Business

July 3 (Reuters) – Inflows into global equity funds rose in the week to July 1, as investors took advantage of a pullback in major markets to add technology stocks, betting that the sector’s earnings momentum would be intact.

A net $10.44 billion poured into these funds, about a quarter higher than the prior week’s $8.4 billion, LSEG Lipper data showed.

The MSCI World Index fell 2.07% last week amid concentration risks and concerns over hyperscalers’ spending plans, though analysts remained upbeat on the broader technology sector’s earnings outlook.

“Our tech analysts see no reason for the sector’s earnings momentum to slow or reverse over the near-term with the upcoming 2Q earnings season expected to be supportive,” said William Bratton, head of cash equity research for APAC at BNP Paribas, in a note last week.

“All three core components of the tech sector – semis, hardware, and components – are still seeing robust uplifts to F12M earnings”.

Asian equity funds posted a seven-week-high inflow of $7 billion, while U.S. and European funds attracted $1.03 billion and $337 million, respectively.

Technology sector funds attracted $8.9 billion as demand rebounded after net sales of $17.83 billion the previous week. Financials and healthcare funds also drew inflows of $2.27 billion and $1.52 billion, respectively.

Global bond funds remained in demand for a 13th straight week, drawing $14.47 billion.

High-yield bond funds received $3.61 billion, their largest weekly inflow since June 2025, while euro-denominated and short-term bond funds attracted $2.72 billion and $2.31 billion.

Money market funds saw $32.55 billion in inflows, reversing the previous week’s $39.36 billion in net sales.

Among commodities, gold and other precious metal funds recorded a seventh consecutive weekly outflow, totaling $1.85 billion, while energy funds saw net sales of $116 million.

In emerging markets, equity funds faced selling pressure for a 10th straight week, with net outflows of $5.14 billion. Investors also withdrew $622 million from bond funds, data covering 28,900 funds showed.

(Reporting by Gaurav Dogra, with additional reporting by Patturaja Murugaboopathy in Bengaluru; Editing by Harikrishnan Nair)

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HOPKINTON, R.I. (AP) — At Ashawaug Farm in southwest Rhode Island, Dawn and Cassius Spears preserve their Indigenous knowledge of agriculture through the cultivation and keeping of three Narragansett heritage crops: white corn, succotash beans and crookneck squash.

They would like to expand their farm’s reach beyond their farm stand, but it’s challenging. Like many small food producers, the Spears have sought financial assistance through federal programs. Some have been cut or significantly scaled back under the Trump Administration, including U.S. Department of Agriculture programs that helped tribal farmers.

Tribes relied on these programs to grow and distribute culturally-significant foods locally.

“When we go into these federal programs, we’re hoping that they’ll last long enough,” Cassius Spears said. “They usually start out with a good song and dance. And they’re going to last a long time. And then something happens where they get cut.”

The Biden administration started two programs during the pandemic to help states and tribes purchase local food from nearby farmers for food banks and schools: the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program (LFPA) and the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program (LFS). These programs offered farmers, including tribal farmers, reliable markets for their products. Tribal governments received assistance to purchase food from local producers to distribute to tribal members.

This allowed tribes to get federal dollars directly to small-scale producers, said Carly Griffith Hotvedt, executive director of the Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative and a member of Cherokee Nation. The Spears’ farm provided food for a tribal farm in nearby Connecticut that used LFPA funds, after an agreement was signed in August 2022.

In some instances, tribes used those dollars to source culturally-significant foods for tribal members such as bison meat, certain types of berries and wild rice that were included as part of a food box distribution. For some low-income tribal members, it was the best way to access these types of foods, Hotvedt said.

“It wasn’t just commodity foods in that box. It was highly local, traditionally relevant, culturally relevant foods that were included,” Hotvedt said.

In March 2025, under the Trump administration, the Agriculture Department ended the two programs that provided more than $1 billion for schools and food banks, saying that they no longer aligned with the agency’s goals.

