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Adani loses Asia’s richest crown as stock rout deepens to $84 billion

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BENGALURU, Feb 1 (Reuters) – Shares in Indian tycoon Gautam Adani’s conglomerate plunged again on Wednesday as a rout in his companies deepened to $84 billion in the wake of a U.S. short-seller report, with the billionaire also losing his title as Asia’s richest person.

Wednesday’s stock losses saw Adani slip to 15th on Forbes rich list with an estimated net worth of $76.8 billion, below rival Mukesh Ambani, the chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd (RELI.NS) who ranks ninth with a net worth of $83.6 billion.

Before the critical report by U.S. short-seller Hindenburg, Adani had ranked third.

The losses mark a dramatic setback for Adani, the school-dropout-turned-billionaire whose business interests stretch from ports and airports to mining and cement. Now, the tycoon is fighting to stabilise his businesses and defend his reputation.

It comes just a day after the group managed to muster support from investors for a $2.5 billion share sale for flagship firm Adani Enterprises on Tuesday, in what some saw as a stamp of investor confidence.

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The report by Hindenburg Research last week alleged improper use by the Adani Group of offshore tax havens and stock manipulation. It also raised concerns about high debt and the valuations of seven listed Adani companies.

The group has denied the allegations, saying the short-seller’s narrative of stock manipulation has “no basis” and stems from an ignorance of Indian law. It has always made the necessary regulatory disclosures, it added.

Shares in Adani Enterprises (ADEL.NS), often described as the incubator of Adani businesses, plunged 30% on Wednesday. Adani Power (ADAN.NS) fell 5%, while Adani Total Gas (ADAG.NS) slumped 10%, down by its daily price limit.

Adani Transmission (ADAI.NS) was down 6% and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSE.NS) dropped 20%.

Adani Total Gas, a joint venture with France’s Total (TTEF.PA), has been the biggest casualty of the short seller report, losing about $27 billion.

“There was a slight bounce yesterday after the share sale went through, after seeming improbable at a point, but now the weak market sentiment has become visible again after the bombshell Hindenburg report,” said Ambareesh Baliga, a Mumbai-based independent market analyst.

“With the stocks down despite Adani’s rebuttal, it clearly shows some damage on investor sentiment. It will take a while to stabilise,” Baliga added.

Reuters Graphics

SCRUTINY

Underscoring the nervousness in some quarters, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) had stopped accepting bonds of Adani group companies as collateral for margin loans to its private banking clients.

Deven Choksey, managing director of KRChoksey Shares and Securities, said this was a big factor in Wednesday’s share slides.

Credit Suisse had no immediate comment.

Scrutiny of the conglomerate is stepping up, with an Australian regulator saying on Wednesday it would review Hindenburg’s allegations to see if further enquiries were warranted.

Data also showed that foreign investors sold a net $1.5 billion worth of Indian equities after the Hindenburg report – the biggest outflow over four consecutive days since Sept. 30.

Headaches for the Adani Group are expected to continue for some time.

India’s markets regulator, which has been looking into deals by the conglomerate, has said it will add Hindenburg’s report to its own preliminary investigation.

State-run Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) (LIFI.NS)said on Monday it would seek clarifications from Adani’s management on the short seller report. The insurance giant was, however, a key investor in the Adani Enterprises share sale.

Hindenburg said in its report it had shorted U.S.-bonds and non-India traded derivatives of the Adani Group.

Reporting by Chris Thomas in Bengaluru and Aditi Shah in New Delhi; Additional reporting by Bharath Rajeshwaran and Aditya Kalra; Editing by Edwina Gibbs and Mark Potter

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Brazil court grants bankruptcy protection for retailer Americanas

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SAO PAULO, Jan 19 (Reuters) – A Rio de Janeiro court on Thursday accepted Brazilian retailer Americanas SA’s (AMER3.SA) bankruptcy protection request, days after the company disclosed nearly $4 billion in accounting inconsistencies that have sparked a legal feud with creditors and investors.

Americanas, a 93-year-old company with stores all over Brazil and a major e-commerce unit, said in a securities filing that it would restructure debts of about 43 billion reais ($8.2 billion).

