April 28 (Reuters) – Oil prices edged lower in early Asian trade on Thursday as concerns about rising coronavirus cases in China, the world’s biggest oil importer, weighed on futures markets.

China’s capital Beijing reported 48 new symptomatic and 2 new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases for April 27, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Thursday. The city recorded 31 symptomatic cases a day earlier and three asymptomatic ones, as it began a mass testing program aimed at containing a new outbreak.

Brent crude futures fell 37 cents, or 0.4%, to $104.95 a barrel by 0006 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell 27 cents, or 0.3%, to $101.75 a barrel.

Authorities in Beijing are continuing to crack down on COVID-19 outbreaks and trying to avert the city-wide lockdown that has shrouded Shanghai for a month. China’s Hangzhou city of 12.2 million people, home to e-commerce giant Alibaba, will conduct mass COVID testing from April 28, state media reported on Wednesday.

Adding support to the market are concerns about tight worldwide energy supply following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and subsequent sanctions slapped on Moscow by the United States and its allies. Russian energy giant Gazprom (GAZP.MM) said on Wednesday it halted gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland.

British major Shell said it would no longer accept refined oil blended with Russian products, according to trading documents, while Exxon Mobil said it had declared force majeure on its Sakhalin-1 operations in the far eastern part of Russia.

Reporting by Laura Sanicola; Editing by Stephen Coates

April 27 (Reuters) – Russian energy giant Gazprom (GAZP.MM) on Wednesday halted gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland because they had failed to pay in roubles.

Poland and Bulgaria are the first countries to have their gas cut off by Europe’s main supplier since Moscow started what it calls a special military operation in Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has demanded that countries he terms “unfriendly” agree to a scheme under which they would open accounts at Gazprombank and make payments for Russian gas imports in euros or dollars that would be converted into roubles.

Poland has repeatedly said it will not pay for Russian gas in roubles and has planned not to extend its gas contract with Gazprom after it expires in the end of this year.

“Payments for gas supplied from April 1 must be made in roubles using the new payments details, about which the counterparties were informed in a timely manner,” Gazprom said on Wednesday.

Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Guy Faulconbridge

Shanghai doubles down on strict lockdown enforcement in COVID fight

SHANGHAI, April 22 (Reuters) – Shanghai authorities doubled down on their offensive against COVID-19 on Friday, launching a new round of city-wide testing and warning residents their three-week lockdown would only be lifted in batches once transmission is stamped out.

The Shanghai government said on its official WeChat account, the city’s epidemic was showing a “positive trend” and that life in the city could return to normal soon as long as people stuck to strict rules to curb the spread of COVID-19.

And while some Shanghai districts tightened restrictions on movement, officials in neighbourhoods that met criteria for people to be allowed to leave their homes were still preventing them from doing so, fuelling anger and frustration among residents who have endured weeks of lockdown.

“Our goal is to achieve community zero-COVID as soon as possible,” the government said. “This is an important indication that we win this major, hard battle against the epidemic …so that we can restore normal production and life order.”

Shanghai locked virtually all of its 25 million people into their homes at the start of April after infections began to surge. Residents have faced income losses, difficulty getting food, family separations and poor conditions in quarantine. Frustration with the rigid enforcement of draconian restrictions has reached new heights this week.

Health officials raised hopes for some return to normal by saying transmission had been curbed, only for city officials to pour cold water over such expectations as the highly-transmissible Omicron variant has proven hard to eliminate.

Late on Thursday, Shanghai announced a new round of “nine major” actions, including daily city-wide testing from Friday, accelerating transfers to quarantine centres, minimising people movement and ensuring enforcement of the rules. The Chinese financial hub reported 15,698 new local asymptomatic coronavirus cases, down from 15,861 a day earlier. New symptomatic cases stood at 1,931, down from 2,634.

There were 250 new cases outside quarantined areas, down from 441 the day before. There is particular focus on cases outside quarantined areas as those could be the first places where restrictions are relaxed, if Shanghai follows the pattern of other cities that have been under lockdown.

Eleven people infected with COVID-19 died in Shanghai on April 21, authorities said, taking the tally to 36 — all recorded in the past five days. But there are doubts over the official toll, as many residents have said that a family member had died after catching COVID-19 since early March, but cases had not been included in official statistics.

The Shanghai government did not respond to questions regarding the death toll. Businesses are beginning to reopen, though they have to operate under “closed loops,” which entail living on site, daily testing and rigorous disinfection.

Beijing last week published a list of 666 firms in Shanghai prioritised to reopen or keep operations going and the Shanghai government said on Friday 403 were doing so as of April 20, citing U.S. automaker Tesla (TSLA.O) as an example.

Economists and industry bodies caution, however, that factories face reduced trucking availability, fractured supply chains and a shortage of labour, and are far from resuming full production.

Reporting by the Shanghai and Beijing bureaus; Writing by Marius Zaharia; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore

LONDON, April 12 (Reuters) – The euro fell on Tuesday unable to hold on to the post-French election gains, as the dollar held firm supported by high U.S. yields ahead of inflation data expected to reinforce bets of aggressive monetary tightening.

