Washington / Bloomberg It’s Valentine’s Day today, and Americans will buy $1.1 billion of confectionery to mark the occasion, according to data from the Washington-based National Confectioners Association. That’s up 2.6 percent from last year and the most since at least 2011. About three-quarters of that will be chocolate. The volume of US retail chocolate sales is expected to drop …

Bloomberg Trading volumes in the credit-default swaps market — where banks and fund managers go to hedge against losses on corporate and government debt — have surged. Transactions tied to individual entities doubled in the four weeks ended Feb. 5 to a daily average of $12 billion, according to a JPMorgan Chase & Co. analysis of trade repository data. The …

Dubai / Emirates Business Emirates NBD , has been awarded the Human Resource Development Award in the banking and financial sector by EIBFS (Emirates Institute of Banking and Financial Studies) in recognition of its commitment to Emiratisation. The award was presented by H.H. Dr. Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi to Husam Al Sayed General Manager HR, Emirates NBD. This …