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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Jenniffer González Colón was sworn in Thursday as Puerto Rico’s new governor as the island prepared for a normally ebullient ceremony overshadowed by widespread anger over a blackout that hit the U.S. territory days ago.

González, a Republican who backs President-elect Donald Trump and whose pro-statehood New Progressive Party secured a historic third consecutive term after she won the Nov. 5 election, has pledged to stabilize the Caribbean island’s crumbling power grid.

Before the start of a ceremony in front of Puerto Rico’s seaside Capitol to celebrate her swearing in, González attended Mass surrounded by family and supporters.

“What better than to come first to thank God and to ask God to give me the wisdom, the fortitude and the tools to fulfill everything I promised the people of Puerto Rico,” she told reporters.

A lone protester, with her face covered, interrupted the Mass at Parroquia Santa Teresita in San Juan. She yelled, “Jenniffer, we came for you. Puerto is without power.”

Meanwhile, a growing number of protesters gathered at the Capitol before González’s arrival.

González has promised to appoint an energy “czar” to review potential contractual breaches while another operator is found to possibly replace Luma Energy, a private company that oversees the transmission and distribution of power in Puerto Rico.

However, no contract can be canceled without prior approval from Puerto Rico’s Energy Bureau and a federal control board that oversees the island’s finances.

Outages were still being reported on Thursday as crews tried to stabilize the grid following the blackout that hit early Tuesday, leaving 1.3 million customers in the dark as Puerto Ricans prepared for New Year’s Eve.

While electricity had been restored to 98.9% of 1.47 million total customers, more than 600,000 were temporarily left without power on New Year’s when part of the system collapsed again, according to Luma.

“The stability of the system is fragile,” Luma said late Wednesday as it warned of more outages on Thursday given an ongoing lack of generation. “We know and understand how frustrating it is for our clients to be without service for long periods of time.”

Backup generators were put in place to ensure a smooth swearing-in ceremony on Thursday given that renowned musicians were scheduled to perform.

The anticipated revelry was characteristic of González, a 48-year-old attorney and recent mother of twins who prior to the election showed up at her party’s assembly wearing a Wonder Woman tiara and cuffs. She also made the news after peeling out of one of her party’s conventions in an off-road vehicle earlier this year.

González, of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party, had beat former Gov. Pedro Pierluisi during their party’s primary in June.

At the time, she was Puerto Rico’s representative in Congress and had run on Pierluisi’s ticket four years ago.

After beating him, she won the Nov. 5 general election with more than 526,000 votes, or 41%. Trailing her was Juan Dalmau, who represented Puerto Rico’s Independence Party and the Citizen Victory Movement.

It was the first time that the Popular Democratic Party, which supports the island’s territorial status quo and is one of Puerto Rico’s two main parties, came in third in a gubernatorial race.

While González’s immediate challenge is Puerto Rico’s fragile power grid, she also inherits a feeble economy that has slowly been strengthening since the U.S. territory’s government declared in 2015 that it was unable to pay its more than $70 billion public debt load.

In 2017, it filed for the biggest U.S. municipal bankruptcy in history.

All but one government agency has since restructured its debt, with Puerto Rico’s Electric Power Authority still struggling to do so. It holds more than $9 billion in debt, the largest of any government agency.

Experts warn the island will keep struggling to attract investors until the debt is restructured and the power grid strengthened.

González also will have to work alongside a federal control board that U.S. Congress created in 2016 to oversee Puerto Rico’s finances and supervise the ongoing reconstruction after Hurricane María slammed into the island in September 2017 as a powerful Category 4 storm, razing the electrical grid.

She also faces pressure to create affordable housing, lower power bills and the general cost of living, reduce violent crime, boost Puerto Rico’s economy, with the island locked out of capital markets since 2015, and improve a limping health care system as thousands of doctors flock to the U.S. mainland.

