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The momentum behind mergers and acquisitions remains strong despite growing tensions in the Middle East, according to the incoming chief executive officer of Moelis & Co.

“The latest Middle East conflict is early days and is fluid,” Navid Mahmoodzadegan, who in October will take over from Ken Moelis atop the New York-based investment bank, said in an interview on Bloomberg TV. “I continue to be optimistic that the forces that are driving M&A are very much intact.”

US Treasuries trimmed losses as oil prices tumbled from near five-month highs after a report that Iran was seeking a de-escalation of hostilities with Israel.

Two-year yields were little changed at around 3.96% as the retreat by crude oil — following the Wall Street Journal’s report that Iran signalled it wants an end to the conflict — helped lessen concerns about inflation.

Traders slightly pared bets on interest-rate cuts from the Federal Reserve, pricing 46 basis points of easing by the end of the year, compared to 49 basis points on Friday.

The US is refusing to back a proposed Group of Seven statement urging Israel and Iran to de-escalate their conflict, people familiar with the matter said, underscoring divisions between the Trump administration and the rest of the bloc.

President Donald Trump has no interest in such a message from G-7 leaders, who are meeting for a summit in Alberta, Canada, and instead wants to keep up pressure on Iran to refrain from obtaining a nuclear weapon, one of the people said. Another person didn’t rule out Trump agreeing to an amended statement later on.

A draft of the statement, a copy of which was seen by Bloomberg News, describes Iran as the principle source of instability in the region and says Tehran should never have a nuclear weapon. It says the G-7 will try to defuse tensions and work with regional partners to de-escalate the conflict.

Scale AI co-founder Alexandr Wang is such an enthusiastic networker that his former roommate — OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman — once jokingly told him to tone it down a bit.

Fortunately for Wang, he ignored the advice. Last week, the 28-year-old parlayed his ability to cultivate influential relationships into a $14.3 billion investment from Meta in Scale, and a new job for himself in Meta’s “superintelligence” group, reporting to CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

His own cash and equity in the deal is worth more than $5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. What Meta is buying: the one guy who knows what everyone else in the AI industry is doing.

A Malian court ruled that Barrick Mining Corp.’s Loulo-Gounkoto gold mining complex should be placed under provisional administration for six months, handing control of one of the Canadian company’s biggest operations to state-appointed management.

The decision on Monday comes after Mali closed Barrick’s offices in the capital Bamako and warned it would take control of the mine, which has been shuttered owing to a months-long dispute over mine dividends, unless it was reopened and tax payments made.

The mine will be managed by Soumana Makadji, an accountant and former health minister, said Issa Aguibou Diallo, a judge at the Tribunal de Commerce. Shares of Barrick fell 0.8% as of 1:03 p.m. in New York.

Lottomatica Group Spa’s largest shareholder Gamma Intermediate is seeking to sell its entire stake in the Italian betting company, worth about €1.2 billion ($1.4 billion).

Gamma Intermediate is offering about 53.6 million shares through an accelerated share sale after markets closed in Italy on Monday, according to a statement. The stake represents about 21.3% of Lottomatica’s outstanding share capital, and shares are being offered at €22.50 apiece, according to terms seen by Bloomberg.

Barclays Plc and Deutsche Bank AG are arranging the deal.

Patreon Inc. is increasing fees for new creators as the startup expands into video and rolls out other features.

Under the new structure, Patreon is collapsing two membership tiers into one plan that will take 10% of a creator’s earnings from their paid subscriptions, up from a previous rate of 8%, the company announced Monday.

The fee change, which takes effect on Aug 4, applies only to new creators that join the platform, and marks the first time Patreon has increased prices in six years. The creator economy startup is raising prices to support new features such as live video, personalised content recommendations and chats, the company said.

The ETF market has hit a symbolic turning point: active funds now outnumber passive ones for the first time, marking a sharp break from the industry’s index-tracking origins — even if actively managed assets still account for just a tenth of assets.

Roughly 51% of the nearly 4,300 US-listed exchange-traded funds are ones overseen by fund managers who have more discretion to pick stocks or other securities, eclipsing index-following products for the first time, Bloomberg Intelligence data show. The number of active ETFs has more than doubled in the past five years, from just 23% in 2020.

It’s another sign of the sea change underway in the $11 trillion US-listed ETF market. Investors have been gravitating toward actively managed strategies, which have absorbed about 40% of industry inflows amid this year’s market turbulence — the highest share ever. To meet that demand, asset managers are launching a record number of new active products, which command higher fees than their passive counterparts.

