Aurelia Butler

The government expects the economy, the world’s third largest, will pick up going forward but Japan needs to pay full attention to the impact from China’s spreading infections after it dropped stringent pandemic curbs, the report said.The economic downgrade followed the Bank of Japan’s move last week when it slashed its economic growth projections for the next two fiscal years amid worries that slowing global demand will weigh on Japan’s export-reliant economy.”The economy is recovering moderately but some weakness is seen recently,” according to the latest report by the Cabinet Office. The authorities slashed its assessment on exports for the first time since November 2021, while it also cut its view on imports for the first time in three months. The January report said both exports and imports are “weakening recently” compared with its previous view of “almost flat” last month.”China’s coronavirus rebound could affect Japan’s exports and production and such a possibility has become clearer than last month,” said an official at the Cabinet Office.The government also remained cautious over downside risks from the global economic slowdown amid monetary tightening, inflation and financial market fluctuations. Meanwhile, the Cabinet Office maintained its assessment of Japan’s domestic demand, saying private consumption was “picking up moderately” in the latest report.But the government said the recovery in industrial production was stalling, unchanged from its view in December. (This story has been corrected to say that the downgrade in the official view of exports was first since November 2021, not November 2011, in paragraph 5) More

Average copper prices averaged $8,004.64 per tonne in the last three months of 2022, a 16% drop from a year-earlier period, as China’s economic growth faltered, while Europe and the United States stared at a recession.Miners are also struggling with higher inflation, lower demand and rise in per-unit cost of production.Freeport reported average realized copper prices of $3.77 per pound, compared with $4.42 a year earlier.The miner, which has operations in the Americas and Indonesia, said quarterly production of the red metal rose to 1.07 billion pounds from 1.03 billion pounds a year earlier. Its gold output rose to 472,000 ounces from 405,000 ounces.The Phoenix-based miner’s net income fell to $697 million, or 48 cents per share, in the three months ended Dec. 31, compared with $1.1 billion, or 74 cents per share, last year. More

Futures on the S&P/TSX index were down 0.4% at 6:51 a.m. ET (1151 GMT), mirroring declines in their U.S. counterparts.The BoC is expected to raise interest rates to a 15-year high in the face of a tight job market and above-target inflation, but economists say the move could be the last in the current tightening cycle.A Reuters poll of economists showed the BoC will hike its benchmark rate by 25-basis-points to 4.50% at 10:00 a.m. ET.The BoC was one of the first major developed world central banks to start hiking its overnight lending rate last year, raising at an unprecedented pace of 400 basis points in nine months.It will be the first time where the central bank will offer minutes from its policy-setting session, which will be published on Feb. 8.Further weighing on sentiment were corporate earnings in the United States, after tech giant Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) warned that growth in its cloud business could stall. Commodity prices, which tend to influence the resources-heavy TSX, were a mixed bag.Crude oil prices slipped as a rise in U.S. crude inventories and global recession worries edged out optimism for a demand recovery in China. [O/R]Gold prices declined against a firmer dollar, while copper prices inched higher. [GOL/] [MET/L]Results from Canadian National Railway (TSX:CNR) showed fourth-quarter earnings beat market expectations. A Canadian court on Tuesday dismissed the competition bureau’s effort to overturn an approval of Rogers (NYSE:ROG) Communications Inc’s C$20 billion ($14.9 billion) bid to buy Shaw Communications (NYSE:SJR) Inc. More

(Reuters) – Just days into a new sitting of the U.S. Congress, lawmakers are confronting what will be perhaps the most pivotal legislative issue of 2023: the national debt limit.Here are some key moments in the months ahead:FEB. 1The Treasury Department will release a quarterly document next week laying out how it plans to fund the government over the next three months. The document, which includes information on debt the Treasury will issue, could shed light on the timing of a possible default. It follows a more general overview of quarterly funding to be released on Jan. 30.Analysts warn, however, that it will still be far too early to pin down a precise date, which will depend on a number of factors, including tax receipts.MARCH/APRIL In March or April, the Congressional Budget Office will issue new budget projections for fiscal 2023 and fiscal 2024, based on current tax and spending laws and economic forecasts. The projections will provide a non-partisan view of government cash flows and provide additional clues as to how long the Treasury can continue to pay its bills. Additionally, President Joe Biden will likely unveil his fiscal year 2024 budget request in the second quarter. Last year, this occurred in early March.The proposal will become grist to any negotiations with Republicans, who will likely demand significant cuts to sign off on legislation raising the debt limit.APRIL 18The deadline for federal income tax returns falls on April 18. Data regarding government income could be an important factor in determining the so-called “X date,” or the day when the government will stop paying its bills.The more tax revenue collected by the government, the longer the government can meet its obligations.JUNE 5Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has pinpointed June 5 as the earliest possible X date, setting that as the end of a “debt issuance suspension period” in enacting extraordinary cash management measures.Analysts generally agree, however, that the government would not default until a later date and that the U.S. Treasury is presenting a worst case scenario to lawmakers.JUNE 30 Should the U.S. Treasury make it to June 30 without missing payments, it will receive a roughly $145 billion reprieve when investments made by a U.S. account known as the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund will mature. Normally, these funds would be reinvested, but the Treasury Department has said it could use the proceeds to help make needed payments.JULY-OCTOBERMost analysts see the true X date occurring somewhere between July and October.In addition to rattling global financial markets, reaching the X date without an agreement could cause some government payrolls and Social Security benefits and bond repayments to be missed. More

