Reuters

U.S. import prices fell by the most in six months in February as the cost of petroleum products dropped, and economists said they could decline further because of the coronavirus pandemic and an oil price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia.

Nepal has closed all of its Himalayan peaks including Mount Everest this climbing season because of fears of the coronavirus outbreak, a government minister said on Friday.

Xerox Holdings Corp said on Friday it would postpone a meeting with HP Inc shareholders amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Global markets suffered record falls on Thursday as alarm over the coronavirus intensified and governments from Ireland to Italy unveiled measures to try to slow the spread of a disease that has infected more than 127,000 people worldwide.

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc said on Friday it will hold its annual meeting as scheduled on May 2, but without shareholders in physical attendance due to the coronavirus outbreak.

North Korea had its military forces on lockdown for about 30 days and in one instance did not fly a plane for 24 days, even though it has not confirmed any cases of coronavirus, the head of U.S. forces in South Korea said on Friday.

Bulgaria's foreign ministry on Friday banned all travel to Iran and advised Bulgarians to cancel all non-urgent travel to Spain and South Korea in a bid to curb the spread of coronavirus.

If the coronavirus crisis lasts another two or three months, it could force carriers to collapse and spark more consolidation in the beleaguered airline industry, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) chief told Reuters on Friday.

China's Wuhan city, ground zero of the new coronavirus outbreak, reported five new cases on Friday, the second day in a row the tally has been less than 10, while no locally transmitted infections were reported in the rest of the country.

Elon Musk is expected to defend a $2.2 billion deal in court next week criticized by shareholders as benefiting Musk at the expense of Tesla Inc, and the outcome may depend as much on the chief executive's temperament as on the facts of the case.

U.S. Federal Reserve policymakers have already begun responding to the coronavirus with an emergency interest rate cut and a reopening of their crisis tool kit, all without a clear idea of what damage is being done outside of plummeting financial markets.

World stocks bounced off their lows on Friday on hopes of more central bank stimulus and government spending, but were still set for their worst week since the 2008 financial crisis, with coronavirus panic-selling hitting nearly every asset class.

The airline stocks that suffered the most after U.S. President Donald Trump barred continental Europeans from traveling to the United States do not even operate flights between those two regions.

SAS said on Friday it would cut flights to some U.S. destinations and suspend traffic to others in the wake of new U.S. travel restrictions from March 14.

North Macedonia's outgoing government barred public gatherings on Friday and said it would deny entry to foreign nationals arriving from "high-risk countries" affected by the coronavirus.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has cautioned that more families will lose their loved ones to the coronavirus but has taken a distinctly different approach to tackling the outbreak.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will have conversations with other world leaders on Friday regarding the global response to the coronavirus outbreak, his spokesman said.

Iraq has banned entry to travelers coming from Germany and Qatar, its health minister said on Friday, bringing the total number of countries on its entry ban list to 13 as it tries to stem the spread of coronavirus.

Ethiopia has confirmed its first case of the new coronavirus, the country's public health institute told Reuters on Friday.

Here's what you need to know about the coronavirus epidemic today: