Business News

Employee union Unite said it will oppose any compulsory job losses within HSBC and "work vigorously to ensure staff are heard and their jobs protected", after the bank dusted off plans to axe as many as 35,000 roles worldwide.

Saudi Aramco has completed its purchase of a 70% stake in petrochemicals company Saudi Basic Industries for $69.1 billion and extended the payment period by three years to 2028, providing a cushion against weak oil prices.

Business sentiment of Asian companies sank to an 11-year low in the second quarter, a Thomson Reuters/INSEAD survey found, with some two-thirds of the firms polled flagging a worsening COVID-19 pandemic as the biggest risk over the next six months.

Germany's smartphone app to help trace coronavirus infections has been downloaded 6.5 million times in the first 24 hours since its launch, the CEO of software company SAP said on Wednesday.

The dollar was little changed on Wednesday after U.S. retail sales rose more than expected in May, although caution kept investors from aggressively buying riskier currencies like the Australian dollar.

The yields on super-long Japanese government bonds (JGB) edged up on Wednesday, a day after the Bank of Japan's (BOJ) governor said excessive falls in super-long debt yields are not desirable.

European shares opened higher on Wednesday, with hopes of a swift rebound from a coronavirus-led economic slump gaining traction even as curbs on movement in Beijing were put in place to contain a potential second wave of COVID-19 cases.

Fujairah Oil Industry Zone on Wednesday published, via industry information service S&P Global Platts, the following weekly inventory data for oil products for the week ended June 15. Volumes are in thousands of barrels. Figures in brackets represent volume change from prior week calculated by Reuters. Week Light Middle Residual Total Distillates Distillates Fuels 2020

* Axed staff will remain paid for much of 2020 (Adds details)

* Infigen shares hit 3-yr high, topping offer price (Adds Iberdrola adviser, Iberdrola, UAC comments)

Japanese stocks ended lower on Wednesday as automakers dragged following weak export data, while escalating tensions between North Korea and South Korea also doused the market sentiment.

Britain's health minister on Wednesday hailed the use of a steroid called dexamethasone for treating coronavirus patients as the best news so far of the outbreak.

It's hard to find an investor who hadn't already assumed some form of second wave of COVID-19 when economies reopen, so why did stock markets panic at the hint of a relapse last week?

Greece's Alpha Bank is in talks with at least five U.S. investment firms including Cerberus and PIMCO in a fresh attempt to offload a portfolio of bad debt worth more than 10 billion euros ($11.3 billion), two sources told Reuters.

* Trade deficit at 833.4 bln yen vs forecast 1.07 trln yen deficit

* Receives $232 mln loan from parent Walmart (Adds details, quote)

United Airlines sweetened on Tuesday a voluntary exit package for flight attendants and extended the application deadline, saying it needed "a lot more people to sign up" to avoid involuntary layoffs in October, according to a document seen by Reuters.

United Airlines sweetened on Tuesday a voluntary exit package for flight attendants and extended the application deadline, saying it needed "a lot more people to sign up" to avoid involuntary layoffs in October, according to a document seen by Reuters.

HSBC is resuming a massive redundancy plan it had put on ice following the outbreak of coronavirus, and will cut 35,000 jobs over the medium term, a memo seen by Reuters on Wednesday showed.

South Africa's Massmart expects its half-year loss to increase at least 50% because of a substantial hit from a nationwide lockdown on sales, the retailer said on Wednesday.