Category: Economy and Policy

(Reuters) – The Missouri Supreme Court on Thursday halted an upcoming trial in a case brought by women who claim talc supplied by Imerys Talc America for use in Johnson & Johnson products gave them cancer, saying it wanted to consider a jurisdictional challenge by Imerys.

It is the second major talc case the Missouri high court has stayed in recent weeks on jurisdictional grounds. Both were in the St. Louis’ 22nd Circuit Court, which has issued several large verdicts against J&J and Imerys, including one for $4.7 billion in July.

The vast majority of the plaintiffs in the St. Louis cases are from other states, and the defendants have repeatedly challenged their right to sue in Missouri as opposed to their home states or in states where the companies are headquartered or have a substantial presence. J&J is based in New Jersey and Imerys, a unit of Imerys SA, is based in California.

In the case stayed on Thursday, which had been scheduled to go to trial on April 8, only two of the 24 plaintiffs were from Missouri.

The plaintiffs claim asbestos in Johnson’s Baby Powder and other cosmetic talc products caused their cancer, alleging that J&J and Imerys knew of asbestos contamination since at least the 1970s, but failed to warn consumers.

Reuters on Dec. 14 published a Special Report detailing that the company knew that the talc in its raw and finished powders sometimes tested positive for cancer-causing asbestos from the 1970s into the early 2000s – test results the company did not disclose to regulators or consumers.

J&J and Imerys, a unit of Imerys SA, deny those allegations and have repeatedly said decades of studies have shown their talc products to be safe and free of asbestos.

“Imerys Talc America is pleased the Missouri court has ordered the trial court to take no further action while it reviews the merits of whether the Missouri court has personal jurisdiction over the company in this product liability matter,” the company said in a statement on Thursday.

Mark Lanier, the plaintiff’s lawyer in the case stayed on Thursday, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. He also represented the plaintiffs in the $4.7 billion case, most of whom were also from outside Missouri.

J&J, which is a co-defendant with Imerys, said it had also asked to postpone the upcoming trial and its petition remained pending. The company declined comment on Thursday.

The Missouri Supreme Court previously stayed a talc case against J&J and Imerys that was due to begin on Jan. 21 on the same jurisdictional grounds.

A number of multi-million-dollar talc verdicts against J&J and Imerys in the St. Louis court have been thrown out following a 2017 U.S. Supreme Court decision limiting state courts’ jurisdiction over claims by non-residents against out-of-state companies.

However, the St. Louis trial court has allowed many out-of-state plaintiffs, including most of those who won the $4.7 billion verdict, to proceed based on state ties the defendants say are tenuous. That verdict is now under appeal at an intermediate court.

* Nikkei has shed 0.1 pct for the week so far

* Murata soars, 3rd most traded stock after strong results

* Fundamental investors wary of Japan on strong yen risk – analyst

By Ayai Tomisawa

TOKYO, Feb 1 (Reuters) – Japan’s Nikkei rose to a 6-1/2-week high on Friday, as index-heavyweight stocks got a lift from strong U.S. shares, although disappointing earnings from Nomura Holdings and Nintendo curbed gains.

The Nikkei share average rose 0.1 percent to 20,797.24 by the midday break, after climbing to a peak of 20,929.63, the highest since Dec. 19. For the week, the index has shed 0.1 percent.

In Wall Street, the S&P 500 posted its best month since 2015 helped by Facebook’s strong earnings and the Federal Reserve’s dovish remarks.

Index-heavyweight Fast Retailing, Fanuc Corp and FamilyMart UNY Holdings were scooped up by investors, rising 1.9 percent, 2.6 percent and 3.7 percent, respectively, putting 73 positive points to the Nikkei.

“Hedge funds’ risk stance appears to have become strong in the U.S. and that’s helping Japanese stocks,” said Masanari Takada, a strategist at Nomura Securities.

But he warned that the Fed’s dovish stance brings on the risk of a weaker dollar against the yen, making long-term investors nervous about investing in Japanese stocks.

