Business

July 1 (Reuters) – Denim retailer American Eagle Outfitters on Wednesday named Ravi Thanawala its chief financial officer, replacing company veteran Mike Mathias, effective August 3.

Here are some more details about the appointment:

• Thanawala will join American Eagle from pizza chain Papa John’s, where he has been CFO since November 2025.

• Before joining Papa John’s in 2023, Thanawala was CFO of Nike’s North America business for about three years.

• Mathias has been at American Eagle for 25 years, joining in 1998 as a manager of finance for stores and operations, and holding several roles until a brief exit in 2016.

• He returned to American Eagle in 2017 and was named CFO in April 2020.

• Mathias will transition to full-time non-executive strategic advisor to CEO Jay Schottenstein once Thanawala takes over, the company said.

• American Eagle also reiterated its second-quarter and full-year 2026 forecast it shared in May.

(Reporting by Juveria Tabassum in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Chinese tech giant Alibaba will pay $600 million to resolve a dispute with the U.S. government over allegations that the Hangzhou-based firm sold and imported illegal pharmaceuticals, controlled substances, regulated chemicals, and pill-making equipment into the U.S.

Alibaba operates some of the world’s largest e-commerce platforms, including Alibaba.com and AliExpress.com.

The U.S. alleges that Alibaba’s U.S.-based payment processor, AUS Merchant Services, violated federal law by failing to prevent merchants from selling and importing illegal products into the U.S. through Alibaba.com and AliExpress.com.

Alibaba acknowledges in an agreement with the Justice Department that between January 2016 and December 2024, it failed to stop roughly 80,000 product sales involving unlawful imports that violated the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and other federal laws.

A news release on the settlement resolution says that Alibaba employees raised concerns that the company’s compliance controls were inadequate and failed to prevent the sale of illegal products — and, in some instances, merchants used Alibaba’s messaging service to direct buyers to third-party messaging platforms to facilitate illegal sales.

In a statement, Alibaba said the firm and the U.S. government reached a mutually satisfactory resolution to bring stricter compliance to the sale of products in the U.S. by third-party merchants on its e-commerce platforms.

Law enforcement officers across the FDA, FDIC, IRS-CI, and other agencies conducted more than 40 undercover purchases of pharmaceuticals and equipment that were illegal to import into the U.S., according to the news release. A non-prosecution agreement was crafted between Alibaba and the Justice Department.

IRS Criminal Investigations’ Chief Jarod Koopman said the resolution “underscores IRS Criminal Investigation’s commitment to following the money and ensuring that companies operating in the United States comply fully with federal law.”

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NEW YORK (AP) — The real estate mogul has become the billion-dollar crypto man.

President Donald Trump’s latest financial disclosure report showed he took in about $1.2 billion last year from various crypto holdings, overshadowing a real estate business that brought him fame and helped propel him to the nation’s top office.

Whereas it took decades for Trump to amass his various properties, the rise of crypto in his portfolio was done in just over a year, a stunning development sped along by his own friendly policies toward the industry and help from billionaires and other actors with important business before the presidency.

Running over 900 pages, the mandatory annual report showed Trump struck several other new veins of wealth last year, raising questions about whether he is profiting from his high office.

He took in tens of millions from new property holdings in foreign countries eager to please a man with power over where to deploy the U.S. military and how much to charge in tariffs. And he got tens of million more suing media companies worried they could lose their broadcast licenses or not get deals approved by his regulators.

Ever the salesman, Trump even made big money off the smallest of things, pulling in millions by slapping his name on Bibles, guitars and watches — the latter alone bringing in $4.7 million.

Trump got more than $500 million from his World Liberty Financial business selling “governance tokens” and “stablecoins” and other crypto assets. Another crypto business, CIC Digital LLC, took in more than $600 million from sales of souvenir-type “meme” coins stamped with his face.

