2024-06-10 18:53
June 10 (Reuters) - U.S. natural gas pipeline venture Mountain Valley asked federal regulators on Monday to authorize its Virginia pipeline project to be in service by June 11. The company said in a filing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) that the final segments of the project were being purged and packed with natural gas. Mountain Valley added in the filing that it had satisfied all aspects of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration’s Oct. 3, 2023, Consent Order (CO) that were necessary to commence service. Officials at Mountain Valley were not immediately available for comment. Last month, the company pushed back the target in-service date of its long-delayed pipe from West Virginia to Virginia to early June from the prior target of "prior to June 1". Meanwhile, earlier in May, the company said it repaired a segment of pipe that failed a water test. The $7.85 billion Mountain Valley project is the only big gas pipeline under construction in the U.S. Northeast. It has encountered numerous regulatory and court fights that have stopped work several times since construction began in 2018. The 303-mile (488-km) Mountain Valley project is owned by units of Equitrans, NextEra Energy (NEE.N) New Tab, opens new tab, Consolidated Edison (ED.N) New Tab, opens new tab, AltaGas (ALA.TO) New Tab, opens new tab and RGC Resources (RGCO.O) New Tab, opens new tab. Equitrans will operate the pipeline. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/mountain-valley-seeks-authorization-virginia-natgas-pipe-2024-06-10/
2024-06-10 18:50
NEW YORK, June 10 (Reuters) - The use of artificial intelligence (AI) could save Morgan Stanley's (MS.N) New Tab, opens new tab financial advisers between 10 and 15 hours a week, the bank's CEO Ted Pick told investors at a conference on Monday. "This is potentially really game-changing," Pick said, adding that the bank's tool to transcribe and enter notes from client meetings into a database could boost advisers' productivity. It could also help advisers fine-tune topics to discuss with wealthy clients and tailor investment products to their needs, he said. Last year, Reuters reported Morgan Stanley was testing a generative AI chatbot developed with OpenAI. Pick expects high interest rates in the U.S. to persist, echoing views from his counterparts Jamie Dimon at JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N) New Tab, opens new tab and David Solomon at Goldman Sachs (GS.N) New Tab, opens new tab. "It's good for business - we'll be printing tickets," he said, by providing trading platforms, making markets or helping clients hedge their exposures in volatile trading conditions. The bank plans to increase lending to high net worth clients through sophisticated products such as structured lending, Pick said. "As deposits continue to grow, loans and tailored lending will grow," he said. Separately, Pick said Morgan Stanley will maintain its "sacrosanct" dividend, while noting that stock buybacks would depend on the share prices. "I'm a dividend guy," he said. The bank's stock has risen more than 12% in the past year. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/technology/morgan-stanley-ceo-says-ai-could-save-financial-advisers-10-15-hours-week-2024-06-10/
2024-06-10 18:07
NEW YORK, June 10 (Reuters) - The BlackRock Investment Institute said on Monday it was cautious on long-term U.S. Treasuries ahead of the November presidential elections as investors will likely ask for more compensation to hold them because of wide fiscal deficits. "We stay overweight U.S. stocks before the U.S. election yet cautious on long-term U.S. Treasuries. No matter who wins, budget deficits are set to stay large," the institute, an arm of top asset manager BlackRock (BLK.N) New Tab, opens new tab, said in a note. Neither President Joe Biden or Republican challenger Donald Trump "is charting a path to a sustained reduction in deficits," said the institute. Large deficits will keep inflation high, with interest rates therefore likely to remain elevated for long. "We think that, and markets needing to absorb large bond issuance, will spur investors to demand more term premium, or compensation for the risk of holding long-term U.S. bonds," it said. The institute maintains an "overweight" recommendation for short-term U.S. Treasuries saying it prefers them in a high interest rate environment, and remains neutral on longer-dated U.S. government bonds. With no end in sight for large fiscal deficits, some investors have started to allocate funds in ways that would avoid losses if Treasury yields, which move inversely to prices, start surging because of supply and demand imbalances. This week, the Treasury will sell nearly $120 billion in bonds with maturities of three, 10 and 30 years. Demand for every auction is closely scrutinized because of jitters around U.S. debt sustainability, said Jimmy Chang, chief investment officer at Rockefeller Global Family Office. He expects a return of so-called bond vigilantes, investors who punish profligate governments by selling their bonds, but said the timing is uncertain. "Politicians don't win elections or re-elections on the promise of austerity ... Eventually, I guess, the outcome will be the market disciplining Washington," he said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/rates-bonds/blackrock-cautious-long-term-us-treasuries-ahead-elections-2024-06-10/
2024-06-10 16:32
ANKARA, June 10 (Reuters) - The Turkish competition authority said on Monday that it imposed a fine of around 482 million lira ($14.85 million) on Google (GOOGL.O) New Tab, opens new tab over its failure to fulfill obligations related to hotel searches. The authority said the fine was imposed over Google's failure to address the competition board's concerns over fair competition with other local search engines. ($1 = 32.4513 liras) Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/technology/turkey-competition-board-fines-google-482-million-lira-over-hotel-searches-2024-06-10/
2024-06-10 13:11
