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NEW YORK (AP) — Micron, one of the world’s largest microchip manufacturers, is expected to open a semiconductor plant in New York, promising an investment of up to $100 billion and a plant that could bring 50,000 jobs to the state, the Senate’s top Democrat says.

The announcement comes after Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, of New York, had pushed Micron and the company’s CEO, Sanjay Mehrota, to consider upstate New York for its factory. It also comes months after Congress passed the $280 billion CHIPS and Science Act, which set aside $52 billion to bolster the semiconductor industry.

Companies like Micron manufacture the diminutive chips that power everything from smartphones to computers to automobiles. The bill was aimed at bolstering U.S. competitiveness against China and avoiding another chip shortage like the one that derailed the auto and tech industries during the pandemic.

Schumer confirmed to The Associated Press that Micron plans to bring its plant to the White Pine Commerce Park in Clay, New York, near Syracuse, after speaking with the company’s leaders.

“Chips are essential to our economy, and if we were to lose the ability to manufacture chips here in the United States, it would be a severe, both economic security and national security risk,” Schumer said in an interview with The Associated Press. “This will be the most advanced memory chip manufacturing facility in the United States and probably the world. And, and it’s located in a place that will really benefit from it.”

The company plans to invest $100 billion over the next 20 years, with the first investment of $20 billion planned by the end of the decade, Schumer said. The deal is also expected to bring more than 9,000 jobs to Micron and officials believe it could also bring close to 40,000 other ancillary jobs to the region, from suppliers to contractors, Schumer said.

After signing the $280 billion bill last month, President Joe Biden touted the New York investment as proof that it was working.

“Today is another win for America, and another massive new investment in America spurred by my economic plan,” Biden said. “Micron, an American company, is investing $20 billion dollars this decade and up to $100 billion over twenty years in CHIPS manufacturing in upstate New York, creating tens of thousands of good paying jobs. Together, we are building an economy from the bottom up and the middle out, where we lower costs for our families and make it right here in America.”

Micron – based in Boise, Idaho – has several chip manufacturing plants around the world, including in Singapore and Taiwan. The company announced in September that it would invest $15 billion though the end of the decade on a new semiconductor plant in its hometown of Boise that the chipmaker said will create 17,000 American jobs.

“This is like a 21st century Erie Canal,” Schumer said of the New York plant. “And just as the original Erie Canal did centuries ago, this will help cement the growth of our economy for decades to come, not only in upstate New York, but in the country, since these chips are so vital to so many of our cutting edge industries.”

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Zeke Miller in Washington contributed.

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By Dave Graham

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Talks between the United States and Mexico to resolve a dispute over energy policy will extend beyond an initial consultation period as the two sides narrow differences, officials said on Monday.

The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) in July demanded dispute settlement talks on the grounds that Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s energy policies discriminated against U.S. companies and violated a North American trade pact.

At the heart of the U.S. complaint, which Canada joined, are hold-ups in granting permits, a Mexican electricity law that prioritizes state firms, and other rules that investors feel disadvantage them, industry sources say.

Under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) trade deal, if such a disagreement is not resolved in 75 days of consultations, a dispute panel can be requested to review claims. A panel could expose Mexico to the risk of punitive trade tariffs.

But on Monday afternoon, Mexico’s economy ministry tweeted that dialogue had been “productive” with U.S. and Canadian counterparts, and that they wanted to keep talking to reach a “mutually satisfactory” solution.

Earlier, three officials from governments on both sides of the dispute told Reuters that progress in talks meant they would run beyond Oct. 3, when the 75 days expire. They spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

The USTR’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

In the past few weeks, tensions have eased as Mexican courts suspended some contentious rules, and on signs that Mexican regulators have begun to address backlogs on permits, industry sources and officials say.

“In my view, the Mexican government has sought to deal with the requests from the U.S. and Canadian governments with a view to a solution that avoids international arbitration,” said Francisco de Rosenzweig, a former top Mexican trade official.

With mid-term U.S. elections in November, acute concerns about inflation, and the likelihood that Mexico would lose arbitration, neither side wants to escalate the trade dispute now, the sources added.

Still, one Mexican source said U.S. officials had warned that without substantial progress, pressure on Mexico will increase again.

