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WSJ : U.S. Steel Explosion Presents Challenge to Nippon’s Investment Plans

U.S. Steel Explosion Presents Challenge to Nippon’s Investment Plans
Crews work to restore operations after deaths of two employees

  • A deadly explosion at U.S. Steel’s Clairton plant is testing the resolve of Nippon Steel.
  • The explosion reduced U.S. Steel’s ability to produce coke, a key steelmaking input for its Mon Valley Works complex.
  • Nippon Steel pledged $2.2 billion for upgrades at Mon Valley by 2028, though the to-do list didn’t include repairs to Clairton’s coke ovens.

Nippon Steel 5401 -0.60%decrease; red down pointing triangle promised to spend $14 billion to keep U.S. Steel’s aging plants humming for decades. A deadly blast at a mill near Pittsburgh will test the Japanese steelmaker’s resolve through a costly crisis.

Crews are continuing to clean up and restore operations at the Clairton, Pa., plant where an explosion Monday killed two workers and injured 10 others. U.S. Steel officials said the blast reduced the company’s ability to produce coke—a key steelmaking input—at its Mon Valley Works complex.

Jim Borkowski, an employee with 21 years of service, was among those transporting injured workers from the wreckage. “It was chaos; we ran to help whoever and do whatever we could,” he said.

Mon Valley was a focal point of Nippon Steel’s negotiations with President Trump. Two months ago he approved the purchase of U.S. Steel after the Tokyo-based company significantly increased its investment commitments.

Nippon Steel pledged $2.2 billion for upgrades at Mon Valley by 2028, projects that would maintain steelmaking at the mill for years. The to-do list didn’t include major repairs to Clairton’s coke ovens. It will likely cost the company millions of dollars to return the site to normal operations.

The Clairton coking plant—the nation’s largest—has dealt with operational concerns in the past. An explosion at the plant in 2010 injured 20 workers. A catastrophic fire on Christmas Eve 2018 knocked out the plant’s emissions-control system for months afterward.

In February, two employees were sent to the hospital when gases ignited at a coke plant battery, which Allegheny County officials said caused an audible boom and surge in airborne pollutants.

Nippon Steel said work on the planned replacement of the rolling line to make sheet steel would continue, but added, “Our primary focus remains on our employees at our Clairton plant.”

U.S. Steel Chief Executive Dave Burritt said Tuesday that he spoke with Nippon Steel executives following the accident and said they are committed to cooperating with government investigators to determine a cause for the explosion.

“We will take every step necessary to keep our people safe,” Burritt said during a briefing with reporters. “We wouldn’t have done the deal with Nippon Steel if we weren’t absolutely sure that we would have an enduring future.”

U.S. Steel deferred some maintenance and upgrade projects for years in response to a long stretch of financial losses before 2020.

In the months before the deal closed, Nippon Steel Vice Chairman Takahiro Mori visited the Mon Valley complex several times to confirm the company’s interest in preserving American jobs and investing in the mill. The steelmaker later dispatched teams of engineers and other employees from Japan to begin work on the plant upgrades.

The cause of the explosion remains under investigation. Just before the blast, workers were preparing to do routine maintenance on the batteries of ovens that bake coal into coke.

Coke is essential for producing molten iron at U.S. Steel’s blast furnaces in Pennsylvania and Indiana. As part of the coking process, flammable compounds, such as methane, and other impurities are extracted from the coal under heat and pressure, leaving a carbon product behind.

The Clairton plant can produce 3.6 million tons of coke across its six batteries of ovens. The explosion knocked out two batteries, and two more near the blast area were temporarily taken down for repairs.

Emissions from coke plants have been a target for environmental groups for years, especially in Pittsburgh, which has been a hub of steel production for over a century.

U.S. Steel last year settled a lawsuit brought by environmental groups over emissions that stemmed from the 2018 Clairton plant fire. The settlement with the groups and the county included $19.5 million in coke-oven upgrades and $17.5 million in other plant improvements.

The company has said it regretted the incidents and believed the settlement would benefit communities near the mill.

Experts in the litigation provided descriptions of the Clairton plant’s condition.

In court filings, an engineering expert for environmental groups described plant inspections as “sporadic” and said that repairs were delayed by budget constraints. The expert cited an internal company email that mentioned examples of corrosion that included water-supply lines that were rotted “Coke-can thin.”

