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US Judge extends the topping period for Citgo Parent's auction to June 2
According to a Tuesday filing, a U.S. Federal Judge has extended until at least June 2, the deadline for rival bidders to enter bids during a court-organized sale of shares of Citgo Petroleum's parent company. Citgo Petroleum is owned by Venezuela. Last month, Delaware Judge Leonard Stark accepted a $3.7billion offer from Contrarian Funds affiliate Red Tree Investments, as the opening bid for the auction of shares. The auction was intended to compensate 15 creditors who were affected by debt defaults and expropriations. Red Tree and other rival consortia were given until the 28th of May to submit their submissions Competing Last week, lawyers for Venezuela requested that parties take more time to review parallel lawsuits before other U.S. courts which could have an impact on the price or conditions of certain bids. According to a proposed new calendar by some creditors the final hearing of the auction would still take place in July, after a "special master" appointed by the court overseeing the process of sale recommends a winning bidder next month. Several Venezuelan creditors who were involved in the case of Delaware, which lasted eight years, have filed lawsuits to recover the same assets. Last week, a New York court dismissed arguments from one of the creditors groups. The Venezuelan lawyers requested the extension. They wrote: "This is an important development in the sales process." The Venezuela parties respectfully request an extension to the topping period in order to allow bidders or potential bidders to account for what the special master called a "cloud of uncertainty" that hung over bidding. In court motions, some creditors supported the extension. (Reporting and editing by Nick Zieminski, David Gregorio and Marianna Pararaga)
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Oklo, South Korea's KHNP enter into agreement to develop Aurora nuclear facility
Nuclear technology company Oklo announced on Tuesday that it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the development of Oklo’s planned Aurora powerhouse with South Korea’s nuclear plant operator Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power. In morning trading, shares of Oklo rose 1.9% to $49.71. Oklo said that the MOU also outlines plans for collaboration on the development of advanced nuclear technology worldwide. The nuclear industry is in high demand because it's considered a cleaner fuel source and more reliable than solar or wind energy. The U.S. president Donald Trump signed Friday executive orders to jumpstart nuclear industry. These orders direct the independent nuclear regulatory agency of the United States to reduce regulations and expedite new licenses for power plants and reactors. Oklo announced that it will deploy its 75 Megawatt Electric (MWe), Aurora powerhouse. This is a neutron-fission reactor designed to provide clean, affordable energy for industries such as data centers. The facility is at the Idaho National Laboratory. The company expects to finish the licensing process later this year. Aurora's nuclear technology allows it to only need to be refueled every 10 years. This is in contrast to traditional reactors, where one-third is replaced every 1 to 2 year. It is also expected to cost less. According to the agreement, the Oklo, backed by Sam Altman, will work with the South Korean nuclear construction and operation company on the development and verification for the Aurora powerhouse. (Reporting and editing by Shasheesh Kuber in Bengaluru)
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Indian miner NMDC's profit quarterly falls due to lower prices
The Indian state-owned mining company NMDC reported a decline in its fourth-quarter profits on Tuesday, due to lower product prices. Iron ore mining company's quarterly profits before tax and exceptional items came to 23.51 billion rupees (275.56 millions dollars), a 3.5% drop from the previous year. The company's profit, including taxes, increased by 2% in the quarter January-March due to lower expenses for tax. NMDC's average iron ore price was 4,206 rupees. This is lower than the 4,299 rupees average a year ago, according to JM Financial Institutional Securities. According to commodities consultancy BigMint, the company announced a reduction in price back in January. JSW Steel, who primarily purchases iron ore through NMDC said earlier this month that a continued drop in iron-ore prices was expected in the first three months of the current fiscal year. NMDC’s fourth-quarter operating revenue rose 7%, to 69.53 Billion Rupees. This was mainly because of higher sales at its pellets division, which saw a near 13-fold rise in revenue. The company's iron ore revenue fell by nearly 2% in the third quarter. ($1 = 85,3180 Indian rupees). (Reporting and editing by Shreya Biwas in Bengaluru)
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The US Core Capital Goods Orders are Plummeting, a Sign of Weak Business Spending
