Inkhabar webdesk

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -NASA's top official on Monday said the U.S. space agency was opening up the contract for its Artemis 3 moon mission to compete against SpaceX, which he said was running behind schedule.  "I'm in the process of opening that contract up. I think we'll see companies like Blue get involved, and maybe others," NASA administrator Sean Duffy, who also serves as U.S. Transportation secretary, told Fox News' "Fox & Friends" program. Blue Origin is a SpaceX rival founded by Jeff Bezos. "We're going to have a space race in regard to American companies competing to see who can actually get us back to the moon first." NASA's multibillion dollar Artemis series of missions are aimed at returning humans to the moon as China plans a 2030 astronaut moon landing. Artemis 3 has been planned for 2027 with SpaceX's Starship. But Duffy said billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX was not on schedule and could put the United States behind its rival, with U.S. President Trump wanting to see the mission take place before his White House term ends in January 2029. "They're behind schedule, and so the president wants to make sure we beat the Chinese," Duffy told Fox.  Artemis 2, a 10-day flight around the moon and back involving systems built by built by Boeing, Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin, is on track for April and could get moved up to February, he added.  Bezos and Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp reportedly spoke with Trump over the summer when the Republican president was feuding with Musk, who backed Trump in the 2024 election and went on to lead the broad effort to cut the federal government known as DOGE. Representatives for SpaceX and Blue Origin could not be immediately reached for comment. (Reporting by Susan Heavey; additional reporting by Deborah Sophia and Jaspreet Singh; Editing by Nick Zieminski)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)

By Pranav Kashyap and Twesha Dikshit (Reuters) -Wall Street was poised for a firm start on Monday as investors prepared for a wave of earnings from corporate majors and a long-awaited inflation report, which could shake up markets later in the week. Earnings season shifts into high gear this week, with Wall Street heavyweights, including Tesla, Ford, GM, Netflix, Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, IBM and Intel, set to report. Their results will offer a fresh stress test for equities trading near lofty valuations. U.S. regional banks will also be in focus this week, with upcoming earnings providing a pulse-check on the sector's health. Markets are still reeling from last week's volatility, triggered by renewed fears of systemic credit stress in the banking sector. However, upbeat earnings from some regional banks helped calm nerves. S&P 500 companies are expected to post a 9.3% year-on-year growth in third-quarter earnings, according to LSEG IBES data. But with expectations running high, investors will look for strong beats to justify the market's recent rally. "Renewed credit concerns and concerns over trade policy are indicative of just how vulnerable the market conditions are," said Jordan Rizzuto, chief investment officer at GammaRoad Capital Partners. U.S. President Donald Trump stoked uncertainty by suggesting he might ease tariffs if Beijing resumes key agricultural purchases such as soybeans. But he blamed the latest breakdown in talks on China's tightening control over rare earth exports, casting doubt on any near-term thaw. Meanwhile, Trump vowed to keep "massive" duties on India unless it halts Russian oil imports. He would also raise levies on Colombia amid a feud over the country's role in the illicit drug trade. At 08:20 a.m., Dow E-minis were up 89 points, or 0.19%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 20 points, or 0.29%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 97 points, or 0.4%. DELAYED CPI A U.S. government shutdown, which began on October 1, has halted key economic data releases, leaving investors without crucial indicators and navigating markets with limited visibility. But attention now turns to Friday's consumer price report — a pivotal inflation gauge that could set the tone ahead of the Federal Reserve's policy meeting on October 28-29. But the continued freeze on employment data amid the shutdown means policymakers will enter the meeting without a comprehensive view of the economy's health. While September's core inflation is expected to hold steady at 3.1%, markets are betting on a quarter-point rate cut this month, with another reduction likely in December. "The reports that come out, not just this one, but also in the coming months, still will not answer how trade policy over the longer term is going to influence inflationary pressures," Rizzuto said. In premarket trading, Boeing shares rose 1.3% after the planemaker won approval from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to raise 737 MAX production to 42 planes per month. WeightWatchers climbed 7.8% after the company partnered with Amazon for weight-loss drug delivery. (Reporting by Pranav Kashyap and Twesha Dikshit in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)

