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Dollar’s Epic Drop Sends Franc and Yen Surging as Traders Weigh Fed Path 2023-07-13 - (Bloomberg) -- A 14-month low in the US dollar rippled through global currency markets as traders consider the impact of cooling US inflation on the Federal Reserve’s most-aggressive tightening cycle in a generation. Most Read from Bloomberg The Swiss franc rose to the strongest level since 2015 against the US currency, while Japan’s yen climbed more than 1% on the day to consolidate its gains below 140 per dollar. The euro spiked to $1.11, and the British pound touched $1.30 — both hitting their strongest levels in more than a year. “It breathes more life into the view that the Fed is closer to the end of its cycle,” said Bipan Rai, CIBC’s global head of foreign-exchange strategy. “We can’t say that definitively for a few of the other major central banks out there, which is a powerful cue for a weaker US dollar.” Excluding food and energy, the US consumer price index — which economists view as the better indicator of underlying inflation —advanced just 4.8% from a year ago, the lowest since late 2021 but still above the Fed’s target. That sent a benchmark for the dollar slumping to the lowest since April 2022 and dragged Treasury yields lower. A quarter-point hike by the Fed this month is still considered very likely, but the odds of an additional one were trimmed in wake of the data. Some 28 of the 31 major currencies tracked by Bloomberg were up on Wednesday after the US inflation print, with many nearing or breaching key levels. The franc’s surge pushed it just off the highest since early 2015, when the Swiss National Bank roiled markets worldwide with an unexpected decision to abandon the currency’s cap against the euro. The loonie also gained as the Bank of Canada raised its benchmark interest rate, pushing back the timeline for inflation’s return to target while revising growth upward. Sweden’s krona, meanwhile, was up 3% versus the euro and about 5% against the dollar over the past four days. The Norwegian krone rallied more than 6% against the greenback over the same period as oil prices rise and expectations mount for further Norges Bank policy tightening. Rallies extended across emerging markets, too. The offshore Chinese yuan climbed to its strongest level in three weeks Wednesday, while an MSCI Inc. index of developing-economy currencies posted its longest winning streak since May. “Disinflation is the theme now, that’s the trade,” Nomura strategist Jordan Rochester said. In terms of the Fed’s rate-hiking path ahead, “the idea of July and done is likely to gain more credibility on the Street.” --With assistance from Robert Fullem, George Lei and Carter Johnson. (Updates prices throughout.) Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek ©2023 Bloomberg L.P.

Google Veteran Steps Down as Manager in Cloud Shakeup 2023-07-13 - (Bloomberg) -- One of Google’s earliest employees will step back from an executive management role, having held a senior position at the company’s cloud unit. Most Read from Bloomberg Urs Hölzle joined the company, now the key unit of parent Alphabet Inc., in 1999 as its eighth employee, and will now transition into a role as a Google Fellow, the company said. In Google’s early years, Hölzle was instrumental in building the unique computing machinery that supported its major services, letting the company expand quickly from search into mapping, video and countless other fields. Eventually, Google would package that computing infrastructure as the core selling point of its cloud division. More recently, Hölzle led Google’s push into making its own chips for processing artificial intelligence, although the company has struggling to sell that hardware via cloud services. Hölzle is one of the last remaining Google employees that worked closely with company founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who stepped down from their roles in 2019. The founders remain majority shareholders. CNBC earlier reported that Hölzle would become an “individual contributor” after more than two decades of leading technical teams, citing an internal email from Google Cloud Chief Executive Officer Thomas Kurian. The veteran will focus on articulating technical AI processes, facilitating discussions, and streamlining decision making, according to the memo. Hölzle previously sparked internal controversy when he moved to New Zealand in 2021, after opposing remote working for other employees during the pandemic. His new role adds to a series of changes at Google in recent weeks, including the departure of key artificial intelligence researcher Llion Jones. In April, Google consolidated its AI research groups into one unit, which shifted its longtime AI executive Jeff Dean into a new role as chief scientist. Read more: AI Researcher Who Helped Write Landmark Paper Is Leaving Google (Updates with additional details of Hölzle’s career in third paragraph) Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek ©2023 Bloomberg L.P.

Elon Musk launches new AI company, called xAI, with Google and OpenAI researchers 2023-07-13 - Billionaire Elon Musk on Wednesday announced that he has formed a new artificial intelligence company called xAI, which has hired researchers from Google, OpenAI and other top technology firms. The goal, Musk tweeted, is "to understand reality." xAI is a separate entity from Musk's other businesses, such as Tesla and Twitter, but will work closely with them, according to the new company's website. Announcing formation of @xAI to understand reality — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 12, 2023 Musk isn't a novice to AI given that Tesla uses the technology in its vehicles. While xAI didn't disclose what projects it will be working on, the company noted that its team of 11 researchers are drawn from top tech companies such as Microsoft Research, DeepMind, OpenAI and Google. Musk hinted that the reason he picked July 12, 2023, to announce the debut of xAI is related to a science fiction classic, Douglas Adams' "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." In his tweet, he noted that adding the date 7-12-23 equals 42, which the novel famously postulates is the answer to life. And what are the most fundamental unknown questions? Once you know the right question to ask, the answer is often the easy part, as my hero, Douglas Adams, would say. pic.twitter.com/Bo6v8E1Ooq — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 12, 2023 "The goal of xAI is to understand the true nature of the universe," the xAI website states. The company said it will be advised by Dan Hendrycks, director of the Center for AI Safety. His group in May warned that AI could pose a "risk of extinction" to humanity on the scale of nuclear war or pandemics. In an email to CBS News, Hendrycks singled out where AI could go wrong. "AIs could be used by malicious actors to design novel bioweapons more lethal than natural pandemics," Hendrycks wrote in May. "Alternatively, malicious actors could intentionally release rogue AI that actively attempt to harm humanity. If such an AI was intelligent or capable enough, it may pose significant risk to society as a whole." "Truth-seeking AI" The public unveiling of xAI follows comments Musk made about in April to then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson. Musk told Carlson that OpenAI's popular chatbot had a liberal bias and that he planned to develop an alternative tool that would be a "maximum truth-seeking AI that tries to understand the nature of the universe." The startup reflected Musk's long-voiced concerns about a future in which AI systems could present an existential risk to humanity. The idea, Musk also told Carlson, is that an AI that wants to understand humanity is less likely to destroy it. Musk was one of the tech leaders who earlier this year called for AI developers to agree to a six-month pause before building systems more powerful than OpenAI's latest model, GPT-4. Around the same time, he had already been working to start his own AI company, according to Nevada business records. —With reporting by the Associated Press.

