It was a turbulent week（动荡的一周） on the world’s stockmarkets, a rude awakening after a long period of calm during which share-price indices have soared. The Dow Jones Industrial Average（道琼斯工业平均指数） plunged （暴跌）by 1,175 points in a day, its biggest points decline（最大跌幅） to date. The FTSE 100 fell by 2.6%, the most since June 2016 when Britain voted to leave the EU. A measure of market volatility（市场动荡）, the Vix, also known as “the fear index”, soared to its highest level since China’s currency crisis in 2015. Among other things, markets are worried that the improving world economy and pressures on inflation will cause central banks to ramp up（上行） interest rates.
Welcome to the office!
The market turmoil coincided with Jerome Powell’s first day on the job as chairman of the Federal Reserve.
Crypto-currencies（加密货币） also swung（波动） even more wildly than usual. Bitcoin dropped below $6,000 before jumping by 30% within 24 hours. A note by Goldman Sachs compared trading in digital currencies to the internet bubble（互联网泡沫） of the 1990s.
America’s trade deficit（贸易逆差） grew by 12% last year, to $566bn, the highest it has been since 2008. Although American exports increased to $2.3trn, imports surged to $2.9trn. That helped push up the politically sensitive goods deficit with China to a record $375bn.
Last year’s intense hurricane season, wildfires in California and earthquakes in Mexico all took a toll on Munich Re’s annual profit, which slumped by 85% to €392m ($442m). The German reinsurer（再保险银行） estimates that the industry’s claims（索赔） from natural catastrophes in 2017 will top $135bn, a record.
A South Korean appeals halved the five-year prison sentence for bribery handed down last year to Lee Jae-yong, Samsung’s de facto boss, and suspended his remaining jail term, allowing him to walk free. The decision disappointed reformers who had hoped the sentence represented a break from the leniency（宽大处理） shown by judges towards businessmen in corruption cases. Mr Lee was not cleared（摆脱） of all charges. His father, Lee Kun-hee, was meanwhile charged as a suspect in a tax-evasion case.
Wynn’s gambling loss
Steve Wynn resigned as chairman and chief executive of Wynn Resorts, one of the world’s largest casino companies, following allegations stretching back decades that he coerced employees into sex. He denies the accusations.
Despite a doubling of its net losses, Snap’s fourth-quarter earnings delighted investors when it reported higher-than-expected revenues and an increase in the number of people who use its messaging app on a daily basis, to 187m. The company floated on the stockmarket last March, but its share price has fallen far below its closing price at the time of its IPO.
The Los Angeles Times has a new owner. Patrick Soon-Shiong, a biotech entrepreneur, is buying the newspaper along with the San Diego Union-Tribune for $500m from Tronc, which used to be part of the Tribune media empire.
Dalian Wanda, a conglomerate, sold a stake in its film business to a consortium headed by Alibaba, China’s biggest e-commerce company. Dalian Wanda is under pressure from the to pare back assets in order to reduce debt.
After months of pre-trial hearings, a court case got under way in which Uber is accused by Waymo, a self-driving car business owned by Alphabet, Google’s parent company, of stealing trade secrets. Travis Kalanick, who was ousted as Uber’s chief executive last year, took the stand. He described how driverless cars were a threat to Uber’s taxi-hailing business model（商业模式）, which impelled him to acquire Otto, a startup created by Anthony Levandowski, an engineer who worked at Waymo. Waymo contends the acquisition was a ruse （策略）through which Uber gained its technical secrets.
Broadcom submitted its “best and final” offer to take over Qualcomm. The latest proposal is worth $146bn. Qualcomm’s board has so far not engaged with its chipmaking rival, but the issue will surely dominate its shareholders’ meeting on March 6th.
Roads to nowhere
Los Angeles was the most congested city（最拥堵城市） at peak travel times in 2017, according to a report by INRIX, a transport-analytics firm. The city’s drivers spent an average of 102 hours a year sitting in congestion during rush hour, more than ten hours longer than in Moscow, which ranked second in the study. Although America overall was positioned joint fifth with Russia out of the 38 countries surveyed, five of its cities made the list of the ten most congested. Despite its congestion charge, Londoners still wasted 74 hours a year snarled up in traffic, the worst of any city in western Europe.
来源：经济学人