Finance news

Japan Secures Major LNG Deal as Energy Risks Mount

Japan’s JERA has signed a supply contract for the supply of liquefied natural gas with Malaysia’s state major Petronas for a period of 20 years, starting in 2028. “Amid growing uncertainty in the international energy situation, cooperation with Malaysia, a stable supplier of LNG to Japan, is becoming increasingly important,” Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said after a meeting with Malaysia’s Premier, Anwar Ibrahim and the announcement of the deal, as quoted by Reuters. Japan is one of the

What next for BP? Leadership exits test investor confidence in board oversight

An executive exodus at BP has sparked intense scrutiny from investors.

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◇ unclassifiedgermany · europe · uk

New AI version: Apple's future now depends on Siri

With a new version of Siri, Apple wants to catch up with artificial intelligence. Experts are not very impressed - but still believe in Apple's AI success.

◇ unclassifiedchina · asia

Chinese carmakers race Tesla on humanoid robots; BYD launches ‘God’s Eye’: 7 EV reads

We have put together stories from our coverage on electric and new energy vehicles from the past two weeks to help you stay informed. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. China’s EV giants challenge Tesla in race to commercialise humanoid robots Chinese electric vehicle (EV) makers are opening a new front in their battle with Tesla: humanoid robots. After spending years competing on electric cars and autonomous driving technology, leading Chinese...

Oil Prices Jump After U.S. Strikes Iran Over Downed Apache

Oil prices jumped in early Asian trading on Wednesday after the United States launched what it described as self-defense strikes against Iranian military targets near the Strait of Hormuz. At the time of writing, Brent crude was up 1.03% at $92.39 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate had gained 0.91% to trade at $89.00 per barrel. U.S. Central Command said the strikes were in response to Iran's downing of a U.S. Army Apache helicopter in the region. U.S. forces then "struck Iranian air defe

Before IPO: “Completely overvalued”: Analysts doubt SpaceX’s trillion dollar valuation

Elon Musk's space company goes public with a record valuation. Analysts and fund managers consider the price to be excessive. Nevertheless, they expect prices to rise, at least for the time being.

Before IPO: “Completely overvalued” – Analysts doubt the trillion dollar valuation of Elon Musk’s SpaceX

Musk's space company goes public with a record valuation. Analysts and fund managers consider the price to be excessive. Nevertheless, they expect prices to rise – at least for the time being.

Interest rate comparison: Savings banks and Volksbanks pay little interest for overnight money

Savers often receive significantly less interest at savings banks and Volksbanks than at national banks. The ECB's key interest rates are now expected to rise - and some customers are benefiting.

34d06/10⚠ war-conflict · 2/5

Alcohol and prevention: Streeck: Less alcohol is more - campaign week starts

The Federal Drug Commissioner warns of the physical, psychological and social damage that alcohol can cause. One campaign week would like to make it clear that fun also works without alcohol.

Oil choppy after U.S. completes Iran strikes following Apache helicopter attack

Oil prices rose after the U.S. launched military strikes against Iran, raising concerns that renewed clashes may threaten shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

◇ unclassifiedusa · iran

◇ unclassifiedgermany · europe · usa

Invest: $150 a barrel? Raw materials expert warns of “tipping point” in the oil market

In the podcast, Michael Widmer, raw materials strategist at Bank of America, explains under what circumstances investors should prepare for an oil price of $150.

◇ unclassifiedchina · asia

Why the new party academy role held by Xi Jinping’s chief of staff is important in China

Last week, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s chief of staff Cai Qi, the fifth most senior official in the ruling Communist Party, was chosen to lead the Central Party School, Beijing’s leading academy for cadres. The Central Party School is not just any training site for Chinese officials, but part of a nationwide system that Xi considers key to the ideological purity of the party and important for the expertise needed by senior officials across the country. Who were previous heads? In the past...

◇ unclassifiedchina · asia

Protesters torch buildings and vehicles, block roads over Belfast stabbing

Anti-immigration protesters torched buildings and vehicles in Belfast on Tuesday evening and blocked roads, a day after a stabbing allegedly by a Sudanese refugee, captured in a graphic video that shocked the country. Hundreds of protesters, many masked, gathered at several locations across Belfast. A bus and several cars were set alight, while a building fringing the city centre caught fire and its residents had to be evacuated. “By 7.30pm they started [a] fire in the bins … we heard police...

America Just Added a Massive New Rare Earth Supply Source

REalloys (NASDAQ: ALOY) has signed an agreement that could give it priority access to up to 30% of production from a 2-billion-ton Appalachian rare earth resource network, expanding its growing pipeline of domestic and allied feedstock ahead of the Pentagon’s 2027 ban on Chinese-origin materials. The deal comes just two months after unveiling its buildout of the largest heavy rare earth metallization facility outside of China. Under a new Letter of Intent released on Wednesday with Patriot Explo

34d06/09⚠ war-conflict · 3/5

Disconnected Oil Futures Market Could See Price Spike within Weeks

For more than three months, oil market participants have hoped that the Middle East conflict would be resolved any day now, while about 13 million barrels per day (bpd) have been wiped off global supply due to the closed Strait of Hormuz. The oil futures market has been mostly guided by sentiment and traders’ hopes of an imminent peace deal – as U.S. President Donald Trump has been touting for weeks – with oil prices increasingly disconnected from the reality on the ground, or more precisely, in

◇ unclassifiedchina · asia · usa

US expects to finish Trump’s Mexico border wall by next year

The US expects to complete President Donald Trump’s long-promised southern border wall by late 2027, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Rodney Scott said Tuesday. The barrier along the US-Mexico border is made of reinforced metal beams and is intended to run from San Diego to the Gulf of Mexico, except in selected areas “where we’ve made a conscious decision that we don’t need it”, Scott said at the Centre for Immigration Studies event in Washington. “The primary border wall will..

