Many commentators have argued that the big winner in last week’s poisonous Democratic Party debate was Donald Trump. But as the world assesses the United States in this 2020 election season, the long-term political beneficiary may be foreign rivals such as China’s President Xi Jinping. The circular firing squad in Las Vegas probably raised expectations abroad that the Democrats won’t ...

Sharp falls in Asian markets and US stock futures on February 24 suggest investors are starting to catch up to the disconnect between the coronavirus’s widening impact and hopes of a V-shaped recovery. It’s a gap that has been particularly visible in metals. China, where much of the economy remains in lockdown, accounts for about half the world’s appetite for ...

Morgan Stanley is trading in its white shoes for Converse Chuck Taylors. That’s the initial impression on Wall Street at least after the bank announced that it had agreed to buy discount brokerage E-Trade Financial Corp. for $13 billion in an all-stock takeover, the biggest acquisition by a large US bank since the financial crisis. It would add E-Trade’s $360 ...