Rosanety Barrios, a former Mexican energy official, said while Mexican regulators were trying to give the impression of being more flexible, many issues remained unresolved.

Instead of reaching a definitive resolution, the two sides looked as if they could “kick the can down the road until the next (Mexican) government,” she said.

(Reporting by Dave Graham; Additional reporting by David Lawder in Washington D.C.; Editing by David Gregorio and Richard Chang)

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By Yoshifumi Takemoto and Leika Kihara

TOKYO (Reuters) -Core consumer prices in Tokyo, a leading indicator of nationwide inflation, rose 2.8% in September from a year earlier, marking the biggest gain since 2014 in a sign of broadening cost pressures.

The core consumer price index (CPI) for Japan’s capital, which includes oil products but excludes fresh food prices, matched a median market forecast and followed a 2.6% gain in August.

It was the fourth straight month the index’s rate of increase exceeded the Bank of Japan’s 2% target, and matched a 2.8% gain hit in June 2014.

Prices rose for a wide range of goods and services including electricity bills, chocolate, sushi to hotel bills, government data showed, a sign more firms were passing on rising raw material costs to households.

The data is among key factors the BOJ will scrutinise in gauging whether recent cost-push inflation could change into a sustained rise in prices driven by robust domestic demand.

The BOJ has pledged to keep monetary policy ultra-loose despite recent rises in inflation, which it sees as driven by temporary factors like higher fuel and raw material rather than strong consumption.

(Reporting by Yoshifumi Takemoto; Editing by Sam Holmes)

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SHANGHAI (Reuters) -Chinese authorities have rolled out an array of tried-and-true manoeuvres in recent weeks to slow the yuan’s slide, showing relative success compared with other battered currencies, but analysts say they face long odds against an unstoppable dollar.

The stepped-up efforts, taken as the yuan tumbled about 7% from mid-August to a 14-year-low around 7.25 per dollar on Sept. 28, range from unusually strong signals to the market – last week the central bank told state-owned banks to prepare to sell dollars – to administrative measures that raise the cost of shorting the yuan.

That helped the yuan to regain some traction against the dollar, which also paused for breath against other currencies, but analysts expect the yuan to weaken further in the months ahead with a risk of volatile gyrations along the way.

“Considering the strength of the dollar, we now expect (the dollar/yuan rate) to trade around 7.40 around October and November,” SEB said in a note.

While that was among the more bearish forecasts, ANZ and Goldman Sachs saw a yuan rate of 7.20 per dollar within the next three months or so, with Goldman also noting upside dollar/yuan risks, and Citi said it could push to 7.3 in a strong dollar environment. The yuan late on Friday was trading around 7.12 per dollar.

In a sign that investors do not foresee the new measures tamping down swings in the yuan, expectations of future volatility priced into one-month yuan options have doubled in the past month.

For Chinese authorities, who were particularly keen to stabilise the yuan rate before a week-long national holiday in China this week, the stakes are high.

This is a a politically sensitive time for China’s ruling Communist Party, which is set to open its once-in-five-years congress on Oct. 16. President Xi Jinping is expected to secure a precedent-breaking third term during the gathering.

A weaker yuan also risks stoking financial instability fuelled by capital outflows. Foreign investors cut holdings of Chinese bonds for the seventh straight month in August.

On the monetary policy front, the weaker yuan, fuelled by the wide gap between low Chinese interest rates and rising U.S. rates, makes it harder to ease policy to support China’s faltering economy, the world’s second largest.

The yield gap between China’s benchmark 10-year government bonds and the U.S. Treasury for the same tenor is hovering at the widest in 15 years.

NO LINES IN THE SAND

Still, analysts do not expect Beijing to mount a desperate defense of any particular yuan level, in contrast to the last two times the yuan breached the psychologically significant 7 to the dollar level in 2019 and 2020, during the height of China-U.S. trade tensions and the initial outbreak of COVID-19.

“The central bank needs to play a balance between being market-oriented and also ensuring financial stability,” said Ju Wang, head of Greater China FX and rates strategy at BNP Paribas.

“Hence the official line will still be ‘no-lines-in-the-sand-but-two-way-volatility’.”

China’s economy also reaps some benefit from yuan weakness, which bolsters its exports by making them relatively cheaper in dollar terms. The export sector has become a vital pillar for the economy as it struggles with COVID outbreaks and a property crisis.

