व्यापार

(Reuters) -The U.S. government has shut down, but that hasn't prevented stocks from hitting more record highs, fully confident that bullish rate cuts will keep momentum going. The one hitch is a complete lack of visibility when it comes to what is actually happening in the economy right now.   Here's your weekahead from Alden Bentley in New York, Rocky Swift in Tokyo and Alun John, Dhara Ranasinghe and Amanda Cooper in London. 1/ DOLLAR BEARS SHARPEN THEIR CLAWS  The dollar starts this final quarter of 2025 in fairly decent shape. Having fallen in the first two quarters, as U.S. exceptionalism came under fire, the greenback ended Q3 with a 1% gain against major rivals.  It's still down 10% so far this year, although its stabilisation has bought some calm to the almost $10 trillion-a-day FX markets.  On the plus side, immediate threats to Federal Reserve independence – a potential source of dollar stress – have abated for now. On the negative, labour market weakness adds to Fed rate-cuts bets.  Dollar bears may not hibernate for long – especially if a U.S. government shutdown is lengthy. The yen, in particular, looks favourable – say FX experts – while the euro could still hit that $1.20 milestone it came so close to last month. 2/ WHO NEEDS DATA? This week's U.S. data calendar is light, so further market disruption from the government shutdown should be minimal and the U.S. Treasury will hold a normal auction of notes and bonds. The market will likely make do without Tuesday's U.S. International Trade report, and instead will focus on Friday's private University of Michigan preliminary October sentiment index.  The Treasury sells $58 billion in three-year notes on Tuesday, $39 billion of the 10-year note Wednesday and $22 billion in 30-year bonds on Thursday. The bond market can't yet compute possible fiscal implications of an indefinite furloughing of federal workers. But with the benchmark 10-year yield above 4%, demand could remain solid. An early taste of third-quarter results comes with Delta Airlines and Levi Strauss among others on Thursday, before the earnings parade kicks off with Wall Street's biggest banks next week. 3/ SHOT IN THE ARM  Battered global pharmaceutical stocks got a boost from the deal between Pfizer and the U.S. to lower prescription drug prices in the Medicaid programme in exchange for tariff relief. U.S. President Donald Trump had taken aim at the sector over high U.S. medicine prices, sending drugmaker shares to multi-decade lows. But investors now bet the more benign agreement will open the door for more deals.  U.S. healthcare stocks were up 7% last week, their biggest weekly gain in over three years, while European equivalents rose 9% in their best week since 2008.  Now it's time to wait to see if these deals materialise and justify that optimism.  The U.S. has also slapped tariffs on imported timber as well as kitchen cabinets and furniture, while Trump said he would impose a 100% tariff on all films produced overseas that are then sent into the U.S. 4/ BARRELLING ON Oil is struggling under the weight of hefty global supplies that only seem to be getting bigger, while demand cannot seem to keep pace. The International Energy Agency says there could be an implied surplus of over 3 million barrels per day in 2026, compared with an expected excess of 600,000 bpd this year. The OPEC+ group, which includes OPEC and other exporters including Russia, at the weekend agreed to increase output by another 137,000 bpd in November, as it unwinds the curbs on output that it imposed during the pandemic.  At around $65 a barrel, crude is worth roughly half what it was when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. The wildcard for forecasters, producers and consumers alike will remain, as always, geopolitics. 5/ DIRECTION DOWN UNDER The Reserve Bank of New Zealand will almost certainly cut rates this week. The question is: by how much? The RBNZ cut rates to a three-year low of 3% in August. Data last month showed New Zealand's economy contracted 0.9% in the second quarter, due to tariff uncertainty and a weak housing market. Money markets have fully priced in a quarter-point cut to 2.75% when the RBNZ meets on October 8, but the chances of a half-point reduction have grown to 43% from about 25% a week ago. Policy divergence between the RBNZ and the Reserve Bank of Australia, which kept rates unchanged in September, could spell further weakness in the kiwi, which is already at a three-year low against its Antipodean counterpart. (Compiled by Amanda Cooper; Graphics by Vineet Sachdev; Editing by Toby Chopra, Kirsten Donovan)

(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 Buckland TOKYO (Reuters) -Japanese stocks surged more than 5% to an all-time high while the yen skidded on Monday after fiscal and monetary dove Sanae Takaichi was elected as leader of the ruling party, putting her on course to become the nation's first female prime minister. Gold climbed to a record peak close to $4,000, while leading cryptocurrency bitcoin rallied to a lifetime high on Sunday, with investors increasingly turning to alternative assets as a store of value as the U.S. government shutdown frayed nerves. Japan's Nikkei soared above 48,000 for the first time ever after Takaichi bested the more moderate Shinjiro Koizumi in the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership vote on Saturday, stoking expectations for fiscal stimulus. The yen slumped as much as 2% to beyond 150 per U.S. dollar for the first time since August 1, and slid as much as 1.8% to an all-time low versus the euro at 176.25. Worries about Japan's finances sent the yield on 30-year government bonds to an all-time high. At the same time, short-dated Japanese government bond yields slid to a two-week low as traders pared bets on when the Bank of Japan will resume raising interest rates. Market-implied odds of a BOJ hike by year-end fell to 41% from 68% on Friday. A year ago, Takaichi criticized the BOJ's decision to raise rates as "stupid", although her recent rhetoric has been more restrained, saying only that central bank policy should be aligned with the government. "We believe concerns among some investors that the next administration might pursue extreme fiscal expansion or exert political pressure on the BOJ are overblown," Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities economists wrote in a research report, noting that Takaichi's stance "appears closely aligned" with BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda's "cautious approach" to policy normalization. Most other major share markets around the region were closed for holidays, including mainland China, South Korea and Taiwan. Hong Kong's Hang Seng declined 0.7%, ahead of a holiday on Tuesday. Australia's benchmark eased 0.1%, though trading was thinned by holidays in several states including New South Wales and Queensland. U.S. S&P 500 futures pointed 0.3% higher, after the cash index rose to a record high on Friday. Pan-European STOXX 50 futures were flat, with stocks perched at record highs. The U.S. dollar made up some ground on European currencies, capitalizing on its momentum against the yen to rebound from last week's 0.5% decline against a basket of major peers. The euro lost 0.26% to $1.1714, and sterling slipped 0.22% to $1.3440. Gold last changed hands around $3,927 after advancing as much as 1.5% earlier to a record just above $3,944. Bitcoin traded around $123,600 following its jump to $125,653.32 on Sunday. "The shutdown matters this time around," said Geoffrey Kendrick, head of digital assets research at Standard Chartered Bank. "This year, bitcoin has traded with 'U.S. government risks,' as best shown by its relationship to (the) U.S. Treasury term premium," he added. "I suspect bitcoin will rise throughout the shutdown," and will soon reach $135,000, Kendrick predicted. Oil prices rose after OPEC+ announced on Sunday it would increase production by 137,000 barrels per day (bpd) from November, the same modest monthly increase as in October, amid persistent concerns over a looming supply glut. In the run-up to the meeting, sources said Russia was advocating for an output increase of 137,000 bpd to avoid pressuring prices, but Saudi Arabia would have preferred double, triple or even quadruple that figure to regain market share more quickly. Brent crude futures gained 1.3% to $65.36 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was at $61.69, also a 1.3% advance. (Reporting by Kevin Buckland; Editing by Sam Holmes)

(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 Tassilo Hummel and Mimosa Spencer PARIS (Reuters) -Gucci's "see now, buy now" approach for the first collection from new designer Demna, harnessing a buzz around the brand to draw shoppers back to its stores after years of lackluster sales, is showing some early success, data shows. Demna stole the show at Milan Fashion Week last month, dropping images of his first-ever Gucci collection on social media a day before the official debut in the style of a star-studded film premiere, an unusual move. The day after the celebrity-packed event, Gucci again broke with industry conventions, making the new products from the Milan show immediately available in ten flagship stores until October 12.  Big luxury houses usually stick to a rigid calendar of fashion shows months before clothes hit the shops. But Gucci's fast-track approach is showing some early improvements in store traffic in the United States, foot-traffic data compiled by Placer.ai and provided to Reuters by Colliers, shows. At the Rodeo Drive store in Los Angeles, one of the boutiques stocked with the new products, traffic rose steadily in each of the four days following the Milan show on September 23, with weekly store visits up 53% from the previous week, the data showed. At Gucci's Wooster Street store in New York weekly traffic was up 19%. Country-wide store visits in the U.S. reached their highest level in three weeks the weekend after the Demna launch, the data showed. Gucci-owner Kering and Gucci declined to comment when asked about shopper appetite for the Demna collection.     DEMNA'S NEW DESIGNS KEY TO REVITALISING GUCCI BRAND The success of the new collection from Demna, who only uses one name, would be a major step towards reviving the struggling Gucci brand, which makes up a majority of sales and profit at French conglomerate Kering. Kering CEO Luca de Meo and Gucci's boss Francesca Bellettini, both recent appointments, are under pressure to reverse Gucci's two-year sales decline. Gucci's revenue plummeted 25% year-on-year in the last reported quarter. Store traffic further slowed this year, Bellettini, then Kering's deputy CEO, said in July. Gucci's new fashion show-to-store move is unusual in the business and has only been used occasionally, mostly by smaller labels including Jacquemus and Burberry. But Gucci's instant commercial test makes sense, said Laure Anne Chansel, who teaches fashion marketing at the EIML business school in Paris. "What is the story the brand has told lately? There isn't much." Gucci needs to bank on the window of newfound attention after a period of flux following the previous designer's departure in February, Chansel said, referring to Sabato de Sarno.  LUXURY LABELS FIGHT TO WOO BACK SHOPPERS On Paris's Avenue Montaigne, one of three boutiques selling the collection in Europe, sales assistants last week said they had not seen such interest in months.  "I ended up being there longer than I thought,” said Gayle Deifel, a tourist from California, adding that she was surprised to discover Demna's new collection, including fur coats, a gold dress and new editions of Bamboo and Jackie handbags, already in the store. She bought a pair of leather boots. The new collection, which will be rolled out more broadly in January, also hints at the brand's commercial approach as it seeks to attract younger and less wealthy shoppers who turned away from luxury spending due to economic uncertainty. The luxury industry, which is in a downturn, needs to win back these customers who were put off when companies aggressively raised prices to focus on the super-wealthy. Gucci's new styles seen so far could widen the label's appeal, said luxury consultant LinLi Teh, a former buyer for London department store Liberty. “I think he's hitting the angles of all the Gucci customers over the past decades,” she said, referring to Demna, who comes from Georgia.  In the Paris store, the brand displayed a downsized and less expensive version of its classic Jackie bag near the checkout. At just under 2,000 euros ($2,347.00), the price is well below 3,200 euros for other Gucci styles. NEW DESIGNERS SEEK TO GRAB THE SPOTLIGHT Demna has taken the reins at Gucci amid an industry-wide reshuffle, with new designers also at Chanel, Dior and Loewe — all seeking to make their mark. Gucci's deep-pocketed rivals are staging elaborate events and campaigns, with LVMH recently creating a Louis Vuitton boutique shaped like an ocean liner in downtown Shanghai. Heavily-indebted Kering, meanwhile, is under pressure to balance marketing investments with a cost-cutting drive.  In China, Demna's Milan fashion week debut was broadcast at a VIP event with local celebrities in Beijing. This spurred a brief spike in online attention that faded within two days, said Alexis Bonhomme, who runs the luxury consulting firm Trinity Asia.  "The campaign has increased the talkability, but conversion into sales remains to be demonstrated," he said.  ($1 = 0.8522 euros) (Reporting by Tassilo Hummel and Mimosa Spencer, editing by Lisa Jucca and Jane Merriman)

(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 Tassilo Hummel and Mimosa Spencer PARIS (Reuters) -Gucci's "see now, buy now" approach for the first collection from new designer Demna, harnessing a buzz around the brand to draw shoppers back to its stores after years of lackluster sales, is showing some early success, data shows. Demna stole the show at Milan Fashion Week last month, dropping images of his first-ever Gucci collection on social media a day before the official debut in the style of a star-studded film premiere, an unusual move. The day after the celebrity-packed event, Gucci again broke with industry conventions, making the new products from the Milan show immediately available in ten flagship stores until October 12.  Big luxury houses usually stick to a rigid calendar of fashion shows months before clothes hit the shops. But Gucci's fast-track approach is showing some early improvements in store traffic in the United States, foot-traffic data compiled by Placer.ai and provided to Reuters by Colliers, shows. At the Rodeo Drive store in Los Angeles, one of the boutiques stocked with the new products, traffic rose steadily in each of the four days following the Milan show on September 23, with weekly store visits up 53% from the previous week, the data showed. At Gucci's Wooster Street store in New York weekly traffic was up 19%. Country-wide store visits in the U.S. reached their highest level in three weeks the weekend after the Demna launch, the data showed. Gucci-owner Kering and Gucci declined to comment when asked about shopper appetite for the Demna collection.     DEMNA'S NEW DESIGNS KEY TO REVITALISING GUCCI BRAND The success of the new collection from Demna, who only uses one name, would be a major step towards reviving the struggling Gucci brand, which makes up a majority of sales and profit at French conglomerate Kering. Kering CEO Luca de Meo and Gucci's boss Francesca Bellettini, both recent appointments, are under pressure to reverse Gucci's two-year sales decline. Gucci's revenue plummeted 25% year-on-year in the last reported quarter. Store traffic further slowed this year, Bellettini, then Kering's deputy CEO, said in July. Gucci's new fashion show-to-store move is unusual in the business and has only been used occasionally, mostly by smaller labels including Jacquemus and Burberry. But Gucci's instant commercial test makes sense, said Laure Anne Chansel, who teaches fashion marketing at the EIML business school in Paris. "What is the story the brand has told lately? There isn't much." Gucci needs to bank on the window of newfound attention after a period of flux following the previous designer's departure in February, Chansel said, referring to Sabato de Sarno.  LUXURY LABELS FIGHT TO WOO BACK SHOPPERS On Paris's Avenue Montaigne, one of three boutiques selling the collection in Europe, sales assistants last week said they had not seen such interest in months.  "I ended up being there longer than I thought,” said Gayle Deifel, a tourist from California, adding that she was surprised to discover Demna's new collection, including fur coats, a gold dress and new editions of Bamboo and Jackie handbags, already in the store. She bought a pair of leather boots. The new collection, which will be rolled out more broadly in January, also hints at the brand's commercial approach as it seeks to attract younger and less wealthy shoppers who turned away from luxury spending due to economic uncertainty. The luxury industry, which is in a downturn, needs to win back these customers who were put off when companies aggressively raised prices to focus on the super-wealthy. Gucci's new styles seen so far could widen the label's appeal, said luxury consultant LinLi Teh, a former buyer for London department store Liberty. “I think he's hitting the angles of all the Gucci customers over the past decades,” she said, referring to Demna, who comes from Georgia.  In the Paris store, the brand displayed a downsized and less expensive version of its classic Jackie bag near the checkout. At just under 2,000 euros ($2,347.00), the price is well below 3,200 euros for other Gucci styles. NEW DESIGNERS SEEK TO GRAB THE SPOTLIGHT Demna has taken the reins at Gucci amid an industry-wide reshuffle, with new designers also at Chanel, Dior and Loewe — all seeking to make their mark. Gucci's deep-pocketed rivals are staging elaborate events and campaigns, with LVMH recently creating a Louis Vuitton boutique shaped like an ocean liner in downtown Shanghai. Heavily-indebted Kering, meanwhile, is under pressure to balance marketing investments with a cost-cutting drive.  In China, Demna's Milan fashion week debut was broadcast at a VIP event with local celebrities in Beijing. This spurred a brief spike in online attention that faded within two days, said Alexis Bonhomme, who runs the luxury consulting firm Trinity Asia.  "The campaign has increased the talkability, but conversion into sales remains to be demonstrated," he said.  ($1 = 0.8522 euros) (Reporting by Tassilo Hummel and Mimosa Spencer, editing by Lisa Jucca and Jane Merriman)

(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 Leika Kihara TOKYO (Reuters) -The Bank of Japan on Monday maintained its economic assessments for eight of its regions saying their economies were recovering moderately or picking up, and cut the assessment for one area. Some regions cited companies in their area as saying they might need to curb wage increases if U.S. tariffs severely impact their profits, the BOJ said in a summary of reports made by its regional branch managers. But other regions saw companies projecting the need to keep raising wages because of labour shortages, increases in minimum wages and recent hikes in food costs, the summary said. Many companies planned to continue increasing capital expenditures to streamline operations and meet rising information technology-related demand, though some planned to put off or review their spending plans on uncertainty over the impact of U.S. tariffs, it said. (Reporting by Leika KiharaEditing by Chang-Ran Kim and Christian Schmollinger)

