Ottawa / Bloomberg Canadian stocks rose, joining a rally in global markets as growing optimism on European stimulus overshadowed a surprise increase in Canada’s jobless rate. The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 1.1 percent to 13,522 in Toronto, to the highest since December 1 while capping a second weekly increase. The resurgent S&P/TSX is one of the best-performing developed ...

Bloomberg Blackstone Group LP agreed to sell Strategic Hotels & Resorts Inc. to China’s Anbang Insurance Group Co. for about $6.5 billion, just three months after it purchased the U.S. luxury-resort company, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The price is about $450 million more than Blackstone paid for Strategic in December. The New York-based private equity firm ...

Bloomberg Wellington real estate agent Gareth Robins says he’s taken more calls from Auckland investors in the past six months than he has in the past six years. With the housing boom in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, showing signs of coming to an end, investors there are looking further afield, and they have more buying power than owners in ...