Do you think Nippon Steel will follow through with promised investments in U.S. Steel facilities? Join the conversation below.A county health department official described the plant in a 2020 deposition as “one of the most decrepit facilities I’ve ever seen in my nearly 30 years of work.”

Borkowski, 40, who works as a union-safety representative, said he thinks the company stays on top of maintenance “for the most part,” but acknowledged that the company needs promised investments from Nippon Steel.

“It’s an aging plant,” said Borkowski, a third-generation steelworker. “I just hope they stick to their word, and I hope they invest the money on the Mon Valley.”

FT : More than 100 big supermarkets at risk of closure from UK business rates ri

More than 100 big supermarkets at risk of closure from UK business rates rise
Dozens of larger stores will become unprofitable as a result of the higher property charges

More than 100 large stores run by the UK’s top supermarket chains are at risk of closure because of government plans to raise business rates, which would drive up costs for a sector already bearing the brunt of increased employment taxes.

Roughly 50 of Sainsbury’s 600 supermarkets will become unprofitable as a result of the higher property charges, according to people in the industry. For Tesco, the UK’s largest private sector employer, the changes would tip tens of stores into the red, according to a senior figure at the company.

Ministers are planning to increase business rates on properties with a rateable value of more than £500,000 — the top 1 per cent of retail stores.

The intention is that this will fund the government’s plan to change a temporary discount for smaller retail and hospitality businesses, those trading from premises with a rateable value of less than £500,000, into a permanent one. 

Sainsbury’s and Tesco, which generated net profits of £420mn and £1.2bn respectively last year, may be better able to weather the impact than their more heavily indebted rivals, Asda and Morrisons.

The changes will threaten the viability of 30 Morrisons supermarkets, out of a total of almost 500, although one insider said this would not necessarily mean those outlets closed as a result. Meanwhile, almost 90 per cent of Asda’s roughly 600 supermarkets would be affected by the business rate increases, said a person familiar with the company.

Supermarket executives have also been irked that Labour’s plans to increase rates will not impact Aldi and Lidl, which typically operate smaller, less valuable stores. 

Property experts at Colliers estimate less than 10 per cent of Lidl’s stores will be impacted by the proposed changes.

Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons all declined to comment.

Last year Morrisons chief executive Rami Baitiéh urged the government to stagger the “avalanche” of costs bearing down on retailers.

The sector, which employs 2.8mn people, has been hit disproportionately by rises in employers’ national insurance and the minimum wage. The new business rates levy for larger stores, which employ one in three retail workers, will be announced at the autumn Budget.

Business rates have long been a bugbear for bricks-and-mortar retailers, who complain that the property-based tax unfairly penalises them vis-à-vis their online counterparts.

The government, which has pledged to fundamentally reform the business rates system, contends that its proposals will increase the business rates take from the majority of the distribution centres used by “online giants” such as Amazon.

Industry lobby groups argue the government’s focus on large stores will penalise supermarkets and department stores, which can both help drive footfall to the high street.

Ken Murphy, chief executive of Tesco, said last month that “the reforms as proposed do not meet the original intention to rebalance the burden of business rates to be fairer and support town centres”.

“We are creating a fairer business rates system to protect the high street, support investment and level the playing field,” the Treasury said.

“We intend to introduce permanently lower tax rates for retail, hospitality, and leisure properties from next year. Unlike the current relief for these properties, there will be no cash cap on the new lower tax rates.”

FT : Initial tax data allays fears of non-dom exodus from UK

Initial tax data allays fears of non-dom exodus from UK
Officials had expected one in four with trusts to leave Britain after status was abolished

Fears of a massive non-dom exodus from the UK have been allayed by initial tax data, which suggests that total numbers leaving the country are in line with — or even below — official forecasts.

HM Revenue & Customs payroll data has found no evidence to suggest more non-doms left Britain in response to Rachel Reeves’ 2024 Budget than official predictions, according to people briefed on the findings.

The findings will be a relief to the chancellor after a series of surveys — based mainly on anecdotal evidence — suggested her tax policies had prompted huge numbers of wealthy individuals to flee the country.

Reeves was told by the Office for Budget Responsibility to expect 25 per cent of non-doms with trusts to quit the country in response to the crackdown on their tax status, which began under the Conservatives and intensified when Reeves became chancellor last year.

HMRC data now suggests this prediction is broadly correct, the people said — removing pressure on Reeves to reverse a Labour policy that is forecast to raise more than £4bn in 2026-27 and almost £6bn the following year.

