America likes being exceptional, but too much exceptionalism when it comes to inflation is starting to cause concern. A closer look at the data suggests that investors can keep calm.

On Wednesday, official figures confirmed that the harmonized consumer-price index in the eurozone rose 2.2% in July from a year earlier. This marked an acceleration relative to June, when inflation was 1.9%. But stripping out energy, food, alcohol and tobacco prices to see what is dubbed “core” inflation, the index only rose 0.7%, down from 0.9% the previous month.

What is surprising isn’t inflation being too strong in the eurozone, but rather it being too weak relative to the U.S., where CPI growth reached 5.4% in July, with core inflation at 4.3%.

Officials argue that today’s inflation is only temporarily higher as global prices rebound from the troughs of the pandemic and companies work through supply bottlenecks. Yet, if it is so much higher in the U.S., doesn’t this...

A rift has developed among the top executives of three of China’s internet giants, in the wake of Didi Global Inc.’s ill-fated decision to go public in New York.

Didi’s eight-member board of directors—which includes leaders of Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. —approved the ride-hailing company’s plan to push through with a $4.4 billion U.S. initial public offering in June, even though the country’s cybersecurity watchdog had suggested to Didi that it postpone its share sale.

After the listing, Tencent President Martin Lau and Alibaba Chairman and Chief Executive Daniel Zhang were surprised and furious when they learned that Didi was in trouble with the Cyberspace Administration of China, according to people familiar with the matter. Tencent and Alibaba are longtime shareholders of Didi.

Two of the people said Didi executives didn’t fully inform the board about the cyberspace regulator’s concerns before the IPO, making it...

U.S. stocks were choppy early Wednesday ahead of the release of minutes from the Federal Reserve’s July policy meeting.

The S&P 500 slipped 0.3%. The broad-market index fell 0.7% on Tuesday in its biggest drop in nearly a month.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged down 0.4%, or 135 points, while the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index declined 0.1%.

The notes from the Fed meeting, due at 2 p.m. ET, will offer more indications of when the central bank may begin scaling back easy-money policies that were adopted at the start of the pandemic. Fed officials are nearing consensus on beginning to taper bond purchases in about three months, The Wall Street Journal reported this week. The Fed’s bond-buying program and lower interest rates have helped the stock market power higher, with major indexes notching records earlier this week.

“As long as policy remains reasonably supportive, growth continues and we keep increasing our vaccination,...

VANDERBILT, Mich.—The Pigeon River Country State Forest generates cash from timber sales, oil-and-gas leases, hunting licenses and camping fees. Now the foresters who look after its towering red pine, bleach-barked aspen and elk will manage the roughly 110,000 acres for a new moneymaker: carbon offsets.

Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources has agreed to limit logging in the Lower Peninsula forest known as the “Big Wild” over the next four decades to create carbon offsets, a climate-change currency that companies use to compensate for emissions.

DTE Energy Co. , Michigan’s largest energy company, has agreed to buy the offsets and is marketing smaller carbon footprints to customers of its natural-gas business who are willing to pay a monthly fee to go green.

The promises that companies have made to reduce emissions have led to a booming trade in standing trees. The idea is that paying someone with timber to leave trees standing leads to additional...

Shares of Amsterdam-based Just Eat Takeaway.com, also known as “Jet,” have significantly underperformed U.S.-based food delivery peers over the past year. The irony of that shortfall is the company’s dominance in a fast-growing industry. A June presentation shows more than 95% of Jet’s European gross merchandise value comes from countries where the company has the leading market position.

But the contrast between geographic market leads and stock-market losses doesn’t make the shares an automatic buy. Miscommunication between the company and its investors could make things even less appetizing.

As one of Jet’s top shareholders, Cat Rock Capital, argued in a July presentation, the company’s current problems have less to do with execution than with what the firm calls a history of “broken” communication with investors. In the presentation, Cat Rock shows how the company seems to have flip-flopped on issues such as handling deliveries for restaurants and getting...

