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By Alexander Marrow LONDON (Reuters) -Food group Nestle said on Wednesday it had withdrawn from a global alliance for cutting methane emissions that aims to reduce the impact of dairy farming on global warming.  The Dairy Methane Action Alliance was launched in December 2023, with members, which include Danone, Kraft Heinz and Starbucks, committing to publicly measure and disclose methane emissions from their dairy supply chains and publish plans to reduce those emissions over time.  Nestle did not say why it was pulling out of the alliance but said it would continue working towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions, including methane, throughout its supply chains and was sticking to its net zero commitment by 2050.  CLIMATE ALLIANCES ON THE BACK FOOT The move is the latest blow to a corporate alliance seeking to limit the impact of global warming, and comes as U.S. President Donald Trump dismantles a range of climate protection initiatives. Several major banks, for example, have left the sector's main group leading efforts to cut carbon emissions. "Nestle regularly reviews its memberships of external organizations," the Swiss company said. "As part of this process, we have decided to discontinue our membership of the Dairy Methane Action Alliance."  By the end of 2024, Nestle had reduced methane emissions by almost 21% compared to 2018 levels, the company said in its 2024 non-financial statement. Methane is nearly 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, making it a major focus of attempts to curb global warming. According to the Environmental Defense Fund, which launched the methane alliance, agriculture is responsible for nearly 40% of human-caused methane emissions, with the majority of those coming from livestock.  Nestle's logo was removed from the main page of the EDF's website, but the company's name still appears on other pages. The EDF did not immediately respond to a request for comment.  (Reporting by Alexander Marrow. Editing by Mark Potter)

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By Mike Colias and David Shepardson (Reuters) -General Motors is scrapping a program aimed at allowing its dealers to continue offering a $7,500 tax credit for several months on electric-vehicle leases following the September 30 expiration of the federal subsidy, the company said on Wednesday. Toward the end of last month, GM devised a plan to have its in-house lending arm initiate the purchase of EVs in its dealers’ inventory. The company planned to apply for the federal $7,500 credit on those cars and then roll that money into EV lease terms for customers through the end of the year. GM opted to kill the program after concerns were raised about it by Republican Senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio, a former car dealer who is active in auto policy, a person briefed on the matter told Reuters. “After further consideration, we have decided not to claim the tax credit,” the company said in a statement to Reuters on Wednesday, declining to elaborate on the reason for its decision. The idea behind the program was to ease the impact of the expiration of the tax credit on dealers, who worried they would be stuck with EVs that would be tough to sell. GM had planned to apply for the credit on tens of thousands of EVs in dealer stocks, according to people familiar with the plan. Ford rolled out a similar program ahead of the tax-credit expiration. It is unclear if Ford is continuing its program. A spokesperson declined to comment. GM had planned to claim the credit on roughly 20,000 EVs that were on dealership lots or being shipped to stores, people familiar with the matter said. Its finance arm, GM Financial, began making down payments on those vehicles before the deadline to qualify for the subsidy on each of those cars, the sources said. In its statement on Wednesday, the company said it would "fund the incentive lease terms" through the end of October. The formula for determining the down payments that GM Financial paid to dealers on those EVs was 5% of the maximum price for each car. For example, GM Financial would have made a down payment of about $6,300 for two Chevrolet Blazer EVs, which top out in the mid-$60,000s, according to documents GM provided to dealers outlining the terms. GM scrambled to put together the program just a few days before the September 30 tax-credit expiration, and outlined the details on a call with dealers on September 29, three sources said. GM officials had caught wind of a similar program that Ford was putting in place for its dealers, the sources said. Auto executives, dealers and analysts have said they expect EV sales to plummet in the wake of the tax credit’s disappearance. A consumer rush to take advantage of the subsidy helped drive record electric-car sales in September. (Editing by Mike Colias, Mark Porter and Chris Reese and Marguerita Choy)

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By Nell Mackenzie and Anirban Sen LONDON (Reuters) -Hedge funds returned 1.3% in September, with managers in Europe, Asia and the Middle East outperforming their North American rivals, according to a JPMorgan client note on Thursday, seen by Reuters on Friday. Global equities in September climbed 3.4%. An index of developed market sovereign bonds rose around 0.7% last month. The JPMorgan note, which tracks hedge fund trading, said positioning in U.S. stocks was only "somewhat bullish," indicating an expectation for equities to rise.  Crowding in the biggest "Magnificent Seven" tech stocks, which include Apple, Amazon and Nvidia, remained near historical highs, the note said.  In Europe, stock-pickers tended to bet that equities would rise. But multi-strategy funds – those that trade many strategies – and quantitative funds, which use algorithms, tended to wager that stock prices would decline.  In Asia, where stocks rose, hedge funds had more bets on a decline than a rise, the note said.  The $92.1 billion Bridgewater notched a 6% monthly gain in its Pure Alpha fund to September 29. From the beginning of the year until September 29, Bridgewater's Pure Alpha, Asia Total Return, All Weather, and China Total Return funds posted returns of 26.2%, 32.5%, 15.3%, and 28.4%, respectively. British hedge fund Marshall Wace posted September returns of 1.32%, up 8.04% for the year so far in its Eureka Fund, a source said. The $79 billion hedge fund's Market Neutral Tops fund returned 0.45% in September and was up 13.66% for the year, the source added. Systematic stock-trading hedge funds, such as Marshall Wace, are up over 13% for 2025 so far, Goldman Sachs said in a note to clients. Multi-strategy funds remained largely flat on the month, apart from the $28 billion Balyasny Asset Management, which added 1.3% in September to its annual return so far this year of 10%, another source with knowledge of the matter said.    (Reporting by Nell Mackenzie in London, Anirban Sen in New York and Summer Zhen in Hong Kong; Editing by Amanda Cooper and Barbara Lewis)

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