ZURICH (Reuters) – Switzerland faces a shortage of the raw material needed to make disinfectant to tackle the coronavirus pandemic after the country abandoned its emergency reserve of 10,000 tonnes of ethanol two years ago, newspaper Tages-Anzeiger reported on... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Help to euro zone members struggling under the weight of the coronavirus crisis should come from the European level, European Central Bank board member atold Greek newspaper To Vima in an interview. “This is not just a question of Europea... More »
CARACAS (Reuters) – A price war between world oil producers has slashed Venezuela’s revenue for its top export and exacerbated the country’s financial crisis as it also faces the coronavirus pandemic, U.S. sanctions and sliding crude output. More than 90% of V... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Global stock markets sank Friday following more signs that the COVID-19 pandemic would take a massive toll on economic growth, while oil prices continued to rally on hopes of a cut to global supply. Investors sought out safe havens in the ... More »
ZURICH (Reuters) – The Swiss government on Friday boosted its powers to order companies to raise production of critical medical supplies like drugs and protective gear should more be needed in the fight against coronavirus-caused COVID-19. “If the supply…canno... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Fujifilm Holdings Corp said it has developed a new, faster test for the novel coronavirus that that causes the COVID-19 disease, reducing the time of results delivery to about two hours. The test was developed by subsidiary Fujifilm Wako Pure... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House is expected to issue guidance for people in areas hard hit by the coronavirus to wear face coverings to help stop the spread of the disease, an administration official said on Thursday. The announcement was not planned fo... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Americans should start receiving direct payments from the U.S. government in mid-April to help them cope with the coronavirus pandemic, but some may not see the money until mid-September, according to a congressional committee. The gover... More »
(Reuters) – Battered S&P 500 stocks may get fresh interest from investors turning to dividends in a world of shrinking bond yields. The dividend yield on the S&P 500 now exceeds the yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury by its highest margin in nearly f... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday she will form a bipartisan select committee on the coronavirus crisis to oversee the spending of $2.3 trillion that Congress has approved to respond to the pandemic. In ... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – With the euro zone economy in need of help from the coronavirus pandemic, officials have until April 9 to design a package that satisfies members with completely opposing views: those calling for joint debt issuance and those fiercely agai... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The International Monetary Fund said on Monday the relaxation of the euro zone’s fiscal rules and support from the European Central Bank and the European Stability Mechanism is critical to a strong regional response to the coronavirus pa... More »
SYDNEY/HONG KONG (Reuters) – Asian shares slid on Monday as fears mounted that the global coronavirus shutdown could last for months although markets regained some lost ground late in the session with Australia posting a standout jump. U.S. and European future... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain has ordered more than 10,000 ventilators from a consortium of leading aerospace, engineering and Formula One racing teams which have met an urgent government plea for help with production due to start this week. The group, including ... More »
BOSTON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve has offered more than $3 trillion in loans and asset purchases in recent weeks to stop the U.S. financial system from seizing up, but it has not yet directly helped large swaths of the real economy: companies, ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Major U.S. airlines asked the U.S. Treasury to move quickly to release up to $58 billion in government grants and loans and recommended a formula to divide up the money. In a letter dated Saturday and seen by Reuters, carriers wrote that... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Fresh partisan divisions flared on Sunday on the next steps for the U.S. Congress in dealing with the coronavirus crisis, with the top House of Representatives Republican casting doubt on the need for more economic stimulus legislation w... More »
WARSAW (Reuters) – The main Polish opposition candidate running for president called on Sunday for a boycott of the country’s May election due to the coronavirus and completely suspended her campaign, adding to doubts about whether the vote will go ahead as pl... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Friday the House will set up a panel to oversee expenditures under the $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief law. Pelosi made the comment in an MSNBC interview when asked about a stat... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Some lower-paid U.S. workers could effectively get a short-term raise if they lose their jobs during the coronavirus crisis, thanks to government computer systems that rely on 1950s-era technology. Aging state mainframes do not have the ... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde has a concrete reason for putting pressure on euro zone governments to finance the fight against coronavirus with joint debt — avoiding trouble with the courts. These common “coronabonds” ... More »
BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT (Reuters) – European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde asked euro zone finance ministers during a videoconference on Tuesday evening to seriously consider a one-off joint debt issue of “coronabonds” to help fight the coronavirus pandemic,... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – With the coronavirus pandemic in the United States intensifying, Senate Democrats and Republicans will scramble on Monday to come to an agreement on a far-reaching $1 trillion-plus coronavirus stimulus package after a procedural vote to ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – The Bank of England canceled this year’s stress test of major banks on Friday and said it may be hard to implement new global capital rules on time given the focus now on supporting lending to customers hit by the coronavirus epidemic. The d... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Commission supports all tools that would help mitigate the negative impact of the coronavirus epidemic on the EU economy, the EU executive arm said on Friday when asked about discussions to deploy the euro zone bailout fund to... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Euro zone governments should “get their acts together” and respond to the coronavirus pandemic and its economic fallout in a bold and coordinated way now that the ECB has secured cheap financing for it, two ECB rate-setters said on Friday... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain has asked 65,000 former nurses and doctors to return to work and will deploy final-year medical students to fight the coronavirus health crisis, the health ministry said. As the coronavirus outbreak sweeps across the world, governmen... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump on Thursday opened the door to a radical shift in the U.S. government’s relationship to private industry as the coronavirus outbreak upends the nation’s economy, saying he would back the government taking stakes in... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Bavaria’s Passion Play, staged every decade since the 1630s when villagers thanked God for the end of the plague, has been postponed for two years due to the coronavirus, organizers in the German village of Oberammergau said on Thursday. Abo... More »
BOSTON (Reuters) – U.S. prime money-market funds have lost more than 10% of their assets and the prospect of funds slowing customer redemptions is rising amid unprecedented market turmoil, top credit-rating agency Moody’s Corp said on Thursday. “The risk of fu... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The European Central Bank launched 750 billion euro emergency bond purchase scheme in a bid to stop a pandemic-induced financial rout from shredding the euro zone’s economy and raising fresh concerns about the currency bloc’s viability. W... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – The European Central Bank’s new bond purchase scheme will help reduce the risk of fragmentation between euro zone states, France’s finance minister said on Thursday. “The plan that the European Central Bank announced is the right one,” Bruno ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Borrowing costs in the United States, euro zone, Britain and Japan surged on Wednesday after two days in which governments across the globe announced trillions of dollars of spending to support locked-down economies frozen by the coronavirus... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – The Bank of Japan eased monetary policy on Monday by pledging to buy risky assets such as exchange-traded funds (ETF) at double the current pace, joining global central banks in combating the widening economic fallout from the coronavirus epi... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – The German economy ministry said it no longer expected an economic upswing in the first quarter because of the impact of the coronavirus on growth, with the economy unlikely to stabilize before the third quarter at the earliest. The economy ... More »
VIENNA (Reuters) – If the European Central Bank sees the need for further stimulus in the area of government bonds to help countries tackle the coronavirus impact, it is ready to do so, European Central Bank policymaker Robert Holzmann said on Monday. “If ther... More »
(Reuters) – The Bank of Japan eased monetary policy on Monday by pledging to buy risky assets such as exchange-traded funds (ETF) at double the current pace, joining global central banks in combating the widening economic fallout from the coronavirus epidemic.... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia is considering a second round of economic stimulus, three sources familiar with the deliberations told Reuters, as Canberra accelerated efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus that has now killed five people in the country... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany must do all it can to avoid an economic crisis over the coronavirus and should emulate an ex-European Central Bank president who was key in containing the euro zone debt crisis, a senior ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thurs... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Investors pulled out of most asset classes, with stocks and bond funds seeing a combined $36 billion of outflows in the week to Wednesday, BofA said, amid fears of economic damage from the coronavirus epidemic. Stock markets have been sellin... More »
