Tag Archives: Major News

Samsung Electronics confirms coronavirus case at phone

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SEOUL (Reuters) – Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) said on Saturday that one coronavirus case had been confirmed at its mobile device factory complex in the southeastern city of Gumi, causing a shutdown of its entire facility there until Monday morning.

Samsung Electronics, the world’s top smartphone maker, said the floor where the infected employee worked would be shut down until the morning of Feb. 25.

“The company has placed colleagues who came in contact with the infected employee in self-quarantine and taken steps to have them tested for possible infection,” Samsung said in a news release.

Samsung’s factory in Gumi accounts for a small portion of its total smartphone production, and it makes high-end phones, mostly for the domestic market. Samsung produces most of its smartphones in Vietnam and India.

Gumi is close to the city of Daegu, home to a church at the center of South Korea’s largest coronavirus outbreak.

South Korea said on Saturday that the number of people infected with the coronavirus in the country had more than doubled to 433.

Samsung said production at its chip and display factories in other parts of South Korea would not be affected.

Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin. Editing by Gerry Doyle

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Dollar tramples yen and safe-haven status, gold gains

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NEW YORK (Reuters) – The strong dollar got stronger on Thursday, rising to a three-year high against a basket of trading partner currencies, after a steep slide in the Japanese yen called into question its safe-haven status while the rally in U.S. equities took a pause.

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the opening bell in New York, U.S., February 6, 2020. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

Gold prices hit their highest level in seven years as investors sought safe-haven assets after a rise in the number of new coronavirus cases in South Korea and the price of oil rose, supported by China’s efforts to bolster its virus-weakened economy.

The dollar has surged almost 2% since Tuesday against the yen, reaching its highest in almost 10 months, and the greenback climbed to near three-year highs against the euro.

The dollar index of the world’s most-traded currencies rose 0.12% to its highest level since May 2017.

The index is up 3.6% this year. It also gained to its best levels of the year against China’s offshore yuan and MSCI’s index of emerging-market currencies.

A host of reasons were cited for the dollar’s move, ranging from the outperformance of the U.S. economy and corporate earnings to potential recessions in Japan and the euro zone.

A run of dire economic news out of Japan has stirred talk the country is already in recession and that Japanese funds were dumping local assets in favor of U.S. shares and gold.

“The strongest explanation (for the yen’s decline) is a widespread selling by Japanese asset managers amid growing fears about the health of Japan’s economy,” said Raffi Boyadijian, investment analyst at XM.

The yen’s slide is unusual because the exchange rate with the dollar has been unraveling from its close correlation to the price of gold and U.S. Treasury yields, a development that must be watched, he said.

“This raises question marks about whether the yen is losing some of its shine as the world’s preferred safe-haven currency,” Boyadijian said.

China reported a drop in new virus cases and announced an interest rate cut to buttress its economy. But South Korea recorded an increase in new cases, Japan reported two deaths and researchers said the pathogen seemed to spread more easily than previously believed.

A rally that had lifted major U.S. and European stock indexes to record highs this week lost steam, as investors fretted about the spread of the coronavirus outside of China.

MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe shed 0.84% and emerging market stocks lost 0.95%.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index lost 0.62%.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 283.03 points, or 0.96%, to 29,065. The S&P 500 lost 30.99 points, or 0.92%, to 3,355.16 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 131.33 points, or 1.34%, to 9,685.85.

Morgan Stanley’s multibillion-dollar buyout for E*Trade Financial boosted the discount brokerage’s shares.

E*Trade jumped 24.4% after Morgan Stanley offered to pay $13 billion in an all-stock deal, the biggest acquisition by a Wall Street bank since the financial crisis.

Morgan Stanley’s shares fell 3.6%.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped 0.5% overnight, led by drops in Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and South Korea’s KOSPI.

Spot gold rose 0.3% to $1,616.74 an ounce, after hitting its highest since February 2013 at $1,622.19.

Oil prices rose further after a U.S. report showed a draw in gasoline inventories and a much smaller-than-anticipated rise in crude stocks.

U.S. gasoline stockpiles fell 2 million barrels in the week to Feb. 14. Analysts had estimated an increase of 400,000 barrels.

Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed that crude inventories rose only 414,000 barrels last week, compared with a 2.5 million-barrel rise that analysts had expected in a Reuters poll. [EIA/S]

Brent crude futures rose 58 cents to $59.70 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate gained 91 cents to $54.20 a barrel.

Demand for safe-haven U.S. Treasury debt was robust, driving the 30-year bond yield below the psychologically significant 2% level to its lowest since September 2019.

The 30-year bond last rose 39/32 in price to push its yield down to 1.9626%.

Benchmark 10-year notes last rose 17/32 in price to yield 1.5135%.

Reporting by Herbert Lash; additional reporting by Ritvik Carvalho in London; editing by Jonathan Oatis

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Apple unlikely to meet revenue guidance due to coronavirus impact

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(Reuters) – Apple Inc (AAPL.O) said on Monday it would not meet its revenue guidance for the March quarter because of the coronavirus outbreak slowing iPhone production and weakening demand in China.

FILE PHOTO: The Apple Inc. logo is seen hanging at the entrance to the Apple store on 5th Avenue in Manhattan, New York, U.S., October 16, 2019. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo

Apple’s manufacturing facilities in China have begun to reopen, but they are ramping up more slowly than expected, the technology company said in a statement to its investors.

Global supplies of Apple’s iPhones will be limited as the sites work toward operating at full capacity, the company said.

“These iPhone supply shortages will temporarily affect revenues worldwide,” the company said.

In January, Apple forecast $63 billion to $67 billion in revenue for the second quarter ending in March, ahead of estimates of $62.4 billion.

The company said it would provide more information during its next earnings call in April.

Apple also said that store restrictions due to coronavirus precautions had affected its sales in China, with most retail stores either closed or operating at reduced hours.

“We are gradually reopening our retail stores and will continue to do so as steadily and safely as we can,” the company said.

The disruptions follow a strong December quarter for iPhone sales, which were up for the first time in a year.

Analysts have estimated that the virus may slash demand for smartphones by half in the first quarter in China, the world’s biggest market for smartphones.

“While we have discussed a negative iPhone impact from the coronavirus over the past few weeks, the magnitude of this impact to miss its revenue guidance midway through February is clearly worse than feared,” Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives wrote in a note.

Apple’s stock is expected to face a knee-jerk reaction on Tuesday, when Wall Street reopens after the Presidents Day holiday, Ives said.

Wedbush said it remained optimistic that Apple would be able to recover from the coronavirus setback.

“While trying to gauge the impact of the iPhone miss and potential bounce back in the June quarter will be front and center for the Street, we remain bullish on Apple for the longer term,” Ives said.

The outbreak is expected to intensify pressure on China’s economy, with multiple companies struggling to restart production after an extended Chinese New Year holiday.

Fiat Chrysler, <FCHA.MI, Hyundai Motor Co (005380.KS) and General Motors Co (GM.N) have all said their auto production lines were, or could be, hit by Chinese factories that are slow to restart because of the virus.

Reporting by Neha Malara in Bengaluru and Laila Kearney in New York; Editing by Dan Grebler and Peter Cooney

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Investors charge back into stocks on signs coronavirus spread is slowing

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LONDON (Reuters) – A drop in the number of new coronavirus cases and the Federal Reserve chairman’s optimistic view of the economy lifted world stocks for a third day on Wednesday and sparked a 2% rally in oil prices, on hopes the epidemic’s effects would be contained.

FILE PHOTO: An investor monitors share market prices in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, August 25, 2015. REUTERS/Olivia Harris.

China reported its lowest number of new coronavirus cases since late January, lending weight to a prediction from its senior medical adviser that the outbreak might be over by April. A continued decline in new cases would inflict would keep the epidemic from doing as much economic damage as initially feared,

Those reports encouraged investors to get back into equities at the expense of bonds, gold and the Japanese yen — safe-haven assets that benefited as the virus death toll mounted.

“The virus may retard the modest upturn in global trade and manufacturing output which we predict to unfold from the second quarter of 2020s. But it seems unlikely to derail it,” analysts at Berenberg told clients.

The damage to Western economies in particular “will likely be modest and mostly temporary,” the bank said.

