Reuters Business News

Morgan Stanley Chief Executive Officer James Gorman warned that the bank would take "longer to achieve" its medium-term financial targets due to the coronavirus crisis, after its first-quarter profit slumped by 30%.

Google will allow business and education users on Gmail.com to directly take calls on its video conferencing tool Meet starting Thursday, a new feature being offered as the Alphabet Inc unit seeks to capitalize on security and other concerns with rival services.

Apple Inc said on Thursday it would reopen its sole retail store in South Korea on April 18, marking it the first site to return to business after it closed all stores outside Greater China last month due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Louis Vuitton owner LVMH on Thursday posted a 17% drop in comparable sales in the first quarter due to the coronavirus pandemic, as government-imposed lockdowns forced it to close stores and production sites in key markets.

Italy's budget deficit will be near 10% of gross domestic product this year, a senior government official told Reuters, as Rome increases borrowing to try to soften the impact of the new coronavirus and the economy plunges into a deep recession.

The S&P 500 and Dow Jones slipped on Thursday, giving up early gains as concerns about rough first-quarter earnings and lasting economic damage from the coronavirus pandemic offset weekly jobless claims that were better than some had feared.

Air traffic in Latin America in April has fallen 91% compared to a year earlier due to the coronavirus outbreak that fully grounded two of the region's largest airlines and canceled almost all other flights, industry group ALTA said on Thursday.

Oil prices slid, with U.S. crude on track for its lowest close since 2002, after OPEC lowered its global oil demand forecast due to the plunge in demand delivered by the coronavirus outbreak.

Japanese automaker Nissan Motor Co said Thursday it will extend a shutdown of U.S. manufacturing plants until mid-May, citing the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The United States opposes creation of liquidity through issuance of the International Monetary Fund's Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) as part of the response to the coronavirus pandemic, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Thursday.

Italian trade unions said on Thursday they had agreed with CNH Industrial on health and security measures so the vehicle maker is ready to resume work as soon as lockdown rules are eased.

World stock markets seesawed while bond yields retreated on Thursday as dire U.S. jobless data underscored a deepening downturn amid the coronavirus pandemic and tamped down investor hopes a listless economy would soon be back on its feet.

(This April 15 story corrects to show flights starting between Buenos Aires and Houston, not Washington, in paragraph 12.)

Canada's privately held WestJet Airlines is laying off 1,700 pilots amid travel bans to curb the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a company memo seen by Reuters on Thursday.

Maybelline make-up manufacturer L'Oreal said on Thursday it was counting on a quick recovery in cosmetics demand once global lockdowns to combat the coronavirus pandemic ease, pointing to a recovery already under way in China.

Facebook's planned cryptocurrency Libra will be linked to individual national currencies and overseen by global watchdogs in a scaled-back revamp it hopes will win regulatory approval.

A $350 billion emergency U.S. loan program designed to help small businesses keep workers on their payrolls amid the novel coronavirus disruption has run out of funds, the U.S. Small Business Administration said in an email on Thursday.

Billionaire Paul Singer’s Elliott Management said global stocks could tumble further, ultimately losing half or more of their value from February's high, as the world braces for the deepest recession since the 1930s-era Great Depression.

A record 22 million Americans have sought unemployment benefits over the past month, with millions more filing claims last week, almost wiping out all the job gains since the Great Recession and underscoring the toll on the economy from extraordinary measures to control the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Amazon has no clarity yet on when its warehouses in France might reopen, the head of its French business said on Thursday, after the e-commerce giant clashed with unions over the measures taken to limit the risks of coronavirus contagion.