According to preliminary data of the US National Retail Federation (NRF), this year’s sales started with a larger number of active consumers. However, aggressive discounts and revitalization of online shopping have already resulted in a smaller purchase size. According to the NRF, number of Americans who came to offline regular stores during "Black Friday 2016" was 99 million people, compared to...

Chinese travel company Ctrip.com International announced $ 1.74 billion-worth purchase of Skyscanner Holdings Limited, which owns Scottish online tickets service. The transaction is expected to be closed in late 2016. According to Ctrip.com International, the company signed an agreement with main part of Skyscanner Holdings Limited’s shareholders. The deal’s terms imply that the Chinese company...

International rating agency Moody's rated the Greek banking system as "stable". The outlook was adjusted due to expectations of improvements in performance and funding of the country's financial organization, in spite of bad loans and limited opportunities for lending.  "We expect that Greek banks will return to small profit in 2016-17 years thanks to substantially lower deductions for...

Rail transportation is commonly accepted as greener than travel by road; trains and tramways could be considered as the first means of sustainable mobility. For a century, a lot of progress has been made, but there is still room for further progress and improvement.

The US Geological Survey discovered of a huge gas field in Texas, which could become the largest in the country. Oil reserves there could reach 20 billion barrels, gas - 453 billion cubic meters, gas condensate - 1.6 billion cubic meters. According to the US Geological Service (USGS)’s estimates, Wolfcamp could become the largest oil and gas field operating in the US. "We were able to make...

US branch of BNP Paribas SA bank became the most profitable among the European investment banks during the first nine months of this year, according to the company's statement to the US regulators, says Bloomberg. American branch of BNP Paribas - France's largest bank - reported profit before tax of $ 958 million on revenue of $ 3.87 billion, the bank’s reporting show. Previously, the Fed has...

Swiss bank PostFinance will charge retail customers a premium for deposits larger than 1 million francs (a little more than $ 1 million). This is stated in a message on the credit institution’s website. "I understand that this measure is not going to be very popular among our customers. No one likes to pay a commission," says General Director of PostFinance. It is expected that the bank will...

Chinese consumers are expected to spend $ 20 billion on Singles Day, a day of online sales tremendously popular in China, according to The Guardian. Less than seven minutes after midnight on Friday, the Chinese e-commerce giant has sold goods worth 10 billion yuan ($ 1.47 billion). Three years ago, Alibaba took six hours to get the same amount. Today, sales during less than a half-day have...

Yesterday, the US court found guilty British trader Navinder Sarao, whose actions contributed to collapse of the United States stock exchange, known as the Flash Crash, in 2010. While in Britain, the trader manipulated market quotes with techniques previously common in the hacker environment. This, coupled with actions of stock trading software, resulted in a 600 points-avalanche of Dow Jones....