"Price support is coming courtesy of a transport blockage ... Yet, market sentiment will likely struggle to shake off its new-found bearish trend," said Stephen Brennock of the analysts PVM Oil Associates. 

In less than 24 hours, the 200,000-ton "Ever Given" container vessel has managed to pull off what members of the OPEC cartel of oil producing nations spent most of 2020 trying to achieve. The grounding of the vast vessel, as long as the Empire State building, in the Suez Canal has sent shudders through the oil markets. With one of the world busiest shipping routes effectively closed, there are also concerns about the disruption to the flow of goods from Asia to Europe at a fragile time for world economies.

Elsewhere, France's Carrefour has shaken off its recent bruising from Canada's Couche-Tard, to launch an audacious bid for the Walmart-owned Grupo BIG chain in Brazil. 

Robinhood, the share trading platform that is never far from the headlines, edges closer to a flotation in what could be one of the biggest stock market events of the year.  

Despite no plans for a float in the near future, cryptocurrency firm Blockchain.com has raised another $300 million in backing from eager investors. 

And one giant pension fund says it won't be participating in what looks set to be the biggest IPO in London in 2021, that of food delivery giant Deliveroo. Raising concerns over the group's treatment of its fleet of dispatch riders, Aviva Investors says "social issues" have affected its decision not to participate. 

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned of a "race to the bottom" on global corporate tax rates. See our graph to find out how much running a business could cost you across the world. 

Read on for more of the day's business news in full. 

Louise Greenwood 

Digital correspondent 

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Crude prices have risen on world markets with the blocking of the Suez Canal by a container ship from China, causing a tailback of traffic on one of the world's busiest shipping lanes. The 400-meters-long "Ever Given" became stuck during dust storms and high winds late on Tuesday, leaving at least 100 ships waiting to transit the canal, which connects the Red Sea with the Mediterranean. 

International crude prices were up more than 2 percent in London trading, amid concerns about disruption to oil shipments, as well as the cross-continental flow of goods between Europe and Asia, including clothing, electronics, and heavy machinery.

The Suez Canal, which is the most used alternative to Cape travel for container vessels heading for Europe, had begun to record a pick-up in trade after the Chinese lunar new year. On Wednesday, analysts said five laden liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers were unable to pass through the strait, with the transit of a further 10 in jeopardy.  

French supermarket giant Carrefour is to buy Brazil's Grupo BIG chain in a deal valued at $1.3 billion, amid ongoing international restructuring plans. Brazil is now Carrefour's biggest overseas market by sales. It comes two months after a $20 billion offer for Carrefour by Canada's Couche-Tard convenience chain was scuppered by political opposition in Paris.

German manufacturing has grown at a record pace in March, according to new data from the influential IHS Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI). The index was up more than six points at 66.6, above analysts' expectations, with a "mini-revival" also under way in the services sector, after the brief lifting six months ago of lockdown conditions. 

The biggest annual drop in clothing prices since 2009 contributed to a fall in UK inflation last month, according to new figures. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) says cheaper second-hand cars, toys, and computer games also contributed to the cost of living falling to 0.4 percent in February, from 0.7 percent the previous month, as the economy continues to suffer in the COVID-19 slowdown. 

Robinhood, the firm behind the recent so-called "Reddit Rally" of activist day trading in the U.S., has submitted plans for a stock market flotation. The firm said in a statement that relevant documents have been lodged with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in what could be one of the largest IPOs seen on the U.S. markets this year. Robinhood has raised a fresh $3.4 billion in financing from investors after the surge of trading in GameStop and other "meme" stocks in January strained its finances.

China's top ride-hailing firm Didi Chuxing is reported to be considering a flotation in Hong Kong later this year in a change of policy, with a deal that could value the firm at more than $100 billion. A merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) to fund the IPO is among the options being considered.  

German lender Commerzbank says it expects to post a loss this year. In its annual report, the group says loan provisions of up to $1.4 billion will likely push the bank into the red for 2021, as Commerzbank continues a cost-cutting exercise through which it will shed almost a third of its German workforce.  

Czechia-based car maker Skoda Auto says it will invest $2.9 billion in new technologies over the next five years, with more than half going to electric vehicle production. The Volkswagen-owned firm reported an operating profit of $893 million for 2020, a year-on-year drop of 54 percent as the COVID-19 pandemic cut into demand.

