Italy reopened to travellers from Europe on Wednesday, three months after the country went into coronavirus lockdown, with all hopes pinned on reviving the key tourism industry as the summer season begins. Gondolas were ready to punt along Venice's canals, lovers will be able to act out "Romeo and Juliet" on Verona's famed balcony, and gladiator fans can pose for selfies at Rome's Colosseum. Italy was the first European country to be hit hard by the coronavirus and has officially reported more than 33,000 deaths.

Italy reopened to travellers from Europe on Wednesday, three months after the country went into coronavirus lockdown, with all hopes pinned on reviving the key tourism industry as the summer season begins. Gondolas were ready to punt along Venice's canals, lovers will be able to act out "Romeo and Juliet" on Verona's famed balcony, and gladiator fans can pose for selfies at Rome's Colosseum. Italy was the first European country to be hit hard by the coronavirus and has officially reported more than 33,000 deaths.

A “new baby” was born with the revival of Uganda Airlines, the country's president announced last year. Questions are swirling in Africa and elsewhere over the financial wisdom of sustaining prestige carriers that often have a tiny share of an aviation market that sees no recovery in sight. African airlines had been piling on debt long before the pandemic but government bailouts allowed them to limp on for years.

A “new baby” was born with the revival of Uganda Airlines, the country's president announced last year. Questions are swirling in Africa and elsewhere over the financial wisdom of sustaining prestige carriers that often have a tiny share of an aviation market that sees no recovery in sight. African airlines had been piling on debt long before the pandemic but government bailouts allowed them to limp on for years.

French VC firm Idinvest has compiled some data about the European tech ecosystem. If a startup has raised more than €100 million and generates over €1 million in revenue, Idinvest considers them as giants already. Fintech is now the largest vertical in Europe.

French VC firm Idinvest has compiled some data about the European tech ecosystem. If a startup has raised more than €100 million and generates over €1 million in revenue, Idinvest considers them as giants already. Fintech is now the largest vertical in Europe.

Japan's factory output slid faster-than-expected and retail sales tumbled the most in more than two decades in April, as the coronavirus pandemic wrecked both foreign and domestic demand for the country's autos and other manufactured goods. Official data on Friday showed factory output slipped 9.1% in April from the previous month, the biggest drop since comparable data became available in 2013 as automakers and iron and steel manufacturers suffered sharp declines. "Output will probably pick up from June onwards but it will be necessary to remain on guard for a second wave (of coronavirus infections)," said Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute.

Japan's factory output slid faster-than-expected and retail sales tumbled the most in more than two decades in April, as the coronavirus pandemic wrecked both foreign and domestic demand for the country's autos and other manufactured goods. Official data on Friday showed factory output slipped 9.1% in April from the previous month, the biggest drop since comparable data became available in 2013 as automakers and iron and steel manufacturers suffered sharp declines. "Output will probably pick up from June onwards but it will be necessary to remain on guard for a second wave (of coronavirus infections)," said Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute.

Bitcoin developers are exploring Point Timelock Contracts (PTLCs) to improve the privacy of payments on the Lightning Network.

Bitcoin developers are exploring Point Timelock Contracts (PTLCs) to improve the privacy of payments on the Lightning Network.

Algeco Group, the leading modular space leasing business in Europe and Asia Pacific, announces that the acquisition agreement for Alquibalat, S.L. in Spain has lapsed.

Algeco Group, the leading modular space leasing business in Europe and Asia Pacific, announces that the acquisition agreement for Alquibalat, S.L. in Spain has lapsed.

Institution Quraysh for Law & Policy (iQ) is pleased to announce its new Advisory Council Overseers who will bring unparalleled wisdom and guidance to the transnational legal think tank.

Institution Quraysh for Law & Policy (iQ) is pleased to announce its new Advisory Council Overseers who will bring unparalleled wisdom and guidance to the transnational legal think tank.

(Bloomberg) -- Australia’s almost 29-year recession-free run has come to a close, ending the developed world’s longest uninterrupted economic growth streak. Gross domestic product declined 0.3% in the first three months of the year, government data showed Wednesday, and that downturn is set to deepen in the current quarter as the full effect of shutdown to stem Covid-19 takes hold. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg responded with a simple “yes” today when asked if Australia is in recession.Yet the combination of one of the largest fiscal-monetary injections among Group of 20 nations and authorities’ success in suppressing the outbreak means activity is already resuming Down Under. Unlike the U.S. and Japan, where governments struggled to deliver cash to those most in need, most Australians received their stimulus by May.Scott Morrison’s government is pumping A$259 billion ($180 billion), or 13.3% of GDP, into the economy to support workers, households and businesses. It is also discussing a fresh round of fiscal stimulus to put residential construction back on its feet.“The relatively good handling of the virus and supportive economic policies will mean that Australia comes out of the crisis in better shape compared to many of our global counterparts,” said Shane Oliver, chief economist at AMP Capital Investors Ltd. “We think there will be a strong bounce back in GDP growth in the second half.”Consumer confidence has now risen for nine straight weeks after tumbling to an almost 50-year low at the end of March. Data Tuesday showed household views on current economic conditions lifted by 15.7% and those on whether it’s a good time to buy a major household item rose by 10.9%. Spending data by the major lenders reflects the renewed optimism.Today’s GDP report showed the household savings ratio climbed to 5.5%, the highest since 2016. These funds will likely be unwound as the job market recovers should households feel confident enough about the recovery.“The outlook, including the nature and speed of the expected recovery, remains highly uncertain,” RBA Governor Philip Lowe said Tuesday. “In the period immediately ahead, much will depend on the confidence that people and businesses have about the health situation and their own finances.”Meantime, rising commodity prices are boosting miners’ profitability, with the terms of trade 2.9% higher in the first three months of 2020, pushing the current account surplus to a record A$8.4 billion ($5.8 billion). Yet, miners will be keeping a watchful eye on the nation’s currency, which has surged almost 20% in the past two-and-a-half months.What Bloomberg’s Economists Say“Typically backward looking national accounts releases contain an array of hidden trends that are often overlooked. Mining investment has climbed to a 7-year high, Australia’s terms of trade have risen and exploration intentions are elevated. This bodes well for the recovery.”James McIntyre, economistThe Australian dollar edged a little lower after the GDP release and traded at 69.31 U.S. cents at 5:36 p.m. in Sydney.Today’s data set up an end to Australia’s record run of avoiding two straight quarters of shrinking GDP -- the local definition of recession -- after it dodged downturns during the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, the Dot Com Bubble and the 2008 global financial crisis. Australia has gone so long without a recession that the last time one hit, Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby” was on the charts and “The Silence of the Lambs” was showing at the movies. The recession-free streak really comes down to its definition. The U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research defines it as a significant decline in economic activity lasting from a few months to more than a year. Australia has experienced such periods since 1991 without meeting the local definition -- until now.(Updates with Treasurer and economist comments)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) -- Australia’s almost 29-year recession-free run has come to a close, ending the developed world’s longest uninterrupted economic growth streak. Gross domestic product declined 0.3% in the first three months of the year, government data showed Wednesday, and that downturn is set to deepen in the current quarter as the full effect of shutdown to stem Covid-19 takes hold. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg responded with a simple “yes” today when asked if Australia is in recession.Yet the combination of one of the largest fiscal-monetary injections among Group of 20 nations and authorities’ success in suppressing the outbreak means activity is already resuming Down Under. Unlike the U.S. and Japan, where governments struggled to deliver cash to those most in need, most Australians received their stimulus by May.Scott Morrison’s government is pumping A$259 billion ($180 billion), or 13.3% of GDP, into the economy to support workers, households and businesses. It is also discussing a fresh round of fiscal stimulus to put residential construction back on its feet.“The relatively good handling of the virus and supportive economic policies will mean that Australia comes out of the crisis in better shape compared to many of our global counterparts,” said Shane Oliver, chief economist at AMP Capital Investors Ltd. “We think there will be a strong bounce back in GDP growth in the second half.”Consumer confidence has now risen for nine straight weeks after tumbling to an almost 50-year low at the end of March. Data Tuesday showed household views on current economic conditions lifted by 15.7% and those on whether it’s a good time to buy a major household item rose by 10.9%. Spending data by the major lenders reflects the renewed optimism.Today’s GDP report showed the household savings ratio climbed to 5.5%, the highest since 2016. These funds will likely be unwound as the job market recovers should households feel confident enough about the recovery.“The outlook, including the nature and speed of the expected recovery, remains highly uncertain,” RBA Governor Philip Lowe said Tuesday. “In the period immediately ahead, much will depend on the confidence that people and businesses have about the health situation and their own finances.”Meantime, rising commodity prices are boosting miners’ profitability, with the terms of trade 2.9% higher in the first three months of 2020, pushing the current account surplus to a record A$8.4 billion ($5.8 billion). Yet, miners will be keeping a watchful eye on the nation’s currency, which has surged almost 20% in the past two-and-a-half months.What Bloomberg’s Economists Say“Typically backward looking national accounts releases contain an array of hidden trends that are often overlooked. Mining investment has climbed to a 7-year high, Australia’s terms of trade have risen and exploration intentions are elevated. This bodes well for the recovery.”James McIntyre, economistThe Australian dollar edged a little lower after the GDP release and traded at 69.31 U.S. cents at 5:36 p.m. in Sydney.Today’s data set up an end to Australia’s record run of avoiding two straight quarters of shrinking GDP -- the local definition of recession -- after it dodged downturns during the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, the Dot Com Bubble and the 2008 global financial crisis. Australia has gone so long without a recession that the last time one hit, Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby” was on the charts and “The Silence of the Lambs” was showing at the movies. The recession-free streak really comes down to its definition. The U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research defines it as a significant decline in economic activity lasting from a few months to more than a year. Australia has experienced such periods since 1991 without meeting the local definition -- until now.(Updates with Treasurer and economist comments)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

China's oil demand has recovered to more than 90% of the levels seen before the coronavirus pandemic struck early this year, a surprisingly robust rebound that could be mirrored elsewhere in the third quarter as more countries emerge from lockdowns. While China - the world's second-largest oil consumer - is the outlier for now, easing travel restrictions and stimulus packages aimed at resuscitating economies could accelerate global oil demand in the second half of 2020, industry executives said. "The brisk resumption of Chinese oil demand, 90% of pre-COVID levels by the end of April and moving higher, is a welcome signpost for the global economy," said Jim Burkhard, vice president and head of oil markets at IHS Markit.

China's oil demand has recovered to more than 90% of the levels seen before the coronavirus pandemic struck early this year, a surprisingly robust rebound that could be mirrored elsewhere in the third quarter as more countries emerge from lockdowns. While China - the world's second-largest oil consumer - is the outlier for now, easing travel restrictions and stimulus packages aimed at resuscitating economies could accelerate global oil demand in the second half of 2020, industry executives said. "The brisk resumption of Chinese oil demand, 90% of pre-COVID levels by the end of April and moving higher, is a welcome signpost for the global economy," said Jim Burkhard, vice president and head of oil markets at IHS Markit.

India's most populous city - and its financial capital - has already been badly hit by the virus.

India's most populous city - and its financial capital - has already been badly hit by the virus.

