Economy

Brent crude dropped by as much as 9 percent to below $88 a barrel on Monday, 27 July 2026, after the United States and Iran halted their attacks and signalled that talks could resume. WTI fell more than 7 percent at its low, UK government bond yields eased and Asian trading turned mixed to firmer. Analysts warned that similar pauses have failed before and that physical oil flows through Hormuz and Bab al-Mandab remain disrupted.

The Federal Open Market Committee meets this week for the first policy decision under new chairman Kevin Warsh, who has said the Federal Reserve has "no tolerance" for elevated inflation. Derivatives markets are divided, pricing a minority chance of an interest-rate increase and a majority chance that rates stay where they are. The dollar, the equity rally and a run of Big Tech earnings are all being read against the outcome.

Reuters and The Telegraph report that Europe faces a long, cold winter as gas stockpiles and fuel buffers shrink. The New York Times reports that developing Asian economies, affected by Middle East supply shocks linked to the Iran war, are working to scale back their reliance on imported fuels including liquefied natural gas.

The Bank of England is expected to leave interest rates unchanged despite the jump in oil prices, while signalling a possible move if the war continues, according to the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal. The Monetary Authority of Singapore tightened policy on Monday for the second time in three months, citing volatile global energy markets and elevated inflation risks linked to the US war against Iran, the South China Morning Post reports.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow will soon announce its response to the European Union's 21st sanctions package and argued that measures against Russian energy partnerships threaten global markets, while Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed the package is hitting Europe's economy and social sphere hard, according to TASS. The Financial Times reports that a carve-out for Greek shipping has prompted the EU to reconsider parts of its sanctions regime, and TASS notes the MOEX index closed 2.18 percent higher.

China's foreign ministry said the inclusion of European entities on its export control list is directed at what it calls the EU's wrongful sanctions on Chinese enterprises, according to Global Times. The step marks a further round of retaliation in the trade dispute between Beijing and Brussels.

Indonesia's central bank governor stepped down on Monday in a surprise move that deepens uncertainty as the country contends with a weakening currency and other economic problems, according to Daily Sabah and the Wall Street Journal. The FAZ reports that markets read the resignation as a bad sign, coming as President Prabowo pursues high public spending.

Johnson & Johnson agreed to pay $5.5bn to settle nearly 70,000 US lawsuits alleging that its talc-based baby powder caused cancer, Al Jazeera and the Wall Street Journal reported. The company has consistently denied the allegation that its talc products caused ovarian cancer, according to the FAZ.

Apple has moved back ahead of the chipmaker Nvidia to become the world's most valuable public company, the New York Times reported. The shift comes amid growing investor concern about the costs associated with the artificial-intelligence boom.

Chinese DRAM manufacturer ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) began trading on Shanghai's STAR Market on Monday, 27 July 2026, after raising 66.5 billion yuan — reported as roughly $9.8bn and as €9.8bn by Le Monde — in the largest fundraising in Asia this year. The stock rose by roughly 470% and closed up 466%, according to the South China Morning Post, valuing the company at 3.28 trillion yuan (about $484.6bn). Nikkei Asia reports the debut briefly lifted CXMT's market capitalisation above that of Intel.

Crude oil moved in both directions within days, slumping roughly 5% after Washington and Tehran halted strikes and spiking back toward $100 a barrel as escalation fears returned. Gold rose as the pause curbed inflation risk, Asian equities and currencies firmed on softer US inflation data, and bond markets repriced war risk. Financial outlets report the pause has calmed markets without removing the underlying supply risk in the Gulf and the Red Sea.

Washington's new Section 301 duties of 10% to 12.5%, imposed on some 60 countries over allegedly weak enforcement of forced-labour bans, are now in force and cover 99.4% of US imports according to the US Trade Representative. Switzerland has rejected the forced-labour accusations used to justify its levy, while the United States is pressing Mexico to copy its steel tariff wall aimed at China. The measures are being challenged in US courts, months after the Supreme Court struck down an earlier round of tariffs.

The US Federal Reserve begins its second policy meeting under Chair Kevin Warsh on Tuesday, with a decision due Wednesday at 2 p.m. in Washington. Most investors expect rates to stay at 3.50%–3.75% for a fifth consecutive meeting, but inflation at 3.5% and oil back above $100 a barrel have put a rate increase back into the debate. Bond traders are positioning for the possibility of a hike even as the White House keeps demanding cuts.

The African Development Bank's top climate expert has estimated that an approaching 'super' El Niño could cause $10 billion to $20 billion in damage across African economies and trigger mass migration from the hardest-hit areas. Heavily affected countries would lose an average of one to two per cent of GDP, on top of risks to food and water security, government finances and banking sectors. It is the first figure of its kind published by a major multilateral development bank in connection with El Niño.

Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are set to supply Nvidia and other major US technology companies with memory chips under agreements reported by Daily Sabah at $950 billion. The reported value would make the arrangements one of the largest supply commitments to date between South Korea's memory industry and US buyers.

Bloomberg reported that Big Tech earnings arrived in a market in revolt over the scale of capital spending on artificial intelligence. It also reported that ageing US power grids are reaching a tipping point as 100°F weather combines with demand from the data-centre boom.

Bank Indonesia Governor Perry Warjiyo has stepped down, State Secretariat Minister Prasetyo Hadi said, with Nikkei Asia reporting that he cited personal reasons. Analysts quoted by Bloomberg and the South China Morning Post said the surprise departure could unsettle investors and increase scrutiny of the central bank's policy direction.

The Japanese yen fell to its weakest level in decades, Nikkei Asia reports. Market participants responded by increasing bets that the Bank of Japan will raise interest rates earlier than previously expected.

Kazakhstan's oil exports were halted after drone attacks disrupted supplies, Al Jazeera reports, in a spillover from the war between Russia and Ukraine. The interruption poses risks to the Kazakh economy and to energy markets.

The German industry association BDI says manufacturing in the country is shedding around 15,000 jobs every month, according to Handelsblatt. The figure underlines the depth of Germany's industrial downturn.

President Donald Trump's overhaul of the US food-stamp programme is beginning to take effect for recipients, according to The Economist. Bloomberg reports that the resulting cuts to SNAP could cost Republicans votes in November.

A storm that caused deaths in Chile has disrupted operations at copper mines, the Financial Times reports. The interruption raises concerns about supplies of material needed for AI-related semiconductor production.

Brent crude has closed above $100 a barrel for the first time since late May, with the Strait of Hormuz blocked by the US-Iran war and the Red Sea disrupted by Houthi attacks on Saudi oil vessels. In the same week the United States began enforcing duties of 10% to 12.5% on more than 60 economies, its third tariff regime in under a year. Analysts warn that the two shocks reinforce each other instead of cancelling out, compounding inflation and growth risks worldwide.

Dozens of ships are still crossing the Red Sea despite the Houthi blockade, but disruption is scattered and uncertainty over the passage is growing by the hour. At the same time, tanker crossings through the Strait of Hormuz have fallen to their lowest level in two months as the Iran war repeatedly interrupts commercial shipping. Companies and port operators are responding not by rerouting cargo but by rebuilding where goods are made, stored and moved.

Washington has escalated its trade measures against Canada, and Ontario's provincial leadership is pressing the federal government to retaliate using oil, electricity and potash as leverage, while Ottawa has not yet decided on a response. In parallel, the average weighted US tariff on Chinese goods has remained roughly unchanged despite repeated threats from the White House, according to the New York Times. Both strands sit inside the third US tariff regime in under a year, now built on Section 301 of the Trade Act.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has set out a blueprint to inject ¥370tn (£1.7tn) into the economy with the aim of doubling the growth rate, according to the Guardian. International investors are questioning where the money will come from and warn of a Liz Truss-style market backlash in the world's largest sovereign debt market.

US President Donald Trump has threatened retaliatory tariff measures against the European Union in response to the bloc's antitrust fine on Google, Le Monde reports. The threat comes a year after the transatlantic trade agreement that was meant to bring stability and dampens European hopes of a lasting de-escalation.

Should Unicredit complete a takeover of Commerzbank, four of Germany's five former major banks would sit under the roof of the Milan-based group, according to the FAZ. Deutsche Bank would be the only one remaining independent, though the paper describes it as no longer in the first rank.

Kuwait has signed a $16 billion oil pipeline lease deal with the US investment groups Blackstone, Brookfield and KKR, The National reports. No further terms of the agreement were given in the report.

Paramount has agreed to halt its merger with Warner Bros. Discovery until several major lawsuits reach a resolution, Breitbart reports, citing another report. The timing of any resumption of the deal is unclear.

Nine commercial corridors in Los Angeles frequented by migrants recorded close to $3.2 million in losses in 2025 as a result of the Trump administration's immigration enforcement drive, according to a UCLA study cited by El País. Business owners quoted in the report describe themselves as merely surviving.

Varta is being dismantled because its main creditors are focused on quick profits rather than the battery manufacturer's industrial potential, the FAZ reports. The paper attributes the company's decline to its former majority owner.

Economist Clemens Fuest, head of the Ifo institute, said the German coalition is now working better than it was in the spring, according to an FAZ podcast. He warned that a collapse of state finances looms unless the rise in spending is stopped.

As start-ups such as Anthropic and OpenAI prepare to go public, nonprofits are hoping for a secondary giving windfall from newly wealthy tech investors and employees, according to the New York Times. The report frames the planned listings as a source of new millionaires that philanthropies want a share of.

