Bloomberg Kering SA rose after the luxury company’s white-hot Gucci brand kept up its relentless growth pace at the start of the year, with online sales more than doubling in the first quarter. The Paris-based company’s shares rose as much as 6.1 percent early Wednesday after it said comparable sales grew 37 percent in first quarter. Analysts had expected a …

Bloomberg Whitbread Plc is betting that its faster-growing Costa Coffee chain will compete more effectively against the likes of Starbucks Corp. once separated from the company’s hotel business. Costa will be spun off from Premier Inn within 24 months, the Dunstable, England-based company said. The planned split follows mounting pressure from activist investors who said the two businesses sit uneasily …

Bloomberg Major US equity indexes followed European and Asian stocks higher as the corporate earnings season gathers pace. Benchmark 10-year Treasury yields pierced the 3 percent level for the first time since 2014, while the dollar retreated from the highest level since January. Corporate earnings remained in focus with 180 S&P 500 firms reporting this week. Alphabet Inc. slipped as …