2023-12-05 11:35

Dec 5 (Reuters) - Six of the world's largest dairy companies will soon begin disclosing their methane emissions as part of a new global alliance launched at the United Nations climate summit in Dubai on Tuesday. Livestock is responsible for about 30% of global anthropogenic methane emissions, from sources like manure and cow burps, according to the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization. Advocacy groups have said that tackling livestock methane should be a major priority at this year's COP28 summit. The five members of the Dairy Methane Action Alliance - Danone (DANO.PA), Bel Group, General Mills (GIS.N), Lactalis USA, Kraft Heinz (KHC.O) and Nestle (NESN.S) - will begin reporting their methane emissions by mid-2024 and will write methane action plans by the end of that year. Methane is nearly 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, making it a major focus of attempts to curb global warming. Reducing dairy methane emissions means providing both technical and financial support to farmers around the world to experiment with possible solutions, like feed additives, said Chris Adamo, vice president of government and public affairs at Danone, on a call with reporters. "There’s not one silver bullet. We have to look at this full spectrum of different options for farms across different geographies," he said. Danone this year pledged to cut methane emissions from its fresh milk supply chain by 30% by 2030. Cutting human-caused methane by 45% this decade would keep global warming under 2 degrees Celsius, according to a 2021 assessment by the Climate & Clean Air Coalition and the United Nations Environment Programme. Companies involved in the new alliance do not need to pledge to reduce their methane emissions by a specific amount, but stronger measurement and reporting are key tools for the companies to eventually reduce their emissions, said Katie Anderson, senior director of the Environmental Defense Fund's business-sector food and forest program, on the press call. "This is driving more accountability," Anderson said. EDF is convening the alliance. Globally, food production accounts for about a third of global greenhouse gas emissions. Leaders of this year's COP have pledged the summit will include action on food sector emissions. ___ For daily comprehensive coverage on COP28 in your inbox, sign up for the Reuters Sustainable Switch newsletter here. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/global-dairy-companies-announce-alliance-cut-methane-cop28-2023-12-05/

2023-12-05 11:24

WASHINGTON, Dec 5 (Reuters) - The cryptocurrency industry was on track to hit a new record for federal lobbying spending, after a year in which firms scrambled to repair their reputations and advance friendly legislation, according to data provided to Reuters by nonprofit research group OpenSecrets. Crypto companies spent $18.96 million in the first three quarters of 2023 on lobbying, compared with $16.1 million during the same period in 2022. That was despite last year's spectacular meltdown of crypto exchange FTX, which had been a top-ten spender. Last year, companies including FTX spent nearly $22 million on lobbying in total. Coinbase (COIN.O), the largest U.S. crypto exchange, led the pack again, spending $2.16 million, followed by Foris DAX, which operates Crypto.com, the Blockchain Association and Binance Holdings. “Our goal is to engage directly with policymakers, build relationships and bridge the education gap to build a commonsense regulatory framework," said Kristin Smith, CEO of the Blockchain Association, in a statement. Crypto companies have been expanding in Washington, in part to try to mend their reputations following a string of scandals last year, including the collapse of FTX, whose former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried had been a familiar presence in Washington. He was found guilty of fraud last month by a jury in a Manhattan federal court. Crypto firms have also been trying to combat growing regulatory scrutiny, especially from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission which says the industry has been flouting its rules. Lobbying escalated after the SEC sued Coinbase and Binance in June for allegedly failing to register tokens, claims they deny. The industry has also been pushing the SEC to approve a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), which would open up the world's largest cryptocurrency to millions more investors. Optimism that the agency will green-light the product after losing to a key court on the matter in the summer helped drive bitcoin to a 20-month high on Monday. Crypto companies have also been trying to advance friendly legislation in the House of Representatives and scored a victory in July when a congressional committee in that chamber passed two major bills that lobbyists say would help provide clarity over which existing financial rules apply to crypto companies. Although those bills have yet to advance further, crypto lobbyists are not letting up. Coinbase, which in September launched a grassroots advocacy campaign, is continuing its push with more lawmaker meetings in coming weeks, a spokesperson said. Binance and Crypto.com did not respond to requests for comment. https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/us-crypto-industry-lobby-spending-track-new-record-2023-2023-12-05/

