Bloomberg Coming off its best Christmas in years, the US toy industry is wagering that the Pokemon Go craze will command a lot of space on kids’ wish lists. Pokemon-branded video games from Nintendo Co. and a plush Pikachu character that wiggles its ears from Tomy Co. highlight the Toy Insider’s Hot 20 list, an industry publication’s best guess ...

  Bloomberg More than 1.1 million US workers would lose their jobs because of tougher fuel-economy regulations coming next decade if prices at the gasoline pump remain low in America, a new study found. With low fuel prices, consumers won’t get the payback they are expecting from expensive fuel-saving technology as automakers strive to reach a US mandate to achieve ...

  London / AFP Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, are pledging to spend more than $3 billion over the next decade to work on curing diseases. “Can we work together to cure, prevent or manage all disease within our children’s lifetime?” Chan said Wednesday onstage at an event in San Francisco for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. “Mark and ...

  Bloomberg Volkswagen AG offered no hint of concessions after a meeting with European Union regulators over demands the company provide compensation to the bloc’s consumers hit by the diesel emissions scandal. VW will carry out an “EU-wide action plan” to inform customers and repair the vehicles, EU Justice and Consumer Affairs Commissioner Vera Jourova said after meeting with Francisco ...

  Bloomberg The largest US gasoline pipeline returned to service by the end of the day Wednesday, easing almost two weeks of curtailed shipments that drove up pump prices and caused hundreds of stations to run out of fuel in the East and Southeast. Once Colonial Pipeline Co. restarts its main line, many shipments will be rerouted to southern locations ...

  Bloomberg For the second time this year, Egypt changed and then quickly reversed its import standards for wheat, leaving traders skeptical about doing business with the world’s largest buyer. Egypt canceled its zero-tolerance policy on a common type of fungus known as ergot on Wednesday, less than a month after reinstating the ban and rejecting cargoes from Romania to ...

  Bloomberg OPEC members Saudi Arabia and Iran, whose rivalry derailed an oil supply accord earlier this year, met in Vienna a week before the organization holds talks in Algeria. The two oil producers, along with fellow OPEC member Qatar, met at the headquarters of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in Vienna, according to three people familiar with the ...

  CAIRO / Reuters Egypt’s three established mobile phone operators have declined to buy fourth-generation (4G) service licences, two Egyptian telecoms officials said on Thursday. The companies, Vodafone, Orange and Etisalat, did not respond to repeated requests for comment. The Egyptian officials declined to be named as no official announcement had yet been made. The Egyptian government is selling four ...

  Bloomberg Oil extended gains after weekly government data showed US inventories dropped to the lowest since February, trimming stockpiles at the highest seasonal level in at least three decades. November futures rose as much as 1.2 percent in New York after advancing 2.9 percent on Wednesday. Inventories fell by 6.2 million barrels last week, according to the Energy Information ...

  Reuters The Saudi finance ministry has resumed payments to Saudi Binladin Group (SBG), the kingdom’s biggest construction firm, for its work on government projects, Saudi Okaz newspaper reported on Thursday, citing an adviser to the chairman. SBG was hard hit last year as low oil prices forced the government — its chief customer — to cancel or suspend projects ...