War Financial News

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The world is making a run on U.S. energy, setting American motorists and foreign buyers on a collision course.President Trump and his administration have successfully talked down and taken measures to contain American energy prices. That, combined with the fact that the country has a huge surplus, has prompted overseas buyers to buy huge volumes of U.S.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.MUMBAI: India’s petrol and diesel price hike, alongside a volatile crude oil outlook, is set to ripple across key sectors and is already feeding early market pressure, with analysts warning of further inflation if global oil prices climb.Oil marketing companies (OMCs) finally bit the bullet and raised prices of petrol and diesel by around ₹3 a litre on Friday amid elevated global prices. More hikes are expected going ahead as under-recoveries remain high.Higher fuel prices are expected to feed quickly into logistics and freight costs, with transport operators unlikely to absorb higher diesel expenses, triggering cost pass-through across supply chains and sectors dependent on transportation and energy-intensive inputs, potentially widening inflation pressures across the economy, according to experts.“We raise FY27 headline inflation to 5% versus 4.6% earlier assuming a ₹10 per litre hike in retail fuel prices, along with the impact of El Niño-led adverse monsoons,” said Madhavi Arora, chief economist at Emkay Global.The cost pressures come at a time when corporate earnings in consumption- and transport-linked sectors are already under strain from elevated input costs and uneven demand recovery.Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies are expected to face higher distribution and input costs, even as they continue to grapple with already elevated raw material inflation.Large FMCG players have already begun raising prices as fuel, packaging and food commodity costs continue to rise.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.KYIV—It was the middle of January when the cold and lack of electricity forced Olha Kosova and her baby to flee their Kyiv apartment to her parents’ place in the suburbs.Now, spring is here, the electricity is working and Kosova and 1-year-old Lisa are back home in their sun-drenched apartment.“I don’t even remember this winter,” Kosova said. “It fades from the memory so quickly as if it never happened.”Kyiv and its residents are bouncing back from the darkest winter of the war. Russia struck Ukraine’s energy infrastructure more than 1,400 times with missiles and drones dating to last July, according to an official Ukrainian tally.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The Indian currency has been experiencing sharp depreciation amid the West Asian crisis, driven largely by rising energy prices and moderating capital flows. That said, the weakness of the Indian rupee has been a persistent concern over the past year, even before the conflict began. It has depreciated by about 11% over the past year, with about 5% of this value loss having occurred after the US-Iran war began on 28 February.The main concern for the rupee is India’s weak balance-of-payments position.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Mumbai: Two strategic joint ventures have set the Sajjan Jindal-led JSW Steel on course to becoming one of the world's biggest steel companies outside of China.The first joint venture is with Japan's JFE Steel through a recent 50% stake sale in Bhushan Power & Steel Ltd (BPSL), a company it acquired through the bankruptcy court five years ago.Add to that another equal joint venture with South Korea's POSCO to set up a new 6 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) capacity steel plant in Odisha.Including planned capacity expansions at BPSL, the two partnerships would add about 16 mtpa capacity by 2032, setting it on course to reach 80 mtpa capacity by 2032, according to Jayant Acharya, the chief executive officer and joint managing director of JSW Steel.The company’s consolidated steelmaking capacity stood at just under 38 million tonnes per annum at the end of FY26, including BPSL.These capacity additions would make JSW Steel a strong contender to be the world's largest steelmaker outside China by 2032.At present, ArcelorMittal is the world’s largest steel company outside China, with a capacity of 65 million tonnes per annum, according to 2024 manufacturing capacity data from the Belgium-based World Steel, the latest figures published by the international trade body.The BPSL stake sale to JFE Steel brought JSW Steel about ₹37,250 crore, which sharply deleveraged its balance sheet, and gave the company the financial muscle to fund expansion. The Mumbai-headquartered steelmaker pared about ₹30,000 crore of debt in FY26, mostly in foreign borrowings.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Coal is making a comeback.Countries around the world are returning to the highly polluting but reliable source of power after the Iran war effectively shut the Strait of Hormuz and cut off around 20% of global liquefied natural gas supplies.Taiwan is restarting idled coal-fired power plants and South Korea boosted the amount of electricity it generated from coal by more than a third last month. In Europe, Italy has put its coal plants on standby as it girds for a prolonged energy shock.Spot coal prices at Australia’s Newcastle port, a key supplier to Asia, have jumped 12% since the war started.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Through the dotcom bust, the 2008 crisis, demonetization, the Covid crash, the Ukraine war, and every oil shock in between, my answer in this column has been almost monotonously the same. Stay the course. Don’t react to the news.