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So much for secular stagnation. A November surprise that included a jump in wages as well as the biggest hiring surge in almost three years suggests the world’s largest economy is putting aside doubts about the strength of the expansion. The 321,000 advance in payrolls followed a 243,000 increase in October that was stronger than previously reported, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The jobless rate held at a six-year low of 5.8 percent and earnings rose by the most since June of last year. “It’s pretty impressive,” said Ethan Harris, co-head of global economics research at Bank of America Corp. in New York. The jump in payrolls “is the kind of number you get in a booming economy.” From factories to offices and retailers, employers took on more staff last month, giving American consumers the bump in pay needed to drive holiday spending. Treasury yields rose as traders bet the improvement in the labor market will help reassure Federal Reserve policy makers that

Treasuries fell for the first time in three weeks as more-robust-than-projected jobs gains last month lifted odds the Federal Reserve would increase interest rates by mid-2015. Two-year note yields reached the highest level in more than three years as shorter-term U.S. securities posted the largest losses. Improving U.S. labor conditions fueled speculation of higher Fed policy rates in 2015, while declining crude oil prices kept inflation estimates in check. The Treasury will sell $59 billion in notes and bonds next week. “The Fed is really going to be in play in 2015, and maybe even more aggressive than we thought,” said Eric Green, head of U.S. rates and economic research at Toronto-Dominion Bank’s TD Securities unit in New York. “Longer-term debt is being supported, for now, as low-inflation expectations remain, given lower oil prices and an uncertainty as to how low they will go.” Two-year note yields gained 18 basis points this week, or 0.18 percentage point, to 0.65 percent i

Facebook Twitter Google+ LinkedIn Save Consumer borrowing rose less than forecast in October as Americans tempered their credit-card use ahead of the holiday-shopping season. The $13.2 billion gain in credit was the smallest in a year and followed a revised $15.4 billion advance in September, the Federal Reserve reported today in Washington. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of 33 economists called for a $16.5 billion increase. Households wary of taking on too much debt are being deliberate in using their credit cards to make purchases. At the same time, a faster pace of hiring and a pickup in wages are prompting Americans to take advantage of low borrowing costs to buy cars. “The trend has cooled off in recent months following a period of stronger growth in credit earlier in 2014,” Daniel Silver, an economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co., said in an e-mail to clients. Still, the figures “continue to show a much stronger growth trend for non-revolving credit than revolving cr

Scientists know only two credible ways to prevent temperatures from rising to dangerous levels: stop burning fossil fuels or capture and bury the carbon dioxide byproduct before it gets into the atmosphere. The second idea, known in the trade as carbon capture and storage, or CCS, holds the allure of side-stepping the wrenching economic changes and political resistance associated with phasing out oil, natural gas and coal. One of the world’s most ambitious carbon capture sites opened in Saskatchewan in October, the first to commercially strip CO2 from an existing coal plant’s emissions.

$2 gasoline is back in the U.S. An Oncue Express station in Oklahoma City was selling the motor fuel for $1.99 a gallon today, becoming the first one to drop below $2 in the U.S. since July 30, 2010, Patrick DeHaan, a senior petroleum analyst at GasBuddy Organization Inc., said by e-mail from Chicago. “We knew when we saw crude oil prices drop last week that we’d break the $2 threshold pretty soon, but we didn’t know if it would happen in South Carolina, Texas, Missouri or Oklahoma,” said DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy. “Today’s national average, $2.74, now makes the current price we pay a whopping 51 cents per gallon less than what we paid a year ago.” Gasoline is sliding after OPEC decided last week not to cut production amid a global glut of oil that has already dragged international oil prices down by 37 percent in the past five months. Pump prices have fallen by almost a dollar since reaching this year’s high on April 26. Fifteen percent of the nation’s gas stat

Gold futures dropped a second day as the dollar strengthened before U.S. jobs data that may add to the case for policy makers to raise interest rates. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index reached a five-year high before a report that economists predict will show U.S. job growth quickened. The greenback has rallied on expectations an improving U.S. economy will spur the Federal Reserve to raise borrowing costs, while other central banks weigh more stimulus. The dollar and gold fell yesterday as European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said policy makers will wait to assess whether additional stimulus is needed, though ruled out buying bullion. Gold is still up 2 percent in New York this week, the most since October, and set for the biggest advance since June in London after surging on Dec. 1 as oil prices rebounded. “All eyes today will be on the release of the monthly employment report in the U.S.,” Abhishek Chinchalkar, an analyst at Mumbai-based AnandRathi Commodities Ltd., said in