Both the tokens and the meme coins have plunged in value since his sales, partly because they are so difficult to value. Governance tokens, for instance, confer to holders only the power to vote on certain management policies at a company, not equity stakes, and so typical valuation measures don’t apply.

Buyers pounced on Trump crypto anyway, including a Chinese billionaire who spent $75 million on the tokens and $200 million on the souvenir coins. In February 2025, a federal lawsuit charging the billionaire, Justin Sun, with duping investors was paused before being settled for a $10 million fine.

Sun has denied his spending on Trump businesses had anything to do with his federal case, while World Liberty has dismissed the notion of a conflict of interest.

Separately, a company linked to the United Arab Emirates government bought a stake in World Liberty for $500 million shortly before Trump’s inauguration. The disclosure says nothing about the deal explicitly, but notes Trump received his share of a “capital contribution” amounting to nearly $200 million.

Subsequently, the UAE got access to advanced U.S. chips that it had been previously banned from importing because of national security concerns.

The White House has repeatedly said that Trump has acted only in the public interest, never gets involved in a family business run by his two oldest sons and has zero conflicts of interest.

Trump took in tens of millions in fees from a flurry of new hotel, resort and condo deals overseas, amounting to the biggest property expansion ever in the century since the family business was founded.

Many of those countries were negotiating with the U.S. over tariffs, military aid and other important matters while the family business was striking the deals.

A property in the UAE generated $10.4 million for the Trump business last year. One in Saudi Arabia being built by a real estate developer close to the ruling family sent the president’s company $9 million. And one in Bucharest, Romania, and another in Qatar sent him $5 million each.

A big winner last year was Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, generating $77 million as heads of state and business people flocked to what Trump has dubbed his Winter White House. That’s up 50% from a year earlier when Trump was just another citizen.

His golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, also is doing well from the glow of the presidency. Trump got $38 million from his so-called Summer White House, up nearly 20%.

In total his 16 golf courses and clubs around the world brought in more than $470 million in fees and licensing income.

Trump took in millions last year from selling Trump books and various other Trump-branded goods in another unprecedented move for the presidency.

Trump Bibles made $208,486, but the word of God didn’t sell as well as a trio of other literary offerings. His “Save America” book took in $1,893,965, “Letters to Trump” generated $590,730, and “A MAGA Journey,” $552,685.

His brand of guitars generated $35,920. Trump sneakers and fragrances took in $67,634.

It’s anyone’s guess why exactly various media companies decided to settle Trump lawsuits alleging fraud and defamation, but settle they did — and paid up.

Lawsuits against ABC, CBS, Meta, and others took in more than $80 million, much of which went to Trump’s planned Miami library.

Where Trump hasn’t prevailed so far is with E. Jean Carroll, the advice columnist who won millions accusing Trump of sexual abuse and defamation. The disclosure says Trump owes her $50 million, pending appeal.

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July 1 (Reuters) – A group of Senate Democrats requested on Wednesday that the Federal Reserve’s in-house watchdog investigate a meeting by the central bank’s top bank regulator and financial market participants held during a quiet period for Fed officials.

Citing Fed Vice-Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman’s attendance at a Bank of America client event held right after the June 16-17 Federal Open Market Committee meeting, the senators wrote “we ask” the Fed’s Inspector General “to review whether her attendance or comments violated any statutes, rules, regulations, policies, or procedures and whether the Fed’s existing framework governing such external events should be strengthened.”

The letter was authored by Senators Elizabeth Warren, Jack Reed, and Chris Van Hollen, and was written to Fed I.G. Michael Horowitz. The letter was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Fed rules prevent central bank officials from speaking on monetary policy issues in the days ahead of and just after FOMC meetings.

Bowman, in a statement shared by the Fed, said she did not violate central bank policy. “I did not share my views on monetary policy. I have consistently complied with all applicable FOMC and ethics rules and remain firmly committed to doing so,” the official said in the statement.

The Fed declined to comment on whether it had referred the matter to the I.G. A request for comment with the Inspector General did not get an immediate response.