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.US President Donald Trump’s description of his China visit as “very successful” and “unforgettable” may be as self-congratulatory as his claims of victory over Iran.Trump, in his own telling, had a successful stay in Beijing during a presidential visit that came after nearly a decade and at a crucial juncture in American diplomacy.Having painted himself into a corner by underestimating a sanctions-hit Iran, which now has the world economy in a chokehold through the Strait of Hormuz, he was clearly hoping to secure the Asian giant's help in ending the impasse, not just for favourable economic deals.He claimed to have concluded several trade deals, including an order for 200 Boeing jets that could rise to 750 if the aircraft maker performs well. China also agreed to purchase 400-450 engines from General Electric, he added.Except there were no mentions of these by his host, Chinese President Xi Jinping, whom Trump described as an “incredible guy” to Fox News reporters on 15 May while returning home.In fact, his 14 May meeting with Xi at the Great Hall of the People suggests he may have been told, politely, that he no longer holds all the cards.A Chinese readout said Xi noted that “transformation not seen in a century is accelerating across the globe, and the international situation is fluid and turbulent.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia carried out multiple strikes against Iran after their countries were attacked by the regime in the early days of the war, showing the depth of the Gulf states’ involvement in the conflict and how much the region’s geopolitics have been transformed.Before the war, strikes by the Gulf states on their large and heavily armed neighbor and rival for power in the Middle East would have been unthinkable. But new details have emerged that give a clearer picture of how directly they fought in the war, upending a careful balance the countries had sought to achieve.The U.A.E.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The war in Iran has triggered the largest oil-supply disruption in modern history.The crisis in the Strait of Hormuz is forcing governments to redefine energy security for an age of geopolitical fragmentation—one in which resilience depends not only on how much oil the world produces, but where it flows, who can get it and which countries are able to absorb the shock when it is interrupted.Nearly 15% of global oil supply has been removed from the market. Crude prices remain elevated above $100 a barrel after initially spiking higher. They will very likely move sharply higher as inventories run dry.But while the oil market is global and rising costs are felt everywhere, the consequences are not evenly distributed.Asia has been hit first and hardest.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.From Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging austerity measures as the West Asia war inflated India’s import bills, to the Centre raising minimum support prices for key kharif crops to ensure food security, retail inflation edging up on rising energy-linked items, the government banning sugar exports to protect domestic supplies, and India among top countries for disaster-related displacements in 2025—here is a compilation of this week’s news in numbers.As the West Asia war disrupts global supply chains and pushes up India’s import bill, PM Modi has urged citizens to adopt austerity measures to ease pressure on the economy.In the public address, Modi called on households to avoid non-essential gold purchases, overseas holidays and destination weddings for a year, while urging farmers to reduce fertilizer use by half.The appeal comes amid mounting stress on India’s external balances, with the rupee weakening and the current account deficit facing renewed pressure.India remains heavily dependent on imports of crude oil, vegetable oils, fertilizers, gold and silver. Trade data show that India imported over $290 billion worth of these commodities in 2025-26 — nearly 38% of the total import bill of $776 billion.Amid heightened global volatility and supply chain concerns stemming from the West Asia war, the Union cabinet this week approved a series of measures aimed at strengthening India’s food security, including higher minimum support prices (MSPs) for key kharif crops.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.After a week of mounting political drama, the stage is set in the U.K. for months of uncertainty over who will lead the world’s fifth-biggest economy, as unpopular Prime Minister Keir Starmer embarks on a long and messy fight for his job against the left-wing mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham.Burnham said late Thursday he planned to stand for election to parliament, opening the path for him to take on Starmer for the leadership of the ruling Labour Party.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.When Gil Hanse set out to renovate Aronimink Golf Club outside Philadelphia he made it his mission to restore it to its original, legendary designs from the 1920s. The decades had altered the course’s identity with everything from new trees to renovated bunkers. But Hanse was determined to understand what Aronimink really looked like a century ago.As Hanse sifted through archives, he soon made a surprising discovery: rare aerial photographs of Aronimink’s early days that diverged from old drawings of the grounds.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Having DISCOVERED the costs of tariffs, President Donald Trump has now discovered the costs of war. On March 9th he declared that his campaign against Iran would be over “very soon”, sending oil prices, which had peaked at nearly $120 a barrel the day before, crashing to nearly $80 (before the war they had been $70).

