Oil prices firmed on Tuesday after U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to talks aimed at stabilising energy markets, with benchmarks climbing off 18-year lows hit as the coronavirus outbreak cut fuel demand worldwide.
British chemical company Ineos said on Tuesday it will build a third hand sanitizer plant in France in 10 days to help with a European shortage.
IKEA, the world's biggest furniture brand, said on Tuesday it has started making protective gear such as aprons and facemasks for hospitals battling the spread of coronavirus, and aims to step up output further.
The Federal Reserve has moved into overdrive to try to keep the U.S. economy from suffering lasting damage from the coronavirus pandemic, announcing an emergency interest rate cut on March 3 and rolling out new efforts almost weekly since, including slashing rates to zero and relaunching large-scale asset purchases.
U.S. stock index futures rose on Tuesday at the end of one of Wall Street's worst first quarters on record, as an unexpected expansion in Chinese factory activity raised hopes of a more stable economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
Russian gas producer Gazprom said on Tuesday that the Bovanenkovo airport, shut due to a coronavirus scare, has partially resumed operations to handle industrial cargoes and food, though there are no plans to rotate staff at the gas field.
Ford Motor Co said on Tuesday it was postponing its plan to restart production at its North America plants due to safety concerns for its workers amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Google on Tuesday defended the impartiality of its search results after users in Japan seeking to corroborate rumors of an imminent state of emergency declaration by the government were met with no results on its website.
The dollar climbed against a swathe of currencies on Tuesday amid fiscal year-end demand by Japanese firms while the Australian dollar slipped despite a Chinese survey showing manufacturing returned to growth in March.
Microsoft Corp said it has seen a 775% jump in a month for Teams calling and meeting in Italy, withdrawing an earlier statement that the surge was for its cloud services in regions around the world that enforced social distancing to curb transmission of the coronavirus.
Russia's Gazprom said on Tuesday that the Bovanenkovo airport, shut due to a coronavirus scare, has partially resumed operations to handle industrial cargoes and food, though there are no plans to rotate staff at the gas field.
Huawei warned on Tuesday that 2020 would be its most difficult year yet due to American trade restrictions which dealt a blow to its overseas sales in 2019, and predicted the Chinese government would retaliate against the United States.
World stocks were set to close their worst quarter since 2008 on a brighter note, as Chinese factory data on Tuesday held out hope for an economic revival even as much of the rest of the world locked down to fight the coronavirus.
Russian online retailer Ozon, part-owned by the Sistema conglomerate, said on Tuesday it had raised $50 million from U.S. investment fund Princeville Capital through a convertible loan that can be turned into equity.
"I think a lot of people are trying to get clever and time the market," Bank of America vice chairman Keith Banks told CNBC. "You tend to do the wrong thing at the wrong time."