We will now wrap up the blog. Bye, folks!
Stocks rebounded on Monday as investors were optimistic that the conflict between Israel and Iran may remain contained. The spike in oil prices due to the escalating conflict also eased.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 317.30 points, or 0.75%. The S&P 500 advanced 0.94%, while the Nasdaq Composite surged 1.52%.
WTI crude oil futures fell more than 1% to $71.77 a barrel after trading above $77 in the overnight session.
Traders have been closely watching the Middle East after Israel’s strike on Iran on Friday. Iran launched missiles in retaliation, increasing the severity of the conflict in the region.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer is set to agree Monday with President Donald Trump to implement a trade deal announced last month to slash US tariffs on key British exports and raise UK quotas on certain American agricultural products, people familiar with the matter said.
The two men will meet at the Group of Seven summit in Kananaskis, Canada to finalise the agreement, according to the people, who requested anonymity discussing matters that haven’t been publicly announced. A US official said a proclamation is ready for Trump to sign, while a UK official said the leaders were set to enact last month’s agreement.
Trump had heralded the deal as the first struck between the US and a major trading partner following his decision to ratchet up tariffs against countries worldwide, but details were lacking at the time.
An Elliott Investment Management affiliate is considering rejoining the bidding for Citgo Petroleum Corp.’s parent company, according to people familiar with the matter.
The affiliate, Amber Energy, had pulled out of the sale last month, leaving three groups of bidders to compete for the asset, including Red Tree Investments LLC, Vitol and a consortium led by Gold Reserve. But since then, other potential buyers, including TPG Angelo Gordon, have entered the contest, lured by easing legal risks related to the sale.
The auction, ordered by a US judge in Delaware, is intended to compensate creditors whose assets were seized by the Venezuelan government.
Oil fell on signs that the conflict in the Middle East may avoid disrupting crude production, with Iran seeking to deescalate hostilities with Israel.
West Texas Intermediate slid 1.7% to settle below $72 a barrel after spiking to start the session and swinging in an $8 throughout the day. US President Donald Trump said Iran wants to talk about deescalating the conflict, helping quell fears that a protracted war would engulf a region that produces around a third of the world’s crude.
US President Donald Trump said Iran wants to talk about deescalating the deadly conflict with Israel but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signaled strikes will continue.
Asked about reports that Iran wants to work toward a resolution, Trump responded “yeah,” and added, “they’d like to talk, but they should have done that before.”
“It’s painful for both parties but I would say that Iran is not winning this war,” Trump said at the start of a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at a Group of Seven leaders summit in Kananaskis, Alberta.
Shell Plc’s former head of oil trading in the US was stiffed on his 2020 bonus by more than $29 million, he claims in a lawsuit that shines a light on compensation inside the oil major’s lucrative trading unit.
John Dimech alleges that even though his unit’s profits doubled in 2020, his bonus for that year was little changed after Shell unexpectedly modified pay calculations, according to the lawsuit in federal court in Texas. If Shell had adhered to its established formula for calculating bonuses, Dimech claims he would have received about $40 million. But he only got about $11 million instead.
Shell doesn’t disclose the performance of its trading unit to investors. According to Dimech, the North America crude group boosted profit from already-record levels as businesses shut and people hunkered down at home during the onset of the pandemic.
Electricite de France SA said the new stress-corrosion crack in a pipe at the Civaux 2 reactor won’t reduce nuclear output this year or beyond because the issue will be repaired quickly.
EDF has been checking hundreds of welds per year at reactors that are most prone to stress-corrosion cracks since faults appeared more than three years ago, and the new defect at Civaux 2 was the only one found, Regis Clement, deputy head of the company’s nuclear production unit, told reporters on Monday.
Power prices across Europe, already impacted by dwindling Russian gas supplies, jumped last week after the reports on Civaux 2 renewed fears that France’s nuclear generation could be curtailed once again. The French utility in 2022 and 2023 was forced to halt part of its atomic fleet, the backbone of western Europe’s electricity market, to fix cracked pipes.
Two New York court officers were wounded Monday after they were slashed at a crowded Manhattan courthouse in an attack that appeared to be focused on law enforcement.
