ASM International expects FY sales to grow by 10%-20% amid tariffs uncertainty
April 29 (Reuters) - Computer chip equipment maker ASM International (ASMI) (ASMI.AS), opens new tab said on Tuesday it expects annual sales to grow in a double-digit percentage range, at constant currencies, amid global trade tensions and reciprocal tariffs which have increased macroeconomic uncertainty.
The Dutch company expects sales to grow in a range of 10% to 20% for 2025.
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NBC News
2 hours ago
- NBC News
There's a massive Sur La Table sale right now: Get up to 50% off Le Creuset, Staub and more
I once worked feet from a Sur La Table and, in the middle of the day, while most people were off to lunch, I'd quickly hop over to marvel at all of the appliances, cookware and gadgets on display. While I typically only browsed at the time, I always took note of things that I wanted, should they go on sale one day, I'd be ready. Today, you can do exactly the same, minus the daydreaming, since Sur La Table's Summer Warehouse Sale is here. Through tonight, you can get up to 60% off on Le Creuset Dutch ovens, Staub bakeware sets, espresso machines from De Longhi and Breville and more during the sale. Le Creuset 8-quart Signature Round Dutch Oven Le Creuset's Signature Round Dutch Ovens are all cast-iron cookware covered in a durable enamel coating that makes them fit for cooking just about everything — soups, stews, roasts, casseroles and more. The pot, which has a lifetime warranty, comes with handles on each side that make it easy to move between the oven and stove, and it's dishwasher-safe and oven-safe up to 500 degrees Fahrenheit. You can also get it in one of its many iconic colors, including its first one Flame. This bakeware set includes a small (7.5 x 6 x 2 in.), medium (10.5 x 7.5 x 2.4 in.) and large (13 x 9 x 3 in.) enamel-coated stoneware baking dishes, all of which are oven-safe up to over 500 degrees, according to the brand. The set has a lifetime warranty and the pieces are highly resistant to thermal shock, according to Staub, which means they are resistant to cracking when you take them out of a hot oven. They're also microwave- and freezer-safe, so you can store and prep leftovers or meal prep without worry about them getting ruined. De'Longhi's Magnigica Evo espresso machine is ideal for at-home baristas: It has a built-in coffee grinder with 13 settings, milk frother and steamer, measuring scoop, descaler, cleaning brush and removable dishwasher-safe parts. You can use it to make hot and iced coffee and to heat up water on its own. It has a two-year warranty and you can get an extra year if you register the product online at De'Longhi. Another staff-favorite brand, Breville makes some of the best appliances for coffee fans. The Express Impress has a built-in coffee grinder with 25 settings, milk frother and steamer, removable parts you can wash by hand and a hot water outlet you can use to make tea or to rinse your espresso cups. It has a two-year limited warranty, comes with cleaning tablets for descaling and cleaning brush. Zwilling is well known for its durable, high quality stainless steel knife sets, which are perfect for anyone who loves cooking and prepping food at home or as a gift for anyone who wants to get more creative in the kitchen. This set includes a wooden block that holds an all-purpose chef's knife, a paring knife, serrated knife, a knife for bread, kitchen shears and a sharpening steel to keep them in good shape. 68% off Staub Braiser and Grill Set Why trust NBC Select? I'm a commerce editor at NBC Select, where I regularly cover deals and sales from home and kitchen brands, such as Sur La Table, Le Creuset and more.
