We’ve become so gloomy about the euro zone that it’s easy to neglect the bright spots. After a very tough 2018 for President Emmanuel Macron, France, the second-largest economy in the monetary union, is faring much better than most experts would have assumed. Its economic model — less reliant on exports than Germany — is proving mo-re resilient to dangers ...

Up to now, President Donald Trump’s largely ill-conceived effort to roll back financial regulation had one redeeming feature: a mostly sensible plan to improve the Volcker Rule, a piece of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act aimed at limiting banks’ ability to take undue risks with taxpayer backing. Not anymore. A new round of tweaks, which regulators are in the process of ...

Emerging-market currencies are having their worst month since May 2016. To confound matters, some of the usual rules of investing have broken down. When the global economic outlook is dimming, traders often sell currencies of small, open, trade-reliant economies — say, South Korea’s won — and cling to higher-yielding assets. This is driven by the so-called carry trade, when investors ...

US President Donald Trump’s trade war with China keeps undermining the confidence of businesses and consumers, worsening the economic outlook. This manufactured disaster-in-the-making presents the Federal Reserve with a dilemma: Should it mitigate the damage by providing offsetting stimulus, or refuse to play along? If the ultimate goal is a healthy economy, the Fed should seriously consider the latter approach. ...

India’s economic numbers have for some time looked better than the facts warranted, feeding an overconfidence in New Delhi about the country’s prospects. Thankfully, that’s begun to change. The Reserve Bank of India, the International Monetary Fund, investment banks and ratings agencies have all recently cut their estimates of 2019 growth sharply. While some believe India’s official statistics may overstate ...

Investors celebrating Meituan Dianping’s first quarterly profit have as much reason to cheer how the company got there as the numbers themselves. Surging revenue, market-share gains against rivals such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and success in controlling expenses all helped the Chinese food delivery and bookings provider post net income of 877.4 million yuan ($124 million) versus the 1.57 ...

In July 2019, more migrants drowned in the Mediterranean than in July 2015, at the height of the refugee crisis — and that despite a dramatically reduced number of arrivals. The 238 deaths are at least partly on the conscience of European politicians; the European Union badly needs a reasonable policy towards the nongovernmental organisations whose rescue ships provide pretty ...

Bloomberg US index futures edged higher, stocks in Europe slipped and shares in Asia were mixed on Wednesday as investors awaited new developments in the increasingly unpredictable Sino-American trade war. Treasuries and the dollar were steady. Contracts on all three major US stock indexes gained, while technology companies and insurers led a decline on the Stoxx Europe 600 index. Benchmarks ...

Bloomberg Domestic UK stocks declined on growing anticipation of a no-deal Brexit after the British government sought to suspend parliament, while a weaker pound boosted the exporter-heavy FTSE 100 Index. The FTSE 100, which has moved inversely to the currency in recent years, climbed 0.3 percent in London, while the more UK focussed FTSE 250 Index lost 0.7 percent. Sterling ...

Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG’s only retail banking franchise outside Europe is getting more investment, amid sweeping cost cuts and restructuring taking place elsewhere at the German lender. After receiving a 470 million euro ($520 million) capital injection earlier this year, Deutsche Bank’s Indian operation is set to hire about 140 people and boost its retail banking and wealth management operations. ...