Our Mission is to keep our audience with an interrupted stream of selected financial information from different serious sources, with the objective to provide online tools with information about investments in the financial markets. We supply you, with the following information: Asia Markets Closing Report, Europe Markets Closing Report, Wall Street Market Closing Report, Market News, Commodities Daily Price Report, Daily Treasury Yields Report, EU/FX Daily Report.
May 20, 2020
World | Markets: Global Markets Fall on Coronavirus News: Live Updates
Right Now European markets opened lower after a mixed trading day in Asia.
Image
Credit...Kiichiro Sato/Associated Press
Global markets edge lower as investor enthusiasm wanes.
Global markets edged lower on Wednesday amid ebbing optimism over global progress in fighting the coronavirus.
European
markets opened lower after a mixed trading day in Asia. Futures markets
were predicting a moderately positive morning for Wall Street later in
the day.
Prices for U.S. Treasury bonds were higher, in a sign of market skittishness. Oil prices were largely flat.
Stocks
in the United States tumbled the day before on news that undercut
optimism from earlier in the week. Experts quoted by Stat, a medical
news site, said they did not have enough data to assess whether a
promising new vaccine would be effective in fighting the coronavirus.
U.S. officials told lawmakers on Tuesday that an American economic
recovery would be slow and difficult, though they offered somewhat
different prescriptions for fixing it.
In Japan, the
Nikkei 225 index ended 0.8 percent higher. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index
was down 0.1 percent. In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite index
lost 0.5 percent. South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.5 percent.
In
London, the FTSE 100 index was down 0.4 percent in early trading.
Germany’s DAX was down 0.5 percent, and the CAC 40 index in France was
down 1 percent.
A city locks down to fight the coronavirus, but robots come and go.
Image
Credit...Ben Quinton for The New York Times
If
any place was prepared for quarantine, it was Milton Keynes. Two years
before the pandemic, a start-up called Starship Technologies deployed a
fleet of rolling delivery robots in the small city about 50 miles
northwest of London.
The squat six-wheeled robots
shuttled groceries and dinner orders to homes and offices. As the
coronavirus spread, Starship shifted the fleet even further into grocery
deliveries. Locals like Emma Maslin could buy from the corner store
with no human contact.
“There’s no social interaction with a robot,” Ms. Maslin said.
The
sudden usefulness of the robots to people staying in their homes is a
tantalizing hint of what the machines could one day accomplish — at
least under ideal conditions. Milton Keynes, with a population of
270,000 and a vast network of bicycle paths, is perfectly suited to
rolling robots. Demand has been so high in recent weeks, some residents
have spent days trying to schedule a delivery.
Is a Pandemic the Right Time to Start a Business? It Just Might Be
Image
Credit...Mustafa Hussain for The New York Times
In
March, as small businesses across the country were shutting down amid
the spreading coronavirus pandemic, Shanel Fields was about to open one
up.
For Ms. Fields, the timing couldn’t have been
better. Her company, MD Ally, allows 911 dispatchers and other
responders to route nonemergency calls and patients to virtual doctors,
to help local governments improve their emergency response systems.
She’s not alone: New businesses are forming despite the pandemic, though at a significantly slower rate than before.
There
have been more than 500,000 applications for an employer identification
number since mid-March, according to the Census Bureau, although that
is down nearly 20 percent from a year ago. Between mid-March and
mid-April, the Small Business Administration issued nearly 300 start-up
loans worth about $153 million, a 36 percent drop from year earlier.
Stripe, the credit card processing firm, said it had handled more than
$1 billion in sales for businesses that started on the platform during
that time.
Past downturns produced some high-profile
American companies: Airbnb, Disney, General Motors, Hewlett-Packard,
Microsoft, Slack, Uber and Venmo, to name a few.
“Downturns
or challenging times are seen as good times to start a business for two
reasons,” said Rashmi Menon, entrepreneur in residence at the
University of Michigan’s Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial
Studies.
Mnuchin and Powell Address the Future of the U.S. Economy
Treasury
Secretary Steven Mnuchin and the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome H.
Powell, offered stark assessments to the Senate Banking Committee about
the economic damage the coronavirus outbreak has caused.
“We
have had to take unprecedented steps to shut down significant parts of
our economy in the interest of public health. As a result in the second
quarter of this year, we are continuing to see large unemployment and
other negative indicators. It is important to realize that the large
number represents real people. This is why it is so important to begin
bringing people back to work in a safe way. We expect economic
conditions to improve in the third and fourth quarter, and into next
year.” “Some sectors of the economy have been effectively closed since
mid-March. People have put their lives and livelihoods on hold, making
enormous sacrifices to protect not just their own health and that of our
loved ones, but also their neighbors and the broader community. While
we are all affected, the burden has fallen most heavily on those least
able to bear it. The sacrifices we’re all making represent an investment
in our individual and collective health. As policymakers, we should
continue to do what we can to help cushion the blow. This reversal of
economic fortune has caused a level of pain that is hard to capture in
words, as lives are upended amid great uncertainty about the future. The
Reserve is committed to using our full range of tools to support the
economy in this challenging time.”
