Aurelia Butler

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MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Mexico is doing everything it can to protect a regional trade agreement with the U.S. and Canada, the Latin American nation’s deputy economy minister said in an interview published on Friday.The three neighboring nations, and major partners in commerce, have entered a trade tussle after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump threatened to slap tariffs on the countries to the north and the south if they did not clamp down on drugs and migrants coming into the U.S.Mexico is working on both issues in order to “come to the table” to negotiate without obstacles, Luis Rosendo Gutierrez told outlet Inside U.S. Trade.Since Trump’s tariff threat, Mexico has launched an offense on contraband goods from Asia coming into the country, and officials seized a record amount of fentanyl. They have also detained thousands of migrants, vowing to prevent them from making it north.In a statement issued late Friday, U.S. President Joe Biden thanked Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and the country’s military and law enforcement officials for seizing over twenty million doses of illicit fentanyl.Mexican officials have been in touch with Trump allies, Gutierrez added, though they have not met with incoming administration officials. The exception is Jamieson Greer, Trump’s tapped trade representative, with whom Gutierrez met before his nomination.Trump, as well as some U.S. industry leaders, have accused Mexico of being a “backdoor” to Chinese goods and investment, which Mexico has denied.SCREENING INVESTMENTSMexico is looking to take a cue from the U.S., however, in screening investments coming into the country, Gutierrez said. Mexico is looking to develop a process similar to the U.S.’ Committee on Foreign Investment, he explained.When asked if that would affect Chinese automaker BYD (SZ:002594)’s plans to build a factory in the Latin American country, Gutierrez responded that Mexico wants “to play with the same rules” as its trade allies.Trump had threatened to put a 100% tariff “on every single car coming across the Mexican border” in response to BYD’s plans, though the carmaker has repeatedly said its plant would serve the local market and not the United States.Mexico is considering doling out incentives to draw manufacturing investments, Gutierrez said, suggesting Mexico could produce batteries that the U.S. wants to be made regionally.CORN COMPLICATIONSMexico is also awaiting the result of a dispute panel under the USMCA trade deal regarding Mexico’s restrictions on imports of genetically-modified corn.Mexico will comply with the panel’s ruling even if unfavorable toward the nation, Gutierrez said. And depending on the outcome, Mexico will weigh whether it must make changes to a proposed constitutional reform that would bar the use of GM corn for human consumption, the official added. More

“The National Bank of Hungary (MNB) has maintained a tight monetary policy stance, while the government has taken steps to reduce the primary deficit since 2023,” Fitch said in a statement. Hungary’s Economy Minister said in October that the country has overcome its inflation crisis, with price growth slowing toward the central bank’s target after being the highest in the EU last year.Fitch forecasts Hungary’s economy to recover gradually, driven by stronger private consumption, investment and exports.Last month, Finance Minister Mihaly Varga submitted the 2025 budget draft to parliament, dismissing concerns raised by the budget watchdog about insufficient reserves to mitigate risks and potential revenue shortfalls due to weak growth.The government, led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban, aims to reduce the 2025 shortfall to 3.7% of GDP, down from the 4.5% target for this year.”The expected decline in interest expenditure will support a further decline in the fiscal deficit to 4.2% in 2025 and 3.7% in 2026,” Fitch added. Ahead of the 2026 parliamentary elections, Orban’s government plans to increase tax benefits for families and continues to provide an additional month’s worth of pensions, focusing on key demographics.The government expects a 3.4% economic growth rebound in 2025, a projection the Fiscal Council considers optimistic in light of current forecasts.The agency also affirmed its rating for Hungary at “BBB.” More

The agency also affirmed the sovereign’s ‘CCC+’ long-term local currency amidst the ongoing debt restructuring, aimed at easing its wartime financial pressures.President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in late November, signed into law Ukraine’s widely contested wartime tax increases, raising the war tax for residents to 5% from 1.5%. The tax increases are expected to raise about 140 billion hryvnias ($3.4 billion) in additional revenues next year to fund Ukraine’s defence efforts.Ukraine expects to cover its budget deficit of about $38 billion with financial aid from Kyiv’s Western partners as well as the government’s domestic borrowing.The International Monetary Fund recently reached an agreement to give Ukraine access to about $1.1 billion, which, if approved, would bring the total amount dispersed under the program to $9.8 billion.Despite the tax increase, Fitch said it expects the general government deficit to remain high in 2024 and 2025 as defense spending mounts while foreign grants are anticipated to fall.The rating agency said a peace agreement is unlikely and expects the war to continue into 2025, despite the incoming U.S. administration’s objective to end the war.U.S. President-elect Donald Trump repeatedly pledged during his election campaign to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict, but has not provided any details. On Wednesday, Reuters reported that the Ukrainian delegation met with Trump’s senior executives to seek support in the war.($1 = 41.4000 hryvnias) More

U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman in Fort Worth declined to dissolve an injunction he issued in May that barred the rule from taking effect. That rule was issued as part of the Biden administration’s broader crackdown on “junk fees.”The CFPB had asked the judge to revisit the injunction, saying it rested entirely on an appeals court’s now-overturned ruling declaring the agency’s funding structure unconstitutional. But Pittman said the rule could still be blocked on other grounds. More

