Retail & Consumer

More than 400 lawmakers from 34 countries have signed a letter to Amazon.com Inc boss Jeff Bezos backing a campaign that claims the tech giant has "dodged and dismissed … debts to workers, societies, and the planet," organisers said.

The rush by U.S-listed Chinese companies to secure a secondary listing in Hong Kong or China is only set to intensify as the United States readies a new law allowing it to kick firms off its exchanges if they do not comply with U.S. auditing rules.

Sainsbury's, Asda and Aldi will forgo UK property tax relief during the pandemic, following rivals Tesco and Morrisons and taking the total saved by the government from supermarket groups to 1.74 billion pounds ($2.34 billion).

Dollar General Corp reported better-than-expected quarterly results on Thursday, as the discount retailer benefited from higher demand for cheaper groceries and household items during the coronavirus-induced economic downturn.

JD Logistics has asked banks to pitch for the lead role in its Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO) of up to $3 billion as it moves towards launching the deal in the first half of 2021, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter.

Euro zone retail sales rallied more than expected in October, data showed on Thursday, mainly thanks to a surge in online shopping as a second wave of COVID-19 infections arrived.

PhonePe, the digital payments unit of Walmart's Indian e-commerce arm Flipkart, said on Thursday it would sell a stake to existing investors for $700 million, helping it fuel growth in a crowded market that includes Google and Amazon .

For Big Oil, coffee and chocolate could be the new black gold.

Massive options bets believed to have been placed by SoftBank Group Corp earlier this year were among the most visible manifestations of the recent mania for technology shares, but the firm's unwinding of its derivatives holdings is unlikely to cause much of a stir in markets, analysts said.

Corona Capital is a column updated throughout the day by Breakingviews columnists around the world with short, sharp pandemic-related insights.

Amazon.com Inc is in talks to buy podcast startup Wondery with a valuation of over $300 million, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday citing people familiar with the matter.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday said that the country's approval of Pfizer/BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine candidate was a result of international efforts, declining to credit Brexit for the fast pace of the regulatory process.

Amazon.com Inc said on Wednesday that five companies, including Uber Technologies Inc and JetBlue Airways Corp, have joined its Climate Pledge, a commitment to be net-zero carbon by 2040.

Corona Capital is a column updated throughout the day by Breakingviews columnists around the world with short, sharp pandemic-related insights.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday the conduct of directors of the collapsed fashion group Arcadia would be examined.

Christina Green, the ultimate owner of the Arcadia fashion group that has collapsed into administration, said on Wednesday she was bringing forward payments she committed to make to the retailer's pension fund.

Austria on Wednesday chose a middle way in its standoff with neighbouring countries on whether skiing over Christmas is safe, by letting resorts reopen on Christmas Eve but making ski holidays virtually impossible.

Intel Corp's Habana Labs business said on Wednesday it would take time to gain market share from Nvidia in cloud and data centre computing but its deal this week with Amazon Web Services (AWS) was a solid first step.

The World Health Organization on Wednesday tightened guidelines on wearing face masks, recommending that, where COVID-19 is spreading, they be worn by everyone in health care facilities and for all interactions in poorly-ventilated indoor spaces.