“With all the things going on in the world, Britain looks like a pretty safe and stable place,” said a government official. “We’ve got a lot to market ourselves on.”

However, advisers to the wealthiest non-domiciled individuals have nevertheless reported significant departures. Robert Brodrick, a partner at law firm Payne Hicks Beach, said “the majority” of his non-dom clients who were paying or had previously paid the £90,000 annual fee to use the tax-favourable “remittance basis” had left the country. 

Provisional HMRC figures show there were 60,700 non-doms — people resident in Britain but with their permanent home outside the country — in the 2023-24 tax year. This was down 30 per cent on 2014-15.

Up until April, when the status was scrapped, these non-doms paid UK taxes on any UK income and capital gains, but this was not levied on foreign income or gains, unless brought into the country.

The OBR estimated in January that about one in 10 non-doms without trusts would leave the UK because of the decision to abolish the status, and end the ability of non-doms to shield foreign assets held in an offshore trust from inheritance tax. Among those with trusts, the estimate was that one in four would leave. 

Some of those briefed on the early HMRC data said the figures suggested that fewer people were leaving than projected by the OBR, while others said the departures were in line with forecasts.

One Reeves ally said: “We’ve seen no evidence that there’s been a change in the non-dom profile beyond what the OBR forecast.” This will be a relief to the chancellor, who is under pressure to fill a fiscal hole that some economists say is at least £20bn.

HMRC was drawing on payroll data, which businesses send to the tax office every month, to determine the trend of non-dom departures.

Most non-doms receive UK employment or pension income, meaning they are captured in official Pay as You Earn data. Tax officials can therefore track whether they have left the UK because they would have fallen off the latest PAYE figures.

Tax experts also said the Treasury would have more confidence in using payroll data now because more than 120 days had passed since the start of the tax year. In most cases, anyone who did not want to be considered UK tax resident would have left before spending 120 days of the current tax year, which began on April 6.

However non-doms who do not work in the UK may not be featured in the PAYE data, and HMRC will not have a full understanding of exactly how many have fled the reforms until January 2027 when individuals submit tax returns for the 2025-26 year. 

Reeves has considered retreating on one element of her non-dom tax reforms relating to inheritance tax, according to government officials, but will wait for full data to arrive before deciding whether to do so.

The decision to expose worldwide assets to IHT at 40 per cent has been highly contentious, and had sparked warnings of an exodus of wealthy people from the UK.

A widely cited report published in association with Henley & Partners, a consultancy that markets passports and residency permit schemes, was criticised for claiming that 16,500 millionaires would quit the country. Critics said it relied heavily on data from LinkedIn, which is not reliable for finding someone’s tax residence.

Financial Times analysis of Companies House filings this month showed a rise in the number of company directors, which would include both former non-doms and UK-domiciled people, who had left the UK since the Budget.

Some 3,790 directors reported leaving the UK between November 2024 and July this year, from 2,712 in the same period a year earlier. Dubai, which has no individual income or capital gains tax, has been a main beneficiary.

The Treasury said it was right for people who made their home in Britain to pay taxes here, but added: “The UK remains a highly attractive place to live and invest. Our main capital gains tax rate is lower than any other G7 European country and our new residence-based regime is simpler and more attractive than the previous one.”

FT : Saudi Arabia’s PIF makes $8bn writedown on value of flagship megaprojects

Saudi Arabia’s PIF makes $8bn writedown on value of flagship megaprojects
Developments such as futuristic Neom hit by budget overruns and lower oil prices

Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund has cut $8bn from the value of its holdings in the kingdom’s gigaprojects, including its flagship development Neom, as efforts to transform the domestic economy are hit by budget overruns and lower oil prices.

The Public Investment Fund, the main driver for Saudi Arabia’s economic transformation efforts, said its investments in Saudi gigaprojects were worth $56bn (SR211bn) at the end of 2024, 12.4 per cent lower than a year earlier. The writedown is equivalent to $8bn.

“There were impairments to certain projects primarily relating to global economic market conditions, changes to operational plans and increases in budgeted costs,” said a person familiar with the matter.

The PIF owns five so-called gigaprojects, including Neom, which is designed to include a linear city inspired by science fiction.

The projects are central to de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s plans to modernise the kingdom and diversify the economy to reduce its reliance on oil.

