Aurelia Butler

The layoffs could impact at least 100 journalists or about 20% of the newsroom in a move to address the paper’s financial pressures, the Los Angeles Times reported separately, citing people familiar with the matter.”The management needs to come to the bargaining table in good faith and work out a buyout plan with us that would first articulate a clear headcount or cost saving they’re aiming for,” the guild said in a statement, adding that the management should then try to hit that number with as few layoffs as possible. In an emailed response to Reuters, the guild said it was unaware of the number of job cuts. “Management has refused to say on the record what it is, which is part of why we’re walking out tomorrow.””We are disappointed in the Guild’s decision, but respect their right to strike,” the Los Angeles Times said in response to an email seeking comment. The job cuts come after the newspaper’s executive editor, Kevin Merida, stepped down from his role last week after more than two years. More

The downbeat forecast and commentary added to the gloom in the industry, which is bracing for a margin hit as deposit costs climb and borrowing slows in a high interest rate environment. Dallas-based Comerica expects average loans to dip between 1% and 2% in 2024. Its NII forecast was also slightly wider than Wall Street’s expectations of a near 10% drop, according to LSEG data. Comerica’s fourth-quarter profit fell 91% to $33 million, or 20 cents per share. The steep drop was primarily due to a special assessment fee that banks are required to pay to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp to replenish its deposit insurance fund, which was drained out during the recent banking crisis. The fee has weighed heavily on bank earnings this quarter.Comerica’s NII, however, hit a record high in 2023. (This story has been refiled to correct syntax in paragraph 1) More

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Wednesday’s UK inflation report came as a shock to economists, politicians and consumers who had anticipated the rate of price increases would continue to tick down.December’s inflation rate came in at 4 per cent, 10 basis points higher than the previous month, 20bp above expectations and double the Bank of England’s inflation target. The jump was caused largely by increases in alcohol and tobacco prices.The news tempered hopes that the BoE would cut interest rates in the near future. The market-implied likelihood of the first rate cut occurring in May fell to 55 per cent from 80 per cent.FT Money explores what the inflation reversal could mean for investments, mortgages and pensions.Will mortgage rates rise again? In recent weeks, mortgage providers such as Barclays, Santander, HSBC and Halifax cut rates in the wake of positive data about the UK economy, an increase in house sales and expectations that interest rates had peaked.While experts say that in the long term mortgages are still likely to come down, Wednesday’s inflation news will give pause to providers offering increasingly generous rates.“We had a lot of good news in recent months, helped by falls in inflation,” said David Hollingworth, associate director at broker L&C Mortgages. “This [reading] could potentially push the timeline for base rate cuts further away, and it underlines that it is not the case that fixed mortgage rates will keep coming down and down and down.”In response to Wednesday’s inflation announcement, so-called swap rates — which influence lenders’ pricing of their fixed-rate mortgages — rose by over 20 basis points for two-year and five-year deals.As of Friday, average two-year and five-year fixed mortgage rates were 5.61 per cent and 5.24 per cent respectively, according to finance website Moneyfacts, unchanged from the previous day.Ray Boulger, an analyst at broker John Charcol, said that since the inflation rate was “clearly going to have a negative influence”, mortgage hunters should take good deals while they are on the table.“For anyone buying and securing a mortgage: don’t expect the best rates to fall from where they are now,” he said. “There’s no harm in talking to a broker and securing a rate in the knowledge that if rates fall further you can try to switch.”Will inflation eat into my savings and investments?Cash had appeal in 2023 due to climbing interest rates, but savings rates have started to fall in anticipation of the BoE making cuts. Although Wednesday’s inflation reading runs against that trend, experts do not expect cash rates to reverse their decline.“I think that banks and building societies are going to sit still for a bit,” said Daniel Coatsworth, an investment analyst, at AJ Bell. “From the initial shock you might expect better [cash] rates but I don’t think it’s enough to warrant a radical shift.”The news may also be unwelcome for investors concerned about their equity portfolios. The FTSE 100 closed down 1.48 per cent on Wednesday, as questions about the pace of interest rate cuts swirled.“We definitely saw a reaction, particularly among highly leveraged firms,” said Hargreaves Lansdown’s head of personal finance Sarah Coles. “But after the initial reaction we would expect that to level out . . . markets hate surprises which is why we saw a bit of a fall, but we’re not expecting a dramatic reaction on an ongoing basis.”What will higher inflation mean for my pension?Although fluctuations in the stock market caused by the inflation readings will affect the value of pensions, experts warned that Wednesday’s rate should not be cause for panic.“Pensions are long term investments if you’re young, but even if you’re going into drawdown you could well be invested for another 10, 20 or 30 years,” said James Norton, a senior investment planner for Vanguard UK. “So we would urge people to not read too much into one month’s numbers.”However, if inflation were to continue climbing, the purchasing power of pensions would decrease. Clashes in the key shipping lane of the Red Sea could also cause product shortages and drive up prices.“When the stock market is not seeing smooth growth at the same time as higher inflation, you see people’s retirement position start to worsen,” said Coles.For pensioners with certain types of defined benefit schemes, inflation rates can affect the monthly payment. While many schemes increase in line with prices, some are capped at between 3 to 6 per cent, meaning that if inflation runs higher pensioners’ pockets will be hit. However schemes can issue discretionary payments to help their members weather harsh economic conditions. “Lots of trustees have been thinking about whether to give discretionary increases,” said David Brooks, head of policy at Broadstone, a pensions administration and consulting firm. “But although inflation has gone up, it’s trending downwards which might bring those conversations to an end.” More

