for the Canadian currency, the price of oil, one of Canada's major exports, climbed to its highest level since October as investors worried about supply disruptions from a worsening geopolitical landscape. U.S. crude oil futures were up 0.9% at $85.91 a barrel. Still, the loonie remained within the roughly 1.34 to 1.36 range it has occupied in recent months. "We're still just in a sideways, choppy (pattern) as we wait for the BoC," Nelson said. Investors expect the Canadian central bank to leave its benchmark interest rate unchanged at a 22-year high of 5% at a policy decision next Wednesday but to then begin a rate cutting campaign in June or July. The downturn in Canada's services sector deepened in March as higher prices and elevated borrowing costs crimped customer demand, S&P Global Canada services PMI data showed. The Canadian 10-year bond yield was nearly unchanged at 3.606%, after on Tuesday touching its highest intraday level in nearly three weeks at 3.678%. Keep up with the latest medical breakthroughs and healthcare trends with the Reuters Health Rounds newsletter. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/c-gains-us-services-data-improves-inflation-outlook-2024-04-03/