VIENNA (Reuters) – European Central Bank policymaker Robert Holzmann said he would not support an interest rate cut to insulate the euro zone from the effects of the coronavirus epidemic but he could consider giving firms ultra cheap loans. When asked if targe... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – The Bank of England said it was working with Britain’s finance ministry and international partners to protect the banking system and Britain’s economy from the impact of the spread of coronavirus. Investors globally have priced in more stimu... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said on Monday the central bank will take necessary steps to stabilize markets jolted by the coronavirus outbreak, bolstering speculation about coordinated global policy action. Kuroda’s comments, made i... More »
MIDDLESBROUGH, England (Reuters) – Looming over the skyline of Teesside in northeast England stands the rusting hulk of what used to be Europe’s largest blast furnace, which shut in 2015 with the loss of more than 2,200 jobs. Attempts to bring investment and e... More »
SINGAPORE/SYDNEY (Reuters) – Asian shares regained a measure of calm on Monday as markets bounced after a searing sell-off last week and as investors pinned hopes on a likely coordinated global monetary response to help soften the economic blow of the coronavi... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Italy and other euro zone countries hit by the coronavirus outbreak are expected to benefit from waivers under EU fiscal rules that will allow them to spend more to tackle the emergency, the bloc’s economics commissioner said on Wednesday.... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Global shares and oil slid on Monday while safe-haven gold surged as the spread of the coronavirus outside China darkened the outlook for world growth with infections and deaths rising in South Korea, Italy and the Middle East. The large spi... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain must not exclude its huge services industry from a planned trade deal with the European Union as the price for reclaiming control over its economy, a group representing British employers said on Monday. The Confederation of British I... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s new finance minister Rishi Sunak will have to raise taxes rather than rely on tweaks to budget rules if he wants to really ramp up spending in a first post-Brexit budget next month, the Resolution Foundation, a think-tank, said. Su... More »
(Reuters) – U.S. equity funds saw outflows of $2.6 billion in the latest week, according to Lipper. U.S.-based taxable bond funds attracted $7.9 billion in the week ended on Wednesday, the seventh straight weekly inflow, and money market funds gained $6.3 bill... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Euro zone finance ministers discussed ways to pursue a more growth-friendly fiscal policy mix on Monday, in a potential nudge to Germany and the Netherlands to spend more as fears of a downturn grow in the wake of the coronavirus epidemic.... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Euro zone finance ministers are set to discuss on Monday a document that calls for a more growth-friendly fiscal policy, a move that could lead to Germany’s spending more amid fears of a downturn. The 19-country euro zone has for years stu... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – German economic growth will remain weak in the first quarter of 2020, weighed down by weak exports and the coronavirus outbreak in China, the Bundesbank said in a regular economic report on Monday. Europe’s largest economy stagnated in th... More »
(Reuters) – 1/CHINA ON SICK LEAVE A leap in coronavirus cases in Hubei gave markets pause, for all of 24 hours. Then attention shifted back to the global case-count and the rally resumed. But while investors are focused on containment, the world’s second-bigge... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House on Monday asked Congress for $25.2 billion for NASA in 2021, the agency’s biggest budget in decades, calling for steady increases over five years to meet President Donald Trump’s goal of landing astronauts on the moon and... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Asian shares fell on Monday as the death toll from a coronavirus outbreak exceeded the SARS epidemic of two decades ago, though Chinese shares gained as authorities lifted some work and travel restrictions, helping businesses to resume opera... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Gathered in a German mountain castle last November for an evening retreat that ended with a whiskey-tasting, rebel European Central Bank policymakers and Christine Lagarde, their newly confirmed president, made a pact. Lagarde pledged to ... More »
JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia’s parliament will soon begin debating a sweeping new bill that proposes corporate tax cuts and seeks to make internet giants pay more taxes, as part of a wider plan to simplify laws and boost investments in Southeast Asia’s bigges... More »
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey has reduced the range and the levels of fees and commissions that banks can charge clients, according to central bank and banking watchdog regulations announced on Monday. The measures will cut the various charges banks can charge f... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump will propose on Monday a 21% cut in foreign aid and slashes to social safety-net programs in his $4.8 trillion budget proposal for fiscal 2021, according to senior administration officials. The budget would sp... More »
