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 SINGAPORE — Oil prices rallied in Asia on Wednesday on signs the US Congress was nearing an agreement on a massive stimulus package to help the  American economy, tracking record Wall Street gains.

International benchmark Brent crude was up 2.9 per cent to trade at nearly $28 per barrel, while US benchmark West Texas Intermediate rose 3.5 per cent to nearly $25 per barrel.

Both contracts have hit multi-year lows in recent weeks as lockdowns and travel restrictions to fight the virus hit demand, and with top producers Saudi Arabia and Russia engaged in a price war.

Wednesday's gains came after the Dow surged 11.4 per cent, its biggest one-day percentage increase since 1933, on indications Congress is nearing agreement on a rescue package for the US economy that could amount to more than $2 trillion.

Markets were also cheered by the G-7's promise to do "whatever is necessary", and the Fed's announcement Monday that it would inject unlimited money into the financial system and serve as the lender of last resort for troubled sectors.

But analysts warned the gains could be short-lived.

"The canary in the coal mine is chirping," said AxiCorp chief markets strategist Stephen Innes, adding there was an "absence of demand amid rapidly rising physical inventories".

LONDON — A global stocks rally petered out Wednesday as Europe took up the baton, despite US lawmakers agreeing a mammoth stimulus package to help the world's biggest economy resist effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

After huge gains for equities on Tuesday, which continued into Wednesday with Tokyo soaring and European indices jumping at the open, London lost some of its gains and Frankfurt was in the red nearing the half-way stage.

Elsewhere, the dollar was lower against main rivals and oil prices retreated.

"The stimulus is now by and large in place, the question is whether it's enough for the markets or whether the expected spike in cases and deaths in the US and Europe, combined with the emerging picture of the economic damage, means we need to take another leg lower before the bottom is found," said Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at trading group Markets.com. 

While COVID-19 continues to spread, traders have a rare semblance of optimism after weeks of carnage across global markets, with eyes fixed on Washington where lawmakers thrashed out an emergency bill worth as much as $2 trillion -- around 10 per cent of US gross domestic product.

"At last, we have a deal," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said, calling it a "wartime level of investment into our nation".

"We have a bipartisan agreement on the largest rescue package in American history," top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said shortly after McConnell spoke.

"So many people are being put out of work through no fault of their own. They don't know what their future is going to be like, how are they going to pay the bills," Schumer noted.

"Well, we come to their rescue."

The measure will put cash directly into the hands of Americans, provides grants to small businesses and hundreds of billions of dollars in loans for corporations including embattled airlines, while expanding unemployment benefits.

The prospect of a massive spending splurge, combined with the Federal Reserve's pledge to essentially print as much cash is needed, sent Wall Street into overdrive Tuesday, with the Dow seeing its biggest rise since 1933, while the S&P 500 enjoyed its best day in more than a decade.

The gains then spread to Asia, which rallied for a second straight day, with extra impetus later in the day coming from the news out of Washington.

Tokyo ended eight per cent higher, with investors also relieved that the 2020 Olympics had been postponed rather than cancelled.

Hong Kong rose 3.8 per cent, Shanghai was up more than two per cent, while Singapore, Sydney and Manila rallied more than five per cent and Seoul piled on more than four per cent. 

Adding to the more upbeat mood was the G7's promise to do "whatever is necessary". 

The unprecedented moves are part of a worldwide response to the rapid financial shock caused by the novel coronavirus outbreak, which has locked down countries including the US and brought the global economy to a juddering halt.

"The Senate's approval of the $2 trillion package should provide a positive lift to investors' mood in the near term, complementing the US Federal Reserve's aggressive action in the past four weeks," said Tai Hui at JP Morgan Asset Management. 

"This is particularly important given the aggressive fiscal stimulus from European and Asian governments in the past two weeks. The US government needs to be seen as not just counting on the Fed to do all the heavy lifting."

