Worldwide Finance/Economic/Business Daily News 12/23/2023

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According to Bloomberg, — Shares in Asia headed for opening gains after US stocks resumed a rally fueled by fresh data underscoring the pressure on the Federal Reserve to deliver more 2024 interest rate cuts than it flagged last week. Australian stocks were little changed while equity futures for Japan and Hong Kong rose.

The moves follow a 1% advance for the SP 500 on Thursday, placing the benchmark on pace for an eight-week winning streak, which would be the longest in more than five years. Contracts for US shares were little changed in early Asian trading.

According to Bloomberg, — China will halt the export of a range of rare-earth technologies, potentially making it harder for the US and other western nations to bolster supplies of strategic raw materials. Beijing put technology for making rare-earth metals and rare-earth magnets on a list of

Items can’t be transfered overseas, according to a document from the Ministry of Commerce. The move by the world’s dominant supplier of the minerals comes as its geopolitical rivals rush to cut reliance on materials produced in China. According to Bloomberg, — Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. is nearing a deal to buy TPG Inc.’s

Stake in Singapore Life Holdings Pte as the Japanese insurer seeks to bolster its presence in Southeast Asia, according to people familiar with the matter. The companies are hammering out the details of a transaction that could value the closely held Singaporean insurer known Singlife at S$4 billion to S$5 billion, the people said,

Asking not to be identified because the matter is private. Other minority investors may also tag along on the disposal, which would allow Osaka-based Sumitomo Life to wholly own Singlife, the people said. According to Bloomberg, — Oil extended its biggest weekly advance in two months as shippers

Avoided the Red Sea amid increased attacks, while Angola’s exit from OPEC put the spotlight on the group’s unity. Global benchmark Brent traded near $80 a barrel and is set for a second weekly gain after notching a string of seven declines, while West Texas Intermediate traded above $74 a barrel.

Tanker traffic in the Red Sea has plummeted after Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen increased attacks on vessels in the region. Angola announced it’s leaving OPEC after 16 years, highlighting tensions within the producer group as it seeks to limit output to support prices going into the new year.

According to Reuters, – A blistering rally in stocks and elevated bond yields are pressuring global hedge funds to boost returns as they fight to staunch investor outflows, industry insiders told Reuters. Investors have pulled about a net $75 billion from hedge funds so far in 2023 and allocations

To the $3.4 trillion industry have slowed, data from Nasdaq eVestment showed. The outflows come on the heels of some $112 billion that left hedge funds last year. According to Reuters, – Chinese internet stocks slumped on regulatory news on Friday to drag

Asian stocks down for the final full trading week of the year, while the dollar wobbled ahead of U.S. inflation data that’s expected to validate bets on rate cuts in 2024. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gave up gains to trade 0.3%

Lower after China issued draft rules that would impose spending limits on gamers. For the week the index is down 0.6%. According to Bloomberg, — The US Commerce Department will begin gathering information on Chinese production of legacy semiconductors — chips that aren’t cutting-edge but are

Still vital to the global economy — as it looks to track how deeply reliant US companies have become on the technology from China. In January, the agency’s Bureau of Industry and Security will survey more than 100 companies in autos, aerospace, defense and other sectors to understand how they procure and use legacy

Chips, according to a Commerce official. According to Bloomberg, — Prosus NV shares suffered a record drop on Friday after China issued a raft of new measures that limit players’ spending within video games, dealing a blow to the value of the company’s holding in Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd.

The stock slid as much as 20% in Amsterdam trading, erasing €14 billion of market value. South African parent Naspers Ltd. also slumped by a fifth, while Tencent — in which Prosus holds a 25% stake — closed down 12% in Hong Kong.

According to Reuters, – Tesla is recalling 120,423 vehicles in the U.S. over the risk of cabin doors being unlocked during a crash, the country’s road safety regulator said on Friday, days after announcing another recall by the electric-vehicle maker. The Elon Musk-led automaker has released an over-the-air software update to address the

Issue, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said. According to Reuters, – Brazilian water and sanitation utility Sabesp has selected four investment banks to manage a follow-on share offering that would ultimately privatize the company, it said in a securities filing late on Thursday.

Sabesp, which is controlled by the state of Sao Paulo, said it had picked BTG Pactual, Bank of America, Citi and UBS BB to structure the transaction, which the government expects to be completed by mid-2024. According to Reuters, – This year might go down as one of the most unusual ever in financial

Markets – mainly because everything seems to have come good despite a lot of turbulence and many predictions turning out to be wrong. Take equity markets. World stocks are nearly 20% higher despite the highest interest rates in decades and

A mini crisis that wiped out one of Europe’s best known banks – Credit Suisse – along with a few smaller ones in the U.S. According to Bloomberg, — More than a hundred container ships are taking the long route around Africa to avoid violence in the Red Sea, according to Kuehne+Nagel.

Maersk said it could take a few weeks for a task force to be fully operational. SHIPPING According to Bloomberg, — Tencent Holdings Ltd. led an $80 billion selloff in some of China’s biggest online names, after the surprise imposition of new gaming curbs

Revived fears Beijing may again be targeting the country’s giant internet sector. The top gaming regulator on Friday published draft rules broadly designed to clamp down on practices that encourage players to spend more money and time online. They encompassed caps on the amount each player can spend within a game, a ban on rewards

For frequent log-ins and forced player-duels, even a prohibition on content that violates national security. According to Reuters, – The Bank of Japan must avoid moving too hastily towards an exit from ultra-loose monetary policy to ensure the economy does not revert to deflation, veteran ruling party official Akira Amari told Reuters on Friday.