By Kevin Yao and Ellen Zhang BEIJING (Reuters) -China's economic growth slowed to the weakest pace in a year in the third quarter as fragile domestic demand left it heavily reliant on the humming of its exporting factories, stoking concerns about deepening structural imbalances. While the 4.8% growth rate met expectations and kept China on track to reach its target of roughly 5% this year, the economy's dependence on external demand at a time of mounting trade tensions with Washington raises questions over whether that pace can be sustained. Beijing may be using the headline resilience in growth as a show of strength in talks between its vice premier He Lifeng and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in Malaysia in coming days and a potential meeting between presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping in South Korea later. Still, that export strength belies weakness on home turf, where lacklustre demand gives manufacturers no choice but to fight price wars in foreign markets, and compromise on their profitability. Jeremy Fang, a sales officer at a Chinese aluminium products maker, says his firm lost 20% of revenue as higher sales in Latin America, Africa, Southeast Asia, Turkey and the Middle East failed to fully offset an 80%-90% order plunge in the U.S.    Fang said he is learning Spanish to get ahead of his Chinese competitors rushing to non-U.S. markets and is now travelling abroad twice more often than he did last year.    But that extra effort isn’t enough.    "You have to be ruthlessly competitive on price," Fang said. "If your price is $100 and the customer starts bargaining, it's better to drop $10-$20 and take the order. You can't hesitate." This intense competition among Chinese exporters feeds further weakness at home, with many having to cut wages and even jobs to stay in the race. While industrial output grew to a three-month high of 6.5% year-on-year in September, beating forecasts, retail sales slowed to a 10-month low of 3.0%. Further hitting consumers by making them feel less wealthy, data also showed new home prices falling at their fastest pace in 11 months in September. Investment in the crisis-hit property sector fell 13.9% year-on-year in the first three quarters. "China’s growth is becoming increasingly dependent on exports, which are offsetting a slowdown in domestic demand," said Capital Economics analyst Julian Evans-Pritchard. "This pattern of development is not sustainable, and so growth is at risk of slowing further over the medium-term unless the authorities take much more proactive steps to support consumer spending." CHINA'S FIVE-YEAR PLAN IN FOCUS Such calls for structural measures that make China's economy more reliant on household consumption have grown louder ahead of this week's key Communist Party meeting, where its elites will discuss the country's next five-year development plan. But while the meeting is likely to result in pledges to boost domestic demand, it will also emphasise breaking through technological frontiers and upgrading the country's sprawling industrial complex as a national security priority. This could keep the flow of economic resources tilted primarily towards manufacturers at the expense of households. A change in its growth model would make China a bigger contributor to global demand and might help tone down trade tensions. But there is no sign that Beijing is willing to relent on the industrial front as competition with the U.S. intensifies. So far, it has been successful in diversifying away from U.S. markets. Its U.S. export sales were down 27% year-on-year last month, but shipments to the European Union, Southeast Asia and Africa grew by 14%, 15.6% and 56.4%, respectively. And China is using its near-monopoly position in the production of rare earths as leverage to try to extract more concessions from Washington. This prompted renewed threats from Trump to add another 100 percentage points to tariffs on imports from China, but also messages from Washington that the two sides are willing to lower the temperature. Triple-digit tariffs would effectively place a painful trade embargo on the world's two largest economies, but Beijing might feel it can bear the pain for longer. "Relatively speaking, China is in a better position than the U.S.," said Yuan Yuwei, hedge fund manager at Water Wisdom Asset Management. "At worst, ordinary people may tighten their belts and some workers are left idle. But in the U.S., if you cut 10-20% of worker's salary, people go out into the street to protest. China can suffer for longer than the U.S." MORE STIMULUS? Overall, the economy grew 5.2% year-on-year in January-September. If policymakers feel the economy is veering off target in the