2024-03-11 20:59

WASHINGTON, March 11 (Reuters) - Canada and the United States have agreed to review a long standing cross-border dispute that involves pollution from coal mines in the Canadian province of British Columbia flowing into U.S. waters, the two countries said on Monday. The deal was announced , opens new tab in a joint statement by U.S. ambassador to Canada David Cohen and his Canadian counterpart Kirsten Hillman. It includes the American and Canadian governments working with British Columbia, the U.S. states of Idaho and Montana, and six indigenous communities on both sides. Canada and the U.S. asked the International Joint Commission to establish a formal governance body by June 30 to develop options for the future, according to the joint statement. The IJC is a treaty-based group mediating water disputes. The two countries said they have asked IJC to establish "a two-year Study Board to convene experts and knowledge holders to conduct transparent and coordinated transboundary data and knowledge sharing." The research panel is tasked with finding ways to decrease contamination from coal mines in British Columbia's Elk Valley, flowing into Lake Koocanusa, a reservoir in British Columbia and Montana, and into American rivers. The actions will help in "understanding and taking steps to reduce and mitigate the impacts of pollution," the U.S.-Canada joint statement added. A recent study by the U.S. Geological Survey and cited by CBC News , opens new tab said contamination came from mines in British Columbia and that efforts by Canadian miner Teck Resources (TECKb.TO) , opens new tab to slow those releases were not making much difference to the amount flowing south. Teck Resources said it looked forward to learning more about the announcement by the U.S. and Canada on Monday, adding the company would cooperate with the concerned parties and continue with a plan to improve water quality in the region. Teck last month said it plans to close the sale of its steel-making coal unit to Glencore (GLEN.L) , opens new tab no later than the third quarter of 2024. The Glencore-led consortium's $9 billion bid for Teck Resources' steelmaking coal unit has faced environmental scrutiny in the U.S. and Canada due to water pollution from the mines. https://www.reuters.com/world/us-canada-review-pollution-us-waters-by-british-columbia-coal-mines-2024-03-11/

2024-03-11 20:25

TSX ends up 0.2% at 21,769.22 Materials group adds 0.8% Silvercrest Metals jumps 10.2% Technology loses 0.5% March 11 (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index rose on Monday, benefiting from a broadening of the recent rally to include stocks considered cheap compared to their fundamental valuations, although gains were restrained ahead of a key U.S. inflation report. The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index (.GSPTSE) , opens new tab ended up 31.69 points, or 0.2%, at 21,769.22 but stopping short of the near two-year high it notched on Thursday at 21,794.56. "That broader uptrade persists but today we are seeing some indecision ahead of the U.S. CPI report," said Angelo Kourkafas, senior investment strategist at Edward Jones. The U.S. consumer price index report for February, due on Tuesday, could help guide expectations for the start of Federal Reserve interest rate cuts. "One of the most important developments in the last couple of days has been this rotation across different styles and sectors ... moving money out of tech into areas like value style investments," Kourkafas said. The TSX has a heavy concentration of value stocks, including companies in the financial, industrial and material sectors, that tend to trade at a cheaper price than their expected cash flows would suggest. The materials index, which includes precious and base metals miners and fertilizer companies, rose 0.8% as gold continued its record-setting rally. It was led by a gain of 10.2% for Silvercrest Metals Inc (SIL.TO) , opens new tab after the non-gold precious metals miner announced its fourth-quarter results. Financials also gained ground, rising 0.3%, and energy was up 0.2% despite the price of oil settling 0.1% lower at $77.93 a barrel. Technology was a drag, falling 0.5%. Still, the sector is up 6% since the start of the year. https://www.reuters.com/markets/tsx-eyes-downbeat-start-with-us-inflation-data-tap-2024-03-11/

2024-03-11 19:46

WASHINGTON, March 11 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden's proposed U.S. government budget would raise tax receipts by $4.951 trillion over 10 years, including more than $2.7 trillion in tax hikes on businesses and nearly $2 trillion on wealthy individuals and estates, the U.S. Treasury said on Monday. The budget plan also calls for an additional $104.3 billion in mandatory funding for the Internal Revenue Service on top of $80 billion won by the tax agency in 2022, the Treasury said in its "Green Book" estimates of the budget's revenue effects. This additional funding would add $341 billion in new revenues over the 10-year period compared with current funding, the Treasury said. The tax increases are part of Biden's election-year budget wish list, which also includes new programs to assist low- and middle-income Americans with high housing and childcare costs and aims to cut the deficit. Congress is likely to discard the proposals, but the document forms a central campaign message for Biden. PLUGGING SHORTFALLS The Treasury estimated that reforms to international business taxation, driven by implementation of a 2021 global 15% minimum tax deal by 137 countries, would add $632.2 billion to U.S. receipts over 10 years. But even with the addition of a higher U.S. overseas minimum tax of 21%, this is well below last year's estimate of about $1.16 trillion. A U.S. Treasury official told reporters the reduction was due to revised assumptions that fewer countries would adopt the minimum tax apart from Britain, Japan, the European Union, Mauritius and Vietnam. The reduction was made up elsewhere, including through an increase in the domestic large-company minimum tax to 21% from 15%, which the Treasury estimates would raise $137.4 billion over 10 years. It estimates that a new proposed ban on companies' ability to deduct non-CEO and CFO employee compensation above $1 million would raise $271.9 billion over 10 years. Elimination of tax breaks for fossil fuel energy companies would raise $45.1 billion in new revenues over the decade through 2034, while raising the overall corporate tax rate to 28% from 21% would raise $1.35 trillion, Treasury estimated. TAX THE RICH The Treasury estimated that provisions to raise taxes on wealthy individuals, new rules for estate transfers, and limiting high-income individuals' use of tax-advantaged retirement accounts would raise $1.96 trillion. That total includes Biden's "billionaire tax," which would impose a 25% minimum tax on individuals with wealth of over $100 million. The Treasury estimated it would raise $502 billion over the decade. The Treasury again proposed more funding for the IRS to conduct more audits of wealthy individuals and complex business partnerships. The Treasury has recently increased its internal estimates of the revenues that could be collected from the IRS modernization efforts. The budget also includes a number of new proposals to help Americans cope with the high cost of housing, including a $10,000 tax credit over two years to help offset high interest costs for first-time homebuyers and a one-time $10,000 credit for sellers of "starter homes" to increase market inventory. Together these would cost $47.3 billion over the 10-year period, the Treasury said. The budget's overall tax proposals to assist moderate-income families, including the housing credits and expanded tax credits for children and health insurance premiums, would cost $764.9 billion over 10 years, the Treasury said. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-budget-plan-would-raise-us-taxes-by-4951-trillion-over-decade-treasury-2024-03-11/

