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Saudi oil giant Aramco said on Sunday its net profit rose by 25.5% in the first quarter compared to the same period last year, after the Middle East war sent oil and gas prices soaring.The result comes as uncertainty plagues global markets over the conflict's trajectory, with Iran restricting the passage of hydrocarbons through the strategic Strait of Hormuz.Aramco, the world's biggest oil exporter, said in a statement published on the Saudi stock exchange website that its "increase in revenue was mainly due to higher prices and volumes sold of refined and chemical products as well as higher crude oil volumes sold and higher crude oil prices".Crude prices jumped during the first quarter from the mid $60s in early February to more than $100 a barrel in March as Iran's shutdown of the strait sparked a global energy crisis.Aramco, majority-owned by the state, said in its statement that net income in the first quarter of 2026 reached 120.13bn Saudi riyals ($32.04bn), compared to 95.68bn riyals ($25.51bn) for the same quarter in 2025."The increase was mainly driven by higher revenue and other income related to sales, partially offset by higher operating costs and an increase in income taxes and zakat driven by higher taxable income compared to the same quarter of the previous year," it said.The median analyst consensus for first quarter adjusted net income had been $31.16bn -- an external estimate based on 13 forecasts.Aramco's increase in net income is its first quarterly rise after 12 consecutive quarters of decline.President and CEO Amin H Nasser said the result reflected "resilience and operational flexibility in a complex geopolitical environment".He said the company was "leveraging both its domestic infrastructure and its global network to navigate disruption".Aramco is the flagship company of the Saudi economy and one of the largest firms in the world by market capitalisation.Despite the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, it has been able to deliver millions of barrels of crude to markets daily through its massive east to west pipeline, which connects its energy installations on the Gulf to export terminals on the Red Sea.The company said "a significant increase in pumping through the east-west pipeline to reach its maximum capacity of 7mn barrels per day in the first quarter supports exports from the kingdom's west coast".Last month, Saudi Arabia's energy ministry said the pipeline and other facilities had been restored following attacks by Iran.The Gulf region has borne the brunt of Iran's attacks during the war, which came in response to US-Israeli strikes in late February that triggered the conflict.Tehran has targeted US assets but also civilian infrastructure including energy facilities and airports.In Saudi Arabia, facilities in Riyadh, the Eastern Province and the industrial city of Yanbu were all targeted. They included infrastructure for oil and gas production, transport and refining, and petrochemical plants and power facilities.The surge in prices for oil and gas has also created a windfall for other major energy firms.In late April, French oil and gas giant TotalEnergies said its net profits had risen 51% in the first quarter, while British energy giant Shell saw profits after tax jump 19%.If crude oil prices remain at current levels, Aramco's profits are expected to continue rising in the second quarter after Saudi Arabia, Russia and the rest of the Opec+ countries raised their oil production quotas as expected.

As recruitment firms shed large parts of their workforce across the globe, growing demand for recruiters in the US points to a stronger-than-expected job market.Publicly-listed recruitment firms in both the UK and the US recently announced job cuts during their latest results. Still, the sector is proving more resilient in the US.A prolonged slowdown in the UK laboor market prompted Robert Walters Plc to ramp up cost measures after posting a loss in 2025, having already cut headcount by 15%. Hays Plc reduced its global consultant workforce by 14% since March last year, while Pagegroup Plc cut staff by about 7.5% in 2025.In the US, Robert Half Inc cut headcount at its consulting arm Protiviti, executives announced on the latest earnings call. “These were measured actions, not a broad-based restructuring,” the company said in an email.US-based recruitment firm ManpowerGroup Inc also announced a similar move affecting workers in the US and Europe. The $16mn restructuring charges in the first quarter were primarily related to severance, the company said in an email response.Overall, recruiters are in much higher demand in the US. Employment website Indeed’s data on job postings for recruiters showed that in the UK, recruiter job postings have been steadily shrinking for at least a year. In the US, job postings have been increasing since December.Last year’s increase in UK national insurance taxes has “made hiring more expensive,” said An Nguyen, an economist at job site Indeed. The UK recorded the steepest decline in hiring intentions among the 42 countries surveyed by ManpowerGroup.The outbreak of the Iran war is making a tough situation even more difficult for British recruiters. Robert Walters and Pagegroup both warned of an increasingly uncertain outlook as consumer and business confidence continue to weaken, threatening to undo the recent pickup in hiring seen in some geographies.This means fewer jobs to advertise and find the right candidate for, and therefore dwindling demand for recruiters.In the US, despite plans for massive job cuts at giant corporations, and a “low-hire-low-fire” labor market, job listings for recruiters are up. Companies are looking for workers who are well-versed in artificial intelligence, skills that are “difficult to identify” and therefore require headhunting acumen, Nguyen said.Tech jobs listing site TrueUp.io shows openings for recruiter roles have been generally climbing after plunging in 2022. Headlines of companies citing AI to slash thousands of workers could be “a smokescreen,” said Aline Lerner, founder and CEO of interviewing.io, an anonymous mock interview and recruiting platform. Engineering and tech recruiting jobs “are in lockstep.”“It’s about pumping their stock price properly,” Lerner said. “So some of them could just be going back to hiring again.”Even as Block Inc co-founder and Chairman Jack Dorsey announced plans to terminate 40% of the company’s workforce, he told investors on the February earnings call that the company still intends to bring on a small number of senior AI engineers.Beyond tech, the healthcare sector’s continued need for workers has buoyed jobs for recruiters, Nguyen said. The latest US jobs data showed the rate of openings in healthcare and social assistance rising 5.4% in March, outpacing the 4.3% increase in total private job openings.

As the focus moves away from the Iran war, investors and strategists alike are looking for the next leg up in equities. Many are turning to Asia.Shares in South Korea and Taiwan have rallied the most in the world this month, with the surge in the Kospi index taking it up 78% for the year. The two markets have been key beneficiaries of the euphoria surrounding artificial intelligence, thanks to the growing dominance of giants Samsung Electronics Co, SK Hynix Inc and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.Equity-derivatives strategists are increasingly recommending trades to bet on more gains, just as traders chasing the rally push up the cost of options. The result: Implied volatility for stocks in Taiwan and Korea is rising along with those markets. It’s now hovering around peak levels versus the S&P 500 Index for both the Taiex and the Kospi 200 Index, with the Cboe Volatility Index sinking back below its one-year average.“The strength of the move is producing extreme reversals from prior trends,” said Jun Gyun, a derivatives analyst at Samsung Securities Co, referring to the Korean market. That’s creating the “vol up, spot up” pattern, which could last for “some time, until a period of consolidation emerges,” he added.Tech and AI are back with a vengeance, leaving behind markets such as India, which is heavily dependent on oil, has low exposure to AI and a currency near a record low. Its S&P BSE Sensex Index, down 9.3% this year, is the world’s second-worst performer.Korean shares have been so in demand that Interactive Brokers Group Inc. started giving US retail investors direct access to the market. Meanwhile, the assets under management for leveraged exchange-traded funds have surged to a peak, and they’re likely to grow further as authorities have approved the local listing of those for single stocks, according to a recent JPMorgan Chase & Co report that said the products keep the risk of “flow-driven overshoots alive.”Samsung Securities’ Jun sees long-gamma strategies tied to rising volatility as favorable for Korean equities in the near term. Looking out three months or longer, he says traders should consider building short-gamma exposure in anticipation of a volatility peak.At Societe Generale SA, strategists noted that the 12 month variance spread between the Kospi 200 and S&P 500 has reached extreme levels. Yet a meaningful reversal would need a “more benign” oil and geopolitical environment and a pause in the tech rally, conditions they don’t see happening in an “orderly manner” now, they wrote in a report where they said they don’t advise positioning for this scenario.Meanwhile, JPMorgan strategists recommended bullish structures on the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF, expecting the equities will continue to outperform given the AI theme, a more supportive macro backdrop and strong fundamentals.Ahead of the upcoming summit between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, where AI policies are poised to be key points, investors boosted bullish positioning in US-traded Chinese ETFs, buying call spreads on the iShares China Large-Cap ETF and calls on the KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF.Separately, JPMorgan strategists led by Tony Lee advised call spreads on the Taiex or worst-of calls on the Taiwanese gauge, the Kospi 200 and Japan’s Nikkei-225 Stock Average to bet on the AI hardware rally.“US large-cap tech, Korean memory and component suppliers, and Taiwan’s semiconductor ecosystem are all showing the same pattern — earnings delivery remains strongest where exposure to AI hardware bottlenecks is highest,” the strategists wrote in a note. “Hardware remains the earnings backbone of the AI theme, and Taiwan remains its most efficient index level proxy.”

