Next week, the nation’s retailers — and, more to the point, the people who want to sell things to the nation’s retailers — will gather at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center on the western edge of Manhattan for the National Retail Federation’s “Big Show.” On the advice of a reader of the column I wrote in early December …

  DUBAI / Reuters A slide in banking shares after earnings at a major bank missed analysts’ estimates dragged down Saudi Arabia’s stock market on Monday, while markets in the rest of the region were mixed. Riyad Bank, the first major Saudi bank to report fourth-quarter earnings, posted a 66 percent fall in net profit to 293 million riyals ($78 …

  Bloomberg Emerging-market assets declined as concern grew that threats to global trade and growth are proliferating. Mozambique’s international bond tumbled after the nation said it won’t make an interest payment on January 18. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index dropped the most in more than three weeks and a gauge of currencies slipped for the first time in three days. …