Reuters Financial News

By John Kemp

Apple fell nearly 4% on Thursday and sparked a rout in U.S. equities after reports that China has widened curbs on iPhone use by government staff in one of the U.S.

ChatGPT, OpenAI, Reuters reported on Thursday. The bank is testing it with 1,000 financial advisers for some months. The details of the program have not yet been reported.

Singapore based Temasek has invested $140 million in Ola Electric at a valuation of $5.4 billion. The development comes as part of an ongoing round to raise $250 million ahead of the e-scooter maker's initial public offering. Reports quoting sources indicated that there could be another round of fund raising before Ola Electric files papers for an up to $1 billion IPO.

ICICI Securities, JP Morgan and is looking to raise around $1 billon. It has initiated talks with bankers to assess its valuation, after halting the process for months due to weak markets, according to Reuters.

Indian rupee ended at a record closing low on Thursday, despite the central bank's likely intervention, as elevated U.S. treasury yields and weakness in other Asian currencies weighed on the local unit. The rupee ended at 83.21 against the U.S.

We don’t support this browser anymore. This means our website may not look and work as you would expect. Read more about browsers and how to update them here.

We don’t support this browser anymore. This means our website may not look and work as you would expect. Read more about browsers and how to update them here.

consumer spending in the economy. According to customs data released on Thursday, China’s exports dipped 8.8% year-on-year (YoY) to $284.87 billion in August, registering its fourth straight month of decline. However, exports beat a forecast of 9.2% fall in a Reuters poll and off a 14.5% drop in July.

On the Comex, Brent Oil futures were trading at $90.420, down $0.180 or 0.200%. After a strong rally, crude oil futures are witnessing some profit-booking at higher levels, but the overall trend remains positive, and a buy-on-dips strategy is recommended, analyst Anuj Gupta, Head Commodity & Currency at HDFC Securities, told ETMarkets. He suggests a buy at Rs 7,050 with a stop loss of Rs 6,950 and a target of Rs 7,300. The prices are at 10-month high levels, the analyst informed. Crude oil futures have gained 5.47% or Rs 377/bbl in September while the year-to-day gains stand at Rs 694 or 10.59%, Gupta said. Analyst Prathamesh Mallya, Deputy Vice President, Research, Non-Agro Commodities & Currency at Angel One, believes that the uptick in prices is on the back of declining US inventories and sustained production cuts by Saudi Arabia and Russia, and the situation could remain as it is, going ahead. Earlier, Reuters reported the US crude oil inventories were projected to fall by 5.5 million barrels in the week ending September 1, quoting market sources in the American Petroleum Institute.

Temasek led a $140 million funding round in India's Ola Electric at a valuation of $5.4 billion, two sources with the direct knowledge said, the latest funding for the e-scooter maker before its initial public offering. The investment round has been closed and Ola will be receiving the funds within a week's time, though there will be another round of fund raising before it files papers for an up to $1 billion IPO planned for late 2023, said the first source. Ola did not respond to a Reuters request for comment, while Temasek, which is an existing investor in Ola Electric, declined to comment. Ola Electric, founded by Bhavish Aggarwal and backed by Japan's SoftBank Group, has become India's e-scooter market leader with a 32% share, competing with Ather Energy as well as companies such as TVS Motor and Hero Electric. Valued at $5 billion last year, Ola sold around 95,000 e-scooters during April-August 2023, industry data showed.

Tencent revealed that Hunyuan has now become the core technology underpinning over 50 of its various products and services. "By July, there are more than 130 large language models in China.

10-month low. It had closed at 83.13. Strong US services PMI data raised bets that the US Federal Reserve will keep interest rates elevated for longer, which lifted Treasury yields.

Generative AI (GenAI) for education, urging governmental agencies to regulate the use of the technology, including protection of data privacy and putting an age limit for users. Launched by Microsoft-backed OpenAI in November, GenAI chatbot ChatGPT has become the world's fastest-growing app to date, and its emergence has prompted the release of rivals, such as Google's Bard.

dollar's strength will be difficult to overcome for most major currencies by year-end, according to a Reuters poll of forex strategists who said the risks to their greenback outlook were skewed to the upside. Backed by a strong economy and rising U.S. Treasury yields, some of the highest among developed economies, the dollar despite bouts of weakness has stayed resilient against most major currencies. Hitting a six-month peak as jitters over China and global growth weighed on risk appetite and expectations the U.S.

safe-haven demand amid a slowing Chinese economy keeps the dollar ascendant, a Reuters poll of FX analysts found. A stampede into the greenback pushed the wider index of emerging market currencies to its lowest in two weeks on Monday as U.S. Treasury yields and the dollar advanced on expectations interest rates will remain high. The dollar index has surged more than 5.0% since its 15-month nadir in July.

Indian stock market is expected to open lower on Thursday tracking weak global cues amid strength in US dollar and surging crude oil prices. Asian markets were mixed, while US stock market ended in the red as stronger economic data raised concerns that interest rates will remain elevated for longer. The domestic benchmark equity indices ended higher on Wednesday, their fourth consecutive session of gains.

Reliance Industries: Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd. (RRVL) on Wednesday said it has signed a joint venture agreement to acquire a 51% stake in Ed-a-Mamma, a kid and maternity-wear brand founded by actor Alia Bhatt. The partnership will see the brand grow into new categories such as personal care and baby furniture, children’s story books and an animated series, RRVL said in a statement announcing the investment.

G20 summit in New Delhi later this week, hosted these talks. His attendance at the summit follows an invitation from India, the current holder of the rotating presidency of the G20 bloc.

RBI) has been making informal inquiries with select bond market participants about the impact of allowing settlement of domestic sovereign debt on the Euroclear platform, a move that experts believe would help expand the overseas investor base for local debt and eventually lower borrowing costs through inclusion of these bonds in globally tracked indices. «They (the RBI) are not averse to the process of settlement of Indian bonds on the Euroclear platform and have been taking feedback from the market,» a source aware of the development said. «Such discussions happened earlier too — there were some concerns over a parallel yield curve developing, although the market has developed more now and is much deeper.» In most cases, bonds listed on an international index are settled on global platforms such as those offered by the Belgium-based Euroclear. Although Euroclear settlements are not mandatory for inclusion of Indian sovereign debt on global bond indices such as those offered by JP Morgan and Bloomberg Barclays, the presence of a settlement mechanism on a global platform is seen to help push the cause for inclusion.'Tax Relief Unlikely' A Reuters report, citing Bank of America Securities, said last month that index inclusion could lead to inflows of $6 to $12 billion over a period of time into India, thereby helping lower yields on sovereign debt.

(This Aug. 24 story has been corrected to add that Barclays co-led the financing in paragraph 20)