U.S. President Trump’s approval at 59%; inflation easing and oil and gas prices declining.

Goldman Sachs said on the oil market it expects effective pipeline throughput capacity to rise by 3.8 mln b/d by end-2027, reaching a cumulative increase of 7.3 mln b/d by end-2028.

South Korea's government and the ruling Democratic Party agreed to step up support for a recently announced large-scale semiconductor and AI investment program and to push rapid enabling legislation. The "three super projects" unveiled at the end of last month target semiconductors, physical AI and AI data centers and entail roughly 4,755 trillion won (about $3.16 trillion) of investment. Under the plan, Samsung Electronics would build two memory fabs in Gwangju and the surrounding Jeolla region and SK Hynix would build two additional wafer fabs. The Democratic Party has formed a special committee to back the projects and pledged legislative and budgetary support, aiming to pass a special-law to create "super special zones" to loosen regulation by year-end.