Bloomberg China will start building pilot wind and solar power projects that won’t receive national government payments as it pushes to improve the competitiveness of renewable energy and rein in subsidy bills. Shares of solar manufacturers surged in New York and Hong Kong. Power prices from these pilot projects will be the same or lower than from coal-fired plants, the …

Bloomberg Amsterdam’s homes are going for record prices as more expats move into the city. House prices in the Amsterdam region rose 8 percent in the fourth quarter compared to the year earlier, statistics from realtors association NVM sho-wed. The median transaction price was 448,000 euros ($517,000), a new record. Although the pace of the rise was the slowest in …

Bloomberg Fifth-generation wireless technology may one day handle sci-fi tasks like guiding driverless cars, but today’s consumers are more concerned with making their phones work faster — and that’s not lost on mobile carriers who headed to CES in Las Vegas this year. In coming weeks, AT&T Inc will introduce an interim “5G E” service that promises 50 percent faster …

Bloomberg Samsung Electronics Co showed off robots at the CES technology conference in Las Vegas, including one for retail stores and another in the healthcare space. The Bot Care can measure blood pressure and heart rate, detect falls and administer medicine, the South Korean technology giant said. It’s designed for in-home use. Bot Retail communicates with consumers in stores, while …

Bloomberg Walmart Inc plans to hire 2,000 technology experts this year to support its efforts both in stores and online, boosting the group’s ranks by more than a fourth. The world’s biggest retailer is looking for data scientists, software engineers, designers and others to work in nine offices from Silicon Valley to Bangalore, Walmart Chief Technology Officer Jeremy King said …

Bloomberg Nissan Motor Co unveiled a new version of the Leaf that narrows the driving-range gap between its best-selling electric car versus Tesla’s Model 3 and Chevrolet Bolt. The Leaf e+ that debuted at CES in Las Vegas boasts a more energy-dense battery that extends range by about 40 percent, to363 kilometres. That compares with the 220- to 310-mile range …

Bloomberg Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the US central bank can be patient before adjusting interest rates again as it waits to see how global risks impact the domestic economy. “We’re in a place where we can be patient and flexible and wait and see what does evolve, and I think for the meantime we’re waiting and watching,” Powell …

Bloomberg State Bank of India, the country’s largest lender, has selected underwriters for an institutional share sale that could raise at least 100 billion rupees ($1.4 billion), people with knowledge of the matter said. The government-run lender picked Bank of America Corp, CLSA Ltd and HSBC Holdings Plc to arrange the offering, according to the people, who asked not to …

Bloomberg The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) is expected to continue to cut the amount of cash that banks must hold as reserves further in 2019 while keeping interbank borrowing costs largely steady even amid tightening US Federal Reserve policy, according to a survey. As part of efforts to shore up the slowing economy, the central bank will cut the …

Bloomberg Cryptocurrencies dropped as Bitcoin gave up the $4,000 level it’s hovered around since the start of the year. The largest digital currency slumped as much as 6.2 percent in the European morning, erasing an earlier small gain to trade at $3,785.17 at 9:28 am in London. The Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index, a gauge of the largest cryptocurrencies, fell 7.7 …