By Qiaoyi Li and Brenda Goh

BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) -China’s passenger vehicle sales returned to growth in August year-on-year, as deeper discounts and tax breaks for environmentally friendly and electric vehicles boosted consumer sentiment even as economic growth remains weak.

Car sales jumped 2.2% in August from the same month a year ago to 1.94 million units, data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) showed on Friday, the first year-on-year gain since May.

Sales rose 8.5% from July. For the first eight months, sales were up 1.8% at 13.38 million units.

Buoyed by hefty discounts, Tesla’s share of China’s electric vehicle (EV) market almost doubled in August to 13.2 percent from 7.5 percent in July, according to Reuters calculations based on the CPCA data.

Tesla sold 64,694 cars in China in August, the data showed, while deliveries of its China-made Model Y hit 65,316 last month, topping the CPCA passenger vehicle model sales.

Lower rates on existing mortgages are likely to help revive the auto market, said CPCA Secretary General Cui Dongshu, even as slowing economic growth hits consumers’ pockets.

China’s major banks will start to lower interest rates on existing loans for first-home purchases, one of a series of measures aimed at boosting the economy and the key debt-riddled property sector.

Chinese automakers continued to bet on overseas markets, as domestic growth eased, with exports surging 31% in August on-year following a 63% jump in July, the data showed.

Sales of new energy vehicles (NEVs), which have underpinned China’s auto sales growth, were up 34.5% in August, accounting for 36.9% of total car sales. Sales rose 11.8% in August versus July.

Rivalries in China’s automobile market, the world’s largest, have intensified as automakers struggle with weakening demand, deepening price competition.

A price war initiated by Tesla at the start of the year is continuing, with the U.S. EV maker announcing additional cuts after slashing prices twice last month. However, the company introduced its restyled Model 3 a starting price 12% higher than the previous, base rear-wheel drive model.

Chinese EV makers are also stepping up efforts to expand overseas markets as competition intensifies at home.

Warren Buffett-backed Chinese EV giant BYD on Monday launched its Seal electric sedan for Europe at the IAA Mobility motor show in Munich.

Smaller domestic rival Xpeng also used the Munich show to reveal plans for expansion into more European markets next year.

(Reporting by Qiaoyi Li, Zhang Yan and Brenda Goh; Editing by Kim Coghill and Miral Fahmy)

By Laura Matthews

NEW YORK(Reuters) – Nasdaq Inc. on Friday said it won approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to launch the first exchange artificial intelligence-driven order type, a move that, if successful, could further increase the efficiency of an already fast-paced stock market.

The approval of the dynamic midpoint extended life order (M-ELO) would speed up the frequency at which orders are matched and minimize market impact, which would result in better trading outcomes for investors, the exchange said.

The SEC declined to comment.

Order types are programmed instructions traders use to tell exchanges how to handle their trades. The news comes as interest is increasing in artificial intelligence and the different ways it can be used in capital markets.

M-ELO, first released in 2018, is a strategic order type that enables investors with longer-term horizons to trade with each other using a 10-millisecond waiting period.

The dynamic version of this will use an AI technique known as reinforcement learning to watch market behavior and make real-time adjustments to that holding period to improve the quality of execution and percentage of order filled in the market.

Nasdaq’s research shows that the real-time AI order type has a 20.3% increase in fill rates and an 11.4% reduction in mark-outs, indicating the improvements AI-powered solutions can bring to capital markets.

“This new order type can increase order fill rate and reduce holding time if successfully implemented, which could help Nasdaq take market shares from other exchange operators,” said Owen Lau, senior analyst at Oppenheimer & Co.

(Reporting by Laura Matthews; Editing by Mark Porter)

(Reuters) – Alchemy Copyrights has agreed to buy music copyright-focussed investment firm Round Hill Music Royalty Fund for about $468.8 million, the companies said on Friday, giving it access to songs including Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way”.

Shareholders in Round Hill Music will get $1.15 in cash per scheme share, representing a premium of about 67% to the stock’s closing price on Thursday.

Alchemy Copyrights, trading as Concord, is an acquirer of music rights and companies, with transactions spanning recorded music, music publishing and theatricals.

Round Hill Music’s portfolio of music rights comprises 51 catalogues with a collection of more than 150,000 songs, including Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way” and the Beatles’ “She Loves You”.

Guernsey-based Round Hill Music has seen shares slide this past year due to inflationary pressures and a higher interest rate environment, which have impacted many listed alternative investment companies.