Thousands of South Koreans working at US military bases in the country, furloughed in a row over funding for the American presence on the peninsula, will go back to work this month after Seoul offered to pay their wages. Washington has around 28,500 troops stationed in South Korea to defend it against the nuclear-armed North and protect US interests in north-east Asia. Around 4,000 local civilian employees of US Forces Korea (USFK) were put on unpaid leave in April after funds to pay their salaries ran out with talks stalled on cost-sharing.

Thousands of South Koreans working at US military bases in the country, furloughed in a row over funding for the American presence on the peninsula, will go back to work this month after Seoul offered to pay their wages. Washington has around 28,500 troops stationed in South Korea to defend it against the nuclear-armed North and protect US interests in north-east Asia. Around 4,000 local civilian employees of US Forces Korea (USFK) were put on unpaid leave in April after funds to pay their salaries ran out with talks stalled on cost-sharing.

(Bloomberg) -- Deutsche Lufthansa AG signaled it would make sweeping job cuts and sell off non-core units in order to repay a 9 billion-euro ($10 billion) coronavirus bailout from the German government.Europe’s biggest airline will slash employee expenses and look at spinning off non-core units to reduce costs and bolster cash flow as the coronavirus crisis depresses revenue, it said in a statement Wednesday. The group had a 2.1 billion-euro net loss in the first quarter.“In view of the very slow recovery in demand, we must now take far-reaching restructuring measures to counteract this,” Chief Executive Officer Carsten Spohr said in the release.The pledge to slash costs is likely to lead to a struggle with Germany’s powerful labor unions which in the years prior to the pandemic thwarted efforts to trim expenses with pilot and cabin-crew strikes. While other European carriers are also cutting back, Lufthansa’s situation may be complicated by the state’s pending 20% holding in the airline, which will see government representatives involving themselves in its affairs.Lufthansa shares were up 1.6% as of 9:31 a.m. in Frankfurt. The stock has fallen 41% since the start of the year.Labor BattleLufthansa wouldn’t be the first German company to run up against labor resistance as it tries to pare costs. Industrial conglomerate Thyssenkrupp AG -- once a symbol for German engineering prowess -- is selling off or closing entire divisions after years of failed attempts to put the business on a sustainable footing. If Spohr’s cost-cutting drive falls short, he won’t be able to pay down debt and dislodge the state as a shareholder.“The scale of the restructuring is immense, and agreement with unions on drastic reductions in staff numbers, wages or both will be difficult to achieve,” said Daniel Roeska, an analyst with Sanford C Bernstein.Unit SalesSpohr’s bid to sell non-core units won’t be easy either, judging by Lufthansa’s past spin-off attempts. A push to divest its LSG Sky Chefs catering arm met with repeated delays before an agreement was reached to sell the European division to Gate Group Holding AG. Lufthansa earlier this year abandoned an auction process for the international unit.The airline group has looked at a partial listing of its Lufthansa Technik aircraft maintenance and refit business, people familiar with the matter said previously. While a listing of the unit would give Lufthansa funds to pay down debt, unshackling the division could take years and would deprive the airline group of a reliable income stream. Technik had a pre-crisis enterprise value of 7.5 billion euros, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analysts.Cuts ElsewhereThe company set out more precise cuts for its foreign airline units, where labor-protection laws are less stringent than in Germany. Austrian Airlines will see staff costs pared by 20%, with Brussels Airlines suffering a 25% reduction in the workforce and a 30% cut to its fleet.While Lufthansa has said its liquidity position is becoming “urgent,” the statement gave no details on cash levels. The deal will dilute the holdings of current investors, though they’re expected to back it in a June 25 vote rather than risk insolvency.Airlines worldwide are reeling as the Covid-19 pandemic brings decades of travel growth to a shuddering halt. Industry executives are cutting back the workforce given demand could take several years to return to previous levels.U.K. rival British Airways has said it plans to cut 12,000 jobs, while discounters Ryanair Holdings Plc, EasyJet Plc and Wizz Air have signaled a total of more than 8,000 positions will be lost. Gulf carrier Emirates has said it will lower headcount, with people familiar with the matter saying the toll could surpass 30,000 workers.Biggest BailoutLufthansa, previously regarded as among the most stable and successful airlines, is negotiating bailout that’s the biggest for the industry so far. Its predicament highlighs both the impact of the virus and Germany’s willingness to come to the aid of its leading businesses.Lufthansa posted a first-quarter loss of 1.22 billion euros, widening from 336 million euros a year earlier. The imposition of travel lockdowns from mid-February led to an 18% drop in sales, with fuel-hedging losses also hurting the numbers.The picture will be far worse in the current quarter, during which almost all of the carrier’s 760 planes have been grounded.Spohr said it’s impossible to provide full-year guidance, beyond saying the result will be significantly worse.(Adds share price, analyst comment from fourth paragraph)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) -- Deutsche Lufthansa AG signaled it would make sweeping job cuts and sell off non-core units in order to repay a 9 billion-euro ($10 billion) coronavirus bailout from the German government.Europe’s biggest airline will slash employee expenses and look at spinning off non-core units to reduce costs and bolster cash flow as the coronavirus crisis depresses revenue, it said in a statement Wednesday. The group had a 2.1 billion-euro net loss in the first quarter.“In view of the very slow recovery in demand, we must now take far-reaching restructuring measures to counteract this,” Chief Executive Officer Carsten Spohr said in the release.The pledge to slash costs is likely to lead to a struggle with Germany’s powerful labor unions which in the years prior to the pandemic thwarted efforts to trim expenses with pilot and cabin-crew strikes. While other European carriers are also cutting back, Lufthansa’s situation may be complicated by the state’s pending 20% holding in the airline, which will see government representatives involving themselves in its affairs.Lufthansa shares were up 1.6% as of 9:31 a.m. in Frankfurt. The stock has fallen 41% since the start of the year.Labor BattleLufthansa wouldn’t be the first German company to run up against labor resistance as it tries to pare costs. Industrial conglomerate Thyssenkrupp AG -- once a symbol for German engineering prowess -- is selling off or closing entire divisions after years of failed attempts to put the business on a sustainable footing. If Spohr’s cost-cutting drive falls short, he won’t be able to pay down debt and dislodge the state as a shareholder.“The scale of the restructuring is immense, and agreement with unions on drastic reductions in staff numbers, wages or both will be difficult to achieve,” said Daniel Roeska, an analyst with Sanford C Bernstein.Unit SalesSpohr’s bid to sell non-core units won’t be easy either, judging by Lufthansa’s past spin-off attempts. A push to divest its LSG Sky Chefs catering arm met with repeated delays before an agreement was reached to sell the European division to Gate Group Holding AG. Lufthansa earlier this year abandoned an auction process for the international unit.The airline group has looked at a partial listing of its Lufthansa Technik aircraft maintenance and refit business, people familiar with the matter said previously. While a listing of the unit would give Lufthansa funds to pay down debt, unshackling the division could take years and would deprive the airline group of a reliable income stream. Technik had a pre-crisis enterprise value of 7.5 billion euros, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analysts.Cuts ElsewhereThe company set out more precise cuts for its foreign airline units, where labor-protection laws are less stringent than in Germany. Austrian Airlines will see staff costs pared by 20%, with Brussels Airlines suffering a 25% reduction in the workforce and a 30% cut to its fleet.While Lufthansa has said its liquidity position is becoming “urgent,” the statement gave no details on cash levels. The deal will dilute the holdings of current investors, though they’re expected to back it in a June 25 vote rather than risk insolvency.Airlines worldwide are reeling as the Covid-19 pandemic brings decades of travel growth to a shuddering halt. Industry executives are cutting back the workforce given demand could take several years to return to previous levels.U.K. rival British Airways has said it plans to cut 12,000 jobs, while discounters Ryanair Holdings Plc, EasyJet Plc and Wizz Air have signaled a total of more than 8,000 positions will be lost. Gulf carrier Emirates has said it will lower headcount, with people familiar with the matter saying the toll could surpass 30,000 workers.Biggest BailoutLufthansa, previously regarded as among the most stable and successful airlines, is negotiating bailout that’s the biggest for the industry so far. Its predicament highlighs both the impact of the virus and Germany’s willingness to come to the aid of its leading businesses.Lufthansa posted a first-quarter loss of 1.22 billion euros, widening from 336 million euros a year earlier. The imposition of travel lockdowns from mid-February led to an 18% drop in sales, with fuel-hedging losses also hurting the numbers.The picture will be far worse in the current quarter, during which almost all of the carrier’s 760 planes have been grounded.Spohr said it’s impossible to provide full-year guidance, beyond saying the result will be significantly worse.(Adds share price, analyst comment from fourth paragraph)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

China's oil demand has recovered to more than 90% of the levels seen before the coronavirus pandemic struck early this year, a surprisingly robust rebound that could be mirrored elsewhere in the third quarter as more countries emerge from lockdowns. While China - the world's second-largest oil consumer - is the outlier for now, easing travel restrictions and stimulus packages aimed at resuscitating economies could accelerate global oil demand in the second half of 2020, industry executives said. "The brisk resumption of Chinese oil demand, 90% of pre-COVID levels by the end of April and moving higher, is a welcome signpost for the global economy," said Jim Burkhard, vice president and head of oil markets at IHS Markit.

China's oil demand has recovered to more than 90% of the levels seen before the coronavirus pandemic struck early this year, a surprisingly robust rebound that could be mirrored elsewhere in the third quarter as more countries emerge from lockdowns. While China - the world's second-largest oil consumer - is the outlier for now, easing travel restrictions and stimulus packages aimed at resuscitating economies could accelerate global oil demand in the second half of 2020, industry executives said. "The brisk resumption of Chinese oil demand, 90% of pre-COVID levels by the end of April and moving higher, is a welcome signpost for the global economy," said Jim Burkhard, vice president and head of oil markets at IHS Markit.

360 Finance, Inc. (NASDAQ: QFIN) ("360 Finance" or the "Company"), a leading digital consumer finance platform, today announced that its mobile application "360 Jietiao" was among the first batch of financial services apps from 33 companies to complete registration and file records with the National Internet Finance Association of China ("NIFA"), the national self-regulatory body for China's internet finance industry backed by People's Bank of China (PBOC).

360 Finance, Inc. (NASDAQ: QFIN) ("360 Finance" or the "Company"), a leading digital consumer finance platform, today announced that its mobile application "360 Jietiao" was among the first batch of financial services apps from 33 companies to complete registration and file records with the National Internet Finance Association of China ("NIFA"), the national self-regulatory body for China's internet finance industry backed by People's Bank of China (PBOC).

Worries about coronavirus transmission spell an uncertain future for millions of sex workers globally.

Worries about coronavirus transmission spell an uncertain future for millions of sex workers globally.

(Bloomberg) -- Turkish policy makers are pumping money into the economy at the fastest pace in over a decade to contain the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, a move that risks weakening the currency and stoking inflation.State lenders are unleashing credit through the economy as the central bank injects liquidity by scooping up government bonds. The money supply, as measured by the M1 gauge -- which includes currency in circulation and bank deposits -- is growing at an annual rate of almost 80%, according to the latest central bank data.With annual credit growth running at the fastest pace since at least 2007, and the size of the central bank’s bond holdings ballooning, the worry is that the looser financial conditions could leave Turkey’s currency weaker and unanchored, making imports more expensive.After nine straight interest-rate decreases, the lira already has one of the lowest yields in the world when adjusted for inflation. Meantime, the price outlook already started to show some signs of deterioration. Turkey’s consumer inflation unexpectedly quickened to an annual 11.4% in May, snapping two months of declines, as elevated food costs offset some of the impact from weaker demand.“By forcing the banks to increase lending at such a rapid rate, the authorities may be sowing the seeds of the Turkish economy’s downfall, through a combination of higher inflation, a weaker lira and lower GDP growth,” said Nigel Rendell, a senior analyst at Medley Global Advisors LLC in London. “Strong demand and inevitable bottlenecks in supply will lead to higher prices.”Money AppetiteIn a sign that demand for financing is still heating up, Turkish lenders borrowed a record 197.9 billion liras ($29.5 billion) from the monetary authority on Friday. That’s even after the central bank injected the equivalent of $35.5 billion -- or roughly 240 billion liras -- into the banking system through currency swaps this year through April.The policy maker also bought back 55.8 billion liras worth of government bonds from the secondary market since the beginning of the year, taking its securities portfolio to 71.9 billion liras as of June 1. The stockpile is now equivalent to about 10% of its total assets, the biggest share since 2010, according to Bloomberg calculations.Still, given the disruptions from the pandemic, a possible annual contraction of 17% in gross domestic product this quarter could slow inflation to single digits by the second half, allowing the central bank to continue easing, according to Carla Slim, a Dubai-based economist at Standard Chartered Plc.(Updates with inflation data in fourth paragraph)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) -- Turkish policy makers are pumping money into the economy at the fastest pace in over a decade to contain the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, a move that risks weakening the currency and stoking inflation.State lenders are unleashing credit through the economy as the central bank injects liquidity by scooping up government bonds. The money supply, as measured by the M1 gauge -- which includes currency in circulation and bank deposits -- is growing at an annual rate of almost 80%, according to the latest central bank data.With annual credit growth running at the fastest pace since at least 2007, and the size of the central bank’s bond holdings ballooning, the worry is that the looser financial conditions could leave Turkey’s currency weaker and unanchored, making imports more expensive.After nine straight interest-rate decreases, the lira already has one of the lowest yields in the world when adjusted for inflation. Meantime, the price outlook already started to show some signs of deterioration. Turkey’s consumer inflation unexpectedly quickened to an annual 11.4% in May, snapping two months of declines, as elevated food costs offset some of the impact from weaker demand.“By forcing the banks to increase lending at such a rapid rate, the authorities may be sowing the seeds of the Turkish economy’s downfall, through a combination of higher inflation, a weaker lira and lower GDP growth,” said Nigel Rendell, a senior analyst at Medley Global Advisors LLC in London. “Strong demand and inevitable bottlenecks in supply will lead to higher prices.”Money AppetiteIn a sign that demand for financing is still heating up, Turkish lenders borrowed a record 197.9 billion liras ($29.5 billion) from the monetary authority on Friday. That’s even after the central bank injected the equivalent of $35.5 billion -- or roughly 240 billion liras -- into the banking system through currency swaps this year through April.The policy maker also bought back 55.8 billion liras worth of government bonds from the secondary market since the beginning of the year, taking its securities portfolio to 71.9 billion liras as of June 1. The stockpile is now equivalent to about 10% of its total assets, the biggest share since 2010, according to Bloomberg calculations.Still, given the disruptions from the pandemic, a possible annual contraction of 17% in gross domestic product this quarter could slow inflation to single digits by the second half, allowing the central bank to continue easing, according to Carla Slim, a Dubai-based economist at Standard Chartered Plc.(Updates with inflation data in fourth paragraph)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

The global beverage carton packaging machinery market size is expected to reach USD 1.5 billion by 2027, expanding at a CAGR of 4.9%, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Rising awareness pertaining to the adverse environmental effects of plastic waste is expected to drive the demand for green packaging materials, in turn, benefitting market growth.

The global beverage carton packaging machinery market size is expected to reach USD 1.5 billion by 2027, expanding at a CAGR of 4.9%, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Rising awareness pertaining to the adverse environmental effects of plastic waste is expected to drive the demand for green packaging materials, in turn, benefitting market growth.

Italy reopens to travellers from Europe on Wednesday, three months after the country went into coronavirus lockdown, with all hopes pinned on reviving the key tourism industry as the summer season begins. Gondolas are ready to punt along Venice's canals, lovers will be able to act out "Romeo and Juliet" on Verona's famed balcony, and gladiator fans can pose for selfies at Rome's Colosseum. Italy was the first European country to be hit hard by the coronavirus and has officially reported more than 33,000 deaths.

Italy reopens to travellers from Europe on Wednesday, three months after the country went into coronavirus lockdown, with all hopes pinned on reviving the key tourism industry as the summer season begins. Gondolas are ready to punt along Venice's canals, lovers will be able to act out "Romeo and Juliet" on Verona's famed balcony, and gladiator fans can pose for selfies at Rome's Colosseum. Italy was the first European country to be hit hard by the coronavirus and has officially reported more than 33,000 deaths.

Biden swept all seven of the states holding presidential primaries Tuesday – Maryland, Indiana, Rhode Island, New Mexico, Montana and South Dakota.

Biden swept all seven of the states holding presidential primaries Tuesday – Maryland, Indiana, Rhode Island, New Mexico, Montana and South Dakota.

(Bloomberg) -- Singapore stocks have finally gained 20% from their March lows, as the city-state struggles to flatten the curve of the coronavirus pandemic.The benchmark Straits Times Index advanced to 2,680.35 as of 3:16 p.m. on Wednesday, its third straight day of gains. This will make it one of the last major country gauges in Asia to enter a technical bull market, several weeks after its regional peers beat it to the punch.Asia Stocks Finally Get Their Moment in Bull-Market SpotlightThe index plunged more than 30% from a January high to a March low, as virus concerns roiled equity markets and economies globally. Singapore’s gross domestic product is expected to shrink 4%-7% this year, its worst contraction since independence in 1965, as the pandemic pummels the trade-reliant economy.The city-state now has one of the highest number of recorded infections in Asia, with more than 35,000 cases.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) -- Singapore stocks have finally gained 20% from their March lows, as the city-state struggles to flatten the curve of the coronavirus pandemic.The benchmark Straits Times Index advanced to 2,680.35 as of 3:16 p.m. on Wednesday, its third straight day of gains. This will make it one of the last major country gauges in Asia to enter a technical bull market, several weeks after its regional peers beat it to the punch.Asia Stocks Finally Get Their Moment in Bull-Market SpotlightThe index plunged more than 30% from a January high to a March low, as virus concerns roiled equity markets and economies globally. Singapore’s gross domestic product is expected to shrink 4%-7% this year, its worst contraction since independence in 1965, as the pandemic pummels the trade-reliant economy.The city-state now has one of the highest number of recorded infections in Asia, with more than 35,000 cases.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

Novo Ventures, part of Novo Holdings, today announced that it has led the $55 million (£44 million) Series B financing in NodThera, a UK and US based clinical stage biotechnology company developing a new class of medicines to treat diseases driven by chronic inflammation. Nanna Lüneborg, Partner at Novo Ventures, will join the NodThera board.

Novo Ventures, part of Novo Holdings, today announced that it has led the $55 million (£44 million) Series B financing in NodThera, a UK and US based clinical stage biotechnology company developing a new class of medicines to treat diseases driven by chronic inflammation. Nanna Lüneborg, Partner at Novo Ventures, will join the NodThera board.

PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ: PEP) today announced that Wern-Yuen Tan has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of Asia Pacific, Australia, New Zealand and China ("APAC"), overseeing all of PepsiCo's operations in the region. Mr. Tan, who will begin his new role on June 15, 2020, will be based in Singapore and will report to PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta.

PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ: PEP) today announced that Wern-Yuen Tan has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of Asia Pacific, Australia, New Zealand and China ("APAC"), overseeing all of PepsiCo's operations in the region. Mr. Tan, who will begin his new role on June 15, 2020, will be based in Singapore and will report to PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta.

(Bloomberg) -- The global rally in stocks held its momentum Wednesday as investors showed more optimism of quick economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. Treasuries dipped with gold, and a dollar gauge hit its lowest level since early March.Gains in insurance and auto shares pulled the Stoxx Europe 600 Index higher, while contracts on all three American equity benchmarks also rose. In Asia, South Korea shares advanced the most after the country detailed a third round of fiscal stimulus. Brent crude oil extended its rebound above $40 as investors eyed a potential extension of record production curbs by OPEC+.Stocks have advanced globally for eight days to their highest level versus estimated earnings since the early 2000s, as more businesses reopen around the world and manufacturing gauges show economies stabilizing following shutdowns. That’s despite a slew of risks, including tense U.S.-China relations that may jeopardize a hard-won trade deal as well as violent protests and looting across much of America.“If I look at the markets, I see a V-shaped recovery,” Mark Mobius, co-founder at Mobius Capital Partners, said on Bloomberg TV. “That’s what the markets are telling us.”Elsewhere, Indonesia’s rupiah was the outperformer in currencies, after record orders at a local bond auction Tuesday. MSCI’s gauge of emerging-market stocks climbed close a three-month high.Here are some key events coming up:In Europe, the ECB is expected to top up its rescue program with an additional 500 billion euros of asset purchases at a meeting on Thursday. Anything less than an expansion would be a big shock, Bloomberg Economics said.The U.S. labor market report on Friday will probably show American unemployment soared to 19.5% in May, the highest since the 1930s.These are the main moves in markets:StocksThe Stoxx Europe 600 Index climbed 0.9% as of 8:16 a.m. London time.Futures on the S&P 500 Index rose 0.3%.Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 1.4%.The MSCI Asia Pacific Index increased 1.4%.CurrenciesThe Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index declined 0.4%.The euro gained 0.4% to $1.1215.The British pound jumped 0.4% to $1.2603.The Japanese yen was little changed at 108.66 per dollar.The Indian rupee was little changed at 75.371 per dollar.BondsThe yield on 10-year Treasuries climbed two basis points to 0.70%.Germany’s 10-year yield increased three basis points to -0.38%.Britain’s 10-year yield climbed two basis points to 0.243%.CommoditiesBrent crude gained 1.8% to $40.27 a barrel.Gold weakened 0.3% to $1,722.45 an ounce.LME copper dipped 0.3% to $5,510 per metric ton.Iron ore was little changed at $98.15 per metric ton.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) -- The global rally in stocks held its momentum Wednesday as investors showed more optimism of quick economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. Treasuries dipped with gold, and a dollar gauge hit its lowest level since early March.Gains in insurance and auto shares pulled the Stoxx Europe 600 Index higher, while contracts on all three American equity benchmarks also rose. In Asia, South Korea shares advanced the most after the country detailed a third round of fiscal stimulus. Brent crude oil extended its rebound above $40 as investors eyed a potential extension of record production curbs by OPEC+.Stocks have advanced globally for eight days to their highest level versus estimated earnings since the early 2000s, as more businesses reopen around the world and manufacturing gauges show economies stabilizing following shutdowns. That’s despite a slew of risks, including tense U.S.-China relations that may jeopardize a hard-won trade deal as well as violent protests and looting across much of America.“If I look at the markets, I see a V-shaped recovery,” Mark Mobius, co-founder at Mobius Capital Partners, said on Bloomberg TV. “That’s what the markets are telling us.”Elsewhere, Indonesia’s rupiah was the outperformer in currencies, after record orders at a local bond auction Tuesday. MSCI’s gauge of emerging-market stocks climbed close a three-month high.Here are some key events coming up:In Europe, the ECB is expected to top up its rescue program with an additional 500 billion euros of asset purchases at a meeting on Thursday. Anything less than an expansion would be a big shock, Bloomberg Economics said.The U.S. labor market report on Friday will probably show American unemployment soared to 19.5% in May, the highest since the 1930s.These are the main moves in markets:StocksThe Stoxx Europe 600 Index climbed 0.9% as of 8:16 a.m. London time.Futures on the S&P 500 Index rose 0.3%.Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 1.4%.The MSCI Asia Pacific Index increased 1.4%.CurrenciesThe Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index declined 0.4%.The euro gained 0.4% to $1.1215.The British pound jumped 0.4% to $1.2603.The Japanese yen was little changed at 108.66 per dollar.The Indian rupee was little changed at 75.371 per dollar.BondsThe yield on 10-year Treasuries climbed two basis points to 0.70%.Germany’s 10-year yield increased three basis points to -0.38%.Britain’s 10-year yield climbed two basis points to 0.243%.CommoditiesBrent crude gained 1.8% to $40.27 a barrel.Gold weakened 0.3% to $1,722.45 an ounce.LME copper dipped 0.3% to $5,510 per metric ton.Iron ore was little changed at $98.15 per metric ton.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

