Bloomberg Merck KGaA plans to invest more than 3 billion euros ($3.5 billion) through 2025 in its electronics business to capitalise on rising demand for semiconductor and display panel materials. The German company will expand production capacity, bolster research and development spending and is also considering bolt-on acquisitions, it said on Monday in a statement. Merck makes materials and technologies ...

Bloomberg Employment declined in 19 states and the District of Columbia in August, while the majority of other states posted modest increases, elucidating the abrupt stepdown in US hiring seen last month. North Carolina, Iowa and Hawaii posted largest declines in employment over the month, according to Labour Department figures on state employment. Meantime, California, Texas and New York — ...

Bloomberg The amount of corporate bonds investors can trade in Europe is shrinking for the first time since 2005. Despite a rush in deals by high-grade non-financial firms, there’s effectively a 21 billion-euro ($25 billion) drop in the investable pool of euro bonds because of calls, buybacks, upcoming redemptions and European Central Bank (ECB) debt purchases, according to Bloomberg calculations. ...