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Bangladesh having a hard time to muster dollars to pay Indian power debts, sources say
Bangladesh's. efforts to clear debts of more than $1 billion owed to Indian. power companies are being hindered by its failure to gain access to. the dollars it needs to pay them, documents revealed and. sources knowledgeable about the matter stated. The nation has actually been having a hard time to pay its costs due to. pricey fuel and products imports since the 2022 war in Ukraine,. while political chaos which caused the ouster of Prime. Minister Sheikh Hasina in August has actually added to its troubles. Bangladesh is urgently seeking $5 billion in financial aid. from global lenders to stabilise its decreasing foreign. exchange reserves and its reserve bank has actually raised essential interest. rates to tame soaring inflation. Last year, it looked for a $4.7. billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund. Efforts are on to clear the impressive payments, however the. existing dollar crisis is making complex the procedure. substantially, an official at the Bangladesh Power Development. Board (BPDB) informed Reuters on Friday. Of the more than $1 billion owed to India's power business,. some $800 million is to Adani Power, he included. Adani Power did not respond to an ask for remark. PTC India and SEIL Energy India Ltd have actually composed. to the BPDB to recuperate about $80 million and $190 million. respectively in payment for power they provided to Bangladesh,. files examined reveal. PTC has a long term service relation of supplying power to. BPDB given that 2013 and the power supply under (the) current. agreement is from 2022, a PTC India representative said. A SEIL spokesperson said it had actually informed the Bangladesh. authorities about what it called an unsustainable scenario. Bangladesh, which imports almost 20% of its power from its. neighbour India, has not spent for the electrical energy for the last. eight to 9 months, a source informed Reuters. SEIL received an agreement in 2018 from BPDB to supply power. to Bangladesh over a total duration of 15 years. While we continue to provide power to Bangladesh, we stay. hopeful the worried authorities will support the contractual. terms and expedite the cleaning of the charges, so that power. supply can be sustained, SEIL stated in a statement. SEIL and PTC India have bank guarantees connecting to their. power agreements with Bangladesh for $34.1 mln and $30.7 million,. respectively, the documents reveal. This has actually left Bangladesh's Rupali Bank trying to access. dollars to settle payment of about $270 million, as otherwise. the Indian companies plan to cash the assurances. Rupali Bank and BPDB are working together for the essential. U.S. dollar resources from (the) Bangladesh Central Bank for the. function of paying expenses in foreign currency, which will continue. in the future, the documents reveal. PTC India decreased to comment on the specifics of terms and. conditions of the contract, while calls to Rupali Bank went. unanswered due to a weekend holiday in Bangladesh.
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Chinese court states another Sinochem refinery insolvent
A Chinese court on Friday declared insolvent a third refinery owned by state oil and chemical group Sinochem, a court file revealed. The Changyi city court also ended reorganization procedures at the refinery, Shandong Changyi Petrochemical. Earlier today, court rulings were made against 2 other refineries owned by Sinochem: Shandong Huaxing Petrochemical Group and Zhenghe Group Co Ltd. . The court files did not specify what would take place to the refinery's properties. Sinochem did not immediately react to a. request for remark. Found in eastern China's refining center of Shandong, the. three plants have a combined petroleum processing capability of. 380,000 barrels each day, or about 3% of China's nationwide. refinery output. Reuters reported in July that Sinochem had shut two of its. three Shandong refineries - Zhenghe and Changyi - for indefinite. upkeep in the middle of high petroleum rates and weakness in the. improved fuel market. Shandong-based independent refineries operated at an average. of 56.4% of their capacity in August, 10 portion points listed below. levels a year ago as weak fuel demand depressed processing. margins, local consultancy Sublime China Details stated.