U.S. stock futures were choppy Wednesday ahead of the release of minutes from the Federal Reserve’s July policy meeting.

Futures tied to the S&P 500 slid 0.1%, indicating that broader market may post a tepid decline at the opening bell. The index fell 0.7% on Tuesday in its biggest drop in nearly a month.

Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures edged down 0.2%, and contracts tied to the technology-heavy Nasdaq-100 wavered between gains and losses.

The notes from the Fed meeting, due at 2 p.m. ET, will offer more indications of when the central bank may begin scaling back easy-money policies that were adopted at the start of the pandemic. Fed officials are nearing consensus on beginning to taper bond purchases in about three months, The Wall Street Journal reported this week. The Fed’s bond-buying program and lower interest rates have helped the stock market power higher, with major indexes notching records earlier this week.

...

Home-improvement retailer Lowe’s gained 4.7% premarket after it said it now expects 2021 revenue of about $92 billion. In May, the company said only that it was tracking above a previous forecast for sales of $86 billion. Vaccine makers were charting divergent courses ahead of the bell. The Biden administration is expected to call for a third Covid-19 shot for Americans who were fully vaccinated with the Pfizer or Moderna shot. But while Moderna gained 1.9%, Pfizer edged down 0.3%. Two U.S. senators are urging the Federal Trade Commission to open a probe into whether Tesla used deceptive marketing practices involving driver-assistance features that the electric-vehicle maker calls Autopilot and Full Self-Driving. Investors don’t seem worried. Tesla shares gained 1.2% premarket. CDK Global dropped 8.1% premarket after the digital-services firm focused on the car industry reported earnings following Tuesday’s close. TJX Cos . nudged up 0.8% premarket after the...

A new round of proposed regulations sent Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. ’s U.S. listing to decline 4.9% on Tuesday to $173.73, its lowest close since October 2019.

The Chinese tech company’s American depository receipts have fallen more than 25% so far this year.

New draft guidelines released Tuesday by China’s top market regulator aim to prevent internet companies from adopting forced exclusivity and blocking competitors’ links and apps.

The guidelines are the latest in a series of moves by Chinese regulators affecting tech companies, fueling share price declines, even as U.S. indexes have risen to records. In addition, Chinese businesses face added pressure from Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler, who has said the agency would require additional disclosures from Chinese companies before allowing them to sell shares.

Some of the most active bets tied to Alibaba shares were bearish put options that were tied to the share price...

Shares of the world’s largest pork producer tumbled 11% Wednesday after the son of the Chinese company’s billionaire chairman publicly accused his father of financial misdeeds.

WH Group Ltd. , which is listed in Hong Kong and owns Virginia-based Smithfield Foodsand meat-processing plants in China, said in a statement that the allegations made by its former executive director, Wan Hongjian, were “untrue and misleading.”

Wan Hongjian is the son of Wan Long, an 81-year-old meat-industry veteran and the controlling shareholder of WH Group. The elder Mr. Wan last week stepped down as chief executive of the pork-industry giant and handed the reins to Guo Lijun, who had been the company’s chief financial officer.

A long article bearing the name of the younger Mr. Wan—who used to have a senior role at WH Group and left the company recently—appeared Tuesday evening on a WeChat account operated by a media outlet called Xinrouye, which posts articles about...

TAIPEI—China issued new draft guidelines that would prevent its internet companies from engaging in anticompetitive practices such as unfairly blocking rival platforms, extending Beijing’s efforts to rein in the powerful technology sector.

The guidelines, released by China’s State Administration for Market Regulation on Tuesday, include a detailed list of prohibited behaviors that regulators said could harm internet users and limit market competition, including controlling user traffic, blocking competitors’ products and discriminatory pricing.

It’s the latest in a wave of regulatory actions over the past year, as government officials pressure Chinese tech giants and other companies to overhaul their operations, embrace competition and emphasize social good.

Shares of Chinese tech companies declined Tuesday, extending a monthslong slump driven by heightened regulatory oversight. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. fell 4.8% and Tencent Holdings Ltd. more than...

