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Israeli attacks kill at minimum 21 Gazans, doctors say
Local health officials said that Israeli airstrikes and gunfire killed at least 21 Palestinians on Thursday in the Gaza Strip, while mediators sought to reach out to Israel and Hamas and resume ceasefire talks for the end of the war. Local health officials said that an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City killed at least nine people in a school for displaced families. Another strike in Khan Younis, in the southern part of the enclave, killed nine more people. Three more people were also killed and dozens wounded by Israeli gunfire as crowds waited for U.N. trucks on a major route in central Gaza. This is the latest of a string of deaths at distribution points. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the incidents that occurred Thursday. Israel claims it wants to free the hostages and eliminate Hamas militants who attacked southern Israel in 2023 from Gaza. According to Hamas, the new deaths came as Arab mediators Egypt and Qatar reached out to warring parties to try to start new ceasefire negotiations. However, no timetable was given for the new round of talks. Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, who heads a coalition of far-right parties insists on Hamas, the group that has ruled Gaza since nearly 20 years, releasing all hostages and laying down their weapons. Hamas has said it will release hostages only if Israel agrees on a ceasefire permanent and withdraws its troops from Gaza. Hamas, while it conceded that it would no long govern Gaza has refused to talk about disarmament. According to Israel's tallies, Hamas militants took 251 hostages and killed more than 1,200 people when they attacked Israel in 2023. Israel responded with a massive military campaign. According to local health officials, Israel's retaliatory conflict has killed over 56,000 Palestinians and destroyed much coastal strip. The majority of hostages freed so far were released through indirect negotiations between Hamas & Israel.
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Australian shares fall as tech stocks weigh
Australian shares ended lower on Thursday. Technology stocks were the main drag, with software giant Xero falling after raising capital for a discounted price to fund Melio Payments' buyout. The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed at 8,550.8, a 0.1% decrease. The benchmark index ended Wednesday with a flat finish. Technology stocks fell 2.1% and closed at their lowest level in over three weeks. Xero, which dropped 5.3%, was the main culprit. The accounting software maker's shares resumed trading a few days after Melio Payments, a U.S./Israeli payments provider, announced that it was acquiring it for up to $3 billion. The company raised A$1.85billion ($1.21billion) at a discounted price of A$176/share, which is 9.4% lower. The deal is expected to help Xero establish itself as a leading global software provider, but there are still questions about the price, the possible dilution in free cash flow margin, and how the company's loss-making business will be integrated with Xero. This was stated by Tony Sycamore at IG, a market analyst. WiseTech Global, a larger competitor, fell by 0.6%. The Industrial sub-index dropped 0.4%, and Real Estate stocks fell 0.7%. After three sessions of new record highs, heavyweight financial stocks closed flat. Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Australia's largest lender, closed down by 0.4%. Sycamore stated that the financial industry is overbought, and there could be a slight cooling. Copper prices reached a new two-week high. Healthcare stocks rose by 0.4%. Investors in the local market are now waiting for retail sales figures due next week. Sycamore stated that there are concerns about Australia's growth trajectory. Retail sales data could reinforce the case for rate cuts in July, and possibly a follow-up in August. The benchmark S&P/NZX 50 Index in New Zealand ended a six-day loss streak by finishing 0.2% higher, at 12,480.05. $1 = 1.5335 Australian Dollars (Reporting and editing by Vijay Kishore in Bengaluru)
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Wall Street Journal, June 26,
These are the most popular stories from the Wall Street Journal. These stories have not been verified and we cannot vouch their accuracy. Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos has spoken to U.S. president Donald Trump at least two times this month, as he attempts to take advantage of a rivalry between SpaceX founder Elon Mush and Trump to bag more government contracts. Shell denied that it had approached BP and was involved in negotiations for the largest oil deal of a generation. Conagra Brands is removing certified colors for food, drugs and cosmetics from its U.S. frozen products portfolio by 2025. Ulta Beauty announced that its finance chief Paula Oyibo had resigned after just a few months and appointed Chris Lialios, an insider as its interim CFO. The U.S. Antitrust Commission cleared Mars' $36 billion acquisition of Pringles maker Kellanova, but the EU has opened a full investigation, claiming that it could result in price increases. - The President has toyed around with the idea that he would announce and select Jerome Powell as his replacement before September or October.
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India's rice harvest is a record crop, resulting in a surplus of ethanol.
