Bloomberg The Trump administration is moving to sell drilling rights in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said. “We are about to finalise a leasing plan for that,” Bernhardt said at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland, without providing a more specific timetable. His declaration comes amid delays in standing up a sale — originally expected …

Bloomberg South Africa’s Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd is making preparations for a 3,000-megawatt gas-fired plant, but the debt-stricken utility is still awaiting formal guidelines from the government before it can proceed with the project. The facility could alleviate a serious shortage of electricity led to a series of rolling blackouts, as the state-owned company has been forced to implement nationwide …

Bloomberg Egypt, Ethiopia and mutual neighbour Sudan should conclude an agreement before the completion of Ethiopia’s disputed Nile dam, to prevent “significant harm to downstream countries,” US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said. “Final testing and filling should not take place without an agreement,” Mnuchin said in a statement on the Treasury Department’s website following the latest Washington meeting, which Ethiopia …

Bloomberg Two pioneers of the US natural gas export industry were forced to sell shares of the company they founded amid a global market rout and concern that a key supply deal won’t be finalised. Tellurian Inc Chairman Charif Souki and Vice Chairman Martin Houston sold 4 million and 3.4 million shares respectively, according to filings. In both cases, the …

Bloomberg The world’s biggest property event held on the French Riviera has been pushed back to June over concern about the coronavirus epidemic, the summit organisers said. The four-day event, known as MIPIM, will now take place June 2-5 in Cannes instead of its usual March slot. “The well-being of our clients and staff is our priority,” Paul Zilk, chief …

Bloomberg If you’re looking to make money at the top of the housing market, head to the tech hubs. Prime properties — broadly defined as the top 5% of residences in a market — in areas like San Francisco, Shenzhen and Berlin have outperformed cities such as New York, Singapore and Paris over the past five years, according to data …

Bloomberg The first US coronavirus death. Signs the disease is squeezing China’s economy. A possible outbreak in Washington State. Trading may have stopped, but the drumbeat of alarming headlines hasn’t. That’s making investors anxious about what happens when markets reopen. While considerable bad news has already been priced in to stocks, with the S&P 500 down 13% in seven sessions …

Bloomberg Last week was an expensive one for most investors, even for billionaires. The combined fortunes of the world’s 500 richest people fell by $444 billion as the coronavirus continued to spread — and spread fear — rattling equity markets worldwide. The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled more than 12%, the biggest five-day slide since the depths of the 2008 …

Bloomberg The world economy may be heading for its worst performance since the financial crisis more than a decade ago as the spread of the coronavirus increasingly dashes hopes of a swift rebound. Just weeks since most economists bet the China-led slump would quickly reverse once the virus was contained, many are rethinking that optimism as swathes of Chinese factories …

Bloomberg President Donald Trump said it was “about time” the Federal Reserve acted like a “leader” and lowered interest rates, whether such a move was related to the coronavirus-driven stock market plunge or not. “If you look at the Fed, it has a massive impact, lots of it is psychological and lots of it is fact,” Trump said at a …