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Oil gains on Iran worries; stocks fall before Friday's US employment data
The?major indexes slid on Thursday ahead of the Friday U.S. jobs data, and oil prices rose on worries about U.S. access to the Strait of Hormuz. Iran's semi-official Fars news agency, citing an Iranian lawmaker, reported that a parliamentary committee in Iran is reviewing a draft bill that would prohibit U.S. vessels, Israeli ships, and other "hostiles" from transiting through the Strait of Hormuz. The draft bill could impose fines up to 20 percent of the value of a ship’s cargo for violating proposed restrictions. Brent crude futures increased $3.04 or 3.83% to $82.49 per barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures rose $2.07 or 2.75% to $77.29. Oil prices rising are bad for the economy and consumers. Jake Dollarhide is the chief executive officer at Longbow Asset Management, located in Tulsa in Oklahoma. "You'll see higher oil prices and?higher rates of interest." Three of the four major U.S. indexes closed lower while another global index was also down. Data from the United States showed that the number?of Americans filing for unemployment benefits increased a little last week. Layoffs, however, dropped to a 2-year low in July. This is consistent with a stable labour market. Investors are preparing for Friday's release of the Labor Department’s July employment report. Many economists, traders and investors still expect the U.S. Central Bank to increase interest rates next year unless inflation improves. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 464.02 points or 0.85% to 53,885.10. The S&P 500 declined 13.59 points or 0.18% to 7,709.96, and the Nasdaq Composite lost 15.09 points or 0.06% to 26,348.35. MSCI's global stock index fell 3.81 points or 0.33% to 1,145.73. The pan-European STOXX 600 rose by 0.16%, and reached another record high. Media and telecoms stocks were the main drivers. DOLLAR RISE, YIELDS U.S. Treasury Yields increased as oil prices rose due to concerns over U.S.-Israeli access to the Strait of Hormuz, and ahead of Friday's jobs report. Treasury yields dropped earlier this week, on the belief that a deal to open the Strait would keep oil in check. This was a major focus for the markets, given the risk that higher prices of oil could reignite an already high consumer price inflation. The yield on the benchmark U.S. 10 year notes increased by 5.67 basis points, to 4.674%. As a result of safe-haven positions, the U.S. Dollar rose against Japanese yen. Dollar last gained 0.44% against the yen, at 158.45. This was its third straight session of gains, after dropping to 155.20 on Monday, the lowest since early May. The yen rose after U.S., and Japanese governments intervened on the market last Friday.
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James Hardie posts a 54% increase in quarterly profits and raises its annual earnings forecast
James Hardie increased its annual earnings forecast on Friday. It cited synergies from its acquisition of AZEK and manufacturing efficiencies, as well as strong execution across its businesses. The company also reported a 54% increase in its first-quarter profits. As affordability restrictions in the?U.S. grew, pressure was put on the company's Siding & Trim division. New construction activity slowed and distributor inventories were high. The company's previous forecast was $5.25 to $5.41 Billion. It now expects a net sales of $5.56 to $5.72 Billion in 2027. It also raised its forecasted adjusted earnings before taxes, depreciation, and?amortization for the year from $1.45 billion up to $1.50billion. CFO Ryan Lada stated that the increase in guidance was supported by synergy realisation, manufacturing cost improvement and the company’s enhanced go to market strategy. The James?Hardie adjusted net income for the three-month period ending June 30 rose to $209.3 millions, up from $136.1million a year earlier. The Siding & Trim segment's first-quarter?net sale rose by 34%, to $859.8 millions. This was driven by the exteriors business of?AZEK and a 20% increase in organic?growth as North American fibre cement volume returned to growth. James Hardie acquired the decking and exteriors company AZEK, based in the United States, for $8.75 billion in 2025. Contributions from this business were not included in the first quarter of the previous year.
