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Oct 8 (Reuters) – PepsiCo cut its annual core profit forecast on Thursday, as inflation-weary consumers pared spending on its snacks and beverages, particularly in North America, while higher input costs continued to pressure margins. Consumer packaged goods makers such as PepsiCo, General Mills, McCormick and Conagra Brands are navigating a tricky environment where surging input costs are straining margins, while cautious spending amid rising gas prices is hurting demand. The company expects fiscal 2026 core earnings per share after adjusting for currency fluctuations to rise 1% to 2%, compared with its prior forecast of low-end of 4% to 6% rise. It also expects annual organic revenue to be up about 3%, compared with the prior forecast of between 2% and 4%. (Reporting by Anuja Bharat Mistry in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur) Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

By P.J. Huffstutter CHICAGO, Oct 8 (Reuters) – American farmers are borrowing more money than ever before to operate — but the rise in non-traditional and vendor credit has created some gaps in the federal government’s current ability to measure and track farm debt, US Department of Agriculture officials told Reuters. Financial pressure is mounting across farm country, where growers have already faced years of tight margins due to slumping prices and high input costs. More recently, farmers have struggled with disruptions to export markets from Washington’s trade fights with top buyers including China, while the US-Israeli war with Iran has driven up the cost of fertilizer and fuel. As farm bankruptcy filings have climbed, some banks have tightened credit, prompting growers to seek money elsewhere. Inflation-adjusted US farm debt has more than doubled since 2000, rising from about $300 billion to more than $605 billion this year, a record, according to the latest USDA estimates. But that figure may understate how much farmers owe, Reuters found. Farmers are increasingly borrowing from suppliers, farmer cooperatives, equipment manufacturers, financial technology firms and other nontraditional lenders that are more difficult for the government to comprehensively measure. The USDA is launching research projects to better track that debt, and to understand whether financial stress in agriculture could be affecting the broader economy, officials said. “There are new lenders popping up and we need to find ways to access that data,” Jeffrey Hopkins, acting assistant administrator at USDA’s Economic Research Service, told Reuters. Jenny Ifft, a Kansas State University agricultural finance professor currently working on a research project with USDA studying non-traditional farm lenders, estimates there could be two to three times as much debt as what USDA reports in its “individual and others” category, which the agency pegged at $45 billion in 2025. Such suppliers of vendor credit include Minnesota-based dairy company Land O’Lakes, one of the largest US agricultural cooperatives, which offers credit lines for farmers. Its financing arm has grown from roughly $100 million last fall in committed loans, or lines of credit typically issued to help producers cover operating costs, to more than $1 billion for crop year 2027, Chief Executive Beth Ford said on Tuesday at the Economic Club of New York. To gather vendor credit data, USDA is cross-checking farmer surveys against USDA Farm Service Agency loan records and funding research examining the size of the non-traditional lending market, among other efforts, Hopkins said. The agency hopes for results within two years.   ‘SPILLOVER EFFECTS’ This past season, roughly half of all US commercial farms relied on vendor or non-traditional lenders to cover their operational expenses, up about 10% from a year earlier, said Wesley Davis, a partner at Meridian Agribusiness Advisors, an agricultural economics firm.  As a result, the USDA is looking at “whether there are potential areas that could have spillover effects to the rest of the economy,” Hopkins said. He pointed to past periods, such as the subprime mortgage crisis of 2007-2010, which rippled through the broader economy, and limited data made it difficult to distinguish healthy from troubled debt. Historically, USDA measures farm debt from data that banks, Farm Credit institutions and other lenders report to regulators. To measure vendor credit, it typically uses its Agricultural Resource Management Survey, a roughly 24-page producer questionnaire, where response rates have fallen from about 68% in 2009 to nearly 33% in 2025, according to USDA data. Of the more than 52 commercial-sized row-crop farmers Reuters interviewed across seven Midwestern and Southern states, the majority maintained between 7 and 10 separate lines of credit. Some had more than 30. One family in Iowa said it had 42, largely because equipment dealers often required separate credit lines each time they bought or leased a new piece of machinery.  Previous research has found evidence that the USDA can significantly undercount equipment debt. A 2024 peer-reviewed study from Kansas State University, USDA’s Economic Research Service and the National Credit Union Administration analyzed more than 4.4 million equipment liens across 14 farm states from 2001 through 2019. They found that equipment debt issued by non-traditional lenders was as much as four times larger than USDA data showed. “How can lenders, policymakers, regulators and key stakeholders accurately assess debt volumes and farm financial stress when neither is reported for many lenders that serve the most stressed borrowers?” said Ifft, one of the authors. Some vendor financing is captured in federal data USDA already analyzes, Hopkins said. Some loans that appear to farmers to be vendor-financed are actually credit issued by the Farm Credit System or commercial banks that report such debts to regulators, he said. Suppliers and retailers that offer credit help customers to buy their products, Davis said. But those businesses also could be taking on additional risk themselves, particularly if the credit they offer has no assets securing such debts. “The risk we could see then is not just to the farmers themselves, but financial distress to the broader agribusiness ecosystem,” he said. (Reporting by P.J. Huffstutter. Editing by Emily Schmall and David Gaffen) Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

