Reuters Business News

Shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc fell 6% on Thursday after the drugstore retailer reported a steep decline in U.S. same-store sales in the last week of March as customers stayed indoors due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Facebook Inc. launched a service in Italy to check the accuracy of information on coronavirus circulating on its messaging platform WhatsApp, the U.S. tech firm said on Thursday.

Amazon.com Inc plans to roll out temperature checks and face masks for staff at all its U.S. and European warehouses plus Whole Foods stores by early next week, a huge deployment for workers on the front lines of the coronavirus outbreak.

SoftBank Group Corp said it has terminated a $3 billion tender offer for additional WeWork shares agreed last year with shareholders, drawing threats of legal action and plunging the floundering office space company further into crisis.

Walmart , the world's largest retailer, has put the possible sale of a majority stake in its British supermarket arm Asda on hold until the coronavirus crisis is over, said a person familiar with the situation.

U.S. borrowers seeking a reprieve from mortgage, auto or credit card payments because of coronavirus hardships are not getting the help they expected from big banks that promised assistance in recent weeks.

Wall Street bounced on Thursday as hopes of a truce between Saudi Arabia and Russia to cut oil output drove a record 22% surge in prices, outweighing the shock of over 6 million Americans filing for jobless claims due to virus-led lockdowns.

British Airways said on Thursday it has struck a deal with its unions to suspend more than 30,000 cabin crew and ground staff in one of the airline industry's most dramatic moves yet to survive the coronavirus pandemic.

Nivea-maker Beiersdorf on Thursday scrapped its 2020 outlook due to the coronavirus pandemic, and also released preliminary first-quarter sales that showed a 3.6% fall from a year earlier.

Oil prices soared on Thursday after U.S. President Donald Trump said he expects Russia and Saudi Arabia to announce a major oil production cut, and Saudi state media said the kingdom was calling an emergency meeting of oil producers to deal with the market turmoil.

The global oil refining industry is facing a reckoning from falling fuel demand that is the deepest and fastest ever.

Honda Motor Co said Thursday it will extend a shutdown of all U.S. and Canadian auto plant production through April 10 and at its plant in Celaya, central Mexico, until April 13, because of the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.

Bank of America on Thursday cut its 2020 forecast for Brazil's gross domestic product (GDP) to a 3.5% contraction from a 0.5% fall, it said in a report, citing the strong impact on consumption and investment stemming amid the coronavirus pandemic.

World equity markets climbed on Thursday on the back of a surge in risky assets like oil, offsetting concerns over an increasing death toll from the coronavirus pandemic that is expected to push the global economy into a recession.

The Bank of England said on Thursday it will double the size of its corporate bond purchase program to at least 20 billion pounds ($24.7 billion), part of a previously announced stimulus package to help the economy during the coronavirus crisis.

U.S President Donald Trump said on Thursday he had brokered a deal with top oil producers Russia and Saudi Arabia to cut output and arrest an oil price rout amid a global coronavirus pandemic, sending crude prices up by 45%.

Thousands of U.S. banks, including some of the country's largest lenders, have said they may not participate in the federal government's small-business rescue program due to concerns about taking on too much legal and financial risk, five people with direct knowledge of industry discussions told Reuters.

Production at Nissan's British factory, the country's biggest car plant, is suspended throughout April, continuing a shutdown in place since mid-March as the coronavirus outbreak continues across Europe.

The number of Americans filing claims for unemployment benefits shot to a record high of more than 6 million last week as more jurisdictions enforced stay-at-home measures to curb the coronavirus pandemic, which economists say has pushed the economy into recession.

The number of Americans filing claims for unemployment benefits last week shot to a record high for a second week in a row - topping 6 million - as more jurisdictions enforced stay-at-home measures to curb the coronavirus pandemic, which economists say has pushed the economy into recession.