** Liquefied natural gas developers led gains for U.S. energy companies in early trading on Monday, after the European Union pledged $750 billion worth in strategic purchases as part of a sweeping trade pact.
** Chevron said it plans to lay off almost 600 Houston workers as part of its monumental acquisition of Hess. Around 575 workers in Houston are expected to be laid off Sept. 26, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification filed with the Texas Workforce Commission on Wednesday.
** Astronomers who analyzed over 76 million radio telescope images to find that Starlink satellites are interfering with the readings, causing signals “where no signals are supposed to be present.” This issue only adds to the growing concern astronomers have about these satellites in low-Earth orbit.
** SpaceX is set to launch its Crew‑11 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday (July 31), and the event will stream live online. The Crew‑11 mission is targeting liftoff at 12:09 p.m. EDT (1609 GMT) from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission will send four astronauts to the space station aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, marking the 11th operational commercial crew rotation flight and the 12th human spaceflight under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
World
** An OPEC+ panel on Monday stressed the need for full compliance with oil production agreements, ahead of Sunday’s separate gathering of eight OPEC+ members to decide on increasing oil output for September.
** Mexican state energy company Pemex on Monday reported a net profit of 59.52 billion pesos ($3.17 billion) for the second quarter of this year, helped largely by a more favorable exchange rate.
** Wind turbine maker Nordex (NDXG.DE), opens new tab on Monday reported second quarter core earnings that were above analysts’ consensus forecasts. The German onshore wind turbine company posted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of 108.2 million euros ($127.09 million), above analyst expectations of 102 million euros in a company-compiled consensus.
