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Good Morning, and welcome to a special edition of The 10-Point. U.S. stocks closed lower yesterday but held on to big weekly gains as the government approved a $2 trillion stimulus package. Meanwhile, in some U.S. hospitals, doctors are confronting the grim realities of medical rationing as the number of coronavirus infections continues to rise. As we track the coronavirus and shutdown, the staff of The Wall Street Journal continues to bring you regular updates and the latest information from around the world as we all navigate this challenging time. Please visit our live coverage page, which is regularly updated, and keep an eye on wsj.com for updates from around the world throughout the day. And please take care of yourselves. —Matt Murray, editor in chief |
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Stocks pulled back yesterday but finished the week with big gains overall, as the economic impact of the pandemic grew. | |
Major U.S. stock indexes posted double-digit gains for the week—with the Dow industrials surging 13% and the S&P 500 climbing 10%—but remain down more than 20% in 2020. The Cboe Volatility Index finished the week lower after rising for five consecutive weeks. (▶️ Video: The markets this week, explained.) Yesterday, President Trump signed a roughly $2 trillion stimulus package into law after House lawmakers hustled back to the Capitol to pass the aggressive response to the pandemic. (▶️ Video: Who gets a piece of the stimulus package?) A key provision of the package is a plan to send one-time cash payments, worth an estimated $250 billion, to millions of American households. The package also bolsters the international lending institutions that are gearing up for an unprecedented bailout of the global economy. Measures taken to curb the spread of the virus could lower economic activity in the U.S. and other developed countries by a quarter, the OECD said. A huge withdrawal of capital from emerging markets also threatens to create a wave of debt defaults. Electronic trading has kept financial markets running, but some tasks, it turns out, aren’t made for social distancing. Some of the financial world’s most-influential voices predict how the markets will respond to government policies designed to contain the virus’s impact. Market panics can be hidden or delayed but never eliminated. Still, it is possible to stop worrying and love the bear market. 📈 Charts: How fast the economy crashed and Washington responded. |
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The number of novel coronavirus infections has topped 600,000 globally, and countries continue to ramp up efforts to limit people's movement to stop the spread of the virus. The U.S. added more than 15,000 cases, pushing the total past 104,000 today, with a surge of cases in New York and increased testing. France and Belgium extended their national lockdowns by two weeks. Iran closed shopping centers and banned road travel between cities. In Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan introduced further travel restrictions. Hong Kong banned public gatherings of four or more people beginning midnight Sunday. |
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U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson tested positive for the new coronavirus. The prime minister’s illness demonstrates the difficulties of leadership, which demands personal meetings with senior aides and displays of public reassurance, while conforming to public guidelines to limit contact. Officials in South Korea are preparing new guidelines to kick-start the lengthy return to normalcy, while progress in Italy is uneven and slow. The growth of new infections there is slowing to single-digit percentage increases each day, but another 919 people died yesterday. President Trump said he will determine whether to extend social distancing guidelines on Monday or Tuesday, but they won't be relaxed for New York, which continues to see jumps in infections. Two additional members of the U.S. House—Rep. Mike Kelly (R., Pa.) and Joe Cunningham (D., S.C.) said they tested positive for the illness. Five lives. Five countries. Five weeks. A look at how the virus swept the globe. What will it take to flatten the curve? Experts explain how to change the course of the pandemic. For authoritarian-minded leaders world-wide, a health emergency presents an opportunity to weaken democracy. |
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American doctors and their patients are confronting the grim realities of medical rationing—a predicament that is going to become more complicated as Covid-19 patients flood the system. Hospitals now are dusting off pandemic guidelines about who gets treated—basically, who lives and who dies. But these plans are a hodgepodge, according to a WSJ analysis of some 20 state policies. Cities are also facing a rapidly dwindling supply of available ICU beds. So physicians and nurses at many large hospital systems are leveraging a decades-old technology in new ways to expand their ability to care for and monitor patients. The FDA used emergency authorization to allow anesthesia gas machines and positive-pressure breathing devices to be modified into ventilators, and President Trump invoked the Defense Production Act to order General Motors to sharply ramp up the production of ventilators. The president also authorized the Pentagon to identify and potentially reinstate to active duty former military medical personnel and other specialized reservists to help. Meanwhile government officials are using location data from cellphones to understand people’s movements amid the pandemic and how they may be affecting the spread of the disease. Visitation in nursing homes has been banned, except for “end of life situations”, a policy that has set off a painful, nationwide debate over the meaning of the phrase. With the medical world fully focused on the new virus, studies critical to the development of new medicines for other illnesses and conditions have been sidelined. |
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The Trump administration is preparing to suspend collection of import tariffs for three months to give U.S. companies financial relief amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to administration officials. Companies would still be liable for the tariffs at a later date, which hasn’t been determined. There would be no formal changes to tariff policy, officials said. But asked about the Journal's report at a news briefing yesterday, President Trump called the report “fake news.” |
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Meanwhile, tipped employees in the U.S., such as servers and bartenders, are contending with how to make up for lost income.Many live paycheck to paycheck, and when laid off, and the amount of unemployment benefits they can get has often been a fraction of what other workers can receive, said Charles Jellinek, who coleads Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner’s employment and labor practice. |
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“This is like 9/11 and [Hurricane] Katrina and the financial crisis all wrapped into one and multiplied.” | — D. Taylor, international president of UNITE HERE |
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Hair stylist Maddisen Maxwell is among those trying to make it work during the crisis, turning her Highland Park, N.J., salon into a studio, where she uses an iPhone camera to shoot video tutorials, demonstrating on a mannequin to adhere to social-distancing norms. Banks and fin-tech firms are starting to toughen their approval standards for new loans to consumers and small businesses. The concert industry was supposed to have its best year ever, with tours including the Rolling Stones, Elton John and Post Malone. Now, it’s hard to say when the next show will take place. The Small Business Administration’s disaster loan program for small businesses has gotten off to a rocky start, and the new head of the SBA has a big job ahead. |
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What You Need to Know Understand the risks, take the necessary precautions and navigate through the tricky weeks ahead with some of our special coverage. Food deliveries are safer during the pandemic, but sometimes a grocery store visit is unavoidable. Here are the precautions to take. Here’s what scientists know so far about how Covid-19 progresses inside the body, though they say there is still much to be learned. You ask, we answer: Experts respond to WSJ readers’ questions about the virus. Who's left out of the stimulus package? Millions of people won't get a check. College students and their families can also find answers to questions about reimbursement and admissions here. |
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Get an early morning briefing about the coronavirus each weekday and a weekly Health newsletter once the crisis abates. Sign up here. |
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Public Health Resources Latest information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (CDC) Reports and updates from the World Health Organization. (WHO) |
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📢 Have comments or questions about special editions of The 10-Point? Email us at 10point@wsj.com. |
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| The 10-Point was the name given to the news column that runs on the front page of The Wall Street Journal. Today’s newsletter was curated and edited by Sarah Chacko in New York in collaboration with Editor in Chief Matt Murray. Let us know what you think by replying to this email. The 10-Point is a WSJ member benefit. If someone forwarded you this email, we invite you to join us and enjoy the full breadth of scoops, analysis and great storytelling from our journalists around the globe. |
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