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.CMA CGM, the world’s third-biggest container shipping group, said some of its vessels were continuing to go through the Suez Canal but warned of scheduling chaos and worried clients as attacks by Houthi rebels disrupt navigation in the Red Sea.Rodolphe Saadé, owner and chair of the Marseille-based company, said ships that could be accompanied by a French warship were still being sent through the canal, while the rest were being rerouted around southern Africa. “France is helping us a lot,” he told the Financial Times. The disruption hitting the maritime shipping industry is starting to trickle through supply chains and slowing up production lines, including those of car manufacturers such as Volvo, which has halted some production in Europe because of a shortage of parts. Attacks by Yemen’s Houthi militants on ships in the Red Sea have shrunk traffic on the route and forced many transporters to take the long detour around the Cape of Good Hope, adding two weeks to deliveries on key Asia-Europe routes. Some rival shipping groups including AP Møller-Maersk have suspended the Red Sea route linking Europe and Asia. Hapag-Lloyd, Germany’s biggest container line, said on Friday it was not looking at the possibility of using military escorts to return to the Red Sea route.Lasse Kristoffersen, chief executive of Wallenius Wilhelmsen, an Oslo-based company that is one of the world’s biggest operators of car-carrying ships, said he did not believe military protection would provide sufficient security to allow companies like his to return to the Red Sea route.“The principle is that we will not go back [until] we believe there’s a safe transit and we do not think that, with the current threat in Yemen, that any military protection will be sufficient,” Kristoffersen said. “For this situation to become safe, the threat situation needs to be substantially different.”However, CMA CGM said it was handling the matter on a case-by-case basis. It is holding daily meetings to chart the routes and plan. “Our schedules are in complete disarray and we’re not able to stick to our timings because sometimes we’re passing around Good Hope and sometimes we’re having to wait to pass” the Red Sea, Saadé said.He acknowledged some clients were fretting, adding: “I understand them, we’re worried too. But what we’re trying to do is to reassure them, saying it’s going to take so many days to arrive . . . so that they can organise their supply chains.”Disruption is expected to spread even as the US and allies including the UK carry out strikes on targets linked to the Houthi groups. “There appears to be no solution for now. We’re bracing for this to last several months,” Saadé said. That projection is shared by Maersk, which has warned that the upheaval may cause a big hit to global growth. The shipping industry is heavily exposed to geopolitical ructions and swings in freight rates, which soared at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic when aeroplanes were grounded and ports jammed. Armed with billions in windfall profits from that period, CMA CGM has accelerated its diversification strategy in the less volatile logistics business via multiple acquisitions.Its latest came on Friday via its CEVA Logistics unit, which has agreed to buy Wincanton in a deal that values the British delivery and warehousing company at £765mn. The company, also focused on Ireland, has clients including Ikea and Asda. Wincanton’s board has recommended shareholders accept the offer, which marks a 52 per cent premium to the last closing price.The deal has been backed by roughly 7 per cent of investors in letters of intent so far, according to a London Stock Exchange filing. CMA CGM was advised by Morgan Stanley on the deal, and Wincanton by HSBC.Logistics accounted for roughly 45 per cent of CMA CGM’s revenues, Saadé said, although the group is yet to close its €5bn acquisition of the logistics business of French billionaire Vincent Bolloré. CMA CGM had annual sales of €74.5bn in 2022, although shipping rates came off their highs last year and revenues in recent quarters have dropped. It has yet to publish full results for 2023. The pivot towards logistics, a segment that is less profitable but operates with more reliable contracts with fixed prices, is aimed at bringing stability to the group. Shipping rates, meanwhile, are being pushed up again by turmoil in the Middle East. “The Red Sea crisis — even in the worst Hollywood movies we would never have imagined this,” Saadé said.Additional reporting by Robert Wright in London More

