Opinion

  The odd thing about India’s stock market rally is just how little faith investors have in it. The Nifty 50 Index is barely 2% away from its all-time intraday high, but unlike the S&P 500 Index, which has closed at records 13 times this year, the Indian benchmark is struggling to break free of scepticism. Given the froth in …

  Chinese President Xi Jinping seems interested in embracing the role of global steward — champion of the liberal political and economic order the U.S. administration seems uninterested in promoting. Now is his moment to prove he’s serious. China’s erstwhile client North Korea has become an urgent threat to stability — Xi’s stated top priority — from one end of …

  Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) clinched a landslide victory in key state elections that are seen as a referendum on the performance of Modi’s three-year-old government. BJP won 311 out of 403 seats in Uttar Pradesh, India’s largest state. The historic verdict would boost Modi’s chances of winning another term as India’s prime minister in …

  To committed readers of the financial press, it was almost impossible to miss the proclamations that a milestone had been passed: The bull market, as of yesterday, was eight years old. For a sampling of examples see this, this, this, this, this or this. This formulation is wrong, since it misconstrues the definition of a bull market. Rather than …

  Global asset markets may not be taking Janet Yellen’s warnings on rate increases too seriously, but Singapore got Fed-ready with the surprise announcement that the city is easing property curbs. Starting in 2009, those restrictions on buying, selling and financing real estate came in waves of increasing severity after Singapore found its open economy inundated with cheap money printed …

  The trigger of Article 50 is the event traders have been waiting for since the U.K. voted to leave the European Union. Yet as Prime Minister Theresa May approaches her end-March deadline for launching Brexit, there is no consensus on what it means for markets. The pound has slumped 18 percent and the country’s benchmark equities index has rallied …

  Encouraging developments are as welcome as they are rare in colleges and universities that cultivate diversity in everything but thought. Fortunately, state legislatures, alumni and philanthropists are planting little academic platoons that will make campuses less intellectually monochrome. One such, just launched, is Arizona State University’s School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership. A primary mission of institutions …

  Bank stocks often act as proxies for political risk, as well as economic barometers. When a government starts shaking or a recession looms, financial shares may be the first to suffer. If you trust bank analysts, that paradigm is about to change. Financial institutions in countries with high political risk have seen some of the steepest positive earnings revisions …

  Now that a court has ousted her from office, former South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s troubles are only beginning: She could face indictment on charges of bribery and abuse of power. Koreans, however, need to move beyond this lurid scandal. Months of uncertainty over Park’s fate have paralyzed her nation at a critical moment. Koreans have been riveted by …

  A week ago, Germany stopped campaign events by Turkish ministers who wanted to address more than 1.4 million voters living in the country. Now, the Netherlands blocked Turkish Family and Social Policies Minister Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya from attending a political rally. Sayan Kaya had arrived in the Netherlands from Germany but was prevented from entering Turkey’s diplomatic compound …