Oil prices lost more than $1 a barrel on Thursday as restrictions on travel worldwide slashed fuel demand, with U.S. crude futures plunging more than 6% after the United States scrapped plans to buy domestic oil for its emergency reserve.
The U.S. Senate on Wednesday unanimously backed a $2 trillion bill aimed at helping unemployed workers and industries hurt by the coronavirus epidemic, as well as providing billions of dollars to buy urgently needed medical equipment.
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she expected the chamber to pass an estimated $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief bill when it meets on Friday, after the Senate overwhelmingly approved the unprecedented economic rescue legislation Wednesday evening.
Wall Street surged on Thursday as record weekly jobless claims came in below investors' worst fears, while also making a strong case for more aggressive stimulus to aid businesses and families wrecked by the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.
The number of Americans filing claims for unemployment benefits surged to a record of more than 3 million last week as strict measures to contain the coronavirus pandemic brought the country to a sudden halt, unleashing a wave of layoffs that likely ended the longest employment boom in U.S. history.
The CARES Act, which is expected to get final congressional approval on Friday, includes a $350 billion loan program for small businesses that need cash to meet payroll and other obligations. Here's how it will work.
U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell told Americans on Thursday progress in controlling the spread of the coronavirus would determine when the economy reopens but assured them the Fed was taking every action to support a vigorous rebound when it comes.
In order to put recession-fighting checks into the hands of millions of Americans, the U.S. government will rely on a tax agency that has fewer workers, a smaller budget and the same 1960s-era computer systems it had the last time it was asked to do so.
Caterpillar Inc withdrew its earnings guidance for 2020 on Thursday and suspended some operations, citing economic uncertainty amid the novel coronavirus pandemic that has dented equipment sales and hit supply chains.
The International Air Transport Association on Thursday urged the group of the 20 major economies to act quickly to prevent irrecoverable damage to the airline industry that has been shaken by the coronavirus crisis.
Nestle , the world's biggest food company, said it would pay full salaries to employees affected by work stoppages for a minimum of three months, to protect them from the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.
The number of jobs lost around the world due to the coronavirus crisis could be "far higher" than the 25 million the International Labour Organization (ILO) estimated just a week ago, a senior ILO official said on Thursday.
Peter Tuchman, dubbed the "most photographed trader on Wall Street", took to Instagram on Thursday to tell his 10,000-odd followers that he had tested positive for coronavirus.
Sweden's Volvo Car Group, owned by China's Geely, scaled back its guidance for the full year, warning that sales, earnings and cash flow in the first half of 2020 would decline from a year ago as the coronavirus pandemic weighed on its business.
A Wall Street rally powered global gains in stocks on Thursday despite a record number of new unemployment filings in the United States, as traders focused on the unanimous passage of a $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill in the U.S. Senate and the possibility that there is more stimulus to come.