Latest Developments

Asia
The Hindu BusinessLine

FPIs turn net buyers, clock ₹16,461 crore in this week

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) turned net buyers in Indian markets during the week ended July 3, 2026, pumping in a combined net investment of ₹16,461.84 crore across equity, debt, and hybrid instruments over all trading sessions, according to data from the National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL). The week, which began with the final two sessions of June before transitioning into July, saw consistent net inflows on each day. On June 29, FPIs logged their highest single-session net investment of the week at ₹5,986.33 crore, followed by ₹4,334.95 crore on June 30. In July, net inflows stood at ₹552.98 crore on July 1, ₹2,608.01 crore on July 2, and ₹3,000.90 crore on July 3. The positive momentum this week stands in contrast to the broader trend for June as a whole. For the full month of June 2026, FPIs were net sellers in equities to the tune of ₹49,340.45 crore through stock exchanges and the primary market combined, even as debt markets saw substantial net buying with FPIs investing ₹30,620.28 crore under the General Limit, ₹21,652.09 crore under the Fully Accessible Route (FAR), and ₹3,246.04 crore under the Voluntary Retention Route (VRR). Overall, June closed with a net FPI inflow of ₹4,668.86 crore across all instruments. “The highlight of the June FPI activity is the significant tapering of FPI selling and their buying for a few days towards the end of June,” said Dr. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Investments Limited. “Going forward, FPI outflows are likely to decline.” For the year 2026 so far, FPIs remain heavy net sellers, with cumulative net outflows of ₹2,12,872.28 crore across all asset classes as of July 3. Equity has borne the brunt of this selling pressure, with FPIs recording net outflows of ₹2,74,272.90 crore through the secondary and primary markets combined on a year-to-date basis. “The total FPI selling for 2026, till the end of June, stands at ₹2,94,387 crore [through stock exchanges],” Vijayakumar noted. “Since FPIs invested ₹20,114 crore through the primary market, the net FPI outflow this year through June end stood at ₹2,74,272 crore.” Market participants are now watching several domestic and global factors that could influence the direction of FPI flows in the coming weeks. Vijayakumar pointed to crude oil prices and rupee stability as key variables. “Crash in crude price to below $72 and the big inflows expected from the FCNR(B) deposits will bring India’s BoP deficit significantly down,” he said. “This will help the rupee to stabilise and even appreciate, which in turn, will prevent big FPI selling.” Looking ahead, analysts expect institutional flows to remain sensitive to the progress of the monsoon season, given its implications for rural demand and inflation, as well as the unfolding Q1FY27 corporate earnings season. Global cues, including the trajectory of US-Iran negotiations, crude oil price movements, and the minutes of the US Federal Reserve’s June policy meeting, are also expected to shape sentiment. “The weakening of the chip trade globally, and the significant correction in Kospi in particular, may even persuade FPIs to turn buyers in India,” Vijayakumar added. 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.

FPIs turn net buyers, clock ₹16,461 crore in this week
Asia
The Hindu BusinessLine