Reuters
3 hours ago
- Reuters
TRADING DAY London calling, stocks crawling higher
ORLANDO, Florida, June 9 (Reuters) - TRADING DAY Making sense of the forces driving global markets By Jamie McGeever, Markets Columnist I'm excited to announce that I'm now part of Reuters Open Interest (ROI), an essential new source for data-driven, expert commentary on market and economic trends. You can find ROI on the Reuters website, and you can follow us on LinkedIn and X. Trade tensions, policy uncertainty and shaky economic data continue to cloud the near-term outlook for world growth, but they remain on the back burner for now as investors kick off the week by pushing global stock markets higher. In my column today I look at why the dollar has depreciated significantly this year regardless of how U.S. stocks and bonds have performed. The main reason? Hedging. More on that below, but first, a roundup of the main market moves. If you have more time to read, here are a few articles I recommend to help you make sense of what happened in markets today. Today's Key Market Moves London calling, stocks crawling higher It was a fairly quiet start to the week across global markets on Monday, with strong equity gains in Asia followed by a grind higher on Wall Street which lifted the MSCI World index to a fresh record high. The main areas of focus for investors were China's economic 'data dump' for May, then the high-level U.S.-China trade talks in London. The two are connected - the U.S. is a less important market for China than it used to be, underscored in May's trade figures from Beijing and reflected in the lack of concrete progress from the negotiations in London. China's total exports rose 4.8% in May from a year earlier but this masks a huge split between the U.S. and the rest of the world. Exports to the U.S. plunged 34.4% year-on-year in value terms, the sharpest drop since February 2020 just before the pandemic, while exports to the rest of the world rose 11.4%. Monthly data are volatile, of course, and May's figures were also distorted by tariffs. Still, U.S.-bound shipments worth $28.8 billion last month were just 9% of the total $316 billion. Economist Phil Suttle notes that is less than half the average share in the decade leading up to President Donald Trump's first trade war. The London talks are expected to continue on Tuesday. But as was the case following Trump's telephone call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday, there is little indication of a significant breakthrough, far less China bending to U.S. demands. "U.S. Treasury Secretaries who live in unbalanced economies might not want to throw barbs such as the 'most unbalanced in modern history' at China without first looking at some data," Suttle wrote on Monday. "The choice to fight an opponent should be conditioned on a clear-headed view of its strengths and weaknesses. The U.S. has done a marvelous job of (once again) deluding itself on this front," Suttle added. Still, divisions between the two countries and the threat to global supply chains are proving no barrier to rising stock markets. Japan's Nikkei and the MSCI emerging and Asia ex-Japan indexes rose around 1%, Hong Kong-listed tech stocks rose nearly 3%, and Wall Street closed in the green. Meanwhile, the dollar's trend this year of declining despite U.S. stocks and bonds rising was on full display on Monday. Wall Street closed slightly higher and Treasury yields fell as much as 5 basis points at the short end of the curve, yet the dollar slipped. Many analysts say one of the main reasons for this is non-U.S. investor hedging - more on that below. Dollar floored as investors seek that extra hedge All three major U.S. asset classes – stocks, bonds and the currency – have had a turbulent 2025 thus far, but only one has failed to weather the storm: the dollar. Hedging may be a major reason why. Wall Street's three main indices and the ICE BofA U.S. Treasury index are all slightly higher for the year to date, despite the post-'Liberation Day' volatility, while the dollar has steadily ground lower, losing around 10% of its value against a basket of major currencies and breaking long-standing correlations along the way. The dollar was perhaps primed for a fall. It's easy to forget, but only a few months ago the 'U.S. exceptionalism' narrative was alive and well, and the dollar scaling heights rarely seen in the past two decades. But that narrative has evaporated, as U.S. President Donald Trump's controversial economic policies and isolationist posture on the global stage have made investors reconsider their exposure to U.S. assets. But why is the dollar feeling the burn more than stocks or bonds? Non-U.S. investors often protect themselves against sharp currency fluctuations via the forward, futures or options markets. The difference now is that the risk premium being built into U.S. assets is pushing them – especially equity holders – to hedge their dollar exposure more than they have in the past. Foreign investors have long hedged their bond exposure, with dollar hedge ratios traditionally around 70% to 100%, according to Morgan Stanley, as currency moves can easily wipe out modest bond returns. But non-U.S. equity investors have been much more loath to pay for protection, with dollar hedge ratios averaging between 10% and 30%. This is partly because the dollar was traditionally seen as a 'natural' hedge against stock market exposure, as it would typically rise in 'risk off' periods when stocks fell. The dollar would also normally appreciate when the U.S. economy and markets were thriving – the so-called 'Dollar Smile' – giving an additional boost to U.S. equity returns in good times. A good barometer of global 'real money' investors' view on the dollar is how willing foreign pension and insurance funds are to hedge their dollar-denominated assets. Recent data on Danish funds' currency hedging is revealing. Danish funds' U.S. asset hedge ratio surged to around 75% from around 65% between February and April. According to Deutsche Bank analysts, that 10 percentage point rise is the largest two-month increase in over a decade. Anecdotal evidence suggests similar shifts are taking place across Scandinavia, the euro zone and Canada, regions where dollar exposure is also high. The $266 billion Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan reported a $6.9 billion foreign currency gain last year, mainly due to the stronger dollar. Unless the fund has increased its hedging ratio this year, it will be sitting on huge foreign currency losses. "Investors had embraced U.S. exceptionalism and were overweight U.S. assets. But now, investors are increasing their hedging," says Sophia Drossos, economist and strategist at the hedge fund Point72. And there is a lot of dollar exposure to hedge. At the end of March foreign investors held $33 trillion of U.S. securities, with $18.4 trillion in equities and $14.6 trillion in debt instruments. The dollar's malaise has upended its traditional relationships with stocks and bonds. Its generally negative correlation with stocks has reversed, as has the usually positive correlation with bonds. The divergence with Treasuries has gained more attention, with the dollar diving as yields have risen. But as Deutsche Bank's George Saravelos notes, the correlation breakdown with stocks is "very unusual". When Wall Street has fallen this year the dollar has fallen too, but at a much faster pace. And when Wall Street has risen the dollar has also bounced, but only slightly. This has led to the strongest positive correlation between the dollar and S&P 500 in years, though that's a bit deceptive, as the dollar is sharply down on the year while stocks are mildly stronger. Of course, what we could be seeing is simply a rebalancing. Saravelos estimates that global fixed income and equity managers' dollar exposure was at near record-high levels in the run-up to the recent trade war. This was a "cyclical" phenomenon over the last couple of years rather than a deep-rooted structural one based on fundamentals, meaning it could be reversed relatively quickly. But, regardless, the dollar's hedging headwind seems likely to persist. "Given the size of foreign holdings of both stocks and bonds, even a modest uptick in hedge ratios could prove a considerable FX flow," Morgan Stanley's FX strategy team wrote last month. "As long as uncertainty and volatility persist, we think that hedge ratios are likely to rise as investors ride out the storm." What could move markets tomorrow? Opinions expressed are those of the author. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, opens new tab, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.
