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☆ Honda's JV with GAC ends production of Acura brand in China
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

GAC will continue to provide after-sales services to Acura customers in China through the joint venture's network, it said in a statement to Reuters. The joint venture will continue to produce other Honda brands. Acura is the second foreign car brand to exit China, the world's largest auto market, in recent months. In October GAC said it was closing its joint venture with Stellantis (STLA.MI), which made Jeep vehicles, following a sharp decline in Jeep sales in China over the past four years. GAC-Honda, which started producing Acura cars in 2016 in China, only sold 6,554 of them in the country in 2021, down 45% from the previous year.

The upbeat market momentum continued on Monday, with Asian stocks up after China reopened its borders, bolstering the outlook for the global economy. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) rose to its highest in more than six months. At 0811 GMT the MSCI World Equity index, was up 0.5%, near its highest since mid-December (.MIWD00000PUS). “The market is reading that wage pressures are easing quite rapidly and seeing that as positive and potentially people whispering the words “soft landing” more loudly now,” said Hani Redha, global multi-asset portfolio manager at PineBridge. Redha said that there was "over-excitement" in the market reaction to the U.S. jobs data, and that more wage data would be needed.

☆ Lidl GB expects more customers to switch from rivals after bumper Christmas
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( James Davey | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Lidl GB, part of Germany's Schwarz retail group, said on Monday over 1.3 million more customers shopped at its stores in the seven days to Christmas Eve. Also unlike their traditional rivals, Aldi and Lidl are still opening lots of new stores. Last week Aldi UK reported a 26% increase in December sales. However, investment to keep a lid on prices has held back profit at both Aldi and Lidl. Lidl GB highlighted strong sales of Christmas vegetables sold for 19 pence a pack, Christmas puddings, prosecco, mulled wine and cheese.

☆ Global stocks rally to near 4-week highs, oil rises on hopes of 'soft landing'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( David Randall | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The gains were broad across equity markets, with Europe's STOXX 600 near a one-month high (.STOXX) and emerging market stocks (.MSCIEF) up 2.4% on the day. Asian stocks rose after China reopened its borders, bolstering the outlook for the global economy. The U.S. dollar index was down around 0.8%, near its lowest in seven months after it dropped 1.2% on Friday . In bond markets, European government bond yields rose, in a reversal after the previous weeks' sharp falls. Bond yields move in the opposite direction of prices.

☆ Hedge fund fees fall to lowest level since 2008 financial crisis -HFR
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Nell Mackenzie | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Hedge fund fees have dropped to their lowest level since the global financial crisis in 2008, research firm Hedge Fund Research (HFR) said on Friday, as high inflation and recession fears hit investors. HFR said hedge fund base fees fell from the second to the third quarter of 2022 by one basis point (bps) to an estimated 1.35% and that average incentive fees tumbled 4 bps to 16.01%. Both estimated fees represent their lowest levels since HFR began publishing the estimates in 2008, a note from the firm added. The top hedge funds in their weighted composite index had a positive 10.9% return while the bottom decile averaged a negative 14.3%. The hedge funds that are easy to get into might not be the best ones to invest in, he added.

☆ EU financial services chief favours banning sales inducements on investment products
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Huw Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Jan 6 (Reuters) - A European Union ban on inducements for recommending sales of financial products could cut costs for retail customers by more than a third, the bloc's financial services chief Mairead McGuinness has said. McGuinness is due to set out a new retail investment strategy to help deepen the bloc's capital market. Ferber told McGuinness in October he would strongly advise against banning inducements. McGuinness said she was still assessing different policy options, but the current dominant inducement-based model for selling retail investment products often means products are more costly than other cheaper alternatives on the market. "The comprehensive retail investment study has found that products on which inducements are paid are - on average - about 35% more expensive than investment products on which no inducements are paid," McGuinness said in her letter.

