assets

The Sparks are starting over again.

After trading All-Star guard Kelsey Plum to Phoenix ahead of Sunday’s WNBA trade deadline, the Sparks are back to the drawing board mere months after declaring themselves a contender this season. In adding guard Monique Akoa Makani and first-and-second-round picks in the 2027 draft, the Sparks have a foundation to start building on young talent.

People with knowledge of Plum’s thinking confirmed to the The Times last week that she didn’t intend to re-sign with the Sparks in the offseason, forcing them to move on from her expiring contract and get as much value as possible to build from the ground up — again.

It’s no surprise the Sparks decided to blow it up two weeks after firing general manager Raegan Pebley, who had told The Times that she intended to keep the Sparks in contention through the trade deadline.

The Mercury’s Monique Akoa Makani handles the ball in front of the Liberty’s Pauline Astier at Mortgage Matchup Center on Saturday in Phoenix.

(Christian Petersen / Getty Images)

The return the Sparks got for Plum on an expiring contract is as good as they could have hoped for — a starting quality player and a first-round pick that might end up a lottery pick if the Mercury don’t make the playoffs.

The Sparks traded the No. 2 pick in the 2025 draft to Seattle, who turned that selection into All-Star center Dominique Malonga, to acquire Plum in the 2025 offseason to try to end their rebuild. They finished two games outside the postseason last season and have struggled this year with Plum’s injury and a league-worst defense.

How soon the Sparks can attempt to contend again might depend on this year. If they get a high enough draft pick to take JuJu Watkins, should she choose to leave USC, they can build around her. If not, they are back in the same spot as 2025 when they got the second overall pick and missed out on the Paige Bueckers sweepstakes.

Watkins may choose to stay at USC another season, which would give the Sparks a second chance at her in the lottery if they aren’t back on their feet yet.

Since the Sparks will all but certainly miss the playoffs this season, they will have two lottery picks, giving them a chance to add some rookie-scale contracts to a roster filled with veteran deals. They have two players in Dearica Hamby and Ariel Atkins who are owed more than $1 million per season over the next two years, and Erica Wheeler is on the books for $625,000 next season.

They have young center Cameron Brink, the No. 2 overall pick in 2024, to build around. Despite rumors earlier this season, the Sparks decided not to trade Brink and are instead building around her. Pending restricted free agent Rae Burrell has had her best season in the WNBA this year, and if the Sparks don’t move on from her, she can be another key piece in the next version of the team.

Those two and former No. 4 pick Rickea Jackson were supposed to be a part of the next wave for the Sparks, but they traded Jackson to Chicago for Atkins this offseason in what now appears to be an ill-conceived attempt at winning this year.

Akoa Makani will also slot in as a starter right away for the Sparks at 25 years old. Last season with a Phoenix squad that made it to the WNBA Finals, she started 11 playoff games. She is also under team control until 2027 when she will become a reserved free agent.

Sparks forward Cameron Brink is pressured by Fever guard Lexie Hull on May 13 at Crypto.com Arena.

(Jae C. Hong / Associated Press)

Akoa Makani will be one of the better defenders on the Sparks’ roster and is a career 41% three-point shooter. In her 16 games this season, she is averaging 9.4 points, 2.1 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.2 steals.

Phoenix’s first-round 2027 draft pick the Sparks acquired will most likely be the seventh overall, with a small chance at being first or second because of the WNBA’s two-year lottery odds format. Seventh picks in recent years have included Angel Reese, Aneesah Morrow and Veronica Burton.

The Sparks will be projected to pick around sixth without some extreme lottery luck, but even those two picks will make a big difference for a team with just one lottery pick (Brink) from the past six years of rebuilding.

Aside from Watkins at the top of the draft, Louisiana State guard MiLaysia Fulwiley, South Carolina forward Ashlyn Watkins, Kentucky center Clara Strack and LSU guard Mikaylah Williams will be viable young players.

With Plum off the books and expiring contracts for Nneka Ogwumike and Emma Cannon next season, the Sparks will have cap room to work with even with the hefty contracts at the top of their cap.

If they create a core of young players around Brink, Burrell and Akoa Makani, they will have another chance to get a rebuild right.

President Trump says damages will be paid for by Iranian money that the US has ‘in its possession, and controls’.

United States President Donald Trump has pledged to use frozen Iranian assets to pay for any damage to ships and cargo in the Strait of Hormuz, garnering strong condemnation from Tehran.

Tensions between Iran and the US have escalated since the beginning of July as the two sides trade attacks and Tehran targets US military bases in the region.

