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(Reuters) -Amazon's cloud services unit AWS was hit by an outage on Monday that took down several popular apps including Fortnite and Snapchat and caused connectivity issues for many companies around the world. AWS said it was seeing increased "error rates and latencies" for multiple services. "We are working on multiple parallel paths to accelerate recovery," it said in its latest update. The AWS outage is the first major internet disruption since last year's CrowdStrike malfunction that hobbled technology systems in hospitals, banks and airports globally. AWS provides on-demand computing power, data storage and other digital services to companies, governments and individuals. Disruptions to its servers can cause outages across websites and platforms that rely on its cloud infrastructure. AWS competes with Google's and Microsoft's cloud services. AWS directed Reuters to its status page when requested for a comment. Amazon did not respond to a request for comment. PERPLEXITY, COINBASE, PRIME VIDEO DOWN AI startup Perplexity, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and trading app Robinhood attributed the outages to AWS. "Perplexity is down right now. The root cause is an AWS issue. We're working on resolving it," Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas said in a post on X. Amazon's shopping website, PrimeVideo and Alexa were all facing issues, according to Downdetector. Fortnite, owned by Epic Games, Roblox, Clash Royale and Clash of Clans were among the gaming platforms that were down, while Paypal's Venmo and Chime were some of the financial platforms that faced issues, the outage tracking website said. Uber rival Lyft's app was also down for thousands of users in the U.S. Messaging app Signal's President Meredith Whittaker confirmed on X that the company's platform was hit by the AWS outage as well. BRITISH FIRMS AFFECTED Britain's Lloyd Bank, Bank of Scotland and telecom service providers Vodafone and BT were also facing issues, according to DownDetecor's UK website. The country's tax, payments and customs authority HMRC's website too was hit by the outage. However, billionaire Elon Musk, the owner of social media company X, said that his platform continued to work. "X works," he said, without commenting further. (Reporting by Shubham Kalia, Devika Nair and Ananya Palyekar in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

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By Shadia Nasralla LONDON (Reuters) -Oil prices dipped on Monday, pressured by worries over a global glut as U.S.-China trade tensions added to concerns about an economic slowdown and weaker energy demand. Brent crude futures were down 18 cents, or 0.3%, at $61.11 a barrel as of 0938 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures fell 17 cents, or 0.3%, to $57.37. Oil traders' concerns have shifted from under-supply to over-supply, the futures contract structure of the global benchmark Brent showed. The six-month spread for Brent shows contracts for earlier loading are trading below those for later loading, a structure known as contango, which encourages traders to pay for storing oil so it can be sold at higher prices when supplies are expected to have shrunk. Contango, which emerged on Thursday for the first time since a brief appearance in May, has deepened to around minus 30 cents, a level last seen in late 2023. Narrowing backwardation, the market term for immediate deliveries fetching a premium over later deliveries, suggests investors are making less money selling their oil in the spot market because near-term supply is perceived to be ample. Both benchmarks declined more than 2% last week, marking their third consecutive weekly decline, partly due to the International Energy Agency's outlook for a growing supply glut in 2026. Last week, the head of the World Trade Organization said she had urged the United States and China to de-escalate trade tensions, warning that a decoupling by the world's two largest economies could reduce global economic output by 7% over the longer term. The two top oil consumers have recently renewed their trade war, imposing additional port fees on ships carrying cargo between them – tit-for-tat moves that could disrupt global freight flows. Uncertainty remains over what may happen with Russian oil supply, with U.S. President Donald Trump warning again on Sunday that Washington would maintain "massive" tariffs on India unless it stopped buying Russian oil. On the supply side, U.S. energy firms last week added rigs for the first time in three weeks, energy services firm Baker Hughes said. (Additional reporting by Yuka Obayashi in Tokyo and Colleen Howe in Beijing; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