The pound rose for the fourth time in five days versus the euro amid evidence the economy is withstanding the stagnation that may lead to more European Central Bank stimulus for its neighbors. Sterling was set for the first weekly advance versus the dollar since mid-October. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne upgraded the U.K.’s growth forecast for next year during his Dec. 3 Autumn Statement, a day before the ECB downgraded its forecasts for growth and inflation through 2016. U.K. government bonds fell, extending their first drop in five weeks. “Look at any of the data, employment is better, the PMIs are better,” in the U.K., said Paul Bednarczyk, a currency strategist at 4Cast Ltd. in London. “Euro-sterling could easily over the next year or two hit below 70 pence,” he said. The pound gained 0.2 percent to 78.80 pence per euro at 11:05 a.m. London time after touching 78.33 pence on Dec. 3, the strongest level since Nov. 12. It has jumped 1 percent this week. Sterling was l

Brent crude fell to the lowest level in four years on concern global supply is outpacing demand. West Texas Intermediate held at a two-year low. Both grades have collapsed into a bear market as shale supplies boost U.S. output to the most in almost 30 years and global demand growth weakens. The largest OPEC producers are responding by cutting prices, sparking speculation that they will compete for market share rather than reduce supply. “The supply boom is ongoing,” said Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research in Winchester, Massachusetts. “Nobody sees any reason to buy so people just keep selling off. The Saudis will have to cut production to stabilize the price.” Brent for November settlement declined $1.26, or 1.5 percent, to close at $83.78 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange, the lowest close since Nov. 23, 2010. Volume was 52 percent above the 100-day average for the time of day. Prices have decreased 27 percent from the June

Japanese corporate bankruptcies linked to the yen’s slide rose to a record, highlighting strains on small and medium-sized companies as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe campaigns for re-election on his economic strategy. Forty-two of the companies that failed in November cited the weaker currency as a contributor, bringing the total number of bankruptcies associated with the yen this year to 301, almost triple that of the same period in 2013, according to a survey by Teikoku Databank Ltd. It said surging costs of imported food, metals and construction materials squeezed small companies. The yen broke through 120 per dollar yesterday for the first time since 2007, as Abe’s handpicked central bank chief pumps a record amount of funds into the economy to stoke inflation. While some small firms struggle to pass on higher costs of imported materials to customers, large exporters are reporting higher profits and the total number of corporate failures is in decline. “Business conditions for smal

The World Economic Forum has a message for wealthy families thinking about impact investing: don’t just buy on the buzz, do your homework. Seeking investments with the dual purpose of making a profit and improving society has become trendy among wealthy people and money managers, who rarely have the expertise or tools to put it into practice, according to a report released today by the forum as it gathers heirs to some of the world’s fortunes for a discussion on the sidelines of Art Basel in Miami. “We’re making sure that there’s a little bit of a moderating voice, hopefully getting ahead of the potential hype or bubble,” said Abigail Noble, head of impact investing initiatives at the WEF, the international organization that holds an annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. “I am very passionate about impact investing, but I recognize it might not be for everybody. We want to make sure that decision-makers within family offices begin by asking the right questions of the sector and of t

Global oil’s fall below $70 provides a reprieve without being a cure-all for some of Southeast Asia’s biggest economies, where leaders face reform hurdles that could raise political risk into 2015. The slump in crude to five-year lows has given the leaders of Malaysia and Indonesia room to dismantle decades’ old energy subsidies that have restrained growth. Still, Indonesian President Joko Widodo faces street protests against higher fuel prices as unions plan a national strike to demand higher wages, while Malaysia Prime Minister Najib Razak’s efforts to broaden the tax base and cut spending have dented his approval rating. Both leaders will have further challenges in the coming year. Two months in office, Widodo, known as Jokowi, first rose to prominence from outside the major party machinery and must navigate a parliament dominated by his opposition, while Najib will implement an unpopular goods and services tax in April. The cases of Indonesia and Malaysia illustrate how an era

