International News

Bloomberg Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Cnooc Ltd. are among 11 companies that will join the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index, while China Railway Construction Corp. will be removed, Hang Seng Indexes Co. said in its quarterly review. The changes will take effect on March 5 and increase the number of constituents on the gauge to 50, the index compiler said ...

Bloomberg South Korea’s spy agency has begun investigating the possibility that North Korean hackers orchestrated the theft of about $500 million worth of digital coins from Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck Inc., said a lawmaker who attended a meeting with the head of the intelligence service. The National Intelligence Service is investigating last month’s incident— one of the largest cryptocurrency heists ...

Bloomberg As the equities selloff spread from Asia to Europe, gold proved its status as a safe haven. The metal added 0.3 percent to $1,343.19 an ounce, extending yesterday’s 0.5 percent advance. FTSE/JSE Africa Gold Mining Index gained 1.7 percent, while silver and platinum also rose. But across other risk markets, screens flashed red as everything from bitcoin to Japanese ...

Bloomberg Cofco International Ltd. has already overtaken some of the world’s oldest agricultural traders to become one of the biggest shippers of soybeans in Brazil, the top exporter. Now, the Chinese food giant is considering acquisitions that would extend its position even further. The company is looking into buying warehouses and other facilities related to logistics deep in Brazil’s agricultural ...

Bloomberg China’s pension shortfall is emerging as the next big challenge for policy makers as they intensify their years-long campaign to keep rising debt from derailing the economy. Aging in the world’s most populous country means pension contributions by workers no longer cover retiree benefits, forcing the government to fill that gap since at least 2014. Pension expenses rose 11.6 ...

Bloomberg Serbia and Montenegro may join the European Union by 2025, the bloc’s executive will say, urging the western Balkan countries to improve the rule of law, curb corruption and put aside past grudges to enter the world’s largest trading club. The EU is offering a path to membership two decades after the bloody breakup of the former Yugoslavia. Along ...

Bloomberg UK Prime Minister Theresa May will announce a series of steps intended to crack down on social media companies for not policing extremist and abusive content on their platforms. May has made attacks on social media for not doing enough to combat extremism a fixture of her speeches in the past two years and she is now getting more ...

Bloomberg Financial services workers will be among the first to be hit by the rise of automation while women will feel the effects earlier than men, according to research by PricewaterhouseCoopers. The report—which analysed more than 200,000 jobs across 29 countries—anticipates three stages of automation between now and the mid-2030s, which will eventually impact almost one third of UK workers. ...

Bloomberg Toyota Motor Corp. predicted a record profit this fiscal year helped in part by President Donald Trump’s tax cuts and surging sales of the updated Camry sedan and RAV4 sport-utility vehicle in the US. A reduction in expenses through cost cuts and a favorable foreign exchange environment is also helping the carmaker lift its annual net income forecast to ...

Bloomberg Apple Inc. is pulling back on buying corporate bonds with its overseas cash as it prepares to bring the money home to the US, according to people with knowledge of the matter. About $157 billion of Apple’s $285 billion in cash, mostly held overseas, is invested in corporate debt, making it a leading lender. The cutback in buying, echoed ...