34d06/09⚠ war-conflict · 3/5

DRC's Export Controls Are Reshaping the Battery Metals Market

Even as the International Monetary Fund warns of a global demand slowdown for critical minerals due to geopolitical shocks in the Middle East, the Democratic Republic of Congo is projecting confidence. For a country so deeply embedded in global commodity cycles, this calm not driven by complacency, but by strategy, which has put Kinshasa at the driver’s seat in the global race for securing critical minerals supply. At the centre of this confidence lies cobalt and the Congolese strategy to move u

34d06/09⚠ war-conflict · 3/5

US launches new strikes on Iran after helicopter downed

The U.S. launched strikes against Iran on Tuesday after Trump said Tehran had shot down a U.S. Apache helicopter in the Strait of Hormuz.

◇ unclassifiedusa · europe · middle-east

Nuclear and Natural Gas Are Teaming Up to Power the AI Data Center Boom

Data centers are placing unprecedented strain on electric grids across the country and across the world as the rapid integration of artificial intelligence into virtually every market sector unleashes an energy monster that we are woefully unprepared to feed. Meeting projected demand growth in coming months and years will require creative solutions and cutting-edge energy innovation, but it will also require an all-of-the-above approach that employs old energy systems in new ways. In one such at

US Crude Oil, Gasoline Inventories Keep Sinking, but Prices Don’t Care

The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the United States fell by 9.119 million barrels in the week ending June 5. Analysts had expected a 3.4 million draw. In the week prior, US crude oil inventories fell by 6.75 million barrels. Despite inventories dropping by a hard-to-stomach 44 million barrels over the last 8 weeks according to API data, US crude inventories are still up almost 7 million barrels so far this year, according to API data. Inventories in t

34d06/09⚠ shipping-routes · 2/5

The Clock Is Ticking Down To Iraq’s Economic Disaster On 27 July

OPEC’s second-largest oil producer, Iraq, has less than two months before it loses the key means to export its crude, with the agreement to move its product through two pipelines into Turkey expiring on 27 July. These routes have become vital to Iraq’s ability to monetise its oil flows since the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz from 28 February. Up until then, around 95% of Iraq’s crude was shipped through that route to key export destinations in Asia, including China. The blockade of t

◇ unclassifiedmiddle-east · usa

Oil Futures Volatility Returns

Crude markets swung lower despite ongoing supply disruptions.

BLM Opens Review of 126,744 Acres for Colorado Oil and Gas Lease Sale

The Bureau of Land Management has opened a 30-day public scoping period for a proposed December 2026 oil and gas lease sale in Colorado, putting more than 126,000 acres on the table for potential future development. The agency said Tuesday it is seeking public input on 114 parcels totaling 126,744 acres that could be included in the sale. The comment period runs through July 9. The acreage spans federal lands managed by the BLM and represents the latest step in a leasing process that has become

QatarEnergy Adds Another Oil Discovery to Namibia's Hot Streak

QatarEnergy has struck oil again offshore Namibia, adding another discovery to what is becoming one of the most impressive exploration runs in the industry. The company announced that its Merlin-1X exploration well in Petroleum Exploration License 39 (PEL 39) encountered oil with what it described as the most promising subsurface results seen so far in the license. The well found good reservoir quality, light oil, and limited associated gas—three words exploration teams generally like seeing in

World's Largest Battery Maker Bets Big on Energy Storage

The world’s top battery manufacturer, CATL, expects sales of battery storage systems to account for half of its total sales in the coming years, signaling strong optimism about the battery storage sector as countries investing in alternative energy seek to make it more reliable. Storage is the only way to use electricity later than the moment it was generated, which is how electricity is normally used. With regions such as Europe and parts of Asia betting big on wind and solar electricity, batte

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How much liquidity is actually in the market?

With Google dropping 85 billion of new shares, SpaceX getting ready to IPO and sell 75 billion, and Anthropic and OpenAI filing their S1s to go public "soon" there's at least 160 billion that needs to be "bought up" if the IPOs sell at their target price, and a total of 320 billion if we assume Anthropic and OpenAI choose to raise similar amounts (85 + 75 + 80 + 80 billion) The largest year of IPOs so far has been in 2021 with $303 Billion done in a year. This means this year will likely top tha

Major Italian bank: Unicredit is offered further shares in Commerzbank

Unicredit is further expanding its share in Commerzbank. With its takeover offer, the major Italian bank was offered additional shares.

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Armenia Signals a Historic Break From Russia After Landmark Election

Armenia appears ready to press ahead with its geopolitical transition away from Russia toward the West after Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s Civil Contract Party registered a convincing victory in the country’s June 7 parliamentary election. Pre-election polls had pegged Civil Contract’s support at a little over 30 percent. But on election day, the party garnered just under 50 percent of the ballots cast, according to preliminary figures published by the Central Election Commission (CEC). Two p

Takeover battle: Unicredit increases its stake in Commerzbank to 37 percent – and attacks the institute head-on

The Italian financial institution has increased its stake despite a supposedly unattractive offer. Unicredit sharply rejects criticism of its own approach.