Wang Jianlin is China’s invisible tycoon. The founder of Dalian Wanda group will soon be the controlling shareholder of four listed companies spanning cinemas, real estate and hotels with shares that trade in China, Hong Kong and New York. Yet he is not on the board of any of them. What may look like good governance raises a different set of questions. Investors in Chinese companies are accustomed to founders with controlling stakes and enormous power. But Wang has no official role in Wanda’s commercial property division, which is planning to list a minority stake in Hong Kong, or in the upcoming offering of its mainland Chinese cinema business. He is also absent from U.S. cinema chain AMC Entertainment, which Wanda bought in 2012 and re-floated a year later, and from its Hong Kong-listed hotel unit. Wanda executives hold various board seats, including the chairman’s role at all four companies. Yet the tycoon’s lack of direct involvement is unusual. At first glance, it’s reassuring,

Infraestructura Energetica Nova SAB (IENOVA*), Mexico’s first publicly traded pipeline operator, is reaping the benefits of longevity as it wins the country’s most vital pipeline auctions amid the country’s energy industry opening. Ienova, the best performer on Mexico’s benchmark IPC index this year, returned 56 percent in 2014 and 140 percent since the company first sold shares last year. Ienova, Mexico’s sole shareholder-owned energy company, started operating the country’s largest pipeline project Dec.2 and won approval Nov. 24 from the state-run Comision Federal de Electricidad to develop the 205-kilometer (127-mile) Ojinaga-El Encino pipeline near U.S.-Mexico border. Ienova’s domestic network provides an advantage over international competitors TransCanada Corp., Atco Ltd. (ACO/X) and Gas Natural SDG SA (GAS), according to Alik Garcia, an analyst at brokerage Intercam in Mexico City. Ienova, which won its first contract to distribute natural gas in Mexico in 1996, is the larges

Europe’s economy faces a decade of drag as policy makers struggle to enact reforms, while China will keep meeting its short-term growth targets, JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said. “Europe is going to be tough,” Dimon said yesterday at an event in Washington hosted by Politico as he predicted years of “sub-optimal growth” in the region. “They have all the same structural issues that you read about of other countries, but it’s 17 nations -- and some of those structural issues have to be agreed upon in 17 parliaments and then by Brussels.” The concern echoes that of U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew, who last month called on Europe to do more to avert a lost decade of growth. European Central Bank President Mario Draghi will lead the Governing Council today in its last policy meeting of 2014, when it will debate proposals on new tools to improve the economy. Europe’s situation contrasts with the U.S., which Dimon called a “bright spot,” and with

UBS AG (UBSN) and Credit Suisse Group (CSGN) AG rose in Swiss trading after the country’s two largest banks announced the sale of almost $1.3 billion of assets on the last day of 2008. UBS, Switzerland’s biggest bank, gained 7.6 percent, or 1.13 franc, to 15.97 francs in Zurich. Credit Suisse added 12 percent, or 3.5 francs, to 32 francs, the biggest gain in four weeks. UBS sold shares in Bank of China Ltd. worth about $900 million to institutional investors after a lock-up period ended, and Credit Suisse agreed to sell a stake in its Global Investors business to Aberdeen Asset Management Plc (ADN) for 250 million pounds ($363 million) in stock. Both banks are scaling back because of the global credit crunch. “The selling of these assets brings in more liquidity,” said Teresa Nielsen, an analyst at Bank Vontobel in Zurich. UBS, which got a $59.2 billion aid package by the Swiss government and central bank last year, has slashed 9,000 jobs and posted almost $49 billion in losses an

Mortgage rates for 30-year U.S. loans fell for a fourth week, reducing borrowing costs to the lowest level in a year and a half. The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage was 3.89 percent, down from 3.97 percent last week, Freddie Mac said in a statement today. That was the lowest since May 2013. The average 15-year rate dropped to 3.10 percent from 3.17 percent, the McLean, Virginia-based mortgage-finance company said. Lower borrowing costs are helping to make housing purchases more affordable as values rise across much of the country. Home prices rose 6.1 percent in October, the 32nd straight year-over-year increase, CoreLogic Inc. said this week. “Lower mortgage rates would be a net positive for the U.S. housing market and the economic recovery more generally,” Millan Mulraine, deputy head of U.S. research and strategy at TD Securities USA LLC in New York, said in a phone interview. “It improves affordability and provides a greater incentive for people on the sidelines, waiti