Shares in the company plunged about 42.5% to 1.00 real following news of the filing, extending its year-to-date drop to around 90%.

The firm, backed by the billionaire trio that founded 3G Capital, said the move had come “despite the efforts and measures that the management has been taking in the past few days alongside its financial and legal advisers to protect the company from the effects” of the accounting scandal.

Investors had expected the decision, with some deeming it unavoidable, especially after lender BTG Pactual (BPAC3.SA) obtained on Wednesday a court decision overturning part of the firm’s protection from creditors.

Americanas is also facing seven different investigations launched by securities regulator CVM, as well as an arbitration process requesting compensation of 500 million reais to the firm and the trio that founded 3G Capital.

In a document filed with the court, law firms Basilio Advogados and Salomao Kaiuca Abrahao attributed the urgency in filing for bankruptcy to the creditors’ decision to seize the companies’ assets.

The retailer also mentioned a debt downgrade by ratings agencies, which prevented any new loans from being extended. S&P, Moody’s and Fitch all downgraded Americanas’ credit ratings following the accounting scandal.

Earlier, Americanas had said that its current cash position stood at only 800 million reais, down from a previously reported 7.8 billion.

Lucas Pogetti, a partner at M&A advisers RGS Partners, said a large part of Americanas’ previously disclosed cash position was linked to the prepayment of receivables or deposited with creditors.

“Naturally, when the banks became aware of the company’s real situation they began to adopt a more aggressive posture to protect themselves, consequently restricting access to resources,” Pogetti said.

In the filing, Americanas asks to exclude its fintech, Ame, from the bankruptcy protection, as it is regulated by the central bank, and for authorization to increase its capital.

Americanas’ stores are ubiquitous at Brazilian shopping malls. It e-commerce unit, which traded as a separate company before a recent restructuring, is one of the country’s top online retailers.

Chief executive Sergio Rial resigned last week, less than two weeks after taking the job, citing the discovery of “accounting inconsistencies” totaling 20 billion reais.

Rial, the former head of Banco Santander’s Brazilian arm (SANB3.SA), attributed the inconsistencies to differences in accounting for the financial cost of bank loans and debt with suppliers.

Chief financial officer Andre Covre, who had just joined Americanas as well, also left the firm, which has Brazilian billionaires Jorge Paulo Lemann, Carlos Alberto Sicupira and Marcel Telles as reference shareholders.

Americanas said the reference shareholders intended to maintain the company’s liquidity at levels that allowed for a “good operation” of its stores, digital channel and other entities.

($1 = 5.2226 reais)

Reporting by Gabriel Araujo, Tatiana Bautzer and Peter Frontini in Sao Paulo and Carolina Pulice in Mexico City; Editing by Rosalba O’Brien and Bradley Perrett

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Wall St stumbles after weak data, hawkish Fed comments

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  • Fed’s Bullard, Mester back rate increases
  • U.S. retail sales drop in December
  • Indexes down: Dow 1.28%, S&P 1.07%, Nasdaq 0.78%

Jan 18 (Reuters) – Wall Street’s main indexes fell on Wednesday after weak economic data and hawkish comments from Federal Reserve officials sparked worries that the central bank may not pause interest rate hikes any time soon.

Before the market opened, U.S. economic data showed retail sales and producer prices declined more than expected in December. Also production at U.S. factories fell more than expected in December and output in the prior month was weaker than previously thought.

With Wall Street’s major averages showing gains so far for 2023, Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA research, said some investors saw the week data as an opportunity to take profits while others worried about the prospects for a recession.

“The market was overbought. Today’s economic data served as a trigger to initiate a profit taking spell and the groups with most profits to take have been the ones that have done best last year,” said Stovall.

By 2:14PM ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) fell 434.27 points, or 1.28%, to 33,476.58, the S&P 500 (.SPX) lost 42.57 points, or 1.07%, to 3,948.4 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) dropped 87.02 points, or 0.78%, to 11,008.10.

The weakest sectors on the day are the defensive consumer staples (.SPLRCD), down more than 2%, and utilities (.SPLRCU), which was last down 1.8%.

The benchmark S&P and the blue-chip Dow were both on track for their second straight day of losses, while the Nasdaq, if it ends lower, would snap a seven-day winning streak.

