WASHINGTON, Oct 21 (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve on Thursday banned individual stock purchases by top officials at the central bank and unveiled a broad set of other restrictions on their investing activities roughly six weeks after reports of active trading by some senior policymakers triggered an ethics uproar.Following is a full text of the Fed’s announcement:Following a comprehens...Read More

BERLIN, Oct 21 (Reuters) - A booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) and German partner BioNTech SE (22UAy.DE) restored efficacy to 95.6% against the virus, including the Delta variant, data released by the companies from a large study showed on Thursday.The companies said the trial, which has not been peer-reviewed, tested 10,000 participants aged 16 and older, an...Read More

Cobalt sulfate prices have trended upward since early September this year due to continuously higher raw materials costs and the rising cost of chemical auxiliary materials despite thin downstream demand, sources told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets' assessment of the cobalt sulfate 20.5% Co basis, exw China price was assessed at 89,000-93,000 yuan ($13,914-14,539) per tonne on Wednesday October 20,...Read More

Oct 21 (Reuters) - U.S. carriers American Airlines (AAL.O) and Southwest Airlines (LUV.N) on Thursday warned mounting inflationary pressures could overshadow strong holiday demand and delay a complete return to profit.Both the Texas-based carriers posted a smaller-than-expected loss in the third quarter, but said rising fuel prices as well as higher labor costs are hurting earnings in the quar...Read More

United States-listed lithium producer Albemarle has signed an investment agreement with the local government of Pengshan Economic Development Zone in Meishan city, Sichuan Province to invest in a new lithium-ion battery materials project, the local government said.Albemarle will invest $500 million in the new battery materials project.The project will have an annual capacity of 50,000 tonnes of li...Read More

(Reuters) -Valero Energy Corp predicted on Thursday low inventories and a recovery in fuel demand to pre-pandemic levels could support higher refining margins, shrugging off a recent rally in crude prices.Gasoline and distillate consumption in the United States is back in line with five-year averages after more than a year of weak demand due to the pandemic that had also knocked refining capacity...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Thursday October 21 that are worth another look.Rio Tinto will invest $7.5 billion to reduce emissions and meet its carbon targets earlier than planned, the company announced on Wednesday September 20.The government of the United...Read More

BERLIN (Reuters) -SAP said on Thursday demand for its cloud business database was growing as the German business software group confirmed its preliminary third-quarter results and full-year guidance boosted by big returns by its venture capital fund.Last week, the company had forecast cloud revenue to grow by 16%-19% in the year as a whole, helping its overall cloud and software revenue to increas...Read More

WASHINGTON, Oct 21 (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy and Army tested hypersonic weapon component prototypes on Wednesday that will inform development of new weapons, the Pentagon said, calling the three tests successful.The tests occurred the same day that U.S. President Joe Biden said he was concerned about Chinese hypersonic weapons. read moreThe Sandia National Laboratory ran the tests from NASA's Wal...Read More

OTTAWA, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Canada will not extend existing broad-based COVID-19 support programs for companies and individuals when they expire on Saturday because the economy is recovering well, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Thursday.Instead, Ottawa will introduce more targeted and less expensive measures to help particularly hard-hit sectors such as the tourism industry.These new pr...Read More

Domestic hot-rolled coil prices across Europe edged down on Thursday October 21 on reduced end-user demand, and trading activity remained limited, sources told Fastmarkets. The ongoing global shortage of semiconductors has caused automakers in Europe to reduce output and, consequently, to cut flat-steel purchases, market sources said.Moreover, market participants have suggested that some major aut...Read More

* Lagarde had set out to woo dissenters* Team spirit now broken: ING's Brzeski* Scene set for disagreement on inflationFRANKFURT, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Jens Weidmann's departure from the European Central Bank is the most tangible sign yet that ECB President Christine Lagarde's efforts to win over dissenting policymakers have hit a dead end and sets the scene for fresh frictions.The Bundesbank preside...Read More

Oct 21 (Reuters) - Blackstone Group Inc (BX.N), the world's biggest manager of alternative assets such as private equity and real estate, said on Thursday its distributable earnings more than doubled in the third quarter to an all-time high.Blackstone and other private equity firms have capitalized on low interest rates and the economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic to sell many of their as...Read More

Spot trading for hot-rolled coil in China stagnated in the afternoon of Thursday October 21 after the continued tumble in futures prices kept market participants cautious.DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 5,710-5,750 yuan ($892-898) per tonne, narrowing by 10-30 yuan per tonneSpot HRC was traded at 5,710-5,750 yuan per tonne in Shanghai on Thursday morning, when the most-traded HRC contract on the...Read More

Oct 21 (Reuters) - Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) wants to shift to a less expensive battery for its electric vehicles but first needs to figure out how to overcome political tensions to get a Chinese partner to build the iron-based batteries near its U.S. factories.The world's two biggest economies have yet to resolve disputes over tariffs, intellectual property rights and Chinese incursions into Taiwan's...Read More

HONG KONG/SHANGHAI, Oct 21 (Reuters) - China Evergrande Group (3333.HK) has secured more time to pay a defaulted bond, financial provider REDD reported on Thursday, offering rare respite to the developer even as a debt crisis in the broader property sector deepened with more defaults.News of the three month-plus extension came a day after Evergrande scrapped a deal to sell a 50.1% stake, worth $...Read More

Egypt's prices for imported billet and domestic reinforcing bar increased in the week to Thursday October 21, with demand also picking up from previous weeks, sources told Fastmarkets.Local rebar producers increased their prices effective October 20.Buying increased after the price hikes were announced because buyers believed prices could rise further, traders said.On the other hand, the Advanced...Read More

Oct 21 (Reuters) - Facebook Inc's (FB.O) independent oversight board demanded more transparency from the social media giant on Thursday, saying the company was not "fully forthcoming" on how it deals with certain high-profile user accounts.The comments follow a Wall Street Journal report last month that said millions of Facebook accounts belonging to celebrities, politicians and other high-profi...Read More

Stansberry Research, Released on 10/21/21Soon the Federal Reserve will manufacture a central bank digital currency that will be internationally sanctioned, different than Bitcoin and private cryptos, says G. Edward Griffin, author of Creature from Jekyll Island and founder of the Red Pill University.The Federal Reserve has become so powerful over the years that its originally intended roles have c...Read More

ITM Trading, Released on 10/21/21To see Lynette's slides, research links or questions from this video: https://www.itmtrading.com/blog/worse...Lynette Zang has held the position of Chief Market Analyst at ITM Trading since 2002. Ms. Zang has been in the markets on some level since 1964. Her mission is to convert financial noise into understandable language. She has been a banker, a stock broker an...Read More