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☆ What are Gallium and Germanium and which countries are producers?
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Germanium ores are rare and most germanium is a by-product of zinc production and from coal fly ash. Gallium is found in trace amounts in zinc ores and in bauxite, and gallium metal is produced when processing bauxite to make aluminium. U.S. imports of gallium metal and gallium arsenide (GaAs) wafers in 2022 were worth about $3 million and $200 million, respectively, according to USGS. U.S.-based Indium Corporation also produces germanium, while Belgium's Umicore (UMI.BR) makes both germanium and gallium. "Zinc selenide and germanium glass substitute for germanium metal in infrared applications systems, but often at the expense of performance."

Persons: Belgium's, Eikon, Dominique Patton, Mai Nguyen, Melanie Burton, Pratima Desai, Tom Hogue, Himani Sarkar, Catherine Evans, David Evans Organizations: Alliance, . Geological Survey, WHO, Teck Resources, Shanghai Metal Exchange, Thomson Locations: China, Canada, Finland, Russia, United States, Europe, Japan, U.S, South Korea, Germany, Kazakhstan, Teck, North America, British Columbia, Beijing

☆ Which countries produce strategic materials Gallium and Germanium?
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Germanium ores are rare and most germanium is produced as a by-product of zinc production and from coal fly ash. China produces around 60% of the world's germanium, according to the European association Critical Raw Materials Alliance (CRMA), with the rest coming from Canada, Finland, Russia and the United States. Gallium is found in trace amounts in zinc ores and in bauxite, and gallium metal is produced when processing bauxite to make aluminium. U.S. imports of gallium metal and gallium arsenide (GaAs) wafers in 2022 were worth about $3 million and $200 million, respectively, according to USGS. U.S.-based Indium Corporation also produces germanium, while Belgium's Umicore (UMI.BR) makes both germanium and gallium.

Persons: Belgium's, Eikon, Dominique Patton, Mai Nguyen, Melanie Burton, Tom Hogue, Himani Organizations: Alliance, WHO, United States Geological Survey, Teck Resources, Shanghai Metal Exchange, Thomson Locations: China, Canada, Finland, Russia, United States, Europe, Japan, U.S, South Korea, Germany, Kazakhstan, Teck, North America, British Columbia, Beijing

☆ The pain is just starting for commercial real estate - and plunging prices could reignite the banking crisis and choke the US economy, Columbia professor says
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-04 | by ( Theron Mohamed | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A Columbia professor has issued a bleak outlook for commercial real estate in the US. Office values are plunging and threaten to cause an "urban doom loop," Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh said. If cities become more expensive and less appealing, people are likely to move out, cutting real estate values even more and causing a downward spiral, he said. Pension funds, real estate investment trusts (REITS), and other entities have invested significant sums in CRE, and the office segment specifically. "I do worry that there is potential for a spillover here, that we haven't seen the end of the banking crisis yet," Van Nieuwerburgh said.

Persons: Van Nieuwerburgh, —, Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh Organizations: Service, Columbia Business School, Bank, Signature Bank Locations: Columbia, CRE, Silicon

☆ An Opera Partnership’s Next Step: A Fable About Happiness
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-03 | by ( Hugh Morris | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In one scene of George Benjamin’s new opera “Picture a Day Like This,” which premieres on Wednesday at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in France, a composer and her assistant cut off an interviewer midsentence. The composer asks whether there’s space in her schedule to speak; “five minutes,” the assistant replies. If the premiere of “Picture a Day Like This,” written with the playwright Martin Crimp, is highly anticipated, that is because anticipation has long accompanied new works by Benjamin, 63. Earlier stage works with Crimp, “Written on Skin” (2012) and “Lessons in Love and Violence” (2018), have quickly entered the repertory of major European opera houses. But it is their first opera, the one-act “Into the Little Hill,” from 2006, that most resembles “Picture a Day Like This,” in its size, duration and subject matter.