The US economy continues to display notable resilience against an increasingly complex and uncertain global backdrop. This comes despite several headwinds, including elevated uncertainty, persistent inflationary pressures, and the risk of higher-for-longer interest rates weighing on sentiment and purchasing power. According to QNB’s latest economic report, rising geopolitical tensions, including the ongoing conflict involving Iran and continual trade disputes, are fueling significant commodity price volatility and disruptions to global supply chains. Higher oil and shipping costs are feeding directly into transportation, energy, and goods prices, increasing input costs for firms and eroding households’ real purchasing power. These developments are likely to weigh on consumption dynamics going forward, even as demand continues to be supported by strong fundamentals, QNB stated. “Against this backdrop, consumption, which accounts for close to 70% of US GDP, continues to expand at a moderate pace, remaining the main pillar of economic activity. While growth has normalised from the strong post-pandemic expansion, recent data still point to steady momentum in household spending. “In particular, real personal consumption expenditures have grown at an annualised pace of around 2–3% in recent quarters, while retail sales volumes remain above their pre-pandemic trend. However, intensifying headwinds and building pressures on purchasing power will test the strength of consumer demand in the coming quarters,” stated QNB, which discussed three key factors that sustain US consumer demand. QNB stated, “First, labour markets remain overall robust despite some moderation in job creation. The unemployment rate has slightly increased to around 4.3% from historical lows but remains within the range typically associated with a balanced labour market. At the same time, wage growth continues to outpace inflation, with real wages rising by around 1–2% year-on-year in recent months, reinforcing households’ purchasing power.” The bank continued, “High-frequency indicators also point to continued resilience, with initial jobless claims remaining low by historical standards. As a result, consumption growth remains anchored in income fundamentals.” “Second, household balance sheets remain a key pillar of consumption, reflecting elevated asset valuations. US households continue to benefit from high levels of net wealth, particularly through equity and housing markets, with total household net worth exceeding $180tn in recent quarters. “Strong corporate earnings have reinforced these trends, helping push major US equity indices to record highs and boosting household wealth. Additionally, house prices have remained firm, reflecting tight supply conditions and continued demand,” QNB stated. According to QNB, these factors generate positive wealth effects, encouraging spending, especially among higher-income households, which hold a disproportionate share of financial assets. As a result, balance sheet strength continues to provide an important buffer against rising costs and supports overall consumption dynamics, QNB noted. “Third, access to credit continues to sustain household spending, providing an additional buffer for consumption. Consumer credit outstanding remains elevated, with total credit exceeding $5tn, while credit card balances have surpassed $1tn in recent quarters,” QNB stated. According to QNB, this expansion in borrowing has helped maintain consumption, particularly for more liquidity-constrained households. Credit flows have remained active across key segments, including credit cards and auto loans, reflecting continued demand for financing. At the same time, the broad availability of credit allows households to smooth consumption over time, even as cost pressures persist. As a result, credit remains a key channel sustaining the strength and continuity of US consumer demand, QNB stated. “All in all, US consumer demand continues to display notable resilience, underpinned by firm labour market conditions, strong household balance sheets, and continued access to credit. These factors have allowed consumption to remain the central driver of economic activity, even amid a challenging global backdrop. “While headwinds from elevated uncertainty and rising costs are likely to test the strength of demand, the combination of income growth, wealth effects, and credit availability should continue to provide a solid foundation for household spending in the near term,” QNB stated.

OilBrent crude futures jumped as much as 3% on Friday, a day after the US and Iran traded air strikes, but pared gains as traders hoped for a longer pause in the fighting that has shut shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.**media[443616]**Brent crude futures settled at $101.29, and US West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) finished at $95.42. For the week, both contracts declined by 6.4%.US and Iranian forces clashed in the Gulf, and the UAE came under renewed attack as Washington awaited a response from Tehran to its proposal to end the conflict, which began with joint US-Israeli airstrikes across Iran on February 28.US President Donald Trump later on Thursday told reporters the ceasefire was still in effect and sought to play down the exchange. However, on Friday, Trump renewed an ultimatum demanding Iran give up its nuclear ambitions. GasAsia spot liquefied natural gas (LNG) slipped after two weeks of gains, on the prospect of a US-Iran peace agreement and subdued Northeast Asia demand.The average LNG price for June delivery into northeast Asia was $16.90 per million British thermal units (mmBtu), down from $17.80 per mmBtu the week before.**media[443617]**While prompt demand in May and June is not expected to be significantly bullish, forecasted hotter-than-normal temperatures for the summer months are likely to push South Korea and Taiwan back to the spot market.In Europe, the Dutch TTF gas price settled at $15.15 per mmBtu, posting a weekly decline of 2.2%. Spot demand in Europe comes from buyers that are short on delivery obligations and looking to backfill positions, rather than pure regasification holders looking to import and profit from spreads, analysts said.This article was supplied by the Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah International Foundation for Energy and Sustainable Development.

The rallying US stock market will take its cues this week from fresh inflation and consumer spending data, developments in the war in ‌Iran, and a high-stakes meeting between the leaders of the US and China. US equities have been on ​a tear, with the benchmark S&P ‌500 up more than 15% from its low for the year, hit in late March.The strongest ‌US quarterly earnings season ⁠in more than four years has ‌lifted sentiment for equities, while worries about worst-case economic ‌fallout from the Iran war have abated and investors are jumping in for fear of missing out on gains."We have ⁠seen this tremendous rebound as markets have willed themselves to focus on only the positive," said Kristina Hooper, chief market strategist at Man Group.Hopes for an end to the Middle East conflict, which began in late February with US-Israeli strikes on Iran, remain at the forefront for Wall Street. In particular, investors are eager to see a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical choke point for global oil supplies. Energy prices have soared in the wake of the Iran war, with US crude up more than 60% for the year."The continued progress towards a resolution for ​the US-Iran war will be top of mind for investors," said Michael Arone, chief investment strategist at State Street Investment Management. "You need to begin to see ship movements in the Strait of Hormuz." The war is also expected to be a topic when US President Donald Trump ‌meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping in ⁠Beijing late next week. Investors ​will monitor any developments between the two nations on access to rare earths and technology, as well as ​other issues.The market's latest surge, which has pushed the S&P 500 up 7% for 2026 as of Thursday, builds on three consecutive years of double-digit returns. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite was last up 11% on the year, with both indexes hitting record levels. While the first-quarter results season is winding down, corporate reports will remain a key driver for stocks in the coming days.This week's results include tech networking equipment firm Cisco and semiconductor equipment maker Applied Materials. Heavyweights Nvidia and Walmart are due later in the month.S&P 500 earnings are on track to jump 28% in the quarter, according to LSEG IBES data. Massive corporate spending on artificial intelligence is flowing through to the results of several industries, as AI hyperscalers build out data centers and other infrastructure to support the technology.The ‌results indicate that "all the fears that tariffs ‌or this oil price shock would eat into ⁠margins have not materialised so far," Arone said. "Earnings are the lifeblood of this rally."Economic data ⁠covering April, especially on inflation, also could show the ⁠impact from the Iran war. Tuesday's consumer price index - a closely watched inflation gauge - is expected to rise 0.6%, according to a Reuters poll.CPI rose 0.9% in March, the most in nearly four years, driven by a surge in gasoline prices. With markets expecting a near-term resolution to the war, investors said they may focus on the CPI's core reading, which strips out energy and could offer clearer clues for projecting the path of interest rates.Following the war-related surge in energy prices, markets have ruled ​out equity-friendly rate cuts this year, and the latest Federal Reserve meeting indicated more hawkish sentiment from several policymakers."If core CPI is significantly higher, I think that's going to be very problematic," Hooper said. Other data next week include Wednesday's producer prices, which will offer another look at inflation trends, and Thursday's monthly retail sales, where investors will focus on how much higher gasoline and overall energy costs are eating into other types of consumer spending. This week, the national average price for gasoline topped $4.50 a gallon for the first time since July 2022."Even with oil bouncing around a bit and coming down from the highs, gasoline prices across the U.S. have just continued to move higher," said James Ragan, co-CIO and director of investment management ‌research at DA Davidson. "We haven't had any ​relief there. I don't think there is a lot of evidence yet that it's hurting the consumer spending, but it's definitely a larger budget item."

