Just in: The coronavirus has forced the next James Bond film to be delayed until November.

No Time To Die was scheduled for April. However, fans had already lobbied for a postponement, saying it wasn’t the right time to see Daniel Craig’s last outing as 007.

The producers now agree:

Back in Westminster, Andrew Bailey is fairly scathing about Facebook’s Libra digital currency project, telling MPs:

“It’s been handled pretty poorly.”

Libra’s launch got a “pretty poor reception” and was “very vague” about how it works, the governor-to-be says.

“It was frankly not a very well done and very well developed initiative.

“I remain pretty suspicious.”

All the main European stock markets closed higher tonight, despite the IMF’s gloomy warnings that the coronavirus is hurting global growth.

The EU-wide Stoxx 600 index ended 1.2% higher, with gains in London, Paris, Frankfurt and Milan.

Investors seem to be banking on fresh monetary and fiscal stimulus measures -- not dampened by Canada’s rate cut a couple of hours ago.

But they’re also taking their cue from Wall Street, where stocks have jumped 2%.

New York investors seem convinced that Joe Biden will become the Democrat’s candidate to take on Donald Trump, following his Super Tuesday triumph.

Healthcare stocks, including insurers and pharmaceutical companies, are leading the rally. Bernie Sanders’ dream of Medicare For All would have hit their profits (while also giving Americans much-needed health protection).

Britain’s FTSE 100 index has continued its recovery, and just closed 97 points higher at 6815 points (up 1.45%).

That’s above last Thursday’s close (6796 points), meaning we’ve shaken off Friday’s slump.

But, as you can see, the index is still sharply lower than in mid-February.

Andrew Bailey has hinted the Bank of England is not close to an emergency rate cut amid the coronavirus outbreak, telling MPs:

“What we need is frankly more evidence than we have at the moment as to how this is feeding through”

He says there is nothing to stop the Bank acting before the next MPC, but that it’s still “working hard” to assess the potential economic fallout as the virus spreads.

“We are still looking at the evidence and the precise sort of balance of what the shock is likely to be”.

That might dampen some of the speculation that the BoE follows the US Federal Reserve with an unscheduled cut (UK rates are currently 0.75%)

Lloyd’s of London, the insurance market has announced “emergency trading protocols” that it can wheel out if the coronavirus situation escalates.

Lloyd’s 1,000 staff, along with thousands of brokers and underwriters, would be asked to work from home and to resort to electronic trading.

More details here.

Andrew Bailey then tells MPs that as governor of the Bank of England he wouldn’t hold back from telling the government that a free trade deal with the EU is vital.

“My strong view is we should do all we can to get a free trade agreement with the EU and not fall back on the WTO.

On the climate emergency, he pledges to maintain the momentum created by Mark Carney.

“You should be assured that none of the momentum behind this is going to decline”

He also warns the financial markets are not pricing in the risks of global heating.

Labour MP Rushanara Ali is now tearing strips out of Andrew Bailey at the Treasury committee, saying:

“To what extent do you take personal responsibility for not being feared by these people [bankers and finance industry execs]. And they quite frankly took the biscuit?”

Bailey points to the FCA’s crackdown on high-cost credit, which he says has saved the poorest in society about £1.5bn a year, and put several payday lenders out of business.

“The way they were treating constituents across the country was unacceptable”.

The Bank of Canada justifies its rate cut by pointing to the damage caused to the global economy by the spread of coronavirus:

Before the outbreak, the global economy was showing signs of stabilizing...

However, COVID-19 represents a significant health threat to people in a growing number of countries. In consequence, business activity in some regions has fallen sharply and supply chains have been disrupted. This has pulled down commodity prices and the Canadian dollar has depreciated.

Global markets are reacting to the spread of the virus by repricing risk across a broad set of assets, making financial conditions less accommodative. It is likely that as the virus spreads, business and consumer confidence will deteriorate, further depressing activity.

The IMF had previously expected China’s economy would grow by 5.6% this year -- which is now Not Going To Happen.

Last year China grew by 6.1%, which was the weakest in three decades.

