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Middle East risk premium fading as oil falls on Gaza plan
Early Thursday, oil prices dropped after Israel and Hamas reached an agreement on the first phase of the plan to end the Gaza war. This weighed on the war risk premium for oil and pushed investors to sell. Brent crude futures fell 51 cents or 0.77% to $65.74 per barrel at 0002 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate Crude fell 55 cents or 0.88% to $62. U.S. president Donald Trump announced that Israel and Hamas reached a long sought-after deal on a Gaza ceasefire, including the release of hostages. The plan was to end the war that has raged in the Palestinian enclave for two years. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said that he will convene the Israeli government on Thursday in order to approve the ceasefire accord. Investors have been weighing the risk of a regional war escalating into a global conflict that could affect oil supplies. Investors viewed the stalled progress in a Ukraine peace agreement as maintaining sanctions against Russia. The Energy Information Administration reported on Wednesday that the total weekly U.S. supply of petroleum products, which is a proxy for U.S. consumption of oil, increased last week to 21,990 million barrels a day, the highest since December 2022. (Reporting and editing by Christopher Cushing in Houston, Georgina McCartney from Houston)
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Sources say that the Indian government is seeking a resolution to the dispute with Tata Charity arm.
Sources told Reuters that two senior Indian ministers intervened in a rare intervention to urge the charity arm of Tata Group to resolve internal boardroom conflicts to ensure stability for the $180 billion business empire they control. Sources say that the discord within Tata Trusts a year after Ratan Tata's death has sparked fears of a repeat in the bitter public spat of 2016 between the charity and Tata Sons which tarnished India's most famous group. Tata Trusts holds a 66% stake of Tata Sons and has the power to make major strategic decisions. Tata Sons is responsible for 30 companies, including consumer goods, autos, and airlines. These include Jaguar Land Rover and Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Motors, and Air India. Two industry sources said that the disagreements within Tata Trusts over the past few weeks have been about which trustees would sit on the Tata Sons Board, the overall business direction of the group, and how to handle the planned exit by minority shareholder Shapoorji Palalonji. TATAS IS ASKED TO RESOLVE ISSUE BY THE INDIAN GOVERNMENT Two Indian ministers met on Tuesday with N. Chandrasekaran, the chair of Tata Sons and Noel Tata, the head of Tata Trusts in New Delhi to discuss and resolve the dispute. This was according to a government official and a source from the industry. Sources said that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman attended the rare direct intervention of the government. Indian media reported that the other senior official was Minister of Home Affairs Amit A Shah. The official who was present at the Tuesday discussions said, "The government wants to restore stability and resolve issues." Sources declined to name themselves as the matter was confidential. Tata Trusts & Tata Sons has not publicly commented on this matter which was widely reported in Indian Media. Both companies did not respond to requests for comment. India's Finance Ministry and Home Affairs Ministry did not respond to comments. Tata Trusts disagreed with Cyrus Mistry, the Tata Sons chairman, and legal battles ensued. Mistry passed away in 2022, but Shapoorji Pallonji still holds an 18% stake of Tata Sons. Tata Trusts trustees are divided over how Shapoorji Pallonji's plan to split with the Tatas, which has been delayed for years, will be implemented and what effect it will have on the conglomerate. Shapoorji pallonji has not responded to our request for a comment. Aditya K. Kalra, Aftab A. Ahmed, Ira Duggal Aditi S. Shah, Khushi M. Malhotra and Joe Bavier contributed to the reporting.