Cruises see surge of Norovirus, highest in decade: CDC 2023-07-13 - The Norovirus, a nasty gastrointestinal virus, is preventing smooth sailing for some American travelers, with cases of the highly contagious virus skyrocketing to the highest numbers in the past decade. There have been 13 outbreaks of Norovirus on cruise ships so far this year, according to reports from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That marks the largest number of Norovirus incidents on these vessels in a single year since 2012—and the year is just halfway over. In 2022, there were just four outbreaks of the virus-despite peak travel times following the COVID-19 pandemic. There was a total of 235 guests and crew members that contracted the virus, according to the CDC. According to the CDC, Norovirus is a highly infectious virus that causes inflammation in the stomach and intestines. Often labeled a "stomach bug," Norovirus is the most common cause of nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and stomach pain. MILD WINTER COULD MEAN AN UPTICK IN TICKS, LYME DISEASE ACROSS THE US The most recent outbreak occurred on Viking Cruises Viking Neptune ship. More than 100 passengers fell ill, according to the CDC, accounting for 13.1% of all vacationers on the ship. Viking Cruises told the Wall Street Journal that it believes that the recent outbreak on its ship "originated from a shoreside restaurant in Iceland where a group of guests dined during their free time." Across the 13 outbreaks among cruises that docked in the U.S., nearly 1,700 passengers reported being ill during their voyages, along with more than 240 crew members. "Because cruise ships report illnesses to the CDC, there is more visibility and faster reporting to health authorities, which should not be confused to mean a higher incidence rate onboard," a spokesperson for the Cruise Lines International Association told WSJ. TOURIST DIES AFTER HEAD INJURY ON WATER SLIDE AT LUXURY RESORT Other cruise lines impacted from Norovirus included: Celebrity Cruises, Holland America, Princess Cruises, Royal Caribbean International and P&O Cruises. The CDC reports outbreaks when 2% or more of passengers or crew report symptoms of gastrointestinal illness to the ship’s medical staff. Ships are required to report the illness within 15 days of arriving at a U.S. port. The ships also must have more than 100 passengers and sailings between three and 21 days long for an outbreak to be reported. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The CDC recommends washing hands, disinfecting surfaces with bleach, cooking food safely and washing laundry in hot water all help prevent the spread of the highly contagious virus.

Tens of thousands of doctors in England start ‘longest’ strike in health system’s history 2023-07-13 - LONDON (AP) — Britain’s state-funded health care service is facing what is being described as its longest-ever strike as tens of thousands of doctors in England launched a five-day walkout over pay on Thursday. So-called junior doctors, those who are at the early stages of their careers in the National Health Service in the years after medical school, started their latest strike at 7 a.m., with many of them making their case for a 35% pay rise in picket lines outside hospitals across England. The British Medical Association, the doctors’ union, has asked for a 35% pay rise to bring junior doctors’ pay back to 2008 levels once inflation is taken into account. Meanwhile, the workload of England’s 75,000 or so junior doctors has swelled as patient waiting lists for treatment are at record highs in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. “Today marks the start of the longest single walkout by doctors in the NHS’s history, but this is still not a record that needs to go into the history books,” said BMA leaders Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi. They urged the British government, which oversees health policy in England, to drop its “nonsensical precondition” of not negotiating while strikes are in progress. The government, which is facing an array of strikes by public workers across many sectors, is standing firm to its position that it won’t negotiate while the strikes are taking place. “This five-day walkout by junior doctors will have an impact on thousands of patients, put patient safety at risk and hamper efforts to cut NHS waiting lists,” said Health Secretary Steve Barclay. “A pay demand of 35% or more is unreasonable and risks fuelling inflation, which makes everyone poorer.” Britain, like other countries, is grappling with high inflation for the first time in years. Price rises were first stoked by supply chain issues resulting from the pandemic and then by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which sent energy and food prices soaring. Though inflation has come down slightly from its peak to 8.7%, it remains far above the 2% level the Bank of England is tasked to target. The doctors’ strike will cause huge disruption for the already embattled NHS, with operations and consultations postponed or even cancelled. Dr Simon Steddon, chief medical officer at Guy’s and St Thomas’s hospital trust in south London, urged both sides to get back to the negotiating table amid concerns over the impact on patients. He said that 55,000 appointments and nearly 6,000 planned procedures have already been cancelled or rescheduled at the hospitals he oversees as a result of previous strikes. “Thousands more will need to be cancelled over the next couple of weeks adding to the significant delay, inconvenience and the inherent risk of further delay to diagnosis and treatment,” he added. The doctors taking the strike action say they know the impact of their walkout on the health service, but insist that they have been left with no alternative. “This isn’t a celebration, this is years of declining pay, declining conditions, frustration, and this is what has culminated as a result,” Alex Gibbs, a striking 31-year-old doctor said outside University College Hospital in north London.

Record monsoon rains have killed more than 100 people in northern India this week 2023-07-13 - NEW DELHI (AP) — Schools and colleges were closed after record monsoon rains led to massive waterlogging, road caves-in, collapsed homes and gridlocked traffic in large parts of northern India this week, killing more than 100 people, officials said Thursday. At least 88 people died and more than 100 were injured in the worst hit-mountainous Himachal Pradesh state where cars, buses, bridges and houses were swept away by swirling flood waters, a state government statement said. The region is nearly 500 kilometers (310 miles) north of New Delhi. Twelve people have died of rain-related incidents since Wednesday in Uttar Pradesh state, said Shishir Singh, a state government spokesman. Nine of them drowned, two died after being struck by lightning and one was killed by a snake bite, Singh said. One person died in New Delhi and four were killed in the Indian-controlled section of Kashmir, officials said. Authorities used helicopters to rescue nearly 300 people, mostly tourists, who were stranded in the Chandertal area in Himachal Pradesh state since Saturday. They included seven sick people who were airlifted on Tuesday, the government said. Nearly 170 houses have collapsed and another 600 were partially damaged by heavy rains and landslides in the state, the state emergency operation center said. In New Delhi, residential areas close to the Jamuna River were flooded, submerging roads, cars and homes, leading to the evacuation of thousands of people from low-lying areas. Dozens of cars were blocked by sheets of water, throwing the movement of vehicles into disarray during the morning rush hour in New Delhi on Thursday. The water level of the Jamuna River flowing through the Indian capital topped a 40-year record and reached 207.71 meters (681.5 feet) on Wednesday evening, according to a statement by the office of New Delhi’s top elected official, Arvind Kejriwal. Authorities have moved nearly 30,000 people to relief camps and also converted some schools into relief camps in the badly hit areas, the statement said. Hundreds of people with their livestock also have taken shelter under overhead road bridges in the eastern parts of the Indian capital. Rajesh Singh, a factory owner, was stuck with his motorbike for hours with floodwater blocking both sides of the road near the river bank. “I have never seen anything like this in the past 22 years.” “New Delhi hasn’t seen a lot of rain in the past two days, but the river level has risen due to abnormally high levels of water discharge from Hathni Kund barrage in neighboring Haryana state,” Kejriwal said. India’s weather agency has forecast more heavy rains in northern parts in the coming days. It said monsoon rains across the country have already brought about 2% more rainfall than normal. India regularly witnesses severe floods during the monsoon season, which runs between June and September and brings most of South Asia’s annual rainfall. The rains are crucial for rain-fed crops planted during the season but often cause extensive damage. Scientists say monsoons are becoming more erratic because of climate change and global warming, leading to frequent landslides and flash floods in India’s Himalayan north.

