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  • Biden’s quiet campaign season brings him back to familiar territory in Pennsylvania | CNN Politics

    Biden’s quiet campaign season brings him back to familiar territory in Pennsylvania | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    When President Joe Biden visited Pennsylvania on Thursday, he touted infrastructure investments that helped rebuild a collapsed bridge and raised campaign cash away from cameras with the state’s Democratic Senate candidate.

    Where he didn’t appear was a campaign rally stage.

    Three weeks before November’s elections, Biden’s visit to Pittsburgh and Philadelphia neatly demonstrated a political strategy focused on promoting his agenda and talking with donors rather than headlining stump speeches alongside vulnerable Democrats.

    He has been a frequent visitor to Pennsylvania, where Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman holds a narrow lead in his race against Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz in the US Senate race. Trading his trademark sweatshirt and basketball shorts for a dark suit and tie, Fetterman greeted Biden at the airport alongside his wife.

    “You’re gonna win!” Biden said as he shook the candidate’s hand.

    Biden has visited the commonwealth nine times this year, including Thursday’s visit, and 18 times since he became president.

    “I’m a proud Delawarean, but Pennsylvania’s my native state. It’s in my heart. I can’t tell you how much it means to me to be part of rebuilding this beautiful state,” Biden said. “My Grandfather Finnegan from Scranton would really be proud of me now.”

    Still, despite the fondness, Biden’s visit was relatively low-key for a presidential stop weeks ahead of a critical midterm contest. He did not hold a rollicking campaign rally, opting for a smaller profile event with several dozen officials and workers from the bridge project.

    Biden’s approach borne out of political reality: While many of Biden’s accomplishments have been well-received by voters – and, in some cases, embraced by Republicans who voted against them – Biden himself remains unpopular and some Democrats continue to keep their distance as the midterm contests grow near.

    Departing the White House on Thursday, Biden bristled when asked why more Democrats weren’t joining him for political events.

    “That’s not true,” Biden said. “There have been 15. Count, kid, count.”

    Later, as he and Fetterman dropped by a Primanti Bros. sandwich shop near Pittsburgh, he told reporters he’d been requested to visit Nevada and Georgia, two states with tight Senate races.

    “We’re trying to work it out now,” he said. “I don’t know where I’m going. I’ve got about 16, 18 requests around the country.”

    Over the past weeks, Biden has worked to expand his list of achievements using executive power, including pardoning low-level marijuana offenders, canceling some student loan debt, reducing the cost of hearing aids and declaring a World War II training site a national monument.

    This week alone, he promised to sign a bill enshrining abortion rights into law if Democrats gain seats, outlined billions of dollars to invest in domestic battery manufacturing and released another 15 million barrels of oil from the nation’s strategic reserves as he works to bring down gas prices.

    Biden denied the oil announcement was politically motivated.

    “I’ve been doing this for how long now? It’s not politically motivated at all,” he said. “It’s motivated to make sure that I continue to push on what I’ve been pushing on.”

    Yet the timing of the release nonetheless came as Biden’s party looks with growing concern at the prospect of losing its congressional majorities next year, and the White House searches for steps to appeal to Americans.

    In Pittsburgh, the President spoke at the Fern Hollow Bridge, a four-lane steel span that collapsed into a snowy ravine in January. Biden happened to be visiting the city that day to speak about infrastructure, and the presidential motorcade made a detour to view the damage.

    “A complete catastrophe was avoided but it never should have come to this,” Biden said on Thursday. The President noted how quickly the bridge was bring rebuilt and said that while it wasn’t funded by his bipartisan infrastructure law, it was completely funded by the federal government.

    Biden said that “God willing” the bridge will be completely open in December, telling the audience: “I’m coming back to walk over this sucker.”

    Biden was joined by a slew of top Pennsylvania elected officials, most notably Fetterman, who is locked in one of the most closely watched midterm contests. Biden is also scheduled to join Fetterman later on Thursday for a fundraiser in Philadelphia.

    While the bridge’s reconstruction wasn’t directly funded by the bipartisan infrastructure law, a White House official said funding from the law allowed Pennsylvania’s Transportation Department “to move funds quickly to support this project, without having to slow down or interfere with other projects in the pipeline.”

    The rebuilding was funded through $25.3 million in federal funding appropriated to Pennsylvania in Fiscal Year 2021, the White House official said.

    The law allocated $40 billion toward bridge projects over five years. Since last October, repairs or replacements have begun on more than 2,400 bridges through funding from the infrastructure law, according to the White House.

    That measure has emerged as a central talking point for Biden during this year’s midterms. Candidates who might think twice about holding a political rally with Biden have seemed eager to appear alongside him at official events heralding improvements on rail lines, airport terminals or bridges. The President has hammered Republicans who voted against the bill but have nonetheless taken credit for projects made possible by the $1.2 trillion law.

    In planning Biden’s recent travel, including political events and official White House duties, his advisers have taken into account the sensitive political reality that some Democratic candidates in tough races would prefer he not visit their district or state in the final stretch to the midterms.

    But one Democratic official familiar with the White House’s thinking said an important overarching dynamic is that even the candidates who would rather not appear alongside Biden are still eager to run on his legislative accomplishments, describing it as a “halfsies” situation.

    “There are some campaigns that don’t want him to physically campaign in his state,” the official said. “But – people are running on his agenda.”

    Given the string of legislative victories that Biden’s party scored in the first half of the Biden administration – including the bipartisan infrastructure bill – even the events that are technically billed official White House business are effectively no different from political events these days, that official noted.

    “Every event is political now,” they said.

    Biden remains eager to visit key battlegrounds, according to his aides. Earlier this year, he voiced some frustration that more Democrats weren’t lining up to use him on the campaign trail.

    Now, Biden has settled into a midterm push that has him traveling mostly to states he won in 2020 while avoiding certain marquee races where his presence could be a drag on Democratic candidates.

    Other Democrats appear more welcome. Former President Barack Obama will hold campaign rallies for Democrats in Atlanta, Detroit and Milwaukee in the days before the elections. Sen. Bernie Sanders, the independent Vermont democratic socialist, will visit battleground states on a tour targeted to younger voters.

    The White House is working closely with the Senate and House campaign committees and will send the President where he could be helpful, aides said, and will avoid traveling to areas where nationalizing the race would be seen as a detriment to candidates.

    The logistics of presidential travel also complicate some travel, aides said, because campaigns must help foot the expensive costs of Air Force One.

    Still, at similar stages in their terms, Obama and former President Donald Trump were engaging in more traditional campaign-style events for candidates ahead of midterm elections, despite questions about dragging down candidates.

    Both saw their party lose unified control of Congress in their first midterm elections, a historical precedent Biden hopes to break – even as he avoids big political events.

    The White House has defended Biden’s travel plans, insisting he is traveling “nonstop” and intends to visit states “where he is needed” in the run-up to the vote.

    Still, in the weeks ahead of the midterms, Biden continues to spend most weekends at his homes in Delaware, including last weekend in Wilmington and this weekend in Rehoboth Beach.

    On Friday, he’ll stop at Delaware State University to tout his efforts at student debt forgiveness, before heading to his beach house. This week, the debt relief program Biden announced earlier this year went online, with millions applying to have some or all of their loans forgiven.

    In one of his previous trips to campaign in Pennsylvania, on Labor Day, Biden appeared before a small crowd with Fetterman at a union picnic in Pittsburgh. When the two men emerged from the union hall together, Fetterman raised his arms and pumped his fists.

    But when Fetterman spoke ahead of Biden, he used the opportunity to lambast his Republican opponent for owning multiple homes – without mentioning the President at all.

    During a 15-minute private meeting beforehand, Fetterman pushed Biden to begin the process of rescheduling marijuana, one of his top issues.

    A few weeks later, the White House said Biden would issue pardons for federal simple marijuana possession offenses and task members of his administration to “expeditiously” review how marijuana is scheduled under federal law, the first step toward potentially easing a federal classification that currently places marijuana in the same category as heroin and LSD.

    Biden himself has only mentioned the decision in passing. But Fetterman hailed the move and was quick to cite his conversation with Biden after the White House made the announcement.

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  • Asian shares mixed as markets eye China meeting

    Asian shares mixed as markets eye China meeting

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    TOKYO — Asian shares were mixed Monday as investors kept their eyes on the weeklong Communist Party congress in China.

    Benchmarks dropped in Tokyo, Sydney and Hong Kong, but they recovered in afternoon trading in Seoul and Shanghai. Mumbai gained. Oil prices and U.S. futures rose.

    The meeting in China, which opened Sunday, is expected to reappoint Xi Jinping as leader for the next five years, reaffirming his grip on power and stronger state control over the economy. Analyst expect no change to the “zero-COVID policy.”

    “Fresh updates from China’s Party Congress are being scrutinized, with the emphasis on technological advancement and national security seemingly brought up as high priorities for China’s longer-term direction. Further de-coupling f rom U.S. technology seems to be the story,” said Yeap Jun Rong, market strategist at IG in Singapore.

    Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 slipped 1.2% in afternoon trading to 26,775.79. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dipped 1.4% to 6,664.40. South Korea’s Kospi rebounded to gain 0.3% to 2,219.71. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.2% to 16,561.97, while the Shanghai Composite rose 0.5% to 3,086.38. In Mumbai, the Sensex gained 0.5%.

    Clifford Bennett, Chief Economist at ACY Securities, noted the U.S. dollar will likely continue to rise as interest rates are pushed higher to counter inflation.

    “The outlook is grim. The economic horizon is dark,” he said of the American economy. “”The U.S. dollar will continue to strengthen for the moment, particularly against other Western currencies.”

    In currency trading, the euro cost 97.37 cents, up from 97.21 cents.

    The U.S. dollar rose to 148.74 Japanese yen from 148.63 yen. That’s a nearly 32-year low for the yen against the dollar.

    Japan’s industrial production for August showed moderate signs of improvement, the government said. Industrial production rose 3.4% from the previous month, and 5.8% from the previous year, according to Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry data released Monday.

    Worries about inflation, though cooling in some parts of the economy around the world, remain overall. On Wall Street, stocks ended last week with a broad slide, wiping out earlier gains.

    A report showing U.S. consumers’ expectations for inflation was another signal the Federal Reserve may keep aggressively raising interest rates, although that strategy raises the risks of a recession.

    The S&P 500 fell 2.4% on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.3% and the Nasdaq composite ended 3.1% lower. Both indexes also turned lower after marching higher in early trading.

    The Russell 2000 gave up 2.7%

    The Fed has already raised its benchmark interest rate five times this year, with the last three increases by three-quarters of a percentage point. Wall Street expects another raise of three-quarters of a percentage point at its next meeting in November.

    Investors have also been focusing on the latest earnings reports.

    In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude added 66 cents to $86.27 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. U.S. crude oil prices fell 3.9% on Friday. Brent crude, the international standard, added 78 cents to $92.41 a barrel.

    ———

    Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama

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  • Food prices are still surging — here’s what’s getting more expensive | CNN Business

    Food prices are still surging — here’s what’s getting more expensive | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN Business
     — 

    Prices at the grocery store continued to soar last month, adding even more pressure to shoppers’ wallets.

    The food at home index, a proxy for grocery store prices, increased 0.7% in September from the month prior and a stunning 13% over the last year, according to new government data released Thursday.

    Just about everything got more expensive in September.

    Fruits and vegetables surged 1.6% for the month, while cereals and bakery products rose 0.9%. Other groceries increased 0.5% in September, following a 1.1% increase in August.

    Meats, poultry, fish and eggs rose 0.4% over the month and beverages increased 0.6%.

    Prices on many of these items are up double digits annually.

    A number of factors have contributed to the surge in prices. Producers say they’re paying more for labor and packaging materials. Extreme weather, including droughts and flooding, and disease, such as the deadly avian flu, have been hurting crops and killing egg-laying hens, squeezing supplies.

    “The environment clearly is still very inflationary with a lot of supply chain challenges across the industry,” Pepsi

    (PEP)    CEO Ramon Laguarta said on an earnings call Wednesday. The company’s prices increased 17% annually.

    Meanwhile, demand is high. Consumers may be able to pull back on some discretionary items, but they have to eat. Many people are still working from home and consuming more of their meals there than they did before the pandemic.

    This imbalance between supply and demand means companies can pass along higher prices to shoppers without sales plunging.

    But higher prices at the grocery store are forcing customers to make some trade offs.

    Many shoppers are buying fewer products, switching to cheaper private-label brands and pulling back on discretionary items.

    More than one million new households have shopped at discount grocery chain Aldi for the first in the past year, according to the company.

    Walmart

    (WMT)     said recently that high levels of food inflation are impacting customers’ ability to purchase discretionary goods such as clothing and furniture.

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  • OPEC+ supply cut threatens to tip global economy into recession, IEA says

    OPEC+ supply cut threatens to tip global economy into recession, IEA says

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    An oil supply cut from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries threatens to deepen a global energy crisis by sending oil prices higher at a time of already elevated inflation and weak economic growth, the International Energy Agency said.

    Last week’s two million barrel-a-day reduction in the group’s output targets, which incurred sharp criticism from the U.S. and its partners, will tighten the oil market further at a moment of extreme vulnerability with few additional sources of supply available to compensate, the Paris-based agency said Thursday.

    The cut’s impact will be to exacerbate a mix of high oil prices and weakening global growth, both of which would undermine longer-term demand for oil, the IEA said, as it slashed its oil-demand forecasts.

    “With unrelenting inflationary pressures and interest rate hikes taking their toll, higher oil prices may prove the tipping point for a global economy already on the brink of recession,” the IEA said in its monthly market report.

    The IEA cut its oil-demand growth forecasts by 470,000 barrels a day for 2023, to 1.7 million barrels a day. It also lowered its 2022 oil-demand growth forecast by 60,000 barrels a day, to 1.9 million barrels a day. Oil demand growth has steadily fallen throughout the year and is forecast to contract in the fourth quarter by 340,000 barrels a day, the IEA said.

    OPEC has said higher oil prices are necessary to spur fresh investments in oil production but the IEA said constraints among oil producers meant additional supplies would be scant. U.S. shale oil producers facing higher costs are withholding investment, while most Western nations are consciously moving away from fossil fuels. OPEC’s own members are struggling with a lack of spare capacity.

    The cut has undone a trend of steadily recovering oil supply following the Covid-19 pandemic “with the resulting higher price levels exacerbating market volatility and heightening energy security concerns,” the IEA said.

    The IEA’s report characterizes the supply cut as a lose-lose situation for both oil producers and consumers, as buyers of oil suffer from higher prices in the short term, while oil producers stand to see weaker demand as a result.

    The cut also comes ahead of an EU embargo on Russian oil and a plan by the Group of Seven wealthy nations to cap oil prices, both of which analysts warn could further undermine global energy supplies.

    Russia has said it would cut production and withhold supplies from nations participating in the price cap mechanism. Meanwhile, time was running out for EU states to find alternative sources of energy to compensate for the still-high levels of oil currently imported from Russia, the IEA said.

    Russia’s oil exports to the EU fell by 390,000 barrels a day in September, to 2.6 million barrels a day, the IEA said. The EU has just two months until the embargo on Russian crude imports comes into force, but still needs to find an alternative source for 1.3 million barrels a day of Russian oil, it warned.

    OPEC has said its production cut is aimed at stabilizing oil markets and countering declining oil-demand growth. On Wednesday, in its own report, the group sharply slashed its forecasts for global economic growth and oil demand.

    For 2022, the IEA now expects total oil demand of 99.6 million barrels a day and 101.3 million barrels a day in 2023.

    The agency cuts its forecast for global oil supply next year by 1.2 million barrels a day to 100.6 million barrels a day and by 200,000 barrels a day to 99.9 million barrels a day for 2022.

    Write to Will Horner at william.horner@wsj.com

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  • Saudis aren’t weaponizing oil like Americans claim, top official says | CNN Business

    Saudis aren’t weaponizing oil like Americans claim, top official says | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir said his country partnered with Russia to slash oil production in order to stabilize markets and denied that there were political motives behind the decision, which has enraged US leaders and sparked calls to rethink ties with Riyadh.

    “We’re trying to make sure we don’t have erratic swings in prices,” al-Jubeir, one of Saudi Arabia’s top diplomats, told CNN’s Becky Anderson on Wednesday. “Our track record has been clear – we have always worked assiduously to maintain stability in the oil markets.”

    Last week, OPEC+, the oil cartel led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, agreed to slash production by 2 million barrels per day, twice as much as analysts had predicted, in the biggest cut since the Covid-19 pandemic.

    The move came despite an intense pressure campaign from the United States, which had warned Arab allies that such a move would increase prices and help Russian President Vladimir Putin continue to fund his war in Ukraine. Experts also fear that continued high oil prices could make it more difficult for the US to tamp down inflation, which has already skyrocketed this year.

    Al-Jubeir, who is also the country’s climate minister, denied that there were any political motives to the decision and said the production cut was made to avoid major swings in the price of oil, which can affect consumers worldwide, and pointed to the fact that the price of oil has gone down since the reduction was announced last week.

    “Saudi Arabia is not siding with Russia,” he told CNN. “Saudi Arabia is taking the side of trying to ensure the stability of the oil markets.”

    “Saudi Arabia does not politicize oil. We don’t see oil as a weapon. We see oil as our commodity. Our objective is to bring stability to the oil market,” al-Jubeir said.

    US President Joe Biden told CNN on Tuesday that Washington must now “rethink” its relationship with Riyadh following the cut. The decision was a particular affront for Biden because of his efforts over the summer to repair ties with Saudi Arabia, despite the kingdom’s woeful human rights record and the role of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Bin Salman denied involvement in the murder, which captured international headlines in part due to the lurid details of the killing.

