WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Dow topped 40,000 for the first time on Thursday in an all-time high, giving U.S. President Joe Biden an opening to prove his Republican election rival's 2020 predictions wrong.

The state of the U.S. economy looms as one of the larger factors weighing on the Democratic president's bid for reelection. Persistently high prices have hindered Biden's efforts to win credit from voters for his handling of the economy, although inflation in recent months has been easing.

"Good one, Donald," Biden said in a post on X hours after the blue-chip index made its gains.

In an accompanying video, a split screen shows Donald Trump campaigning in the 2020 presidential election he lost to the Democrat.

"If Biden wins, you're going to have a stock market collapse the likes of which you've never had," Trump says in the video clip.

The top half of the screen shows the year 2024 and images of Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, with commentary from an array of business television newscasters on the 40,000 breach.

"The Dow 30 broke 40,000 for the first time in history," one broadcaster says.

"Look at that market!" exclaims a second.

"We see earnings increasing for the second quarter. We see record earnings estimates for the third and fourth quarter and that's what really impresses me," another intones.

The video ends with Fox Business Network's Stuart Varney saying, "I've been doing this a long time. I never expected the Dow to hit 40,000."

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Biden has struggled to convince voters of the efficacy of his economic policies despite a backdrop of low unemployment and above-trend economic growth. A Reuters/Ipsos poll last month showed Trump had a 7 percentage-point edge over Biden on the economy.

Investing.com - The latest consumer inflation data has been broadly well received by financial markets, but Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams said this news, while positive, is not sufficient for the U.S. central bank to cut interest rates sometime soon.

Data released on Wednesday showed that U.S. consumer price growth had slowed as anticipated to 3.4% on an annualized basis in April, while so-called ‘core’ CPI, which excludes volatile energy and food prices, increased 3.6% annually, the smallest year-on-year gain since April 2021.

The softer inflation tone is "kind of a positive development after a few months where the data were disappointing," Williams said in an interview with Reuters on Wednesday, and "the overall trend looks reasonably good."

However, he is still not sufficiently confident that price pressures are moving sustainably to the Fed's 2% inflation target before lowering short-term borrowing costs.

Monetary policy is "restrictive" and "is in a good place," Williams said. "I don't see any indicators now telling me ... there's a reason to change the stance of monetary policy now, and I don't expect that, I don't expect to get that greater confidence that we need to see on inflation progress towards a 2% goal in the very near term."

Still, Williams also stated that he couldn’t see “any need to tighten monetary policy today," largely ending any speculation that the Fed might need to raise rates further to reduce inflation to desired levels.

Williams is one of the most respected voices at the central bank, and also serves as vice-chairman of the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee.

He had said earlier this month that the U.S. central bank will lower its interest rate target at some undefined point.

"Eventually we'll have rate cuts" but for now monetary policy is in a "very good place," Williams said in comments made before the Milken Institute 2024 Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California.

The Federal Open Market Committee maintained the overnight target at between 5.25% and 5.5% at its last meeting at the start of this month.

Investing.com -- Wall Street futures traded largely unchanged ahead of the release of the key monthly consumer price report, which could guide future Federal Reserve thinking. Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO)'s results are due after the close, while the meme stock rally continued apace. 

1. U.S. CPI looms large

The release of the crucial monthly U.S. consumer price report is the main event Wednesday, as it’s likely to influence the Federal Reserve's near-term policy path.

April’s consumer price index is due out during the U.S. trading morning, and economists expect that it rose 0.4% in April on a month-over-month basis, or 3.4% from 12 months earlier.

The core reading, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, is expected to show underlying inflation rising 3.6% on a year-over-year basis, which would be the smallest increase in over three years, a monthly rise of 0.3%.

Investors have had to dial back their expectations of U.S. rate cuts this year due to sticky inflation and are now pricing in 43 basis points of easing this year, compared with 150 bps of easing anticipated at the start of 2024.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell emphasised the point that inflation was proving difficult to tame in a speech at the Foreign Bankers' Association's Annual General Meeting in Amsterdam on Tuesday.

"Inflation in Q1 was notable for the lack of further progress," Powell said. "Confidence in inflation moving back down is lower than it was. My confidence on that is not as high as it was before."

U.S. producer prices increased more than expected in April, data showed on Tuesday, indicating that inflation remained stubbornly high early in the second quarter.

By Clare Jim

HONG KONG (Reuters) -Shares of Chinese property developers jumped on Thursday, after a report that China is considering a plan for local governments nationwide to buy millions of unsold homes from distressed companies to ease a protracted property crisis.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Mainland Properties Index firmed as much as 6% in morning trading.

State-backed Sino-Ocean Group surged more than 50% and defaulted private developers CIFI Holdings and Shimao Group jumped more than 30%.

Hong Kong's markets were closed on Wednesday for a public holiday. They have been catching up to gains in mainland property shares since the previous day.

