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By Elizabeth Howcroft and Tommy Reggiori Wilkes PARIS/LONDON (Reuters) -Ten major banks including Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and UBS are jointly exploring issuing a stablecoin, the latest sign of traditional finance seeking to get to grips with the growth of digital assets. The group of lenders, which includes Citi, MUFG, Barclays, TD Bank, Santander and BNP Paribas, will work together to explore creating blockchain-based assets pegged to G7 currencies, the banks said in a statement on Friday. The project, which is in its early stages, will explore whether there is value in issuing assets on public blockchains which are pegged 1:1 to real-world currencies – a type of cryptocurrency known as stablecoins. "The objective of the initiative is to explore whether a new industry-wide offering could bring the benefits of digital assets and enhance competition across the market, while ensuring full compliance with regulatory requirements and best practice risk management," the banks said. CRYPTO RALLY, TRUMP AID INTEREST IN STABLECOINS Various banks and other financial institutions have announced plans to look at launching stablecoins, as soaring crypto prices and U.S. President Donald Trump's support for the sector has sparked a revival of interest in the idea of using blockchain in the mainstream financial system. Regulators and financial stability authorities have expressed concern that stablecoins could facilitate the movement of funds outside regulated banking systems, potentially undermining the role of commercial banks in global payment flows. Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey has warned UK banks against issuing their own stablecoins, while the European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said in June that privately issued stablecoins posed risks for monetary policy and financial stability. So far stablecoins have been largely used for moving money between crypto markets, which remain a small part of wider financial markets. Nearly nine-tenths of stablecoin transactions are related to crypto trading while just 6% for actual payment of goods or services, BCG estimated in a report earlier this year. The market is dominated by the El Salvador-based Tether, which accounts for $179 billion of the $310 billion worth of stablecoins in circulation, according to CoinGecko. France's Societe Generale, which was not included in the list, became the first major bank to issue a dollar-backed stablecoin through its digital asset subsidiary earlier this year. The token has not been widely adopted, with just $30.6 million in circulation. RIVAL CONSORTIUM OF BANKS LAUNCHING A EURO STABLECOIN A separate consortium of nine European banks including heavyweights ING and UniCredit, said last month they were forming a new company to launch a euro-denominated stablecoin. Some bank bosses say they see greater promise in the tokenisation of financial assets, in which digital representations of assets such as deposits, stocks and bonds are created and stored on a blockchain. Citi's CEO said in July that tokenised deposits were probably more important than a stablecoin. Many such projects remain in the pilot phase and executives said last year that efforts to tokenise assets were moving more slowly than expected. (Reporting by Elizabeth Howcroft and Tommy Reggiori Wilkes, Editing by Louise Heavens)

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By Jarrett Renshaw WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump is expected to make an announcement on Friday about lowering U.S. drug prices, according to a White House official who declined to provide any additional details. Trump is expected to announce a deal with Britain-based drugmaker AstraZeneca, MSNBC reported, citing a White House official. The deal would include a "most-favored-nation" drug pricing model aimed at making prescriptions more affordable for low-income Americans, including those on the government's Medicaid health plan, the report said. Discounted prices would be available through the TrumpRx website, planned to launch next year, and AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot will be present at the White House for the announcement, MSNBC said. The White House was not immediately available for comment. AstraZeneca declined to comment. ANNOUNCEMENT COMES AFTER PFIZER DEAL The announcement, which follows a deal Trump announced last week with U.S. drugmaker Pfizer, is set to take place at 5 p.m. ET (2100 GMT) in the Oval Office, the White House official had said. Pfizer agreed to lower prescription drug prices in the Medicaid program for lower-income Americans to what it charges in other developed countries in exchange for tariff relief. U.S. patients currently pay by far the most for prescription medicines, often nearly three times more than in other developed nations, and Trump has been pressuring drugmakers to lower their prices to what patients pay elsewhere. Pfizer was the first major pharmaceutical company to announce a deal with Trump after the president sent letters to 17 leading drugmakers in July telling them to slash prices. He asked them to respond with binding commitments by September 29. The news of an impending second "most-favored-nation" drug pricing announcement was first reported by CBS News reporter Jennifer Jacobs in a post on X, citing people familiar with the matter. (Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw in Washington and Mariam E Sunny in Bengaluru; Writing by Michael Erman in New Jersey; Editing by Arun Koyyur, Caroline Humer and Bill Berkrot)

