International News

  Bloomberg Fewer Americans than forecast filed applications for unemployment benefits last week, indicating the US job market remains healthy. Jobless claims fell by 4,000 to 262,000 in the week ended Aug. 13, the smallest level in a month, a Labor Department report showed Thursday in Washington. The median forecast of 42 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for 265,000. Low ...

  New York / AFP Wal-Mart Stores reported higher second-quarter earnings and lifted its profit forecast on Thursday after notching higher sales in the US. Earnings for the quarter ending July 31 were $3.8 billion, up 8.6 percent from the year-ago period. Sales were up 0.5 percent at $120.9 billion. Wal-Mart scored higher comparable sales and customer traffic in the ...

  Manila / Bloomberg The Philippines economy grew faster than economists predicted last quarter, giving a boost to new President Rodrigo Duterte as he seeks to attract more investment and speed up infrastructure spending. Gross domestic product increased 7 percent in the three months through June from a year earlier, the fastest pace since the same period in 2013, the ...

  Tokyo / AFP India’s soybean output may rebound from an 11-year low as ample rain and sunshine boosts crop development, according to the Soybean Processors Association of India. Production may top the 6.93 million metric tons harvested in 2015-16 if current favorable weather continues next month, Chairman Davish Jain said by phone from Indore. That was the smallest crop ...

  Jakarta / Bloomberg Palm oil shipments from Indonesia, the world’s largest grower, probably rose to the highest level in three months in July after buyers from China to India boosted purchases. Exports of palm and kernel oils climbed 6.7 percent to 1.9 million metric tons, according to the median of seven estimates from analysts and plantation executives compiled by ...

  Beijing / Bloomberg China is adding new instruments to its economic dashboard that will incorporate big data to help better track innovation and entrepreneurship in the new economy. Three indicators tracking innovation, entrepreneurship and the new economy are rolling out this year to gauge output in those fast-moving, category-bending and hard-to-measure sectors. All three will be distilled partly from ...

  Bloomberg Britain’s labor market isn’t cracking under the weight of Brexit yet. Companies added 172,000 jobs in the second quarter and the unemployment rate held at 4.9 percent, showing resilience in the buildup to the June 23 referendum when the UK decided to quit the European Union. While the data available for July—after the vote—are more volatile, they show ...

  Moscow / AFP The Russian government has unexpectedly halted the sale of its stake in oil producer Bashneft planned as part of a privatisation drive to shore up dwindling financial reserves, reports said Wednesday. The decision to postpone the sale indefinitely, reportedly taken by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and agreed with President Vladimir Putin, came after the economy ministry ...

  Bloomberg Poland’s law restricting the proximity of turbines near homes is bringing the wind-energy industry to a standstill, according to environmental researchers. At stake are more than 500 million zloty ($131.4 million) spent by investors to date on developing wind projects, according to a survey published on the website of Ambiens sp. z o.o. Environmental consultants last month polled ...

  Portugal / Bloomberg Portugal’s government bonds fell for a second day amid speculation that ratings company DBRS Ltd. may downgrade the nation’s sovereign debt. The country’s 10-year bond yield rose to the highest in more than two weeks. DBRS’s rating of BBB (low) leaves it the only major company to rank Portugal’s debt as investment grade. That’s essential for ...