Persons: George Benjamin’s, midsentence, Benjamin, Martin Crimp, Crimp Organizations: West London Locations: Aix, Provence, France, ”

☆ Oil settles higher but posts fourth straight quarterly decline
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-30 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Oil pumpjacks are viewed in the Inglewood Oil Field in Los Angeles, California. Oil prices settled higher on Friday but posted their fourth straight quarterly loss as investors worried that sluggish global economic activity could crimp fuel demand. Signs of strengthening U.S. economic activity and sharp declines in U.S. oil inventories last week offered some support. The market was also supported by upward revisions in demand for crude oil and refined products in the United States. A Reuters survey of 37 economists and analysts showed oil prices will struggle for traction this year as global economic headwinds linger.

Persons: John Kilduff, Baker Hughes Organizations: Inglewood Oil Field, Brent, U.S . West Texas, U.S . Commerce, Federal Reserve, HSBC, Reuters Locations: Inglewood, Los Angeles , California, U.S, New York, United States, Saudi, OPEC, Saudi Arabia

☆ UK has little wiggle room on mortgage aid
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-21 | by ( Francesco Guerrera | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

LONDON, June 21 (Reuters Breakingviews) - UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is under pressure to provide relief for mortgage borrowers buckling under soaring interest rates. The problem is that mortgage relief dilutes the Bank of England’s fight against inflation, which remained stubbornly high at 8.7% in May. The UK government is to meet mortgage lenders to discuss helping households struggling with their home loans, finance minister Jeremy Hunt told parliament on June 20. However, Hunt ruled out introducing state-backed support to help mortgage borrowers facing higher costs due to soaring interest rates. Hunt said that offering government mortgage relief would be inflationary.

Persons: Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss, –, Jeremy Hunt, BoE, Hunt, George Hay, Oliver Taslic Organizations: Reuters, UK Finance, Conservatives, Labour Party, Bank of England’s, Conservative Party, Bank of England, Thomson Locations: Spain, Poland

NEW YORK, June 21 (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil inventories at the Cushing, Oklahoma, storage hub have risen to their highest in two years, as outages at Midwestern refiners crimp demand and higher flows from Canada add to supply. Stockpiles at Cushing, the delivery point for U.S. crude oil futures, have climbed for eight consecutive weeks after falling earlier this year. Overseas demand for U.S. crude and an end to refinery outages should reverse the build, said analysts. "We're going to be sending more (oil exported) abroad," said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Price Futures Group. Canadian crude may have been sent toward Cushing as feedstock for a restart of the Toledo refinery, which had a fire last year, said Matt Smith, lead oil analyst for the Americas at Kpler.

Persons: Phil Flynn, Hillary Stevenson, Cushing, Stevenson, Enbridge, Flanagan, John Coleman, Wood Mackenzie, Matt Smith, Stephanie Kelly, Nia Williams, Arathy, Jonathan Oatis Organizations: YORK, Cushing, Price Futures, Energy, IIR Energy, BP, Phillips, North, Americas, Kpler, Thomson Locations: Oklahoma, Canada, Cushing, U.S, Toledo, Ohio, Texas, Wood

For some, the answer to exuberant markets lies in the ample cash still sloshing around the financial system. Total global liquidity, a measure of cash and credit in the world economy, has risen to almost $170 trillion in June, Crossborder calculates, from $158 trillion in October. Central banks have added a net $1.7 trillion into money markets since November, it also estimates, a move that correlates with a risk-taking trend. But an alternative scenario is that U.S. money market funds, stuffed with cash after depositors fled regional banks in March, buy enough newly issued Treasuries to keep rates stable. "Liquidity is not a force that reverberates immediately into financial markets," said JPMorgan global market strategist Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou.

