Aurelia Butler

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Democratic Senator Joe Manchin said on Monday that White House staff did “inexcusable” things that led to his decision to publicly reject President Joe Biden’s social and climate policy plan, a move that imperils the legislation.Manchin made the comments during an interview on West Virginia MetroNews radio, after telling Fox News on Sunday he would not https://www.reuters.com/world/us/senator-manchin-says-he-is-no-bidens-domestic-investment-bill-fox-interview-2021-12-19 be able to vote for the $1.75 trillion Build Back Better bill.Manchin said he would not say “the real reason” talks failed.But when asked what that was, he said: “The bottom line is … it’s staff. It’s staff purely. … It’s not the president. It’s staff. And they drove some things and put some things out that were absolutely inexcusable.”White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement on Sunday that Manchin’s halting negotiations on the bill would represent a “sudden and inexplicable reversal in his position, and a breach of his commitments to the President and the Senator’s colleagues in the House and Senate.” Manchin’s move prompted Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) to lower its forecasts https://www.reuters.com/markets/funds/goldman-sachs-cuts-us-gdp-forecast-after-manchin-retreats-bidens-bill-2021-12-20 for U.S. economic growth. A Manchin aide called the White House shortly before the senator’s Fox interview, people familiar with the matter said. The White House was unable to reach the senator directly in response before he announced on air that he was done with the discussions.Biden and Manchin spoke on Sunday night, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity, leading to some hope that talks can continue in the new year on cordial terms.Manchin has voiced concerns with a number of proposals in Biden’s signature domestic policy bill, including multiple climate proposals and extending monthly child tax credit payments https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-sends-final-poverty-busting-monthly-child-tax-credit-payment-2021-12-15, which Columbia University said lifted 3.6 million children out of poverty in October. The senator has also been frustrated by statements from the administration singling him out as an obstacle, according to a person familiar with his thinking who spoke on condition of anonymity. Manchin has blocked its passing for weeks https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-congress-november-agenda-not-faint-heart-2021-11-01; a Dec. 16 statement https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/12/16/statement-from-the-president-on-the-build-back-better-act from Biden mentioned Manchin by name, saying “I believe that we will bridge our differences” in the “ongoing” discussions. A proposal outline Manchin submitted to the White House last week included $1.8 trillion in funding over 10 years, as Biden had hoped, but no child tax credit, the Washington Post reported on Monday.Manchin’s support is crucial in a chamber where the Democrats have the slimmest margin of control and Republicans are united in their opposition to the bill.Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Monday he plans to move forward with a vote early next year anyway.During the interview on Monday, Manchin said he told Schumer in July that he would only support $1.5 trillion in spending, or up to $1.75 trillion with improved tax reform elements.The current proposal is too close to the initial one, he said. Every time Manchin and the White House took something out, the bill went back to the House of Representatives and “they put everything back in,” he said.A leading liberal House Democrat, Representative Pramila Jayapal, offered a scathing appraisal of her colleague.”That lack of integrity is stunning in a town where people say the only thing you have is your word.” More