☆ Google Cloud to support Kuwait's digitisation drive
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

DUBAI, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Google Cloud (GOOGL.O) has formed a strategic alliance with the Kuwaiti government to support digitisation efforts across the country's public sector, the company said on Friday. Most Gulf states are investing significantly in digital technologies across the government sector to improve efficiency and make public services easier to access online, and as a way to diversify oil-dependent economies. Google Cloud did not provide a value for the agreement with the Kuwaiti government, but said it would encompass digitising government services, migrating and storing national data securely on the cloud and setting up a national digital skills programme. The company aims to invest in a cloud region in Kuwait, its third announced in the Middle East after Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and said it plans to open an office on the ground without specifying a timeframe. There is increasing competition for developing cloud services in the region among international players, with Chinese firms such as Huawei also vying for lucrative government contracts as part of Gulf national economic transformation plans.

☆ Decline in German services sector eases, raising hopes for milder recession -PMI
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

REUTERS/Wolfgang RattayBERLIN, Jan 4 (Reuters) - High inflation and economic uncertainty extended a downturn in the German services sector in December, though a slower pace of decline in activity adds to hopes of a milder-than-expected recession, a survey showed on Wednesday. S&P Global's final services Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) rose to 49.2 from 46.1 in November. That marks the highest reading since July, when the current downturn began, and was slightly above a flash estimate of 49.0. The German composite PMI index, which comprises both the services and manufacturing sectors, rose to 49.0 in December from 46.3 in November, slightly above a flash reading of 48.9. December marked the sixth month in a row that the reading was below the 50 mark that separates growth from contraction.

☆ Euro zone recession may not be as deep as expected -PMI
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Euro zone business activity contracted less than initially thought at the end of last year as price pressures eased, according to a survey which suggested the bloc's recession may not be as deep as expected. S&P Global's final composite Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for the euro zone, seen as a good gauge of economic health, rose to 49.3 in December from November's 47.8, above a preliminary estimate of 48.8. "Nevertheless, there is little evidence across the survey results to suggest the euro zone economy may return to meaningful and stable growth any time soon." Overall demand declined for a sixth straight month, albeit at a shallower pace than initially thought. The PMI new business index bounced to 47.0 from 45.8, comfortably above the 46.5 flash estimate.

☆ Morning Bid: The year of the yen?
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

A look at the day ahead in U.S. and global markets from Dhara Ranasinghe, Editor, Financial Markets EMEA, Thomson Reuters. And the yen, for starters, is intent on leaving a dismal 2022 behind. Yet, on the second trading day of the new year Japan's currency is already scaling seven-months highs. All this leaves the yen - you guessed it - as one of the most favored trades early in 2023. MUFG says that even after the recent rebound, the yen is still "deeply undervalued," which leaves scope for further gains.

☆ Wall Street slides, Treasury yields rise on lingering recession fears
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Stephen Culp | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/2] A trader works on the trading floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., December 14, 2022. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) closed 0.24% lower, while Japan's Nikkei (.N225) lost 1.05%. U.S. Treasury yields rose as investors considered how high the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates and how long they will remain at restrictive levels in its battle against inflation. U.S. crude rose 1.21% to settle at $75.19 per barrel, while Brent settled at $79.80, up 0.96% on the day. Gold inched lower in thin trading, as rising yields on expected future interest rate hikes helped offset weakness in the greenback.

☆ Apple fined 1 mln euros by Paris court over App Store practices
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Layli Foroudi | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

PARIS, Dec 19 (Reuters) - The Paris Commercial Court on Monday fined iPhone maker Apple (AAPL.O) just over 1 million euros ($1.06 million) for imposing abusive commercial clauses on French app developers for access to the company's App Store, the court ruling showed. While tiny in size compared to the huge profits generated by Apple, the Paris court's fine is another sign of the legal pressures Apple faces to loosen its grip over the App Store, so far the only gateway for alternative app developers to access customers. An Apple spokesman said the U.S. company would review the ruling and believed "in vibrant and competitive markets where innovation can flourish." "Through the App Store, we’ve helped French developers of all sizes share their passion and creativity with users around the world while creating a secure and trusted place for customers," the spokesman added. The Digital Markets Act (DMA) in particular will force Apple and fellow tech giant Google to provide space for third-party app stores on their respective iOS and Android devices.