U.S. stocks had started 2023 on a strong footing, with the S&P having closed up almost 4% year-to-date on Tuesday, on hopes that a moderation in inflationary pressures could give the Fed cover to dial down the size of its interest rate hikes.

Roughly halfway through January, the S&P was up 2.7% for the month so far while the Nasdaq was up more than 5% and the Dow, the best performer of the three for 2022, was up 0.9%.

Earlier, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard and Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester stressed on the need to raise rates beyond 5% to bring inflation to heel.

The Fed commentary also highlighted the disparity between the U.S. central bank’s estimate of its terminal rate and market expectations, which were of the rate peaking at 4.88% by June. Traders are now betting on a 25-basis point rate hike in February.

“This market is very hopeful that we’re going to get a soft landing and every time you have hawkish comments from the Fed, it feels you’re not going to get that,” Dennis Dick, trader at Triple D Trading.

Investors are also focused on the fourth-quarter earnings season as a window into how corporate America is doing against the backdrop of higher interest rates.

Analysts now expect year-over-year earnings from S&P 500 companies to decline 2.6% for the quarter, according to Refinitiv data, compared with a 1.6% decline in the beginning of the year.

IBM Corp (IBM.N) was down 2.6% after Morgan Stanley downgraded the company’s shares to “equal weight” from “overweight”.

Early gainers Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) and Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) erased gains by late afternoon trading with Microsoft down 1.2% and Tesla off 2.7%.

Moderna Inc (MRNA.O) rose 3.6% after reporting data which demonstrated the effectiveness of its respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine.

PNC Financial Services Group Inc (PNC.N) was down 5.4% after the company missed estimates for fourth-quarter profit.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.38-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.66-to-1 ratio favored decliners.

The S&P 500 posted 9 new 52-week highs and 2 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 71 new highs and 14 new lows.

Reporting by Sinéad Carew in New York, Shreyashi Sanyal and Amruta Khandekar in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Shubham Batra; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and David Gregorio

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Exclusive: ECB union says staff losing faith in leadership over inflation, pay

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  • 40% of ECB staff has low or no trust
  • Two-thirds say confidence is damaged
  • 63% worried about ECB’s ability to protect purchasing power

FRANKFURT, Jan 18 (Reuters) – (This Jan. 17 story has been corrected to restore the dropped words in paragraph 11)

European Central Bank staff are losing confidence in the institution’s leadership following the ECB’s failure to control inflation and a pay award that lagged the leap in prices, according to a survey by trade union IPSO.

The responses underline that even central banks, whose primary responsibility is fighting inflation, are not immune to staff dissatisfaction with the sharply rising cost of living.

The survey was organised in the context of a dispute between IPSO, which holds six out of nine seats on the ECB’s staff committee, and the central bank’s board over pay and remote-working arrangements.

An ECB spokesperson did not comment directly on IPSO’s findings when asked but pointed to a separate staff survey, run by the ECB itself last year, showing that 83% of nearly 3,000 respondents were proud to work for the ECB and 72% would recommend it.

Results of IPSO’s survey, which largely focused on pay and remote-working arrangements but also included questions about trust in the board, were sent to ECB staff on Tuesday in an email, seen by Reuters.

They showed two-thirds of roughly 1,600 respondents said their trust in Lagarde and the rest of the six-member ECB board had been damaged by recent developments such as high inflation and a pay increase that did not match the rise in prices.

Asked how much trust they had in Lagarde and the board when it comes to leading and managing the ECB, the central bank for the 20 countries that use the euro, just under half of respondents said “moderate” (34.3%) or “high” (14.6%).

But over 40% of respondents said they had “low” (28.6%) or “no” (12%) trust, while 10.5% could not say.

“This is a serious concern for our institution, as no one can correctly lead an organisation without the trust of its workforce,” the union said in its email.

INFLATION SURGE, PAY BATTLES

The survey was the first by IPSO to ask about trust in top management since Christine Lagarde took over as ECB President in late 2019.

A similar IPSO survey of ECB staff, taken just before her predecessor Mario Draghi stepped down, showed 54.5% of 735 respondents rated his presidency “very good” or “outstanding”, with support for his policy measures even higher.

