Bloomberg Malaysia said it will buy at least four Littoral Mission Ships from China as Prime Minister Najib Razak announced “new steps” in military cooperation between the two countries. Najib oversaw the purchase of the vessels on Tuesday during a state visit to Beijing. While no details were released on the value of the ships, the deal comes after ...

  Bloomberg Sony Pictures Entertainment is planning an initiative with writers in China as part of the film company’s efforts to increase its presence in the world’s second-biggest movie market. The studio, part of Tokyo-based Sony Corp., plans to work with and host established as well as up-and-coming writers, the company said in a statement. Sony executives are participating this ...

  Bloomberg India may ease a deadline to cut pollution from coal-fired power plants blamed for causing the world’s worst air quality amid pressure from generators who say it’s too difficult to implement the $37 billion reforms. The deadline to meet all the new standards may be pushed back beyond the original December 2017 target, said S.D. Dubey, chairman of ...

  Bloomberg German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government is relaxed about the assurances Britain gave to Nissan Motor Co., viewing attempts to keep the carmaker in the U.K. as inevitable given the expected negative economic fallout of Brexit. British efforts to keep companies based in Britain are understandable as Prime Minister Theresa May has to do what’s needed to prevent the ...

  Bloomberg Brazil’s drought has gotten so bad that the country’s instant-coffee makers, the world’s top suppliers, are no longer entering into new export contracts amid a shortage of the robusta beans needed to make the quick brew. Producers have stopped entering into sales commitments since September because of depleted stockpiles of the beans, according to a Abics, a group ...

  Bloomberg Tesla Motors Inc. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk took his skeptics to task, giving more detail on potential benefits of the automaker’s pending SolarCity Corp. acquisition and saying the deal’s doubters have a history of making bad predictions. While people once questioned the company’s ability to make electric cars, the surge of interest in the forthcoming Model 3 ...

  Bloomberg Royal Dutch Shell Plc, the world’s second-biggest oil company by market value, thinks demand for oil could peak in as little as five years. “Oil, we’ve long been of the opinion that demand will peak before supply,” Chief Financial Officer Simon Henry said on a conference call on Tuesday. “And that peak may be somewhere between 5 and ...

  Bloomberg Automakers reported lower US sales for October, reinforcing the idea the market may have plateaued at a healthy level that still supports the US economy. The companies faced a difficult comparison to the year-earlier month, which was the best of 2015 and had two more sales days. Sales fell 4.4 percent to 1.39 million vehicles in October, Autodata ...

  DUBAI / Reuters Most Gulf stock markets rose early on Wednesday after drops in global bourses and oil prices, but banking shares continued to support Saudi Arabia. In the nine days through Monday, the Saudi index added 10.1 percent in response to the success of Riyadh’s international bond issue, which eased concern about tight liquidity in the banking system. ...

London / Reuters Global stock markets spiralled downwards on Wednesday with Europe following Asia lower as investors fretted over growing fears of a Donald Trump presidency. Asian equities sank and the Mexican peso fell after a poll on Tuesday showed Trump overtaking market favourite Hillary Clinton in the race for the White House. “This is what happens when politics trumps ...