Much as expected, the Federal Reserve has raised its policy interest rate by half a percentage point and announced an accelerated schedule for reducing its holdings of financial assets. This is a faster pace of tightening than the central bank intended after its previous meeting in March. With inflation at 5.2% on the Fed’s preferred measure and little sign ...

  Bloomberg British Airways parent IAG SA reported worse-than-expected earnings and tempered plans to boost capacity after staffing shortages at London’s Heathrow airport slowed its UK expansion. Shares of IAG fell 12%, the biggest drop in almost six months, after the company reported a first-quarter operating loss of $769 million. Operations were hit by IT glitches together with the reduced ...

Bloomberg Airbus SE is pushing ahead with ambitious plans to ramp up production of its bestselling A320-family of jets to 75 a month by 2025. The figure represents a jump from a build rate of about 50 of the narrow-body planes per month right now and the 65 targeted for the middle of 2023, and comes as demand recovers from ...

Bloomberg Japan Airlines Co forecast a return to profit this year, betting on a pick-up in domestic and international travel as the nation signals it’s ready to loosen virus-related border controls. JAL forecast net income of 45 billion yen ($345 million) for the fiscal year ending March 2023, topping analysts’ average estimate for around 10.2 billion yen. The airline posted ...

Bloomberg New Jersey is the first state to ban both plastic and paper bags, leaving companies and shoppers to find creative workarounds to get their groceries home. ShopRite, with more than 100 New Jersey stores, will charge a flat $1.50 per order for reusable bags. Instacart Inc, which fulfills shoppers’ lists for Aldi Inc, Lidl Ltd, CVS Health Corp and ...

  Bloomberg Amazon Inc makes it too hard and unnecessarily confusing to cancel subscriptions for services, some customers claimed in a lawsuit alleging the internet retailer is violating California’s rules on automatic renewal programs. The lawsuit was filed in San Francisco federal court by three California residents who say they signed up for free trials of Amazon services only to ...

  Bloomberg Hong Kong’s retail sales plummeted 13.8% in March, the first back-to-back contraction in more than a year as stringent virus restrictions weighed heavily on the economy and crushed consumer spending. The fall in sales value from a year earlier was worse than the median estimate of a 12.6% decline expected by economists in a survey, though it was ...

  Bloomberg John Lee became the only candidate for Hong Kong’s top post by proving his willingness to loyally execute Beijing’s demands despite an international outcry. The question now is whether he can convince China that re-opening the Asian financial centre to the world won’t jeopardise its control. Lee, a former cop and security minister, emerged as a leading advocate ...

  Bloomberg The US Treasury Department sanctioned Blender.io, a virtual currency mixer it said was tied to North Korea’s hacking and money laundering activities. The action marks the first time Treasury has sanctioned a so-called “mixer,” which is used to hide the origin of illicit funds. “Today, for the first time ever, Treasury is sanctioning a virtual currency mixer,” said ...

Bloomberg Boris Johnson’s Conservatives shed seats across England and lost control of three London strongholds in the local elections, leading to a backlash against the from local party leaders. The Tories lost control of Wandsworth Council — an iconic local government which has been Tory-run since 1978 — as well as in Westminster, where the Houses of Parliament are based. ...