Economy

The LNG producer plans to list its Class A common shares under the symbol “VG” on NYSE, the company’s filing showed.In November, Reuters reported that the Arlington, Virginia-based company was planning to raise about $3 billion from its IPO in New York.Cold storage giant Lineage’s $4.44 billion New York IPO in July and Hyundai Motor (OTC:HYMTF) India’s $3.33 billion Mumbai IPO last month were two of the largest listings this year, LSEG data showed.The company plans to use part of the proceeds for general business purposes, including funding its operations.After the IPO, Venture’s founders and co-chairmans, Robert Pender and Michael Sabel, will continue to hold more than 50% of voting power through their entity Venture Global Partners (NYSE:GLP) II, LLC, the company said in its filing. Sabel is also the company’s CEO.It said Goldman Sachs & Co (NYSE:GS)., J.P. Morgan, BofA Securities, ING, RBC Capital Markets, Scotiabank (TSX:BNS) and Mizuho (NYSE:MFG) are among the underwriters for the IPO, according to the filing.Founded 11 years ago, Venture Global has already rocketed into the top ranks of U.S. natural gas exporters, competing against larger rivals Cheniere Energy (NYSE:LNG), Freeport LNG and Sempra.Venture Global has two operating plants in Louisiana, with its second facility at Plaquemines achieving its first LNG production just last week.The company reported revenues of $3.45 billion for the nine months ended Sep 30, compared with $6.27 billion, a year earlier. More

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Wall Street surged on Friday and the dollar softened as cooler-than-expected inflation data helped investors look past the possibility of a government shutdown and fresh tariff threats from U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.All three major U.S. stock indexes jumped more than 1%, gold surged and benchmark U.S. Treasury yields eased from multi-month highs.A report from the Commerce Department showed the PCE price index, the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation yardstick, came in cooler than analysts expected, supporting the narrative that price growth remains on a path toward achieving the U.S. central bank’s 2% target.”The better-than-expected reading for PCE, which is the Fed’s favorite measure of inflation, allowed investors to breathe a sigh of relief because maybe inflation is not likely to be as much of a runaway situation as feared,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist of CFRA Research in New York.Equity markets came under pressure throughout a busy week for central banks, led by the U.S. Federal Reserve, which signaled it would slow the pace of interest rates in the coming year. Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives said they would vote to keep the federal government operating beyond a midnight deadline and avert a damaging shutdown that could disrupt the Christmas holiday.”The focus of the market over the last several days has been on the Fed’s announcement that while they were lowering interest rates by 25 basis points, that they were going to begin to rein (future rate cuts) in, and it certainly shook the markets,” said Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist at Ingalls & Snyder in New York. “The potential government shutdown is the other big focus. Markets never like that.”The S&P 500, the Nasdaq and the Dow were all on course for weekly percentage declines.The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 497.22 points, or 1.17%, to 42,839.46, the S&P 500 rose 63.93 points, or 1.09%, to 5,931.01 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 199.83 points, or 1.03%, to 19,572.60.European stocks registered their worst week in over three months as Trump’s comments about potential tariffs on the European Union spooked investors.MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe rose 8.20 points, or 0.98%, to 847.61.The STOXX 600 index fell 0.88%, while Europe’s broad FTSEurofirst 300 index fell 19.25 points, or 0.96%.Emerging-market stocks fell 7.38 points, or 0.68%, to 1,074.38. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan closed lower by 0.97%, to 567.00, while Japan’s Nikkei fell 111.68 points, or 0.29%, to 38,701.90.Treasury yields pulled back after cooler-than-expected inflation data bolstered expectations for two more rate cuts from the Federal Reserve in the coming year. The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes fell 4.2 basis points to 4.528%, from 4.57% late on Thursday. The 30-year bond yield fell 2.2 basis points to 4.7194% from 4.741% late on Thursday.The 2-year note yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations for the Federal Reserve, fell 0.4 basis points to 4.315%, from 4.319% late on Thursday.The two-year note yield, which typically moves in step with interest-rate expectations for the Federal Reserve, fell 1.1 basis points to 4.308%, from 4.319% late on Thursday.The dollar softened against a basket of world currencies, but remained on track for its third consecutive weekly advance. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, fell 0.59% to 107.79, with the euro up 0.64% at $1.0428.Against the Japanese yen, the dollar weakened 0.69% to 156.35.Bitcoin reversed its losses in the wake of the inflation data.In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin fell 0.88% to $96,462.00. Ethereum rose 0.72% to $3,440.32.Oil prices edged higher as the dollar eased from two-year highs and as PCE data bolstered expectations for two additional interest rate cuts from the Fed in 2025. U.S. crude gained 0.12% to $69.46 per barrel, while Brent settled at $72.94 per barrel, up 0.08% on the day.Gold surged after the inflation report but still appeared set for a weekly loss.Spot gold rose 1.11% to $2,622.62 an ounce. U.S. gold futures rose 1.41% to $2,628.70 an ounce. More

