2024-06-03 12:06
June 3 (Reuters) - JetBlue Airways (JBLU.O) New Tab, opens new tab on Monday forecast a smaller drop in second-quarter revenue than it had previously forecast due to healthy travel demand, sending its shares up 2.3% in premarket trading. Major U.S. carriers expect record passenger numbers for the summer season but uneven demand on certain routes has led to overcapacity and is hurting pricing power for a few airlines. JetBlue now expects its second-quarter revenue to fall between 6.5% and 9.5%, compared with its previous forecast of a 6.5% to 10.5% decrease. "Better operational performance is driving solid cost execution in the second quarter, and is further supported by recent trends in jet fuel prices, which have declined over the quarter," the airline said in a regulatory filing. The New York-based carrier has been grappling with higher operating costs as ongoing inspections of Pratt & Whitney's Geared Turbofan (GTF) engines have led to the grounding of several of its aircraft. JetBlue had cut some of its routes and markets that were unprofitable and moved resources to better-performing regions. The airline also lowered its fuel cost forecast on Monday and now expects to spend $2.85 to $2.95 per gallon. It earlier forecast fuel expenditure in the range of $2.98 to $3.13 per gallon. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/jetblue-forecasts-improved-second-quarter-revenue-healthy-travel-demand-2024-06-03/
2024-06-03 11:53
LAGOS/ABUJA, June 3 (Reuters) - Nigeria's main labour unions on Monday shut down the national grid and disrupted airline operations across the country as they began an indefinite strike over the government's failure to agree a new minimum wage. This strike is the fourth embarked upon by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), two of the country's biggest unions, since President Bola Tinubu took office last year. The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) said union members drove away operators at the country's power control rooms and shut down at least six substations, which eventually shut the national grid at 02:19 am (0119 GMT). Nigerian airline Ibom Air said it was suspending flights until further notice due to the strike, while another, United Nigeria, said airports across the country have been shut down and that striking workers had permitted none of its flights to operate. Electricity and aviation unions said in a statement on Monday they had directed their workers to withdraw their services in compliance with the indefinite strike. Since taking office Tinubu has embarked on Nigeria's boldest reforms, which has fuelled a rise in inflation to an almost 30-year high and worsened a cost-of-living crisis in Africa's most populous nation. He has been under pressure from unions to offer relief to households and small businesses after scrapping subsidies on petrol, which kept fuel cheap but cost the government $10 billion last year. Unions declared an indefinite strike on Friday after talks for a new minimum wage meant to cushion the impact of reforms collapsed. They said the strike would last until a new minimum wage was in place. The TCN said it was making effort to recover and stabilize the national grid, but unions were obstructing grid recovery nationwide. Unions have also demanded a reversal of an electricity tariff hike effected last month for better-off consumers who use the most power, as the government tries to wean the economy off subsidies. On Thursday, Nigeria's privatisation body said the country had secured a World Bank loan of $500 million for its electricity sector. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/nigerian-unions-shut-down-power-grid-start-strike-over-minimum-wage-2024-06-03/
2024-06-03 11:49
NEW DELHI, June 3 (Reuters) - Nearly 25,000 people have suffered suspected heat stroke and 56 died after several heatwaves across India between March and May, local media reported, citing government data. May has been a particularly bad month for the region, with temperatures in capital Delhi and nearby state of Rajasthan touching 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit). In contrast, parts of eastern India have been reeling from cyclone Remal. Heavy rain in the north eastern state of Assam has killed 14 people since Tuesday. Cities in the southern states of Karnataka and Kerala have also been inundated by heavy rains. India's tech hub of Bengaluru, in Karnataka, on Sunday received 111.1 millimetres of rainfall - the highest the city has seen in the month of June since 1891. Local media footage showed vehicles and pedestrians wading through flooded streets in Bengaluru, with fallen trees blocking roads and massive traffic jams clogging major intersections. In the island nation of Sri Lanka, at least 15 people have been killed by flooding and landslides after heavy monsoon rain lashed the region, the country's Disaster Management Centre said on Sunday. A confluence of factors has led to a very hot summer in South Asia, a trend scientists say has been worsened by