Proved reserves of crude and lease condensate in the U.S. rose 9.3 percent in 2013 as drillers showed they could extract more oil than previously thought from shale formations in places like Texas and North Dakota. Reserves increased 3.1 billion barrels to 36.5 billion, the Energy Information Administration said today in its annual U.S. Crude Oil and Natural Gas Proved Reserves report. It was the fifth year in a row that proved reserves increased. They also exceeded 36 billion barrels for the first time since 1975. Proved reserves, or resources that can be recovered under existing economic and operating conditions, grew after U.S. oil output surged to the highest level in 31 years. Companies used horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing to extract oil from underground shale rock layers that sat untouched a decade ago. “We know there is oil,” Fadel Gheit, an analyst at Oppenheimer & Co., said in a telephone interview from New York. “We know it will exceed even the most optimi

Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne announced a higher forecast for U.K. government borrowing as he overhauled the tax on buying homes and increased levies on multinational companies and banks. Britain will borrow 91.3 billion pounds ($143 billion) in the current fiscal year, Osborne said in his end-of-year update to Parliament in London today, citing estimates from the Office for Budget Responsibility. The OBR forecast in March that borrowing would be 86.4 billion pounds after accounting changes that took effect three months ago. “Today we do not shy away from the problems that remain unresolved in the British economy -- while the deficit is falling, it remains too high,” Osborne said. “Britain faces a choice. Do we squander the economic security we have gained, go back to the disastrous decisions on spending and borrowing and welfare that got us into this mess, or do we finish the job –- and go on building the secure economy that works for everyone?” Five months before the

Kuwait’s oil minister said the nation’s decision to back an unchanged OPEC production limit last week was to ensure the group preserves market share amid a global glut. Expanding output from U.S. shale supplies helped cause that excess, his United Arab Emirates counterpart said. “Everyone wants you to reduce your production while they increase theirs and drown the market,” Kuwait’s Ali Al-Omair told parliament today, the state-run Kuwait News Agency reported. “We have to maintain our market shares and continue with a production that covers our needs.” U.S. shale producers increased output faster than global demand growth warrants and must help to tackle the resulting surplus, U.A.E. Energy Minister Suhail Al-Mazrouei said on his Twitter account. The two nations joined Saudi Arabia and Qatar in resisting calls to curb output from the other eight members of the Organziation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, five people briefed on the group’s Nov. 27 meeting said. Brent crude plunged 3

The U.S. Navy intends to award Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc. (HII) a contract early next year, potentially for more than $4 billion, to build the second of a new class of aircraft carriers. “The Navy is still negotiating with the company to reach a fair and reasonable price, and we hope to do that as soon as possible,” Commander Thurraya Kent, a spokeswoman for the service, said in an e-mail. “Early 2015 is still” the intended contract award date, she said this week. The ship, the USS John F. Kennedy, is the second of three planned in the new carrier class. While Congress has ordered that the Kennedy’s cost be capped at $11.5 billion, the first ship, the USS Gerald R. Ford, is projected to cost $12.9 billion when completed and fully equipped, 22 percent more than estimated five years ago. A Government Accountability Office report on Nov. 20 said the Ford’s cost may increase even more and that planned savings for the Kennedy assume labor efficiencies never achieved in building a

Corporate bond sales worldwide are poised to set an annual record as soon as this week as companies lock in borrowing costs that forecasters say are bound to rise. Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), Volkswagen AG (VOW) and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. have propelled offerings to $3.96 trillion this year, about $7 billion short of the peak of $3.97 trillion in 2012, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Company bond sales in the U.S. have already set annual records. In a year when debt underwriters from Bank of America Corp. to Barclays Plc predicted a slowdown as the Federal Reserve scaled back from its debt purchases, issuance has soared as a decline in benchmark borrowing costs that almost no one anticipated pushed yields close to record lows. While central banks in Europe and Japan have stepped up their own stimulus efforts, the likelihood the Fed will raise interest rates next year has fueled the borrowing binge by companies globally. “It’s like a constant ‘look-over-your-shoulder’ type