(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 Gregor Stuart Hunter SINGAPORE (Reuters) -The yen tumbled the most against the U.S. dollar in five months on Monday after Sanae Takaichi won the LDP leadership election at the weekend, setting the country on course for more expansionary fiscal policy and complicating the task facing the Bank of Japan. The yen sank 1.9% to 150.35 yen on the dollar, its biggest one-day slide since May 12, wiping out the gains it made in the past two months. Against the euro, the Japanese currency fell 1.7% to 176.19 yen, its weakest since the creation of the European single currency. "The coming days will be important to gauge her policies and from other potential members in her likely cabinet," Paul Mackel, global head of FX research at HSBC, wrote in a research note. "While we see room for the JPY to recover, there are limits given the domestic policy uncertainty." A former economic security and internal affairs minister with an expansionary fiscal agenda for the world's fourth-largest economy, Takaichi's victory puts her on course to become the country's first female prime minister. Her expansionist economic policy has reduced bets that the central bank will hike interest rates this month. Takaichi's win "will likely lead to some weakness in the yen," said Mahjabeen Zaman, head of FX Research at ANZ in Sydney. "There's a lot of political and fiscal uncertainty in the near term and maybe the BOJ may be cautious, despite the data supporting a little bit more of a hawkish stance," she said on a podcast. Long-dated Japanese government bonds sold off, with the 40-year JGB yield jumping 15.2 basis points to 3.538%. The yen swaps market on Monday now indicates a 41% likelihood of a rate hike by December, down from 68% on Friday. "We're in the eye of the storm," said Chris Weston, head of research at Pepperstone Group in Melbourne, as traders seek clues on how aggressively Takaichi will seek to ease fiscal policy. "If markets get a whiff that she's going to do Abenomics-lite, it could keep bond buyers out of the market," he said. "She does need to tread a careful path if she goes down that road. She'll be very cognizant of the UK's example." With many markets in Asia closed for holidays and liquidity thin in the region, the dollar index was last flat at 98.083, stabilising after recent losses. The dollar has weakened steadily against its major peers this year as traders attempt to gauge the economic impact of U.S. President Donald Trump's policies and attacks on the independence of the Federal Reserve. "We continue to think that the yen is cheap relative to U.S. dollar and expect the U.S. dollar to fall steadily over time as the Fed cuts rates and the BOJ hikes," said David Chao, global market strategist for Asia-Pacific at Invesco in Singapore. "This adjustment could take longer with the LDP election results and forthcoming policy shifts now more clear." Market activity signals that easing at the Fed's October meeting is a near-certainty, with Fed funds futures implying a 96.7% probability of a 25-basis-point rate cut, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool. Speculators are also pricing a 72% chance that the government shutdown lasts beyond October 15, according to contracts on the betting website Polymarket. The euro stood at $1.1723, down 0.2% so far in Asia, after French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu on Sunday named Roland Lescure, a close ally of President Emmanuel Macron, as finance minister in a new government that political rivals threatened to topple quickly if it failed to break with past Macron policies. The kiwi reversed earlier losses and was last trading flat at $0.5832, reversing a six-day winning streak ahead of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand's meeting on Wednesday, where it is narrowly expected to cut its key interest rate by 25 basis points to 2.75%. The Australian dollar fetched $0.6603, up 0.1% in early trade. Sterling was changing hands at $1.3450, down 0.2% so far on the day. The offshore yuan traded at 7.1456 yuan per dollar, 0.1% weaker in early trade. (Reporting by Gregor Stuart Hunter; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Kim Coghill)

(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 Tassilo Hummel and Mimosa Spencer PARIS (Reuters) -Gucci's "see now, buy now" approach for the first collection from new designer Demna, harnessing a buzz around the brand to draw shoppers back to its stores after years of lackluster sales, is showing some early success, data shows. Demna stole the show at Milan Fashion Week last month, dropping images of his first-ever Gucci collection on social media a day before the official debut in the style of a star-studded film premiere, an unusual move. The day after the celebrity-packed event, Gucci again broke with industry conventions, making the new products from the Milan show immediately available in ten flagship stores until October 12.  Big luxury houses usually stick to a rigid calendar of fashion shows months before clothes hit the shops. But Gucci's fast-track approach is showing some early improvements in store traffic in the United States, foot-traffic data compiled by Placer.ai and provided to Reuters by Colliers, shows. At the Rodeo Drive store in Los Angeles, one of the boutiques stocked with the new products, traffic rose steadily in each of the four days following the Milan show on September 23, with weekly store visits up 53% from the previous week, the data showed. At Gucci's Wooster Street store in New York weekly traffic was up 19%. Country-wide store visits in the U.S. reached their highest level in three weeks the weekend after the Demna launch, the data showed. Gucci-owner Kering and Gucci declined to comment when asked about shopper appetite for the Demna collection.     DEMNA'S NEW DESIGNS KEY TO REVITALISING GUCCI BRAND The success of the new collection from Demna, who only uses one name, would be a major step towards reviving the struggling Gucci brand, which makes up a majority of sales and profit at French conglomerate Kering. Kering CEO Luca de Meo and Gucci's boss Francesca Bellettini, both recent appointments, are under pressure to reverse Gucci's two-year sales decline. Gucci's revenue plummeted 25% year-on-year in the last reported quarter. Store traffic further slowed this year, Bellettini, then Kering's deputy CEO, said in July. Gucci's new fashion show-to-store move is unusual in the business and has only been used occasionally, mostly by smaller labels including Jacquemus and Burberry. But Gucci's instant commercial test makes sense, said Laure Anne Chansel, who teaches fashion marketing at the EIML business school in Paris. "What is the story the brand has told lately? There isn't much." Gucci needs to bank on the window of newfound attention after a period of flux following the previous designer's departure in February, Chansel said, referring to Sabato de Sarno.  LUXURY LABELS FIGHT TO WOO BACK SHOPPERS On Paris's Avenue Montaigne, one of three boutiques selling the collection in Europe, sales assistants last week said they had not seen such interest in months.  "I ended up being there longer than I thought,” said Gayle Deifel, a tourist from California, adding that she was surprised to discover Demna's new collection, including fur coats, a gold dress and new editions of Bamboo and Jackie handbags, already in the store. She bought a pair of leather boots. The new collection, which will be rolled out more broadly in January, also hints at the brand's commercial approach as it seeks to attract younger and less wealthy shoppers who turned away from luxury spending due to economic uncertainty. The luxury industry, which is in a downturn, needs to win back these customers who were put off when companies aggressively raised prices to focus on the super-wealthy. Gucci's new styles seen so far could widen the label's appeal, said luxury consultant LinLi Teh, a former buyer for London department store Liberty. “I think he's hitting the angles of all the Gucci customers over the past decades,” she said, referring to Demna, who comes from Georgia.  In the Paris store, the brand displayed a downsized and less expensive version of its classic Jackie bag near the checkout. At just under 2,000 euros ($2,347.00), the price is well below 3,200 euros for other Gucci styles. NEW DESIGNERS SEEK TO GRAB THE SPOTLIGHT Demna has taken the reins at Gucci amid an industry-wide reshuffle, with new designers also at Chanel, Dior and Loewe — all seeking to make their mark. Gucci's deep-pocketed rivals are staging elaborate events and campaigns, with LVMH recently creating a Louis Vuitton boutique shaped like an ocean liner in downtown Shanghai. Heavily-indebted Kering, meanwhile, is under pressure to balance marketing investments with a cost-cutting drive.  In China, Demna's Milan fashion week debut was broadcast at a VIP event with local celebrities in Beijing. This spurred a brief spike in online attention that faded within two days, said Alexis Bonhomme, who runs the luxury consulting firm Trinity Asia.  "The campaign has increased the talkability, but conversion into sales remains to be demonstrated," he said.  ($1 = 0.8522 euros) (Reporting by Tassilo Hummel and Mimosa Spencer, editing by Lisa Jucca and Jane Merriman)

