Bloomberg Schlumberger Ltd. will reduce activity in Venezuela after the world’s largest oil services provider failed to collect enough payments from the national oil company. The reduction will take place this month in close coordination with all customers in Venezuela to continue servicing those with available cash flow, the Houston- and Paris-based contractor said in a statement Tuesday. Venezuela, ...

AP Businesses reduced their stockpiles for a second straight month in February, while sales fell for a seventh month. Business inventories dropped 0.1 percent, matching the decline in January, the Commerce Department reported on Wednesday. Sales fell 0.4 percent in February after an even bigger 0.8 percent decline in January. Sales have been heading south since August. The weakness in ...

  Bloomberg A record $8 billion intervention by Brazil’s central bank couldn’t keep the real from climbing to the highest level since August amid bets that president Dilma Rousseff will be impeached. The central bank sold 160,000 foreign-exchange reverse swaps in five different auctions Tuesday, moves that are equivalent to buying dollars in the futures market. It was the biggest ...