Ukraine's largest farmers' union, the Ukrainian Agricultural Committee (UAC), said on Tuesday that insufficient rainfall and high temperatures could cut corn and sunflower yields in parts of southern and central Ukraine. Crops are entering the flowering stage and July weather will determine final output, UAC said. Ukraine is a major European corn grower and a leading global exporter of sunflower oil. For the 2026 harvest Ukraine planted about 4.4 mln ha of corn and nearly 5.0 mln ha of sunflower

HKEX received 85 consultation responses broadly supporting its proposed board-lot reforms and said the changes should boost operational efficiency and lower the market’s investment threshold. HKEX has decided to implement the following for eligible securities (stocks and REITs): lower the minimum board-lot value guidance from HKD2,000 to HKD1,000; introduce an upper board-lot value guidance of HKD50,000 for issuers with board-lot sizes above 100 shares; and standardize board-lot sizes to eight set options — 1, 50, 100, 500, 1,000, 2,000, 5,000 and 10,000 shares.

Investors' long-running yen carry trades—borrowing cheap yen to fund higher-yield assets—have funneled Asia-origin flows into global risk assets, including US stocks and commodities. The recent yen decline is market-relevant as markets approach the two-year anniversary in August of Japan's large August 2024 yen intervention, which triggered Japan's biggest one-day equity drop since 1987, amplified US volatility and saw the S&P 500 fall 6.1% over three days. ING global markets head Chris Turner says, given thin trading ahead of the July 4 holiday, Japan could buy yen as soon as Friday or wait until the July 20 Marine Day holiday to act.