Trade-related topics that had been a sleeper have become a front-burner issue for investors. Equity prices and Treasury yields plunged on March 23 after the US announcement of a 25 percent tariff on up to $60 billion of Chinese exports. Over that weekend, both sides expressed interest in reconciling differences and markets reversed path when they opened March 26. If ...

Just as the market’s love for the FANG stocks turns to angst, the US government is looking to ban Chinese investments in its technologies. That’s a bigger problem for the country’s expensive chipmakers than their would-be Asian acquirers. Semiconductors and 5G wireless communications are among areas that would be placed off-limits under plans to invoke a law reserved for national ...

From West Virginia to Arizona, public-school teachers are in revolt. They are demanding better pay, and they deserve it — so long as their salaries are tied to their performance. It’s not that US teachers are underpaid; the median income for the country’s 1 million high-school teachers, for example, is more than 50 percent higher than that of the general ...

Everyone loves an underdog, unless it’s Rodrigo Duterte and the Philippine peso. The Philippines is Asia’s worst stock and currency market this year. A 6 percent slump in the benchmark index combined with a 4.6 percent slide in the peso means US dollar-based investors are looking at double-digit losses. Year-to-date, foreigners pulled more than $580 million from shares, after inflows ...

The return of volatility in the first quarter versus 2017 was our focus last week. Some interesting pushback followed the premise that prices seem to ignore news sometimes and at other times hang on every headline. My explanation: Most people have this correlation backward. Contrary to widespread belief, the news does not drive markets or prices; rather, it is the ...

There’s a line of thinking that Facebook Inc.’s business won’t be significantly damaged by the company’s series of scandals. But Facebook is already shifting how it operates in ways that will pinch its finances or limit its strategic maneuvers. First, it’s worth noting how little has changed for Facebook investors after two weeks of fury over the company’s role in ...

The competition for Amazon’s second headquarters is only getting fiercer. The politicking that goes with it ranges from subtle and behind the scenes to brazenly in-your-face. At stake is a destiny-changing bonanza that is a modern-day equivalent of a railroad siting. Amazon’s decision makers are weighing many factors among 20 finalist locations, and only they know how much certain variables ...

Bloomberg China’s biggest lenders are increasingly using short-term financing to meet demand for loans, in a de-velopment that could push up money-market rates. The banks are rushing to sell negotiable certificates of deposit, an instrument that sounds like a saving account but is actually more like a bond. Issuance of these by the five largest lenders more than doubled to ...

DUBAI / Reuters Oman’s central bank said on Tuesday it is relaxing capital and credit exposure rules for commercial banks and taking other steps to boost lending in a bid to boost economic growth. The Omani economy and financial markets have come under pressure from low oil prices and rising US interest rates, which are closely linked to rial rates, ...

Bloomberg The Bank of Japan (BOJ) is talking about how to eventually exit from its massive monetary stimulus program but it’s still too early to reveal details, Governor Haruhiko Kuroda told parliament on Tuesday. “Internally we’re conducting various discussions,” at the staff level, Kuroda said in response to a question from a lawmaker. How the BOJ normalises policy will depend ...