Opinion

Nissan Motor Co’s decision to back out of its planned investment in its Sunderland plant has (surprise!) divided opinion in Britain along pro- and anti-Brexit lines. “It’s not you, it’s me” was the message Leavers read into Nissan’s statement. It wasn’t meant to be, they shrug. And, anyhow, Nissan is sticking around to make other models in Sunderland. Those worried ...

Even though evidence is mounting that the US economy may be soon heading into a recession, there are plenty of analysts who say that the surge in credit-card borrowing is a sign of strong confidence among households. That’s hardly the case. In fact, households’ confidence in the future growth of their incomes has been cooling since late last summer, which ...

Why have Australia’s big four banks been suffering over the past year? Is it the Royal Commission into misconduct in the financial sector, due to publish its final report after local markets close on Monday? Or is it the effect of a housing market entering a once-in-a-generation slump? While the real answer is probably a mixture of the two, it’s ...

As congressional negotiators attempt to reach a deal on border security to keep the US government open, Democrats would be smart to come to the table willing to match or even exceed President Trump’s demand for a $5.7 billion appropriation. They need only insist that the money be spent on measures that would effectively strengthen America’s borders. That would include ...

As another European Commission mega-fine on Alphabet Inc. nears, it prompts the question: can the Google parent ever free itself from the specter of penalties from the region’s regulators? The same goes for Amazon.com Inc. and Facebook Inc., each of which is facing scrutiny for how they handle data. They could do a lot worse than looking to a fellow ...

Prepare for a repeat of China’s 2015 boom, bust and whimper? Days after replacing an overly cautious securities regulator, Beijing has mounted a multi-pronged effort to revive the market’s buzz: It set out the framework for a new tech-stocks exchange, cleared the way for more margin loans, made it easier for securities firms to buy stocks, and opened the futures ...

The opportunity to own the largest broadcaster in a consumer market of 1.3 billion people doesn’t arrive all that often; even more rarely does it come after a single-day 26 percent rout in the stock. The special situation has arisen because of Indian infrastructure financier-operator IL&FS Group’s sudden $12.8 billion bankruptcy. Analysts who believed the tremors would reach other shadow-banking ...

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome (‘Jay’) Powell didn’t waste much time getting to the point at last week’s press conference. “My colleagues and I have one overarching goal: to sustain the economic expansion, with a strong job market and stable prices, for the benefit of the American people,” he said. It was a statement purged of ambiguity, with the Fed deciding ...

The biggest thing underpinning Tesla Inc.’s valuation is the promise of growth. And the biggest head-scratcher to emerge over the course of January concerns how that growth is being funded. Bonus: On an earnings call, the company managed to not so much bury the lead as entomb it. Almost two weeks after the electric-vehicle maker announced it was laying off ...

Wirecard AG has strongly denied fraud allegations reported by the Financial Times last week. But that hasn’t stopped about $5.7 billion being wiped from the German fintech darling’s market value in a matter of days. Even if the allegations are as unfounded as the company says, there are valid questions about whether the payments processing specialist justifies its generous valuation. ...