The assaults “appeared preliminarily to be a targeted attack of the uniformed officers working security details at the courthouse,” said Al Baker, a New York State court spokesman.
The slashing took place at the busy criminal courthouse in Lower Manhattan at 100 Centre Street. It occurred in a security area where people entering the courthouse are screened for weapons, Baker said.
Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. said it won enough support from creditors to overhaul its debt as part of a plan to split into two separate companies, a significant victory for the entertainment giant as it tries to turn itself around.
The company said last week that it’s dividing into two separate corporations, one focusing on streaming and movie studios, and the other on cable television channels. As part of that division, it said it’s looking to buy back some $14.6 billion of bonds, and to switch the terms on remaining debt to give it more flexibility to shift around assets in the future, among other changes.
Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. said it won enough support from creditors to overhaul its debt as part of a plan to split into two separate companies, a significant victory for the entertainment giant as it tries to turn itself around.
The company said last week that it’s dividing into two separate corporations, one focusing on streaming and movie studios, and the other on cable television channels. As part of that division, it said it’s looking to buy back some $14.6 billion of bonds, and to switch the terms on remaining debt to give it more flexibility to shift around assets in the future, among other changes.
Israel will pursue its military operations against Iran regardless of the progress of any potential negotiations involving the US, Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer said in an interview on Bloomberg Television.
“We’re going to go about our operation to remove these two threats,” Dermer said Monday, referring to Iran’s missile and nuclear programs. “Whether Iran will decide to meet with the United States and agree to terms that they should have taken a month ago, or two weeks ago, or two months ago, you know, that’s up to Iran to decide.”
His comments came after US President Donald Trump said Iran wants to talk about de-escalating the four-day-old conflict.
The momentum behind mergers and acquisitions remains strong despite growing tensions in the Middle East, according to the incoming chief executive officer of Moelis & Co.
“The latest Middle East conflict is early days and is fluid,” Navid Mahmoodzadegan, who in October will take over from Ken Moelis atop the New York-based investment bank, said in an interview on Bloomberg TV. “I continue to be optimistic that the forces that are driving M&A are very much intact.”
US Treasuries trimmed losses as oil prices tumbled from near five-month highs after a report that Iran was seeking a de-escalation of hostilities with Israel.
Two-year yields were little changed at around 3.96% as the retreat by crude oil — following the Wall Street Journal’s report that Iran signalled it wants an end to the conflict — helped lessen concerns about inflation.
Traders slightly pared bets on interest-rate cuts from the Federal Reserve, pricing 46 basis points of easing by the end of the year, compared to 49 basis points on Friday.
The US is refusing to back a proposed Group of Seven statement urging Israel and Iran to de-escalate their conflict, people familiar with the matter said, underscoring divisions between the Trump administration and the rest of the bloc.
President Donald Trump has no interest in such a message from G-7 leaders, who are meeting for a summit in Alberta, Canada, and instead wants to keep up pressure on Iran to refrain from obtaining a nuclear weapon, one of the people said. Another person didn’t rule out Trump agreeing to an amended statement later on.
A draft of the statement, a copy of which was seen by Bloomberg News, describes Iran as the principle source of instability in the region and says Tehran should never have a nuclear weapon. It says the G-7 will try to defuse tensions and work with regional partners to de-escalate the conflict.
Scale AI co-founder Alexandr Wang is such an enthusiastic networker that his former roommate — OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman — once jokingly told him to tone it down a bit.
Fortunately for Wang, he ignored the advice. Last week, the 28-year-old parlayed his ability to cultivate influential relationships into a $14.3 billion investment from Meta in Scale, and a new job for himself in Meta’s “superintelligence” group, reporting to CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
His own cash and equity in the deal is worth more than $5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. What Meta is buying: the one guy who knows what everyone else in the AI industry is doing.
A Malian court ruled that Barrick Mining Corp.’s Loulo-Gounkoto gold mining complex should be placed under provisional administration for six months, handing control of one of the Canadian company’s biggest operations to state-appointed management.
