ROME / Reuters With scorching summer temperatures and little rainfall, the barren scrublands around the port of Aqaba in Jordan, one of the world’s most arid countries, might seem ill suited to cultivating cucumbers. Yet a Norwegian company is planning to set up a solar-powered, 20 hectare (50 acre) facility that promises to grow a variety of vegetables without ...

  Bloomberg Banks are marketing what could be one of Canada’s first nonprime residential mortgage-backed securities deals since the global financial crisis. National Bank of Canada has held discussions with investors about a bond backed by a pool of residential mortgages just below prime-credit quality, Derek Norton, MCAP Corp.’s chief executive officer, said. The so-called alt-A mortgages are originated by ...

  Reuters As Southern Co. opens a review of its troubled nuclear reactors following a bankruptcy filing by contractor Westinghouse Electric Co., the Trump administration has 8.3 billion reasons to be worried. Southern is financing the reactors with $8.3 billion in federal loan guarantees approved under President Barack Obama’s initiative to build the first new nuclear plants in the US ...

  Bloomberg When it comes to petroleum, the US is the land of plenty. The year 2017 started off with a bang for American oil companies as total crude and petroleum products exports rose to a record 5.69 million barrels a day in January, government data show. A surplus of fuels means exports are available all the way down the ...

  Bloomberg Principal Financial Group Inc. accused the managers of Liongate Capital Management LLP of hiding investments with Bernie Madoff while negotiating to sell half of their London hedge fund to Principal. Founders Randall Dillard and Jeff Holland, and Head of Research Benjamin Funk sold the stake in March 2013 without disclosing secret investments in the largest of several Madoff ...

  Bloomberg This hardscrabble Wyoming city of about 30,000 people proclaims itself the “Energy Capital of the Nation” on the mayor’s blue blazer and even the parking ticket payment boxes. Nearby are some of the world’s largest open-pit mines, where dump trucks the size of houses haul out more than 40 percent of the coal produced in the US. The ...

  Bloomberg The pound headed for its first quarterly gain versus the dollar since mid-2015 as data showed the currency’s Brexit decline delivered a double boost for the UK economy. A bumper contribution from trade saw the nation’s gross domestic product grow an unrevised 0.7 percent in the fourth quarter, its fastest pace in a year, data showed. In the ...

  DUBAI / Reuters Stock markets in the Gulf moved sideways in thin volumes on Sunday, while shares of the newly-formed lender in Abu Dhabi, First Abu Dhabi Bank, outperformed a day after the legal completion of the merger. Shares of First Abu Dhabi Bank – the new name of the newly merged National Bank of Abu Dhabi and First ...

  Bloomberg Its last day may have been a washout, but the first quarter just took its place among the best of the lengthening bull run for US stocks. Even with a 0.2 percent decline, the S&P 500 Index surged 5.5 percent in the three months ended March 31, the biggest advance since shares jumped 6.5 percent at the end ...

  Bloomberg Puente Hnos SA, the largest local brokerage in Argentina, is weighing selling shares of its UK holding company in Buenos Aires before the end of the year. The company is still considering an initial public offering in New York or London, Federico Tomasevich, Puente’s global chairman, said in an interview. Selling the securities in Argentina is preferred because ...