News updates from September 6: Latest Eurozone data clouds economic outlook, WeWork to renegotiate most of its leases

Shares of GameStop rose more than 6 per cent in extended trade after the company reported that it slashed its net loss by more than 95 per cent in its last quarter.

The company’s loss of $2.8mn was significantly narrower than analysts’ had expected after recording a $108.7mn loss in the year-ago period. The improvement was driven by a steep decline in general and administrative expenses. Its $1.16bn in revenue also exceeded forecasts.

GameStop in June ousted chief executive Matt Furlong, and its largest shareholder Ryan Cohen was elected executive chair. In the second half of 2022, the company initiated a plan to cut costs and take steps to achieve profitability.

A legal watchdog has filed a lawsuit to remove Donald Trump from the Republican primary ballot in 2024, arguing that the former president disqualified himself from public office by violating the US Constitution on January 6 2021.

The suit advances a once-fringe legal argument that could fast become a lightning rod in the 2024 presidential election. Trump remains the undisputed frontrunner in a crowded field of Republicans vying for the party’s nomination for the White House, even as he faces 91 criminal charges across four separate criminal cases.

Read more about the lawsuit here

Texas has been ordered to remove a floating border on the Rio Grande after a federal judge found authorities had failed to secure the necessary permissions to erect the barricade.

The ruling is a significant win for the Biden administration, which had sued the state and its Republican governor, Greg Abbott, over its increasingly harsh crackdown on illegal migration.

“Governor Abbott announced that he was not ‘asking for permission’ for Operation Lone Star, the anti-immigration program under which Texas constructed the floating barrier,” US district judge David Alan Ezra wrote in a ruling released on Wednesday.

“Unfortunately for Texas, permission is exactly what federal law requires before installing obstructions in the nation’s navigable waters”.

Abbott’s office released a statement on Wednesday vowing to appeal the ruling.

Mexico’s Supreme Court on Wednesday voted unanimously to decriminalise abortion on Wednesday, in a ruling that obliges public health institutions to offer the procedure, and could exonerate those who have been convicted.

The decision, which forces Mexico’s Congress to eliminate abortion from the federal penal code, comes as several US states have limited abortion access since Roe vs Wade was overturned last summer.

A landmark 2021 ruling by Mexico’s top court effectively decriminalised abortion by setting a precedent that protected people from conviction for abortions after up to 12 weeks of pregnancy. Wednesday’s ruling goes a step further by removing it from the federal code and guaranteeing access to abortion services.

Federal prosecutors on Wednesday said they will ask a grand jury to indict Hunter Biden before the end of this month, according to a court filing.

Hunter, son of US president Joe Biden, was charged with tax and firearm offences in June, to which he pleaded not guilty. A letter from special counsel David Weiss said prosecutors plan to obtain an indictment by September 29 “at the earliest.”

Weiss was appointed in August by US attorney-general Merrick Garland to oversee the case. Days later, one of Hunter Biden’s lawyers asked to withdraw from the case because he might become a witness.

A potential plea deal fell apart in July after a judge said she was not prepared to sign off on an agreement with prosecutors.

Mitch McConnell insisted that he would stay in his leadership role as the Senate’s top Republican, and serve out the remainder of his six-year term, in his first major press conference since freezing in front of reporters last week in Kentucky.

Asked by reporters on Capitol Hill on Wednesday about his political future, the 81-year-old replied: “I have no announcements to make on that subject. I am going to finish my term as leader, and I am going to finish my Senate term.”

McConnell’s Senate term ends in 2026.

After last week’s incident, McConnell was pronounced “medically clear” to continue working. However, the assurance has done little to quell concerns from some vocal members of his own party.

Rand Paul, the junior senator from Kentucky and a medical doctor, told reporters on Tuesday that McConnell’s freeze looked like a “focal neurologic event”. Josh Hawley, the Republican senator from Missouri, said he was “concerned” about McConnell’s age.

The White House on Wednesday cancelled oil and gas leases in Northern Alaska that were sold by the Trump administration in a last-ditch effort to issue more lands for drilling. 

The leases were issued in January 2021 but were suspended six months later after the department found “multiple legal deficiencies” in the leases. 

