Bloomberg Japan’s economy is cruising along, at least by its own recent standa- rds, with real growth clocking in at 1 percent in 2016. It may have reached top speed. Real gross domestic product expanded for a fourth consecutive quarter at the end of 2016, the best run in more than three years. A number of indicators are flashing …

  Bloomberg Singapore is proposing to ease regulations for venture capital managers including shortening their application process in a bid to promote financing for startup development. Under a consultation paper published by the Monetary Authority of Singapore Wednesday, new and existing VC managers won’t be subject to the same capital requirements and business conduct rules that currently apply to fund …

  Bloomberg Billionaire Richard Li’s PCCW Ltd. plans to sell a HK$8.53 billion ($1.1 billion) stake in telecommunications unit HKT Trust & HKT Ltd., amassing cash as the Hong Kong tycoon shifts into greater media investments. The shares of both companies fell. PCCW will sell 840.7 million shares of Hong Kong’s largest phone company for HK$10.15 apiece, it said in …

  Bloomberg The European Union’s parliament approved a trade deal with Canada on Wednesday, extolling the pact as a sign of cooperation at a time when many political forces, including US President Donald Trump’s administration, are trying to halt globalization. After three hours of debate on Wednesday and years of negotiations preceding that, the legislature approved the deal by a …

  Bloomberg BlackBerry Ltd. filed a patent-infringement lawsuit against Nokia Oyj, demanding royalties on the Finnish company’s mobile network products that use an industrywide technology standard. Nokia’s products including its Flexi Multiradio base stations, radio network controllers and Liquid Radio software are using technology covered by as many as 11 patents, BlackBerry said in a complaint filed in federal court …

  Bloomberg Simmering tensions between Anthem Inc. and Cigna Corp. exploded as Cigna sued to end their $48 billion deal, and Anthem moments later said it would fight to keep the merger alive. The clash came just hours after the other US health insurance megadeal, a $37 billion tie-up between Aetna Inc. and Humana Inc., ended peacefully with the companies …

  Bloomberg American International Group Inc. posted its fourth loss in six quarters, burned again by higher-than-expected claims costs as Chief Executive Officer Peter Hancock struggles to sustain profitability. The net loss widened to $3.04 billion, or $2.96 a share, from a $1.84 billion, or $1.50, a year earlier, the New York-based insurer said in a statement. The fourth quarter’s …

  Bloomberg Iceland’s history is of booms and busts. So as the inhabitants of a volcanic rock in the middle of the North Atlantic ocean roar back from their 2008 economic meltdown (this latest boom was fed by tourism and construction), the talk in the streets is of what shape the next crisis will take and when exactly it will …

  Michael Flynn’s real problem isn’t the Logan Act, an obscure and probably unenforceable 1799 statute that bars private meddling in foreign policy disputes. It’s whether President Trump’s national security adviser sought to hide from his colleagues and the nation a pre-inauguration discussion with the Russian government about sanctions that the Obama administration was imposing. “It’s far less significant if …

  High-yield bonds have become the world’s hottest commodity as investors try to ride the global rally in stock markets. In Asia, however, that could mean dangerous times ahead. On Monday, Road King Infrastructure Ltd. raised $300 million selling dollar bonds to yield 7.95 percent. Preliminary price talk centered around the 8.625 percent mark but demand was so strong that …