2024-06-07 20:31

Nonfarm Payrolls data exceeds estimates GameStop slides as 'Roaring Kitty' returns to YouTube Nvidia dips with market cap back below $3 trillion Lyft gains after forecasting annual growth in bookings NEW YORK, June 7 (Reuters) - Wall Street stocks ended slightly lower on Friday in choppy trading after stronger-than-expected U.S. jobs data pointed to a robust economy but prompted worries the Federal Reserve may wait longer to cut interest rates than many investors had hoped. The U.S. economy generated about 272,000 jobs in May, far more than the 185,000 analysts had forecast, according to a Labor Department report. The unemployment rate inched up to 4%. The benchmark S&P 500 (.SPX) New Tab, opens new tab slipped immediately after the report while U.S Treasury yields climbed as traders slashed bets on a September rate reduction. The index recovered and briefly hit a fresh intraday record high as investors noted the data pointed to underlying economic health. It finished slightly lower, with the utilities (.SPLRCU) New Tab, opens new tab, materials (.SPLRCM) New Tab, opens new tab, and communication services (.SPLRCL) New Tab, opens new tab stocks among the biggest drag. Financials (.SPSY) New Tab, opens new tab and technology (.SPLRCT) New Tab, opens new tab advanced ahead of others. For the week, the S&P 500 gained 1.32%, Nasdaq rose 2.38%, and the Dow added 0.29%. "This tells you there's certainly not going to a cut in the short term, and with the bond yields going back up it's putting a lot of pressure on the risk-on trade, which is probably small caps," said Sandy Villere, portfolio manager at Villere & Co in New Orleans. "It's just a function of interest rates and maybe a little higher for longer, and people have to recalibrate for that type of environment," he added. Traders now see a 56% chance of a September rate reduction, according to the CME's FedWatch tool. Investors will eye U.S. inflation data next week and the Federal Reserve's two-day policy meeting, which ends on June 12. "No one expects the Fed to cut (rates next week), but will they open the door for a cut as soon as September is the big question on everyone's mind," said Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at the Carson Group, adding he still sees a September reduction on the table. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) New Tab, opens new tab fell 87.18 points, or 0.22%, to 38,798.99, the S&P 500 (.SPX) New Tab, opens new tab lost 5.97 points, or 0.11%, to 5,346.99 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) New Tab, opens new tab lost 39.99 points, or 0.23%, to 17,133.13. GameStop (GME.N) New Tab, opens new tab slumped 39% in volatile trading just as stock influencer "Roaring Kitty" kicked off his first livestream in three years. The gaming retailer had announced a potential stock offering and a drop in quarterly sales. Other so-called meme stocks, including AMC Entertainment (AMC.N) New Tab, opens new tab and Koss Corp (KOSS.O) New Tab, opens new tab, fell 15.1% and 17.4%, respectively. Nvidia (NVDA.O) New Tab, opens new tab slipped, on track to extend the previous session's losses, with its valuation again dipping below the $3 trillion mark. Lyft (LYFT.O) New Tab, opens new tab shares rose 0.6%, following a forecast of 15% annual growth in its gross bookings through 2027 after markets closed on Thursday. Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 2.72-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. On the Nasdaq, 1,177 stocks rose and 3,064 fell as declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 2.6-to-1 ratio. The S&P 500 posted 17 new 52-week highs and 5 new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 34 new highs and 149 new lows. Total volume of shares traded across U.S. exchanges was about 10.75 billion, compared with the 12.7 billion average over the last 20 trading days. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/futures-steady-markets-brace-jobs-data-2024-06-07/

