Spot gold traded around 1,698 dollars and 61 cents per ounce on Monday, an almost 12 percent increase year to date. This comes as analysts from UBS Investment Bank expect the price of the metal to "break the highs" seen earlier this year, after declining in March along with assets across the board.

Last week, the World Gold Council released its first-quarter 2020 demand trends report for the precious metal, where it highlighted that the global coronavirus outbreak was “the single biggest factor influencing gold demand.

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Mobile operator O2 may be set to merge with broadband giant Virgin Media to create one of the country's largest entertainment and telecoms firms.

A tie-up between two major players in Britain's telecoms and media sector would create a major rival to BT.

Spanish firm Telefonica, which owns O2, confirmed that it was in talks with Virgin-owner Liberty Global the company however stressed that the negotiations were ongoing and there was no guarantee they would reach a deal.

A tie-up between the two would increase pressure on BT, which owns the UK's second-largest mobile network EE.

BT has 28 million mobile, TV and broadband customers across the country. It also provides services to a million businesses.

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Shareholders of Norwegian Air have backed its financial survival plan on Monday, with more than 95 percent of votes cast supporting the conversion of nearly $1 billion of debt into equity and raising more cash from its owners.

The airline, which at the end of last year had amassed debts of around $8 billion, said ahead of the meeting that it had won “strong support” from aircraft lessors for its plan.

Norwegian Air said lessors are now willing to convert at least $730 million of debt into equity, up from $550 million earlier, and talks are ongoing for possible further conversion.

It said with the significant contributions from lessors and bondholders, the company expects to convert more than 10 billion crowns ($958 million) in debt to equity.

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U.S. government debt prices were higher Monday morning as Washington ramped up its criticism of China over the origin of the coronavirus pandemic. At around 3:25 a.m. ET, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note was lower at 0.6068% and the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond was down at 1.2446%. Yields move inversely to prices.

Auctions will be held Monday for $61 billion of 13-week Treasury bills, $50 billion of 26-week bills and $30 billion of 105-day bills.

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Ryanair is set to cut 3,000 jobs, or about 15% of its workforce, as it restructures to cope with the coronavirus crisis. The airline says the 3,000 jobs under threat were mainly pilot and cabin crew jobs. Ryanair added that there are likely to be pay cuts of up to 20% for remaining staff. Chief Executive of Ryanair, Michael O'Leary, disclosed this to BBC, saying it will take up to six months to refund passengers for flights cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic. According to O'Leary, the airline is struggling to process a backlog of 25 million refunds with reduced staff.

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The national coronavirus lockdown in India has been extended beyond 4 May for another two weeks. New guidelines, outlined on Friday, update the country's designated red, green and orange zoning system. Red zones are considered hotspots, while considerable relaxations will be permitted in areas considered less dangerous. India has been under lockdown measures since 24 March, with more than 35,000 cases confirmed nationally. There have been just over 1,100 deaths.

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Gold rose on Friday as dismal data from the United States underscored the deep economic impact of the coronavirus. However, moves by some countries to ease tough containment measures kept bullion on track for its worst week in a month and a half.

Spot gold climbed 0.4% to $1,686.71 per ounce by 0454 GMT, paring some losses from a near 2% drop on Thursday. U.S. gold futures eased 0.1% to $1,692.70 per ounce.

Bullion tends to benefit from widespread stimulus measures as it is often seen as a hedge against inflation and currency debasement.

Gold, however, was down about 2.4% for the week, its biggest drop since mid-March.

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The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index opened lower on Friday, extending previous session’s losses amid renewed tensions between Washington and Beijing after US President Trump threatened to impose new tariffs against China. Meanwhile, latest data showed factory activity in Canada shrank at the sharpest pace on record in April as the coronavirus pandemic hit the economy.

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Meanwhile, Exxon Mobil reported a loss in the first quarter as oil prices dropped to historic lows. The oil giant lost 610 million dollars in the first quarter due to write-downs tied to falling oil prices. In the fourth quarter, the company reported adjusted earnings of 41 cents per share and revenue of 67.17 billion dollars. In the same quarter a year earlier, the company earned 2.35 billion dollars, or 55 cents per share, on revenue of 63.63 billion dollars.

The company said that oil-equivalent production rose 2 percent year-over-year to 4 million barrels per day. Shares of Exxon slipped 1.4% during Friday’s premarket trading.

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The price of Brent rose more than 1% to trade around 26 dollars, 8 cents a barrel on Friday, as major oil producers began output cuts aiming to stabilize the market hit by the coronavirus pandemic. The imbalance between oil supply and demand is to set to be halved to 13.6 million bpd in May, and decreased further to 6.1 million bpd in June, according to an OPEC-Plus deal reached two weeks ago. Also, latest data from the EIA showed a lower than expected gain in US crude inventories last week. Brent gained 11% in April but has tumbled 60% this year.

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