Some oil tanker owners and managers have paused offering their vessels for Middle Eastern routes since Friday as they assess the risks from Israel’s conflict with Iran, fueling concerns over export flows from the region and sending freight rates jumping.

Producers and traders trying to book ships to load crude oil and fuel from the Persian Gulf have been met with few offers, said shipbrokers and charterers, who asked not to be identified as they’re not authorised to speak publicly.

Meanwhile, some owners with tankers that had been provisionally chartered as of Friday, pending confirmation of the booking, chose not to extend the agreements into the weekend, one of them said.

Kering SA named Luca de Meo as its next chief executive officer, looking to the architect of carmaker Renault SA’s turnaround to perform the same feat at the owner of the struggling fashion label Gucci.

The roles of CEO and chairman currently held by Francois-Henri Pinault will be split, Kering said in a statement Monday. De Meo will take over as CEO in mid-September and Pinault will remain chairman of the French luxury group his family controls.

De Meo’s experience and “sharp understanding of brands” make him the right leader to steer the group, Pinault said in the statement.

US President Donald Trump expressed optimism about settling a trade dispute with Canada during his time at the Group of Seven summit, calling a deal in the coming weeks between the US and its northern neighbour “achievable.”

“I think we have different concepts. I have a tariff concept,” Trump said during a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. “Mark has a different concept, which is something that some people like, but we’re going to see if we can get to the bottom of it today.”

While Trump said he favoured tariffs because they were “simple” and “easy,” he indicated a willingness to hear out the proposal from Carney, who is seeking to limit punishing levies on key industries, including steel, aluminium and autos.

“I think Mark has a more complex idea, but also very good,” Trump said. “So we’re going to look at both, and we’re going to see what we’re going to come out with something.”

A naval coalition that seeks to keep commercial shipping safe in and around the Persian Gulf said there appears to have been a small drop in cargo traffic through the strait of Hormuz, a vital oil chokepoint, since Israel’s airstrikes on Iran on Friday.

“The number of transits through the Strait of Hormuz has shown a minor decrease in cargo carrying vessels,” the Joint Maritime Information Center, which comes under the Combined Maritime Forces in Bahrain, said in a notice on Monday.

Oil traders and investors are watching closely what happens through Hormuz — and the wider Iranian export complex — since the airstrikes, which have targeted the Persian Gulf states nuclear sites, military and domestic energy infrastructure. Crude futures, which surged initially, subsequently retreated, in part on a report that Iran wants to de-escalate.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has arrived in Kazakhstan for talks with Central Asian leaders, providing a counterpoint to a Group of Seven summit by visiting a vast region at the nexus of competing interests from Washington to Beijing.

Xi, who’s making only his third overseas trip this year, met with Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on Monday and will attend the second gathering of the leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan the following day.

The summit in the Kazakh capital Astana is taking place in parallel to the G-7 event in Canada, and comes days after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Kazakhstan’s foreign minister in Washington. Xi hosted the inaugural China-Central Asia Summit in the Chinese city of Xi’an two years ago.

US Treasuries trimmed losses as oil prices as oil prices tumbled from near five-month highs after a report Iran was seeking a de-escalation of hostilities with Israel.

Two-year yields were little changed around 3.94% as the retreat by crude oil — following the Wall Street Journal’s report that Iran signaled it wants an end to the conflict — helped lessen concerns about inflation.

Traders slightly pared bets on interest-rate cuts from the Federal Reserve, pricing 46 basis points of easing by the end of the year, compared to 49 basis points on Friday.

Gold edged lower, erasing gains made earlier in the day, as fears subsided that Israel’s war against Iran would drag in other countries.

The precious metal fell on Monday to trade close to $3,390 an ounce, about $110 short of an all-time peak set in April. Israel and Iran exchanged fire for the fourth consecutive day on Monday.

Markets calmed as fears of a regional war decreased, with Tehran signaling it wants to deescalate hostilities with Israel and is willing to resume nuclear talks with the US, the Wall Street Journal reported.

When Paula Comings, the head of currency sales for US Bancorp, talks to US importers, she increasingly hears the same message: Their foreign counterparties no longer want to be paid in dollars.

Instead, they ask for settlement in euros, Chinese renminbi, the Mexican peso and the Canadian dollar, looking to limit their exposure to further swings in the greenback.

“A lot of clients previously were reluctant because dollars were sacred in the eyes of the supplier,” Comings said. “Now the vibe from overseas vendors seems to be, ‘Just give us our currency.’”

