This is where China’s rare earth magnet monopoly ends. REalloys (NASDAQ: ALOY) has signed a strategic agreement with permanent magnet manufacturer JS Link to develop one of the first fully integrated non-Chinese rare earth magnet platforms, bringing together feedstock, separation, metallization, and permanent magnet manufacturing under a single North American industrial strategy. Permanent magnets power guided missiles, fighter aircraft, submarines, industrial robots, electric vehicles, AI infrastructure, and wind turbines. China manufactures…

Five months of mostly closed Strait of Hormuz have not sent oil prices spiking to $150 or $200 per barrel, as many analysts had warned in March. Even as more than 10% of global crude oil supply suddenly disappeared from the market, oil didn’t hit record high levels. Crude oil prices haven’t even stayed permanently above $100 per barrel. Three key drivers have kept oil prices from surging to never-before-seen highs. First, governments started tapping strategic reserves, including as part of the IEA-coordinated 400-million-barrel stocks…

Wood Mackenzie now estimates that the global upstream oil and gas sector could generate $495 billion in free cash flow in 2026 if crude averages $90 per barrel, more than doubling its previous forecast based on a $60 oil price assumption. The revision follows the sharp jump in crude prices triggered by the Middle East conflict, turning what had been expected to be another year of disciplined cash generation into one of the industry’s most lucrative windfalls in recent years. Yet the gains will be concentrated among the world’s largest…

A failure to fully acknowledge the extent of Europe’s energy insecurities could lead to national security vulnerabilities, according to former United States Secretary of State John Kerry. NATO’s summit in Ankara, Türkiye this month displayed a recommitment to cohesion and cooperation against the backdrop of ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Iran, but contained almost no mention of the energy crises that these conflicts have wrought, and the huge impact that the ensuing energy insecurity has on the continents’ ability to defend…

Saudi Arabia’s quarterly budget deficit shrank by nearly three-quarters in the second quarter, courtesy of the same war that hammered its oil industry and sent the economy into its steepest contraction since the pandemic. The Kingdom posted a 34.3-billion-riyal—or $9.1-billion—shortfall for the three months through June, down from 125.7 billion riyals in the first quarter, according to the finance ministry. Oil revenue rose 28% from the previous quarter as crude prices jumped. As for spending, it fell 3.5%. War, as it turns out,…

Shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz slightly increased as US-Iran negotiations remained ongoing in an effort to restore peace after the memorandum of understanding collapsed amid two weeks of tit-for-tat strikes, according to Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tahir Andrabi, who provided no further details. Still, the security situation in the Gulf deteriorated overnight after the US launched a new wave of strikes on Iran following attacks on US forces in Jordan. Additionally, reports emerged that a US-owned LNG vessel was struck…

China’s trade turnover with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, the largest economies in Central Asia, showed strong growth in the first half of 2026, as did trade with Tajikistan. Meanwhile, the numbers for Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan fell, according to the PRC’s General Administration of Customs.   China’s overall trade with the region showed a year-on-year increase of 6.5 percent, rising from $49,70 billion in the first half of 2025 to $52.94 billion during the same period this year. The…

Russia is running short of undamaged oil refinery capacity, and it’s looking to Kazakhstan for help. Kazakhstan said Thursday that it is in talks with Moscow to process Russian oil at Kazakh refineries, sell some of the resulting fuel domestically, and send a portion back across the border to Russia. No volumes, commercial terms, or refineries have been named. Kazakhstan’s Energy Ministry said market participants would decide where the products go. For Kazakhstan, Russian crude would help keep its refineries running at stable rates…

The US economy grew at a far weaker than expected pace in the second quarter despite a pickup in consumer spending and solid business investment. According to the BEA, GDP (inflation adjusted) rose just 1.5% in the period, according to the first estimate issued Thursday by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. This was well below the 2.0% median estimate.  The contributors to the increase in real GDP in the second quarter were increases in consumer spending, investment, and exports that were partly offset by a decrease in government spending. A…