2023-12-05 11:23

LONDON, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Indian businessman Prateek Gupta asked a London judge on Tuesday to lift a freezing order on his personal and business assets because he said commodity trader Trafigura failed to disclose full information when it demanded the freeze. Geneva-based Trafigura filed a lawsuit against Gupta in February, alleging seven trading companies that Trafigura said are controlled by him carried out "systematic fraud" over nickel cargoes. At issue is who is responsible for substituting other, less valuable, materials for nickel. A lawyer representing Gupta told Justice Robert Bright that the freezing order that was imposed in February was equivalent to a nuclear weapon in a war. "The consequences were devastating," he said. Trafigura's metals division booked a $590 million impairment in its October-March financial results due to the alleged nickel fraud. In July, Gupta's lawyers rejected Trafigura's allegations of fraud, saying Trafigura employees proposed that Gupta ship other materials such as alloy or scrap instead of high-grade nickel. Since then, Gupta has filed more documents including details that he alleges Trafigura failed to tell the court. "That application should be granted because of ... serious failures to comply with their (Trafigura's) duty of full and frank disclosure," Gupta's lawyers said in a document prepared for Tuesday's hearing. Trafigura rejected the allegations, saying in a court document: "None of the documentation to which the Gupta Ds (defendants) refer would have made any material difference." Trafigura said it appeared Gupta was submitting additional evidence to pressure the commodity trader to back off. In court papers submitted previously, Trafigura had said it began to suspect in October last year that around 25,000 metric tons of metal sold by Gupta's firms may not be high-grade nickel, and started inspecting more than 1,000 shipping containers. Trafigura told a judge who imposed the freezing order that some of the first containers inspected were found to contain carbon steel, worth a fraction of the price of nickel. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/gupta-asks-court-lift-freezing-order-trafigura-nickel-fraud-case-2023-12-05/

2023-12-05 11:04

A look at the day ahead in U.S. and global markets from Mike Dolan As the S&P500 (.SPX) stalled on Monday at its high for the year, taking a breather from last week's 'peak rates' rally, smaller U.S. stocks picked up the baton and are playing catchup into the yearend. Global stock markets were off somewhat again on Tuesday, with Moody's decision to cut the outlook for China's sovereign credit rating on Tuesday adding even more pressure to the year's alarming market underperformance (.CSI300) there and clocking a five-year closing low for its benchmark stock index. Monday proved to be a step back for the main U.S. stock indices (.SPX) and bond markets as they consolidated last week's surge on hopes the Federal Reserve is finally done tightening and ready to ease in 2024. But while some suspect the rates market ebullience may have jumped the gun - and two Fed cuts by June are still more than fully priced - the emphasis merely shifted to small caps that have underperformed all year due to a disproportionate hit from higher borrowing costs. As the S&P500 fell back about 0.5% from Friday's 2023 closing peak, the Russell 2000 (.RUT) raced 1% higher to its highest in three months - and is now clocking annual gains of close to 7%. While that's still less than half the main benchmark, a late year rotation in search of value seems to be on - with the year's megacap tech winners scaling back a bit. The New York FANG+TM index (.NYFANG) of tech and digital giants has now fallen back for four sessions in a row, shaving about 3% off its peaks since the start of the month but still sustaining eye-popping 82% year-to-date gains. The likes of Microsoft (MSFT.O), Apple (AAPL.O), Nvidia (NVDA.O) and Amazon (AMZN.O) fell back over 1%, pressured by a modest bounceback in U.S. Treasury yields. And despite some concerns in Treasuries about a heavy investment grade corporate bond sale diary this week, yields fell back again ahead of Tuesday's bell as attention turned to this week's series of critical U.S. jobs market updates. October job openings are reported later in the day, before a private sector hiring update for November tomorrow, weekly jobless on Thursday and the national payrolls report Friday. Oil prices hovered just above 5-month lows, with global demand concerns outweighing some output cuts.# And demand worries are front and centre for the world's second biggest economy. China's blue-chip stocks slumped to their lowest since February 2019 amid fears of a possible cut to China's sovereign credit rating cut after Moody's outlook reduction. Moody's said the downgrade reflected growing evidence that authorities will have to provide more financial support for debt-laden local governments and state firms, posing broad risks to China's fiscal, economic and institutional strength. "The outlook change also reflects the increased risks related to structurally and persistently lower medium-term economic growth and the ongoing downsizing of the property sector," Moody's said. The yuan weakened slightly against a broadly softer dollar (.DXY) The ratings news overshadowed a private-sector survey that China's services activity expanded at a quicker pace in November - confusing a picture where official surveys show the sector contracting for the first time since December. Elsewhere, the Reserve Bank of Australia held interest rates steady as expected - buying it more time to assess the state of the economy and decide whether to tighten further next year even as the U.S. and Europe are expected to ease. The Aussie dollar fell back. In Europe, hawkish European Central Bank board member Isabel Schnabel told Reuters the ECB can take further interest rate hikes off the table given a "remarkable" fall in inflation. Deep annual producer price deflation eased somewhat last month. And Barclays (BARC.L) shares opened 4.5% lower, eventually paring some of the losses, after one of its largest shareholders Qatar Holding moved to sell around 510 million pound ($644 million) of its stock. U.S. stock futures were marginally in the red before Tuesday's open. Key developments that should provide more direction to U.S. markets later on Tuesday: * U.S. Oct JOLTS data on job openings, U.S. Nov S&P Global service sector survey * Federal Reserve Division of Supervision and Regulation Director Michael Gibson testifies to Congress on Financial Innovation. European Central Bank President Christine Laggard speaks * U.S. Treasury auctions 3-, 6-month bills * U.S. corporate earnings: JAM Smacker, Auto zone, Descartes Systems, Health, Apportionment, Rent the Runway, Mongo, Stitch Fix, Powell Industries, Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Patronymics, G-III Apparel. Zero Fox, D Market Electronics Lands End, America's CAR-MART. https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/global-markets-view-usa-2023-12-05/

