The United Auto Workers strike against General Motors Co. could detract further from the U.S. economy at a time of mounting global uncertainty, but it would take a lengthy stoppage to inflict widespread pain, economists say.

Factory workers at General Motors went on a nationwide strike early Monday morning in the United Auto Workers’ largest work stoppage in more than a decade.

The...

AT&T Inc. Chief Executive Randall Stephenson defended his strategy and likely successor in his first public remarks since an activist hedge fund challenged the company to change direction.

Speaking at a Goldman Sachs conference in New York, the telecom boss said newly named chief operating officer John Stankey was the right pick to make the Dallas company’s telecommunications, media and advertising businesses work together more effectively. The chairman and CEO said his board considered a short list of potential candidates...

Walmart Inc. likely discriminated against 178 female workers by paying less or denying promotions because of their gender, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said in memos viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

The EEOC documents ask Walmart and the women who filed complaints to come to “a just resolution of this matter,” which could include a settlement and changes to Walmart’s practices, say labor lawyers. If Walmart and the women don’t reach an agreement, the EEOC could file a lawsuit against the retailer.

HBO Max, the new direct-to-consumer streaming service AT&T Inc.’s WarnerMedia is launching next spring, has struck a deal for streaming rights to reruns of the hit comedy “The Big Bang Theory,” which ended a 12-year run on CBS in May.

Terms of the agreement weren’t disclosed. A person familiar with the deal said the five-year agreement is worth close to $500 million. In addition, WarnerMedia’s cable channel TBS has extended its current arrangement for reruns of the show, making the total value of the deal in the region...

Comcast Corp.’s new streaming service, called “Peacock,” will debut in April with a slate of original programming featuring stars like Alec Baldwin and Demi Moore, in addition to exclusive streaming rights to popular NBC staples from “Parks and Recreation” to “The Office.”

The service, whose name is a salute to NBC’s logo, will be entering a crowded arena. Both Walt Disney Co.’s Disney+ and Apple Inc.’s TV+, are set to launch in November. HBO Max from AT&T Inc.’s WarnerMedia is expected to debut next spring.

The move into higher-quality audio—at a higher price—is a sign of the music-streaming market’s maturation, say music industry executives, who have called for different forms of subscriptions beyond the standard $9.99-a-month offerings from Spotify Technology SA and Apple Inc.

Other services including Tidal offer high-definition sound, but they tend to market to a niche, audiophile audience. Now Amazon Music, the No. 3 music-streaming service by subscriptions, envisions bringing better sound quality to the masses. At $12.99 a month for Prime members and $14.99 a month for nonmembers, Amazon Music HD is intended to be more affordable than comparable services such as one from Tidal, which costs $19.99 a month.

Music streaming has become mainstream—accounting for 80% of revenue from recorded music, according to an industry trade group. But in getting there, audio quality has suffered, says Steve Boom, Amazon’s vice president for music. Enough customers now see...

This year I’ve written two iPhone reviews. This one has my testing results of the new iPhone 11 models. The other, found here, is an advice column for the many readers we’ve heard from who have older phones—I’m looking at you, iPhone Sixers!

One day, I’ll tell my grandchildren of a time before the iPhone 11.

The surge in oil prices after the attack on Saudi Arabian production facilities has reminded investors that the market is still largely driven by the world’s largest exporter, despite the flow of U.S. shale output onto the market.

The importance of Saudi Arabian exports for the global energy market and the prospect of future attacks in the region are a recipe for continued volatility, according to investors.

LONDON—The U.K.’s highest court waded into Britain’s Brexit drama as it began deliberations on whether Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s decision to suspend Parliament for weeks this month was lawful, a bitterly contested move that has deepened the battle over how and when the U.K. should split with the European Union.

The 11-member panel of Supreme Court justices must decide whether Mr. Johnson acted within the law when he advised Queen Elizabeth II to suspend—or prorogue—Parliament for five weeks beginning Sept. 9.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell is leading his colleagues to cut interest rates by a quarter percentage point at their meeting this week, for the second time in as many months, to cushion the U.S. economy against a slowdown from the U.S.-China trade war and weak growth abroad.

But Fed officials are unlikely to signal plans for a series of rate cuts because trade policy is out of their hands and difficult to predict. It has lurched between escalation and detente in recent weeks. Trade isn’t the only geopolitical wild card: So are...

Uber Technologies Inc. is digging deeper into the freight business, ramping up hiring at a planned new hub in Chicago and rolling out logistics services even as its core ride-hailing business continues to post steep losses.

The company’s Uber Freight said Tuesday it is expanding a service aimed at making it easier for truckers to pick up already-loaded trailers ready for transport. It is the latest in a stream of upgrades at the business as it looks to grab business from traditional freight transport companies and compete with a growing field of like-minded digital brokerages.

WASHINGTON—President Trump notified Congress on Monday that the U.S. and Japan were prepared to enter a limited agreement that would lower some tariffs and set terms of digital trade.

Mr. Trump and his counterpart in Japan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, had previously announced in August at a Group of 7 Summit in France that they had reached an agreement in principle to lower agricultural tariffs and industrial tariffs.