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By Vallari Srivastava and Curtis Williams (Reuters) -Venture Global shares plunged 21% on Friday to their lowest level in nearly five months after it lost an arbitration case with BP over the U.S. LNG exporter's failure to deliver on a long-term gas supply contract, stoking worries of similar verdicts in disputes with other customers seeking billions of dollars in compensation. The ruling was a surprise after Venture Global's recent arbitration win against Shell. BP is seeking more than $1 billion in damages plus interest and legal costs, with the final amount to be determined in a separate hearing in 2026. Venture Global, the second-largest U.S. liquefied natural gas supplier, is facing other arbitration claims with customers seeking compensation of more than $4 billion linked to the delayed commercial start-up of the Calcasieu Pass project in Louisiana, according to the company's 2024 annual report.  The company previously warned that losing current or future arbitration cases could result in significant financial penalties, the termination of some gas supply contracts, and accelerated repayment of project debt.  All of the companies that have filed arbitration are seeking compensation, and none of them have sought to terminate their contracts in their proceedings, Venture Global has said. It is unclear why the result of the BP arbitration was different to the Shell case, and whether the outcome was due to differences in contracts or in the company's legal strategies. PENDING ARBITRATION CASES COULD BRING ADDITIONAL DAMAGES Deutsche Bank said in a note to clients on Friday that the latest outcome pushed it to revise the risk that Venture Global will face negative decisions from the remaining arbitrations to 50%. Venture Global told analysts on Thursday that the BP ruling has no impact on its current sale and purchase agreement with the company, according to two people who recounted the call to Reuters. Gabriel Moreen, a managing director at Mizuho Securities, called the ruling a "negative surprise," saying it introduces uncertainty for the remaining claims. "How two arbitrations over the exact same facts and circumstances led to two different outcomes is perhaps more a comment on the arbitrary nature of unilateral decision-making in arbitration hearings than anything else," J.P. Morgan analysts wrote in a note to clients on Friday. Should the company lose the remaining arbitration cases, it could face damages in the vicinity of $4.8 billion. If it continues to see split results, however, the total damages would be closer to $2.9 billion, the analysts said. The Venture Global share drop looked set to wipe out nearly $6 billion from the company's market valuation, if current losses hold. Since the company's initial public offering in January, its shares have fallen more than 58%.  The stock declines also reflect ongoing investor caution over LNG commissioning risks.  Venture Global is expanding its production amid surging global demand, with the U.S. becoming the world's top LNG supplier in 2023. CALCASIEU PROJECT IN SPOTLIGHT     In addition to BP and Shell, Italy's Edison, Portugal's Galp, Spain's Repsol, and Poland's Orlen have filed arbitration claims accusing Venture Global of profiteering by selling LNG cargoes at higher spot market prices, rather than delivering them under long-term contracts. Edison and Repsol told Reuters they were still pursuing their arbitration cases against Venture Global. Orlen declined to comment, but said it remains in arbitration with the U.S. company. Venture Global has argued that the Calcasieu Pass export facility start-up was unavoidably delayed and could not reach the status of commercial operations for almost three years, even though it was exporting the superchilled gas from the plant. Long-term contracts did not take effect until the plant reached commercial operations in April 2025. Citi said the arbitration result was "unexpected," adding that the tighter language in BP's contract likely contributed to the outcome.  The International Chamber of Commerce International Court of Arbitration found that Venture Global had breached its obligations to declare commercial operations had begun at the Calcasieu Pass plant in a timely manner and act as a "reasonable and prudent operator," the company said on Thursday. Venture Global said it is evaluating all options and will continue to vigorously defend its position. (Reporting by Vallari Srivastava in Bengaluru and Curtis Williams in Houston; Additional reporting by Marwa Rashan in London, Francesca Landini in Milan and Marek Strzelecki in Warsaw; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila, Nathan Crooks and Paul Simao)

