September's rate was the highest since December 2023, driven by a 37.1% jump in motor fuel and a 74.9% surge in heating oil — both tied to crude oil market shifts since the Iran war began. Electricity and gas prices fell, and food prices rose just 0.4%.
Ghana's main cocoa processor ran at 20% of capacity as beans became too costly to buy. Now rice supplies are tightening too, with world food prices near a four-year high.
The fund upgraded its outlook for India by 0.3 percentage points in its April World Economic Outlook. China's forecast was left unchanged at 4.6 percent, down from 5.2 percent in 2023.
The central bank lifted its benchmark rate to 1.25%, the fastest move in its tightening cycle. Markets are increasingly pricing in another increase before year-end.
September shipments reached 1.6 million tonnes — their highest since the conflict began, but still below a quarter of pre-war levels. The Strait of Hormuz remains severely restricted, and analysts say recovery would take well over half a year even if the fighting stopped today.
THORChain co-founder Chad Barraford called the blacklisting of four USDT vaults unprecedented, saying the platform had no contact with Tether before or after the action. The episode comes as EU regulators give crypto firms until 8 January 2027 to drop services tied to noncompliant stablecoins such as USDT.
Cross-border stablecoin payment volumes rose 35-fold between 2020 and mid-2024, but only 11 of 28 surveyed countries have finalised regulatory frameworks. FSB chair Andrew Bailey says a run on a major stablecoin could spill into traditional markets before regulators can act.
The kingdom plans upgrades to the East-West pipeline and a temporary switch of a gas line to carry crude. Drone strikes and Houthi attacks on shipping have pushed Saudi Arabia to build more resilient export routes.
All 12 committee members voted to lift the benchmark rate by 0.25 percentage points. Whether the Fed moves again in September depends on the August jobs and inflation reports, due days before the meeting.
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve has fallen 31% since the start of the year and now sits at its lowest level in more than four decades. Energy Secretary Chris Wright has said he wants up to $20 billion to refill it.
The current estimate stands at 29.6%, but actual growth has beaten forecasts in 37 of the past 40 quarters. If the pattern holds, final growth could reach anywhere from 35.6% to 43.3%.
Policymakers unanimously lifted the federal funds rate to 3.75%–4% on 16 September, reversing cuts made since 2024. Officials remain divided over whether further tightening will be needed. Mortgage rates have already climbed to 6.95%, their highest since January 2025.
The account belonged to a Tajik businessman whose preferential status required senior sign-off before it could be closed. It was part of a wider network that moved about $850 million through Binance — now the subject of a fresh US federal probe.
Hundreds of customers in Southeast Asia who bought hardware wallets from CryptoBilis lost funds across Bitcoin, Ethereum and TRON. Ledger has asked the reseller to halt sales and told recent buyers to move their funds immediately.
Construction spending on data centres hit an annual rate of $85 billion in August, driving up demand for labour, materials and chips. The Fed's problem is that AI investment appears largely immune to higher interest rates.
Ten-year eurozone yields reached nearly 4% in September, with France's bond yields at their highest since 2008. Italy, whose public debt is projected near 139% of GDP, is the most exposed — and both governments are now weighing painful cuts against the risk of stalling their economies.
The University of Michigan's sentiment index fell to 53.6 in early October, down 24 percent over the past year. The sharpest declines were among lower-income households, and the current conditions index hit a record low of 44.7.
French 10-year yields reached 4.74%, the widest spread over German debt since the depths of the eurozone crisis. The ECB has tools to intervene, but their conditions include sound public finances — which France does not currently meet.
Trump confirmed the strait is open and the East-West pipeline has recovered about half its capacity. But on 1 October, Brent was $99-100 a barrel against $72.50 before the crisis, and European gas was more than double its pre-war level.
Alberto Musalem said persistent demand and supply shocks have kept inflation too high for too long. Traders still expect the Fed to hold rates steady in October, but see nearly 70% odds of another increase in December.
Storage costs have fallen 93% since 2010, tipping the economics against the gas peaking plants grids rely on during high-demand periods. Wood Mackenzie expects the gap to keep widening.
