Aurelia Butler

ROME (Reuters) – Italy is preparing a new package of measures worth around 5 billion euros ($5.5 billion) to help businesses and families cope with costly energy bills which it plans to announce next week, two government sources told Reuters on Thursday.The right-wing administration led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni earmarked over 21 billion euros in its 2023 budget to soften the impact of energy costs on the euro zone’s third largest economy in the first quarter of this year.Rome now wants to extend and review these measures in a decree expected to be approved by the cabinet on March 28, the sources said, asking not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.As part of the package, the Treasury plans to extend until June an existing bonus aimed at cutting energy bills paid by low-income households.Moreover, Rome intends to change a tax break to cut energy costs for firms, making it available only if the price of methane exceeds a certain threshold still to be defined.The Treasury believes it can fund the decree through savings stemming from the previous 21 billion euro package so as not to weigh on the public deficit, one of the sources said.Gas prices have fallen in recent months, with the Dutch TTF hub hovering around 41 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), sharply down from 73 euros in early 2023.Higher-than-expected gross domestic product (GDP) growth in 2023, which is now estimated by the Treasury at almost 1% from the 0.6% target set in November, also boosts tax revenues and helps fund the scheme.Italy last November set a budget deficit goal of 4.5% of GDP, down from 8% reported in 2022.The economy ministry is due to update in April its growth forecasts and public finance targets in the Economic and Financial Document (DEF).($1 = 0.9170 euros) More

The Fed’s benchmark rate stood in the range of 4.75-5% following a quarter percentage point hike on Wednesday. While the Fed’s move was largely priced in, a minority of market participants had flagged the possibility of a pause in hikes following the collapse of two mid-sized U.S. lenders as well as a Swiss-backed takeover of troubled global bank Credit Suisse. BofA analysts said the consequent unexpected tightening in bank lending standards could substitute for further hikes. BofA and UBS no longer expect an interest rate hike in June and see the Fed funds rate peaking in May at 5-5.25% and 5.25-5.5%, respectively.Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), which expected the Fed to pause on Wednesday, maintained its terminal rate forecast in the 5.25-5.5% range, but now sees rates peaking in June instead of July.The banking crisis may trigger a credit crunch with “significant” implications for the economy, which could slow even more this year than previously thought, Fed officials said.Money markets, which priced in a terminal rate close to 6% by September just as early as this month, now see the rate peaking at 4.9% by May. More

TikTok’s chief executive Shou Zi Chew will face attacks on multiple fronts when he testifies before Congress today, in an appearance that will help to determine the social media app’s future in the US.Bipartisan calls to ban the platform have grown over fears it could be used by the Chinese Communist party for espionage or propaganda purposes.However, Chew will tell the House of Representatives energy and commerce committee that TikTok’s parent company ByteDance, based in Beijing, is “not an agent of China”, according to prepared remarks released in advance of the hearing.ByteDance has also been asked by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (Cfius), an inter-agency panel that evaluates foreign investment, to sell its stake in TikTok in the US in order to distance it from Beijing.“TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, was founded by Chinese entrepreneurs, but has evolved into a global enterprise since its founding,” Chew will say, adding that TikTok had not shared and would not share data on its 150mn US users with China.The other events I will be watching today include:Bank of England: The UK central bank is expected to follow the Federal Reserve and raise interest rates by 0.25 percentage points. (More on the Fed below) Economic data: We get data on new applications for unemployment and new homes in the US.Earnings: General Mills, the company behind Cheerios cereal and Häagen-Dazs ice cream, is expected to say higher prices boosted its profits and revenues.Starbucks: The coffee retailer is holding its annual shareholder meeting today and it will mark the first public appearance for the company’s new chief executive, Laxman Narasimhan, who will lead the meeting.Biden-Trudeau meeting: US president Joe Biden will travel to Ottawa for talks with Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau.What did you think of today’s FirstFT? Let us know at [email protected]. Thanks for reading.Five more top stories 1. US bondholders are preparing to sue the Swiss government over the wipeout of $17bn of Credit Suisse debt. David Tepper, the billionaire founder of Appaloosa Management, who is among those that bought the bonds, told the Financial Times “contracts are made to be honoured”.2. Treasury secretary Janet Yellen ruled out a broad expansion of deposit insurance to protect savers with balances above $250,000 in the near term. Her comments fuelled another sell-off in the shares of smaller US banks.More on regional banks: PacWest Bancorp, the Beverly Hills-based bank, raised $1.4bn from Apollo-backed investment firm Atlas SP Partners yesterday after saying 20 per cent of all deposits had been withdrawn since the start of the year.3. The Federal Reserve pressed ahead with a quarter-point rate rise to a new range of 4.75 to 5 per cent despite the banking turmoil. The FOMC said in a statement after the meeting the US banking system was “sound and resilient”.Go deeper: The Fed must now decide whether to keep slamming the brakes on the economy, or whether a looming credit crunch will do the job for it.4. The Securities and Exchange Commission has notified Coinbase that it is considering enforcement action against the company, according to a document seen by the Financial Times. Shares in the US-listed crypto exchange fell as much as 13 per cent in after-hours trading.5. British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe plans to offer more than £5bn for Manchester United Football Club. But Ratcliffe is facing competition from Qatari businessman Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani who also plans to bid for the English Premier League club.The Big Read

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The EU wants to make solar power its single biggest source of energy by 2030. That would mean almost tripling its solar power generation capacity over the next seven years. The problem is more than three-quarters of the EU’s solar panel imports in 2021 came from a single country: China.We’re also reading . . . Iran-Russia: Moscow has become Iran’s largest foreign investor over the past year, as the two heavily sanctioned nations have ramped up co-operation since Russia invaded Ukraine. ‘Sensible’ crypto: It’s not the crypto bros we have to fear, writes Jemima Kelly, but the strait-laced, earnest types that are snake-oil salesmen in sensible clothing.Starbucks in China: The US coffee chain plans to open a store in China every nine hours to reach 9,000 locations by 2025.Chart of the dayCould commercial property be the next area of the US financial system to blow up? Interest rate rises have led to sharply higher borrowing costs and falling property valuations, putting strain on the $5.6tn market for commercial real estate loans. Offices are seen as the area of biggest risk.Take a break from the newsUnlike Logan Roy, Succession creator Jesse Armstrong knows when to call it a day. In its fourth season, the final act of the peerless comedy, Succession reaches new highs, lows and some surprising human emotions, writes critic Dan Einav. Read his review ahead of the Season 4 premiere this week.Additional contributions by Tee Zhuo and Emily Goldberg More