Bloomberg Google and Facebook Inc. are nearing agreements to pay domestic media companies for news, in a sign a regulatory standoff may be softening, Australia’s government said Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg held talks with Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg and Google counterpart Sundar Pichai over the weekend. “We’re very close to some very significant commercial deals,” Frydenberg told the ...

Bloomberg Norway’s economy grew much faster than expected at the end of last year, underpinning bets that its central bank will be the first in the rich world to raise interest rates this year. Mainland gross domestic product, which adjusts for Norway’s offshore industry, expanded 1.9% in the fourth quarter, the statistics office said. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had expected ...

Bloomberg US consumer sentiment unexpectedly declined to a six-month low in early February as outlook for personal income deteriorated and more Americans anticipated faster inflation in the year ahead. The University of Michigan’s preliminary sentiment index falls to 76.2 from 79 last month, data showed. The median forecast in Bloomberg’s survey of economists called for a modest improvement to 80.9 ...