Category: 3. Business

PARIS: Global food commodity prices edged higher in June, supported by higher meat, vegetable oil and dairy prices, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization said on Friday.

The FAO Food Price Index, which tracks monthly changes in a basket of internationally traded food commodities, averaged 128.0 points in June, up 0.5% from May. The index stood 5.8% higher than a year ago, but remained 20.1% below its record high in March 2022.

The cereal price index fell 1.5% to 107.4 points, now 6.8% below a year ago, as global maize prices dropped sharply for a second month. Larger harvests and more export competition from Argentina and Brazil weighed on maize, while barley and sorghum also declined.

Wheat prices, however, rose due to weather concerns in Russia, the European Union, and the United States.

The vegetable oil price index rose 2.3% from May to 155.7 points, now 18.2% above its June 2024 level, led by higher palm, rapeseed, and soy oil prices.

Palm oil climbed nearly 5% from May on strong import demand, while soy oil was supported by expectations of higher demand from the biofuel sector following announcements of supportive policy measures in Brazil and the United States.

Sugar prices dropped 5.2% from May to 103.7 points, the lowest since April 2021, reflecting improved supply prospects in Brazil, India, and Thailand.

Meat prices rose to a record 126.0 points, now 6.7% above June 2024, with all categories rising except poultry. Bovine meat set a new peak, reflecting tighter supplies from Brazil and strong demand from the United States. Poultry prices continued to fall due to abundant Brazilian supplies.

The dairy price index edged up 0.5% from May to 154.4 points, marking a 20.7% annual increase. In a separate report, the FAO forecast global cereal production in 2025 at a record 2.925 billion tonnes, 0.5% above its previous projection and 2.3% above the previous year. The outlook could be affected by expected hot, dry conditions in parts of the Northern Hemisphere, particularly for maize with plantings almost complete.

LONDON: Copper prices retreated on Friday as focus switched to US President Donald Trump’s July 9 deadline when sweeping tariffs take effect on countries that have not yet secured trade agreements.

Benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) was down 0.8% at $9,880 a metric ton in official open-outcry trading, having hit a three-month high of $10,020.5 a ton earlier this week.

Volumes were subdued due to the July 4 Independence Day holiday in the United States, traders said.

Trump said his administration will begin sending letters later on Friday to 10 to 12 countries informing them of the tariff rate their products will face in the US Caution due to several large trading partners, including the European Union, Japan and India, still trying to negotiate a deal with the US had triggered profit-taking on long positions or bets on higher prices, traders said.

On the technical front, first support for copper, used in power and construction, comes in at the 21-day moving average around $9,762. Elsewhere, worries about aluminium supplies on the LME created by large holdings of warrants and nearby contracts receded due to slowing outflows and deliveries to the LME-registered warehouses. Aluminium stocks in LME warehouses have climbed 27,025 tons to 363,925 tons since June 25. Cancelled warrants or metal earmarked for delivery at 2% indicate only small amounts are due to be delivered out.

Overall, a softer dollar was providing some support for industrial metals on Friday. But traders said growing prospects of the Federal Reserve holding interest rates steady after Thursday’s strong jobs report could boost the US currency and weigh on metals demand. Aluminium was down 0.6% at $2,590.5 a ton in official activity, zinc fell 0.5% to $2,736, lead eased 0.1% to $2,062, tin retreated 0.3% to $33,750 and nickel slipped 0.9% to $15,315.

CAMPINAS, (Brazil): Brazilian coffee exporter Grupo Tristao sees coffee production in Espirito Santo state potentially exceeding that of Vietnam in the coming years, as it plans to build a large new warehouse in the region to meet the supply increase.

Espirito Santo is Brazil’s second-largest coffee-producing state, behind only Minas Gerais, but while the latter is a large arabica producer, the former focuses more on robusta, a generally cheaper variety primarily used to make instant coffee.

