Bloomberg South Africa’s power utility warned coal suppliers it may halt purchases of the fuel because a nationwide lockdown to deal with the coronavirus pandemic has curtailed demand for electricity. The force-majeure notice Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd issued to miners follows a similar instruction to wind-power producers two weeks ago as the utility struggles to honor contractual agreements. It’s another …

Bloomberg Italy and Germany showed signs that they’re beginning to consume more electricity, suggesting economic activity may be starting to increase in some corners of Europe hardest hit by the coronavirus. In France and Spain, power use was steady in the past week, while Britain suffered a further slump. Those findings from grid operators shed light on how lockdowns to …

Bloomberg New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy will need more space in the Atlantic Ocean to meet his goal to get half the state’s electricity from offshore wind farms. There aren’t enough federal leases available off the coast of New York and New Jersey to supply the 7.5 gigawatts of wind farms that Murphy wants to develop by 2035, said Jim …

Bloomberg European stocks dropped with US futures on Thursday as investors weighed the latest signs of the coronavirus’s impact on the global economy and a slew of corporate earnings. Crude oil rose to about $15 a barrel in New York. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index quickly erased its opening gain as an estimate of private-sector activity in the euro area …

Bloomberg Indian stocks rose, set for a second straight day of gains, as investors bought riskier assets amid a partial easing of the nationwide lockdown and signs of the coronavirus outbreak easing globally. The S&P BSE Sensex climbed 9% to 31,673.78 as of 1:19 pm in Mumbai, while the NSE Nifty 50 Index advanced by the same magnitude. Both measures …

Bloomberg Credit Suisse Group AG is setting aside more than $1 billion to cover writedowns and provisions for bad loans, the biggest such hit in more than a decade as the coronavirus pummels economic activity across the globe. The bank is holding back 568 million Swiss francs ($585 million) for credit losses, almost triple what analysts had been expecting, and …

Bloomberg Standard Bank Group Ltd. said first-quarter net income declined 27% after Africa’s largest lender prepared for a surge in loan defaults as measures to contain the coronavirus batter business and personal incomes alike. Credit-impairment charges for the three months through March were “significantly higher” than in the prior year, the Johannesburg-based company said in a statement. “The increase was …

Bloomberg A former Deutsche Bank AG veteran’s Japanese cryptocurrency exchange is poised to start trading services just as Bitcoin shows signs of a recovery from coronavirus-fuelled turmoil. More than two years after its foundation, FXcoin Ltd. plans to offer Bitcoin transactions on its platform from May, it said in a statement on Thursday. The firm has recently begun accepting applications …

Bloomberg Last month HSBC Holdings Plc shocked investors by announcing it would scrap its dividend. For the Hong Kong Medical Association, a group in charge of community public health programs instrumental in the fight against the coronavirus and a long-time investor in the city’s biggest bank, the news meant it would lose 7% of its annual spending budget. With more …

Bloomberg The European Central Bank (ECB) will accept some junk-rated debt as collateral for its loans to banks in a move that aims to shield the euro area’s most vulnerable economies as they face the risk of credit downgrades in the coronavirus. The ECB will accept bonds as long as they had at least the lowest investment grade on April …