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EDF France raises the maximum cost estimate of six reactors from 62 billion to 72.8 milliards euros
EDF, France's largest utility, said that the construction of six new nuclear reactors would cost a maximum of?72.8 billion euro ($85.29billion) based on values in 2020. This is higher than the 52 billion euro estimate made when the plans for a new fleet was first announced. Macron announced in early 2022 plans for'six new nuclear reactors, with a production capacity totaling?about ten gigawatts. This will partly replace older plants and secure future energy supplies. France produces about 70% of its electricity from nuclear power. EDF aims to reduce its costs by building reactors in a series. The costs will drop by 30% when the last one is completed, Xavier Gruz said at a press briefing. EDF will be given a loan to cover 60% of the construction costs. Contracts for Difference?on power generated are used?to repay the loan. Gruz said that a final investment decision will be made on the project by the end 2026.
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Silver nears record high as gold falls on dollar firmness ahead of US inflation data
Silver hovered at record highs, as gold prices fell on Thursday. The dollar strengthened, and investors were 'cautious' ahead of U.S. inflation figures that could influence the Federal Reserve policy. As of 1210 GMT, spot gold was down 0.4% at $4,323.57 per ounce. U.S. Gold Futures fell 0.4% as well to $4,356.10. Dollar index increased after reaching a near-one-week-high on Wednesday. This made greenback-priced gold more expensive for foreign buyers. Spot silver dropped 0.1% to $66.19 per ounce after reaching a record high at $66.88 the previous session. The slightly stronger dollar is a headwind to both gold and silver )... Some cautious investors prefer to be on the safer side and avoid 'running into the inflation report with an opened position,' said UBS analyst Gian?Staunovo. White metal has, however, increased 129% this year due to a stronger industrial demand as well as a continuing supply deficit. Donald Trump, the U.S. president, said that the next Fed chair will be someone with a "significant" belief in lower interest rates. Trump will announce his choice to replace current Fed chair Jerome Powell early next year. Fed Governor Christopher Waller said that the Fed still has the ability to "cut interest rates" in light of the deteriorating job market. Data released earlier this week showed that the U.S. unemployment rate increased to 4.6% in the month of November. This was higher than the poll-predicted 4.4%, and the highest level since September 2021. Investors await the release of the November U.S. consumer price index later that day. A survey projects a 3.1% increase year-on-year. The markets are already pricing in two more 25-basis point rate cuts for next year. Gold and other non-yielding investments benefit from a low-interest rate environment. Palladium rose 2.8% to $1,693.55, which is a record high for nearly three years. Platinum rose 1.3%, to $1,924.05, an all-time high.
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Indonesia will issue investment instruments to invest in natural resource exports
A finance ministry official announced?on Friday that Indonesia would issue investment instruments to earn from exporting natural resources. The goal is to ensure exporters follow the rules and keep the foreign currency earnings in the country. The 'new'regulation is intended to increase U.S. Dollar liquidity onshore and stabilize the rupiah rate. It will require that natural resource exporters retain all their foreign currency earnings starting January 1st in state banks for a minimum of a year, and restrict their use. Febrio Kacaribu is a senior official in the Finance Ministry. He told a news conference that new FX bonds will be issued domestically. Indonesia is the largest?exporter in the world of thermal coal, nickel, tin, palm oil and rubber. It also sells a lot of coffee, rubber and other commodities. Febrio said that the earnings were converted to rupiah, and then sent offshore. Palm oil and mining associations have complained about the planned rule, as it will limit the conversion of their foreign exchange earnings into rupiah to a maximum 50%. Exporters are allowed to keep their earnings in any Indonesian Bank. The exporters can also be exempted from the requirement to retain the earnings for a certain period of time if they convert the proceeds into rupiah. Hadi Sugeng told GAPKI's secretary general on Thursday that they need money to fund their operation. Hendra Sinadia is the executive director of Indonesian?Mining Association. He said that miners also hoped that the government would?keep current rules. Febrio, when asked about the complaints from the industry, said that exporters would need to get a bank loan if they needed more rupiah money than the 50% limit. Febrio said that non-state banks would also have a limited impact on liquidity because they can still serve exporters who are not in the natural resources sector. (Reporting and writing by Stefanno Sulaiman, Gayatri Suryo; editing by Alison Williams).