On China, the IMF says that its previous growth forecasts are “no longer valid”.

Covid-19 will have a more significant impact on the Chinese economy than previously thought, MD Georgiava warns.

But, she also expresses optimism that Chinese production levels keep rising as factories reopen.

David Malpass, head of the World Bank, is appearing alongside Kristalina Georgieva.

He warns that the coronavirus will hurt poorer countries harder, which is why the World Bank announced a $12bn package of loans yesterday to help them fund healthcare and other measures to combat Covid-19.

Q: How much support will the IMF and the World Bank provide to Africa?

Georgeiva says that the IMF’s analysis of the coronavirus crisis shows that sub-Sarahan Africa is a particular concern.

Malpass says the World Bank is speeding up its aid, and that “substantial assistance” is available.

Q: How about oil-producing nations in the Middle East?

Georgieva says oil producers were already suffering from lower oil prices, and the IMF are looking into the impact on growth.

With the coronavirus now a threat, these countries should use their fiscal buffers, and prioritise health spending, she adds.

What caused policymakers to suddenly galvanise themselves into action against the coronavirus?

It is the sheer geographic spread of the disease around the world, Kristalina Georgieva replies.

And also the knowledge about how the virus spreads. Unfortunately it is spreading undetected more than first thought, Georgieva explains. Plus, it is clearly not just affecting China, and the countries around it.

The coronavirus crisis calls for a “co-ordinated response mechanism”, IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva continues.

The top priority for governments is to ensure that front-line health-related spending is strong enough to handle the coronavirus impact, she adds. And the IMF is “fully committed” to supporting its members, particularly the low-income countries at the greatest risk.

Storm clouds are gathering over troubled UK regional airline Flybe.

The FT is reporting that the government has rejected Flybe’s request for a £100m loan to keep itself in the air.

If so, that’s a big blow -- Flybe has been pinning its hopes on a loan, after coming close to collapse in January.

The coronavirus outbreak is obviously very bad news for airlines -- it means less demand for Exeter-based Flybe’s routes between UK cities, and to Europe.

But....this is also an interesting test of the idea that governments and central bankers should help companies survive the economic damage of Covid-19.

Policymakers should use targeted measures to protect healthy firms (as Bank of America’s Ralf Preusser argued)... but what about companies who were already in trouble?

The latest US jobs data is a little mixed.

The good news is that American companies hired 183,000 new staff in February, according to payroll operator ADP. That’s more than expected.

It suggests that US companies weren’t panicking about Covid-19 last month.

However, January’s data has been revised down a lot -- from 291,000 to just 201,000.

So overall, fewer jobs have been created this year than we thought....

Last week’s market sell-off in the wake of the coronavirus epidemic has hit Legal & General’s solvency position, a key measure of its capital strength.

The insurer said today its solvency ratio had fallen by 10 percentage points since the start of this year to 174% on 28 February. A level above 100% indicates insurers have enough capital, although regulators usually want to see a higher number.

Insurers will face a two-fold hit from the virus outbreak due to increased payouts on travel insurance policies, for example, as well as investment losses.

L&G offers life insurance and pensions, and its finance chief Jeff Davies said the firm had “very little” exposure to the epidemic.

“We prepare and plan for a whole range of different scenarios both in terms of mortality and the market, the market is the big focus.”

L&G is also encouraging staff not to worry about self-isolating themselves:

Even before the coronavirus arrived, poor employee health has become the most frequent cause of disruption to businesses.

That’s according to the latest annual Horizon Scan Report, conducted by the Business Continuity Institute and the British Standards Institution and published today.

It interviewed 665 businesses and found that illness-related disruptions were a bigger problem than cyber-attacks (previously the top problem).

A third of businesses said they had faced disruption from health incidents -- with physical illness, mental illness or stress.

But despite this, health worries only ranked 15th on a list of threats this year. I imagine it’s rocketed to the top of many lists now!

Rachael Elliott, Head of Thought Leadership at the BCI, says many firms weren’t giving enough attention to workers’ health (and now face a wake-up call).