The number of new orders for capital goods manufactured in the United States plummeted in April, amid the uncertainty surrounding the economy due to tariffs. This suggests that business spending on equipment has weakened since the beginning of the second quarter. Commerce Department's report on Tuesday showed that shipments of this product fell last month. Economists say that President Donald Trump's reversals on import duties are making it hard for businesses to plan. This is evident from the decline in business sentiment. Stephen Stanley, Santander U.S. Capital Markets' chief U.S. economics, said: "I predicted months ago that business investments would be the primary driver of a softer performance in this year as executives delay their capital projects until there is more clarity about policy." These data confirm that hypothesis for the first time. Census Bureau of the Commerce Department reported that non-defense capital goods, excluding aircraft orders, fell 1.3% in April after a 0.3% increase, which was upwardly revised, in March. The economists polled had predicted that these core capital goods orders would dip 0.1%, after an earlier reported 0.2% decline in March. Core capital goods shipments fell 0.1%, after rising 0.5% in March. Orders for nondefense capital goods fell 19.1%. These goods were shipped at a 3.5% increase after a 1.1% decline in March. The first quarter saw a surge in business equipment spending, mainly information processing equipment. This was the fastest growth in four-and-a half years. This helped limit the drag of an import flood on the gross domestic product. Trump has deferred the increase in import duties for most countries until July. This month, the White House announced an agreement with Beijing that would reduce tariffs on Chinese products to 30% for 90 days from 145%. TARIFFS WHIPLASH Trump escalated his trade war last week, proposing to impose a 50% duty on European Union products starting on June 1, and threatening Apple with a 25 percent duty on iPhones made outside of the United States. Trump backed down from his threat to the EU at the weekend, and restored a deadline of July 9. He views tariffs as an instrument to, amongst other things, revive the long-declining U.S. industry base. Economists say that this feat would be difficult. Bookings for communication equipment fell 2.6% last month while orders for computers and electronics products increased 1.0%. Orders for electrical equipment, appliances, and components fell by 0.2%. Orders for metal products and machinery rose 0.8%, while orders for machines fell 0.2%. Last month, orders for durable goods (items such as toasters and aircraft that are meant to last at least three years) dropped by 6.3% after an upwardly revised 7.6% increase in March. Prior to this, it was reported that orders for durable goods had risen 7.5% in march. Last month, they were weighed down by the decline in commercial aircraft orders as well as the diminishing boost from tariff-related forward-running. Boeing announced on its website it received eight orders for aircraft in April. This is down from 192 in the month of March. Orders for motor vehicle and parts declined 2.9%. After a surge of 23.5% in march, the total number of transportation orders fell 17.1%. Christopher Rupkey is the chief economist of FWDBONDS. He said that many of the inputs used in the manufacturing of durable goods are manufactured in other countries and will have to be imported, at what appears to be a higher price, when tariffs are taken into account. "It will be very difficult to revive American manufacturing if factories are unable to get the parts that they need at a reasonable price and in a timely fashion."
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US Supreme Court rejects Native American challenge against Rio Tinto's Arizona Copper Project
The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear on Tuesday a Native American's religious rights-based bid to stop Rio Tinto from gaining control over Arizona land required to build one the world's biggest copper mines. This project is located on land that has been used for Apache sacred ceremonies. The Justices rejected an appeal from Apache Stronghold, a conservation group and advocacy group made up of Arizona's San Carlos Apache Tribe, against a ruling by a lower court that allowed the federal Government to swap land with mining companies in order to complete their Resolution Copper Project. On May 8, a federal judge in Arizona temporarily stopped the Republican administration of President Donald Trump from transferring land pending the outcome the Supreme Court's appeal. Rio Tinto, a British-Australian company, owns 55% of the project and BHP has 45%. Rio Tinto operates the project. Both companies have invested more than $2 billion in the project, but it has not yet produced any copper. Plaintiffs filed a lawsuit in 2021 at the federal court in Arizona to stop the project. They claimed that it violated religious rights protections in both constitutional and statutes. The plaintiffs argued that, by destroying a religiously significant site, the project would violate both the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment protections of the free practice of religion and a federal law passed in 1993 called the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Plaintiffs claimed that destroying the sacred site would also violate an 1852 treaty in which the U.S. Government promised to protect the land, and "secure permanent prosperity and happiness" for the Native American tribe. The land swap was approved in part by a