Central banks at full throttle buying bonds to tame markets

Bloomberg Central banks started the new week right where they left off on Friday — massively buying government debt to provide liquidity. Bond yields tumbled in Australia and New Zealand. The Reserve Bank of Australia and the Bank of Japan offered to buy the equivalent of almost $10 billion in debt on Monday. While credit markets globally are seeing the ...

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SNB steps up currency interventions

Bloomberg The Swiss National Bank (SNB) is stepping up currency interventions to stem the franc’s advance, choosing that measure over an interest-rate cut to combat the economic fallout from the coronavirus outbreak. It said the virus poses “exceptionally large challenges” and that the currency is “even more highly valued.” That change to its wording on the franc is a warning ...

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Amazon focus on essentials sows panic among merchants

Bloomberg Amazon.com Inc’s delivery delays of non-essential goods will extend for at least another month for many customers in the US and Europe, stirring panic among online merchants who rely on the web retailer for business. The lengthening delivery times come on top of confusion over how the company identifies essential products, a task that appears to be performed by ...

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Glut of jet fuel is on brink of overwhelming global storage

Bloomberg The world is close to running out of space to store all the fuel that jets are no longer burning. Only about 20% of land-based storage for the product remains — about 50 million barrels — while airlines cut flights, according to Vienna-based consultant JBC Energy GmbH. A collapse in air travel due to the coronavirus pandemic has brought ...

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Airbus lifts liquidity to $32b on coronavirus

Bloomberg Airbus SE withheld its dividend and extended credit lines, lifting liquidity about 50% to 30 billion euros ($32 billion) after the coronavirus pandemic pushed its airline customers to halt flights and stop ordering planes. The European manufacturer also tore up earnings guidance for the year in an announcement on Monday and said its vast supplier network is in dire ...

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Covid-19: Delhi airport faces flight ban confusion

Bloomberg Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi, declared no flights — domestic or international — will be allowed to land in the Indian capital’s main airport from 6 am on Monday. Hours after that deadline passed, dozens of planes have been operating from the Indira Gandhi International Airport. That’s because PM Narendra Modi’s administration overturned the ban, with the ...

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Primark closes all stores due to coronavirus spread

Bloomberg Primark, the budget fashion chain owned by Associated British (AB) Foods Plc, has closed every store it operates due to the spread of the coronavirus, which will lead to a loss of 650 million pounds ($760 million) for each month the shops are shut. Primark had closed 20% of its selling space as of March 16, and on March ...

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China’s economy to return fast to potential growth: PBOC

Bloomberg China’s economy will swiftly return to its potential growth rate and there’ll be significant improvement in the coming three months, a senior central bank official said on Sunday. “Economic indicators will likely show significant improvement in the second quarter and the Chinese economy will return to potential output level rather swiftly,” People’s Bank of China Deputy Governor Chen Yulu ...

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Critics cry foul at miners for using Covid-19 to bend rules

Bloomberg Coal companies want to suspend payments for mine cleanups. The trucking industry wants to waive rules that limit drivers’ daily hours. And oil producers want to put off a June 1 deadline to shift to summer-grade gasoline. A wide range of industries are pleading with federal agencies to waive environmental requirements and ease regulatory deadlines, arguing that the global ...

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Tens of thousands are getting laid off in US shale patch

Bloomberg One of the most painful busts in the history of crude oil happened just six years ago when a sharp price drop cost 200,000 roughnecks, almost half the entire workforce, their jobs. And now, the spread of the coronavirus coupled with an oil-price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia threatens to devastate the oil services industry and its workers ...

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