2024-02-20 04:51

MUMBAI, Feb 20 (Reuters) - The Indian rupee edged up on Tuesday supported by dollar inflows, even as most Asian currencies weakened on the back of elevated U.S. bond yields. The rupee was at 82.9850 against the U.S. dollar as of 10:20 a.m. IST, marginally stronger compared with its previous close at 83.0150. The dollar index was steady near 104.4 while the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield was at 4.29%. The yield has risen 34 basis points in February so far, as hopes of early and sharp rate cuts by the Federal Reserve fade. Mild dollar inflows helped lift the rupee in early trading, a foreign exchange trader at a state-run bank said. While inflows have continued since last week, dip-buying demand (on the dollar-rupee pair) is also present, which has kept the pair in a tight range, the trader added. Despite some weakness in equity flows, debt inflows into India have offered support to the rupee in recent sessions, traders said. Overseas investors have bought Indian bonds worth nearly $2 billion worth in February so far, while net selling equities worth $455 million. The Thai baht was down nearly 0.4%, leading losses among Asian currencies, while the offshore Chinese yuan rose slightly after China's larger-than-expected cut to a benchmark reference rate for mortgages. The rupee "may continue to trade sideways," between 82.90 83.15 in the near-term, said Dilip Parmar, a foreign exchange research analyst at HDFC Securities. The focus this week will be on the release of the minutes of the Fed's latest policy meeting which could offer cues on policymakers' thinking about the trajectory of interest rates. The odds of a rate cut in May have fallen to about 35%, down from slightly over 60% a week earlier, according to the CME FedWatch tool. https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/rupee-inches-up-dollar-inflows-bucking-weakness-asian-peers-2024-02-20/

2024-02-20 04:19

Israel plans assault on Rafah as countries push for ceasefire Houthis continue to hit shipping in Red Sea Feb 20 (Reuters) - Oil prices settled lower on Tuesday, with worries about global demand offsetting price support from the Israel-Hamas conflict. Brent futures settled down $1.22, or 1.5%, to $82.34 a barrel. The six-month spread for Brent on Tuesday was at its highest since October, a sign of a tighter market. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for March delivery , which expires Tuesday, settled down $1.01, or 1.3%, to $78.18 a barrel. The more actively traded April WTI contract settled down $1.30, or 1.4%, to $77.04 a barrel. There was no settlement for WTI on Monday due to a U.S. public holiday. The premium for prompt U.S. crude futures to the second-month contract more than doubled, hitting a high of $1.71 a barrel - its widest in roughly four months. This encourages energy companies to sell now rather than paying to store product for future months. Crude markets were "marginally lower" in "quiet trading over the Presidents' Day holiday in the U.S. and as demand concerns offset ongoing Middle Eastern geopolitical tensions," IG market analyst Tony Sycamore said in a note. The U.S again vetoed a draft United Nations Security Council resolution on the Israel-Hamas war, blocking a demand for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire as it instead pushes the 15-member body to call for a temporary ceasefire linked to the release of hostages held by Hamas. The U.N. has warned an assault "could lead to a slaughter." Shipping has suffered as Iran-aligned Houthis, in support of Palestinians, have increased attacks on shipping lanes in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab Strait. Drone and missile strikes have hit at least four vessels since Friday. Despite the conflict in the Middle East, one of the world's major oil-producing regions, investors appear more worried about flagging global demand. China announced its biggest ever reduction in the benchmark mortgage rate, the largest since the reference rate was introduced in 2019 and far more than analysts had expected. "The fact that the crude market hasn't responded more positively shows you the depths of the oil demand problems in China," said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital LLC in New York. An International Energy Agency (IEA) report last week revised the 2024 oil demand growth forecast downward, to almost a million barrels a day less than producer group OPEC's outlook. The IEA estimated global oil demand will grow by 1.22 million barrels per day (bpd) this year. OPEC's growth forecast is 2.25 million bpd. The two disagree about the shift to renewable and cleaner energy. The IEA, which represents industrialized countries, predicts oil demand will peak by 2030 while OPEC expects oil use to keep rising for the next two decades. U.S. oil refiners are running at weak levels due to seasonal maintenance and unplanned outages, but warmer winter weather may prompt refiners to ramp up rates, analysts said. U.S. crude inventories were seen up last week, a preliminary Reuters poll showed, while the rate of refinery utilization USOIRU=ECI was expected to increase 1.1 percentage point from 80.6% of total capacity in the previous week. "A much larger increase should not be ruled out given this year’s weather uncertainties," said Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch and Associates in Galena, Illinois. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/oil-prices-hold-near-3-week-highs-middle-east-tensions-china-demand-2024-02-20/

2024-02-20 02:52

MUMBAI, Feb 20 (Reuters) - The Indian rupee is expected to broadly struggle on Tuesday on the back of losses in Asian peers and a rise in U.S. Treasury yields on fading hopes of imminent Federal Reserve rate cuts. Non-deliverable forwards indicate the rupee will open slightly lower to the U.S. dollar from 83.0150 on Friday. Indian foreign exchange and money markets were closed on Monday. It will be the "usual quiet session" with a "very slight upward bias (on USD/INR)", an FX trader at a bank said. "We can talk about how there has been a major change in expectations around the Fed. That for the rupee is just academic in that it does not react at all to pretty much anything." The dollar index inched up and Asian currencies were down 0.1% at 0.4%. Investors pricing out expectations of a Fed rate cut in March and slashing odds of a reduction in May are helping the dollar. The dollar index is up 3% year-to-date, boosted by the more than 40-basis points (bps) rise in the two-year U.S. Treasury yield. U.S. Treasuries have witnessed a sell-off off as investors are now pricing in just 90 bps of Fed rate cuts in 2024, compared with nearly 175-bps rate cuts at the beginning of the year. The minutes of the Fed's January meeting, due during U.S. trading hours on Wednesday, are expected to reinforce that the central bank is not in a hurry to slash borrowing costs. Plus, several Fed members are scheduled to speak this week. "We expect their messaging will convey that the underlying improvement in inflation remains intact and at the same time there is no rush to cut interest rates considering underlying US economic resilience," ANZ said in a note. Asia risk appetite was mostly poor with Chinese and Hong Kong equities unable to benefit from the larger-than-expected cut the in the reference rate for mortgages. KEY INDICATORS: ** One-month non-deliverable rupee forward at 83.10; onshore one-month forward premium at 7.5 paisa ** Dollar index up at 104.38 ** Brent crude futures down 0.1% at $83.5 per barrel ** Ten-year U.S. note yield at 4.31% ** As per NSDL data, foreign investors bought a net $137.7 mln worth of Indian shares on Feb. 15 ** NSDL data shows foreign investors bought a net $103.4 mln worth of Indian bonds on Feb. 15 https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/rupee-weighs-weakness-asia-fx-rising-us-treasury-yields-2024-02-20/

2024-02-19 23:33

Feb 19 (Reuters) - Japan's transport ministry is preparing action against a Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) , opens new tab affiliate for cheating engine emissions tests, including possibly withdrawing certification for some engine types, Nikkei reported on Monday. The ministry will order Toyota Industries (6201.T) , opens new tab, the world's largest manufacturer of forklift trucks, to take steps to prevent a "recurrence of the misconduct", the newspaper reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Toyota did not immediately respond to a Reuters' request for comments. Toyota Industries, which also makes cars, textiles and electronics, may lose certification for an excavator engine, the report said. The ministry appears to be preparing similar action over two forklift engine models, it added. "The regulator will weigh the severity of the misconduct before deciding whether to do the same for engines used in Land Cruiser vehicles and HiAce vans," the report said. The company reported to the ministry in January that it had engaged in misconduct that included tampering with performance test data for multiple forklift and automobile engine models, Nikkei added. (This story has been corrected to say Toyota Motor's affiliate, not one of its largest units, and corrects reference to Nikkei as a news agency, in paragraph 1) https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/toyota-industries-faces-crackdown-engine-emissions-cheating-nikkei-2024-02-19/

