Category: 3. Business

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Charlie Baldry, a fifth-generation wheat farmer outside Cootamundra in rural New South Wales, kicked a patch of waxy weeds that, left unchecked, could wipe out his crop.

“If it gets away from you, it can wipe out a whole paddock,” he said. “It’s public enemy number one.”

Wimmera Ryegrass is a scourge for Australian wheat farmers. The red-stemmed grass, introduced in the 1880s as grazing fodder, has since spread to more than 8mn hectares of grain crops across the country. It now costs farmers about A$93mn (US$61mn) a year in lost revenue, according to the Grains Research and Development Corp.

It is also among the most resistant to herbicides, according to scientists, with farmers and agribusiness racing to find new chemicals to fight the weed that threatens one of the country’s most important export crops.

That effort has taken on added urgency. Canberra is set to rule by the end of the year on the use of the pesticide paraquat, which is already banned in many countries due to health and environmental concerns. Global opposition to other herbicides such as Bayer’s glyphosate has also grown, including from US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr.

Jack Hogan, an agronomist who works near Cootamundra, said restrictions on paraquat would make life much harder for farmers already struggling with weed resistance.

“If the paddocks are already resistant . . . the paraquat review presents a major challenge,” he said. “It’s pretty scary.”

The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority, a regulator, declined to comment.

Farmers have long tried to suppress ryegrass growth by rotating crops and animals, as well as with cocktails of pesticides including paraquat, glyphosate and clethodim. Even a small patch of ryegrass often requires farmers to resort to “double knocking” — or dousing the entire field with two pesticides — which can result in the loss of the entire crop.

“Uncontrolled weeds can easily lead to 40 per cent of losses in a harvest. Sometimes it doesn’t make sense to harvest at all,” said Victoria Corless, chief executive of herbicide developer Moa Technology.

Australia’s wheat industry is a major contributor to domestic and global food supplies, and saw an uptake in demand after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Exports are projected to hit A$9.7bn (US$6.4bn) in the 2026 financial year, according to government data.

“Australia plays a critical role in supplying Asia with wheat, and accounts for over a 10th of global wheat exports,” said Dennis Voznesenski, an analyst with Commonwealth Bank and author of War and Wheat. 

But the industry has been suffering what Corless called an “innovation drought” in new herbicides, leaving farmers without new products to combat increasingly resistant “superweeds”.

“Nature will find a way to evolve its defences,” she said. “In agriculture, if you’re not looking at the weeds, you’re in trouble.”

Weed resistance is particularly prevalent in Australia, making the country a useful laboratory for the next generation of herbicides.

Bayer, the German agritech company behind glyphosate, has been testing icafolin-methyl, its first novel herbicide in three decades, in Horsham, Victoria, via a programme with the government-backed GRDC.

It was developed with “CropKey”, a predictive analytics tool that Bayer hopes will speed up pesticide research and development.

“We’re very hopeful the pipeline will deliver products useful for Australia and other countries as well,” said Tony May, head of sales at Bayer’s Australian crop science division.

He noted that the costs and timeline for bringing a new herbicide to market have more than doubled over the past 20 years due to more stringent human and environmental safety regulations.

Moa, meanwhile, is an Oxford university spin-off that tests potential herbicides against prehistoric ancient plant species.

“Australia has more types of weeds that are resistant to herbicides than anywhere else,” said Moa’s head of trials Tom Clark, adding that the country started observing glyphosate resistance three decades before the UK.

The company is also testing “amplifier” products that are added to existing pesticides to improve effectiveness and can be brought to market faster.

In Canowindra, 150km north of Cootamundra, Clark examines the stubble of a canola field to see how ryegrass shoots are reacting to various doses of Moa’s herbicides.

“If you can kill them in Australia then you know you’re doing well,” he said.