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West African oil is struggling to find buyers, as global surpluses build
West African crude oil faces competition from Middle East, Latin America China and India switch to alternative, cheaper oil grades Dangote refinery reduces Nigerian imports of oil Robert?Harvey & Seher Dareen LONDON 18 DECEMBER - West African crude sellers are struggling to find buyers for up-to-26 December-and-January-loading cargoes due?to stiff competitors from abundant and cheaper alternatives, traders and analysts have told. Analysts say that the amount of crude oil from Nigeria and Angola which is not being sold, is indicative of an overall surplus in the oil market. This led to a sell-off on the international futures markets, which pushed Brent crude down below $60 per barrel this week. Victoria Grabenwoger, an analyst at Kpler, said that the overhang of West African crude cargoes reflects a global crude supply surplus which emerged in Q1 of this year. Two traders reported that approximately 20 million barrels (or a little more) of Nigerian crude oil were still unsold as of Thursday. Meanwhile, Angola had five or six cargoes left in its December-January programme. The cargoes are causing a delay in the beginning of the February trading cycle, even though Angola has already released its loading schedule and term nominations. This is a very large amount of oil that has not been sold, and it is especially unusual for this month. The West African trade cycle usually runs two months in advance. The estimated overhang for both countries was as high as forty million barrels this week. The analyst for OilX, Francisco Gutierrez said that the current market softness is partly seasonal, and partly due to changing buying patterns as a result of freight costs and other supply options. He added that Angolan trade in January has fallen 20% behind its average long-term pace, because China, the world's largest commodities buyer, switched to alternative grades which are cheaper or closer to each other. Analysts say that supplies from the Middle East are displacing West African medium and heavy grades in Asia due to lower official selling prices and shorter journeys in January. India's oil imports have remained?resilient? despite the tightening of Western sanctions. They are replacing medium-heavy density West African oils, while lighter to medium-density West African grades struggle to compete with supplies from Argentina and Brazil. Grabenwoger of Kpler said that Nigeria is also left with more oil to sell because Africa's biggest oil refinery, Africa's 650,000 barrels per day Dangote plant has reduced its imports. This will be due to maintenance in January. Reporting by Robert Harvey in London and Seher Dareen, edited by Alex Lawler & Barbara Lewis
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Trump Media and fusion power company TAE Technologies join forces in $6 billion deal
The social media company of U.S. president Donald Trump is entering the fusion-power industry through a merger worth more than $6 billion with TAE Technologie. They are betting on this experimental technology, as AI datacenters 'drive a surge in energy consumption. After the merger is completed in mid-2026, the shareholders of each company will hold about 50% of the combined entity. Trump Media and Technology Group is the holding company of businesses such as Truth Social, TAE Power Solutions and TAE life Sciences. Stocktwits, an online hub for retail investors and social media, saw the shares of Trump Media surge by more than 33% during premarket trading. TAE Technologies is supported by Alphabet’s Google and Chevron. The company aims to develop and market?next generation neutral beam systems? for fusion applications and other related areas in a?cost-effective way. Nuclear fusion is a new technology aimed at generating electricity using the same process that powers our sun. It promises a vision of unlimited energy, free from pollution, radioactive waste and greenhouse gases. The insatiable need for electricity to power data centers, which?power artificial-intelligence technologies, has renewed interest in nuclear energy supply. This includes restarting reactors that have been completely shut down, increasing capacity, and contracting?power for future small modular reactors. A growing demand for energy is driving the development of nuclear power plants. These are widely considered to be a cleaner form of energy. After the deal is closed, the two companies will?site and start construction on the first utility-scale fusion plant in the world. The companies announced that Devin Nunes will be co-CEO with TAE's CEO and Director Michl binderbauer.
