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Bloomberg OPEC member Algeria is looking to boost spending outlined in its 2018 budget by 6 percent, capitalizing on high oil prices ahead of presidential elections next year. A proposed amendment to the 2018 budget law would raise spending to almost 9.13 trillion dinars ($79 billion). The additional funds would be directed to the investment budget, which will rise 12 ...

Bloomberg There’s no other company on Earth quite like Ant Financial. Spanning online payments, insurance, lending, credit scores, asset management and more, Jack Ma’s Chinese behemoth resembles a mashup of PayPal, Geico, Wells Fargo and Equifax — with a bit of BlackRock thrown in for good measure. Thanks to clever mobile apps and a burgeoning Chinese middle class, Ant oversees ...

Bloomberg Investors couldn’t get enough of Ping An Healthcare & Technology Co.’s initial public offering. Now they can’t get out fast enough. The company, also known as Good Doctor, fell as much as 11 percent to trade below the low end of the range offered to investors in the share sale, before paring losses to 3.3 percent at 10:33 a.m. ...

Bloomberg Vinhomes JSC, the luxury residential arm of Vietnam’s biggest developer, is poised to price its $1.35 billion initial equity offering at the top end of a marketed range, people with knowledge of the matter said. Existing Vinhomes investors plan to sell shares at 114,700 dong apiece in the offering, the people said, asking not to be identified because the ...

Bloomberg BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s biggest miner, forecasts reforms in China’s steel sector will continue to hand an advantage to suppliers of higher-quality iron ore and coking coal as consumption of the alloy keeps growing well into the next decade. Steel mills are likely to retain about two-thirds of the improvements in margins seen since a push began in ...

Bloomberg China tried to strike a positive tone after Donald Trump’s trade negotiators left Beijing with no public sign of an agreement, reiterating that the US shouldn’t make unreasonable demands. State media over the weekend offered a somewhat positive assessment of the US trade talks, urging more negotiations while saying the Americans should be “rational and pragmatic.” And in a ...

Bloomberg Not long after US authorities filed sealed charges against Volkswagen AG’s old chief executive officer, they granted the new CEO a rare safe-passage deal. The Justice Department agreement allows Herbert Diess, promoted last month to lead the German automaker, to travel the world freely without fear of being arrested in connection with the US’s diesel-rigging investigation, according to two ...

Bloomberg Once again, the pound’s fortunes lie with the Bank of England. Traders will scrutinise the central bank’s policy decision on Thursday for any signs that an interest-rate hike this year is still in the cards. A lot of bad news has already been baked into the UK currency and a “relatively hawkish hold” from the BOE could push it ...

Bloomberg German factory orders unexpectedly dropped in March and February was revised lower, confirming a weak start to the year in Europe’s largest economy and raising concern over the strength of the euro-area growth. Orders slid 0.9 percent, compared with a median estimate for a 0.5 percent increase in a Bloomberg survey. With February’s figure revised to minus 0.2 percent ...

Bloomberg Warren Buffett boosting his stake in Apple Inc. has pundits predicting it is poised to hit $1 trillion in market value. But the iPhone maker isn’t the first to tread that lofty path. PetroChina Co. crossed the milestone back in November 2007, when its mainland shares almost tripled in value in their Shanghai trading debut. But the state-controlled energy ...