To wipe out superheroes, the villain of the Pixar movie “The Incredibles” had a fiendish plot: He would make them ubiquitous. “When everyone’s super,” the villain named Syndrome opined, “no one will be.” The Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) has no such diabolical goals. Yet it’s at risk of making Japan stocks just as irrelevant with its much-hyped but disappointing market ...

  Investors are used to hearing company executives on earnings calls and in presentations sugarcoat the performance of their business. So it’s surprising when there’s a straight-up admission that “despite our best efforts, the moats that protect this company are not particularly deep.” When the speaker is JPMorgan Chase & Co Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon in his ...

  As negotiators from the International Monetary Fund try to hash out a bailout for Sri Lanka at talks in Washington this week, they’ll no doubt press the need for stringent economic reforms. Any such rescue will fail unless political changes are made, too. Politics helped bring about the country’s current crisis. An earlier government led by then-president Mahinda Rajapaksa ...

Bloomberg The reports of retail sales and consumer sentiment offered a glimmer of optimism that Americans aren’t ready to pull back on spending en masse in the face of decades-high inflation. Granted, the 0.5% rise in March sales was dwarfed by an even bigger increase in inflation that shows real spending is softening after a stronger start to the year. ...

Bloomberg China Eastern Airlines Corp has resumed flights using the same type of plane that recently crashed in southern China, a sign it is working toward putting the entire fleet back in the air. A 737-800 jet flew from Kunming to Chengdu, according to flightradar24.com. Other planes of the same model made by Boeing Co have been used in what ...

Bloomberg Amazon.com Inc will levy a 5% fuel and inflation fee on online merchants that use its shipping services, according to documents reviewed by Bloomberg, putting pressure on sellers to raise prices. The surcharge, which is scheduled to kick in April 28, will apply to US sellers who use the Fulfillment by Amazon service that stows, packs and ships products. ...

  Bloomberg Starbucks Corp Chief Executive Officer Howard Schultz, moving to further put his stamp on the coffee giant in his third stint at the helm, criticised “false promises” and poor short-term decisions by prior management in a message to employees. In a seven-minute video set to be sent to Starbucks employees and viewed by Bloomberg News, Schultz discussed the ...

  Bloomberg Delta Air Lines will stop assessing a $200 monthly surcharge for employees who have not received a coronavirus vaccination, the latest sign that the travel industry is relaxing its approach to the virus even as the US plans to extend a face-mask requirement. The assessment to cover the added costs of Covid-19 illnesses will end April 30, a ...

Bloomberg A cyber organisation accredited by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) will conduct what it bills as the largest and most complex “live-fire” cyber defense exercises in the world beginning on Tuesday. The Nato Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence, which is based in Estonia, said the annual event, called Locked Shields, is intended to boost the skills of ...

  Bloomberg China said it signed a security agreement with the Solomon Islands, which had faced pressure from nearby Australia and the US to reject the deal. Foreign Ministers Wang Yi and Jeremiah Manele “officially signed an intergovernmental framework agreement on security cooperation the other day,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a regular press briefing in Beijing. ...