Reuters Business News

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey told Britain's banks on Friday to "put their backs into it" and speed up lending to small companies, saying the coronavirus crisis was likely to deliver a historic blow to the economy.

The World Bank and International Monetary Fund should seek case-by-case solutions to ease debt burdens on middle-income countries hit by the coronavirus pandemic, key shareholders said on Friday, fueling calls to widen relief already provided to the poorest countries.

Chile's LATAM Airlines , South America's largest carrier, will cancel 95% of its scheduled flights in May, the company said on Friday, maintaining similar levels to its current operations due to the coronavirus crisis.

E-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc is preparing to launch an ultra-fast grocery delivery service in the UK, trade magazine the Grocer reported on Friday, citing suppliers.

From Africa to Asia and Latin America, emerging countries disproportionately bruised by the COVID-19 pandemic are allowing some key industries to start back up in a bid to soften the economic blow.

Global stocks rallied on Friday on President Donald Trump's plans to revive the coronavirus-hit U.S. economy and hopes of a potential drug to treat COVID-19, while the dollar fell amid a growing risk-on sentiment among investors.

Private equity firm Canyon Bridge, the Chinese-backed owner of Imagination Technologies, told the British government it was committed to keeping the chip designer headquartered in the UK, confirming an earlier Reuters report.

Investors fled to safety as worries about the coronavirus outbreak increased, leading to heightened volatility and requiring the Federal Reserve to respond rapidly to stem losses from a "synchronized global selloff" and to help markets function, a senior official at the New York Fed said Friday.

Wall Street bounced on Friday as Boeing said it would resume production of commercial jets, with investors also cheering President Donald Trump's plan to reopen the economy and on hopes of a potential drug by Gilead Sciences to treat COVID-19.

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

The Chinese-backed owners of Imagination Technologies told the British government on Friday the chip designer would remain headquartered in the United Kingdom and they would consult over any board changes, a source with knowledge of the matter said.

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Airbus will furlough some 3,000 French aerospace workers by tapping a government-backed scheme for four weeks starting from Monday, the planemaker said on Friday, in its latest effort to cope with the coronavirus crisis.

Government loans for Brazilian airlines battered by the coronavirus crisis would only be ready in May, and not later this month as some had hoped, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday.

Ford Motor Co on Friday estimated first-quarter loss of $2 billion and said it would tap debt markets to shore up its cash reserves as the coronavirus outbreak halted production and pummeled vehicles sales.

Carmaker SEAT plans to start up its plants in Spain on April 27, almost six weeks after it halted all output due to one of the world's worst national outbreaks of the coronavirus, the Volkswagen unit said on Friday.

Goldman Sachs said on Friday it expects iPhone shipment to drop 36% during the current quarter due to coronavirus-related lockdowns around the world and downgraded Apple Inc stock to "sell".

The Chinese-backed owners of Imagination Technologies told the British government on Friday the chip designer would remain headquartered in the United Kingdom, a source with knowledge of the matter said.

A gauge of future U.S. economic activity suffered a record decline in March, suggesting the economy could struggle to pull out of a deep slump caused by the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Wall Street bounced on Friday as Boeing said it would resume production of commercial jets next week, with investors also cheering President Donald Trump's plan to reopen the economy and on hopes of a potential drug to treat COVID-19.