2024-02-23 12:00
Ghent, Belgium, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Relatively benign fourth quarter wage growth data are encouraging but not yet enough to give the European Central Bank confidence that inflation has been defeated, ECB president Christine Lagarde said on Friday. "The Q4 wage numbers are obviously encouraging numbers," Lagarde told a news conference. "The Governing Council needs to be more confident that the disinflationary process that we are observing will be sustainable and will take us to the 2% medium term target." Negotiated wage data from the first quarter, due out in May, will be especially important for the ECB, Lagarde added. https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/ecbs-lagarde-q4-wage-data-encouraging-not-enough-2024-02-23/
2024-02-23 11:53
BRUSSELS, Feb 23 (Reuters) - The European Commission said on Friday it had opened an in-depth investigation to assess whether French aid given to shipping firms Corsica Linea and La Meridionale was compliant with EU state aid rules. The probe will focus on France's decision to give 853.6 million euros ($923.9 million) to those two companies over the period running from 2023-2030. ($1 = 0.9240 euros) https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/eu-opens-in-depth-state-aid-probe-into-french-aid-two-shipping-companies-2024-02-23/
2024-02-23 11:49
Feb 23 (Reuters) - Sibanye Stillwater (SSWJ.J) , opens new tab on Friday said it had "significantly reduced" the number of job losses from the restructuring of its South African platinum group metal (PGM) operations after deferring the closure of one of its mature shafts. South African PGM miners produce around 70% of global mined platinum output from some of the world's oldest and deepest mines, which are expensive to operate. They are restructuring unprofitable production after a steep fall in PGM prices. Sibanye said in a statement that about 2,000 workers had left the company through voluntary separation, early retirement and termination, fewer than the potential 4,095 job cuts the miner announced last October as it embarked on restructuring its four loss-making shafts. Some 467 workers had also been removed from the payroll due to natural attrition since September 2023, the miner said. As a result of consultations held with various parties including labour unions, Sibanye will continue operating the 4 Belt (4B) shaft at Marikana on condition that it does not run up net losses on a monthly basis. The shaft currently employs 1,496 permanent workers and 54 contractors. Two other shafts, Rowland and Siphumelele, which have experienced operational and geological challenges, "have been repositioned for sustainable levels of production at a lower cost structure", Sibanye said. The Simunye shaft, which ceased production in 2023, has been closed. Sibanye has forecast a 91% fall in annual profit for 2023 due to the decline in PGM prices. Peer Anglo American Platinum (AMSJ.J) , opens new tab has announced plans to cut 3,700 jobs after its profit plunged 71% last year, while Impala Platinum (IMPJ.J) , opens new tab is also offering voluntary job cuts to workers. https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/sibanye-reduces-planned-job-cuts-after-deferring-shaft-closure-2024-02-23/
2024-02-23 11:47
MUMBAI, Feb 23 (Reuters) - The Indian rupee inched lower on Friday due to dollar demand from importers and oil companies, but clocked weekly gains on the back of foreign fund inflows into the share and bond markets. The rupee ended at 82.9375 per U.S. dollar compared with its close of 82.84 in the previous session. On the week, the rupee rose 0.1%. The unit had risen to a three-week high of 82.8350 on Thursday. Traders said that the rupee was unable to break past the key resistance level of 82.80 this week, despite inflows, amid likely intervention from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). "We don't expect the rupee to rise sharply above 82.70-82.80 levels as the RBI may attempt to intervene and buy dollars," Jigar Trivedi, senior research analyst - currencies and commodities at Reliance Securities, said. The Federal Reserve's "wariness" over cutting interest rates early will also keep the rupee under some pressure, he said. Fed Governor Christopher Waller said on Thursday that policymakers should delay interest rate cuts by at least another couple more months to see if a recent uptick in inflation signals stalling progress toward price stability or is just a bump in the road. Minutes of the Fed's last policy meeting indicated that the U.S. central bank needed to be sure that inflationary risks receded before cutting rates. A March U.S. rate cut has now been fully priced out while odds of a reduction in May are less than 25%. Investors await January headline and core PCE index from the U.S. next week for fresh cues on the timing of interest rate cuts. The data will draw extra scrutiny following the higher-than-expected U.S. consumer inflation reading. https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/india-rupee-logs-second-weekly-rise-weakens-day-due-importer-dollar-demand-2024-02-23/
2024-02-23 11:46
