The U.S. trade deficit widened to a 10-year high of $621 billion despite President Donald Trump’s pledge to reduce the imbalance. It may be a case of chickens coming home to roost: Two culprits were last year's tax cuts, which boosted demand for imports, and Trump's trade wars, which triggered retaliatory tariffs that hurt exports. —David E. Rovella

Here are today's top stories

Trump is pushing for a quick end to the trade fight with China, looking for a big win and a stock market bump.

U.S. regulators are poised to scrap a proposal for revising Volcker Rule restrictions on banks’ trading after drawing fire from Wall Street lobbyists.

Speaking of which, guess who Americans blame for killing the American Dream? Almost half polled said banks have made it harder to attain.

The White House said Trump had nothing to do with his inauguration planning. Bloomberg Businessweek reports that wasn't quite the case.

Hundreds of heavily armed soldiers aborted a plan late last month to enter Venezuela by force.

Luxury-goods titan Bernard Arnault eclipsed Warren Buffett to become the world’s third-richest person on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

What's Joe Weisenthal thinking about? The Bloomberg news director is mulling how to look at the labor market. Is it red hot, such that the Fed can afford to keep raising rates? Or, since this economy can still create 300,000 jobs a month, is there more slack than people realize, and thus the Fed can keep its powder dry?

What you'll need to know tomorrow

• U.S. stocks just dropped to a three-week low.
• This is where the world's richest people actually live.
• Theresa May's latest Brexit gambit is in trouble.
• Brazil's new, hard-right president is no fan of Carnival.
• See what happened when Trump met Europe's youngest leader.
• Japan's largest airlinebets big on the recently axed Airbus A380.
• Bloomberg Businessweek has what recruiters think of B-schools.

What you'll want to read in Businessweek

What Happens to All Those Mardi Gras Beads?

Some 45 million pounds of plastic makes its way to New Orleans every year for Mardi Gras, more than half in the form of beaded necklaces. In January 2018, the city revealed it had pulled 93,000 pounds of beads from just five blocks of storm drains and more than 7 million pounds of debris overall. This is what happens to all those colorful beads. 

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