Gulf bourses end mixed on US-China trade-talks
Top officials of both countries said on Tuesday they agreed on a framework to get their trade truce back on track and remove China's export restrictions on rare earths, while offering little sign of a durable resolution.
Saudi Arabia's benchmark index (.TASI), opens new tab - which traded after a four-session eid break - gave up early gains to finish flat.
Meanwhile, the kingdom's crude oil supply to China is set to dip slightly in July, Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing trade sources, but still strong for a third straight month as the OPEC kingpin regains its market share supplying the world's top crude importer.
Dubai's main share index (.DFMGI), opens new tab eased 0.1%, hovering around 17-year high, with top lender Emirates NBD (ENBD.DU), opens new tab losing 2%.
The Dubai stock market remained relatively flat, suggesting potential uncertainty as the market hovers near 17-year highs, which may prompt some investors to engage in profit-taking, said Joseph Dahrieh, Managing Principal at Tickmill.
In Abu Dhabi, the index (.FTFADGI), opens new tab inched 0.1% higher, with ADNOC Gas (ADNOCGAS.AD), opens new tab gaining 1.2%.
ADNOC Gas said on Tuesday it had taken a final investment decision on the first phase of its Rich Gas Development (RGD) Project, awarding $5 billion in contracts to expand and improve efficiency at the project.
The Qatari index (.QSI), opens new tab added 0.2%, with Qatar Gas Transport (QGTS.QA), opens new tab increasing 2.8%.
Outside the Gulf, Egypt's blue-chip index (.EGX30), opens new tab was up 0.1%, helped by a 2% rise in Commercial International Bank (COMI.CA), opens new tab.
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Amazon adds perishable foods to same-day delivery to take on Instacart, Walmart
NEW YORK, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Subscribers to (AMZN.O), opens new tab Prime service can now get strawberries, milk, meats and frozen dinners on the same day they order them as the company expands its fast-delivery option to perishable food items, Amazon announced on Wednesday. It is the latest move by Amazon to compete with grocery delivery services offered by Walmart+ (WMT.N), opens new tab and Instacart. Shoppers in more than 1,000 U.S. cities - including Phoenix; Raleigh, North Carolina; and Tampa, Florida - can get doorstep delivery within hours, while Amazon plans to expand the service to 2,300 cities by the end of the year. The company announced in June it is investing $4 billion to bring same-day and next-day delivery services to more than 4,000 rural U.S. communities by the end of the year. Previously, Prime subscribers' grocery orders were fulfilled through Amazon Fresh or Whole Foods. Now the additional service will complete orders through its same-day delivery logistics locations. Same-day delivery is free for Prime members, who pay $14.99 monthly or $149 annually, for orders over $25. Walmart's membership service, Walmart+, costs $98 a year and offers same-day delivery in under three hours - with some orders arriving in as little as 30 minutes. "Notably, Amazon has lowered the minimum order threshold to just $25 - a move that directly threatens Instacart by enabling customers to use Amazon for quick, one-off purchases, a core part of Instacart's value proposition," said Blake Droesch, analyst with eMarketer. Instacart's (CART.O), opens new tab stock slumped 12% in early trading on Wednesday, while Walmart (WMT.N), opens new tab and Kroger (KR.N), opens new tab were down about 2% and 5%, respectively. Amazon shares were up about 1%. As the largest grocery retailer in the United States, most of Walmart's deliveries tend to be dry groceries and perishables. In May, Walmart said it will soon be able to offer delivery within three hours to 95% of the U.S. population, and that faster delivery speeds are helping drive its business. Between February and April, Walmart reported a 91% increase in deliveries under three hours compared with the same period last year. Amazon shoppers "can order milk alongside electronics; oranges, apples, and potatoes with a mystery novel; and frozen pizza at the same time as tools for their next home improvement project - and check out with one cart and have everything delivered to their doorstep within hours," Doug Herrington, CEO of Worldwide Amazon Stores, said in a press release. E-commerce giant Amazon has struggled in previous years to get shoppers into its physical stores. While the company is focusing on its U.S. grocery experience, it is facing hurdles in the UK with its suppliers, a study by British grocery regulator the Groceries Code Adjudicator found.
