2023-12-22 20:08

HOUSTON, Dec 22 (Reuters) - At least two ships transporting oil or oil products between the U.S. Gulf Coast and India on Friday were re-routing from the Red Sea, according to vessel tracking data, as a U.S.-led coalition geared up to help safeguard vessels from attacks by Yemen's Houthi militants. Iran-backed Houthis, who say they are supporting Palestinians under siege by Israel in the Gaza Strip, have attacked commercial shipping with drones and missiles, forcing shippers to change course and take longer routes around the southern tip of Africa. The Aigeorgis, which was chartered by BP (BP.L) to carry vacuum gasoil (VGO) from India's Jamnagar to Texas, on Friday was headed along Africa's East Coast toward the Cape of Good Hope, according to financial firm LSEG's ship tracking data. BP's VGO shipments from Jamnagar historically moved through the Red Sea. The new route adds nine days to the journey between India and the U.S. Gulf Coast. VGO is a refining feedstock used to produce gasoline and diesel. A BP spokesperson declined to comment on the Aigeorgis but referred to an earlier statement on its decision to re-route ships. The company had said on Tuesday it would avoid the Red Sea and route vessels around the Cape of Good Hope. The Sonangol Cabinda, chartered by Equinor (EQNR.OL) to carry crude oil from Texas to India, did a 180-degree turn in the middle of the Red Sea on Thursday and was moving through the Suez Canal toward the Mediterranean, LSEG tracking data showed. The U.S. said the naval coalition announced last week involved 20 countries. Some have not confirmed their participation, however, while others have said operations to protect Red Sea commercial traffic will be as part of existing naval agreements. The lack of practical details for shippers has caused confusion for those still avoiding the region. "We have also paused new activities that involves transit through the region," an Equinor spokesperson said on Tuesday. Ships currently in the region were being rerouted or paused, the spokesperson said. The Houthi attacks have led shippers to change routes, causing several African ports to become overwhelmed with the number of ships entering their waters. "War risk premiums for tankers traveling via the Red Sea have been rising of late so that can make the longer (Cape of Good Hope) route a slightly less bitter pill for charterers," said Jay Maroo, an analyst at energy data firm Vortexa. Multiple tankers departing ports east of Suez bound for non-U.S. destinations have also changed course or re-routed to avoid the Red Sea. Other tankers re-routing include the Bow Olympus, chartered by Equinor, according to data from LSEG. The tanker left the US Gulf Coast on Dec. 10 and re-routed while crossing the Atlantic for Suez, making a 90 degree turn, and set its destination to Durban, South Africa. Meanwhile Almi Globe, chartered by BP, according to LSEG shipping data has also done a U-turn in the Mediterranean. The vessel had been heading for Suez until Thursday when it changed its destination to Las Palmas, Spain. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/more-ships-carrying-oil-avoid-red-sea-route-2023-12-22/

2023-12-22 19:58

Dec 22 (Reuters) - Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX and its debtors on Friday said they have entered into a settlement agreement with founder Samuel Bankman-Fried and others to resolve some claims related to its acquisition of stock trading platform Embed. The settlement agreement is between Bankman-Fried, and former FTX executives Nishad Singh and Gary Wang. The FTX debtors will recover 100% of the value paid for Embed's acquisition and all the assets held under the names of Bankman-Fried, Singh and Wang at Embed as part of the settlement. The debtors will continue to pursue other claims against the former CEO and executives, FTX said. FTX in May filed three lawsuits in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware targeting former FTX insiders including indicted founder Bankman-Fried, Embed executives including founder Michael Giles, and Embed shareholders. FTX was seeking to claw back more than $240 million it paid for Embed. FTX closed on the Embed acquisition just six weeks before the crypto exchange collapsed in November. It lost billions in customer money while propping up its own risky investments, actions its current CEO John Ray called "old-fashioned embezzlement". https://www.reuters.com/technology/ftx-debtors-settle-some-claims-over-embed-deal-with-sam-bankman-fried-others-2023-12-22/

2023-12-22 18:14

Dec 22 (Reuters) - Federal Reserve policymakers are set to start the new year with fresh evidence that their 2022-2023 interest-rate hike campaign put U.S. price pressures firmly in retreat, with data on Friday showing that by some key measures inflation is now at or below their 2% goal. Traders broke out the champagne after a government report showed the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index fell 0.1% in November from October, responding to the first decline on that measure since April 2020 by boosting bets not only that the Fed will begin reducing borrowing costs in March but will continue to cut them throughout the year. Futures contracts tied to the Fed's policy rate are now pricing in an end-of-year benchmark rate in the 3.75%-4.0% range, 1.5 percentage points below the current level, with a good chance it could go even lower. Analysts caution that Fed policymakers themselves may not be quite as euphoric, noting that much of the decline in November came from a fall in goods prices that is unlikely to continue, at least at the same pace. Rent inflation is still running high, though it is forecast to recede in coming months. "The more benign inflation data is certainly something to celebrate, but there is some turbulence ahead in the Q1 inflation readings that I think Fed officials will want to get through before turning the focus squarely to rate cuts," wrote Inflation Insights' Omair Sharif. "Fed officials will want to see a few reports with softer shelter data to gain confidence that they can move on to rate cuts." Last week the Fed kept its policy rate in the 5.25%-5.50% range, and Fed Chair Jerome Powell signaled that with the rate-hike campaign that began in March 2022 likely over, policymakers would next turn to a debate over the timing of rate cuts. With Friday's data confirming a retreat in inflation, that debate may need to rev up quickly in the new year to prevent policy from becoming overly tight and turning a cooling labor market into one in freefall, analysts said. Other data on Friday suggested no freefall is imminent, however, with overall consumer spending adjusted for inflation up 0.3% from the prior month, and wages jumping 0.6%. Policymakers will get their next comprehensive look at wage growth and the job market with the Jan. 5 publication of the monthly employment report, and more data on inflation and the economy to come as they prepare for their first couple of meetings of the new year, meetings that traders are betting will be pivotal. Still, said KPMG Economics' Diane Swonk, "We see Fed officials as hesitant to ease rates so soon for fear of backtracking on the hard-won fight against inflation." https://www.reuters.com/markets/rates-bonds/fed-rate-cuts-seen-starting-march-inflation-cools-2023-12-22/

2023-12-22 17:46

LONDON, Dec 22 (Reuters) - David Tovey, who was a BlackRock (BLK.N) fund manager until 2021, is part of a team that plans to launch a hedge fund based in London and Zurich in the first quarter of 2024, a source familiar with the matter said on Friday. The new fund, which will be called Covale Capital, plans to have $1 billion in assets under management across multiple funds by the end of 2024, the source told Reuters. A representative for the new hedge fund declined to comment on its planned launch or on any future appointments. Tovey, who worked at BlackRock for nearly 23 years, will be the fund's chief investment officer, the source said. Tovey, whose LinkedIn profile has him listed as being a founder of Covale Capital, was not immediately available for comment. Covale Capital, which Britain's Companies House records show was established in January this year as a limited liability partnership, will initially focus on Swiss equities and plans to launch three funds in 2024. The trading strategy will broadly replicate the kind Tovey pursued at BlackRock. The first fund, which will open on Jan. 15, will be a Swiss equity market neutral fund, trading stocks hedged against broader market swings, the source said. The others will include a strategy that takes mostly long and some short bets on stocks, as well as a long-only fund, they added. Covale Capital aims to eventually widen its focus to include European equities. Its management team will include former BlackRock colleagues of Tovey's, including Shane Jackson, who will be chief executive of the hedge fund, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the plans are not yet public. Martin Kazimir, who also previously worked at BlackRock, but most recently at Swiss asset manager Lombard Odier Investment Managers, will head up business development, the source said. John Close, formerly deputy chief operating officer at Odey Asset Management, Alistair Ceurvorst from Walter Scott & Partners and Martin Fasel from Lombard Odier Investment Managers are also part of the team joining Covale Capital, they added. https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/ex-blackrock-manager-tovey-be-investment-head-new-hedge-fund-source-2023-12-22/

