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Connecticut trader founded guilty in Petrobras bribery case
A Connecticut oil and gas trader was convicted on Thursday over a nearly eightyear plan to pay off authorities at Brazil's stateowned oil company Petrobras so two Connecticut trading business might win organization, U.S. district attorneys said. Glenn Oztemel, 65, of Westport, Connecticut, was found guilty by a Bridgeport, Connecticut, jury on all seven counts he faced, including cash laundering, conspiracy and breaching the federal Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Oztemel and another offender, Brazilian-Italian oil and gas broker Eduardo Innecco, were implicated of bribing officials to aid Arcadia Fuels and Freepoint Commodities win contracts and learn private details about Petrobras' fuel oil organization. District attorneys said Oztemel paid more than $1 million in kickbacks that were split in between Petrobras authorities in Brazil and Rodrigo Berkowitz, a Petrobras fuel trader in Houston. The accuseds allegedly used coded language such as breakfast, breakfast servings and freight deviation to describe allurements and bribe quantities. District attorneys said the scheme ranged from 2010 to 2018. Oztemel worked at both Arcadia and Freepoint, before retiring in 2020. We are extremely disappointed in today's decision, Oztemel's. attorney Nelson Boxer said in an e-mail. Glenn has had an. unblemished record for 40 years in the oil industry, and we will. continue to fight to clear Glenn's reputation. Innecco is waiting for extradition from France to deal with U.S. charges. Oztemel's bro Gary Oztemel pleaded guilty to a. associated money laundering charge in June. Last December, Freepoint, based in Stamford, Connecticut,. entered a postponed prosecution agreement and consented to pay more. than $98 million to deal with associated U.S. bribery charges. Brazilian authorities had actually investigated Freepoint staff members. as part of Operation Car Wash, a seven-year examination into. presumed bribery involving Petrobras. Berkowitz pleaded guilty in February 2019 in Brooklyn to a. money laundering conspiracy charge. He has yet to be sentenced,. court records reveal.
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Costco Wholesale misses out on quarterly income price quotes on still-muted costs
Costco Wholesale missed market expectations for fourthquarter income on Thursday on cautious spending by budgetconscious clients at its membershiponly shops, in addition to an impact from lower gasoline costs. Shares of the business were down about 1% in extended trading. They have actually acquired about 37% up until now this year. While ultra-low prices on groceries and other kitchen area staples is driving need for essential products, customer spending on big-ticket categories such as furnishings, home and sporting items has been choppy, hurting sales at Costco's. warehouses. The business likewise count on demand for more expensive products such as. patio furnishings throughout the summer along with back-to-school. looking for items such as tablets and other electronics. Costco's fairly wealthy member base will be amongst the. first to go back to discretionary costs as inflation cools and. rate of interest boil down, stated Sky Canaves, analyst at. eMarketer. The subscription storage facility retailer's same-store sales are. likewise taking a hit from lower gas costs, which squeeze. their margins. They grew 5.4% in the reported period ended Sept. 1, compared to a 6.6% rise in the third quarter. Omitting gas, the company's equivalent sales increased. 5.4%, listed below estimates of a 6.4% rise, according to LSEG data. In July, the business stated it would hike its annual. membership cost by $5 to $65 for the gold star members, and to. $ 130 from $120 for executive members. The hike worked. from Sept. 1. Costco's fourth-quarter earnings rose almost 1% to $79.70. billion, falling short of analysts' average quote of $79.97. billion. The business's quarterly earnings from memberships was flat at. $ 1.51 billion, compared to a year earlier. Net income attributable to Costco increased to $2.35 billion, or. $ 5.29 per share, from $2.16 billion, or $4.86 per share, a year. earlier, beating estimates of $5.08 apiece, as per LSEG information.
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Argentina exchange could cut corn forecast on absence of rain
Argentina's Buenos Aires grains exchange could cut its forecast for the size of fields planted with corn this season if the South American country's farming heartlands do not get rain in the coming weeks, it stated on Thursday. The exchange presently anticipates that farmers in Argentina, a. major global supplier of grains and the world's third-largest. corn exporter, will plant some 6.3 million hectares of corn for. the 2024/25 season. It likewise forsees a 47 million metric load harvest. Contributing (farmers) state that their early planting plans. may not be fulfilled if there is no rain in the next 15 to 20 days,. it stated in a weekly report. Northern and western parts of Argentina's agricultural core. have actually experienced months of extremely low rainfall, slowing. planting. Up until now, corn farmers have actually planted simply 10.5% of the. anticipated area. Last month, farmers and service technicians told Reuters that the. lack of rain as well a leafhopper insect plague affecting corn. fields were pressing growers to pivot to soybeans. Argentina is also a significant supplier of wheat, which is. mostly grown in the south of the farming location. The exchange said that recent rains in this location was. preferring advancement, and on Wednesday bumped up its harvest. quote to 18.6 million lots. Farmers will begin the wheat. harvest in November.