India has allocated record volumes of rice for ethanol production, as it battles with unprecedented inventories. These are expected to grow further when the new crop arrives. This is a turnaround from the earlier shortages which led to export restrictions. The conversion of more rice into ethanol helps reduce the rice stock in the world’s largest producer and exporter. It also keeps India’s ambitious ethanol blend programme on track, despite the drop in sugar cane supplies. India lifted the last of two years' worth of export restrictions in March. The poor rains had curtailed rice production. The abundant monsoon rainfall this year is expected to produce a bumper harvest. A senior government official, who declined to be identified because he wasn't authorised to talk to the media, said: "Our number one priority is to make sure that we have enough food." The official explained, "We have a lot more rice than is needed for this purpose and we decided to use some for ethanol production." Food Corporation of India, a state-run company, has allotted a record amount of rice to ethanol. This is equivalent to almost 9% of the global rice shipment in 2024/25's marketing year that ends in June. The previous year, FCI rice was used to make ethanol in less than 3,000 tonnes. FCI purchases nearly half of India’s rice crop. It currently has reserves of 59.5 million metric tonnes, including unmilled rice, on June 1. This is far more than the government’s target of 13.5 millions tons for July. Rice for ethanol is a great alternative to corn, which was spiking last year and forcing India to import record amounts of corn. Grain-based distilleries can use damaged grains, corn, or rice as their feedstock. They switch between them based on the price. India, which is the world's third largest oil importer, and the biggest consumer of petroleum products, wants to blend 20% ethanol in gasoline by 2025/26. It almost reached that target last month, with 19.8% ethanol thanks to abundant rice. In 2023, sugarcane supply, which had accounted for 80 percent of ethanol feedstock up until then, plummeted due to drought, forcing the largest consumer of sweetener in the world to drastically reduce sugar diversion for ethanol. In India, the gasoline last year contained 14.6% ethanol. PROBLEM of PLENTY Arushi JAIN, joint secretary of the Grain Ethanol Manufacturers Association, stated that even more rice would be used to produce ethanol if government lowers the price of rice or increases the price for buying ethanol. According to Akshay Modi of Modi Naturals, an ethanol producer, the FCI sells rice for 22,500 Indian Rupees ($262.19) a ton while oil marketing companies purchase rice-based bioethanol at 58.5 rupees a litre. This doesn't leave enough margin to increase rice-based bioethanol production. FCI stocks may rise as India will likely harvest a bumper crop in October, according to B.V. Krishna Rao of the Rice Exporters Association. Rao said that India could only increase its exports so far, since it already accounts more than 40% for global rice shipments. India has aggressively exported rice since removing export restrictions. Shipments are likely to increase by nearly 25%, reaching a record of 22.5 million tonnes in 2025, reducing the exports from rivals such as Thailand and Vietnam. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, India harvested 146.1 million tonnes of rice in this crop year that ended in June. This was a record harvest, and far exceeded local demand, which was 120.7 millions tons. Himanshu Agrawal is the executive director of rice exporter Satyam Balajee. He said that rising stockpiles would force India to allocate more rice for ethanol next marketing year. Agrawal said, "The government is going to find it difficult to sell all the rice that they purchased from farmers." $1 = 85.8140 Indian Rupees
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Peabody extends lockout of Helensburgh coalmine in Australia
The U.S. coal company Peabody Energy has extended a lockout in one of its New South Wales mining operations, the Mining and Energy Union said Thursday. This follows a protest by its workers who demanded better wages and job security. According to the union, Peabody informed MEU members that the lockout of the Helensburgh underground mine would continue until July 6. The union stated that the workers had been locked out and without pay since 18 June. It also urged the Federal Government for a change in workplace laws which allow employers to take excessively "disproportionate" or "punitive actions" against workers exercising their rights to bargain. Matt Potter, Helensburgh mineworker delegate of the MEU and a MEU member, said that workers would not be intimidated and continue to fight for a fair wage and job security. Peabody's spokesperson stated, "We have extended the lawful action period to match the extended notification period of strike action by the union." The spokesperson said that "the company will cancel lockout action" if the union ceases its industrial action and their illegal 'go slowly' activities. The union didn't immediately respond to the company claiming that union workers were "going slow". Adwitiya Shrivastava reported from Bengaluru, and Janane Venkatraman edited the story.
