2024-01-15 02:06

WASHINGTON, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Democratic and Republican leaders in the U.S. Congress on Sunday unveiled a short-term spending bill that would avert a partial government shutdown and keep federal agencies operating into March. The agreement aims to avert short-term chaos and buy more time to craft the complex spending legislation that funds government activity. Government agencies that oversee transportation, housing, and other services are due to run out of funding by midnight on Friday and would have to scale back activity if new funding is not signed into law. The Democratic-led Senate and Republican-controlled House of Representatives have been at odds over spending levels for months. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer agreed on the measure with Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries. The legislation could run into difficulty in the House, where a faction of conservative Republicans have used disruptive tactics to press for lower spending levels. Republicans control the chamber with a narrow 219-213 majority, leaving Johnson with little room for error. Some Republicans insist that any spending bills must also clamp down on the U.S.-Mexico border. Current funding is due to expire this week for federal programs involving transportation, housing, agriculture, energy, veterans and military construction. Funding for other parts of the government, including defense, will continue through Feb. 2. The new spending bill would extend the deadline to March 1 for the first group and March 8 for the second. Schumer, the top Democrat in Congress, and Johnson, the top Republican, have agreed on a $1.59 trillion total for those bills. That would give lawmakers more time to negotiate and pass the detailed spending legislation they should have passed before the start of the government's fiscal year on Oct. 1, 2023. The legislation covers roughly one-third of U.S. government spending, which amounted to $6.1 trillion in the last fiscal year. The remaining two-thirds includes retirement and health benefits which do not need to be approved annually by Congress, as well as interest payments. Johnson spent much of last week in meetings with hardliners and other segments of his Republican conference, raising speculation that he could seek to revise his agreement with Schumer. But the speaker ultimately stood by the deal. The federal government came close to a partial shutdown last autumn, when hardline Republicans ousted former Speaker Kevin McCarthy for reaching a bipartisan stopgap spending deal with Schumer. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-congressional-leaders-unveil-stopgap-bill-avert-shutdown-2024-01-15/

2024-01-14 22:05

BERLIN, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Farmers and their tractors rumbled towards Berlin from every corner of Germany on Sunday ahead of a giant protest demanding a rethink of plans to tax farmers more. Some 3,000 tractors, 2,000 trucks and 10,000 people were expected to fill the streets around Berlin's Brandenburg Gate on Monday for a rally that will cap a week of protests against the government. The protests have heaped pressure on Chancellor Olaf Scholz's coalition as it struggles to fix a budget mess and contain right-wing forces. Caught on the back foot, it has already agreed not to scrap a tax rebate on new agricultural vehicles and to spread over years the scrapping of an agricultural diesel subsidy. But farmers, with the vocal backing of the opposition conservatives and the far-right, say this does not go far enough. "Farmers will die out," said farmer Karl-Wilhelm Kempner on Sunday as he boarded a bus in Cologne heading for the demonstration. "The population must understand that far more food will be imported" if subsidies are not restored. The government is showing a conciliatory face amid concerns that political debate in the country is becoming radicalised and that demonstrations could turn violent. Finance Minister Christian Lindner will address the protest and coalition party leaders have invited leaders of the demonstrations for talks. Disruption caused by protests and train strikes last week hurt coalition parties in the polls and propelled the far-right Alternative for Germany party to new heights. In a video podcast on Saturday, Scholz said the government had listened to farmers' demands and compromised. "We've taken the farmers' arguments to heart and revised our proposals. A good compromise," he said. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/tractors-converge-berlin-farmers-protest-2024-01-14/

