The State of Crypto at Mid-Year 2026: Quieter, Sturdier, Divided
Six months in, institutional Bitcoin holdings are near record highs even as ETF assets slip, and Wall Street forecasts for the rest of the year could not be more split.
Jun 18, 2026

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60 stories for“markets 2026”
Six months in, institutional Bitcoin holdings are near record highs even as ETF assets slip, and Wall Street forecasts for the rest of the year could not be more split.
Jun 18, 2026

Gold, silver and platinum all peaked in the same fortnight in January. Palladium's record is still from March 2022 and it is not going to be beaten, because the engine it was bought for is being discontinued.
Aug 18, 2026

The IMF and UNCTAD describe a widening split: economies tied to chips and AI infrastructure are gaining momentum while many energy importers absorb the war shock.
Aug 2, 2026

The Jakarta Composite halted for 30 minutes and closed at 5,185 as MSCI opened a consultation that could drop Indonesia below frontier markets, with passive outflows of billions at stake.
Oct 16, 2026

WSTS is due to publish its second-quarter forecast update on August 3 after raising the 2026 semiconductor outlook. AI demand is strong, but concentration is the central risk.
Aug 2, 2026
Silver set a record just under $122 an ounce in late January, then lost close to half of it. The London squeeze behind the spike has eased rather than ended, and the metal is still up almost 74 per cent on the year.
Aug 18, 2026

The IEA expects global electricity use to grow 3.6% in 2026 and 3.8% in 2027. Cooling, industry, EVs and data centers are turning power capacity into an economic constraint.
Aug 2, 2026

A leading crypto market maker registered a US broker-dealer arm and a very large custodian moved towards institutional staking. Neither made headlines. Both change who is allowed to participate.
Aug 7, 2026

Energy prices have eased from their sharpest fears, but the Fed, Bank of England and Bank of Japan still face inflation signals pulling against softer growth.
Jul 28, 2026

The FCA has outlined a future authorization window and tailored rules for crypto firms, shifting attention from policy debate to operational readiness.
Jul 28, 2026

Bain puts the shrinkage in the Gulf's luxury customer base at 15 to 25 per cent in early 2026 while the Americas surged. The industry's answer to losing aspirational buyers has been to stop trying to keep them.
Aug 18, 2026

Fourth quarter net sales rose 11.2 percent to $93.9 billion and digitally-enabled sales grew almost 20 percent, with results lifted further by a one-time benefit from tariff refunds the company says it partly passed on to members.
Sep 27, 2026

Chip and AI shares clawed back part of last week's rout on Monday while most other stocks slipped, and Europe fell after the weekend's unrest in France.
Oct 20, 2026

Two bond auctions in two days drew buyers at levels not seen for decades, yet the Fed's Christopher Waller says more rate rises are likely and oil kept the inflation worry alive.
Oct 9, 2026

Two American economists who modelled how households and firms form expectations took the 2026 economics Nobel, as central banks face an energy shock and a debate over how much to say.
Oct 12, 2026

After two years of shocks, Gulf dining is rebuilding around homegrown brands and confident local concepts rather than imported franchise names.
May 19, 2026

Note the direction. Markets are not arguing about how fast the Federal Reserve cuts. They are pricing the probability that it raises, and gold has just had its best month since January.
Aug 21, 2026

A new incentive campaign asks Dubai residents to bring friends and family to the city, revealing how destinations compete when regional uncertainty weighs on travel.
Jul 24, 2026

A one-line denial from the coffee chain on Monday undid the premium that an FT report put on Chipotle shares, and it left both companies facing the same question about growth and traffic.
Oct 13, 2026

Weaker dividend income, higher operating costs and a bigger tax line pushed the Saudi investment house lower in the first half. Each of those pressures applies well beyond one company.
Aug 7, 2026

Secondhand is a 393 billion dollar market and roughly a tenth of all money spent on clothing. Zara, H&M, Levi's and others are building their own platforms to capture a trade they used to ignore.
Aug 17, 2026

One widely cited figure puts the category at 86 billion dollars. Another puts it at 254 billion. The gap is not a rounding error, it is a disagreement about what modest fashion actually is.
Aug 16, 2026

IATA expects passenger demand to grow only 2.1% in 2026 as conflict, inflation and weaker purchasing power weigh on travel. The market is normalizing unevenly.
Aug 1, 2026

Nearly nine in ten of the class of 2026 fear automation will take the junior jobs, while most chief executives insist the opposite. The hiring data sits awkwardly between them.
Aug 4, 2026

The Premier League, La Liga and Serie A close on 1 September. The Saudi Pro League stays open until 12 October. Those six weeks are the most important structural fact in this transfer market.
Aug 17, 2026

Preliminary operating profit nearly nine times last year's could not lift Seoul's chip stocks, with US yields at 24-year highs and foreign investors selling Samsung for an eighth session.
Oct 8, 2026

A report that OpenAI's run-rate sales are about $20 billion below the figure investors had been quoting pulled chip and cloud stocks down, while bond yields and oil stayed high.
Oct 9, 2026

A reduced growth forecast meets strong property activity, startup funding and recovering energy exports in the UAE's mixed July economic picture.
Jul 29, 2026

A record 34.6 percent operating margin and a $4.8 billion buyback were not enough: weaker fourth-quarter guidance and a lower ad target sent the stock down about 5 percent after the bell.
Oct 21, 2026

Measurement, medical imaging, homebuilding and a presentation startup all changed hands in the first fortnight of August. The mid-market is moving while the giants wait on regulators.
Aug 15, 2026

