TOKYO—Japan will watch how rising interest rates in Western nations could affect its economy, the finance minister said on Tuesday, as higher bond yields would boost borrowing costs for the industrial world’s heaviest public debt burden. Shunichi Suzuki made the remark as the parliament’s powerful lower house is set to approve the fiscal 2022/23 budget…

BERLIN—A senior European Central Bank official says that raising interest rates prematurely could “choke off the recovery,” comments that come as inflation in the 19-nation euro area has hit a record rate. The European Union’s statistical office said on Jan. 7 that the annual inflation rate rose to 5 percent in December—the highest level in…

LONDON—British house prices in December were 9.8 percent higher than a year earlier, the sharpest annual increase since the eve of the global financial crisis in July 2007, monthly figures from mortgage lender Halifax showed on Friday. House prices rose by 1.1 percent in December alone, the same increase as in November, and recorded their…

WASHINGTON—Global stock markets rose on Monday and oil prices eased as investors hailed strong U.S. holiday season sales and some grew less fearful about economic damage from the Omicron variant of COVID-19. Still, fears that the pandemic could hurt economic growth pushed gold prices to the highest in more than a week despite pressure from…

The way Miami’s Caleb Martin sees things, he’s lucky. He just missed seven games while completing the NBA’s health and safety protocols related to COVID-19, the worst of his symptoms being a couple days of fatigue. And when looking at the still-rising numbers of positive tests around the league right now, Martin offered a stark…

Stocks closed broadly higher on Wall Street Wednesday, adding to the market’s gains this week ahead of the Christmas holiday. The S&P 500 rose 1 percent after coming back from an early slide. The other indexes also recovered after sliding into the red in the early going. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.1 percent…

Stocks are rising on Wall Street Tuesday after three days of losses brought on by worries over the spread of the omicron variant and lingering concerns about rising inflation. The S&P 500 index rose 1.7 percent as of 2:51 p.m. Eastern. The Nasdaq rose 2.3 percent. Both indexes were boosted by solid gains for technology…

Technology companies led a rally on Wall Street that powered the S&P 500 to an all-time high and gave the index its best weekly gain since February. The S&P 500 rose 1 percent, enough to recoup its losses from a day earlier. The benchmark index closed higher four of the last five days, finishing 3.8…

AMSTERDAM—Shares in ride-sharing and food delivery companies rebounded on Tuesday, ahead of an European Commission proposal expected Dec. 9 that will define when couriers should be considered employees and when they should be considered independent contractors. The Financial Times on Tuesday reported that the proposal, under development for years, will as expected put the burden…

One of the world’s foremost cancer experts has said that British lockdown policies are still having an impact on excess mortality, describing it as a “national scandal.” The Telegraph reported that 9,300 more people than usual died in the past four months from non-CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus causes. The latest figures from the Office…