China confirmed its approval of Bunge Global SA’s takeover of rival Viterra, but outlined several conditions including the continued supply of key crops to the Asian nation at a “fair” price.

The green light from Beijing, announced by Bunge on Friday, was the last major hurdle to the conclusion of the $8.2 billion deal. Bunge shares rose as much as 4.4% in New York on Monday, extending Friday’s gain of 5.7%.

Still, a statement from China’s State Administration for Market Regulation outlined the large share of soybean, barley and rapeseed trade with one of the world’s top buyers that the combined company will control, which risks limiting competition.

Antitrust authorities asked that the company supply those crops to Chinese clients at what it called fair market prices and in a timely, reliable and sufficient manner. After the merger is finalised, it must also report its monthly sales to Chinese clients to the regulator each quarter, and provide comparison with the average from 2021 to 2024.

Mitsubishi Corp. is in advanced talks to buy Aethon Energy Management for close to $8 billion, people familiar with the matter said, in what would be the Japanese conglomerate’s biggest ever acquisition.

Tokyo-based Mitsubishi could announce a deal for the US energy-focused investment firm in the next couple of months, according to the people. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. had also been considering a potential transaction involving Aethon, Bloomberg News reported in April.

While a deal is close, talks could still be delayed or falter, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing confidential information. It’s also possible another bidder could emerge for Aethon, the people said. Representatives for Mitsubishi and Aethon declined to comment. A spokesperson for Adnoc didn’t respond to requests for comment.

American Express Co. teased updates coming later this year to its travel-focused Platinum credit cards, announcing what it called its “largest investment ever” in a credit-card refresh.

“We’re going to take these cards to a new level, not only in what they offer in travel, dining and lifestyle benefits, but also in how they look and feel,” Howard Grosfield, Amex’s group president for US consumer services, said in a statement Monday.

Amex raised its Platinum card annual fee to $695 in July 2021, when it also added $200 in annual hotel credits. Since then, the New York-based company has faced intensifying competition for premium credit-card customers, including from JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Sapphire Reserve card and Capital One Financial Corp.’s Venture X Rewards card.

The Amex update will apply to both the US consumer and business Platinum cards, the company said. It didn’t provide more specifics on what changes are coming.

The run-up in crude futures paused on Monday, as the war between Israel and Iran failed to lead to a major disruption of Middle East oil supplies.

US crude oil prices touched an overnight high of $77.49 per barrel after Israel targeted two natural gas facilities in Iran. But prices later pulled back on optimism that the war hadn’t yet had a material impact on global energy markets and the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz remained open to shipping.

US crude oil was last down $1.08, or 1.5%, to $71.90 per barrel Monday morning, while global benchmark Brent fell 99 cents, or 1.3%, to $73.24. One barrel contains 42 gallons.

Electric aircraft maker Archer Aviation Inc. expects its defense-related sales outstripping commercial air taxis in the short term.

“In the near term the defense side could certainly become the biggest part of our business” as passenger services take time to scale up, Chief Executive Officer Adam Goldstein said in an interview with Bloomberg TV at the Paris Air Show. Shares in Archer rose as much as 7.6% in premarket trading on Monday.

Air taxi developers have pivoted toward defense as delays slow progress toward consumer services. At the same time, there’s been rising interest in new technologies for defense, with US President Donald Trump ramping up military spending and backing away from environmental commitments that powered the initial flood of interest in all-electric aircraft.

MEG Energy Corp.’s board is urging investors to reject what it calls an “inadequate, opportunistic” $4.1-billion hostile takeover bid from Canadian oil tycoon Adam Waterous’ Strathcona Resources Ltd.

The offer is too low and will hurt MEG’s share price, the Calgary-based company said in a statement Monday. MEG’s board authorized it to begin a strategic review with the potential to find a better offer.

MEG’s response marks the latest twist in the biggest hostile takeover attempt in the Canadian oil and gas industry since 2021.

“Strathcona’s offer is inadequate by all reasonable measures and is not the right path forward for MEG shareholders,” MEG Chairman James McFarland said in the statement.

Entain Plc shares jumped the most in more than three-and-a-half years after the sports betting and gaming group upgraded its full-year revenue guidance for BetMGM, the US-based joint venture it shares with MGM Resorts International.