Hopes for the US deal and the Fed's promise to ramp up its bond-buying also sent the dollar lower, a relief to investors as demand for the unit had seen it soar against peers, including a 35-year high against the pound.

The crude market -- which has been hammered by the outbreak's impact on demand as well as a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia — also enjoyed a much-needed lift, though analysts cautioned the commodity still faced uncertainty.

LONDON — World stock and oil markets rallied on Tuesday after the US Federal Reserve (Fed) launched an unprecedented bond-buying plan, the latest salvo in a global fightback against the fallout from the deadly coronavirus outbreak.

European equities charged higher as investors shrugged off grim survey data showing collapsing eurozone and UK business activity in March.

 The dollar beat a retreat from Monday's three-year peak against the euro on the Fed news. In turn, that lifted crude oil prices which have been battered in recent weeks as coronavirus saps demand.

London stocks won more support after Britain became the latest western nation to implement a nationwide lockdown to help curb the spread of COVID-19.

"Stock markets in Europe are higher... as traders picked up the bullish baton from the indices in Asia," said CMC Markets UK analyst David Madden, who also noted that traders had been expecting the "brutal" survey data.

"The Fed's open-ended stimulus scheme, and the talk that Germany and the United States are getting closer to announcing rescue packages of their own is adding to the bullish sentiment.

"Political fighting in the US has prevented a stimulus scheme from being revealed earlier, but dealers are optimistic nonetheless."

US senators remain gridlocked, with Democrats on Monday again blocking a nearly $2 trillion rescue package for the economy.

While much of the planet goes into lockdown, traders gave a massive thumbs up to the US central bank's pledge to essentially print money in a move not seen since the global financial crisis more than a decade ago.

The Fed, which has already slashed interest rates to record lows, said it will buy unlimited amounts of Treasury debt and take steps to lend directly to small- and medium-sized firms hammered by restrictions across the country.

The plan however failed to inspire US traders, with all three main indexes on Wall Street sliding, but equities in Asia rallied with Tokyo ending more than seven per cent higher.

The Nikkei was given extra lift by a Bank of Japan decision to embark on its own massive bond-buying scheme.

 AxiCorp's Stephen Innes called the Fed's move "the most significant monetary experiment in the history of financial markets".

 "Asian investors like what they see from an all-in Fed, which is being viewed in a very impressive light for both Main and Wall Street, even as the US congress dithers."

The weaker dollar also helped lift crude, which has been hammered to recent multi-year lows on the back of a price war between producers Saudi Arabia and Russia.

"Oil is only rallying because the Fed's unprecedented measures finally stopped the stronger dollar," said OANDA analyst Edward Moya.

"Crude prices will have wild swings, but no one is expecting the bottom to be already in place."

PARIS — French Agriculture Minister Didier Guillaume appealed on Tuesday for people laid off amid the coronavirus lockdown to help beleaguered crop and livestock farmers who are in need of labourers as summer approaches.

"There are 200,000 jobs possible across the agriculture sector today," in large part because seasonal workers who usually come from Spain or Eastern Europe can no longer enter the country, Guillaume told BFM television.

Farmers say the need for able bodies is urgent as the first harvests loom for asparagus, strawberries and other early-season produce.

"I'm issuing a call to the women and men who are not working, who are confined to their homes, the waiter, the hotel receptionist, the barber in my neighbourhood, whose businesses are closed... and I ask them to join France's great agricultural army," he said.

 He said they would have proper full-time contracts, though it was unclear how people would be able to find the available jobs and eventually receive authorisation to travel -- state unemployment offices have halted walk-in appointments during the lockdown.

"We'll see how we'll be able to make things work," Guillaume said.

Restaurants, hotels and retailers across the country have shut down, hammering the French economy just as the crucial summer tourism season begins.

The country's tourism sector could lose up to 40 billion euros ($43.3 billion) if the crisis lasts three months, junior foreign minister Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne told Sud Radio on Tuesday.

