Bloomberg Brazil’s drought has gotten so bad that the country’s instant-coffee makers, the world’s top suppliers, are no longer entering into new export contracts amid a shortage of the robusta beans needed to make the quick brew. Producers have stopped entering into sales commitments since September because of depleted stockpiles of the beans, according to a Abics, a group ...

  Bloomberg Tesla Motors Inc. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk took his skeptics to task, giving more detail on potential benefits of the automaker’s pending SolarCity Corp. acquisition and saying the deal’s doubters have a history of making bad predictions. While people once questioned the company’s ability to make electric cars, the surge of interest in the forthcoming Model 3 ...

  Bloomberg Royal Dutch Shell Plc, the world’s second-biggest oil company by market value, thinks demand for oil could peak in as little as five years. “Oil, we’ve long been of the opinion that demand will peak before supply,” Chief Financial Officer Simon Henry said on a conference call on Tuesday. “And that peak may be somewhere between 5 and ...

  Bloomberg Automakers reported lower US sales for October, reinforcing the idea the market may have plateaued at a healthy level that still supports the US economy. The companies faced a difficult comparison to the year-earlier month, which was the best of 2015 and had two more sales days. Sales fell 4.4 percent to 1.39 million vehicles in October, Autodata ...

  DUBAI / Reuters Most Gulf stock markets rose early on Wednesday after drops in global bourses and oil prices, but banking shares continued to support Saudi Arabia. In the nine days through Monday, the Saudi index added 10.1 percent in response to the success of Riyadh’s international bond issue, which eased concern about tight liquidity in the banking system. ...

London / Reuters Global stock markets spiralled downwards on Wednesday with Europe following Asia lower as investors fretted over growing fears of a Donald Trump presidency. Asian equities sank and the Mexican peso fell after a poll on Tuesday showed Trump overtaking market favourite Hillary Clinton in the race for the White House. “This is what happens when politics trumps ...

  Bloomberg Apple Inc. unveiled new Mac computers as it seeks to revitalize a product line that co-founder Steve Jobs once said would be rendered redundant by the iPad. Overhauled MacBook Pro laptops and a new computer monitor were presented in a press conference at Apple’s Cupertino, California, headquarters. While laptops are traditionally more profitable for Apple than the iPad, ...

  Bloomberg Microsoft Corp. said a computer-hacking group that has previously targeted government agencies attacked its Windows software and Adobe Systems Inc.’s Flash program. The company will release a security patch for its operating system on Nov. 8, Windows chief Terry Myerson said Tuesday in a blog post on Microsoft’s website. Users of Microsoft’s Edge browser on the latest update ...

  Relaxnews Instagram said it will start testing features that let smartphone or tablet users easily buy items they find on the popular photo and video sharing service. The test slated to begin next week in the US will be tailored for Instagram applications on Apple mobile devices, according to a blog post by the Facebook-owned service. The move will ...

  Dusseldorf / DPA Drivers slam on their car brakes, children want to play with it and impressed pensioners ask if it can carry their shopping; when delivery robot Robbie goes on test runs, everyone’s agog. The six-wheeled delivery robot, designed by Estonian firm Starship and about the size of a lawnmower, is being trialled in London, in two German cities ...