2024-01-03 08:46

Atos says also received a second offer for part of the unit Says Tech Foundations sale taking "more time than planned" Says Daniel Kretinsky's EPEI now will not take stake in Eviden Atos aiming to reduce debt Atos shares up 2% after spiking more than 10% Jan 3 (Reuters) - French IT company Atos (ATOS.PA) said on Wednesday Airbus (AIR.PA) had made an indicative offer of 1.5 billion to 1.8 billion euros ($1.64 billion-$1.97 billion) for Atos' big data & security (BDS) unit, briefly sending its shares up more than 10%. Atos said it would open due diligence talks with the world's biggest planemaker regarding the sale, one of a series of negotiations the company is involved in aimed at helping it reduce debt. Atos has faced a series of setbacks that have pummelled its shares for more than a year. An Airbus spokesperson confirmed in an e-mailed statement sent to Reuters, echoing an earlier report, that it had submitted a non-binding proposal. "The acquisition of BDS could significantly accelerate the digital transformation of Airbus, enhance the company’s defence and security portfolio with strong capabilities in cyber, advanced computing and artificial intelligence," Airbus said. Atos said it had also received a second offer for part of the unit, but did not name the potential buyer. Separately, Atos Chief Financial Officer Paul Saleh said exclusive negotiations with Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky's EPEI on the sale of its Tech Foundations unit are taking "more time than planned", with no certainty of an agreement being reached. "Discussions continue around the price to be paid, the structure of the transaction and the transfer of a very large proportion of Tech Foundations liabilities," the company said in a press release. Initially Tech Foundations was to be sold to EPEI for 2 billion euros, with EPEI getting a 7.5% stake in Eviden for 180 million euros in the framework of a 900-million-euro capital increase. Atos said it now plans to reduce the capital increase, resulting in Kretinsky not taking a stake in Eviden at all. Atos added that it is in discussions with banks to maintain financing and obtain refinancing. It said in the first quarter of 2024 it will assess whether these measures are sufficient to cover financing maturities and cash requirements on a long-term basis. The group is planning two six-month extensions to a 1.5 billion euro loan, with the first effective from January 29. ($1 = 0.9128 euros) https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/atos-open-due-diligence-phase-talks-with-airbus-sale-bds-unit-2024-01-03/

2024-01-03 07:26

MUMBAI, Jan 3 (Reuters) - The Indian rupee's muted volatility is prompting banks and corporate treasuries to dabble more in the euro/dollar, pound/dollar and the dollar/yen currency pairs in search for returns. The dollar/rupee has been held in a narrow range over several months, largely thanks to the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) intervention on both sides. The rupee's volatility has plummeted to the lowest in more than a decade, with its trading range last year the narrowest since 2002. It is "nearly impossible" right now to "make money out of" USD/INR and that is fuelling more interest in crosses, a treasury official at a state-run bank said. The official is not authorized to speak to the media and did not want to be identified. The volume of crosses of banks has jumped nearly 50% year-on-year, according to data collated from the RBI's Database on Indian Economy. Turnover of spot crosses, transactions which are settled in two business days, was $1.37 trillion between Jan. 1 and Nov. 24, compared with $920 billion in the same period in 2022. Data after Nov. 24 has not been published. The RBI does not provide the currency pair-wise breakup of the volumes. The volumes on euro/dollar pair are the largest followed by the pound/dollar and the dollar/yen, according to bankers. The appeal of crosses, apart from their higher volatility, is that they respond to fundamentals and technicals, unlike the dollar/rupee which is "hard to analyse", the state-run bank official said. For corporates, forward cancellation volumes on crosses are up 30% on-year, according to the RBI's database. Forward cancellation volumes are considered an indicator of the speculative activity of corporates. Last year, more than 80% of the crosses forward contracts were cancelled. Forward cancellations are contracts which companies have not utilised or taken delivery of and that are cancelled before the maturity date. The RBI does not allow companies to cancel contracts that are due before the spot date. In view of this, corporates speculate by booking foreign currency contracts beyond the spot date and then cancelling them. "With nothing happening on USD/INR, we are adding value to our clients by making recommendations on crosses that tie up to their risk profile and to a certain extent to their hedging requirements," Kunal Kurani, associate vice president at FX risk advisory firm Mecklai Financial, said. https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/indian-rupees-plunging-volatility-spurs-surge-trading-major-crosses-2024-01-03/

2024-01-03 06:54

BRUSSELS, Jan 3 (Reuters) - A 59-year-old woman died in Belgium's East Flanders province on Tuesday after being hit by a blown-away fence during a period of heavy rainfall in the country, local governor Carina Van Cauter said in a statement on Wednesday. There are no large-scale evacuations planned in the region for the time being, Van Cauter added. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/one-dead-belgium-heavy-rainfall-hits-country-2024-01-03/

