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☆ Tech pushes Nasdaq higher, dollar climbs on solid data, debt ceiling progress
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Stephen Culp | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Investors were closely monitoring the debt ceiling negotiations in Washington for signs that Democrats and Republicans might be inching closer to a deal. Optimism about debt ceiling talks ebbed and flowed, with hopes for a deal that avoids a catastrophic default. European stocks closed higher and the German DAX rose to its highest level since January 2022 on optimism about the U.S. debt ceiling talks. The greenback extended its ascent against a basket of world currencies, reaching a seven-week high, powered by the economic data and debt ceiling hopes. Gold moved in opposition to the dollar, with the precious metal losing some luster as the economic data lowered the likelihood of a Fed rate cut before year-end.

☆ Grab beats quarterly revenue estimates
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

May 18 (Reuters) - Grab Holdings Ltd (GRAB.O) beat first-quarter revenue estimates on Thursday, driven by growth in its core rideshare and food-delivery businesses. Revenue more than doubled to $525 million in the quarter ended March, inching past analysts' estimate of $504.3 million, according to Visible Alpha. Reporting by Yuvraj Malik in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju SamuelOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Why is the US dollar so strong again?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Harry Robertson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

LONDON, May 18 (Reuters) - If investors agree on one thing this year, it's that the dollar is going to fall. The go-to explanation of currency strategists right now is the debt-ceiling debacle is boosting the dollar. Traders currently expect the U.S. central bank to cut interest rates sharply later this year as a recession takes hold, yet Tan is skeptical. If the dollar rises slightly, some traders may be forced to close out their short positions by buying the dollar, which then boosts its value. But a simple technical indicator is that it is very atypical for you to have a straight-line decline in the dollar."

☆ European markets head for higher open as U.S. debt ceiling talks make progress
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Holly Ellyatt | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

European markets are heading for a higher open Thursday as U.S. debt ceiling talks make progress. Wall Street sentiment improved Wednesday and Asia-Pacific markets rose overnight on hopes that U.S President Joe Biden and congressional leaders were inching closer to a deal to raise the U.S. debt ceiling and avoid a default. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said that a "better process" is now in place for further talks, saying it's "possible to get a deal by the end of the week." Biden shortened his trip to Asia to focus on the negotiations, the White House said.

Asia-Pacific markets are set to rise on hopes of U.S President Joe Biden and congressional leaders inching closer to a deal to raise the U.S. debt ceiling and avoid a default. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said that a "better process" is now in place for further talks, saying it's "possible to get a deal by the end of the week." Biden shortened his trip to Asia to focus on the negotiations, the White House said. South Korea's Kospi gained 0.66% and the Kosdaq gained 0.77% in Asia's morning trade. Stocks in Australia also rose, with the S&P/ASX 200 up 0.74% as investors await the economy's unemployment figures for April.

☆ US stocks move higher, dollar gains as debt limit talks inch forward
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Stephen Culp | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] The German share price index DAX graph is pictured at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, May 15, 2023. REUTERS/StaffSINGAPORE, May 17 (Reuters) - Wall Street was modestly higher on Wednesday and the dollar advanced as regional banks surged and negotiations in Washington over raising the debt ceiling inched forward. Debt ceiling negotiations preoccupied market participants, who took heart from Republican House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy's vow to avoid what would be a catastrophic default. The dollar gained ground against a basket of world currencies, the greenback benefiting from its safe-haven status as debt ceiling talks grind on. The dollar index rose 0.4%, with the euro down 0.31% to $1.0827.

☆ Asian shares muted, US debt ceiling talks weigh on risk appetite
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Ankur Banerjee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

SINGAPORE, May 17 (Reuters) - Asian shares were subdued on Wednesday and the dollar hovered around a five-week peak as investors remained risk averse, with the U.S. debt ceiling talks and a mixed set of economic data weighing on sentiment. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) was down 0.09% in choppy trading, with Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index (.AXJO) down 0.45%. Democratic President Joe Biden and top congressional Republican Kevin McCarthy edged closer to a deal to avoid a looming U.S. debt default Tuesday. After an hour of talks, McCarthy, the speaker of the House of Representatives, told reporters the two sides remained far apart on an agreement to lift the debt ceiling. Against a basket of currencies, the dollar rose 0.01% to 102.61, inching closer to the five-week high of 102.75 it touched on Monday.