The announcement comes as the Biden administration faces heavy scrutiny for its approval of ConocoPhillips’ $8bn Willow Project in Alaska earlier this year amid pledges to protect federal land from drilling.

The move by President Joe Biden was largely symbolic. None of the oil majors participated in the original lease sale, and two of the nine sold leases were already refunded at the request of the companies prior to Wednesday’s announcement.

The US Senate has voted overwhelmingly to confirm Philip Jefferson as vice-chair of the Federal Reserve, the number-two position at the central bank.

The 100-member upper chamber confirmed Jefferson in a bipartisan 88-10 vote on Wednesday.

Jefferson has been a Fed board member since May 2022, but his confirmation elevates him to Powell’s second-in-command, filling a vacancy created when US president Joe Biden tapped Lael Brainard to be his top economic adviser.

The Senate was expected to vote later on Wednesday to confirm Fed governor Lisa Cook to a new 14-year term, and World Bank economist Adriana Kugler to fill the last open Fed board seat. If confirmed, Kugler would be the first Latina to be a top Fed policymaker.

The UK has struck a deal to rejoin the EU’s Horizon research programme, according to officials in London and Brussels, in a move welcomed by academics and businesses across Europe.

Rishi Sunak, UK prime minister, is expected to confirm on Thursday that Britain will sign up as an associate member of the €95.5bn programme, drawing a line under months of tense negotiations.

Horizon is the world’s largest multilateral research programme, bringing together companies and scientists from more than 40 countries exploring areas from climate change to cancer to artificial intelligence.

Read more here

WeWork is seeking to renegotiate nearly all of its leases around the world, weeks after the SoftBank-backed office space group warned that there was “substantial doubt” about its ability to continue as a going concern. 

The New York-based company’s drive to cut lease costs it described as “dramatically out of step with current market conditions” threatens to ripple through a commercial real estate industry that is already suffering from the excess capacity that followed a pandemic-driven surge in working from home.    

As of June WeWork was in 777 locations in 39 countries, with long term lease obligations of more than $13bn. 

Chief executive David Tolley told landlords on a listen-only call that WeWork expected to exit some “unfit and underperforming locations” but would remain in most of its buildings.

Read more here

The US services sector expanded for the eighth successive month, beating economists’ projections for slower growth in the largest portion of the country’s economy.

The Institute for Supply Management’s services purchasing managers’ index notched a reading of 54.5 in August, up from 52.7 in July. Economists had predicted a pullback to 52.5. All four subindexes of the PMI increased from the prior month, with employment ramping up the most by 4 points.

The data stands out as an exception at a time when most US economic indicators have shown the economy slowing at a faster pace than expected.

“The majority of panellists are positive about business and economic conditions,” said ISM chair Anthony Nieves.

The EU’s highest court has ruled that sanctions against a Russian tech executive should be lifted, the first time it has revoked measures against a businessman sanctioned over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

Alexander Shulgin, former chief executive of ecommerce platform Ozon, had joined dozens of other members of Russia’s elite in appealing against the sanctions at the European Court of Justice.

But while at least six such appeals were formally rejected on Wednesday, the court made a rare exception in the case of Shulgin.

The sanctions against him will not be lifted immediately and the European Council, which first imposed the measures, could appeal or impose fresh sanctions as early as next week, when the measures are up for renewal.

Read more here

The National Bank of Poland cut its benchmark interest rate by a larger-than-expected 0.75 percentage points on Wednesday, changing course on monetary policy ahead of other central banks and before a fiercely contested national election.

The central bank lowered the rate to 6 per cent from 6.75 per cent. Analysts had predicted a cut but most expected 0.25 percentage points. Polish inflation remains in double digits and far above the EU average.

Before the cut, some economists warned that the central bank, under its president Adam Glapiński, was being unduly influenced by politics and the goals of the ruling Law and Justice party (PiS), seeking a third term in office next month.

The Bank of Canada held its key interest rate at 5 per cent, following two increases in June and July and after data last week showed the country’s economy shrank in the second quarter.

Headline inflation is still above the central bank’s target, and rose to 3.3 per cent in July from June’s 2.8 per cent reading. However, recent figures showed Canada’s GDP contracted by 0.2 per cent in the three months to the end of June, showing a slowdown in the economy.

