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(Reuters) -The United States carried out two air strikes in Syria against Iran and its aligned groups on Sunday, the Pentagon said, in the latest response to a series of attacks against American forces in Syria and in Iraq. In a statement, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the strikes targeted a training facility near the city of Albu Kamal and a safe house near the city of Mayadeen. He said President Joe Biden ordered the strikes.”The President has no higher priority than the safety of U.S. personnel, and he directed today’s action to make clear that the United States will defend itself, its personnel, and its interests,” Austin said in a statement.Local sources also said the strikes targeted a camp run by pro-Iranian militias in an area west of Albu Kamal, in Deir al Zor province. The other strike was near a bridge close to the city of Mayadeen, near the Iraqi border and stronghold of pro-Iranian militias, the sources said.The strike is the third since Oct. 26 as the United States attempts to quell wave after wave of drone and rocket attacks against American troops in Syria and Iraq, triggered by the Israel-Hamas war. Iran and its supporters say the United States shares responsibility for Israel’s declared war against Palestinian militant group Hamas, which is also backed by Iran.U.S. and coalition troops have been attacked at least 40 times in Iraq and Syria by Iran-backed forces in recent weeks. At least 45 U.S. troops have suffered traumatic brain injuries or minor wounds.The United States has 900 troops in Syria, and 2,500 more in neighboring Iraq, on a mission to advise and assist local forces trying to prevent a resurgence of Islamic State, which in 2014 seized large swathes of both countries but was later defeated.A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the strikes took place within the past several of hours and added that a U.S. review was underway to determine whether the they killed or wounded anyone. The United States has 900 troops in Syria, and 2,500 more in neighboring Iraq, on a mission to advise and assist local forces trying to prevent a resurgence of Islamic State, which in 2014 seized large swathes of both countries but was later defeated.There is growing concern that the Israel-Hamas conflict could spread through the Middle East and turn U.S. troops at isolated bases into targets.The United States has sent warships and fighter aircraft to the region since the Israel-Hamas conflict erupted on Oct. 7, including two aircraft carriers, to try to deter Iran and Iran-backed groups. The number of troops added to the region is in the thousands.Reuters has reported that the U.S. military was taking new measures to protect its Middle East forces during the ramp-up in attacks by suspected Iran-backed groups, and was leaving open the possibility of evacuating military families if needed.The measures include increasing U.S. military patrols, restricting access to base facilities and boosting intelligence collection, including through drone and other surveillance operations, officials say. More

(Reuters) -ANZ Group, Australia’s fourth-largest retail bank on Monday posted a record annual profit that fell short of analyst forecasts due to a thinning home loan market amid soaring interest rates, sending its shares lower. The country’s No.3 lender posted cash profit of A$7.41 billion ($4.51 billion) for the year ended Sept. 30, compared with A$6.50 billion a year earlier, missing the Visible Alpha consensus estimate of A$7.56 billion compiled by Citi. The bank’s net interest margin (NIM) for the second half of the year however shrunk by 10 basis points to 1.65% highlighting pressure from the strong growth in Australia home lending. Shares of the lender fell 3.6% to A$25.55 as of 2318 GMT. The banking group’s Aussie commercial business recorded 11% revenue growth over the year with lending rising to record high of A$62 billion.”We expect questions to be raised about margin/volume management in the Australia retail division, particularly due to NIM pressure stemming from ANZ’s relatively aggressive growth in Australia home lending,” said E&P Capital analyst Azib Khan. ANZ, which is caught up in regulatory scrutiny over its $3.2 billion Suncorp Group’s banking business bid, has been expanding its operations in retail and commercial businesses.ANZ intends to expand its commercial business with focus on its currency and payment sites while reducing costs, it said.Australia’s top lenders have been cashing in on their margins in an environment where interest rates have been hiked 13 times in just 18 months, helping them take advantage of the greater spread between the interest they pay to their customers and the profits they earn by investing.ANZ declared a final dividend of 94 Australian cents apiece, up from 74 Australian cents apiece announced a year ago.ANZ, however flagged that the external environment will likely remain challenging adding that higher interest rates will impact economic activity as it sees “another year of cost-of-living pressures.”($1 = 1.5733 Australian dollars) More