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Microsoft offer signals growing need from data centers to power AI
U.S. energies are lastly signing concrete supply deals with datacenter operators as the artificialintelligence wave triggers a surge in power need, paving the way for higher earnings in the coming quarters. Data centers are anticipated to account for 8% of the power created in the U.S. by 2030, compared with 3% in 2022, according to a Goldman Sachs report in May. Here are some offers announced by utilities in 2024: Constellation Energy signed an exclusive handle Microsoft to reboot among the systems at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania. Under the arrangement, the energy will supply 835 megawatts ( MW) of energy to the tech giant's data centers. The deal would likewise mark the very first restart of a nuclear reactor in the U.S. after it was shut down. Ameren signed a supply handle a data center with a power capability of 250 megawatt (MW). It has likewise gotten expansion commitments and performed brand-new agreements for more 85 MW of extra load for smaller information centers and other industries across Missouri and Illinois. Alliant Energy stated it has carried out several power supply deals with data centers, but did not divulge details. Exelon said it remains in the engineering stage for more than 5 GW of information center capability. Some data-center clients have likewise made deposits for ComEd - Exelon's subsidiary - to order transmission and breakers, the company said during a. post-earnings call. American Electric Power signed letters of intent to. power an extra 15 GW of data centers by the end of the. decade. Xcel Energy will provide power to Meta Platforms'. data center in Minnesota, expected to come online in. late summer 2025. Entergy has actually received legal approval for financial investment. in transmission and generation to serve Amazon's. upcoming Amazon Web Solutions (AWS) facility in Mississippi. Pinnacle West Capital has more than 4,000 MW of. dedicated data center customers, not consisting of the stockpile of. more than 10,000 information center requests it has gotten. AES signed a contract with Google for 310. megawatts to support its Ohio data centers. It further expanded a previously announced partnership with. Google and signed a 15-year power purchase arrangement for 727. megawatts in Texas. Talen Energy revealed an offer to provide electrical energy and. its 960-megawatt data center campus to Amazon's AWS in. Pennsylvania. NextEra's renewables sector saw a rise of 3 gigawatts
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Canada retail sales rise more than anticipated in July; likely up in August
Canadian retail sales grew by 0.9% in July from June, led by greater sales at motor vehicle and parts dealerships, while sales most likely climbed up even more in August, data from Stats Canada revealed on Friday. The boost in retail sales, to C$ 66.4 billion ($ 49.0. billion), eclipsed price quotes for a gain of 0.6% and could relieve. fears about the strength of the domestic economy. Sales were up in seven of nine subsectors, representing. 84.6% of retail trade, with sales at automobile and parts. dealers climbing 2.2%. In volume terms, retail sales increased. 1.0%. The rebound in retail sales volumes in July will be welcome. news to the Bank of Canada, which has actually been worried about the. downside threats to the economy, Olivia Cross, North America. economist at Capital Economics, said in a note. The Bank of Canada has actually cut interest rates 3 times. given that June, moving in quarter-percentage-point actions, but has. stated it could shift to bigger cuts if the economy requires an increase. Opportunities of a half-percentage-point relocation in October dipped to. 56% from 59% before the retail sales report, swaps market information. revealed. Core retail sales, which exclude gasoline stations and fuel. suppliers and automobile and parts dealerships, were up 0.6%,. notching their second successive regular monthly boost. The gain for core sales was led by food and drink. retailers and basic merchandise merchants. An initial price quote revealed sales increasing 0.5% in August. Still, per-capita sales 'still look weak' and deterioration. in the labour market indicate weaker discretionary consumption. ahead, Katherine Judge, a senior financial expert at CIBC Capital. Markets, stated in a note. Canada has actually seen historically high population development in. current years. The Canadian dollar was bit changed at 1.3560 per. U.S. dollar, or 73.75 U.S. cents.