(Reporting by Dagmarah Mackos; Editing by Chris Reese and Chizu Nomiyama )

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The lines are growing at Russian gas stations — and so is the frustration and uncertainty as several months of Ukrainian attacks have set oil refineries ablaze and choked supplies for motorists across the vast country.

Fuel rationing has been introduced in many regions, with hourslong queues of cars snaking beside roads. Social media videos show drivers aghast at the lines or swearing at empty gas pumps and rising prices. The mayor of the Siberian city of Irkutsk even ordered portable toilets brought in to accommodate those in line.

The fuel crisis — unprecedented for a nation that is one of the world’s biggest energy producers — has brought Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine home to ordinary Russians like few other events in the war, now in its fifth year.

It drew a rare admission from President Vladimir Putin, who acknowledged that “problems persist for both motorists and businesses,” and “there are still queues at petrol stations, and finding the right grade of petrol isn’t always easy.”

Putin insisted the shortages are “not critical” and “temporary.”

But that appeared to do little to reassure at least one motorist in Moscow, the wealthy capital typically better-insulated from economic shocks than the rest of the country.

“I think the situation is not very good,” the motorist waiting in line told The Associated Press on Monday, the day after Putin’s televised remarks.

“They say one thing on television, and in reality it’s another. … People are queueing everywhere,” he added, declining to identify himself out of concern for his safety.

An AP count shows over 50 reported attacks by Ukraine on oil refineries, depots, terminals and other oil infrastructure in Russia and the illegally annexed Crimean Peninsula since late March. Often, the same facility is hit more than once -– such as the refinery in the Black Sea town of Tuapse, which was struck four times in just over two weeks.

As a result, the amount of crude oil Russia processed into fuel in June was down 25% from a year ago, to 3.95 million barrels per day — the lowest level in over two decades, said Gary Peach, oil markets analyst at Energy Intelligence.

“The outages are extraordinary,” he said.

Gasoline production has fallen 17% to 850,000 barrels a day, from 1.03 million a day a year ago — far short of what’s needed for the domestic market. Russia exports relatively little gasoline.

About a third of Russia’s oil refining capacity is offline, said Chris Weafer, CEO of Macro-Advisory Ltd. Consultancy, noting that because refineries don’t publicly confirm the extent of the damage, his estimate comes from anecdotal evidence and oil industry sources.

“It comes at a very critical time for the Russian economy, in that the agriculture season, particularly the harvest season, is now starting to ratchet up,” increasing demand, Weafer said.

Ukrainian officials describe the strikes as a campaign to pressure Moscow to end the war by undermining its military logistics and supply lines and weakening its ability to mount assaults along the front.

In particular, Kyiv has sought to isolate Crimea, which was seized from Ukraine in 2014 in a move that most nations do not recognize. Attacks earlier this year forced the Moscow-installed authorities to enact fuel rationing on the peninsula in May and halt sales to civilians there altogether several weeks later. Limited sales later resumed in the city of Sevastopol.

Ukraine has carried out major drone strikes on Russia’s two largest cities, embarrassing the Kremlin with images of black plumes of smoke that circulated widely online, despite regulations restricting their publication.

A June 3 attack on an oil terminal in St. Petersburg darkened the sky as Putin prepared to host his annual economic forum to attract foreign investment. On June 18, a similar cloud rose from the Moscow Oil Refinery on the outskirts of the capital, sending greasy black droplets raining down.

By late June, some form of gas rationing was reported in over half of Russia’s regions. Some of them slapped strict limits on all gas stations; in others, gas station chains limited how much fuel could be bought.

Officials blamed hoarding and panic-buying, urging motorists to fill their tanks only when needed.

Exports of gasoline and aviation fuel have been restricted, and authorities weighed banning diesel fuel exports, too.

Importing fuel was being considered, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying contacts with some countries were “underway.” He described the move as “another step toward stabilizing the market and aimed at reducing panic-buying.”

The shortages have reached distant Russian regions where no refineries have been hit by Ukraine’s drones.

Viktor Shkurenko, who owns retail stores in the Omsk region and other businesses, called announcement on limits on gasoline sales there to 40 liters (10.5 gallons) per vehicle “unexpected.”

“Nothing was bombed here. We have the biggest oil refinery in Siberia right here, and it gave us confidence that this fuel crisis won’t come to us,” he said, expressing worry about how limits could affect his businesses. As of Saturday, however, he said his company has not had any problems refueling its vehicles.

In the Siberian region of Zabayakalye, east of Lake Baikal, media reports said a garbage hauler suspended pickups and some bus services were curtailed.

In addition to ordering portable toilets outside gas stations, the city of Irkutsk raised public transport fares as of Wednesday, citing rising fuel costs.

Pavel Kharitonenko, acting head of the Irkutsk branch of the opposition Yabloko party, told AP he now finds it easier to walk or use public transport.

“I don’t have the fuel, and I don’t want to queue at gas stations,” he said. The Irkutsk region, home to a Rosneft oil refinery, has experienced acute shortages for several days, with lines growing, Kharitonenko said.

Putin said Russia’s stockpiles of gasoline are only 4% lower than what it had last year. Weafer, the analyst, says that “reportedly, there are good supplies of fuel around the country. The problem is it’s in the wrong place.”

Supplies need to be reallocated to regions experiencing shortages, and in a big country like Russia, “it’s not something that can be done overnight,” Weafer said.

“There should be enough, but it will take several weeks to get it from where it is to where it’s needed,” he says. “It’s just a huge logistics operation to do that.”

Fixing the war-damaged refineries is complicated. Ukraine’s attacks damaged specialized equipment that is often sourced abroad, making repairs time-consuming and expensive as workarounds or replacements are sought by evading sanctions.

“They manage to get these things up and running, not necessarily at full capacity,” Peach said. “But the extent of the damage this time is so extensive that they won’t get back to winter levels of refining this summer.”

Some refineries won’t be worth repairing until there’s a ceasefire or armistice, he said, because they will just “get knocked down again.”

Repairing the Moscow Oil Refinery, which supplied 40% of the fuel to the capital and the surrounding region, is expected to take at least three months, Weafer said.

If there’s no further damage to Russia’s oil infrastructure, he estimated the shortages will last “probably throughout the summer” because demand from agriculture will likely remain high into September.

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Associated Press writers David McHugh in Frankfurt, Germany, and Hanna Arhirova in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed.

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July 1 (Reuters) – A look at the day ahead in European and global markets from Wayne Cole.

It’s been a hesitant start to the new quarter in Asia, partly as the market digests the meaty gains made last quarter and partly as the U.S.-Iran talks are busy going nowhere.

It seems President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Doha for top-level meetings, only to be stood up by Tehran. One very sticky, sticking point is the Strait of Hormuz and whether Iran gets to charge for passage, and it’s far from clear how that can be resolved.

Asian stock markets are a bit mixed, though that follows a quarter when the Nikkei rose 37%, the Kospi 68% and the Taiex 45%. Those gains rely on a lot going right in the AI trade, but the flow of economic data is offering fundamental support.

Sentiment among Japan’s big manufacturers has hit heights not seen since 2018, while manufacturing activity boasted its best quarter since 2014 as new orders surged.

Trade numbers from South Korea were truly astounding with the fastest export growth in nearly 50 years in June as shipments of semiconductors surged almost 200%. As a result, South Korea became the fourth country in the world to reach a monthly export value of $100 billion, after Germany, China and the U.S.

Wall Street stock futures are mildly in the red after a solid session overnight led by the usual tech suspects. The same companies are expected to deliver an earnings bonanza this season which starts from the week of July 13.

Analysts at Goldman Sachs note the consensus is for earnings per share to grow 22% on a year earlier. AI infrastructure stocks are expected to contribute nearly 60% of S&P 500 EPS growth, with Micron and Nvidia together accounting for more than 40%.

The heady earnings will be needed to offset the attractiveness of higher bond yields and the risk of a rise in the cash rate. Yields on 10-year Treasuries jumped almost 9 basis points on Tuesday, in a late selloff that had no obvious catalyst.

It could be investors bracing for a surprise in payrolls numbers tomorrow on the upside and further narrow the odds on a Federal Reserve hike. A move this month is still one-in-three, while the chance for September ranges from 67% to 88% depending on how you calculate Fed fund futures. Fed Chair Warsh is speaking in Sintra today and we’ll see if he sticks to his “no forward guidance” mantra.

Oh, and there’s been a fresh 40-year top for dollar/yen at 162.82, with no sign yet of Japanese intervention. It’s notable the yen hasn’t been falling on the crosses, so maybe Tokyo is prepared to wait it out. Note, there are no major chart levels now until the dollar reaches Plaza Accord levels around 240.00 yen. That’s a big gap to fill.

Key developments that could influence markets on Wednesday:

– Fed Chair Kevin Warsh, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde, Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey and Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem speak at the ECB Forum on Central Banking in Sintra, Portugal

– EU CPI for June, EU and US manufacturing PMIs for June

– US ISM manufacturing survey and auto sales for June

(Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

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BERLIN, July 1 (Reuters) – Volkswagen’s reported plans to drastically ramp up cuts are a “wake-up call” for the European automotive industry as Chinese carmakers target a higher market share, BYD’s special advisor for the region said on Wednesday.

“It’s the first real wake-up call for the European industry,” Alfredo Altavilla, BYD’s special advisor for the European market, told the Reuters Automotive Europe conference in Frankfurt.

He expressed doubts over the competitiveness of German manufacturing sites as BYD looks to boost its production footprint in Europe with a brownfield investment. Spain and France are candidates and a final decision is close, he added.

(Reporting by Christoph Steitz and Rachel More, editing by Linda Pasquini)

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TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares were trading mixed early Wednesday, as uncertainty remained about an initial deal to end the war in Iran and access to the crucial Strait of Hormuz.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 added 0.6% to 70,463.72. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.4% to 8,744.50. South Korea’s Kospi dropped 1.8% to 8,322.39. The Shanghai Composite edged up 0.1% to 4,099.41. Trading was closed in Hong Kong.

“While oil markets are currently priced for a gradual return to supply normalization, traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has yet to recover to prewar levels,” said Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade.

In the oil market, prices drifted as two U.S. envoys arrived in Qatar for talks with mediators about the implementation of the deal with Iran. The Americans will not be having direct negotiations with Iranian diplomats while in Doha.

In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude added 37 cents to $69.87 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 30 cents to $73.25 a barrel.

U.S. stocks trimmed their losses Tuesday. The S&P 500 gained 0.8%, though it still fell to its first losing month following two fabulous ones. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 136 points, or 0.3%, to its record, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 1.5%.

The main reason for this month’s weakness has been a fall to Earth for stocks in the artificial-intelligence industry. After soaring in the frenzy around AI, such stocks have come under pressure because of worries that they shot too high.

AI stocks were stronger Tuesday, with Nvidia rising 1.6% to trim its loss for the month. It was one of the strongest forces lifting the S&P 500.

Microsoft, which is investing heavily in AI, rose 0.7% to bring its loss for the month back below 18%. Oracle, though, fell 1.6% to bring its drop for June to nearly 36%. It’s another company contending with concerns that big spending on AI may not yield enough productivity and profits.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 58.93 points to 7,499.36. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 136.46 to 52,319.20, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 393.58 to 26,213.72.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.40% from 4.38% late Monday.

U.S. government bonds are paying much higher yields than their Japanese counterparts, and the possibility of rate hikes by the Fed is putting more pressure on the yen. In currency trading, the U.S. dollar rose to 162.67 Japanese yen from 162.55 yen. The euro cost $1.1405, down from $1.1426.

