Feed aggregator

Dubai has received commitments from a group of 10 banks for $9 billion in loans to take full control of port operator DP World and refinance debt of state investment vehicle Dubai World, two sources told Reuters.

Pressures faced by Amazon's staff in France are unacceptable, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Thursday, after unions said workers faced non-payment if they stopped due to fears over the coronavirus outbreak.

Chilean President Sebastian Pinera on Wednesday declared a 90-day state of catastrophe as cases of the new coronavirus mounted in the nation, giving the government extraordinary powers to restrict freedom of movement and assure food supply and basic services.

Countries across the world must take a comprehensive approach to fighting the pandemic of COVID-19 disease caused by the new coronavirus and isolate, test and trace as many cases as possible, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday.

World leaders raced to shore up panic-stricken global markets on Thursday, pouring liquidity into the financial system as investors everywhere dumped assets, switching to dollars in cash amid the escalating coronavirus pandemic.

Here's what you need to know about the coronavirus right now:

Oil prices rose on Thursday, bucking panic selling in other markets, as investors tried to assess the impact of massive central bank stimulus in putting a floor under plummeting fuel demand from the coronavirus pandemic.

Emirates is asking pilots and cabin crew to take unpaid leave and rival Qatar Airways laid off about 200 staff in Doha this week as the coronavirus outbreak hammers demand for travel.

Lufthansa said that the airline industry may not survive without state aid if the coronavirus epidemic lasts for a long time, as it throws everything at bringing home stranded travelers and keeping industrial supply chains open.

As worries over the economic hit from the coronavirus outbreak spread from stocks, oil and bonds to cryptocurrencies late last week, bitcoin crashed to its worst day in seven years. But plummeting prices weren't the only problem for investors.

Shares of SoftBank Group Corp closed down 17% on Thursday in their biggest one-day fall, hammered by investor scepticism over the outlook for tech bets, such as office sharing firm WeWork and ridehailer Uber .

Hundreds of Twitter users welcomed on Thursday an offer by Tesla's chief executive, Elon Musk, to make ventilators for coronavirus sufferers, after the United States appealed for donations of respirator masks to combat a shortage.

Oil prices rose on Thursday but pared early gains as investors tried to assess how effective massive stimulus by central banks will be in shoring up the global economy as the shock from the coronavirus pandemic deepens.

The dollar surged and everything else was blown away on Thursday as emergency central bank measures in Europe, the United States and Australia failed to halt a fresh wave of panic selling.

Oil prices surged as much as nearly 20% on Thursday, bouncing back from days of heavy losses in a relief rally that may yet be short-lived, analysts warned, but which was stoked by economic stimulus efforts to ward off a global coronavirus recession.

The dollar surged, bonds plunged and global markets struggled to find their footing on Thursday as the European Central Bank's latest promise of stimulus provided only brief solace while the world struggles to contain the coronavirus pandemic.

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) will temporarily close its trading floors and move fully to electronic trading from Monday, its owner Intercontinental Exchange Inc said after an employee and a trader were tested positive for the coronavirus.

Another day of massive swings across asset prices was marked by scant liquidity as investors dashed for cash while systematic strategies triggered automated selling amid rising volatility, market participants said.

Brazil has upheld proposals by Boeing Co to buy the jetmaking arm of Embraer , but plunging markets have raised urgent questions over the fate of the $4.2 billion deal as aviation reels from the coronavirus crisis.

Airline industry turmoil deepened on Thursday as Qantas Airways Ltd told most of its 30,000 employees to take leave and India prepared a rescue package of up to $1.6 billion to aid carriers battered by coronavirus, government sources said.