International News

Bloomberg Singapore is in the process of scaling up medical facilities by adding capacity at isolation wards and intensive care units as the confirmed number of virus cases nears 15,000, making it Asia’s most-infected nation after China and India. More than 18,000 beds have been created for isolation and medical care needs, Singapore Armed Forces Director of Joint Operations, Brigadier-General ...

Bloomberg Samsung Electronics Co warned earnings may decline this quarter after the coronavirus outbreak hurt demand globally for smartphones and gadgets, wiping out gains from a surge in online activity by people sheltering at home. South Korea’s largest company reported a 4% slide in net income to 4.9 trillion won ($4 billion) in the three months ended in March. Samsung, ...

Bloomberg Starbucks Corp has opened almost all its locations in China, but still sees the lingering impact of the coronavirus pandemic trimming same-store sales there by 15% to 25% this fiscal year. The shares fell in late trading. Same-store sales fell 10% globally in the company’s second quarter, slightly outpacing the average estimate for a 9.7% decline compiled by Consensus ...

Bloomberg Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com Inc has filed confidentially for a second listing in Hong Kong, according to people with knowledge of the matter, joining rival Alibaba in tapping the city’s stock market for funds. The offering could raise at least $2 billion, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. The Beijing-based company, which ...

Bloomberg Some of Argentina’s key creditors are rejecting invitations to speak with the nation’s finance team this week as both sides jockey for more favourable terms in a $65 billion debt restructuring. Tensions are building as the clock counts down on two key deadlines: May 8 for a debt-exchange offer and May 22, when a 30-day grace period for coupon ...

Bloomberg The Trump administration said it’s approved more than $52 billion in loan requests for small businesses so far in the relaunch of a coronavirus relief program, even as lenders said they’ve struggled to submit applications and advocates worry that funds will run out before many mom-and-pop firms get help. The US Small Business Administration (SBA) said it’s processed almost ...

Bloomberg Volkswagen AG joined other automakers around the globe in warning of the unprecedented fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. Supply and demand disruptions from government measures to slow the spread of the disease will cause operating profit to drop “severely” this year, the world’s largest automaker said on Wednesday. But efforts to rein in spending will allow the company to ...

Bloomberg Ford Motor Co.’s sagging stock fell further after the automaker forecast a more than $5 billion second-quarter operating loss due to the coronavirus pandemic’s blow to the global car industry. The projected deficit — which is about $2 billion worse than some analysts were anticipating — is based on Ford’s expectation for significant volume declines in every region. Ford ...

Bloomberg When the European Union (EU) presents its plan to rebuild its economy after the coronavirus, it’s likely to include three kinds of funding: taxpayers’ money, borrowed money and theoretical money. Officials in Brussels have a tendency to pad out their flashy headline figures with the theoretical stuff. But investors trying to gauge the strength of the policy response would ...

Bloomberg Google employees won’t be back at their offices for at least two more months, and even then any return will be “staggered and incremental,” Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai said in an email to his workforce. The bulk of Google’s US employees are based in California’s Bay Area, which just extended several stay-at-home orders through the end of May. ...