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U.S. Steel names three American directors to its board of directors following the Nippon Steel deal
U.S. Steel announced on Wednesday that it has appointed three American board members to its company. This comes more than a week after Nippon Steel completed its $14.9 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel. The company is now a Nippon Steel subsidiary and its board has seven members, of which four are U.S. Citizens, including three independent U.S. Directors. John Donovan is a former CEO of Lockheed Martin and Robert Stevens was formerly a member of U.S. National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee. Timothy Keating was named as a member of the board. He is a retired admiral of the U.S. Navy who served previously as director of the Pentagon's joint staff as well as commander of United States Pacific Command. Nippon signed the agreement last month to gain approval for the acquisition of U.S. Steel, after high-level opposition. It also Pledged A board with a majority of Americans and a CEO from the United States would help to calm down any concerns. The agreement granted U.S. president Donald Trump an economic golden share as well as the right to nominate a board member. It was not immediately apparent if any of the members of Trump's board were appointed directly by him. The deal gives the U.S. Government a unique level of control over the companies, allowing it to veto a range of corporate decisions from shutting down plants to reducing production capacity and moving jobs abroad. Reporting by Utkarsh shetti and Aishwarya jain in Bengaluru, editing by Pooja desai
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Gold drops as US data is strong and fuels expectations for rate cuts to be delayed
Gold prices fell on Wednesday, as strong U.S. data confirmed expectations that the Federal Reserve would hold interest rates at their upcoming meeting. This also increased the likelihood that any rate cuts for the rest of the year could be delayed. As of 9:34 am ET, spot gold was down by 0.6%, at $3,306,57 per ounce. ET (1334 GMT). U.S. Gold futures dropped 0.6% to $3.303.40. The recent economic releases are quite encouraging. The surprise was the GDP. The same goes for the addition to the labor market. Both indicate that the Fed may continue to delay cutting rates", said Nitesh Sharma, commodities strategist at WisdomTree. ADP's National Employment Report showed that private payrolls in the United States increased more than expected during July, despite signs of a slowing job market. Separately, the Commerce Department reported that second-quarter GDP increased by 3%, exceeding expectations of 2.4%. It is expected that the U.S. Central Bank will leave rates unchanged in the afternoon, despite President Donald Trump's repeated requests for rate cuts. The traders now see a 60% probability of the Fed reducing rates in September, compared to 66% prior to the data. Market participants will parse Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s comments, due at 2:30 ET (1830 GMT), for any nuance about the timing and trajectory policy shifts. Shah said that the higher the gold price, the louder an administration's displeasure with current policies will be. Gold is more likely to perform well when interest rates are low and there is uncertainty. After two days of constructive discussions in Stockholm, the U.S.A. and China have agreed to extend their 90 day tariff truce. Spot silver dropped 1.5%, to $37.61 an ounce. Platinum fell 1.1%, to $1380.25, and palladium fell 0.5%, to $1251.88. (Reporting and editing by Vijay Kishore in Bengaluru, Sherin Elizabeth Varighese from Bengaluru)
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India launches NASA-ISRO Satellite to Track Climate Threats from Space
India launched a radar imaging satellite worth $1.5 billion on Wednesday, the first of its kind. It was built in collaboration between NASA and India to improve global monitoring of natural disasters and climate change. NISAR, the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite, is the result of the first collaboration between NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation. The rocket took off at 1210 GMT from India's Satish Dhawan Space Centre atop a medium lift rocket. This marks a landmark in space cooperation, and enhances India's image in low-cost missions with high impact. NISAR, according to the space agencies, is the first radar imaging satellite in the world to use two different radar frequencies, the L-band from NASA and the S band developed by ISRO, to track minute movements on the Earth's surface. These changes can be as small as centimetres. Satellite, about the size and weight as a full-loaded pickup truck was placed in a Sun-synchronous near-polar orbit 747 km above Earth. The satellite will map the Earth every 12 days, using a 240km wide radar swath. This data is available to disaster response agencies and scientists to monitor anything from glacier retreats in the Himalayas up to possible landslide areas in South America. After the launch, ISRO Chairman V. Narayanan stated that "the potential applications of the satellite are enormous and the scientific community around the world is eagerly anticipating the satellite data to use for their research and purposes." It will not be used by just one or two nations. This great achievement will benefit the entire world," he said. He added that the mission brought the two space agencies closer together than ever before. Casey Swails (NASA's associate deputy administrator) called the mission "a pathfinder". She said, "This Earth Science mission is unique and shows the world just what our two countries can do." NISAR will operate for at minimum five years. Data collected by NISAR will be freely accessible to all users around the world. This is a step that aims to increase transparency and accessibility for environmental research and hazards response. The launch coincides with India's wider push to establish itself a space power following its Chandrayaan-3 lunar landing and its Gaganyaan programme for human spaceflight. India said that it plans to build its space station and send astronauts on the moon by 2035 in partnership with other nations as part of an overall vision to expand scientific and commercial activities in space. (Reporting and editing by Nivedita Battacharjee, YP Rajesh, and Ros Russell).
