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TOKYO (Reuters) -Japanese companies increased capital expenditure and reaped solid profits in the third quarter, data showed on Friday, suggesting that robust investment will offset soft consumption and help stave off the risk of recession.The reading may lead to an upward revision in preliminary gorss domestic product (GDP) data, which showed the world’s third-largest economy shrank for the first time in three quarters in July-September.Firms raised spending on plant and equipment by 3.4% in July-September from the same period a year earlier, after a 4.5% gain the previous quarter, government data showed.Their recurring profits rose 20.1% in the third quarter from year-before levels with a 40% jump in non-manufacturers’ profits offsetting a 0.9% slide for that of manufacturers.The capital expenditure figure will be used to calculate revised third-quarter GDP data due out on Dec. 8.In the preliminary GDP data, capital expenditure fell 0.6% which, coupled with a flat reading in consumption, led to an annualised 2.1% contraction in the July-September period.The outlook for corporate profits is key to how soon the Bank of Japan may phase out its massive stimulus, as the bank’s scenario is based on the view that companies will keep earning enough to hike wages and boost spending on plant and equipment. More

LONDON/MOSCOW/DUBAI (Reuters) -OPEC+ oil producers on Thursday agreed to voluntary output cuts totalling about 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd) for early next year led by Saudi Arabia rolling over its current voluntary cut.Benchmark global oil prices settled down around 2% [O/R], in part because the reductions were voluntary and because of investor expectation ahead of the meeting that additional supply cuts might be deeper.Saudi Arabia, Russia and other members of OPEC+, who pump more than 40% of the world’s oil, met online on Thursday to discuss supply policy.”The market reaction implies disbelief in the full efficacy of the cuts,” JP Morgan analyst Christyan Malek said.”However, setting a new framework for each member to deliver on its cut reflects the degree of trust and cohesion among the members; case in point, the fact Brazil is joining is testament to the strength in numbers for OPEC+.”The group discussed 2024 output amid forecasts the market faces a potential surplus and as a 1 million barrel per day (bpd) cut by Saudi Arabia was set to end next month.OPEC+’s output of some 43 million bpd already reflects cuts of about 5 million bpd aimed at supporting prices and stabilising the market.The total curbs amount to 2.2 million bpd from eight producers, OPEC said in a statement after the meeting. Included in this figure is an extension of the Saudi and Russian voluntary cuts of 1.3 million bpd. The 900,000 bpd of additional cuts pledged on Thursday, includes 200,000 bpd of fuel export reductions from Russia, with the rest divided among six members. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said Russia’s voluntary cut would include crude and products.The UAE said it had agreed to cut output by 163,000 bpd while Iraq said it would cut an extra 220,000 bpd in the first quarter.Saudi Arabia, Russia, the UAE, Iraq, Kuwait, Kazakhstan and Algeria were among producers who said cuts will be unwound gradually after the first quarter, market conditions permitting.OPEC+ is focused on lower output with prices down from near $98 in late September and concerns brewing over weaker economic growth in 2024 and expectations of a supply surplus.The International Energy Agency (IEA) this month forecast a slowdown in 2024 demand growth as “the last phase of the pandemic economic rebound dissipates and as advancing energy efficiency gains, expanding electric vehicle fleets and structural factors reassert themselves.” OPEC+ also invited Brazil, a top 10 producer, to become a member of the group. The country’s energy minister said it hoped to join in January.The OPEC+ meeting coincides with the opening of the United Nations’ COP28 climate summit being hosted by OPEC member the United Arab Emirates. More

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The U.S. Treasury Department in a statement said it also slapped sanctions on cyber espionage group Kimsuky, accusing it of gathering intelligence to support North Korea’s strategic and nuclear ambitions.Thursday’s action, taken in coordination with Australia, Japan and Korea, comes after North Korea last week successfully launched its first reconnaissance satellite, which it has said was designed to monitor U.S. and South Korean military movements.”Today’s actions by the United States, Australia, Japan, and the Republic of Korea reflect our collective commitment to contesting Pyongyang’s illicit and destabilizing activities,” Treasury’s Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Brian Nelson, said in the statement. “We will remain focused on targeting these key nodes in the DPRK’s illicit revenue generation and weapons proliferation,” Nelson added, calling North Korea by the initials of its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.North Korea’s mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday’s sanctions.Since the launch of the satellite, North Korea said that its leader, Kim Jong Un, has reviewed spy satellite photos of the White House, Pentagon and U.S. aircraft carriers at the naval base of Norfolk. Its state media has also reported that the satellite photographed cities and military bases in South Korea, Guam, and Italy, in addition to Washington.On Monday, the United Nations ambassadors of the United States and North Korea sparred at the Security Council over the launch and the reasons for growing tensions in a rare, direct, public exchange between the adversaries.Thursday’s action freezes any U.S. assets of those targeted and generally bars Americans from dealing with them. Those who engage in certain transactions with them also risk being hit with sanctions.The Treasury said Kimsuky primarily uses spear-phishing to target people employed by the government, research centers, academic institutions and others, including in Europe, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States.In October 2020, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA) described the group as “likely tasked by the North Korean regime with a global intelligence gathering mission.”Security researchers have found the group impersonating reporters to trick targets into downloading malicious software to spy on them. Kimsuky’s hacking operation has been historically focused on South Korea, Japan and the United States. In June, the U.S. National Security Agency said the hackers, which have been operating since at least 2012, were “subordinate to an element within North Korea’s Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB).” The RGB is a North Korean intelligence agency that is involved in cyber warfare activities, according to analysts, and is under U.S. sanctions. Also targeted on Thursday were Iran and China-based representatives of U.S. and UN-designated Green Pine, which the Treasury said is responsible for half of North Korea’s arms and related materiel exports.Two Russia-based representatives of North Korean banks and one China-based representative were also hit with sanctions, among others. More

