SYDNEY / Bloomberg The $5.3-trillion currency market is getting harder for traders to make money in as price changes that once took months or weeks now happen more quickly, says Hugh Killen, Westpac Banking Corp.’s head of trading for foreign exchange, fixed income and commodities. Liquidity is drying up because investors and banks are shying away from taking risk, and ...

PARIS / Bloomberg A partnership led by by Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlin’s Dalian Wanda Group Co. plans to invest more than €3 billion in a retail and leisure development project outside of Paris, taking on Walt Disney Co. in the euro area’s second-largest economy. EuropaCity will be built 10 kilometers northeast of Paris. It will be the biggest single investment ...

NEW YORK / Bloomberg At the very top of his newly constructed condo tower in SoHo, developer Kevin Maloney saw a problem: a triplex penthouse priced at $45 million that he knew wouldn’t sell in a Manhattan market where luxury deals are slowing. So he ripped up the floor plan and chopped the apartment with about 8,400 square feet of ...

Tokyo / AFP Japan has posted its first factory output expansion in three months, official data showed, offering some rare good news after a string of weak figures threw cold water on recovery hopes. The upbeat figures — a 3.7 percent rise on-month in January — comes as investors look for clues about the state of the world’s number three ...

Kuala Lumpur / Bloomberg Low-cost carriers AirAsia Bhd. and AirAsia X Bhd. surged in Kuala Lumpur trading after cheaper fuel and a weaker ringgit helped the airlines return to profit in the fourth quarter. Long-haul carrier AirAsia X rose 11 percent to 25.5 sen, after advancing as much as 13 percent, its largest gain on record. AirAsia, Southeast Asia’s biggest ...

TRENTON / AP The average cost for a year’s supply of a prescription drug doubled in just seven years to more than $11,000 — about three-quarters of the average annual Social Security benefit. That’s according to the latest study of price trends for widely-used drugs conducted by AARP, the senior citizens advocacy group. It finds prices for existing drugs, driven ...

Canberra / Bloomberg Qantas Airways Ltd.’s credit rating has been upgraded by Moody’s Investors Service, ending the Australian carrier’s more than two-year spell as a junk-rated credit. The Sydney-based airline was raised one level to Baa3 by Moody’s, which had stripped it of investment-grade status back in January 2014. The move by Moody’s, which now has a stable outlook on ...

NEW YORK / AP JC Penney Co. delivered strong fourth-quarter results, wrapping up a year when it stole market share from rivals. The company, based in Plano, Texas, offered an upbeat sales outlook, as efforts to spruce up its merchandise are winning over shoppers. It also pledged that it would return to a profit this year, on an adjusted basis. ...

AFP Mexico’s state-run firm Pemex is bracing for massive budget cuts as it battles to avoid a bleakfuture mired in tumbling oil prices, falling production and rampant fuel thefts. President Enrique Pena Nieto has implemented an energy reform that ended the company’s seven-decade monopoly of the energy industry but also sought to inject new life into Pemex through partnerships with ...

Bloomberg It’s not just your financial investments that Brexit might hit. A British departure from Europe could be bad for your wardrobe too. The European Union membership debate has already hit the pound, sending it to its worst week against the dollar since 2009. Analysts have warned it could get worse, with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. saying a vote for ...