Donald Trump said he had called off planned military strikes on Iran, easing geopolitical tensions. Brent fell 5% to $83.50 a barrel after touching $81.55, while US West Texas Intermediate dropped more than $5 to $79.47. Both benchmarks had gained more than 20% in July amid renewed US-Iran fighting and tanker attacks in the Strait of Hormuz. The pan-European Stoxx 600 rose 0.4%, with energy stocks down 2% and travel and leisure shares up 2.1%.

China’s memory chipmaker CXMT surged 466% on its Shanghai Stock Exchange debut, taking its market value to 3.3tn yuan. Over the same period, AI-linked equities sold off across major markets, with South Korea’s Kospi falling a combined 17.5% over two sessions and the Nasdaq briefly moving into a technical correction. Nvidia fell more than 5% for the week, and Apple overtook it as the world’s largest listed company. The moves underscored pressure on AI-theme valuations across key tech indices and heavyweight stocks in China, South Korea and the United States.

China has begun mass production of specialty chips central to the AI boom, raising concerns that the global AI computing supply chain could be reshaped. Moonshot AI’s Kimi K3, an open-source, open-weight model, is powerful enough to compete in some applications with proprietary and comparatively expensive products from OpenAI and Anthropic. The developments helped trigger a stock selloff that erased $1tn in market value from other chip manufacturers. The shift reflects simultaneous advances in hardware and models that increase competitive pressure on US companies reliant on high-margin closed systems.

Rising demand linked to the “proteinmaxxing” trend has sent whey protein ingredient prices sharply higher. Expana put whey protein concentrate 80 (WPC80) at €11,733 per metric tonne in July 2025, compared with €25,875 now. Demand has also increased for D90 demineralised whey powder, a key ingredient used in infant formula. In the UK, the average price of baby formula has already risen 4.8% over the past year to £12.11 for a 750g box, according to Office for National Statistics data.

Apple reported quarterly revenue of $109.4bn, above expectations of $108.65bn, and earnings per share of $2.02. Amazon posted quarterly revenue of $200.6bn, topping forecasts of $196.47bn. Both companies beat expectations, sending Amazon shares up more than 8% in after-hours trading. The results marked Apple CEO Tim Cook’s final earnings release before he steps down.

Rolls-Royce raised its full-year guidance for cashflow to £3.8bn–£4bn and for operating profit to £4.7bn–£4.9bn. The company’s order growth has been strong, with power generation orders up 55% over the half-year. Its small modular reactor technology is also drawing interest from hyperscale data centre projects in the US. The article also cites HSBC, with a £274bn market capitalisation, as a UK large-cap benchmark amid market attention on how valuations move across major British industrial and financial shares.

Rolls-Royce reported underlying profit before tax of £2.5bn for the first half of 2026, up 48% year on year, as revenue rose by £2bn to £11.3bn. The company raised its full-year outlook for underlying operating profit to £4.7bn-£4.9bn and lifted its free cash flow forecast to £3.8bn-£4.0bn. It said the results reflected a sustained recovery in its civil aerospace business and progress in its turnaround efforts. The FTSE 100 was flat as markets digested the Federal Reserve holding interest rates and Iran’s military action.

Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed annual CPI inflation eased to 3.8% in June from 4%, while the core CPI annual rate rose to 3.6% but remained below the Reserve Bank of Australia’s prior 3.8% forecast. The figures weakened expectations that the RBA will raise rates at its 11 August policy meeting. The data also offered support to the Australian dollar and long-dated government bond prices. Housing construction costs, however, rose 5.8% year on year, the fastest pace in three years, pointing to lingering price pressure in parts of the economy.

Canadian residents spent $18.8bn travelling to the US in 2025, down $3.3bn from 2024, a 15% decline and the second-largest annual drop since records began in 1972. Over the same period, spending on overseas travel excluding the US rose by $3.6bn to $22.8bn, while visits to Europe and Asia increased by 14% and 17%. The figures indicate that policy shifts after Donald Trump returned to office weighed on cross-border travel demand, adding pressure to US services exports and related macro indicators.