Persons: Michael Howell, Crossborder, Richard Clarida, Georgina Taylor, Ken Taubes, reverberates, Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, Morgan Stanley, Luca Paolini, Paolini, Naomi Rovnick, Harry Robertson, Dhara Ranasinghe, Kirsten Donovan Organizations: U.S . Treasury, Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, Crossborder Capital, U.S, Reuters, BNP, JPMorgan, Apple, Thomson Locations: Japan, U.S

☆ ANA CEO looks to boost fleet with Boeing 787, launch low-cost airline
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-05 | by ( Aditi Shah | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Air travel is slowly recovering in Japan post pandemic with inbound passenger traffic coming back stronger while outbound leisure demand is "still weak", he added. While the fear of getting infected is still putting off some passengers from travelling overseas, a weaker yen versus the dollar is making it costlier for Japanese travellers and hurting outbound demand, Inoue said. While limited flights between the U.S. and China are resulting in some additional inbound demand for ANA as passengers travel through Tokyo, inflationary trends in the U.S. are expected to further crimp outbound travel, he said. ANA said last year it plans to launch a new international low-cost carrier in late 2023 or early 2024, focused on the Southeast Asian market as tourism revives post pandemic. ANA expects to launch Air Japan by spring 2024, Inoue said.

Persons: Shinichi Inoue, Inoue, Aditi Shah, Jason Neely, David Evans Organizations: All Nippon Airways, ANA, Boeing, Monday, International Air Transport Association, U.S, Japan, Thomson Locations: ISTANBUL, Istanbul, Japan, China, Tokyo, U.S

The S&P 500 (.SPX) index closed flat but remained near its highest level since August 2022, just above 4,200 points. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were still set for monthly gains in May. Over the weekend, U.S. President Joe Biden and Republican House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy agreed to temporarily suspend the debt ceiling and cap some federal spending. But I firmly believe a debt ceiling agreement will be approved before the June 5 drop dead date." Only four of the S&P 500's 11 sectors were higher, while declining stocks outweighed advancing shares on both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq.

Persons: Joe Biden, Kevin McCarthy, McCarthy, Sam Stovall, Anthony Saglimbene, Thomas Hayes, FEDWATCH, Elon Musk, Shreyashi Sanyal, Shashwat Chauhan, Shounak Dasgupta, Maju Samuel, David Gregorio Our Organizations: Dow Jones, Nasdaq, Republican, Republicans, Nvidia Corp, Reuters Graphics Reuters, Digital, Federal, Semiconductor, Nvidia, Great, Capital, Labor, Thomson Locations: New York, Troy , Michigan, Philadelphia, China's, Beijing, Bengaluru

☆ Asian shares mixed as China growth worries crimp U.S. debt ceiling optimism
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Ankur Banerjee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) eased 0.20% but was set to eke out a gain of 0.19% for the week. Data in the week underscored that China's economy lost momentum at the beginning of the second quarter, stoking worries over the wobbly post-COVID-19 recovery. Investor attention has been firmly on the negotiations over U.S. debt ceiling and increasing hopes that a deal could be reached sent U.S. shares higher overnight . Hawkish rhetoric from Fed speakers continued with Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan and St. Louis Fed President James Bullard saying inflation was not cooling fast enough to allow the Fed to pause its interest-rate hike campaign. U.S. crude fell 0.14% to $71.76 per barrel and Brent was at $75.78, down 0.11% on the day.

☆ Microsoft’s $75 Billion Activision Blizzard Deal Gets EU Approval
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Kim Mackrael | Sarah E. Needleman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A U.K. antitrust regulator rejected Microsoft’s $75 billion deal to buy gaming company Activision Blizzard on Wednesday. The deal is also being scrutinized by the European Commission and the Federal Trade Commission. Photo: Jae C. Hong/Associated PressBRUSSELS—The European Union’s antitrust watchdog approved Microsoft ’s planned $75 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard , giving the two companies a win after the deal hit a regulatory roadblock in the U.K. The decision comes weeks after the U.K. regulator rejected the agreement, saying it would crimp competition in the country’s gaming market. Monday’s approval in Brussels won’t have any direct legal bearing on that process, and antitrust lawyers say Microsoft faces long odds in overturning the British decision.

☆ Falling Oil Prices Cause Saudi Aramco’s Profit to Slip 19 Percent
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Stanley Reed | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Saudi Aramco on Tuesday reported $31.9 billion in net income for the first quarter, a drop of about 19 percent compared with the same period a year ago, mainly because of lower oil prices. But with oil prices still relatively robust, Saudi Aramco remains enormously profitable — its earnings were roughly comparable to the quarterly profits reported by Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Shell and BP combined — mainly because it produces enormous volumes of petroleum from giant fields in Saudi Arabia at relatively low cost. Aramco’s main owner, the Saudi government, recently orchestrated a cutback in production by the group of countries known as OPEC Plus. But Aramco is investing in expanding output, apparently shrugging off concerns that climate change risks might in the coming years crimp the market for fossil fuels. “We believe oil and gas will remain critical components of the global energy mix for the foreseeable future,” Amin Nasser, Aramco’s chief executive, said in a statement on Tuesday.

☆ EU Targets Eight Chinese Companies in Russia Sanctions Push
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Laurence Norman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The European Commission’s headquarters in Brussels. Photo: James Arthur Gekiere/Zuma PressThe European Union is considering sanctioning eight Chinese companies over Russia’s war in Ukraine, diplomats said, with the bloc looking to target firms they believe have provided Moscow electronic items, including semiconductors, that can be used for military purposes. The proposed listings are part of an 11th package of sanctions against Russia over its invasion. The new measures center on efforts to prevent the circumvention of Western sanctions by Russia and its military, a central plank in the effort by European and U.S. policy makers to weaken Russia’s economy and crimp the revenue the Kremlin has to continue its war effort.

☆ Premarket stocks: What happens above 5%? The Fed's big risk
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Julia Horowitz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

However, job openings that month tumbled to their lowest level since May 2021, according to data released Tuesday. The shifting landscape paved the way for the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in March and First Republic Bank this week. By blessing JPMorgan’s takeover of First Republic Bank, the Democratic US senator fears federal regulators just made the “too big to fail” problem even worse. To the relief of investors and bank customers, the JPMorgan deal protects all of First Republic’s depositors. The decision to invest in food and grocery delivery during the pandemic has become a big advantage for Uber.

☆ U.S. consumer spending flat in March; core inflation still strong
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The unchanged reading in consumer spending last month, reported by the Commerce Department on Friday, followed a downwardly revised 0.1% gain in February. Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, was previously reported to have increased 0.2% in February. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast consumer spending dipping 0.1%. Last month's flat reading in consumer spending set consumption on a lower growth path in the second quarter. The so-called core PCE price index gained 4.6% on a year-on-year basis in March after rising 4.7% in February.

☆ Russia's energy dominance is fading with pipeline gas exports reportedly set to fall by 50% this year
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Jennifer Sor | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Russia's pipeline gas exports are set to halve this year, according to a report from a Kremlin-affiliated news outlet. Those losses are largely due to Russia slashing pipeline gas flows to Europe last year in retaliation for sanctions. Government forecasters predicted the Russia's pipeline gas exports could halve in 2023, the Kremlin-affiliated Russian news outlet Izvestia reported on Thursday. That will pile on to hefty losses Russia's gas industry already weathered in 2022, with state-owned Gazprom reporting the lowest volume of gas exports last year since the start of the century. Russia's oil and gas revenue crashed nearly 50% in January of this year alone, according to estimates from Russia's finance ministry.

HSBC should separate its Asia business into a Hong Kong-listed entity, top shareholder Ping An said in an update to proposals it began to push for last November. Glass Lewis said the strategic review proposal, filed by individual shareholder Ken Lui in Hong Kong and backed by Ping An, was "not in shareholders' interest". HSBC also denied a claim by Ping An that the bank had "refused to verbally engage in discussions on the proposals". The lender has had extensive discussions with Ping An on these topics, a spokesperson for HSBC said. London listed shares in HSBC were down 0.5% on Tuesday afternoon, against a broad-based 1.3% rally in the STOXX European banks index (.SX7P).