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How investors purchase gold and what drives the marketplace
Gold struck a record high above $2,600 per ounce on Friday, as the possibility of more U.S. rate of interest cuts and international geo-political unpredictability boosted its appeal. Bullion has increased more than 26% so far this year, and as market bulls lock in additional gains, another turning point of $3,000. per ounce remains in focus. Here are the different avenues for buying gold: SPOT MARKET Large purchasers and institutional financiers normally buy gold. from huge banks. Prices in the area market are figured out by. real-time supply and demand characteristics. London is the most influential hub for the spot gold market,. mainly because of the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA). The LBMA sets standards for gold trading and supplies a. structure for the OTC (non-prescription) market, helping with. trades among banks, dealers, and institutions. China, India, the Middle East and the United States are. other significant gold trading centres. FUTURES MARKET Financiers can also get exposure to gold via futures. exchanges, where individuals buy or sell a specific commodity at a. fixed price on a specific date in future. COMEX (Product Exchange Inc), a part of the New york city. Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), is the biggest gold futures market. in regards to trading volumes. Shanghai Futures Exchange, China's leading commodities. exchange, likewise offers gold futures contracts. The Tokyo. Commodity exchange, popularly called TOCOM, is another huge. player in the Asian gold market. EXCHANGE TRADED PRODUCTS Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) or Exchange Traded Funds. ( ETFs) problem securities backed by physical metal and permit. individuals to get direct exposure to the underlying gold rates without. taking shipment of the metal itself. ETFs have actually ended up being a significant category of financial investment demand for. the precious metal. International physically backed gold ETFs attracted a fourth. consecutive month of inflows in August after North American and. Europe-listed funds increased holdings, the World Gold Council. ( WGC) said. BARS AND COINS Retail customers can buy gold from metals traders selling. bars and coins in an outlet or online. Both gold bars and coins. are effective means of investing in physical gold. CHAUFFEURS: INVESTORS AND MARKET SENTIMENT Increasing interest from investment funds in the last few years has. been a significant factor behind bullion's rate relocations. Sentiment driven by market trends, news, and worldwide occasions. can also result in speculative purchasing or selling of gold. FOREIGN EXCHANGE RATES Gold is a popular hedge against currency market volatility. It has actually typically moved in the opposite instructions to the U.S. dollar as weakness in the U.S. system makes dollar-priced gold. less expensive for holders of other currencies and vice versa. FINANCIAL POLICIES AND POLITICAL TENSIONS The rare-earth element is extensively thought about a safe haven,. bought throughout unsure times in a flight to quality. Major geopolitical occasions, such as extended disputes in the. Middle East and Europe have actually added to unpredictabilities for worldwide. financiers and burnished gold's appeal. Policy choices from international central banks also affect. gold's trajectory. Lower rates decrease the opportunity cost of. holding gold, considering that it pays no interest. Gold's most current rally was set off after the U.S. Federal. Reserve began its reducing cycle with an outsized. half-percentage-point cut on Wednesday. RESERVE BANK GOLD RESERVES Central banks hold gold as part of their reserves. Buying or. selling of the metal by the banks can influence prices. Central bank need has actually been robust in the last few years since. of ongoing macroeconomic and political unpredictability, analysts. have stated. More central banks prepare to add to their gold reserves within. a year despite high rates for the precious metal, the World. Gold Council
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Brazil to tap ESG bonds to preserve Amazon, giving up devoted financial obligation, authorities states
Brazil has no plan to launch a devoted sovereign Amazon bond, a senior treasury official informed Reuters, and will instead fund defense of the world's. most significant jungle by means of its brand-new environmental and social bond. program. The question of how to money security of among the world's. most vital natural deposits has actually ended up being significantly urgent and. will be a focus at the upcoming United Nations' COP16. biodiversity conference in Colombia in October in addition to the. COP29 environment talks in Azerbaijan in November. Lenders have actually drifted the concept that a devoted Amazon bond. might raise $10 billion or more at ultra-low cost for the cause,. but Brazil's deputy secretary for public financial obligation, Otavio Ladeira,. told Reuters that it was not needed. Instead Brazil will utilize cash from its ecological, social. and governance (ESG) bonds that it started selling late in 2015. Being routine, foreseeable, it's better than opening. different fields such as Amazon bonds, he said, describing that. such bonds would require a great deal of additional reporting work. Our strategy is being built gently in terms of ESG bonds -. you issue ESG bonds, $2 billion annually, no more, no less. Usage. of proceeds - half ecological, half social. Covering more than 6 million square kilometres - more than. half of which remains in Brazil - the Amazon absorbs huge amounts of. climate-warming greenhouse gases and is home to more than 10% of. all recognized animals and plants, the greatest density of types. anywhere on Earth. A share of ESG money raised was currently going towards. Brazil's Amazon programs, Ladeira said, while finding eligible. costs was not constantly simple and money was not. always the top issue. In its first year, Brazil's present federal government lowered. Amazon logging by 50% merely through much better coordination. of resources, which cost extremely bit, Ladeira stated. INVESTMENT GRADE TARGET The government might also look at issuing euro-denominated. bonds if Latin America's greatest economy is able to restore its. financial investment grade ranking in the coming years. Brazil lost its desirable financial investment grade in 2015 after a. plunge in product costs and a loosening of costs targets. by left-leaning then-President Dilma Rousseff - who was later on. impeached. More pragmatic policymaking recently under President. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, together with a landmark tax reform,. have actually caused upgrades, but Brazil stays two steps listed below the secret. threshold - and its debt levels are still rising. The government had a strong will to gain back the valued. status by 2026, Ladeira said. It's good to have this target,. this goal that makes us strive in numerous measurements to. deliver. He acknowledged, nevertheless, that it might take longer. Asked whether potential market volatility around November's. U.S. presidential election was a concern for countries like. Brazil, he stated the federal government had the reserves in location to ride. out any turbulence. The quantity of
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Stocks hover near all-time highs, yen drops as Ueda disappoints hawks
World stocks hovered near record highs on Friday, underpinned by a big rate of interest cut from the Federal Reserve earlier this week, while the yen relieved after Bank of Japan Guv Kazuo Ueda tempered market expectations around impending rate hikes. The dollar climbed 1.2% on the Japanese currency to 144.29 - its strongest in two weeks - on the back of Ueda's. remarks, having actually earlier fallen around 0.6% to 141.74 after the. BOJ kept interest rates stable in a commonly anticipated move. The yen lost ground as Ueda gave couple of tips on when the. reserve bank might raise rates once again and said uncertainty around. the U.S. economy and market volatility could affect its policy. relocations. The dollar steadied after suffering losses previously in. the week after the Fed provided a 50 basis point rate cut and. ensured investors the jumbo-sized reduction was a procedure to. protect a durable economy, instead of an emergency situation action. to recent weakness in the labour market. What Chairman Powell said was that they're carefully. seeing the labour market, and if it slows too much they're. prepared to act, stated Marija Veitmane, head of equity research. at State Street Global Markets. Powell also said that he doesn't see the labour market as. inflationary - that's a positive message for dangerous properties. The MSCI index of world stocks was little. altered after Thursday's 1.6% dive took it to a record high. It. was headed for a 1.5% weekly rise. European stocks dropped 0.8% from two-week highs,. with automakers leading the slide after Mercedes-Benz. cut its full-year profit margin target for the second time in. less than 2 months, on the back of weak point in China. Wall Street futures were also lower, after the S&P 500. rose to a record close on Thursday. CHINA TROUBLES In China, the central bank kept its benchmark loaning. rates on hold, countering expectations for a relocation lower. Chinese. blue chips edged up 0.2% however remained near to a. seven-month low touched earlier in the week. Downbeat information in recent days has actually raised hopes of aggressive. stimulus to prop up the world's second largest economy. Markets were truly hoping that the policy action taken by. Chinese authorities will work. They have actually done a lot of little. things but unfortunately not enough to reverse the slowdown. in financial activities, said State Street's Veitmane. It's a big source of weak point worldwide. The onshore yuan strengthened to the highest in. almost 16 months after the People's Bank of China's surprise. relocation, causing intervention by state banks to avoid it from. valuing too fast. Overnight, Wall Street lastly had the time to digest the. Federal Reserve's very first rate cut of this cycle. With more easing. to come, financiers are counting on continued U.S. economic. growth and better-than-expected out of work claims data added to the. view that the labour market stayed healthy. Markets suggest about a 40% possibility the Fed will cut by another. 50 basis points in November and have 72 bps priced in by. year-end. Rates are seen at 2.83% by the end of 2025, which is. now believed to be the Fed's estimate of neutral. The British pound was buoyant at $1.3300,. earlier rallying to the greatest considering that March 2022. Information on Friday showed British retail sales rose by a. stronger-than-expected 1% in August and growth in July was. modified up. The Bank of England held rates constant on Thursday. Commodities also held on to their weekly gains. Gold. touched a record high at $2,614 an ounce and oil rates were set. for their second straight week of gain. Brent futures slipped 0.5% to $74.49 a barrel, however. are still up 4.6% today.
