Bloomberg UK manufacturing output fell the most in almost 17 years in April as the boost from Brexit stockpiling evaporated and car producers went ahead with planned shutdowns. The 3.9 percent decline, the most since June 2002, saw the economy as a whole shrink for a second straight month, Office for National Statistics figures show. Vehicle production plunged by a ...

Bloomberg The slowdown in US hiring seen in the jobs report could get even worse, as President Donald Trump’s still-escalating trade war threatens further blows to employers. The May payroll figures — which missed all economist estimates and included steep downward revisions — translated into a four-month average jobs gain of 127,000. That’s the slowest since 2012, and compares with ...

Bloomberg Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV is partnering with Silicon Valley startup Aurora Innovation Inc. to develop and deploy a fleet of self-driving commercial vehicles in a bid to catch up with other automakers that have invested heavily in the technology. The two companies signed an agreement to integrate Aurora’s self-driving platform into Fiat Chrysler’s commercial vehicle lines in the US. ...

Bloomberg Europe’s troubled steel market is showing signs of bottoming out, according to the world’s No. 1 producer ArcelorMittal. While weak auto industry demand means it’s too early to call a recovery, steel prices in the European Union are starting to climb, said Geert van Poelvoorde, the company’s chief executive officer for flat products in Europe. ArcelorMittal announced output cuts ...

“And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country” —John F. Kennedy’s inaugural speech,January 20, 1961 Watching the Democrats’ presidential campaigns, it’s hard not to be struck by the huge gap that has opened up between Kennedy’s goal and what ordinary Americans now believe and practice. ...

Emmanuel Macron has marked out Matteo Salvini as his arch-nemesis in the fight against Europe’s far right. But his own actions are playing right into the hands of the most powerful person in Italian politics. The French president is preaching a pan-European agenda abroad, as he tries to win around Germany and other countries to his dreams for a more ...

India is becoming the gold standard for monetary policy in Asia, if not the world. While global markets are giddy from hints that the Federal Reserve may cut interest rates, India’s central bank has been easing since February. Just as important, the Reserve Bank of India has been very consistent in its message: Borrowing costs need to come down to ...

Across the federal government, the knives are officially out for big technology companies. Avoiding a bloodbath should be a priority. As Bloomberg News reported, the House Judiciary Committee is gearing up to investigate unfair business practices by platform companies, while the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission have divvied up Silicon Valley’s big four — Amazon.com Inc. and Facebook ...

After the relatively weak performance of the ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in the European Parliament election, the party’s leader, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, is in trouble. There is a fear in the party that Chancellor Angela Merkel has messed up her succession, and Bloomberg News has even reported that Merkel herself doubts whether AKK, as she is known, is up to ...

The trade war needs to fire its PR team. The tussle between the US and China is being blamed for all manner of economic and financial developments. Some of these are only vaguely related to the tariff spat, or they reflect trends underway before US President Donald Trump ever heard of his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. In other areas, like ...