2024-07-25 22:26

SAO PAULO, July 25 (Reuters) - Brazilian miner Vale (VALE3.SA) , opens new tab, one of the world's largest iron ore producers, said on Thursday its second-quarter net profit soared to $2.77 billion, triple the year-earlier period and above analyst estimates as sales jumped. Analysts polled by LSEG were expecting a $1.70 billion net profit. The result was also 65% higher than in the first quarter, when net profit totaled $1.68 billion. In addition to higher iron ore sales, Vale said net profit had a positive impact of $1.05 billion resulting from the divestment of PT Vale Indonesia that concluded in June. Analysts said it accounted in part for the better-than-expected earnings. The company's adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) totaled $3.99 billion in the April-June period, slightly below an analyst estimate of $4.06 billion. Net operating revenue rose 3% to $9.9 billion. Vale said its shipments in iron ore, its biggest segment, increased 7% from the year before. The result led the company to maintain its goal of reaching the higher end of its production target for 2024 at 320 million tons. Even so, higher freight costs and maintenance work impacted proforma EBTIDA, which was 6% lower than the second quarter last year, Vale said. The average realized price for iron ore fines in the second quarter was $98.2 per ton, about flat compared with the year before. The expanded net debt fell slightly from the first quarter of the year to reach $14.7 billion, due mostly to the proceeds from the joint venture begun in April with Manara Minerals. The amount is within Vale's target range of $10 billion to $20 billion. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/brazils-vale-net-profit-more-than-triples-q2-277-bln-2024-07-25/

2024-07-25 22:25

TEAHUPO'O, Tahiti, July 25 (Reuters) - Surfing in the Paris Games is likely to kick off in excellent waves at the perfect reef break of Teahupo'o on Saturday, the head of the governing body said, vindicating the decision to hold the event in Tahiti, a record 16,000km from the host city. Holding an event away from the continent where the main Games were held happened only once in the history of the modern Olympics - in 1956, when the equestrian events for the Melbourne Games were held in Sweden because of quarantine regulations. "So we were paddling for a wave we didn't know would come," International Surfing Association president Fernando Aguerre said. "We didn't know if the IOC would have the stomach for that. But we reviewed a lot of the options for that and it was clear that staying in European France meant a disaster, probably a disaster, for the waves." The forecast for Teahupo'o over the waiting period from July 27-Aug 5 includes days expected to be double over-head height, and good conditions, while the beaches around top French surf zone of Hossegor are likely to have mostly poor or fair conditions with wave heights in the chest to head-high range, according to official forecaster Surfline.com. Beaches closer to Paris in Brittany are expected to be mostly flat to a couple of feet high. "The IOC and the Olympic Committee understood the challenge of having OBS (Olympic Broadcasting Services) operating here as opposed to a beach near Paris but I am totally positive that the rewards will be huge. "We know Saturday and Sunday are going to be amazing for waves. Not big and scary Teahupo'o, but very nice, high quality so we are going to see some great performances." Surfing will made its third Olympic appearance in Los Angeles in 2028 and Aguerre said a decision for the venue there was coming down to Huntington Beach or Trestles, near San Clemente. "But I won't second guess the organisers and we've been kind of evaluating the pros and cons of each of them and they're both amazing. So it will be in a good place." Aguerre said a decision not to include surfing in the LA Paralympics was disappointing but understandable. read more "I understand the dynamics... The costs of having different multiple events, multiple medals because of the nature of para sports. "I was actually a parasurfing national championships in Argentina when the news came out and I said 'It's ok, we had a wipeout, so what? We get on the board, paddle back out, there is a new wave coming.' So I think it's the right thing." Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/sports/olympics/surfing-good-waves-expected-kick-off-tahiti-surfing-isa-head-says-2024-07-25/

