Trade is an afterthought in stock market still glued to earnings

Bloomberg Of all the forces swaying equity prices, earnings expectations are the hardest to see. They don’t make headlines, are difficult to quantify and get lost in the din around trade wars and politics. Yet ignoring them is to miss the biggest part of what influences the market — the force that keeps the peace in a week like this. ...

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Bitcoin approaches year low as Japan cracks down on venues

Bloomberg Bitcoin extended losses as it approached the lowest price for the year after Japanese regulators hit six of the country’s biggest cryptocurrency trading venues with business-improvement orders. The biggest virtual currency fell as much as 10 percent to $6,045.31, testing the low for the year of $5,922 that was set on February 6, according to prices compiled by Bloomberg. ...

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Trump’s trade war raises risk of slowdown in US economy

Bloomberg The escalating trade battle between the US and the rest of the world is raising the risk of a meaningful slowing in an otherwise vibrant American economy. While the tariffs already in place and set to be implemented will barely dent US growth, economists say the panoply of additional measures being considered would take a perceptible bite out of ...

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Euro-area economic growth gathers pace in June as risks persist

Bloomberg Economic momentum in the euro area unexpectedly picked up in June, suggesting the 19-nation bloc is starting to recover from a temporary soft patch just as risks to the outlook increase. Private-sector growth also gathered pace in the region’s two largest economies, Germany and France, underpinning the European Central Bank’s prediction that a rebound — even if it arrives ...

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Car tariffs: Europe ready to retaliate

Bloomberg The European Union says it will continue a tit-for-tat escalation in its trade dispute with the US while countering President Donald Trump’s assertion that the US is being treated unfairly by the 28-nation bloc. Jyrki Katainen, the EU commissioner in charge of jobs and growth, told the French newspaper Le Monde in a story posted that if Trump applies ...

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Apple challenges four Qualcomm patents

Bloomberg Apple Inc. filed petitions challenging four Qualcomm Inc. patents, dragging the US Patent and Trademark Office into a long-running licensing dispute that already spans the globe. The two are locked in a bitter fight over the amount of royalties Apple’s suppliers should pay to use Qualcomm’s technology on telecommunications. Billions of dollars are at stake. A hearing in one ...

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High-flying Toronto condo market may soon hit turbulence

Bloomberg The chill that has crept over some segments of the Toronto housing market may soon extend to one of its persistent hot spots: condominiums. Evidence of a slowdown is emerging as new rules make it tougher to get a mortgage and borrowing costs rise for the first time in almost a decade. That’s reducing the appeal of Toronto condos, ...

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Losing the trade war

If we are to have a ‘trade war’ with China, it would be best to win it. We should be better off after the fighting. Unfortunately, the chances of this happening seem slim to none, because President Trump’s plan of attack suggests that everyone — us and them — will lose. Interestingly, there’s broad agreement over some of our war ...

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A $90bn lesson for the Brexit gang

Airbus has warned it will reconsider its British presence if the country crashes out of the EU without a deal. History is in danger of repeating itself here, with the UK once again failing to recognize where its best industrial interests lie. A British company once owned part of Airbus and sold out on the cheap. London is now threatening ...

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World’s online retailers shouldn’t fear a sales tax

Old-school retailers were doing the press-release version of a touchdown dance last week after the Supreme Court ruled that state governments can require internet retailers to collect sales taxes even if they don’t have a physical presence in that state. Matthew Shay, the CEO of the National Retail Federation, said in a statement that retailers “have been waiting for this ...

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