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SQM Chile misses its profit forecasts as lithium prices remain pressured
SQM Chile, the second largest lithium producer in the world, missed its quarterly profit forecasts on Wednesday and warned that realized prices would be lower next quarter because of an oversupply of this metal, which is essential for batteries used in electric vehicles. According to LSEG, the company reported a first-quarter profit of $137.5m, or 48c per share. This compares to analyst estimates of $171.20m, or 63c per share. According to LSEG, the miner reported that its revenue from January to March was $1.04 billion. This is in line analysts' estimates of $1.045 million. The lithium price has dropped by nearly 90% since its peak in 2022, mainly due to a weaker than expected demand for electric cars and an excess of supply in China. SQM, which posted a decline in net profits in the fourth quarter of last year because of weak prices due to a slump in lithium prices at the beginning 2025. SQM is one of two companies in Chile that produce lithium. It also produces fertilizers and industrial chemical. The miner must wait for final regulatory approvals before it can close a deal with Chilean state-run copper company Codelco on the Atacama Salt Flat, which is the world's most lithium-rich salt deposit. Reporting by Daina-Beth Solomon, Chandni Shah, and Shivani Tana in Bengaluru. Editing by Sherry Phillips and Saumyadeb Chkrabarty.
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Sources say that Putin wants to stop NATO expansion in exchange for peace in Ukraine.
According to three Russian sources familiar with the negotiations, President Vladimir Putin has set conditions to end the war in Ukraine. These include that Western leaders commit in writing to stop expanding NATO eastwards as well as lifting a portion of sanctions against Russia. Donald Trump, the U.S. president, has said repeatedly that he wants the European conflict to be over. He has also shown growing frustration towards Putin in recent weeks. On Tuesday he warned the Russian leader that if a ceasefire was not agreed upon with Kyiv his forces would make gains. Putin told Trump that after a two-hour conversation last week he agreed to work on a document with Ukraine that would outline the terms of a peace agreement, including when a ceasefire will be implemented. Russia is drafting their version of the document and has no idea how long it will take. Kyiv, as well as European governments, have accused Moscow for stalling its troops' advance in the east Ukraine. One senior Russian source, speaking on condition of anonymity and with intimate knowledge of the Kremlin's thinking, said that Putin is willing to make peace at any cost. Three Russian sources have said that Putin wants an "written" commitment from major Western powers to not expand the U.S. led NATO alliance eastwards. This is a shorthand way of formally excluding Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova and other former Soviet Republics. The three sources also said that Russia wants Ukraine to remain neutral, certain Western sanctions to be lifted, the issue of Russian sovereign assets frozen in the West resolved, and protection of Russian speakers in Ukraine. First source: If Putin is unable, on his terms, to achieve a peaceful settlement, he'll try to demonstrate to the Ukrainians and Europeans, through military victories, that "peace tomorrow would be even more painful". The Kremlin has not responded to a request for a comment about'reporting. Putin and Russian officials repeatedly stated that any peace agreement must address the "root cause" of the conflict. This is Russian shorthand for NATO expansion and Western support for Ukraine. Kyiv repeatedly stated that Russia shouldn't be given a veto over its ambitions to join NATO. Ukraine wants the West to provide a solid security guarantee that is backed up by teeth in order to deter future Russian attacks. The administration of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy did not reply to a comment request. NATO has said in the past that it would not change its policy of "open doors" just because Moscow demanded it. The 32-member alliance's spokesperson did not answer any questions. Putin sent tens-of-thousands of troops to Ukraine in February 2022, after eight years fighting between separatists backed by Russia and Ukrainian troops in the east of Ukraine. Russia controls less than one fifth of Ukraine. The Russian advance has accelerated in the last year. However, both Russia and Ukraine are paying a heavy price for the war. In January, it was reported that Putin was becoming increasingly concerned about the economic distortions of Russia's wartime economies. This is due to labour shortages as well as high interest rates set up to combat inflation. Oil, which is the foundation of Russia's economic system, has been steadily declining in price this year. Trump, who boasts of his friendly relationship with Putin, and believes that the Russian leader is seeking peace, warned Washington it could impose additional sanctions if Moscow delayed efforts to reach a settlement. Trump suggested on social media that Putin was "absolutely CRAZY", for unleashing an aerial attack against Ukraine last week. First, the source stated that Putin would move further into Ukraine in the event he saw an opportunity to do so on the battlefield. The Kremlin also believed that Russia could continue fighting