If you are one of those people who thinks America’s retail industry is doing just fine, well, there are three possibilities: You’ve been living under a rock; you think Amazon refers to a South American river; or you’re a real estate developer. As everything from once-mighty department stores to niche clothing chains announce plans to shutter hundreds of locations, and ...

Suppose a bunch of economists were to show up in the Virginia town of South Boston to preach the benefits of free trade. How would local people react? In an old, red-brick tobacco warehouse near the Dan River, W.W. “Ted” Bennett Jr. ponders the question. The former state delegate looks over his shoulder, squints a bit, then says with southern ...

It’s a milestone Warren Buffett probably wishes he weren’t approaching. Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the conglomerate he’s run for more than five decades, reported that it held just shy of $100 billion in cash at the end of the second quarter. While that figure highlights the staggering money-making ability of the businesses he’s collected over the years, it’s also a burden. ...

Jake Yanoviak is hunting for houses. On a weekday afternoon in North Philadelphia, the 23-year-old painter cruises along on his bike, its black paint obscured under stickers from breweries and rock bands. He turns onto a side street, where he spots a few elderly neighbors, standing on adjoining porches. He parks, leans on one handlebar and makes his pitch. “Anybody ...

Bloomberg US stocks slipped from records, while the dollar resumed its slide during a lackluster session Tuesday as dovish comments from Federal Reserve officials weighed on the market. Gold advanced. The S&P 500 Index fell in light trading, while European equities slumped. The euro joined most G-10 peers in advancing against the greenback. The 10-year Treasury yield edged higher, and ...

DUBAI / Reuters A surge by major food maker Savola helped Saudi Arabia’s stock market outperform a generally sluggish region on Tuesday, while Air Arabia jumped in Dubai on its second-quarter earnings. The Saudi stock index rose 0.5 percent as Savola, which had been in an uptrend for the last few days, gained 4.0 percent in its heaviest trade for ...

Bloomberg Delivering yet another jolt to Russia’s central bank, last month brought a new surprise after an inflationary shock in June. The unexpected reading in the consumer-price index pushed it below the Bank of Russia’s target of 4 percent months ahead of a year-end deadline, as a surge in food costs fizzled out. But when it comes to the direction ...

Bloomberg Wealth managers’ revenue stagnated last year even as firms boosted assets by almost 4 percent, highlighting how the pressure on fees is increasingly spreading to the lucrative business of managing rich people’s money. Companies responded by cutting expenses to bring the cost-income ratio, a measure of profitability, below 80 percent for the first time since 2012, according to a ...

Bloomberg As Denmark reconsiders joining Europe’s bank union, the two biggest parties in the country’s parliament are voicing considerable skepticism. The divisions suggest it’s far from obvious that Denmark will become part of a union that so far only counts euro-zone nations. The minority coalition of Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen has given itself two years to decide. The EU-skeptic ...

Bloomberg Wall Street banks are being invited by one of their key watchdogs to offer guidance for how to revise the Volcker Rule, one of the industry’s least favourite regulations. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said that it is seeking public comment on the Dodd-Frank Act measure that restricts banks’ ability to place market bets with their ...