“With recent evidence that excess demand in the economy is easing, and given the lagged effects of monetary policy, Governing Council decided to hold the policy interest rate,” the bank said in a statement on Wednesday.

The decision comes after two provincial leaders recently wrote letters pleading the central bank to stop increasing rates, warning that high borrowing costs are causing economic pains for Canadians.

Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey has told MPs that the UK economy is now “much nearer the top of the cycle on the basis of current evidence”, casting some doubt on the need for further interest rate rises. 

Bailey stressed on Wednesday that he was not providing guidance ahead of the bank’s September Monetary Policy Committee meeting, but said the economy had moved on from the period in which “it was clear [interest] rates needed to rise going forward and the question was how much”, adding: “We’re not in that place any more.”

The BoE raised interest rates to 5.25 per cent in August.

Read more here

A daytime Russian rocket attack has killed at least 16 people in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kostyantynivka, Donetsk region, president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday. 

“Russian terrorists have attacked a regular market, shops, and a pharmacy, killing innocent people,” he said in a statement shared on social media. “Heinous evil. Brazen wickedness. Utter inhumanity.”

Zelensky shared a video captured by a security camera showing people walking around the busy market just before the moment of impact. The explosion ripped apart the market stalls and sprayed shrapnel and debris.

Kostyantynivka is an industrial city 30 kilometres west of the destroyed city of Bakhmut, which is under Russian control. It is an important logistical hub for Ukrainian forces.

Jenni Hermoso, the World Cup winning football player, has filed a formal sexual assault complaint with Spanish prosecutors against suspended football boss Luis Rubiales for kissing her on the lips.

The player filed the complaint on Tuesday, according to a person close to the case, paving the way for criminal proceedings. Rubiales, who was suspended as president of Spain’s football association by Fifa, has said the kiss was consensual, something Hermoso categorically denies.

Spanish prosecutors had given Hermoso 15 days to file a formal complaint after they opened a preliminary investigation into “incidents that could constitute a crime of sexual assault”.

Prosecutors can now file a complaint against Rubiales themselves.

Shares of streaming company Roku jumped 10.1 per cent in pre-market trading on Wednesday after it said it would cut 10 per cent of its workforce to cut costs. 

Roku, which also makes hardware and original TV content, said it would perform a “strategic review” of its content portfolio, limit new hires and consolidate office space.

It expects to record a restructuring charge ranging from $45mn to $65mn related to the job cuts, and two impairment charges from the office space reduction and removal of licences and produced content from its streaming platform. 

Excluding the charges, the company expects to report net revenue of $835mn to $875mn in the third quarter, more than the $830.7mn analysts anticipate.

NatWest has appointed former Mastercard chairman Rick Haythornthwaite as its new chair, capping off a period of leadership turmoil at the bank.

Haythornthwaite would join the board in January before taking over in April, when Sir Howard Davies’ term expires. A Treasury insider said Haythornthwaite was seen in government circles as “widely respected and experienced”. The appointment was first reported by Sky News. 

“I am inheriting a very different NatWest compared to my predecessor; one that is more customer focused, financially resilient and well positioned to maintain its recent strong performance,” Haythornthwaite said.

Read more here

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has vowed to use monetary and fiscal policy to cool runaway price growth, in a reversal of his previously-expressed view that high interest rates cause rather than cure inflation.

Erdoğan promised that “with the help of tight monetary policy, we will bring inflation back down to single digits”, as the government unveiled its economic plan for the next three years.

The government said it expects inflation to hit 65 per cent by the end of 2023, compared with 59 per cent in August. The forecast is higher than the 58 per cent the central bank forecast in late July.

The government expects economic growth to slow this year, with gross domestic product expanding 4.4 per cent compared with 5.5 per cent in 2022.

Moderna’s latest Covid-19 vaccine can tackle the potentially dangerous new variant BA.2.86, according to a lab test conducted by the company. 

Scientists had been concerned that the highly mutated new variant may be more likely to cause infections, even in people who had previously been infected or vaccinated. 

