Category Archives: Business

Jobkeeper payment: check your eligibility and when you should start getting paid

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The Australian government has passed legislation for a $1,500 per fortnight wage subsidy for eligible employers amid the coronavirus. Check your eligibility, how much you’ll get, when it will be paid and how it works with the jobseeker payments

The Morrison government has passed a $130bn support package with a new jobkeeper payment – a wage subsidy to keep Australians in work.

So who exactly is eligible for this payment and how much will they receive?

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UK government begins transatlantic trade talks with Washington

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Increasing links with US will aid recovery after coronavirus crisis, says Liz Truss

Liz Truss has claimed bolstering transatlantic trade could help the economy bounce back from the Covid-19 crisis, as negotiations with Washington over a free trade deal begin by video link.

Despite the government’s negotiating objectives for the deal pointing to a modest economic gain of 0.16% of GDP over 15 years, the international trade secretary said she was keen to “make it even easier to do business with our friends across the pond”.

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Coronavirus may keep Norwegian flying – but it’s not much to celebrate

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For the over-ambitious airline’s bondholders, investors and lessors, survival means the lesser of two evilly large losses

As one of Norway’s greatest exports, A-ha, put it, in their classic 1980s hit Take on Me, it’s no better to be safe than sorry. This advice may appear ever more overwhelmingly wrong to those who bet their kroner on the vision of the two Bjorns, Kjos and Kise, the co-founders turned chief executive and chairman of Norwegian Air.

The pair wisely exited the scene last year after an extraordinary ride during which they turned Norwegian from a small local carrier into a global pioneer of low-cost, long-haul air travel, and eventually established bases all around Europe. With half an eye on transatlantic links and another on a booming short-haul operation, Norwegian became a dizzying array of subsidiaries whose complexity could not disguise the fact that it was heading for financial disaster.

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China and Australia: how a war of words over coronavirus turned to threats of a trade war

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Canberra’s call for an inquiry into the origins of Covid-19 sparked talk of boycotts from Beijing – but any such move could be harmful to both countries

“Downright despicable”, “petty tricks”, “menacing”, “irrational”.

The language of the diplomats and parliamentarians has been anything but diplomatic, and far from parliamentary. The robust conversations usually kept behind closed doors have tumbled into the public square, leaked to broadcasters and splashed in newsprint.

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Global markets recoil as Trump threatens US-China trade war

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US president escalates attack on Beijing’s handling of coronavirus pandemic

Donald Trump’s threats to reignite the US-China trade war over coronavirus has triggered another sell-off in global financial markets, as the economic costs of the pandemic continue to mount.

Against a backdrop of rising tension between the world’s two economic superpowers, share prices resumed a downward slide on Friday with the FTSE 100 falling by 144 points, or 2.5%, in London.

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Revealed: NHS procurement official privately selling PPE amid Covid-19 outbreak

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NHS launches inquiry after Guardian investigation exposes senior official trading protective gear amid pandemic

A head of procurement for the NHS has set up a business to profit from the private sale of huge quantities of personal protective equipment (PPE) in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak, an undercover investigation by the Guardian can reveal.

David Singleton, 42, a senior NHS official in London who has been working at the capital’s Covid-19 Nightingale hospital, launched the business two weeks ago to trade in visors, masks and gowns.

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‘No food, water, masks or gloves’: migrant farm workers in Spain at crisis point

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Workers in lockdown trapped in dire conditions on fruit and salad farms that supply UK supermarkets, UN warns

Migrant workers on Spanish farms that provide fruit and vegetables for UK supermarkets are trapped in dire conditions under lockdown, living in cardboard and plastic shelters without food or running water.

Thousands of workers, many of them undocumented, live in settlements between huge greenhouses on farms in the southern Spanish provinces of Huelva and Almeria, key regions for European supply chains.

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Coronavirus Australia live updates: Scott Morrison labels Twiggy Forrest’s comments on Covid-19 origin ‘nonsense’ – latest news

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Sydney aged care home reports 13th coronavirus-related death as three more residents test positive, while Tasmania to lift north-west lockdown. Follow live

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WA premier Mark McGowan is due to give an update at 2pm Perth time today, which is 4pm on the east coast.

So, working backwards, we can expect an update from the prime minister on today’s national cabinet meeting some time between now and 4pm.

I’m going to leave you for the day. Thanks for reading. Calla Wahlquist will take over from here.

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Apple sales beat expectations but Tim Cook sees uncertainty ahead

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Company reports $58.3bn in sales as CEO says China sales ‘headed in the right direction’ despite coronavirus

Apple reported sales and profits that beat Wall Street expectations on Thursday despite fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, with Tim Cook saying China sales were “headed in the right direction” as that country reopens.

But the CEO said it was impossible to forecast overall results for the current quarter because of uncertainty created by the virus.

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Nasa picks Bezos’s Blue Origin and Musk’s SpaceX to build new lunar landers

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Alabama company Dynetics also chosen for moon landing project, as three firms prepare to compete

Nasa has selected three private space companies to lead the development of lunar landers for its forthcoming moon landings.

The three companies are Blue Origin, owned by Amazon’s CEO, Jeff Bezos; Elon Musk’s SpaceX; and Dynetics, based in Huntsville, Alabama, Nasa announced on Thursday.

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Eurozone downturn and US jobless surge hit markets – business live

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The euro area is suffering its worst contraction ever, as the French economy suffers its biggest plunge since the second world war

Britain’s FTSE 100 has just posted its worst day in a month, at the end of its best month in two years.

The blue-chip index has closed down 214 points at 5901, a drop of 3.5%. That wipes out yesterday’s rally, and half of Wednesday’s gains too!