Metro
5 hours ago
- Metro
Inside Amsterdam's plans to build a five-storey ‘erotic prison' in an affluent suburb
The red-light district is one of Amsterdam's oldest neighbourhoods and is as classically Dutch as you can get – canals, cobblestone and cafes. The district, De Wallen, is also where many of the around 25,000 sex workers in the Netherlands work. On top of being known for window prostitution and sex shops, Amsterdammers see it as being infamous for two other things as well: bachelor parties and rowdy British tourists hoping for a boozy weekend. But the mayor of Amsterdam Femke Halsema had an idea to change this – by building a mega-brothel in an affluent suburb two miles away, Zuid. The five-storey 'Erotic Centre', designed by firm Moke Architecten, will contain 100 prostitution rooms, two bars and a strip club. Architect Gianni Cito said of the multi-million euro multiplex: 'Offering prostitution in a different location is not enough. 'Visitors come for a broader experience: A boutique, a drink or a bite to eat, a cinema, it all contributes to an atmosphere in which people feel comfortable, even if they do not visit a prostitute.' The Erotic Centre also contains accommodation for anyone working in the two CD holder-shaped towers, as well as offices and medical and mental health facilities. Halsema has said the new centre on Europaboulevard would be safer, offer more security to workers and encourage more people to work legally. A consultation period will begin from Thursday to July 23, with locals, sex workers, bartenders and entrepreneurs urged to share their opinions. Officials will plan on how to finance it by the end of 2025 – it will not be funded by the city – and decide on building the centre by the end of 2026. Sex workers have long opposed the site, dubbing it an 'erotic prison' and a 'sterile building' with none of the 'charm' of the red-light district. In an open letter in 2022, sex workers said they would lose their independence and face more stigma as they're 'hidden away'. The letter said: 'Sex workers have been part of this neighbourhood for as long as people can remember and make its history rich, unique and beautiful.' Having their livelihoods crammed into the centre would also mean that if the building went bust, their jobs would be on the line. Karin, who works for the Prostitution Information Centre, told the TV network BNNVARA last year: 'The nuisance is not caused by the sex workers and the clients, but by the party tourists.' Sabrina Sanchez, a sex worker, told AFP: 'We really don't agree with their solutions that they are offering, that they are imposing. They're not even negotiating with the sex workers' organisations.' Sex worker Michelle said: 'If you're already inside, that's fine, but you also have to go out with your earnings.' Huub Nelis, chairman of MBO College Zuid trade school, told DutchNews that the Erotic Centre could bring crime to the area. He said: 'Our students don't just walk around up to 5pm but also in the evening. There will be parents who will say, my child won't go there, and that's the only education [for their chosen career] in Amsterdam. 'For the erotic pleasure of the one, some children will not be able to get their education.' At a council meeting in March, officials clashed over what impact building the erotic centre would have on Zudi, a well-known business district. Halsema said that De Wallen has more international businesses in the area than Zudi. She added: 'So you could say that the establishment of an erotic centre could have a positive effect on the business climate in the Zuidas.' To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The mayor stressed that the plans for the build – which so far are backed by the parties PvdA, GroenLinks and D66 – are not 'irreversible'. She said: 'The council chose this route years ago, which I am working out very neatly. But it is always possible that the council will say at some point: don't do it after all. ' Halsema and the city council have spent years cracking down on noise and substance abuse riddling the red-light district by banning tours, making bars close earlier and limiting what times sex workers can work. Officials also had a simple message to British men in 2023 as part of a campaign to decrease nuisance: 'Stay away.' Around 10million people visit Amsterdam every year, with around half visiting the red-light district. Sex work is legal in the Netherlands, but it is not allowed everywhere or without a permit – it cannot be practised in a hotel or on the street. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page.
