Headlines

Peru’s currency and bonds tumbled Monday after an opinion poll showed leftist presidential candidate Pedro Castillo as the clear favorite ahead of June’s presidential runoff, Bloomberg News reported. The Peruvian sol turned in the worst-performance in the developing world. Castillo, whose party has praised Fidel Castro and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, is leading Keiko Fujimori by 11 percentage points, according to the survey by Ipsos Peru carried out between April 15 and 16. Fujimori is the polarizing right-wing daughter of a jailed former president.

After two weeks of relentless losses, China Huarong Asset Management bondholders are finally finding reasons for optimism, Bloomberg News reported. Huarong bonds jumped after China's financial regulator said on Friday (April 16) that the bad-debt manager was operating normally and had ample liquidity, its first official comments since the company jolted Asian credit markets by missing a deadline to report earnings on March 31.

The National Wages Council (NWC) convened today to relook at guidelines on wage- and employment-related issues amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the Straits Times reported. In its deliberations, it will take into account the domestic and global economic situations and outlook given the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, as well as Singapore's pace of recovery, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said on Wednesday.

The Nigerian federal and state governments need to cut back spending to deal with a drop in revenues instead of depending on the central bank for financing, Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed said on Monday, Bloomberg News reported. Ahmed denied claims by a state governor that the central bank printed money to make up a 50 billion naira ($122 million) shortfall on federal revenues earmarked for the 36 federal states in March. “We will make sure that we don’t have to do that,” Ahmed said in an interview with the National Television Authority.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief said Monday that in the face of the big military buildup of Russian troops near Ukraine’s borders, it will only take “a spark” to set off a confrontation, the Associated Press reported. In a glum assessment of relations with Moscow, Josep Borrell also said that the condition of imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was “critical” and that the 27-nation group would hold the Kremlin accountable for his health and safety.

Several U.S. banks have started deploying camera software that can analyze customer preferences, monitor workers and spot people sleeping near ATMs, even as they remain wary about possible backlash over increased surveillance, more than a dozen banking and technology sources told Reuters. Previously unreported trials at City National Bank of Florida and JPMorgan Chase & Co. as well as earlier rollouts at banks such as Wells Fargo & Co. offer a rare view into the potential U.S. financial institutions see in facial recognition and related artificial intelligence systems.

Savers will pay higher fees on their retirement funds with no guarantee of better returns under government plans to get schemes to invest to help revive the economy, the pension industry has warned, the Financial Times reported. The trade body representing 1,300 pension schemes issued the warning on Monday as it responded to proposals to loosen a charge cap protecting millions of savers from high fees that can wipe tens of thousands from their retirement funds.

New Delhi imposed a weeklong lockdown on Monday night to prevent the collapse of the Indian capital’s health system, which authorities said had been pushed to its limit amid an explosive surge in coronavirus cases, the Associated Press reported. In scenes familiar from surges elsewhere, ambulances catapulted from one hospital to another, trying to find an empty bed over the weekend, while patients lined up outside of medical facilities waiting to be let in. Ambulances also idled outside of crematoriums, carrying half a dozen dead bodies each.

Euro zone finance ministers are discussing on Friday how to improve and possibly unify insolvency laws across the 19-nation bloc, to better prepare for a wave of bankruptcies expected when companies are weaned off government emergency pandemic support, Reuters reported. The expected surge in EU corporate bankruptcies will have a knock-on effect on the number of bad loans banks have to handle as the post-pandemic economic recovery starts to take hold and governments begin withdrawing state schemes that are now keeping many non-viable companies on life support.

Luckin Coffee Inc. said it has secured a $260 million investment from two Chinese private-equity firms, funding that the troubled coffee chain operator said would support its debt restructuring and help pay a U.S. regulatory penalty over allegations it fabricated sales to make its growth appear stronger, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The investment is led by Centurium Capital, a Luckin shareholder, which has agreed to invest $240 million in senior convertible preferred shares, Luckin said. Fellow shareholder Joy Capital has agreed to invest $10 million in senior preferred shares.