April, 2017

• 23 April

  BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill damage valued at $17.2bn

    Bloomberg BP Plc’s 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill caused damage to beaches, animals, fish and coral that the public values at $17.2 billion, according to a financial accounting released on the seventh anniversary of the disaster. The tally, published in the journal Science, is based on a survey of thousands of Americans that asked what they’d be willing ...

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• 23 April

  Samsung BioLogics in talks for 15 pharma contracts

  

    Bloomberg Samsung BioLogics Co., an arm of South Korea’s biggest conglomerate, said it is in negotiations to manufacture drugs for more than 15 international pharmaceutical companies as it tries to expand in the growing industry for complex biologic medicines. The talks mostly involve US and European firms, Chief Executive Officer Kim Tae-han said in an April 19 interview at ...

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• 23 April

  ‘China should open service sector to boost trade flows’

  

    Bloomberg China should open up its services sector to ease trade tensions with the US and bolster global trade, according to a senior official from the International Monetary Fund. The medical, health, legal and financial services sectors are among areas that could be liberalized, Changyong Rhee, the Asia-Pacific director at the IMF, said in an interview at a gathering ...

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• 23 April

  Trump’s infrastructure plan a boon for iron ore

  

    Bloomberg US President Donald Trump’s plan to upgrade the nation’s roads, ports and bridges will drive demand for steel and support iron ore prices, Australia’s Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said. “The US and the Trump administration has put out a very ambitious infrastructure investment program” and the steel will have to come from somewhere, Cormann said in an interview ...

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• 23 April

  Britons’ housing market confidence near 3-year low

  

    Bloomberg Britons’ confidence in the housing market stayed near a three-year low in March as sentiment toward the economic outlook soured, according to Halifax. An index of home-value expectations climbed to 44 from 42 in October, when Brexit pushed it down by a record to its lowest level since June 2013, the lender said. Fifty-eight percent of respondents predict ...

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• 23 April

  Sales of existing US homes rise fastest in decade

  

    Bloomberg Sales of previously owned US homes rose more than forecast in March to the fastest pace in a decade, signaling sustained momentum in the housing market despite higher prices and scarce supply, a report from the National Association of Realtors showed. Contract closings jumped 4.4 percent to a 5.71 million annual rate (forecast was 5.60 million), the highest ...

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• 23 April

  Biotech M&A falls off as Trump ‘dashes hopes’

  

    Bloomberg After almost three years of booming health-care dealmaking in the US, 2017 is off to a slow start. Pharmaceutical and biotech acquisitions totaled $44 billion last quarter, down 13 percent from a year earlier, and 35 percent below the first quarter of 2015, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. And exchange-traded funds, a good indicator of investors’ appetite ...

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• 23 April

  Wage growth in east, central Europe shows upward trend

  

    Bloomberg Central and eastern Europe has long been considered a relatively cheap manufacturing hub to make sophisticated products like cars and electronics goods at a fraction of what it would cost in the West. Accelerating salary growth may now be changing that perception. Average nominal wages rose 10.7 percent in Hungary in February from a year ago, the most ...

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• 23 April

  Euro-area recovery broadens with strongest growth in 6 years

    Bloomberg Euro-area economic momentum accelerated to its fastest pace in six years, with France unexpectedly outperforming Germany in a strong start to the second quarter that suggests the recovery is broadening. France’s composite Purchasing Managers’ Index unexpectedly advanced to a six-year high of 57.4 in April, putting it above Germany’s for the first time since 2012, according IHS Markit ...

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• 23 April

  Waymo seeks to bar Uber engineer from driverless car project

  

    Bloomberg Waymo says it’s uncovered new evidence that Uber Technologies Inc. took and copied its trade secrets and urged a judge to bar the head of the ride-hailing company’s driverless car program from continuing to work on the project. Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo made the request as a federal judge weighs whether to issue a court order that may impede ...

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