for many years despite the economic and political pressures imposed by Western countries. Second source: Putin is less willing to compromise with regards to territory, and will continue to stick to his public position that he wants to claim the entire four regions of eastern Ukraine. The second source stated that Putin has reaffirmed his position on the issue of territory. NATO Enlargement As Trump and Putin battled in public about the prospects for peace in Ukraine could not tell if the intensification of war and the hardening of positions signaled a determination to reach an agreement or the failure of talks. In June of last year, Putin laid out his first terms for an end to the conflict immediately: Ukraine must abandon its NATO ambitions, and remove all its troops from four Ukrainian regions that are claimed by Russia and largely controlled by them. Russia controls more than 70% Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions, as well as almost all of Luhansk. Russia also controls a small part of Kharkiv, Sumy and Kherson regions and threatens Dnipropetrovsk. The former U.S. president Joe Biden and Western European leaders, as well as Ukraine, have all characterized the invasion in terms of an imperialistic land grab. They have also repeatedly promised to defeat Russian forces. Putin sees the war in the context of the watershed moment for Moscow's relationship with the West, which he claims humiliated Russia in 1991 after the Soviet Union collapsed by expanding NATO and encroaching upon what he believes to be Moscow's sphere. In 2008, NATO leaders in Bucharest agreed that Ukraine and Georgia will one day be members. In 2019, Ukraine amended its constitution to commit to full membership in NATO and the European Union. Trump said that the U.S.'s previous support for Ukraine’s NATO membership bid caused the war and indicated that Ukraine would not be granted membership. The U.S. State Department has not responded to a comment request on this story. Putin, who became the Kremlin's top official in 1999, has returned to NATO enlargement several times, including his most detailed remarks on a possible peaceful future in 2024. Just two months prior to the Russian invasion in 2021, Moscow presented a draft of an agreement with NATO that, under Article 6 would bind NATO "to refrain from any further expansion of NATO, which includes the accession of Ukraine and other States." At the time, U.S. diplomats and NATO officials said that Russia had no veto over the expansion of the alliance. Russia wants to see a written commitment from NATO because Putin believes that the United States misled Moscow after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 when U.S. Secretary James Baker told Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, in 1990, that NATO wouldn't expand eastward. William J. Burns, the former director of Central Intelligence Agency, said that there was a verbal agreement, but it never became formalized. It was also made before the fall of the Soviet Union. NATO, which was founded in 1949 as a means of providing security against the Soviet Union says that it does not pose a threat to Russia, even though the 2022 assessment on peace and security within the Euro-Atlantic region identified Russia as the "most significant and direct danger". Finland joined NATO in 2023 after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in that same year. Sweden followed in 2024. Western European leaders have said repeatedly that if Russia won the Ukraine war it could attack NATO one day - which would trigger a global war. Russia has dismissed such claims as scaremongering but also warned that the conflict in Ukraine could escalate. (Reporting in Moscow; Editing by Daniel Flynn).
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Three killed in fire on Chevron Angolan oil platform
The death toll from the fire on a Chevron operated oil platform off Angola has now reached three. Government and company officials confirmed this late Tuesday. Officials said that two workers had been transferred to South African hospitals with specialist units, and the body of the third worker was still to be recovered from the ocean. The fire that broke out at the Benguela Belize Lobito (BBLT), a deep-water platform, in the early hours of the morning on May 20, injured seventeen people, including four who were seriously hurt. According to a government source, the accident happened in the week the U.S. major oil company was scheduled to resume its operations at BBLT following a planned annual maintenance shutdown. BBLT produced its first oil back in 2006. Cabinda's Angolan subsidiary, Cabinda Oil Company, has not confirmed the date of expected return to service. The company said it would not comment on operational issues as the investigation into the cause for the fire continues. (Reporting and editing by Elaine Hardcastle; Wendell Roelf)
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UN weather agency: Arctic warming to be three times the global average in coming years