Last year, foreign visitors spent 58 billion euros in the country, while French vacationers added an additional 110 billion euros.

Lemoyne had warned earlier this month that around 10 billion euros of tourist spending would evaporate in the first four months of this year, which began amid a crippling transport strike by rail workers protesting a pensions overhaul.

BRUSSELS — Businesses in the eurozone suffered "an unprecedented collapse" in March because of the novel coronavirus pandemic, according to a closely watched indicator released on Tuesday by IHS Markit.

Provisional data showed the slump in activity in the 19-nation zone in March "far exceeding that seen even at the height of the global financial crisis," with the company's PMI survey diving to 31.4.

A reading below 50 points indicates a contraction. In February, the index had stood at 51.6. The latest reading for March is the lowest since IHS Markit started its PMI survey in 1998.

The indicator reflected a near-shutdown of eurozone economies as COVID-19 sweeps across Europe.

Major economies Italy, France, Germany and Spain are all deeply affected and have implemented severe social and business restrictions to try to slow the virus's spread, by keeping potential carriers at home.

 The eurozone's economic struggle was worsened by some EU member states closing off their borders to neighbours, limiting the flow of goods and people within the single market.

Pessimism over year ahead

EU countries are starting to deploy massive state spending and loan guarantees to prop up businesses and employment, with the EU dropping its strict rules on budget deficits.

The IHS Markit survey showed the services sector was pummelled the worst, sliding to well below where it was at during the 2009 global financial crisis.

Manufacturing was also hit, supply chains were being badly degraded, and there was "a record fall in export business as cross-border trade flows seized up".

Employees are being let go at the fastest rate since June 2009.

"Expectations of future output also deteriorated markedly to reach an all-time low, with record degrees of pessimism about the year ahead seen in both manufacturing and services," IHS Markit said. 

"Clearly there's scope for the downturn to intensify further as even more draconian policies to deal with the virus are potentially implemented in coming months," chief economist Chris Williamson said.

Economic analysis firm Capital Economics said the PMI collapse was "so sharp that at any other time it would look like a spreadsheet error".

It agreed that "April's data could be even worse" and pointed to the eurozone's 2020 first-quarter GDP plunging by at least three per cent compared with the last three months of 2019.

"That would be similar to the sharpest quarterly fall in GDP during the global financial crisis," it said.

The startlingly bad PMI indicator heaped more pressure on eurozone finance ministers who were to meet via videolink later Tuesday to consider coordinated ways to blunt economic fall-out from the pandemic.

'Ground to a halt'

Analysts at bank ING said the IHS Markit survey "paints a picture of an economy that has ground to a halt".

But while it demonstrated the wide and sudden impact of the coronavirus, it "doesn't tell us much about the depth of the decline".

ING added: "It's still anyone's guess how deep this actually is.

 "The question is how much policy makers can soften the blow. Perhaps most relevant is how much unemployment and bankruptcies can be avoided to determine the possible steepness of a recovery."

PARIS —  European aviation giant Airbus said on Monday it would cancel the planned dividend payment for 2019 and also abandon its earnings forecasts for the current year because of economic uncertainty.

"We have withdrawn our 2020 guidance due to the volatility of the situation," Airbus chief executive Guillaume Faury said in a statement.

As part of measures to bolster the group's liquidity and balance sheet in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Airbus would also "withdraw the 2019 dividend proposal of 1.80 euros per share with an overall cash value of approximately 1.4 billion euros" ($1.5 billion), the statement said.

"Our first priority is protecting people while supporting efforts globally to curb the spread of the coronavirus," Faury said.

 "We are also safeguarding our business to protect the future of Airbus and to ensure we can return to efficient operations once the situation recovers."

Faury said he was convinced that Airbus and the broader aerospace sector will overcome this critical period."

To ensure Airbus's financial flexibility, the board of directors had agreed to secure a new credit facility amounting to 15 billion euros, in addition to the existing 3.0-billion-euro revolving credit facility, the statement continued.

