By Scott DiSavino

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Oil prices climbed on Wednesday, settling up about 3% after a disruption at Libya’s top oilfield added to fears that mounting tensions in the Middle East could disrupt global oil supplies.

Brent <LCOc1> futures rose $2.36, or 3.1%, to settle at $78.25 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose $2.32, or 3.3%, to settle at $72.70.

Both crude benchmarks settled higher for the for the first time in five days with the biggest daily percentage gain for WTI since mid November.

“Oil is trading … higher today, buoyed it would appear by protests at Libya’s largest oilfield and further attacks in the Red Sea,” said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst UK & EMEA, at data and analytics firm OANDA.

In OPEC member Libya, protests forced a shutdown of production at the 300,000 barrel per day (bpd) Sharara oilfield.

Oil prices also climbed after Israel intensified its bombing of the Gaza Strip after its war with the Iran-backed Palestinian Hamas group stretched into Lebanon with the killing in Beirut of Hamas’ deputy leader. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility.

The head of Lebanon’s armed group Hezbollah, also backed by Iran, warned the killing of Hamas’ deputy chief was “a major, dangerous crime about which we cannot be silent”.

In the Red Sea, another Iran-backed group, the Houthis in Yemen, continued to attack vessels, prompting concerns that a wider Middle East conflict could develop and close crucial oil transport waterways like the Red Sea and Persian Gulf.

In OPEC member Iran, two explosions killed more than 100 people and wounded scores at a ceremony to commemorate top commander Qassem Soleimani who was killed by a U.S. drone in 2020.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said cooperation and dialogue within the wider OPEC+ oil producer alliance will continue after Angola last month announced it would leave the group.

OPEC+, which includes OPEC and allies like Russia, said it plans a Feb. 1 meeting to review implementation of its latest oil output cut.

FED AND OIL INVENTORIES

Federal Reserve officials appeared increasingly convinced inflation was coming under control, according to the minutes of U.S. central bank’s December meeting.

The Fed is widely expected to keep rates on hold in January. Traders have priced in a 65.7% chance of a 25 basis point rate cut in March, according to CMEGroup’s FedWatch tool.

Lower interest rates reduce consumer borrowing costs, which can boost economic growth and demand for oil.

The American Petroleum Institute (API), an industry group, and the U.S. Energy Information Administration will release their oil inventory reports one day later than usual due to the New Year holiday with API expected around 4:30 p.m. EST on Wednesday and EIA on Thursday.

Analysts forecast U.S. energy firms pulled about 3.7 million barrels of oil from storage during the week ended Dec. 29. [EIA/S] [EIA/A]

That compares with a build of 1.7 million barrels in the same week last year and a five-year (2018-2022) average decline of 4.0 million barrels.

(Reporting by Scott DiSavino, Noah Brownning, Natalie Grover, Trixie Yap and Laura Sanicola; editing by Barbara Lewis, Louise Heavens, Jan Harvey, David Evans and David Gregorio)

By David French

(Reuters) -U.S. stock indexes extended losses for a second straight day on Wednesday as investors locked in profits after a strong 2023, with the release of minutes from the latest Federal Reserve meeting failing to shake off the funk hanging over markets.

Fed policymakers appeared increasingly convinced at their December meeting that inflation was coming under control, with “upside risks” diminished and growing concern about the damage that “overly restrictive” monetary policy might do to the economy, minutes of that rate-setting meeting showed.

The minutes shed little light on when rate cuts might commence.

At 2:07 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 210.67 points, or 0.56%, at 37,504.37, the S&P 500 was down 29.67 points, or 0.63%, at 4,713.16, and the Nasdaq Composite was down 148.6 points, or 1.01%, at 14,617.34.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar and Shristi Achar A in Bengaluru and David French in New York; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli and Richard Chang)

LONDON (Reuters) – Fines imposed by Russian courts on Alphabet’s Google and YouTube, Meta, TikTok and Telegram appear to have been settled as the companies are no longer registered as debtors in the state bailiffs’ database.