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(This Oct 18 story has been refiled without any changes to the text.) By Raphael Satter WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. court has ordered Israel's NSO Group to stop targeting Meta Platforms' WhatsApp messaging service, a development the spyware company warned could put it out of business. In a 25-page ruling handed down Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Phyllis Hamilton imposed a permanent injunction on NSO Group's efforts to break into WhatsApp, one of the world's most widely used communications platforms.  Hamilton also handed NSO a significant break on the damages awarded in a recently concluded jury trial, reducing the punitive damages it owes Meta from about $167 million to $4 million.  The injunction is likely to pose a challenge to NSO, which has for years been accused of facilitating human rights abuses through its flagship hacking tool, Pegasus.  Pegasus takes advantage of weaknesses in commonly deployed pieces of software to power its surveillance, making WhatsApp one of its bigger targets.  NSO has previously argued that an injunction preventing it from going after WhatsApp "would put NSO’s entire enterprise at risk" and "force NSO out of business," according to the judgment. Meta executives celebrated the decision. “Today’s ruling bans spyware maker NSO from ever targeting WhatsApp and our global users again," WhatsApp chief Will Cathcart said on X. "We applaud this decision that comes after six years of litigation to hold NSO accountable for targeting members of civil society." NSO, which has long insisted its products fight serious crime and terrorism, said it welcomed the 97% reduction in punitive damages and said that the injunction did not apply to NSO's customers, "who will continue using the company’s technology to help protect public safety." The company said it would review the decision and "determine its next steps accordingly.” The company was recently purchased by a group led by Hollywood producer Robert Simonds, according to a report earlier this month in tech publication TechCrunch. Simonds did not immediately return an email. (Reporting by Raphael Satter; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

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By Tim Hepher and Allison Lampert CASTELLON DE LA PLANA, Spain (Reuters) -At Castellon airport in eastern Spain, workers in hazmat suits wriggle through hatches of a nearly new Airbus jet, stripping out parts as if gutting a mechanical whale. Once a semi-deserted airport, Castellon has become a graveyard for aircraft caught in a global engine crisis. Despite booming demand for planes, a severe shortage of next-generation fuel-efficient engines has flipped market economics: in some cases, the engines are now worth more than the aircraft they power when offered as spares. The imbalance has led to more than a dozen Airbus jets being dismantled for parts after only a few years in service, with dozens more awaiting their fate, according to industry insiders. AIRBUS JET SCRAPPED AFTER SIX YEARS The unusual trend, driven by delays in Pratt & Whitney GTF engine production and maintenance, has sounded the death knell for jets like the six-year-old A321neo being broken up in Castellon. The A321neo is part of the A320 family, which this month ousted Boeing's 737 as the most-delivered jetliner. The Spanish airport, for years blighted by a lack of passengers, is the growing hub for a lucrative financial trade as UK-based eCube harvests parts from almost-new jets for investor clients. "I can’t say I remember it happening on this scale before, because we’ve never had an issue like this on such a popular engine," said Lee McConnellogue, CEO of the company, which says it can release usable parts or recycle virtually the whole jet. Skilled workers strip out avionics, wheels and wing parts. Engine housings sit on the wings like empty husks, with their precious powerplants wrapped in blue covers to become spares worth up to $20 million. They are urgently needed by airlines forced to ground jets because of queues for engine repairs. The problem worsened in 2023 when Pratt & Whitney disclosed a rare powder-metal defect that could cause cracking, prompting calls for inspections of 600-700 GTF engines through 2026. According to Cirium data, one-third of the GTF-powered Airbus fleet or 636 jets are grounded or in storage. The equivalent percentage for planes with engines from competitor CFM is 4%. Pratt & Whitney and Airbus had no immediate comment. 'SOMETHING WRONG' The jet engine squeeze is disrupting airline operations worldwide, as carriers struggle to meet passenger demand and unlock the promised 15% fuel savings of new aircraft.  Most airlines say they are short of jets after years of delivery delays and are keeping older planes flying longer.  But in some cases, financial owners can earn more by stripping engines than by leasing out the jet itself.  For example, the engines can be rented out as spares for some $200,000 a month each, according to UK-based Cirium. That is at least as much as a whole plane with engines. Add to the pot revenue from breaking up the rest and the deal makes sense. "It's a paradox where there's so much demand, why on earth would people be parting out aircraft," said Austin Willis, CEO of Willis Lease, which bought some of the engines.   The engine bubble overshadowed a recent meeting of the International Society of Transport Aircraft Trading (ISTAT), a teeming ecosystem of aircraft traders and lessors who buy, sell or finance almost every aspect of a jet from nose to tail. "It's a financial play … There have been billions of dollars of private equity capital bidding for aircraft and engines to part out in recent years," Naveo consultant Richard Brown said. "It shows aviation has become a super-efficient marketplace," he added in a telephone interview. But airline leaders question how aircraft built to fly for more than 20 years and save millions of gallons of fuel are being dismantled so quickly.  "It tells you something is seriously wrong," said Willie Walsh, head of the International Air Transport Association, which last week predicted $11 billion in costs from supply disruption this year including $2.6 billion in engines alone. Critics say the crisis has its roots in an overreaction to high oil prices above $140 a barrel at around the time engine makers were designing current models. Engine design involves a balancing act between optimising efficiency or durability. "They went too fast and the engines had great improvements in efficiency but they failed on maintenance," leading aviation economist Adam Pilarski told Reuters during the ISTAT event. Engine executives argue the fuel savings benefit airlines on every mile flown, while maintenance delays are temporary. Even so, Pratt admits it will take years to end bottlenecks. Chris Calio, CEO of Pratt & Whitney parent RTX, said last month that groundings had stabilised and would fall, but that “clearly we have more work to do.”  Now some are eyeing the fate of Airbus planes discarded by Spirit Airlines as the U.S. carrier faces bankruptcy. "I don’t think the die is completely cast on what’s going to happen to Spirit, but it’s inevitable that some of those aircraft will (be broken up)," eCube's McConnellogue said.     (Reporting by Tim Hepher in Paris, Allison Lampert in Montreal and Eva Manez in Castellon de la Plana, Spain; Editing by Joe Brock and Matthew Lewis)