With inflation above the BOJ’s 2% target for more than a year, many market players expect the central bank to pull short-term interest rates out of negative territory next year with some betting on the chance of action in January or April.

According to Reuters, – The U.S. offshore wind industry is eying a brighter 2024, with work expected to start on several projects following a year marked by stalled developments and billions of dollars in write-offs. The offshore wind industry is expected to play a major role in helping several states

And U.S. President Joe Biden meet goals to decarbonize the power grid and combat climate change. According to Reuters, – A look at the day ahead in U.S. and global markets by Amanda Cooper. It’s the last day in the final full week of trading for the year – not a bad point at

Which to take stock of what 2023 has brought to equity investors. A recession that never was, a consumer that has proven almost bulletproof in the face of high inflation and interest rates, an unexpected boom in AI-linked stocks and, supercharging

The market in the final weeks of the year, the anticipation of a steep drop off in borrowing costs in 2024. According to Reuters, – A look at the day ahead in U.S. and global markets by Amanda Cooper.

It’s the last day in the final full week of trading for the year – not a bad point at which to take stock of what 2023 has brought to equity investors. A recession that never was, a consumer that has proven almost bulletproof in the face

Of high inflation and interest rates, an unexpected boom in AI-linked stocks and, supercharging the market in the final weeks of the year, the anticipation of a steep drop off in borrowing costs in 2024. According to Bloomberg, — One of the Bank of England’s most hawkish policymakers appeared

To signal that he was re-thinking his “higher-for-longer” stance on interest rates after Wednesday’s unexpectedly sharp fall in inflation. Jonathan Haskel, one of a minority of Monetary Policy Committee members who pushed for rate hikes at recent meetings, said in a post on social media site X that there was “news”

In the latest inflation report. It showed the rise in consumer prices dropping back to 3.9% in November from 4.6% a month earlier, a steeper slide than economists had predicted. According to Reuters, – President Vladimir Putin placed Russia’s biggest car dealership

Under temporary state management on Friday, in a step the Kremlin said was driven by commercial logic but which its founder said made the country look uninvestable. Rolf, which is owned by a Cyprus-based firm and was founded by Russian businessman Sergei

Petrov, was one of the first car dealerships to emerge after the collapse of the Soviet Union. According to Bloomberg, — Economists see the Federal Reserve holding off on interest-rate cuts until mid-2024, contrary to market expectations the easing cycle will begin sooner.

Bloomberg’s monthly survey shows the median expectation is for the US central bank to reduce the benchmark rate by 25 basis points at the June 2024 policy meeting, followed by three more cuts in the second half of the year. The benchmark has been in a range of 5.25% to 5.5% since July.

According to Reuters, – Global investors put a record $1.3 trillion into cash in 2023, according to a report from Bank of America and data provider EPFR on Friday. They also pumped a record $177 billion into U.S. Treasuries this year, though on a weekly

Basis the U.S. government bonds are in their third weekly outflow, the longest streak since February 2021. According to Reuters, – U.S. stock index futures dipped on Friday on caution ahead of a key inflation report, which could test an eight-week long rally driven by optimism that the Federal

Reserve could lower interest rates next year. All eyes will be on personal consumption expenditure data – the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge – due at 8:30 a.m. ET. A majority of economists polled by Reuters expect the price index to show a 2.8% rise

On an annual basis in November, softening from a 3% increase the month before. According to Reuters, – A Swedish appeals court has rejected Tesla’s attempt to force postal firm PostNord to deliver licence plates to the U.S. automaker, according to a ruling

Made on Thursday, part of a wider battle between the car company and labour unions. A district court had ruled earlier in December that PostNord for the time being does not need to deliver licence plates to Tesla, which is being blocked by the postal service’s workers as part of a sympathy strike.

According to Reuters, – Maersk and CMA CGM, two of the world’s largest shipping firms, will impose extra charges after deciding to re-route ships following attacks on vessels in the Red Sea. The surcharges, designed to cover longer voyages around Africa compared with routes via the

Suez Canal, will add to rising costs for sea transport since Yemen’s Houthi militant group started targetting vessels. According to Reuters, – The pound rose slightly on Friday as the dollar slipped while investors waited for data on the Federal Reserve’s preferred gauge of inflation.

Sterling was up 0.36% at $1.2736 and was set for a weekly gain of 0.45%. The euro was down 0.26% against the pound at 86.55 pence. According to Reuters, – Russia may cut diplomatic ties with the United States if Washington confiscates Russian assets frozen over the Ukrainian war, the Interfax

News agency quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Friday. According to Reuters, – Bristol Myers Squib has reached a deal to buy Karuna Therapeutics for $14 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. Under the terms of the deal, Bristol would pay $330 a share in cash for Karuna and its

Experimental schizophrenia drug, which is now up for U.S. government approval, according to the report. According to Reuters, – In the morgue of the Nasser Hospital, in southern Gaza, workers wrap the corpses of people killed in Israeli airstrikes in white cloth amid the stench of death.

They record whatever basic facts they can about the dead: name, identity card number, age, sex. Some of the bodies are badly mutilated. Only those that have been identified or claimed by relatives can go for burial and be included in the Gaza Health Ministry’s death toll for the war.

