Bloomberg European natural gas prices declined as ample inventories and tanker-borne fuel help offset lower supplies from Russia. Benchmark futures fell as much 5.6% after gaining as much as 6.3%. Russian flows via Ukraine slumped further while cold weather swept across the continent, boosting demand for the fuel used in heating and accelerating withdrawals from storage sites. The region ...

  Bloomberg The head of one of the world’s biggest developers of renewable energy, Denmark’s Orsted A/S, worries that the energy transition could see a slowdown as rising competition and interest rates squeeze returns and upend the case for investment. Orsted is the world’s largest developer of offshore wind farms, which it helped pioneer from a niche technology into one ...

Bloomberg The Netherlands and Japan, home to key suppliers of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, are close to joining a Biden administration-led effort to restrict exports of the technology to China and hobble its push into the chips industry. The Dutch and Japanese export controls may be agreed to and finalized as soon as the end of January, according to people familiar ...

  Bloomberg The number of people searching for lodgers to stay in their spare rooms has spiked, as living costs in Britain remain stubbornly high. Homeowners advertising empty bedrooms for rent on the website SpareRoom spiked in January, hitting the highest levels since the summer of 2020 when pent-up demand was unleashed by loosening Covid restrictions. The company said that ...

  Bloomberg Holcim Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Jan Jenisch said he’s looking to continue an acquisition drive at the Swiss building material maker as he pivots away from traditional cement. Jenisch said in an interview this week that Holcim has “the strongest balance sheet ever, which opens up many opportunities for continued acquisitions and investments.” The CEO said the company ...

  Bloomberg UK employers unleashed a hiring spree at the start of 2023 even as consumer confidence about the economy stalled, two separate surveys showed. There were more than 184,000 new job advertisements in the first week of January, up by a quarter on the same period a year ago, according to the Recruitment & Employment Confederation. The market research ...

  Bloomberg BE Group, an investment firm fronted by former bankers, has made a fresh attempt at a takeover of Belgium’s biggest insurer Ageas, people familiar with the matter said. The consortium recently approached Ageas and has been trying to secure financing for a potential deal, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing confidential information. Shares in Ageas ...

  Bloomberg Google parent Alphabet Inc. said it will cut about 12,000 jobs, more than 6% of its global workforce, becoming the latest tech giant to retrench after years of abundant growth and hiring. The cuts will affect jobs globally and across the entire company, Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai told employees in an email on Friday, writing that he ...

Bloomberg Germany’s new defense minister, Boris Pistorius, said his government hasn’t made a decision yet on supplying its Leopard battle tanks to Ukraine but that it could move quickly if an agreement can be reached with Nato allies. Speaking to reporters after talks at the US airbase in Ramstein, Germany, Friday, Pistorius said that defense ministers and military officials had ...

  Bloomberg France will increase its defense budget over six years as President Emmanuel Macron seeks to adjust the nation’s military to new threats posed by the war in Ukraine and technological attacks. In a speech Friday, Macron said he expects the state to spend 400 billion euros ($433 billion) between 2024 and 2030, an increase from the 295 billion ...