2024-01-02 22:11

MEXICO CITY/SAO PAULO, Jan 2 (Reuters) - Brazil and Mexico are working together to develop a regional plan to keep trade in poultry and eggs flowing between the two countries despite potential avian flu outbreaks, Mexico's agriculture ministry said on Tuesday. The plan seeks to map out areas of either country unaffected by a potential outbreak to keep trade from those regions moving, the ministry said in a statement, citing health safety agency head Javier Calderon. Brazil, the world's No. 1 poultry exporter, has seen recent cases of highly pathogenic bird flu in wild and backyard poultry. Mexico, which exports just a fraction of the poultry it produces, reported its first commercial case of the season in November. Setting up a "containment zone" under World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) guidelines could avoid an otherwise-nationwide ban on exports if avian flu hits commercial flocks. Brazil is also looking to start imports of Mexican avocados "soon," according to Brazilian agriculture official Roberto Perosa. Mexico is the world's top avocado supplier, though almost all of them are bound for the U.S. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazil-mexico-eye-regional-avian-flu-plan-keep-trade-flowing-2024-01-02/

2024-01-02 22:08

Jan 2 (Reuters) - Top-rated U.S. companies raised over $29 billion in debt on Tuesday, giving the corporate bond market a strong start to the new year, as the companies tapped demand from investors anticipating lower interest rates later this year. Local names like Toyota Motor Credit (TOYOM.UL), Ford Motor Credit (FMCR.UL) along with European banks UBS (UBSAG.UL), BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA) and Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY.L) were among a slate of 16 companies that issued new bonds on Tuesday. The firms were looking to take advantage of low Treasury yields and tightening credit spreads, or the premium companies pay over a Treasury benchmark, to mostly refinance a large maturity wall this year and next. Roughly $780 billion of bonds mature in 2024 and $1 trillion of them come due in 2025, according to a Citi research note. Bond syndicate desks were expecting an average of nearly $63 billion of investment-grade bonds the first week of the year, above the $50 billion average for that period over the past five years, according to Informa Global Markets. Last year 37 borrowers raised $58 billion in the first week of the year. Demand was expected to be high as investors aim to lock in yields that may not be available if the Federal Reserve starts to cut U.S. interest rates later this year. “Strong seasonal performance during January is likely further strengthened this year by expectations for falling yields over the course of the year that will likely result in outsized demand in the early part of the year,” said BMO Capital Markets’ credit strategist Dan Krieter in a note. Gross issuance in 2024 is expected to reach $1.3 trillion in 2024 compared with $1.2 trillion in 2023, but net new issuance after maturities, calls, tenders and bond repurchases is expected at only $475 billion, lower than last year's amount of nearly $500 billion, said the Citi note. The supply rush on Tuesday and expectations of a busy January helped push U.S. Treasury yields, which move inversely to prices, higher. Benchmark 10-year yields were at 3.944%, some 8 basis points higher than last week. The move, which follows a sharp rally over the past couple of months, was partly the result of investors preparing to absorb new corporate debt issuance, analysts said. “Partly it’s a correction and partly it’s the market setting up first for supply," said Gennadiy Goldberg, head of U.S. Rates Strategy at TD Securities USA. "It typically happens early in the year, with rates selling off.” https://www.reuters.com/markets/rates-bonds/top-rated-us-companies-raise-over-29-billion-new-year-bond-supply-rush-2024-01-02/

2024-01-02 21:14

Russia carries out air strikes on Kyiv and Kharkiv Moscow has stepped up air strikes over New Year period War drags on two years after full-scale invasion KYIV, Jan 2 (Reuters) - Russia pounded Ukraine's two biggest cities on Tuesday in a new wave of heavy air strikes that killed at least five civilians and prompted calls for the West to quickly provide more military assistance. Ukraine's Interior Ministry said 135 people had been injured in the latest missile and drone attacks, including 61 in and around Kharkiv, Ukraine's second city in the northeast and 17 in and around the capital, Kyiv. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said rescue operations continued into the late evening as the assaults also caused widespread damage and hit power supplies. Russia has intensified attacks over the New Year period, with President Vladimir Putin warning on Monday that a Ukrainian air strike on the Russian city of Belgorod, which Moscow said killed 25 civilians, would "not go unpunished". Smoke belched out of the charred side of a high-rise residential building in Kyiv where mayor Vitali Klitschko said an elderly woman had been killed and 49 people hurt. Emergency services later recovered another corpse from the building. A 91-year-old woman was killed in a missile strike on Kharkiv that also wounded dozens and a married couple was killed in an attack in the area around Kyiv, local officials said. "Russia will answer for every life (that it has) taken away," Zelenskiy said on the Telegram messenger. Russia later said one man had been killed and 11 people injured in a series of attacks on Belgorod. Zelenskiy, in his nightly video address, later said Russia had deployed almost 300 missiles and more than 200 drones in attacks over the last three days. The latest assaults, he said were intended to cause maximum destruction. "...The trajectories have been specially calculated by the enemy to cause as much damage as possible," he said. "No other country has yet repelled similar attacks by combined drones and missiles, including ballistic missiles." Russia stepped up missile and drone strikes on Dec. 29, when it launched its largest air attack of the war, killing at least 39 people. Kyiv had warned for weeks that Russia appeared to be stockpiling missiles for big attacks. Russia holds swathes of territory in eastern and southern Ukraine, and there is no end in sight to the war as next month's second anniversary of Moscow's full-scale invasion approaches. Russia depicts a Ukrainian counteroffensive launched in mid-2023 as a failure. Front lines have changed little in recent months. Ukraine relies on military and financial support from allies, but political wrangling in the U.S. and the European Union has delayed over $110 billion in aid. MORE AIR DEFENCE Zelenskiy wrote on Telegram that he had discussed upgrading Ukraine's air defence systems with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Several Western leaders and foreign diplomats in Kyiv said it was critical for Ukraine to receive more support. "Ukrainian air defence works well but Ukraine must get more help. New Year's celebrations are over and the West must get serious and act now," Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics wrote on social media platform X. Ukraine downed all 10 incoming "Kinzhal" missiles fired in the latest attack as well as 59 of the 70 cruise missiles and all three Kalibr cruise missiles, army chief General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi said. But he added: "There is no reason to believe that the enemy will stop here. Therefore, we need more systems and munitions for them." Klitschko said gas pipelines had been damaged in Kyiv's Pecherskyi district, and electricity and water had been cut off in several districts. Heating and water supplies were damaged in Kharkiv, mayor Ihor Terekhov said. The outages revived memories of last winter when air strikes on the energy grid caused frequent power cuts. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-launches-drone-attack-kyiv-ukraine-says-2024-01-02/

2024-01-02 21:04

CAIRO, Jan 2 (Reuters) - British maritime security firm Ambrey said on Tuesday that a Malta-flagged container ship reported seeing three explosions towards its port quarter, 15 miles (24 km) southwest of Yemen's Mocha. The vessel master was heard over VHF, calling a coalition warship, the firm added. Ambrey said it understood that three missiles had been fired from the direction of Yemen's Taiz Governorate. A nearby vessel reported seeing a small boat, about 50 metres (160 feet) in length, and with two lights, within 1 mile (1.6 km) of the incident location soon afterwards, the firm added. Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthi militants, who control much of Yemen including the capital Sanaa, have stepped up attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea in protest against Israel's war in Gaza. "It was assessed this particular vessel was not Israel-affiliated, but other vessels in the operator's fleet had regularly called Israel, and this affiliation might have been sufficient for her to be targeted," Ambrey said. Several shipping lines have suspended operations through the Red Sea in response to the attacks, instead taking the longer journey around Africa. The Houthis have vowed to continue their attacks until Israel halts the conflict in Gaza, and warned that it would attack U.S. warships if the militia group itself was targeted. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/malta-flagged-container-ship-reported-seeing-3-explosions-towards-its-port-2024-01-02/

