Headline consumer price growth in the Eurozone last month likely moved further above the level preferred at the European Central Bank, with monetary policymakers at the Frankfurt-based public lender widely expected to raise interest rates at their next meeting on June 11.

An economists’ poll predicted that the annual Eurozone headline inflation rate in May increased to 3.3% from 3.0% in April. This would push the indicator even more above the ECB’s target of 2.0% over the medium term and keep it at its highest level since September 2023, when the post-pandemic price surge was winding down.

May’s less-volatile core rate was set to rise to 2.4% y/y, observers said, suggesting the increase will be due to pass-through effects from rising energy costs caused by the three-month old Iran war.

(Continue Reading- LS)

A near-record run of U.S. gasoline inventory drawdowns is flashing a stark warning for fuel markets: the system is losing its buffer just as seasonal demand crests.

That combination does not guarantee shortages - but it sharply raises the odds of sudden, outsized price moves if anything goes wrong in terms of replenishing inventories as the peak U.S. driving season gets underway.

U.S. gasoline prices have already jumped by 50% to close to four-year highs since the U.S. and Israeli war against Iran began on February 28, and currently average around $4.33 per gallon, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) data shows.

(Continue Reading- RTRS)

In the bitter rivalry between AI heavyweights OpenAI and Anthropic, it will mostly be who has the best technology that determines the ultimate victor. But which one of them gets to its public offering first matters a great deal, too.

The window for initial public offerings is decidedly open, with a receptive market. Cerebras, an AI-chip company, rose 68% on its first day of trading last month. Only digital-design platform Figma’s absurd 250% rise last year was bigger for a company valued at more than $10 billion at listing in the past five years, according to FactSet data.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX plans to follow up this summer in what may well be the largest IPO in history—with a targeted valuation of $1.5 trillion. That will add more heat to the IPO cauldron.

(Continue Reading- WSJ)

The government of Kazakhstan has ordered the operator of the country’s second largest oilfield, Kashagan, developed by a consortium of international majors, to postpone the planned turnaround until 2027 just two days before the field was due to start the process.

The field, in the shallow waters of the Caspian Sea, is expected to continue producing about 400,000 barrels of oil per day.

(READ HERE- UPSTREAM)