THE EDGE INSIGHTS
Latest Economic Insights
Economic developments that matter to regional and global markets, analysed daily.
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…
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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…
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Saudi Real Estate Prices Rise 3.0 Percent in the Second Quarter of 2026 as Residential Land Leads the Rebound
Saudi Arabia's real-estate prices returned to growth in the second quarter of 2026, led by a sharp rise in residential land values,…
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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Report: Who Is Really Winning the Global AI Race, With 725 Billion Dollars of Spending Planned for 2026 and the Model Gap at 2.7 Percent
The Edge for Economic Consultancy has published a special report, "The 725 Billion Dollar Question: Who Is Really Winning the Global AI…
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TSMC Profit Jumps 77 Percent to a Record Even as a Chinese AI Model Helps Tip Chip Stocks Into a 20 Percent Bear Market
The two faces of the artificial-intelligence trade were on display within a single week. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company reported a 77.4 percent…
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Saudi PIF Nears EU Clearance for Its 55 Billion Dollar Electronic Arts Takeover
Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and its partners are set to win European Union clearance for their 55 billion dollar acquisition of…
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The Week Ahead: The ECB Decides on 23 July, UK Inflation Lands, and Tesla Opens Big Tech Earnings as the Fed Goes Quiet
The coming week is the last full one before the Federal Reserve meets, and with US policymakers in their pre-meeting blackout the…
Read more →Market Wrap US-Europe-Asia 17 July: A Global Chip Rout Deepens With Taiwan Down 6.5 Percent and the Nasdaq Off 1.4 Percent as the VIX Jumps 12 Percent
The escalation week ended on its heaviest risk-off note. A global chip and technology selloff deepened on Friday: Taiwan's Taiex fell 6.47…
Read more →Commodities Wrap 17 July: Oil Jumps Nearly 5 Percent to Cap a 16 Percent Weekly Surge as Gold Reclaims 4,000 Dollars
Oil jumped nearly 5 percent on Friday, capping a roughly 16 percent gain on the week, while gold reclaimed the 4,000 dollar…
Read more →Market Wrap US-Europe 16 July: Korea’s Rate Shock Reaches Wall Street With the Nasdaq Down 1.5 Percent While the FTSE Rises on 0.7 Percent UK Growth
The escalation's bill crossed the Pacific on Thursday. Wall Street closed lower with the Nasdaq down 1.47 percent at 25,881.95 as the…
Read more →Commodities Wrap 16 July: Gold Posts Its First Close Below 4,000 Dollars of the Escalation as Oil Logs Its First Decline and the VIX Jumps 8.9 Percent
The line gold defended through four sessions of war finally gave way on a day when nothing else offered shelter either. Gold…
Read more →Market Wrap MENA-Asia 16 July: Cairo Nears 53,000 and Saudi Edges Up to Close the Week as the Bank of Korea’s First Hike Since 2023 Sinks Seoul 6.4 Percent
Asia's whipsaw week found its policy trigger on Thursday and the Gulf closed its first full week of the escalation barely changed.…
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Bank of Korea Raises Its Base Rate to 2.75 Percent in Its First Hike Since 2023
The Bank of Korea raised its benchmark base rate by 25 basis points to 2.75 percent from 2.50 percent on 16 July,…
Read more →Market Wrap US-Europe 15 July: Wall Street Adds a Second Day of Gains on Soft Producer Prices as the DAX Slips Below 25,000 and Oil Revives the ECB Rate Question
Wall Street kept rallying on disinflation on Wednesday while Europe blinked at oil. The S&P 500 rose 0.38 percent to 7,572.40 and…
Read more →Commodities Wrap 15 July: Oil Goes Flat at 85 Dollars as the Blockade Premium Stalls, Platinum Jumps 2.3 Percent and the VIX Sinks 4.7 Percent
The oil rally stopped climbing on Wednesday and simply held. Brent was effectively unchanged at its settlement window, quoted up 0.02 percent…
Read more →Market Wrap MENA-Asia 15 July: Gulf Barely Moves Through Fresh Hormuz Strikes and Cairo Adds 0.5 Percent as Seoul Surges 6.2 Percent and China Slows to 4.3 Percent
Asia set the pace on Wednesday and the Gulf answered with its calmest session since the escalation began. Seoul's Kospi surged 6.24…
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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
- Europe Market Wrap 9 October: All Nine Indices Rise as Basic Resources Jump 2.99 Percent
- Asia Market Wrap 6 October: Nikkei Posts First Close Above 70,000 Since July as Kospi Falls