2024-08-06 10:11

MUMBAI, Aug 6 (Reuters) - The Indian rupee fell on Tuesday and closed at its weakest level on record, pressured by a decline in its Asian peers and strong dollar demand in the non-deliverable forwards market, traders said. The rupee hit an all-time low of 83.96 per U.S. dollar before closing at 83.9525, down 0.1% from its close of 83.8450 in the previous session. Concerns about a U.S. economic slowdown and the unwinding of carry trades that used the Chinese yuan to fund long bets on the rupee have pressured the local currency this week. But the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) interventions across the non-deliverable forwards (NDF), spot over-the-counter (OTC) and futures market have kept volatility in check, traders said. State-run banks intermittently sold dollars during Tuesday's session, likely on behalf of the RBI, which helped cap the rupee's weakness, a foreign exchange trader at a private bank said. The dollar index was up 0.2% at 103.1, while most Asian currencies weakened, led by the Malaysian ringgit's over 1% drop. Meanwhile, dollar-rupee forward premiums eased slightly but managed to hold on to much of their gains from a climb to a 14-month high on Monday. A rise in corporate hedging demand, arbitrage between onshore and NDFs, and a broad decline in U.S. yields have helped lift far forward premiums in recent sessions, traders said. Treasury yields pared their losses after economic data and remarks from Fed officials helped soothe concerns about a U.S. slowdown. The 10-year U.S. bond yield was last up 6 basis points at 3.84%. "Barring a U.S. CPI surprise next week, the USD rate appeal appears compromised and we expect a softer dollar against pro-cyclical FX after the dust has settled," ING Bank said in a note. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/rupee-ends-record-closing-low-due-weakness-asia-fx-2024-08-06/

2024-08-06 09:50

LONDON, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Britain will gather price data from over 1 billion units of grocery sales each month from supermarket scanners when it introduces a new system for measuring inflation in the sector next year, the country's statistics agency said on Tuesday. The Office for National Statistics, which is modernising the way it gets information on the economy, said the move in March 2025 represented the biggest update so far of its inflation data gathering, covering 50% of the grocery market. Currently, ONS price collectors go into shops to gather 25,000 prices per month but the new system will cover approximately 300 million price points derived from sales of over a billion units of products per month, the agency said. The new system will improve the breadth of products covered by the ONS, gather prices across the entire month rather than on a specific day and tell the ONS about quantities sold, capturing changes in consumer behaviour in response to price changes. Last year, the agency began using a new source of digital data covering all consumer train fares and this year it increased the number of price points for second-hand cars from 105 to 300,000 per month. The ONS will continue to use price collectors to measure how prices have changed in smaller grocery shops and other outlets. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk-targets-1-billion-grocery-products-month-inflation-overhaul-2024-08-06/

2024-08-06 07:26

Aug 6 (Reuters) - Global staffing firm Adecco (ADEN.S) , opens new tab said on Tuesday that falling hiring volumes in the U.S. tech sector had probably hit a trough, a day after investor concerns triggered a massive rout on the markets. "We believe that at this moment we probably have a trough," Adecco's CEO Denis Machuel told Reuters. "But let's be clear, we haven't seen an inflection yet." A massive selloff in the tech stocks shook the markets on Monday due to fears of a global recession after weak U.S. data, coupled with political uncertainty all over the world. "We don't think it's going to get any worse," Machuel added, referring to the U.S. tech sector hiring volumes. The Swiss group's boss also reiterated that tech consultancy unit Akkodis remained at the core of Adecco's strategy. Bloomberg had reported , opens new tab in early July that Adecco was considering selling Akkodis, which generates about 16% of its sales. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/adecco-ceo-says-us-tech-hiring-has-likely-bottomed-out-no-upturn-yet-2024-08-06/

2024-08-06 07:22

TOKYO, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Japanese city gas provider Osaka Gas (9532.T) , opens new tab said on Tuesday it has signed a long-term Heads of Agreement (HOA) with UAE's ADNOC (ADNOC.UL) for the delivery of up to 0.8 million metric tons per annum of liquefied natural gas (LNG). This marks the first long-term LNG deal between Osaka Gas and ADNOC, the Japanese company said in a statement, adding that the contract is expected to start in the late 2020s. The LNG will be primarily sourced from the Ruwais LNG project, which is under development in Al Ruwais Industrial City, Al Dhafra in Abu Dhabi. The project is expected to start commercial operations in 2028 as the first LNG export facility in the Middle East and North Africa region to run on clean power, the statement said. Under the agreement, LNG cargoes will be shipped to the destination ports of Osaka Gas and its Singapore-based subsidiary, Osaka Gas Energy Supply and Trading (OGEST). Osaka Gas and ADNOC will work together to conclude a detailed sale and purchase agreement in the coming months based on the terms of the HOA, it added. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/osaka-gas-adnoc-sign-initial-agreement-lng-delivery-2024-08-06/

