Bloomberg The US said it’s preparing for a possible pandemic and Hong Kong closed more checkpoints with mainland China, as the death toll from the coronavirus rose to at least 425. As Beijing tries to contain the damage from the worsening crisis, officials are evaluating whether the target for economic growth this year should be softened. China is hoping the ...

Bloomberg Bulgaria’s president deepened his rift with Prime Minister Boyko Borissov’s government, saying it had lost his trust and that the country was spiraling into a “sharp crisis” under its rule. The comment from Rumen Radev escalates a confrontation with Borissov’s cabinet, which the president says has failed to fight graft. Bulgaria has been under scrutiny from the European Union ...

Bloomberg Libya’s warring rivals have shown a “genuine willingness” to transform the current truce into a more lasting one, a United Nations envoy said as a new round of talks got underway, in a distinct shift of tone from just five days ago. “The two sides expressed their approval of the need to transform the truce into a permanent cease-fire ...

Bloomberg The biggest mystery left in Donald Trump’s inevitable impeachment acquittal is whether any Democrats will join Senate Republicans to give him a bipartisan vote to clear him of the House’s charges. Democratic senators who represent Trump-leaning states have to decide whether they will buck their party on what could be the most important vote before the November elections and ...

Bloomberg A South African court ordered the arrest of former president Jacob Zuma after he failed to show up for his corruption trial, signalling a more aggressive approach by the authorities to tackle corruption. The rand strengthened. Cyril Ramaphosa pledged to address graft when he took over as president in February 2018, but to date there have been no high-profile ...

Bloomberg US equity futures jumped with European stocks on Tuesday after a sell-off in Chinese shares ended and as investors weighed the latest efforts to contain the deadly coronavirus. Commodities rallied, from crude oil to coffee. Contracts on the three main US stock indexes each advanced more than 1%, though Las Vegas Sands Corp, MGM Resorts International and Wynn Resorts ...

Bloomberg The pound erased losses after traders pushed back bets for a Bank of England (BOE) interest-rate cut to next year following better-than-expected UK construction data. Money markets now see a 25-basis-point reduction by the BOE in January 2021, compared with bets on February 3 for easing in November. That led sterling to rebound after it earlier dropped to its ...

Bloomberg The spread of the coronavirus to China’s stock market erased more than $10 billion from the collective net worth of the richest 15 people whose companies trade on the mainland. Midea Group founder He Xiangjian lost $1.8 billion, the most among that group, as shares of the appliance manufacturer tumbled 8.9%. He was followed by Zhang Fan, whose fortune ...

Bloomberg Central banks in Asia face increasing calls to cut interest rates as they jump into action against a spiralling coronavirus crisis that’s hammering tourism, travel and confidence across the region. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) trimmed some interest rates and injected massive liquidity into the financial system to shore up slumping markets. Indonesia’s central bank said it was ...

Bloomberg The European Central Bank (ECB) needs an “understandable, forward-looking and realistic” inflation goal — but not necessarily a higher one, according to Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann. The German staked out his position on the most important part of the ECB’s strategy review for the first time since President Christine Lagarde launched the assessment last month. She was in the ...