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WSJ : With Israel’s Major Airport Shut Down, Citizens and Tourists Scramble to G

With Israel’s Major Airport Shut Down, Citizens and Tourists Scramble to Get Home

It is the first time in Israel’s 76-year history that its main international airport has been closed without any timeline for reopening

Key Points

Israelis are struggling to return home after hostilities between Israel and Iran closed Israeli airspace.

Many are seeking alternative routes via boat, Jordan, and Egypt, facing high costs and uncertainty.

Limited emergency flights are expected to begin, prioritizing security personnel and medical emergencies.

When Shay Bialik and her husband, Ido Dembin, left their nine month-old baby to attend an Israeli-Palestinian peace conference in Paris, they thought surely they’d be back in time for a meeting with doctors to discuss a surgery that could give their deaf daughter a chance to hear. But a few hours after they landed, Israel launched a surprise attack on Iran. Its skies are now closed indefinitely.

“I would swim to Israel to make sure we make it on time,” said Dembin.

The couple are now among more than 100,000 Israelis scrambling to find a way back home as their loved ones are under regular bombardment from Iranian ballistic missiles.

Israelis have crowded into nearby countries, like Cyprus and Greece, hoping to be in place for a flight as soon as they start back up again.

Some aren’t waiting for airlines. They are chartering boats of any kind—yachts, large passenger ships, tugboats—from Cyprus to Israel. Tickets can cost thousands of dollars for a single seat. Groups in Facebook, WhatsApp and Telegram have sprouted to help connect Israelis to these pricey options. Neat excel sheets show names, numbers, locations and prices of seats. Others, if they can get tickets, are flying into Egypt and Jordan and crossing land borders back into Israel.

This is the first time Israel’s airspace has been closed this long in its 76 year history, and it remains unclear when it will reopen. Many Israelis say they have felt abandoned by their government, which appeared to have no effective plan in place to help those stranded abroad once the surprise attack began.

Yaakov Katz, an American-Israeli journalist who wrote a book called “Israel Vs. Iran,” found himself caught up in the conflict when his flight to Tel Aviv from London on Thursday night was rerouted to Paphos, Cyprus.

The plane waited on the tarmac for hours before one of the crew announced they would disembark and it would be “every man for himself.” The announcement caused a few passengers to hyperventilate, and they required oxygen masks, Katz said.

After a few days, Katz booked a flight to Amman, Jordan. But before his flight left for Jordan, he received a call offering him a spot on a small tugboat leaving Cyprus with room for nine passengers and four crewmen. He quickly jumped in a cab and paid 1,500 euros for a seat, worth $1,720. As the boat moved through the sea, it traveled straight in the direction of exploding missiles lighting up the nighttime sky, he recalled.

“There is a war here and I want to be with my family,” said Katz, speaking from Israel. “There is no other place to be in the world except next to them.”

On Tuesday, the country’s transportation minister, Miri Regev, said the government had a “phased, organized” plan set in place before it launched the attack on Iran. She said Israeli planes had been ordered to leave Israel’s territory as soon as the first bombing run began, and directed to destinations in Europe and the U.S. where Israelis would be expected to congregate for return flights. She said the next phase would allow only incoming flights and give priority to members of security services and reservists who need to return for duty, as well as those who need to come home for medical or family emergencies.

“There is nothing to be worried about. If you are abroad, enjoy,” Regev said in remarks on Monday.

The comment infuriated many Israelis struggling to get home.

“The Ministry of Transportation is saying just enjoy yourself while abroad and our children are in mortal danger. That is delusional,“ said Aliza Landes, 42, a mother of two.

When she had tried early in the week to book a flight on the website for Israel’s El Al airlines, there were more than 20,000 people in front of her.

“It is the same process but more chaotic than buying a Burning Man ticket,” she said, referring to the popular desert festival. She booked a flight to Aqaba, Jordan, that was canceled, and now she’s looking for another way home from Cyprus.

While Israelis were trying to get back into the country, tourists were scrambling to get out.

One of the largest groups of tourists in Israel when the attack started of were participants on Birthright, a program that brings Jews from around the world to visit and learn about Israel.

The organization rented a luxury Israeli cruise ship to take 2,800 people, largely but not exclusively Americans, from Israel’s Ashdod Port to Larnaca, Cyprus, under the close protection of the Israeli Navy. The organization said the boat would be used to help Israelis get back to Israel for the return trip. The first batch of 1,500 left for Cyprus Tuesday morning.

From Cyprus, the group will board four planes chartered by Florida—an initiative led by the Gov. Ron DeSantis—and land in Tampa, from where they will fly to their respective hometowns.

Emergency flights back into Israel are expected to begin on Wednesday, but will be limited to a handful of planes that can carry around a total of 2,000 people daily. There is no clear timeline for when departures will restart.

For many Israelis like Bialik and Dembin, the future is still uncertain. They managed to get one-way tickets from Paris to Tel Aviv for 800 euros each, but their flight isn’t for another week and depends on the volatile security situation.

Meanwhile, their daughter is staying with her grandparents in Rehovot, a town in central Israel where the couple also lives. A ballistic missile landed near enough to their home on Sunday to shatter windows.