But Saudi officials have said the kingdom is taking stock of the ambitious projects, as lower oil prices weigh on state spending. Neom’s projects are under review, with many expected to be scaled back and phased out.

Elements of the $500bn Neom project have faced delays and challenges due to the scale and ambition of the development, which is being built from scratch in a remote area by the Red Sea.

While there has been robust growth in other sectors in recent years, the kingdom still relies on oil exports for more than 60 per cent of its revenue.

Ana Nacvalovaite, a research fellow at Oxford university who focuses on sovereign wealth funds, said that geopolitical turmoil and engineering challenges may have affected the PIF’s valuation of its gigaproject holdings. “I don’t think [PIF] are too worried about it, of course it’s a colossal sum of money . . . but there will be some losses before we hit 2030,” she said.

The fund disclosed the reduced valuations in its 2024 annual report, published on Wednesday. Gross assets under management rose to about $913bn, up 19 per cent from the end of 2023. The gigaprojects account for 6 per cent of the fund’s assets, down from 8 per cent in 2023.

The rise was driven partly by an increase in the PIF’s holdings of state oil company Aramco during 2024, when the Saudi government transferred an additional 8 per cent stake to the fund, bringing its shareholding up to 16 per cent.

More than a third of the PIF’s investments were in Saudi companies by the end of last year.

The holding in Aramco has been under severe pressure as low oil prices bite. Aramco’s shares have lost 14.3 per cent of their value since the start of the year and it has also cut dividends.

The PIF said that its average annual returns were 7.2 per cent in 2024, down from 8.7 per cent the previous year. Earlier this year, it reported that its net profits had dropped 60 per cent, with the fall driven by higher interest rates, inflation and impairments on projects.

Nacvalovaite pointed out that Norway’s sovereign wealth fund also reported losses last year, saying the PIF “does not stand alone”.

The kingdom’s economic modernisation programme, Vision 2030, transformed the PIF from a sleepy state holding company, used to investing in local companies, into a major player at home and abroad.

But the fund, once known for splashy bets on international golf tournaments and a Tesla rival, has scaled back the global portion of its overall holdings, preferring to focus its efforts domestically.

International investments accounted for 17 per cent of the PIF’s portfolio at the end of 2024, compared with 20 per cent a year earlier.

The IMF this month reported that the PIF and Aramco had both repatriated some of their foreign assets in 2024.

FT : Centrica frontrunner to buy National Grid’s LNG terminal in £1.5bn deal

Centrica frontrunner to buy National Grid’s LNG terminal in £1.5bn deal
British Gas owner and Energy Capital Partners in exclusive talks for import facility in the Thames estuary

Centrica and Energy Capital Partners are in exclusive talks to buy the UK’s largest liquefied natural gas import terminal in a roughly £1.5bn deal from its owner National Grid.

Centrica, the FTSE 100 owner of British Gas, is in negotiations to buy the Isle of Grain terminal, which National Grid is selling in order to focus on its core electricity networks, according to people familiar with the discussions.

Centrica has teamed up with Energy Capital Partners, a major investor in renewable energy that recently merged with the UK’s Bridgepoint, the people said.

A deal could be announced shortly, handing control of one of Britain’s main strategic energy assets to one of its largest household energy suppliers.

Centrica already owns the Rough gas storage site off the coast of Yorkshire, and has recently agreed to take a 15 per cent stake in the Sizewell C nuclear power plant being built in Suffolk.

The Isle of Grain gas import terminal, on the Thames estuary in Kent, is the largest LNG import terminal in Europe with capacity to process 15mn tonnes per year of gas, or about 20 per cent of the UK’s demand. 

The site has grown in importance in recent years as the UK and Europe have started to rely more heavily on shipments of gas from around the world to add to pipeline supplies. 

Import terminals have played an important role in the aftermath of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 when Europe and the UK began to import more shipments of gas from the US and elsewhere to make up for lower Russian supplies.

National Grid said in March 2024 it planned to sell the site as well as its US onshore renewables arm in order to focus on its electricity networks business. It started the formal divestment process in April.

CKI Infrastructure Holdings, the Hong Kong-listed global infrastructure conglomerate, was previously reported to be a frontrunner for the site. However, it dropped out, people familiar with the process said.

Omers, one of Canada’s largest pension funds, had also been among the bidders but is no longer involved, the people added.

Centrica, National Grid, Energy Capital Partners, Omers and CKI declined to comment.

