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China · Jun 5, 2026 · 6 min read
China's crude oil buying has slowed sharply, creating an unusual stabilizing effect for global oil markets at a time of major disruption…
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Global · Jun 5, 2026 · 6 min read
SpaceX is preparing what could become the largest initial public offering in history, with the proposed transaction expected to raise around USD…
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Energy & Commodities · Jun 4, 2026 · 6 min read
Iron ore trades near USD 103/t after a 4% monthly drop as Chinese property investment fell 13.7% YoY and global crude steel…
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China · Jun 4, 2026 · 6 min read
Egypt and China renewed their bilateral local currency swap agreement for three more years and expanded the facility from 18 billion to…
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Macro · Jun 3, 2026 · 5 min read
ADP National Employment Report shows U.S. private employers added 122,000 jobs in May 2026, up from 105,000 in April — the strongest…
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Global · Jun 3, 2026 · 6 min read
OECD Economic Outlook (3 June 2026) sees global growth slowing to 2.8% in 2026 under a time-limited disruption scenario, or 2.1% in…
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Geopolitics · Jun 3, 2026 · 6 min read
USTR proposes new Section 301 tariffs on 60 trading partners — 10% on economies with partial forced labor regimes, 12.5% on others.…
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Energy & Commodities · Jun 2, 2026 · 7 min read
The World Meteorological Organization warns of an 80% likelihood of El Niño during June–August 2026, with conditions likely persisting through November. The…
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Geopolitics · Jun 2, 2026 · 6 min read
The Russian ruble has strengthened to around RUB 71.55/USD as of 2 June 2026. The move reflects higher commodity inflows, a 14.50%…
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Energy & Commodities · Jun 2, 2026 · 7 min read
Per the ECB June 2026 report, gold rose to 27% of official reserves at end-2025 vs 22% for US Treasuries and 15%…
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EU · Jun 2, 2026 · 5 min read
Eurozone CPI rose to 3.2% in May 2026, above the ECB target. Energy +10.9%, services 3.5%, core 2.5%. The ECB faces a…
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Macro · Jun 1, 2026 · 5 min read
The US personal saving rate fell to 2.6% in April, the lowest since 2022, with spending up 5.7% y/y vs income up…
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The fortune of Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has climbed to a decade high of just over US$27 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which has reported a gain of around US$10 billion across 2026. The increase has been driven above all by one investment that has come of age this year: his…
The reopening of the Strait of Hormuz has set in motion an industrial event of extraordinary scale: Gulf producers are restarting thousands of oil wells that were shut for roughly 100 days — an operation so large that its heat signature is expected to be visible from space. The restart marks the beginning of the…
A reordering of global development finance is under way. As the United States sharply curtails its foreign-aid spending, China is moving to expand its own assistance and influence, positioning itself as the world’s largest bilateral development partner and using the opening to deepen ties through its Belt and Road Initiative. The shift follows a steep…
Commodity markets ended the week split. Gold dropped below US$4,200 an ounce on Friday — wiping out the week’s earlier gains — as hawkish signals from the US Federal Reserve outweighed lingering Middle East risk, while crude oil edged higher on the day but still closed lower for the week as Gulf supply continued to…
Gold’s 2026 outlook has become more divided after a series of June updates from major banks and market institutions. While the wider forecast range extends from near-term caution around US$4,000 to US$4,500 per oz to bullish expectations near US$6,000, the most likely scenario appears narrower. The central institutional cluster points to a base case of…
OPEC and the International Energy Agency have collided publicly over the direction of the oil market, with OPEC Secretary-General Haitham Al Ghais dismissing the IEA’s forecast of a looming supply glut as premature and not grounded in “facts and figures,” in an unusually open disagreement between the two most influential voices in global energy. Speaking…
Britain’s labour market showed fresh signs of cooling in the latest official data, with the unemployment rate edging up over the year, payrolled employment falling, vacancies dropping to their lowest in five years and pay growth easing — a combination that sharpens the dilemma for the Bank of England as it weighs energy-driven inflation against…
Commodity markets split in two directions on Thursday, with crude oil holding near the US$80 level even as gold and silver extended their decline, as traders weighed how quickly Gulf supply will return through the reopened Strait of Hormuz against a firmer outlook for US interest rates. Commodity Last settlement (Wed 18 Jun) Live (Thu…
Gulf economies strengthened their standing among the world’s most competitive in the 2026 IMD World Competitiveness Ranking, with the United Arab Emirates holding a place in the global top five and four Arab economies — the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain — ranking inside the top 20 of the 70 economies assessed. The results…
The economies of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council are expected to contract this year before staging a sharp recovery in 2027, as the regional conflict’s disruption to energy exports gives way to normalisation, according to ICAEW’s Q2 2026 Economic Update: Middle East, prepared with Oxford Economics and published by ICAEW on 16 June 2026 (with…