Top stories of the morning: US shutdown ended, BP is going to sell an important asset

The US ended a record 43-day shutdown, which caused tangible damage to the country's economy and became a cause for political conflicts on the eve of the next budget round. BP is negotiating the sale of Castrol for $8 billion as part of a major restructuring and divestment plan. These and other topics - in our review of key events by the morning of November 13.

Donald Trump signed legislation ending a record 43-day shutdown that halted food benefits, canceled thousands of flights and left federal employees without paychecks, Bloomberg reports. The government is reopening, but recovery could take weeks, with air carriers, government agencies and states warning of delays in restarting programs including food stamps and the release of economic statistics. The economic damage is noticeable, the agency notes: according to the Congressional Budget Office, the shutdown reduced U.S. GDP growth in the current quarter by 1.5 percentage points.

The political standoff ended when Republicans agreed to temporary funding through Jan. 30 without securing key concessions from Democrats on extending Obamacare subsidies. Intra-party divisions among Democrats intensified, with some senators supporting the compromise, angering the progressive wing. A new round of conflicts is possible as early as January, as the issues of health care and the structure of budget expenditures remain unresolved.

BP is in talks with investment firm Stonepeak about the possible sale of its Castrol unit, a key asset valued at about $8 billion, sources told Reuters. Stonepeak and One Rock had earlier submitted bids for the purchase, but it is unclear whether talks are still ongoing with a second bidder.

The sale of Castrol became a part of BP's large-scale plan on divestments for $20 bln and revision of its strategic course after the company's decision to weaken its focus on "green" projects and concentrate on increasing profits. According to the agency's interlocutors, interest in the asset is high. The sale of Castrol fits in with the company's efforts to simplify its structure, increase returns from its oil and gas business and reduce costs - also under pressure from investors, including activist fund Elliott.

Cisco reported better-than-forecast quarterly results: revenue grew 8% to $14.88 billion, earnings per share amounted to $1, while the expected 98 cents, CNBC reports. Growth was driven primarily by its core networking business, where sales increased 15% and also beat estimates. The company is actively linking its strategy to investments in artificial intelligence: orders for AI infrastructure from major cloud customers reached $1.3 billion amid accelerating demand.

In the second quarter, Cisco forecasts revenues of up to $15.2 billion, which is above consensus, and expects further growth due to upgrades in networking solutions. However, a number of areas remain weaker: sales in the security and collaboration segments declined and fell short of analysts' expectations. For the full year, Cisco raised its forecast, assuming revenue of $61 billion and earnings per share of $4.14.

Singapore's central bank (MAS) plans to test the issuance of digital versions of its short-term government bonds (MAS bills) next year, as well as introduce a law to regulate stablecoins, Yahoo Finance reports. The MAS chief said such assets are gaining popularity but have yet to become mainstream, so the new rules will focus on secure backing and guaranteed exchangeability. The regulator is also backing trials under the BLOOM initiative, which tests how tokenized bank obligations and regulated steblecoins can be used for fast and secure settlements.

Singapore's three largest banks - DBS, OCBC and UOB - have already conducted the first real interbank overnight lending transactions using the central bank's digital wholesale currency (CBDC). MAS is now expanding the testing - it will also cover the settlement of tokenized MAS bills via CBDC. Guidance on the regulation of tokenized financial instruments will be released this week, and Singapore intends to coordinate approaches with overseas regulators to accelerate the adoption of such technologies.

- Japan's broad Topix index was up 0.54 percent, while the Nikkei 225 was up 0.28 percent.

- Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was little changed, while mainland China's CSI 300 Index added 0.85%.

- In South Korea, the Kospi index was up 0.51% and the Kosdaq was up 1.15%.

- Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.52%.

- S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures added about 0.2 percent, while Nasdaq Composite exchange-traded contracts added 0.3 percent

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor