10:31 am: How the Fed will fight the next downturn – ‘large-scale asset purchases’Powell says Fed must use forward guidance, purchases in future downturn. And low rates are not really a choice anymore: They are a fact of reality. Which is forward guidance – which says it will keep rates low – and then it’s also large-scale asset purchases of longer-term securities to drive longer-term rates down and support the economy. Shares of Shopify gained more than 9% in premarket trading after the e-comme

Shopify, which makes online tools for companies to sell products online, soared as much as 15.6% in early trading on Wednesday, hitting a new 52-week high of $786.07, after the company reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter results and gave upbeat guidance for the full year 2020. For the fourth quarter, Shopify reported earnings of 43 cents per share, exceeding consensus estimates of 24 cents per share. For the year, Shopify said it expects revenue to range from $2.13 billion to $2.16 bill

Mortgage lenders were busy last week, but mostly with current homeowners looking to take advantage of low mortgage rates. Total mortgage application volume increased 1.1% compared with the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index. Mortgage rates began falling about a month ago, as fears of the coronavirus hit financial markets. Mortgage rates loosely follow the yield of the 10-year Treasury. “The refinance index climbed to its highest level since J

CEO and co-founder of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg poses next to Facebook head of global policy communications and former UK deputy prime minister Nick Clegg (L) prior to a meeting with French President at the Elysee Palace in Paris, on May 10, 2019. Britain’s media regulator Ofcom has been chosen by the government to crack down on social media companies over how they deal with harmful content. In a white paper published last year, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s administration identified content dep

Facebook’s WhatsApp now has more than 2 billion users, CEO Will Cathcart told The Wall Street Journal in an interview published Wednesday, revealing its user numbers for the first time in two years. That’s just half a billion monthly users shy of Facebook’s monthly active users. Cathcart said WhatsApp would continue to operate largely independent of Facebook and continue to defend providing its encrypted messaging service. Even as Facebook moves to make its products interoperable with WhatsApp,

— Bursztynsky8:14 am: OPEC slashes oil demand forecastOPEC has dramatically lowered its forecast for oil demand growth this year, citing China’s coronavirus outbreak as the “major factor” behind its decision. — Meredith7:55 am: Diamond Princess cruise ship cases climb to 175Another 39 people have tested positive for the coronavirus on the Diamond Princess cruise ship quarantined in Japan, with one quarantine officer also infected, bringing the total to 175, the health ministry said. About 3,700

After a humiliating fifth-place finish in the New Hampshire primary and an apparent fourth-place finish in Iowa, former Vice President Joe Biden’s presidential hopes are finished. The answer is Biden’s cachet in this election cycle has always been what people assumed his strengths would be. At a town hall campaign event, a Democratic Party voter asked told Biden she had a tough question for him. More than three decades of history was staring the Democrats pushing Biden’s campaign all along, and

Getty ImagesPracticing good hand hygiene is the best way people can protect themselves from coronavirus during a flight, a medical expert specializing in air transport told CNBC. However, he said the risk remained if passengers were close to somebody on board who was unwell during the journey. That means anyone worried about exposure should avoid touching their own face and frequently wash and dry their hands — or use alcohol-based hand sanitizer if they aren’t able to access hand washing facili

U.S. stock index futures rose on Wednesday morning after the S&P 500 and Nasdaq eked out fresh record closing highs on Tuesday. ET, Dow futures were up 74 points and indicated an implied positive open of more than 72 points, while futures on the S&P and Nasdaq also climbed. As of Tuesday night, China’s National Health Commission had reported 97 additional deaths with total confirmed cases passing 44,000. Lyft reported more than $1 billion in quarterly revenue after the bell on Tuesday, but forec

U.S. government debt prices were lower Wednesday morning, as investors sought to assess the potential economic impact of China’s fast-spreading coronavirus. ET, the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves inversely to price, was higher at around 1.6282%, while the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond was also higher at around 2.0937%. The outbreak, which has infected people in over two dozen countries, was described as a “very grave threat” to the world by the director-general of the World He