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China's Guangxi province is flooded by water from an upstream province
Floodwaters from an upstream province swept into the mountainous area of China's Guangxi, causing towns and villages to be half submerged. A tropical cyclone is expected to land in the region later on Thursday, adding further disaster risk. Massive flooding in Guizhou province, in the cities of Rongjiang, Congjiang, and other areas, has now spread to the southwest, including Guangxi, where rural settlements are located on the banks of Liu River, which originates in Guizhou. State media reported that the Guangxi township Meilin had been hit hardest, with floodwaters reaching a height of more than four metres (13 feet), above what is considered safe. As floodwaters receded and surface runoff became less dangerous, southwest China, from Guizhou to Chongqing to Yunnan to Sichuan, was on alert for secondary disasters like road collapses, land slides and hydro-dam spillovers. Chen Xiaoguang is a professor at Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu. He said that rural areas face many challenges because of their limited infrastructure and resources. Strengthening these systems will help reduce the impact of severe weather on rural areas. He said that urban areas are better equipped to deal with floods than other cities, but they're not all the same. Rongjiang, for example, is a county level area where resources are limited. The flood that hit Rongjiang in Guizhou, located at the confluence three rivers, on Tuesday was so large that Chinese meteorologists estimated that it would only occur once every 50 years. It also happened at such a rapid pace that its 300,000 inhabitants were shocked. One section of the Liu River in Rongjiang swelled to 11,800 cubic meters per second. This is the equivalent of five Olympic-sized pools. This was 80 times higher than the average flow rate. Six people died. Rains from the tropical depression that is expected to land in Guangxi Thursday night may affect restoration work and cause a second round of flooding. Tropical depressions made landfall in China's island province Hainan on Thursday morning, and then again on the mainland of Guangdong, bringing even more rain to an area still recovering from Typhoon Wutip, which hit two weeks earlier. (Reporting by Joe Cash and Shi Bu in Beijing and Farah Master in Hong Kong; writing by Ryan Woo; editing and retouching Jamie Freed and Raju Gopalakrishnan) Extreme storms are causing severe flooding that is linked to climate change. They threaten to overwhelm the ageing flood defenses, displace thousands of people, and cause economic losses of billions of dollars. Reporting by Joe Cash in Beijing, Shi Bu in Hong Kong and Ryan Woo in Hong kong. Writing by Jamie Freed; Editing and Raju by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Jamie Freed.
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Russell: Higher prices will affect Asia's crude imports in June.
Asia's crude oil imports rose in the first six months of 2025, as an increase in arrivals in June overcame the slow start of the year. According to LSEG Oil Research, the world's largest import region has seen arrivals of 27,36 million barrels a day (bpd), up by 620,000 bpd compared to the 26,74 million bpd of the same period in last year. The performance improvement was mainly due to the fact that June imports soared up to 28,65 million bpd. This is the highest LSEG data recorded since January 2023, and a significant increase from 27.3 millions bpd and 26,42 million bpd for June last year. China was the top importer in June, and LSEG estimated arrivals at 11,96 million bpd. This is the highest since March's 12,11 million bpd. India, Asia's largest buyer, is expected to import 5.26 million barrels per day in June, the highest level since March when 5.35 million barrels were imported. Market participants are wondering if the strong demand seen in Asia in June is a sign of a stronger second-half or if it is merely influenced by temporary factors. Price is the most obvious temporary factor. Both China and India are known to be sensitive when it comes to price fluctuations, increasing their imports at low prices but reducing them when they increase. The cargoes arriving in June would have been secured six to eight weeks prior to delivery. This means that the oil price was on a downward trend at the time. Brent crude futures traded in a range between a high of 75.47 dollars a barrel (on April 2) and a low of 58.40 dollars a barrel (on April 9). They then moved sideways until another low of 58.5 dollars on May 5. Brent oil has been rising since the low of May 5, reaching $70.40 per barrel on June 12 - the day before Israel began its bombing campaign on Iran. After the Israeli attacks, and subsequent U.S. airstrikes on June 23, crude oil spiked to an all-time high of $81.40 per barrel. The risk premium then disappeared with the ceasefire agreement announced by U.S. president Donald Trump. AUGUST IMPACT Asia's refiners will feel the increase in prices mainly on cargoes that arrive in late July or August. It will be important to monitor if there is a pullback in imports during this time period. There is no evidence to suggest that the demand for crude oil and refined products in Asia is increasing. According to the most recent official data, China's refinery production increased only 0.3% to 14,47 million bpd in the first five month of this year. The small increase in refinery output suggests that China's demand for refined products is slowing down and that most of the crude imported is being added to inventory. India's fuel consumption is flat as well. According to data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell, the oil ministry, the consumption of refined products for the first five month of 2025 was 4.51 million bpd, down from 4.52 millions bpd in the same period of 2024. From August, the increase in crude oil prices and the shock from the Israeli-U.S. attack on Iran will likely weaken Asia's need for imports. You like this column? Open Interest (ROI) is your new essential source of global financial commentary. 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 LinkedIn, X. These are the views of the columnist, an author for.