    “I am in the process, when the House and Senate gets back, they’re going to have to – there’s going to be some consequences for what they’ve done with Russia,” Biden said.

    Watch the full exclusive interview with President Joe Biden

    On Wednesday, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Biden would examine all aspects of US ties with Saudi Arabia, including arms sales, as administration officials begin quiet discussions with members of Congress and congressional aides about how the US could impose consequences on the kingdom following the oil output cut.

    “There is a range of interests and values that are implicated in our relationship with that country,” Sullivan told reporters. “The President will examine all of that. But one question he’s going to ask is: Is the nature of the relationship serving the interest and values of the United States and what changes would make it better serve the interests and values?”

    Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman al-Saud said in an interview with Saudi TV earlier Wednesday that OPEC+ needed to be proactive as central banks in the West moved to tackle inflation with higher interest rates, a move that could raise prospects of a global recession, which could in turn reduce demand for oil and drive its price down. Cutting production would ensure a smaller supply of oil, keeping its price higher. While that would protect the Saudi economy by ensuring it receives a steady flow of income from oil sales, it would force consumers across the world to pay more for energy and gas, further fueling inflation.

    Saudi officials have insisted that the production cut is being done to protect the country’s economic interests. Because of its heavy dependence on oil revenues, the Saudi economy has a history of falling victim to boom and bust cycles in the oil market, where high prices bring in a flow of cash followed by downturns.

    In the United States, however, the cut could have massive political ramifications ahead of next month’s midterm elections. After reaching highs over the summer, gas prices in the United States had been steadily decreasing, providing Biden and his top aides a potent talking point in the lead-up to the elections.

    But a combination of factors, including rising demand and maintenance at some US refineries, has caused prices to begin ticking back up. The OPEC+ decision is likely to aggravate those factors.

    The decision set off bipartisan fury in Washington when it was first announced last week. Saudi Arabia is now being accused of filling the Kremlin’s coffers with oil revenues just days after President Putin’s regime began carrying out large-scale missile attacks on civilian targets across Ukraine

    “What Saudi Arabia did to help Putin continue to wage his despicable, vicious war against Ukraine will long be remembered by Americans,” tweeted Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, on Friday.

    Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut on Wednesday called for immediate action on his bill that would stop US arm sales to Saudi Arabia.

    “The Saudis actions aid and abet a murderous and brutal criminal invasion by Russia,” Blumenthal said.

    When asked about growing calls in Washington to limit ties with Saudi Arabia, al-Jubeir said he hoped that such talk was motivated by domestic politics ahead of the midterms.

    Al-Jubeir said the relationship between the US and Saudi Arabia remains “robust.”

    “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the US have had a very strong relationship for eight decades … and we look forward to this relationship continuing for the next eight decades,” he added.

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  • Supreme Court to hear case that could raise price of pork

    Supreme Court to hear case that could raise price of pork

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    WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court will hear arguments over a California animal cruelty law that could raise the cost of bacon and other pork products nationwide.

    The case’s outcome is important to the nation’s $26-billion-a-year pork industry, but the outcome could also limit states’ ability to pass laws with impact outside their borders, from laws aimed at combating climate change to others intended to regulate prescription drug prices.

    The case before the court on Tuesday involves California’s Proposition 12, which voters passed in 2018. It said that pork sold in the state needs to come from pigs whose mothers were raised with at least 24 square feet of space, including the ability to lie down and turn around. That rules out the confined “gestation crates,” metal enclosures that are common in the pork industry.

    Two industry groups, the Iowa-based National Pork Producers Council and the American Farm Bureau Federation, sued over the proposition. They say that while Californians consume 13% of the pork eaten in the United States, nearly 100% of it comes from hogs raised outside the state, primarily where the industry is concentrated in the Midwest and North Carolina. The vast majority of sows, meanwhile, aren’t raised under conditions that would meet Proposition 12’s standards.

    The question for the high court is whether California has impermissibly burdened the pork market and improperly regulated an industry outside its borders.

    Pork producers argue that 72% of farmers use individual pens for sows that don’t allow them to turn around and that even farmers who house sows in larger group pens don’t provide the space California would require.

    They also say that the way the pork market works, with cuts of meat from various producers being combined before sale, it’s likely all pork would have to meet California standards, regardless of where it’s sold. Complying with Proposition 12 could cost the industry $290 million to $350 million, they say.

    So far, lower courts have sided with California and animal-welfare groups that had supported the proposition. But for a number of reasons the law has yet to go into effect.

    The Biden administration, for its part, is urging the justices to side with pork producers. The administration says Proposition 12 would be a “wholesale change in how pork is raised and marketed in this country.” And it says the proposition has “thrown a giant wrench into the workings of the interstate market in pork.”

    California’s Proposition 12 also covers other animals. It says egg-laying hens and calves being raised for veal need to be raised in conditions in which they have enough room to lie down, stand up and turn around freely. Those parts of the law aren’t at issue in the case.

    The case is National Pork Producers Council v. Ross, 21-468.

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  • Biden has a big oil problem. Here’s what you need to know about the recent OPEC+ decision. | CNN Politics

    Biden has a big oil problem. Here’s what you need to know about the recent OPEC+ decision. | CNN Politics

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    A version of this story appeared in CNN’s What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here.


    Washington
    CNN
     — 

    With just weeks to go until the November midterms, four letters are haunting President Joe Biden and the Democrats: OPEC.

    Last week, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, said that it will slash oil production by 2 million barrels per day, the biggest cut since the start of the pandemic, in a move that threatens to push gasoline prices higher just weeks before US midterm elections.

    The group announced the production cut following its first meeting in person since March 2020. The reduction is equivalent to about 2% of global oil demand.

    The Biden administration criticized the decision in a statement, calling it “shortsighted” and saying that it’s harmful to some countries already struggling with elevated energy prices the most.

    The production cuts will start in November. OPEC+, which combines OPEC countries and allies such as Russia, will meet again in December.

    For one perspective on the OPEC+ decision and to better understand how it affects everyone, we turned to Hossein Askari, who teaches international business at The George Washington University.

    Our conversation, conducted over the phone and lightly edited for flow and brevity, is below.

    WHAT MATTERS: Can you walk us through this recent OPEC decision? What’s happening exactly?

    ASKARI: So when the war in Ukraine started, sorry to tell your audience, but the United States was not very well prepared in what it was going to do. It sanctioned Russia for this and for that. And so the price of oil started going up. And at the same time, the United States actually put sanctions on Russian oil, not on gas, on oil. And so there was less Russian oil in the Western markets.

    Russia actually started selling its oil more and more to China and to India and cutting its prices to those countries. So they would buy Russian oil, but there was a shortage of oil.

    Another reason why the shortage had developed was America basically sanctions like a mad cowboy, if I may say that. It has sanctioned Venezuela for many years.

    But Saudi Arabia, with the new effective ruler who’s known as MBS, he has cozied up to Putin. And so when President Biden went and saw him a few months back and kind of asked him to increase oil production – I’m sorry to say this, I have to throw in this bit of politics – I think America really shamed itself by doing that.

    Of course, MBS did not respond positively. But now he, in fact, has gone over the top. He has agreed within OPEC – and of course he’s the main spokesman in OPEC with Russia – that they will cut back.

    WHAT MATTERS: What does the OPEC decision mean for the average American?

    ASKARI: From where we are now, crude oil prices by the end of the year, my guess, maximum, they’ll go up by $5 a barrel. Now, a lot of people think they’re gonna go up more than that. I don’t believe that, because I think the world economy is going to grow less and I think that we are going to see some Venezuelan oil come on the market, and I think we may see some deals made so some more Iranian oil may come on the market.

    For gasoline, I think Americans can see maybe prices going up from where they are today, if nothing else happens, by about another 30 to 50 cents a gallon.

    However, there is also another problem for Americans that is home heating oil, and that can also go up. So for the average American, they’re going to pay, no matter what, something more per gallon of gasoline at the pump. And I think there’s going to be more of an impact, actually, on the fuel oil that they heat their houses with. So it’s gonna put on the squeeze on the average American. There’s no two ways about it.

    WHAT MATTERS: What should the US do now?

    ASKARI: I think the United States should be much, much tougher with Saudi Arabia because we have bent over backward to accommodate them in every way. And we have looked the other way with what they’ve done. And now it’s the time to be tough. They’ve been tough with us. I think the President of the United States should be tough with Saudi Arabia.

    WHAT MATTERS: What else can the US do in terms of helping with oil prices in the immediate term?

    ASKARI: I think undoubtedly this administration has very bad rapport with US oil companies and energy companies. I think that there should be more behind-the scenes cooperation with the oil companies and the administration because you really need them now to cooperate.

    I know a lot of people don’t believe in fracking, but maybe it’s time to do some more fracking. Maybe it’s time to increase output. They can increase output elsewhere too. I think that would be extremely, extremely helpful.

    And I think the US oil companies – and I’m not a backer of oil companies, please don’t misunderstand – but I think they feel that the administration basically just wants to drive them out business.

