Bloomberg Not for the first time, a long-awaited plan by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has fallen flat with investors. The Topix slumped 1.6 percent on Tuesday after Abe returned to the fiscal-stimulus lever with a 28 trillion yen ($277 billion) spending-and-lending package to sooth concern that his Abenomics program isn’t working. It dropped another 2.2 percent on Wednesday. The …

  Bloomberg China’s futures exchange is planning to relax the restrictions on stock-index contracts that sparked a 99 percent plunge in trading and heightened concern over the government’s intervention in markets, according to people familiar with the matter. The bourse is considering allowing non-hedging accounts to open 100 new positions a day on a single contract, the people said. Currently, …

  Bloomberg The US Air Force declared its version of Lockheed Martin Corp.’s F-35 ready if needed for limited combat operations, a milestone for the $379 billion program that’s the Pentagon’s costliest. The service’s announcement that the combat jet has an “initial operational capability” reflects progress after early years marked by development setbacks and rising costs. But the F-35 is …