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S&P and Nasdaq fall as investors focus on trade talks; Delta Air soars
S&P 500, Nasdaq and Dow Jones all edged lower on Thursday as investors watched developments surrounding U.S. president Donald Trump's policies regarding trade. Meanwhile, airline stocks jumped after Delta's positive forecast. 10:02 am At 10:02 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 39.82 points or 0.09% to 44,498.12, while the S&P 500 dropped 9.36 points or 0.15% to 6,253.90, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 89.97 or 0.44% to 20,523.04. Delta Air Lines' stock jumped 12.9% following the company's announcement that it would exceed Wall Street expectations for its third-quarter profit and annual profits. Peers United Airlines grew 9.7% while American Airlines grew 9%. This helped boost the Dow Jones Transport Average 2.3%. The markets are preparing for a rush of earnings from the second quarter, which will begin in full force on Monday. Eric Beiley is a wealth manager at Steward Partners. He said, "Investors must continue to be able to justify the valuations by proving that corporate earnings are continuing." Investors are likely to have slowed down their buying spree due to the recent tariff announcements. The S&P 500 index was up in nine of the 11 major sectors, while technology and communications services were the only ones to fall. Tesla, the electric vehicle manufacturer, however, rose 2.7% amid discussions about its next annual Shareholder Meeting In November, Trump announced Wednesday that a new tariff of 50% on copper would begin on August 1. He also threatened to impose a tariff of 50% on Brazilian exports to the United States. He also sent tariff notices out to seven minor trading partners. Investors are closely watching the trade negotiations as they progress. Nvidia, the world's first $4 trillion company, reached that milestone on Wednesday. In morning trading, the chip giant's stock fell 0.2%. Minutes of the Federal Reserve meeting in June showed that most officials expect rate reductions to be appropriate this year. Trump's new import taxes are expected to have "temporary" or "modest" price shocks. According to CME Group’s FedWatch tool, while a rate cut in July seems unlikely, the odds for a reduction in September are 67%. The robust Labor Market Report last week sent Wall Street's major indices to new record highs. This is a sign of a recovery from the sharp sell-off in April following the "Liberation Day", tariff announcements. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is only 1.1% from its all-time December 4 high. A poll showed that the initial jobless claims were 227,000. This was below the consensus of 235,000. Also, Federal Reserve Board governor Christopher Waller and St. Louis Fed president Alberto Musalem, as well as San Francisco Fed president Mary Daly, are expected to make remarks later that day. WK Kellogg, among other stocks rose 30.5%. It was on course for its largest single-day movement following reports that Italian confectioner Ferrero is nearing an agreement to buy the cereal manufacturer. On the NYSE and Nasdaq, the ratio of advancers to decliners is 1.26:1, while it's 1.24:1 on the NYSE. The S&P 500 recorded 14 new 52-week lows and four new highs, while Nasdaq Composite registered 44 new highs with 18 new lows. Reporting by Pranav Kahyap, Bengaluru. Editing by Maju Sam.
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Middle East flights suspended by airlines
After the 12-day war between Iran and Israel, which ended in a ceasefire brokered by the United States at the end June, many airline services are still disrupted throughout the Middle East. The main Imam Khomeini Airport in Tehran reopened on 4 July after a suspension of flights of 20 days due to Israeli attacks against Iran. However, airspace closures and safety concerns are still affecting airline traffic. Here are some airlines that have cancelled flights from and to the region. AEGEAN AIRLINES From July 10, the Greek airline will resume a part of its schedule for flights to and out of Beirut, as well as from Erbil. The cancellations of flights from Tel Aviv and back will continue until the early flight on September 8th. AIR ARABIA Starting on July 10, the UAE low-cost carrier will resume flights to Damascus. AIRBALTIC AirBaltic, a Latvian airline, announced that it had cancelled all flights from and to Tel Aviv up until September 30. AIR CANADA The Canadian carrier suspends its flights between Toronto and Dubai until the 4th of August. The Canadian carrier had already delayed the resumption to service between Canada & Israel until September 8. AIR EUROPA The Spanish airline announced that it would cancel its flights from and to Tel Aviv up until the 13th of July. The airline will fly Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Sundays and Wednesdays from July 14 until July 31. From August 1, it will fly every day except Saturdays. AIR FRANCE-KLM KLM, the Dutch subsidiary of the group, said that it would cancel all flights to and out of Tel Aviv up until August 30. DELTA AIR LINES Travel to, from, or through Tel Aviv could be affected between June 12 and July 31. EMIRATES Emirates has cancelled all flights from and to Tehran until July 17. FINNAIR Finnish Airlines announced that between July 10th and September 2nd, all Doha flights would be rescheduled so they depart 25-30 minutes sooner. The airline added that it does not fly through the airspaces of Iraq, Iran or Syria at this time. British Airways, owned by IAG, has suspended its flights to Tel Aviv until July 31. Iberia Express is IAG's low cost airline. It has cancelled all flights to Tel Aviv up until October 25. ITA AIRWAYS Italian Airlines announced that it will extend the suspension of Tel Aviv flight until July 31. This includes two flights scheduled for August 1. LUFTHANSA GROUP Lufthansa has announced that it will suspend all flights from and to Tel Aviv, including the 31st of July and from and to Tehran until August 17th. Amman flights are cancelled up to July 11. PEGASUS Turkish Airlines has announced that they have cancelled all flights from Turkey to Iran through the end of July. QATAR AIRWAYS Qatar Airways has announced that flights to Iran are temporarily suspended. RYANAIR Ryanair has cancelled all flights from and to Tel Aviv, and Amman until the 25th of October. UNITED AIRLINES The U.S. airline said it will resume its daily flights to Tel Aviv starting July 21. A second flight is expected to resume on July 22. WIZZ AIR The Hungarian carrier announced that its flights between Tel Aviv and Budapest will resume on August 8, 2008. Amman flights are suspended until 15 September. Reporting by Bureaus, compiled by Agnieszka Olesnka, Elviira Loma, and Tiago Braadao; Editing by Matt Scuffham Alison Williams, and Milla NissiPrussak
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In June, the share of Russian aluminum in LME storages fell as Indian metal rose.