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BEIJING (Reuters) -China has launched an antitrust investigation into U.S. semiconductor manufacturer Qualcomm over its acquisition of Israel's Autotalks, China's market regulator said on Friday. China's State Administration for Market Regulation said the probe would look at whether Qualcomm violated China's antitrust law by not lawfully declaring some details in its acquisition of the Israeli chip designer. Qualcomm's shares fell more than 5% after U.S. President Donald Trump also threatened to hike tariffs against China and cancel a planned meeting with President Xi Jinping. Companies in both countries are walking a tightrope amid the U.S. and China's tussle for a lead in the intense artificial intelligence race, where semiconductor trade has become a flashpoint. Qualcomm completed the Autotalks deal in June and integrated V2X technology into its Snapdragon car stack just as China is standardizing vehicle-to-everything communication across pilot regions by 2026, Carthage Capital founder and managing partner Stephen Wu said. "China could have penalized Qualcomm as a "no-harm" jumping the gun penalty, but they instead may choose a higher sanction. That combination signals pressure on U.S. chip and auto supply chains," Wu added. CHINA, US TRADE TENSIONS San Diego-based Qualcomm said in June it had finalised the deal for Autotalks, which makes communications chips to help prevent car crashes, without disclosing the size, or how it had resolved earlier sticking points. Qualcomm had said in 2024 it would drop the bid for Autotalks after it failed to get regulatory approvals in a timely manner. Qualcomm and Autotalks did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment on the Chinese probe. In 2015, the major supplier of mobile phone chips paid a $975 million fine to resolve a Chinese antitrust case. The latest investigation comes after Beijing last month accused U.S. AI chip maker Nvidia of violating China's anti-monopoly law. "The investigation adds to broader regulatory scrutiny of U.S. chipmakers in China," Equisights Research analyst Parth Talsania said. "With Qualcomm deriving a notable portion of revenue from Chinese handset and automotive customers, we believe the announcement amplifies existing investor caution around geopolitical and regulatory risk," Talsania added. Qualcomm derived 46% of its revenue in its fiscal 2024 from customers with headquarters in China. Both probes could heighten tensions between China and the U.S. at a time when they appear to be struggling to move beyond a trade tariff truce. (Reporting by Liz Lee, Brenda Goh, Beijing newsroom and Jaspreet Singh; Editing by Jane Merriman, Mark Potter and Alan Barona)

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(Reuters) -Copper prices are expected to stay in a range of $10,000-$11,000 per metric ton in 2026/2027 due to a market surplus, though the long-term outlook remains positive, Goldman Sachs said in a note on Friday. The bank noted three key factors that could limit copper's upside: First: Chinese buyers could reduce purchases if prices exceed $11,000, as they did in the second quarter of 2024. Second: excess U.S. inventory could quickly rebalance the market if London Metals Exchange spreads tighten. Third: data centre-related demand has likely been overstated. Copper prices fell on Friday after U.S. President Donald Trump said Washington was calculating a massive increase in tariffs on Chinese imports, stoking fears the trade war between the world's two largest economies could escalate. [MET/L] In the nickel market, Goldman noted that Indonesian producer margins need to decline further to limit supply growth and reverse the nagging market surplus. It forecast a 6% decline in nickel prices to $14,500 per metric ton by December 2026. The note added that Goldman expects an aluminium market surplus as Indonesian supply ramps up from mid-2026. The aluminium price was seen at $2,350/t in the fourth quarter of 2026, and was forecast to not return to current levels until 2030. China is expected to shift from being a zinc net importer to a net exporter in 2026 due to rising domestic production, Goldman said. "We see rising Chinese domestic production moving the country from deficit into surplus, while the ex-China market moves to deficit. In order to balance the global market, Chinese producers need to be incentivized to export," it noted. In the cobalt market, new export quotas from the Democratic Republic of Congo, which supplies 70% of global cobalt, are likely to create a market deficit in 2026. This will support prices as supply tightens, according to the note. Goldman also expects lithium prices to stay low-for-longer through 2026, averaging $8,900 a metric ton, as persistent oversupply keeps the market in surplus. (Reporting by Anjana Anil in Bengaluru; Editing by Nia Williams and David Gregorio)

