(Bloomberg) -- European stocks dropped as the region’s leaders struggled to finalize a long-term plan for cushioning the economic blow from the coronavirus. U.S. equity futures and Asian shares slipped while Treasuries and the dollar gained.Energy and banking shares dragged the Stoxx Europe 600 Index lower after European leaders signed off on a 540 billion-euro ($580 billion) plan tackling the immediate fallout from the pandemic, but failed to come up with a longer-term rebuilding program. Italian government bonds fell. Underscoring the challenges, data showed German business confidence fell to record low while virus cases in the region’s biggest economy rose by the most in nearly a week.Futures on the three main American equity gauges pointed to losses at the open on Wall Street, while stocks from Tokyo to Shanghai retreated. Oil reversed gains to trade at about $16 a barrel in New York, after collapsing earlier this week.A global stock rally...
(Bloomberg) -- Russia reported the most new cases since April 19 and Germany had its worst day in nearly a week, after Chancellor Angela Merkel said the country is “far from being out of the woods.” New cases in Singapore dropped below 1,000 for the first time in five days.Europe’s leaders inched toward an agreement on rebuilding plans, while U.S. lawmakers overwhelmingly passed a $484 billion aid bill, replenishing funding to aid small businesses and provide support for hospitals and virus testing.U.K. retail sales plunged and German business confidence extended its slump, though consumers stocking up on frozen food and medicine provided a short-term boost for Nestle SA and Sanofi SA. Gilead Sciences Inc. shares sank after a summary of a Chinese trial of its closely watched virus treatment appeared to show that it was a failure.Key DevelopmentsVirus Tracker: Cases top 2.7 million; deaths exceed 190,000Trump’s idea to bleach lungs to...
(Bloomberg) -- Robyn Shultz was waiting for approval of her $40,000 small-business loan last week when the government’s first-come-first-served lending program ran out of cash.Shultz, 60, owns Quality Electric Co. in Birmingham, Alabama, with her husband, Steve Bearden. She said the assistance from the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program would have helped keep six full-time employees on the payroll. Now she says time is running out. The additional $320 billion approved by Congress on Thursday may be too late. She’s not sure she can stay afloat.“Smaller companies like us are probably just going to be washed under the rug,” Shultz said.The swift and unprecedented response by the U.S. government and the Federal Reserve to the coronavirus’s economic fallout doesn’t mean much to folks like Shultz, who see help coming too late or not at all.Policy makers in Congress, the Treasury Department and the central bank have taken a lesson from...