Moderna said on Wednesday that its updated shot, which will be used in autumn vaccination programmes, elicited a “strong human immune response”, increasing the body’s existing antibodies to tackle the virus 8.7 fold.

Tests had already shown the vaccine is able to tackle other emerging variants, EG.5 and FL1.5.1.

Romania on Wednesday admitted that it found evidence of a Russian drone hitting its territory this week.

“I confirm that in this area pieces that may be of a drone were found,” defence minister Angel Tîlvăr told local news station Antena 3 CNN on Wednesday near Plauru, a village across the Danube from Izmail, a Ukrainian cargo port targeted by Russian drones in recent attacks.

Bucharest has reversed course after two days of denying Ukrainian government claims of a Russian drone hitting the territory of Romania, a Nato member, at dawn on Monday.

“It is important to strengthen vigilance measures,” Tîlvăr said.

Madrid has said it will take all necessary steps to defend its “strategic interests” after Saudi telecom group STC took a 9.9 per cent stake in Telefónica, one of Spain’s biggest companies.

Deputy prime minister Nadia Calviño struck a neutral tone in Spain’s most extensive comments yet on the move by STC, which did not alert Telefónica or the government about its acquisition of the interest until shortly before making it public on Tuesday.

She said the government was analysing the deal, which requires approval from Spanish authorities, and that it would “apply all the necessary mechanisms, always with the defence of Spain’s strategic interests in mind”.

The UK government has published a list of 147 primary and secondary schools in England confirmed to have buildings made with Raac, a form of lightweight concrete that is prone to collapse.

According to the Department of Education, the start of term has been delayed at 19 of the schools. Pupils at 104 schools continue to receive face-to-face education on site or nearby, with those at four schools receiving fully remote teaching and those at 20 a mix of face-to-face and remote arrangements.

A further nine schools initially thought to have buildings made with Raac were found to have none. Their names were not included in the list.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken arrived in Kyiv on Wednesday for a surprise two-day visit, hours after Russian air strikes targeted the capital and grain-exporting infrastructure in the southern Odesa region.

“Returned to Kyiv today to meet with our Ukrainian partners to discuss their ongoing counteroffensive, future assistance and reconstruction efforts, and above all, to reinforce the unwavering US commitment to Ukraine,” Blinken said on X, formerly Twitter.

Blinken is expected to unveil a fresh $1bn assistance package as Ukraine’s slow-moving counteroffensive shows signs of gaining pace. He is also expected to meet with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Blinken’s visit came as Ukraine’s parliament on Wednesday voted in Zelenskyy’s newly appointed defence minister, Rustem Umerov. 

Several Russian oligarchs have lost their appeals against EU sanctions, with the bloc’s top court ruling to maintain measures imposed over the war in Ukraine and events in Belarus. 

Dozens of appeals launched by Russian businessmen against the European Council’s decision to sanction them last year are currently being heard by the European Court of Justice. Only one has been successful so far.

On Wednesday, the court rejected an appeal by oil and gas pipemaking tycoon Dmitry Pumpyansky, saying he “is involved in economic sectors which constitute a substantial source of revenue” for the Kremlin. 

The court reportedly also turned down appeals by Gennadiy Timchenko, a long-time business associate of Vladimir Putin’s, and by Tigran Khudaverdyan, the former chief executive of Yandex.

The chief executive of Switzerland’s financial regulator has resigned for health reasons within six months of orchestrating UBS’s rescue of Credit Suisse.

Urban Angehrn, who has been chief executive of Finma for less than two years, played a pivotal role in the negotiations of the most significant bank merger since the financial crisis in March.

On Wednesday morning, Finma announced he would be stepping down at the end of September.

In a statement, Angehrn said the “high and permanent stress level” of the job “had health consequences” for him.

“I have considered my decision carefully and have now decided to step down,” he added.

This summer was the hottest on record globally, according to the EU’s weather monitoring service Copernicus.

The season between June and August was the warmest recorded “by a large margin” with an average temperature of 16.8 degrees Celsius — 0.66°C above the average, Copernicus said.

In Europe, temperatures were 0.83°C above average making it the fifth warmest summer season, although it has been among the most disastrous with many areas devastated by floods and wildfires.

“Global temperature records continue to tumble in 2023, with the warmest August following on from the warmest July and June leading to the warmest boreal summer in our data record going back to 1940,” said Samantha Burgess, depute director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service. 

Fed: The US Federal Reserve will release its latest Beige Book, an anecdotal assessment of regional economic conditions gathered by each central bank branch. 

Bank of Canada: The Canadian central bank is expected to announce it will hold its benchmark interest rate steady at 5 per cent, pausing its monetary tightening campaign after last week’s gross domestic product showed an economic slowdown in the second quarter.

Trump case: Co-defendants of Donald Trump who have not waived in-person appearances will be arraigned in an Atlanta court in the Georgia election interference case.

Services: The Institute for Supply Management will release its monthly US services purchasing managers’ index, which economists project will show sector growth in August, but at a slower rate than in July, according to LSEG data.

Fedspeak: Boston Fed president Susan Collins will appear before the New England Council in Boston.

European and Chinese stocks fell on Wednesday as investors worried that firmer oil prices would boost inflation and curb the outlook for global economic growth.

Europe’s region-wide Stoxx Europe 600 fell 0.6 per cent at the opening bell, following five straight days of losses. France’s Cac 40 fell 0.7 per cent and Germany’s Dax gave up 0.4 per cent. 

The declines echoed China, where the benchmark CSI 300 fell 0.2 per cent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index dropped 0.1 per cent.  

Investors grew cautious over inflation after oil prices jumped on Tuesday to their highest level since November 2022, after Saudi Arabia and Russia said they would extend their voluntary supply cuts until the end of the year. 

Read more from the Markets Briefing here

UK housebuilding activity dropped in August as rising interest rates hit demand, according to a closely watched survey.

The S&P Global/Cips UK Construction Purchasing Managers’ Index, a measure of activity, fell to 50.8 in August, down from 51.7 in July. A reading below 50 indicates a majority of companies reporting a contraction.

The weakness was driven by housebuilding, with an index of 40.7, while both commercial building and civil engineering activity continued to expand. 

Tim Moore, economics director at S&P Global Market Intelligence, which compiles the survey, said the economic backdrop “resulted in cutbacks to client demand and new-build projects in particular”.

Excluding the pandemic, he added, the downturn in residential building has been the steepest since spring 2009.

Housing construction in the eurozone declined in August at the fastest pace since the start of the pandemic as rising interest rates hit building activity.

The HCOB eurozone construction purchasing managers’ index, which tracks total activity in the sector, edged down to 43.4 in August from 43.5 in July, its lowest level so far this year, and taking it further below the 50 level that separates growth from contraction. 

Housebuilding declined at the fastest pace since April 2020, while commercial construction and infrastructure activity also declined but at a slower pace. 

“This is not a good time to be in construction in the eurozone,” said Cyrus de la Rubia, chief economist at Hamburg Commercial Bank. “Especially those companies focused on the housing sector.”

Russian mercenary group Wagner will be proscribed in the UK as a terrorist organisation, the Home Office has announced.

Suella Braverman, the home secretary, will lay a draft proscription order against the group in parliament on Wednesday, to come into force in a week’s time.

The Financial Times first reported last month that the move was imminent. It will make it illegal to belong to, or support, Wagner and means its property can be categorised as terrorist property and seized. 

The Home Office described Wagner, whose founder Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed in a plane crash last month, as a “proxy military force of Vladimir Putin’s Russia operating across the globe”.

Big share price moves in Europe today include UK cyber security company Darktrace, British housebuilder Barratt, and Polish parcel locker company InPost:

• Darktrace: Shares in the UK company are down 2 per cent after losing more than 4 per cent in early trading as the cyber security company said its earnings margin would be reduced by changes in the way it collects commission on sales.
  

• Barratt: Shares in the British housebuilder are down 2 per cent after it reported a squeeze on earnings due to rising mortgage rates, which are dragging on the wider sector.
  

  

• InPost: The Polish company gained more than 6 per cent in early trade, leading gains on the Europe-wide Stoxx 600 index, after reporting higher core profit margins.

