CK Hutchison deal is test of Chinese hospitality: podcast
LONDON/HONG KONG, May 1 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Follow on Apple, opens new tab or Spotify, opens new tab. Listen on the Reuters app, opens new tab. Read the episode transcript.
The Li clan is facing political hurdles as it tries to offload the docks business to BlackRock for $23 billion. In this Viewsroom podcast, Breakingviews columnists explain why China objects, and why it might create bigger problems for inward investment.
Follow @aimeedonnellan, opens new tab and @ugalani, opens new tab on X
Larry Fink shows his momentum-trade stripes
The Li's brinkmanship with Beijing will be messy
China Cosco may be shipping war's first casualty
Ports deal puts China's investment case to test
CK Hutchison is stuck as a geopolitical pawn
Panama deal puts CK Hutchison in a sea change
BlackRock gets bargain berth in Panama trade storm
Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement, opens new tab for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices, opens new tab to opt-out of targeted advertising.
For more insights like these, click here, opens new tab to try Breakingviews for free.
Editing by Oliver Taslic and Aditya Srivastav
Breakingviews
Reuters Breakingviews is the world's leading source of agenda-setting financial insight. As the Reuters brand for financial commentary, we dissect the big business and economic stories as they break around the world every day. A global team of about 30 correspondents in New York, London, Hong Kong and other major cities provides expert analysis in real time.
Sign up for a free trial of our full service at https://www.breakingviews.com/trial and follow us on Twitter @Breakingviews and at www.breakingviews.com. All opinions expressed are those of the authors.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
4 hours ago
- Reuters
Tesla seeks to block city of Austin from releasing records on robotaxi trial
June 6 (Reuters) - Tesla is trying to prevent the city of Austin, Texas, from releasing public records to Reuters involving the EV maker's planned launch of self-driving robotaxis in the city this month. The news agency in February requested communications between Tesla and Austin officials over the previous two years. The request followed CEO Elon Musk's announcement in January that Tesla would launch fare-collecting robotaxis on Austin public streets. Austin public-information officer Dan Davis told Reuters on April 1 that 'third parties' had asked the city to withhold the records to protect their 'privacy or property interests.' Austin officials on April 7 requested an opinion on the news agency's request from the Texas Attorney General's office, which handles public-records disputes. On April 16, an attorney for Tesla (TSLA.O), opens new tab wrote the AG objecting to the release of 'confidential, proprietary, competitively sensitive commercial, and/or trade secret information' contained in emails between Tesla and Austin officials. The Tesla attorney wrote that providing the documents to Reuters would reveal 'Tesla's deployment procedure, process, status and strategy' and 'irreparably harm Tesla.' Tesla and the Texas Attorney General's office did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment. Neal Falgoust, who oversees public records issues for Austin's Law Department, said the city "takes no position on the confidential nature of the information at issue" but is required to seek the Attorney General's opinion when "a third-party asserts that their information is proprietary and should not be released." Musk has staked Tesla's future on self-driving vehicles he has promised for a decade but hasn't delivered, making Austin's robotaxi launch closely watched as a potential milestone. Some analysts and investors attribute the majority of Tesla's stock market value to hopes for robotaxis and humanoid robots it has yet to deliver. Little is known about Tesla's plans in Austin. The company has said it aims to initially deploy between 10 and 20 driverless robotaxis in restricted geographic areas of Austin, which it has not publicly identified. In an April 23 response to Tesla's letter, a Reuters lawyer wrote that Tesla's intent to deploy the unproven technology on Texas roadways makes its plans 'an issue of enormous importance to Texas and the public at large' and underscored the public's right to know. Falgoust, the Austin law department official, did not respond to questions about whether the public was entitled to information about Tesla's driverless technology. Texas state law requires the Attorney General's office to decide within 45 business days, which would be next week.
