Bloomberg Beginning construction of US houses climbed to a four-month high in February, led by the strongest pace of single-family homebuilding in nearly a decade. Residential starts advanced 3 percent to a 1.29 million annualized rate, a Commerce Department report showed on Thursday. The median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg was 1.26 million. Construction of one-family dwellings rose ...

  Bloomberg The UK government intervened in 21st Century Fox Inc.’s 11.7 billion-pound ($14.4 billion) bid to take over Sky Plc, asking regulators to report back within 40 working days on how the deal would affect public-interest issues. “Today, I have issued a European Intervention Notice on the grounds of media plurality and commitment to broadcasting standards,” UK Culture Minister ...

  Bloomberg President Donald Trump said that he’s open to negotiation on the Republican plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, as conservative and moderate GOP lawmakers push changes to the proposal. Trump was asked by Fox News’s Tucker Carlson whether the legislation, called the American Health Care Act, was the best Republicans could do after seven years ...

  China’s National People’s Congress, which concluded on Wednesday, didn’t do much to ease the main worry about the world’s second-biggest economy: its large and growing pile of debt. In fact, to keep GDP growth ticking over at 6.5 percent or more, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang pledged a 12 percent expansion in credit this year. That implies about $2.7 trillion ...

  Even Inditex SA can’t defy gravity forever. The Spanish owner of the Zara fashion chain is still delivering the sort of sales growth rivals can only dream about. Same-store sales rose 10 percent in the year through January, the fastest rate in 14 years. By contrast, many competitors are struggling to generate growth on the same basis. But the ...

  When a mountain of trash collapsed at the fetid Reppi dump outside of Addis Ababa on Monday, at least 82 people died. It could’ve been worse: Hundreds of people live atop Reppi, Ethiopia’s biggest waste dump, trying to make a living from salvaging what city residents throw away. Despite well-known dangers, and the best efforts of the government, they’ve ...

  Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG is weighing the sale of its Indian retail businesses as the German lender considers asset disposals to help boost capital levels, two people with knowledge of the matter said. The bank is also considering selling retail operations in European countries including Spain, the people said, asking not to be identified as the plans aren’t public. ...

  Bloomberg Two of Australia’s largest banks vowed to toughen oversight of their foreign-exchange practices and each pay A$3 million ($2.3 million) to the nation’s financial literacy fund after a regulator found inappropriate conduct in their currency trading divisions. Westpac Banking Corp. and Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. said on Wednesday they entered into so-called enforceable undertakings with ...

  Dubai / Emirates Business Emirates NBD Asset Management announced the launch of its Emirates Islamic India Equity Fund in partnership with UTI International, one of India’s largest money managers, following approval from the UAE Securities & Commodities Authority (SCA). The Fund aims to achieve medium to long‐term capital growth through direct investments in Shari’a compliant Indian equities. It will ...

  Bloomberg Bank of America Corp. (BofA) views Dublin as its default destination for a new hub inside the European Union if Brexit means the U.K. loses easy access to the single market, according to one of the U.S. firm’s top executives in Germany. The bank will likely move some jobs to other cities across the EU, including Frankfurt, Madrid, ...