Aurelia Butler

However, the company’s revenue of $3.65 billion fell short of the consensus estimate of $4.16 billion. XEL stock was up 0.49% in premarket trading.The reported adjusted EPS of $0.88 for the first quarter represents an increase from the $0.76 reported in the first quarter of the previous year. This improvement in EPS is attributed to the increased recovery of infrastructure investments and reduced operations and maintenance (O&M) expenses, though these were partially offset by higher interest charges and depreciation.Bob Frenzel, chairman, president, and CEO of Xcel Energy, commented on the company’s commitment to the communities affected by the Texas Panhandle wildfires and outlined the company’s ongoing efforts in wildfire mitigation and system resiliency. He emphasized the implementation of preventive power shutoffs during high-risk conditions and accelerated inspections and replacements of poles as part of their wildfire risk reduction initiatives.For the future, Xcel Energy reaffirmed its 2024 EPS guidance, projecting a range of $3.50 to $3.60 per share. This guidance is consistent with the company’s long-term objectives, which include delivering annual EPS growth of 5% to 7% based on the 2023 ongoing earnings base of $3.35 per share, along with annual dividend increases in the same range.Despite the positive EPS outcome, the company’s revenue saw a decline compared to the same quarter last year, when it reported $4.08 billion. This year-over-year decrease in revenue is primarily due to lower natural gas revenues, which declined by $347 million, reflecting the recovery of lower costs of natural gas and the impact of milder weather conditions.This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C. More

The global credit and information management company’s earnings per share (EPS) of $0.92 also exceeded the analyst estimate of $0.81. This performance represents a 9% increase in revenue compared to the same quarter last year, primarily driven by growth in the U.S. mortgage sector and expansion in international markets and emerging verticals.Chris Cartwright, President and CEO of TransUnion, attributed the company’s robust results to growth in U.S. markets, particularly in mortgage and emerging verticals like Insurance and Media. He also highlighted the double-digit growth in international markets, led by strong performances in India, Canada, and the Asia Pacific region.Cartwright said, “TransUnion exceeded first-quarter financial guidance, delivering the first $1 billion revenue quarter in our history. We made important progress in our transformation program, adding significant headcount to further build out our Global Capability Center network and consolidating key applications onto our OneTru platform.”Looking ahead, TransUnion is raising its financial guidance for 2024, now expecting to achieve a revenue growth of 5 to 6.5% for the year. The company’s guidance for the second quarter of 2024 projects EPS to be between $0.95 and $0.98, above the consensus estimate of $0.90.Revenue for the upcoming quarter is forecasted to be between $1.017 billion and $1.026 billion, also surpassing the consensus estimate of $1.01 billion.The company’s confidence in its financial outlook is bolstered by the significant milestones achieved in its transformation program, which includes the expansion of its Global Capability Centers and the migration of key applications to the OneTru platform.These strategic moves are expected to contribute to the company’s savings commitments and accelerate the pace and scope of innovation.Cartwright further commented on the company’s strategic direction, “These actions add to our confidence in delivering against our savings commitments while increasing the pace and breadth of our innovation. We remain focused on driving strong results in a low-growth market environment, with no assumed in-year benefits from interest rate cuts.”TransUnion’s financial report and optimistic guidance reflect its successful execution of strategic initiatives and its ability to thrive in a challenging market. The company continues to focus on driving growth and delivering value to its stakeholders.This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C. More

(Reuters) – The Federal Reserve’s latest financial stability report was good news for anyone worried that a record run of interest rate hikes might overstress the banking system or trigger a recession with companies and households pushed into default through a broad credit crackdown.None of that is happening.Instead, the Fed is wrestling with an economy that has sloughed off tight monetary policy to such a degree that U.S. central bank officials are without a clear view of what to expect and divided over issues like productivity, the economy’s underlying potential, and even whether the current policy interest rate is as restrictive as imagined when they called off further hikes. Rate cuts that seemed certain to begin early in 2024 now seem on hold until at least September, with a risk of sliding even later in the year or into 2025 as inflation remains sticky. A wave