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Bloomberg Japanese trade returned to surplus in June, with both imports and exports continuing the strong growth they have had all year. Exports rose 9.7% from a year earlier (estimate 9.5%). Imports increased 15.5% (estimate 14.4% ). The trade surplus was 439.9 billion yen (estimate +488 billion yen). The nation’s modest economic recovery reflected in the trade data and the ...

Bloomberg Software giant SAP SE raised its annual revenue outlook and said it would buy back up to a half billion dollars in stock after reporting a better-than-expected jump in sales, lifted by a revamped version of its flagship software. The German maker of applications that run businesses’ finances, manufacturing and personnel is projecting sales of 23.3 billion euros ($26.8 ...

Bloomberg The European Commission and the German cartel office have received information about possible collusion among German automakers and are studying the matter, according to a statement. ‘It is premature at this stage to speculate further,” according to the statement from the commission’s executive arm. “The commission and national competition authorities cooperate closely with each other on such issues in ...

Bloomberg Swiss watch exports gained for a third time in four months as Chinese demand strengthened and the UK attracted buyers with its weak currency. Shipments climbed 5.3 percent to 1.7 billion francs ($1.8 billion) in June, the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry said in a statement that underpinned signs of a rebound from the longest slump on record. ...

Bloomberg Elenia Oy’s owners are preparing to kick off a sale that could value Finland’s second-largest power distributor at as much as 3 billion euros ($3.5 billion), restarting a process that was delayed last year, people with knowledge of the matter said. The utility has sent out teasers and senior executives are planning to meet with potential suitors in Asia ...

Bloomberg Hydro One Ltd. fell the most in eight months after agreeing to buy US power supplier Avista Corp. in a $3.4 billion deal that analysts said is too costly and exposes the Canadian energy company to regulatory hassles. The merger will add Avista’s energy production and distribution operations in Washington, Idaho, Oregon and Alaska to Hydro One’s transmission network ...

House Republicans, who are now deliberating the government’s 2018 budget, pledge to eliminate deficits within a decade. Well, good luck with that. It must be obvious that chronic deficits reflect a basic political impasse that can be broken only if majorities in Congress do things they’ve refused to do: trim Social Security benefits; raise taxes significantly; control health spending. There ...

Don’t be surprised if in 20 years, Singapore’s wealth-management industry starts resembling a mini-United Nations, with bankers wearing their nationalities on their sleeves. Last week, Gadfly commented on one such act of flag-waving. PT Bank Mandiri, Indonesia’s largest lender by assets, plans to set up a private banking outfit in the city-state to target offshore Indonesian wealth. While that proposal ...

Donald Trump’s vision of a Justice Department that serves Donald Trump instead of the cause of justice is horribly askew. But it is quintessentially Trumpian, and therefore unsurprising. Attorney General Jeff Sessions should know better. After the president questioned his judgment and competence in an interview with The New York Times — and said Sessions’ decision to recuse himself from ...

President Donald Trump has made a welcome retreat from his threats to scrap ‘the worst trade deal maybe ever signed anywhere.’ His administration’s plan for renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement, released this week, is surprisingly benign. Granted, the administration’s declared purpose for those talks — to reduce the US trade deficit — highlights its weak grasp of basic ...