    WHAT MATTERS: Anything else you’d like to add?

    ASKARI: Some people think that OPEC decisions are purely economic. Some people think purely political. It has always been both, especially for Saudi Arabia.

    It is really Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates driving OPEC’s decision. I think Americans should understand it’s not the other members, it’s not Nigeria or Iran. I feel Americans should understand who are our friends and who are not our friends.

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  • White House left looking for answers after OPEC+ announces oil production cuts | CNN Politics

    White House left looking for answers after OPEC+ announces oil production cuts | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    The OPEC+ decision to dramatically cut its oil output targets has left the White House grappling with a complex – and potentially damaging – mix of geopolitical and domestic challenges with few easy answers.

    President Joe Biden now faces the reality that an already complex and tenuous bilateral relationship with Saudi Arabia has deeply fractured, the Western effort to isolate and shrink Russia’s war effort has taken a direct hit and the US economy and political picture have both grown more fragile.

    “Disappointment. We’re looking at what alternatives we may have” to bring down oil prices, Biden told reporters when asked his reaction to the OPEC+ news.

    “There’s a lot of alternatives. We haven’t made up our mind yet,” he added.

    Biden’s advisers are now re-doubling efforts to find policy and diplomatic options to address the unwelcome surprise.

    “We’re going to work to identify the tools that we have to ensure that organizations like OPEC that assign quotas to their members of how much to produce are not – have a muted and less of an impact on American consumers, and quite frankly, on the global economy,” Amos Hochstein, Biden’s top energy envoy, told Bianna Golodryga on CNN’s “New Day” Thursday.

    The full scale of the fallout from Saudi Arabia-led oil cartel’s decision may not be apparent for months or longer, officials say. But they are also keenly aware just how many acutely important elements of the administration’s foreign and domestic agenda the production cut spills directly into.

    Biden administration officials acknowledge they’re in a very difficult position over their relationship with Saudi Arabia.

    Secretary of State Antony Blinken called OPEC’s move to cut oil production both “shortsighted and disappointing,” and said the administration is reviewing a “number of response options” when it comes to US-Saudi relations.

    “We will not do anything that would infringe on our interests, that’s first and foremost, what will guide us,” Blinken said during a news conference in Peru on Thursday. “We will keep all of those interests in mind and consult closely with all of the relevant stakeholders as we decide on any steps going forward.”

    There is clearly a tacit effort underway to evaluate ways to respond to the OPEC+ decision to cut back oil production by 2 million barrels per day. But as has been laid bare repeatedly over the course of Biden’s time in office, the power dynamics between the US and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are simply in a different place now than at any earlier point due to the economic and energy pressures tied to Russia’s invasion.

    Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has made abundantly clear he feels no need to be the junior actor, and his overt and explicit moves toward China and Russia have ensured there is no subtlety in his approach.

    On a purely oil market basis, the Saudis prize stability over anything else – stability the OPEC+ configuration has provided after damaging price wars and the volatility of the pandemic. Moscow, of course, is the key player in that configuration and it’s notable that beneath the output cut, an extension of the OPEC+ arrangement was also approved on Wednesday.

    Still, while administration officials always viewed Biden’s trip to Jeddah – which resulted in the diplomatic fist bump seen around the world – as a critical regional security move, the cartel’s willingness to move in ways so obviously detrimental to US interests has reverberated across the administration. Biden again defended the trip Thursday, saying, “The trip was not essentially for oil. The trip was about the Middle East and about Israel and rationalization of positions.”

    “It’s not always about us, we get it,” one US official said. “But they’re just as aware of the perceptions and implications of this move as we are.”

    The most obvious lever for the US to pull is security related – it’s far and away the biggest leverage point. But the ramifications of any moves on that front are much broader than the bilateral relationship, officials note, and would directly undercut more than a year of intensive work to establish a coherent regional security posture.

    White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s statement on Wednesday that it “is clear OPEC+ is aligning with Russia” and its war effort was as intentional as it was blunt. Hochstein, in his CNN interview, reiterated that the OPEC+ decision was a “huge mistake” and “the wrong thing to do” amid Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine and high energy prices, saying that Russia and Saudi Arabia are “working together.”

    US officials had previously been cautious about directly criticizing the obvious dance Saudi Arabia and others in the region have conducted with Moscow. That posture is gone.

    Biden administration officials, according to people with knowledge, made very clear to the Saudis in the days leading up the move that US rhetoric would change dramatically and they would open the door to new options to respond to a major cut. The specifics of those options were left somewhat ambiguous intentionally. But the warning was there.

    One notable line in the White House statement issued Wednesday by National Economic Council Director Brian Deese and national security adviser Jake Sullivan statement was the idea of working with Congress on legislation related to OPEC.

    It’s a reference to a bill that would remove sovereign immunity from antitrust suits, opening the door for the US to sue cartel members. The White House has been cool to the idea due to the very real concern it would launch a price war with the market’s biggest players that would only serve to hurt US consumers. But just cracking the door open to looking at it is notable – and underscores the scale of the anger inside the West Wing.

    The legislative reference underscores a key piece how the response will play out in the weeks ahead – the White House has made its statement, which – in a world of cautious diplo-speak – was sharply critical. Now officials have said they are perfectly comfortable letting congressional Democrats rail on the Saudis on their behalf, something they expect to only escalate in the days ahead given the convergence of geopolitical and domestic political factors.

    The blistering response from Capitol Hill has the potential to create some the kind of pressure that could create space to pursue actions the administration has been wary of pursuing up to this point.

    Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy, for instance, tweeted, “I thought the whole point of selling arms to the Gulf States despite their human rights abuses, nonsensical Yemen War, working against US interests in Libya, Sudan, etc, was that when an international crisis came, the Gulf could choose America over Russia/China.”

    The biggest focus for the White House now on oil is on the domestic front. Biden’s top energy and economic advisers met privately with oil executives last week and discussions between officials and industry players have continued this week. Another meeting is likely soon as they continue to search for options to boost US production.

    While several options have been floated – including some that infuriate the industry, like potential curbs on exports – it remains unclear whether the White House is ready to move forward on any of them.

    A question being weighed now is if OPEC+’s decision changes that dynamic at all in a relationship between the White House and industry that has ping-ponged between clear animosity to cooler heads prevailing and back toward palpable tension over the course of the last several months.

    The White House rhetorical reversal hinting at the potential for new Strategic Petroleum Reserve releases, a complete 180-degree turn in less than 24 hours, was notable even if it didn’t signal anything concrete.

    What it did signal, however, was a clear message to markets that the option was, in fact, on the table.

    Blinken on Thursday once again highlighted what the administration has done to boost oil production in the US.

    “We’ve taken a number of steps over the last months to try and ensure that that’s the case, including releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, increasing significantly our production. Oil production is up in the United States by about 500,000 barrels a day,” he said.

    Blinken also added that the administration is “looking at other steps that we can take to ensure that there is adequate supply to meet to meet global demand.”

    The final release of 10 million from Biden’s announced 180 million barrel release over six months is still scheduled for November, even though the actual total barrels released will fall under the full amount Biden initially targeted. Cracking the door open on additional releases was an effort to signal there is a view inside the White House that there are still metaphorical bullets in the chamber if they need them.

    One key point to remember amid the hand-wringing: Predictions of specific price increases at the pump are a fool’s errand.

    “I believe it will have less of an impact in the United States and far more of an impact on lower-income countries around the world,” Hochstein said.

    The market has been pricing in the output cut for several days. A key element of the output cut is that nearly all OPEC+ members have been missing their production targets for months. So “2 million barrels per day” is actually far less than that from a production basis.

    In other words, there are a myriad of factors that drive retail prices – such as in California, where soaring gas prices over the last two weeks were in large part due to a mess of refinery issues – and no single answer to the range of new complications White House officials are now facing.

    Biden’s message, behind his disappointment with the production cut, was clear cut, according to Hochstein.

    “The President is still instructing us to work, to do whatever we can,” he said.

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  • Asian stock markets fall ahead of US employment update

    Asian stock markets fall ahead of US employment update

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    BEIJING — Asian shares followed Wall Street lower Friday ahead of U.S. jobs data investors hope will persuade the Federal Reserve to ease off plans for more interest rate hikes.

    Tokyo and Hong Kong, the region’s biggest markets, retreated. Chinese markets were closed for a holiday. Oil prices were little-changed.

    Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index fell 1% on Thursday after a private sector report said U.S. employers hired slightly more workers than forecast in September. That gives ammunition to Fed officials who say more rate hikes are needed to cool the economy and rein in inflation that is at a four-decade high.

    Investors were watching for Friday’s release of U.S. government data that are expected to show fewer people were hired compared with previous months. They hope that will help persuade the Fed five rate hikes this year are working and it can scale down plans for more.

    “What the market seems to be crying out for is a Fed pivot,” said Robert Carnell of ING in a report. “For its part, the Fed is sticking to its ‘higher for longer’ mantra.”