China’s voracious appetite for natural gas has sparked a wave of deals with US exporters of the fuel, strengthening energy trade between the world’s two biggest economies even as their relationship grows more fraught. The latest sales were announced on Monday when Venture Global LNG, a company building a pair of liquefied natural gas export plants in Louisiana, said it had agreed two contracts to ship 3.5m tonnes a year of the fuel to state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation, the country’s biggest LNG importer. The Cnooc deals bring to seven the number of big contracts signed between US exporters and Chinese customers since October. Some of the contracts last decades. China is poised to surpass Japan as the world’s largest LNG buyer this year, analysts say, while the US will leapfrog Australia and Qatar in LNG export capacity next year, according to its Energy Information Administration. Tensions between Washington and Beijing have escalated over everything from China’s persecution of Uyghurs in Xinjiang and the crackdown on the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong to its military activity near Taiwan. China has meanwhile accused the US of acting like a hegemon and trying to create a cold war between the powers. The gas sales, by contrast, are another sign of ties between the two powers on energy and climate issues. The two governments also defied expectations to reach an agreement on addressing climate change at last month’s COP26 summit in Glasgow and have negotiated a joint release of strategic oil stockpiles to cool prices.“The US-China relationship in many respects is at a very low point,” said Jason Bordoff, dean at Columbia Climate School and a former energy official under president Barack Obama. “But energy and climate are a potential bright spot where there can be more co-operation notwithstanding the tension and conflict.” Venture Global had already signed agreements in November to send 4m tonnes a year of LNG to China’s state-owned oil and gas group Sinopec for 20 years, along with shorter-term agreements totalling 3.5m tonnes with its trading subsidiary Unipec. One of the new contracts with Cnooc is also for 20 years. Mike Sabel, Venture Global chief executive, said China’s efforts to cut carbon emissions by replacing coal with natural gas in power plants was behind the agreements. The Sinopec deal had been timed to deliver a good message before the climate summit, he added. “China is moving faster right now on these new deals than the rest of Asia,” Sabel told the Financial Times. “But as we announce these deals, the rest of the countries will [respond] — and are responding — because otherwise China will get an advantage.”“We’re at this extraordinary moment where the world really needs US LNG and US LNG is the fastest that can come on line,” he added. Cheniere Energy, the largest US LNG exporter, is betting on China to underpin growth. The Houston-based company has recently secured deals with buyers including state-backed Sinochem that total 3m tonnes a year. “We think that Asia is the growth driver for our industry for LNG demand for decades to come, and China is the single biggest piece in that,” Anatol Feygin, Cheniere’s chief commercial officer, told the FT in October. Dealmaking and gas flows are picking up after stalling during the Trump administration, when China imposed tariffs on US gas in retaliation for tariffs on its exports. Chinese companies have been seeking secure supplies of gas amid an economically damaging power crunch and a global gas price jump. The US was the second-largest LNG supplier to China in the first nine months of this year, according to trade data compiled by Refinitiv. It was behind only Australia — another country whose relations with Beijing have been deteriorating. “China is getting half its LNG from Australia and the US — that can’t make Beijing happy,” said Nikos Tsafos, head of energy and geopolitics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think-tank. “But they have to go where the projects are, and that’s where they are right now.”Xi Jinping, Chinese president, told his US counterpart Joe Biden that he wanted to “strengthen co-operation on natural gas” during the leaders’ first meeting last month, according to a summary of the call from China’s foreign ministry, a sign that Beijing sees the country as central to its fuel supply. Yet selling gas overseas has become more politically sensitive inside the US after a rally recently took domestic prices above $6 a million British thermal units, the highest since 2008. Elizabeth Warren, an influential Democratic senator, sent a letter to chief executives of 11 big natural gas producers including ExxonMobil and BP, asking if the companies had “considered cutting, suspending, or ending exports of natural gas to help ease spiking domestic prices”.Some gas executives have pushed back, describing LNG exports as an opportunity for the US to help other countries to retire coal-fired electricity plants in favour of natural gas plants.Bordoff at Columbia Climate School said any move to curtail exports would undermine confidence in America as a “reliable energy supplier”. He drew a parallel with European countries’ concerns about their reliance on Russian supplies, which “do have a political and geopolitical dimension to them”. The booming international gas trade is also politically awkward for the Biden administration as it pushes to shift the economy away from fossil fuels. While natural gas emits less carbon dioxide than coal when it is burnt, it is still a big source of greenhouse gas emissions. Tsafos at the CSIS think-tank said it reflected the “messy reality of the energy transition” — that the world remains heavily reliant on fossil fuels and the US is a large producer of oil and gas.“The fact is, this is making both sides a bit uncomfortable,” he said. More

LONDON (Reuters) – British business confidence began to feel the impact of the Omicron variant of coronavirus this month, alongside further upward pressure on prices and staffing costs, a survey showed on Tuesday.Lloyds (LON:LLOY) Bank said its monthly business confidence survey, conducted between Nov. 26 and Dec. 10, held steady at 40% this month, well above its long-run average of 28%.However, responses weakened in the second week of the survey when the impact of the Omicron variant began to become clearer, with sentiment falling back to 32%, similar to during the spring and summer.Last week IHS Markit purchasing managers’ data showed activity growth fell to a 10-month low this month.”Businesses face into a number of headwinds and challenging trading conditions, including higher interest rates, as we move into 2022, but many remain resilient and hopeful that acute downside risks are not realised,” said Hann-Ju Ho, senior economist at Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking.The Bank of England raised its main interest rate to 0.25% from 0.1% last week – despite seeing a short-term hit to growth from Omicron – and its chief economist said further rate rises were likely if price pressures did not ease.Lloyds survey showed 45% of businesses expected to raise prices in December, up from 44% in November, as wage pressures – an especial concern for the BoE – increased further.”Pay expectations continue to show strength, reaching new highs of 48% and 26% for firms expecting average pay growth of 2% and 3% respectively,” Lloyds said. Some 14% of businesses expected to raise pay by at least 4%, the bank added.The pay expectations are broadly in line with those of other surveys. More

