Is Daimler AG out to prove that carmakers are the ultimate value trap? Its second profit warning in fourth months felt like a capitulation. A kitchen sink would struggle to contain the list of excuses the German car and truck maker produced to explain the latest profit shortfall on October 19. Unspecified diesel issues, disappointing bus sales, and the potential ...

You have to hand it to Europe’s regulators. They rarely miss a chance to antagonize an American tech company, no matter what the cost to their own people. In a blog post, Alphabet Inc.’s Google announced that it will start charging phone-makers that want to pre-install some of its apps and services for devices sold in Europe. This was the ...

A common refrain from some long-term China observers is that the government in Beijing can just wait out a significantly more confrontational US trade policy now that the initial shock is past. After all, the uncontested Asian powerhouse is on track to be the largest economy in the world. It also has a long tradition of government that shrewdly takes ...

If you find a tray of warmed-over chicken curry and a pocket-sized Greek salad at 35,000 feet an unappetising prospect, you’re not alone. The world’s airlines don’t much like it, either. Deutsche Lufthansa AG is exploring options including a sale for its catering arm LSG Sky Chefs, people with knowledge of the matter told Joyce Koh, Manuel Baigorri, Richard Weiss, ...

Facebook has been accused of misleading advertisers about the viewership of its video content. The important question isn’t whether the social-media company didn’t tell advertisers as soon as it knew it had inflated the numbers (it says it did) but whether the video-content boom, which the social network has actively fuelled since 2014, reflects any consumer demand. In 2016, the ...

Bloomberg Tech shares pushed the Nasdaq Composite Index higher, while the broader US equity market was mostly little changed in the wake of a rally in Asian stocks after Chinese officials pledged to support the world’s second-biggest economy. The dollar strengthened, while the pound slumped and Italian bonds gave back most of their gains. In China, the Shanghai Composite Index ...

Bloomberg There’s a lot of chatter about a global rotation into value stocks, but the data doesn’t quite back it up. During this month’s market sell-off, the MSCI World Value Index outperformed growth stocks, fueling speculation about a switch into cheaper equities. Yet EPFR Global’s fund flow data show that in the week that ended October 17, which included the ...

Bloomberg Euro-area lenders are facing a cliff edge for their funding, and some are hoping the European Central Bank will help them out. Around 722 billion euros ($832 billion) of long-term loans granted to banks by the ECB will start maturing from 2020, and new regulatory standards mean replacement funds could be needed as soon as next year. One concern ...

Bloomberg Investors in Europe’s perennially underperforming banks are no strangers to disappointing earnings, but the third quarter brought an unusually large array of scandals and market turmoil that could test their conviction. The standoff over Italy’s budget, a massive money laundering scandal in Denmark and geopolitical tension chilling trade are only a few of the events that hammered banks. It ...

Bloomberg The Bank of Japan said the financial system remains stable and growth in bank lending continues to support the economy, signalling it’s comfortable that lenders are coping with its record monetary easing program for now. Banks “have maintained their active lending attitudes,” the central bank said in its semiannual financial system report on Monday. “The financial cycle has shown ...