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  Bloomberg China’s futures exchange is planning to relax the restrictions on stock-index contracts that sparked a 99 percent plunge in trading and heightened concern over the government’s intervention in markets, according to people familiar with the matter. The bourse is considering allowing non-hedging accounts to open 100 new positions a day on a single contract, the people said. Currently, …

  Bloomberg The US Air Force declared its version of Lockheed Martin Corp.’s F-35 ready if needed for limited combat operations, a milestone for the $379 billion program that’s the Pentagon’s costliest. The service’s announcement that the combat jet has an “initial operational capability” reflects progress after early years marked by development setbacks and rising costs. But the F-35 is …

  Bloomberg The roll-out of the Polish government’s flagship welfare program hit the country’s biggest retailer with a bittersweet result last quarter, lifting sales while also pressuring it to raise wages as it struggles to hire new workers. Sales at Portugal’s Jeronimo Martins SGPS SA’s Polish Biedronka supermarket chain jumped 10.2 percent in April to June from a year earlier …

  AFP Australian MH370 search authorities are hopeful a wing part found in Tanzania will shed light on how the flight crashed, amid a lack of public information on debris found a year ago. As the underwater hunt far off Australia’s west coast draws to a close without any sign of the plane, there has been speculation the flight’s final …

  AP If Alfred “Skip” Nichols had been a commercial airplane pilot, he probably would have been grounded long ago. Nichols, the pilot of a hot air balloon that crashed over the weekend in Texas, killing 16, was able to keep flying despite having at least four convictions for drunken driving and twice spending time in prison — pointing to …

  Bloomberg Canada is in the midst of one of its weakest expansions ever, and only the housing boom keeps it from getting worse. That’s one of the key takeaways from Friday’s GDP report. Two years since oil prices started plunging, Canada’s economy is almost completely reliant for growth on bank lending and the hot Vancouver and Toronto housing markets. …

  Bloomberg When talking about housing, “underwater” usually means you owe more on a mortgage than the home is actually worth. If climate change continues apace, that term could take on a much more literal meaning. Rising sea levels could soak homeowners for $882 billion, according to a new report from real estate website Zillow. The research takes its initial …

  Bloomberg Robust demand for mortgages. Real estate values rising at a solid clip. Construction employment in decent shape. A fresh cycle high for single-family home sales. With all this working in the housing market’s favor, it’s hard to envision why residential outlays took a step back in the June construction spending report, notes Bespoke Investment Group. Private residential spending …

  Bloomberg As Manhattan developers grapple with how to sell their luxury condos in a slowing market, Billy Macklowe’s Greenwich Village project is an anomaly: He’s found buyers for both penthouses in less than two months. Macklowe, who with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is planning a 52-unit condo tower at the site of the former Bowlmor Lanes, said the two …

  Bloomberg You’re a millennial buying your first home. Good work not moving in with your parents or renting a shoebox! But as you make the homeownership leap, you want space: Where can you go, and at what cost? Research released on Wednesday by Trulia looked at the U.S. metro areas with the largest starter homes, measured by median square …