Business

NEW DELHI — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday offered to hold fresh talks to end a stalemate over new agricultural reforms, in his latest push to win over farmers protesting for almost a month against the move.

Tens of thousands of farmers have been camping out near several entry points to New Delhi since November 26 against three new laws they say will lead to dismantling of regulated markets.

They also fear the government would stop buying wheat and rice at guaranteed prices, leaving them at the mercy of big corporates.

In a speech beamed live to millions of farmers across the country, Modi sought to allay their misgivings, insisting the laws, passed in September, would give them the freedom to sell their produce "anywhere and to anyone they like".

"Lies are being spread that the local mandis [markets] will shut down, the minimum support price will be stopped... don't be misguided by those having political motives," Modi, 70 said.

"I am saying this with humility that we are ready to discuss every issue of the farmers, even with those [political parties] who are against us, for the sake of our farmers."

Modi also released $2.5 billion to 90 million farmers under a financial scheme that his party launched last year.

Under the direct cash transfer scheme, small farmers get 6,000 rupees ($82) in four instalments in a year.

Modi also interacted with seven farmers from different states via a video conference in which they praised the government's various farm schemes.

Agriculture employs about 70 per cent of India's 1.3 billion people and accounts for 15 per cent of its $2.7 trillion economy.

But in recent decades farm incomes have stagnated, and experts say the sector badly needs investment and modernisation.

Farmer unions have demanded a total repeal of the laws and warned of a bigger agitation if their demands are not met.

Several rounds of talks between ministers and farmer leaders have failed to produce a breakthrough so far.

VANCOUVER — An executive for Chinese tech giant Huawei, facing extradition to the United States on fraud and conspiracy charges, plans to ask Canadian authorities to ease her bail conditions, her lawyers said on Wednesday.

Meng Wanzhou's attorneys revealed their upcoming application during a routine scheduling hearing in Vancouver, where the Huawei chief financial officer is under court-ordered house arrest.

Lawyer Mona Duckett said the request would be related to "the daytime supervision of Ms Meng outside of her curfew hours".

Prosecutor John Gibb-Carsley said the government would be opposed to relaxing the conditions.

The businesswoman — whose father is Huawei founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei — has been in a two-year battle against extradition over charges Huawei violated US sanctions on Iran.

She is accused of hiding Huawei's relationship with former subsidiary Skycom in Iran from HSBC bank.

Meng, who has denied the charges, was arrested in 2018 at the Vancouver airport on a US warrant, causing a major diplomatic crisis between China and Canada.

Following her arrest, a judge released the 48-year-old on bail conditions including a curfew in one of her two Vancouver mansions, a GPS monitoring ankle bracelet and daytime supervision by private security guards.

Wednesday's hearing in the supreme court of British Columbia also saw lawyers hash out upcoming dates for her extradition hearings, as well as the defence lawyers' allegations Meng's rights were repeatedly abused.

They argue US President Donald Trump "poisoned" her case when he said he might intervene in exchange for Chinese trade concessions.

They also say the United States has no jurisdiction over the alleged crimes and extraditing her there would violate international law.

The lawyers also accuse Canadian authorities of violating Meng's rights during her interrogation.

Meng's next extradition hearings are scheduled for March 1, 2021, and are expected to finish in mid-May.

Canada alleges two Canadian citizens detained in China on espionage suspicions were held in retaliation for Meng's arrest.

LONDON — China, a big raw materials consumer, hopes to position itself as a global commodities marketplace with its launch of a new futures contract on the popular copper market.

The Shanghai International Energy Exchange (INE), a division of the Shanghai Commodity Exchange, opened the contract for the so-called eternal metal to foreign investors on November 19, following several trial runs — including one in oil — in 2018.

Copper contracts already existed in China but exclusively for domestic trading.

"The launch of bonded copper futures is necessary for the continued growth of China's copper industry," INE has said.

Philippe Sebille-Lopez, of the Geopolia Institute, called it was a shrewd move by China, given its reliance on certain commodities to power its economy.

"The greater the Chinese market share for a given raw material, the more Shanghai will be able to attract foreign investors," he said.

