Bloomberg Walmart Inc has taken on 25,000 new employees and given offers to thousands more in the first week of a hiring push, as the biggest private employer in the US scrambles to keep its shelves stocked and checkouts staffed during the coronavirus pandemic. The retailer has compressed a hiring process that can often take two weeks into as little …

Bloomberg Seven airlines in Thailand are set to start talks with the Finance Ministry for a 16 billion baht ($491 million) bailout, the Bangkok Post reported. The airlines have jointly agreed to seek help, the newspaper said, citing Tassapon Bijleveld, executive chairman of Asia Aviation Pcl, the largest shareholder of Thai AirAsia. The seven carriers are Thai AirAsia, Thai Lion …

Bloomberg Southwest Airlines Co is losing “big money” on every flight, raising the risk of worker furloughs in the longer-term despite billions of dollars in immediate aid from the US government. The biggest US discounter is “appreciative” of the package of loans and cash assistance approved by the Senate and awaiting a vote in the House of Representatives, CEO Gary …

Bloomberg Singapore Airlines (SIA) shares fell after the carrier unveiled a plan to raise about S$8.8 billion ($6.2 billion) to contend with the devastating impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The company will issue S$5.3 billion in new stock at S$3 apiece, 54% lower than the last closing price last week, as well as convertible bonds, according to a statement. State …

Bloomberg LVMH said revenue for the last quarter dropped 10% to 20%, compared with the same period last year, as its luxury brands temporarily closed stores and shoppers tightened their wallets due to the coronavirus pandemic. The French luxury-goods maker will disclose first-quarter results on April 16. The company said the outbreak’s full impact “cannot be accurately calculated at this …

Bloomberg President Donald Trump signed the largest stimulus package in US history, a $2 trillion bill intended to rescue the coronavirus-battered economy. “This will deliver urgently needed relief,” Trump told reporters at the White House, as he was joined by GOP leaders but no Democrats. “We’re going to keep our small businesses strong and our big businesses strong.” The hard-won …

Bloomberg The bustling streets are silent across much of India as the country heeds Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 21-day lockdown to break the chain of transmission of the coronavirus, but the WhatsApp groups are buzzing. As the number of infections continue to rise, the anger and anxiety once expressed by the honking of horns at rush hour is finding voice …

Bloomberg The coronavirus and cheap oil are hitting the fuel business so hard that ethanol plants are shutting down. Some may never come back. The entire biofuel industry is facing a reckoning. Long before the pandemic emptied roads and exacerbated oil price war, producers were battling chronic oversupply and trade upheaval. Now slumping demand and prices mean smaller producers and …

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. …