of tight credit seems to have come and gone – bank lending is growing, corporate credit spreads are narrow, and household balance sheets are largely healthy – with the economy still growing at above its potential and adding jobs. A recently updated Fed index of overall financial conditions showed there was virtually no impact on economic growth right now from the central bank’s monetary policy or the broader credit conditions it is intended to influence.Contrary to Fed officials assessment that policy is restrictive, current credit conditions in the economy are “consistent with above-trend growth. That tells me that the transmission of monetary policy to the real economy in the U.S. has been much less effective” than elsewhere, said Joe Kalish, chief global macro strategist at Ned Davis Research. Fed officials themselves are unsettled on whether they still need the economy to slow for inflation to fall, or whether the “immaculate” influence of productivity and other factors will do the job, an important issue since one view leans towards tighter policy and the other towards easing. The release of key inflation data on Friday is expected to show the Fed’s preferred measure of price pressures remained well above the central bank’s 2% target, a possible sign that progress has stalled.It is a situation that may have left the Fed professing data-dependence but running largely on intuition and instinct in deciding whether the U.S. has found a new equilibrium of higher growth and lower unemployment, or needs more pressure from the central bank to be sure inflation eases.With doubt about the role of wages in driving inflation, whether more demand needs to be squeezed from the economy, and controversy over the level of interest rates that might do the job if so, “there is no clear inflation framework and no clear set of parameters to assess the stance of policy,” said Ed Al-Hussainy, a senior analyst with the global rates and currency team at Columbia Threadneedle Investments. “The ‘policy-is-restrictive’ judgment has to come from somewhere … They’ve really struggled to articulate it.”NOT AS TIGHT AS THOUGHTThe intellectual shocks have been deep in recent years, from a surprise boost in immigration that bolstered U.S. labor supply to the partial unwinding of globalization and a reallocation of consumer spending towards services. Unlike past tight policy eras the housing market won’t buckle and has been driving inflation of late. There is rekindled concern about the influence of massive federal deficits on financial markets, and open questions about productivity and the “neutral” rate of interest used to guide whether policy is tight or not.Gross domestic product figures due to be released on Thursday are expected to show the economy expanded at a 2.4% annual rate through the first three months of the year, according to a Reuters poll of economists, marking yet another quarter in which GDP has grown faster than the 1.8% rate Fed officials set nearly eight years ago as their median estimate of the economy’s non-inflationary growth potential.The U.S. has fallen short of that mark in only five of the 30 quarters since then, and two of those were associated with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The puzzle: Whether economic potential is higher than thought, with ongoing strong growth possible without high inflation, or whether growth in recent years has been buoyed by a series of “temporary” jolts – from tax cuts during the Trump administration, for example, or federal transfers and infrastructure spending under President Joe Biden – that could mean faster price increases and higher rates of interest.Joseph H. Davis, global chief economist at Vanguard, said in a recent study that federal debt and an aging population had driven the neutral rate of interest higher by perhaps a percentage point, meaning Fed policy isn’t as tight as thought. That would help explain the ongoing growth, but also make it harder to lower inflation.”When you zoom out, the evidence is building that the Federal Reserve is not as restrictive as they think,” said Davis, who at this point expects the central bank won’t cut rates at all this year. “You can infer by financial conditions, the labor market, inflation – you look at all three and the neutral rate is higher … If someone had been asleep for 10 years, you’d wonder why there was strong conviction in an easing cycle” given how the economy is performing.Fed officials at this point say they are content to wait and see whether the 5.25%-5.50% range set in July coaxes inflation back to the 2% target, and are not contemplating further hikes in the policy rate. With the rate again likely to be held steady at the Fed’s policy meeting next week, observers will look for some clue in either the last Fed statement or in Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s press conference about where things are heading.Powell may be the first to admit he isn’t sure.”At some point they sort of threw up their hands and they sort of abandoned the idea that they were going to be able to predict” the path of inflation and the economy given how much is in flux, said Luke Tilley, chief economist at Wilmington Trust. “They said there would have to be pain … Then they said jobs are good and growth is good, we just want good inflation numbers,” Tilley said. “They are having a very hard time understanding it.” More