HONG KONG (Reuters) – After China’s year of unprecedented crackdowns, roiling markets and halting deals, bankers and lawyers expect tighter scrutiny to continue in 2022 but say clearer rules will give investors some certainty about the regulatory environment.Over the past year, Beijing has clamped down on antitrust violations, banned private tuition groups, reined in property developers’ debt binge, and made some offshore listings close to impossible.Analysts expect those actions to extend into the new year with particular focus on data protection and deals that present national security risks while authorities also seek to step up control on private enterprise.”Investors have been forced to consider a series of new regulatory risks over the last year, and those fears are not going to disappear any time soon,” said Logan Wright, director of China markets research at Rhodium Group.”We’ve also seen some bureaucratic institutions successfully expanding their purviews in recent months, which broadens the range of potential regulatory concerns for investors next year,” he said.China in November elevated the status of the antitrust unit of the State Administration for Market Regulation to the deputy-ministerial-level, a bureaucratic promotion that gives it more access to resources for probing deals.In a sign of new measures to come, Reuters reported last week that regulators are planning to ban online brokerages from offering offshore trading services to mainland clients due to concerns about data security and capital outflows.Separately, Beijing has expanded its practice of taking minority stakes in private companies, once limited to news outlets, to firms possessing large amounts of key data, sources have told Reuters.Alex Roberts, a Shanghai-based counsel at Linklaters, said regulators will also look deeper into the network security of big technology companies and expects greater overlap of data and antitrust regulators’ supervisory objectives.Those regulatory moves come as China heads into a critical year with President Xi Jinping almost certain to secure a historic third term as Communist Party leader.”The tightening (government) controls are unprecedented in the years since Deng Xiaoping gradually opened the economy,” said Andrew Collier, managing director of Hong Kong-based Orient Capital Research.REGULATORY UNCERTAINTY The actions align with Xi’s economic agenda, which focuses on tighter party control of the private sector, more equal wealth distribution and stronger emphasis on morality in business.”I don’t think the regulatory structure is yet complete. It will take a couple years to work out,” said Collier.The regulatory uncertainty has made investors, especially private equity and venture funds, cautious where they put their money, resulting in longer due diligence and tougher valuation negotiations, said bankers.As a result, many investors have shifted their focus to sectors seen as favoured by the government, such as semiconductors, new energy-related technology and areas that support China’s carbon reduction goals, they added.Dealmakers are, however, expecting clarity on China’s newly proposed offshore listing regime that will involve data screening from the country’s powerful cybersecurity and securities watchdogs.The Cybersecurity Administration of China (CAC) in the coming months will finalise draft rules that subject data-rich companies pursuing offshore listings to inspections if they handle data that concerns national security.At the same time, the securities regulator is expected to step up scrutiny on Chinese companies that list overseas through variable interest entity structures, historically used by firms in sensitive industries, such as communications, as a way to skirt foreign investment rules.”2022 will be the year when the detailed regulatory rules land,” said Chu Yang, a Hong Kong-based partner at law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell.”There is a general expectation that regulatory uncertainty in this area would ease next year, especially given the much anticipated release of rules relating to red-chip listing in the coming months.” More

(Reuters) -Nike Inc beat quarterly revenue and profit estimates on Monday, lifted by strong demand for its sports shoes and apparel in North America, and said it was more confident of easing supply chain issues in its next fiscal year.The company’s shares rose 3.7% in extended trading. Nike (NYSE:NKE)’s second-quarter sales in North America, its largest market, jumped 12%, as a reopening U.S. economy and the roll out of vaccines gave people confidence to rush back to stores and splurge on sneakers for running and hiking.”Nike is doing well to get in as much inventory as possible. Long term, I don’t see the momentum going away from the company because the products are so highly coveted by consumers,” said Jessica Ramirez, retail analyst at Jane Hali & Associates.The sportswear maker said its direct-to-consumer business had record Black Friday sales in North America despite supply constraints heading into the holiday season due to months-long factory closures in Vietnam, where about half of all Nike footwear is manufactured.However, those supply issues and fresh COVID-19 lockdowns led to a 20% fall in Nike’s revenue in Greater China in the second quarter.Nike said weekly footwear and apparel production was at roughly 80% of pre-closure volumes at its now fully open factories in Vietnam.The closures caused Nike to cancel production of roughly 130 million units, Chief Financial Officer Matt Friend said. The company’s overall revenue rose 1% to $11.36 billion in the second quarter, beating estimates of $11.25 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. The company expects a low single-digit rise in third-quarter revenue compared to estimates of a 2.5% increase.Nike’s profit of 83 cents per share beat estimates of 63 cents. More

The combined tax income of central and regional government in Europe’s largest economy rose 10.2% in the first 11 months of the year, according to the report. Experts expect about a 9% rise for the full-year.Still, the recovery that drove Germany’s rise in tax income has waned of late due to a fourth COVID-19 wave and supply bottlenecks, according to the report.Supply chains that were broken by the pandemic are struggling to recover, partly because of fresh outbreaks and resulting restrictions on public life that continue to impact production and transport, the ministry said. Sea trade for example is continuously disrupted by quarantine measures in certain ports.”The supply difficulties should last throughout winter and could weigh on retail as well as industry,” the ministry said.Inflation, currently running at 5.2% – its highest rate in nearly 30 years – should ease slightly in the new year, it wrote. More