MSCI’s global equity index rose 0.12% to stand just off Tuesday’s record highs .MIWD00000PUS. A pan-European equity index rose to a record as automobile stocks — which depend on exports to China — jumped 1.2% .SXAP.

Futures indicated Wall Street would extend gains from Tuesday, when the S&P 500 and Nasdaq posted record closing highs ESC1 [.N].

In Asia, mainland Chinese and Hong Kong shares rose almost 1% .CSI300. The offshore-traded yuan reached two-week highs CNH=D3. The Thai baht, Korean won and Taiwanese dollar, reliant on Chinese tourism and trade, gained 0.3% to 0.5% THB= KRW= TWD=. The yen slipped 0.3% JPY=EBS to a three-week low against the dollar.

Brent crude futures rose from 13-month lows, helped by the likelihood producers would cut output LCOc1. Brent is still down almost 20% from its peaks in early January.

Some noted it remained unclear whether the coronavirus had peaked. Some Chinese companies said they were laying off workers as supply chains for goods had ruptured.

“Evidence suggests the positive mood will continue, and we see some coordination in markets with oil rallying, base metals up and Treasuries coming under pressure,” said Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at CMC Markets in Sydney. But “I am not ready to buy risk assets yet.”

U.S. RESILIENCE

Yields on U.S. Treasuries and German Bunds US10YT=RR rose 3 to 4 basis points. Ten-year U.S. yields are now 13 bps off the four-and-a-half-month lows hit late January though almost 30 bps below where they started 2020.

Yields had risen on Tuesday after U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the U.S. economy was “resilient”. Powell also said he was monitoring the coronavirus, because it could lead to disruptions that affect the global economy.

The dollar had risen to four-month highs against a basket of currencies .DXY but inched off those levels on Wednesday.

U.S. markets also got a boost from signs President Donald Trump might be re-elected in November, since centrist candidates for the Democratic nomination appear to be struggling .

“Trump had a great start into the U.S. election season. After the early end of the impeachment trial in the Senate and the Iowa caucus chaos for the Democrats, betting markets suggest that Trump has a 58% probability of winning re-election on 3 November,” Berenberg noted.

The day’s big currency mover was the New Zealand dollar NZD=D3, which rose 0.8% for its biggest daily gain since December, after the central bank dropped a reference to further rate cuts, suggesting its easing cycle might be over.

Additional reporting by Stanley White in Tokyo, editing by Larry King

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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U.S. judge expected to rule in favor of merger of Sprint, T-Mobile: sources

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(Reuters) – A U.S. district judge is expected to rule in favor of allowing Sprint and T-Mobile to merge over the objections of a group of state attorneys general, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

A smartphones with Sprint logo are seen in front of a screen projection of T-mobile logo, in this picture illustration taken April 30, 2018. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

Shares of Sprint surged 69% in after hours trade and T-Mobile stock rose 8%.

U.S. District Court Judge Victor Marrero is expected to make his decision public on Tuesday, one source said.

Approval of the deal would be a high profile defeat for state attorneys general, led by New York and California, who had argued that a merger of the No. 3 and No. 4 U.S. wireless carriers would lead to higher prices, especially for customers who use prepaid plans popular with people with poorer credit.

The deal has already been approved by federal regulators.

The companies had said the deal was needed to help them build out next generation of wireless, called 5G, and better compete with sector leaders Verizon Communications Inc and AT&T Inc.

Executives from the companies, including outspoken T-Mobile Chief Executive John Legere, testified during the trial that Sprint’s business was deteriorating and would not survive if it did not merge with T-Mobile.

The two companies are expected to start talks on renegotiating the terms of their $26.5 billion merger in the next few days, two sources said.

T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom is keen to cut the price of the deal, arguing that Sprint’s fortunes have deteriorated since they inked their agreement, the sources added.

However, Sprint, in which Japan’s Softbank Group has a major stake, is expected to argue that T-Mobile needs Sprint in order to grow its cashflow and to boost its capacity using its spectrum, according to the sources.

There is no certainty that there will be a renegotiated deal, the sources cautioned.

The Court did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Sprint and T-Mobile both declined to comment.

