Bloomberg HSBC Holdings Plc’s shortlist for its next chief executive officer includes Stephen Bird, Citigroup Inc’s head of global consumer banking, and RSA Insurance Group Plc CEO Stephen Hester, Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper reported. HSBC hired Egon Zehnder to help with the search process, the newspaper said, without saying where it got the information. The report said a key consideration …

Bloomberg Credit Suisse Group AG’s board is backing CEO TidjaneThiam ahead of a crucial meeting that will determine who takes the blame for a botched spying scandal, according to people familiar with the matter. Recent expressions of support by shareholders for senior executives is swaying the board, which has few obvious successors for Thiam should he be ousted, the people …

Bloomberg Flight attendants in Hong Kong urged Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd to explain the reasons behind dozens of dismissals, accusing the airline of “political cleansing” amid the unrest that’s ensnared the city’s flagship carrier. In a joint statement, flight-attendant unions from Cathay Pacific and its unit Cathay Dragon accused the airline of monitoring employees’ social-media accounts and obtaining “dubious” information …

Bloomberg Richemont and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s luxury joint venture has gone live in China, presenting 130 brands in one location on the Tmall e-commerce site. Tom Ford, Brunello Cucinelli and Jimmy Choo join Richemont brands Cartier, Piaget and Vacheron Constantin on the site. Investors have awaited details on the partnership since the companies announced it about a year ago. …

Bloomberg A $2.8 billion Boeing Co upgrade of its Awacs surveillance planes is dogged by delays caused in part by an almost yearlong closing of two classified laboratories developing software for the project, Pentagon agencies disclosed. The two laboratories in Oklahoma City failed to pass Defense Department security certifications from January to December of last year. Boeing builds the aircraft, …

Bloomberg American Express Co is sweetening rewards and raising the annual fee on many of its co-brand cards with Delta Air Lines Inc after the two renewed their longtime partnership this year. Annual fees on six Delta cards will rise, AmEx said in a statement. Platinum cards for consumers and small businesses will increase to $250 from $195, while Reserve …

Bloomberg Forever 21 Inc filed for bankruptcy protection, the latest big fashion merchant who couldn’t cope with high rents and heavy competition as the shift to e-commerce cut a swathe through traditional retailers. Court papers filed in Wilmington, Delaware, show Forever 21 has estimated liabilities on a consolidated basis of between $1 billion and $10 billion. The Chapter 11 filing …

Bloomberg The risk of a property bubble in the euro zone surged last year as ultra-low interest rates helped drive up house prices. Munich is now the city most vulnerable to a property bubble, according to UBS Group AG’s annual Real Estate Bubble Index. Frankfurt and Paris are increasingly in danger of prices becoming unsustainable, even as some of the …

Bloomberg US equity-index futures rose while stocks drifted in Europe and declined in Asia as investors struggled to interpret the latest developments in the trade rivalry between the world’s two largest economies. Treasuries and European bonds slipped. Contracts on the three main equity indexes all signalled a firm open in New York, and a dollar gauge inched higher after the …

Bloomberg India stocks declined as concerns over fresh US-China tensions over investment flows outweighed the festival season tailwind. The S&P BSE Sensex fell 0.4 percent to 3,8667.33 at the 3:30 pm close in Mumbai. The NSE Nifty 50 Index dropped 0.3 percent. Global risks ranging from trade friction to the recent oil shock have the potential to mitigate positive local …