Business News

AstraZeneca Plc on Thursday picked Emergent BioSolutions Inc to help produce the 300 million doses of the British drugmaker's potential COVID-19 vaccine pledged to the United States.

U.S. stocks deepened losses on Thursday, with the Dow on track for its biggest single day percentage fall since March 18, on fears of a resurgence in coronavirus infections and a gloomy economic forecast from the Federal Reserve.

* Lufthansa slumps after job loss warning (Adds details, graphic, updates to close)

The Trump administration is looking at various responses to China's national security law on Hong Kong through the president's working group on capital markets, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Thursday.

Italy, the first major European country to roll out a smartphone app to trace COVID-19 infections that does not rely on a centralised database, has already seen 2.2 million downloads in 10 days, a sign Italians are setting aside privacy concerns.

The safe-haven Japanese yen and Swiss franc gained on Thursday while a gauge of global equity markets fell the most in seven weeks after the Federal Reserve's sobering outlook cast doubt on hopes for a V-shaped recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

Volkswagen on Thursday apologised for posting on its Instagram page last month an advert widely criticised as racist, and said it was published because of a lack of cultural sensitivity.

* Indexes fall: Dow 3.68%, S&P 3.07%, Nasdaq 2.17% (Adds comment, quote; Updates prices)

A new European Union law requiring closer scrutiny of foreign clearing houses used by customers from the bloc has been simplified after the United States threatened retaliation.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said on Thursday that it ordered Amazon.com Inc and eBay Inc to stop selling a wide range of pesticide products on their platforms, including those that are falsely marketed as being effective against the novel coronavirus.

Major auto parts supplier Visteon Corp on Thursday forecast global production volumes for the auto industry to fall between 20% and 25% this year and warned it would be a couple of years before they returned to 2019 levels.

The European Commission is seeking a mandate from EU countries to buy promising COVID-19 vaccine candidates in advance from pharmaceutical firms, as long as they are not produced solely in the United States, officials said.

* Euro zone periphery govt bond yields http://tmsnrt.rs/2ii2Bqr (Updates prices, adds chart and latest news)

Auto parts suppliers across North America said they are encouraged as major automakers accelerate production after coronavirus pandemic shutdowns, but are holding back on hiring and investment because of longer-term uncertainty.

Delta Air Lines Inc is launching next week a program to test employees for active COVID-19 and antibodies under a partnership with the Mayo Clinic and Quest Diagnostics Inc, Chief Executive Ed Bastian said in an employee memo on Thursday.

Oil prices slumped on Thursday, dragged down by another record build-up in U.S. crude inventories and the U.S. Federal Reserve's projections that the world's biggest economy would shrink 6.5% this year.

U.S. stocks opened sharply lower on Thursday with the Nasdaq falling after a four-day rally on fears of a second wave of coronavirus infections and a grim economic forecast from the Federal Reserve.

Takeda Pharmaceutical Co Ltd has agreed to sell a portfolio of over-the-counter and prescription drugs marketed in the Asia Pacific region to South Korea's Celltrion Inc for $278 million, it said on Thursday

PayPal Holdings Inc said on Thursday it was pledging $530 million to support black and minority-owned businesses in the United States and foster diversity, amid worldwide protests over racial injustice.

Billionaire investor William Ackman's hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management has filed confidentially with U.S. regulators for an initial public offering (IPO) of a blank-check investment vehicle that could raise more than $1 billion and be the biggest of its kind, according to people familiar with the matter.