Bloomberg China’s central bank pledged more financial support for small and micro businesses while saying it plans to stick to a prudent monetary policy stance this year. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) will improve the incentive mechanism for lending to such companies, it said in a statement following a two-day work conference in Beijing. Authorities will make it easier …

Bloomberg There’s no end of theories on all the ways in which negative interest rates are hurting economies. But in Denmark, where the policy has existed longer than anywhere else, one fear seems to have been put to rest. The central bank in Copenhagen, which uses negative rates to keep the krone pegged to the euro, says its research shows …

Bloomberg The US assassination of one of Iran’s most powerful generals has the oil industry bracing for something it has long feared and anticipated — direct military confrontation between the two adversaries. In the hours after President Donald Trump ordered the killing at Baghdad airport of Qassem Soleimani, who led Iran’s Quds force, crude oil surged, American workers began to …