China’s consumer-price growth accelerated to the quickest in over three years and factory deflation moderated again, after a rally in energy markets and as household spending boomed during a later-than-usual Lunar New Year holiday. The consumer-price index climbed...

The surge in oil prices combined with a sagging yen raises the risk that Japan will slide into stagflation, prompting the government to ramp up fiscal spending while complicating the central bank’s mission to normalize its policy settings. Oil topped $100 per barrel...

The economic fallout from the war in the Mideast is spreading outside the region. Persian Gulf ports have turned into military targets. The vital Strait of Hormuz is effectively closed, sending fuel costs and shipping rates soaring. Vessels can’t reach a container hub...

President Donald Trump demanded Iran capitulate in the war’s seventh day, suggesting a longer timeframe for the conflict even amid energy-market tumult and worries about whether the US has the military stockpiles to carry on the fight indefinitely. Trump called...

President Donald Trump said the largest US defense manufacturers had agreed to boost production of some weapons following a meeting at the White House, amid worries that the war against Iran is depleting Pentagon stockpiles. “We just concluded a very good meeting with...

Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman signaled the weaker-than-expected February employment report has tilted her back to supporting additional interest-rate cuts. “I was fine with holding at our January meeting, but now that we’ve seen that the...

Russian President Vladimir Putin emphasized the need for an immediate halt to hostilities in the Middle East during a phone call Friday with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, according to the state-run Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting. During the call, Putin...

The Iran war rattled but didn’t break Wall Street this week. Instead it exposed the limits of diversification strategies built to cushion investors against chaos. Throughout the week, stocks and bonds repeatedly fell together as oil surged and the inflationary shock...

US employers unexpectedly cut jobs in February and the unemployment rate rose, pointing to lingering fragility in a labor market that was thought to be stabilizing. Nonfarm payrolls fell 92,000 last month, one of the largest declines since the pandemic, after a strong...

A prolonged Iran war is a risk to the bank-stock powered rallies in Japan and Europe as investors abandon these markets in favor of exposure to oil and the US dollar, Bank of America’s Michael Hartnett said. Investors are likely to shift to assets that are...

Fears of deeper disruption to global oil and natural gas supply are growing as the US and Israel continue to strike Iran, and the Islamic Republic retaliates with missiles and drones across the Middle East. Prices of both commodities have jumped, and a sustained...

Iran used low-cost Shahed-136 drones to overwhelm Gulf air defenses after U.S.-backed airstrikes.  The drones are cheap and easy to produce, while interceptors can cost millions. Russia’s wartime use in Ukraine helped prove the drones’ battlefield effectiveness. In...

Oracle Corp. is planning to ax thousands of jobs, among its moves to handle a cash crunch from a massive AI data center expansion effort. The job reductions will affect divisions across the company and may be implemented as soon as this month, according to people...