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 »
MUNICH/LONDON (Reuters) – Shares in Europe’s insurers fell sharply on Friday after the EU regulator said they should temporarily halt payouts to shareholders during the coronavirus epidemic, although Germany backed Allianz’s decision to go ahead with a dividen... 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 »
LONDON (Reuters) – Benchmark Brent crude oil futures climbed to as high as $34.91 a barrel on Friday on rising hopes of a new global deal to cut global crude supply. Brent crude LCOc1 futures were up 12.9%, or $3.9, at $33.83 a barrel by 1321 GMT. Brent soared... More »
(Reuters) – FedEx Corp (FDX.N) said on Friday it would slash its chief executive officer’s pay and draw down $1.5 billion from a credit facility as delivery services take a hit from coronavirus-led lockdowns across the globe. The company, which also suspended ... More »
(Reuters) – 3M Co (MMM.N) said on Friday it would increase the production of respirators and import more masks into the United States, after President Donald Trump invoked a law to help ease a shortage in the items needed to protect health staff against the co... More »
RIYADH (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s King Salman has ordered up to 9 billion riyals ($2.4 billion) to be disbursed to pay part of the wages of private-sector workers to deter companies from laying off staff, the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported on Friday. Th... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s car sector needs immediate cash and the government should introduce measures to support suppliers, some of which only have enough money to handle the coronavirus crisis for weeks not months, the head of the main trade body told Reu... More »
DUBAI/LONDON/MOSCOW (Reuters) – OPEC and allies are working on a deal for an unprecedented production cut equivalent to around 10% of global supply, an OPEC source said after U.S. President Donald Trump called on oil nations to stop the oil rout caused by the ... More »
(Reuters) – Ford Motor Co (F.N) said on Friday Chief Executive Officer Jim Hackett’s total compensation fell to $17.4 million in 2019 from $17.8 million in 2018. The ratio of Hackett’s annual compensation to the median of the annual compensation of all employe... More »
(Reuters) – Wall Street’s main indexes opened lower on Friday as the novel coronavirus brought the longest U.S. employment expansion on record to an abrupt end. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 127.51 points, or 0.60%, at the open to 21,285.93. The S... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday it would be impractical to restrict economic activity all over the country due to the coronavirus, given that each region is facing different challenges. “It is clear that limiting economic act... 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) – The financial industry wants the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to hold off on parts of a new rule requiring brokers to disclose potential conflicts of interest, citing disruptions caused by the coronavirus, four people with kno... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Coronavirus lockdowns might have caught a lot of people by surprise last month, but with April’s new billing cycle, it is time for cash-strapped Americans to rethink automatic spending habits. Are you turning off that monthly parking pass?... More »
BOSTON (Reuters) – Multi-strategy hedge funds – those that bet on a broad array of markets using teams of traders, leverage and centralized risk management – have flourished as stocks ended their worst three months since the 2008 financial crisis. Balyasny Ass... 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 »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. pension funds that delayed rebalancing their portfolios are likely to pump about $400 billion into stocks over the next two quarters, analysts at JP Morgan said, providing a potential boost to equity markets battered by the coronaviru... More »
(Reuters) – Bond investor and DoubleLine Capital Chief Executive Jeffrey Gundlach said on Tuesday he believes the coronavirus sell-off is not over yet and that the lows stocks hit in March will be surpassed in April due to uncertainty over the outbreak. “I thi... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Invesco said on Tuesday it would sell all the unquoted companies currently held in its UK equities portfolios and has marked down their value by 60% as a result of recent coronavirus-fueled market falls. The U.S.-based manager said it would ... More »
BOSTON (Reuters) – Billionaire trader Steven A. Cohen is cautioning the staff of his investment firm, Point72 Asset Management, to remain cautious amid markets that have recovered slightly from coronavirus-driven lows. “Markets don’t come back in a straight li... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – When the world feels like it is ending, it can be comforting to look to history and see that such global convulsions have happened before and the earth kept on turning. For help during the coronavirus crisis, Reuters turned to Carmen Reinh... 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 »
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Airline SAS (SAS.ST) said on Monday it and Danish logistics firm Scan Global Logistics had established a direct cargo charter flight out of Scandinavia to Chicago in the United States, using regular passenger aircraft. The passenger trave... More »