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The head of the Environmental Protection Agency plans to step down on Dec. 31 after overseeing widespread efforts by the administration of President Joe Biden to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants.EPA Administrator Michael Regan told employees of his plans in an email on Friday, saying the agency had “confronted climate change with the urgency science demands. We set the strongest standards in history and put billions of dollars to work to spur clean energy development, create good-paying American jobs and lower costs for families.”This week, Regan approved a waiver to allow California to implement landmark clean car rules that seek to ban the sale of gasoline-only vehicles by 2035. Rules finalized by the EPA in March will cut vehicle emissions by 49% by 2032 and speed the deployment of EVs. They will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 7.2 billion tons through 2055.Regan said Jane Nishida will serve as acting administrator through Jan. 20 and Dan Utech will serve as acting deputy administrator until then.Last month, the EPA finalized a methane fee for big oil and gas producers meant to slash emissions of the powerful greenhouse gas, but which is likely to be scrapped by the incoming presidency of Donald Trump.Trump said in November he was nominating Republican former Congressman Lee Zeldin, who often voted against legislation on green issues, to head the EPA.Trump plans to seek reversal of many Biden EPA rules on the burning of fossil fuels, including one curbing carbon emissions from power plants and another slashing such emissions from vehicles. Trump has said he plans to begin rescinding EPA and the Department of Transportation vehicle pollution rules on his first day in office and is considering paring back or eliminating EV tax breaks and other incentives.Trump also plans to rescind California’s ability to set its own vehicle emissions rules, as he did in 2019. More

MILAN (Reuters) -Italy’s data protection agency said on Friday it fined ChatGPT maker OpenAI 15 million euros ($15.58 million) after closing an investigation into use of personal data by the generative artificial intelligence application.The fine comes after the authority found OpenAI processed users’ personal data to “train ChatGPT without having an adequate legal basis and violated the principle of transparency and the related information obligations towards users”. OpenAI said the decision was “disproportionate” and that the company will file an appeal against it.The investigation, which started in 2023, also concluded that the U.S.-based company did not have an adequate age verification system in place to prevent children under the age of 13 from being exposed to inappropriate AI-generated content, the authority said.The Italian watchdog also ordered OpenAI to launch a six-month campaign on Italian media to raise public awareness about how ChatGPT works, particularly as regards to data collection of users and non-users to train algorithms.Italy’s authority, known as Garante, is one of the European Union’s most proactive regulators in assessing AI platform compliance with the bloc’s data privacy regime.Last year it briefly banned the use of ChatGPT in Italy over alleged breaches of EU privacy rules.The service was reactivated after Microsoft-backed OpenAI addressed issues concerning, among other things, the right of users to refuse consent for the use of personal data to train the algorithms.”They’ve since recognised our industry-leading approach to protecting privacy in AI, yet this fine is nearly twenty times the revenue we made in Italy during the relevant period,” OpenAI said, adding the Garante’s approach “undermines Italy’s AI ambitions”.The regulator said the size of its 15-million-euro fine was calculated taking into account OpenAI’s “cooperative stance”, suggesting the fine could have been even bigger.Under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) introduced in 2018, any company found to have broken rules faces fines of up to 20 million euros or 4% of its global turnover.($1 = 0.9626 euros) More