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A huge earthquake rocks Russia's Far East and triggers tsunami warnings in the Pacific
The powerful 8.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Russia's Far Eastern Kamchatka Coast on Wednesday caused tsunami warnings to be issued as far as French Polynesia, Chile and the Pacific Islands. It was then followed by the eruption of the volcano with the highest activity on the peninsula. A shallow earthquake in remote Russian territory damaged buildings and injured a few people. Meanwhile, parts of Hawaii and Japan's east coast, which was devastated by an earthquake and tsunami of 9.0 magnitude in 2011, were ordered to evacuate. By evening, Japan and Hawaii had lowered most of their warnings. French Polynesia authorities warned residents in the Marquesas Islands that they should move to higher ground to avoid waves up to 8 feet and 2.5 metres high. Scientists in Russia said that the earthquake in Kamchatka is the strongest to have hit the region since 1951. It felt as if the walls were about to collapse at any moment. The shaking lasted continuously for at least three minutes," said Yaroslav, 25, in the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesperson, said that there were no casualties from the earthquake in Russia. He credited the solid construction of buildings and the smooth operation of alert systems. The Russian news agency RIA reported that in Severo Kurilsk, a town located on the northern Kuril Islands south of Kamchatka the tsunami waves were up to five metres high. Alexander Ovsyannikov is the mayor of the town. He urged residents to inspect their homes for damage and to not use gas stoves until an inspection had been conducted. Regional officials and the Russian emergency ministry reported that tsunami waves had partially flooded a port and a plant for processing fish in the town and washed away vessels from their moorings. Drone footage verified by the local authorities showed that the entire town's shoreline had been submerged. Taller buildings, and even some storage facilities were surrounded by water. A geological monitoring service reported that the Klyuchevskoy Volcano on Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula started erupting a little later. On the western slope, a descent of hot burning lava can be observed. "Powerful glow over the volcano and explosions," said the Russian Academy of Sciences United Geophysical Service in a Telegram statement. The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake was shallow at a depth of 19.3 km (12 miles), and centred 119 km (74 miles) east-southeast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, a city of 165,000. WAVES IN HAWAII AND JAPAN Officials said that Hawaii recorded waves up to 1.7 meters while Japan recorded the largest wave at 1.3 metres. The transportation department reported that flights from Honolulu Airport resumed this evening. As far as California, waves of up to half a metre in height were seen. Smaller ones reached British Columbia province in Canada. Waves began to hit French Polynesia's islands early Wednesday morning. Wave heights in other areas were expected to be below 30 cm and not require evacuation or sheltering. Sebastien Lecornu, French Minister of Defence, said on X that "our armed forces are on alert in French Polynesia as a preventative measure to be ready to help our fellow citizens and the state services with potential search and rescue or medical evacuations." The Marquesas is a volcanic island with high rises, but French Polynesia has many low-lying islands. WARNINGS Across the Pacific In coastal towns along the Pacific coast of Japan, tsunami alarms were sounded and evacuation orders issued for thousands of people. TEPCO, the operator of the Fukushima plant, said that workers evacuated the facility after a meltdown caused by the tsunami in 2011. Yoshimasa Haiashi, the Chief Cabinet Secretary, said that no damage or injuries had been reported and that there were no irregularities in any nuclear plant. "RING OF FIRE" Scientists say that the quake took place on a fault known as a megathrust, where the heavier North American Plate slides beneath the denser Pacific Plate. They said that the Pacific Plate is moving, and the Kamchatka Peninsula, off the coast of Russia's Far East, was particularly vulnerable to these tremors. And bigger aftershocks were not ruled out. The Russian Ministry for Emergency Services reported on Telegram that while a kindergarten suffered damage, most buildings survived the earthquake. Video footage from the region's health ministry showed a team of medics in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky performing surgery as the quake shook their operating theatre. Kamchatka, and the Far East of Russia are located on the Pacific Ring of Fire. This is a geologically-active region that's prone to volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. "However due to certain features of the epicentre the shaking intensity was lower than one would expect for such a magnitude", said Danila Cherbrov, Director of the Kamchatka Branch, Geophysical Service on Telegram. The intensity of the aftershocks will remain high. "However, stronger tremors will not be expected in the near term."
