When the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) took effect in 1994, it was widely regarded — by friend and foe alike — as an ambitious experiment in economic engineering. To advocates, it promised the benefits of stronger economic growth for its three member countries: Canada, Mexico and the United States. To its adversaries, it threatened the loss of well-paid ...

Not all tech stars are equal. While US giants from Apple Inc. to Amazon.com Inc. march to or through the $1 trillion valuation mark, China’s darlings are getting dumped. The groups started to diverge two months ago, and the big American tech stocks have outperformed their Chinese counterparts by 19 percentage points since then. With more than $18 billion of ...

The collapse in Argentina’s currency underlines two facts about global finance that are well understood yet far too easily forgotten. First, the effort to normalize US monetary policy after a decade of extraordinary monetary stimulus has put many other economies, especially those at risk for domestic reasons, under greater financial pressure. Second, once a crisis of confidence gets going, it ...

The US reached a preliminary trade agreement with Mexico that addresses several American grievances. A similar deal with Canada appears to be on track. These breakthroughs, combined with an easing of tensions with the European Union, could allow a more coordinated approach to the toughest trade problem of them all: reaching an agreement with China. This is good news for ...

Apparently there’s a pot of gold in Indian retail, and big players from around the world want to dip in. Many of them are likely to come up empty-handed. The volume of high-profile announcements in the sector recently has been remarkable. Walmart Inc. led with a $16 billion deal to buy Flipkart Online Services Pvt. Ltd., India’s largest e-commerce retailer; ...

Electric vehicles, prized for their acceleration, are speeding up. Bloomberg NEF estimates the global electric vehicle market will this week pass the milestone of 4 million sold to date, according to a report published recently. Having taken about five years to get to the first million, the last million were sold in about six months. Four million vehicles sold in ...

There’s no doubt that the US economy is in a boom. The Conference Board is reporting the highest levels of job satisfaction in more than a decade. This is probably because of a tight labour market — the ratio between the unemployment level and the number of job vacancies is at its lowest level in a half-century: A broader measure, ...

Bloomberg Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) Ltd. posted its fastest profit growth since September 2014 as margins and asset quality improved, but flagged challenging times ahead as the trade war with the US intensifies. Net income at the world’s largest lender by assets rose 5.8 percent to 81.6 billion yuan ($11.9 billion) in the quarter ended June from ...

Bloomberg The offshore yuan headed for its biggest gain in a week, after China set the daily reference rate for the onshore currency stronger than expected, stoking bets the government wants to stabilise the exchange rate. The Chinese currency rose 0.23 percent to 6.8517 per dollar in Hong Kong, while the onshore rate gained 0.11 percent. The yuan’s fixing was ...

Bloomberg The next few months are going to be fun for pound traders. Sterling’s volatility left political pundits scratching their heads last week, as European Union Chief Negotiator Michel Barnier’s promise to offer the UK an unprecedented partnership sent the currency soaring more than 1 percent even though he had said it before. With both sides warning of the risk ...