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Bloomberg Canada’s economic heartland is shutting down as Ontario and Quebec step up efforts to slow down the coronavirus outbreak. The two provinces, which together account for about 57% of the country’s economy, have ordered non-essential businesses to close by the end of Tuesday. The order is set to run for two weeks in Ontario and three in Quebec. “We’re ...

Bloomberg Twitter Inc. slashed its revenue forecast and warned of a loss for the current quarter, citing a decline in advertisers’ spending on its social network during the coronavirus outbreak. First-quarter sales will be down “slightly” year-over-year, compared with analysts’ average estimate for growth of 11%, according to a Bloomberg survey. San Francisco-based Twitter said it expects to incur an ...

Bloomberg Continental Europe’s labour-market model is experiencing rare praise from economists because it may help prevent massive job losses during the coronavirus pandemic. While widespread layoffs are feared in the US, analysts don’t expect the same fallout in euro-area employment, where rules often make it harder for companies to fire workers, and also encourage their retention during a crisis. Such ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump said the American economy can’t remain slowed for too long to fight the coronavirus, declaring that the country “was not built to be shut down.” “America will again, and soon, be open for business. Very soon,” Trump said. “A lot sooner than three or four months.” The president of the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank, James ...

Bloomberg Lawyers for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will make an application for bail on Wednesday, on grounds he is vulnerable to the virus pandemic while in prison. The Australian is being held at Britain’s most notorious prison, Belmarsh in southeast London, which holds around 800 prisoners. His US extradition trial began in February and was adjourned until May 18. The ...

Bloomberg The US said it will cut assistance to Afghanistan by $1 billion this year and threatened more cuts could come as a breakdown in talks over forming a unity government threatened to derail a US-engineered peace deal. Hours after departing Kabul on March 23, Secretary of State Michael Pompeo issued a statement saying the US “deeply regrets” the failure ...

Bloomberg The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is looking at contingency options for its July convention amid a growing expectation that the coronavirus crisis will not have abated by the time the parties are ready to nominate their presidential candidates. “As we navigate the unprecedented challenge of responding to the coronavirus, we’re exploring a range of contingency options to ensure we ...

Bloomberg German officials are ready to help Italy get through the coronavirus pandemic and are prepared to support an emergency loan from the euro area’s bailout fund. The preferred option in Berlin would see Italy granted an enhanced credit line by the European Stability Mechanism with minimal conditionality, according to a German official with knowledge of the government’s thinking. While ...

Bloomberg Russia is starting to restrict exports of some goods while easing imports as part of the government’s response to the global coronavirus crisis. A government coronavirus prevention council ordered exports of groats suspended for 10 days starting on March 20, the state-run Tass news service reported, citing a letter from the agricultural agency Rosselkhoznadzor. Groats typically include rice and ...

Bloomberg US index futures and European stocks rallied alongside Asian shares on Tuesday as investors rediscovered some appetite for risk after global equities hit their lowest level since 2016. The dollar slumped following a 10-day winning streak, and Treasuries slipped. Contracts on the S&P 500, Nasdaq 100 and Dow Jones Industrial Average all jumped more than 5% to hit their ...