Further, the yuan has not fallen as sharply against the greenback as have the euro, the yen and other major currencies this year, keeping the yuan comparatively resilient against a basket of currencies of China’s main trading partners, with a fall of only 1.4% year-to-date. Chinese authorities, who have emphasised that they want to make the yuan more international and market-driven, are aiming not to control the long-term value of the yuan, but to prevent a sudden short-term depreciation that would disrupt its economy and capital flows, analysts said.

“As China goes on a week-long holiday, the threat of intervention in the offshore yuan could keep a lid on near-term depreciation,” said Khoon Goh, head of Asia research at ANZ.

Mainland China’s financial markets are closed for the National Day holiday from Oct. 1, during which there will be no onshore trade or daily guidance through midpoint settings. Trading resumes on Oct. 10.

Goh added, however, that how long thenews threat remains effective will depend on the dollar’s trend.

“While the authorities will want to maintain FX stability into the Party Congress, the widening yield differential between the U.S. and China could still see yuan weakness re-emerge later in the year.”

(Reporting by the Shanghai Newsroom; Editing by Tony Munroe and Edmund Klamann)

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By Tatiana Bautzer, Camila Moreira and Gabriel Araujo

SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Brazilian markets surged on Monday, as a stronger-than-expected performance by President Jair Bolsonaro and his congressional allies in the first round of a general election eased concerns about sharp changes in economic policy.

Brazil’s currency strengthened more than 4% against the dollar, while the benchmark Bovespa equities index jumped 5.5%, its biggest one-day gain since April 2020. Several companies rallied over 10%, while preferred shares of state-run oil company Petrobras closed 8% higher in Sao Paulo.

Bolsonaro’s leftist challenger, former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, fell short of clinching victory in the first round of voting on Sunday. Lula finished ahead of Bolsonaro by 5 percentage points, far less than the 7-17 points advantage forecast by major pollsters.

Bolsonaro’s allies also had a strong showing in voting for Congress, limiting Lula’s room for dramatic policy changes if he does return to the presidency.

Marcos Casarin, chief Latin America economist at Oxford Economics, said the results for Lula’s Workers Party in the congressional elections suggested Lula “would have to form a wide coalition with his former opposition to be able to govern with stability.”

“We think this is as close as possible to a best-case scenario for investors,” wrote Casarin.

Some investors wagered that Bolsonaro, while not favored, could eke out a second-round win, allowing him to push forward pro-market reforms and privatizations.

“I think people will see reforms as more probable,” said Ricardo Lacerda, founder and CEO of investment bank BR Advisory Partners.

The renewed chances of re-election for Bolsonaro boosted shares in state-controlled companies in expectation they could be privatized should he secure another four-year term.

In addition to gains for Petrobras, shares in state lender Banco do Brasil SA closed up nearly 8% on Monday. The gains came on a strong day for global markets, with Wall Street up over 2%.

Results in southeastern states such as Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais also affected stocks with political exposure there.

Bolsonaro’s former Infrastructure Minister Tarcisio Freitas came out of Sunday’s vote leading the gubernatorial race in Sao Paulo. Shares in state sanitation company Companhia de Saneamento Basico do Estado de Sao Paulo, known as Sabesp, rose 17% on Monday, the biggest gainer on the Bovespa, based on expectations Freitas could privatize it.

Shares in public power company Cemig and sanitation firm Copasa, both in Minas Gerais rose 11% and 19%, respectively, after the re-election of pro-market Governor Romeu Zema.

The only losers on the Bovespa were education companies, seen as beneficiaries a Lula win, as the leftist candidate has been said he would boost public student loans if elected.

YDUQS nearly 2% and Cogna edged 0.3% lower.

Analysts at Guide Investimentos said that although sectors such as education, capital goods and retail were set to benefit from an eventual Lula government, the impact would be limited by the new right-leaning composition of Congress.

Gustavo Cruz, strategist for RB Investimentos, said the hard-fought race showed that neither candidate would receive a mandate to implement radical policies.

“Whoever is the winner, he will not have a blank check from the electorate,” he said.

(Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer, Gabriel Araujo, Andre Romani and Camila Moreira; Additional reporting and writing by Gram Slattery in Rio de Janeiro; Editing by Brad Haynes, Chizu Nomiyama, Rosalba O’Brien and Mark Porter)

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TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s monetary base, or the amount of cash circulating in the economy, fell 3.3% in September from a year earlier, data showed on Tuesday, marking the first year-on-year decline since April 2012.

The data highlights a turning point in Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Haruhiko Kuroda’s massive asset-buying programme deployed in 2013, which aimed at firing up inflation to his 2% target with heavy money printing.

The drop, which followed a 0.4% rise in August, reflected shrinking demand under the BOJ’s pandemic-relief scheme, which was created in 2020 to ease funding strains caused by the crisis and will be phased out next year.

(Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Christopher Cushing)

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COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Sweden has sent a vessel capable of “advanced diving missions” to the Baltic Sea area where ruptured undersea pipelines leaked natural gas for days, the Swedish navy said Monday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday accused the West of sabotaging Russia-built natural gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea to Germany, a charge vehemently denied by the United States and its allies.

Last week, undersea blasts damaged the pipelines off southern Sweden and Denmark and have led to huge methane leaks, with the Danish and Swedish governments saying that several hundred pounds of explosives was involved. The leaks occurred in international waters.

Capt. Jimmie Adamsson, a spokesman for the Swedish navy, told The Associated Press the vessel — a submarine rescue ship — had been sent to at the position of the leaks off Sweden and was supporting the Swedish coast guard, which is in charge of the work.

It was unclear when anyone would be able to go down, either divers or a submarine.

The coast guard said that it was on site with one of its vessels too, Amfritrite, to monitor sea traffic in the area. It added that bad weather is expected, which will complicate the conditions on site.

Over the weekend, authorities in Denmark said that Nord Stream 1 and 2 natural gas pipelines had stopped leaking.

Sweden’s prosecuting authority and the Swedish Security Services are heading an investigation, while Copenhagen police were in charge of an inquiry in Denmark.

Denmark said the investigation was being carried out in close cooperation with relevant authorities, including the National Police, the Danish Police Intelligence Service and Denmark’s energy authorities.

A joint international investigation team consisting of relevant authorities from, among others, Denmark, Germany and Sweden, should also be set up.

The U.S.-Russia clashes continued later at an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council in New York called by Moscow on the pipelines attacks and as Norwegian researchers published a map projecting that a huge plume of methane from the damaged pipelines will travel over large swaths of the Nordic region.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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By Oliver Hirt and Michael Shields

ZURICH (Reuters) -Credit Suisse shares slid by as much as 10% on Monday, reflecting market concerns ahead of a restructuring plan due to come with third-quarter results at the end of October.

Swiss regulator FINMA and the Bank of England in London, where the lender has a major hub, were monitoring the situation at Credit Suisse and working closely together, a source familiar with the situation said.

Credit Suisse’s recent problems were well known and there had been no major recent developments, the source added.

The Bank of England, FINMA and the Swiss finance ministry declined to comment.

Chief Executive Ulrich Koerner last week told staff that Credit Suisse, whose market capitalisation had dropped to 9.73 billion Swiss francs ($9.85 billion) on Monday, has solid capital and liquidity.

And bank executives spent the weekend reassuring large clients, counterparties and investors about its liquidity and capital, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.

A Credit Suisse spokesman declined to comment on the FT report, which said the weekend calls followed a sharp rise in spreads on the bank’s credit default swaps (CDS), which offer protection against a company defaulting on its debt.

Credit Suisse’s euro-denominated bonds dropped to record lows, with the Swiss bank’s longer-dated bonds suffering the sharpest declines.

In July, Credit Suisse announced its second strategy review in a year and replaced its CEO, bringing in restructuring expert Koerner to scale back investment banking and cut more than $1 billion in costs.

It has said it was considering measures to strengthen its flagship wealth management franchise, scale back its investment bank into a “capital-light, advisory-led” business, and evaluate strategic options for the Securitized Products business.

Citing people familiar with the situation, Reuters reported last month that Credit Suisse was sounding out investors for fresh cash as it attempts its overhaul.

LIQUIDITY ‘HEALTHY’

JP Morgan analysts said in a research note that, based on its financials at the end of the second quarter, they view Credit Suisse’s capital and liquidity as “healthy”.