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World coffee, sugar rates surge as drought-hit Brazil waits for rains
World coffee and sugar rates surged to brand-new highs on Thursday as investors remained concentrated on droughthit Brazil, the top grower of both commodities, with weather report continuing to indicate dry conditions. Brazil is experiencing one of its worst dry spells on record. Farmland fires have actually broken out in some sugar-producing regions as an outcome, while arabica is a lot more affected as the crop is in the crucial flowering phase. LSEG analysts state that while some weather designs predict rains will finally show up in Brazil, these will likely materialise only towards mid-to-late October, if at all. In general, the forecast for Brazil looks mostly negative heading into October, with a hint of relief towards completion of the month, they said. Coffee dealerships and industry specialists said trees in Brazil could yet bounce back to life if consistent rains materialise, but the situation as regards the crop overall is hanging by a. thread. Criteria arabica futures traded on the ICE exchange. strike a new 13-year high of $2.7505 per pound, later on closing up 1.8%. at $2.739/ lb. Raw sugar futures struck a fresh 7-month peak of. 23.71 cents per pound, closing later 0.5% down at 23.31 cents/lb. The expectation that Brazil will enter among the longest. between-crops durations in decades broke speculators' months-long. method to short the sugar market, driving them to cover. positions. In top robusta coffee producer Vietnam, regional rates. fell this week ahead of the brand-new harvest, with traders stating the. weather remains helpful. Increased output from Vietnam could assist relieve the upward. pressure on arabica prices, as the two grades are to some degree. fungible. However, Vietnam suffered negative weather previously this. year and it is extensively anticipated the upcoming crop will show. this. Robusta coffee futures, which hit their greatest in. nearly half a century last week, increased 1.5% to $5,527 a heap. In other soft products, white sugar futures. fell 0.5% to $593.90 a heap. December New york city cocoa? rose? 2.1% to $8,122 a. ton, after earlier acquiring more than 10% in very volatile. trading. March London cocoa? increased 1.9% to 4,622 pounds. per load.
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UAE to reveal nationwide climate plan under Paris pact before COP29
The United Arab Emirates intends to launch its new national environment strategy under the Paris environment contract, describing how it will cut its greenhouse gas emissions from 2025 to 2035, before the COP29 climate summit in November. That would make it among the very first major emitters to take that action ahead of the February 2025 due date. Sultan Al Jaber, president of last year's COP28 environment top in Dubai, said the oil-producing country will submit its new nationally identified contribution (NDC) to the UN in order to motivate other countries to come forward with their plans. WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT? NDCs are the structure of the Paris Agreement and are supposed to motivate countries to adopt brand-new emissions-reduction targets and measures that keep them on track to fulfill the Paris goal of accomplishing net absolutely no emissions by 2050 and avoiding global temperature levels from rising beyond 1.5 C. The Paris Arrangement requires countries to advance brand-new and stronger NDCs every five years. CRUCIAL QUOTE We should view NDCs not as a concern however as platforms for new streams of growth, green jobs and a tidy future, Jaber said on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly at a meeting assembled by the presidents of Dubai's COP28, upcoming COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, and next year's police in Belem, Brazil. KEY CONTEXT The brand-new round of NDCs are the very first test of the commitment made in 2015's police 28 agreement to transition far from fossil fuels. The last round of country plans by significant oil, gas and coal manufacturers did not discuss these sectors or mention phasing down output, according to the International Institute for Sustainable Development. Advocacy group Oil Change International said on Thursday the past, present and future police officer hosts are set to increase their combined oil and gas production by 33% by 2035.