A new report from the U.N.'s weather agency on Wednesday predicted that the world will continue to see record temperatures in the coming five years. The Arctic is expected warm at a rate three times greater than the global average. According to a report from the World Meteorological Organization, there is a 80% chance of at least one record year in the next five. The likelihood of average warming exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degree Fahrenheit), above pre-industrial temperatures, is high. The Paris Climate Agreement of 2015, which obligated countries to prevent global warming exceeding 1.5 C, was breached for the first time last year. The WMO stated that the global mean near-surface temperatures are expected to rise between 1.2 C - 1.9 C from this year through 2029 compared to pre-industrial levels in the years 1850-1900. This will lead more extreme weather. In a press release, it stated that "every fractional degree more of warming leads to more heatwaves and extreme rain events, intense dry spells, melting ice sheets and sea ice and glaciers. It also causes ocean heating and sea level rise." The Arctic will experience a rapid melting of ice due to the projected above-average warming. The report stated that Arctic warming is predicted to be over three-and-a half times the global average. This means the temperature will rise by 2.4 C higher than the 30-year average for the next five winters. The WMO said that global temperatures would remain near or at record levels through the end of this decade. The weather agency predicts above-average rainfall in the Sahel region, northern Europe, Alaska, and northern Siberia between May and September 2025-2029. Meanwhile, the Amazon is expected to be drier than average this season. (Reporting and editing by Helen Popper; Olivia Le Poidevin)
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The stronger dollar has put pressure on industrial metals
The industrial metals market was subdued Wednesday due to a stronger dollar. However, the improved risk appetite on financial markets after President Donald Trump’s latest tariff relief offered some support. The London Metal Exchange reported that the price of three-month copper was $9,585 per ton at 0704 GMT. This is a 0.1% decline. The Shanghai Futures Exchange's (SHFE) most-traded contract for copper fell 0.1% to 78.200 yuan per ton ($10,868.36). Dollar-denominated investments are now more expensive for holders of currencies other than the dollar. In its latest monthly bulletin, the International Copper Study Group reported that the global refined copper market had a surplus of 17,000 metric tonnes in March, compared to a surplus of 180,000 metric tonnes in February. The risk sentiment on the financial markets was boosted after Trump, on Sunday, reversed his threat to impose tariffs of 50% on EU imports next month. He also restored a deadline for July 9 to allow time for negotiations. Copper prices have traded in line with the overall sentiment on the global stock exchange in the past two weeks. The US stock market has been lifted by trade optimism, and this has had a ripple effect on copper prices, said Kelvin Woong, senior market analyst for Asia Pacific, OANDA. Data released on Tuesday showed that U.S. consumer sentiment improved in May, despite the truce between Washington and Beijing in the trade dispute. Other London metals include aluminium, which fell by 0.3% to 2,478 dollars a ton. Zinc also declined, falling 0.7% to 2,688, while lead decreased 0.4% to 1,977, and nickel dropped 1.6% to 15,165. Tin fell 2.3% to $30,840. The SHFE aluminium price rose by 0.2%, to 20,095 Chinese yuan per ton. Nickel fell 2.1%, to 119.800 yuan. Zinc dropped 0.9%, to 22,210 yuan. Tin declined 3.1%, to 256.870 yuan. $1 = 7.1952 Chinese Yuan Renminbi (Reporting and editing by Janane Venturaman and Sherry Phillips in Bengaluru)
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Thames Water, UK fined $165 million for sewage and dividend violations
Ofwat announced on Wednesday that Thames Water in Britain, which is on the verge of financial collapse, would have to pay an unprecedented 122.7 million pounds ($165.36 millions) for failing to meet its legal obligations regarding sewage treatment and dividend payment. The watchdog added another 18.2 million pounds to the fine, after the company had paid dividends, despite having a performance that "caused an unacceptable impact on the customer and the environment". The company was also required to comply with an enforcement order that would have required it to correct any violations identified in relation to its wastewater operations. Thames, Britain's largest water supplier, with 16 million customers has been the subject of an uproar over the privatised sector. Thames is accused of pumping sewage in rivers and seas, while paying dividends, and allowing the debt to grow to 18 billion pounds. David Black, Ofwat's boss, said that "this is a clear case where Thames Water let down its clients and failed to protect environment". In February, the company obtained a loan of 3 billion pounds to prevent a financial collapse. Ofwat announced on Wednesday that the company is looking for new buyers to help fund its turnaround. Thames, whose rating is below investment grade at the moment, is now locked up in cash and no dividend payments are allowed without Ofwat approval. The watchdog recently gained new powers for better monitoring the industry. The company has halted its operations since the beginning of this month. Bonus scheme for executives After ministers complained about the payments. Thames Water issued a statement stating that its lenders continue to support the company's liquidity and its equity raising process is ongoing. "We take very seriously our responsibility to the environment... "Dividends were declared after a careful consideration of the legal and regulatory obligations of the company," said it.
