2024-01-03 11:18

DUBAI, Jan 3 (Reuters) - International Holding Company (IHC) (IHC.AD), an Abu Dhabi conglomerate led by a key member of the United Arab Emirates' ruling family, has formed a new holding company that will hold a $27 billion portfolio across industries from asset management to mining. The portfolio will be transferred into the new entity 2PointZero from Royal Group, after obtaining regulatory approvals, IHC told Reuters in a statement on Wednesday. Royal Group is IHC's biggest shareholder owning a 61% stake in the company and part of Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al-Nahyan's business empire. 2PointZero's portfolio will include alternative asset manager Lunate, which last month launched a $30 billion climate fund dubbed ALTÉRRA at COP28, in collaboration with global asset managers BlackRock (BLK.N), Brookfield (BAM.TO) and TPG (TPG.O). International Resources Holding, which invested $1.1 billion in Zambia's Mopani Copper Mines in December and focuses on energy transition minerals, will also be transferred to the portfolio. Formerly known as International Fish Farming Holding, IHC went from an obscure seafood producer and distributor and real estate investor and developer to a major conglomerate with a market capitalisation that has ballooned since 2020 to $240 billion, double the size of global alternative asset manager BlackRock. Egyptian financial services firm Beltone Holding (BTFH.CA) , which is 56% owned by Royal Group, is also earmarked for 2PointZero, pending regulatory approval. Shares of Cairo-listed Beltone Holding jumped by more than 10% in early trade before they were suspended from trading on the Egyptian exchange. IHC is part of a business empire overseen by its chair, Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al-Nahyan, who is also the UAE's national security adviser and a foreign policy troubleshooter for his brother, President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan. Sheikh Tahnoon is at the helm of two of Abu Dhabi's biggest wealth funds, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and ADQ, and also chairs First Abu Dhabi Bank, the UAE's biggest lender by assets. Shares of IHC jumped as much as 3.2% in early morning trade on Wednesday. Private investment firm Chimera Investments, special purpose vehicle Sagasse Investments and Citadel Technologies, which operates a crypto mining plant in Abu Dhabi and specialises in Bitcoin extraction, are also earmarked for 2PointZero. ($1 = 3.6725 UAE dirham) https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/abu-dhabis-ihc-forms-new-hold-co-with-expected-assets-exceed-27-bln-2024-01-02/

2024-01-03 11:07

LONDON, Jan 3 (Reuters) - The pound held steady on Wednesday, nursing the previous day's steep losses as investors waited for U.S. economic data that could shift markets. Sterling was last flat against the dollar at $1.2624, after falling 0.87% the previous day in its biggest one-day drop since mid-October. It was slightly higher against the euro , with the single currency down 0.15% at 86.57 pence. Investors returned from the holiday period with doubts in their minds about the euphoria of November and December, when falling global inflation and softer words from central banks fuelled hopes that interest rates will drop sharply this year. The dollar jumped on Tuesday to around a two-week high and the pound and euro slumped, in a reversal of the trend seen over the last two months. Data on job openings and the manufacturing sector in the U.S., as well as the minutes from the Federal Reserve's December meeting, could bring a sleepy session to life later in the day. Alvin Tan, head of Asia FX strategy at RBC Capital Markets, said he thought the U.S. dollar could continue to regain ground in the coming weeks. "In general we remain relatively more positive on the U.S. dollar," he said. "In terms of cable (the dollar-pound exchange rate), it can get back down towards $1.24 in the next few months." The Bank of England's (BoE) tougher talk on inflation than the Fed has supported sterling over the last two months, helping it gain 4.7% across November and December. Expectations of higher interest rates relative to peers tend to boost a country's currency by making its bonds look more attractive. Yet ING strategist Francesco Pesole said in a note on Wednesday that he expected "a capitulation of the Bank of England's higher-for-longer narrative to hit the pound this year". Inflation in the UK fell more than expected in November to 3.9%, from 4.6% in October. Traders now expect around 140 basis points of rate cuts in 2024, according to money market pricing, not far off the roughly 150 expected from the Fed and European Central Bank. British business leaders have turned more pessimistic about the outlook for the economy, survey data showed on Wednesday, and are pushing the BoE to start cutting rates early this year. https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/sterling-holds-steady-before-us-data-nursing-tuesdays-heavy-loss-2024-01-03/

