Bloomberg South Korean equities overtook those of Malaysia to become the world’s worst major equity market for the year as ongoing trade war with Japan and tensions between the US and China slashed the nation’s earnings outlook. The benchmark Kospi Index has dropped 6.1 percent year-to-date compared with 5.1 percent decline in the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI Index in Singapore. …

Bloomberg Senior People’s Bank of China (PBOC) officials reassured foreign companies that the currency won’t continue to weaken significantly, a day after the yuan fell below 7 per dollar for the first time since 2008. The central bank held a meeting with a number of foreign exporters in Beijing, at which officials also said that companies’ ability to buy and …

Bloomberg HSBC Holdings Plc’s Swiss private banking unit agreed to pay about 294 million euros ($329 million) to settle a Belgian criminal probe into allegations it helped wealthy clients dodge hundreds of millions of euros in taxes. The preliminary agreement in Belgium’s largest criminal settlement still needs to be approved by a judge at a hearing that should take place …