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Bloomberg Paytm is close to scoring $2 billion of new financing from investors including Jack Ma’s Ant Financial and SoftBank Group Corp, a person familiar with the matter said, describing a mega-deal that will raise the temperature in India’s increasingly heated financial payments arena. Rob Citrone’s Discovery Capital Management is also in discussions to join a funding round that values …

Bloomberg US equity-index futures rose with stocks in Europe as major Wall Street names began reporting earnings for the third quarter. Contracts on the S&P 500 trimmed some of their advance and Treasuries rallied as Bloomberg reported China may struggle to buy the volume of American goods proposed in the “phase one” trade deal. The three main American equity indexes …

Bloomberg The pound climbed towards a three-month high after European Union chief negotiator Michel Barnier rekindled optimism for a Brexit deal before the week is out. Sterling is leading gains among of Group-of-10 currencies, after Barnier said a deal is possible this week but talks remain tough. Options prices showed that investors are positioning for further wider swings in the …

Bloomberg Sales of private apartments in Singapore jumped 13% in September to the highest in more than a year even as home-price growth moderated. Developers in the city-state sold 1,270 apartments last month versus a revised 1,123 in August, according to data from the Urban Redevelopment Authority released on Tuesday. That’s the most since July 2018, when the government shocked …

Bloomberg Santos Ltd. agreed to buy ConocoPhillips’ northern Australia business for $1.4 billion in a deal that will boost the Adelaide-based oil and gas producer’s position in the growing Asian liquefied natural gas market. The transaction may allow Santos to become the country’s largest independent energy producer and capitalise on a push by Asian consumers, including China, to switch to …

Bloomberg China’s biggest refiner plans to reduce operations from next month after a surge in the cost of shipping crude eroded margins. Freight rates have skyrocketed since the US announced sanctions on Chinese shipowners in late-September, triggering a flight from vessels owned by affected companies and a bidding war for alternative tankers. That’s driven up the cost of importing crude …

Bloomberg Hold on to your smartphone — the holiday price wars between Walmart Inc and Amazon.com Inc are heating up. Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, has introduced a programme to temporarily lower the price consumers pay for some items on its marketplace site, where third-party vendors pay Walmart a fee to list their goods. The merchants selling on the site, …

Bloomberg Southwest Airlines Co’s pilots don’t expect to see Boeing Co’s 737 Max resume flights until February “at least,” given work still to be done in a process fraught with safety concerns and politics. That’s well beyond the January 6 date the carrier has set for the grounded plane to be back in its schedule. But ending a global flying …

Bloomberg Authentic Brands Group LLC is in talks to buy luxury chain Barneys New York Inc for $268 million and open 41 Barneys shops in Saks Fifth Avenue stores, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Authentic Brands would close most existing and planned Barneys stores, including potentially the flagship Madison Avenue location, said the person, who asked …

Bloomberg Veteran litigator Dan Webb has joined Boeing Co’s legal team to defend the company in cases related to the deadly Lion Air 737 Max crash in October 2018, according to a court filing in Chicago. Webb will work with lawyers at Seattle-based Perkins & Coie LLP on nearly 60 lawsuits brought on behalf of victims Lion Air Flight 610, …