LONDON — British books, newspaper and stationery retailer WH Smith said on Monday it had secured new lending facilities of 120 million pounds ($147 million) to get it through the coronavirus crisis which are conditional on raising new equity. As a result, the group is in an advanced stage of preparation for an equity issue

OSLO — Norwegian Air’s passenger volume fell by 60% year-on-year in March as the company gradually grounded its fleet amid global efforts to halt the spread of the novel coronavirus. The company has said it will cancel 85% of its flights in the time ahead and furlough 90% of staff while seeking financial aid from

PARIS — Novacyt’s COVID-19 testing product has been approved by France’s CNR arm of the Institut Pasteur, making it available for immediate distribution in France, the healthcare company said on Monday. The company added that last week, it had also won approval for its COVID-19 test from Thailand’s Ministry of Health. (Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta

ZURICH — Switzerland faces a shortage of the raw material needed to make disinfectant to tackle the coronavirus pandemic after the country abandoned its emergency reserve of 10,000 tonnes of ethanol two years ago, newspaper Tages-Anzeiger reported on Monday. Switzerland keeps emergency stockpiles of everything from coffee, wheat, rice and cooking oil. In 2018, the

OSLO — Norwegian Air’s passenger volume fell by 60% year-on-year in March as the company gradually grounded its fleet amid global efforts to halt the spread of the novel coronavirus. The company has said it will cancel 85% of its flights in the time ahead and furlough 90% of staff while seeking financial aid from

European stock index futures jumped more than 4% on Monday as a slowdown in coronavirus death toll in France and Italy raised hopes that lockdown measures were starting to show results. Euro Stoxx 50 futures were up 4.1% at 0600 GMT, with German DAX futures and French CAC futures gaining 4.5% and 4%, respectively. Italy

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. and European equity futures jumped along with Asian stocks after the daily reported death tolls in some of the world’s coronavirus epicenters dropped on Sunday.Contracts on the S&P 500 Index and Euro Stoxx 50 climbed as much as 4%, and Japan’s benchmarks also ended about 4% higher even as that country approaches a potential emergency declaration. Shares in Hong Kong also rose. The yen dropped along with Treasuries as haven demand receded. Crude oil prices retreated -- though pared a decline of as much as 11% -- as uncertainty remains over a proposed […]

Here are the top stories and upcoming coverage plans for Reuters text service as of 6 a.m. GMT/2 a.m. ET. For a full schedule of news and events, go to our editorial calendar on Reuters Connect TOP STORIES GLOBAL HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS/BRITAIN British PM Johnson still in hospital with persistent coronavirus symptoms British Prime Minister Boris

(Bloomberg) -- At the outset of a month promising extreme earnings volatility, American equity futures advanced after President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence said they see signs the U.S. coronavirus outbreak is beginning to level off or stabilize.Contracts on the S&P 500 rose 4.1% at 6:53 a.m. in London, while futures climbed 4.2% on the Nasdaq 100 Index and added 4% on the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The daily toll in some of the world’s outbreak epicenters was lower Sunday. New York State fatalities fell for the first time. Italy had the fewest deaths in more than […]

Gilead (GILD) is now working in consultation with regulatory authorities to establish additional expanded access programs for remdesivir, the company’s investigational medicine for Covid-19, says the company CEO Daniel O’Day.According to O’Day, the programs enable hospitals or physicians to apply for emergency use of remdesivir for multiple severely ill patients at a time. In particular, new US sites have been initiated while the European Medicines Agency announced that it has provided EU member states with recommendations on implementing expanded access programs for […]

SINGAPORE — Oil prices slipped on Monday, after Saudi Arabia and Russia delayed a meeting to discuss output cuts that could partly alleviate oversupply in global markets as the coronavirus pandemic pummels demand. Brent crude slipped close to $30 a barrel in early trade and was at $33.45 by 0532 GMT, down 66 cents, or

TOKYO — The pound fell against the dollar and euro on Monday after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was admitted to hospital for tests after showing persistent symptoms of the coronavirus. The yen fell against the dollar and the antipodean currencies after Japanese media reported Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may declare a state of emergency