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Increased supply of iron ore slashes prices; dollar strength limits gains
Iron ore prices dropped for the third session in a row on Thursday, despite a strengthening dollar. This was due to increased shipments out of Australia and Brazil. The September contract for iron ore on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange ended the morning trading 0.36% lower, at 698.5 Yuan ($97.51). As of 0354 GMT, the benchmark July iron ore traded on Singapore Exchange was down 0.37% at $92.4 per ton. Analysts at ANZ said that "Iron Ore Futures were on the verge of a new low for the year as strong supplies and lower production of steel in China weighs on sentiment". Data from Chinese consultancy Mysteel shows that inventories of imported iron-ore sintering fins rose for the third consecutive week, reaching 12.3 million metric tons by June 25, according to Mysteel. Mysteel said that the consumption of imported sintering fins had fallen by 1.5% on a weekly basis. The weaker dollar was still a factor in the price rises. It fell to multi-year lows after Donald Trump's remarks about replacing Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell raised concerns over the Fed's independence. Dollar-denominated investments are cheaper for holders of currencies other than the greenback. Everbright Futures, a broker, reported that the major producer Vale increased its iron ore supply due to a rush at the end of season. This contributed to increased iron ore shipments globally from Australia and Brazil. Li Qiang, Premier of China, said Thursday that the government would take "forceful measures" to increase domestic consumption. Coking coal and coke, which are used to make steel, also rose on the DCE. They increased by 1.45% and 0.58 %, respectively. The Shanghai Futures Exchange saw a decline in most steel benchmarks. Rebar dropped 0.47%, while hot-rolled coils fell 0.36%. Wire rod also slipped 0.21%, and stainless steel climbed 1.28%.
Trump Administration to audit billions of energy grants awarded by Biden
The Trump administration announced on Thursday that it would audit grants of $15 billion awarded to projects involving the power grid, manufacturing supply chains and other infrastructure during the Biden Administration.
Donald Trump has pushed for domestic oil, gas and coal production while also halting the construction of offshore wind farms and taking measures to relax regulations on fossil fuels. Last week, the Republican Trump administration proposed to cut billions of dollars from funding for renewable energy projects and electric car chargers.
The DOE has been reviewing the billions that were rushed through the door in the last days of the Biden Administration, Energy Secretary Chris Wright stated.
The Energy Department of former Democratic President Joe Biden received billions of dollars from the offices of grid implementation, manufacturing and energy supply chain.
The DOE will examine materials, including information that companies submitted as part of award applications, and ask for additional information from companies.
Wright's memorandum stated that "if it is determined projects do not meet Standards then DOE can modify the project, or DOE at its discretion may terminate the project, based on the result of DOE evaluation as permitted by law."
Wright stated that "any reputable business will have a system in place to evaluate spending and investment before money is spent. The American people deserve nothing less from their federal governments."
Bridget Bartol was the deputy chief of staff for the DOE during the Biden Administration. She said that the move is harmful to energy projects. She said that it appears the administration is looking for a legal way to cancel projects they disagree with.
Bartol stated that "the fact is, awarded projects have been thoroughly vetted both on a technical and financial basis." The vast majority of the projects under review will likely be aimed at strengthening U.S. industry, increasing electrons, and building secure infrastructure.
The Department of Energy has said that it is requesting more information in order to review the awards. It also prioritizes large-scale commercial project. The Energy Department has said that the audit, currently in its first phase, may be extended to other DOE programs offices. This could result in billions of dollars of grants for different projects being reviewed. (Reporting and editing by Leslie Adler; Timothy Gardner)
(source: Reuters)