defense bill signed by Democratic President Barack Obama in 2014. It allowed the companies to trade acreage that they owned for a plot federally-owned land located about 70 miles (113km) east of Phoenix, known as Oak Flat. The exchange was conditional on the federal regulators publishing an environmental impact report for the mine, which happened in January 2021 during the last days of Trump’s first term. The site is located on top of a reserve of over 40 billion pounds (18,1 million metric tons) copper. Copper is a vital component in electric vehicles and virtually every electronic device. According to the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty's lawyers and the Apache group's history, the land has been used by Western Apaches for centuries for sacred rituals. The mine would create a crater that was 2 miles wide (3 km) and 1,000 feet deep (304 m), which would destroy the worship site. Apache Stronghold appealed in an emergency after a federal court refused to stop the land transfer. In March 2021, just before the former Democratic president Joe Biden was due to respond to the appeal, the administration announced that it would withdraw the environmental impact report, which froze land transfer. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in San Francisco, has declined to block the transfer twice. In two separate rulings, the Circuit Court of Appeals declined to block this transfer. The most recent was in March 2024 when a panel of eleven judges ruled against the plaintiffs 6-5. The panel was divided along ideological lines with six judges who were appointed by Republican Presidents making up the majority. The majority of judges throughout the appeals procedure said that, while they were sensitive to religious concerns, they still felt they had to make a narrow ruling on the question whether the U.S. Government can do whatever it wants with their own land. On April 17, after Trump's return to office, U.S. Forest Service announced that it would publish within 60 days the environmental report required for the Resolution Copper Project land swap to take place. On May 9, a federal judge blocked the U.S. Forest Service from publishing the report pending the Supreme Court's appeal. (Reporting from Boston by Nate Raymond and London by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Will Dunham).
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Trump's tariff reprieve drives gold down for a second consecutive session
Gold prices fell for the second session in a row on Tuesday as risk sentiment improved after U.S. president Donald Trump announced that he would postpone tariffs against the European Union. After a nearly 5% rise last week, spot gold dropped 1.4% to $3296.79 per ounce at 0901 ET (1301 GMT). U.S. Gold Futures fell 2.1% to $3.296.10. Gold prices are volatile as the tariff situation is constantly changing. Bart Melek is the head of commodity strategy at TD Securities. He said that the market is currently under the impression there is a good deal and this is pushing gold prices up. The EU says that a weekend phone call between Trump's chief of staff and Ursula von der Leyen, EU's EU commissioner, gave new impetus to trade negotiations after Trump dropped his threats to impose tariffs of 50% on imports coming from the European Union in the next month. The U.S. Dollar strengthened and stock indexes futures surged. Gold, which is usually a dollar-denominated investment during times of geopolitical and economic uncertainty, was impacted by a stronger dollar and increasing risk sentiment. Neel Kahkari, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, called on interest rates to remain unchanged until more information is available about how higher tariffs will affect inflation. The minutes of the Fed's most recent policy meeting will be released on Tuesday. This week, the U.S. will release a number of important economic indicators, including the GDP estimate for the first quarter, the weekly unemployment claims and the core PCE index. "Our longer-term bullish view of gold has not changed." "Gold will do well as soon as the markets believe that the Fed will cut (rates), Melek said. In an environment of low interest rates, zero-yield gold bullion is likely to perform well. Silver fell 1.2% at $32.96 an ounce. Platinum dropped 0.2% at $1,082.63, and palladium was down 0.3% at $984.50. (Reporting and editing by Maju Samuel in Bengaluru, Ashitha Shivaprasad from Bengaluru)
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China chemical plant blast: At least five dead and six missing
