Aurelia Butler

The U.S. company had been seeking compensation over its acquisition of British tech firm Autonomy amid claims of fraud masterminded by its co-founder Mike Lynch to inflate the company’s value. Lynch, who died in August when his yacht sank off the coast of Sicily, had denied any wrongdoings. “It is HPE’s intention to follow the proceedings through to their conclusion,” the company said in an emailed statement to Reuters. HP (NYSE:HPQ) had bought Autonomy for $11.1 billion in 2011 in one of the UK’s biggest tech deals. But in late 2012 the company said it had discovered a massive accounting scandal at the British tech firm. In 2022, HP won a civil case against Lynch but a High Court judge said that any damages would be less than the $5 billion HP had claimed.A spokesperson for Lynch’s family said they did not have any comment to share at this stage. The company had filed the lawsuit against both Lynch and Autonomy’s former chief financial officer, Sushovan Hussain. More

BENGALURU (Reuters) – House prices in most key markets will rise modestly this year and next on expectations mortgage rates will fall further and help to marginally improve affordability of expensive property, a Reuters poll of analysts showed.Most central banks were expected to start cutting interest rates sometime this year, or have already done so, with the U.S. Federal Reserve predicted to start at its Sept. 17-18 meeting.That is providing housing prices in developed countries, contending with low supply of property that is affordable to most new homebuyers, impetus to climb modestly higher.The Reuters poll of nearly 150 housing analysts taken Aug. 19-Sept. 3 covering the U.S., Britain, Germany, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, China, Dubai and India showed average home prices in almost all of these markets will rise this year and next.But compared with recent episodes of expected central bank policy easing, the forecast price rises are tame. While median predictions showed the change in average home prices in 2024 to vary between markets from a modest 1.4% decline to a rise of around 8%, the overall outlook was positive with analysts upgrading their outlook for five of nine housing markets surveyed from three months ago.”Falling mortgage rates across many markets will strengthen the position of aspiring home purchasers, but only modestly, with affordability pressures already at breaking point,” said Matthew McAuley, global property sectors research director at JLL.”Increasingly large proportions of the populations of countries such as the U.S., Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Australia and Japan will rely on income-driven housing models to satisfy their housing needs.” A near-80% majority of analysts, 82 of 106, who answered an additional question said affordability will improve for first-time homebuyers over the coming year. The remaining 24 said it would worsen.But with supply still tight in most countries, many aspiring new home buyers are likely to remain renters in coming years, and pay even more to rent.Urban home rents were expected to outpace consumer inflation over the coming 12 months in all the countries that were surveyed, according to median predictions from analysts who answered a separate question.”In a higher interest rate environment, prime rents are continuing to outperform capital values… Low levels of stock in many locations and higher numbers of would-be buyers are driving the trend in many prime rental markets,” said Justin Marking, head of global residential at Savills.Average U.S. home prices were expected to rise 5.4% in 2024, 3.3% next year and 3.4% in 2026.Much of that price appreciation has to do with homeowners who have locked in low 30-year mortgage rates, most under 5% and some even below 3%, and who are unwilling to part ways with their homes on such cheap deals.While the Fed is widely expected to start cutting rates in September and by a total of 75 bps by year-end, a lack of adequate supply is already underpinning a market where average house prices are well above their pandemic-era peak.Average home prices in Australia were forecast to rise more than 6% this year, again on tight supply, bringing average prices above their pandemic peak too.”It is worth noting though, that we don’t anticipate a material improvement in affordability, with the unaffordability of houses likely to be structurally higher than prior to the pandemic over the short-to-medium term,” said Johnathan McMenamin, senior economist at Barrenjoey.In neighboring New Zealand, where prices surged over 40% during the COVID-19 pandemic, they were expected to rise only 1%.In India, demand for luxury properties from cash-rich individuals was expected to drive house prices even higher over the next couple of years. Despite demand coming from a wealthy few in a country of 1.4 billion, that translates into a sizeable market, enough to push average home prices up by around 8% this year and 6% next.The battered German housing market, where house prices plunged 7.2% last year, was expected to stabilise in the coming months with a 1.4% fall this year, followed by a 2% rise in 2025.(Other stories from the Q3 global Reuters housing poll) (Other reporting and polling by Indradip Ghosh, Pranoy Krishna, Jonathan Cable, Sarupya Ganguly, Susobhan Sarkar, Devayani Sathyan and Vijayalakshmi Srinivasan; Editing by Ross Finley and Jonathan Oatis) More

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Two leaders of the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission are calling for the agency to investigate e-commerce retailers Shein and Temu after “deadly baby and toddler products” were sold on both websites, according to a letter posted on the U.S. CPSC website on Tuesday. U.S. CPSC Commissioners Peter Feldman and Douglas Dziak want the agency to evaluate how Singapore’s Shein, China’s Temu and other foreign-owned e-commerce platforms comply with its rules, handle relationships with third-party sellers and represent imported products. Shein and PDD Group’s Temu, which both ship cheap merchandise into the U.S. from China, are raising “specific concerns” for the Commission for their use of de minimis, a rule exempting packages valued at $800 or less from tariffs if they are sent directly to shoppers. Critics of Shein and Temu attribute low prices and de minimis to Shein and Temu’s success in the U.S. Both companies have also come under scrutiny for the quality of their products.A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers last year planned to introduce a bill to eliminate the de minimis, which is widely used by e-commerce platforms including third-party sellers on Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Walmart (NYSE:WMT).com. More