Reuters
5 hours ago
- Reuters
Instant view: US payrolls growth slows in May, unemployment rate steady
NEW YORK, June 5 (Reuters) - U.S. job growth slowed in May, while the unemployment rate held steady, potentially giving the Federal Reserve a buffer to delay the resumption of interest rate cuts. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 139,000 jobs last month after rising by a downwardly revised 147,000 in April, the Labor Department said on Friday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 130,000 jobs added last month after a previously reported 177,000 advance in April. The unemployment rate held steady at 4.2% and matched expectations. MARKET REACTION: STOCKS: S&P 500 E-minis added to gains and were up 51 points, or 0.86% BONDS: The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes rose 7.3 basis points to 4.468%, the two-year note yield climbed 7.3 basis points to 3.997% FOREX: The dollar index extended gains a loss and was up 0.47% to 99.14, while the euro was down 0.39% at $1.1399 COMMENTS: "The report itself is a positive report overall, in line with expectations, with the employment number a little bit stronger than expected. It shows the labor market is still intact." "There's one blemish there that stands out. The household-based employment number that's used in the calculation of the unemployment rate was down sharply. There was a big increase in both the household-based employment number and in the supply of Labor in April. We just reversed both by a large amount in such a way that the unemployment rate remains steady. We were afraid it would be going higher and the fact that it held steady is an encouraging sign." "The market is taking the jobs report as a sign the economy is still holding up well. It's not that we're powering ahead. Its moderate growth but there's little sign we're losing momentum from the jobs report mid-way through the second quarter." 'If you look at the trend, it looks like job growth actually bottomed mid/late next year, so the trend looks to be higher. As interesting as today's numbers were, the more interesting data were yesterday's – the unit labor costs and productivity. Productivity was lower and labor costs higher. That ultimately translates into higher inflation. "As long as job growth holds up, the employment data is positive. The other piece of this, in my mind, if you already have had more job openings than candidates, does it make sense to post another job? We cannot find qualified people, I keep hearing. The bottom line, is that the Fed is likely to stay on hold.' ART HOGAN, CHIEF MARKET STRATEGIST AT B RILEY WEALTH "Things are slowing, but they're not collapsing and that's the good news. We're not seeing a serious degradation of the jobs market." 'The sell-off (in Treasuries) really reflects this idea that growth sentiment is heading in a bullish direction. We have yet another month of hard data resilience. There is positive progress on tariffs moderating, even if there's nothing final yet. And a lot of the doomsday scenarios people thought were always one month away - it just seems to be a less likelihood that it's coming. "There's relief, or bearish for bonds, that there are no signs of significant deterioration that people were expecting.' BRIAN JACOBSEN, CHIEF ECONOMIST, ANNEX WEALTH MANAGEMENT, MENOMONEE FALLS, WISCONSIN "The rise in payrolls was better than expected, but the previous months were revised significantly lower, taking some sheen off this report. The diffusion index for manufacturing was abysmally low, showing that payroll gains are concentrated while losses are widespread. On its face, this shows an economy that's holding up under the weight of a trade war, but the details show plenty of cracks forming." 'Payrolls came in a little higher than consensus and more than I was looking for, but basically with the exception of hourly wages, the report really doesn't indicate that the Fed would be ready to do anything to help out the labor market. 'In fact, the rise in hourly wages by 0.4% - I don't want to say significant, but it's noticeable. And so that you know just means that the Fed stays on hold and the labor market, although there are definitely signs that it's cooling and obviously that's attributed to the trade war because many people are not hiring due to the uncertainties. 'Bottom line, it's a report that's not going to move the markets very much and I would, I would classify this as a mediocre report.' JAMIE COX MANAGING PARTNER, HARRIS FINANCIAL GROUP, RICHMOND VIRGINIA "The labor market is strong, but cooling. I expect this report, with all its revisions to bring the Fed back into cutting mode in July. Wages are stable, for now, but that is likely to change in the coming months. "One of the biggest factors with labor is housing - the housing market is showing early signs of trouble, and a cooling labor market will make that worse."
Reuters
6 hours ago
- Reuters
US equity funds see outflows on trade policy worries, Europe drew inflows ahead of ECB rate cut
June 6 (Reuters) - U.S. equity funds saw outflows for a third straight week through June 4, as concerns lingered over uncertainty surrounding U.S. trade policies, while investors remained cautious ahead of a key jobs report due Friday. At the same time, European equity funds witnessed firm demand for an eighth successive week, influenced by a weaker inflation print and expectations of a policy rate cut by the European Central Bank, which it delivered on Thursday. According to LSEG Lipper data, investors withdrew a net $7.42 billion from U.S. equity funds during the week while scooping up approximately $2.72 billion worth of regional funds in Europe. Asian funds also witnessed a net $1.84 billion worth of purchases during the week. Investors, meanwhile, bought $667 million worth of sectoral funds, extending net purchases into a second successive week. The tech and industrial sectors received a significant $909 million and $878 million respectively in inflows, while the financials and healthcare sectors lost nearly $800 million each in outflows. Global bond funds witnessed a net $16.17 billion worth of accumulations for a seventh successive weekly inflow. Investors pumped a combined $4.66 billion into dollar denominated short- and medium-term bond funds, logging their biggest weekly net purchase since April 2024. High yield bond funds also saw a massive $2.93 billion worth of inflows. Simultaneously, weekly inflows in money market funds surged to a five-month-high of $108.5 billion. Gold and precious metals commodity funds were also popular as investors poured $1.69 billion-the highest in seven weeks- into these funds. Among emerging markets, bond funds witnessed a sixth weekly net purchase, amounting $1.99 billion, while equity funds experienced about $191 million worth of net additions, data covering 29,720 funds showed.
