Markets · past 14 days
Equities, bonds, commodities, and energy: where macro and geopolitics get marked to market every day. Coverage favors the moves that confirm or contradict a tracked thesis over the day's noise.
Markets
Venezuela Examines Leaving OPEC as Washington Negotiates Long-Term Access to Its Oilfields
The country pumped 1.16 million barrels a day in July, less than half its output a decade ago, while Gulf shipments through the Strait of Hormuz have recovered to between 6 million and 8 million barrels a day.
Markets
Brent Falls 2.5% to $86.38 as Iran and Oman Negotiate a Corridor Through a Strait Tehran Says Is Still Closed
Qatar's prime minister travels to Tehran on Thursday to restart diplomacy, and President Donald Trump has threatened to strike Oman if it obstructs the American position.
Markets
Iran and Oman Discuss a Temporary Hormuz Corridor and Crude Falls Toward $80
Oil dropped for a third session, and Indian equities rose as investors priced a partial reopening of the world's most important oil route.
Markets
Nvidia Results and the Federal Reserve's Preferred Inflation Gauge Are Due the Same Day
Analysts expect quarterly revenue near $92 billion at the chipmaker and an acceleration in core inflation to 0.2% on the month.
Markets
US Sanctions Chinese Refinery and Terminal Over Iranian Oil, Keeping Brent Near $92
The Treasury Department designated about 100 people, companies and vessels, extending the sanctions from Iran's own oil exporters to the Chinese buyers that keep them financially viable.
Markets
Silver Outpaces Gold as Metals Hold Near $4,650 and Bitcoin Lags Behind
Silver has gained about 19% over the past month while Russian police seized six kilograms of illegally mined gold, a sign of how high prices are drawing metal into unofficial channels.
Markets
US Sanctions Iran's Shipping, Oil and Gold Links as Tehran Threatens to Seize Ships in Hormuz
Treasury's "Operation Economic Outcast" designated close to 60 targets. Iran's strait authority has named 46 vessels it says could face fines, seizure or confiscation, and Saudi Arabia is weighing a state war-insurance backstop as commercial cover retreats.
Markets
Private Credit's Move Into Insurance Draws Scrutiny as Germany Debates Foreign Capital
The Financial Times argues that spreading credit risk across retail-linked insurance products changes who absorbs losses without reducing them, while Berlin's investment envoy says foreign investors still meet official scepticism.
Markets
American Buyers Are Acquiring European Asset Managers at the Fastest Rate in Decades
Cross-border purchases of European fund groups by non-European firms rose to 67 in the first half of 2026 from 56 a year earlier, with disclosed value climbing from 15.2 billion dollars to 24.3 billion.
Markets
Gold Closes Near 4,607 Dollars as Bitcoin Adds Roughly 20 Percent in a Week
The metal gained 2.03 percent on Friday while the digital asset rose about ten times as fast, a difference that shows which one trades on liquidity.
Markets
Qatar Cuts State Spending at Home and Abroad as the Hormuz Conflict Shrinks Its Economy
Brent crude held near 94 dollars a barrel as President Donald Trump said Washington has total control of the strait and that Iran is not ready for the right deal.
Markets
Washington Promises Its Harshest Iran Sanctions Yet as Brent Crude Settles Near $94
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the new measures will "collapse this regime" and urged China to comply, five weeks into a naval blockade that has already redirected 67 commercial vessels.
Markets
Gold Holds Above $4,500 and Silver Tops $68 as Investors Doubt the Long End of the Bond Market
The rally in gold and silver prices has drawn artisanal miners into unregulated pits in Central Africa, where a collapse this week killed dozens or more, with casualty counts still disputed.
Markets
Panama Canal Cuts Daily Transits and Pirates Seize an Arms Ship off Somalia
Two separate disruptions struck ocean freight in the same week, one caused by drought and one by an armed seizure that a Turkish drone strike has now turned lethal, while the naval blockade in the Gulf already limits a third route.
Markets
United States Military Runs a Nightly Convoy Corridor Through Hormuz Carrying About 10 Million Barrels a Day
Gulf exporters are bidding up available tankers to secure their own fleets, with only three vessels crossing the strait last Sunday against roughly 130 a day before the war.
Markets
India's Market Regulator Prepares Trading Rule Changes to Reverse Record Foreign Selling
Foreign investors have withdrawn more than 2 trillion rupees from Indian equities this year, reducing their ownership share as domestic institutions' share rose to 17%.
Markets
Rising Bond Yields Drive Asian Chip Selloff as Traders Await Fed Minutes
Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix each fell more than 7% in Seoul while bitcoin held near $64,000 and gold traded around $4,339 an ounce.
Markets
Hong Kong Exchange Posts Record Quarterly Profit as the City Builds a Gold Settlement Platform
Second-quarter net profit rose 21% to HK$5.38 billion, and a new joint venture will operate bullion trading and clearing, with a pilot planned for early 2027.
Markets
Target Reports Earnings as Private Labels Take Share From American Consumer Brands
Target's second-quarter net income more than doubled to $1.88 billion, boosted by a $994 million tariff refund, as comparable sales beat estimates even while the Financial Times documents household brands losing pricing power to store labels.
Markets
Global Private Equity Stops Writing New Equity Cheques in China
Beijing has tightened national security review of foreign capital in sensitive sectors, while Russian legislators propose folding seized foreign-owned firms into the domestic small-business regime.
Markets
Private Credit Distress Signals Return to Levels Last Seen in 2017, Financial Times Analysis Finds
Fitch Ratings measured the United States private credit default rate at 6 percent in April, and investors asked to pull more than $20 billion from semi-liquid funds in the first quarter.
Markets
Iran Declares a "Fully Offensive" Turn in Hormuz as the US Deal Lapses and Brent Climbs Past $90
A senior Iranian official told Reuters that Tehran will strike to break the US naval blockade if diplomacy fails, hours before the 60-day memorandum of understanding expired with no extension talks.
Markets
Trump Says He Will Declare the Strait of Hormuz United States Territory, and Iran Refuses
The waterway has been shut since late February, Brent crude settled near 88 dollars a barrel, and a 60-day ceasefire memorandum between Washington and Tehran is due to expire around August 17.
Markets
Carmakers Reformulate Engine Oils as Gulf Base-Oil Supply Stays Cut Off
Roughly 44 percent of the Group III base oil used in the United States comes from three Persian Gulf refineries, and almost none has shipped since late February.
Markets
Trump Says He Will Declare the Strait of Hormuz American Territory as Iran Keeps the Blockade in Force
Brent crude traded near $88 a barrel after two Abu Dhabi National Oil Company tankers were attacked in the waterway, and the average United States pump price stood at $4.08 a gallon.
Markets
Gold Holds Near $4,365 an Ounce and Silver Near $64 as War Premium Meets a Cautious Federal Reserve
Both metals eased on Friday after a rise driven by softer inflation data, with silver still up more than 2 per cent on the week.
Markets
Washington makes cheaper fuel its stated top aim in the Iran war as Treasury threatens total economic isolation
Vice President JD Vance ranked petrol prices above stopping Iran's nuclear programme as the administration's top war priority, while Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said a continued blockade would stop goods from moving in or out of Iranian ports.
Markets
Tata Motors profit falls 80% as Gulf shipping disruption reaches Indian corporate earnings
Jaguar Land Rover volumes fell 9.2% on supply constraints that the company attributes partly to the Middle East conflict, while Indian benchmarks opened lower with crude near $87.