LME data on Thursday showed that the proportion of aluminium stock of Russian origin registered in warehouses at the London Metal Exchange fell to 66% from 69% in may, but the proportion of Indian origin rose to 34%. The LME has prohibited metal produced in Russia from its warehouse system after April 13, 2024 to comply with U.S., British and European sanctions imposed due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine 2022. Metal made before this date can still trade. Stocks of aluminium with Russian origin, or those on warrant The end of June saw little change, with 221,875 tons. A LME warrant is an ownership document. The data shows that the stocks of aluminium made in India rose from 97.950 tonnes to 114.150 tons. The share of copper produced in Russia that is available on the LME Last month, the percentage dropped to 53% from 54%. The amount also fell from 39.350 tons to 31.225 tons. The amount of copper produced in China dropped from 30,825 tons to 24,900 tonnes. At the end of May, nickel made in China accounted for 63% of LME stock. (Reporting and editing by Jan Harvey; Polina Devlin)
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Spain's tourism industry expects a slowdown in summer sales
The Spanish tourism industry is expecting a sharp slowdown in the growth of summer sales as uncertainty surrounding U.S. Tariff Negotiations threatens to reduce global consumer spending. However, it still expects record visitor numbers. The group anticipates that revenues from hotels, airlines and restaurants as well as other tourism-related business will grow by 2.7% on an annual basis in the third quarter of the year, which is the peak season for tourism. This compares to a 6.3% growth in 2024. Sales rose by 4.5% in the second quarter. The group predicted fewer arrivals in Germany and France. The group estimated that international arrivals from the United Kingdom (UK), the U.S.A., Japan and China will still grow, but at a slower rate. Oscar Perelli, Exceltur's Vice President of Marketing and Communications, told a press conference in Madrid that there has been a decline in U.S. tourism since the end 2024 because of a change in exchange rates. He expects this trend to continue into the current year. He said that "at the same time we are experiencing an acceleration of redistribution in travel to Europe as Europeans prefer staying and traveling within Europe and Asians looking for alternatives to the United States." Exceltur revised its estimate of tourism growth for the full year to 3.3%, down from 4% earlier in the year. This still beats out a projected expansion of 2.4% by Spain's economy. "At first, we thought that it would be an excellent year. Perelli stated that they now believe the year will be good. He added that "the uncertainty scenario has affected the confidence of tourism business owner". The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), which represents the private sector of the travel industry, anticipates 100 million record-breaking visitors by 2025. Exceltur estimates that tourism revenue will make up 13.2% of Spain’s Gross Domestic Product this year. (Reporting and editing by Andrei Khalip, Jan Harvey, and Corina Pons)
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Armenia and Azerbaijan have substantive talks but no major breakthrough
Their governments reported that the leaders of Armenian and Azerbaijan had substantive talks on Thursday in Abu Dhabi, which amounted to their most serious direct discussions yet in an effort to end nearly four decades of conflict. In March, the two sides announced that they had reached an agreement on a draft of a peace accord. However, progress has been slow and sporadic since then. The first official meeting between the Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev and Armenian prime minister Nikol Pashinyan in the capital city of the United Arab Emirates was the first since the leaders approved the draft. The two foreign ministers of the two countries said in statements that Pashinyan, and Aliyev discussed issues including the delimitation their 1,000 km (621 mile) shared border and agreed to keep dialogue going at different levels. A senior Azerbaijani source stated that the discussions took place in "a highly constructive atmosphere." Armenia claimed that both sides had agreed on continuing bilateral talks and that the dialogue was "results-oriented". Peace could be achieved in the South Caucasus region, an energy producing region bordering Russia, Europe and Turkey, and crisscrossed with oil and gas pipelines. However, it is also riven by ethnic conflict and closed borders. Since the late 1980s, when Nagorno Karabakh, an Azerbaijani area with a majority ethnic Armenian population, broke away from Azerbaijan and received support from Armenia, Armenia has been at odds with Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan will retake Karabakh in 2023. This will cause 100,000 ethnic Armenians fleeing to Armenia. Since then, both sides have said that they would like to sign a peace treaty to end the conflict. There are still some issues to be resolved, such as Azerbaijan's request that Armenia amend its constitution so as to remove any indirect reference to Karabakh. The Russian government, which had previously sent peacekeepers to Karabakh in the past, has said that it supports the diplomatic process, and hopes it will bring "predictability and stability" to the region. (Reporting and writing by Felix Light, Nailia Bagirova and Lucy Papachristou. Editing and rewriting by Timothy Heritage.)
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Portugal launches a new privatisation of TAP airline, with aims to sell 49.9%
Luis Montenegro, Portugal's Prime Minister, announced on Thursday that the government had decided to restart a long-delayed TAP privatisation, with a goal of selling a 49.9% share of its capital. A 5% stake will be offered to TAP employees. In a short televised announcement, he stated: "We made this decision because we have already spent a great deal of money... We do not want to keep pouring money down a bottomless hole." Three major European airlines have already expressed interest in the airline's privatisation. These include Lufthansa, Air France-KLM and British Airways' owner IAG. They met with the government last year. Montenegro stated that "we are confident that there will many interested parties". The government also said that by selecting a strategic partner it "wants the company to be sustainable and profitable, as well as to be able contribute to the economic development of the country". The government is keen to keep and even expand TAP's key slots from Lisbon to Brazil, Portuguese speaking African countries and the United States. Montenegro said TAP was crucial for Portugal, as it brings in the majority of air travelers. This has supported the tourism boom that Portugal has experienced over the past few years. TAP suffered a loss of 1.6 billion euro in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This led to reorganization and a bailout from the state. However, the company has returned to profitability in the past three years. TAP, which employs approximately 8,000 people and has a fleet of 99 aircraft, will transport more than 16 millions passengers in 2024. This includes the 19 aircraft that TAP Express, a subsidiary of TAP, uses to fly short and medium distance flights. . TAP had been set up for privatisation since the mid-90s, but it was halted again when the centre right minority government fell in March. After a May national election, the coalition is back in power, but it still lacks a majority of parliament members, which would prevent TAP from being sold. (Reporting from Sergio Goncalves & Andrei Khalip).
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Operator says power line that caused major Czech outage wasn't overloaded
Grid operator CEPS confirmed on Thursday that a high-voltage line which snapped in the Czech Republic at the beginning of a major outage on Friday, was not overloaded at the time. It added that it is still investigating the cause. The outage affected about million customers and halted hundreds trains. It also shut down major industrial sites, including an oil refinery. This incident added to the concerns regarding the vulnerability of European grids following recent outages in Spain, Britain and France. CEPS, which provides details on the events that led to the power grid failure in central Europe, said the problem began at 11.51 am (0951 GMT), when a 400 kilovolt cable snapped along the V411 line located in the north-west part of the country. CEPS Chairman Martin Durcak said at a press conference that the reason is still being investigated, but that there was no interference from a third party. He said that the grid was designed to withstand such an event and shouldn't disintegrate. The incident was immediately followed by the failure of Ledvice unit 6, which had been running at 300 megawatts, in the north. Durcak stated, "We will investigate this matter with our colleagues from CEZ (the owner of Ledvice) to see if any causality exists." After the overloading of the 200-kilovolt high-voltage V208 power line, the eastern substation and the V401 high voltage link failed at 11.59 am. The grid was broken, resulting in insufficient electricity production in parts of the north-east and the centre of the country, followed by the outage. Nine of the 45 substations in the country and approximately one-sixth of all customers were affected. CEPS reported that all substations had been restored within three hours and the cable snapped by 10 pm. The grid carried large but routine cross-border flow as traders purchased power from abroad because of lower prices there. Reporting by Jan Lopatka, Editing by Mark Potter
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Maguire: Fossil fuels are still a major source of energy in the EU, even though clean energy production is declining.
