Bloomberg Hong Kong real estate shares haven’t been this hot since the city’s last housing bubble burst almost two decades ago. The industry’s benchmark equity gauge has surged 37 percent from this year’s low in January, climbing to the highest level versus Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index in 19 years on July 29. The last time property companies performed ...

  Bloomberg Hong Kong’s biggest developer, Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd., outbid 10 other companies with a HK$2.4 billion ($305 million) offer for a site, as builders selectively add to their land banks. The price for the land offered by the government in the New Territories district works out to about HK$5,450 per square foot of saleable area, according to ...

  Bloomberg Russia and Iran agreed to strengthen transport connections, including a potential railway link through Azerbaijan that would aim to grab a share of the cargo now being shipped through the Suez Canal. Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani, discussed the plan during a rare joint visit to Azerbaijan on Monday. The fight against terrorism ...

  DETROIT / AP Ann and Oscar Mack had fallen behind on property taxes and knew they faced foreclosure on their home of 20 years. But they didn’t know their house on Maiden Street, in a blighted east side Detroit neighborhood, was already listed for auction. No one “let us know we were about to lose our house,” Ann Mack ...

  Bloomberg Wal-Mart Stores Inc. agreed to buy e-commerce startup Jet.com Inc. for about $3.3 billion and put founder Marc Lore in charge of the combined company’s online operations, marking the retail giant’s strongest bid yet to compete with e-commerce leader Amazon.com Inc. The deal includes $3 billion in cash and $300 million in shares that will be paid over ...

  Relaxnews Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is extending a hand to companies such as SAP SE keen on operating in China, proffering a window into a market that’s increasingly hostile to foreign technology. China’s largest e-commerce company is aiming to help them comply with local regulations and sell their products, as it seeks news areas of growth to combat a ...

  Sydney / AP Playing online games may boost teenagers’ school results while spending time on social networks such as Facebook could do the opposite, according to an Australian study. The research, based on the performance of 15-year-old Australians in the globally recognised Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) tests, looked at the relationship between internet usage and educational outcomes. ...

  Bloomberg Twitter Inc. is offering about a quarter of the space at its San Francisco headquarters complex for sublease, adding to a growing amount of excess offices available in the city as the technology industry cools. About 78,800 square feet (7,320 square meters) is listed for sublease on the seventh floor of 1355 Market St., a renovated 1930s furniture ...

  Bloomberg Qualcomm Inc., which has struggled to get paid licensing revenue in China, said it signed up phonemaker Vivo Communication Technology Co., helping cement its position in the world’s largest phone market. Vivo, the third-biggest smartphone maker in China, agreed to pay Qualcomm for technology used in 3G and 4G phones, the US chipmaker said. The deal with Vivo ...

  Bloomberg As Japanese prepare to climb the mountains on Thursday for their inaugural Mountain Day holiday, retailers and tourism operators are gearing up for an $8 billion windfall. They’re counting on customers like school teacher Ayako Kobayashi. The 33-year-old spent more than $700 on a sleeping bag, mattress, backpack and trekking food to climb Mount Kita near Nagano last ...