DUBAI / Reuters Most major Gulf stock markets were pulled down on Thursday by a 5 percent overnight slide in oil prices, while Abu Dhabi was hit particularly hard as heavyweights First Gulf Bank and National Bank of Abu Dhabi traded ex-dividend. Abu Dhabi’s stock index dropped 2.9 percent as First Gulf Bank tumbled 8.7 percent and National Bank …

  Bloomberg European Central Bank optimism on global growth bolstered the euro and sent bonds lower as the prospects for more stimulus dimmed. US stocks rose even as oil slid below $50 a barrel for the first time this year, exacerbating a slump in commodities. Lenders led the S&P 500 Index to its first gain in four days, as the …

  President Donald Trump’s economic adviser, Peter Navarro, has vowed to restore US manufacturing supremacy. This is no surprise — Trump’s election campaign emphasized the promise of a return to the industrial economy of the mid-20th century, before countries such as China supplanted the US as the workshop of the world. But this push is unlikely to succeed. Changes in …