Aurelia Butler

TOKYO (Reuters) – The dollar was on the back foot on Thursday after U.S. economic data continued to point to slowing growth, although that gave little relief to the yen, which was pinned around a 38-year low that kept the market on alert for government intervention.The euro held not far off a three-week high against the greenback, and sterling firmed ahead of UK elections later in the day. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of peer currencies, was flat at 105.28 after briefly weakening to its lowest since June 13 at 105.04 on Wednesday.Softer-than-expected U.S. economic data on Wednesday, including a weak services report and ADP employment report, depicted a slowing economy, following an increase in initial applications for U.S. unemployment benefits last week.”Slowly but surely, what we’re starting to see is a bit of a turn in the U.S. economic data flow,” said Rodrigo Catril, senior currency strategist at National Australia Bank (OTC:NABZY) (NAB).”We think that the U.S. economy is slowing, with the labour market now starting to show signs of slackness, as well as activity and inflationary pressures easing.”Attention now turns to the closely watched nonfarm payrolls report due on Friday, which is expected to show an increase of 190,000 jobs in June after rising 272,000 in May, according to a Reuters poll of economists. Ahead of the jobs report, the string of weaker economic data had the market pricing in about a 68% chance of a U.S. rate cut in September versus 56% a week ago, according to the CME FedWatch tool.U.S. Treasury yields also fell on Wednesday. But despite the drop in both the dollar and yield levels, the yen was still stuck not far from a low of 161.96 per dollar hit in the previous session, its lowest since December 1986. Traders were preparing for possible Japanese government currency intervention with U.S. markets off for the July Fourth holiday, given Tokyo stepped in on April 29 and May 1 during illiquid points in the global trading day or holiday thinned trading. Japan spent 9.79 trillion yen ($61.31 billion) defending the currency in those two rounds of heavy yen buying.But the cards were not in favour of the yen.”The reality is that there’s a structural issue going on here that favours the weaker yen,” NAB’s Catril said. The Bank of Japan being set to normalise interest rates only at a gradual pace continues to encourage traders to push the dollar higher against the yen, he added.The Japanese currency last strengthened 0.11% versus the greenback to 161.53.The yen was also close to the all-time low of 174.48 against the euro hit on Wednesday. Elsewhere, sterling was holding its ground ahead of elections in the UK after gaining on the dollar overnight, trading at $1.2744, up 0.03% on the day. Britain looks set to elect Labour Party leader Keir Starmer as its next prime minister when voters go to the polls on Thursday, sweeping Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives out of office after 14 often turbulent years.The euro was up 0.04% at $1.079, after rising to a three-week high against the dollar on Wednesday.In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin last rose 1.41% to $60,376.65. More

Brazilian assets had suffered a sell-off in recent weeks as markets fear fiscal deterioration amid government reluctance to cut spending, which led to investors’ concerns about the government’s ability to comply with the fiscal framework approved last year.On Wednesday, however, the Brazilian real rose nearly 2% against the U.S. dollar in spot trading, as market participants awaited details from the meeting, and after Lula said earlier on the day that his government would remain committed to fiscal responsibility.”The first thing the President ordered us to do was ‘comply with the fiscal framework'”, Finance Minister Fernando Haddad told journalists in Brasilia after the meeting, referring to a constitutional law that sets a limit to government spending. Haddad also said that Lula approved suggestions the officials had presented in the meeting to cut 25.9 billion reais ($4.7 billion) in government spending, which would allow Lula’s administration to comply with the fiscal framework next year.These measures would include a greater scrutiny to cut social benefits from people who are ineligible.Haddad added that some of the measures could be brought forward if required to help the government meet the fiscal rule this year. ($1 = 5.5580 reais) More