The deal has the backing of the board, which plans to recommend shareholders to vote in favour of the deal.

(Reporting by Yadarisa Shabong in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D’Souza and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)

By Valerie Volcovici

(Reuters) – The Standing Rock Sioux reservation near the border of North and South Dakota has some of America’s most powerful winds, with 20 mile an hour (mph) gusts regularly scouring its vast plains.

The tribe in 2020 launched a plan to harness that energy with what would be the country’s first tribal owned utility-scale wind farm – a project meant to supply jobs, money and electricity to a place where those things are in short supply.

The project is at the heart of the Standing Rock Sioux’s long-term economic strategy, and revenue from selling power to the regional grid would replace the reservation’s casino, which nets around $6 million per year, as the biggest source of revenue.

The bipartisan infrastructure bill and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) enacted over the last two years have created enormous opportunities to develop wind and solar projects on tribal lands, offering around $14 billion in subsidies and incentives. The IRA also allows tribes and other tax-exempt entities to access the incentives in the form of a direct payment, instead of a typical tax break.

But, unlike the wind blowing across the Great Plains, the project is going nowhere fast.

Tribes cannot access key incentives for larger clean energy projects until they secure an agreement to connect to the regional electrical grid. That is an expensive process that can take years and requires technical expertise that most tribes lack. Other incentives provided under the legislation expire as early as 2024 and 2026.

That could jeopardize a “once in a lifetime opportunity,” according to Cheri Smith, president of the Alliance for Tribal Clean Energy, a nonprofit that is helping tribes develop clean energy.

“All of that money isn’t going to do its job unless we remove these roadblocks,” Smith said.

The Standing Rock Sioux’s project is one of around a dozen larger-scale clean energy projects proposed by tribes seeking to take advantage of new federal green energy subsidies, according to Reuters interviews with over two dozen tribal representatives, government officials and industry experts. The projects combined would produce at least 4GW of electricity.

Those tribal leaders said half of these projects are slogging through the grid connection queue, with the rest yet to begin the process, reflecting the difficulties small developers face navigating the grid interconnection process and accessing IRA incentives.

The tribes interviewed by Reuters say that, unlike their bigger corporate rivals, tribes lack the upfront capital and internal know-how to navigate the regulatory hurdles to building and connecting a major power project to the grid.That means the tribes – who are among the poorest communities in the country – could miss out on a big development opportunity, and the United States could miss out on their substantial potential to generate renewable energy at a time of huge demand for climate-friendly power.

A Treasury Dept official told Reuters it held four formal consultations with tribes as it developed the IRA provisions. The official acknowledged the financial constraints on tribes in the predevelopment stage, but said that the IRA does not allow the release of funds before interconnection agreements are secured.

“In the short term it will take time for projects to get off the ground and for tribes to figure out how to use the credits but it’s a significant opportunity,” the official said.

The Standing Rock Sioux have so far spent $3 million on technical studies and fees to remain in the queue, with no guarantee of approval. More deposits ranging from $1 million to $10 million may be forthcoming.

That could amount to a missed opportunity: Tribal lands account for around 6.5% of the country’s renewable energy potential, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Yet Native American households lack access to electricity at far higher rates than the national average, according to the Energy Information Administration. Only 30% of the Navajo Nation reservation has electricity despite being surrounded by large cities like Phoenix.

A NEW DAY

The Standing Rock Sioux tribe’s development authority, called SAGE, proposed the 235MW wind farm three years ago. They named the project Anpetu Wi, which means “the beginning of a new day” in the Lakota language.

The tribe led massive protests against the Dakota Access oil pipeline in 2016 that drew international support and attention.

SAGE estimates the wind farm will bring in $210 million of revenue over 25 years from the sale of power to the regional grid, creating dozens of direct jobs and more indirectly over time as the tribe invests in new initiatives.

More money and jobs would help the tribe, which suffers from 50% unemployment and a 37% poverty rate, according to the Interior Department and Census data, driven in part by high electricity rates.

The cost of electricity on the reservation is double that in nearby Bismarck, North Dakota, according to SAGE director Joe McNeil.

“Energy inequity has been a core driver of this economic disparity,” McNeil said.

He said the tribe could control electricity prices if it owned Anpetu Wi. Wind farm revenue would be reinvested in local distributed solar energy and microgrid projects that would lower tribal electricity bills, and fund other projects like regenerative agriculture and a cultural museum.