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Liontown Resources changes loan and supply agreements with Ford Motor; shares are advanced
Liontown Resources announced on Thursday that it had amended its loan agreements and spodumene supplies with Ford Motor. The aim was to increase near-term liquidity, and gain greater flexibility in the marketing of outputs as production at its Kathleen Valley Lithium project in Western Australia ramps up. Liontown stated that the principal and interest due Ford for fiscal 2026 will be deferred 12 months. All other loan conditions remain unchanged. The S&P/ASX 200 index, which was up 0.3% at 2318 GMT, lagged behind the battery minerals producer, whose shares rose 3.4% to A$1.065. This is the highest share price since mid-June, 2024. Ford will receive 256 250 dry metric tons of spodumene from the company starting in 2027. The company said that no deliveries would be made to Ford during 2027 or 2028. Ford can opt to cancel its "take-or-pay" commitments on the remaining volumes, according to Liontown. Liontown said that the amendments will allow it to sell more products on the spot market, or enter into new strategic partnerships. The revised deal comes after Perth-based Liontown announced it would revise the pricing terms in their long-term agreement with Tesla as the miner wanted a broader exposure to benchmarks for lithium prices. (Reporting and editing by Alan Barona in Bengaluru, with Roshan Thomas reporting from Bengaluru)
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Brazilian Rare Earths sells feedstock to Carester
Brazilian Rare Earths, a company listed in Australia, announced on Thursday it had signed agreements with Carester SAS to supply heavy rare earths for an initial period of 10 years. Carester will provide engineering and technical support for the separation plant that Brazilian Rare Earths plans to build at the Camacari Petrochemical Complex in Bahia, Brazil. Over a ten-year period, the processor will purchase a maximum 150 tonnes of dysprosium or terbium per year from Brazilian Rare Earths. The partnership is designed to address the shortage of the critical minerals dysprosium (as well as terbium), which are essential to the production of permanent magnets with high performance. It comes at a moment when the west wants to reduce its dependence on China's dominant supply chain. Carester is, for example, building a rare-earth separation and recycling facility that has received over 216 millions euros ($251.25million) in funding from the French Government and Japanese entities. Carester's technical expertise and downstream capabilities will allow us to quickly convert our rare earths of ultra-high quality into the essential products that customers demand. said Bernardo da Veiga, CEO of Brazilian Rare Earths. It is becoming more urgent to diversify the supply chain, as China continues to control a large portion of critical minerals that are vital for industries such as electric vehicles, robotics, and national defense. Reporting by Nichiket in Bengaluru, editing by Shailesh Kumar.
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Argentine Treasury burns dollars to defend the peso, as US aid talks loom
The Argentine Treasury is quickly depleting its dollars reserves to defend the Peso. This has strained financial markets Wednesday, as funds from an agricultural exporters' special agreement are running low just weeks before midterm election. According to traders, the Treasury (under the Economy Ministry) has sold about $2 billion over the past few sessions in order to stabilize the peso. The ministry doesn't report publicly its market activities. The Treasury's holdings of hard currency have been rapidly depleted by the interventions. Portfolio Personal Inversiones reported that dollar deposits at the central banks have fallen from $1.44 billion on Friday to only $680 million. This means the intervention capacity is limited to "a few days" at this pace. According to Wise Capital, the Treasury has sold over three quarters of the hard currencies it raised through the export scheme. The government announced that it would be implementing a new plan for the end of last month. Export taxes suspended On grains and their products. In just a few short days, traders had committed to sell $7 billion of crops to China, mostly soybeans. The deal brought in a lot of cash, but it has also fueled tensions between Washington and Beijing, since U.S. Farmers are locked out of the Chinese Market due to a tariff dispute. Pressure is increasing ahead of Argentina’s legislative elections, which will take place on October 26. The libertarian president Javier Milei’s administration will be put to the test. Luis Caputo, the Economy Minister in Washington, is negotiating with a potential agreement to calm the markets. Currency swap of $20 billion deal. Deal. Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the IMF The fund works closely with the U.S.A., World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank in order to develop an assistance package for Argentina. The wholesale peso remained at 1,430 dollars per peso on Wednesday. However, the parallel rate for sending money abroad rose to 1,556 dollars per greenback. This increased the gap in exchange rates to almost 9%. Most economists agree that the current strategy of intervention is only a temporary solution until the elections. After the elections, a new and more liberal foreign exchange regime is expected, but its implementation will depend on the results of those elections and whether or not they are backed financially by the United States. On asset markets, the average price of sovereign bonds fell by 1%. The S&P Merval index, on the other hand, reversed its early losses and closed up 1.42 percent. Aluar shares jumped by 2.93% following the announcement of the government. Temporarily suspended Tariffs on metal exports. Walter Bianchi, Buenos Aires. Additional reporting by Rodrigo Campos, New York. Editing by Margueritachoy and David Gregorio.