U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat, and Sen. Jim Justice, a West Virginia Republican, introduced a bill they say takes the best from the two programs and creates a permanent grant program. It would allow state and tribal governments to buy local foods from local and regional producers to distribute to nearby hunger relief programs and schools.

Reed said he feared that when the USDA programs were cut, families across the country would have a more difficult time getting access to food. And, he said, the access wouldn’t be to nutritious, freshly grown produce.

Reed said he’s hoping to get the legislation passed as part of the Farm Bill, the massive, multi-year law that governs agricultural and food programs. The House passed its version of the bill in April, and a Senate committee released its draft in late June. The House version also includes a bipartisan proposal for a permanent program modeled after the Local Food Purchase Assistance program. It would allow states, through the USDA, to establish cooperative agreements connecting local farmers and producers with local food distribution organizations.

Both proposals would set aside 10% of the program’s funding for tribes.

For a new program to succeed, Congress must include mandatory funding in order to help farmers better plan, purchase supplies and hire staff because they know they’re going to sell products through those programs, said Hannah Quigley, a policy specialist with the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. The House version would require Congress to agree on funding annually, she added.

Reed said he’s advocating for mandatory funding in the Senate because without it very little is funded these days, and because farms are under so much pressure economically. An optional program wouldn’t help them as much, he said.

“We really want to punch through the existing obstacles for small farmers and Native American farmers,” he said.

Dawn and Cassius Spears would like to see Indigenous producers prioritized when tribal entities purchase food. And they said they think having dedicated programs that Indigenous producers can access outside of their tribal government would help more Indigenous producers.

Under the canopy of one of her farm’s high tunnels at the start of this year’s planting season, Dawn Spears carefully organized her tomato crop, separating the tiny plants before moving them to a field outside. The name of the 6-acre farm is an homage to the Narragansett name of the river that flows through town. It started as a small community garden and food sovereignty project.

One of her grandsons, 9-year-old Giizhig, walked in to ask if she needed help.

“Only if you want to,” Spears replied. “It’s always good to know how to do it, right?”

Teaching the next generation about where food comes from and how to grow responsibly is key for her. But her culture isn’t just about cultivating crops. It’s also about gathering foods they eat from the wild and being able to preserve and access land where those foods are.

She’s working to protect the land around their farm as development grows with the hope of introducing native plants into that area that can be foraged for food. Federal funding programs can also help with securing access to land, she said.

“If you take a person away from the land that they come from, then it’s like they’re not whole,” she said. “We have to eat the food that’s naturally from that space that we come from.”

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McDermott reported from Providence, Rhode Island.

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Follow Joshua A. Bickel on Instagram, Bluesky and X @joshuabickel.

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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

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By Anousha Sakoui

LONDON, July 3 (Reuters) – Goldman Sachs increased its share of mergers and acquisitions advisory work involving Europe, the Middle East and Africa in the first half of 2026, capturing the biggest slice of the market in the period for nearly a decade, LSEG data showed.

Dealmaking in the region totalled $676 billion during the first half of 2026, more than double 2025 levels and a 19-year high, the data showed, reflecting a backdrop of looser regulatory constraints.

Goldman, which is also the global leader, has long led the advisory sector in EMEA, although in the first half of this year the second biggest bank in the EMEA sector, JPMorgan, managed to slightly narrow its lead, analysis of the LSEG data showed.

Goldman advised on 111 deals, representing 44% of the EMEA M&A total by value in the first six months of 2026, up from 42% in the same period a year earlier, the data showed.

The bank’s share was its highest for the January-June period since 2018, when it reached 46%.

Compared with its rivals, it held a 9 percentage point lead over JPMorgan which advised on 99 announced deals, representing 35% market share. That was down from Goldman’s lead of 11 percentage points over JPMorgan in the first half of 2025, according to an analysis of historical league table data.

