Bloomberg Oil slumped as escalating trade hostilities between the US and China stoked fears of slowing global growth, overshadowing forecasts for a drop in American crude inventories. Futures in New York lost as much as 2.5% after rallying 2.1% following Chin- ese media suggestions on Wednesday that the nation could restrict rare earth exports to the US. American crude inventories …

Bloomberg The Trump administration again refrained from labelling China a currency manipulator, a decision that leaves one of the president’s campaign promises unfulfilled but avoids further escalation in the trade war between the world’s two largest economies. China said on Wednesday that “relevant international organisations,” and not the US, are in position to decide whether a country is a currency …

Bloomberg Malaysia is in discussions with China-based contractors for compensation relating to pipeline projects worth 9.4 billion ringgit ($2.24 billion). The government is negotiating with China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering Co. and Huanqiu Project Management Beijing Co. on the total compensation to be paid by Suria Strategic Energy Resources Sdn., which was overseeing the projects, for the termination of the work, …

Bloomberg A global shortage of heavy crude will create hurdles for America’s key refining belts just as they ramp up gasoline production for summer driving season. In the Gulf Coast, dwindling heavy oil supplies have suppressed refining margins, while Midwest refiners may not reach the high run rates seen last summer. Gulf Coast profits from coking — a process where …

Bloomberg Stocks extended their global retreat on Wednesday as investors fled to bonds, driving yields down to multi-year lows in a fresh wave of risk aversion. Gold advanced. US futures slumped for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 indexes, signalling an opening drop in New York. Declines in miners and tech companies pulled the Stoxx Europe 600 Index lower, after …

Bloomberg South Korea’s $1.3 trillion stock market became the latest victim of the US-China trade war, with its benchmark index losing all of this year’s advance on Wednesday. The Kospi index fell 1.3 percent to 2,023.32 at the close in Seoul, its lowest since January 4. Foreign investors sold a net 360 billion won ($301 million) of Kospi shares in …

Bloomberg Climate change could hit bank balance sheets with a knock-on effect on financial stability, the European Central Bank (ECB) warned on Wednesday. In a special feature for its semi-annual Financial Stability Review on Wednesday, the ECB said problems will materialise if markets aren’t correctly pricing the risks stemming from extreme weather events and the transition to a low-carbon emission …

Bloomberg The Irish government sna-gged a payment of about 2.1 billion euros ($2.4 billion) from the country’s central bank, according to a person familiar with the matter. The transfer flowed from the bank’s 2018 earnings, said the person, who asked not to be named as the information is private. Details will be published with the regulator’s annual report on Wednesday …

Bloomberg The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) signalled it expects to lower interest rates this year. It is setting off fresh round of forecasts for deeper policy cuts as economists ponder where the lower bound is Down Under. JPMorgan Chase & Co. on Wednesday said it expects the central bank will have to cut its 1.5 percent benchmark 1 percentage …

Bloomberg Bill Browder, the co-founder of Hermitage Capital Management, says the fallout of a money laundering saga involving the biggest mortgage bank in Sweden is “just starting.” During a tour of the Nordic region this week, Browder said he won’t drop his accusations against Swedbank AB even after the Swedish prosecutor declined to take up his complaint, citing a statute …