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Oil fell as signs of a large gain in US crude stockpiles undermined comments by the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia about tight market conditions.

West Texas Intermediate futures fell about 0.5% to trade near $68 a barrel, following two days of advances. In the US, crude inventories rose 7.1 million barrels last week, according to the American Petroleum Institute. That would be the largest increase since January if confirmed by government data due later on Wednesday.

Cyberstarts, the Israeli venture capital firm best known for its early investment in the cybersecurity company Wiz, has raised $300 million to buy shares from employees of the firm’s portfolio companies, co-founder Gili Raanan said.

Raanan, a former partner at Sequoia Capital, said the goal is to reward long-tenured employees with reliable and recurring opportunities to cash out vested shares. It’s part of a broader effort by Raanan to rethink the venture capital model as startups stay private longer and face new challenges.

“The venture model is not working well, especially in the early stage,” Raanan said. “We are trying to do whatever we can to really innovate.”

China disputed Germany’s accusation that one if its warships behaved dangerously toward a plane in the Red Sea, further complicating Beijing’s ties with Europe.

“As we have learned from the competent authorities, what Germany said is fully inconsistent with the facts,” Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said at a regular press briefing in Beijing on Wednesday.

Mao said her nation “fulfills its responsibility as a major country and contributes to the safety of international shipping lanes,” adding that “the two sides should strengthen communication in a facts-based and timely way to avoid misunderstanding and miscalculation.”

Starbucks Corp. has received proposals from prospective investors in its China business, most of whom are eyeing a controlling stake in the operation, said people familiar with the matter.

The Seattle-based company is now in the process of sifting through proposals and shortlisting a group of potential investors for the next round of bidding, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private.

The company may share financial and operating details with those bidders to help them assess the valuation of its Chinese assets, the people said.

Nvidia shares jumped more than 2% on Wednesday, topping a $4 trillion market cap for the first time as investors scooped up stock in the tech giant building the hardware for the generative artificial intelligence boom. The chipmaker is the first company to ever achieve this market value.

Nvidia is the world’s most valuable company, surpassing Microsoft and Apple, both of which hit the $3 trillion mark before Nvidia. Microsoft is also one of Nvidia’s biggest and most important customers.

Chocolate makers were already grappling with record prices for cocoa butter, which provides that melt-in-your-mouth feel. Now they are also paying up for the powder that lends their product its colour and taste.

Cocoa powder, used in everything from baking mixes to protein shakes, is now in short supply too. Prices for the key ingredient, produced when cocoa beans are ground, surged about 16% in the US over the past year, and are now trading near a record.

It’s the latest twist in a global cocoa crisis that has hurt profits for the world’s largest chocolate makers and left consumers paying more for less. Companies from Mars Inc. to Hershey Co. have turned to tactics including reducing bar sizes, adding things like nuts and even promoting non-chocolate products altogether.

Thaksin Shinawatra, the de facto leader of Thailand’s ruling party, expects a court to ultimately clear allegations of ethical misconduct against his daughter, Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who was suspended from office last month.

“I’m confident in my daughter’s good intentions, and I trust the court will consider the facts with reason,” Thaksin told local broadcaster Nation TV, when asked about the allegations against Paetongtarn. “Everything can be explained.”

Paetongtarn is the youngest of Thaksin’s three children and the third member of the influential Shinawatra clan to become Thailand’s prime minister. She was suspended from office by the country’s Constitutional Court until it ruled on a petition by a group of senators, who alleged she had violated ethical standards by blaming the Thai army for escalating a border dispute in a leaked phone call with former Cambodian leader Hun Sen.

President Donald Trump sowed fresh chaos in metals markets by indicating the US would implement a higher-than-expected 50% tariff on copper imports, spurring a record spike in New York futures and a drop in the global benchmark.

The plan, announced in an apparently off-the-cuff comment to reporters, marks the latest twist in a tumultuous period for industrial commodities, as the US leader aims to encourage more mining and smelting at home. He’s already raised fees on steel and aluminium imports, while probes into flows of multiple other metals are in train.

