US oil price tumbles as coronavirus gloom returns to energy market April 17, 2020 US oil prices have tumbled as doubts set in about the country’s plan to reopen its economy and investors question whether cuts to supply will be enough to meet the plunge in demand caused by the coronavirus pandemic. West Texas Intermediate crude oil – the benchmark for the US market – had fallen 8.2 per [...]
Coronavirus: Gilead drug remdesivir sparks optimism about treatment April 17, 2020 Shares in US pharmaceutical firm Gilead have surged after a report said its drug remdesivir had shown encouraging signs in the treatment of coronavirus in a clinical trial. A University of Chicago hospital that is part of a wider trial of the drug said its patients taking the medicine were rapidly recovering from fever and [...]
FTSE 100 jumps on hopes of coronavirus drug breakthrough April 17, 2020 The FTSE 100 surged today despite dire Chinese economic data as investors are cheered by hopes of a medical breakthrough and signs that the US is on its way to reopening parts of its economy. Britain’s FTSE 100 index finished 2.8 per cent higher at 5,786 points. It had climbed as much as 3.4 per [...]
FTSE 100 stabilises after dire US jobless claims data April 16, 2020 The FTSE 100 stabilised today despite the news that another 5.2m US workers will become unemployed, taking the total number of jobless claims in the last month to over 22m. London’s blue chip index managed a 0.6 per cent rise, despite an earlier wobble, with traders sanguine despite the extraordinary figures. The gains, which left [...]
BoE rate-setter: Economy to take ‘extremely large’ hit and inflation to dip April 16, 2020 The UK economy is likely to take an “extremely large” hit from coronavirus and inflation is probably going to to dip below one per cent, one of the institution’s nine rate-setters has said. The Bank has so far slashed interest rates to a record low, started buying up companies’ short-term debt and boosted its bond-buying [...]
US stocks fall after dire jobless claims data April 16, 2020 US stocks have fallen in the wake of yet more shocking employment data and as states and the federal government debate lifting coronavirus measures. The Dow Jones index was down one per cent in early trading. The S&P 500 had dropped 0.5 per cent but the Nasdaq was 0.2 per cent higher. Stocks were volatile [...]
Coronavirus: More than 5m Americans made new jobless claims last week April 16, 2020 The number of Americans making new jobless claims topped 5.2m last week, official figures have shown, as the coronavirus crisis crashes the economy and sends unemployment skyrocketing. The figure compares to 6.6m new claims last week. It takes the number of people who have made new jobless claims in the last month to an astounding [...]
UK must beef up coronavirus economic response, says think tank April 16, 2020 The UK government must take “further radical policy steps” to tackle the economic fallout from coronavirus, a think tank has said, amid huge uncertainty over the length of the outbreak. The Resolution Foundation praised the government’s response so far, which includes £330bn of lending and a scheme to pay furloughed workers’ wages. Yet it said [...]
One in four UK firms temporarily closed due to coronavirus April 16, 2020 A quarter of UK firms have closed or paused trading as coronavirus ravages the economy, new figures have shown. For those businesses still open, on average more than 20 per cent of staff have been furloughed using the government’s job retention scheme, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. The figures, which cover the period [...]
Coronavirus: UK banks expect surge of business loan defaults April 16, 2020 The UK’s banks and building societies expect to see a surge of businesses defaulting on their loans in the coming months, survey data has shown, as coronavirus sends the economy into a deep recession. Small businesses are expected to be the worst hit, with expectations of defaults hitting their highest since the financial crisis for [...]
