2023-12-26 02:44

ACAPULCO, Mexico, Dec 25 (Reuters) - Candido Trinidad de la Cruz had been planning a family Christmas celebration until Hurricane Otis hit two months ago and flooded the Mexican beach resort Acapulco, sweeping away his wife and two children, and all their belongings. On Christmas Eve, he was still hoping to find them alive. With this in mind, Trinidad de la Cruz - whose leg was severely injured in the strongest hurricane to ever hit Mexico's Pacific coast - created an altar with family photographs, colorful flowers, garlands and candles to remind him of happier days. The family had planned a Christmas dinner with grilled pork ribs. Instead, he skipped the meal, traditionally held on Dec. 24, and shared a few tamales, a Mexican corn dish, with his mother. Hurricane Otis devastated Acapulco early on Oct. 25 when he was home with his wife, their 12-year-old daughter and 16-year-old son. It reduced homes to rubble, killing at least 50 people, with many more missing, and caused billions of dollars in damage to houses and hotels. Like Trinidad de la Cruz, many Acapulco residents are still searching for loved ones and clearing up the disaster. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has launched a $3.4 billion recovery plan and pledged to get the once-vibrant beach resort back on its feet quickly. Many local businesses, however, will have missed the vital tourist season: Christmas. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/mexican-father-spends-christmas-hoping-family-taken-by-hurricane-otis-2023-12-26/

2023-12-26 01:43

MANILA, Dec 26 (Reuters) - Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has approved the extension of reduced tariffs on rice and other food items until the end-2024 to keep prices stable amid a threat of dry weather in the coming months, his office said on Tuesday. The modified rates first approved in 2021 had already been extended this year due to high inflation, and Marcos said another extension was needed until the end of next year. "The present economic condition warrants the continued application of the reduced tariff rates on rice, corn, and (pork)...to maintain affordable prices for the purpose of ensuring food security," Marcos was quoted as saying in a statement. Inflation was at 4.1% in November, easing for a second straight month, but has averaged 6.2% in the first 11 months of 2023, well outside the Philippine central bank's 2%-4% target for the year. The extension of the modified tariffs, Marcos said, is aimed at ensuring affordable prices of rice, corn and meat products with the looming effects of the El Nino dry weather phenomenon early next year and the continued threat of African Swine Fever. The tariff rate for rice will remain at 35%, while import levies on corn will stay at 5%-15% and 15%-25% for pork products, according to the new executive order extending the modified tariff rates. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/philippines-extends-tariff-cuts-imported-rice-other-food-items-fight-inflation-2023-12-26/

2023-12-26 01:35

Container ship attacked in Red Sea Oil rose 3% last week Trade thin because some markets closed for public holiday Traders' bets Fed will deliver rate cut in March 2024 HOUSTON, Dec 26 (Reuters) - Oil climbed more than 2% on Tuesday to its highest level this month, as further attacks on ships in the Red Sea prompted fears of shipping disruptions and on hopes of interest rate cuts that could boost economic growth and fuel demand. Brent crude futures settled $2, or 2.5%, higher at $81.07 a barrel, after rising as much as 3.4% during the session. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude rose by $2.01, or 2.7%, to $75.57. The rally, in thin trade with some markets closed for holidays, added to last week's gains of about 3% after Houthi attacks on ships worried investors and as the violence in Gaza showed no sign of easing. "There's plenty of geopolitical tensions today in terms of the Middle East ... and it has given some angst here to the security of the transit of oil and other goods," said John Kilduff, partner with Again Capital LLC. Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi militia claimed responsibility for a missile attack on Tuesday on a container ship in the Red Sea, and for an attempt to attack Israel with drones. An Israeli minister on Tuesday hinted that the country had retaliated in Iraq, Yemen and Iran for attacks carried out against it as the war with Hamas-led militants in the Gaza Strip widens to other areas of the region and the Palestinian death toll continues to climb. Despite concern about the Middle East and the re-routing of ships, actual supply has not yet been affected. Maersk on Sunday announced the restart of shipping routes through the Red Sea, while France's CMA CGM is increasing the number of vessels travelling through the Suez Canal, easing concerns to some extent. Shipping companies had stopped sending vessels through the Red Sea and imposed surcharges for re-routing ships. The Red Sea connects with the Suez Canal, a major shipping route used for about 12% of global trade. "We have issues in the Red Sea, causing ships to go around the horn of Africa, adding to price and risk," said Tim Snyder, economist at Matador Economics. "This could turn out to be a not very good start to 2024." Meanwhile, Israel's military chief, Herzi Halevi, said the war on Hamas in Gaza will likely go on for many months. Oil also found support from expectations the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates next year. Lower interest rates cut consumer borrowing costs, which can boost economic growth and oil demand. The dollar index edged lower on Tuesday, within sight of a five-month low of 101.42 struck on Friday. A softer greenback makes dollar-denominated oil less expensive for investors holding other currencies, boosting demand. Traders' bets that the central bank will deliver a rate cut of at least 25 basis points in March 2024 stand at 86%, compared with about 21% in November, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool. U.S. crude stockpiles were expected to have fallen by about 2.6 million barrels in the week to Dec. 22., while distillate and gasoline inventories likely rose, a preliminary Reuters poll showed. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/oil-little-changed-investors-eye-middle-east-tensions-us-rate-cut-2023-12-26/

