US applications for jobless benefits inch up for the first time in 7 weeks, but layoffs remain low
The Labor Department reported Thursday that jobless claims for the week ending July 26 ticked up by 1,000 to 218,000, less than the 225,000 new applications analysts forecast.
It was the first time in seven weeks that benefit applications rose, although layoffs remain at historically low levels.
Weekly applications for jobless benefits are seen as representative of U.S. layoffs and have mostly settled in a historically healthy range between 200,000 and 250,000 since COVID-19 throttled the economy in the spring of 2020, wiping out millions of jobs.
Earlier in July, the Labor Department reported that U.S. employers added a surprisingly strong 147,000 jobs in June, adding to evidence that the American labor market continues to show resilience despite uncertainty over President Donald Trump's economic policies. The job gains were much more than expected and the unemployment rate ticked down 4.1% from 4.2% in May.
The government issues its July jobs report on Friday.
Though the top line numbers reflect a broadly healthy labor market by historical standards, some weakness has surfaced as employers contend with fallout from Trump's policies, especially his aggressive tariffs, which raise prices for businesses and consumers. If consumers continue to pull back on spending, a decline in demand could push businesses to freeze hiring or cut staff.
This week, government data showed that employers posted 7.4 million job vacancies in June, down from 7.7 million in May. The number of people quitting their jobs — a sign of confidence in their prospects elsewhere — fell in June to the lowest level since December. Hiring also fell from May.
The deadline on most of Trump's stiff proposed taxes on imports were extended again until Friday, though some deals have been made and other deadlines to negotiate have been extended. Unless Trump reaches deals with countries to lower the tariffs, economists fear they could act as a drag on the economy and spark another rise in inflation.
Companies that have announced job cuts this year include Procter & Gamble, Dow, CNN, Starbucks, Southwest Airlines, Microsoft, Google and Facebook parent company Meta. Most recently, Intel and The Walt Disney Co. announced staff reductions.
The Labor Department's report Thursday also said that the four-week average of claims, which evens out some of the week-to-week fluctuations, fell by 3,500 to 221,000.
The total number of Americans collecting unemployment benefits for the previous week of July 19 was unchanged at 1.95 million.
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Gas versus renewables: how will the power demand of data centres be met?
Texas is renowned for its ranching industry, but this oldest of American vocations is fast becoming entwined with icons of modern life: solar and wind farms. Among the cattle, Texas is also home to more than 15,300 wind turbines across 239 projects and 197 utility-scale solar farms. 'Solar and wind energy now frequently provide more than 45% of the state's electricity needs,' says Dennis Wamsted of the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. With such strong credentials in renewables, it is little wonder that proposals to build more than 100 new gas-fired power plants were met with furore among some. According to non-profit environmental group Environmental Integrity Project (EIP), as of April 2025, plans were afoot to build 108 new facilities and expand 17 others, adding as much as 58GW; there were also proposals, without specific detail, for five other projects. In a June report, the EIP said many of the proposals included requests to access the Texas Energy Fund, which meant using state taxpayer dollars, adding further fuel to the fire. The group identified proposals such as the 930MW three gas‐turbine project near Corpus Christi; the 900MW two gas-turbine project west of Houston; and another 900MW facility to the south-west of the city. Wamsted notes that how many of the proposals EIP identified will actually be built is left unanswered and believes Texas will continue to lead US renewables. However, 'Texas is also the leading market for gas-based thermal power', caveats Pavan Vyakaranam, energy analyst at Power Technology's parent company GlobalData. According to GlobalData, Texas was home to 81.53GW of gas power capacity in 2024, far beyond runner-up Florida's 54.96GW. It is becoming increasingly likely that the state's clean energy push may not go hand in hand with equal efforts to reduce thermal power as the energy transition requires – but why is Texas, alongside other US states and industrialised countries, looking at gas again? Tech needs gas Data centres are increasingly in demand as AI and automation markets boom. In the US, data centre investments nearly quadrupled between 2019 and 2024, according to International Energy Agency (IEA). Wamsted says it is clear that in Texas, data centre buildout is a strong driving force behind the projected increase in power demand placed on the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). This is not just a problem for Texas. IEA data shows that globally, data centre electricity consumption is expected to more than double to around 945 terawatt-hours by 2030. The Trump administration has pushed for data centre and energy co-expansion across US states through favourable conditions such as tax incentives. The latest state to signal its intent to bank on this opportunity was Pennsylvania, which secured investment in excess of $90bn from technology, energy and finance companies to become an AI hub backed by state and federal economic incentives. Although many of the rumoured projects for this hub include clean energy, some are said to contain plans for new natural gas facilities, raising questions of which energy source is best suited to meet date centres' needs. In the US at least, with the Trump administration's preference for hydrocarbons, gas power holds a significant advantage, says Vyakaranam. 