Business News at a Glance

Trump Weighs Return to Trans-Pacific Partnership. Not So Fast, Say Members.

As trade tensions with China escalate, President Donald Trump has found new appeal in a regional trade pact he once called a “rape of our country.” But officials in Japan, Australia and New Zealand reacted coolly Friday to Trump’s remarks that he would be interested in joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership after rejecting it so publicly. While the United States would significantly bolster the pact if it signed up, its entry would require intense negotiations — and current members will expect significant concessions from the U.S. side. Yoshihide Suga, Japan’s chief Cabinet secretary, cautioned against any efforts to change it to accommodate Trump.

Facebook Takes the Punches While Rest of Silicon Valley Ducks

Mark Zuckerberg was prepared to say during his congressional testimony this week that his company accounts for just a slice of the $650 billion advertising market. Google, for example, has an online ad business more than twice the size of Facebook’s, and Google collects vast amounts of information about people who use its online services. How did the leaders of other tech companies manage to keep a low profile? It was the revelation that the personal information of up to 87 million Facebook users ended up in the hands of voter-profiling firm Cambridge Analytica. Google and the biggest tech companies have never made such a giant mistake.

Michael Ferro Agrees to Sell All of His Shares in Tronc

Michael W. Ferro Jr., the former chairman of Tronc, has agreed to sell all his shares in the company, ending his relationship with the embattled newspaper publisher. Just months ago, Ferro had envisioned the company as a media powerhouse with global ambitions. But Ferro’s decision to sell his shares — representing more than 25 percent of the company — signifies the further decline of Tronc. A newsroom rebellion at the Los Angeles Times helped lead to its pending sale and a similar revolt happened at the Chicago Tribune, whose journalists went public this week with a unionization effort.

Bank Earnings Boom as Regulators Relax Rules

Turbulent markets and relaxed regulations are great news for banks — and it shows. Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase, the first big U.S. banks to report first-quarter results, said Friday that business was booming on their stock-trading desks as markets gyrated wildly during the first three months of the year. The banks also reaped greater profits from their core lending businesses, thanks to rising interest rates. Their results could represent the beginning of a new period of vigor for the banking industry, which in recent years has had to contend with a mix of ill winds — including an eerie quiet in markets that depressed their usually lucrative trading businesses.

China’s Communists Rewrite the Rules for Foreign Businesses

One hammer and sickle at a time, the Communist Party is making its way deeper into everyday Chinese life — and that includes foreign companies doing business there. Honda, the Japanese automaker, changed its legal documents to give the party a say in how its Chinese factories are run. A Chinese state oil giant vowed to put the party front and center in its joint ventures with foreign partners. The Communist Party’s rise in offices and factories is yet another challenge for multinationals doing business in the country. Should a trade dispute between China and the U.S. worsen, Beijing could be moved to intensify the party’s role in foreign business even further.

The Personal Data of 346,000 People, Hung on a Museum Wall

Deng Yufeng wanted to create art that prods people to question their lack of data privacy. So he bought the personal information of more than 300,000 Chinese people off the internet and displayed it in a public exhibition. Police did not appreciate the irony. Last week, authorities in the Chinese city of Wuhan shut down Deng’s exhibition and told him that he was being investigated on suspicion of amassing the information through illegal means. Deng’s project coincides with a growing debate about data privacy in China. Chinese people are often bombarded with calls and texts offering bank loans or home purchases that seem too personalized to be random.