Daily News – 22July’25

Oil prices were little changed on Monday, falling slightly as the latest European sanctions on Russian oil are expected to have minimal impact on supplies, while U.S. tariffs stoked demand concerns. Brent crude futures dropped 7 cents to close at $69.21 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude lost by 14 cents to settle at $67.20. The European Union on Friday approved the 18th package of sanctions against Russia over the war in Ukraine, which also targeted India’s Nayara Energy, an exporter of oil products refined from Russian crude. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that Russia had built up a certain immunity to Western sanctions. The EU sanctions followed U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats last week to impose sanctions on buyers of Russian exports unless Russia agrees to a peace deal within 50 days.

The S&P 500 moved higher on Monday as optimism around earnings overshadowed any investor fears over the latest developments in trade. The broad market index rose 0.14% and closed at 6,305.60 — marking the first time it ended a session above the 6,300 threshold. The Nasdaq Composite jumped 0.38% for a closing record of 20,974.17. Both indexes hit new all-time intraday highs earlier in the session, bolstered by advances in major technology names like Meta Platforms and Amazon. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 19.12 points, or 0.04%, and settled at 44,323.07.

Gold prices gained over 1% to hit a five-week high on Monday as the dollar and U.S. bond yields weakened amid uncertainty ahead of a U.S. deadline of August 1 for countries to strike trade deals with Washington or face more tariffs. Spot gold was up 1.3% at $3,394.23 per ounce at 02:34 p.m. ET, hitting its highest since June 17. U.S. gold futures settled 1.4% higher at $3,406.40. The U.S. dollar index was down 0.6%, making dollar-denominated gold more affordable for buyers using other currencies, while benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yields hit a more than one-week low.

The yen rose across the board on Monday after Japan’s ruling coalition lost its majority in the upper house, suggesting the result was mostly priced in, while investors braced for market disquiet ahead of a deadline on U.S. tariff negotiations. Japanese markets were closed for a public holiday, leaving the yen as the main indicator of possible investor angst. In midmorning trading, the Japanese currency gained 0.9% to 147.52 per dollar, although not far off from the 3-1/2-month low of 149.19 hit last week as investors fretted about Japan’s political and fiscal outlook. It also nudged 0.5% higher against the euro to 172.05 and against sterling to 198.60, up 0.4%.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has called for an inquiry into the “entire Federal Reserve institution”, in the latest sign of how top Trump administration officials are cranking up pressure on the central bank. Bessent’s comments come as Donald Trump and his lieutenants have sharply criticised the Fed and its chair Jay Powell for refraining to cut borrowing costs this year. Trump last week asked a group of Republican lawmakers whether he should sack Powell, but later clarified that he had no plans to do so unless he needed to “leave for fraud”. Bessent amped up his criticism of the Fed on Monday, saying that if the Federal Aviation Administration had made as many mistakes, “then we would go back and look at why this has happened”.

Land sales across smaller and less wealthy Chinese cities have fallen to their lowest levels since at least 2011, highlighting the bleak prospects for a full recovery across a national real estate market mired in a slowdown. Data from financial information provider Wind shows the total value of all land transactions in third-tier mainland Chinese cities, as ranked by population and economic development, fell 4 per cent to Rmb362bn ($50bn) in the first half of this year on the same period last year, despite a slight rise in sales for residential use. The worsening picture outside the largest and wealthiest cities points to the challenge for policymakers in Beijing as they try to revive a real estate market that for years anchored economic growth and provided local authorities with vital revenue.

Russia’s “swarm” tactics against Ukraine are increasingly cutting through Ukraine’s defences, with drones striking targets at three times the typical rate in recent months, according to official data. Ukrainian air force data suggests about 15 per cent of the drones penetrated defences on average between April and June — rising from just 5 per cent in the previous three months. The sheer volume of Russian attacks has also increased sharply this year, with a heavy assault on Sunday night into Monday morning including 426 Shahed style attack drones, Ukraine’s air force reported. The success of the drones in recent months demonstrates how cheap mass can overwhelm even sophisticated and layered air defences, and has shown Moscow’s ability to rapidly adapt fighting techniques to stretch Kyiv’s resources.

U.S. Treasury yields were lower on Monday as investors weighed the state of the U.S. economy and considered the latest trade developments. The 10-year Treasury yield was more than 4 basis points lower at 4.384%. The 2-year yield was more than 1 basis point lower at 3.861%. The 30-year yield was more than 4 basis points lower at 4.95%. Investors will now keep an eye on Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s speech on Tuesday morning, existing home sales data for June on Wednesday, weekly initial jobless claims on Thursday, and durable goods orders on Friday. Investors are also monitoring the latest trade news. Over the weekend, the White House reiterated that countries must begin paying tariffs from Aug. 1. On Sunday, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said it’s a “hard deadline,” but said countries can still negotiate the tariffs after that date.

Auto giant Stellantis expects a net loss of 2.3 billion euros ($2.68 billion) in the first half of the year amid pre-tax net charges and early effects of U.S. tariffs, the company said Monday in its preliminary figures. Stellantis, which owns household names including Jeep, Dodge, Fiat, Chrysler and Peugeot, estimated first-half net revenue of 74.3 billion euros, down from 85 billion euros from the same period last year. The preliminary figures come in the absence of financial guidance, which the company suspended on April 30. Stellantis said it taken the extraordinary move to publish preliminary and unaudited financial information for the first half of the year due to the difference between analyst consensus forecasts and the firm’s performance over the period. The update reaffirms the scale of the challenge ahead for new CEO Antonio Filosa, who was appointed in May after his predecessor Carlos Tavares unexpectedly resigned amid a sharp drop in profit, falling sales and problems in the U.S.

U.S. wireless carrier Verizon raised the lower end of its annual profit forecast, riding on strong demand for its premium plans and benefits from the Trump administration’s new tax law. Shares of the company rose 3.5% on Monday as it also surpassed Wall Street estimates for June-quarter sales and profit, thanks to a 2.2% rise in wireless service revenue. The telecom major has launched price-lock promotions and broadband-wireless bundles to retain users as competition intensifies from AT&T and T-Mobile, as well as broadband providers Comcast and Charter. Verizon is also benefiting from favourable U.S. tax reform that allows companies to immediately write off the full cost of certain new equipment, finance chief Tony Skiadas said. The company now expects 2025 adjusted profit to grow between 1% and 3%, compared with 0% to 3% previously.

Sarepta Therapeutics Inc. stock tumbled 10% following the announcement that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has placed a clinical hold on the company’s investigational gene therapy clinical trials for limb girdle muscular dystrophy (LGMD). The FDA’s decision affects multiple Sarepta LGMD programs, including SRP-9003, SRP-9004, SRP-6004, and SRP-9005. This comes just days after the company had already paused most of these programs as part of a strategic restructuring process, with the exception of SRP-9003. Additionally, the FDA has revoked the platform technology designation for Sarepta’s AAVrh74 platform technology that was previously granted on June 2, 2025.

Ryanair’s net profit more than doubled in its April-June quarter on higher-than-expected last-minute fares and the timing of the Easter holidays, while bookings for rest of the summer are "robust", Europe’s largest low-cost carrier said on Monday. The Irish airline, Europe’s largest by passenger numbers, said it was not seeing a negative trend of later-than-normal bookings reported by some rivals. Shares in the airline were up 6.5% at 24.58 euros at 0725 GMT, just below the all-time high of 24.98 recorded on July 8. Ryanair reported a net profit of 820 million euros ($953 million) for its first quarter, which ended on June 30, up from 360 million euros in the same period last year when Easter was in March - and up from 663 million in the same period of 2023, the last time Easter was in April.