As the world enters 2026, Breakingviews columnists map out how powerful forces of macroeconomic stimulus, exuberance over artificial intelligence and corporate dealmaking could interact with tensions between great powers, financial gravity and political dysfunction in the coming 12 months.

News Podcast · Updated weekly · Reuters Breakingviews columnists tap their best contacts to explore the biggest issues driving business and markets today. Every Tuesday, Global Editor Peter Thal Larse...

As China hits back with tariffs to Washington’s levies, Europe is mulling its response. One target is the $77 bln US services surplus. Hiking Big Tech fines would hit the EU’s credibility, but a bloc-...

[FREE TO READ] European Commission president tells FT she wants ‘balanced’ deal but could hit US services in retaliation

[FREE TO READ] European Commission president tells FT she wants ‘balanced’ deal but could hit US services in retaliation

Donald Trump is threatening to drive the U.S. auto industry so hard that the wheels fall off. In a Wednesday press conference, the president announced25% tariffs on cars and parts, endangering a border-hopping global supply chain. The touted tolls could be enough to total carmakers’ collective profit. Autos are strategically valuable, but this goes too far, too fast.

Up until two years ago, Ajay Banga had spent most of his career in the private sector – as a banker at Citigroup and latterly as the CEO of Mastercard . Now the World Bank president finds himself having to defend one of the linchpins of the liberal international order against President Donald Trump, who last month ordered a government review that could see the United States quit as the 81-year-old institution’s top shareholder. Yet Banga has arguments and hard facts on his side, which could help him appeal to U.S. self-interest.

Standard Life Aberdeen has a new name. In calling itself “Abrdn”, the 6 billion pound asset manager hopes to swap its staid image for something more cool and funky. As George Hay ponders his own personal rebrand to Grg Hy, he explains why this is not without its downsides.

New CEO Jason Windsor is renaming the $4.2 bln fund group Aberdeen and pledging to boost profit. Both steps are welcome but come amidst tricky markets and growing competition from index funds. Small w...

Thames Water is in purgatory. Britain’s biggest water utility recently averted collapse via an expensive 3 billion pound loan from existing creditors, but it still needs to raise equity to cut debt, restore access to credit markets and fund a 20 billion pound investment programme. If interested parties like U.S. buyout group KKR can rescue it and make a decent return, it would boost the UK’s flagging appeal as a destination for foreign direct investment and reinvigorate the global case for privatising public assets. That’s a big if, though.

The tycoon struck a deal to slash his French telco’s 21 bln euro debt pile. While impairing bondholders, the agreement leaves Drahi in control and with some value, reversing the capital structure. The...

Britain has upset expats by ditching ‘non-dom’ rules that allowed them to swerve tax on offshore wealth. It could replace them by luring healthcare experts and scientists alienated by President Donald...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy pored over a once-classified map of vast deposits of rare earths and other critical minerals during an interview with Reuters on Friday, part of a push to appeal to Donald Trump's penchant for a deal.

Breakthroughs in building cheaper silicon smarts threaten tech firms enjoying a spending boom. Microsoft’s CEO offered comfort in a 160-year-old observation that efficiency gains stoked coal demand. F...

Governments have failed to introduce a global levy to bring down fossil fuel emissions. But climate change is increasingly forcing up the cost of living. With insurance becoming more expensive and sca...

Databricks, Stripe and Elon Musk’s $350 bln SpaceX facilitated large exits by insiders without a float. There’s a growing pool of patient capital targeting mature startups. The bigger the trend gets, ...

The US hedge fund manager wants to boot out the board at seven UK investment companies. His fund Saba, which bet against the London Whale, is no stranger to targeting underperforming funds. The growin...

The US surgeon general wants health warnings on alcohol bottles. Declining drinking rates have already shrunk the valuations of brewers like Carlsberg to 12 times forward earnings, nearing tobacco lev...

Breakingviews’ Predictions 2025 explores what geopolitical risks, technological shifts and climate change will mean for markets, companies and government

In the past five years, the world economy has weathered disease and war. As Donald Trump prepares to take office again, the range of possible outcomes is wider than ever. Hefty sovereign debts and pum...

Government fears moves to curb any potential cash from the tech titan could backfire and play into Reform UK’s hands

In 2016 Masayoshi Son offered to invest $50 bln stateside. Now the Japanese group’s founder has promised Donald Trump twice that sum, despite having barely a quarter of it at his disposal. It will be ...

The Financial Stability Board proposed ideas including leverage caps that may affect Ken Griffin’s Citadel and Israel Englander’s Millennium. The new US administration will balk. Yet with hedge fund b...