व्यापार

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump is considering significant tariff relief for U.S. auto production that could effectively eliminate much of the costs major car companies are paying, Republican Senator Bernie Moreno and auto officials told Reuters Friday. "The signal to the car companies around the world is look you have final assembly in the US: we're going to reward you," Moreno said in an interview. "For Ford, for Toyota, for Honda, for Tesla, for GM, those are the almost in order the top five domestic content vehicle producers — they'll be immune to tariffs." In June, the Commerce Department said it planned an import adjustment offset equal to 3.75% of the suggested retail price for eligible U.S. assembled vehicles through April 2026 and then a second year at 2.5% to address tariffs from imported automobile parts. Trump is considering keeping the offset at 3.75% and extending to five years, and expanding the offset to U.S. engine production, Moreno and auto officials said. Moreno said he thinks Trump will make a final decision soon. "It's obviously up to the president, but absolutely thrilled that we're creating now an incentive system that really separates these importers only versus the ones that are manufacturing in America." Asked for comment on the proposal, a White House official said Trump and the administration "are committed to a nuanced and multi-faceted approach to securing domestic auto and auto parts production. Until any official action is signed by the president, however, any discussion about administration policymaking is speculative." (Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama )

(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 Mike Stone WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The much-needed modernization of the U.S. Army's battlefield communications network being undertaken by Anduril, Palantir and others is rife with "fundamental security" problems and vulnerabilities, and should be treated as a "very high risk," according to a recent internal Army memo. The two Silicon Valley companies, led by allies of U.S. President Donald Trump, have gained access to the Pentagon's lucrative flow of contracts on the promise of quickly providing less expensive and more sophisticated weapons than the Pentagon's longstanding arms providers.   But the September memo from the Army's chief technology officer about the NGC2 platform that connects soldiers, sensors, vehicles and commanders with real-time data paints a bleak picture of the initial product. "We cannot control who sees what, we cannot see what users are doing, and we cannot verify that the software itself is secure," the memo says. Palantir and Anduril did not comment for this story.  The assessment, seen by Reuters and first reported by Breaking Defense, comes just months after defense drone and software maker Anduril was awarded a $100 million to create a prototype of NGC2 with partners including Palantir, Microsoft and several smaller contractors. The Army should treat the NGC2 prototype version as “very high risk” because of the “likelihood of an adversary gaining persistent undetectable access," wrote Gabrielle Chiulli, the Army chief technology officer authorizing official. Despite the early September memo's scathing critique, Leonel Garciga, Army chief information officer and Chiulli's supervisor, said in a statement to Reuters that the report was part of a process that helped in "triaging cybersecurity vulnerabilities" and mitigating them. In March, the 4th Infantry Division used the system in live-fire artillery training at Fort Carson, Colorado, in an exercise Anduril described as demonstrating faster and more reliable performance than legacy systems. The Army memo identifies some major security gaps. The report says the system allows any authorized user to access all applications and data regardless of their clearance level or operational need. As a result, "Any user can potentially access and misuse sensitive" classified information, the memo states, with no logging to track their actions. Other deficiencies highlighted in the memo include the hosting of third-party applications that have not undergone Army security assessments. One application revealed 25 high-severity code vulnerabilities. Three additional applications under review each contain over 200 vulnerabilities requiring assessment, according to the document. (Reporting by Mike Stone; editing by Chris Sanders and Sergio Non)

