Bloomberg Forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad took control of the strategic town of Manbij near the Turkish border amid growing pressure on Ankara to end an offensive that has drawn US and European sanctions and accusations of war crimes. In its strongest comments yet, Russia said the offensive was “unacceptable” and it was opposed to the presence of ...

Bloomberg Citigroup Inc, which is dissolving its investment-banking joint venture in China, is now planning to set up a wholly- owned securities business in the world’s second-largest capital market, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The New York-based bank may initially focus on brokerage and futures trading while expanding its custodian services in China, the people said, asking ...

Bloomberg JPMorgan Chase & Co’s traders and investment bankers emerged from a messy third quarter with a few surprise wins. Fixed-income trading jumped 25% and investment-banking fees posted an unexpected increase, the company said on Tuesday in a statement. That led the corporate and investment bank division to its best third quarter in three years. JPMorgan seized on some late-quarter ...

Bloomberg South Korea’s first-ever drop in consumer prices and a relentless decline in exports are adding to the case for the central bank to cut interest rates on Wednesday. The Bank of Korea (BOK), which lowered its key rate in July and left it unchanged in August, will reduce the seven-day repurchase rate by 25 basis points to 1.25%, matching ...

Bloomberg Bank of England (BOE) Governor Mark Carney has defended the concept behind new crypto currencies like the Facebook Inc-led Libra. Asked by lawmakers in London on Tuesday why firms like the social media company should be getting involved in such projects given the associated risks, Carney pointed to the shortcomings of existing payments systems. He said the high costs ...

Bloomberg Wirecard AG fell the most since February in Frankfurt after a news report said it found repeated questionable accounting practices at the German payments firm. Wirecard fell as much as 23% in early trading after the Financial Times said it’s published internal company documents and correspondence that “appear to indicate a concerted effort to fraudulently inflate sales and profits” ...

Bloomberg Paytm is close to scoring $2 billion of new financing from investors including Jack Ma’s Ant Financial and SoftBank Group Corp, a person familiar with the matter said, describing a mega-deal that will raise the temperature in India’s increasingly heated financial payments arena. Rob Citrone’s Discovery Capital Management is also in discussions to join a funding round that values ...

Bloomberg US equity-index futures rose with stocks in Europe as major Wall Street names began reporting earnings for the third quarter. Contracts on the S&P 500 trimmed some of their advance and Treasuries rallied as Bloomberg reported China may struggle to buy the volume of American goods proposed in the “phase one” trade deal. The three main American equity indexes ...

Bloomberg The pound climbed towards a three-month high after European Union chief negotiator Michel Barnier rekindled optimism for a Brexit deal before the week is out. Sterling is leading gains among of Group-of-10 currencies, after Barnier said a deal is possible this week but talks remain tough. Options prices showed that investors are positioning for further wider swings in the ...

Bloomberg South Korea unveiled plans to speed up the adoption of electric cars, self-driving vehicles and even flying automobiles in the coming years to help revive a sagging economy. President Moon Jae-in said in a speech on Tuesday Korean companies will invest 60 trillion won ($50 billion) over the next decade into the future of transportation. The government will spend ...