(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 Jarrett Renshaw, Ernest Scheyder and Gram Slattery (Reuters) -Trump administration officials have discussed taking a stake in Critical Metals Corp, four people familiar with the discussions told Reuters, which would give Washington a direct interest in the largest rare earths project in Greenland, the Arctic territory that President Donald Trump once suggested buying. If finalized, the deal would mark the latest political twist for the Tanbreez rare earths deposit, which former President Joe Biden successfully lobbied to have sold to New York-based Critical Metals for far less than a Chinese firm was offering. Washington has recently taken stakes in Lithium Americas and MP Materials, underscoring Trump's desire for the U.S. to benefit from growing production of minerals used across the global economy. Details of the discussions about Washington's interest in an equity stake in Critical Metals have not previously been reported. The four sources declined to be named, citing the sensitivity of the negotiations. "Hundreds of companies are approaching us trying to get the administration to invest in their critical minerals projects," a senior Trump administration official told Reuters in response to a request for comment. "There is absolutely nothing close with this company at this time." Critical Metals did not respond to repeated requests for comment via email and phone. Greenland is a semi-autonomous part of Denmark and the Danish Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Rare earths offer strong magnetic properties critical to high-tech industries ranging from electric vehicles to missile systems. Their importance is spurring an intense push for fresh supplies by Western countries looking to lessen their dependence on China's near total control of their extraction and processing. Critical Metals, which agreed to buy Greenland's Tanbreez deposit last year for $5 million in cash and $211 million in stock, applied in June for a $50 million grant through the Defense Production Act, a Cold War-era piece of legislation aimed at boosting production of goods for national security purposes. In the last six weeks, though, the administration has begun discussions with the company about converting the grant into an equity stake, three of the sources said. If the deal goes through, a $50 million conversion would mean a roughly 8% stake in the company, although negotiations are not final and the final size of the stake could be higher or the deal itself could collapse, the same three sources said. Administration officials have considered reallocating $2 billion from the CHIPS Act to fund critical minerals projects, Reuters reported in August. The law, formally known as the CHIPS and Science Act, was signed into law by then-President Joe Biden in 2022 and aims to lure chip production away from Asia. The Critical Metals investment discussions were delayed by the administration's negotiations in recent days for a 5% stake in Lithium Americas, two of the sources said. The U.S. government shutdown is not expected to affect the negotiations, given that high-level staff involved in the discussions are considered essential government workers, two of the sources said. Part of the discussion centers on how warrants would be issued to give Washington the stake, one of the sources said. Warrants give their holders the right to buy stock at a set price. The equity stake would be separate from a $120 million loan the U.S. Export-Import Bank (EXIM) is considering to help the company develop Tanbreez, according to two of the sources. An EXIM spokesperson was not immediately available to comment. GREENLAND'S APPEAL Even before Trump expressed an interest in acquiring Greenland, Washington had long-running economic interests in the Danish territory. Biden officials were visiting Greenland's capital Nuuk as recently as last November trying to woo additional private investment in the island's mining sector. Trump also sent Vice President JD Vance to the island in March. One of the largest U.S. Air Force bases is in northern Greenland. The Tanbreez project is expected to cost $290 million to bring into commercial production, the company has previously said. The EXIM loan would be used to fund technical work and get the mine to initial production by 2026. Once fully operational, the mine is expected to produce 85,000 metric tons per year of rare earths concentrate. The site also contains gallium, which China subjected to export restrictions last year, and tantalum. Greenland's mining sector has developed slowly in recent years, hindered by limited investor interest, bureaucratic challenges and environmental concerns. Currently, only two small mines are in operation. The remote, cold location of Tanbreez is seen posing challenges to its development, although the deposit is located near a major waterway. (Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw, Ernest Scheyder and Gram Slattery; Writing by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Veronica Brown, Jason Neely and Edmund Klamann)

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

(Reuters) -Tesla on Sunday teased an October 7 event, as investors and analysts await a more affordable model to sustain sales momentum. In a nine-second video posted on social media platform X, the Elon Musk-led automaker showed a vehicle with its headlights illuminated in a dark setting. The company hinted at an event scheduled for Tuesday in a separate video that had "10/7" at the end. Tesla has previously delayed rolling out a lower-cost version of the Model Y in the United States. The company said in June that it had made "first builds" of the vehicle, but would start selling it in the fourth quarter and ramp up output slower than planned. The stripped-down version is designed to be roughly 20% cheaper to produce than the refreshed Model Y and could scale to about 250,000 units a year in the U.S. by 2026, sources told Reuters earlier this year. Tesla reported record quarterly deliveries for the three months ended September, driven by a surge in EV purchases ahead of the U.S. tax credit's expiration. The teaser videos followed the expiration of a $7,500 U.S. EV tax credit on September 30, a shift that could shape consumer choices and prompt Tesla to recalibrate its pricing strategy. (Reporting by Mrinmay Dey in Bengaluru; Editing by Jamie Freed)

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

(Reuters) -Boeing is guiding suppliers that it could ramp up 737 Max output and could reach a 42-jet monthly tempo as early as October, Bloomberg News reported on Monday citing people familiar with the plans. Reuters could not immediately verify the report. (Reporting by Yazhini MV in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)

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