(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 Elvira Pollina and Giulio Piovaccari TURIN (Reuters) -Amazon founder Jeff Bezos predicted on Friday gigawatt-scale data centres will be built in space within the next 10 to 20 years and that continuously available solar energy meant they would eventually outperform those based on Earth. Speaking at the Italian Tech Week in Turin, Bezos also compared the surge in artificial intelligence to the internet boom of the early 2000s, urging optimism despite the risk of speculative bubbles. The concept of orbital data centres has gained traction among tech giants as those on Earth have driven up demand for electricity and water to cool their servers. "These giant training clusters, those will be better built in space, because we have solar power there, 24/7. There are no clouds and no rain, no weather," Bezos said in a public conversation with Ferrari and Stellantis Chairman John Elkann. "We will be able to beat the cost of terrestrial data centres in space in the next couple of decades." Bezos said the shift to space infrastructure is part of a broader trend of using space to improve life on Earth. "It's already happened with weather and communication satellites," he said. "The next step is data centres, then other kinds of manufacturing." Hosting data centres in space has its own challenges, including the difficulty of maintenance and carrying out upgrades and the cost of launching rockets, as well as the risk the launches may fail. The executive chair of Amazon said the AI wave shares traits with the dot-com era, when massive hype was followed by a crash. "We should be extremely optimistic that the societal and beneficial consequences of AI, like we had with internet 25 years ago, are for real and there to stay," he said. "It is important to decorrelate the potential bubbles and their bursting consequences that might or might not happen from the actual reality," Bezos said, adding that the benefits of AI were expected "to be broadly diffused and it will go everywhere". (Reporting by Elvira Pollina and Giulio Piovaccari; Writing by Elvira Pollina; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise 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.)

(Corrects CFO name to Fred Cromer) By Sabrina Valle NEW YORK (Reuters) -Spirit Airlines plans to shrink its fleet by nearly 100 aircraft and exit different U.S. markets as part of a sweeping restructuring under Chapter 11, CFO Fred Cromer said on Friday during a virtual meeting with creditors. The low-cost carrier, which he said currently operates 214 aircraft, is using bankruptcy tools to eliminate unprofitable routes and reduce its network footprint. The strategy is expected to save the company “hundreds of millions of dollars” in costs, he added. (Reporting by Sabrina Valle in New York;; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

(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 Sabrina Valle NEW YORK (Reuters) -Spirit Airlines plans to shrink its fleet by nearly 100 aircraft and exit more than a dozen U.S. markets as part of a sweeping bankruptcy restructuring process, CFO Fred Cromer said on Friday during a virtual meeting with creditors. Spirit Airlines filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after a prolonged period of financial strain. The low-cost carrier, which Cromer said currently operates 214 aircraft, is using bankruptcy tools to eliminate unprofitable routes and reduce its network footprint.  The strategy is expected to save the company “hundreds of millions of dollars” in costs, Cromer said, allowing it to "support a much smaller and stronger Spirit Airlines." Spirit said in a statement that it filed a motion with the court on Thursday to reject 87 additional aircraft leases. "The motion is subject to court approval, and we continue to engage with key stakeholders, including our lessors, as part of our ongoing restructuring to position Spirit for the future." Industry overcapacity among low-cost carriers combined with low passenger demand, significant downward pressure in pricing, and an influx of low-fare seats at legacy airlines led the company to bankruptcy, Cromer said. "While the industry was hopeful at the beginning of 2025 that there would be a rebound, it didn't happen," he said. "That obviously led to the situation that we're in today." He did not specify a deadline for the fleet reduction. “Today, we have 214 airplanes,” Cromer said. “We’re talking order of magnitude, reducing that by almost 100 aircraft.” In recent weeks, Spirit has announced plans to exit service at more than a dozen U.S. airports, including Hartford, Connecticut, and Minneapolis, Minnesota, and suspended roughly 40 routes as part of its restructuring plan. It is not clear how many of those cuts have already been made. The company also rejected leases on 27 aircraft from lessor AerCap and terminated 12 airport leases and 19 ground handling agreements.  AerCap will pay Spirit $150 million as part of the deal, which resolves their dispute over a deal covering 36 Airbus planes due for delivery between 2027 and 2028. (Reporting by Sabrina Valle in New York; additional reporting by Doyinsola Oladipo in New York and Rajesh Kumar Singh; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Leslie Adler)