With these decisions, Airbus would have "significant liquidity available to cope with additional cash requirements related to the coronavirus. Available liquidity now amounts to approximately 30 billion euros."

Airbus said the measures were intended to "secure business continuity for itself even in a protracted crisis."

Airbus is scheduled to hold its annual shareholders meeting in Amsterdam on April 16, but was discouraging physical attendance due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The group had already announced on Sunday that it planned to partially resume production and assembly work at its plants in France and Spain following four days of health and security checks.

 In 2019, Airbus, which employs a global workforce of 135,000, generated revenues of around 70 billion euros. 

LONDON — Stock markets suffered a further hammering on Monday despite massive economic stimulus efforts worldwide, with investors spooked by a mounting death toll from the coronavirus pandemic.

The negative mood was fuelled by the failure of US lawmakers to agree on a trillion-dollar emergency package to help the reeling American economy, analysts said.

European equities tanked four per cent at the open before trimming some losses -- but still remained deep in the red in late morning deals and following heavy losses across Asia.

The dollar scaled to a three-year pinnacle against the euro as investors shunning risky equities flocked to the haven greenback.

On oil markets, Brent North Sea crude sank 4.6 per cent and West Texas Intermediate was down 0.8 per cent.

Oil has plunged in recent weeks to multi-year lows, mainly on slumping demand caused by the virus -- but also because of a price war between top producers Saudi Arabia and Russia.

 'Mammoth recession'

 "Markets are again showing stress on fears that the economic damage will be worse than anticipated and that the response by governments and central banks will not be enough to prevent a mammoth recession," said analyst Neil Wilson at trading site Markets.com.

"James Bullard, President of the St Louis Fed, said US unemployment could reach 30 per cent in the second quarter due to coronavirus shutdowns, while he warned that gross domestic product (GDP) could decline by 50 per cent. This would be an unprecedented event."

The global death toll from the virus has surged past 14,400, with nearly a billion people confined and non-essential businesses shut in dozens of countries and growing fears about a recession.

  "A leap in the global death toll led by Italy from the coronavirus coupled with a failed stimulus vote in the United States saw markets rocked at the start of the week," said London Capital Group analyst Jasper Lawler.

The European single currency meanwhile sank to $1.0636, a level last seen in April 2017.

"In times like these cash is king and the dollar is king of cash," added Lawler.

In the Asia-Pacific region, Wellington stocks nosedived 7.6 per cent as New Zealand announced a four-week lockdown to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

Hong Kong ended the day down 4.9 per cent, Sydney dropped 5.6 per cent and Shanghai shed 3.1 per cent.

Tokyo was the exception, closing two per cent higher as a cheaper yen against the dollar boosted shares in Japanese exporters.

Market watchers are trying to figure out just how severe the impact of the pandemic will be on the global economy, with social distancing measures and lockdowns dealing serious blows to many industries.

Airlines hit hard

Airlines have been hit particularly hard, with isolation measures shutting down routes and grounding fleets worldwide.

Long-haul giant Emirates announced a two-week suspension of all its passenger flights, following a UAE government directive.

Singapore Airlines said it would ground most of its fleet until the end of April. The carrier said it was facing the greatest challenge in its existence.

Elsewhere, Anglo-Dutch energy major Royal Dutch Shell -- which has been rocked by collapsing oil prices -- announced it was cutting spending and costs by billions of dollars, as well as suspending its share buyback plans.

US failure

US senators failed to agree on a trillion-dollar proposal to rescue the American economy on Sunday, as Democrats said the Republican plan failed to provide sufficient protection to millions of workers or shore up the critically under-equipped healthcare system.

The bill proposed an estimated $1.7 trillion or more in funding to cushion the blow from the pandemic for American families and thousands of shuttered or suffering businesses.      

BEIRUT — Lebanon's finance ministry on Monday said it will "discontinue" payments on all dollar-denominated Eurobonds due in the next 15 years to safeguard dwindling foreign currency reserves.

