©2015 Bloomberg News NO5PVF6TTDS3 (Bloomberg) — Oil held gains after rising for an eighth week as U.S. drillers reduced the number of active rigs to the fewest in more than four years. Futures were little changed in New York after capping a 0.4 percent gain on Friday, the longest run of

©2015 Bloomberg News NO0ARK6KLVRG (Bloomberg) — The pound jumped as an exit poll indicated the U.K. Conservative Party will retain power after elections, quelling concern over the prospect of protracted coalition negotiations. Asian bonds tracked a recovery in Treasuries, while most stocks rose ahead of U.S. labor market data. Sterling

©2015 Bloomberg News NO05XU6JTSEH (Bloomberg Business) — Three of the biggest banks in Moldova reached the brink of collapse in November after suffering losses totaling $1 billion—a shocking sum in an impoverished Eastern European country with a gross domestic product of less than $8 billion. Now shock is turning to anger. In a

©2015 Bloomberg News NO085L6KLVRG (Bloomberg Politics) — Wanted: Elephants suspected of bilking American taxpayers. Arizona Senator John McCain released a report Thursday “highlighting, naming and shaming outrageous pork projects funded with your taxpayer dollars,” and it singled out those profligate pachyderms for the $50,000 grant they—or, presumably, those who research

©2015 Bloomberg News NNY4SJ6K50YC (For Energy column alerts: SALT NRGI ) (Bloomberg) — As the oil industry tightens its belt after the worst price slump in a generation, the state-owned giants of the Middle East are taking the opposite tack. Saudi Arabian Oil Co., Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. and

©2015 Bloomberg News NNY7DW6JTSEG (Bloomberg) — The European Central Bank’s bond-buying program has landed investors in a quandary that’s whipping up volatility in the region’s fixed-income markets. Signs the plan is helping turn around the euro area’s economy triggered a 1.4 percent loss on the region’s government bonds in April, the

©2015 Bloomberg News NNYA936K50YF (Bloomberg) — The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved a two-year program designed to test ways to boost investors’ interest in smaller stocks. The trading experiment, championed by small-business advocates and opposed by big investors such as Fidelity Investments and D.E. Shaw & Co., will widen the

©2015 Bloomberg News NNW51P6KLVRN (For Commodities columns alerts: SALT CMMKT ) (Bloomberg) — Iran is ready to return to the global commodities market, flooding it with fresh supplies and risking a slump in prices. Oil? Possibly, but there’s a second industry that could be even more disrupted by a nuclear

©2015 Bloomberg News NNWCFZ6JTSEI (Bloomberg Politics) — In the middle of Mike Huckabee’s presidential announcement, his populism took him to a land many Republican candidates fear to tread.”There are some who propose that to save the safety nets like Medicare and Social Security, we ought to chop off the payments

©2015 Bloomberg News NNWFJ96JIJV0 (Bloomberg) — Comcast Corp., the biggest U.S. cable-TV provider, will create more than 5,500 jobs during the next few years to improve customer service. Three new customer-support centers employing 2,000 workers will be set up in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Spokane, Washington; and Tucson, Arizona, Philadelphia-based Comcast