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. proposal for using future interest on some $300 billion in frozen Russian assets to aid Ukraine, instead of seizing them outright, is gaining momentum among the Group of Seven nations, two G7 officials said. Collateralizing the interest earned on the frozen Russian assets, which would amount to some $5 billion a year, is emerging as one of the favored options to bridge differences between the U.S. and Europe ahead of a G7 leaders summit in Italy in June.But G7 members are still arguing about certain “holdbacks” that would whittle down those expected windfall profits to just $2.5-$3.0 billion, one of the officials said, pointing to Belgium’s 25% tax rate, a “convenience fee” applied by depository Euroclear, and a proposed litigation reserve.G7 finance ministers will revisit the issue at a meeting in late May, with an eye to arriving at a consensus proposal to present to leaders for the June summit, the officials said.”We feel a sense of urgency to build international consensus,” the official said. “Everyone acknowledges that we need to do more.”A second G7 official echoed that view, underscoring the need to ensure a longer-term stream of funding for Ukraine.A senior U.S. official said congressional approval of some $61 billion in long-delayed U.S. aid for Ukraine and a separate 50 billion euro package from the European Union would help Kyiv, but it still faced financing gaps in 2025 and 2026. CONSENSUSWashington continues to insist that all options – including outright seizure of Russian assets – are justified under international law and should remain on the table, but it is eager to build consensus around an idea that could help Ukraine now, the official said.Proceeding with a loan, instead of a bond, made sense since it wouldn’t require formal issuance with a prospectus and would allow sovereign countries to act quickly, the U.S. official added. It would also allow G7 countries to provide additional support to Ukraine at relatively low cost.The G7 comprises the United States, Canada, Japan, Britain, France, Germany and Italy.Washington’s shift towards focusing on interest from the assets comes after its push to confiscate the assets ran into massive resistance from France, Germany and the European Central Bank, who worry that the euro could be affected if other countries such as China start repatriating their reserves as a precaution against their possible confiscation in the future.”One big advantage of the loan idea from the European perspective is that it’s entirely focused on the windfall proceeds,” the first G7 official said. “You’re just taking the proceeds that Europe has already determined are not owned by Russia, and you’re bringing them forward. Not only is there no direct seizure, but there’s also no threat of seizure.” Brad Setser, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said Washington was clearly looking for a deal, and the proposal to bring forward the anticipated interest income could provide a good basis for an agreement in June.”It’s a very reasonable approach and has limited legal risks,” he said, noting that G7 countries had pledged to keep the Russian assets frozen until Moscow pulled its forces out of Ukraine and paid for the damages caused by the invasion.”There’s no evidence that Russia is leaving, so that means the income stream will be available for a long period of time.” More

TOKYO (Reuters) – As the yen plumbs three-decade lows and pressure grows on Japan to intervene or make monetary policy changes, traders figure there is not much Tokyo can do to reverse the currency’s slide while interest rates and momentum are heavily skewed against it.The Bank of Japan (BOJ) sets policy on Friday with almost no expectation of a rate rise.It has no currency mandate but a weakened yen, which is at a 34-year trough on the dollar and record low levels in real terms, affects inflation because it raises import prices.Politicians have been describing its slide as excessive and BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda has hinted at future rate hikes.Yet traders in foreign exchange markets, in thrall to a rising dollar, have barely stopped selling the yen through some 16 months of important and theoretically yen-positive shifts culminating in the BOJ’s first rate hike in 17 years in March.Japan has sloughed off yield caps and negative interest rates. The central bank has flagged a retreat from the bond market. And still the yen has remained the cheapest major currency to borrow and short-sell – all but sealing its fate. “In the short-term, BOJ hiking policy rates might not make material difference to the yen. The yen is currently driven more by U.S rates and the yield differential which is significant,” said Nathan Swami, Asia-Pacific head of foreign exchange