News

  Bloomberg China is throwing the world’s leaders a party, and oil bulls may be hit with the hangover. Authorities in the Asian nation have ordered hundreds of factories to curb activity ahead of the Group of 20 summit in Hangzhou in early September, in a bid to ensure blue skies when the red carpet is rolled out. The curtailments, ...

  Bloomberg BlueScope Steel Ltd., Australia’s top steel producer, surged to a five-year high after the company doubled profits, helped by cost cuts and higher revenues. While prices and margins are poised to drop a bit, they’ll still be better on average than levels seen during the past 12 months, Chief Executive Officer Paul O’Malley said in an interview with ...

  Bloomberg Japan is struggling to keep its farms running as farmers age and young people shun the work. This has opened the door for more foreign workers — including a growing number found to be working illegally. The number of Japanese farmers has dropped by about half since 2000, to below 2 million this year, according to the agriculture ...

  Bloomberg Indian refiners that have benefited from the scrapping of fuel subsidies still have room to extend their world-beating surge on improving margins and cheap valuations, according to SBI Life Insurance Co. The rally still hasn’t caught up with fundamentals, said Gopikrishna Shenoy, chief investment officer at SBI Life, India’s second-biggest private insurer by assets under management. Indian Oil ...

  Brussels / AFP Eurozone economic activity edged higher in August with few signs that Brexit-linked dangers were yet hurting the European economy, a closely watched survey showed Tuesday. Data monitoring company Markit said the eurozone economy maintained its resilience despite Britain’s shock vote to leave the EU, with a strong showing from France as well as powerhouse Germany. Markit ...

  Bloomberg Brexit will hit the Scottish economy and cut the semi-autonomous government’s tax revenue by as much as 13 percent by 2030, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s administration said. Depending on the post-Brexit trading arrangement adopted by the U.K. government with the remaining 27 European Union nations, Scottish gross domestic product could be as much as 11.2 billion pounds ($14.8 ...

San Francisco / AFP Microsoft apps such as Office and Skype will be installed on Lenovo mobile devices powered by Android software under the terms of a collaboration announced late Monday. The US technology giant and the Chinese computer titan said they were “deepening their strategic relationship” with a move that could add to the ranks of people using Microsoft ...

  Bloomberg Cancer drugmaker Medivation gained nearly 20 percent after the announcement it would be bought by Pfizer, but Wall Street stocks were otherwise generally flat. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 0.1 percent at 18,529.42 while the S&P 500 fell less than 0.1 percent to 2,182.64. The tech-heavy Nasdaq, where Medivation is listed, rose 0.1 percent 5,244.60 Chris ...

  Frankfurt / AFP Volkswagen AG negotiated through the night to reach an agreement with a rebellious supplier, ending a six-day standoff that halted production of Golf and Passat cars after the parts maker refused to deliver seat and transmission components. Prevent Group will restart deliveries as soon as possible, and Volkswagen’s factories affected will gradually return to normal production, ...

  Bloomberg Oil extended its biggest loss in three weeks before the release of US crude inventory data on Wednesday, while Goldman Sachs Group Inc. cautioned that any OPEC deal to freeze output may only deepen the global oversupply. October futures fell as much as 1.7 percent in New York after declining for the first time in eight days on ...