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Zinc market shrugs off low LME stocks as another false signal
LONDON, Aug 13 (Reuters) - London Metal Exchange (LME) zinc stocks have been falling for the last seven months. What's left would cover barely one day's worth of global consumption of the galvanizing metal. But if this is a genuine squeeze on availability, no one's told the zinc market. Zinc has underperformed the rest of the LME base metals pack all year and is still, uniquely, trading below its year-start price to the tune of 4%. True, time-spreads have been tightening, but they remain in small contango, suggesting the near depletion of available inventory is not being taken as a true reflector of the physical world beyond the LME. It wouldn't be the first time LME zinc stocks have flattered to deceive the unwary. Moreover, there's a cast-iron analyst consensus that this is a market moving inexorably into significant supply surplus, so it's just a matter of time before exchange inventory recovers. Short-position holders, however, can only hope that some of that surplus shows up in exchange warehouses sooner rather than later. LME-registered zinc inventory has fallen to a two-year low of 78,475 metric tons, with available stocks even lower at 45,700 tons. What remains is almost all located in Singapore, an exchange delivery point that has been the focal point for both zinc and lead arrivals since late 2023. LME zinc stocks in Singapore jumped from 58,000 tons to more than 200,000 tons in the second half of November that year as surplus metal was drawn out of the shadows by lucrative warehouse rental deals. The metal has subsequently churned in and out of the system as traders played the LME warehouse arbitrage game. Zinc stocks in Singapore ended 2024 up by a modest net 35,550 tons on the year, but 691,500 tons were actually delivered in and out of LME sheds in the port. Optics swung from bullish to bearish depending on the stock rotation cycle, diminishing the utility of LME warehouse inventory as a market signal. The last significant Singapore stocks churn was in April, when almost 90,000 tons of zinc were warranted in the space of two days. But movement since then has been largely one-way and inventory has slumped by 144,250 tons since the start of January. Nor has there been any offsetting rise in off-warrant inventory held in LME-registered warehouses as was the case last year, when metal was moving between warehouse operators. LME off-warrant stocks total just 16,472 tons, of which 4,842 tons are stored in Singapore. There has been a noticeable pick-up in Singapore's zinc exports in the first half of this year, with outbound volumes of 153,000 tons already matching last year's full 12-month tally. There are no zinc smelters on the island, meaning this is LME metal on the move. Inbound shipments, meanwhile, have slowed to just 27,000 tons from 82,000 tons in the second half of 2024. Singapore's exports have flowed to a wide variety of Asian countries, suggesting LME stocks have been drawn down to fill supply-chain gaps left by smelter disruptions. Toho Zinc (5707.T), opens new tab has closed its Annaka smelter in Japan for good, while Youngpoong's ( opens new tab Seokpo plant in South Korea was forced to take a 58-day break after a water discharge violation. Nyrstar has reduced output, opens new tab at its Hobart smelter in Australia by 25% since March and Glencore (GLEN.L), opens new tab shuttered part of its Portovesme smelting complex at the end of last year. While Western smelters are struggling, Chinese producers are ramping up aggressively as supplies of mined concentrate improve. 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The LME benchmark cash-to-three-months spread has tightened from a contango of more than $30 per ton at the start of June to $5 as stocks have steadily fallen. But by way of comparison, the last time LME inventory was this low, the spread traded in consistent backwardation. Exchange lending guidance may be playing a part in the relaxed spreads with LME reports showing two significant long positions on the cash date equivalent to at least 90% of currently available stocks. But the wide divergence between spread and stock signals suggests there is no real panic because no one thinks the physical supply chain is that tight. Zinc demand is doing no more than flat-lining due to weak construction activity just about everywhere and the global market registered nearly a 90,000-ton supply surplus in the January-May period, according to the International Lead and Zinc Study Group. The question, however, is how much of that calculated surplus is actually available for LME delivery. And, perhaps more critically given the tension in the London zinc market, how quickly can it get to a LME delivery point? (The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.)
Reuters
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