So far, the tribe has secured a site and completed studies on its wind potential and the cultural and environmental impacts as part of the process of securing a connection agreement from the regional grid operator, the Southwest Power Pool, one of seven non-profit transmission organizations in the U.S. charged with ensuring reliable power supply in its region.

McNeil said the project is in the middle of the pack in the Southwest Power Pool’s queue of over 400 projects.

The SPP did not respond to requests for comment.

The tribe raised much of the $3 million it has spent so far from philanthropies and family funds, including the Sierra Club Foundation, Wallace Global Fund, and the Bush Foundation in the form of forgivable loans.

Eileen Briggs, grantmaking director for the Bush Foundation, said the risk is worthwhile, given the potential impact if the project succeeds.

“Beyond the impacts for Standing Rock Sioux, tribal nations across the country will have a proven example of how to develop and own renewable power systems,” she said.

She said that without philanthropic support, highly capital intensive projects “can effectively shut out anyone but the largest, most established developers.”

Other tribes are facing such obstacles.

Navajo Power, a project developer that works with tribal governments, has five proposed clean power projects in the queue for interconnection, including one initiated three years ago.

It too has sought out philanthropies and family funds to get the projects through permitting and interconnection, said Brett Isaac, CEO of Navajo Power.

“The pre-development phase [is] the most risky phase, where tribes themselves just don’t have the stomach in their investment risk tolerance,” he said.

The Moapa Southern Paiute in Nevada, meanwhile, are developing nearly 2GW of solar power to sell to large markets like Las Vegas. But the tribe opted for land-lease instead of ownership because of the difficulties in accessing upfront capital.

“We want ownership so badly we can taste it,” said Greg Anderson, chairman of the tribe.

GOVERNMENT TALKS

In May, the Alliance’s Smith, a former executive at Tesla Solar City, convened a closed door gathering in St. Paul, Minnesota of 20 officials from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; over a dozen officials from the Energy and Interior Departments, and dozens of tribal energy leaders from around the country to address the obstacles faced by the tribes. Reuters attended the conference.

Jeremiah Baumann, chief of staff to the Under Secretary for Infrastructure at DOE, told the meeting the agency’s loan energy programs have not been effective in helping the tribes. “Too many programs have been too hard to access; the administrative burdens are too high,” he said.

Acting FERC Chairman Willie Phillips told the meeting that FERC was working to address the backlog of projects in the interconnection queue. FERC enacted broad reforms two months later but these did not specifically address the problems of upfront capital mentioned by the tribes.

The Alliance’s Smith said she would ask FERC to drastically reduce deposits and interconnection costs for tribes and give priority to tribal projects in the queue.

A FERC spokesperson said the commission plans to continue getting input from tribal governments. “This rule is just the beginning of the Commission’s transmission reform process. There is more to come,” spokesperson Celeste Miller said.

Smith said she hopes federal agencies do not miss the chance to incorporate tribal feedback.

“Electricity cannot be a privilege. It’s a right and for us to have a truly just transition, it is essential that it be guided by Native people, for Native people,” she said.

(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Suzanne Goldenberg)

By Hadeel Al Sayegh, Andres Gonzalez and Belén Carreño

DUBAI/MADRID (Reuters) -Jose Maria Alvarez-Pallete, chairman and chief executive of debt laden Spanish telephone and internet service company Telefonica, got an unexpected call this week when he was in Silicon Valley to meet companies and investors in America’s tech capital.

He learned Saudi Arabia’s largest telecoms operator, STC Group, aimed to be Telefonica’s biggest shareholder, with an interest of 9.9%. Within hours of Tuesday’s call, Alvarez-Pallete was en route to Riyadh, according to people with knowledge of the situation.

STC had spent months building its 2.1 billion-euro ($2.25 billion) stake, said the people, requesting anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. The move is a vote of confidence in Telefonica, burdened by billions of dollars in debt while STC gains expertise to modernize Saudi telecoms infrastructure.

But some in Spain worry the deal could give Saudi Arabia too much sway over the country’s telecom and internet infrastructure.

STC is 64% owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), the main engine of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 effort to build stakes in a variety of global companies and wean the Saudi economy off its dependence on the oil that made it one of the world’s richest nations.

STC hopes the ties with Telefonica will help it develop digital cities in Saudi Arabia, importing technological know-how from countries like Spain, according to a person who had advised the company. For Telefonica, whose market value has sunk to a third of its level eight years ago, the investment offers long-suffering shareholders some respite.