 "The government has decided to discontinue payments on all of its outstanding US$-denominated Eurobonds," said an English-language statement posted on the finance ministry's website.

Lebanon, hit by a grinding dollar liquidity crunch amid its worst economic recession in decades, had already set the stage for a default on its outstanding $30 billion Eurobonds.

It has suspended payment of a $1.2 billion Eurobond just before a March 9 deadline -- its first ever such missed payment -- and said it would seek restructuring negotiations with creditors over the rest of its debt pile.

On Monday, the finance ministry said it intended to enter into "good faith discussions with its creditors as early" as possible.

Lazard Freres, a firm serving as a financial advisor to the Lebanese government, "has been instructed to initiate arrangements as appropriate under the current circumstances to facilitate such good faith discussions," the statement said.

The finance ministry said it planned to hold an investor presentation on 27 March, but did not provide more details.

The government must now reach a decision on whether to ask for a bailout from the International Monetary Fund, which has so far only provided Lebanon with technical assistance to deal with its financial crisis.

Banking experts have argued in favour of an IMF rescue plan, saying it would provide the kind of assurances creditors are looking for in restructuring negotiations.

But some officials are concerned that such assistance would involve an austerity package, which may provide new fuel to a street protest movement that has shaken Lebanon since October.

Lebanon's Hizbollah movement, which has been the main opponent of an IMF bailout, said this month it could accept help from the world body under "reasonable conditions".

One of the most indebted countries in the world, the small Mediterranean country had never defaulted before this month.

But with foreign reserves plummeting amid a slowdown in foreign currency injections, officials have said they have no other choice but to restructure the country's debt.

Earlier this month, Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni said the country's foreign reserves stood at a little more than $20 billion.

SEOUL —  Military-style management and an unquestioning reverence for the founding Lee family have fuelled Samsung's transition from the world's most ridiculed phonemaker to its biggest, says the author of a new book.

Today Samsung -- by far South Korea's most powerful conglomerate with more than 50 affiliates from electronics and insurance to hotels and apartments -- is a larger smartphone manufacturer than Apple, and at the same time a key supplier to its great rival.

The group's overall turnover is equivalent to a fifth of the GDP of the world's 12th-largest economy, where citizens sometimes refer to their country as the "Republic of Samsung".

It is a remarkable transformation from only a few years ago when Western consumers mocked it as "Sam-suck" for its unreliable products.

At first fascinated by the firm, author Geoffrey Cain said: "As I got deeper, I felt like I was going down the rabbit hole."

Its rise was tainted with corruption, he writes in "Samsung Rising", a rare English-language detailing of the highly secretive and opaque empire, published last week in the US.

Cain interviewed around 400 people, including current and former Samsung employees, executives and politicians, he said, but many refused to be named or go on the record.

 'Heaven and earth'

Founder Lee Byung-chul started Samsung -- the name means "Three Stars" -- as a vegetable and dried fish shop in 1938 and after the Korean War expanded into sugar, finance, chemicals, electronics and more.

Lee saw Samsung as more than a business, identified with the war-ravaged nation itself, and it played a key part in South Korea's rise to become Asia's fourth-biggest economy.

He forged close relations with military dictator Park Chung-hee, and married off his sons to daughters of governors and ministers, sealing enduring connections with political power.

Cain zeroes in on the firm's long-running relationship with Apple, which began when a youthful Steve Jobs met Lee Byung-chul in 1983 as he sought parts to build a tablet computer -- 27 years before releasing the iPad.

A short-lived alliance was revived in 2005, when Samsung Electronics went to Jobs with its new NAND flash memory chips and became sole memory provider for the iPod.

The South Korean firm has since become a competitor to Apple as well as a supplier, even though its own executives once dismissed their own products, saying the iPhone and Galaxy S were as different as "heaven and earth".

 The change was effected through military-style discipline and long, intense hours, Cain says.

"Untouchable 'generals' charged into each new project, and even when things looked iffy, the field troops were expected to praise them to the skies, convincing themselves of their company's and leaders' greatness," he writes.

Despite sometimes "bizarro" working practices -- lorryloads of fruit were delivered to a US office to remind staff of their mission "to take a bite out of Apple" -- most Samsung employees displayed unquestioning reverence for the founding family, Cain writes.

 'United States of Apple?'

Samsung is by far the biggest of the family-controlled conglomerates known as chaebol that dominate business in the South, and has come to epitomise their power, influence, and  political connections.

With senior executives Lee Kun-hee, the founder's son and successor, planned a smooth hereditary transfer to his own son Lee Jae-yong, using financial tools like convertible bonds, exploiting legal loopholes, and even cash gifts, with Cain saying: "People were lining up to go to jail for the chairman."

 In the event it was Lee Jae-yong himself who ended up behind bars, found guilty of bribing former president Park Geun-hye as part of the sprawling corruption scandal that brought her down.

 The vice-chairman of Samsung Electronics and the group's de facto leader since a 2014 heart attack left his father bedridden, he served a year in jail before most of his convictions were dismissed on appeal, but is now being re-tried.

Samsung Electronics declined to comment about the book to AFP, but its Korean publisher said the company had not sought to impede publication.

South Korea's chaebols have little in common with the more entrepreneurial and shareholder-driven firms in the US, writes Cain.

 In the past, several conglomerate leaders have been criminally convicted but have all ultimately received presidential pardons -- including Lee Kun-hee, found guilty of bribing politicians and, separately, embezzlement and tax evasion.

 "Could you imagine Steve Jobs getting pardoned by two different US presidents, and Americans calling their country the 'United States of Apple?'" Cain told AFP.

But Lee Jae-yong's prison absence did Samsung Electronics no financial damage -- it made record profits during the period, and its shareholders have no doubts.

At its annual meeting last week Kim Sang-woon, 68, told AFP that he was "honoured" to own a small piece of the empire, adding: "I'm very satisfied and proud of everything."

LONDON, March 21, 2020 —  The British government on Saturday urged people to stop panic-buying during the coronavirus crisis, claiming there was enough food for everyone.

 With supermarket shelves still being stripped of essential items, including toilet paper, officials said there was no need for panic.

"There's no risk of food running out," Environment Secretary George Eustice told reporters at the government's daily Downing Street briefing.

"The challenge we have is getting food to the shelves and keeping it there."

 He told shoppers to "be responsible when you shop and think of others", warning that stockpiling items could leave others without crucial supplies.

When asked if the government would introduce rationing he said it was up to supermarkets to decide whether to limit purchasing of certain items.

The plea to stop panic-buying came as health department figures Saturday showed that 233 people have now died from COVID-19 in the UK, with the number of those testing positive for the virus standing at 5,018.

Health officials said it was crucial to ensure there was enough food for medical staff such as doctors and nurses who can only visit shops after long and late shifts.

"It's incredibly important that they have access to food," said Stephen Powis, National Medical Director of England's National Health Service.

He referred to a viral video posted this week by a tearful critical care nurse Dawn Bilbrough issuing a desperate plea for people to stop panic-buying.

"Frankly we should all be ashamed that has had to happen. It's unacceptable," he said.

 On Friday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced tougher restrictions to fight the coronavirus outbreak, telling cafes, pubs, bars and restaurants to close.

Asked whether that would exacerbate panic shopping as there are fewer outlets to buy food, Eustice said he did not think it would.

 The calls for more considerate shopping come as some politicians urged Londoners not to flee the city for the coast or countryside where the virus could spread further.

London is the worst affected by the coronavirus outbreak in Britain.

"Please do not travel to Cornwall, we do not want to spread this virus any further," local Conservative MP Steve Double said, referring to the popular coastal country in southwest England.

He said such journeys could "cost lives".