SYDNEY—The widely expected snapback in Australia’s economy later this year once Covid-19 vaccination rates hit key thresholds and lockdowns are eased is a fiction, according to the Commonwealth Bank of Australia .

Instead of roaring back to life upon reopening as the economy had following earlier lockdowns, growth will instead be patchy as the engines of industry splutter amid a new and uncertain backdrop of surging Covid cases, with much of the population still unvaccinated, said Gareth Aird, head of Australian economics at CBA.

“We expect the economic rebound to be patchy from that point over a three- to six-month period as households and businesses adapt to living with Covid,” Mr. Aird said.

Strong recoveries have featured before, but “things will look very different in Greater Sydney and potentially other parts of Australia when the current lockdown is over,” he added.

The assessment from one of Australia’s biggest banks clashes with the...

A legion of retail traders helped make stock picker Cathie Wood’s flagship fund one of the hottest investments in the past year. Now, some professional investors are betting on its demise.

Several hedge funds took out fresh positions in the second quarter betting against Ms. Wood’s actively managed ARK Innovation exchange-traded fund, according to the most recent 13F filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The filings are a requirement for professional investors and are due 45 days after the end of the quarter.

Among the biggest naysayers was Michael Burry, the pathology-resident-turned-hedge-fund manager whose success in calling the housing market’s collapse was made famous by Christian Bale in the 2015 film “The Big Short.” As of the end of June, Mr. Burry’s Scion Asset Management held bearish put options worth nearly $31 million against 235,500 shares of the ARK Innovation ETF.

Put options, which give investors the right to sell shares...

BHP Group , the world’s largest miner by market value, is becoming more sustainable, but not exactly green.

Against a backdrop of soaring metal prices, Chief Executive Mike Henry on Tuesday said the company’s very strong operational results “frees us up” to simplify the group and invest more in what he calls “future-facing commodities.”

It will make three big changes. BHP will dispose of its $15 billion worth of petroleum assets by merging them with Woodside Petroleum , an Australian oil producer. The miner will add potash fertilizer to its product range with a $5.7 billion investment in Canada. Finally, the dual-listed group will unify under its Australian parent. It also continues efforts to dispose of its thermal coal business.

The moves are designed to future-proof the miner by sharpening its focus on commodities that tap into the latest mega trends. Government infrastructure investments need steel, which requires BHP’s iron ore and metallurgical...

U.S. stocks slid Tuesday, retreating from a stretch of records as weaker-than-expected economic data and concerns about the Delta variant of the coronavirus weighed on investor optimism.

The S&P 500 fell 0.7%, while Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 0.8%.

The Nasdaq Composite, meanwhile, slid 0.9%. The Russell 2000 index of small cap-stocks dropped 1.4%.

Investors are betting that cash-rich companies will increase spending on everything from factories to share buybacks, a combination many believe can boost stocks in coming months.

Businesses including Tyson Foods Inc., consumer-products firm Newell Brands Inc., Morgan Stanley and alcohol seller Constellation Brands Inc. have said in recent weeks they plan to build factories, expand research budgets, pay down debt or seek acquisitions while also giving priority to dividends or share repurchases.

The hoard of cash held by U.S. companies is a key comfort for U.S. investors, despite worries that the spread of the Delta variant of coronavirus could dent the burgeoning recovery. Steady demand for stocks from companies joins a glut in household savings in powering indexes to highs, with the S&P 500 finishing Friday at a record.

At the same time, signs of growing capital expenditures are helping reassure those worried that companies will return money to...

Secondhand sales of private-equity assets are on the rise, but some investors face fewer choices on how they can participate in those deals.

Investors in private-equity funds increasingly are losing the option to remain on existing economic terms when a fund manager seeks to extend its hold on one or more fund assets through a secondary deal. Typically, private-equity firms that sought these deals, often referred to as general partner-led secondaries, have offered investors a chance to retain their stake in the assets being...

