Brazil's Senate on Friday approved a presidential decree declaring a national emergency over the coronavirus epidemic, allowing the government to waive fiscal targets and free up budget resources to fight the virus that has killed seven and infected 621 in the country.
Oil prices rose on Thursday but pared early gains as investors tried to assess how effective massive stimulus by central banks will be in shoring up the global economy as the shock from the coronavirus pandemic deepens.
The dollar surged and everything else was blown away on Thursday as emergency central bank measures in Europe, the United States and Australia failed to halt a fresh wave of panic selling.
Amazon.com Inc on Thursday said it was closing a small New York warehouse temporarily after one of its associates tested positive for the coronavirus, a move that highlights the operational risk it faces as the disease spreads.
From airlines and cruise lines to retailers and energy companies, investors are fleeing large pockets of the corporate credit market, worried that the coronavirus pandemic will lead to bankruptcies, defaults and credit rating downgrades.
Lufthansa said that the airline industry may not survive without state aid if the coronavirus epidemic lasts for a long time, as it throws everything at bringing home stranded travelers and keeping industrial supply chains open.
As worries over the economic hit from the coronavirus outbreak spread from stocks, oil and bonds to cryptocurrencies late last week, bitcoin crashed to its worst day in seven years. But plummeting prices weren't the only problem for investors.
Shares of SoftBank Group Corp closed down 17% on Thursday in their biggest one-day fall, hammered by investor scepticism over the outlook for tech bets, such as office sharing firm WeWork and ridehailer Uber .
Hundreds of Twitter users welcomed on Thursday an offer by Tesla's chief executive, Elon Musk, to make ventilators for coronavirus sufferers, after the United States appealed for donations of respirator masks to combat a shortage.
Copper prices have crashed in recent days amid growing panic over the impact of the coronavirus, and the metal's reputation as a barometer for the global economy means analysts are looking to see if it has further to fall.
To help small businesses survive the coronavirus economic shock, online lender Kabbage created a platform where shoppers can buy a gift certificate now to be redeemed in-store later.
ECB President Christine Lagarde overruled objections from Germany and the Netherlands to adopt a historic "no-limits" commitment to shore up the region's economy in the face of the coronavirus meltdown, three sources told Reuters.
The world's wealthiest nations poured unprecedented aid into the reeling global economy on Thursday as coronavirus cases ballooned in the current epicentre Europe and London became the latest major center bracing for lockdown.
Croatia registered its first death of a person infected with the coronavirus, the state public health institute said on the official government web page for the crisis.
Initial claims for U.S. unemployment benefits rose more than expected to 281,000 in the latest week from an unrevised 211,000 the previous week, the Labor Department said on Thursday, in the first indication of the toll on employment from the coronavirus outbreak.