The rest are stored in the morgue’s refrigerator, often for weeks. The toll reached 20,057 people on Friday, amid renewed international calls for a fresh ceasefire in Gaza. The ministry says thousands more dead remain buried beneath the rubble. About 70% of those killed are women and children, it says.

According to Reuters, – Shipping companies sailing around the Cape of Good Hope to avoid Houthi attacks on the Red Sea face tough choices over where to refuel and restock, as African ports struggle with red tape, congestion and poor facilities, companies and analysts say.

Hundreds of large vessels are rerouting around the southern tip of Africa, a longer route adding 10-14 days of travel, to escape drone and missile attacks by Yemeni Houthis that have pushed up oil prices and freight rates. According to Reuters, – Japan’s finance minister on Friday said he would strive to contain

The risk of runaway debt after unveiling an annual budget as speculation mounts the central bank will shift away from more than two decades of ultra-easy monetary policy. The world’s third-largest economy is under pressure to restore its fiscal health after prolonged stimulus and spending worsened a national debt that is the heaviest in the

Industrialised world. According to Yahoo Finance,Nobel-laureate Robert Solow, credited as the founder of the modern model of economic growth, died on Thursday at the age of 99. Through his writings in the 1950s, Solow challenged traditional thinking by introducing technology and productivity as major drivers of economic growth.

According to Reuters, – Air Lease said on Friday it had received about $64.9 million in cash as part of an insurance claim settlement for four Airbus jets it had leased to a Russian carrier, which were blocked from leaving the country after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The settlement amount, received from the Russian insurance firm NSK, covers three A320-200 and one A321-200 aircraft that were leased to S7 Airlines. It does not include the five A321-200neo aircraft previously leased to S7. According to Bloomberg, — Abu Dhabi-based International Resources Holding RSC Ltd. will

Invest more than $1 billion in Zambia’s Mopani copper mine, securing access to a metal that’s key to the energy transition as fears grow over future supplies. The group was announced earlier this month as the winner of a drawn-out process to invest in the government-owned mine.

The deal will help Zambia revive major copper-and-cobalt mines that Glencore Plc previously owned. According to Reuters, – Toyota Motor’s small car unit Daihatsu Motor has decided to halt production at all its domestic plants until the end of January, the Nikkei business daily said on Friday, without citing sources.

Following the Nikkei report, a Daihatsu spokesperson said the company was still holding discussions about the matter internally. According to Reuters, – The International Energy Agency will work to ensure the World Bank, regional development banks and others prioritise the cost of investing in clean

Energy in developing countries following the COP28 summit last week, its Executive Director said. World governments agreed to triple renewable energy generation capacity by 2030 and transition away from fossil fuels at the COP28 United Nations climate conference in Dubai. But no mechanism was agreed to finance the transition to clean energy in developing countries.

According to Bloomberg, — A Two Sigma Investments quantitative researcher is pushing back against claims that his misconduct resulted in $170 million in client losses. The firm told investors in October that a researcher made unauthorized changes to its quantitative models that led to the losses.

Two Sigma didn’t identify the researcher, but an Oct. 30 Wall Street Journal story cited “people close to the matter” in naming him as Jian Wu. According to Yahoo Finance,US stock futures slipped into the red on Friday, ahead of an inflation reading that could put hopes for interest-rate cuts and the record-setting

Market rally to the test. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell 0.3%, while SP 500 futures hovered just below the flatline after leading stocks’ recovery from a sharp sell-off. Contracts on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 were also little changed. According to Reuters, – A long awaited shift in the U.S. Federal Reserve’s monetary policy

Arrived in December with major developed central banks delivering just one increase and the number of cuts accelerating further in emerging markets. December saw eight of the central banks overseeing the 10 most heavily traded currencies hold rate setting meetings, with only Norway hiking rates by 25 bps.

According to Bloomberg, — The European Central Bank’s job to bring consumer prices under control isn’t yet finished, according to Executive Board member Isabel Schnabel. Speaking to the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, she said that inflation will probably pick up “temporarily” before it then “gradually” slows to the 2% target by 2025.

According to Reuters, – The Swiss government has appointed two new members to the expanded governing board of the Swiss National Bank, it said on Friday. Rosmarie Schlup, currently an executive director at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and Sebastien Kreanzlin, head of the SNB’s Banking Operations division,

Will join the committee next year. According to Reuters, – A Brussels labour court ruled on Friday that Deliveroo couriers should be classed as employees, potentially giving them more benefits and overturning an earlier judgment in favour of the British food delivery company.

The judgment only applies to the 28 bicycle couriers who in 2018, together with unions, the Brussels Labour Audit Office and the Belgian National Employment Office, started a lawsuit against Deliveroo, but could inspire other Belgian couriers. According to Reuters, – Truck engine maker Cummins said on Friday it expects to take

Nearly $2.04 billion in charge in the fourth quarter as it reached an agreement to resolve regulatory claims on its emissions certification and compliance for certain engines. The company, which first disclosed a review in 2019, has already recalled certain RAM trucks with its powertrains and has previously accrued $59 million as estimated costs for

Executing the recalls. According to Bloomberg, — While now seen as a sure thing by the vast majority of the Bitcoin community, the options market is showing that traders are hedging bets ahead of a Jan. 10 deadline for the US to decide whether to allow exchange-traded funds holding the cryptocurrency.