China's export growth gathered pace in April as factories raced to meet a wave of orders from AI-related industries and other buyers seeking to stockpile components amid fears the Iran ‌war could push global input costs even higher.That export strength, which ​has seen China's trade surplus with ‌the US widen to $87.7bn so far this year, will ‌be in focus next ⁠week as President ‌Donald Trump travels to Beijing for a ‌leaders' summit expected to extend last year's trade truce.While Chinese exporters have so far ⁠weathered the fallout from the Middle East conflict economists warn that the longer the war drags on and energy prices rise, the greater the risk that external demand fades away -- leaving sluggish domestic consumption unable to plug the gap.For now economists are watching the pace of the AI manufacturing boom and whether shipments of related equipment can keep the Chinese export engine purring."The conflict in the Middle ​East pushed up demand for global manufacturing inventory replenishment, and under the upward cycle of semiconductors, imports and exports maintained a boom," according to Xing Zhaopeng, senior China strategist at ANZ."There ‌is still room for expansion ⁠in this round ​of manufacturing cycle driven by AI, and it is expected that the annual ​export growth rate will be about 10%."Exports expanded 14.1% from a year earlier in US dollar value terms, customs data showed on Saturday, outpacing the 2.5% gain in March and a 7.9% rise tipped by economists.New export orders rose to their highest level in two years, separate factory activity data for April showed last month.Imports notched another strong month, climbing 25.3% versus 27.8% in March. Economists had forecasted growth of 15.2%.That boosted China's trade surplus last month to $84.8bn, from $51.13bn in March.Broader momentum in the Chinese economy ‌was solid in the first quarter, ‌with GDP growth hitting 5% year-on-year, ⁠the top of the government's full-year target range, and lessening the need for immediate stimulus.But ⁠even China, long criticised by ⁠trading partners for subsidy-backed, cut-price manufacturing, is not insulated from the hit to buyers' purchasing power as fuel and transport costs rise.The factory data published last month showed input prices remained elevated, particularly for refined goods and petroleum, coal and chemicals.Unemployment rates also edged higher and retail sales - a gauge of consumption - continued to underperform industrial output.Trump is scheduled to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping during his May 14-15 visit to Beijing, as both countries seek to stabilise a relationship strained by tensions over trade, Taiwan and the Iran war.Trump will be keen for trade concessions from Beijing ahead of November's U.S. midterm elections, though company executives and analysts are not expecting big breakthroughs.Faced with US levies that briefly rose to the triple digits, Chinese exporters last year chased new markets such as South America by offering lower prices. ‌China ended 2025 ​with a record trade surplus of $1.2tn.

The war in Iran was supposed to derail the rally in US stocks and weigh on company outlooks. Instead a blowout earnings season is providing fresh fodder for Wall Street bulls.Corporate America has outstripped expectations by the widest margin outside the Covid-19 era since at least 2013, according to Bloomberg Intelligence data. First-quarter profits at S&P 500 companies have surged 27% so far, more than double the roughly 12% analysts had penciled in. The last time year-on-year earnings grew at that pace outside of recoveries from major shocks was over two decades ago, in 2004.“I don’t think I remember a time that sell-side consensus missed actual earnings number by so much,” said Charles-Henry Monchau, chief investment officer at Banque Syz & Co SA. He began the year positioned for international markets to outperform, but the war and AI boom prompted him to tactically shift back toward US stocks, noting that regions such as China and Europe “might not be the winners of this war.”It’s been a wake-up call for Wall Street as stocks race from record to record, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 both closed at all-time highs on Friday. Economic resilience has silenced fears of a slowdown in global growth, while concerns that massive investments in hyperscalers and adjacent industries wouldn’t translate into tangible profit growth appear equally overdone.Market forecasters have struggled to keep up. Minneapolis-based US Bank started the year forecasting that S&P 500 earnings would hit $305 in 2026. The first quarter has been so strong that the firm will need to raise its estimates for the year and probably its year-end S&P 500 target, according to Robert Haworth, senior investment strategy director at the bank’s wealth management arm. “We’re clearly low,” he said.This earnings season is shaping up to be all the more remarkable as beats have turned out to be as impressive in scope as they have been in size, with about 85% of companies surpassing analyst forecasts. That amounts to the best hit rate in five years, according to Societe Generale strategists.“The market starts to catch up with future earnings power in AI-related companies,” said Wendy Soong, a BI equity strategy analyst. “Though the Iran war created supply chain interruption, it also attracted appeal to invest in the US as risk diversification.”Unsurprisingly, the bulk of the growth in S&P 500 earnings continues to come from the technology behemoths viewed as the major beneficiaries of artificial intelligence development. The so-called Magnificent Seven firms — Nvidia Corp, Microsoft Corp, Alphabet Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Meta Platforms Inc, Apple Inc and Tesla Inc — are expected to post a 57% jump in profits in the first quarter, BI-compiled data show. For the rest of the S&P 500, profits are expected to climb 17% in the January to March period.“I can’t think of a time when you’ve had this long of a string of earnings growth,” said Thomas Martin, senior portfolio manager at Globalt Investments LLC. He expects the current rally to be sustained as quarterly earnings growth continues in the double digits for 2026. AI is “going to drive growth for a while.”But the power with which the upbeat atmosphere is sweeping through Corporate America has also started to capture sectors that investors have treated with caution on tariff worries and subdued consumer sentiment. Profits for the S&P’s “other 493” firms — which are on track for their eighth-straight quarterly increase — are projected to accelerate.All eleven sectors posted positive growth for the first time in four years, Deutsche Bank strategists highlighted in a recent note. They raised their 2026 earnings-per-share forecast by nearly 7% to $342. Even laggards like consumer cyclicals, telecommunications and healthcare have staged a return to growth.“Sure, the oil price outlook and geopolitical tensions do matter for rates and FX markets,” said Max Kettner, HSBC’s chief multi-asset strategist. “But for equities – especially the US large-cap universe – and by extension credit and the broader risk-asset spectrum too, what really matters is broader activity and the earnings backdrop.”Yet, rock-solid earnings haven’t erased all concerns — the Iran conflict continues to drive swings in energy prices and the S&P 500’s just over 16% rally from a March low has developed a momentum of its own.The stocks benchmark has hovered near overbought levels since mid-April, a technical signal that a pullback may be imminent. The recent run on semiconductor stocks is also concerning, while hedge funds have turned the most underweight North America stocks relative to a gauge of global equities that they’ve ever been, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.To keep the rally running, breadth needs to keep expanding and US shoppers will need to stop feeling the pinch, according to John Cunnison, chief investment officer at Baker Boyer Bank.“To maintain this level of earnings growth, consumer spending and sentiment will need to improve from here to help support US stocks at records in the coming months,” Cunnison said. “With consumer confidence hovering at record lows, this prosperity needs to be shared by the average consumer — not just by wealthy individuals — and translate into profit growth well beyond technology.”

