Finance, in brief

The Pentagon plans to take a 35% stake in North American Blue Energy Partners, a private company holding Venezuelan oil rights. [1][2]

It would pay almost nothing today. The stake comes as penny warrants, which are rights to buy shares later for a token price. [1][2]

Washington would also get first call on 20% of the company's future oil, bought at cost rather than at the market price. [1][2]

The company is run by Venezuelan businessman Alejandro Betancourt. It would develop 17 oil fields. [1]

It is already Venezuela's second-largest private oil producer, behind Chevron, after two years of growth. [1]

Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips were pressed to return to Venezuela and would not commit the money. They cited legal, security and infrastructure risks. [1]

The State Department ran the talks. It brought in the Pentagon's Office of Strategic Capital late, to build a way to pay for it. [1]

Senior Pentagon and State Department officials, including strategic capital director David Lorch, flew to Venezuela in July. [1]

President Trump said on Friday the United States had secured majority control of more than 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan reserves. He gave few details. [2]

Venezuela's interim president, Delcy Rodriguez, said the deal runs 25 years, covers 17 fields and targets 1.5 million barrels a day. [3]

Venezuela pumps about 1.1 million barrels a day now. Analysts told the Wall Street Journal that rebuilding the worn-out fields could take years. [1]

The Pentagon's chief spokesman, Sean Parnell, denied the heart of it. The strategic capital office does not take equity stakes in private companies, he said. [2]

American oil companies could end up competing against a private venture their own government part-owns. [1]

In Valencia, retired teacher Jose Leal told the New York Times the promised $100 billion of investment sounded small against 65 billion barrels. [4]

Why it matters. Watch whether the Pentagon publishes the terms, because its own spokesman has denied taking equity, and the first document either confirms the reporting or contradicts it. [1][2]

US investment-grade companies sold about $1.7 trillion of bonds by July, 27% ahead of last year's pace, much of it for AI data centres. Ed Yardeni says money going into those bonds is money not going into Treasuries, so Treasury yields had to rise to attract buyers. [5]

Why it matters. The old worry was that government debt would squeeze out companies. This is the reverse, and it makes the government's own borrowing dearer.

Federal debt hit a record $40 trillion this week. The deficit is on track for $2 trillion this year, and interest alone costs about $1 trillion a year. [5][6]

Why it matters. Tom Essaye of Sevens Report argues policymakers will let inflation shrink the pile, and warns of a flat decade for share prices. [6] Rising prices and debt are also catching up with Trump before the midterms. [32]

Fed officials promised to honour every commitment they had made. European central bankers still came away worried about more turmoil with Washington, sources told Reuters, and were annoyed by how the yen intervention was carried out. [7]

Why it matters. The emergency lines between central banks run on trust, not contracts, and trust is what was being tested this week.

Fed chair Kevin Warsh said underlying inflation has not meaningfully improved. Within an hour, market bets on a September rise went from 36% to 56%. Headline PCE inflation is running at 3.7% over the past year. [8][41]

Why it matters. The next consumer price reading lands on 11 September, days before the Fed meets on 15 and 16 September. [41] Warsh now faces a choice that angers either markets or the president. [10] He also used the speech to argue the Fed should run more like a private-sector company. [40]

Economists expect about 55,000 new US jobs in August, with unemployment holding at 4.1%, after an unexpected dip in July. Deutsche Bank and Wells Fargo look for 65,000 to 80,000. [9][31]

Why it matters. Warsh called the job market consistent with full employment. That is exactly what frees him to aim at prices instead. [9]

The US Treasury's financial crimes unit named Banque Misr's UAE branches a critical node for Iran's access to foreign currency, and moved to cut them out of dollar clearing. [11][12]

Why it matters. The UAE central bank opened an urgent forensic review of more than two years of transactions the next day, and is weighing what to do with the bank's licence. [11]

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wrote to Senator Elizabeth Warren that disorderly yen moves can force investors to sell in a rush, unsettle world markets and raise US borrowing costs. [13][14]

Why it matters. It is the clearest official reason yet for July's joint action with Tokyo, and it is the same operation European central bankers disliked. [7][14]

Germany's Allianz is considering a 5 billion pound, or $6.77 billion, takeover of the AA, the British breakdown service founded by motoring enthusiasts in 1905. Private equity firm EQT is also in talks. [15][16]

Why it matters. Private equity owners floated the AA in 2014 at 250 pence a share. Twelve years later it is being weighed up again. [15]

Insurers controlled by Dodgers owner Mark Walter put almost all of $5.2 billion of short-term loans into businesses connected to him, and most mature by the end of August. About $20 billion of their investments is under federal investigation. [17]

Why it matters. Short-term loans were 0.6% of industry assets in 2024. Clear Spring held almost 14%. Insurers are meant to hold long assets against long promises. [17]

Bitcoin traded at $77,647 on Saturday, down about 2%, after touching above $81,000 earlier in the week. Its 90-day link with gold has climbed above 50%, from barely above zero in January. [18]

Why it matters. Its link with tech shares has fallen to about 33%. It is behaving less like a technology bet and more like a scarce store of value. [18]

In heavily tariffed categories, clothing and footwear inflation jumped from 0.3% in December 2025 to 3.5% in July 2026, Fed researchers found. They put AI-driven electronics prices alongside tariffs as an equal cause. [19]

Why it matters. The same work says that with no tariffs at all, core inflation would still sit a full percentage point above the 2% target. [19]

S&P 500 earnings per share in the second quarter were close to 50% above a year earlier. Only 8% of quarters since 1928 have had faster four-quarter growth than this one. [20]

Why it matters. Very fast growth is usually followed by slow growth, which is a warning for share prices that assume the pace continues. [20]

President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iranian trade has fallen by 25% to 35%. August crude loadings are down more than 80% from a year earlier, according to tracking firm Kpler. [21]

Why it matters. Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei called for cutting the dollar's role in Iran's economy, and Iran insists the Strait of Hormuz stays shut in the war's seventh month. [21][22]

The S&P 500 rose 0.5% on the week and the Nasdaq 0.9%, mostly on Thursday after Nvidia's results. [29] Salesforce jumped about 22% on a strong quarter and a partnership with Anthropic. [30] Shares are stabilising not far below their all-time highs after a mid-month dip. [43]

Why it matters. The index keeps rising on days when most shares fall, because a few very large companies carry it. [35] The argument for Salesforce is that value moves to whoever holds the scarce thing, and that is trusted company data. [37]

Sashidhar Jagdishan will retire from India's biggest private bank on 26 October after telling the board he would not seek reappointment. Shares hit a two-year low on Thursday. [23]

Why it matters. US law firms have filed a proposed securities class action, and investors are frustrated by thin gains from the 2023 merger with HDFC Ltd. [23]

The monsoon is running 13% below its long-period average. Union Bank of India says a weak September could push next year's consumer inflation to 5.5% or higher if El Nino is confirmed. [25]

Why it matters. India's first-quarter growth figure lands on Monday, expected at 7.3%. [39][42] Foreign investors bought Rs 30,919 crore of Indian shares in August. [24]

Silver rose roughly 20% from recent lows on international markets. In India, MCX silver went from about Rs 2.15 lakh to nearly Rs 2.45 lakh a kilo during August. [26]

Why it matters. Gold's rally, a weaker dollar and demand from solar panels and electric cars are all pulling the same way. [26]

Goldman Sachs analyst Abhay Duggirala wrote that expectations are at most modestly raised, and not at immediate risk of coming loose, after five years above target. [27]

Why it matters. That cuts against the fear driving Warsh's tough talk. Both readings cannot be right, and one of them is about to be tested. [8][27]

July's consumer price index came in at 3.4%, just under June's 3.5% and far above the 2% target. Three regional Fed presidents voted to raise rates immediately at the last meeting. [34]

Why it matters. Those measures summarise the past twelve months, so they are slow to show a turn in either direction. Consumer confidence has already fallen to a seven-month low. [33][34]

Soldiers attacked the presidential palace in Niger overnight into 29 August and were pushed back by the presidential guard. Niger is Africa's second-largest uranium producer and a gold producer. [44]

Why it matters. Three years after the last military takeover, a country that supplies nuclear fuel is unstable again.

India recorded 166 private credit deals worth $12.4 billion in 2025, up 35% on 2024, with property nearly 42% of them. Fees, tax and defaults sit between the advertised return and the real one. [28]

Why it matters. Private credit is lending done outside banks, and it has moved from specialist funds into ordinary wealth portfolios. [28]

Subhash Chandra plans an investment role with Swiss firms and a repayment plan built from his remaining Rs 6.5 crore. Creditors claim Rs 22,006.57 crore. [45]

Why it matters. The case grew from a personal guarantee on a loan default, which is how a company's debt becomes one person's debt.

ArcLight committed $1 billion of equity to launch Anchor Point, a new electricity transmission company. [46]

Why it matters. Data centres need wires as much as they need chips, and the wires are becoming an investment class of their own.

Imax took $257 million at the global box office in July, its highest-grossing month, driven by Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey. Only 25 US cinemas can show its best 70mm format. [38]

Why it matters. Imax earns from screens it does not own, by licensing the technology and taking a share of the takings. [38]

Warren Buffett is no longer Berkshire Hathaway's chief executive but remains chairman and still makes the big equity decisions, including a stake in Alphabet now worth $36.6 billion. [36]

Why it matters. Berkshire's own shares have gone nowhere while he does it, which is its own lesson about time horizons. [36]