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By Stefano Rebaudo and Kevin Buckland (Reuters) -The dollar rose against the yen and slipped versus the euro on Monday as investor focus temporarily shifted to political developments in Japan and the euro area, while lingering concerns about U.S. credit risks weighed on sentiment. The yen weakened as hardline conservative Sanae Takaichi looked poised to become Japan’s first female prime minister following a decisive parliamentary vote on Tuesday.  Her expected premiership, backed by a new coalition with the right-wing Japan Innovation Party, has raised investor concerns over potential fiscal expansion, which could weigh on the Japanese currency. “Market participants will now be watching closely to see what fiscal plans are put together by the new coalition government,” said Lee Hardman, senior currency economist at MUFG. “Japan Innovation Party’s own fiscal plans have been described as ‘moderately expansionary’,” he added. The dollar rose 0.1% to 150.75 yen, after hitting 151.20 earlier in the session. Bank of Japan board member Hajime Takata, who voted against keeping rates steady in September, reiterated on Monday his case for resuming rate hikes, providing some support for the Japanese currency.  Japan's benchmark Nikkei stock index closed more than 3% higher, hitting an all-time peak on expectations of an expansionary fiscal policy. [.T] The BOJ next decides monetary policy on October 30, with market-implied odds of a quarter-point rate increase at 23%, according to LSEG data. The euro edged higher against the dollar as political tensions in France eased, but investor caution lingered. Markets remain reluctant to fully price out French risk from the euro, with the government’s decision to freeze pension reform offering only a temporary political breather while complicating already fragile budget talks. The euro was up 0.1% at $1.1664. “This week the focus should stay on the U.S., and a further souring of credit sentiment could send the euro on a path to $1.180,” said Francesco Pesole, a foreign exchange strategist at ING. Market participants are closely watching Wall Street futures, which were up 0.34%. Indexes ended higher on Friday as investors took comfort in reassuring remarks from U.S. President Donald Trump on China, while upbeat quarterly results from regional banks helped ease concerns over credit risks. The Australian dollar rose on Monday, cheered by reasons to be a bit more upbeat on top trade partner China, with data showing its economy reasonably resilient to U.S. tariffs and Trump toning down some of his trade rhetoric. Official data on Monday showed China's economy grew 1.1% in the third quarter, to top forecasts, while industrial output also beat with a rise of 6.5%. Although the 4.8% annual growth rate marked the weakest pace in a year, it kept the country on track to meet its official growth target of around 5%. The Aussie gained 0.3% to $0.6504 on Monday. China's yuan was little changed in offshore trading at 7.1235 per U.S. dollar. "There's an element – to use the Cold War language – of mutually assured destruction when it comes to total rare earth exports curbs and 100% tariff rates, with both the U.S. and Chinese more or less acknowledging that," said Kyle Rodda, a markets analyst at Capital.com. "As a result, the markets are pricing in that things will de-escalate," Rodda added. "However, the markets are likely to remain jittery until such backdowns are explicitly announced." (Reporting by Stefano Rebaudo and Kevin Buckland; Editing by Sam Holmes and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