But the database, accessed by Reuters on Wednesday, still includes X (formerly Twitter) and Twitch, with fines totalling 51 million roubles ($560,730) and 23 million roubles ($252,879), respectively.

Google, Meta, TikTok and Telegram did not immediately respond to requests for comment. State bailiffs could not immediately be reached.

Russia has been at loggerheads with foreign technology companies over what it deems unlawful content and a failure to store user data locally, in simmering disputes that intensified after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Following the invasion, Twitter and Meta Platforms’ Facebook and Instagram were blocked, and Google-owned YouTube became a particular target of the Russian state’s ire.

In late 2023, a Russian court imposed a fine against Google of 4.6 billion roubles ($50.4 million), calculated as a proportion of its annual turnover in Russia. Meta, which was labelled as “extremist” in 2022, has also been subjected to fines as a proportion of its Russian revenue.

($1 = 91.2575 roubles)

(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

By Sruthi Shankar and Shristi Achar A

(Reuters) -U.S. stock indexes fell on Wednesday as investors locked in profits after a strong 2023 and awaited the Federal Reserve’s December meeting minutes for clues on its interest rate path.

Wall Street kicked off the new year on a dull note on Tuesday as Apple and other high-growth companies came under pressure from higher yields, halting a blistering rally in stock markets.

The benchmark S&P 500 came within striking distance of its all-time closing high last week as investors priced in aggressive rate cuts this year following signs of cooling inflation.

Shares of rate-sensitive megacap stocks extended their drop on Wednesday, with Nvidia, Apple and Tesla down between 0.8% and 3.8% as the 10-year Treasury yield climbed for a fourth straight session to 3.959%. [US/]

“This is a kind of a defensive rotation that is premature to suggest that investors are cautious about the equity market but rather repositioning in light of overbought conditions,” said Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia.

Seven of 11 S&P 500 sectors traded in the red, with real-estate and consumer discretionary leading declines.

Investors remained cautious ahead of the minutes of the Fed’s December meeting, scheduled for release at 2:00 p.m. ET, which could offer details about the central bank’s pivot to interest rate cuts.

While the Fed is widely expected to keep rates on hold in January, traders have priced in 67% chance of a 25 basis point rate cut in March, as per CMEGroup’s FedWatch tool.

Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin said the U.S. central bank is “making real progress” towards taming inflation without inflicting major damage on the job market, with a hoped-for soft landing “increasingly conceivable.”

Meanwhile, data showed U.S. job openings fell for the third straight month in November as labor market conditions gradually ease.

The Institute for Supply Management’s survey showed U.S. manufacturing activity contracted further in December, though the pace of decline slowed amid a modest rebound in production and improvement in factory employment.

At 11:29 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 235.15 points, or 0.62%, at 37,479.89, the S&P 500 was down 28.05 points, or 0.59%, at 4,714.78, and the Nasdaq Composite was down 116.57 points, or 0.79%, at 14,649.37.

The Russell 2000 index of small-cap stocks fell 1.4%, while airline stocks came under pressure as a 3% jump in oil prices, following disruption at Libya’s top oilfield, raised concerns about fuel costs. [O/R]

The S&P 1500 passenger airlines index tumbled 3.1%.

Verizon Communications rose 1.2% after KeyBanc upgraded the stock to “overweight”.

Charles Schwab and Blackstone dropped 3.8% and 4.4%, respectively, after Goldman Sachs downgraded the stocks to “neutral” from “buy”.

SentinelOne dropped 4.4% as the cybersecurity firm plans to acquire Indian cloud security firm PingSafe to expand its cloud capabilities in a cash-and-stock deal.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 3.11-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and 2.79-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded 17 new 52-week highs and no new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 39 new highs and 47 new lows.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar and Shristi Achar A; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)

By Scott DiSavino

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Oil prices climbed about 3% on Wednesday after a disruption at Libya’s top oilfield added to fears that tensions in the Middle East could reduce global oil supplies.

