(Bloomberg) -- The world’s largest oil producers were closing in on a deal to rescue crude markets from a coronavirus-induced collapse after U.S. President Donald Trump stepped in to broker a truce.An unprecedented cut of about 10% in worldwide crude production -- which seemed unlikely last week when Trump first floated the idea in a tweet -- was all but certain on Friday, with Mexico the last holdout. Now, a compromise backed by Trump will be discussed between the Latin American country and Saudi Arabia on Saturday. Russia has already said it considers the plan a done deal.The survival of thousands of crude producers, millions of jobs and the economies of oil-dependent nations are hanging in the balance as the global pandemic wipes out demand in a world awash with crude. Several U.S. shale producers are on the brink of bankruptcy, Russia risks having no place to store its crude, and...
Johnson & Johnson said on Friday it abandoned plans to buy Takeda Pharmaceutical’s surgical patch product TachoSil, citing regulatory issues. Takeda, Japan’s biggest drugmaker, announced the sale of TachoSil, a surgical patch to control bleeding, to Johnson & Johnson's subsidiary Ethicon for $400 million last May. "Ethicon and Takeda have mutually decided to terminate the TachoSil transaction, agreeing that it was the right decision given the regulators’ concerns," a representative for Johnson & Johnson said in a statement....
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- The most misleading cliche about the coronavirus is that it treats us all the same. It doesn’t, neither medically nor economically, socially or psychologically. In particular, Covid-19 exacerbates preexisting conditions of inequality wherever it arrives. Before long, this will cause social turmoil, up to and including uprisings and revolutions.Social unrest had already been increasing around the world before SARS-CoV-2 began its journey. According to one count, there have been about 100 large anti-government protests since 2017, from the gilets jaunes riots in a rich country like France to demonstrations against strongmen in poor countries such as Sudan and Bolivia. About 20 of these uprisings toppled leaders, while several were suppressed by brutal crackdowns and many others went back to simmering until the next outbreak.The immediate effect of Covid-19 is to dampen most forms of unrest, as both democratic and authoritarian governments force their populations into lockdowns, which keep people from taking...
Meanwhile, the Fed continues to fire up its presses and print as much money as it needs to shore up the economy. What would you rather own? Something scarce or something abundant? This is actually the core reason for gold’s strength....
