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Bloomberg The world’s best-paying bond has a big fan in one of the world’s largest bond investors. Pacific Investment Management Co and its parent company, Allianz Global Investors, have snapped up an Argentine government note that pays a floating coupon equal to the country’s benchmark interest rate — which at one point in October reached a staggering 74 percent. They ...

Bloomberg Home prices in 20 US cities slowed in October for a seventh consecutive month, extending the longest streak since 2014, a sign of waning demand amid higher mortgage rates and elevated property values. The 20-city index of property values increased 5 percent from a year earlier, after rising 5.2 percent in the prior month, S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller data showed. ...

Bloomberg College football won’t go dark on New Year’s Day. Millions of TV customers from Boston to Washington were spared the loss of channels such as ESPN — and popular college football games — after Verizon Communications Inc and Walt Disney Co struck a distribution agreement on the eve of the New Year. The companies reached a broad-based, multiyear agreement, ...

Here’s one New Year’s resolution that should be easy: The United States and North Korea should resume the diplomatic progress they began in 2018 towards peace and denuclearisation. It’s a measure of this year’s turbulent pace that the Singapore summit between President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un just six months ago now seems a distant memory. The promise of ...

Donald Trump’s reported musings about whether he could fire the Federal Reserve chairman eclipsed an important signal from the central bank last week. Those who perused December’s interest-rate documents were focused on why the ‘dot plots’ projected two hikes next year and why the Fed didn’t abandon forward guidance. A stock-market swoon and press conference from Chairman Jerome Powell added ...

Global equity investors have reason to be concerned: The economic outlook is worsening, interest rates are rising and tensions in the US-China relationship could further harm growth. But all is not bleak. Japan provides a measure of certainty and promise, with a stable government, expanding economy, improving return on equity and booming tourism. Japanese stocks aren’t reflecting these positive factors. ...

As 2018 ends, retailers say goodbye to a relatively good year for the industry. Upbeat consumers, coupled with the long-awaited payoff from some slow-burn investments in e-commerce and supply-chain capabilities, finally helped them demonstrate they aren’t doomed. So what will shape retailers’ fates in 2019? Here are four focus points to keep an eye on: Tariffs: The industry may have ...

It’s been another year of relentless artificial-intelligence (AI) hype and incremental AI achievement. Machines still beat humans only in carefully constructed environments or at narrow tasks. The good news is that, as technology progresses, the race for leadership is still wide open, and even Europe, where politicians fret that continent is lagging behind China and the US, is still quite ...

If you’re impressed by Masayoshi Son’s $100 billion Vision Fund, China’s $856 billion in “guidance funds” will blow your mind. The country is quickly becoming a major player in the venture capital world. This year, Chinese investors are involved in over $90 billion worth of deals, second only to the US and up from only $11.5 billion five years ago. ...

For reasons largely outside its control, the Federal Reserve is now being widely blamed for fueling financial market instability and risking derailment of the US economy. This is quite a contrast from just a few month ago, when it was still being feted by many for its role as an active and effective repressor of financial market volatility. It is ...