If it were a country, Espirito Santo alone would rank third globally in coffee output, behind Brazil and Vietnam. But the head of Grupo Tristao, a leading exporter of green and instant coffee, believes that the state will soon close the gap with the Asian country, which also produces mostly robusta.

“It is not impossible to imagine that five years from now, Espirito Santo will be producing more than Vietnam,” Sergio Tristao told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.

He pointed to advanced technology and irrigation, as well as room to expand planting on degraded pastures, as factors behind the projected increase. Market participants have voiced surprise at the quick growth in Brazil’s robusta coffee production.

The US Department of Agriculture expects Vietnam to produce 31 million 60-kg bags of coffee in 2025/26, while Espirito Santo’s output was estimated at 21.5 million bags – also, including some arabica output.

Brazil’s total coffee production is seen at 65 million bags in the season. Family-run Grupo Tristao plans to build a large warehouse for at least 1 million bags in Espirito Santo to improve logistics as supply grows, Tristao said.

The warehouse will be located near the brand-new Imetame Port in the city of Aracruz, whose operations are slated to begin in 2027. “We are going to buy land near the port and plan our future there,” Tristao said.

The group currently owns a warehouse for about 300,000 bags in Espirito Santo and another one in Minas Gerais state.

KARACHI: On Thursday at PMEX, the traded value of Metals, Energy, COTS and indices was recorded at PKR 36.788 billion and the number of lots traded was 46,348.

Major business was contributed by Gold amounting to PKR 17.055 billion, followed by COTS (PKR9.249 billion), Platinum (PKR 3.722 billion), Silver (PKR 2.487 billion), NSDQ 100 (PKR 1.974 billion), Crude oil (PKR 1.044 billion), DJ (PKR 318.918 million), Copper (PKR 291.984 million), Natural Gas (PKR 253.688 million), SP500 (PKR 148.535 million), Japan Equity (PKR 90.746 million), Palladium (66.160 million), Brent (PKR 22.408 million) and Aluminium (7.304 million).

In Agricultural commodities, 9 lots amounting to PKR 54.932 million were traded.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2025

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Ganesh Kalyanaraman, Managing Director India and North America, Version 1,

The frontline combination of tislelizumab-jsgr (Tevimbra) plus chemotherapy demonstrated efficacy improvements over chemotherapy alone in patients with locally advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), with similar improvements noted in those with locally advanced disease and a tumor PD-L1 tumor area positivity (TAP) score of at least 5%, according to findings from a subgroup analysis of the phase 3 RATIONALE-306 study (NCT03783442).¹

The data, which were shared during the 2025 ESMO Gastrointestinal Cancers Congress, the median overall survival (OS) with tislelizumab plus chemotherapy (n = 49) was 25.6 months (95% CI, 19.4-36.3) in the subgroup of patients with locally advanced disease vs 12.3 months (95% CI, 9.0-21.7) with chemotherapy (n = 39), translating to a 51% reduction in the risk of death (HR, 0.49; 95% CI, 0.29-0.84; P = .0037). The 12- and 24-month OS rates in the tislelizumab arm were 78.5% and 53.5%; in the placebo arm, these rates were 50.9% and 22.6%. The median investigator-assessed progression-free survival (PFS) with tislelizumab was 9.7 months (95% CI, 6.9-19.6) vs 6.9 months (95% CI, 4.2-9.7) with placebo (HR, 0.56; 95% CI, 0.31-1.01; P = .0262); the respective 12-month PFS rates were 46.2% and 18.2%.

Those with locally advanced ESCC and a PD-L1 TAP score of 5% or higher who received tislelizumab plus chemotherapy (n = 25) experienced a median OS of 26.4 months (95% CI, 15.3-not evaluable [NE]) vs 11.5 months (95% CI, 8.6-19.8) with chemotherapy alone (n = 20), translating to a 63% reduction in the risk of death (HR, 0.37; 95% CI, 0.16-0.83; P = .0067). The 12-month OS rates in the tislelizumab and placebo arms were 72.0% and 45.2%, respectively; the rates at 24 months were 56.0% and 16.9%, respectively. The median investigator-assessed PFS in the tislelizumab arm was 13.2 months (95% CI, 6.8-30.2) vs 6.7 months (95% CI, 4.2-8.6) in the placebo arm (HR, 0.44; 95% CI, 0.19-1.02; P = .269; the respective 12-month PFS rates were 52.4% and 14.8%.

