Headlines

Israel’s central bank unveiled a new outlook that assumes the country faces a longer and more intense war, as it held interest rates for a fourth consecutive time, Bloomberg News reported. Governor Amir Yaron, speaking to reporters on Monday after leaving the benchmark at 4.5%, said officials now expect the conflict against Hamas in Gaza to wind down only in early 2025. The latest staff projections from the bank showed the key rate will probably be at 4.25% in the second quarter of 2025, a more hawkish path than implied earlier.

Hiring in Canada ground to a halt last month, pushing the unemployment rate to a fresh more than two-year high and taking some of the heat out of the recent surprise acceleration in inflation ahead of the central bank’s next rate decision, the Wall Street Journal reported. The job market was effectively stalled in June, with 1,400 jobs lost for the month, allowing the unemployment rate to climb 0.2 percentage point to 6.4%, Statistics Canada reported Friday. The result undershot market expectations for the addition of a modest 25,000 jobs and a unemployment rate of 6.3%.

Bank of England policy maker Jonathan Haskel signaled that he will vote to leave interest rates at a 16-year high in his final meeting next month, warning that a “tight and impaired” labor market will keep inflation too high, Bloomberg News reported. The official — who finishes his term on the Monetary Policy Committee at the end of August — said that he needs to see more evidence that underling price pressures are receding before backing cuts despite “encouraging signs” on inflation.

The International Monetary Fund is set to discuss a review of the fees it charges its biggest borrowers after some nations raised concerns that costs are becoming unreasonable due to higher interest rates, Bloomberg News reported. The IMF board, made up of a management official and 24 members representing the Washington-based crisis lender’s 190 countries, is set on Monday to weigh options to give nations a break on surcharges, according to people familiar with the plans, who asked not to be identified without permission to speak publicly.

Bitcoin skidded anew on concern about possible sales of the token by creditors of the failed Mt. Gox exchange, fueling doubts about the remaining impetus in a crypto bull run that began last year, Bloomberg News reported. The largest digital asset slid as much as 5.2% on Monday to $54,313, some $19,000 below March’s record high. Smaller tokens such as Solana and Cardano traded higher. Tokyo-based Mt. Gox, which went bankrupt a decade ago after being hacked, is returning about $8 billion of Bitcoin to creditors in stages, spotlighting the potential for a wall of supply to come into the market.

Berlin-based food delivery giant Delivery Hero has warned investors it may "ultimately" face an antitrust fine of up to €400 million, Tech Crunch reported. The development, reported earlier by Reuters, follows unannounced raids by European Union authorities on the offices of Delivery Hero and its Spanish subsidiary Glovo back in July 2022 and November 2023. The EU did not name the companies at the time, though both confirmed the inspections had taken place.

Argentina’s Mercado Abierto Electronico and Matba-Rofex agreed to merge into a single exchange, creating the country’s largest futures and foreign-exchange market, Bloomberg News reported. The companies expect to make the announcement after the market closes on Monday. The new exchange will include agricultural transactions, peso futures against dollars and trading on bonds, including local treasury and central bank notes. Argentina’s foreign exchange and fixed income market volume has plummeted since the country reintroduced capital controls in 2019.

Japan's corporate bankruptcies for the first half of this year hit the highest level in a decade, data from a research firm showed on Friday, as high prices, labor shortages and reduction of COVID-era relief complicated firms' management, the Japan Times reported. There were 4,887 bankruptcies between January and June, up 22% from the same period a year ago, according to corporate credit research firm Teikoku Databank.

Japan expects corporate bond issuers to start adding investor protection as it pushes the use of covenants, opening the way for lower-rated companies to enter the debt market, Bloomberg News reported. A working group led by the Japan Securities Dealers Association finished a series of monthly meetings in June that discussed details of applying covenants to local corporate notes with lower ratings. The group agreed on applying Change of Control clauses and reporting covenants on bonds of BBB+ and lower, while keeping conditions flexible, according to an official at JSDA.

Israel’s southern Port of Eilat has declared bankruptcy because of the lack of commercial and trade activity, countercurrents.org reported. Eilat Port CEO Gideon Golber said, “The port is completely closed, and there has been no activity in the port for eight months, due to the failure of the coalition countries in the Red Sea.