    The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo sank 0.6% to 27,149.75 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng tumbled 1% to 17,823.29.

    The Kospi in Seoul gained 0.2% to 2,241.87 while Sydney’s S&P ASX 200 shed 0.6% to 6,777.00.

    New Zealand lost 0.2% while Singapore and Bangkok advanced.

    The Fed and central banks around the world are focused on extinguishing inflation that is running at multi-decade highs, but investors worry their unusually large and rapid pace of rate hikes might tip the global economy into recession.

    On Wall Street, the S&P 500 fell to 3,744.52. The index is up 4.4% for the week following its best two-day rally in 2 1/2 years.

    The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1.1% to 29,926.94. The Nasdaq composite slid 0.7% to 11,073.31.

    The yield on U.S. government debt, or the difference between market price and the payout at maturity, widened. That indicates traders expect more rate hikes.

    The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which helps set rates for mortgages, rose to 3.81% from 3.75% late Wednesday. The yield on the two-year Treasury rose to 4.22% from 4.14% late Monday.

    Strong U.S. hiring is positive for job hunters but a sign of enduring economic strength, which might make the Fed think more rate hikes are needed.

    U.S. government data showed the number of applications for unemployment benefits hit a four-month high last week. That suggests the job market might be cooling.

    Forecasters expect the government to report the economy added 250,000 jobs last month, well below the past year’s monthly average of 487,000 but still a strong number despite inflation and two straight quarters of U.S. economic contraction.

    In energy markets, benchmark U.S. crude rose 2 cents to $88.47 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract advanced 69 cents on Thursday to $88.45. Brent crude, the price basis for trading international oils, shed 4 cents to $94.38 per barrel in London. It rose $1.05 the previous session to $94.42.

    The dollar declined to 144.92 yen from Thursday’s 145.07 yen. The euro gained to 98.11 cents from 97.94 cents.

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  • White House says Biden’s Saudi trip wasn’t a waste as he lambastes OPEC+’s ‘shortsighted’ decision to cut oil output | CNN Politics

    White House says Biden’s Saudi trip wasn’t a waste as he lambastes OPEC+’s ‘shortsighted’ decision to cut oil output | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    President Joe Biden is “disappointed” the Saudi-led OPEC+ oil cartel agreed to cut output by 2 million barrels per day, the White House said Wednesday, as the threat of rising gas prices looms weeks ahead of critical midterm elections.

    The decision by the grouping of major oil producers rebuffed heavy lobbying from US administration officials and prompted Biden to say he was concerned about the move. It reversed a small increase in output OPEC+ announced shortly after Biden visited Saudi Arabia for a conference in July.

    Still, the White House insisted that visit was not a “waste of time,” even as it sharply criticized the decision to cut production.

    “The President is disappointed by the shortsighted decision by OPEC+ to cut production quotas while the global economy is dealing with the continued negative impact of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine,” said two of Biden’s top aides, national security adviser Jake Sullivan and National Economic Council Director Brian Deese, in a statement.

    “At a time when maintaining a global supply of energy is of paramount importance, this decision will have the most negative impact on lower- and middle-income countries that are already reeling from elevated energy prices,” the two advisers wrote.

    The administration will “consult with Congress on additional tools and authorities to reduce OPEC’s control over energy prices,” the statement read, without specifying which actions are under consideration dampen the oil cartel’s sway.

    Slashing oil production just ahead of November’s midterm elections poses a potential political problem for the President, who has touted this summer’s decreasing gas prices as he works to promote his agenda. The average gas price has been rising nationally again in recent days, according to AAA.

    Earlier this year, Biden announced a major release of barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in an effort to alleviate pump prices. On Tuesday, the White House said it was not considering additional releases beyond the 180 million previously announced.

    But after OPEC+ announced its decision on Wednesday, the White House said Biden would “continue to direct SPR releases as necessary,” apparently cracking open the door again to potential releases.

    Departing the White House on Wednesday, Biden said he was concerned about the possibility of a significant cut to production.

    “I need to see what the detail is. I am concerned, it is unnecessary,” he said in response to a question about the OPEC+ decision as he departed the White House for Florida, where he was set to tour storm damage.

    The international cartel of oil producers held a critical meeting Wednesday, where energy ministers decided to slash production by 2 million barrels per day, the biggest cut since the start of the pandemic.

    For the past several days, Biden’s senior-most energy, economic and foreign policy officials had been lobbying their foreign counterparts in Middle Eastern allied countries including Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to vote against cutting oil production.

    When he visited Saudi Arabia in July, Biden sought to make clear it wasn’t solely to ask the oil-rich kingdom to increase its oil output. After decrying the regime’s human rights record as a candidate, Biden fist-bumped the powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who US intelligence has said masterminded the murder of Saudi journalist and US resident Jamal Khashoggi.

    Speaking on Fox News shortly after the decision was announced, National Security Council communications coordinator John Kirby said the oil cartel was “adjusting back their numbers down a little bit” after making a small increase after Biden’s visit.

    “OPEC+ has been saying and telling the word they’re actually producing 3.5 million more barrels than they actually are. So in some ways this announced decrease really gets them back into more align with actual production,” Kirby said, noting there hadn’t yet been dramatic shifts in the price of oil. 

    “We have to see how it plays out over the long term,” he said.

    Kirby said Biden’s visit to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, for a regional conference “was not about oil.”

    “It was about larger national strategic and national interest goals throughout the region to try to foster more integrated cooperative region,” he said.

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  • OPEC announces the biggest cut to oil production since the start of the pandemic | CNN Business

    OPEC announces the biggest cut to oil production since the start of the pandemic | CNN Business

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    London
    CNN Business
     — 

    OPEC+ said Wednesday that it will slash oil production by 2 million barrels per day, the biggest cut since the start of the pandemic, in a move that threatens to push gasoline prices higher just weeks before US midterm elections.

    The group of major oil producers, which includes Saudi Arabia and Russia, announced the production cut following its first meeting in person since March 2020. The reduction is equivalent to about 2% of global oil demand.

    The price of Brent crude oil rose 1.5% to more than $93 a barrel on the news, adding to gains this week ahead of the gathering of oil ministers. US oil was up 1.7% at $88.

    The Biden administration criticized the OPEC+ decision in a statement on Wednesday, calling it “shortsighted” and saying that it will hurt low and middle-income countries already struggling with elevated energy prices the most.

    The production cuts will start in November, and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies will meet again in December.

    In a statement, the group said the decision to cut production was made “in light of the uncertainty that surrounds the global economic and oil market outlooks.”

    Global oil prices, which soared in the first half of the year, have since dropped sharply on fears that a global recession will depress demand. Brent crude is down 20% since the end of June. The global benchmark hit a peak of $139 a barrel in March after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

    OPEC and its allies, which control more than 40% of global oil production, are hoping to preempt a drop in demand for their barrels from a sharp economic slowdown in China, the United States and Europe.

    Western sanctions on Russian oil are also muddying the waters. Russia’s production has held up better than predicted, with supply being diverted to China and India. But the United States and Europe are now working on ways to implement a G7 agreement to cap the price of Russian crude exports to third countries.

    The oil cartel came under intense pressure from the White House ahead of its meeting in Vienna as President Biden tried to secure lower energy prices for US consumers. Senior Biden administration officials were lobbying their counterparts in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to vote against cutting oil production, according to officials.

    The prospect of a production cut was framed as a “total disaster” in draft talking points circulated by the White House to the Treasury Department on Monday, which CNN obtained. “It’s important everyone is aware of just how high the stakes are,” one US official said.

    With just a month to go before the critical midterm elections, US gasoline prices have begun to creep up again, posing a political risk the White House is desperately trying to avoid.

    Rising oil prices could mean inflation remains higher for longer, and add to pressure on the Federal Reserve to hike interest rates even more aggressively.

    But the impact of Wednesday’s cut, while a bullish signal for oil prices, may be limited as many smaller OPEC producers were struggling to meet previous production targets.

    “An announced cut of any volume is unlikely to be fully implemented by all countries, as the group already lags 3 million barrels per day behind its stated production ceiling,” Rystad Energy analyst Jorge Leon said in a note.

    Rystad Energy estimates that the global oil market will be oversupplied between now and the end of the year, dampening the effect of production cuts on prices.

    — Alex Marquardt, Natasha Bertrand, Phil Mattingly, Mark Thompson and Betsy Klein contributed to this report.

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  • Latest News – MarketWatch

    Latest News – MarketWatch

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    CORRECT: Services sector of U.S. economy remained strong in September

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  • U.S. stocks finish choppy session with losses, snap 2-day winning streak as investors assess positive economic data

    U.S. stocks finish choppy session with losses, snap 2-day winning streak as investors assess positive economic data

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    U.S. stock indexes ended modestly lower on Wednesday, despite briefly turning positive in the final hour of trading, while data showed steady growth in private-sector jobs and in the service sector, indicating more scope for the Federal Reserve to continue to raise interest rates.

