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German carmaker Volkswagen is expecting an operating loss in the current quarter due the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, its chief financial officer said on Wednesday.

Volvo Car Group, owned by China's Geely Holding, said on Wednesday it was giving notice of redundancy to 1,300 white-collar workers in Sweden as the impact from the pandemic raised the urgency of lowering structural costs.

World shares eked out slim gains on Wednesday, with optimism over economies easing coronavirus lockdowns and oil prices clawing back ground leavened by caution over corporate earnings.

Airbus on Wednesday posted a 49% slump in first-quarter core profit and called for an industry-wide campaign to restore confidence in flying after the coronavirus pandemic triggered the "gravest crisis the aerospace industry has ever known".

Standard Chartered PLC on Wednesday said it expects its main markets to lead global economic recovery from the COVID-19 crisis as early as later this year, striking an optimistic note after increased bad loan provisions squashed quarterly profit.

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and Lufthansa boss Carsten Spohr will meet in Vienna on Wednesday to discuss urgently needed state aid for the German carrier's Austrian business, a spokesman for Kurz said.

Britain's John Lewis Partnership has appointed James Bailey, a former director of Sainsbury's , to be the new boss of its upmarket supermarket chain Waitrose, it said on Wednesday.

Top managers at Nivea-maker Beiersdorf are waiving 20% of their fixed compensation between April and December, Chief Executive Stefan De Loecker said on Wednesday, adding that the level of management below them was also foregoing 5% of its pay.

General Electric reported a steep decline in first-quarter revenue as the industrial giant took a hit amid the coronavirus pandemic.

U.S. stock index futures rose on Wednesday after Google-parent Alphabet reported upbeat quarterly results, while investors braced for data that could show a sharp contraction in the domestic economy.

General Electric Co reported a 7.6% drop in first-quarter revenue, hurt by weakness in its aviation and power units due to the coronavirus pandemic, and fell short of its own free cash flow targets for the quarter.

Bentley will make wearing face masks compulsory at its British car factory and has introduced a two-metre distance between workers which will result in output halving over the first couple of weeks of production, its boss told Reuters.

HSBC Holdings PLC's first-quarter profit nearly halved from a year-ago, missing estimates, after boosting provisions against bad loans as the coronavirus pandemic hits borrowers worldwide.

Swiss drugmaker Novartis reported rising first-quarter sales and profit that beat analyst expectations and confirmed its 2020 targets as the coronavirus pandemic prompted patients to stock up on their prescriptions in advance.

Germany has agreed to help airline Lufthansa with a rescue package worth about 9 billion euros ($9.74 billion) in return for a blocking minority and one or two supervisory board mandates, Business Insider cited company sources as saying.