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(Reuters) -Amazon's cloud services unit AWS was hit by an outage on Monday, causing connectivity issues for many companies around the world and disrupting services for several popular websites and apps including Fortnite and Snapchat. "We can confirm increased error rates and latencies for multiple AWS Services in the US-EAST-1 Region," AWS said in an update on its status page. AI startup Perplexity, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and trading app Robinhood attributed the outages to AWS. "Perplexity is down right now. The root cause is an AWS issue. We're working on resolving it," Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas said in a post on X. AWS provides on-demand computing power, data storage and other digital services to companies, governments and individuals. Disruptions to its servers can cause outages across websites and platforms that rely on its cloud infrastructure. AWS competes with Google's and Microsoft's cloud services. AWS and Amazon did not respond to a request for comment. Amazon's shopping website, PrimeVideo and Alexa were all facing issues, according to Downdetector. Fortnite, owned by Epic Games, Roblox, Clash Royale and Clash of Clans were among the gaming sites that were down, while Paypal's Venmo and Chime were some of the financial platforms that faced issues, the outage tracking website said. Uber rival Lyft's app was also down for thousands of users in the U.S. Messaging app Signal's President Meredith Whittaker also confirmed on X that their platform was hit by the AWS outage as well. (Reporting by Shubham Kalia, Devika Nair and Ananya Palyekar in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

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(Reuters) -Multiple online platforms including Amazon's cloud unit AWS, Robinhood, Snapchat and Perplexity were down on Monday, Downdetector said, while the CEO of Perplexity said the root cause was an AWS issue. Amazon.com, PrimeVideo and Alexa were all facing issues, according to Downdetector. Paypal's Venmo was also down. (Reporting by Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru)

