Get in touch: bizlivepage@bbc.co.uk
Oil slips below $27 a barrel
Pounds down 2.4%
Wall Street slumps again
UK property funds suspended
Stocks fall despite coronavirus stimulus plans
Selfridges to shut stores
Morrisons sales soar as stockpiling continues
Sainsbury's further restricts grocery sales
Image source, Getty ImagesToday on BBC Business we're looking into business reaction to the £350bn package of financial measures meant to help shore up the British economy.
Business owners and startups - what is your reaction to the news?
Please send your thoughts to mary-ann.russon@bbc.co.uk if you're happy to be quoted.
Image source, Chelsea FCThe Millennium Hotel at Chelsea's Stamford Bridge ground
Another positive story (keep them coming, please): Chelsea Football Club has offered, external NHS workers free accommodation at the Millennium Hotel at its Stamford Bridge ground.
The cost of the rooms will be covered by Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich.
The club said: "Many of the medical staff will be working long shifts and may not be able to travel home or would otherwise have to make long commutes. Local accommodation helps maintain the health and well-being of these crucial personnel at this critical time."
The offer will be for a two-month period, and then reconsidered in light of circumstances at the time.
NHS staff will be those working in hospitals in the North-West London region, but that may extend to hospitals in other districts.
Meanwhile Selfridges has revealed that its workers have been hit by COVID-19.
In a statement it said: "We can confirm that three Selfridges team members have tested positive for coronavirus.
"Those impacted are in self-isolation and recovering well at home. All our teams are aware.
"The health and wellbeing of our customers and team members remains our utmost priority and we are rigorously following all guidance from Public Health England."
Image source, Getty ImagesSelfridges store in London's Oxford Street
Upmarket department store chain Selfridges is closing its London, Birmingham and Manchester stores due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Shoppers have until 7pm tonight to stock up on whatever treats they think they need from the retailer.
“We must do the right thing by the communities in which we live and work to help mitigate the spread of the coronavirus," the company said in an emotional statement.
“It is with a heavy heart that tonight we have made the decision to temporarily close our four physical stores in London, Birmingham and Manchester from 7pm [on Wednesday 18 March]."
The company made no indication when the shops may open again but pointed out that bereft buyers can simply shop online. Phew!
EMIS share slump is a bit of a head-scratcher, reckons Nicholas Hyett, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown. He said:
Quote MessageEMIS’ GP practice and pharmacy management software will be right at the heart of the UK’s coronavirus response, yet the group expects to see relatively little impact from the virus outbreak. The group should be well placed to withstand the market turmoil. That makes today’s share price fall a bit of a head-scratcher for us. Smaller companies are always more vulnerable in a downturn, and for all its recent success EMIS is still relatively small with a market cap of less than £500m. It will also be suffering from the general market sell-off. Nonetheless management might not be totally unjustified in feeling they’ve been hard done by today.
Image source, EMISHealthcare software firm EMIS released figures today.
Its full-year revenues climbed 7% to £159.5m, with underlying operating profits were up 9% to £39.3m.
The group said it does not expect to see significant disruption as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.
That hasn't stopped its shares dropping today. They're down 5.06% at 788.
Image source, Getty ImagesMorrisons appears to be having a good crisis so far, reckons AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould.
He said the supermarket chain is responding impressively to the new demands on the business created by the coronavirus and accompanying restrictions on everyday life.
“The company is being proactive in protecting the health and finances of its employees and in seeking to keep the nation fed, aided by the fact it is a vertically integrated business with its own food production capacity.
“While there is no hint these measures are being taken for a commercial advantage, people may well remember how it acted when the outbreak is finally contained and this could increase and bolster brand awareness and loyalty."
Image source, Getty ImagesThe supermarkets that have announced plans to help customers are leading the FTSE 100 risers this morning.
Sainsbury's has said it will prioritise vulnerable and elderly people for online deliveries and limit people to only buying three of any single item.
Its shares are up 6.61% at 204.65.
Meanwhile Morrison has announced it is to create 3,500 new jobs to expand its home delivery service amid the coronavirus pandemic.
It had added 6.13% to climb to 191.47.
It's another torrid day for stock markets.
The FTSE 100 is currently down 4.6% after losing 243.66 points, at 5,052.65.
Will it drift below the 5,000 level again? We'll keep you posted.
Image source, Getty ImagesHong Kong, Singapore and Osaka have just been ranked as the world's most expensive cities to live in.
But this may not be the case after the full impact of the coronavirus pandemic takes its toll.
Cities that get a large part of their income from tourism could become cheaper as their economies shrink and prices are driven down.
This is one of the predictions made by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), which tracks living costs globally.
Its Worldwide Cost of Living Survey for 2020 was compiled in November 2019, before the coronavirus became a pandemic. It's next survey could look very different.
