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In today’s headlines, American employers added just 266,000 jobs last month, and the unemployment rate rose slightly to 6.1% in the latest April jobs report. In other news, the services PMI — formerly known as the Non-Manufacturing NMI — registered 62.7% last month, down a point but still indicating robust growth. In Spend Matters’ PRO coverage this week, our analysts delved into IntegrityNext, the biggest mistakes in post-merger technology integration and graphiteConnect. Afternoon Coffee brings you the latest in procurement and supply chain news.

Adobe Stock

Here’s a quick rundown of news and thoughts from particular commodity markets, including materials price support from EV battery demand, the Department of Energy’s funding of projects to boost production of rare earths and critical minerals, hot rolled coil prices and much more.

MetalMiner, a sister site of ours, scours the landscape for what matters.