☆ Asian shares tentative, US debt ceiling talks weigh on risk appetite
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Ankur Banerjee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

SINGAPORE, May 17 (Reuters) - Asian shares were subdued on Wednesday and the dollar hovered around a five-week peak as investors remained risk averse, with the U.S. debt ceiling talks and a mixed set of economic data weighing on sentiment. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) was 0.20% lower, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index (.AXJO) was down 0.56%. U.S. stock indexes closed down overnight, hamstrung by dour forecast from Home Depot and April U.S. retail sales data that underscored softer consumer spending. "These actually came in on the lower end of expectations though the news was mixed, with a lower headline but higher core sales figures muddying the message." Recent economic data indicates slowing in the U.S. economy following a string of rate hikes by the Federal Reserve to fight high inflation.

☆ How will we know when Ukraine's long-awaited counteroffensive has started? Experts say look for the Western armor.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

But military experts say Kyiv's use of Western armor will signal the start of a larger offensive. "The Ukrainian counteroffensive, I think, is going to start with a bang, literally and figuratively," Mark Cancian, a retired US Marine Corps Reserve colonel, told Insider. Ukraine's expected counterpunch will come on the heels of what turned out to be a lackluster offensive carried out by Russian forces during the winter. The armored vehicles in particular are expected to help Ukraine hit hard and exploit gains quickly with shock, firepower, and mobility. You want to keep the Russian armed forces guessing as to, is this actually the commitment of their main forces?"

☆ U.S. households are hitting their own debt ceiling. Here's how you can avoid default
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Jessica Dickler | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Currently, the average household's credit card balance is $9,990, just $2,015 shy of where that tab hits its limit, the report found. High inflation is certainly contributing to Americans' high credit card balances, along with record-high interest rates, according to Ted Rossman, senior industry analyst at Bankrate. "We're seeing more people carrying credit card debt, too, often to finance day-to-day essentials." More than one-third also now have more credit card debt than emergency savings, which is the highest on record. "It's never too late to turn things around," Rossman said.

☆ Russian troops taking over from Wagner in Bakhmut are abandoning their positions, Ukrainian officer claims: 'As soon as they are afraid, they just run'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Sinéad Baker | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A Ukrainian officer said Russian troops are abandoning their Bakhmut positions out of fear. "As soon as Wagner left and the regular Russian troops stepped in, they abandoned their positions," he said, adding: "The Wagner fighters would hold positions until the very end. The Wagner Group, which has thousands of mercenary fighters and prisoners serving in Ukraine, has spearheaded Russia's efforts to capture the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. Western officials estimated in early March that up to 30,000 Russian troops had been killed or injured in the city. Zhydkov described a day when Russian soldiers used a grenade launcher to get into a five-story apartment building that was controlled by Ukrainian forces.

☆ Premarket stocks: Wall Street's 'fear gauge' is rising as US debt talks drag on
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Markets will get volatile, maybe the stock market will go down, the Treasury markets will have their own problems,” he said. But this fear of market volatility isn’t going away. A similar fight around the debt ceiling in 2011 spurred a serious bout of market volatility. Wall Street’s key measure of volatility, the VIX, reached two year highs and soared more than 35% in just one day. Wall Street typically uses the VIX, known as the market’s “fear gauge,” as a way to measure how investors feel about financial and economic uncertainties.

