During this year’s first half, German companies’ direct investments in the U.S. fell to €4.3 billion, or about $5 billion, two-thirds less than in the same period in 2025 and 80 percent below 2024’s level, the German Economic Institute (IW) reported.
Loan defaults among some private credit funds managed by Ares Management, Blackstone, Blue Owl Capital, and Golub Capital are worsening and have reached their highest levels since 2021, according to the companies’ public filings reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
The cost of shipping cargo has risen to 20-year highs since mid-July as the Iran War and severe droughts in Europe and Latin America have sharpened concerns about the security of key supply chains, the Financial Times reported.
Japan’s GDP grew by 1.1 percent in the year’s second quarter, a full percentage point below a 2.1-percent expansion in the year’s first quarter and missing analysts’ forecasts of a 2-percent bump.
Weather-related disruptions and persistently weak consumer demand dampened China’s household spending and industrial output in July.
The steady stream of bankruptcies and business closures continues to paint a troubling picture of economic reality.
The job-cutting trend continues to spread across sectors, signaling deeper economic weakness beneath the surface of the official data.
EASYJET ACCEPTS APOLLO’S TAKEOVER OFFER Apollo Global Management has won its battle with Castlelake, another private equity firm, to take over British budget airline easyJet. Apollo will pay £7.15 a share, bringing the price to about £5.7 billion. The airline’s board and founder, also its largest shareholder, have approved the deal. The company has “carefully......
CHINA HAS BECOME “THE FACTORY FOR FACTORIES” Long a key supplier of consumer items, China is becoming a key exporter of the high-value machinery and other capital goods that factories around the world need to make things, such as cars and robotic arms. “In the past, advanced manufacturing was led by Germany and Japan, but......
For years, China was the luxury industry’s growth engine as the country’s blossoming class of knowledge workers showed off their newfound affluence by buying designer clothes, Rolex watches, and Mont Blanc fountain pens.