Related: Shell cuts dividend for first time since 1945 amid oil price collapse

Shares in Zoom have dropped over 6% today, after the video-conferencing services admitted it wasn’t quite as popular as thought...

Zoom had initially said it had 300 million daily users, following the surge in remote working. But, it actually has 300 million daily meeting participants.

Zoom shares dropped more than 7% after the company walked back on claims it has 300 million daily active users. $ZM actually reached 300m daily participants, the difference being that meeting participants can be counted more than once.https://t.co/UIVYBP9sqt

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Fears Brexit talks could collapse in June but UK still optimistic

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‘Limited progress’ in bridging gaps on fisheries, health, environment and workers’ rights

The UK is still optimistic about striking a trade deal with the EU but warned that talks could collapse in June unless Brussels abandons its demands for a common fisheries policy and a level playing field, a source close to the UK’s negotiating team said.

The source said only “limited progress in bridging the gaps between us” had been made at last week’s talks, but there was “confidence that progress can be made quite quickly”.

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S&P hits back in court after Fortescue Metals takes legal action to prevent publication of ore price

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Ratings agency says mining giant owned by Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest’ wants to keep prices secret so it can charge more for its ore

Mining giant Fortescue Metals Group, controlled by billionaire Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest, has launched legal action to stop global ratings agency S&P publishing information about the price it charges for iron ore.

A UK court has ordered S&P to stop publishing the information, which Fortescue claims is confidential, but the ratings agency has hit back in a US court, accusing the miner of trying to keep prices secret so it can charge more for its ore.

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World’s stock markets soar on coronavirus treatment hopes

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Investors shrug off US growth gloom after promising data from remdesivir drug trial

Shares have soared on the world’s stock markets after investors shrugged off a deep slump in the US economy and pinned their hopes on a possible breakthrough in treatment for Covid-19.

Despite news that the longest expansion in US history came to an abrupt end in the first three months of 2020, financial markets were buoyed by an update from the American biopharma company Gilead Sciences on its experimental drug remdesivir.

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Big retailers move to enhanced ‘click and collect’ shopping as coronavirus shutdown endures

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Myer launches ‘pop-up’ collection booths as online sales surge while luxury brand stores reopen their doors

Retail giants are set to rely more heavily on click and collect sales even as lockdown restrictions are eased, with the sector’s peak body cautioning against a rush to fully reopen bricks and mortar stores.

Paul Zahra, Australian Retailers Association (ARA) CEO, believes the shift towards delivery and kerbside pickup will leave a “legacy” in Australians’ shopping habits, and said one “fundamentally positive” impact of the pandemic has been that retailers traditionally reluctant to move online have now come on board.

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Ford set to restart main European car factories on Monday 4 May

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Production will begin slowly with UK plants remaining shut until later in the spring

Ford said it would restart its main European car factories on Monday 4 May, but its UK plants in Dagenham and Bridgend will stay closed until later in the spring.

The US car giant, which closed its European and North American factories at the height of the coronavirus pandemic in mid-March, said production would begin slowly with strict standards on social distancing and safety precautions.

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Victoria Beckham firm sued by ex-employee over hand injury

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Kristina Kubiliene can ‘barely open her handbag’, allegedly as a result of working long hours

Victoria Beckham’s clothing brand is being sued by a pattern cutter who claims to have developed a serious hand injury that required surgery after working for up to 15 hours a day in the run-up to New York fashion week.

Kristina Kubiliene, 54, worked for Victoria Beckham Ltd at its London studio for nearly eight years and left last year after developing carpal tunnel syndrome, which left her barely able to open her handbag, her lawyer said.

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African Americans bear the brunt of Covid-19’s economic impact

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Pandemic spotlights racial disparities, with black workers expected to feature disproportionately in the 26m recent unemployment claims

Just two months ago in the Cabinet Room of the White House, sitting at a table surrounded by a handful of his black supporters, Donald Trump once again praised his job creation record. “Black people right now are having the best, statistically, the best numbers that you’ve ever had, and it’s really an honor,” he said. “Nobody has done more for black people than I have. Nobody has done more.”

That was 27 February and Trump was also still claiming he had done an “incredible job” with the looming coronavirus pandemic. Now the virus has led 26 million Americans to file for unemployment. While the US Bureau of Labor Statistics will not release unemployment figures broken down by race until the beginning of next month, economists are certain that black Americans are suffering the brunt of Covid-19’s economic impact and will probably suffer the most dramatic consequences of the looming recession.

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US faces worst quarter ‘since Great Depression’, but markets rally – business live

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Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news

Wall Street has opened higher, despite the prospect of a sickening slump in growth this quarter.

The Dow Jones industrial average has gained 109 points, or 0.46%, to 23,884 as a new week’s trading begins.

Alexandra Scaggs of Barrons has spotted that General Motors’ banks pushed it to suspend its dividend (as flagged earlier).

so GM suspended its dividend & share buybacks

one interesting point that's not in the headlines: Banks wanted that as a condition for extending more credit to the company https://t.co/RWCWF4tvea

to me the press release reads like "hey we decided to stop doing these things"

and the filing reads like "our lenders asked us to stop doing these things before they would extend the repayment date on one of our loans" pic.twitter.com/wH5R4aCqDF

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Airbus warns it is ‘bleeding cash’ and may need more job cuts

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Plane maker’s staff told it needs to take immediate action to survive coronavirus lockdown

Airbus has warned its 135,000 employees that it may not survive the coronavirus lockdown unless it takes immediate action that may involve deeper job cuts.

Its chief executive, Guillaume Faury, told staff in a letter on Friday that the plane maker was “bleeding cash at an unprecedented speed”, and was considering all options as it waited to see how badly demand would be affected by the Covid-19 outbreak.

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