Finance

The U.S. trade deficit rose to a five-month high in May as the politically sensitive imbalances with China and Mexico widened. The Commerce Department said Wednesday that the gap between the goods and services the U.S. sells and what it buys from foreign countries rose 8.4% to $55.5 billion in May, the highest since December. […]

U.S. services companies grew at a slower pace in June as the pace of hiring, orders and production decelerated. The Institute for Supply Management, an association of purchasing managers, says its non-manufacturing index fell to 55.1 from 56.9 in May. Anything above 50 signals growth, though, and the services sector is enjoying a 113-month winning

Corri Smith is planning to hire a full-time project manager for her public relations firm and make her part-time assistant full-time. But she has a wary eye on the economy. “It’s been a long time since we’ve had some trouble in the economy. It can’t all be wonderful — something will happen,” says Smith, owner

President Donald Trump on Wednesday accused China and Europe of playing a “big currency manipulation game.” He said the United States should match that effort, a move that directly contradicts official U.S. policy not to manipulate the dollar’s value to gain trade advantages. In a tweet, the president said if America doesn’t act, the country

Lee Iacocca, the auto executive and master pitchman who put the Mustang in Ford’s lineup in the 1960s and became a corporate folk hero when he resurrected Chrysler 20 years later, has died in Bel Air, California. He was 94. Two former Chrysler executives who worked with him, Bud Liebler, the company’s former spokesman, and

Boeing said Wednesday that it will provide an “initial investment” of $100 million over several years to help families and communities affected by two crashes of its 737 Max plane that killed 346 people. The Chicago-based company said some of the money will go toward living expenses and to cover hardship suffered by the families

Uncertainty over U.S. trade conflicts and signs of a slowing global economy have led many S&P 500 companies to lower expectations for how much profit they made in the spring. Wall Street projects that overall S&P 500 company earnings for the April-June quarter fell 2.6% from a year earlier, according to FactSet. As recently as

U.S. stocks moved broadly higher on a holiday-shortened day as investors put the market on track for its third straight record high close of the week. The rally follows a slight easing of trade tensions between the U.S. and China. Both nations have agreed to refrain from new tariffs while they open a new round

U.S. companies added just 102,000 jobs in June, a possible turning point that could signal a coming increase in the unemployment rate. Payroll processor ADP said Wednesday that the meager gains — after just 41,000 jobs were added in May — indicate a slowdown in the economy. The job growth of the past two months

As with picking, trucking may be fully automated one day. In the meantime, said Karen Levy, a sociologist at Cornell University who has studied the trucking industry, “what you end up doing is making people better cogs.” Upsides, and Acts of Resistance Few of the workers said they were nostalgic for their old employers. Mr.