DUBAI / Reuters Profit taking dragged most stock markets in the Middle East lower on Thursday, erasing most of the previous session’s gains as some of the optimism generated by generally positive first quarter results faded. Saudi Arabia’s index retreated 0.3 percent, after rising 0.9 percent on Wednesday when Saudi British Bank reported an earnings beat and banking shares ...

  Bloomberg US stocks opened lower as the dollar stabilized from earlier losses as markets digested comments from US President Donald Trump on Wednesday denouncing the greenback’s strength and championing lower interest rates. Banking stocks led a European decline. The S&P 500 Index opened down 0.25 percent at 2,339.09 Thursday, while the Dow Jones Industrial average fell 0.24 percent to ...

  Bloomberg The spectacular failure of what was once the world’s biggest renewable-energy company has turned into a smorgasbord of wind and solar farms being gobbled up by infrastructure investors, clean-power developers and even a vegan soccer team. Since filing the largest US bankruptcy of 2016, SunEdison Inc. has hosted the biggest-ever sale of renewables assets. It’s shed at least ...

  LONDON / REUTERS Global demand for oil is finally close to outstripping supply after nearly three years of surplus production, despite growth in the overhang of unused crude, the International Energy Agency said on Thursday. The agency said oil stocks across the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) fell by 17.2 million barrels in March. Over the first ...

  Beijing / Reuters China’s crude oil imports surged to an all-time high in March to nearly 9.2 million barrels per day (bpd), customs data showed on Thursday, far surpassing expectations and overtaking the United States as independent refiners ramped up their purchases. The March imports came in at 38.95 million tonnes, or 9.17 million bpd, according to the General ...

  Bloomberg Drawn to India by an explosion in metro-rail projects, Alstom SA and Bombardier Inc are now poised to use the nation known for being the world’s back-office as a manufacturing export hub. The French and Canadian multinationals set up manufacturing and engineering operations between 2008 and 2010 to tap into India’s rapidly-growing urban transportation market and will now ...

  Bloomberg PetroVietnam Power Corp., Vietnam’s second-largest power producer, said the sale of a 49 percent stake to strategic investors and through an initial public offering could fetch about $600 million. PV Power, as it is better known, is open to selling as much as 60 percent of the company, contingent on government approval, according to a document posted on ...

  Bloomberg The UK is eyeing a deal with the US to give London-based banks free access to Wall Street, International Trade Secretary Liam Fox said as he predicted Britain’s economy would thrive even without a Brexit deal. In an interview with Bloomberg, Fox said he wanted to open up commerce with the US “in every sector” including financial services, ...

  Bloomberg Europe is likely to end the wheat season with the smallest stockpiles in 13 years. Inventories of wheat held in the European Union will probably plunge 37 percent to 10.1 million metric tons at the end of June, according to Tallage SAS, publisher of the Strategie Grains report. The combination of a poor harvest, strong consumption and higher-than-expected ...

  Bloomberg London’s housing market is in its worst slump since the depths of the financial crisis eight years ago, part of a broader slowdown that may continue. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said its price balance for the city fell to the lowest since February 2009 last month. It declined to minus 49, indicating that a greater percentage ...