Section

Business

Markets, industries, and the forces reshaping the region's economy.

Page 9

Business

The Strait of Hormuz Has Been Shut for Almost Six Months. Oil Is at $93, Not $200, and That Gap Is the Story.

A potential war is the wrong frame. Fighting began on 28 February and the strait closed on 4 March. The economic damage is real and measurable, and it is far smaller than the forecasts issued in the first month, for reasons worth understanding.

Aug 22, 2026/5 min read

Satellite view of the Strait of Hormuz between Iran and the Musandam Peninsula

Business

Three Soft Data Prints in One Week Cut the Odds of a September Rate Hike From Fifty to Thirty One

Note the direction. Markets are not arguing about how fast the Federal Reserve cuts. They are pricing the probability that it raises, and gold has just had its best month since January.

Aug 21, 2026/3 min read

Market data screens showing price movements across several instruments

Business

The Thirty-Year Treasury Is at 5.32 Per Cent and the Federal Reserve Has Not Touched a Thing

Long government borrowing costs are at multi-decade highs across the United States, Germany, France and Japan. The cause is not central bank policy. It is the sheer volume of debt being issued, and some of it is paying for data centres.

Aug 18, 2026/5 min read

The United States Treasury building in Washington

Business

Serious Banks Are Forecasting Gold at $4,500 and at $6,000 for the Same December

Citi, Goldman, Deutsche, HSBC and Societe Generale have published year-end gold targets a third apart from one another. The spread is not sloppiness. It is an argument about what gold is for.

Aug 18, 2026/4 min read

Business

Palladium Is the Only Precious Metal That Did Not Set a Record in January. That Is the Whole Story

Gold, silver and platinum all peaked in the same fortnight in January. Palladium's record is still from March 2022 and it is not going to be beaten, because the engine it was bought for is being discontinued.

Aug 18, 2026/4 min read

A catalytic converter, the largest single use of platinum group metals

Business

Silver Went to $121 and Came Most of the Way Back. The Shortage That Did It Has Not Gone Away

Silver set a record just under $122 an ounce in late January, then lost close to half of it. The London squeeze behind the spike has eased rather than ended, and the metal is still up almost 74 per cent on the year.

Aug 18, 2026/5 min read

A cast silver ingot beside a scattering of silver granules

Business

UAE Employers Have Stopped Asking Whether You Use AI and Started Asking to See It

Hiring is building across technology, finance, healthcare, logistics, real estate and construction. What has changed is not which sectors are recruiting. It is what counts as evidence on a CV.

Aug 18, 2026/3 min read

Professionals in a meeting in a modern office

Business

The UAE's Quietest Business Problem Is How Long It Takes to Get Paid

Persistent payment delays and rising default concerns are squeezing liquidity across the Emirates, in the same half that produced the region's largest volume of new project awards. Both things are connected.

Aug 17, 2026/3 min read

Cranes above a construction site against a city skyline

Business

The Gulf Was Forecast a Terrible Year. Brent Is at 84 Dollars

Early in the conflict the projections ran to 150 dollar oil and contracting Gulf economies. Halfway through August the numbers are less dramatic and more interesting than either the panic or the relief.

Aug 16, 2026/3 min read

A loaded oil tanker under way on open blue water

Business

Six Hundred Billion Dollars Is Sitting in a Queue

Twenty announced transactions are waiting for permission to happen. The delay is not bureaucratic sloth, it is three separate review regimes that did not exist in this form a decade ago.

Aug 15, 2026/4 min read

The colonnaded facade of a government regulatory building

Business

Four Deals in Five Days, and Not One of Them Was Large

Measurement, medical imaging, homebuilding and a presentation startup all changed hands in the first fortnight of August. The mid-market is moving while the giants wait on regulators.

Aug 15, 2026/4 min read

Financial market screens showing trading data