The open interest, or the total amount of outstanding contracts, for puts allowing holders to sell the digital currency expiring on Jan. 12 has surged. That’s made the put-to-call ratio on the contract well above those for contracts with other expiration dates further out from the deadline, according to data compiled by Deribit,

The largest crypto options exchange. According to Reuters, – Blank check firm Screaming Eagle Acquisition Corp said on Friday it has agreed to merge with the studio business of entertainment company Lionsgate in a deal valued at about $4.6 billion. The deal is expected to deliver about $350 million in gross proceeds to Lionsgate, including

$175 million from a private investment in public equity and the remaining from the special purpose acquisition company’s trust account. According to Reuters, – The Netherlands will deliver 18 F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine to help its battle against Russia’s invasion, the Dutch government said on Friday.

“Today I informed President Zelenskiy of our government’s decision to prepare an initial 18 F-16 fighter aircraft for delivery to Ukraine,” caretaker Prime Minister Mark Rutte said in a post on social media platform X. According to Reuters, – The U.S. proposed rules on Friday for how energy companies can

Access billions of dollars in tax credits for producing low-carbon hydrogen using new clean energy sources but left thorny issues, such as how nuclear power could benefit, uncertain. The credit will be based on the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions from the power source

Used in hydrogen production, and ranges from 60 cents to $3 per kilogram, the Treasury Department said in the 128-page proposal. According to Reuters, – Air China plans to raise up to 6.0 billion yuan in a private share sale on the Shanghai Stock Exchange to expand its fleet and replenish working

Capital, it said on Friday. The flagship carrier is aiming to sell up to 854.7 million shares, equivalent to 30% of its existing capital, to its controlling shareholder China National Aviation Holding Corporation Limited, it said in a statement to the Shanghai exchange.

According to Bloomberg, — Shares in the biggest global sportswear brands tumbled after Nike Inc. said it would slash jobs in response to weaker sales. Nike said it’s looking for as much as $2 billion in cost savings by dismissing workers and simplifying the sneaker company’s product lineup amid a weaker sales outlook.

According to Reuters, – France’s moves to limit climate damage came late but were sufficient, a French court ruled on Friday, in a blow to attempts by environmental campaigners to impose a 1.1 billion euro penalty on the state for alleged failings.

The ruling comes two years after a landmark legal order on France to honour its climate change commitments and take all necessary measures to repair ecological damage and stop further carbon emissions rises by end-December 2022 at the latest. According to Reuters, – Annual U.S. inflation slowed further below 3% in November and underlying

Price pressures continued to abate, which could cement financial market expectations for an interest rate cut next March. Inflation, as measured by the personal consumption expenditures price index, fell 0.1% last month after being unchanged in October, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis said on Friday.

In the 12 months through November, the PCE price index increased 2.6% after rising 2.9% in October. October was the first since March 2021 that the annual PCE price index was below 3%. According to Reuters, – Canada’s economy was essentially unchanged for the third consecutive

Month in October, missing growth forecasts, but gross domestic product likely edged up in November, Statistics Canada data showed on Friday. Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast a 0.2% month-over-month rise. September’s GDP was downwardly revised to zero growth from an initial report of 0.1% growth.

According to Bloomberg, — The Federal Reserve’s preferred gauge of underlying inflation barely rose in November and trailed policymakers’ 2% target in a six-month measure, reinforcing the central bank’s pivot toward interest-rate cuts next year. The so-called core personal consumption expenditures price index, which strips out the volatile

Food and energy components, increased 0.1% from a month earlier after a downwardly revised 0.1% gain in October, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. From a year ago, the Fed’s preferred gauge of underlying inflation advanced 3.2%. According to Reuters, – Annual U.S. inflation slowed further below 3% in November and underlying

Price pressures continued to abate, which could cement financial market expectations for an interest rate cut next March. The personal consumption expenditures price index, fell 0.1% last month after being unchanged in October, the Commerce Department reported on Friday. Year on year, the PCE index increased 2.6% after rising 2.9% in October.

October was the first since March 2021 that the annual PCE price index was below 3%. According to Reuters, – Asian spot liquefied natural gas prices hit their lowest level in over four months this week on strong inventories and weak demand despite supply concerns as

More tankers avoid the Red Sea, following attacks launched by Yemen’s Houthi group on commercial ships. The average LNG price for February delivery into Northeast Asia fell 6% to $11.9 per million British thermal units , its lowest level since August 13, industry sources estimated.

According to Reuters, – The euro zone’s benchmark bond yield, the German 10-year, was on track for its eighth straight weekly fall on Friday, reflecting expectations of big interest rate cuts next year. Germany’s 10-year bond yield, which moves inversely to the price, was last up 1 basis point at 1.973%.

It fell to 1.94% on Thursday, its lowest since March. According to Bloomberg, — Billions of dollars in hydrogen-industry subsidies from President Joe Biden’s signature climate law will come with stringent environmental safeguards, raising concerns that strict rules will stifle production of the nascent climate-friendly fuel.

Under the proposed rules laid out Friday, the new clean-hydrogen tax credit won’t benefit existing nuclear power plants, which is a blow to reactor owners such as Constellation Energy Corp. that lobbied for inclusion. Administration officials, however, said that could change when the guidelines are finalized.