One merger opponent, Gigi Sohn, a former telecoms regulator now at Georgetown Law, tweeted her displeasure with reports of the decision. “If #antitrust law doesn’t even block a 4-3 merger like this, we need to start from scratch,” she tweeted, referring to the market shrinking to three from four competitors. “I’ll have more to say tomorrow after I read the judge’s decision (through my tears).”

While a group of states decided to fight the deal in court, the federal government approved it with conditions, a decision which remain in effect.

The U.S. Justice Department approved the deal in July after the carriers agreed to sell some assets to satellite provider Dish Network Corp, which would create its own cellular network to ensure that there would still be four competitors in the market. The Federal Communications Commission signed off on the deal in October. Dish shares rose 2% after hours.

The states maintained that Dish was ill-equipped to become a competitive fourth wireless carrier.

The Wall Street Journal earlier reported that the court was expected to approve the deal on Tuesday.

Reporting by Diane Bartz in Washington and Greg Roumeliotis in New York, David Shepardson in DC and Arundhati Sarkar in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber, Uttaresh.V and Lincoln Feast.

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Shanghai government to help Tesla resume production amid coronavirus epidemic

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FILE PICTURE: Tesla China-made Model 3 vehicles are seen during a delivery event at its factory in Shanghai, China Jan. 7, 2020. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – U.S. electric carmaker Tesla’s (TSLA.O) factory in China’s financial hub of Shanghai will resume production on Feb. 10 with assistance to help it cope with a spreading epidemic of coronavirus, a Shanghai government official said on Saturday.

Many factories across China shut in late January for the Lunar New Year holiday that was originally due to end on Jan. 30 but which was extended in a bid to contain the spread of the new flu-like virus that has killed more than 700 people.

Tesla warned on Jan. 30 that it would see a 1-1.5 week delay in the ramp-up of Shanghai-built Model 3 cars as a result of the epidemic, which has severely disrupted communications and supply chains across China.

Tesla Vice President Tao Lin said this week that production would restart on Feb. 10.

“In view of the practical difficulties key manufacturing firms including Tesla have faced in resuming production, we will coordinate to make all efforts to help companies resume production as soon as possible,” Shanghai municipal government spokesman Xu Wei said.

The $2 billion Shanghai factory is Tesla’s first outside the United States and was built with support from local authorities. It started production in October and began deliveries last month.

The Shanghai government also said on Saturday it would ask banks to extend loans with preferential rates to small companies and exempt firms in hard-hit sectors like hospitality from value-added tax, among other measures to prop up businesses during the epidemic.

Such assistance would also apply to foreign companies, it added.

Reporting by Brenda Goh and Samuel Shen; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell and Stephen Coates

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Wall St. reaches new highs as China moves to limit coronavirus impact

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(Reuters) – U.S. stocks gained for a fourth straight session on Thursday and Wall Street’s main indexes hit record highs as concerns eased over the economic fallout from the coronavirus outbreak in China.

China said it would halve additional tariffs levied against some U.S. goods, seen by analysts as a move to boost confidence after the fast-spreading coronavirus disrupted businesses and sparked broad market volatility.

“The one primary thing that everyone has been listening to and watching and seeing how it moves the market has been the coronavirus,” said Jonathan Corpina, senior managing partner for Meridian Equity Partners in New York. “The headlines have been somewhat neutral lately, and that has been acceptable for the markets.”

Adding to the optimism for stocks were data showing that the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits dropped to a nine-month low last week, with investors casting an eye toward Friday’s monthly U.S. employment report.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 88.92 points, or 0.3%, to 29,379.77, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 11.09 points, or 0.33%, to 3,345.78 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 63.47 points, or 0.67%, to 9,572.15.

Among S&P 500 sectors, communication services .SPLRCL and technology .SPLRCT led the way, while energy .SPNY fell the most.

Even with optimism about containing the broad economic damage from the coronavirus, the impact of the health emergency in China continued to show up in corporate reports. Chipmaker Qualcomm Inc (QCOM.O) flagged a potential threat to the mobile phone industry from the outbreak. Its shares fell 0.3%.

Investors were also digesting the acquittal on Wednesday of U.S. President Donald Trump on impeachment charges.

“The outcome was fairly well telegraphed and I think widely believed, but it ends the chapter for now and I think that is a modest positive for investor sentiment,” said James Ragan, director of wealth management research at D.A. Davidson in Seattle.

With the fourth-quarter corporate reporting season more than halfway completed, S&P 500 companies are expected to have increased earnings by 2.1% for the period, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

In earnings news, Becton Dickinson and Co (BDX.N) shares slid 11.8%, contributing the biggest drag on the S&P 500, after the medical technology company cut its 2020 forecast.

Kellogg (K.N) shares slumped 8.5% after the breakfast cereal maker forecast full-year earnings that widely missed market expectations.

Twitter shares (TWTR.N) soared 15.0% after the social media company reported $1 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time.

Philip Morris International shares (PM.N) rose 2.7% after the tobacco company released results.

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the opening bell in New York, U.S., February 6, 2020. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.07-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.11-to-1 ratio favored decliners.

The S&P 500 posted 62 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 122 new highs and 41 new lows.

About 7.3 billion shares changed hands in U.S. exchanges, below the 7.7 billion daily average over the last 20 sessions.

Reporting by Lewis Krauskopf; Additional reporting by Medha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Leslie Adler and Alistair Bell

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Exclusive: iPhone app makers questioned in U.S. antitrust probe of Apple – sources

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department has reached out to app developers as part of its investigation into Apple Inc (AAPL.O), one of the four big tech companies being probed for alleged anti-competitive behavior, according one of the developers and another person familiar with the investigation.

FILE PHOTO: An Apple logo hangs above the entrance to the Apple store on 5th Avenue in the Manhattan borough of New York City, July 21, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo

The chief executive of developer Mobicip, Suren Ramasubbu, told Reuters he was interviewed in November by a U.S. investigator who asked about the company’s interactions with Apple. The app, which has nearly a million users worldwide, allows parents to control what their children see on their iPhones.

Ramasubbu said the Mobicip app was temporarily removed from the iPhone app store last year for a failure to meet requirements imposed by Apple.

A source familiar with the Justice Department’s investigation said a handful of app developers had been contacted in what is the first indication of what officials are pursuing involving Apple since the investigation was revealed by Reuters in June.

U.S. President Donald Trump has criticized Apple’s Silicon Valley neighbors for other reasons, calling for closer scrutiny of social media companies and Google and accusing them of suppressing conservative voices online, without presenting any evidence.

U.S. Attorney General William Barr said in December that he hoped to have the Justice Department investigations into the big tech platforms – Facebook Inc (FB.O), Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google, Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) and Apple – wrapped up this year.

Apple declined comment, but pointed to a statement on its website that says its app store was designed to hold apps “to a high standard for privacy, security and content.”

“Since 2016, we have removed over 1.4 million apps from the App Store because they have not been updated or don’t work on our most current operating systems,” the site says.

Apple’s ability to do just that has been a point of contention in the courtroom. The company was accused in lawsuits last year of abusing its clout in the app market. In one case, the U.S. Supreme Court gave the go-ahead last May to an antitrust lawsuit that accused Apple of forcing consumers to overpay for iPhone software applications.

SCREEN TIME CONTROL

Apple introduced its Screen Time app, which includes parental controls, in June 2018. At the start of 2019, Ramasubbu told Reuters, his company was contacted by Apple and warned that Mobicip’s app violated the iPhone-maker’s rules relating to technical elements that had previously been acceptable.

The app was removed from the app store for about six months, during which time it was updated to be compliant with Apple rules, Ramasubbu said. It was reinstated in October 2019, but he estimates his company’s business has shrunk by half.

Six executives of parental control app companies interviewed by Reuters said they had a comfortable relationship with Apple until mid-2018. That is when Apple introduced its own, similar software giving parents oversight of their children’s phone screen time and searches.

Apple has said that it had been concerned about parental control apps using technology which gave developers access to sensitive data, and that they declined to approve apps that used the technology if they did not also commit to not sharing data on children.

As the arbiter of who is allowed to sell in the app store, Apple says it has the power to ensure that only the highest quality apps are sold there.