The state-run Xinhua news agency reported late Tuesday that an explosion occurred at a chemical factory in the province of Shandong, eastern China. At least five people were killed, 19 others injured, and six still missing. The explosion occurred just before noon on Tuesday and shook a part of the chemical plant run by Shandong Youdao Chemical, located in Weifang. Videos that circulated on Chinese social media, and were verified by, showed plumes orange and black smoke rising into the air. One video showed that the explosion ripped the hinges off the windows of nearby buildings. According to a Tuesday afternoon statement by China's emergency response agency, more than 200 emergency workers responded. The Beijing News, an official publication, posted a drone video that showed smoke coming from the chemical factory and a second unidentified facility near it. Baidu Maps is a navigation application that shows other manufacturing firms near Youdao’s plant. These include a textile firm, a machine company and a company that produces industrial coating materials. Weifang Ecological Environment Bureau sent out staff to test the location of the explosion but stated that there are no results available yet. Beijing News reported that the bureau had advised residents in the area to wear masks while they waited for results. Himile Group owns Shandong Youdao Chemical, as well as Himile Mechanical (listed on the stock exchange), whose shares fell by nearly 3.6% Tuesday. According to the website of the company, Youdao has been established in Weifang's Gaomi Renhe Chemical Park since August 2019. The plant is spread over 47 hectares and employs more than 300 people. The company produces, develops and sells chemicals for use in pharmaceuticals and pesticides. In recent years, China has seen two explosions at chemical factories: one in Ningxia region in the northwest in 2024, and another in Jiangxi province in the southeast in 2023. In 2015, two massive explosions in warehouses that contained hazardous and flammable chemical in the port city Tianjin killed more than 170 people and injured over 700. This incident led the government to tighten regulations on chemical storage. In 2015, an explosion at another chemical factory in Shandong resulted in the death of 13 people. Reporting by Joe Cash in Beijing, Ethan Wang in Shanghai, Yukun Zhu, Xiuhao Zhang in Hong Kong, and Shi Bu and Farah in Hong Kong. Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Christian Schmollinger.
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Shanghai Futures Exchange will open its doors to foreigners to help internationalise the renminbi
Shanghai Futures Exchange released on Tuesday draft proposals to open up domestic futures markets to foreign investors and brokers in an effort to internationalise renminbi. China is by far the largest consumer of industrial materials, but a large part of its trade is based on benchmarks from overseas. ShFE has been developing plans for years to expand its global presence, and compete with the London Metal Exchange. The exchange stated that the 34 proposals, which range from options trading, hedging, and tin futures to help "internationalise the Renminbi" and "fully introduce overseas players", aim to “fully introduce overseas participants” and to help internationalise renminbi. Tiger Shi, CEO at BANDS Financial, said: "This announcement is a fundamental change in the ShFE's opening process." Access for foreign investors to the entire ShFE product line is now on a rapid track. Changes being considered include the ability for foreign brokers and traders to enter the exchange directly, rather than through an intermediary onshore as it is today. Participants could also post margins using foreign currencies, such as the U.S. Dollar. Public comments on the draft rule changes for 18 products, including alumina and nickel, as well as copper cathodes are open until June 4.
Nigeria walkings electrical power tariff for bigger consumers in subsidy cut
Nigeria's electrical energy regulator on Wednesday approved a boost in tariffs for better off consumers who utilize the most power as the federal government tries to wean the economy off aids to alleviate pressure on public financial resources.
On Tuesday, governmental spokesperson Bayo Onanuga informed that the federal government planned to axe an electrical power subsidy for 15% of customers to minimize its $2.6 billion expense.
The vice chairman of the Nigerian Electrical Power Regulatory Commission (NERC), Musiliu Oseni, stated the boost would take result right away.
The commission has authorized a rate review of 225 naira per kilowatt hour from a maximum of 68 naira per kilowatt hour ... for simply under 15% of the client population in the Nigerian electricity supply industry, Oseni stated.
Oseni said the commission would categorise consumers utilizing information from electricity suppliers.
Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation, faces seasonal power shortages that have actually added to years of weak development. Eliminating electrical energy subsidies is part of President Bola Tinubu's reform program, after he in 2015 scrapped a popular but costly fuel aid and enabled the currency to cheapen greatly.
The reforms that Tinubu hopes will revive growth have stoked inflation to more than 30% and aggravated an expense of living crisis, outraging workers.
The World Bank has in the past recommended subsidy cuts to assistance Nigeria improve the state of its public financial resources.
Nigeria last reviewed electrical energy tariffs in 2020.
Its electricity sector deals with a myriad of problems consisting of a stopping working grid, gas shortages, high debt and vandalism. The country has 12,500 megawatts of installed capability however produces just about a quarter of that, leaving many Nigerians reliant on expensive diesel-powered generators.
State-controlled power tariffs are too low to bring in brand-new investors and permit circulation firms to recoup expenses and pay creating companies - leaving the sector with ballooning financial obligations.
(source: Reuters)