Optimistic there’s time for a post-Brexit trade agreement to be made, JLR CEO saysJaguar Land Rover CEO Ralf Speth discusses the company’s supply chain challenges and trade negotiations between the U.K. and the EU.

Shoppers make their way down Oxford StreetBritish inflation unexpectedly struck a six-month high in January, pushed up by higher petrol prices and a smaller-than-usual drop in airfares, official data showed on Wednesday. Fuel prices were up 4.7% compared with a year earlier, marking the biggest rise since November 2018, the ONS said. A measure of core inflation, which excludes energy, fuel, alcohol and tobacco, rose to 1.6% from 1.4% in December. Manufacturers increased the prices they charged b

Marcelo Claure, CEO of Sprint Corporation (NYSE: S) and John Legere, President and CEO of T-Mobile USA (Nasdaq: TMUS) visit the New York Stock Exchange to speak to media about their announced merger. The merger between T-Mobile US and Sprint is within reach, the head of T-Mobile’s main owner Deutsche Telekom said on Wednesday, vowing to go on the offensive to close a valuation gap with U.S. market leaders AT&T and Verizon. That compares with $274 billion for AT&T and $242 billion for Verizon, he

China has revoked the press credentials of three journalists of the Wall Street Journal after the newspaper declined to apologize for a column that called China the “real sick man of Asia”, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday. Geng did not identify the journalists whose credentials were being revoked. Reuters could not immediately reach the Wall Street Journal for comment. The action comes after the United States said on Tuesday it would begin treating five major Chinese state-run media entit

Miguel Candela | SOPA Images | LightRocket via Getty ImagesGerman sportswear firm Adidas warned business activity in China has fallen dramatically in recent weeks, citing a material negative impact from the coronavirus outbreak. The outbreak has prompted Adidas, which attributes roughly one-third of its sales to Asia, to close a “significant” number of stores in China. Adidas has said it will provide more details about the financial impact of the coronavirus when it releases full-year results on

(CNBC) On today’s economic calendar, the government is out with January figures for both housing starts and producer prices at 8:30 a.m. Nike (NKE) CEO John Donahoe shuffled the company’s executive ranks, with e-commerce chief Heidi O’Neill becoming president of the athletic footwear and apparel maker’s consumer business, and chief financial officer Andy Campion switching to chief operating officer. The company plans to inspect all undelivered aircraft and added that this issue will not impact t

An Argor-Heraeus SA branded two hundred and fifty gram gold bar, center, sits in this arranged photograph at Solar Capital Gold Zrt. James Gerrish, portfolio manager at Sydney-based Shaw and Partners, attributed the gold rally to strategic portfolio hedging rather than a direct response to the virus. Advancing to $1,700 this yearIn a note Wednesday, Citi upgraded its six-to-12 month price target for gold to $1,700/oz and upgraded its 2020 base case average gold price forecast from $1,575 to $1,6

Wall Street points toward higher openU.S. stock index futures were higher Wednesday morning, as market focus remains largely attuned to the potential economic fallout of the coronavirus outbreak. CNBC’s Frank Holland reports.

Ngangom Bala Devi’s journey began in a small village in India, but the talented soccer player has broken down barriers to become the country’s first fully professional female player. The soccer player told CNBC via email that she started out by joining in boys’ matches. She initially played for her state team but in 2005, at around age 15, played her first match for India’s national women’s team. Bala Devi was the captain of the national team for five years and the top goal scorer, netting 52 go

U.S. Attorney General William Barr and U.S. President Donald Trump attend a signing ceremony for an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House on November 26, 2019 in Washington, DC. U.S. Attorney General William Barr is considering resigning over President Donald Trump’s tweets about Justice Department investigations, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters, while the department said he was not leaving. “The Attorney General has no plans to resign,” Justice Department spoke

Getty ImagesThe gap between open jobs and unemployed workers is about as wide as the one between the kinds of positions open and the qualifications that the workforce collectively has to fill them. That has come as the Labor Department reports that there are still about 670,000 more job vacancies than there are unemployed potential workers. “The labor market just gets tighter,” said Becky Frankiewicz, president of Manpower Group North America. The skills gap issue is most talked about in the U.S

The refinance boom took a step back last week, bringing down total mortgage applications. Refinance demand had been driving the volume of mortgage applications up, but refinance applications decreased 8% for the week, according to the MBA’s seasonally adjusted tally. Mortgage rates began falling more than a month ago as fears of the coronavirus hit financial markets. Mortgage rates loosely follow the yield of the 10-year Treasury. “And while lower mortgage rates have improved housing affordabili

Businesses need more cashflow, costs support from Singapore budget: ASME presidentAlthough Singapore’s budget 2020 was largely “comprehensive,” businesses were hoping for “more substantial” support measures from the government to tide over the coronavirus crisis, says Kurt Wee, president of the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises.

Doctors in medical masks and protective suits at the Munsu-dong diplomatic compound in North Korea amid the COVID-19 outbreak. There are no indications that there are cases of the new coronavirus in North Korea, a World Health Organization (WHO) official said, despite South Korean media reports suggesting the outbreak had spread to the isolated country. Some South Korean media outlets have reported multiple cases and possible deaths from the virus in North Korea, but there has been no independen

Longer term, this could make online tutoring more acceptable to once hesitant parents and potentially contribute longer term to online tutoring penetration in China, in our view. “Obviously, almost all online schools would see a rise of enrollment during the outbreak, although there is no public data available yet,” Lü Tao said, according to a CNBC translation of her Mandarin-language remarks. After-school tutoring company TAL Education, which operates online and offline courses, claims more tha

Malaysia has so far managed to contain the spread of the new coronavirus, with limited local transmissions, the country’s health minister told CNBC on Wednesday. Malaysia has reported 22 cases of the new coronavirus as of Tuesday — the third-highest number in Southeast Asia behind Singapore and Thailand, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. “I think it’s very contained right now and there’s … no cause for panic at all, but we cannot be complacent about this and we’ll continu

European stocks opened higher on Wednesday as investors monitor the spread of the new coronavirus and fresh economic data. The pan-European Stoxx 600 climbed 0.5% at the start of the trading session, with basic resources adding 1.2% to lead gains as all sectors except utilities entered positive territory. China’s National Health Commission said that as of Tuesday night, a total of 74,185 cases of the new coronavirus had been confirmed in the country and 2,004 people have died. Asian stocks recov

China’s economic growth in the first quarter could fall to as low as 3.5% if the spread of the new coronavirus is not contained fast enough for manufacturing production to resume to normal levels, Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in a Wednesday report. Manufacturing activities around China have been disrupted as authorities shut down cities in a bid to contain the virus, now called COVID-19. While factories have started to come online, checks by Morgan Stanley analysts found that production had onl

China’s government is “confident” of handling the coronavirus crisis in a way that will not damage the leadership, historian Wang Gungwu said on Wednesday. Known for his expertise in Chinese history and civilization, Wang acknowledged that there is disappointment and dissatisfaction among some in China about how Beijing is handling the COVID-19 crisis, but that would not likely seriously hurt the leadership. President Xi Jinping also “acted the way (that is) to be expected” as the news makes its

It’s “fair” to say that countries such as Oman and Bahrain are vulnerable to a potential rating downgrade if the coronavirus outbreak lasts longer than expected, according to the chair of sovereign ratings at a credit rating firm. That’s because the two countries have high fiscal breakeven oil prices, Frank Gill of S&P Global Ratings told CNBC’s “Capital Connection” on Tuesday. Oil prices have been under pressure due to concerns about the economic impact of the coronavirus, with both Brent and U