Brazil says prolonged coronavirus outbreak would negatively affect economy

BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazilian Economic Policy Secretary Adolfo Sachsida said on Monday that a prolonged coronavirus outbreak could affect Latin America’s largest economy if commodities prices remain low for a long time.

Sachsida added that the government did not see a reason to reduce its GDP growth projection for 2020 from 2.4%, at a time when several economists have slashed forecasts.

Australia's National Storage REIT says Warburg Pincus has made A$1.73 bln bid

Feb 18 (Reuters) – National Storage REIT on Tuesday revealed New York-based private equity firm Warburg Pincus as the third suitor to be in the race to buy Australia’s largest self-storage operator, offering A$1.73 billion ($1.16 billion).

The A$2.20 per share, non-binding, indicative proposal from Warburg Pincus competes with China’s Gaw Capital Partners similar offer and New York-listed Public Storage’s A$2.40 per share approach.

Kelowna man faces impaired driving charges after weekend crash

A 26-year-old Kelowna man faces numerous charges, including impaired driving, after being arrested at the scene of a serious single-vehicle crash on Saturday.

Overnight travel advisory warns of snow for Guelph, Waterloo region

Environment Canada has issued an overnight travel advisory for Guelph and Waterloo region.

The agency is warning that a band of snow is expected to cover southern Ontario at around midnight.

It says that the area could see between four and eight centimetres of snow by the time everyone wakes up with the precipitation expected to change into rain later in the morning as the day warms up.

Deutsche Börse Q4 Profit Rises; Proposes Higher Dividend

Deutsche Börse Group reported that its fourth-quarter consolidated net profit rose to 213.2 million euros from last year’s 140.0 million euros, with earnings per basic share improving to 1.16 euros from 0.77 euros in the prior year.

The Executive Board has proposed a 7 percent dividend increase for 2019, to 2.90 euros per share.

Deutsche Börse Group plans a further increase in net revenue from secular growth opportunities of at least 5 percent in 2020, with adjusted 2020 net profit expected to rise to about 1.20 billion euros.

The Group’s financial result for the fourth-quarter was negative 8.4 million euros compared to negative 28.4 million euros last year. The year-on-year reduction was largely due to lower provisions for interest on potential tax back-payments.

Adjusted EBITDA declined 2 percent to 410.5 million euros from 419.9 million euros in the prior year.

But, adjusted net profit attributable to shareholders for the quarter increased 5 percent to 242.4 million euros from 230.5 million euros in the previous year. Basic adjusted earnings per share rose by 6 per cent to 1.32 euros.

Quarterly net revenue was 756.6 million euros up 2 percent from 740.4 million euros last year. Secular net revenue growth of 4 percent and consolidation effects of 3 per cent were partially offset by weaker cyclical development compared to the previous year.

Trump Tweets ‘Happy President’s Day’ And Gets Dragged By Twitter Users

On Monday morning, Donald Trump tweeted “Happy President’s Day,” and ― surprise! ― a lot of Twitter users elected to turn his punctuation into fodder for jokes.

Please take note of the apostrophe before the “s” in Trump’s tweet below, which implies that the day belongs to just one president.

Many Twitter users assumed Trump was celebrating himself, given his brand of unbridled egotism.

The White House has never set in stone the correct spelling for the holiday, so it’s possible Trump just made a typo — or was thinking of George Washington, whose birthday is observed on the third Monday of February — but some found it a little hard to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Others took issue with Trump’s use of the word “happy.”

Some people had quibbles about which presidents get celebrated on the day.

But one person hoped the president’s holiday tweet was a sign of good things to come:

U.S. Business Inventories Inch Up In Line With Estimates In December

Business inventories in the U.S. edged higher in the month of December, according to a report released by the Commerce Department on Friday.

The report said business inventories inched up by 0.1 percent in December after slipping by 0.2 percent in November. The uptick in inventories matched economist estimates.

The modest increase in business inventories came as manufacturing inventories rose by 0.5 percent, more than offsetting a 0.2 percent dip in wholesale inventories. Retail inventories came in unchanged.

Meanwhile, the Commerce Department said business sales edged down by 0.1 percent in December after climbing by 0.5 percent in November.

Wholesale sales slumped by 0.7 percent, more than offsetting a 0.5 percent increase in manufacturing sales. Retail sales came in unchanged.

With inventories rising and sales falling, the total business inventories/sales ratio crept up to 1.40 in December from 1.39 in November.

Apple Warns Of Coronavirus Impact On Q2 Revenue

Apple Inc. (AAPL) said it doesn’t expect to meet its revenue guidance for the second quarter due to lower smartphone demand, and temporary work slowdowns related to coronavirus outbreak in China.

Apple had said last month that it expects revenues to be between $63.0 billion and $67.0 billion for the second-quarter. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the company to report revenues of $65.26 billion for the quarter. Analysts’ estimates typically exclude special items.

The tech giant today said the worldwide iPhone supply shortages due to the disruption in China following the coronavirus outbreak will temporarily affect revenues worldwide.

“Work is starting to resume around the country, but we are experiencing a slower return to normal conditions than we had anticipated,” the company said.

Apple temporarily closed all of its stores in China. The company said it is gradually reopening stores, but those locations have been operating at reduced hours and with very low customer traffic.

Apple said, “While our iPhone manufacturing partner sites are located outside the Hubei province — and while all of these facilities have reopened — they are ramping up more slowly than we had anticipated.”