Aurelia Butler

Gross domestic product grew 2.25% in the third quarter and 3.54% in the second quarter.Soaring inflation and a weakening of the naira currency have held back an economy still trying to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Nigeria holds elections on Saturday, which President Muhammadu Buhari is constitutionally-barred from contesting. More

“If inflation doesn’t start to come down, you risk this replay of the 1970s where you had 15 years where you’re trying to battle the inflation drag,” Bullard told broadcaster CNBC in an interview.”… That’s why I’ve said let’s be sharp now, let’s get inflation under control in 2023 and it’s a good time to fight inflation because the labor market is still strong.”Bullard also repeated his view that a Fed policy rate in the range of 5.25% to 5.5% would be adequate for the task.Minutes from the U.S. central bank’s latest meeting released later on Wednesday are expected to detail the breadth of debate among Fed officials over how much further interest rates may need to rise to slow inflation and cool an economy that has remained stronger than expected despite tighter monetary policy. More

Investing.com — The Federal Reserve will release the minutes of its last policy meeting, as markets fret increasingly about interest rates staying higher for longer to tackle sticky inflation. Stocks are due for a third straight session of losses as bond yields hit three-month highs. A senior ECB official says markets have ‘overreacted’ to comments that sent bond yields higher in the Eurozone last week. Jeep maker Stellantis and Chinese search giant Baidu both announce big shareholder payouts, but Rio Tinto becomes the latest miner to take a more cautious view. Nvidia and TJX lead the roster of quarterly earnings. And the American Petroleum Institute releases its weekly estimate of crude and distillate stocks. Here’s what you need to know in financial markets on Wednesday, 22nd February.1. Fed minutesThe Federal Reserve releases the minutes of its last policy meeting at 14:00 ET (19:00 GMT), into a market increasingly unsettled by fears that inflation is proving to be ‘stickier’ than expected, forcing the Fed to keep rates higher for longer.The 2-year U.S. Treasury note yield, a rough proxy for expectations for Fed interest rates, hit a three-month high of 4.75% on Tuesday as U.S. investors returned from a long weekend.New York Fed Governor John Williams is also due to speak later, but his comments will come well after the market close at 18:30 ET.2. Markets have overreacted, says ECB’s VilleroyThe European Central Bank mustn’t pre-commit to a series of aggressive interest rate hikes in response to its own inflation problems, a key member of its governing council said in an interview.Bank of France Governor François Villeroy de Galhau told the French newspaper Les Echos that markets have “overreacted” to comments made last week by influential board member Isabel Schnabel, who had warned that the ECB is still far from being able to claim victory over inflation.Her comments gained some validation earlier as Germany’s core inflation rate was confirmed to have risen sharply in January. Separately, the Ifo business survey showed confidence at a six-month high.In Italy, meanwhile, new figures showed inflation fell by more than expected in January but was still running at 10%.3. Stocks set to extend losses again; TJX, Nvidia earnings in focusU.S. stock markets are set to open lower again after falling heavily on Tuesday due to fears over the course of Fed policy.By 06:40 ET, Dow Jones futures were down 48 points, or 0.2%, while S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures were down in parallel.On a busy day for earnings, mining stocks were in focus after Australian-based giants BHP (ASX:BHP) and Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) both cut their dividends within 24 hours of each other. Rio’s fourth quarter earnings also fell nearly 10% short of forecasts. Separately, Baidu ADRs (NASDAQ:BIDU) were up over 7% in premarket after the Chinese search giant announced a $5 billion buyback and forecast a much better 2023. French dairy giant Danone SA (EPA:DANO) also hit a six-month high after beating forecasts with its results.Most of the day’s earnings action is due late on, with Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD), eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY), Lucid Group (NASDAQ:LCID) and Etsy (NASDAQ:ETSY) all reporting after the close. TJX (NYSE:TJX) will command attention early on, especially after weak outlooks from retail giants Walmart (NYSE:WMT) and Home Depot (NYSE:HD) on Tuesday.4. Stellantis splashes the cash; Tesla pares back German plansCarlos Tavares continued to work his magic at Jeep maker Stellantis (NYSE:STLA). The group, which also owns the Peugeot (OTC:PUGOY), Opel, and Fiat brands, said it will buy back $1.6B of stock and pay out $4.5B in dividends after its revenue and net profit rebounded sharply in 2022, despite ongoing problems with semiconductor availability.The group’s sales of electric vehicles rose 41% on the year to 288,000.Elsewhere, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) confirmed to Reuters that it is scaling down its ambitions to build batteries at its plant in Germany, diverting investment resources instead to the U.S. to exploit the tax breaks offered by the Inflation Reduction Act.The move will add to concerns in the EU and U.K. that the IRA is hollowing out investment in green technology in Europe.5. Oil falls on rate fears; API inventories dueCrude oil prices fell under the influence of the interest rate fears that also hurt other risk assets on Tuesday.By 06:45 ET, U.S. crude futures were down 1.1% at $75.56 a barrel, while Brent crude was down 1.0% at $82.25.The American Petroleum Institute releases its weekly inventory data at 16:30 ET.Elsewhere, Kazakhstan said it intends to ship an average of 25,000 barrels a day of crude to Germany through Russia’s pipeline system this year, raising the likelihood of Russian oil seeping into the European market despite last year’s sanctions. More

