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Bloomberg Diversity is making a comeback in US cropland. The declining popularity of corn and soybeans, predicted by the US government, may mean wheat, cotton and other commodities literally regain ground they’ve lost in recent years. The Department of Agriculture estimates the acreage for soybeans may drop 1.3 percent to 89 million acres this year, despite being projected to overtake ...

HONG KONG / Reuters China is taking its first steps towards paying for imported crude oil in yuan instead of the US dollar, three people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters, a key development in Beijing’s efforts to establish its currency internationally. Shifting just part of global oil trade into the yuan is potentially huge. Oil is the world’s ...

Bloomberg Fifty-five years after starting natural gas production from Europe’s biggest field, the Netherlands have signed its death warrant. Output from the Groningen deposit will be cut by two-thirds from the year starting October 2022 and halt by 2030 to ensure the safety of people in the province of the same name after earthquakes linked to extraction, Economy Minister Eric ...

Bloomberg Exxon Mobil Corp., Total SA and Lukoil PJSC are among international companies interested to win rights to develop 11 oil and gas border fields as OPEC’s number two producer continues to build production capacity. Iraq plans to hold a bidding round on April 15 and award service contracts the same day for companies to develop 11 onshore and offshore ...

Bloomberg An upbeat shale patch, much to OPEC’s dismay, is hiring and ready to drill for more oil as producers are comfortably making a profit. But you have to be big if you’re competing in America’s prime spots. The vast majority of explorers surveyed for a Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas report said they could profitably drill a new well ...

Bloomberg SoftBank Group Corp. is edging closer to a deal to buy a stake in Swiss Re AG that would value the reinsurer at as much as $39 billion, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Billionaire Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank is holding talks to buy a 25 percent stake at about 100 Swiss francs to 105 Swiss francs a ...

Bloomberg Ping An Insurance (Group) Co., China’s largest insurer by market value, is starting preparations for an initial public offering of its OneConnect financial management portal that could raise as much as $3 billion, people with knowledge of the matter said. OneConnect picked Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., CCB International Holdings Ltd. and Ping An Securities Co. ...

Bloomberg China’s high-tech industries are among sectors poised to gain from a fresh round of tax cuts, just as US President Donald Trump weighs tariffs to penalise them. The value-added tax on manufacturing will be cut to 16 percent from 17 percent starting on May 1 while the rate on transportation, construction, and telecommunications services will be lowered to 10 ...

Bloomberg Toyota Motor Corp. and Suzuki Motor Corp. agreed to sell each other’s hybrid cars and other vehicles in India, deepening an alliance between the companies. Toyota will supply the Corolla to Suzuki, which in turn will make the Baleno and Vitara Brezza models available for Toyota, the companies said in a statement. The timing and number of supplied units, ...

Bloomberg China will launch a pilot programme aimed at luring innovative companies back to the mainland equity market, loosening listing rules for certain firms and offering its own form of depositary receipts. Companies that meet the following criteria will be eligible for the pilot, the State Council, China’s cabinet, said in a statement posted on its website. Firms that have ...