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☆ Upbeat earnings help FTSE 100 rebound from last week's selloff
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Shashwat Chauhan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SummarySummary Companies Bunzl, Associated British Foods up after resultsRolls-Royce top of FTSE 100 after price target raiseFTSE 100 up 0.8%, FTSE 250 adds 0.4%Feb 27 (Reuters) - The UK's FTSE 100 rose on Monday after upbeat earnings reports from Associated British Foods and Bunzl helped pull the index up from last week's battering on worries about high U.S. interest rates. The blue-chip FTSE 100 (.FTSE) rose 0.8%, after recording its worst weekly performance so far this year as hotter-than-expected U.S. consumer spending data on Friday sparked a selloff on both sides of the Atlantic. Primark owner Associated British Foods (ABF.L) climbed 1.3% after raising its outlook for the full year 2022-23 for the clothing retailer. The FTSE 100 has had a stellar start to the year so far, rising 6.4% as strong earnings and a steady rise in commodity prices helped the index outperform major global peers, outweighing a gloomy economic outlook. The more domestically-inclined FTSE 250 midcap index (.FTMC) rose 0.4%, with a near 16% slump in shares of Dechra Pharmaceuticals(DPH.L) capping gains.

☆ Gold tiptoes higher as investors focus on Fed minutes
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Gold prices rose marginally on Wednesday, as investors awaited minutes of the U.S. Federal Reserve's latest policy meeting to assess prospects of further interest rate hikes. Spot gold was up 0.1% at $1,835.40 per ounce, as of 0334 GMT. "Traders will be more sensitive to hawkish clues in the FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) minutes, which could weigh on gold prices," said City Index's Simpson. "There's a greater chance of gold testing $1,800 before it tests $1,900 over the foreseeable future," given the prospects of markets repricing a higher terminal Fed rate, Simpson added. The Fed is expected to raise benchmark rates above 5% by May with a peak seen at 5.352% in July.

☆ Gold claws back some ground as dollar eases
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Two Argor-Heraeus SA 250 gram gold bars at Solar Capital Gold Zrt. Gold prices regained some ground on Thursday as the U.S. dollar pulled back, although prospects of more interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve kept investors on edge. U.S. gold futures rose 0.3% to $1,850.20. Higher interest rates discourage investment in non-yielding gold, although it is considered a hedge against soaring prices. The dollar index was down 0.3% after hitting a near six-week peak on Wednesday, making greenback-priced gold less expensive for overseas buyers.

☆ Dollar finds friends after sticky U.S. inflation readout
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Tom Westbrook | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SINGAPORE, Feb 15 (Reuters) - The dollar found some support on Wednesday after stubbornly high U.S. inflation suggested interest rates are going to remain high for longer than investors had expected. The U.S. dollar climbed to a six-week high of 133.30 yen and sat not far below that at 132.73 early in the Asia session. "Inflation remains too high," Commonwealth Bank of Australia strategist Joe Capurso said. There is not much good news for (the Fed) that is looking for inflation to head down much further towards its 2% target." Federal Reserve officials said the U.S. central bank will need to keep gradually raising interest rates to beat inflation.

☆ Oil prices steady amid China demand revival, high U.S. inventories
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Muyu Xu | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

"U.S. crude oil ... inventories have continued to exceed expectations, which to some extent erodes the bullish sentiments brought from China's demand recovery hopes," said analysts from Haitong Futures. Crude oil stocks in the United States rose last week to their highest since June 2021, helped by higher production, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday. U.S. gasoline and distillate inventories also rose last week as demand remained weak. read moreBut the prospect of stronger demand from China lent support to oil prices, as the world's second-largest oil consumer ended more than three years of stringent zero-COVID policy involving city-wide lockdowns and mass testing in December. The disaster had halted operations at Ceyhan and disrupted crude oil flows from Iraq and Azerbaijan.

Investors will be looking for Powell's take on the labor market in a speech at the Economic Club of Washington due later in the day, after a sharp rise in jobs growth last week punctured hopes for a tempered Fed. "We expect Chair Powell to emphasize stubbornness in underlying inflation pressures while highlighting the labor market’s strength and capacity to withstand higher rates." U.S. interest-rate futures show that markets are expecting the Fed funds rate to peak just above 5.1% by June, compared with expectations of a peak below 5% prior to Friday's jobs report. "The Fed still has some progress to make, there are signs of positivity in terms of the disinflationary pressures that are in the pipeline, but there is still a labor market problem." Sterling was last 0.4% down against the dollar at $1.1982, after tumbling to a one-month low of $1.1974 in the previous session.

☆ Visits to Zambia by Yellen, IMF reflect concern over stalled debt talks
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Andrea Shalal | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Frustrated by the delays, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva arrived for separate visits in Zambia on Sunday. Both see a new sovereign debt roundtable - introduced late last year - as a way to make progress on long-stalled debt restructuring processes. Yellen told Reuters en route to Zambia she supported the roundtable as a forum for discussing general principles of debt relief. Yellen, however, noted rates were nowhere near those seen under Volcker and inflation was not out of control. "We're in a higher interest rate environment, and that's something that's linked to the strong dollar, and weaker currencies for many emerging markets, but also Japan and other countries," Yellen said.