As Telefonica’s rivals slashed prices to attract internet users, the Spanish company also borrowed to invest in new mobile and internet networks. Exacerbating the problems, Telefonica has expanded in Latin America, where flagging local currencies, tighter regulation and competition sapped profit in the last decade.

“This provides a much needed boost for Telefonica given the huge investment to rollout fibre broadband 5G in key core markets,” said an analyst at PP Foresight.

The new investor “brings confidence and value,” Telefonica’s main trade union UGT conceded on Thursday, but it worried about growing influence of sovereign funds from theocracies.

Telefonica does not view STC as an aggressive investor that will seek management changes, according to a person with knowledge of the management’s thinking.

But the secrecy with which STC built its stake did catch some observers off guard, the person said.

Speculation about a major new shareholder at Telefonica had been mounting. Last year, Telefonica management twice met with other companies and funds in the Middle East, said the people familiar with the matter.

Telefonica said it was informed Tuesday about STC’S investment, after the companies had become more acquainted in recent months. In February, they sealed a strategic partnership to work in fields such as cybersecurity and the metaverse.

By May, STC had hired advisers, including investment bank Morgan Stanley and law firm Linklaters, and started buying Telefonica shares on the market, said two other sources with knowledge of the move.

When the stake neared 3%, STC paused stock purchases to avoid having to make an official market disclosure, one of the people said. STC sought to keep the stake under wraps until it could buy at least 9.9% of Telefonica, the person said.

On Tuesday, STC hit that target, after acquiring an additional 2% stake from undisclosed investors, one of the people said. The balance, 5%, consists of derivatives arranged by Morgan Stanley, and is pending regulatory approval by the Spanish government, they said. 

Central to the deal is STC’s chief investment officer, Motaz Al Angari, formerly a banker at Morgan Stanley, one person with knowledge of the situation said. STC confirmed his involvement. While at the bank, Al Angari advised on giant Saudi Aramco’s record public listing.

Officials for STC declined to comment further. Morgan Stanley and Linklaters declined to comment. Telefonica said: “Our management, strategy and investment teams travel regularly to meet with potential investors, not only in the Middle East, but all over the world.”

In a bid to pare debt, Telefonica has sold swathes of telecoms infrastructure, and is set to present a new strategic plan on Nov. 8 with a focus on growing free cash flow, which its CEO has said could reach 4 billion euros this year.

STC has a cash pile of 22.4 billion riyals ($6 billion) that has been underutilised for many years, equity analysts at EFG Hermes said in a note to clients, so the deal should also be good for the Saudi company. However they warned “unsuccessful deals” by STC in the past may worry some.

Since the news on Tuesday, Telefonica shares gained 2.4% while STC fell 1.1%.

Middle Eastern investors have been taking stakes in Spanish companies for some time. The United Arab Emirates’ Mubadala sovereign wealth fund owns stakes in oil company Cepsa and gas pipeline operator Enagas, while Qatar’s QIA is a shareholder in Iberdrola.

It is a delicate issue in Spain. STC contacted the Spanish government on Tuesday to let them know about the stake and that they did not want to take control, Spain’s acting Economy Minister Nadia Calvino said.

“We will apply all the means at our disposal in the interests of defending our strategic interests,” she told reporters.

The deal comes at an opportune moment for Saudi Arabia, which soon hosts its annual financial conference attended by the world’s top bankers and billionaires, dubbed ‘Davos in the Desert’.

“They want their local champions to become global players,” said a Gulf banker. “With time they will become as important as a Vodafone or Telefonica itself.”

($1 = 0.9348 euros)

(Additional reporting by Inti Landauro, Tomas Cobos in Madrid and Amy-Jo Crowley and Pablo Mayo in London; Writing By John O’Donnell and Anousha Sakoui; Editing by Elisa Martinuzzi, David Gregorio and Ros Russell)

By Aditya Soni

(Reuters) -Beijing’s widening curbs on iPhone use by government staff raised concerns among U.S. lawmakers on Thursday and fanned fears that American tech companies heavily exposed to China could take a hit from rising tensions between the countries.

Apple fell more than 3% and was on track for its worst two-day decline since November after news that Beijing has told employees at some central government agencies in recent weeks to stop using their Apple mobiles at work.