Investor sentiment also remained pressured as some major U.S. lenders, including Morgan Stanley, reported a drop in fourth-quarter earnings.U.S. investors sold a net $9.23 billion worth of equity funds during the week, following a $11.5 billion worth of net disposal in the previous week, LSEG data showed.By segment, U.S. multi-cap funds led outflows as investors withdrew a net $4.26 billion out of these funds. Large-, mid-, and small-cap funds also suffered $1.84 billion, $1.63 billion and $418 million worth of net selling, respectively.Among sector funds, investors sold consumer discretionary, consumer staples, and healthcare funds of $280 million, $232 million, and $153 million, respectively. The tech sector, however, received about $371 million worth of inflows.Meanwhile, U.S. bond funds remained in demand for a fourth successive week as investors poured in a net $6.56 million into the funds.U.S. general domestic taxable fixed income funds received about $3.28 billion during the week after around $5.22 billion worth of net purchases in the previous week. Investors also purchased high yield, and municipal debt funds of about $1.08 billion and $897 million, respectively.U.S. money market funds, meanwhile, witnessed $22.83 billion worth of net selling, the first weekly outflow in four weeks. More

LONDON (Reuters) -A global rally in chipmakers was set to spill over into Wall Street on Friday, raising investor spirits as markets rein back bets that interest rates will start to fall in just a matter of weeks.U.S. stock index futures were firmer, with the S&P 500 index near a record high. [.N] No major U.S. economic data is due before the opening bell.Oil prices were headed for a weekly gain on the back of Middle East tensions and oil output disruptions in the United States.The dollar was also on track to rise for a second straight weeks as pushback from central bankers caused traders to dial down expectations of swift and sharp falls in borrowing costs, leaving gold facing its worst week in six.Markets hope for more clues on the timing of any easing in borrowing costs when European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde speaks at the World Economic Forum gathering in Davos.Euro zone bond yields inched off one-month highs as focus shifts to next week’s ECB meeting.”We don’t expect this meeting to be a turning point for euro zone rates or for the euro,” ING bank analysts said in a note to clients.The MSCI All Country stock index was up 0.25% as a rally in semiconductor stocks, triggered by Taiwan’s TSMC predicting strong growth, helped push the S&P 500 index on Wall Street to end near a record high on Thursday.The MSCI index, however, is down 1.4% this month after a near 20% jump in 2023.Markets are pricing in a 57% chance of a U.S. rate cut in March, down from 75% a week ago.Mike Hewson, chief market strategist at CMC Markets (LON:CMCX), said it was wishful thinking for markets to expect the Fed to start cutting rates in March, barring any massive escalation of events in the Middle East or other big economic event.”We are still range trading, and I think that is going to continue, albeit in a fairly choppy manner until we get some sort of clarity as to whether we can pin down the timing of the first rate cut,” Hewson added.In Europe, the STOXX index of 600 companies was slightly firmer, and down 1.8% down for the month.Patrick Spencer, RW Baird vice chair of equities, said the deflationary trend was continuing thanks to China, helping to bolster the case for rate cuts, with the corporate earnings season now underway also helping sentiment.”The earnings numbers, as always, will be slightly better than expected, and I think that’s going to most probably rescue the market and you won’t see a dramatic downturn,” Spencer said. THE CHIPS ARE UPAsian shares bounced on Friday, buoyed by a rally in global chipmakers, while the yen was set to end the week with heavy losses.In Asia, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 1.2% on Friday, but was still down 2.7% for the week.TSMC surged 6.5% after the chipmaking giant projected 2024 revenue growth of more than 20%. Its U.S. shares soared nearly 10% overnight, fuelling a broad tech rally on Wall Street. [.N] Japan’s Nikkei rose 1.4% to just a touch below a 34-year top hit on Wednesday. Data showed Japan’s core consumer inflation slowed for a second straight month in December, adding to speculation that the Bank of Japan is not in a rush to tighten its ultra loose monetary policy.The yen lost 0.08% to 148.030 per dollar, having fallen almost 2.5% for the week to the lowest level since early December. [FRX/]Chinese stocks slipped again after bouncing off five-year lows a day before on signs of state support. [.SS]The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of major currencies, was flat at 103.36, and has gained about 0.9% this week.Treasuries held mostly steady in Asia but are also set for heavy weekly losses. The 10-year yield eased slightly to 4.1360%, while the two-year yield edged up to 4.3569%.U.S. crude futures eased 0.1% to $73.98 per barrel and Brent futures were at $78.95.Spot gold was up 0.5% at $2,032 an ounce. More