COIMBATORE: Unchecked copper price rises have triggered fresh turbulence for Coimbatore’s micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), where the metal

High gold prices are pushing middle-class Indian buyers to shift to silver during the festive season, lifting silver’s revenue share for jewellers to 25-30% from 10% two years ago. The industry expects Diwali-season silver purchases to rise 17-18% year on year, while August import value jumped 127% to over $1 billion. Some investors are also betting that silver prices could double from around Rs 2.3 lakh per kg.

After a monthly drop of more than 6%, physical gold demand is picking up across key Asian markets. In India, dealer discounts narrowed sharply to as much as $14 an ounce from up to $43 an ounce previously, while in China bullion traded at premiums of $5 to $10 an ounce over the global benchmark, signalling firmer end-user buying. Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan traded in relatively tight ranges, reflecting bargain-hunting after the pullback.

AI company Anthropic is preparing what it says could be the largest IPO in history, targeting a $2 trillion valuation. The prospectus shows the company lost more than $50 billion in the two years ending in 2025 and has more than $500 billion in spending commitments in the coming years. It also says 47% of 2025 revenue came from big-tech partners that also provide computing power. Nearly one-third of the filing is devoted to risk factors, outweighing the space used to describe the business, according to Reuters.

Maharashtra’s sugar commissioner has allowed sugar mills to start crushing sugarcane before Oct 15 in an effort to increase supply and curb elevated sugar prices. The state advanced the start of the crushing season to Oct 15 from Nov 1, the date allowed last year, following a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. Retail sugar prices have eased to Rs 50-55 per kg from recent highs but remain above pre-Aug levels. India’s central government had approved imports of 10 lakh tonnes of sugar, though only about 2.5 lakh tonnes is expected to arrive.

Anthropic disclosed in its IPO prospectus that it posted a $42 billion net loss in 2025, including a $34 billion accounting charge tied to financing liabilities, while operating losses topped $8 billion. Revenue jumped 12-fold to nearly $4.6 billion, but compute and infrastructure spending reached $7.33 billion, more than half of $12.65 billion in operating expenses. The company said it has $518 billion in future cloud and infrastructure commitments and is seeking a public valuation of more than $2 trillion, about double its estimated $965 billion private valuation in May.

U.S. stocks closed modestly higher on Friday, with the Dow up 177 points and the S&P 500 gaining 0.2% as technology shares led. Qualcomm and Dell rose more than 5%, while Akamai jumped 7.3% after agreeing to an $11.6 billion multiyear deal with Anthropic. Oil prices eased from recent highs, though Brent crude stayed above $100 as U.S. and Iranian negotiators explored a phased path to end the conflict. The 10-year Treasury yield hovered around 5.2%, and a University of Michigan survey showed one-year inflation expectations rising to 4.6%.

Donald Trump continued adding exposure to Elon Musk’s SpaceX, purchasing between $15,001 and $50,000 of shares in July and reporting a month that included 1,156 disclosed trades. The filing shows he bought SpaceX on July 10 and sold some on July 17. SpaceX went public on June 12 at a $1.77 trillion valuation and owns Musk’s xAI, which has a Pentagon contract worth up to $200 million. Trump also sold between $5 million and $25 million of shares in several companies on July 20, according to a public financial disclosure.

Gold prices in India rose about 60% year on year during Ganesh Chaturthi, climbing from Rs 98,000 to Rs 1.57 lakh per 10 grams. The surge pushed festival gold sales down about 15% from a year earlier as buyers cut quantities or shifted to lighter jewellery. Demand for coins and bars, however, showed signs of improvement as some consumers continued to allocate money to gold.