The decision on Monday comes after Mali closed Barrick’s offices in the capital Bamako and warned it would take control of the mine, which has been shuttered owing to a months-long dispute over mine dividends, unless it was reopened and tax payments made.
The mine will be managed by Soumana Makadji, an accountant and former health minister, said Issa Aguibou Diallo, a judge at the Tribunal de Commerce. Shares of Barrick fell 0.8% as of 1:03 p.m. in New York.
Lottomatica Group Spa’s largest shareholder Gamma Intermediate is seeking to sell its entire stake in the Italian betting company, worth about €1.2 billion ($1.4 billion).
Gamma Intermediate is offering about 53.6 million shares through an accelerated share sale after markets closed in Italy on Monday, according to a statement. The stake represents about 21.3% of Lottomatica’s outstanding share capital, and shares are being offered at €22.50 apiece, according to terms seen by Bloomberg.
Barclays Plc and Deutsche Bank AG are arranging the deal.
Patreon Inc. is increasing fees for new creators as the startup expands into video and rolls out other features.
Under the new structure, Patreon is collapsing two membership tiers into one plan that will take 10% of a creator’s earnings from their paid subscriptions, up from a previous rate of 8%, the company announced Monday.
The fee change, which takes effect on Aug 4, applies only to new creators that join the platform, and marks the first time Patreon has increased prices in six years. The creator economy startup is raising prices to support new features such as live video, personalised content recommendations and chats, the company said.
The ETF market has hit a symbolic turning point: active funds now outnumber passive ones for the first time, marking a sharp break from the industry’s index-tracking origins — even if actively managed assets still account for just a tenth of assets.
Roughly 51% of the nearly 4,300 US-listed exchange-traded funds are ones overseen by fund managers who have more discretion to pick stocks or other securities, eclipsing index-following products for the first time, Bloomberg Intelligence data show. The number of active ETFs has more than doubled in the past five years, from just 23% in 2020.
It’s another sign of the sea change underway in the $11 trillion US-listed ETF market. Investors have been gravitating toward actively managed strategies, which have absorbed about 40% of industry inflows amid this year’s market turbulence — the highest share ever. To meet that demand, asset managers are launching a record number of new active products, which command higher fees than their passive counterparts.
Some oil tanker owners and managers have paused offering their vessels for Middle Eastern routes since Friday as they assess the risks from Israel’s conflict with Iran, fueling concerns over export flows from the region and sending freight rates jumping.
Producers and traders trying to book ships to load crude oil and fuel from the Persian Gulf have been met with few offers, said shipbrokers and charterers, who asked not to be identified as they’re not authorised to speak publicly.
Meanwhile, some owners with tankers that had been provisionally chartered as of Friday, pending confirmation of the booking, chose not to extend the agreements into the weekend, one of them said.
Kering SA named Luca de Meo as its next chief executive officer, looking to the architect of carmaker Renault SA’s turnaround to perform the same feat at the owner of the struggling fashion label Gucci.
The roles of CEO and chairman currently held by Francois-Henri Pinault will be split, Kering said in a statement Monday. De Meo will take over as CEO in mid-September and Pinault will remain chairman of the French luxury group his family controls.
De Meo’s experience and “sharp understanding of brands” make him the right leader to steer the group, Pinault said in the statement.
US President Donald Trump expressed optimism about settling a trade dispute with Canada during his time at the Group of Seven summit, calling a deal in the coming weeks between the US and its northern neighbour “achievable.”
“I think we have different concepts. I have a tariff concept,” Trump said during a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. “Mark has a different concept, which is something that some people like, but we’re going to see if we can get to the bottom of it today.”
While Trump said he favoured tariffs because they were “simple” and “easy,” he indicated a willingness to hear out the proposal from Carney, who is seeking to limit punishing levies on key industries, including steel, aluminium and autos.
“I think Mark has a more complex idea, but also very good,” Trump said. “So we’re going to look at both, and we’re going to see what we’re going to come out with something.”
A naval coalition that seeks to keep commercial shipping safe in and around the Persian Gulf said there appears to have been a small drop in cargo traffic through the strait of Hormuz, a vital oil chokepoint, since Israel’s airstrikes on Iran on Friday.