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Minister: New Czech government considering several CEZ purchase options
The Czech government has a number of options to buy out CEZ. This includes leaving some assets on the market. However, it has not set a date for what could be one of the biggest energy changes in the country, according to its industry minister. Andrej Babis is a billionaire, and his populist ANO party leads a coalition government which took office last week, after winning the October elections. He has called for CEZ to be fully controlled in order to increase energy security. Karel Havlicek is the ANO vice chairman and first deputy premier. He told?on?Wednesday that a possible option was to take 100% of CEZ’s generation assets, and leave?distribution assets and trading assets at the stock exchange. State could buy all of CEZ, one of?central Europe's biggest companies with a $33 billion market capitalisation. Then relist a part of its distribution and trading assets. Havlicek refused to provide any further information on "price sensitive" matters. Once approved, the process could take two years. In an interview, he stated that "this would de facto signify that the desired steps towards energy security have been taken." "We'd have the whole generation under control like they do in France, for example." 'MASSIVE TRANSACTION' The cost of buying out minority shareholders who own 30% of CEZ would be reduced if CEZ listed some of its distribution or trading activities. The government holds 70% of the company. At the current share price, buyout costs would be more than 200 billion crowns (about $9.6 billion). Havlicek stated that any transaction must provide fair conditions for minority shareholders. He said that he did not want to speculate on when we would reach this goal, but added that the government is also working to reduce energy prices for customers and build new capacity mechanisms. He said a CEZ buyout would be a "massive transaction", but that it would give more flexibility to the state. Critics claim the plan would be costly and burden CEZ with debt. Havlicek stated that CEZ generates an annual profit before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization of 130 to 140 billion crowns. Therefore, it can handle a buyout without compromising investments.
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Chennai Petroleum Corp., India's largest refinery company, will increase capacity at Manali refinery.
Chennai Petroleum Corp. (CPCL), an Indian company, plans to increase the capacity of its Manali refinery in south 'India to 280,000 'barrels a day' from 210,000 bpd and enter fuel retailing. This is part of a strategy to grow. The company is a sub-sidiary of India's largest?refiner - the state-run Indian Oil Corp. It sells all of its transportation fuels, including diesel and gasoline, to the parent company, which also has a strong local retail network. H Shankar, managing director of the Chennai-based firm, announced that the company would enter the retail fuel business with 300 stations by the middle of 2028. He said that "CPCL 2.0" will be a new version of the refinery, which was previously referred to as a "standalone refinery". He stated that the company hopes to have a feasibility report on the Manali refinery expansion completed by October 2026. This will allow them to decide the cost and configuration of the new units. Shankar said CPCL was also in the process of finalising?the configuration?of the 180,000 bpd refining plant and related petrochemicals unit at Nagapattinam, in the southern Tamil Nadu State. Reporting by Nidhi verma, New Delhi. Editing by Harikrishnan Nair
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Silver nears record high as gold falls on dollar firmness ahead of US inflation data
Silver hovered at record highs, despite a weaker dollar. Investors remained cautious ahead of U.S. inflation figures that could influence the Federal Reserve’s policy. As of 1023 GMT, spot gold was down 0.4% at $4,324.47 per ounce. U.S. Gold Futures were also down 0.4% at $4,355.70. Dollar index rose after reaching a high of?nearly a week on Wednesday. This made greenback-priced gold more expensive for foreign buyers. Spot silver dropped?0.4%, to $66.02 per ounce. It had previously reached a record-high of $66.88. The slightly stronger 'dollar is a headwind to both gold and silver )... Some cautious investors prefer to be on the safer side, not entering the report (on inflation) with an open position," UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo said. White metal has risen 129% this year due to a stronger industrial demand, and a persistent supply deficit. Donald Trump, the U.S. president, said that on Wednesday he believes that the next Fed chair will have a "significant" belief in lower interest rates. Trump will announce his successor to the current Fed Chair Jerome Powell in early 2019. Fed Governor Christopher Waller said that the Fed still has "room" to lower interest rates despite the deteriorating job market. Data released earlier this week showed that the U.S. unemployment rates rose to 4.6%, higher than a poll predicted of 4.4%, and at their highest level since September 2021. Investors await the release of 'November's U.S. Consumer Price Index, which is expected to show a 3.1% increase year-on-year. The markets are currently pricing in an additional two 25-basis point rate cuts for next year. Gold and other non-yielding investments benefit from a low-interest rate environment. Palladium rose by 0.1%, to a record high of nearly three years at $1,649.75. Platinum gained 0.7%, to $1,912.25, which is a 17-year-high.
How Trump's second administration impacts business: Musk, tariffs and more
Donald Trump's return to the White Home after winning the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election may improve American company. Much depends on whom he appoints as deputies and cabinet members, consisting of the function of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and what tariffs he enacts. Following are some significant issues and sectors to see:
WHAT FUNCTION WILL ELON MUSK PLAY? After some nudging from the world's wealthiest person, Trump has stated he would tap Tesla CEO Elon Musk to lead a new government performance commission. Musk has stated at least $2 trillion might be cut from the $6.75 trillion federal budget plan. How that works might be an essential to the next Trump administration.
