Extreme Financial News

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.For years, climate campaigners have claimed that our food supply is under grave threat from climate change caused by excessive fossil fuel use. Ironically, the war in West Asia is highlighting that the much bigger food challenge for the world is not having enough access to fossil fuels.Today, half of all the calories we consume are only possible because they are produced with artificial fertilizers, overwhelmingly from natural gas.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Investing in artificial intelligence involves a strong belief that it’s different this time, and memory-chip makers are a particularly extreme example.Micron Technology recorded its biggest-ever loss just three years ago, and is now forecast to become the sixth-most profitable U.S. stock. It will make just under $100 billion over the next 12 months, more than Meta or Berkshire Hathaway.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.In the sleepy world of trust planning, the topsy-turvy stock market is creating big tax-savings opportunities.While irrevocable trusts are permanent structures, the assets within them are flexible and can be swapped at any time with different similarly valued assets—a strategy worth considering during times of extreme swings in market values.“Asset swapping often falls between the cracks,” says Ed Renn, of counsel on the private client and tax team at Withers. “Some people are knocking around with trust structures from years back and may not be proactive when it comes to managing assets in the trusts.”Swapping assets is often part of estate planning for wealthy taxpayers aiming to minimize exposure to the 50% estate tax rate.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.On an unusually mild May morning, Sunder Nursery in Delhi’s Nizamuddin Basti area is all abuzz. Quite literally. Behind the stone wall marking the end of the territory accessible to visitors, some winged creatures are fluttering around over a few private acres of wilderness.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Patience may be the greatest virtue, but few professional investors have the privilege of practising it. In real life, money managers live in constant fear that their investors will flee—and their jobs will be toast—if they fail to keep up with their benchmarks for several quarters or, heaven forbid, years. The only living exception is Warren Buffett.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.There is a tendency to think of mutual funds in binary terms: either actively managed or passive index funds. In reality, it’s a spectrum. Some active funds diverge sharply from their benchmark, making concentrated bets the index barely touches.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The promoters of Faridabad-based Norisys Technology Pvt Ltd, a premium electrical switches and accessories maker, have engaged Alvarez & Marsal to explore a potential stake sale, according to two people familiar with the matter.“The company is seeking an overall valuation of ₹5,000–6,000 crore. The exact deal structures are yet to be decided as it is still early days but it is likely to be a majority stake sale,” one of the people said.“It is an extremely profitable company even at a small scale and has grown well in the last few years, so several large private equity players will be tapped to test demand for the asset,” according to the second person.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.As the Nifty 50 crashed more than 11% in March amid escalating tensions between the US, Iran and Israel, equity funds slashed their cash holdings throughout the month, aggressively buying into stocks at beaten-down prices. This widespread reduction in liquidity highlighted how differently fund managers utilize "dry powder" during a crisis.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.NEW DELHI: An early and harsher-than-usual start to summer has prompted the Centre to ask states to step up heatwave preparedness, with temperatures already running 4-8 degrees Celsius above seasonal averages in several regions, according to two government officials and documents reviewed by Mint.The directive comes as parts of northwestern, central and eastern India report daytime highs crossing 44°C, raising the risk of heat-related illnesses and potential disruption to economic activity if extreme conditions persist.The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has warned that heatwave conditions are very likely in the next 24 hours in states including Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana, as well as parts of central and peninsular India.India's official weather forecaster defines a heatwave as temperatures at least 4.5°C above normal, with higher departures classified as severe.Union health secretary Punya Salila Srivastava has asked states to stock essential supplies such as oral rehydration salts (ORS), intravenous fluids, ice packs and cooling equipment, and to operationalize dedicated Heat Stroke Management Units at health facilities. Ambulance services have also been asked to be equipped to handle heat-related emergencies, according to the communication sent to states.States have been directed to mandatorily report daily heatstroke cases and deaths through the Integrated Health Information Platform (IHIP) to enable real-time monitoring.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Mutual fund investors, especially those who entered the market after 2020, are now facing an unfamiliar situation. For investors who entered the market post-Covid, investing in mutual funds looked so easy, with little worry about drawdowns and consistent annual profits between 2020 and 2024. Investors buying mutual funds had a good experience, which gave them confidence to significantly scale up their investments based on near-term past performance.This ramp-up happened very quickly as they added more money and generated returns for four successive years.

small packs also represent one of the largest sources of plastic litter, as their size and multi-layered composition make them extremely difficult to collect and recycle.This comes against the backdrop of the government’s ban on single-use plastic and assumes significance as India generates around 3.5 million tonnes of plastic waste annually, according to the Central Pollution Control Board. Of this, around 40% of plastic waste is littered and remains uncollected.Sachets are used across many product categories including personal care items such as shampoo, conditioner, hair oil, face wash, body wash, pan masala, gutkha, instant coffee, spices, sauces, dairy whitener, detergent powder, dishwashing liquid and floor cleaners.Pan masala and gutkha are widely consumed across India and largely sold in small sachets (typically under 10 g).

