Bloomberg The new wave of lockdowns around the world is sending US jet fuel prices slumping and exports slowing to a trickle all over again. It’s not as bad as the crash last April, but the headwinds the aviation market still faces before vaccines bring life to normal are increasingly showing. Benchmark jet fuel prices in New York and Houston …

Bloomberg Fast Retailing Co’s lineup of functional and casual attire continued to lure value-conscious shoppers whose preferences are changing in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, helping to push the Uniqlo operator’s first-quarter earnings close to an all-time high. Operating profit rose 23% to 113.1 billion yen ($1.1 billion) in the three months ended on November 30, according to a …

Bloomberg With fermented foods reaching near-cult status for the health-obsessed, consumers have started hunting for the perfect bacteria. As a result, brand awareness — and the marketing that comes with it — has now made its way into the world of food cultures, according to Mauricio Graber, the chief executive of Denmark’s Chr Hansen Holding A/S, the world’s biggest maker …

Bloomberg Taco Bell said it will begin testing a Beyond Meat menu item in the US, sending the faux-meat maker’s shares higher. The fast-food chain, a division of Yum! Brands Inc, said the companies are working together to create “an innovative new plant-based protein” that will be tested in the next year. Taco Bell cited Beyond’s “record of attracting younger …

Bloomberg Philippine banks will recover faster from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic than they did from the Asian financial crisis due to record-low interest rates, higher capital and a stable economy, the head of the nation’s bankers group said. Lenders in the Southeast Asian nation may bounce back in three to four years — about half the time it …

Bloomberg Bond traders in India are bracing for more turmoil as the central bank signals its intention to keep lifting money-market rates. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) offered a cutoff yield of 3.55% for a cash-draining operation, higher than traders had expected and a full 20 basis points above the lower boundary of its interest-rate corridor. “Future operations may …

Bloomberg HDFC Bank Ltd., India’s largest private lender by assets, posted third-quarter profit that beat analyst expectations after earnings were buoyed by strong loan growth. Shares jumped. Net income was 87.6 billion rupees ($1.2 billion) in the three months through December compared with 74.2 billion rupees a year earlier, exchange filings showed. That beat the average estimate of 76.4 billion …

Bloomberg The Bank of Japan’s (BOJ) upcoming policy assessment is likely to signal a pause in the bank’s buying of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) as long as stocks stay buoyant, according to a key author of the BOJ’s ramped up asset-purchase plan to fight the pandemic. “The BOJ is likely to make a more comprehensive judgment on the amount and frequency …

Bloomberg Standard Chartered Plc is preparing further job cuts as the emerging markets lender continues a restructuring that was postponed by the onset of the pandemic. The London-headquartered bank is expected to cut several hundred staff next month across its global businesses, with the reductions focused on more junior employees, according to people familiar with the matter. The bank has …

Bloomberg Resurgent coronavirus outbreaks will vex central bankers on five continents this week as they weigh the threat of more damage to growth against the hope that mass vaccinations will reopen economies. Institutions meeting from Tokyo to Frankfurt to Ottawa are pondering the prospect of another lost quarter amid renewed lockdowns to contain the pandemic. Most are likely to maintain …