With the Huawei case, as with so many other Trump administration gambits, the puzzling question is whether the president is using tough tactics to make a deal — or whether he really means to put China’s most powerful telecommunications company on what’s informally known as the “kill list” by denying it US technology. US financial markets have been fairly calm ...

The European Parliament elections were meant to mark the high point of populism in Europe. Instead, they may have led to the political demise of its earliest champion: Alexis Tsipras. Greece’s prime minister, who stunned the continent with a double win in consecutive general elections in 2015, has called a snap vote that will probably be held at the beginning ...

The downside of being the most liquid emerging market currency is that it’s hard to avoid the impact when investors turn cold on risk assets. Unfortunately, South Africa’s rand has other issues to wrestle with too. The currency has recovered some of its poise after a selloff last week. But even as the political situation settles, there’s another technical dynamic ...

Debate continues about how much the costs of this trade war fall on China vs. the US, but the American contributions to that debate are overlooking some of the biggest victims: the countries “caught in the middle.” The current trade war is making it harder for many countries, and many businesspeople, to maintain even a partly pro-American stance. Take Pakistan, ...

“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try and try again.” Every British schoolchild has been brought up on this idiom. Theresa May is clearly no exception. She tried to get her deal through the House of Commons three times, and three times she was defeated. There’s another adage, allegedly American: “If you’re in a hole, stop digging.” All that ...

Just as Thailand looks ready to displace Chinese parts and products in American cars and kitchens, dysfunctional politics may cause the opportunity to slip out of its grasp. After five years of military rule, the Southeast Asian nation has returned to a fragile democracy. A pro-junta alliance is still negotiating with potential allies to form the next government following elections ...

Once every decade or so, the world goes through a collective freak-out about rare earths. The suite of 17 elements strung towards the bottom of the periodic table are notable in that they’re essential in several high-technology applications such as wind turbines, electric cars and lasers, and largely made in China. That makes them a scary-sounding weapon in economic and ...

Bloomberg India’s economic soft patch has put Asia’s most dovish central bank on notice, yet again. Growth cooled to 5.8 percent in the first three months of the year, the slowest pace in several quarters, according to a government report. That took the expansion in the fiscal year to March 2019 to 6.8 percent, lower than the 6.9 percent median ...

Bloomberg Federal Reserve watchers said the central bank will abandon its patient policy stance and cut interest rates in coming months as President Donald Trump’s planned new tariffs on Mexican goods may drag down US economic growth. JPMorgan Chase & Co. chief US economist Michael Feroli now projects quarter-point rate reductions in September and December, while Barclays Plc’s Michael Gapen ...

Bloomberg Betting on overreaction — assuming that stocks move too far on new information and will reverse course — is more successful in China than any other market, according to quantitative strategists at Morgan Stanley. Reversals of the trend seen during the previous few months tend to beat momentum trading, analysts including head of Asia quantitative research Yinan Zhang wrote ...