Bloomberg Australian retail sales suffered the biggest drop in 12 months and imports slumped by the most in almost seven years, raising doubts about the resilience of household spending. Sales fell 0.4 percent in December, compared with estimates for an unchanged reading, statistics bureau data showed on Tuesday. Imports dropped 6 percent in the month, the worst result since February ...

Bloomberg Ocado Group Plc said it is talking to retailers about potential deals, renewing speculation about a possible partnership with Marks & Spencer Group Plc. The UK online grocer signed a number of technology licensing agreements in 2018, including a mammoth partnership with Kroger Co. in which the US supermarket chain agreed to buy a stake. Talk that Ocado might ...

Dubai / Emirates Business dnata, one of the world’s largest air services providers, continues to drive innovation in the Middle East aviation industry by launching a new resource management system in Dubai. The new system, which includes a leading-edge software platform and advanced analytic tools, will help the company optimise operations and efficiently manage its 20,000 employees and resources at ...

Bloomberg The mounting political crisis in Venezuela has prompted European airlines to add a stop in the Caribbean so that pilots and flight attendants don’t have to spend the night in the strife-torn country. Spanish airline Iberia has begun using Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic as a staging post for its three weekly services from Madrid to Caracas, while ...

Bloomberg US and California officials agreed on one thing about auto emissions standards: they’re still miles from an agreement, with a crucial deadline just two months away. In separate comments, Sacramento and Washington’s top environmental regulators said they’ve yet to overcome a long-running impasse over the Trump administration’s proposal to cap auto emissions and fuel economy standards after 2020 and ...

Bloomberg The UK economy is at risk of stalling after growth in the services sector came close to a standstill, with firms growing increasingly anxious about Brexit. The purchasing managers index for services dropped to a 2 1/2-year low in January, IHS Markit said in a survey, falling more sharply than economists had forecast. Companies said they were less likely ...

Bloomberg Johnson & Johnson, the world’s largest maker of health-care products, has agreed to settle the bulk of consumers’ lawsuits alleging it sold defective artificial hips and misled patients about their dangers, according to a lawyer for the plaintiffs. “The parties have reached an agreement that hopefully will resolve most, if not all, of the litigation,’’ said attorney Mark Lanier, ...

Bloomberg Apple Inc. investors are likely looking for the company to use its massive cash pile to make acquisitions, and names like Netflix Inc., Activision Blizzard Inc. and Sonos Inc. are among the companies that JPMorgan sees as strong strategic fits. Shares of Apple have lost more than 25 percent from an October record, dropping on concerns over the demand ...

Bloomberg When Siemens AG and Alstom SA unveiled their rail merger in 2017, the former arch-rivals hailed the deal as a historic union, forming the basis of a European champion with the heft to take on an expansionist Chinese competitor. The plan may well go down in history books, but not for the reasons the companies hoped. Rather, the European ...

Nissan Motor Co’s decision to back out of its planned investment in its Sunderland plant has (surprise!) divided opinion in Britain along pro- and anti-Brexit lines. “It’s not you, it’s me” was the message Leavers read into Nissan’s statement. It wasn’t meant to be, they shrug. And, anyhow, Nissan is sticking around to make other models in Sunderland. Those worried ...