Given the bank has indicated a near-term intention to keep its CET1 capital ratio at 13-14%, the second-quarter end ratio is well within that range and the liquidity coverage ratio is well above requirements, the analysts added.

Credit Suisse had total assets of 727 billion Swiss francs ($735.68 billion) at the end of the second quarter, of which 159 billion francs was cash and due from banks, while 101 billion was trading assets, it noted.

While Credit Suisse’s CDS spreads have widened, this should be seen in the context of widening credit spreads across the sector, which was expected in an environment of rising interest rates with ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty, the analysts said.

Over the past three quarters alone, Credit Suisse’s losses have added up to nearly 4 billion Swiss francs. Given the uncertainties, the bank’s financing costs have surged. Deutsche Bank analysts in August estimated a capital shortfall of at least 4 billion francs.

Credit Suisse shares, which have fallen by more than half this year, came off their early morning lows and were down 7.4% at 3.68 Swiss francs at 0927 GMT.

($1 = 0.9882 Swiss francs)

(Reporting by Michael Shields and Oliver Hirt in Zurich; Additional reporting by Lucy Raitano and Huw Jones in London; Editing by Noele Illien, David Goodman and Alexander Smith)

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By Noah Browning

LONDON (Reuters) -Oil prices jumped almost $4 on Monday as OPEC+ considers reducing output by more than 1 million barrels per day (bpd) to buttress prices with what would be its biggest cut since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Brent crude futures rebounded $3.46, or 4.1%, to $88.60 a barrel by 0915 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was up 4.3%, or $3.39, at $82.88.

Oil prices have tumbled for four straight months since June, as COVID-19 lockdowns in top energy consumer China hurt demand while rising interest rates and a surging U.S. dollar weighed on global financial markets.

To support prices, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, known collectively as OPEC+, is considering an output cut of more than 1 million bpd ahead of Wednesday’s meeting, OPEC+ sources told Reuters.

If agreed, it will be the group’s second consecutive monthly cut after reducing output by 100,000 bpd last month.

“The backdrop for this week’s meeting is precarious, but the fundamentals of oil are relatively healthy,” said Peter McNally, global lead for energy at investment research firm Third Bridge.

“The two biggest question marks are the demand outlook (especially in China) and what happens to Russian supply after the EU ban goes into effect on Dec. 5.”

OPEC+ missed its production targets by nearly 3 million bpd in July, two sources from the producer group said, as sanctions on some members and low investment by others stymied its ability to raise output.

While prompt Brent prices could strengthen further in the immediate short term, concerns over a global recession are likely to limit the upside, consultancy FGE said.

“If OPEC+ does decide to cut output in the near term, the resultant increase in OPEC+ spare capacity will likely put more downward pressure on long-dated prices,” it said in a note on Friday.

The dollar index fell for a fourth consecutive day on Monday after touching its highest in two decades. A cheaper dollar could bolster oil demand and support prices.

(Reporting by Noah BrowningAdditional reporting by Florence Tan and Muyu XuEditing by David Goodman)

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(Corrects to “consumption” from “output” in headline and paragraph 3)

(Reuters) -BHP Group Ltd lifted its long-term demand forecast for steel as a global shift towards the decarbonisation of power generation will boost requirement of the commodity, the world’s largest listed miner said on Monday.

The Melbourne, Australia-based miner forecasts surging demand for wind and solar farm equipment to boost steel demand by 2% in 2030 and by 4% in 2050.

The miner expects global steel consumption to increase by 42 million tonnes and 76 million tonnes in 2030 and 2050, respectively, with a sizeable chunk due to demand for solar and wind power equipment.

The world’s steel production stood at 1.95 billion tonnes in 2021, according to the World Steel Association.

BHP Group is one of the biggest iron ore producers in the world. Iron ore, the most important ingredient in making steel, brought in nearly half of the miner’s fiscal 2022 revenue.

A global push towards the decarbonisation of power generation comes as the world grapples with an energy crisis even as the improved cost efficiency and competitiveness of renewable energy has attracted massive investment as well as favourable policies globally.

Clean energy investment is expected to exceed $1.4 trillion in 2022, accounting for almost three-quarters of the growth in overall energy investment, the International Energy Agency said in its World Energy Investment 2022 report released in June.

(Reporting by Sameer Manekar in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D’Souza)

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