There’s certainly no shortage of cash lying around at Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Even so, Warren Buffett’s struggle to find the $407 billion company’s next meaningful acquisition shows that his relative buying power has diminished. If you attended or streamed the shareholder meeting on Saturday, you heard a lot about Berkshire’s soaring cash pile, which stood at $96.5 billion as ...

  In his new book “The Complacent Class,” my Bloomberg View colleague Tyler Cowen mentions that more Americans may be slacking off at work. He offers this as one more measure of the comfortable malaise into which American culture has settled. But it also occurs to me that if leisure is replacing effort at work, it means that the country ...

  DUBAI / Reuters First quarter results from major companies drove trading on Saudi Arabia’s stock exchange on Wednesday, with the Riyadh index edging 0.2 percent higher, while Qatar’s bourse outperformed as investors bought shares on recent price dips. Majority state-owned Saudi Electricity (SEC) rose 2.2 percent in trading that exceeded its one-month average daily volume after the company swung ...

  Bloomberg US stock futures slipped and the dollar’s rally faltered after Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey. Oil climbed following an industry report that showed American stockpiles declining for a fifth week. The greenback headed for the first drop in three days in the wake of Trump’s move, and after Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan ...

  Bloomberg Indian discount airline IndiGo placed an outline order for 50 turboprop planes worth $1.3 billion at list prices as the subcontinent’s biggest carrier expands into regional flights connecting smaller population centers. IndiGo has signed a term sheet to acquire the ATR 72-600 aircraft, with the first planes due to enter operation by the end of this year, the ...

  Bloomberg A Japanese retailer famous for minimalist products and no-logo branding is betting big on the world’s most colorful retail market as it pushes forward with an aggressive overseas expansion. Strong growth and demographic trends will eventually make India the second-largest international market for Muji stores after China, Satoru Matsuzaki, president of Muji-owner Ryohin Keikaku Co., said in an ...

  Bloomberg Anti-terrorist officials in the US are considering expanding the restrictions on carrying electronic devices in airline cabins beyond the handful of Middle East airports currently covered. Asked if the laptop ban could be expanded to other countries or electronic products, Department of Homeland Security spokesman David Lapan told reporters that the agency is in discussions with airlines and ...

  Bloomberg US airlines climbed to a two-month high after beleaguered United Continental Holdings Inc. won support from one of its biggest shareholders and American Airlines Group Inc. signaled that it’s gaining additional control over fares. United shares could jump to $135 by 2020, or even higher under certain circumstances, said Brad Gerstner, chief executive officer of Altimeter Capital Management. ...

  Bloomberg ING Groep NV Chief Executive Officer Ralph Hamers’s international expansion is helping the biggest Dutch lender boost profits. Net core lending increased by 5.7 billion euros ($6.2 billion) in the first quarter, as strong growth in nations including Germany more than offset a drop in Dutch consumer lending, the Amsterdam-based bank said in a statement on Wednesday. Loan ...

  Dubai / Emirates Business Egyptian banks are lifting restrictions on customers’ overseas credit card purchases, the latest indication that a foreign-currency crunch that crippled the economy is easing. State-run Banque Misr, Egypt’s second-biggest lender, is removing curbs imposed last year on purchases, while keeping limits on foreign-currency cash withdrawals, the official Middle East News Agency reported on Tuesday, without ...