By Luc Cohen NEW YORK, Oct 8 (Reuters) – Cilia Flores, the wife of ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, is expected to appear in a US court on Thursday to urge a federal judge to release her from jail for health reasons while she awaits her drug trafficking trial next year. At a hearing set to start at 10:30 a.m. EDT (1430 GMT) in Manhattan federal court, Flores’ lawyers are expected to ask US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein to grant bail so their client can undergo a cardiac procedure and recover in a more comfortable environment.  The lawyers proposed moving her to a residence in the New York City area with round-the-clock private security, and said she is not a danger to the community. The lawyers also said Venezuela’s government, which the US authorized to pay Flores’ and Maduro’s legal fees, would cover the costs. Separately, a US official told Reuters on Wednesday that Maduro and Flores were expected to face new criminal charges over the alleged torture of Americans held in Venezuela. The charges could be announced as soon as Thursday, said the official, who had been briefed on the investigation.  Flores, 69, and Maduro, 63, were captured by the US military on January 3 in their Caracas home and brought to New York to face an indictment accusing them of abusing their positions of power to allow drug traffickers to ship cocaine. The surprise raid ended the socialist Maduro’s 13 years in power in oil-rich Venezuela, which has since boosted cooperation with Washington under the leadership of Maduro’s former Vice President Delcy Rodriguez.  Maduro and Flores pleaded not guilty to the drug charges and have been held at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center since their capture. Their trial is scheduled for June 1, 2027. Prosecutors in the Manhattan US Attorney’s Office oppose Flores’ release. They said Flores has received adequate medical care at the detention center, and if released poses an “extreme” risk of flight and danger to the public, including possible witness intimidation. Prosecutors also said other judges have found it unfair to let some criminal defendants pay for their own out-of-jail supervision, because defendants of lesser means cannot afford it. Hellerstein’s bail decision will not affect Flores’ trial or potential punishment. If convicted, she faces a mandatory minimum 40-year sentence. Flores was Venezuela’s attorney general and led its National Assembly before becoming first lady. US prosecutors say she took hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from a large drug trafficker.  (Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Bill Berkrot) Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

By Kalea Hall Oct 8 (Reuters) – US car shoppers have been slow to warm back up to electric vehicles since a key federal subsidy expired a year ago, despite persistently high gas prices, while Europeans have flocked to the cars.  EV sales in the US are down 30.7% this year through September, according to research firm Motor Intelligence, accounting for just 6% of overall sales. That’s less than the 8.5% at this time a year ago, when buyers rushed to beat the expiration of a $7,500 federal tax credit. In Europe, however, buyers have flocked to electrics for relief from higher fuel prices stemming from the war in Iran. EVs accounted for 23.2% of the European auto market this year through September, up from 17.7% a year earlier, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association. The divergence in the two markets is due in part to key policy differences between the two regions. In Europe, automakers continue to roll out electric models to meet stringent tailpipe-emissions regulations, and Chinese automakers have stormed the European market with a slew of imported EVs. In the US, the Trump administration worked with Congress to eliminate support for EVs, and watered down fuel-efficiency regulations. High tariffs and a ban on Chinese-made vehicle software have effectively blocked Chinese car brands.  Meanwhile, there were more than 150 EVs on sale in Europe during the first half of 2026, up from about 100 models in 2024, according to Transport & Environment, a Brussels-based environmental advocacy group. Many are priced below 25,000 euros ($27,995), and many countries offer tax breaks to lower consumers’ out-of-pocket costs. US BUYERS GO FOR HYBRIDS, USED EVS Since the expiration of the $7,500 federal tax credit a year ago, many US automakers have discontinued electric models or scrapped plans for new entries. Some have done away with cheap leases that helped fuel demand. Buyers instead are seeking hybrids and used EVs, car dealers and analysts say. Hybrid sales jumped 23% through the first three quarters from the year-earlier period, accounting for 15.6% of total sales over that stretch. “There’s still demand out there [for EVs], but the energy and the masses are definitely running to hybrid technology,” said Thad Szott, a Detroit-area dealer with Ford, Stellantis and Toyota. Some automakers are adding hybrids to their showrooms. Nissan, for example, moved up the launch of a new hybrid system on its popular Rogue SUV by several months. Hybrids are “a safer choice” for consumers worried about driving range, said Tiago Castro, Nissan’s senior vice president of US marketing and sales.  “When we had the government incentive” for EVs, he said, “it was a different story.” The market for used EVs is bustling, though, a sign that less affluent buyers are seeking relief from high fuel prices. Sales of used electric cars rose 19% through September from the year-earlier period, according to research site CarGurus. TESLA, RIVIAN EVS FARE BETTER THAN LEGACY CARMAKERS EV-only brands have fared better than traditional automakers’ EV sales. Tesla’s US sales fell only 14% in the first three quarters, a milder decline than the broader electric vehicle market, according to an estimate from Motor Intelligence. Rivian’s US sales rose 29%, helped by the release of a new SUV, the R2.  By contrast, Ford’s EV sales are down 68% this year through September, while crosstown rival General Motors saw a 43% drop in EV sales. Honda has opted to end production of its EVs after this year, while planning to expand hybrid sales. “Once they scaled back the $7,500, it became obvious” that EV market share would decline, said Lance Woelfer, vice president of US auto sales at Honda.  However, South Korean automaker Hyundai has seen some recovery in EV sales since gas prices began rising in late winter, and dealers are asking for them, said Randy Parker, CEO of Hyundai Motor North America. “We’re not giving up on EVs by any stretch of the imagination,” Parker said. (1 euro = $1.1197) (Reporting by Kalea Hall in Detroit and Nick Carey in London; Editing by Mike Colias and David Gaffen) Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

