2023-12-06 22:45
NEW YORK, Dec 6 (Reuters) - U.S. District Judge Richard Jones in Seattle on Wednesday signed off on plea deals agreed by U.S. prosecutors, Binance Holdings and its former chief Changpeng Zhao, according to court documents. In November, Binance agreed to pay over $4.3 billion and pleaded guilty to breaking U.S. anti-money laundering and sanctions laws. Zhao also pleaded guilty and awaits sentencing in February. https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-judge-signs-off-binance-former-chiefs-plea-deals-with-doj-court-filings-2023-12-06/
2023-12-06 22:34
Dec 6 (Reuters) - An atmospheric river that has drenched the U.S. Northwest forced more road closures on Wednesday, but the worst of the rain appeared to be winding down with record high temperatures moving in. Rivers crested throughout Washington state and Oregon where as much as 8 to 10 inches (20 to 25 cm) fell over 48 hours while a weather front stalled over the area, according to the National Weather Service. The weather system was moving south, providing some relief for Washington while pelting Oregon and parts of northern California, said Rich Otto, a meteorologist for the Weather Prediction Center, part of the National Weather Service. Even so, emergency management officials in Washington reported some river flooding could persist into Thursday. "The good news is no rivers are in major flood stage any longer," the National Weather Service in Seattle said on X. In Tillamook County on Oregon's Pacific coast, the Wilson, Nehalem and Trask rivers were coming down off high-water marks on Tuesday evening yet many roads remained closed on Wednesday including U.S. Highway 101, the Oregon Department of Transportation said. Meanwhile, Oregon's largest cities Portland, Eugene and Salem all broke temperature records for Dec. 5, with the Eugene high of 64 Fahrenheit (18 Celsius) surpassing the previous record of 60 set 94 years ago. A high pressure system, similar to what typically happens in the summer, was responsible for the warmer weather as the jet stream moved further north than usual, Otto said. The rains may have killed two people who appeared to have been swept away by fast-moving creeks in the Portland area on Monday and Tuesday, officials and local media said. There will be a brief break from rain Friday when a weaker atmospheric river is expected to bring another 2 to 4 inches of rain were expected, Otto said. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/us-northwest-rains-winding-down-amid-record-high-temperatures-2023-12-06/
2023-12-06 22:17
Dec 6 (Reuters) - Chrysler-parent Stellantis (STLAM.MI) said on Wednesday it is seeking to void a 2019 California emissions deal with rival automakers and it may face new compliance penalties from state regulators. The automaker said it was petitioning to overturn the California Air Resources Board (CARB) agreement to "relieve Stellantis of the competitive disadvantages arising from our continuing exclusion and to preserve our ability to best serve our customers by fairly allocating our products to all states." Ford (F.N), Honda (7267.T), Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) and BMW (BMWG.DE) struck a voluntary agreement with California on reducing vehicle emissions and Volvo Cars, owned by China's Geely, joined soon afterward. Stellantis has since sought to join the voluntary agreement but been rebuffed. Stellantis said in its filing with California that CARB intends to pursue retroactive enforcement of greenhouse gas emissions standards for 2021 and 2022 model years against automakers including Stellantis but "is not retroactively enforcing these same regulations against" automakers in the voluntarily agreement. Stellantis said the agreement allows participating automakers to comply based on national sales, while it and other firms not taking part are measured by sales in the 14 states following the California rules, which hinders it from selling electric models in the other states. CARB did not immediately comment Stellantis said Wednesday at times it has been limiting shipments of gasoline-powered vehicles to dealers in states that have adopted California's emissions rules and in some cases gas-powered vehicles were only shipped to those states for sold orders, once a customer ordered such vehicle. Stellantis has also at times limited sales of plug-in EVs to states adopting California rules and only shipped sold order vehicles to other states. In May, CARB asked the Environmental Protection Agency for approval for it rules adopted in August 2022 that would allow the state to ban the sale of gasoline-only powered vehicles by 2035 and require at least 80% electric-only models by then. The EPA has not yet opened the request for public comment. In June, Reuters reported Stellantis paid a record $235.5 million for the 2018 and 2019 model years for not meeting U.S. fuel economy requirements. https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/stellantis-seeks-void-california-emissions-deal-with-rival-automakers-2023-12-06/
2023-12-06 22:09
