Surge

Revenues from sales of weapons and military services by the 100 largest global arms-producing companies reached a record $679bn in 2024, according to new data released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

The Gaza and Ukraine wars, as well as global and regional geopolitical tensions and ever-higher military expenditures, increased revenues generated by the companies from sales of military goods and services to customers domestic and abroad by 5.9 percent compared to the year before, the organisation said in a report published on Monday.

The bulk of the global rise was attributed to companies based in Europe and the United States, but there were year-on-year increases in all regions except for Asia and Oceania, where issues within the Chinese arms industry drove down the regional total.

Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics led the pack in the US, where the combined arms revenues of arms companies in the top 100 grew by 3.8 percent in 2024 to reach $334bn, with 30 out of the 39 US companies in the ranking increasing their revenues.

However, SIPRI said widespread delays and budget overruns continue to plague key projects such as the F-35 fighter jet, the Columbia and Virginia-class submarines, and the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX appeared in the list of top global military manufacturers for the first time, after its arms revenues more than doubled compared with 2023 to reach $1.8bn.

Excluding Russia, there were 26 arms companies in the top 100 based in Europe, and 23 of them recorded increases in revenues from sales of weapons and equipment. Their aggregate arms revenues grew by 13 percent to $151bn.

After boosting revenues by 193 percent to reach $3.6bn through making artillery shells for Ukraine, Czech company Czechoslovak Group recorded the sharpest percentage increase in arms revenues of any top 100 company in 2024.

As Ukraine faces a relentless Russian offensive in its eastern regions, the country’s JSC Ukrainian Defense Industry increased its arms revenues by 41 percent to $3bn.

European arms companies have been investing in new production capacity to fight off Russia, the SIPRI report said, but it cautioned that sourcing materials – particularly in the case of dependence on critical minerals – could pose a “growing challenge” as China also tightens export controls.

Rostec and United Shipbuilding Corporation are the only two Russian arms companies in the ranking, and they also increased their combined arms revenues by 23 percent to $31.2bn despite being hit by Western-led sanctions over the Ukraine war.

Last year, weapons makers in Asia and Oceania still registered $130bn in revenues after a 1.2 percent decline compared to 2023.

The regional drop was due to a combined 10 percent decline in arms revenues among the eight Chinese arms companies in the ranking, most prominently the 31 percent fall in the arms revenues of NORINCO, China’s primary producer of land systems.

“A host of corruption allegations in Chinese arms procurement led to major arms contracts being postponed or cancelled in 2024,” said Nan Tian, Director of the SIPRI Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme. “This deepens uncertainty around the status of China’s military modernisation efforts and when new capabilities will materialise.”

But Japanese and South Korean arms manufacturers’ sales surged on the back of strong demand from European as well as domestic customers amid simmering tensions over Taiwan and North Korea.

Five Japanese companies in the ranking increased their combined arms revenues by 40 percent to $13.3bn, while four South Korean producers saw a 31 percent jump to $14.1bn in revenue. South Korea’s largest arms company, Hanwha Group, recorded a 42 percent surge in 2024, with more than half coming from arms exports.

Israel reaps profits of Gaza genocide

For the first time, nine of the top 100 arms companies were based in the Middle East, according to SIPRI. The nine companies racked up a combined $31bn in revenue in 2024, showing a regional increase of 14 percent.

As the United Arab Emirates continues to face international allegations of arming the devastating war in Sudan, the institute noted its regional figure excludes Emirati-based EDGE Group due to a lack of revenue data for 2023. The UAE rejects the accusations.

The three Israeli arms companies in the ranking increased their combined arms revenues by 16 percent to $16.2bn amid the ongoing genocidal war on Gaza, which has killed nearly 70,000 Palestinians and destroyed most of the besieged enclave.

Elbit Systems pocketed $6.28bn in profits, followed by Israel Aerospace Industries with $5.19bn and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems with $4.7bn.

SIPRI said there was an international surge in interest in Israeli unmanned aerial vehicles and counter-drone systems. Rafael’s surge was tied to Iran, as demand for the company’s air defence systems rose to “unprecedented levels” after Iran’s large-scale retaliatory strikes against Israel in April and October 2024 that used ballistic missiles and drones.

Five Turkish companies were in the top 100 – also a record. Their combined arms revenues amounted to $10.1bn, showing an 11 percent increase.