Brent futures rose $2.44, or 3.2%, to $78.33 a barrel by 11:06 a.m. EST (1606 GMT), while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose $2.45, or 3.5%, to $72.83.

That put both benchmarks up for the first time in five days and on track to rise by the most in a day since mid-November.

Protests forced a full shutdown of production at OPEC member Libya’s 300,000 barrel per day (bpd) Sharara oilfield.

“The Sharara shutdown certainly adds to pricing upside, especially of Brent,” said Viktor Katona from energy analytics firm Kpler, who assessed the disruption as likely short-lived.

Oil prices also climbed due to continued attacks on vessels in the Red Sea by Houthi fighters.

The Iran-backed group in Yemen said it had “targeted” a container ship bound for Israel, a day after the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said the Houthis had fired two anti-ship ballistic missiles in the southern Red Sea.

Israel intensified its bombing of the Gaza Strip after the war stretched into Lebanon with the killing in Beirut of Hamas’ deputy leader. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility.

Energy traders worried that a wider Middle East conflict could close crucial waterways like the Red Sea and Persian Gulf for oil transportation and disrupt trade flows.

Adding to Middle East uncertainty, two explosions killed more than 100 people in OPEC-member Iran and wounded scores at a ceremony to commemorate top commander Qassem Soleimani who was killed by a U.S. drone in 2020.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said cooperation and dialogue within the wider OPEC+ oil producer alliance will continue, after OPEC member Angola last month announced it would leave the group.

OPEC+ includes OPEC and allies like Russia.

UPCOMING U.S. REPORTS

Looking ahead, the energy market is waiting for key U.S. interest rate and oil inventory data over the next couple of days.

The U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) will release the minutes of its December meeting at 2:00 p.m. EST on Wednesday.

While the Fed is widely expected to keep rates on hold in January, traders have priced in a 65.7% chance of a 25 basis point rate cut in March, as per CMEGroup’s FedWatch tool.

Lower interest rates reduce consumer borrowing costs, which can boost economic growth and demand for oil.

The American Petroleum Institute (API), an industry group, and the U.S. Energy Information Administration will release their oil inventory reports one day later than usual due to the New Year holiday with API expected around 4:30 p.m. EST on Wednesday and EIA on Thursday.

Analysts forecast U.S. energy firms pulled about 3.0 million barrels of oil from storage during the week ended Dec. 29. [EIA/S] [EIA/A]

That compares with a build of 1.7 million barrels in the same week last year and a five-year (2018-2022) average decline of 4.0 million barrels.

Separately, the U.S. Department of Energy said it is seeking to buy up to 3 million barrels of U.S.-produced sour crude oil for delivery in April to help replenish the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).

(Reporting by Scott DiSavino, Noah Brownning, Natalie Grover, Trixie Yap and Laura Sanicola; editing by Barbara Lewis, Louise Heavens, Jan Harvey and David Evans)

By Curtis Williams

HOUSTON (Reuters) – U.S. liquefied natural gas exports hit monthly and annual record highs in December, tanker tracking data showed, with analysts saying it positioned the United States to leapfrog Qatar and Australia to become the largest exporter of LNG in 2023.

The U.S. was the stand out in global LNG supply growth in 2023, said Alex Munton, director of global gas and LNG research at consulting firm Rapidan Energy Group of the rise to 8.6 million metric tons leaving U.S. terminals in December.

Qatar was the largest LNG exporter in 2022 and Australia the second-largest that year, U.S. government data showed.

“U.S. record production was driven by two factors: the return of Freeport LNG to full service, which added 6 MT and the full-year output of Venture Global LNG’s Calcasieu Pass facility that added 3 MT more than in 2022,” Munton said.

Full year exports from the U.S. rose 14.7% to 88.9 million metric tons (MT) driven largely by the return to full production of the Freeport LNG plant that had suffered a fire in 2022, and as others increased processing efficiency, LSEG data showed.

Shipments compare to 77.5 million metric tons in 2022, the data from the financial information provider showed.

