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Europe
BBC Business

What's happening to petrol prices now oil is back to pre-Iran war levels?

Image source, Maskot/Getty ImagesByFaarea Masud, Alex Daniel and Michael Race, Business reportersPublished2 March 2026Updated 26 June 2026Motorists in the UK are already seeing cheaper fuel prices after the US and Iran struck an agreement to end their war, with further falls expected in the coming weeks. When the conflict began on 28 February, fuel costs jumped as the war significantly disrupted the production and transportation of energy across the Middle East. However, in recent weeks they have dropped and the framework deal reached between the US and Iran has sent them to their lowest point since the first days of the war in early March. Motoring group the AA has said it expects pump prices to fall further and "the timing is perfect for the start of the summer holidays". Meanwhile rival group the RAC has said price reductions "should be faster and greater, particularly for diesel". Crude oil is a key ingredient in petrol and diesel, which means that higher wholesale costs make filling up a car more expensive. Analysts say every $10 (£7.53) increase in the oil price pushes up pump prices by roughly 7p a litre. Since the war began, the price of a barrel of Brent crude – the global benchmark for wholesale oil prices – has been very volatile. Before the conflict, Brent was about $70 a barrel, but the conflict saw it peak at above $120. The price has been slipping in recent weeks and after the framework deal was signed it fell to around $76 a barrel. It has continued to drop and at one point fell below $72.48 (£55) a barrel, the price it was at the day before the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran on 28 February. According to the RAC, the price of petrol reached an Iran war peak of 159.53p a litre on 28 May, while diesel's highest price during the conflict was 191.54p a litre on 15 April. Since 28 May, the price of petrol has come down. The RAC said that on Friday, 26 June show the average price of petrol had fallen 2p in a week to 151.98p and diesel by 4p to 168.64p. The RAC says it now costs £83.59 to fill up a 55-litre family car with petrol and £92.75 for diesel, However, this is still £10.50 and £14.40 respectively more than it did at the end of February before the conflict began.

What's happening to petrol prices now oil is back to pre-Iran war levels?
North America
CNBC Finance

The brands winning with World Cup advertising may not be the sponsors

As people around the world tune into this summer's World Cup, some of the brands generating the most buzz aren't even official sponsors of the tournament. The list of official sponsors for this year's World Cup, hosted in cities across the U.S., Canada and Mexico, include global household names like Adidas, Coca-Cola and Qatar Airways. But even before the tournament began, the spotlight fell on companies like Levi Strauss & Co., Taco Bell and Texas-based convenience store chain Buc-ee's. Some have garnered traction on social media for their creative marketing strategies, while others have benefited from organic customer response with the influx of international players and fans. McDonald's celebrated the tournament with limited-time menu items and cups. Taco Bell leaned into a new campaign to support fans in celebration or support depending on the outcome of a match. According to marketing research firm WARC Media, advertising spending on this year's World Cup tournament is expected to reach $10.5 billion. That's just below spending for the 2018 World Cup, hosted by Russia, which totaled roughly $12.6 billion. Market intelligence firm Sensor Tower told CNBC that World Cup advertising spend increased 42% week over week in the days leading up to the first game. The firm tracked that Taco Bell and Duracell have both increased their advertising spend in the past few weeks, though the top 10 World Cup advertisers by spend over the past three months have been sponsors or broadcast partners of the event. According to market research firm Meltwater, in the ramp-up to the World Cup, non-sponsor brand collaborations generated nearly double the engagement of official sponsors, reaching roughly 61 million engagements versus just 33 million. The firm told CNBC that while sponsored advertisements led in volume, distribution and creative quality helped propel non-sponsors to higher engagement, with the most social media engagement coming from TikTok. Since the tournament began, non-sponsor brands have surpassed 57,000 mentions on social media versus just over 43,000 for official sponsors, the company said. "A big takeaway from this World Cup is that you don't need an official sponsorship to own the cultural moment anymore," Meltwater CEO John Box told CNBC. "The brands that will win the next tournament aren't necessarily the ones with the biggest budgets, but instead the ones who are set up to see what's trending in real time, the creativity to connect it back to your brand, and the speed to act before the moment passes." According to Meltwater, Coca-Cola and Adidas accounted for half of all sponsor mentions in the buildup to the tournament. But in the final 11 days before the first match on June 11, McDonald's became the clear winner, with engagement share rising from 2.6% to 23%. Of the non-sponsors, Lego accounted for 82% of the top 50 most engaging non-sponsor posts across social media platforms, Meltwater said. The construction toy company's World Cup campaign delivered 12 times the sponsor average in the days leading up to the tournament.

