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Bloomberg One of the world’s biggest banks has staged a mass return to the office in a country where the number of Covid-19 infections surged by 1 million just in the past month. About 60% of administrative staff at Banco Santander SA’s Brazilian unit — including some investment bankers and those in asset management — are now back at their …

Bloomberg The pile of the murkiest trades at global banks, long the bane of regulators, got much bigger during Covid-19. Lenders including Barclays Plc, Citigroup Inc., BNP Paribas SA and Societe Generale SA reported a surge of more than 20% in their most opaque assets during the chaotic first half of 2020, Bloomberg calculations show. The banks are now sitting …

Bloomberg Citigroup Inc. scored a temporary court order freezing $175 million that Brigade Capital Management LP declined to return after the bank accidentally transferred more than $900 million to Revlon Inc. lenders. The order followed a hearing in which the bank and the hedge fund faced off over Citigroup’s expensive blunder. The two will be back in court as the …

Bloomberg European stocks turned higher with US futures as investors signalled continued optimism in the post-pandemic rally after shares hit all-time highs on Wall Street. Gold slipped back below $2,000 an ounce. Gains in food shares including Nestle SA countered declines in insurers on the Stoxx Europe 600 Index. Contracts on both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 swings to …

Bloomberg The dollar sinks to its lowest level since May 2018 on concern that the world’s biggest economy will struggle to regain momentum amid a standoff over further virus relief and as infections continue to mount. The greenback has now erased most of the gains it built on the back of US-China trade tensions that started heating up around two …

Bloomberg Oil jumped to a five-month high alongside a surge in US equities as optimism that an economic recovery may be on the horizon lifted hopes for improving fuel demand to follow. Equities in the US, Europe and Asia strengthened, with the S&P 500 Index approaching the highest in months, bolstered by fresh stimulus out of China’s central bank. A …

Bloomberg Tongwei Co halted output at a polysilicon factory in southwest China because of flooding, the latest blow to the solar supply chain that has seen rare cost increases this summer due to disruptions. Tongwei, the world’s No. 3 polysilicon producer last year, said it isn’t clear when the Sichuan province plant will restart, and didn’t say whether it sustained …

Bloomberg China’s central bank supplied liquidity to commercial lenders to help them manage upcoming government bond sales, while leaving the price of the money unchanged as the economy recovers. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) added 700 billion yuan ($101 billion) of one-year funding via the medium-term lending facility. The central bank said that the operation is meant to offset …

Bloomberg The new normal of remote work has yet to reach the traders who deal with the Bank of Japan (BOJ). Japan’s central bank doesn’t allow home computers to connect to its network for conducting asset purchases and other market transactions, raising concerns at financial firms as coronavirus cases in Tokyo surge. At least three have asked the BOJ whether …

Bloomberg Westpac Banking Corp. has scrapped its first-half dividend, citing the desire to maintain a strong balance sheet in an uncertain operating environment. The lender had previously deferred any decision on a payout during the height of the first coronavirus outbreak. It will next consider dividends as part of finalising its full-year results. Westpac is the first of the nation’s …