Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 close at record highs

The US Environmental Protection Agency will exclude existing gas-fired plants in its final standards on climate pollution for the power sector, the agency announced on Thursday.

The final rules, expected in the spring, will now only apply to existing coal and new gas-fired power plants, marking a win for the utilities sector, which had opposed the original rules. The power sector makes up a quarter of US greenhouse gas emissions, with gas the second-largest source of power-sector emissions behind coal.

The weakened rules come as President Biden faces pressure from climate activists to take a tougher stance on climate in the lead up to the presidential election.

JAB Holdings, the European investment group, on Thursday announced plans to sell almost $3bn worth of its stock in Keurig Dr Pepper, in what is set to be the largest secondary sale of shares in the US for more than two years.

JAB plans to sell up to 100mn shares in the soft drinks group, of which 35mn will be repurchased by KDP. The shares had a market value of almost $2.9bn based on Thursday’s closing price.

The sale is set to be the largest follow-on offering in a US-listed group since January 2022. Strong follow-on activity is seen as an important precursor for a revival in initial public offerings.

New York Community Bancorp has replaced its chief executive and identified “material weaknesses” in internal controls that guide how loans are reviewed, amid worries about the US regional lender’s exposure to the commercial property market.

Shares of the New York bank fell by 26 per cent in February, and dropped another 19 per cent in after-hours trading after it disclosed the moves late on Thursday.

Higher-than-expected losses from real estate loans for NYCB have revived concerns about potential defaults. The pressures on NYCB come almost a year after the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and other regional banks unsettled the US banking industry.

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The leaders of major news organisations across the world have signed a letter of support for journalists covering the war in Gaza after close to 100 media workers have been killed during the conflict.

“Journalists and media workers in Gaza — overwhelmingly, the sole source of on-the-ground reporting from within the Palestinian territory — have been working in unprecedented conditions,” said the letter, which was co-ordinated by the Committee to Protect Journalists.

The CPJ website says at least 94 journalists have been killed covering the conflict since October 7 2023.

The letter was signed by senior editors from 36 outlets, including BBC News, The New York Times, Associated Press and the Financial Times.

Starbucks has won support from the influential proxy advisory firm ISS in its fight with the union-backed activist fund that has waged a proxy fight at the coffee company.

Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) said on Thursday the Strategic Organizing Center, a coalition of labour unions that owns just 162 Starbucks shares, “failed to establish a material link” between the company’s unionisation problems and underperformance.

“On balance, the dissident has not presented a compelling case for board-level change,” ISS said, adding that a vote for all of Starbucks’s board nominees is warranted. 

The SOC is seeking three board seats. Starbucks’s annual shareholder meeting is scheduled for March 13.

Boeing is paying $51mn to settle an administrative charge from the US Department of State over unauthorised exports, including to China.

The US government found that the exports to China between 2013 and 2017 included technical data related to a range of US Department of Defense weaponry, including fighter jets and missile systems.

Those exports “caused harm to US national security”, according to the proposed charging letter from the state department.

Boeing voluntarily disclosed the export law violations to the government.

“We are committed to our trade controls obligations, and we look forward to working with the state department under the agreement announced today,” the company said.