Aurelia Butler

An investigation into competition in the UK fuel market has found “cause for concern” in parts of the oil industry as petrol prices soar, but found little evidence that fuel station operators were inflating costs for consumers.The Competition and Markets Authority on Friday launched a formal market study into fuel prices after drivers blocked roads and motorways in protest over rising fuel prices this week, putting renewed pressure on the government as it grapples with a cost of living crisis.But the CMA’s initial review, conducted at the request of business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng, found the vast majority of the increase in fuel prices had been driven by global factors.The main drivers include the surge in crude oil prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, strong refining margins that have risen around the world because of tight capacity, and sterling weakness — all of which petrol station retailers have little control over.The review concluded that retail margins — the difference between wholesale refined fuel costs and what petrol stations charge at the pumps — “has not been a significant contributor to the overall rise in pump prices”.The so-called “retailer spread” had “fluctuated” but remained at about 10p a litre on average, the CMA said.The Petrol Retailers Association, which represents 65 per cent of fuel stations in the UK, welcomed the findings and said the onus was on the government if it wanted to bring pump prices down by making further cuts to fuel duty or VAT. “We were disappointed to be singled out earlier this year as somehow responsible for the rise in prices,” said Gordon Balmer, executive director of the PRA. “When they’ve done the cool-headed analysis they’ve found there’s no case to answer.”Balmer added that the report indicated the “market is working” and that it had found no evidence of profiteering, and that the 5p fuel duty cut made by the government earlier this year had been passed on to motorists. “On the whole, the fuel duty cut appears to have been implemented, with the largest fuel retailers doing so immediately and others more gradually,” the CMA said.Motoring group the AA said it remained frustrated by the length of time taken for falls in the price of crude oil and wholesale fuel to be reflected at the pump. “The AA argues that the problem is not the gap between the oil price and wholesale price feeding through to the forecourts but the length of time it takes for that wholesale price to be reflected at the pump,” said Jack Cousens, the AA’s head of roads policy.

Sarah Cardell, general counsel at the CMA, said that while the retail market “does seem to be competitive”, the regulator would investigate whether disparities in urban and rural prices were justified. Balmer at the PRA said the government should look at the decline in fuel stations nationally over the past 20 years, which had left many rural markets underserved. In 2000, there were 15,000 fuel stations in the UK compared with 8,380 today.The CMA said one large “cause for concern” was the rise in refining margins — the difference between the price of crude oil and refined fuels such as petrol and diesel — in recent months. These have tripled in the past year, growing from 10p to almost 35p per litre.Refining margins have risen because of the loss of capacity during the pandemic and a drop in Russian supplies after western sanctions.The increase in this spread added 24p a litre to fuel costs over the past year, the CMA said, while the rise in crude oil prices added 20p, and the fall in sterling versus the dollar — which oil trades in internationally — added 7p. More