MEXICO CITY, Dec 6 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Wednesday that bond markets anticipating the Federal Reserve rate moves can be a "helpful complement" to monetary policy if participants are thoughtful about interpreting incoming data. Yellen, speaking to reporters on a trip to Mexico, declined to comment when asked if bond markets were premature in anticipating Fed rate cuts. But she said that market anticipation of Fed decisions was part of the policy-making mix. "The Fed obviously wants to create financial conditions that are consistent with bringing inflation down and the markets anticipate future fed moves based on their reading of incoming data," Yellen said. "If markets are thoughtful when reading the data, it can be helpful as a complement to monetary policy." Bond yields fell further on Wednesday as private payrolls data showed further cooling in the labor market ahead of Labor Department jobs data expected on Friday. Yellen repeated her view that a "soft landing" scenario for the U.S. economy, with slowing growth and lower inflation, was on track. "Of course, there are risks around that," Yellen said. "And I can't rule out the possibility that slowing could be more than is desirable. But I think I'm feeling really good about the economic outlook." https://www.reuters.com/markets/yellen-says-markets-anticipating-fed-moves-can-be-helpful-complement-monetary-2023-12-06/
2023-12-06 21:59
COPENHAGEN, Dec 6 (Reuters) - PensionDanmark, one of Denmark's largest pension funds, said on Wednesday it had decided to sell its holdings in Tesla (TSLA.O) over the U.S. auto company's refusal to enter into agreements with labour unions. The decision is part of a growing Nordic movement to force Tesla to sign collective bargaining agreements with Swedish mechanics, who have been on strike since October. Labour unions in Norway and Denmark this week said they would start blocking transit shipments of Tesla cars meant for the Swedish market. Tesla has a policy of not agreeing to collective bargaining and says its employees have as good or better terms than those the Swedish union is demanding. "In the light of the conflict now spreading to Denmark as well as Tesla's recent very categorical refusal to enter a labour union agreement in any country, we have come to the conclusion that we as investors at present hardly can influence the company," the pension fund said in an emailed statement. "That is why we're now putting Tesla on our exclusion list," it said. PensionDanmark, which manages pensions for 823,000 Danes, has 317.3 billion Danish crowns ($45.81 billion) under asset management. The fund did not say how big its holdings in Tesla are. ($1 = 6.9268 Danish crowns) https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/danish-pension-fund-sell-its-tesla-shares-over-union-dispute-2023-12-06/
2023-12-06 21:58
HOUSTON, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA has assigned loading windows this month to two vessels bound for India under crude spot deals with Italy's ENI (ENI.MI) and U.S.-based Chevron , an internal company document showed. Indian refiners including Reliance Industries (RELI.NS), Indian Oil Corp (IOC.NS) and HPCL-Mittal Energy (HMEL) have been looking for Venezuelan crude cargoes to buy since Washington eased oil sanctions on the South American country in October. Some refiners have agreed to purchase deals with trading houses that had early access to Venezuelan oil between October and November, while others are set to buy from PDVSA's joint venture partners. The scheduled deliveries to India are the first authorized by PDVSA through oil majors' Eni and Chevron in three years. The two vessels to load for India are the Liberia-flagged supertanker C. Earnest, which arrived in Venezuelan waters on Wednesday chartered by Reliance, and the Malta-flagged supertanker Desimi, which has been waiting to load since last week, according to the document and ship tracking data. Each can transport up to 2 million barrels of Venezuela's prized heavy crude oil. A separate crude cargo on the very large crude carrier Eucaly, sold by PDVSA to intermediary Hangzhou Energy, finished loading last week and could also set sail to India if a deal through a trading firm and an Indian refiner is confirmed. The cargo had initially been allocated for Malaysia, another document showed. Venezuelan oil sales to India got suspended in 2020 when the U.S. imposed secondary sanctions on the nation. Reliance was PDVSA's second largest individual customer prior to sanctions. Taking cargoes from Venezuela largely depends on the buyers' ability to charter tankers that agree to load at Venezuelan ports, where delays and quality issues are common, and their willingness to pay upfront, as demanded by PDVSA. Venezuela's oil exports to China, its primary destination for exports, averaged some 338,000 barrels per day (bpd) last month, while shipments to the United States averaged 144,000 bpd, according to the documents and data. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/venezuelas-pdvsa-authorizes-first-two-oil-cargoes-india-after-sanctions-relief-2023-12-06/