Several Wall Street analysts said the curbs show that even a company with a good relationship with the Chinese government and a large presence in the world’s second-largest economy was not immune to rising tensions between the two nations.

Sino-U.S. friction has worsened in recent years as Washington tries to restrict China’s access to key technologies including cutting-edge chip technology, and Beijing looks to reduce its reliance on American tech.

Apple supplier Qualcomm, one of the U.S. companies with the largest China presence, tumbled nearly 7% to lead losses among major tech firms.

Lawmakers of both major U.S. parties have been vocal in their concerns about national security risks allegedly created by China’s products, pressuring the Biden administration to get even more aggressive with Beijing.

The wider ban is not surprising and shows how China is trying to limit a Western company’s market access to the nation, said U.S. Representative Mike Gallagher, the chairman of the House panel on China.

“This is textbook Chinese Communist Party behavior – promote PRC (People’s Republic of China) national champions in telecommunications, and slowly squeeze Western companies’ market access,” Gallagher, a Republican, told Reuters.

U.S. Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat and the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, also shared similar concerns and said, “as the Chinese economy stalls, we can potentially anticipate more aggressive moves against foreign businesses”.

China has curbed shipments from prominent U.S. firms including planemaker Boeing and memory chipmaker Micron.

Other suppliers of the iPhone maker including Broadcom, Skyworks Solutions and Texas Instruments were also lower, falling between 1.8% and 7.3%. The drop in the technology sector weighed on the three main U.S. stock indexes, particularly the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite, which lost 0.9% in afternoon trading.

“This announcement seems to have just refocused investors that the relationship between the U.S. and China is a big risk to current equity prices, particularly in technology,” said Rick Meckler, partner at Cherry Lane Investments.

IPHONE SLOWDOWN

China has been a bright spot for Apple in an otherwise tough period for iPhone sales.

“China is a crucial market for Apple, not just because it’s a super-important manufacturing hub, but because the country is an increasingly important source of revenues,” said Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown.

Apple gets nearly a fifth of its revenue from the country.

“Already rivals are closing the gap in high-end smartphone sales, and if the situation were to escalate this could potentially allow competitors to have a greater chance of stealing Apple’s crown,” Streeter said.

China’s Huawei last week launched its new Mate 60 Pro smartphone, which is powered by an advanced chip made by Chinese contract chipmaker SMIC and marks a breakthrough for the duo hit by U.S. sanctions.

Those sanctions cut Huawei’s access to chipmaking tools essential for producing the most advanced handset models, hammering the company’s business and allowing Apple to take some market share from the national favorite in China.

“If Huawei has the capability to supply and scale its home-grown Kirin 9000S (chips), we see the Mate series phone as an opportunity for Huawei to increase its shipments and regain its market share,” analysts at BofA Global Research said.

Apple could, however, see a demand boost after an event next week where it is expected to unveil its iPhone 15 line-up, as well as new smartwatches.

(Reporting by Aditya Soni in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Jaspreet Singh and Shristi Achar and Diane Bartz; Editing by David Gaffen, Shounak Dasgupta and Devika Syamnath)

SpaceX Yet To Secure Regulatory Approval for Starship Launch 

SpaceX has no green light to conduct another test flight of its Starship Super Heavy launch vehicle. That’s the stance held by the US Federal Aviation Administration, coming on the heels of CEO Elon Musk insisting they are ready to launch. Reports indicate the aerospace and Defense Company is yet to meet requirements to be able to fly again after an explosion early in the year.

SpaceX Grounding

In April, SpaceX was dealt a significant blow after its first Starship launch imploded in a catastrophic way after launching for more than three minutes. The starship lost multiple engines after launching and fell to the ground, affecting the ground infrastructure. The fact that the implosion triggered a crater in the ground, flung concrete chunks, and also impacted the sensitive habitat of endangered habitats triggered an investigation from the FAA.

The FAA is responsible for protecting the public during commercial space transportation launches. Therefore, it is mandated to conduct an in-depth investigation of the matter to ensure all loopholes are sealed before SpaceX is allowed to carry out another launch. Consequently, the agency has confirmed that the mishap investigation is still open, which means SpaceX cannot proceed with any launch until it is closed.

Until the aerospace giant implements corrective actions and demonstrates compliance with all regulatory requirements, its starship will remain grounded. The grounding comes amid a deteriorating relationship between Musk and federal regulators.