2024-03-11 19:23

PARIS, March 11 (Reuters) - A fire at Exxon Mobil's (XOM.N) , opens new tab Port Jerome-Gravenchon refinery in northern France, which broke out earlier on Monday, has been brought under control, local authorities said. The Seine-Maritime prefecture said in a statement that the fire had started at a gasoline distillation unit around 3:30 p.m. (1430 GMT) and had generated thick plumes of smoke. It added that it had not been necessary to send external fire brigade services to the site, as the company's own firefighters had brought the blaze under control. The refinery, located in Normandy on the banks of the Seine river, has two distillery towers and a capacity of 240,000 barrels per day (bpd), making it amongst the biggest in France. It supplies the Ile-de-France region around Paris. An ExxonMobil spokeswoman said three people had been treated by medical teams on site and two had been sent to a local hospital. She added that it was too early to estimate the fire's impact on the refinery's production. Air quality in the local area had not been affected, the company said. The prefecture said air samples have been taken. Video footage on social media showed a tower of black smoke rising above the site. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/major-fire-under-way-exxonmobil-french-refinery-union-source-says-2024-03-11/

2024-03-11 18:40

LONDON, March 11 (Reuters) - Britain has a long way to go for inflation pressures to be consistent with the Bank of England's 2% target, one of the central bank's policymakers, Catherine Mann, said on Monday. "We have a long way to go on both of them (services and goods inflation)," she told an event organised by hedge fund Citadel, consultancy CEPR and the International Center for Monetary and Banking Studies. "We're nowhere near the historical relationship between services and goods that is consistent with headline at 2(%)." She was one of two members of the BoE's Monetary Policy Committee who voted last month to raise interest rates - which are currently their highest since 2008 - to see off inflation risks. Mann also said she wanted to stress "just how important the deterioration in the supply side is for the UK." The BoE is worried that Britain's tight labour market will generate long-running inflation pressures in the economy. https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/boes-mann-long-way-inflation-pressures-be-consistent-with-2-target-2024-03-11/

2024-03-11 18:38

NEW YORK, March 11 (Reuters) - Traders in the U.S. equity options market have grown skittish ahead of Tuesday's release of inflation data that could sway the Federal Reserve's monetary policy trajectory. Options on the S&P 500-tracking SPDR S&P 500 Trust ETF (SPY.P) , opens new tab were primed for a 1% swing in the fund's shares in either direction by the end of trading on Tuesday. That's larger than the 0.7% move traders had been pricing for stocks ahead of the January inflation report, according to a Cantor Fitzgerald analysis. Stronger-than-expected consumer price and employment data have whittled away at investors' expectations for how much the Fed will cut interest rates this year. More evidence of sticky inflation could push investors to further pare their bets on Fed easing, potentially weighing on a rally that has seen the S&P 500 rise 7% this year. U.S. consumer prices rose more than expected in January, amid a surge in the cost of rental housing, prompting a 1.4% drop for the benchmark stock index on Feb. 13, when the data was released. After last month's stronger-than-expected report, "there is certainly more trepidation regarding tomorrow's data and this will add to the nervousness of the options market today," said Matthew Tym, head of equity derivatives trading at Cantor Fitzgerald. Investors are now pricing in 94 basis points of rate cuts this year, compared to around 150 basis points they had priced in early January, according to futures tied to the fed funds. So far, however, a resilient economy, better-than-expected earnings and confidence that the Fed will nevertheless cut rates several times before the year is up have supported stocks. According to a Reuters survey of economists, the CPI likely increased 0.4% in February, with the annual increase in prices at 3.1%. The core CPI is also forecast advancing 0.3%, with the year-on-year increase slowing to 3.7% from 3.9% in January. The S&P 500 index (.SPX) , opens new tab was down 0.16% Monday afternoon and the Cboe Volatility Index (.VIX) , opens new tab - an options-based gauge of investors' expectation for near-term stock market gyrations perked up 0.46 point to 15.20, a near three-week high. https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/options-players-ready-market-swings-after-us-inflation-data-2024-03-11/