WeWork’s parent is expected to postpone its initial public offering after investors questioned how much the company is worth and raised concerns about its corporate governance.

The shared-workspace company—which had planned to begin a roadshow to market the shares as early as Monday ahead of a trading debut next week—is likely to shelve the offering until at least next month, people familiar with the matter said.

Sony Corp. said it rejected a proposal from activist hedge fund Third Point LLC to split its image-sensor business from its entertainment business and list the chip unit.

On Tuesday, Sony said its image-sensor business is a “crucial growth driver” that “is expected to create even more value going forward through its close collaboration with the other businesses and personnel” at the company.

The world’s largest brewer is taking a second shot at listing its Asian business, seeking to raise up to $4.84 billion in Hong Kong, even as the city reels from a summer of protests and from trade tensions between the U.S. and China.

The regional unit of brewing behemoth Anheuser-Busch InBev SA will begin taking orders Wednesday for its Hong Kong initial public offering, ahead of a planned listing on Sept. 30, according to people familiar with the matter.

The unit, Budweiser Brewing Co. APAC, plans to sell 1.26 billion new shares at an indicative range of 27 to 30 Hong Kong dollars (US$3.45 to US$3.84), raising 34 billion to 37.9 billion Hong Kong dollars (US$4.35 billion to US$4.84 billion), according to the people.

ROME—Italy’s new government suffered its first setback, as the country’s center-left party split in two, complicating life for an already unwieldy governing coalition.

Former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has decided to leave the Democratic Party, which formed a government with the antiestablishment 5 Star Movement, to create his own centrist party, according to a person familiar with the matter.

This...

A panel of international air-safety regulators is finishing a report expected to criticize the initial U.S. approval process for Boeing Co.’s 737 MAX jets, according to people briefed on the conclusions, while urging a wide-ranging reassessment of how complex automated systems should be certified on future airliners.

As part of roughly a dozen findings, these government and industry officials said, the task force is poised to call out the Federal Aviation Administration for what it describes as a lack of clarity and transparency...

OTTAWA—A senior Canadian law-enforcement official facing five charges for violating the country’s state-secrets law had access to intelligence collected domestically and by Canada’s foreign allies, such as the U.S. and U.K., Canadian police said Monday.

Canada’s Royal Canadian Mounted Police said it is assessing the impact of the alleged activities.

“We...

General Motors Co. stands to lose as much as $100 million a day if the nationwide strike of auto workers continues.

Auto-industry analysts estimate that the walkout—which began Monday and involves roughly 46,000 full-time workers in more than 30 factories across 10 states—could dent GM’s profit by between $50 million and $100 million daily. Stalled production could slash more than a tenth of GM’s expected third-quarter operating profit of about $3.5 billion by the weekend, although GM could make up some lost production once...

Diplomacy is hard. Stopping diplomacy, by contrast, is relatively easy. Hard-liners across the Middle East know this, and long have acted accordingly.

This rule of thumb is important to keep in mind in the aftermath of the weekend aerial attacks on two Saudi Arabian oil installations, including on the most important crude-oil processing facility in the world.

Responsibility...

BRUSSELS—The U.S. is poised to impose new tariffs on European Union exports over the bloc’s subsidies to Airbus SE, the EU’s trade chief said Monday, citing the Trump administration’s unwillingness to settle a long-running commercial dispute over aircraft manufacturers.

The EU expects the World Trade Organization to set the final sum to which the U.S. is entitled in its successful complaint as soon as Sept. 30, EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said. Washington has said it expects to be able to impose tariffs on $11...

BRUSSELS—The European Union’s top official told U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson the bloc is still awaiting concrete proposals from London for how to avoid a physical border on the island of Ireland, damping hopes of a swift breakthrough in Brexit talks.

After a lunch meeting with top officials from the U.K. and the EU in his native Luxembourg, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Monday’s discussions with Mr. Johnson were friendly and that “negotiations will continue at high speed.”

American officials say intelligence indicates that Iran was the staging ground for a debilitating attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil industry, and have shared the information with Saudi Arabia as both countries weigh retaliatory strikes, according to people familiar with the discussions.

The assessment, which the U.S. has yet to share publicly, comes as President Trump raises the prospect of the U.S. and Saudi Arabia joining forces to launch a retaliatory strike on Iran. Such a move could quickly broaden into a regional conflict.

Boeing Co.’s board is expected to consider revamping the aerospace giant’s engineering department as among the first tangible internal changes following two deadly crashes of its 737 MAX airliner, a person familiar with the matter said.

The Chicago-based plane maker’s board is expected to weigh the changes this week, the person said.

The...

Amazon.com Inc. has adjusted its product-search system to more prominently feature listings that are more profitable for the company, said people who worked on the project—a move, contested internally, that could favor Amazon's own brands.

Late last year, these people said, Amazon optimized the secret algorithm that ranks listings so that instead of showing customers mainly the most-relevant and best-selling listings when they search—as it had for more than a decade—the site also gives a boost to items that are more profitable...