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☆ Why lithium-ion batteries found in many products keep exploding
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Samantha Murphy Kelly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Officials believe the incident stemmed from a lithium-ion battery of a scooter found on the roof of an apartment building. “In all of these fires, these lithium-ion fires, it is not a slow burn; there’s not a small amount of fire, it literally explodes,” FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh told reporters. For starters, lithium-ion batteries are now in numerous consumer tech products, powering laptops, cameras, smartphones and more. Despite the concerns, lithium-ion batteries continue to be prevalent in many of today’s most popular gadgets. For example, LFP (lithium iron phosphate) batteries don’t overheat as much as other types of lithium-ion batteries.

☆ IMF board poised to approve $2.9 bln Sri Lanka bailout
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Andrea Shalal | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

WASHINGTON, March 7 (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday said Sri Lanka had secured financing assurances from all its major bilateral creditors, paving the way for the IMF board to consider approval of a long-awaited $2.9 billion four-year bailout. Sri Lanka would get access to the first tranche of money shortly after board approval, sources close to the talks said. "Sri Lanka has now received financing assurances from all major bilateral creditors," Krishna Srinivasan, director of the IMF's Asia and Pacific Department (APD) said in a statement. Central bank Governor P. Nandalal Weerasinghe said last week that Sri Lanka had fulfilled its conditions with the rate hike and he was hopeful the IMF bailout would be approved this month. The IMF said the board's approval would help catalyze financing from other creditors, including the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.

It was not clear what new support China, the world's biggest sovereign creditor, had extended to Sri Lanka on Monday. By end-2020, Sri Lanka owed the Export-Import Bank of China $2.83 billion or 3.5% of the island's external debt, according to IMF data. Sri Lanka needs to repay about $6 billion on average each year until 2029 and will have to keep engaging with the IMF, Wickremesinghe said. Countries in debt distress such as Zambia and Sri Lanka have faced unprecedented delays in securing IMF bailouts as China and Western economies have clashed over how to provide debt relief. Sri Lanka has been waiting for about 187 days to finalise a bailout after reaching a staff-level deal with the IMF.

Summary Poll dataBENGALURU, March 7 (Reuters) - India's housing market will remain resilient despite rising interest rates and a weak global economic outlook, according to a Reuters poll of property analysts who have barely changed their forecasts from three months ago. Defying a global trend of falling housing prices as mortgage rates rise and crimp affordability, India has exhibited resilience and is emerging from a decade-long downturn due to strong demand. A major source of employment in a country of 1.4 billion people where a majority are unskilled, the Indian housing market is likely to remain a stable contributor to economic activity in Asia's third-largest economy. A recent increase in unemployment also raises concerns about the sustainability of the current housing market trend. "Amid rising prices, affordability will only worsen in the coming quarters.

☆ UK home prices to fall, but unlikely to come crashing down
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Jonathan Cable | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

After years of bumper price rises, the average cost of a home will fall 2.4% this year, according to the Feb. 15-27 poll of 19 housing market experts, shallower than the 4.7% fall predicted in a November poll. "House prices will fall in 2023, that is for sure. Because the number one variable for showing the direction of the housing market is employment - and that remains very, very good indeed." In November's poll, they were expected to fall 7.0% this year and flatline in 2024. (For other stories from the Reuters quarterly housing market polls:)Reporting by Jonathan Cable; polling by Aditi Verma and Vijayalakshmi Srinivasan; editing by Christina FincherOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

MUMBAI, Feb 15 (Reuters) - The anticipation of Housing Development Finance Corp (HDFC.NS), India's largest mortgage lender, executing an interest-rate hedge once it completes its mega bond sale this week, is driving longer-duration bond yields lower, traders said on Wednesday. "HDFC is likely to do the trade on or post Friday, once it receives the money from its bond issuance," one of the bankers said. Under the trade, the banks will pay HDFC the yield on a government bond and in return receive the benchmark overnight rate plus a markup. The price risk on the bond is borne by HDFC and hence the name total return swap (TRS). And when the banks execute these swaps, there will likely be bunched-up demand for these bonds, which will pressure yields, traders said.

