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A rally in global stocks lost steam as investor optimism was tempered by rising US-China tensions and as Hong Kong braced for new anti-government protests.
Hopes of a quick economic recovery gave global stocks a lift on Tuesday, taking them to their highest levels since the coronavirus pandemic first took hold in early March.
Global stocks and crude oil slowed advances made this week as fears over renewed tensions between Washington and Beijing outweighed hopes of more stimulus packages to support the world’s largest economies.
Hong Kong stocks tumbled on Friday after the Chinese government said it planned to impose national security legislation on the city, in the latest sign of how simmering geopolitical tensions have become a significant concern for investors.
Turkey’s central bank seized upon a period of calm in the lira to cut its benchmark interest rate for a ninth time in a row in a bid to power the economy out of a coronavirus slump.
Global stock markets pushed higher on Wednesday as investors took heart from the prospect of central banks offering further measures to stimulate economic growth and protect incomes.
Rolls-Royce is to cut nearly a fifth of its workforce in an attempt to survive the collapse in global aircraft demand caused by the coronavirus pandemic, which is expected to last for several years.
Wall Street stocks turned lower in the last hour of trading on Tuesday as doubts about the strength of economic recovery and scepticism around a potential Covid-19 vaccine triggered a reversal.
Volkswagen has paid €9m in fines to close a case in which its chief executive and chairman were accused of market manipulation in the run-up to the Dieselgate scandal.
German prosecutors had charged Herbert Diess and Hans Dieter Pötsch for allegedly withholding information from shareholders about the existence of devices designed to defeat emissions tests, thus “unlawfully influencing the company’s share price”.
Shares in the German carmaker plunged more than 40 per cent after the scandal came to light in September 2015, wiping billions of euros from its market value.
"Both at the time of the indictment in September 2019 and today, the criminal law advisors and representatives of the company asserted that the accusations of the public prosecutor’s office against Mr Pötsch and Dr Diess are not founded," VW said in a statement.
It added that the VW's supervisory board had decided it was "in the best interest of the company for the proceedings to be terminated".
The Braunschweig prosecutor has not announced whether former boss Martin Winterkorn, who was also charged, has paid a similar fine.
Ovo, one of Britain’s three biggest energy suppliers, is to shed a third of its workforce as the coronavirus crisis forces it to speed up the integration of a business it acquired this year from rival SSE.
Global stocks surged as investors took heart that the gradual easing of lockdowns in Europe would stimulate global economic growth, while also drawing encouragement from a US trial for a Covid-19 vaccine.
Thyssenkrupp will transform from a sprawling conglomerate into a company with “the leanest possible holding”, the German industrial giant announced, as it unveiled a restructuring plan that could leave it with at least 20,000 fewer employees.
Wall Street ended the week lower, even after stocks rebounded in a volatile trading session punctuated by mixed economic data from across the world and escalating disputes between the US and China.
Wall Street staged a comeback on Thursday as a surge in shares of hard-hit US banks offset a slide in the value of large industrial groups after new data on US unemployment claims.
US stocks slipped on Wednesday after the chair of the Federal Reserve warned that the coronavirus pandemic risked causing long-term damage to the economy.
US stocks dropped on Tuesday as governments grappled with the challenge of easing lockdowns without increasing the risks of a second wave of coronavirus infections.
Wm Morrison said the precipitous decline in fuel sales at its supermarkets was affecting working capital and debt and that it would continue to defer any decision on special dividends until later in the year.
Wall Street rebounded from early losses on Monday after New York’s governor said parts of the state — which has been the epicentre of the US’s coronavirus outbreak — were ready to open and that other regions were “very close” behind.
The gulf between a buoyant Wall Street and withering Main Street, which has perplexed many investors for more than a month, was widened further on Friday by a rally in stocks despite the biggest decline in US payrolls on record.
Tech stocks helped lead Wall Street higher on Thursday and sent the Nasdaq into positive territory for the year, even as sliding US Treasury yields indicated the depth of concern about the economy.
Air France-KLM is preparing for years of shrunken demand as it gears up for a “drastic reduction” in some flights in France to meet government conditions attached to state financial support.
More than 3m Americans filed for first-time unemployment benefits last week, taking the number of applications since the coronavirus lockdowns began seven weeks ago to 33.5m.
Norway’s central bank cut interest rates to a record low of zero but said it was unlikely to go negative as the rich Scandinavian country faces up to the twin shocks of coronavirus and an oil price collapse.
US stocks dipped into the red on Wednesday as investors weighed the weakness of oil prices against the gradual reopening of the world’s big economies following weeks of lockdown.
