Headlines

Agricultural and construction machinery maker CNH Industrial on Tuesday lowered its 2023 revenue forecast, citing a softening demand for its farm machinery, predominantly in South America, sending its shares plummeting, Reuters reported. The company also announced a restructuring plan that will entail trimming 5% of its salaried workforce costs and reducing its total workforce expenses by 10% to 15%. Shares were down 7.7% on the NYSE. Trading for the manufacturer was repeatedly halted in Milan due to volatility after the company revised its sales outlook for the year.

The International Monetary Fund warned on Tuesday of risks posed by China’s financial and property sectors even as it took a more optimistic view on the country’s economic growth, the New York Times reported. The IMF forecast that China’s economy will expand 5.4 percent this year and 4.6 percent in 2024. Each estimate was 0.4 percentage points higher than the fund had predicted four weeks earlier.

Europe has nowhere to hide from U.S. plans to mandate clearing of U.S. Treasuries transactions that will need to be carefully introduced over time, a global derivatives industry body said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Wall Street is waiting for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to finalize its rules for clearing much of trading in the $25 trillion Treasuries market, one of the world's deepest and most liquid markets, to bolster stability and resilience.

Japanese manufacturers' business confidence improved for the first time since August while service-sector mood rose for a second month, according to the Reuters Tankan poll, which also highlighted a challenging outlook amid a patchy economic recovery, Reuters reported. The monthly poll mirrored a similar improvement seen in the third quarter in the Bank of Japan's (BOJ) closely-watched quarterly tankan survey.

After lending $1.3 trillion to developing countries, mainly for big-ticket infrastructure projects, China has shifted its focus to bailing out many of those same countries from piles of debt, the New York Times reported. The initial loans were mostly part of the Belt and Road Initiative, which Xi Jinping, China’s top leader, started in 2013 to build stronger transportation, communications and political links in more than 150 countries. But now the two main Chinese state banks that provided most of the infrastructure loans have reduced their new lending.

El Salvador’s credit rating was upgraded by S&P Global Ratings, which cited the government’s effort to rework its short-term, local debt obligations, Bloomberg reported. S&P raised the Central American nation’s debt rating to B- from CCC+ on Tuesday, putting it six levels into junk and on par with Ecuador and Nigeria. The outlook is stable. “The government’s recent program to gradually refinance its short-term debt with local banks will reduce rollover needs and mitigate the risk of a default over the next two years,” analysts led by Patricio Vimberg wrote.

The Unification Church’s Japanese branch announced plans Tuesday to set aside a fund up to 10 billion yen ($67 million) to cover possible compensation for those seeking damages they say were caused by the group’s manipulative fundraising tactics, the Associated Press reported. The move is seen as an attempt to allay any suspicion that the group would try to avoid later payouts by hiding assets overseas while a government-requested dissolution order is pending.

Iron ore has reached “unreasonable” levels that are hurting Chinese steel mills, according to China Mineral Resources Group, the state-backed firm trying to boost Beijing’s sway over prices, Bloomberg reported. Elevated costs are squeezing margins at steelmakers in the world’s top producer, Guo Bin, President of China Minerals, said at an event in Shanghai during the China International Import Expo. There needs to be more effort to “improve” pricing systems for raw materials, Guo said.

Australia’s sheep industry is in crisis, with prices near the lowest level in 16 years forcing some farmers in the country’s west to give their animals away for free to pet-food manufacturers, Bloomberg reported. Mutton prices have plunged 75% over the past year, according to Tim Jackson, global supply analyst at Meat & Livestock Australia. Sheep prices have also slumped, with older animals fetching an average of just A$34 ($22) in October and some reports of animals selling for less than a dollar a head, he said.

A Vancouver music store has fallen victim to an apparent fraud scheme that has put the future of the business at risk, Global News reported. Exile Electronics, located on Main Street, said it was hit by three massive fraudulent transactions after barely squeaking by in recent years. “The (fraudulent) sales happened last October (in 2022) and we found out about them in January,” Chris Young, Exile’s co-owner, said. The customer said a local show needed some specific gear. “They were not things we stocked, but they were things that would be good sales for us,” said Young.