Globally, Goldman has a 38% market share and had advised on the biggest number of deals of any adviser.

GOLDMAN ADVISED ON THE BIGGEST DEALS

In terms of the numbers of deals, independent advisory boutique Rothschild, which advised on 163 deals, outstripped Goldman, whose overall lead was based on its advising on 15 of the largest 20 deals.

That included advising Unilever (alongside Morgan Stanley) on the about $45 billion sale of its food business to McCormick, the largest over the period in EMEA, as well as TK Elevators on its $34 billion combination with Kone.

Its closest rival in the region, JPMorgan, worked on 13 of the biggest deals and was not involved in McCormick’s merger with Unilever.

Last year, M&A activity stalled in the initial uncertainty linked to U.S. President Donald Trump’s return to the White House at the start of last year. Markets remain highly volatile and bankers have said league tables could alter substantially this year if deals are not completed and drop out of the ranking.

Goldman for instance advised Commerzbank, which has been seeking to fend off a $28 billion bid from UniCredit.

However, bankers also say companies have actively decided to look beyond market turbulence.

“Companies are taking a long-term strategic view and investing for where they want to be in the coming decades, not just the next few quarters,” said Carsten Woehrn, co-head of M&A in EMEA at Goldman Sachs.

Goldman’s dominance in dealmaking highlights a shift in the competitive landscape since the global financial crisis, after which the field became narrower, according to Valeria Vitkova, associate professor of finance at Bayes Business School.

“The firm’s sustained leadership reflects more than simply a succession of favourable years. It appears to represent a sustained competitive advantage that has persisted throughout the post-crisis period,” said Vitkova, who added that in that period dealmaking has become more complex.

(Reporting by Anousha Sakoui. Editing by Barbara Lewis)

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By Yantoultra Ngui and Phuong Nguyen

HANOI/SINGAPORE, July 3 (Reuters) – Blackstone, CVC Capital Partners and Japan’s MUFG are among bidders for a stake in Vietnamese fintech firm MoMo as it presses ahead with a partial sale, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said.

Binding bids are due in September, added the people, who declined to be named as the matter is private.

The stake size has not been finalised, one of the people said, adding that the process could lead to the sale of a significant holding. A third person with knowledge of the matter said the stake on offer could be as much as 50%.

MoMo, CVC and MUFG did not immediately respond to requests for comment, while Blackstone had no comment.

COMPANY COULD BE VALUED AT MORE THAN $2 BILLION

Founded in 2010, MoMo has grown from a mobile payments platform into a financial services app spanning payments, consumer lending, insurance, savings, investment and merchant tools in Vietnam’s fast-growing economy.

Reuters reported in April that MoMo was exploring strategic options, including bringing in new investors, that could value the company at more than $2 billion.

The digital payments company, which has been profitable since 2024, engaged with advisors to run the process after receiving interest from strategic and financial investors.

The process remains ongoing and may not result in a deal, the people said.

MoMo said it currently serves more than 30 million users and has built a broad nationwide network for digital transactions.

The investor interest comes as Vietnam’s digital financial services market expands, helped by the growth of cashless payments and wider use of online financial products and services.

MoMo completed its last major fundraising round in 2021, when it said it had raised $200 million from investors led by Mizuho Bank.

The company said last year it was expanding services for consumers and small businesses as part of a broader digital finance push.

(Reporting by Phuong Nguyen in Hanoi and Yantoultra Ngui in Singapore; Editing by Jan Harvey)

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By Lewis Krauskopf

NEW YORK, July 3 (Reuters) – Investors in the coming week will seek clues about the likelihood of impending interest-rate hikes and early signs of a pivotal earnings season as they gauge the strength of the U.S. stock market’s rally.

The second half of 2026 kicked off this week much the same as the first half ended, with rocky performances of heavyweight technology shares swaying major indexes. Minutes from last month’s eventful Federal Reserve meeting, as well as earnings from Delta Air Lines and PepsiCo, could provide new signposts for the market whose tech-fueled rally has wobbled in recent weeks.