The average five-year fixed rate has reached 5.95%, its highest since October 2023. Up to 700,000 households whose deals expire by end of 2026 could see their annual mortgage bill rise by as much as £5,000.
Talks with Asian customers over alternative delivery routes must conclude by year-end, though pricing, freight and eligible volumes are unresolved. The push comes after a drone attack on 13 September knocked out the East-West Pipeline, Saudi Arabia's main overland route around the strait.
The crypto firm has renamed its $1.25 billion acquisition Hidden Road as Ripple Prime, putting it in direct competition with banks in the business of financing and clearing trades. The US leveraged-ETF market it is targeting holds more than $256 billion in assets across 593 funds.
The African Union has responded by launching its own ratings agency, AfCRA, designed to challenge Moody's, S&P and Fitch. The UN says Africa's actual default rate is far below what its ratings imply, while the continent pays the world's highest cost of capital.
At least 16.5 million barrels a day left the region in September, matching pre-war averages. Producers have rerouted 40% of Gulf exports away from the strait — double the pre-war share — through pipelines, offshore loading and Red Sea routes.
All 19 officials backed lifting the benchmark rate to between 3.75% and 4%. Most see another rise by year end as likely, though markets have since cut the odds of an October hike to around 20%.
An agreement is close to completion, with the first convoy expected in Syria by mid-October. The two countries are also reviving a pipeline that would give Iraq a more permanent route to the Mediterranean.
Import prices respond almost immediately, while US-made goods take six to twelve months to adjust as higher costs move through supply chains. The effect eased to around 2% by August after a Supreme Court ruling struck down the emergency powers behind the steepest tariffs.
Chinese refiners stopped all exports except to Hong Kong and Macau after domestic stocks fell to multi-year lows. The move pushed oil up 4%, adding to pressure from Russia's ongoing diesel export ban and US distillate stocks running 14% below their five-year average.
The dollar-yen rate dropped from nearly 164 to 155.20 within hours of the joint operation. Some of the gain faded within days, with the rate back to 159.09 by 10 August 2026.
Crude is flowing again through the Strait of Hormuz under US Navy convoy, but ships are waiting days or weeks to load. Charter costs have added about $26 a barrel to cargoes heading from Houston to Asia.
The Strait of Hormuz, which once handled around 20 million barrels a day, saw just four commodity vessels cross it on Monday. Tanker shuttles, ship-to-ship transfers and overland pipelines are filling the gap, but global inventories have fallen sharply and diesel prices have hit record levels.
Indonesia has imposed an export tax of as much as 15% on gold. Across the region, countries are also expanding domestic refining and directing locally mined metal into national reserves, challenging the historic flow of supply to London and New York.
The 10-year yield touched 5.342% after the Fed's latest rate rise, drawing billions into bond funds. Wealth advisers are divided over whether retirees should switch — dividend stocks have historically held up better in downturns.
The new official rate is 1,520 dinars to the US dollar, down from around 1,300. US-Iran tensions blocked Iraq's main oil route through the Strait of Hormuz, forcing exports onto a costlier overland path through Syria and squeezing the government revenues that depend almost entirely on oil.
Kristalina Georgieva says oil at $100 a barrel and damaged refining capacity could keep costs elevated well beyond any ceasefire. Governments are poorly placed to cushion the blow, with global sovereign debt now exceeding three times world GDP.
The US Energy Information Administration now expects Brent crude to average $105 per barrel in the fourth quarter of 2026. East Coast diesel stocks are running 32 percent below their seasonal average, and US retail diesel hit $6.29 a gallon in September.
Russell Hardy says the real crisis is transport, not supply. Around 15 percent of the world's largest tankers are tied up in Hormuz shuttle work, leaving buyers unable to secure ships even when oil is available.
No newly exported Iranian oil has crossed the US blockade line since July. With only around 10 million barrels left in floating storage off Malaysia, Tehran is fast running out of crude to sell.