Like other governors of the pro-statehood party, González has said she would push for Puerto Rico to become the 51st state, but such a change would require approval from U.S. Congress and the U.S. president.

A nonbinding referendum held during the Nov. 5 election, the seventh of its kind, asked voters to choose one of three options: statehood, independence and independence with free association, under which issues like foreign affairs, U.S. citizenship and use of the U.S. dollar would be negotiated.

With 63% of voters participating, statehood earned more than 615,000 votes, or 59%, with independence coming in second for the first time with more than 309,000 votes, or 29%. Independence with free association garnered more than 128,000 votes, or 12%.

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(Reuters) – Short seller Hindenburg Research said on Thursday it was short on used-car retailer Carvana Co.

“Our research uncovered $800 million in loan sales to a suspected undisclosed related party, along with details on how accounting manipulation and lax underwriting have fueled temporary reported income growth,” Hinderburg alleged in its report.

Carvana did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the report.

Shares of the Tempe, Arizona-based company fell as much as 5% after the report but pared losses to trade down 1.5%.

(Reporting by Nathan Gomes in Bengaluru; Editing by Shreya Biswas and Anil D’Silva)

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By Akash Sriram

(Reuters) -Tesla reported its first decline in annual deliveries on Thursday, as the automaker handed over fewer-than-expected electric vehicles in the fourth quarter and incentives failed to boost demand for its aging line-up of models.

Shares of the company fell about nearly 6%, indicating investor worries over the challenges facing CEO Elon Musk, who expected promotions including zero-interest financing to power a “slight growth” in deliveries in 2024.

Reduced European subsidies, a shift in the U.S. toward lower-priced hybrid vehicles and tougher competition especially from China’s BYD have pressured Tesla.

In response, Musk pivoted Tesla to self-driving taxis and backed President-elect Donald Trump with millions of dollars in campaign donations in hopes that it could bring regulatory relief for the company.

Tesla handed over 495,570 vehicles in the three months to Dec. 31, missing estimates of 503,269 units, according to 15 analysts polled by LSEG. It produced 459,445 vehicles in the period, down about 7% from a year ago.

Deliveries for 2024 totaled 1.79 million, 1.1% lower than a year ago and below estimates of 1.806 million units, according to 19 analysts polled by LSEG.

That was ahead of rival BYD, which reported a 12.1% rise in sales of sales of battery-electric vehicles to 1.76 million in 2023 thanks to competitive prices and a stronger push into Asian and European markets.

Morgan Stanley analysts said Tesla’s aging products and increased availability of cheaper alternatives outweighed any rise in promotional activities.

With self-driving technology still years away, analysts have said Tesla would have to rely on cheaper versions of current cars and the Cybertruck to achieve Musk’s target of 20% to 30% sales growth in 2025.

The truck, known for its futuristic design, has been showing signs of demand weakness, analysts have said.

Tesla has yet to break out deliveries for the Cybertruck. The company said on Thursday it handed over 471,930 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles and 23,640 units of other models, including the Model S sedan, Cybertruck and Model X premium SUV.

TRUMP BET

Tesla shares are coming off a strong 2024, in which they rose more than 60% thanks to Trump’s election victory.

Musk has said he plans to leverage his promised role as a government-efficiency czar under the Trump administration to advocate for a federal approval process for autonomous vehicles to replace the current state-specific laws, which he described as “incredibly painful” to navigate.

Tesla’s Autopilot and “Full Self-Driving” technologies, which are not yet fully autonomous, have been the subject of scrutiny due to lawsuits, U.S. traffic safety regulator probe and a Department of Justice criminal investigation.

The key concern is whether Tesla may have overstated the self-driving abilities of its vehicles.

Tesla is also under pressure from legacy automakers. Its October registrations in Europe fell by 24%, due to a tight race from Volkswagen Group, whose Skoda Enyaq SUV dethroned the Model Y as the best-selling EV in the region, according to data research firm JATO Dynamics.

Trump’s team is considering ending the $7,500 tax credit for consumer EV purchases, a move that could further hamper the slowing shift to EVs in the U.S., Reuters reported in November.

“What was interesting is that their sell-through also declined in the year, even though people know that there’s a tax credit elimination coming potentially in 2025,” said Thomas Martin, senior portfolio manager at Globalt Investments.

“That didn’t seem to accelerate anything, that may be telling.”

(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)

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NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Constellation Energy Corp. has been awarded a record $1 billion in contracts to supply nuclear power to the U.S. government, the company said on Thursday.

Constellation, which is the country’s largest operator of nuclear power plants, will deliver electricity to more than 13 federal agencies, as part of the agreement with the U.S. General Services Administration.

(Reporting by Laila Kearney and Timothy Gardner)

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By Florence Tan

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Oil prices nudged higher on Thursday, the first day of trade for 2025, as investors returning from holidays cautiously eyed a recovery in China’s economy and fuel demand following a pledge by President Xi Jinping to promote growth.

Brent crude futures rose 46 cents, or 0.6%, to $75.10 a barrel by 0128 GMT after settling up 65 cents on Tuesday, the last trading day for 2024. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures gained 49 cents, or 0.7%, to $72.21 a barrel after closing 73 cents higher in the previous session.

China’s Xi said on Tuesday in his New Year’s address that the country would implement more proactive policies to promote growth in 2025.

In an official survey released on Tuesday, China’s manufacturing activity barely grew in December though services and construction recovered. The data suggested policy stimulus is trickling into some sectors as China braces for new trade risks from tariffs proposed by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.

Traders are returning to their desks and probably weighing higher geopolitical risks and also the impact of Trump running the U.S. economy red hot versus the impact of tariffs, IG market analyst Tony Sycamore said.

“Today’s China Caixin PMI release and tomorrow’s US ISM manufacturing release will be key to crude oil’s next move,” he added.

Sycamore said WTI’s weekly chart is winding itself into a tighter range, which suggests a big move is coming.

“Rather than trying to predict in which way the break will occur, we would be inclined to wait for the break and then go with it,” he added.

Investors are also awaiting weekly U.S. oil stocks data from the Energy Information Administration which has been delayed until Thursday due to the New Year holiday.

U.S. crude oil and distillate stockpiles are expected to have fallen last week while gasoline inventories likely rose, an extended Reuters poll showed on Tuesday. [EIA/S]

U.S. oil demand surged to the highest levels since the pandemic in October at 21.01 million barrels per day (bpd), up about 700,000 bpd from September, EIA data showed on Tuesday.

Crude output from the world’s top producer rose to a record 13.46 million bpd in October, up 260,000 bpd from September, the report showed.

In 2025, oil prices are likely to be constrained near $70 a barrel, down for a third year after a 3% decline in 2024, as weak Chinese demand and rising global supplies offset efforts by OPEC+ to shore up the market, a Reuters monthly poll showed.

In Europe, Russia halted gas exports via Soviet-era pipelines running through Ukraine on New Year’s Day. The widely expected stoppage will not impact prices for consumers in the European Union as some buyers have arranged alternative supply, while Hungary will keep receiving Russian gas via the TurkStream pipeline under the Black Sea.

(Reporting by Florence Tan; Editing by Sonali Paul)

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By Jihoon Lee

SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s factory activity contracted in December, with manufacturers’ sentiment turning pessimistic for the first time since mid-2020 due to uncertainty over U.S. trade policy and domestic politics, a private sector survey showed on Thursday.

The purchasing managers index (PMI) for manufacturers in Asia’s fourth-largest economy, compiled by S&P Global, fell to 49.0 last month from 50.6 in November, slipping below the 50-mark that separates expansion from contraction for the third time since August.

Output shrank for the fourth consecutive month in a row and the decline was steeper than the previous month, while new orders also fell, sub-indexes showed.

The deterioration in demand was linked to weaker client confidence in the domestic market, according to the survey, while export orders grew only marginally.

The gloom was reflected in manufacturers’ sentiment for the year ahead, which fell below the 50-threshold separating optimism and pessimism for the first time since July 2020 and marked the lowest in 4-1/2 years. Excluding the COVID-19 pandemic period, it was the worst since the data series began in April 2012.

Last month, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was impeached after his imposition of a short-lived martial law on Dec. 3, raising political uncertainty and dampening consumer as well as business confidence.

“Downbeat expectations often stemmed from concerns surrounding domestic economic conditions, as well as potential U.S. protectionist policies,” said Usamah Bhatti, economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump last year pledged big tariffs on the United States’ three largest trading partners – Canada, Mexico and China – which are also expected to affect South Korean firms running factories in the countries.

In the latest survey, firms noted that overseas demand weakness in China and the United States was offset improvements in Europe and some of the Asia-Pacific region.

The trade-reliant South Korean economy barely grew in the third quarter amid slowing exports. The country’s export growth is expected to slow to 1.5% in 2025, from 6.3% in 2024, according to the central bank.

(Reporting by Jihoon Lee; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)

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SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia’s home prices marked the first monthly decline in almost two years in December as high mortgage rates stretched affordability and more sellers emerged after a long run of gains.

Figures from property consultant CoreLogic, released on Thursday, showed prices across the nation dipped 0.1% in December from the prior month, while values in the major capitals fell 0.2%.

Sydney prices slipped by 0.6% in December, while Melbourne lost 0.7%. Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide all continued to enjoy monthly gains.

“Growth in housing values has been consistently weakening through the second half of the year, as affordability constraints weighed on buyer demand and advertised supply levels trended higher,” said Tim Lawless, CoreLogic’s research director.

Property values were still up 4.9% for 2024 as a whole, adding about A$38,000 to the median value of a home, which in Sydney now stands at A$1.2 million ($745,680.00).

The government statistician estimates the value of land and housing held by households rose by A$851 billion in the year to September, reaching a notional A$11.3 trillion.

The strength of the market over the past couple of years has surprised policy makers given interest rates had hit 12-year highs of 4.35% late in 2023.

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) recently opened the door to a rate cut as early as February but markets expect only a modest easing to around 3.60% over 2025.

“It will take a lot more than three or four rate cuts to get interest rates back to the pre-pandemic decade average of 2.55%,” noted Lawless.

“So we don’t expect lower rates to be the catalyst for a renewed phase of strong value growth.”

A Reuters poll in November forecast home prices to rise around 5% in both 2025 and 2026, due in part to strong population growth and a lack of new supply.

($1 = 1.6093 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Wayne Cole; Editing by Sam Holmes)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury Department’s sanctions office was hacked by the Chinese government, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday, citing unnamed officials.

The department earlier this week disclosed in a letter to lawmakers that Chinese state-sponsored hackers stole documents in what Treasury called a “major incident.”

(Reporting by Jasper Ward; Editing by Scott Malone)

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By Stephen Culp

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Wall Street lost ground on Tuesday as investors closed the book on a remarkable year for equities, during which the U.S. stock market was powered to record highs by the twin engines of the artificial-intelligence boom and the U.S. Federal Reserve’s first interest rate cuts in three-and-a-half years.

The three major U.S. stock indexes closed in negative territory, ending a languid, low-volume session that contrasted with the tumultuous year that preceded it.

2024 included intensifying geopolitical strife, a U.S. presidential election and shifting speculation regarding the path of Fed policy in the coming year.

“There’s no Santa Claus rally this week, but investors received the gift of gains in 2024,” said Greg Bassuk, chief executive officer at AXS Investments in New York. “2024 was a massive year for equity gains driven by a trifecta of the AI explosion, a slew of Fed interest rate cuts and a robust U.S. economy.”

“It sets the stage for continued strength heading into 2025,” Bassuk added.

