Aurelia Butler

At least 24 people have died and tens of thousands have been left homeless as record rains hit parts of the northeast, causing some dams to fail.Bolsonaro’s statement on Friday follows a Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) post on Thursday in which he said Brazilian authorities were already providing the services offered by Argentina. His comments drew a quick rebuke from the governor of hard-hit Bahia state, who said local authorities would welcome help from any nation and that foreign countries should feel free to contact the state directly.($1 = 5.5703 reais) More

According to Refinitiv Lipper data, U.S. equity funds lured net purchases of $19.43 billion, compared with their average weekly inflow of $2.3 billion, received this year.Graphic: Fund flows: U.S. equities, bonds and money market funds- https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/myvmnbnqqpr/Fund%20flows%20U.S.%20equities%20bonds%20and%20money%20market%20funds.jpgWall Street’s main indexes posted solid gains this week. The S&P 500 and the Dow marked a record high on Thursday as some early studies on Omicron cases pointed to a reduced risk of hospitalization, easing concerns about the variant’s impact on the economy.Sentiments were also boosted by reports suggesting that U.S. retailers’ holiday sales were strong.U.S. growth and value funds both posted a second straight week of inflows with net purchases of $7.69 billion and $2.36 billion respectively.Graphic: Fund flows: US growth and value funds- https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/movanwnbzpa/Fund%20flows%20US%20growth%20and%20value%20funds.jpgAmong sector funds, financials and real estate funds drew inflows of $1.2 billion and $785 million respectively, although tech and consumer staples funds witnessed outflows of $592 million and $413 million respectively.Graphic: Fund flows: US equity sector funds- https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/gkvlgbgqkpb/Fund%20flows%20US%20equity%20sector%20funds.jpgU.S. bond funds secured inflows of $6.31 billion, their biggest weekly inflow in seven weeks.Investors purchased U.S. taxable bond funds of $5.27 billion, marking the biggest weekly inflow since Nov. 10, while municipal bond funds saw net buying worth $1.13 billion.U.S. general domestic taxable fixed income funds drew inflows of $1.93 billion, the largest in seven weeks. U.S. short/intermediate government and treasury funds and inflation protected funds attracted $929 million and $637 million respectively.Graphic: https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/zdvxoqojepx/Fund%20flows%20US%20bond%20funds.jpgMeanwhile, U.S. money market funds saw net purchases worth $32.71 billion, their biggest weekly inflow since Oct. 27. More

Monzo did not disclose details of Tencent’s stake, but Sky News earlier on Friday reported that the Chinese firm was investing a minority of a $100 million capital injection, citing a source close to the process. Tencent did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Founded in 2015, Monzo is a high-profile neobank with more than 5 million customers but has struggled to turn a profit, with annual losses widening last year as it disclosed it was facing a potential civil and criminal money laundering probe. Earlier this month, Monzo received funding from investors such as Abu Dhabi Growth Fund and Coatue. Tencent holds stakes in major U.S. tech companies, including electric-car maker Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Inc and photo-messaging app maker Snap Inc (NYSE:SNAP). More

NAIROBI (Reuters) -Kenya’s economy rebounded in the third quarter of the year following the easing of measures aimed at curbing COVID-19’s spread, the finance minister and the statistics office said on Friday.The economy grew 9.9% year-on-year during the quarter, compared with a contraction of 2.1% in the same period in 2020, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) said.In 2020 the economy was hammered by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which slashed tourist flows into the country.”Economic recovery from the effects of COVID-19 pandemic continued in the third quarter of 2021 as a result of easing of containment measures,” Yatani said on his Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) account.”This follows an earlier impressive second quarter performance of 10.1% of real GDP growth.”The statistics office said there was growth of 24.8% in the accommodation and food-serving activities sector, which also includes tourism. The sector had contracted by 63.4% in the third quarter of 2020.”However, sector activities picked up in the review period after relaxation of most of the restriction measures in the fourth quarter of 2020,” KNBS said. Other sectors whose performance improved was manufacturing, which expanded 9.5%. However, agriculture, forestry and fishing contracted 1.8%, compared with 4.2% growth in the third quarter of 2020, the statistics office said.”The dismal performance of the sector was evident in the significant decline in fruit exports, cane deliveries, tea production and coffee exports,” it said.”In addition, unfavourable weather conditions experienced in most parts of the country impacted negatively on production of food crops during the review quarter.”The finance ministry forecasts economic growth of 5.9% for 2021 as a whole, Yatani said in a Dec. 2 letter to the International Monetary Fund.In late October, President Uhuru Kenyatta scrapped a night-time curfew that had been in place since March 2020, in a move that was expected to help reinvigorate the economy. More

