FT News Briefing

Global stocks had their worst day in two years on Monday as new coronavirus cases outside China dashed hopes that the outbreak had been contained, US energy stocks are now underperforming the main US stock market index by the biggest margin since 1941, disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein was found guilty by a jury in New York of sex crimes including rape, and HP announced a $16bn buyback plan...

Barclays is preparing to start a search for a new chief executive to replace Jes Staley, European buyout firm CVC Capital Partners is plotting an ambitious reshaping of one of the world’s most popular sports - rugby, and Italy has imposed a strict quarantine across at least 10 towns to contain the largest outbreak of coronavirus outside of Asia.  Plus, the FT’s Benjamin Parkin previews Donald...

EU leaders are deadlocked over how to finance the bloc’s next multi-annual budget, a judge handed down a 40 year sentence to Roger Stone on Thursday, saying the Republican political operative was prosecuted for covering up for President Donald Trump, and the luxury industry faces its biggest threat since the 2008 financial crisis with the coronavirus outbreak. Plus, wealthy Arab states have been p...

UBS names Ralph Hamers from ING as its next chief executive, Boeing asks for a $100m a year tax break from Washington state to be suspended in order to avert retaliatory tariffs this summer, and the UN has teamed up with a New York start-up to develop technology that will attempt to gauge how people living in war zones feel about peace negotiations. Plus, billionaire Michael Bloomberg has made up...

The EU’s richest states have dug in their heels over the region’s budget as European Council president Charles Michel seeks to ease the blow of spending cuts on poorer countries, Donald Trump extended clemency to several high-profile white-collar criminals on Tuesday, including former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich and financier Michael Milken, and US asset manager Franklin Templeton has agreed...

Apple has warned that disruption in China from the coronavirus will cause its revenues to fall short in the current quarter, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has announced a $10bn fund to help fight climate change following intense criticism over the e-commerce group’s own environmental impact, and a start-up touted as the “Uber of dry cleaning” collapsed into administration on Friday, wiping out all of...

The head of SoftBank’s $100bn Vision Fund has lined up billions of dollars of outside investment for a new hedge fund-style vehicle, Goldman Sachs and a research boutique have constructed a “synthetic” way for investors to bet more cheaply against Chinese stocks, and Samsung has begun flying electronic components for its latest Galaxy phones from China to its factories in Vietnam as it grapples wi...

US attorney-general William Barr publicly rebuked Donald Trump, saying the president’s tweets about ongoing criminal cases had made it “impossible” to do his job, while the US Senate voted to limit Mr Trump’s military authority in Iran. Plus, US prosecutors accuse Huawei of stealing technology from several American companies and Amazon wins its request to temporarily block a $10bn US defence contr...

Democrats in the US House of Representatives call on attorney-general William Barr to testify over claims of political influence in a case involving a friend of the president, Berkshire Hathaway vice-chairman Charlie Munger shares his pessimistic view of the future, and Europe’s largest telecoms conference has been forced to cancel this year’s event over fears of the spread of coronavirus. Plus, t...

US senator Bernie Sanders declared victory in the New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary on Tuesday night, ride-sharing service Lyft disappointed investors who were looking for signs of an end to the losses, and electric scooter companies operating in Germany are braced for a setback on the streets as authorities push for a regulatory crackdown. Plus, the FT’s Hannah Kuchler explains why in...

A federal judge is poised to approve T-Mobile’s takeover of Sprint, according to sources briefed on the matter, Donald Trump has put forward a budget proposal that slashes key planks of the US social safety net while preserving his tax cut, and the woman who was long seen as Angela Merkel’s successor, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, said she would not run for German chancellor. Plus, nearly 150m Ameri...

Google has been accused of unfairly promoting its own holiday rental search by more than 30 of its rivals, France’s Covéa is in exclusive talks to buy the Agnelli-owned PartnerRe for $9bn, and the result of Ireland’s general election was tied three ways on Sunday night. Plus, the FT’s San Francisco correspondent, Dave Lee, explains a new pilot programme from Airbnb after a series of shootings at i...

Uber shares traded higher after hours on Thursday after the ride-hailing company promised profitability in the final quarter of this year, officials in London and Washington told the FT that Donald Trump vented in “apoplectic” fury at Boris Johnson over Britain’s decision to allow China’s Huawei a role in its 5G mobile networks, and activist hedge fund Elliott Management has built a stake worth $2...

