USA OUTLOOK WEEKLY NEWSLETTER NOVEMBER 27 TO DECEMBER 01
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NOVEMBER 27, 2023
NOVEMBER 28, 2023
Climate change, overharvesting exacerbating Texas oyster decline For the second year in a row, Texas has closed the majority of its public oyster reefs for harvesting due to declining populations. Wildlife officials say these dwindling numbers are caused by extreme weather events fueled by climate change, as well as by overharvesting. For the oystermen who make a living from harvesting oysters in the Gulf of Mexico's Galveston Bay area during a season that normally runs from November through April, these closures mean a hit to their business. STEVE MARCUS (REUTERS)
Internet casinos thrive in six states. So why hasn’t it caught on more widely in the US? In the 10 years that it has been operating in New Jersey, internet casino gambling has generated nearly $7 billion in revenue for casinos and their affiliates, sent over a billion dollars in tax revenue to the state’s coffers and helped keep Atlantic City’s nine casinos afloat while they were shut down during the Covid-19 pandemic. So why hasn’t it caught on more widely across America?
"We start to come across problems a few weeks into the season. Just scarcity. Not much oyster, harder to find oyster. Areas get closed down," said Joel Gutierrez, a 21-year-old oysterman from Galveston, Texas. Oysterman Romeo Bilcic said this year's catch was as bad as he had seen in 41 years of harvesting. "It's getting worse every year. You know, we've been trying, these few areas where they open, we tried to work it out. But the product is just not here."
Currently, only six states offer internet casino gambling: New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Michigan and West Virginia. (Nevada offers internet poker but not online casino games; Rhode Island has passed an online casino bill, but it is not expected to go into effect until March 2024.) Casino operators, online gambling companies, analysts and elected officials offer a number of reasons why they think it has yet to expand more widely: among them, including fears (unfounded, analysts say) that internet gambling will draw gamblers away from physical casinos, and a higher priority effort to approve sports betting — nearly 90% of which is done online in two-thirds of the states. Souce: https://english.elpais.com/usa/2023-11-24/internet-casinos-thrive-in-six-states-sowhy-hasnt-it-caught-on-more-widely-in-the-us.html
Souce: https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/land-use-biodiversity/climate-changeoverharvesting-exacerbating-texas-oyster-decline-2023-11-28/
NOVEMBER 29, 2023
NOVEMBER 30, 2023
Senate Democrats authorize US Supreme Court ethics subpoenas A Democratic-led U.S. Senate panel said on Thursday it has authorized subpoenas to two influential conservatives - Harlan Crow and Leonard Leo - as part of an ethics inquiry spurred by reports of undisclosed largesse directed to some conservative Supreme Court justices.
Photo Bing Guan/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights
US allows pork plants to keep operating at accelerated speeds The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Tuesday said it will extend for up to 90 days a trial program that allows six U.S. pork plants to operate faster processing-line speeds while collecting data on how the speeds affect meatpacking workers. The decision is a win for major meat companies like Tyson Foods (TSN.N) and JBS SA (JBSS3.SA) and their farmers at a time when both are losing money. Some activist groups like Food & Water Watch had opposed the program as a risk to food safety.
The Judiciary Committee voted along party lines to authorize the subpoenas for Crow, a billionaire Republican donor and benefactor of conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, and Leo, a legal activist who was instrumental in compiling Republican former President Donald Trump's list of potential Supreme Court nominees. Senator Dick Durbin, the committee's chairman, renewed his criticism of a new code of conduct announced by the court on Nov. 13 and promised to continue to pursue the panel's ethics investigation. "Without an enforcement mechanism, this code of conduct, while a step in a positive direction, cannot restore the public's faith in the court," Durbin said.
The plants, including one in Nebraska owned by Tyson and another in Illinois run by JBS' Swift Pork Co., were allowed to accelerate line speeds last year under a trial that required them to also implement worker safety measures under agreements with labor unions or worker safety committees. Companies were eligible to participate in the trial because they had sped up processing speeds under a Trump-era rule that removed speed limits for hogslaughtering facilities. A judge in 2021 invalidated that rule after the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union, which represents many meatpacking workers, sued the USDA over worker safety concerns. Souce: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-allows-pork-plants-keep-operatingaccelerated-speeds-2023-11-29/
Photo: Kevin Wurm/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights Souce: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-senate-democrats-expected-votesupreme-court-ethics-subpoenas-2023-11-30/
DECEMBER 01, 2023
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A BMO Capital Markets report noted that 29% of new bonds issued in November listed refinancing as a use of proceeds, which is the highest percentage for any month since December 2022. Tight credit spreads and strong investor demand for highly-rated bonds has prompted some U.S. companies to refinance debt maturing in the next few years rather than wait for expected U.S. interest rate cuts in 2024 to lower borrowing costs.
Investment-grade issuers have raised more than $100 billion issuing November a sharp rise in refinancing activity as Treasury yields fell and average spreads onsixth bonds sosaw far in November, topping the century mark for only the investment-grade debt - the premium charged over Treasuries - touched 111 basis points or the lowest time in history and exceeding market estimates, according to Informa level this year, according to ICE BAML data. Global Markets.
A BMO Capital Markets report noted that 29% of new bonds issued in November listed refinancing as a use of proceeds, which is the highest percentage for any month since December 2022. Investment-grade issuers have raised more than $100 billion issuing bonds so far in November, topping the century mark for only the sixth time in history and exceeding market estimates, according to Informa
WEEKLY NEWSLETTER NOVEMBER 06 TO 10 WEEKLY Global Markets. Souce:
https://www.reuters.com/markets/rates-bonds/uncertain-2024-makes-uscompanies-refinance-debt-sooner-not-later-2023-11-30/