Baykar, which makes, among other things, advanced drones most recently sold to Ukraine, saw 95 percent of its $1.9bn in arms revenue in 2024 come from exports to other countries.

Military companies from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, India, Taiwan, Norway, Canada, Spain, Poland and Indonesia were in the ranking as well.

No immediate response from Venezuela after President Trump’s makes the announcement on social media on Saturday.

Authorities say 79 people remain missing and thousands of families have been displaced from their homes across Sumatra.

The death toll from floods and landslides on the western Indonesian island of Sumatra this week has risen to 174, a disaster official said, with about 80 more people still missing, as a punishing tropical storm system and heavy monsoon rains have battered the region.

“As of this afternoon, we have recorded that for the entire North Sumatra province, there have been 116 deaths and 42 people are still being searched for,” National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) chief Suharyanto announced on Friday.

He said another 35 were killed in the island’s Aceh province and another 23 in West Sumatra.

While the rain had stopped, 79 people were still missing and thousands of families were displaced, he added.

Residents in Sumatra’s Padang Pariaman region, where a total of 22 people died, had to cope with water levels at least 1 metre (3.3ft) high, and had still not been reached by search and rescue personnel on Friday.

In the town of Batang Toru, in northern Sumatra, residents on Friday buried seven unclaimed victims in a mass grave. The decomposing bodies, wrapped in black plastic, were lifted from the back of a truck onto a wide plot of land as onlookers covered their noses.

Communications remained down in some parts of the island, and authorities were working to restore power and clear roads blocked by landslide debris, said Abdul Muhari, spokesman for Indonesia’s national disaster mitigation agency.

Indonesia would continue to airlift aid and rescue personnel into stricken areas on Friday, he added.

In Indonesia’s West Sumatra province, 53-year-old Misniati described a terrifying battle against rising floodwaters to reach her husband at home.

She said that, returning from early morning prayers at a mosque, “I noticed the street was flooded.

“I tried to run back to my house to tell my husband, and the water was already reaching my waist,” she told the AFP news agency, adding that it was up to her chest by the time she reached home.

Flooding disasters elsewhere in Asia

Meanwhile, in Thailand, the government said 145 people had been killed by floods across eight southern provinces. It said a total of more than 3.5 million people had been affected.

In the southern city of Hat Yai, the hardest-hit part of Thailand, the rain had finally stopped on Friday, but residents were still ankle-deep in floodwaters, and many remained without electricity as they assessed the damage to their property over the last week.

Some residents said they were spared the worst of the floods but were still suffering from their effects.

In neighbouring Malaysia, where two people have been confirmed dead, tropical storm Senyar made landfall at about midnight and has since weakened.

Meteorological authorities are still bracing themselves for heavy rain and wind, and warned that rough seas could pose risks for small boats.

A total of 30,000 evacuees remain in shelters, down from more than 34,000 on Thursday.

Malaysia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday that it had already evacuated 1,459 Malaysian nationals stranded in more than 25 flood-hit hotels in Thailand, adding that it would work to rescue the remaining 300 still caught up in flood zones.

Separately, at least 56 people were killed by a cyclone in the South Asian island nation of Sri Lanka, authorities said.

Stocks around the world whipped higher Wednesday, riding a wave of optimism on encouraging data about a possible treatment for COVID-19.

The upswell of hope was so strong that investors completely sidestepped a report showing the coronavirus outbreak drove the U.S. economy to its worst quarterly performance since the Great Recession. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index jumped 2.7%, extending a rally that has brought the U.S. stock market to the brink of its best month in 45 years.

The spark for Wednesday’s rally was a report that an experimental drug proved effective against the coronavirus in a study run by the National Institutes of Health. The nation’s top infectious diseases expert said the drug reduced the time it takes patients to recover, raising hopes that life around the world may eventually tiptoe back toward the way it was before the pandemic.

The S&P 500 index rose 76.12 points to 2,939.51. It has surged 13.7% in April, and it’s a day away from closing out its best month since late 1974.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 532.31 points, or 2.2%, to 24,633.86. The Nasdaq climbed 306.98 points, or 3.6%, to 8,914.71.

What’s happening now is a “debate between optimism and realism,” said Adam Taback, chief investment officer for Wells Fargo Private Wealth Management.

The Federal Reserve said Wednesday that it expects the health crisis to weigh on the economy “over the medium term,” as it promised to keep in place massive amounts of aid and interest rates at nearly zero. Oil prices, bonds and other markets besides stocks have also been dominated in recent weeks by worries about the economic effects of the virus outbreak.