Musk vs. Regulators

The SpaceX CEO has found himself in hot soup with the regulators on flouting several FAA requirements in the past. For instance, in 2020, the executive pushed the company to go against the regulators orders and conduct a rocket test flight on a date it was explicitly prohibited. In the end, the SN8 rocket exploded midair.

In the most recent past, SpaceX conducted a test on a water deluge system designed to keep the company’s launch pad cool during launches. The fact that the tests were conducted without authorization or environmental permits has plunged the company into trouble with regulators.

Nevertheless, it is highly unlikely that the company will be grounded for long, given the role it plays. NASA, the country’s space agency, relies on Elon Musk’s company to transport people and equipment from the US to orbit.

Therefore, any grounding derails the agency’s programs and plans. In addition, SpaceX is also planning to move heavy equipment to orbit as it also plans to make space tourism work with plans to move people to the moon and eventually Mars.

SpaceX is one of the most important pieces of the Musk Empire. Over the years, the billionaire investor has turned to the aerospace company to back up his other ventures. For instance, he borrowed $20 million from the company to help the then-struggling Tesla, which was on the brink of collapse in 2008. Likewise, he used the company to offer support to Solar City in 2015 and 2016 when it was experiencing a period of financial difficulties.

While Musk is the majority shareholder at SpaceX, some investors have questioned his actions of diverting resources from the company to another enterprise. His actions have paid off as Tesla has found its foot and accounts for the biggest chunk of his net worth.

By Caroline Valetkevitch

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Global stock indexes were mostly lower on Thursday, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq falling with shares of Apple, and the U.S. dollar advanced after weaker-than-expected U.S. jobless claims data.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell unexpectedly to 216,000 in the week ended Sept. 2 from a revised 229,000 the week before. The latest week’s numbers were the lowest since February.

A separate report showed U.S. worker productivity in the second quarter was not as strong as initially announced.

Recent data has underscored the view that the U.S. economy remains resilient and that U.S. interest rates may need to stay higher for longer.

China’s onshore yuan slid to a 16-year low versus the dollar, weighed down by a property slump, weak consumer spending and shrinking credit growth in the world’s second-largest economy.

China trade data released on Thursday, while not as dire as economists predicted, still showed a nearly 9% slide in exports and a more than 7% drop for imports.

In Japan, traders remained on intervention watch as the Japanese yen struggled to make sustained headway against a resilient dollar.

The greenback hit a fresh top of 147.875 yen earlier, its highest since November, and was last down 0.4% at 147.20.

Against a basket of currencies including the euro and sterling, the dollar rose 0.1% to 105.05, after earlier touching a six-month peak.

“The fundamental story in the U.S. is still a bit stronger than the rest of the world. That continues to be a huge catalyst for dollar strength,” said Brad Bechtel, global head of foreign exchange at Jefferies in New York.

Shares of Apple were down 2.9% after sources familiar with the matter said China has in recent weeks widened existing curbs on the use of iPhones by state employees.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 57.54 points, or 0.17%, to 34,500.73, the S&P 500 lost 14.34 points, or 0.32%, to 4,451.14 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 123.64 points, or 0.89%, to 13,748.83.

European stocks ended down for a seventh straight session, while the MSCI global index was down for a third day in a row.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index ended down 0.1% and MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe shed 0.35%.

U.S. Treasury yields eased following the U.S. economic data.

The yield on the benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury note fell to 4.25%.

Investors also digested comments late in the day from Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams, who said that it’s an “open question” whether monetary policy is restrictive enough to bring the economy back into balance.

In the energy market, Brent crude oil fell below $90 a barrel in volatile trade after a near two-week rally, amid signals of weaker demand.

Brent crude futures settled 68 cents, or 0.8%, lower at $89.92 a barrel, while U.S. crude futures finished down 67 cents, or 0.8%, at $86.67.

(Additional reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss in New York, Marc Jones in London and Kevin Buckland in Tokyo; Editing by Susan Fenton, Nick Zieminski and Diane Craft)

By Ann Saphir

(Reuters) -The U.S. Senate on Thursday confirmed World Bank economist Adriana Kugler to the Federal Reserve, filling the last open seat at the U.S. central bank’s governing board as policymakers near a potential crossroads in their fight against inflation.

Colombian-born Kugler, whose research has focused on labor markets, is the first Latina to join the Fed Board in its 109-year history. The vote was 53-45, with a few Republicans supporting a nomination that was championed by Democratic Senator Bob Menendez.