2024-01-02 20:58

WASHINGTON, Jan 2 (Reuters) - International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said Americans should "cheer up" about the U.S. economy, as inflation subsides further in 2024 amid a strong job market and moderating interest rates. Georgieva told CNN in an interview that aired on Tuesday that the U.S. economy is "definitely" headed for a "soft landing" with fairly strong growth prospects. "People should be feeling good about the economy because they finally would see relief in terms of prices," Georgieva said, praising the Federal Reserve's "decisiveness" in raising interest rates to fight inflation. "While that has been painful, especially for small businesses, it has brought the desired impact without pushing the economy into recession," Georgieva added. Asked why many polls show Americans pessimistic about the economy, the IMF chief said that consumers had become accustomed to low inflation and very low interest rates for many years, and when both jumped in recent years, it was a shock. "My message to everyone is, you have a job and interest rates are going to moderate this year because inflation is going down. Cheer up. It is a new year, people," Georgieva said. Georgieva repeated her warnings against fragmentation of the global economy along geopolitical lines due to increasing national security restrictions, with countries gravitating towards separate blocs led by the United States and China. Allowed to continue, she said this could ultimately reduce Global GDP by 7% - roughly equal to the annual out put of France and Germany," and urged Washington and Beijing to compete on a rational basis, while cooperate on globally important issues. "So we are all better off to find ways to reduce frictions, to concentrate on security concerns that are real and meaningful, and not go willy-nilly in fragmenting the world economy. We would end up with a smaller pie," Georgieva said. https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/imfs-georgieva-says-americans-should-cheer-up-about-falling-inflation-cnn-2024-01-02/

2024-01-02 20:41

Jan 2 (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved nearly 50% more novel drugs in 2023 than in 2022, putting it back on pace with historical levels, an improvement analysts and investors said could lead to increased investment in biotech firms. FDA nods for innovative therapies containing an active ingredient or molecule not previously approved, rose to 55 in 2023, up from 37 in 2022 and 51 in 2021. Historical data shows the FDA typically green lights about 45-50 new drugs a year and hit a peak of 59 in 2018. The agency approved several high-profile therapies such as Eli Lilly's (LLY.N) obesity drug Zepbound and Eisai (4523.T) and Biogen's (BIIB.O) Alzheimer's treatment Leqembi. It also approved five gene therapies in addition to the 55 novel drugs, including a sickle cell disease treatment from Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX.O) and CRISPR Therapeutics (CRSP.BN) using the latter's innovative gene editing technology. "It is good to see the FDA approvals go up," said John Stanford, executive director of Incubate, a Washington-based group of life sciences investors. He called the advance of gene editing technology particularly encouraging. "Our scientists can do a lot more, and from that perspective we are excited about what's coming down the pipeline, not just in 2024, but beyond that," he said. The FDA in a statement said, "the number of novel drugs approved varies from year to year, and may be due to a variety of factors." Those include the complexity of new drugs in development as well as advances in scientific understanding of diseases and disease targets, it said. The agency did not provide a specific reason for the big drop in approvals in 2022. TD Cowen analyst Ritu Baral said the COVID-19 pandemic was likely a factor. When the pandemic hit, the agency moved from approving drugs at record pace to operating with a remote workforce, which caused disruption and issues such as delayed inspections that affected drug reviews. "We're back at those peak levels, which hopefully means that the workflow disruptions, staffing and bandwidth issues and, most importantly, communications with developers, have hopefully been improving, Baral said, adding that she expects a similar level of FDA approvals in 2024. INVESTMENT DECLINES Investment in biotech companies over the past two years has been a fraction of historical levels. After 108 initial public offerings (IPOs) in 2021, there were only 18 each in 2022 and in 2023 as of mid-December. A basket of biotech-focused funds tracked by Piper Sandler saw $15.8 billion in capital outflow in 2023, the largest ever going back to 1992, according to the brokerage. "2023 has been a year where the market was selective in the companies able to access capital," William Blair analysts said in a December note. They noted that companies developing GLP-1 weight-loss treatments, the same class as Novo Nordisk's wildly popular Wegovy and Lilly's Zepbound, have had better access to the IPO market. Industry analysts also said lingering investor concern about high interest rates and government scrutiny of drugmakers could hamper a full funding recovery. "While we don't expect capital markets to return to peak 2020-21, we do think that conditions will improve and that the window will open up," Jefferies analyst Michael Yee said. Incubate's Stanford said some investors may remain on the sidelines due to increased oversight of deals in the sector, the government's drug price negotiation plans and the threat that the Biden administration is looking to seize patents of medicines developed with government funding if the prices are deemed to be too high. https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/us-fda-approvals-bounce-back-2023-sparking-hopes-biotech-recovery-2024-01-02/