“Everything except equities is telling you things are not great,” Taback said. “This market is overly optimistic.”

Gilead Sciences’ release about its drug remdesivir hit markets at the same moment as a government report showing that the U.S. economy shrank at a 4.8% annual rate in the first three months of the year.

Job losses have exploded since early April, as layoffs sweep the nation following widespread stay-at-home orders, and economists expect to see even worse numbers for the second quarter of the year.

The first-quarter figure was “merely the tip of the iceberg,” said Michael Reynolds, investment strategy officer at Glenmede.

But stocks have been rallying over the last month as investors look beyond the current economic devastation and focus instead on the prospect of economies gradually reopening. Some U.S. states, as well as some nations around the world, have laid out plans to relax restrictions keeping people at home and businesses bereft of customers. Any new treatment for COVID-19 could also lower the dread so prevalent among households and businesses around the world.

But what got the 31.4% rally for the S&P 500 started in late March was massive aid from the Federal Reserve and Congress. The Fed said Wednesday that it wouldn’t pull back on the aid anytime soon.

The market’s easing pessimism about the economy’s path is perhaps most clear in how the smallest stocks have been performing.

When recession worries were at their height, investors punished small-cap stocks and sent them to sharper declines than the rest of the market, in part on worries about their more limited financial resources. But the Russell 2000 index of small-cap stocks jumped 4.8% on Wednesday. It’s up 10.4% this week alone, more than twice as much as indexes of bigger stocks.

The market’s gains were widespread and accelerated through the day. Big tech and communications stocks helped lead the way after Alphabet, Google’s parent company, said its revenue was stronger in the first three months of the year than Wall Street expected.

Alphabet shares jumped nearly 9%. That helped communications stocks in the S&P 500 rise 5%, one of the biggest gains among the 11 sectors that make up the index.

Gilead Sciences shares climbed 5.7%.

In Europe, the French CAC 40 rose 2.2% after being down before the Gilead report. The German DAX returned 2.9%, and the FTSE 100 in London added 2.6%. In Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.3%, and the Kospi in Seoul advanced 0.7%.

Many professional investors are skeptical of the U.S. stock market’s big rally. There’s still a lot of uncertainty about how long the recession will last.

Stocks’ vigorous rise over the last month also implies investors see a relatively quick rebound for the economy and profits after the current devastation. But it may take awhile for households and businesses to get back to how things used to be.

“My concern is that the market is starting to get a little bit more focused on the rewards and less focused on the risks right now,” said Sal Bruno, chief investment officer at IndexIQ. “Maybe investors are getting a little too enthusiastic.”

“I don’t think you just flip the switch and everybody goes back to work right away,” he said.

The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury rose to 0.62% from 0.61%. Yields tend to rise when investors are upgrading expectations for the economy and inflation.

Oil prices are continuing their extreme swings after a collapse in demand has sent crude storage tanks close to their limits. Benchmark U.S. crude oil for June delivery jumped $2.72, or 22%, to $15.06 a barrel Wednesday. Brent crude, the international standard, climbed $2.08, or 10.2%, to $22.54 a barrel.

Less than an hour before the Rams and Tampa Bay Buccaneers kicked off on Sunday, fans in SoFi Stadium erupted in cheers.

Watching the giant video board, the crowd celebrated as the Philadelphia Eagles blew a huge lead and lost to the Dallas Cowboys.

That meltdown by the defending Super Bowl champions positioned the surging Rams to move to the top of the NFC.

Quarterback Matthew Stafford continued his MVP-caliber play by passing for three touchdowns, and the defense also produced big moments as the Rams seized the opportunity with a 34-7 victory that extended their winning streak to six games and improved their record to a conference-best 9-2.

That makes the Rams the current No. 1 seed for the NFC playoffs.

There is still a long way to go. And the Eagles hold the tiebreaker over the Rams by virtue of their Week 3 victory at Philadelphia.

But if the Rams maintain sole possession of first place and secure home-field advantage, they would avoid another potential January trip to Lincoln Financial Field to play the Eagles, who eliminated the Rams there in the NFC divisional round last season.

The Rams play at Carolina next week and then at Arizona before returning to SoFi Stadium for another NFC measuring-stick game against the Detroit Lions. The Rams finish the season with a Thursday night game in Seattle, a trip to Atlanta and a home game against the Cardinals.

