April, 2020

• 15 April

  Trump’s funding cut won’t fix WHO crisis

  

  Global health emergencies will be a fact of life in the 21st century. So, too, will be the World Health Organization’s (WHO) chronic inability to rise to the occasion. President Donald Trump is hoping that the body’s failures in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic can be corrected with punishment. The US will halt payments to the WHO to hold it ...

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• 15 April

  Post-virus reopening is more about ethics than science

  

  There is no safe way to emerge from our collective shelter-in-place orders and restart the economy before an effective Covid-19 vaccine arrives — but there are smart, science-based ways to do it. The question can’t be left entirely up to experts. It’s not a safety problem so much as an ethical one; many of us would accept a certain risk ...

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• 15 April

  Europe stocks slip with US futures; dollar advances

  

  Bloomberg Stocks in Europe edged lower while American equity-index futures retreated as investors scoured corporate earnings to gauge the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. The dollar ticked higher and Treasuries rose. The Stoxx Europe 600 index declined for the first time in five trading days. ASML Holding NV, a crucial supplier to Samsung Electronics Co., reported a 40% drop in ...

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• 15 April

  India stocks flirt with bull territory ahead of earnings reports

  

  Bloomberg India stocks rose, with the benchmark gauge set to close in bull territory, ahead of earnings reports that may give some insight into the outlook for companies under lockdown in the world’s second-most populous country. The S&P BSE Sensex advanced 2.5% to 31,450.11 as of 10:06 am in Mumbai, while the NSE Nifty 50 Index climbed by the same ...

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• 15 April

  Bitcoin at inflection point

  Bloomberg With Bitcoin trading below $7,000, technical indicators show it’s nearing a key inflection point. Based on its drop over the past week, the biggest cryptocurrency is drifting in a narrow trading band, with support at $6,500 on the downside and strong resistance at $7,000 on any potential increases. However, the GTI Vera Convergence Divergence Indicator, which measures up and ...

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• 15 April

  China adds liquidity, slashes rates ahead of poor GDP data

  

  Bloomberg China’s central bank injected medium-term funding into the financial system on Wednesday and cut the cost of the funds as expected, bolstering measures aimed at countering the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. The People’s Bank of China offered 100 billion yuan ($14 billion) via the one-year medium-term lending facility, cutting the rate to 2.95% from 3.15%. The reduction ...

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• 15 April

  Covid-19: UK banks give 1.2m home loan breaks

  

  Bloomberg More than one in ten mortgage borrowers in the UK have taken a payment holiday, less than a month after banks offered relief to those affected by the coronavirus pandemic. About 1.2 million customers were granted a mortgage holiday between March 17 and April 8, according to lobby group UK Finance. Banks trebled the number of breaks they gave ...

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• 15 April

  South Africa cuts key rate to record low

  

  Bloomberg South Africa’s central bank unexpectedly cut its benchmark interest rate to a record low to support an economy that’s projected to slump even deeper into recession after the government extended a nationwide lockdown in response to the coronavirus. The repurchase rate was reduced to 4.25% from 5.25%, the South African Reserve Bank said in an emailed statement. The decision ...

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• 15 April

  JPMorgan profit drops to lowest since 2013 on coronavirus fallout

  

  Bloomberg JPMorgan Chase & Co. said first-quarter profit tumbled 69% to the lowest in more than six years as credit costs surged, giving investors a first glimpse at the extent of the damage Covid-19 is wreaking on bank results. The company set aside $8.29 billion for bad loans, the biggest provision in at least a decade and more than double ...

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• 15 April

  Credit Suisse investors urged to reject pay plan

  

  Bloomberg Credit Suisse Group AG shareholders should reject the bank’s compensation plan over proposed payments to former executives in the wake of a corporate spying scandal, a top shareholder adviser said. Investors should be concerned about lack of disclosure of overall compensation for former Chief Operating Officer Pierre-Olivier Bouee, who was blamed for the spying and fired in December, Glass ...

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