China and ASEAN agree to try to conclude nonaggression pact on sea feud in 3 years 2023-07-13 - JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — China and Southeast Asian nations agreed Thursday to try and conclude within three years a long-delayed nonaggression pact aimed at preventing the frequent territorial spats in the busy South China Sea from turning into a major armed conflict. China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations agreed Thursday during a meeting between the 10-nation bloc’s foreign ministers and China’s top diplomat Wang Yi in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta to guidelines to complete their code of conduct negotiations before fall 2026, a Southeast Asian diplomat involved in the meetings told The Associated Press. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity due to a lack of authority to discuss the issue publicly ahead of the official announcement of the agreement. China and four of ASEAN’s member states — Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam — along with Taiwan have been locked in a decades-long territorial standoff in the disputed waterway, a key passageway for global trade that is believed to be sitting atop vast undersea deposits of oil and gas. The contested territory has long been feared as an Asian flashpoint and has become a sensitive front in the U.S.-China rivalry in the region. A joint working group by China and ASEAN “should endeavor to conclude the negotiation of an effective and substantive code of conduct, in accordance with international law, including the 1982 U.N. Convention of the Law of the Sea, within a 3-year timeline or earlier,” according to the guidelines, a copy of which was seen by the AP. The guidelines called for more meetings between the two sides and the start of negotiations for the most contentious issues, including whether the regional code should be legally enforceable and its geographical scope. Washington lays no territorial claims in the South China Sea but has said that freedom of navigation and overflight and the peaceful resolution of the disputes were in the United States’ national interest. It has challenged China’s expansive territorial claims in the region and Beijing has angrily reacted by warning the U.S. to stop meddling in what it calls a purely Asian dispute. China and ASEAN signed a nonbinding 2002 accord that called on rival claimant nations to avoid aggressive actions that could spark armed conflicts, including the occupation of barren islets and reefs, but violations have persisted. About 10 years ago, China turned seven disputed reefs into what have become missile-protected chain of islands in the Spratlys, the most hotly contested part of the South China Sea, sparking alarm from rival claimant states and the U.S. and its allies. With tensions rising, ASEAN and China had agreed to negotiate for a code of conduct. But the talks were delayed for years, including during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, and because of major differences between China and rival claimant states. Chinese negotiators have proposed that the code of conduct restrict the presence and activities of foreign forces in the disputed waters. Southeast Asian diplomats have said that U.S. allies involved in the talks were opposed given their stance that Washington serves a crucial role as a counterweight to Beijing in the region. ___ Associated Press journalist Edna Tarigan contributed to this report.

No deal on Hollywood actors contract, strike vote will be held Thursday morning 2023-07-13 - LOS ANGELES (AP) — The union representing film and television actors says no deal has been reached with studios and streaming services and its leadership will vote on whether to strike later Thursday. The Screen Actors Guild -American Federation of Television and Radio Artists said early Thursday that its decision on whether to join already striking screenwriters will be considered by leadership at a meeting later Thursday. If the actors go on strike, it will be the first time since 1960 that actors and writers picket film and television productions. The actors’ guild released a statement early Thursday announcing that its deadline for negotiations to conclude had ended without a contract. The statement came hours after this year’s Emmy nominations, recognizing the best work on television, were announced. “The companies have refused to meaningfully engage on some topics and on others completely stonewalled us. Until they do negotiate in good faith, we cannot begin to reach a deal,” said Fran Drescher, the star of “The Nanny” who is now the actors’ guild president. The group representing the studios, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, said it was disappointed by the failure to reach a deal. “This is the Union’s choice, not ours. In doing so, it has dismissed our offer of historic pay and residual increases, substantially higher caps on pension and health contributions, audition protections, shortened series option periods, a groundbreaking AI proposal that protects actors’ digital likenesses, and more,” the AMPTP said in a statement. It added that instead of continuing to negotiate, “SAG-AFTRA has put us on a course that will deepen the financial hardship for thousands who depend on the industry for their livelihoods.” If the actors strike, they will formally join screenwriters on the picket lines outside studios and filming locations in a bid to get better terms from studios and streaming giants like Netflix and Amazon. The actors’ guild has previously authorized a strike by a nearly 98% margin. Members of the Writers Guild of America have been on strike since early May, slowing the production of film and television series on both coasts and in production centers like Atlanta. Issues in negotiations include the unregulated use of artificial intelligence and the effects on residual pay brought on by the streaming ecosystem that has emerged in recent years. Actors have joined writers on picket lines for weeks in solidarity. An actors’ strike would prevent performers from working on sets or promoting their projects. Whether the cast of Christopher Nolan’s film “Oppenheimer” attends Thursday’s London premiere hangs in the balance of whether the actors strike. Attending a photo event on Wednesday, star Matt Damon said that while everyone was hoping a strike could be averted, many actors need a fair contract to survive. “We ought to protect the people who are kind of on the margins,” Damon told The Associated Press. “And 26,000 bucks a year is what you have to make to get your health insurance. And there are a lot of people whose residual payments are what carry them across that threshold. And if those residual payments dry up, so does their health care. And that’s absolutely unacceptable. We can’t have that. So, we got to figure out something that is fair.” The looming strike has cast a shadow over the upcoming 75th Emmys. Nominations were announced Wednesday, and the strike was on the mind of many nominees. “People are standing up and saying, ‘This doesn’t really work, and people need to be paid fairly,’” Oscar-winner Jessica Chastain, who was nominated for her first Emmy Award on Wednesday for playing Tammy Wynette in “George & Tammy,” told the AP. “It is very clear that there are certain streamers that have really kind of changed the way we work and the way that we have worked, and the contracts really haven’t caught up to the innovation that’s happened.”

Climate activists block runways at 2 German airports, causing numerous flight cancelations 2023-07-13 - BERLIN (AP) — Climate activists blocked a runway at Hamburg airport early Thursday, causing numerous flights to be canceled on the first day of the school vacation in the north German city. The group Last Generation said several of its members entered the grounds of Hamburg airport around 6 a.m. (0400 GMT) and glued themselves to the runway. “It can’t yet be predicted when operations can resume,” the airport operators said. “According to current information about a dozen flights have had to be canceled. Further cancelations and diversions aren’t ruled out.” Members of the group also cut through a security fence at Duesseldorf airport, in the west of the country, and blocked an access route to the runway. In a statement, the group accused the German government of lacking a strategy to tackle the climate crisis and called for immediate measures to cut emissions in the transport sector, including ending tax exemptions for airline kerosene. Aviation is responsible for a significant share of global emissions. If the sector were a country, it would rank in the top 10 global emitters, according to the European Commission. Last Generation is known for its disruptive protests, blocking roads and airports to demand tougher government action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. German prosecutors raided the homes of several of the group’s members in May on suspicion of forming or supporting a criminal organization.

