Singapore and Malaysia may find their relationship under pressure if the latter’s new government withdraws from a rail project that’s become emblematic of improved bilateral ties. Uncertainty clouds the future of a 2016 deal to construct a high-speed rail network between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore after Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said this week that […]

With the National Australia Bank under fire over allegations of fraud and misconduct by its bankers, its CEO Andrew Thorburn admitted that banks had been prioritizing its company operations over its clients. “Well I think this has been a drift over time where banks have become so complex, maybe so hierarchical, so focused on compliance, […]

Beijing’s purported offer of a package aimed at cutting its trade deficit with the U.S. by up to $200 billion a year is all about politics, an academic said Friday. “This is not about economics. It’s about politics and geopolitics,” said Pushan Dutt, a professor of economics and political science at graduate business school, INSEAD. […]

China said on Friday it was dropping an anti-dumping probe into imports of U.S. sorghum, a conciliatory gesture as top officials meet in Washington in an effort to head off a trade war between the world’s two biggest economies. Beijing’s announcement that it was ending its investigation, which effectively halted a trade worth roughly $1.1 […]

It will be very challenging for the U.S. and China to come to an agreement about trade this week, in part because the Trump administration has been “unclear in what it really wants,” a strategist said on Friday. “On the one hand, the President remains very focused on the size of the bilateral trade deficit, […]

Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, who is leading a trade delegation in Washington, has met U.S. President Donald Trump, state broadcaster China Central Television said on Friday. A second round of talks between senior Trump administration officials and their Chinese counterparts started at the U.S. Treasury on Thursday morning, focused on cutting China’s U.S. trade […]

Japan’s core consumer prices rose 0.7 percent in April from a year earlier, government data showed on Friday, showing little of the inflationary momentum needed to reach the central bank’s elusive 2 percent target. The increase in the core consumer price index, which includes oil products but excludes volatile fresh food costs, fell slightly short […]

Futures pointed to a higher open in Asia on the last trading day of the week, with markets seeming to shrug off the soggy close on Wall Street despite investor concerns over U.S.-China trade talks. Nikkei futures traded in Chicago were up 0.23 percent at 22,900 compared to Thursday’s close of 22,838.37. Australian SPI were […]

The Pentagon defended the ongoing joint U.S. and South Korean military exercises Thursday amid North Korean threats of withdrawing from a highly anticipated summit with President Donald Trump next month. “The scope of our exercises has not changed,” chief Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said, adding that the annual drills are “longstanding and defensive in nature.” […]

North Korea’s chief negotiator called the South Korean government “ignorant and incompetent” on Thursday, denounced U.S.-South Korean air combat drills and threatened to halt all talks with the South unless its demands are met. The comments by Ri Son Gwon, chairman of North Korea’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the country, were the latest […]