(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) -A UnitedHealth shareholder proposed on Friday that the healthcare group should adopt a policy to require an independent board chair, a role now held by CEO Stephen Hemsley. The Accountability Board, a nonprofit advocacy group and UnitedHealth's shareholder, said the current structure would decrease the board's "checks and balances by consolidating power." Hemsley took the CEO job after his predecessor Andrew Witty resigned abruptly in May. Hemsley served as the board chair since 2017. "Now, a single person holds both roles — which is as far as it gets from the independent oversight shareholders so critically need," the proposal says. Matt Prescott, president of the Accountability Board, declined to disclose its stake in UnitedHealth but said it has at least $25,000 in the company for the past year. This comes as the largest U.S. health insurer is trying to regain the confidence of shareholders. Once hailed as a reliable earnings performer, UnitedHealth missed Wall Street's earnings target for two straight quarters this year, and was forced to pull back its 2025 outlook in May due to soaring medical costs and shortfalls in its government-backed plans. In the last two years, UnitedHealth has also dealt with a cyberattack at its technology unit that served as a major backbone in the U.S. healthcare system, the murder of its insurance unit chief in December, and a federal investigation into its government-backed health plans. (Reporting by Mariam Sunny in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona)

(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 Howard Schneider PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) -U.S. Federal Reserve Vice Chair Philip Jefferson reiterated on Friday that the U.S. job market could face stress if it is not supported by monetary policy. In remarks prepared for delivery at Drexel University's LeBow College of Business, Jefferson largely repeated comments from earlier in the week that with inflation above the Fed's 2% target and the job market seeming to weaken, "both sides of our mandate are under pressure." "I see the risks to employment as tilted to the downside and risks to inflation to the upside," with the quarter-point rate cut at the last Fed meeting appropriate as a way to support the job market with slightly easier monetary policy "while maintaining a balanced approach to promoting our dual-mandate objectives," Jefferson said. He did not indicate if he favors a further quarter-point cut at the Fed's meeting later this month, as anticipated by investors. He also noted he was speaking without the benefit of the September jobs data that, absent the federal government shutdown underway in the U.S., would have been available Friday morning. "This is less than ideal," said Jefferson, while adding that he does not "focus on a single report" in deciding on monetary policy. (Reporting by Howard Schneider; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