“In this subgroup analysis of patients with locally advanced ESCC, first-line tislelizumab plus chemotherapy showed substantial and clinically meaningful improvements in efficacy, consistent with the primary and 3-year long-term follow-up analyses,” Eric Van Cutsem, MD, PhD, of the Division of Digestive Oncology at University Hospitals Gasthuisberg, Leuven, and KU Leuven, in Leuven, Belgium, said in a presentation of the data. “These findings further support the use of tislelizumab plus chemotherapy as a first-line treatment option for patients with locally advanced ESCC.”

Reviewing RATIONALE-306: Design and Prior Data

The double-blind, randomized, global, phase 3 study enrolled patients with unresectable locally advanced or metastatic ESCC who had measurable or evaluable disease by RECIST v1.1 criteria and an ECOG performance status no higher than 1. Patients had not previously received systemic therapy for advanced disease. They were randomized 1:1 to receive placebo or 200 mg of tislelizumab every 3 weeks plus chemotherapy in the form of platinum plus fluoropyrimidine or platinum plus paclitaxel. Maintenance treatment continued until intolerable toxicity or progressive disease. They were stratified by geographic region (Asia excluding Japan vs Japan vs rest of the world), previous definitive therapy (yes vs no), and investigator-selected chemotherapy regimen (platinum plus fluoropyrimidine vs platinum plus paclitaxel).

The primary end point of the study was OS in the intention-to-treat (ITT) population and secondary end points were OS in the subgroup of patients with a PD-L1 TAP score of 10% or higher, PFS, objective response rate (ORR), duration of response (DOR), health-related quality of life, and safety.

Prior data from the study showed that after a minimum follow-up of 3 years, the median OS in all patients who received tislelizumab plus chemotherapy (n = 326) was 17.2 months (95% CI, 15.8-20.1) vs 10.6 months (95% CI, 9.3-12.0) with placebo plus chemotherapy (n = 323), translating to a 30% reduction in the risk of death (HR, 0.70; 95% CI, 0.59-0.83; P < .0001).² In the tislelizumab arm, the 12-, 24-, and 36-month OS rates were 65.0%, 37.9%, and 22.1%, respectively; in the placebo arm, the respective rates were 44.7%, 24.8%, and 14.1%. In March 2025, the FDA approved tislelizumab plus platinum-containing chemotherapy for first-line use in adult patients with unresectable or metastatic ESCC with a tumor PD-L1 expression of 1 or higher based on RATIONALE-306 data.³

Delving Deeper Into the Current Post Hoc Subgroup Analysis

The subgroup analysis sought to evaluate OS and PFS in patients with locally advanced ESCC, which accounted for 13.6% of the 649 patients, including those with both locally advanced ESCC and a tumor PD-L1 TAP score of 5% or higher, which accounted for 51.1% of 88 patients.¹ Those with nonmetastatic disease who were not fit for surgery or definitive chemoradiation were retrospectively selected and included in the analysis.

The baseline demographic and disease characteristics in the locally advanced ESCC subgroup were consistent with those of the ITT population, Van Cutsem said.

Additional efficacy data showed that in the locally advanced ESCC subgroup, the investigator-assessed ORR with tislelizumab plus chemotherapy was 61.2%, which comprised a complete response (CR) rate of 12.2% and a partial response (PR) rate of 49.0%. With chemotherapy alone, the investigator-assessed ORR was 38.5%, with a CR rate of 12.8% and a PR rate of 25.6%. The time to response (TTR) with tislelizumab was 1.4 months (range, 1.2-23.3) vs 2.6 months (range, 1.2-4.2) with placebo. The median DOR was 12.6 months (95% CI, 6.9-22.1) and 7.1 months (95% CI, 5.5-16.6) in the respective arms.