Computer viruses have become an international problem that plagues computer users of every type and everywhere. Legally speaking, it is classified as a severe cybercrime. The term ‘virus’ is derived from the Latin root word virus, meaning ‘poison’. In biological terms, viruses are known for injecting themselves into a larger body, reproducing themselves, and spreading throughout the entire organism being invaded by the virus to cause untold damage.Similarly, a computer virus enters an unprotected system and carries out a similar mission as the biological virus. In order to adequately protect yourself from viral attacks, you must begin by knowing:What are computer viruses, what they are made of and how they spread?A virus is a computer program created to infect other programs with copies of itself. The virus has the ability to clone itself in its constant search for a new host environment. The virus may have the single mission of replicating itself or it may be written or designed to intentionally damage other programs, alter data, self-destruct and leaving no trace of itself behind.Virus programs are often small, comprising of only a few lines of programming code that can often be hidden in a healthy software, thus rendering it very difficult to detect. Potentially, these infections can attack any type of computer from the smallest laptop model to the largest of mainframes. Experience to date indicates that most of the virus attacks have occurred in “personal” computers.An important question to ask is, how viruses spread, in other words, how does a virus spread throughout a computer system? A virus is spread when infected programs are run. The viral code is then executed, and the virus spreads. A virus can also spread when a computer is booted from an infected disk or when an infected program is run. The infection can come from any form of writable storage such as a hard disk, floppy disk, tape, or memory. Or “viruses can enter computer systems from an external software source, often hidden in a seemingly innocent program, like Trojan Horse”.One important type of virus is the memory-resident virus. These viruses remain in memory after the code is executed and the host program is terminated. By doing so, once the infected program is run, the virus can spread to any program in the system during the work session.However, if a virus keeps spreading itself throughout a system, it becomes easier to detect. As the virus spreads, it uses up more memory and processing time, which may draw the user’s attention. To combat this problem many viruses, contain a “signature.” The signature marks the program as already being infected and thus prevents the virus from infecting the same program over and over again. There are a few different ways to make a signature.A signature can be a character sequence of bytes at a known offset on disk or memory. It may also be a special system call available only when the virus is active in memory. A final way is to have a special feature of the directory entry.Many viruses spread because of public ignorance. In any case, organisations should try to protect their systems as best they can by, not installing black-market copies of programs and not connecting their systems to illegal bulletin boards. If common sense precautions are adhered to, the chance of viral infection is greatly reduced. The use of anti-viral software can help mitigate the problem and should be considered as one of the weapons in the fight against viruses.In law, computer viruses are treated as a severe sensitive cybercrime. The Cybercrimes Laws provide for tough penalties due to the serious bad effects of such crimes. At all times, effective cybersecurity measures are to be in place to combat such serious crimes.In addition to promulgation of up-dated qualified legislations to combat such crimes and deter the offenders. One of the difficulties here arise from the fact that not all investigators are qualified to face this cybersecurity crime. There is great need for special forensic investigators who can absorb the facts and comprehend the issues that lead to deter such technical unclassical crimes. The war against all types of cyber criminals is very tough and requires high ability of sober competition and sustainability. Beware.Dr AbdelGadir Warsama Ghalib is a legal counsel. Email: [email protected]

Recent changes to regulations governing India’s shadow banks have rekindled speculation that Tata Sons Pvt, the entity that lies at the heart of one of the nation’s biggest conglomerates, may have to go public.The holding company of the $180bn Tata Group empire that spans IT services, steel, hospitality and consumer goods has resisted a stock exchange listing as this would subject it to tighter regulatory oversight and force it to reveal more of the group’s internal dealings.The central bank’s latest rule change could make it harder for the Tata family to hold out against a listing and the closer scrutiny of its affairs that this would entail. Minority shareholders in the company’s various businesses will be watching the outcome closely as it could affect Tata’s ability to shift capital between its cash-rich established businesses and newer, less profitable ventures. What is Tata Sons?Tata Sons is a holding company of the Tata Group that comprises 26 listed companies, including industrial heavyweight Tata Steel Ltd, IT firm Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, automaker Tata Motors Ltd and utility Tata Power Company Ltd.Approximately 66% of Tata Sons’ equity capital is owned by the philanthropic Tata Trusts, while Tata Group companies — some of which are engaged in lending activities — hold about 13%. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) classifies Tata Sons as a systemically important core investment company within the broader category of non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), or shadow banks, as it is involved in allocating capital to group companies. Why is Tata Sons facing pressure to list?After an Indian shadow lender defaulted on its debts in 2018, the RBI, which oversees the country’s financial system, laid down new rules to try to ensure that such crises don’t endanger the country’s wider financial system.In 2022, it classified Tata Sons as an “upper-layer” NBFC under the rules. This meant it now deemed the company, with a balance sheet exceeding Rs1.5tn ($15.7bn), big enough to pose a systemic risk. The RBI’s rules require such businesses to list their shares on the stock market within three years as a way to force them to be more transparent about their activities and financial performance.Since then, Tata Sons’ owners have taken various steps to convince the RBI that it should not be categorised as a shadow lender so it can avoid going public. In 2024, it applied to surrender its NBFC license and cleared its outstanding debts.However, the latest rule changes introduced recently by the RBI, which are due to take effect on July 1, give Tata Sons less wiggle room to dodge a listing. The revised framework applies not just to companies that lend to or borrow from listed businesses in the same group, but to any holding company that invests in group companies that do so themselves.While Tata Sons has pared its own debts, its affiliated companies, including wholly-owned subsidiary Tata Capital, are still raising money from individuals and institutions. This means Tata Sons cannot de-register as an NBFC.The RBI’s latest circular also stipulates that an NBFC can’t de-register if it deals directly with customers in its day-to-day business. This is not the case with Tata Sons, but it is with Tata Capital. How did Tata Sons avoid an IPO so far?Tata Sons originally faced a deadline of September 2025 to launch an initial public offering of its shares, which it missed. Following discussions with the RBI, the company’s leadership halted the preparations in the expectation that they would get an official extension to the deadline.Instead, RBI has piled additional pressure on the Tata family to list the business by issuing its latest circular, and the company’s private status now hangs in the balance. Why is the Tata family fighting to keep Tata Sons private?Tata Sons sits at the center of the Tata empire and its status as a private company controlled by Tata Trusts has helped to cement the family’s authority over the group’s array of businesses. An IPO could substantially loosen Tata Trusts’ grip on Tata Sons and make it harder for Tata Sons’ directors to block unwanted takeover attempts.Tata Sons has plowed billions of dollars into Tata Group businesses including its digital services arm and a venture into semiconductors. It has also helped to prop up the unprofitable national flag carrier Air India, which reported record losses for the year to March following a plane crash in June 2025 and airspace closures due to the Iran war.A listing of the holding company would force it to make regular disclosures on its operations and financial dealings, showing how money is channeled through the Tata empire and ultimately forcing its owners to be more accountable for how its capital is spent. If Tata Sons lists, who wins?A significant minority shareholder of Tata Sons — Shapoorji Pallonji Group — is calling for a public listing of the Tata Group holding company, insisting that such a move is essential to unlock the company’s value for investors.It’s not the first time that Shapoorji Pallonji Group has locked horns with the Tatas. Former Tata patriarch Ratan Tata and Tata Sons then-chairman Cyrus Mistry, a scion of the founding family that runs the SP Group, were entangled in a year-long feud in 2016.SP Group needs to monetise its stake in Tata Sons, which is worth billions, in order to pay down a pile of costly private debt. If Tata Sons’ shares are listed, it will be easier for the SP Group to get a good price for its stake and repay that debt.