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The EU Parliament is planning to further reduce the sustainability law
According to lawmakers and officials, the majority of the European Parliament's member groups reached an agreement late Wednesday night to further cut the EU's Corporate Sustainability Law. Last year, the European Union adopted the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), which requires companies to address human rights and environment issues in their supply chains or face fines up to 5% of their global turnover. After a backlash from Germany, France, the United States, Qatar and Exxon Mobil, Brussels is now working to simplify the rules. Jorgen Warborn is the EPP member leading the negotiations. He said that a key change would be to limit the application of the rules to companies with at least 5,000 employees and a turnover of 1.5 billion euros ($1.74 trillion). CSDDD currently covers companies with 1,000 employees or more and above 450 millions euros in turnover. Warborn stated, "I am focused on ensuring that we bring Europe back to growth so that we can create more jobs and long-term prosperity." Brussels has said that changes are necessary to prevent companies from being overburdened with reporting requirements. The law is due to come into effect in 2027. However, campaigners and companies have warned that the EU could undermine corporate accountability. Initially, the socialist lawmakers were against the plan, but they agreed on Wednesday after the EPP said it would strike a deal instead with far-right legislators and weaken law even further. A spokesperson for the Socialists & Democrats said, "This compromise isn't our preferred option, but the alternative would have been a worse EPP deal with the extreme right." In response, Dutch Socialist legislator Lara Wolters announced that she had resigned from her position as the group's chief negotiator. Un official of the liberal Renew party confirmed that it also supported the agreement. The three groups of legislators hold the majority of seats at the EU Parliament. The EU Parliament will vote later this month on the agreement, before the EU negotiates the final changes to law. $1 = 0.8601 Euros (Reporting and editing by Kate Abnett)
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Dolly Parton: 'I'm not dead yet', after her sister raised alarm
Dolly Parton reassured fans on Wednesday about her health after her sister's comments fueled concerns that the Grammy-winning country singer was near death. Parton, aged 79, captioned an Instagram video with "I ain’t dead yet." Do I look sick to You? The "9 to 5" singer smiled as she said, "I'm working really hard here." She was on a set filming commercials at the Grand Ole Opry. She wore a black top and black fringed pants with a red blouse. Parton announced recently that she would be postponing her Las Vegas shows due to unspecified health concerns. Freida, Parton's sister, posted on social media this week that she had "prayed all night" for the singer. Later, she said that "she didn't mean for anyone to be scared or sound so serious." Parton admitted in the video that she neglected her health while her husband Carl Dean was ill and died, as Parton explained. She said she was working with doctors on some issues. "I want to let you know that I am OK." She said that she had some minor problems, but nothing major, and added, "I am not dying." Parton, a Grammy Award-winning singer, has appeared in films such as "Steel Magnolias," "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas," and others. In November, she will receive an honorary Oscar.
