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EU lawmakers agree to soften 2035 car emissions target

The three largest mainstream groups in the European Parliament have agreed to soften the European Union's 2035 emissions target for new cars. Under the deal, automakers would have to cut fleet CO2 emissions by 87.5% from 2021 levels, and could…

Brent hits five-month high amid Iran’s Hormuz threats

Brent crude rose above $110 a barrel on Tuesday, October 20, its highest level since May. Traders are weighing an escalating campaign of attacks on tankers in the Strait of Hormuz against Gulf crude exports that have held up better…

Salesforce to buy Braze for $5.66 billion in cash

Salesforce has signed a definitive agreement to buy customer engagement platform Braze for about $5.66 billion in enterprise value, the company announced on Tuesday, October 20, 2026. Holders of Braze Class A stock will receive $47.50 per share in cash.…

Oil falls again as Trump waives some Russia sanctions

Oil prices fell for a second straight session on Tuesday, October 20, as traders weighed President Donald Trump's decision to waive some sanctions and tariffs on Russian energy. Attacks in the Middle East kept a floor under prices. Brent crude…

European gas prices hit highest level since 2022

Europe's benchmark natural gas price rose above €90 per megawatt-hour on Tuesday, October 20, for the first time since December 2022. Competition with Asian buyers for liquefied natural gas (LNG) is getting tighter as both regions prepare for winter, Investing.com…

IEA’s Birol sees no return to normal energy markets in 2027

International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol said on Tuesday, October 20, that global energy markets are more than a year from returning to normal. He pointed to "overlapping crises" in the Middle East and said they leave supply highly…

French yields near 24-year high as new protests announced

French government borrowing costs rose again on Tuesday, Oct. 20, after protest groups announced new demonstrations for Saturday. The 10-year OAT yield gained 3 basis points to 4.96%. That is close to the 4.99% it reached in early October, its…

Oil holds near five-month high as Houthis hit Saudi sites

Oil prices stayed near five-month highs on Tuesday, October 20. Traders kept pricing in risk from Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, a report that Iran is helping direct those strikes, and stalled negotiations between Washington and Tehran. Brent rose in…

Germany signs AI pact with Nvidia as Huang urges adoption

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told German carmakers and industrial firms on Monday, October 19, to adopt artificial intelligence quickly and use it to "re-engineer" Germany's struggling business model. He argued that the technology will strengthen heavy industry, not replace it.…

Oil swings as US denies strike on Iranian naval base

Brent crude climbed back above $110 a barrel on Monday, October 19, after Al Jazeera reported that Iran's navy accused US forces of attacking the Konarak naval base on the country's southeastern coast. The report erased losses from earlier in…

US to certify Boeing 737 MAX 10 Tuesday, sources say

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is expected to announce on Tuesday, October 20, that the Federal Aviation Administration has approved the Boeing 737 MAX 10, sources told Reuters. Duffy is scheduled to appear at a Boeing factory in Everett, Washington, to…

Eric Schmidt’s 1% Anthropic stake set for IPO windfall

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt owns around 1% of Anthropic, according to people familiar with the matter. That stake sets him up for one of the largest individual windfalls from the AI company's upcoming stock market debut, Bloomberg reported on…

French bond selloff deepens as US yields hold above 5%

The benchmark US 10-year Treasury yield stayed above 5% on Monday, October 19. It edged higher as AI stocks recovered from a sharp drop the week before, according to Reuters. On the other side of the world, the debate was…

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Bailey joins IMF in warning of AI financing risks

The International Monetary Fund says three risks are building under markets that have so far held up well: a correction driven by artificial intelligence, a sharper rise in government bond yields, and cyberattacks. All three, it warns, could be made…

Oil rebounds after early slide on Trump’s Russia waiver

Oil prices pulled back from five-month highs on Monday, October 19, after President Donald Trump signed an executive order late Friday waiving new sanctions and tariffs on Russia. Traders took the move as a sign that more Russian fuel could…

Europe’s top carriers eye joint satellite spectrum bid

Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefónica and Vodafone signed a letter of intent on Monday, October 19, to explore a joint bid for future Mobile Satellite Services (MSS) spectrum in Europe. They also plan to offer direct-to-device service, which connects ordinary phones…

UBS draws up plans to leave Switzerland, sources say

UBS has drawn up contingency plans that include moving its headquarters out of Switzerland or merging with another lender, sources told Reuters. The plans come as Swiss lawmakers write stricter capital rules after the 2023 collapse of Credit Suisse. A…

Netflix faces engagement doubts ahead of Q3 report

Netflix will report third-quarter results on Tuesday, October 20. Investors want to hear how the company plans to keep growing as competition increases and viewers watch less, according to Reuters. Analysts expect revenue to rise 11.8% to $12.87 billion, based…

S&P Global warns Hormuz energy shocks risk food crisis

Analysts and officials expect global food inflation to speed up in the coming months and last well into 2027. War-related shipping disruptions, higher fuel and fertiliser costs, and El Niño-driven drought are all cutting into cereal supplies. According to a…

CoreWeave debt fears drag Asian AI chip stocks lower

Asia's AI hardware stocks lost ground last week after a deepening selloff in US technology shares raised a new concern. Investors are now asking less about demand for AI chips and more about whether data centre builders can keep borrowing…

Works council says VW plans global pay freeze to 2030

Volkswagen has told human resources managers around the world to plan for "zero increases through 2030," the carmaker's employee representatives said on Monday. That would hold pay at current collectively bargained levels and stop all raises for the group's roughly…

Yuan hits four-year high after China’s GDP beats forecasts

China's yuan rose to its strongest level against the U.S. dollar in more than four years on Monday, October 19. The move followed third-quarter growth figures that came in above forecasts and took some pressure off Beijing to roll out…

Food inflation to intensify into 2027, FAO’s Torero warns

A historically strong El Niño and the war on Iran are pushing up global food prices, and analysts expect the pressure to last well into 2027. A Reuters analysis published on October 19 found that the effects are already showing…

Oil retreats from five-month high as Houthi attacks persist

The Houthi rebels in Yemen kept up their attacks on Saudi Arabia over the weekend of Oct. 17–18. Saudi-led coalition forces shot down drones over Riyadh and destroyed missiles aimed at the Red Sea port of Yanbu and the border…

Euro slides against dollar, pound after French unrest

The euro fell against both the British pound and the US dollar on Monday, October 19, after a weekend of violent protests in France added to worries about the country's public finances. EUR/GBP slipped in early European trading, extending a…

Amazon AI exec expects years of negative cash flow

Amazon plans to spend about $220 billion this year on the physical systems behind artificial intelligence, and the effort has wiped out its free cash flow. Power shortages, costly servers and construction delays are adding to the strain, Business Insider…

Oil slips after Trump waives new Russia sanctions

Oil prices fell in early Asian trading on Monday, October 19, after President Donald Trump waived new U.S. sanctions and tariffs on Russia, a move that could bring more Russian fuel onto world markets, Reuters reported. Brent crude futures dropped…

China’s growth quickens to 4.5% in Q3, beating forecasts

China's economy grew faster than expected in the third quarter. Gross domestic product rose 4.5% year on year in July through September, up from 4.3% in the second quarter, according to preliminary estimates from the National Bureau of Statistics released…

Japan, South Korea stocks slide as AI fears hit chipmakers

Stocks in Tokyo and Seoul fell in early trading on Monday, October 19, after a selloff in U.S. technology shares. Japan's Nikkei 225 lost more than 1.7% and South Korea's Kospi was down more than 1%, while SoftBank Group dropped…

Wall Street leaders weigh skipping FII after Riyadh attacks

Some of Wall Street's top bankers are reconsidering trips to Saudi Arabia's biggest investment conference after a wave of Houthi missile and drone attacks on Riyadh. Bankers and executives at JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup are reviewing their travel plans for…

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