2024-07-25 22:08

July 25 (Reuters) - Energy major Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) , opens new tab said on Thursday it has entered into a carbon capture and storage (CCS) agreement with ammonia producer CF Industries (CF.N) , opens new tab. Carbon capture is a process through which carbon dioxide (CO2) generated from industrial activity is stored underground. The process has been embraced by oil companies including Chevron (CVX.N) , opens new tab, Occidental Petroleum (OXY.N) , opens new tab and Talos Energy (TALO.N) , opens new tab. Exxon will transport and store up to 500,000 metric tons per year of the captured CO2 from CF Industries' complex in Yazoo City, Mississippi, which makes nitrogen products for agricultural fertilizer. The project will enable CF Industries to reduce the site's CO2 emissions by up to about 50% and is expected to start in 2028, Exxon said in a statement. The agreement marks Exxon's fourth CCS project and the second with CF. Last year, it signed a CCS agreement with Nucor. In March, Exxon and Shell said they would work with Singapore to develop a cross-border CCS project. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/exxon-mobil-cf-industries-sign-carbon-capture-storage-deal-2024-07-25/

2024-07-25 21:50

July 26 (Reuters) - - A look at the day ahead in Asian markets by Alden Bentley in New York. U.S. stock markets tried to steady from their epic one-day shakeout before giving it up late in the day, amid jitters about AI earnings potential that deflated megacaps, and, thus, the whole market on Wednesday. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq rallied during the session, but closed down 0.5% and 0.9% respectively. The Dow Jones Industrial Average hung on to close 0.2% higher and small-cap stocks also rose as investors sought out value away from the megacaps. Tesla (TSLA.O) , opens new tab was the only one of the so-called Magnificent 7 stocks to climb out of its hole, ending 1.7% higher after losing more than 12% Wednesday. Alphabet (GOOGL.O) , opens new tab, Apple (AAPL.O) , opens new tab, Amazon (AMZN.O) , opens new tab, Meta (META.O) , opens new tab and Microsoft (MSFT.O) , opens new tab all fell, with earnings reports looming next week, as did AI leader Nvidia, which reports later in August. Some relief came from GDP data showing the U.S. economy grew surprisingly fast in the second quarter, with less inflation, giving the Fed scope to ease this year with little fear of overheating. Still, investors want to see what Friday's June Personal Consumption Expenditure Price Index shows as the Fed's favorite inflation reading, days before the Federal Open Market Committee meeting next week. There seems little chance of a U.S. cut this month, but markets are confident that a pivot away from restrictive monetary policy will come in September. The question: Is the selloff a bull market pullback or a bearish turning point? Given the recent string of record highs, indexes looked priced for perfection, which was not realized in the results from Alphabet and Tesla that precipitated the steepest percentage drop in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq since late 2022. Uncertainty is a prominent theme ahead of the U.S. elections after President Joe Biden scrubbed his campaign and handed the baton to Vice President Kamala Harris, who has almost pulled even in early polls with Republican Donald Trump. Volatility has picked up across markets, according to the CBOE Market Volatility Index (.VIX) , opens new tab, the bond market's ICE BofA Merrill Lynch MOVE Index (.MOVE) , opens new tab and currency market's Deutschebank dollar currency vol index (.DBCVIX) , opens new tab. It doesn't help that the Bank of Japan and the Fed hold meetings almost simultaneously next week. China's economy is slowing faster than economists and Beijing anticipated, with spillover into commodity markets and across Asia. The Japanese yen rallied for a fourth straight session against the dollar on Thursday, hitting a 2-1/2-month high, as investors unwound their long-running bets against the currency ahead of those meetings. Dollar/yen was at 153.845 in late trade, just about flat. Chinese stocks fell , iron ore and oil prices were shaky after the country's central bank sprang a surprise cut in longer-term interest rates, only stoking further worries about the world's second-largest economy and Asian markets overall. The Shanghai Composite index (.SSEC) , opens new tab closed at the lowest level since Feb. 19. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) , opens new tab closed 1.00% lower, while Japan's Nikkei (.N225) , opens new tab is coming off a 3.28% tumble. "In China it's not really a function of the cost of capital, it's a function of demand (for) capital which is causing economic weakness over there, which is why you had a really tepid response from Chinese equities," said Jeff Schulze, Head of economic and market strategy ClearBridge Investments. Here are key developments that could provide more direction to markets on Tuesday: - Japan Tokyo CPI (July) - Singapore Manufacturing output (June) - U.S. Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index (June) Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/asia/global-markets-view-asia-graphics-2024-07-25/