June 10 (Reuters) - Brazil's consumer price data for May will likely show an acceleration in inflation, reflecting the damage from recent disastrous floods in the south, according to a Reuters poll published on Monday. Annual inflation, at a forecast 3.89%, would have also deviated further from the center of the official goal of 3% +/- 1.5 percentage points, but this would be attributable to temporary disruptions in production and logistics caused by excessive rains in Rio Grande do Sul state. Price data to be published on Tuesday are set to show a monthly increase of 0.42% in May against 0.38% in April and of 3.89% on the year versus 3.69%, according to median estimates of 23 economists polled June 5-10. "This release is likely to begin reflecting the effects of flooding in the south of Brazil. Despite food-at-home inflation decelerating on a monthly basis, it could accelerate y-o-y to 2.9% from 2.6%," UBS analysts wrote in a report. "We expect (food inflation) to peak at 4% in June, before slowing down to 3.4% in August and 3.1% by the end of the year... with most of the effects being temporary, we believe most of the foodstuff rise from May and June could revert in subsequent months." In its latest effort to contain the economic spillover of the historic floods that killed more than 170 people, Brazil bought 263,370 metric tons of imported rice in a rare auction to prevent a price hike. Some preliminary data have shown food inflation from the floods was lighter than initially feared. Still, many economists, including the orthodox leadership at the central bank, remain worried about longer-term trends. Inflation expectations have continued advancing towards 4% this year, given a relatively strong job market, persistent worries on the fiscal side, and diverging views among Banco Central do Brasil (BCB) policymakers. "The economy is still growing close to its potential, the labor market continues to tighten, and the Brazilian real is under pressure for various domestic and global reasons," Societe Generale economists wrote in a report. "A very slow process of inflation moderation might resume after July, but we do not expect inflation to fall anywhere close to BCB's target... during the policy horizon." Brazil's economy grew 2.5% year-on-year in the first quarter, rebounding from a sluggish second half of 2023. Last month, Brazil's finance minister denied the government was considering changing the inflation target after calling the 3% goal "very demanding", adding he favored a longer period than the current calendar year to evaluate compliance to it. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/emerging/brazil-inflation-data-show-acceleration-may-2024-06-10/
2024-06-10 12:56
LONDON, June 10 (Reuters) - Portfolio investors sold record volumes of petroleum last week after OPEC⁺ surprised the market by announcing plans to increase production starting from the fourth quarter of 2024. Hedge funds and other money managers sold the equivalent of 194 million barrels in the six most important futures and options contracts over the seven days ending on June 4. Fund sales were the fastest for any week since at least 2013 when the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and ICE Futures Europe began publishing data in the current format. Sales were more than three standard deviations away from the average weekly change, indicating how surprised investors were by the announcement to raise production. Investors sold Brent (-102 million barrels), NYMEX and ICE WTI (-53 million), European gas oil (-17 million), U.S. diesel (-15 million) and U.S. gasoline (-6 million). Sales of crude in general and Brent in particular were also the fastest on record as traders concluded the crude market would be comfortably through the rest of the year and into 2025. But heavy selling of refined fuel contracts indicates investors were also reacting to signs of tepid consumption and swelling inventories of gasoline and diesel. Investors had become bearish or very bearish about all elements of the petroleum complex. Chartbook: Oil and gas positions New Tab, opens new tab Total petroleum positions were slashed to 208 million barrels (1st percentile for all weeks since 2013) the lowest since a single week in December 2023 and before that January 2016. Brent positions were cut to their third-lowest level on record at just 46 million barrels, down from 335 million just seven weeks earlier. Intense hedge fund selling helped push front-month Brent futures prices down to their lowest level for four months on June 4. In subsequent speeches as well as an online briefing to oil analysts, OPEC⁺ officials have reiterated that the scheduled increase can be "paused or reversed subject to market conditions". The re-emphasis on the contingent nature of the planned boost seems to have steadied the market with prices rising slightly. But the group's recent meeting will go on record as a major "OPEC⁺ surprise" – even if it did not turn out as ministers intended. U.S. NATURAL GAS Hedge funds turned a little more cautious about the outlook for U.S. gas prices last week after inventories remained stubbornly high and took some of the recent bullishness out of the market. Funds sold the equivalent of 90 billion cubic feet (bcf) in the two major futures and options contracts linked to gas prices at Henry Hub in Louisiana over the seven days ending on June 4. It was the first net sale for five weeks as funds added more bearish short positions (114 bcf) than new longs (24 bcf). Nonetheless, the resulting net long position of 791 bcf (52nd percentile for all weeks since 2010) remained well above the recent net short of 1,675 bcf (3rd percentile) in mid-February. Working inventories were the second-highest on record for the time of year on May 31 and 612 bcf (+27% or 1.45 standard deviations) above the prior 10-year seasonal average. After swelling through much of the winter of 2023/24, the surplus has not increased since mid-March, hearting bullish investors, but it has not yet narrowed either, injecting an element of caution. Related columns: - OPEC⁺ switches strategy to defend market share (June 4, 2024) - U.S. oil futures draw renewed interest from hedge funds(June 3, 2024) John Kemp is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own. Follow his commentary on X https://twitter.com/JKempEnergy New Tab, opens new tab Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/opec-surprise-triggered-record-hedge-fund-oil-sales-kemp-2024-06-10/