Nearly 3 billion barrels of supply have been lost since the Hormuz disruption began, and Amin Nasser says emergency reserves cannot fix the longer-term problem. Saudi Arabia is weighing a $7 billion pipeline to Oman's Duqm Port that would bypass both Hormuz and the Red Sea.
The record of the Federal Reserve's September meeting is due Wednesday. It captures a discussion held before weaker payroll data emerged — and may reveal how many more rate rises officials thought they needed.
The US naval blockade has effectively halted Iranian crude exports since mid-July. Refiners that built their businesses on sanctioned Iranian barrels are now scrambling for replacements at sharply higher prices.
The gap between French and German 10-year borrowing costs reached 152 basis points on 2 October, a level not seen since the eurozone debt crisis. A €43 billion savings package from the government did little to calm investors already unnerved by political deadlock and a presidential election on the horizon.
The rise takes borrowing costs past the previous post-COVID peak. The RBA's Financial Stability Review says fewer than 2 per cent of variable-rate mortgage holders are in cash flow shortfall, though that share is expected to edge higher.
The IEA will roll out the oil and diesel over four months, with diesel frontloaded in the first 20 days. The move follows a 400 million barrel release in March, a third of which had still not reached the market when the new deal was struck.
The Reserve Bank of India is expected to lift its benchmark repo rate by 25 basis points to 5.50 per cent. Rising inflation, a weaker rupee and surging oil prices are behind the expected move.
The signal would strengthen the case for another rate rise in the coming months. Japan's main interest rate is already at a 31-year high after six increases since 2024, and markets are pricing in a further move in December.
Meta's Muse and OpenAI's Dots both run on AMD's EPYC processors, and Morgan Stanley estimates Muse alone could account for 20% of AMD's 2026 chip sales. The company's data-centre business grew 107% year on year in the second quarter.
Chainalysis recorded $104.1 billion across 18.1 million transfers involving self-custodied stablecoin holdings in the year to June 2026. Peer-to-peer activity now accounts for 59.1% of China's estimated $176 billion crypto economy.
Investment and exports tied to artificial intelligence are driving the upgrade. But Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam have burned through up to 40% of their dollar reserves subsidising fuel prices, and the bank warns a prolonged energy shock could tip the balance.
Diesel hit $6.52 a gallon last month and was averaging $6.37 on Friday. The G7 deal will frontload a substantial release of diesel in the next 20 days, with the rest to follow over four months.
Hong Kong received almost 100 tonnes of Russian gold in the first seven months of 2026, as Western sanctions keep London and New York closed to Russian bullion. Most of it moves on to mainland China, whose imports of Russian gold rose about 15-fold to $3.3 billion in 2025.
The AI boom drove technology fortunes to a record $4.6 trillion through September. Billionaires outside the sector shed a combined $62 billion over the same period.
SEBI chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey said the priority is reducing the upfront capital traders must set aside. His own regulator's data shows the overwhelming majority of retail investors are still losing money in short-term options.
Middle East oil exports have recovered above pre-war levels, but the Houthis' advance into the Bab al-Mandab Strait is keeping crude prices elevated. Brent hit $100.80 on Wednesday, its highest since late July.
Amin H. Nasser called this the most serious energy supply shock of his career. Nearly 3 billion barrels of gross supply have been lost since the war began, and fewer than 6 billion barrels of commercial inventories remain — most of it not practically accessible.
Rising gilt yields have driven lenders to raise fixed rates repeatedly through September. Just nine deals below 5% remain, down from nearly 1,500 at the start of the month, as about half a million homeowners need a new deal before the year is out.
The single currency touched $1.1215 on Thursday, its weakest since May 2025. Political uncertainty in France and Germany added to the pressure, with French bond yields hitting a 14-year high.
OKXICE, the joint venture between OKX and Intercontinental Exchange, has notified the SEC of plans to offer on-chain trading in 63 US-listed stocks. The platform would run 24 hours a day with instant settlement, but trading cannot begin until a 30-day opt-out period closes and other requirements are met.