The brands winning with World Cup advertising may not be the sponsors
North America
Yahoo Finance

Enphase Just Found A New Story To Tell

The solar sector’s sudden bursts of volatility often have less to do with immediate product shipments and more to do with the market’s hunger for a new narrative. Look no further than the dizzying, counterintuitive price swings of Enphase Energy (ENPH) over a single 72-hour window. On Thursday, June 18, 2026, the stock rocketed up 9.4% in a single session, outperforming the S&P 500 amid a broad rally across solar names, right as the company announced it had begun shipping its most powerful commercial microinverter yet, the GaN-based IQ9S-3P™. Yet, just days later on Tuesday, June 23, the script completely inverted: the stock tumbled nearly 9.9% on a sharp “sell the news” macro pullback, even though Enphase had just formally launched its next-generation IQ9N™ microinverter for the U.S. residential market. Following that sharp drop, the stock remained flat, absorbing the volatility to close the June 25 session at $47.21. On the surface, this aggressive back-to-back hardware rollout looks like a straightforward operational win. However, the rapid whiplash between a single-day near-double-digit leap and an immediate post-launch correction points to a deeper dynamic. Does an upgraded hardware portfolio running on cutting-edge gallium nitride architecture truly justify that kind of market volatility, or was the market chasing a completely different story beneath the surface? An Unexpected AI Angle Look a little closer, and you’ll find the real story. The same day the stock spiked, analysts at Barclays upgraded the stock, but only from Under Weight to Equal Weight, a move to the sidelines rather than a full-throated buy call, with the price target lifted to $51 from $30. They pointed to Enphase’s emerging solid-state transformer (SST) business as “a credible entry point into the evolving data center power stack,” estimating a U.S. addressable market of roughly $2 billion a year by the late 2020s. Suddenly, a familiar solar tech company was being discussed in the same breath as AI data center power — and in this market, even a neutral-rated nod to that theme carries weight. This new story arrives at a critical time. The company’s revenue over the last twelve months is actually down 1.6%. While that’s an improvement over its recent history, it’s hardly the explosive growth investors once prized. The market was hungry for a new reason to get excited, and the prospect of powering the AI revolution is a compelling one. The IQ9S-3P™ Commercial Microinverter launch provided the tangible news hook, but the SST roadmap provided the vision. The subsequent drop on June 23, however, serves as a harsh reality check. Short-term traders quickly used the residential IQ9N™ launch as a liquidity window to lock in profits, exposing the friction between a years-away theoretical opportunity and immediate financial performance. Now, the burden of proof sits entirely on Enphase. The company must prove it can successfully convert an investment bank’s theoretical data center blueprint into actual, high-margin enterprise dollars, or risk its stock remaining tethered to a sluggish domestic solar recovery. Chasing single-name moves is its own kind of risk, whether you are trying to time a sudden tech rally or watching how traditional energy giants manage unexpected operational headwinds—as explored in The Number That Could Test Exxon Mobil Stock. The Trefis High Quality (HQ) Portfolio takes the other side of that bet: 30 quality names, sized and re-balanced with discipline, and a track record of outpacing a benchmark that combines the three major indices – the S&P 500, S&P Mid-cap, and Russell 2000.

