10:03 am: WHO schedules media updateThe World Health Organization scheduled a media briefing at 10 a.m. 9:57 am: Adidas getting hit by outbreakAdidas confirmed that it has closed a significant number of stores in China because of the coronavirus. The company is currently operating less than 500 stores in China, 4% of the 12,000 locations it has there, including franchise stores. – Miller9:35 am: Coronavirus infects six-month-old baby in SingaporeSingapore’s health ministry confirmed four more co

It might seem unusual that a chef didn’t step foot in a restaurant until he was 15 years old but this didn’t stop Leon Rothera from going to work in a Michelin-star kitchen and cooking for the stars. He tells CNBC this is where his “connection with food” originated, seeing his parents make homemade bread and growing their own vegetables. At age 16, Rothera enrolled at sixth-form college, the British equivalent of a senior high school, to study cooking. Shortly afterwards he moved down to London

A passenger found a loaded pistol and David Cameron’s passport in an airplane toilet after the former British prime minister’s bodyguard forgot them there, the British media reported on Wednesday. Cameron was on his way back from New York to London with a protection officer from Britain’s Metropolitan Police when the discovery sparked a security incident, according to the reports. The Sun newspaper, citing other passengers who were present, said the British Airways plane was waiting to take off

A BP company logo is displayed on a fuel pump on the forecourt of a gas station operated by BP Plc in London, U.K.BP temporarily shut down its London headquarters on Wednesday after climate activists attempted to block the entrance to the building on Chief Executive Bernard Looney’s first day in office, a spokesman said. More than 100 Greenpeace activists attempted to place 500 solar panels in front of BP’s central London Headquarters in St James’ Square, blocking the building’s entrances with o

MUNICH, GERMANY – FEBRUARY 05: Activists protest outside Olympiahalle shortly before the annual general shareholders meeting of German engineering conglomerate Siemens AG on February 5, 2020 in Munich, Germany. The meeting is taking place amidst protests outside. Demonstrators are calling on Siemens to withdraw from its planned participation in the Carmichael coal mine project in Australia. Siemens plans to carve out its gas and power division and merge it with its 59% stake in Siemens Gamesa Re

Watch President Trump’s full 2020 State of the Union addressPresident Donald J. Trump delivers his State of the Union address to both houses of Congress.

Market set to rally at openU.S. stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Wednesday as the market continues to bounce back from a steep sell-off that was sparked by worries over the coronavirus. CNBC’s Rahel Solomon reports.

After a weak January for the stock, MKM Partners chief market technician JC O’Hara says the charts could be flashing a particularly bullish signal. “Every time we reached 30 especially over the last 18 months, we’ve seen Nike shares rally 20%. So coming into the trading week, we saw Nike was exactly at that 30 oversold condition on RSI. When Nike’s RSI fell to 25 in August, its shares rallied as much as 24% in less than three months. Nike shares dipped slightly in Wednesday’s premarket after the

There could be a further $5 a barrel downside for oil prices as a result of the coronavirus, an energy analyst said this week. Both Brent and West Texas Intermediate crudes have suffered losses amid the coronavirus outbreak, but things could still get worse, according to Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates. Oil prices have been under pressure following the rapid spread of a novel coronavirus that was first discovered in China. “Any extended period of time where we see this decline in d

Purchase demand, however, dropped. Refinance applications, which are most sensitive to weekly rate moves, jumped 15% for the week and were 183% higher than a year ago. Mortgage applications to purchase a home decreased 10% from one week earlier, but were 11% higher annually. “Prospective buyers weren’t as responsive to the decline in mortgage rates — likely because of suppressed supply levels,” Kan said. Mortgage rates have been falling on fears over the coronavirus hitting financial markets.