2024-01-14 21:53

Jan 15 (Reuters) - A look at the day ahead in Asian markets. Financial market activity in Asia on Monday will be lighter than usual with U.S. markets closed for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, but there is a decent sprinkling of local economic and political developments for investors to get their teeth into. Japan releases money supply figures, South Korea and Indonesia publish their latest trade numbers, while Indian wholesale price inflation data are also due out following CPI figures last week that showed price pressures in December were not quite as hot as forecast. On the political front, there may be ripples from the parliamentary and presidential elections in Taiwan on Saturday, in which the ruling, pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party won a third term. China, which last week vowed it would "smash any independence plots", condemned foreign governments that congratulated Taiwan's president-elect Lai Ching-te on his victory. The potential for military conflict between China and Taiwan is one reason investors are increasingly cautious on China where a property sector bust, deflation and sluggish growth are already giving them serious food for thought. Wednesday sees the release of another batch of top-tier economic indicators - house prices, fixed asset investment, industrial production, unemployment and retail sales, culminating in fourth quarter GDP growth. China's growth is expected to have picked up from 4.9% year-on-year in the third quarter, but only due to favorable base effects. Economists at SocGen are forecasting 5.3% and their peers at Goldman Sachs are eyeing 5.6%. On the gloomier side, economists at Barclays are predicting just 4.5%, and warn that the risks to their already sub-consensus 2024 outlook of 4.4% GDP growth are tilted to the downside. All eyes in Japan, meanwhile, turn to December's inflation figures on Friday. Recent signs that price pressures may be cooling have called into question whether the Bank of Japan needs to be so committed to 'normalizing' policy. The potential for a BOJ rethink has been rocket fuel to Japanese stocks. The Nikkei soared to a 34-year high and rose 6% last week alone, so soft inflation numbers will surely add further fuel to that fire. Economists expect core annual inflation to slow to 2.3% from 2.5% in November, and headline inflation to fall from 2.8% closer to the BOJ's 2% target. Other regional highlights this week include the Indonesian central bank's latest policy decision on Wednesday and Malaysian GDP on Friday. Broad market sentiment seem fairly benign. For all the talk of global supply chain issues and inflationary pressures as a result of the Red Sea shipping disruption, there are no real sign of risk aversion or inflation fears among investors. Gold and oil were flat last week, the two-year U.S. yield fell 25 basis points, and world stocks rose more than 1%. Even Asian stocks, which have had a shaky start this year, fell only 0.75%. Here are key developments that could provide more direction to markets on Monday: - South Korea trade (December) - Indonesia trade (December) - India WPI inflation (December) https://www.reuters.com/markets/asia/global-markets-view-asia-graphic-2024-01-14/

2024-01-14 21:29

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Heavy rains that buffeted Brazil's Rio de Janeiro state this weekend have killed at least 11 people, according to the state fire service. The rains flooded streets, the capital city's metro line and peoples' homes, bringing down trees and causing landslides. Rio's Mayor Eduardo Paes announced a state of emergency while President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's government offered federal support. Firefighters are still looking for one woman who is missing after her vehicle fell in a river. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/heavy-rio-de-janeiro-rains-kill-least-11-people-2024-01-14/

2024-01-14 19:04

Jan 14 (Reuters) - U.S. natural gas output fell to a preliminary 11-month low on Sunday as frigid weather froze wells across the country, while gas demand for heating and power generation was on track to hit record highs. In Texas the state's power grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), forecast electric demand on Tuesday would top last summer's all-time high and warned power supplies could fall short on both Monday and Tuesday. ERCOT on Sunday issued an appeal to the public calling for energy conservation from 6 a.m. – 10 a.m. CT (1200-1600 GMT) on Monday. The operator asked Texas government agencies to implement all programs to reduce energy use at their facilities during that time. "Operating reserves are expected to be low Monday morning due to continued freezing temperatures, record-breaking demand, unseasonably low wind," the grid operator said in a statement. The drop in U.S. gas availability so far this week was the most in over a year, with supplies on track to fall by around 9.6 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) from Jan. 8-14 to an estimated 11-month low of 98.6 bcfd on Jan. 14, according to data from financial firm LSEG. That decline so far was small compared with gas supply losses of around 19.6 bcfd during Winter Storm Elliott in December 2022, and 20.4 bcfd during the February freeze of 2021. Electricity supply and demand forecasts can change quickly, however, as power plant availability and weather patterns develop. The February 2021 freeze left millions in Texas without power, water and heat for days and resulted in over 200 deaths as ERCOT scrambled to prevent a grid collapse after an unusually large amount of generation shut. Some of those power plants shut because they could not access enough gas supplies after frigid temperatures froze wells and other equipment, known in the energy industry as freeze-offs. DEMAND SOARS U.S. gas demand, including exports, will reach 164.6 bcfd on Jan. 15 and 171.9 bcfd on Jan. 16, according to LSEG. Those daily demand forecasts would top the current all-time high of 162.5 bcfd set in December 2022 during Winter Storm Elliott, federal energy data from S&P Global Commodities Insights showed. In Texas, ERCOT forecast power demand would peak at around 85,564 megawatts (MW) on Jan. 16 at around 8 a.m. local time, which would top the current all-time peak of 85,508 MW set in August 2023. ERCOT estimated power use could top supplies by around 1,000 MW during the mornings of both Jan. 15 and Jan. 16. Those estimates, however, are subject to change and do not account for steps the grid operator may take to boost supplies and reduce demand. One of the states hardest hit by the freeze over the past few days is Oregon, where roughly 164,000 homes and businesses were without power on Sunday, according to PowerOutage.us. Portland General Electric (POR.N), the state's biggest power company, said in a post on social media platform X that restoration efforts would continue through the weekend. Portland General had about 126,000 customers still without power at midday on Sunday. Next-day power prices at the Mid-Columbia (Mid-C) hub at the Washington-Oregon border soared to a record high of around $1,075 per megawatt hour (MWh), according to LSEG data going back to 2010. That compares with Mid-C averages of $81 per MWh in 2023 and $52 from 2018 to 2022. Northwest Pipeline, a 1,500-mile (2,400 kilometer) system that supplies gas to states including Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah and Colorado, on Saturday declared force majeure following an outage at a gas storage facility but has since resumed operations, company notices said. Officials at U.S. energy company Williams Cos (WMB.N), the pipeline's owner, said on Sunday challenges on the pipeline had been resolved and that its transmission systems were continuing to transport scheduled volumes. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/frigid-temps-cut-us-natgas-supply-demand-soars-texas-faces-possible-shortfall-2024-01-14/