Washington completed its 13th consecutive night of strikes on Iran late on Thursday, with Trump saying he is considering a “massive attack” on the country, “bigger than ever before”.

Writing on his Truth Social platform on Thursday, Trump said that damages would be paid for by “Iranian Money that the United States has in its possession, and controls”.

“These damages may be very substantial but, nevertheless, this is the fair and equitable thing to do,” Trump added.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi condemned Trump’s comments and said in a post on X on Friday morning that seizing another country’s assets to “pay for unrelated future claims is an incendiary precedent”.

“Those who celebrate or profit from such funds should remember: once governments normalise confiscation, no one’s assets are safe. Ensuing chaos will not be pretty or peaceful,” he added.

The case of Iran’s frozen assets has been an issue that the two sides had been discussing in the now-collapsed memorandum of understanding (MoU) agreement that was signed between Tehran and Washington in June as a pathway to end the war.

But the US and other governments have “frozen” Iranian assets for decades.

While the exact amount of frozen money belonging to Iran is not known, some estimates put it at about $100bn.

Washington first froze Iranian funds in 1979 after US citizens were taken hostage at the US embassy in Tehran.

At the same time, Trump pledged “major military punishment” for Iran and its Houthi allies on Thursday after the Yemeni fighters struck two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea.

But on Friday morning, the Iranian army announced in a statement carried by the state Mehr News Agency that it had launched a new wave of drone attacks on US military installations in Bahrain and Jordan.

Moreover, ship tracking data seen by the Reuters news agency found that the number of tankers crossing the Strait of Hormuz fell to just one on Thursday, the lowest level since May 7.

South Korea’s per capita household net assets rose more than 9 percent from a year earlier in 2025 on higher housing and securities prices, the central bank data showed Wednesday.

The average value of net assets held by households per capita stood at 274.7 million won (US$185,600) last year, up 9.1 percent from the previous year, according to the national balance sheet from the Bank of Korea (BOK).

The figure was calculated by dividing the total assets of households and nonprofit organizations — 14,200 trillion won — by the country’s population of 51.6 million, according to the BOK.

It marked a sharp acceleration from the 3 percent growth tallied in 2024.

“Last year, South Korea’s main bourse and overseas stock markets were bullish, contributing to the gains,” a BOK official said. “Housing prices also rose, leading to an asset increase.”

The BOK said the latest figure translates into $193,000 when applying the average exchange rate for 2025.

At the end of 2024, the figure for the United States stood at $514,000, followed by Australia, Canada and Germany at $422,000, $297,000 and $267,000, respectively. Japan’s figure came to $172,000.

The average household net assets came to 634.3 million won, up 7.9 percent over the cited period.

South Korea’s total national net worth, meanwhile, reached 24,561 trillion won at the end of 2025, up 2.2 percent from a year earlier. The growth slowed from a 5 percent rise posted in 2024.

Non-financial assets, such as land and housing, came to 23,291 trillion won, up 3.8 percent from a year earlier, on the back of higher property prices.

The combined value of property assets in the country came to 17,836 trillion won, up 4.1 percent from the previous year.

Net financial assets, on the other hand, fell 20.4 percent to 1,271 trillion won.

The BOK said that while financial assets rose 11.4 percent to 2,794 trillion won, debt increased at a faster pace, rising 13.6 percent to 3,120 trillion won.

By sector, households and nonprofit organizations held the largest amount of net assets, worth 14,200 trillion won, followed by the government with 6,194 trillion won, non-financial corporations with 3,657 trillion won and financial corporations with 510 trillion won.

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No asset manager had ever crossed the $15 trillion (€13tn) threshold before BlackRock confirmed the milestone in results published on Wednesday.

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The rise was driven by market gains and new client money.

Clients handed the New York-based giant a net $192 billion (€167bn) in the second quarter of 2026, capping a record first half in which inflows reached $321 billion (€280bn), more than double the same period a year earlier.

To illustrate the sheer scale of BlackRock’s assets under management, the firm manages more money than the projected nominal annual economic output of every country except the US and China, and nearly three times that of Germany.

However, assets under management represent a stock of investments, while GDP measures economic output over a year.

The surge in assets came during a quarter that was lucrative too.

According to BlackRock’s second-quarter earnings release, revenue climbed 31% year on year to $7.1 billion (€6.2bn), while adjusted earnings per share reached $13.91, comfortably beating expectations.

BlackRock shares jumped about 7% on the day of the release.