☆ Teen girls seeing 'dramatic' rise in poor mental health - U.S. CDC
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Nandhini Srinivasan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The data shows a "dramatic" rise in experiences of violence, poor mental health and suicide risk in teens, especially in girls, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control said on Monday. "The levels of poor mental health and suicidal thoughts and behaviors recorded by teenage girls are now higher than we have ever seen," said CDC's Kathleen Ethier told reporters. The current study did not examine the cause of the spike but the CDC noted there was also a 20% increase in reports of sexual violence among high school girls since 2017, when the agency started monitoring this measure. "CDC and many other researchers have looked at this and we know that with sexual violence, it is associated with mental health issues, substance use and also long-term health consequences," CDC's Debra Houry said. Overall, 42% of high school students felt so sad or hopeless almost every day for at least two weeks in a row that they stopped their usual activities.

Feb 7 (Reuters) - Centene Corp (CNC.N) on Tuesday said profit at its fast-growing Medicare Advantage (MA) business will take a beating in 2024 due to a sharp cut in its rating by a U.S. federal agency and likely lower-than-expected government payouts to health insurers. Centene does not expect its MA business to grow next year and it will likely "shrink a little", Chief Financial Officer Andrew Asher said in a post-earnings conference call. Asher said the company expects negative profit margins in the business in 2024 temporarily, after CMS cut star rating for Centene's MA plans in October. MA plans are government-supported insurance plans that private companies offer people over 65 years of age. Revenue from Centene's Medicare health insurance business rose about 24% to $5.45 billion from a year earlier.

☆ Centene profit beats on easing medical costs, Medicare boost
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 7 (Reuters) - Health insurer Centene Corp (CNC.N) beat fourth-quarter profit estimates by a small margin on Tuesday, helped by easing medical costs and steady demand for its government-backed Medicare health insurance business. Most health insurers saw their costs fluctuate during the pandemic, but have benefited in recent quarters from declining COVID-related hospitalizations. Larger rival UnitedHealth (UNH.N) recently said medical costs were more predictable with the world in the third year of COVID-19. Medicaid program helps cover medical costs for some people with limited income and resources. Revenue from Centene's Medicare health insurance business rose about 24% to $5.45 billion from a year earlier.

Kannon Shanmugam of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison represented PayPal, while CFPB senior counsel Christopher Deal represented the regulator. The CFPB created its Prepaid Rule to offer consumers legal protections on prepaid accounts similar to those on products such as checking accounts, including the ability to challenge payment errors, unauthorized transactions and fraud. Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan and Circuit Judge Cornelia Pillard joined Rao's decision. The appeals court returned the case to Leon to consider PayPal's other challenges to the Prepaid Rule, including constitutional and administrative law claims. Circuit Court of Appeals, No.

[1/2] The logo of the Adani Group is seen on the facade of its Corporate House on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, India, January 27, 2023. REUTERS/Amit DaveMUMBAI, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Indian conglomerate Adani Group's locally listed bonds have resisted the panic selling in the groups' dollar-denominated debt and domestically listed stocks since last Wednesday following short-seller Hindenburg Research's scathing report on the group. The top five Adani Group companies – Adani Power (ADAN.NS), Adani Green Energy (ADNA.NS), Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSE.NS), Adani Enterprises (ADEL.NS) and Adani Transmission (ADAI.NS) – have outstanding rupee bonds worth around 170 billion rupees, according to brokerage CLSA. However, Srinivasan said the Adani Group firms could find it difficult to raise fresh funds from the local bond markets until the concerns raised by Hindenburg were addressed. Moreover, Adani Group companies have not been rolling over many of their short-term commercial papers and instead allowed them to mature.

☆ Bond strategists take axe to U.S. Treasury yield forecasts
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Hari Kishan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Bond strategists at JPMorgan noted recently that the U.S. Treasury market is already priced for a recession and not just for the heightened risks of one. Already off their peaks from late last year and early 2023, major benchmark government bond yields have eased 20-40 basis points since, and more than 50 basis points on the particularly rate-sensitive U.S. two-year Treasury yield. That is about 30 basis points lower on the one-year horizon than a poll published in December. This would extend one of the longest periods on record where two-year yields have been higher than 10-year ones, a yield curve inversion. The poll expected German bund yields to rise from their current 2.25% to around 2.4% in three and six months.