2024-07-25 21:45

July 25 (Reuters) - OpenAI is venturing into a territory long dominated by Google with the selective launch of SearchGPT, an artificial intelligence-powered search engine with real-time access to information from the internet. The move, announced on Thursday, also places the AI giant in competition with its largest backer Microsoft's (MSFT.O) , opens new tab Bing search and emerging services such as Perplexity — a search-focused AI chatbot firm backed by Amazon (AMZN.O) , opens new tab founder Jeff Bezos and semiconductor giant Nvidia (NVDA.O) , opens new tab. Shares of Google's parent company Alphabet (GOOGL.O) , opens new tab ended 3% lower on Thursday after OpenAI's announcement. OpenAI said it has opened sign-ups for the new tool, which is currently in the prototype stage and is being tested with a small group of users and publishers. The company plans to integrate the best features from the search tool into ChatGPT in the future. "AI-powered search tools from OpenAI and Perplexity re-affirm search as a content engagement model but pressure Google to be better at its own game," Canaccord Genuity analyst Kingsley Crane said. Google dominates the search engine market with a 91.1% share as of June, according to web analytics firm Statcounter. SearchGPT will provide summarized search results with source links in response to user queries, OpenAI said in a blog post. Users will also be able to ask follow-up questions and receive contextual responses. The company will give publishers access to tools for managing how their content appears in SearchGPT results. News Corp (NWSA.O) , opens new tab and The Atlantic are publishing partners for SearchGPT. SearchGPT signals a closer collaboration between publishers and OpenAI, following content licensing agreements with major organizations like Associated Press, News Corp and Axel Springer. "Newer AI-powered search providers could face challenges of their own, with Perplexity already facing pending legal action from publishers like Wired and Forbes, and Condé Nast," said Crane. Major search engines have been trying to integrate AI into search since ChatGPT first launched in November 2022. Microsoft, through its early investment, adopted OpenAI technology for its Bing search engine, while Google rolled out AI-powered summaries for the wider public at its developer conference in May. Google did not respond to a Reuters query on the potential impact of SearchGPT on its business. Reuters had earlier reported on OpenAI's plans around AI search in May. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/openai-announces-ai-powered-search-tool-searchgpt-2024-07-25/

2024-07-25 21:41

SANTIAGO, July 25 (Reuters) - Twelve companies including global miner Rio Tinto (RIO.L) , opens new tab and Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD (002594.SZ) , opens new tab have submitted proposals to extract lithium in Chile's Altoandinos salt flats, the state mining company ENAMI said on Thursday. The salt flats in the northern region of Atacama are one of the areas where the Chilean government is aiming to boost lithium production in partnership with the state by kicking off new projects. ENAMI launched its search in May, seeking a partner to offer either financial backing or operational support in Altoandinos, for an ownership stake that has yet to be determined. In addition to Rio Tinto and BYD, the applicants included publicly listed miner Eramet (ERMT.PA) , opens new tab of France, battery maker LG Energy Solution (373220.KS) , opens new tab of South Korea, steel company Posco (005490.KS) , opens new tab also from South Korea, and Chilean construction group Belsaco (BESALCO.SN) , opens new tab. The others were Argentina's Tecpetrol, Russia's Axionit, Canada's Summit Nanotech, Chile's Grupo Errazuriz, and from China, CNRG and a consortium known as BTR. Chile is the world's second largest producer of lithium, a key material for most batteries that power electric vehicles. ENAMI will announce on Aug. 19 which companies meet the eligibility requirements, before moving into negotiations with the final round of applicants. "This confirms the commitment of these companies to proceed in a public-private partnership to make this project happen," ENAMI chief Ivan Mlynarz said in a statement. ENAMI, which processes copper for local mining companies, has been tasked with spearheading the government's maiden ventures into lithium alongside state mining giant Codelco, which is also seeking a partner in the Maricunga salt flat. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/chile-sees-interest-rio-tinto-lg-byd-others-altoandinos-lithium-site-2024-07-25/