Enphase Just Found A New Story To Tell
North America
CNBC Finance

Rise in memory chip costs puts pressure on retailers of laptops and smartphones

As the global artificial intelligence race accelerates, memory chips are getting more expensive. As a result, costs of some consumer electronics are beginning to rise for retailers and consumers alike. Memory storage, known as RAM, is crucial for all computing devices, including phones, tablets and laptops. The cost of chips has been rising due to a supply shortage driven largely by massive demand for AI data centers. Companies such as Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices and Google have been scrambling to secure RAM for their chips. Apple on Thursday announced it's raising its prices on MacBooks and iPads — passing along the rising cost of memory to consumers — with the potential for more price hikes down the road. The memory shortage is an "unprecedented challenge," the company said in a statement. Incoming Best Buy CEO Jason Bonfig said on a call with reporters earlier this month that the company expects its computing division will be the most affected by price hikes. "We did see some staggered price increases in Q1, so moving to Q2, we do expect [average sale prices] to increase and units from an elasticity perspective to be impacted," Bonfig said. "We did bring in more inventory in Q1, which you can see on our balance sheet, which does help us to mitigate it." Soaring memory costs are expected to reduce global personal computer shipments by 10.4% and smartphone shipments by 8.4% in 2026, according to Ranjit Atwal, a senior director analyst at Gartner, citing February research. Gartner also projected that PC prices will increase by 17% and smartphone prices will grow by 13%, compared with 2025 levels. "What's happening this time around, compared to previous times that memory prices have gone up, is the extent with which prices of memory is increasing," Atwal said. "Secondly is the length of time that we think prices will remain high. ... This one is looking like it won't be until the end of 2027 before we get to any type of regional pricing." While the price increases may not be immediately apparent in stores, Atwal said, it's inevitable that the demand will outpace the supply. Some retailers pulled forward inventory in the first quarter in anticipation of the rising prices, he added, but that cushion can only last so long. "It will catch up with everyone," he said. "You end up in a point where you just have no control over what you can do. You have to pass it on, and that's the difference now versus where we were before. The market's more mature as well, so there's an expectation that people are going to buy up anyway." Consumers might not even be aware of the price hikes, Atwal said. Most people upgrade their laptops after four or five years and may not even remember what they previously paid or what the specifications of their old models were, he said. That gap may lead to a somewhat "delayed impact" on consumer behavior, Atwal said, but the eventual effect is bound to hit them soon. So far, Bonfig said, Best Buy isn't seeing any indication that consumers are pulling forward purchases or even that the rising memory costs are affecting their budgets.

Rise in memory chip costs puts pressure on retailers of laptops and smartphones
Europe
BBC Business

We had packed lunches every day for 10 years and retired at 40

Every winter, Alan and Katie Donegan would avoid turning on the heating at their home in the south of England. "Instead, we wore extra layers and used hot water bottles - we turned it into a game," says Alan. "It wasn't suffering, it was strategy." While the couple admit that others thought they were "extreme" or "mad" to put so much emphasis on not spending money, Alan explains that they were "laser-focused on buying freedom". By "freedom" he means early retirement, which the Donegans managed to achieve seven years ago when Alan was only 40, and Katie just 35. The two rarely had takeaways and always took packed lunches to work. "We were £40,000 better off over 10 years from just that one lunch habit," says Alan. "We even charged our phones while out and hunted for discarded Nectar [supermarket] vouchers. You can decide if that's crazy or genius, but it worked." Alan had worked as a landscape gardener before launching a training and life-coaching business, while Katie was an actuary, or risk assessor, for a financial firm. Aside from their good incomes, their extreme saving habits meant they were able to retire early - and they put as much money as they could possibly afford into investments. "Every pound we invested was a step closer to the life we wanted," says Katie. They quit work after their savings hit £1m. Alan and Katie are part of a small but growing global movement called Fire, which stands for "Financially Independent, Retire Early". From a little-known concept 15 years ago, there are now almost a million members of the main Fire discussion board on social media site Reddit, and mainstream financial institutions now publish numerous guides on the topic. The central tenet is that you live extremely frugally during your working life, so that you can retire as soon as possible.