☆ U.S. FDA calls for new regulatory framework for use of cannabis compound CBD
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The first-ever cannabis farmer's market in Los Angeles began on July 4 and opens weekly from Friday to Sunday. The health regulator said it would work with Congress to develop a new, cross-agency regulatory framework. The FDA has generally pursued limited enforcement activity regarding CBD, focusing primarily on food and beverage products that make unsubstantiated health claims. "A new regulatory pathway for CBD is needed that balances individuals' desire for access to CBD products with the regulatory oversight needed to manage risks," the agency said. Cannabis products, excluding Jazz Pharmaceuticals Plc's (JAZZ.O) epilepsy drug Epidiolex, are illegal at the federal level in the United States, although some states allow their use.

☆ Bank of England to lift rates to 4% on Feb 2, finish at 4.25% in March - Reuters poll
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Jonathan Cable | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/IllustrationLONDON, Jan 24 (Reuters) - The Bank of England will lift the Bank Rate by 50 basis points on Feb. 2 to 4.00% and then add another 25 basis points in March before pausing, according to a Reuters poll of economists who said the greater risk was that it would do even more. A firm majority, 29 of 42 respondents to the Jan. 18-24 poll, said the Bank would add 50 basis points next Thursday. Median forecasts in the poll showed the Bank would then add 25 basis points in March, giving a peak rate of 4.25%. Markets are pricing in a peak of 4.50% for Bank Rate. However, the poll showed GDP falling 0.3% this quarter and next and 0.1% in the third quarter.

U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap said halting the lawsuit until the Patent Trial and Appeal Board reviews the patents would unnecessarily delay the court case and prejudice Caltech. Representatives for Samsung and Caltech did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The school's 2021 lawsuit alleges Samsung's Galaxy phones, tablets, watches and Wi-Fi-enabled Samsung products like televisions and refrigerators infringe its data-transmission patents. The Texas case is scheduled to go to trial in September. The case is California Institute of Technology v. Samsung Electronics Co, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, No.

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☆ Meet the little-known Google exec steering the company's $209 billion ad business through an uncertain economy and the minefield of privacy concerns
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-24 | by ( Ryan Joe | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Jerry Dischler is steering Google's $209 billion ads business through major challenges. It falls to him to reinvent digital advertising to keep its $209 billion ad business going. At the same time, he has to keep growing Google's ad business amid increasingly dour spend forecasts. He went on to search ads in 2008, and by 2009, he was overseeing Google's team that developed new ad formats. Even when some parts of Google's ad business slows, as YouTube and Google network ads did last quarter, it gains strength in other areas, such as search.

Dec 21 (Reuters) - China may be struggling to keep a tally of COVID-19 infections as the country experiences a big spike in cases, a senior World Health Organization official said on Wednesday, amid concerns about a lack of data from the country. "In China, what's been reported is relatively low numbers of cases in ICUs, but anecdotally ICUs are filling up," WHO's emergencies director Mike Ryan said. "I wouldn't like to say that China is actively not telling us what's going on. REUTERS/Denis BalibouseThe WHO said it was ready to work with China to improve the way the country collects data around critical factors such as hospitalisation and death. China has nine domestically developed COVID-19 vaccines approved for use, more than any other country, but they have not been updated to target the highly infectious Omicron variant.

Among the nine housing markets surveyed, prices in six were expected to drop next year. Cost of living increases will also reduce demand as some consumers delay home purchases," noted analysts at Fitch Ratings, adding there was "significant uncertainty" around how much house prices would fall. An overwhelming majority of analysts polled by Reuters in the past weeks said house prices need to fall more than they currently expected in order to make them affordable. Already falling sharply, Australia and New Zealand housing prices were likely to fall further next year, by around 16%-18% from their peaks. The last time house prices fell sharply was during the global financial crisis almost 15 years ago, but with most major economies forecast to enter only a shallow recession, a similar crash was unlikely.

☆ Fitch affirms United Kingdom rating at 'AA-'
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

REUTERS/Peter NichollsDec 9 (Reuters) - Rating agency Fitch maintained United Kingdom's sovereign debt rating at "AA-" on Friday, citing Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's macroeconomic policy framework, deep capital markets and the sterling's international reserve currency status. The agency affirmed its outlook for the country at "negative", due to high public and external debt, as well as rising energy prices. Despite concerns about a potential recession, investors have pinned hopes that the new government leadership will reinstill confidence in the country's fiscal health. "The new fiscal strategy has contributed to improved financial markets confidence," Fitch said. The agency also affirmed Bank of England's rating at "AA-", with a negative outlook.