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By Erwin Seba HOUSTON (Reuters) -Mexico's national oil company Pemex completed the shutdown of multiple units at its 312,500-barrel-per-day Deer Park, Texas, refinery on Thursday to begin a multi-unit overhaul, people familiar with plant operations said. The refinery's 270,000-bpd DU-2 crude distillation unit (CDU), the larger of two at the refinery, is shut for the planned overhaul that will last about 60 days, the sources said. A Pemex spokesperson did not immediately reply to a request for comment. Pemex calls the overhaul "the Big Block Turnaround" because it involves the large CDU and the 70,000-bpd fluid catalytic cracking unit (FCCU), 70,000-bpd diesel-producing hydrocracking unit (HCU) and 92,000-bpd coker along with other units, sources said. DU-2 is the larger of two CDUs breaking down crude oil into feedstocks for all other units at the refinery. The small CDU, the 70,000-bpd DU-1, will remain in operation while DU-2 is down for the overhaul. The FCCU, HCU and coker are all supplied with feedstock by DU-2. FCCUs use a catalyst under high heat and pressure to convert gas oil into unfinished gasoline. HCUs use a catalyst under high heat and pressure in the presence of hydrogen to convert gas oil into gasoline. Cokers break down gunky, tar-like residual crude oil into either motor fuel feedstocks or petroleum coke, which can substitute for coal. (Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by Mark Porter and Chris Reese)

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(Reuters) -Johnson & Johnson is in discussions to buy Protagonist Therapeutics, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. Shares of Protagonist surged more than 30% in afternoon trading. The company had a market capitalization of $4.2 billion as of Thursday's close. The two companies are working on the development of an oral treatment, icotrokinra, for immune diseases, including plaque psoriasis and ulcerative colitis, with J&J holding the exclusive rights to commercialize the product. Protagonist declined to comment, and J&J did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment. The Wall Street Journal reported the matter earlier in the day. (Reporting by Sabrina Valle in New York and Kamal Choudhury in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva, Tasim Zahid and Shinjini Ganguli)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Friday it would publish September's consumer inflation report on October 24 to assist the Social Security Administration determine the annual cost-of-living adjustment for 2026. But the collection, processing and publishing of other official economic data remained suspended until the government resumed regular operations, the BLS said. The government shut down on October 1 after funding lapsed, delaying the release of September's closely watched employment report due last Friday. "This release allows the Social Security Administration to meet statutory deadlines necessary to ensure the accurate and timely payment of benefits," the BLS said in a statement posted on its website. The Consumer Price Index report was originally scheduled for release on October 15. The Social Security Administration uses the CPI for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers data from the third quarter of 2024 to the third quarter of 2025 to determine the annual cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security and Supplemental Security Income benefits for 2026. The programs benefit older Americans who have retired as well as the disabled and certain widows, widowers and children. The COLA announcement – a widely anticipated event each October among the households relying on those payments – is typically made shortly after the September's CPI report is released.  In 2025, more than 72.5 million Social Security and SSI beneficiaries received a 2.5% COLA increase.  The Senior Citizens League, one of the nation's biggest seniors groups, last month projected a 2.7% COLA raise in 2026, which would lift the average monthly benefit for retirees by $54 to $2,062 from $2,008. (Reporting by Lucia Mutikani, additional reporting by Bhargav Acharya and Katharine Jackson; editing by Susan Heavey and Alistair Bell)