Then, however, inflation in the euro zone had been low for a decade. Its recent surge to multi-decade highs in countries around the world has seen a revival in battles over pay between workers and the companies and institutions that employ them.

And a majority of respondents in the October 2019 survey also complained about a lack of transparency in recruitment and perceived favouritism under Draghi.

The most recent Bank of England staff survey, also conducted in 2019, showed 64% of respondents had “trust and confidence in the Bank’s leadership”.

A 2022 U.S. government survey of employees at departments and federal agencies found that 61% of respondents had “a high level of respect” for their organisation’s senior leaders – roughly stable compared to the previous two years.

The ECB spokesperson also pointed to internal surveys in 2020-21 that found roughly 80% of respondents were satisfied with health-and-safety measures taken by the ECB in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The latest IPSO survey showed 63% of staff who responded were worried about the ECB’s ability to protect their purchasing power after being handed a pay increase of just 4% last year – or roughly half the rise in consumer prices.

The ECB has been criticised by politicians, bankers and academics for initially underestimating a surge in the cost of living and then making up for it with large and painful increases in borrowing costs.

Lagarde, who is not an economist and had not been a central banker before joining the ECB, colourfully defended her board at an event with staff last month.

“If it wasn’t for them I’d be a sad, lonely cowgirl lost somewhere in the Pampa of monetary policy,” Lagarde said, according to a recording of the Dec. 19 town hall seen by Reuters.

She and fellow board members have long worried about the risk of a potential “wage-price spiral”, where higher salaries feed into prices, which they argue would make it harder for the ECB to bring inflation back down to its 2% target.

But IPSO said that concern is misplaced and workers should not be made to bear the brunt of the current bout in inflation.

“The ECB might be preaching lower real wages, but this is not our stance as your staff union,” it wrote in its message to ECB employees.

Editing by Catherine Evans

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Goldman misses profit estimates as dealmaking slumps, consumer business hit

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Jan 17 (Reuters) – Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) on Tuesday reported a bigger-than-expected 69% drop in fourth-quarter profit as it struggled with a slump in dealmaking, a drop in asset and wealth management revenue and booked losses at its consumer business.

Wall Street banks are making deep cuts to their workforce and streamlining their operations as dealmaking activity, their major source of revenue, stalls on worries over a weakening global economy and rising interest rates.

Goldman is also curbing its consumer banking ambitions as Chief Executive Officer David Solomon refocuses the bank’s resources on strengthening its core businesses such as investment banking and trading.

Solomon confirmed that the bank was cutting 6% of its headcount, or around 3,200 jobs, and was making changes to the consumer business to navigate an uncertain outlook for 2023.

“We tried to do too much too quickly,” he said about the consumer business such as its direct-to-consumer unit Marcus. “We didn’t execute perfectly on some so we’ve taken a hard look at those, and you make adjustments.”

Goldman reported a net loss of $660 million at its platform solutions unit, which houses transaction banking, credit card and financial technology businesses, as provisions for credit losses grew while the business was expanding.

Full-year net loss for the platform solutions business was $1.67 billion, the bank said, even though net revenue of $1.50 billion for 2022 was 135% above 2021.

Goldman on Tuesday confirmed that it is planning to stop making unsecured consumer loans after it moved Marcus into its asset and wealth management arm. The checking account launch for Marcus has also been postponed.

Goldman’s investment banking fees fell 48% in the latest quarter, while revenue from its asset and wealth management unit dropped 27% due to lower revenue from equity and debt investments.

Solomon said the investment banking outlook could be better in the “back half” of 2023, as people are softening their views on the economic outlook for this year.

Shares were down nearly 7% at $347.66 in midday trade.

[1/2] The logo for Goldman Sachs is seen on the trading floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, New York, U.S., November 17, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly

Reuters Graphics Reuters Graphics

GROWING COSTS

Wall Street’s biggest banks have stockpiled more rainy-day funds to prepare for a possible recession, while showing caution about forecasting income growth in an uncertain economy and as higher rates increase competition for deposits.

Total operating expenses at Goldman rose 11% to $8.1 billion in the quarter. A source told Reuters last week that the bank would lay off 3,000 employees in an attempt to rein in costs.