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan will this week receive a new $700 million loan from China to help shore up its foreign exchange reserves, the country’s finance minister said on Wednesday, in another step to help the South Asian nation recover from an economic crisis.The credit facility, made through the state-owned China Development Bank will boost Pakistan’s forex reserves by about 20% and comes as the country is thrashing out a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to unlock funds from a $6.5 billion bailout.”This amount is expected to be received this week by State Bank of Pakistan which will shore up its forex reserves,” Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said on Twitter. A finance ministry official said the loan was in addition to other facilities that China has already extended to Pakistan. The money could come as early as Thursday, he added.China Development Bank did not respond to a faxed request for comment.Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said he was hopeful of reaching a deal with the IMF as soon as the country completes a series of steps demanded by the lender.Addressing his cabinet, he said the government was focusing on austerity as a top priority. “Our government will utilise all resources to overcome the crisis,” he said.The receipt of external financing is one of the measures needed before the IMF signs a staff level agreement that will unlock more than $1 billion in funding, that has been suspended since late last year. “The fact that new money is being committed to Pakistan and old loans are being rolled over despite this, is a sign that the global community is committed to helping Pakistan meet its external challenges,” former Pakistani central bank deputy governor Murtaza Syed told Reuters. SINGLE LARGEST CREDITOR Pakistan is struggling with its worst economic crisis in decades and its foreign exchange reserves, at their lowest in 10 years, are only enough to pay for less than three weeks’ worth of imports. Meanwhile, fiscal adjustments demanded by the IMF are fuelling decades-high inflation.The country’s international bonds extended their decline on Wednesday with the 2027 dollar-denominated bonds dropping more than 1.2 cents in the dollar to trade just over 40 cents, Tradeweb data showed. China is already Pakistan’s single largest creditor with its commercial banks holding about 30% of its external debt. The United States, historically a close ally, said this week it was concerned about this debt, and was talking to Islamabad about the “perils” of a closer relationship with Beijing. More

In a political career spanning decades, Toomey represented Pennsylvania in the Senate from 2011 to 2023, serving on the Senate banking, housing, and urban affairs, budget, and finance committees.Toomey, a member of the Republican Party, previously served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1999 to 2005, where he was a member of the house budget committee.The appointment comes at a turbulent time for private equity firms which have struggled over the past year due to stubbornly high inflation, rising interest rates and geopolitical turmoil that together weighed on sentiment and crimped lucrative exit from investments.Earlier in February, New York-based Apollo said its fourth-quarter adjusted net income rose 77% owing to strong earnings from its retirement services business, even as gains were partly offset by a steep decline in its PE portfolio.Shares in Apollo have rallied nearly 9% so far this year after closing 2022 down 12%. More

The main indexes shed more than 2% on Tuesday as investors interpreted a rebound in U.S. business activity in February to mean interest rates will need to stay higher for longer to control inflation.Minutes from the Fed’s Jan.31-Feb.1 meeting, expected at 2:00 p.m. ET (1900 GMT), is anticipated to detail the breadth of debate at the central bank over how much further interest rates may need to be raised to slow inflation.Following a market rout in 2022, the three major indexes logged monthly gains in January as investors hoped the Fed would pause its rate hikes and perhaps turn a corner in its monetary policy tightening around the year-end. However, stocks have had a volatile run in February as traders priced in higher interest rates for longer, considering inflation still remains above the 2% target in the face of a sturdy economy.Money market participants expect rates to peak at 5.35% by July and stay around those levels till the end of 2023.At 07:13 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 26 points, or 0.08%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 2.5 points, or 0.06%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 12 points, or 0.1%.Among single stocks, Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Inc rose 9.3% in premarket trading after the cybersecurity company raised its annual profit forecast. Rival Crowdstrike Holdings Inc gained 2%.U.S.-listed shares of Baidu Inc (NASDAQ:BIDU) advanced 6.6% after China’s e-commerce beat fourth-quarter revenue estimates and announced a new share repurchase program. CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP) dropped 15.2% as the online real estate marketplace provider said it was no longer in talks to buy Realtor.com owner Move Inc from News Corp (NASDAQ:NWSA) and forecast disappointing first-quarter revenue.St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said rates will have to go north of 5% to tame inflation. New York Fed President John Williams, a voting member of the rate-setting committee this year, is scheduled to speak later in the day. More