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LONDON — The British pound sank on Monday after Prime Minister Boris Johnson appeared to revive investor fears of a no-deal Brexit, dealers said.

Heading into the half-way point in London, sterling deepened losses to shed 1 per cent versus the dollar. It was also down 0.8 per cent against the European single currency.

Johnson has given an October 15 deadline for a post-Brexit trade agreement with the European Union, brushing off fears about “no-deal” chaos if talks fail.

“If we can’t agree by then, then I do not see that there will be a free-trade agreement between us,” Johnson said, insisting it would still be a “good outcome” for Britain.

The Financial Times meanwhile reported that Johnson is planning legislation to override parts of the withdrawal treaty that Britain and the EU agreed last year.

The report cited three people close to the plans as saying a bill to be put before parliament this week would undermine agreements relating to Northern Ireland customs and state aid.

“Judging by today’s price action in the pound, investors appear to believe that Johnson has indeed resurrected the spectre of a no-deal Brexit,” ThinkMarkets analyst Fawad Razaqzada told AFP.

“However, I reckon it is all part of negotiation tactics — and in the end a cliff-edge Brexit will probably be avoided as it is not in either party’s interests.”

In response to the report, Downing Street said only that it was still “working hard to resolve outstanding issues with the Northern Ireland Protocol” but was considering “fall-back options”.

EU leader Ursula von der Leyen warned that Britain is legally obliged to respect the Brexit withdrawal agreement, which must form the basis of bilateral relations going forward.

The eighth round of negotiations resume in London this week, with both sides talking increasingly tough, amid accusations of intransigence and political brinkmanship.

The weak pound meanwhile handed a fillip to the London stock market, because it boosts the share prices of multinationals earning in dollars.

Frankfurt and Paris also charged higher as investors snapped up bargain stocks following heady losses last week.

Asian equities struggled on Monday, with a mixed US jobs report offsetting a pledge from Federal Reserve boss Jerome Powell that interest rates would remain rock-bottom for years.

China-US tensions and a lack of progress in Washington stimulus talks — all against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic — were keeping markets from surging.

Wall Street nursed more losses on Friday, albeit shallower than Thursday’s rout that hammered the tech sector as traders took profits from months of huge gains.

In commodity markets on Monday, world oil prices sank on stubborn concerns over the long-term energy demand outlook, as economies struggle to shake off coronavirus fallout.

“The market is growing less and less confident that oil demand will recover as quickly as it hoped,” said Rystad Energy analyst Paola Rodriguez-Masiu.

STOCKHOLM — While the coronavirus crisis has pushed Europe’s economies into record second quarter slumps, Nordic countries have fared better than most, with their well-oiled welfare states helping to limit the damage.

Without the government’s help, Markus Larsson insists, “we would have had to lay off maybe 20 more people”.

At the head of a chain of bakeries in Linkoping, southern Sweden, the small-business owner has the state to thank for helping keep his business afloat.

Larsson benefitted from state-sponsored reductions for his business’s rent and social benefits charges, and was able to reduce his staff’s working hours while the government topped up their salaries.

Those measures made it possible for him to limit lay-offs to around 20, out of a staff of 100.

Sweden has made headlines around the world for its softer approach to the new coronavirus, refusing to lockdown and keeping schools, restaurants and most businesses open throughout the pandemic.

It now has the world’s eighth-highest death toll relative to its population, at 573 per million.

In mid-March, the government was quick to announce economic aid worth up to 28 billion euros ($33 billion) to help businesses.

In Sweden — as in neighbouring Denmark, Finland, Norway and Iceland — “policy response to combat the economic impact of the pandemic has been prompt, large, and well-designed”, Robert Bergqvist, analyst at SEB bank, told AFP. 

Denmark, Finland, Norway and Iceland all adopted stricter confinement measures than Sweden, including shutting schools, but shops and businesses largely stayed open there as well.

In Finland, “we were able to get the virus under control relatively quickly with a relatively modest lockdown. We never had to close down the whole economy, or all the stores or factories,” said Danske Bank economist Jukka Appelqvist.

