Bloomberg Claire’s Stores, known for tween jewellery and ear piercing, has become the latest victim of the retail apocalypse. The company filed for bankruptcy on March 19 and said it reached an agreement with creditors including its private-equity backer, Apollo Global Management LLC, to restructure around $1.9 billion in debt. Its plan to survive rests on its reputation for trendy …

Emirates Business Airbus and Heathrow airport are celebrating the 10th anniversary of A380 operations at the airport. They began on March 18, 2008 with the arrival of the first A380, a Singapore Airlines flight SQ308 from Singapore Changi airport making Heathrow one of the first to welcome Airbus’ iconic double decker. Heathrow is now the world’s busiest A380 airport by …

LONDON / WAM UAE-based Petrofac, a leading service provider to the oil and gas production and processing industry, on Monday announced that it has signed a binding letter of intent, for a contract worth around $580 million (AED2.13 billion) with a GCC National Oil Company for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of a major project. Specific details in relation …

Bloomberg Stocks declined globally on Monday amid a technology sell-off and as investors braced for a week packed with risk events, from central bank decisions to a G-20 gathering. Government bonds also fell, while the pound jumped on a Brexit breakthrough. US stock slumped as tech companies were roiled by weekend reports of a Facebook Inc. data breach and Apple …

Bloomberg A steady weakening in US equity futures snowballed into one of the biggest drops in a month for Nasdaq 100 contracts, as pre-market trading revealed losses of around 1.5 percent in Apple Inc., Facebook Inc., Alphabet and Amazon.com. Facebook was in the spotlight as government officials in the US and Europe were demanding answers from the company after reports …

Bloomberg Angela Merkel’s government is seeking to build a liquefied natural gas industry in Germany basically from scratch to reduce the nation’s dependence on supplies arriving by pipeline from Russia and Norway. With gas reservoirs depleting from the UK to the Netherlands, Germany is becoming increasingly reliant on Russia for its energy needs at a time when political tensions are …

Bloomberg Oil halted gains as US explorers resumed their drilling binge, raising concerns over whether output cuts by OPEC and its allies will be enough to clear a glut despite a pledge from Russia that it’s committed to the curbs. Futures in New York fell 0.2 percent after data showed American producers added oil rigs for the seventh time in …

BAGHDAD / Reuters The head of Iraq’s state-oil marketer SOMO said that he expected oil prices to remain at current levels for the whole of 2018. “I expect oil prices to stay stable at their current levels at least until the end of 2018,” SOMO chief Alaa al-Yasiri told reporters at a SOMO event in Baghdad. “Oil price stability depends …

Bloomberg The Democratic Republic of Congo granted Total SA a one-year extension to a license allowing it to explore for oil along the Ugandan border. Total must meet objectives including developing a drilling program before the new permit expires January 26, 2019, Oil Minister Aime Ngoy Mukena said in a written response to questions. The company is also expected to …

Bloomberg China’s home prices rose in the fewest cities in five months in February, as the government’s almost two-year campaign to curb property speculation started to bite. New-home prices, excluding government-subsidised housing, gained in 44 of 70 cities tracked, compared with 52 in January, the National Bureau of Statistics said. Prices fell in 16 cities from the previous month and …