The world's factory accounts for around half of global copper production but it faces an uphill struggle to win business.

London's edge 

Although large brokerage companies want a presence in Shanghai, its trading volume remains very low compared with London, by far the bigger sister in the relationship.

London has historically dominated exchanges.

The London Metal Exchange (LME), which was founded in 1877, proclaims itself the "world centre" for industrial metals trading, especially non-ferrous metals such as copper, alminium, lead and zinc.

The LME, a subsidiary since 2012 of the HKEX — owner of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange — has significant technical advantages to retain its pre-eminence.

They include a network of warehouses around the world as well as a degree of liquidity and flexibility that its superior size provides.

It also has "the 'date structure' — you can trade for any single day," Marc Bailey, head of Sucden trading house, told AFP.

"That uniqueness makes it extremely attractive to trade," he added.

Sebille-Lopez nonetheless sees an opening for Shanghai.

"Each new contract is interesting because it presents margin opportunities," compared with other markets, he added.

Sucden has not yet opened its exchanges on INE to its customers, and just trades itself on the new market primarily because of currency conversion benefits.

'Political ambition' 

Another disadvantage for investors is that the INE and its contracts are denominated in the Chinese yuan, which Beijing keeps a firm control of.

But the copper launch is also the latest step in China's slow evolution towards freer convertibility of its currency.

"It's actually the mechanics, in that the INE have created a copper futures contract that allows us to trade onshore in renminbi, then covert the profits through a Bank of China account back to dollars," explained Bailey.

"The converted dollars can be in a Hong Kong bank account in an hour or two, this is a fundamental difference from where we were before," he said, adding that is how "Beijing is allowing more access to the Chinese market".

The price of copper is tracked particularly because it is often considered a good indicator of the health of the world economy.

Copper is widely used across various industries, in particular in electrical circuits used everywhere, from real estate to vehicles and household appliances.

WASHINGTON — Google and Facebook worked together to help fend off an antitrust investigation into the two tech giants which dominate digital advertising, according to a media report citing a draft of a state lawsuit.

The Wall Street Journal, which cited a draft version of the complaint filed by 10 US states without redactions in the public version, said on Tuesday the two firms agreed to “cooperate and assist each other” in responding to an antitrust probe.

The case filed last week was among three separate actions filed by state and federal antitrust enforcers against Google. A separate case has been filed against Facebook over its acquisition of two rival messaging applications.

Facebook dismissed the allegations, saying agreements between the two firms were not aimed at harming competition but offered choices and benefits for advertisers and publishers.

“Any allegation that this harms competition or any suggestion of misconduct on the part of Facebook is baseless,” a Facebook spokesperson said.

Google did not immediately respond to an AFP query. But the Journal quoted the tech firm as saying there was nothing improper or exclusive about its arrangement with Facebook.

The claims “are inaccurate. We don’t manipulate the auction”, the Google spokesperson said.

According to the Journal, the unredacted draft suggested Facebook would win “a fixed percentage” of advertising auctions and that an internal Facebook document described the deal as “relatively cheap” when compared with direct competition.

Google’s documents, which were also not cited in the final version of the suit, suggested the deal would “build a moat” to avoid direct competition with Facebook, according to the report.

HONG KONG — Asian markets were mixed on Monday as news of a US stimulus agreement was offset by surging virus cases and the imposition of a strict lockdown in England, while London's FTSE and the pound sank on fears over stuttering Brexit talks.

Oil prices also tumbled as the new containment measures hammered expectations for travel over the Christmas period, with the discovery of a mutated and more infectious strain of the coronavirus in Britain also leading several governments to ban flights from the country.

After months of painful, combative talks, US lawmakers on Sunday finally announced they had reached a deal for a new economic rescue package worth nearly $900 billion.

The bill includes aid for vaccine distribution and logistics, extra jobless benefits of $300 per week, and a new round of $600 stimulus checks.

"We've agreed to a package of nearly $900 billion. It is packed with targeted policies to help struggling Americans who have already waited too long," Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement.