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India-US trade negotiations go off the rails over a dispute over farm markets
Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that the United States will impose a 25 percent tariff on Indian products starting August 1. He cited New Delhi's high taxes and non-monetary trade barriers. Here are some of the issues that have appeared to have stalled the trade negotiations between the U.S. and India, the fifth-largest economy in the world: CONTENTIOUS ISSUES India has refused to comply with U.S. requests for the opening of its dairy and agricultural markets, claiming that such a move would harm millions of farmers. New Delhi has excluded agriculture from its free trade agreements to protect the livelihoods of domestic farmers. Indian officials have cited the risks of subsidised U.S. agricultural products as a reason to not reduce tariffs on corn, soybeans, wheat, and ethanol. Automakers, pharmaceutical firms, and small businesses in India have all lobbied to only open the market gradually, for fear of disruptions from U.S. imported products. High Tariffs A White House fact sheet states that India has an average MFN tariff (Most Favored Nation) of 39% for imported farm products, compared with 5% in the U.S. and some as high as 50 %. Trump's administration repeatedly cited these tariffs to be a major obstacle in establishing deeper trade relations with India. U.S. DEMANDS Washington wants better access to India’s markets in agriculture, ethanol and dairy products, alcohol beverages, automobiles, pharmaceuticals and medical devices. Washington also wants India's non-tariff trade barriers to be reduced, as well as the rules for digital trade, data flows, and patents. Lack of Reciprocity India is waiting for clear proposals from Washington despite offering limited tariff reductions and increasing imports of U.S. defence and energy goods. Trump's unpredictable trading moves are cited by officials as a cause for concern. Indian exporters are still concerned about the rising U.S. tariffs on imports. Tensions over Pakistan New Delhi has expressed concern over Trump's repeated claims that he helped broker the ceasefire between India & Pakistan in early this year. Indian officials see the remarks as a strategic shift toward Pakistan that complicates bilateral relations. Overconfidence in a Deal Indian officials initially believed that a deal would be reached, as they expected the U.S. government to favor deeper trade with India's largest commercial partner. Modi and Trump aimed to sign the first phase of a pact in autumn 2025. They hoped that bilateral trade would reach $500 billion by 2030. This was up from $191 million in 2024. India is still hopeful that its exports such as pharmaceuticals, electronics and engineering goods, garments and other items, will remain competitive despite the tariff setback. In 2024, Indian exports of goods to the U.S. will reach $87 billion. Gems and jewellery (8.5 billion dollars), pharma (8 billion dollars) and petrochemicals (4 billion dollars) are the top three. Services exports were valued at $33 billion, mostly IT and professional services. With $68 billion cumulatively in FDI from 2002, the United States is India’s third largest investor. US Exports to India U.S. manufacturing exported to India will be worth nearly $42 billion by 2024. However, there are high tariffs on these products. These range from 7% for wood products and machinery, to 15% to 20% for footwear and transport equipment and up to 68% on foods.
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Tata Steel India beats its quarterly profit forecasts on lower costs
Tata Steel, India's second largest steelmaker in terms of market capitalization, reported an increase in profit that was higher than expected on Wednesday. Lower raw material costs helped boost margins. LSEG data shows that its consolidated net income more than doubled in the last quarter to 20,78 billion rupees (US$236,8 million), exceeding analysts' expectations of 18,13 billion rupees. Steel producers' profitability was expected to increase with lower iron ore and coal prices, which are essential raw materials. The total expenditures of the company fell by about 4%, to 503.47 billion rupies, due mainly to a decrease of 12.7% in materials purchased, which accounted for more than 30%. Although domestic steel prices are still lower than they were a year earlier, there has been a significant improvement quarter-on-quarter since the government implemented a temporary 12% safety duty in April in order to combat a surge of low-cost imports from China. Analysts expected that the measure would boost local prices and help protect margins. Tata Steel’s net profit margin increased to 3.77%, from 1.68% one year earlier. According to data compiled and analyzed by LSEG, Tata Group reported a drop of about 3% in its total revenue. Analysts had expected a revenue of 515.18 bn rupees. Tata Steel's production and delivery volumes have decreased by 8.4% and 3.7% respectively, year-on-year due to maintenance-related shutdowns at its Jamshedpur blast-furnace and Neelachal Ispat Ngam. The company expects that production and deliveries will normalise over the next few quarters. In the same month, JSW Steel, a larger competitor in India, also beat profit expectations for the first quarter on lower raw material costs. However they raised concerns about cheaper steel imports. ($1 = 87.7620 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Anuran Sadhu in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee)
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Trump announces 25% tariffs on India starting August 1.