Their market share dropped to 49% in the first half of 2026, down from 73% in 2021. Electric vehicles took 17% of the market, with sales in Europe overtaking gasoline cars for the first time.
The fund accepted that Bitcoin added since its last review came from private donations, not public money. El Salvador also handed majority control of its Chivo crypto wallet to a private operator as part of the deal.
Arab Light for Asian buyers fell to $2.40 per barrel above the benchmark, ending five straight months of increases. Bank of America has forecast Brent will average $65 a barrel in 2025 as oil surpluses grow.
Tesla delivered 486,532 vehicles in Q3 2026, topping analyst estimates but coming in below its own result from the same quarter a year ago. Rivian also posted a strong quarter, with deliveries up 45% year on year after its R2 SUV completed its first full sales period.
Funds have amassed roughly $4.0 trillion in gross Treasury exposure, financed by $3.0 trillion in repo borrowing. The basis trade at the heart of it runs at up to 70 times leverage, capturing spreads of just a few basis points.
The currency has repeatedly set new records since the war began in February. Sanctions, collapsed nuclear talks and domestic protests have all weighed on the rial, while inflation ran above 46% as recently as February 2024.
The drawdown is more than 80 percent of the 400 million barrels agreed by the agency's 32 members after US and Israeli strikes on Iran disrupted supplies. The G7 has separately agreed to release 100 million barrels of diesel and crude over the next four months.
EV sales rose 52.2% year on year in August 2026, pushing their EU market share to 21.7%. In Türkiye, electric sales fell as unchanged tax thresholds priced out more models, and buyers turned to hybrids instead.
The gap between French and German borrowing costs is now the widest since the 2011–2012 European debt crisis. France enters the turbulence with debt at 119% of GDP and interest costs set to rise from 62.6 billion euros this year to 91.2 billion euros next year.
Brent crude briefly hit nearly $120 a barrel after Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz, cutting passage for 15 million barrels a day. Global growth forecasts have barely moved, but inflation is rising and the supply workarounds won't last forever.
Brent crude fell by roughly 3% on Friday as markets anticipated the additional supply. Analysts warn that Gulf supply pressures are likely to limit how long the relief lasts.
More than 10 million barrels a day of Gulf production remain shut in, and global demand is falling by 2.5 million b/d this year. The IEA calls 2026–27 'essentially a lost period' for oil demand growth.
The RAC says the national average has reached 200.01p a litre, a record. The milestone comes as Trump threatens to ban US diesel exports and the EU pushes back, with G7 leaders due to discuss fuel supplies on Friday.
The White House has urged Germany and France to tap emergency stockpiles as diesel hits record highs at UK forecourts and US pump prices climb over 70%. EU officials have flatly rejected any American export ban, and it remains unclear whether either side will act.
Price growth across the eurozone outpaced economists' forecasts, leaving the European Central Bank under pressure to raise interest rates. The margin of the surprise and the causes of the increase have not been reported.
Britain's energy minister held talks with European counterparts on Thursday about a co-ordinated release of strategic stocks. UK diesel prices have hit an all-time high of nearly 200p a litre, and the country imports much of what it needs.
The agency has not set out when or how any release would happen, or what volumes might be involved. Europe's winter outlook is described as tough, though no detail is given on where pressures are expected to fall hardest.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Vice Premier He Lifeng struck the deal, giving both sides time to keep talking at summits planned for later in the year. Wider disputes over Taiwan, Iran and AI were discussed but left unresolved.
A valve closure on the line from El Sharara, Libya's largest oil field, has halted more than 942,000 barrels of output. The national oil company warns it may declare force majeure and says the Zawiya refinery could shut entirely if the blockade holds.
Energy commissioner Dan Jorgensen has written to member states urging them to cut demand and protect gas storage levels. The bloc is heading into winter with unusually low stocks, and France has separately warned of a fresh oil shock.
The revision is modest — just 0.1 points above June's estimate — and depends on a lasting end to the Middle East conflict. The OECD also trimmed its 2027 forecast, and warned that AI gains may not materialise as expected.