“Market fundamentals are strong and well supported, with higher margins and earnings momentum catalysed by new technology,” CEO Larry Fink said in a statement.

“Our momentum is accelerating, and I’ve never been more optimistic about the growth ahead,” Fink added.

Where the trillions actually sit

The first thing to understand is that this is not BlackRock’s money.

It is the pooled savings of pension funds, insurers, governments and ordinary investors, which the firm manages for a fee. Most of the money is invested in shares.

Equities account for $8.9 trillion (€7.7tn), or 58% of the total.

Bonds and other fixed-income investments make up a further $3.4 trillion (€2.9tn), or 22%. Multi-asset strategies that combine different investments hold $1.3 trillion (€1.1tn), or 9%, while cash-management products, such as Treasury bills, account for another $1.1 trillion (€960bn), or 7%of the total.

The headline-grabbing alternative investments, including infrastructure, private credit, private equity and property remain a sliver at $449 billion, roughly 3% of assets, but they generate about 15% of BlackRock’s base fees.

Commodity and currency products hold $152 billion (€132bn), while crypto-linked funds, launched in 2024, manage about $49 billion (€42bn).

The way the money is invested matters as much as the asset mix.

Some 41% of the total sits in exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Fink noted that the iShares ETF range crossed $6 trillion during the quarter, roughly double its size three years ago.

Ports, pensions and politics

BlackRock’s scale has increasingly brought it into deals with geopolitical implications. The dispute over ports at either end of the Panama Canal is one of the clearest recent examples.

After US President Donald Trump claimed China was effectively running the waterway, Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison agreed in March 2025 to sell 43 ports, including terminals at either end of the canal, to a consortium led by BlackRock. The proposed deal was valued at $22.8 billion (€19.9bn) and welcomed by Washington as a step towards restoring US influence over the ports.

Beijing objected and pressed for state-owned Cosco to be included. The sale has yet to be completed.

Panama meanwhile annulled Hutchison’s canal concessions in February, handing interim operations to Maersk and MSC, whose terminals arm counts BlackRock’s infrastructure unit GIP among its shareholders, while talks on the wider portfolio continue.

Meanwhile, Panama’s Supreme Court annulled Hutchison’s concessions to operate container terminals at either end of the Panama Canal in January. The government transferred interim control of the ports to Maersk and MSC in February, while talks over the wider portfolio continued. BlackRock’s infrastructure business, Global Infrastructure Partners, is a shareholder in MSC’s ports division.

Larry Fink’s proximity to the White House was on display again in May, when he travelled to Beijing as part of the corporate delegation accompanying Trump during his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Fink joined chief executives including Tesla’s Elon Musk and Apple’s Tim Cook on a visit dominated by trade and technology.

The firm’s reach extends into American retirement policy as well.

An executive order signed by Trump last year directed regulators to broaden access to private-market assets through the country’s 401(k) pension plans. BlackRock had championed the shift and stands to benefit as it develops private-market products for retirement savers, which typically carry higher fees than index funds.

Caracas, July 9, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) –  Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodríguez has called on UK King Charles III to release her country’s gold reserves held at the Bank of England in order to finance relief and reconstruction efforts following the devastating earthquakes that struck Venezuela on June 24.

“I have decided to send a letter, among others, to the King of England asking for the release of the gold being held at the Bank of England. That gold belongs to our people and should be used to address the terrible, tragic consequences of the twin earthquakes,” Rodríguez said in a televised broadcast on Wednesday.

The acting president also revealed that she held a phone conversation with International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva to discuss the release of Venezuelan resources that remain blocked by the institution.

Earlier on Wednesday, during a virtual meeting with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil likewise urged countries holding Venezuelan assets abroad to “begin a process of releasing” those funds so they can be used for the country’s recovery.

Gil specifically referred to the gold reserves held by the Bank of England and Venezuelan funds blocked under US sanctions. Around 31 metric tons of gold, currently valued at approximately US $4.2 billion, remain frozen in London. In addition, nearly $5 billion in Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) allocated by the IMF in 2021 also remain inaccessible.

On Wednesday, Rodríguez and Georgieva reportedly discussed the use of Venezuela’s $350 million SDR reserve fund, which is different from the SDR allocation.

On June 25, the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued General License 60, authorizing earthquake relief-related transactions until October. However, OFAC’s waiver does not authorize the unblocking of assets subject to US sanctions regulations or “any other transaction or activity prohibited by another Executive Order.”