human-driven climate change. At least 33 people, including election officials on duty in India's just-concluded general election, died of suspected heatstroke in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in the north, and Odisha in the east on Friday. Data from the National Centre of Disease Control showed that the situation was worst in May, with 46 heat-related deaths and 19,189 suspected heat stroke cases, news website The Print reported. Including suspected cases, the total number of deaths in India could be much higher at 80, newspaper The Hindu reported. Over 5,000 cases of heat stroke were reported in the central state of Madhya Pradesh alone. The weather office has predicted that heat will be less severe till Wednesday and an early arrival of monsoon in the southern state of Kerala last week is expected to bring more relief. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/india/heat-wave-kills-least-56-india-nearly-25000-heat-stroke-cases-march-may-2024-06-03/
2024-06-03 11:44
MOSCOW, June 3 (Reuters) - Russia may declare a nationwide emergency by the end of this week due to frosts that have damaged crops, Agriculture Minister Oksana Lut was quoted as saying on Monday. State news agency RIA quoted Lut as saying she hoped the measure would be declared, paving the way for insurance claims, following a meeting of a committee of the emergencies ministry. Several Russian regions have already declared local emergencies because of the frosts, which have hit crops ranging from grains to apples. The Sovecon agricultural consultancy said last week it expected Russia's wheat crop to slip to 82.1 million metric tons this year, below a previous forecast of 85.7 million tons. Lut said the extent of damage had not yet been calculated in cash terms. The head of Russia's Grain Union said on May 27 that some 1.5 million hectares of crops had been damaged. TASS news agency separately quoted Lut as saying Russia would find other markets for its grain after the European Union said last week it would impose prohibitive tariffs on cereals, oilseeds and derived products from Russia and Belarus from July 1, a move the bloc said would halt imports of these products. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-may-declare-emergency-due-frost-impact-crops-farm-minister-says-2024-06-03/
2024-06-03 11:24
ORURO, Bolivia, June 3 (Reuters) - Bolivian ranchers Elizabeth and Edwin Churata are learning how to survive in a drier, hotter climate. They are adapting new water-storage techniques as their traditional ponds dry up, and changing how they feed their cattle and sheep. They've had to adjust fast. In the past few years, the Churatas' farm in the highland Andean region of Oruro has been hit by climate phenomena known as La Nina and recently the reverse El Nino, the strongest one in 20 years. El Nino is associated with a disruption of wind patterns that means warmer ocean surface temperatures in the eastern and central Pacific. Around Oruro, it brought lower rainfall and higher temperatures, drying up feed crops, which led to around half of the region's livestock dying. As the local climate has heated up over decades, rivers and lakes have also shrunk. "At the moment there's no water because the Desaguadero River has got much lower. It's what provides us with water because the water from dug wells here is salty," Edwin Churata told Reuters at the farm, with sheep grazing behind him. "We live off the water from the Desaguadero and the rain." Landlocked Bolivia's highlands are a key region for cattle and sheep, as well as crops such as quinoa, barley and potatoes. Its challenges reflects wider ones for South America's farmers, dealing with drought and floods as weather becomes more extreme. Bolivia has seen major lakes decline, including the giant Titicaca, Lake Poopo and Uru Uru, which are important reservoirs of water for farmers like Elizabeth and Edwin. Many Bolivian farmers have for years resisted changing ancestral growing practices. They have traditionally relied on wild grasses to feed their animals, burning the grass stalks and praying for adequate rainfall. But many are adapting under pressure, with training programs for farmers by bodies such as the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) teaching them how to build water tanks with wire frames and waterproof fabric. Grass reeds that farmers previously burned are now mixed with wild straw, flour, and brown sugar, producing animal feed that can store for months until winter, helping more livestock survive. "In Bolivia and especially in this region, we have been very traditional in terms of the conservation of animal fodder and with livestock," said Efrain Apaza, a farmer in nearby El Choro. "But we have been forced to change how we face things." Mario Lubetkin, Latin America's representative at the FAO, said that the region was facing a confluence of factors that could make food growing more difficult, with rising costs and the effects of climate change. "It's a perfect recipe for disaster," he said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/farm-bolivias-andean-plains-grapples-with-hotter-climate-2024-06-03/