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the party's top senator Chuck Schumer added that the deal "delivers urgently needed funds to save the lives and livelihoods of the American people as the virus accelerates".

While expected, the deal's announcement will come as a relief to markets, which have been desperate for Washington to give the world's top economy a much-needed shot in the arm as it struggles with the impact of COVID-19.

Also at the weekend, US authorities gave the green light to another vaccine, made by Moderna, paving the way for it to be rolled out this week.

However, the news comes as countries battle a frightening surge in infections that is battering economies once again. Among the worst-hit is the United Kingdom, where the government at the weekend tore up a planned relaxing of containment measures for Christmas.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson made the announcement as the country is hit by a new strain of the virus that is more infectious, and put millions of Britons into a strict new lockdown.

"For many, the end of 2020 cannot come soon enough," said Simon Ballard, at First Abu Dhabi Bank. 

"We expect the New Year wish of many market participants to be that the arrival and initial distribution of coronavirus vaccines now signals light at the end of a very tiring and debilitating tunnel."

Brexit talks drag on 

The pound, which had last week been sitting at highs not seen since mid-2018, sank against the dollar.

It was also under pressure from the euro, which was also down against the greenback, while the Australian dollar was hit after a virus flare-up led to some social distancing restrictions in Sydney.

Tokyo, Hong Kong, Sydney, Mumbai, Manila, Bangkok and Wellington were all in the red, though Shanghai, Seoul, Taipei and Singapore rose.

London opened more than 1 per cent lower, as did Frankfurt, while Paris shed more than 2 per cent 

"Markets have adopted a light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel approach since Pfizer and Moderna's vaccines burst onto the stage," said OANDA's Jeffrey Halley. 

"However, the weekend's events have delivered an unceremonious Monday morning wake-up call that negotiating the first quarter of 2021 could be a torturous affair."

Adding to the selling pressure are concerns about the lack of progress on a post-Brexit trade deal with Britain and EU negotiators still stuck on fishing rights.

A senior UK government source said "significant differences remain" in the talks, which were expected to continue on Monday.

"We continue to explore every route to a deal that is in line with the fundamental principles we brought into the negotiations," he added.

Time is running out for a trade deal, with Britain due to leave the EU single market in less than two weeks, but both sides of the intense negotiations in Brussels now expect the talks to run on for three or four days.

Oil prices were also taking a hefty knock on concerns about the negative impact on demand caused by new restrictions, with both main contracts down more than three per cent.

"Stock markets can count their lucky stars that vaccine optimism so far has been able to Teflon the broader market downside," said Axi strategist Stephen Innes.

"But the same can't be said for oil prices."

RIYADH — Saudi Arabia and Russia on Saturday said they backed each other ahead of a key OPEC+ oil summit, following a tumultuous year of differences over oil production and volatile prices.

Earlier this month, the 13-member Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), plus allies including Russia — a group known as OPEC+ — said that from January 2021 they would raise production by 500,000 barrels per day.

Saudi Arabia’s Oil Minister Prince Abdulaziz Bin Salman said the OPEC+ cooperation charter had brought the group together, producing "good results".

"That's why it should be perpetuated," he told reporters in a broadcast on state-run Al Ekhbariya TV.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said Moscow "once again confirmed our loyalty" to existing agreements.

"We plan to work together in order to achieve a balanced situation... and to propose solutions aimed at stabilising the market," Novak said.

OPEC+ will hold an online summit on January 4, while Riyadh and Moscow are due to hold talks in March, a meeting hoped to be "in person", Prince Abdulaziz said.

At the start of the year, a price war had pitted Saudi Arabia against Russia, the third and second largest oil producers respectively, as the oil market was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.

But faced with Moscow's refusal to reduce production in line with OPEC cuts, Riyadh had sharply increased its own, causing prices to plummet.

Earlier this month, the OPEC+ group struck a deal to increase production over coming months.

NEW YORK — Tesla is set to join an elite group of companies in a key Wall Street index, a move which gives greater prominence to the high-flying electric carmaker and forces money managers to reshuffle their portfolios.