Rams tight end Davis Allen catches a pass in the second half against the Buccaneers on Sunday.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

So the biggest question facing coach Sean McVay and the Rams: Are they peaking too soon?

Despite being without veteran tight end Tyler Higbee, right tackle Rob Havenstein and safety Quentin Lake — all placed on injured reserve last week — the Rams appeared nearly unstoppable on offense in the first half and dominant on defense throughout.

The Rams scored at least 34 points for the fourth time in five games. Stafford tossed two touchdown passes to Davante Adams and one to tight end Colby Parkinson, increasing his league-leading total to 30, with only two interceptions. Stafford has not had a pass intercepted in eight games.

Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford threw three more touchdown passes Sunday against the Buccaneers, giving him a league-leading 30.

(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times)

On Sunday the 17th-year pro completed his first 12 passes for 121 yards and a touchdown before a second-quarter pass fell incomplete. He finished 25 of 35 for 273 yards, the crowd chanting “M-V-P” after each of his last two touchdown passes.

Adams, who had bemoaned his performance in last week’s 21-19 victory over the Seahawks, seemingly was happier after catching five passes for 62 yards and increasing to 12 his league-leading total of touchdown catches.

On a night the Rams honored future Hall of Fame defensive lineman Aaron Donald with a bobblehead giveaway and other tributes, defensive end Kobie Turner and edge rusher Jared Verse each had two sacks. A secondary that intercepted four passes last week picked off two more, cornerback Cobie Durant returning one for a 50-yard touchdown and Emmanuel Forbes Jr. catching a desperation heave on the final play of the first half.

Rams linebackers Jared Verse, left, and Josaiah Stewart, center, and defensive end Kobie Turner celebrate in the first half.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

Rams special teams, which cost the team dearly in losses against the Eagles and the San Francisco 49ers, appear to be operating with efficiency since kicker Harrison Mevis replaced Joshua Karty and veteran Jake McQuaide supplanted Alex Ward as the snapper.

After Mevis kicked only extra points in his first two games, McVay finally gave him field-goal opportunities, and Mevis converted 40- and 52-yard kicks.

The Rams ruined Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield’s return to the stadium where he resurrected his career in 2022 by leading the Rams to a last-second victory over the Las Vegas Raiders with only two days of practice.

Mayfield sustained a left-shoulder injury and did not play in the second half. He completed nine of 19 passes for 41 yards and a touchdown with two interceptions.

It all added up to a convincing victory for the Rams. And here’s a scary thought for the rest of the NFL: The Rams are on track to get stronger down the stretch.

Receiver Tutu Atwell is eligible to return from injured reserve next week. Cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon, who suffered a broken collarbone in the second game of the season, is closer to a return. And McVay said Higbee and Havenstein could be back in four games, and Lake could return for the playoffs.

Those reinforcements would be a desirable situation for any Super Bowl contender in the NFC.

Especially the one currently on top.

After a surge in Border Patrol activity in North Carolina’s largest city over the weekend, including dozens of arrests, Gov. Josh Stein said the effort is “stoking fear,” not making Charlotte safer.

The Trump administration has made the Democratic city of about 950,000 people its latest target for an immigration enforcement surge it says will combat crime, despite fierce objections from local leaders and downtrending crime rates. Charlotte residents reported encounters with federal immigration agents near churches, apartment complexes and stores.

“We’ve seen masked, heavily armed agents in paramilitary garb driving unmarked cars, targeting American citizens based on their skin color, racially profiling, and picking up random people in parking lots and off of our sidewalks,” Stein said in a video statement late Sunday. “This is not making us safer. It’s stoking fear and dividing our community.”

Stein acknowledged that it was a stressful time, but he called on residents to stay peaceful. If people see something wrong, he said they should record it and report it to local law enforcement.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees CBP, has said it was focusing on North Carolina because of so-called sanctuary policies, which limit cooperation between local authorities and immigration agents.

Several county jails house immigrant arrestees and honor detainers, which allow jails to hold detainees for immigration officers to pick them up. But Mecklenburg County, where Charlotte is located, does not. Also, the city’s police department does not help with immigration enforcement. DHS alleged that about 1,400 detainers across North Carolina had not been honored, putting the public at risk.

