Speculators have piled back into oil since OPEC announced output cuts in November. But don’t be fooled into thinking that means prices are set to soar. As my Bloomberg News colleague Alex Longley pointed out last week, hedge funds and money managers have placed record trades on an oil rally. Net long positions of so-called oil speculators reached an ...

  Europe’s promise to lower greenhouse-gas emissions looked bright a dozen years ago, when its leaders created the first big market for trading carbon permits. Sadly, though, its system has failed to encourage investment in clean technology and appreciably lower carbon dioxide emissions. Until the European Union trims the number of permits traded enough to drastically raise the cost of ...

  US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis in Iraq as forces of the war-torn country embarked on major air-and-ground offensive to drive IS extremists from western Mosul. Iraq’s second-largest city Mosul fell into the hands of the extremists in the summer of 2014, when the group captured large swaths of northern and western Iraq. Iraqi army, special operations forces, and federal ...

  Global bond markets trade on variables such as currency valuations, global fund flows, inflation expectations and monetary policy that can determine the level of interest-rate differentials. Recently these differentials have widened dramatically, specifically in developed markets such as Japan, the UK and Germany, relative to the US. There are multiple theories about why these differentials exist and how they ...

  I’ve always thought that the fastest way to get flying cars would be to spread rumors that China built one first. Well, Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority just announced that they have a Chinese-made flying car, and intend to put flying taxis in service this summer. Meanwhile, we’re still anticipating the flying cars promised by Uber Inc., Airbus Group ...

  Forget Donald Trump. Long before the White House began trafficking in alternative facts, Venezuela’s government had cornered the market in magical thinking. You say gross economic mismanagement is wrecking the economy? Nonsense, volleyed President Nicolas Maduro, the disappearance of goods like food and medicine is the work of unscrupulous profiteers. The continent’s largest oil producer can’t keep the lights ...

  Bloomberg Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is teaming up with Shanghai Bailian Group Co., one of China’s largest supermarket and department store chains, as Jack Ma accelerates an effort to employ technology to shake up old-fashioned retail. Alibaba’s planning to help upgrade some of Bailian’s 4,700 stores across the country, integrating everything from customer relations to payment and logistics in ...

  Bloomberg As politicians and businesses wrestle with potential changes to UK border controls, one of the world’s largest online travel booking companies has decided to double its headcount in London, and it’s not alone in looking to expand. Expedia will expand its UK office by 138,000 square feet, or to roughly twice the size of its existing space, and ...

  Bloomberg Steinhoff International Holdings NV and Shoprite Holdings Ltd. ended talks to create Africa’s biggest retailer after negotiations with shareholders including billionaire Christo Wiese broke down over terms. Wiese, who is the biggest investor in both companies, South Africa’s Public Investment Corp. and Steinhoff were unable to reach agreement on the share-exchange ratio that would have been applied to ...

  Bloomberg Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. successfully launched its second rocket in as many months, bringing it a 10th of the way to its goal of deploying 20 to 24 rockets this year. The Falcon 9 rocket that launched SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft separated minutes after liftoff and landed upright on Earth in its designated area. SpaceX expects to ...