PRAGUE (Reuters) – Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, owner of the energy holding group EPH with assets around Europe, said he had contracted the new coronavirus and had been working in isolation. He was quoted on Monday by Blesk and E15 newspapers, both part... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – British low cost airline easyJet (EZJ.L) said it had grounded its entire fleet of over 330 aircraft and had no visibility on when it could restart flights, highlighting the heavy strain on airlines trying to survive to fly again after corona... 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 »
ZURICH (Reuters) – UBS Group (UBSG.S) intends to pay its 2019 dividend, the Swiss bank said on Monday, despite guidance from markets supervisor FINMA, the Swiss government and international banking groups to limit payouts as the coronavirus outbreak hits the g... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s Shionogi & Co (4507.T), creator of the blockbuster cholesterol treatment Crestor, said on Monday it would tie up with Ping An Insurance Group Co of China (601318.SS), selling a 2.05% voting stake for 33.53 billion yen ($311 million). ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Banning short-selling of shares gives the impression of responding decisively to events without achieving any useful result, the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) said on Monday. In an unusually blunt statement, the global umbrella group f... More »
BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China’s largest state banks said the impact of restrictions on movement imposed to slow the spread of the coronavirus could pull down asset quality as borrowers struggle to repay loans, though they are likely big enough to weather ... More »
BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thai Airways International Pcl (THAI.BK) may permanently reduce the number of aircraft types it deploys once the coronavirus outbreak that has caused the company to ground most of its fleet ends, said a senior government official on Monday.... More »
(Reuters) – Troubled fashion retailer Ted Baker (TED.L) on Monday named Chief Financial Officer Rachel Osborne to the permanent role of chief executive officer, replacing Lindsay Page who stepped down last year. The British company said the search for a chairm... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Twenty Gazprom workers, who were airlifted to hospital following a coronavirus scare last week, have been discharged after the tests came back negative, a Gazprom spokesman said on Monday. The workers were quarantined at Bovanenkovo gas fiel... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump, who excoriated General Motors Co on Friday and invoked emergency powers to compel the production of badly needed ventilators to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, has abruptly shifted gears to praise the automaker. ... More »
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China’s central bank unexpectedly cut the rate on reverse repurchase agreements by 20 basis points on Monday, the largest in nearly five years, as authorities ramped up steps to relieve pressure on an economy ravaged by the coronavirus pan... 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 »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) said on Monday that it would extend a suspension at all of its factories in Europe with the exception of Russia until further notice, with a restart expected no earlier than April 20. With the spread of the coronavi... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Thousands of London’s underwriters took their stamps and fountain pens home last week, which they use to sign insurance contracts, but they won’t need them. Working at home due to the coronavirus lockdown, they have abandoned the normal tool... More »
LONDON/FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The European Central Bank told euro zone banks on Friday to skip dividend payments and share buybacks until October at the earliest and use their profits to support the economy as it is hit by the coronavirus pandemic. With large p... More »
BOSTON (Reuters) – After years of waiting and watching from afar, hedge fund Fir Tree Partners is spending $410 million from its dislocation funds on stocks, pockets of the credit market and other securities, sure the historic market sell-off made new bargains... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – If you live in the United States and really want to be prepared for coronavirus, experts say you need a fully executed power of attorney, which designates a trusted person to take over your finances should you become incapacitated. This is... More »
BOSTON (Reuters) – Billionaire investor William Ackman said a CNBC television interview he gave last week was not designed to profit from any trades, dismissing some media speculation he had purposely pushed markets lower to make money off his hedges. “Our hed... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – The $2 trillion economic stimulus package racing toward passage in the U.S. Congress contains several important relief provisions for retirees, and for younger workers saving for retirement. Most of these provisions do a good job targeting ... More »
BOSTON (Reuters) – Talks between First United Corp and Driver Management to settle a fight for board seats at the bank holding company broke down when the activist investor rejected the offer, two sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday. “Your ‘best ... More »
