Bloomberg Canadian retailers ended their strongest year in two decades on a down note, with a disappointing Christmas shopping season pulling back sales in December. Receipts fell 0.8 percent to C$49.6 billion in January of 2017, Statistics Canada reported. It was the biggest monthly decline since March 2016. Economists were expecting no change during the month. For all of 2017, …

Bloomberg US stocks rose for the seventh time in eight days and the dollar’s rally reached a fourth day as strong corporate results bolstered optimism in the economy. Treasuries edged lower as investors await Federal Reserve meeting minutes. The S&P 500 Index jumped as industrial and financial shares paced gains. The index still sits 4.8 percent below its January 26 …

Reuters A wave of buying in beaten down blue-chip stock Emaar Properties boosted the Dubai market on Wednesday while most of the region traded quietly in modest volumes. Dubai’s index firmed by 0.5 percent, but remains the Gulf’s worst-performing index this year with a decline of 2.5 percent, partly because of a sustained slump in the emirate’s real estate market. …