Aurelia Butler

Evergrande said in a stock exchange filing that due to the “drastic changes” in its operations since the second half of last year, the auditor has added a large number of additional audit procedures.The developer will publish the audited annual results “as soon as practicable” after the audit procedures have been completed, it said, adding as per rules a trading suspension in its shares will remain in place until it publishes the latest results. More

Short selling of OFZ bonds will remain unavailable, it said. Stocks last traded on the Moscow Exchange on Feb. 25. The central bank then curbed trading as Western sanctions over events in Ukraine threw markets into turmoil. More

BALTIMORE, Md. (Reuters) – U.S. and British officials kicked off two days of meetings to strengthen trade ties on Monday, underscoring transatlantic cooperation at a time when Western countries are ratcheting up pressure on Russia over its war in Ukraine.The talks in the port city of Baltimore mark a broad effort to take stock of the $260 billion bilateral trade relationship, while specific disputes will be dealt with separately and formal talks on a free trade agreement remain on ice.U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said the two allies had resolved disputes over aircraft subsidies and digital services taxes over the past year, and were now working together closely to punish Russian President Vladimir Putin for his invasion of Ukraine.”In the battle between democracy and autocracy, democracies are rising to the moment and the world is clearly choosing the side of peace and security, so it’s never been more important for us to work to strengthen our economic ties with our closest allies, like the United Kingdom,” Tai told a plenary attended by dozens of U.S. and British executives and trade officials. Tai said U.S. and British officials would work to identify mutual trade priorities and promote “innovation and inclusive economic growth for citizens on both sides of the Atlantic.”Key U.S. priorities include collaboration on expanding protection of labor rights and the environment, decarbonizing their economies, promoting racial and gender equity, building more resilient supply chains and tapping the “democratizing” benefits of the digital economy, U.S. officials said.UK Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan told business and labor leaders later that the huge shocks of recent years and weeks, an apparent reference to the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, showed “that resilience and a different way of doing business is required. Protectionism is not the solution.”Trevelyan said Britain was seeking to “forge even closer bonds of trade and investment between us, because we do more business together than any other two countries in the world.”SANCTIONS AND TARIFFSClose coordination on economic sanctions, export controls and trade measures against Russia have also brought the United States and Europe closer together as they address challenges posed by non-market economies like China, a U.S. official said.Cathy Feingold, who leads the international department at the AFL-CIO labor union federation, welcomed efforts to give workers a voice in shaping trade policies and shifting away from free trade policies that resulted in “brutal global competition,” lower wages and lower standards of living in both countries.”Our countries must be aligned in dealing with non-market economies like China and Russia and Belarus,” she said. “By building a unified approach, we can more effectively create global rules that create fair competition and higher worker and environmental standards.”The two sides are “making good progress” in separate talks on resolving a dispute over U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs that helped clear the way for this week’s broader talks, Trevelyan said. Those talks are ongoing, another UK official said.Washington also remains concerned about UK food safety standards that prevent imports of U.S. chlorine-treated chicken, but will address that issue separately, a second official said.This week’s meetings do not mark a resumption of formal free trade talks held under the former Trump administration that were suspended once President Joe Biden took office, much to the chagrin of business leaders on both sides of the Atlantic.Duncan Edwards, chief executive of BritishAmerican Business, a transatlantic trade group that represents 450 companies, welcomed the meetings, adding, “We’d much rather see a resumption of the actual free trade agreement discussions.”Marjorie Chorlins, senior vice president at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, agreed, adding, “We should have been able to restart the U.S.-UK negotiations. We were five rounds in and a lot of great work was done.”Washington has hit the pause button on such agreements, which have historically been viewed skeptically by labor leaders, viewing them as “just one tool at our disposal.” The two sides will meet again later this spring in Britain, but the location has not been finalized, officials said. More

