Supply-chain finance is the secret sauce behind Citigroup Inc.’s mid-20percent return on equity from transaction banking. That might sound counterintuitive, especially in Asia. The export-led region is facing the brunt of supply dislocations as the US-China trade war intensifies. But the skirmish isn’t a showstopper for financing. As production moves from one country to another, transactions that need to be ...

You’ve got to feel for the world’s biggest suppliers of DRAM (dynamic random-access memory).Makers of these chips, which temporarily store information in PCs, smartphones and services, endured years of boom-bust profit swings and bruising competition long before the trade war began. The sector finally consolidated into just three companies holding 95percent of global supply of DRAM. And yet earnings stability ...

For all the anxiety about America’s retreat from the world, a vital US institution is becoming more global than ever. While the Federal Reserve’s impulse to juice the economy is laudable, it’s worth asking whether this mission creep is sustainable. Or even desirable, over a long horizon. The Fed, whose policymakers meet this week to set interest rates, lacks a ...