The Coronavirus outbreak is the kind of event that is both predictable and extremely disruptive – but its infrequency means it is considered unlikely to occur and so is often overlooked until its effects are all too apparent. This reality shows the importance and great value of taking time to scan the horizon and prepare for the unexpected.”

Hundreds of billions of dollars could be wiped back onto America’s largest companies today:

Wall Street is on track to recover almost all yesterday’s slump when trading begins in 90 minutes....and Joe Biden can take the credit.

Italy’s stock market is also rallying today, as its government announces plans to shut schools and universities until mid-March.

The FTSE MIB is up almost 1.5%.

On the global economic front, growth in Brazil has slowed.

Brazilian GDP only expanded by 0.5% in October-December, down from 0.6% in the previous quarter.

That’s better than the UK and Germany, who both stagnated, while France, Italy and Japan all shrank. But its another sign that the world economy was losing some oomph even before the coronavirus outbreak took hold.

Britain’s financial services regulator has said it has “no objection” in principle to City staff working remotely due to coronavirus quarantine measures.

But, the Financial Conduct Authority says firms must take all reasonable step to keep operating effectively and support their customers.

“For example, we would expect firms to be able to enter orders and transactions promptly into the relevant systems, use recorded lines when trading and give staff access to the compliance support they need.

“If firms are able to meet these standards and undertake these activities from backup sites or with staff working from home, we have no objection to this.”

Over in the UK parliament, Boris Johnson has announced new measures to allow the payment of statutory sick pay from the first day someone is sick, not from day four.

That is designed to help households help with the coronavirus....and cut the danger that people keep working while suffering from Covid-19.

But it’s not immediately clear whether it will help gig employees workers or the self-employed, who often aren’t entitled to sick pay at all.

Johnson indicates that universal credit could help - but that often involves a wait of several weeks....

Our Politics Liveblog has more details:

European markets are pushing higher, with the UK’s FTSE 100 now up 112 points or 1.7% at 6830.

That takes it back to last Thursday’s closing levels (although it was also briefly higher yesterday).

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, spies anxiety in the City, despite this rebound.

Markets are really worried about how the coronavirus disruption will affect corporate earnings, consumer spending and ultimately economic growth.

“A lot of precautionary measures are being put into place such as more people working from home, yet there are concerns about how that will affect productivity and spending,” says

There’s no relief from the stock market volatility.

Wall Street is currently being called higher, with the Dow up 500 points (or 2%) in pre-market trading.

On Monday it jumped 1,293 points (5%), only to slump by 785 points (3%) on Tuesday.

Ralf Preusser, global head of rates research at Bank of America, argues that interest rate cuts aren’t the right policy response to the coronavirus.

Instead, central banks and finance ministers need to take steps to avoid fundamentally healthy companies running into liquidity problems, because of the physical disruption to their business model and supply chains.

Speaking on Bloomberg TV, Preusser cited Italy’s stimulus package, which includes credit lines, and delays in tax and mortgage payments in the areas affected by Covid-19.

All these things are much more likely to be effective than monetary policy.”

Preusser adds that the ECB should consider “targeted liquidity operations” -- ie cheap loan to help eurozone companies whose operations are being hit by the coronavirus outbreak. It could also boost its asset purchase scheme, to ease monetary conditions in the euroarea.

The interest rates on UK government bonds has fallen to a fresh record low this morning.

10-year UK gilts are yielding just 0.35%, an extremely low rate of return, as investors pile into government debt.

That’s a signal that traders are feeling anxious - yields slump when the City expects a recession, or a prolonged period of weak growth. It’s also suggests that some traders are anticipating a cut to UK interest rates soon.

It also means the UK government can borrow very cheaply -- useful if Boris Johnson’s administration decides to launch new infrastructure projects to improve long-term growth rates.

Two more major European trade shows have just fallen victim to the coronavirus outbreak.

The London Book Fair has been cancelled, after major publishers including HarperCollins UK, Simon & Schuster and Hachette said they would not attend. It was due to run from 10-12 March, but is now off until 2021. More details on The Bookseller.