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MP Materials beats expectations with sales growth and US price support
MP Materials, a rare?earths manufacturer, reported on Thursday?second quarter results that 'beat analysts' expectations because of rising sales and the price support agreement it has with the U.S. Government. In after-hours trading, the company's stock rose 2.2% to reach $48.52. Rare earths is a grouping of 17 metals which are used to produce magnets, which turn energy into motion. Washington's deal with MP in July 2025 was designed to loosen China’s grip on these materials which are used for weapons, electric cars and many electronics. MP Materials owns the only rare earths mining operation in North America, and it processes these 'critical minerals' in California. The company also built a magnetic facility in Texas. The company's net loss for the quarter ending June 30 was $20.3 million or 11 cents per share. This compares to a loss of $30.9million or 19cents per share in the previous quarter. Aside from startup costs and one-time items MP was even for the third quarter. According to IBES data provided by LSEG, analysts had expected a loss per share of a penny. The U.S. Government paid $17,6 million in price protection to boost the results. Since last year, the company has received $100.9 million. Last year, MP stopped delivering rare?earths for processing to China. This halted a major source?of?revenue. It has been?boosting processing in California, and its quarterly revenue from this processing nearly quadrupled up to $94.4 millions. MP Materials is bringing its Texas magnet plant online. The?company reported $16.5 million of magnetics revenue during the quarter and $7.5 millions in adjusted magnetics profits. The company reported that it had signed an agreement during the quarter for the supply of gadolinium - 'one of the rare earths' - to an unnamed U.S. customer. In June, President Donald Trump reported capital gains ranging from $100,001 up to $1,000,000 on investments made in MP Materials shares last year. (Reporting and editing by Stephen Coates; Ernest Scheyder)
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Trump announces trade measures to protect solar and semiconductor materials
The White House on Thursday set a series a price 'floors' and a?tariff of 15% on products made from polysilicon. This raw material is used to make semiconductors and solar panel. The U.S. president Donald?Trump issued a proclamation pursuant to Section 232 of Trade Expansion Act of 1961 in order to protect domestic polysilicon manufacturers from Chinese 'competition. Polysilicon is an ultra-pure silicon that sits at?the start of the semiconductor and solar manufacturing supply chain. Solar panels are made by assembling solar cells, which are manufactured from silicon wafers. The White House announced that the trade protections would take effect on 4 December. In a White House report, the President set import prices at $21 per kilogram of?polysilicon and $100 per kilogram of polysilicon wafers and ingots. He also set a $0.22 per watt price for solar cells, and $0.38 for solar panels or modules. The Commerce Department is authorized to create a program of incentives for companies who invest in factories that produce polysilicon and derivative products. First reported by was the administration's intention to implement a hybrid system that combines a minimum import price and tariffs.
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Trump administration blocks tungsten and battery waste exports in order to boost US mineral supply
The U.S. Commerce Department announced on Thursday that it would block the?exports?of tungsten and battery scrap, as part of an effort to boost domestic recycling and vital mineral production. This move was anticipated after President Donald Trump signed an executive order last week giving federal officials the authority to limit the shipment of scrap that contains valuable critical minerals overseas to China and other nations. The order bans the exportation of so-called 'black?mass', which is basically shredded lithium-ion battery scrap, and scrap containing Tungsten, a metal that is used to harden steel, but also widely used in?defense? applications. This is part of a larger U.S. effort to reduce its reliance on China. China dominates the global processing and production of minerals that are used in everything from EV battery systems to weapons systems. Washington has used export controls and tariffs to try to rebuild the U.S. Supply Chain, as tensions between Washington and Beijing have escalated over access to minerals. The Federal Register order will take effect on August 27 and last for one year, according to the Bureau of Industry and Security of the Commerce Department. Zubeyde Oysul is a policy manager for critical minerals at SAFE in Washington. She said, "It's wonderful to see that the administration has recognized the importance of recycling recoverable materials from scrap." According to the order, waivers may only be granted on a case by case basis if companies are able to show "undue harm" or "irreparable hardship." According to Basel Action Network, the U.S. exports 33,000 metric tonnes of electronic scrap and other scrap per month, with many of them containing valuable minerals that can easily be recycled. The U.S. Recycling Industry has long been irked by these exports. They have said that Washington could better meet its mineral?production if the material was kept in the country. The United States still does not have the capacity to recycle the entire amount of scrap that it produces. Several other recyclers also experienced economic difficulties in the last 18 months. These include Li-Cycle, Ascend?Elements and others. Amermin is a privately-held tungsten recycling company. It praised the move on Thursday, but stated that more needs to be done to improve the country's ability to deal with scrap. Amermin CEO Ryan McAdams said, "This ban is just a band-aid." It will buy us some?time but we need to build up our?infrastructure in the United States. Amermin received a $11.5 million Energy Department grant last year but has yet to receive the funds. McAdams stated that the company's commercial recycler would have opened six months earlier if they had received these funds. (Reporting and editing by Sanjeev Mglani; Ernest Scheyder)
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Airbnb reports higher revenue for the quarter on World Cup and global travel demand
Airbnb, a vacation rental company, posted an increase in revenue for the second quarter 'on Thursday. This was due to a strong global travel demand and the influx of first-time users during the FIFA World Cup 'hosted by the U.S.A., Canada, and Mexico. The FIFA World Cup, which just ended, has been a boon to travel companies. Airbnb reported that North American bookings for the second quarter saw the largest growth in nearly three years. The shares of the San Francisco-based firm rose by 11.58% during extended trading. Globally, the number of nights and seats booked - a metric which includes both service bookings and room reservations - rose by 10% in the last quarter to $148.3million. Bookings in North America, where over 40% of revenue is expected to come from by 2025, rose "high single digits"?percentage. The industry has been able to offset some of the pressure caused by the 'Iran War,' which has hurt long-haul travel due to flight rerouting and increased jet fuel prices. Airbnb has noted a steady improvement in demand trends for its services throughout the Middle East. Since May last year, the company's platform has expanded to include private chefs, car rentals and thousands of boutique hotels, indicating a continued expansion beyond its initial rental focus. Analysts and investors have been closely watching its expansion efforts as it moves towards a more traditional online travel agency. This could potentially put it in competition with industry heavyweights such as Booking, Expedia, and TripAdvisor. Airbnb's hotel bookings grew three times faster than home bookings, but they still represent a one-tenth of the total nights booked. The company anticipates that revenue will increase "at least by mid teens" in 2026, compared to the range of "low-to-mid teens". It reported earnings per share of $1.37, compared to $1.03 for the quarter ended June 30. Revenues for the quarter were $3.61 billion. This is up from $3.1billion a year ago. Reporting by Aishwarya Jain from Bengaluru, and Doyinsola Oladipo from New York. Editing by Shilpa Majumdar.