2024-01-03 06:33

Euro falls to two-week low vs dollar Dollar on track for best daily gain vs yen since late October U.S. manufacturing sector contracts again in December U.S. job openings fall in November Fed officials cite reduced upside inflation risks -minutes NEW YORK, Jan 3 (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar rose to a two-week high on Wednesday as investors continued to take profits on short dollar positioning amassed toward the end of last year, even as they questioned market expectations of roughly six interest rate cuts in 2024. For December, the dollar fell about 2%. Trading was relatively subdued, with Japanese markets shut for a holiday and markets digested softer-than-expected U.S. economic data released earlier on Wednesday. Bitcoin, meanwhile, sank roughly 5% on Wednesday after climbing to more than $45,000 on Tuesday, its highest since April 2022. Still, optimism about bitcoin remained high amid a possible approval this week of a spot exchange traded fund for the world's largest cryptocurrency. The dollar, on the other hand, earlier moved in tandem with Treasury yields, with those on the 10-year hitting 4% for the first time in two weeks. But the 10-year yield has since declined to 3.90%, down 4.1 basis points (bps). Yet the dollar index held gains and was last up 0.2% at 102.45 , after earlier touching a two-week peak of 102.61. Minutes of the Dec. 12-13 Federal Reserve meeting released on Wednesday showed officials were convinced inflation was coming under control and were concerned about the damage that "overly restrictive" monetary policy might do to the economy. However, participants "stressed ... that it would be appropriate for policy to remain at a restrictive stance for some time until inflation was clearly moving down sustainably toward the Committee's objective." "The biggest driver of U.S. dollar strength through this very young year is a general repricing of expectations for the Fed in 2024," said Helen Given, FX trader at Monex USA in Washington. "Traders were overzealous in their expectations of as many as six 25 basis point cuts from the Fed in 2024, and through the last few days have been paring down some of those positions." Fed funds futures have priced about 166 bps of cuts this year, or about six rate reductions of 25 bps, according to LSEG's IRPP app. The dollar earlier came off its highs after data showed the U.S. manufacturing sector contracted further in December although the pace of decline has slowed. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said on Wednesday its manufacturing PMI increased to 47.4 last month after being unchanged at 46.7 for two straight months. It was the 14th consecutive month that the PMI has stayed below 50, which indicates contraction in manufacturing. That is the longest such stretch since the period from August 2000 to January 2002. At the same time, U.S. job openings fell for the third straight month in November. Job openings, a measure of labor demand, dropped 62,000 to 8.790 million on the last day of November, the Labor Department said in its monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS, report. In other currencies, the euro was last down 0.2% against the dollar at $1.0924. It earlier fell to $1.0893, its lowest since mid-December, and dropped 0.95% on Tuesday in its biggest daily decline since July. A drop in inflation and a dovish tilt in the Fed's December policy meeting fueled bets for multiple U.S. rate cuts in 2024, undermining the greenback and sparking a rally in Treasuries and stocks in November and December. The dollar index hit a five-month low of 100.61 last week. Those trends failed to carry over into the New Year, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite closing lower on their first trading session of 2024, dragged down by big tech names . The greenback was last up 0.9% against Japan's yen at 143.31, on track for its largest daily gain since late October. Earlier in the session, the greenback hit a two-week high of 143.73. "We don't see the Fed cutting interest rates any time soon, as we've said since December's FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) presser, and the minutes today seemed to confirm that," Monex's Given said. Sterling was last up 0.4% at $1.2666. It slid 0.87% in the previous session, its sharpest daily fall in nearly three months. Analysts said the risk-off mood was also in part driven by concerns over escalating geopolitical tensions, after Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri was killed in a drone strike in Lebanon's capital Beirut on Tuesday. Lebanese and Palestinian security sources blamed his death on Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility. https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/dollar-edges-higher-risk-rally-hits-pause-2024-01-03/

2024-01-03 06:30

NEW DELHI, Jan 3 (Reuters) - A strike across India involving bus, truck and tanker drivers was called off after two days following assurance from the government that new laws for hit-and-run accidents will not be implemented until further talks with union representatives. Petrol and diesel supplies were hit across parts of the country after the strike entered the second day on Tuesday. Drivers of trucks, buses, and tankers had launched a three-day strike to protest a new law that prescribes punishment of up to 10 years' imprisonment or a maximum of 700,000 rupees ($8,405) fine for those who run away without informing authorities after causing serious road accidents. On Tuesday, the government said it will invoke these laws only after consultation with the All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC) - a group of transporters that is part of the protest. "The government wants to point out that these new laws and provisions have not yet come into force... We appeal to All India Motor Transport Congress and all the drivers to return to their respective jobs," the government said in a statement. Protesters had said the provision, which is part of a new criminal law that will replace the colonial-era Indian Penal Code (IPC), could lead to undue harassment of drivers, local media reported. AIMTC Chairman Bal Malkit Singh told local media all issues had been resolved after a meeting with the government, and urged drivers to resume work. Long queues at fuel stations began to dissipate shortly after the strike was called off. Petrol supplies were being restored in several parts of Uttar Pradesh state after running dry due to panic buying. https://www.reuters.com/world/india/india-transport-workers-call-off-protest-after-talks-with-govt-2024-01-03/

