Aurelia Butler

Click here to listen to the latest news in less than three minutes. Top Stories Today is an audio news digest that gets you up to speed on the day’s headlines.The US is delaying a deal to remove Trump-era tariffs on UK steel and aluminium because Washington is concerned about London’s threats to change post-Brexit trading rules in Northern Ireland.Brussels and Washington have repeatedly warned London that unilaterally changing the EU-UK accord that sealed Britain’s exit from the bloc in 2020 could threaten peace on the island of Ireland.In a communication seen by the Financial Times, a US commerce department official stated that talks on easing metals tariffs could not move ahead because of US concerns at British threats to trigger Article 16, a safeguard clause in the post-Brexit Northern Ireland protocol. The clause overrides part of the UK’s exit with the EU and would suspend checks on goods travelling to Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK.Thanks for reading FirstFT Americas and here’s the rest of today’s news — GordonFive more stories in the news1. US Supreme Court justices appear willing to put curbs on abortion rights Opening arguments were made yesterday in the most significant challenge to abortion rights in the US for generations. The case is the first to contest the 1973 Roe vs Wade ruling since former president Donald Trump appointed Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, giving conservative justices a 6-3 majority.2. ExxonMobil declares new carbon emission goals The US energy supermajor said it aimed to reduce company-wide greenhouse gas intensity by 20-30 per cent by 2030 after meeting a previous 2025 target earlier this year. But Andrew Logan, senior director for oil and gas at Ceres, which co-ordinates investor action on climate change, said the new emissions targets were “grossly inadequate”.3. US defence secretary raises alarm about China’s hypersonic weapon test Lloyd Austin said China’s development and test of a hypersonic weapon had increased tensions in the Indo-Pacific region and underscored why China was the top challenge for the American military. The comments follow a warning yesterday from former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would amount to “economic suicide”.4. Turkey’s finance minister resigns Lutfi Elvan, who was seen as the last remaining voice of economic orthodoxy in President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s cabinet, has been replaced by a loyalist amid a plunge in the lira and surging inflation.5. Epstein accuser testifies she was introduced to Trump A woman who is now in her 40s told a New York court yesterday that the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein took her to the Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida to meet Donald Trump when she was 14 years old. Catch up on the trial here.Related read: Epstein was among those Apollo co-founder Leon Black told of “extortion” threats it emerged in a court filing this week.Coronavirus digestUS health officials said an individual in California returning from South Africa on November 22 had contracted the Omicron variant of coronavirus, making it the first case of the new strain to be identified in the country.Rising infections, a new variant and the reimposition of pandemic restrictions are threatening the eurozone’s economic rebound, with fewer people going out to shop, eat at restaurants and visit cinemas, high frequency data show.The UK will purchase an additional 114m doses of vaccine for use over the next two years, including modified jabs for tackling future variants.KPMG has told its UK auditors that they will be expected in the office at client sites four days a week in the future. Multi-manager hedge funds, which trade a wide range of assets and strategies, are driving traders’ pay sky-high after thriving during the coronavirus crisis.The day aheadCovid curbs President Joe Biden is expected to announce a series of new measures designed to slow the spread of the virus over the winter, including free rapid tests, an extended mask mandate on public transport and stricter testing requirements for international travellers.Data Filings for unemployment benefits are expected to have picked up again last week from their lowest level since 1969. The data come ahead of Friday’s nonfarm payroll report. Brazil, Latin America’s biggest economy, is expected to report that gross domestic product was unchanged in the third quarter, but up 4.3 per cent compared with the same quarter last year.Earnings A handful of retailers are due to report results, including Dollar General, Kroger and Ulta Beauty, with investors watching for updates on supply chain disruptions and price pressures.Opec+ meeting Oil producing countries, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, meet in a week that has seen oil prices plunge 20 per cent amid fears surrounding the Omicron variant and its impact on energy demand. What else we’re readingThe FT’s 25 most influential women of 2021 The FT this year asked some of the most prominent women in the world to submit their entries for the most influential women of 2021 including Jane Fraser, Christine Lagarde, Elizabeth Warren and Billie Jean King.

Across continents, industries and issues, all of these remarkable women have shaped this tumultuous year © Freya Betts

Reaction to Jay Powell’s hawkish pivot on inflation The Federal Reserve chair this week in effect jettisoned the US central’s bank dovish stance on inflation and made combating rising prices the top priority. Colby Smith reports on the reaction of economists and market participants to the shift. Thanks you to all our readers who shared their own responses, including this one from Larry Rand:Inflation is not transitory and if not reined in becomes pernicious and chronic. Biden should worry as well. Inflation ended the presidencies of Ford and Carter. Benjamin Netanyahu’s uneven return to power Once the most important person in Israel, the five-time premier faces a criminal prosecution for alleged corruption that blocks his path back to government. His next big opportunity, however, may come in late 2023.China’s fight against financial fraud Tens of thousands of citizens are falling victim to financial fraud, a crime that has become a fact of life in the world’s second-largest economy, which boasts a fast-growing middle-to-high income population. Now a nationwide anti-fraud education campaign aims to combat the scammers. But is it effective?FT/McKinsey book of the year Nicole Perlroth’s sobering investigation into the cyber weapons arms race, This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends, was last night named Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year for 2021. “Cyber security isn’t featuring highly enough on CEOs’ agenda,” said FT editor Roula Khalaf, who chaired the judges. “I hope this award will prompt them to read this book and pay attention.”GiftsInterior design columnist Luke Edward Hall recommends “utterly covetable” gifts for the home. His favourite picks include fabulous Christmas decorations to rare tomes on art, interiors, gardens and design as well as kitchen gadgets.