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced the step saying it had determined services offered by Google Payment had posed a risk to consumers.The regulator’s step and the subsequent lawsuit marked a government tussle with a Silicon Valley behemoth in the final weeks of President Joe Biden’s administration. The regulator’s move could be reversed after President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House in January.Under Biden, the CFPB has been more closely scrutinizing the growing sector of financial services provided by Silicon Valley rather than traditional banks.The agency cited nearly 300 consumer complaints, many of which concerned reports of fraud, scams and unauthorized transactions. It said it did constitute a finding that the company had engaged in wrongdoing.The CFPB order nevertheless said consumer complaints indicated Google Payment had failed to investigate complaints about erroneous transfers, among other potential violations, and that the law allowed for supervision even if Google has discontinued the services in question.In a lawsuit filed after the CFPB announcement, Google Payment Corp. said the regulator had relied on a small number of unsubstantiated complaints concerning a product it no longer offered.”As a matter of common sense, a product that no longer exists is incapable of posing such risk,” the company’s complaint said.The CFPB declined to comment on the lawsuit.Financial regulators use confidential supervisory exams to spot and correct companies’ violations of law.Last month, the CFPB finalized new regulations subjecting tech companies to the same supervision currently faced by banks if those companies offer digital wallets and payment services.The agency has also persisted in rulemaking in the final weeks of Biden’s administration despite calls from Republican lawmakers to desist. More

BOSTON/LONDON (Reuters) -Global stocks advanced as investors raised their bets on the prospect of a U.S. interest rate cut this month after payrolls data showed strong job growth in November, while the euro dipped against the dollar as political turmoil gripped France.Futures markets put an 85% chance on the U.S. Federal Reserve cutting rates by 25 basis points at its Dec. 17-18 meeting after the data, compared with 68% earlier in the session.Nonfarm payrolls increased by 227,000 jobs last month after rising an upwardly revised 36,000 in October, in a month hit by hurricanes and strikes. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast payrolls accelerating by 200,000 jobs.”Data this morning was a Thanksgiving buffet with payrolls spot on, revisions positive, but unemployment ticking higher despite the participation rate falling,” Lindsay (NYSE:LNN) Rosner, head of multi-sector investing at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, said.”This print doesn’t kill the holiday spirit and the Fed remains on track to deliver a cut in December,” Rosner added in an email.The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq rose on Friday, up 0.25% and 0.8% respectively, further bolstered by upbeat forecasts from Lululemon Athletica (O:LULU) , Ulta Beauty (O:ULTA) and other companies. The Dow was down slightly, with a 5% drop in UnitedHealth Group (N:UNH) shares weighing on the index.MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe added about 0.2%.Treasury yields dipped to a six-week low after the release of the payrolls data, with the yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes down 2.9 basis points to 4.153%, while the 2-year note yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations for the Federal Reserve, fell 4.8 basis points to 4.098%.The U.S. dollar index ticked up 0.3% to $106.05 following the jobs report.Strategists at TD Securities said there was a “high hurdle” for the dollar to extend recent gains. “We think the path of least resistance remains for some USD weakness, offering a great opportunity to buy the dip in early 2025,” they wrote in a client note on Friday.European shares eked out gains on Friday, with French stocks logging their biggest daily rise in three weeks as investors factored in a potential budget despite ongoing political uncertainty, while also parsing an upbeat U.S. jobs report.The pan-European STOXX 600 (STOXX) was up 0.2%, logging its seventh consecutive day in advances and its strongest weekly performance in ten.In Asia, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan reversed earlier losses to be up 0.2% thanks to a rally in Chinese shares, making up for investor caution around political turmoil in South Korea.Chinese shares had climbed to three-week highs as investors scooped up technology shares ahead of a top-level policy meeting next week that will set the agenda and targets for China’s economy next year.The risk premium investors demand to hold French debt rather than German Bunds dropped to a two-week low on Friday, after President Emmanuel Macron said he would appoint a new prime minister soon to get a 2025 budget approved by parliament.The euro had rallied on Thursday, on market relief that France had avoided a more volatile political outcome for now. The euro was last down about 0.23%  at $1.056.  BITCOIN REVERSALBitcoin, which hit the $100,000 mark for the first time on Thursday as investors bet on a friendly U.S. regulatory shift, initially ran into profit-taking, tumbling as far as $92,092. Prices then rebounded, last trading up 2.3% on the day around $101,300. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday said he was appointing former PayPal (O:PYPL) chief operating officer David Sacks as his “White House A.I. & Crypto Czar,” another step towards overhauling U.S. blockchain-related policy.”This spike in volatility over the last 24 hours has the hallmarks of a classic blow-off top,” said Tony Sycamore, analyst at IG.Oil prices fell around 1.5% and were headed for weekly losses as analysts projected a supply surplus next year on floundering demand despite an OPEC+ decision to delay output hikes and extend deep production cuts to the end of 2026.Gold prices inched up on Friday to $2,632 an ounce. More