2024-01-03 06:28

European shares suffer worst day in nearly eight weeks Wall Street falls, shrugs off Fed's sunny inflation message Dollar gains on doubts about size of rate cuts this year Crude rises as shut Libya oilfield sparks supply concerns NEW YORK, Jan 3 (Reuters) - The dollar rebounded further from last year's sell-off and global stock markets extended a New Year slide on Wednesday as doubts about the chances of a soft landing mounted even as the Federal Reserve almost declared victory in taming inflation. Policymakers appeared increasingly convinced last month that inflation was coming under control, but they expressed growing concern about "overly restrictive" monetary policy, minutes from the Fed's Dec. 12-13 meeting show. Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin echoed similar optimism earlier in the day, saying a soft landing is "increasingly conceivable" as the Fed makes "real progress" toward subduing inflation without inflicting major damage on the jobs market. But the minutes and Barkin's remarks failed to shake off a dour mood in equity markets, with the major Wall Street indexes selling off after the leading German, French, Italian and Spanish stock indexes earlier closed down more than 1%. The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes briefly climbed above 4% as market optimism about deep interest rate cuts and their impact on the economy ebbed. The recent dramatic easing in monetary policy is likely to result in a "no landing," or continued above-trend growth that will limit how much the Fed can cut rates, said Phillip Colmar, global strategist at MRB Partners in New York. "Fed rate cuts are not required, even if Powell & Co. are determined to provide them," Colmar said in an email, adding that monetary and financial conditions have not been restrictive. "All major asset classes, including equities, suggest that monetary conditions are plentiful." MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe (.MIWD00000PUS) shed 0.94%, while the pan-European STOXX 600 index (.STOXX) closed down 0.86%. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) fell 0.76%, the S&P 500 (.SPX) lost 0.80% and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) dropped 1.18%. The market is trying to figure out if a soft landing is possible with the six rate cuts by year-end the futures market has priced in or whether that scenario will be painful, said Anthony Saglimbene, chief market strategist at Ameriprise Financial in Troy, Michigan. "Usually when you get that type of aggressive interest rate cuts, it comes with more economic pain," he said. "Our view is that the market has probably priced in too many rate cuts for this year." Fed officials in December predicted 75 basis points (bps) of rate cuts this year, driving money-market bets for around double that amount amid market optimism that spurred a year-end rally in stocks and bonds. Resilience in the U.S. labor market has kept a recession at bay. The government is expected to report on Friday that nonfarm payrolls increased by 168,000 jobs in December, according to a Reuters survey of economists, after rising 199,000 in November. But labor market conditions are gradually easing. U.S. job openings dropped by 62,000 to 8.79 million for the third straight month in November, the Labor Department said in its monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS report. "Today's JOLTS data is another signal that the Fed is delivering a soft landing," said Ron Temple, chief market strategist at Lazard, in an email. But the report also suggests that the Fed is unlikely to cut rates as aggressively in 2024 as the market expects given the risk of reigniting inflationary pressures, he said. Yields on government debt retreated after earlier edging higher. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell 3.3 basis points at 3.911%. Germany's 10-year Bund yield was down 1.7 basis points at 2.000%. The dollar has gained more than 1% against major currencies this week, with the dollar index touching a fresh two-week high at 102.6 as rate-cut bets eased. The euro fell 0.26% to $1.0919 and the yen weakened 0.89% at 143.25 per dollar. Oil prices climbed about 3% after a disruption at Libya's top oilfield added to fears that mounting tensions in the Middle East could disrupt global oil supplies. Brent futures rose $2.36 to settle at $78.25 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose $2.32 to settle at $72.70. Gold retreated, on course for its largest percentage decline in over three weeks, after the Fed minutes flagged uncertainty about the timing of potential interest-rate cuts. U.S. gold futures settled 1.5% lower, at $2,042.80. Bitcoin sank roughly 5% after climbing to more than $45,000 a day earlier, its highest level since April 2022. Still, optimism about bitcoin remained high amid a possible approval this week of a spot exchange traded fund for the world's largest cryptocurrency. https://www.reuters.com/markets/global-markets-wrapup-1-2024-01-03/