2023-12-05 11:00

LONDON, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Barclays (BARC.L) shares fell in early trading on Tuesday after one of the bank's largest shareholders Qatar Holding moved to sell around 510 million pounds ($644 million) of its stock, cutting back on its crisis-era investment in the bank. The sale was set to price at 141 pence per share as of last night, which was a discount of about 1.4% to Barclays' closing share price on Monday, one of the banks acting on the deal said. Reuters could not immediately establish the percentage size of the stake sold. Barclays declined to comment. Qatar Investment Authority, the state sovereign wealth fund which owns Qatar Holding, did not respond to a request for comment. The share sale comes as Barclays embarks on a shake-up to cut costs and revive its share price, which has halved since Qatar first invested in 2008. It owned nearly 7% of Barclays in 2012. Barclays' stock fell as much as 4.5% in early trading and was last down 2.5% at 1007 GMT. Investors are parsing what the Qatari move means for Barclays CEO C. S. Venkatakrishnan and his executive team, just weeks before they are expected to unveil a new strategy to restore the bank's flagging fortunes. One institutional shareholder in Barclays told Reuters that the timing looked odd ahead of the bank's strategy update in February, but cautioned that investors often trade for reasons not necessarily related to the underlying performance of the stock in question. Qatar became Barclays' largest shareholder during the 2008 financial crisis when it injected 4 billion pounds into the UK bank in a deal that helped avert a taxpayer bailout. Britain's financial watchdog later fined Barclays $55 million for fees paid to Qatari entities in the 2008 fundraising, which Barclays said it would appeal. Under CEO Vekatakrishnan, Barclays this year began working on plans to save as much as 1 billion pounds, which could involve cutting as many as 2,000 jobs, mainly in its back office, Reuters reported last month. It is also selling its consumer finance unit in Germany and considering selling a stake in its domestic merchant services business, Reuters previously reported. Barclays has also expressed interest in acquiring Tesco's banking business. ($1 = 0.7925 pounds) https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/barclays-shares-open-down-45-after-qatar-cuts-stake-2023-12-05/

2023-12-05 10:50

NEW DELHI, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Two multi-billion-dollar petrochemical plants are coming online in India in coming months at a time of weaker-than-expected demand, setting the stage for fierce price competition domestically and internationally, industry officials and analysts say. Several regions, including India, China and the Middle East have been developing petrochemical production to provide a tailwind to decades of oil refining as the world looks to switch to cleaner energy sources. While producers remain bullish longer term, largely off the back of economic growth in India and China, the splurge in new capacity is weighing on markets near term. Both China and India are grappling with excess supplies of ethylene and propylene, a key feedstock to produce petrochemicals including polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) – the basis for making plastic -- given a slowdown in global economic growth. So fresh production capacity in India is set to add to the pressure on prices. Russia-backed Indian refiner Nayara Energy is commissioning a 450,000 ton per year (tpy) polypropylene plant in western India in the first quarter of 2024, said a company source, who declined to be identified because he was not authorised to speak to the media. The company's communication office did not respond immediately to a request for comment. HPCL plans to start a 9 million tpy refinery and petrochemical project in the northwestern state of Rajasthan by January. Earlier this year, HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd (HMEL), a joint venture between state-run Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL.NS) and Mittal Energy Investment, started a 1.2 million tpy petrochemical cracker in Punjab, northern India. An industry official at a newly commissioned petrochemical cracker said the new production capacity was coming online when stocks were already building. "Products are not clearing at a steady pace locally," he said. He declined to be identified because he was not authorised to speak to the media. India's ethylene surplus is set to more than double to 11.2 million metric tons in the fiscal year to March 2024, a Reuters calculation based on data and forecasts from Chemicals & Petrochemicals Manufacturers' Association showed. A propylene surplus is expected to grow 63% to 18.67 million tons, according to the calculations. The increasing supplies are weighing on both PE and PP prices. Refiners have been suffering losses since September with PE and PP margins at $150 per ton, below breakeven costs of about $300-$350 per ton for standalone plants, an official at a large petrochemical producer said, declining to be identified. CEO of Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd, Navanit Narayan, told Reuters a slower-than-expected recovery in Chinese demand following the COVID pandemic, just as new supplies come into the market, had been a major factor weighing on prices. "While demand remained subdued, several new plants were commissioned in Asia, mainly in China and India," he said. Industry officials said they expected prices to remain subdued in 2024 and there were few export options, given ample supply elsewhere. That may leave markets closer to home, such as Kazakhstan, as the best in a bad set of export options, they said. "A price war is definitely on the anvil," said an official at an Indian petrochemical producer, who declined to be identified in the absence of authorisation to speak to the media. Looking further ahead, research firm Wood Mackenzie sees little prospect of a more balanced global market in coming years. It forecasts ethylene and propylene demand will rise 29% to 426.8 million tons by 2030 from 2023 levels, while production capacity is expected to increase 25% to 485.9 million tons, leaving a supply surplus of around 60 million tons. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/new-indian-petrochemical-supplies-weigh-markets-2023-12-05/