Kia ora and welcome to your Monday recap of global business and political news from the weekend.
First today and in breaking news, the Israel Defense Forces says it has intercepted multiple missiles launched against Israel from Iran. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has confirmed it launched the attack, saying in a statement it was "not a passing event, but rather the beginning of a full week of continuous strikes".
"Waves of missiles and drones will continue to be launched around the clock for the next seven days until the enemy is deterred and ceases its crimes," the IRGC said. "Any targeting of Iranian territory will be met with a devastating and overwhelming response beyond all expectation."
The attacks come after Israel struck southern Beirut in Lebanon in the first attack since a truce brokered by the United States last week, BBC reported.
It also comes amid reports the US and Iran appear to be far from reaching a peace deal to bring the war to an end, 100 days since it began. An interim deal has not been reached as fresh attacks put pressure on the fragile ceasefire, Bloomberg said.
US President Donald Trump said he did not plan to unfreeze billions of dollars in Iranian assets prior to a long-term ceasefire agreement being reached, Al Jazeera reported. Trump told NBC that any unfreezing of assets “comes after” a deal. “If they behave, if they do a good job, we start talking,” he said.
Iranian officials repeatedly indicated that any deal could be contingent on the partial unfreezing of assets because of mistrust with US negotiations.
Trump also said he was open to sending troops to retrieve Iran’s nuclear stockpile, though he hoped to reach an agreement on destroying the material, CNN reported.
Trump rejected the assertion that he broke his campaign promise of keeping the US out of any new military conflicts. “First of all, I didn’t guarantee no war,” he said.
Iran’s main problem in negotiating with the US was Washington’s changing and contradictory positions, according to Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei.
He said the exchange of messages continued through Pakistani mediators.
Meanwhile, Opec+ agreed to a fourth increase in oil output targets. Key members, including Saudi Arabia, had been unable to supply customers in full since the end of February.
Seven core members had increased their output quotas from April to June by almost 600,000 barrels per day, Reuters noted.
Russian forces targeted a storage facility for spent nuclear fuel near Ukraine’s Chornobyl power plant. The attack significantly damaged a fuel-reception building metres away from where large amounts of nuclear material was stored, the AFP and Reuters reported.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attack was “extremely vile”.
“As of now, there are no readings exceeding normal background radiation levels. But there is certainly an increase in Russia’s brazenness, which long ago went off the charts,” he said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Italy’s Banco BPM said it would invite Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena to discuss a potential deal that would create the country’s second-biggest banking group, Reuters reported.
Banco BPM estimated earnings per share would rise by more than 10%, driven by annual pre-tax benefits of more than €1.1 billion. Banco BPM said its board had unanimously approved a move to express interest to MPS in discussing a “merger of equals”.
MPS plans to discuss the proposal this week.
Also, this week, Trump plans to meet with executives from artificial intelligence companies to discuss the US government taking a financial stake, the BBC reported.
Trump said the goal was to "create almost a partnership with the American public". He compared the prospective investment in AI to the US government taking a 10% stake in Intel last year.
Salt Funds Management economist Bevan Graham.
Wall Street sunk into the red on Friday after a surprisingly strong US employment report suggested the Federal Reserve may keep interest rates higher for longer. Overall, the US economy created 172,000 jobs in May, the BBC said.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell more than 4%, the S&P 500 edged 2.6% lower, and the Dow Jones dropped 1.35%.
Salt Funds Management economist Bevan Graham said previous data was also revised higher. “Given prior easings in monetary policy have been argued on the basis of a weak labour market, this result leaves the Fed firmly in neutral, at least for the time being.”