☆ U.S. new drug price exceeds $200,000 median in 2022
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Deena Beasley | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The median annual price of the 17 novel drugs the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved since July 2022 is $193,900, down from $257,000 in the first half of 2022, Reuters found. For full year 2022, the median was $222,003. Reuters Graphics Reuters GraphicsIn 2021, the median annual price was $180,000 for the 30 drugs first marketed through mid-July, according to a study published recently in JAMA. Health insurers and other payers often demand discounts and rebates for prescription drugs once competing treatments become available. As patents expire, lower-cost generics also mitigate prescription drug price inflation, which in the 12 months through November 2022 was 1.9%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

☆ Retiring Fed President Challenged the Consensus Inside Central Bank
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Nick Timiraos | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The Federal Reserve is set to lose one of its more diligent skeptics when Esther George, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, retires next month. Ms. George began her tenure at the central bank 40 years ago in the midst of the last episode of very high U.S. inflation. She became the Kansas City Fed’s president in 2011, when the economy was mired in the protracted and difficult recovery from the global financial crisis.

☆ The man behind Trump World’s myth of rigged voting machines
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +32 min

He publicly announced his purchase of Montgomery’s data in August at a gathering in Missouri of hundreds of his followers. “I own it,” Lindell said of Montgomery’s data, touting it as irrefutable proof Trump was cheated. On Nov. 9, far-right podcaster Joe Oltmann linked Montgomery’s Hammer and Scorecard claims to a parallel conspiracy theory: that widely used voting machines manufactured by Dominion Voting Systems were rigged to flip votes from Trump to Biden. Powell amended her complaint a few days later and dropped the expert’s declaration and the references to Montgomery’s claims. But the government said in a recent court filing that the order has nothing to do with election data.

The net effect was to catapult next year's implied Fed terminal rate well above 5%. Fed vs BoE Terminal RatesNIESR chart on UK variable mortgagesBANK "IN A HOLE"Although the BoE insisted further hikes from 3% would likely be needed, two of the nine person policymaking council voted for a smaller rate rise this week. State Street's EMEA macro strategist Tim Graf also thinks a terminal rate closer to 4% is now "the more likely end state for policy rates." The BoE needs to be super careful about the pound because another withering lurch will simply aggravate import and energy price inflation. by Mike Dolan, Twitter: @reutersMikeD; Editing by Josie KaoOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

China remains integral in the success or failure of U.S. corn, soy and other agricultural exports, and corn is currently carrying the biggest burden of proof. Although recent U.S. soy sales to China have weakened, the top buyer has been propping up the numbers by comparison. CORN AND OTHER GRAINAt just 14.1 million tonnes, U.S. corn sales as of Oct. 20 are dismal compared with recent years and expectations. Chinese purchases of 3.6 million tonnes are down from 11.9 million and 10.6 million tonnes by the same date in 2021 and 2020, respectively. Export sales as of Oct. 20 totaled 11.8 million tonnes, the lowest in more than 20 years.

Brent crude futures were up $2.43, or 2.6%, to $95.95 a barrel by 12:31 p.m. EDT (1631 GMT). U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose $2.86, or 3.3%, to $88.18. U.S. crude stocks rose 2.6 million barrels last week, according to weekly government data, more than anticipated, but that was lower than industry figures, which showed a 4.5 million-barrel build. In addition, crude exports rose to 5.1 million barrels a day, the most ever, dropping U.S. crude imports on net to their lowest in history. Traders attributed the surge in exports to the widened WTI-Brent spread , which, coming into Wednesday's trade, was at more than $8 per barrel.

☆ Biden predicts midterms will shift back toward Democrats
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( Jeff Mason | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, Oct 21 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden expressed confidence on Friday that momentum would shift back in favor of Democrats for the November midterm elections, despite polls favoring Republicans in races that will determine which party controls the U.S. Congress. Fresh from a trip to Pennsylvania on Thursday to boost John Fetterman, the state's lieutenant governor and Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, Biden said legislative wins and economic trends would push Democrats towards a win. "The polls have been all over the place," Biden told reporters at the White House after speaking about the U.S. budget deficit. "I think that we're going to see one more shift back to our side in the closing days." Biden said such policies would lead to more riches for the very wealthy and higher inflation for the middle class.

☆ Morning Bid: U-turn sparks huge turn
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Take Britain, where a government budget on Friday sparked a run on the pound and gilts, accelerated the downdraft across world markets, before prompting an astonishing policy U-turn from the Bank of England on Wednesday. This unleashed a wave of buying across British assets - the 30-year gilt yield sank a record 100 basis points and sterling rose 1.5% - and triggered a pent-up recovery across world markets. The relief was palpable: world stocks and the S&P 500 snapped six-day losing streaks, with the S&P 500 jumping around 2%. Its tinkering at the edges seems to have failed, so will it soon have to take more forceful action to support the yuan? They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

☆ 'The best sweet spot': Buy these inflation-beating funds to protect your money, strategist says
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-19 | by ( Weizhen Tan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

As inflation remains stubbornly high, and volatility in U.S. stocks and bonds persists, one strategist has shared his top ways for investors to protect their income. High inflation increases the chances of the U.S. Federal Reserve raising rates further, which tends to mean a stronger dollar. His picks include the iShares Euro Inflation Linked Government Bond UCITS ETF and the iShares TIPS Bond ETF . That's a bad combination for agricultural output, and high gas prices will contribute to higher fertilizer prices, he added. The 'best sweet spot' As U.S. investors scramble to navigate continued volatility, particularly in stocks, Jolley said the "brave" could consider stocks overseas.

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