According to Bloomberg, — The Canadian economy is on track to avoid back-to-back quarterly contractions, with early data pointing to a slight rebound in the last three months of the year, suggesting a possibility of a soft landing. Preliminary data suggest gross domestic product expanded 0.1% in November, as increases in

The manufacturing and agriculture sectors were partially offset by decreases in retail trade, Statistics Canada reported Friday in Ottawa. According to Reuters, – The annual rotation on the U.S. Federal Reserve’s interest-rate-setting committee means its 2024 voting members lean slightly more hawkish than the outgoing group

From 2023 – but that won’t budge the outlook for a pivot to interest-rate cuts next year. In fact, plenty of analysts make the opposite argument: if inflation continues to fall more quickly than expected, Fed policymakers will want to reduce rates even more than the three-quarters-of-a-percentage point implied in fresh projections published last week.

According to Reuters, – Sweden’s Transport Agency said on Friday it is investigating suspension failures in Tesla cars in a probe similar to that of neighbouring Norway’s traffic safety regulator. “We can … confirm that investigative work is also underway with us,” The Swedish agency said in an emailed statement to Reuters.

According to Reuters, – Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd joined rivals on Friday in announcing surcharges for cargo it transports to and from the Middle East, following a spate of attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea. A “peak seasonal surcharge” will apply for containers travelling from Asia and Oceania

To the Red Sea region, comprising Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, from Jan. 1 until further notice, the shipping company said. According to Reuters, – A year-end rally in U.S. government bonds has potentially limited further gains in some Treasury maturities, said Rick Rieder, chief investment officer

Of global fixed income at BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager. U.S. Treasuries have bounced back from a severe sell-off over the past two months on expectations the Federal Reserve will start cutting interest rates next year as inflation cools and the economy slows.

But market bets that the Fed will trim rates by 150 basis points starting as soon as March are overdone, Rieder said in an interview. According to Reuters, – Brazil will unveil next week fresh measures to support the goal of eliminating its primary deficit next year, Finance Minister Fernando Haddad said on Friday,

Reiterating that the government will keep pursuing that goal. “The outcome is secured, we are debating the pace of the process,” he said, defending that Brazil will inevitably move towards fiscal balance under new rules set by leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s administration.

According to Reuters, – Wall Street’s main indexes gained on Friday after a key inflation reading came in softer than expected, boosting recent investor optimism that the Federal Reserve could lower borrowing costs next year. According to Reuters, – Commercial transportation and industrial equipment

Maker Powermers Smart Industries has agreed to go public in the U.S. through a merger with a blank-check firm in a deal valued at about $2 billion, the companies said on Friday. According to Bloomberg, — The dollar came under selling pressure ahead of key US inflation

Data, on the growing expectation that US interest rates may fall in the coming months. The Swiss franc rose to the strongest level against the US currency since 2015, while the euro and Norwegian krone rose to their highest levels since August. The greenback weakened against all Group-of-10 peers.

According to Reuters, – Britain’s Competition Appeal Tribunal has upheld the antitrust watchdog’s findings that U.S.-based walkie-talkie maker Motorola Solutions was overcharging UK emergency services for its radio network Airwave, the Competition and Markets Authority said on Friday. The tribunal had dismissed the grounds of Motorola’s appeal, which claimed the antitrust

Regulator had erred in assessing the Airwave Network’s profitability and its competition in the relevant market. According to Reuters, – Mexico on Friday launched operations on a train line that crosses the country’s narrowest point from the Gulf coast to the Pacific Ocean, kicking off a flagship

Government project as the administration enters its last months in office. The “Inter-Oceanic Train,” which will carry both passengers and cargo from the coastal hub of Coatzacoalcos in Veracruz state to the Pacific port of Salina Cruz, is part of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s plan to bring investment to the country’s poorer south.

According to Reuters, – Canada’s main stock index advanced on Friday, with materials and real estate shares leading gains, setting the benchmark index up for its second straight weekly increase as it heads into the Christmas break. According to Reuters, – Sales of new U.S. single-family homes dropped to a one-year

Low in November, but the unexpected decline is probably temporary amid a chronic shortage of previously owned homes, which has been supporting demand for new construction. New home sales decreased 12.2% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 590,000 units last month, the lowest level since November 2022, the Commerce Department’s Census Bureau said

On Friday. October’s sales pace was revised lower to 672,000 units from the previously reported 679,000 units. According to Bloomberg, — TFI International Inc., a Canadian trucker that has been growing through acquisitions, agreed to purchase Daseke Inc. for $1.1 billion including debt.

TFI will pay $8.30 a share in cash for Daseke, a Texas-based operator with 4,900 large trucks and 11,000 flatbed and specialized trailers, according to a statement released Friday. That’s a premium of 69% from the closing share price on Thursday. According to Reuters, – The Turkish parliament’s foreign affairs commission

Will sit down again on Tuesday to consider Sweden’s NATO membership bid, parliament’s website showed on Friday, a first step necessary for ratification. According to Yahoo Finance,A new reading of the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge could make it easier for the central bank to justify a dovish shift in 2024, setting

The stage for rate cuts in the New Year. The “core” personal consumption expenditures index — which excludes volatile food and energy prices — clocked in at 3.2% for the month of November. According to Reuters, – Angola’s decision to leave the Organization of the Petroleum

Exporting Countries could open the way for Beijing to increase investment in the country’s oil and other sectors, as part of a deepening of decades-old ties. Angola said on Thursday it was leaving OPEC, effective from Jan. 1, following a row with the producer group over the size of its output quota.