BOSTON (Reuters) – Lindblad Expeditions on Thursday said it named two independent directors backed by activist investment firm ValueAct Capital, which owns a nearly 10% stake in the adventure cruise company, to its board. New York-based Lindblad appointed Thom... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Lily Reiche has lost nearly half of her dogwalking clients in Los Angeles because of California’s coronavirus stay-at-home order. Of the 40 or so accounts at My Dog Spot, which dried up because people are either working from home or have l... 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 »
BOSTON/LONDON (Reuters) – The havoc wrought by the coronavirus crisis could give investors leverage to put new limits on CEO pay packages and link them more closely to a range of social and environmental issues at companies’ annual meetings this spring. Execut... 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 »
(Reuters) – The White House’s top trade advisor denied on Tuesday that the Trump administration was considering a three-month deferral of tariff payments on imported goods to ease the pain of the economic shutdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Industry g... More »
BOSTON (Reuters) – A New Jersey municipal money-market fund run by BNY Mellon Corp needed an injection of $89,000 after the market value of the fund came under pressure, the bank disclosed on Tuesday in a U.S. regulatory filing. BNY Mellon said it provided cap... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Blackrock (BLK.N), the world’s largest asset manager, will freeze global hiring for a few weeks, according to a source familiar with the situation. As the deadly coronavirus swept across the global economy, killing thousands of people, compa... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Anglo American said on Friday it would reschedule work at mines in countries such as Chile to contain the spread of coronavirus but added there had been no material disruption on production. The virus, which has claimed over 10,000 lives glo... 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 »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – China’s economy is beginning to show some signs of normalization following the full-blown shock caused by the coronavirus, but stark risks remain, International Monetary Fund officials said in a blog on the economic impact of the pandemi... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The EU agreed on Friday to suspend requirements that oblige airlines to use at least 80% of their take-off and landing slots in order to keep them the following year until Oct. 24 due to the aviation industry crisis unleashed by coronaviru... 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 »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany will spare no effort to help its economy weather the coronavirus crisis and is in talks with its European Union partners about how to minimize the economic impact of the outbreak, a finance ministry spokesman said on Friday. “We are ... More »
WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. electric industry may ask essential staff to live on site at power plants and control centers to keep operations running if the coronavirus outbreak worsens, and has been stockpiling beds, blankets, and food for them, a... More »
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – AirAsia Group Bhd (AIRA.KL) said on Friday an independent probe into corruption allegations from Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has found the Malaysian airline’s procurement process with European planemaker Airbus SE (AIR.PA) rob... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – In scary times like these, it is comforting to talk to someone who has seen and studied a lot of things – booms, busts, and everything in between. Enter Robert Shiller. The Yale University economics professor and Nobel Prize winner recentl... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – When you see soda on sale at the supermarket, do you run screaming into the parking lot in a panic? Or do you buy six? This is the analogy Peter Palion, a certified financial planner in New York, uses to calm worried clients about volatili... 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 »
BOSTON (Reuters) – Billionaire investor William Ackman, who has long worried about risks posed by the coronavirus, called on the Trump administration on Wednesday to seal off the country for 30 days and said stocks would “soar” if such restrictions were impose... 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 »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – The breathtaking coronavirus-induced plunge of the stock market has unnerved retirement investors of all ages, but it poses special risks for people close to, or already retired. Unlike younger workers with many years ahead of earning and s... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Deutsche Bank slashed its forecast for Germany’s economy on the coronavirus fallout, saying it now expected the euro zone’s largest economy to contract between 4-5% in 2020 while industrial production could shrink by 10%. “Within days lockdo... 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 »
PARIS (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday gave his full backing for the European Central Bank’s (ECB) latest monetary stimulus measures aimed at helping the euro zone fight the global coronavirus crisis. “Full support for the exceptional m... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Lives are on hold all over the world as we distance ourselves socially to contain the coronavirus, but bills still pile up. Some countries, like Italy and France, already enacted mortgage and rent relief, but U.S. measures are still being ... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A tiny mutual fund that invests in companies that produce products and services for parents is the only fund among the $4.3 trillion actively managed U.S. equity fund industry to post a positive return for the year to date through Monday, ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – A rush to sell global bonds in the past week has now rippled into the world of exchange-traded funds with some of the most actively traded seeing the most bulging gaps relative to the value of underlying holdings in years. Exchange-traded fu... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Applications for unemployment insurance are skyrocketing across the United States. In Ohio, the number tripled from last week through Sunday, up to 12,000, according to the state’s governor. Calls to the Unemployment Law Project of Washing... More »