trading at Citi in Singapore.”It might take a while for the BOJ to normalise policy fully and that should start to help strengthen the yen but the key question is what the Fed does in the meantime.”Increasingly, and to the delight of yen bears, markets expect the Fed will not do much. Pricing for as many as six Federal Reserve interest rate cuts this year has unwound on signs of sticky U.S. inflation and economic strength. Barely two are now anticipated.That leaves short-term U.S. rates above 5.25% for longer, while short-term Japanese rates sit at 0.1%, meaning the 22 bp increase priced in for Japan this year hardly moves the dial.At the ten-year tenor, U.S. yields are 375 basis points higher than Japanese yields, with the gap not far from over 400 bps touched last year – the widest in two decades.The yen traded as low as 155.74 this week. It is down 9.4% on the dollar this year and has lost more than 33% of its value in three years. This year the U.S. dollar index is up 4.3%.”When the dust settles, you’re still looking at a significant interest-rate differential,” said Bart Wakabayashi, branch manager at State Street (NYSE:STT) in Tokyo.JOB DONEMarket focus at the BOJ meeting falls mostly on three elements: policymakers’ inflation forecasts – where a rise would imply higher rates – governor Ueda’s tone at his news conference, and the central bank’s plans for bond buying.On all fronts investors see the central bank’s ability to move or surprise markets as limited, particularly as it already made a landmark exit from negative rates at its meeting in March.Inflation is nascent and, at 2.7%, is far lower than in the West. Sharp (OTC:SHCAY) rises in borrowing rates would be disruptive for Japan’s heavily indebted government and economy and so are likely to be avoided.Government bonds offer yields far below foreign sovereigns, which draw a constant flow of Japanese money abroad, weighing on the yen. The market is also so dominated by the BOJ, which owns more than half Japan’s quadrillion or so yen of debt on issue, that an unwinding is expected to take years, at least.Even if the BOJ were to cut its 6 trillion yen a month purchases by around one trillion yen, it would only lift the 10-year yield about two basis points, said Nomura strategist Naka Matsuzawa – hardly enough to shift investment flows.”Basically, I think the BOJ has done its job in (the) March meeting, including supporting the yen,” he said.To be sure, the speculators in the currency market hold their largest short yen position for 17 years, meaning a policy surprise would likely spook them and drive the yen up sharply.Intervention would also clear out shorts, but on its own is seen as unlikely to be able to reverse the yen’s course. Even large bursts of yen buying is just a drop in the bucket compared to the $7.5 trillion that change hands daily in the foreign exchange market. Japan is estimated to have spent as much as $60 billion defending the currency in 2022.”Intervention would definitely help dislodge speculative positioning in the short term,” said Citi’s Nathan Swami.”However, it might not fundamentally change the path of the currency…as we saw in the last rounds of interventions in September and October 2022, the yen did strengthen significantly initially post-intervention but might have provided longer term yen bears better entry levels to re-enter.”($1 = 155.4600 yen) More

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Investors are increasing their bets that the Bank of Japan will need to keep raising borrowing costs as a weaker yen fuels inflation and puts pressure on the central bank to tighten its policy to prop up the currency.The BoJ’s calculus has been complicated by the shifting tone in the US, where Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell has signalled that interest rates may need to stay high to tame inflation. Traders have built up bets that the Fed could even tighten policy again.That has pushed the yen to 34-year lows against the dollar, sparking an unusually blunt warning from BoJ governor Kazuo Ueda that the central bank could act if the weaker yen impact became “too big to ignore”. The yen slid 0.28 per cent on Thursday to ¥155.62 a dollar.It comes only a month after Ueda started to unwind years of unorthodox BoJ policy with an exit from negative interest rates. Further increases in borrowing costs would be gradual to avoid sending shockwaves to global markets, Ueda indicated at the time.But the yen’s depreciation is stoking inflation by pushing up prices of imported goods. Core inflation, which excludes volatile food prices, rose 2.6 per cent from a year earlier in March. If inflation continues to stay above the BoJ’s 2 per cent target, Ueda may need to keep raising rates at a faster pace than he would want, analysts said, a scenario Japanese officials want to avoid since it could trigger a spike in government bond yields and abrupt shifts in investment flows.Two-year forwards on the overnight index swap rate — a benchmark of monetary policy expectations — show that investors now anticipate the BoJ’s policy rate to rise above 0.6 per cent from near zero following the shift in Fed expectations.You are seeing a snapshot of an interactive graphic. This is most likely due to being offline or JavaScript being disabled in your browser.Many Japanese investors expected the BoJ’s policy rate would not rise above 0.5 per cent despite an end to negative rates. The rate has not been past that level since Japan’s 1998 financial crisis, according to Naka Matsuzawa, Japan macro strategist at Nomura.Initially following the March meeting, investors had forecast the BoJ’s next rate rise would be in September, but markets now expect the change in July, implying that the BoJ could raise borrowing costs twice more this year.