FT : Donald Trump says he has ‘three or four’ candidates in mind to lead the Fed

Donald Trump says he has ‘three or four’ candidates in mind to lead the Federal Reserve
US president signals he could name ‘shadow chair’ before Jay Powell leaves central bank

Donald Trump said he had cut his Federal Reserve chair shortlist to “three or four” candidates and left the door open to naming a shadow successor before Jay Powell departs.

The president said on Wednesday that he had a small handful of contenders in mind who would be “great” in the role, even as the US Treasury confirmed plans to interview 11 candidates.

Trump did not provide names but the three front-runners for the job are National Economic Council chair Kevin Hassett, former Fed governor Kevin Warsh, and incumbent Fed governor Christopher Waller.

The list of candidates to be quizzed by Treasury secretary Scott Bessent features many names who are seen as long shots to become Trump’s nominee, including David Zervos, chief market strategist at Jefferies.

Former Fed governor and National Economic Council chair Larry Lindsey and BlackRock’s bond chief Rick Rieder were also candidates, according to a senior Treasury official. Those names were first reported by CNBC.

Trump has bashed Powell throughout his second term, labelling the Fed chair a “numbskull” and a “moron” over his refusal to cut interest rates. Powell’s term as chair is set to end in May 2026.

In his comments on Wednesday, the president reiterated those criticisms and said that he planned to name Powell’s replacement “a little bit early”.

Trump wants borrowing costs cut from their current level of 4.25 per cent to 4.5 per cent to 1 per cent. But Powell has said Trump’s trade war has halted a rate-cutting cycle that began in 2024, over fears that it might push up prices.

A grim jobs report and a cool inflation reading for July have raised the prospect of a 0.25 percentage point cut in September, with administration officials — including Bessent — pushing for a jumbo half point move.

Other candidates who are on the list but are seen as unlikely to get the job include Fed vice-chairs Michelle Bowman and Philip Jefferson; Lorie Logan, the head of the Dallas Fed; James Bullard, the former head of the St Louis Fed; and Marc Sumerlin, a former economic adviser to president George W Bush, who was in the race for chair when Powell was nominated in 2017.

Bowman, a Trump appointee, backed a 0.25 percentage point cut at the Fed’s July vote, but has a background in banking supervision rather than monetary policy. Jefferson has more economics pedigree but was nominated by former president Joe Biden.

Bullard told CNBC on Tuesday that the Fed needed to cut rates now and should be on track to lower borrowing costs by a full percentage point by the middle of next year.

FT : Surge in ‘money mules’ raises concern at UK financial watchdog

Surge in ‘money mules’ raises concern at UK financial watchdog
Sharp rise in number of people letting criminals use their bank account to launder funds

More than 225,000 people were identified as “money mules” for letting criminals use their accounts to launder funds last year, raising concerns at the UK financial watchdog after a 23 per cent increase from a year earlier.

The Financial Conduct Authority said it recognised the “scale of the challenge” in tackling the fast-growing problem of money mules and their pivotal role in enabling the rise in fraud — which rose to a record 45 per cent of all UK crime in the year to March.

The watchdog told the Financial Times it surveyed 37 of the biggest banks and payment companies and found they had closed the accounts of 226,957 people identified as money mules last year — up from 184,935 a year earlier.

Andrea Bowe, a director at the FCA overseeing its work on fraud and financial crime, said the watchdog was working with financial firms, law enforcement and international counterparts. The regulator is also eager for tech companies to do more, given recruitment of mules often happens on social media, she said.

“We recognise the scale of the challenge in tackling fraud generally, which is why fighting financial crime is one of the pillars of the new strategy announced this year by the FCA,” she said.

Research due to be released on Thursday by the Royal United Services Institute, a security think-tank, has found money mules are playing a “significant role” in enabling fraud to become “a national security threat, undermining the rule of law and threatening the financial sector”.

The RUSI research, based on data from Lloyds Banking Group, urged financial services companies to share more real-time data to tackle the problem, particularly as more than half of funds received by money mules is paid out within an hour.

Fintechs and digital banks are particularly exposed to the risk of money mules, the research found. RUSI said banking-as-a-service (BaaS) companies that provide payment or lending services to other fintechs were particularly exposed — receiving 10 per cent of payments it tracked from money mule accounts.

“New entrants to the market, such as BaaS providers, also appear to be being exploited by fraudsters,” RUSI said. “This calls for a robust regulatory response.”

