2024-01-10 06:22

NEW YORK, Jan 10 (Reuters) - The dollar gained on the yen but dipped against the euro on Wednesday as investors waited on U.S. inflation data for fresh clues on when the Federal Reserve is likely to begin cutting interest rates. In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin seesawed in a range after news that Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) finally approved 11 spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds. It was last down 1.5% at 45,441. There was some uncertainty about whether the SEC had finalized approval, a day after a social media message on the SEC's account claimed the regulator had approved bitcoin exchange traded funds (ETFs), but was later revealed to have been made by an unauthorized person. After about 40 minutes of confusion about what looked like an official announcement by the SEC, the agency confirmed approved applications, including from BlackRock (BLK.N), Ark Investments and 21Shares (ABTC.S), Fidelity, Invesco (IVZ.N), and VanEck, among others, according to a notice on its website. Some products are expected to begin trading as early as Thursday. The dollar index has held in a tight range since Friday when it was volatile, initially jumping on data showing strong jobs gains in December, before dropping on some soft underlying details of the employment report. The dollar weakened further on Friday after a report by the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) also showed the U.S. services sector slowed considerably in December. This week's consolidation "was somewhat predictable in the sense that we have these huge gyrations last Friday on the back of the jobs data and the soft ISM," said Marc Chandler, chief market strategist at Bannockburn Forex in New York. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) due out on Thursday is the next likely driver of dollar direction. It is expected to show that headline inflation rose 0.2% in the month and by 3.2% on an annual basis. (USCPI=ECI), (USCPNY=ECI) Traders are pricing for the likelihood that the Fed will begin cutting rates in March as inflation eases back closer to the U.S. central bank's 2% target. But with aggressive rate cut bets already baked into prices, the dollar is holding above five-month lows reached in late December. The dollar index was last down 0.14% at 102.36. The euro gained 0.36% to $1.09700. The greenback rose 0.84% to 145.68 yen . Soft economic data this week in Japan may make it less likely that the Bank of Japan will raise rates out of negative territory this month. "A vocal minority were talking about a rate hike at the end of this month when the Bank of Japan meets, but I think that people feel more comfortable with an April move," Chandler said. Data on Wednesday showed that Japanese workers' real wages kept shrinking for a 20th month in November. Core inflation in Japan's capital also slowed for the second straight month in December as cost-push price pressures continued to ease, data showed on Tuesday. In crypto, bitcoin was last up 0.64% at $46,438. It briefly hit a 21-month high of $47,897 on Tuesday after the post that the SEC blamed on a hack. Anticipation of a positive SEC decision on ETFs, which is likely to draw billions of dollars in new investments, has boosted bitcoin prices in the past two months. "The reality is most who have followed the saga have moved on and the green light from the SEC is fully priced," said Chris Weston, head of research at Pepperstone. Ethereum also reached $2,483, the highest since May 2022, and was last up 5.19% at $2,468. https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/dollar-steady-traders-brace-us-inflation-data-bitcoin-volatile-2024-01-10/

2024-01-10 06:17

BERLIN, Jan 10 (Reuters) - German commuters face train cancellations across the country from Wednesday, as a three-day nationwide rail strike adds to travel chaos in Europe's largest economy, where ongoing farmers' protests have also snarled road traffic. The GDL train drivers' union began its main strike in the early hours of Wednesday, following one by cargo train drivers who walked out on Tuesday evening. The strikes will continue until Friday evening, forcing national rail operator Deutsche Bahn to run only stripped-back emergency timetables. The company said the strike action would impact the travel plans of millions and encouraged people to cancel or postpone all non-essential travel. The long-running row over pay and working hours has flared up again following a truce over Christmas. GDL is demanding a reduction in working hours from 38 to 35 hours per week for shift workers, as well as a pay increase of 555 euros ($606.62) per month and a one-off inflation compensation bonus of 3,000 euros. Deutsche Bahn has offered flexibility on working hours but refused to reduce them without a pay cut. The nationwide rail strikes come on top of a growing economic headache faced by Germany this year, driven by weak macroeconomic data, high interest rates and mounting criticism of the coalition government. This week's farmers' protests, sparked by anger over planned subsidy cuts, have piled further pressure on Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whose government is trying to get its 2024 budget over the finish line. The head of German farmers' association DBV vowed to ramp up protests on Wednesday, after convoys of tractors and trucks blocked roads across the country earlier this week. "Too much is too much," DBV head Joachim Rukwied told broadcaster RTL/ntv on Tuesday, calling for the government to take the subsidy cuts off the table completely. ($1 = 0.9149 euros) https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/german-train-drivers-start-3-day-strike-bringing-rail-travel-near-halt-2024-01-10/

