Bloomberg One of the Federal Reserve’s most senior officials and his incoming successor both said that overshooting the US central bank’s 2 percent inflation target for a time is nothing to worry about because the central bank has been below the goal for so long. “I’ve said it many times: being a little above 2 percent after being below 2 …

Bloomberg Depositors started lining up outside Banesco Banco Universal’s branches in eastern Caracas, hoping to get cash — and answers — after Venezuela’s government seized the nation’s largest privately held bank. Half a dozen police officers carrying assault weapons stood outside the landmark emerald-glass headquarters of the institution known as Banesco after news of what authorities called a 90-day intervention …

Bloomberg Amazon.com Inc. is offering to pass along the discounts it gets on credit-card fees to other retailers if they use its online payments service, according to people with knowledge of the matter, in a new threat to PayPal Holdings Inc. and card-issuing banks. The move shows Amazon is willing to sacrifice the profitability of its payments system to spread …

Bloomberg A Southwest Airlines Co. jetliner made an unscheduled landing after a window cracked, two weeks after an accident on a separate plane in which a passenger was partially sucked out of a destroyed window and died. Flight 957 from Chicago-Midway to Newark, New Jersey, didn’t lose cabin pressure as it diverted to Cleveland, Southwest said in a statement. An …

Bloomberg Hennes & Mauritz AB Chairman Stefan Persson may be single-handedly propping up shares in the Swedish fashion retailer. In April alone, the billionaire acquired about 18.2 million shares in Stockholm-based H&M for $278 million, bringing the value of purchases since the beginning of last year to 13.4 billion kronor. The transactions mean that Persson and his family now hold …

Bloomberg Construction lights were so bright they were confusing to pilots who tried to land at night in July 2017 when a fatigued Air Canada crew almost struck four aircraft on the ground in San Francisco, according to preliminary reports. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released more than 500 pages of investigative reports, including a video recording of the …

Abu Dhabi / Emirates Business A total of 217 space sector start-ups and entrepreneurs received funding exceeding $2.5 billion throughout 2017, with 14 having been founded in the Middle East, audiences heard at the final day of the Global Aerospace Summit in Abu Dhabi. Of the 217, 121 are based in the US, according to Mark Boggett, Managing Director of …

Bloomberg Rosneft PJSC plans to start a $2 billion share buyback this year, while also cutting spending and debt. The state-run producer, which pumps more than 40 percent of Russia’s crude, has already signalled a shift towards more efficient “organic” growth, ending years of deal-driven expansion that made it the country’s most indebted company. The latest announcement could boost Rosneft’s …

Bloomberg OPEC continues to over-deliver on its production cuts, with output falling further last month as the group nears its goal of rebalancing the oil market. The cartel pumped 31.93 million barrels a day, down from a revised 31.97 million in March, a Bloomberg News survey of analysts, oil companies and ship-tracking data found. OPEC and a group of non-OPEC …

Bloomberg Britain is so cold it’s keeping more of the natural gas it produces and imports for itself. Over the past month, UK gas exports have repeatedly plumbed the lowest levels in at least a decade for this time of the year. Usually, with winter past and heating demand subsiding, Britain would have ample supplies to ship to the continent. …