2024-02-19 23:32

Feb 19 (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Monday decried as a "mockery" protests by Polish farmers that have disrupted passenger and freight traffic in and out of Ukraine and called for "rational decisions" to restore normal cross-border traffic. Polish protesters have vowed to step up their blockades of the border on Tuesday. Deputy Ukrainian Prime Minister Olha Stefanyshina told the Evropeiska Pravda media outlet that talks would be held on Tuesday with European Union officials in Brussels to resolve issues linked to them. Zelenskiy said the dispute over ecological and trade issues appeared absurd when viewed from Ukraine's northeast Kupiansk region, where he visited frontline areas in difficulty from Russian attacks in the nearly two-year-old war. "The situation is not about grain, but rather about politics," he said in his nightly video address. "And near Kupiansk, not far from the Russian border where enemy artillery is constantly active, the news from the Polish border looks like a mockery. We need joint decisions, rational decisions to get out of the situation." Farmers in France, Belgium, Portugal, Greece, Spain and Germany have been protesting against constraints placed on them by EU measures to tackle climate change, as well as rising costs and what they say is unfair competition from abroad. Polish farmers have been particularly vocal about the impact of cheap food imports from Ukraine. Ukrainian Deputy Infrastructure Minister Serhiy Derkach said six checkpoints were blocked on the Polish side of the border, with movement halted altogether at the Yahodyn-Dorohusk checkpoint. Humanitarian aid and fuel were not getting through. "This has a direct effect on our defence capabilities," he wrote on Facebook. Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubarkov, quoted by his ministry on Facebook, said online video footage showed protesters blocking buses with passengers on board. He had held talks with the head of Poland's National Security Bureau, Jacek Siewiera. Ukrainian railways reported that trains were operating normally across the border a day after police and rail workers broke up a blockade that had halted one cross-border service. Polish Agriculture Minister Czeslaw Siekierski said this month he understood the challenges farmers were facing but hoped the protests could be organised in a way to be "the least burdensome for citizens". The farmers' Solidarity trade union said as well as the blockade of Ukraine border crossings, it planned on-and-off blockades of roads throughout Poland until March 10. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraines-zelenskiy-decries-mockery-polish-border-protests-2024-02-19/

2024-02-19 22:47

LONDON, Feb 19 (Reuters) - The head of Ukraine's steel giant Metinvest has called Russia's advance in eastern Ukraine, where its has some of its biggest operations, "alarming" and urged the United States to urgently approve a stalled military aid package. Russia's capture of Avdiivka saw it claim full control of Metinvest's vast Soviet-era coking coal plant on Monday, marking the loss of another of the company's facilities after the Azovstal steel plant that became a symbol of Ukrainian resistance in the early days of the war. The frontline now lies within 40 kilometres (24.85 miles) of Pokrovsk, where Metinvest runs Ukraine's largest coal mine, and its biggest steel plant in Zaporizhzhia further to the south. "The (Russian) advances we have seen in the last week are quite alarming," Yuriy Ryzhenkov, Metinvest's chief executive, told Reuters on Monday in the firm's first reaction to Avdiivka's fall. Asked whether Metinvest was now preparing for Pokrovsk and Zaporizhzhia to come under attack, he said the huge scale of the infrastructure meant little could be done other than basic evacuation plans. "You don't really prepare for something like that," he said. "You do as much as possible to avoid that." Getting weapons and support to the army was the urgent need, he stressed. While the European Union has just approved a 50 billion euro ($54 billion) support programme, a $60 billion U.S. package has been delayed for months by clashes between Democrats and Republicans over domestic immigration issues. After a weekend meeting with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Munich, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris denounced the delays as "political gamesmanship". Donald Trump, frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, has meanwhile said he would ask European allies to reimburse the United States for around $200 billion worth of ammunition. "We are concerned with how the situation develops on the ground but we are also very concerned with the lack of commitment of some of our allies," Ryzhenkov said, referring to the U.S. delays. "The message is pretty clear," he added. "Please don't let us down, it is simple as that". OUTPUT The iron and steel sector employed around 600,000 people and contributed around 10% of Ukraine's GDP before the war. That plunged in 2022 as Russia captured key ports but the reopening of some sea routes over the last six months has driven a rebound. "The capacity utilisation of the ports...is pretty close to pre-invasion levels now," Ryzhenkov said, adding that Metinvest's iron ore plants would hopefully recover to 75% of capacity this year and steel plants to about 65%. However, an estimated 9,000-10,000 workers are already conscripted to the army and a plan to increase conscription numbers is working its way through parliament. "We (already) don't have enough people to operate at full capacity," Ryzhenkov said. "We are hiring people, we are training them and then they are getting drafted before they even start working." ($1 = 0.9279 euros) https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukrainian-steel-giant-metinvests-ceo-warns-russian-advance-alarming-2024-02-19/