    How stocks traded?
    • The Dow Jones Industrial Average
      DJIA,
      +0.03%
      lost 42.45 points, or 0.1%, to finish at 30,273.87

    • The S&P 500
      SPX,
      +0.21%
      was off 7.65 points, or 0.2%, ending at 3,783.28

    • The Nasdaq Composite
      COMP,
      +18.82%
      shed 27.77 points, or 0.2%, to end at 11,148.64

    On Tuesday, the Dow jumped 825 points, or 2.8%, while the S&P 500 increased 3.1% and the Nasdaq Composite rallied 3.3%.

    What drove markets?

    Wall Street stocks finished in the red after three main indexes bounced back from earlier losses in the final hour of trade, following a strong September private employment report in the morning.

    Data released Wednesday showed that private-sector payrolls rose by 208,000 in September, indicating steady growth and supporting the view that the Fed has enough scope to keep raising interest rates. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected a rise of 200,000.

    The report came two days before the closely watched nonfarm payrolls data issued by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Investors are eying on it for important guidance on the Fed’s policy stance in the November meeting.

    Friday’s employment report is expected to show the economy added 275,000 jobs in September, compared with 315,000 new positions added in August, according to a survey polled by Dow Jones.

    See: Hiring and job creation seen falling to a 1 1/2-year low in U.S. September jobs report

    “That certainly could move the needle,” said Kristina Hooper, chief global market strategist at Invesco. “Again, it doesn’t mean that it actually is going to change the market, but it could be the catalyst for short term rally if we get a disappointing jobs report.”

    “But keep in mind, that’s just the anticipation of a Fed pivot based on data. But that does not ensure a Fed pivot. And so it could be one of those short-term rallies like the one we saw earlier this week,” Hooper said.

    In other data Wednesday, an ISM barometer of U.S. business conditions in the service sector dipped to 56.7% in September but still showed steady growth and rising employment in a sign the economy is still expanding.

    The U.S. trade deficit in August fell to $67.4 billion, the lowest level since mid 2021, paving the way for a resumption of growth in gross domestic product in the third quarter.

    See: Why investors shouldn’t expect a break from the stock-market whiplash, says this strategist

    The S&P 500 had just enjoyed its largest two day percentage gain since April 2020 on Monday and Tuesday, and the best start to a quarter since 1938, according to Dow Jones Market data.

    The bounce followed three quarters of declines, the worst such run since 2008, during which time the S&P 500 fell 24.8% to a near two-year trough as investors worried that the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes to crush inflation would harm the economy.

    Brian Mulberry, client portfolio manager at Zacks Investment Management, believes the volatility in the stocks will continue because markets are getting a very “consistent message” from the Fed.

    “Given what has happened over the last five trading sessions alone, we would be basically telling our clients to tighten your seatbelt a little bit because it’s definitely going to continue to be a bumpy ride,” Mulberry told MarketWatch in a phone interview on Wednesday. “If we get a ‘Goldilocks’ (jobs) report, that would mean decent economic activity is going on. That’s good for earnings overall in the market, but it’s not growing to a point where interest rates would have to be ratcheted up another 125 basis points by the end of the year.”

    See: The stock market is surging as the U.S. dollar retreats. It’s all about bonds.

    One major reason behind the rise early this week was the view that the Fed would pivot away from its aggressive monetary tightening.

    Johanna Chua, chief Asia economist at Citi, said that though U.S economic growth remained in better shape than other countries and Fed officials continued to sound hawkish, the market risked being wrongfooted by any signs that interest rates could soon peak.

    “Even as the overall fundamental setup has not changed… trimming of bearish risk/bearish rates/bullish USD positions has driven a sharp reversal,” Chua said.

    Mary Daly, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco said Wednesday that the Federal Reserve needs to keep raising its benchmark interest rate in order to cool inflation that hit a 40-year high earlier this year and has shown little signs of cooling. Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic will speak at 4 p.m. Eastern.

    Meanwhile, the OPEC+ group said Wednesday that it will reduce its collective crude production levels by 2 million barrels a day starting next month, the biggest cut since the start of the pandemic. Oil futures headed higher with West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery
    CL00,

     
    CLX22,

    rose $1.24, or 1.4%, to settle at $87.76 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

    The S&P 500’s energy sector
    SP500.10,
    -0.07%
    rose 2.1% following the news, up 12.6% over the last three trading days. According to Dow Jones Market Data, it was the best three-day percentage gain since November 2020 when it gained 16.1%. Shares of Schlumberger 
    SLB,
    +0.77%
    gained 6.3% at the close, while Exxon Mobil
    XOM,
    +1.32%
    shares advanced 4%.

    Companies in focus
    • Shares of Helen of Troy Ltd. 
      HELE,
      -2.75%
      finished 3.4% higher Wednesday, after the consumer products company, with brands including OXO, Hydro Flask and Braun, reported fiscal second-quarter earnings that beat expectations but cut its full-year outlook, as rising inflation has prompted consumers to change their spending patterns.

    • Shares of Monopar Therapeutics Inc.
      MNPR,
      +6.36%
       gained 1.8% after the company said it completed enrollment in a Phase 2b clinical trial evaluating its experimental therapy aimed at preventing severe oral mucositis in patients undergoing chemoradiotherapy for oropharyngeal cancer.

    • Shares of Eiger BioPharmaceuticals Inc.
      EIGR,
      +0.85%
       tumbled 5% after the company said it will not pursue emergency authorization of its experimental treatment for mild and moderate COVID-19 infections.

    • Shares of Lamb Weston Holdings Inc.
      LW,
      +2.45%
       ended 4.2% higher Wednesday, after the potato supplier reported fiscal first-quarter profit that beat expectations, higher prices helped offset a volume decline.

    —Jamie Chisholm contributed reporting

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  • Hong Kong shares soar 6%, leading Asian market gains

    Hong Kong shares soar 6%, leading Asian market gains

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    TOKYO — Hong Kong’s share benchmark soared more than 6% on Wednesday as Asian shares tracked gains on Wall Street.

    New Zealand’s share benchmark rose 0.8% after its central bank hiked its benchmark interest rate to 3.5%, saying inflation remained too high and labor scarce. The half-point rate hike was the fifth in a row made by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand since February.

    Statistics New Zealand said inflation was running at 7.3% and unemployment at 3.3%. The rate hike came on the same day the government announced its finances were in better shape than forecast.

    The Hang Seng in Hong Kong rose 6.0% to 18,108.69, catching up with gains elsewhere as markets reopened following a holiday Tuesday. Markets in mainland China remained closed for a holiday.

    Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 added 0.5% to 27,138.99. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 climbed 1.7% to 6,815.70. Shares in Australia got a boost after the Reserve Bank of Australia ordered a smaller-than-expected 25 basis points interest rate hike on Tuesday.

    South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.4% to 2,217.88.

    Analysts said the latest data on South Korea’s inflation may push the Bank of Korea to raise interest rates at its meeting set for next week, but such hikes were expected to slow in pace as inflation is brought under control.

    “We expect headline inflation to rise again in October. Gasoline prices will likely decline further, but city gas and power rates were raised at the beginning of October and fresh food prices will also probably rise ahead of winter,” said a report by Robert Carnell, regional head of research Asia-Pacific at ING.

    On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed more 2.8% to 30,316.32. The S&P 500 had its best day since May 2020 on Tuesday as the market clawed back more of the ground it lost over the past miserable several weeks. It surged 3.1% to 3,790.93.

    Twitter surged 22.2% after Elon Musk said he would go ahead with his $44 billion acquisition of the social media company, abandoning efforts to get out of the deal.

    The Nasdaq composite climbed 3.3% to 11,176.41. Small company stocks also made solid gains, lifting the Russell 2000 advanced 3.9% to 1,775.77.

    The two-day rally has hit markets as investors look for signs that central banks might ease up on aggressive rate hikes aimed at taming the hottest inflation in four decades. The rate hike by Australia’s central bank was smaller than previous ones.

    In the U.S., a government report on job openings showed the number of available jobs in the U.S. plummeted in August compared with July. It’s a sign that businesses may pull back further on hiring and potentially cool chronically high inflation, which could allow the Federal Reserve to slow the pace of rate increases.

    Investors are watching closely as central banks raise interest rates to make borrowing more difficult and slow economic growth to try to tame inflation. Investors are hoping that they will eventually ease off their aggressive rate hikes and the move by Australia’s central bank is a hopeful sign for some.

    Investors worry that the rate hikes, especially the increases from the Fed, could go too far in slowing growth and send economies into a recession. The Fed has already pushed its key overnight interest rate to a range of 3% to 3.25%, up from virtually zero as recently as March.

    Economic growth is already slowing globally and the U.S. economy contracted during the first two quarters of the year, which is considered an informal signal of a recession.

    Wall Street will get a more detailed look at the employment situation in the U.S. this week, with a report on hiring by private companies due out Wednesday, the latest tally of weekly applications for unemployment benefits on Thursday and the government’s monthly jobs report for September on Friday.