Goldman Chief Financial Officer Denis Coleman said severance charges will be adjusted in 2023.

The bank reported a profit of $1.19 billion, or $3.32 per share, for the three months ended Dec. 31, missing the Street estimate of $5.48, according to Refinitiv IBES data.

“Widely expected to be awful, Goldman Sachs’ Q4 results were even more miserable than anticipated,” said Octavio Marenzi, CEO of consultancy Opimas.

“The real problem lies in the fact that operating expenses shot up 11% while revenues tumbled. This strongly suggests more cost cutting and layoffs are going to come,” he added.

Goldman’s trading business was a bright spot as it benefited from heightened market volatility, spurred by the Federal Reserve’s quantitative tightening.

Fixed income, currency and commodities trading revenue was up 44% while revenue from equities trading fell 5%.

Overall net revenue was down 16% at $10.6 billion.

Reporting by Niket Nishant and Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru and Saeed Azhar in New York; Additional reporting by Bansari Mayur Kamdar; Editing by Anil D’Silva and Mark Porter

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Shares rise, yen climbs as BOJ battles bond bears

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  • BOJ under intense pressure as it defends yield policy
  • Yen hits 7-mth high, yuan climbs as dollar eases
  • More earnings ahead, many central bank speakers
  • Britain’s FTSE flirts with record high

SYDNEY/LONDON, Jan 16 (Reuters) – Shares firmed on Monday as optimism over corporate earnings and China’s reopening offset concerns the Bank of Japan (BOJ) might temper its super-sized stimulus policy at a pivotal meeting this week, while a holiday in U.S. markets made for thin trading.

The yen climbed to its highest since May after rumours swirled the BOJ might hold an emergency meeting on Monday as it struggles to defend its new yield ceiling in the face of massive selling. read more

That had local markets in an anxious mood, and Japan’s Nikkei (.N225) slipped 1.3% to a two-week low.

Yet MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) added 0.27%, with hopes for a speedy Chinese reopening giving it a gain of 4.2% last week.

And European shares opened positively with the STOXX 600 (.STOXX) up 0.1% by 0850 GMT driven by healthcare stocks (.SXDP) which gained 0.6%.

Britain’s benchmark FTSE index (.FTSE) edged close to the record high of 7903.50 it hit in 2018, with banks and life insurance companies among the top gainers.

Earnings season gathers steam this week with Goldman Sachs (GS.N), Morgan Stanley (MS.N) and Netflix (NFLX.O) among those reporting.

World leaders, policy makers and top corporate chiefs will be attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, and there are a host of central bankers speaking, including no fewer than nine members of the U.S. Federal Reserve.

The BOJ’s official two-day meeting ends on Wednesday and speculation is rife it will make changes to its yield curve control (YCC) policy given the market has pushed 10-year yields above its new ceiling of 0.5%. read more

The BOJ bought almost 5 trillion yen ($39.12 billion) of bonds on Friday in its largest daily operation on record, yet 10-year yields still ended the session up at 0.51%.

Early on Monday, the bank offered to buy another 1.3 trillion yen of JGBs, but the yield stuck at 0.51%.

“There is still some possibility that market pressure will force the BOJ to further adjust or exit the YCC,” JPMorgan analysts said in a note. “We can’t ignore this possibility, but at this stage we do not consider it a main scenario.”

“Although domestic demand has started to recover and inflation continues to rise, the economy is not heating up to the extent that a sharp rise in interest rates and potential risk of large yen appreciation can be tolerated,” they added.

THE YEN UN-ANCHORED

The BOJ’s uber-easy policy has acted as a sort of anchor for yields globally, while dragging down the yen. Were it to abandon the policy, it would put upward pressure on yields across developed markets and most likely see the yen surge.

The dollar has been undermined by falling U.S. bond yields as investors wager the Federal Reserve can be less aggressive in raising rates given inflation has clearly turned the corner.

The Japanese yen rose to a more than seven-month peak against the dollar on Monday, as market sentiment was dominated by expectations that the BOJ would make further tweaks to, or fully abandon, its yield control policy.

The yen jumped roughly 0.5% to a high of 127.215 per dollar, before easing to 128.6 by 0915 GMT.