For 2024, the Nasdaq surged 28.6%, while the bellwether S&P 500 notched a 23.3% gain, marking the index’s best two-year run since 1997-1998.

The blue-chip Dow posted a 12.9% advance for the year.

Among the 11 major sectors of the S&P 500, communication services, technology and consumer discretionary were 2024’s big percentage gainers, jumping between 29.1% and 38.9% on the year.

Healthcare, real estate and energy were the only sectors that registered single-digit gains, while the materials sector was the sole 2024 decliner, dropping nearly 1.8%.

For the fourth quarter, the Nasdaq jumped 6.2%, while the S&P 500 advanced 2.1%. The Dow eked out a 0.5% gain for the October-December period.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Tuesday fell 29.51 points, or 0.07%, to 42,544.22, the S&P 500 lost 25.31 points, or 0.43%, to 5,881.63 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 175.99 points, or 0.90%, to 19,310.79.

Looking ahead to 2025, financial markets are now pricing in about 50 basis points of additional interest rate cuts from the Fed, with investors eying stretched valuations and uncertainties surrounding tax and tariff policies from the administration of President-elect Donald Trump.

“Investors should be cautious regarding the impact of the incoming Trump administration and how that affects certain sectors,” Bassuk said, adding that “the instability driven by geopolitics, specifically the Russia/Ukraine war and continued strife in the Middle East could trigger consternation” in companies and sectors with ties to the affected regions.

Bassuk believes the AI boom still has room to grow.

“Valuations have become lofty amid the stock run up, but because we believe that the growth in AI is set to continue and move beyond hardware to software in a massive way across most sectors,” he added.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.3-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. There were 52 new highs and 125 new lows on the NYSE.

On the Nasdaq, 2,013 stocks rose and 2,336 fell as declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.16-to-1 ratio.

The S&P 500 posted 2 new 52-week highs and one new low while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 43 new highs and 71 new lows.

Volume on U.S. exchanges was 14.59 billion shares, compared with the 14.81 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.

(Reporting by Stephen Culp in New YorkAdditional Reporting by Johann M Cherian, Pranav Kashyap and Purvi Agarwal in BengaluruEditing by Matthew Lewis)

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ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — Ivory Coast announced on Tuesday that French troops will leave the country after a decadeslong military presence, the latest African nation to downscale military ties with its former colonial power.

Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara said the pullout would begin in January 2025. France has had up to 600 troops in Ivory Coast.

“We have decided on the concerted and organized withdrawal of French forces in Ivory Coast,” he said, adding that the military infantry battalion of Port Bouét that is run by the French army will be handed over to Ivorian troops.

Outtara’s announcement follows that of other leaders across West Africa, where France’s militaries are being asked to leave. Analysts have described the requests for French troops to leave Africa as part of the wider structural transformation in the region’s engagement with Paris.

France has suffered similar setbacks in several West African countries in recent years, including Chad, Niger and Burkina Faso, where French troops that have been on the ground for many years have been kicked out.

Several West African nations — including coup-hit Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger — have recently asked the French to leave. Among them are also most recently Senegal, and Chad, considered France’s most stable and loyal partner in Africa.

The downscaling of military ties comes as France has been making efforts to revive its waning political and military influence on the continent by devising a new military strategy that would sharply reduce its permanent troop presence in Africa.

France has now been kicked out of more than 70% of African countries where it had a troop presence since ending its colonial rule. The French remain only in Djibouti, with 1,500 soldiers, and Gabon, with 350 troops.

Analysts have described the developments as part of the wider structural transformation in the region’s engagement with Paris amid growing local sentiments against France, especially in coup-hit countries.

After expelling French troops, military leaders of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso have moved closer to Russia, which has mercenaries deployed across the Sahel who have been accused of abuses against civilians.

However, the security situation has worsened in those countries, with increasing numbers of extremist attacks and civilian deaths from both armed groups and government forces.

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