Bloomberg The Bank of Japan (BOJ) is likely to consider upgrading its economic assessment amid signs of a rebound from the economy’s worst contraction on record last quarter, people familiar with the matter said. Any changes would acknowledge that Japan’s slump has bottomed, rather than indicate optimism about the outlook, according to the people. BOJ officials continue to see Japan’s ...

Bloomberg The European Central Bank’s (ECB) emergency stimulus program is endangering the region’s climate-change objectives by “feeding a natural gas frenzy,” according to environmental campaigners. The central bank is buying bonds from fossil-fuel project developers including Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Total SE and Engie SA, Paris-based Reclaim Finance said in a statement. The Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de ...

Bloomberg UK home buyers returning to the market after the coronavirus lockdown are finding they’re not benefiting from record-low central bank interest rates. Five months after the Bank of England (BOE) slashed its benchmark to 0.1%, mortgage rates have barely changed as banks fret about risks. For people with smaller deposits, average borrowing costs actually increased by more than half ...

Bloomberg Apple Inc. has asked suppliers to build at least 75 million 5G iPhones for later this year, roughly in line with last year’s launch, in a sign that demand for the company’s most important product is holding up in the midst of the global pandemic and recession. The Cupertino, California-based technology giant anticipates shipments of these next-generation iPhones may ...

Bloomberg Apple Inc. said the ability to use contact tracing without an app will roll out to iPhones, while Google said Android devices will get this capability in a more limited form later this month. The companies said this will increase adoption of the system, which has begun to identify Covid-19 exposures. It will still only work in regions where ...

Bloomberg Car sales fell in France and Spain in August, erasing gains made during the previous months and damping hopes for a rapid recovery from the coronavirus pandemic in Europe. French passenger car registrations dropped by a fifth compared with the same month last year, according to CCFA figures. The total of 103,635 was the lowest since May, when showrooms and ...

Bloomberg Amazon.com Inc. is buying 1,800 electric delivery vans from Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz, the retailer’s biggest commitment to date to cut the carbon footprint of its delivery operations in Europe. The deal, for the German automaker’s eSprinter and eVito models, will be complete by the end of the year, Amazon said in a statement. It comes two years after Amazon ...

Bloomberg Germany racked up near-record demand for a bond sale in its debut green debt offering, grabbing nearly a tenth of the growing global market. It raised $7.7 billion from the 10-year sale, with demand more than five times that at 33 billion euros. The strong investor interest meant it priced one basis point tighter to the existing conventional bond. ...

Bloomberg Oil rises on signs a glut was easing with US crude stockpiles shrinking for a sixth week. The American Petroleum Institute reported crude inventories dropped by 6.36 million barrels last week, according to people familiar with the figures. That would be the longest run of declines this year if confirmed by government data. Yet, there are lingering concerns about ...

Bloomberg China’s record haul of crude is poised to end as state-issued allowances for imports dwindle, potentially taking the wind out of the uneven recovery across global oil markets. The world’s biggest importer will ship in much less crude in September and October than it did in May and June, with private refiners seeing purchases drop as much as 40%, ...