Bloomberg Asking prices for UK homes increased by the most for any January on record in a sign that the Conservatives’ December election win boosted confidence, according to property website-operator Rightmove. Values increased 2.3% on the month to an average 306,810 pounds ($400,000) Rightmove said in a report on Monday. In London, they gained 2.1% from a month earlier, a ...

Bloomberg Two AstraZeneca Plc cancer drugs received orphan status for treatment of liver cancer, a designation that may eventually speed progress to approval. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted the special status reserved for rare conditions to Imfinzi, a lung cancer treatment, and tremelimumab, which has been tested in a combination in a variety of cancers, AstraZeneca said ...

Bloomberg Pension funds in Denmark have issued a warning to external managers, making clear that they risk being fired if caught engaging in aggressive tax optimisation. The move represents an industry wide measure intended to thwart tax avoidance and live up to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development goals. A total of 11 firms, representing over half of Denmark’s pension assets, ...

Bloomberg Ford Motor Co, LG Corp and Pernod Ricard SA joined the ranks of the top global companies that are best prepared for the effects of climate change. They won the “A” grade last year for how aggressive they are setting and meeting carbon goals, as well as how forthcoming they are about their efforts, according to an analysis by ...

An hour’s drive northwest of here, in the Valley of the Fallen, is a residue of Europe’s past that suggests what the continent’s future would have been if fascism had not been defeated in the previous century. Atop a granite mountain stands an almost 500-foot-tall stone cross, the world’s tallest. An enormous basilica has been hewn deep into the mountain. ...

Bangkok’s billionaires don’t usually have to contend with much resistance as they expand. Tesco Plc’s sale of its Southeast Asian supermarkets may be about to change that. The $32 billion British retailer said in December it was considering selling the group’s stores in Thailand and Malaysia, becoming the latest international grocery giant to bow out of Asia. First-round bids for ...

Peak gold production is looking a little more distant. Global supply of the yellow metal has been inexorably approaching its high-water mark, as ore is extracted faster than new discoveries are made. Mines have been aging fast. A sustained price rally can change that picture, as investors rekindle their enthusiasm for large-scale exploration and technological innovation. Bullion miners’ margins will ...

Jeff Bezos was in India at an awkward moment. Just before his visit, the country’s antitrust authority ordered a probe into the business practices of its two main American-owned shopping websites. One of them is his. How worried should the Amazon.com Inc. boss be? If the Competition Commission’s released study on e-commerce is any guide, Bezos shouldn’t lose any sleep ...

Smoke and ash erupted from the Taal volcano in the Philippines, with the plume rising almost 9 miles into the atmosphere and threatening hundreds of thousands of people. The Philippine government mobilised quickly. By January 15, more than 38,000 people were staying in evacuation centers, and many thousands more had dispersed to family throughout the country. Meanwhile, the government began ...

The anguish is palpable. First, it was the news that India’s nominal gross domestic product is growing at its slowest pace in more than four decades. Now comes the inflation data for December, showing the steepest rise in consumer prices since July 2014. If this is the onset of stagflation, then it will be very hard to beat back the ...