Shares in Glu Mobile (GLUU) pulled back 3% in after-hours trading on Tuesday after the company announced that it intends to offer $100 million of its common stock in an underwritten public offering.In addition, Glu expects to grant the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional $15 million of its common stock. All of the shares are being offered by Glu.Glu intends to use the net proceeds from the offering for working capital and other general corporate purposes, which may include potential acquisitions and strategic transactions.Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, Morgan Stanley and UBS Investment Bank are acting as joint book-running managers for the proposed offering. Cowen, Wedbush Securities and Roth Capital Partners are acting as co-managers.The offering is subject to market and other conditions and there can be no assurance as to whether or when the offering may be completed, or as to the actual size or terms of the offering, GLUU said.Shares in GLUU have exploded 65% year-to-date, and analysts have a cautiously optimistic Moderate Buy consensus on the stock with 7 recent buy ratings, 1 hold and 1 sell. Meanwhile the average analyst price target stands at $10, for upside potential of 5%. (See Glu stock analysis on TipRanks).Indeed, on May 28, GLUU announced an increase to prior Q2 guidance based on ongoing momentum across its live game portfolio, and the Q2 bookings and adjusted EBITDA raises were passed through to FY:20 guidance.“We continue to remain encouraged by these trends helping to strengthen GLUU’s bookings base, ahead of multiple growth catalysts still on the horizon for 2H20/FY21” stated Roth Capital’s Darren Aftahi on May 29 as he praised the company’s ‘diversified game portfolio.’Related News: Lyft Rises 5% After-Hours On Strong May Performance Zoom Lifts Full-Year Sales Guidance As Quarterly Revenue Balloons 169% Carl Icahn Initiates Position in Delek US Holdings, Boosts Occidental Petroleum More recent articles from Smarter Analyst: * Zoom Lifts Full-Year Sales Guidance As Quarterly Revenue Balloons 169% * Microchip Gains 7% After-Hours On Boosted Guidance; Top Analyst Ups PT * Cheesecake Factory Spikes After-Hours As 75% Sales Recaptured * Lyft Rises 5% After-Hours On Strong May Performance

Shares in Glu Mobile (GLUU) pulled back 3% in after-hours trading on Tuesday after the company announced that it intends to offer $100 million of its common stock in an underwritten public offering.In addition, Glu expects to grant the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional $15 million of its common stock. All of the shares are being offered by Glu.Glu intends to use the net proceeds from the offering for working capital and other general corporate purposes, which may include potential acquisitions and strategic transactions.Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, Morgan Stanley and UBS Investment Bank are acting as joint book-running managers for the proposed offering. Cowen, Wedbush Securities and Roth Capital Partners are acting as co-managers.The offering is subject to market and other conditions and there can be no assurance as to whether or when the offering may be completed, or as to the actual size or terms of the offering, GLUU said.Shares in GLUU have exploded 65% year-to-date, and analysts have a cautiously optimistic Moderate Buy consensus on the stock with 7 recent buy ratings, 1 hold and 1 sell. Meanwhile the average analyst price target stands at $10, for upside potential of 5%. (See Glu stock analysis on TipRanks).Indeed, on May 28, GLUU announced an increase to prior Q2 guidance based on ongoing momentum across its live game portfolio, and the Q2 bookings and adjusted EBITDA raises were passed through to FY:20 guidance.“We continue to remain encouraged by these trends helping to strengthen GLUU’s bookings base, ahead of multiple growth catalysts still on the horizon for 2H20/FY21” stated Roth Capital’s Darren Aftahi on May 29 as he praised the company’s ‘diversified game portfolio.’Related News: Lyft Rises 5% After-Hours On Strong May Performance Zoom Lifts Full-Year Sales Guidance As Quarterly Revenue Balloons 169% Carl Icahn Initiates Position in Delek US Holdings, Boosts Occidental Petroleum More recent articles from Smarter Analyst: * Zoom Lifts Full-Year Sales Guidance As Quarterly Revenue Balloons 169% * Microchip Gains 7% After-Hours On Boosted Guidance; Top Analyst Ups PT * Cheesecake Factory Spikes After-Hours As 75% Sales Recaptured * Lyft Rises 5% After-Hours On Strong May Performance

(Bloomberg) -- A Swedish hedge fund called Volt Capital Management AB has run circles around its own return target by relying on a form of artificial intelligence it says is unique.Volt Diversified Alpha Program was created in early 2017 by Jukka Harju, a former researcher at Lynx Asset Management. It only has about $30 million under management, but this year it’s delivered more than double the 10% return target it promised investors. Instead, they’ve received 24%. In March, when Covid-19 triggered a global selloff across markets, Volt had a positive return of 12%.Patrik Safvenblad, the fund’s chief investment office, says his models, once plugged into Volt’s AI program, helped him position for the slump in oil markets, and for gains in bonds and the dollar.“It’s best for us when the fundamentals change,” he said in an interview last week. “For example this year, the oil price fundamentally changed.”Volt is doing “something that is unique within machine learning,” Safvenblad said. “We take the power of fundamental models -- we believe in fundamentals, fundamentals matter -- we combine that power with machine learning.”He says the model addresses two problems. “If you trade based on fundamentals, you have a problem to choose from your models. If you do machine learning based on technical signals, you risk ending up with so called false positives.”Instead, Volt has chosen 200 models it thinks will make money. But, “we don’t know exactly when, or how to weight them,” Safvenblad said. “We use machine learning to handle the daily weighting problem.”Some of the hedge fund industry’s biggest names experienced deep setbacks in March, including firms run by Ray Dalio, Michael Hintze and Adam Levinson, Bloomberg News reported in April.The Market Is Always RightVolt’s investment horizon is relatively short, averaging about 12 trading days. The fund holds roughly 70 positions at any given time. Its analysis shows that the economy will stay weak.“Basically the systems are positioned for continued economic weakness, with focus on commodities, equity markets still appear too volatile for significant positions,” Safvenblad said. He’s short soft commodities and “a bit short equities.” Long bets include gold, platinum, fixed income in Europe and the U.S., as well as the Greenback against the Australian and New Zealand dollars.“The market is always right,” Safvenblad said. “We don’t think we know better than the market. So when something goes against us, we decrease exposure to those positions, models and sectors. We simply close positions that don’t work. This way we can increase to positions that do work.”(Adds comment on fundamentals to explain how the shift in oil prices affected Volt’s portfolio. A previous version of the story corrected the former title of Harju.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) -- A Swedish hedge fund called Volt Capital Management AB has run circles around its own return target by relying on a form of artificial intelligence it says is unique.Volt Diversified Alpha Program was created in early 2017 by Jukka Harju, a former researcher at Lynx Asset Management. It only has about $30 million under management, but this year it’s delivered more than double the 10% return target it promised investors. Instead, they’ve received 24%. In March, when Covid-19 triggered a global selloff across markets, Volt had a positive return of 12%.Patrik Safvenblad, the fund’s chief investment office, says his models, once plugged into Volt’s AI program, helped him position for the slump in oil markets, and for gains in bonds and the dollar.“It’s best for us when the fundamentals change,” he said in an interview last week. “For example this year, the oil price fundamentally changed.”Volt is doing “something that is unique within machine learning,” Safvenblad said. “We take the power of fundamental models -- we believe in fundamentals, fundamentals matter -- we combine that power with machine learning.”He says the model addresses two problems. “If you trade based on fundamentals, you have a problem to choose from your models. If you do machine learning based on technical signals, you risk ending up with so called false positives.”Instead, Volt has chosen 200 models it thinks will make money. But, “we don’t know exactly when, or how to weight them,” Safvenblad said. “We use machine learning to handle the daily weighting problem.”Some of the hedge fund industry’s biggest names experienced deep setbacks in March, including firms run by Ray Dalio, Michael Hintze and Adam Levinson, Bloomberg News reported in April.The Market Is Always RightVolt’s investment horizon is relatively short, averaging about 12 trading days. The fund holds roughly 70 positions at any given time. Its analysis shows that the economy will stay weak.“Basically the systems are positioned for continued economic weakness, with focus on commodities, equity markets still appear too volatile for significant positions,” Safvenblad said. He’s short soft commodities and “a bit short equities.” Long bets include gold, platinum, fixed income in Europe and the U.S., as well as the Greenback against the Australian and New Zealand dollars.“The market is always right,” Safvenblad said. “We don’t think we know better than the market. So when something goes against us, we decrease exposure to those positions, models and sectors. We simply close positions that don’t work. This way we can increase to positions that do work.”(Adds comment on fundamentals to explain how the shift in oil prices affected Volt’s portfolio. A previous version of the story corrected the former title of Harju.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

The concept combines wind energy and the waste heat created in data centers with food production.

The concept combines wind energy and the waste heat created in data centers with food production.

Leading market research company GfK has selected Cint's automated technology platform as part of an ongoing programme to transform its digital marketing effectiveness and consumer insights business. With a track record for powering market research technology stacks for some of the world's most successful insights companies, Cint is well-positioned to automate GfK's sampling operations.

Leading market research company GfK has selected Cint's automated technology platform as part of an ongoing programme to transform its digital marketing effectiveness and consumer insights business. With a track record for powering market research technology stacks for some of the world's most successful insights companies, Cint is well-positioned to automate GfK's sampling operations.

Portugal's foreign minister tells the BBC that an "air bridge" agreement could be in place soon.

Portugal's foreign minister tells the BBC that an "air bridge" agreement could be in place soon.

Japan's three biggest banks have set up a study group that will look at possibly building a common settlement infrastructure for digital payments, an initiative backed by the central bank and the country's financial regulator. Authorities have been, however, keen to promote cashless transactions to increase productivity and more recently to reduce contact between people amid the coronavirus pandemic. Unlike countries such as China where one or two digital payment systems dominate the market, Japan has a plethora of offerings competing against each other.

Japan's three biggest banks have set up a study group that will look at possibly building a common settlement infrastructure for digital payments, an initiative backed by the central bank and the country's financial regulator. Authorities have been, however, keen to promote cashless transactions to increase productivity and more recently to reduce contact between people amid the coronavirus pandemic. Unlike countries such as China where one or two digital payment systems dominate the market, Japan has a plethora of offerings competing against each other.

Japan's three biggest banks have set up a study group that will look at possibly building a common settlement infrastructure for digital payments, an initiative backed by the central bank and the country's financial regulator. Authorities have been, however, keen to promote cashless transactions to increase productivity and more recently to reduce contact between people amid the coronavirus pandemic. Unlike countries such as China where one or two digital payment systems dominate the market, Japan has a plethora of offerings competing against each other.

Japan's three biggest banks have set up a study group that will look at possibly building a common settlement infrastructure for digital payments, an initiative backed by the central bank and the country's financial regulator. Authorities have been, however, keen to promote cashless transactions to increase productivity and more recently to reduce contact between people amid the coronavirus pandemic. Unlike countries such as China where one or two digital payment systems dominate the market, Japan has a plethora of offerings competing against each other.

(Bloomberg) -- Tiffany & Co. plunged after Women’s Wear Daily reported LVMH’s deal to buy the luxury jewelry company is uncertain as the U.S. economy faces widespread upheaval.LVMH board members arranged to meet on Tuesday to discuss the proposed deal, WWD reported, citing unidentified individuals. Board members are concerned about the Covid-19 pandemic that has disrupted the U.S. economy and growing unrest over police violence, WWD said. They also expressed concern about Tiffany’s ability to cover its debt covenants at the end of the transaction.Tiffany’s representatives didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from Bloomberg. LVMH declined to comment. The French company’s shares rose 0.8% in early Paris trading Wednesday.Tiffany shares, which were halted for several minutes due to volatility, fell as much as 13%, the steepest intraday drop since 2015, before closing down 8.9% on Tuesday.“I would imagine it is normal that LVMH internally discusses the proposed Tiffany acquisition -- given the size of the deal, the Covid-19 situation, and the recent social unrest in the U.S.,” wrote Luca Solca, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein. “Having said that, the Tiffany takeover would provide a unique strategic opportunity to LVMH, boosting its position in branded jewelry.”Solca said it’s an “open question” whether LVMH would try to renegotiate better terms.The economic fallout from the pandemic has disrupted or derailed a number of prominent deals, including L Brands Inc.’s agreement to sell a majority stake in Victoria’s Secret to private-equity firm Sycamore Partners. If the LVMH-Tiffany tie-up falls apart, it would be one of the largest so far related to Covid-19.The New York-based jeweler website says, as of June 1, its stores are temporarily closed until further notice. The pandemic has also impacted the company’s ability to offer next-day and express shipping.The stores went dark in mid-March due to the pandemic shutdown. Some of its locations have had their windows boarded up as protests roil cities across the country.LVMH’s planned purchase of Tiffany for more than $16 billion has been the subject of speculation after the coronavirus pandemic suddenly altered the consumer landscape across the globe.For LVMH, the deal originally made a lot of sense: buying U.S.-based Tiffany would help the Louis Vuitton owner challenge Cartier owner Richemont for dominance in the global jewelry business. But as Americans curb discretionary spending and retail stores temporarily close their doors, growing exposure to the U.S. market doesn’t have quite the same appeal as it did when the tie-up was announced last November.Prior to the virus lockdown, the 183-year-old Tiffany was struggling with a lull in international tourist traffic and civil unrest in Hong Kong. In the U.S., management has worked to attract younger clientele, though sales have been slow to rebound. Chief Executive Officer Alessandro Bogliolo made China a priority, counting on the market as a growth engine.(Updates with LVMH shares in third paragraph, analyst comment in fifth)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) -- Tiffany & Co. plunged after Women’s Wear Daily reported LVMH’s deal to buy the luxury jewelry company is uncertain as the U.S. economy faces widespread upheaval.LVMH board members arranged to meet on Tuesday to discuss the proposed deal, WWD reported, citing unidentified individuals. Board members are concerned about the Covid-19 pandemic that has disrupted the U.S. economy and growing unrest over police violence, WWD said. They also expressed concern about Tiffany’s ability to cover its debt covenants at the end of the transaction.Tiffany’s representatives didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from Bloomberg. LVMH declined to comment. The French company’s shares rose 0.8% in early Paris trading Wednesday.Tiffany shares, which were halted for several minutes due to volatility, fell as much as 13%, the steepest intraday drop since 2015, before closing down 8.9% on Tuesday.“I would imagine it is normal that LVMH internally discusses the proposed Tiffany acquisition -- given the size of the deal, the Covid-19 situation, and the recent social unrest in the U.S.,” wrote Luca Solca, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein. “Having said that, the Tiffany takeover would provide a unique strategic opportunity to LVMH, boosting its position in branded jewelry.”Solca said it’s an “open question” whether LVMH would try to renegotiate better terms.The economic fallout from the pandemic has disrupted or derailed a number of prominent deals, including L Brands Inc.’s agreement to sell a majority stake in Victoria’s Secret to private-equity firm Sycamore Partners. If the LVMH-Tiffany tie-up falls apart, it would be one of the largest so far related to Covid-19.The New York-based jeweler website says, as of June 1, its stores are temporarily closed until further notice. The pandemic has also impacted the company’s ability to offer next-day and express shipping.The stores went dark in mid-March due to the pandemic shutdown. Some of its locations have had their windows boarded up as protests roil cities across the country.LVMH’s planned purchase of Tiffany for more than $16 billion has been the subject of speculation after the coronavirus pandemic suddenly altered the consumer landscape across the globe.For LVMH, the deal originally made a lot of sense: buying U.S.-based Tiffany would help the Louis Vuitton owner challenge Cartier owner Richemont for dominance in the global jewelry business. But as Americans curb discretionary spending and retail stores temporarily close their doors, growing exposure to the U.S. market doesn’t have quite the same appeal as it did when the tie-up was announced last November.Prior to the virus lockdown, the 183-year-old Tiffany was struggling with a lull in international tourist traffic and civil unrest in Hong Kong. In the U.S., management has worked to attract younger clientele, though sales have been slow to rebound. Chief Executive Officer Alessandro Bogliolo made China a priority, counting on the market as a growth engine.(Updates with LVMH shares in third paragraph, analyst comment in fifth)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Governments of all political stripes are spending massive sums to overcome the twin challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic — the virus itself, and the recession it’s leaving in its wake — and rightly so. Some $9 trillion in emergency public spending has been rolled out so far, while global borrowing via bonds and loans hit a record high of $2.6 trillion in April. Financial markets have taken this broadly in their stride.Eventually, though, the question of who will ultimately foot the bill will need to be answered — particularly outside of the U.S., which is relatively protected by the dollar’s global clout. Some assume a future economic rebound will be strong enough to comfortably repay debts over time while central banks keep rates low. But this is a hope, not a guarantee. The risk of lower growth and higher rates is real, necessitating all sorts of painful budget choices, as economist Willem Buiter wrote last month. Taxation is bound to be one of those choices. Everybody knows that raising taxes in a recession can produce an entirely unhelpful outcome by further hurting demand, as seen in countries that pursued austerity. But governments clearly reckon they can get away with taxes that target specific sectors, companies or people, especially those that are seen as having come out of this crisis relatively well-off. Hence the plans by several Latin American countries to raise taxes on high-income earners, and Indonesia’s move to raise value-added tax on digital platforms — because, in the words of its finance minister, “their sales have soared amid the Covid-19 outbreak.” It’s not just the developing world: The European Union is mulling a series of taxes, to be raised directly by its executive arm in Brussels, to help fund the pandemic recovery in the 27-nation bloc. They include a tax on high-carbon-emission imports, a tax on digital firms and a tax on 70,000 large multinational companies that access the EU’s single market and its 450 million consumers.These efforts should be taken seriously. Not all the European proposals will get approval, as the EU’s 27 member states are protective of their tax powers, but if done right they can have benefits. Efforts to introduce a digital tax aim to restore fairness to a corporate tax system that has seen the likes of Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google get away with paying very little. “Don’t try to be too smart,” Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton told Facebook Inc.’s Mark Zuckerberg recently. “Pay taxes where you have to pay taxes.”A carbon border tax would combine the EU’s clout as a trading zone with its Green Deal ambitions. And while a levy on big EU firms might seem like a job killer, it would go towards funding a 750 billion-euro ($840 billion) recovery plan that pours cash back into the bloc. There’s a clear pro-growth side to these tax proposals, Axa SA Chief Economist Gilles Moec tells me.The risk, however, is that in shifting more of the burden of recovery funding onto foreign firms and trading partners — the top two being the U.S. and China — the EU could end up creating new geopolitical and trade headaches. President Donald Trump’s administration is starting investigations into digital taxes from the EU to India that could lead to retaliatory export tariffs. Targeted taxes don’t raise as much money as broad-brush hikes, and if other governments start rolling out tit-for-tat measures, their benefits will be smothered.But it’s worth trying, especially if we want to create a better world beyond the coronavirus crisis. It could be a good thing if tax systems become more progressive and if public spending spreads the wealth around. If the future is anything like the society that emerged from the rubble of post-war Europe, there will be a focus on investment, big projects, and rebuilding. There are fewer constraints on government finances right now, as Goodbody Stockbrockers Chief Economist Dermot O’Leary points out: Bond vigilantes have scattered, and austerity advocates are quiet.The smoke signals of higher taxes are going to get more visible as governments get settled into their new role as drivers of the world economy. But there’s no free lunch, either. Along with politically popular taxes, expect stealthier ones that aren’t, financial repression and other tactics to shake more money out of the private sector. And a Trump administration ready to hit back.This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Lionel Laurent is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Brussels. He previously worked at Reuters and Forbes.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Governments of all political stripes are spending massive sums to overcome the twin challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic — the virus itself, and the recession it’s leaving in its wake — and rightly so. Some $9 trillion in emergency public spending has been rolled out so far, while global borrowing via bonds and loans hit a record high of $2.6 trillion in April. Financial markets have taken this broadly in their stride.Eventually, though, the question of who will ultimately foot the bill will need to be answered — particularly outside of the U.S., which is relatively protected by the dollar’s global clout. Some assume a future economic rebound will be strong enough to comfortably repay debts over time while central banks keep rates low. But this is a hope, not a guarantee. The risk of lower growth and higher rates is real, necessitating all sorts of painful budget choices, as economist Willem Buiter wrote last month. Taxation is bound to be one of those choices. Everybody knows that raising taxes in a recession can produce an entirely unhelpful outcome by further hurting demand, as seen in countries that pursued austerity. But governments clearly reckon they can get away with taxes that target specific sectors, companies or people, especially those that are seen as having come out of this crisis relatively well-off. Hence the plans by several Latin American countries to raise taxes on high-income earners, and Indonesia’s move to raise value-added tax on digital platforms — because, in the words of its finance minister, “their sales have soared amid the Covid-19 outbreak.” It’s not just the developing world: The European Union is mulling a series of taxes, to be raised directly by its executive arm in Brussels, to help fund the pandemic recovery in the 27-nation bloc. They include a tax on high-carbon-emission imports, a tax on digital firms and a tax on 70,000 large multinational companies that access the EU’s single market and its 450 million consumers.These efforts should be taken seriously. Not all the European proposals will get approval, as the EU’s 27 member states are protective of their tax powers, but if done right they can have benefits. Efforts to introduce a digital tax aim to restore fairness to a corporate tax system that has seen the likes of Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google get away with paying very little. “Don’t try to be too smart,” Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton told Facebook Inc.’s Mark Zuckerberg recently. “Pay taxes where you have to pay taxes.”A carbon border tax would combine the EU’s clout as a trading zone with its Green Deal ambitions. And while a levy on big EU firms might seem like a job killer, it would go towards funding a 750 billion-euro ($840 billion) recovery plan that pours cash back into the bloc. There’s a clear pro-growth side to these tax proposals, Axa SA Chief Economist Gilles Moec tells me.The risk, however, is that in shifting more of the burden of recovery funding onto foreign firms and trading partners — the top two being the U.S. and China — the EU could end up creating new geopolitical and trade headaches. President Donald Trump’s administration is starting investigations into digital taxes from the EU to India that could lead to retaliatory export tariffs. Targeted taxes don’t raise as much money as broad-brush hikes, and if other governments start rolling out tit-for-tat measures, their benefits will be smothered.But it’s worth trying, especially if we want to create a better world beyond the coronavirus crisis. It could be a good thing if tax systems become more progressive and if public spending spreads the wealth around. If the future is anything like the society that emerged from the rubble of post-war Europe, there will be a focus on investment, big projects, and rebuilding. There are fewer constraints on government finances right now, as Goodbody Stockbrockers Chief Economist Dermot O’Leary points out: Bond vigilantes have scattered, and austerity advocates are quiet.The smoke signals of higher taxes are going to get more visible as governments get settled into their new role as drivers of the world economy. But there’s no free lunch, either. Along with politically popular taxes, expect stealthier ones that aren’t, financial repression and other tactics to shake more money out of the private sector. And a Trump administration ready to hit back.This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Lionel Laurent is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Brussels. He previously worked at Reuters and Forbes.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today announced significant enhancements to SAP® App Center, where customers can discover, try and buy trusted partner apps based on SAP solutions. SAP also unveiled the SAP Endorsed Apps initiative, designed to help customers solve key business challenges and become best-run intelligent enterprises. These announcements, made today at the SAP Global Partner Summit Online, will allow SAP to continue to quickly and efficiently serve partners and customers.

SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today announced significant enhancements to SAP® App Center, where customers can discover, try and buy trusted partner apps based on SAP solutions. SAP also unveiled the SAP Endorsed Apps initiative, designed to help customers solve key business challenges and become best-run intelligent enterprises. These announcements, made today at the SAP Global Partner Summit Online, will allow SAP to continue to quickly and efficiently serve partners and customers.

Based on its recent analysis of the MEASA network security provider market, Frost & Sullivan recognizes Fortinet, a global leader in broad, integrated and automated cybersecurity solutions, with the 2020 KSA Company of the Year Award for leading the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in addressing digital innovation-related network security challenges. The expanding ecosystem of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, segmented networks, multi-cloud environments, and distributed data centers have multiplied the number of vulnerabilities in networks. Fortinet has addressed this challenge by pioneering cross-environment interoperability, regardless of where the security solutions are deployed. This ability to provide broad protection and visibility into every network segment, device, and appliance—whether virtual, in the cloud, or on-premise—gives it a distinct competitive edge.

Based on its recent analysis of the MEASA network security provider market, Frost & Sullivan recognizes Fortinet, a global leader in broad, integrated and automated cybersecurity solutions, with the 2020 KSA Company of the Year Award for leading the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in addressing digital innovation-related network security challenges. The expanding ecosystem of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, segmented networks, multi-cloud environments, and distributed data centers have multiplied the number of vulnerabilities in networks. Fortinet has addressed this challenge by pioneering cross-environment interoperability, regardless of where the security solutions are deployed. This ability to provide broad protection and visibility into every network segment, device, and appliance—whether virtual, in the cloud, or on-premise—gives it a distinct competitive edge.

Major increase in data traffic volumes, changes in IT architecture and how businesses adopt to benefit from low cost public clouds and increased security using private clouds and private connections have urged DEAC to connect all data centers' facilities with major network providers' ecosystem. IX enables better connectivity in significant locations to let businesses around Europe, Baltic States and Russia switch to global network ecosystem. While migration to hybrid clouds are on the edge, fast and secure connections between companies' global public clouds and private storages become a critical piece for cloud-computing players.

Major increase in data traffic volumes, changes in IT architecture and how businesses adopt to benefit from low cost public clouds and increased security using private clouds and private connections have urged DEAC to connect all data centers' facilities with major network providers' ecosystem. IX enables better connectivity in significant locations to let businesses around Europe, Baltic States and Russia switch to global network ecosystem. While migration to hybrid clouds are on the edge, fast and secure connections between companies' global public clouds and private storages become a critical piece for cloud-computing players.

Based on its recent analysis of the MEASA network security provider market, Frost & Sullivan recognizes Fortinet, a global leader in broad, integrated and automated cybersecurity solutions, with the 2020 KSA Company of the Year Award for leading the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in addressing digital innovation-related network security challenges. The expanding ecosystem of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, segmented networks, multi-cloud environments, and distributed data centers have multiplied the number of vulnerabilities in networks. Fortinet has addressed this challenge by pioneering cross-environment interoperability, regardless of where the security solutions are deployed. This ability to provide broad protection and visibility into every network segment, device, and appliance—whether virtual, in the cloud, or on-premise—gives it a distinct competitive edge.

Based on its recent analysis of the MEASA network security provider market, Frost & Sullivan recognizes Fortinet, a global leader in broad, integrated and automated cybersecurity solutions, with the 2020 KSA Company of the Year Award for leading the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in addressing digital innovation-related network security challenges. The expanding ecosystem of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, segmented networks, multi-cloud environments, and distributed data centers have multiplied the number of vulnerabilities in networks. Fortinet has addressed this challenge by pioneering cross-environment interoperability, regardless of where the security solutions are deployed. This ability to provide broad protection and visibility into every network segment, device, and appliance—whether virtual, in the cloud, or on-premise—gives it a distinct competitive edge.

Shorla Pharma Limited ('Shorla'), an Irish specialty pharmaceutical company, has today announced the completion of a Series A investment of $8.3 million. The financing was led by Seroba Life Sciences ('Seroba'), a European Venture Capital firm headquartered in Dublin, Ireland with additional investment from Irish and Canadian based family offices and participation from Enterprise Ireland.

Shorla Pharma Limited ('Shorla'), an Irish specialty pharmaceutical company, has today announced the completion of a Series A investment of $8.3 million. The financing was led by Seroba Life Sciences ('Seroba'), a European Venture Capital firm headquartered in Dublin, Ireland with additional investment from Irish and Canadian based family offices and participation from Enterprise Ireland.

SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today announced free global access to software demonstration environments to help partners navigate today's business landscape and create best-run businesses for their customers. The announcement was made at SAP® Global Partner Summit, being held online June 3. As the world continues to adjust to the COVID-19 pandemic, SAP is helping partners maintain business continuity by turbocharging its next-generation partnering movement and identifying powerful ways to help partners accelerate their customers' journey to recovery.

SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today announced free global access to software demonstration environments to help partners navigate today's business landscape and create best-run businesses for their customers. The announcement was made at SAP® Global Partner Summit, being held online June 3. As the world continues to adjust to the COVID-19 pandemic, SAP is helping partners maintain business continuity by turbocharging its next-generation partnering movement and identifying powerful ways to help partners accelerate their customers' journey to recovery.