According to Reuters, – All Palestinian surgeon Bashir al-Hourani has to work with in the central Gaza school where he helps run a field clinic amid Israel’s pounding offensive is gauze and disinfectant as he treats walking wounded turned away from overstretched hospitals.

“We don’t have anything else,” he said, showing a bottle of iodine he was using to wash the long operating scar running down the torso and stomach of an injured man. According to Reuters, – Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, has become the

Latest tech company to be fined in Italy for breaches of a ban on the advertising of gambling. Meta has been fined 5.85 million euros in connection with profiles and accounts on Facebook and Instagram, as well as sponsored content which promoted either betting or games with

Cash prizes, communications watchdog AGCOM said in a statement on Friday. According to Reuters, – Testing of the mysterious respiratory illness affecting dogs across the United States has not yet revealed any new pathogens or any common cause for the wave of infections that have alarmed pet owners, the agriculture department said.

Instead, common causes of canine infectious respiratory disease have been identified in many of these cases through genetic sequencing of samples, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in an emailed statement. According to Reuters, – Global stock markets rose while the U.S. dollar hit a near five-month

Low on Friday after data showed that annual U.S. inflation slowed further below 3% in November, supporting the view that the Federal Reserve could cut borrowing costs next year. The Commerce Department report also showed U.S. prices fell in November for the first in more than 3-1/2 years.

According to Reuters, – Inter Miami have signed striker Luis Suarez, the Major League Soccer club announced on Friday as the Uruguayan once again teams up with close friend and former Barcelona team mate Lionel Messi. Suarez has signed a contract for the 2024 season and has also been reunited with former

Barca players and treble-winning team mates Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba, with who they won four LaLiga titles in five years. According to Yahoo Finance,Alphabet’s Google has played many parts in the mythology of AI — leader, innovator, and even lagger. Though Google was initially caught flat footed as the popularity of OpenAI’s ChatGPT surged,

It remains impossible to talk about artificial intelligence without talking about the search giant. Naturally, Google Cloud, which raked in more than $26 billion in 2022, is front and center in the enterprise AI race with Amazon’s AWS and Microsoft’s Azure.

That means that for Brian Goldstein, Google Cloud’s Global GM of AI Go To Market, life has changed a lot over the last year. According to Reuters, – The United Nations Security Council on Friday approved a toned-down bid to boost humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip and called for urgent steps “to create

The conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities” after a week of vote delays and intense negotiations to avoid a veto by the United States. Amid global outrage over a rising Gaza death toll in 11 weeks of war between Israel and Hamas and a worsening humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian enclave, the U.S. abstained

To allow the 15-member council to adopt a resolution drafted by the United Arab Emirates. According to Reuters, – Engineering software firm Ansys Inc is exploring options including a potential sale after receiving takeover interest from potential buyers, according to people familiar with the matter.

A deal for Ansys could be announced in the coming weeks if the talks do not fall apart, the sources said, adding Ansys is working with advisors to evaluate its options. The sources requested anonymity as the discussions are confidential. According to Yahoo Finance,Many Americans think the holidays mean time off, but that’s

Not true for all workers. Nearly 1 in 4 Americans will be working on Christmas Eve, a new study from Calendar Labs — a calendar template company — found, and over 1 in 10 will be working on Christmas Day. The report, which surveyed 1,014 full-time employees, also showed that over 1 in 4 plan

On working through New Year’s Eve, and almost 1 in 5 will be on the job on New Year’s Day. According to Reuters, – Argentina’s central bank on Friday said it would issue three series of dollar-denominated bonds, maturing in 2025, 2026 and 2027, as the country tries to shore

Up foreign reserves and claw its way out of an economic crisis. “These bonds will be offered as vehicles to channel the demand for foreign currency from importers of goods and services with commercial debts,” the bank said in a statement, without specifying the value of the debt offering.

According to Yahoo Finance,Nike stock sank more than 10% Friday after executives gave a weaker sales outlook for markets around the world and highlighted a major cost cutting initiative. The company said Thursday that it aims to cut $2 billion in costs over the next three years.

It also gave a softer revenue outlook of about 1% growth for its current fiscal year, compared to a prior projection of mid-single digits. According to Bloomberg, — Treasuries are set to book a fourth-straight week of gains — the best winning streak since March — on building investor confidence that the Federal

Reserve will begin cutting interest rates next quarter. Rates oscillated Friday amid light pre-holiday trading after a report showed the Fed’s preferred gauge of underlying inflation barely rose in November, endorsing a growing narrative that central bankers have successfully broken the back of price pressures and will aggressively ease monetary policy in 2024.

According to Reuters, – Union Pacific said on Friday that it was informed by the authorities that railroad crossings in two Texas border towns would reopen this afternoon, nearly a week after U.S. border officials closed two rail bridges. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection had announced a temporary suspension of operations

At the international railway crossing bridges at El Paso and Eagle Pass to deal with an influx of migrants on the country’s southern border. According to Bloomberg, — SP Global Ratings upgraded Carnival Corp.’s credit rating two notches to BB- on Friday, a day after the cruise operator posted better-than-expected

Results, helped by relatively strong bookings and higher prices. The upgrade is a step toward the company returning to investment-grade status, which it lost in 2020, during the early part of the pandemic. On Thursday, Carnival posted a more than 40% jump in quarterly revenue, and operating income

Of $384 million compared with an operating loss of $1.135 billion in the same quarter last year. According to Reuters, – Last-minute shoppers looking for late deals ahead of Christmas may find smaller discounts and fewer items marked down at major retailers including Macy’s,

Target and Ulta Beauty, according to an analyst and two datasets measuring retailers’ recent prices. After ramping up promotions for Black Friday, some of the country’s top gifting destinations cut back both the number and size of their price markdowns on key products from Nov.