The euro fell 0.19% to $1.08625 at 0819 GMT, after surging in the previous day to $1.09550 on the news that incumbent President Emmanuel Macron beat far-right challenger Marine Le Pen in the first round of presidential voting.

But ahead of U.S. inflation data, which is expected to show that prices gained the most in over 16 years, the dollar index edged 0.12% higher to 100.15, after hitting a fresh May 2020 high.

“USD remains supported due to the Fed’s (Federal Reserve) active monetary policy, but a lot has been priced in as regards monetary policy so that USD is probably going to find it increasingly difficult to appreciate further,” said You-Na Park-Heger, FX Analyst at Commerzbank.

The dollar’s recent gains against the Japanese yen have been its most striking. The greenback has gained almost 10% versus the Japanese currency in the past three months. It was trading 0.25% higher at 125.63 yen on Tuesday, very close to a June 2015 high of 125.77 touched on the previous day.

Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said the government was closely watching the yen and that excess volatility and disorderly movements could have an adverse effect on the economy and financial stability.

The dollar also gained on the offshore Chinese yuan , reaching a two-week high of 6.390 before softening. Analysts at CBA said in a note that the dollar’s strength “was most apparent against JPY and CNH – currencies of economies with a dovish central bank.”

U.S. consumer prices likely increased by the most in 16-1/2 years in March, according to a Reuters poll of economists, as the war in Ukraine pushed the cost of gasoline to record highs.

Ahead of the data release due later today, U.S. longer-term yields inched higher, with the yield on benchmark 10-year notes rising to its highest since December 2018 at 2.8360%.

Sterling dropped 0.17% to $1.30075 after UK employment data showed jobless rate slipped further below its level immediately before the coronavirus pandemic, underscoring the risk of inflation pressure in the labour market that has the Bank of England on alert.

Reporting by Joice Alves, additional reporting by Alun John Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky

https://www.reuters.com/business/dollar-index-back-above-100-ahead-expected-red-hot-us-inflation-data-2022-04-12/

NEW YORK, April 7 (Reuters) – Stock indexes mostly rose on Thursday as investors snapped up beaten-down shares, while the U.S. dollar climbed to its highest in nearly two years and the U.S. Treasury 10-year yield touched a three-year high following hawkish signals from the Federal Reserve. Wall Street stocks reversed early declines to end the day higher.

Helping to boost the S&P 500, Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) jumped 4.3%after the pharmaceutical company said it would buy privately held ReViral Ltd in a deal worth as much as $525 million, its second acquisition in less than six months.

“Things have gotten a little stretched to the downside in the short term, and traders started coming in to pick away at some longs, cover some shorts,” said Michael James, managing director of equity trading at Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles. “We’ve been trading in relatively thin liquidity the last two weeks, which makes it easier to have (bigger) moves both up and down.”

St. Louis Fed president James Bullard, a voter this year on the Federal Open Market Committee, said the Fed remains behind in its fight against inflation despite increases in mortgage rates and government bond yields. A day earlier, minutes released from the Fed’s March meeting suggested the U.S. central bank’s balance sheet reduction could start next month. U.S. Treasury yields have jumped along with expectations of faster policy tightening by the Fed and other central banks.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) rose 87.06 points, or 0.25%, to 34,583.57, the S&P 500 (.SPX) gained 19.06 points, or 0.43%, to 4,500.21 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) added 8.48 points, or 0.06%, to 13,897.30.

The S&P 500 ended lower for the last two sessions in a row. The pan-European STOXX 600 index (.STOXX) lost 0.21% and MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe (.MIWD00000PUS) shed 0.11%.

In Treasuries, the 2 year-10 year spread widened as traders sharpened their focus on the pace and scope of the Fed’s plans to reduce its balance sheet. The yield on 10-year Treasury notes was up 3.8 basis points to 2.647% while the 2-year note yield was down 4.5 basis points at 2.457%, leaving the 2-10 spread at 18.72 basis points.

The near 27 basis point widening of that spread so far this week is the most for any week back to June 2013. Last week the spread tightened 27.5 basis points in the sharpest weekly tightening since September 2011. The yield curve inverted last week, signaling to some investors that a recession may be coming in a year or two.

In the foreign exchange market, the dollar index hit 99.823 , the highest since late May 2020. The euro hit a one-month trough against the dollar at $1.0871. The dollar index rose 0.1%, with the euro last unchanged at $1.0878. The euro has been pressured by what ING analysts called a “double threat” from mounting sanctions on Russia and uncertainty about the French election.

France votes on Sunday in the first presidential election round. While incumbent Emmanuel Macron is likely to re-take the presidency, his far-right opponent Marine Le Pen has been closing the gap, opinion polls show.

Oil settled lower, with Brent crude futures falling 49 cents, or 0.5%, to settle at $100.58 a barrel and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude falling 20 cents, or 0.6%, to settle at $96.03.

Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; additional reporting by Rodrigo Campos and Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss in New York, and Sujata Rao in London; Editing by Kim Coghill, Barbara Lewis and David Gregorio

LVIV, Ukraine, April 7 (Reuters) – Ukraine wants sanctions that are economically destructive enough for Russia to end its war after accusing some countries of still prioritizing money over punishment for civilian killings that the West condemns as war crimes.

The democratic world must reject Russian oil and completely block Russian banks from the international finance system, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his daily video address early on Thursday.
After grisly images of dead civilians in the streets of Bucha sparked international condemnation, Zelenskiy said Kremlin forces were trying to cover up evidence of atrocities.

“We have information that the Russian military has changed its tactics and is trying to remove people who have been killed from streets and basements … this is just an attempt to hide the evidence and nothing more,” Zelenskiy said, but did not provide evidence.

Moscow has denied targeting civilians and says images of bodies in Bucha were staged to justify more sanctions against Moscow and derail peace talks. Russia’s six-week-long invasion has so far forced over 4 million to flee abroad, killed or injured thousands, left a quarter of the population homeless, turned cities into rubble and prompted a slew of Western restrictions on Russian elites and the economy.

Washington on Wednesday announced measures, including sanctions on President Vladimir Putin’s two adult daughters and Russia’s Sberbank (SBER.MM), and a ban on Americans investing in Russia.

The United States also wants Russia expelled from the Group of 20 major economies forum and will boycott a number of meetings at the G20 in Indonesia if Russian officials show up. But the head of Ukraine’s presidential office Andriy Yermak said late on Wednesday that its allies must go further.

“Sanctions against Russia must be ruinous enough for us to end this terrible war,” he said. “My goal is to impose an embargo on the supply to Russia of technology, equipment, minerals and ores (and) rare earth dual-use minerals and thus stop the production of weapons in Russia.”

“The only thing that we are lacking is the principled approach of some leaders … who still think that war and war crimes are not something as horrific as financial losses,” he told Irish lawmakers.

European Union diplomats failed to approve new sanctions on Wednesday, as technical issues needed to be addressed, including on whether a ban on coal would affect existing contracts, sources said. EU member Hungary said it was prepared to meet a Russian request to pay roubles for its gas, breaking ranks with the rest of the bloc and highlighting the continent’s reliance on imports that have held it back from a tougher response on the Kremlin.

State refiners in China, which has close ties to Moscow, are honouring existing Russian oil contracts but avoiding new ones despite steep discounts, heeding Beijing’s call for caution as western sanctions mount against Russia, six people told Reuters.

By Natalia Zinets; Additional reporting by Reuters bureaus; Writing by Costas Pitas and Lincoln Feast; Editing by Grant McCool, Jacqueline Wong and Michael Perry

SINGAPORE, April 4 (Reuters) – The dollar made a firm start to the week as Treasury yields rose with expectations of rapid-fire U.S. interest rate hikes, while talk of bans on Russian gas kept the euro within sight of its 2022 lows.

The euro has been weighed down by worries about the economic damage from war in Ukraine and last bought $1.1047, not too far from last month’s almost two-year trough of $1.0806.

Germany’s defence minister said on Sunday that the European Union must discuss banning imports of Russian gas, which could drag further on growth and the currency, after Ukrainian and European officials accused Russian forces of atrocities.

Ukraine accused Russian forces of carrying out a “massacre” in the town of Bucha, which was denied by Russia’s defence ministry. “Negative news on the war or a further lift in energy prices could see EUR/USD test $1.0800,” Commonwealth Bank of Australia analysts said in a note.

“However, an improvement in sentiment or a weak dollar following the (Fed) minutes could push EUR/USD through upside resistance around $1.1150,” they added, referring to March Fed meeting minutes due for release on Wednesday.

Elsewhere, talk of new sanctions kept the broad mood cautious in early trade, and the dollar was up a bit against the Australian and New Zealand dollars as the commodity currencies’ rally cools with easing export prices. The U.S. dollar index was steady around 98.529.

Data on Friday also showed U.S. unemployment hitting a two-year low of 3.6% last month, strong enough that investors bet it would strengthen the Federal Reserve’s resolve to tackle inflation by lifting rates sharply.

Fed funds futures have priced a near 4/5 chance of a 50 basis point hike next month and two-year yields stand at a three-year high of 2.4930%. The yen , which steadied last week after a pummelling through March on the expectation of higher U.S. interest rates against anchored Japanese yields, has been squeezed back below 122 per dollar and last traded at 122.33.

“The yen is not out of the woods,” said Jane Foley, a senior strategist at Rabobank in London. “Another prolonged bout of severe selling pressure on the yen could put pressure on the Bank of Japan to re-think its (policy). We forecast further upside for dollar/yen towards the 125 level in the latter half of the year.”

The Australian dollar last bought $0.7495 and was steady ahead of a central bank meeting on Tuesday and the kiwi dipped to $0.6905. Sterling hovered at $1.3155.

Reporting by Tom Westbrook; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman