2024-02-29 22:08

Feb 29 (Reuters) - Eastman Kodak Co (KODK.N) , opens new tab is contemplating a move to unlock gains created by its overfunded pension system, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, citing people with knowledge of the matter. Shares of the company closed about 52.6% higher, after the report. Kodak was once a key player in the photography and film industry, but was overtaken by the shift to digital. It now focuses on manufacturing advanced materials and chemicals. The company did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment. Kodak is weighing a so-called pension reversion, which would enable it to take control of the surplus rather than leaving excess capital to current and future retirees, the people said. The maneuver would involve selling its portfolio of illiquid investments while liquidating other positions, the report added. The overfunded status soared to about $1.2 billion at the end of 2022, or more than four times Kodak's market capitalization, Bloomberg said. Proceeds may be used for purposes such as paying down debt and investing in growth initiatives, according to the people. The report added no final decision has been made. https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/kodak-explores-tapping-pension-funds-12-billion-surplus-bloomberg-reports-2024-02-29/

2024-02-29 21:51

Feb 29 (Reuters) - New York Community Bancorp (NYCB.N) , opens new tab said on Thursday it has appointed Alessandro Dinello as president and chief executive officer. Thomas Cangemi on Feb. 23 had notified the company of his decision to resign from the roles. Separately, as part of an assessment of the internal controls, the management identified material weaknesses in the internal controls related to loan review, it said in a filing. Shares of the company plunged 17% in extended trading. https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/new-york-community-bancorp-appoints-alessandro-dinello-ceo-2024-02-29/

2024-02-29 21:47

March 1 (Reuters) - A look at the day ahead in Asian markets. China's latest purchasing managers index figures dominate the market agenda in Asia on Friday, offering investors the first glimpse into how the troubled economy fared in February as they await next week's National People's Congress. The new month kicks off with markets across the region and beyond in fairly buoyant mood after in-line U.S. inflation figures on Thursday extended the global equity rally and pushed U.S. Treasury yields lower. Some recent inflation readings had come in above forecast, but not this one. The S&P 500, Nasdaq and MSCI World indexes climbed back up toward their recent all-time highs, with the MSCI World sealing a fourth monthly rise, its best run since mid-2021. Asian markets take the baton on Friday, the first trading day of the month, after the MSCI Asia ex-Japan rose 4% and Japan's Nikkei hit all-time highs in February. Some froth has understandably come off these moves in recent days, especially in Japan, after a central bank official said inflation was heading toward the bank's 2% target, paving the way to leave behind negative rates and yield caps. The yen, for example, on Thursday registered one of its strongest rallies this year, pushing the dollar below 150.00 yen and further from its recent historic lows and territory Japanese officials might intervene to prevent further weakness. Figures on Friday are expected to show that unemployment in Japan held steady at 2.4% in January, while PMI data are likely to show yet another month of shrinking manufacturing activity. It is a similar story in China, where the official NBS manufacturing PMI is also expected to show another month of contracting activity also. The unofficial Caixin PMI, however, has been more upbeat and is expected to show a fourth month of expansion in manufacturing. Chinese stocks ended the month with a bang on Thursday - the CSI 300 and the Shanghai Composite both jumped nearly 2% to register monthly gains of 9.4% and 8%, respectively, their best months since November 2022. Of course, they were rebounding from five-year lows and lifted by a series of measures and new rules from Beijing to revive investor confidence and put a floor under the market. Among the latest moves, China's securities regulator said it will tighten scrutiny of derivative businesses in the stock market and announced punishment of a hedge fund company for excessive, high-frequency trading in share index futures. Many investors, however, will want to see more aggressive and fundamental policies put in place to support longer-term economic growth and returns before deciding that China is an 'investible' destination again. All eyes will turn to next week's NPC, where Beijing will set the annual growth target and - crucially - a plan for achieving it. Here are key developments that could provide more direction to markets on Friday: - China PMIs (February) - Australia, India, Taiwan manufacturing PMIs (February) - Japan unemployment (January) https://www.reuters.com/markets/asia/global-markets-view-asia-graphic-pix-2024-02-29/

2024-02-29 21:40

ACCRA, Feb 29 (Reuters) - Ghana's state-run electricity supplier, ECG, briefly cut off power supplies to the parliament building on Thursday in an effort to push the legislature to honour its 23 million Ghanaian cedi ($1.8 million) debt, an ECG spokesperson said. A video shared by local media showed lawmakers exclaiming in the dark parliamentary chamber after the power was shut off, eventually joining together in a chant of "dumsor, dumsor" - black-out in the local Twi language. ECG has decided to cut power after the legislature failed to "honour demand notices to pay up," ECG's communications director William Boateng told Reuters. Soon after, "they paid 13 million cedi ($1 million) and promised to pay the rest in a week, so our guys reconnected them." A parliament spokesperson did not reply to a request for comment. The strong-arm tactics come as the West African country's power sector grapples with widespread unpaid debts that have led to a sharp increase in outages amid a standoff between power producers and the government. Boateng said cutting the parliament's electricity was part of ECG's usual strategy to encourage indebted customers to pay up. "Disconnections are for everybody; anyone who doesn't pay and fails to make arrangements, the team will disconnect," he said. Lawmaker Edward Bawa said a fellow member of parliament and parliamentary staff had got stuck in elevators when the power went down. "The whole sector is suffering under debt and these are some of the consequences," Bawa told Reuters. The government has been seeking to restructure the power sector and seal a debt deal with independent power producers (IPP) as it grapples with its worst economic crisis in a generation, characterised by double-digit inflation and ballooning public debt. In July last year, independent power producers reached an interim deal with the ECG over arrears owed to them but promised to shut down their plants if the issue remained unsolved. Ghana has 5,454 MW of installed capacity, of which 4,483 MW is available, its energy regulator said in April 2023. ($1 = 12.6000 Ghanian cedi) https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/ghana-electricity-supplier-briefly-disconnects-parliament-over-debt-2024-02-29/