This notable call to action marks Hastings as one of the first major Democratic donors to openly express sentiments that many have been discussing privately.Hastings, in an email to The New York Times, stated that he believes it’s time for a dynamic Democratic leader to step up, defeat Trump, and ensure the safety and prosperity of the nation. This public call for change signifies a potential weakening in the president’s foundation of support.Hastings and his wife, Patty Quillin, have emerged as one of the most generous donor couples to the Democratic Party during the Trump era, collectively contributing over $20 million to support the party in recent years, including up to $1.5 million to back Mr. Biden during the 2020 presidential race.They also donated $100,000 last summer to support Mr. Biden’s potential 2024 campaign. The majority of their contributions have been directed towards super PACs intended to bolster House and Senate Democrats.Hollywood leaders, who recently held a glamorous fundraiser for Mr. Biden, are also starting to voice their concerns publicly. Power agent Ari Emanuel expressed his frustrations earlier this week.Hastings has a long-standing association with education reform, while Quillin is particularly focused on racial justice.Hastings also maintains a close relationship with California Governor Gavin Newsom, who is being considered as a potential replacement for President Biden. More

(Reuters) – A look at the day ahead in Asian markets.World and U.S. stocks at record highs, a UK general election and Japanese asset prices stretched to historical levels – there’s a lot for investors in Asia to chew over on Thursday even though liquidity will be thinned out by the July 4 U.S. holiday.Indeed, markets in Asia may be more vulnerable to higher volatility and outsized moves precisely because trading volumes will be much lighter than usual. The global backdrop to the Asian open on Thursday, however, looks positive after stocks rose broadly on Wednesday, the dollar weakened and Treasury yields fell – a classic collective market-friendly loosening of financial conditions. The minutes of the Fed’s June 11 to 12 policy meeting released on Wednesday echoed remarks from Fed Chair Jerome Powell this week that price pressures are cooling. Good news.More ominously, however, the “vast majority of participants” think U.S. economic activity is cooling too, and this was backed up by disappointing service sector data and another downward revision to the Atlanta Fed’s GDP growth tracker.Treasury yields tumbled for a second day – wiping out the Donald Trump and French election-fueled spike on Monday – paving the way for another leap to another high for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq. Currency traders will be extra vigilant for sharp moves in the yen and intervention from Japan to prevent its depreciation from snow-balling, especially with U.S. markets closed.The yen hit a fresh 38-year low around 162.00 per dollar on Wednesday. As yet, Tokyo has not showed its hand, and perhaps it won’t – the yen’s decline seems reasonably orderly, and yen volatility across the curve is relatively subdued.But it’s worth remembering that Tokyo’s last two yen-buying forays into the market on April 29 and May 1 were carried out in illiquid points in the global trading day or holiday-thinned trading. Traders will be on their guard.Not only is the yen selling off consistently, so too are Japanese bonds. The 10-year JGB yield on Wednesday hit 1.10% and the spread over the two-year JGB yield widened to 75 basis points. That’s the yen at a 38-year low, the 10-year bond yield around its highest in 13 years, and the yield curve rapidly steepening. Plus, the Nikkei is within a whisker of breaking March’s record high.These are big levels and big moves for Japanese assets. The potential for some sort of pullback must surely be rising. Thursday’s economic calendar is light, with only Hong Kong PMI and Australian trade on tap. Friday’s calendar is a lot busier, with inflation from Taiwan, Thailand and the Philippines, current account data from South Korea, retail sales figures from Singapore and household spending numbers from Japan all scheduled for release.Here are key developments that could provide more direction to markets on Thursday:- Hong Kong PMI (June)- Australia trade (May)- Thai central bank chief Sethaput Suthiwartnarueput speaks More

