Frankfurt / AFP The Frankfurt stock exchange said on Monday that it is examining whether to lower a key hurdle for its planned merger with the London Stock Exchange (LSE) to go ahead. The shareholders of German stock market operator Deutsche Boerse have until Tuesday to decide whether to swap their shares for shares in the new merged company. ...

  Bloomberg French Finance Minister Michel Sapin said on Monday that Portugal does not deserve EU penalties for government budgetary overruns. “Portugal has made enormous efforts in the past years. It does not deserve excessive discipline,” said Sapin in Paris, speaking on his way to a meeting of European finance ministers. The ministers are meeting in Brussels and are mulling ...

  Bloomberg Nine of the world’s biggest offshore wind farm developers joined with the Scottish government to fund a 7.9 million-pound ($10.3 million) study aimed at curbing the costs of the expensive renewable energy technology. Companies including Dong Energy A/S, EON SE, Iberdrola SA and RWE AG, will together invest at least 6.4 million pounds over the next four years ...

  Bloomberg Britons won’t have to worry about staying warm this winter and they have Norway to thank. Natural gas imports from Norway are expected to increase October through March by as much as 18 million cubic meters a day, or 15 percent, from a year earlier, according to a forecast released by U.K. gas system operator National Grid Plc. ...

  Bloomberg Romania’s only bout of deflation since the fall of communism eased for the first time in five months as the base effect of a sales-tax cut last year faded, while low oil and energy prices kept price growth subdued. Consumer prices fell 0.7% in June from a year earlier after declining 3.5 percent in May, the National Statistics ...

  Bloomberg Oil dropped after U.S. producers increased the number of active rigs to the highest in 12 weeks, raising speculation output declines that have trimmed a global glut may slow. Futures fell as much as 1.3 percent in New York after rising 0.6 percent on Friday. Rigs targeting crude in the U.S. rose by 10 to 351 last week, ...

  Bloomberg Over nearly 45 years, the oil tanks at Milford Haven on the U.K. west coast have stored dozens of crude varieties: from North Sea Brent to Nigeria’s Bonny Light and almost everything in between. Now, for the first time, they are holding U.S. crude too. Trafigura Group Pte. is using Milford Haven, which can hold about 9 million ...

  Bloomberg Mail service across Canada may stop on Monday if the government-owned postal carrier and unionized workers fail to resolve a dispute over pay and pensions. “Progress is being made” in negotiations between workers and Canada Post, Labor Minister MaryAnn Mihychuk said in a release. Mihychuk said she encouraged the parties to continue discussions beyond tomorrow’s 12:01 a.m. deadline, ...

  Bloomberg Morgan Stanley, which advised investors to bet on bonds before the U.K.’s vote to leave the European Union sent global debt markets surging, is cooling toward government securities. The bank revised its outlook after yields in the so-called Group of Four — the U.S., Japan, Germany and the U.K. — plunged to records last week. Morgan Stanley, one ...

  Cucuta, Colombia / AFP Thousands of Venezuelans poured across the border into Colombia on Sunday to buy essential goods during a brief opening of the border that’s been closed for nearly a year. After ordering the border closed last August for security reasons, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro authorized a maximum 12-hour opening of the pedestrian bridge that connects Tachira, ...