Flashback to mid-December. British voters had just delivered a decisive national election victory to Boris Johnson’s Conservatives with two full weekends left before Christmas. Expectations were high that shoppers, giddy at the prospect of an end to political gridlock and repetitive threats of hard Brexit, would rush to the stores to make up for lost time in their holiday preparations ...

Bloomberg Corporate profits likely dropped for a second straight quarter at the end of 2019, dragging down annual earnings growth to the smallest in three years. A lot of investors are fine with that. Put it down to the nature of the stock market, where returns tend to anticipate changes in earnings growth. As the S&P 500 notches records, investors ...

Bloomberg India’s rupee will likely beat most Asian peers this year, according to Rabobank, in contrast with other top forecasters who expect the currency to continue trailing. The worst of the country’s economic slowdown has passed and the authorities are unlikely to use currency depreciation as a measure to revive growth, said Hugo Erken, head of international economics at the ...

Bloomberg Boeing Co employees expressed alarm with the 737 Max and the flight simulators used to train pilots on the new jetliner while also mocking senior managers and regulators, in a trove of messages released by the manufacturer. “This airplane is designed by clowns, who in turn are supervised by monkeys,” said one company pilot in messages to a colleague ...

Bloomberg A massive winter storm is grounding flights in Chicago, whipping up tornadoes and hail across the South, and will likely push record January warmth into New York, Washington and the entire East Coast over the weekend. At least seven people have died, including three in Alabama, as the storm swept across the southern states, AP reported. The eastern US ...

Bloomberg Airline shares surged in Europe after Ryanair Holdings Plc said it expects to post a bigger-than-expected full-year profit following a spike in lucrative last-minute bookings over the Christmas and New Year holiday. Europe’s biggest discount airline now anticipates earnings for the 12 months through March of between 950 million euros ($1.06 billion) and 1.05 billion euros, and most likely ...

Bloomberg Online mattress retailer Casper Sleep Inc filed for a US initial public offering, reporting growing revenue and losses amid heightened competition from imitators. The New York-based company in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission listed the size of its planned offering as $100 million, a placeholder that will likely change. The share sale is being led ...

Bloomberg UK retailers’ holiday tale of woes continued as apparel chain Superdry Plc said lower-than-expected sales for the period could wipe out its annual profit, sending its shares reeling. Another retailer, JD Sports Fashion Plc, said its full-year earnings will be in the upper range of previous guidance, but that was because of stronger performance outside the UK. The updates ...

Bloomberg Fast Retailing Co lowered its full-year operating profit outlook 11% as the Uniqlo owner’s international segment — a key driver of growth — was hurt by geopolitical turmoil in South Korea and Hong Kong. Asia’s largest retailer said earnings for the year through August will be 245 billion yen ($2.24 billion), according to a statement. Fast Retailing in October ...

ABU DHABI / WAM The global energy sector’s transition towards attaining climate change mitigation and adaptation is often deemed as a controversial and expensive process. However, according to experts attending the Atlantic Council Global Energy Forum, the UAE has proven its ability to rise as a sustainable energy leader employing Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage, CCUS, as a means to ...