Bloomberg S&P Global Ratings cut the credit rating of Berkshire Hathaway Energy’s 550-megawatt Topaz Solar Farms to junk, noting that the plant counts on embattled utility giant PG&E Corp for all of its revenue. S&P lowered ratings on Topaz Solar by five notches to ‘B’ from ‘BBB-’ and maintained the ratings on CreditWatch, meaning it may make further cuts. In …

Bloomberg Citigroup Inc offered some hope that the worst is over for its bond-trading business after the toughest quarter for that unit in seven years. The lender’s shares jumped almost 4 percent, the most in the S&P 500 Index, after Chief Financial Officer John Gerspach said the trading environment was starting to improve this month. The brighter outlook came after …

Bloomberg Big investment banks scored a victory in their campaign to soften global rules, as regulators reduced the capital hit from new trading-book standards by nearly half. The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision said its final market-risk standards will drive up banks’ trading-book capital requirements by a weighted average of about 22 percent from current levels. That’s down from the …

Bloomberg Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Richard Clarida left open the possibility the US central bank will raise interest rates in 2019 fewer than the two times projected by policy makers at their last meeting. “A lot has really happened since the first week of December,” Clarida said in an interview on Fox Business Network. “Some of the global growth data …

Bloomberg The European Investment Bank (EIB) is being sued in the region’s second-highest court over a Spanish loan that climate lawyers contend will damage the environment. The suit is being brought by the not-for-profit environmental advocacy group ClientEarth, which wants European Union judges to determine whether the EIB breached its own renewable energy-financing criteria. The London-based group said it’s the …

Bloomberg India’s headline inflation edging towards the lower-end of the central bank’s target band has opened the door to interest-rate cuts in coming months. While rate swaps show investors are pricing no change in the benchmark repurchase rate for the next 12 months, the Reserve Bank of India may be forced to jettison its hawkish stance adopted five months ago …

Bloomberg Central banks enter the new year under pressure from investors to rethink just how aggressive they can be hiking interest rates. A slowdown in the world economy, the trade war and skittish financial markets are forcing policy makers including Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to express fresh caution about their scope for tightening monetary policy. The People’s Bank of …

ABU DHABI / WAM Mohammed bin Ahmed Al Bowardi, Minister of State for Defence Affairs, on Monday met with Christopher Pyne, Australian Minister for Defence. During the meeting, Al Bowardi hailed the distinguished relations between the UAE and Australia which are witnessing progress in all sectors. The two sides also discussed a number of issues of mutual interest and ways …

Bloomberg Etihad Airways PJSC has agreed to lead a rescue of cash-strapped Jet Airways India Ltd in a move that will see the Abu Dhabi-based carrier double its stake to 49 percent, according to television reports. Etihad is in talks to lift its holding from the current 24 percent, India’s BTVI channel reported, citing unidentified people familiar with matter. CNBC-TV18 …

Bloomberg Output cuts in oil-rich Alberta and Saudi Arabia are combining to leave heavy-crude refiners from the Gulf of Mexico to Asia in a bind. While curtailments in the Canadian province have propelled local prices to their strongest level in almost a decade, other grades like Arab Heavy and Heavy Louisiana Sweet are also surging. The Saudis are expected to …