Bloomberg Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, topped $34,000, just weeks after passing another major milestone. The currency gained as much as 7.8% to $34,182.75, before slipping to about $33,970 in Singapore. It advanced almost 50% in December, when it breached $20,000 for the first time. The latest gains top an eye-popping rally for the controversial digital asset in 2020, which ...

Bloomberg Sweden’s government will start exploring the feasibility of having the country move to a digital currency, marking another step into the unknown for the world’s most cashless society. Per Bolund, financial markets minister, said a review is expected to be completed by the end of November in 2022. Anna Kinberg Batra, a former chairwoman of the parliament’s finance committee, ...

Bloomberg Hungary left its monetary policy unchanged despite a slowdown in inflation and a rally in the forint, warning of continued risks to global investor sentiment amid a resurgence in coronavirus. The central bank kept the rate offered on required reserves at 0.6% and the overnight deposit rate at minus 0.05%, as forecast by all economists in a Bloomberg survey. ...

Bloomberg Spain’s Unicaja Banco SA agreed to buy rival Liberbank SA in an all-share deal, adding to a flurry of deal-making in the nation’s finance industry. Unicaja will pay 1 new share for every 2.7705 of Liberbank shares, issuing as much as 1.08 billion euros of stock to fund the purchase, according to a statement. Unicaja shareholders will have 59.5% ...

Bloomberg The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) said it will delist three Chinese corporations to comply with a US executive order that imposed restrictions on companies identified as affiliated with the Chinese military. China Mobile Ltd., China Telecom Corp Ltd, China Unicom Hong Kong Ltd will be suspended from trading between January 7 and January 11, and proceedings to delist ...

Bloomberg Benchmark indexes in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) climbed the most in the Middle East, tracking global stock rallies on optimism surrounding the rollout of coronavirus vaccines. Indexes in Oman and Israel also rise, while the main gauge in Egypt was unchanged. The Tadawul All Share Index in Riyadh dropped the most in the region, with 20 out of its ...

Bloomberg As one of the most tumultuous years in oil’s history ends, a delicate task now lies ahead for Opec+. The alliance of producers led by Saudi Arabia and Russia must decide whether it can continue to restore crude supplies without disturbing the price recovery they spent most of 2020 working to achieve. Moscow believes that the group — which ...

DUBAI / WAM Sherif Al Olama, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure for Energy and Petroleum Affairs, welcomed a high-level delegation from the Israeli Mekorot Water Company headed by Elie Cohen, CEO of the company, where the two sides discussed the frameworks of joint cooperation in the field of water, and exchanged experiences supporting the development of innovative ...

Abu Dhabi / WAM The Abu Dhabi Judicial Department (ADJD) has launched a digital authentication project allowing the approval of documents issued by the ADJD’s systems in an integrated digital manner and compatible with the UAE PASS digital identification system. Digital authentication offers many aspects of protection.

SHARJAH / WAM Hamriyah Free Zone Authority (HFZA) has reinforced its reputation and position as a prominent destination regionally and globally despite of the Covid-19’s global economic fallout, after two giant African petrochemicals companies (Global Vision Specialty Chemicals & Proud Lubricants and Grease IND) announced investments in the free zone by leasing over 1,076,391 sq ft plots of land. The ...