Japan lost its position as the world’s second-biggest economy to China awhile ago. But it’s beating out its Asian rival in one area at least: private equity. For restructuring experts such as KKR & Co. LP, whose founders recently declared Japan the company’s “highest priority” outside the US, the smaller country offers much more attractive opportunities. And the reasons are ...

At this point in the earnings season for big US banks, it was clear that Morgan Stanley’s figures were going to be down — the more pressing question was by how much. After all, the firm derives almost all of its revenue from market-related fees, a weak spot for competitors like Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., ...

Bloomberg A storm is brewing for Malaysian bonds, as the threat of an $8 billion outflow and a falling ringgit erode sentiment, even in the face of a likely interest-rate cut. The biggest rally in ringgit bonds in three years, fuelled by bets for policy easing, has ground to a halt. FTSE Russell sparked the latest — and perhaps biggest ...

Bloomberg Smaller US stocks may be worth watching right now for both their relative performance and their technical picture. The Russell 2000 index of small-cap stocks has fallen 1.5 percent since February 22, while the S&P 500 index, which tracks the biggest American companies, has risen 4 percent. And that difference could bode ill for the entire stock market, equity ...

Bloomberg As merger talks between Deutsche Bank AG and Commerzbank AG appear to run into more obstacles, potential suitors are jockeying for a piece of the German banking market should government efforts to create a national champion fail. Commerzbank, the smaller of the two, is attracting the most interest, perhaps because it would be easier to digest. Dutch lender ING ...

Bloomberg Wells Fargo & Co. is once again flirting with something that no major US bank has done in a decade: have a dividend yield north of 4 percent. The spike in the yield comes as the result of sliding shares rather than profit growth. Wells Fargo dropped as much as 1 percent in early trading after gaining 2.5 percent ...

Bloomberg India’s new government should review the central bank’s inflation goals, including whether consumer pri-ces or the underlying core measure is the appropriate target to use to determine interest rates, an economic adviser to the current prime minister said. Speaking in his personal capacity, and not as a member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Economic Advisory Council, Rathin Roy said ...

Bloomberg The Argentine peso gained as the government and the central bank announced measures to control inflation after prices rose more than expected in March for the third consecutive month. The peso climbed as much as 2.3 percent before paring gains to finish trading up 1.1 percent at 41.9 per dollar. Some investors saw the announcements as boosting President Mauricio ...

Bloomberg UniCredit SpA’s Austrian unit is requesting special audits of at least one of the lenders comprising the 3 Banks Group, saying it broke corporate law and governance rules for years. UniCredit Bank Austria AG is demanding the audit of six share issues at BKS Bank AG, one of the three banks, according to a motion for the May 8 ...

Bloomberg A new, long-delayed 88-passenger jet from Japan may finally be the right plane at the right time. More cities in Asia and Europe are seeking to link up with each other and the global air travel network. The Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ), the first airliner built in Japan since the 1960s, began certification flights last month in Moses Lake, ...