Global Economy News and Headlines
Global Economy News and Headlines
Global Economy Pulse
EMAIL DIGESTS
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Every morning
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Tuesday recap
EMAIL DIGESTS
Daily
Every morning
Weekly
Tuesday recap
The Return Stacked Bonds & Managed Futures ETF (RSBT) posted a 12.25% year‑over‑year price gain after a tough 2022‑23 inflation cycle. The fund allocates capital between the AGG bond ETF and a suite of trend‑following managed‑futures strategies, positioning it as a macro‑linked, cyclical vehicle. While intra‑asset correlations appear modest, they can widen dramatically during market stress, and the ETF has yet to demonstrate true convexity or downside protection. The analyst remains skeptical and is not investing at this stage.
The Indian rupee slipped to 90.95 per U.S. dollar in early Friday trade, down 27 paise from its previous close. The decline was driven by a firmer dollar, higher Brent crude at $71.77 a barrel, and escalating U.S.-Iran tensions. Domestic...
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington on Feb 19, focusing on cooperation in critical minerals, energy, counter‑terrorism and potential American investment. The discussion also highlighted Pakistan’s backing of President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan...
The Bank of Japan has ended its ultra‑easy stance, pushing policy rates to the highest level in decades and pricing in another hike. Higher domestic yields are likely to trigger repatriation of Japanese savings, cutting the flow of low‑cost funding...
India's infrastructure sector posted a 4% year‑on‑year revenue contraction in Q3 FY26, driven by eroding order books, payment delays, prolonged monsoons and construction bans. Average EBITDA margin slipped 40 basis points to 10.1%, while adjusted PAT margin fell to 5.2%....
The White House released America’s Maritime Action Plan, a sweeping strategy to strengthen the U.S. maritime sector through regulatory reform, infrastructure investment, and workforce development. A central pillar targets the elimination of redundant, obsolete, or overly burdensome regulations, echoing Offshore...
Goldman Sachs projects gold prices to climb to $5,400 per ounce by the end of 2026, driven primarily by renewed central‑bank buying and modest private‑investor inflows linked to Federal Reserve rate cuts. The forecast assumes a conservative base case with...
The New Zealand and Australian dollars slipped in Asian trade after the Reserve Bank of New Zealand signaled that inflation is already back within its 2% target band and is expected to stay there for the next year. Governor Adrian Breman emphasized that...
Iran warned the United Nations that any military aggression against it would be met with decisive force, stating that bases, facilities and assets of the perceived hostile force would be considered legitimate targets. The warning was delivered in a letter...
Hermès reported record revenue of over €16 billion in 2025, a 9 % increase at constant exchange rates, and recurring operating income of €6.6 billion, lifting margins to 41 % of sales. Growth was driven by its leather‑goods division, which expanded 13.1 % and remains...
MUFG’s Derek Halpenny says the U.S. dollar’s recent rally, sparked by stronger‑than‑expected durable‑goods, housing and industrial production data and hawkish Fed minutes, is unlikely to be sustained. While the minutes hinted at a cautious stance on further rate cuts, Halpenny...
Shares of Indian upstream explorers jumped as Brent crude breached $71 per barrel amid renewed US‑Iran tensions and temporary Strait of Hormuz closures. Oil India rose 5.2% and ONGC gained 3.6%, while downstream marketers HPCL and BPCL slipped nearly 5%...
The IMF warned that Venezuela’s economy and humanitarian situation remain “quite fragile,” citing triple‑digit inflation, a sharply depreciating currency and public debt at roughly 180 percent of GDP. The country has seen massive emigration, with about 8 million people leaving since 2014,...
Japan’s consumer price index slowed sharply in January, with headline inflation dropping to 1.5% year‑over‑year, the lowest level since March 2022 and below expectations. Core inflation excluding fresh food eased to 2.0% YoY, while the core‑core measure fell to 2.6%,...
Sudan, despite a civil war that began in 2023, is courting foreign investors to develop its largely untapped mineral portfolio that includes gold, copper, uranium and rare‑earth elements. Gold production set a new record of 70 tonnes in 2025, generating...
