If you had told me even a year ago that I would soon see Target Corp. deliver a 5.1 percent increase in comparable sales over a year earlier, I don’t think I would’ve believed you. And if you also told me that Wall Street’s response to that kind of growth would be to slam the big-box retailer’s shares, then I ...

Is it all over? That’s certainly the impression being given by the French and Japanese governments following the arrest and ouster of Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn. Hours after the Japanese company’s board voted to remove him due to allegations of misconduct, the two countries’ finance and economy ministers met and pledged support for the alliance between Nissan and ...

Bloomberg Beaten-down tech shares led the rebound in US stocks, while Treasuries fell as investors gained confidence from positive political developments in Europe and rising oil prices. The S&P 500 Index rallied back from its worst week in a month amid signs of progress in two standoffs that have continually rattled markets — Italy’s fiscal woes and Brexit. The 10-year ...

Bloomberg Bitcoin miners hit hard by the cryptocurrency’s crash may be throwing in the towel. The Bitcoin network’s hash rate, one way of gauging the computing power dedicated to mining the digital currency, dropped about 24 percent from an all-time high at the end of August through November 24, according to Blockchain.com. While the decline may have partially resulted from ...

Bloomberg Greece’s Eurobank Ergasias SA isn’t waiting around for a state rescue, with a plan to sell about 7 billion euros ($8 billion) of troubled loans and merge with a real estate fund. The shares soared, leading the country’s banking index higher. As part of the plan, the bank will merge with real estate fund Grivalia Properties REIC to create ...

Bloomberg European Central Bank (ECB) chief economist Peter Praet said the end of the institution’s bond-buying program — quantitative easing (QE) — this year doesn’t mean policy is being tightened, as he pointed to “increasingly noticeable” headwinds for the economy. The message comes as the Governing Council prepares for its December 13 meeting, when it will publish new economic forecasts ...

Bloomberg The financial regulator of Danske Bank A/S says it’s now telling lenders to be more selective when choosing correspondent banks. The decision comes after Denmark’s biggest bank ended up at the center of one of Europe’s worst ever money laundering scandals. Danske’s regulator says some of the bank’s employees were probably involved in “criminal” acts, and the lender may ...

Bloomberg Global governments are doing the most to propel the world economy in a decade just as growth slows. As leaders from the Group of 20 prepare to meet this week in Argentina, JPMorgan Chase & Co economists calculate easier fiscal policy will add 0.3 percentage point to global gross domestic product next year, the biggest impulse this decade. That’s ...

Bloomberg FirstRand Ltd’s First National Bank (FNB) and a startup financial-technology company in South Africa are partnering to connect informal traders in townships with fast-moving consumer-goods companies. FNB is seeking to tap into a market that it estimates could consist of as many as 1 million enterprises that have largely been ignored and falls into the “unseen economy,” the Johannesburg-based ...

Bloomberg Shoppers will spend an estimated $7.8 billion on Cyber Monday — a record — boosting a strong holiday shopping season. And Wall Street will likely shrug it off. Even a blockbuster holiday won’t divert the market’s attention from the rising interest rates that could hurt car and home sales next year and the escalating trade war between the US ...