Treasuries advanced at the close of the week as mixed economic data reinforced expectations the Federal Reserve will stay on hold, shifting the market’s focus back to inflation.Friday’s gains pushed yields lower by two basis points across tenors, capping a week of swings driven by shifting expectations around the war in Iran. Benchmark 10-year yields closed at 4.36%, little changed from last Friday.The data pointed to a resilient labour market, with payrolls rising by 115,000 in April and the unemployment rate holding at 4.3%. That raises the stakes for the release of consumer price data, which is expected to show inflation remains well above the Fed’s target.“The higher headline and unchanged unemployment rate continues to leave the Fed’s focus on inflation,” said Molly Brooks, US rates strategist at TD Securities. “April CPI next week will be a key event to assess the market’s bias of the direction of the next Fed move.”Money-market pricing suggests the Fed will keep rates steady for the rest of the year, with some hedging for a possible hike in 2027.“This locks in the stalemate at the Fed and solidifies they are on hold here indefinitely,” said Michael Collins, portfolio manager at PGIM Fixed Income, on Bloomberg Television.Friday’s dip in yields helped to erase a small rise this week that’s come amid uncertainty over efforts to reach a peace deal in the Middle East. The US and Iran clashed overnight near the Strait of Hormuz, an escalation that risks undermining talks to end the war. Iran has still given no indication whether it will accept US President Donald Trump’s proposal, which looks for Tehran to reopen the key waterway and the US to end a blockade on Iranian ports.The conflict remains a major driver of the $31tn Treasuries market as the Strait’s closure chokes the flow of oil out of the region. Bond investors have been torn between growth and inflation risks posed by the surge in energy prices.Also on Friday, the University of Michigan survey showed consumer sentiment fell in recent weeks to a fresh record low, while inflation expectations edged lower.A Bloomberg gauge of the Treasury market’s returns has fallen 1.7% since Trump ordered an attack on Iran on Feb. 28. Before the war started, overnight index swaps had priced in more than two quarter-point rate Fed cuts this year — with some on Wall Street leaning toward more after Trump picked Kevin Warsh to take over as the next Fed chair.But those expectations were subsequently erased, and traders now expect the Fed will stay on hold through the end of 2026. Interest-rate swaps imply that they are hedging for the potential for an increase sometime in 2027.The US central bank cut rates three times last year in response to weakness in the job market. They paused the cuts in January, citing improvement on that front. Since then, the US Labor Department’s monthly jobs report for January was stronger than anticipated, while February data showed weakness. The March report showed nonfarm payrolls rose by the most since the end of 2024, and outgoing Fed Chair Jerome Powell last week said the job market has shown “more and more signs of stability.”For now, the US economy’s ongoing resilience to the surge in energy prices is serving as a stabilizing force for US rates. In options linked to the Secured Overnight Financing Rate, which closely tracks Federal Reserve policy path expectations, there remains low conviction and a lack of appetite for new positioning. Investors will look ahead to a reading of the consumer price index on Tuesday for further drivers.Longer-term US yields also slipped back after breaking above 5% on the 30-year tenor this week, as investors locked in rates trading around multi-year highs. That threshold, breached because of concerns over inflation and the possibility of Fed interest-rate hikes, was viewed by some as a “line in the sand” for the market.To ease the pressure, the Treasury Department has leaned more on short-term bills rather than longer-term bonds to finance its borrowing needs. It said this week it will keep nominal note and bond sale sizes unchanged “for at least the next several quarters,” maintaining guidance it has given for the past two years.For next week, investors will turn their focus to the consumer price index report and the auctions of three-, 10- and 30-year notes and bonds. Economists expect consumer prices to rise 3.7% in April from a year earlier, the highest since 2023.

The momentum trade — buy what’s winning, sell what isn’t — was already running red-hot heading into this week. Now a pause in the Iran war, strong US jobs data and another sharp rally in AI chips just piled on more fuel.The same risk-on playbook is working across everything from junk bonds to crypto. In the stock market, one momentum index closed on Friday near the highest since the global financial crisis as the S&P 500 punched to a new peak, a gauge of chipmakers jumped 11% in five sessions, and oil drifted lower on hopes for an end to the Iran conflict.Barclays Plc strategists say the momentum rally has reached extremes that historically foreshadowed selloffs. At Goldman Sachs Group Inc, the trading desk wrote this week that valuations for high-momentum stocks are stretched and positioning is among the highest in recent years, based on prime brokerage data.The dominance of the trend-chasing trade reflects the resilience of the US economy and a market staunchly all-in on the AI wave, with chipmakers leading the charge. For some on Wall Street, the trade has begun to look self-reinforcing — gains in a narrow set of large-caps are drawing more cash into passive funds that own those same names. Still, even those riding the rally say fundamentals are backing the trade, for now.“Valuation has been thrown out of the window for the time being because there is no doubt that there’s a tightness in supply” in AI infrastructure, said Mark Hawtin, head of global equities at Liontrust Asset Management, which runs and advises about £20bn ($27bn). “When does it change? That is the million-dollar question and extremely difficult to answer because I think there’s a huge amount of liquidity.”To him, the demand-supply imbalance in AI infrastructure will abate at some point, bringing down elevated spending on semiconductors and the like. But in a momentum-driven market, being early on a rotation call hurts almost as much as being wrong.A run of good news kept animal spirits running this week. US jobs growth beat estimates in April, while apparent progress toward an Iran deal pulled oil lower.Among so-called factors tracked by quantitative investors, momentum is a chameleon, adapting to whatever has been rallying in markets, typically over a one-year period. It has a history of crashing when market leadership abruptly shifts such as during the 2008 global financial crisis and introduction of Covid vaccines in 2020.That typically comes as more investors crowd into winning names, which is starting to happen again, Barclays’ Head of Global Equities Tactical Strategies Alexander Altmann warned in a note this week. Traders had a taste of that rotation Thursday, when renewed US-Iranian clashes briefly hit the crowded AI winners that drive the trade. Momentum posted its worst session in three months even as the S&P 500 only modestly declined. By Friday’s close, the trade roared back.“Following the +50% rally in AI winners from the end of March lows, both AI, and thus the momentum factor feels vulnerable in the short term as we saw on Thursday,” said Michael Romano, head of hedge fund equity derivative sales at UBS Securities. “I can see a case for owning short-term downside in AI winners to hedge.”Through the lens of quant factors, the latest leg up in momentum has come as most other investing styles faltered, S&P Global indexes show. The value factor buying cheap stocks is down after a strong first quarter. In a sign of risk appetite, the factor buying steadier stocks is on course for its sixth straight month of declines.Quality, which favors profitable and low-leverage companies, is down another week, with its 60-day correlation with momentum around its most negative in about a year. Some of that is the signature of a risk-on rotation — defensive factors fade when speculative ones run. Some of it is sector-specific. Software incumbents, long among the highest-profitability names in the market, have been under particular pressure.“Software companies are basically asset-light and have had very high profitability for a very long time,” said David Blitz, chief researcher for quant equity at Robeco. “But investors are worried that this might be disrupted by AI, which might make a lot of software IP redundant.”As stretched as the market looks, fundamentals are supporting the momentum-led rally. About 85% of S&P 500 names have beat their earnings estimates so far this season, the highest rate in five years, while profit forecasts have also been climbing, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.There’s a dose of speculative euphoria, too. Retail investors are back to pre-conflict buying levels, with memory and AI names still among their favorites, JPMorgan Chase & Co quant strategists led by Arun Jain wrote this week.For Hawtin at Liontrust, the strength of momentum has reshaped how his team operates in recent years. They lean on technical indicators to stay with the trend even when other metrics may say otherwise.“With some of the semiconductor names, it does feel a little bit casino-like,” he said. “It’s not rational on a long-term investing time horizon for these names to be where they are, but as we know, markets can remain irrational for some time.”

The Federal Reserve said stability risks from further private credit redemption requests appear “limited and manageable,” after some of the biggest names in the market blocked investors from getting money out of their funds in recent months.“Although outflows from these funds have moderately exceeded new inflows in the first quarter of 2026, redemption requests have remained manageable,” the agency said in a financial stability report on Friday.The Fed noted that continued redemptions and negative sentiment could lead to a reduction in credit availability for some borrowers, especially those with relatively higher credit risk.Private credit, which surged in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, has been on examiners’ radar for years. But officials recently stepped up focus when funds came under pressure and investors rushed to withdraw their money.The Fed asked major US banks for details about their exposure to private credit following the surge in requests, Bloomberg reported in April. Other officials have also have been warning about potential risks, with Financial Stability Board Chair Andrew Bailey saying the space may face more stress due to market shocks from the war in Iran.At the same time, President Donald Trump’s top regulators are seeking to loosen rules for Wall Street lending giants, partially to help traditional lenders better compete with nonbank firms. Banks have previously argued that heavy regulation was pushing them out of the private credit market.The Fed’s report also cited survey responses from policymakers, community groups and market participants in a bid to gauge the set of risk events that, should they occur, would be of greatest concern to these groups.The respondents in recent outreach noted more risks associated with geopolitical tensions, private credit, and artificial intelligence than had done so in the Fed’s most recent survey, while fewer participants cited risks related to policy uncertainty.“As in previous surveys, a number of respondents continued to note that a successful cyberattack could have particularly severe consequences,” the report said.Meanwhile Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said the 12 regional Fed banks had agreed to a framework on how to standardise and centralise some functions, such as back-office operations.The remarks by Waller come less than three weeks after he delivered a speech calling for a shakeup in the US central bank’s operations, arguing that key functions should be centralised and subject to less consensus-building among its regional reserve banks.In one example, Waller said on Friday that human resources will be centrally led by a single reserve bank, which will operate as a contractor providing the service to the other regional Fed banks.“Banks will need to give up day-to-day control of many parts of their operations and delegate decision making to a single bank,” Waller said on Friday in remarks prepared for a conference at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution in California. “That requires collective trust in the contractor bank and a commitment by that bank to deliver the services needed by all the other banks.”While the Fed’s Board of Governors in Washington will maintain an oversight role in the process, Waller said the regional banks would won’t lose their operational independence.The remarks by Waller come ahead of the expected confirmation of Kevin Warsh next week as the new Fed chair. Warsh has promised sweeping changes at the central bank.Waller, who heads a committee at the Fed’s Board of Governors that oversees the regional reserve banks, said details still need to be worked out on how the changes will be implemented, but he made clear individual regional banks shouldn’t be able to halt needed reforms.“While striving for consensus is a great model for making difficult policy decisions, it is not obviously successful when running complex and critical operations,” he said. “Otherwise, one bank can halt actions that are needed to move the system forward.”He said significant progress had already been made.“The foundation is now in place for driving an important transformation,” he said.

