Headlines

European Union leaders will discuss putting a cap for the price of gas used to generate electricity - over which member states are divided - when they meet for a summit at the end of this week, European Council President Charles Michel said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. "We must intensify our three lines of action: reducing demand, ensuring security of supply and containing prices," Michel said in his invitation letter to leaders for the Thursday-Friday meeting in Brussels.

Financial analysts said that the Reserve Bank of India’s currency intervention is making the rupee less attractive for carry traders, Bloomberg News reported.Its intervention in the spot and forward markets have helped pushed the 12-month implied yields on the rupee -- typically a reflection of interest rate differentials with the US -- to the lowest since 2011, eroding its appeal.

Enel is discussing with a pool of Italian banks to secure a credit line, worth up to 16 billion euros ($15.7 billion) to support Italy's biggest utility, Reuters reported. The facility would have a 70% guarantee from Italy's credit export agency SACE under a state-guarantee scheme to help Italian companies affected by surging energy prices, source added. Read more.

Monte dei Paschi di Siena's management and Italian Treasury officials are ready to revive talks with potential buyers once the world's oldest bank completes a 2.5 billion euro ($2.46 billion) share sale next month, Reuters reported. Italy has years to cut the state's 64% stake in Monte dei Paschi (MPS) under a deal with the European Union, but the Treasury is not expected to sit idle for long. Rome failed to meet an initial EU deadline when talks to sell MPS to UniCredit collapsed a year ago.

Saudi Arabia is selling bonds and Islamic securities, while offering to buy back as much as $15.5 billion of debt, Bloomberg News reported. The world’s biggest oil exporter plans to sell sukuk maturing in six years and bonds due in 10, both denominated in dollars. At the same time, Saudi Arabia asked holders of its bonds due in 2023, 2025 and 2026 to tender their notes for purchase by the kingdom for cash. It will announce the maximum acceptance amount after the pricing of the new securities.

Canada is still one of the only developed countries that U.S. politicians can look to for guidance on how to go fully legal. Official data shows that four years after opening up on Oct. 17, 2018, one-third of Canada’s cannabis sales still happen in the black market, the Wall Street Journal reported. That’s hardly ideal, but the situation is improving as legal sellers do a better job at attracting customers. In Ontario, cannabis costs just 2% more than what is available in the illegal market, according to an EY report. Investors have been razed, though.

Britain's new finance minister Jeremy Hunt scrapped Prime Minister Liz Truss's economic plan and scaled back her vast energy support scheme on Monday, making a historic policy U-turn to try to stem a dramatic loss of investor confidence, Reuters reported. Truss's spokesman denied that Hunt was running the country after his new strategy sent the pound soaring and helped government bond prices start to recover from the rout that followed her government's Sept. 23 plan for unfunded tax cuts.

Business sentiment has softened in Canada and most firms now think a recession is likely, a Bank of Canada survey showed on Monday, but inflation expectations remain high, leaving the central bank little choice but to continue raising rates, Reuters reported. The bank's Business Outlook Survey showed 77% of firms see price growth staying above 3% for the next two years. A separate survey showed near-term consumer inflation expectations at record highs, though longer term expectations have eased, providing some relief.

The European Union will not pay out the vast majority of 75 billion euros ($73 billion) worth of development funds earmarked for Poland through 2027 unless Warsaw fixes the country's courts, a spokesman for the bloc's executive said on Monday, Reuters reported. Citing a flawed judiciary, the Brussels-based European Commission has already frozen some 35 billion euros assigned to Poland from a shared economic EU stimulus plan aimed at helping economies recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Economic activity in Brazil fell much more than expected in August, a central bank index showed on Monday, confirming expectations of a slowdown in the second half, Reuters reported. The IBC-Br economic activity index, considered a leading indicator of gross domestic product, fell a seasonally adjusted 1.13% in August from July, more than double the 0.5% drop expected by economists polled by Reuters. In August, activity services growth once again beat expectations. The sector accounts for about 70% of the Brazilian economy and has been vital in the recovery after the pandemic.