Headlines

Shares of Argo Blockchain plunged more than 60% on Monday after the Bitcoin mining company unveiled a court-supervised restructuring plan in a last-ditch effort to avoid bankruptcy, TheMinerMag.com reported. The London- and Nasdaq-listed miner said it has entered into an agreement with Growler Mining and will seek approval from a U.K. court to implement the proposed plan. If approved, the deal would eliminate existing shareholders and transfer majority ownership to Growler Mining, a mining firm based in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

A U.S. judge ordered Argentina to give up its 51% stake in oil and gas company YPF to partially satisfy a $16.1 billion court judgment against the country, Investing.com reported. U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska in Manhattan ruled yesterday that Argentina must transfer its YPF shares within 14 days to a BNY Mellon custody account. The country must also instruct the bank to transfer the shares within one business day to the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs in the case are Petersen Energia Inversora and Eton Park Capital Management, which are represented by litigation funder Burford Capital.

Turkish steelmaker Sıddık Kardeşler Haddecilik, has been unable to overcome its ongoing financial difficulties and has filed for bankruptcy proceedings, SteelOrbis.com reported. Accordingly, the company and its partners have filed for bankruptcy with the Istanbul Anatolia Second Commercial Court of First Instance, with its debt reportedly amounting to TRY 2.6 billion ($90.32 million). The court granted the company a three-month temporary notice and appointed a temporary bankruptcy commissioner.

China’s manufacturing activity declined for the third straight month in June as trade frictions with the U.S. continued to weigh on the world’s second-largest economy, the Wall Street Journal reported. The official manufacturing purchasing managers index for June–the first full month after the China-U.S. trade truce was reached in London–came in at 49.7, edging up from May’s 49.5 and matching the 49.7 tipped by a Wall Street Journal poll of economists, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Monday.

Inflation in the eurozone crept up in June, hitting the European Central Bank’s target and raising expectations that policymakers will leave the key interest rate unchanged later this month, the Wall Street Journal reported. Consumer prices were 2.0% higher than the same month last year, up from the 1.9% of May, statistics agency Eurostat said Tuesday. The ECB cut its key interest rate last month for an eighth time since June last year. Investors anticipate policymakers to reduce rates again later in 2025, albeit to stand pat in their July meeting.

The European Union wants immediate relief from tariffs in key sectors as part of any trade deal with the United States due by a July 9 deadline, but the bloc expects even a best-case deal to include a degree of asymmetry, EU diplomats told Reuters. The European Commission, which coordinates EU trade policy, is pushing three key points in Washington this week even as it accepts the U.S. baseline tariff of 10% as unavoidable. Both sides are working towards an agreement in principle, with the final details to be ironed out later.

Germany’s unemployment rate was unchanged in June, but signs of a loosening labor market remain as economic uncertainty around trade and geopolitics persists, the Wall Street Journal reported. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 6.3% for a fourth consecutive month, data from Germany’s Federal Employment Agency published Tuesday said. However, there were 632,000 vacancies in June, 69,000 fewer than the same month of 2024, the agency said. Jobless claims rose 11,000, albeit that was a slowdown from the 33,000 in May.

A number of wealthy creditor nations and multilateral lenders have launched an initiative that aims to give sovereign borrowers breathing space on debt payments in the event of a climate or humanitarian crisis, Spain said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The Debt Suspension Clause Alliance was launched during a U.N. conference in Seville - a once in a decade meeting aimed at furthering development finance goals and guidelines.

The International Monetary Fund said on Monday it has completed its eighth review of Ukraine's $15.5 billion four-year support program, paving the way for a disbursement of an additional $500 million to the war-torn country, Reuters reported. That will bring total disbursements to $10.6 billion, the IMF said in a statement, following its board's approval of the review of Ukraine's Extended Fund Facility. It warned of ongoing and "exceptionally high" risks to the country's outlook. “Russia’s war continues to take a devastating social and economic toll on Ukraine.

Russia’s government is weighing the possibility of some tax relief for the giant gas firm Gazprom, which would be paid for by potentially higher taxes on other Russian natural gas producers, a source in the Russian government told Reuters on Monday. Gazprom has been bleeding cash since it cut off most of its pipeline gas deliveries to Europe in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.