NARA, Japan (Reuters) -Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the longest-serving leader of modern Japan, was gunned down on Friday while campaigning for a parliamentary election, shocking a country where political violence had become almost unthinkable.Abe, 67, was pronounced dead around five and a half hours after the shooter opened fire on him from behind as he spoke to members of the public from a drab traffic island in the western city of Nara. Authorities arrested a 41-year-old man. Japanese media reported that the weapon appeared to be a homemade gun.”I am simply speechless over the news of Abe’s death,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Abe’s protege, told reporters.Earlier, as Abe still lay in hospital where doctors tried to revive him, Kishida struggled to keep his emotions in check.”This attack is an act of brutality that happened during the elections – the very foundation of our democracy – and is absolutely unforgivable,” he said.Abe had been making a campaign speech outside a train station when two shots rang out. Security officials were then seen tackling a man in a grey T-shirt and beige trousers. “There was a loud bang and then smoke,” businessman Makoto Ichikawa, who was at the scene, told Reuters. “The first shot, no one knew what was going on, but after the second shot, what looked like special police tackled him.”Kyodo news service published a photograph of Abe lying face-up on the street by a guardrail, blood on his white shirt. People were crowded around him, one administering heart massage.Abe was taken to hospital in cardiopulmonary arrest and showing no vital signs. He was declared dead at 5:03 p.m. (0803 GMT), having bled to death from deep wounds to the heart and the right side of his neck.He had received more than 100 units of blood in transfusions over four hours, Hidetada Fukushima, the professor in charge of emergency medicine at Nara Medical University Hospital, told a televised news conference.NHK quoted the suspected shooter, identified as Tetsuya Yamagami, as telling police he was dissatisfied with Abe and wanted to kill him. The suspect told police he had made multiple handmade explosives and guns in the past, NHK said.’BANG AND THEN SMOKE’Police said the suspected shooter was a resident of Nara. Media said he had served in Japan’s military for three years until 2005.Members of the public laid flowers near the spot where Abe fell. TV Asahi reported that Abe’s body would be transferred to his Tokyo home on Saturday.It was the first killing of a sitting or former Japanese leader since a 1936 coup attempt, when several figures including two ex-premiers were assassinated.Post-war Japan prides itself on its orderly and open democracy. Senior Japanese politicians are accompanied by armed security agents but often get close to the public, especially during political campaigns when they make roadside speeches and shake hands with passersby.In 2007, the mayor of Nagasaki was shot and killed by a yakuza gangster. The head of the Japan Socialist Party was assassinated during a speech in 1960 by a right-wing youth with a samurai short sword. A few other prominent politicians have been attacked but not injured.Abe served two terms as prime minister, stepping down in 2020 citing ill health. But he remained a dominant presence over the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), controlling one of its major factions.Kishida, who won the premiership with Abe’s backing, said the LDP would continue election campaigning on Saturday to demonstrate its resolve to “never give in to violence”, and to defend a “free and fair election at all cost”.’VERY, VERY SAD’Speaking on the sidelines of a G20 meeting in Indonesia, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the assassination of Abe “shocking” and “profoundly disturbing” and described him as a leader of great vision.The United States is Japan’s most important ally.Similar messages of sympathy and shock poured in from around the world following news of Abe’s death, including from neighbouring Taiwan, China and Russia, as well as from across Asia, Europe and the United States.The yen rose and Japan’s Nikkei index fell on news of the shooting, partially driven by a knee-jerk flight to safety.Abe is best known for his “Abenomics” policy of aggressive monetary easing and fiscal spending.He also bolstered defence spending after years of declines and expanded the military’s ability to project power abroad.In a historic shift in 2014, his government reinterpreted the postwar, pacifist constitution to allow troops to fight overseas for the first time since World War Two.The following year, legislation ended a ban on exercising the right of collective self-defence, or defending a friendly country under attack.Abe, however, never achieved his goal of revising the U.S.-drafted constitution by writing the Self-Defense Forces, as Japan’s military is known, into the pacifist Article 9.Abe first took office in 2006 as Japan’s youngest prime minister since World War Two. After a year plagued by political scandals, voter outrage at lost pension records, and an election drubbing for his ruling party, Abe quit citing ill health.He became prime minister again in 2012.Abe hailed from a wealthy political family that included a foreign minister father and a grandfather who served as premier. More

OTTAWA (Reuters) -Canada’s unemployment rate fell to a new record low 4.9% in June, beating expectations, even as the economy posted a surprise decline in jobs, while wages accelerated sharply, official data showed on Friday.The Canadian economy lost 43,200 jobs in June, mostly among older workers, missing expectations of a job gain, Statistics Canada data showed. The unemployment rate, which beat analyst forecasts that it would remain at 5.1%, was the lowest on record, as fewer Canadians searched for work.The average hourly wage of permanent employees jumped 5.6% year-over-year in June, well above May’s gain of 4.5% and the largest acceleration on record outside of the pandemic, when massive job losses among lower-paid workers skewed the numbers.Goods sector jobs rose by a net 32,500, led by manufacturing and construction, while services sector jobs plunged by a net 75,700, mostly in retail trade. “Data over the coming months will shed light on whether employment in this industry might be impacted by any changing consumer behaviors associated with inflation,” Statscan said.Canadian inflation is running at a near 40-year high. June’s job losses were mostly in part-time work and mostly among workers over 55, Statscan said. The number of self-employed also fell sharply. More