Europe remained the main destination for U.S. LNG exports in December, with 5.43 MT, or just over 61%. In November, 68% of U.S. LNG exports were to Europe, LSEG data showed.

The month-over-month drop reflected warmer than normal temperatures in Europe and elevated storage levels, analysts at consultants Rystad Energy said. European gas storage was about 97% full at the beginning of December, it reported.

Asia was the second largest export market for U.S. LNG in December, taking 2.29 MT, or 26.6%, of exports, up from 18.5% in November. U.S. exports to Latin America were half a million metric tons, or just under 6% of total exports, LSEG ship tracking data showed.

Natural gas flows to the seven big U.S. LNG export plants have climbed an average 14.9 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) so far in January, up from a monthly record of 14.7 bcfd in December. That topped the prior all-time monthly high of 4.3 bcfd in November, LSEG data showed.

U.S. gas was trading Tuesday morning at $2.55 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) at the Henry Hub benchmark in Louisiana, $9.81 per mmBtu at the Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF) benchmark in Europe and $11.52 per mmBtu at the Japan Korea Marker (JKM) in Asia. [NG/EU]

(Reporting by Curtis Williams in Houston; additional reporting by Scott DiSavino in New York; editing by Alexander Smith)

By Herbert Lash and Dhara Ranasinghe

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Global stock markets extended a New Year slide on Wednesday and the dollar edged higher as concerns about the chances of a soft landing mounted, while the latest hostilities in the Middle East added to downbeat market sentiment.

The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes briefly climbed above 4% as market optimism about interest rate cuts ebbed despite bullish comments about the U.S. labor market by Richmond Federal Reserve President Thomas Barkin.

A soft landing is “increasingly conceivable” as the Fed makes “real progress” toward taming inflation without inflicting major damage on the jobs market, Barkin said.

MSCI’s broad index of world equities slipped 1.0% to its lowest level in almost two weeks, with the major European bourses down more than 1% and Wall Street indices all lower too. Asia Pacific shares outside Japan shed 1.5%.

The market is trying to figure out if a soft landing is possible with the six rate cuts by year-end the futures market is currently pricing in or if that scenario will be painful, said Anthony Saglimbene, chief market strategist at Ameriprise Financial in Troy, Michigan.

“Usually when you get that type of aggressive interest rate cuts, it comes with more economic pain,” Saglimbene said. “Our view is that the market is probably priced in too many rate cuts for this year.”

Caution ticked up ahead of the release of minutes from the Fed’s last policy meeting in 2023, due at 2 p.m. ET (1900 GMT), as well as the U.S. unemployment report for December on Friday.

Fed officials in December predicted 75 basis points (bps) of rate cuts this year, driving money market bets for around double that amount and market optimism that prompted a year-end rally in stocks and bonds.

“We had that whacking great rally at the end of last year when markets convinced themselves there will be a soft (economic) landing, cooling inflation and a rapid pivot to rate cuts,” AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould said.

“But if you get an unexpected hard landing or an inflationary boom, you might get a slightly different script, so I guess people are now pausing for reflection.”

Resilience in the U.S. labor market has kept a recession at bay. The government is expected to report on Friday that non-farm payrolls increased by 168,000 jobs in December, according to a Reuters survey of economists, after rising 199,000 in November.

But labor market conditions are gradually easing. U.S. job openings dropped by 62,000 to 8.79 million for the third straight month in November, the Labor Department said on Wednesday.

Market sentiment, meanwhile, also was undermined by souring tensions in the Middle East.

Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri was killed on Tuesday in an Israeli drone strike in Lebanon’s capital Beirut, Lebanese and Palestinian security sources said, raising the risk of war in Gaza spreading well beyond the Palestinian enclave. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied that it killed Arouri.

Denmark’s Maersk and German rival Hapag-Lloyd said on Tuesday their container ships would continue to avoid the Red Sea after a series of attacks on vessels blamed on Houthi militants.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index lost 1.03%, while on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.78%, the S&P 500 lost 0.74% and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.94%. U.S. Treasury yields continued to edge higher. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose 4.9 basis points at 3.993%.