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(Reuters) – A look at the day ahead in Asian markets.World markets will open on an extremely shaky footing on Wednesday after a gloomy snapshot of U.S. factory activity on Tuesday reignited fears about the U.S. economy’s ‘soft landing’ and slammed stocks, oil prices and bond yields sharply lower. It was the first trading day of September for U.S. markets after the Labor Day holiday weekend, and for those who put greater store in ‘seasonal’ factors, it is an ominous start to what is traditionally a weak month for stocks and risk appetite.Many market moves on Tuesday were the largest since the historic volatility burst on Aug. 5 – Wall Street, world stocks and Treasury yields had their biggest declines and U.S. equity volatility had its biggest rise since that day.Others were even more eye-opening and ominous.Oil slumped 5%, its biggest fall this year and a reflection of investors’ worries over U.S. and Chinese growth. If demand and economic activity are wavering in the world’s top two economies, Houston, we have a problem.On top of that, Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) shares tanked 10%, wiping around $265 billion off the company’s value in one of the biggest one-day market cap losses on record. If Nvidia has been responsible for much of the tech- and AI-fueled equity rally over the past 18 months, selloffs of this magnitude are a worry.Weak purchasing managers index data from China and the United States are setting the negative tone, and there are more Asia and Pacific PMI reports scheduled for release on Wednesday, including China’s ‘unofficial’ Caixin service sector PMI. China’s ‘official’ PMI figures from Beijing over the weekend showed that manufacturing activity sank to a six-month low in August as factory gate prices tumbled and owners struggled for orders. Shanghai stocks open on Wednesday at a seven-month low.Australian GDP figures are also on tap on Wednesday. Economists polled by Reuters predict growth in the second quarter accelerated to 0.3% from 0.1% at a quarter-on-quarter pace, but year-on-year growth held broadly steady at 1.0%. After the broad-based and aggressive selloff in U.S. stocks on Tuesday, Asian markets will almost certainly open in the red on Wednesday – the old adage still stands: when the U.S. catches a cold, the rest of the world sneezes.Institute for Supply Management figures show that U.S. manufacturing activity has contracted every single month since October 2022, with the exception of March this year. That’s nearly two years of uninterrupted manufacturing recession. This has been offset by expansion in services activity, but rates traders are now attaching a near 40% chance of the Fed beginning its easing cycle later this month with a 50 basis point cut. Here are key developments that could provide more direction to Asian markets on Wednesday:- China ‘unofficial’ Caixin services PMI (August)- Australia GDP (Q2)- South African President Ramaphosa State Visit to China More

The research firm’s commentary from Citi comes amid speculation on global central bank movements and recent statements from the RBA’s Governor and Deputy Governor, who indicated a resistance to market expectations for interest rate reductions within the current year.The firm posits that the RBA’s communication strategy might shift if the Fed implements a significant policy rate decrease of 50 basis points at the September Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting.According to Citi, such a move by the Fed could lead to market optimism and subsequent predictions for more aggressive easing by the RBA. However, Citi maintains the view that, regardless of the Fed’s actions, the RBA is unlikely to cut rates in 2023.”…[I]f the US Fed does indeed cut by 50bps in the September FOMC meeting, then the September RBA meeting a week after raises risks of more hawkish Delphic guidance from Governor Bullock against market pricing,” Citi economists wrote in a note.”Barring a downside inflation surprise in Q3—we have trimmed-mean inflation at 0.8%— and an unexpected rise in the unemployment rate, we do not see the RBA cutting rates this year, even if the Fed is reducing policy rates by increments of 50bps.”Citi concluded that there is only the August Labour Force Survey ahead of the next RBA meeting. More

BofA cut its China real GDP growth forecast to 4.8% for 2024 from 5.0% previously, and trimmed forecasts to 4.5% for both 2025 and 2026 from 4.7% earlier.Inadequate easing measures, a persistent confidence problem, and moderating investment growth are weighing on Beijing’s efforts to kick start growth. The strong economic growth seen in Q1 has faded in recent quarters, economists at BofA said in a recent note. Consumer confidence has dipped to the lowest level since the economy reopened from the pandemic, pressuring consumer spending. Investment growth has also decelerated, with the drag from the property sector offsetting resilience in manufacturing and infrastructure. The Chinese economy has seen its growth engine “sputtering” in Q2 and Q3 2024 after an impressive sequential growth pickup in Q1, according to the report.Export growth, however, has been a bright spot, underpinned by solid external demand and a bottoming out of the global technology cycle, the economists added.The bar for a step up in monetary policy easing is expected to remain high unless export growth “decelerates meaningfully,” they added, pointing to possible trade frictions in the coming quarters as a catalyst.  More