“I miss her very much,” Bialik said of her daughter. “It is part of your heart that you can’t see or protect.

FT : Brussels proposes revamp of controversial securitisation rules

Brussels proposes revamp of controversial securitisation rules

European Commission suggests cutting minimum risk weights after pressure from industry and former ECB president Mario Draghi

The European Commission has proposed overhauling EU debt securitisation rules that were put in place in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis, in an effort to free up bank capital and encourage lending.

The commission on Tuesday put forward plans for lowering capital charges for banks holding securitised assets and cutting red tape for investors and issuers. The measures form part of Brussels’ broader push to integrate the EU’s capital markets, which is seen as critical to boosting the continent’s flagging economic competitiveness.

Political will for a revision of the bloc’s prudential framework, viewed by many in the market as too restrictive, follows calls for a revamp last year by Mario Draghi, the former Italian prime minister and ex-president of the European Central Bank, and a mandate from EU leaders last year for “relaunching the European securitisation market, including through regulatory and prudential changes, using available room for manoeuvre”.

Investors have also urged politicians to reform the market — where assets such as corporate debt, car loans and mortgage borrowing are packaged up into securities that banks can sell to investors — claiming this could attract hundreds of billions of euros of financing for the bloc’s economy.

Maria Luís Albuquerque, EU financial services commissioner, said: “Today’s proposals will contribute to reviving the EU securitisation market by simplifying and enhancing our regulatory and prudential framework while preserving robust safeguards to ensure financial stability.”

“I clearly expect [banks] to use this fit-for-purpose framework to provide more funding to households and business.”

At the heart of the proposed changes are reductions to the minimum risk weights — how much capital a bank must hold against potential losses — for certain classes of securitised assets, particularly for high-quality tranches that meet the EU’s “simple, transparent and standardised” (STS) criteria for securitisation.

Under the current rules, senior positions in STS securitisations are subject to a minimum risk weight of 10 per cent. The commission is proposing halving that to 5 per cent, while the floor for senior non-STS tranches would drop from 15 per cent currently to 10 to 12 per cent.

A second major proposed adjustment concerns the formula for calculating banks’ capital requirements for securitisation exposures under existing EU regulation — the so-called p factor.

Critics have long argued the current formula unfairly inflates capital charges for certain classes of securitised assets. The proposal seeks to address this by reducing the p factor for senior STS tranches from 0.5 to 0.3, and for senior non-STS tranches from 1.0 to 0.6 — representing 40 per cent reductions.

Adam Farkas, chief executive of the Association for Financial Markets in Europe, said it was “encouraging that the commission’s proposals acknowledge the current lack of sufficient risk sensitivity of the capital framework”.

Separate proposals for insurers’ capital charges, viewed by the industry as holding back demand for securitised debt, are due in late July.

However, critics say the commission’s proposals undermine financial stability and international standards designed to prevent a repeat of the global financial crisis.

“What they propose is effectively going below the Basel standards,” said Julia Symon, head of research at non-profit Finance Watch. “The Basel accord was the only standard we had, and it had already been a compromise, now we’re going to dilute it.”

But EU officials defended the plans.

“The view we’re taking is we’re introducing a dimension of risk sensitiveness . . . to a standard which at the moment is very conservative. It’s in line with the spirit and the logic of the Basel standard,” said one official.

Brussels’ proposed tweaks to the securitisation framework also include a reduction in due diligence obligations for institutional investors, especially in cases where third-party due diligence has already been conducted by the issuer.

“Disclosure rules and transparency rules are going too far,” another EU official said, arguing the changes should insure that the bloc does not “impose costs on issuers [that are] not worthwhile”.

The reforms would also simplify reporting templates for issuers, aligning them more closely with existing ECB guidelines. The commission proposes allowing private securitisations — those not publicly listed — to report less granular data, while public transactions would remain subject to higher transparency thresholds.

Jillien Flores, chief of advocacy at the Managed Funds Association, which represents one-third of global hedge fund assets, said: “Streamlining these requirements will reduce unnecessary costs, support market participation and help attract more global capital into EU securitisation markets.”

The commission’s proposals follow years of complaints from market participants that Europe’s securitisation regime is too burdensome and conservative compared with jurisdictions such as the US, where securitisation plays a much larger role in funding.

Prior to the global financial crisis, the EU’s securitisation market was 87 per cent of the size of the US market. It is now down to 17 per cent, according to asset manager PGIM.

Taggart Davis, head of government affairs for Europe at PGIM, said: “We can’t unlearn the lessons of the financial crisis, we need to be careful about what happened there, but we also have to be confident that we have learnt our lessons, and perhaps we can engineer a system which embeds those lessons in the regulation but without starving market growth.”

The proposals must gather the support of a majority of EU countries and clear the European parliament — a process that could take months.

TechCrunch : Elon Musk’s xAI is reportedly seeking a $4.3B equity raise

Elon Musk’s xAI is reportedly seeking a $4.3B equity raise

Elon Musk’s startup xAI is trying to raise a $4.3 billion equity investment, according to a report from Bloomberg. This equity funding would be in addition to the $5 billion that Musk is allegedly trying to raise in debt funding for the combined entity of X and xAI.

