Investors love to complain that asset prices are too high, but they have only themselves to blame. Investors bid up the S&P 500’s price-to-earnings ratio to 26.8 at the end of 2017 from 11.1 when the 2008 financial crisis eased in February 2009, based on 10-year trailing average positive earnings from continuing operations. They drove down yields on the Bloomberg ...

This year, don’t count on the social networks to provide its core service: an uncensored platform for every imaginable view. The censorship has already begun, and it’ll only get heavier. A 2017 law in Germany obliging social networks to delete hate speech as soon as it’s reported or face massive fines went into effect on January 1 —and immediately claimed ...

Bloomberg It always looks inevitable in retrospect. Why wouldn’t US stocks rally, surging to the biggest weekly gain in a year, amid earnings euphoria like this? With no hint of fatigue, the S&P 500 Index spent the holiday-shortened week rolling past 2,700, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped over 25,000. Ninety-eight companies in the Nasdaq 100 rose. It happened ...

Reuters Saudi Arabia’s stock market rose on Sunday after King Salman announced a package of handouts for Saudi citizens to compensate for rising living costs, while Qatar was the strongest market in the region ahead of dividend announcements. The Saudi index gained 0.6 percent. Shares in most retail sector firms, which could benefit from the package’s boost to consumer spending ...

Bloomberg The US central bank should take its time before raising interest rates again to avoid inverting the yield curve and because inflation is still low, said Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President Patrick Harker. In remarks during the annual meeting of the American Economic Association in Philadelphia, Harker also revealed a dovish rate call for 2018: two hikes instead ...

Bloomberg China’s foreign-exchange reserves posted an 11th straight monthly increase, capping a year of recovery amid tighter capital controls, a stronger yuan and resilient economic growth. The reserves climbed $20.7 billion to $3.14 trillion in December, according to a People’s Bank of China statement on Sunday, compared with a $3.13 trillion median estimate in a Bloomberg survey. That brought the ...

Bloomberg The dollar’s status as the world’s most popular funding currency is stronger than ever, helping to push the greenback lower even in the face of bullish drivers such as the US tax overhaul and higher short-term bond yields. A buoyant global economy is encouraging borrowing in dollars by overseas corporations and governments, overwhelming the domestic forces, according to Morgan ...

Bloomberg Wells Fargo & Co. spent much of 2017 trying to dig out of several consumer banking scandals. By one measure, it’s making progress. Complaints lodged against the lender with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau through Dec 15 dropped 18% from the same period of 2016, the steepest decline among major banks, federal figures show. Still, it remained first among ...

Bloomberg For Greece, 2018 is a crucial year. The key question in the months ahead for what was once the epicenter of the European credit crisis is: Will it turn the corner and wean itself of external aid like Ireland, Portugal and Cyprus — something the Greek government wants? Or, will the current bailout program, which ends August 20, be ...

Bloomberg The price war in the American grocery aisle is getting more intense. And believe it or not, the reason isn’t Amazon.com Inc. Amazon’s debut as a brick-and-mortar grocery chain in 2017 sent tremors through the supermarket industry, with Kroger Co. and other established players losing billions in market value. But with its plans for Whole Foods developing slowly, Amazon ...