March, 2020

• 29 March

  Trump stops short of quarantine threat against New York

  

  Bloomberg President Donald Trump backed away from imposing a quarantine for New York and parts of New Jersey and Connecticut to stop the spread of Covid-19, after floating the idea on isolating those hard-hit areas earlier in the day. In an announcement on Twitter, Trump followed up on a suggestion he first raised on March 28 at the White House, ...

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• 29 March

  North Korea fires missile into east sea

  

  Bloomberg North Korea fired what appeared to be an unidentified missile into its eastern sea, the South Korean military said, raising regional security concerns as world leaders battle the spread of the coronavirus. The launch was at least its fourth this month, which Japan’s coast guards said likely fell outside its exclusive economic zone. The projectile likely flew as far ...

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• 29 March

  Russia to close borders as virus crisis escalates

  

  Bloomberg Russia, the largest country by area, will temporarily shut all its borders starting from Monday after the number of coronavirus infections increased sharply over the last week. Health officials on March 28 reported 228 new cases of coronavirus overnight, bringing the total to 1,264, with four deaths attributed to the illness. The order, posted on the government website, followed ...

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• 29 March

  Africa is two-three weeks away from height of virus storm

  

  Bloomberg Africa is two to three weeks away from the worst of the coronavirus storm and needs an emergency economic stimulus of $100 billion to bolster preventative measures and support its fragile healthcare systems, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa ( UNECA). Almost half of the funds could come from waiving interest payments to multilateral institutions. That ...

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• 29 March

  HSBC warns of virus credit losses even with BOE help

  

  Bloomberg HSBC Holdings Plc warned it still expects to book higher credit losses on the back of the coronavirus pandemic, even after regulators gave it more leeway to deal with unpaid loans. Europe’s largest bank also put its job-cutting programme on hold. In an update to investors contained in the prospectus for its latest debt sale, disclosed in a US ...

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• 29 March

  Lessons of 2008 leave Europe markets better protected

  

  Bloomberg The convulsions in European markets for the past month have traders looking back to 2008-2009, the last time the financial world seemed on the verge of collapse. The good news this time around is that policy makers are applying lessons learned from that crisis. From the US’s $2 trillion rescue package to massive bond buying by the European Central ...

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• 29 March

  Covid-19: Stranded gold may travel on chartered flights

  

  Bloomberg Gold suppliers are in talks to use chartered or cargo flights to transport the precious metal, which usually moves around the world in commercial planes and has been left stranded as global travel grinds to a halt. The global gold market has been thrown into upheaval by the coronavirus outbreak. Logistics are becoming increasingly difficult and some leading refineries ...

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• 29 March

  AfDB issues world’s biggest social bond

  

  Bloomberg The African Development Bank (AfDB) said it issued the world’s biggest social bond yet by selling $3 billion of notes to fight the impact of the coronavirus on the continent. Africa’s biggest multilateral lender received $4.6 billion in bids for its Fight Covid-19 social bond, it said in a statement. More than half of bids for the three-year bond, ...

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• 29 March

  BofA pledges to retain, pay staff during 2020

  

  Bloomberg Bank of America Corp. (BofA) said it won’t cut any jobs this year as a result of the coronavirus, and is helping clients affected by the pandemic through increased commercial lending to companies and expanded forbearance for Main Street customers. The Charlotte, North Carolina-based lender has hired 2,000 people this month and is shifting more than 3,000 employees to ...

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• 29 March

  Morgan Stanley wins US antitrust nod for E-Trade

  

  Bloomberg Morgan Stanley won US antitrust approval for its $13 billion acquisition of discount brokerage E*Trade Financial Corp., according to a person familiar with the matter. The Justice Department’s antitrust division has signed off on the takeover without requiring any changes, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the decision hasn’t been made public. A Morgan Stanley ...

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