Wednesday's board: copper up 2.5%, gasoline down 6.5%, diesel up 3.5%, and one ammonia plant in the Caribbean switching the lights off for an indefinite period.
Point Lisas has stopped making nitrogen.
Nutrien has indefinitely shut its Trinidad nitrogen operations at the Point Lisas complex, blaming natural gas shortages rather than demand. Trinidad is the swing ammonia supplier into the US Gulf and the Caribbean basin, and its gas curtailments have been chronic enough that buyers have learned to price the risk in advance, which is roughly why urea did nothing dramatic on the news: the benchmark settled at 435 USD/t, down 1.1% on the day. DAP sat unchanged at 802.50 USD/t for a second session. The question for Q1 contracts is whether "indefinite" means a maintenance window with a press release or a permanent subtraction from Atlantic ammonia supply.
Kinshasa signed a memorandum to run power from Kolwezi to Kalumbila.
Finance Minister Doudou Fwamba presided on 6 October over the signing of a memorandum between the DRC's strategic investment fund and partners for the Kolwezi–Kalumbila electrical interconnection, stitching the Congolese copperbelt to the Zambian side at the point where First Quantum sits. The same week, Julien Paluku welcomed the EU's 2 billion euro mobilisation for the Lobito corridor. Cobalt held flat at 39,245 USD/t. Power, not ore, is the binding constraint on both sides of that border, and the people building the wires are increasingly the people who want the metal.
A trading house is paying for the Zambia–Congo wire.
Trafigura and partners are behind a 300 million dollar Zambia–Congo power link, the latest case of a merchant buying electrons to secure access to critical minerals. The commercial logic is plain: a smelter that cannot run at night cannot deliver cathode against a term contract.
Copper above 14,600 dollars has become a currency argument in Lusaka.
COMEX copper settled at 6.6535 USD/lb, which is 14,668 USD/t, up 2.5% on the day. In Zambia that print has escaped the mining pages: an economic analyst argued this week that with copper above 14,600 USD/t the kwacha should be trading near K10 to the dollar, which it is not. Supply news is doing its part, with unions at Antofagasta's Centinela starting strike action.
American farmers may now burn dyed diesel on the road.
US agricultural groups have backed an executive order temporarily permitting on-road use of dyed fuel, a tax-coded concession aimed at harvest haulage costs. The timing follows the market: ULSD rose 3.5% to 4.6565 USD/gal, or 1,457 USD/t, while RBOB gasoline fell 6.5% to 3.096 USD/gal and Brent eased 1.3% to 100.89 USD/bbl. Distillate is doing the work; the barrel is not.
Maharashtra's cane farmers want the mills shut until 15 November.
Farmer organisations in Kolhapur have declared they will not allow sugar mills to start before 15 November until FRP arrears are paid, while Karnataka has sent Delhi a memorandum asking for a higher cane price and Pakistani growers have called a nationwide protest on 18 October for PKR 700 per 40 kg. Sugar #11 rose 3.9% to 20.71 USc/lb, or 457 USD/t.
An open-weights agent lab raised 90 million dollars.
Nous Research has raised 90 million dollars at a 1.5 billion dollar valuation, with its open-source Hermes agent reported at 22.7 million downloads since February and roughly 36 million dollars of annualised revenue by mid-September. Open weights have stopped being a hobby and started being a line item.
Also on the wire
- The Baltic Dry Index fell 8 points to 2,994, a six-week low on softer capesize rates.
- A Brazilian appeals court cleared Sigma Lithium's Grota do Cirilo restart, lifting a September emergency order.
- CN moved nearly 8 million tonnes of grain in the third quarter, a company record.
- The DRC raised 358 million dollars on its domestic public securities market in Q3 2026.
- Codelco's board chairman appeared before a Chilean congressional committee over inconsistencies in reported 2024-25 production.