Handblown baubles from Choosing Keeping More

Investing.com — OPEC and its allies meet to decide whether or not to continue raising output in January. President Joe Biden tightens restrictions on incoming travelers as the Omicron variant of Covid-19 arrives in the U.S. and gains momentum in South Africa (it’s still unclear how deadly the new variant is and whether existing drugs will protect against it). Stocks are set to bounce from two-month lows but, again, the bounce is smaller than the preceding decline, not helped by weakness in Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL). Initial jobless claims are due. Here’s what you need to know in financial markets on Thursday, 2nd December. 1. OPEC+ meets with production increases in doubtThe Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries will meet with its allies (led by Russia) to set their output policy for January. Newswire reports cite sources close to the organization as saying that they will discuss whether to suspend a planned production increase of 400,000 barrels a day in January, responding to the threat to demand posed by the new Omicron variant of Covid-19 (of which, more below) and to the move by the U.S., China and other big importers to start releasing oil from their strategic reserves. The meeting comes after two sets of data showing that U.S. inventories fell by less than expected last week, suggesting a weakening of final demand due to high prices and other factors. The cartel had already warned in its last monthly report of the global market tipping into surplus early next year, even before the discovery of Omicron. By 6.30 AM ET (1130 GMT), U.S. crude futures were up 1.3% at $66.39 a barrel, while Brent crude was up 1.1% at $69.63 a barrel. 2. Omicron arrives in U.S., builds momentum in South AfricaThe number of Covid-19 cases in South Africa nearly doubled on Wednesday, with 74% of all new cases being attributable to the Omicron variant. That statistic strongly suggests it will soon displace Delta as the dominant strain of the disease that has spread across the world in the last two years. Although it appears more transmissible than Delta, uncertainty still reigns as to how deadly the new strain will prove to be. Australia’s Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said overnight there was no evidence to suggest it posed a greater threat of serious illness. The first case of Omicron in the U.S. was confirmed in San Francisco on Wednesday, a development that appeared to surprise markets more than it did U.S. health authorities. Anthony Fauci said it had only been “a mattter of time”. President Joe Biden announced tighter testing restrictions on incoming travelers, meanwhile. 3. Stocks set to open higher; Apple weakens after iPhone demand reportU.S. stock markets are set to open higher, recovering from the Omicron-induced selloff on Wednesday. However, as has been the pattern for the last week, the rebounds are just the retracement, while the impulse remains clearly negative. By 6:30 AM ET, Dow Jones Futures were up 264 points, or 0.8%, while S&P 500 Futures were up 0.4% and Nasdaq 100 Futures were up 0.2%. Stocks likely to be in focus later include Crowdstrike (NASDAQ:CRWD) and Splunk (NASDAQ:SPLK), both of which impressed with their earnings after the closing bell on Wednesday. Dollar General (NYSE:DG), Kroger (NYSE:KR) and Marvell (NASDAQ:MRVL) all report earnings early. Also in focus will be Apple, which was down 1.5% in premarket trading after a Bloomberg report indicating that demand for its latest batch of iPhones is weakening due to price and availability issues, and GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK), which said its experimental antiviral drug Sotrovimab appeared in early trials to be effective against all known Covid variants including Omicron.4. Jobless claimsSandwiched between the ADP payrolls report and the official labor market report on Friday comes the most up-to-date health check from the labor market, with weekly jobless claims data at 8:30 AM ET. Analysts expect initial claims to have ticked back up to 240,000 last week, up from a multi-decade low of under 200,000 the week before.The Challenger job cuts survey for November, due at 7:30 AM, is also likely to show a picture of employers slowing job cuts in an environment where the economy is performing well and new workers are hard to come by.There is also a bunch of Fedspeak in the course of the day, with outgoing banking supervisory head Randall Quarles speaking at 10 AM ET, followed at 11:30 AM ET by Richmond’s Tom Barkin, Atlanta’s Raphael Bostic and San Francisco’s Mary Daly. Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester had said on Wednesday that the Fed needed to phase out its asset purchases more quickly next year in order to create space for any interest rate increases that should be needed.5. MLB lockoutAnd finally, labor’s struggle for a bigger slice of the pie is getting real. Agricultural equipment giant Deere (NYSE:DE) may have agreed to a significant pay raise for its UAW staff and cereal maker Kellogg (NYSE:K) reached a tentative deal over pay with labor unions, but the franchise owners of Major League Baseball are drawing a line in the sand.Talks on a new collective bargaining deal with players representatives broke down on Wednesday, and owners immediately called for a lockout that will suspend all offseason transactions and may disrupt the start of training in February. More

