By Ross Kerber

(Reuters) -New York pension officials on Monday said they will support shareholder resolutions filed at major banks seeking quick cuts to financing of new fossil fuel development, pushing climate issues to the fore of another springtime shareholder meeting season.

Shareholders should support resolutions filed at Bank of America Corp, Goldman Sachs Group Inc and four other banks “in order to mitigate the systemic risks posed by unfettered climate change,” according to a statement sent by a representative of New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, who oversees some $280 billion in retirement assets.

Backing from the third-largest U.S. public retirement system will boost prospects of the resolutions from green-minded investors including the Sierra Club Foundation and Trillium Asset Management.

Effectively, the nonbinding proposals call for banks to end development of new fossil fuel projects in line with calls this year from global watchdog the International Energy Agency (IEA).

So far, banks have opposed the resolutions. In a securities filing Bank of America said its board “believes the policy requested by the proposal is unnecessary in light of our commitment to financing a low-carbon environment, our robust risk management programs and policies, and our net zero commitment.”

Goldman Sachs said in another filing that given its investments in decarbonization and transition finance, its stakeholders “are better served by our engagement, not our divestment.”

Influential proxy adviser Glass Lewis so far has recommended investors vote “against” the resolutions, saying the banks have been responsive to climate concerns.

In another report Glass Lewis also wrote that expanded fossil fuel development is likely as result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Shareholders may be reluctant to limit Bank of America’s ability to participate in such projects in the current geopolitical context,” Glass Lewis said.

(Reporting by Ross Kerber; Editing by Leslie Adler and David Gregorio)

By Herbert Lash

NEW YORK – Global stock markets fell on Monday, pulled lower by technology shares in Europe and on Wall Street, as U.S. Treasury yields jumped ahead of inflation data that could prompt the Federal Reserve to tighten policy enough to slow a rebounding economy.

The euro rose against the dollar to snap a seven-day losing streak as the single currency rallied after French leader Emmanuel Macron beat far-right challenger Marine Le Pen in France’s first round of presidential voting on Sunday.

The dollar held just below almost two-year highs against a basket of currencies and strengthened against the Japanese yen, up 0.88%, and versus the commodity currencies – the Canadian, Australian and New Zealand dollars.

The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasuries rose more than 7 basis points to 2.793%, the highest level since January 2019.

Yields have surged in anticipation of Fed rate hikes, which Dec Mullarkey, managing director of investment strategy and asset allocation at SLC Management, expects to be by 50 basis points at each of the Fed’s next three policy meetings.

“The Fed is going to move aggressively. The market has appropriately priced it in,” Mullarkey said.

“They don’t want to be an issue in the midterms,” Mullarkey added, referring to elections in November that will determine whether Republicans can wrest control from President Joe Biden’s Democrats in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. “They also do not want to be in the position where they don’t have inflation under control.”

Economists polled by Reuters forecast the U.S. consumer price index (CPI) on Tuesday would post an 8.4% year-over-year increase in March. Separately, they also saw the probability of a recession next year at 40%.

Technology shares, which have been underpinned by record low interest rates, fell 2% in Europe and 2.6% on Wall Street.

MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe closed down 1.33% and the pan-European STOXX 600 index slid 0.59% as regional bourses fell with the exception of France’s CAC 40.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.19%, the S&P 500 lost 1.69% and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.18%. All 11 S&P 500 sectors fell.

Volatility gripped French blue chips on the outlook for a tight Macron-Le Pen race in the final round of voting. French assets have underperformed as markets are uneasy about Le Pen’s agenda of protectionism, tax cuts and nationalization.

The CAC 40 index, which is off 1.5% so far in April as the STOXX 600 gains about 0.4%, closed up 0.12%.

“I don’t expect the French equity markets to rally until we have the second round – we expect a lot of volatility and range-bound trading,” said Mathieu Racheter, head of equity strategy at Julius Baer. “It is really a close call in the runoff.”

Overnight in Asia, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 1.6% and the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo slid 0.61%.

Oil prices dropped by $4 a barrel, with Brent tumbling below $100 on plans to release record volumes of crude from strategic reserves and on continuing COVID-19 lockdowns in China.

U.S. crude futures fell $3.97 to settle at $94.29 a barrel while Brent settled down $4.30 at $98.48.

Palladium steadied after jumping as much as 5% on supply concerns following a recent suspension on trading of the metal sourced from Russia in the London metals hub, while gold was buoyed by inflation fears.

U.S. gold futures settled up 0.1% at $1,948.20 an ounce.

Bitcoin fell 5.66% to $39,748.60.

China’s inflation figures surprised on the high side on Monday although they were still relatively modest at 1.5% year-on-year in March.

But that still saw yields on China’s 10-year government bonds fall below U.S. Treasury yields for the first time in 12 years on Monday.

GRAPHIC: US-China https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/myvmnqlakpr/us-china.JPG

(Reporting by Herbert Lash, additional reporting by Samuel Indyk and Elizabeth Howcroft in London, Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Philippa Fletcher, Angus MacSwan, Will Dunham and David Gregorio)

By Eva Mathews and Krystal Hu

(Reuters) -Private equity firm Thoma Bravo will acquire SailPoint Technologies for $6.12 billion, the cybersecurity firm said on Monday, in the latest deal that underscores the heightened interest in the security software market.

In buying Austin, Texas-based SailPoint, Thoma Bravo will bolster its strength in the security-focused space, where it already has key investments in firms including Proofpoint Inc, Barracuda Networks and Sophos.