Like elsewhere, the Nordic countries introduced state aid, compensated employees whose hours were reduced, and agreed to postpone tax payments, but the effects seem to have paid off more in the Nordics than elsewhere.

Consumer confidence 

The economies of Norway, Finland, Sweden and Denmark all registered “historic” contractions in the second quarter, their economies shrinking year-on-year by between 6.3 and 8.2 per cent.

By comparison, the eurozone — of which only Finland is a member — saw overall gross domestic product (GDP) reduced by 15 per cent, according to Eurostat, weighed down by particularly sharp falls in France, Italy and Spain.

Why the big difference?

The Nordics enjoy longstanding and robust welfare states, solid public finances, strong online cultures facilitating working from home, and a large public sector, all of which helped limit the damage, according to economists.

With safety nets firmly in place before the crisis and relative job security, households remained confident and continued to spend.

“People in the Nordic countries never got the feeling that they might end up in a catastrophic financial situation,” says Kjersti Haugland, chief economist at DNB Markets. “Fear never got the better of them.”

Norwegians, for example, took advantage of the time freed up by furloughs and semi-confinement to renovate their homes and stay in shape: At the peak of the pandemic, sales of construction materials and bicycles, hiking and sporting gear soared.

Little tourism impact 

Meanwhile, one of Europe’s sectors hardest hit by the crisis, tourism, is only of modest importance in the Nordics.

The only exception is Iceland, a “very small economy [with] volatile quarterly numbers”, says Swedbank economist Andreas Wallstrom.

Its economy shrank by 9.3 per cent in the second quarter.

“Few countries are as dependent on tourism as Iceland is,” noted Erna Bjorg Sverrisdottir, chief economist at Arion Banki.

The slump in tourism, which accounted for 8 per cent of Iceland’s economy in 2019, is expected to leave its mark: Statistics Iceland predicted the country’s GDP would shrink by 8.4 per cent this year.

That is a much deeper contraction than in the rest of the region, where economists questioned have forecast declines ranging from -3.5 per cent to -5 per cent — less than half of the drop expected in the eurozone.

HONG KONG — At the Koon Chun Sauce Factory workers are scrambling to cover hundreds of thousands of bottles with new "Made in China" labels as the popular Hong Kong brand falls victim to spiralling diplomatic tensions.

Founded nearly a century ago, the family-owned factory has survived a world war, multiple economic crises and the slow withering of Hong Kong's manufacturing base as companies looked for cheaper labour in mainland China.

It remains one of the financial hub's most enduring brands, churning out culinary staples such as soy, hoisin and oyster sauces found in Chinese restaurants and kitchens around the world.

But from November it can no longer place the words "Made in Hong Kong" on any products exported to the United States — part of Washington's response to Beijing imposing a new security law on the city.

The new rules, announced by US Customs in July, came just two days before a Koon Chun shipment of 1,300 boxes was about to set sail for Atlanta.

The factory suddenly had to relabel the entire shipment and all other cargo the firm planned to ship to the US this summer. 

"It was a mission impossible," Daniel Chan told AFP from the factory his great-grandfather founded in 1928.

 Impossible situation 

Economic consequences have rippled through the recession-hit hub. Rattled tech firms have declined to share data with local police while some companies and universities are struggling to attract international talent.

Banks have found themselves caught in an impossible situation. 

The US has sanctioned key Chinese and Hong Kong officials in response to the law. But that same security law also forbids companies from complying with any foreign sanctions regime. 

Another victim has been the "Made in Hong Kong" brand, a label that companies can place on products made exclusively in the city.

US President Donald Trump has turned increasingly hawkish towards China as he seeks reelection, and the crackdown on democracy supporters in Hong Kong has given him fresh ammunition.

This summer his administration declared Hong Kong no longer sufficiently autonomous to justify special trading status. Instead it would be treated like any other Chinese city.

Chan, who studied at Harvard in the US, said he expected the political landscape would shift in Hong Kong. But he never thought it would come so fast.

