Bloomberg Southwest Airlines Co said it was “hopeful” of returning to profitability in the third and fourth quarters, amid concerns over the financial impact of a coronavirus variant and a recent rash of flight delays. The potential for an adjusted profit excludes any benefit from billions of dollars in airline aid provided by the US government, Southwest said as it …

Bloomberg Airbus SE is the favourite to win a multi-billion tender for a new aircraft fleet for the successor of Italy’s bankrupt Alitalia SpA, Corriere della Sera reported. Executives at Italia Trasporto Aereo SpA, known as ITA, have still not taken a final decision and are also talking to Boeing Co, Corriere said, citing three industry sources with knowledge of …

Bloomberg A US safety regulator’s decision to sue Amazon.com Inc could bring clarity to a question that has long befuddled courts and state legislatures nationwide: Who is responsible when a product bought from the world’s largest online retailer hurts or kills someone? In recent years, dozens of people who say they were harmed by products, such as exploding hoverboards, defective …

Bloomberg Some of the world’s biggest footwear and garment companies are seeing production pinched as factories in Southeast Asia struggle to keep the lights on amid one of the world’s deadliest Covid-19 resurgences. A number of firms that churn out products for global giants like Nike Inc and Adidas AG have reported plant suspensions in Vietnam over the past few …

Bloomberg Kimberly-Clark Corp’s shares fell after the maker of household supplies missed Wall Street’s expectations for second-quarter earnings and trimmed its annual forecast, saying inflationary pressures and slowing toilet paper demand are hurting results. Profit this year will be $6.65 to $6.90 a share, the company said in a statement, down from a prior expectation of as much as $7.55. …

Bloomberg Bridgepoint Group plans to sell the UK operations of Burger King next year in a bet on an accelerated recovery of Britain’s pandemic-hit restaurant industry, Sky reported. The newly listed private equity group has started preliminary talks with investment banks about a sale of the fast-food chain, the news agency said, citing unidentified people with knowledge of the matter. …

Bloomberg An index launched a year ago to give investors greater exposure to China’s internet giants is now the world’s worst-performing major technology gauge. The Hang Seng Tech Index has been on a roller-coaster ride in the last 12 months. The gauge, which marks its one-year anniversary, was up 59% at its February peak but has since seen more than …

Bloomberg In the stock market, the refusal of retail investors to back down from every macro threat has become the only story. When will it end? Judging by the size of all the pools of cash lying around, it could be a while. Among all the economic stories of the pandemic, the one about money piling up in people’s accounts …

Islamabad / WAM The World Health Organisation (WHO), on behalf of the Polio Eradication Initiative, has announced on Saturday that the United Arab Emirates has made available a total of $23 million funding for polio campaigns and around $376000 for the procurement of frontline worker personal protective equipment for protection against Covid-19 in 84 highest-risk districts of Pakisan. This funding …

Bloomberg Oil squeezed out its first weekly gain in three on signs that global demand is holding up despite concerns that the renewed spread of the virus could stall the recovery. Futures in New York rises 0.2% this week, completely recouping a selloff that was stoked by the rapidly spreading delta variant. Fuel demand and road traffic from the US …