    In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude fell 16 cents to $86.39 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It surged $2.89 to 86.52 on Tuesday. Brent crude, the international standard for pricing, lost 8 cents to $91.72 a barrel.

    In currency trading, the U.S. dollar rose to 144.19 from 144.12 Japanese yen. The euro cost 99.69 cents, down from 99.87 cents.

    ———

    Damian J. Troise, Alex Veiga and Nick Perry contributed to this report.

    Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama

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  • White House launches last ditch effort to dissuade OPEC from cutting oil production to avoid a ‘total disaster’ | CNN Politics

    White House launches last ditch effort to dissuade OPEC from cutting oil production to avoid a ‘total disaster’ | CNN Politics

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    Washington
    CNN
     — 

    The Biden administration has launched a full-scale pressure campaign in a last-ditch effort to dissuade Middle Eastern allies from dramatically cutting oil production, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.

    The push comes ahead of Wednesday’s crucial meeting of OPEC+, the international cartel of oil producers that is widely expected to announce a significant cut to output in an effort to raise oil prices. That in turn would cause US gasoline prices to rise at a precarious time for the Biden administration, just five weeks before the midterm elections.

    For the past several days, President Joe Biden’s senior-most energy, economic and foreign policy officials have been enlisted to lobby their foreign counterparts in Middle Eastern allied countries including Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE to vote against cutting oil production.

    Members of the Saudi-led oil cartel and its allies including Russia, known as OPEC+, are expected to announce production cuts potentially up to more than one million barrels per day. That would be the largest cut since the beginning of the pandemic and could lead to a dramatic spike in oil prices.

    Some of the draft talking points circulated by the White House to the Treasury Department on Monday that were obtained by CNN framed the prospect of a production cut as a “total disaster” and warned that it could be taken as a “hostile act.”

    “It’s important everyone is aware of just how high the stakes are,” said a US official of what was framed as a broad administration effort that is expected to continue in the lead up to the Wednesday OPEC+ meeting.

    The White House is “having a spasm and panicking,” another US official said, describing this latest administration effort as “taking the gloves off.” According to a White House official, the talking points were being drafted and exchanged by staffers and not approved by White House leadership or used with foreign partners.

    In a statement to CNN, National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said, “We’ve been clear that energy supply should meet demand to support economic growth and lower prices for consumers around the world and we will continue to talk with our partners about that.”

    For Biden, a dramatic cut in oil production could not come at a worse time. The administration has for months engaged in an intensive domestic and foreign policy effort to mitigate soaring energy prices in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. That work appeared to pay off, with US gasoline prices falling for almost 100 days in a row.

    But with just a month to go before the critical midterm elections, US gasoline prices have begun to creep up again, posing a political risk the White House is desperately trying to avoid. As US officials have moved to gauge potential domestic options to head off gradual increases over the last several weeks, the news of major OPEC+ action presents a particularly acute challenge.

    Watson, the NSC spokesperson declined to comment on the midterms, saying instead, “Thanks to the President’s efforts, energy prices have declined sharply from their highs and American consumers are paying far less at the pump.”

    Amos Hochstein, Biden’s top energy envoy, has played a leading role in the lobbying effort, which has been far more extensive than previously reported amid extreme concern in the White House over the potential cut. Hochstein, along with top national security official Brett McGurk and the administration’s special envoy to Yemen Tim Lenderking, traveled to Jeddah late last month to discuss a range of energy and security issues as a follow up to Biden’s high-profile visit to Saudi Arabia in July.

    Officials across the administration’s economic and foreign policy teams have also been involved with reaching out to OPEC governments as part of the latest effort to stave off a production cut.

    The White House has asked Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to make the case personally to some Gulf state finance ministers, including from Kuwait and the UAE, and try to convince them that a production cut would be extremely damaging to the global economy. The US has argued that in the long-run a cut in oil production would create more downward pressure on prices – the opposite of what a significant cut would be designed to accomplish. Their logic is that “cutting right now would increase risks of inflation,” lead to higher interest rates and ultimately a greater risk of recession.

    “There is great political risk to your reputation and relations with the United States and the west if you move forward,” the White House draft talking points suggested Yellen communicate to her foreign counterparts.

    A senior US official acknowledged that the administration has been lobbying the Saudi-led coalition for weeks to try to convince them not to cut oil production.

    It comes less than three months after President Joe Biden traveled to Saudi Arabia and met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on a trip that was driven in part by a desire to convince Saudi Arabia, the de facto leader of OPEC, to increase oil production which would help bring down the then-skyrocketing gas prices.

    President Joe Biden (L) and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (R) arrive for the family photo during the Jeddah Security and Development Summit (GCC+3) at a hotel in Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coastal city of Jeddah on July 16, 2022.

    When OPEC+ agreed a few weeks later to a modest 100,000 barrel increase in production, critics argued Biden had gotten little out of the trip.

    The trip was billed as a meeting with regional leaders about issues critical to US national security, including Iran, Israel and Yemen. It was criticized for its lack of results and for rehabbing the image of the crown prince who had been directly blamed by Biden for orchestrating the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

    In the months leading up to the meeting, Biden’s top aides for the Middle East and energy, McGurk and Hochstein, shuttled between Washington and Saudi Arabia planning and coordinating the visit.

    One diplomatic official in the region described the US campaign to block production cuts as less of a hard sell, and more of an effort to underscore a critical international moment given the economic fragility and ongoing war in Ukraine. Though another source familiar with the discussions told CNN it was described by a diplomat from one of the countries approached as “desperate.”

    A source familiar with the outreach says a call was planned with the UAE but the effort was rebuffed by Kuwait. Kuwait’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Neither did Saudi Arabia’s. The UAE embassy declined to comment.

    Publicly, the White House has cautiously avoided weighing in on the possibility of a dramatic oil production cut.

    “We are not members of OPEC+, and so I don’t want to get ahead of what could potentially come out of that meeting,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Monday. The US focus, Jean-Pierre said, remains “taking every step to ensure markets are sufficiently supplied to meet demand for a growing global economy.”

    OPEC+ members are weighing a more dramatic cut due to what has been a precipitous decline in prices, which have dropped sharply to below $90 per barrel in recent months.

    Hanging over Wednesday’s OPEC+ meeting in Vienna will also be the looming oil price cap that European nations intend to impose on Russian oil exports as punishment for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Many OPEC+ members, not only Russia, have expressed unhappiness with the prospect of a price cap because of the precedent it could set for consumers, rather than the market, to dictate the price of oil.

    Included in the White House talking points to Treasury was a US proposal that if OPEC+ decides against a cut this week the US will announce a buyback of up to 200 million barrels to refill its Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), an emergency stockpile of petroleum that the US has been tapping into this year to help lower oil prices.

    The administration has made it clear to OPEC+ for months, the senior US official said, that the US is willing to buy OPEC’s oil to replenish the SPR. The idea has been to convey to OPEC+ that the US “won’t leave them hanging dry” if they invest money in production, the official said, and therefore, that prices won’t collapse if global demand decreases.

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  • Asian shares rise after ‘relief rally’ on Wall Street

    Asian shares rise after ‘relief rally’ on Wall Street

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    TOKYO — Asian shares rose Tuesday, encouraged by a rally in U.S. shares after some weak economic data raised hopes that the Federal Reserve might ease away from aggressive interest rate hikes.

    Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 added 2.8% in afternoon trading to 26,959.25. South Korea’s Kospi gained 2.5% to 2,209.98.

    Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 jumped 3.8% to 6,699.30 after its central bank boosted its benchmark interest rate for a sixth consecutive month to a nine-year high of 2.6%. The Reserve Bank of Australia’s increase of a quarter percentage point to the cash rate was smaller than those at recent monthly meetings.

    When the bank lifted the rate by a quarter percentage point at its board meeting in May, it was the first rate hike in more than 11 years. It’s now at its highest point since August 2013, when the bank cut the rate from 2.75% to 2.5%.

    Markets in Hong Kong and Shanghai were closed for holidays.

    “Asian equities were positive on Tuesday after a corrective session as traders eye potentially oversold market conditions,” Anderson Alves at ActivTrades said in a report.

    On Monday, Wall Street soared to its best day in months in a widespread relief rally after some unexpectedly weak data on the economy raised the possibility that the Federal Reserve won’t have to be so aggressive about hiking interest rates.

    The S&P 500’s leap of 2.6% to 3,678.43 was its biggest since July, the latest swing for a scattershot market that’s been mostly falling this year on worries about a possible global recession.

    The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 2.7%, to 29,490.89, and the Nasdaq composite gained 2.3% to 10,815.43.

    Stocks took their cue from the bond market, where yields fell to ease some of the pressure that’s been battering markets this year. The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which helps set rates for mortgages and many other kinds of loans, fell to 3.62% from 3.83% late Friday. It got as high as 4% last week after starting the year at just 1.51%.

    A report on U.S. manufacturing came in weaker than expected, along with data showing a drop off in construction spending from July to August. That may seem discouraging, but could mean the Federal Reserve can ease off on raising interest rates to beat down the high inflation damaging households’ finances.