☆ Wall Street mixed, Treasury yields rise as 2023 worries loom
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Stephen Culp | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

With just two weeks remaining in 2022, the S&P 500, the Dow and the Nasdaq are on track to notch their largest annual percentage losses since 2008, the nadir of the global financial crisis. The pan-European STOXX 600 index (.STOXX) rose 0.43% and MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe (.MIWD00000PUS) shed 0.23%. U.S. Treasury yields rose as investors considered how high the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates and how long they will remain at restrictive levels in its battle against inflation. U.S. crude rose 0.48% to $74.65 per barrel and Brent was last at $79.57, up 0.67% on the day. Reporting by Stephen Culp; Additional reporting by Danilo Masoni in Milan; Editing by Susan FentonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Apple fined 1 million euros by Paris court over App Store practices
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Layli Foroudi | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

☆ Belgian social media star uses power of visuals to demystify disability
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Yves Herman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

loading"Thanks to the era of social media, we can exploit the power of images," Talbi told Reuters from her home in Belgium's capital, Brussels. In recent years she has emerged as an influential champion of the disabled, meeting politicians, attending conferences and creating social media content to promote understanding, demystify disability and squash taboos. She now has about half a million followers on social media channels. "Often we are treated like children," she told a European Day of Persons with Disabilities conference in Brussels last month, where she explained that many people post unpleasant comments and even mock her disability on social media. "I realised that these limits didn't exist in reality, that they were all in the mind."

Exxon has yet to set any 2030 Scope 3 target. Shell said it believed its targets are aligned with the U.N. climate targets. We remain committed to constructive engagement with our investors," a Shell spokesperson said in a statement. The group of investors co-filing the resolutions includes Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management, Degroof Petercam Asset Management and Achmea Asset Management. Exxon and Chevron have in the past successfully blocked attempts to file climate resolutions with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

☆ Morning Bid: Yen for change
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

But even though the BoJ is unlikely to change that stance at this week's policy meeting, some change appears to be afoot next year as central bank chief Haruhiko Kuroda ends his second five-year term in April. In numbers due for release on Thursday, Japan's core consumer price inflation rate is expected to have ticked up to 3.7% last month. That said, futures markets still aren't buying Fed policymaker indications that official rates will go above 5% and stay there all next year. After closing at their worst levels in over a month on Friday, U.S. stocks are set for a steadier open today. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

☆ Morning Bid: Hanging tough
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

As the world's major central banks turned the interest rate screw this week and insisted on more tightening ahead, their economies showed more signs of buckling under the pressure. And while markets lurched lower on the potentially toxic combination of a higher peak for interest rates into a looming recession, there are reasonable questions over whether the central banks will act as tough as they are talking. U.S. manufacturing declined 0.6% last month and reports from the New York and Philadelphia Federal Reserve's showed business conditions in their regions remaining depressed in December. Even though after Wall St stocks plunged 2-3% on Thursday, futures remained deep in the red ahead of Friday's open. Led by the jump in euro zone sovereign borrowing rates after the ECB rethink, bond yields were higher across the board.

LONDON, Dec 16 (Reuters) - The Bank of England looks like it's being outed as the weakest link. The primary reason was that two of the nine-person MPC voted to end the Bank's rate rise campaign right away as the recession the Bank thinks is already underway will get entrenched next year. But with the median economist forecast for the Bank's terminal rate somewhere around 4.25%, markets still seem aggressively positioned for a hawkish surprise and the pound may be more vulnerable to that revision as the winter progresses. Significantly, the implied Fed terminal rate edged higher to 4.9% after its policy setpiece on Wednesday - even if is still below the 5.1% the Fed indicated. Reuters Graphics Reuters GraphicsReuters GraphicsReuters Graphics Reuters GraphicsThe opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.