Preowned clothing is moving into the center of fashion as shoppers pursue value, individuality and access while brands reconsider their resale strategies.
Jul 31, 2026

Goods and services trade added about $2 trillion in the first half of 2026. Much of the rise reflects higher prices, leaving a more uneven volume story underneath.
Aug 2, 2026

Citi, Goldman, Deutsche, HSBC and Societe Generale have published year-end gold targets a third apart from one another. The spread is not sloppiness. It is an argument about what gold is for.
Aug 18, 2026

Spot funds ended a three-week inflow run, Fidelity and BlackRock led the withdrawals, and bitcoin still held in the low $80,000s while ether tested its own floor.
Oct 13, 2026

Europe's markets regulator has told exchanges and brokers to cut off tokens that skip MiCA's reserve and redemption rules. Old holdings must be cleared by 8 January 2027 at the latest.
Oct 9, 2026

Attackers compromised a backend system and manipulated transaction data to trick Bitget's own approval process into moving funds out of its hot wallets, pushing North Korea's 2026 crypto haul past a billion dollars.
Sep 26, 2026

IMF research finds stablecoin demand shocks can lower short-term Treasury yields and spill into currencies, crypto and equities. Digital dollars now matter beyond crypto trading.
Aug 2, 2026

Long government borrowing costs are at multi-decade highs across the United States, Germany, France and Japan. The cause is not central bank policy. It is the sheer volume of debt being issued, and some of it is paying for data centres.
Aug 18, 2026

Lilly does not expect to file for approval until the first quarter of 2027. Search the drug's name today and you can have a vial by the weekend. The gap between those two facts is where the harm happens.
Aug 20, 2026

Gulf Air returns to Kuala Lumpur on 29 September, Riyadh Air adds London and Dubai, Sharjah gets a Gatwick link, and flynas is flying to St Petersburg and Sochi behind a new visa arrangement.
Aug 17, 2026

Pantone chose Cloud Dancer. Dulux broke its own format and chose a family of blues. Meanwhile the survey of what interior designers say clients actually request puts chocolate brown and maximalism at the top. Three answers, one year.
Aug 22, 2026

Big 5 Global returns to Dubai from November 23 to 26, giving Al Wisam a major stage for equipment, technical advice and regional partnerships.
Jul 20, 2026

Houthi claims against two Saudi tankers have exposed the weakness in plans to bypass Hormuz, sending Brent higher as two vital shipping routes face risk.
Jul 23, 2026

Shearwater, Garmin and Suunto now sell wrist computers that look broadly alike and cost between 760 and 1,800 dollars. What separates them is the decompression model, the transmitter, and what you are really paying for.
Aug 18, 2026

The exchange is cutting off transaction processing with HTX and ten other trading platforms, citing regulatory mandates and sanctions enforcement. Users of those venues have a week to move.
Aug 17, 2026

The S&P 500 rose 1.2 percent and the Nasdaq gained 2.1 percent as chipmakers and software stocks led gains, while Brent crude slipped below $98 a barrel and the 10-year yield swung between 4.95 and 5.20 percent.
Sep 27, 2026

Travelers are shifting destinations and seasons to avoid extreme heat, turning the coolcation from a catchy label into a planning strategy.
Jul 31, 2026

A war that closed the Strait of Hormuz and hit every GCC state should have broken the region's economics. Reserves and diversification kept it standing.
Jul 16, 2026

Growing wealth inequality is reshaping consumer behavior. Experiences over goods, values over discounts, and AI shopping tools mark 2026's divide.
May 20, 2025

The UAE enters the next period with diversified trade, services and investment buffers. Energy and shipping volatility still make credit quality and project selection important.
Aug 2, 2026

Jeanerica's international growth shows why Scandinavian denim is resonating: familiar fits, controlled branding and clothes designed to repeat.
Jul 28, 2026

Stablecoins promise faster settlement and programmable money, but reserves, redemption, governance and operational resilience now matter more than hype.
Jul 28, 2026

The Japanese group walks away with a narrower prize than the whole decorative division it once chased. AkzoNobel expects about $1 billion in net cash and says the sale ends its review of Asian decorative paints.
Oct 5, 2026

Pantone named Burnished Lilac and Amethyst Orchid for the season while runways ran rainbow brights. After a decade of neutrals, saturation is the statement.
Aug 6, 2026

Bain and Altagamma expect personal luxury goods to reach as much as 373 billion euros in 2026. The same research shows the customer base falling from 400 million to 340 million. Both numbers describe the same strategy.
Aug 22, 2026

Bitcoin fell about 3.6% in a day to the low $80,000s as spot ETFs saw outflows again, and the key question is whether buyers show up near the $80,000 support level that analysts are watching.
Oct 15, 2026

On 11 August the CFTC used emergency powers to keep Kalshi running nationwide. A week earlier a Washington judge told it to block local users. Both cannot be right, and that is now the whole fight.
Aug 16, 2026

Saudi Arabia, Russia and five other members agreed on Sunday to leave production unchanged for November and to meet again on 1 November, two days after the G7 announced its own emergency oil release.
Oct 4, 2026

Ten vessels were attacked in a week, the most since the war began in February, while a tanker was hit by a grenade off Saudi Arabia and Tehran claims a mine blast it has not proved.
Oct 18, 2026

A joint classification named sixteen assets as digital commodities outside securities law. It resolved a long-running fight for those tokens and left the harder question completely open.
Aug 8, 2026