2024-06-07 20:29

TSX ends down 1% Materials group falls 4.2% as gold slides Canada's unemployment rate rises to 6.2% Real estate ends 1.6% lower June 7 (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index fell 1% on Friday as a jump in the U.S. dollar following the release of stronger-than-expected U.S. jobs data pressured metal mining stocks, while investors braced for increased volatility in the months ahead. The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index (.GSPTSE) New Tab, opens new tab ended down 222.10 points at 22,007.00. For the week, the index lost 1.2%, its third consecutive weekly decline. The materials group (.GSPTTMT) New Tab, opens new tab, which includes metal miners and fertilizer companies was down 4.2% as the price of gold fell 3.7% and copper hit a one-month low. "Gold is sensitive to the U.S. dollar and real interest rates," said Joseph Abramson, co-chief investment officer at Northland Wealth Management. The U.S. dollar and bond yields climbed after data showed the U.S. economy created 272,000 jobs in May, suggesting that the Federal Reserve could take time in starting its easing cycle. The Toronto market has gained 5% this year, while the S&P 500, in the United States, has posted even larger gains. "After big gains, we're taking some profit because we expect risk aversion to increase until the U.S. election," Abramson said. President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump will face each other in the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 5 in what looks set to be a divisive, closely fought contest. Canada's monthly employment report was also released. It showed the unemployment rate increasing to 6.2% in May and faster wage growth, providing mixed signals for the Bank of Canada. On Wednesday, the BoC became the first G7 central bank to lower borrowing costs. Energy (.SPTTEN) New Tab, opens new tab also lost ground, falling 0.9%, as the price of oil gave back its earlier gains to settle 2 cents lower at $73.53 a barrel. Real estate (.GSPTTRE) New Tab, opens new tab and utilities (.GSPTTUT) New Tab, opens new tab, two sectors particularly sensitive to bond yields, were down 1.6% and 1% respectively. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/tsx-futures-slide-ahead-canada-us-jobs-data-2024-06-07/

2024-06-07 20:28

WASHINGTON, June 7 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden's administration Friday finalized tighter vehicle fuel economy rules through 2031 that are significantly less stringent than first proposed, a win for the Detroit Three automakers who lobbied heavily for revised rules. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it would hike Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) requirements to about 50.4 miles per gallon by 2031 from 39.1 mpg currently. The new requirement is barely above the 49 mpg it previously required for 2026. Last year, NHTSA projected its tougher proposal would hike requirements to 58 mpg by 2032. The agency said the proposed new rules will ultimately slash compliance penalties from what they would have been under the original proposal. It explained the change by noting automakers said "they cannot stop manufacturing large, fuel-inefficient light trucks while also transitioning to manufacturing electric vehicles." Environmental groups criticized the new rules as not strict enough, while automakers hailed the decision after calling the initial proposal unfeasible and warning it would result in dramatically higher vehicle New Tab, opens new tab prices. Biden is running for reelection in November and working to build support among autoworkers and their unions, which had warned against the earlier vehicle proposals. Republican candidate Donald Trump has blasted the administration's backing of EVs and stricter vehicle rules. In July 2023, NHTSA had proposed boosting CAFE requirements by 2% per year for passenger cars and 4% per year for light trucks from 2027 through 2032. The final rule has no increase for light trucks for 2027 and 2028 and will only require 2% increases from 2029 through 2031. Last year, NHTSA said its proposal to hike fuel economy standards through 2032 would cost the industry $14 billion in projected fines over a five-year-period. This includes $10.5 billion for the Detroit Three: $6.5 billion for General Motors (GM.N) New Tab, opens new tab,$3 billion for Chrysler parent Stellantis (STLAM.MI) New Tab, opens new tab and $1 billion for Ford Motor (F.N) New Tab, opens new tab. Under the final rule, the auto industry is collectively expected to face a total of $1.83 billion in fines from 2027 through 2031 -- and it could be as little as nothing -- based on various models, NHTSA said. NHTSA said GM could face $906 million in penalties through 2031, while Stellantis faces $368 million and Ford nothing. Automakers, who buy credits or pay fines if they cannot meet CAFE requirements, separately face $1.5 billion in expected fines for the 2024-2026 model years. In June 2023, Reuters first reported Stellantis and GM paid a total of $363 million in CAFE fines for failing to meet U.S. fuel economy requirements for prior model years. The is the third regulatory action the Biden administration has taken in recent months that tightened vehicle regulatory proposals less than promised. New compliance calculations for EVs that were less strict than proposed, and new tailpipe rules would ultimately require automakers to make fewer EVs than they had originally forecast. John Bozzella, who heads the Alliance for Automotive Innovation trade group representing major automakers, praised the revisions. "Those fines wouldn’t have produced any environmental benefits or additional fuel economy and would’ve foolishly diverted automaker capital away from the massive investments required by the electric vehicle transition," Bozzella said. Dan Becker, director of the Center for Biological Diversity's Safe Climate Transport Campaign, said NHTSA had "caved to automaker pressure" and said the agency's "weak final rule wastes too much gas, spews too much pollution and cedes the clean vehicle market to foreign automakers." Separately, NHTSA said it was finalizing new rules to boost heavy-duty pickup truck and van fuel efficiency by 10% annually from 2030-2032 and 8% per year from 2033-2035. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/new-us-truck-suv-fuel-economy-rules-much-less-stringent-than-original-proposal-2024-06-07/