After being wrong-footed by sudden price rises, the ECB has been raising rates at an unprecedented pace. Inflation has soared since economies reopened after the COVID-19 pandemic, driven by supply bottlenecks and then surging energy costs following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Justifying Lagarde's pledge for more hikes, the ECB's new projections on Thursday showed inflation above the ECB's 2% target through 2025. [1/2] Signage is seen outside the European Central Bank (ECB) building, in Frankfurt, Germany, July 21, 2022. The ECB also said it currently expected any recession to be "relatively short-lived and shallow" and Lagarde noted that euro unemployment levels were at "rock-bottom".

☆ China launches suit at WTO against U.S. chip export curbs - Global Times
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Dec 13 (Reuters) - China on Monday launched a suit at the World Trade Organization over against the United States over its chip export control measures, the state-backed Global Times said in a tweet on Tuesday, citing China's commerce ministry. The Chinese mission to the WTO in Geneva and the U.S. Trade Representative did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment. The United States has blocked appointments to the WTO's top ruling body on trade disputes, meaning some rows never get settled. The alleged complaint by China on U.S. chip export curbs comes days after a WTO ruling against Washington in a separate suit about metal tariffs that had been brought by China among others. The United States, a regular critic of the WTO's arbitration proceedings, rejected the WTO's findings.

The combined position has been cut to just 358 million barrels (12th percentile for all weeks since 2013) down from 579 million barrels (47th percentile) on Nov. 8. Fund managers sold NYMEX and ICE WTI (-5 million barrels), Brent (-4 million), U.S. gasoline (-5 million), U.S. diesel (-11 million) and European gas oil (-5 million). The net position in U.S. diesel and European gas oil was cut to 49 million barrels (41st percentile) from 75 million barrels (62nd percentile) on Nov. 8. Bullish long positions outnumbered bearish short ones by a ratio of 2.92:1 (52nd percentile) down from 5.40:1 (81st percentile) four weeks earlier. The extremely low level of hedge fund positions in crude has created upside price risk if and when managers attempt to rebuild bullish positions.

☆ Analysis: Investors on alert for policy error after cheering slower rate hikes
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Yoruk Bahceli | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

With inflation potentially peaking and recession looming, the risk of overtightening accelerating a downturn is on investors' watchlists for next year. "We're past the point of the big (Fed) policy mistake, we think they kind of made it," Robert Waldner, head of macro research at $1.3 trillion asset manager Invesco, said. Recent Fed research suggests the bank has exceeded the level called for by commonly followed policy rules and should target 3.52%, versus the 3.75%-4% it currently targets. Fed research, taking into account the premium on mortgages and corporate borrowing costs, has found financial conditions in September already reflected the equivalent of a 5.25% policy rate. I am worried the Fed may not be taking into account the lags in their monetary policy," Costerg said.

☆ Analysis: Turbulence still haunts LME nickel, months on from trade debacle
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Pratima Desai | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Months after turbulence highlighted shortcomings in LME oversight, the nickel contract remains broken. Declining liquidity, together with low stocks, has led to high LME nickel prices this year, pushing up costs for industrial users already grappling with surging inflation. LIQUIDITY SLUMPSMany investors, traders, consumers and producers have abandoned LME nickel in the aftermath of the chaos in March. LME nickel typically trades at a discount to the Shanghai Futures Exchange (ShFE) contract because China is a net importer of nickel and the ShFE nickel price takes into account logistical costs and local taxes. "There's a major disconnect between LME nickel (futures) and the physical market," a nickel trader said.

☆ Traders don't plan to suspend grain exports from Odesa after Russian attacks, Ukraine minister says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

KYIV, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Traders have no plans to suspend grain shipments from Ukraine's Odesa Black Sea ports due to the latest Russian attack on the region's energy system, Agriculture Minister Mykola Solky said on Sunday. "There are problems, but none of the traders are talking about any suspension of shipments. Since October, Moscow has been targeting Ukraine's energy infrastructure with large waves of missile and drone strikes. Ukraine is among the world's largest producers and exporters of corn and wheat but its exports have fallen significantly due to the Russian invasion. Grain exports from Ukraine in the first eight days of December fell 47.6% from a year earlier to 1.09 million tonnes, agriculture ministry data showed.

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