Reuters Business News

Africa is crying out for debt relief to weather a perfect storm of coronavirus, plummeting oil and commodity prices, mounting budget deficits and weaker currencies.

Oil prices plunged more than 5% on Friday and were on track for a fifth straight weekly loss as demand destruction caused by the coronavirus outweighed stimulus efforts by policymakers around the world.

Walmart de Mexico said on Friday that foreign exchange fluctuations will make its providers increase some of their prices, pointing to the depreciation of the peso and other currencies during the coronavirus crisis.

Apple Inc and the White House said on Friday that the iPhone maker worked with the Trump administration and federal agencies to release an app and website that will direct users to guidance from the Centers for Disease Control on the disease caused by the coronavirus.

Stocks across the globe fell on Friday after a historic three-day run-up, with indexes poised to close the month and quarter with starkly negative performances.

Doubts about the fate of the U.S. economy in the face of the coronavirus hammered Wall Street again on Friday, halting its best three-day bounce in almost a century as the number of cases across the country skyrocketed.

UK-based airline Virgin Atlantic will ask the British government for a package of commercial loans and guarantees worth hundreds of millions of pounds, the Financial Times reported https://www.ft.com/content/c2d817d9-8a73-4bb8-89e7-e5ca67ed41d7 on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

President Donald Trump criticized General Motors on Friday and cited the Defense Production Act after saying the automaker reduced the number of ventilators it said that it could provide to hospitals struggling to care for patients ill with coronavirus.

Sweden's H&M, the world's second-biggest fashion retailer, said on Friday it had started production of protective face masks for hospital staff and would ship the first batches to Spain and Italy.

French car maker PSA, which makes the Peugeot and Citroen brands, said on Friday it had presented health measures to its unions with a view to gradually restarting its European plants, which have been closed for fear of coronavirus infection.

European stocks fell on Friday, halting their biggest ever three-day rally in a sign investors were focusing once more on the spread of the coronavirus pandemic despite hopes for further stimulus measures to combat its economic impact.

Leading British fashion chain Next has bowed to pressure from workers worried about their health and shut its online business, cutting off its remaining source of revenue during the coronavirus outbreak.

The Federal Reserve's term repurchase agreement (repo) operation on Friday morning received no bids out of a possible $500 billion for the first time since regular operations began last year.

A raft of programs from the U.S. central bank and a $2 trillion rescue bill nearing approval in Congress are aimed at providing relief during a "self-mandated" recession "so that when the virus is defeated we can walk, we can run, and then we can sprint out of this," Dallas Federal Reserve bank President Robert Kaplan said on Friday.

Wall Street fell more than 3% on Friday, following the S&P 500 and the Dow's best three-day run in nearly a century, as fears about the economic damage from the coronavirus pandemic returned to the forefront.

Defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp said on Friday that it would advance more than $50 million to suppliers hurt by a sharp economic slowdown caused by efforts to stop the coronavirus.

U.S. consumer spending rose moderately in February and momentum is set to fade rapidly in the coming months, with the coronavirus pandemic upending life for Americans.

Senior officials in the Trump administration agreed to new measures to restrict the global supply of chips to China's Huawei Technologies, sources familiar with the matter said, as the White House ramps up criticism of China over coronavirus.

State investor Temasek Holdings and others put together a funding package of up to S$19 billion ($13.27 billion) for Singapore Airlines (SIA) in the single biggest rescue for an airline slammed by the coronavirus pandemic.

Nestle , the world's biggest food company, said it would pay full salaries for at least three months to employees affected by work stoppages to prevent the spread of coronavirus.