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TUESDAY, 10 NOVEMBER 2026
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Today’s Five
PRIVATE CAPITAL
A Saudi family's US retail rescue runs out.PLUS · SOCIETY
Riyadh life goes on hold again. For how long?
01 / ENERGY
Good morning from Riyadh.
Oil had one of its biggest drops in weeks on Monday, on a report that Qatar itself called false. Brent fell almost 5% to about $93 a barrel after Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom said Iran had signed off on a Qatari-brokered deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
The reported terms: Iran reopens the strait, stops attacking Gulf tankers and drops its demand to charge ships transit fees. In return, the US lifts its blockade and releases $8 billion of Iranian money frozen in Qatar.
The denial: a Qatari official told Bloomberg the report was false and talks were continuing. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called Iran's demands "outrageous and ridiculous."
Closer to home: the same day, the East-West pipeline, which carries most Saudi crude to the Red Sea while Hormuz is disrupted, was attacked near Madinah. The Energy Ministry said a limited fire was put out and flows weren't affected. It's the third strike on the line this year.
Why it matters: Brent has lost about a fifth of its value in just over a week. Cheaper oil eases fears of a shortage, but it cuts what the kingdom earns on every barrel, while the pipeline carrying those barrels keeps getting hit.
What to watch: what comes out of the Qatari prime minister's White House meeting, and whether Aramco's loadings at Yanbu change after the attack.
Read more:
02 / PRIVATE CAPITAL
For two years, one of Saudi Arabia's richest families kept a 57-year-old American kids' clothing chain alive. On Sunday night, the money stopped.
The Children's Place filed for bankruptcy in New Jersey and plans to sell substantially all its assets. Mithaq Capital, the family office of the Al Rajhi family, owns 61.1% of it, according to a court filing.
How it got here: Mithaq bought control in 2024, when the retailer warned it was running short of cash. It then kept it going with Shariah-compliant loans, including $15 million in July and $25 million in September.
The numbers: sales fell 19% last quarter to $242 million, and the chain lost more than $80 million in the first half. It owes $881 million against $742 million in assets.
Before the filing: Mithaq's own managing director, who was serving as interim CEO, and executive chair Turki AlRajhi had already left the company.
Why it matters: it's one of the most visible bets by a Saudi family office on a listed US company. It shows how hard it is to fix a mall retailer when Amazon, Walmart and Target sell the same clothes without a separate trip.
What to watch: bids are due on Dec. 9, and nine offers are already in. The chain also has franchise stores in Saudi Arabia.
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THE CLOSE · IN ONE MINUTE
Banks Win It Back
The Saudi market wiped out Sunday's drop on Monday. The TASI rose 0.90% to 10,106.72, with 4.3 billion Riyal ($1.1 billion) changing hands, Argaam's closing report shows. It slipped under 10,000 early, touching 9,985, then finished at the day's high.
Banks did the lifting: the sector rose 1.6%, with Al Rajhi Bank up 1.9% and SNB up 1.3%. Aramco barely moved, up 0.1%.
Most stocks joined in: 179 rose and 80 fell. Anaam Holding hit the 10% daily limit with no announcement we could find, and Al-Babtain jumped 7.4% after its third-quarter profit rose 17%.
Not everyone: food distributor Almunajem fell 9.1% after its third-quarter profit dropped 63% from the second quarter, on pricing and margin pressure.
A good day for builders: City Cement rose 3.4% after its third-quarter profit nearly doubled, though it is still down 36% for nine months. Homebuilder Retal gained about 5% as it set a Dec. 3 vote on issuing shares to buy into Ajdan.
Still red for 2026: even after Monday, the index is down about 3.7% this year.
03 / AI
AI runs on two things that are hard to get: chips and power. On Monday, a state fund put money behind both for Saudi Arabia's national AI champion.
The National Infrastructure Fund, known as Infra, signed deals worth up to 2.5 billion Riyal ($667 million) with Humain, PIF's AI company. It's the first money out of Infra's data centre financing program.
Where it goes: up to $293 million buys graphics chips, about 25 megawatts of computing. The other $373 million pays for substations, power lines and grid connections built for up to one gigawatt of future capacity.
From promise to paper: the two announced a $1.2 billion framework at Davos in January. Monday's deals turn more than half of it into signed commitments.
Why it matters: power is AI's bottleneck everywhere. In the US, new data centres wait years for a grid connection. Saudi Arabia is betting that cheap energy and state-built grid links will let it move faster. Humain is aiming for three gigawatts by 2030, and Aramco closed its purchase of a 49% stake earlier this month.
What to watch: which data centre sites get the first grid links, and whether outside investors take up the gigawatt the power deal is built for.