1 to Dec. 1, according to data from Centric Market Intelligence, formerly StyleSage, which analyzes retailers, brands, online trends and products across the globe. According to Reuters, – Russia has bought out another 92 planes from foreign leasing companies, airlines and aircraft leasing company AerCap said.

The planes have been bought out using money from Russia’s National Welfare Fund, 190 billion roubles of which has been allocated for the purpose. According to Reuters, – The Canadian dollar strengthened to a near five-month high against its U.S. counterpart on Friday as traders bet that the recent downtrend in the U.S.

Dollar would continue, and despite data showing a lingering soft patch for Canada’s economy. The loonie was trading 0.2% higher at 1.3260 to the greenback, or 75.41 U.S. cents, after touching its strongest intraday level since Aug. 1 at 1.3220.

According to Reuters, – As the war in Gaza enters an 11th week, Israelis appear resigned to a long road before the military achieves its stated aim of destroying Hamas and bringing more than 100 hostages back home. For days, in the face of growing international pressure to halt the fighting and increase

The flow of aid into the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has issued video statements reiterating his determination to win the war. According to Yahoo Finance,There’s good news about declining inflation nearly every week, and it keeps sending President Biden’s approval rating … lower.

Biden must be pulling out what’s left of his hair, because voters seem to think he can’t do anything right. Inflation has fallen from a peak of 8.9% in 2022 to 3.1% now, and incoming data continues to show inflation moving back toward the Federal Reserve’s target of 2%.

A key metric published on December 22 showed prices actually fell from October to November, the first monthly decline since 2020. Stocks are heading back toward record highs on the upbeat inflation news. Economists increasingly think a “soft landing” is in the cards.

According to Reuters, – The White House on Friday said it was closely monitoring Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea, but did not expect the situation to have a significant impact on holiday prices or the availability of products. Lael Brainard, director of the White House National Economic Council, told reporters

That the U.S. economy was proving resilient, with inflation having come down faster than even the more optimistic forecasts had indicated, the labor mearket rebounding, and growth remaining solid. According to Bloomberg, — Brazil’s state oil company Petrobras said it’s in talks

With Mubadala Capital to buy back a stake in a refinery it sold two years ago to the investment arm of Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund. The deal is still subject to internal evaluation by Petrobras, and a partnership is also under consideration, the company said in a statement Friday.

The move is part of a potential strategic downstream partnership in Brazil between the firms, which in September signed a memorandum of understanding to develop such projects. According to Reuters, – Wall Street is counting on the so-called Santa Claus Rally to bring record highs as markets close out 2023 with strong gains.

The SP 500 is up over 4% in December alone and has risen 24% this year, bringing it within 1% of a new all-time high. The benchmark index is also on track for its eighth straight positive week. According to Reuters, – U.S. stocks reversed earlier gains on Friday

As investors took a breather ahead of the long Christmas holiday weekend, having digested cooler-than-expected inflation data which firmed bets for Federal Reserve interest rate cuts in the new year. According to Reuters, – Brazilian fast-food chain Oakberry has raised 325 million reais

In an investment round led by BTG Pactual-managed funds, it said on Friday, boosting a global expansion plan that should see it open 300 stores by the end of 2024. Oakberry, founded in 2016 and already backed by asset manager Kilima Asset, sells acai

Bowls in more than 40 countries, including the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom and France. According to Reuters, – The U.S. reopened two rail crossings between Texas and Mexico on Friday, five days after the key trade routes were closed in order

To redeploy border personnel in response to increased migrant crossings, the Biden administration said. According to Reuters, – Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX and its debtors on Friday said they have entered into a settlement agreement with founder Samuel Bankman-Fried and others to resolve some claims related to its acquisition of stock trading platform Embed.

The settlement agreement is between Bankman-Fried, and former FTX executives Nishad Singh and Gary Wang. According to Reuters, – The Washington Post Guild has reached a tentative agreement with the publisher, the union said in a post on social media platform X on Friday.

“We have reached a comprehensive tentative agreement on a new three-year contract with the Guild,” a spokesperson for the Washington Post said. According to Bloomberg, — Panama’s government hasn’t provided a legal basis to First Quantum Minerals Ltd. for pursuing a closure plan for its giant copper mine in the country,

According to the metals producer. First Quantum has been unable to formally engage with the Central American government to clarify the legal situation and associated environmental obligations for its Cobre Panama mine, the Vancouver-based company said Friday in a statement. According to Reuters, – The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday declined to immediately decide former

President Donald Trump’s claim that he cannot be prosecuted for trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat, allowing a lower court to continue reviewing the issue. The justices, rebuffing an extraordinary request by U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith, refused to effectively leap-frog a lower appeals court to speed up a final ruling on Trump’s claim

Of criminal immunity ahead of his trial, due to begin in March. According to Reuters, – U.S. SEC officials met on Thursday with representatives of at least seven companies hoping to launch exchange-traded funds tied to spot bitcoin early in 2024,

And told at least two to submit final changes by the end of next week, according to public memos and two people familiar with the discussions. Among those holding discussions with the Securities and Exchange Commission were representatives from BlackRock and Grayscale Investments, as well as ARK Investments and 21 Shares.

