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Bloomberg Swiss watch exports posted the biggest quarterly drop since 2009 as the industry faces declining demand in all its main markets. Shipments dropped 8.9 percent in the first quarter, adjusted for working days, according to data from Switzerland’s customs office. Exports declined 16 percent in March to 1.5 billion francs ($1.5 billion), the lowest level for that month in ...

  Bloomberg Sweden’s central bank will buy more bonds to drive down longer yields as policy makers try to fight currency gains that threaten to undermine their efforts to rekindle inflation. The Riksbank kept its benchmark repo rate at minus 0.5 percent, it said on Thursday. The decision was expected by all 20 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. It will add ...

  Bloomberg Pension funds, a key emerging investor in renewable energy projects, are likely to lose interest in new deals in the U.K. if voters opt to leave the bloc, said the head of PensionDanmark A/S. Uncertainty that would be caused by a U.K. decision to leave the EU following its June 23 referendum would increase the risk profile of ...

  Bloomberg Volkswagen AG has agreed to set aside at least $10 billion to resolve civil claims by the U.S. government and lawsuits by American car owners over diesel vehicles rigged to cheat pollution controls, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said. The parties reached the accord ahead of a Thursday deadline set by a federal judge for ...

Bloomberg Soybeans extended a rally above $10 a bushel, the highest price since July, and corn traded near $4 a bushel as unfavourable weather in South America and prospects for improved demand for U.S. supplies bolstered agriculture markets. Dryness in Brazil is causing conditions to deteriorate for its second corn crop, and the country suspended import tariffs for the next ...

  Bloomberg Shareholders of oil-rig venture Sete Brasil Participacoes SA agreed to a plan to file for bankruptcy protection after its single client failed to present a viable book order. A Sete Brasil official confirmed that investors are backing the plan and declined to elaborate. Shareholders had set that day as a deadline for Petroleo Brasileiro SA to propose a ...

  Bloomberg Investors who bought bonds in Argentina’s record-breaking sale have made $497 million in profit in just one day. The bonds that were sold for $16.4 billion now have a market value of $16.88 billion as of 4:48 p.m. in New York, according to prices compiled by Bloomberg. The notes, the first overseas debt sold by the country in ...

  Bloomberg West Fraser Timber Co. and Canfor Corp., Canada’s largest lumber producers, are suffering from tepid demand in the U.S. where the recovery in the housing market is stuttering. U.S. housing starts fell a more-than-expected 8.8 percent last month, the Commerce Department said April 19. Housing demand isn’t strong enough to support lumber prices at current levels, according to ...

  Riyadh / AFP US President Barack Obama met Gulf leaders in Saudi Arabia on Thursday to push for an intensified campaign against the IS group, despite strains in ties with Washington. Making what is likely his final presidential visit to America’s historic allies, Obama posed for a summit photo with the six regional leaders, including Saudi King Salman, before ...

  JAKARTA / AP China has asked Indonesia to extradite four Uighur men in exchange for returning a graft fugitive recently arrested in Shanghai, the top Indonesian security minister said on Thursday. Coordinating Minister for Politics, Legal and Security Affairs Luhut Pandjaitan said Indonesia will allow China to question the men, who are serving prison sentences for collaborating with Indonesia’s ...