If you are reachable, you’re breachable: Zscaler’s Jay Chaudhry

On the sidelines of Zenith Live ’26 in Vienna, sitting across from Zscaler’s founder, CEO, and Chairman Jay Chaudhry, it’s easy to be reminded of a scene from Unstoppable. In it, welder Ned Oldham, when asked how he felt while he was bringing a runaway train under control, famously shrugs off the risky, high-speed chase as just being in his ‘comfort zone’. Zscaler shares are down by over 50 per cent in the past year, caught in the SaaSpocalypse, but Chaudhry appears to be in his comfort zone. Unlike other SaaS CXOs who have gone on the defensive about their products’ relevance as AI upends the software industry, Chaudhry had been on the offensive just the previous day, declaring in his conference keynote address: “Zscaler was made for this moment.” For those who have followed his work closely, this may not come as a surprise. Last year, asked by this paper what he had to tell young entrepreneurs in India, he had replied: “Treat a problem as a challenge. Human beings do exceptionally well when they look at a problem as a challenge.” He went on to add, “Don’t be attracted to money. If we (he and his wife) had been attracted to money, we wouldn’t have taken the risks.” The Nasdaq-listed global cybersecurity company, with $24-billion market cap, is the fifth of his ventures, after founding and selling four other successful tech startups in the past decades in the US. Born to farmers with limited means in Himachal Pradesh, he made it to a US university in 1980 on a scholarship and providence. He had almost abandoned his US dream as he could not afford the flight tickets, when fate connected him to JRD Tata and a loan for his travel. To explain why Zscaler was ‘made for this moment’ he rewinds to the origins of the company. Back in 2007 he was looking to do something ‘big’ after four successful exits. The world was getting more mobile — SaaS, AWS, iPhone... With applications abounding, and users everywhere, he sensed the need for a paradigm shift in the approach to cybersecurity, laying the foundations for Zscaler. Zscaler works on a ‘zero-trust’ principle — treat every user and application as a potential threat until verified as safe. In a world where users need to access any application, anywhere, on any device and on any network, he is of the view that the firewall-based systems are not effective. If the firewall is breached, bad actors can do what they want. Verification of each and every access and restricted access make for a better approach, he says. Zscaler was a pioneer in turning the zero-trust concept into a subscription cloud service that allows customers to hide their apps from hackers. “If you are reachable, you are breachable,” he says. He explains how, even as CEO, he has not been accorded the ‘right’ to make changes to the ERP system or the company’s public cloud. By limiting the access to applications and critical infrastructure to a small group in the virtual world, one improves the security, he says. By executing a “never trust, always verify” protocol for every interaction, ‘zero trust’ isolates the user from the network. This ensures that even if hackers hijack a device, they are trapped in a dead end, with no way to see or infect the rest of the company. He points out that with Mythos-like models, more and more security vulnerabilities will be discovered going forward. “Software always has vulnerabilities. As part of Anthropic’s Glasswing project, we have been busy finding and fixing vulnerabilities in our software infrastructure.” Further, with agentic AIs set to outnumber employees in many enterprises down the years, he believes the role of zero-trust and Zscaler has assumed even more importance in an AI world. Besides making it easier for hackers to identify vulnerabilities, the rapid growth in agentic AI usage also means the risks are greater when it gets compromised and remains in the corporate network — “yesterday, users were the weakest link; today agents are the weakest link when it comes to security”. Given his long stint in the tech ecosystem, what is his take on the SaaSpocalypse? Chaudhry argues for differentiation: “A piece of Claude code cannot write what SAP has done for ERP systems; these are very complex, whereas a simple basic accounting system for a mom-and-pop store can be replaced. The easiest things to disrupt are analytics and reporting.” Complex systems require a better understanding, technical expertise and process. Zscaler as a global infrastructure company with a presence in around 160 locations and a seamless network connectivity has strong moats, he says. His 35 per cent stake in Zscaler (held directly and indirectly through trusts) gives him the leeway to act as per his conviction, unlike other SaaS founder-CEOs. Such a high level of ownership is rare in US tech companies after multiple rounds of pre-IPO funding lead to ownership dilution. Zscaler was largely bootstrapped and its performance remains robust. The company is expected to close FY26 (ending July) with revenue of $3.3 billion and 25 per cent growth versus 23 per cent a year ago, and EBIT of around $750 million with margin at 23 per cent.

If you are reachable, you’re breachable: Zscaler’s Jay Chaudhry
Europe
BBC Business

Asia stock markets slide as tech shares slump

Image source, AFP via Getty ImagesByOsmond ChiaBusiness reporterPublished4 hours agoAsian stock markets fell sharply on Friday, led by a sell-off in technology firms as investors worried that recent jumps in share prices had gone too far. Trading on South Korea's Kospi was temporarily halted as an 8% fall in the benchmark index triggered a mechanism intended to curb panic selling. The index closed 5.8% lower. It comes after shares in Apple fell sharply on Thursday after it announced it would raise the prices of its iPads and MacBooks due to the soaring cost of computer chips. Some investors are also concerned about the hundreds of billions of dollars being spent this year by big tech firms to build artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure. Traders are reassessing the valuations of tech stocks, while some are taking profits after a rally in recent months, said senior partner David Makaryan from the Alpha Pacific Group, an investment firm. "The long term investment case for AI remains compelling, but investors are becoming far more selective about which companies can justify the valuations the market has assigned to them," Makaryan said. Elsewhere in Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 closed more than 4% lower as shares in technology investment giant SoftBank fell by 12.5%. Other major indexes in the region, including in Taiwan and mainland China, were also sharply lower. Friday's 20-minute halt on the Kospi marked the third time the so-called circuit breaker has been triggered this week and the fifth such event this year. On Thursday in the US, Apple shares dropped by 6% - its biggest one-day fall in more than a year. Microsoft shares also fell after it announced higher prices for its Xbox gaming consoles, citing higher costs of components. The moves have raised concerns that rising component prices could hit sales of devices, which in turn may slow demand for computer chips.