☆ Marketmind: Banks to test soft landing thesis
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

A look at the day ahead in U.S. and global markets from Mike DolanWorld markets have surged this week on renewed hopes of disinflation, peak interest rates and a soft economic landing - and earnings from Wall Street's biggest banks now test the thesis. Markets will be most focussed on bank guidance on how much the March bank failure will crimp lending going forward. Next month's expected interest rate rise from the Federal Reserve is now expected to be the last and futures see up to 70 basis points of cuts from that point to year-end. And with China's booming trade numbers for last month also suggesting the world economy at large will comfortably skirt recession this year, "soft landing" hopes are back in vogue. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

The ECB's systemic risk indicator for the United States, for example, has returned to its lowest level in a year. The near $400 billion that dashed for money funds after the Lehman Brothers bust in late 2008 - despite credit fears in some of those funds - had completely retreated by early 2010. The relative interest rate attraction of bills and repos after the steepest Fed rate rises in 40 years should make this year's flows far stickier - unless or until the Fed were to embark on some dramatic rate easing. Either way, there's now no shortage of savings in cash if or when the lights go green. by Mike Dolan, Twitter: @reutersMikeD; Added chart from Andy Bruce; Editing by Sam HolmesOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ These 10 fairly priced stocks are well off recent highs. Here's where we stand on them
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Kevin Stankiewicz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

52-week high date: April 5, 2022 Percent below 52-week high: 68.4% Forward P/E: 2.1 We continue to view troubled Bausch Health as a wait-and-see situation. CTRA 1Y mountain Coterra's stock performance over the past 12 months. 52-week high date: May 31, 2022 Percent below 52-week high: 26.94% Forward P/E: 9.5 Our view on Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD) is similar to Coterra. 52-week high date: June 8, 2022 Percent below 52-week high: 24.46% Forward P/E: 10.4 Like our two other energy stocks, we want to see another pullback in Halliburton shares before we'd add to our position. 52-week high date: Jan. 27, 2023 Percent below 52-week high: 18.26% Forward P/E: 13.4 Caterpillar is a beaten-down stock worth buying.

☆ 'Bond Kings' Bill Gross and Jeffrey Gundlach predict an imminent US recession as surging interest rates strangle growth
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Theron Mohamed | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Bill Gross and Jeffrey Gundlach expect higher interest rates to hammer growth in the near future. Bond yields signal investors' expectations for growth, inflation, and interest rates in the months and years ahead. The central bank is betting that higher rates will make borrowing more costly and encourage saving over spending, cooling price growth. He also declared in February that stocks are likely to underperform for a while, as higher rates are a drag on company valuations. Gross has previously jabbed at Gundlach over their shared nickname, labeling him the "self-anointed 'bond king'" in an October outlook.

☆ A recession is guaranteed this year based on Jerome Powell's favorite bond-market gauge
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell's preferred bond-market indicator says a recession is on the way this year. It's the spread between the yield on three-month Treasury bills and their expected yield in 18 months. The spread between the current yield on three-month Treasury bills and their expected yield in 18 months is now inverted by a record 134 basis points. The Fed's messaging, however, contrasted with market expectations, as Powell said interest rates will still remain elevated through the year. "If the US economy continues to rumble along as it has the last few quarters, interest rates will remain high," DataTrek Research's cofounder, Nicholas Colas, wrote in a note Thursday.

☆ Premarket stocks: Five questions for the Federal Reserve as the banking crisis drags on
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

A policy rate announcement is expected on Wednesday along with new economic projections, and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will face the press to answer questions. Is the Fed’s fight against inflation destabilizing the banking system? The US banking system is under a lot of pressure right now. Lagarde opted to portray that rate increase as a signal that the financial system remains strong. Yet, ironically, the banking mess is now helping tech companies and cryptocurrencies as investors flock out of the banking system in search of alternative safe spaces to store their cash.

☆ Credit Suisse went the way of Bear Stearns in 2008. But this crisis is different
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Hanna Ziady | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

A sign of Credit Suisse pictured behind a sign of UBS in Zurich on March 18, 2023. The Swiss government said Tuesday it had ordered Credit Suisse to temporarily suspend the payment of some bonuses, including share awards, to bank staff. Credit Suisse is the first “global systemically important” bank to be rescued since 2008. Yet despite its importance to the financial system, most analysts are not expecting Credit Suisse’s demise to mark the beginning of another global financial crisis. “It’s possible that a vicious circle develops, in which credit tightens, the real economy deteriorates, and default rates start to rise,” he said.

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