Author: LoveWorld UK

Royal Dutch Shell RDSa. cut its dividend for the first time since World War Two on Thursday as the energy company retrenched in the face of an unprecedented drop in oil demand due to the coronavirus pandemic. Shell also suspended the next tranche of its share buyback programme and said it was reducing oil and gas output by nearly a quarter after its net profit almost halved in the first three months of 2020. Shell’s shares in London had slumped 7% by 0753 GMT, sharply underperforming rival BP (BP.L) which was down 2.2%. For years, Shell has taken pride in…

UK stock markets rose on Thursday as investors cheered signs of progress in developing a treatment for the novel coronavirus, while Reckitt Benckiser surged after reporting strong demand for its products ahead of the lockdown. The consumer goods firm (RB.L) said sales of its Lysol disinfectants, Mucinex cough syrup and Dettol soap had jumped in the first quarter and that it now expected performance in 2020 to be better than initially forecast. Its shares rose 3.2%, pushing up the household goods index .FTNMX3720 2.3%. [nXXN2CH004] The blue-chip FTSE 100 .FTSE rose 0.3%, climbing for the fourth straight session and on track to…

A day after his fiancee gave birth, Prime Minister Boris Johnson leads a meeting of his top ministers on Thursday to discuss how to ease Britain’s lockdown amid a backdrop of rising deaths and questions over the government’s response to the COVID-19 crisis. New figures on Wednesday showed that Britain now has the second highest official COVD-19 death toll with more than 26,000 deaths, a statistic which puts pressure on the government over its response to the outbreak and fuelled caution in raising restrictions on movement in case that led to a second spike. The government will also face questions…

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s fiancee, Carrie Symonds, has given birth to a baby boy, Downing Street said on Wednesday. Both mother and child are doing well. The boy was born at a London hospital. Johnson returned to work on Monday, a month after testing positive for COVID which he said had threatened his life. Symonds also had symptoms of COVID but recovered swiftly. The couple, who have been living together in Downing Street since Johnson became prime minister in July, announced in February that they were expecting their first child. Politicians began sending their congratulations to the couple. “So…

Electricals retailer Dixons Carphone said strong online demand was partially offsetting declines from stores being shut in the coronavirus lockdown, but it scrapped its dividend due to the uncertainty ahead. The UK-based group, which also has stores in Ireland, Scandinavia and Greece, said on Wednesday that it was focused on strengthening its liquidity, and had extended its debt facilities, putting the company in a robust position financially. Dixons said that online sales, for products connected to the lockdown such as computers for home working and fridges and breadmakers for increased food preparation, were making up for around two-thirds of store…

China accused Australia of “petty tricks” on Wednesday in an intensifying dispute over Canberra’s push for an international inquiry into the coronavirus outbreak that could affect diplomatic and economic ties between the countries. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said his proposed inquiry into how the coronavirus developed and spread would not be targeted at China but was needed given COVID-19 had killed more than 200,000 people and shut down much of the global economy. “Now, it would seem entirely reasonable and sensible that the world would want to have an independent assessment of how this all occurred, so we can learn…

The United States has reported more than a million coronavirus infections only because of its testing, President Donald Trump said on Wednesday, hailing the effort as being “much better than any other country in the world”. The Twitter comments came amid warnings from state public health officials that shortages of trained workers and materials have limited testing capacity. “The only reason the U.S. has reported one million cases of coronavirus is that our testing is sooo much better than any other country in the world,” Trump said on Twitter. “Other countries are way behind us in testing, and therefore show…

British retailers cut the prices of non-food items by the most since at least 2006 this month as they try to shift stock that they are struggling to sell due to the coronavirus, industry data showed on Wednesday. After figures on Tuesday showed the biggest fall in sales since December 2008, the data from the British Retail Consortium added to signs of the damage to the sector from the closure of non-essential stores to slow the spread of COVID-19. Non-food prices in April were 3.7% lower than a year before, the sharpest drop since the survey began in 2006, the…

British finance minister Rishi Sunak bowed to pressure on Monday to do more to help companies survive the coronavirus shutdown, announcing full state guarantees on lending to Britain’s smallest businesses. Sunak, who previously opposed 100% government backing for emergency credit for small firms, said the government would fully stand behind commercial loans of up to 50,000 pounds ($62,000) to firms. Banks handling the loans will not be required to run credit checks or assess the long-term viability of applicants. Firms will have no interest or repayments for the next 12 months. “Some small businesses are still struggling to access credit,”…

Brazil’s government is working on a plan to gradually reopen economic activity that has been shuttered in efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus, and hopes professional soccer matches can resume shortly without spectators, an Economy Ministry senior official said on Monday. Speaking at a news conference in Brasilia, productivity and competition secretary Carlos da Costa said there is still no date for the resumption of business activity or soccer games, and stressed that health and safety will be the main priority in all decisions. Da Costa said soccer was one example of a sector in the economy that…