TOKYO / AP Japan’s economy expanded at a steadily slowing pace in 2016, though a modest recovery in exports helped offset sluggish spending by households and businesses, according to data reported. The 1.0 percent annual pace of expansion for the year compared with 1.2 percent growth in 2015. For all but one quarter of the year, private demand was flat …

  Bloomberg After a rocky start, Boeing Co. Chief Executive Officer Dennis Muilenburg appears to have gained the ear of President Donald Trump. The US planemaker was one of Trump’s first post-election corporate targets, and a tweet about soaring Air Force One costs briefly tanked the company’s shares in December. But the Twitter tirade also gave Muilenburg an opening to …

  Bloomberg Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. halted the launch of its second rocket in as many months on Saturday, about 10 seconds before its scheduled liftoff. “All systems go, except the movement trace of an upper stage engine steering hydraulic piston was slightly odd. Standing down to investigate,” Musk said in a Twitter post. The rocket, which was …

  Bloomberg The leaders of American Airlines’ pilot union voted no-confidence in Chief Executive Officer Doug Parker, citing pay and scheduling problems, delays in implementing their full contract and a “toxic” company culture. “The straw that broke the camel’s back was Parker skipping last week’s meeting with President Trump and other airline industry executives at the White House,” the Allied …

  Bloomberg When it comes to maintaining domestic air superiority, US carriers have been shaking their fists at Persian Gulf airlines that have rapidly increased their American presence. Yet there’s another threat that may be growing in their own backyard—or more precisely, just north of it. Air Canada has been around for 80 years, but only recently sought to parlay …

  Bloomberg China will likely avoid a financial crisis and is on track to reach high income status by 2027, according to a new Morgan Stanley report on the nation’s longer-term prospects titled “Why we are bullish on China.” The sweeping outlook comes amid growing concern over China’s surging debt levels, slow pace of reforms and the impact of a …

  Bloomberg A European Union bad bank would go a long way toward reducing the 1.2 trillion-euro ($1.3 trillion) mountain of soured loans on lenders’ books, but that relief may be a long time coming, according to the bloc’s bank regulator. Andrea Enria, chairman of the European Banking Authority (EBA), proposed setting up a bloc-wide asset-management company to take over …

  Bloomberg Jim McCaughan, who oversees more than $390 billion at Principal Global Investors, cautioned against betting on European stocks, even after they trailed US equities for years. “I see this as a value trap,” McCaughan said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “I don’t see where the growth is coming from in Europe, and I see lots of risk. …

  Bloomberg South Africa’s antitrust investigators urged that a dozen banks be fined for colluding and manipulating trades in the rand, becoming potentially the latest in a string of penalties handed to lenders around the world for rigging currencies. The Competition Commission identified lenders including Bank of America Merrill Lynch, HSBC Holdings Plc, BNP Paribas SA, Credit Suisse Group AG, …

  Bloomberg When Rob Boardman is scouring Dublin to hire for his firm’s electronic broking and dark-pool business, it can take up to a year to find the right candidate. “It’s a question of quantity of talent, not quality,” said Boardman, Investment Technology Group Inc.’s European chief executive officer, who has been recruiting in the city since 2010. “It can …