Feed aggregator

Asian shares and U.S. stock futures fell on Friday, spurred by doubts about progress in the development of drugs to treat COVID-19 and new evidence of U.S. economic damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Nestle reported a 4.3% rise in organic sales growth for the first quarter, the food giant said on Friday, as consumers filled cupboards with Purina pet food and Nescafe coffee to prepare for lockdowns caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Virgin Australia Holdings Ltd owes A$6.9 billion ($4.39 billion) to more than 10,000 creditors based on an initial review and will seek a three-month payment waiver from aircraft lessors, its administrators said.

Nestle reported a 4.3% rise in organic sales growth for the first quarter, the food giant said on Friday, as consumers filled cupboards with Purina pet food and Poland Spring water to prepare for lockdowns caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Swatch Group's sales at its own stores in China are up by almost a quarter during April, the watchmaker's Chief Executive Nick Hayek told Blick newspaper, but the global situation following the coronavirus outbreak remains tough.

Oil prices jumped again on Friday, gaining more ground as producers like Kuwait said they would move to cut output and as the United States approved another package to cope with the economic disruption caused by the coronavirus outbreak.

Several brokerages, including discount giant TD Ameritrade Corp are restricting customers from buying new positions in certain crude oil contracts after an unprecedented sell-off that sent prices below negative-$40 on Monday.

An array of U.S. merchants in Georgia and other states prepared on Thursday to reopen for the first time in a month under newly relaxed coronavirus restrictions, as another week of massive unemployment claims highlighted the grim economic toll of the pandemic.

The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a $484 billion coronavirus relief bill on Thursday, funding small businesses and hospitals and pushing the total spending response to the crisis to an unprecedented near $3 trillion.

Asian shares and U.S. stock futures fell on Friday, spurred by doubts about progress in the development of drugs to treat COVID-19 and new evidence of U.S. economic damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Virgin Australia Holdings Ltd owes A$6.9 billion ($4.39 billion) to more than 10,000 creditors based on an initial review and will seek a three-month payment waiver from aircraft lessors, according to the company's administrators.

Oil prices rose on Friday, gaining further ground as some producers like Kuwait said they would move to cut output swiftly to try to counter the evaporation in global demand for fuels caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Facebook Inc has removed "pseudoscience" as an option for advertisers that want to target audiences, a category available until this week even as the world's largest social media network vowed to curb misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic.

A preliminary survey of New York state residents found that nearly 14% of those tested had antibodies against the novel coronavirus, suggesting that some 2.7 million may already have been infected, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Thursday.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday reported 828,441 cases of the novel coronavirus, an increase of 25,858 from its previous count, and said the number of deaths had risen by 1,804 to 46,379.

U.S. coronavirus deaths topped 49,000 on Thursday as the number of lives lost in April rises by an average of 2,000 a day, according to a Reuters tally.

Virgin Australia Holdings Ltd owes A$6.9 billion ($4.39 billion) to more than 10,000 creditors based on an initial review, according to an affidavit from one of the company's administrators.

L Brands Inc filed a legal complaint against Sycamore Partners on Thursday, after the buyout firm walked away from a $525 million deal to acquire a majority stake in the company's Victoria's Secret lingerie brand.

Several brokerages, including discount giant TD Ameritrade Corp are restricting customers from buying new positions in certain crude oil contracts after an unprecedented sell-off that sent prices below negative-$40 on Monday.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he is considering a government lending program for U.S. oil companies looking for federal aid as they cope with a devastating plunge in prices, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday.