Social media perked up over the past few days on the news that a number of biggish, publicly traded restaurant chains managed to snare millions in government aid for small businesses that more modestly sized restaurants and vendors missed out on. Public outrage about this dumpster fire is useful and welcome. It’s also occasionally been misplaced. But it’s founded on ...

Bloomberg Stocks in Europe and Asia retreated while US equity-index futures edged lower on Tuesday as concern about the health of North Korea’s dictator introduced more uncertainty into markets roiled by an unprecedented oil collapse and the coronavirus epidemic. The Stoxx Europe 600 index fell for the first time in four days, with energy companies leading the decline. Contracts on ...

Bloomberg India’s benchmark stock gauge and currency fell, as a plunge in oil prices heightened investor concerns about global growth. The S&P BSE Sensex Index fell 3% to 30,692.12 as of 11:41 am in Mumbai, while rupee drop 0.3% to 76.7450 per US dollar, near a record low touched mid-April. Asia’s third-largest economy is near a standstill amid a prologued ...

Bloomberg Japanese lenders must brace for rising bad-loan costs and investment losses even as the financial system shows resilience to the coronavirus-fuelled economic slump, according to the central bank. If the downturn is prolonged, more companies at home at abroad could face solvency problems, raising credit costs, the Bank of Japan said on Tuesday in its semiannual Financial System Report. ...

Bloomberg Data on about 3,000 UniCredit SpA employees was put up for sale on cybercrime forums after a hacking attack. The data went on sale on April 19 and contained what the hacker said was information on UniCredit workers, including emails, phone numbers, encrypted passwords and names, Telsy, a unit of Telecom Italia SpA, wrote on its website. “The database ...

Bloomberg Chinese banks lowered borrowing costs and the government promised to sell another 1 trillion yuan ($141.3 billion) in bonds to pay for stimulus spending after the economy had its first contraction in decades due to the coronavirus outbreak. The one-year loan prime rate was set at 3.85% versus 4.05% in March, according to a statement from the People’s Bank ...

Bloomberg Wells Fargo & Co., Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and US Bancorp were sued by small businesses that accused the lenders of prioritising large loans distributed as part of the virus rescue package, shutting out the smallest firms that sought money. The four banks processed applications for the largest loan amounts because they generated the highest ...

Bloomberg India’s central bank has a number of policy options to draw upon to cushion the economic blow from Covid-19 pandemic. With a limited fiscal response so far, the Reserve Bank of India has taken the lead in providing virus relief to the economy. It’s cut interest rates by 75 basis points, injected more than $50 billion of liquidity into ...

Bloomberg Ping An Bank Co., the lending arm of China’s largest insurer, kicked off the earnings season for Chinese banks with better-than-estimated profit growth after ramping up loans to corporates even as the virus outbreak grounded the economy and led to a surge in personal defaults. Net income rose 14.8% to 8.5 billion yuan ($1.2 billion) in the first quarter, ...

Bloomberg Virgin Australia Holdings Ltd became Asia’s first airline to fall to the coronavirus after the outbreak deprived the debt-burdened company of almost all income. Administrators at Deloitte, who have taken control of the Brisbane-based carrier, aim to restructure the business and find new owners within months. More than 10 parties have expressed an interest, Deloitte said on Tuesday. Virgin ...