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AP Business Writer Stan Choe contributed to this report.

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — In Kimberley Kausen’s home, a passed “sell by” date on a jug of milk means different things to different family members. For her daughter, it means the jug belongs in the trash. For her husband, it means the milk is still good for a few more days.

Kausen, a chef and cooking teacher in Irvine, California, is more discerning and often uses her sense of smell before deciding what to do with the milk.

“I’ll put some thought into it, and if we’re talking about meat and poultry, I’m very cautious about that and for sure will do the smell test and the touch test,” she said.

The debate playing out in Kausen’s kitchen is repeated in homes across California and the country, where varying phrases on food packaging have long left shoppers unsure whether food is simply past its peak quality or unsafe to eat. The state is aiming to cut down on confusion — and the food waste it creates when people throw away food early — with a new food labeling law starting Wednesday.

It bans the use of “sell by” labels on food packaging, which experts say act as a guide for retailers on how long to display products on the shelves but are not an indicator of whether they are still safe to consume. Now, manufacturers selling food in California must use two standardized labels — a “Best if Used By” label for peak quality and “Use By” label for product safety.

Food manufacturers can choose to use either label or both, said Democratic Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin, the author of the bill.

California became the first state in the U.S. to standardize food labels when it approved the law in 2024 that seeks to reduce food waste and the state’s climate-warming emissions. New York state lawmakers recently approved a similar law that’s awaiting Gov. Kathy Hochul’s signature.

Legislation addressing food labeling also has been proposed in Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and South Carolina, though it has not passed in those states.

Nick Lapis, director of advocacy at Californians Against Waste, which co-sponsored the bill, said food labels are the leading cause of household food waste. The “sell by” date labels have also been a problem for food banks in California because people consider those dates as meaning the food has expired, he said.

“We don’t need to build some kind of huge infrastructure and invest tons of money to solve this. We just need companies to use the same words across brands,” he said.

There are more than 50 different date labels on packaged food sold in stores, according to a 2022 report on food waste published by the University of Maryland. The information in the labels is largely unregulated and often does not relate to food safety.

“Consumers get confused and they just default to assuming that whatever date is on the package means ‘don’t eat it and throw it away’,” said Kumar Chandran, policy director at ReFED, a nonprofit focused on reducing food waste.

Chandran said California and New York’s approval of food-labeling laws has added momentum to the push for a national standard. A bipartisan bill that would establish uniform food labels is pending in Congress. The U.S. Department of Agriculture recommended a decade ago that food sellers should switch to “Best if Used By” labeling.

Currently, the only product that is regulated federally with date labels is infant formula.

With no federal regulations dictating what information labels should include, the stamps have led to consumer confusion — and nearly 20% of the nation’s food waste, according to the Food and Drug Administration. In California, that’s about 6 million tons of unexpired food that’s tossed in the trash each year.

Nate Rose, a spokesperson for the California Grocers Association, said some grocers have had to overhaul their labeling systems, but as a whole, the association has been supportive of the change.

The new labels will result in “a win-win where we can reduce food waste and consumers will find these decisions a little bit simpler,” he said, adding that shoppers will still find old labels in stores for months to come as grocers sell through the products that already have them.

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By Anousha Sakoui, Echo Wang and Kane Wu

LONDON/NEW YORK/HONG KONG, July 1 (Reuters) – A surge in $10-billion-plus “mega-deals” drove global M&A to record levels in the first half of 2026, LSEG data shows, as some companies took advantage of an easier regulatory backdrop to pursue what advisers said are their dream deals.

The total value of announced deals hit $2.8 trillion in the first six months, up 48% year-on-year and the highest year-to-date total since LSEG records began in 1980. Yet the number announced fell 9% to 24,000 so far in 2026, a six-year low.