A Chinese citizen undergoing testing for coronavirus while passing through a temporary corridor opened at a border checkpoint between Blagoveshchensk and Heihe. Financial markets in Europe and the U.S. jumped Wednesday morning with traders reportedly buoyed by scientific efforts to treat the new coronavirus. The lead scientist told the media outlet he would start testing it on animals as early as next week. Another separate media report out of China Wednesday claimed that researchers within the

Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) and Tesla Inc., speaks during an event at the SpaceX launch facility in Cameron County, Texas, U.S., on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2019. Musk gave space fans an update Saturday evening on the status of “Starship,” the next-generation vehicle his SpaceX plans to use to eventually take humans to Mars. That was the question Tesla CEO Elon Musk posed to his followers on Twitter late Tuesday, asking them if they would like a

Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Shanghai’s Mayor Ying Yong attend the Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory groundbreaking ceremony in Shanghai, China January 7, 2019. (This story is for CNBC PRO subscribers only.) Canaccord downgraded shares of Tesla, which have doubled this year, and said investors should wait for a better opportunity to buy after the hot stock’s “electrifying” run. Tesla shares fell 4% in premarket trading Wednesday.

Merck & Company, Inc., d.b.a. Merck Sharp & Dohme outside the United States and Canada, is an American pharmaceutical company and one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. U.S. drugmaker Merck said on Wednesday it was planning to spin off its women’s health, biosimilar drugs and legacy products into a new publicly traded company. Merck will retain its cancer drugs, including blockbuster cancer therapy Keytruda, vaccines, hospital and animal health businesses, the company said. Th

The Bank of Japan stands ready to ramp up stimulus if the economy’s recovery is derailed, Deputy Governor Masazumi Wakatabe said on Wednesday, warning that the coronavirus outbreak could hurt corporate sentiment and global trade. But he said risks remain high, as last year’s sales tax hike hurt household income and lingering uncertainty over the global outlook weigh on business sentiment. “There have been heightening uncertainties regarding the impact of the spread of the coronavirus on the glob

Indonesia’s economy expanded 4.97% on an annual basis in the October-December quarter, data from the statistics bureau showed on Wednesday, slower than expected in a Reuters poll. Household consumption, which accounts for more than half of Indonesia’s GDP also slowed, with sales of clothes, mobile phones, cars and motorbikes contracting, Suhariyanto, the head of the statistics bureau, said. BI last year cut interest rates four times by 100 basis points and eased lending rules in a bid to prop up

Chan Long Hei | Bloomberg Getty ImagesInsurers in China will likely be able to manage the economic fallout from the coronavirus outbreak, according to multiple analysts. Hong Kong-listed shares of insurers have seen some choppy trading sessions since returning from the Lunar New Year holidays last week. Echoing the view of the ratings agency, analysts at Nomura said in note on Jan. 31: “We think direct claim losses for insurance companies will be manageable.” At this point, I think the effect on

Artyom Ivanov | TASS | Getty ImagesSome analysts and economists are downgrading China’s GDP growth forecast for 2020 as the coronavirus outbreak hits the world’s second largest economy. In 2019, China’s full-year GDP growth was 6.1%, down from 6.6% the year before. They said the negative economic impact will likely be concentrated in the first quarter of the year. Macquarie: Downgrades from 5.9% to 5.6%Macquarie downgraded its forecast for China’s first-quarter GDP growth from 5.9% to 4%. Moody’

ERIC PIERMONT | AFP | Getty ImagesFrench lender BNP Paribas reported slightly better-than-expected profits for its fourth quarter, but trimmed its outlook for the year ahead. It reported a net income of 1.84 billion euros ($2 billion) for the final quarter of 2019, while analysts had forecast a profit of 1.73 billion euros, according to Refinitiv. More savingsBNP Paribas has now concluded a three-year transformation plan which cost 2.7 billion euros. The bank said Wednesday that the completion o

The ongoing spread of a new coronavirus — which shut down major business hubs in China — serves as “a very good lesson” for companies and economies on the importance of diversifying their supply chains, said Singapore’s trade minister on Wednesday. But that status quo is now under threat, especially after much of China was shut down as authorities work to contain the virus outbreak. “Today, China is not just producing low-end, low-value products, they are also in the supply chains of many of the