2024-01-10 06:03

NEW YORK/LONDON, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Retailers worldwide are stocking up on goods before China's Lunar New Year holiday and seeking air or rail alternatives to transportation via the Red Sea in a scramble to avoid empty shelves this spring, executives and experts told Reuters. One European retailer said it was delaying marketing campaigns for some specific goods until stocks were secured. Major container ship operators like Maersk (MAERSKb.CO) and Hapag-Lloyd (HLAG.DE) are re-routing vessels away from the Suez Canal - the shortest route from Asia to Europe - after militant attacks on vessels in the Red Sea. The diversions have raised fears of another prolonged disruption to global trade just as supply chains unsnarl after the COVID pandemic. Going around southern Africa instead adds $1 million in fuel costs and about 10 days to the journey. Interviews with five retailers selling everything from furniture to mechanical components, and with analysts, show the unusual steps companies are taking to adapt. U.S.-based BDI Furniture is front-loading orders and relying more on factories in Turkey and Vietnam. It is also asking freight brokers to bypass the Panama and Suez canals and ship goods across the Pacific Ocean to California, where they can be transported by rail to its east coast U.S. warehouse. Hanna Hajjar, vice president of operations at BDI Furniture said it has low stocks of some media cabinets, bedroom and office furniture that are already on ships. "We just did not expect all these recent delays," he said, adding that the disruptions have lengthened transit times from Vietnam by 10-15 days. Companies transporting goods from China to Europe and the United States are considering alternatives like rail and air, but high prices mean they have to be strategic about which products to prioritise. Hajjar says BDI is using the California route as a solution on a case-by-case basis because rates are now double the normal cost of shipping through Suez or Panama. Even though Asia-to-Europe trade is most exposed to the Suez disruptions, as much as 30% of shipments to the U.S. East Coast move via the canal. RACE AGAINST TIME Retailers are also in a race against time: on Feb. 10 factories in China close for anywhere from two weeks to a month for the Lunar New Year holiday, so companies typically try to export as much as possible beforehand. But with vessels rerouted, fewer ships will be back in China in time to load cargo before the holiday. That means likely delays to products meant to land on Western shelves in April or May. Logistics experts are already reporting a container shortage at Ningbo port in China. "The worst thing to happen to a retailer is having a significant delay on a product that they won't be able to market because of seasonality," said Rob Shaw, general manager for EMEA at inventory software company Fluent Commerce. Europe's Aldi Nord said it may receive items like household goods, toys and decorations later than planned, and is postponing the advertising of specific products as a result. Britain's Next (NXT.L) said the delays were manageable compared to those during the pandemic. But the retailer, which sources most of its products from Asia, could mitigate this through earlier ordering and using more air freight. "The lessons (from COVID) are on stock being delayed - order a little bit earlier and allow for a little bit more air freight," CEO Simon Wolfson told Reuters. One option is a rail route from western China to eastern Europe. Craig Poole, UK managing director of Cardinal Global Logistics, said the cost of using it has jumped to around $9,000-$10,500 per 40-foot container from around $7,000 in November, and is increasing daily. IC Trade, which exports mechanical components from China to Italy, is exploring the rail option but "it's not easy to find the space," said founder Marco Castelli. "To make up for one vessel, you need 100 trains." Polish fashion retailer LPP (LPPP.WA) said it is considering rail or sea-air alternatives for its "most urgent" collections. RBC analysts said continued disruptions could hurt European retailers' gross profit margins, while the prospect that fresh supply chain strains will push up prices has raised fears of another bout of global inflation. For some companies, the latest disruptions highlight the need to permanently shift supply chains so factories are closer to the end consumer, a process often called "near-shoring". BDI Furniture aims to cut its dependence on China to 40% of total orders over the next two to three years from 60% currently, by sourcing more from Vietnam and Turkey. https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/retailers-rush-avoid-delays-spring-collections-due-red-sea-attacks-2024-01-10/

2024-01-10 05:57

BEIJING, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping, in a recent reply to a letter from an Iowa native whom he first met nearly four decades ago, said the world's future demanded stability in Sino-U.S. ties, according to Chinese state media on Wednesday. Bilateral ties have sagged in recent years, slammed by a trade war and a plethora of other issues, including the origins of COVID-19. Communications between the countries have improved since Xi's talks with U.S. President Joe Biden in San Francisco in November, but both sides remain tense over democratically governed Taiwan, which China claims as its territory. The island is electing a new president on Saturday. "China and the United States are the largest developing and developed countries in the world, and the future and destiny of this planet require Sino-U.S. relations to be more stable, to be better," Xi told Sarah Lande, whom he first met in May 1985. The two became acquainted when Xi, then 31, led a delegation from China's northern Hebei province to its "sister state" Iowa to learn about U.S. food production. In 2012, they reunited in her hometown of Muscatine, and once more in San Francisco in November 2023, when Lande attended a dinner hosted for Xi. In a previous letter to Lande in 2022, he told her and his "old friends" in Iowa to "continue sowing the seeds of friendship and make new contributions to the friendship between the Chinese and American peoples". Just as bilateral ties had worsened in recent years, the image of China in the United States had deteriorated. In early 2020, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said on Twitter that the coronavirus might have emerged from the United States, and that it might have reached Wuhan, where the virus was first detected, via the World Military Games held there. Last year, in a poll by the Pew Research Center, 83% of respondents in the United States held an unfavourable opinion of China. Asked to name the country that posed the greatest threat to the United States, Americans perceived China as both an economic and national security threat, the U.S. think tank said. Repairing its image is paramount to China, especially in the United States. Washington has levied additional tariffs on Chinese goods and imposed curbs on exports of certain technologies, such as advanced chips, to China. https://www.reuters.com/world/old-friend-iowa-xi-says-world-requires-stability-china-us-ties-2024-01-10/

2024-01-10 05:32

A look at the day ahead in European and global markets from Tom Westbrook A lurch lower in Australian inflation may be an encouraging sign for Thursday's U.S. figures, where a slowdown is also anticipated. For both the U.S. and Australia, markets have been anticipating no further rate hikes, so the data Down Under served to reinforce expectations without driving any sudden price shifts. Australian inflation in November eased to its lowest in nearly two years. The Australian dollar was steady as were, broadly, government bonds. With 140 basis points of U.S. rate cuts priced for this year, there is a good deal at stake with U.S. inflation data and whether it can deliver on forecasts for a drop to its lowest since mid-2021. Currency and bond trade in the lead-up on Wednesday was tentative and stock markets took the paths of least resistance: upwards in Japan, and downwards in Hong Kong and China. China's blue chip CSI300 index (.CSI300) hit a five-year low and the Hang Seng (.HSI) a one-month low. Japan's Nikkei (.N225), however, hit a three-decade high for a second day running. The data calendar is rather bare for Europe on Wednesday, with the day's most anticipated event a speech at 2015 GMT by New York Fed President John Williams, an influential policymaker who has been pushing back against market pricing for so many rate cuts. Bitcoin was steady at $46,120 after spiking on Tuesday when an unauthorised party accessed the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's X social media account and posted a false statement that it had approved exchanged-traded funds for bitcoin. Taiwan goes to the polls on Saturday to elect a new president and parliament. At stake will be the future of Taiwan's fraught ties with China: Both major parties support Taiwan's sovereignty but offer different views on the island's relations with its giant neighbour. Besides its territorial significance to Beijing, Taiwan is a global semiconductor powerhouse and home to the world's largest contract chipmaker, TSMC (2330.TW). Oil prices held onto their recent gains on instability in Red Sea shipping lanes. U.S. and British forces shot down 21 drones and missiles on Tuesday that were fired by Yemen-based Houthis. Brent crude futures rose 25 cents a barrel to $77.84. Key developments that could influence markets on Wednesday: - French industrial output - Fed Williams speech https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/global-markets-view-europe-2024-01-10/

2024-01-10 05:26

Jan 9 (Reuters) - (This Jan. 9 story has been refiled to correct the spelling of 'envelop' in the headline) Brutal winter weather enveloped much of the U.S. on Tuesday and was forecast to continue through the week in areas, with forecasters predicting heavy rains in the east and several feet of snow for parts of the Pacific northwest. High winds and a few tornadoes ripped through parts of the South earlier Tuesday, with at least three deaths attributed to weather in Alabama, North Carolina and Georgia, according to authorities and local media reports. Tornadoes caused heavy damage in parts of the Florida panhandle. Heavy rains and high winds hit a big chunk of the East Coast on Tuesday and will continue into Wednesday, the National Weather Service (NWS) said. Three or more inches of rain was forecast for a wide swath of the northeast, where some areas were hit with heavy snows last weekend, increasing the risk of significant flooding. The extreme weather follows a record number of "billion-dollar" disasters in the U.S. last year. Storms had knocked out power to over 418,000 homes and businesses in 12 states on Tuesday. Snow will continue on Wednesday in the Midwest and Great Lakes region, large portions of which saw blizzard conditions Monday and Tuesday. The snow is being produced on the northern and western edges of the storm enveloping the East Coast, the NWS said. Up to 8 inches of snow and high winds were expected. "This snow will cling to trees and power lines, which when combined with gusty winds potentially exceeding 55 mph, could result in power outages," the NWS said. Forecasters said that conditions for the Midwest and East Coast will gradually improve Wednesday as the storm system moves out. In the Pacific northwest, a separate storm system is producing blizzard conditions that will continue into Wednesday, producing several feet of snow at higher elevations in the Cascade mountains in Washington and Oregon, the NWS said. That storm system will strengthen as it roars over the Rockies and onto the central plains by Thursday. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/storms-envelope-much-us-bringing-heavy-snow-rains-tornadoes-2024-01-10/