Aurelia Butler

The union said the Detroit Casino Council (DCC), representing workers at the MGM Grand Detroit, Hollywood at Greektown and MotorCity casinos, said workers voted 99% “yes” on Friday to authorize a strike at all three locations if a new contract agreement isn’t reached.The DCC could call for strikes as soon as mid-October when contracts expire, it said in a statement.The Detroit Casino Council is made up of 5 unions representing casino employees, including UNITE HERE Local 24, UAW, Teamsters Local 1038, Operating Engineers Local 324, and the Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters.The announcement comes as labor unions take advantage of low unemployment to push for higher pay and better working conditions in their talks over new labor agreements.About 18,300 UAW members working at the Detroit Three automakers – Ford (NYSE:F), General Motors (NYSE:GM) and Chrysler parent Stellantis (NYSE:STLA), are already on strike. That has led to the shutdown of one assembly plant at each of the three carmakers and 38 parts distribution centers at GM and Stellantis. More

TOKYO (Reuters) – Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda said considerations over the central bank’s finances would not prevent it from phasing out its massive monetary stimulus when the appropriate time comes.While Ueda said there was “still a distance to go” before the BOJ exits ultra-loose monetary policy, his remarks come at a time when markets are rife with speculation he will dismantle his predecessor Haruhiko Kuroda’s radical stimulus programme.Speaking at an academic seminar on Saturday, Ueda said the BOJ’s profits will be squeezed when it raises interest rates because doing so would increase interest rate payments it makes to financial institutions’ reserves parked at the central bank.But it is also likely to earn higher interest income as its current government bond holdings are replaced by higher-yielding bonds, he said, adding it was hard to accurately predict to what extent a future exit could affect the BOJ’s finances.”The objective of the Bank’s monetary policy is achieving price stability, which is its mission as stipulated by law. Considerations of the Bank’s finances, etc. do not prevent it from implementing necessary policies,” Ueda said in a speech at an annual meeting of the Japan Society of Monetary Economics.”A central bank’s ability to conduct monetary policy is not impaired by a temporary decrease in its profits and capital, provided that it conducts appropriate monetary policy,” he said.Under a policy called yield curve control (YCC), the BOJ guides short-term interest rates at -0.1% and caps the 10-year government bond yield around 0% to reflate growth and push up inflation sustainably around its 2% target. It also maintains a massive asset-buying programme deployed in 2013.Some academics have warned the BOJ’s huge balance sheet will make an exit from ultra-loose policy difficult by exposing it to massive losses that could put its credibility on the line.While inflation has exceeded 2% for more than a year, Ueda has said the BOJ must keep monetary policy ultra-loose until the recent cost-driven inflation turns into price rises driven by solid domestic demand and higher wages.But he has also said the BOJ will consider an exit when sustained, stable achievement of its price target is in sight. More

LONDON (Reuters) -BP’s top executive in the United States, Dave Lawler, is leaving the company, the energy company said on Friday in a memo to employees, less than three weeks after the company’s chief executive, Bernard Looney, resigned.Lawler’s departure piles pressure on BP (NYSE:BP)’s chairman, Helge Lund, and its board as they seek to project stability in the wake of Looney’s abrupt resignation after less than four years in the top job for failing to fully disclose details of past personal relationships with colleagues.The United States is the largest single country for BP’s operations. It includes oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico and onshore shale basins, and several refineries, as well as large investments in offshore wind, biogas and retail. Lawler, 55, joined BP in 2014 and has led its shale business, known as BPX Energy, since. He is the younger brother of Doug Lawler, chief executive of Continental Resources (NYSE:CLR), another large U.S. shale oil and gas producer. Lawler did not immediately reply to a request for comment. He oversaw BP’s $10.5 billion acquisition of BHP’s onshore shale assets, which turned it into one of the top producers in the Permian oil basin. BPX operations in Texas and Louisiana last year produced an average of 325,000 barrels of oil and gas per day. Lawler, chairman and president of BP America, is leaving “to pursue new career opportunities,” the memo seen by Reuters said. The FT was first to report the news.Orlando Alvarez will replace Lawler as head of BP America. Alvarez, who joined the company in 1996, will continue in his role as senior vice president gas and power trading, Americas. Kyle Koontz will take over as chief executive officer for BPX Energy, the memo said. More