(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 Tom Polansek WATERMAN, Illinois (Reuters) -A trade mission to Nigeria. A memorandum of understanding with Vietnam. A surge of purchases from Bangladesh.  These countries are not typically major customers for soybeans from the U.S. farm belt. But desperate farmers, their trade organizations and President Donald Trump's administration are turning to far corners of the world in hopes of averting a disaster for agriculture from a trade war that has kept China from purchasing U.S. supplies.  The efforts so far are failing to offset the loss of the country's biggest customer for the crop, data and interviews show, with financial pain extending to tractor makers and other agricultural businesses. For the first time in more than 20 years, Chinese importers have not yet bought soybeans from the autumn U.S. harvest, forcing farmers to store their crops on hopes that prices will eventually rise from around a five-year low. It is a risk that delays their ability to bring in money from crop sales at a time when they face rising costs for everything from labor and energy to fertilizer. In a sign that hard times are expected to continue in rural America, Trump has promised to give proceeds from tariff revenues to farmers, who largely supported his campaigns for president.  On Thursday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the government would make an announcement on Tuesday about support for farmers. Tit-for-tat tariffs that Washington and Beijing imposed on each other's goods this year have made U.S. soybeans too expensive for Chinese buyers, leading importers to buy from South America instead.  But alternative markets for U.S. exports are tiny by comparison and have not replaced China, long the world's biggest importer by far. CRISIS ACUTE FOR ILLINOIS SOYBEAN FARMERS The crisis is particularly acute in Illinois, the largest U.S. soybean producing and exporting state.  About 60 miles (97 km) west of Chicago, where the city and suburbs start to give way to green fields, farmer Ryan Frieders, 49, will be storing much of his beans in bins after previously selling some of his expected harvest at prices below the cost of production.  After months of work that included planting seeds, fertilizing fields and spraying weedkillers, Illinois growers on average are facing losses of up to $64 per acre this year, thanks in part to low crop prices and weak exports, according to University of Illinois estimates. China purchased about 45% of all U.S. soybean exports last year – and usually secures about 40% of its annual U.S. soybean needs by early October, said Ted Seifried, chief market strategist for Zaner Ag Hedge in Chicago. U.S. soybean exports to China dropped 39% by volume to 5.9 million metric tons from January to July, before the autumn harvest began, the latest government data show. By value, shipments sank 51% to $2.5 billion, robbing farmers of billions of dollars' worth of business. The U.S. made a big increase in exports to Bangladesh at just over 400,000 tonnes, a fraction of China's typical demand. Despite rising shipments to Vietnam, Egypt, Thailand and Malaysia, total U.S. soybean exports were down 8% by volume from the same period a year ago to 18.9 million tonnes. Along with industry officials, Frieders, who farms in Waterman, Illinois, traveled to Turkey and Saudi Arabia in February to meet with buyers and visit processors on a trip sponsored by the U.S. Soybean Export Council trade group. "There's talk about India and expanding there, and Southeast Asia, and North Africa: those are markets of the future," said Frieders, adding, "there isn't this lost market that we haven't looked at that could just suddenly explode and be a new China." SOY INDUSTRY SEEKS TO IMPROVE TRADE U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said on social media in September that Taiwan committed to $10 billion in U.S. agriculture purchases over the next four years, including soybeans. She called the commitment a "game-changer," but it was misleading: such a commitment would not represent an increase. The U.S. exported $3.8 billion worth of U.S. agricultural products to Taiwan in 2024, according to U.S. data. If that same pace of sales continued over four years, it would total $15 billion. The U.S. Department of Agriculture did not respond to a request for comment about Rollins' statement. Industry groups have also tried to boost U.S. exports. During a trade mission in June, co-sponsored by the U.S. Soybean Export Council, Vietnam's agriculture minister signed memorandums of understanding to buy more than $1.4 billion in U.S. farm products, including soybeans, the council said.  The council also met with Nigerian importers and soybean processors in June to promote trade, hoping to build off a modest 64,000 metric tons shipped there last year, according to the U.S. Mission in Nigeria. In August, the U.S. Mission in Nigeria said it also joined the American Soybean Association at a graduation ceremony involving aquaculture, an industry that can use soy as fish food.  Through July, though, the U.S. had not exported any soybeans to Nigeria this year, according to U.S. data. Illinois hosted agricultural buyers from Peru, Colombia, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Mexico and the Dominican Republic on an annual tour of farms and crop handling facilities in August.  The U.S. did not export soy to Peru through July, while Nicaragua and El Salvador bought a negligible amount, U.S. data show. Exports were largely flat to Mexico and down to the Dominican Republic. Farmers hope the efforts pay dividends over the longer term, though they are struggling now. CHINA DOMINATES GLOBAL SOY IMPORTS With more than 1.4 billion people and the world's biggest hog herd, China is hard to replace as a soybean buyer. It has imported an average of 61% of the world's traded soybean supplies over the past five years, more than the rest of the world combined, according to the American Soybean Association. In 2024, the U.S. exported nearly 27 million metric tons of soybeans to China and 5 million metric tons to Mexico, the second biggest buyer.  "The Soybean Farmers of our Country are being hurt because China is, for 'negotiating' reasons only, not buying," Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday. He said soybeans would be a major topic of discussion when he meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping in four weeks. China's business is now going to South America, as it did during Trump's last trade war.  Last month, U.S. soybeans were about 80 cents to 90 cents a bushel cheaper than Brazilian soybeans for shipment in September or October, but China's 23% tariff on U.S. shipments added $2 a bushel to the cost for importers, traders have said.  In Argentina, the government of President Javier Milei briefly suspended export taxes on soybeans in September, luring Chinese buyers who swiftly booked cargoes, traders said. The deals infuriated U.S. farmers shut out of China as Bessent said Washington was negotiating to support Milei, a Trump ally, financially with a $20 billion swap line for Argentina. "The frustration is overwhelming," said Caleb Ragland, 39, a Kentucky farmer and president of the American Soybean Association. CHINA'S ABSENCE IN THE MARKET SPILLS OVER TO OTHERS The decline in income from crop production has spilled over into other facets of rural America. Equipment manufacturer CNH, which sells tractors and combines, said net sales in its agriculture business dropped 20% in the six months ending on June 30, compared to the previous year.  "The good news only comes when China actually starts to order," CNH CEO Gerrit Marx said in an August interview at the Farm Progress Show in Decatur, Illinois. Decatur, home to Archer-Daniels-Midland's North American headquarters, was formerly known as the soy capital of the world because of its processing industry, Mayor Julie Moore Wolfe said.  At the Farm Progress Show, when asked where the new soy capital was, the mayor dropped her voice to a whisper. "It mig…