Morgan Stanley has turned negative on emerging market currencies on expectations of spillover from a weakening renminbi, which the investment bank is shorting as Chinese growth stutters.

“We expect [the renminbi] to remain under pressure over the remainder of the year, and turn bearish on emerging market [currencies],” foreign exchange strategists, led by James Lord, wrote in a note.

Analysts at the bank said they “are not expecting a significant rebound in sentiment towards China’s outlook in the short term”.

Bets have recently mounted against the Chinese currency, which has fallen about 6 per cent against the dollar this year, and on Wednesday was down another 0.1 per cent at Rmb7.31.

Ashmore Group said “momentum is building” in emerging markets despite suffering big outflows and a drop in pre-tax profit as global macroeconomic uncertainty dents client confidence.

The company reported a 13 per cent drop in assets under management to $55.9bn, due to outflows of $11.5bn in the year to June 30, which it said was due to clients shifting asset allocations to more “safe havens”.

Pre-tax profit dropped 6 per cent year-on-year to £111.8mn ($140.5mn), after a 58 per cent drop in 2022 due to geopolitical tensions.

“There is mounting evidence that the negative cycle has turned,” said Mark Coombs, chief executive.

UK housebuilder Barratt posted a drop in annual profit and reduced its dividend as high mortgages rates hit customers’ ability to buy new homes.

The group on Wednesday posted £705.1mn in pre-tax profit for the year to June 30, a nearly 10 per cent decline on the previous financial year.

It also slashed its total ordinary dividend to 33.7 pence per share, a 8.7 per cent year on year decline.

“Customers continue to face cost of living and mortgage affordability challenges, and new developments are increasingly constrained by an ineffective planning system,” said chief executive David Thomas.

Ukrainian officials said at least one person was killed in the Danube River Delta port town of Izmail during Russian missile and drone strikes overnight, which also targeted the capital city Kyiv.

“Unfortunately, one person died. The employee of the agricultural enterprise,” Oleg Kiper, governor of Ukraine’s Odesa region said in a statement. He said the latest strikes, designed to choke Ukraine’s Black Sea exports of food and grain, caused further destruction of port and agriculture infrastructure.

Explosions were heard in Kyiv, where officials reported some damage but said all incoming missiles were intercepted by air defences.

Ukraine’s air force said that, overall, it had intercepted 23 out of 33 missiles and drones.

Chinese developer stocks jumped on Wednesday on hopes that Beijing would announce further measures to boost demand in its indebted property sector.

China Evergrande Group and Country Garden surged 54.3 per cent and 20.8 per cent, respectively. Sunac China Holdings’ Hong Kong-listed shares climbed 58.2 per cent.

A commentary in the state-owned Securities Times on Wednesday called on local governments to scrap home purchase curbs in smaller cities, citing a “significant change in property supply-demand dynamics”.

China relaxed mortgage rules in more than a dozen major cities over the past week as part of a series of measures to revive the country’s ailing property market.

The Hang Seng Mainland Properties index is down more than 34 per cent since a peak in January, as renewed concerns over liquidity at major companies rock the sector.

Construction PMIs: The UK’s S&P Global/Cips August construction purchasing managers’ index data will be published. Analysts polled by Reuters forecast a reading of 50.5, down from 51.7 in July. A reading above 50 indicates an expansion in activity. Germany will also publish construction PMI data.

Earnings: UK asset manager Ashmore releases full-year results, as do British housebuilder Barratt Developments and UK cyber company Darktrace. Bike and car parts retailer Halfords and newsagent WHSmith are due to publish trading updates.

Riba award: The UK’s Royal Institute of British Architects announces its shortlist of six buildings for this year’s Riba Stirling Prize.

Chinese tech giant Tencent will demonstrate its artificial intelligence chatbot on Thursday, joining a number of domestic rivals in the global race to dominate generative AI.

Tencent’s cloud division will unveil a chatbot that can assist users in drafting content at the company’s upcoming Global Digital Ecosystem Summit, according to a social media post on Wednesday.

Regulators in the country began to grant approvals for the public release of AI chatbots last month. Tencent’s announcement comes after domestic peers including Baidu, ByteDance and SenseTime cleared regulatory hurdles and opened up access to their self-developed ChatGPT-like services to the public.

