Americas

Trump’s Paris accord call will be anticlimactic

26 May 2017

Even if the president pulls the U.S. out of the 2015 agreement, the impact should be limited. Cities, states, companies, investors and other countries will keep the anti-climate-warming momentum going. The bigger hit will be to America’s soft power and, potentially, its economy.

Jared Kushner conflicts hang on White House wall

26 May 2017

Donald Trump's son-in-law is under FBI scrutiny over Russian contacts. He and Ivanka Trump also didn't disclose their art collection. And the Kushner family used Jared's name to drum up Chinese business. The entanglements undercut his role in the administration, and its agenda.

Review: A premature requiem for the liberal order

26 May 2017

Globalisation is in retreat and democracy under attack. Two new books foresee a gloomy future for the Western-led economic and political system. Yet just as some were too quick to proclaim its triumph in 1989, the obituaries sparked by Donald Trump’s election may prove too hasty.

Fox pokes sleeping advertising bear

25 May 2017

Cars.com, Peloton and others yanked commercials from Sean Hannity's popular prime-time show as he pushes a fake conspiracy theory. Brands also have targeted Bill O’Reilly and YouTube of late. Madison Avenue may slowly be transforming from a passive investor to a more activist one.

Holding: Courts may save startups from redemptions

25 May 2017

Cashing out venture capitalists on demand can leave other investors in a lurch. A case involving onetime dot-com darling Oversee.net and Oak Hill suggests judges have growing concerns. It’s an overdue warning about how such conflicts can hurt fledgling firms and their owners.

Viewsroom: Trump budgets his way to la-la land

25 May 2017

Basic economics - and decency - fall by the wayside in the administration’s pitch that it can create $2 trln of revenue by cutting $3.6 trln of costs. OPEC and U.S. fields battle for oil supremacy. Zimbabwe invents the zollar. And Bill Ford escapes his CEO’s crash unscathed.

Retailers’ upturn is a false bill of goods

25 May 2017

Sears laid out a rare profit, Abercrombie & Fitch sold more surfer-inspired apparel than expected and Best Buy got a jolt from electronics sales. While that's encouraging, Tiffany’s quarterly slump is a reminder the industry remains under pressure. The only certainty is more volatility.

FX market might benefit from statement of obvious

25 May 2017

New guidelines for the $5 trln-a-day currency trading market exhort participants to behave ethically and fairly. That will hardly deter miscreants. Still, the code has a good stab at clarifying grey areas and avoids creating exploitable loopholes. Best of all, it will evolve.

Human cost of Obamacare repeal bill is too high

24 May 2017

The U.S. House legislation, newly scored, threads the financial needle by cutting healthcare outlays and taxes about equally. But 23 mln Americans could lose insurance by 2026, doubling the number without cover, and premiums may skyrocket. It's hard to see the Senate buying it.

ETF industry dances faster with risky new ideas

24 May 2017

The tradable funds have grown wildly popular as an easy way to play the market. Now sponsors are dialing it up with plans for ETFs tracking asset-backed securities and the first fund to lever stock exposure four times, among others. The frenzy may end with a bang, not a whimper.

Trump budget is schizophrenic on infrastructure

24 May 2017

This week's White House plan adds $200 bln of federal money over a decade. On the flipside, though, it slashes several existing infrastructure-related programs. There are some practical suggestions but, as in the overall budget, smoke and mirrors hamper any real analysis.

Twin aims push Toshiba, Western Digital to a deal

24 May 2017

The Japanese firm needs cash quickly while its U.S. partner hopes to buy its chip unit on the cheap. Yet Toshiba wants certainty and Western can’t afford to see a rival steal the prize. An $18 bln bid by Western shows the forces pushing the two sides toward an agreement.

Jump at Bunge shows Glencore has its M&A mojo back

24 May 2017

The commodity giant's agricultural arm approached the $11 bln U.S. grain trader about a friendly deal. A takeover may not be the goal, and Bunge is cool on a tie-up. But after some tough balance-sheet repair, Ivan Glasenberg’s trading powerhouse is clearly back on the offensive.

Whiskey and wine can make fine corporate cocktail

24 May 2017

At first blush, Constellation Brands, with roots in an upstate New York vineyard, and Brown-Forman, maker of Confederate tipple Jack Daniel's, seem to have little in common. But a heritage of family control, maintained via dual-class shares, makes a $56 bln union look doable.

Brazil’s economy teeters at the abattoir gates

23 May 2017

Laws and sausages alike are famously messy to make. That Brazil's President Temer, a master of the dark legislative arts, may lose his job over meatpacker JBS's corruption charges is perhaps fitting. But pension reform still needs forcing through Congress, whoever's in charge.

Saudi dollars overexcite Blackstone’s investors

23 May 2017

They've pushed the private-equity firm's shares up 9 pct since the kingdom's possible $20 bln infrastructure commitment was revealed, bringing the market cap to $38 bln. But finding investments will take time, and fees will be on the low side. The value uplift looks overdone.

Trump’s oil-reserve selloff plan is too hasty

23 May 2017

With U.S. crude imports decreasing, rethinking the size of the government's 688 mln barrel stockpile may make sense. But flattering the White House budget by $17 bln isn't a good reason for selling nearly half of it. Strategic and market factors should be the drivers.

CFAs look past financial returns for their rewards

23 May 2017

Philadelphia is a long way from Wall Street, judging by the atmosphere at the annual confab of investment advisers. With Jack Bogle and Robert Shiller warning of a subdued outlook for percentage gains, ethics and client service rang out in the city of brotherly love.

Twitter’s savior may yet be a socialism network

23 May 2017

The $13 bln microblogging site’s investors voted against studying whether to become a user-owned cooperative. It would be a smart solution for a company with lots of dedicated users but few revenue opportunities. Twitter’s sky-high valuation would need to drop considerably, though.

Nokia-Apple spat lays bare tech law of the jungle

23 May 2017

The two groups settled a patent row with a deal that includes the U.S. giant buying extra kit, and selling Nokia products in Apple stores. Patent wars may appear to be about legal rights and wrongs. They’re really just a fight over who gets what share of the value chain.