Asia stock markets slide as tech shares slump
Europe
The Guardian

Here’s what to do if your StubHub World Cup resale ticket is canceled

Many World Cup fans who bought resold tickets on StubHub were notified days or hours before the match that their tickets did not exist. Photograph: NurPhoto/Getty ImagesView image in fullscreenMany World Cup fans who bought resold tickets on StubHub were notified days or hours before the match that their tickets did not exist. Photograph: NurPhoto/Getty ImagesConsumedWorld Cup 2026Here’s what to do if your StubHub World Cup resale ticket is canceledWorld Cup StubHub ticket mess shows how weak consumer protections are in the US, but there are steps fans can take A growing number of World Cup fans who thought they had bought tickets to matches on the ticket reseller StubHub were notified with just days or hours to spare that their tickets did not exist. Horror stories about stranded families, ruined once-in-a-lifetime trips, thousands of dollars squandered, and hang-ups on StubHub’s customer service line are flooding social media and local news. It’s the latest sign of the powerlessness many consumers feel in the US, say advocates who estimate thousands of World Cup fans may have been affected. “The system is deeply broken and flawed at all levels,” said Brian Hess, the executive director of the Sports Fans Coalition, a non-profit that advocates for fans’ rights. “Consumers should not have to fight like this,” he said. StubHub has a history of failing to deliver promised tickets, claimed Bradford Clements, an attorney and former Texas state prosecutor who has more than 150 clients, both buyers and sellers, who say they were ripped off or misled by StubHub and are owed $2.4m. “This happens over and over” – not just at World Cup matches, Clements said. StubHub often says the seller pulled out of the ticket swap at the last minute, but that’s frequently not the case, he said. A StubHub spokesperson said that fans should “contact us directly and ask for World Cup specialist support”. Many of the World Cup issues had to do with a faulty new ticketing app that Fifa introduced just before the tournament, StubHub said. “The issues fans have experienced at this World Cup are transfer problems, not ticket problems,” the spokesperson said. Fifa’s app “has experienced significant performance issues that have affected ticket transfers across all resale platforms”, which are outside StubHub’s control. Fifa said that Fifa.com/tickets, the company’s primary ticket sales and the official resale platform, “is the official ticket sales channel for the Fifa World Cup 2026. Fifa can guarantee the validity and delivery of tickets purchased through its official platforms.” The Guardian spoke to consumer advocates, lawyers, company representatives and analysts about what thwarted ticket holders could do to get their money back or get to the game, and what reform is on the horizon. Here’s what they suggest: Fans who want to get to a game should be “persistent with customer service and demand that they get tickets”, said Hess.

Here’s what to do if your StubHub World Cup resale ticket is canceled
Europe
The Guardian

