Opinion

Specialty apparel and department store stocks have been battered in recent years as a steady stream of store closings and unenticing merchandise put their future in doubt. But the apparel and accessories business is suddenly looking more fashionable. Last week, Goldman Sachs analyst Alexandra Walvis initiated coverage of Tapestry Inc., Tiffany & Co. and VF Corp. with a buy rating. ...

John Legere is the pitchman T-Mobile US Inc. and Sprint Corp. need for their merger. Can he pull it off? The cheerleader-like qualities that have helped the CEO bring enthusiasm to T-Mobile are the same ones that induce groans. Testifying before the Senate judiciary subcommittee on antitrust June 27, Legere wore his usual uniform: a superhero-esque magenta T-Mobile t-shirt under ...

On this July Fourth, America has taken a turn for the worst. The great delusion of Donald Trump’s presidency is that we can thrive by embracing nationalism even though major economic and political events are increasingly driven by international forces. Trump is an isolationist in an era of globalism. It won’t work. Keep this in mind on the Fourth. Let ...

The golden age of Australian economic growth may have passed. Continuing a run of over 25 years, the expansion most likely clocked another quarter of gains in gross domestic product in the three months to June 30. But that run looks tired, and the weight of many challenges has accumulated. The most significant are two related shifts. The first is ...

“Burst week” has quickly established itself as a highlight of the Tesla calendar. It’s like Thanksgiving, except it happens once every three months and everyone works twice as hard. Tesla Inc. on Monday morning announced the number everyone’s been waiting for: In the last seven days of June, the electric vehicle maker churned out 5,031 Model 3s, finally delivering on ...

The European Commission’s proposal to ban plastic straws, plates, cutlery and drink stirrers, and slash the consumption of many other single-use products, is more than just a nice, novel idea. It’s a step urgently needed from every country — as plastic trash pours into the oceans at the rate of almost 9 million tons a year. The flood of trash ...

When is a loosening of foreign investment rules not really a loosening of foreign investment rules? When China’s doing it in the face of a brewing trade war. The country’s latest so-called “negative list” issued last week, which comprises a group of industries where foreign businesses are either prohibited from investing or restricted to joint ventures with a degree of ...

In the battle for the first company to reach and sustain $1 trillion in stock market value, don’t count out a come-from-behind victory. Apple Inc. has had a lock on its spot as the world’s most valuable public company by stock value for several years, and we’ve been waiting for it to crest the $1 trillion market cap milestone. The ...

Urban transportation is undergoing a revolution. Offerings such as Uber and Lyft, as well as car- and bike-sharing services are widely believed to reduce congestion and generally make urban dwellers more mobile; driverless cars are expected to provide further benefits. Yet the notion that these innovations always make things better is far from a given: The new services are a ...

In recent months, a number of big, bold proposals have been advanced to relieve economic pressure on the poor, including a federal job guarantee, a universal basic income and single-payer health care. But a lot of more modest but still important ideas are being overlooked. One of these is the idea of stable work scheduling. Over the years, many employers, ...