International News

  Bloomberg Iron ore shipments from the world’s largest bulk-export terminal in Australia swelled to a record, offering fresh evidence of strong supply and underpinning forecasts of lower prices through the year-end. Exports from Port Hedland totaled 42.9 million metric tons in August from 38.7 million in July and 39.2 million a year earlier, data from the Pilbara Ports Authority ...

  Reuters Danaher Corp said it would buy medical diagnostics company Cepheid in a deal valued at $4 billion, including debt, that will strengthen its presence in molecular diagnostics. Danaher, which develops technology for the dental, life sciences, diagnostics and environmental industries, spun off its industrial division in July to focus on science and technology. Piper Jaffray analysts said the ...

  AFP Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s biggest, has placed US group Duke Energy and three subsidiaries on its blacklist for causing “unacceptable” environmental damage, Norway’s central bank said on Wednesday. The fund, which is worth around $900 billion has sold its stakes in the companies in line with a recommendation from its Ethics Council in April. The Council ...

  Bloomberg UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond said he understands the risks posed to Britain’s financial industry by the vote to leave the European Union and the importance of limiting the fallout on banks. ”It is important Britain maintains its status as a great place for financial services,” Hammond said in a statement. “The government stands ready to ...

  AFP German auto giant Volkswagen (VW) and China’s Anhui Jianghuai Automobile are in talks to build electric cars together, the firms announced Wednesday, the latest possible tie-up in a burgeoning Chinese market for clean-energy vehicles. Volkswagen said the two carmakers had signed a memorandum of understanding at its Wolfsburg headquarters to explore the possibility of a joint venture focussed on ...

AFP Industrial production in Germany unexpectedly fell back sharply in July amid sluggish global demand, official data showed Wednesday, fuelling concern of a “further cooling” of the economy. July saw production 1.5 percent lower than the previous month in Europe’s largest economy, correcting for price, calendar and seasonal effects, the federal statistics office Destatis said. The figure fell far short ...

  Bloomberg Australia’s economy expanded at the fastest annual pace in four years, driven by a surge in public investment to build roads and railways and continued strength in resource exports. Gross domestic product rose 0.5% in the second quarter from the previous three months, when it grew by a downward revised 1%; economists estimated 0.6% gain. The economy expanded ...

  Bloomberg Government employees playing badminton in a Tianjin office lobby in the middle of the afternoon. Hundreds of miles away in the northern city of Tieling, workers manually cut rubber truck parts in a tiny family workshop that makes about $600 a month. They’re different examples of the same inefficiency hampering China’s rebalancing toward a consumption-led economy and weighing ...

  Bloomberg Singapore is next in line if London loses its status as leading business hub in the world. The Asian island nation ranks behind London as the best global city, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP said in a new study, based on social and economic data published before the U.K. voted to leave the European Union. The Cities of Opportunity Index places ...

  Bloomberg Palm oil inventories in Malaysia probably fell to the lowest since 2011 as demand for the vegetable oil used in everything from instant noodles to detergents surged in countries including India and China. Inventories fell 7.9 percent to 1.63 million metric tons in August from a month earlier, the lowest since March 2011, according to the median of ...