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New york city State fund switched coal assets for responsible index ETF
Moving money from coal possessions to a. brand-new responsibleinvestment exchangetraded automobile supplied the. sort of quick win the New York State Insurance coverage Fund was looking. for when assessing the climate and social effects of its. holdings, a top executive said on Thursday. The new allowance immediately decreased our carbon exposure. in the equity portfolio by something like 40%, said Rajith. Sebastian, head of ESG and Sustainable Investing for the $20. billion state fund, at a Reuters NEXT Newsmaker event in New. York. Sebastian's fund offers employees payment, disability. and other coverage, and in 2022 launched an environment action like. those set out by New york city's larger public-sector pension funds. The insurance coverage fund was beginning later than those bigger. peers and Sebastian said it initially was trying to find fast. wins by shifting parts of its portfolio towards goals like. reducing emissions. One action, he stated, was to impose strict screens against. any company or property manager that got more than 1% of its. earnings from coal mining, which instantly decreased carbon. direct exposure in its equity portfolio by about 40%. The move likewise enabled the fund to provide seed cash for a. brand-new ETF, the Calvert U.S. Large-Cap Core Accountable Index ETF . We got a great deal of reaction internally, Sebastian stated,. mentioning preliminary issues about developing excessive exposure to the. fund. The state fund's holdings now account for about half its. possessions of about $354 million, below around 95% initially,. Sebastian said. We didn't even advertise because we thought,. let's do this, it's impactful.
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China stimulus, magnificent gold puts silver on a streak, however not without risk
Silver costs have bubbled as much as their highest in over a decade on the back of bullion's excellent bull run and China's stimulus procedures, although some experts anticipate the rally to fade as industrial sector demand remains a. concern. Spot silver - both a financial investment asset due to its. relationship with gold and an industrial metal - rose to $32.71. per ounce on Thursday, its greatest because December 2012, and has. gotten more than 35% up until now in 2024, leading the precious metals. complex. China's reserve bank revealed its most significant stimulus today. because the COVID 19 pandemic and is expected cut its seven-day. reverse repo rate. The U.S. Federal Reserve lowered interest. rates with a half-percentage-point decrease last week. China stimulus is giving commercial metals an increase,. something silver traders had actually been waiting on, Ole Hansen, head. of product strategy at Saxo Bank, stated. Continued gold strength integrated with steady to higher. industrial metal prices need to see silver continue to exceed. gold, with the gold/silver ratio falling back towards the 70 to. 75 location, possibly driving a 10% outperformance in silver,. Hansen added. The gold-silver ratio, denoting the number of ounces of silver. one ounce of gold can purchase, is utilized by the market to evaluate future. patterns as it indicates silver's present efficiency against its. historical correlation with gold. Interest rate cuts must provide a bullish impulse for. global activity and assistance silver consumption. We see rates. increasing to $35 over the next 3 months and $38 over the next 6-12. months, Citi analyst Max Layton stated. Macquarie, which expects that silver market deficits will. persist throughout its 5-year projection window, said financier. flows are most likely to stay essential for near-term cost action, with. ETF holdings probably providing the greatest scope for support. Nevertheless, combination in China's solar industry and slower. growth worldwide's 2nd most significant economy could pose. headwinds for silver in the near-term. China's most recent assistance steps by themselves will probably. be insufficient to drive a turn-around in growth and traders do. seem overstating the probability of another 50 bps cut. by the Fed in November, said Hamad Hussain, assistant environment &&. commodities economist at Capital Economics. Accordingly, the rally in silver costs is unlikely to be. sustained over the next few months as some of the tailwinds. boosting silver need fade. In top customer China, commercial output development slowed to a. five-month low in August, underlining weakening domestic need. We believe that silver is mainly dependent on gold in. regards to its medium to longer-term performance instead of any. silver-market specifics, stated Carsten Menke, an analyst at. Julius Baer.
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PGE to shut coal systems at Rybnik power plant by end of 2025
Poland's most significant power utility PGE prepares to end production of electricity in the 4 staying coalfired systems at its Rybnik power plant by the end of 2025, Polish Press Firm reported on Thursday, citing a business authorities. The units, with a combined power capability of 900 megawatts ( MW), have capacity market agreements that run until the end of 2025. Coal dominates Poland's electricity generation but state-controlled energies are facing falling success of coal-fired generation as they broaden their renewable capability and face banks' reluctance to fund coal assets. PGE has already phased out 4 coal fired units at the Rybnik plant and prepares to change them with a 882 MW gas-fired system that is set to be commissioned by the end of 2026. PGE stated in an emailed declaration that it was carrying out a. choice that had been made in 2020. It said that it had actually postponed the due date for ending heat. production at the coal-fired units up until Aug. 31, 2026.
Power thirst complicates ESG financiers' love affair with tech stocks
Financiers who handle hundreds of billions of dollars are pressing Microsoft, Alphabet and others for more details on the power needed for expert system and advanced computing, to assist choose whether the sector ought to remain heavily represented in sustainable funds, investors said.
While these conversations are at an early stage, 6 fund market executives in Europe and the United States said they are looking more closely at the environmental impact of the AI boom, which Goldman Sachs estimates will enhance information center power demand 160% by 2030.