We had packed lunches every day for 10 years and retired at 40
Europe
BBC Business

South Korea unveils $880bn chip and AI investment plan

South Korea has unveiled plans for at least $880bn (£666bn) of investments to build out the country's chip manufacturing and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities in the coming years. It is part of the country's so-called Three Mega Projects to develop new chip production hubs, data centres and robotics technology. The plan is aimed at rejuvenating the economies of areas outside the capital Seoul, President Lee Jae-myung said on Monday. It comes as regional rivals like Taiwan, China and Japan are investing heavily in chip factories and other technologies as the AI boom pushes up demand for semiconductors. "We must secure the core elements of AI faster than any other country," Lee said. "Semiconductors, physical AI, and AI data centres are the triple axis for a great leap forward." Lee announced the plans in a televised event alongside the leaders of Samsung and SK Hynix, the country's two largest chipmakers. Lee also announced plans to build other AI infrastructure hubs outside of Seoul, where most of the country's advanced factories are currently concentrated. Earlier, Lee said in a statement that the project was a matter of "survival" for the country to address the decline in rural areas due to the concentration of industries in Seoul. "Now, we must break this long-standing cycle of discrimination and marginalisation - not only for the sake of justice and equity, but also to ensure sustainable and inclusive growth," he wrote. Samsung and SK Group, which count the likes of AI chip giant Nvidia among their customers, have been some of the biggest beneficiaries of the surge in spending on AI infrastructure. US tech giants - including Google, Amazon and Meta - said they will spend $650bn into the technology this year. SK Hynix's stock market valuation topped $1tn in May, driven by the boom in AI data centres.

South Korea unveils $880bn chip and AI investment plan
North America
CNBC Finance

Estrogen patches are hard to find, and it may not be resolved any time soon

Estrogen patches are in short supply as demand for the menopause medications skyrockets, and it could take at least a year for manufacturers to catch up. Prescriptions of estrogen patches have increased 162% over the past two years, according to data from HealthVerity. Already rising demand was turbocharged last fall when the Food and Drug Administration removed a more than 20-year-old black box warning discouraging women from taking hormone replacement therapy. Manufacturers are struggling to keep pace. Three types of patches are in shortage, according to data from the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, which relies on reports from healthcare providers. The FDA, using a different methodology, hasn't declared a shortage of estradiol. "You can get them, but it takes a lot of time and effort when we're all so busy at this time of our lives," said Dr. Susan Loeb-Zeitlin, director of the Women's Midlife Center at Weill Cornell Medicine. Doctors across the country describe the difficulty their patients are experiencing to find hormone replacement therapies, particularly estrogen patches. When asked how much time she spends trying to help people find the medication, Dr. Francesca Turner, a doctor in Iowa, just laughs. "Between my nurse, patients' pharmacists and myself, we are doing this pretty much every day trying to figure out how to navigate this for our patients," Turner said. Doctors prescribe estrogen to treat the symptoms of menopause, including hot flashes and brain fog, which occur when a woman's body produce less of the hormone. Estradiol is the most potent type and is commonly administered through a patch that gradually releases the hormone on the skin to help ease physical and mental symptoms of menopause. Doctors prefer giving estrogen topically because it's considered a safer option than orally, Loeb-Zeitlin said. For more than two decades, the FDA advised women to avoid treating menopause with estrogen because a 2002 study called the Women's Health Initiative suggested it could put women at greater risk of breast cancer and other conditions like dementia. Later analyses found the participants in the study were older than most women starting hormone replacement therapy and the risks of taking it were overstated. The FDA reversed course last fall and said it would work with companies to remove references to the risks in the labels of the medications. By then, interest had already rebounded. Doctors credit prominent voices like Oprah Winfrey and social media users for shining a light on menopause, the life-altering symptoms that some women experience and how hormone replacement therapies can help. "The demand has actually come from more of the community of women saying within their groups or communities that they are still suffering," said Dr. Jessica Shepherd, chief medical officer of Hers. "This was much more brought about by social media, where people are really able to air their voice, and you see a lot of celebrities that were talking about their journey as well." Seeing the momentum, Hers, part of the telehealth provider Hims & Hers that's best known for offering erectile dysfunction drugs and GLP-1s, about a year and a half ago decided to get into the perimenopause and menopause business, Shepherd said. Interest in the program has tripled since the company introduced it in October, the company said. Prescriptions of all types of estrogen have risen 78% over the past two years, according to data from HealthVerity. The patches have proven particularly popular, with prescriptions more than doubling to 1.6 million in May from 594,000 in June of 2024, HealthVerity found. They now account for 44% of all estrogen prescriptions.

Estrogen patches are hard to find, and it may not be resolved any time soon
Europe
BBC Business

Will Andy Burnham's devolution plan raise economic growth?