2024-01-03 11:05

A look at the day ahead in U.S. and global markets from Mike Dolan A slight recalibration of interest rate cut hopes, background geopolitical jitters, a big week for U.S. labor stats and heavy new year corporate debt sales all combined to blow froth off year-end markets as 2024 splutters into action. The lack of any consensus about just why the first trading sessions of the new year were so downbeat suggests no one driver and points more to a marginal reset of pre-holiday euphoria as investors seek out new themes and narratives. Even though U.S. interest rate futures have pulled back a bit from their more aggressive expectations of Federal Reserve rate cutting this year, there's still 145 basis points of easing priced by the end of the year and an 80% chance a first quarter point cut comes in March. Whether or not that's still overblown will be informed by the release later today of minutes from the last Fed meeting that lit the touch-paper for the year rally. Any sense in there that markets over-interpreted policymaker signals could dampen the mood. And it's also another huge week for updates on the still-tight U.S. labor market, with the December employment report due on Friday after unexpected strength the prior month. November job opening numbers gets the ball rolling on Wednesday. A forecast uptick in euro zone headline inflation is also expected in flash data for December later this week. The upshot for Treasuries has been a 10bp reversal in 10-year yields since the final day of 2023 to just under 4.00%. New year U.S. corporate debt sales were cited as a possible headwind for bonds markets this week, with more than half of the expected $60 billion of new borrowing this week coming to market already, though that is in line with the past two years. The dollar (.DXY) has been a big beneficiary of the rebound in rates, with its index hitting the highest since Dec. 21. This week's destructive earthquakes in Japan have seen the yen slip back too. Geopolitical jitters rumbled over the Middle East conflict, after Israel was reported to have killed Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri in a drone strike in Beirut - raising concerns about an expansion of the violence in Lebanon. And worries about attacks on Red Sea shipping and its impact on supply chains smouldered too after Denmark's Maersk (MAERSKb.CO) and German rival Hapag-Lloyd (HLAG.DE) said on Tuesday they would continue to pause all cargo shipments through the Red Sea following a weekend attack on one Maersk's ships. Crude oil prices , however, fell to their lowest since Dec. 13 and are still clocking annual losses of 10% - more worried about global demand after another series of mixed or downbeat Chinese business readings. With elections in Taiwan this month upping the political anxiety there, Morgan Stanley noted that global long-only funds offloaded Chinese equities at the fastest pace of 2023 in December as they rushed to meet redemption requests and to diversify away from the world's second-largest economy. Chinese stocks (.CSI300) fell again along with regional shares on Wednesday, although Tokyo stock markets remained closed. European stocks followed suit, with S&P500 futures (.SPX) in the red ahead of the open after losing about 0.5% on Tuesday. Computer chip equipment maker ASML (ASML.AS) fell 2.1%, down for the second day following the Dutch government's partial revoking of an export licence for some China shipments. Ryanair (RYA.I) lost 2.9% after multiple online travel agents stopped selling its flights in early December and after a traffic numbers update. Key diary items that may provide direction to U.S. markets later on Wednesday: * U.S. Dec ISM manufacturing survey, Nov JOLTS job openings data * Federal Open Market Committee publishes minutes from its meeting of Dec 12-13 * Richmond Federal Reserve President Thomas Barkin speaks https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/global-markets-view-usa-pix-2024-01-03/