Gregory Bovino, who led hundreds of U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents in a similar effort in Chicago, documented some of the more than 80 arrests he said agents had made in social media posts on Sunday. He posted pictures of people the Trump administration commonly dubs “criminal illegal aliens,” meaning people living in the U.S. without legal permission who allegedly have criminal records. That included one of a man with an alleged history of drunk driving convictions.

The activity has prompted fear and questions, including where detainees would be held, how long the operation would last and what agents’ tactics — criticized elsewhere as aggressive and racist — would look like in North Carolina.

However, some welcomed the effort, including Mecklenburg County Republican Party Chairman Kyle Kirby, who said in a post Saturday that the county GOP “stands with the rule of law — and with every Charlottean’s safety first.”

Bovino’s operations in Chicago and Los Angeles triggered lawsuits over the use of force, including widespread deployment of chemical agents. Democratic leaders in both cities accused agents of inflaming community tensions. Federal agents fatally shot one suburban Chicago man during a traffic stop.

Bovino, head of a Border Patrol sector in El Centro, California, and other Trump administration officials have called their tactics appropriate for growing threats on agents.

Tareen, Witte and Dale write for the Associated Press. Tareen and Dale reported from Chicago. Witte reported from Annapolis, Md.

Israeli authorities have been systematically abusing Palestinian prisoners with impunity, according to PHRI.

The number of Palestinians that have died in Israeli detention facilities has surged amid the war in Gaza, according to a report issued by a human rights group.

At least 94 Palestinian deaths have been documented since October 2023, the report published on Monday by Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) said.

The report is just the latest accusation regarding Israel’s jails, in which critics say thousands of Palestinians taken from Gaza and the occupied West Bank are routinely abused.

The nonprofit organisation expressed “grave concerns that the actual number of Palestinians who have died in Israeli custody is significantly higher, particularly among those detained from Gaza”.

It said Israeli authorities have consistently failed to hold those responsible for the deaths to account.

Of the 94 deaths that the report documents, 68 were from the Gaza Strip, while 26 were from the West Bank or held Israeli citizenship.

Israeli military prisons were responsible for at least 52 of the deaths. The remaining 42 were documented in facilities run by the Israel Prison Service (IPS).

Amid the war, Israeli soldiers have detained thousands of people from across Gaza. PHRI’s report asserts that they are now effectively “disappeared”.

The Israeli authorities have stopped sharing detainee information with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and barred all access to detention sites.

PHRI called those moves a “direct breach of both international and domestic law”.

Israel also refuses to acknowledge that it is holding many Palestinian prisoners, or that some have died in custody, leaving families in the dark for prolonged periods.

Some families found out about the death of their loved ones from Israeli media reports.

PHRI pointed at the case of Dr Hussam Abu Safia, the renowned director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, for whom Israeli authorities claimed for days that they had “no indication of the individual’s arrest or detention”.

Israel continues to hold the doctor, who was taken from the hospital in December, despite an international outcry. His lawyer asserts that he has been subjected to torture and humiliation.

Deaths of Palestinians in Israeli custody have been recorded in almost all major IPS facilities, including Ktzi’ot Prison, Megiddo, Nitzan and Ofer, as well as military camps and bases, including the notorious Sde Teiman, the report says.

Physical violence, including bruising, rib fractures, internal organ damage and intracranial haemorrhage, has been a leading cause of death, followed by chronic medical neglect or denial and severe malnutrition.

“Given the grave conditions faced by Palestinians in Israeli incarceration facilities, and in light of Israel’s policies of enforced disappearance, systematic killing, and institutionalized cover-ups, PHRI calls for an independent international investigation into the deaths of Palestinians in Israeli custody,” the NGO said.

Israeli settler violence targeting Palestinians in the occupied West Bank is at its highest level on record, according to the UN. Settlers are destroying mosques, dairy facilities, and attacking olive farmers in hundreds of attacks that are terrifying families and disrupting everyday life.

China’s major stock indexes rose on Thursday, buoyed by strong gains in the new energy sector, as investors positioned ahead of a fresh batch of economic data due Friday.

At the midday break, the Shanghai Composite Index (.SSEC) gained 0.4% to 4,017.94, while the blue-chip CSI300 (.CSI300) advanced 1%, recovering earlier losses.

Sector Highlights

New energy stocks led the rally. The CSI New Energy Vehicle Index (.CSI399976) surged 6.9% to a three-year high, and the CSI New Energy Index (.CSI399808) climbed 5.5%, marking its strongest session in two weeks.

Key players posted sharp gains:

CATL (300750.SZ) jumped 8.2%, nearing record highs last seen in October.