Blockbuster deals dominated, with 47 of above $10 billion totalling more than $1.3 trillion and accounting for nearly 50% of global volumes, an all-time record, LSEG data showed, making it the strongest first half on record for such mega-deals, which included NextEra Energy’s $66.8 billion Dominion Energy merger and SpaceX’s roughly $60 billion Cursor purchase.

“Corporates have shown tremendous resilience in the face of geopolitical, monetary, macroeconomic, and even microeconomic volatility,” said Jay Hofmann, JPMorgan’s North America co-head of mergers and acquisitions.

Financing “is available in size,” he said, allowing companies to pursue assets needed “to navigate change and put themselves in the best position for the future”.

Ivan Farman, co-head of Global M&A at Bank of America, said strong momentum at the high end and lesser momentum at the lower end “reflects a growing view that a $1 billion to $3 billion deal takes just as much time as a larger one, so when an opportunity for a big transaction arises, companies see this as the moment to act.”

Investors are placing a premium on scale and focus for companies, bankers said.

“Bigger companies that have bigger moats and a bigger competitive advantage are trading at much better multiples than smaller companies,” said Farman. “Long‑held aspirational or dream deals are now being actively rallied around, with CEOs and management teams pushing them forward to their boards.”

Indeed some dealmakers are so bullish, in spite of the geopolitical turmoil, that they see activity as poised to potentially eclipse the post-pandemic M&A peak of 2021, with companies taking advantage of fewer regulatory hurdles.

European policymakers have proposed overhauling rules to allow for the creation of local champions and bankers say the Trump administration seems receptive to big U.S. combinations.

In Asia, cash-rich Japanese corporates are expected to do more deals, prompted by proposed revisions to Japan’s governance code that stress the need for efficient use of cash.

“Momentum has actually started to accelerate behind the scenes over the last six weeks with a growing pipeline of cross-border, strategic deals,” said Jan Weber, head of mergers and acquisitions, Europe, Middle East and Africa, for Morgan Stanley.

“It feels like a lot of the indicators are on green for more M&A and boards feel that they need to act. I do think we are working towards the next peak,” Weber added.

Ed Wittig, co-head of Asia Pacific mergers and acquisitions at Goldman Sachs, said companies are focused on growth.

“There’s strong enthusiasm around synergies, and markets are rewarding those that execute well,” he added.

Bankers also reported a record amount of corporate separation activity driving dealmaking as companies sought to adapt to shifting industry dynamics, such as Comcast’s planned spinoff of NBCUniversal, Honeywell’s three-way split and the sale of Unilever Foods to McCormick & Co.

“The market is struggling more than ever to embrace businesses that are inordinately diversified,” said Akeel Sachak, global head of consumer at Rothschild & Co. “There was an era where diversity was applauded as a way of mitigating risk, but nowadays investors are more cautious because it creates undue complexity and a lack of focus from management.”

TECHNOLOGY DOMINATES

Financing for acquisitions was plentiful in the first half, with global investment-grade corporate debt issues totalling $3.4 trillion, a 10% increase year-on-year and the highest year-to-date total since LSEG records began.

Technology remained the largest sector for dealmaking globally, with $649 billion of announced transactions in the first half, LSEG data showed.

“AI or AI adjacent industries are one half of the equation, particularly in the U.S. The other half is the HALO side, heavy assets, low obsolescence, big infrastructure and big industry that will continue no matter what impact AI has,” said Sam Newhouse, global vice chair of Latham & Watkins’ M&A and Private Equity Practice.

Cross-border M&A reached $893 billion in the first half of 2026, up 62% from a year ago and the best annual start since 2018. The U.S. was the most targeted, accounting for 25% of cross-border transactions, followed closely by Britain.

“There are a lot more UK corporates looking outward as well rather than just the UK being taken out,” said Kirshlen Moodley, head of UK M&A for BNP Paribas.

(Reporting by Anousha Sakoui in London, Echo Wang in New York and Kane Wu in Hong Kong; Editing by Alexander Smith)

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