The South Korean chemical giant plans to spend 10 trillion won ($8.69 billion) in boosting its three major new growth engines: eco-friendly biomaterials, battery materials and medicines, LG Chem Chief Executive Shin Hak-cheol said in an online news conference on Wednesday.
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Senate Democrats Agree to $3.5 Trillion Healthcare and Antipoverty Plan
WASHINGTON-Democrats on the Senate Budget Committee agreed to roughly $3.5 trillion in spending for their broad healthcare and antipoverty plan, determining the scope of the party's expected efforts on education, climate change, child care and a host of other issues while it has control of Congress and the White House.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) announced the agreement Tuesday night after an hourslong meeting among White House officials and members of the committee, which is tasked with crafting the broad contours of the bill. The $3.5 trillion price falls short of a $6 trillion package previously sought by progressives, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), the chairman of the Budget Committee who endorsed the deal Tuesday night.
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EU Readies Sweeping Economic Plan to Combat Climate Change
PARIS-The European Union is set to propose a sweeping program on Wednesday to transform the region's economy to fight climate change, slashing its reliance on fossil fuels and potentially jolting global trade with import levies that would hit high-emitting countries.
The package, drafted by the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, ranks among the most ambitious plans yet by a major economic power to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, requiring companies and households to adopt cleaner technologies such as wind turbines, solar power and electric vehicles. It would limit pollution across the European economy, including electricity generation, automobiles, housing, shipping and agriculture.
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China to Launch the World's Largest Emissions-Trading Program
HONG KONG-China will launch a national emissions-trading program on Friday, according to people familiar with the matter, creating the world's largest carbon market and doubling the share of global emissions covered under such programs.
The carbon market will help the country lower greenhouse-gas emissions and achieve its goal of reaching peak emissions before 2030 and carbon neutrality, or net zero emissions, by 2060, officials said at a news conference Wednesday. China is the world's largest carbon emitter.
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Eurozone Industrial Production Fell in May Due to Supply Chain Disruptions
Eurozone industrial production declined in May as supply-chain bottlenecks hindered activity, Eurostat data released Wednesday showed.
Output from factories, mines and utilities across the single-currency area in May fell 1.0% over the previous month, the EU statistics agency said. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had forecast a 0.1% drop. Eurostat revised down month-on-month industrial output growth for April to 0.6% from 0.8% in the first estimate.
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UK Consumer Prices Rose at Faster Annual Pace in June
Annual inflation in the U.K. accelerated in June, further evidence that price pressures are building world-wide as the global economy edges out of the pandemic.
Consumer prices rose 2.5% on the year in June, the fastest rate of growth since summer 2018, the Office for National Statistics said Wednesday.
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New Zealand Central Bank to Reduce Stimulus by Halting Bond Purchases
WELLINGTON, New Zealand-New Zealand's central bank said it would reduce stimulus for the economy as inflation pressures rise and growth rebounds from the pandemic.
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand said Wednesday that it will halt its purchases of New Zealand government bonds-which had helped to keep wholesale interest rates low-by July 23.
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Chip Shortage Has Spawned a Surplus of Fraudsters and Fake Parts
TAIPEI-The global chip shortage has created a gold mine for bad actors.
Businesses in need of chips are taking supply-chain risks they wouldn't have considered before, only to find that what they buy doesn't work. Dubious sellers are buying ads on search engines to lure desperate buyers. Sales of X-ray machines that can detect fake parts have boomed.
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How Biden's Executive Order Could Reshape Rail and Ocean Shipping
President Biden's sweeping executive order signed last week laid out the administration's priorities for promoting competitive markets and limiting corporate dominance. Among the dozens of provisions included in the order are directives aimed at railroads and ocean shipping.
The administration says the relatively small number of major players in the ocean-shipping trade and the U.S. freight-rail business has enabled companies to charge unreasonable fees. In the case of the seven Class 1 freight railroads, consolidation has given some railroad companies control of most of the freight tracks in parts of the country.
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Green-Tech Startups Are Getting Fresh Wave of Cash
A flood of investment into clean tech propelled onetime startups such as Tesla Inc. into the stratosphere. For most young companies in the sector, the past decade was a fight to raise the funds needed for takeoff.
That is changing amid a boom in green investing. The new wave of cash is helping startups get from laboratory to market.
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Fed Officials Say Punitive U.S. Legal System Is Hampering Economy
Some regional Federal Reserve officials say the U.S. criminal-justice system is so punitive, it is preventing the economy from reaching its full potential.