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Sport Positive Awards for Real Betis, FIS and Liverpool
Sport Positive Awards were announced at a two-day summit on sports sustainability. The winners included Premier League champions Liverpool, and Real Betis of Spain. Real Betis won the Best Campaign Award for its project Sin Azul No Hay Verde, which is a campaign that says "Without Blue There Is No Green". The winners of 12 categories have been announced at the Sport Positive Summit, a two-day event in London in collaboration with United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the International Olympic Committee. Claire Poole, founder of Sport Positive, said: "These winners are a great example of what is possible when sport becomes a force for positive change." As climate impacts increase, their bold actions, innovation, leadership, and are not only protecting sport's future, but also delivering a positive outcome for communities and planet. Over 500 leaders of the sport industry from the biggest events, franchises and NGOs in the world gathered for a discussion on how to make the industry more sustainable and environmentally-friendly. Climate change is affecting sport more and more. This year's FIFA Club World Cup was impacted by intense heat and thunderstorms in the United States, and the Wimbledon Tennis Championships experienced their hottest opening day ever. The warming climate is also threatening to close traditional Alpine ski resorts, while Thomas Bach, former IOC President, said that only 10 countries may be able to host a Winter Olympics in 2040. The International Ski and Snowboard Federation, in partnership with Green Producers Club developed a CO2 calculator designed to assist snow sports stakeholders measure and manage greenhouse gas emissions. This tool won the category award for Inspired Innovation at this year's Sport Positive. Susanna Siff, Director of Sustainability at FIS, stated that the tool is a living one, constantly evolving and improving based on feedback from users. "We didn't simply win the award, but we also developed a tool that can be adapted to better serve our community and reduce carbon emissions." Red Way, Liverpool's ESG (environmental, social and governance) strategy launched in 2021 has helped to increase match-day recycle from 20% up to 90% and reduce carbon emissions by 15 percent. Real Betis’s Sin Azul No Hay Verde, part of LaLiga’s Forever Green Initiative, has raised public awareness of an invasive Asian alga along the Andalusian coastline -- a direct result of climate change. The campaign was centered around the release a special edition football shirt that incorporates textile fibres from algae. Sport Positive said that Real Betis had demonstrated the power of sport to promote environmental responsibility by integrating sustainability in the areas of brand identity, merchandising and community engagement. The other Sport Positive award recipients included Cricket for Climate (a collaborative movement founded and led by Australian Test Captain Pat Cummins); Kicking for Nature (a Brazilian non profit Taekwondo program promoting environmental responsibility); and Logan Waddle who received the Trailblazer Award for his sustainability initiatives in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as well as across the INDYCAR series of the United States. The Biodiversity Award went to the Ulster GAA Sporting Nature Project, which helped over 30 community clubs create wildlife habitat in Northern Ireland. This included planting trees and wildflower meadows.
100 Days of DOGE: Lots of chaos and not much efficiency
The Social Security Administration is sending lawyers, statisticians, and other senior agency officials from its Baltimore headquarters to the regional offices in order to replace veteran claim processors that have either been fired by the Trump administration or bought out. Two people who are familiar with the situation say that most of the new employees don't have the skills to perform the tasks, which will lead to longer waiting times for the disabled and elderly Americans, who depend on the benefits. In an email, a SSA official responded that reassigned staff "have vast knowledge of our programs and services." Since President Donald Trump sent remote workers to overcrowded offices, the Internal Revenue Service's internet is so patchy that employees are using personal hotspots to access the web, which crashes their computers during tax season. IRS officials did not respond when asked for a comment. The IRS did not respond to a request for comment.
Jessica Riedl is a fellow of the Manhattan Institute. A fiscally conservative think-tank that advocates streamlining government, she said, "DOGE does not seem like a serious undertaking." She believes that DOGE is only saving $5 billion and will cost more in the end.
These examples, which were previously unknown, span 14 government agencies. They were revealed in interviews conducted with 30 federal workers and experts on governance. These accounts don't provide a complete picture of Musk's Department of Government Efficiency's project to reduce the size and cost of the federal bureaucracy. However, they reveal the collateral damage caused by DOGE's attempts to make the sprawling bureaucracy of the federal government more efficient.
Harrison Fields, White House spokesperson, responded to questions regarding the impact of DOGE cuts on government efficiency in a press release. Fields stated that Musk's group "has already modernized and improved government technology, prevented fraudulent activity, streamlined processes, identified billions in savings for American tax payers." Fields didn't give any examples of how the government's computer systems and workforce have improved.
SAVE BILLIONS
Musk confirmed Tuesday that he would step down from his position as DOGE's leader next month. The end of May was the deadline for his 130-day special government employee mandate. He said that he would continue to work with Trump on the overhaul of government but not full time. The future of DOGE is in doubt because of his reduced role, but experts say that cost-cutting measures will continue.
Musk and his lieutenants are yet to provide any concrete evidence of how the government will operate more efficiently due to the massive layoffs and the termination of government contracts.
