News

  Beijing / AP China’s largest private property developer, the Wanda Group, opened an entertainment complex on Saturday that it’s positioning as a distinctly homegrown rival to Disney and its $5.5 billion Shanghai theme park opening next month. Wanda executives unveiled their $3 billion “Wanda City” in the southeastern provincial capital of Nanchang to thundering music reminiscent of the “Pirates of ...

  Paris / AFP The French government maintained a hard line on Saturday ahead of a fresh wave of protest over a bitterly-disputed labour law that has seen demonstrators blockading oil refineries and strikes paralysing the transport network. The escalating unrest, which has gathered pace over the last week sparking petrol shortages that forced the government to dip into strategic ...

Bloomberg Germany’s plan to place lignite-burning power plants into a reserve from later this year may cut demand in Europe’s carbon market, according to a former government official. The €1.6 billion ($1.8 billion) coal reserve may reduce demand for carbon allowances because it would lower total emissions and trim the need for utilities buying permits in advance, Franzjosef Schafhausen, a ...

MADRID / AP Spanish police say they have arrested seven people suspected of involvement in stealing five paintings by the Irish-born painter Francis Bacon worth €25 million ($27.8 million). The artworks’ owner reported the robbery of the paintings and other valuables to the police in July, and none of the painting has yet been recovered. Investigators in February received information ...

  Bloomberg A selloff in German government bonds has proved short-lived, with benchmark 10-year securities set for their first monthly gain since February, even as the Federal Reserve has adopted a more hawkish tone on the outlook for U.S. interest rates. Data next week will go a long way to showing why the divergence trade is far from finished. While ...

  Bloomberg The pound is gathering supporters. One month ago, the U.K. currency was seen ending June at $1.42, according to the median of analyst estimates in a Bloomberg survey. That forecast has now risen to $1.45, the highest in almost four months, even as the crucial June 23 vote that will decide the fate of Britain’s membership in the ...

  BARCELONA / AP With sunny days getting longer and lazier, sparkling beaches warming up and terrorism fears driving customers away from other Mediterranean destinations, Spain and Portugal are reaping an economic bonanza from tourism. While most in the cash-strapped nations are welcoming the influx, some locals have been exasperated by the crowds of tourists. In the first two months of ...

  Bloomberg   Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen threw her support behind a growing consensus at the central bank in favor of another interest rate increase soon, while steering clear of specifying the timing of such a move. “It’s appropriate — and I’ve said this in the past — for the Fed to gradually and cautiously increase our overnight interest ...

  Bloomberg Treasuries traders who delayed holiday getaway plans on Friday took away a clear message from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen — a mid-year interest-rate hike may be on the way. Yellen’s remark that the Fed will raise rates “probably in the coming months” drove benchmark two-year note yields higher for a third consecutive week. The comments at an ...

  Bloomberg Argentine President Mauricio Macri announced an amnesty on an estimated $500 billion of unregistered funds stashed abroad to pay pensioners and help fund a multi-billion dollar infrastructure program. The funds will pay a tax of zero percent to 15 percent depending on the amount and when they are brought back into the country, the government said in a ...