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Hardline Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday rejected a bill proposed by their leader to temporarily fund the government, making it all but certain that federal agencies will partially shut down beginning on Sunday.In a 232-198 vote, the House defeated a measure that would extend government funding by 30 days and avert a shutdown. That bill would have slashed spending and restricted immigration, Republican priorities that had little chance of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate.The defeat left Republicans – who control the chamber by 221-212 – without a clear strategy to avert a shutdown that would close national parks, disrupt pay for up to 4 million federal workers and hobble everything from financial oversight to scientific research if funding is not extended past 12:01 a.m. ET (0401 GMT) on Sunday. After the vote, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said the chamber might still pass a funding extension without the conservative policies that had alienated Democrats. But he declined to say what would happen next. The chamber is expected to hold more votes on Saturday.”It’s only a failure if you quit,” he told reporters. It was not clear whether the Senate would act in time, either. The chamber was due on Saturday afternoon to take up a bipartisan bill that would fund the government through Nov. 17, but procedural hurdles could delay a final vote until Tuesday.U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Friday that a government shutdown would “undermine” U.S. economic progress by idling programs for small businesses and children and could delay major infrastructure improvements.The shutdown would be the fourth in a decade and just four months after a similar standoff brought the federal government within days of defaulting on its $31 trillion debt. The repeated brinkmanship has raised worries on Wall Street, where the Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) ratings agency has warned it could damage U.S. creditworthiness.HEAVY TOLL ON MILITARY, SAYS BIDENBiden warned that a shutdown could take a heavy toll on the armed forces. “We can’t be playing politics while our troops stand in the breach. It’s an absolute dereliction of duty,” Biden, a Democrat, said at a retirement ceremony for Mark Milley, a senior general.McCarthy had hoped the Republican spending bill’s border provisions would have won over holdouts who so far have defied efforts to avert a shutdown. In the end, 21 hardline House Republicans sided with Democrats to defeat the measure.”There are members who don’t care whether the government stays open or it shuts down,” said Republican Representative Kat Cammack told reporters. “The ones that I believe are OK with a shutdown have never been through a shutdown.”Holdouts say Congress should focus on writing detailed spending bills that would cover the entire fiscal year, rather than temporary extensions, even if doing so prompts a shutdown. The House has passed four full-year bills so far, though they stand no chance of winning Senate approval.”What does work is rolling up our sleeves and getting onto these single subject bills and moving them,” Representative Matt Gaetz said on a podcast after voting against the stopgap bill on Friday.Other Republicans said they would probably have to work with Democrats to pass a stopgap bill that could win approval in the Senate and from Biden. “Some people are missing the obvious,” said Republican Representative Don Bacon.McCarthy said he was considering that approach but would not accept additional aid to Ukraine that Biden has requested and lawmakers in the Senate are including in their stopgap bill.Former President Donald Trump, Biden’s likely election opponent in 2024, criticized Senate Republicans for working with Democrats. Gaetz and a handful of other hardliners have threatened to oust McCarthy from his leadership role if he relies on Democratic votes.”We’re in the middle of a Republican civil war that has been going on for months, and now threatens a catastrophic government shutdown,” top House Democrat Hakeem Jeffries told reporters.McCarthy and Biden in June agreed to a deal that would have set agency spending at $1.59 trillion in fiscal 2024, but hardliners like Gaetz say that figure should be $120 billion lower. Lawmakers are not considering cuts to popular benefit programs such as Social Security and Medicare that make up a larger portion of the government’s $6.4 trillion budget. More

A shutdown could also dent the United States’ reputation at a moment when the Biden administration is trying to persuade many countries to side with it rather than its rival, China, and unite behind Ukraine as it battles Russia.Here is a guide to some of the effects:STATE DEPARTMENTU.S. embassies and consulates will remain open and passport and visa processing will continue as long as there are sufficient funds to cover operations. Nonessential official travel, speeches and other events would be curtailed.Some foreign aid programs could also run out of money or have trouble performing their missions. A Department of State spokesperson said that, with limited staff available to implement and monitor programs, there could be delays in responding to crises, providing health assistance for programs focused on malaria, tuberculosis or HIV-AIDs, or delivering security assistance.”Our work would clearly be affected by this,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. “It would make it harder to do everything that we do to try to advance national security.”And, while the State Department has said it will use available funds to pay locally employed staff as long as possible, most local staff at overseas missions are subject to local laws that preclude furloughs – being ordered not to work – and unpaid work. This could leave the department vulnerable to lawsuits.THE MILITARYThe country’s 2 million military personnel would remain at their posts, and roughly half of the Pentagon’s 800,000 civilian employees would be furloughed, with others on the job but not paid.Contracts awarded before the shutdown would continue, and the Pentagon could place new orders for supplies or services needed to protect national security. Other new contracts, including renewals or extensions, would not be awarded. Payments to defense contractors such as Boeing (NYSE:BA), Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) and RTX, formerly known as Raytheon (NYSE:RTN), could be delayed.The authority to draw from U.S. arms supplies for Ukraine remains intact, but some deliveries of defense articles could be slowed or paused, with many workers furloughed.The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration would continue maintaining nuclear weapons.SPY AGENCIESThe Central Intelligence Agencies and other intelligence agencies have not publicly shared their plans for a shutdown. But in the past, staff involved in operations, analysis and cyber activities have been deemed critical to national security and ordered to keep working, possibly without pay.Nonessential employees would be sent home and noncritical travel would be canceled or postponed. More