2024-01-14 17:30

NEW YORK, Jan 14 (Reuters) - The holiday weekend brought dangerous freezing temperatures across much of the United States, snarling everything from political campaigning to football games and travel, and knocking power out to about 350,000 customers in the Northeast and Pacific Northwest. An Arctic blast from Canada caused temperatures to plummet across a vast swath of the country, from the Northwest into the Rust Belt, the U.S. National Weather Service (NWS) said in a Sunday bulletin. "To highlight just how intense this outbreak of Arctic air is, over 95 million citizens fall within a Wind Chill Warning, Advisory, or Watch as of midnight tonight," the agency said. Sunday could bring some of the coldest temperatures in states including Montana, South Dakota and North Dakota. There, meteorologists forecast wind chills as low as -70 degrees Fahrenheit (-57 Celsius.) In Iowa, a powerful blizzard pulled the brakes on the ever-churning political campaigning machine as Republicans vying for the 2024 presidential candidacy canceled events due to the inclement weather. Snow piled high on the side of every road in Des Moines at the center of the Iowa caucuses' frenzy rendered political yard signs practically useless. Reporters spotted a pickup truck full of yard signs touting Republican presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis covered in snow with nowhere to go, sitting outside the hotel where the Florida governor is staying. David Barker, treasurer of the Republican Party of Iowa, said the brutal temperatures forecast for Monday might test even weather-resistant Iowans. "Iowans are pretty good at handling cold and snow, so I think we'll see good turnout, although the weather is likely to bring turnout down somewhat. It may end up being a test of how committed the candidates' supporters are," Barker said. The cold weather's grip over Iowa is not expected to loosen until well into next week, with wind chills around -40 Fahrenheit (-40 Celsius) expected across the state "at least into Tuesday," the NWS office in Des Moines said in a post on X. The winter storm swept across the Midwest on Saturday, cutting power to tens of thousands of households. More than 102,000 customers lost power across Pennsylvania on Sunday afternoon. Across Michigan, New York, and Wisconsin, another 86,000 customers lost power. Extreme weather also impacted the Pacific Northwest and parts of the northeastern United States at the weekend. The city of Portland, Oregon, usually more accustomed to rain, was hit with snow, ice and strong winds that downed trees and knocked out power to over 160,000 customers on Sunday. Local fire officials and media reported at least two weather-related fatalities. Thousands of flights were canceled across the country over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend due to the extreme weather conditions. New York Governor Kathy Hochul issued a travel ban for Erie County on Saturday and the National Football League postponed the Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Buffalo Bills game to Monday due to an expected blizzard. Hochul encouraged everyone in Western New York to stay off the roads this weekend. Forecasters expect treacherous winter weather in the middle and southern United States on Sunday, bringing a mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain. Snow, sleet and freezing rain is also expected early this week across Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana and the Southern Appalachians, the weather service forecast. Frigid air will hit the deep South, bringing a rare 14 degree Fahrenheit weather to Atlanta by Tuesday. The extreme weather is a reminder of the February 2021 freeze that left millions in Texas and other U.S. central states without power, water and heat for days, and a winter storm in December 2022 that almost caused the collapse of power and natural gas systems in parts of the eastern half of the country. The storm is coming ahead of what will likely be the nation's coldest weather since December 2022, according to data from financial firm LSEG. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/arctic-cold-envelops-us-during-holiday-weekend-disrupting-iowa-campaigning-2024-01-14/