BERLIN — Export expectations in Germany’s car sector have fallen to their lowest level since March 2009, when Europe’s largest economy was in the throes of the global financial crisis, Germany’s Ifo institute said on Monday. “The prospects for the German car sector have significantly worsened due to the coronavirus crisis,” Ifo said. It said

(Bloomberg) -- Tesla Inc. engineers showed footage of a prototype ventilator the company is trying to make with auto parts amid a shortage of the machines for coronavirus patients.According to the video on Tesla’s YouTube channel, the design includes a touch screen, computer and control system from a Model 3 electric car. Tesla is taking advantage of components that are familiar, reliable and available, an engineer says in the video.Click here to see the videoNew York Governor Andrew Cuomo, among those urgently trying to source more ventilators, said Sunday that supply-chain disruption […]

Apr.05 -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is set to declare a state of emergency within days, after coronavirus cases in Tokyo jumped over the weekend to top 1,000 for the first time and raised worries of a more explosive surge, media reports said. Meanwhile, the government will release an economic stimulus package in response to the pandemic in two phases, according to a government document obtained by Bloomberg. Stephen Engle reports on "Bloomberg Markets."

The $350 billion loan program, which launched on Friday, will provide low-interest loans to help small businesses cover payroll and other fixed costs such as rent, mortgages and utilities over the next eight weeks. "While we are actively working to create balance sheet capacity to lend, we are limited in our ongoing ability to use our strong capital and liquidity position to extend additional credit," Chief Executive Charlie Scharf said in a statement. The Federal Reserve in early 2018 ordered Wells Fargo to keep its assets below $1.95 trillion, until it had improved its governance and risk […]

Between April 9 and May 6, American will operate a total of 13 daily flights from New York's JFK and LaGuardia airports and New Jersey's Newark, it said, down from an average of 271 daily flights across all three airports in April 2019. David Seymour, American's senior vice president of Operations, told employees that demand for flights to the New York area "is rapidly evaporating" following an increase in COVID-19 cases and a recent advisory from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warning against all non-essential travel to and from New York, Connecticut and New Jersey.

Coronavirus is probably the 1 concern in investors' minds right now. It should be. On February 27th we published an article with the title Recession is Imminent: We Need A Travel Ban NOW. We predicted that a US recession is imminent and US stocks will go down by at least 20% in the next 3-6

Coronavirus is probably the 1 concern in investors' minds right now. It should be. On February 27th we published an article with the title Recession is Imminent: We Need A Travel Ban NOW. We predicted that a US recession is imminent and US stocks will go down by at least 20% in the next 3-6

Oil prices slipped on Monday, after Saudi Arabia and Russia delayed a meeting to discuss output cuts that could partly alleviate oversupply in global markets as the coronavirus pandemic pummels demand. Saudi Arabia and Russia were initially set to meet on Monday to discuss output cuts, but that has now been pushed to April 9, after they blamed each other for the collapse of talks in March. It "just took a delay in the meeting between Saudi and Russia to knock the wind out of that rally", said Michael McCarthy, chief strategist at CMC Global Markets in Sydney.

Oil prices skidded on Monday after Saudi-Russian negotiations to cut output were delayed, keeping oversupply concerns alive, while stocks jumped as investors were encouraged by a slowdown in coronavirus-related deaths and new cases. In currency markets, sterling fell 0.4% early in Asia after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was admitted to hospital following persistent coronavirus symptoms 10 days after testing positive for the virus. Brent crude fell as much as $4 after Saudi Arabia and Russia postponed their meeting, initially scheduled for Monday, to Thursday even as the virus […]

We hate to say this but, we told you so. On February 27th we published an article with the title Recession is Imminent: We Need A Travel Ban NOW and predicted a US recession when the S&P 500 Index was trading at the 3150 level. We also told you to short the market and buy

Will the new coronavirus cause a recession in US in the next 6 months? On February 27th, we put the probability at 75% and we predicted that the market will decline by at least 20% in (Recession is Imminent: We Need A Travel Ban NOW). In these volatile markets we scrutinize hedge fund filings to

We hate to say this but, we told you so. On February 27th we published an article with the title Recession is Imminent: We Need A Travel Ban NOW and predicted a US recession when the S&P 500 Index was trading at the 3150 level. We also told you to short the market and buy