Man City gets $4.6 million from FIFA to top list of club payments from World Cup player fund 2023-07-13 - GENEVA (AP) — For the second straight World Cup, Manchester City topped the list of FIFA payments to clubs whose players were selected for the 32 national teams in Qatar. From the $209 million fund allocated by FIFA, the Premier League and Champions League winner received almost $4.6 million — eclipsing the total sent to the entire continent of Africa, which had five national teams at the World Cup. The list published Thursday showed a total of 18 African clubs combined to earn $4.57 million. FIFA said 440 clubs in 51 countries were rewarded with payments funded by the governing body’s $7.5 billion income for the four-year commercial cycle mostly tied to the 2022 men’s tournament. The project that was launched for the 2010 World Cup again starkly showed how clubs in soccer’s wealthiest and dominant continent have nurtured, lured and retained much of the best talent. Clubs in UEFA member countries got $159 million, 76% of the total fund, and clubs in England accounted for $37.7 million, FIFA said. A fifth-tier club in England, Boreham Wood, got more than double the FIFA payment — $31,026 vs $15,513 — due to Santos, the storied Brazilian team that was Pelé’s home and where Neymar started his career. FIFA calculated the payments at a daily rate of $10,950 for each of 837 players doing duty in Qatar until the day after their team’s last game. Each player’s allocation was divided among clubs who held their registration since the 2020-21 season. Man City was due payments for players ranging from Julián Álvarez and its former defender Nicolás Otamendi in Argentina’s title-winning team, six members of England’s quarterfinalist team and Belgium playmaker Kevin De Bruyne, who exited in the group stage. City had received a list-leading $5 million from FIFA’s $209 million at the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Barcelona was the next highest earner on the 2022 list with $4.54 million, including $131,405 for Lionel Messi’s time with the club in 2020-21 until leaving for Paris Saint-Germain. Bayern Munich’s share was more than $4.3 million, including payments for four players from runner-up France’s squad. Though Italy did not qualify for the World Cup, 27 Italian clubs earned a total of $18.7 million from their foreign players. Juventus got more than $3 million, including $394,215 for France’s Adrien Rabiot and allocations from Argentina trio Ángel Di María, Leandro Paredes and Paulo Dybala. A player with finalists Argentina and France who had been with the same club since the start of the 2020-21 season earned $394,215 for that club. However, storied Argentinian club Boca Juniors is due just $32,851 for defender Nahuel Molina’s brief stay with the club in the 2020-21 season before moving to Europe. River Plate, Boca’s rival in Buenos Aires, was due $1.2 million. Spanish clubs collectively earned $24.2 million, German clubs shared a little over $21 million and French clubs’ payout was $16.5 million. Saudi Arabian clubs led the Asian list with $6.6 million and host nation Qatar’s clubs got $6.3 million. Clubs in the United States got $5.4 million, topped by $827,000 for the Seattle Sounders. Morocco’s historic run as the first African team to reach the semifinals was achieved with many Europe-based players. Just two Moroccan clubs in Casablanca earned money from FIFA: $1.4 million to Wydad and $31,938 to Raja. Just $20,075 went to a single club in Senegal, Génération Foot, for the 27 players in the national team squad that reached the round of 16 in Qatar. It included Sadio Mané, who withdrew injured before the first game. FIFA payments from its World Cup revenues were agreed to as part of a settlement with an elite group of clubs that formed the European Club Association in 2008. The fund total is negotiated when FIFA-ECA working agreements are renewed and will be $355 million for each men’s World Cup in 2026 and 2030. The 2026 World Cup co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico will be the first with 48 teams and an expected 1,104 players selected. ___ AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Stock market today: Global shares jump on Wall Street’s return to its highest level in over a year 2023-07-13 - TOKYO (AP) — Global shares rose Thursday, boosted by Wall Street’s return to its highest level in more than a year after a report showed U.S. consumer inflation cooled a bit more than expected last month. France’s CAC 40 added 0.2% in morning trading to 7,350.45. Germany’s DAX edged up 0.2% to 16,048.19. Britain’s FTSE 100 gained 0.1% to 7,425.73. U.S. shares were set to drift higher with Dow futures up nearly 0.2% to 34,608.00. S&P 500 futures up 0.3% to 4,521.25. In Asia, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 jumped 1.5% to finish at 32,419.33. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng surged 2.6% to 19,350.62, while the Shanghai Composite gained 1.3% to 3,236.48, even as China reported a slump in trade in June. Chinese exports tumbled 12.4% in June from a year earlier as demand weakened after central banks raised interest rates to curb inflation even as Chinese leaders struggled to keep a post-COVID recovery from faltering. The customs data released Thursday showed imports slid 6.8%, while the trade surplus rose was $70.6 billion, rising from $65.8 billion in May. “China will likely recover at some point, but we will unlikely see the Chinese growth put a severe pressure on commodity markets. That’s one good news for inflation watchers,” Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank, said in a commentary. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 1.6% to 7,246.90. South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.6% to 2,591.23. The Bank of Korea left its policy rate unchanged at 3.50%, as expected, but noted that the risk of inflation was accelerating again. The U.S. government’s latest update on inflation showed that consumers paid prices for gasoline, food and other items that were 3% higher overall in June than a year earlier. That’s down from 4% inflation in May and a bit more than 9% last summer. Perhaps more importantly, it was a touch lower than economists expected. High inflation has been at the center of Wall Street’s problems because it’s driven the Federal Reserve to jack up interest rates at a blistering pace. Higher rates undercut inflation by slowing the entire economy and hurting investment prices, and they’ve already caused damage to the banking, manufacturing and other industries. Traders remain nearly convinced the Fed will raise the federal funds rate at its meeting in two weeks to a range of 5.25% to 5.50%, which would be its highest level since 2001. But expectations are also climbing for that to be the final increase after rates started last year at virtually zero. A resilient job market has helped to keep the U.S. economy out of a recession, though it’s also under pressure from higher rates. The latest “Beige Book” from the Federal Reserve on Wednesday said that overall economic activity has increased slightly since late May. It also said several Fed districts have noticed some slowing in inflation. In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude rose 21 cents to $75.96 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, gained 30 cents to $80.41 a barrel. In currency trading, the U.S. dollar edged down to 138.37 Japanese yen from 138.41 yen. The euro cost $1.1152, up from $1.1128. ___ AP Business Writer Zen Soo contributed.