Specialty

Please chooseI’m not a medical professional.Allergy and ImmunologyAnatomyAnesthesiologyBiostatisticsCardiac/Thoracic/Vascular SurgeryCardiologyCritical CareDentistryDermatologyDiabetes and EndocrinologyEmergency MedicineEpidemiology and Public HealthFamily MedicineForensic MedicineGastroenterologyGeneral PracticeGeneticsGeriatricsHealth PolicyHematologyHIV/AIDSHospital-based MedicineI’m not a medical professional.Infectious DiseaseIntegrative/Complementary MedicineInternal MedicineInternal Medicine-PediatricsMedical Education and SimulationMedical PhysicsMedical StudentNephrologyNeurological SurgeryNeurologyNuclear MedicineNutritionObstetrics and GynecologyOccupational HealthOncologyOphthalmologyOptometryOral MedicineOrthopaedicsOsteopathic MedicineOtolaryngologyPain ManagementPalliative CarePathologyPediatricsPediatric SurgeryPharmacologyPhysical Medicine and RehabilitationPlastic SurgeryPodiatryPreventive MedicinePsychiatryPsychologyPulmonologyRadiation OncologyRadiologyRheumatologySubstance Use and AddictionSurgeryTherapeuticsTraumaUrologyMiscellaneous

Alan Smith

Tim Graham/Getty Images

Alan Smith

David Harris

David Harris

The precious metal topped $4,000 per ounce for the first time ever earlier this week, then got another jolt Friday, when President Donald Trump said he will impose an additional 100% tariff on China and limit U.S. exports of software.

Stocks suffered their worst loss since the height of Trump’s trade war chaos in April. The dollar fell while gold jumped 1.5%, reinforcing its status as a safe haven asset as investors lose confidence in the greenback.

In a note on Monday, market veteran Ed Yardeni, president of Yardeni Research, went over his earlier bullish calls on gold, which has repeatedly reached his forecasts ahead of schedule.

During that time, he cited gold’s traditional role as a hedge against inflation, central banks de-dollarizing after Russia’s assets were frozen, the bursting of China’s housing bubble, as well as Trump’s trade war and his attempts to upend the world’s geopolitical order.

“We are now aiming for $5,000 in 2026,” Yardeni added. “If it continues on its current path, it could reach $10,000 before the end of the decade.”

Based on gold’s trajectory since late 2023, the price could reach the $10,000-per-ounce milestone sometime between mid-2028 and early 2029.

Gold has also gotten a lift recently from the Federal Reserve’s pivot back to rate cuts last month, with policymakers shifting more attention to the stagnating labor market and away from fighting inflation, which has remained stubbornly above their 2% target amid Trump’s tariffs.

While the Fed hasn’t signaled an aggressive easing cycle, the prospect of more rate cuts while GDP growth remains strong has added to inflation concerns.

At the same time, soaring debt among top developed economies, including the U.S., has turned investors skittish on global currencies. That’s fueled a so-called debasement trade that bets on precious metals and bitcoin assuming governments let inflation run hotter to ease debt burdens.

In a note on Wednesday, Capital Economics climate and commodities economist Hamad Hussain said “FOMO” is creeping into the gold trade, making it harder to objectively value the metal. He expects prices to continue rising, though the pace of gains will slow as key tailwinds weaken.

On the bullish side, Hussain pointed to Fed rate cuts, geopolitical uncertainty, and fiscal sustainability concerns. On the other hand, he noted the recent gold rally came as the dollar was stable (until Friday) with inflation-protected bond yields higher—telltale signs of market exuberance.

“As ever, the lack of an income stream makes it notoriously hard to value gold objectively,” he said. “On balance, we think that gold prices will probably grind higher in nominal terms over the next couple of years.”

Fortune Global Forum returns Oct. 26–27, 2025 in Riyadh. CEOs and global leaders will gather for a dynamic, invitation-only event shaping the future of business. Apply for an invitation.

WASHINGTON — Dark, a French startup developing air-launched spacecraft technology to capture and dispose of orbital objects, has shut down operations after struggling to establish a sustainable business model, the company announced this week.

The four-year-old Paris-based firm said the decision to cease operations was made by founders and the board following years of work on technology designed to address space debris and potential security threats in orbit.

“This difficult decision, taken by the founders and the board after years of dedication, was ultimately a necessary one,” the company said in a statement.

Dark was founded by veterans from European defense contractors MBDA and Thales with the goal of demonstrating a space weapon system that would launch from a modified commercial aircraft, navigate to orbital targets, capture them and deposit them in the South Pacific Ocean. The company raised approximately $11 million in venture funding.

The startup said it sought to position France at the forefront of space defense capabilities as military doctrine increasingly recognizes space as a critical domain for national security.

“We embraced the doctrinal shift that placed space at the heart of defense strategy and set out to position France at the forefront of this frontier,” Dark said. “Our ambition was to anchor a private capability that would both strengthen national security and generate economic and diplomatic value through export.”

However, the company said the conditions needed to advance its vision “never materialized for us in France.”

“As we step aside, we believe and hope that France will secure access to these critical space-defense capabilities, whether through European partners or transatlantic allies,” the company said.

Related

(Bloomberg) — Central bankers, already uneasy about trade tensions and swelling public debt, will collectively confront a new worry in the coming week: the danger of a market crash.

Global policymakers and finance ministers will gather in Washington for the International Monetary Fund/World Bank fall meetings after a chorus of warnings that a stock bubble focused on artificial intelligence companies might burst before long.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Kristalina Georgieva, the fund’s managing director, acknowledged the financial stability risk in a speech on Wednesday that previewed topics for discussion in the coming days.

“Valuations are heading toward levels we saw during the bullishness about the internet 25 years ago,” she said. “If a sharp correction were to occur, tighter financial conditions could drag down world growth, expose vulnerabilities, and make life especially tough for developing countries.”

Her warning was arguably more forthright than the IMF’s commentary from the October 2000 meeting, when its World Economic Outlook described “still high” equity valuations and the potential for imbalances to unwind “in a disorderly fashion.” Within months, the selloff momentum was such that the Federal Reserve was forced to deliver an emergency half-point interest-rate cut.

Even before US President Donald Trump’s renewed China tariff threat tanked stocks on Friday, officials saw alarming parallels. The Bank of England just warned of the risk of a “sharp market correction,” European Central Bank policymakers worried aloud, and the Reserve Bank of Australia this month also noted vulnerabilities.

Such concerns have been mounting for a while. ECB officials were presented with the warning of “sudden and sharp price corrections” at their last policy meeting more than a month ago, while Fed Chair Jerome Powell observed in September that markets are “highly valued.”

Fast forward to the coming week, and the IMF’s Global Financial Stability Report — a publication that didn’t even exist back in 2000 — may draw more attention than usual on Tuesday. The latest WEO, with economic forecasts for the world, will also be released.

Statements from Group of Seven or Group of 20 ministers attending the IMF gathering will also be scrutinized, as will the cacophony of policymakers likely to share their views.

What Bloomberg Economics Says:

“Artificial intelligence might be a bubble. It is also a juggernaut. The IMF is doubtless correct to warn that valuations are stretched. More doubtful — whether those warnings register with investors gripped by fear of missing out.”

—Tom Orlik, global chief economist. For more research, click here

Elsewhere, trade and consumer price data in China and India, UK wage and growth numbers, and Monday’s announcement in Stockholm of the Nobel Prize for Economics will be among the week’s highlights.

Click here for what happened in the past week, and below is our wrap of what’s coming up in the global economy.

US and Canada

In the US, where official economic data releases remain delayed by a government shutdown, investors will focus on Powell’s assessment of the labor market and inflation. He’ll offer an outlook for the economy and monetary policy at the National Association for Business Economics on Tuesday.

Powell’s speech highlights a week full of appearances by central bankers, including Fed governors Christopher Waller, Michael Barr and Stephen Miran, as well as regional Fed bank presidents Anna Paulson, Susan Collins and Alberto Musalem.

Economic data releases include the September small-business optimism index and October manufacturing surveys from the Fed banks of New York and Philadelphia. On Wednesday, the Fed issues its Beige Book — anecdotal information about economic conditions around the country.

Canada’s Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne and central bank Governor Tiff Macklem attend the meetings in Washington, with Macklem also scheduled to appear at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Senior Deputy Governor Carolyn Rogers is set to speak in Vancouver about Canada’s urgent need to boost productivity.

Home sales and housing start data for September will offer a look at Canada’s slow real-estate recovery, which may have gotten a mid-month boost from the Bank of Canada’s rate cut.

Asia

Asia’s week will be dominated by a mix of trade, inflation and policy signals that should help clarify how the region is coping with heightened global uncertainty and widening policy divergence.

China sets the tone at the start of the week with trade figures likely to show exports picking up in September. The same day, India is expected to report a further cooling in consumer price gains.

On Tuesday, Singapore’s central bank is likely to keep monetary settings unchanged after two rounds of easing earlier this year. The city-state also publishes advance third-quarter GDP data, which should confirm that growth cooled after a strong June quarter.

Singapore’s review follows a flurry of policy moves across the region, with Indonesia and New Zealand extending their easing cycles to support growth amid rising trade protectionism, while Thailand, Malaysia and Australia opted to hold steady as they monitor the impact of earlier cuts.

Minutes from the Reserve Bank’s September meeting on Tuesday will offer a window into how officials are weighing the risks of cutting further against a still-firm labor market. National Australia Bank’s business survey is released the same day.

China on Wednesday reports September prices data that are likely to show deflation persisting in Asia’s largest economy, underscoring how domestic demand remains fragile despite recent policy support.

India’s trade figures the same day will show the impact of hefty US tariffs, while import trends will offer a read on domestic consumption and investment appetite. The country also releases its unemployment rate that day.

Bank of Japan board member Naoki Tamura, a hawk who called for a rate hike last month, speaks on Thursday, followed by Deputy Governor Shinichi Uchida on Friday. Given the collapse in the nation’s governing coalition after Sanae Takaichi’s victory in the ruling party leadership race, investors will be on watch for any change in tone.

Australian jobs data will show whether hiring remains strong enough to keep policy on hold into year-end. On Friday, South Korea and Malaysia report trade figures while Singapore publishes export data.

Europe, Middle East, Africa

Appearances in Washington by ECB President Christine Lagarde and BOE Governor Andrew Bailey will be among the highlights. Back in the euro region, the saga over France’s budget after another government collapse will focus investors in a relatively quiet week for data.

Among the statistics on the calendar, Germany’s ZEW investor confidence index on Tuesday and euro-zone industrial production on Wednesday may draw the most attention.

On Friday, a potential ratings update on Italy from Morningstar DBRS could be significant. With the country on a positive outlook, an upgrade would give it the highest rating since 2019 from any one of the five companies used by the ECB to assess collateral.

In the UK, wage data on Tuesday are expected to show some weakening in the measure that excludes bonuses, a result that might reassure BOE officials gauging the strength of inflation. Growth numbers two days later are predicted to show a slight increase in gross domestic product in August after no change the prior month.

In Israel, inflation data on Wednesday may show an acceleration to 3.1% in September from 2.9% in August. The central bank held rates steady last month, anticipating price growth to hover around 3% — the upper end of its range — before easing in early 2026.

Turning to Africa, Nigerian numbers the same day will probably reveal inflation slowing below 20% last month for the first time since 2022, helped by softer food prices during the main harvest and a stronger naira. Such cooling could give the central bank scope for another 50-basis-point cut in November.

With most central bankers at the IMF meeting, only a couple of rate decisions are on the calendar. In Namibia, policymakers are expected to keep their rate unchanged at 6.75% on Wednesday, with inflation edging higher. Seychelles is likely to leave borrowing costs on hold the same day.

Latin America

A $20 billion swap line with the US Treasury, along with currency market intervention on Thursday, for now likely heads off a full-blown economic crisis for Argentina, but the peso’s selloff preceding the rescue left a mark on inflation and expectations alike.

September data reported Tuesday will likely show that consumer prices rose more than 2% on the month for the first time since April.

Brazil and Peru — Latin America’s largest- and sixth-largest economies, respectively — will post August GDP-proxy figures in the coming week. Brazilian economic activity fell for a third month in July, the longest month-on-month slump since 2019.

The 50% tariffs on exports to the US that went into effect in August, coupled with tight monetary conditions, stand a good chance of dragging activity down to a fourth straight negative print.

Peruvian activity bounced back in July, and yet another private pension fund withdrawal should provide support into year-end.

Meanwhile, Colombia’s economy is riding a jump in demand that saw monthly activity rebound in July from a tumble in June.

GDP-proxy data, retail sales, manufacturing and industrial output — on the schedule for the coming week — all posted positive readings for a second straight month in July for the first time since late 2022.

Analysts, who’ve marked up third-quarter GDP estimates while trimming their forecasts for the next six months, see Colombia’s economic growth picking up for a second year, followed by a third year in 2026.

–With assistance from Vince Golle, Swati Pandey, Robert Jameson, Monique Vanek, Mark Evans, Laura Dhillon Kane, Cécile Daurat and Beril Akman.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

©2025 Bloomberg L.P.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.

Oct 10 – Shares of two Semiconductor giants, Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) and Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), fell sharply on Friday after the U.S. Senate advanced a bill that could restrict exports of artificial intelligence chips to China, reigniting trade tension fears.

The proposed legislation would curb how many advanced AI processors American companies can ship overseas. The bill’s future remains uncertain, as President Donald Trump, who earlier eased chip export rules, could veto it. The House of Representatives is drafting a separate version that currently lacks export limits.

Investors reacted swiftly. AMD dropped about 5%, while Nvidia slipped roughly 2% in afternoon trading. The pullback reflected renewed concerns over Washington’s tightening stance on technology trade with Beijing.

Despite Friday’s fall, AMD has had an 83% year to date, with Nvidia increasing by about 41%. The two stocks have been major winners in the worldwide AI phenomenon, though the Senate’s action indicates that U.S. chipmakers face increasing threats in a climate of trade policy uncertainty.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.

Citigroup (NYSE:C) is quietly making one of its biggest digital bets yetjoining a consortium of nine European lenders, including ING Groep, UniCredit, and DekaBank, to launch a regulated euro-based stablecoin. The group has already set up a new Netherlands-based entity to run the project, targeting a token debut in the second half of 2026. For Citigroup, the move could mark a turning point: it’s the only non-European bank in the alliance, positioning itself at the center of Europe’s effort to build an alternative to the dollar-led stablecoin market. The banks say their shared goal is to boost Europe’s strategic autonomy in payments by creating a credible, homegrown digital euro system.

Behind this partnership lies a bigger storyone about how fast digital money is moving into the mainstream. Stablecoins, which are designed to hold steady against fiat currencies, could handle over $50 trillion in payments by 2030, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. That would mean as much as a quarter of consumer transactions could flow through blockchain rails, up from almost nothing today. The market, still dominated by dollar-tied tokens, leaves plenty of room for growth in euro-based coins, which currently make up just around $477 million of the $300 billion total supply.

Citigroup’s blockchain ambitions are expanding on several fronts. Earlier this week, its venture arm backed BVNK, a stablecoin infrastructure firm, while the bank itself joined Goldman Sachs and Bank of America in exploring digital-money systems for institutional payments. CEO Jane Fraser recently confirmed the bank is considering its own stablecoin, signaling a deeper commitment to the space. Citigroup shares slipped about 1% to $94.75 on Friday, marking a fourth straight decline, though the stock remains up roughly 35% this yeara reminder that Wall Street’s digital experiments are now very much part of the financial mainstream.

 

Lean hog futures were in a pause mode at mid-week. Last week’s price downdraft did produce serious near-term chart damage to suggest a market top is in place. Selling interest was limited Wednesday due to the rallies in the cattle futures markets and due to lean hog futures’ discounts to the cash hog index. Cash and fresh pork fundamentals have been weakening. The latest CME lean hog index is down 60 cents at $101.42. Today’s projected cash hog index is down another 72 cents at $100.70. Wednesday’s national direct 5-day rolling average cash hog price quote is $98.35.

US pork exports fall 3% in July on lower Mexico demand

Declines to key markets offset gains in Asia, America

US pork exports in July were 552 million pounds, 3% below shipments in July 2024, according to the US Department of Agriculture’s Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry Outlook for September.  The salient dynamic of July 2025 exports—shown in the listing of the 10 largest foreign July buyers of US pork—is that the 11% year-over-year decline in shipments to Mexico—re-enforced by additional decreases in shipments to Canada, China and Hong Kong, and Australia—were together unable to be offset by small export increases to South Korea, the Philippines, and other Western Hemisphere nations. A variety of reasons could account for lower US exports to Mexico in July, among them more competition from other pork-exporting countries and regions, and higher Mexican beef consumption. Pork export forecasts for the second half of 2025 are unchanged from last month, as are the forecasts for the first half of 2026.

CoBank reports record US grain harvest strains storage, soy exports lag

CoBank warns tight space, weak China trade add market risk

The US is bracing for a record grain harvest totalling 21.5 billion bushels of corn, soybeans and grain sorghum this fall, according to a recent market report from CoBank. The bumper crop arrives during a period of heightened uncertainty surrounding the future of the US trade relationship with China, low export market demand for US soybeans and depressed crop prices. Meanwhile, grain storage and transportation logistics are shaping up to be much more complicated than usual. According to a new report from CoBank’s Knowledge Exchange, grain storage space will be extraordinarily tight this fall with grain merchandisers charging higher fees due to limited capacity and strained infrastructure. While grain elevators stand to benefit from buying cheaper basis and capturing wider carries in the futures markets, the profit opportunities are not without risk. 

“The challenge for elevators will be prioritizing scarce grain storage,” said Tanner Ehmke, grains and oilseeds economist with CoBank. “Among the top 12 corn-producing states, the US is facing a 1.4-billion-bushel shortage of upright grain storage this year with elevators relying more on bunkers and emergency storage like ground piles. This year’s shortage stands in stark contrast to last year when those states had a combined 361 million bushels of excess storage.”

Despite tariffs, July pork exports to China hold steady – USMEF

July shipments flat as 57% duty cuts export value 13%

Despite a total tariff rate of 57%, US pork shipments to China – which are mostly variety meat – were steady with last year at 36,461 mt in July, according to data released by USDA and compiled by the US Meat Export Federation (USMEF). The heightened tariff rate (which was 37% at this time last year) weighed on export value, which was down 13% to $77.6 million. For January through July, exports to China were 16% below last year in volume (218,005 mt) and 17% lower in value ($513.3 million), but this was mainly due a sharp drop in exports in April and May, when US pork was subject to prohibitively high tariff rates.

The next week’s likely high-low price trading ranges:

• December lean hog futures–$84.00 to $88.00 and with a sideways-lower bias
• December soybean meal futures–$270.10 to $285.00, and with a sideways bias
• December corn futures–$4.10 1/2 to $4.31 1/4 and a sideways bias

Latest analytical daily charts lean hog, soybean meal and corn futures