The company appears to be raising money again after landing a $6 billion cash infusion in December, because it has already spent much of its money.

xAI makes Grok, the AI chatbot that’s embedded inside the social network X, as well as the image generator Aurora. The technology that powers these products is notoriously resource-intensive, which could be contributing to the rate at which the company is spending money.

TechCrunch : Senate GOP bill spares nuclear and geothermal energy while hammerin

Senate GOP bill spares nuclear and geothermal energy while hammering wind and solar

One month after the House passed its version of a reconciliation bill, Senate Republicans released their take on the budget bill Monday night.

The Senate Finance Committee’s language would take a sledgehammer to some parts of the renewable-friendly Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) while sparing others.

Solar, wind, and hydrogen bear the brunt of the impact. On the other side of the ledger, geothermal, nuclear, hydropower, and long-duration energy storage emerge relatively unscathed. Carbon capture ended up somewhere in the middle.

Senate Republicans are moving to swiftly end residential solar tax credits, giving people just 180 days after the bill is signed to claim them. Solar leasing companies would become ineligible for any credits, knocking out another leg from under the residential solar market.

Incentives for commercial wind and solar would see a longer timeline, though not nearly as generous as those under the IRA, which extend through 2032. The full credit would be available to projects that begin within six months of the bill’s signing. After that, they receive 60% of the credit if they commence construction in 2026 and 20% if they do so in 2027. The tax credit disappears after that.

Hydrogen tax credits would end this year, matching the version that passed in the House. The move adds yet another hurdle for hydrogen startups, which have been buffeted by continually shifting policies over the years.

Carbon capture was spared, though the details would change. The main 45Q tax credit currently differentiates between uses of the captured carbon, with companies using it for enhanced oil recovery receiving less money, for example. The Senate GOP’s language does away with the distinction, making all carbon capture projects eligible for the same incentives.

Other technologies like nuclear, geothermal, and hydropower receive a slight extension of the phase-out of tax credits. Now, projects that begin construction in 2033 receive the full credit, one year longer than the IRA. It begins to phase out thereafter, dropping to 75% of the tax credit in 2034 and 50% in 2035 before disappearing in 2036.

The moves are largely in line with GOP priorities to kneecap wind and solar while preserving nuclear and geothermal. The lifeline for long-duration energy storage was perhaps the most surprising addition, and if it makes it through the reconciliation process intact, it could indirectly boost wind and solar by making them more appealing as 24/7 sources.

This isn’t the last word, though. The bill can’t be signed by President Donald Trump as is. First, it must pass the Senate parliamentarian before heading to the House, which has set a July 4 deadline to pass the full package.

Le Monde : Les chantiers de Luca de Meo à la tête d’un Kering en crise

Les chantiers de Luca de Meo à la tête d’un Kering en crise

Une série de dossiers délicats attendent l’Italien venu de Renault : conjoncture défavorable, endettement important du groupe et effondrement des ventes de la marque phare Gucci. Les marchés ont réagi favorablement à l’annonce de sa nomination.

François-Henri Pinault rend les clefs, au moins en partie. A 63 ans, celui qui cumule les postes de président et de directeur général du groupe Kering depuis 2005 a confirmé, lundi 16 juin, projeter la scission de ces deux fonctions et nommer Luca de Meo, patron démissionnaire du groupe Renault, au poste de directeur général. M. Pinault conservera le poste de président du conseil d’administration du groupe dont Artémis, holding de la famille Pinault, détient 42,3 % du capital. Et, assure-t-il, il veillera aux « grandes orientations stratégiques ».

Cette modification de la gouvernance impose de convoquer une assemblée générale extraordinaire des actionnaires de Kering, le 9 septembre, au cours de laquelle seront modifiés la politique de rémunération et les seuils d’âge limite d’exercice des fonctions de président et de directeur général. Le patron italien prendra ses fonctions dans la foulée, le 15 septembre.

Selon l’héritier Pinault, M. de Meo présente les qualités d’« agilité », l’expérience de la gestion d’un groupe international coté en Bourse et il a « l’énergie » nécessaire pour prendre « les rênes du groupe ». « C’est le bon moment », juge celui qui assure avoir réfléchi à sa succession depuis 2019 et s’être fixé l’échéance de « vingt ans » d’exercice à la tête du groupe fondé par son père François Pinault, aujourd’hui âgé de 88 ans.

Cette annonce a été saluée par la Bourse de Paris. Le titre Kering a gagné 11 % en séance lundi, à la suite des informations parues dans Le Figaro révélant la nomination attendue de M. de Meo. Depuis, les commentaires d’analystes financiers pleuvent. A en croire ceux d’Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management, « les investisseurs vont apprécier la nouvelle gouvernance avec la prise de recul de M. Pinault ». Depuis des mois, ceux qui couvrent le secteur du luxe s’inquiétaient des décisions prises par François-Henri Pinault, de son manque d’analyse de la conjoncture économique, de ses faibles réactions aux crises internes qui ont secoué Gucci et Balenciaga ainsi qu’aux difficultés de recruter du sang neuf au sein du groupe.

