Morning Edition · Monday, October 26, 2026
Macro
Lula wins a fourth term in an upset, and investors who bet on Bolsonaro rush to unwind Brazil positions
Dollar futures against the real jumped about 10% on Sunday evening, a Tokyo-listed Brazil fund fell more than 11% at the open, and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro said he will try to have the vote annulled.
Geopolitics
Machado reaches Caracas to large crowds as Washington puts economic stabilization ahead of an election date
Acting President Delcy Rodríguez has not responded publicly to the return of her main rival, and recirculated accounts of a Machado detention describe an episode from January 2025, not this week.
Macro
Gold falls below $4,000 and bitcoin trades near $80,000 as oil-driven inflation revives Fed hike bets
Futures markets price a 92% chance that the Federal Reserve holds rates steady on Wednesday but a 78% chance of a hike in December, after gold fell sharply last week.
Markets
Brent slips to about $115 despite new Houthi claims of strikes on Saudi oil infrastructure
Brent fell 1.34% on Monday after rising 6% last week, while the US military says it has escorted more than 3,000 commercial vessels and 1.5 billion barrels of Gulf oil through the Strait of Hormuz.
Geopolitics
Israel's army chief demands written authorization before an Iran-linked order, a day before Israelis vote
Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir asked for legal documentation and political signatures, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denies any dispute as the shekel weakens before Tuesday's election.
Geopolitics
Kremlin says Russia could resume gas sales to Europe weeks after Washington waived sanctions on its diesel
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said supply depends on spare volumes because Asian buyers are absorbing Russian gas, while Kyiv rejects Moscow's expectation that Washington will press Ukraine to concede.
Tech
SpaceX borrows $40 billion to buy AI chips as Musk predicts failures among smaller cloud rivals
The debt would more than double SpaceX's borrowing from the end of 2025, and the scramble for chips is already pushing up phone prices in markets such as Pakistan.
Geopolitics
Vučić concedes Serbia's election to a student-led list and warns sanctions on Russia could follow by spring
Brussels welcomed the result immediately, while the winning Student List has previously said it would keep Belgrade's existing policy toward Moscow.
Markets
Infosys cuts its growth forecast again and its shares fall 4% as AI squeezes India's outsourcing model
India's second-largest IT exporter now expects fiscal 2027 revenue growth of only 1% to 2%, while bank earnings at Kotak Mahindra show domestic finance moving in the opposite direction.
Markets
Pentagon ban on Chinese-origin rare earths starts in 10 weeks as China surveys Turkey's largest deposit
New US defense procurement rules take effect on January 1, 2027, and Beijing is expanding its search for deposits from Turkey to Mozambique.
World
María Corina Machado returns to Venezuela and challenges the Washington-backed interim government
The Nobel laureate came back after ten months abroad and at least seven failed attempts, entering through the Colombian border to press for new elections.
World
China's Communist Party opens its fifth plenum focused on internal discipline, a year before the 2027 Party Congress
The Central Committee meets behind closed doors in Beijing until October 29, and state media frame the agenda around strict party governance rather than economic stimulus.
World
Stellantis halts Argentine car plants as sales and exports fall, and analysts expect trade with Lula's Brazil to stay restricted
The El Palomar plant stops from Monday until the end of the month, and pickup production in Córdoba pauses from December to mid-January.