Business

By Tom Westbrook

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Asian stocks inched lower and the dollar was firm on Thursday as looming central bank meetings in Europe and Japan and uncertainty over the supply of Russian gas kept traders on edge.

Wall Street indexes rallied overnight but even better-than-expected results from Tesla after hours couldn’t carry the positive mood into the Asia session.[.N]

Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.3% and S&P 500 futures fell 0.2%. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.2% and Japan’s Nikkei fell 0.1%.

Market focus is on the resumption of gas flow along the biggest pipeline from Russia to Germany. A planned 10-day outage is set to end at 0400 GMT. If flow isn’t resumed, or is lacklustre, it will stoke worries about winter supplies.

Two sources familiar with the plans of Russia’s monopoly gas exporter, Gazprom, told Reuters on Tuesday that flows were likely to restart at pre-maintenance levels of 40% of capacity, which would probably be enough to calm markets for now.

The European Central Bank also meets on Thursday to begin Europe’s rate-hike cycle. Markets are hedging bets on a hike of either 25 basis points or 50 bps, with the latter perhaps able to support a euro that has slipped below $1 this month.

“They need to be raising rates to deal with the way inflation is embedded,” said George Boubouras, head of research at K2 Asset Management in Melbourne.

“But the dilemma they’ve got is that the lack of energy security planning has regions of the European Union in a very difficult position…one can only assume that you’ve got minimal upside and large downside risks to the European economy.”

The euro wavered overnight and bought $1.0191 early in the Asia session. Traders also await details of an ECB plan to steady bond spreads in Europe by buying extra debt from periphery countries to keep a lid on yields. [FRX/]

The Bank of Japan ends a two-day meeting later on Thursday and although no policy change is expected, the outlook will be closely watched as will the reaction in currency and bond markets where some funds have bet on a shift.

CHINA CLOUDS

A cloud over Chinese growth due to its strict COVID-19 controls and fresh concern over stability in the property market is also casting gloom over the prospects for global demand.

U.S. President Joe Biden expects to speak to his Chinese counterpart by the end of the month, but markets are sanguine as to whether much of a thaw in Sino-U.S. ties is possible or whether it can arrest economic problems.

Growth-sensitive commodities such as copper and iron ore have been sliding and this week Chinese banks and property stocks have been hurt by borrowers boycotting repayments on unfinished real estate.

“Past due mortgages doubled over the week, and … potential home buyers are waiting for a general drop in home prices for the housing market, including completed projects,” ING analysts said in a note to clients on Thursday.

“This is negative even for cash-rich developers.”

China’s yuan was under pressure in morning trade at 6.7700 to the dollar. Against other currencies the greenback steadied after dipping earlier in the week. The Australian dollar bought $0.6890.

Sterling, at $1.1983, didn’t get much of a bounce from British inflation zooming to a 40-year high, even though it stoked bets on rate rises. Traders have a wary eye on the race to replace Boris Johnson as Prime Minister.

Beyond the ECB, investors have scaled back bets on a 100 bp rate hike from the Federal Reserve next week, with a 75 bp hike seen most likely. But the retreat has come in concert with a deepening of economic growth worries.

The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield held at 3.0172% in Asia, below the 2-year yield of 3.2293%, a market signal that often presages a recession. [US/]

(This story refiles to remove extraneous words; adds subheading)

(Editing by Sam Holmes)

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(Reuters) -Microsoft Corp said on Wednesday it was investigating an outage where users were unable to access Microsoft Teams or leverage any features on the app, but did not disclose details on how many users were affected.

However, there were more than 4,800 incidents of people reporting issues with Microsoft Teams at about 10 p.m. ET, according to Downdetector.com, which tracks outages by collating status reports from sources including user-submitted errors on its platform.

The web monitoring firm also showed there were more than 150 incidents of people reporting issues with Microsoft Office 365.

Other big technology companies have also been hit by outages in the past year, with a near six-hour disruption at Meta Platforms keeping WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger out of reach for billions of users last October.

(Reporting by Akriti Sharma in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)

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NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. existing home sales fell for a fifth straight month in June to the lowest level in two years, as fast-rising interest rates and record-high selling prices make buying a home too expensive for a growing share of American households.

