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Bloomberg Australian building approvals suffered the biggest annual back-to-back drop in almost a decade as a housing slump deepens. Building permits fell 22.5 percent in December from a year earlier after plunging 33.5 percent in November, Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed in Sydney on Monday. That’s the worst two-month result since January-February 2009, during the depths of the global ...

Bloomberg Acquisitive Chinese luxury apparel firm Shandong Ruyi Group is planning an initial public offering (IPO) for The Lycra Co., maker of the elastic material used in yoga pants and skinny jeans. Ruyi aims to list the business within three years, the group’s chief strategy officer, Kelvin Ho, said in an interview in Hong Kong. Lycra Co. owns some well-known ...

Bloomberg China’s consumers have cut back on purchases of everything from Apple Inc.’s iPhones to Swiss watches as the trade war with the US hits the economy. Landing just days after hundreds of local companies issued profit warnings and multinationals sounded the alarm about softening demand, the week-long Lunar New Year holiday will provide the next litmus test of the ...

Bloomberg After failing to stop Donald Trump from unleashing tariffs on national security grounds, the US business community is lining up behind efforts to limit his power to impose them. The US Chamber of Commerce, Business Roundtable, and two coalitions with dozens of trade associations are backing legislation to require congressional approval before a president imposes such national-security tariffs. Trump ...

Bloomberg Nissan Motor Co. abandoned a plan to make the X-Trail sport-utility vehicle at the UK’s biggest auto factory, saying uncertainty over Brexit isn’t helping on future investment. “We appreciate this will be disappointing for our UK team and partners,” Nissan Europe Chairman Gianluca de Ficchy said in a statement. “While we have taken this decision for business reasons, the ...

Bloomberg Concern about Brexit’s impact on the UK economy is growing, with consumer worries near crisis-era levels, investment falling and the property market suffering. Nationwide Building Society said that house-price growth ground close to a halt as values rose just 0.1 percent in January from a year earlier. That report came hours after research group GfK said consumers are the ...

Bloomberg Minnesota leaders are starting work on a $2 billion light rail project, the state’s largest infrastructure project — and the kind of spending that may help keep recession risk at bay. Spending by cities and states is a bright spot that could help to extend the expansion, now in its 10th year and within months of becoming the longest ...

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome (‘Jay’) Powell didn’t waste much time getting to the point at last week’s press conference. “My colleagues and I have one overarching goal: to sustain the economic expansion, with a strong job market and stable prices, for the benefit of the American people,” he said. It was a statement purged of ambiguity, with the Fed deciding ...

The biggest thing underpinning Tesla Inc.’s valuation is the promise of growth. And the biggest head-scratcher to emerge over the course of January concerns how that growth is being funded. Bonus: On an earnings call, the company managed to not so much bury the lead as entomb it. Almost two weeks after the electric-vehicle maker announced it was laying off ...

Wirecard AG has strongly denied fraud allegations reported by the Financial Times last week. But that hasn’t stopped about $5.7 billion being wiped from the German fintech darling’s market value in a matter of days. Even if the allegations are as unfounded as the company says, there are valid questions about whether the payments processing specialist justifies its generous valuation. ...