2024-02-29 21:37

NEW YORK, Feb 29 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury term premiums, a measure of the compensation investors demand for holding long-term bonds, could shoot up again amid sticky inflation and rising fiscal deficits, U.S. bond asset manager PIMCO said on Thursday. Term premiums, which can hurt assets such as stocks when they rise, have largely been suppressed for about a decade amid low interest rates that followed the 2007-2009 global financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. Even prior to that, premiums have been gradually declining since the 1980s. "We are at a moment when the term premium could start to reverse the 40-year downtrend," Marc Seidner, chief investment officer of nontraditional strategies, and Pramol Dhawan, portfolio manager at PIMCO said in a note. A stronger-than-anticipated inflation reading in January and recent projections on rising fiscal deficits and the likely increase in debt issuance needed to fund them indicate term premiums could build up again in a sustained manner, they said. "Borrowing costs are now higher, as are ongoing deficits. Therefore we know with near certainty that interest expenses will keep rising," they said. The term premium of benchmark 10-year Treasury yields is currently at minus 0.3%, according to a New York Fed gauge. It turned positive last year as concerns over rising fiscal deficits and an increase in government bond issuance helped lift long-term Treasury yields, which move inversely to prices, only to go back into negative territory again on expectations of interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. A bounce back to around 2% levels seen in the late 1990s and early 2000s "would not only affect bond prices but also prices of equities, real estate, and any other asset that is valued based on discounted future cash flows," said Seidner and Dhawan. They added the Treasury yield curve - parts of which are currently inverted because some short-term bonds yield more than longer-dated ones - could correct itself because of rising term premiums, on top of a much-anticipated Fed shift to lower rates. PIMCO has a "curve-steepening bias" in its portfolios, favoring maturities of five to 10 years globally and with an underweight for bonds of around 30 years, it said. "There is a very real possibility that the curve could kink following the first Fed rate cut, with shorter-term yields declining, intermediate rates not moving much, and longer-term yields rising as the term premium stages a comeback," the note said. https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/us-bond-giant-pimco-expects-term-premiums-rise-again-2024-02-29/

2024-02-29 21:08

Feb 29 (Reuters) - New York officials on Thursday awarded conditional contracts to buy electricity from two proposed offshore wind projects under a program meant to support the embattled industry and keep the state's ambitious clean energy goals on track. The state said it had selected the Empire Wind 1 project from Norway's Equinor (EQNR.OL) , opens new tab and the Sunrise Wind facility being developed by Denmark's Orsted (ORSTED.CO) , opens new tab and U.S. power provider Eversource (ES.N) , opens new tab. Once completed, the projects will produce enough electricity to power 1 million homes, the state said. They will be the largest electricity generation projects built in the state in nearly four decades. The solicitation by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) was being closely watched because it allowed companies to exit old contracts and re-offer projects at higher prices. The competitively selected projects will enter into contracts to sell Offshore Wind Renewable Energy Certificates (ORECs) to NYSERDA on behalf of New York's electricity ratepayers statewide. Offshore wind developers have warned that proposed facilities cannot be built profitably because of rocketing construction costs, higher interest rates and supply chain snags. Both Equinor and Orsted took large financial hits on their U.S. offshore wind portfolios and had sought to charge customers more for power produced by their projects. New York denied that request, instead allowing them to rebid. "I promised to make New York a place for the renewable energy industry to do business, and we are delivering on that promise," Governor Kathy Hochul said in a statement. "Offshore wind is foundational to our fight against climate change, and these awards demonstrate our national leadership to advance a zero-emissions electric grid at the best value to New Yorkers." New York has a goal to develop 9,000 megawatts of offshore wind by 2035. Sunrise Wind and Empire Wind 1 will contribute 1,700 MW toward that target. The companies will now negotiate final terms for the 25-year contracts, which are expected to be executed in the second quarter of this year, they said. "This is a promising new beginning for Empire Wind 1 and we're ready to get started," Equinor Renewables America President Molly Morris said in a statement. Equinor's project proposal includes transforming a marine terminal in Brooklyn into a staging and port facility for offshore wind development. As previously announced, Orsted said it plans to acquire Eversource's 50% stake in the 924-MW Sunrise Wind, but the utility will lead the project's onshore construction. Sunrise Wind is expected to be the nation's largest offshore wind project once it is completed, Orsted said. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/new-york-offshore-wind-awards-go-equinor-orsted-2024-02-29/