Far from jolting the US into a protectionist lurch, might President-elect Donald Trump unwittingly help buoy global trade next year? Here’s one scenario to mull over: A strong dollar and a tight US labour market, combined with Trump’s proposed fiscal plans, may fuel a rise in net US imports in 2017, a boon for commodity exporters and goods manufacturers ...

  A new year is just around the corner, and pressure on the yuan means Beijing can look forward to a host of fresh outflows into Hong Kong insurance, curbs or no. The annual $50,000 cap on foreign-exchange conversions resets on Jan. 1, and it’s a safe bet sales of dollar-denominated premiums in the city will spike. Before October’s ban ...

  There’s no good place to start a nuclear arms race — and Twitter is an especially bad venue. So it’s unfortunate that President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday tweeted his desire for the US to “greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability,” then followed up on Friday morning by saying, “Let it be an arms race.” It’s hard to know ...