Shares of SailPoint, founded in 2005, closed at $64.05 on Monday, a 29% jump from Friday.

Cybersecurity has been a hot sector for buyouts thanks to a COVID-19 pandemic-led shift to remote working as well as the Russian invasion of Ukraine that has led to a spike in cyberattacks. Datto, a security solutions provider, has also been taken private in a $6.2 billion deal by investors led by Insight Partners on Monday.

Thoma Bravo, which manages more than $103 billion in assets, was the majority stakeholder in SailPoint prior to its initial public offering in 2017. It exited from its position by the end of 2018.

SailPoint shareholders will receive $65.25 per share in cash, the company said on Monday, representing a premium of 31.6% as of Friday close. Including debt, the deal is valued at about $6.9 billion.

Sources said the deal could help SailPoint accelerate its transition to a software as a service (SaaS) model without the scrutiny of being a public company, and fund potential transformative acquisitions with the dry powder from Thoma Broavo.

SailPoint’s Chief Executive Officer Mark McClain said the go-private deal, expected to close in the second half of this year, would allow the company to pursue long-term growth with greater flexibility and expand their markets on the back of additional capital from the private equity firm.

“We’re about 10% penetrated in our target market. We have a lot of room to grow in terms of what we add to our portfolio,” McClain said.

SailPoint specializes in software related to identity and access management that helps businesses mitigate unwanted user access and reduce the risk of sensitive data leakage. SailPoint shares had lost about 9.2% in 2021.

(Reporting by Eva Mathews in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber and Will Dunham)

By Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) – Daily Journal Corp, the publishing and software company where Warren Buffett’s business partner Charlie Munger helps oversee investments and until recently was chairman, on Monday said it halved its investment in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.

In a regulatory filing, the Los Angeles-based company said it owned 300,000 of Alibaba’s American depositary shares (“ADS”)worth $32.6 million as of March 31, down from 602,060 shares at the end of 2021.

The reduction essentially reversed Daily Journal’s trading activity in last year’s fourth quarter, when its Alibaba stake nearly doubled in size.

The price of Alibaba’s ADS has fallen 15% this year, and 68% from its October 2020 peak.

Daily Journal did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company publishes newspapers and provides software to courthouses.

Munger, 98, had been Daily Journal’s chairman for 45 years before stepping down last month.

Daily Journal said he would remain a director and focus on matters he has worked on, including its securities portfolio. Munger is better known for his work at Berkshire, where he has been vice chairman since 1978 and helps the 91-year-old Buffett allocate capital.

Long bullish on China, Munger spearheaded Berkshire’s approximately 7% stake in electric car maker BYD Co.

At Daily Journal’s annual meeting in February, Munger lamented recent deterioration in relations between the United States and China.

“They should like us and we should like them,” he said.

Most of the rest of Daily Journal’s securities portfolio is in Bank of America Corp, which is also a major Berkshire investment, and Wells Fargo & Co.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Bernard Orr)

By Kate Abnett and Alex Lawler

BRUSSELS/LONDON -OPEC told the European Union on Monday that current and future sanctions on Russia could create one of the worst ever oil supply shocks and it would be impossible to replace those volumes, and signalled it would not pump more.

European Union officials held talks in Vienna with representatives of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries amid calls for the group to increase output and as the EU considers potential sanctions on Russian oil.

“We could potentially see the loss of more than 7 million barrels per day (bpd) of Russian oil and other liquids exports, resulting from current and future sanctions or other voluntary actions,” OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo said, according to a copy of his speech seen by Reuters.

“Considering the current demand outlook, it would be nearly impossible to replace a loss in volumes of this magnitude.”

The European Union reiterated its call in the meeting for oil-producing countries to look at whether they can increase deliveries to help cool soaring oil prices, a European Commission official told Reuters.

EU representatives also pointed out that OPEC has a responsibility to ensure balanced oil markets, the official said.

OPEC has resisted calls by the United States and the International Energy Agency to pump more crude to cool prices, which reached a 14-year peak last month after Washington and Brussels imposed sanctions on Moscow following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In the meeting with OPEC, the EU said OPEC could provide more production from its spare capacity, according to an OPEC document seen by Reuters.

Still, Barkindo said the current highly volatile market was a result of “non-fundamental factors” outside OPEC’s control, in a signal the group would not pump more.

OPEC+, which consists of OPEC and other producers including Russia, will raise output by about 432,000 barrels per day in May, as part of a gradual unwinding of output cuts made during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The EU-OPEC meeting on Monday afternoon was the latest in a dialogue launched between the two sides in 2005.

Russian oil has been excluded from EU sanctions so far. But after the 27-country bloc agreed last week to sanction Russian coal – its first to target energy supplies – some senior EU officials said oil could be next.

The European Commission is drafting proposals for an oil embargo on Russia, the foreign ministers of Ireland, Lithuania and the Netherlands said on Monday at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg, although there was no agreement to ban Russian crude.

Australia, Canada and the United States, who are less reliant on Russian supply than Europe, have already banned Russian oil purchases.

EU countries are split over whether to follow suit, given their higher dependency and the potential for the move to push up already high energy prices in Europe.

The EU expects its oil use to decrease 30% by 2030, from 2015 levels, under its planned policies to fight climate change – though in the short term, an embargo would trigger a dash to replace Russian oil with alternative supplies.

(Reporting by Kate Abnett; Editing by Mike Harrison and Susan Fenton)