The head of the UN's nuclear watchdog has called on Iran and the United States to find a "diplomatic solution" in talks over Tehran's nuclear program as a crucial quarterly meeting at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The IAEA's board of governors meeting is expected to hear and vote on a resolution finding Tehran in noncompliance with its safeguards for the first time in 20 years. Iran has vowed to take strong action against Western nations pushing the resolution at the gathering in the Austrian capital, with Behrouz Kamalvandi of…

US residential solar financing has taken a sharp dive, with Mosaic, a top lender underwriting over $15?billion in home energy loans, filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday.  Founded in 2010, Mosaic enabled rooftop solar, battery storage, and efficiency upgrades for over 500,000 homeowners, but was struck hard by rising interest rates, uncertainties around federal Sections 25D and 48E tax credits, and tighter capital conditions. The company secured $45?million in debtor-in-possession financing, including $15?million in fresh capital, enabling…

US residential solar financing has taken a sharp dive, with Mosaic, a top lender underwriting over $15?billion in home energy loans, filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday.  Founded in 2010, Mosaic enabled rooftop solar, battery storage, and efficiency upgrades for over 500,000 homeowners, but was struck hard by rising interest rates, uncertainties around federal Sections 25D and 48E tax credits, and tighter capital conditions. The company secured $45?million in debtor-in-possession financing, including $15?million in fresh capital, enabling…

China has shifted from the world’s largest creditor nation to the globe’s biggest debt collector. Central Asian states owe billions to Chinese entities, but their geographic importance to Beijing is helping protect them from strong-arm repayment tactics. A report issued by the Australia-based Lowy Institute, Peak repayment: China’s global lending, charts China’s transition from “lead bilateral banker to chief debt collector of the developing world.” It shows that China’s lavish loaning under the auspices…

Via Metal Miner The Stainless Monthly Metals Index (MMI) moved sideways, rising by a modest 0.35% from May to June. However, the stainless steel price remains under pressure from several factors. Tariff Hike Rattles the U.S. Stainless Steel Market In a move few saw coming, President Trump doubled Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from 25% to 50%. The duty increase took effect on June 4, just days after its announcement, leaving both suppliers and buyers with no real window to prepare.  The tariff increase proved controversial,…

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is doubling down on its AI ambitions with a $20-billion expansion plan to build two new data center campuses in Pennsylvania—including one directly adjacent to a major nuclear power plant, Reuters reports.  AWS is targeting the deployment of multiple data centers over the next 10 years, and the buildout will be fueled by carbon-free nuclear power, making it one of the largest private-sector nuclear-backed energy deals in the U.S. to date, according to Reuters. The first site, slated for Salem Township near the…

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is doubling down on its AI ambitions with a $20-billion expansion plan to build two new data center campuses in Pennsylvania—including one directly adjacent to a major nuclear power plant, Reuters reports.  AWS is targeting the deployment of multiple data centers over the next 10 years, and the buildout will be fueled by carbon-free nuclear power, making it one of the largest private-sector nuclear-backed energy deals in the U.S. to date, according to Reuters. The first site, slated for Salem Township near the…

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is doubling down on its AI ambitions with a $20-billion expansion plan to build two new data center campuses in Pennsylvania—including one directly adjacent to a major nuclear power plant, Reuters reports.  AWS is targeting the deployment of multiple data centers over the next 10 years, and the buildout will be fueled by carbon-free nuclear power, making it one of the largest private-sector nuclear-backed energy deals in the U.S. to date, according to Reuters. The first site, slated for Salem Township near the…

OPEC’s crude oil production in May increased less than called for in the OPEC+ agreement which had a large output hike planned for last month. All 12 OPEC members produced 26.75 million barrels per day (bpd) in May, up by 150,000 bpd from April, a Reuters survey showed on Monday. The five OPEC members that have pledged cuts in the OPEC+ agreement and are now gradually unwinding these cuts had to raise their combined output by 310,000 bpd. But they only lifted production by 180,000 bpd, according to the Reuters survey of data from oil-flow…

U.S. and Chinese delegations have arrived in the U.K. for talks aimed at patching up a fraying truce in an ongoing trade war between the world's two biggest economies. The US team leby The U.S. team led by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer are due to meet with a Chinese delegation led by Vice Premier He Lifeng in London in a renewed effort to break the deadlock after last month’s Geneva talks failed to produce meaningful results. The high-stakes meeting follows…