Mortgage interest rates have soared as a result of the Federal Reserve’s stiff rate hikes to try to tame high inflation. That has driven a new buyer’s monthly payment up by more than 50% in the first six months of 2022 by some estimates and has had a clear effect on home sales that had surged during the COVID-19 pandemic to the highest levels since the mid-2000s.

In June, sales of previously owned homes fell 5.4% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.12 million units, the lowest level since June 2020 when sales were rebounding from the COVID-19 lockdown slump, the National Association of Realtors said on Wednesday. Sales have now fallen each month since January.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast sales would decrease to a rate of 5.38 million units. Sales were unchanged in the Northeast and fell in the Midwest, the West and South.

GRAPHIC: Existing home sales https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-STOCKS/klvykybqbvg/ehs.png

Home resales, which account for nearly 90% of the residential real estate market, dropped 14.2% on a year-on-year basis. The decline brought June’s sales rate to below the pace that prevailed in 2019 before the pandemic.

That was not enough to stall the relentless increase in selling prices, however. The median existing house price climbed 13.4% from a year earlier to an all-time high of $416,000 in June. It was the 23rd straight month of double-digit annual price gains, the longest such run since the late 1970s.

Sales gains remained concentrated in the upper-price end of the market amid a paucity of entry-level houses. Sales of homes priced below $500,000 were down by double-digit margins, led by a 31% year-over-year drop in the $100,000 to $250,000 range, while sales of houses selling for $500,000 and up eked out modest gains.

“Falling housing affordability continues to take a toll on potential home buyers,” NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said in a statement. “Both mortgage rates and home prices have risen too sharply in a short span of time.”

GRAPHIC: U.S. existing home prices hit a record … again https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-ECONOMY/HOUSING/zgvomxzabvd/chart.png

There were 1.26 million previously-owned homes on the market, up 9.6% from May and 2.4% from a year earlier, the first yearly increase since 2019.

With demand cooling, monthly supply is likely to continue to steadily improve. The government reported on Tuesday that housing completions in June decreased 4.6%, but the backlog of homes yet to be built hovered near record highs.

At June’s sales pace, it would take 3.0 months to exhaust the current inventory of existing homes, up from 2.6 months in May. A six-to-seven-month supply is viewed as a healthy balance between supply and demand.

Properties typically remained on the market for 14 days in June, the shortest period ever. First-time buyers accounted for 30% of sales, up from 27% in May. All-cash sales made up 25% of transactions.

HIGHER MORTGAGE RATES

The interest rate-sensitive housing market has softened notably this year as the Fed lifts rates aggressively to blunt inflation that is running at its highest pace in four decades.

The average contract rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage climbed to nearly 6% in June, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, up from about 3.3% at the start of the year, which has put home purchases out of reach for a growing number of prospective buyers. The rate in the latest week was 5.82%, MBA said earlier on Wednesday.

While it is unclear how much higher mortgage rates will climb, it’s almost certain they will remain high for some time with the Fed set to raise interest rates again at its policy meeting next week and more hikes to come through the end of the year.

An Oxford Economics index out last week showed homes were the least affordable in the first quarter of 2022 at any time since the 2007-2009 financial crisis, and it forecast that picture would worsen through the rest of this year.

“The increase in both home prices and mortgage rates since the end of 2021 has pushed the monthly mortgage payment on a median priced home up by nearly $700, or 56%, pricing millions of buyers out of the market,” Nancy Vanden Houten, lead U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, wrote in a note following Wednesday’s sales data. “We think underlying demand from younger households and investors may keep a floor under home sales, but not if home price growth does not begin to moderate.”

(Reporting by Dan Burns; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Paul Simao)

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By Saqib Iqbal Ahmed

NEW YORK (Reuters) -The U.S. dollar rose against the euro on Wednesday in a choppy session, but its gains were capped as traders were hesitant to drive big moves ahead of a crucial European Central Bank policy decision on Thursday.

The single currency has rallied about 2% in the last three trading sessions on expectations the ECB might deliver a big 50-bps rate hike and a Reuters report that a key Russian gas pipeline would reopen on time after maintenance.

