Business

A well-known stock market proverb says: "Buy when the cannons are firing." In other words, in times of war and uncertainty, people should invest. Those looking to protect their wealth and assets often turn to gold — even though gold is rarely cheap in turbulent times. In times of crises, such as a pandemic or a war, demand for gold typically rises. This stronger demand tends to push prices higher, as it did in the first weeks of this year. If prices continue to rise, investments in gold not only preserve wealth but also potentially increase it. So is the current environment a boon for speculators? Gold is generally less of a speculative investment and more of a safe-haven asset. This has been reflected in the gold price's recent development, which has repeatedly reached new highs — mirr...

When 32 countries this week moved to tap their emergency crude oil stockpiles in an effort to steady soaring oil prices, the gesture was quickly overshadowed by Iran's escalating strikes in the Strait of Hormuz. The members of the International Energy Agency (IEA), a coalition of major energy‑consuming nations, agreed on Wednesday to release hundreds of millions of barrels of oil from their strategic oil reserves. Instead of helping oil prices lower, the price of Brent crude rose around the $100 (€87.30) a barrel mark toward the end of the week, having spiked to $119.50 for a short time on Monday. Around the announcement, Iran intensified its attacks near or in Hormuz, striking multiple commercial vessels — including oil tankers and cargo ships — with projectiles, drones and explosives....

The easing of sanctions on Russian oil by the United States is aimed at cooling global energy prices as the US-Israel war on Iran continues. It also provides a significant boost to the Kremlin at a time when Russia desperately needs it. The measure, announced by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on social media on Thursday, has been widely expected since the United States eased sanctions on Russian oil sales to India last week. The decision is a broadening of that original waiver, which focused on cargoes of Russian oil already at sea, to include countries other than India. Bessent said the measure was "temporary" and played down criticism that it would provide significant extra revenue to Russia. "This narrowly tailored, short-term measure applies only to oil already in transit and w...

The world is naturally fixated on the oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers missing from the Strait of Hormuz due to the Iran war. After all, the narrow waterway between Iran and Oman carries around a fifth of global crude and LNG exports from the Gulf to the rest of the world. The more fragile cargo, however, is the fertilizer that helps feed the world and the food imports that keep Arabian Gulf states like the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia alive.  Gulf nations account for 20% of global traded volumes of key fertilizers such as ammonia, phosphates and sulfur, data from the maritime intelligence company Signal Group show. Nearly half the world's traded urea — the most widely used nitrogen fertilizer — comes from the Gulf region, with Qatar acc...

Honda has warned it expects a huge hit to its finances because of a major reorientation of its electric vehicle (EV) strategy.  Japan's second-largest carmaker tried to lead the charge on electric motoring but it says that US policy changes and tariffs, coupled with reduced competitiveness in Asia, are forcing it to adjust.  German performance carmaker Porsche suffered a similar hit to its balance sheet in 2025 amid the same bid to partially pull the plug on EVs, with news of its almost obliterated annual profits released earlier this week.  What did Honda say on the matter?  "Honda believed EVs would be the optimal solution from a long-term perspective. Based on this belief, Honda shifted its strategic direction towards the popularization of EVs," the company said on Thursday.  It sa...

Coordinated efforts to keep oil prices and fuel prices at filling stations in check began to emerge on Wednesday in Germany and elsewhere. The moves come amid the fast-rising prices caused by the attacks on Iran and wider conflict in the region.  "The oil market challenges we are facing are unprecedented in scale, therefore I am very glad that IEA member countries have responded with an emergency collective action of unprecedented size," International Energy Agency (IEA) Executive Director Fatih Birol said on Wednesday. Germany, Austria, Japan, France, Spain all signal movement German Economy Minister Katherina Reiche called a lunchtime press conference in Berlin, a day after Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil had said the government was open to releasing some of its reserves. Reiche tol...

It was with obvious pride that Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk took to social media on February 6. Sharing a picture of an article in the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung titled "The Poles Are Coming", he wrote: "See how this phrase has changed over the past 30 years. The German press reports that our companies are increasingly taking over established Western brands, not the other way around. Poland is coming to its senses." The article he referenced was about an apparently growing trend: Polish companies acquiring and buying stakes in Western companies, including many in Germany. According to data compiled by Bloomberg, companies from Poland announced 22 acquisitions in Western Europe last year, the most on record. Germany has been a particular target, accounting for...

The Trump administration's decision to ease sanctions on Russian oil sales to India in order to address potential supply issues has raised questions about Washington's resolve on the issue. After announcing a 30-day waiver on Thursday (March 5) to allow Indian refiners to buy Russian oil again, the White House has now opened the door to possible further loosening of the sanctions against Moscow. "To ease the temporary gap of oil around the world, we have given them permission to accept the Russian oil. We may unsanction other Russian oil," US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News. The easing of sanctions on India represented a major policy shift. When President Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a trade agreement last month, a major component of the deal wa...

Artificial intelligence lab Anthropic filed suit on Monday challenging a move by the Pentagon last week officially designating the company as a "supply chain risk" after it refused to allow unrestricted military use of its AI system, Claude.  The US Defense Department had demanded Anthropic remove guardrails blocking its AI for functions like autonomous ​weapons or domestic surveillance. Before the deadline for a deal passed on February 27, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei had warned US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth about the risks of using untested AI in autonomous warfare and refused to remove use restrictions. The Pentagon argued that technology companies were not in a position to dictate matters of warfare.  In a post on X, Hegseth wrote that US troops "will never be held hostage by the...

The price of oil soared to nearly $120 a barrel on Monday after Israel struck Iran's energy infrastructure over the weekend and Tehran announced Mojtaba Khamenei as the country's new supreme leader. The attacks, which marked a major escalation in the 10-day-old conflict, sent fresh fears throughout global energy markets, with Brent crude reaching $119.50 (€103.30) a barrel. It later fell back to around $100, and on Tuesday, oil was trading below $90 a barrel, but still more than 20% higher than when the war started on February 28. The worsening conflict raises the risk to energy infrastructure across the Middle East, where producers are already grappling with damaged sites from Iranian attacks and the closure of the world's most critical oil shipping route. With diminishing storage fac...