The European Central Bank must keep all its options open, given elevated economic uncertainty, and should neither promise nor exclude another cut in interest rates, according to Governing Council member Joachim Nagel.

“It seems fair to say we are in a good position to respond to further developments,” the Bundesbank president said Wednesday in Tuebingen, Germany. “Yet it would be unwise to commit to a certain interest-rate path, to envisage a further step or indeed, to rule it out.”

Nagel, one of the Governing Council’s more hawkish members, said, “heightened uncertainty will not quickly disappear.” Therefore, the ECB “would be well advised to act prudently and to make data-dependent decisions on a meeting-by-meeting basis.”

Daimler Truck Holding AG expects US orders to remain at “extremely” low levels until uncertainty over President Donald Trump’s trade policies subsides and freight volumes begin to recover.

Chief Financial Officer Eva Scherer said logistics companies have cut back on truck purchases amid a drop in shipments of tariff-hit goods such as steel and aluminum. US imports have fallen sharply since the introduction of the tariffs, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

“We’re in a situation where it’s very difficult to predict from a CFO perspective,” Scherer told Bloomberg News. “Scenario planning is more important than ever.”

The comments underscore the industry’s struggle in the US as trade disruptions delay investment in new fleets. Daimler Truck’s North America business posted a 20% sales decline in the second quarter.

Mexico inflation slowed marginally less than expected in June, as the central bank evaluates the pace of its current easing cycle.

Annual inflation decelerated to 4.32% last month, higher than the 4.30% median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg and below May’s 4.42% print. Banxico, as the central bank is known, targets inflation at 3%, plus or minus one percentage point.

The core reading, which excludes volatile items such as food and fuel and is closely watched by the central bank, rose to 4.24% from 4.06% a month earlier, the national statistics agency reported Wednesday.

Ukraine said it detained two Chinese citizens on suspicion of espionage regarding the missile system Kyiv used to sink Moscow’s Black Sea flagship in the early stages of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

A 24-year-old former student of a Kyiv technical institute and his father face as long as 15 years in prison after being apprehended trying to obtain documents on the production of Neptune missiles from a Ukrainian citizen involved in weapons design, Ukraine’s Security Service said in a statement on Wednesday.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the detentions.

Premium electric vehicle brand Zeekr unveiled its first plug-in hybrid sport utility vehicle, joining the growing number of Chinese EV makers incorporating gasoline engines into new models to help ease range anxiety.

Built on the new 900-volt Sustainable Experience Architecture-S platform developed by parent Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., the full-sized 9X is equipped with ultra fast charging that will see its battery power reach 80% from 10% in just 10 minutes.

China’s top auto and tech companies are in the race to reduce charging times even further, though the widespread roll out of technology like BYD Co.’s five-minute charge battery requires the building of thousands of stations that can support upgraded EVs.

Close Federal Reserve watchers have a message for anyone who thinks the next leader of the US central bank will deliver lower borrowing costs on a silver platter: Don’t count on it.

While it’s an unlikely outcome, some investors have staked out positions in futures markets that will profit if interest rates drop immediately after Jerome Powell’s term as chair ends in May 2026. The trade has been fueled by President Donald Trump’s pledge to nominate “somebody that wants to cut rates.”

Those investors have targeted futures contracts linked to the Secured Overnight Financing Rate, or SOFR, which closely tracks the benchmark federal funds rate. They’ve sold off contracts that expire prior to Powell’s exit and piled into contracts that expire just after the expected arrival of a Trump-appointed chair.

HSBC Holdings Plc is ramping up growth plans for its UK wealth-management operations as Europe’s largest bank seeks to double the assets it oversees for well-heeled individuals in its home nation.

The London-based lender is undertaking a recruitment drive for bankers to cater to affluent, high-income and super-rich individuals, according to a statement and interview on Tuesday. The bank is also opening 50 dedicated spaces this year to bolster its wealth services in flagship branches across Britain.

