Bloomberg China’s home-price gains slowed in November in a further sign the nation’s property market is cooling. New-home prices rose an average 0.98 percent from October when they increased 1.02 percent in the 70 cities tracked by the government, according to Bloomberg calculations based on data released by the National Bureau of Statistics. November’s result snapped five straight months of …

Bloomberg The Brexit battering of the UK housing market has no end in sight. An index of prices by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors slipped in November to the weakest level since 2012, while the outlook for pricing and sales for the next three month slumped. The persistent uncertainty around Britain’s impending exit from the European Union was the …

Bloomberg An unusual consensus emerged recently between artificial intelligence researchers, activists, lawmakers and many of the largest technology companies: Facial recognition software breeds bias, risks fuelling mass surveillance and should be regulated. Deciding on effective controls and acting on them will be a lot harder. The Algorithmic Justice League and the Center of Privacy & Technology at Georgetown University Law …

Bloomberg Niantic Inc., the company behind the popular game Pokémon Go, is looking to catch a $3.9 billion valuation, according to a person familiar with the matter. The San Francisco-based company is planning to raise at least $200 million in a round led by venture capital firm IVP, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the discussions …

Bloomberg Grab is attracting more global backers after the ride-hailing service defeated Uber Technologies Inc. in Southeast Asia. A motorcycle maker has become the latest investor. Yamaha Motor Co. agreed to invest $150 million in Grab and the two will collaborate on motorcycle-ride services in Southeast Asia with a focus on Indonesia, the Japanese manufacturer said in a statement. Singapore-based …

Bloomberg K-Swiss Inc. is introducing a line of sneakers designed for video-game competitions, another attempt by athletic brands to capitalise on the burgeoning esports market. The new shoes sell for $110 and bear the logo of Immortals, an esports organisation that fields teams for the games Overwatch and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. K-Swiss is now readying a “performance” version of the …

Bloomberg Mario Draghi said risks to the euro-area economy are worsening even as he called time on the European Central Bank’s flagship deflation-fighting tool. The ECB president told reporters in Frankfurt that while risks are still “broadly balanced,” they are now “moving to the downside” because of a range of concerns over geopolitics, trade protectionism and market volatility. The significant …

Bloomberg Federal Reserve officials will pull the trigger on another interest-rate increase next week before slowing the pace of hikes in 2019 as risks to the US economy mount, according to a new Bloomberg survey of economists. They expect the Fed will raise rates by a quarter percentage point at its December 18-19 meeting while dialing back the number of …

Bloomberg The Reserve Bank of India’s board bought more time to review the government’s demand for a greater say in the central bank’s functioning, one of the issues that had fostered hostilities between the two sides. “The board deliberated on the governance framework of the Reserve Bank and it was decided that the matter required further examination,” the central bank …

Bloomberg Taiwan’s banks, voracious lenders to Chinese companies in recent years, are starting to cool their appetite as they contemplate the longer-term consequences of the US-China trade war. Faced with low interest rates at home, Taiwanese lenders — renowned for their clout in Asia’s syndicated loan market — poured across into the mainland, so much so that the local regulator …