Donald Trump was acquitted on impeachment charges by the Senate on Wednesday, HSBC has decided to hold off on naming a permanent chief executive until after it unveils a strategy shake-up, and Chinese energy executives are projecting a 25 per cent fall in the country’s oil consumption this month due the effects of the coronavirus on demand. Plus, the FT’s Anna Nicolaou explains Spotify’s push into...

US president Donald Trump claimed “incredible results in boosting the US economy in a State of the Union address to Congress and Pete Buttigieg took a narrow lead in the Iowa Democratic presidential caucuses based on partial results. Plus, sources tell the FT that New York Stock Exchange owner Intercontinental Exchange had held takeover talks with eBay, a top US executive at SoftBank’s $100bn Visi...

Opec and its allies are preparing emergency cuts to oil production after the economic fallout of the coronavirus pushed the price of crude into a bear market on Monday, the pace of revenue growth at Google parent Alphabet slowed more sharply than expected in the final quarter of last year, and the German government has drafted a bill to clamp down on anti-competitive behaviour from the likes of Go...

UK prime minister Boris Johnson is expected to set out his vision for future relations with the EU in a speech today, Beijing is poised to pump extra cash into China’s financial system as part of a way to shield the economy from the effects of the deadly coronavirus outbreak, and American voters in Iowa will kick off the US Democratic presidential primary race. Plus, the FT’s Patrick McGee explain...

IBM has named Arvind Krishna as the new chief executive to take over from Ginni Rometty, Amazon’s one-day shipping delivered a bumper holiday sales season, and the World Health Organization has declared an international emergency over the new coronavirus epidemic. Plus, as the UK prepares to leave the European Union tonight, the FT’s George Parker says the British population is split between a sta...

Shares in Facebook dropped by more than 7 per cent on Wednesday after the company posted the slowest pace of growth since 2012. Plus scientists race to develop a vaccine for the deadly coronavirus, the Federal Reserve leaves its main policy rate unchanged, and Tesla and Microsoft post better than expected quarterly revenues. Then, Claire Bushey reports on Boeing’s first annual loss in more than 20...

Apple recorded new records for both revenue and income for the holiday sales period, Starbucks has closed more than half of its 4,300 outlets in China over the coronavirus, Senate Republican leaders put pressure on colleagues to block witnesses in Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, and Mr Trump unveiled his long-delayed Middle East peace plan. Plus, Goldman Sachs chief executive David Solomon is ta...

Airbus is on the brink of settling a bribery and corruption probe with regulators in the UK, France and the US, Boris Johnson feels increasing heat over Huawei’s role in the UK mobile phone network, and Donald Trump’s lawyers tried to shift the focus of his Senate impeachment trial away from revelations from former national security adviser John Bolton. Plus, global equity markets and oil prices f...

An internal probe showed that Deutsche Bank paid $1.1m to secure the wealth management business of a senior Saudi royal, Beijing has warned that the spread of the deadly coronavirus is expected to accelerate, and the Trump administration has warned that it would “react” with possible punitive measures against the EU for a carbon tax plan. Plus, more than three years after the Brexit referendum, th...

A powerful rebound in Intel’s data centre division drove a stronger than expected recovery in the final quarter of 2019, former Wells Fargo chief executive John Stumpf has agreed to pay $17.5m as part of a settlement with US regulators over the bank’s fake accounts scandal, and the European Central Bank begins its first strategic review in 16 years. Plus, the founder of the opioid maker Insys has...

Chinese authorities have shut down Wuhan transport networks in its efforts to contain the outbreak of a deadly Sars-like virus. Plus, the stock market value of Tesla topped $100bn for the first time on Wednesday, and Boeing’s new chief executive, David Calhoun, insists the 737 Max will fly again. Plus, the FT’s Tim Bradshaw takes a look at the competitive market for food delivery apps, and which c...

The US Senate rejected Democratic bids to subpoena documents on the first day of the impeachment trial of Donald Trump, a slowdown in the US continues to weigh on Netflix’s subscriber growth, and the UK is set to go ahead with plans to introduce a new digital tax against US companies despite the threat of tariffs. Plus, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been implicated in a hack involving...