SYDNEY/CHICAGO (Reuters) – Airlines around the world said they would make more drastic cuts to their flying schedules, shed jobs and seek government aid after countries further tightened border restrictions because of the fast spreading coronavirus. The owner ... More »
TEL AVIV (Reuters) – Israel’s shekel ILS= slid another 2.5% versus the dollar on Monday to a 15-month low to bring losses to more than 8% so far this month, while share prices continued to tumble in Tel Aviv in the wake of the global coronavirus outbreak. The ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – U.S. crude fell below $30 on Monday as emergency rate cuts by the U.S. Federal Reserve and its global counterparts failed to tame markets and China’s factory output plunged at the sharpest pace in 30 years amid the spread of coronavirus. Bre... 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 »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Reserve and its global counterparts moved aggressively with sweeping emergency rate cuts and offers of cheap dollars to help combat the coronavirus pandemic that has jolted markets and paralyzed large parts of the world econ... More »
(Reuters) – European shares tumbled more than 8% on Monday as the coronavirus pandemic raged through much of Europe, with dramatic monetary easing by global central banks failing to reassure investors about its growing economic damage. The pan-European STOXX 6... 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 »
(Reuters) – The Federal Reserve unexpectedly cut interest rates on Sunday for the second time in less than two weeks, an emergency move to help shore up the U.S. economy as a coronavirus pandemic spreads worldwide. In a statement, the central bank said it was ... More »
(Reuters) – Nike Inc, Lululemon Athletica Inc and Under Armour Inc on Sunday said they would close stores in the United States and other markets, joining a growing list of major retailers moving to help limit the spread of the coronavirus. The virus, which beg... More »
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Oil extended losses on Monday as an emergency rate cut by the U.S. Federal Reserve failed to soothe global financial markets panicked by the rapid spread of the coronavirus while a price war rages on between top producers. Brent crude fel... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Boaz Weinstein’s main Saba Capital Management LP hedge fund reported a 33% gain in March through Friday amid coronavirus-led market turmoil, bringing its year to date gain to 67%, according to a note sent to clients seen by Reuters. Saba’s... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – George Curtis is facing a severe financial crisis. He has to be out of his Swarthmore College dorm room by Sunday. He lost his campus job and cannot travel home to Montana from the Philadelphia-area liberal arts college because he is not f... More »
NEW YORK/BOSTON/LONDON (Reuters) – Bridgewater Associates LP, the Ray Dalio-led hedge fund giant famous for making money during the 2008 financial crisis, has posted mixed returns amid the coronavirus-led market turmoil, according to an investor with direct kn... More »
(Reuters) – William Ackman’s publicly traded hedge fund gained nearly 3% this year, though the billionaire investor warned of volatility ahead as world markets reel under the economic hit from the coronavirus epidemic. Pershing Square Holdings Ltd on Monday sa... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Sovereign wealth fund investment in venture capital deals slipped to its lowest level in six years in 2019, with the drop-off deepening in the months after WeWork’s planned share sale failed, data showed on Friday. Sovereign wealth-backed ve... 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 »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Uncertainty over the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak has prompted at least some winners of the U.S. Lipper Fund Awards to look for companies that can withstand a prolonged pullback. U.S. stocks are down sharply from the record ... More »
BOGOTA (Reuters) – Private investment funds operating in Colombia have around $5 billion available to invest in projects in the Andean country, the investors’ guild president said Thursday. Private investment funds have managed around $16.8 billion in mainly i... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Blackstone Group Inc and Apax Partners LLP are among the buyout firms that have had to delay their annual meetings with their private equity fund investors or carry them out remotely because of travel restrictions imposed amid the global o... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – When Kristin Tassi bought her house in Chicago two years ago, she was disappointed to get an interest rate of 4% on her mortgage. All of her friends had lower rates. Experts said rates were on the way up from that point forward, but Tassi ... 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 »
