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Special Edition: The Latest on the Coronavirus Pandemic |
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From CFO Journal and the WSJ Pro Staff |
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Good evening. We hope you are faring well. The White House is discussing easing social distancing as early as next week amid a broader debate over how much economic loss the country can bear to save an unknowable number of lives threatened by the coronavirus pandemic. The broader market rout continued with investors sending U.S. stocks tumbling again after U.S. lawmakers failed for a second day to pass a rescue package to ease the economic fallout. The market blow comes despite the Federal Reserve signaling it would do practically anything—extending loans to businesses and purchasing hundreds of billions of dollars of government debt—to help the U.S. economy. In an unexpected employment boost, Walmart, Amazon and CVS Health are among the large companies looking to hire nearly 500,000 Americans in coming weeks, potentially some of those being laid off by small businesses. |
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| Vice President Mike Pence, coordinating the coronavirus task force, has been working the phones and sounding out leading epidemiologists and physicians about how to craft a long-term national strategy. PHOTO: YURI GRIPAS/REUTERS |
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| Oil companies have been hard hit by the falling demand spurred by the coronavirus pandemic. Above, Enbridge Inc.'s tanks, Cushing, Okla. PHOTO: NICK OXFORD/REUTERS |
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Some of the world’s biggest and best-capitalized companies are racing for cash. Airbus and Royal Dutch Shell joined in the scramble of companies that are slashing costs, shelving buybacks, or cutting dividends and asking banks to extend credit. The stock market’s coronavirus-fueled swoon could wipe out hundreds of millions of dollars from executive pay packages and prompt a recalibration of how CEO compensation is set. Special bankruptcy protections should be made available to more small businesses, and bankruptcy courts should have more leeway to aid struggling consumers, a bankruptcy advisory group says. |
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2,500 | The estimated number of employees that General Electric’s jet-engine business will lay off. |
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| Customer Messaging: Hitting the Right Note |
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Businesses have been sending emails to reassure customers, promising clean counters in kitchens and hand sanitizer in stores. But experts say that there is a fine line between keeping customers in the know and adding to the noise. |
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Some brands are scrambling to amend, remove or rework their advertising because messages that just a few weeks ago seemed innocuous or clever now sound tone deaf. |
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“Aggressive efforts must be taken across the public and private sectors to limit the losses to jobs and incomes and to promote a swift recovery once the disruptions abate.” | — The U.S. Federal Reserve, in a statement Monday |
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| IBM’s Summit, located at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, is one of at least 16 supercomputers that are part of the initiative. PHOTO: CARLOS JONES/ORNL |
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The U.S. government, IBM and others are giving researchers world-wide access to at least 16 supercomputers to help speed the discovery of vaccines and drugs to combat the novel coronavirus. As banks, brokers and stock exchanges begin working remotely, their systems are holding up well despite concerns about cybersecurity. “As extraordinary a time as it is, today’s technology has proven impressively resilient,” said Atte Lahtiranta, chief technology officer at Goldman Sachs Group. One AI company based in Israel makes the case for collecting "high resolution" data about the movements of patients, so that more useful insights about the spread of the disease can be gleaned. "There are safe, ethical ways to do this while respecting privacy,” says Sagie Davidovich, co-founder and CEO of SparkBeyond. “This can save lives." |
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| As many businesses around the world struggle, a Canadian disinfectant company is increasing production to keep up with demand during the novel coronavirus outbreak. Photo: Ron Kolumbus/WSJ. |
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Inside the Kirkland, Wash., nursing-home disaster, an account of how Life Care Center management missed opportunities to launch a more aggressive response, even if no one at the time suspected a coronavirus outbreak. Food sellers in the U.S. spent years making their supply chains efficient. Then a pandemic hit, and the strategy backfired. Now that the door is open to a probable delay in the Summer Olympics because of the coronavirus pandemic, Japan is hoping to keep it short. Advice on health, family, travel and helping others during the age of Covid-19. |
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