The company founded by Elon Musk becomes part of the Standard & Poor's 500 index on Monday, which means that investment funds based on that index will be holders of the stock.

Tesla stock has already seen a spectacular rise this year of 680 per cent, and with a market capitalisation of some $600 billion it will be the richest company to enter the prestigious S&P index. 

It is the ninth most valuable firm in the world, just behind Facebook.

Even though its car production is modest compared with rivals, Tesla's growth prospects have spurred investors to push up its value so that it's now worth more than General Motors, Ford, Toyota, Honda, Fiat Chrysler and Volkswagen combined. 

Portfolio shuffling 

As a result of the change in the S&P, stock index mutual funds and exchange traded funds — favoured by many small investors — will need to hold Tesla shares in proportion to its weight in the index, which is currently around one per cent.

This could force some significant reshuffling since Tesla is replacing Apartment Investment, with a value of just 0.02 per cent of the S&P index.

S&P Dow Jones Indices, which manages the index of the 500 firms, said it expects a record shift of some $80 billion with the entry of California-based Tesla.

The change could also encourage "active" portfolio managers who measure their performance against the benchmark index to buy Tesla to keep pace.

But some analysts say these changes may have already been priced into Tesla and that buying pressure for Tesla could diminish.

Sceptics say Tesla could see a long-overdue correction from its dizzying gains.

"We recommend investors not weight Tesla shares in their portfolio in equal proportion to the S&P because Tesla shares are in our view and by virtually every conventional metric not only overvalued, but dramatically so," said Ryan Brinkman of JP Morgan in a research note.

Pierre Ferragu of New Street Research offered a cautious view, noting that "the market is probably getting ready for S&P 500 inclusion, and this probably supported the stock greatly in recent weeks and months".

This could lead to a pullback for Tesla, according to Ferragu.

But the analyst said Tesla may still be a good long-term bet, setting a price target for Tesla in 2025 at $1,200, compared with $655 at the close on Thursday.

Jefferies analyst Philippe Houchois said Tesla poses some unique challenges for investors because of how it is shaking up the auto sector with its electric vehicles (EVs) and a different way of doing business than rivals.

"We don't believe Tesla can dominate autos given industry structure and politics, but multiple challenges to the auto business model [EVs, batteries, software, autonomy, design-to-manufacture and direct selling] ensure a durable competitive edge, with a 'messianic' brand reaching far beyond autos," the analyst said.

NEW YORK — Robinhood will pay $65 million to settle charges it misled customers over payments from trading firms that overcharged users to execute transactions, US securities regulators said on Thursday.

In exchange for the payments, Robinhood routed orders to these firms, resulting in $34.1 million in higher customer fees, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said in an order that faults the firm's statements to customers between 2015 and late 2018.

A trading app that has soared in popularity during the pandemic, Robinhood has touted the lack of trading commissions in customer communications.

"Robinhood provided misleading information to customers about the true costs of choosing to trade with the firm," said SEC Enforcement Chief Stephanie Avakian.

"Brokerage firms cannot mislead customers about order execution quality."

Robinhood said it has improved its customer disclosures and trading execution processes compared with the period discussed in the SEC order.

"The settlement relates to historical practices that do not reflect Robinhood today," said Robinhood Chief Legal Officer Dan Gallagher.

"We recognise the responsibility that comes with having helped millions of investors make their first investments, and we're committed to continuing to evolve Robinhood as we grow to meet our customers' needs."

Robinhood agreed to pay the penalty without admitting or denying the findings. The company also agreed to retain a consultant to review its processes, including customer communications.

Robinhood disclosed some information about the payments in a securities filing, but omitted it from its website "because it believed that payment for order flow might be viewed as controversial by customers", the SEC order said, adding that Robinhood directed customer service staff not to disclose the payments when asked about Robinhood's source of revenue.

The SEC action comes amid heightened scrutiny of Robinhood after the suicide of a young trader earlier this year.

On Wednesday, the state of Massachusetts launched an administrative proceeding against the app, alleging it had lured in inexperienced users and allowed them to trade in risky instruments like options without proper education.