Nonfarm payrolls increased by 372,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department’s employment report showed. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 268,000 jobs added last month.The euro slipped 0.35% by 1245 GMT at $1.012, but stayed off earlier session lows that had taken it to the brink of parity with the dollar. German 10-year government bond yields were up 4.5 basis points at 1.322%, off a session high of 1.34%, while Europe’s equity index turned negative after the data and was down 0.55%.Terminal rate pricing for June 2023 according to Fed fund futures edged up to around 3.5% versus 3.4% before the data. More

NEW YORK (Reuters) – As U.S. companies open their books on the second quarter in the coming weeks, investors increasingly worried about a recession will be anxious to hear what executives say about how demand is holding up in the face of higher costs.Concerns over a possible recession have already driven a sharp selloff in stocks that resulted in the S&P 500’s steepest percentage drop in the first-half of a year since 1970, while earnings forecasts for the year have largely held up.That has raised questions among some investors about whether current earnings projections reflect those concerns and can remain strong enough to support the market.”While companies may be able to deliver a decent second quarter, the outlooks are likely to be overall very conservative,” said Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist at Ingalls & Snyder in New York.Earnings from some of Wall Street’s biggest banks will unofficially start off the earnings period when they report next week, with results from JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) due Thursday.For the second quarter, analysts expect overall S&P 500 earnings to have increased 5.6% over the year-ago period, compared to growth of 6.8% expected at the start of April, while they see earnings for all of 2022 growing by 9.5% versus 8.8% expected on April 1, according to IBES data from Refinitiv as of July 1.Those forecasts, however, are somewhat distorted by the energy sector, whose earnings are forecast to have jumped by more than 220% in the second quarter following a rally in oil prices. Without energy companies, second-quarter profits are expected to have declined 2.4% from a year ago, based on Refinitiv data. GRAPHIC: S&P 500 quarterly earnings https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-STOCKS/WEEKAHEAD/lgpdwbzmgvo/chart_eikon.jpg Investors have been worried that an aggressive interest rate hike cycle by the U.S. Federal Reserve to tame inflation could tip the economy into recession.Last week, Fed Chair Jerome Powell told a European Central Bank conference that “there is a risk” the U.S. central bank could slow the economy more than needed to control inflation.Commodity and other costs have been rising, and companies have been grappling with how much of those price increases can be passed on to consumers or absorbed.Among companies that have already reported, Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ:MU) recently projected a fall in current-quarter revenue, sparking concerns about demand in the chip industry. Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE) forecast quarterly revenue below estimates as it expects to discount more.Technology and growth stocks, whose valuations rely more heavily on future cash flows, have been among the hardest hit by concerns over rising rates.Meta Platforms Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg recently told employees to brace for a deep economic downturn. Its shares fell 27% in the second quarter.Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), whose shares fell about 22% in the second quarter, is due to report results July 28, while results for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), whose shares also dropped 22% last quarter, are expected July 26.While higher energy prices are expected to be a drag on airlines and other transportation companies as well as some industrial firms, they are a positive for energy names. Chevron (NYSE:CVX) is due to report on July 29.Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS)’ brokerage recently trimmed its estimates for companies including Apple, citing demand concerns.Valuations have fallen with the market’s selloff. The S&P 500’s forward 12-month price-to-earnings ratio was at 16.1 as of July 1 versus 22.1 at the end of December and was in line with its long-term average of about 16, Refinitiv data showed.While the drop has made valuations seem more attractive to some investors, others worry about what’s in store for earnings forecasts.Multiples have come down, said Matt Stucky, senior portfolio manager at Northwestern (NASDAQ:NWE) Mutual Wealth Management Company, and “the next shoe to drop typically is a revision lower in terms of earnings estimates by the sell side.” More

The figure was above the 0.47% rise seen a month earlier, but below expectations as economists polled by Reuters had projected a 0.7% increase.All of the nine groups surveyed posted a positive reading last month, with the biggest impact stemming from a 0.80% increase in food and beverages costs, IBGE said in a statement.Prices rose 11.89% in the 12 months through June, up from an increase of 11.73% as of the previous month and roughly in line with expectations of an 11.90% rise. More