"I envisioned something closer to 2047, when Hong Kong is officially without One Country Two Systems," Chan said, referring to the China promise to let Hong Kong keep key liberties and autonomy for 50 years after the 1997 handover from Britain.

The past few weeks have been a blur of activity at the sauce factory as its 90 employees try to adjust to the new reality.

 Political fiasco 

On top of the stop-gap stickers, new labels are being drawn up for US exports — the large "Made in Hong Kong" lettering replaced with a much smaller "Made in China" declaration.

Much time has been spent rearranging storage for now-delayed cargo shipments.

Companies were given a reprieve when Hong Kong's commerce minister Edward Yau said Washington had postponed the label rule until early November, after the presidential election. 

"This buys us a little bit of time," Chan said. 

But he described it as "a short-term solution to this whole politically inspired fiasco".

Yau has slammed the labelling change and threatened to take the US to the World Trade Organisation.

He also stressed that Hong Kong-made shipments to the US were worth just HK$3.7 billion ($480 million) in 2019, less than 0.1 per cent of the city's gross exports.

But that is little consolation for Chan who says around half his products go to the US, where the brand is especially popular with the large Chinese diaspora in north America. 

"I would say we are the only company which is only based in Hong Kong and still doing this kind of mass production and shipping it to US," he said.

Looking ahead, Chan fears more international markets may follow America.

"In 20 years, 30 years from now, people will only have 'Made in China' and forget about Hong Kong," Chan said. "That's very sad."

NEW YORK — Stocks went into a skid worldwide on Friday, as Wall Street kicked off another round of tech bashing in what analysts say was an overdue correction

The damage in United States was not as bad as Thursday, but a mixed jobs report may have softened the blow.

The broad-based S&P 500 dropped 0.8 per cent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 1.3 per cent following its 5 per cent rout on Thursday as investors cashed in on big gains racked up in August ahead of the holiday weekend.

The market's retreat had been expected after the Nasdaq climbed around 80 per cent from its March trough, with more and more forecasters warning that valuations were out of sync with economic realities.

"The market was very extended coming into this and it was overdue for a pullback. It's normal and healthy," Adam Sarhan of 50 Park Investments told AFP.

"We're going see some more pullbacks [and] a steeper pullback is warranted. Stocks got ahead of themselves."

Amazon and Facebook were among the major losers in the session, dropping close to 3 per cent, although Apple recovered enough to close flat.

Microsoft dropped 1.4 per cent even after news just before the close that the Pentagon confirmed a $10 billion contract for the JEDI cloud computing programme, despite a lawsuit from Amazon alleging bias given President Donald Trump's frequent attacks on the company and founder Jeff Bezos.

In Europe, stock markets had been boosted earlier in the day by news that Spanish banks Bankia and CaixaBank were mulling a merger.

Spanish savings conglomerate Bankia said in a statement late Thursday that it had made contact with CaixaBank "with a view to a potential merger".

The deal would create a Spanish banking titan, with more than 650 billion euros ($770 billion) of assets in a sector battered by the effect of the coronavirus on the wider economy.

Madrid's market managed to limit overall losses on the news.

Asian markets reacted to Wall Street's painful losses on Thursday by falling deep into negative territory, as profit-taking set in after months of mind-boggling gains.

LONDON — Amazon will create 7,000 permanent jobs in the UK by the end of the year, the American e-commerce giant announced on Thursday in a boost for Britain's virus-hit economy.

"The company will add a further 7,000 new permanent roles by the end of 2020 across more than 50 sites, including corporate offices and two new fulfilment centres," Amazon said in a statement, adding that its total permanent UK workforce will number more than 40,000.

While a number of British retailers have axed thousands of jobs following the country's lockdown, others are creating vast amounts of new positions to cope with a surge in online shopping.

Amazon, which had already created 3,000 new permanent UK roles this year, added on Thursday that it will offer more than 20,000 seasonal positions across the country ahead of the festive period.

Business Secretary Alok Sharma hailed the Amazon announcement, with UK unemployment set to surge after the government next month ends its Covid-19 furlough scheme that is paying wages for millions of private-sector workers.

"While this has been a challenging time for many businesses, it is hugely encouraging to see Amazon creating 10,000 jobs in the UK this year.

"This is not only great news for those looking for a new job, but also a clear vote of confidence in the UK economy as we build back better from the pandemic," Sharma added.

LONDON — Anglo-Dutch consumer giant Unilever on Wednesday unveiled a 1 billion-euro plan to remove fossil fuels in the production of cleaning and laundry products which have experienced soaring demand from coronavirus-fearing consumers.

The initiative, worth the equivalent of $1.2 billion, will replace all the carbon derived from fossil fuels used in the production of some of Unilever's best-known products by 2030, it said in a statement.

Unilever aims to transform the sustainability of its best-known brands, including washing detergent Persil, Cif household cleaner and Domestos bleach, under its "Clean Future" project.

"Clean Future is our vision to radically overhaul our business. As an industry, we must break our dependence on fossil fuels, including as a raw material for our products," Unilever home care boss Peter ter Kulve said in the statement.

The company has been boosted this year as the coronavirus pandemic and global lockdowns spark major changes in consumer behaviour, with people spending far more time at home and being much more concerned about hygiene.

"We've seen unprecedented demand for our cleaning products in recent months and we are incredibly proud to play our part, helping to keep people safe in the fight against Covid-19," Kulve said.

"But that should not be a reason for complacency. We cannot let ourselves become distracted from the environmental crises that our world — our home — is facing. Pollution. Destruction of natural habitats. The climate emergency.

"This is the home we share and we have a responsibility to protect it," he said.

NEW YORK — The battle for online supremacy is on as Walmart announced on Tuesday the coming launch of a membership programme that provides free delivery as the world’s biggest retailer takes direct aim at e-commerce behemoth Amazon.

The long-discussed Walmart+ will start September 15, charging $98 annually or $12.95 a month to provide free delivery as soon as the same day along with discounts on fuel and other features.

The service will compete with Amazon’s “Prime” programme, which offers free delivery within two days with a comparably-priced subscription that also provides free and premium-priced video and entertainment offerings.

Walmart’s announcement highlighted the need to meet consumer needs in a fast-evolving economy especially amid the upheaval caused by the coronavirus pandemic that has fueled a surge in tech adaptations for the work- and shop-at-home world.

“Life feels more complicated than ever. Walmart+ is designed to make it easier — giving customers an option not to have to sacrifice on cost or convenience,” Walmart chief customer officer Janey Whiteside said.

“We have always been a champion for the right item at the right price, but now it’s more than that. We have the right shopping solutions at the right time, too.”

The launch of Walmart+ comes as the global retail giant has teamed with Microsoft in an effort to acquire TikTok, the Chinese-owned short-form video app that has come under fire from President Donald Trump.

The app has been at the centre of a diplomatic storm between Washington and Beijing since Trump signed an executive order on August 6 giving Americans 45 days to stop doing business with TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance.

Big e-commerce push 

Walmart+ replaces the retail giant’s “Delivery Unlimited” subscription service that offered home delivery of more than 160,000 items.

It is the latest step in the major ramp-up into e-commerce, propelled by Walmart’s 2016 purchase of Jet.com for $3.3 billion, and billions of dollars in additional investment to develop smartphone applications, revamp supply chains and roll out curbside pickup of groceries and other items at thousands of US stores.

The new service also will provide members with discounts of up to five cents a gallon at Walmart gasoline stations.

It offers a “scan and go” feature that lets consumers pay for items by scanning them with a smartphone application for a “quick, easy, touch-free payment experience”, Walmart said on its website.

A successful acquisition of TikTok with Microsoft could open up additional possibilities, allowing Walmart a marketing platform with TikTok users, who tend to be younger shoppers who turn to the Internet for lifestyle trends and are not generally big Walmart consumers.