Qatar's courier, express and parcel (CEP) market is being reshaped from a traditional domestic delivery business into a technology-driven supply chain ecosystem — even as Middle East disruptions and the price-locked nature of e-commerce squeeze margins from both ends. Changing consumer expectations, the e-commerce boom, the rollout of digital addressing in place of PO Boxes, and accelerated infrastructure build-out are the four pillars driving this shift in a country that sits within an eight-hour flight of 70% of the world's population.The market, slated to further evolve towards a hyper-fast, tech-enabled delivery ecosystem, is seeing greater integration of CEP providers and third-party logistics firms, as the sector becomes sophisticated with growth visible in temperature-controlled logistics like the pharma and food sectors.Qatar has promising potential for expansion of cold-chain logistics for vaccines, biologics and perishable goods, and CEP providers that invest in specialised infrastructure and compliance capabilities can capture premium margins in these niche areas.Drone delivery, autonomous vehicles and digitised supply chains are going to be the future of this vital high-volume low-margin sector, where international shipments are expected to outpace domestic expansion.According to Mordor Intelligence, Qatar's CEP market size is expected to grow from $145.28mn in 2025 to $154.98mn in 2026 and is forecast to reach $213.62mn by 2031, at 6.68% compound annual growth rate over 2026-31.Macro drivers are Qatar National Vision 2030's diversification agenda, the surge in online retail, and the strategic location of Doha's logistics zones.Artificial Intelligence (AI), data analytics and green logistics are gaining importance in the sector, where express and parcel delivery constitutes the bulk.The market, whose margins are on the squeeze especially in view of the present disruptions, has become increasingly business-to-consumer (B2C)-driven (58% in 2025), not just traditional B2B logistics."CEP contracts (especially e-commerce) are often price-locked or highly competitive, limiting cost pass-through," an industry source said, implying margin erosion, especially for the domestic delivery, which accounted for about 64% of the market share.According to StateGlobe, as much as 68% of e-commerce orders are delivered within the same day, with average turnaround of three hours for e-commerce deliveries, boosting customer satisfaction.Highlighting that the main driver is the increasing smartphone penetration and improved logistics infrastructure enabling faster delivery services, it said rapid adoption of technology and increased internet penetration have made online shopping a convenient choice for Qatar's residents.Investments in Hamad Port, air cargo facilities and road networks have enhanced efficiency and reduced transit times, it said, projecting Qatar's online retail market to reach $5.2bn this year.Strong fundamentals and trade connectivity help the market achieve steady medium-term growth, although the Iran conflict has slowed the pace of CEP sector growth given its GDP elasticity.Qatar's strategic investments in logistics infrastructure — such as Hamad Port and Hamad International Airport — are strengthening its role as a regional hub linking Asia, Europe and Africa. This is boosting both international courier flows and transit shipments.Qatar Airways Cargo's partnership with Cainiao links Doha to China's fulfilment labs; and Ras Bufontas Free Zone's cross-docking platforms let integrators recast Doha as a trans-shipment node for the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) and African markets.Smart warehouse technologies are being adopted to handle increasing shipment volumes efficiently, improving speed and reducing operational costs for Qatar, which has seen improved re-exports volumes.Gulf Warehousing Company became the first logistics entity in Qatar to implement vision-picking technology, leading the way toward a more efficient, accurate and safe future for logistics.Qatar's logistics sector underwent transformation with WareOne, the country's "first Airbnb for warehouses", introducing a 'pay as you use' concept, cutting storage costs by as much as 30%, especially for small businesses.The present disruptions caused by the Iran conflict have led to an increased cost-per-parcel, while heightened competition and the price-elastic nature of e-commerce have put pressure on pricing.The combined force translates as a squeeze in margins in the sector, which already faces complex customs, duties and compliance requirements, thus increasing handling cost and delays, as well as rerouting and longer transit chains, raising cost per shipment.As per the inferred data, the sector's margin is typically less than 10% of earnings before interest and taxes in stable periods.Economic growth, digital consumption and trade integration combine to create a market where every unit of GDP growth generates multiple units of logistics demand, but the future of Qatar's CEP market depends on innovation, sustainability and the ability of providers to meet the rising expectations for speed, reliability and transparency.

Southeast Asian leaders at a ‌summit yesterday stressed an urgent need to co-ordinate their response to the impacts of the ​Middle East crisis, as they aim to ‌ease pressure from an energy shock that has rattled their oil import-reliant economies.Meeting on the ‌Philippine island of Cebu, ⁠leaders of the Association of ‌Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) called for a harmonised strategy to ‌ensure energy and food security and head off future crises in a region particularly exposed to a nearly 70-day blockade ⁠of the critical Strait of Hormuz.The chair of Asean, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, said the fallout from the war in Iran had created a domino effect of disruption and highlighted the need for "foresight, coordination, and concrete and collective action"."The recent crisis is a stark reminder of how vulnerable our our economies remain to sudden shifts in the international order and consequently, the global economy." he said at a retreat of the leaders."A few weeks worth of disruptions will take years to be corrected."CO-ORDINATION CHALLENGEAsean economic ministers on Thursday "identified practical, concrete response measures" to ​ensure energy and food security, according to a statement, but the proposals lacked specific details.They included diversifying suppliers and routes and developing a crisis communication protocol, but it was unclear what, if any, action might be taken.The region, with a population of nearly 700mn people and economies worth a combined $3.8tn, ⁠faces significant risks from the ​Iran war, and the Philippines — among the first countries in the world to declare an energy ​emergency — has pushed for approval of a voluntary, commercial-based Asean oil-sharing framework agreement.But coordination remains a big challenge for Asean. Despite rapid growth of its individual economies, integration has been slow, with vast differences between its 11 members and no central authority to ensure compliance with Asean agreements and initiatives.Asean leaders stressed the need to create mechanisms to withstand future crises, with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, saying energy supply pressures were very high and would not ease anytime soon."Asean must be ready for a long-term disruption. Our resilience must be built proactively with a clear forward-looking approach. This means we must be ready for any eventualities," he said.In a reference to the South China Sea and the 900km (550-mile) long Malacca Strait, the world's busiest waterway for international trade, Prabowo said it ‌was vital Asean prevent trade route disruptions in ‌its own backyard.His remarks come just two ⁠weeks after his own finance minister made waves by openly musing about ways countries could impose tolls on ships as a ⁠way to monetise the strait, before noting it ⁠would not be possible.PUSH TO RATIFY FUEL-SHARING PACTThe Asean leaders are expected to call for a negotiated settlement between the US and Iran as well as a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, a conduit for about 130 vessels a day and a fifth of the world's oil and gas supplies prior to the conflict.Leaders will urge Asean members to complete the domestic processes required to approve a fuel-sharing pact, ensuring its "earliest possible entry into force", according to a ​working draft of a statement seen by Reuters on Thursday.Though the war has dominated talks in Cebu so far, progress was made in other areas on Thursday, with Marcos calling a meeting of the leaders of Thailand and Cambodia amid a fragile ceasefire, resulting in an agreement to restart engagement after two rounds of deadly border conflict last year.Foreign ministers also agreed to hold a virtual meeting with their counterpart from Myanmar, which is eager to normalise ties with Asean and allow its leadership to participate in its summits following a ban imposed after a 2021 military coup led to nationwide demonstrations that spiralled into civil war.The crisis in Myanmar has long divided the bloc, with some members ‌seeking engagement with a new, ​nominally civilian government led by former junta chief Min Aung Hlaing, who became president recently after a one-sided election swept by a pro-military party.

