International News

Bloomberg After spending $120 million on a stake in an online grocer in Norway, SoftBank Group Corp is laying out the business logic of targeting a market that boasts Europe’s highest hourly labour costs. The deal is an example of how countries that pay average workers really well often come up with some of the smartest technology, according to Paul ...

Bloomberg Japanese exports posted a double-digit gain for the first time in more than three years in March, offering another indication that a recovery in global trade is gaining strength. The value of overseas shipments jumped 16.1% from a year ago, for the biggest increase since November 2017, led by exports of cars, plastics, semi-conductors and chip-making equipment, the finance ...

Bloomberg Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, warned for the first time that trade tensions may disrupt its access to key production equipment and hit its operations, amid increasing friction between the US and China. The company, which produces semiconductors for Apple Inc and other major global tech companies, said in its annual report released that ...

Bloomberg The UK economy is building momentum, with real-time indicators suggesting consumers have started to splurge some of the cash they’ve saved now that the government has loosened lockdown rules. Restaurant bookings and job postings surged to the highest since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, while road traffic and the number of people traveling to workplaces grew in recent ...

Bloomberg Swiss billionaire Hansjoerg Wyss will drop out of a group that was bidding for Tribune Publishing Co., according to people familiar with the situation, dealing a setback to a $681 million takeover attempt. Wyss had teamed up with Choice Hotels International Inc. Chairman Stewart Bainum Jr. on the $18.50-a-share offer, which topped a rival bid from hedge fund Alden ...

Bloomberg Sweden’s government wants to spend $104 billion on building and maintaining highways and railroads over the coming 12 years as part of the Nordic nation’s plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045. The proposal adds 176.5 billion kronor to previous vision, making it the country’s biggest ever framework plan for such spending, Infrastructure Minister Tomas Eneroth told journalists. It ...

Bloomberg US consumer sentiment improved in April following another round of fiscal stimulus and as job growth accelerated. At the same time, inflation expectations surged to the highest in nine years. The University of Michigan’s preliminary sentiment index rises to 86.5 from 84.9 in March, data showed. While the figure was softer than the 89 forecast in Bloomberg’s survey of ...

Bloomberg Canada issued new rules to bring down wireless costs, forcing large carriers including BCE Inc. and Rogers Communications Inc. resell access to their networks to smaller players. The decision by the telecommunications regulator makes it easier for regional telecommunications providers such as Quebecor Inc. and Cogeco Communications Inc. to compete on wireless plans with the sector’s three dominant companies ...

Bloomberg Sweden’s biggest online platform for property classifieds, Hemnet Group AB, is targeting a valuation of as much as $1.4 billion when it launches an initial public offering in Stockholm later this month. The IPO price range is expected to be 95 to 115 kronor per ordinary share, equating to a market value for all the listed ordinary shares of ...

Bloomberg The US federal budget deficit more than doubled to a record in the first half of the fiscal year amid a fresh wave of stimulus payments to cushion Americans from the persistent coronavirus pandemic. The deficit last month was $659.6 billion, the third-largest on record and biggest since last June, swelling the total from October to March to $1.71 ...