'In order to meet such a huge increase in demand [from data centres], there is a need for large capacity additions. With [Trump's] pro-fossil fuel policies in place, it is both more economical and, from clearances perspective, easier to roll out gas-based projects than others like renewables.' He also notes that gas power offers better grid stability with flexibility – able to be quickly started and stopped – and reliability – providing constant power generation to ensure continuous operations for data centres – in comparison to renewables. 'Renewable power, due to its intermittent nature, cannot be a sole solution [for data centres] without any backup power or storage.' However, Wamsted is dismissive of the notion that gas is absolutely needed, saying any rise in demand can be met reliably and economically by renewable sources in markets like Texas with significant renewable capacity. '[In Texas] the 24/7 power demand sought by data centres and other high load users can be supplied by the ERCOT system. Saying data centres require gas or nuclear since they are supposedly more reliable is misleading,' he argues. Do renewables have the power over gas? Wamsted notes that Texas' growing renewables capacity meets much of the state's needs even as demand on the ERCOT climbed by 31.3% between 2016 and 2024. 'Texas actually is a prime example of how quickly we can transition grids from fossil fuels to renewable energy, even without state support,' he says. In theory, Texas could prove it is possible to power the AI future with clean energy. Many Texas-based data centres are already trialling this. In 2024, Sabey Data Center Properties completed the construction of a Tier III two-storey 19,875m² facility in Austin, with a commitment to operate on 100% renewable energy. Similarly, Equinix built a Tier IV facility in Dallas to be entirely powered on renewables. As recently as April 2025, Soluna Holdings' said its 120MW South Texas data centre project, Project Hedy, will also be powered entirely by wind. There are others outside of the US, notes Vyakaranam. Malaysia's Bridge Data Centres is actively integrating 400MW of renewable energy into its operations, with a commitment to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040. The country's AirTrunk Operating is also constructing a data centre with the capacity to generate up to 30MW of renewable energy. Despite these noteworthy blueprints, however, it seems Malaysia will also go big on gas as it tries to reduce coal use, yet balance the economic benefit of a growing data centre industry with the power it needs. With projections that the country will see demand triple in the five years to 2027, it plans to add 6–8GW of gas-fired capacity by the beginning of the next decade, according to the CEO of state utility provider Tenaga Nasional Berhad, Megat Jalaluddin. While the country also has a goal of doubling its renewable capacity by 2030, overall, the transition to clean energy is more a long-term goal than one to meet the urgent demands of data centres. Meanwhile, Vyakaranam says the US renewables sector is facing major challenges under the current administration, with Texas being no exception. 'Trump's position is poised to result in a significant increase in the growth of gas-powered energy production and stagnation of the renewables market,' he says. This approach has its own difficulties. The US, Malaysia and others looking at a gas power boom face stiff competition for gas components – thus, heftier price tags. The substantial increase in the gas-based project pipeline has seen the lead time for gas turbines reach around 5–7 years, according to GlobalData, meaning equipment manufacturers have had to ramp up production as they contend with huge order backlogs. 'Power generation companies, in order to secure turbine supplies, are engaging in aggressive procurement strategies such as making order requests years in advance, diversifying their supplier network, and coming up with different project designs and configurations to avoid any grid reliability shortfalls,' Vyakaranam notes. These considerations threaten Texas' new gas turbine plans as they 'cannot be resolved quickly, if at all', warns Wamsted, adding that engineering, procurement and construction companies have 'limited capability to meet the rapid proposed buildout'. 'Both of these capacity problems are raising the cost of gas-fired generation, which could put a brake on planned additions,' he continues. 'New gas pipelines will be needed for many of the planned expansion efforts, which will take time and have significant capital costs.' Are Malaysia and Texas part of a bigger picture? Vyakaranam believes that renewables alone cannot yet power the world through its AI revolution – instead, gas power has to be part of the mix. 'Although there will be a continued push towards renewables and battery storage innovations, which will eventually help meet data centres' demand,' he says, 'gas and nuclear will have to do some of the heavy lifting in the meantime.' Wamsted takes a different view: 'I would say it is renewables that can quickly and affordably meet the US' rising electricity needs, not gas, which may be sold out through 2030, or nuclear, which is unlikely to add significant new capacity before 2035 at earliest.' He also cautions against relying on gas alone. 