SHAMBHU, India, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Indian farmers demanding higher prices for their crops burned effigies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other ministers on Friday as they sought to expand their protest against his government months before elections. Thousands of farmers began a 'Delhi Chalo' (Let's go to Delhi) march last week but were stopped by security forces about 200 km (125 miles) north of the capital, with water cannons and teargas being used to push them back. Farmer leaders on Thursday announced a series of "mega programmes" across India to press their demands. The "Black Day" on Friday will be followed by a tractor rally on highways on Feb. 26, and a farm workers' public meeting in Delhi on March 14. Black flags were hoisted on tractors and trolleys lined up at the protest site on Friday. Several protesters, most of whom are Sikhs from the northern state of Punjab, also tied black cloth over their turbans in solidarity. Farmers also burnt effigies also of Home (interior) Minister Amit Shah and the chief minister of Haryana state, whose police force they accuse of using force against them, and chanted slogans demanding minimum prices for their crops. A general election is due by May. PROTESTER'S DEATH The farmers paused their march for two days on Wednesday after the death of a protester, which they blamed on police aggression. Sartaj Singh, a senior police officer in Punjab's Sangrur district, where the incident took place, said the man died at a protest site but that the cause of his death would be known only after the autopsy. Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Friday announced compensation of 10 million rupees ($120,000) for the dead man's family. Farmer leaders rejected the compensation and said they would not allow the autopsy to be conducted until a murder case is registered. "We will have a meeting in the evening to decide next steps (regarding the march)," farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher told reporters. Amnesty International condemned the protester's death and urged the government to "respect, protect and facilitate the right to freedom of peaceful assembly". "The price of protest must not be death," said Aakar Patel, chair of board at Amnesty International India. ($1 = 82.8880 Indian rupees) https://www.reuters.com/world/india/protesting-indian-farmers-burn-effigies-modi-other-ministers-2024-02-23/
2024-02-23 11:19
Feb 23 (Reuters) - Nvidia (NVDA.O) , opens new tab briefly hit $2 trillion in market value for the first time on Friday, riding on insatiable demand for its chips that made the Silicon Valley firm the pioneer of the generative artificial intelligence boom. The milestone followed another bumper revenue forecast from the chip designer that drove up its market value by $277 billion on Thursday - Wall Street's largest one-day gain on record. Its rapid ascent in the past year has led analysts to draw parallels to the picks and shovels providers during the gold rush of 1800s as Nvidia's chips are used by almost all generative AI players from ChatGPT-maker OpenAI to Google. That has helped the company vault from $1 trillion to $2 trillion market value in around eight months - the fastest among U.S. companies and in less than half the time it took tech giants Apple (AAPL.O) , opens new tab and Microsoft (MSFT.O) , opens new tab. "For AI companies today - the leaders of the sector - what's going to be binding for them is not going to be demand. It's just going to be their capacity to answer the surging demand," said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank. Nvidia's shares closed 0.4% higher on Friday, giving it a market value of about $1.97 trillion. They had risen as much as 4.9% to a record high of $823.94 earlier in the session, after a more than 16% jump on Thursday. The shares have surged nearly 60% this year, after more than tripling in value in 2023. The chip designer's 2024 share surge has been crucial to the S&P 500's (.SPX) , opens new tab gains, contributing to more than a quarter of the stock index's rise this year. Its latest market-beating forecast of whopping 233% growth in first-quarter revenue helped global markets notch record highs on Thursday. The breakneck growth has drawn analysts and investors from far and wide to Nvidia. "I'm a European fund manager, but I must have had more emails about their results than I've had about any other set. There have been calls, every broker doing 10-minute debriefs, it's been mind boggling," said one investor, who declined to be named. Despite the share surge, Nvidia's valuation has fallen due to rapid increases in analysts' estimates. It has a 12-month forward price-to-earnings ratio of about 31, down from 49 times a year ago, according to LSEG data. "Leading cloud computing companies plan to boost their capital expenditure to satisfy demand for AI training and inference, and it appears that virtually all this spending will fall into Nvidia's pockets," said Brian Colello, a strategist at Morningstar. "We anticipate revenue will rise by a couple of billion each quarter throughout fiscal 2025 for Nvidia as more chip supply comes online." https://www.reuters.com/technology/global-markets-marketcap-pix-2024-02-23/