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By Naomi Rovnick and Wayne Cole SYDNEY (Reuters) -World stock markets rose on Monday, as traders placed bets on Japanese stimulus and cheered data suggesting China's economy was withstanding a U.S. trade war. Japan's Nikkei jumped 2.8% to a record peak on news the Liberal Democratic Party and the Japan Innovation Party have agreed to form a coalition government, setting the stage for Sanae Takaichi, who is viewed as pro-stimulus, to become prime minister. Europe's Stoxx 600 share index bounced 0.7% higher in early trade and Wall Street stock futures implied the blue chip S&P 500 shared index would open about 0.4% higher and the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 would add 0.5%. It was a sign that markets were setting aside renewed jitters about U.S. regional banks for now. CHINESE ECONOMY BEATS FORECASTS Data earlier in the session showed China's economy grew 1.1% in the third quarter, to top forecasts, while industrial output also beat with a rise of 6.5%, helping to allay fears about world growth as Beijing and Washington haggle over trade. Investors were also keeping faith with high-flying artificial intelligence stocks as the Wall Street earnings season gathers momentum, with much riding on the AI titans' continuing to show blockbuster profit growth. "I wouldn't say it's early innings for big tech but I think there's still enough scope for healthy returns," said Arbuthnot Latham global investment strategy director Jason da Silva, adding he was not selling out of the AI theme yet. HIGH EXPECTATIONS FOR EARNINGS According to LSEG IBES data, analysts have forecast 8.8% year-on-year growth for S&P 500 companies overall for this quarter. BofA analyst Savita Subramanian expects 11% growth for tech earnings and chipmaker Nvidia alone to drive a quarter of the aggregate uplift in earnings per share, although the stock has drifted lower this month as cautious investors cut some exposure. "Nvidia is a great company, we have it, we're investing in it, there's no question that it's not the number one stock in the world," Carmignac investment committee member Kevin Thozet said. He cautioned that there were signs of froth in other AI stocks that were loss-making or valued at extremely high multiples of expected earnings, but said it was too early to exit the AI trade. Earnings reports in upcoming days that could also influence market sentiment include those from Tesla and Netflix, while consumer groups Procter & Gamble and Coca-Cola might provide a snapshot of how the U.S economy is coping with tariffs so far. RATE CUT BETS STRONG Signs of a weakening U.S. labour market have kept traders anticipating more rate cuts from the U.S. Federal Reserve, despite economists forecasting inflation will stick stubbornly above the central bank's average 2% target. Figures due on Friday are expected to show core U.S. price growth held at 3.1% in September but, with Fed Chair Jay Powell not pushing back against market bets, futures are fully pricing a quarter-point cut this month and another in December, with U.S. rates declining to 3% next year. That theme continued supporting U.S. Treasuries on Monday, despite the continuing government shutdown in Washington that the White House has said would cost the economy about $15 billion a week. The 10-year Treasury yield, which sets the tone for global corporate and household debt costs, fell by almost 4 basis points last week and was trading at about 4.02%. The Fed cut theme has also helped to further depress the U.S. dollar against European and higher-yielding currencies, with the euro edging up to $1.1662 on Monday after withstanding pressure from last week's surprise credit downgrade of France by ratings agency Standard & Poor's. The greenback at least held its own against the Japanese yen on Monday, as traders reduced the likely odds of a Bank of Japan rate hike this month to just over 20% and viewed the central bank as likely to support government stimulus efforts over battling inflation.    In commodities, safe-haven gold remained about the only major asset signalling any uncertainty about world growth or geopolitics, holding at about $4,266% an ounce after climbing 6% last week. Amundi Investment Institute head of cross-asset strategy Lorenzo Portelli said he was eyeing a $5,000 per ounce target for gold as central banks kept adding to reserves and the dollar's supremacy faded. Oil was weighed down on Monday by OPEC+ supply plans and international benchmark Brent crude eased 0.4% to $61.02 a barrel. (Reporting by Naomi Rovnick in London and Wayne Cole in Sydney; Editing by Kim Coghill and Alex Richardson)

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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)

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(Reuters) -Amazon said on Monday its cloud services unit AWS was hit by an outage, disrupting several popular websites and apps across the world including Snapchat and Robinhood. "We can confirm increased error rates and latencies for multiple AWS Services in the US-EAST-1 Region," AWS said in an update on its status page. AI startup Perplexity and cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase attributed the outages to AWS. "Perplexity is down right now. The root cause is an AWS issue. We’re working on resolving it," Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas said in a post on X. AWS and Amazon did not respond to a request for comment. Amazon.com, PrimeVideo and Alexa were all facing issues, according to Downdetector. Paypal's Venmo was also facing issues. (Reporting by Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

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