Bloomberg Australia’s scandal-plagued banks are set for their biggest upheaval in decades as a wide-ranging inquiry into misconduct recommends how the nation’s financial industry should atone for wrongdoings. In its final report to be released in Canberra, the government-appointed Royal Commi- ssion could propose financial firms be broken up to avoid conflicts of interest, push for changes to pay and …

Bloomberg The US retail apocalypse is far from over. While the collapse of storied merchants like Sears Holdings Corp. and Toys “R” Us Inc. has left stores shuttered across America, retailers still make up about a fifth of the universe of distressed borrowers. Consumer confidence is slumping. The head of the biggest mall owner in the US cautioned that more …

Bloomberg McDonald’s Corp. climbed after reporting an acceleration in global sales in the fourth quarter, offsetting US growth that was shy of estimates. The company’s overall same-store sales rose 4.4 percent, topping the 4 percent average of analysts’ estimates, according to Consensus Metrix. In the US, the increase of 2.3 percent was just short of projections. Sara Senatore, an analyst …

Bloomberg Avon Products Inc. will cut 10 percent of its global headcount as it looks for new ways to save money and simplify its structure. Most of the job cuts will take place this year, saving the makeup company about $97 million by the end of 2019. These aren’t Avon’s first round of recent layoffs. The staffing cuts come on …

Bloomberg British Airways is refusing to offer pilots and other staff a new three-year salary package, citing an uncertain post-Brexit outlook in proposing a 12-month agreement instead. “We can agree a one-year pay deal,” the IAG SA-owned airline said in a letter to unions obtained by Bloomberg News. “This gives certainty over pay for colleagues in what is anticipated to …

Bloomberg Venezuela’s oil production will likely fall 18 percent to around 900,000 barrels per day due to pressure from US sanctions and lack of materials for workers, compared to a current output estimate of 1.1 million barrels per day, according to Ann-Louise Hittle, an oil analyst at Wood Mackenzie.

Bloomberg Alberta is easing mandatory oil curtailments after prices for heavy crude from the Canadian province surged while producers were getting exasperated. The new target for output next month will be 3.63 million barrels a day, up from 3.56 million in January, the provincial government said in a statement. Inventories have dropped by 5 million barrels, reducing a glut that …

Bloomberg Russia’s crude producers removed their first 42,000 barrels per day from the market in January under the OPEC+ output-cut agreement, slightly below earlier estimates of Energy Minister Alexander Novak. Russia produced 48.11 million tons of crude oil, according to data from the Energy Ministry’s CDU-TEK unit. This equals 11.376 million barrels per day compared to the October baseline of …

Bloomberg Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard and Dallas Fed chief Robert Kaplan applauded the central bank’s decision to take a pause on interest-rate increases in separate appearances and said patience was the right approach for the US economy. “I think it set us up for a very good couple of years here,” Bullard said in a …

Bloomberg DWS Group, the German asset manager taken public by Deutsche Bank AG in March, is wrestling with withdrawals, though its executives say the worst is behind them. Investors pulled 7 billion euros ($8 billion) in the fourth quarter of 2018, taking total redemptions last year to more than 22 billion euros. To make matters worse, the volatility that roiled …