And over in Germany, the Hannover Messe industrial fair has been postponed from April until July.

Reuters has learned that European Central Bank policymakers held an unscheduled telephone conference call late on Tuesday to discuss their emergency response to the coronavirus outbreak.

However, policy action was not on the agenda, they’re heard. Instead, the eurozone’s top bankers discussed how they’d address a coronavirus panic - and ensure there are enough banknotes circulating.

More here.

Swiss bank UBS now expects the ECB to cut its deposit rate deeper into negative territory at its meeting next Thursday -- or sooner. That would hurt commercial banks who leave deposits at the ECB’s vaults.

They had expected the ECB to hold fire until April -- but the coronavirus crisis is now forcing earlier action, argues Reinhard Cluse of UBS:

In light of the 50bps emergency rate cut by the Fed, we are changing our ECB call.

We now expect the ECB to cut rates by 10bps to -0.6% on 12 March – if not earlier – and not wait until 30 April as our previous call implied.

In light of the Fed emergency cut – the next Fed meeting was originally scheduled for 18 March – and the G7 statement, we think the ECB can poorly afford to wait until end-April to deliver a policy response, even if the assessment of the economic fallout from the Covid-19 is not yet clear.

European stock markets are rallying this morning, lifted by hopes of stimulus measures...and the results of Super Tuesday.

Every index is up, with the FTSE 100 gaining 77 points or 1.1% to 6794. That’s a boost for savers and pension-holders -- but still leaves the Footsie 8% lower than two weeks ago.

Some investors are betting on more action from central banks and governments, following yesterday’s US interest rate cut and Bruno Le Maire’s call for fiscal intervention this morning.

Joe Biden’s stunning success in the Democratic primaries overnight is also lifting stocks, as the former vice-president proved he could yet challenge Donald Trump in November.

Raffi Boyadjian, senior investment analyst at XM, says:

After the Fed’s unscheduled rate cut ended up creating more panic than allaying concerns about the virus impact, investors found some solace in the results of Super Tuesday where 14 US states voted to choose their favourite for the Democratic nominee of the 2020 presidential election.

The big winner of the night was undoubtedly former Vice President Joe Biden, who made a remarkable comeback after a lacklustre start to his campaign. Biden now has more delegates than his main rival, Bernie Sanders, and this is music to Wall Street’s ears, who have less to fear from Biden’s centrist policies than Sanders’ socialist agenda.

US stock futures were last trading around 1.5% high.

Economic activity in Hong Kong has also slumped last month.

The IHS/Markit private sector PMI revealed a deepening recession, falling for the 23rd month in a row, from 46.8 in January to 33.1 in February, the steepest decline in history. Job shedding accelerated to its steepest rate in more than 18 years.

More here:

The recent stock market volatility has helped to scupper UK shopping centre Intu’s bid to raise over £1bn in fresh funding.

The cash call was always going to be a stretch -- given Intu has a £4.5bn debt pile, and is struggling from the slowdown on the high street.

This failure means Intu has missed the criteria set by its banks to grant a new four-year £440m revolving credit facility. More here:

The coronavirus crisis has (understandably) hurt confidence across Europe’s service sector companies.

That’s according to IHS Markit’s latest survey of purchasing managers, which says:

Business confidence regarding future activity was a little lower than January’s 16-month high during February. There were reports from across the region of worries over the impact on business from an escalation of the Covid-19 outbreak.

German companies remained the least optimistic, whilst those in Ireland were the most confident.

More encouragingly, Markit also found that eurozone company growth reached a six-month high in February - with its eurozone composite PMI rising to 51.6, from 51.3 in January.

This chart from Bloomberg shows the dramatic slump in China’s car sales last month.

Coronavirus has “emptied” car showrooms, they add:

The outbreak has paralyzed the industry just as it was looking to gradually halt a two-year decline, with manufacturers now left with little visibility into when sales might recover. Automakers have poured billions of dollars into the world’s largest car market over the past decades in a bet on its growth potential.