(Reuters) -Picketers marching at the gates of a large Chevron Corp (NYSE:CVX) oil refinery outside of San Francisco said on Monday they could endure a lengthy walkout to press claims for a new labor contract.But the plant was continuing to operate normally and fuel supply and prices are not expected to be impacted, gasoline analysts said. More than 500 United Steelworkers members at the 245,000 barrel per day Richmond, California, facility went off the job early on Monday after members rejected a Chevron contract proposal over the weekend. The walkout is the first in more than 40 years at the plant, which is a major supplier of gasoline, jet fuel and diesel fuel. The last strike, in 1980, continued for five months, said United Steelworkers union local 5 First Vice President B.K. White.”We are waiting for Chevron to come to the table,” White said in an interview outside the gates as truck drivers blared their horns in support. The union is prepared to “stay put until we get a fair and equitable contract,” he added. NO IMPACT AT THE PUMPCalifornia, which has some of the highest fuel prices in the nation, is unlikely to feel an impact, said fuel analysts. Wholesale California gasoline prices fell 21.5 cents and 13 cents per gallon, respectively, in the Los Angeles and San Francisco markets on Monday, traders said. A gallon of unleaded regular gasoline in the state on Monday sold on average for $5.86 and a gallon of diesel for $6.26, according to motorist group AAA.”A strike at a refinery is not necessarily a catastrophic event in terms of prices and supply. Motorists, at least at this point, are not likely to notice anything,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. Chevron is continuing to operate the facility and remains willing to engage in further discussions with the union, said spokesman Tyler Kruzich.The company began replacing union workers at the controls of production units on Sunday evening with managers, technical staff and others. NO NEW TALKS SET No plans for a resumption of contract talks have been set.”The strike potential scares folks, but in reality and in the short term, it shouldn’t affect anything,” said one Los Angeles fuel trader, who spoke on condition of anonymity to preserve business relationships. “It’s different here in California where strikers don’t get violent,” the trader said. “Refinery management should be able to operate the refinery at least as well as union crews.”Still, U.S. gasoline futures jumped 4.5% in New York on reports that European Union officials are weighing a ban of Russian petroleum over the country’s invasion of Ukraine, said Devin Gladden, a spokesperson at motorist group AAA.The USW union local at the plant has asked for a 5% pay increase above that agreed last month under a national labor agreement because of the higher cost of living in the San Francisco Bay Area. It also wants the company to add staffing to reduce the 60-70 hours that union members must sometimes work, the USW’s White told Reuters. More

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Sharp moves in the U.S. Treasury market are increasingly pointing to the risk of an approaching recession, with “bond vigilantes coming out of the woodwork” and markets doubting the U.S. Federal Reserve’s plan to engineer a “soft landing” for the economy as it hikes interest rates to fight inflation, market experts said.Fed Chair Jerome Powell said on Monday the U.S. central bank must move “expeditiously” to bring too-high inflation to heel and that it could use bigger-than-usual interest rate hikes if needed. Bond yields, which move inversely to prices, spiked while the U.S. Treasury yield curve continued its flattening trend. “The market seems to be challenging the soft-landing view for the U.S. economy that the Fed argued at the March FOMC meeting”, BofA strategists said.The U.S. Treasury yield curve reflects “recession risks, and not just through the curve’s extreme flatness at the inception of the Fed tightening cycle,” the strategists said.The closely followed part of the yield curve measured between 10-year and two-year Treasuries has narrowed by about 60 basis points since the start of the year, with the longer-dated notes now yielding less than 20 basis points more than two-year debt.Any inversion of that part of the curve, when shorter notes yield more than longer ones, is generally seen as presaging a recession by six to 24 months. “The yield curve does look ominous,” wrote Christopher Murphy, Co-Head of Derivatives Strategy at Susquehanna Financial Group, although he said an inversion does not always guarantee a recession.Melissa Brown, Global Head of Applied Research at Qontigo, said the yield curve is reflecting a shift in market views on the ability of the Fed to tighten monetary policy just enough to reduce inflation without throwing the economy into a recession.”The market perhaps is assuming that they can’t thread that needle … it’s going to be tough to not drive us into recession”, she said.Still, Powell on Monday said he did not see an elevated likelihood of a recession in the next year and others are skeptical of such an event.That prompted Federal funds rate futures on Monday to raise the chances of a half percentage-point tightening at the next policy meeting in May.Analysts at NatWest said Powell was clearly “warning of risks to 50bp hike(s) at the coming meetings,” which they said sent Treasuries into “free fall.” When asked on Monday about concerns on what the yield curve is saying, Powell said that he focused on the short end of the curve, meaning the first 18 months of maturities. Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) said in a research note on Sunday that an inversion of the yield curve was possible in the second quarter this year, but that an inversion does not necessarily anticipate a recession.”However, it does support our view for sharply decelerating earnings growth”, it said.For Tim Holland, chief investment adviser at Orion Advisor Solutions, a recession is not imminent, despite the flat curve.Another part of the curve which compares three-month bills with 10-year notes has steepened this year, from 145 basis points on Dec. 31 to 181.54 basis points on Monday.”If the past 30 years is any guide, both parts of the curve need to flatten and invert before we are at risk of recession”, he said.Powell’s speech on Monday at a National Association for Business Economics conference caught some market participants off guard as they seemed more hawkish than his remarks after the Fed last Wednesday raised the federal funds rate by 25 basis points.Yields spiked on Monday with the 10-year benchmark note up to a yield of 2.298% from 2.153% on Friday – the highest since May 2019. Yields of two-year Treasuries, which more closely reflect monetary policy expectations, jumped to 2.111% from 1.942% on Friday.”What you saw today is Powell basically throwing the towel, he said he’s going to do whatever it takes, and it took the market a little bit back”, said Andrew Brenner, head of international fixed income at National Alliance Securities. Brenner described the bond market behaviour as that of bond vigilantes – when investors insist on high yields to compensate for the risk of inflation.”Bond vigilantes have come out of the woodwork,” Brenner said, adding he saw a large amount of selling in the futures market, particularly concentrated in five-year futures. More