DUBLIN (Reuters) – Nine years after a devastating crash in property prices catapulted the party of Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar to power, a housing market recovery too rapid for many threatens to dump it into opposition at this week’s general election. Th... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The euro zone’s top bank supervisor blamed a “mess” of diverging laws across the bloc on Tuesday for the European Central Bank’s failure to stop Angolan billionaire Isabel dos Santos, who is suspected of fraud, from controlling a bank in ... More »
CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s state-run oil company PDVSA said its financial debt fell less than 0.1% in 2019 from the prior year to some $34.5 billion, though it remained in default on its bonds as sanctions freeze it out of the global banking system. PDVSA... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Shares tumbled on Monday as investors grew increasingly anxious about the economic impact of China’s spreading virus outbreak, with demand spiking for safe-haven assets such as the Japanese yen and Treasury notes. Japan’s Nikkei average .N225... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – World stock markets ticked higher on Monday, hovering just below record levels ahead of the expected signing of a Phase 1 China-U.S. trade deal, although markets have yet to see details of the agreement. After Asian shares touched 19-month h... More »
HONG KONG (Reuters) – Hong Kong’s chief executive Carrie Lam and top finance officials praised the Chinese-ruled city’s resilience as a global financial hub on Monday amid more than six months of often violent pro-democracy unrest. Protests escalated in June o... More »
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Asian stocks had their best session in weeks on Thursday, as the United States and Iran backed away from the brink of conflict in the Middle East and investors reversed their flight to safety. U.S. President Donald Trump responded to an I... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – Ballerinas in white tutus danced scenes from Swan Lake on the forecourt of the Paris Opera on Tuesday to protest against President Emmanuel Macron’s plans to scrap their special pension benefits. Backed by musicians from the Paris Symphony Or... More »
MILAN (Reuters) – The Bank of Italy “positively” fulfilled its supervision duties and is ready to account for its actions on failing lender Banca Popolare di Bari, Governor Ignazio Visco told Corriere della Sera daily in an interview published on Monday. Prose... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – From Harley Davidson to Colgate-Palmolive, U.S. companies are flocking to borrow in euros and their record issuance is breathing life into a market where yields have been hammered by the European Central Bank’s renewed stimulus push. Offshor... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Asian markets idled near 18-month highs on Monday as trading volumes weakened ahead of the Christmas holiday break, with investors taking profit on gains made earlier this month. In early European trades, the pan-region Euro Stoxx 50 futures... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump signed a $1.4 trillion budget package for the fiscal year 2020 into law on Friday to avert a government shutdown, White House spokesman Judd Deere told journalists traveling with the president on Air Force One... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. fund investors started closing the books on 2019 by withdrawing more than $10.9 billion from mutual funds and exchange-traded funds that hold domestic stocks last week, the largest pullback since early October, according to Investment... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Tear gas engulfed central Beirut as security forces chased protesters near Lebanon’s parliament on Sunday in a second night of street clashes that wounded dozens of people. Protesters had returned despite a fierce crackdown by security force... More »
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Asian shares hit their highest in nearly eight months on Monday after the United States and China agreed on a preliminary trade deal, with Australian shares leading the way on expectations of more easing of monetary policy there. European ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – 1/AFTER PHASE ONE COMES PHASE TWO U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese officials have agreed to a “phase one” trade deal that includes cutting U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods. Washington has agreed to suspend tariffs on $160 billion in Chin... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The European Central Bank left policy unchanged at new ECB President Christine Lagarde’s first meeting on Thursday, keeping money taps wide open and further stimulus ready as the euro zone economy continues to suffer from broader global t... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s exports rose unexpectedly in October, a morale boost for Europe’s largest economy, which has been teetering on the brink of recession over recent quarters. The 1.2% rise in exports raises hopes that the economy can avoid contractin... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Prime Minister Boris Johnson will travel to the heartlands of Brexit Britain in a final campaign blitz ahead of Thursday’s election, as he seeks to secure the parliamentary majority he needs to take the country out of the European Union. “We... More »
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South African Airways (SAA) had to be placed on “business rescue” because there was no other viable and financially workable option to secure a credible future for the state-owned airline, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Monday. SAA ... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Asian stocks edged up on Monday, catching some of Wall Street’s momentum after surprisingly strong U.S. jobs data, although regional gains were capped by concerns about China’s economic slowdown due to the prolonged Sino-U.S. trade war. Japa... More »