It would be reasonable to assume that firms like Boots are making quite a lot of money out of the coronavirus outbreak due to high demand for products.
But Sebastian James says his firm and other retailers don't like the current situation.
"It's not good for any business. What we and all retailers like is customers who are happy, secure, safe, and shopping, and we are all looking forward to a time when we get back to that."
Today Programme
BBC Radio 4
Image source, Getty ImagesWhat happens when the workers in the factories manufacturing paracetamol have to go sick or take time off work to look after others - will we start to run out?
Boots boss Sebastian James said we won't.
"There's enough out there," he says. "The fact is, we think that it is completely rational for families to stock up with what they're going to need.
"What we're really asking customers to do - and by the way, people really are - is to get what they need, and make sure other people also have what they need."
Today Programme
BBC Radio 4
Boots customers have been "really understanding" about limiting customers to buying two of products including hand-sanitiser, chief executive Sebastian James says.
"We've been actually very touched by the response from our customers, who really get it, that they should get what they need, then other people have a chance to get what they need," he says.
Why not have a common policy of rationing across all stores?
"It's quite difficult for different businesses to get together and decide what they are going to do with regards customers - it's apart from anything else, against the law."
He says 504 lines "are very much in demand" at the moment including hand sanitiser, paracetamol and other pain relief, more cleaning products, and more baby products.
Today Programme
BBC Radio 4
Two or three packs each max. That is the message coming from Sainsburys to its customers this morning.
Last week Boots told those queuing up at its stores to get hand sanitiser, paracetemol and thermometers that they could only get two packs of each.
Sebastian James, chief executive of Boots says: "The problem of course is not supply, it's demand. No supply chain can survive a sudden, unexpected global ten-fold increase in demand. And what we thought was incredibly important was that as many people as possible could get what they actually needed."
Morrisons says there has been "considerable stocking up" during the last two weeks as customers "as customers plan for the impact of COVID-19".
Overall, in the first six weeks of 2020, like-for-like sales were up 5%, the supermarket chain said.
Image source, Getty ImagesSupermarket chain Morrisons has guaranteed pay for sick and affected colleagues during the coronavirus outbreak.
"COVID-19 is a severe threat to Britain and worldwide," it said in its results for the year to 2 February.
"Morrisons primary focus is the health and safety of our colleagues and customers, and we are doing all we can to mitigate that threat."
"Our colleagues in stores, offices, manufacturing and distribution are working to ensure the supply chain operates as smoothly as possible and we keep stock on the shelves."
Image source, Getty ImagesPrime Minister Boris Johnson has been urging shoppers to be sensible when buying food. His comments come after shoppers have been emptying shelves around the UK following the coronavirus outbreak.
So can panic-buying be controlled and what are supermarkets doing to restock shelves?
Today Programme
BBC Radio 4
Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, has promised a £350bn package of support for businesses hit by the coronavirus - will it be enough?
And is it the right thing to do? The biggest chunk - £330bn - comes through two loan guarantee schemes - one for bigger companies, one for smaller.
We don't yet have the details of how each of them will exactly work, and how they will affect the public finances in the long term.
Paul Johnson, the director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, says "we don't know for sure" what the effect will be.
"My guess is, by contrast with previous such interventions where essentially the loans did get paid back, and they had very little long-run effect on the public finances, in this case, you might expect more of them wouldn't be, and so the long-term effect might be greater."
BBC Radio 5 Live
Wake Up to Money
Image source, Getty ImagesThe government has unveiled a package of financial measures to shore up the economy against the coronavirus impact.
It includes £330bn in loans and funding grants of between £10,000 and £25,000 for small businesses.
Michelle Ovens, founder of Small Business Britain, told Wake Up to Money: "For the levers Chancellor Rishi Sunak has to pull, he's definitely pulling on all of them."
She added: "Lending is a tricky area for small businesses, though. We know that 52% of small businesses have no finance, one-fifth even rely on overdrafts. This is a big shift for small business to then take on debt."
"The 'x-factor' is that, we don't know how long this is going to last. And for small business, taking on a loan at a time where there's a lot of uncertainty - that can be really scary."
Image source, Getty ImagesAsian stocks have fallen as worries about the coronavirus pandemic eclipsed hopes that major stimulus plans would ease the impact of the outbreak.
It came after Wall Street's main indexes rebounded by more than 5% on Tuesday following Monday's steep falls.
In the US, the Trump administration outlined a $1 trillion (£830bn) package to support the world's biggest economy. At the same time the UK has revealed details of its own stimulus measures, including £330bn of business loans.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 lost 1.7%, the Hang Seng in Hong was down by 1.9%, and China's Shanghai Composite fell by 0.5%. US stock market futures were also indicating a weaker open for Wall Street.