But some developers say it also allows Apple to push out apps that compete with its own products, thus strengthening its profits at a time with its device sales have stagnated and it is seeking new sources of revenue.

Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Chris Sanders and Edward Tobin

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Apple to close all China mainland stores due to virus outbreak

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FILE PHOTO – A screen displaying an advertisement for iPhone 11 Pro is seen outside an Apple store in Beijing, China October 31, 2019. REUTERS/Florence Lo

(Reuters) – Apple Inc on Saturday said it would shut all of its official stores and corporate offices in mainland China until Feb 9. as fears over the coronavirus outbreak mounted and the death toll more than doubled to over 250 from a week ago.

“Out of an abundance of caution and based on the latest advice from leading health experts, we’re closing all our corporate offices, stores, and contact centers in mainland China through February 9,” Apple said in a statement. The company said looked forward to re-opening stores “as soon as possible”.

Earlier this week, Apple closed three stores in China due to concerns about the spread of the virus.

It’s joining a handful of overseas retailers, including Starbucks Corp and McDonald’s Corp to temporarily shut storefronts as a precautionary measure.

Many other companies, meanwhile, have called for employees in China to work from home and cease non-essential business travel in the first week of February.

Normally, businesses in China would be preparing to return to normal operations following the end of the week-long Lunar New Year Holiday.

Apple remains heavily reliant on China both for smartphone sales as well as for its supply chain and manufacturing. Many factories in Hubei province, including plants run by AB InBev and General Motors Co, have temporarily suspended production due to the virus.

In a recent earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company was working out mitigation plans to deal with possible production loss from its suppliers in Wuhan. The city where the virus outbreak originated is home to several Apple suppliers.

Reporting by Akshay Balan in Bengaluru and Josh Horwitz in Shanghai; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Lincoln Feast.

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Carlos Ghosn’s Japanese lawyers quit after former Nissan chief absconds

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TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese attorneys representing Carlos Ghosn, including lead lawyer Junichiro Hironaka, quit on Thursday following the former Nissan chief’s flight to Lebanon from Japan, where he had been fighting financial misconduct charges.

In an emailed statement, Hironaka said everyone involved in the case at his practice had resigned. A spokeswoman there declined to give a reason.

A second lawyer in Ghosn’s three-person legal team, Takashi Takano, also quit on Thursday, according to an official at his office.

A person who answered the telephone at the office of the third lawyer, Hiroshi Kawatsu, said she did not know if he still represented the former automotive executive.

Ghosn, who fled Tokyo last month, told Reuters in an interview in Beirut with his wife Carole that he was happy to stay in Lebanon for the rest of his life and claimed he was treated with “brutality” during his detention and bail in Japan.

Carole said she was “done with Japan”.

Japan has issued international wanted notices for the couple, which means the two will live in Lebanon as fugitives and could be arrested if they leave their country.

Hironaka, who earlier expressed disappointment at his client’s decision to abscond, had said he would quit once Ghosn had settled his account.

The case has cast a harsh light on Japan’s justice system, igniting a fierce publicity battle between the former businessman and Justice Minister Masako Mori, who has described Ghosn’s criticism as “absolutely intolerable.”

Ghosn spent more than 120 days in a Tokyo detention center and was interrogated on most days, often for more than seven hours without his lawyers, Takano has said.

Prosecutors questioned him for the first 43 days without a break, including Christmas and New Year’s Day.

On Thursday, Ghosn found an ally in another foreigner, Australian sports journalist Scott McIntyre, who was detained for 44 days for trespassing in a bid to get information on his missing children. He pleaded guilty to the charge and was freed on Wednesday with a six-month suspended sentence.

Slideshow (3 Images)

Speaking at a news conference, McIntyre, who was held at the same detention center as Ghosn in western Tokyo for part of his detention, described the conditions there as “torture”.

Japanese officials reject such criticism, saying the justice system is humane and protects human rights.

McIntyre said the lights were on 24 hours a day, making it impossible to sleep more than an hour at night, and that several of his fellow detainees told him they would confess to crimes they had not committed in order to shorten their time there.

Reporting by Sam Nussey, Tim Kelly and Chang-Ran Kim; Editing by David Dolan and Clarence Fernandez

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