News

Bloomberg Jobs in the Texas oil patch dropped for the first time in almost two years, according to the state’s workforce commission. The number of workers handling exploration and drilling duties fell by 500 to 247,700 in November 2018 compared with the previous month, according to the latest data from the Texas Workforce Commission. Snapping a streak of 23 months ...

Bloomberg Brent crude surged to its best weekly gain in more than two years, as encouraging economic news out of the US helped oil markets turn the page on 2018’s price collapse. The global benchmark closed higher, ending the week up 9.3 percent for its best showing since December 2016. Oil rallied alongside the US stock market following a strong ...

Bloomberg India’s economy grew at a faster pace than most major nations in 2018, and this year, it’s poised to overtake the UK to become the world’s fifth-biggest. But that journey won’t be smooth. The outcome of a general election due by May is a potential pitfall for a nation already battered by emerging market turmoil and a currency rout ...

Bloomberg Nissan Motor Co.’s former chairman Carlos Ghosn, indicted on suspicion of violating Japan’s financial reporting laws, will mount a “vigorous defense” at his first hearing on Monday, his son, Anthony, told France’s Journal Du Dimanche in an interview. Carlos Ghosn will attend a hearing of the Tokyo district court on Monday after his legal team requested an explanation of ...

Bloomberg Xiaomi Corp. bought a stake in Chinese home-appliance maker TCL Corp as the two companies agreed to cooperate on the development of smart products and electronic devices. Xiaomi bought 65.2 million shares, or 0.48 percent, of TCL from the secondary market as of January 4, Guangdong-based TCL said in a statement to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on Sunday. TCL ...

Bloomberg Japan will consider countermeasures to protect Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. assets from seizure in South Korea sought in response to a wartime forced-labour complaint, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said. It’s “very regrettable that former workers from the Korean Peninsula are taking action for seizing the assets,” Abe told national broadcaster NHK’s “Sunday Debate” programme, adding that he ...

Bloomberg India needs to resume subsidies on imported natural gas to help revive power plants that have been stranded for want of fuel and could turn into bad assets for banks, according to a lawmakers’ report. The federal government should supply the gas at lower than market rates by utilising funds from the so-called Power System Development Fund or from ...

Bloomberg Big US companies are paying higher risk premiums when they borrow and finding less demand for their bonds, a sign that investors are worried about rising wages and slow- ing economic growth hitting corporate profit growth. Companies are responding by borrowing less: they sold around $8 billion of US investment-grade debt last month, about a seventh of the average ...

Bloomberg Just as the pharmaceutical industry’s biggest conference of the year is set to get under way, President Donald Trump took to Twitter to complain that drugmakers aren’t “living up to their commitments on pricing.” Despite talk about halting increases and lowering the price on some treatments, pharmaceutical companies on January 1 returned to the practice of regular price hikes ...

Bloomberg UK mortgage approvals dipped to a seven-month low in November and unsecured credit rose at its slowest annual pace for almost four years, the Bank of England (BOE) said. The figures reflect weakening consumer confidence as fears mount that Britain could crash out of the European Union without a deal. House prices rose the least since 2013 last year, ...