☆ Bank of England to add 50 bps to Bank Rate on Dec. 15; peak at 4.25% in Q2: Reuters poll
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Jonathan Cable | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

"We think it will be a 50 bp rise, taking Bank Rate to 3.50%, with risks weighted towards a larger 75 bp move, rather than a smaller 25 bp one." Only two economists expected a 75 bp increase next week compared to 13 of 56 in the Nov. 23 poll. The U.S. Federal Reserve is also expected to shift down to a 50 bp move this month after four consecutive 75 bp increases, a separate Reuters poll found. After next week's move, the BoE will add another 50 bps in the first quarter and 25 bps in the second, with medians showing Bank Rate peaking at 4.25% then. In last month's survey, Bank Rate was expected to peak at 4.25% next quarter and there was a big divide between economists in the latest survey as to when and where it would level out.

☆ Risk officers are the next hot hire for fintechs reaching consumers in new industries, VCs said. Startups are poaching from big companies to find them.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Emilia David | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Risk officers don't just safeguard data: They take charge of many regulatory and technological issues in financial-services businesses. But only some fintech companies may benefit from thinking about hiring risk officers early. Large banks still dominate hiring for risk officers, but startups are gaining groundFintech startups want to hire risk officers, but they face a hurdle: There aren't enough risk professionals. But fintech startups have been attracting risk officers from banking giants for a while. Still, according to White, there are benefits to hiring risk officers for both types of companies.

The private lender raised 150 billion rupees ($1.85 billion) through 10-year Tier-II bonds at an annual coupon of 7.86%, for which it had received bids worth 240.80 billion rupees, according to merchant bankers. A large state-run insurance company and a big provident fund house invested an aggregate of 90 billion rupees in this issue, merchant bankers said. HDFC Bank completes its debt sale a day ahead of State Bank of India's bond issue. HDFC Bank is set to be merged with parent Housing Development Finance Corp (HDFC.NS) in the coming months, and both entities have been on a fundraising spree this financial year. While HDFC Bank has raised 30 billion rupees, excluding the latest issue, HDFC has raised around 550 billion rupees through bond issuance.

☆ India stocks to rise 9% by end-2023 despite slowing economy - Reuters poll
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Indradip Ghosh | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Summary poll dataBENGALURU, Nov 30 (Reuters) - India's stock market, which rallied to a record high this week, is forecast to rise another 9% by the end of 2023 despite widespread expectations of a gradual slowdown in the economy, according to market experts polled by Reuters. The benchmark BSE Sensex Index (.BSESN) touched an all-time record high of 62,887.40 on Tuesday, surging more than 23% from this year's low of 50,921.22 hit on June 17. The Sensex was then forecast to rise to 68,000 by end-2023, for a total gain of around 9%. The Nifty 50 (.NSEI), which has also hit a record high, was forecast to gain 4.7% from Tuesday's close of 18,618.05 to 19,500 by mid-2023, and reach 20,500 by end-2023. But by most measures, the Indian market looks overbought.

☆ BOJ's next move will unwind loose policy, 92% of economists say
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Kantaro Komiya | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Twenty-four of 26 economists in the Nov 15-25 poll said the BOJ's next action, if any, would be "unwinding its ultra-easy monetary policy". Widely known as the policy accord, it requires the central bank to achieve its 2% inflation target "at the earliest date possible." Among those who wanted a revision, seven called for more flexibly judging achievement of the inflation target. One BOJ watcher calling for change wanted a lower inflation target, and another said the BOJ's mandate should be enlarged to include targeting employment or wage rises. On Monday, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida rejected the idea of adding wage growth as a new monetary policy goal.

☆ BOJ's next move will unwind loose policy, 92% of economists say: Reuters Poll
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Kantaro Komiya | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Twenty-four of 26 economists in the Nov 15-25 poll said the BOJ's next action, if any, would be "unwinding its ultra-easy monetary policy". Widely known as the policy accord, it requires the central bank to achieve its 2% inflation target "at the earliest date possible." Among those who wanted a revision, seven called for more flexibly judging achievement of the inflation target. One BOJ watcher calling for change wanted a lower inflation target, and another said the BOJ's mandate should be enlarged to include targeting employment or wage rises. Two economists in the poll said the accord should simply be abolished.

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