Bloomberg — 2026-07-25#

Lead Story#

The Middle East conflict continues to fracture global energy and shipping markets, as a pause in nightly US strikes on Iran has been met with intensified skirmishes between Houthi rebels and Saudi Arabia. Following claimed Houthi missile strikes on southern Saudi territory, a supertanker bound for the kingdom was forced to U-turn just before the Bab el-Mandeb chokepoint. The escalating blockade risk is forcing global central bankers from Washington to Tokyo to brace for the inflationary shock of oil potentially returning to $100 a barrel.

Markets & Economics#

• Charting the Global Economy: Growth Picks Up, AI Boom Continues: Applications for US unemployment benefits plunged to a near 60-year low last week. The data points to a highly resilient labor market, which will give the Federal Reserve ample runway to maintain its focus on inflation.
• Big Tech Debt Flood Is Taking Over Risk In Market: Credit Weekly: Massive capital expenditures for artificial intelligence are driving an insatiable wave of bond sales from major technology firms. This debt flood is significantly altering the risk profile of the broader US corporate bond market in ways that may not be immediately obvious to investors.
• Europe’s Stock Market Rally Is the Most Concentrated in Years: A remarkably narrow equity rally in 2026 is completely upending the European market’s historical reputation for being immune to shocks driven by only a handful of single stocks.
• The ‘Trump Trade’ Is Turning Into a Loser in the Stock Market: Amateur and professional traders alike who rushed into equities expected to benefit from Donald Trump’s aggressive second-term economic policies are seeing those bets steadily unwind.

Business & Industries#

• Nvidia to Invest $1 Bil in Naver, Paramount & WB Halt Deal, More: Chipmaker Nvidia is slated to pour $1 billion into South Korean tech giant Naver, while Hollywood heavyweights Paramount and Warner Bros. have officially halted their prospective merger discussions.
• Germany Set to Impose Conditions on $1.9 Billion US Magnet Deal: Berlin is preparing to place restrictions on a US acquisition of a Frankfurt-area magnet manufacturer. The move threatens to strain relations with Washington and complicate the Trump administration’s broader strategy to break supply-chain reliance on China.
• BayWa, A Century-Old Bavarian Conglomerate, May Face Its Final Harvest: Creditors of the historic German agricultural and energy company are locked in fresh negotiations after its initial restructuring plan faltered.
• Seven & i Abandons Investment Talks with Poland’s Zabka: The Japanese retail operator ended its discussions to take a stake in Poland’s largest convenience store chain, Zabka Group SA, though it continues to hunt for expansion targets beyond its home market.

Policy & World#

• India Education Minister Resigns in Bow to Youth Protest Demand: Dharmendra Pradhan stepped down on Saturday following massive national protests over exam paper leaks. The resignation marks the largest concession yet by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to a rapidly widening student movement.
• Trump Renews Tariff Onslaught With a Whirlwind Week of Threats: Breaking his recent silence on trade wars, President Trump revived his campaign of import taxes ahead of the US midterms. Separately, his $1.4 billion personal crypto windfall has become the biggest hurdle for passing his sweeping digital-asset legislation, as Democrats demand stricter anti-profiting guardrails.
• Ukraine Drone Strike Hits Tyumen Oil Refinery Deep Inside Russian Territory: Kyiv successfully targeted a refinery in Russia’s Ural region, continuing a campaign of intensifying strikes on critical energy infrastructure.
• Brazil Blocks Visas of US Envoys Over Election Interference: Authorities in Brasília denied visas to two senior US State Department officials intended to scrutinize the fairness of the country’s upcoming October 4 presidential vote.

Opinion & Analysis#

• Saudi Oil Can Still Get Out — But It Won’t Be Cheap or Easy: Javier Blas analyzes how Houthi attacks on the Bab el-Mandeb chokepoint are threatening the East-West pipeline that previously saved global markets from the Iran war’s fallout, highlighting a precarious geopolitical vulnerability for Saudi crude.
• The QuitGPT Movement Is a Wake-Up Call for AI Bulls: Parmy Olson argues that protesters demanding an AI freeze are raising valid, urgent concerns about the unchecked momentum of self-developing models and the sheer impossibility of hitting pause once they scale.