2024-06-20 17:31

June 20 (Reuters) - The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is probing Jump Trading's involvement in the cryptocurrency space, Fortune reported New Tab, opens new tab on Thursday, citing a person familiar with the matter. The investigation is not evidence of wrongdoing, and it could not be learned if the regulator is considering charges against the trading firm, the report said. Jump has been a crypto trader for years and has also launched a business to explore and research blockchain technology. While the approval of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds earlier this year encouraged optimism among crypto investors, regulators have maintained their tough stance toward the industry. Major crypto executives have accused regulators of overreach and warned that a heavy-handed approach could prompt them to move their companies offshore. A spokesperson for Jump's crypto unit declined to comment. The CFTC did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/technology/us-cftc-probing-jump-tradings-involvement-crypto-fortune-reports-2024-06-20/

2024-06-20 12:43

LONDON, June 20 (Reuters) - Switzerland is at the front of the rate-cutting pack among developed economy central banks, lowering borrowing costs again on Thursday, while the all-important Federal Reserve is nowhere near the starting line as the U.S. economy stays strong. Following the most aggressive global rate-hiking cycle in decades, here's where leading central banks stand and what they are expected to do next: 1/ SWITZERLAND The Swiss National Bank followed up on March's interest rate cut with another reduction on Thursday to 1.25%. The step lower surprised some analysts, given a recent pick-up in Swiss growth and a mild rise in inflation to 1.4% in April. Switzerland's franc had been trading around a three-month high but dropped more than 0.5% against the dollar after the decision . 2/ SWEDEN Sweden's Riksbank lowered borrowing costs to 3.75% from 4% in May and is expected to hold them steady when it announces the next rate decision on June 27. Inflation in May rose by a higher-than-expected 2.3% from a year earlier but has come down from a peak of over 10% in 2022 and markets still expect further easing to come. The Riksbank expects to make two more cuts this year. 3/ CANADA The Bank of Canada in June became the first G7 nation to cut rates, trimming benchmark borrowing costs by 25 bps to 4.75% and promising more easing to come. The BoC's first cut in four years was widely expected after inflation hit a three-year low of 2.7% in April. Traders expect two more 25 bps cuts this year. 4/ EURO ZONE The ECB cut rates for the first time in five years on June 6, lowering its record-high deposit rate by 25 basis points to 3.75%. But the ECB raised its inflation forecasts and appears in no rush to cut rates again soon. Markets price in a further 40 bps of rate cuts by year-end. 5/ BRITAIN The Bank of England left rates unchanged at a 16-year high of 5.25% on Thursday ahead of a July 4 election, but some policymakers said their decision not to cut rates was now "finely balanced". Money markets price in almost 50 bps of cuts by year-end and a roughly 44% chance of a quarter point move at the next meeting in August, compared to 32% a day earlier. 6/ UNITED STATES The Fed held rates in the 5.25% to 5.5% range on June 12 and policymakers said they now think only one cut is coming this year, down from three in March. Traders are more optimistic and price in around 45 bps of cuts for 2024, buoyed by steps down in inflation in April and May to 3.3%. 7/ NEW ZEALAND Investors think there's a 40% chance the Reserve Bank of New Zealand cuts rates in October, money market pricing suggests. High rates have hobbled New Zealand's economy but the central bank at its May meeting prioritised battling inflation, which was running at 4% in the first quarter. 8/ AUSTRALIA The Reserve Bank of Australia has held rates at a 12-year high of 4.35% since November, and is not expected to lower borrowing costs until well into 2025. Australian consumer inflation for April unexpectedly picked up to a five-month high of 3.6%, year-on-year. 9/ NORWAY Norway's central bank held rates at 4.5% on Thursday and said borrowing costs would likely stay there until 2024. Core inflation stood at 4.1% in May, showing underlying inflationary pressures remain strong. 10/ JAPAN The Bank of Japan is the global outlier, raising rates out of negative territory in March in its first hike in 17 years. The central bank held rates steady on June 14 but said it will start trimming its huge bond purchases, another part of its quest to normalise monetary policy. BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda on Tuesday said the central bank could raise interest rates in July if economic data allowed. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/switzerland-leads-big-central-banks-rate-cuts-us-fed-lags-2024-06-20/