The internet watchdog said in a statement that Beijing authorities fined Douban’s operating entity 1.5 million yuan ($235,000) and regulators demanded “immediate rectifications” from the company.Douban, a online platform where tens of millions of Chinese users review films and discuss various social topics, said its reply function had been suspended on Thursday and would be resumed on Dec. 17.The CAC did not give other details on the reason for the fine. But it added that it would “seriously handle” relevant representatives of Douban and said the company had been fined a total of 9 million yuan in November. Certain functions of apps in China have been suspended over “unlawful” or “lowbrow” content, and apps have been temporarily removed from apps stores for similar reasons in the past. ($1 = 6.3736 Chinese yuan renminbi) More

The BoE’s monthly Decision Maker Panel survey of nearly 3,000 businesses showed 85% of firms were finding it harder than normal to recruit new employees, and 58% reported it was much harder.The survey also found businesses expected inflation in one year’s time to be 4.2%, up from 3.9% in the October survey and the same as the most recent official inflation reading.But business uncertainty was the second-lowest since shortly before the coronavirus pandemic hit Europe, with 48% of firms judging it ‘high’ or ‘very high’.Companies were surveyed between Nov. 5 and Nov. 19, before news emerged of the new Omicron variant of COVID-19, which has dented expectations in financial markets that the BoE will raise interest rates on Dec. 16, after its next meeting.Markets see an almost 60% chance of a rate rise this month, compared with close to 100% in the run-up to November’s meeting when the BoE wrong-footed many investors by choosing to wait for more data on the health of Britain’s job market.Separate data from the Office for National Statistics showed the volume of online job ads in the week to Nov. 26 was 46% higher than in February 2020, before the start of the pandemic, up 2 percentage points from a week earlier.But only 15% of firms in the ONS survey said they were short of workers – much lower than the similar question in the BoE survey – rising to 37% when small businesses with fewer than 10 staff were excluded.The BoE is likely to focus more on official labour market data due on Dec. 14 which will give the first jobless data for the period after the end of the government’s furlough programme on Sept. 30. More

South Korean inflation has surged at its fastest pace in almost 10 years, as the country’s consumer price index confounded economists’ expectations with a 3.7 per cent rise year on year in November.The monthly inflation reading in Asia’s fourth-largest economy outpaced forecasts of a 3.1 per cent rise and has exceeded the Bank of Korea’s 2 per cent target for eight consecutive months.In August, South Korea became the first big economy in the region to raise interest rates, with the central bank lifting its benchmark rate to 0.75 per cent from a record low of 0.5 per cent. Last week, the rate was raised again by 25 basis points to 1 per cent.Analysts ascribed the November surge to rises in food and oil prices in a country that is heavily dependent on imports. “Global supply chain issues are causing an increase in agricultural and petrochemical products, while November also saw a big rise in people eating out as social distancing rules were relaxed,” said Park Chong-hoon, head of Korea research at Standard Chartered.Park said that a weak Korean won — caused by capital outflows as domestic and foreign investors sought opportunities elsewhere — had driven up the price of imports over the past year. But he added that there were signs foreign investors were returning to the Korean equities market.“I would expect high inflation to last until the end of the first quarter next year and then start to fall, even if it remains above the 2 per cent target for some time to come,” said Park.The Korean economy is facing uncertainty amid supply chain disruption and bottlenecks, a recent rise in Covid cases and an unpredictable presidential election due to be held in March. Exports were unable to compensate for weak domestic spending in the third quarter amid the outbreak, with the gross domestic product rising just 0.3 per cent, down from 0.8 per cent the previous quarter.South Korean policymakers must also contend with mounting domestic household debt. A report by the Institute of International Finance in November showed that South Korea had a ratio of household debt-to-GDP of 104.2 per cent — the highest among 37 major economies in the world.A phased loosening of social distancing restrictions has been halted, as health authorities announced the first confirmed cases of the Omicron variant in the country on Wednesday.After a sluggish start to its vaccination programme, South Korea had fully vaccinated 80 per cent of its population by the beginning of November and has started to implement a phased “living with Covid” strategy.But the country’s tallies of coronavirus cases and critically ill patients have consistently hit records, forcing the government to postpone the next stage of the reopening plan. On Wednesday, its numbers of Covid cases and critically ill patients breached 5,000 and 700, respectively, for the first time.

Authorities have also introduced a mandatory quarantine period of 10 days for anyone entering the country, regardless of citizenship or vaccination status.Analysts said that Korean interest rate-setters were likely to hold to the present course.“Notwithstanding the inflation spike, we continue to expect the BOK to maintain a cautious stance given the deteriorating pandemic situation, keeping the pace of normalisation gradual,” Goldman Sachs analysts wrote in a research note.“It is too early to judge the effects of the Omicron variant, whereas inflation is an immediate issue,” said Park of Standard Chartered. “I would expect the BOK to maintain its cautiously hawkish stance for the time being.” More