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump announced that the United States would impose a 25 percent tariff on all goods imported from India beginning August 1. He did not specify the amount of the penalty or the reason for it. Trump said in a Truth Social article that "India is our friend but we have done very little business over the years because their Tariffs were far too high. They are among the highest in World and they had the most obnoxious and strenuous non-monetary trade barriers of any Country." "They've always bought a large amount of their military gear from Russia and are Russia’s largest buyer for ENERGY along with China at a moment when everyone wants Russia STOP the killing in Ukraine -- All Things Not Good!" The Indian commerce ministry which leads the trade negotiations between India and the United States did not respond immediately to a comment request. Trump's announcement dashes any hopes for a limited trading agreement between the United States and Canada, which has been in negotiation since several months. U.S.-Indian trade negotiators held several rounds of talks to resolve controversial issues, including market access for American dairy and agricultural products. Indian officials, despite progress in certain areas, refused to open the Indian market to imports such as wheat, corn and rice, or genetically modified soy beans, citing the risks they posed to the livelihoods of millions of Indian farmers. India's exports of goods to the U.S. are estimated to be around $87 billion by 2024. This includes labour-intensive products like garments, pharmaceuticals. gems and jewelry, and petrochemicals. The United States has a current trade deficit of $45.7 billion with India. India has joined a list of countries that will face higher tariffs as a result of Trump's "Liberation Day", a trade policy designed to reshape U.S.-Indian trade relations through greater reciprocity. The White House warned India previously about the high tariffs it applied to agricultural products -- almost 39%, and rates as high as 45% for vegetable oils and 50% on corn and apples. The failure comes despite previous commitments made by Trump and Prime Minister Narendra modi to complete the first phase in a trade agreement by autumn 2025, and to expand bilateral trade from $191 billion to $500 billion dollars by 2030. If India decides to retaliate, U.S. manufacturing and energy exports, such as crude oil, liquefied gas, and coal could also be subject to retaliatory actions. Indian officials have indicated in the past that they see the U.S. a strategic partner of great importance, especially to counterbalance China. They have stressed the need to maintain policy space in agriculture, data governance and state subsidies. Reporting by Susan Heavey in Washington, Katharine Jackson in New Delhi, Manoj Kumar and Aftab Ahmad in New Delhi, and editing by Doina Schiacu and Mark Heinrich
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Russia is worried about the threat of new attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities
Russia expressed concern on Wednesday about the possibility of new attacks on Iran's nucleonic facilities. It said that a deal regarding Tehran's program could be reached by dialogue. Israel and the United States bombarded Iranian nuclear facilities in June, with the stated goal of preventing Tehran acquiring a nuke weapon. Iran denies that it has any such intentions. "Regular threats against Iran to launch new bomb and missile strikes on its nuclear facility cannot help but cause serious concern." Such statements are cynical, especially when they are made in the name of an imaginary concern about the non-proliferation nuclear weapons," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said to reporters. Bombing nuclear installations should not be a routine, international practice. "The catastrophic risks of this practice cannot be ignored or justified. Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Russia has developed closer ties with Iran. This year it signed a treaty for strategic partnership with the Islamic Republic. Zakharova stated that a lasting peace agreement and a commitment not to launch new attacks on Iran are prerequisites for normalising the cooperation between Tehran and U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency. (Reporting and editing by Mark Trevelyan, Andrew Heavens, and Dmitry Antonov)
VTB Russia expects the rouble to fall to 90 per dollar by 2025
A top VTB executive said that the Russian rouble would weaken to 90 cents against the U.S. Dollar by 2025, due to a fall in the central bank's forex sales. This will follow a rally that has been successful in fighting inflation.
According to LSEG, based upon over-the counter quotes, the Russian currency had gained more than 40% against the U.S. Dollar in 2018. It was trading 0.5% higher at 78.70 per U.S. Dollar by 1230 GMT Friday.
The central bank was able to reduce its interest rate to the lowest level in 20 years in part due to the lower inflation in June. This month, more cuts are expected.
Dmitry Pyanov is the first deputy CEO at VTB. He claims that Russia's central banks has been supporting the rouble by selling foreign currencies. Pyanov is also VTB’s CFO and the first senior executive who has suggested that the rouble’s rally was deliberate policy to combat inflation.
He said that the rouble would gradually weaken due to the expected decline in central bank forex sales this year, as a strong currency hurts exporters and will put pressure on regulators.
Pyanov said in an interview that he believes the rouble is at its current peak and won't grow any further. Many Russian economists, government officials, and business executives believe that the rouble has become overvalued.
The central bank has said that it does not target exchange rates, allowing the rouble's value to fluctuate freely. It attributes the recent rouble appreciation to geopolitical issues and the weak demand for imported goods, with firms and consumers refusing to take out loans to purchase these items.
The central bank is increasing its net forex sales in July by 31%, to 9.76 billion rubles ($124 million). This will help maintain the rouble's current value despite calls for it to weaken.
Pyanov criticized this policy. He said that the floating exchange rate system of the central bank only worked in one direction. It prevented the rouble's excessive weakness, but not its strengthening.
As the exchange rate starts to fall, the central banks begins selling foreign currency. He said that's why he calls it "a floating rouble but only in one way". Markets should also take into consideration this policy. (Writing and editing by Andrew Osborn, Rachna uppal, Gleb Bryanski)
(source: Reuters)