Too hot for work: why extreme heat is a threat to Europe’s productivity

Canary Wharf station in east London. Workers across the UK and Europe have faced sweltering offices and disrupted commutes. Photograph: Yui Mok/PAView image in fullscreenCanary Wharf station in east London. Workers across the UK and Europe have faced sweltering offices and disrupted commutes. Photograph: Yui Mok/PAProductivityToo hot for work: why extreme heat is a threat to Europe’s productivityHigh temperatures make some workplaces dangerous, with economists warning disruption will dent growth Joanna PartridgeFri 26 Jun 2026 01.00 EDTLast modified on Fri 26 Jun 2026 03.39 EDTSharePrefer the Guardian on GoogleMonique Mosley is used to sweltering conditions at the food factory in Yorkshire where she works, but June’s record-breaking heatwave has made conditions unbearable. “We make hot filled food products and it’s common that we see temperatures in the high 30s,” she said. “Thanks to our union, our employer is offering extra breaks, but not every workplace is the same.” The latest heatwave to grip the UK and much of western Europe has presented significant challenges to employers and their employees, from sweltering offices, disrupted commutes and school closures to dangerous construction sites where workers are at risk of dehydration, heatstroke and other injury. There is now a growing acceptance that increasing spells of extreme heat have a significant impact on productivity and threaten Europe’s already sluggish economies. Economists warn that the climate crisis will dent economic growth unless European countries adapt their ageing buildings and infrastructure. Robert Marks, the lead climate economist at Oxford Economics, said temperatures in the high 30s and low 40s would “likely lead to substantial productivity losses and directly disrupt labour across construction, agriculture, manufacturing, retail and hospitality and other sectors which are unable to provide a protected work environment”. “These sectors represent 27% of economic activity in the UK and an average of 35% in western Europe,” he said. As a result, a four-day heatwave “could reduce quarterly labour productivity growth by 1.5 percentage points in the UK and up to two percentage points in the rest of western Europe”. The largest loss of working hours in western, northern and southern Europe by 2030 is expected to be felt by the agriculture and construction sectors, according to research by the International Labour Office. View image in fullscreenA construction worker in Wimbledon. The largest loss of working hours in western, northern and southern Europe is expected to be felt by the agriculture and construction sectors. Photograph: Amer Ghazzal/ShutterstockResearchers at the insurance group Allianz found extreme heat was emerging as a “structural economic risk” for Europe. They found France, Spain and Italy were among the European economies most exposed to the growing economic cost of heat stress (the UK was not included in the study). This was because productivity losses intensify sharply above a 30C threshold, while at the same time the cost of energy required to cool machinery and buildings rises. France could lose $240bn (£182bn) in economic output between 2026 and 2030 under the study’s stress scenario, followed by $147bn for Italy and $120bn for Spain, representing a cumulative loss of as much as 7% of gross domestic product. “The heatwave is not an exception, it is a direction,” said Katharina Utermöhl, the head of thematic and policy research at Allianz Investment Management and a co-author of the study. “Extreme heat costs all of us as workers, as businesses, as taxpayers, and there is a difference between countries that adapt and those that wait. It would be better to stop treating it as a summer problem and start treating it as a permanent economic policy challenge.” The heatwave has reignited tensions between employees and employers. While workplace regulations in the UK set out a minimum working temperature – 16C in an office, or 13C if strenuous physical work is required – there is no maximum legal temperature. This is because some places such as kitchens or foundries can be hot all the time. Instead, the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) guidance to employers tells them to keep the environment at a “reasonable” temperature for employees. There are separate regulations for workers on construction sites, where “reasonable” temperatures are required for indoor areas and the rest areas of outdoor sites, and workers also need to be protected from adverse weather.

Too hot for work: why extreme heat is a threat to Europe’s productivity
Europe
The Guardian

Elon Musk’s trillionaire status at risk; oil price lowest since Iran war began – business live

Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy. Elon Musk could soon be down to his last thousand billion dollars, after the share price of his recently floated SpaceX came under pressure this week. Musk became the world’s first trillionaire this month when SpaceX floated on the stock market. But after a 16% drop in SpaceX’s shares on Monday, Musk’s wealth has declined to $1.1tn. Monday’s drop alone wiped out more than $152bn from Musk’s net worth, according to Forbes estimates. And most of those who bought into SpaceX since it floated on 12 June are facing smaller losses. SpaceX’s shares closed at $156 last night, slightly above the $150 at which they started trading on the 12th, but sharply below the record high of $225 set a week ago. The IPO was priced at $135, so everyone who took part is still in the money. The weakness in the last week has dragged SpaceX’s value down from a peak of about $2.99tn to just over $2tn last night. That’s a fall of almost $1tn, or nearly one Musk. SpaceX might have seemed charmed after its record-breaking IPO and subsequent rally, but it’s come down to earth with a bump over the past couple of days, with shares at one point falling below the opening price on its market debut. “Post-IPO stocks often enter a period of volatility as the market gets to grips with the new entrant, some investors rush to cash out, and others assess at what price they are willing to jump in. “For a stock like SpaceX, a lot of decision making might have been emotional and based on the anticipation of huge leaps forward in space exploration and utilisation, but investing should be something treated with clear eyes and patience, even when such huge numbers are involved. Musk was also hit by a 5.8% drop in Tesla’s shares yesterday, as the tech sector was hit by a broad selloff in AI and semiconductor stocks.