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DATA POINT
$8 billion
Iranian money frozen in Qatar that the US would release under the Hormuz deal Israel Hayom reported on Monday. Qatar says the report is false.
MARKET CLOSE · NOV 9
10,106.72 ▲ 0.90%
Tadawul All Share Index (TASI)
TOP GAINERS
Anaam · SR11.93 ▲ 9.95%
Fitaihi · SR2.08 ▲ 7.77%
Al Babtain · SR52.00 ▲ 7.44%
TOP LOSERS
Almunajem · SR49.98 ▼ 9.13%
Saudi Paper · SR49.00 ▼ 5.95%
Source: Saudi Exchange
04 / VENTURE
Saudi startups have found a way to keep growing without selling pieces of themselves cheaply: borrowing.
Venture capital in the kingdom fell about 29% to $1 billion in the first nine months, MAGNiTT data cited by Bloomberg show, as the war made investors cautious. In the UAE, funding rose almost 20%.
Who's lending: India's Stride Ventures has put about $90 million into Saudi deals in a year, including Aramco-backed construction tech firm BRKZ, and plans to more than double that. Crowdlending platform Raqamyah has arranged up to $107 million this year, twice last year's total. Lender Erad has had more than $1 billion in requests in 18 months.
Why founders like it: a loan lets them wait out a weak market instead of raising equity at a lower valuation.
The catch: the usual exit is shut, with no new main-market listings approved since April. And a loan still has to be repaid, usually from the next equity round.
Why it matters: domestic money already supplies about three-quarters of Saudi venture funding. Debt is now filling the gap that foreign equity investors left.
What to watch: whether the market regulator starts approving listings again, which would give founders and lenders a way out.
05 / MINING
Saudi Arabia's biggest miner had record quarters in gold and aluminium. It's still cutting what it spends.
Ma'aden expects 2026 capital spending to come in about $1 billion below the 15.5 billion Riyal ($4.1 billion) it guided in March, management told analysts on Monday.
The squeeze: revenue rose 11% to about $3 billion, but EBITDA, a measure of operating earnings, fell 24% as higher sulfur costs hit the phosphate business.
The bright spots: aluminium revenue rose 32% to $985 million. Gold revenue jumped 49% to $596 million, with output up 22% to 139,000 ounces.
Why it matters: Ma'aden is central to the plan to make mining the third pillar of the economy. A smaller budget means fewer or later contracts for the builders and equipment suppliers working on its mines and plants.
What to watch: whether the cut slows Phosphate 3 or the Ar Rjum gold mine, and what Ma'aden budgets for 2027.
PLUS / SOCIETY
For many Riyadh families, this week brought back a familiar routine. Plans are made a day at a time, and the working day bends around whatever the last alert said.
The city has kept up an image of business as usual for months. That image is getting harder to hold.
Two days, two alerts: air defenses intercepted two Houthi ballistic missiles over Riyadh on Sunday morning, and debris damaged Aramco's tower in KAFD. On Monday, civil defense sent a midday alert and lifted it within minutes.
Offices on pause: KAFD, home to the stock exchange, PIF and many regional headquarters, has been largely deserted, with towers above 10 floors closed, Semafor reported. Expats who asked to work from abroad were told there was no need to leave.
A city harder to reach: at least 25 airlines have suspended or cut Saudi services. British Airways has paused Riyadh until January 11 and Cathay Pacific until January 31. Some consultants now drive in from Bahrain and Oman to see Saudi clients, Bloomberg reported.
Classes back on screens: schools, which reopened only on Sunday, have switched back to remote learning, the third move online this school year.
The money question: Riyadh spent years narrowing the salary premium expats demanded to live there instead of Dubai or Abu Dhabi. Every week of closed towers and cancelled flights tests that, though it may also push more headquarters staff to live in Riyadh rather than commute.
What to watch: whether towers reopen and airlines restore Riyadh routes before year-end. The question for families is no longer only when the attacks stop, but how long this suspended version of life lasts.
THE WEEK AHEAD
What We’re Watching
Wednesday / Listings. DIP Holding debuts in Dubai, with PIF among its new shareholders.
Wednesday, 25 November / Dividend. Aramco pays its $21.9 billion base dividend.
Thursday, 3 December / Vote. Homebuilder Retal's shareholders vote on issuing 55 million new shares to buy into Ajdan.
Wednesday, 9 December / Bids. Offers are due for The Children's Place, majority-owned by the Al Rajhi family office.
BEFORE YOU GO
Two Kinds of Signal
Monday's market heard peace. Oil fell on talk of a Hormuz deal, and banks led Saudi stocks back up.
Riyadh's parents heard something else: an alert at lunchtime, and a message that school is back on screens. Markets price what might happen. Families plan around what just did.
Have a good Tuesday.
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