Treasury
Secretary Steven Mnuchin and the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome H.
Powell, offered stark assessments to the Senate Banking Committee about
the economic damage the coronavirus outbreak has caused.CreditCredit...Al Drago for The New York Times
The
U.S. economy faces irreparable damage from the fallout of the
coronavirus pandemic, the nation’s top economic policymakers warned
lawmakers on Tuesday, as the Congress and the White House grapple with
how to restart business activity and how much additional government
support is needed.
In a joint appearance before
lawmakers, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and the Federal Reserve
chair, Jerome H. Powell, offered a stark assessment of the fragile state
of the economy, warning of more severe job losses in the coming months.
But they offered contrasting views of how best to buttress the economy,
with Mr. Powell suggesting that more fiscal support to states and
businesses might be needed to avoid permanent economic damage and Mr.
Mnuchin suggesting that, without an expeditious reopening, the economy
might never fully recover.
“There is the risk of permanent damage” if states delay reopening, Mr. Mnuchin told members of the Senate Banking Committee.
The
hearing, which was held by video conference, came at a pivotal moment,
as Congress and the White House are beginning to debate the outlines of a
second major economic relief bill and potentially inject trillions of
additional taxpayer dollars into the economy.
Mr.
Mnuchin’s comments reflect the change in tone among administration
officials, who have begun trying to shift the economic discussion away
from more financial support to allowing states to reopen. In his opening
remarks, Mr. Mnuchin said “it is so important to begin bringing people
back to work in a safe way.”
Mr. Powell sounded a more cautious tone, explaining that a full recovery will not come until the health crisis is resolved.
“The
No. 1 thing, of course, is people believing that it’s safe to go back
to work, and that’s about having a sensible, thoughtful reopening of the
economy, something that we all want — and something that we’re in the
early stages of now,” Mr. Powell said. “It will be a combination of
getting the virus under control, development of therapeutics,
development of a vaccine.”
More highlights from Tuesday’s hearing:
Mr.
Powell suggested that the central bank might expand its program to buy
municipal debt and agreed that state and local governments could slow
the economic recovery if they laid off workers amid budget crunches.
Mr.
Mnuchin warned that the economy may never fully recover if states
extend their shutdowns for months — citing a risk of “permanent damage” —
comments that reflect a change in focus by the Trump administration,
which has tried to shift the economic discussion away from more
financial support to allowing states to reopen.
Lawmakers
grilled Mr. Mnuchin and Mr. Powell over whether their efforts to shore
up the economy were doing enough to help workers and smaller companies,
and warned that they should not help large corporations alone. Lawmakers
repeatedly urged the pair to get the midsize business “Main Street”
lending program up quickly.
Mr. Powell warned
that the economy could face long-term damage if the policy response was
not forceful enough, and reiterated that the economy might need more
help to make it through the coronavirus period without lasting scars.
Mr.
Mnuchin, who previously said he expected that the Treasury would return
all $454 billion from Congress, changed that benchmark on Tuesday,
saying the “base case” now is that the government will lose money. “Our
intention is that we expect to take some losses on these facilities,” he
said.
Pandemic lockdowns have halted a booming film industry in the Hudson Valley.
Image
Credit...Bryan Derballa for The New York Times
The
Hudson Valley in upstate New York has for two decades beckoned
filmmakers looking for bucolic settings. They used old towns, abandoned
warehouses, office parks and rustic locales to produce some 500 movies,
and in the process pump more than $250 million into the local economy.
This
year, film production in the area was on the rise, and additional
studio space was planned. But since the pandemic lockdown, work has
ground to a halt.
“Things aren’t as they were, and they
may never again be the same,” said Laurent Rejto, founder and director
of the Hudson Valley Film Commission, a nonprofit organization based in
the town of Woodstock that helps producers find locations, housing and
crews.
Mary Stuart Masterson, the actress and founder
of Upriver Studios, hoped to turn 104,000 square feet of a
light-industrial complex in Saugerties, N.Y., into a state-of-the art
film studio. But with the coronavirus pandemic, the rented space remains
as it was, with the building conversion delayed and productions
indefinitely paused.
“The timing is, who knows?” said Ms. Masterson, who remains optimistic that “there is a tomorrow.”
Catch up: Here’s what else is happening.
Urban
Outfitters, which also owns Anthropologie and Free People, reported a
32 percent drop in net sales to $588 million in the first quarter and a
net loss of $138 million, a decline that comes as apparel retailers
continue to struggle with temporary store closures brought on by the
pandemic. The retailer, which is known for its attractive and often
large stores, said on an earnings call that it was negotiating with
landlords on lease terms and cost reductions. It added that it was not
willing to work with those who think “it’s 1995 and they can command any
rent they wish.”
Reporting was contributed by Carlos
Tejada, Cade Metz, Erin Griffith, Amy Haimerl, Eugene L. Meyer, Mohammed
Hadi, Jeanna Smialek and Sapna Maheshwari.
International readers subscribe for $2.00 a month.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.