The Lloyds data showed that 57 per cent of the funds flowing through money mule accounts exited via the UK’s Faster Payment system to other accounts and 20 per cent by value went to a single digital finance firm, which was unidentified.

About 10 per cent of the funds were withdrawn from money mule accounts in cash via ATMs or branches, RUSI said, while nearly a fifth went on debit card payments, including some to international money transfer companies. A much smaller amount, less than 1 per cent, went to cryptocurrency exchanges.

“While it has been known about for many years, there are signs that the number of money mules is growing,” said Kathryn Westmore, senior research fellow at RUSI. “It is generally like a game of whack-a-mole, where you tackle it in one area and it pops up in another.”

However, despite rising concern about the issue, there has been a sharp fall in the number of money mules being reported to the UK national fraud database, which can result in the person being blocked from opening another bank account for six years.

The number of money mules reported to Cifas, the fraud prevention agency, fell 17 per cent in the first half of this year to 16,017, compared to the same period a year ago. This was almost entirely due to a 34 per cent drop in filings of money mules aged under 21 and a 19 per cent drop in those aged 21 to 30.

Industry experts say the sharp drop in money mule reporting reflects calls by the authorities for financial firms to treat vulnerable customers better instead of any reduction in fraud or in the targeting of young people to launder funds.

“The key driver here is very large regulated entities responding to changing guidance from a regulator — that is borne out in the significant drop in filings relating to younger people,” said Simon Miller, director of policy, strategy and communications at Cifas.

The government said last year it would work with banks and local authorities to ensure “vulnerable or exploited people” were not removed from the banking system. The FCA this year urged firms to improve how they treat customers in vulnerable circumstances.

Miller said the drop in filings could also partly reflect a change in Cifas reporting rules to avoid banks filing cases where they only suspect someone of being a money mule rather than having evidence they were complicit — but this was thought to have only had a marginal effect.

He added that more money mules were being trained by their recruiters in what to tell banks when they are questioned, which may have contributed to the lower number of filings. More people are handing over their identities to allow fraudsters to open separate accounts in their name.

Ben Donaldson, managing director for economic crime at trade body UK Finance, said many money mules were tricked or coerced into it without knowing it is a crime for which they could be imprisoned, even though few are convicted. “I don’t think we can say all mules are victims but certainly many mules are victims, so it’s a complicated problem,” he said.

>>> US After Hours Summary: CSCO +0.8% ticks higher on earnings; DLO +21.1% also

After Hours Summary: CSCO +0.8% ticks higher on earnings; DLO +21.1% also higher on earnings; IBTA -21.6%, NOA -16.4%, COHR -16.1% lower on earnings

After Hours Gainers:

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: DLO +21.1% (also names new CFO), KE +12%, SPIR +1.3%, CSCO +0.8%

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to news: VSTM +11.2% (abstract from study in China of GFH375), IMRX +5% (files for $300 mln mixed securities shelf offering), KBR +2.6% (awarded $2.459 bln NASA contract), KMPR +1.1% (enters into $150 mln accelerated share repurchase transaction), ELVN +1% (files mixed securities shelf offering), HOOD +0.6% (reports July operating data), SRPT +0.4% (ARWR to receive $100 mln milestone payment in form of ARWR shares and cash from SRPT)

After Hours Losers:

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: IBTA -21.6%, NOA -16.4%, COHR -16.1% (also to sell Aerospace and Defense business to private equity firm for $400 mln), AFYA -11.5% (also authorizes new 4 mln share repurchase program), SARO -3.9%, BOC -3.8%

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to news: LUNR -10% ($250 mln convertible notes offering), BSGM -8.7% (stock offering), DOV -3.8% (Bulloch POS system now available in US), KVYO -3.8% (6.5 mln share offering commenced by selling shareholders), ARWR -2% (ARWR to receive $100 mln milestone payment in form of ARWR shares and cash from SRPT), CIEN -1.6% (in sympathy with CSCO earnings), LITE -1% (in sympathy with CSCO earnings), REZI -0.8% (makes $1.59 bln cash payment to HON to complete previously announced transaction), GMRE -0.5% (approves $50 mln share repurchase program and 1-for-5 reverse stock split), AVGO -0.2% (in sympathy with CSCO earnings), HELE -0.1% (names new CEO), GOOG -0.1% (announces additional $9 bln investment in Oklahoma in cloud and AI infrastructure), LMT -0.1% (awarded a $720 mln modification to US Army contract)