Tianqi Lithium (002466.SZ) rose 9.9%.

The rally followed comments from a senior Ministry of Industry and Information Technology official, who said Beijing would soon unveil a comprehensive plan to boost the new energy battery industry and its supporting infrastructure.

Investor Moves

Zhikai Chen, head of Asian equities at BNP Paribas Asset Management, said domestic institutional investors may be shifting portfolios as their November fiscal year-end approaches.

Meanwhile, the artificial intelligence (.CSI930713) and semiconductor (.CSI931865) sectors edged higher, gaining 0.5% and 0.9%, respectively, after recent declines.

“There’s been a move toward booking strong year-to-date returns and rotating into dividend-paying sectors,” Chen noted, adding that the trend could continue into December.

Hong Kong Markets and Outlook

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index (.HSI) slipped 0.6% to 26,766.71, while the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index (.HSCE) also fell 0.6%, following Wednesday’s one-month high.

Investors now await October credit data along with retail sales, industrial output, and fixed-asset investment figures due Friday, which are expected to provide clearer signals on China’s economic recovery and potential policy adjustments.

With information from Reuters.

European stocks rallied at the start of the new trading week as a late test vote in the Senate on Sunday raised expectations for a bipartisan deal to fund the government, lifting investor sentiment across regions.

US stock futures climbed, and European indices followed suit.

Germany’s DAX rose 1.5%, France’s CAC 40 gained 1.4% and London’s FTSE 100 advanced 0.8% at around 11:00 CET. The uptick reflected renewed optimism that the shutdown, which has hindered access to key economic data, could soon end, alleviating uncertainty for markets.

AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould said the Senate vote was an important first step, but that there were still hurdles to be cleared.

“A key impact on the markets of the impasse, beyond the hit to the wider economy, has been the lack of data as key releases on areas like the jobs market have been delayed,” Mould said.

He added that this “created a considerable dose of the uncertainty which markets famously hate, and it is also hampering the ability of the Federal Reserve to make informed decisions on interest rates.”

“In this context, it’s not a surprise to see investors react positively to signs of progress, with Asian shares higher, indices on the front foot in Europe and US futures pointing towards gains when Wall Street opens later.”

A respite for whiskey and spirits

Meanwhile, shares in beleaguered drinks giant Diageo soared 6.4% in early trade on news that former Tesco chief executive Dave Lewis was appointed to lead the company.

Diageo is one of the world’s biggest drinks groups and a heavyweight in the FTSE 100, with a stable of blue-chip brands such as Johnnie Walker, Guinness, Smirnoff, Tanqueray, Don Julio and Baileys sold in more than 180 countries

The company has struggled with falling drink consumption after the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, and an end to the government shutdown is positive for Diageo as the United States is its single largest market

Lewis, who is set to take over in January 2026, was known as “Drastic Dave” for his role in turning around the supermarket chain.

Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell, said the appointment was a “significant hire and a pleasant surprise”.

He explained that investors “are clearly excited about Diageo’s prospects under Lewis. The stock is unloved after several years of disappointment, and the appointment of a highly respected CEO could be enough to win over many investors.” However, Lewis knows he will ultimately be judged on results, not hope.

A boost for dollar exchanges and gold

In terms of currencies, the dollar exchange rate remains steady, with the current euro exchange rate hovering at around $1.15, while the yen exchange rate went up slightly to $154.1 or by 0.5%.

The UK pound is slightly weaker against the dollar, going down by 0.1% to $1.315.

Gold is up about 1.8% at roughly €3,521 per troy ounce (about €113 per gram and €113,200 per kilogram). It is still sought out as a safe place to park money, even as shutdown worries ease.

AI and tech leaders are firmer in pre-market trading alongside the broader risk-on tone, and reports show Nvidia up by around 3.5%.

The move sits within a wider global relief rally as investors price a potential end to the shutdown.

In other developments, shares of Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk rose by 2.3% by midday in Europe after the company announced a partnership with Indian drugmaker Emcure Pharmaceuticals to market its weight-loss treatment Wegovy under a new brand through an exclusive agreement.

Meanwhile, the company failed in its bid to acquire biotech firm Metsera. The biotech company based in New York, which develops promising drugs against obesity, said it would accept a revised offer from Pfizer of up to $10 billion (€8.65bn).

US Senate vote to end shutdown delivers reprieve to investors worried about AI valuations and weakness in US economy.

