2024-03-12 00:27

LONDON, March 12 (Reuters) - Britain is proposing to build new gas plants to improve energy security and risks facing blackouts without them, the government said on Tuesday. As part of efforts to meet climate targets and boost energy security, Britain is seeking to increase its nuclear and wind power capacity but said new gas plants will also be needed to provide back up. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) said new gas plants will be needed beyond 2030, with energy minister Claire Coutinho expected to set out a new strategy for gas in a speech to be delivered at Chatham House in London later in the day. “Without gas backing up renewables, we face the genuine prospect of blackouts ... We will not let ourselves be put in that position. And so, as we continue to move towards clean energy, we must be realistic,” she is expected to say. Critics have warned a push for new gas plants could hamper the country's target of reaching net zero emissions by 2050 and leave it more reliant on expensive fossil fuels. "The government's cunning plan to boost energy security and meet our climate goals is to make Britain more dependent on the very fossil fuel that sent our bills rocketing and the planet's temperature soaring," said Dr Doug Parr, policy director at Greenpeace UK. Currently around a third of the country's electricity comes from gas plants, a reliance that contributed to soaring bills when gas prices hit record highs following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. DESNZ also said it is proposing a location-based method to determine how much consumers should be charged for the electricity they use. Currently, wholesale electricity prices are set on a national level but under the new zonal market proposal consumers would pay different rates depending on where they are located, with those close to power generators likely to pay less. “A significant proportion of our energy is located away from areas of high demand ... Different wholesale prices could better match supply and demand and bring down costs for people across the country,” DESNZ said in a statement. Zonal electricity pricing is already used in some European countries such as Italy, Sweden and Norway. The announcements are part of a consultation into the Review of Electricity Market Arrangements (REMA) which was launched in 2022 to reform the electricity market. https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/britain-proposes-location-based-pricing-electricity-2024-03-12/

2024-03-11 23:59

March 11 (Reuters) - Three children and two adults were killed in western Illinois on Monday in a fiery, head-on collision between a school bus and a tractor-trailer that was hauling a load of sand, authorities said. The crash occurred around 11:30 a.m. when the bus, for unknown reasons, crossed into oncoming lanes on state Route 24 in front of the truck, which was headed in the opposite direction, a state police spokesperson told a news briefing. The two vehicles became engulfed in flames on impact, she said. News images from the scene showed the charred, burned-out wreckage of the bus. All three children, who were the only passengers aboard the bus, perished in the crash, along with the drivers of both vehicles. All were pronounced dead at the scene, police said. ABC News, citing the Schuyler County coroner, reported the three children were preschoolers. The Schuyler-Industry school district said in a Facebook post that classes would be canceled on Tuesday and Wednesday out of respect for grieving families. The wreck occurred near the town of Rushville, located in rural west-central Illinois, about 60 miles (96.5 km) northwest of Springfield, the state capital. "There's not really words at this time that can be said to anybody," Sheriff Bill Redshaw told reporters at a local fire station. "Schuyler County is a small county, a small community. Rushville, Illinois, it's a close-knit family." The cause of the crash, including questions about whether alcohol or drugs were a factor, remained under investigation, police said. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/fiery-illinois-highway-collision-kills-three-children-two-adults-2024-03-11/

2024-03-11 23:36

Chip stocks extend recent losses Boeing eases as justice dept probes MAX blowout Equitrans Midstream up as EQT to buy back firm Indexes: Dow up 0.1%, S&P 500 down 0.1%, Nasdaq down 0.4% NEW YORK, March 11 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and Nasdaq ended down slightly on Monday with investors preparing for this week's consumer and producer price data, which they hope will provide a better idea of whether the Federal Reserve can begin cutting interest rates in the coming months. Boeing (BA.N) , opens new tab shares eased 3%. U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said on Monday he expects the planemaker to cooperate in investigations by the Justice Department and National Transportation Safety Board into the Alaska Airlines (ALK.N) , opens new tab 737 MAX 9 mid-air emergency on Jan. 5. The industrial sector (.SPLRCI) , opens new tab also was lower, while the Dow edged higher. U.S. consumer price data for February is due on Tuesday, with expectations for a monthly increase of 0.4% and 3.1% on an annual basis. The U.S. producer price report is due on Thursday. "These tend to be more volatile ... and certainly the market will move with them," said Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist at Ingalls & Snyder in New York. "There's certainly a camp out there saying we're going to have renewed inflation - or there's a good possibility of that - and then there's certainly a camp that says we're going to have deflation, and that will allow the Fed to lower rates. It's always tricky." Data showing signs of a robust economy slowed the stock market's rally last month as traders pushed back expectations on the timing of the first Fed rate cut to June from March. The Fed's next rate-setting meeting is next week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) , opens new tab rose 46.97 points, or 0.12%, to 38,769.66, the S&P 500 (.SPX) , opens new tab lost 5.75 points, or 0.11%, to 5,117.94 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) , opens new tab dropped 65.84 points, or 0.41%, to 16,019.27. Chip stocks extended recent declines, with Nvidia (NVDA.O) , opens new tab ending down 2%, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.O) , opens new tab falling 4.3% and Broadcom (AVGO.O) , opens new tab declining 1.2%. Shares of Equitrans Midstream (ETRN.N) , opens new tab edged up 1.5% after EQT Corp (EQT.N) , opens new tab said on Monday it had decided to buy back its former unit in an all-stock deal. EQT shares slid 7.8%. Volume on U.S. exchanges was 10.90 billion shares, compared with the 12.06 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days. Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.07-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.45-to-1 ratio favored decliners. The S&P 500 posted 20 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 53 new highs and 74 new lows. https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/futures-dip-run-up-inflation-data-2024-03-11/

2024-03-11 23:16

March 11 (Reuters) - Oracle (ORCL.N) , opens new tab said on Monday it is set to make a joint announcement with chip-giant Nvidia (NVDA.O) , opens new tab, and it beat estimates for quarterly profit, riding on the generative AI demand boom, sending shares up nearly 14% in extended trading. The late-day rally in Oracle's shares added more than $40 billion to its stock market value. The 46-year-old database giant has been trying to reinvent itself as a cloud-computing provider by offering services cheaper than those of rivals such as Amazon.com (AMZN.O) , opens new tab. It has tried to drum up demand for its subscription plans through partnerships with rival Microsoft (MSFT.O) , opens new tab and AI chip leader Nvidia, which makes chips that power supercomputers and can be used by customers of Oracle's cloud service. "We expect to continue receiving large contracts reserving cloud infrastructure capacity because the demand for our Gen2 AI infrastructure substantially exceeds supply — despite the fact we are opening new and expanding existing cloud datacenters very, very rapidly," CEO Safra Catz said. Oracle executives mentioned Nvidia at least three times during their call with analysts and said a joint announcement will be made in the coming week. Excluding items, the company posted profit of $1.41 per share for the third quarter, up 16%, above LSEG estimates of $1.38 per share. "While results for the quarter were merely in line with expectations ...investors are excited about the new business Oracle won during the quarter," said Gil Luria, a research analyst at D.A. Davidson. Remaining Performance Obligations, the most popular measure of booked revenue, was up 29% compared with a year earlier, which bodes well for the upcoming results, Luria said. However, revenue of $13.28 billion for the three months ended February 29 was below analysts' average estimate of $13.30 billion. For the current quarter, Oracle forecast revenue growth to be in the range of 4%-6%, which was below analysts' average estimate of about 6.5%, according to LSEG data. https://www.reuters.com/technology/oracle-misses-quarterly-revenue-estimates-2024-03-11/

2024-03-11 23:14

WASHINGTON, March 11 (Reuters) - U.S. District Judge Adrienne Nelson on Monday set Aug. 26 as the start of a hearing on the Federal Trade Commission's bid for a preliminary injunction to block supermarket chain Kroger's (KR.N) , opens new tab $24.6 billion deal to buy smaller rival Albertsons (ACI.N) , opens new tab. The FTC sued last month to block the deal that would create a grocery empire with more than 4,000 stores and has drawn tough scrutiny from lawmakers and consumer groups worried about higher grocery prices, job losses and store closures. https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/us-judge-hear-ftc-challenge-kroger-albertsons-deal-aug-26-2024-03-11/

2024-03-11 23:10

SYDNEY, March 12 (Reuters) - Biofuel refiner Jet Zero Australia said on Tuesday it had received new funding commitments of A$29 million ($19.2 million) from Idemitsu (5019.T) , opens new tab, Qantas (QAN.AX) , opens new tab and Airbus (AIR.PA) , opens new tab for its flagship Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) project. It marks the first investment by Japanese oil refiner Idemitsu Kosan in a SAF project outside Japan, and was supported by Jet Zero Australia's foundational investors, including Qantas and Airbus, Jet Zero said in a statement. Qantas and Airbus last year said it would jointly invest A$2 million in the project. Both companies in 2022 set up a $200 million fund to help meet Qantas' goal of using at least 10% of SAF in its fuel mix by 2030 after the airline placed a multibillion-dollar order for Airbus planes. The refinery, to be set up in the state of Queensland, will convert bioethanol from domestic agricultural by-products into sustainable fuels. It is expected to produce up to 102 million litres of SAF a year and 11 million litres of renewable diesel once operational. SAF can be blended with conventional jet fuel and can reduce carbon emissions by up to about 80%. ($1 = 1.5131 Australian dollars) https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/idemitsu-qantas-airbus-back-australia-biofuel-refiner-with-192-mln-2024-03-11/