Bloomberg China threatened retaliation against those questioning whether the coronavirus leaked from its labs, a warning that comes days before the US releases findings from an intelligence investigation into the pandemic’s origins. “We will continue to cooperate with international organisations like the WHO in their research and in their search for the origins,” said Fu Cong, director-general of the Foreign ...

Bloomberg The Taliban’s military takeover of Afghanistan was swift and decisive. Forming an inclusive government to avoid another civil war is proving to be much harder. The extremist group has been holding meetings in Kabul with Hamid Karzai, the first president after the US invasion, and Abdullah Abdullah, No. 2 in the ousted administration, after leader Ashraf Ghani fled the ...

Bloomberg Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to introduce a two-year ban on foreign home buyers to tackle housing affordability in Canada if he’s re-elected. The proposed restriction is an attempt to cool a housing market that has soared during the Covid-19 pandemic. Surging prices have become a central issue in the campaign for the September 20 vote, in which Trudeau ...

Bloomberg Peru’s economy rebounded in the second quarter, shrugging off political and financial volatility as it recovers from one of the world’s deepest slumps last year. Gross domestic product (GDP) grew 41.9% in the three months through June from the same period a year earlier, the national statistics institute said. The result was higher than the 41.5% median estimate of ...

Bloomberg Sales of previously owned US homes rise in July for a second month, indicating firmer housing demand as inventory constraints showed signs of easing. Contract closings increased 2% from prior month to an annualised 5.99 million, a four-month high, according to National Association of Realtors. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a 5.83 million ...

Bloomberg German businesses are growing increasingly concerned that a global supply squeeze and rising infections will damp the economic recovery. A gauge by the Munich-based Ifo Institute falls to 99.4 in August from 100.7 in July, more than economists predicted in a Bloomberg survey. An index measuring expectations also falls, while current conditions were judged more favourably. Strong consumer spending ...

Bloomberg Pfizer Inc, maker of a top-selling Covid vaccine, will buy all the shares of Trillium Therapeutics Inc it doesn’t own, gaining the immune cancer drugmaker for an equity value of $2.26 billion. Pfizer will pay $18.50 a share for Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Trillium, the companies said in a statement. The price represents a 118% premium to the stock’s 60-day weighted ...

Bloomberg Britain’s construction, manufacturing and food preparation industries are pushing wages higher across the economy due to a shortage of workers to fill available jobs. Building companies increased advertised pay by 6.7% from February to July 2021 to draw more workers into the industry, according to data from jobs site Indeed. That compares with wage growth of just 0.8% across ...

Bloomberg Stocks and US futures were steady as a rebound in Chinese technology shares stalled and markets settled into a holding pattern ahead of the Federal Reserve’s Jackson Hole policy symposium later this week. The Stoxx Europe 600 index posted a modest gain at the open, while contracts on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 fluctuated after the indexes reached ...

Bloomberg Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler has a warning for hundreds of Chinese companies that have raised billions of dollars in US markets: Submit to more scrutiny soon or get kicked out. In an interview, he pledged to strictly enforce a three-year deadline that requires Chinese firms to permit inspections of their financial audits. If businesses refuse, ...