Iran this week restarted fuel exports to Afghanistan that had been disrupted by fighting between the Taliban and forces under the now deposed Afghan government, traders in Tehran and former U.S. officials say, with the Taliban now providing critical dollars to the sanctions-crushed Iranian economy from its lucrative narcotics operations.

The burgeoning trade relationship between Tehran and the Taliban threatens to undermine key U.S. pressure campaigns against both.

Iran has been cut off from the global market for the greenback by U.S. sanctions, and the Taliban’s willingness to trade with their neighbor gives Iran rare access to U.S. dollars it needs to import essential goods and bolster its depreciated currency.

Meanwhile, the arrangement enables the Taliban, who are also cut off from trade and finance by international sanctions, to purchase basic commodities vital to keeping the ailing Afghan economy running.

Iranian traders, who had been...

WASHINGTON—The World Bank suspended funding for dozens of projects in Afghanistan Tuesday, citing questions over the legitimacy of Taliban rule.

The Washington-based institution has committed around $5.3 billion for reconstruction and development projects in Afghanistan since 2002 through its International Development Association that helps the world’s poorest countries.

As of April, the development association had 12 active projects totaling $940 million in commitments, the bank said in its latest update earlier this year. Separately, its Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund had 15 projects with $1.2 billion committed, it said in its April update.

Under its policies, the World Bank said it cannot disburse funds when there is no agreement by its 189 member countries on whether a country has a legitimate government.

“We have paused disbursements in our operations in Afghanistan and we are closely monitoring and assessing the situation in line...

WASHINGTON—The U.S. program to help tenants and landlords struggling with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic is still moving at a slow pace and has delivered a fraction of the promised aid, data released by the Treasury Department on Wednesday show.

Since December, Congress has appropriated a total of $46.6 billion to help tenants who were behind on their rent. As of July 31, just $4.7 billion had been distributed to landlords and tenants, the Treasury said.

Wednesday’s data show that rental aid has begun to move faster in some states, though July’s $1.7 billion reflected only a modest overall increase from the $1.5 billion distributed in June.

While the program is overseen by the Treasury, it relies on a patchwork of more than 450 state, county and municipal governments and charitable organizations to distribute aid. The result: months of delays as local governments built new programs from scratch, hired staff and crafted rules for how the money...

WASHINGTON— Robinhood Markets Inc. has for years given customers a free share of stock for opening an account or referring friends. The practice could soon cost the online brokerage a lot more money.

Brokerages like Robinhood are required to deliver proxy materials to a public company’s shareholders ahead of annual meetings. They are then reimbursed by the public company for the cost of distribution.

This means that Robinhood’s stock giveaways have saddled some companies with larger bills for delivering proxy statements. Now, the practice is sparking a backlash from companies and scrutiny from market regulators.

One company pushing back is Florida-based drugmaker Catalyst Pharmaceuticals Inc., which says Robinhood’s program cost it more than $200,000 last year and could be even more expensive this year.

“Catalyst has become aware that Robinhood has been giving away shares of Catalyst’s common stock at no charge as part of its promotional...

WASHINGTON—The U.S. program to help tenants and landlords struggling with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic is still moving at a slow pace and has delivered a fraction of the promised aid, data released by the Treasury Department on Wednesday show.

Since December, Congress has appropriated a total of $46.6 billion to help tenants who were behind on their rent. As of July 31, just $4.7 billion had been distributed to landlords and tenants, the Treasury said.

Wednesday’s data show that rental aid has begun to move faster in some states, though July’s $1.7 billion reflected only a modest overall increase from the $1.5 billion distributed in June.

While the program is overseen by the Treasury, it relies on a patchwork of more than 450 state, county and municipal governments and charitable organizations to distribute aid. The result: months of delays as local governments built new programs from scratch, hired staff and crafted rules for how the money...

Orders for cars, appliances and other durable goods decreased slightly in July, as manufacturers continued to grapple with shortages in parts and labor and confront higher material costs.

New orders for products meant to last at least three years decreased 0.1% to a seasonally adjusted $257.2 billion in July as compared with June, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had estimated a 0.5% decline.

Orders increased 0.8% in June from the prior month, unchanged from the initial estimate for the month. Demand for durable goods has increased in 13 of the last 15 months.

The overall number was hurt by a 48.9% decline between June and July on new orders for nondefense aircraft and parts, a category that is often volatile.

