ZURICH (Reuters) – Siemens will not cut its workforce because of the economic downturn triggered by the new coronavirus, Chief Executive Joe Kaeser said, although short-time working measures could be extended in Germany. “No one at Siemens will leave because o... More »
(Reuters) – Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Thursday proposed expanding access to Medicare and forgiving some student debt in new overtures to supporters of onetime rival Bernie Sanders. Biden, who became Democrats’ presumptive nominee when Sand... More »
FRANKFURT/RIGA (Reuters) – It would be irresponsible of euro zone countries to leave the European Central Bank alone in the fight against an economic slump caused by the coronavirus outbreak, ECB policymaker Martins Kazaks said on Wednesday. Finance ministers ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A top official at the U.S. Federal Reserve said on Sunday the $2.3 trillion economic relief bill approved by Congress was appropriately sized and that a further relief effort may not be needed if support efforts are well executed. “I fel... 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 »
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 »
(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 »
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Singapore’s high court upheld on Monday a rarely-used law that criminalizes sex between men, dismissing three appeals that argued it was unconstitutional. The ruling follows challenges to the colonial-era law by activists emboldened after... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – The coronavirus epidemic in the United Kingdom is showing signs of slowing and antibody tests could be ready in days, Neil Ferguson, a professor of mathematical biology at Imperial College London, said on Monday. “We think the epidemic is ju... 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 »
LONDON (Reuters) – A new version of a breathing aid that can help coronavirus patients has been developed in less a week by a team involving Mercedes Formula One, and is being trialed at London hospitals. Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) devices have... 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 »
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Brazilian rapper MV Bill added his voice to a chorus of criticism of President Jair Bolsonaro for downplaying the gravity of the new coronavirus epidemic in a video clip that urges people to protect themselves. His rap “Quarantine” r... 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 »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said for the first time on Monday that the Tokyo Olympic Games may need to be postponed if the event cannot be held in its “complete form” due to the coronavirus pandemic. The International Olympic Committee... More »
BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Mainland China saw a drop in its daily tally of new coronavirus cases, reversing four straight days of gains, as the capital Beijing ramped up measures to contain the number of infections arriving from abroad. China had 39 new conf... 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 »
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) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Thursday urged Congress to move quickly to pass a $1 trillion economic relief measure by early next week, saying he expects bipartisan support for the bill to get cash payments to Americans durin... 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) – 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 »
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 »
TBILISI (Reuters) – Georgia on Monday banned all foreigners from entering the country over coronavirus concerns the prime minister’s spokesman, Irakli Chikovani, told a briefing. Georgia has reported 33 confirmed cases of coronavirus. Source: https://www.reute... 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 »
LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will ask manufacturers to retool production to start making specialist health equipment including ventilators and will look at using hotels as emergency hospitals to cope with the coronavirus outbreak. Br... 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) – 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 »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The mayors of New York City and Los Angeles, the two largest cities in the United States, on Sunday said they were ordering restaurants, theaters, bars and movie houses closed in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Any restaur... 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 »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Sunday officials will have a better idea this week of the total cost of a coronavirus aid package, but predicted it will likely be “significant but not huge.” Mnuchin told “Fox News Sunday” ... More »
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel plans to use anti-terrorism tracking technology and a partial shutdown of its economy to minimize the risk of coronavirus transmission, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday. Cyber tech monitoring would be deployed to ... More »
MOSCOW/BRUSSELS (Reuters) – A joint Russian-European mission to send a rover to Mars has been postponed by two years because its final phase has been compromised by the coronavirus outbreak in Europe, the European and Russian space agencies said on Thursday. T... 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 »
LISBON (Reuters) – Portugal registered its first two cases of the new coronavirus on Monday, SIC television channel reported. It said one case was discovered in a man who had recently traveled to Italy and another one in a man who had returned from Spain. Both... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China on Monday reiterated a call for dialogue in response to North Korea’s latest missile launch and said all sides involved in efforts to rid the Korean Peninsula of nuclear weapons should reconcile conflicts through discussion. Foreign m... 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 »
BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – The Chinese city at the center of the coronavirus epidemic closed its first makeshift hospital, one of 16 hurriedly built to handle the epidemic, after it discharged the last recovered patients, state broadcaster CCTV reported on M... More »
SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea reported 123 new coronavirus cases, taking the country’s total infections to 4,335, the Yonhap news agency said, citing health authorities. The updated numbers added to the 476 recorded earlier by the Korea Centers for Disease Con... 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 »