The potential gold mine of younger users’ data also could help Walmart compete more strongly with online retail rival Amazon, analysts say.

The purchase of TikTok could give Walmart a key entertainment platform after earlier efforts stumbled. In April, Walmart’s video-on-demand service Vudu announced it would be sold Fandango Media, which is part of Comcast.

Amazon and Walmart have enjoyed strong results during the coronavirus pandemic as consumers have increasingly relied on e-commerce to order groceries online either for delivery or curbside pickup.

Walmart also has benefited from its status as an “essential” store that was permitted to stay open during spring lockdowns while authorities forced other stores to close.

Last month, Walmart reported higher quarterly earnings, due partly to a 97 per cent surge in US e-commerce sales.

Shares of Walmart jumped 4.1 per cent to $144.62 in morning trading.

NEW YORK/PARIS — Wall Street stocks paused near record levels on Monday ahead of key economic data later in the week, with a newly-tweaked Dow index edging lower.

The final session of a heady August opened on a lackluster note as markets await employment data and updates on the manufacturing and services sectors in the coming days.

About 15 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.4 per cent to 28,539.83.

The broad-based S&P 500 was essentially flat at 3,507.31, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.3 per cent at 11,729.11.

In Europe, stock markets eased lower in quiet trade on Monday after the US Federal Reserve (Fed) signalled it would keep interest rates at unprecedented lows for as long as it takes to get through the coronavirus crisis.

London was closed for a public holiday, leaving Paris and Frankfurt to set the tone with very slight drops in afternoon exchanges.

“Cheap central bank money is going to continue to support the stock markets,” said independent analyst Timo Emden in Frankfurt.

The Fed’s pledge of trillions of dollars in support has been key to stock market gains since the massive virus-induced sell-off in March.

US Fed chief Jerome Powell on Thursday went even further, saying the US central bank would focus on growth and jobs from now on rather than on inflation, meaning that interest rates and controlling inflation would be a secondary consideration.

Stephen Innes at AxiCorp noted that during the financial crisis, the US began cutting interest rates in mid-2007 and did not lift them until more than eight years later.

He felt it might take just as long to see them hiked again.

Meanwhile, Asian shares were mostly lower, with Hong Kong down one per cent as Shanghai dipped 0.2 per cent, both having jumped more than 1 per cent earlier.

Tokyo rose more than 1 per cent, shrugging off concerns over who would succeed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe after news that US investment legend Warren Buffett had bought huge holdings in top Japanese companies.

Positive service sector data in China helped offset slower manufacturing figures and offered reassurance the world’s number two economy is emerging strongly from the coronavirus crisis.

BEIJING — The owner of popular video app TikTok said on Sunday it will “strictly abide” by China’s new export rules, which could potentially complicate a sale of the business as demanded by US President Donald Trump.

TikTok has been at the centre of a diplomatic storm between Washington and Beijing, and Trump signed an executive order on August 6 giving Americans 45 days to stop doing business with TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance — effectively setting a deadline for a sale of the app to a US company.

But China’s commerce ministry published new rules on Friday adding new items including “civilian use technology” to rules controlling the import and export of restricted technology.

The new regulations could make it more difficult for Bytedance to sell the wildly popular video app, which features clips of everything from dance routines and hair-dye tutorials to jokes about daily life and politics.

Bytedance said in a statement it would “strictly abide” by China’s technology import and export law and its restricted export technology list “to handle business relating to the import and export of technology”.

The move marked the first time China has adjusted its list of technologies subject to export bans or restrictions since 2008, adding 23 new items.

An interview with a professor in official news agency Xinhua on Saturday suggested the change could mean Bytedance has to get approval from the Chinese government to sell its technology to an American company.

Earlier this week, TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer quit the company, days after TikTok filed a lawsuit challenging the crackdown by the US government.

TikTok — which has been downloaded 175 million times in the US and more than a billion times around the world — argued in the suit that Trump’s order was a misuse of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act because the platform is not “an unusual and extraordinary threat”.