By Daniel Wiessner Oct 8 (Reuters) – Three Republican-led US states are testing a novel legal argument as they seek to stem the flow of abortion pills to residents who can still obtain them from out-of-state providers despite their abortion bans.  Louisiana, Alabama and Arkansas filed two lawsuits last week claiming that medical providers are creating a “public nuisance” by mailing abortion drugs over state lines and that New York, California and Massachusetts have aided that conduct by adopting shield laws protecting abortion providers from out-of-state prosecution and civil liability. Experts said the lawsuits represent an unprecedented attempt to use public nuisance law, traditionally applied in environmental pollution and other public harm cases, to curb access to abortion pills. They also mark the first direct challenge to state shield laws by states that ban abortion. The novel claims come as anti-abortion groups and officials search for ways to combat the growth of telehealth prescribing of abortion drugs protected by shield laws. About 91,000 abortions were provided in 2025 via telehealth to patients in states with total abortion bans, a significant increase from 74,000 in 2024, according to the Guttmacher Institute, an abortion rights advocacy group. New York Attorney General Letitia James and her counterpart in Massachusetts, Andrea Joy Campbell, both Democrats, said in separate statements that the Republican-led states were seeking to impose their abortion bans on other states and punish doctors for providing legal health care. The office of California Attorney General Rob Bonta did not immediately respond to a request for comment. CURBING PILL ACCESS Nearly half ​of US states have banned ​or severely restricted access ⁠to abortion since the US Supreme Court in 2022 overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that had legalized abortion nationwide. Women in those states have had to travel out of state or rely on telehealth prescribing and mailing of pills, driving a surge in medication abortion, which accounted for 65% of US abortions in 2023, according to the Guttmacher Institute.  Medication abortion is a two-drug regimen consisting ​of mifepristone ⁠followed by misoprostol used to terminate a pregnancy within the first 10 weeks. In response, Republican-led states have sued or indicted doctors and filed lawsuits challenging the initial federal approval of mifepristone in 2000 and subsequent rules expanding access, which are pending. The Supreme Court in May refused a request by Louisiana in one of those lawsuits to block telehealth prescribing and mail delivery of mifepristone nationwide while that case proceeds.  And a safety review by the US Food and Drug Administration has drawn criticism from some anti-abortion groups for moving too slowly. Most major medical groups, and ​the FDA at various times since 2000, have said that mifepristone is safe and effective when taken as directed and that ​serious adverse events are rare. PUBLIC NUISANCE A public nuisance claim generally targets activities that unreasonably interfere with public health and safety, such as blocking a road, polluting a waterway or emitting noxious fumes. States have invoked public nuisance law in recent decades in a broader range of cases involving tobacco, opioids, climate change, vaping, and social media use by children. Bringing a public nuisance claim can have various advantages, including the ability to seek wide-ranging court orders requiring defendants to abate nuisances. It also allows plaintiffs to sidestep the typical legal requirement of proving harm to individuals, both to establish standing to sue and to win cases. But the states’ claims are unusual because they involve abortion drugs that have repeatedly been approved for sale by federal regulators and they focus on the states’ ability to enforce their abortion bans rather than public safety, some experts said. “That is not protecting their residents from harm, nor is it in line with typical public nuisance claims,” said Linda Goldstein, senior counsel at the Center for Reproductive Rights, an abortion rights group. The new lawsuit against states with shield laws was filed directly with the US Supreme Court, which can take up disputes between states that have not been heard in lower courts but routinely turns away such cases. The second lawsuit, which names nearly 30 individual medical practitioners and groups as defendants, was filed in Louisiana federal court. Both lawsuits include a variety of other legal claims. The offices of the attorneys general in the three states that filed the lawsuits did not respond to requests for comment. Two nonprofits that are defendants in the second lawsuit, A Safe Choice Network and Cambridge Reproductive Health Consultants, did not respond to requests for comment. In the court filings, the states said that both the shield laws and the alleged conduct of out-of-state providers were classic examples of public nuisance because they are aimed at thwarting state abortion bans adopted to protect public safety. If states “enacted laws goading their residents into sending anthrax, fentanyl, or mail bombs into Plaintiff States … there would be no question that Plaintiff States could sue to abate those public nuisances,” they said in the Supreme Court filing.   (Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Aurora Ellis) Brought to you by www.srnnews.com