Bloomberg Boeing Co. directors authorised a record $20 billion share buyback programme and boosted the company’s dividend 20 percent — a sign the planemaker doesn’t intend to stop showering cash on investors any time soon. The company’s share price has more than doubled since it embarked on a strategy of rewarding shareholders as production of the marquee 787 Dreamliner stabilised …

Bloomberg Ceconomy AG, Europe’s biggest consumer-electronics retailer, eliminated its dividend and warned that earnings will decline another year in the retail industry’s latest disaster. The stock fell as much as 16 percent to a record low as the departure of Chief Financial Officer Mark Frese leaves the company facing a leadership void. The 54-year-old executive, who has been helping to …

Bloomberg Williams-Sonoma Inc. sued Amazon.com Inc. in a case that challenges the online retailer’s private label push that started with batteries, baby wipes and phone chargers and has expanded to include clothing, toys and high-end furniture. Amazon’s “Rivet” line includes products that are “strikingly similar” to Williams-Sonoma’s West Elm brand, including a $300 orb chair the household goods maker introduced …

Bloomberg Bonds of UK retailers extended declines as the industry’s crisis deepens in the run-up to the Christmas holiday. New Look Retail Group Ltd.’s 700 million pounds ($886 million) of notes due in July 2022 fell for a 16th day to about 46 pence, the lowest in six months, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The British fashion chain is …

RIYADH / WAM The Saudi Council of Ministers, chaired by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, has approved the largest budget in the Kingdom’s history with SAR1.106 trillion spending in 2019, approximately 7 percent higher than the projected expenditure by the end of the fiscal year 2018. This came in a session held …

ABU DHABI / WAM The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) and its project partner Cepsa have announced the awarding of a key contract, as both companies move forward with plans to develop a world-scale linear alkyl benzene (LAB) plant in the Ruwais Derivatives Park. The LAB project is the first of the derivative units to be advanced under Adnoc’s …

ABU DHABI / WAM Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), Mubadala and Dubal Holding will sign an agreement worth over AED1 billion to develop a state-of-the-art power block and a water desalination plant at EGA’s smelter at Jebel Ali in Dubai. The new facilities will improve efficiency of power for EGA’s aluminium smelting, reducing environmental emissions and natural gas consum- ption. Mubadala …

Bloomberg China signalled its openness for business with a raft of deals that’ll give oil majors including Royal Dutch Shell Plc new opportunities to develop fields in partnership with the nation’s biggest offshore explorer. China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) said in Beijing on Tuesday that it had inked oil and gas accords with nine firms. The signing ceremony followed …

Bloomberg SSE Plc and Innogy SE terminated plans to create the UK’s second-biggest utility, the latest sign of pressure on the industry from increasing regulation. SSE’s board decided it wasn’t in the best interest of the company to proceed with the deal to combine its retail business with Innogy’s Npower unit after it emerged last month that more cash would …

Bloomberg The S&P 500 Index climbed from a 14-month low as investor nerves seemed to steady a day after a rout in US stocks. US stock gains were led by technology and health companies. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index pared losses by more than half to trade slightly lower on the day. Treasuries and the Japanese yen advanced amid a …