(Reuters) -Walmart Inc will cut more than 2,000 jobs at five U.S. e-commerce warehouses, Bloomberg reported on Monday.

The layoffs include more than 1,000 roles at a warehouse in Fort Worth, Texas, along with 600 jobs at a Pennsylvania fulfillment center, 400 in Florida and 200 in New Jersey, the report said citing regulatory filings, with additional reductions planned in California.

Walmart did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Reuters reported on March 23 that hundreds of workers at five Walmart facilities that fulfill e-commerce orders were being asked to find jobs within 90 days at other company locations.

(Reporting by Jyoti Narayan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)

By Jihoon Lee

SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s consumer inflation eased to a one-year low in March, led by weaker oil prices, but a range of issues including worries about global growth, monetary policy and decisions by major oil producers have clouded the outlook.

The consumer price index was 4.2% higher in March than a year earlier, compared with gains of 4.8% in February and a 4.3% forecast in a Reuters survey. It was the slowest annual rise since March 2022.

The index rose 0.2% on a monthly basis, after a 0.3% gain in the previous month, according to the Statistics Korea. It matched economists’ expectation for a 0.2% rise.

The softening comes as worries about the global banking sector and local economic prospects have prompted investors to increase their bets that the South Korean central bank’s tightening cycle is over.

The Bank of Korea (BOK) said after the data release that inflation is likely to ease further, but remain higher than the central bank’s 2% target throughout the year, while core inflation would cool at a slower pace.

The BOK said there was heightened uncertainty over global energy prices, world and domestic economic trends, and public cost increases.

Saudi Arabia and other OPEC+ oil producers on Sunday announced further oil output cuts of around 1.16 million barrels per day, catching markets offguard and sharply lifting prices.

“It is definitely a variable, which may cause downward rigidity in oil prices,” said economist Oh Chang-sob at Hyundai Motor Securities.

Overall, slowing global growth, a delay in public utility price increases and the surprise weekend decision by OPEC+ to cut oil production have added to broader uncertainty around the economy and inflation.

A breakdown of the Tuesday’s data showed prices of petroleum products were 14.2% lower in March than a year before, contributing to the slower inflation. Livestock products also fell 1.5%.

The data comes a week before the April 11 policy meeting of the Bank of Korea, whose pause in late February after a year of successive interest rate hikes was widely taken as suggesting the end of its tightening cycle.

(Reporting by Jihoon Lee; Editing by Choonsik Yoo, Tom Hogue and Shri Navaratnam)

By Jamie McGeever

(Reuters) – A look at the day ahead in Asian markets from Jamie McGeever.

Australia’s central bank takes center stage on Tuesday with its latest interest rate decision, and beyond that, if the second trading day of the quarter is as eventful as the first, then investors’ plates will be extra full.

Oil prices posted the biggest rise in a year on Monday following a surprise output cut from OPEC+ over the weekend, a slump in U.S. bond yields in the wake of recession-level manufacturing sector data and a steep slide in Tesla shares after sluggish sales growth figures.

Wall Street took the ‘bad news is good news’ position on that, however: lower yields and implied interest rates, coupled with buoyant energy stocks, ensured the Dow and S&P 500 closed in the green – the Dow rising 1%.

Tesla’s 6% slump dragged the Nasdaq into the red, but the broader index’s decline was still only 0.27%.

Not only did U.S. manufacturing activity in March shrink at its fastest pace in nearly three years, all components of the Institute for Supply Management’s survey fell below the 50 growth/contraction threshold for the first time since 2009.

The renewed fall in U.S. Treasury yields – they fell five to ten basis points across the curve on Monday – continued to weigh on the dollar.

The biggest gainer on the greenback was the Australian dollar – up 1.5% for its best day in three months – ahead of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s policy decision on Tuesday.

Graphic: Australian dollar – daily change – https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/zjvqjnxwjpx/RBA.jpg

Graphic: Australian interest rates and inflation – https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/xmvjkbzrlpr/AUD.png

Interest rate futures markets are attaching a near-90% probability to policymakers keeping the benchmark cash rate unchanged at 3.60%, putting the year-long hiking cycle on hold at least for now.

Economists polled by Reuters are not quite as convinced – 21 of 37 are forecasting a 25 basis point increase to 3.85%, and the remaining 14 are going for a pause.

Elsewhere in Asia on Tuesday, South Korea releases inflation figures for March. Economists polled by Reuters expect monthly and annual inflation rates to slow.

Japan’s monetary base has exploded beyond all recognition in recent years thanks to significant monetary stimulus and injections of liquidity into the financial system from the Bank of Japan, so the monthly figures rarely draw much attention.

That might change with the March numbers on Tuesday though, in light of U.S. figures last week that showed U.S. money supply falling at its fastest rate since the 1930s.

Japan’s monetary base has actually been shrinking every month since September, on a year-on-year basis.

Here are three key developments that could provide more direction to markets on Tuesday:

– Australia interest rate decision

– South Korea inflation (March)

– Japan monetary base (March)

(By Jamie McGeever; Editing by Josie Kao)

By Dawn Chmielewski and Lisa Richwine

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -Walt Disney Co Chief Executive Bob Iger fired back at Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis on Monday, saying his apparent retaliation against Disney for taking a position on legislation was “anti-business.”

After initially trying to stay neutral, Disney opposed Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act – referred to by opponents as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill – that restricts classroom discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity.

Soon after, DeSantis and the Florida legislature moved to eliminate the virtual autonomy the company enjoyed over a 24,000-acre (9,712-hectares) parcel surrounding the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando.

Iger, answering a question at the company’s annual shareholder meeting, said Disney may not have handled its position on the bill well, but added that corporations have a right to express opinions. He said it appeared DeSantis “decided to retaliate against us.”

“To seek to punish a company for the exercise of a constitutional right, that just seems really wrong to me,” Iger said.

He also noted that Disney employs 75,000 people in the state and will welcome 50 million visitors to Disney World this year. Iger said Disney plans to deepen its investment in Florida, spending $17 billion over the next decade and creating an additional 13,000 jobs.

“These efforts simply to retaliate for a position the company took sounds not just anti-business, but it sounds anti-Florida,” Iger said.

In February, Florida lawmakers supported a bill that granted DeSantis effective control of a board that oversees development in the special taxation district. The governor signed the bill into law, and named five supervisors to have oversight where Disney had operated with a high degree of autonomy.

Before the takeover by DeSantis’ appointees, Disney pushed through changes to limit the board’s action for decades. On Monday, DeSantis asked Florida’s inspector general to investigate what he described as a last-minute attempt by Disney and the outgoing board to “usurp the authority” of the new board.

“These collusive and self-dealing arrangements aim to nullify the recently passed legislation, undercut Florida’s legislative process, and defy the will of Floridians,” DeSantis wrote in a letter seen by Reuters.

At the Disney shareholder meeting, one attendee said the company has evolved from “a place of magic for children” to an “ideological company serving the LGBTQ” community that promoted a “woke agenda.”

Iger said he was sensitive to that criticism.

“Our primary mission needs to be to entertain … and to have a positive impact on the world,” he said. “I’m very serious about that. It should not be agenda-driven.”

Iger said he was aware that “parents have different levels of comfort” with Disney content, adding “we’re committed to delivering age-appropriate content for family audiences, while also telling stories that reflect the world around us and that foster a greater understanding, greater perspective, greater acceptance of all people.”

Disney shareholders supported the 11 nominees to the company’s board including Iger and Chairman Mark Parker, the executive chairman of Nike and its former CEO who replaces the retiring chairman, Susan Arnold at Disney. 

Shareholders rejected a proposal that called for Disney to provide an annual report on its reliance on China for raw materials, finished products, theme park revenue and labor.

They also turned down a shareholder proposal asking the company to provide more information on charitable contributions.

(Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Bill Berkrot)