The global landscape has shifted significantly over the past few weeks, triggered by the unfolding geopolitical complexities in West Asia.As we stepped into 2026, the sentiment was one of cautious optimism. The probability of a global recession appeared slim, and investors were pivoting aggressively toward growth assets.

money psychology.For instance, people whose childhood was spent in an austere home where parents struggled to make ends meet might grow up to be extremely careful with money because they don’t want to face scarcity again, said Pamarthi. “When they think of money, they get scared,” she said.

NITI Aayog, nearly 600 million Indians face high to extreme water stress, while industrial water demand is expected to double by 2030. Despite this, only 30–35% of wastewater generated in urban India is currently treated, and an even smaller fraction is reused.According to Le Guennec, encouraging industries to transition from freshwater dependence to treated wastewater could significantly ease pressure on freshwater resources.

The West Asia escalation has brought back into focus a structural vulnerability that has long remained underappreciated in policy discourse. Energy flows translate into payment flows, and both are now increasingly mediated by financial architectures that reflect geopolitical reality as much as economic logic. These are not passive conduits, as they can shape outcomes—by enabling, delaying or, in extreme cases, constraining the movement of money across borders.At the heart of this evolving dynamic lies mBridge, an initiative incubated under the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) for interoperability among multiple central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).

₹229 trillion, the highest since November 2024. Every fear event produces the same pattern: retail traders flood into options, most often choosing straddles and strangles.A straddle involves buying a call and a put at the same strike price, profiting if the market moves sharply in either direction. A strangle is cheaper, placing the call above and the put below the current price, but it requires an even larger move to profit.Both appear logical in uncertain times: direction-neutral and clean.

The dollar has been winning against gold. Since the start of the Iran war on 28 February, the dollar has strengthened against most major currencies. In an earlier oped in Mint on 9 March (bit.ly/413F9Ry), I delved into the anomalous trend of the dollar strengthening by 1.5% and gold weakening by 1%.

Sebi) found that nine out of ten individual traders in the futures and options (F&O) segment lose money.It is a structural reality of a zero-sum game. When someone wins, someone else loses by exactly that amount, minus the fees extracted by brokers and exchanges on every single transaction.All that activity—the charts, the terminals, the WhatsApp tips, the YouTube gurus – produces nothing new. It merely redistributes money from the many to the few, while extracting fees along the way.This is the dung economy of personal finance.

large-caps.In an interaction with Mint, Sahil Kapoor, head-products and markets strategist, DSP Mutual Fund, explains why he believes the current setup offers a contrarian opportunity.We recently put out an ad hoc update, which is quite rare for us. The trigger was that markets had hit several extremes at the same time.A number of private banks, IT companies, some FMCG names and housing finance firms, were trading at valuations last seen during the global financial crisis. Many others were at or below their long-term average valuations.

Asset allocation is essential because no single asset class consistently outperforms across market cycles. Equities may lead during periods of economic growth, while debt provides stability during downturns, and gold acts as a hedge against inflation and currency risks.

One way or the other, an extended West Asia war will impact earnings growth, said Ajay Tyagi, senior executive vice president and head of Equity at UTI Asset Management Co.He believes, “If markets remain flat or correct further, leading to poor two-three year returns, SIP (systematic investment plan) flows may slow down”.Tyagi, who directly manages about ₹2.5 trillion worth of assets, explained that while the structural shift of household savings into markets remains strong, it will see ebbs and flows rather than move in a straight line.He said that SIP inflows, currently around $3 billion, will have their own cycles and are unlikely to keep rising indefinitely.Edited excerpts:For large caps, the correction is mostly over, as they have reached a fair valuation zone. While not yet ‘cheap’, which would mean falling below long-term averages, they are close enough to offer comfort.