(Bloomberg) -- The architect of Sweden’s controversial approach to fighting the coronavirus says he would change things in hindsight because of the country’s high death rate. Brazil reported a record day of deaths.President Donald Trump said the Republican Party is being “forced to seek” another city for its national convention because of coronavirus restrictions imposed by North Carolina’s governor.The U.K. will publish details of its plan to impose a 14-day quarantine on all overseas arrivals, effective June 8. Prime Minister Boris Johnson plans to reset his government’s agenda with a financial statement and a speech on the post-pandemic landscape.China said its one new coronavirus case was imported, and South Korea reported 49 new cases, mostly in the greater Seoul area, with one more death. Indonesia said its deficit would widen.Key Developments:Virus Tracker: Cases pass 6.38 million; deaths exceed 380,300The keys to speed in race for vaccineIndonesia’s Lion Air grounded indefinitelyWorst may be over for biggest Arab economiesSouth African court says lockdown rules are unconstitutionalSubscribe to a daily update on the virus from Bloomberg’s Prognosis team here. Click VRUS on the terminal for news and data on the coronavirus. For a look back at this week’s top stories from QuickTake, click here.Indonesia Sees Weaker Growth, Bigger Fiscal Gap Amid Virus (2:54 p.m. HK)Indonesia’s economy may grow even less than already reduced estimates, and the fiscal deficit will widen, as the government ramps up its response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the country’s finance minister said.The deficit is now projected to widen to 6.34% of gross domestic product, Sri Mulyani Indrawati said. That’s the latest of several revisions since the government announced just over two months ago that it was suspending its 3% ceiling.The pandemic has rattled Southeast Asia’s biggest economy and made growth projections difficult. President Joko Widodo ordered financial chiefs to expedite an economic recovery program, but he also told them to mitigate fiscal risk amid warnings that the nation’s credit rating could be in jeopardy.Man Behind Sweden’s Virus Strategy Says He Got Some Things Wrong (2:25 p.m. HK)Sweden’s top epidemiologist says more should have been done in his country to tackle Covid-19 at the start of the outbreak, in order to keep the death rate down.“If we were to encounter the same illness with the same knowledge that we have today, I think our response would land somewhere in between what Sweden did and what the rest of the world has done,” Anders Tegnell said in an interview with Swedish Radio.Tegnell is the brains behind Sweden’s controversial approach to fighting the virus, and the government of Stefan Lofven has deferred to the epidemiologist in its official response to the pandemic.At 43 deaths per 100,000, Sweden’s death rate is among the highest globally.Trump Says GOP ‘Forced’ to Seek New City for Party Convention (12:40 p.m. HK)President Donald Trump said the Republican Party has been “forced to seek” a new city for its national convention, planned for Charlotte, North Carolina, in August, because of coronavirus restrictions put in place by the state’s governor.The president, in a series of tweets on Tuesday night, did not say what other cities were being considered or if the party was definitely pulling out of Charlotte.A Republican National Committee official, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive party deliberations, said Trump’s acceptance speech would be held in another city, but the party still hoped to conduct its official convention business in Charlotte, if public health rules permit it.Australia’s Economy Contracts, Ending Three-Decade Expansion (12:15 p.m. HK)Australia’s economy contracted in the first three months of the year, setting up an end to a nearly 29-year run without a recession as an even deeper slowdown looms for the current quarter.Gross domestic product fell 0.3% from the final three months of 2019, the first quarterly drop since 2011, brought down by a collapse in household spending, statistics bureau data showed in Sydney on Wednesday. Economists had forecast a 0.4% drop. From a year earlier, the economy expanded 1.4%, matching estimates.The current quarter will see a deep contraction, with almost 600,000 jobs lost in April alone and much of the economy in lockdown to contain the coronavirus.South African Court Declares Lockdown Rules Unconstitutional (12 p.m. HK)A South African court ruled that revised lockdown regulations implemented by the government as part of a phased reopening of the economy are unconstitutional and invalid, giving the state two weeks to amend them.The Gauteng Division of the High Court made the ruling earlier on Tuesday, Cabinet spokeswoman Phumla Williams said in an emailed statement. The decision applies to all regulations excluding the closing of South Africa’s borders and the shuttering of nightclubs and casinos, among others, court documents show.Liberty Fighters, a Pretoria-based human-rights group, challenged the regulations after receiving complaints from property tenants who were unable to pay their rent because of their lack of employment.China Says New Coronavirus Case Reported June 2 Is Imported (10:10 a.m. HK)The one additional coronavirus case is reported in Guangdong province, according to a statement from China’s National Health Commission.Another four asymptomatic cases are reported, with two of them arriving from abroad. China has 357 asymptomatic coronavirus cases under medical observation.China has 83,021 confirmed coronavirus cases, and its total death toll is at 4,634.U.K. to Publish Quarantine Plans for Overseas Arrivals (8:14 a.m. HK)The U.K. will publish details Wednesday of its plan to impose a 14-day quarantine on all overseas arrivals.The move, which takes effect June 8, was announced by Home Secretary Priti Patel last month. Aside from what her office called “a short list” of exemptions, it will cover everyone arriving in England from abroad. They will be required to fill in a form saying where they will self-isolate.Under the government’s plan, officials will conduct spot checks to ensure compliance.Brazil Reports Deadliest Day (6:45 a.m. HK)Brazil reported a record 1,262 new deaths on Tuesday, bringing the number of fatalities to 31,199. There were also 28,936 new reported cases, pushing the country’s total to 555,383, behind only the U.S.The nation of 210 million people has become an epicenter of the virus in the last few weeks. Brazil’s peak has not yet arrived, and “at the moment it is not possible to predict when it will arrive,” Michael Ryan, executive director of the World Health Organization’s Emergencies Program, said Monday.Harvard Weighs Changes for Virus Era (6:20 a.m. HK)Harvard University is weighing an array of options -- from disinfecting classrooms after each session to reducing the number of students sitting in lecture halls -- to cope with the coronavirus pandemic when it reopens, said President Lawrence Bacow.The Cambridge, Massachusetts, school will also likely cancel some fall sports, he said, and is holding off a decision to resume instruction on campus as long as possible.“Lots of things will be different when students come back,” Bacow said in an interview on Bloomberg Television with David Rubenstein. “The availability of classrooms will be a challenge.”Journals Raise Concerns About Data in Covid Studies (5:15 p.m. NY)Two prestigious medical journals said they have significant concerns about a database that was used to look at how older drugs may work in the treatment of Covid-19.The New England Journal of Medicine published an “expression of concern” about a study published by the journal on May 1 that looked at the use of heart drugs called ACE inhibitors in coronavirus patients. Later Tuesday the Lancet, a nearly 200-year-old U.K. medical journal, issued its own similar warning on a study about treating Covid-19 patients with the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine.Both studies relied on data from a firm called Surgisphere Corp., which says it aggregates information from medical records around the globe. Last week, more more than 200 scientists signed a letter to the Lancet asking for greater transparency regarding the hospitals where patients’ medical records came from and the method of analysis, along with other issues.Sapan Desai, Surgisphere’s chief executive officer, said the firm would have an outside group audit the data used in the Lancet study, and would give the authors of the New England Journal paper access to the underlying information so they can review its accuracy.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) -- The architect of Sweden’s controversial approach to fighting the coronavirus says he would change things in hindsight because of the country’s high death rate. Brazil reported a record day of deaths.President Donald Trump said the Republican Party is being “forced to seek” another city for its national convention because of coronavirus restrictions imposed by North Carolina’s governor.The U.K. will publish details of its plan to impose a 14-day quarantine on all overseas arrivals, effective June 8. Prime Minister Boris Johnson plans to reset his government’s agenda with a financial statement and a speech on the post-pandemic landscape.China said its one new coronavirus case was imported, and South Korea reported 49 new cases, mostly in the greater Seoul area, with one more death. Indonesia said its deficit would widen.Key Developments:Virus Tracker: Cases pass 6.38 million; deaths exceed 380,300The keys to speed in race for vaccineIndonesia’s Lion Air grounded indefinitelyWorst may be over for biggest Arab economiesSouth African court says lockdown rules are unconstitutionalSubscribe to a daily update on the virus from Bloomberg’s Prognosis team here. Click VRUS on the terminal for news and data on the coronavirus. For a look back at this week’s top stories from QuickTake, click here.Indonesia Sees Weaker Growth, Bigger Fiscal Gap Amid Virus (2:54 p.m. HK)Indonesia’s economy may grow even less than already reduced estimates, and the fiscal deficit will widen, as the government ramps up its response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the country’s finance minister said.The deficit is now projected to widen to 6.34% of gross domestic product, Sri Mulyani Indrawati said. That’s the latest of several revisions since the government announced just over two months ago that it was suspending its 3% ceiling.The pandemic has rattled Southeast Asia’s biggest economy and made growth projections difficult. President Joko Widodo ordered financial chiefs to expedite an economic recovery program, but he also told them to mitigate fiscal risk amid warnings that the nation’s credit rating could be in jeopardy.Man Behind Sweden’s Virus Strategy Says He Got Some Things Wrong (2:25 p.m. HK)Sweden’s top epidemiologist says more should have been done in his country to tackle Covid-19 at the start of the outbreak, in order to keep the death rate down.“If we were to encounter the same illness with the same knowledge that we have today, I think our response would land somewhere in between what Sweden did and what the rest of the world has done,” Anders Tegnell said in an interview with Swedish Radio.Tegnell is the brains behind Sweden’s controversial approach to fighting the virus, and the government of Stefan Lofven has deferred to the epidemiologist in its official response to the pandemic.At 43 deaths per 100,000, Sweden’s death rate is among the highest globally.Trump Says GOP ‘Forced’ to Seek New City for Party Convention (12:40 p.m. HK)President Donald Trump said the Republican Party has been “forced to seek” a new city for its national convention, planned for Charlotte, North Carolina, in August, because of coronavirus restrictions put in place by the state’s governor.The president, in a series of tweets on Tuesday night, did not say what other cities were being considered or if the party was definitely pulling out of Charlotte.A Republican National Committee official, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive party deliberations, said Trump’s acceptance speech would be held in another city, but the party still hoped to conduct its official convention business in Charlotte, if public health rules permit it.Australia’s Economy Contracts, Ending Three-Decade Expansion (12:15 p.m. HK)Australia’s economy contracted in the first three months of the year, setting up an end to a nearly 29-year run without a recession as an even deeper slowdown looms for the current quarter.Gross domestic product fell 0.3% from the final three months of 2019, the first quarterly drop since 2011, brought down by a collapse in household spending, statistics bureau data showed in Sydney on Wednesday. Economists had forecast a 0.4% drop. From a year earlier, the economy expanded 1.4%, matching estimates.The current quarter will see a deep contraction, with almost 600,000 jobs lost in April alone and much of the economy in lockdown to contain the coronavirus.South African Court Declares Lockdown Rules Unconstitutional (12 p.m. HK)A South African court ruled that revised lockdown regulations implemented by the government as part of a phased reopening of the economy are unconstitutional and invalid, giving the state two weeks to amend them.The Gauteng Division of the High Court made the ruling earlier on Tuesday, Cabinet spokeswoman Phumla Williams said in an emailed statement. The decision applies to all regulations excluding the closing of South Africa’s borders and the shuttering of nightclubs and casinos, among others, court documents show.Liberty Fighters, a Pretoria-based human-rights group, challenged the regulations after receiving complaints from property tenants who were unable to pay their rent because of their lack of employment.China Says New Coronavirus Case Reported June 2 Is Imported (10:10 a.m. HK)The one additional coronavirus case is reported in Guangdong province, according to a statement from China’s National Health Commission.Another four asymptomatic cases are reported, with two of them arriving from abroad. China has 357 asymptomatic coronavirus cases under medical observation.China has 83,021 confirmed coronavirus cases, and its total death toll is at 4,634.U.K. to Publish Quarantine Plans for Overseas Arrivals (8:14 a.m. HK)The U.K. will publish details Wednesday of its plan to impose a 14-day quarantine on all overseas arrivals.The move, which takes effect June 8, was announced by Home Secretary Priti Patel last month. Aside from what her office called “a short list” of exemptions, it will cover everyone arriving in England from abroad. They will be required to fill in a form saying where they will self-isolate.Under the government’s plan, officials will conduct spot checks to ensure compliance.Brazil Reports Deadliest Day (6:45 a.m. HK)Brazil reported a record 1,262 new deaths on Tuesday, bringing the number of fatalities to 31,199. There were also 28,936 new reported cases, pushing the country’s total to 555,383, behind only the U.S.The nation of 210 million people has become an epicenter of the virus in the last few weeks. Brazil’s peak has not yet arrived, and “at the moment it is not possible to predict when it will arrive,” Michael Ryan, executive director of the World Health Organization’s Emergencies Program, said Monday.Harvard Weighs Changes for Virus Era (6:20 a.m. HK)Harvard University is weighing an array of options -- from disinfecting classrooms after each session to reducing the number of students sitting in lecture halls -- to cope with the coronavirus pandemic when it reopens, said President Lawrence Bacow.The Cambridge, Massachusetts, school will also likely cancel some fall sports, he said, and is holding off a decision to resume instruction on campus as long as possible.“Lots of things will be different when students come back,” Bacow said in an interview on Bloomberg Television with David Rubenstein. “The availability of classrooms will be a challenge.”Journals Raise Concerns About Data in Covid Studies (5:15 p.m. NY)Two prestigious medical journals said they have significant concerns about a database that was used to look at how older drugs may work in the treatment of Covid-19.The New England Journal of Medicine published an “expression of concern” about a study published by the journal on May 1 that looked at the use of heart drugs called ACE inhibitors in coronavirus patients. Later Tuesday the Lancet, a nearly 200-year-old U.K. medical journal, issued its own similar warning on a study about treating Covid-19 patients with the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine.Both studies relied on data from a firm called Surgisphere Corp., which says it aggregates information from medical records around the globe. Last week, more more than 200 scientists signed a letter to the Lancet asking for greater transparency regarding the hospitals where patients’ medical records came from and the method of analysis, along with other issues.Sapan Desai, Surgisphere’s chief executive officer, said the firm would have an outside group audit the data used in the Lancet study, and would give the authors of the New England Journal paper access to the underlying information so they can review its accuracy.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

