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  Bloomberg Britain’s labor market isn’t cracking under the weight of Brexit yet. Companies added 172,000 jobs in the second quarter and the unemployment rate held at 4.9 percent, showing resilience in the buildup to the June 23 referendum when the UK decided to quit the European Union. While the data available for July—after the vote—are more volatile, they show ...

  Moscow / AFP The Russian government has unexpectedly halted the sale of its stake in oil producer Bashneft planned as part of a privatisation drive to shore up dwindling financial reserves, reports said Wednesday. The decision to postpone the sale indefinitely, reportedly taken by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and agreed with President Vladimir Putin, came after the economy ministry ...

  Bloomberg Poland’s law restricting the proximity of turbines near homes is bringing the wind-energy industry to a standstill, according to environmental researchers. At stake are more than 500 million zloty ($131.4 million) spent by investors to date on developing wind projects, according to a survey published on the website of Ambiens sp. z o.o. Environmental consultants last month polled ...

  Portugal / Bloomberg Portugal’s government bonds fell for a second day amid speculation that ratings company DBRS Ltd. may downgrade the nation’s sovereign debt. The country’s 10-year bond yield rose to the highest in more than two weeks. DBRS’s rating of BBB (low) leaves it the only major company to rank Portugal’s debt as investment grade. That’s essential for ...

  Oslo / AFP Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s biggest, posted a positive return on Wednesday for the second quarter, despite market pressure from Britain’s decision to leave the EU. The fund registered a return of 1.3 percent, or 94 billion kroner, putting its value at 7.18 trillion kroner ($876 billion, 777 billion euros) at the end of the ...

  The fight against the IS may get the headlines. But it’s the military threats from Russia and China that most worry top Pentagon officials — and are driving a new arms race to deter these great-power rivals. This question of how to deal with Russian and Chinese military advances has gotten almost no attention in the 2016 presidential campaign. ...

  It’s been a year since a sudden, 1.9 percent decline in the Chinese yuan rattled global markets and prompted fears of a global currency war. China has mostly soothed nerves by moderating the renminbi’s swoon since then. But what should really put minds to rest is the knowledge that no one — not even China, which arguably did power ...

  Financial markets are no longer just a barometer. Now they can cause storms. We can see two reasons that this happened: Active investors switched to autopilot, and economic regulators became followers rather than leaders. We can also see two outcomes: perverting the function of markets and creating new uncertainties in the economy. The decision by investors to shift from ...

  It’s going to be two months since the June 23 EU referendum and the mounting impact of a plunging pound. A recent report says that the prices of goods – from cars and computers to some foods and property – are increasing. And it is the consumers who are bearing the brunt of the rising costs. The apparent fear ...

  It was widely observed that Brexit was driven by anti-immigrant sentiment. A new Ipsos poll confirms that about half of Brits have a negative view of immigration, while only 35 percent view it positively. Much concern has focused upon European Union citizens currently residing in the U.K (they’ll certainly be grandfathered, as will U.K. citizens living in the EU), ...