Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
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”.
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.
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
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.
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.
The European summit last week was hailed as a moment of truth. In a recent interview, France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, laid out how European leaders had a rendezvous with history and needed to come together, and show that Europe under duress was able to respond with a common voice and with common means to the Covid-19 crisis. By all measures, this rendezvous with history was missed. European leaders in effect agreed to keep calm and carry on.
They endorsed a roadmap to exit lockdown after each country had in fact already decided and announced their own uncoordinated exit plans. In some countries, such as Germany, deconfinement measures are not a prerogative of the federal government and coordinating between states is challenging enough, let alone coordinating with other countries.
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
One month after a national lockdown was declared in an attempt to limit the spread of Covid-19, it is clear that Britain is heading for the deepest recession in living memory.
Boris Johnson’s government launched unprecedented restrictions on 23 March, telling the British public that they must stay at home and bringing life as the nation knew it to an abrupt halt.
Donald Trump’s botched handling of the Covid-19 crisis has left the US looking like a “third world” country and on course for a second Great Depression, one of the world’s leading economists has warned.
In a withering attack on the president, Joseph Stiglitz said millions of people were turning to food banks, turning up for work due to a lack of sick pay and dying because of health inequalities.
Even faced with another great depression, wealthier EU countries are resisting action on debt that could ultimately keep the union together
Europe’s leaders are worried – and rightly so. The deadly impact of Covid-19 has resulted in a full-scale health crisis. Evidence of the economic consequences of trying to keep populations safe from coronavirus is starting to emerge. The political ramifications are only starting to be assessed – but they could be profound.
The European Union has found itself in some tight spots over the years, but always found a way of muddling through. It survived the financial crisis and will cope with Brexit. But this time things are a lot more serious.
European markets are falling deeper into the red this morning, as coronavirus recession fears swirl.
The FTSE 100 is now down 90 points, or 1.5%, at around 5,700 points - with similar losses in other markets.
The OBR says the UK economy could fall by 35% in the second quarter. Brutal for sure, but it also expects a very sharp bounce back. This puts it in the V-shaped recovery camp, which is an ever-decreasing circle. Charles Evans, the Chicago Fed president, said yesterday the US is in for a very sharp but hopefully short downturn.
Money managers are more pessimistic. According to Bank of America’s latest Global Fund Manager Survey, just 15% see a V-shaped recovery. Over half (52%) see a U-shaped recovery, where the long line along the bottom stretches on for some time, perhaps years. A fifth (22%) see a W-shaped recovery – possibly sparked by a sharp bounce back and second or third wave of infections – and 7% see the dreaded L – a long depression like the 1930s and no real recovery. The biggest tail risk is a second wave of infections, which makes the speed at which you reopen economies key. My bet, for what it’s worth, is WWW.
Newsflash: Global oil demand is expected to fall by a record amount this year -- according to industry experts.
The International Energy Agency has predicted that demand will slump by 29 million barrels per day in April -- to levels last seen in 1995 -- as the Covid-19 lockdown hits demand extremely hard.
“By lowering the peak of the supply overhang and flattening the curve of the build-up in stocks, they help a complex system absorb the worst of this crisis.
“There is no feasible agreement that could cut supply by enough to offset such near-term demand losses. However, the past week’s achievements are a solid start.”
Lynne Reback developed a rote routine while trying to file for unemployment in her home state of Florida: log into the system, watch the loading bar slowly inch across the screen, get kicked out. Then she would start over.
It took three days for Reback to get her application through Connect, Florida’s online portal for unemployment insurance applications. Though it has been almost a month since her application was submitted, it is still “pending” whenever she checks its status.
NEW: OBR publishes an economic scenario (not forecast) for what might happen to the UK economy as a result of #Covid19. It assumes a 3 month lockdown.
Unemployment: ⬆️by 2 million.
GDP (2020) ⬇️ 13% in 2020.
If so, would be the worst economic contraction for a century.
Here is an excerpt from the report published by the Office for Budget Responsibility today looking at what impact the coronavirus lockdown could have on the economy. It says GDP could fall by 35% in the second quarter of the year.
Here is an extract.
In addition to its impact on public health, the coronavirus outbreak will substantially raise public sector net borrowing and debt, primarily reflecting economic disruption. The government’s policy response will also have substantial direct budgetary costs, but the measures should help limit the long-term damage to the economy and public finances – the costs of inaction would certainly have been higher ...
We do not attempt to predict how long the economic lockdown will last – that is a matter for the government, informed by medical advice. But, to illustrate some of the potential fiscal effects, we assume a three-month lockdown due to public health restrictions followed by another three-month period when they are partially lifted. For now, we assume no lasting economic hit.
With the IMF and World Bank spring conference approaching, research underlines need to bail out world’s poorest countries
For more than two years the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have warned that sub-Saharan Africa stands on the verge of a debt crisis. Ever since commodity prices began to fall in 2015, the public finances of nations stretching from Nigeria to Kenya and Chad to South Africa have deteriorated.
If China is the manufacturing centre of the world, Africa is its chief supplier of essential materials, from oil and copper to the rare-earth minerals used in mobile phones. As China’s manufacturing waned in the middle of the last decade, so did the crucial foreign earnings that keep African nations afloat.
France and the Netherlands have openly clashed over the meaning of a messy compromise struck by finance ministers which has unlocked a €500bn (£438bn) pandemic rescue package for European economies but left major issues unresolved.
Hours after a breakthrough was secured late on Thursday evening to allow immediate support for businesses and healthcare systems, it became clear on Friday that there remained bitter divisions within the EU over the longer-term task of rebuilding the European economy.
A messy compromise to unlock €500bn (£438bn) of EU support for countries hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic has been struck after Italy’s prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, warned that the existence of the bloc was at stake.
EU finance ministers on a video conference call struck a deal late on Thursday after the Netherlands shifted on a demand for “economic surveillance” of countries benefiting from €240bn of credit lines via the European stability mechanism, a bailout fund for struggling member states.
It is New Year’s Eve 2019 and around the world stock markets are closing for business on a high note. Shares in the US are up by almost 30% on the year, those in Japan by 18%. Even in Britain, where the mood has been dampened by months of Brexit uncertainty, the FTSE 100 has risen by 12%.
Overall, it had been the best year for stocks since 2009 and traders saw no real reason why the party should not continue into 2020. The US and China looked close to an armistice in their trade war, the US central bank was stimulating the world’s biggest economy, and Boris Johnson’s decisive victory in the general election had removed any lingering doubts about whether Britain would leave the European Union.
Letter calls for $8bn emergency fund to bolster health systems in world’s poorer countries
A group of 165 global leaders has called for immediate and coordinated international action to tackle the twin health and economic emergencies caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Past and present politicians – including three former UK prime ministers – joined academics and civil society representatives to warn the G20 that the virus will return unless urgent action is taken to bolster health systems in poor countries of Africa and Latin America.
Last Thursday, the leaders of the European Union convened a video conference to deliberate the escalating Covid-19 crisis. On the agenda was a simple proposal co-signed by nine different eurozone governments: the “coronabond”, a new type of public debt instrument backed by all the members of the currency union as they come together to combat the virus.
After a long decade of crisis fighting in the eurozone – pitting north against south, creditor against borrower – the proposal marked a rare display of unity, and the meeting was a perfect opportunity to ratify it. Issued collectively, the “coronabond” would drive down the borrowing costs of some of Europe’s most heavily affected countries, staving off another sovereign debt crisis and freeing up much-needed resources to invest in public health and economic recovery. “We are all facing a symmetric external shock,” the proposal read, “and we are collectively accountable for an effective and united European response.”