Bloomberg Euro-area companies are bracing for subdued economic momentum in 2019 after activity slipped to a four-year low at the end of last year. Growth in manufacturing and services slowed more than initially reported in December 2018 — weighed down by public protests in France, Germany’s continued struggles in the car industry, and renewed weakness in Italy. Composite gauges for ...

Bloomberg In weighing a bankruptcy, power giant PG&E Corp may be firing a warning shot to California lawmakers: Help us or watch the largest utility in your state go insolvent. The company is considering whether to file for bankruptcy protection in as soon as weeks to organise the billions of dollars in potential liabilities from wildfires its equipment may have ...

President Donald Trump in a meeting with congressional Democrats last week said he was prepared for the partial government shutdown to continue for months — or even years — if he doesn’t get the money he wants for a wall along the Mexican border. It’s not hard to see how that prediction comes true. Both sides have framed the issue ...

China’s foreign debt has been rising rapidly, and that’s becoming an increasingly big problem — for the country and, potentially, the world. Officially, China lists its outstanding external debt at $1.9 trillion. For a $13 trillion economy, that’s not a major amount. But focusing on the headline number significantly understates the underlying risks. Short-term debt accounted for 62 percent of ...

The sharp appreciation of the yen in the twilight zone between US and Asia trading days isn’t just an overreaction to poor results from Apple Inc. in thin trading (Japan doesn’t return from its New Year holiday until January 4.) It is a portent of the struggles ahead for the country’s central bank in 2019. It’s going to be harder ...

High low dressing – mixing designer pieces with bargain finds – has become a fashion staple. The trend is also playing out across the British high street. On Monday, luxury department store Selfridges, and value retailers Aldi UK and Dunelm Group Plc all posted strong Christmas performances. Aldi said it generated sales of almost 1 billion pounds ($1.3 billion) for ...

A year ago, all was set fair for Switzerland’s largest bank. The wealthy were getting richer and assets were appreciating, while many of UBS Group AG’s European competitors were still figuring out what they wanted to be. The firm’s decision after the financial crisis to pivot away from the rapidly shrinking securities-trading business to focus on managing money for the ...

Only in Tesla-land could a figure provoke a 10 percent slump in the stock at the open: Tesla Inc. kicked off 2019 with a sales report boasting it had delivered almost as many vehicles in 2018 — 245,240 — than in all prior years combined. Roughly 91,000 found a home in the fourth quarter, triple what was sold in the ...

The optimistic narrative about Apple Inc.’s iPhone business is falling apart in front of our eyes. The company has stunningly slashed its own revenue forecast for its first fiscal quarter that ended in December. Apple led by blaming a slowing economy in China and the trade skirmish with the US for worse-than-expected consumer transactions in the region that includes China, ...

Bloomberg US stocks rose slightly as investors weighed their risk tolerance amid the resumption of trade talks with China. The dollar fell to its lowest level since October as traders assessed seemingly dovish remarks from Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell on Friday. The S&P 500 Index gained led by consumer discretionary stocks and energy as oil surged higher. The Nasdaq ...