In the locally advanced ESCC subgroup that also had a PD-L1 TAP score of 5% or higher, the respective ORRs were 68.0% and 30.0%. In the tislelizumab arm, the CR and PR rates were 16.0% and 52.0%, respectively; in the placebo arm, these respective rates were 10.0% and 20.0%. The median TTR was 1.5 months (range, 1.2-23.3) with tislelizumab vs 2.0 months (range, 1.2-2.7) with placebo. The median DOR in the respective arms was 22.1 months (95% CI, 6.1-NE) and 5.7 months (95% CI, 1.5-NE).

Safety Spotlight

The toxicity profile of tislelizumab combined with chemotherapy in the locally advanced subgroup was consistent with that reported in the ITT population, according to Van Cutsem, who added that no new safety signals were observed.

In the locally advanced ESCC subgroup, 100% and 97.4% of those in the tislelizumab and placebo arms experienced at least 1 treatment-emergent adverse effect (TEAE); 65.3% and 74.4% of the cases were grade 3 or higher, 44.9% and 51.3% were serious, and 6.1% and 5.1% proved fatal. Moreover, 100% of those in the tislelizumab arm and 92.3% of those in the placebo experienced at least 1 treatment-related adverse effect; 59.2% and 59.0% were grade 3 or higher, 28.6% and 20.5% were serious, and 28.6% and 20.5% led to death. TEAEs resulted in treatment discontinuation for 40.8% of those in the tislelizumab arm vs 35.9% of those in the placebo arm. In the tislelizumab arm, 42.9% of patients received subsequent anticancer therapy and 18.4% received subsequent radiation; in the placebo arm, these respective rates were 51.3% and 30.8%.

Disclosures: Van Cutsem disclosed having participated in advisory boards for AbbVie, Agenus, ALX, Amgen, Arcus Biosciences, Astellas, AstraZeneca, Bayer, BeOne Medicines, Bexon Clinical, BioNtech, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Canfour, Daiichi Sankyo, Debiopharm, Elmedix, Eisai, Galapagos, GSK, Hookipa Pharma, Incyte, Ipsen, Lilly, Merck Sharp & Dohme, Merck KGaA, Mirati, Novartis, Nordic, Pierre Fabre, Pfizer, Roche, Seattle Genetics, Servier, Simcere, Takeda, Taiho Pharmaceutical, and Terumo.

References

1. Van Cutsem E, Xu J, Raymond E, et al. Tislelizumab + chemotherapy vs placebo + chemotherapy in patients with locally advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: RATIONALE-306 subgroup analysis. Presented at: 2025 ESMO Gastrointestinal Cancers Congress; July 2-5, 2025; Barcelona, Spain. Abstract 389MO.
2. Yoon HH, Kato K, Raymond, et al. Global, randomized, phase III study of tislelizumab plus chemotherapy versus placebo plus chemotherapy as first-line treatment for advanced/metastatic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (RATIONALE-306 update): minimum 3-year survival follow-up. J Clin Oncol. 2024;42(suppl 16):4032. doi:10.1200/JCO.2024.42.16_suppl.4032
3. Tevimbra approved in US for first-line treatment of advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma in combination with chemotherapy. News release. BeiGene, Ltd. March 4, 2025. Accessed July 5, 2025. https://hkexir.beigene.com/news/tevimbra-approved-in-u-s-for-first-line-treatment-of-advanced-esophageal-squamous-cell-carcinoma-in-combination/8379a7c3-35ce-45af-82d3-164c64ecf37c/

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The Federal Reserve just made a move that could quietly reshape crypto’s relationship with traditional banking. The Fed announced on June 23 that it will drop reputational risk from its bank examination programs—a change that crypto advocates have been pushing for years and one that could finally open the floodgates for mainstream crypto banking services.

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While the Fed’s announcement sounds like regulatory wonkery, it strikes at the heart of crypto’s biggest problem: banking access. For years, crypto companies have struggled to maintain basic banking relationships, not because they posed financial risks, but because banks feared regulatory blowback over the industry’s controversial reputation.

“Reputational risk” gave regulators a catch-all tool to pressure banks away from crypto clients. Even legally compliant crypto exchanges, custody providers, and blockchain startups often found themselves cut off from banking services simply because regulators deemed the industry too risky from a PR perspective.

Now, with reputational risk officially removed from examinations, banks will be evaluated purely on measurable financial metrics—not on whether they serve industries that generate negative headlines.

The crypto industry has long argued that regulatory hostility, not actual risk, kept banks at arm’s length. Major crypto companies like Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN), Kraken, and Circle (NYSE:CRCL) have repeatedly highlighted how difficult it is to secure and maintain banking relationships, despite operating as regulated entities.

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This change could fundamentally alter that dynamic. Here’s what might happen:

More Banking Partners: Crypto companies may finally gain access to mainstream banking services for payroll, business operations, and customer funds management. This could reduce costs and increase operational efficiency across the sector.

Stablecoin Infrastructure: The move could accelerate adoption of dollar-backed stablecoins, as banks become more willing to hold reserves for compliant stablecoin issuers without fear of regulatory pressure.

Institutional Adoption: Traditional banks might finally feel comfortable offering crypto custody, trading, or investment services to their wealthy clients and institutional customers.

Payment Rails: We could see more integration between crypto payment systems and traditional banking infrastructure, making it easier to move money between crypto and traditional finance.

If banks start treating crypto like any other legal industry, the implications extend far beyond just business operations. Increased banking access could drive significant changes in crypto valuations and adoption:

Reduced Volatility: Better banking relationships could reduce the operational risks that contribute to crypto’s price swings, potentially leading to more stable valuations.

Institutional Inflows: Easier banking access might accelerate the flow of institutional money into crypto markets, similar to what we saw with Bitcoin ETF approvals.

DeFi Integration: Traditional banks might become more willing to explore decentralized finance protocols, potentially bridging the gap between TradFi and DeFi.

It’s crucial to understand what this policy shift doesn’t mean. Crypto companies still need to comply with all existing financial regulations, including anti-money laundering rules, know-your-customer requirements, and securities laws. The Fed emphasized that banks must still maintain “strong risk management” and legal compliance.

Banks also remain free to choose their clients based on actual business risks. They just can’t be penalized by regulators for serving legal crypto businesses solely based on industry reputation.

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This move comes as the crypto industry prepares for potentially friendlier regulatory treatment under the new administration. Combined with the approval of Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, institutional adoption by companies like MicroStrategy (NASDAQ:MSTR) and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), and growing clarity around crypto regulations, the Fed’s decision removes another significant barrier to mainstream adoption.

The timing isn’t coincidental. As crypto markets have matured and institutional interest has grown, the argument for treating legally compliant crypto businesses differently from other industries has become harder to justify.

For crypto investors, this regulatory shift could be a game-changer, but the effects will likely unfold over months, not days. Key indicators to monitor:

• Announcements from major banks about new crypto services

• Reduced operational costs for crypto companies as banking access improves

• Increased institutional adoption as traditional finance becomes more comfortable with crypto

• More stable crypto prices as operational risks decrease

• Growing integration between crypto and traditional financial systems

While Bitcoin hitting new highs grabs headlines, regulatory changes like this often have more lasting impact on crypto’s long-term trajectory. For an industry that’s spent years fighting for basic banking access, the Fed’s quiet policy shift might be the breakthrough that finally brings crypto fully into the mainstream financial system.

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This article Fed Quietly Removes Reputational Risk Rule That Kept Banks Away from Crypto—Industry Insiders Say This Changes Everything originally appeared on Benzinga.com