PARIS (Reuters) – The European Central Bank is prepared to support the economy if needed in the face of the coronavirus outbreak, although more action is not yet needed, ECB policymaker Francois Villeroy de Galhau said on Monday. Villeroy, who is also head of ... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – G7 countries will take “concerted action” to limit the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on economic growth and their finance ministers will discuss by phone this week how best to act, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Monday. “... More »
DUBAI (Reuters) – Kuwait’s Health Ministry announced 10 new cases of coronavirus in the country on Monday bringing the total number to 56, a ministry official said. The official, who was speaking during a news conference broadcast on state television, urged ci... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s local governments will suffer an “interim impact” on fiscal revenue and expenditure from the virus epidemic that the country has so far allocated 99.5 billion yuan ($14.16 billion) to fight, a finance ministry official said on Monda... More »
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Malaysia’s Mahathir Mohamad has quit his Bersatu party after unexpectedly resigning as prime minister on Monday amid a power tussle, three sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. It was not immediately clear why Mahathir lef... More »
HANOI (Reuters) – Bamboo Airways will suspend flights to South Korea from Feb. 26 over coronavirus concerns, the company said on Monday. Its flights between Da Nang and Nha Trang to Seoul’s Incheon International Airport will cease operations starting Feb. 26, ... More »
KABUL (Reuters) – Afghanistan on Monday identified the country’s first case of coronavirus as reported cases outside China jump. Ferozuddin Feroz, the minister of public health, told a press conference in Kabul one of three suspected cases had been confirmed i... More »
BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – An announcement that the Chinese city of Wuhan would relax some of its travel restrictions and allow some people to leave was made without authorization and has been revoked, the local government said on Monday. The city at the epi... More »
ROME (Reuters) – A fourth person infected with the coronavirus has died in Italy, RAI radio reported on Monday, as officials struggle to contain an outbreak of the illness in the north of the country with around 150 cases reported since Friday. The dead patien... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s foreign ministry said on Monday that Beijing was not considering issuing travel advisories for countries such as South Korea and Japan that are reporting an increase in coronavirus cases. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Liji... More »
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – French junior transport minister Jean-Baptiste Djebbari said on Monday that he saw no need to close down transport borders between France and Italy, despite the spread of coronavirus. “Closing down the borders would make no sense, as the ... 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 »
RIYADH/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Central bankers from the United States, Japan and the euro zone meeting in the desert kingdom of Saudi Arabia this weekend had their own shifting sands to cross – those of elusive inflation. The problem facing all three is that pr... 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 »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – A Russian woman who was on board the Diamond Princess cruise liner docked in Yokohama, Japan, has tested positive for coronavirus following examinations by the Japanese authorities, the Russian Embassy to Japan said on Monday. The woman will... 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 »
BEIJING (Reuters) – The Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), China’s top political consultative body, is studying whether to postpone its annual meeting, state-run CCTV reported on Monday. The possible postponement of the meeting, which ... More »
(Reuters) – Fourteen U.S. citizens tested positive for the new coronavirus during the evacuation of over 300 U.S. nationals and their family members from a quarantined ship in Japan, the U.S. State Department said on Monday. The passengers were preparing to re... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – An additional 99 people on a quarantined cruise ship off Yokohama have been confirmed to have been infected with the coronavirus, Japanese media reported on Monday. The widening impact of the outbreak, which began in China in December and has... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – A French soldier has died while on operations in Burkina Faso, the French Armed Forces Ministry said in a statement on Monday. The ministry said the causes of the death of Sergeant Morgan Henry were unknown for now and an investigation was un... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – The novel coronavirus that has killed more than 1,700 people in China is “preventable and treatable”, an official from the country’s National Health Commission said on Monday. Guo Yanhong, a hospital administration supervisor at the commiss... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – The Chinese parliament’s top committee will meet on Feb. 24 to discuss whether to delay the annual March meeting of the full parliament, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Monday, amid the country’s coronavirus outbreak. The standi... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s Foreign Ministry said that 27 foreigners in the country have been confirmed infected with the new coronavirus as of Monday morning, and two had died. An American died on Feb. 6 and a Japanese died on Feb. 8, ministry spokesman Geng ... More »
OSLO (Reuters) – Norway’s consumer prices rose sharply in January from a year earlier, official data showed on Monday, strengthening the crown currency ahead of a major policy speech by the central bank governor on Thursday. Core inflation, a key measure for m... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain said on Monday that the new coronavirus was a serious and imminent threat to public health, a step that gives the government additional powers to fight the spread of the virus. “The Secretary of State declares that the incidence or t... 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 »
TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan expanded its restrictions on visitors from Hong Kong and Macau on Monday to freeze the entry of many residents from the two Chinese-run cities to help control the spread of the new coronavirus. Taiwan has been gradually stepping up it... 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 »
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Some technology firms in China have maintained operations to manufacture parts and products despite government calls in various cities and provinces for companies to halt work to help stop the spread of a new coronavirus. Chinese telecom g... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – The United States has taken actions that create and spread fear following a coronavirus outbreak in China, instead of offering any significant assistance, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Monday. The United States was the first nation t... More »
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey’s consumer price inflation rose a bit more than expected to 12.15% year-on-year in January, official data showed on Monday, climbing for the third consecutive month after a dramatic drop last year. A currency crisis in 2018 sent inf... More »
BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China’s securities regulator has urged some mutual fund managers not to sell shares unless they face investor redemptions, four sources told Reuters, as the country’s stock markets plunged on Monday amid a growing virus outbreak. T... More »
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – The impact from a virus epidemic on China’s economy will be limited and temporary, and the country’s financial markets will return to normal in the long run, a commentary in a newspaper owned by the central bank said on Monday afternoon. T... 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 »
ZURICH (Reuters) – The Swiss National Bank appeared to remain on the sidelines as the Swiss franc surged to its highest level in nearly three years on Monday, driven by concerns about the spread of the coronavirus. The franc fell to 1.069 versus the euro EURCH... More »
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – The Shanghai government has said companies in the city are not allowed to resume operations before Feb. 9, an official at the municipality announced at a press conference on Monday. The measure is applicable to government and private compa... More »
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport will suspend long-distance inter-city bus services to-and-from the airport starting on Tuesday, the company’s bus service provider in a statement on Monday. Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – Macau said on Monday it will deny entry to visitors from China’s Hubei province or those who visited the province 14 days prior to arrival unless they can provide documentation showing they are not infected with the virus that broke out in ... More »
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – The mayor of Wuhan, the city where China’s coronavirus outbreak originated, said on Monday the city’s management of the virus was “not good enough”. Zhou Xianwang made the remarks in an interview with state broadcaster CCTV. The death toll... More »
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China’s finance ministry and National Health Commission have extended 60.33 billion yuan ($8.74 billion) to help contain a spreading virus, according to a statement on the ministry’s website. The death toll from the coronavirus outbreak ro... More »
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China’s Hainan province confirmed on Monday that an 80-year-old woman has died after being infected with the coronavirus, marking the province’s first fatality in the rapidly spreading outbreak, according to state broadcaster CCTV. Source:... More »
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country’s state planning agency, plans to invest 300 million yuan ($43.5 million) for the construction of hospitals in Wuhan serving patients affected by the coronavirus, offic... More »
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Singapore said on Monday that the coronavirus outbreak will hurt its economy this year, as it announced new measures to tackle the disease which originated in China and has spread to the city-state and several other countries. The Southea... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China urged Canada on Monday to release detained Huawei Technologies executive Meng Wanzhou as soon as possible. Foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang, who made the comments at a daily briefing on Monday, also said that Canada should corre... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s agriculture minister urged authorities to prevent a recurrence in African swine fever outbreaks, according to a statement on the ministry’s website on Monday. Relevant departments must work to achieve this year’s pig production reco... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s eastern province of Zhejiang on Monday reported that five patients are in quarantine for respiratory illness but the diagnosis is not confirmed yet. The province has found five people traveling from the city of Wuhan in central Chin... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s National Health Commission on Sunday said the outbreak of a new strain of coronavirus is controllable, in the first statement from the body since the outbreak was reported in late December. The transmission path of the new virus has... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – China’s yuan led a rally in trade-sensitive currencies on Monday and the Australian dollar recovered some recent losses as the imminent signing of a preliminary U.S.-China trade deal boosted sentiment. The U.S.-China Phase 1 agreement, due t... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s foreign ministry said on Thursday that a U.S. Congressional report that called for sanctions against Beijing over human rights abuses was neither objective nor credible. The United States should reflect upon its human rights situati... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s Vice Premier Liu He, head of the country’s negotiation team in Sino-U.S. trade talks, will sign a “Phase 1” deal in Washington next week, the commerce ministry said on Thursday. Liu will visit Washington on Jan. 13-15, said Gao Feng... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s central bank said on Thursday that it has signed a currency agreement with Laos, allowing direct local currency settlement for transactions under the current and capital accounts. The agreement was aimed at boosting financial cooper... More »