“Global macro investors who trade on fundamentals are still cautious even on Japanese companies which post strong earnings,” Takada said.

Murata Manufacturing soared 9 percent and was the third-most traded stock by turnover after the electronic components maker posted a 55 percent rise in its operating profit for the April-December quarter on strong demand for automotive capacitors. Yoshito Takemura, a director of the company, told a news conference, it had managed to weather the impact from the U.S.-Sino trade dispute.

Conversely, Nintendo Co stumbled 9.4 percent and was the most traded stock by turnover after it slashed its full-year hardware forecast for the hybrid home-portable Switch console, revising a figure that had been treated with scepticism by investors.

Separately, Nintendo said on Friday is was developing a mobile title with Line Corp in the company’s latest push into mobile gaming, which lifted Line’s shares by 8.9 percent.

Nomura Holdings tumbled 5 percent after the brokerage firm put its wholesale business under review, as the segment drove it to its heaviest quarterly loss in nearly 10 years.

Zozo Inc tanked 8 percent after the fashion e-commerce website operator cut its annual profit outlook and dividend forecast.

The broader Topix was flat at 1,566.88 after hitting the highest level since mid-December. (Editing by Jacqueline Wong)

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Asian shares backed away from four-month highs on Friday as a dismal survey on Chinese factory activity dulled optimism about the prospects for a Sino-U.S. deal on tariffs.

The Australian dollar, a liquid barometer of investor sentiment toward China, skidded 0.4 percent after the Caixin/Markit index of manufacturing fell to its lowest since February 2016. That was more downbeat than the official version of the index and inflamed fears for the economy.

Investor caution is also mounting ahead of U.S. jobs data later in the session with analysts unsure what impact the government shutdown might have had employment.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped 0.1 percent, though that followed a stellar 7.2 percent gain in January.

Japan’s Nikkei went flat, while Shanghai blue chips held onto a 0.4 percent gain.

Stocks had started firmer after U.S. President Donald Trump said he would meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping soon to try to seal a comprehensive trade deal as the top U.S. negotiator reported “substantial progress” in the talks.

Beijing’s trade delegation said the talks made “important progress” for the current stage, China’s official Xinhua news agency reported on Friday.

The previously upbeat mood was also chilled somewhat by White House insistence that March 1 was a hard deadline for a deal, a failure of which would lead to an increase in U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods.

“Analysts mostly remain deeply skeptical that a genuine trade deal can be done on this time frame,” noted economists from Commonwealth Bank of Australia in a note.

“We are less pessimistic since these negotiations are being conducted by senior politicians, not by trade bureaucrats,” they added. “Both sides also have an incentive, and arguably a growing incentive, to get a meaningful deal done.”

The optimism supported Wall Street with the S&P 500 ending Thursday with a gain of 0.86 percent. The Nasdaq jumped 1.37 percent on the back of a near 11 percent rise in Facebook Inc. The Dow slipped 0.06 percent.

Over January, the S&P 500 rose 7.9 percent, its best monthly performance since late 2015 and its strongest start to a year since 1987. The Nasdaq gained 9.7 percent in the month and the Dow rose 7.2 percent.

FED’S ABOUT-FACE

Equity markets have also been relieved by a change of heart at the U.S. Federal Reserve, which this week surprised many by all but abandoning plans for further rate hikes.

Investors responded by pricing in a one-in-three chance that interest rates could actually be cut this year.

Yields on two-year Treasuries were down 14 basis points on the week so far, which if sustained would be the largest weekly decline since mid-2010.

That in turn has been a drag on the U.S. dollar, though it was off its lows on Friday. It was down 0.6 percent so far this week against the yen at 108.82, but found some support around 108.50.

Against a basket of currencies, the dollar was holding steady at 95.579 thanks in part to a pullback in the euro to $1.1439.

The single currency had taken a knock when Bundesbank president Jens Weidmann painted an unusually bleak picture of the German economy, saying the country’s slump will last longer than initially thought.

