Bloomberg US retail gasoline dropped below $2 a gallon for the first time since March 2016, before President Trump was elected. The average pump price fell to $1.99 per gallon on March 27, retail tracker GasBuddy said. The nation followed Texas and upper-Midwest states that went under the $2 threshold earlier in March. The decline comes as coronavirus-related lockdowns halt …

Bloomberg The closures of schools, factories and offices to prevent spread of the coronavirus will “profoundly impact” the US power sector, according to BloombergNEF. Already in New York, electricity use dropped about 7% during the week ending on March 25, and prices are down about 10% as the state has ordered nonessential businesses to close, BNEF said in a report. …

Bloomberg Cnooc Ltd, one of China’s three state-owned oil giants, said it will cut capital expenditure target this year, a signal that the government’s push to boost domestic production can’t withstand the collapse in crude prices. The 2020 plan is under review and the company didn’t give a new spending estimate. It will provide an update to investors at a …

Bloomberg India’s renewables installations are set to slow after the country enforced a three-week lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus, according to BloombergNEF. Wind power installations in 2020 by independent power producers could decline almost 18% from the prior year to 1.95 gigawatts, according to BNEF, which cut its estimate for the year by 24%. Solar power installations are …

Bloomberg Wistron Corp, one of Apple’s manufacturing partners, said half its capacity could reside outside China within a year. The declaration underscored how the Asian assemblers that keep the world supplied with iPhones and other gadgets are shifting to a higher gear after the coronavirus showed the folly of staking everything on one country. The move in production out of …

Bloomberg Volkswagen AG’s unprecedented move to halt output on both sides of the Atlantic costs the world’s largest automaker $2.2 billion per week, and CEO Herbert Diess said decisive action is critical to overcome the coronavirus pandemic. Sales outside China have effectively come to a standstill, while demand in the country, VW’s largest single market, has clawed back to about …

Bloomberg The World Health Organization (WHO) plans to reach at least 50 million people with a WhatsApp information service that delivers information on demand about the coronavirus and is so successful in South Africa it will be used around the world. The free service, the first of its kind launched globally by the WHO, garnered 10 million users within three …

Bloomberg The European Central Bank (ECB) will scrap limits on bond purchases for its 750 billion-euro ($819 billion) emergency program in a landmark decision that gives it almost unlimited firepower to fight the economic fallout from the coronavirus (Covid-19). Government bonds rallied across the euro area after the ECB released a legal document that said the so-called issue limits, which …

Bloomberg The UK’s coronavirus lockdown should trigger a recovery in the pound, which has fallen to its most undervalued ever against the dollar, according to Standard Chartered Plc. The government’s aggressive actions should enable a quick restoration of economic activity once the health situation improves, wrote strategists including Geoff Kendrick in a note. At the same time, the potential near-term …

Bloomberg India’s central bank should directly start monetising the government’s fiscal deficit in efforts to fight one of its worst economic crisis, said Ananth Narayan, former South Asia head of financial markets at Standard Chartered Plc. “In a war, we have to borrow from our future,” said Narayan, now a professor at Mumbai-based SP Jain Institute of Management & Research. …