2024-06-07 20:20

WASHINGTON, June 7 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden's administration said on Friday it has increased purchasing of crude oil to replenish the Strategic Petroleum Reserve following its historic sale from the stockpile in 2022. The Department of Energy on Friday issued two solicitations to buy a combined 6 million barrels of crude for delivery to its Bayou Choctaw site in Louisiana from September through December. If those offers and previously announced ones are fulfilled, the department's purchasing rate would increase to about 4.5 million barrels per month for September, October and November from about 3 million barrels now. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in an exclusive interview on Tuesday that the department could speed replenishment of the SPR this year. The SPR is stored at four sites on the coasts of Texas and Louisiana, and two of those have been undergoing maintenance, slowing purchases. "All four sites will be back up by the end of the year, so one could imagine that pace would pick up, depending on the market," Granholm said. The Biden administration in 2022 announced a record sale of 180 million barrels from the SPR after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The move was an effort to control gasoline prices that spiked to more than $5.00 a gallon. But it also reduced the SPR to the lowest in 40 years. The department said it will look for more ways to replenish the reserve, depending on the market. The DOE wants to buy oil for the reserve at about $79 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were well below that at about $75 on Friday, falling for a third straight week on concerns about demand. "At a time of relative crude weakness, the department is adding 50,000 barrels per day to SPR demand," to 150,000 bpd for the reserve, equal to about the demand of a medium-size U.S. refinery, said Kevin Book, an analyst at ClearView Energy Partners. The DOE this year moved to a direct purchase strategy of oil for the reserve instead of basing the purchasing price on an index. That and the completion of maintenance at Bayou Choctaw has helped it buy 38.6 million barrels of oil at an average of $77 per barrel, it said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-seeks-6-million-barrels-oil-strategic-petroleum-reserve-2024-06-07/

2024-06-07 19:59

June 7 (Reuters) - The World Health Organization on Friday said the child with H5N1 bird flu reported by Australia last month had traveled to Kolkata, India, and the family said they did not have any known exposure to infected people or animals while there. The WHO said on Friday that the child, Australia's first case of H5N1 in a person, had traveled to Kolkata from Feb. 12 to Feb. 19 and returned to Australia on March 1. The child was hospitalized on March 2 and remained there for more than two weeks. No close family contacts in Australia or India developed symptoms, as of May 22, the WHO said. The WHO said genetic sequencing showed the virus was subtype H5N1 and part of a strain that circulates in Southeast Asia and has been detected in previous human infections and in poultry. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease expert at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said while it would be difficult to do months after the fact, an investigation is needed to see if the child was in contact with poultry or other birds, or if there was an outbreak of this version of H5N1 nearby. "H5N1 viruses do not transmit efficiently between humans and I suspect there’s an occult animal exposure that led to the infection," Adalja said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/who-says-first-human-case-avian-influenza-h5n1-reported-australia-2024-06-07/

2024-06-07 19:31

SANTIAGO, June 7 (Reuters) - Copper production from Chile's state-run miner Codelco, the world's largest producer of the metal, dropped 6.1% in April compared to the same month last year to total 95,100 metric tons, data from copper commission Cochilco showed on Friday. Copper output fell more sharply at the BHP-controlled Escondida mine, with production during the month shrinking 6.8% to settle at 98,000 tons. At the Collahuasi mine, which is jointly run by miners Glencore and Anglo American, the data showed copper production inched up 1.9% to a reach 42,300 tons. Overall, the country's copper output slipped 1.7% from a year earlier to total 405,600 tons, according to Cochilco. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/copper-output-chiles-codelco-slides-6-april-2024-06-07/