Bloomberg Cambridge University student James Shen didn’t hesitate to pay double for a business-class ticket to fly to China last week, deciding it would be safer there than in the UK as the coronavirus spreads in Europe. “I feel much more protected here,” Shen said after arriving home in Suzhou, about 60 miles (95 kilometres) west of Shanghai. “In the ...

Bloomberg Finland’s national carrier Finnair Oyj will slash 90% of its flight capacity in response to a decline in demand caused by the global new coronavirus pandemic, resulting in a substantial operating loss this year. The airline also withdrew its dividend proposal and plans to cut costs, according to a statement on Monday. In addition, it is implementing a funding ...

Bloomberg Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) and Primark are bracing for an unprecedented slump in European sales as the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak shifts from China. Primark has closed shops that generate 30% of its total revenue as governments ordered shutdowns. H&M is shutting stores in 13 European countries, including Italy, which has more than 24,000 cases of Covid-19. The ...

GENEVA / WAM All World Trade Organisation (WTO), meetings are suspended until the end of April and Secretariat staff have been requested to work from home until the end of March. Director-General Roberto Azevedo has informed WTO members and staff that access to the organisation’s premises will be restricted as of March 16. “In light of developments related to the ...

Bloomberg Europeans were faced with increasingly draconian restrictions on public life on Sunday, as governments from Spain to Scandinavia and the Baltic tried to check the spread of the coronavirus and limit the damage to continent’s fragile economies. With Europe now the epicenter of outbreak, Austria banned gatherings of more than five people, urged citizens to self-isolate and said it ...

Bloomberg Never in modern trading history have Canadian stocks fallen so much in a single day of trading as they did this week. Growing alarm over the coronavirus and plummeting oil prices have been catalysts for the slump. But one historian sees two underlying factors at play: a fractured geopolitical environment that has coincided with market volatility the world over, ...

Bloomberg Bitcoin is proving to be no haven asset amid the current global market meltdown. The price of the largest digital currency continued to swing wildly as a rout that began in earnest showed no signs of slowing down. Bitcoin dropped as much as 32% to $3,915, its weakest since March 2019, before clawing back loss, according to consolidated pricing ...

Bloomberg With the coronavirus outbreak rewriting the rules of the global economy, the Federal Reserve is under increasing pressure to keep the flow of support coming this week. The US central bank is facing calls to slash borrowing costs to zero at or before Wednesday’s decision, adding to its attempt last week to buttress free-falling markets with extra bond purchases. ...

Bloomberg Credit Suisse Group AG is considering a plan to create a 20-billion franc ($21 billion) loan program to aid small and medium-sized Swiss businesses affected by the coronavirus, according to the Swiss newspaper Handelszeitung. Other large lenders — like Raiffeisen Bank International AG and Zuercher Kantonalbank — are also considering the proposal, which was initiated by Credit Suisse’s new ...

Bloomberg Deposits at Yes Bank Ltd. continued to decline this year as worried customers withdrew money from the distressed lender, which was seized earlier this month in the biggest bank rescue in the country’s history. Deposits totalled 1.37 trillion rupees as of March 5 — when Indian authorities took control — down 17% from the start of the year, Yes ...