Fars News reported the Iranian president dismissed criticism over supplying 20 mln barrels of oil to a company, calling it an internal disclosure issue, and said he would be willing to supply 100 mln barrels if a similar case occurred.

US initial jobless claims fell to 215,000 last week, signaling continued labor-market resilience despite weak sentiment. Weekly initial-claims levels have shown almost no net change over the past five years. Continuing claims rose but remain well below the cycle peak seen last autumn. Overall, these data do not show the deterioration signaled by recent sentiment surveys.

On July 1 in Beijing the National Energy Administration held a meeting on deep coalbed methane exploration and development, directing that safeguarding national energy security is the core task and instructing an acceleration of deep CBM (coal-mine gas) exploration and development to shore up energy supply. The NEA has issued for implementation a 15th Five-Year coalbed methane (coal-mine gas) development and utilization plan and an action plan to boost reserves and output in key regions, assigning tasks to specific companies and CBM blocks, calling for stepped-up exploration and development investment and faster construction of priority projects.