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Trump singles out Europe as a trade foe

When CBS News asked President Trump to name America’s biggest foe, he talked about Russia and China. But only after citing the European Union, because of “what they do to us in trade.”

Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, shot back on Twitter: “America and the E.U. are best friends. Whoever says we are foes is spreading fake news.”

Mr. Trump’s remarks matched his provocative behavior at last week’s NATO conference. But some commentators think Europe will simply ignore the insults. The economist Michael Ivanovitch writes for CNBC that Europeans are flaunting their trading clout, and “Trump is wasting time trying to change the existing trans-Atlantic trading regime.”

Those tensions could grow today as Mr. Trump meets President Vladimir Putin of Russia in Finland. Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Katie Rogers of the NYT report fears that Mr. Trump “might offer concessions behind closed doors to a Russian president who is ready to exploit any hint of fissure within the Western alliance.”

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Today’s DealBook Briefing was written by Andrew Ross Sorkin in New York, and Michael J. de la Merced and Jamie Condliffe in London.

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And China turns to the W.T.O.

Beijing complained formally to the World Trade Organization this morning about the U.S. plan to impose tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods. That could escalate the trade war. And U.S. officials have argued that the W.T.O. isn’t the right place to resolve the fight.

Beijing, looking for allies, is hosting E.U. officials this week at a conference centered on trade issues. But the European delegation is so far said to be unmoved.

More on the trade wars: Does anyone know what the U.S. would consider victory? And American stocks are holding up.

Goldman Sachs prepares to anoint a C.E.O.

The Wall Street bank could formally name David Solomon as the successor to Lloyd Blankfein as soon as today. Here’s Kate Kelly of the NYT on what that would mean:

The announcement would formally establish Mr. Solomon as the successor to Lloyd C. Blankfein as one of the most powerful executives on Wall Street. Mr. Blankfein, who presided over record earnings during his 12 years atop Goldman, will stay on for an interim period. Anointing Mr. Solomon, however, most likely makes it easier for him to put his future lieutenants in place.

Banks’ profits are booming. But how about their lending?

A lot is going right for banks, including tax cuts, deregulation and a buoyant economy. JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and PNC all reported healthy quarterly profits on Friday. But have they increased lending to keep up with all the good news?

Our colleagues Peter Eavis and Emily Flitter found scant evidence of that in earning reports. More spare cash went to shareholder dividends, leading critics to say that lenders could do more to stimulate the economy. But the banks could argue they are staying disciplined and not chasing shaky borrowers.

Bank of America announces earnings today. Will it buck the trend?

More banking news: Deutsche Bank published its earnings early — and they were more than double what analysts expected.

China’s economic growth isn’t as strong as it appears

The Chinese government said overnight that its economy was 6.7 percent bigger last quarter than a year ago. It’s reported pretty much the same growth rate every quarter for the past two-and-a-half years.

Keith Bradsher of the NYT sees trouble lurking behind those numbers:

Private Chinese businesses complain that government efforts to tame debt have made it hard for them to get money. A tiny but growing number of Chinese companies have defaulted on their debt. The currency has lost some of its value. Chinese stocks are in bear market territory.

Don’t expect big media deals out of Sun Valley

Allen & Company’s big C.E.O. gathering drew media moguls like Les Moonves of CBS and David Zaslav of Discovery last week. They expected courtship from the visiting tech titans — Tim Cook of Apple, Jeff Bezos of Amazon and others. The WSJ says they didn’t get it.

Masa Son of SoftBank told reporters: “I’m not interested in traditional media.” Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook and Mr. Cook said similar things. Their attitude seems to be that it’s better to build a content empire than buy one. If media companies want to compete with Netflix and Amazon, mergers may be their only option.

In other media news: Critics fear that AT&T will try to turn HBO into Netflix, but insiders at the network don’t think it will happen.

The speed read

Deals

• Debt is how a Chinese businessman bought the soccer team A.C. Milan, and how a hedge fund pushed him out. (FT)

• The case for fewer rules on I.P.O.s and early-stage investing, from the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. (WSJ)

• New exchange-traded funds and a big I.P.O. show investors’ hunger for the cannabis industry. (NYT)

Politics and policy

• The Trump administration may dip into American petroleum reserves to depress oil prices. (WSJ)

• ZTE’s stock jumped 17 percent as it was allowed to resume U.S. operations. (NYT)

• Expect economic populism as Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and others prepare to seek the 2020 Democratic nomination. (NYT)

Tech

• Uber’s latest headache: Its C.O.O., Barney Harford, was accused of racial insensitivity. (NYT)

• How Russian spies hid behind Bitcoin in their 2016 U.S. election operations. (NYT)

• Netflix is trying to break India, but it won’t be easy. (FT)

Best of the rest

• How the P.R. guru Sir Alan Parker bungled his own crisis as chairman of Save the Children U.K. (NYT)

• The U.S. government wants to clamp down on high-frequency agricultural trading. (WSJ)

• Why the Craig of Craigslist is backing journalism education. (Recode)

• America will soon have only one Blockbuster video store — in Oregon. (NYT)

On Friday, we misstated how much the hedge fund manager Ray Dalio calculates that a universal basic income would cost the United States government annually. It is $3.8 trillion, not $3.8 billion.

You can find live updates throughout the day at nytimes.com/dealbook.

We’d love your feedback. Please email thoughts and suggestions to bizday@nytimes.com.

(Original source)