Bloomberg ­Prime Minister Theresa May’s office slapped down Philip Hammond for saying he hoped Brexit would bring only modest changes, after his comments enraged the euroskeptic lawmakers May needs to stay in her job. The chancellor of the exchequer said he wanted an ambitious Brexit deal that replicates Britain’s current easy trade terms with the EU and moves the economy ...

Bloomberg Chancellor Angela Merkel and her prospective coalition partners stepped up the pace of talks to end Germany’s political impasse, setting a nine-day timeline for a final deal on a government platform. Merkel’s Christian Democratic-led bloc and the Social Democratic Party agreed on Friday to try to wrap up negotiations by February 4. If that goal is met, the SPD ...

VIENNA / Reuters The Syrian opposition will not attend a peace conference Russia is hosting next week, a spokesman said on Saturday, dismissing the meeting as an attempt by the Syrian government’s close ally to “sideline” the current United Nations peace process. He was speaking at the end of two days of UN-brokered talks between the Syrian government and opposition, ...

Bloomberg Kenya’s opposition National Super Alliance said it has evidence that former Prime Minister Raila Odinga won the nation’s Aug. 8 presidential election. The alliance has a document containing “authentic, unpolluted, unadulterated” data that shows Odinga and his running mate, Kalonzo Musyoka, were the legitimate winners of the vote, Nasa Senator James Orengo told reporters Friday in the capital, Nairobi. ...

The stock market is going gangbusters —but whether this reflects the economy’s underlying strength or runaway speculation is a question that stumps many experts. Hence, the need for this column: a primer on the red-hot stock market. Will it sustain the economy or ultimately kill it? The boom is undeniable. In 12 out of the first 15 trading days of ...

Although the world economy is in its eighth year of expansion, a casual observer might be forgiven for thinking things have just got going. Don’t worry; they will keep going for a while, according to the International Monetary Fund, which released an update to its World Economic Outlook this week. Thank the existing growth momentum and, yes, the often-maligned tax ...

It’s starting to look like smartphones are no longer the ever-reliable driver of global semiconductor demand. For the past decade, it was those touch-screen, internet-connected, selfie-taking devices that propped up the industry as the appetite for computers declined. STMicroelectronics NV on Thursday added to the chatter when it pointed to “unfavorable seasonal dynamics for smartphone applications” in forecasting a dip ...

Invoking a 1974 law intended to safeguard companies from unfair competition, the Trump administration has announced new tariffs on foreign-made solar panels and washing machines. Both measures are deeply misguided. At best, they will raise prices, threaten jobs, antagonize allies, encourage retaliation, and impede clean-energy development, all without offering any real benefits. At worst, they may herald a perilous new ...

Whatever you might say about Prime Minister Narendra Modi—and plenty of people have had a lot to say in the past—not even his critics have called him an uninspiring speaker. He has held spectators at vast election rallies spellbound, even groups of overseas Indians in arenas like Wembley Stadium. He is a big room, big occasion speaker, always able to ...

Despite the best labour market in a generation, Americans remain worried about the future of employment. Lately, the big worry is automation of jobs. Experiments like Amazon Go’s cashier-less store will perpetuate this anxiety. Americans perhaps should be more worried about an old-fashioned employment maneuver, however: outsourcing. The tech sector is already leading the way. Outsourcing tech jobs is nothing ...