A huge 11,000-carat ruby has been discovered in Myanmar, state media reported yesterday, one of the largest ever found in the country renowned for its precious gemstones.Coup leader turned president Min Aung Hlaing was pictured on the front page of the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper, examining the 2.2kg (4.8-pound) rock at his office.Unearthed in the Mogok area, the ruby was "exceptionally large, rare, and difficult to find," the new military-backed government said in a statement."The giant ruby has a purplish-red colour with yellowish undertones and is considered to have a high-quality colour grade," it added.While smaller than a similar 21,450-carat ruby found in the same area in 1996, the recently discovered stone is more valuable "due to its superior colour, clarity, and overall quality," the government said without giving a precise value.Emperors, kings and warlords have long fought over the valley of Mogok in Mandalay region, where the unique "pigeon-blood" stones lie hidden.The Mogok rubies are the most expensive in the world, with the highest-quality jewels fetching multi-million-dollar prices in an industry notoriously bereft of regulation.Myanmar has been ruled by a junta since a 2021 coup that triggered a civil war, but former military chief Min Aung Hlaing was sworn in last month as civilian president after a tightly restricted election.

Doha's listed banks will have to sustain quality growth while managing margin and efficiency metrics, given the regional and global geopolitical environment, according to KPMG in Qatar.“Qatar’s listed banks began 2026 on a stable footing, with resilient balance sheets and strong capital adequacy and coverage ratios," Omar Mahmood, Partner, Head of Financial Services, KPMG in Qatar, said in an analysis note.There are nine (including Shariah-compliant) listed banks -- QNB, Qatar Islamic Bank, Commercial Bank, Doha Bank, Ahlibank Qatar, QIIB, AlRayan Bank, Lesha Bank and Dukhan Bank.The listed banks' total assets were valued at QR2.4tn at the end of first quarter (Q1) of 2026, broadly in line with the levels in December 2025.The banks' return on assets was marginally down to 1.4% during Q1-2026 compared to 1.5% the previous year period.While profitability moderated amid higher provisioning, he said cost pressures, and the advent of global minimum tax, asset quality indicators held steady; supporting positive market sentiment reflected by higher share prices.Profit after tax was down 1.7% year-on-year to QR7.5bn during Q1-2026; while credit provisions increased by 2.7% year-on-year to QR2.9bn during Q1-2026.The sector contributed 58.78% of the total net profits of the (Qatar Stock Exchange) listed companies in Q1-2026 against 57.8% the corresponding period of 2024.The banks' return on equity declined to 12.2% during January-March 2026 compared to 13.3% the corresponding period of 2025.The banks' non-performing loans ratio stood at 3.2% during Q1-2026, broadly in line with the levels in December 31, 2025, it said, adding Stage 3 financing assets coverage ratio was 81.4%, rising by 0.3% against that in December 31, 2025 levels.The listed banks' efficiency (cost-to-income) ratio increased to 27% during January-March 2026 compared to 26.1% the previous year period.The banks' capital adequacy ratio increased to 20.2% in the first three months of this year against 19.6% at the end of December 2025, significantly higher than the minimum requirements set by the Qatar Central Bank (QCB)."Going forward the focus will remain on sustaining quality growth while managing margin and efficiency metrics, as the sector navigates an evolving regional and global geopolitical environment from a position of strength," Mahmood said.In view of the economic disruptions due to the Iran war, the QCB had announced a package of pre-emptive support measures, including unlimited Qatari riyal repo facilities, a new term repo with maturities of up to three months, a reduction in the reserve requirement on deposits from 4.5% to 3.5%, and the option for banks to offer temporary payment deferrals of up to three months for the affected borrowers.

Doha-headquartered Green Sky Capital, a regional SAF development platform, has formalised the financing for a landmark sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production facility in Ain Sokhna, within Egypt’s Suez Canal Economic Zone, in a move the company described as a defining step in building a large-scale SAF industry across the region. The project is positioned as a strategic milestone for regional energy transition and places Green Sky Capital at the forefront of the fast-growing global SAF market. As one of the region’s first industrial-scale SAF platforms, the facility is expected to play a central role in supporting the aviation sector’s decarbonisation efforts, in line with the International Air Transport Association’s target to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The project is being developed with backing from two leading regional sponsors: Al Mana Holding, a diversified Qatari conglomerate, and Vision Invest, a Saudi Arabian infrastructure investor and developer, both of which have established track records in delivering large-scale infrastructure and energy projects across the region. Abdulaziz al-Mana, who serves as CEO of Al Mana Holding Group, is the chairman of Green Sky Capital, a platform focused on developing large-scale sustainable aviation fuel and renewable fuel projects across the Middle East and North Africa. The facility is to be built on a 100,000-sq m site in Ain Sokhna and is projected to produce up to 200,000 tpa of biofuels, including SAF, hydrotreated vegetable oil, biopropane, and bionaphtha. Positioned along the Suez Canal, the project is intended to reinforce the region’s place within global energy transition value chains, with commercial operations targeted by the end of 2027. Ali Shaikh, CEO of Green Sky Capital, stated: “The signing of this financing marks a defining step in the development of our SAF platform and underscores the strategic importance of this project for the region.” Shaikh added: “By combining strong partners, proven technology and long-term offtake, we are well positioned to deliver one of the region’s leading SAF production facilities and support the aviation sector’s transition to more sustainable fuels.” The project is supported by a long-term offtake agreement with Shell, as well as a technology agreement with Axens and an engineering, procurement, and an EPC contract with SeaOwl. The Arab Energy Fund, a multilateral impact financial institution, served as the global structuring bank and co-mandated lead arranger for the transaction, and provided the largest share of lending to the project. Nicolas Thévenot, chief banking officer of The Arab Energy Fund, stated: “The Arab Energy Fund is proud to support the development of one of the region’s first Sustainable Aviation Fuel projects in Egypt, a key member state.” Thévenot added: “This transaction highlights our role in enabling new energy sectors and demonstrates our capability to structure complex financings to support decarbonisation and advance the energy transition.” The Emerging Africa and Asia Infrastructure Fund (EAAIF), acting through Ninety One, served as global mandated lead arranger and coordinating lender, taking a key role in co-leading and co-ordinating the delivery of the transaction. The transaction follows the fund’s earlier involvement in backing one of the first sustainable aviation fuel plants in South Asia. Ninety One also committed capital through its Emerging Markets Debt Fund and arranged for Qatar National Bank SAE to participate in the financing as lender, onshore account bank, and onshore security agent. Tidiane Doucoure, director of emerging market alternative credit at Ninety One, stated: “This landmark transaction marks EAAIF’s second investment in Sustainable Aviation Fuel and builds on our expertise and commitment to pioneer technologies that support the decarbonisation of hard-to-abate sectors like aviation.” Doucoure added: “Our support to Green Sky Capital for this first-of-its-kind facility in Egypt and the Mena region is a strategic response to the urgent global need for energy transition and security.” Abdulla Mubarak al-Khalifa, CEO of QNB Group, stated: “Supporting the development of Green Sky Capital’s SAF facility reflects QNB’s commitment to backing projects that deliver both economic value and long-term sustainability outcomes across the region. Financing innovative, technology-led solutions is a core part of our Group strategy.” Rothschild and Co served as financial adviser to Green Sky Capital on the transaction, while White and Case acted as legal adviser to the borrower, and Clifford Chance acted as legal adviser to the lenders.

