Brazil shed five million jobs in the first quarter as Latin America's biggest economy felt the first effects of the economic shock caused by the coronavirus pandemic, figures showed Thursday.

Optimism over the reopening of major economies across the planet continued to push equities higher Thursday, as investors looked past building China-US tensions for now, though there remain worries about the uncertain global outlook.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused surging unemployment worldwide, but has hit young workers especially hard, forcing more than one in six people aged under 29 to stop working, the U.N. said Wednesday.

Struggling automakers Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi unveiled Wednesday a plan to deepen cooperation in their alliance that would see them develop nearly half of cars jointly by 2025 to cut costs and boost profitability.

Asian equities mostly fell Wednesday as profit-taking and worries about deteriorating China-US relations outweighed optimism over the gradual reopening of economies around the world.

Global stock markets were firmer Monday, buoyed by the prospect of further easing of coronavirus lockdowns despite sharp increases in case rates in some countries such as Brazil.

Coronavirus-stricken German airline group Lufthansa has agreed in principle a nine-billion-euro ($9.8 billion) rescue deal that would see the government come onboard as a shareholder, sources told AFP Monday.

Cancelled shipments, returned goods and a dearth of new orders have left China exporters in crisis as the coronavirus hits its trading partners worldwide -- accelerating a long-standing push towards domestic consumption.

For automakers Renault and Nissan, the world is currently a very different place to what it had been just a few short months ago.

Egypt's cabinet has preliminarily approved a bill that taxes one percent of citizens' salaries to cushion the impact of coronavirus on strained government finances, sparking online criticism.