Bloomberg The US labour market ended the year with less momentum, as payroll gains cooled by more than forecast and wages rose at the weakest annual pace since 2018, even as unemployment held at a half-century low of 3.5%. Nonfarm payrolls rose 145,000 in December, the least since May, after a downwardly revised 256,000 advance the prior month, according to ...

Bloomberg US antitrust enforcers are proposing new guidelines for determining whether to approve mergers that combine companies that don’t compete with one another but operate in the same supply chain. The Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission announced criteria for how they would evaluate so-called vertical mergers in the future. If finalised, the guidelines would replace rules that haven’t formally ...

Bloomberg Wirecard AG Chairman Wulf Matthias resigned after months of controversy over the digital payments company’s accounting practices. Matthias stepped down as chairman of the supervisory board for personal reasons, and will be replaced by Thomas Eichelmann, the Aschheim, Germany-based company said Friday in a statement. Matthias will remain a member of the board. The payment processor’s shares have whipsawed ...

Bloomberg Amazon.com Inc said it had fired employees for leaking customer email addresses and phone numbers to an unspecified third party, the second time this week the technology giant acknowledged some workers had improperly accessed customer data. “We are writing to let you know that your email address and phone number were disclosed by an Amazon employee to a third ...

If a real-life “Beetle Bailey” — the Mort Walker comic strip soldier who’s a perpetual grumbler and questioner of authority in the US military — were to mutter a cynical assessment of what’s happened in the days since the killing of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, he might be tempted to call it “Operation Backfire.” The big shots, led by ...

In a world caught between bulls and bears, convertible bonds can please both camps. As coupon-paying securities, they provide income like a bond. But they turn into equity if an issuer’s stock rises by a set amount, so investors can taste some of the upside, too. In China, convertible bonds are by no means a compromise; they can offer mouth-watering ...

Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s Soliris may be the most successful rare-disease medicine in history. Its approval in multiple conditions and an annual price tag that can exceed $500,000 propelled the drug to more than $3 billion in sales last year. Now, for the first time, it looks like Alexion’s blockbuster will face serious competition. Last week, Kentucky-based Apellis Pharmaceuticals Inc. published ...

The good news is, Boeing Co. is starting to do the right things. The bad news is, it’s going to be expensive. The airplane maker said it would recommend pilots undergo flight-simulator training on its 737 Max before the embattled plane returns to service, reversing its previous stance that computer-based education would be sufficient. The Max has been grounded since ...

Australia isn’t what the world thought it was. A country that markets itself on the basis of its wide-open blue skies, azure waters and huggable wildlife is suddenly presenting a different face: Tourists in holiday towns, huddled on beaches to get away from the impending fire front; cities choked by orange smoke and falling ash; kangaroos and koalas incinerated as ...

For all the fears that central banks are out of ammunition, looser monetary policy over the past year provided a vital safety net that enabled stocks to surge and wiped out fears of recession. As 2020 unfolds, expect more easing. The year is barely a week old and already we have some indication about how things will unfold. In minutes, ...