Investors also bracing for first wave of major corporate earnings out this week
By Tetsushi Kajimoto
TOKYO (Reuters) -Business confidence among big Japanese manufacturers fell for a second straight month to hit its lowest level in five months, a Reuters monthly poll showed on Wednesday, in another sign global inflation and a weak yen are taking a toll on the world's No.3 economy.
The monthly poll, which tracks the Bank of Japan's (BOJ) closely watched tankan quarterly survey, found manufacturers' mood is expected to deteriorate again over the coming three months while service-sector mood was seen rebounding further.
"A weak yen and price hikes are boosting import and other costs, dealing a blow to materials sectors among manufacturers, while the spectre of global slowdown weighed on the outlook," said Koya Miyamae, senior economist at SMBC Nikko Securities.
Pent-up demand and government support for the tourism industry led non-manufacturers, although future prospects for recovery depend much on any resurgence of COVID-19, he added.
Industries such as autos, steel and textiles weighed on overall manufacturers' sentiment, while communications, transport and utilities led non-manufacturers.
In a worrying sign of lacklustre rebound in consumption from the COVID-19 curbs, retailer sentiment slid further. Consumption accounts for more than half the economy.
In the Sept. 28-Oct. 7 poll of 495 big companies, out of which 254 replied, many firms, which responded on condition of anonymity, complained about higher costs of doing business due to cost-push inflation.
"The prices of products are not keeping pace with surging raw materials costs" as many subcontractors in the supply chain could not pass on input costs to their clients, one manager at a chemicals maker said.
"There are concerns about worsening profits due to import costs boosted by a weak yen on top of rising raw materials and energy costs," said a manager of a food-processing firm.
Some complained about the impact of geopolitical events.
"Our clients are cautious about raising capital investment due to U.S.-China frictions and the Ukraine crisis," wrote a machinery maker manager.
The BOJ's last survey on Oct. 3 showed big manufacturers' mood had worsened in July-September for a third straight quarter as high material costs dimmed recovery prospects for the fragile economy.
The Reuters Tankan index readings are derived by subtracting the percentage of respondents who say conditions are poor from those who say they are good. A positive reading means optimists outnumber pessimists.
(Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Stephen Coates)
TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan's machinery orders posted their biggest single-month fall in six months in August as pressure from a global economic slowdown and a weaker yen that pushes up import costs darken the outlook for corporate spending. The Reuters Tankan survey separately showed that business confidence at big manufacturers fell to a five-month low, as a double whammy of inflation and slowing global growth hurt the trade-reliant economy. Core orders, a highly volatile data series regarded as barometer of capital expenditure in the coming six to nine months, fell 5.8% in August from the previous month, Cabinet Office data showed.
The layoffs will be announced as early as this month and some of Intel's divisions, including the sales and marketing group, could see cuts affecting about 20% of staff, according to the report. The company had 113,700 employees as of July, Bloomberg News said. Intel declined to comment on the job cuts.
Cryptoasset companies should set aside capital like banks when undertaking similar activities, regulators proposed on Tuesday in their first global rules as a "crypto winter" wiped $2 trillion off the sector, leaving investors nursing losses. The Financial Stability Board (FSB), which coordinates financial rulemaking among Group of 20 Economies (G20), made nine recommendations for members to apply. Klaas Knot, the Dutch central bank president who chairs the FSB, said the "crypto winter" or recent sharp pullback in cryptocurrencies, has reinforced the board's assessment of existing structural vulnerabilities.
O3 Mining Inc. (TSX.V: OIII) (OTCQX: OIIIF) ("O3 Mining" or the "Corporation") is please to announce that O3 Mining has filed on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) a Pre-Feasibility Study ("PFS"), in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 – Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101"), for its 100% owned Marban Engineering project in Val-d'Or Québec, Canada.
TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares were mostly lower on Tuesday as losses in technology-related shares weighed on global benchmarks. Taiwan dropped 4% after reopening from a holiday in the first trading session since the U.S. imposed new limits on exports of semiconductors and chip-making equipment to China. TMSC, the world’s biggest chipmaker, plunged 7.8%. Japan's Nikkei 225 declined 2.5% in morning trading to 26,439.97. South Korea's Kospi lost 2.2% to 2,184.87. Both markets also were reopening after
HSBC Global Private Banking has launched its business in the large Chinese cities of Chengdu and Hangzhou, it said on Tuesday, to try to capture a bigger share of the local market as uncertainties cloud potential for China's wealth growth. The bank also said it plans to explore opportunities in China's southwest region. Its existing branches are located in eastern areas where more high net worth (HNW)individuals live.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Honda Motor Co Ltd and LG Energy Solution on Tuesday announced Ohio as the site of their planned $4.4 billion joint-venture battery plant. Honda will separately invest $700 million to retool three Ohio plants and add 300 new jobs, as it seeks higher electric- vehicle production. Honda will produce battery cases at its Anna, Ohio, engine plant that will be combined with battery modules from the JV and then installed in EVs built at two other Ohio plants.
