Government data show Qatar's Q2 GDP contracted 15.7% YoY.

Oil steadied after recent declines as Middle East supply neared pre-war levels: sources say Saudi Arabia has restored East-West pipeline flows to at least 3.5 mln bpd, roughly half capacity, bypassing the Strait of Hormuz. The US plans to release up to 40 mln barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve — the final tranche of a previously coordinated 172 mln-barrel release — to counter rising fuel prices less than two months before the midterm elections. Two delegates said OPEC+ major members may keep next month’s production quotas unchanged at a weekend meeting.

JP Morgan's head of Asia Pacific alternatives institutional client strategy Charles Wu said at the SuperReturn conference in Singapore on Wednesday that foreign investors are increasingly financing North American AI compute infrastructure. He said investors from Asia and the Gulf — including foreign banks, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and insurers — are key funding sources; AI industry capex is approaching $1 trillion, and compute assets for model training remain concentrated in North America, with capital provision across banks and asset managers becoming more global.