It’s that time of year when Australia’s bank executives go through their equivalent of a reality-TV audition. Like an episode of the X Factor, the parliamentary hearings into the four major banks are conducted in an atmosphere of high theater. Chief executives attempt to carry off pitch-perfect performances while the parliamentarians sat in judgment try to launch a few ...

  One simple chart is creating a lot of buzz in markets. It shows that for the first time in history, one bitcoin is worth more than one troy ounce of gold. Despite the flurry of discussion this factoid has generated, many are stupefied, not quite knowing what to do with this information or how to trade on it. Maybe ...

  Bloomberg Here’s another way of thinking about how far stocks have come in nine years. Relative to balances in money market funds and cash among mutual fund managers, the value of global equities is the highest in almost two decades. That observation courtesy of Ned Davis Research, which framed the comparison as an indication “cash is underweight” in Planet ...

  DUBAI / Reuters Most Gulf stock markets fell on Tuesday as blue chip Emaar Properties pulled down Dubai and stocks going ex-dividend hit Qatar, although Saudi Arabia closed marginally higher. Dubai’s index slipped 1.5 percent as Emaar lost 3.8 percent after it proposed a cash dividend of 15 percent for 2016, unchanged from the previous year despite a 28 ...

  Bloomberg Boeing Co. is nearing a decision to build a longer 737 Max targeted for trips from Boston to Los Angeles — and fill a gap in its product portfolio that Airbus Group SE is exploiting as it racks up order after order for its A321neo. For one key customer, Air Lease Corp., Boeing’s newest single-aisle plane can’t come ...

  Abu Dhabi / Emirates Business Etihad Airways successfully implemented a new booking standard driven by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) that enhances the level of information flow between travel agents and airline reservation systems. The New Distribution Capability (NDC) booking standard has been made possible following successful testing by Etihad Airways with Sabre Airline Solutions in partnership with ...

Bloomberg Gordmans Stores Inc., a Midwestern department-store chain founded more than a century ago, is preparing to file for bankruptcy, according to people familiar with the matter. The filing could come as soon as this month, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the process isn’t public. Shares of the Omaha, Nebraska-based company have fallen more than ...

  Bloomberg Safaricom Ltd, East Africa’s biggest mobile-phone company, would have to reconsider future investment in Kenya if proposals to break up the company are implemented, the head of mobile money at parent Vodafone Plc said. The company 40 percent owned by Newbury, England-based Vodafone was found to be Kenya’s dominant carrier in a draft report by U.K.-based advisory group ...

  Emirates Business Souqplace.com, the first Emirati online marketplace, connecting quality SMEs and artisan products to consumers, during a press meet shared insights on e-commerce and consumer shopping trends, in the UAE. Backed by the Emirati entrepreneur extraordinaire, Ahmed BinSalem Al Dhaheri, Chairman, Virtual Dusk, Souqplace.com aims at providing a platform to the blooming SME space of the UAE to ...

  Bloomberg Indonesia is set to attract as much as $5 billion in funds from Japan should S&P Global Ratings raise the nation’s debt rating to investment grade, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. S&P will probably lift Indonesia’s debt rating to BBB- within the next six months from BB+, as the government has pushed forward with fiscal reforms, Danny ...