Bloomberg Nigeria’s central bank is preparing to weaken its naira and abandon a currency peg that has starved Africa’s biggest economy of dollars and slowed foreign investment to a trickle. Naira forward contracts soared to record highs as traders added to bets on a weaker currency. In a retreat for President Muhammadu Buhari, who has resisted calls to let ...

  Bloomberg After World War II, the economic center of gravity in the U.S. began shifting from the cities to the suburbs — and that shift continued for more than a half-century. In the past few years, though, there’s been lots of talk about the trend reversing. What does the evidence show? Well, it can be a little confusing. Here, ...

  Bloomberg City Developments Ltd., Singapore’s second-largest developer, may seek to buy offices this year as rising interest rates makes such assets cheaper worldwide. “We are coming into a very good time for acquisitions,” Grant Kelley, CEO of City Developments, said in an interview in Singapore. “The long-term trend line for assets for the next 12 to 24 months could ...

    Bloomberg In the pre-crash days, sustainable building materials and low-flow toilets became part of the common real estate conversation: Slap “eco” on a home, the thinking went, and it was more valuable, not just to the earth but to the homeowner. The most direct path to an officially green building was through third-party certification—if the building could check ...

  London / Bloomberg Marks & Spencer Group Plc chief Steve Rowe’s strategy to reboot the retailer’s moribund clothing business got a cool reception from investors, with the stock falling the most in seven years amid concerns the plan will hurt short-term profits and doesn’t address some key decisions. The company will reduce styles to de-clutter its stores, cut prices ...

  Beijing / AP Chinese tech giant Huawei said on Wednesday it has filed patent infringement lawsuits against South Korean mobile phone rival Samsung in the United States and China, in a case that highlights the rise of Asian competitors as technology creators. Huawei Technologies Ltd. said it wants “reasonable compensation” but gave no financial figure for its claim against Samsung ...

  Bloomberg Deutsche Lufthansa AG is struggling to hire cabin crews for new routes, putting growth plans at risk as low wages and years of labour conflict complicate the airline’s recruiting amid a tight German job market. Through mid-May, Lufthansa has brought on about 500 flight attendants for its namesake carrier, the company said in response to questions from Bloomberg. ...

  Washington / AFP The Solar Impulse 2, a solar-powered airplane piloted by Swiss national Bertrand Piccard, successfully flew out of Dayton, Ohio in the dark early on Wednesday en route to Pennsylvania, according to a live online feed of the departure. The single-seat plane with the wingspan of a Boeing 747 is covered in solar cells that power its propellers ...

  Washington / Bloomberg The first thing online clothing reseller ThredUp did after clinching a new round of funding last year? Hunt for strategic warehouse space to get the goods to its customers as fast as possible. Amazon.com has spoiled them for anything less. Within six months, ThredUp’s chief executive officer, James Reinhart, had signed leases on two additional warehouses. ...

  Hairatan / AFP Some days there is no train at all crossing the bridge to Uzbekistan, yawns a customs officer in Hairatan, formerly a teeming Silk Road border town whose decline is a barometer of economic depression in Afghanistan’s north. “The camel driver is at work; the caravan is being readied,” proclaimed the mystic poet Rumi, born in Balkh ...