Stocks from the United States to Japan have risen sharply amid hopes that an end to the longest US government shutdown in history is imminent.

US lawmakers on Sunday moved to end a five-week impasse over government funding, a boost for investors unnerved by signs of growing weakness in the US economy and the sky-high evaluations of firms involved in artificial intelligence.

After a group of Democrats broke with the party leadership to join Republicans, the US Senate voted 60-40 to advance a bill that would fund government operations through the end of January.

The funding package still needs to win final approval in the Senate and then pass the US House of Representatives, after which it would go to US President Donald Trump for his signature – a process expected to take days.

Stock markets in the Asia Pacific made large gains on Monday, while futures in the US also rose in advance of stock exchanges reopening.

South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI led the gains, rising about 3 percent as of 4pm local time (07:00 GMT).

Japan’s Nikkei 225 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng also rose sharply, advancing about 1.3 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively.

Taiwan’s Taiex rose about 0.8 percent, while Australia’s ASX 200 gained about 0.75 percent.

Futures for the US’s benchmark S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq-100, which are traded outside of regular market hours, were up about 0.75 and 1.3 percent, respectively.

The reprieve comes as investors are concerned that AI-linked stocks may be wildly overvalued and that Trump’s sweeping tariffs could be doing more damage to the US economy than has been captured in headline data so far.

Nvidia, whose graphics processing units are integral to the development of AI, last month became the first company in history to reach a market valuation of $5 trillion, a day after tech giant Apple surpassed $4 trillion in market value.

While the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ official jobs report has been suspended since August due to the government shutdown, several other analyses have pointed to a rise in layoffs in October.

Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an executive outplacement firm, said in a report last week that layoffs surged 183 percent last month, making it the worst October for jobs since 2003.

A separate analysis by Revelio Labs, a workforce analytics company, estimated that the economy shed 9,100 jobs during the month.

Spain remains the UK’s No.1 holiday destination

Holidaymakers jetting off to Spain could be hit with a hefty price hike under new proposals. This comes in the wake of calls to ramp up the tourist tax for visitors heading to the Balearic islands.

The Balearic archipelago consists of four main islands: Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza, and Formentera, along with the smaller island of Cabrera and around 150 other minor islets. At present, Brits holidaying in Majorca, Ibiza and Menorca are subject to a charge based on the quality of their accommodation and the time of their visit.

In peak season, tourists fork out €4 (£3.50) per person each night in a five-star hotel, €3 in mid-range digs, €2 for budget stays, and €1 in hostels. These rates plummet by 75 per cent during off-peak periods.

Approximately 18 million Brits flock to Spain annually, making it our top holiday hotspot. It’s estimated that 27 per cent – nearly five million – of these travellers head to the Balearics, so any price alteration would have a significant impact.

One of Spain’s largest trade unions, the Workers’ Commission, is advocating for an increase in this rate. They’ve proposed a steep rise in this tax to €15 (£13) per person, per night in July and August.

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Sky News reports that this would mean four adults staying at a luxury resort for a fortnight would shell out €840 (£736) in taxes during the summer peak, a substantial leap from the current €224 (£196) and an overall increase of £540.

Not only is this expected to generate revenue for the Government, but it is also hoped that it would curb the influx of visitors. The islands have long been grappling with the issue of overtourism, which has sparked numerous protests in recent years.

Many argue that it has driven locals away due to skyrocketing housing costs and a shortage of living space as many flats are transformed into AirBnbs. Others bemoan the negative social impact caused by tourists.

Remember when soccer was being touted as the next big sport in the U.S.? Well, it looks like that moment has finally arrived.

Or not. It all depends on who you ask and how you interpret what they tell you.

On one hand, there’s the recent Harris Poll that found 72% of Americans profess an interest in soccer, a 17% increase from 2020. A quarter of those are “dedicated” fans and 1 in 5 say they are “obsessed” with the sport.

On the other hand, there’s the stark decline in attendance and TV viewership for the country’s top two domestic leagues, MLS and the NWSL, and the underwhelming crowds that showed up last summer for the FIFA Club World Cup and the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

LAFC fans lift up a banner honoring Carlos Vela during a ceremony to honor him before a match against Real Salt Lake at BMO Stadium on Sept. 21.

(Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images)

These contrary findings — a growing fanbase at the same time attendance and viewership numbers are falling off a cliff — come at an important inflection point for soccer in the U.S., with the largest, most ambitious World Cup kicking off at SoFi Stadium in fewer than 200 days.