Dozens of government officials told us that DOGE teams have buried themselves into government agencies, and their computers systems are operated in secrecy. DOGE's website, which provides regular updates about the $160 billion it claims to have saved U.S. tax payers so far, is riddled with mistakes and corrections.
The White House gave examples of cost-savings, including the discovery of $630 million worth of fraudulent loans by the Small Business Administration made to applicants aged over 115 but under 11 years old in 2020-2021. $382 million was fraudulently paid out by the Labor Department in unemployment benefits since 2020.
I was not able to independently verify these claims.
DOGE has not responded to any requests for comments. Musk told Fox News' Bretbaier that his team was careful in making cuts, admitted and fixed errors, and had discovered "astonishing amounts" of fraud and waste.
You can't buy dry ice
DOGE has announced that it has cancelled almost 500,000 government-issued credit cards in its efforts to reduce costs. The agency has also imposed a limit of $1 on some cards and centralized decision-making within certain agencies. This means that managers at some regional offices cannot buy basic supplies.
It took a scientist a whole month to obtain authorization from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to purchase $200 worth of dry ice for preserving urine samples. This is a purchase that would normally be made in a local grocery store. A colleague from another regional office, who had a government-issued credit card, paid for the dry air, but the cost was $100 more because the administration barred employees from purchasing.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP), which supervises NIOSH did not respond when asked for a comment.
DOGE and White House also prohibited many agencies from contacting outside vendors, as they stopped thousands of federal contracts.
A chemical analysis machine worth nearly half a million dollars at a CDC in Cincinnati has been sitting idle for months, because scientists cannot schedule training with the supplier to begin using the device, according to a source familiar with the situation.
The CDC has not responded to a comment request.
In the first week in March, the Social Security Administration's computer systems crashed ten times in four days. One IT worker said that because a quarter the agency's staff has quit or been terminated, it takes longer to bring the systems back online, which disrupts the processing of claims.
Few would dispute that the SSA computer systems are outdated, frequently crash and in need of updating. Musk told Baier that the agency's computers are "failing" and "we're fix it."
HUMANITARIAN AID CUT DOGE, since its creation on Trump's very first day as President, has largely closed down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which provides humanitarian aid to those in need around the globe, and canceled more than 80% of its programs. By September, almost all the employees of the agency will be terminated, and all its overseas offices will close. Some functions are being absorbed by the State Department.
A tally shows that the overhaul of the government has led to the dismissal, resignation and early retirement of 260,000 civil service employees.
In February, over 20,000 probationary employees (newly hired or recently reassigned workers) were terminated. After court rulings, they were reinstated. However, most were sent back home with full pay. After further court rulings, many are being fired once again.
Trump and Musk both said that the U.S. Government is plagued by fraud and waste. Many civil servants, governance experts and others do not dispute that efficiencies could be made. However, they say that there are people within the federal bureaucracy who already try to save taxpayer dollars. DOGE has targeted some of these offices for cutbacks.
Trump fired 17 inspectors in January. Their mission as government watchdogs included reducing fraud and waste.
Christi Grimm was fired from her position as inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services. She said she expected $14.5 billion in "cold, hard cash" to be recovered over the next three years through audits and fraud investigation.
The DOGE eliminated 18F, one of only a few government units tasked with streamlining technology throughout the federal government. Waldo Jaquith who worked at 18F from 2016 to 2020 said that the team saved the Pentagon $500,000,000 in just one project lasting three days after noticing two departments doing the same unknowingly work.
I was not able independently to verify this figure.
Musk and his team have a very specific idea of how they want the government to function. Jaquith stated that when Musk's team discovered it, it was destroyed.
Thomas Shedd, an appointee of Trump at the General Services Administration (GSA), in an email sent to staff members last month, called 18F "noncritical". (Reporting and editing by Ross Colvin, Suzanne Goldenberg, and Julie Steenhuysen; additional reporting by Alexandra Alper, Leah Douglas and Julie Steenhuysen)
(source: Reuters)