Cryptocurrency firm Blockchain.com says it has raised $300 million in fresh backing in a funding round that values the group at $5.2 billion. Blockchain.com, which offers digital wallets for storing cryptocurrencies, has benefited from the rise in the value of virtual currency Bitcoin, and said last month it had raised about $120 million in a one-off investment from the venture capital arm of Google parent Alphabet.

 

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Tesla's U.S. customers can now buy its electric vehicles with Bitcoin. CEO Elon Musk said on Twitter the option would be available to buyers in markets outside the U.S. later this year. Last month, Tesla bought $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin, in a move that helped drive the cryptocurrency's price to nearly $62,000.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has spoken out against "a global race to the bottom in corporate taxation" in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Speaking at a hearing of the House Financial Services Committee, Yellen said instead Federal Reserve staff were working with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for a global agreement on how to tax tech giants and implementing a voluntary global minimum rate of tax. 

Shares in China's biggest vaping company have fallen almost 48 percent amid signs of a tougher new regime on e-cigarettes in the country. On Monday, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), published amendments to tobacco laws that would extend existing regulations to vaping products. RLX Technology, the country's leading provider of e-cigarettes, raised $1.4 billion through its New York Stock Exchange listing two months ago.

The United Arab Emirates is to make a multi-billion-dollar investment in the UK. The country's state-backed Mubadala fund is to target health, technology and clean energy in an overall package that could be valued at $6.8 billion. 

Harry Potter publisher Bloomsbury says it is expecting bumper profits for 2020 as book sales soared amid lockdowns. In what it called "a ray of sunshine in an otherwise very dark last year," the company said full-year profits before tax would be significantly ahead of market expectations, which are currently put at $20.8 million.

One of the UK's biggest investment funds has said it will not invest in the food delivery firm Deliveroo when it floats in London next month. David Cumming, the chief investment officer for equities at Aviva Investors, which manages $500 billion in savings assets, has raised concerns over the group's treatment of dispatch riders, saying there is a "combination of investment risk and social issues that affect our judgment whether the shares are a buy or not."

The UK's Prince Harry has joined the corporate world, taking a position with Silicon Valley start-up BetterUp. After relocating to California, he will be offering employee coaching and mentoring on mental health issues as the group's chief impact officer, working with clients such as Mars, AB InBev and LinkedIn. The financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed. 

 

WATCH: Amazing drone footage shows the long-dormant volcano Mount Fagradalsfjall just outside Reykjavik in Iceland, erupting after 900 years. People have flocked to the site to see the natural event.

 

Some of Brazil's top business leaders have written an open letter criticizing the government's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. The letter, published in newspapers, doesn't mention President Bolsonaro but calls for a change in policy towards the virus, which killed 15,000 Brazilians last week alone. 

CGTN Europe spoke to Daniel Buarque of the Brazil Institute at London's King's College and asked him about the current infection rates.  

We are near collapse, the hospitals don't have many places in [intensive care] units anymore. We have more than 2,000 people dying every day. On average, that's up almost 50 percent from two weeks ago. Cafes are closed. Schools are closed. Parks are closed. We have to stay at home. But the president is trying to change it to make people go back to having everything open. So the situation is dire. Everything is going really badly and we can't see any chance of it getting better.  

 

Some very big business names have criticised Bolsonaro's strategy. How surprising is it that they've taken this stance?

I think the surprising part is that it took so long for them to do that, because it's been a year since we have seen the pandemic hit here in Brazil. For a long time, people didn't do anything. But what we are seeing is that everybody lost their patience with the government because, as I mentioned before, the situation is really bad. The main focus of the government is trying to avoid the lockdown by saying it's going to be bad for the economy. But what we see is that the economy is actually suffering more. And the only way we get out of the pandemic is through vaccination and through lockdown measures that might be really bad, but would be temporary. 

 

So do you think this push by business leaders is actually going to make a difference?

We have seen some signs that the government may change its policy. The president has announced that he's going to change the health minister... which is a sign that we are going to see the government focusing more on vaccinations. We are seeing that a lot of this problem with the pandemic right now is due to new variants of the virus. About 89 percent of people in the country are willing to be vaccinated and there is a vaccine available, but we have about 7 percent of people vaccinated so far. But knowing that people want vaccines and that more people around the government are pushing for vaccination, it might help the country to start to make its way out of this.

 

And finally, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned against a "race to the bottom" for nations competing over low corporate tax rates in the post-pandemic era. Figures show South America is the costliest region in which to run a business, with Oceania and Africa not far behind. But economists warn that change is badly needed.