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Surging bond yields are rattling U.S. stocks, and some investors worry the richly valued shares of giant technology and growth companies may be another weak spot. Seven megacap stocks — Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) and Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) — have led broader markets higher this year. As of Tuesday, these stocks accounted for more than 80% of the S&P 500’s total return for 2023. Investors see many of the stocks as major beneficiaries of advances in artificial intelligence. Earlier this year, megacaps’ strong balance sheets and business models also attracted those looking for a safe haven when regional banking turmoil shook the financial system.Their rising stock prices ballooned valuations, however, and some investors say the megacaps could be vulnerable if climbing bond yields keep pressuring stocks. The so-called Magnificent Seven stocks trade at an average price-to-earnings ratio of 31.8 based on earnings estimates for the next 12 months, according to LSEG Datastream. That far surpasses the S&P 500’s ratio of 18.1. With a collective weighting of 27% in the S&P 500, weakness in the megacaps could further deflate the broader index, now down 6.6% from its July highs, investors said. Year-to-date, the S&P 500 is up over 11%.”When the big tech stocks start going down … the indexes go down,” said Matt Maley, chief market strategist at Miller Tabak. “Then people get nervous and sell their mutual funds or their ETFs, and … the whole thing snowballs.”The recent stock selloff has already dented some megacaps, with Apple — the largest company by market value — dropping about 13% since late July. High-flier Nvidia fell nearly 12% in September. Apple remains up 32% for the year, with Nvidia up nearly 200%. PRESSURE FROM YIELDSHigher yields on Treasuries – which are sensitive to rate expectations and seen as risk free – offer more investment competition to stocks while raising the cost of borrowing for corporations and households. The yield on the U.S. benchmark 10-year Treasury stands near its highest level in around 16 years on worries that the Federal Reserve will leave rates around current levels longer than previously expected. Shares of tech and growth companies, which often have significant expected profit growth in the years ahead, tend to be hit particularly hard when yields rise because their future projected earnings are discounted more severely.“Because (the megacaps) are more highly valued, that just means that they are going to be more sensitive to changes in real interest rates,” said Matt Stucky, senior portfolio manager at Northwestern (NASDAQ:NWE) Mutual Wealth Management Co. Options markets show elevated concern among investors. Thirty-day implied volatility for the Nasdaq-100-tracking Invesco QQQ ETF – a measure of how much traders expect the shares to gyrate in the near term – recently climbed to 22, the highest since mid-April, according to options analytics service Trade Alert.Still, strategists point out that the rise in implied volatility for tech stocks is no more than for the broader market. That sense of complacency makes tech stocks vulnerable to increased volatility should market declines accelerate from here, said Chris Murphy, Susquehanna Financial Group co-head of derivative strategy.To be sure, some megacap stocks have held up relatively well in the S&P 500’s latest slide, including Alphabet, whose shares are down only slightly since late July.The Nasdaq 100, a proxy for a broader swath of big tech and growth stocks, has fallen roughly in line with the S&P 500 since late July and remains up some 35% this year. It is down 7% from its highs.Investors also see other risks for megacap stocks. A U.S. antitrust lawsuit filed this week against Amazon created a “new line of worry in the megacap space,” said Rick Meckler, partner at Cherry Lane Investments in New Jersey.And while optimism about increased use of AI applications has helped tech stocks this year, there is some question about the ultimate boost to profits, said J. Bryant Evans, portfolio manager at Cozad Asset Management.”The whole promise of AI hasn’t… reached fruition yet,” Evans said. More