The two countries met on September 10 to build more resilient supply chains for the rare earth metal, which has no easy substitute. China has held back exports since early 2025, and Japanese yttrium imports have fallen 98%.
Gas prices have hit a three-year high after the Iran-US war choked LNG shipments through the Strait of Hormuz. Coal output across Europe is expected to rise by about a quarter over the next six months, with Germany set to run its remaining coal fleet close to full capacity.
The benchmark yield reached 4.86% after the Federal Reserve lifted its rate to the 3.75%–4% range and signalled further increases are likely. Inflation has stayed above the Fed's 2% target for more than five years, and the 30-year yield has touched levels not seen since 2006.
Interest payments on advanced-economy bonds topped $3.3 trillion last year, outstripping global spending on each of those categories separately. The OECD says yields are at their highest in 15 years, and the IMF warns debt is climbing "like a staircase not to heaven".
The reported plan would use joint ventures with private firms and several federal agencies to promote dollar-denominated stablecoins abroad. Its stated aims include reinforcing the dollar's reserve status and driving demand for US Treasuries, though no official confirmation has been given.
Ship-to-ship transfers in the Gulf of Oman have risen to around 2.5 million barrels a day in September, up from 1.4 million in August. But drone strikes on Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline and Houthi control of Red Sea approaches have left the shuttle system with fewer fallback options.
The world's largest crypto exchange paid roughly 5% below market price for its shares and is locked in for two years. It will promote and integrate USDC across its platform, with a focus on emerging markets.
The exchange, which handles nearly 90% of global stock index options volumes, has set its share price range lower than investors were told to expect. Options trading on its platform has fallen 27% from its 2024 peak, and several major sellers have cut the size of their stakes in the deal.
FTSE Russell formally upgraded Vietnam from frontier status, a move that could bring up to $8 billion in foreign investment over 12 months. The gains will arrive slowly: inclusion runs in four tranches through 2027, and analysts say much of the early buying had already happened before Monday's effective date.
Saudi Arabia aims to restart about half the capacity of its East-West pipeline within days, after drone strikes forced a shutdown last Friday. The disruption is deepening an already tight market: the IEA has raised its forecast for this year's global oil deficit to 1.7 million bpd and pushed back any surplus to 2027.
The president says he supports halting US diesel exports to bring pump prices down. His own energy secretary warns a ban could raise fuel costs on the coasts, and no decision or timetable has been set.
Jane Street's loss came as AI and semiconductor stocks reversed sharply — its first negative month since 2016. Regulators want to know how bank lending to large nonbank traders holds up when correlated positions fall fast.
China's central bank has strengthened its daily yuan fixing for eight straight sessions, its longest such run since 2023. The currency has also been buoyed by strong exports and is on course for a seventh consecutive quarterly gain.
The Minneapolis Fed president spoke days after the Federal Open Market Committee raised its benchmark rate to 3.75%–4.00%, the first increase since July 2023. Sixteen of 18 committee members expect at least one more rise, and the Fed has pushed back its target for 2% inflation to 2029.
Spot prices have surged 150% since February, pushing some industrial buyers in Asia to switch to coal and fuel oil. Europe is getting temporary relief as cargoes divert away from the region, but low storage stocks leave it exposed if winter turns cold.
Both sides described the weekend discussions as progress, though neither released details. Research shows that better US-China relations tend to lift oil prices gradually by raising expectations of stronger demand — a different dynamic from the sharper spikes driven by supply fears.
The Fed lifted its benchmark rate to 3.75%-4.00% after inflation stayed above its 2% target for more than five years. Officials do not expect inflation to return to target until 2029.
The Saudi Central Bank ended its participation in mBridge less than a year after joining, citing concerns over how transaction data is handled across borders and whether the platform meets international anti-money-laundering standards. Saudi Arabia had been the first G20 nation from the Middle East to take part.
Bank of America, JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs all forecast bill issuance on a trillion-dollar scale over the next year. The shift leaves Washington more exposed to refinancing risk — and comes as foreign investors have been pulling back from short-term US debt.
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