2024-01-03 10:12

MUMBAI, Jan 3 (Reuters) - The Indian rupee closed marginally higher on Wednesday, supported by dollar sales from foreign banks, even as most of its Asian peers fell pressured by a recovery in the U.S. dollar index. The rupee ended at 83.2750 against the dollar, slightly higher compared with its close at 83.3175 in the previous session. The dollar index last quoted at 102.3 after having risen 0.8% overnight as market participants moderated bets on interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield rose to 3.98%. Investors are currently pricing in a near 75% chance of a Fed rate cut in March, down from about 85% a week earlier, according to CME Group's FedWatch tool. The rupee opened flattish but logged slight gains in the latter half of the trading session, aided by dollar sales from foreign banks, a foreign exchange trader at a state-run bank said. Asian currencies were mostly lower, with the Malaysian ringgit leading losses, down by 0.6%. Market participants now await key U.S. economic data due this week starting with the ISM manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) due later on Wednesday, which is expected to have risen to 47.1 in December from 46.7 in November, according to a Reuters poll. The minutes of Fed's December policy meeting are also due later in the day and will offer clues on how well-placed market expectations are about potential cuts in policy rates. While the data and minutes will be closely watched, it's unlikely to budge the rupee out of its prevailing range, Anindya Banerjee, head of FX research at Kotak Securities, said. Meanwhile, the rupee's muted volatility has prompted banks and corporate treasuries to ramp up activity in the euro/dollar, pound/dollar and the dollar/yen currency pairs in search for better returns, Reuters reported earlier on Wednesday. https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/rupee-ends-slightly-higher-traders-await-us-data-fed-minutes-2024-01-03/

2024-01-03 09:39

BRUSSELS, Jan 3 (Reuters) - The European Union has added Russia's Alrosa (ALRS.MM), the world's biggest diamond producer, as well as its CEO Pavel Alekseevich Marinychev to its sanctions list, it said on Wednesday. "In line with the diamond ban we have introduced with the 12th package of sanctions, the EU today lists Alrosa, the largest diamond-mining company in the world, and its CEO," EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on social media platform X. The EU's diamond ban is done in coordination with the Group of Seven countries (G7), which announced a similar ban in December. Alrosa did not immediately reply to a request for comment. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/eu-adds-russias-biggest-diamond-producer-alrosa-sanctions-list-2024-01-03/

2024-01-03 09:24

Entain soars after appointing Ricky Sandler to board GSK up on ratings, price target upgrade FTSE 100 flat, FTSE 250 off 0.2% Jan 3 (Reuters) - The UK's FTSE 100 was flat on Wednesday, with gains in personal care stocks offset by losses in miners, while investors awaited the minutes of the U.S. Federal Reserve's December meeting to gauge the future path of global interest rates. The blue-chip FTSE 100 index (.FTSE) was flat, while the midcap FTSE 250 index (.FTMC) slipped 0.2%. The benchmark index marked 40 years on Wednesday. Personal care, drug and grocery stores sector (.FTNMX452010) was the top gainer, rising 1.3% to hit a two-month high. In contrast, industrial metal miners (.FTNMX551020) slid 1.7% following a drop in copper prices, weighed by a strong U.S. dollar and soft demand in top consumer China. British business leaders have grown increasingly pessimistic about the country's economic outlook and are hesitating to make investment decisions, according to the Institute of Directors' (IoD) confidence index. "The IOD is now calling for an early rate cut, given the pessimistic outlook. There are hopes such a move could help jump-start the flagging engine of growth," said Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown. The yield on the British 10-year benchmark note rose 3 basis points to 3.674%, tracking its U.S. peers. Meanwhile, German-owned discounters Aldi and Lidl, No. 2 player Sainsbury's (SBRY.L) and market leader Tesco (TSCO.L) were the biggest winners among British supermarkets at Christmas, according to industry data. Shares of Sainsbury's and Tesco were up 1.7% and 1.3%, respectively. Entain (ENT.L) topped the FTSE 100, with a 2.1% jump, after the sports betting company appointed Eminence Capital founder Ricky Sandler as a non-executive director on its board. GSK Plc (GSK.L) gained 2.0% after Jefferies upgraded the stock to "Buy" from "Hold," and hiked its price target. All eyes will be on the Fed's December meeting minutes, due at 1900 GMT, to glean more insights into when the U.S. central bank might start interest rate cuts. https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/ftse-100-inches-higher-personal-care-boost-fed-minutes-focus-2024-01-03/