“If markets start pricing in two rate hikes a year, that’s already a relatively fast pace and if expectations go over that, that means [inflation] is getting out of BoJ’s control,” Matsuzawa, said, adding that two rate rises would be akin to four by the Fed given Japan’s low underlying real interest rate.Kazuo Momma, executive economist at Mizuho Research Institute and a former head of monetary policy at the BoJ, said Ueda could end up in the same situation as Powell in 2020, when the Fed was forced into a rapid cycle of rate increases to tame inflation.“That’s the biggest risk the BoJ faces at the moment,” Momma said at a panel during an annual meeting of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association in Tokyo. “Interest rates are now at zero, but inflation at 2 per cent could become certain and concerns about an upside risk may arise.” You are seeing a snapshot of an interactive graphic. This is most likely due to being offline or JavaScript being disabled in your browser.The BoJ’s two-day policy meeting began on Thursday, and it is not expected to make a further increase in interest rates immediately.But analysts expect the BoJ to raise its core inflation outlook for fiscal 2025, and the focus will be on whether Ueda will strike a hawkish tone regarding future rate increases.Momma said the BoJ would also want to start to cut purchases of Japanese government bonds to normalise market activity, which could precede a rate increase.The weaker yen is a mixed blessing for Japan’s economy. It has boosted inbound tourism and fuelled a surge in corporate profits earned overseas. But a softer currency has raised living costs, hurt consumption and made it harder for smaller businesses to raise wages.You are seeing a snapshot of an interactive graphic. This is most likely due to being offline or JavaScript being disabled in your browser.For decades, the biggest challenge for the BoJ had been to achieve a mild increase in prices to ensure the economy did not sink back into deflation. But it wants price rises to be sustainable, driven by rising domestic wages and consumption, rather than the result of external pressures.“I think markets are underestimating the potential for the BoJ to do more. There’s compelling evidence that we have big structural change under way, particularly in the labour market,” said Derek Halpenny, head of research for global markets at Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group.Guiding currency levels is not part of the BoJ’s mandate, so central bankers historically have been reluctant to address weakness in the yen. But the currency decline has been mainly driven by the gap in interest rates between Japan and the US, and analysts said Ueda was more willing to co-ordinate closely with the government to address the issue. On Tuesday, finance minister Shunichi Suzuki issued his strongest verbal warning that “the groundwork has been laid” for Tokyo to take “appropriate action” in the currency market, pointing to a rare joint statement by the US, Japan and South Korea expressing “serious concerns” about the decline in the yen and won. “The BoJ will not raise interest rates just because of the weaker yen, but it could bring forward the timing of its rate hike,” said Takahide Kiuchi, executive economist at Nomura Research Institute and a former BoJ board member.“After the BoJ ended negative interest rates last month, it gained a new weapon to influence the currency markets through verbal intervention as well as an actual rate hike.” More

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.This article is an onsite version of our Europe Express newsletter. Premium subscribers can sign up here to get the newsletter delivered every weekday and Saturday morning. Standard subscribers can upgrade to Premium here, or explore all FT newslettersGood morning. Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has said he’s considering quitting in response to corruption allegations against his wife, and will announce whether to end his almost six-year-long premiership next Monday.Meanwhile, the Belgians have activated an EU crisis response mechanism over concerns about disinformation ahead of bloc-wide elections in June. Today, we report on how the Chinese company raided by the EU’s anti-subsidy watchdog has been earning . . . EU money. And our Paris bureau chief previews Emmanuel Macron’s big speech on the future of Europe this morning.Baggage handlersWhen EU investigators start going through documents from the raided offices of Chinese security equipment supplier Nuctech, they will find some familiar names in their business dealings: the bloc’s governments are some of its biggest clients.Context: Nuctech’s offices in Rotterdam and Warsaw were raided on Tuesday morning by EU investigators probing the company for breaching foreign subsidy rules. It is part of a slew of increasingly forceful trade measures being taken by Brussels against Beijing.The European Commission is accusing the company — which makes airport, freight and baggage scanners — of receiving unfair subsidies from Beijing that “distort” the market. But awkwardly, the commission has also signed off on spending EU funds to buy those products for use by national customs authorities.The company’s products are ubiquitous across Europe. From scanning the tens of millions of containers transiting the EU’s two biggest container ports — Rotterdam and Antwerp — to the luggage of passengers at Brussels’ Eurostar terminal. Some of those devices were put there thanks to EU funding, under the Customs Control Equipment Instrument, which has a budget of over €1bn to help member states update their equipment.Even before Tuesday’s raids, Nuctech had been triggering concerns. The US has since 2020 warned of “its involvement in activities contrary to the national security interests of the US” and “security risks posed by Nuctech equipment . . . given the company’s control by the PRC government”.European parliament lawmakers have also demanded action against the company, and condemned a 2022 decision to purchase Nuctech scanners by Strasbourg airport — the terminal many of them use to get to their monthly plenary sessions.“There is a reasonable ground to exclude companies like Nuctech because they are from a country with espionage programmes, which can compel all their businesses or citizens to comply with any request form their services,” said Bart Groothuis, a Dutch liberal MEP. “They will weaponise dependencies against us.”Nuctech has denied the allegations and said it “is committed to defending its reputation of a fully independent and self-supporting economic operator”.Chart du jour: Greek tragedyGreece’s strong economic recovery has made it one of the best performers in the eurozone. But that has come with brutal costs for its long-suffering population, writes Valentina Romei.Mr EuropeWhen French President Emmanuel Macron delivered a landmark speech on the future of Europe at the Sorbonne University back in 2017, he sketched out an audacious vision to turn the bloc into a more independent, sovereign power by 2024. Today, a more experienced, crisis-hardened Macron will take to the same stage for what his advisers are billing as Sorbonne II, writes Leila Abboud. Context: An ardent pro-European, Macron will argue for moving on from his earlier “agenda for sovereignty” — much of which France believes has been achieved — to an “agenda for European power”, following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the Covid-19 pandemic. Macron’s 2017 speech is like a time capsule of the early months of his first presidency, when he swept into power by demolishing old French political parties and seeking to disrupt consensus in both Paris and Brussels. “The Europe of today is too weak, too slow and too ineffective, but only Europe can give us a true ability to act to face the big global challenges,” he said then.He will doubtlessly be less harsh today, given that he is now partly responsible for the state of the EU. What has changed is that other countries, crucially Germany, have come around to some of his positions — although Macron’s grandstanding and off-the-cuff remarks still rankle in many capitals. “The EU has never been more French,” said Georgina Wright, an analyst at the Montaigne Institute in Paris. “To an extent he was ahead of the curve — the ideas of sovereignty and industrial policy are no longer taboo, and the bloc is doing more on security and defence than ever.” Macron’s advisers are promising Sorbonne II will be more than a victory lap, and include specific proposals for where the EU should go next. One thing is clear: Europe’s disrupter-in-chief already has his eye on his legacy with three years left in office, and he wants Europe to be a big part of it.What to watch today Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg visits Germany, meets defence minister Boris Pistorius.Latvian Prime Minister Evika Siliņa visits Sweden.Now read theseRecommended newsletters for you Britain after Brexit — Keep up to date with the latest developments as the UK economy adjusts to life outside the EU. Sign up hereChris Giles on Central Banks — Your essential guide to money, interest rates, inflation and what central banks are thinking. Sign up hereAre you enjoying Europe Express? Sign up here to have it delivered straight to your inbox every workday at 7am CET and on Saturdays at noon CET. Do tell us what you think, we love to hear from you: [email protected]. Keep up with the latest European stories @FT Europe More