2024-07-23 10:05

WASHINGTON, July 23 (Reuters) - A potential Democratic administration led by Vice President Kamala Harris would likely advance President Joe Biden's agenda of tough financial rules, an unwelcome prospect for Wall Street banks, crypto companies and other players that have chafed under the current administration. Harris is the frontrunner to win the Democratic nomination after Biden exited the presidential race on Sunday and endorsed her. While Harris has had a low profile when it comes to the administration's financial policies, her track record taking on Wall Street banks and voting against deregulation suggests she would continue with Biden's ambitious agenda, said analysts. The Biden administration agenda has included both adopted and proposed rules cracking down on bank fees, non-bank lenders and medical debt providers, requiring more transparency from hedge funds, as well as hikes in the amount of capital banks must hold and a slew of enforcement actions against major cryptocurrency firms. "Harris is farther to the left than Biden, but the Biden administration has proven to be incredibly progressive, so there shouldn't be much daylight between a second Biden administration and a first Harris administration," Isaac Boltansky, director of policy research at brokerage BTIG, wrote in a note on Monday. A spokesperson for Harris did not immediately provide comment on her potential agenda on financial regulation. Among prominent progressive Democrats who have endorsed Harris is Senator Elizabeth Warren, who has helped shape Biden's financial regulatory agenda and who has not been shy of criticizing fellow Democrats she sees as soft on Wall Street. "We view this as boosting risk for financials and crypto," TD Cowen analyst Jaret Seiberg wrote on Monday of Harris, adding that a second Democratic administration would finalize the Basel capital rules and a requirement that banks hold more long-term debt, and advance limits on overdraft and other fees. To be sure, Harris is not yet the Democratic nominee and the details of financial regulation policy would be overseen by the agency picks. One former administration official noted that while Harris has been tough on banks in the past, she was not as left leaning on financial regulation issues as Warren. Several major Wall Street names plan to support Harris for the Democratic nomination, Semafor reported on Sunday. A source familiar with the matter said that Peter Orszag and Ray McGuire at Lazard would donate to Harris, confirming parts of that report. On Monday, investors unwound some of the so-called Trump-bond market trades that had bet on a Trump victory, "but he’s still the favorite," said Paul Mielczarski, head of macro strategy at Brandywine Global. "WALL STREET GREED" Harris rose to prominence as the attorney general of California, where she took a tough hand with big banks. In 2011, she negotiated hard for banks to commit more cash to help consumers harmed by predatory lending in the lead-up to the 2007-09 financial crisis. In 2016, her office launched a criminal investigation into Wells Fargo's fake accounts scandal. The former administration official praised her work as California's AG and noted that Harris tapped Katie Porter , opens new tab, then a law professor, to oversee that $18 billion bank settlement to help homeowners. Porter later served in Congress where she took on big bank CEOs and called out Trump's deregulation. As a senator, Harris in 2018 sided with Warren and other progressives in voting against a bill rolling back rules introduced following the financial crisis. The Federal Reserve subsequently blamed that change for contributing to last year's failure of Silicon Valley Bank. "Wall Street greed and abuse crashed our economy in 2008. I will fight against any legislation to deregulate the Big Banks," Harris posted on X , opens new tab, then Twitter, as the negotiations heated up. As vice president, Harris last year spearheaded a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) initiative to remove medical debt from consumer credit reports, and in July endorsed a CFPB proposal requiring that mortgage servicers help struggling borrowers. Big banks have loudly criticized the CFPB under its Biden-nominated director Rohit Chopra and have sued the agency to reverse several of its rules. "Given that the CFPB Director serves at the pleasure of the president, a Democrat in the White House will give Director Chopra wide latitude on credit cards, payment companies, BigTech, and everything else under the Bureau's umbrella," BTIG's Boltansky wrote. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/harris-presidency-would-carry-baton-financial-industry-crackdown-2024-07-23/