Low business and retail inventories have translated to increased demand for manufacturers, but supply-chain issues continue to constrain production and delay some shipments. The Delta...

The U.S. budget deficit narrowed to $2.5 trillion during the first 10 months of the fiscal year from $2.8 trillion in the same period a year earlier, with the gap between spending and revenue shrinking as the recovery from the pandemic-induced slump boosted tax collection.

Outlays for the 10-month period rose 4% to a record $5.9 trillion, the Treasury Department said Wednesday. Spending has been boosted by pandemic-related costs that included tax credits, expanded unemployment compensation, emergency small-business loans and stimulus checks to households, but Treasury officials said such outlays are generally decelerating.

Federal revenue during the period rose 18% from the same period the previous year to a record $3.3 trillion, largely due to higher receipts from individual and corporate income taxes.

Revenue declined 54% to $262 billion in July from the same month last year. Treasury officials said revenue was unusually high last July because many...

The U.S. housing market remained strong in July, with sales of previously owned homes rising at a faster pace than the prior month as high prices prompted owners to put more properties on the market.

Sales rose 2% in July from the prior month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.99 million, up from a revised 1.6% gain in June, the National Association of Realtors said Monday. July sales were up 1.5% from a year earlier.

Still, the chaotic market is showing signs of calming down—especially for higher-priced homes—with prices easing slightly and the inventory of homes for sale increasing last month.

But the market remains more competitive at lower price tiers, frustrating first-time buyers and pricing some shoppers out of the market.

“It is still a very swift, fast-moving market, but there is some indication that the market is less intensely heated now than before,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist.

Inflation remained elevated in July as the economic recovery continued, but prices showed evidence of cooling amid pandemic-related supply problems and signs that the recent rise in coronavirus infections is starting to crimp some business activity.

Consumer prices rose 5.4% in July from a year earlier, the same pace as in June, the highest 12-month rate since 2008, the Labor Department reported Wednesday.

On a monthly basis, however, price pressures weakened. The department’s consumer-price index climbed a seasonally adjusted 0.5% in July from June, a significantly slower pace than its 0.9% increase in June from May, though well above the average 0.2% rate from 2000 to 2019.

The CPI measures what consumers pay for goods and services, including groceries, clothes, restaurant meals, recreation and vehicles.

The so-called core price index, which excludes the often volatile categories of food and energy, increased 4.3% from a year before, down from...

The number of bankruptcy filings in the U.S. has fallen to a level not seen since 1985, thanks to government interventions that kept people afloat during the Covid-19 pandemic and allowed companies to raise cash through debt.

In a year marked by lockdowns and periods of high unemployment, 462,309 individuals and companies filed for bankruptcy in the year ended June 30, down 32% from the previous year, according to data compiled by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. That was the lowest tally for a 12-month period since 1985, the administrative office said.

Personal bankruptcy filings fell 33% to about 444,000, while business filings declined 17% to about 22,500.

The pace of bankruptcy filings has defied predictions early in the pandemic by economists and experts who had expected an avalanche of bankruptcy filings by both households and businesses. The numbers point to government stimulus and moratoria on home foreclosures and evictions keeping...

U.S. factories and service providers reported sharply slower growth in August, the forecasting firm IHS Markit said Monday in its surveys of purchasing managers.

Its index of service-sector activity, the broadest segment of the economy, fell to 55.2 in August from 59.9 in July, hitting an eight-month low. An index of factory activity dropped to 61.2, a four-month low, from 63.4 in July. A reading above 50 suggests activity—as measured by sales, output, prices and other factors—is growing.

But the surveys show that the Delta variant of the Covid-19 virus, which has led to a new wave of infections and hospitalizations and has spooked consumers, is harming the economy.

“The expansion slowed sharply again in August as the spread of the Delta variant led to a weakening of demand growth, especially for consumer-facing services, and further frustrated firms’ efforts to meet existing sales,” Chris Williamson, chief business economist at IHS Markit, said.

The U.S. housing market remained strong in July, with sales of previously owned homes rising at a faster pace than the prior month as high prices prompted owners to put more properties on the market.

Sales rose 2% in July from the prior month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.99 million, up from a revised 1.6% gain in June, the National Association of Realtors said Monday. July sales were up 1.5% from a year earlier.

Still, the chaotic market is showing signs of calming down—especially for higher-priced homes—with prices easing slightly and the inventory of homes for sale increasing last month.