Does effectiveness mean fewer guidelines and regulators? Musk has been a singing critic, for example, of federal review of his SpaceX rocket organization. That might suggest less oversight of self-driving automobiles (a Tesla service) or rocket launches and much more. The two males are not totally in sync: Trump has stated he won't. let California require all lorries in the state go electrical in. a years, however Musk runs the world's most important EV business. A. increasing tide raises all boats. So to the level that Elon is able. to hinder the vilification of EVs by a potential Trump. administration, all the much better, stated James Chen, previous head of. policy for Rivian and Tesla. How Musk would address conflicts of. interest in between his interests in cars, area, health,. building and artificial intelligence is not clear. Trump has vowed to be a crypto president, a strategy that may. begin with replacing market challenger Gary Gensler, the. Securities and Exchange Commission chair who has actually sued the majority of. the industry-- consisting of Coinbase, Binance and Kraken. Gensler's replacement is anticipated to review - and potentially. destroy - accounting assistance and produce industry exemptions. from SEC guidelines. Musk, too is a crypto advocate, as is Silicon. Valley Trump fan Marc Andreessen and inbound Vice. President J.D. Vance.
Musk is also a huge advocate of carbon-free energy, with. Tesla being a significant provider of solar systems and batteries. Trump has actually promised to eliminate the overseas wind industry and. rescind all unspent funds under the Inflation Decrease Act--. Biden's signature environment law. However Trump faces dissent in his. ranks: Republican legislators, oil companies and others see. massive red state gains from the law. Musk has played into that,. building his 2nd U.S. electric vehicle factory in Texas, for. instance.
TARIFFS. Trump has proposed a 10% tariff on all U.S. imports and 60% on. Chinese-made items, which if enacted would impact the entire. economy by pressing customer costs higher. The Tax Structure, a. non-partisan think tank, computed Trump tariffs would hike. taxes by $524 billion every year, shrink GDP by at least 0.8%, and. cut employment by 684,000 full-time equivalent tasks potentially. affecting retail workers, the biggest economic sector employer. He likewise recommended he might enforce a 25% tariff on all imports. from Mexico.
Trump's tariff propositions might reduce American customers'. spending power in between $46 billion and $78 billion each year,. according to a National Retail Federation study.
Clothing, toys, furniture, home devices and footwear. would be the most afflicted classifications, the study said. Merchants. would move operations outside of China to countries consisting of. Bangladesh, India, and Vietnam. Big-box shops like Walmart and. Target would deal with higher supply chain costs, while grocery stores. like Kroger, Albertsons, and Publix, which minimally source from. China, might benefit. Delivering and transport specialists say. sweeping tariffs could at first strengthen their organization before. depressing trade. Tariffs tower above tech too. In recent weeks, Trump has likewise. heavily criticized the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act that has. looked for to partly subsidize companies constructing factories in. the United States. Instead, he stated the nation needs to impose. tariffs on chips coming into the country, especially from. Taiwan's TSMC.
Tariffs also would greatly raise expenses for the renewable. energy industries in the U.S., which rely heavily on Chinese. parts. Trump actions without Congressional support could. consist of import tariffs of 10-20% (ex China), 60% -200% on Chinese. imports which could affect the expense of eco-friendly projects,. especially solar and storage projects, according to an. October research note from Bernstein.
And then there is the concern of China's retaliation. It is. the world's most significant soy importer and pork consumer, but it has. diversified its food supply base since Trump's tariffs in his. initially administration. Moreover, China stopped working to totally comply. with an arrangement to purchase more U.S. farming products that it. signed with Trump in January 2020. Trump has vowed in his 2nd. term to impose 60% tasks on imports from China, raising. concerns that Beijing will strike back by minimizing imports of U.S. farm products.
OIL: DRILL BABY DRILL - BUT NOT IRAN. The United States is currently the world's greatest oil and gas. manufacturer, but Trump wishes to clear away remaining barriers. He'll lift a freeze on brand-new melted gas export allows,. expand federal drilling auctions, speed up new pipeline. permitting and attempt to reverse or compromise regulations focused on. cutting power plant and auto emissions. Trump's assistance for the. oil and gas market could likewise lead him to temper his. opposition to the Inflation Reduction Act, considering that oil companies. are getting some funding from it for carbon-free undertakings. like carbon capture and sequestration.