Tech shares and especially semiconductors propelled the market’s gains in the past few months, with the benchmark S&P 500 rising 14.9% in the second quarter that ended Tuesday, its best quarter since 2020.

But more recently, that group has swung dramatically, including with steep declines to end this week. Other sectors have performed well over the past month such as healthcare, industrial and financial stocks, spurring investor hopes of a healthy rotation that leads market gains to broaden. 

“That’s something I’ll be keeping my eye on over the next couple of weeks is to see whether or not that broadening continues,” said Joe Mazzola, head trading and derivatives strategist at Charles Schwab. “Or if you do start to see a protracted pullback in some of the technology winners, does that portend the market pulling back overall?”

INVESTORS SEEK RATE CLUES WITH FED MINUTES

The outlook for interest rates has switched from expectations at the start of this year for equity-friendly rate cuts, to projections of hikes in the coming months. Those rate-hike expectations were pared slightly on Thursday following a cooler-than-expected jobs report.

Hawkish bets had grown following last month’s Federal Reserve meeting, the first led by new chair Kevin Warsh. He emphasized the central bank would focus on delivering price stability, with inflation above the Fed’s 2% annual target. Minutes from that meeting will be released on Wednesday. 

Warsh also warned that the central bank would no longer hold the market’s hand and was jettisoning forward guidance on what actions the Fed might take in the near term. That could make minutes of future Fed policy meetings more important.

“I think it’s going to be interesting to see how the discussion went around the table, how incrementally hawkish are they leaning,” said Matthew Miskin, co-chief investment strategist at Manulife John Hancock Investments. 

“That’s what investors and markets are going to be wondering: What is this new Fed chairman and updated (Fed policymaking body) looking for to decide the path of rates from here?”

A key topic, investors said, is how Fed policymakers were thinking about the inflationary impact of energy prices, which heading into the meeting had been receding from Iran war-related spikes. Another is the extent of any division among Fed officials.

Higher interest rates can pressure equities by raising borrowing costs for consumers and companies, and by translating into higher bond yields, making bonds potentially more attractive than stocks.

Fed fund futures late on Thursday suggested roughly even odds that the central bank would raise rates by its September meeting, according to LSEG data. Thursday’s Labor Department data showed U.S. job growth slowed sharply in June, calming some market fears about a near-term rate hike.

“If the Fed does become more restrictive and starts into a tightening cycle, that is a risk to the market and the valuations,” said James Ragan, co-CIO and director of investment management research at D.A. Davidson. “The more information we can get about how the Fed is thinking about things, I think that’s very important.”

PIVOTAL EARNINGS SEASON LOOMS

In a relatively light week ahead for U.S. economic data, services and manufacturing activity releases could help clarify inflation trends.

Stocks rebounded in recent months from declines stemming from the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran. The S&P 500 is up more than 9% in 2026, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite has gained 11%.

Surprisingly strong first-quarter corporate profits underpinned the market’s climb and raised the bar for second-quarter reporting season, which heats up later this month.

Two early reports come next week: Delta and snacks and beverage maker PepsiCo, which offer different perspectives on consumer-spending trends.

Overall, S&P 500 companies are expected to increase second-quarter earnings by more than 24%, according to LSEG IBES.

“If the north star of this bull market is earnings, I think the main thing for the earnings season is just to validate the earnings trajectory for this year and that the upward momentum continues into next year,” said Keith Lerner, chief investment officer at Truist Advisory Services.

(Reporting by Lewis Krauskopf; editing by Michelle Price and David Gregorio)

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By Pragyan Kalita

July 2 (Reuters) – Chinese copper foil maker Londian Wason New Energy Tech filed for an initial public offering in the United States on Thursday, seeking to capitalize on growing demand from electric vehicle makers.