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Rishi Sunak is set to declare this week that his promise to halve inflation has been met, contributing to a more positive economic backdrop to the Autumn Statement on November 22.The Bank of England expects headline inflation to fall sharply from 6.7 per cent in September to below 5 per cent in October, when official price data is published on Wednesday, meeting one of Sunak’s “five priorities”.Senior Tory officials see Wednesday’s announcement as a “pivotal” moment at which they hope to start mapping out a more optimistic economic picture ahead of an election expected next year.The prime minister announced in January he wanted to see inflation halve by the end of the year. It was running at an average of 10.7 per cent for the last quarter of 2022 at the time he made the pledge.Better news on inflation is expected to be mirrored by a better than expected fiscal situation when Jeremy Hunt announces his Autumn Statement, giving the chancellor some modest scope for targeted tax cuts.Harriett Baldwin, Tory chair of the Commons treasury committee, told the Financial Times that in spite of the economy’s travails she expected Hunt to deliver a “feel-good Autumn Statement”.Downing Street insiders said Sunak would argue on Wednesday that “hard work” and some “painful” decisions — notably in holding down public sector pay — were starting to pay dividends.Referring to the expected sharp fall in inflation, one ally of Sunak said: “The hard work doesn’t stop. This isn’t a ‘job done’ moment. Getting inflation down remains the most important thing.” The BoE said this month in its monetary policy report: “Inflation is expected to fall to 4.8 per cent in October and remain around that level for the rest of the year.“The main driver of the expected fall in Q4 is a reduction in the Ofgem energy price cap, reflecting the decline in wholesale gas prices over the course of 2023.”Bringing down inflation to the BoE target of 2 per cent is expected to be a tougher task and Hunt will insist in his Autumn Statement that he will not do anything that jeopardises that work.With the BoE predicting that the economy will continue to flatline throughout 2024, Hunt has said his big fiscal event will focus on removing barriers to growth. Buoyant tax receipts — boosted by a longstanding “stealth” freeze on tax allowances and thresholds — has given Hunt the option of examining potential tax cuts deemed to have little or no impact on inflation.Last week the Resolution Foundation think-tank predicted that Hunt’s headroom against his fiscal mandate — having debt falling as a share of the economy in the final year of the forecast — could double from a forecast £6.5bn in March to about £13bn.Hunt said last week: “Cutting business taxes is the thing that’s most important at this stage.” He wants to extend the flagship “full expensing” capital allowance regime beyond its 2026 expiry date and is still considering whether he can afford to make it permanent.A symbolic cut to personal taxation — for example, cutting inheritance tax — could be seen as a downpayment on a more ambitious tax cutting spring Budget, without posing a big risk to inflation.Hunt will come under new pressure to cut taxes on Tuesday with the publication of a report by a Growth Commission, set up by former premier Liz Truss, which will make the case for aggressive tax cuts.Meanwhile, Sunak will deliver a set-piece speech on Monday at the Lord Mayor’s banquet in the City of London, claiming that 2023 had been “one of the most significant years” for British foreign policy in recent times.Sunak will argue that Britain is back on the world stage after the traumas of Brexit and the upheavals of the Boris Johnson years and that new international partnerships had been forged on defence, trade and migration. More

