New York / AFP The dollar jumped this week after a better-than-expected rebound in US retail sales last month erased some doubts about the strength of the US economy. But the yen also gained, shrugging off more efforts by Tokyo to talk it down from recent highs. The greenback was up 0.6 percent on the euro and the pound, and ...

  Honolulu / AP Hawaiian Airlines secured the right to begin flying nonstop between Tokyo and Kailua-Kona, bringing a regularly scheduled direct flight from Japan to the Big Island for the first time since 2010. The news came as the US Department of Transportation said it awarded a new nighttime departure slot at Tokyo’s Haneda International Airport to Hawaiian. Hawaiian plans ...

  Bloomberg Boeing Co. is studying redesigned versions of the 737 Max jetliner, cutting costs and rolling out more robotics in factories to keep pace with relentless competition in the global aerospace market. But there are limits to what the US planemaker will do in its battles with old foe Airbus Group SE and newer rival Bombardier Inc., executives said ...

  Bloomberg Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government is offering home and factory owners at least €13 billion ($14.8 billion) in loans and subsidies over the next four years to reduce the carbon emitted from their properties. The money, earmarked in the mid-term federal budget plan, will be disbursed to property owners who sign up to programs to cut power and heat ...

  Bloomberg British Columbia took over as Canada’s fastest growing economy last year on the back of its red-hot real estate market, while Alberta fell to last place. Gross domestic product in the westernmost province grew 3 percent in 2015, the fastest since 2006, led by a 5 percent gain in real estate-related services. It marks the first time — ...

  Bloomberg Hong Kong’s economy unexpectedly contracted in the first quarter as falling retail sales and a weakening property market weigh on the city. Gross domestic product fell 0.4 percent in the three months through March from the previous quarter, the government said in a statement Friday, compared with the median estimate for 0.1 percent growth in a Bloomberg News ...

  Babylon, New York / AP Matt Price and his wife, Carla, are gambling that the devastation inflicted by Superstorm Sandy will be their key to the American dream of home ownership. The couple was among the successful bidders at an auction on Wednesday that sold off the last of more than 400 flood-damaged houses that were purchased by New York ...

  Bloomberg Count Goldman Sachs Group Inc. among the growing list of banks abandoning their calls for the euro to reach parity with the dollar by the end of the year. The New York-based bank joined Deutsche Bank AG this week in scrapping forecasts for the common currency to slump to $1 or below in 2016, citing changed outlooks for ...

  Bloomberg Demand from the wealthy for loans is so strong that Credit Suisse Group AG can’t keep up, according to its international wealth chief, Iqbal Khan. “We couldn’t execute all the demand we had” in the first quarter, Khan said in an interview at the company’s headquarters in Zurich. “We have a very material lending in pipeline.” The Swiss ...

  Reuters The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) will elect a new president next week during its annual meeting to be held in Jakarta, replacing long-serving President Ahmad Mohamed Ali, the Jeddah-based multilateral lender said. Saudi Arabia, the IDB’s largest shareholder, has nominated former Haj Minister Bandar Hajjar for the post, whose candidacy was endorsed by the outgoing IDB president. The ...