Crude oil price on August 5

Brent crude futures were down $1.1, or 1.34%, at $78.30 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude declined $1.43, or 2%, to trade at $74 a barrel.

Brent had settled more than 5% lower on Tuesday, extending Monday’s sharp decline after comments from Qatar fuelled hopes that an agreement could be reached soon. Before the conflict began, nearly 20% of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas passed through the Strait of Hormuz, while oil prices had risen 50% in March alone.

Also read: Iran, Oman near Hormuz reopening deal as talks advance

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Speaking to CNBC, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Washington and Tehran could reach an agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz as early as Tuesday or Wednesday. According to him, such a deal would allow commercial vessels to move freely through the waterway.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. was participating in talks involving Iran and Oman. While negotiations were moving forward, he noted that no final agreement had been reached.
Qatar, which is serving as a key mediator in the negotiations, said efforts were continuing to secure a short-term breakthrough that could pave the way for broader discussions between the U.S. and Iran.
U.S. President Donald Trump also spoke with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani to discuss ways to de-escalate the situation. Separately, a Bloomberg report said Iran was considering allowing European countries to remove mines from the Strait of Hormuz, although Tehran has not officially confirmed the report.

A key hurdle in the negotiations remains whether Iran will continue to seek a degree of control over the strategic waterway and whether the U.S. will reject such a proposal.

Trump said on Monday that discussions with Tehran had begun and described the current situation as Iran’s “last chance” to strike a deal. Iranian officials, however, maintained that no negotiations with the U.S. were taking place.

Where is oil headed?

Read more: How the Iran war exposed cracks in the US-Israel partnership

Despite that risk, Goldman Sachs’ base case assumes tensions in the Middle East will eventually ease. Under that scenario, the bank expects Brent to average $80 a barrel in the fourth quarter and $75 a barrel next year. However, it said the risks to its forecast remain skewed to the upside, citing the possibility of continued disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea.

“The direction of our outlook is unchanged; the path and the timeline have shifted. We still expect oil to cool as we move into 2027, for three reasons: supply outside the conflict zone is expanding, with OPEC+ raising production targets, the UAE at record output and non-OPEC barrels responding to price,” said Anindya Banerjee, Head of Commodity Research at Kotak Securities.

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)

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OpenAI and one of its subsidiaries will pay $3.2 million to settle allegations that they discriminated against U.S. workers by favoring foreign workers with temporary employment visas, the Justice Department announced Tuesday.

The Justice Department said the settlement resolves allegations that OpenAI and its subsidiary, Statsig Inc., violated the Immigration and Nationality Act through the Permanent Labor Certification (PERM) process by discouraging qualified U.S. workers from applying for certain jobs.

According to the Justice Department, OpenAI and Statsig, which develops product software, recruited foreign workers for some positions while taking steps that discouraged U.S. applicants.

According to the DOJ, OpenAI did not advertise positions it sought to fill through the PERM program on its job website, even though its standard practice was to do so with other jobs.

CHINA NARROWS AMERICA’S AI LEAD AS HUAWEI EXPANDS ITS GLOBAL TECH FOOTPRINT, FORMER US OFFICIAL WARNS

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s company agreed to pay $3.2 million to settle Justice Department allegations involving its hiring practices while denying wrongdoing. (Reuters/Manuel Orbegozo / Reuters Photos)

Federal investigators alleged that OpenAI failed to advertise certain PERM positions on its careers website, required applicants to mail paper applications for those jobs while accepting electronic applications for other positions, and in some cases aired radio advertisements late at night, practices the Justice Department said discouraged U.S. workers from applying.

The settlement includes $1.2 million in civil penalties and $2 million to compensate alleged victims of discrimination. OpenAI also agreed to revise its employment policies, conduct training and submit to Justice Department monitoring.

OpenAI denied wrongdoing as part of the settlement agreement.

