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Bloomberg China’s catering industry was one of the biggest drags on output in the first quarter, leading the world’s second-largest economy into its first contraction in decades as the coronavirus brought business to a near standstill. The accommodation and catering industry fell 35.3% from a year earlier, reversing a 6.2% increase in the previous quarter, the statistics bureau said in ...

Bloomberg Singapore’s exports unexpectedly surged in March from a low base in the previous year, despite disruptions to global supply chains as the coronavirus spread across the world. Non-oil domestic exports, known as NODX, grew 17.6% in March from a year ago, the highest since October 2017, according to data published by Enterprise Singapore. The median estimate in a Bloomberg ...

Bloomberg Japanese mobile carriers NTT Docomo Inc and SoftBank Corp said they will delay their launches of Apple Inc’s new iPhone SE model until May 11 instead of the scheduled April 27 amid the coronavirus outbreak. Japan’s government expanded the area covered by its state of emergency declaration to the whole nation last week and is calling on citizens to ...

Bloomberg Cafes bustled with customers, parks teemed with sunbathers, and the first Apple store to reopen outside China had lines snaking out the door as many South Koreans — almost all wearing masks — emerged from months of self-isolation. The scene in Seoul on a picture-perfect weekend contrasted sharply with other nations where major cities look like ghost towns as ...

Bloomberg India recorded its largest daily spike in coronavirus cases, adding 1,400 new infections to its tally of more than 16,000 amid a nationwide lockdown that’s about to enter its fourth week. The South Asian nation’s cases have been surging over the last week as it gradually scales up its testing capacity. Confirmed infections are up 78% to 16,365 on ...

Bloomberg Just weeks after a surging dollar was causing havoc in world financial markets, President Donald Trump has decided that a muscular US currency is a good thing after all. “The dollar is very strong,” he told a press conference. “And dollars — strong dollars are overall very good.” The comment marked a U-turn from the president’s rhetoric for much ...

Bloomberg IWG Plc is considering selling and leasing back offices to raise as much as 250 million pounds ($312 million) to help it weather the coronovirus pandemic, the Sunday Times reported. The firm, which owns the Regus and Spaces brands, plans to sell and then lease back more than 10 UK buildings, the newspaper said. Small business tenants of Regus ...

Bloomberg Mexico’s economic contraction may be deeper than expected, according to Scotiabank. The bank now estimates Mexico’s gross domestic product (GDP) to drop 8.4% in 2020, more than the 5.77% contraction it predicted on March 20, due to the increasingly adverse economic indicators, Economia Hoy newspaper reported. The forecast was adjusted due to the lack of an effective policy response ...

Bloomberg Man Group Plc is facing a rise in withdrawals after being hit by $10.7 billion of losses last quarter amid unprecedented volatility in global markets. The investment firm pulled in net new cash and some of its hedge fund strategies made money, but it wasn’t enough to compensate for the drop in performance. Assets under management declined to $104.2 ...

Bloomberg Uber Technologies says a guilty plea by its former star engineer is proof that he’s a liar — and supports its decision to make Anthony Levandowski alone shoulder a $180 million legal award Google won against him. The ride-hailing company, which recruited Levandowski in 2016 from Alphabet Inc.’s self-driving car program, ended up firing him after the companies became ...