Firmenich, the world's largest privately-owned fragrance and taste company, today officially inaugurated its new campus in Geneva, in the presence of local dignitaries and authorities. This new campus, at the cutting edge of the industry from both a technology and capacity perspective, represents Firmenich's commitment to operational excellence. The total investment for this multi-year project amounts to nearly CHF 200 million and confirms the importance of Geneva for the long term.
(Reuters) -Cameco Corp and Brookfield Renewable Partners said on Tuesday they would acquire nuclear power plant equipment maker Westinghouse Electric in a $7.9-billion deal including debt, amid renewed interest in nuclear energy. The deal for one of the most storied names in the American power industry at an equity value of $4.5 billion comes at a time when nuclear power is seeing an uptick in interest amid an energy crisis in Europe and soaring crude oil and natural gas prices. Nuclear power is also key for countries to meet global net-zero carbon emission goals and could be on the cusp of a boom seen after the 1970s oil crisis.
NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) -Diesel refining margins in both Europe and the United States have surged to all-time highs as strikes at French refineries exacerbate a global shortage of distillate fuels. Prices for diesel, heating oil and other refined products were already elevated after Russia's invasion of Ukraine and worldwide capacity to produce fuel reduced by the closure of numerous refineries over the last two years. The French strikes over workers' pay have taken up to 60% of the country's refining capacity – which yields up to 50% diesel – offline, disrupting supplies at almost a third of petrol stations and forcing the government to tap strategic reserves.
Netflix stock is down and out, but Canadian investors should look to snatch a few shares up. The post Is Netflix Stock a Buy Right Now? appeared first on The Motley Fool Canada.
Japanese retail foreign currency deposits have jumped this year as local investors switch out of a weakening yen and zero-yielding local bond markets and into overseas markets with rising yields. While other major central banks have hiked their interest rates this year to tackle inflation, the Bank of Japan has stuck to its ultra-loose monetary policy, keeping 10-year yields anchored to zero. Spreads between Japan's 10-year government bonds and U.S. Treasuries are near 4 percentage points.
Defaults among emerging market companies continued to pile up in the third quarter due to troubles in Russia as well as China's property sector, with the volume of bonds trading at distressed levels close to record highs, JPMorgan said on Tuesday. The year-to-date default rate for emerging market high-yield firms reached 10.3%, the bank found in its latest default monitor. This was driven by Russian defaults lifting the rate in emerging Europe to 21.7%, while China's property sector woes saw the default rate across Asia run to 12.8%.
An apparently coordinated denial-of-service attack organized by pro-Russia hackers rendered the websites of some major U.S. airports unreachable early Monday, though officials said flights were not affected. The attacks — in which participants flood targets with junk data — were orchestrated by a shadowy group that calls itself Killnet. On the eve of the attacks the group published a target list on its Telegram channel. While highly visible and aimed at maximum psychological impact, DDoS attacks
A new survey by ADP Canada, conducted with Maru Public Opinion, reveals that while many working Canadians report feeling engaged and satisfied in the workplace, they also have trouble setting boundaries between work and personal life.
TOKYO (AP) — The Japanese space agency said a rocket carrying eight satellites failed just after liftoff Wednesday and had to be aborted by a self-destruction command, in the country’s first failed rocket launch in nearly 20 years. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said its Epsilon-6 rocket experienced an unidentified “abnormality” and its flight had to be aborted less than seven minutes after takeoff from the Uchinoura Space Center in the southern Japanese prefecture of Kagoshima. JAXA off
An attorney for investors suing Credit Suisse Group AG told a jury in U.S. court on Tuesday that chats between traders prove the world's largest banks colluded to fix prices in the foreign exchange market between 2007 and 2013. Credit Suisse is the last bank defendant remaining in the class action that began in 2013, after 15 others reached $2.31 billion of settlements. Investors have accused Credit Suisse traders of sharing nonpublic pricing information with traders at other banks, including in chat rooms with names such as "Yen Cartel."
Shares of the San Jose, California-based company were down nearly 6% after the update, which PayPal said "included incorrect information", sparked intense backlash on social media over the weekend. According to several media reports last week, PayPal had published a policy update prohibiting customers from using its services for activities identified by it as "sending, posting, or publication of any messages, content, or materials" promoting misinformation.
The hedge funds that have managed to weather and outperform China's bumpy stock markets so far this year say betting on big-picture macroeconomic changes has helped them. One such fund is Stanley Tao's $230 million Golden Nest Greater China Fund. The hedge fund posted approximately a 2.4% net return for September, according to internal estimates, and is down 1.2% for the first nine months.
(Reuters) -The six biggest U.S. banks are expected to have set aside nearly $5 billion in the third quarter to cover future loan losses, Wall Street analysts said, as lenders brace for a potential global recession. In the third quarter of last year, they released about $4 billion of loan provisions, according to data from Refinitiv. But with growing fears of a recession as the U.S. Federal Reserve hikes interest rates aggressively to tamp down inflation, reserves in the third quarter, expected to be at the highest levels since mid-2020, could be the biggest drag on bank profits, analysts said.