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Oil producer APA explores $1-billion sale of Permian assets, sources say

APA Corp is exploring the sale of oil and gas drilling properties spread across parts of the Permian basin of Texas and New Mexico, in a deal that could be valued at about $1 billion, people familiar with the matter told Reuters. APA, which owns the properties through its Apache subsidiary, is working with investment bankers at RBC Richardson Barr and Truist Securities on the sale process, the sources said, requesting anonymity as the discussions are confidential. The drilling assets are in different sub-sections of the Permian Basin, namely the Northwest Shelf, the Northern Shelf, and the Central Basin Platform in New Mexico and Texas.

Fed to deliver three 25 quarter-point rate cuts this year; recession unlikely: Reuters poll

The U.S. Federal Reserve will cut interest rates by 25 basis points at each of the remaining three meetings of 2024, one more reduction than predicted last month, according to a slim majority of economists polled by Reuters who said a recession is unlikely. The change in Fed rate cut calls follows a weaker-than-expected July U.S. jobs report, which encouraged interest rate futures traders to price in as much as 120 basis points of reductions in 2024 earlier this month. Although some Fed officials have hinted rate cuts are coming, most economists in the Aug. 14-19 Reuters poll were not expecting a rapid series of rate cuts.

Fed's pandemic-era vow to prioritize employment may soon be tested

Four years after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell made fighting unemployment a bigger priority during the COVID-19 pandemic, he faces a pivotal test of that commitment amid rising joblessness, mounting evidence inflation is under control, and a benchmark interest rate that is still the highest in a quarter of a century. High interest rates may be on the way out, with the U.S. central bank expected to deliver a first cut at its Sept. 17-18 meeting and Powell potentially providing more information about the approach to the policy easing in a speech on Friday at the Kansas City Fed's annual conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. But with the Fed's policy rate in the 5.25%-5.50% range for more than a year, the impact of relatively high borrowing costs on the economy may still be building and could take time to unwind even if the central bank starts cutting - a dynamic that could put hopes for a "soft landing" of controlled inflation alongside continued low unemployment at risk.