Aurelia Butler

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Privately held SEKO Logistics said U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has conditionally reinstated its participation in two vital international trade programs, but still has not identified the violations that led to the suspensions.The Illinois-based customs broker, which is seeking unconditional reinstatements, said on Tuesday that CBP has yet to provide any evidence or examples of compliance issues to justify its actions. “The agency’s lack of a direct response in this matter has led to a clear and present danger to SEKO’s business, its reputation and its clients,” SEKO said in a statement.CBP could not be immediately reached for comment.The industry is monitoring the dispute since it is unusual for customs brokers to be targeted in CBP crackdowns.On Friday, the CBP announced that it had suspended multiple customs brokers from its “Entry Type 86″ expedited customs clearance program to prevent abuse of the tariff exemption for direct-to-consumer imports valued at under $800 per day.Chinese-founded Shein, PDD Group’s Temu and ByteDance’s TikTok Shop use the tariff exemption when they ship products directly from factories in China to U.S. shoppers in individually addressed packages.”We are incredibly disappointed by, and strongly disagree with, the original decision by CBP,” said SEKO CEO James Gagne, who added that the company maintained a “99.999+%” compliance rate in the expedited clearance program. CBP on Friday said the suspended brokers’ entries “posed unacceptable compliance risk” and that “bad actors” were exploiting the tariff exemption to send contraband, including materials used to make synthetic drugs like fentanyl, into the United States. The agency did not say whether shippers were undervaluing or misclassifying shipments.SEKO has also said that CBP suspended it from the agency’s Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (CTPAT) security program that many large shipping customers rely on. SEKO on Saturday filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of International Trade, seeking to stop the suspensions and win full reinstatements. SEKO also alleged that CBP failed to give the company adequate notice of the suspensions or an opportunity to address any unverified deficiencies identified the agency. More

BENGALURU (Reuters) – The dollar’s relentless strength in the recent past will make way for minor weakness over the next 12 months, according to FX strategists in a Reuters poll, who generally agreed the dollar was overvalued.Analysts have been predicting dollar weakness just around the corner for months. But the greenback has continued to extend its dominance against most major currencies, with the dollar index up 2.9% this year.Much of that resilience is down to interest rates staying higher for longer. At the beginning of the year, forecasters and financial markets had predicted the U.S. Federal Reserve would have cut rates at least once by now.With latest interest rates futures pricing showing the Fed would start easing policy in September, analysts in the May 31-June 4 poll of 75 forex strategists forecast the dollar to give up some its gains in coming months. Much hinges on how U.S. inflation – at 2.7% as measured by the Fed’s preferred gauge – progresses over the next couple of months.A separate Reuters poll showed inflation averaging above the Fed’s 2.0% target at least until late 2025, suggesting the risk was the dollar would remain strong for an extended period.”We think U.S. inflation could be picking up again by the middle of the year and the Fed easing cycle could be really very short, almost irrespective of when it does commence,” said Jane Foley, head of FX strategy at Rabobank.”That means even though the dollar will give back some ground, when the Fed starts to cut, the dollar is likely to remain relatively firm. It’s not going to give back an awful lot of this year’s gains and it’s going to remain overvalued.”While nearly all major currencies have faced the wrath of a strong dollar, the Japanese yen was the only currency to weaken against the greenback every year since 2021. The currency has shed over a third during that period.Median forecasts showed the yen rising nearly 8% from current levels to trade around 145.00/dollar in 12 months. The currency has lost around 10% for the year.Meanwhile the euro was forecast to change hands at $1.08 and $1.10 in six and 12 months, suggesting a gain of around 1% in a year from now.”We’re expecting the dollar to generally lose ground against other currencies…once the Fed starts to cut, the dollar should be vulnerable and should give up some of its strength,” said Brian Rose, senior economist at UBS Global Wealth Management. “We’re not looking for any kind of dollar collapse. We’re just talking about giving up a few percent against most major currencies.”(For other stories from the June Reuters foreign exchange poll:) (Analysis by Purujit Arun; Polling by Rahul Trivedi, Susobhan Sarkar and Sarupya Ganguly; Editing by Ross Finley, Alexandra Hudson (NYSE:HUD)) More

(Reuters) -A look at the day ahead in Asian markets.Investor sentiment is fragile as Asian markets reach the mid-point of the week, with bubbling angst and political volatility across the emerging world compounding deepening concern over U.S. and global economic growth. Indian assets, in particular, have been on a wild ride this week in response to the country’s general election result, a strong safety bid is driving the Japanese yen higher, and regional stocks are now down four out of the last five days.That’s the backdrop to a jam-packed economic calendar across the region, which includes: Australian first-quarter GDP, revised GDP data from South Korea, service sector purchasing managers index data from Australia, China and India, as well as inflation from Thailand and the Philippines.These indicators will go a long way to setting investors’ policy expectations for the region. Rate cut hopes are also likely to mount if the prospects for greater Fed easing continue to grow – almost 50 basis points of U.S. rate cuts this year are now being priced in, up from around 30 bps last week.The latest indicator to suggest the U.S. economy is cooling was the ‘JOLTS’ report that showed job openings fell more than expected in April, pushing the number of available jobs per job-seeker to its lowest in nearly three years. Wall Street ended mostly flat, despite Treasury yields falling for a fourth day. Equity bulls might argue that Wall Street has held up well in the face of renewed growth concerns, but riskier markets will need more than that. What does Wednesday have in store for Indian markets? Stocks surged 3.4% to new highs on Monday after exit polls suggested Prime Minister Narendra Modi would extend his majority, but tumbled 5.7% on Tuesday as it became clear he would actually lose it.Analysts at Barclays reckon market reverberations will be felt for a while yet, a premium will be put back into Indian bonds, and the central bank will maintain its presence in the FX market to limit volatility and weakness in the rupee.Volatility in the yen is also picking up, with short-term implied volatility in dollar/yen on Wednesday jumping the most in a month as the dollar tumbled below 155.00 yen. If there is a safe-haven bid in FX right now, it looks to be going to the yen, which has the potential support of the world’s largest repatriation flow. Japan is the world’s largest creditor with a net $3.36 trillion invested overseas, more than half of that in equity and debt portfolio assets. Even a sliver of that brought back home can lift the yen. Here are key developments that could provide more direction to markets on Wednesday:- Australia GDP (Q1)- Indian market volatility – China, India, Australia services PMIs (May) More

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Tuesday rejected suggestions by Republican senators that the Treasury is deliberately increasing issuance of short-term Treasury bills at higher interest rates to try to stimulate the economy ahead of the November presidential election.Yellen told a U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing that Treasury’s mix of debt issuance, despite a higher share of short-term bills since the COVID-19 pandemic, is in line with historical norms and with the advice of market participants in the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee.”First of all, let me say that we never time the market. A tenet of Treasury debt management is that issuance should be regular and predictable, and that’s appropriate over time,” Yellen said.Republican Senator John Kennedy and Bill Hagerty criticized Yellen for issuing debt at higher interest rates amid an inverted yield curve. Currently the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note is 4.33%, compared to 5.4% on the three-month Treasury bill.Kennedy accused Yellen of deliberately boosting short-term debt to spur growth during an election year, suggesting this was putting downward pressure on long-term rates.”You’re paying 5 percent to borrow money, when you could pay 4 percent to borrow money,” Kennedy said. “You’re working at cross purposes with (Federal Reserve Chair) Jay Powell. And the reason you’re doing this is to try to give the economy a sugar high five months before the election,” he said.Yellen replied: “There’s nothing about issuing short term debt that creates a sugar high for the economy.”She told the senator that market participants anticipate that short term rates will fall to substantially under 4.5%, so locking in debt for 10 years at current rates would likely result in higher long-term borrowing costs than the current path.”We have a policy that we want to hold the issuance of short term bills in line with the recommendations of the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee,” Yellen said, referring to the group of primary dealers that advises Treasury on debt issuance plans. More

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Apollo will acquire the stake in the Fab 34 facility in Leixlip, Ireland, the U.S. chipmaker’s first high-volume location for its Intel 4 manufacturing process using extreme ultraviolet lithography machines.The deal, expected to close in the second quarter, would allow Intel to redeploy parts of its investment in the project to other parts of its business, the company said. Intel has invested $18.4 billion in the facility till date.The company announced plans in 2022 to build chip factories in Ireland and France as it seeks to benefit from easier European Commission funding rules and subsidies as the bloc looks to cut its dependence on U.S. and Asian supply.Intel will retain full ownership and operational control of Fab 34 and its assets.”This transaction allows us to share our investment with an established financial partner on attractive terms,” Intel Chief Financial Officer David Zinsner said.Intel forecast second-quarter revenue and profit below market estimates in April as it faces weak demand for its traditional data center and personal computing chips, amid a surging market for AI components. More

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Viswas Raghavan joined Citigroup as its new head of banking this week in New York, the lender said on Tuesday, after it hired the former head of investment banking from JPMorgan earlier this year. Citi’s CEO Jane Fraser has expressed high hopes for Raghavan, who climbed JPMorgan’s ranks from capital markets, as she seeks to turn around the bank and revitalize its division catering to multinational corporations. In a Linkedin post on Tuesday, Fraser welcomed the new executive and shared a photo with him at Citi’s headquarters. “His decision to join Citi reflects our ability to attract the best talent,” she wrote. The CEO told shareholders in April she was delighted to welcome Raghavan and added, “we look forward to the added intensity he will no doubt bring.” Raghavan was described by two sources who worked with him as a demanding manager, with one noting his confident style. They declined to be identified discussing personnel matters. Citi declined to comment.Raghavan previously served as JPMorgan’s CEO in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, while also leading its investment and corporate banking and treasury services in the region. After joining JPMorgan in 2000, he held senior roles in debt and equity capital markets.The executive grew up in India and has bachelors degrees in physics from the University of Bombay and electronic engineering and computer science from Aston University. He is also a chartered accountant.Citi’s investment banking revenue in the first quarter was $903 million, half of the $2 billion JPMorgan reaped in the same period. The banking unit at Citi “can use a revamp,” Wells Fargo analyst Mike Mayo wrote in a note in February when Raghavan’s hire was announced. The executive “could be attracted to Citi given its large global footprint,” taking sole responsibility over a business line, and facing easier performance comparisons relative to the company’s history, Mayo wrote. The stock is his top pick.Citigroup has been the fifth or sixth largest global bank in investment banking revenue over the last five years, according to Dealogic rankings. Its share in global revenue has been 4.8% this year so far, up from 4.1% in 2023. The other large U.S. rivals have investment banking market share above 6%.Investors have rewarded Fraser with a 19% share price boost this year as she carried out a sweeping overhaul. The gains outpaced a 13% increase for an S&P 500 index of bank stocks in 2024. More