Frankfurt / AFP Consumer confidence in Germany is on the rise as households feel that robust domestic demand, rising wages and low inflation will keep Europe’s biggest economy on a growth path, a poll found on Wednesday. “In contrast to the weather, German consumer sentiment is showing itself from its sunny side,” market research company GfK said in a statement. ...

  Bloomberg GAM Holding AG agreed to buy Cantab Capital Partners LLP for $217 million in cash and deferred payments based on future revenue from fees. The acquisition enables Zurich-based GAM to introduce a computer-driven trading system focused on long-only and alternative strategies, the Zurich-based asset manager said in a statement on Wednesday. Cantab Capital, a firm based in Cambridge, ...

  BLOOMBERG Global stocks rallied for a second day and the dollar weakened amid speculation that policy makers will mitigate the damage of the U.K.’s vote to leave the European Union, including a pause in the Federal Reserve’s tightening cycle. Crude oil rallied and the pound rose. The MSCI All-Country World Index headed for its highest level since before the ...

  Bloomberg The price rally made switching a no-brainer for farmer Steve Stotz. A week before planting began across the U.S. Midwest last month, Stotz realized he’d earn $100 more per acre with soybeans than with corn. So, the 63-year-old ditched his crop plan and increased soybean acreage by more than a third on land he had previously intended to ...

  Bloomberg Allianz Real Estate is set to make its biggest Asian investment to date, in a first step toward adding as much 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion) of real estate in the region within three years. The $150 million pan-Asian fund investment will allow Allianz SE’s property unit to test the water before buying buildings directly, Francois Trausch, chief ...

  AFP Barcelona city hall on Tuesday announced a 20-fold hike, to €600,000 euros ($660,000), in the maximum fine that can be levied against home rental sites such as Airbnb if they promote illegal accommodation. Under a 2012 regional law, any apartment rented to visitors in Catalonia must be logged in the province’s Tourism Registry and have a permit. In ...

  AP U.S. home prices scaled new heights in April, with seven cities — Boston, Charlotte, Dallas, Denver, San Francisco, Seattle and Portland, Oregon — setting highs. The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index rose 5.4 percent in April compared with a year earlier, just below the 5.5 percent year-over-year gain posted in March. Home values are now just ...

  Bloomberg In 1910, an attorney named Albert Barnes Boardman bought close to 10 acres in downtown Southampton, N.Y., and spent $250,000 (approximately $30 million today) to build a 24-room, four-story mansion modeled after the Villa Medici in Rome. There were formal gardens, fountains, sprawling lawns, a tennis court, and a gatehouse. Boardman owned it until 1927, after which the ...

  DUBAI / WAM HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of Dubai Executive Council, approved Executive Council Resolutions numbers (22), (23), (24), (25), (26), (27), (28) and (29) of 2016, approving new appointments at the Department of Economic Development, DED. The new Resolutions include the appointment of Ali Ibrahim Mohamed Ismael ...

  Abu Dhabi / EMIRATES BUSINESS Etihad Airways and Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) signed a landmark agreement that sees the airline become the Official Airline Partner of ADGM. The agreement harnesses the roles of both entities as ambassadors of Abu Dhabi and key players in delivering on Abu Dhabi’s vision as a world-leading business, tourism, and cultural destination.