2024-07-23 10:04

Ether ETFs from major firms trade on Cboe, Nasdaq, and NYSE Follows successful launch of bitcoin products in January Ether ETFs could attract $1 bln monthly inflows, analyst says July 23 (Reuters) - U.S. exchange-traded funds (ETFs) tied to the price of ether enjoyed a strong debut on Tuesday, with $1.07 billion of shares changing hands in the products, according to CF Benchmarks, a digital asset index provider, Bitwise Asset Management and traders. The most actively traded ETFs were Grayscale's Ethereum Trust , with more than $450 million in turnover, the iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA.O) , opens new tab, with about $245 million in trading, and Fidelity Advantage Ether ETF (FETH.Z) , opens new tab, with $137 million, Bitwise said. Products from Franklin Templeton (BEN.N) , opens new tab, VanEck, Bitwise, 21Shares and Invesco/Galaxy (IVZ.N) , opens new tab also began trading on Tuesday. Following the launch of nine U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs in January, the ether products mark another win for the cryptocurrency industry's campaign to push digital assets into the mainstream, although the products are unlikely to garner the same volume of inflows, analysts said. Tuesday's trading volumes fell short of the $4.6 billion traded in the bitcoin ETFs on their January debut. Data on ether ETF inflows will be available as of Wednesday morning. "Although ether ETFs may not attract as much inflow as bitcoin ETFs, they represent an important step in the development of the cryptocurrency market," said Grzegorz Drozdz, market analyst at investment firm Conotoxia Ltd. The price of ether, the world's second-largest cryptocurrency after bitcoin, trended lower on Tuesday, pulling down the prices of the new ETFs, according to CoinGecko, a cryptocurrency data firm. After market close, ether was trading flat at $3,486.75, according to CoinGecko. Market participants see the introduction of the ETFs as significant for the industry's longstanding effort to classify ether as a commodity rather than a security. While the Securities and Exchange Commission has not explicitly said ether is a commodity, the new products are defined in filing documents as commodity-based trusts. The debut enhances the cryptocurrency market's "legitimacy", said Cristiano Ventricelli, senior analyst of digital assets at Moody's Ratings, wrote in a Tuesday report, adding the crypto ETFs would help boost market stability and reduce volatility. The bitcoin ETF launches were the culmination of a decade-long tussle with the SEC, which had rejected the products due to market manipulation concerns. The agency was forced to green-light the ETFs after losing a court challenge brought by digital asset manager Grayscale Investments, although it warned when approving them that the products were still highly risky. The launch was one of the most successful in the ETF market's history with the products attracting $33.1 billion in net inflows as of June, according to Morningstar Direct data. Bitcoin ETF issuers competed hard on fees, with many firms offering to waive fees entirely for a certain period of time. The ether ETF fees range from 0.19% for Franklin Templeton's ether ETF to a high of 2.5% for Grayscale's ether trust, which it is converting into an ETF, according to their public offering documents. The rest cluster around 0.25%. Overall, the fees are comparable to the bitcoin products, although issuers are offering fewer waivers. Grayscale rolled out a "mini" version of its ether ETF with a fee of only 0.15%. While estimates on demand for the ether products vary widely, Galaxy Research - whose research arm Galaxy Asset Management has an ether ETF with Invesco - has projected that they could attract monthly inflows of $1 billion. Matteo Greco, research analyst at Fineqia International, wrote in a note that demand for the ether ETFs will be crucial in ascertaining investor appetite for digital assets beyond bitcoin. A major issue for some investors is the SEC's exclusion of the "staking" mechanism in the ether ETFs, a key feature on the ethereum blockchain that allows users to lock up their tokens for a certain period of time in exchange for yield. As currently constructed, the SEC will only allow the ETFs to hold regular, unstaked ether. Issuers began filing for the ether ETFs in September. Executives initially had low hopes that the SEC would approve the products, but the agency surprised the industry in May when it approved the first rule changes needed. SEC Chair Gary Gensler last month told Reuters the Grayscale ruling had influenced his thinking on approving the ether products, because the underlying market circumstances were similar. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/technology/us-spot-ether-etfs-set-make-market-debut-another-win-crypto-industry-2024-07-23/

2024-07-23 07:44

FTSE 100 down 0.3%, FTSE 250 up 0.1% Copper miners hit over three-month low Compass Group raises profit and revenue forecasts; shares gain July 23 (Reuters) - London's FTSE 100 inched down on Tuesday as copper miners weighed heavily on the market, tracking lower copper prices, while positive updates from companies helped contain declines. The blue-chip FTSE 100 index (.FTSE) , opens new tab was down 0.3%, after logging its best session in more than a week on Monday. The mid-cap FTSE 250 (.FTMC) , opens new tab was up 0.1% as of 0719 GMT. Industrial metal miners (.FTNMX551020) , opens new tab led declines with a 1.7% loss. Heavyweights like Rio Tinto (RIO.L) , opens new tab and Glencore (GLEN.L) , opens new tab slipped over 1% each as copper prices were pressured by growing concerns over prolonged weakness in Chinese demand after the country's latest policy announcements disappointed investors. The sector hit its lowest level since early April. Automobile and parts stocks (.FTNMX401010) , opens new tab also fell 1.6%, with Dowlais Group (DWL.L) , opens new tab, TI Fluid Systems (TIFS.L) , opens new tab and Aston Martin (AML.L) , opens new tab falling over 1% each, after German automaker Porsche AG (P911_p.DE) , opens new tab cut its sales and profitability outlook. Energy (.FTNMX601010) , opens new tab and precious metal miners (.FTNMX551030) , opens new tab also slipped 0.5% and 0.6%, respectively. Investor focus is on Wall Street giants like Alphabet (GOOGL.O) , opens new tab and Tesla (TSLA.O) , opens new tab that will report quarterly earnings after the closing bell on Tuesday. U.S. gross domestic product numbers and inflation data, due later this week, could shed more light on the Federal Reserve's monetary policy path. Politics continued to make headlines in the U.S. after Vice President Kamala Harris secured support from delegates needed to become the Democrat nominee after President Joe Biden abandoned his reelection bid. Meanwhile in London, SThree Plc (STEMS.L) , opens new tab jumped 3.5% after announcing its half-yearly results. Compass (CPG.L) , opens new tab gained 3.2% after the catering group raised its 2024 profit and revenue forecasts for the second time this year despite easing prices. Beazley (BEZG.L) , opens new tab rose 2.2% after the insurer said it had no plans to alter its guidance in the wake of Friday's global IT glitch. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/londons-ftse-100-falls-copper-miners-automobile-stocks-weigh-2024-07-23/

