London / AFP China’s biggest bank ICBC has become the country’s first lender to buy a precious metals vault in Britain, cementing its role as a major player in the gold market. ICBC has bought the London vault, used to store also silver, platinum and palladium, from British bank Barclays, which is exiting the precious metals business as it looks …

AP Builders ramped up construction of new homes in April, suggesting that the market remains solid despite sluggish economic growth at the beginning of the year. Housing starts climbed 6.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.17 million units, the Commerce Department said. The increase makes up for much of March’s 9.4 percent drop in starts, a decline …

  Bloomberg The biotechnology industry’s growth is providing the chance to attain attractive returns on commercial property in markets from Boston to Munich to Shanghai, according to Taimur Hyat, chief strategy officer for PGIM, Prudential Financial Inc.’s $1 trillion asset-management arm. “Biotech is causing a revolutionary change in the type of real estate opportunities we are seeing,” he said in …