Canadian real-estate-investment giant Oxford Properties Group has agreed to buy a 14.5 million-square-foot portfolio of industrial property from KKR & Co. for $2.2 billion, a deal that indicates that the online-shopping boom continues to whet investor appetite for warehouses and distribution facilities.

Oxford, a subsidiary of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, is buying the 149 buildings close to population centers—mostly in high-growth Sunbelt states—as part of its four-year-old effort to muscle into the U.S. market. Oxford also has made big investments in cold-storage facilities and U.S. regional distribution centers as large as one million square feet.

The KKR deal is Oxford’s first purchase of U.S. industrial real estate in “infill” locations close to population centers. These properties typically are used by online retailers as the last distribution points before goods are delivered to homes.

“It all comes down to being close...

Canadian real-estate-investment giant Oxford Properties Group has agreed to buy a 14.5 million-square-foot portfolio of industrial property from KKR & Co. for $2.2 billion, a deal that indicates that the online-shopping boom continues to whet investor appetite for warehouses and distribution facilities.

Oxford, a subsidiary of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, is buying the 149 buildings close to population centers—mostly in high-growth Sunbelt states—as part of its four-year-old effort to muscle into the U.S. market. Oxford also has made big investments in cold-storage facilities and U.S. regional distribution centers as large as one million square feet.

The KKR deal is Oxford’s first purchase of U.S. industrial real estate in “infill” locations close to population centers. These properties typically are used by online retailers as the last distribution points before goods are delivered to homes.

“It all comes down to being close...

Lyft is now a profitable company—at least on the basis of adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization—but investors are unmoved. Shares of the ride-hailer are down more than 8% since the company reported second-quarter earnings on Aug. 3. Despite reporting deepening losses on a sequential basis in the same period, Uber has seen its shares fare better, little changed from where they closed Aug. 4 before the company’s own quarterly report. Investors might be getting this story right, but for the wrong reasons.

Both Uber and Lyft have been investing heavily in incentives to grow their driver supply to handle upticks in demand, but second-quarter results show Uber might have taken a more aggressive approach. Lyft said it significantly increased investments to boost its driver base in the quarter. Wall Street seems to have interpreted Uber’s steep losses in the period as a sign that it will see better results.

There may be limits to how...

J2 Global Inc. Chief Executive Vivek Shah has helped build an under-the-radar digital-media behemoth by buying up smaller companies. Now, he is getting a bigger war chest and a clear mandate to go on another shopping spree.

J2 Global—which owns a collection of assets including tech site Mashable, fax provider eFax and the videogame brand IGN—said earlier this year it is splitting into two companies. The bigger business, run by Mr. Shah, will get all of the media assets plus a $1 billion infusion to buy more. The spinoff business, called Consensus, will keep the slower-growing eFax.

In an interview, Mr. Shah said that the parent company will be renamed Ziff Davis, a nod to the century-old publisher. Mr. Shah said he picked the name—which calls to mind the heyday of the dot-com boom—because that publishing company survived an industry shake-up from print to digital and weathered a 2008 bankruptcy. Among Ziff Davis’s best known properties is PC Magazine, which...

Marathon Asset Management President Andrew Rabinowitz is leaving the firm to join risk and compliance adviser K2 Integrity Holdings Inc. as co-chief executive officer.

Mr. Rabinowitz will run the company alongside co-CEO Jeremy Kroll, who founded K2 with his father,Jules Kroll, a former private investigator. He will be tasked with expanding K2’s business lines in areas such as asset management and consulting on environmental, social and governance, or ESG, issues. K2 also provides investigation, cybersecurity, anti-money-laundering and monitoring services to its corporate clients.

“We’re going to be adding new products and new sectors and one of them will clearly be asset management,” said Mr. Rabinowitz, who will officially start in September. The firm is also discussing whether to launch an ESG offering or to overlay ESG services onto the products it currently provides to clients, he said.

Mr. Rabinowitz declined to comment on whether he would take...