But the market remains more competitive at lower price tiers, frustrating first-time buyers and pricing some shoppers out of the market.

“It is still a very swift, fast-moving market, but there is some indication that the market is less intensely heated now than before,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist.

U.S. business groups sued to block parts of a federal rule requiring insurers and employers to disclose prices they pay for healthcare services and drugs, the latest legal challenge to efforts to make public rates that have long been kept secret.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, which represents pharmacy-benefit managers, filed lawsuits against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and other federal agencies last week in federal courts in Tyler, Texas, and the District of Columbia. They claim certain provisions of the rule go beyond federal authority and could raise healthcare costs.

The Biden administration has backed healthcare pricing transparency as a way of boosting competition in the industry, as did the Trump administration, which instituted the rule. Much of healthcare pricing is set through confidential deals that have long kept rates under wraps, often leaving consumers in the dark about the...

U.S. factories and service providers reported sharply slower growth in August, the forecasting firm IHS Markit said Monday in its surveys of purchasing managers.

Its index of service-sector activity, the broadest segment of the economy, fell to 55.2 in August from 59.9 in July, hitting an eight-month low. An index of factory activity dropped to 61.2, a four-month low, from 63.4 in July. A reading above 50 suggests activity—as measured by sales, output, prices and other factors—is growing.

But the surveys show that the Delta variant of the Covid-19 virus, which has led to a new wave of infections and hospitalizations and has spooked consumers, is harming the economy.

“The expansion slowed sharply again in August as the spread of the Delta variant led to a weakening of demand growth, especially for consumer-facing services, and further frustrated firms’ efforts to meet existing sales,” Chris Williamson, chief business economist at IHS Markit, said.

Small-business confidence dropped in August to its lowest level since early spring, as the rise in Covid-19 cases due to the highly transmissible Delta variant put a damper on expectations and turned entrepreneurs more cautious.

Thirty-nine percent of small-business owners expect economic conditions in the U.S. to improve in the next 12 months, down from 50% in July and 67% in March, according to a survey of more than 560 small businesses for The Wall Street Journal by Vistage Worldwide Inc., a business coaching and peer advisory firm.

The measure is one part of a broader confidence index that also tracks metrics such as small-business owners’ outlook for their companies and their investment and hiring plans. That overall figure remains positive, but fell to its lowest level since March.

At Wizard Studios, an event production company with 25 employees, bookings jumped in May after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lifted mask mandates. The...

Toys are getting more expensive, and inflation isn't the only thing to blame. WSJ’s Shelby Holliday looked into why a small Covid-19 outbreak in China has prompted toymakers big and small to raise their prices. Illustration: Adele Morgan

The cryptocurrency industry is getting so big and enabling so much risk-taking that governments around the globe are taking notice.

Bitcoin traded above $50,000 Monday; its total value now exceeds $900 billion, more than all but a handful of companies. Digital currencies called stablecoins grease ever more trading and issuance. Giant crypto exchanges in Asia offer 100-to-1 bets, often serving traders in countries where their products aren’t legal.

After years of relative inattention, regulators and lawmakers are scrambling to catch up—but it won’t be easy. They aim to rein in a rebellious industry that has adopted the tech world’s blueprint for aggressively deploying new products to quickly amass users—while often leaving regulatory compliance as an afterthought.

Some of the largest crypto firms are under increasing pressure. In recent weeks, Binance, the world’s biggest crypto exchange, was barred from or warned about offering certain crypto...

The cryptocurrency industry is getting so big and enabling so much risk-taking that governments around the globe are taking notice.

Bitcoin traded above $50,000 Monday; its total value now exceeds $900 billion, more than all but a handful of companies. Digital currencies called stablecoins grease ever more trading and issuance. Giant crypto exchanges in Asia offer 100-to-1 bets, often serving traders in countries where their products aren’t legal.

After years of relative inattention, regulators and lawmakers are scrambling to catch up—but it won’t be easy. They aim to rein in a rebellious industry that has adopted the tech world’s blueprint for aggressively deploying new products to quickly amass users—while often leaving regulatory compliance as an afterthought.

Some of the largest crypto firms are under increasing pressure. In recent weeks, Binance, the world’s biggest crypto exchange, was barred from or warned about offering certain crypto...

The cryptocurrency industry is getting so big and enabling so much risk-taking that governments around the globe are taking notice.

