International News

  Bloomberg The first peek into China’s economy this quarter shows momentum cooling slightly as a real-estate frenzy and months of producer-price gains may have peaked. Confidence of small- and medium-sized enterprises, a gauge of manufacturing based on satellite imagery and a steel sentiment index edged down in April. International financial market experts remained confident in the future of the …

  Bloomberg Auto workers may be getting some extra time off around Independence Day, but they won’t be celebrating. They’ll know it means sales are weak and that profits — and profit-sharing checks — could be shrinking. Manufacturers used to shut plants for a week or two in July for maintenance and to keep inventories in check. As sales boomed …

  Bloomberg The euro area maintained its growth momentum at the start of 2017, strengthening the case of those pressuring the European Central Bank to sketch out an end to extraordinary stimulus measures. Gross domestic product rose 0.5 percent in the first three months of the year, according to an initial estimate published by the European Union’s statistics office on …

  Bloomberg Truck Alliance Inc., an Uber-type service for trucks in China known as Huochebang, is near an agreement to raise about $156 million, people familiar with the matter said. The investment will be led by Baidu Capital, the investment arm of China’s largest search engine, and could be announced as soon as this week, said the people, who asked …

  Bloomberg Ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing is near an agreement to raise at least $5 billion in a deal that would make it the most valuable startup in China, according to people familiar with the matter. The round may close as soon as this week and would lift Didi’s valuation to about $50 billion, up from a previous $34 billion …

  Bloomberg China’s run of solid economic indicators proved little consolation for its shaky financial markets in April. The dichotomy stems from a shift in the leadership’s focus towards reducing leverage — one that’s set to determine whether growth joins asset prices in heading down. Economists are practically unanimous in saying that reduced debt loads would be good for China’s …

  Bloomberg JD.com Inc., Alibaba’s fiercest rival in Chinese e-commerce, is in talks to make a major investment in Indonesia’s PT Tokopedia to speed its expansion into Southeast Asia’s largest economy, people familiar with the matter said. JD is in early-stage negotiations to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in one of Indonesia’s largest online marketplaces, one of the people …

  Bloomberg SoftBank Group Corp. is in talks to invest about $1.4 billion in India’s One97 Communications Ltd. in a deal that would value the owner of the country’s largest digital-payments provider at about $7 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. The deal is not yet finalized and the terms may yet change, said the people, asking not …

  Bloomberg A directive requiring US pipeline companies to use American steel and iron in their projects is testing President Donald Trump’s ability to keep his promises to two industries on opposing sides of the issue. In comments to the US Department of Commerce, which is crafting the so-called “Buy American” plan, pipeline companies and their trade groups argued the …

  Bloomberg UK manufacturing unexpectedly grew at the fastest pace in three years in April as the domestic market strengthened and the pound’s depreciation boosted exports. A measure of factory conditions rose to 57.3 from 54.2 in March, according to IHS Markit’s Purchasing Managers’ Index. That’s far better than the 54 forecast by economists in a Bloomberg survey and above …