Bien qu’il soit dépourvu d’expérience dans le luxe, M. de Meo, pur produit de l’industrie automobile, présente un profil d’« outsider » idoine « pour prendre des décisions difficiles et (…) donner de la profondeur à l’équipe actuelle », observent les analystes de RBC Capital Markets.

Chez Kering, la liste des missions de M. de Meo est aussi longue que celle qui l’attendait chez Renault, lors de prise de fonctions en 2020, au lendemain de l’affaire Carlos Ghosn. Lors d’une conférence téléphonique uniquement ouverte aux questions des analystes financiers, lundi 16 juin, M. Pinault a souligné qu’il ne faut pas voir en M. de Meo « un pompier ». Son baptême du feu dans l’industrie du luxe sera toutefois singulier, car les dossiers délicats sont nombreux.

Une conjoncture défavorable

En douze mois, Kering a perdu près de 2,5 milliards d’euros de chiffre d’affaires. Ses ventes ont en effet plongé de 12 % en 2024, atteignant 17,2 milliards d’euros, contre 19,6 milliards fin 2023. Sa marge opérationnelle était de 14,9 % fin 2024, contre 24,3 % un an plus tôt.

L’ancien PPR (Pinault-Printemps-Redoute), rebaptisé « Kering » en 2013 et uniquement centré sur le luxe depuis, détient les marques Gucci, Saint Laurent, Balenciaga ou Bottega Veneta : aucune n’échappe au ralentissement des ventes en Chine (30 % des ventes annuelles de Kering), où la consommation peine à redémarrer, ni aux risques accrus de taxes douanières à l’entrée des Etats-Unis (24 % de son chiffre d’affaires en 2024) depuis la réélection de Donald Trump. Et les perspectives du marché pour les mois à venir ne sont guère plus favorables.

Le douloureux plongeon de Gucci

La dégringolade de Gucci, marque phare de Kering, est préoccupante : ses ventes ont reculé de 24 % au premier trimestre 2025, après une chute déjà marquée de 21 % en 2024. Outre la mauvaise conjoncture, Gucci a pâti d’une valse de ses directeurs artistiques et d’une série de lenteurs dans les nominations à des postes-clés. Alessandro Michele, directeur artistique parti en novembre 2022, n’a ainsi été remplacé par Sabato de Sarno qu’en janvier 2023, pour un premier défilé en septembre et une mise en production chaotique des collections.

Six mois après la fin du contrat de M. Michele, le départ de Marco Bizzarri, PDG depuis 2015, a ouvert une longue période de flottement à Milan, au siège de Gucci. M. Bizzari a été remplacé pour une période transitoire par Jean-François Palus, ancien camarade de promotion de M. Pinault et ancien directeur financier, jusqu’en fin 2024. Il a alors quitté définitivement le groupe et a été remplacé, en octobre, par le directeur général adjoint de Gucci, Stefano Cantino, un ancien de chez Louis Vuitton…

Le 13 mars, le groupe a nommé Demna Gvasalia à la direction artistique, en remplacement de Sabato de Sarno, parti brutalement le 6 février. Le créateur d’origine géorgienne, transfuge de Balenciaga où il officiait depuis 2015, prendra ses fonctions à l’été et doit convaincre qu’il saura redonner du souffle à la maison.

Des coûts trop élevés

Kering est fragilisé par la baisse de ses ventes, sa rentabilité opérationnelle a chuté de 46 % en 2024. Résultat : la directrice financière, Armelle Poulou, confiait lors d’une conférence téléphonique avec des analystes financiers, fin 2024, que le groupe est contraint d’entreprendre une « chasse aux coûts dans tous les domaines ». Connu pour avoir amélioré le résultat opérationnel de Renault, Luca de Meo devra mener celle-ci.

Il pourrait avoir à fermer davantage de magasins. Il devra cependant maintenir les investissements marketing alloués à la promotion des marques et de leurs nouveautés : dans l’industrie du luxe, ce sont des leviers indispensables pour maintenir la clientèle et les ventes.

Un endettement important

Réduire la dette est l’une des priorités du groupe, reconnaît désormais M. Pinault, après l’avoir nié. La dette est passée de 2,8 milliards d’euros en 2019 à 10,5 milliards en 2024, à la suite d’une série d’opérations audacieuses, voire risquées : l’acquisition des parfums Creed, en 2023, le rachat de 30 % de Valentino au fonds qatari Mayhoola pour un montant de 1,7 milliard d’euros et le rachat d’immeubles à New York, sur la Ve Avenue, à Milan et à Paris, dont la facture s’élève à plusieurs milliards d’euros.

Ces derniers mois, le groupe a laissé entendre qu’il envisageait de ne pas conserver 100 % de la propriété de ses actifs immobiliers, afin de réduire son endettement.

Des équipes déstabilisées

Le nouveau directeur général de Kering devra rassurer les 47 000 collaborateurs, inquiets de la crise que celui-ci traverse. François-Henri Pinault, marié à l’actrice Salma Hayek, s’était éloigné de Paris, en installant leur résidence à Londres en 2014. Une distance qui n’a pas facilité le redressement du groupe.

