The UN Security Council held a second-round straw vote on the 21st for the next UN secretary-general. Council president Kristina Larsen, Denmark’s permanent UN representative, said results will be communicated to candidate states; straw-vote outcomes are not released publicly.

The Munich Economic Research Institute said on the 21st that 23.2% of German firms reported a shortage of qualified skilled workers in July, up from 21.1% in April but below the long-term average of 31.7%. Shortages intensified in telecommunications, where firms reporting shortages rose to 31.1% from 16.3% in April; consulting and auditing firms reporting shortages climbed to 64.7% from 52.4%. In manufacturing 18.7% of firms reported shortages, up 4.5ppt from April.

S&P 500 rose 0.5% to an intraday high; Nasdaq-100 up 0.2%.