International companies are not shunning Argentina anymore and exploring mergers and acquisitions (M&A) opportunities, including in the energy sector, as business-friendly reforms enacted by President Javier Milei have started to change the way investors look at South America’s second-largest economy. If Milei’s reforms to encourage large-scale and foreign investments into the energy sector continue, the M&A market in Argentina could see an upsurge in the coming years, Juan Tripier, director of M&A and corporate finance…

International companies are not shunning Argentina anymore and exploring mergers and acquisitions (M&A) opportunities, including in the energy sector, as business-friendly reforms enacted by President Javier Milei have started to change the way investors look at South America’s second-largest economy. If Milei’s reforms to encourage large-scale and foreign investments into the energy sector continue, the M&A market in Argentina could see an upsurge in the coming years, Juan Tripier, director of M&A and corporate finance…

Iraq is on the brink of an economic breakdown as OPEC’s second-largest producer continues to rely mostly on oil exports for federal government revenues, analysts warned on Monday after official data showed that oil represents a whopping 91% of all federal budget revenues. Iraq’s federal revenues topped $107 billion (140 trillion Iraqi dinars) last year, data from the Ministry of Finance showed this weekend. But oil accounted for more than 91% of all federal government revenues, according to the finance ministry. Iraq has long been one…

Kenya hopes it will begin commercial crude oil production and exports next year, Opiyo Wandayi, Cabinet Secretary for Energy and Petroleum, said on Monday, as companies are finalizing an asset sale and development project plans for an onshore resource basin. The East African country has oil and gas resources, but development has stalled after UK-listed Tullow Oil failed to secure investor partners for a major oil project that has been years in the making. Tullow Oil and its minority partners sought to develop the South Lokichar project…

Kenya hopes it will begin commercial crude oil production and exports next year, Opiyo Wandayi, Cabinet Secretary for Energy and Petroleum, said on Monday, as companies are finalizing an asset sale and development project plans for an onshore resource basin. The East African country has oil and gas resources, but development has stalled after UK-listed Tullow Oil failed to secure investor partners for a major oil project that has been years in the making. Tullow Oil and its minority partners sought to develop the South Lokichar project…

Kenya hopes it will begin commercial crude oil production and exports next year, Opiyo Wandayi, Cabinet Secretary for Energy and Petroleum, said on Monday, as companies are finalizing an asset sale and development project plans for an onshore resource basin. The East African country has oil and gas resources, but development has stalled after UK-listed Tullow Oil failed to secure investor partners for a major oil project that has been years in the making. Tullow Oil and its minority partners sought to develop the South Lokichar project…

Trend-following commodity trading advisors (CTAs) could soon begin covering their significant short positions in oil, driving prices higher, according to Bank of America analysts cited by Investing.com. The sudden buying demand in the crude futures market has the potential to lead to a short-term rally in oil prices if CTAs rush to short covering. Last week, oil prices lodged another weekly gain, despite the announcement from OPEC+ that the group would continue to boost production in July with another 411,000-barrels-per-day hike. Geopolitical…

China’s coal imports slowed down markedly last month amid ample domestic supply, low prices, and rising generation from wind and solar. At 36.04 million tons, May coal imports were down from 43.82 million tons in April, customs data cited by Reuters showed. This is the third consecutive monthly decline in coal imports in the world’s largest importer of the commodity. For the first five months of 2025, coal imports declined by 8% from a year earlier, to a cumulative 188.7 million tons, compared with 204.9 million tons for January-May…

The 411,000 barrels daily that OPEC+ said it would add to oil production in May have not materialized, commodity analysts from Morgan Stanley said. “Notwithstanding the around 1 million-barrel-a-day increase in production quotas between March and June, an actual increase in production is hard to detect,” the team, led by Martijn Rats said in a note today, as quoted by Bloomberg. “Notably, it does not appear that production in Saudi Arabia has ramped up significantly,” the note also said. The data Morgan Stanley used to see…

China earlier this year introduced restrictions on its exports of rare earths. The move marked a new stage in the US- China trade spat, when the two sides no longer tried to out-tariff each other but took to more concrete steps. The problem is, the restrictions don’t just apply to U.S. companies. And they may well deliver the fatal blow to Europe’s struggling auto industry. China controls 90% of the world’s rare earths processing capacity. It is the indisputable, if not exactly celebrated in the West, master of the rare earths…