2023-12-22 17:15

OSLO, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Sweden's Transport Agency said on Friday it is investigating suspension failures in Tesla (TSLA.O) cars in a probe similar to that carried out by neighbouring Norway's traffic safety regulator. "We can ... confirm that investigative work is also underway with us," the Swedish agency said in an emailed statement to Reuters. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Finnish transport and communications agency told Reuters it had not been contacted about faulty suspension failures. The Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NPRA) on Thursday said it started questioning Tesla in September 2022 and asked the automaker to assess consumer complaints about lower rear control arms breaking on its Model S and X vehicles. The Norwegian agency could recommend that Tesla recall the vehicles to replace the parts if it determines they pose a "serious risk." However, it could also close the review if there is no safety issue or decide to extend the investigation. Asked about the Norwegian probe, the Swedish agency said it too had received "a number of notifications about cars from the Tesla brand that have suffered from similar problems". A spokesperson for the Swedish regulator declined to comment further on details of the investigation as it was still ongoing. News of the Swedish and Norwegian inquiries follows a Reuters investigation published on Wednesday that exposed how Tesla has blamed drivers for frequent failures of suspension and steering parts that it has long known were defective. Facing soaring warranty costs, Tesla sought to slash spending on repairs in part by attributing the failures to "driver abuse," according to the report, which was based on thousands of Tesla documents and interviews with former employees, including service managers and technicians in Norway. https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/swedish-regulator-investigates-tesla-suspension-failures-2023-12-22/

2023-12-22 16:20

To pay $330 a share in cash for Karuna Karuna's KarXT is a new type of antipsychotic medicine Analysts have forecast multi-billion dollars of peak KarXT sales Dec 22 (Reuters) - Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY.N) on Friday agreed to buy Karuna Therapeutics (KRTX.O) for $14 billion, gaining a promising new type of antipsychotic medicine to help power growth as patents on its older therapies expire later this decade. Karuna's experimental schizophrenia drug, called KarXT, should drive sales through the late 2020s and into the next decade, at a time when two of its top drugs, blood cancer treatment Revlimid and blood thinner Eliquis face generic competition. The drugmaker is also expected to face revenue losses for two of its other top sellers, cancer immunotherapy Opdivo and blood thinner Eliquis, as they lose patent protection later this decade. Eliquis is also among the 10 drugs expected to be subject to drug price negotiations by the U.S. Medicare health program in 2026. "We still have considerable financial power to do business development and engage in bringing innovation into the company," Bristol Myers Chief Executive Chris Boerner said in an interview, although he plans to eschew larger, transformative deals. "We have ample opportunity to build additional depth in therapeutic areas that we're in today - think oncology or cardiovascular disease - and to continue to enhance in areas that are maybe a little bit more nascent" like neuroscience. Boerner said KarXT could be a multi-billion dollar drug across several indications, noting it could help patients with Bipolar I disorder and those with psychosis and agitation from Alzheimer's disease. Under the terms of the deal, Bristol would pay $330 a share in cash for Karuna, which represents a 53.4% premium to its last closing price. Karuna's shares rose to $316.80 in early trading. Bristol shares rose 2.5%. Through Friday, its shares had lost nearly 30% of their value this year versus an over 20% rise in the S&P 500 index (.SPX). US PATENT PROTECTION THROUGH MID-30S Boerner took over as CEO of Bristol in November, days after the company lowered its near-term expectations for its new pipeline portfolio. Analysts have forecast multibillion dollars in peak sales for KarXT, with a decision on its approval for schizophrenia due by September next year. While there are several older drugs for schizophrenia, KarXT is a new type of antipsychotic medicine that activates proteins called muscarinic receptors in the central nervous system, while existing antipsychotic drugs block proteins called dopamine receptors. In clinical trials, the drug helped patients reduce symptoms without many of the adverse events typically associated with current antipsychotic treatments, such as sleepiness, weight gain and involuntary movement. Karuna's drug is expected to be patent-protected in the United States through the mid-2030s. The deal is expected to hit Bristol Myers' earnings per share by roughly 30 cents in 2024 due to the financing costs. The deal is "fairly valued in our view and can’t rule out another potential bidder, given this is first-in-class in an area that has not seen a new mechanism approval in decades," said William Blair analyst Myles Minter. The acquisition comes roughly two months after Bristol's deal to buy cancer drugmaker Mirati Therapeutics (MRTX.O) for as much as $5.8 billion. https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/bristol-myers-buy-karuna-therapeutics-14-billion-wsj-2023-12-22/