According to Bloomberg, — Alphabet Inc.’s Google considered changing its app store pricing model to circumvent a regulatory crackdown, but abandoned a proposal to charge a set fee per app after it became clear that could cost the company billions of dollars, according to documents released late Thursday.

Google created Project Everest in 2021 to reconsider the Play Store billing model, according to the documents, which were released as part of an antitrust suit by Epic Games Inc. Google last week lost the suit brought by the maker of Fortnite when a federal jury

Found the tech giant abused its monopoly power over the app store. According to Bloomberg, — The US is rolling out the threat of secondary sanctions in a fresh bid to deny Russia the money and goods it needs to wage war in Ukraine, turning to a tool that’s powerful — but also risky.

In a statement just before the Christmas holiday, the US Treasury Department announced that it would use secondary sanctions against banks that facilitate deals in which Russia procures semiconductors, ball bearings and other equipment necessary for its war machine — even if they’re not aware they’re doing so.

According to Reuters, – OpenAI is in early talks to raise a fresh round of funding at a valuation at or above $100 billion, Bloomberg News reported on Friday citing people with knowledge of the matter. The terms, valuation and timing of the funding round have not yet been finalized and could

Still change, the report added. According to Reuters, – Apple has opened negotiations in recent weeks with major news and publishing organizations, seeking permission to use their material in the company’s development of generative artificial intelligence systems, the New York Times reported on Friday.

The iPhone maker has floated multiyear deals worth at least $50 million to license the archives of news articles, according to the report, which cited people familiar with the discussions. According to Reuters, – President Joe Biden on Friday signed into law the U.S. defense

Policy bill that authorizes a record $886 billion in annual military spending and policies such as aid for Ukraine and push-back against China in the Indo-Pacific. The National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, passed Congress last week. The Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate approved the legislation with a strong bipartisan majority

Of 87 to 13 while the House of Representatives voted in favor 310 to 118. According to Reuters, – The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday that COVID subvariant JN.1 accounts for 39% to 50% of cases in the United States as of Dec. 23, according to the agency’s projections.

This is an increase from the estimated 15% to 29% of cases in the United States, the CDC had projected as of Dec. 8. According to Reuters, – U.S. oil giant ConocoPhillips on Friday gave the financial greenlight to its $8 billion Willow oil and gas drilling project in Alaska.

“With this project authorization, we’ve begun winter construction,” said chief executive Ryan Lance. According to Reuters, – Drugmaker GSK Plc said on Friday that it will cut U.S. list prices on asthma drug Advair, herpes drug Valtrex, and anti-epileptic medication Lamictal on Jan. 1, 2024.

The price cuts come after several companies have already announced price decreases for insulins earlier this year as they worked to avoid potential penalties under 2021’s American Rescue Plan Act if they had kept prices high. According to Bloomberg, — Speculators are ramping up their bearish wagers on Canada’s

Dollar, lifting net short positions to the highest in nearly five years, according to a report from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Leveraged funds boosted their wager against the loonie to 51,971 contracts in the week ended Dec. 19, the highest since January 2019 and up from 37,707 contracts the week before,

According to the data. According to Reuters, – Global stock indexes mostly rose while the U.S. dollar dipped to a near five-month low on Friday ahead of the long holiday weekend, with cooler-than-expected U.S. inflation data supporting the view that the Federal Reserve could cut borrowing costs in the new year.

The Commerce Department report showed U.S. prices fell in November for the first in more than 3-1/2 years, pushing the annual increase in inflation further below 3%. According to Bloomberg, — Betting against the dollar is growing in popularity after the Federal Reserve upended markets by signaling the end of its monetary tightening campaign.

Non-commercial traders — a group that includes hedge funds, asset managers and other speculative market players — boosted their bearish bets on the greenback in the week ended Tuesday, according to CFTC data compiled by Bloomberg. More than 39,000 contracts are now tied to expectations the US currency will fall, up

More than 10,000 from a week ago when the Fed was preparing to meet, the data show. According to Bloomberg, — The sense of doom that gripped crypto markets at the end of 2022 following a $1.5 trillion wipeout has 12 months later given way to a very different sentiment: avarice.

Bitcoin stormed back with a more than 160% advance this year that added some $530 billion to its market capitalization. In its wake, myriad smaller tokens ranging from Sam Bankman-Fried-backed Solana to dog- and frog-themed memecoins took off as investors embraced risk again.

An investor who bought $100,000 of Solana at the start of 2023 would now be sitting on a more than $800,000 gain. According to Reuters, – Twitter violated contracts by failing to pay millions of dollars in bonuses that the social media company, now called X Corp, had promised its employees, a federal

Judge ruled on Friday. Mark Schobinger, who was Twitter’s senior director of compensation before leaving Elon Musk’s company in May, sued Twitter in June, claiming breach of contract. According to Reuters, – China’s top planning body said on Saturday it had identified a second batch of public investment projects, including flood control and disaster relief

Programmes, under a bond issuance and investment plan announced in October to boost the economy. With the latest tranche, China has now earmarked more than 800 billion yuan of its 1 trillion yuan in additional government bond issuance in the fourth quarter, as it focuses on fiscal steps to shore up the flagging economy.