So much for the trade war apocalypse.
While many headlines feature gloom about the precarious state of relations between the United States and its economic partners, Japan's most widely watched indicator has some sunny patches worthy of attention.
Japanese companies plan a surge in capital spending in the year through March 2019, according to the central bank's quarterly tankan survey released this week. Some increase was anticipated, in part because the second quarter usually shows an improvement, but the 13.6 percent gain blew away forecasts. It looks even better when compared with the 2.3 percent notched in the preceding three months. The labor market is extremely tight, with the unemployment rate at 2.2 percent, the lowest since 1992.