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By Niket Nishant and Sukriti Gupta (Reuters) -Wall Street's calm was shattered on Friday after U.S. President Donald Trump rattled markets with the threat of a "massive increase" in tariffs on Chinese imports over a rare earths dispute, sending indexes tumbling and volatility spiking. In a Truth Social post, Trump also called off his planned meeting with China's President Xi Jinping in South Korea. He said Beijing had been sending letters to countries to tell them that it planned to impose export controls on every element of production related to rare earths. The sharp selloff in indexes disrupted a relatively quiet week for markets, which had been gaining on hopes of dovish monetary policy, and underscored how sensitive investor sentiment remains to trade uncertainty. A fresh flare-up in U.S.-China trade tensions could weigh on global growth and cloud the outlook for corporate America, which is already navigating higher costs. "He's caught the market off guard again and he's thrown more question marks into it," said Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth. At 12:11 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 554.58 points, or 1.20%, to 45,803.84, the S&P 500 lost 105.34 points, or 1.56%, to 6,629.77 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 471.76 points, or 2.05%, to 22,552.86. All three indexes were on track for weekly declines if current levels hold. "We finally got through the worst of the tariff concerns, and now we find ourselves once again faced with another round of them," said Steve Sosnick, chief market analyst at Interactive Brokers. The S&P 500 tech sector lost 2%. Financials fell 1.4% on the S&P 500, while energy stocks declined 1.8%. The Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index dropped 3.7%, among the worst hit after Trump's announcement. China produces over 90% of the world's processed rare earths and rare earth magnets, which are critical for products ranging from electric vehicles and aircraft engines to military radars. Renewed tensions between the two largest global economies could trigger major supply chain disruptions, particularly for companies in technology, EV and defense space. The CBOE volatility index, investors' fear gauge, spiked to the highest in a month. U.S.-listed shares of Chinese companies dropped sharply, with heavyweights Alibaba Group Holding, JD.com Inc and PDD Holdings down between 3.9% and 6.7%. Qualcomm fell 4.5% after China's market regulator said the country had launched an antitrust investigation into the semiconductor manufacturer over its acquisition of Israel's Autotalks. Separately, a preliminary reading of the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index for October came in at 55, compared with the estimate of 54.2, according to economists polled by Reuters. Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 2.73-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 3.36-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq. The S&P 500 posted 17 new 52-week highs and 12 new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 93 new highs and 82 new lows. (Reporting by Niket Nishant, Sukriti Gupta, Purvi Agarwal and Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva and Shilpi Majumdar)

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By Caroline Valetkevitch NEW YORK (Reuters) -Stock indexes fell sharply, with the Nasdaq down more than 2%, while Treasury yields fell and the U.S. dollar weakened on Friday after President Donald Trump said he was weighing a "massive increase" in tariffs on Chinese goods. Trump said there was no reason to meet with China's President Xi Jinping in two weeks in South Korea as planned, adding in a Truth Social post that the U.S. is calculating a massive increase in tariffs on Chinese imports. "He's caught the market off guard again and thrown more question marks into a market that is being questioned about a very high degree of enthusiasm and being sort of scrutinized for having too much fluff built into it," said Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth in Fairfield, Connecticut. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 531.75 points, or 1.15%, to 45,826.67, the S&P 500 fell 109.06 points, or 1.62%, to 6,626.05 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 525.03 points, or 2.28%, to 22,496.64. MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe fell 14.33 points, or 1.44%, to 979.14.The pan-European STOXX 600 index fell 1.22%. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, was down 0.46% at 98.93, with the euro up 0.48% at $1.1618. Against the Japanese yen, the dollar weakened 0.93% to151.65. The yen was still headed for declines for the week against the dollar following Japan's political changes and rate outlook uncertainty. The Japanese currency has dropped on concerns that the Bank of Japan may not hike interest rates again this year after fiscal dove Sanae Takaichi's surprise victory to lead the ruling party. Japanese Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato said on Friday that the government was concerned about excessive volatility in the foreign exchange market. In France, President Emmanuel Macron welcomed mainstream political leaders to a crunch meeting at the Elysee ahead of a self-imposed late-Friday deadline to name a new prime minister. In the U.S. Treasury market, the yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes fell 8.7 basis points to 4.061%, from 4.148% late on Thursday. (Additional reporting by Marc Jones in London, Gregor Stuart Hunter in Singapore and Purvi Agarwal; Editing by Susan Fenton and Nick Zieminski)

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