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Federal Reserve officials at their last meeting acknowledged the U.S. economy appeared to be slowing and that “price pressures were diminishing,” but still counseled a wait-and-see approach before committing to interest rate cuts, according to minutes of the June 11-12 session.The minutes, which were released on Wednesday, noted in particular a weak May reading in the consumer price index as one among “a number of developments in the product and labor markets” that supported a view that inflation was falling.Wage growth had slowed, a few participants noted, while others pointed to price cutting among major retailers and reports from their own business contacts that “pricing power had declined.”But if the narrative around inflation pointed to faith that it was on the way down, U.S. central bank policymakers weren’t ready, yet, to open the door to rate cuts.Officials “did not expect that it would be appropriate to lower the target range for the federal funds rate until additional information had emerged to give them greater confidence that inflation was moving sustainably toward” the 2% target, the minutes said.At the time of the meeting, the personal consumption expenditures price index, which is used to set the Fed’s inflation target, had been reported at 2.7% on a year-on-year basis for the month of April.Policymakers still judged that reading to be “elevated” and representing only “modest” improvement since their last meeting, a fact that warranted continued tight monetary policy even though the economy appeared to be slowing and price pressures waning, the minutes said.The U.S. government reported last week that the PCE fell to 2.6% in May. “The vast majority of participants assessed that growth in economic activity appeared to be gradually cooling, and most participants remarked that they viewed the current policy stance as restrictive,” and therefore likely to further curb the economy and inflation, the minutes said.But in voting to keep the policy rate steady in the 5.25%-5.50% range where it has now been for a year, “participants noted that progress in reducing inflation had been slower this year than they had expected last December,” the minutes said, with “some participants” emphasizing the need for patience before cutting rates, and “several” citing the possible need to raise rates further if inflation resurged.Yet the minutes “lean dovish,” Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist at J.P. Morgan, wrote in a note, with the emphasis on the number of factors aligning to lower inflation. Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said the minutes reflected a central bank that was “undogmatic” in its view of the economy and seemingly poised to react fast to any coming turns in the data.The Fed “remains in no rush to start easing, but minds will change quickly if, as we expect, employment growth slows and inflation continues to moderate,” Shepherdson wrote, projecting the Fed will cut rates much faster than many expect, by a full 1.25 percentage points by the end of this year, if job growth declines as much as he anticipates.Investors broadly expect a quarter-percentage-point rate cut at the Fed’s Sept. 17-18 meeting and another one in December. POLICY IN TRANSITIONThe risk of a jobs slowdown also was noted in the minutes, as was the need for Fed officials to prepare the public and investors for a number of possible economic outcomes.Many Fed officials have begun speaking in terms of alternate “scenarios” to frame their policy views, and the minutes put that approach at the center of the discussion.”Participants emphasized the importance of conditioning future policy decisions on incoming data, the evolving outlook, and the balance of risks,” the minutes noted, and downplaying any sense that decisions were on a “preset path.”Among those possibilities, increasingly, is the risk that the job market might slow much faster than anticipated.”Several participants specifically emphasized that with the labor market normalizing, a further weakening of demand may not generate a larger unemployment response than in the recent past when lower demand for labor was felt relatively more through fewer job openings,” the minutes said, citing an argument that has been sketched out in detail by Fed Governor Christopher Waller.After higher-than-anticipated inflation early this year raised fears the Fed might again be a step behind in its battle against rising prices, the minutes seemed to confirm the transition towards looser monetary policy remains underway, but cautiously so.Data released on June 12 showed the CPI had not risen at all in May on a month-to-month basis, an encouraging development that came late in the Fed’s policy deliberations.Some market players had been surprised the more favorable data was not reflected more fully in the Fed forecasts released at last month’s meeting.The U.S. central bank will hold its next policy meeting on July 30-31, when it is expected to leave its benchmark interest rate unchanged.Policymakers by then will get an update on the labor market with the release on Friday of the employment report for June, the release of the CPI for June on July 11 and an initial estimate of second-quarter economic growth on July 25. More

The e-commerce giant initially launched the canine-like robot for household use in 2021. Astro for Business was launched last November for a range of customers including retail, manufacturing, health and wellness. “To accelerate our progress and ongoing research to make Astro the best in-home robot, we’ve made the decision to wind down support for Astro for Business,” an Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) spokesperson told Reuters in an emailed statement.The home robot was designed to take up tasks such as home monitoring, setting up routines and reminders and play music and TV shows while rolling around the house.The Astro for Business robot, priced at $2,349.99, was available exclusively in the U.S. and was introduced to help customers in monitoring their business round the clock.The Astro for Business robots will not be functional from Sept. 25, according to an email sent by the company to customers and seen by Reuters. Amazon has announced credit of $300, which can be used by affected customers to support a replacement solution for the workplace. Customers will also not be charged Astro Secure subscription fee starting Wednesday and would be refunded the unused pre-paid fees. More