'All generation systems require maintenance and have unforced outages during the year […] Relying on one resource – or worse, one facility – would be highly risky,' he says. However, the same could be said about renewables, particularly given their reliance on weather conditions and without the support of energy storage. With data centres – and everything they enable – now part of our world, it seems energy transition hopes are destined to do battle with our thirst for technology. With strong support and opposition for both renewables and gas power to support the AI boom, the reality is likely somewhere in between. Therefore, perhaps Texas and Malaysia have got it right, in spite of the raised eyebrows their approaches elicit. With battery storage still lacking, new gas turbines backlogged and nuclear, at best, a long-term investment, the best way to meet the exponentially increasing demand from data centres may be for renewables and gas power to work together. Of course, even this peculiar collaboration is not enough. To ensure a reliable and sustainable AI future, power capacity additions – regardless of energy source – will need to be paired with efforts to upgrade ageing grids, expand energy storage and decentralise energy systems as a whole, while tailoring energy solutions for each data centre to its local surroundings. "Gas versus renewables: how will the power demand of data centres be met?" was originally created and published by Power Technology, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site. 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Sibanye-Stillwater's call for US tariff on Russian palladium may add to price volatility
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Cocoa Prices Pressured as Supply Concerns Ease
September ICE NY cocoa (CCU25) today is -49 (-0.60%), and September ICE London cocoa #7 (CAU25) is down -111 (-2.02%). Cocoa prices are sliding today, with NY cocoa posting a 2-week low and London cocoa posting a 1-week low. Cocoa prices are under pressure on speculation that cocoa will be exempt from President Trump's tariffs, which would ease supply concerns. US Commerce Secretary Lutnick noted last week that goods not produced in the US could be exempted from tariffs. More News from Barchart Is the Corn Market Undervalued? Below-Average Rain in Brazil Supports Coffee Prices Tired of missing midday reversals? The FREE Barchart Brief newsletter keeps you in the know. Sign up now! Last week, cocoa prices rallied to 1-month highs on concern that the slowdown in the pace of Ivory Coast cocoa exports could tighten global supplies. Today's government data showed that Ivory Coast farmers shipped 1.76 MMT of cocoa to ports this marketing year from October 1 to August 3, up +6% from last year but down from the much larger +35% increase seen in December. Concerns about dry weather in West Africa are also bullish for cocoa prices. According to the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, rainfall in the Ivory Coast and Ghana this season remains below the 30-year average, and combined with high temperatures, risks hurting cocoa pod development for the main crop harvest that starts in October. Concerns over tepid chocolate demand are bearish for cocoa prices. Last month, chocolate maker Lindt & Spruengli AG lowered its margin guidance for the year due to a larger-than-expected decline in first-half chocolate sales. Also, chocolate maker Barry Callebaut AG reduced its sales volume guidance earlier this month for a second time in three months, citing persistently high cocoa prices. The company projects a decline in full-year sales volume and reported a -9.5% drop in its sales volume for the March-May period, the largest quarterly decline in a decade. Cocoa prices sold off last month, with NY cocoa sinking to an 8.5-month nearest-futures low and London cocoa slumping to a 17-month nearest-futures low. Weakness in global cocoa demand has hammered prices. The European Cocoa Association reported on July 17 that Q2 European cocoa grindings fell by -7.2% y/y to 331,762 MT, a bigger decline than expectations of -5% y/y. Also, the Cocoa Association of Asia reported that Q2 Asian cocoa grindings fell -16.3% y/y to 176,644 MT, the smallest amount for a Q2 in 8 years. North American Q2 cocoa grindings fell -2.8% y/y to 101,865 MT, which was a smaller decline than the declines seen in Asia and Europe. In a bearish development, ICE-monitored cocoa inventories held in US ports reached a 10.5-month high of 2,368,141 bags on July 22. Higher cocoa production by Ghana is bearish for cocoa prices. On July 1, the Ghana Cocoa Board projected the 2025/26 Ghana cocoa crop would increase by +8.3% y/y to 650,000 from 600,000 MT in 2024/25. Ghana is the world's second-largest cocoa producer. Cocoa prices have support from quality concerns regarding the Ivory Coast's mid-crop cocoa, which is currently being harvested through September. Cocoa processors are complaining about the quality of the crop and have rejected truckloads of Ivory Coast cocoa beans. Processors reported that about 5% to 6% of the mid-crop cocoa in each truckload is of poor quality, compared with 1% during the main crop. According to Rabobank, the poor quality of the Ivory Coast's mid-crop is partly attributed to late-arriving rain in the region, which limited crop growth. The mid-crop is the smaller of the two annual cocoa harvests, which typically starts in April. The average estimate for this year's Ivory Coast mid-crop is 400,000 MT, down -9% from last year's 440,000 MT. Another supportive factor for cocoa is smaller cocoa production in Nigeria, the world's fifth-largest cocoa producer. Nigeria's Cocoa Association projects Nigeria's 2025/25 cocoa production will fall -11% y/y to 305,000 MT from a projected 344,000 MT for the 2024/25 crop year. On May 30, the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) revised its 2023/24 global cocoa deficit to -494,000 MT from a February estimate of -441,000 MT, the largest deficit in over 60 years. ICCO said 2023/24 cocoa production fell by 13.1% y/y to 4.380 MMT. ICCO stated that the 2023/24 global cocoa stocks-to-grindings ratio declined to a 46-year low of 27.0%. Looking ahead to 2024/25, ICCO on February 28 forecasted a global cocoa surplus of 142,000 MT for 2024/25, the first surplus in four years. ICCO also projected that 2024/25 global cocoa production will rise +7.8% y/y to 4.84 MMT. On the date of publication, Rich Asplund did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. This article was originally published on Sign in to access your portfolio