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged higher adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) and reduced fossil fuel use amid the ongoing West Asia war, the ministry of heavy industries approved ₹503.86 crore to set up 4,874 public EV chargers.The approval falls under the Centre’s ₹10,900 crore PM E-Drive electric mobility scheme. It marks the first sanction for charging infrastructure under the scheme, which has earmarked ₹2,000 crore for EV chargers and targets 72,300 units nationwide.The move comes as EV penetration rises — about 60% of three-wheelers, 4.8% of cars and 6% of two-wheelers sold in India are now electric — but charging gaps persist.Mint explains the subsidy mechanism and why public charging is critical to India’s electric mobility transition.The PM E-Drive scheme allocates ₹2,000 crore specifically to support EV charging infrastructure.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Although retail prices stayed largely cool, inflation at the wholesale level ran hot last month in a sign that supply shortages caused by the war in West Asia have started to feed price pressures. The wholesale inflation rate for April more than doubled to 8.3% from a year earlier, compared to 3.9% in March, according to government data issued on Thursday. April’s reading was the highest in three-and-a-half years.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.MUMBAI: Consumer goods makers are raising prices and bracing for weaker demand as commodity inflation spreads across fuel, packaging and food inputs.Large listed fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies, including Hindustan Unilever, Britannia Industries, and Dabur India, have started hiking prices across parts of their portfolios and warned in recent earnings calls that inflationary pressures are likely to persist.The conflict in West Asia has pushed up crude-linked input and freight costs while also driving a rise in global edible oil prices, increasing pressure on FMCG companies that rely on imported commodities.The cost pressures are now spreading beyond fuel and packaging into food commodities.On Wednesday, milk cooperative brands, Amul and Mother Dairy, raised milk prices by ₹2 a litre. Smaller regional cooperatives, including Indore-based Sanchi Milk and Kerala-based Milma, have either raised prices or are planning hikes, according to media reports.Industry executives said higher prices of milk, wheat and edible oils are squeezing margins, forcing FMCG companies to pass on costs through price hikes and lower grammage packs, a move that could weigh on demand recovery.India’s wholesale price index rose 8.3% year-on-year in April, driven largely by higher prices of mineral oil, crude, natural gas and metals, according to government data.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Mumbai: The Indian rupee’s slide to fresh record lows amid the ongoing West Asia war is prompting calls for deeper structural reforms instead of short-term liquidity measures to stabilize the currency, five market participants told Mint.While the US-Iran conflict has intensified pressure on the rupee, experts said the currency’s weakness predates the war and reflects broader concerns over slowing capital inflows at a time when India’s current account deficit is expected to widen.Since the war began on 28 February, the rupee has declined by 4.6%, according to Bloomberg data. After clocking fresh lows for three consecutive trading sessions, the currency hit a fresh record low of 95.96 per US dollar on Thursday, before trimming losses and ended at 95.64 compared with 95.66 on Wednesday.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.“We are thinking of moving to Dubai. Know any good brokers?” That question used to pop up regularly in 2025 on cross-Arabian Sea phone calls to residents of the city-state from India.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.A man’s body, hands bound and covered by a blue tarp, lies by the side of the road where it had been dumped minutes earlier. A blood-soaked sign says he was a “Chapito,” a member of one of two criminal factions fighting for control of this city, the cradle of Mexico’s transnational narcotics industry.Such macabre finds are common in Culiacán—a city of luxury car dealerships, fancy malls, and makeshift fentanyl labs—marking the shifting lines of nearly two years of relentless civil war between the two main clans of the pioneering Sinaloa cartel.It’s a war that the Chapitos, the heirs of Mexican drug boss Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, appear to be losing, casting doubt on the future of a dynasty that once ruled vast swaths of the criminal underworld on its way to becoming the world’s top producer and smuggler of fentanyl.The latest blow came last month with the U.S.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Gold may be a “barbarous relic,” as John Maynard Keynes once observed, but it remains the relic of choice among central banks. Emerging-market central banks have been loading up on gold reserves ever since the 2008 global financial crisis, more than doubling their holdings. Does the anomalous behaviour of gold prices since the outbreak of the war with Iran call this strategy into question, or is something else going on?Gold’s allure derives from its reputation as a safe haven and inflation hedge.