Bloomberg Denmark’s central bank drastically cut its forecast for gross domestic product, and now sees a painful recession this year, after the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic brought the economy to a near standstill. GDP will contract somewhere between 3% and 10%, the Copenhagen-based bank said on Wednesday. The bank “has listed three scenarios, illustrating how severely the Danish ...

Bloomberg Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings Plc said it may need to tap into high-interest notes it was trying to avoid drawing down, even after a 536 million-pound ($663 million) capital infusion from a group led by billionaire Lawrence Stroll. The UK luxury carmaker doesn’t have sufficient working capital based on European Securities and Markets Authority rules, because the coronavirus ...

Bloomberg Russia spent more than $40 billion building a war chest of bullion over the past five years. Now, it’s calling it quits. The central bank announced that it would stop buying gold starting April 1, but didn’t explain the move. Analysts say Russia already has a lot of gold stashed in reserves and likely doesn’t need more. Plus, with ...

Bloomberg Johnson & Johnson (J&J) surged after the company said it would begin a $1-billion-plus effort with the US government to develop and manufacture a vaccine against the new coronavirus. J&J will work with Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) an arm of US Department of Health and Human Services, to further develop a vaccine the company said it’s ...

Bloomberg Ford Motor Co. is speeding up plans to produce ventilators in cooperation with General Electric Co. by selecting a simpler design of the medical devices and will aim to churn out 50,000 units in the next 100 days. The automaker will convert an auto-parts plant in Michigan to make breathing machines designed by Airon Corp. and licensed by GE ...

Bloomberg A Russian military plane loaded with medical equipment took off from outside of Moscow on Wednesday after President Vladimir Putin offered Donald Trump help for the US battle with coronavirus. “The Russian side offered assistance amid the dire epidemiological situation in America,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state-run Channel One. “Trump gratefully accepted this humanitarian aid.” After his comments, ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump will not reopen the Obamacare exchanges to allow uninsured Americans to purchase healthcare coverage during the coronavirus pandemic, a White House official said. The decision comes after the president said last week he was considering a special enrollment period to allow individuals to purchase insurance during the crisis — a move that had been endorsed by ...

Bloomberg Spain reported its deadliest day yet in the coronavirus pandemic, offering a grim reminder of the risks as Germany and Italy moved to prolong rigid lockdown measures until after Easter on April 12. There were 864 new coronavirus fatalities in Spain on Wednesday, as the number of confirmed cases increased to more than 102,000. Spain, which has been in ...

Bloomberg Faced with the biggest challenge of any post-apartheid South African leader, President Cyril Ramaphosa has also been given a rare opportunity to push through the painful reforms the economy needs. The twin crises of the coronavirus pandemic and the country losing the last investment-grade rating on its debt have silenced his critics, both within his party and the opposition. ...

Bloomberg The Italian government will extend its nationwide lockdown to April 13, as relaxing rules too early would negate efforts to counter the spread of the coronavirus, Health Minister Roberto Speranza said. “Getting the timing wrong or taking decisions too early would end up cancelling out the work done in these very difficult weeks,” Speranza told the Senate in Rome. ...