News

Bloomberg Japan’s export growth slowed again in November, with shipments eking out a tiny gain, as weakening demand in China and trade-war risks cloud the outlook. The value of exports rose 0.1 percent from a year earlier, broadly in line with a median forecast for a 1.2 percent gain, according to the finance ministry. With the exception of a decline ...

Bloomberg China is blowing through regulatory milestones as it completes an astonishing transformation from a market where basic Western drugs were once scarce to one where life-saving treatments are available ahead of the US — all in less than a year. The latest announcement that China has approved an anemia treatment from AstraZeneca Plc and FibroGen Inc. ahead of the ...

Bloomberg The Big Four accounting firms may have to split their operations into separate UK business units as part of a sweeping overhaul of the industry proposed by regulators that stopped short of the measures sought by some critics. The Competition and Markets Authority said audit work should be split from the much larger consulting business at an operational level, ...

Bloomberg The warning signs of 2019 are lighting up for the UK economy as Brexit comes to a head. Retailers are complaining about an abysmal holiday season, house prices are weakening, businesses are holding back investment and the swooning pound is fuelling inflation. With just a few months until the March 29 deadline to exit the world’s biggest trading bloc, ...

Bloomberg General Electric Co (GE) has filed confidentially for an initial public offering of its health-care unit, according to people familiar with the matter, moving ahead with plans to spin off its second most profitable business line. The industrial conglomerate is working with Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Bank of America Corp, Citigroup Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Morgan Stanley ...

Bloomberg Sentiment among US homebuilders fell in December to the lowest level since 2015, missing all forecasts and signaling that the industry’s struggles are intensifying amid elevated prices and higher borrowing costs. The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index dropped to 56 from 60 in the prior month amid broad-based declines across sales, expectations and buyer traffic, ...

Bloomberg German business sentiment deteriorated further to its lowest level in more than two years as trade tensions and the rising risk of a no-deal Brexit threaten to hamper a meaningful economic rebound from a summer lull. The Ifo Institute’s gauge of corporate confidence in Europe’s largest economy fell to 101.0 in December from 102.0 in November. The fourth straight ...

Bloomberg Providers in the UK’s markets for cash savings, mortgages, insurance, mobile phone contracts and broadband are burdening customers with a “loyalty penalty” of around 4 billion pounds ($4.4 billion) a year, the Competition and Markets Authority said. Vulnerable people, including the elderly and those on a low income, may be more at risk of overpaying for key financial services ...

Bloomberg Micron Technology Inc, the largest US maker of computer memory chips, gave a forecast that fell short of analysts’ estimates, adding to concern that a two-year surge in demand for its products is over. The shares declined as much as 9 percent in extended trading. Revenue in the current period will be $5.7 billion to $6.3 billion, the Boise, ...

RIYADH / WAM The Saudi Council of Ministers, chaired by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, has approved the largest budget in the Kingdom’s history with SAR1.106 trillion spending in 2019, approximately 7 percent higher than the projected expenditure by the end of the fiscal year 2018. This came in a session held ...