2024-06-03 10:54
LONDON/NEW YORK, June 3 (Reuters) - Mexican stocks fell over 6% on Monday and the peso closed at its weakest to the dollar since November after the country's ruling party scored a surprisingly strong election result and looked poised for a super-majority in Congress that markets fear might bring constitutional change and diminish checks and balances. Claudia Sheinbaum won a landslide victory in Sunday's presidential election, as had been widely expected. But the scale of the gains for the Morena party and its allies took markets by surprise, with some fearing the results would pave the way for the ruling coalition to pass constitutional reforms without opposition support. A two-thirds super-majority in both chambers of Congress is still in the cards for Morena, which also won the mayoral race in Mexico City by a double-digit margin. The Mexican peso earlier hit a fresh seven-week low of 17.754 to the dollar, a 4.29% drop, LSEG data showed. It ended the session down 3.8% at 17.671 per dollar, its weakest daily close since November. "The question is whether the Morena party has done so well that it could command a super-majority and try to pursue market non-friendly policies of constitutional reform," said Chris Turner, global head of markets at ING. The latest losses mean the peso has weakened more than 4% since the start of 2024, a sharp turnaround for the currency, which was, until recently, one of the few in emerging markets to have gained ground against a strong dollar this year. Mexico's benchmark stock market index (.MXX) New Tab, opens new tab ended the session down 6.1%, while the MSCI index (.MIMX00000PUS) New Tab, opens new tab, priced in dollars, dropped 8.8%. The iShares MSCI Mexico ETF closed 10.7% lower. (EWW.P) New Tab, opens new tab "The main challenge for president-elect Claudia Sheinbaum will be to bolster market sentiment and provide a predictable and investment-friendly policy and regulatory framework," Alberto Ramos, head of Latin America economics research at Goldman Sachs, said in a client note. "Ultimately, the new administration will be challenged not to encroach on private sector activity and free markets, and to avoid further erosion of institutional quality." CONCILIATORY TONE Foreign currency sovereign bonds were little changed overall, with the spread measured by JPMorgan's EMBIGD index (.JPMEGDMEXR) New Tab, opens new tab widening by six basis points to 306 bps . The cost to insure five-year Mexican sovereign debt via CDS rose by six basis points to 101 bps, according to S&P Global, while those of Pemex ticked up one basis point to 471 bps. The local debt benchmark bond yield rose 16 basis points to 9.934%, the highest since April 30 according to LSEG. Sheinbaum, a climate scientist and former mayor of Mexico City, won the presidency with just shy of six votes in ten, with 92% of ballots counted, in what is set to be the highest vote percentage in Mexico's democratic history. "Even if Morena fell a bit short of achieving a two-thirds majority in the Senate, opposition parties could swing and favor Morena on issues that could significantly impact the business environment" said Alejo Czerwonko, chief investment officer for emerging markets Americas at UBS Financial Services. In February, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had proposed sweeping constitutional reforms, including measures to overhaul the judiciary, electoral law, pensions, and environmental regulations. Lopez Obrador said in a morning press conference on Monday that Mexico's finance minister, Rogelio Ramirez de la O, will remain in his post for some time to help facilitate the transition. When asked about the possibility of pursuing major reforms in Congress once new lawmakers are seated on Oct. 1, Lopez Obrador said he would discuss the topic with his successor. "We have to get on the same page to discuss these initiatives with Claudia, as well as other things we need to work on together," Lopez Obrador said. "I don't want to impose anything." Throughout the course of his tenure, Lopez Obrador had doubled the minimum wage, reduced poverty and oversaw a strengthening peso and low levels of unemployment - successes that made him incredibly popular. Sheinbaum has promised to expand the welfare policies that drove the current president's popularity and led to her election triumph, but it will be a tricky task because of the hefty budget deficit and low economic growth. JPMorgan noted the conciliatory tone of Sheinbaum's acceptance speech, which she directed to all Mexicans. She also "sought to calm down markets by stressing that her administration will guarantee an autonomous central bank, keep the division between economic and political powers, abide by legality and preserve a disciplined fiscal stance," JPMorgan said in a client note. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/mexico-peso-drops-nearly-3-sheinbaum-landslide-raises-reform-worry-2024-06-03/
