Economy

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(Reuters) – Federal Reserve Governor Adriana Kugler, the newest of the U.S. central bank’s seven board members, has run afoul of new ethics rules governing how officials and their families can trade and invest after her spouse bought stock in Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and another company without her knowledge this summer. In a government filing dated Oct. 24, Kugler reported the planned divestiture of Apple and Cava Group shares purchased by her spouse. Fed ethics rules sharply limit how the central bank’s officials and senior staff can invest their personal funds and require trading to be pre-cleared by central bank ethics officials. Those rules also cover spouses and minor children of top Fed staff. The purchases “were carried out by my spouse, without my knowledge, and I affirm that my spouse did not intend to violate any rules,” Kugler said in the financial disclosure form. “Upon learning about the purchases, I immediately notified ethics officials, and at their direction, I initiated divestiture of these assets as soon as possible under (Federal Open Market Committee) ethics policies.”The four sets of stock purchases happened over the summer, and each purchase amount ranged between $1,001 and $15,000. In a statement, a Fed spokesperson said “we can confirm that (Kugler) did alert the ethics office and acted at their direction, and in accordance with our policies.”The current Fed ethics rules were put in place in early 2022 after a series of controversies over the personal investing activities of some policymakers.The first involved the investing activities of the heads of the Fed’s regional banks in Boston and Dallas, and both left their posts in the fall of 2021. In a report early this year, the Fed’s Office of Inspector General, its in-house watchdog, rapped the two regional Fed bank chiefs for creating the appearance of a conflict of interest. Meanwhile, Fed Chair Jerome Powell and former Vice Chair Richard Clarida were cleared of wrongdoing by the watchdog. Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic has also faced trouble over his personal investing. In September, the Fed watchdog said Bostic had broken rules then in place and had created the appearance that he acted on confidential information and the appearance of a conflict of interest. Bostic had traded in periods that were off limits, but the watchdog also found no evidence he had used confidential Fed information to govern his investing. The finding on Bostic is widely believed to be the final report on Fed officials’ trading. The process of tightening up loose ends around the new ethics system and ensuring compliance is ongoing. At the start of this month, the OIG flagged a range of work the central bank is still engaged in, including ways to ensure the accuracy of disclosures. More

SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea’s export growth slowed to a seven-month low in October, missing market expectations, in a sign of cooling global demand that puts further pressure on a stuttering economic recovery. Outbound shipments from Asia’s fourth-largest economy rose 4.6% from a year earlier to $57.52 billion, compared with gains of 7.5% the month before and slowing for the third month, official data on Friday showed. A Reuters poll of economists had tipped a 6.9% rise. It was the 13th straight month exports grew in annual terms though they were the smallest increase since March. On average per working day, exports were down 0.2%, their first fall since September 2023. The trade data aligns with a survey showing South Korea’s factory activity shrank for a second month in October, with output falling by the most in 16 months.The trade-reliant economy barely grew in the third quarter, despite signs of recovery in consumer spending, as exports weakened, raising the chance for more stimulus to support growth.Exports of semiconductors were up 40.3% to $12.5 billion in October, which was lower than an all-time high of $13.6 billion in September. Sales of cars rose 5.5%. By destination, shipments to China rose 10.9% to a 25-month high of $12.2 billion. Those to the United States and European Union were up 3.4% and 5.7%, respectively. Imports rose 1.7% to $54.35 billion in October, after gaining 2.2% in September, also weaker than a 2.0% rise expected by economists. The country posted a monthly trade surplus of $3.17 billion, narrower than the previous month’s $6.66 billion. More

TOKYO (Reuters) – The dollar steadied against major peers on Friday, as investors awaited the U.S. jobs report to confirm economic resiliency heading into the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy meeting and a close-call U.S. presidential election next week.The yen held onto to Thursday’s gains as investors continued to digest a less dovish message from the Bank of Japan (BOJ) in the previous session.The U.S. dollar started November off at a lower level after coming under pressure against the yen and on Thursday.Nonfarm payrolls data closes out the week, with economists polled by Reuters estimating 113,000 jobs were added in October, although analysts say that the number could be impacted by recent hurricanes in the U.S.That’s likely to make the October jobs report “incredibly hard to read,” Tapas Strickland, head of market economics at National Australia Bank (OTC:NABZY), wrote in a note.The unemployment rate, expected to come in at 4.1%, may offer a clearer picture of labour markets.”Such an outcome would likely see the unemployment rate coming in well below the FOMC’s September projections of the unemployment rate lifting to 4.4% in Q4 2024. And thus continue to question the need for rate cuts,” he said.Data overnight suggested upward price pressures continue to ease, adding to a trend of upbeat data and supporting bets that the Fed will cut interest rates by 25 basis points next week.The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major currencies, was up 0.03% at 103.91.The Japanese currency was last largely unchanged at 152.02 per dollar. On Thursday, the central bank maintained ultra-low interest rates but said risks around the U.S. economy were somewhat subsiding, signalling that conditions are falling into place to raise interest rates again.”We think the chances of a Dec. rate hike have somewhat increased after Gov. (Kazuo) Ueda’s press conference,” Morgan Stanley MUFG economists Takeshi Yamaguchi and Masayuki Inui wrote in a report on Thursday.Their base case remains for the BOJ to raise rates again in January to 0.5%, although they noted that factors such as dollar/yen and inflation data leading up to the year-end decision will be important. The euro stood just off a two-week high against the greenback, buoyed this week after data showed that the euro zone’s inflation accelerated more than expected in October. It was last down 0.02% at $1.0882.Sterling remained on the backfoot, down 0.06% to $1.2891, as investors continued to react after British finance minister Rachel Reeves launched the biggest tax increases since 1993 in her first budget. The pound slid to its lowest since mid-August at $1.28445 on Thursday.The Fed’s monetary policy decision next week comes just days after the U.S. presidential election on Tuesday.Republican candidate Donald Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris remain neck and neck in several polls, but some investors have been putting on trades betting Trump will win, lifting the dollar and U.S. Treasury yields.Trump’s pledges to implement tax cuts, loosen financial regulations and raise tariffs are seen as inflationary and could slow the Federal Reserve in its policy easing path.In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market cap, last traded at around $70,132. More