Foot traffic to chains such as Chopt and Chipotle fell in recent weeks after a lettuce recall by Taylor Farms tied to a Cyclospora outbreak, the New York Times reports. The paper also cites changing messages from the Food and Drug Administration as a factor.

Production at Rosebank, Britain's biggest undeveloped oil and gas field, could be delayed for months after equipment was accidentally dropped in the sea, according to a Guardian exclusive. The incident comes as the government considers granting a licence for the field.

New York City's mayor Zohran Mamdani has launched what the Guardian describes as a sweeping deregulation programme, including cutting permits required to serve ice cream. Small business owners quoted in the report welcome the changes.

Washington imposed new duties of 10% to 12.5% on more than 60 economies at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, 24 July 2026, the moment its previous universal 10% tariff expired. The White House based the measures on Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 and on allegations that the targeted countries fail to enforce bans on goods made with forced labour. Trading partners from the EU to China, Brazil and Australia objected, and US small businesses filed suit the same day.

Brent crude closed above $100 a barrel on 23 July for the first time since late May, after Houthi attacks on two Saudi oil vessels in the Red Sea added a second disrupted chokepoint to the already blocked Strait of Hormuz. Saudi Arabia is rerouting exports through the Suez Canal, a detour that roughly doubles fuel costs per voyage to Asia. Asian equities fell after a US sell-off, and analysts warn of a renewed inflation impulse.

Beijing has banned shipments of rare earths and related supplies to 14 companies in Europe working in chemicals processing, electric motors and defence, according to reporting by the New York Times published on 24 July 2026. The measure applies China's dominance of rare-earth supply directly to named European industrial and defence firms. The available source does not identify the companies or the exact date the controls take effect.

Folha de S.Paulo reports that a familiar rhythm of war has returned for Iranians, with bombed highways and a currency in free fall as daily life is put on hold. The report links the pressure to threatening social media posts and rhetoric from US President Donald Trump as the conflict grinds on.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury bond has risen steadily this year to the highest level of Trump's second term, as the Iran war continues, concerns over government spending intensify and artificial intelligence spending boosts growth, the New York Times reports. The same source warns that renewed fighting with Iran is sending oil and gas prices higher while newly imposed global tariffs could push prices up further, threatening an otherwise resilient US economy.

The European Union fined Google €890 million, sanctioning practices by which the search engine systematically promotes its own services at the expense of competitors, Le Monde reports. Trump said Brussels was "robbing" American companies and taxpayers and threatened substantial tariffs, warning the EU would pay a "very heavy price", according to The Guardian and Le Monde.

European Union sanctions targeting nearly 100 Russian banks are disrupting key money-transfer routes, Meduza reports. The affected channels are used by Russians who left the country after the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Europe faces a 1 January deadline to end imports of liquefied natural gas from Russia, the New York Times reports. Europeans say they fear the shift will increase their dependence on American energy.

An OpenLux investigation by Le Monde describes how Beijing used Luxembourg to channel tens of billions of euros of investment into the European Union. According to the report, the acquisitions covered technology companies and strategic real estate, building a network that unsettles existing arrangements in Europe.

Russia's central bank lowered its key interest rate by 25 basis points to 14 percent, Meduza reported. It was the tenth consecutive cut in the current easing cycle.

The United Arab Emirates finalised a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement with Canada aimed at reducing trade barriers, The National reported. No further terms were given in the report.

Paramount accepted a proposed freeze of its merger with Warner Bros. until June 2027, according to the New York Times. The pause would end earlier only if a judge rules before then on the lawsuit blocking the deal.

Ontario's government is advancing omnibus legislation that would transform the province's workers' compensation regime, Jacobin reports. The outlet frames the change as the dismantling of a central piece of the twentieth-century labour-capital compromise.

A 20 percent business-rates reduction described by the Guardian as one of Andy Burnham's first measures as prime minister, including a £100m giveaway, prioritises venues that sell alcohol. Cafe owners in England say their exclusion is unfair, while landlords told the paper that high operating costs outweigh the potential savings.

The final part of Le Monde's series on Bernard Arnault's empire describes how the luxury group's chief prepared his five children to succeed him. By placing all of them in positions of responsibility inside LVMH, the paper argues, he created a problem at the heart of the company.

A labour ministry report published on Wednesday 22 July found some 670,000 workplace accidents in France in 2023, Le Monde reported. The study points to temporary staffing, agriculture and transport as the sectors where employees are most exposed.

The first six months of 2026 were too dry in Germany, following a winter with little rain or snow, FAZ reports. The result is drought conditions across the country.

A central bank survey published on Friday showed inflation expectations among Turkish households and the real sector edged down in July, Daily Sabah reported. Forecasts by market participants rose slightly over the same period.