Meanwhile, 113 prominent economists, including Isabella Weber, Jeffrey Sachs, and James K. Galbraith, signed an open letter calling for immediate action to “unfetter Venezuela’s humanitarian response and reconstruction from ongoing economic and financial sanctions, asset freezes, and onerous debt burdens.”

“We urge governments, international financial institutions, and creditors to act now, on the principle that lives, public health, and economic recovery take precedence over coercion and collection,” the statement read. The economists suggested mechanisms including emergency liquidity, sanctions relief, and debt cancellation as a “minimum response […] to allow Venezuelans to rebuild with dignity.”

Along similar lines, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher warned that the earthquakes are likely to generate “a very difficult economic situation” that could reduce Venezuela’s GDP by “several percentage points,” arguing that sanctions “must be eased so they do not hinder the arrival of humanitarian assistance or recovery efforts.”

Fletcher added that during emergencies, access to financial resources, banking channels, and international cooperation mechanisms can determine how quickly aid, supplies, and reconstruction funding reach affected communities.

Preliminary assessments by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) estimate infrastructure and essential services losses at approximately US$6.7 billion. However, the final figure could reach $8.7 billion, depending on housing and asset losses, and the estimates do not include the full extent of infrastructure damage or the long-term reconstruction costs.

For its part, the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) estimates that rebuilding Venezuela will require approximately $37 billion. According to its assessment, $24 billion would be needed to replace damaged buildings—including homes, schools, businesses, and hospitals—while another $13 billion would be required to repair critical infrastructure such as telecommunications, highways, and electricity networks.

Different analyses have placed the recovery costs between $12 and $20 billion.

So far, however, the Trump administration has pledged $300 million in humanitarian assistance, whereas Venezuela’s US-based frozen assets are valued at $11-13 billion. The White House also retains control over Venezuela’s oil export revenues, returning a portion of the funds to Caracas at its discretion.

Rodríguez announced on Wednesday that countries offering humanitarian aid can monitor its distribution through a digital platform used to coordinate deliveries across the 87 temporary shelters established for displaced families throughout the country. The acting president has vowed to prioritize the well-being of families who lost their homes and to provide new housing solutions in the coming months.

The latest official update placed the death toll from the earthquakes at 3,889, while the number of injured remains at 16,740 and the number of displaced people stands at 17,907.

Edited by Ricardo Vaz in Caracas.

Halfway through a turbulent year, a clear pattern has emerged across global markets: anything tied to the physical build-out of AI has soared, while several other assets that investors traditionally turn to in uncertain times have stumbled.

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War in the Middle East, political upheaval and an oil-price spike formed the backdrop, yet stock markets in several regions still pushed to fresh record highs.

According to Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell, companies on the receiving end of the AI spending boom were the standout investments of the first half, while Bitcoin proved “a shocker” and gold lost its shine.

It is, Coatsworth noted, a remarkable run of events for only half a year’s worth of trading.

The most spectacular gains came from an unglamorous corner of the technology world: the firms that make memory chips.

As demand for AI computing collided with tight supply, prices surged and took shares with them. SanDisk led the US market with a gain of over 850% in six months, while Western Digital, Micron Technology and Seagate Technology all more than tripled in value, a pace of return that would ordinarily take many years to achieve.

The driver is the vast quantity of high-speed memory and storage needed to train and run AI systems as the largest technology companies race to expand their data centres.

Other US equities that soared on the back of the AI trade include Intel, Dell, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Applied Materials, which all rose between 150% and 280% year to date.

The rush also lifted emerging markets, where Asian chipmakers such as TSMC and SK Hynix carry heavy weight, helping South Korea’s KOSPI double in value, Japan’s Nikkei 225 climb roughly 40% and the MSCI Emerging Markets index rise by around 27%.

In Europe, the FTSE 100 gained 7% in the first half of the year, France’s CAC 40 rose 5%, while Germany’s DAX gained 2%. Meanwhile, the MSCI India index fell 5% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 6%.

Notably, the memory rally has begun to unwind in recent days, with several of the same names caught in a sharp technology sell-off.

The fallen favourites, takeovers and the trades that cooled

The flipside was brutal for yesterday’s winners.

Previous AI darlings Meta and Microsoft were left behind, down 14% and 24% respectively on a total-return basis, as heavy AI spending turned the technology giants into more capital-hungry businesses and investors stopped paying a premium for them.

Microsoft now trades at its cheapest level in a decade, leaving both it and Meta valued more modestly than McDonald’s, an outcome few would have predicted at the height of the “Magnificent 7” craze.

Elsewhere, the assets many expected to lead disappointed.