Building on similar efforts in Asia, HSBC launched its first UK wealth center this week in London’s St. James’s district to boost services for ultra-wealthy individuals at its private banking division and affluent clients in the so-called “Premier” unit, which is hiring about 200 staff this year.

The European Stoxx Aerospace and Defense index rose to a new record high this morning, following a gain of around 1.1%. So far this year, the index has surged more than 53%.

Top performers in the sector on Wednesday include Germany’s Renk, which jumped 5.3% after Bloomberg reported the military vehicle parts maker was considering expanding to offer a civilian business. Poland’s Lubawa was last seen trading 3% higher, while Airbus was up by 1.2%.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer declined to rule out extending a freeze in income tax thresholds as his government faces growing pressure to boost tax revenues in order to fill a swelling budgetary hole.

Starmer reiterated his Labour government’s commitment to an election pledge not to raise income tax, value added tax and national insurance on workers when asked to do so in the House of Commons on Wednesday. But asked if he would recommit to an existing plan to resume uprating income tax thresholds from 2028-29 in line with inflation, Starmer failed to do so.

“We will stick to our manifesto commitments and we will stick to our fiscal rules,” Starmer said in the House of Commons on Wednesday. “No prime minister or chancellor can write a budget in advance.”

The Bank of England will review the overall level of capital requirements it sets for banks for the first time since 2019 after officials determined that lenders have largely been able to keep an adequate cushion against hard times for much of the past decade.

The central bank will provide an update on that assessment in November, according to its twice-yearly Financial Stability Report published Wednesday. The Financial Policy Committee left the countercyclical buffer at 2% at its meeting on June 27.

“Considered over a longer time horizon, capital levels in aggregate had been broadly stable since the completion of the phase-in of the post-global financial crisis bank capital framework in 2019,” the minutes of their meeting said. While describing the level of capital currently as “broadly appropriate,” it was time to “refresh that assessment.”

BP Plc has agreed to sell 300 fuel-retail sites and 15 electric-vehicle charging hubs in the Netherlands to Catom BV, according to a statement on Wednesday. A figure for the transaction was not disclosed.

The deal includes EV charging sites under construction and the associated Dutch fleet business. It comes after BP said earlier this year that it intended to sell over 260 fuel-retail sites in Austria, including EV charging assets.

The sale is part of BP’s broader strategy to streamline its downstream portfolio — which encompasses fuel stations, EV charging points and refineries — following a strategic reset unveiled in February. As part of that plan, the energy giant aims to divest $20 billion in assets by the end of 2027, in a bid to enhance cash flow and operational efficiency.

Poland is scrapping plans to carve out unprofitable coal assets from state-controlled utilities and instead seeks to introduce new support measures to keep the country’s electricity system stable.

Warsaw-listed power producers traded higher after an initial drop, with the WIG-Energy sub-index advancing as much as 2.4% on Wednesday to within touching distance of the highest level in a decade.

Poland’s government has dragged its feet about the NABE carve-out project, which was drafted by the previous administration, as it seeks to reduce the role of dirty coal-fired power plants and roll out more renewable energy capacity. Despite an acceleration in its green transformation, the country still relies on coal for a greater share of its electricity production than any other European Union member.

BP Plc has agreed to sell 300 fuel-retail sites and 15 electric-vehicle charging hubs in the Netherlands to Catom BV, according to a statement on Wednesday. A figure for the transaction was not disclosed.

The deal includes EV charging sites under construction and the associated Dutch fleet business. It comes after BP said earlier this year that it intended to sell over 260 fuel-retail sites in Austria, including EV charging assets.

The sale is part of BP’s broader strategy to streamline its downstream portfolio — which encompasses fuel stations, EV charging points and refineries — following a strategic reset unveiled in February. As part of that plan, the energy giant aims to divest $20 billion in assets by the end of 2027, in a bid to enhance cash flow and operational efficiency.

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