Utilities in the European Union increased output of natural gas- and coalfired power stations during the first half of 2025. This increased power sector emissions, and reversed recent momentum on energy transition. The increase in fossil production comes after two years of sharp declines in fossil usage within the EU. This established Europe as a leader in global efforts to reduce reliance on polluting fossil fuels for power production. During January-June, however, the EU utilities were deprived of their main sources of clean energy due to the year-on-year decline in wind farm and hydro dam output. They had to compensate by increasing production from fossil fuel power plants. The sudden reversal of fossil fuel usage in the EU highlights how even modern energy systems are challenged when weather patterns prevent clean power supplies. It also suggests that fossil fuels could remain a part of global power systems for many years to come. CLIMATE CHANGES EU utilities produced 13% more electricity using fossil fuels from January to June than they did in the same period of 2024. This was the biggest annual increase for this period since 2017. The gas-fired production rose 19%, the most in three years. Coal-fired production increased by 2% and reached two-year-highs. If the EU maintains its current burning pace, the EU's CO2 emissions could reach 600 million tons this year. Since late 2024, the main factors that have contributed to the increase in fossil fuel consumption are steep drops in clean energy supplies and weather conditions throughout Europe. The output from wind farms, which will account for almost 20% of EU electricity supply during the first half 2024, has experienced the biggest year-over-year drop in history between January and June. It dropped by 9%, to 225 Terawatt Hours (TWh). Wind power production was hampered by low wind speeds, especially in Germany where over 30% of EU capacity is located. In Europe, the lack of snow and rain over the winter resulted in an annual drop of 15% in the electricity produced by hydro dams. These dams accounted for 15% or so of the EU's electricity supply last year. The approximately 164 TWh hydroelectric output from January to June was about 28 TWh lower than the same period in 2024 and the lowest for two years. SOLAR SHINES, BUT NOT ENOUGH Solar power in the EU has increased by 21%, or 32 TWh. This helped to cushion utilities against the decline in wind and hydro electricity generation. The 179 TWh electricity produced by EU solar farms in the first half 2025 was an all-time record. It marked the first instance that EU solar farms had produced more electricity during the window from January to June than hydro dams of the region. Solar-powered electricity will reach new heights in the next few months as the installed capacity of solar panels continues to increase. Clean energy advocates across the EU can celebrate this. The deep and persistent drops in wind and hydro output is also a cause for concern. This is especially true as climate trends suggest that weather patterns will continue to deviate from the average. The steadily rising temperatures in Europe are leading to a steady decline in snow cover at low altitudes, and are pinching the regional hydro dam production - even though hydro dam capacity reached a record in the EU last year. Climate change triggers more intense storms, but it also causes more wind droughts. This is because the temperature difference between tropical and polar areas is narrowing. The Global Stilling phenomenon is a major concern for energy planners, who had been counting on large-scale wind farms to play a reliable role in the generation of clean electricity over the next decades. Even if solar energy continues to grow, EU energy providers will still struggle to meet demand if wind speeds continue to slow down for months at a time and if hydro networks receive only a small amount of snow and rain during winter. This means that despite long-term plans to transition power systems away from fossil fuels, coal and natural gas will remain essential tools for EU utilities in the near future. These are the opinions of the columnist, an author for. You like this article? Check it out Open Interest The new global financial commentary source (ROI) is your go-to for all the latest news and analysis. ROI provides data-driven, thought-provoking analysis on everything from soybeans to swap rates. The markets are changing faster than ever. ROI can help you keep up. Follow ROI on You can find us on LinkedIn.
Anti-piracy group reports that ship piracy and robberies have increased 83% from Jan to Jun in Asia
According to the Information Sharing Centre, the intergovernmental antipiracy group ReCAAP, there were 95 piracy-related and armed robberies on ships in Asia between January and June of this year. This is an 83% rise compared to last year's same period.
The watchdog flagged the Straits of Malacca as a concern area. In these waters, there were 80 incidents over the period compared with 21 in the first six months of 2024.
The majority of incidents that occurred in the Straits of Malacca or Singapore were minor, and 90% of the times there was no injury to the crew. ReCAAP's information centre reported that nine out of ten incidents occurred after dark. ReCAAP stands for Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships Asia.
In 29% of incidents in the two Southeast Asian Straits, engine spares were stolen.
The information centre reported that about half of the attacks on the Straits of Malacca were on bulk carriers, and a quarter of them on tankers.
The ReCAAP center said that "in most incidents, criminals boarded poorly-prepared ships, which had low freeboard and were moving at a slow speed through restricted areas of Straits of Malacca or Singapore."
Vijay D Chafekar said that authorities in the region need to increase their presence at places where there is a high rate of piracy or armed robbery in order to arrest those responsible.
Chafekar stated that "Shipmasters transiting areas of concern should increase their watchkeeping on the deck during dark hours and implement preventive measures to discourage unauthorised boarding." (Reporting and editing by Tom Hogue; Xinghui Kok)
(source: Reuters)