The dollar index, which measures the U.S. unit against a basket of major currencies, recovered from a 7-month low touched earlier in the session to be at 102.6 .

Futures now imply almost no chance the Fed will raise rates by half a point in February, with a quarter-point move seen as a 94% probability.

Yields on 10-year Treasuries are down at 3.498%, having fallen 6 basis points last week, close to its December trough, and major chart target of 3.402%.

Alan Ruskin, global head of G10 FX Strategy at Deutsche Securities, said the loosening of global supply bottlenecks in recent months was proving to be a disinflationary shock, which increases the chance of a soft landing for the U.S. economy.

“The lower inflation itself encourages a soft landing through real wage gains, by allowing the Fed to more readily pause and encouraging a better behaved bond market, with favourable spillovers to financial conditions,” Ruskin said.

“A soft landing also reduces the tail risk of much higher U.S. rates, and this reduced risk premia helps global risk appetite,” Ruskin added.

Commodities prices which had rallied last week, dipped on Monday.

The drop in yields and the dollar had benefited the gold price, which jumped 2.9% last week, but the precious metal slipped 0.4% to $1,911 an ounce in early trading on Monday .

Oil prices slid as a rise in COVID cases clouded the prospects for a surge in demand as China reopens its economy.

Brent crude fell 73 cents, or 0.83%, to $84.57 a barrel by 0857 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude CLc1 was down 61 cents, or 0.6%, at $79.24 a barrel.

($1 = 127.8000 yen)

Reporting by Wayne Cole and Lawrence White;
Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Emelia Sithole-Matarise

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S&P 500 ends at highest in month, indexes gain for week as earnings kick off

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  • JPMorgan, Wells Fargo shares jump
  • U.S. consumers’ inflation expectations ease – survey
  • Tesla falls after price cuts on electric vehicles
  • Indexes: Dow up 0.3%, S&P 500 up 0.4%, Nasdaq up 0.7%

NEW YORK, Jan 13 (Reuters) – The S&P 500 and Nasdaq finished at their highest levels in a month on Friday, with shares of JPMorgan Chase and other banks rising following their quarterly results, which kicked off the earnings season.

All three major indexes also registered strong gains for the week, leaving the S&P 500 up 4.2% so far in 2023, and the Cboe Volatility index (.VIX) – Wall Street’s fear gauge – closed at a one-year low.

On Friday, financials (.SPSY) were among sectors that gave the S&P 500 the most support.

JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) and Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) beat quarterly earnings estimates, while Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N) and Citigroup Inc (C.N) fell short of quarterly profit estimates.

But shares of all four firms rose, along with the S&P 500 banks index (.SPXBK), which ended up 1.6%. JPMorgan shares climbed 2.5%.

Still, Wall Street’s biggest banks stockpiled more rainy-day funds to prepare for a possible recession and reported weak investment banking results while showing caution about forecasting income growth. They said higher rates helped to boost profits.

Strategists said investors will be watching for further guidance from company executives in the coming weeks.

“This has shifted the focus back to earnings,” said Peter Tuz, president of Chase Investment Counsel in Charlottesville, Virginia.

“Even though the earnings were basically OK, people are just kind of stepping back, and you’re going to see a wait-and-see attitude with stocks” as investors hear more from company executives.

Year-over-year earnings from S&P 500 companies are expected to have declined 2.2% for the quarter, according to Refinitiv data.

Also giving some support to the market Friday, the University of Michigan’s survey showed an improvement in U.S. consumer sentiment, with the one-year inflation outlook falling in January to the lowest level since the spring of 2021.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) rose 112.64 points, or 0.33%, to 34,302.61, the S&P 500 (.SPX) gained 15.92 points, or 0.40%, to 3,999.09 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) added 78.05 points, or 0.71%, to 11,079.16.

The S&P 500 closed at its highest level since Dec. 13, while the Nasdaq closed at its highest level since Dec. 14.

For the week, the S&P 500 gained 2.7% and the Dow rose 2%. The Nasdaq increased 4.8% in its biggest weekly percentage gain since Nov. 11.

The U.S. stock market will be closed Monday for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday.