ROME (Reuters) – Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte told parliament on Monday a contested reform of the euro zone’s bailout fund was in Italy’s national interest, but that it should only be adopted as a package alongside other measures. A reform of the European Sta... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s Olaf Scholz will carry on for now as finance minister despite losing a bid to lead his Social Democratic Party because he sees it as his duty not to sink the ruling coalition, people familiar with the matter said on Monday. Scholz ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Stock markets rebounded on Monday as decent manufacturing data in China and renewed optimism over a trade deal eroded some of the jitters which emerged among investors last week. The recovery in Europe followed gains in Asia, where share pri... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. equity stock funds saw $390 million in outflows in the week ended on Wednesday, the fourth straight week of outflows for such funds, according to data released by Lipper on Friday. U.S. taxable bond funds attracted $5.9 billion, the 1... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Asian shares staged a cautious rally on Monday as investors dared to hope for some progress in the endless Sino-U.S. trade dispute, while the outperformance of recent U.S. economic data gave the dollar a leg up on its peers. MSCI’s broadest ... More »
(Reuters) – U.S. equity funds saw $3.6 billion in outflows in the week ended on Wednesday, according to data released on Thursday by Lipper. U.S. taxable bond funds attracted $12.4 billion, the 15th straight inflow, while U.S. money market funds shed $25.3 bil... More »
ROME (Reuters) – Proposals to reform the euro zone’s bailout fund are creating a political storm in Italy, where parties and institutions are battling over whether Rome should try to block the reform at the EU level. A draft of the reform was agreed by euro zo... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – World shares were close to a record high on Monday, after Beijing surprised markets by trimming a key interest rate for the first time since 2015. In the latest show of support for its economy, China’s central bank cut rates on seven-day rev... More »
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s cabinet has given ‘in-principle’ approval for the sale of strategic stakes in 28 state-run companies including state carrier Air India [AIN.UL], junior finance minister Anurag Singh Thakur told lawmakers on Monday. The government ... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Demonstrations against Lebanon’s ruling elite have plunged the country into political turmoil at a time of acute economic crisis, driven by deepening anger at sectarian politicians who have dominated the government since the 1975-90 civil wa... More »
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China’s central bank unexpectedly trimmed a closely watched lending rate on Monday, the first such cut in more than four years and a signal to markets that policymakers are ready to act to prop up slowing growth. The People’s Bank of China... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – New bank loans in China fell more than expected to the lowest in 22 months in October, but the drop was likely due to seasonal factors and policymakers are still expected to ramp up support for the cooling economy in coming months. Chinese ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Shares across the globe fell on Monday, buffeted by escalating violence in Hong Kong that pushed Asian stocks to their worst day since August and stoked demand for the safe-haven yen and gold. In the 24th straight week of pro-democracy unres... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – A Lebanese bank employees’ union called on bank staff to go on strike from Tuesday because of safety concerns, the president of the Federation of Syndicates of Banks Employees said. George al Hajj said the decision had been taken on Monday a... More »
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Asian shares surged on Monday, with a broad regional gauge hitting more than 14-week highs, as growing optimism over U.S.-China trade talks and upbeat U.S. job data boosted global investors’ appetite for riskier assets. MSCI’s broadest ind... More »
ROME (Reuters) – A right-wing coalition scored a net victory in a local election in the central Italian region of Umbria, official data from the Interior Ministry showed on Monday, giving a boost to Matteo Salvini’s League party. The vote in tiny Umbria, a tra... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Asian shares rose to a three-month high on Monday, as risk assets got a fillip from hopes of a trade deal and strong U.S. corporate earnings, while major currencies marked time as focus shifted to a Federal Reserve rate decision. European sh... More »
DUBAI (Reuters) – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said it is assessing an emergency reform package announced by Lebanon’s government last week and stressed reforms should be implemented urgently given the country’s high debt levels and fiscal deficits. L... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Christine Lagarde will ensure European Central Bank policymakers climb down from their “ivory tower” and face the political realities of the euro zone, the ECB’s vice president, Luis de Guindos, said in an interview published on Saturday.... More »
