Bloomberg The Federal Reserve is now prepared to reduce interest rates this month even though it recognizes monetary policy cannot completely shelter a US economy increasingly threatened by the coronavirus. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell opened the door to a rate-cut at the Fed’s March 17-18 meeting by issuing a rare statement pledging to “act as appropriate” to support the economy. ...

Bloomberg China’s financial regulators will allow the nation’s lenders to delay recognising bad loans from smaller businesses reeling from the deadly coronavirus outbreak, giving temporary reprieve to trillions of yuan of debt. Qualified small- and medium-sized businesses nationwide with principal or interest due between January 25 and June 30 can apply for a delay to the end of the second ...

Bloomberg Global central bankers from Japan to the UK pledged action aimed at stabilising financial markets rattled by the spreading coronavirus as pressure builds on them to ease monetary policy to safeguard their economies. In an emergency statement on Monday, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) said it would “strive to provide ample liquidity and ensure stability in financial markets.” The ...

Bloomberg After spending more than $6 billion to stem the exodus of foreign investors from Indonesian assets last month, Bank Indonesia has signaled it’s ready to splurge more to defend the nation’s battered currency and bonds. The central bank offered to buy sovereign bonds worth 2 trillion rupiah ($140 million) from the secondary market on Monday after the yield on ...

Bloomberg Australia’s central bank is all-but certain to cut interest rates on Tuesday, money markets show, after a key manufacturing gauge in top trading partner China slumped. Traders are pricing in a 25 basis-point cut by Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe and his board as a done deal and see a slight chance of a 50 basis-point reduction. At the ...

Bloomberg Barclays Plc’s board should remove its boss Jes Staley from the board of directors following the disclosure of his ties with deceased financier and offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to its top shareholder. Edward Bramson’s Sherborne Investors Management LP said in a letter on Monday it “strongly recommends” the board led by Chairman Nigel Higgins “rescind their unanimous recommendation to ...

Bloomberg A Chinese biotech company which claimed to be able to manufacture an experimental drug from Gilead Sciences Inc with the potential to treat the novel coronavirus, was censured for disclosing inaccurate information. The Shanghai Stock Exchange said in an statement that BrightGene Bio-Medical Technology Co has not gained approval from China’s drug regulator to make the drug known as ...

Bloomberg Hong Kong will avoid the kind of property market crash that followed previous economic slumps in the finance hub, according to Financial Secretary Paul Chan. “We do not see the risk of an off-the-grid type of downfall,” Chan said in an interview on Monday with Bloomberg Television’s Yvonne Man. As Hong Kong’s economy reels from the coronavirus outbreak that ...

Bloomberg Masayoshi Son’s pitch to US hedge funds and financial institutions on the merits of SoftBank Group Corp just got harder, with a record market plunge that has made investors skittish and raised risks for its portfolio companies. The Japanese billionaire will be in New York for the first such meeting since the implosion of WeWork. In the months since, ...

Bloomberg Lenders have accused a Singapore commodities firm of fraud after a debt default left them facing potential losses on $600 million of liabilities. ING Bank NV alleged that Agritrade International Pte, its chief executive officer Ng Xinwei and his father Ng Say Peck misrepresented the company’s financial position to various bank lenders, in a filing to a Singapore court. ...