Thursday’s Consumer Price Index and other recent data have bolstered hopes that a sustained downward trend in inflation could give the Federal Reserve room to dial back on its interest rate hikes.

Money market participants now see a 91.6% chance the Fed will hike the benchmark rate by 25 basis points in February.

Among the day’s decliners, Tesla (TSLA.O) shares fell 0.9% after it slashed prices on its electric vehicles in the United States and Europe by as much as 20% after missing 2022 deliveries estimates.

In other earnings news, UnitedHealth Group Inc (UNH.N) shares rose after it beat Wall Street expectations for fourth-quarter profit but the stock ended down on the day.

Shares of Delta Air Lines Inc (DAL.N) dropped 3.5% as the company forecast first-quarter profit below expectations.

Volume on U.S. exchanges was 10.77 billion shares, compared with the 10.81 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.79-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.78-to-1 ratio favored advancers.

The S&P 500 posted 12 new 52-week highs and 2 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 105 new highs and 8 new lows.

Additional reporting by Shubham Batra, Ankika Biswas and Amruta Khandekar in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu, Shounak Dasgupta and Grant McCool

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U.S. banks get ready for shrinking profits and recession

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NEW YORK, Jan 10 (Reuters) – U.S. banking giants are forecast to report lower fourth quarter profits this week as lenders stockpile rainy-day funds to prepare for an economic slowdown that is battering investment banking.

Four American banking giants — JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N), Bank of America Corp (BAC.N), Citigroup Inc (C.N) and Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N) — will report earnings on Friday.

Along with Morgan Stanley (MS.N) and Goldman Sachs (GS.N), they are the six largest lenders expected to amass a combined $5.7 billion in reserves to prepare for soured loans, according to average projections by Refinitiv. That is more than double the $2.37 billion set aside a year earlier.

“With most U.S. economists forecasting either a recession or significant slowdown this year, banks will likely incorporate a more severe economic outlook,” said Morgan Stanley analysts led by Betsy Graseck in a note.

The Federal Reserve is raising interest rates aggressively in an effort to tame inflation near its highest in decades. Rising prices and higher borrowing costs have prompted consumers and businesses to curb their spending, and since banks serve as economic middlemen, their profits decline when activity slows.

The six banks are also expected to report an average 17% drop in net profit in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, according to preliminary analysts’ estimates from Refintiv.

Reuters Graphics

Still, lenders stand to gain from rising rates that allow them to earn more from the interest they charge borrowers.

Investors and analysts will focus on bank bosses’ commentary as an important gauge of the economic outlook. A parade of executives has warned in recent weeks of the tougher business environment, which has prompted firms to slash compensation or eliminate jobs.

Goldman Sachs will start laying off thousands of employees from Wednesday, two sources familiar with the move said Sunday. Morgan Stanley and Citigroup, among others, have also cut jobs after a plunge in investment-banking activity.

The moves come after Wall Street dealmakers handling mergers, acquisitions and initial public offerings faced a sharp drop in their businesses in 2022 as rising interest rates roiled markets.

Global investment banking revenue sank to $15.3 billion in the fourth quarter, down more than 50% from a year-earlier quarter, according to data from Dealogic.

Consumer businesses will also be a key focus in banks’ results. Household accounts have been propped up for much of the pandemic by a strong job market and government stimulus, and while consumers are generally in good financial shape, more are starting to fall behind on payments.

“We’re exiting a period of extraordinarily strong credit quality,” said David Fanger, senior vice president, financial institutions group, at Moody’s Investors Service.

At Wells Fargo, the fallout from a fake accounts scandal and regulatory penalties will continue to weigh on results. The lender expected to book an expense of about $3.5 billion after it agreed to settle charges over widespread mismanagement of car loans, mortgages and bank accounts with the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the watchdog’s largest-ever civil penalty.

Analysts will also watch if banks such as Morgan Stanley and Bank of America book any writedowns on the $13-billion loan to fund Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter.

More broadly, the KBW index (.BKX) of bank stocks is up about 4% this month after sinking almost 28% in the last year.

While market sentiment took a sharp turn from hopeful to fearful in 2022, some large banks could overcome the most dire predictions because they have shed risky activities, wrote Susan Roth Katzke, an analyst at Credit Suisse.