2023-12-26 01:15

NEW YORK, Dec 26 (Reuters) - The dollar index fell on Tuesday and the euro hit a more than four-month high as investors waited on fresh clues to when the Federal Reserve is likely to begin cutting interest rates as inflation falls closer to the U.S. central bank’s 2% annual target. Volumes were muted the day after Christmas, however, as markets in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong, among others, were still out for a public holiday. Many traders globally are also out for holidays until the New Year. The greenback is on track to post its worst performance since 2020 against a basket of currencies as anticipation of Fed rate cuts dents the appeal of the U.S. currency relative to peers. Many analysts expect the U.S. economy to markedly slow in 2024, but the Fed is also expected to act to ensure that the gap between the fed funds rate and realized inflation doesn’t widen too far. If inflation falls much faster than the Fed’s benchmark rate it can tighten monetary conditions more than Fed policymakers intend and increase the risk of a hard economic landing. "Inflation should continue to cool, which will afford policymakers the ability to trim rates by June in order to prevent passive tightening in real rates," analysts at Action Economics noted in a report on Tuesday. However they pushed back against a cut coming as soon as March and disagreed with market pricing of 154 bps in easing by December, noting that this is "unlikely to be necessary unless the economy were to fall into a recession in coming months." Data on Friday showed U.S. prices fell in November for the first in more than 3-1/2 years, pushing the annual increase in inflation further below 3%. Annual home prices in October rose again, pointing toward continued recovery of the housing market, data on Tuesday showed. Separately a Mastercard report showed U.S. retail sales rose 3.1% between Nov. 1 and Dec. 24 as shoppers looked for last-minute Christmas deals amid big promotions. The dollar index was last down 0.18% on the day at 101.44. It has fallen from a 20-year high of 114.78 on Sept. 28 2022 and is pace for a yearly loss of 1.98%. The euro was up 0.20% at $1.1045, the highest since Aug. 10. The single currency has risen from a 20-year low of $0.9528 on Sept. 26, 2022 and is on track for a 3.08% gain this year. The dollar gained 0.06% against the yen to 142.47. The dollar reached a 32-year high of 151.94 yen on Oct. 24, 2022, and came close to reaching this level again last month, before the Japanese currency recovered. The dollar is on pace for a 8.68% gain this year. The yen has steadied near a recent five-month peak on the view that the Bank of Japan (BOJ) could soon mark an end to its ultra-easy policy. For most of 2022 and 2023, the policy has kept the Japanese currency under pressure as other major central banks embarked on aggressive rate-hike cycles. BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda said on Monday the likelihood of achieving the central bank's inflation target was "gradually rising" and it would consider changing policy if prospects of sustainably achieving the 2% target increase "sufficiently". In cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin fell 3.36% to $42,130. ======================================================== Currency bid prices at 3:00PM (2000 GMT) https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/dollar-struggles-gain-footing-thin-trade-yen-steady-2023-12-26/

2023-12-25 09:41

DUBAI, Dec 25 (Reuters) - Iran denied on Monday a U.S. claim that a drone launched from Iran had struck a chemical tanker in the Indian ocean. The Pentagon said at the weekend that the Liberia-flagged, Japanese-owned and Netherlands-operated Chem Pluto ship was hit 200 nautical miles off the coast of India. "These repetitive accusations are rejected as baseless," Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said at a briefing, adding that the U.S. instead should face accusations for its role in Israel's war in Gaza. The Iranian navy has taken delivery of cruise missiles with a range of 1,000 km (621 miles) as well as reconnaissance helicopters, state media reported on Sunday, amid growing attacks on shipping lanes in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel and Israel's subsequent bombardment of Gaza. https://www.reuters.com/world/iran-denies-us-claim-it-targeted-tanker-near-india-2023-12-25/

2023-12-25 07:30

MOSCOW, Dec 25 (Reuters) - Russia said on Monday that emergency workers had put out a fire on a Soviet-era nuclear-powered cargo-icebreaker ship and the state company which runs the vessel said there had been no casualties and no threat to the security of the reactor. The fire broke out on Sunday in one of the cabins of the Soviet-made Sevmorput ship, which is currently at dock in the northern Russian city of Murmansk, the emergency ministry said. The fire, which at its peak covered an area of about 30 square meters (323 square feet), was put out with no casualties, the ministry said. "The fire was quickly liquidated," Atomflot, which owns the vessel, said in a statement. "There were no injuries." "There was no threat to crucial support systems or to the reactor plant," Atomflot said. Atomflot runs Russia's fleet of nuclear icebreakers and is a unit of the Rosatom state nuclear corporation. The Murmansk region, in Russia's northwest, shares borders with Finland and Norway, as well as with the Barents and White seas. The ship, which entered service in 1988 and went through an extensive upgrade a decade ago, is Russia's only nuclear-powered icebreaking transport ship, according to Rosatom. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/fire-briefly-breaks-out-russian-nuclear-powered-icebreaker-2023-12-24/