Mitsubishi's China JV to cut staff costs after SUV sales dive 2023-07-13 - [1/2] The logo of Mitsubishi Motors Corp is seen at a showroom of the company's headquarters in Tokyo, Japan November 26, 2018. REUTERS/Toru Hanai BEIJING/SHANGHAI, July 13 (Reuters) - Mitsubishi Motors' (7211.T) joint venture with China's Guangzhou Automobile Group (GAC) (601238.SS) on Thursday said it would cut staff costs in an attempt to turn the company around after sharp sales declines for sport utility vehicles (SUV) like the Outlander. In a statement issued by GAC, the state-owned automaker said it would look to "optimise" its employment as part of an effort to rescue and transform the venture. GAC did not say how many employees would be affected. It said it would restructure in accordance with law and regulations in China. Mitsubishi did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The joint venture, known as GAC Mitsubishi Motors, was launched in 2012 to focus on SUV sales in China. The announcement follows mounting pressure on the joint venture that makes Mitsubishi's Outlander model. Mitsubishi said in April it would take a $78-million charge for slowing sales at the venture. SUVs represent the largest share of the growing electric vehicle (EV) market in China, where price cuts and the rollout of new models have taken sales away from combustion vehicles. Established automakers have been under deepening pressure in China where the market is shifting quickly to EVs and toward newer Chinese brands not operating in the joint ventures that had dominated sales for decades. AlixPartners has forecast that Chinese brands would take more than 50% of the world's largest auto market for the first time this year. Mitsubishi's sales in China peaked in 2018, when it recorded sales of over 141,000 vehicles, according to industry data. In 2022, sales had dropped below 33,000 vehicles. Other foreign automakers are also under pressure to restructure and cut costs, limiting their exposure to China, or roll out new models that can compete on features and price with Chinese EV brands, analysts have said. Hyundai Motor (005380.KS), the third-largest automaker by sales, said last month it would close another plant in China this year and focus its efforts in China on higher-end models, including SUVs and its Genesis-brand vehicles. Reporting by Beijing Newsroom Writing by Kevin Krolicki Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Mark Potter Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Chip wars: How ‘chiplets’ are emerging as a core part of China’s tech strategy 2023-07-13 - July 13 (Reuters) - The sale of struggling Silicon Valley startup zGlue’s patents in 2021 was unremarkable except for one detail: The technology it owned, designed to cut the time and cost for making chips, showed up 13 months later in the patent portfolio of Chipuller, a startup in China’s southern tech hub Shenzhen. Chipuller purchased what is referred to as chiplet technology, a cost efficient way to package groups of small semiconductors to form one powerful brain capable of powering everything from data centers to gadgets at home. The previously unreported technology transfer coincides with a push for chiplet technology in China that started about two years ago, according to a Reuters analysis of hundreds of patents in the U.S. and China and dozens of Chinese government procurement documents, research papers and grants, local and central government policy documents and interviews with Chinese chip executives. Industry experts say chiplet technology has become even more important to China since the U.S. barred it from accessing advanced machines and materials needed to make today’s most cutting edge chips, and now largely underpins the country’s plans for self-reliance in semiconductor manufacturing. "U.S.-China competition is on the same starting line," Chipuller chairman Yang Meng said about chiplet technology in an interview with Reuters. "In other (chip technologies) there is a sizeable gap between China and the United States, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan." Barely mentioned before 2021, Chinese authorities have highlighted chiplets more frequently in recent years, according to a Reuters review. At least 20 policy documents from local to central governments referred to it as part of a broader strategy to increase China’s capabilities in “key and cutting-edge technologies”. "Chiplets have a very special meaning for China given the restrictions on wafer fabrication equipment," said Charles Shi, a chip analyst for brokerage Needham. "They can still develop 3D stacking or other chiplet technology to work around those restrictions. That’s the grand strategy, and I think it might even work." Beijing is rapidly exploiting chiplet technology in applications as diverse as artificial intelligence to self-driving cars, with entities from tech giant Huawei Technologies to military institutions exploring its use. More major investments in the area are on the way, according to a review of corporate announcements. CHINA'S CHIPLET ADVANTAGE Chiplets, or small chips, can be the size of a grain of sand or bigger than a thumbnail and are brought together in a process called advanced packaging. It is a technology the global chip industry has increasingly embraced in recent years as chip manufacturing costs soar in the race to make transistors so small they are now measured in the number of atoms. Bonding chiplets tightly together can help make more powerful systems without shrinking the transistor size as the multiple chips can work like one brain. Apple’s high-end computer lines use chiplet technology, as do Intel and AMD’s more powerful chips. About a quarter of the global chip packaging and testing market sits in China, according to Dongguan Securities. While some say this gives China an advantage in leveraging chiplet technology, Chipuller chairman Yang cautioned the proportion of China's packaging industry that could be considered advanced was "not very big". Under the right conditions, chiplets that are personalised according to the needs of the customer can be completed quickly, in "three to four months, this is the unique advantage China holds," according to Yang. Needham's Shi said according to import data published by China’s customs agency, China’s purchase of chip packaging equipment soared to $3.3 billion in 2021 from its previous high of $1.7 billion in 2018, although last year it fell to $2.3 billion with the chip market downturn. Since early 2021 research papers on chiplets started surfacing by researchers of the Chinese military People’s Liberation Army and universities it runs, and state-run and PLA-affiliated laboratories are looking to use chips made using domestic chiplet technology according to six tenders published over the past three years. Public documents by the government also show millions of dollars worth of grants to researchers specializing in chiplet technology, while dozens of smaller companies have sprouted throughout China in recent years to meet domestic demand for advanced packaging solutions like chiplets. CHIPLETS ON THE TABLE Against the backdrop of escalating U.S.-China tension, Chinese company Chipuller acquired 28 patents either owned by zGlue or invented by people whose names are on zGlue's patents, according to an analysis using IP management technology firm Anaqua's Acclaim IP database. The acquisition was through a two-step transfer, first through British Virgin Islands-registered North Sea Investment Co Ltd, according to documents seen by Reuters and confirmed by Yang. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a powerful Treasury-led committee that reviews transactions for potential threats to U.S. security, did not respond to a Reuters request for comment about whether such sales would require their approval. CFIUS lawyers Laura Black at Akin's Trade Group, Melissa Mannino at BakerHostetler and Perry Bechky at Berliner Corcoran & Rowe say patent sales alone would not necessarily give CFIUS authority over the deal, as it depends whether the assets purchased constitute a U.S. business. Representative Mike Gallagher, an influential lawmaker whose select committee on China has pressed the Biden administration to take tougher stances on China, told Reuters zGlue's case highlights the "urgent need to reform CFIUS". "(People's Republic of China) entities should not be able to act with impunity to take advantage of distressed U.S. firms to transfer their IP to China,” he said in an emailed statement. Chipuller's Yang said zGlue's lawyer communicated with both CFIUS and the Department of Commerce to ensure the sale to North Sea would not fall foul of export controls. These discussions did not include mention of Chipuller or the possibility of a Chinese entity ending up in possession of the patents, according to a Chipuller spokesperson. "Everything was done very transparently and in accordance with (U.S.) law," Yang said. Yang said he considered himself a founder of zGlue as he became an investor in the company in 2015, soon after its formation, and later became a director and chairman. CFIUS visited zGlue offices in 2018 to conduct an investigation because the company's largest non-U.S. investor, Yang, was from China, the chairman said. "So we have spent a lot of time communicating with CFIUS," Yang said, adding that Chipuller currently does not supply any Chinese military or U.S.-sanctioned entities. Chipuller isn’t the only firm with chiplet technology. Huawei, China’s tech and chip design giant that has been put on the U.S.'s most restricted list, has been actively filing chiplet patents. Huawei published over 900 chiplet-related patent applications and grants last year in China, up from 30 in 2017, according to Anaqua’s director of analytics solutions Shayne Phillips. Huawei declined to comment. Reuters identified over a dozen announcements over the past two years for new factories or expansions of existing ones from companies using chiplet technology in manufacturing across China’s tech sector, representing an investment totalling over 40 billion yuan. They include domestic giants TongFu Microelectronics (002156.SZ) and JCET Group (600584.SS), as well as fast-growing startups such as Beijing ESWIN Technology Group, which spent 5.5 billion yuan on a factory for its chiplet-focused subsidiary that began operating in April. One article published in May by an outlet run by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) urged big Chinese tech firms the use of domestic packaging companies such as TongFu to help build China's self-sufficiency in computing power. "Use Chiplet technology to break through the United States' siege of my country's advanced process chips,” it said. MIIT did not respond to a request for comment. Chipuller chairman Yang puts it this way: "Chiplet technology is the core driving force for the development of the domestic semiconductor industry,” he said on the company's official WeChat channel. “It is our mission and duty to bring it back to China." ($1 = 7.2205 Chinese yuan renminbi) Reporting by Jane Lanhee Lee and Eduardo Baptista; Additional reporting by Echo Wang and Stephen Nellis; editing by Kenneth Li, Brenda Goh and Lincoln Feast. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Fall from grace: How the property crash unravelled Sweden's SBB 2023-07-13 - STOCKHOLM/LONDON/FRANKFURT, July 13 (Reuters) - For hundreds of thousands of ordinary Swedes, investing in one of their country's biggest landlords SBB (SBBb.ST) was a sure bet for years. Now it is at the epicentre of a property crash that threatens to engulf the Nordic state's economy. On Friday, the heavily-indebted property group will offer investors a glimpse of its finances in its second-quarter results and enthusiasm for the one-time rising star has been displaced by a sense of foreboding. SBB is scrambling to salvage its finances after recently seeing its credit rating downgraded to junk. Its shares have lost over 90% of their value since peaking in 2021. Maria De Geer of the Swedish Shareholders Association said the company's shares had once been so popular among Swedes it became known as a stock for the people, snapped up by roughly 300,000 small investors. "All those people ... thought they would become millionaires," she said. "There are still lots and lots of small shareholders who've had a massive loss as they bought ... at the peak and they are now with something more or less worthless." Those investors bought into a strong track record of growth, stable dividends and a credit rating to be proud of. But the company, founded by a former social democrat politician Ilija Batljan, built up vast debts buying public property including social housing, government offices, schools and hospitals. Hit by soaring interest rates, it was forced to cancel its dividend and scrap a share issue. SBB has said it is now hunting for a buyer of all or parts of its business after Batljan was forced to step down. SBB's problems are unfolding as Sweden struggles to contain a wider property crisis. Reuters Graphics ON EDGE House prices are down by around one-fifth since their March 2022 peak, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, reflecting soaring mortgage costs. Robert Bergqvist, an economist with Swedish bank SEB, said home building accounted for about 30% of the country's economy, and that any slowdown would have a serious wider impact. SBB is seeking to repair confidence, having taken steps to shore up liquidity. It has said it plans on selling roughly 6 billion Swedish crowns worth of assets this year. But investors remain on edge. Analysts expect results on Friday to be weighed down by a roughly 3 billion Swedish crown loss the company made when it sold a stake in construction firm JM (JM.ST) earlier this year to free up cash. They are also waiting to hear how new chief executive Leiv Synnes plans to pare back debt and sell further property. SBB is in talks with Canada's Brookfield Asset Management about selling its remaining stake in its education subsidiary. Speculators are betting that the stock price has further to fall. SBB shares are subject to more short-selling - a bet that the stock price will drop - than any other Swedish company, according to data from the financial regulator. The company has a stock market value of about 9 billion Swedish crowns ($866.52 million) and continues to grapple with roughly 81 billion Swedish crowns of debt as of March 2023, with around 15% of it maturing within one year. A 950 million euro bond issued by SBB Treasury Oyj was trading at a price of 59 cents in the euro on Wednesday - a level that shows investors fear a wipe out. The price of a 450 million euro-plus perpetual bond sold by SBB hovered around 22 cents in the euro on Wednesday, betraying investor fears. To make matters worse, SBB is also the subject of an accounting probe by the Swedish financial authority. One former top-five SBB shareholder told Reuters it had all but scrapped its stake. De Geer is watching nervously. "One can hope that they can get the company back on track so there will be something left for all those shareholders," she said. "If, on the other hand, the SBB will be bought up, then the small shareholders will probably lose everything." ($1 = 10.3864 Swedish crowns) Additional reporting by Pablo Mayo-Cerqueiro in London;Editing by Elaine Hardcastle Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

UK's Domino's Pizza Group names new CEO 2023-07-13 - July 13 (Reuters) - Domino's Pizza Group (DOM.L) said on Thursday Andrew Rennie, who has served as the Europe chief for a major franchise operator of the pizza chain, will join the UK firm in August as its chief executive. Rennie will take over from Elias Diaz Sese, who has been serving as Domino's Pizza Group's (DPG) interim CEO since October 2022. The group owns, operates and franchises Domino's stores in the UK and Ireland. Rennie has held several roles at Domino's Pizza Enterprises in over two decades, including being CEO of its European business from 2014 to 2020. The Sydney-listed company holds exclusive master franchise rights for the Domino's brand across 12 markets including Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, France, The Netherlands, Germany and Luxembourg. Sese will step down from this role on Aug. 7 and stay on as non-executive director, DPG said. Reporting by Chandini Monnappa in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

J.P.Morgan, Goldman raise Canada c.bank terminal rate forecast to 5.25% 2023-07-13 - July 12 (Reuters) - J.P.Morgan and Goldman Sachs said on Wednesday they now expect the Bank of Canada (BoC) to deliver one last 25-basis point rate hike in October and lifted their terminal rate forecast to 5.25%. The revised forecast came after the BoC hiked its key overnight rate by a quarter of a percentage point on Wednesday to a 22-year high of 5% and said it could raise rates further due to the risk of inflation stalling above its 2% target. Both Wall Street banks had earlier expected the BoC to end the cycle with a terminal rate of 5%. Goldman Sachs, however, warned that the final rate hike "could be pulled forward to September if upcoming activity and inflation data surprise to the upside." Reporting by Roshan Abraham in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman and Sonia Cheema Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Exclusive: China's Qingdao sets up firm to bail out its local government financing arms 2023-07-13 - July 13 (Reuters) - Qingdao city in China's debt-laden Shandong province has set up a company to bail out its cash-strapped local government financing vehicles (LGFVs), sources said, as regional governments rush to reduce debt risks in a wobbly economy. Dongdin Industrial Group, funded by policy lender China Development Bank and having a registered capital of 10 billion yuan ($1.40 billion), is tasked with providing liquidity support to Qingdao's LGFVs - vehicles set up by local governments to finance mainly infrastructure projects, two sources said. It is the first such mechanism of a local government to come to light, and represents intensifying efforts in China to prevent LGFV debt - estimated at more than $9 trillion - from derailing the world's second-largest economy. The government of Qingdao and the China Development Bank did not reply to Reuters' requests for comment. Debt piles of Shandong LGFVs have jumped two-thirds since 2019 to 4.3 trillion yuan, according to estimates from Southwest Securities, as the pandemic and a sluggish property market hit the eastern province's fiscal income, forcing borrowing via LGFVs to sustain growth. While no LGFV in China has defaulted in the public markets, cases of delinquencies in the private debt market are increasing, worrying Beijing. Big state-owned banks have recently rolled over loans to LGFVs or lent more to them. A slew of city governments in Shandong, such as Jinan, Weifang and Gaomi, have over the past month signed strategic cooperation agreements with state banks including Agricultural Bank of China (AgBank) (601288.SS) and China Construction Bank (601939.SS). Other Chinese provinces, including Liaoning and Hunan, have also rolled out measures recently to mitigate LGFV debt risks, after President Xi Jinping presided over a Politburo meeting in late April urging local governments to "strengthen debt management, and strictly curb growth in hidden debt". Qingdao has also stepped up debt monitoring to prevent any defaults in public markets, the sources said. LGFVs must report repayment plans to the government three months before any bonds mature, they said. And one month ahead of maturity, cash-flow details must be submitted on a weekly basis. LGFV BONDS 'STILL SAFE' The push to avert systemic risks stemming from LGFVs played a hand in Goldman Sachs downgrading Chinese lenders, including AgBank and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (601398.SS) last week, citing their exposure to the vehicles. The efforts, however, led some investors to believe Beijing will not tolerate LGFV defaults in public markets. "When something is classified as systemic risk in China, government officials will try their best to defuse such risk," said Zhai Jianye, general manager of Shoupu Fund Management Co. While some LGFVs have cash shortfalls, their publicly traded bonds "are still safe as long as the government remains committed to repayment", said Zhai, whose bond fund boosted LGFV holdings to 77% of its portfolio, up from just 47% in January. In a sign of such growing confidence, the risk premium of LGFV bonds over treasuries has shrunk five basis points (bps) this month on average from a three-month high of 136.69 bps, according to data provider Dealing Matrix. "The logic of LGFV bond investment is that money will be repaid as long as the government wants to. It's just a matter of how," said Zhou Tingzuo, co-founder of Shanghai-based hedge fund house Ning Yong Fu Fund Management Co. Debt extension in private markets and more support from banks "is clearly a way to ensure there will be no defaults in public bonds," said Zhou, who has increased his bets on LGFV bonds. Still, borrowing costs remain high for fiscally weak provinces such as Tianjin that haven't done enough to shore up investor confidence. Tianjin LGFV bonds yield more than 514 bps over government bonds, compared with 200 bps for Shandong bonds, reflecting the elevated risks. Fund manager Zhou said although he is bullish on LGFV bonds, "the first priority is to be absolutely diversified in investment. I cannot go all in on any one province." ($1 = 7.1680 Chinese yuan renminbi) Reporting by Samuel Shen and Jason Xue in Shanghai, Tom Westbrook in Singapore; Editing by Vidya Ranganathan and Muralikumar Anantharaman Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Surging stocks turn Tokyo into hot job market for fund managers 2023-07-13 - [1/3] Pedestrians are reflected on a window of a commercial building at closing hour at a financial district in Tokyo, Japan, November 22, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo HONG KONG/TOKYO, July 13 (Reuters) - Global hedge funds and asset managers are scouring Tokyo for talent to expand in Japan and ride a surge of investor interest that has lifted the stock market to its highest in more than three decades. Lured by signs of improving governance and better shareholder returns at many companies in the world's third-largest economy, big investors - including the likes of Warren Buffett - have piled into Japanese equities this year. That has helped send the Nikkei 225 (.N225) up some 22%, making it one of the best performing benchmarks this year. The shift in corporate governance has been a draw for activist investors, which previously struggled to change the status quo at Japanese companies. The number of activist funds has trebled over the last five years to 69, according to data from IR Japan. "Great traders, quants, marketing and business development people are in short supply – especially those that can fit in culturally," said Stefan Nilsson, who runs Hedge Funds Club in Tokyo, an industry networking group. "Japanese workers still largely expect jobs for life. Joining a hedge fund where you might lose your job tomorrow because you lost money or didn't raise funds is a very foreign world for such workers." The government also wants to improve Tokyo's standing as an international finance hub and has addressed some of the hurdles that made it less attractive than Hong Kong or Singapore, revising tax systems for foreign fund managers and launching services in English to help firms register locally. "Many global hedge funds are opening up Tokyo offices and hiring talent" to support a growing investment focus, said Masa Yanagisawa, head of prime services Japan at Goldman Sachs in Tokyo. Portfolio managers and analysts specialising in equity long-short strategies and macro strategies are among the most in demand, he said. Hong Kong-headquartered activist hedge fund Oasis Management has hired people in Japan this year, including a former senior regulatory official it appointed to its advisory council. "We need to hire to continue our work in Japan," Oasis founder Seth Fischer said, adding that improving corporate governance meant companies that had been "very difficult to engage with" were becoming more open. FinCity.Tokyo, a public-private organisation set up to promote the capital as a financial hub, helped bring in firms with more than $500 billion in assets under management in the last financial year, more than 10 times more than a year earlier. "Tokyo is increasingly attracting big asset managers," said FinCity.Tokyo co-founder Keiichi Aritomo. RISK TAKERS U.S. hedge fund Point 72, which managed around $28.3 billion in assets as of April, expects to expand its Tokyo operation to 50 people by the end of this year from a little more than 40 earlier this year, according to a person familiar with the matter. The new positions will bolster its equity long-short business and its computer-driven multi-asset trading. It is also looking to add headcount for its global macro strategy in Tokyo. Point 72's head of Japan, Toby Bartlett, said it was committed to growing its presence and "actively looking for smart and seasoned risk-takers". Bigger rival Citadel is preparing to reopen an office in Tokyo as early as this year, according to a person close to the firm. Citadel founder Ken Griffin's market-making business, Citadel Securities, opened an office in Tokyo last year to bolster its fixed income operation. KEEP BUYING Foreign investors are seen buying more, given the relatively cheap valuations - the Nikkei is trading at 1.9 times book value, well below the S&P 500's (.SPX) 4 times, and the Nasdaq Composite's (.IXIC) almost 5.7 times, according to Refinitiv. Funds often poach experienced talent from other funds, which can create bidding wars, Goldman's Yanagisawa said. But the increase in demand means firms are starting to look at younger candidates, including new graduates, and particularly those pursuing degrees overseas, he said. Some are scooping up whole teams. Swiss wealth manager UBP, which has around CHF 140.4 billion ($157 billion) under management, in May acquired Tokyo-based investment adviser Angel Japan Asset Management, adding a nine-member team dedicated to small-cap stocks to its own team focused on Japanese long-short equity strategy. UBP senior analyst Cedric Le Berre said it aims to further expand its Japan coverage team as investor appetite is only increasing. "Some global investors are already downsizing their exposure to China, and redeploying this cash in Japan given all the tension and risks associated with China and Taiwan," he said. ($1 = 0.8938 Swiss francs) Reporting by Xie Yu in Hong Kong and Makiko Yamazaki in Tokyo; Additional reporting by Scott Murdoch in Sydney; Editing by David Dolan and Lincoln Feast. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

‘Young kids are alternately exhausting and incredibly exciting’: The financial and social implications of having babies in midlife 2023-07-13 - This article is reprinted by permission from NextAvenue.org. Leora Heckelman had struggled to conceive her two daughters in her early 40s, so when she unexpectedly became pregnant again, it didn’t take her long to embrace the idea of a third child. Delivering a son days before turning 46, Heckelman, a therapist, had no qualms about cutting back her work schedule and immersing herself in parenthood, something many of her younger friends having babies were quite conflicted about. “I had already achieved in my career what I had hoped to,” recalls Heckelman, now 66 and the director of psychology, training, and education for Mt. Sinai Health System in New York City. “I had no interest in advancing. It was OK to take a pause.” Her Zen attitude carried over into her interactions with her children, and she noticed that she often seemed less frustrated with them than her younger peers were with theirs. “Because they were the best thing that ever happened to me, I think I had a deeper appreciation,” she said. Wait wait…Peter Sagal has a toddler and newborn Having welcomed his first three children in his 30, Peter Sagal felt especially prepared when a second marriage brought two more little ones. Now 58 and parenting a toddler and a newborn, Sagal, who is the host of NPR’s popular “Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!” program and a published author, is sanguine about the challenges. NPR host Peter Sagal, 58, has a toddler and a newborn. Sagal said his years of distance running have been good preparation. Getty Images “[I’ve] done it before, and for the most part that’s really an advantage,” he reflected. “There are certain things that I learned the first time around.” Among them? Children will sometimes be bored, bonk their heads on furniture, and not sleep consistently, none of which worries him unnecessarily. This seasoned perspective and tendency to not sweat the small stuff is fairly typical of older parents — especially if the quest to become a parent has been long and