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Airbnb reports higher revenue for the quarter on World Cup and global travel demand
Airbnb, a vacation rental company, posted an increase in revenue for the second quarter on Thursday. This was largely due to a strong global travel demand and the first-time use of the service during the FIFA World Cup, which took place mainly in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The FIFA World Cup, which just ended, has been a boon to travel companies. Airbnb reported that North American bookings for the second quarter saw the largest growth in nearly three years. The number of nights and seats booked globally, which includes both service and room bookings, increased by 10% to $148.3 millions in the third quarter. Bookings in North America, where over 40% of its revenue will come from by 2025, rose "high single digits" per cent. The industry has been able to offset some of the pressure caused by the 'Iran war', which has affected long-haul travel due to flight re-routing and increased jet fuel costs. Airbnb has noted a steady improvement in demand trends for its services throughout the Middle East. Since May last year, the company's platform has expanded to include private chefs, car rentals and thousands of boutique hotel, indicating a continued shift beyond its original "rental" focus. Analysts and investors have been closely watching its expansion efforts as it moves towards a more traditional online travel agency, potentially putting them in competition with giants like Booking, 'Expedia, and 'TripAdvisor. Airbnb said that the number of hotel nights it booked increased nearly three times as fast as home nights, but they still only represent a single-digit percentage. The San Francisco-based company expects revenue in 2026 to increase "at least by mid teens", as opposed to a range between "low to middle teens" that was forecast earlier. It reported earnings per share of $1.37, compared to $1.03 for the same quarter last year. Revenues for the quarter were $3.61 billion. This is up from $3.1billion a year ago. Reporting by Aishwarya Jain from Bengaluru, and Doyinsola Oladipo from New York. Editing by Shilpa Majumdar.
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Oil prices rise as gold trades flat, despite Iran's proposal to ban 'hostile vessels' in Hormuz
Gold prices remained steady Thursday, as oil prices rose after reports that Iran was reviewing restrictions on "hostile vessels" in the Strait of Hormuz. This sparked inflation fears and rate hike expectations. Gold spot was unchanged at $4,244.29 an ounce as of 2:50 pm EDT (1850 GMT), having reached its highest level since the 18th of June earlier in session. The yellow metal gained over 4% in one day, the largest gain since February. U.S. Gold futures settled at $4,299.60, a 0.1% decrease. A committee of the Iranian parliament is reviewing a draft bill which would prohibit U.S. and Israeli vessels, as well as other "hostile" vessels, from crossing the Strait of Hormuz. This was reported by Iran's semiofficial Fars News Agency, citing an Iranian lawmaker. On the news, oil prices rose by more than $3 per barrel. Jim Wyckoff is a market analyst for American Gold Exchange. He said that the draft Iranian bill "has an impact because of increased inflation" if crude oil prices rise again. As manufacturers pass on costs to consumers, higher energy prices can lead to inflation. This encourages central banks to maintain a policy of raising interest rates for longer to combat the price pressures. Gold and the Friday's U.S. jobs data will be influenced by what the Federal Reserve says about interest rates. Bob Haberkorn is a senior market analyst at StoneX. He believes that the central bank's interest rate announcements will be influenced by Friday's jobs data. According to the CME FedWatch Tool, traders are pricing in an?about 57% chance that the central bank will raise rates at its?September meeting and?an 80% chance of one in December. Gold becomes less appealing to investors when interest rates rise. Haberkorn stated that "a lot of money which was sitting on the sidelines began coming back to gold yesterday, with certain technical levels being broken." Bullion was still around 24% lower than the record high of $5594.82/oz that was reached in late January. Silver spot fell by 0.9%, to $61.54 an ounce. Palladium increased 0.6%, to $1371.48, while platinum fell 0.6%, to $1724.64. (Reporting and editing by Leroy Leo and Joyjeet Das in Bengaluru, and Sukanya Mittra and Swati Verma in Bengaluru)
Why are parts of North America covered in smoke from wildfires in Canada?
