Bloomberg Casino Guichard Perrachon SA and Auchan Retail are in exclusive talks to form a global purchasing alliance to help them negotiate better prices as competition in the French grocery market increases. The partnership would cover major national and international consumer-goods makers, the companies said in a statement. They expect it would help fuel the development of French suppliers abroad ...

Bloomberg Walmart Inc. is in early talks about a deal for closely held PillPack, an online startup that could help grow the retail giant’s pharmacy offerings, according to people familiar with the situation. PillPack and Walmart declined to comment. CNBC first reported the talks, and said the price being discussed was less than $1 billion. It’s not clear if the ...

Bloomberg From Ralph Lauren to Calvin Klein, America’s biggest fashion labels are pinning their hopes on a blue jean revival. Across the industry, fashion brands are renewing their focus on denim, betting the wardrobe staple can be a major sales driver as jeans battle stretchy pants for supremacy from the waist down. The jeanmaking industry has been just as distressed ...

DAMMAM / WAM The MENA region has committed $345 billion to critical energy projects under execution while an additional $574 billion worth of development is pla- nned over the next five years, bringing total committed and planned investments up to $919 billion to meet growing demand and demographic and urban expansions, according to MENA Energy Investment Outlook, issued by Arab ...

Bloomberg Damac Properties Dubai Co. hired banks including Barclays Plc and HSBC Bank Plc for a possible sale of US dollar-denominated Islamic bonds, according to people familiar with the matter. The second-largest listed real estate developer in Dubai is expected to hire more banks to arrange the debt sale, which may happen as soon as this month, said the people, ...

Bloomberg US stocks dropped in light trading as the weakness in technology shares persisted amid renewed presidential criticism of Amazon.com and retaliatory tariffs from China. The dollar held steady and Treasury yields climbed. The S&P 500 Index slumped after its first quarterly retreat since 2015, with volumes 17 percent below average. The Nasdaq 100 Index lost more than 1.5 percent ...

Bloomberg The reckoning is starting for crypto hedge funds. Demand and profits are drying up at many of the more than 150 funds that popped during 2017’s spectacular surge in Bitcoin—which brought cryptocurrencies to the attention of scores of institutional and individual investors. This year’s 50 percent plunge in the value of Bitcoin has many investors thinking twice. At about ...

Bloomberg Singapore private home prices surged the most since 2010 as the property market staged a recovery from a four-year slump. An index tracking private residential prices jumped 3.1 percent in the three months ended March 31, according to a flash estimate from the Urban Redevelopment Authority, building on a 0.8 percent gain the previous quarter. That’s the biggest quarter-on-quarter ...

Bloomberg America’s most prolific oil field is now its worst market for natural gas. A pipeline shortage that’s leaving gas trapped in West Texas’ Permian Basin means prices for the fuel there are the lowest of any major US hub, wresting that distinction from Appalachia’s Marcellus Shale. Prices for Permian gas, produced alongside oil in the play, have tumbled 32 ...

Bloomberg Bahrain, the smallest energy producer in the Persian Gulf, discovered its biggest oil field since it started producing crude in 1932, according to the country’s official news agency. The shale oil and natural gas discovered in a deposit off the island state’s west coast “is understood to dwarf Bahrain’s current reserves,” Bahrain News Agency reported, without giving figures. US ...