US Wall Street banks led by Goldman Sachs have borrowed record amounts of Chinese renminbi this year through what are known as dim sum bonds — debt issued outside mainland China, mostly in Hong Kong, and denominated in the Chinese currency. Total issuance has hit 300 billion renminbi ($44 billion) so far this year, more than double the amount at the same point in 2025, which was itself a record year.

Venator Materials UK, a titanium dioxide factory on Teesside in the north-east of England, went into administration last October after more than 50 years of operation, taking 270 jobs with it. Titanium dioxide is an industrial whitening agent used in paints and plastics, but also in defence supply chains and green energy manufacturing — giving the facility significance beyond its size.

X-Energy, a small modular reactor company backed by Amazon, surged as much as 36% on its Nasdaq debut on Friday, hitting a high of $31.33 after pricing its shares at $23 — already above the $16 to $19 range it initially marketed to investors. The IPO raised $1 billion, giving the company a fully diluted market capitalisation of around $12 billion.

On Friday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that the Office of Foreign Assets Control — the Treasury's sanctions arm, known as OFAC — had sanctioned two cryptocurrency wallet addresses on the Tron blockchain, freezing a combined $344 million in USDT, the dollar-pegged stablecoin issued by Tether. Treasury officials said the wallets were linked to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the militant group Hezbollah.

Brazilian authorities moved to block 27 prediction market platforms on Friday, including Kalshi, Polymarket, PredictIt, and Robinhood's forecasting feature. The shutdown was directed by the Ministry of Finance and enforced by the country's national telecoms regulator, Anatel. Authorities said the platforms operate outside Brazil's existing legal framework and therefore illegally.