Bloomberg The US trade deficit narrowed in December for the first time in three months, a modest improvement that nonetheless left the gap for all of last year at its widest since 2012. The monthly shortfall shrank 3.2 percent to $44.3 billion, Commerce Department figures showed on Tuesday. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for ...

  Bloomberg As Washington mulls a tax on imports, an auto industry study suggests the policy would deliver the sharpest blow to Tata Motors Ltd.’s Jaguar Land Rover while giving a leg up to Tesla Inc. and Ford Motor Co. In what it calls a “thought exercise,” researcher Baum & Associates LLC estimates most automakers would need to raise vehicle ...

  TAICHUNG / AP Seeking to revive its long-dormant aerospace industry, Taiwan on Tuesday launched a $2.1 billion investment in the production of air force jet trainers to be designed and manufactured on the island to counter Chinese military and diplomatic pressure. President Tsai Ing-wen presided over a ceremony in the central city of Taichung to inaugurate the project, which ...

  Bloomberg Singapore Airlines Ltd., Southeast Asia’s biggest carrier, posted a 36 percent drop in third-quarter profit as passenger numbers declined and the company wrote down the value of a budget unit’s brand. Net income in the three months through December fell to S$177.2 million ($125 million) from S$274.9 million a year ago, with the drop attributed to a S$79 ...

  Bloomberg JetBlue Airways Corp. cut back on 2017 expansion plans, joining other U.S. carriers in the effort to keep the number of seats and flights in check to gain more control over pricing. The New York-based carrier is trying to catch up with larger U.S. airlines, which have been slowing growth to stanch bleeding in the closely watched measure ...

  Bloomberg Korean Air Lines Co. ended last year with a credit rating downgrade and debt-to-equity ratio approaching 1,000 percent — the worst among Asian full-service carriers. Investors of the money-losing airline face an even bleaker 2017 as a weaker won raises the cost of repaying foreign debt. The Korean currency is projected to weaken around 7 percent against the ...

  NEW YORK / AP The fight against fake news is not just being waged by Google, Facebook and big media companies. They are joined in the battle by academics and data scientists who started work on the subject years before bogus news stories were suspected of helping sway the 2016 presidential election. Their work has yielded tools that help ...

  Bloomberg Honda Motor Co. plans to set up a joint venture with Hitachi Automotive Systems Ltd. to develop, produce and sell motors for electric vehicles, citing the expected increase in demand for electric autos with tougher environmental standards. The joint venture has plans to manufacture in Japan, US and China, and will consider using Hitachi’s existing plants in those ...

  WASHINGTON / AP Holy drone, Batman! Mechanical masterminds have spawned the Bat Bot, a soaring, sweeping and diving robot that may eventually fly circles around other drones. Because it mimics the unique and more flexible way bats fly, this 3-ounce prototype could do a better and safer job getting into disaster sites and scoping out construction zones than bulky ...

  Bloomberg Qatar Petroleum is exploring for oil and gas in Cyprus and Morocco as part of a strategy to expand the tiny Gulf emirate’s global energy investments. The world’s biggest producer of liquefied natural gas known as QP must cope with local limits on growth as it seeks to expand its LNG business and increase its production and reserves ...