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On 18 May 2026 Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reversed course and granted a fresh 30-day general license allowing countries to buy Russian crude already loaded on ships before 17 April, citing supply shocks from the Iran war and the Hormuz blockade.
Beijing, after 15–16 May 2026 talks with President Trump, pledged to buy a minimum of $17 billion in U.S. agricultural goods each year through 2028 and to restore market access for American beef and poultry previously blocked by trade-war tariffs and disease bans.
Beijing committed, for the first time since the 2025 import collapse, to buy at least $17 billion of U.S. agricultural goods each year from 2026-2028 and to reopen its market to U.S. beef and poultry following the Trump-Xi summit.
On 17 May 2026 Beijing revealed that Washington and Beijing had agreed, during President Trump’s state visit, to create bilateral trade and investment boards tasked with negotiating matched tariff cuts on targeted goods—directly contradicting Trump’s claim a day earlier that tariffs were never broached.
Between March and mid-May 2026, soaring domestic yields drove Japan’s largest quarterly sell-off of U.S. debt since 2022, signaling a pivot of roughly $1 trillion in Japanese savings back into higher-yielding JGBs and pressuring global borrowing costs.
On 17 May 2026, Iran said it will soon activate a toll-charging “professional mechanism” that channels commercial ships through an Iran-controlled route in the Strait of Hormuz while banning vessels tied to the U.S.-led Project Freedom blockade.
Washington allowed General License 134B—the last waiver permitting limited Russian crude sales—to lapse at midnight 16 May 2026, abruptly restoring full U.S. sanctions on Moscow’s seaborne oil despite a still-tight global market caused by the Iran war.
SpaceX unexpectedly advanced its Wall-Street timetable, locking in Nasdaq ticker SPCX, a June 4 roadshow and June 11 pricing that could raise up to $75 billion at a ~$1.75–2 trillion valuation—easily the biggest IPO in U.S. history.
On May 15 SpaceX quietly advanced its initial public offering by roughly three weeks, planning to publish its prospectus around May 20, launch a roadshow June 4, and price shares on June 11 for a June 12 Nasdaq debut at about a $1.75-$2 trillion valuation.
On 15 May 2026, during a two-and-a-half-hour stopover, PM Modi and UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed inked deals giving ADNOC capacity to store 30 million barrels in India’s strategic reserves, launched a formal Strategic Defence Partnership, and secured a US$5 billion Emirati investment package.
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