(Reuters) – A look at the day ahead in Asian markets from Jamie McGeever, financial markets columnist.Asian markets should get the week off to a blistering start on Monday, propelled higher by Wall Street’s powerful rally on Friday that saw the Nasdaq rise more than 2% for its best day since May. It is a big week for China watchers with a U.S.-Sino Presidential meeting, a raft of top-tier economic data and several blue chip corporate earnings releases all on the docket over the next five days.Other economic and policy highlights across the continent this week include preliminary Japanese third-quarter GDP, Indian inflation, and a policy decision from the Philippine central bank on Thursday. There is certainly room for upside potential for Asian markets after the MSCI Asia & Pacific equity index ex-Japan fell 0.5% last week, underperforming the broader MSCI Emerging Market index, which ended the week flat. Financial conditions are broadly easing too, according to Goldman Sachs’s financial conditions indices (FCI). Some, like the China and aggregate emerging market indexes, last week fell to their lowest in three months.Perhaps the most interesting of all Goldman’s FCIs is its Japanese index. On Friday it fell to 96.78, matching the lows struck on July 3 and 4. Remarkably, that is the lowest since March 1990.By this measure, financial conditions in Japan are the loosest in almost 34 years – that’s the combined effect of the yen’s weakness, the stock market’s recent 33-year highs, negative interest rates, and deeply negative real bond yields.In theory, that is inflationary and should be boosting growth. Inflation is relatively sticky – the Bank of Japan is inching away from its ultra-loose policy – but economic activity is not meeting analysts’ expectations. Citi’s economic surprises index for Japan turned negative last week and is now the lowest since June. On the Japanese corporate front this week, meanwhile, big firms reporting earnings include financials Mizuho, Mitsubishi UFJ (NYSE:MUFG) and Sumitomo.The Chinese news flow this week is potentially huge.On the political front, U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping meet face to face this week at the Nov. 15-17 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) gathering of leaders in San Francisco. The economic data pipeline is full of top-tier releases too. They include money supply, lending and ‘total social financing’ – basically a broad measure of credit and liquidity in the economy – while on Wednesday markets will digest October’s retail sales, industrial production and unemployment figures.Some of China’s biggest companies are scheduled to report their latest earnings this week. They include JD (NASDAQ:JD).com, Tencent Holdings (OTC:TCEHY), Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) Group and Lenovo. Where do Chinese equities stand ahead of all that? The blue chip CSI 300 index last week rose 0.066% – barely in positive territory, but enough to make it three weeks in a row of gains, its best run since March. That said, the index still failed in these three weeks to claw back the 4.1% losses from the week ending Oct. 20. Here are key developments that could provide more direction to markets on Monday:- India CPI inflation (October)- APEC finance ministers meet in San Francisco- Japan corporate goods prices (October) (By Jamie McGeever; Editing by Diane Craft) More

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Nygard, 82, was on trial in the Ontario Superior Court for five counts of sexual assault and one count of forcible confinement charges linked to incidents between the 1980s and mid-2000s.He was acquitted of a fifth count of sexual assault and one count of forcible confinement. Nygard’s lawyer did not immediately respond to requests for comment.During the six-week trial, the court heard testimony from five complainants who said during a period between the late 1980s to around 2005 Nygard had attacked them in the private bedroom suite of his Toronto downtown office building, CBC News reported.Canadian police arrested Nygard in late 2020 at the request of the United States, where he was accused of using his businesses to lure women and girls to sexually gratify himself and his associates. Toronto police laid their own charges against him about a year later.Nygard also faces charges of sexual assault and forcible confinement in Manitoba and Quebec. He is fighting extradition to the U.S. where he faces charges in New York for nine offences including conspiracy to commit racketeering, transportation of a minor for purpose of prostitution, and sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, CBC News said.Born in Finland, Nygard grew up in Manitoba, eventually running his namesake clothing companies and becoming one of Canada’s wealthiest people. More

(Reuters) – Gulf stock markets put in a mixed performance on Sunday as higher oil prices were offset by worries of faltering demand from China, the world’s top crude importer.Oil prices – a major driver of Gulf financial markets – rose about 2% on Friday as Iraq voiced support for OPEC+ oil cuts ahead of a meeting of the group on Nov. 26. Brent futures settled at $81.43 a barrel. [O/R]The Qatari index snapped a three-session losing streak on Sunday with a 0.3% gain. Masraf Al Rayan and Qatar Fuel each rose 1.4%.Saudi Arabia’s benchmark index extended losses to a fourth consecutive session, easing 0.1%, with Fawaz Abdulaziz Alhokair Co falling 9.9% in its steepest drop in more than 13 months.The retailer reported a third-quarter net loss of 202.9 million riyals ($54.1 million) compared to a net profit of 21.1 million riyals a year earlier.Saudi Telecom fell 1.3% and Maharah for Human Resources was down 8.6%.Data from China on Thursday showed policymakers struggling to control disinflation, casting doubt over the chances of a broad-based economic recovery in the world’s biggest commodity consumer.Outside the Gulf, Egypt’s blue-chip index fell 1.7%, with Commercial International Bank down 2.5% and Misr Fertilizer losing 4.6%.However, Credit Agricole (OTC:CRARY) Egypt gained 3.7% as the lender reported a 121% jump in third quarter consolidated net profit.SAUDI ARABIA dropped 0.1% to 10,834 QATAR gained 0.3% to 10,007 EGYPT fell 1.6% to 23,911 BAHRAIN fell 0.1% to 1,930 OMAN added 0.5% to 4,560 KUWAIT rose 0.3% to 7,252 ($1 = 3.7508 riyals) More

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