Gold prices hovered just short of nine-month highs supported by the fall in bond yields and expectations for a softer dollar. Spot gold stood at $1,317.66 per ounce, having touched a top of $1,326.30.

Oil prices were subdued as the poor China data offset signs major exporters were quickly reducing output in line with a pact to cut supply.

U.S. crude futures eased 5 cents to $53.74 per barrel, while Brent rose 3 cents to $60.87. [O/R]

CARACAS (Reuters) – Global jostling intensified on Thursday between countries that want Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in power and those trying to force him to resign, as opposition leader Juan Guaido made overtures to his rival’s allies Russia and China.

Guaido told Reuters he had sent communications to both powers, which are Venezuela’s top foreign creditors and support Maduro in the U.N. Security Council despite worries about the cash-strapped country’s ability to pay.

The 35-year-old leader argued that Russia and China’s interests would be best served by switching the side they back in Venezuela, an OPEC member which has the world’s largest oil reserves but is in dire financial straits.

“What most suits Russia and China is the country’s stability and a change of government,” Guaido said. “Maduro does not protect Venezuela, he doesn’t protect anyone’s investments, and he is not a good deal for those countries.”

The intense pressure is led by the United States, which along with most other countries in the Western Hemisphere recognizes Guaido as the country’s legitimate interim president, arguing that Maduro stole his second-term election.

The United States on Monday imposed sweeping sanctions on Venezuela’s state-owned oil firm, aimed at pressuring Maduro to step down.

A former union leader, bus driver and foreign minister, the 56-year-old Maduro, who first took office in 2013, has faced waves of protests in recent years as he presided over hyperinflation and chronic food shortages. Some 3 million Venezuelans have left the country. A U.N. expert on Thursday warned that the U.S. oil sanctions could worsen the humanitarian crisis.

With Venezuela in deep economic crisis, the geopolitical tussling has also drawn in Europe and Latin American nations as well as parts of the Middle East.

The U.S. government warned Russia and other countries from “last-minute looting” of oil and gold on Thursday, after Reuters reported Venezuela was planning to sell gold from its central bank vaults to the United Arab Emirates in coming days in return for euros in cash, citing a senior source.

Republican U.S. Senator Marco Rubio sent a tweet to the United Arab Emirates embassy in Washington on Thursday warning that anybody transporting Venezuelan gold would be subject to U.S. sanctions.

The United States is also monitoring trade between its NATO ally Turkey and Venezuela and will take action if it judges any sanctions have been violated, a senior U.S. official said in Istanbul.

Turkey’s president, Tayyip Erdogan, has stood by Maduro, calling him last week to express support.

CRACKING DOWN?

Guaido said on Thursday that agents from a feared special police unit had called at his home and asked for his wife, who was at home with their 20-month-old daughter while he was out at an event.

“Such acts of intimidation are seen as very serious, very egregious by the United States,” a senior U.S. administration official told reporters on a conference call. “There will be consequences for those engaged in such acts.”

Guaido appeared at his building with his wife and daughter, saying, “They will not intimidate this family.” Neighbors said men who identified themselves as belonging to the Special Actions Forces arrived at the gate of Guaido’s apartment building in a white SUV. There was no obvious police presence by the time journalists arrived at Guaido’s house.

Maduro, who says he will remain for his second six-year term, has accused the opposition of attempting a U.S.-backed coup.

Venezuela’s interior minister, Nestor Reverol, said on Thursday that security forces captured five men including a retired army colonel and other army officers on accusations of plotting a coup.

The men were captured over the last few days, Reverol said. He said they had with them two AK-47 rifles, two satellite phones and 500 bracelets bearing the symbol of Operation Constitution, a political group dedicated to toppling Maduro.

The government accuses one of the leaders of the group, retired Colonel Oswaldo García Palomo, of participating in an apparent attack at a Maduro event last yet. Garcia Palomo was among the captured men.