2024-08-06 07:04

BEIJING, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Extreme heat baked megacities on the eastern Chinese seaboard and sharply pushed up demand for power to cool homes and offices, while scorching temperatures in China's interior stoked fears of damage to rice crops. The megacity of Hangzhou, home to 12.5 million people and some of China's largest companies, banned all non-essential outdoor lighting and light shows this week to conserve energy as extreme heat tested power grids, local authorities said. Known for its entrepreneurs and tech giants such as Alibaba (9988.HK) , opens new tab and NetEase (9999.HK) , opens new tab, Hangzhou has sweltered under temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) since Friday as eastern and southern China endure stubbornly high temperatures. In Shanghai, the maximum load, or demand, on its power grid exceeded 40 million kilowatts for the first time on Aug. 2 as heat waves boosted electricity consumption in the city of nearly 25 million people. Shanghai leads the country in power load density, with the city's core Lujiazui area consuming twice the power per square kilometre compared to New York's Manhattan or Tokyo's Ginza district, according to its grid operator. As the maximum load on Hangzhou's own grids clocked new highs, officials said they would implement a "practical" plan to ensure the normal operation of functional lighting in public spaces and safeguard the safety of night-time travel. Chinese meteorologists say the record heat in 2024 has been fuelled by global warming despite the cooling effects of the La Nina weather phenomenon. This year, China was hit by its warmest spring since 1961, followed by the hottest May that was followed by weeks of drought-like conditions in the central farmland region. Maximum daily temperatures of 37 C to 39 C, and even above 40 C, are expected to hit parts of Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Anhui and Zhejiang through Sunday. The heat coincides with the harvest of the early-season rice crop in those provinces, spurring calls for increased irrigation to keep fields cool. Fatalities have been reported in neighbouring South Korea and Japan as powerful summer heat enveloped northeast Asia. China has yet announce if there have been any deaths from the extreme heat. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/chinese-megacity-limits-outdoor-lighting-record-heat-strains-grid-2024-08-06/

2024-08-06 06:56

FRANKFURT, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Germany's Bayer (BAYGn.DE) , opens new tab posted a 16.5% drop in second-quarter adjusted earnings on Tuesday, becoming the latest supplier of agricultural chemicals to be hit by weaker demand due to lower grains prices. Sluggish agriculture markets pose a new headache for CEO Bill Anderson, who has launched a push to speed up decision making and streamline corporate bureaucracy to turn around the embattled industrial group. The group's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), adjusted for one-off items, fell to 2.1 billion euros ($2.3 billion), also dragged lower by negative foreign exchange effects, in line with an average analyst estimate posted on the company's website. Bayer, which had close to 100,000 staff at the end of 2023, said it cut the equivalent of 3,200 full-time jobs during the first six months of this year, marking an acceleration after cutting 1,500 jobs during the first quarter. The CEO has said he would not set specific staff reduction targets but predicted that an ongoing unit-by-unit review would result in significant cutbacks over time. U.S. rival Corteva last week cut full-year forecasts, hurt by lower prices for its crop protection products. BASF, another major competitor, has said herbicide and fungicide sale volumes declined during the April-to-June quarter, normally a key earnings-generating season for the industry. A decline in agricultural commodity prices has forced many farmers to rein in their spending on crop chemicals. Bayer confirmed its previous full-year earnings guidance. Anderson said in March he would hold off for up to three years on previous preparations to break apart the German maker of pharmaceuticals, crop protection products and consumer health remedies. His focus is instead on changing Bayer's management structure as well as on cutting debt and dealing with a massive wave of U.S. product liability lawsuits. Anderson, who became CEO in June 2023, has had a tumultuous start in the job marked by falling share prices and efforts to end the litigation about an alleged cancer-causing effect of weedkiller glyphosate. The group also suffered a major setback in drug development late last year. The CEO, however, clearly won a confidence vote at his first annual general meeting for Bayer in April. Earlier in the year, top-five shareholder Harris Associates came out in strong support for the CEO's course. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/bayer-q2-operating-profit-dragged-lower-by-weak-agriculture-markets-2024-08-06/