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Bloomberg Oil rose to a four-week high after an industry report signalled a bigger-than-forecast drop in US crude stockpiles, adding impetus to a rally that’s been driven by a tense standoff between Washington and Tehran. Futures in New York gained as much as 2.3 percent. The American Petroleum Institute reported that inventories fell by 7.55 million barrels last week, according …

MEXICO CITY / WAM UAE Ambassador to Mexico Ahmed Hatem Al Menhali met with Mexican Assistant Secretary of Communications and Transportation Carlos Alfonso Moran Moguel. The two sides explored ways of enhancing cooperation between the two countries across different sectors. Al Menhali and Moguel emphasised that their cooperation and partnership would support bilateral projects and initiativ-es, particularly those of overall …

Bloomberg US President Donald Trump said substantial additional US tariffs would be placed on goods from China if there’s no progress on a trade deal after his planned meeting with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at the G-20 Summit in Japan. “My Plan B with China is to take in billions and billions of dollars a month and we’ll do less …

Bloomberg Technology shares gained on strong earnings from a leading chipmaker, while Treasuries fell with gold. The Nasdaq indexes rose after Micron Technologies Inc’s profit topped estimates. Chipmakers Intel Corp and Cisco Systems Inc also rallied. The S&P 500 pared early gains as heathcare shares and consumer staples weighed on benchmarks. Futures spiked higher overnight after a CNBC report that …

Bloomberg Bitcoin’s furious run is starting to look more and more like it did at the height of crypto-mania two years ago. The virtual currency surged as much as 14 percent on Wednesday, topping $12,900 for the first time since January 2018, and bringing its gain to about 30 percent. The digital asset has climbed more than 200 percent since …

Bloomberg Three big Chinese banks extended their drop on Wednesday, after a US media report suggested they could face fallout from an investigation into North Korean sanctions violations. China Merchants Bank Co., Bank of Communications Co. and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Co. fell in Shanghai and Hong Kong trading after the Washington Post said that a US judge found three …

Bloomberg The Czech central bank took a step back from Europe’s most aggressive campaign of interest-rate increases as global risks to the export-oriented economy overshadow domestic price pressures. After raising borrowing costs last month for the eighth time in two years, the central bank left the benchmark rate at 2 percent on Wednesday, in line with expectations. Policy makers have …

Bloomberg HDFC Bank Ltd., India’s biggest lender by market value, has picked Bank of America Corp. and Morgan Stanley to manage an initial public offering of its non-bank finance unit, people with knowledge of the matter said. The bank plans to sell the shares in HDB Financial Services Ltd. before March 31 in a deal that may raise about 100 …

Bloomberg Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the downside risks to the US economy have increased recently, reinforcing the case among policy makers for somewhat lower interest rates. “Crosscurrents have reem-erged, with apparent progress on trade turning to greater uncertainty and with incoming data raising renewed concerns about the strength of the global economy,” Powell told the Council on Foreign …

Bloomberg Mario Draghi is once again testing the boundaries of the law in his efforts to lift the euro zone out of its economic malaise. When the European Central Bank president promised last week to add monetary stimulus if the outlook doesn’t improve, he said one option is to resume large-scale purchases of government bonds. He also said self-imposed limits …