U.S. President Barack Obama’s call for a “moral revolution” in humanity’s approach to nuclear weapons was the highlight of his poignant recent visit to Hiroshima, while Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump similarly agree on the pressing need to secure loose nuclear material. However, speeches aspiring to a higher morality are only a beginning; morality is made truly meaningful though ...

  Matthew Winkler A week before Britain votes on whether to leave the European Union, polls show that the public’s preference is too close to call. Financial markets provide a different view: a persistent expectation that the U.K. will remain. When markets and polls point in different directions, markets tend to be superior prognosticators. Will Britain Leave the EU? That’s ...

  A growing number of economists seem convinced that the U.S., European Union and China are all headed for a prolonged period of sluggish growth — secular stagnation, in the words of former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers. A close parallel would seem to be 1990s Japan. There, too, the bursting of debt-funded asset price bubbles gave way to multiple rounds ...

  BLOOMBERG Stocks advanced as markets took a respite from the steepest selloff in global equities since January before the Federal Reserve’s policy decision. The British pound rebounded from a two-month low, while Spanish and Italian bonds gained for the first time this week. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index climbed from the lowest since February and emerging markets rose for ...

  Bloomberg Nobody told China’s soybean meal traders that the commodity frenzy is over. While trading in everything from steel to cotton futures collapsed following steps by the country’s regulators to deflate a speculative bubble in April, the volume of soymeal contracts has continued to expand. The amount of the animal feedstock changing hands in a single day on the ...

  Bloomberg Rice is fast becoming West Africa’s preferred food. After four decades of importing the staple, the region now aims to grow enough rice to meet domestic demand. Rice harvests in West Africa will probably reach an all-time high of 14.9 million metric tons this year, up from 14.6 million tons last year, when Senegal and Ghana produced record ...

  Tehran / Bloomberg Iran is preparing to unveil a historic agreement for Boeing Co. jetliners within days that could be valued at about $25 billion. The transaction would be the first struck by the planemaker since sanctions were lifted in January and would require US government approval. An order listed at $27 billion announced by Europe’s Airbus Group SE ...

  Seoul / Bloomberg Lotte Group, South Korea’s fifth-largest family-run conglomerate, has shelved plans to list its Malaysian petrochemicals business amid widening investigations at the parent, people familiar with the matter said. The group will postpone the planned share sale of Lotte Chemical Titan Holding Sdn. until after the probes are resolved, according to the people, who asked not to ...

  Port Louis / Bloomberg National carrier Air Mauritius will take delivery of a new plane this month and another next year, additions that will boost the reach of its fleet of 12 jets, Chairman Arjoon Suddhoo said. Founded in 1967, Air Mauritius currently operates a fleet of four Airbus Group SE A340-300C, two A340-300E, a pair of A330-200, two ...

  MADRID / AP Spanish clothes retailer Inditex, owner of the Zara store chain, posted Wednesday a 6.0-percent rise in its first-quarter net profit due to higher sales around the globe. The world’s largest fashion retailer by sales said profit for the quarter ending April 30 rose to 554 million euros ($621 million) from 521 million euros a year earlier. ...