2024-06-20 12:41

MUMBAI, June 20 (Reuters) - India's monsoon is advancing after stalling for more than a week and rains are set to cover central parts of the country in the next few days, bringing relief from the heatwave in the grain-growing northern plains, two senior weather officials said. Summer rains, critical for economic growth in Asia's third-largest economy, usually begin in the south around June 1 before spreading nationwide by July 8, allowing farmers to plant crops such as rice, cotton, soybeans, and sugarcane. "Monsoon is reviving. It was stuck after covering most of Maharashtra, but by the weekend, it will enter Madhya Pradesh," an official of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) told Reuters. "Western and southern regions will receive heavy rains from the next week. Central parts would also start getting rains," added the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media. The monsoon arrived nearly two days ahead of schedule in the western state of Maharashtra, home to the commercial capital of Mumbai, but its progress in central and eastern states of the country stalled for nearly a week. The lifeblood of the nearly $3.5-trillion economy, the monsoon brings nearly 70% of the rain India needs to water farms and refill reservoirs and aquifers. In the absence of irrigation, nearly half the farmland in the world's second-biggest producer of rice, wheat and sugar depends on the annual rains that usually run from June to September. The monsoon is expected to advance swiftly from next week and bring down temperatures in northern India, another weather official said. The heatwave in northern states will ease by the weekend, he said. The maximum temperature in India's northern states ranges between 42 degrees Celsius and 46 degrees C (108 degrees Fahrenheit to 115 degrees F) this week, which is nearly 3 degrees C to 5 degrees C above normal, the IMD data showed. India has received 18% less rainfall than normal since the season began on June 1, the IMD says. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/indias-monsoon-advances-set-bring-relief-heatwave-2024-06-20/

2024-06-20 12:36

LONDON, June 20 (Reuters) - BP (BP.L) New Tab, opens new tab has agreed to buy grain trader Bunge's (BG.N) New Tab, opens new tab 50% stake in Brazilian sugar and ethanol joint venture BP Bunge Bioenergia for $1.4 billion in a bet on growing demand for low-carbon biofuels. Following the completion of the deal, expected by end-2024, BP will take full ownership of Bioenergia which has production capacity of around 50,000 barrels a day of ethanol equivalent from sugarcane. BP will consolidate Bioenergia's debt and lease obligations of $1.2 billion, it said, meaning that it will pay out a total of $800 million to Bunge, according to Reuters calculations. The acquisition comes amid growing investor concern over BP's strategy after ratings agency S&P Global earlier this month revised down BP's credit outlook, citing slower than expected debt reduction. BP said the acquisition is expected to meet its returns threshold for bioenergy of more than 15% and will be within its existing annual spending framework of around $16 billion. BP is also scaling back plans for the development of new biofuels projects, it said. The company is pausing two biofuel projects at its Lingen refinery in Germany and its Cherry Point refinery in the U.S. state of Washington. It is assessing three other projects. "Taken together, these changes can enable us to deliver the growth and returns we expect from biofuels, but in a simpler, more focused way. This is fully in line with BP’s priorities of driving focus into the business and growing shareholder returns," BP's head of customers and products Emma Delaney said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/bp-buy-out-bunges-stake-brazilian-biofuels-jv-14-bln-deal-2024-06-20/