China's CSI 300 Real Estate index climbed over 3% on Thursday, following a 2.2% rise on Wednesday.

Bloomberg News said on Wednesday the State Council is gathering feedback on the preliminary plan from various provinces and government bodies, after a meeting of the ruling Communist Party leaders in late April called for efforts to clear mounting housing inventory.

Local state-owned enterprises would be asked to help purchase unsold homes from distressed developers at steep discounts using loans provided by state banks, according to the report, which added that many of these homes would be converted into affordable housing.

China's property sector slipped into a debt crisis in mid-2021. Since 2022, waves of policy measures have failed to turn around the sector that represents around a fifth of the economy and remains a major drag on consumer spending and confidence.

POLICY RAMP-UP

Over the past years, some local governments have already announced plans to buy unfinished or unsold homes from developers and turn them into social housing.

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Transportation Department said Wednesday it had fined Mexican carrier Volaris Airlines up to $300,000 for violating federal law on airport tarmac delays.

Federal law and government regulations prohibit tarmac delays of four hours or more on international flights without providing passengers an opportunity to deplane.

The department said in 2021 and 2022, Volaris allowed two flights to remain on the tarmac for lengthy periods without providing passengers an opportunity to deplane in Houston and St. Louis. Volaris will pay $150,000 of the fine and must pay the other $150,000 fine if it violates the tarmac rules within a year. The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) has issued a number of similar fines to other carriers in recent years.

Volaris, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment, agreed to the penalty and told USDOT a series of events outside of its control combined to cause the tarmac delays and said it takes the rules seriously.

"This enforcement action reflects our ongoing commitment to protecting consumers and holding airlines accountable," Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement.

USDOT in January 2023 said it planned to seek higher penalties from airlines and others that broke consumer protection rules, saying they were necessary to deter future violations.

In August, it fined American Airlines (NASDAQ:AAL) $4.1 million for unlawfully keeping thousands of passengers on the tarmac for hours, the largest-ever penalty for violating the rule.

American told the department the delays were the result of exceptional weather events, and that the 43 impacted flights represented less than 0.001% of the approximately 7.7 million flights operated.

In April 2023, USDOT imposed a $135,000 penalty on British Airways over a 2017 tarmac delay in which it failed to ensure the timely deplaning of passengers.

By Satoshi Sugiyama and Tetsushi Kajimoto

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's economy contracted in the first quarter, squeezed by weaker private consumption and external demand and throwing a fresh challenge to policymakers as the central bank looks to lift interest rates away from near-zero levels.

Preliminary gross domestic product (GDP) data from the Cabinet Office on Thursday showed Japan's economy shrank 2.0% annualised in January-March from the prior quarter, versus a 1.5% drop seen in a Reuters poll of economists. It followed a slightly positive reading in the fourth quarter.

The reading translates into a quarterly contraction of 0.5%, versus a 0.4% decline expected by economists in the Reuters' poll.

Private consumption, which accounts for more than half of the Japanese economy, fell 0.7%, versus a 0.2% decline seen in the Reuters poll. It was the fourth straight quarter of decline, the longest streak since 2009.

Capital spending, a key driver of private demand-led growth, fell 0.8% in the first quarter, versus a decline of 0.7% seen by economists in Reuters' poll, despite hefty corporate earnings.

External demand, or exports minus imports, knocked 0.3 of a percentage point off first quarter GDP estimates.

Policymakers are counting on rising wages and income tax cuts from June to help spur flagging consumption.

The drag to growth from an earthquake in the Noto area this year and the suspension of operations at Toyota (NYSE:TM)'s Daihatsu unit are also expected to fade.

A sharp decline in the yen to levels unseen since 1990 has fueled concerns about higher living costs, squeezing consumption.

Investing.com -- Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari on Wednesday backed the case for higher for longer interest rates after expressing uncertainty about how restrictive the current level of monetary policy is in the wake of more resilient than expected economy. 

"The biggest uncertainty in my mind is how much downward pressure is monetary policy putting on the economy ...  that's an unknown, we don't know for sure," Kashkari said Wednesday during a a moderated discussion at the 2024 Williston Basin Petroleum Conference in Bismarck, North Dakota. 

"That tells me we probably need to sit here for a while longer, until we figure out where underlying inflation is headed," he added. 

The current level of interest rates of 5.25% to 5.5% would normally be restrictive enough to slow the economy and inflation, but due pandemic-related distortions including a huge wave of fiscal spending, stimulus checks and other supportive measures have made the economy more resilience than the Fed had expected. 

"It seems like there is more resilience in the economy than I had expected," Kashkari added. Because of some of these dynamics, these interest rates only really mean we're putting one foot on the brake and not two." 

The remarks arrived just hours after the economic data showed the consumer price index slowed more than expected last month following three months of upside surprises. The slowdown in consumer prices came a day after a producer price inflation came in hotter than expected. 