The dollar pushed higher against Asian currencies on Wednesday as expectations of a sustained period of elevated US interest rates bolstered the greenback.

The renminbi slipped 0.4 per cent to Rmb7.304 a dollar, while the won fell 0.5 per cent to Won1335.46. The Australian dollar also slipped 0.1 per cent to A$0.6369.

Signs of persistent economic resilience in the US have revived expectations that the Federal Reserve might keep interest rates “higher for longer” and deepen a differential with other economies such as China, which has cut rates in recent months to stimulate consumer demand.

Oil prices inched higher on Wednesday after surging above $90 a barrel for the first time this year as Russia and Saudi Arabia confirmed they would extend production and export cuts until the end of the 2023.

Brent crude, the international benchmark, gained 0.2 per cent to trade at $90.21 a barrel, while US equivalent West Texas Intermediate rose by the same margin to $86.91.

Saudi Arabia said on Tuesday it would keep its 1mn barrels a day reduction in place until the end of the year, while Russian deputy prime minister Alexander Novak said the country’s 300,000 b/d export reduction, unveiled in recent months, would stay in place over the same period.

Australia economic data: The country reports second-quarter gross domestic product figures.

Qantas succession: Vanessa Hudson takes over as chief executive, succeeding Alan Joyce as the airline attempts to rebuild its image following a series of scandals.

Semicon Taiwan: The landmark semiconductor industry conference takes place in Taipei from Wednesday to Friday.

Markets: Stocks in Tokyo rose while futures contracts in Hong Kong were flat on Wednesday morning. In US equity markets, Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 closed 0.4 per cent lower on Tuesday while the tech-focused Nasdaq Composite lost 0.1 per cent as traders considered the prospect of a sustained period of elevated interest rates.

The former leader of the rightwing extremist group Proud Boys has been sentenced to 22 years in prison, the harshest penalty to be handed down in a case stemming from the attack on the US Capitol on January 6 2021.

The sentence for Henry “Enrique” Tarrio was handed down Tuesday by US district judge Timothy Kelly in a Washington federal court mere blocks from the Capitol, where a mob of Donald Trump’s supporters had sought to block the certification of Joe Biden’s win. Prosecutors had sought a prison sentence of 33 years for Tarrio, whom they accused of playing a major role in a plot to thwart the peaceful transfer of power that day.

Read more about the sentences from the January 6 attack here.

Struggling Chilean retail group Falabella announced the resignation of CEO Gaston Bottazzini on Tuesday, after posting its fourth consecutive net loss in August.

Bottazzini, appointed in 2018, had led a push to expand Falabella’s online footprint, including an $800mn investment in its ecommerce business. The efforts have yet to pay off, with the company suffering from a slowdown in consumer spending in Chile. The country has struggled to revive its economy following a period of unrest in 2019 and the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I’m sure that during the next few years, we will start to reap the rewards of the efforts made during this challenging digitisation process,” Bottazzini said.

Dominion Energy, one of the US’s biggest utilities, has agreed to sell its natural gas distribution business to pipeline giant Enbridge in a $14bn deal that highlights the seismic shifts taking place as the green transition upends America’s energy sector.

The transaction will see Enbridge purchase Dominion’s three natural gas distribution companies for about $9.4bn plus debt, making it the biggest gas utility group on the continent.

The deal is significant because it underlines two distinct approaches to creating shareholder value as the rush to decarbonise the US economy gains steam.

Enbridge, which is largely focused on shipping oil, will ramp up its exposure to natural gas with the transaction.

Saudi Arabia’s STC Group has acquired a 9.9 per cent stake in Spain’s Telefónica valued at €2.1bn, in the latest foray by Gulf state telecom companies into the European market.

The Saudi company, which is majority-owned by the country’s sovereign wealth fund, said it was not seeking a controlling stake in Telefónica.

The purchase represented a “compelling investment opportunity to use our strong balance whilst maintaining our dividend policy,” STC chief executive Olayan Alwetaid said.

The deal comes as Gulf countries use wealth boosted by rising oil prices to search for deals. Last month, STC unit Tawal completed its €1.2bn acquisition of tower infrastructure from United Group.