    By raising rates, the Fed is making it more expensive to buy a house, a car or most anything else purchased on credit. The hope is to slow the economy just enough to starve inflation of the purchases needed to keep prices rising so quickly.

    The Fed has already pulled its key overnight interest rate to a range of 3% to 3.25%, up from virtually zero as recently as March. Most traders expect it to be more than a full percentage point higher by early next year.

    But stresses are building in financial markets and corporate profits have weakened as central banks around the world hike rates in concert.

    The yield on the two-year Treasury, which more closely tracks expectations for Fed action, fell to 4.11% from 4.27% following the weaker-than-expected reports on the economy.

    Besides stocks, lower rates also boost prices for everything from cryptocurrencies to gold, which can suddenly look a bit more attractive when bonds are paying less in income.

    Stocks of high-growth companies and particularly risky or expensive investments have been the most affected by changes in rates. Bitcoin rallied Monday with the reprieve in yields, while technology stocks did the heaviest lifting to carry the S&P 500. Apple and Microsoft both rose more than 3%.

    Monday’s rally came despite an 8.6% drop for Tesla, one of the most influential stocks on Wall Street because of its massive market value. The maker of electric vehicles delivered fewer vehicles from July through September than investors expected.

    The latest update on the U.S. jobs market comes on Friday. Along with reports on inflation, the jobs report is one of the most highly anticipated pieces of data on Wall Street each month.

    It will be the last jobs report before the Fed makes its next decision on interest rates, scheduled for Nov. 2. Continued strength would give the central bank more leeway to keep hiking. Traders say the likeliest move is a fourth straight increase of a whopping three-quarters of a percentage point, triple the usual move.

    In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude added 23 cents to $83.86 a barrel. It jumped Monday amid speculation big oil-producing countries could soon announce cuts to production. Shares of energy-producing companies made big gains. Exxon Mobil leaped 5.3%, and Chevron climbed 5.6%. Brent crude, the international standard, added 42 cents to $89.28 a barrel.

    In currency trading, the U.S. dollar inched up to 144.84 Japanese yen from 144.81 yen. The euro cost 98.28 cents, inching down from 98.40 cents.

    ———

    Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama

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  • World shares mostly lower as recession fears deepen

    World shares mostly lower as recession fears deepen

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    BANGKOK — Shares dropped in Europe and Asia on Monday while oil prices surged more than $3 a barrel amid dire warnings over energy shortages in Europe if Russia cuts off gas supplies.

    Germany’s DAX fell 1% to 11,998.26 while the CAC 40 in Paris shed 1.2% to 5,690.88. Britain’s FTSE 100 lost 0.8% to 3,305.79. On Wall Street, the future for the S&P 500 was up 0.2% while the contract for the Dow industrials gained 0.4%.

    In its quarterly gas report, the Paris-based International Energy Agency said people will have to save at least 13% over the winter if Russia cuts off the last trickle of gas that’s flowing to Europe.

    Europe faces “unprecedented risks” to its natural gas supplies this winter after Russia cut off most pipeline shipments and could wind up competing with Asia for already scarce and expensive liquid gas that comes by ship, the IEA said.

    Reports that major oil producers plan further production cuts were also exerting upward pressure on energy prices.

    U.S. benchmark crude oil gained $3.18 to $82.67 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It lost $1.74 to $79.49 per barrel on Friday.

    Brent crude oil, the standard for pricing international oil, rose $3.29 to $88.43 per barrel.

    OPEC and allied oil-producing countries, including Russia, made a small trim in their supplies to the global economy a month ago, underlining their unhappiness as recession fears help drive down crude prices.

    In Asian trading, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index gained 1.1% to 26,215.79 after a Bank of Japan quarterly survey showed sentiment among manufacturers has darkened, reflecting rising costs, the weakening yen and lingering pandemic-related restrictions.

    The headline measure for the “tankan,” measuring sentiment among large manufacturers, was plus 8, down from plus 9 the previous quarter. The tankan measures corporate sentiment by subtracting the number of companies saying business conditions are negative from those responding they are positive.

    “Today’s Tankan survey suggests that while the services sector is benefitting from the subsiding virus wave, the outlook for the manufacturing sector continues to worsen,” said a report from Capital Economics. It noted it was the third consecutive decline in sentiment for the world’s third largest economy.

    The BOJ has kept interest rates below zero in a longstanding effort to encourage inflation and keep deflation at bay as the country ages and its population shrinks. That has kept the value of the yen weak relative to the U.S. dollar, which has been strengthening as the Federal Reserve raises rates to combat decades-high inflation.

    The dollar was trading at 145.15 yen early Monday, up from 144.68 yen late Friday. That raised speculation that the central bank might once again intervene to prevent the yen from weakening further. The euro was at 97.98 cents, up from 97.96 cents.

    The stunning and swift rise of the U.S. dollar against other currencies, meanwhile, raises the risk of creating so much stress that something cracks somewhere in global markets.

    Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 0.8% to 17,079.51. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.3% to 6,456.90. Taiwan’s Taiex lost 0.9% and Bangkok’s SET declined 1.8%.

    Wall Street closed out a miserable September on Friday with the S&P 500′s worst monthly skid since the coronavirus pandemic crashed global markets. It’s now at its lowest level since November 2020 and is down by more than a quarter since the start of the year.

    The Fed has been at the forefront of the global campaign to slow economic growth and hurt job markets just enough to undercut inflation but not so much that it causes a recession. On Friday, the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation showed it was worse last month than economists expected. That should keep the Fed on track to keep hiking rates and hold them at high levels a while, raising the risk of it going too far and causing a downturn.

    The S&P 500 fell 1.5% on Friday while the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1.7%. The Nasdaq composite slid 1.5% and the Russell 2000 lost 0.6%.

    Other worries hang over global markets, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. A U.K. government plan to cut taxes sent bond markets spinning recently on fears it could make inflation even worse. Bond markets calmed a bit only after the Bank of England pledged last week to buy however many U.K. government bonds are needed to bring yields back down.

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  • The best-performing global stocks last week include a gold miner analysts say could jump 50%

    The best-performing global stocks last week include a gold miner analysts say could jump 50%

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  • Asian stocks follow Wall St higher after UK calms markets

    Asian stocks follow Wall St higher after UK calms markets

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    BEIJING — Asian stock markets followed Wall Street higher Thursday after Britain’s central bank moved forcefully to stop a budding financial crisis.

    Market benchmarks in Hong Kong, Seoul and Sydney added more than 1%. Shanghai and Tokyo also rose. Oil prices edged lower after jumping by more than $3 per barrel the previous day.

    Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index surged 2% on Wednesday for its biggest gain in seven weeks after the Bank of England announced it would buy as many government bonds as needed to restore order to financial markets.

    That helped to calm investor fears that planned British tax cuts would push up already high inflation. That had caused the value of the British pound to fall to its lowest level since the 1970s and bond prices to plunge.

    The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.8% to 3,068.87 and the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo gained 0.6% to 26,341.76. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong jumped 1.3% to 17,477.97.

    The Kospi in Seoul gained 1.1% to 2,193.82 and Sydney’s S&P ASX 200 rose 1.6% to 6,566.80.

    New Zealand and Southeast Asian markets also advanced.

    On Wall Street, the S&P 500 rose to 3,719.04 after the Bank of England said it would buy bonds over the next two weeks to stop a slide in prices. Investors were rattled by plans for 45 billion pounds ($48 billion) of tax cuts with no spending reductions.

    The central bank earlier warned crumbling confidence in the economy posed a “material risk to U.K. financial stability.” The International Monetary Fund took the rare step of urging a member of the Group of Seven advanced economies to abandon its plan for tax cuts and more borrowing.

    The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 1.9% to 29,683.74. The Nasdaq composite climbed 2.1% to 11,051.64.

    Despite Wednesday’s gain, the S&P 500 is down more than 20% from its Jan. 3 record, which puts it in what traders call a bear market.

    Forecasters see more turbulence ahead due to worries about a possible recession, higher interest rates and even higher inflation.

    The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury, or the difference between its market price and the payout if held to maturity, briefly exceeded 4% on Wednesday, its highest level in a decade.

    Investor fears are growing that aggressive interest rate hikes this year by the Federal Reserve and central banks in Europe and Asia to cool inflation that is at multi-decade highs might tip the global economy into recession.

    The investment giant Vanguard puts the chance of a U.S. recession at 25% this year and at 65% next year if the Fed follows through on expectations it will raise rates again and keep them elevated through next year.

    In energy markets, benchmark U.S. crude lost 32 cents to $81.83 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract surged $3.65 on Wednesday to $82.15. Brent crude, the price basis for international oils, shed 30 cents to $87.75 per barrel in London. It gained $3.05 the previous session to $89.32.

    The dollar gained to 144.32 yen from Wednesday’s 143.96 yen. The euro declined to 96.82 cents from 97.43 cents.

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