Bloomberg France’s independent presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron, tied with far-right candidate Marine Le Pen in polls before the election, said Germany’s large trade surplus is harmful to the euro-zone economy and called for more balance. “Germany benefits from the imbalances within the euro zone and achieves very high trade surpluses,” centrist candidate Macron said in an interview published on …

  In oil, like life, the secret to happiness is to lower your expectations. That isn’t just a piece of homespun, nihilist wisdom. It’s what’s happening beneath the surface of the oil market. Hedging is how exploration and production companies manage their market risk. Locking in a price for future output — by, for example, selling oil futures — provides …

  Something strange is happening in China’s steel market. Hot-rolled coil, a type of spooled sheet metal used to make everything from automobiles to trains and toasters, now costs less than the rebar used in reinforced concrete. That’s a rare event, and it’s still rarer for the divergence to be this wide. Flat products like hot-rolled coil are generally more …