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Constellation to restart Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Microsoft AI power offer
Constellation Energy has signed a special deal with Microsoft to restart one of the units at the kept in mind Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania to power data centers for the tech giant, the business stated on Friday. This would be the very first restart of a nuclear power plant in the U.S. after shutting, and shows how utilities are gaining from an enormous surge in demand from data-center operators wanting to ride a boom in expert system. Shares of the company were up almost 8% at $224.4 premarket. The offer would allow a restart of System 1 of the five-decades-old nuclear power center in Pennsylvania that was shut in 2019 due to functional reasons. System 2, which was shut after a partial crisis in 1979 - the most well-known commercial nuclear accident in U.S. history - is not going to be restarted. Constellation, which plans to spend about $1.6 billion to reboot the plant, is waiting for permits and anticipates the center to come online by 2028. Under the offer, disclosed on Friday, Microsoft will purchase energy from the restarted plant for a duration of 20 years. Reuters initially reported on the potential reboot in July. A restart is expected to be logistically challenging, but as power demand increases from tech business, the virtually carbon-free electricity source is seeing renewed support. If the reboot is authorized, Three Mile Island would supply Microsoft with 835 megawatts of energy. Financial information of the deal were not disclosed. Microsoft and Constellation decreased to provide more information on the agreement.
Militants kill 6 Pakistani security personnel in attack, military states
Militants opened fire on a security post in northwest Pakistan late on Thursday, killing a minimum of six workers, the military stated in a statement on Friday, stating it had foiled an attempt by the enemies to storm the properties.
The attack was claimed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan ( TTP) Islamist militant group, and was one of 2 intense encounters along the border with Afghanistan in between Thursday and Friday.
The South Asian country is confronted with a resurgence of attacks by Islamist militants in the northwest as well as an heightening ethnic separatist insurgency in the South.
Soldiers fought fearlessly, foiling the efforts of intrusion, the military's info wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations stated in a declaration, adding that six security workers were eliminated in an intense exchange of fire.
5 assailants were killed in the encounter, which took location in the restive tribal district of South Wazirstan, the statement included.
In a different incident in the neighbouring district of North Waziristan, the military said it had actually killed a group of seven militants trying to get in Pakistan from Afghanistan, and recovered a large quantity of ammunition and dynamites.
Islamabad says TTP uses Afghanistan as a base and says the ruling Taliban administration has actually offered safe havens to the group near to the border. The Taliban reject this.
The TTP is different from the Afghan Taliban motion, but pledges loyalty to the Islamist group that now rules Afghanistan after the withdrawal of U.S. led worldwide forces from the country in 2021.
Pakistan's Permanent Agent to the United Nations Munir Akram warned the Security Council today that the TTP, while presently perceived as a threat only to his nation, could quickly become the spearhead of worldwide terrorist objectives including of groups such as al Qaeda.
(source: Reuters)