Bloomberg European insurers, whose profits are being eroded by Mario Draghi’s quantitative easing program, face a stress test headache that risks requiring them to set aside more capital, further hurting their ability to make money. The timing of the regulator’s “stress test couldn’t be worse as the results will be rather negative,” said Lutz Roehmeyer, who helps oversee about ...

  Bloomberg Oil fell from the biggest gain in three months after U.S. industry data showed the nation’s crude stockpiles increased, adding to concerns about oversupply. Futures lost as much as 1.5 percent in New York. Inventories rose 2.2 million barrels last week, the American Petroleum Institute was said to report. Government data Wednesday is forecast to show a decline. ...

  Bloomberg Corn futures jumped after the latest U.S. government forecast for domestic inventories was less than expected, indicating that lower production in Brazil is boosting demand on the international grain market for American exports. U.S. stockpiles will be 2.081 billion bushels as of Aug. 31, 2017, the end of the marketing year, U.S. Department of Agriculture data showed Tuesday. ...

  Bloomberg Hyperloop Technologies Inc., a startup trying to develop Elon Musk’s idea to use levitation for high-speed transportation, was sued by a co-founder over claims that the company’s financiers are killing it through their own greed. Shervin Pishevar, the Silicon Valley venture capitalist who helped form Hyperloop in 2014, was accused in the lawsuit by fellow co-founder Brogan BamBrogan ...

  Bloomberg Lightstream Resources Ltd., a Canadian energy company struggling to repay creditors, is proposing a debt-for-equity swap that would see its top-ranked bondholders take majority ownership. The oil producer, facing a July 15 deadline to make an interest payment, has an agreement regarding the proposal with a committee representing 91.5 percent of the second-lien secured notes, the company said ...

  Bloomberg The best forecaster for the Peruvian sol is raising his estimate for the currency as expectations fade that the U.S. Federal Reserve will raise interest rates this year. Lee Hardman, a currency analyst at Bank of Tokyo – Mitsubishi UFG, the best forecaster of the sol in the second quarter, expects it to weaken to 3.4 per dollar ...

  Bloomberg Barrick Gold Corp., the biggest gold miner, is looking into ways to restart its stalled Pascua-Lama project on the Chile-Argentina border, including a staged development. Possible changes to the decade-old mine plan include a smaller open pit, an underground mine on either side of the border or starting with one line in the mill to generate cash for ...

  Beijing / AFP China warned rivals Wednesday against turning the South China Sea into a “cradle of war” and threatened an air defence zone there, after its claims to the strategically vital waters were declared invalid. The surprisingly strong and sweeping ruling by a UN-backed tribunal in The Hague provided powerful diplomatic ammunition to the Philippines, which filed the challenge, ...

  Seoul / AFP Seoul said on Wednesday an advanced US missile defence system will be deployed in a remote southern county and will have the capacity to protect two thirds of the country against feared attacks from the North. The plan to deploy the powerful system, which fires projectiles to smash into enemy missiles, came last week after the ...

  Beijing / AFP EU Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker said on Wednesday that the bloc would use all possible means to protect itself from a flood of Chinese steel imports blamed for turmoil in global markets. China, which makes more than half the world’s steel, is widely accused in Europe of dumping its production on world markets and violating trade ...