Donald Trump is a man more of words than actions. Still, his administration’s recent rhetoric in three areas — currency, trade and taxation — is raising hackles across the European Union. Unity among EU member states is key to addressing the first two challenges in a way that safeguards the European economy. On the third, however, the EU should view ...

The market’s worst defence could be its too-good offence. The stock market plunged on Monday, extending a slide that started last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average sank as much as 1,500 points before recovering to close just down 1,175. The S&P 500 Index dropped more than 4%. This, of course, wasn’t what was supposed to happen for a specific ...

Whenever there’s a sharp global sell-off sparked by US equities, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. comes out warning of more volatility and pain ahead. In July, when there was a brief dip and the Cboe Volatility Index jumped, the venerable investment bank said selling from risk-parity funds, which buy government bonds to hedge against stock portfolios, could lead to more offloading ...

Jerome Powell takes over as chair of the Federal Reserve just as new figures show earnings and inflation edging up. It’s good news that the recovery is helping wages to rise faster and bringing inflation closer to the Fed’s target of 2 percent — but as last week’s big drop in equity prices suggests, it also complicates Powell’s job. Though ...

In China, the cars are becoming smarter. Last week, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Foxconn Technology Co. Ltd. led a $348 million fundraising round for Guangzhou Xiaopeng Motors Technology Co. Ltd., a three-year-old startup developing internet-connected, electric cars. The investment might seem an odd one for online retailer Alibaba. But it’s part of a larger vision for transportation that includes ...

I have some bad news, and some probably-not-terrible news about Apple Inc. The bad news was Apple didn’t have a terrific holiday season for its most important product. Apple said that it sold 1.2 percent fewer iPhones in the three months ended December 30 than it did in the same period of 2016. Analysts had expected those unit sales to ...

The fintech dating game is on in Paris. Entrepreneurs in Europe’s financial-technology sector are pushing low-cost payments solutions to steal market share from banks, hoping the challenge they pose will spur the lenders to buy them or seek partnerships with them. Many startups are eyeing deals or potential backing in Paris to meet the top executives of French finance, from ...

Bloomberg India’s lenders, already struggling with $210 billion of stressed assets, may have to prepare for another hit as early as the coming financial year if new accounting norms kick in as planned on April 1. The IndAS — based on the IFRS9 standards created in the aftermath of the financial crisis — would require banks to make provisions for ...

Bloomberg Mario Draghi said that the European Central Bank still can’t claim success in its struggle to restore inflation, and defended its policies from complaints that they widen inequalities. “While our confidence that inflation will converge towards our aim of below, but close to, 2 percent has strengthened, we cannot yet declare victory on this front,” the ECB president said ...

DUBAI / Reuters Saudi Arabia’s National Commercial Bank (NCB), the kingdom’s largest lender, reported an 11.8 percent rise in fourth-quarter net profit, helped by a drop in expenses and lower impairment charges. The bank made a net profit of 2.56 billion riyals ($683 million) in the three months to Dec. 31, up from 2.29 billion riyals in the same period ...