Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said the nation will speed railway construction, especially in central and western regions, adding support for an economy that’s set to expand at the slowest pace in 23 years. The State Council also Wednesday approved tax breaks for small companies and reduced fees for exporters, according to a statement after a meeting led by Li. China plans a railway development fund, the government said. Additional spending would help the world’s second-largest economy, after the go

Company raises 2013 profit forecast after strong Q2 U.S. results, record Asia profit

Julian Robertson, whose Tiger Management LLC was once one of the world’s largest hedge-fund firms, said Google Inc. has established a better leadership culture than Apple Inc. to ensure long-term success. Steve Jobs, the deceased co-founder of Apple, “was a maverick person and really couldn’t establish a great, long-term entity,” Robertson said Tuesday in an interview on “Bloomberg Surveillance” with Tom Keene, Sara Eisen and Scarlet Fu. “I think that the Google people have a better way of getti

Nokia Oyj, the mobile-device manufacturer striving to regain market share lost to Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co., introduced a smartphone for its Lumia line targeted at developing economies. The Lumia 625 is cheaper than some previous models and comes with a 4.7-inch LCD screen and the ability to connect to the speedier fourth-generation wireless networks. The phone will cost 220 euros ($290) before mobile-operator subsidies and will go on sale in Asia, Africa and Latin America this quar

TOKYO (AP) ― Japan’s trade deficit was a smaller than expected 180.8 billion yen ($1.8 billion) in June, though the rise in exports failed to keep pace with a nearly 12 percent increase in imports from a year earlier. The deficit reported by the Ministry of Finance on Wednesday was smaller than most forecasts but more than triple the 56.1 trillion yen deficit recorded in June 2012. That’s largely due to higher costs for fuel imports since most of Japan’s nuclear reactors have been shut down sinc

WASHINGTON (AP) ― A House Democratic leader on trade policy on Tuesday said the time is right to press Japan on its closed markets as Japan formally joins the United States and 10 other Asia-Pacific nations in negotiations to create a major new trade bloc. Rep. Sander Levin of Michigan, top Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, proposed that the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, talks should link the reduction of U.S. auto tariffs to the opening of the Japanese auto market. He said there sh

Japan's trade deficit was a smaller-than-expected 180.8 billion yen ($1.8 billion) in June as the weaker yen boosted exports. The deficit reported by the Ministry of Finance on Wednesday was smaller than most forecasts and down from May's deficit of 996.4 billion yen. Still, it was more than triple the 56.1 trillion yen deficit recorded in June 2012. That's largely due to higher costs for fuel imports since most of Japan's nuclear reactors have been shut down since the March 2011 tsunami and nuc

A House Democratic leader on trade policy on Tuesday said the time is right to press Japan on its closed markets as Japan formally joins the United States and 10 other Asia-Pacific nations in negotiations to create a major new trade bloc.Rep. Sander Levin of Michigan, top Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, proposed that the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, talks should link the reduction of U.S. auto tariffs to the opening of the Japanese auto market. He said there should also be an enf

Apple's sales of older, less expensive iPhones climbed in its latest quarter, highlighting the challenges facing the world's most valuable technology company as it tries to reverse a recent decline in its earnings and prove that it can still innovate.The results announced Tuesday topped the projections of analysts who steer the way investors tend to react to financial reports. That helped lift Apple's stock by $14.61, or more than 3 percent, to $433.60 in extended trading after the numbers came

A craze coming out of Japan is now catching on in Silicon Valley: stickers. In the last few months, Facebook and Google have added digital stickers, basically oversize emoticons, to their chat applications. Venture-backed startups such as MessageMe and Path are also chasing the sticker fad.They have Japan-based Line to thank for the sticker sensation. The app, which has nearly 200 million users, is developed by a unit of NHN, South Korea’s biggest Internet search provider. The app allows feature