As corporate insolvencies soar and firms try to hang on to their cash as long as possible, expect to hear a lot more about trade credit insurance.

Euler Hermes has written to some brokers, saying it will offer less support in the UK if the government does not agree to backstop trade credit insurers. 

DIY investors and those in pensions drawdown scramble to adapt as stock markets plunge 

Those in pensions drawdown are at risk of  pound cost ravaging

Retirement plans have suffered tumbling asset values and ballooning liabilities

British handbag maker’s value has plummeted 85% in past two years as turnround plan stalls

Sportswear maker apologises but warns it cannot bear virus lockdown for long   

Billionaire CQS trader hurt by exposure to default-ridden energy sector

Coronavirus-linked turmoil draws many investors out into the open

FTSE 250 housebuilder also takes charge for fire safety review after Grenfell tragedy

The technology has significant potential to shake up the construction sector

How do democracies measure up against autocratic regimes in handling the pandemic?

It is easy to take advantage of frightened people who have accepted infringements on freedom

Jean Pierre Mustier’s nascent turnround derailed as bank slips to first-quarter loss

Company pledges two ships and two islands as collateral in upsized refinancing plan

JPMorgan data show about one in four loans was behind on payments last month

ExxonMobil and Chevron deploy plans for cutbacks but preserve dividends

Price wars and coronavirus have disrupted the sector, possibly moving peak demand even closer 

Turmoil in commodity market slashes state colleges’ revenues

Dive into negative prices triggered pullback that helps set scene for rebound

Cardholders will receive 3 per cent cashback on fuel

Move to capitalise on dislocations across market stemming from coronavirus pandemic

Shares in security software maker dropped sharply after revelations of data harvesting

Music royalties specialist has done well in a strong market for alt investment trusts

Ireland’s richest man O’Brien faces struggle to refinance former cash cow’s debt pile

The fintech company aims to disrupt other Latin American markets with its smartphone-based services

How to navigate government help schemes, the benefits system, redundancy pay and help from banks

The worldwide Covid-19 death toll rose by 6,365 on Tuesday, pushing the total through 200,000

New York company wins bidding against Kerry for nutrition and biosciences unit

Like other accelerators, Techstars, a network of more than 40 corporate and geographically targeted startup bootcamps, has had to bring its marquee demo day events online. Over the last two weeks of April, industry-focused accelerators working with startups building businesses around mobility technologies (broadly) and the future of the home joined programs in Abu Dhabi, […]

AskRobin, an Estonia-founded fintech that operates a financial services marketplace for “underbanked” customers in Latin America, has picked up $1.7 million in funding. The seed round is backed by VC funds Change Ventures, Vereeni Early Stage Fund, BENE Asia Capital, and Lemonade Stand. In addition, a number of tech entrepreneurs from Estonia participated, such as […]

Your guide to the investment and business revolution you can’t afford to ignore

A number of popular apps including Spotify, GroupMe, Pinterest and TikTok were fielding user iOS crash reports Wednesday evening, the result of an apparent issues with Facebook’s SDK according to a lengthy GitHub thread on the topic. Downdetector logged tens of thousands of user crash reports on Spotify between 3:30 and 5:30 pm PT, the […]

Once the UK accepted trade friction, everything changed

Direct payments should be made to citizens and companies

What if Italy cannot service its debt and a future government is tempted to default?

Samsung overnight released its earnings guidance for the first quarter of 2020, stating that it expected sales of $45.4 billion and an operating profit of roughly $5.3 billion. The company’s fiscal year is aligned to the standard calendar year, and it will announce official earnings results on April 23. Those numbers are slightly up from […]

Another week in quarantine. As the world adjusts to working from home under mandatory stay-at-home orders, hackers are keeping busy. Microsoft said this week that coronavirus-related attacks are on the rise but still make up just a fraction of the overall malicious activity. Cybersecurity companies seem to be faring mostly well — in part thanks […]

In its first-quarter earnings report today, Samsung said it expects the COVID-19 pandemic to continue impacting its business for the rest of the year, cutting into sales for smartphones and TVs, but increasing demand for PCs, servers and memory chips as people continue to work or study from home. Samsung’s results for the first-quarter of […]

Traditionally dominated by big players like Adobe and Autodesk, the world of design has been flush with a newer wave of startups that are creating collaboration spaces and new cloud-based tools designed to address the needs of creatives. Today, two of those players are combining. Dribbble, an online community for designers that lets them post […]

Transport demand will rebound while the pandemic will reboot the use of plastics

Today Microsoft reported its third-quarter, fiscal 2020 quarter earnings, the period of time corresponding to Q1 2020 on the regular calendar. The technology giant generated $35 billion in revenue, up 15% from the year-ago period. That top line led to $13 billion in operating income (+25% YoY), and $10.8 billion in net income (+22% YoY). […]

The days of the big product event are on hold for the foreseeable future. Until then, a big blog post will have to do. A day after announcing that Microsoft would be shifting focus away from dual-screen devices, Chief Product Officer Panos Panay took to the company’s Devices blog to show off a slew of […]

In spite of being in the midst of a pandemic sowing economic uncertainty, one area that continues to thrive is cloud computing. Perhaps that explains why Microsoft, which saw Azure grow 59% in its most recent earnings report, announced plans to open a new data center in New Zealand once it receives approval from the […]

With conferences canceled indefinitely, companies are increasingly reliant on online events to hype product launches. As they prepare to release a next-gen console before the end of the year, expect plenty of live streams and blogs from both Microsoft and Sony in an attempt to flesh out all that their respective systems have to offer. […]

Microsoft and Amazon are at it again as the fight for the Defense Department JEDI contract continues. In a recent series of increasingly acerbic pronouncements, the two companies continue their ongoing spat over the $10 billion, decade-long JEDI contract spoils. As you may recall (or not), last fall in a surprise move, the DoD selected […]

The original Go was a mostly well-received addition to the Surface line when it arrived in late 2018. It was a nice, pint-sized alternatively, positioned fairly well to serve as a secondary device for some. It did the convertible double duty and traveled well, but otherwise was lacking in guts and versatility. Launching at the […]

Profit forecasts ditched as coronavirus disrupts operations

Impact of lockdown weighs on company earnings but stock markets look for optimism

I am approaching retirement age with very little pension to live on