La greffe prendra-t-elle, alors que les codes de l’industrie automobile sont bien différents de ceux du luxe ? La nationalité italienne de M. de Meo, qui plus est natif de Milan, capitale de la mode, pourrait être un avantage pour rallier les employés de Gucci, Bottega Veneta et les fournisseurs italiens du groupe.

Il pourra en outre, pour sa nouvelle mission, s’appuyer sur les deux directeurs généraux adjoints nommés en septembre 2023 pour piloter Kering, Francesca Bellettini, chargée du développement des maisons, et Jean-Marc Duplaix, chargé des opérations et des finances.

Enfin, si M. de Meo aura « toute la liberté » pour diriger le groupe, assure M. Pinault, il devra se familiariser avec les usages parfois surprenants du secteur. Fin 2022, Kering n’a pris aucune mesure disciplinaire à l’égard de la direction de Balenciaga, dont une campagne de publicité mettant en scène des enfants avec des accessoires sadomasochistes avait fait scandale. A la suite d’appels au boycott, les ventes de Balenciaga avaient plongé, notamment aux Etats-Unis. Son directeur général, Cédric Charbit, en poste depuis 2016, a été promu au poste de directeur général de Saint Laurent en 2024.

Un cours de Bourse en chute libre

L’action du groupe est mal-aimée à la Bourse de Paris. Sa valeur a plongé de 78 % depuis 2021 et de 27 % depuis un an, quand les actions du secteur du luxe dévissaient de 12 % en moyenne sur la période. La capitalisation boursière de Kering est aujourd’hui au plus bas, à environ 23,9 milliards d’euros.

Aucune des dernières mesures annoncées par M. Pinault n’a, jusqu’ici, suffi à relancer le titre. En mars, le marché a très mal accueilli le transfert du Géorgien Demna Gvasalia au poste de directeur artistique de Gucci. Le titre avait dévissé de 12 % en séance. Cette fois, l’arrivée d’un homme inexpérimenté dans l’industrie du luxe a relancé le titre.

>>> Europe : Brokers Upgrades & Downgrades - 17th of June 2025 V2(+)

>>> Up
* Atria Raised to Accumulate at Inderes; PT 14 euros

* Barclays PT Raised to 420 pence from 400 pence at JPMorgan

* Burckhardt : UBS raisec PT 670 (655) CHF - neutral

* Neinor Raised to Outperform at Grupo Santander; PT 18.60 euros (+)

* Ninety One Raised to Neutral at JPMorgan; PT 178 pence

>>> Down

* ABB Cut to Hold at Kepler Cheuvreux

* Barco Cut to Hold at KBC Securities; PT 14 euros (+)

* Artea bankas Cut to Accumulate at Erste Group; PT 96 euro cents

* Borr Drilling Cut to Sell at SEB Equities; PT $1.90

* Bunzl Cut to Sector Perform at RBC; PT 2,350 pence
* Enento Group Cut to Sell at SEB Equities; PT 16.50 euros

* Hiab Cut to Hold at SEB Equities; PT 55 euros

* National Bank of Greece Cut to Hold at Alpha Finance

* Noble Corp. Cut to Hold at SEB Equities; PT $28.50

* Salzgitter Cut to Hold at DZ Bank; PT 21.50 euros

* Schindler Cut to Underweight at Morgan Stanley

>>> Initiation

* ACG Metals Ltd Rated New Buy at Canaccord; PT 830 pence (+)

* ACG Metals Ltd Rated New Buy at Berenberg; PT 720 pence

* ASML Rated New Market Perform at Bernstein; PT 700 euros (+)

* BE Semiconductor Rated New Outperform at Bernstein; PT 167 euros (+)

* Coinbase Rated New Buy at China Renaissance; PT $353.30

* Essensys Group Rated New Buy at Canaccord; PT 41 pence (+)

* FDJ United Rated New Overweight at JPMorgan; PT 42 euros

* Infineon Rated New Outperform at Bernstein; PT 45 euros (+)
* SAP Rated New Overweight at Piper Sandler; PT 350 euros

* Scandic Rated New Buy at ABG; PT 95 kronor

* Swedish Logistic Property Rated New Buy at Arctic Securities

>>> Call

* ABB Cut to Hold at Kepler Cheuvreux as Slower Growth Ahead (+)

* Bunzl Cut to Sector Perform at RBC on Increasing Competition

* FDJ United at Appealing Entry Point, New Overweight at JPMorgan
* Lenzing Gets Only Sell as Oddo BHF Downgrades on Debt Burden

* Schindler Downgraded at Morgan Stanley, Cautious on Elevators

* TotalEnergies Now Top Oil Pick at Bernstein, Shell Downgraded

FT : Central banks plan to boost gold reserves and trim dollar holdings

Central banks plan to boost gold reserves and trim dollar holdings

Geopolitical risks and worries about status of the greenback likely to drive further demand for bullion, survey shows

Central banks expect to keep buying more gold this year, and anticipate their holdings of US dollars will fall over the next five years, according to a survey of global monetary authorities.

Geopolitical concerns, sanctions risk, and worries about the status of the US dollar have driven global central banks to make record purchases of bullion. Gold recently overtook the euro to become the world’s second-largest reserve asset, behind the US dollar.

Gold prices have surged 30 per cent since January and doubled in the past two years, as global uncertainty and market volatility have propelled investor demand for bullion.

A record 95 per cent of respondents to a World Gold Council survey expect global central banks’ gold holdings to increase over the next 12 months, the highest level since the annual poll started in 2018.

Meanwhile three-quarters of respondents expect central banks’ US dollar holdings to decline over the next five years. More than 70 central banks responded to the industry body’s survey.

Shaokai Fan of the WGC said: “The sentiment is very strong, certainly there’s more confidence among central banks that the entire universe of central banks is going to buy, and that their own central bank might buy.”

However in a sign of how geopolitical tensions are impacting the gold world, some central banks plan to store more bullion domestically — as opposed to in London and New York, which are the world’s two largest such repositories.

Concerns about central banks’ ability to access gold stored overseas in the event of a crisis, or in case of sanctions, have contributed to a small but not insignificant trend of repatriation, with more storing gold domestically.

Last year India repatriated more than 100 tonnes of gold from the Bank of England, while the Central Bank of Nigeria also repatriated some of its holdings.

About seven per cent of respondents said they were planning to increase domestic storage, the highest level since the Covid-19 pandemic.

In recent months, the US government’s erratic comments have contributed to unease among some foreign countries about whether their gold stored in the US is safe from political interference.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York handles the gold stored in the US on behalf of foreign central banks.

In February, US President Donald Trump publicly queried whether gold could have gone missing from Fort Knox, which holds most of the US’s own gold reserves.

In the WGC survey, the central banks said gold’s performance during “times of crisis”, its lack of default risk, and its role as an inflation hedge were the top reasons for holding bullion.

Central banks’ gold buying accelerated in 2022, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and subsequent US efforts to freeze Moscow out of the international payments system. That prompted many emerging market central banks to start diversifying faster away from the US dollar.

“Recent market developments around tariffs have raised questions on the safe-haven status of US dollars but have bolstered that of gold,” said one anonymous survey respondent. “Reserve managers view gold as an . . . inflation hedge in this challenging time marked by geopolitical and trade conflicts.”

Gold also has downsides as a reserve asset, including the storage costs and the inconvenience of transporting it.

The Information : OpenAI Seeks New Financial Concessions From Microsoft, a Top S

OpenAI Seeks New Financial Concessions From Microsoft, a Top Shareholder

Negotiations between Microsoft and OpenAI over the startup’s plan to restructure its for-profit unit, which requires Microsoft’s approval, have entered their eighth month with no end in sight and new conflicts emerging.

OpenAI wants Microsoft, the startup’s biggest outside shareholder, to have a roughly 33% stake in the reshaped unit in exchange for foregoing its rights to future profits, according to a person who spoke to OpenAI executives.

OpenAI also wants to modify existing clauses in its contract with Microsoft that give the software firm exclusive rights to host OpenAI models in its cloud, and it wants to exempt a planned $3 billion stock acquisition of AI coding startup Windsurf from the existing contract between the parties that grants Microsoft access to OpenAI intellectual property, according to that person and another person who spoke to Microsoft executives about it.

Renegotiating details of the companies’ cloud arrangement could have far reaching consequences in the tech industry. OpenAI has told investors it wants to get out of its exclusive cloud contract with Microsoft, which makes Microsoft the only cloud provider that offers OpenAI models for sale through an application programming interface, one of the people said.

Microsoft rivals Amazon and Google could jump at the chance to host OpenAI models on their servers, which would make it easier for their cloud customers to use them. Google has already lobbied the government to kill Microsoft’s exclusive right to host OpenAI models.

Microsoft hasn’t agreed to OpenAI’s terms and is looking to get other concessions from the startup, such as extending the length of time in which it has the right to use OpenAI’s intellectual property, according to the person who spoke to Microsoft executives about it.

OpenAI’s current deal with Microsoft gives the software giant the right to use OpenAI’s IP through 2030, according to the two people with knowledge of the talks.

Competitive Concerns

OpenAI leaders are concerned about including Windsurf in the current deal because Windsurf competes directly with Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot, said one of these people.

Microsoft has blessed OpenAI’s plans to acquire Windsurf under their current contract, said the person who spoke to Microsoft executives about it.

OpenAI also wants to cut the amount of revenue it shares with Microsoft in the coming years, in part by excluding new products from the existing agreement. If the companies don’t change the 20% cut OpenAI owes to Microsoft, Microsoft could be in line to get $35 billion in payments in 2030, when OpenAI has projected it will generate $174 billion in revenue.

In a joint statement, spokespeople for OpenAI and Microsoft said that “we have a long-term, productive partnership that has delivered amazing AI tools for everyone. Talks are ongoing and we are optimistic we will continue to build together for years to come.”

A Windsurf spokesperson said its planned acquisition by OpenAI is “speculative.”

The Wall Street Journal earlier Monday reported some details of the two companies’ negotiations around Windsurf and also reported that some OpenAI executives were considering complaining to antitrust regulators about Microsoft’s conduct.

The person who spoke to OpenAI executives said the company doesn’t have any imminent plans to escalate its frustrations to antitrust regulators.

