Stocks

  Bloomberg Rice is fast becoming West Africa’s preferred food. After four decades of importing the staple, the region now aims to grow enough rice to meet domestic demand. Rice harvests in West Africa will probably reach an all-time high of 14.9 million metric tons this year, up from 14.6 million tons last year, when Senegal and Ghana produced record …

  BLOOMBERG Increasing odds of a U.K. exit from the European Union boosted demand for havens, sending Germany’s 10-year bond yields below zero for the first time. Stocks fell and the pound slumped to a two-month low. Treasuries also jumped and yields fell to records in Australia and Japan after four polls showed the campaign to take the U.K. out …

  Bloomberg A supply crunch in cocoa that’s boosted prices will last until year-end, when production may rebound in West Africa, according to Sucres et Denrees SA. The worst desert winds in three decades that reduced the quality of cocoa in West Africa means some beans won’t be processed this season, making an expected shortage of 280,000 metric tons appear …

  Bloomberg Big Internet and software deals are rare. That may change in 2016. Microsoft Corp.’s $26.2 billion deal for LinkedIn Corp. could trigger other large-cap M&A for business software and Internet companies. NetSuite Inc. and Ultimate Software Group Inc. could both be targeted by companies including SAP SE, IBM Corp. and Oracle Corp. that want to strengthen their cloud-computing …

  BLOOMBERG Growing anxiety over the prospect of the U.K. exiting the European Union dominated financial markets, sending global stocks down for a third day and the British pound to an eight-week low while boosting demand for havens such as the yen and gold. In Europe, equities headed for the lowest close since February and the pound weakened against most …

  Bloomberg The oil market just hit a yellow light. Crude’s advance of more than 90 percent from a 12-year low earlier this year has U.S. shale producers starting to return to their drilling rigs, threatening to slow further gains. “The $50-to-$60 a barrel area is the sweet spot,” said Mark Watkins, the Park City, Utah-based regional investment manager for …

  Bloomberg Five years ago, when Eric Ries was working on the book that would become his best-selling entrepreneurship manifesto “The Lean Startup,” he floated a provocative idea in the epilogue: Someone should build a new, “long-term” stock exchange. Its reforms, he wrote, would amend the frantic quarterly cycle to encourage investors and companies to make better decisions for the …

  Bloomberg Itau Corpbanca is the Latin American lender that offers investors the juiciest potential returns, equity analysts say. It’s also the worst performer in the region as investors ignore buy recommendations and wait for a recovery in its earnings. Itau Corpbanca’s 12-month average target price is 31 percent above the current price, the largest difference among 27 Latin American …

  Dubai / Emirates Business England’s early elimination from the Euros 2016 could wipe £6 billion off the stock market in a single day, a finance expert from London Business School has warned. Alex Edmans, Professor of Finance, London Business School, on Sunday said the effect of football results on national mood is so strong that it can spill over …

  Bloomberg Arriving late to the mining boom helped Peru defy a global freeze on project spending as prices plunged. Now the pipeline’s drying up, and the country’s chances of joining neighboring Chile as a copper superpower depend largely on the next president’s affinity with remote communities. For Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, who secured the majority of votes in presidential election, …