Bloomberg Amazon.com Inc. opened up its popular home speakers to Apple Inc.’s music service, a new step in the nascent cooperation between the two tech rivals. Beginning from December 17, Apple Music will be available on Amazon’s Echo devices, according to a statement on Amazon’s blog. Music has always been one of Alexa’s most popular features, Amazon said. And Apple’s ...

Bloomberg Federal Reserve officials have stepped off a predictable path of interest-rate increases and are signalling to investors a hard truth about relying on increasingly contradictory economic data: There are no easy answers anymore. It’s going to be choppy. It’s going to bring more surprises. And it may get rough on those trying to track the central bank’s strategy. A ...

Bloomberg As Danske Bank A/S is investigated for money laundering, a key question remains whether it was used by anyone on US sanctions lists. Denmark’s biggest bank has so far said there’s no evidence sanctions were breached. But it’s also acknowledged that the risk can’t be ruled out. Last week, Danish police filed the first criminal charges against Danske, zeroing ...

Bloomberg The Australian central bank’s (RBA) lackluster wage-growth outlook indicates it may have to leave interest rates on hold even beyond 2020. Annual pay rises won’t get above around 2.75 percent for at least the next two years, the Reserve Bank projects. That’s about 1 percentage point less than the wage growth levels achieved when it last began raising rates ...

Bloomberg Pakistan devalued its currency for the fifth time this year as the nation negotiates a bail-out with the International Monetary Fund. The rupee fell 3.8 percent to 139 per dollar at close from 133.9. The rupee has erased more than a fifth of its value to become the worst performer in Asia this year, according to a basket of ...

Bloomberg For most of Asia’s central banks, things should be a whole lot less exciting next year, and that’s a good thing. As the US Federal Reserve looks towards topping off its interest-rate hike cycle, even those policy makers in the region who haven’t followed the tightening path should be in position to keep policy steady, according to Deyi Tan, ...

Bloomberg American Airlines Group Inc. pilots want the carrier to offer more training on Boeing Co.’s 737 Max to better understand new anti-stall software, after a preliminary report on an Indonesia plane crash suggested that aircraft malfunctions left aviators overwhelmed. The Allied Pilots Association made the request after what the union said was an unprecedented meeting with Boeing officials this ...

Bloomberg British Airways (BA) faces a coordinated campaign for bigger salary increases from pilots, cabin crew and ground staff in a challenge to its efforts to beat down costs. The British Airline Pilots Association, Unite and GMB unions are seeking BA’s first-ever joint pay deal, they said in a statement. The three-year plan would feature settlements above inflation, bonuses that ...

Bloomberg US private-equity firm Indigo Partners agreed to invest an undisclosed sum in Iceland’s Wow Air Hf, breathing new life into the discount carrier just hours after another suitor walked away. Indigo is led by William Franke, who has founded or invested in low-fare carriers around the globe. Terms of the preliminary agreement weren’t disclosed in a statement from the ...

Bloomberg Employees of Sears Holdings, inspired by the hardship fund for workers affected by the collapse of Toys ‘R’ Us Inc., are asking Chairman Eddie Lampert and the firms involved in the chain’s bankruptcy to preserve jobs and stores as well as guarantee severance pay and pensions. “While we understand that Sears and Kmart must make changes to survive, we ...