But on the heels of the hot producer price report, a "cooler-than-expected consumer price report has immediately eased concerns of rapidly rising inflation, fueling investors’ hopes for rate cuts in the coming months," Stifel said in a Wednesday note.

MILAN (Reuters) - Expectations over interest rate cuts rather than earnings optimism has made investors the "most bullish" since November 2021, Bank of America's monthly fund manager survey for May showed on Tuesday.

The survey of global fund managers with $562 billion in asset under management found 82% expect the first by the rate cut by the Federal Reserve in the second half, while 78% say a recession is unlikely over the next 12 months.

Cash levels fell to a 3-year low of 4% from 4.2% the previous months and stock allocation reached its highest since January 2022, the survey showed.

(Reuters) -Ride-hailing company Uber (NYSE:UBER) will acquire Delivery Hero's foodpanda branded takeaway business in Taiwan for $950 million in cash, the companies said on Tuesday.

Germany's Delivery Hero plans to additionally issue 8.42 million new ordinary registered shares which Uber has agreed to purchase for $300 million, the two companies said.

Following the move, Uber would hold around 2.98% of the Delivery Hero’s new share capital.

The companies aim to complete the transaction by the first half of 2025, they said, adding that following deal's closure foodpanda’s local consumers, merchants and delivery partners would be transitioned to Uber Eats.

The deal comes months after Delivery Hero said that talks regarding a potential sale of its foodpanda business in selected markets in Southeast Asia had been terminated.

($1 = 0.9271 euros)

By Tom Westbrook

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Asian shares hovered around 15-month highs on Tuesday and the dollar was firm ahead of highly anticipated U.S. inflation data, while Japanese bonds were squeezed as the central bank pulled back a little on its bond buying programme.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan climbed slightly and hit its highest since early 2023 in morning trade, as a strong rally in Hong Kong shares extended into a fourth consecutive week. (HK)

Japan's Nikkei was flat. Benchmark 10-year Japanese government bond yields rose one basis point to 0.95%, the highest yield since November, and five-year Japanese yields hit 0.555%, the highest since 2011. [JP/]

World stocks and the S&P 500 were steady overnight, poised just below record peaks. A survey released on Monday by the New York Fed showed Americans see inflation a year from now at 3.3%, higher than they did a month earlier, and later on Tuesday U.S. producer price figures will be closely watched.

Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) will most likely report results later on Tuesday.

The main focus this week is on Wednesday's actual U.S. CPI figures, to see whether some upside surprises in the first quarter were a blip or a worrying trend. Expectations are for core CPI to slow from an annual 3.8% in March to 3.6% for April.

"This would be good, but not enough to confirm Fed easing plans in (the third quarter)," Bob Savage, head of markets strategy and insights at BNY Mellon (NYSE:BK), said in a note to clients.

In the currency market, nerves and the inflation expectation survey were enough to keep the dollar from falling. Dollar/yen hit its highest since the start of the month, when traders reckoned Japanese authorities were intervening to buy yen.

The yen traded as soft as 156.4 to the dollar. The euro was steady at $1.0786 and the Australian and New Zealand dollars kept to recent ranges, the Aussie at $0.6606 and kiwi at $0.6015.

HANG SENG SURGES

In China, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index is up 30% from January's lows and has surged nearly 20% in a month.

News and data in recent days included a third straight monthly rise in consumer prices, better than expected imports data, record low credit growth and marketing of a trillion yuan in long-data special treasury bonds.

Investors see positive demand signals and signs that as monetary policy is reaching its limits, and with borrowers shy, authorities are planning to spend to support growth.

"Walking through the recent policy announcements, including the expansion of stock connect and encouraging leading enterprises to list in Hong Kong, it is hard not to come to the conclusion that top management in China intends to reinstate Hong Kong's role as an IPO hub," said OCBC analysts.

In New Zealand, inflation expectations have dropped, data published on Monday showed, and construction supplier Fletcher Building cut its outlook, citing a housing slowdown.

Fletcher's Australia-listed shares hit a two-decade low on Tuesday. Australia's government is expected to boast another surplus in its annual budget due on Tuesday.

Shares in bellwether Australian automotive equipment seller GUD leapt 9% after it forecast meeting expectations.

In Japan, the central bank announced its first cut to bond buying operations since December on Monday - a surprise hawkish signal to investors that drove selling in the market.

Two-year Japanese yields were untraded early on Tuesday but hit their highest since 2009. U.S. Treasuries were steady in Asia trade to leave 10-year yields at 4.49% and two-year yields at 4.86%. [US/]

The so-called meme stocks, which swung wildly after finding popularity in retail trading blogs and social media posts, leapt to life overnight after user "Roaring Kitty", credited with sparking the 2021 frenzy, returned to post on X.com.

Videogame store operator GameStop (NYSE:GME) rose 74%. Oil and gold were broadly steady with Brent crude futures at $83.40 a barrel and spot gold at $2,339 an ounce.