Germany’s 10-year Bund yield was down 1.9 basis points at 2.046%.

The dollar has gained more than 1% against major currencies this week, with the dollar index touching a fresh two-week high at 102.6 as rate cut bets eased.

The euro fell 0.37% to $1.0906 and the yen weakened 1.12% at 143.57 per dollar.

U.S. crude recently rose 3.25% to $72.67 per barrel and Brent was at $78.23, up 3.08% on the day.

Spot gold dropped 1.2% to $2,033.99 an ounce.

(Reporting by Naomi Rovnick and Dhara Ranasinghe in London and Stella Qiu in Sydney; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and David Evans)

By Sruthi Shankar and Shristi Achar A

(Reuters) – U.S. stock indexes fell on Wednesday, as investors locked in profits after a strong 2023 and awaited the Federal Reserve’s December meeting minutes that could offer hints on its interest rate path.

Wall Street kicked off the new year on a downbeat note on Tuesday, as Apple and high-growth companies came under pressure from higher yields, halting a blistering rally in stock markets.

Last week, the benchmark S&P 500 came within striking distance of its all-time closing high as investors priced in aggressive rate cuts this year following signs of cooling inflation.

Shares of rate-sensitive megacap stocks extended their drop on Wednesday, with Nvidia, Apple and Tesla down between 0.6% and 3.8%, as the 10-year Treasury yield climbed for a fourth straight session to 3.968%. [US/]

“The decline yesterday, today and maybe for the next couple of weeks, is a result of people locking in profits and reconsidering what the narrative is – are rates really going down five or six times as it appeared to be the narrative at the end of last year?” said Ken Polcari, managing partner at Kace Capital Advisors.

The minutes of the Fed’s December meeting are scheduled for release at 2:00 p.m. ET and could offer details about the central bank’s pivot to interest rate cuts.

While the Fed is widely expected to keep rates on hold in January, traders have priced in a 65.7% chance of a 25 basis point rate cut in March, as per CMEGroup’s FedWatch tool.

“The minutes are going to show that they’ve been talking about potentially starting to cut rates, but not at the rate at which the market is expecting,” added Polcari.

The U.S. central bank is “making real progress” towards taming inflation and a soft landing seeming “increasingly conceivable,” said Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin, a voting member in the FOMC’s rate-setting committee this year.

The Labor Department’s survey that showed job openings dropped to 8.790 million in November from a revised 8.852 million in the previous month, indicating weakness in the labor market, helped limit losses on Wall street on Wednesday.

Another report showed a gauge of U.S. manufacturing activity stood at 47.4 in December, above the estimate of 47.1, according to economists polled by Reuters.

At 10:08 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 164.45 points, or 0.44%, at 37,550.59, the S&P 500 was down 22.00 points, or 0.46%, at 4,720.83, and the Nasdaq Composite was down 91.78 points, or 0.62%, at 14,674.16.

Nine of 11 S&P 500 sectors traded in the red, with materials and real-estate leading declines.

Verizon Communications rose 1.7% after KeyBanc upgraded the stock to “overweight”.

Charles Schwab and Blackstone dropped 2.8% and 3.8%, respectively, after Goldman Sachs downgraded the stocks to “neutral” from “buy”.

SentinelOne dropped 2.3% as the cybersecurity firm plans to acquire Indian cloud security firm PingSafe to expand its cloud capabilities in a cash-and-stock deal.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 2.98-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and a 2.70-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded 15 new 52-week highs and no new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 27 new highs and 33 new lows.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar and Shristi Achar A in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – General Motors said Wednesday it is offering $7,500 incentives on its electric vehicles that lost a U.S. government tax credit this week.

The Treasury issued guidelines in December that took effect Monday detailing new battery sourcing requirements aimed at weaning the U.S. EV supply chain away from China.

GM said last month all of its EVs would temporarily lose eligibility except the Chevrolet Bolt, adding the Cadillac Lyriq and Chevy Blazer EV are losing the credit because of two minor components.