Investing.com — Stocks are set to open lower after Microsoft reported slowing demand even for the fastest-growing parts of its empire. It’s another big day for earnings, with Tesla headlining later on, and Boeing, NextEra Energy and Abbott due before the open. Germany departs from eight decades of pacifism, agreeing to ship its modern battle tanks to the world’s hottest war zone. And short-sellers Hindenburg Research goes after India’s richest man Gautam Adani, wiping nearly $10 billion off his group’s value. Here’s what you need to know in financial markets on Wednesday, 25th January. 1. As Microsoft goes, so goes the U.S.…Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) earnings reinforced the impression that 2023 is going to be a tough year for business. The software giant, whose broad reach across the business and consumer segments of the economy makes it a decent proxy for the rest of USA Inc., said its revenue grew at the slowest rate in six years in the three months through December, the mid-point of its fiscal year.Adjusted earnings were fractionally above expectations, but included a $1.2B restructuring charge related to the 10,000 job cuts it announced last week. But analysts were more concerned by the top line, where sales of Windows and Xbox-related services slumped as COVID-related factors ebbed. The company even expects a significant slowdown this year in its Cloud services division this year, which has been its strongest-performing segment in recent quarters.Microsoft stock fell nearly 2.5% in premarket trading.2. Tesla’s up nextTesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) reports earnings after the closing bell, arguably facing its stiffest challenge yet in trying to justify a valuation that still far exceeds anything else in the auto sector.The company has lost around half its value since its last quarterly update, with CEO Elon Musk repeatedly selling stock to fund his misfiring purchase of Twitter. Musk took the witness stand in a trial on Tuesday where he is accused of deliberately misleading investors with a tweet about a possible buyout back in 2018. He told the court he believed that he had funding for the buyout in place.Tesla is expected to report adjusted earnings per share of $1.15, down from $2.54 a year ago, hurt by production disruptions and price cuts in the final quarter of last year.3. Stocks set to open lower in Microsoft’s shadow; Abbott, IBM, Boeing all set to report laterU.S. stock markets are set to open lower later, as Microsoft’s lackluster outlook casts a long shadow over the rest of the market.By 06:20 ET (11:20 GMT), Dow Jones futures were down 160 points, or 0.5%. While S&P 500 futures were down 0.7% and Nasdaq 100 futures were down 1.2%, with technology stocks coming under particular pressure.Sentiment has not been helped by news of the Department of Justice charging Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) with abusing its market dominance of the online advertising industry, which is a significant expansion of the existing antitrust actions against the Google owner.Other stocks due to report on Wednesday include Boeing (NYSE:BA), NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE), IBM (NYSE:IBM), Lonza Group (OTC:LZAGY), Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT), CSX (NASDAQ:CSX) and Norfolk Southern (NYSE:NSC), Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) and Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX), among many others.4. Scholz frees the LeopardsGerman Chancellor Olaf Scholz formally approved the shipment of Leopard 2 main battle tanks to Ukraine, a day after reports suggested that the U.S., too, has finally relented on including its Abrams M1 battle tank in future military aid packages.The move was sharply criticized as an escalation of the conflict by Moscow, but warmly welcomed by Germany’s NATO allies, who have been exasperated at its reluctance to fill a vital gap in Ukraine’s arsenal.Germany’s change of heart is a landmark in the evolution of its foreign policy, which has seen it shun any kind of leadership role in military affairs since World War 2. The move will put a sharp focus on Moscow’s reaction function, given its previous threats of using battlefield nuclear weapons.The decision comes, ironically, on the birthday of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.5. Adani hit by short-seller claims, rebuts allegationsThe sprawling empire of India’s richest man, Gautam Adani, was shaken by a report by short sellers Hindenburg Research, which accused it of various accounting tricks to inflate the value of its portfolio companies.The flagship Adani Enterprises (NS:ADEL) holding company fell 1.1% in Mumbai, while the group’s ports and shipping arm lost over 6%.Companies linked to Adani lost around $9B in market capitalization on the report, which the group’s chief financial officer described as “a malicious combination of selective misinformation and stale, baseless and discredited allegations,” according to the Financial Times.Adani’s net worth is estimated at some $118B, tied largely to investments in fossil fuels and renewable energy. More