2024-06-20 12:31

June 20 (Reuters) - Alberto, the first named storm of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, has weakened into a tropical depression as it moves inland over northeastern Mexico, bringing more heavy rains and flooding after leaving four dead, including three children. The governor of Mexico's Nuevo Leon state told local media late Wednesday that at least three people under 18 had died due to the storm. By Thursday morning, civil protection had reported a fourth death due to an electric shock, local media reported. One of the victims was later identified by emergency services as a 15-year-old boy swept away by a current outside Monterrey, Mexico's third-biggest city in Nuevo Leon state, where the Santa Catarina river swelled and broke its banks. The storm, however, brought much-needed rain across swathes of Mexico, where some of its reservoirs had water levels as low as 8% due to an extended drought and summer heat wave, even filling the much-depleted La Boca dam to the brim. Brett Anderson, senior meteorologist at AccuWeather, said the extreme heat and drought Mexico experienced will become more normal due to climate change, citing temperatures above the historical average at 5.2°C (9.4°F) in the capital, which received barely over a third of the normal rainfall for this period. Climate change is also expected to contribute to more storms over the Atlantic this hurricane season, as warmer ocean waters allow powerful storms to intensify more rapidly. The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Alberto would continue to bring heavy rains and flooding across parts of northeastern Mexico and that much of the Texas coastline could continue to see moderate flooding. The storm made landfall earlier on Thursday near the Mexican city of Tampico and is churning west across the country at 18 miles per hour (30 kph), packing maximum sustained winds of 35 mph (55 kph), the NHC said. Forecasters had warned that Alberto, which brought rain and storm swells across the Gulf of Mexico, was also interacting with formations in the Pacific, together throwing more downpours on Central America, causing floods and landslides. At least 22 deaths have been reported in Central America since the heavy rains last weekend. These include 13 in El Salvador, eight in Guatemala and one in Honduras, where authorities said over 900 were evacuated from their homes. Guatemalan authorities said on Thursday 370 people remained in temporary shelters and almost 300 houses had suffered severe damage. "The climate crisis is making extreme weather events such as hurricanes and tropical storms more frequent and severe," said Save the Children regional advisor Moa Cortobius. Some 35 million children are living in exposed areas and are at risk this season in the Atlantic, she added. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/tropical-storm-alberto-moves-inland-mexicos-coast-after-three-fatalities-2024-06-20/

2024-06-20 12:19

DUBAI, June 20 (Reuters) - United Arab Emirates renewable energy company Masdar said on Thursday it has reached an agreement to buy an initial 67% stake in Greece's Terna Energy (TENr.AT) New Tab, opens new tab and intends to make a mandatory offer to buy the rest. Masdar has signed a definitive agreement with Greek conglomerate GEK Terna (HRMr.AT) New Tab, opens new tab and other shareholders to buy the 67% stake in Terna Energy at 20 euros ($21.45) per share. The acquisition price gives the Greek renewables company an equity valuation of 2.4 billion euros and an enterprise value of 3.2 billion euros, the two companies said. GEK Terna owned 37.93% of Terna Energy as of June 4, according to LSEG data. The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and other conditions. Once completed, "Masdar will launch an all-cash mandatory tender offer to acquire all the remaining shares of TERNA ENERGY with the intention of reaching 100%," the statement said. Masdar is expanding in several parts of Europe, as well is in Asia, the United States and elsewhere, as it seeks to grow its capacity to 100 gigawatts of renewable energy by 2030. Masdar is owned by state-controlled energy and utilities firm TAQA, Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, which hold stakes of 43%, 33% and 24%, respectively. "As one of Europe's biggest renewable energy transactions in 2024, this investment reflects the UAE's clear commitment to Greece and Europe's clean energy development," said Sultan Al Jaber, Masdar's chairman and president of the COP28 climate summit hosted by the UAE last year. Rothschild & Co was financial adviser to Masdar and Simmons & Simmons, Bernitsas Law and Latham & Watkins were legal advisers for the deal and financing. Reed Smith and Potamitis Vekris were legal advisers to GEK Terna Group and Morgan Stanley was financial adviser to Terna Energy. ($1 = 0.9323 euros) Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/uae-renewables-company-masdar-buy-greeces-terna-energy-2024-06-20/