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Steel industry is unsure if China will implement output cuts plans
China has said it will cut its crude steel production this year, but traders and steelmakers believe Beijing will not follow through because the industry is profitable and trade tensions are weighing on the economy. In March, the world's biggest steel producer announced plans to reduce output and restructure their giant steel sector in order to combat overcapacity that has plagued this industry for years and spilled over onto export markets and angered trade partners. At the Singapore International Ferrous Week, fifteen traders, analysts, and hedge funds shared the same message. The cuts will not be implemented. They said that the unexpectedly high demand has led to an improvement in profitability across the entire industry, which undermines some of the rationale behind the initial decision to reduce output. In the period from April to June, the industry's profits reached 16.9 billion Yuan ($2.35billion), compared with a loss last year of 22.2billion Yuan. Participants bet that Beijing will not crack down on the crime rate, especially since the trade war between the United States and China makes policymakers more sensitive to maintaining economic growth. Even less incentive exists for local governments, where many of the steel mills contribute significantly to the growth targets that officials are evaluated against. No one wants to cut production when mills can make money again after struggling for survival the last two years. Between January and April of this year, the Chinese crude steel production increased by 0.4%. Many at the conference believed that in China, Beijing's lack of public orders since March's announcement indicated that output reductions would be limited or enforced only partially. The Chinese consultancy Fubao stated in late April, that although provincial targets had been set for production cuts, there was doubt about whether the steel mills will actually adhere to them. Mengtian Jiang is the chief ferrous metals analysts at Harizon Insights. "Steel Mills are Making Money, especially since the domestic coking prices have almost halved. I don't see China's Steel Output will be Down Much." She added that although steel exports could fall by 3% to 4% in the coming year, this will not have a significant impact on China's output of steel. ($1 = 7.1976 Chinese Yuan Renminbi). (Reporting and editing by Lewis Jackson, Shri Navaratnam and Amy Lv in Singapore)
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Australian shares end flat after steady inflation report
Australian shares finished slightly lower on Tuesday, after easing from their five-month-high. Inflation data was a little hotter than anticipated but still kept the rate-cutting hopes alive. The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed at 8,396.9, a slight decrease from its previous close. It was up 0.5% Tuesday. After the CPI data at 1230 local was released, the benchmark began to pull back. The heavy banking and mining sector led the losses. The data showed that the monthly consumer price index (CPI), which is a measure of prices, rose by 2.4% in April when compared to a year ago. This was unchanged from March. The print, though slightly higher than the median expectations of 2.3% but still within the target range of the central bank of 2-3%, was within the marginal forecasts. Luke Laretive is CEO and investment advisor at Seneca Financial Solutions. He forecasted a 25 basis point cut in July. The banking sector has been hit hardest by the softening of bullishness... and most investors are now aware that interest rates in Australia have likely reached their peak. All four "Big Four" banks fell between 0.5% to 0.9%. BHP Group, the sector's largest company, fell 0.4% as iron ore prices dropped. Mineral Resources, a lithium miner, lost 5.3% following a reduction in its Onslow annual iron volume forecast. Energy stocks, which are a good indicator of oil prices, have risen 2.2%. Brad Smoling is the managing director of Smoling Stockbroking. He said, "Energy stock prices have fallen recently, and bargain hunters are now moving in to some of these shares." IT stocks rose in line with their U.S. counterparts by 1.2%. WiseTech, a tech giant, added 0.4% to its gains for the fourth straight session. The S&P/NZX 50 index in New Zealand fell by 1.7%, ending at 12,362.26. This was not affected much by the expected rate cut from the central bank. (Reporting by Rajasik Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee)
TSX futures dip ahead of Canada inflation data
Futures linked to Canadian stocks were subdued on Tuesday, hurt by a decline in unrefined prices, while investors turned mindful ahead of the domestic inflation data that might even more strengthen expectations from the Bank of Canada (BoC) to cut rate of interest further.
September futures on the S&P/ TSX index were down 0.07% at 6:19 a.m. ET (1019 GMT).
All eyes will be on the Customer Cost Index (CPI) numbers at 08:30 a.m. ET that might offer guarantee to Canadian policymakers before they slash the loaning expenses in July.
Traders are pricing in a 65.6% possibility of a 25-basis-points rate cut by the Canadian reserve bank in its next policy conference on July 24.
BoC Governor Tiff Macklem on Monday said there is enough slack in the Canadian labor market to enable development and task creation even as inflation slows.
On the products front, oil prices, slipped after increasing in the previous session, as financiers wait for U.S. consumer cost information due later on this week.
Copper was partially up as the U.S. dollar reduced somewhat however subdued demand in China kept gains in check. On the flip side, gold rates stayed soft ahead of crucial U.S. inflation data.
Wall Street futures were combined, with S&P and Nasdaq futures increasing, as AI chipmaker Nvidia recuperated in premarket trading after falling about 13% in the last three sessions.
In corporate news, French sustainable power producer Neoen SA signed a share purchase contract for the acquisition of a bulk stake by property management company Brookfield .
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(source: Reuters)