“The number of transits through the Strait of Hormuz has shown a minor decrease in cargo carrying vessels,” the Joint Maritime Information Center, which comes under the Combined Maritime Forces in Bahrain, said in a notice on Monday.
Oil traders and investors are watching closely what happens through Hormuz — and the wider Iranian export complex — since the airstrikes, which have targeted the Persian Gulf states nuclear sites, military and domestic energy infrastructure. Crude futures, which surged initially, subsequently retreated, in part on a report that Iran wants to de-escalate.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has arrived in Kazakhstan for talks with Central Asian leaders, providing a counterpoint to a Group of Seven summit by visiting a vast region at the nexus of competing interests from Washington to Beijing.
Xi, who’s making only his third overseas trip this year, met with Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on Monday and will attend the second gathering of the leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan the following day.
The summit in the Kazakh capital Astana is taking place in parallel to the G-7 event in Canada, and comes days after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Kazakhstan’s foreign minister in Washington. Xi hosted the inaugural China-Central Asia Summit in the Chinese city of Xi’an two years ago.
US Treasuries trimmed losses as oil prices as oil prices tumbled from near five-month highs after a report Iran was seeking a de-escalation of hostilities with Israel.
Two-year yields were little changed around 3.94% as the retreat by crude oil — following the Wall Street Journal’s report that Iran signaled it wants an end to the conflict — helped lessen concerns about inflation.
Traders slightly pared bets on interest-rate cuts from the Federal Reserve, pricing 46 basis points of easing by the end of the year, compared to 49 basis points on Friday.
Gold edged lower, erasing gains made earlier in the day, as fears subsided that Israel’s war against Iran would drag in other countries.
The precious metal fell on Monday to trade close to $3,390 an ounce, about $110 short of an all-time peak set in April. Israel and Iran exchanged fire for the fourth consecutive day on Monday.
Markets calmed as fears of a regional war decreased, with Tehran signaling it wants to deescalate hostilities with Israel and is willing to resume nuclear talks with the US, the Wall Street Journal reported.
When Paula Comings, the head of currency sales for US Bancorp, talks to US importers, she increasingly hears the same message: Their foreign counterparties no longer want to be paid in dollars.
Instead, they ask for settlement in euros, Chinese renminbi, the Mexican peso and the Canadian dollar, looking to limit their exposure to further swings in the greenback.
“A lot of clients previously were reluctant because dollars were sacred in the eyes of the supplier,” Comings said. “Now the vibe from overseas vendors seems to be, ‘Just give us our currency.’”
China confirmed its approval of Bunge Global SA’s takeover of rival Viterra, but outlined several conditions including the continued supply of key crops to the Asian nation at a “fair” price.
The green light from Beijing, announced by Bunge on Friday, was the last major hurdle to the conclusion of the $8.2 billion deal. Bunge shares rose as much as 4.4% in New York on Monday, extending Friday’s gain of 5.7%.
Still, a statement from China’s State Administration for Market Regulation outlined the large share of soybean, barley and rapeseed trade with one of the world’s top buyers that the combined company will control, which risks limiting competition.
Antitrust authorities asked that the company supply those crops to Chinese clients at what it called fair market prices and in a timely, reliable and sufficient manner. After the merger is finalised, it must also report its monthly sales to Chinese clients to the regulator each quarter, and provide comparison with the average from 2021 to 2024.
Mitsubishi Corp. is in advanced talks to buy Aethon Energy Management for close to $8 billion, people familiar with the matter said, in what would be the Japanese conglomerate’s biggest ever acquisition.
Tokyo-based Mitsubishi could announce a deal for the US energy-focused investment firm in the next couple of months, according to the people. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. had also been considering a potential transaction involving Aethon, Bloomberg News reported in April.
While a deal is close, talks could still be delayed or falter, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing confidential information. It’s also possible another bidder could emerge for Aethon, the people said. Representatives for Mitsubishi and Aethon declined to comment. A spokesperson for Adnoc didn’t respond to requests for comment.
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