Zhongkuang Resources said Zimbabwe temporarily suspended lithium concentrate export permit approvals in Feb 2026 to curb smuggling and encourage local processing. The company obtained an initial 200,000-tonne export quota in April and a further 300,000 tonnes in July, and says it has ramped logistics despite African land transport constraints and port congestion. As of the disclosure date, Bikita lithium concentrate transport has returned to normal and supply is sufficient to meet the company’s

Stanley Druckenmiller, the billionaire investor who once mentored Bessent, said the Treasury’s plan to spend billions repurchasing U.S. Treasuries is a mistake. “Governments that try to fight fundamentals by manipulating prices always fail,” he said, adding that markets aggregate information committees lack and that long-term Treasury yields are the world’s most important price and the only remaining fiscal constraint on the U.S. Druckenmiller argued the Treasury lacks a rationale now because the 10-year yield is roughly in line with nominal economic growth, implying financial conditions are loose rather than restrictive.

Goldman Sachs analysts have revised their Bank of Japan policy-rate outlook, now expecting the BOJ to deliver a rate hike in September versus their prior forecast for January 2027. They see a further move in January 2027 conditional on strong wage momentum from the 2027 spring wage negotiations (Shunto), and another increase in July 2027 that would lift the policy rate to 1.75%. Goldman says the BOJ is increasingly wary of upside inflation risk above 2%, which raises the odds of earlier tightening, though the bank still judges policy is not behind given underlying inflation remains below 2%.