U.S. LNG exports are set to climb from 15 Bcf/d last year to 18.1 Bcf/d by 2027, driving record natural‑gas production. The surge in feed‑gas demand and AI‑powered data‑center growth is tightening domestic supply, pushing residential and wholesale electricity prices higher. While...
Tongaat Hulett, South Africa's leading sugar producer, is heading for provisional liquidation after its business rescue plan collapsed. The Vision Group's acquisition of lender claims and a debt‑to‑equity swap failed, leaving the rescue unimplementable. Cosatu warns the collapse will trigger...
The Trump administration announced that SoftBank’s U.S. affiliate SB Energy will develop a proposed 9.2‑GW, $33 billion natural‑gas power complex near Portsmouth, Ohio. The project is the flagship of a $36 billion first tranche of a $550 billion U.S.–Japan strategic investment framework that...
UK heavy goods vehicle registrations fell 10% in 2025, with 40,504 new trucks added, marking a contraction across every quarter. The decline was most pronounced in box vans (-28.1%) and curtain‑sided trucks (-26.2%), while tractor units slipped 4.4% but rebounded...
The Franklin International Dividend Booster ETF (XIDV) posted an 8.95% year‑to‑date return, slightly outpacing the iShares Core MSCI EAFE ETF (IEFA) at 8.75%. XIDV follows VettaFi’s rules‑based dividend‑optimization index, targeting yields two to three times its parent benchmark without using...
The global LGBTQ travel market, now worth hundreds of billions and projected to exceed $500 billion by 2032, is rapidly rebalancing away from the United States. New data from the Spartacus Gay Travel Index shows the U.S. slipping to 48th place,...
The Federal Reserve Board announced a hybrid public outreach meeting for Thursday, March 26, 2026, as part of its ten‑year review mandated by the Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act (EGRPRA). The session will allow stakeholders to comment on a...
The House Republican‑led E15 Rural Domestic Energy Council has revised its biofuel exemption plan, raising the annual cap from 450 million to 550 million Renewable Identification Number (RIN) credits. The proposal also authorizes year‑round sales of 15% ethanol gasoline (E15) and expands...
Emerging‑market equities have outpaced U.S. and European stocks in 2026, with the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF up more than 11% year‑to‑date and 37% over the past twelve months. Wealth‑management firms are responding by raising EM exposure to roughly 10‑12%...
The Canadian Steel Producers Association (CSPA) argues that the U.S. Section 232 steel tariffs are unjustified, noting Canada is not a dumping ground or transshipment hub. Since the tariffs took effect, Canada has lost roughly 2 million metric tons of steel...
U.S. stock futures were largely flat on Wednesday night after the major indexes posted gains, with the Dow down 0.09%, the S&P 500 down 0.09% and the Nasdaq down 0.1%. Investors focused on Walmart’s upcoming fourth‑quarter earnings, a widely watched...
Global container shipping rates slipped another 1% to $1,919 per 40‑foot container, marking a sixth consecutive weekly decline. The expected pre‑Lunar New Year cargo surge failed to materialise, leaving both carriers and shippers with excess capacity. Transpacific lanes saw spot...
The United States now carries a public debt exceeding $38 trillion—about 101% of GDP—and projections show it could reach 120% within a decade. Rising interest obligations threaten to crowd out vital programs, notably Social Security, which the Congressional Budget Office warns...
Mark Temnycky, a non‑resident fellow at the Atlantic Council, wrote in Forbes that the European Union will fully phase out Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) by the end of 2026. The move is framed as a step toward greater energy...
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis affirmed that the recently concluded India‑EU Free Trade Agreement will unlock fresh trade and investment opportunities between India and the European Union. The leaders discussed expanding cooperation under the India‑Middle East‑Europe...
ECDB’s Global E‑commerce Compass 2026 reveals that U.S., Chinese and Russian platforms dominate Europe’s ecommerce landscape. Amazon leads with a 2025 GMV just under $232 billion, almost equal to the combined GMV of the next nine players. Russian marketplaces Ozon and...
Maersk announced a significant upsizing of its West India‑US East Coast (MECL) service to add incremental westbound container capacity. The move follows the United States’ reduction of tariffs on Indian‑made goods from 50% to 25%, with a further cut to...
At the JSE SA Trade Connect conference, market leaders warned that volatility is no longer a rare "black swan" but a persistent flock of shocks. Alicia Greenwood highlighted the exchange’s push to fuse disparate data sources, enabling faster interpretation and...
Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni visited Ethiopia to cement Italy’s renewed Africa strategy, highlighting the operational rollout of the Mattei Plan. The plan aims to turn Italy into an energy hub by building pipelines that export gas and hydrogen from...
In a February 2026 Atlantic Council podcast, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer revisited the Trump administration’s aggressive trade agenda, focusing on the looming United States‑Mexico‑Canada Agreement (USMCA) review. Greer confirmed that a full U.S. withdrawal from the pact remains "on...
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) lowered its overnight repurchase rate by 25 basis points to 4.25%, marking the ninth cut since August 2024. Inflation remains modest at 2%, comfortably within the 2‑4% target band, while the peso rallied to...
The Democratic Republic of Congo has placed the rebel‑held Rubaya coltan mine on a shortlist of strategic assets offered to the United States under a new minerals‑cooperation framework. Rubaya, which supplies roughly 15% of the world’s coltan, requires between $50 million...
The COMESA Competition and Consumer Commission (CCCC) has opened an investigation into Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd for allegedly abusing its dominant position by amending WhatsApp Business Solution Terms in October 2025 to block rival AI chatbot providers. The probe follows...
The CBI’s industrial trends survey shows British manufacturers recorded order books well below their long‑term average in February. Despite the weak order flow, most firms plan to raise prices over the next three months. The survey also indicates that output...
Subprime borrowers propelled U.S. unsecured loan balances to a record $276 bn, a 10% increase year‑over‑year, with 26.4 million consumers holding such loans. Credit‑card issuers expanded lending to lower‑income customers, pushing total balances 4% higher to $1.15 trillion, but responded by trimming initial...
Investors remain steady in the med‑tech sector despite lingering tariff uncertainties, signaling confidence in long‑term growth. At the same time, research updates highlight the SCAN circuit as a core driver of Parkinson’s disease, TL1A overexpression in hidradenitis suppurativa, and an...
On December 10, 2025, the Northern Europe Office and Sweden’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs hosted a High North workshop to assess the Arctic’s evolving security landscape. Participants from Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Greenland examined great‑power rivalry, Nordic defence cooperation,...
President Trump’s energy dominance agenda has boosted US fossil fuel output, with oil production reaching record levels and LNG exports rising over 20 percent. The administration has kept five coal‑fired plants operating through regulatory rollbacks and secured Pentagon contracts, while...
The Trump administration announced a U.S.–Saudi nuclear cooperation framework in November 2025, but a newly obtained report to Congress reveals the draft 123 agreement omits key non‑proliferation safeguards. The proposal would permit Saudi Arabia to pursue a limited uranium enrichment...
The European Commission has granted strategic status to four African mineral projects—two in South Africa and Zambia, plus sites in Malawi and Madagascar—under the Critical Raw Materials Act, with decisions due in Q2 2026. The Zandkopsdrift rare‑earth operation in South Africa...
Rwanda’s central bank raised its key lending rate by 50 basis points to 7.25% on Thursday, reacting to a jump in consumer price inflation to 8.9% year‑on‑year in January. The move aims to bring inflation back within the bank’s 2‑8%...
President Donald Trump warned Iran it has roughly ten days to reach a "meaningful" nuclear agreement, hinting that "bad things" could follow. He said negotiations were progressing but insisted Tehran must abandon enrichment and missile programs. The warning coincides with...
Russia warned of an unprecedented escalation around Iran as the United States completes a military buildup slated for mid‑March. A Russian corvette joined Iranian naval drills in the Gulf of Oman, underscoring Moscow’s support amid heightened US‑Iran tensions. Negotiations over...
Amid waning external security guarantees, Pakistan has begun exploratory talks with Turkey and Saudi Arabia to create a flexible, informal security platform separate from its 2025 Strategic Mutual Defense Agreement with Riyadh. The trilateral dialogue focuses on defense‑industrial cooperation, with...
The U.S. dollar rallied after initial jobless claims fell to 206,000, well below expectations, reinforcing a labor‑market narrative of resilience. Hawkish Fed minutes further raised the prospect of delayed rate cuts, pushing the greenback higher against major currencies. EUR/USD slipped...