(Reuters) – A look at the day ahead in Asian markets.Asian markets round out the week on Friday in reasonably good spirits, with a deluge of purchasing managers index data from across the continent and a sprinkling of key indicators from Japan, South Korea and Indonesia the most likely market-moving catalysts.Friday is also the first trading day of December, so perhaps an opportunity to get the last month of the year off to a positive start.The Dow Jones on Thursday posted its highest close in nearly two years, and if broader market momentum from November spills over, that is a likely scenario – for some Asian stock markets, November was the best month in a long time.On the other hand, Thursday’s month-end reversal in the dollar and bonds – the dollar and Treasury yields rose sharply – will sound a loud note of caution.Unemployment data from Japan, trade data from South Korea, and the latest readout on inflation from Indonesia are among the highlights on the Asian economic calendar, along with a raft of purchasing managers index reports from across the region.They include Australia, South Korea and India, as well as China’s ‘unofficial’ PMI. The ‘official’ PMI report from the National Bureau of Statistics on Thursday showed that manufacturing activity in China shrank for a second month in November, and at a faster rate than had been expected.A similar reading on Friday will only enhance the already growing calls for more stimulus.China’s leading index of blue chip stocks fell 2% in November, its fourth monthly decline in a row. It is down almost 10% year-to-date, underperforming most of its regional and global peers.The MSCI Asia ex-Japan and emerging market indexes both snapped three-month losing streaks in November, rising 7% or more for their best month since January, while Japan’s Nikkei gained 8.5% for its best month in three years.The general gloom surrounding China’s economy and financial markets shows little sign of lifting, despite some sporadic positive surprises recently like the strong third quarter GDP growth figures.A survey by central banking think tank OMFIF of 22 public pension and sovereign wealth funds managing $4.3 trillion in assets, showed that none reported a positive outlook for China’s economy.They cited the regulatory environment and geopolitics among primary factors dissuading them from investing. Foreigners already appear to be voting with their feet – China just recorded its first-ever quarterly deficit in foreign direct investment.As more aggressive Fed rate cut expectations chip away at the U.S. dollar, investors are turning more bullish on Asian currencies, a Reuters poll found. Perhaps unsurprisingly, one of the few exceptions is the Chinese yuan.Still, the yuan is trading around its strongest level against the dollar since June and just clocked its biggest monthly gain in a year, rising around 2.5% in November.Here are key developments that could provide more direction to markets on Friday:- PMIs for Australia, South Korea, India, China- Japan unemployment (October)- Indonesia inflation (October) (By Jamie McGeever; Editing by Josie Kao) More

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LONDON (Reuters) -The world’s top multilateral development banks are set to launch a global “task force” at the COP28 climate summit in the coming days to scale up the number and size of ‘debt-for-nature’ swaps that countries can do. Debt-for-nature swaps, where a developing country’s debt is cut in return for protecting vital ecosystems, are attracting growing interest following a number of successful recent examples in places such as Belize and the Galapagos (NASDAQ:GLPG) Islands.The task force creation is the most significant step so far in showing that the global club of multilateral lenders, which between them have trillions of dollars worth of firepower, will significantly ramp up their support for these deals. “Our motivation for being part of this (task force) is to bring debt-for-nature swaps and related instruments to the forefront,” Hassatou Diop N’Sele, Vice-President for Finance and Chief Financial Officer at the African Development Bank told Reuters after it had earlier broke the news of the plan. “We see them as powerful tools,” she added, citing their ability to help tackle climate change and provide debt relief in tandem. Four separate sources involved the plans, which are due to be formally announced at the COP summit’s ‘finance day’ on Monday, say the new group will be called the “Task Force on Sustainability-linked Sovereign Financing for Nature and Climate”.It will initially be chaired by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), three of the sources added. Both lenders have been involved in all the recent swaps which have also included Barbados and most recently Gabon.Institutions have until Friday to confirm they will join, but those expected to do so also include the World Bank, European Investment Bank (EIB), Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Beijing-headquarted Asian Infrastructure Development Bank and a number of others, the sources added. None of those additional banks would confirm their membership when asked by Reuters, but all have made pledges in recent weeks and months to ramp up their environmental efforts.MDBs play a particularly important role in debt-for-nature swaps because they provide the credit guarantees and/or political risk insurance that make them viable.At their simplest, the swaps work by buying up a country’s bonds, often at a discount, and then replacing them with cheaper eco-labelled ones that come with the special MDB guarantees.Those enhancements make them less of a default risk in the eyes of investors and therefore drive down their cost. Some of the savings – although not necessarily all, critics note – are then funnelled towards conservation of barrier reefs, rainforests or other precious habitats vital in the fight against climate change and biodiversity loss.MAJOR MILESTONE The new task force is expected to start work early next year and will initially focus on a “stock take” of the deals done so far as well as the “toolkit” countries and multilaterals need when they undertake a swap. The Nature Conservancy, a U.S.-based NGO that has been involved in many of the recent deals and will also be part of the new task force, estimates a third of the $2.2 trillion worth of emerging market sovereign debt globally, or as much as $800 billion, is potentially “ripe” for swapping. Countries seen as prime candidates include Sri Lanka and Zambia, which are both in the process of debt restructurings, as well as Kenya, Tanzania, Colombia and a number of other Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) countries.If the MDBs can work together to provide the right guarantees, officials are optimistic some of these deals could be as big as $10 billion, 10 times larger than this year’s record $1 billion deal by Ecuador for its Galapagos Islands. More