(Photo by WANG Zhao / AFP) (Photo credit should readBankers in Asia are bracing for a deal drought as efforts to limit the spread of the coronavirus epidemic have put key meetings and roadshows on hold. Several auctions of assets are facing delays or re-assessments and preparations for potential Chinese initial public offerings (IPOs) are also slowing, bankers said. European and U.S. buyers are also worried about travelling to Asia,” said a Singapore-based banker. Major banks in Hong Kong and Si

Pedestrians walk past the Reserve Bank of New Zealand headquarters in Wellington, New Zealand, on Thursday, Sept. 13, 2012. While the central bank flagged coronavirus risks, more upbeat comments about employment and consumer prices bolstered expectations it may not need to cut rates this year, which helped the New Zealand dollar climb 0.5% to $0.6440. “Nevertheless, some sectors are being significantly affected,” RBNZ’s monetary policy committee said in a statement accompanying the rates decisio

Heineken, the world’s second largest brewer, expects to benefit from lower barley and aluminium costs this year after 2019 earnings rose exactly in line with expectations. Together with a more moderate rise of input costs, this should result in a mid-single digit percentage rise in operating profit this year, barring negative economic or political developments. In particular, Heineken said it was not yet possible to assess the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on its business. Analysts’ average

Visitors viewing artwork at Art Basel on March 27, 2019 in Hong Kong. From art shows to golf tournaments, countries like Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand have seen major events called off. As of Wednesday, Hong Kong had 49 confirmed cases, including one death. Stuart Bailey, chairman of Hong Kong Exhibition & Convention Industry Association, said the Asian financial hub has postponed all MICE events for now. Coronavirus impact on SingaporeSingapore has not been spared either.

China’s military drills near Taiwan on two consecutive days this week were “completely inappropriate,” a U.S. State Department official said on Wednesday. “Absolutely it concerns us” said R. Clarke Cooper, assistant secretary for political-military affairs at the U.S. Department of State. “It was completely inappropriate of China to take such an aggressive act,” Cooper told CNBC’s Nancy Hungerford in Singapore. Tensions between China and Taiwan have risen since Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen f

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde. The European Central Bank (ECB) is hosting its first “listening event” in Brussels next month. Central banks have changedThe two major central banks have undergone a massive change in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. But the global financial community is now questioning whether both central banks have reached a limit. The International Monetary Fund said in November that “concerns about the expanded activities of central banks led t

Nissan filed a civil lawsuit against former Chairman Carlos Ghosn on Wednesday, seeking an initial amount of 10 billion Japanese yen ($90 million). The company said the suit, filed at Yokohama District Court in Kanagawa, was “in order to recover a significant part of the monetary damages inflicted on the company by its former chairman as a result of years of his misconduct and fraudulent activity.” The claimed damages are linked to Ghosn’s “breach of fiduciary duty as a company director and his

The ongoing coronavirus outbreak is speeding up the so-called “decoupling” between the U.S. and China more than their trade war did, according to an analyst from the Milken Institute. “We talked about China and the U.S. decoupling. The coronavirus more than the trade war has sped some of that decoupling as countries, as businesses think about their supply chain for the long run,” said Curtis Chin, an Asia fellow at the Milken Institute, calling it an “increased disengagement” of both economies.

European markets traded higher on Wednesday morning after China recorded its lowest number of new coronavirus cases since January. China’s National Health Commission reported 2,015 new cases of coronavirus and 97 deaths across the mainland on Wednesday, marking the lowest number of new cases in one day since late January, according to Reuters. Shares in Asia were mostly higher on Wednesday as the coronavirus situation remained in focus. Singapore’s Straits Times index led regional gains on an in

Masayoshi Son, chairman and chief executive officer of SoftBank Group Corp., reacts during a dialog session with Jack Ma, former chairman of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., not pictured, at Tokyo Forum 2019 in Tokyo, Japan, on Friday, Dec. 6, 2019. Shares of Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group soared on Wednesday a day after a U.S. district judge approved a merger between Sprint and T-Mobile. SoftBank Group’s stock closed 11.89% higher on Wednesday after skyrocketing more than 14% earlier in the se