None of the investors called said they were considering divesting.
A few of the most significant tech business leading the AI race that needs structure and powering information centers have actually started reporting increased greenhouse gas emissions, raising concerns from property supervisors who want to reveal their portfolios do well not just economically but likewise by the environment. Tech's thirst for power is most likely to go unabated because AI and cloud computing are important drivers of growth, although lots of anticipate data center effectiveness to increase considerably.
Tech stocks ended up being go-to choices for lots of such funds, due to the fact that they made outsized market gains while producing less greenhouse gases than stocks in other sectors like manufacturing and energy.
Investments marketed with environmental, social and governance issues in mind have actually lost some favour considering that a. pandemic age boom. But there are still some $2.24 trillion in. equity in among the strictest ESG classifications: funds that come. under Short article 8 and 9 funds under the European Union's monetary. law, according to data company Morningstar Direct. There was practically. $ 30 trillion in international equity funds held since in 2015.
A review of the leading holdings of the biggest such funds programs. they are now heavily invested in tech giants, including Apple. , Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft. , Meta and Nvidia.
A few of those financial investments could be impacted if the concerns. are not attended to, the financiers and analysts said.
What we will do is make the AI angle a main part of our. climate-related engagement with tech business, said Eric. Pedersen, head of responsible financial investments at Nordea Property. Management.
If the business were to loosen current dedications to. source renewable resource now and in the future, managers may. select to omit them from some of the more strictly-defined. funds.
This would count versus them attaining sustainable. financial investment status, he stated.
An Article 8 fund is indicated to promote ... environmental or. social attributes while a Post 9 fund has sustainable. investment as its goal, EU rules state.
BIG SHIFT
Pedersen called AI among the most significant possible shifts in. the basic composition of a sustainable fund.
Where we have actually dedicated a proportion to sustainable. financial investments in our internal ESG scoring, you may see it. ending up being harder for those companies to satisfy that, he said.
Nordea's 265 billion euros ($ 291.7 billion) under management. includes a total financial investment of about 17 billion euros in. Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Apple, NVIDIA and Meta shares.
Jason Qi, senior ESG research study analyst for Morgan Stanley's. Calvert Research Study and Management, stated he had been asking the. companies to find out more about existing energy use. Qi mentioned. Microsoft as a leader in disclosing data like power supply deals. ( PPAs), but said no company was sharing as much as he wants.
We are awaiting more information about their AI-related. power intake, the volume of their PPAs, the geographical. circulation, the period, Qi stated.
Investors are also beginning to ask more concerns about. so-called Scope 3 emissions which emerge from the supply chain.
Microsoft, Amazon and Nvidia decreased to comment. Meta,. Alphabet, Apple and Tesla did not react to requests for. remark.
A DIFFICULTY
The difficulty of increased need for calculating power and. data centres is not lost on tech companies.
Microsoft, for example, stated its supply chain emissions. increased 30.9% in 2023, and Alphabet reported a 13% rise in. overall emissions, citing power and products needs for data. centers. Both said they were treating rising emissions as a. difficulty.
Meta stated this year it has actually been fully balancing out emissions. from its operations given that 2020 but the resources needed for AI. will make it much harder to obtain an objective of producing no more. greenhouse gas from its worth chain in 2030 than can be offset.
In their most recent environmental reports, Amazon and Apple. stated their emissions were falling. Calvert's Qi stated the power. requirements would be concentrated at various parts of the supply. chain at various phases in AI advancement, so while. information centers require a great deal of power now, other business could bear. more of the load in future. AI advocates say the technology. could eventually help make other sectors more energy effective.
One sign the business are attempting to power the boom with. low-carbon energy is increasing investment in nuclear.
Amazon said this year it was starting to purchase nuclear power. to supplement renewables. And Microsoft stated last week it had. signed a deal to assist resurrect a mothballed nuclear plant in. Pennsylvania in the very first restart of its kind in history.
A spokesperson for Swedish bank Handelsbanken, which offers. 2 Short article 9 funds that track indexes with Google and Microsoft. amongst their leading 5 holdings, said enhancing sustainability. data is making it simpler to determine where portfolios require. changing.
The Post 9 funds are constructed with the goal of revealing a 7%. average decrease in carbon emissions from all the constituent. stocks combined every year, which indicates that gradually. business that increase their carbon emissions will likely. get a lower weight in the fund, said Aurora Samuelsson,. head of sustainability at Handelsbanken Possession Management.
We raise and will raise the pertinent and material problems in. our dialogue with the business, Samuelsson stated.
(source: Reuters)