“The euro popped yesterday on the slight possibility that the ECB would consider a 50 basis point hike,” said John Doyle, vice president of dealing and trading at Monex USA.

“I think expectations of that have waned a bit this morning especially with the energy crisis back in the headlines.”

The European Union told member states on Wednesday to cut gas usage by 15% until March as an emergency step after President Vladimir Putin warned that Russian supplies sent via the biggest pipeline to Europe could be reduced further and might even stop.

Both events – the ECB meeting and the reopening of the Nord Stream 1 conduit after a 10-day shutdown – are due on Thursday, leaving markets on tenterhooks.

“Our expectation is the ECB will only hike 25 bps this month. But the chance of a upside surprise will keep EUR/USD choppy until the decision is released,” Doyle said.

The dollar was about 0.52% lower against the euro at $1.01675.

The common currency found little relief from selling pressure after Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi won a confidence motion in the upper house Senate on Wednesday, but three main coalition parties refused to take part in the vote, effectively torpedoing his administration.

Against a basket of currencies, the dollar was 0.5% higher at 107.15, not far from the two-decade high of 109.29 touched last week.

The dollar was about 0.1% lower against the yen at 138.29 yen. The Bank of Japan is expected to stick to its dovish stance at its Thursday meeting..

Sterling weakened against the dollar, as data showed British inflation climbed to its highest rate in 40 years, but only slightly above forecast. Against the dollar, the pound was 0.3% lower at $1.1961.

The Canadian dollar slipped about 0.2% against the U.S. dollar after data showed inflation in Canada picked up speed again in June, though the gain missed forecasts.

In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin was about 1.67% higher at $23,795.2, on pace for its third straight day of gains, as traders bet the recent bout of weakness that had engulfed the market was over.

(Reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed;Editing by Alison Williams and Richard Chang)

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By Rae Wee

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – The U.S. dollar retreated further on Wednesday as the euro extended its overnight bounce on relief Europe might avoid the worst fears concerning energy shortages, and on the chance the European Central Bank may deliver a more aggressive rate hike.

Russian gas flows via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline are seen restarting on time on Thursday after the completion of scheduled maintenance, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

The euro tacked on 0.25% to $1.0245, having risen 0.75% the previous day, its strongest daily gain in a month.

Aiding sentiment was news that the ECB is considering raising interest rates by a larger-than-expected 50 basis points at their meeting on Thursday.

“If we do see Russian gas flows resume tomorrow, that will be good news for the euro/dollar and in the near term, euro can get a little boost and get away further from parity,” said Carol Kong, a currency strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

“But I am still worried about the euro/dollar, I think downsides still persist … the potential hawkish pivot from the ECB may not be able to give sustained support.”

The euro has lost about 2.3% since the beginning of July, and broke parity with the dollar for the first time in two decades last week following a red-hot U.S. inflation print and fears about a sharp economic downturn in the eurozone.

Other major currencies similarly rallied on the back of the weakening greenback, and as central banks around the world become more hawkish in their efforts to tame soaring inflation.

The U.S. dollar index measure against a basket of key currencies was down 0.14% to 106.52, well off its two-decade peak of 109.29 last week.

The U.S. currency’s retreat has also coincided with reduced expectations of a supersized 100-basis-point rate hike at next week’s Federal Reserve policy review.

The Aussie was up 0.4% at $0.6925, after rising 1.3% overnight, also the largest in a month.

Ahead of the Fed’s meeting next week, markets are pricing in a 23.2% chance of a 100 bp rate hike., with expectations of the jumbo rate increase easing after policymakers were quick to pour cold water on it.

Minutes of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) July policy meeting out the day earlier showed that the central bank sees a need for more policy tightening to curb inflation.

Earlier on Wednesday, RBA Governor Philip Lowe also suggested that rates could at least double from current low levels.

Sterling likewise advanced 0.28% to $1.2031.

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said on Tuesday that a 50-basis-point rate hike will be “among the choices on the table” at the BoE’s next meeting.

Conversely, the Japanese yen remained an outlier on Wednesday morning, and last traded 138.155 per dollar, as the Bank of Japan seems determined to stand by its dovish stance.

“Sticking to its dovish guns will entail sharpening policy trade-offs for the BOJ. The most pressing of which, is the sharp drop in the JPY; which has fallen a gut-wrenching 20-21% since the September FOMC,” said Vishnu Varathan, head of economics and strategy at Mizuho Bank in Singapore.

Over in the cryptoverse, Bitcoin was steady at $23,300, just off a five-week high hit the day before.

(Reporting by Rae Wee in Singapore and Alun John in Hong Kong; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)

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By Stephanie Kelly

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. crude shippers are exporting huge amounts of oil to meet strong demand from Europe following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and subsequent sanctions against Moscow. In coming years U.S. oil may find even more buyers overseas, but that could test the capabilities of U.S. export infrastructure.

HOW MUCH CRUDE DOES THE UNITED STATES TYPICALLY EXPORT?

U.S. crude exports averaged 3.7 million barrels per day (bpd) over the four weeks through late May, their highest since March 2020, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. More recently, exports are averaging 3.1 million bpd, making the United States one of the biggest crude exporters worldwide.

WHERE DOES THE UNITED STATES EXPORT OIL FROM?

The United States mostly exports from the Gulf Coast from ports including Houston, Corpus Christi and Beaumont, all in Texas. Corpus Christi is the largest, exporting about 2 million bpd of oil, followed by Houston at around 700,000 bpd, said Matt Smith, lead oil analyst for the Americas at Kpler.

In the first half of 2022, more than 99% of U.S. crude exports came out of the Gulf Coast, Kpler data showed.

HOW MUCH COULD THE UNITED STATES POTENTIALLY EXPORT?

Analysts say the U.S. Gulf could export roughly 5 million bpd; any more than that would cause substantial congestion in shipping channels, Smith said. However, that would also require an increase in U.S. production.

The weekly record for U.S. crude exports was nearly 4.5 million bpd in December 2019. The world’s top producer is pumping about 12 million bpd, and uses most of that oil domestically.

U.S. ports have been expanding in recent years, including major dredging projects to handle larger tankers that can carry more oil, and some, like Corpus Christi, could potentially handle more exports.

The Port of Corpus Christi is undergoing an improvement project that, once completed next year, would expand the ship channel to increase U.S. exports. It will, however, still require ship-to-ship transfers as the ship channel is not deep enough to fully load the Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs), which hold about 2 million barrels, favored in other major ports.

Gulf Coast exports are expected to surpass 4 million bpd in mid-2023 and reach 4.8 million bpd by late 2024, said Louise Dickson at Rystad Energy.

WHERE DOES U.S. OIL GO?

The United States sends the majority of its crude – about 1.4 million bpd – to Europe, around 1 million bpd to Asia, 250,000 bpd to Canada, and other barrels to Latin America, Kpler’s Smith said.

U.S. export demand is heavily determined by the price of U.S. crude relative to Brent crude, the global benchmark. Currently U.S. crude is trading at a discount of around $6.80 to Brent, making U.S. grades attractive to buyers in other countries.

WHY IS THE U.S. EXPORTING OIL WHEN LOCAL FUEL PRICES ARE HIGH?

Not all U.S.-produced oil is optimal for domestic refineries. The United States produces a lot of “sweet” crude, which is lower in sulfur content, and its refineries are generally geared toward processing more “sour,” heavier crude, Smith said.

That means more domestic barrels will be sent abroad to refiners that can process them, while U.S. refiners import barrels best suited to their use.

The United States has long been a crude importer, though net imports are steadily declining; the nation imported, on net, about 3.1 million bpd in 2021, more than halved from 6.8 million bpd in 2017, according to the EIA.

(Reporting by Stephanie Kelly; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

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By Clare Jim

HONG KONG (Reuters) – A revolt by Chinese homebuyers, who have threatened to stop paying mortgages on hundreds of unfinished housing projects, is spurring a shakeout among cash-starved property developers who have long relied on pre-sales of apartments.

    Many private-sector developers, already gasping for funds and facing an uncertain future, have stoked the unrest as they delayed projects.

Homebuyers are responding not just with protests and threats of mortgage boycotts, but by taking their business to deep-pocketed state-owned developers, or insisting only on buying completed apartments.

This shift in behaviour looks set to reshape China’s property sector, analysts and developers say, while a number of private companies, who last year sold as much as 90% of new housing units before construction was complete, may not survive the transition. “It’s a vicious cycle. If homeowners stop repaying mortgages … property recovery will be impacted,” said ANZ senior China economist Betty Wang. She said buyers of unfinished projects may balk not only because of construction delays, but because of falling home values as the market softens.

Uncertain job and financial prospects in the lagging economy and environmental issues have also stirred the agitation for mortgage boycotts.

The disruption comes at a sensitive time for China’s property sector, which accounts for a quarter of the country’s economic output and showed signs of stabilising in June when prices were unchanged after falling for two months.

The sector has been lurching from one crisis to another over the past year, as it grapples with mounting liabilities, a slowing economy and flagging demand, while its sources of fresh fundraising have been drying up.

Some private developers have already defaulted on offshore debt obligations and struggled to raise funds from other sources, including banks. “It’s a domino effect: No new homebuyers will buy our unsold apartments in the pre-sale, but we need to use the little money we get from selling half or two-thirds of the units to complete construction,” said an executive at a private developer that has missed its dollar bond payments but has not halted construction.

The executive declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter. “After repaying bank loans with the money left, if there is any, it’s almost impossible also to repay the onshore and offshore bonds.”

PROJECT DELAYS

Estimates vary widely on unfinished projects, with analysts contacted by Reuters putting the figure at 5% to 20% of projects nationwide.

ANZ estimates that 1.5 trillion yuan ($222 billion) worth of mortgages are tied to apartments at risk of remaining unfinished, or 4% of total outstanding mortgages. China’s banking regulator repeatedly sought to reassure homebuyers and financial markets over the past week that pre-sold homes would be properly delivered, while encouraging lenders to provide funds as needed to worthy real estate projects. State-owned developers have also taken over some troubled projects from heavily indebted non-state companies, and some analysts and sector players expect stepped-up takeovers to address the mortgage protests. Those protests have reached an unprecedented scale, with more than 200 projects by at least 80 property developers affected across China, E-house China Research and Development Institution said in a report this week. The turmoil is expected to accelerate changes already evident in the preferences of homebuyers, who have long favoured new properties still on the drawing board or under construction but grew wary of unfinished projects as high-profile developers – notably China Evergrande Group – plunged into a debt crisis over the past year. The ratio of pre-construction sales to sales of existing homes has dropped to 6.5 from a high of 9.9 in the first half of last year, according to ANZ. Homebuyers are also leaning towards more financially secure, state-owned developers. Jason Li, a 30-year old would-be homebuyer in eastern China’s Shangdong province, said he was delaying buying a home because he is worried about the economy and job security, and said he would avoid projects by private developers. “It took a few years for my friends to finally get their pre-sold homes, while many developers even failed to deliver the apartments as promised,” said Li.

Moody’s added in a report that the boycott would accelerate the shakeout of struggling developers.

“The rise in mortgage defaults …will further differentiate financially strong developers from their weaker peers,” it said.

($1 = 6.7468 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Clare Jim; Additional reporting by Liangping Gao in Beijing and Samuel Shen in Shanghai; Editing by Edmund Klamann)

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(Reuters) -Employees at a Miami investment firm had learned of a pending merger deal between former President Donald Trump’s social media company and a blank-check entity long before it was announced, the New York Times reported on Monday, citing three people familiar with the discussions.

Officials of the firm, Rocket One Capital, at the time talked about ways to profit off the soon-to-be-announced transaction with Trump Media & Technology Group by investing in the special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC), the Times reported https://nyti.ms/3ILscSe, citing two of the people.

“Mr. Shvartsman and Rocket One Capital intend to fully cooperate in the investigations. Any assertion that Mr. Shvartsman or Rocket One Capital had any advance knowledge of the potential transactions contemplated by DWAC is categorically false,” a lawyer representing Rocket One’s founder Michael Shvartsman said in an email to Reuters.