The big oil policy wildcard is how Trump will treat rival. exporters, consisting of Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Iran. It is. likely that Trump would ease sanctions on Russian energy, however. leave in place those on Iran, stated Ed Hirs, an energy fellow at. the University of Houston. Jesse Jones, an expert with. speaking with company Energy Aspects, anticipates much more. We believe. that the impact of a Trump administration returning to a maximum. pressure project on Iran might lead to a million barrel each day. decline in Iranian unrefined exports, he stated.
LABOR UNIONS. Organized labor made excellent strides under President Joe Biden,. who signed up with a picket line with U.S. auto employees. The UAW wants. to expand and in future strikes the federal government might be. asked to intervene in a manner that damages employee bargaining. power, something Democrats have up until now decreased to do.
Republicans have normally been hostile to unions, however. Trump has actually played a various game, reaching out to blue-collar. workers. Strong assistance among lots of union employees may push. Trump to secure those citizens, stated Anthony Miyazaki, a. marketing professor at Florida International University. Still,. his record of selecting leaders to the National Labor Relations. Board led to a roll back of workers' rights to form unions. If this cycle repeats, it might potentially reverse the gains. unions have actually made because the pandemic, consisting of effective. arranging efforts at Starbucks and Amazon and other fledgling. motions at Apple, REI and Trader Joe's.
OTHER TOPICS INCLUDE:
FINANCE. Within banking, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Bank of. America and other loan providers will likely enjoy a reprieve. from stiff capital walkings, M&A hoop-jumping, and Biden's junk. charges crackdown. Trump is anticipated to quickly install. industry-friendly Republicans at the financial regulators. However. those gains may be offset if Trump follows through on tax and. trade policies that will expand the deficit and fuel inflation,. in turn increasing financing rates. That might press existing loans. into the red, say analysts.
ANTITRUST AND TECH. Trump might stroll back the Department of Justice's bid to separate. Alphabet's Google and choose settling with business over. competitors concerns in mergers, instead of new trials, lawyers. said. The country's tough, leading merger police officer, Federal Trade. Commission Chair Lina Khan, is likely headed for the. door. More broadly, Trump's backers in Silicon Valley, including. financiers Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen and Tesla chief Elon. Musk, desire less regulation of new innovation, from synthetic. intelligence to rockets. They have a champ in previous endeavor. capitalist Vance.
MEDIA: VIEW WHAT YOU STATE. Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos decided days before the vote. that the paper would not back anyone for president,. describing it as a principled relocate to gain back reliability. Numerous countless subscribers left, lots of saying it was. political cowardice. USA Today and the LA Times also declined to. back a candidate. The message is quite clear today,. stated previous FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. That is yielding to the. autocrat beforehand before you're asked to, stated New york city. University School of Specialist Research studies accessory partner. teacher Helio Fred Garcia, an author of 2 books about Trump.
During the project, Trump called on the Federal. Communications Commission to strip ABC and CBS of their. broadcast licenses. FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel has actually denounced. Trump's calls to withdraw licenses for broadcast stations, citing. complimentary speech protections. However the independence of the FCC could. be at danger if Trump follows through on a project promise to. bring regulatory agencies, such as the FCC, under presidential. authority, Wheeler said. The president also could invoke his. emergency situation powers under the Communications Act to exert control. over broadcasters, pointing out national security concerns.
However, a brand-new Trump presidency will likely provide cable. news networks like CNN, Fox News and MSNBC and news outlets. consisting of the New york city Times and Washington Post the same big. shock to audiences and audience that his very first term produced.
PHARMACEUTICALS. Trump just recently said he would let previous presidential prospect. and anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. go wild on. vaccine and healthcare policy. Kennedy has stated that Trump. guaranteed him manage over the FDA, CDC, HHS, and the USDA. Those. tasks might possibly offer him manage over what vaccines are. authorized and whether Americans are suggested to receive them. Trump transition co-chair Howard Lutnick has said Kennedy is not. going to be put in charge of the Department of Health and Human. Providers, but suggested he might advise on vaccines.
Jeremy Levin, CEO of biotech company Ovid Therapeutics. and previous chairman of biotech lobby group BIO, stated he. would be alarmed if Kennedy was provided oversight over vaccines,. and that other executives had likewise revealed issue. Vaccine. denialism, which is a central plank of RFK's, is possibly as. harmful as anything you can imagine, he said, adding that. President Trump's previous consultations for the COVID vaccine. effort and the FDA suggest to him that more moderate positions. will triumph. Some executives also were worried that Kennedy's. impact might damage the U.S.'s credibility and ability to review. new drugs.
(source: Reuters)