Popular video-conferencing company Zoom Video Communications (ZM) far outpaced sales expectations in the first quarter as millions of users flocked to use its technology to host business and social meetings during the coronavirus pandemic.First-quarter revenue surged 169% to $328.2 million year-on-year, beating analysts’ estimates of $202.7 million. Zoom now has about 265,400 customers with more than 10 employees, up about 354% from the same quarter last fiscal year.“The COVID-19 crisis has driven higher demand for distributed, face-to-face interactions and collaboration using Zoom,” said Zoom founder and CEO Eric S. Yuan. “Use cases have grown rapidly as people integrated Zoom into their work, learning, and personal lives. We also supported an unprecedented number of free participants, including over 100,000 K-12 schools.”Commenting on the earnings, five-star analyst Ittai Kidron at Oppenheimer, said that while Zoom reported “exceptional” results, “its gross margin significantly contracted (-1,480bps QoQ and -1,149bps YoY) due to high levels of free meeting minutes (K-12 schools) and increased public cloud hosting costs”. Indeed, cost of revenue in the first quarter skyrocketed 330% to $103.7 million year-on-year.Shares rose 1.9% to close at $208.08 ahead of the earnings release on Tuesday and dropped 1.7% in after-market trading.Looking ahead, the company raised its full-year revenue forecast to a range of $1.78 billion to $1.80 billion from $905 million to $915 million. This compares with analysts’ average estimates of $935.2 million for the fiscal year ending January 2021.Shares have more than tripled this year as Zoom has gone from an average of 10 million daily users to about 300 million this year. The analyst community will now wait to see if the user boom is sustainable as some countries are starting to relax their lockdown restrictions and employees are beginning to go back to their work place.Oppenheimer’s Kidron, who maintained a Hold rating on the stock due to valuation, says that Zoom has seen strong adoption, which calls into question how this develops as businesses reopen.“Zoom reported robust net expansion and user growth,” Kidron wrote in a note to investors. “Going forward, exposure to multiple growth levers (new customer growth and use cases, upselling, cross-selling Rooms/ Phones, int'l expansion, etc.) leaves us feeling positive. However, we admit we likely missed an entry point earlier this year and remain Perform-rated on valuation.”The rest of the Street is cautiously optimistic on the stock. The Moderate Buy consensus showcases 14 Hold and 2 Sell ratings versus 8 Buy ratings. Following this year’s sharp rally the $131.18 average analyst price target, now implies shares may decline 37% from current levels. (See Zoom stock analysis on TipRanks).Related News: Lyft Rises 5% After-Hours On Strong May Performance Beleaguered Hertz Sinks 36% In After-Market On Bankruptcy Protection Filing Carl Icahn Initiates Position in Delek US Holdings, Boosts Occidental Petroleum More recent articles from Smarter Analyst: * Glu Mobile Sinks On $100M Public Offering Announcement * Microchip Gains 7% After-Hours On Boosted Guidance; Top Analyst Ups PT * Cheesecake Factory Spikes After-Hours As 75% Sales Recaptured * Lyft Rises 5% After-Hours On Strong May Performance

Popular video-conferencing company Zoom Video Communications (ZM) far outpaced sales expectations in the first quarter as millions of users flocked to use its technology to host business and social meetings during the coronavirus pandemic.First-quarter revenue surged 169% to $328.2 million year-on-year, beating analysts’ estimates of $202.7 million. Zoom now has about 265,400 customers with more than 10 employees, up about 354% from the same quarter last fiscal year.“The COVID-19 crisis has driven higher demand for distributed, face-to-face interactions and collaboration using Zoom,” said Zoom founder and CEO Eric S. Yuan. “Use cases have grown rapidly as people integrated Zoom into their work, learning, and personal lives. We also supported an unprecedented number of free participants, including over 100,000 K-12 schools.”Commenting on the earnings, five-star analyst Ittai Kidron at Oppenheimer, said that while Zoom reported “exceptional” results, “its gross margin significantly contracted (-1,480bps QoQ and -1,149bps YoY) due to high levels of free meeting minutes (K-12 schools) and increased public cloud hosting costs”. Indeed, cost of revenue in the first quarter skyrocketed 330% to $103.7 million year-on-year.Shares rose 1.9% to close at $208.08 ahead of the earnings release on Tuesday and dropped 1.7% in after-market trading.Looking ahead, the company raised its full-year revenue forecast to a range of $1.78 billion to $1.80 billion from $905 million to $915 million. This compares with analysts’ average estimates of $935.2 million for the fiscal year ending January 2021.Shares have more than tripled this year as Zoom has gone from an average of 10 million daily users to about 300 million this year. The analyst community will now wait to see if the user boom is sustainable as some countries are starting to relax their lockdown restrictions and employees are beginning to go back to their work place.Oppenheimer’s Kidron, who maintained a Hold rating on the stock due to valuation, says that Zoom has seen strong adoption, which calls into question how this develops as businesses reopen.“Zoom reported robust net expansion and user growth,” Kidron wrote in a note to investors. “Going forward, exposure to multiple growth levers (new customer growth and use cases, upselling, cross-selling Rooms/ Phones, int'l expansion, etc.) leaves us feeling positive. However, we admit we likely missed an entry point earlier this year and remain Perform-rated on valuation.”The rest of the Street is cautiously optimistic on the stock. The Moderate Buy consensus showcases 14 Hold and 2 Sell ratings versus 8 Buy ratings. Following this year’s sharp rally the $131.18 average analyst price target, now implies shares may decline 37% from current levels. (See Zoom stock analysis on TipRanks).Related News: Lyft Rises 5% After-Hours On Strong May Performance Beleaguered Hertz Sinks 36% In After-Market On Bankruptcy Protection Filing Carl Icahn Initiates Position in Delek US Holdings, Boosts Occidental Petroleum More recent articles from Smarter Analyst: * Glu Mobile Sinks On $100M Public Offering Announcement * Microchip Gains 7% After-Hours On Boosted Guidance; Top Analyst Ups PT * Cheesecake Factory Spikes After-Hours As 75% Sales Recaptured * Lyft Rises 5% After-Hours On Strong May Performance

Health officials say one more Pakistani lawmaker has died at a hospital in Islamabad after testing positive for the coronavirus. According to a Greenpeace analysis released Wednesday, the European Central Bank has purchased corporate bonds worth about 30 billion euros ($33.7 billion) between mid-March and mid-May 2020.

Health officials say one more Pakistani lawmaker has died at a hospital in Islamabad after testing positive for the coronavirus. According to a Greenpeace analysis released Wednesday, the European Central Bank has purchased corporate bonds worth about 30 billion euros ($33.7 billion) between mid-March and mid-May 2020.

(Bloomberg) -- Follow Bloomberg on LINE messenger for all the business news and analysis you need.Indonesia’s economy may grow even less than already reduced estimates, and the fiscal deficit will widen further, as the government ramps up its response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the country’s finance minister said.The deficit is now projected to widen to 6.34% of gross domestic product, Sri Mulyani Indrawati told reporters in an online briefing Wednesday. That’s the latest of several revisions since the government announced just over two months ago that it was suspending its 3% ceiling.The economy will expand less than the 2.3% currently forecast for this year, she said, adding that she hoped it would still achieve some growth.Officials remain hopeful the economy “will not decline very sharply” in the second quarter, and can begin to recover after that, Indrawati said. “The increase in the deficit will be maintained carefully, as per the president’s instructions, in terms of sustainability and financing.”The pandemic has rattled Southeast Asia’s biggest economy and made growth projections difficult. Last week the coordinating economy minister said GDP likely contracted in the second quarter.Earlier Wednesday, President Joko Widodo ordered Indonesia’s financial chiefs to expedite an economic recovery program, but also told them to mitigate fiscal risk, amid warnings that the nation’s credit rating could be in jeopardy.Any additional spending must be balanced against “our various fiscal risks going forward,” Jokowi, as the president is known, said at a cabinet meeting. “Changes in the budget’s posture must be carried out carefully and transparently,” he said, adding that it was crucial to maintain credibility with investors.Read: World Bank Calls on Indonesia to Curb Debt Amid Concerns Over CreditworthinessThe World Bank last month urged Indonesia to take steps to maintain confidence in its creditworthiness and to reinstate the 3% deficit ceiling. It also said the central bank should end its partial financing of the deficit. The Washington-based lender predicts Indonesia’s economy will have zero growth this year, and could even contract 3.5% under a worst-case scenario.Bank Indonesia began buying bonds directly from the government this year to help finance the fiscal response to Covid-19. The central bank has bought 26 trillion rupiah ($1.8 trillion) in bonds from the primary market since April 21, Governor Perry Warjiyo said Wednesday.The central bank’s policy arsenal would continue to be aimed at supporting the recovery, including maintaining confidence among investors, Warjiyo said.Indrawati said this year’s fiscal deficit is expected to reach 1,039.2 trillion rupiah, compared to the previous estimate of 1,033 trillion rupiah. She said the government has earmarked 677.2 trillion rupiah for virus relief.(Updates with details of fiscal deficit from second paragraph)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) -- Follow Bloomberg on LINE messenger for all the business news and analysis you need.Indonesia’s economy may grow even less than already reduced estimates, and the fiscal deficit will widen further, as the government ramps up its response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the country’s finance minister said.The deficit is now projected to widen to 6.34% of gross domestic product, Sri Mulyani Indrawati told reporters in an online briefing Wednesday. That’s the latest of several revisions since the government announced just over two months ago that it was suspending its 3% ceiling.The economy will expand less than the 2.3% currently forecast for this year, she said, adding that she hoped it would still achieve some growth.Officials remain hopeful the economy “will not decline very sharply” in the second quarter, and can begin to recover after that, Indrawati said. “The increase in the deficit will be maintained carefully, as per the president’s instructions, in terms of sustainability and financing.”The pandemic has rattled Southeast Asia’s biggest economy and made growth projections difficult. Last week the coordinating economy minister said GDP likely contracted in the second quarter.Earlier Wednesday, President Joko Widodo ordered Indonesia’s financial chiefs to expedite an economic recovery program, but also told them to mitigate fiscal risk, amid warnings that the nation’s credit rating could be in jeopardy.Any additional spending must be balanced against “our various fiscal risks going forward,” Jokowi, as the president is known, said at a cabinet meeting. “Changes in the budget’s posture must be carried out carefully and transparently,” he said, adding that it was crucial to maintain credibility with investors.Read: World Bank Calls on Indonesia to Curb Debt Amid Concerns Over CreditworthinessThe World Bank last month urged Indonesia to take steps to maintain confidence in its creditworthiness and to reinstate the 3% deficit ceiling. It also said the central bank should end its partial financing of the deficit. The Washington-based lender predicts Indonesia’s economy will have zero growth this year, and could even contract 3.5% under a worst-case scenario.Bank Indonesia began buying bonds directly from the government this year to help finance the fiscal response to Covid-19. The central bank has bought 26 trillion rupiah ($1.8 trillion) in bonds from the primary market since April 21, Governor Perry Warjiyo said Wednesday.The central bank’s policy arsenal would continue to be aimed at supporting the recovery, including maintaining confidence among investors, Warjiyo said.Indrawati said this year’s fiscal deficit is expected to reach 1,039.2 trillion rupiah, compared to the previous estimate of 1,033 trillion rupiah. She said the government has earmarked 677.2 trillion rupiah for virus relief.(Updates with details of fiscal deficit from second paragraph)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

Asian shares rose Wednesday after Wall Street extended its gains for a third straight day, driven by optimism over economies reopening from shutdowns to stem the coronavirus pandemic. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 gained 1.3% to finish at 22,613.76. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 1.3% at 24,315.99, while the Shanghai Composite added 0.2% to 2,926.59.

Asian shares rose Wednesday after Wall Street extended its gains for a third straight day, driven by optimism over economies reopening from shutdowns to stem the coronavirus pandemic. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 gained 1.3% to finish at 22,613.76. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 1.3% at 24,315.99, while the Shanghai Composite added 0.2% to 2,926.59.