Elon Musk’s trillionaire status at risk; oil price lowest since Iran war began – business live
North America
Yahoo Finance

S&P 500, Nasdaq, Dow Futures Slip After Trump Warns Iran Of Fresh Strikes Over Hormuz Standoff: INTC, MLTX, SNDK, KEEL In Focus

U.S. stock futures fell in the overnight session late Sunday as renewed tensions between Washington and Tehran reignited concerns about the success of peace negotiations between the countries. President Donald Trump threatened fresh strikes on Iran after Tehran closed the Strait of Hormuz over hostilities in Lebanon ahead of the first peace talks in Switzerland over the weekend. Dow futures fell 0.12%, S&P 500 futures declined about 0.21%, and the Nasdaq 100 futures traded 0.22% lower as of 9.24 p.m ET. Meanwhile, oil prices inched higher. The iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT) was trading down 0.31% amid ‘bullish’ sentiment at the time of writing. U.S. markets were closed on Friday in observance of Juneteenth National Independence Day, commemorating the end of slavery in the country. On Thursday, all three benchmark indexes closed higher amid optimism about the peace deal and a jump in the technology sector. The Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq Composite also ended the week in the green. The Nasdaq Composite led the climb on Thursday, adding nearly 500 points to close up 1.91% higher. The Dow closed up 0.14% while the S&P 500 was up 1.08% at close. Market sentiment weakened after Iran announced over the weekend that it was restricting traffic through the Strait of Hormuz again, citing continued Israeli military operations in Lebanon. Iran argued that Washington had failed to uphold commitments to curb hostilities in Lebanon. However, tensions rose after President Trump threatened fresh military action against Iran. In a Truth Social post on Sunday, Trump said, “Iran must immediately stop their highly paid PROXIES in Lebanon from causing trouble. If they don’t, we’ll hit Iran very hard again, just like we did last week, only harder!!!” Earlier, Trump told Fox News that he warned Iranian officials that if the Strait was closed, “you won't have a country." The developments coincided with the first round of talks under the interim peace deal, held in Switzerland, where U.S. negotiators led by Vice President JD Vance met Iranian officials to discuss strategies aimed at preserving the ceasefire, ensuring the Strait of Hormuz remains open, and laying the groundwork for future negotiations on Iran's nuclear program and sanctions relief. The talks concluded on Sunday after having been called off earlier. Following the first day of talks, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei has reportedly said “discussions were held on the remaining clauses [of the MoU] that are necessary to begin final negotiations,” according to Al Jazeera. Meanwhile, a new AP-NORC poll from last week found that 65% of Americans disapprove of President Donald Trump's handling of Iran, while 53% believe U.S. military action against Tehran has gone too far, and only 34% approve of his approach to Israel.

S&P 500, Nasdaq, Dow Futures Slip After Trump Warns Iran Of Fresh Strikes Over Hormuz Standoff: INTC, MLTX, SNDK, KEEL In Focus
Asia
The Hindu BusinessLine