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Even billionaire Richard Branson may need a partner to stand a chance of taking on Britain’s largest banks. Lawmakers are encouraging the growth of lenders such as Branson-backed  Virgin Money Holdings (U.K.) Plc (VM/)  to challenge the dominance of Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc,  HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA) , Lloyds Banking Group Plc and  Barclays Plc. (BARC) The smaller “challenger” banks may have no choice other than to merge with each other if they hope to compete against these four, which control as much as 80 percent of the market. “Consolidation in the medium term is inevitable,” Warren Mead, head of challenger banking and alternative finance at KPMG LLP, said in a phone interview. “They don’t have sufficient scale on their own to be effective challengers.” The need to gain scale could drive Virgin Money together with  TSB Banking Group Plc (TSB) , the consumer lender carved out of Lloyds in June, according to Gary Greenwood, an analyst at Shore Capital Group Ltd. The tw

Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc (RBS)  is closing most of its European debt restructuring business outside the U.K. as the nation’s largest publicly owned lender winds down its  global restructuring group , according to two people familiar with the matter. RBS began shutting down units in Amsterdam, Madrid, Milan and Paris in September, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plan is private. James Abbott, a spokesman for RBS in  London , declined to comment on the closures and the number of employees affected. RBS is disbanding its restructuring operations as it disposes of unwanted assets and focuses on its U.K. business after receiving the world’s biggest bank bailout during the financial crisis. The global restructuring group came under the scrutiny of U.K. lawmakers last year after a government-commissioned report accused the bank of deliberately pushing viable companies into bankruptcy to boost profits. RBS identified small businesses as distressed

Oil’s decline is proving to be the worst since the collapse of the financial system in 2008 and threatening to have the same global impact of falling prices three decades ago that led to the Mexican debt crisis and the end of the Soviet Union. Russia, the world’s largest producer, can no longer rely on the same oil revenues to rescue an economy suffering from European and U.S. sanctions. Iran, also reeling from similar sanctions, will need to reduce subsidies that have partly insulated its growing population. Nigeria, fighting an Islamic insurgency, and Venezuela, crippled by failing political and economic policies, also rank among the biggest losers from the decision by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries last week to let the force of the market determine what some experts say will be the first free-fall in decades. “This is a big shock in Caracas, it’s a shock in Tehran, it’s a shock in Abuja,”  Daniel Yergin , vice chairman of Englewood, Colorado-based consultant

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Home prices  in London’s wealthiest neighborhoods fell on a monthly basis for the first time in four years as uncertainty over property taxes and national elections next year deterred buyers. Values in the 13 neighborhoods including Chelsea and Mayfair that Knight Frank LLP defines as prime central London declined 0.2 percent in November from October, the first drop since October 2010, the broker said in a report today. London’s luxury-home market is running out of steam after outperforming the rest of the U.K. since 2009. The opposition Labour Party  plans to raise 1.2 billion pounds ($1.9 billion) from an annual tax on homes valued at more than 2 million pounds if it wins the election next year. Labour and Prime Minister  David Cameron ’s Conservative Party  were tied with 31 percent support in a YouGov/Sun poll published Nov. 28. “It is difficult to rank individual reasons for the decline in order of importance, but anecdotally they appear to include the looming U.K. general

Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC)  targets black and Latino borrowers for more costly home loans than their white counterparts in the  Chicago  area, helping to prolong a local and national foreclosure crisis, the biggest county in  Illinois  said. Cook County, which has a population of more than 5 million and includes the third-biggest U.S. city, accused the bank of engaging in predatory lending in a complaint filed today in Chicago federal court, following similar efforts by municipal governments in Los Angeles and Miami. The bank’s tactics start at home-loan origination and continue through refinancing and foreclosure, the country said, a process its lawyers summarized in the complaint as “equity stripping.” The process may have involved as many as 26,000 loans, the county said. “Equity stripping is an abusive form of ‘asset based lending’ that maximizes lender profits based on the value of the underlying asset and onerous loan terms, while in disregard for a borrower’s ability to