Maduro frequently accuses the opposition, Colombia and the United States of backing coups or assassination attempts. Such claims have usually been dismissed as a smokescreen to distract from problems at home, but a drone exploded at a Maduro event last year, in an apparent attack.

Maduro also says the opposition strategy of trying to push him from office is illegal and led by hawks in the Trump administration, such as the recently appointed U.S. special envoy to Venezuela, Elliott Abrams, a veteran diplomat involved in the armed interventions in Central America in the 1980s.

OIL TROUBLE

A United Nations human rights expert denounced the U.S. oil sanctions imposed on Monday, saying they would compound a grave humanitarian crisis.

“Coercion, whether military or economic, must never be used to seek a change in government in a sovereign state,” said Idriss Jazairy, a U.N. special rapporteur studying the negative impact of sanctions.

“The use of sanctions by outside powers to overthrow an elected government is in violation of all norms of international law,” he said in a statement in Geneva.

In the tussle over oil, Guaido worked this week with Washington to wrest control of PDVSA’s U.S. subsidiary Citgo from its board. Citgo and Maduro’s government responded by ordering dozens of Citgo’s expatriate staff in the United States to return to Caracas by the end of February, people familiar with the matter said.

PDVSA has said it will pursue legal efforts to block a Citgo takeover.

Feb 1 (Reuters) – The following are the top stories on the business pages of British newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

The Times

Metro Bank Plc came under new selling pressure on Thursday after changing its account of the discovery of a 900 million pound ($1.18 billion) accounting misstatement that led its share price to crash last week. bit.ly/2RXiBAJ

The executive chairman and chief executive of Patisserie Holdings did not disclose a possible conflict of interest to investors arising from their ownership of a shop of its collapsed café chain. bit.ly/2S2YfpC

The Guardian

Thames Water has been given a dressing down by the British water regulator Ofwat for not doing enough to keep future bills affordable and to sort out its poor performance on leaks. bit.ly/2S4I5vV

Jurgen Maier, the chief executive of one of Britain’s biggest industrial companies, Siemens UK, accused the government of being divided over its industrial strategy, saying that more was needed to support manufacturers across the UK. bit.ly/2S4IEWz

The Telegraph

Big six energy supplier Npower will axe 900 jobs over the next year as it scrambles to cut costs in the face of the UK government’s energy price cap and looming financial losses. bit.ly/2RYIksq

Chemicals giant Ineos failed to tighten its hold on the North Sea after talks with U.S.-based independent oil producer ConocoPhillips over a multi-billion-dollar sale collapsed. bit.ly/2RY9bEU

Sky News

The stand-in chairman at Debenhams Plc, Terry Duddy, has been shortlisted as a potential successor to Debbie Hewitt, who is to step down as Moss Bros chairman later this year. bit.ly/2S2VSTK

BT Group Plc is planning to appeal against two court judgments that ruled the telecoms giant cannot change the way it calculates pensions for thousands of employees. bit.ly/2S2k7Bo

The Independent

Asda shop floor workers have won the latest round of a legal battle with their employer over equal pay in a ruling that has been hailed as a potential “game changer” for more than half a million retail workers.

Feb 1 (Reuters) – The following are the top stories in the Financial Times. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

Headlines

– EU and UK regulators agree Brexit deal for asset managers on.ft.com/2SoVoXH

– MPs pressed to scrap business rates to save high streets on.ft.com/2SdSrcj

– Npower to cut almost 15% of its UK workforce on.ft.com/2SoVpLf

– Grocer Asda loses ruling in equal-pay case on.ft.com/2SoVD53

Overview

– The European Union and the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority approved an accord to protect Britain’s £7.7 trillion ($10.10 trillion) asset management industry in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

– British MPs launched an inquiry into the impact of recent changes to business rates policy on Friday, that many retailers blame for the decline of the UK high street.

– Innogy SE’s Npower said on Thursday it will cut almost 15 per cent of its UK workforce as the energy supplier faces tough market conditions in the UK retail energy markets.