Rethinking agricultural trade: Why the WTO must recognise farmer health capital

The contemporary landscape of multilateral agricultural trade economics relies heavily on structural abstractions. Conventional trade theory, which forms the core of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Agreement on Agriculture (AoA), evaluates labour as a homogenous, static production block. In highly labor-intensive cash-crop economies across the Global South, this macro-level indifference overlooks a critical microeconomic phenomenon: the rapid, unchecked depreciation of the workforce’s biological assets under intensive cultivation cycles. When value chains maximize output without pricing the economic cost of biological recovery into farm-gate calculations, it results in an unsustainable depletion of human capabilities. Empirical micro-data from major commercial crop belts in India illustrates the quantitative scale of this issue. The composite Farmer Health Capital (FHC) Index—which models physical, mental, and social health metrics as economic infrastructure within an augmented production function—frequently sits at suboptimal levels. Musculoskeletal disorders and occupational physical strain are widespread, with manual harvesters routinely tracking high personal discomfort scores. Due to immediate working capital constraints and cash flow mismatches, a vast majority of smallholder households systematically delay necessary preventative healthcare. This unmanaged physical degradation results in field-level operational downtime, structural inefficiencies, and forces vulnerable families to rely on high-interest informal credit networks to absorb sudden health shocks. From an agricultural trade perspective, this dynamic is not merely an isolated rural welfare problem; it introduces a structural distortion into global markets. Exporting sectors that do not internalize the real depletion of human biological resources effectively externalise these production outlays onto regional public health infrastructure and overextended state medical budgets. This cost externalization permits agricultural commodities to enter global supply chains at artificially low export prices, creating an uneven playing field in international trade architecture. Importantly, FHC theory proves that embedding human asset maintenance into agricultural economics does not create an inflationary burden on food value chains. Parametric production modeling indicates that targeted upfront investments in farm-gate wellness infrastructure—such as localized field hydration networks, ergonomic harvesting equipment, and preventative outpatient clinics—significantly stabilize long-term labor efficiency. This efficiency gain expands total factor productivity, effectively optimizing crop yield margins relative to total production costs. The resulting productivity gains expand the output volume sufficiently to offset initial capital investments, lowering overall unit production costs while reducing downstream financial pressure on public health infrastructure. To create a resilient, equitable global agricultural economy, multilateral trade policy must move past rigid binary classifications of agrarian support. Currently, public spending aimed at reinforcing frontline rural infrastructure is often vulnerable to classification as a market-distorting subsidy. Moving forward, trade technocrats and member nations should collaborate to ensure that state-backed farm-gate health investments, occupational health infrastructure, and structured social security nets are explicitly recognized under the WTO Green Box. This reclassification would appropriately treat public health investments as essential economic infrastructure that protects long-term GDP and stabilizes global supply chains. Additionally, modern processing units and market intermediaries should integrate standardized agricultural settlement timelines, ensuring that farm-gate revenues clear rapidly through formal channels to ease the acute financial anxiety that restricts forward-looking farm investments. Prioritising Farmer Health Capital is a pragmatic, non-distortionary strategy. International trade parameters must evolve to view human biological capacity not as a static background variable, but as the core economic infrastructure supporting global food security. 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.

Rethinking agricultural trade: Why the WTO must recognise farmer health capital
North America
CNBC Economy

Factory job cuts in June neared financial crisis and Covid levels, S&P says

Job cuts at U.S. factories ran near their highest levels since the end of the global financial crisis in 2009 and the Covid-19 pandemic as worries grew over global demand and rising costs, S&P Global reported Tuesday. Though the firm's manufacturing index ran better than expected for June, it came largely from an inventory rebuild and despite sharp job cuts that were the most since 2009 — excluding the massive labor reductions at the onset of the Covid crisis in 2020. "While there is better news from the manufacturing sector, we remain concerned as factory growth continues to be temporarily buoyed by inventory building amid supply fears. Supply delays grew more widespread in June," said Chris Williamson, chief business economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence. Manufacturers have indicated job cuts for three of the past four months as they seek to reduce head count over costs and demand concerns. "Most worrying was the further fall in employment, notably in the manufacturing sector," Williamson said. "Factory job cuts are running at the highest since 2009 if the pandemic is excluded, reflecting concerns over the sustainability of the recent upturn in demand alongside worries over the escalating cost of raw materials." Despite the worries of manufacturing cuts, the jobs picture has been largely solid this year, with strong gains in four of the five months. Manufacturing employment has risen by 23,000 in 2026, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Broadly, the S&P manufacturing "flash" reading for its purchase managers index came in at 55.7, up narrowly from May and better than the Dow Jones consensus estimate for 54.8. The reading represents the percentage share of companies reporting growth for the month. On the services side, the flash PMI was at 51.3, also up slightly on the month and slightly better than the consensus forecast for 51. Companies have been under pressure this year from an inflation resurgence that has seen energy prices soar and Federal Reserve officials contemplate raising interest rates, or at least eschewing cuts until the situation in the Middle East is settled. Recent headlines about a ceasefire and possible lasting agreement with Iran have triggered a slip in oil which in turn has helped "restore come confidence" among businesses, Williamson said. However, growth signs are tepid for an economy that accelerated at just a 1.6% annualized pace in the first quarter and a meager 0.5% rate in the fourth quarter of 2025. "The survey signals that current output levels are consistent with the economy struggling to grow much faster than a 1% annualized rate in the second quarter," Williamson said. However, Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh last week characterized economic growth as "solid" and he attributed the "elevated uncertainty" in part to the Middle East conflicts.

Factory job cuts in June neared financial crisis and Covid levels, S&P says