Bloomberg Zero-percent financing deals hit a record last month as carmakers kept the US auto market from collapsing. More than one in every four new vehicles sold in April did so with 0% loans, according to market researcher Edmunds. By opening up the lending spigots, the US avoided a reprise of the almost 80% drop automakers experienced in China in ...

Bloomberg Bank of America Corp. (BofA) is starting to see consumer spending edge higher after plunging with the start of the coronavirus lockdown. The nascent increase, which follows a 30% drop, is showing up as consumers buy more groceries, restaurant meals, clothing and gasoline, Chief Executive Officer Brian Moynihan said in an interview on CNBC. US aggregate spending averaged about ...

Bloomberg Calogero Lo Vetro couldn’t wait to get back to work, describing the scene he saw on his return as “something from a sci-fi movie,” with health monitors decked out like space men checking staff at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV’s Mirafiori plant during its preliminary reopening. Lo Vetro, a quality-control officer at the Turin area factory whose models include Fiat’s ...

Bloomberg North Korean troops fired at their South Korean counterparts on Sunday in the demilitarised zone that divides the two countries, a move that comes as its leader Kim Jong-un reappeared in public following an unexplained three-week absence. North Korea fired “several times” at a South Korean military guard post at about 7:41 am, and was met with retaliatory shots ...

Bloomberg Afghan Taliban insurgents killed 17 civilians and wounded 49 during the first week of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, further chipping away at their pledge to reduce violence following a peace deal with the US. The fatalities occurred from April 24, Javid Faisal, a spokesman for the National Security Council of Afghanistan, said on Twitter. Most of the ...

Bloomberg China’s Liaison Office in Hong Kong accused protesters of jeopardizing the future of the city, calling demonstrations “illegal activities,” in the latest signal that China’s top agency in the semi-autonomous territory intends to take a more hands-on role. In a statement published on its website, the Liaison Office said “extremist radicals” were involved in illegal gatherings, harassment of shops ...

Bloomberg Only 20% of the French see far-right leader Marine Le Pen handling the coronavirus crisis better than the current government led by President Emmanuel Macron, according to an Ifop poll for Journal du Dimanche. Le Pen, who lost to Macron in the second round of presidential elections in 2017, has been one of the staunchest opponents of the government’s ...

Bloomberg Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans to extend the national state of emergency over the coronavirus outbreak until May 31. Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike confirmed in a live-streamed video on Sunday that Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura told her the government will extend the emergency status until the end of the month. Abe signalled it would be difficult to lift ...

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome “Jay” Powell calls it the “announcement effect.” When financial markets were buckling in March because of terror about the emerging pandemic, the Fed’s simple pledge that it would use its “full range of authorities” to maintain the flow of credit was enough to restore order. The Fed’s success is a lesson in how the credibility and ...

It’s what we all needed to hear: “Nothing can stop America” — Warren Buffett’s way of saying, “We will get through this.” Saturday evenings aren’t normally the ideal time for tuning into a multi-hour investor conference, especially after being cooped up all week working from home due to the Covid-19 pandemic. But mere minutes into the live-streamed Berkshire Hathaway Inc ...