Tag: Dip

FOREX-Dollar, yen dip as U.S. stimulus hopes help risk-on mood

By Ritvik Carvalho

LONDON, Oct 8 (Reuters) – The dollar and safe-haven Japanese yen nursed losses on Thursday, after revived hopes for U.S. fiscal stimulus improved investor sentiment, while the prospect of negative interest rates knocked the New Zealand dollar lower.

President Donald Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi seem open to pursuing a stimulus package for the airline industry, even though Trump halted talks with Democrats for a bigger plan.

Investors also expect Joe Biden, if elected, would quickly spend money to stimulate growth.

That mood has lifted equity markets and sunk the yen JPY= to a three-week low of 106.11. The dollar struggled to recoup losses against other majors, excluding the kiwi.

Against a basket of currencies, the dollar was down 0.1% on the day. =USD

The euro EUR= edged up to $1.1782. The risk-sensitive Australian dollar AUD=D3 rose 0.3% to $0.7163. AUD/

“Overall, investors seem to be focusing more on the increasing odds of a Biden win and what that might imply for a stimulus package after the election,” said Marshall Gittler, head of investment research at BDSwiss.

“With that eventuality in mind, Trump’s decision to stop negotiations now is ultimately a risk-on move, as it increases the likelihood of a decisive Biden win.”

The New Zealand dollar NZD= was the biggest loser among G10 currencies, dropping as much as half a percent after central bank officials again hinted that negative interest rates are possible. It recovered in early deals in London to trade 0.1% higher to the dollar on the day.

Money-market pricing of an April 2021 rate cut increased after the remarks and the kiwi slipped to a three-week low against the Aussie AUDNZD=, before paring losses a little. It was last down 0.2% against the dollar at $0.6570.

“Today’s rhetoric from the

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S&P, Nasdaq dip as Powell warns on economic recovery

(Reuters) – The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq retreated on Tuesday as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned the U.S. economic recovery remained far from complete, with a selloff in some of the biggest technology companies also weighing on sentiment.

The U.S. flag is seen outside of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., September 21, 2020. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly

The domestic rebound could still slip into a downward spiral if the coronavirus is not effectively controlled and growth sustained, Powell said, in a call for more help to businesses and households.

“Markets are worried about what the Fed knows that we don’t know,” said John Augustine, chief investment officer at Huntington National Bank in Columbus, Ohio.

“The things that are obvious to us are that small businesses are closing and unemployment remains high in the services sector. The Fed aggressively wants to address both of those with more fiscal stimulus.”

Comments from officials that a stimulus deal was still possible had lifted the three main stock indexes on Monday, helping them recoup losses from last week that were sparked by news that President Donald Trump had contracted COVID-19.

Trump returned to the White House on Monday from the Walter Reed Medical Center military hospital, but faced fresh backlash for removing his mask upon his return and urging Americans not to fear the disease that has killed more than 209,000 in the United States.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin spoke by phone on Monday about fresh relief measures and were preparing to talk again on Tuesday.

Seven of the 11 major S&P sectors were up, with gains led by the battered energy sector.

A rotation into value-linked sectors such as industrials also boosted the blue-chip Dow, but the Nasdaq slipped further away from

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Puma shares dip as Kering sells 5.9% stake

PARIS/BERLIN (Reuters) – Shares in Puma <PUMG.DE> fell 3.5% on Tuesday after French luxury group Kering <PRTP.PA> said it had completed the sale of a 5.9% stake in the German sportswear company for approximately 656 million euros ($772 million).

Kering has increasingly focused on its high-margin luxury brands like Gucci, Saint Laurent and Balenciaga in recent years, spinning off 70% of Puma to its shareholders in 2018.

Puma struggled after it was bought by Kering for 5.3 billion euros in 2007, but it has enjoyed a revival in the last few years, helped by sponsorships of top soccer teams and partnerships with celebrities like Rihanna and Selena Gomez.

The sale reduces Kering’s stake in Puma to 9.8% from a previous 15.7%. Kering, which had announced its plan to sell the stake on Tuesday, said the transaction corresponded to a selling price of 74.50 euros per share.

Puma’s shares traded down 3.1% at 75.7 euros at 0728 GMT.

In July, Puma reported second-quarter sales fell a currency-adjusted 30.7% to 831 million euros and earnings before interest and taxes slumped to a loss of 114.8 million euros as coronavirus lockdowns closed most global sports stores.

However, sales have rebounded as stores have reopened and the pandemic has encouraged more people to take up exercising, with rival Nike <NKE.N> posting better-than-expected results in September and giving a strong sales forecast.

The Nike results had helped Puma shares to return to levels last seen before coronavirus hit in March.

Puma’s largest shareholder remains Artemis, the holding company for the Pinault family that founded and controls Kering, which has a stake of just under 29%.

(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta in Paris and Emma Thomasson in Berlin; editing by Jason Neely and Maria Sheahan)

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Jobless Claims Dip Slightly, Holding Nearly Steady for Fifth Week in a Row | National News

The number of people filing initial unemployment claims dipped slightly last week to 837,000, holding relatively steady for the fifth week in a row as the labor market’s recovery continues at a crawl.

The figure, released Thursday by the Labor Department, is a decrease of 36,000 from the previous week’s revised level.

Claims have stagnated at a historic level, though they remain well below a peak of nearly 7 million in March. The four-week moving average was 867,250 last week, while the pre-pandemic record sits just shy of 700,000.

Another 650,120 people applied for benefits through the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, which was created by Congress to aid workers who would not otherwise qualify for jobless benefits, such as gig workers and self-employed people.

The number of people continually receiving jobless benefits, however, fell notably, decreasing by 980,000 to 11.8 million in the week ending Sept. 19 – a positive sign that furloughed workers are going back to work and that the unemployed are finding jobs.

The Labor Department is set to release its September jobs report Friday, which will include the unemployment rate. The rate sat at 8.4% in August, and experts expect it to fall only slightly.

A number of large companies have recently announced mass layoffs. United Airlines and American Airlines furloughed more than 35,000 workers in total on Thursday. The Walt Disney Co. announced earlier this week that it will lay off 28,000 employees.

“This marks 28 weeks since the COVID-caused downturn ignited an eruption of historic and, as we see once again, sustained job loss, even as some employers bring employees back to work. In recent days, there’s been word of combined thousands of job cuts beyond some of the usual suspects, in terms of sectors where job loss has been common,” Mark Hamrick, senior

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