FED DISSENTERS WARN INFLATION COULD BECOME ENTRENCHED WITHOUT MONETARY POLICY TIGHTENING NOW

The Justice Department alleged OpenAI favored foreign workers with temporary employment visas for certain positions in violation of federal law. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)

“It is illegal to discriminate against U.S. workers by preferring temporary visa holders for jobs,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement.

“This substantial settlement ensures that OpenAI redresses harm and changes its recruitment practices so that U.S. workers receive a fair opportunity for highly sought-after technology positions,” Dhillon added.

President Donald Trump has previously argued that many companies abuse temporary employment visa programs and has sought to limit the hiring of foreign workers, including by proposing a $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas for highly skilled workers. That proposal remains tied up in court.

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OpenAI will pay $3.2 million to settle Justice Department allegations involving its recruitment and hiring practices. (Omar Marques/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images / Getty Images)

FOX Business has reached out to OpenAI for comment.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Most growing businesses hit the same wall with design. Demand for branding, websites and marketing collateral is rarely constant, so hiring a full-time designer can mean paying a salary that only earns its keep for part of the year.

Leaning on freelancers solves the cost problem but brings its own: variable availability, inconsistent quality and the time lost managing them. Increasingly, the businesses caught in the middle are turning to a third route, the white-label design studio.

The model has quietly become one of the more practical ways for agencies and busy companies to deliver design work without carrying the overheads. A white-label design studio such as VIVI Creative now runs a service built specifically for this, producing branding, websites and illustration that another business delivers under its own name. For business owners weighing it up, the useful question is not whether white-label is fashionable, but when it actually makes sense.

What White-Label Design Is

In a white-label arrangement, one business produces work that another sells under its own name. A studio designs the branding, website or marketing assets, and the agency or company presents the finished result to its own client as its own. The end client typically never knows a second team was involved.

The distinction from freelancing matters. A freelancer is usually a one-off hire for a single project. A white-label partner plugs into your workflow on an ongoing basis, works to your brand guidelines and operates under a confidentiality agreement, so the relationship stays behind the scenes, and the output stays consistent.

When It Makes Sense

Outsourcing design under your own brand tends to pay off in a few clear situations.

When demand is uneven. If design work comes in peaks and troughs, a white-label partner lets you scale production up and down without a fixed salary sitting idle in the quiet months.

When you want to widen what you offer. Agencies in particular use white-label studios to add branding, web or illustration to their service list without recruiting a specialist for each discipline.

When capacity is the bottleneck, if you are turning away work or straining to meet deadlines, an external partner absorbs the overflow while you keep the client relationship.

When consistency matters. A single ongoing partner who knows your brand delivers more predictable quality than a rotating cast of freelancers.

This flexibility is why the model has spread. It reflects a wider shift in how businesses source skills: Deloitte’s Global Outsourcing Survey found that agility and access to specialist talent now rank alongside cost as reasons to outsource, with most organisations planning to maintain or increase that investment.

When It Doesn’t

White-label is not always the answer. If design is core to what you sell and you need a team immersed in your product day to day, in-house may be worth the cost. If your needs are genuinely one-off, a freelancer or a traditional studio can be simpler. And the model only works with the right partner, one that communicates well, respects the confidentiality the arrangement depends on, and delivers to a standard you can put your name to.

How to Choose a Partner

A few questions separate a strong white-label partner from a risky one. Will they stay fully behind the scenes and never approach your client directly? Can they work to your brand guidelines rather than imposing their own house style? Is their turnaround reliable enough to build into your own deadlines? And can they show a portfolio and references that stand up to scrutiny?

Studios built around this model tend to be clear about how they work. VIVI Creative, for instance, runs its white-label service on exactly these terms, staying behind the scenes and working to the agency’s brand, an example of the more structured, partnership-led approach that has made the model viable for so many businesses.

The Bottom Line

For a business whose design needs rise and fall, or an agency that wants to offer more without building a creative department, white-label design has moved from a workaround to a legitimate strategy. The decision comes down to your own pattern of demand and the quality of the partner you choose. Get both right, and it becomes a way to grow the work you deliver without growing your fixed costs to match.