Trump Media did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

Federal prosecutors and regulators are now investigating the merger, including the frenzied trading in the SPAC’s warrants, the report said, citing people familiar with the investigation and public disclosures.

Trump Media & Technology Group, the creator of social media platform Truth Social, agreed to merge with Digital World on Oct. 20. The deal was expected to close by the second half of this year.

Digital World shares soared as much as 350%, a day after the deal was made public.

(Reporting by Echo Wang in New York, Mrinalika Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva)

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By Tom Hals and Sheila Dang

(Reuters) -Twitter Inc began making its case on Tuesday for a September trial over its lawsuit seeking to hold Elon Musk to his $44 billion takeover, saying the uncertainty caused by Musk’s attempt to walk away was harming the company.

“The continued uncertainty inflicts harm to Twitter every hour of every day,” said William Savitt, an attorney for Twitter, at the hearing that was being conducted remotely after the judge, Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick, tested positive on Monday for COVID-19.

The San Francisco-based company is seeking to resolve months of uncertainty for its business as Musk tries to walk away from the deal over what he says are Twitter’s “spam” accounts that he says are fundamental to its value.

Twitter has asked McCormick of Delaware’s Court of Chancery to find Musk breached the merger agreement and to order him to complete the merger at the agreed price of $54.20 per share.

Twitter wants an expedited trial in September because it said Musk is smearing Twitter and undermining operations by refusing to approve business initiatives, such as an employee retention plan.

The company said adopting Musk’s “slow walk” proposal for a February trial leaves little time for additional litigation over deal financing if Musk is ordered to close. The deal financing expires in April.

A lawyer for Musk blamed Twitter for dragging its feet in responding to Musk’s requests for information regarding the methods for calculating the number of spam accounts and he said an expedited trial will prevent the truth from coming to light.

“When Mr. Musk started asking questions, the answers he got were alarming,” said Andrew Rossman, Musk’s lawyer. He said it will take months to analyze massive amounts of data to resolve Musk’s questions about Twitter’s spam accounts.

Rossman also pushed back on the notion that Musk was trying to harm Twitter, pointing out the billionaire held a larger stake than the combined holdings of the directors of Twitter.

Twitter’s stock has slumped from above $50 a share when the deal was announced to as low as $32.55 last week.

It was trading around $39.16 on Tuesday morning, up about 2% and near the highest level since Musk said he was walking away.

(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Del. Additional reporting by Sheila Dang in DallasEditing by Noeleen Walder, Rosalba O’Brien and Matthew Lewis)

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By Uday Sampath Kumar

(Reuters) -Hasbro Inc’s higher-priced toys powered its quarterly profit jump, defying an inflation-driven demand slump gripping American retail and sending its shares 2% higher on Tuesday.

The company is leaning on product launches including new Nerf blasters and expansion packs for its “Magic: The Gathering” role-playing game at a time when fears of a slowdown have gained ground among toymakers.

Walmart Inc and Target Corp – which together account more for than a third of Hasbro’ sales, according to UBS – have in recent months warned of the toll rising prices were taking on shoppers.

Still, the company is yet to see any push back from consumers over price hikes and could raise rates further if costs increase, Chief Executive Officer Chris Cocks told Reuters.

“Toys tend to be resilient in a recession,” Cocks said. “Parents want to keep investing in their children, and toys and games are good entertainment value for the money.”

For the second quarter, Hasbro posted an adjusted profit of $1.15 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of 94 cents, according to Refinitiv data.

INVENTORY HEADACHE

Despite the strong sales, Hasbro’s inventories swelled by more than 73% as it expedited shipments to avoid the shortages it faced during last year’s holiday season.

Jefferies analyst Stephanie Wissink said the build-up could hurt margins if inflation starts weighing on consumer demand for toys.

“We initially assumed toy companies would be able to fully pass through pricing, but we’re seeing some signs that there’s emerging pushback from retailers and consumers,” Wissink said.

CEO Cocks said he expects Hasbro to end 2022 with roughly flat inventory levels compared with a year earlier.

(Reporting by Uday Sampath in Bengaluru; Editing by Aditya Soni)

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