In recent years, orange-hued skylines, smoke from wildfires and scorched forests have become commonplaces in North America as global warming has contributed to "massive forestfires". Many of these fires are located in northern Canada which is home to some the largest, intact forests on earth.
Canada has more active wildfires now than in the previous two years. The area that has been burned this year is also greater than the 10-year average.
Here are some facts regarding the recent smoke and wildfires.
Why does Canada have so many wildfires? Canada is the second largest country in the world based on area. It has nearly one tenth the total forest land and 24% of all boreal forests. Many are not accessible by road, and many of them have no inhabitants.
Forest fires are an important part of nature that helps to eliminate pests and unhealthy shrubbery. In recent years the size and intensity have increased.
Climate change is causing temperatures to rise, resulting in drier forest. Fires spread more quickly in drier forests. Lightning or campfires can start fires in populated areas.
Mike Flannigan is a professor at Thompson Rivers University, British Columbia. He is a wildland fire expert. He said that warmer temperatures have extended the wildfire season and more lightning has also caused fires.
Climate scientist Andrew Dessler is a professor of atmosphere sciences at Texas A&M College of Arts and Sciences. He said that the Canadian fires are burning in forests that have been largely left unmanaged for the last 100 years.
He also said that higher temperatures in Canada were causing larger, more intense fires. Climate change is the main reason why this has a major impact on the U.S. at the moment. "Nothing else has changed," said he.
What happened this week? Smoke follows the wind as fires grow and forest areas are scorched. Toronto, New York and Washington were affected by the worst air quality in the world earlier this week due to fires burning in northern and Western Ontario and northern Minnesota. Detroit and Chicago had the worst air quality in the world by Friday.
Can the fire be stopped?
Although some fires cannot be avoided, the government tries to protect communities through the closing of forest areas, the use of non-flammable materials in high-risk places, and better preparation.
What has Canada done so far? The federal government has increased funding to fight wildfires. This includes C$316.7 ($227 millions) over a five-year period for aerial firefighting capability and C$47.8 for Parks Canada's National Fire Management Program. Ontario spent C$271 millions on emergency firefighting, surpassing its budget of C$135millions in 2025-26. The budget for 2026-2027 is C$150 millions.
WHAT MORE COULD WE DO? Experts and politicians started calling for a National Response Organization after Canada's largest wildfire season in terms of area burned, 2023. These calls increased after fires in the year 2024 destroyed a third of Jasper, a tourist town.
The only Group of Seven nation without a federal agency dedicated to combating "wildfires" is Canada. The provinces are responsible for a large part of firefighting.
The Canadian Senate released a report in June 2026 that included a call for the creation of a federal coordination office for wildfires, emergency response and funding for a modern fleet of firefighting aircraft.
The report noted that wildfires have become a crisis, citing the area burned in the past few years.
The federal Office of Emergency Management and Community Resilience announced that it was evaluating recommendations for wildfire response and possible creation of a Federal Emergency Management Agency. The 'leasing of ten new firefighting planes as an example of how they are addressing severe fires by bolstering the provincial and territorial firefighting capability. Canada has approximately 126,000 firefighters working for towns, cities and villages, with about 90% of them being volunteers. Ken McMullen is the president of the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs. He said that only 3,000-5,000 firefighters in Canada are trained to fight wildland blazes. McMullen stated that a centralized approach could help coordinate, train, and move firefighters and equipment throughout the country when necessary.
What are some other areas with wildfires? According to the National Interagency Fire Center, 2026 has been a year of fires that is above average in the United States. 3.7 million acres have burned from year-to date, compared with an average 10-year burn rate of 2.7 millions acres. Fires in?the?U.S. West is burning more intensely and consuming more land, after a record low winter snowpack caused drought conditions in more than 90% the region.
According to NIFC, the United States has seen 40,000 wildfires this year. This is well above its 10-year average, which was around 31,000 at this time. A wildfire that burned an area as large as San Francisco in northeastern Spain forced thousands of people to flee. This summer, there have been nearly 20 reported wildfires in England and Wales. A historic forest near Paris has also burned and turned the skies black. (Reporting from Nivedita Balu, Toronto; Additional reporting provided by Andrew Hay; Editing done by Caroline Stauffer and Edmund Klamann).
(source: Reuters)