“It is time for Latinos to be taken seriously as an essential part of our American family and economy,” said Menendez, a Cuban American, noting that 62 million Latinos call the United States home.

Confirming Kugler, he added, “is about changing the face of leadership so that our institutions – these bodies that we entrust with the future wealth and prosperity of our country – can fully reflect the nation that they serve.”

The Senate on Wednesday also confirmed Fed Governor Philip Jefferson as Fed vice chair and Fed Governor Lisa Cook to a second term. Both Jefferson and Cook are Black, have a PhD in economics and had long careers in academia.

With Kugler’s addition, the Fed’s board now has its full complement of seven, who along with the central bank’s 12 regional bank presidents set the nation’s monetary policy.

The Fed has raised interest rates by an aggressive 5.25 percentage points over the last 18 months in a bid to rein in inflation that, based on the personal consumption expenditures price index, surged to 7% last summer.

Since then, supply chains that were damaged during the coronavirus pandemic have continued to heal, easing the root cause of much of that inflation, and the U.S. central bank’s higher borrowing costs have helped cool demand and restore more balance to the labor market, Fed Chair Jerome Powell has said.

Now, with the PCE price index having risen just 3.3% in July, officials are weighing whether they have done enough to put it on track toward their 2% goal.

The Fed is widely expected to leave its benchmark overnight interest rate in the current 5.25%-5.50% range at its Sept. 19-20 policy meeting, as officials take time to assess the state of the economy.

They are also expected to leave the door open to another rate hike before the end of the year should price pressures reemerge.

KEY ROLE FOR VICE CHAIR JEFFERSON

Fed policymakers have driven up borrowing costs with a single-minded focus on beating inflation, and the strength of the labor market despite their rate-hike campaign has been a source of relief, but also of surprise.

Unemployment, at 3.8%, is still below most estimates of what is sustainable over the long term, and while the pace of hiring has slowed in recent months, businesses are still adding far more each month than the 100,000 needed to meet population growth.

That strength could threaten progress on cooling inflation, and complicates the Fed’s goal of tightening policy enough to keep the downward pressure on inflation but not so tight it sends the economy into a tailspin.

The Fed’s task is expected to become more difficult next year as policymakers weigh cutting rates to keep policy from becoming overly restrictive as inflation falls.

Jefferson’s success as vice chair will hinge on his ability to help Powell manage that process.

“Some of the good vice chairs serve as the chair’s right hand person and can help get the Committee on the same wavelength as the chair,” says JPMorgan chief U.S. economist Michael Feroli. They can also “venture out a little more in what they say, and indicate where the chair is leaning,” when the chair himself is constrained by the need to speak for the group as a whole.

Jefferson has already begun to take that role, in May putting markets on notice that a decision to “skip” raising rates at one meeting would not mean the Fed was necessarily done tightening. Policymakers did hold rates steady in June, and then raised them the following month.

Cook, who joined the Fed at the same time as Jefferson in May 2022, has given only a few speeches on monetary policy and none since her re-nomination this year.

Analysts are keen to learn if she’ll come out more strongly as the dove many initially pegged her as, now that her confirmation is in the rearview.

“We will likely hear from her after the September meeting,” predicted LHMeyer’s Derek Tang.

As for Kugler, Tang said, “she comes in with deep international and labor market experience, which will be a real asset as the Fed has to navigate a newly challenging geopolitical environment and possible structural change in post-pandemic labor markets.”

(Reporting by Ann Saphir; Editing by Paul Simao and Timothy Gardner)

By Jack Queen

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Donald Trump may seek to move a Georgia criminal case accusing him of conspiring to reverse his 2020 presidential election loss from state to federal court, according to a Thursday court filing.

The former U.S. president and front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination was indicted along with 18 others in August on charges that he pressured Georgia election officials to overturn Democratic President Joe Biden’s election victory in the state.

Trump has denied wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty, along with the rest of the defendants.

Federal court would be a more favorable venue for Trump because he would face a more politically diverse jury pool than in Fulton County, Georgia, the Democratic stronghold where the case was filed.

A federal trial would also allow him to argue that he is immune from prosecution for actions he took as part of his official duties as president.

Several of Trump’s co-defendants, including his onetime Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, have already filed petitions to move their cases.

A judge is expected to rule on those petitions in the coming weeks.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington and Jack Queen in New York; editing by Susan Heavey and Cynthia Osterman)