National Business

LOS ANGELES — The annual movie exhibition and trade show CinemaCon has been cancelled in Las Vegas due to coronavirus, scuttling one of Hollywood's premier hype machines.

DALLAS — Federal officials have grounded a charter operator that carried professional baseball and hockey teams, saying the company and its pilots weren’t authorized for the kind of commercial venture they operated.

WASHINGTON — The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment insurance fell last week for a second straight week, an indication that the coronavirus had not yet hit the labour market in a major way.

MONTREAL — Dorel Industries Inc. says its suppliers based in China delayed re-opening following the Chinese New Year due to the COVID-19 outbreak, with production delayed by two weeks in most cases.

TORONTO — Canadian Tire Corp. Ltd. has named Greg Hicks as president and chief executive, effective immediately. Hicks takes over from Stephen Wetmore, who is also stepping down as a member of the board.

GENEVA — The World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a pandemic and urged aggressive action from all countries to fight it, as U.S.

TOKYO — Asian shares plunged Thursday after the World Health Organization declared a coronavirus pandemic and indexes sank on Wall Street. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 dived 4.2% in morning trading to 18,591.01. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 dropped 5.

MONTREAL — Bombardier Inc. is replacing chief executive Alain Bellemare as it moves ahead with its new focus on business jets.

Boeing is painting a sobering picture for its business in 2020.

LONDON — Britain took bold steps on Wednesday to cushion the economic shock of the coronavirus outbreak, as the government announced a 30 billion-pound ($39 billion) stimulus package and the Bank of England slashed its key interest rate to a record l