“The short answer is yes, the World Cup will be a watershed moment for soccer in America. However, it’s unlikely to immediately lead to a significant increase in ticket sales for MLS and NWSL. Soccer fandom in America develops differently from that of other sports,” said Darin W. White, executive director of the Sports Industry Program and the Center for Sports Analytics at Samford University, which next year will launch a major five-year study to explore how soccer can become mainstream in the U.S.

“The World Cup will bring millions of new Americans into the pipeline. Over the next few years we expect these new fans to progress through the pipeline, giving soccer a substantial enough fan base to tip the scales and help make soccer part of the ongoing mainstream sports conversation. I am confident that the World Cup will enable soccer to reach that critical mass.”

Steven A. Bank, a professor of business law at UCLA who has written and lectured extensively on the economics of soccer, isn’t as optimistic.

“The risk isn’t that U.S. soccer will be in the same place in 10 years, but that it will have regressed,” he said.

“For the World Cup to benefit domestic leagues’ attendance, ratings, and revenue, as well as youth and adult participation rates in playing soccer, it will have to be the catalyst for more domestic investment in the game. The question isn’t whether the World Cup will convince enough people to become fans or to move from casual to dedicated or obsessive fans. It’s whether it will convince enough wealthy people and companies to risk the kind of money necessary to compete with the top leagues for the top talent.”

U.S. captain Christian Pulisic drives the ball during an international friendly against Ecuador at Q2 Stadium on Oct. 10 in Austin, Texas.

(Omar Vega / Getty Images)

That investment could be a boost to both first-tier domestic leagues, which saw their attendance and TV rating fall dramatically this year. After setting records in both 2023 and ‘24, MLS watched its average attendance fall 5.4% — to 21,988 fans per match — this season. According to Soccer America, 19 of the 29 teams that played in 2024 saw their attendance drop; more than half saw declines of 10% or more.

The TV audience also appears to be relatively small, although the fact Apple TV, the league’s main broadcast partner, rarely releases viewer data has hampered efforts to draw any firm conclusions. MLS said last month that its games attracted 3.7 million global aggregate viewers a week on all its streaming and linear platforms, an average of about 246,000 a game on a full weekend. While that’s up nearly 29% from last year, the average viewership figure is about 100,000 smaller than what the league drew for single games on ESPN alone in 2022, the last season before Apple’s 10-year $2.5-billion took effect.

NWSL also saw overall league attendance fall more than 5%, with eight of the 13 teams that played in 2024 experiencing declines. And TV viewership in the second year of the league’s four-season $240 million broadcast deal was down 8% before the midseason July break, according to the Sports Business Journal.

That follows a summer in which both the expanded Club World Cup and the Gold Cup struggled to find an audience. Although the 63-match Club World Cup drew an average of 39,547 fans per game, 14 matches had crowds of fewer than 20,000. The Gold Cup averaged 25,129 for its 31 games — a drop of more than 7,000 from 2023. And five matches drew less than 7,800 people.

“There’s a danger of taking this year’s decline out of context,” said Stefan Szymanski, a professor of sports management at the University of Michigan and author of several books on soccer including “Money and Soccer” and “Soccernomics” (with Simon Kuper). “Last year was a record year. It’s really about the diminishment of the Messi effect.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a moment of crisis. And the way MLS is looking at this strikes me that they’re entirely focused on a post-World Cup [bump], which they think they’re going to get. I’d be skeptical myself about that. I don’t think it will do that much for them.”

Szymanski said the World Cup could hurt the league by underscoring the huge difference in the quality of play between elite international soccer and MLS.

“Americans are not dumb,” he said. “They know what’s good quality sport [and] not good quality sport. And they know that MLS is low level. The only way, in a global marketplace, you can get the top talent to have a truly competitive league is to pay the salaries.”

Which brings us back to Bank’s conclusion that fixing soccer in the U.S. isn’t about the soccer, it’s about the money being spent on the sport. For next summer’s World Cup to have a lasting impact, the “bump” will have to come not just from an increase in attendance and TV viewership but in investment as well. And, as Szymanski argues, that means additional investment in players as well.

“If all it does is attract eyeballs for this competition,” Bank said “I’m not sure it does more than the Olympics does every four years when it temporarily raises the profile of a few sports for some people who were not casual fans before.”