For the first time in  five years , $2 gasoline is making a comeback in some areas of the U.S., just in time for the Dec. 25 Christmas holiday. Retail stations scattered across the U.S. South and Midwest are about 20 cents shy of the $2-a-gallon mark. In New York, gasoline futures slid more than 13 cents Nov. 27 after OPEC failed to cut oil production to stem a glut. That decline alone could drag down pump prices by as much as 20 cents a gallon,  Michael Green , a spokesman for the Heathrow, Florida-based motoring club AAA, said yesterday by phone. “We could see the cheapest 1 percent of stations get within a few pennies of $1.99 over the next two weeks,” Patrick DeHaan, a senior petroleum analyst at GasBuddy Organization Inc., said yesterday by phone from  Chicago . “We’ll see at least one station in the nation at $2 by Christmas. And that’s not really a prediction at all. That’s more like a certainty.” The motor fuel has slid by almost a dollar a gallon in the U.S. from this

Oil plunged below $70 a barrel for the first time since 2010, leading a selloff in commodities  and energy shares. Treasuries advanced and the dollar reached a five-year high, while retailers rose amid Black Friday sales. West Texas Intermediate tumbled 10 percent to $66.15 for the biggest drop in more than five years. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot  Index  climbed to a five-year high as of 3:24 p.m. in New York, while gold sank 1.8 percent. Yields on 10-year Treasuries dropped 8 basis points to the lowest in more than five weeks, and Japan’s two-year rates turned negative for the first time. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index  dropped  0.3 percent and the Russell 2000 Index fell 1.5 percent, as U.S. markets reopened after the Thanksgiving holiday. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries kept its production ceiling unchanged, underscoring the price war in the crude market and challenge to U.S. shale drillers. The rout in oil is damping inflation, with price growth slowing i

Canada ’s biggest energy producers now face the same prospects of shrinking budgets and declining profit as their smaller rivals as prices drop for what’s already the world’s cheapest oil. Producers including  Suncor Energy Inc. (SU)  and  Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. (CNQ) , which each fell the most in at least three years yesterday, operate in one of the most expensive places on earth to produce oil. If crude prices continue sinking following OPEC’s decision not to cut global oil supplies, Canada’s producers big and small will have to tighten their belts to prepare for declining profits. “This is a pretty big shock,” said Justin Bouchard, an analyst at Desjardins Securities Inc. in Calgary. “There’s no question there’s going to be a slowdown. Even the big guys will have to look at their  capital spending  plans.” Western Canada Select, the Canadian benchmark, has lost more than a third of its value since June, in step with declines for West Texas Intermediate and the inter

SABMiller Plc (SAB)  wants to strengthen its partnership with French drinks company Groupe Castel after forming the biggest  Coca-Cola Co. (KO)  bottler in  Africa  with the world’s largest soft-drink maker. Castel “are partners of ours, so what we’d want to do is show them the benefits of what we’re doing and try and see if we can work together on further opportunities,” Mark Bowman, managing director of SABMiller Africa, said in an interview in Johannesburg yesterday. The shares rose as much as 0.9 percent to 3,578.50 pence and was little changed as of 1:31 p.m. in  London . The maker of Grolsch and Peroni lagers yesterday agreed to combine bottling operations for non-alcoholic beverages with Coca-Cola in southern and  East Africa . Castel is often mentioned as a potential takeover target for the world’s second-largest brewer, which already owns 20 percent of the French winemaker. In turn, Castel has a 38 percent stake in SABMiller’s Africa business. SABMiller is increasing i

Shares of energy producers led global equities lower after oil tumbled to a four-year low on OPEC’s refusal to ease a supply glut. Bonds advanced, setting record-low yields from Japan to Germany , and the dollar gained. The MSCI All-Country World Index fell 0.2 percent at 8:06 a.m. in New York as the Stoxx Europe 600 Index lost 0.4 percent. Total SA and Royal Dutch Shell Plc lost more than 2 percent as Brent crude headed for its biggest weekly decline since 2011. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index  futures  dropped 0.1 percent as U.S. markets reopen after the Thanksgiving holiday. Treasuries rose, Japan’s two-year rates turned negative for the first time and Germany’s 10-year  yield  declined to 0.694 percent. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index climbed to a five-year high, while gold and silver slid for a third day. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries kept its production ceiling unchanged, underscoring the price war in the crude market and challenge to U.S. shale drillers