Bloomberg Next Plc shares rose after surprisingly robust Christmas retail figures cheered investors who were fearing the worst after months of gloom in the sector. Strong sales in the weeks before the holiday helped make up for disappointing results in November, the UK clothing retailer said, a result that was better than some analysts anticipated. At the same time, the …

Bloomberg European natural gas prices look set to fall for the first time in four years in 2019 as buyers keep a close eye on flows from Russia that reached a record last year. With a healthy amount of fuel in storage after a mild start to this winter, the outlook is bearish. That’s being exacerbated by an expected increase …

Bloomberg Venezuela, once Latin America’s largest oil exporter, ended 2018 with a whimper as overseas sales dropped to the lowest in nearly three decades. Home to the world’s biggest crude reserves, the country exported 1.245 million barrels a day last year, the lowest since 1990, as production tumbles amid an economic and humanitarian crisis. Financial sanctions imposed by the US …