A curious thing is happening in China: Its stocks appear immune to any economic slowdown. For years, there was a strong correlation between China’s GDP growth rate and the performance of the benchmark MSCI China Index, which tracks Hong Kong and US-listed Chinese companies. The relationship was so pronounced that fund managers sifted through an array of macro indicators trying ...

Asset swaps have been a big thing in pharma over the past few years. Now it’s time for the un-swap. Novartis AG said it was unwinding part of a complicated 2014 asset swap with GlaxoSmithKline PLC, trading its stake in their consumer-health joint venture for $13 billion. The decision isn’t a huge surprise, though the timing is unexpected. It suggests ...

So is a trade war upon us? President Donald Trump announced last week that the US would place $60 billion worth of tariffs on Chinese goods, but what does that mean for the future of world trade? This conflict seems more likely to remain a modest spat than to blossom into a slugfest. First of all, China responded to Trump’s ...

Anybody who commutes via ride-share in one of Southeast Asia’s traffic-choked cities knows that Uber Technologies Inc. has always been an also-ran in the fast-growing region. Compared with Grab Taxi Holdings Pte. Ltd., the dominant ride-sharing company in Southeast Asia, it consistently had fewer cars available and was perpetually behind in offering localized services. When Uber announced on Monday that ...

The financial crisis and the bursting of the housing bubble are now a decade behind us. But at least one consequence persists: a pile of student loans. Those loans, and the government’s relentless efforts to collect on them, continue to haunt Americans years after names like Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns faded into memory. Since the recession began in 2008, ...

Without having done much yet, Amazon.com Inc. is already transforming US health care — and not necessarily for the better. The mere threat of the online giant getting into the health business prompted the country’s two largest pharmacy benefit managers — CVS Health Corp. and Express Scripts Holding Co. — to join forces with two of its largest insurers, Aetna ...

Bloomberg Nordea Bank AB will start pricing debt products to reflect threats to data as the scandal engulfing Facebook Inc. redefines corporate risk. Mathias Leijon, co-head of corporate and investment banking at Nordea in Stockholm, says his team has been thinking “a lot about this” risk, with a key question emerging as, “How do you include the cost associated with ...

Bloomberg A recent spike in funding costs is happening at the worst time for Australia’s big banks, as intense public scrutiny crimps their ability to pass on increases to customers. The banks are fighting to defend their reputations in the face of an inquiry into misconduct and mistreatment of customers. Two weeks into hearings in front of a Royal Commission, ...

Bloomberg The silence all day spoke volumes about the disarray at the top of Deutsche Bank AG, say insiders and shareholders. No one at the bank — from spokespeople to the highest-ranking executives — commented publicly on a string of media reports and investor speculation that either Chairman Paul Achleitner or Chief Executive Officer John Cryan, or both, was on ...

Bloomberg HSBC Holdings Plc froze an account linked to an alleged fraud that siphoned about $500 million from Angolan state coffers, according to a person briefed on the matter. A large transfer raised suspicions at the bank, prompting it to alert UK authorities at least weeks ago, the person said, asking not to be identified discussing confidential information. Britain’s National ...