Bloomberg German Chancellor Angela Merkel heads into potentially laborious talks this week to form a national government weakened after her Christian Democratic Union suffered a defeat in Volkswagen AG’s home state. Three weeks after Merkel’s CDU won the federal ballot, her party posted its worst election result in Lower Saxony since 1959 and lost in the state to the Social ...

At the center of the increasingly bitter dispute between the US and Turkey is a demand by an irate President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that American prosecutors free a Turkish-Iranian gold dealer who’s about to go on trial on money-laundering and fraud charges. The confrontation sharpened, as Erdogan protested in Ankara that the businessman, Reza Zarrab, was being squeezed as a ...

If you are adding to your long-term holdings of stocks and other risk assets at current market valuations, you are likely to be betting — knowingly or not — on a combination of three drivers of future returns; or you are planning to sell your holdings to someone who is or will be making that bet. Understanding the importance of ...

Being sophisticated in the age of output curbs by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) can prove a disadvantage, as the operator of the world’s biggest oil refining complex is discovering. Reliance Industries Ltd’s (RIL) 1.24 million barrel-a-day facility in Gujarat features highly advanced units designed to process the globe’s heaviest types of crude, which have historically been cheaper ...

The US solar industry is threatened by one of President Donald Trump’s more destructive impulses: his eagerness to punish supposedly unfair trade practices. By next month, the US International Trade Commission, having unanimously ruled that American solar-panel makers are harmed by competition from Asian and other rivals, will recommend what tariffs or other import penalties the president should impose. The ...

The drama around President Donald Trump and Iran’s compliance with the nuclear deal has grabbed the oil world’s attention. This gaze should shift west. Rising tensions in northern Iraq could have a much more immediate impact on oil flows that could lead prices higher, and squeeze producers and refiners. The collapse of so-called IS in Iraq ought to be a ...

Central bank sleuths are on the case. What explains the ‘mystery,’ to use Janet Yellen’s word, behind low inflation and strong employment? It’s a question that requires global detective work, a point amplified by the Federal Reserve minutes this week when someone (who may have been Yellen) remarked on the global nature of the challenge. Inflation and wages remain stubbornly ...

India’s slowdown—recently confirmed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which sharply reduced its estimate of growth during the current financial year—has set off a couple of energetic and oddly contradictory responses from the government in New Delhi. On the one hand, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has aggressively defended his record, comparing it positively to the stagnation presided over by the ...

Bloomberg The dollar strengthened and Treasuries fell after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen suggested gradual rate increases are warranted despite soft inflation. Gains in oil and copper drove a gauge of commodities to a six-month high. The S&P 500 Index rose less than 0.1 percent to a record, led by technology and media shares. Apple Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. ...

Reuters Saudi Arabia’s stock market rebounded on Monday as higher oil prices boosted petrochemical shares while banks rose in response to Alinma Bank’s better-than-expected earnings. The main Saudi index gained 0.6 percent as tensions between Baghdad and Iraqi Kurdistan lifted oil sharply. PetroRabigh rose 2.1 percent and Petrochem added 1.2 percent, while mining firm Ma’aden was up 2.1 percent. Alinma ...