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. consumer spending increased in November amid strong demand for a range of goods and services, underscoring the economy’s resilience, which saw the Federal Reserve this week projecting fewer interest rate cuts in 2025 than it had in September.There was also good news on inflation last month after a series of warmer readings. The report from the Commerce Department on Friday showed moderate monthly rises in prices, with a measure of underlying inflation posting its smallest gain in six months. Nonetheless, the annual increase in core inflation, excluding food and energy, remained stubbornly well above the U.S. central bank’s 2% target. There are also worries that plans by President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration to cut taxes, impose or raise tariffs on imports and deport millions of undocumented immigrants would stoke inflation.”The economy continues to grow from strong consumer demand as income growth and the wealth effect from higher portfolio values give consumers capacity to spend,” said Jeffrey Roach, chief economist at LPL Financial (NASDAQ:LPLA). “Inflation was more benign than expected but the stickiness of some categories supports the Fed’s hesitancy to materially lower rates next year.” Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, rose 0.4% last month after a downwardly revised 0.3% gain in October, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis said.Economists polled by Reuters had forecast consumer spending advancing 0.5% after a previously reported 0.4% rise in October.The nearly broad-based increase in spending was led by new motor vehicles, likely in part as households replaced vehicles damaged during Hurricanes Helene and Milton. That accounted for the bulk of the 0.8% rebound in goods outlays. Spending on recreational goods and vehicles also rose as did outlays on financial services and insurance, mostly charges, fees and commissions. There was also increased spending on recreation services, healthcare, clothing and footwear, furniture as well as housing and utilities. Spending at restaurants and bars as well as on hotel and motel stays also increased. Spending on services rose 0.2%. When adjusted for inflation, consumer spending rose 0.3% after edging up 0.1% in October. The so-called real consumer spending is running at an annualized rate of 3.1% in the first two months of the fourth quarter. “That will lay the foundation for another very solid GDP number for the fourth quarter,” said Lou Crandall, chief economist at Wrightson ICAP (LON:NXGN).Consumer spending surged at a 3.7% pace in the third quarter, the fastest in 1-1/2 years, helping to propel the economy to a 3.1% growth rate following a 3.0% pace of expansion in the April-June quarter.The Atlanta Fed is forecasting gross domestic product increasing at a 3.1% rate in the fourth quarter.Fed Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday described the economy as having “just been remarkable,” adding “I feel very good about … the performance of the economy and we want to keep that going.” The central bank on Wednesday cut its benchmark overnight interest rate by 25 basis points to the 4.25%-4.50% range. It forecast only two rate reductions in 2025, in a nod to the economy’s continued resilience and still-high inflation.In September, Fed officials had forecast four quarter-point rate cuts next year. The shallower rate cut path in the latest projections also reflected uncertainty over policies from the incoming Trump administration. Stocks on Wall Street traded higher. The dollar slipped against a basket of currencies. U.S. Treasury yields fell.STRONG WAGE GAINSLabor market stamina, marked by low layoffs and strong wage growth, is underpinning consumer spending. Strong household balance sheets, reflecting high stock market and home prices are also driving spending. Household savings remain supportive. Economists, however, cautioned that it was mostly middle- and higher-income households that were benefiting from the wage gains and wealth effects, noting that lower-income consumers were under financial pressure.Personal income rose 0.3%, with wages shooting up 0.6%. Income at the disposal of households after accounting for inflation rose 0.2%, meaning some tapped their savings to fund purchases. The saving rate dipped to 4.4% from 4.5% in October.Economists did not believe that the moderation in inflation last month would have changed the tone of the Fed’s message on Wednesday. The personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index rose 0.1% after an unrevised 0.2% gain in October.Goods prices were unchanged after three straight monthly decreases. Motor vehicle prices increased 0.7%, but the cost of recreational goods and vehicles fell for the fourth consecutive month. Services prices rose 0.2% after gaining 0.4% in October.Housing inflation increased at the slowest pace since April 2021, reflecting a moderation in rents. The cost of food and accommodation services rose by the most in 10 months. In the 12 months through November, the PCE price index advanced 2.4% after rising 2.3% in October. The increase in the annual inflation rate was partly due to last year’s low readings dropping out of the calculation.Excluding the volatile food and energy components, the PCE price index climbed 0.1%. That was the smallest rise since May, and followed an unrevised 0.3% gain in October. Core inflation was running at a 2.5% rate in the last three months.In the 12 months through November, core prices increased 2.8% after advancing by the same margin in October. The Fed tracks the PCE price measures for monetary policy. It hiked its policy rate by 5.25 percentage points between March 2022 and July 2023.”The general disinflation trend, in view of the much higher U.S. dollar, is intact for the next two months,” said Brian Bethune, an economics professor at Boston College. “However, if the incoming administration raises tariffs significantly, that will provoke retaliation and usher in a period of stagflation that will rival the stagflation of the 1970s.” More