Gold took investors on a volatile ride. After surging to a record high of $5,594.82 an ounce on 29 January, the precious metal lost around 28% from its peak despite the geopolitical turmoil that would normally send investors flocking to safe-haven assets. Instead, its appeal was undermined by higher bond yields and cash rates, which offer an income that a gold bar cannot.

Bitcoin fared worse still, falling 28% since the start of the year as enthusiasm for crypto drained away and money rotated towards technology shares instead.

In the UK, takeovers did much of the heavy lifting.

Six FTSE 100 companies, among them Glencore, Schroders and Segro, attracted bid interest in the first half, a sign that buyers still see value in British blue chips even after a three-year re-rating.

Housebuilders such as Persimmon struggled against a sluggish property market, while tech-adjacent names like Experian and RELX were swept up in fears about AI disruption.

One trade that conspicuously cooled was defence.

After a storming 2025, the likes of BAE Systems, Germany’s Rheinmetall and America’s Palantir all gave ground, as the good news on rising military budgets looked fully priced in and investors drifted elsewhere.

This article does not constitute financial advice. Always do your own research and invest according to your specific circumstances.

Caracas, June 26, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan casualties from Thursday’s double earthquake continue to rise amid ongoing search and rescue efforts to remove survivors from flattened buildings.

On Thursday night, Venezuelan authorities reported 235 people dead and over 4,300 injured. There are 250 buildings with serious damage or completely collapsed. 

The death toll is expected to rise sharply with unofficial missing people databases compiling more than 40,000 unaccounted persons. However, the figure has steadily decreased in recent hours, while organizers have also pledged to remove duplicate filings.

Social media channels have been flooded with reports of missing friends and relatives.

The Caribbean nation was struck by 7.2 and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes in quick succession on Wednesday. The tremors were concentrated in central and northern states, including the capital. Coastal La Guaira State was the worst affected, with government officials reporting over 100 collapsed buildings.

Search and rescue efforts continued on Thursday as civil protection teams and volunteers rushed to locate survivors and remove them from under the rubble. The Venezuelan government called on the private sector to collaborate with heavy machinery. Several areas of La Guaira are also hard to reach.

Venezuelan grassroots organizations also mobilized, organizing the collection of food, clothes and medicines for displaced families and setting up makeshift shelters.

Videos on social media showed the Venezuelan armed forces likewise moving equipment and mobile surgical units to the coastal area. Commercial flights to and from Simón Bolívar International Airport airport in La Guaira, the main air hub serving Caracas, have been temporarily suspended following damage to a major runway and the air traffic control tower.

Acting President Delcy Rodríguez visited the most affected areas on Thursday afternoon and oversaw ongoing efforts to deploy heavy machinery and provide food and shelter for displaced families.

“We express our support and solidarity to all those affected and we hope to find as many survivors as possible,” she told reporters. “We are working around the clock and we have called for international assistance.”

Venezuelan efforts were reinforced on Thursday night with the arrival of emergency teams from Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and El Salvador. Additional brigades are reportedly on the way from Colombia, Brazil, and the US, among others.

Alongside search and rescue teams, the US Department of War announced a deployment of logistical support assets.

In a statement, the US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) announced the deployment of the amphibious transport ship USS Fort Lauderdale and the littoral combat ship USS Billings alongside Hercules transport aircraft. Marine Corps Major General Kevin J. Jarrard landed on Thursday night and will reportedly oversee the efforts.

The Trump administration is providing $150 million in humanitarian aid to be channeled through “assistance” partners including Catholic Relief Services and multiple UN agencies.

Washington has, however, opted to maintain its punishing economic sanctions regime against the South American country. On Thursday, the US Treasury Department issued General License 60 (GL60) authorizing transactions related to earthquake relief efforts. However, Venezuelan assets abroad, including bank accounts, remain frozen, meaning that aid efforts will still face hurdles or require US approval.

Caracas has also been unable to access around $4.8 billion in gold held by the Bank of England as well as nearly $5 billion in IMF Special Drawing Rights issued during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Since January, the Trump administration has issued multiple sanctions waivers to allow Western corporations to secure favorable energy and mining agreements with the acting Rodríguez government. Transactions between Caracas and its historic allies in China, Russia, Cuba, and Iran continue to be prohibited by the waivers and subject to secondary sanctions. The White House has likewise seized control of Venezuelan export revenues, disbursing a portion back to Caracas at US officials’ discretion.

Edited and with additional reporting by Lucas Koerner in Caracas.