“We see more resilient earning power through the cycle after a decade of de-risking,” she wrote in a note. “We cannot dismiss the fundamental strength.”

Reporting by Saeed Azhar, Niket Nishant and Lananh Nguyen
Editing by Nick Zieminski

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Air India grounds crew over handling of unruly passenger on flight

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NEW DELHI, Jan 7 (Reuters) – Air India has issued show cause notice and de-rostered one pilot and four cabin crew as it investigates the handling of an unruly passenger on a flight from New York to Delhi in November, the airline’s chief executive office said on Saturday.

The Tata group-owned airline has faced criticism from India’s aviation regulator following an incident on a Nov. 26 flight in which a male passenger, while apparently inebriated, urinated on a female co-passenger.

A second similar incident occurred last month on a flight from Paris to Delhi.

“Air India acknowledges that it could have handled these matters better, both in the air and on the ground and is committed to taking action,” the airline’s CEO and managing director Campbell Wilson said in a statement on Saturday.

Wilson said Air India has initiated multiple measures to improve its response to such incidents, including a review of airline policies and reporting processes.

A male passenger accused of misbehaviour on the New York to Delhi flight has been terminated by his employer Wells Fargo (WFC.N), the bank said on Friday, adding that it was cooperating with local law enforcement.

Local media said on Saturday that the passenger had been arrested by Indian police.

Air India will provide full cooperation to the affected passenger, regulators and law enforcement authorities, Wilson said.

“We are committed to providing a safe environment for customers and crew, as well as operating in full compliance with all laws and regulations,” he said.

Reporting by Aditi Shah, Writing by Devjyot Ghoshal; Editing by Jacqueline Wong

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Hong Kong scraps most COVID rules, though masks still mandated

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HONG KONG, Dec 28 (Reuters) – Hong Kong will cancel its stringent COVID-19 rules from Thursday, city leader John Lee said, meaning that arrivals will no longer need to do mandatory PCR tests while the city’s vaccine pass would also be scrapped.

All measures would be cancelled on Thursday, apart from the wearing of masks which still remains compulsory, Lee told a media briefing on Wednesday.

“The city has reached a relatively high vaccination rate which builds an anti-epidemic barrier,” Lee said.

“Hong Kong has a sufficient amount of medicine to fight COVID, and healthcare workers have gained rich experience in facing the pandemic,” he added.

Lee said his government is aiming to reopen the borders with mainland China by Jan. 15 and was working with authorities over the border to ensure an orderly re-opening.

He said the authorities have been preparing for the scrapping of all restrictions.

“The time is appropriate for us to do this, having prepared for six months to do this,” said Lee. “The whole society is preparing for this. We are doing all this according to our local epidemic situation.”

Hong Kong’s vaccine pass requirement, which was imposed in February and was a must for people to access most venues in Hong Kong, will end from Thursday. Social distancing rules such as a cap on gatherings of more than 12 people in public will also be scrapped from Thursday.

The city has for nearly three years largely followed China’s lead in tackling the novel coronavirus, with both places being the last strongholds in adopting a zero-COVID policy.

The removal of the curbs are likely to result in an increase of travellers to the former British colony who have previously shunned it due to strict restrictions.

In an abrupt change of policy, China this month began dismantling the world’s strictest COVID regime of lockdowns and extensive testing. The country will stop requiring inbound travellers to go into quarantine from Jan. 8, authorities said this week.

Restrictions on travel between Hong Kong and the mainland were imposed in early 2020. The reopening was postponed several times due to outbreaks in Hong Kong or the mainland.

International passengers arriving in Hong Kong since mid-month are no longer subject to COVID-related movement controls or barred from certain venues, the government announced in December.

Business groups, diplomats and many residents had slammed Hong Kong’s COVID-19 rules, saying they threatened its competitiveness and standing as an international financial centre.

The rules have weighed on Hong Kong’s economy since early 2020, speeding up an exodus of businesses, expatriates and local families that have left amid a drive by Beijing to more closely control the former British colony.

Additional reporting by Jessie Pang and Angel Woo; Editing by Tom Hogue, Lincoln Feast and Muralikumar Anantharaman

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