☆ Ron DeSantis just made it clear he's going to fight Trump on abortion
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Kevin Breuninger | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

As former President Donald Trump blinks on the abortion debate, his likely top rival, Florida Gov. Asked about that remark, DeSantis said the legislation he signed is something that "probably 99% of pro-lifers support." Trump himself underlined that contrast when asked in a recent interview about the six-week abortion ban that DeSantis had just signed in Florida. But DeSantis' willingness to hit Trump from the right on abortion could also be a strategic one. South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, who launched a Republican presidential exploratory committee last month, has said he backs a federal abortion ban after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

☆ ‘Bakhmut Trap’: Ukrainian Advances Vindicate Defense of Besieged City
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Ian Lovett | Stephen Kalin | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

KYIV, Ukraine—For months, Ukrainian troops in the eastern city of Bakhmut have been on the defensive, hunkering in basements and inching backward in the face of withering artillery fire and waves of infantry assaults. Last week, Ukraine launched surprise counterattacks that regained several square miles of land on the western outskirts of the city, easing Russia’s chokehold on critical supply routes.

☆ 'Severe hardship to American families' is inching closer and closer as Congress fails to find a debt ceiling solution, Janet Yellen warns
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Janet Yellen reminded Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday that the US could default on its debt in early June. If the debt ceiling is not raised by then, Americans could experience "severe hardship," Yellen warned. In a new letter to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Yellen reiterated that the country might run out of money to pay its debts as soon as June 1 if Congress doesn't step in. And, right now, with Democrats and Republicans still squabbling over how to approach a debt ceiling increase, Congress is running out of time to avert a crisis. The Washington Post reported on Monday, for example, that GOP staff refused the White House's request to close tax loopholes in debt ceiling talks.

☆ When Jamie Dimon speaks, Wall Street listens - and he just warned of catastrophe
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-12 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

But on Thursday, the man with the most gravitas on Wall Street shared his take on the potentially catastrophic scenario that's just weeks away. Everyone pays attention when Jamie Dimon speaks. In an interview with Bloomberg, Dimon said he's put together a "war room" at JPMorgan to plan for contingencies around a potential US default. While Dimon doesn't anticipate the country will actually see its first-ever default, he acknowledged the clock is running down. "Markets will get volatile, maybe the stock market will go down, the Treasury markets will have their own problems."

☆ JD Vance defends Trump's comments that Republicans should let the US default, saying the former president was giving 'political advice' and doing 'fundamentally the right thing'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-12 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Sen. JD Vance defended Trump's comments to Axios, saying he was just giving "political advice." "I say to the Republicans out there, congressmen and senators, if they don't give you massive cuts you are going to have to do a default," Trump said. Sen. JD Vance argued that Trump was just trying to help his party. Vance told Axios that "what the president is doing is really giving political advice ... not financial advice." GOP Sen. Josh Hawley, for example, told Axios that he disagreed with Trump's comments and that "there is no world in which [a default] happens."

☆ American consumers are growing worried about a US debt default
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-12 | by ( Bryan Mena | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

“If policymakers fail to resolve the debt ceiling crisis, these dismal views over the economy will exacerbate the dire economic consequences of default.”The latest survey showed that the university’s consumer-sentiment index fell by 9% in May. Monthly household spending growth tumbled to 5.4% from a revised 7.1% in December, according to the New York Fed’s Household Spending Survey, which is fielded every four months. Michigan’s report showed US household spending was flat in March from the prior month, after limping just 0.1% in February. Stack on top of that the Federal Reserve’s punishing interest-rate increases and still-high inflation, and consumers might just tap out. The Conference Board’s sentiment survey showed that consumer confidence worsened in April as Americans became more worried about the jobs market.

☆ Wholesale prices rose just 0.2% in April, less than estimate as inflation pressures ease
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-11 | by ( Jeff Cox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Wholesale prices rose less than expected in April, according to a Labor Department report Thursday that provides more hope that inflation is at least trending lower. The producer price index, a measure of prices for final demand goods and services, increased 0.2%, against the Dow Jones estimate for 0.3% and after declining 0.4% in March. On an annual basis, the headline PPI increased just 2.3%, down from 2.7% in March and the lowest reading since January 2021. Though the PPI rise was less than expected, the services index increased 0.3%, the biggest move since November 2022, the Bureau of Labor Statistics report stated. Gasoline prices rose 8.4%, pushing the goods index higher by 0.2%.