BetMGM is expected to deliver net revenue for 2025 of at least $2.6 billion, compared to a previous forecast of $2.4 billion to $2.5 billion, Entain said in a trading update on Monday. The company said the “positive momentum” seen in the first quarter for online gambling has continued as customers placed more bets

Donald Trump’s media company has filed to launch an exchange-traded fund that would invest directly in both Bitcoin and Ether, the latest in a wider push into digital assets tied to the president’s personal brand.

The proposed fund, dubbed the Truth Social Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF, was disclosed in a regulatory filing Monday. It aims to give investors an easy way to gain exposure to the two largest digital assets and serves as a “simple and cost-effective” alternative to using peer-to-peer networks or digital platforms. Yorkville America Digital is listed as the sponsor of the latest product.

Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. — the company behind Truth Social and majority-owned by the president — has been accelerating its digital-asset push. The firm recently announced plans to borrow money to buy Bitcoin, and previously said it would invest in the very ETFs it aims to issue. Earlier in June, Trump Media applied for a separate ETF focused solely on Bitcoin — a category already crowded with similar offerings.

Standard Chartered Plc said it would maintain a flexible attitude toward its employees’ working arrangements, bucking a trend among some of its Wall Street rivals that are ordering workers to return to office five days a week.

After a recent assessment, the London-listed lender concluded that keeping the “current approach, with strong guardrails, remains right for us,” Chief Executive Officer Bill Winters said in an internal memo seen by Bloomberg News.

Airbus SE kicked off the Paris Air Show with orders from Saudi Arabian customers valued at as much as $17 billion and a major purchase from Poland, building an early lead over Boeing Co., which scaled back its presence at the event following a crash involving one of its jets in India last week.

Airbus first landed an order for as many as 77 freighter and passenger aircraft from Saudi Arabian lessor AviLease, followed by a deal for as many as 50 of its A350-1000 widebody jets from Riyadh Air. Later in the day, Poland’s LOT Airlines said it would purchase 40 A220 airliners, with an option to extend the accord to 84 units.

The two announcements give Airbus a leg-up in the typically hard-fought contest for orders at the expo. This year’s event took a tragic twist last week after an India Air jetliner crashed, killing all but one of the 242 people on board the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. As a result, Boeing cancelled its senior executives’ appearances at the show, and the company has also scaled back plans for any commercial announcements.

Sarepta Therapeutics Inc. plummeted in early trading after reporting a second patient died of acute liver failure while being treated with its gene therapy for a rare muscle disorder.

The death of the 15-year-old boy comes only three months after another teenage boy who received the one-time treatment died, Elevidys. Both cases occurred in people with Duchenne muscular dystrophy who are unable to walk, the company said.

The development casts a pall over Sarepta’s most important drug. As a result, the company suspended its 2025 revenue guidance and will “take a careful look” at its costs going forward, Chief Executive Officer Doug Ingram told analysts.

Sarepta Therapeutics Inc. plummeted in early trading after reporting a second patient died of acute liver failure while being treated with its gene therapy for a rare muscle disorder.

The death of the 15-year-old boy comes only three months after another teenage boy who received the one-time treatment died, Elevidys. Both cases occurred in people with Duchenne muscular dystrophy who are unable to walk, the company said.

The development casts a pall over Sarepta’s most important drug. As a result, the company suspended its 2025 revenue guidance and will “take a careful look” at its costs going forward, Chief Executive Officer Doug Ingram told analysts.

Meta Platforms Inc. keeps writing bigger checks in pursuit of its artificial intelligence strategy, and traders keep cheering it on, encouraged that the expensive bets will keep paying off.

The stock is back near record territory after soaring about 45% from its April low. Last week, Meta finalized a $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI, whose leader is joining a team being assembled by Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg to pursue artificial general intelligence. That came just after Meta raised its capital spending forecast for 2025 to as much as $72 billion.

Stocks of newly-public companies are surging in their first sessions at the fastest pace in three and a half years, enthralling traders and heating up the market for US first-time share sales.

Drone maker Airo Group Holdings Inc. ended Friday with a gain of 140%, a day after raising $60 million in its initial public offering, and coming barely a week after stablecoin issuer Circle Internet Group Inc. surged 168.5% immediately following its $1.2 billion IPO.

With conservative cable channel Newsmax Inc.’s wild 735% opening gain in March, following its $75 million offering, three companies raising at least $50 million on US exchanges this year have more than doubled on their first trading day, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s the most since nine US-listed debutantes managed the feat in 2021’s IPO boom.NewsLive TVMarketPopular CategoriesCalculatorsTrending NowLet's Connect with CNBCTV 18Network 18 Group :©TV18 Broadcast Limited. All rights reserved.