2024-07-23 07:37

July 23 (Reuters) - European shares opened subdued on Tuesday, as metal miners partially offset a technology-related rally fuelled by robust earnings from SAP and Logitech. The pan-European STOXX 600 index (.STOXX) , opens new tab was flat at 514.9 points, as of 0715 GMT, after posting its best day in more than a month on Monday. Earnings updates grabbed investor attention, with SAP (SAPG.DE) , opens new tab jumping 6.2% after Europe's largest software maker reported a 25% jump in its cloud business and beat analysts' estimates for second-quarter revenue. Shares of Logitech International (LOGN.S) , opens new tab advanced 2.3% after the computer mouse maker raised its full-year sales and profit outlook on strong quarterly growth. The technology sub-index (.SX8P) , opens new tab, which houses both the stocks, advanced nearly 1%. A 1.5% fall in metal miners (.SXPP) , opens new tab, however, weighed on the benchmark index as copper prices came under pressure due to concerns over top consumer China's demand outlook. New data and macro-economic projections will help the European Central Bank reassess its monetary policy stance in September, ECB Vice President Luis de Guindos said in an interview with Europa Press. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/european-stocks-flat-miners-counter-tech-rally-2024-07-23/

2024-07-23 07:36

MILAN, July 23 (Reuters) - Italian energy group Eni (ENI.MI) , opens new tab said on Tuesday it is in exclusive talks with investment firm KKR (KKR.N) , opens new tab over the potential sale of a minority stake in Enilive, in a deal that could value the biofuel unit at up to 12.5 billion euros ($13.6 billion). The deal - under which KKR could buy between 20% and 25% of Enilive - is part of Eni's strategy to develop separate units focused on specific businesses and make them become financially independent. "The valuation in the range of 11.5-12.5 billion euros is well above market expectations, which we think were in the range of 7-10 billion euros," said Biraj Borkhataria, head of Global Energy Transition Research at Royal Bank of Canada. In another step of the broader plan, Eni agreed in December to sell to Swiss fund Energy Infrastructure Partners (EIP) a minority stake in its retail and renewable unit Plenitude in a transaction that valued the company at around 10 billion euros. The long-term goal of Eni is to attract investors to share investments in its energy transition businesses and also boost the valuation of the entire group. "The strong interest shown in this period by leading institutional financial investors could lead to the subsequent sale of a further stake of up to 10% of Enilive," Eni said in a statement. Mediobanca is acting as financial advisor for Eni on the Enilive stake sale. The unit is focused on biorefining, biomethane production, smart mobility solutions and has a network of more than 5,000 multi-fuel stations in Europe. Enilive plans to increase its biorefining capacity to more than 3 million tons by 2026, doubling the capacity it had at the end of 2023. ($1 = 0.9186 euros) Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/italys-eni-exclusive-talks-with-kkr-over-sale-minority-stake-biofuel-unit-2024-07-23/

2024-07-23 07:22

MUMBAI, July 23 (Reuters) - India slashed import duties on gold and silver to 6% from 15%, a move that industry officials say could boost retail demand and help curtail smuggling in the world's second-biggest consumer of bullion. Higher demand for gold from India could boost global prices, which hit a record high this year, although that could widen India's trade deficit and put pressure on the ailing rupee. "To enhance domestic value addition in gold and precious metal jewellery, I propose to reduce customs duties of gold and silver to 6%," Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in a budget speech on Tuesday. She also announced an import duty exemption for 25 critical minerals, including lithium. India has been exploring ways to secure supplies of lithium, a critical raw material used to make electric vehicle batteries. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/india-slashes-import-tax-gold-silver-6-2024-07-23/