– British supermarket chain Asda, which is owned by Walmart , lost an equal pay court ruling on Thursday, in a case brought by thousands of mostly female retail staff in its supermarkets. ($1 = 0.7627 pounds) (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom; Editing by Sandra Maler)

Feb 1 (Reuters) – Gold held firm on Friday near nine-month highs touched in the previous session on the back of a pause in U.S. interest rate hikes, although optimism about a Sino-U.S. trade deal boosted risk appetite, capping gains.

FUNDAMENTALS

* Spot gold was steady at $1,321.14 per ounce by 0106 GMT. Prices rose to $1,326.30, their highest since April 26 on Thursday.

* U.S. gold futures were little changed at $1,320.10 per ounce.

* Spot gold rose nearly 3 percent in January and was up 1.3 percent so far this week, gaining for a second straight week.

* The Federal Reserve held U.S. interest rates steady on Wednesday but said it would be patient in lifting borrowing costs further this year as it pointed to rising uncertainty about the economic outlook.

* Gold tends to rise on expectations of lower interest rates, which reduce the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion, hurting the demand for the U.S. dollar in which the metal is priced.

* President Donald Trump said on Thursday he will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping soon to try to seal a comprehensive trade deal as the top U.S. negotiator reported “substantial progress” in two days of high-level talks.

* Trump said he was optimistic that the world’s two largest economies could reach “the biggest deal ever made.”

* Global equity prices rose, cheering the hopes of a deal.

* The number of Americans filing applications for unemployment benefits surged to near a 1-1/2-year high last week, which could raise concerns that the labor market is slowing.

* The market is now looking to Friday’s U.S. non-farm payrolls report for January, with economists surveyed by Reuters forecasting job gains of 165,000, down from 312,000 in December.

* Jens Weidmann, the Bundesbank president and a member of the European Central Bank Governing Council, painted a bleak picture of the German economy, saying the country’s slump will last longer than initially thought.

* The U.S. Mint sold 65,500 ounces of American Eagle gold coins in January, up from 3,000 ounces the previous month, the highest level since January 2017 according to the latest data.

* Venezuela will sell 15 tonnes of gold from central bank vaults to the United Arab Emirates in coming days in return for euros in cash, a senior official with knowledge of the plan said, as the crisis-stricken country seeks to stay solvent.

* A surge in gold purchases by central banks to the highest since 1967 helped push global demand for the metal up 4 percent last year, the World Gold Council (WGC) said on Thursday.

* India’s gold demand could rebound in 2019, rising above the 10-year average, as the government seeks to bolster consumer confidence and spending power ahead of general elections due by May, the World Gold Council (WGC) said on Thursday. (Reporting by Nallur Sethuraman in Bengaluru; editing by Richard Pullin)

NEW YORK, Jan 31 (Reuters) – A United Arab Emirates senior diplomat denied on Thursday the country had targeted “friendly countries” or American citizens in a cyberspying program that a Reuters report said involved a hacking team of U.S. mercenaries.

The Reuters investigation published on Wednesday found that the UAE used a group of American intelligence contractors to help hack rival governments, dissidents and human rights activists. The contractors, former U.S. intelligence operatives, formed a core part of UAE’s cyber hacking program called Project Raven. (reut.rs/2CRgHHw)

Project Raven also targeted Americans, and the Apple Inc iPhones of embassy staff for France, Australia and the United Kingdom, according to former operatives and program documents reviewed by Reuters. (bit.ly/2sXyQ1F)

Apple has declined to comment and did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

When asked about Project Raven by reporters at a briefing in New York, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash acknowledged the country has a “cyber capability,” but denied targeting U.S. citizens or countries with which it has good relations.

“We live in a very difficult part of the world. We have to protect ourselves,” Gargash said. “We don’t target friendly countries and we don’t target American citizens.”

The French and UK embassies in Washington have declined to comment. A spokeswoman for the Australian ministry of foreign affairs has declined to comment. The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Reporting by Joel Schectman and Christopher Bing in Washington; Michelle Nichols in New York; Editing by Richard Chang)