Microsoft in recent years committed more than $13 billion in capital to OpenAI in exchange for rights to the AI startup’s technology. The stock Microsoft currently holds in the for-profit unit entitles it to a maximum cut of future profits up to around $120 billion.

OpenAI’s restructuring aims to change the stock to traditional equity, removing the profit sharing units and allowing the unit to eventually go public.

The companies agreed in 2023 that AGI would be achieved only when OpenAI’s nonprofit board of directors, which includes Altman, determines that OpenAI has developed systems that have the “capability” to generate the maximum total profits to which its earliest investors, including Microsoft, are entitled.

The two firms became fast friends early in the AI boom, which was catalyzed by OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Almost immediately, they began to compete in areas such as selling AI to enterprises, terrain that Microsoft dominates.

OpenAI also chafed under the limits of Microsoft’s capacity to power its technology, prompting the startup to strike cloud deals with Microsoft competitors such as Oracle. Some Microsoft executives complained that OpenAI wasn’t abiding by its agreement to fully share its technology with Microsoft according to the terms of their agreement.

Starting around October last year, OpenAI embarked on an effort to change its corporate structure.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman began discussing terms with counterparts at Microsoft, including CEO Satya Nadella, but the talks didn’t progress much, except for one element that was hashed at out the end of that year: Microsoft agreed to amend the contract to allow OpenAI to rent servers from other cloud providers, but would continue to be the exclusive cloud reseller of OpenAI models to businesses. And OpenAI made a large new commitment to spend heavily on renting servers from Microsoft.

What AGI?

In addition to current disagreements about Microsoft’s equity stake and Windsurf acquisition, the firms are also tussling over the definition of artificial general intelligence, AGI, which OpenAI has said is AI that can outperform humans at most economically valuable work.

Their current agreement says Microsoft will relinquish its rights to OpenAI revenue and IP when the startup achieves AGI. Microsoft has argued AGI is still years away, while OpenAI leaders have argued that AGI could be much closer. The two firms are still negotiating a possible change to the current contract’s definition of AGI, one of the people said.

But companies may still have differing views on whether the existing technology has a large, profit-generating capability. OpenAI is still losing billions of dollars a year, with no plans to generate a profit until 2029.

OpenAI faces an end-of-year deadline to complete its restructuring or it risks investors taking back up to $20 billion of the $40 billion round that the startup seeks to raise by then.

>>> What to look at today - 17th of June 2025

US and European stock futures fell and oil rose after President Donald Trump called for the evacuation of Tehran, in comments that contrasted with earlier optimism that Israel-Iran tensions wouldn’t escalate into a wider conflict. Gold fluctuated following Trump’s comments in a social media post from a Group of Seven leaders’ summit in Alberta. It wasn’t clear what he was referring to but hours earlier, Trump had said Iran wanted to make a deal. The US President is cutting short his G-7 visit, according to the White House, and returning to Washington. A gauge of Asian stocks rose, with Japanese and South Korean shares advancing while equities in Hong Kong and China fell. Risk-on sentiment had returned to Wall Street on Monday and pushed the S&P 500 up about 1% to back above 6,000. There were mixed signs that investors will keep faith in the US economy, as longer-maturity Treasuries continued to lag the market even after a $13 billion sale of 20-year bonds drew the expected yield level — a notable improvement from last month’s auction disappointment that spurred a broad selloff. The dollar was mixed against Group-of-10 currencies. Trump earlier said Iran wanted to talk about de-escalating the conflict with Israel even as the two sides exchanged fire for the fourth consecutive day. Asked if the US would get more involved militarily, the US leader said he didn’t want to discuss it. The outbreak of hostilities between Israel and Iran disrupted the momentum that had driven the S&P 500 back near record levels. While markets initially adopted a cautious, risk-off stance to assess how the conflict might unfold, sentiment improved as investors speculated the attacks were unlikely to draw in more parties. “Focus will remain on geopolitical headlines, but as long as the conflict stays limited between Israel and Iran, it’s unlikely to materially impact the markets,” said Tom Essaye at The Sevens Report. WTI crude fell below $70 late Monday, though rose again Tuesday to around $72. Middle East producers ship about a fifth of the world’s daily output through the narrow waterway, and prices could soar if Tehran attempts to disrupt shipments through the route. Investors in Asia will be keeping an eye on the G-7 gathering in Alberta, Canada, where Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba failed to reach an agreement on a trade package. The outcome leaves the Asian nation inching closer to a possible recession as the pain of US tariffs hits its economy. Also at the G-7, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer reached a deal with Trump to implement trading terms disclosed last month to slash US tariffs on key British exports and raise UK quotas on certain American agricultural products. The Bank of Japan left its benchmark rate unchanged, as expected by economists, and decided to taper its bond purchases at a slower pace next year in a sign of caution following heightened market volatility. Wall Street will focus on the Federal Reserve decision Wednesday, with policymakers signaling an extended hold on rates. Investors are looking to Chair Jerome Powell for clues on what might eventually prompt the central bank to make a move, and when. US After Hours Solar stocks under pressure on Reuters report that Senate GOP seeks to end credits, RUN -27.5%, SEDG -23%, ENPH -15.5%, FSLR -10%; MMYT -10.8% on offering and deal to buy shares from TCOM