Bitcoin traded above $50,000 Monday; its total value now exceeds $900 billion, more than all but a handful of companies. Digital currencies called stablecoins grease ever more trading and issuance. Giant crypto exchanges in Asia offer 100-to-1 bets, often serving traders in countries where their products aren’t legal.

After years of relative inattention, regulators and lawmakers are scrambling to catch up—but it won’t be easy. They aim to rein in a rebellious industry that has adopted the tech world’s blueprint for aggressively deploying new products to quickly amass users—while often leaving regulatory compliance as an afterthought.

Some of the largest crypto firms are under increasing pressure. In recent weeks, Binance, the world’s biggest crypto exchange, was barred from or warned about offering certain crypto...

The coronavirus pandemic has heated up the long simmering debate on whether a swath of workers should need a license for jobs such as hair braiding, nursing and fitness training.

More than 1,100 occupations are licensed in at least one state, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Last year, 29 million workers, nearly a quarter of those employed full time, held a license, the Labor Department said. In the 1950s, about 5% of workers had licenses, according to researchers.

President Biden, a Democrat, and some congressional Republicans say the need to hold a license to work in many different roles blocks Americans from taking well-paying jobs. Those concerns have been raised as job openings rose to a record 10.1 million at the end of June, but 3.4 million fewer workers were in the labor force that month versus February 2020, before the pandemic took hold in the U.S.

Advocates of the requirements say licenses and regulations around...

WASHINGTON—The World Bank suspended funding for dozens of projects in Afghanistan Tuesday, citing questions over the legitimacy of Taliban rule.

The Washington-based institution has committed around $5.3 billion for reconstruction and development projects in Afghanistan since 2002 through its International Development Association that helps the world’s poorest countries.

As of April, the development association had 12 active projects totaling $940 million in commitments, the bank said in its latest update earlier this year. Separately, its Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund had 15 projects with $1.2 billion committed, it said in its April update.

Under its policies, the World Bank said it cannot disburse funds when there is no agreement by its 189 member countries on whether a country has a legitimate government.

“We have paused disbursements in our operations in Afghanistan and we are closely monitoring and assessing the situation in line...

August surveys of purchasing managers in some of the world’s largest economies—including the U.S.—will offer the freshest indication of how the rapid spread of the Delta variant of Covid-19 is affecting economic activity. Economists expect to see a modest slowdown in the expansion of the services sector in both the U.S. and Europe and declines in activity in both Japan and Australia.

U.S. home prices hit a record in June amid a housing boom that is pitting low mortgage rates and strong demand against limited supplies of homes for sale. Economists are forecasting a small drop in existing-home sales in July, to an annual pace of 5.83 million from 5.86 million a month earlier, as price and supply constraints lock more would-be buyers out of the market.

WASHINGTON—The House narrowly passed a measure Tuesday approving a $3.5 trillion budget blueprint and locking in a late September vote on a roughly $1 trillion infrastructure bill, ending a standoff between a group of centrist Democrats and their leaders over the party’s legislative agenda.

The final agreement, approved in a 220-212 vote, kept Democrats moving forward with President Biden’s legislative ambitions and defused the latest flare-up with the party’s centrist wing. It also marked a shift in party leaders’ strategy to tie together the votes on the infrastructure and budget bills, which could now come up weeks apart in the House, potentially diminishing liberals’ leverage in the coming negotiations.

The budget framework’s passage in the House officially unlocks a process that will allow Democrats to pass a sprawling package of healthcare, education and climate provisions in the Senate without GOP support, so long as they retain the support of all 50...

TOKYO—Half or more of Japan’s huge government debt doesn’t really exist. And even if it does, the country needs a lot more of it.

Those are a couple of the arguments being heard in Tokyo as the rich world’s most-indebted government relative to its size prepares for a new round of spending this fall that could reach into the hundreds of billions of dollars.

Japan often serves as a tryout venue for policies that later debut on the world economy’s biggest stage, the U.S. The Japanese central bank was a pioneer in introducing zero interest rates and buying large quantities of government bonds to stimulate a sluggish economy, tools subsequently used by the Federal Reserve.

In debt as well, Japan has led the pack. Its central-government debt first surpassed the size of the economy about 20 years ago. Now the U.S. is crossing that threshold too, and Congress is debating trillions of dollars more in proposed spending.

Tokyo’s central government is...