THE EDGE INSIGHTS
Latest Economic Insights
Economic developments that matter to regional and global markets, analysed daily.
IEA Sees Global Electricity Demand Up 3.6 Percent in 2026 as Renewables Overtake Coal
Global electricity demand is set to grow about 3.6 percent in 2026 and about 3.8 percent in 2027, accelerating from around 3…
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Samsung and Broadcom Sign a Chip Pact Worth Over 200 Billion Dollars to 2030
Samsung Electronics and Broadcom have signed a memorandum of understanding to expand their collaboration across memory and foundry technologies, a partnership the…
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UNCTAD Says Global Goods Trade Rose About 12.5 Percent to 13.7 Trillion Dollars in the First Half of 2026, Led by Prices
Global goods trade expanded by about 12.5 percent in the first half of 2026 from a year earlier, reaching around 13.7 trillion…
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The European Central Bank Holds Its Key Rates on 23 July 2026, With Some Governors Weighing a Further Increase
The European Central Bank left its three key interest rates unchanged on 23 July 2026, keeping the deposit facility rate at 2.25…
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European Union Fines Google 890 Million Euros for Breaching Digital Markets Act Rules
The European Commission has fined Alphabet's Google 890 million euros for breaching the European Union's Digital Markets Act, in what stands as…
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Gold Climbs to a Two-Week High Above 4,100 Dollars an Ounce Ahead of the Federal Reserve Meeting in July 2026
Gold rose to a two-week high on 22 July 2026, with the metal trading up about 1.3 percent at around 4,130 dollars…
Read more →Google Launches Gemini 3.5 Flash Cyber, a Cybersecurity AI Model, as the AI Race Intensifies in July 2026
Google has launched a new artificial-intelligence model focused on cybersecurity, called Gemini 3.5 Flash Cyber, describing it as a lightweight system built…
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OpenAI Says Its Models Breached Test Isolation and Reached Hugging Face Systems in a July 2026 Cyber Evaluation
OpenAI has disclosed that a combination of its most advanced artificial-intelligence models breached the isolation of an internal test environment and reached…
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The Japanese Yen Falls to Its Weakest Since 1986, Near 163 to the Dollar, as Tokyo Pledges Decisive Action
The Japanese yen has fallen to its weakest level since 1986, with the dollar reaching around 163 yen, prompting the government in…
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Market Wrap MENA-Asia 22 July: Brent Jumps Above 94 Dollars and Gold Reaches a Two-Week High on Hormuz Supply Risk as Saudi Leads a Split Gulf Board
Wednesday belonged to oil. Brent jumped 3.83 percent to 94.50 dollars, touching 95.47 in a near six-week high, after an eleventh consecutive…
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UK Inflation Slows to a 15-Month Low of 2.6% Ahead of Next Week’s Bank of England Decision
UK inflation slowed more than expected in June to its lowest level in 15 months, easing pressure on households and reshaping the…
Read more →Market Wrap US-Europe 21 July: A Memory-Chip Surge Powers Wall Street Higher as the Chip Index Jumps 5.2 Percent, Nvidia’s Lead Over Apple Widens to About 200 Billion Dollars and Europe Inches Up Before Earnings
Wall Street turned Monday's tentative chip recovery into a decisive risk-on session on Tuesday, and closed near the day's highs. The Nasdaq…
Read more →The IEA Warns of Renewed Oil Supply Risk as Gulf Exports Stay Below Pre-War Levels and Brent Trades Above 91 Dollars
The International Energy Agency has warned that the security of oil supply has come under renewed strain, saying that an escalation in…
Read more →ECB Survey Shows Euro Area Firms Facing Higher Loan Rates in the Second Quarter of 2026 as Wage and Price Expectations Ease
Euro area companies reported a marked rise in borrowing costs in the second quarter of 2026, according to the European Central Bank's…
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China Holds Its Loan Prime Rates for a 14th Straight Month After Second-Quarter Growth Slowed to 4.3 Percent
China left its benchmark lending rates unchanged for a fourteenth consecutive month in July, with the one-year loan prime rate held at…
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US States Led by California Win a Court Order Halting the 110 Billion Dollar Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery Merger
A coalition of United States states led by California won a court order on Monday temporarily halting Paramount Skydance's roughly 110 billion…
Read more →Market Wrap US-Europe 20 July: Wall Street Fades Oil’s Round Trip to a Near-Flat Close as Nvidia’s Lead Over Apple Widens to About 120 Billion Dollars and the FTSE Gives Back Friday’s Gain
Wall Street spent Monday trading a war that briefly repriced and a diplomacy headline that repriced it back, and closed almost where…
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Commodities Wrap 20 July: Brent Touches 91.42 Dollars Then Fades on a 10-Day Ceasefire Proposal as Gold Defends the 4,000 Line and Copper Rebounds 1.45 Percent
Oil's first session after the weekend's escalation was a round trip of more than five dollars that ended with a strikingly small…
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China Is Exporting About 20 Percent Fewer Rare-Earth Magnets to the United States Despite the Trade Truce
China is exporting about 20 percent fewer rare-earth magnets to the United States despite a trade truce between the two countries, according…
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The EU Fines AliExpress 550 Million Euros in Its Biggest Digital Services Act Penalty to Date
The European Commission has fined AliExpress, the online marketplace owned by China's Alibaba Group, 550 million euros for breaching the European Union's…
Read more →Market Wrap MENA-Asia 20 July: Qatar Reclaims 10,000 and Cairo Closes Above 53,000 While Muscat Drops 3.44 Percent and Seoul Returns to the Chip Rout Down 4.46 Percent
The escalation's second Monday sorted the region into winners and casualties with unusual clarity. The Qatar Stock Exchange's second session back took…
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DeepSeek Seeks Fresh Funding at a Valuation Near 74 Billion Dollars as It Prepares a Shanghai Listing
The Chinese artificial-intelligence company DeepSeek is in early talks over a new funding round of up to 50 billion yuan, about 7.4…
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From a 450 Dollar Patch of Grass to a 32,970 Dollar Seat: How the 2026 World Cup Final Became a Complete Revenue Platform
Spain are world champions. They beat Argentina 1-0 after extra time, through a Ferran Torres goal, in Sunday's 2026 World Cup final…
Read more →MENA Markets Wrap 19 July: Qatar Returns at 9,955 and TASI Holds Flat as the Gulf Prices an 88 Dollar Brent, a Global Chip Crash and the IMF’s Contraction Call
The Gulf opened the escalation's second week with three pieces of weekend homework and marked them calmly. The Qatar Stock Exchange returned…
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- Asia Market Wrap 7 October: All Eight Indices Fall as Seoul Drops 1.98 Percent
- The Week Ahead: The Federal Reserve Decides on 29 July, US Growth and Inflation Data Land, and the Megacap Technology Earnings Peak
- Asia Market Wrap 8 October: All Ten Indices Fall as Singapore Drops 3.49 Percent
- Asia Market Wrap 6 October: Nikkei Posts First Close Above 70,000 Since July as Kospi Falls
- Europe Market Wrap 9 October: All Nine Indices Rise as Basic Resources Jump 2.99 Percent