GM told its dealers it would provide the equivalent EV tax credit purchase amount “for any vehicles that became ineligible due to the new guidelines.”

GM expects after a sourcing change the Lyriq and Blazer EV will regain eligibility in early 2024 and said its Chevrolet Equinox EV, Chevrolet Silverado EV, GMC Sierra EV and Cadillac OPTIQ produced “after the sourcing change will be eligible for the full incentive.”

Other vehicles losing the credit include the Volkswagen ID.4, Nissan Leaf, some Tesla Model 3s and Ford Mach-E, the U.S. Treasury said.

The number of EV models qualifying for U.S. EV tax credits fell from 43 to 19.

The new rules allow buyers to claim tax credits of up to $7,500 at participating dealerships at the point of sale. The tax credit sets limits on vehicle price and buyer income to qualify.

Volkswagen said on Monday it “is in the process of confirming eligibility for a federal EV tax credit for vehicles” after Jan. 1.

The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act law reformed the EV tax credit, requiring vehicles to be assembled in North America to qualify for any tax credits, eliminating nearly 70% of eligible models at the time.

The IRA rules allow leased EVs to qualify for $7,500 tax credits without the battery or North America assembly requirements.

(Reporting by David Shepardson, Editing by Nick Zieminski)

By Jarrett Renshaw

(Reuters) -President Joe Biden will observe the third anniversary of the January 6 attacks on the U.S Capitol with a political speech near the historic Revolutionary War site in Valley Forge, where he will make the case that Donald Trump poses an existential threat to democracy, the reelection campaign said on Wednesday.

The stop near the Pennsylvania war encampment where George Washington established headquarters during the Revolutionary War will be followed by a campaign visit on Monday to Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, where a white supremacist in 2015 killed 9 parishioners at the historic Black church. Biden will focus on what the campaign described as rising threats of political violence.

Taken together, the two visits will represent Biden’s most direct public attacks this election cycle on his top Republican rival Trump and the party he controls, representing a shift in tone after spending much of 2023 touting his signature legislation and the economy.

“The choice for voters next year will not simply be between competing philosophies of governing. The choice for the American people in November 2024 will be about protecting our democracy and every American’s fundamental freedoms,” said Biden campaign manager Julie Chávez Rodríguez.

Thousands of Trump supporters attacked the U.S Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in a bid to stop formal certification of the Republican president’s election defeat, causing millions of dollars in damage. Four people died on the day of the attack, and one Capitol Police officer who fought against the rioters died the next day. Four officers have since taken their own lives and 140 others were injured.

Trump faces federal charges for his wide-ranging attempts to overturn the 2020 election and was kicked off ballots in Colorado and Maine due to his role in fueling the Capitol attack. Lawyers for Trump have disputed that he engaged in insurrection and argued that his remarks to supporters on the day of the 2021 riot were protected by his right to free speech.

Trump’s campaign advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles on Tuesday released a memo outlining their view of the presidential race. They blamed Biden for legal indictments of Trump, and for judicial decisions to declare Trump ineligible for the ballot.

“Please make no mistake: Joe Biden and his allies are a real and compelling threat to our Democracy,” they wrote. “In fact, in a way never seen before in our history, they are waging a war against it.”

Trump holds a marginal 2-point lead in a head-to-head matchup, 38% to 36%, with 26% of respondents saying they were unsure or might vote for someone else, according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll. Trump is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination by a wide margin, the poll showed.

In the upcoming weeks, the Biden reelection campaign will ratchet up operations and events, including hiring key directors in all 50 states and hitting the airwaves with new ads.

Vice President Kamala Harris is also expected to speak at the early voting primary state of South Carolina on Saturday and again on Martin Luther King Jr. Day later this month, where she is also expected to take a message about threats to democracy to the state’s largely Black Democratic electorate.

(Reporting By Jarrett Renshaw; Additional reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Mary Milliken, Stephen Coates and Nick Zieminski)