(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 David French NEW YORK (Reuters) -Chevron is selling a collection of pipeline assets in the Denver-Julesburg shale basin that are likely to fetch more than $2 billion, people familiar with the matter said. Investment bankers at Bank of America have been working in recent weeks to solicit potential interest in the infrastructure, which was largely inherited from the oil major's acquisition of Noble Energy in 2020 and its subsequent full takeover of Noble's midstream business a year later, said the sources, who asked not to be named because the talks are private. Collectively, the assets generate around $200 million of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), some of the people added. Based on sales of similar assets, Chevron can expect to fetch upwards of $2 billion. A sale is not guaranteed, and Chevron could ultimately retain some or all of the assets, the people cautioned.  Chevron did not respond to a comment request. Bank of America declined comment. Chevron is one of the largest producers of oil and gas in the Denver-Julesburg basin, which predominantly covers Colorado but also parts of Wyoming. While clinching its $55 billion acquisition of Hess in July after a long legal battle with Exxon Mobil was a major victory, Chevron has been grappling with how to control costs, compete with rivals, and maintain financial performance, all against an uncertain oil price outlook. It is in the midst of shedding up to 20% of its global workforce. Chief Executive Mike Wirth told an August 1 analyst call it would challenge itself to divest assets that take money away from more profitable prospects. Deal activity in U.S. midstream has been robust, even as the Trump administration has moved to make building pipelines easier. While much has been driven by strategic players, reengaging in acquisitions after a period focused on debt reduction, private equity firms have also been keen buyers of assets.  In recent weeks, MPLX agreed to buy privately-owned Northwind Midstream for $2.4 billion and sell assets in the Rockies for $1 billion. Plains All American announced a $1.6 billion deal to buy a stake in the company which owns the EPIC Crude pipeline. (Reporting by David French in New YorkEditing by Nick ZieminskiEditing 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.)

(Reuters) -Nearly eight in 10 Americans want Congress to renew enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits set to expire at year-end, even as lawmakers clash over federal spending, a new Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) poll said on Friday. The findings come after an impasse between Republican President Donald Trump and congressional Democrats triggered the 15th U.S. government shutdown on Oct. 1, the latest since 1981. After the poll, shares of UnitedHealth were higher by 3%, Humana climbed 8.8%, Elevance gained 4.6%, Centene advanced 4.4% Cigna jumped 5.6%, and CVS Health increased 1.5%. About 78% of adults said the subsidies, which lower premiums for people buying coverage on ACA marketplaces, should be extended, compared with 22% who favor letting them lapse. Support cuts across party lines, with 92% of Democrats, 82% of independents and 59% of Republicans – including 57% of those aligned with Donald Trump’s "Make America Great Again" movement – backing an extension. If Congress does not act, health insurance costs would increase sharply for many of the 24 million Americans who get their coverage through the ACA, according to the nonpartisan KFF. The impact would be most acute in Republican-controlled states that have not expanded the Medicaid health plan for the poor. Democrats also want guardrails that would stop President Trump from unilaterally ignoring their ACA provisions or temporarily withholding funds. "The poll was fielded just prior to the Oct. 1 federal government shutdown that was triggered in part by disagreements about whether, how and when to extend the expiring tax credits," said the KFF. Without action, premiums for subsidized enrollees could more than double next year, rising 114% on average to $1,904, according to KFF. (Reporting by Puyaan Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid)

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