Bloomberg US hiring likely continued to moderate at the start of the year, though still-solid wage growth, an unemployment rate near historical lows and high vacancies are seen stiffening the Federal Reserve’s resolve to keep rates elevated for some time. Friday’s jobs report is expected to show payrolls rose by 190,000 in January. Economists also estimate that average hourly ...

  Bloomberg The Royal Mail Pension Plan is handing BlackRock Inc. an £8.8 billion ($10.9 billion) mandate to be its outsourced chief investment officer. The world’s largest asset manager will lend its trading capabilities and technology to the pension plan, while using staff from the in-house investment team, according to a statement on Thursday. The plan pays for the retirements ...

Bloomberg The US is launching a new initiative to identify and invest in climate adaptation for Africa’s most nutritious crops in a bid to deal with growing hunger on the continent. The program, announced by the US State Department together with the United Nations’s Food and Agriculture Organization and the African Union on Wednesday, will seek to identify crops in ...

  Bloomberg KKR & Co. has made a non-binding bid for a stake in Telecom Italia SpA’s multi-billion-euro network, the Italian carrier said on Thursday, as Chief Executive Officer Pietro Labriola seeks to turn the business around. The shares gained as much as 14% in Milan on Thursday following the announcement of the bid. Telecom Italia has struggled under a ...

  Bloomberg Brookfield Infrastructure Partners LP’s $15 billion commitment last year to help finance Intel Corp.’s giant new semiconductor complex in Arizona, the first deal of its kind, sent investors and bankers racing to find similar opportunities. Brookfield, a major infrastructure investor, put up $2 billion in equity and borrowed $13 billion from a mix of foreign banks, pension funds ...

Bloomberg North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said the door remains shut for talks with the US on winding down its atomic arsenal, setting the stage for renewed provocations by pledging to respond to what it saw as threats from Washington. “The DPRK is not interested in any contact or dialogue with the US as long as it pursues its hostile policy ...

  Bloomberg UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his Australian counterpart, Anthony Albanese, are planning to go to Washington DC in mid-March potentially to unveil a proposal for Australia’s nuclear submarine project, according to a person familiar with the matter. President Joe Biden will host the British and Australian leaders, and the allies are expected to announce their preferred design ...

Bloomberg The US secured access to more Philippine military bases, clearing the way for a greater American presence in the Asia-Pacific region as tensions with China over Taiwan and the South China Sea persist. The announcement Thursday of a plan to designate four new locations in “strategic areas” where the US will have expanded access didn’t mention China. Instead, it ...

  Bloomberg Japan’s financial regulator is urging regional banks to raise wages for employees, people familiar with the matter said, responding to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s call for higher pay with inflation hitting its highest level since 1981. Officials at the nation’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) are telling regional banks — which number around 100 — that it’s important to ...

  Bloomberg Credit Suisse Group AG is weighing a plan to carve up its investment bank in China by retaining a domestic unit and shifting the overseas operation to the new CS First Boston division. The securities and wealth businesses in mainland China is likely to be kept under the Swiss lender, while Hong Kong staff focusing on offshore deals ...