Image source, Getty ImagesByBen ChuPolicy & Analysis Correspondent, BBC VerifyPublished8 hours agoAndy Burnham promised the "biggest rebalancing of power our country has seen" as part of his plans for the UK if he becomes the next prime minister. In his first major policy speech, Burnham said on Monday he would seek to take power away from Whitehall and devolve it to all parts of the UK. This would include Greater Manchester and other city regions in England. But the former Mayor of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority also said he would further extend devolution in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - though not giving detail - and also promised to give Greater London more devolved powers. Burnham, who was sworn in as the new MP for Makerfield last week, said this radical devolution of power was essential for delivering higher economic growth in all parts of the UK. "We will never get growth up to the level Britain needs unless every single postcode in the land is set up to contribute to it," he said. BBC Verify has looked at what impact further devolution could be expected to have on economic growth across the UK. Scotland has had extensive devolution, with the Scottish parliament now holding powers covering health, education, local government, environment, justice and policing. Holyrood also has powers to set most income tax rates (although not the level of the tax-free personal allowance) and has some control over welfare. The Welsh Senedd's devolution powers are more limited compared with Scotland, though it does include running the NHS in Wales, education, local government and housing. The Senedd also has some tax powers, including the ability to to vary income tax rates. But, unlike Scotland, it has no justice or policing powers. Under the terms of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, the Northern Ireland Assembly has significant devolved powers, including over health, education and housing. There has also been some devolution, external to English city regions over the past decade, albeit less extensive than for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Manchester has some of the most extensive devolved powers of any of the English city regions, with some authority over transport, housing, skills and health spending.

Will Andy Burnham's devolution plan raise economic growth?
Asia
The Hindu BusinessLine

Oil, gas tankers cross Hormuz via Oman-Side route after u-turns

Oil and gas shipping along a US-protected corridor in the Strait of Hormuz showed signs of recovering Sunday, a day after a batch of vessels performed unexplained U-turns and detours in the vital energy corridor. Six oil and gas freighters were observed navigating on a route that cleaves close to Oman’s coast. Those are only what’s observable, with many ships known to sail through with their transponders off to avoid digital detection. Western navies continue to say that, while traffic continues, the threat risk is “substantial” and that the center of the strait has been mined. Two other small tankers exited the Persian Gulf by sailing closer to Iran. The oil market is fixated on what’s moving through Hormuz and how, a task that’s become tougher because of ships trying to avoid the attentions of Iran’s military as they come and go. Over Friday and Saturday, at least eight vessels were seen U-turning as they sailed through along the Omani route. Four of them subsequently went on to sail northward toward the Iranian route, and exited the strait. Of the U-turners, at least one fuel tanker appeared to be making a fresh attempt to transit on Sunday, sailing past the tip of Oman’s Musandam peninsula. Another products tanker transited along the same route earlier, openly signaling its intentions, and is now broadcasting a location in the Gulf of Oman. Others are opting to cross in the dark, popping up once clear of the waterway. One Suezmax crude carrier appeared in the Gulf of Oman on Sunday after last broadcasting from within the Persian Gulf on Saturday. There was no immediate explanation for the ships that turned back on Friday and Saturday, though Iran has repeatedly said that vessels should only transit the strait through the route designated and authorized by the Islamic Republic. Naval liaison groups have yet to comment on the abrupt U-turns, although the Joint Maritime Intelligence Center repeated on Sunday that Iranian forces continue to harass shipping. On Saturday, 19 vessels crossed the Strait of Hormuz in either direction, but only one openly signaled its inbound transit along the Omani coast, Kpler data show. That compares with Friday’s count of 13 along the route. This tally includes only observed transits, and figures may change as more dark crossings — made without transponders switched on — are verified. For much of the war, several ships attempting to leave the Persian Gulf through Hormuz have reported warnings by Iranian forces over radio communications, saying that they should not proceed without getting Tehran’s permission. Iran has fired on some of the vessels that sailed on. Tanker companies have been struggling with the stop-start reopening of Hormuz. Their willingness to take on the risk of crossing the narrow waterway is crucial for the normalization of the oil market, still recovering from a historic four-month crisis. Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments. We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.

Oil, gas tankers cross Hormuz via Oman-Side route after u-turns