Oil has struggled to recover losses from last month’s broader market slump after topping $66 a barrel in January. While a brighter economic outlook has underpinned demand expectations following a better-than-expected U.S. jobs report, expanding American production remains a challenge to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, which are trying to prop up prices via output curbs. Production from shale regions will reach 6.95 million barrels a day next month, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its monthly drilling report. The Permian Basin is seen leading the way with an 80,000-barrel increase. Total American output has passed 10 million barrels a day, beating a record set in 1970. Click Read More below for additional information.

Import cargo at the nation’s major container ports is expected to drop dramatically beginning next month. That’s according to the latest Global Port Tracker report by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates. (The report was released the day before President Trump gave a 90-day break on most of the new reciprocal tariffs that were set to go into effect while, at the same time, raising duties on China to 125%, effective immediately.) Imports during the second half of 2025 are expected to be down at least 20% year-over-year, said Hackett Associates founder Ben Hackett. Even balanced against elevated levels earlier this year, that could bring total 2025 cargo volume to a net decline of 15% or more unless the situation changes.

The man accused of setting fire to a California warehouse likened himself to Luigi Mangione after allegedly lighting multiple fires in the name of anti-capitalism. The warehouse, about 40 miles east of Los Angeles and owned by the consumer goods company Kimberly-Clark Corp, was set ablaze last Tuesday. Twenty employees were inside the facility when the fire was set, but no one was harmed. Abdulkarim is an employee of NFI Industries — a third-party distributor for Kimberly-Clark Corp. He is accused of intentionally starting multiple fires at the 1.2 million-square-foot warehouse. In California, aggravated arson is applicable to a crime when the damage from the fire exceeds $10.1 million, and carries a penalty of ten years to life. Based on initial estimates, the paper products were worth $500 million and the building was worth $150 million.