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Procter & Gamble Co beat expectations for quarterly profit on Friday as consumers stocked up on everything from diapers and detergents to toilet rolls amid sweeping lockdowns around the world to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

Activist investors say telecommunications pioneer AT&T Inc won't take their calls for its upcoming annual meeting, reinforcing their concerns that the shift of the gatherings to cyberspace due to the COVID-19 pandemic would restrict shareholder input.

Procter & Gamble Co on Friday reported an about 5% rise in quarterly sales as consumers stocked up on everything from diapers and detergents to toilet rolls amid sweeping lockdowns around the world to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury is proposing a government support programme to help airlines convert their fleets to more environmentally friendly planes, according to an interview given by Faury to Der Spiegel magazine which was published on Friday.

The COVID-19 pandemic arrived just as Respond Software CEO and co-founder Mike Armistead was trying to sell automated cyber security software to new clients. Most of them are no longer in a buying mood. So Respond Software, a 50-employee, venture-backed startup, applied for about $1 million in government support.

Portuguese car component manufacturers, among the country's top exporters, are calling thousands of employees back to work even before a nationwide COVID-19 lockdown is lifted as Europe's automotive sector resumes production.

Companies will be able to hold their annual shareholders' meeting over the phone or online during the coronavirus pandemic under a promised new law, Britain's business ministry and accounting watchdog said on Friday.

Oil prices were mixed on Friday as news of President Donald Trump's plans to ease the U.S. coronavirus lockdown to get the American economy moving again were quickly overshadowed by China's worst quarterly economic contraction on record.

China's economy contracted for the first time on record in the first quarter as the coronavirus shut down factories and shopping malls and put millions out of work.

Volkswagen Group on Friday said sales of its cars dropped by 23% on the year to 2 million cars in the January to March period.

Air fares have fallen as much as 30% since the start of the year in North America and Europe, according to the first of a new series of industry data, while stabilising on a smaller decline in Asia where some coronavirus lockdowns are being eased.

The top body of China's parliament will meet in the capital city of Beijing from April 26 to April 29, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Friday.

Oil prices fell on Friday, giving up early gains as China's worst economic contraction on record outweighed news of U.S. President Donald Trump's plans to get the American economy moving again.

China is widely expected to cut its benchmark lending rate on Monday to provide further support for the coronavirus-hit economy, which shrank for the first time on record in the first quarter, a Reuters survey of traders and analysts found.

World stock markets made a super-charged sprint towards an 11% weekly gain on Friday - their second best of all time - after President Donald Trump laid out plans to gradually reopen the coronavirus-hit U.S. economy following similar moves elsewhere.

Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd will lay off 286 cabin crew based in the United States and furlough 201 pilots based in Australia and Britain, it said on Friday, as the coronavirus pandemic has virtually halted global travel.

China's current account was kept basically balanced and within a reasonable range in the first quarter of this year despite the coronavirus pandemic, and the outbreak will not affect the current account in the medium-to-long term, the foreign exchange regulator said on Friday.

Peugeot's British brand Vauxhall, which operates two factories, is planning several safety measures including temperature checks, face mask-wearing and shift rescheduling to allow it to reopen sites amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Oil prices were mixed on Friday after the weakest Chinese economic data in decades showed the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, offsetting some earlier gains on optimism for President Donald Trump's early plans to revive the U.S. economy.

Boeing Co said it will resume commercial airplane production next week in Washington state after suspending operations last month in response to the coronavirus pandemic, and the company's chief executive told employees the aerospace industry will need financial help from the government.