arduous, as is often the case for people in midlife. Individuals who have tried to conceive for years, who have used assisted reproductive technology, or have pursued adoption typically are very intentional in their parenting, according to Dr. Irena Milentijevic, a Houston-based psychologist who works with older parents. “They’re hands on, they’re motivated, and they’re very involved,” she said. “These kids are very wanted, and I think later on kids can feel that.” Read: Grandparents: Forget everything you ever knew about taking care of babies Young adult children more protective This care and attention also can go both ways, as Heckelman discovered. Because of her age, she feels her young adult children watch her more closely than they otherwise might. “They’re very protective of us in a way their friends don’t seem to be of their parents who are younger,” Heckelman said, describing an instance in which her daughter made sure she got down a flight of stairs safely. Her son, who is still in college, has expressed a desire to earn a good salary to ensure his parents’ well-being as they age. She sometimes wonders whether her daughters’ determination to have children on the younger side is a reaction to their having been born to older parents. While she acknowledges that becoming a mom in midlife means she has to keep working into what many people would consider their golden years, she loves her job and has no regrets. Her only potential source of sorrow? Possibly not getting to enjoy her future grandchildren for as long as her own nonagenarian mother has enjoyed hers. “I think I’m going to know my grandchildren for many fewer years,” she said. Plus: What does retirement look like for those that don’t have children? Stamina and social life While older parents may bring a wealth of wisdom and experience to the job, they also have a few thorny issues to ponder. For one, the sheer physicality involved in parenting babies and toddlers must be balanced against the fact that energy levels may not be what they were in young adulthood. Sagal said his years of distance running have been good preparation for his current life. While he used to train for marathons, in reality “I was training for being an elderly parent, because if I hadn’t kept up my cardiovascular health I’d be in deep trouble right now,” he noted. The lack of sleep hits him harder now than it did a couple of decades ago. Socializing, too, is different, as most of Sagal’s peers are empty-nesters and can vacation and dine out with abandon. Also on MarketWatch: The unexpected group the Supreme Court’s student-loan decision impacts Financial implications Money can be a big stumbling block: As Heckelman knows well, many parents in the upper age bracket have to consider how having children will impact their plans to leave the workforce. While older first-time parents typically are more financially secure than younger ones and have cash for future expenses such as braces and summer camp, the big struggle is saving for college and retirement simultaneously, according to David Frisch, the principal and founder of Frisch Financial in Melville, New York. “You can finance education; you cannot finance retirement,” Frisch stressed, referring to the availability of college loans. “This is an important conversation parents need to have with each other as well as their child.” Aside from figuring out how long retirement may need to be delayed, it’s also critical to update wills, life insurance policies, and related documents, he said, especially if a parent has older children in addition to younger ones. Also see: How — and why — to cut off your adult children financially No matter how taxing it might seem to parent little ones at an age when some people are becoming grandparents, Sagal wouldn’t do a thing differently. “Young kids are alternately exhausting and incredibly exciting,” he acknowledged. “Despite everything, it’s a wonderful experience.” Laurie Saloman has more than 20 years of experience writing about topics from health to parenting to money. She’s a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and lives in New Jersey with her family. This article is reprinted by permission from NextAvenue.org, ©2023 Twin Cities Public Television, Inc. All rights reserved. More from Next Avenue:

Are you still making this huge mistake with your grown kids? 2023-07-13 - This article is reprinted by permission from NerdWallet. Some parents will tell you firsthand there’s no expiration date on this raising kids gig. For some, that means they extend financial help to their kids into adulthood. When I was 21 and got into a master’s program at a college of my dreams, my mom swooped in to help me pay for my degree. Many parents have been kind enough to do this and more. When I say “many,” I’m backed up by a 2023 survey from Savings.com that found 45% of parents with a child 18 or older spend an average of over $1,400 a month supporting their kids financially, excluding adult kids with disabilities. But is this financial support always a good idea? A certified financial planner and a therapist who both have experience in this department share their thoughts. Also see: ‘It’s a mother thing’: My kids are authorized users on my credit cards. They’re 25 and 29. Will it hurt their credit scores if I remove them? Why parents support adult kids There are many reasons a parent may choose to support their adult kids. Disabilities and wanting to help them achieve major life milestones are a couple. Shelmeshia Hill-Brown, the CEO of Wholistic Resolutions LLC in Chesapeake, Virginia, is a social worker and therapist who works with parents who financially support their adult kids. A major theme she sees is parents helping pay for school, especially since the pandemic. Buying a home and exploring infertility treatments are other reasons her clients financially support their kids. While some parents offer financial support because they want to, others feel obligated even when it’s financially inconvenient. Sometimes, the obligation stems from guilt of not preparing their kids for financial independence early on, Hill-Brown says. “They didn’t do that one-on-one time with them, to sit down and actually teach them,” she says. “But a lot of that also stemmed from, it never [being] done with them, as well, so they were learning along the way, and it made it a little bit more challenging to sit down and come up with a plan to implement with their own children.” Risks of supporting adult children Supporting your kids can be satisfying, but it also may be detrimental if you’re not financially secure. It also can affect retirement savings, which many Americans already have concerns about. Fidelity’s 2023 Retirement Savings Assessment tells us 52% of American households may not be able to cover essential expenses in retirement. And roughly 50% even plan to work during retirement. Nonetheless, some parents think about dipping into their savings so their adult kids don’t have to take out loans, says Kayla Walter, a certified financial planner at Bailey Wealth Advisors in Silver Spring, Maryland. She advises clients against that, seeing as there are student loans, but no loans for retirement. “You’re blowing through your savings at a much faster rate, and it’s not going to last you as long as maybe you intend to live,” she says. More: How — and why — to cut off your adult children financially Protecting your finances and relationship The risk in providing for adult kids is twofold: It can affect your finances and relationship. Yes, it may give you a sense of purpose and make you feel connected to your child, but it also can cause resentment, says Hill-Brown. “There are some [parents] who actually find themselves in a financial bind because they were not open with their own financial responsibilities and how it would be impacted,” she says. “And that’s where that resentment and guilt takes place as a result.” She adds that resentment can happen even for parents who can afford to support their kids. To protect your finances, make sure you can afford to extend help to your kids before saying yes, and know your limits. You can then communicate these limits with your child. For those who have kids who are financially dependent on them, gradually reduce support and set boundaries around how financial support will look moving forward, Hill-Brown says. Also, be willing to say no when necessary. If you’re feeling guilty about it, keep in mind that financial support without limits could keep your child from becoming financially independent, which is something Hill-Brown says they could then pass on to the next generation. Encouraging financial independence After setting those financial boundaries, you can start steering your child toward financial independence. One way to help do this is by bringing them into your finances, Walter says. “If they’re feeling like they didn’t do enough for their children, a good time to kind of help them learn more about finances would be bringing them into the meeting with your advisor and make it a family meeting so that way they can see what’s going on,” she says. Another option is to point adult kids to financial services that can help. For instance, instead of loaning them money if they’re in serious debt, you could direct them to a debt consolidation service. Additionally, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has an abundance of resources. More: Adult children ‘may not want the gravy train to stop’ Finally, Walter suggests being a good example to your kids and mirroring healthy money habits. “There’s never not a good time to set a good financial example for your children.” Elizabeth Ayoola writes for NerdWallet. Email: eayoola@nerdwallet.com.