Business News

Wall Street's main indexes jumped on Friday, recouping about half of the previous session's sharp losses, but were still on track for their worst week in nearly three months on fears of a rise in new coronavirus infections and economic worries.

* Indexes up: Dow 3.05%, S&P 2.48%, Nasdaq 2.52% (Updates to open)

Indian drugmaker Zydus Cadila said on Friday it signed a non-exclusive licensing pact with Gilead Sciences Inc to manufacture and market antiviral drug remdesivir, the first treatment to show improvement in COVID-19 trials.

EQM Midstream Partners LP delayed the expected completion of its Mountain Valley natural gas pipeline from West Virginia to Virginia to early 2021 and said it could boost the $5.4 billion project's cost by 5% to around $5.7 billion.

Canada's main stock index rose on Friday, a session after stocks suffered their worst session in nearly 11 weeks, as the heavyweight energy sector jumped about 5% on higher oil prices.

Japan aims to launch a smartphone app based on technology from Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google next week to help curb the spread of coronavirus by tracking close contact with those infected, the health ministry said on Friday.

Brazil's real slid on Friday as it caught up with a rout in markets, while other Latin American currencies firmed against a steady dollar with Mexico's peso looking to recover from its heaviest sell-off in three months. The peso surged 2.4%, on track to post its biggest one-session gain in 11 weeks after the currency lost nearly 4% on Thursday as worries over a prolonged economic recovery were exacerbated by fears of a second wave of COVID-19 infec

* Big EU governments maintain parallel talks with drugmakers (adds quotes, details, context)

Dick's Sporting Goods Inc said on Friday it would resume paying shareholders a quarterly dividend, citing strong early sales at its stores that have reopened amid easing coronavirus-driven restrictions.

When the novel coronavirus first appeared in the United States, North Dakota was in the envious position of having more money in its state coffers than it had budgeted.

Cheryl Wellman was able to bring back most of her furloughed workers last month with the help of a special government loan.

Top Wall Street brokerages Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley downgraded their ratings on Tesla Inc saying the electric carmaker's shares were overpriced, two days after the high-flying stock crossed $1,000 per share.

"Rise and rise again until lambs become lions," runs an oft-quoted line from the 2010 film 'Robin Hood'. The motto is being taken seriously by all those merry men and maidens chasing shares in little-known or even bankrupt firms, using a mobile trading app called Robinhood.

Chinese car comparison website Bitauto Holdings Ltd said on Friday it would be taken private by a Tencent Holdings Ltd backed investor consortium in an all-cash deal for $1.1 billion.

U.S. airline American Airlines Group Inc said on Friday it expects its second quarter revenue to decline 90% compared with a year earlier.

Facebook's acquisition of popular GIF website Giphy is being scrutinised by Britain's competition watchdog for possibly reducing competition in the United Kingdom.

The Hong Kong government and China's foreign ministry branch in the city hit back on Friday at a report by Britain criticising Beijing's plans for national security legislation, saying it was "biased" and intervened in internal affairs.

* Zijin makes all-cash offer of C$1.85/share for Guyana Goldfields

Japan's Honda Motor Co has resumed production at automobile and motorcycle plants in the United States and other countries after they were hit by a suspected cyber attack this week, a spokesman said on Friday.

Britain's government have brought in quarantine rules to protect public health, a spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday, declining to comment on legal action brought by British Airways, easyJet and Ryanair.