Bloomberg Amazon.com Inc. has partnered with General Motors Co. and Volvo Cars to deliver packages to car trunks in 37 US cities, as the e-commerce giant seeks new delivery methods for customers who may be wary of leaving packages outside or allowing couriers into their homes. The app-based service, which lets car owners provide delivery agents with keyless access to …

Bloomberg Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is getting its digital assistant into Mercedes-Benzes, Audis and Volvos in China, enlisting a clutch of global automakers in an effort to popularise the year-old technology for everything from shopping to home security. Daimler AG, Volkswagen AG and Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co.’s Volvo join some 100 brands Alibaba says it’s partnered with. The Chinese …

Bloomberg International Business Machines Corp., a group of four gold and diamond industry companies and an independent laboratory are developing a blockchain network for tracing the provenance of finished pieces of jewelry from mine to store. The TrustChain Initiative, which will run on IBM’s technology, includes precious-metals refiner Asahi Refining, US jewellery retailer Helzberg Diamonds, precious-metals supplier LeachGarner, jewellery-maker the …

Bloomberg Economists abandoned predictions that the Bank of England (BoE) will increase interest rates next month after two weeks of disappointing data and the public doubts of Mark Carney. The shock near-stagnation of the economy proved the final straw after the BOE governor raised questions about such a move last week. Firms including NatWest Markets, SEB, Berenberg and ING have …

Bloomberg Japan’s biggest bank has been accused by New York officials of dodging tough oversight by swapping its state license for a federal one, putting itself under a US agency on the front lines of President Donald Trump’s push to ease financial rules. The November move by Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. (MUFG) is now drawing scrutiny from a key …

Bloomberg Central banks from Frankfurt to Ottawa appear to be taking a lower gear on the road away from easy monetary policy amid signs some key economies are slowing. The European Central Bank avoided any discussion of its next steps toward ending bond buying and Sweden’s Riksbank pushed back a plan to raise interest rates for the first time in …

Bloomberg Mario Draghi said European Central Bank policy makers refrained from discussing the end of asset purchases or even the stronger euro as they focussed on gauging the health of the region’s economy. The Governing Council spent its two-day meeting assessing a raft of weaker economic data, the ECB president said at a news conference in Frankfurt. While acknowledging that …

Bloomberg Latvia’s prime minister says his nation is cracking down on shady dealings in the financial sector to help local banks regain access to directly transact in dollars. Doing so is vital for boosting trade and investment, according to Prime Minister Maris Kucinskis, whose government has sought to tighten banking supervision after the demise of the Baltic nation’s No. 3 …

Bloomberg Hong Kong may dig deep to reverse the city’s chronic shortage of land for building, adding underground caverns to the mix of options aimed at creating more housing in the world’s most expensive property market. It’s an option, according to a government body trying to come up with more land for development. Facilities such as sewage plants and reservoirs …

Bloomberg Airbus SE plans to cap its takeover of the Bombardier Inc. C Series jetliner by scrapping the Canadian plane’s 14-year-old branding, people familiar with the plan said. Among the names under consideration for a plane in which Bombardier invested more than $6 billion is “A200,” according to the people, who asked not to be identified as no decision has …