DUBAI / Reuters National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) , the Gulf Arab state’s largest commercial lender, posted a 40 percent rise in fourth-quarter net profit, according to Reuters’ calculations, as the bank continued to benefit from government spending. The bank made a net profit of 75.9 million dinars ($248.9 million) in the three months to Dec. 31, compared with ...

  Bloomberg Equity strategists are yet again predicting that this will finally be the year European profits deliver. This time, it’s Citigroup Inc.’s Jonathan Stubbs forecasting the region’s earnings will jump at least 10 percent to end a three-year dry spell. His bullishness on Europe is reminiscent of early 2015 and 2016, when strategists and investors doubled down on the ...

  Bloomberg China’s central bank added funds to the financial system through open-market operations, after injecting a record amount of cash last week and offering liquidity support to some lenders. The monetary authority added a net 60 billion yuan ($8.7 billion) using 14-day and 28-day reverse-repurchase agreements. There are no contracts maturing. The People’s Bank of China pumped in a ...