The funds pulled in $30.08 billion in net buying, compared with purchases of $35.83 billion in the previous week, which was their largest weekly inflow in nine months.Graphic: Fund flows: Global equities bonds and money market-https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/jnvwejejgvw/Fund%20flows-%20Global%20equities%20bonds%20and%20money%20market.jpgThe MSCI’s global equity index gained 4.3% in a seven-day rally up to Dec. 29 as investors cheered signs that Omicron is less likely to lead to hospitalization, and that some vaccines are effective against the variant. Sentiments were also boosted by signs that governments are trying to limit economic damage by relaxing rules on isolation and delaying COVID curbs, rather than resorting to lockdowns. U.S. equity funds secured $19.43 billion in net buying, while European and Asian funds attracted $5.62 billion and $1.44 billion respectively. Among equity sector funds, financials received $1.3 billion in net buying, the most in 10 weeks, and healthcare attracted $332 million, although consumer staples, utilities and tech funds saw outflows of $380 million, $338 million and $285 million respectively.Graphic: Fund flows: Global equity sector funds-https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/akvezezeqpr/Fund%20flows-%20Global%20equity%20sector%20%20funds.jpgInvestors purchased global bond funds of $10.79 billion, their biggest net buying in eight weeks. Global high-yield funds pulled in $2.64 billion in net buying, the biggest inflow in seven weeks, while corporate bond funds drew $1.74 billion and inflation-linked funds $875 million. Meanwhile, purchases in government bond funds dropped 51% from the previous week to $1.88 billion.Graphic: Global bond fund flows in the week ended Dec 29-https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/klpykqkqmpg/Global%20bond%20fund%20flows%20in%20the%20week%20ended%20Dec%2029.jpgGlobal money market funds witnessed their first weekly net purchase in three weeks, worth $37.82 billion. Within commodity funds, energy funds saw outflows of $81 million, marking a third straight week of net selling, while precious metal funds faced marginal outflows of $2 million. An analysis of 24,066 emerging market funds showed equity funds attracted $2.18 billion, their largest weekly inflow in over two months, while bond funds received $386 million, the first inflow in three weeks.Graphic: Fund flows: EM equities and bonds-https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/lgvdwjwjopo/Fund%20flows-%20EM%20equities%20and%20bonds.jpg More

LONDON (Reuters) – Stock markets dipped on Friday in thin trading but were set to see in the New Year with double-digit gains for 2021, while oil prices retreated from $80 a barrel following their biggest annual rise since 2009. The U.S. dollar, which has had its best year since 2015 with a 6.7% rise, was steady against most major currencies.With several markets in Asia and Europe closed on Friday, trading volumes were thin and most markets directionless.Britain’s FTSE 100, an underperformer throughout 2021, fell 0.4%. Wall Street futures pointed to a lower open, extending a late pullback on Thursday.The MSCI World Index was marginally higher and remains just 0.5% off record levels. The index has surged 17% in 2021, its third consecutive year of double-digit gains. A growing number of countries are reporting record daily cases of COVID-19 because of the Omicron variant, and New Year celebrations were being scaled back by uncertainty about the spread of the virus. But after initially tumbling in December, stocks have recovered over the holiday period as investors became reassured economies could handle the surge in Omicron cases, and are heading back towards record highs. “As far as COVID is concerned, for now, market participants may stay willing to add to their risk exposures, and perhaps push equity indices to new highs, as several nations around the globe held off from imposing fresh lockdowns, despite record infections around the globe the last few days,” said Charalambos Pissouros, head of research at Cyprus-based brokerage JFD Group.Investors have held on to the resilience of the global recovery into 2022 and the prospect of further gains if money remains cheap and corporate profitability so high.This year’s “everything rally” has seen a wall of cheap central bank cash, government stimulus and strong economic rebounds out of the pandemic make it hard not to profit from soaring asset prices.U.S. stocks have powered the global rally as record-breaking earnings figures from Big Tech companies excited investors. This week the S&P 500 also hit another record high.Commodity prices have enjoyed a strong year too, with supply often falling short of a jump in demand as economies reopened.On the last day of the year, Brent crude futures dropped 0.8% to $78.87 a barrel and U.S. crude oil weakened 0.94% $76.27 a barrel. But both Brent and WTI are up more than 50% in 2021, spurred by the global economic recovery and producer restraint.Graphic:Global asset market performance in 2021-https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/lgpdwjwqlvo/global%20asset%20price%20ytd.PNGIn economic news, China’s factory activity unexpectedly accelerated in December, but only by a slim margin, an official survey showed, with analysts foreseeing more economic headwinds in the near term.Chinese shares, one of the few Asian markets open on Friday, closed higher, ending a tough year on a high. The blue-chip CSI300 index has lost 5.2% this year, its worst annual performance in three years. LIRA BACKSLIDINGThe euro, which has dropped 7.4% this year as investors bet the European Central Bank would be slower to end pandemic-era stimulus than rival central banks, rose 0.1% to hold above $1.13.Japan’s yen, which has lost more than 11% to the dollar in 2021, dipped slightly again to 115.1 yen per dollar – not far from four-year lows touched earlier this month.Sterling was little changed against the dollar and the euro. The pound remains down for the year against the dollar but looks set for its best year since 2014 versus the euro. On Friday it rose to as high as 83.69 pence, its strongest since February 2020. Elsewhere in currency markets, Turkey’s lira – by far the biggest currency loser in 2021 – fell for a fifth straight day.This week’s falls have eroded the big gains the lira made a week earlier as investors fret about the country’s unorthodox monetary policy and rising inflation, and that President Tayyip Erdogan’s plan to defend lira deposits unveiled this month won’t work.Government bond markets were mostly closed.Crytocurrency prices rose, reversing some of their losses earlier in the week. Bitcoin added 2% to $48,091 and Ether gained a similar amount to $3,778. More