Nikkei +0.50% Hang Seng -0.23% CSI -0.00% Shanghai 0.01% Shenzen -0.08%

Eur$ 1.1570 CNH 7.1816 CNY 7.1812 JPY 144.42 GBP 1.3578 CHF 0.8130 RUB 78.50 TRY 39.4160 WTI$ 72.19 +0.65% Gold 3,392 +0.20% BTC 107,398 -1.32% ETH 2,593 -2.94%

S&P -0.39% Nasdaq -0.43% EuroStoxx -0.77% FTSE -0.52% Dax -0.90% SMI -1.10%

Macro :

- Trump Says G-7 Exit For ‘Much Bigger’ Reason Than Ceasefire

- Oil prices rise and US futures fall as Israel urges residents of Iran's capital to evacuate

- Solar Stocks Tumble as Senate Bill Ends Tax Credits
- Commodity Trader ED&F Man Taps Viterra Cotton Boss for New Team

- Hedge fund Millennium valued at $14bn in minority stake sale talks - FT

- US Approves Possible $2b Military Sale to Australia

- China’s Grip on Rare Earths Puts an Electrifying World on Alert

- Trump Says He and UK’s Starmer Just Signed Trade Deal

- BOJ Holds Rates, Plans Slower Withdrawal From Bond Market

Keep an eye on :

- AEDAS SM : Neinor Makes €1.07 Billion Bid for Rival Spanish Developer Aedas

- AGR LN : KKR-led bid for NHS landlord Assura hit by shareholder opposition

- AIR FP : Airbus unveils close to $10bn of orders at Paris show overshadowed by Air India disaster - FT

- ALV GY : AXA Front-Runner to Buy Italy’s Prima Assicurazioni: Sole

- AMS SM : Goldman Offers About 5.7m Amadeus Shares, Terms Show, *AMADEUS OFFERING PRICES AT €70.61 PER SHARE: TERMS

- APPS US : APPS Sees 2026 Revenue $515M to $525M, Est. $519.5M (2 Est.)*DIGITAL TURBINE CLIMBS 9% AS 4Q REVENUE BEATS ESTIMATES

- CS FP : AXA Front-Runner to Buy Italy’s Prima Assicurazioni: Sole

- BAKKA NO : Bakkafrost Sees DKK5.0b Capex 2026-2030; 2030 Harvest 162K MT

- DTG GY : ACCC Reviews Proposed Merger of Toyota, Daimler Truck Units

- DYN US : *DYNE SHARES JUMP 16% AS BIOTECH SETS TUESDAY DATA RELEASE

- FLU AV : Flughafen Wien Group May Traffic Figures (Table)

- LLY US : Eli Lilly in Advanced Talks to Buy Verve for Up to $1.3b: FT

- IBE SM : Iberdrola Mulls Taking Brazil’s Neoenergia Private: Veja

- INF LN : Informa Reaffirms 2025 Underlying Rev Growth Guidance of Over 5%
- KPN NA : BC Partners-Backed Telco United Group Names KPN Alum as CEO

- LTMC IM : Gamma Offers 21% Stake in Italian Betting Firm Lottomatica, Lottomatica Offering by Holder Prices at EU22.50/Share

- LTMC IM : Apollo’s $1.4 Billion Lottomatica Exit Leads European Block Wave

- MMYT US : MakeMyTrip Seeks Over $2 Billion in Shares, Convertible Sale

- MSFT US : OpenAI Seeks New Financial Concessions From Microsoft, a Top Shareholder

- NSKOG NO : Norske Skog Says Skogn to Start Production of Book Paper in 2026

- NOVOB DC : Novo Nordisk Shares Are Now Recovering from Peak Pessimism

- OKLO US : Oklo Raises About $440.6m From Offering

- RGC US : Regencell Bio Shares Soar as 38-for-1 Stock Split Takes Effect +283%

- RIO LN : Australia Grants A$19.8m to Electric Smelting Furnace Project

- SAB SM : Sabadell Explores Sale of UK High Street Bank TSB: FT

- SAB SM : Sabadell Confirms It Has Received Interest for TSB Bank

- 9984 JP : SoftBank Seeks to Raise $4.9 Billion in T-Mobile Share Sale

- SEDG US : Solar Stocks Dive As Senate Bill Keeps Cuts To Solar, Wind Energy Incentives

- RUN US : Solar Stocks Dive As Senate Bill Keeps Cuts To Solar, Wind Energy Incentives

- MSTR US : Saylor Shifts to Preferred to Buy Bitcoin While Criticism Rises

- TMUS US : SoftBank Seeks to Raise $4.9 Billion in T-Mobile Share Sale

- TTE FP : TotalEnergies Wins German Wind Auction Amid Dwindling Interest

- UMG NA : Goldman Sachs Offers About 14m UMG Shares, Terms Show, placed @ 27.02/share

- VERV US : Eli Lilly in Advanced Talks to Buy Verve for Up to $1.3b: FT

>>> Europe : Brokers Upgrades & Downgrades - 17th of June 2025