fourth quarter, one option is to speed up infrastructure investment given that they are currently frontloading 2026 debt issuance. After all, fixed-asset investment shrank 0.5% in January-September from a year earlier, suggesting room for improvement in that area. Some analysts believe Beijing doesn't need more stimulus measures this year. But others still see a strong case to offer support to underperforming sectors. "With China on track to hit this year's growth target, we could see less policy urgency," said Lynn Song, chief economist, Greater China at ING. "But weak confidence translating to soft consumption, investment, and a worsening property price downturn still need to be addressed." (Reporting by Ellen Zhang and Kevin Yao in Beijing; Additional reporting by Samuel Shen in Shanghai; writing by Kevin Yao and Marius ZahariaEditing by Shri Navaratnam)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)

By Manya Saini (Reuters) -After a turbulent week in which some regional U.S. banks flagged bad loan and fraud issues, investors are now awaiting for more earnings reports from the lenders to check for signs of a wider strain across the sector. Since the 2023 banking crisis, investors have little patience for uncertainty, analysts said. Even isolated loan or fraud troubles now trigger broad-based selloffs as traders rush to reduce exposure. "Years of easy credit and low transparency have left investors uncertain about where risks truly lie, even small negative surprises can spark outsized repricing," Tim Hynes, Global Head of Credit Research at Debtwire. The KBW Regional Banking Index has dropped 6.1%, lagging the KBW Bank Index, which tracks large-cap banks and is up 13.5%. Last week, banks stocks seesawed sharply after Zions Bancorporation disclosed losses tied to two loans and Western Alliance initiated a lawsuit alleging fraud by Cantor Group V, LLC. Cantor has denied the allegations. Zions is set to report third-quarter results after the bell on Monday. The lender's stock, which has lost 12% of its value so far this month, ticked up 1.9% in premarket trading. The SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF was last up 0.7% before the bell. HBT Financial reported results, with non-performing assets at $8.6 million, or 0.17% of total assets, compared with $6.5 million, or 0.13%, in the prior quarter. Its shares rose 4% in light premarket trading after it agreed to merge with CNB Bank in a deal valued at $170.2 million. Meanwhile, Jefferies added 1.9% in premarket trading. The bank was caught up in the First Brands collapse, though executives have said the investment bank was "defrauded" and any losses are absorbable. Among regional lenders, Washington Trust Bancorp will also report results. The bank had earlier disclosed that its third-quarter profit will be hit by $11.3 million in loan losses. 'ADDITIONAL COCKROACHES' Even before problems surfaced at Zions and Western Alliance, investor confidence had taken a hit by the twin bankruptcies of auto parts maker First Brands and subprime lender Tricolor. Fifth Third booked a $178 million loss last week tied to the bankruptcy of Tricolor, while JPMorgan Chase wrote off $170 million. "Asset quality metrics across banks have been deteriorating but have held up better than we expected. Losses have been low, so these recent numerous larger loan problems have raised fears of a broader deterioration," said Michael Driscoll, credit rating officer, Global Financial Institutions Ratings at Morningstar DBRS. "But one of the lessons from 2023 regional bank failures was that banks' funding can unravel faster than in the past if sizable issues emerge." But many including Fifth Third CEO Tim Spence have downplayed comparisons to the 2023 regional banking crisis, when Silicon Valley Bank's failure sparked a broader turmoil. "We view recent weakness in the bank group as being driven by three key reasons… these include a number of idiosyncratic credit events occurring over a short period of time, less near-term focus over credit overall and mixed messaging from the banks," Deutsche Bank analysts said. Large Wall Street banks last week described the recent stress as idiosyncratic, but investors worry that problems emerging in quick succession point to deeper cracks in credit quality. "A wave of additional 'cockroaches' could reset risk tolerance across markets, pressuring valuations and tightening financial conditions further," Hynes said. Analysts said markets have taken note of JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon's recent comment about the potential for more cases like First Brands, amplifying investor anxiety about weaknesses in the industry's more opaque corners. "When you see one cockroach, there are probably more, and so everyone should be forewarned of this one," Dimon said last week. (Reporting by Manya Saini in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Joel Jose; Editing by Arun Koyyur)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)