The U.S. IPO market is approaching levels last seen five years ago in terms of deal size, as new issuers tap buoyant equity markets, while investors navigate a pipeline of closely watched offerings.

According to Renaissance Capital, a provider of IPO-focused research and ETFs, the second quarter would have been the largest for IPO proceeds since 2021, even without SpaceX’s record-shattering offering.

The filing follows last month’s U.S. debut by China’s DSC Holdings, signaling a tentative return of Chinese issuers to U.S. equity markets after years of geopolitical tensions between Washington and Beijing curbed such listings.

“If successful, it may well pave the way for a re-opening of the U.S. IPO market for larger deals from China,” IPOX CEO Josef Schuster told Reuters. 

“While pricing details are still absent, given that the firm is the leading manufacturer of a key battery component, I believe that the firm can potentially find a good take up for its shares.”

Londian said it was the world’s largest supplier of lithium-ion battery copper foil by sales volume in 2025 with a 7.6% global market share, citing a Frost & Sullivan report.

The Shenzhen-based company reported a net profit of 134.5 million Chinese yuan ($19.81 million) on revenue of 4.07 billion yuan for the three months ended March 31, 2026, compared with a net loss of 68.4 million yuan on revenue of 1.91 billion yuan a year earlier.

South Korea’s SK Group owns 29.5% of Londian through its wholly owned unit Golden Pearl EV Solutions.

The company plans to use the proceeds for global production expansion, research and development and for general corporate purposes.

Londian intends to list its shares on the NYSE. Cantor, Huatai Securities, CMB International and US Tiger Securities are the lead underwriters for the offering.

($1 = 6.7886 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Pragyan Kalita in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore)

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Israel Ranks 18th Worldwide in Average Personal Wealth, UBS Reports  

Israel was home to about 195,000 dollar millionaires at the end of 2025, while average personal wealth continued to climb, according to the 2025 UBS Global Wealth Report, which also found that median wealth declined, pointing to a widening gap between higher- and middle-wealth households.  

The report, released Tuesday, ranked Israel 18th worldwide in average personal wealth among 56 countries representing more than 92% of global wealth. Average wealth per Israeli adult reached $312,108 at the end of 2025, up from $284,224 a year earlier. Israel slipped one place in the rankings from the previous report, placing behind Ireland and ahead of South Korea.  

UBS said the number of Israeli dollar millionaires rose 4.7% during 2025, increasing by more than 8,800 people to approximately 195,000. Millionaires now account for 3.2% of the country’s adult population.  

The report also found that more than 82% of Israelis’ gross personal wealth is held in financial assets, including stocks, cash and pension funds. That was the second-highest share among the countries surveyed, behind Sweden.  

UBS said personal wealth worldwide recorded its strongest annual expansion since 2017, extending a three-year growth streak. Nearly 1 million new dollar millionaires were added globally during 2025, or more than 2,600 each day. Switzerland ranked first in average personal wealth, followed by the United States and Luxembourg.  

Despite the continued increase in average wealth, the report found that median wealth per adult fell to $83,843, placing Israel 24th globally.  

“Israel has enjoyed strong growth in average wealth per adult so far this decade, to the tune of over 15% when measured in local currency net of inflation,” the UBS report said. “Median wealth, on the other hand, contracted by more than 12% over the same timeframe of 2020-2025.”  

The report also noted that, during 2025, Tel Aviv share indexes reached record highs despite war and geopolitical uncertainty, the shekel strengthened against both the dollar and the euro, and technology exits jumped 340% to $58.8 billion even as the economy faced mounting war costs and a growing debt burden.  

Separate figures cited from Forbes Israel identified 52 Israeli billionaires, placing the country third globally in billionaires per capita. Studies by the Taub Center also found that Israel continues to experience high levels of wealth and income inequality.  

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By Kentaro Okasaka

TOKYO, July 3 (Reuters) – Kioxia will on Friday hold a ceremony at its fab in northern Japan as the chipmaker, whose shares have rocketed due to the AI investment boom, prepares to mass manufacture next-generation memory.

The growth of AI has fueled a remarkable turnaround for Kioxia, which was previously seen as an example of Japan’s chipmaking struggles but whose shares have surged more than sevenfold this year to a market capitalisation over $250 billion, exeeding Toyota Motor’s.

Formerly Toshiba Memory, Kioxia was acquired from beleaguered industrial conglomerate Toshiba by a Bain Capital-led consortium in 2018 for 2 trillion yen ($12 billion).

The company, which invented NAND flash memory in the 1980s, was buffeted by a downturn in memory prices that forced Bain to push back plans to take the company public to late 2024.

In the early stages of the AI boom, manufacturers of DRAM memory chips used to store data were seen as the main beneficiaries, in particular SK Hynix, a pioneer of high-bandwidth memory (HBM).

However as AI usage has expanded from training models on large volumes of data to inference, the process of answering queries, demand for high-capacity NAND memory has grown.

Chipmakers “prioritised DRAM so much that they put NAND investment and development on the back burner,” said Satoru Oyama, a consultant who worked at Tokyo Electron.

“They haven’t been able to respond to the current NAND boom at all. That is why demand is now concentrated on Kioxia alone,” he said.

Kioxia will mass produce 10th-generation BiCS Flash memory, which was developed with California-based Sandisk, at its fab at Kitakami in Iwate prefecture, north of Tokyo.

The chipmaker is two to four years ahead of rivals with NAND performance and power consumption due to strengths such as its wafer bonding technology, said Kazuyoshi Saito, an analyst at IwaiCosmo Securities.

Kioxia has said it is considering a stock split and ​aims to list American depositary shares on a U.S. exchange early in the next financial year, which begins in April 2027.

South Korea’s SK Hynix is also planning a U.S. listing and aims to raise up to $29.4 billion as Asian companies look to access a deeper pool of capital.

($1 = 162.5500 yen)

(Reporting by Kentaro Okasaka; Writing by Sam Nussey; Editing by Sonali Paul)

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By Marcela Ayres

BRASILIA, July 2 (Reuters) – Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s main rival ahead of Brazil’s October presidential election, has proposed barring the country’s digital payment system Pix from integration with non-Western cross-border settlement systems, arguing the move would help ease U.S. concerns over the country’s hugely popular instant-payment platform.

Bolsonaro made the case to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) on Wednesday after the agency last year included Pix among practices under investigation as potentially unfair trade barriers. 

The probe culminated in a proposal to impose 25% tariffs on a range of Brazilian goods, with a decision due this month.

If connected to foreign payment systems, Pix could, in theory, reduce reliance on the U.S. dollar and bypass intermediaries such as credit card companies that currently handle a large share of cross-border transactions, developments that run counter to the interests of U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration.

In a post on X, Lula, who has long advocated reducing reliance on the U.S. dollar in international trade and promoting deeper financial integration among developing economies, described Senator Bolsonaro’s proposal as an attempt to “hand Pix over to foreign interests.”

“They won’t succeed. Pix is a Brazilian achievement and we will not give it up,” he wrote.

In written comments submitted in a public consultation launched by the USTR, Bolsonaro defended Pix against criticism that Brazil’s central bank acts both as owner and operator of the system.

He argued tariffs would be the wrong remedy because they do not address Pix’s architecture and would hurt U.S. investment interests. 

Instead, he said, a “decisive signal” to Washington would be legislation ensuring Pix is not interconnected with non-Western cross-border settlement arrangements.

More broadly, he urged Washington not to impose tariffs on Brazil, arguing the dispute has boosted Lula’s popularity.

Launched in late 2020 during the administration of his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, Pix quickly became the most widely used payment method in Latin America’s largest economy, overtaking credit and debit cards while sharply reducing the use of cash.

(Reporting by Marcela Ayres; Editing by Aurora Ellis)

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By Stephen Culp

NEW YORK, July 2 (Reuters) – Wall Street was mixed on Thursday as weakness in semiconductors weighed on the Nasdaq, while the dollar dropped after a soft employment report eased rate-hike expectations at the end of a holiday-shortened week.

U.S. markets will be closed on Friday, July 3, in observance of Independence Day.

I will go into more detail on today’s market moves below. If you have more time to read, here are a few articles I recommend to help you make sense of what happened in markets today.

1. The U.S. economy added 57,000 jobs in June, unemployment dips to 4.2% as workforce declines

2. Federal Reserve policymakers have less impetus to raise interest rates after June employment report

3. Russia launches a deadly missile and drone attack on Kyiv, one of the biggest attacks in the war

4. U.S. and Iran delegates wrap up Doha talks; unfreezing Iranian assets and traffic in the Strait of Hormuz discussed

5. Tesla reports record second-quarter deliveries as rebound in European demand offset North American weakness

6. Tesla rival Rivian hikes 2026 delivery forecast, share price surges

7. U.S. factory orders fall in May, weighed by commercial aircraft

Today’s Key Market Moves

• STOCKS: All 3 major U.S. stock indexes post weekly gains; Europe’s STOXX index reaches record closing high

• SECTORS/SHARES: Healthcare was the strongest gainer among S&P sectors; tech, weighed by chips, was the biggest laggard

• FX: Dollar drops after soft jobs report, yen surges

• BONDS: U.S. Treasury yields retreat after soft payrolls data dampens rate-hike expectations

• COMMODITIES/METALS: Front-month WTI and Brent crude settle up 0.2% and 0.3%, respectively; gold gains more than 2%

Today’s Talking Points

* Iran prepares to bury slain Supreme Leader with a week of mass mourning

Iran’s ruling clerics are preparing for days of mass funeral rites for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as a show of public devotion to the Islamic Republic and proof that its revolutionary fervor still burns strong.

Khamenei was killed amid the first round of Israeli and U.S. strikes, and the funeral events will ensue in Tehran over the weekend, with mass processions planned across the country next week.

Organizers hope to mobilize millions of supporters throughout Iran’s cities to proclaim the might of their theocratic state after it survived what they viewed as an existential war.

* Hedge funds see gains in June on short bets, lose on oil

Hedge funds wrapped up the last month of the second quarter with double-digit year-to-date gains, according to a Goldman Sachs note seen by Reuters on Thursday.

While stockpickers returned 4% last month, hedge funds that use fundamental analysis to assess a company’s financial health posted an 18.4% return for the quarter, their strongest performance on Goldman’s records. Their year-to-date result is 17.4%.

But losses stemmed from market volatility and short bets that asset prices would fall, as oil prices have returned to pre-Iran war levels, the bank said.

* Largest U.S. power grid PJM braces itself for “heat dome,” data center boom

PJM, the largest power grid in the U.S., braced for record-setting energy consumption spurred by a sweltering heat wave, aggravated by the boom in energy-hungry data centers.

PJM expects the system’s 20-year demand record to be broken at about 6 p.m. EDT on Thursday, with a forecast peak power consumption of 166.2 gigawatts. The grid operator says it has the capacity to meet the challenge.

What could move markets tomorrow?

• Developments in the Middle East

• Energy market moves

• Social media posts from Trump

• UK, Germany, Italy, France, Sweden, Spain, UAE, India, services PMI (June)

• Norway unemployment (June)

• France, Spain, Brazil industrial output (May)

• Turkey CPI (June)

• Italy retail sales (May)

• Mexico consumer confidence (June)

• Brazil trade balance (June)

U.S. MARKETS WILL BE CLOSED ON FRIDAY, JULY 3

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Opinions expressed are those of the author. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

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