Bloomberg JC Penney Co, the struggling department-store chain, said it’s taking measures to improve its financial health but assured investors that it hasn’t hired advisers to prepare for a restructuring in bankruptcy court. “We have no significant debt maturities coming due in the near term, and we continue to maintain a strong liquidity position,” the company said in a statement. …

Bloomberg aCommerce, a Bangkok-based startup that helps brands such as Samsung, L’Oreal and Unilever sell their products online across Southeast Asia, has raised more than $10 million from existing investors including KKR & Co. KKR’s Emerald Media, investment house Blue Sky, DKSH Holding AG and an arm of Indonesian conglomerate Sinar Mas also took part in the company’s latest funding …

Bloomberg Dean & DeLuca, the gourmet grocer whose trend-setting New York store introduced Americans to international delicacies more than four decades ago, is struggling to hold on amid stalling sales and a cutthroat competitive landscape. Some shelves at its flagship store are bare, and suppliers have gone to court over unpaid bills. Other US locations have been shut, leaving Dean …

Bloomberg China’s importers have started making arrangements to buy US agricultural products, Global Times’s Editor-in-Chief Hu Xijin said in a tweet, without specifying where he got the information. The possible purchase of American farm products — which adds to recent gestures of goodwill between both sides — also indicates US-China trade talks will restart soon, according to the tweet. Senior …

RIYADH / WAM Emirates NBD announced plans for further expansion in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia following approval from the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority, SAMA, to open 20 additional branches in the Kingdom. The announcement reflects KSA’s growing importance to Dubai’s biggest bank by assets as the United Arab Emirates continues to strengthen long-standing strategic and economic ties with the …

Bloomberg New York has signed the biggest-ever deals for offshore wind power in US history, a key part of the state’s plan to get all of its power from emissions-free sources by 2040. Governor Andrew Cuomo awarded contracts for two projects off Long Island that will total 1,700 megawatts in capacity. Equinor ASA and a joint venture between Denmark’s Orsted …

Bloomberg Canadian natural gas producers are asking Alberta’s government to give drillers a break on their royalty payments in return for cutting back output during periods of heavy pipeline maintenance, a bid to smooth out the province’s volatile gas market. That would give producers an incentive to dial back their output when capacity on TC Energy Corp.’s Nova Gas Transmission …

Bloomberg The Federal Reserve is preparing to deliver what the market expects to be the first of multiple interest-rate cuts. The others are sure to follow if policy makers can’t break what’s starting to look like a vicious circle. The Fed isn’t simply bending to the market’s will with this cut: It highlighted the risks of weak inflation and global …

Bloomberg Morgan Stanley, the biggest stock-trading shop on Wall Street, is losing some of its lead. The company posted a 14 percent drop in equities-trading revenue, the steepest decline among major US banks, as it cited lower client balances in its prime-brokerage business. While the firm had a surprise jump in wealth-management fees, the trading slump caused overall revenue to …

Bloomberg Nordea Bank Abp said the pressure of negative interest rates and a tougher regulatory environment will force it to review its financial targets this year after delivering a set of quarterly results it characterised as “not satisfactory.” The environment has changed, “with expected lower rates for longer,” Nordea said. On top of that, management is awaiting “more clarity on …