Close on the heels of Doha establishing digital assets framework, asset tokenisation startup Alt DRX is working closely with the regulators to enable Qatari banks launch tokenised real estate marketplaces. “Alt DRX is one of the first fintechs to receive the Token Service Provider (TSP) licence for real estate tokenisation from the Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) and is proposing to license its core technology to local Qatari financial institutions so as to enable them to launch digital real estate marketplaces where their customers can buy and sell tokenised real estate, 1 sqm at a time,”its founder Anand Narayanan, told Gulf Times from India. Alt DRX, a product of Qatar Fintech Hub (QFTH), is one of the Middle East’s foremost asset tokenisation platforms with operations in India and Qatar. The fintech operates at an ARR (annual recurring revenue) of about $3.9mn, processes about 425,000 transactions annually and has raised about $5mn in growth capital from marquee global and Indian investors, including the Qatar Development Bank (QDB).Alt DRX Qatar, registered in the QFC, is proposed to be the global hub from where the fintech startup is expected to build its Middle East GTM (go-to-market) strategy,” he said. The final product structure and technical architecture is currently under review of various regulatory and policy makers in Qatar and when launched, it is expected to be a world class offering, enabling Qatar create a mark in the global digital assets market”, according to him. Alt DRX had joined hands with the US block-chain leader Ripple to democratise real estate investment in India and the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region. Operating under the innovation sandbox of IRSCA (International Financial Services Centres Authority) at GIFT City (Gujarat, India) and the Digital Asset Lab of the QFC, Alt DRX combines innovation with compliance to expand access to high-value assets.This collaboration aims to transform traditional finance, making investments more inclusive and accessible. In line with the Third Financial Sector Strategy issued by the Qatar Central Bank, the QFC Authority and the QFC Regulatory Authority had launched the QFC Digital Assets Framework, a comprehensive and innovative regime for the creation and regulation of digital assets in the QFC, paving way for companies to offer token services. At the Fifth Qatar Economic Forum, powered by Bloomberg, the then QFCA chief executive officer Yousuf Mohamed al-Jaida had said the first asset class that it would like to address was real estate as there is a lot of oversupply in the market, also solving a significant problem. The real estate industry is on the verge of a major transformation, supported by technology. The tokenisation leverages blockchain technology to create digital tokens representing ownership in real estate assets. The development of the digital assets framework, which is one of the important goals established by the Third Financial Sector Strategic Plan, provides not only legal recognition of smart contracts but also establishes legal and regulatory foundation for tokenisation, a key tool to protect sensitive data. In a report, generated in partnership with Global Stratalogues and the Global Blockchain Business Council, the QFC had underscored the need for coordinated, forward-looking regulatory frameworks and multi-stakeholder co-operation to unlock the full potential of real-world asset (RWA) tokenisation.

The numbers emerging from the global aviation sector this week are not catastrophic, not yet. But they are large enough, and accumulating quickly enough, to reframe the outlook for what was supposed to be a record summer travel season. According to data compiled by Cirium, global airline capacity for May has been trimmed by around three percentage points compared with a year ago, with nineteen of the world’s twenty largest airlines having made some form of schedule reduction. Across the month, that translates to roughly 13,000 cancelled flights and approximately 2mn seats removed from the market. The source of the pressure is by now well-established. The Iran conflict that began in late February 2026 triggered the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a fifth of global oil supply normally passes. Jet fuel costs have more than doubled since February. The International Energy Agency has warned that Europe, the region most structurally exposed to the disruption, may have as little as six weeks of usable aviation fuel reserves remaining. Whatever diplomatic progress is made on reopening the Strait, the supply chain consequences will outlast the conflict itself. No carrier illustrates the severity of the European situation more starkly than Lufthansa. Europe’s largest airline group has cancelled over 20,000 flights between May and October, concentrated heavily on short-haul operations. It shut down its CityLine regional unit entirely, withdrawing 27 aircraft from service, and is accelerating the early retirement of the Airbus A340-600 — a fuel-hungry widebody already living on borrowed time in the fleet. Around 120 daily short-haul services have been grounded to preserve fuel for long-haul routes, where yields are higher and the economics more defensible. Group CFO Till Streichert described the measures as “unavoidable given the sharp rise in jet fuel costs and ongoing geopolitical instability.” The group has also suspended flights to Dubai, Doha and Bahrain until at least the end of May, and added surcharges of up to €50 on long-haul round trips. KLM has cut 80 return services at Amsterdam Schiphol. Air France-KLM has moved in the same direction on surcharges. SAS removed around 1,000 flights from its April schedule. Norse Atlantic has pulled its London Gatwick to Los Angeles service entirely. The pattern across Europe is consistent: Short-haul and marginal routes are being pruned first, fuel levies are appearing on long-haul tickets, and capacity is being concentrated on the routes where demand and pricing power are strongest. The British government’s response has been notable for its pragmatism. Under normal conditions, airlines at major UK airports must use at least 80% of their allocated take-off and landing slots during a season, or risk having those slots reassigned to competitors, the so-called “use it or lose it” rule. Enforced rigidly during a fuel crisis, that rule creates perverse incentives: airlines flying near-empty aircraft purely to protect their scheduling position, burning the very fuel the system is trying to conserve. Airport Co-ordination Limited has updated its guidance to allow airlines to apply for an exemption where fuel shortages are preventing normal operations. UK Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander announced measures allowing carriers to hand back slots proactively without penalty, and to consolidate multiple services on the same route within the same day onto a single flight — provided schedule changes are confirmed at least two weeks before departure. The intent is to allow airlines to plan realistically and lock in revised schedules early, rather than managing disruption in real time at the departure gate. Officials have been careful to state that there is no active jet fuel shortage in the UK at present; the slot changes are explicitly framed as contingency planning, designed to prevent last-minute chaos rather than signal an imminent collapse of the summer schedule. The Asia-Pacific region has received less sustained attention than Europe in coverage of this crisis, but the numbers are meaningful. Cathay Pacific has cancelled approximately two per cent of its scheduled passenger flights between mid-May and the end of June, while its budget subsidiary HK Express is cutting six per cent of frequencies over the same period, with fuel levies of up to $400 imposed on long-haul round-trip fares. Qantas is reducing services to the United States and cutting domestic Australian capacity by around five per cent, with management estimating an additional A$800mn on its fuel bill. Air China has effectively pivoted its international network inward, prioritising domestic routes and suspending a significant number of services to Europe and North America. Air India has reduced its long-haul schedule through July. The regional pattern mirrors Europe’s: Domestic and short-to-medium haul flying is being protected; long-haul routes where the fuel economics have become untenable are the first to go. US carriers source a larger proportion of their fuel domestically and are therefore less directly exposed to the Strait of Hormuz disruption. That relative insulation has not translated into stability for passengers or shareholders. Delta’s chief executive Ed Bastian, announcing an additional $2.5bn in fuel costs for the current quarter, was direct: Any flying operating at the margin of profitability “is likely going to be reconsidered.” United has cut international capacity by 3.5% for the second quarter and raised long-haul fares by up to 20%. Deutsche Bank estimates that non-US airline capacity into and out of American markets will contract by 2.3% year-on-year in the June quarter. The most honest framing of the passenger outlook is this: The situation is serious and actively evolving, but it is not yet a crisis that makes summer travel plans impractical. The cuts made so far are real but measured, an airline trimming five per cent of its schedule is making rational commercial decisions under cost pressure, not approaching operational collapse.What passengers face is a higher probability of schedule changes than in a normal summer, concentrated on a specific category of flying. Short-haul, low-frequency, and low-yield routes are the most vulnerable. The more uncomfortable truth is that the trajectory depends entirely on factors beyond the industry’s control. EasyJet, Virgin Atlantic and Ryanair have each noted that their fuel availability forecasts do not extend comfortably beyond mid-summer. Delta’s Ed Bastian’s framing “this is going to be a test for the industry” is apt. The UK’s proactive slot policy changes suggest one government has drawn the right lessons from past disruption events. Whether airlines and governments elsewhere move with comparable speed and transparency will determine how the summer ultimately unfolds.The author is an aviation analyst. X handle: @AlexInAir.