Bloomberg China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. said its half-year earnings jumped to the highest level on record as refining profits climbed and a rebound in crude prices brought its oil and gas exploration unit closer to breaking even. Net income gained to 42.4 billion yuan ($6.2 billion) in the first six months from 27.9 billion a year earlier, the world’s …

Bloomberg US stocks are vaulting back to all-time highs. But the smart money isn’t celebrating. Instead, they’re nursing pain. Hedge funds have seen returns dwindling even as the S&P 500 Index marches forward in what has become, by some measures, the longest bull market ever. An index tracking the performance of funds focusing on equities has fallen in five of …

Bloomberg Don’t hold your breath for a US exchange-traded fund that invests in Bitcoin. Prospects for such a fund took a nosedive when the Securities and Exchange Commission rejected requests to list nine cryptocurrency funds, citing continuing concerns about manipulation and market surveillance. Hester Peirce — one of four commissioners currently at the SEC — has since said the agency …

Bloomberg Back in 2015, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BP Plc cast doubt over the future of aging oil fields offshore Norway. A crash in crude prices and high operating costs threatened to shut them early, leaving millions of barrels in the ground. Two of the fields, Draugen and Valhall, have since fallen into the hands of smaller, local companies, …

Bloomberg Trinidad and Tobago will continue to ship super-chilled natural gas all over the world, with a little help from Venezuela. President Nicolas Maduro and Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Keith Rowley signed a deal where Trinidad will purchase gas from Venezuela’s prolific Dragon Field, state-run energy company, Petroleos de Venezuela SA, said in a tweet. Under the terms of …

Bloomberg CenterPoint Energy Inc. wants to introduce a pilot programme in Minnesota offering customers access to a renewable form of natural gas recovered from dairy farms and landfills. It’s the first such programme in the Midwest, mirroring the push by utilities to offer electricity powered by wind or solar. Methane produced by everything from manure to rotting garbage is the …

Bloomberg Petroleos Mexicanos will be free to choose its own partners if Mexico’s next government has its way. President-Elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador may seek to change a part of the 2014 energy reforms requiring Pemex receive regulatory approval when choosing partners in oil blocks, according to people with knowledge of the situation. Previously, Lopez Obrador has said that he …

Bloomberg Engine glitches that have disrupted Airbus SE A320neo jet operations around the world may take at least three more months to resolve amid a scarcity of upgraded turbines, according to comments from one of the planemaker’s biggest customers, Deutsche Lufthansa. Fixes for the snags afflicting the geared turbofan, or GTF, powerplant made by United Technologies Corp.’s Pratt & Whitney …

Bloomberg Two of Europe’s biggest carriers, Air France-KLM Group and British Airways, said they’ll suspend services to Iran, citing the reduced commercial viability of the route in the wake of the latest US sanctions. Air France and Dutch sibling KLM will halt flights by the end of September due to “weak commercial results,” the group said. British Airways, IAG SA’s …

Bloomberg Sears Holdings Corp. continues to clean house, announcing plans to shutter an additional 46 unprofitable stores in November. The struggling chain informed workers at the impacted stores this week, and liquidation sales will begin as early as August 30. The move is “part of our ongoing efforts to streamline Sears Holdings’ operations, strengthen our capital position and focus on …