Persons: Dow Jones, Quincy Krosby Organizations: Labor Department, Dow, PPI, of Labor, LPL, Federal Reserve, CPI Locations: Washington

☆ Democratic lawmakers are skeptical about using a $1 trillion coin or the 14th amendment to get around the debt ceiling
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-11 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | Eliza Relman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Minting a $1 trillion platinum coin or using the 14th amendment could solve the crisis while sidestepping Congress. The 14th amendment, on the other hand, contains a clause that could declare the debt ceiling unconstitutional and get rid of it forever. 'That's beyond my paygrade and my mental capacity'Insider asked some Democratic senators what they thought of minting a coin or using the 14th amendment to get around the debt ceiling crisis. Sen. Ron Wyden, top lawmaker on the Senate Finance Committee, said that when it comes to the 14th amendment, "I'm not there yet. Yellen also said at a new conference in Japan on Wednesday that "it's legally questionable whether or not that's a viable strategy," referring to the 14th amendment.

☆ Fox bucks ad weakness to top profit expectations
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

May 9 (Reuters) - Broadcaster Fox Corp (FOXA.O) beat estimates for third-quarter revenue and adjusted profit on Tuesday, as recession-wary companies continued to advertise on its network even as they cut their spending on other marketing channels. Shares of the company rose more than 4% in premarket trading. Total revenue rose 18% to $4.08 billion, inching past analysts' estimates of $4.03 billion, according to Refinitiv data. Fox's ad revenue also surged 43% to $1.88 billion, well past the expectation of $1.67 billion. The upbeat results from Fox, which operates Fox News and a range of sports channels, underscore the cautious approach by advertisers who are mostly buying ad slots on dominant networks given their reach.

May 9 (Reuters) - Broadcaster Fox Corp (FOXA.O) beat estimates for third-quarter revenue and adjusted profit on Tuesday, as Chief Executive Lachlan Murdoch affirmed the company’s prime-time programming strategy following its recent $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems and dismissal of star host Tucker Carlson. Dominion had sued Fox for $1.6 billion over its coverage of debunked vote-rigging claims about the voting technology firm. Total revenue rose 18% to $4.08 billion, inching past analysts' estimates of $4.03 billion, according to Refinitiv data. Fox's ad revenue also surged 43% to $1.88 billion, well past the expectation of $1.67 billion. The upbeat results from Fox underscore the cautious approach by advertisers who are mostly buying slots on dominant networks.

May 10 (Reuters) - A look at the day ahead in Asian markets from Jamie McGeever. Full-year Japanese earnings on tap Wednesday include Softbank (9434.T), Toyota (7203.T) and Panasonic (6752.T). It rose 1% on Tuesday and only four of the last 20 trading sessions have been down days. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has repeatedly warned that the X-Date could be June 1, meaning there is barely three weeks between now and a potential U.S. default. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

☆ Video shows police yelling at a driverless Waymo taxi to stop before it runs over a fire hose
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Tim Levin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Footage obtained by San Francisco news site Mission Local shows police trying to stop a Waymo driverless taxi. The driverless taxis ferrying passengers throughout San Francisco are a technological marvel — and sometimes a nuisance. Waymo operates autonomous taxis in San Francisco and Phoenix, and customers can hail rides through an app. As impressive as they are, the driverless taxis on roads today still have trouble reacting to unusual situations like blocked streets or commands from first responders. A recent viral Tik Tok video shows a police officer repeatedly gesturing for a Waymo taxi to pull over.

☆ Ether rallies more than 6% as meme mania tries to reenter the crypto market
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Tanaya Macheel | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Market participants put the move on attempts to bring meme mania back to the crypto market. Pepecoin (PEPE), based on the Pepe the Frog internet meme, is up more than 120% over the past 24 hours, CoinMarketCap said. Ethereum gas fees have been revived by the return of memecoins, just today hitting 1-year highs." "As gas fees increase, more ETH is burned, and at current activity levels ETH is a deflationary asset, which should help boost ETH's price," Ryder added. "In the last 24 hours, trading volumes for PEPE on Uniswap have surpassed the volumes of Tether and Wrapped Bitcoin, some of the highest volume tokens on the exchange."

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