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  Bloomberg Economic momentum in France accelerated to the strongest in more than five years in January, data by IHS Markit show. A Purchasing Managers’ Index for manufacturing and services rose to 53.8 from 53.1 in December, the London-based company said in a statement on Tuesday. That’s above the 53.2 median estimate in a Bloomberg survey and the highest since ...

  Bloomberg De Beers had its biggest diamond sale in at least a year as the gem industry restocked after the key holiday period. The company, owned by Anglo American Plc, sold $720 million of diamonds in its first sale of the year, compared with $545 million at last year’s January offering, it said in a statement. The world’s biggest ...

  Bloomberg UK offshore wind power is on target to become the cheapest source of large-scale clean energy, surpassing the government-mandated price target four years early. The levelized cost of energy for offshore wind — a benchmark measuring affordability over the lifetime of generation assets — dropped below 100 pounds a megawatt-hour in 2016, according to a report by UK’s ...

Bloomberg Uber Technologies Inc. is asking a California judge to grant a stamp of approval on what it says is the first decision by an arbitrator denying a driver’s bid to be treated as an employee instead of an independent contractor. It could be the first of many such rulings after a federal appeals court’s decision last year that most ...

  Bloomberg Rio Tinto Group agreed to sell its thermal coal assets in Australia’s Hunter Valley for as much as $2.45 billion as the world’s second-biggest mining company accelerates its move away from the fuel. Rio will sell its Coal & Allied Industries Ltd. subsidiary to Yancoal Australia Ltd., controlled by China’s Yanzhou Coal Mining Co., it said in a ...

  Bloomberg A revival in India’s steel consumption from the weakest estimated growth in at least four years hinges on the government boosting spending on infrastructure, housing and road projects to absorb record output. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will announce February 1 higher outlays for national highways, rural roads, railways and low-cost housing, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. predicted in a ...

  Bloomberg China’s central government plans steps that will reduce the influence local governments have on economic statistics, according to a person familiar with the matter. The National Bureau of Statistics will move its teams out of joint offices they share with regional counterparts around the country and shift into separate facilities, said the person, who asked not to be ...

  Bloomberg Gold consumption in India won’t return to normal levels until 2018, delaying a forecast recovery from a seven-year low, as a liquidity squeeze tightens spending this year in the world’s largest consumer after China, according to the World Gold Council. This year “has a lot of uncertainties,” P.R. Somasundaram, managing director for the council in India, said by ...

  Bloomberg Samsung Electronics Co.’s profit more than doubled in the last three months of 2016 on robust semiconductor sales and a recovery in its mobile business, giving it enough stamina to buy back 9.3 trillion won ($8 billion) of its own shares. Net income rose to 6.92 trillion won in the December quarter, largely buoyed by rising prices for ...

  SYDNEY/ AP US President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, as promised, is prompting other member countries to seek ways to salvage the trade pact. Leaders of some of the 11 other nations involved in the initiative said they hope to push ahead with the agreement in some form, with or without the US. Australian ...