The leaders of the Atlanta, Boston and Minneapolis Federal Reserve Banks said Tuesday this is in large part because the legal system weighs particularly heavily on Black and Latino Americans, and is set up to ensure that legal mistakes follow offenders essentially forever, which impairs these people's ability to fully participate in the economy. The country as a whole pays a price for that in terms of a labor force that is prevented from doing all it could do, they said.
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Biden Has Yet to Deliver on Some Ethics Pledges
WASHINGTON-Joe Biden pledged during his presidential campaign to overhaul the country's ethics and campaign-finance laws, promising to usher in a new era of government transparency.
Six months into his presidency, Mr. Biden has been unable to deliver on many of his promises.
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Explosion Kills at Least Nine Chinese Nationals in Pakistan
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan-A blast killed at least nine Chinese nationals traveling in a bus in northern Pakistan, along with at least four Pakistanis, a local official said Wednesday.
The cause of the blast couldn't immediately be determined, but Chinese building sites, symbols and citizens have been attacked by local insurgents in Pakistan. The incident represents the largest loss of Chinese lives in recent years in Pakistan, where China is carrying out a multibillion-dollar infrastructure building program.
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Sydney Lockdown Extended by Two Weeks Amid Delta Outbreak
SYDNEY-Authorities said they would extend a lockdown in Sydney, Australia's most populous city, by two weeks to July 30 as the city battles an outbreak of the highly infectious coronavirus Delta variant.
Officials had previously warned that the lockdown, which was scheduled to end July 16, was likely to be extended as case numbers rose. On Wednesday, authorities said there were 97 new local coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours compared with 89 on Tuesday and 112 on Monday.
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Iranian Intelligence Plotted to Kidnap U.S.-Based Activist, Prosecutors Say
Iranian intelligence agents plotted to kidnap a U.S.-based human-rights activist and critic of the Islamic Republic and forcibly return her to Iran, federal prosecutors said, marking an escalation of Iran's attempts to silence dissidents around the world.
The alleged scheme targeted Masih Alinejad, an Iranian-American who has used her social-media profile, Western government contacts and cable news appearances to rally opinion against Tehran's treatment of women and the government policy of compulsory head scarves.
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Write to paul.larkins@wsj.com TODAY IN CANADA
Earnings:
Cogeco Commun 3Q
EXFO 3Q
Economic Indicators (ET):
0830 May Monthly Survey of Manufacturing
1000 Bank of Canada interest rate announcement
Expected Major Events for Wednesday
04:30/JPN: May Revised Industrial Production
06:00/UK: Jun UK producer prices
06:00/UK: Jun UK monthly inflation figures
08:30/UK: May UK House Price Index
11:00/US: 07/09 MBA Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey
12:30/US: Jun PPI
12:30/CAN: May Monthly Survey of Manufacturing
14:00/CAN: Bank of Canada interest rate announcement
14:30/US: 07/09 EIA Weekly Petroleum Status Report
18:00/US: U.S. Federal Reserve Beige Book
All times in GMT. Powered by Kantar Media and Dow Jones.
Expected Earnings for Wednesday
AEterna Zentaris Inc (AEZS,AEZS.T) is expected to report for 1Q.
Bank of America Corp (BAC) is expected to report $0.77 for 2Q.
BlackRock Inc (BLK) is expected to report $9.18 for 2Q.
Celsion Corp (CLSN) is expected to report $-0.08 for 2Q.
Chase Corp (CCF) is expected to report for 3Q.
Cinedigm Corp (CIDM) is expected to report $-0.02 for 4Q.
Citigroup Inc (C) is expected to report $1.99 for 2Q.
Cogeco Communications Inc (CCA.T,CGEAF) is expected to report $2.08 for 3Q.
Cogeco is expected to report for 3Q.
Community Trust Bancorp (CTBI) is expected to report $1.09 for 2Q.
Delta Air Lines (DAL) is expected to report $-1.33 for 2Q.
E2open Parent Holdings Inc (ETWO) is expected to report for 1Q.
EXFO Inc (EXF.T,EXFO) is expected to report $-0.04 for 3Q.
Firan Technology Group is expected to report for 2Q.
Franklin Resources (BEN) is expected to report.
Genesis Healthcare Inc (GENN) is expected to report $-0.33 for 1Q.
(MORE TO FOLLOW) Dow Jones Newswires
07-14-21 0605ET
