Bloomberg Hong Kong is starting futures contracts that make it easier for international investors to bet on mainland Chinese stocks, intensifying rivalry between the city’s bourse and its Singapore counterpart. Analysts expect that the new product, which launches on Monday, from Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd could take several years to gain traction, but that it will ultimately provide …

Bloomberg Stocks in the Middle East picked up on the rally across global markets as oil’s gains through $85 a barrel emboldened investors. “GCC markets are taking cues from the positive performance in global equity markets,” said Junaid Ansari, head of investment strategy and research at Kamco Invest. “Moreover, oil is now trading at close to eight-year high levels. This …

Bloomberg The global energy crisis is bleeding into the oil market. Brent crude surged as high as $85.10 a barrel, a price that would have seemed unthinkable just 18 months ago, when Covid halted global mobility and trashed demand. An underlying recovery in consumption — driven by road-fuel, freight activity, and latterly air travel — is now being fired by …

NEW YORK / WAM The United Nations has condemned the deadly suicide bombing during Friday prayers at a mosque in the city of Kandahar, in southern Afghanistan, which killed at least 30 people and wounded dozens more. UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the attack in the strongest terms, describing it as “despicable”, said a statement. “The perpetrators of this latest …

Bloomberg A former Boeing Co pilot was charged with deceiving US aviation regulators in the first prosecution related to two fatal 737 Max accidents that plunged the aviation titan into crisis. Mark Forkner, a former chief technical pilot for the company, was indicted on charges that he deceived the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Aircraft Evaluation Group during the agency’s evaluation …

Bloomberg Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc is pushing the start of commercial flights further into next year after rescheduling a test flight, disappointing investors with the unexpected delay to its space tourism business plans. A program to upgrade the company’s spaceplane is taking place a month later than anticipated, forcing the delay of a planned research mission with a crew of …

Bloomberg United Airlines Holdings Inc is planning its largest expansion into Europe, anticipating a surge of pent-up demand following two years of weak bookings because of the coronavirus pandemic. The significant trans-Atlantic capacity increase reflects the airline’s expectation that next summer will deliver record traffic. Flights essentially shut down industrywide in 2020 and capacity was limited last year because of …

Bloomberg John Lewis Partnership Plc’s loss narrowed in the first half as the British retailer’s turnaround efforts started to pay off. The operator of the John Lewis department store and upmarket grocer Waitrose said the 29 million-pound ($40 million) pretax loss came after taking almost 100 million pounds of exceptional costs related to store closures and redundancy payments. This is …

Bloomberg Bank of America Corp (BofA) beat analysts’ earnings estimates as fees climbed at the company’s dealmaking unit, boosted by a record-breaking period for mergers and acquisitions. Investment-banking advisory fees rises 65% to a record $654 million in the third quarter as a combination of cheap financing for buyers and attractive valuations for sellers spurred a wave of takeovers. Overall …

Bloomberg China’s inflation risks are “controllable” and while rising costs may hurt small businesses, authorities have increased support for those types of firms, central bank officials said. Sun Guofeng, head of the monetary policy department, said at the briefing in Beijing on Friday that producer price inflation will remain elevated in the short term before falling toward the end of …