BOGOTA (Reuters) -Colombia’s central bank on Friday cut its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to 9.50%, a smaller move than expected by markets, as it slowed the pace of its easing due to domestic fiscal uncertainty and decisions by its peers around the world.All 25 analysts in a recent Reuters poll said they expected the central bank’s board to deliver a 50-basis-point cut in borrowing costs. Five of the board’s seven policymakers voted for a 25-basis-point cut, one for 50 points and another for 75 points, Leonardo Villar, the board’s director, said in a press conference.”There is room to continue to lower the interest rate,” Villar told journalists, adding that the central bank is confident Colombia’s inflation will converge toward its 3% target next year.The Andean nation’s 12-month inflation rate through the end of November was 5.20%.However, the bank’s technical team expects movement towards the inflation target will be slower than it previously expected due to exchange rate pressures and how they affect prices, Villar said while presenting the board’s statement.”This reduces the room for maneuver to maintain the pace of interest rate cuts,” the statement said.The economy has grown 1.6% through September, the board added, compared to the same period in 2023, and the labor market has remained relatively stable.”Uncertainty about the situation of public finances in Colombia has generated volatility in the exchange-rate and public debt markets,” the board added.President Gustavo Petro’s leftist government has faced fiscal troubles that threaten its compliance with the country’s so-called fiscal rule, which is designed to impose limits on spending to prevent deterioration of public finances. Colombia’s Congress earlier this month rejected a $2.7 billion fiscal reform proposed by the government to finance 2025 spending.On Thursday, Colombia’s Autonomous Fiscal Rule Committee said the Andean country would need to cut spending this year by 40 trillion pesos ($9.1 billion), followed by a subsequent cut of 52 trillion pesos next year.Colombia and other emerging market nations also are keeping a wary eye on the U.S. dollar, which could be bolstered next year by potentially inflationary policies of the incoming Trump administration and a shallower Federal Reserve rate-cut path.Colombia’s central bank has cut its benchmark rate by 350 basis points since December of 2023.($1 = 4,394.50 Colombian pesos) More

“Market participants have grown increasingly focused on a potential EU fiscal policy response via higher defence spending,” analyst said.Defence budgets have already risen since the Ukraine invasion but remain below NATO’s 2% of GDP target in several member states. Potential funding options include national fiscal deficits, repurposing Next (LON:NXT) Generation EU funds, or creating a multilateral defence funding facility.The most likely approach involves a mix of national deficits and the European fund, but early implementation faces hurdles, including political uncertainty in Germany, France, and EU institutional approval. Any significant changes are unlikely before 2025, Goldman noted.Raising defence spending to 2.25% of GDP or 2.5% by 2026 would increase the structural deficit by 0.3%-0.5% annually over the next three years, note added.The economic impact is expected to be modest, with defence spending multipliers estimated at 0.6 due to high import and short-lived effects compared to investment.Goldman estimates the fiscal impulse from higher defence spending would add not much significant annual growth until 2027, up to 0.2 percentage points.A larger boost could occur if spending leads to reduced foreign input dependence and an expansion of Europe’s defence industry. More