NEW YORK TIMES
Saturday
• With Washington focused on the pandemic, Chinese president Xi Jinping “has made one of his boldest political gambits yet, wagering that he can tame Hong Kong through national security legislation, despite the risk of fresh upheavals there and a new flash point with the US.”
• As the country reopens, employers are looking into how to safely bring back their workers, with a major question being whether they should test for the coronavirus, an issue about which there is little clear guidance from state and federal agencies.
• Medical officials in New York plan to collect blood from dozens of children in the city to determine whether they share any genetic variations that might make them susceptible to a mysterious syndrome linked to the coronavirus.
• Trump on Friday declared places of worship “essential” operations that should hold services in person this weekend regardless of state quarantine orders stemming from the coronavirus pandemic, though it’s unclear what power he has to override governors in this area.
• Trump, eager to reopen the economy, has begun questioning the official coronavirus death toll, suggesting the numbers, which have hobbled his approval ratings and harmed his re-election prospects, are inflated.
• When Congress created inspector generals in 1978, it expected them to be dispersed among federal agencies “not as a compliant team, but as referees, charged with rooting out corruption, waste, malfeasance and illegality”—but Trump is attacking their ability to investigate his administration.
• Two years after Democrats swept the midterm House elections by a historically wide margin and with historically high turnout, polling suggests they have a shot at a similar showing this year, fueled by wide dissatisfaction with Trump.
• + AMZN: The e-commerce giant, which lost shoppers to rivals such as WMT and TGT during the pandemic—its share of US online spending fell to 34 percent from 42 percent—has resumed shipping of all items on its site after paring back to better handle essential items during the crisis, and hopes to regain lost ground.
• Summer internships, long a key resource for college students, have been upended by the pandemic, with a wide range of major companies canceling programs and rescinding offers because of the pandemic, though some are continuing to pay interns to work from home.
Sunday
• Front page story lists the names of the nearly 100,000 people who have died in the US so far because of the coronavirus, based on obituaries from newspapers around the country.
• Though Argentina has technically entered default for the ninth time in its history, the government is working toward a deal with creditors to restructure $66B in foreign debt, and announced that negotiations would continue until June 2.
• Trump’s advisers are growing concerned about Senator Kelly Loeffler’s campaign in Georgia, a newly competitive state where the president’s poll numbers show him losing ground to Joe Biden and where Loeffler faces nearly two dozen candidates, including two well-financed Democrats.
• America’s supremacy in logistics and supply chains “has been a calling card for decades,” mastered by companies such as UPS and WMT, but during the pandemic its cracks have become more obvious, and “the heart of the great American logistics machine is beating slowly and erratically.”
• Story says that warmer weather won’t be enough to kill the coronavirus, and that without social distancing and other interventions, summer will offer only a modest respite in some places—meaning quarantining and social distancing will need to remain in place.
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Weekend
• China has established itself as an increasingly assertive global player, but even as Beijing tightens its grip on Hong Kong and steps up its rhetoric against the US, senior leaders are acknowledging the severity of the country’s economic challenges.
• As America reopens for the summer, there is a growing divide between those celebrating the end of restrictions and those fearful of Covid-19’s re-emergence, and getting the country running again is turning out to be as difficult as shutting it down.
• Argentina defaulted on sovereign debt for the ninth time in its history, as it grapples with a new cycle of economic contraction, runaway inflation and a hard-currency squeeze exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic.
• The Trump administration is reversing longstanding policies on children and families who come into the US illegally, citing laws and court rulings related to the coronavirus pandemic to support changes it has long sought.
• A Journal analysis found that Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has been unsuccessful at tapping into Bernie Sanders’ army of small donors, a key element of the party’s fundraising base for the upcoming election.
• A study of hospitalized patients with Covid-19 infections indicated that blood plasma transfusions from recovered patients improve survival rates, the largest research effort to date to shed light on the therapy’s efficacy.
• A son of slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi said his family had forgiven his father’s killers, sparing them execution in a case that ostracized Saudi Arabia’s crown prince from the West and imperiled his economic agenda.
• Companies from major retailers and package carriers to local restaurants and hair salons face higher costs to keep workers and customers safe and an indefinite period of suppressed demand, leaving them to navigate an ever-narrower path to profitability.
• While retailers and other business are struggling during the pandemic, Big Tech’s biggest advantage—proprietary business models which convert cash into innovation, market share, and an ever-larger lead over their competitors—is accelerating.
• H.O.T.S.: Designer fashion brands will face a wave of European store closures as they become more dependent on China for sales; The coronavirus may pose a bigger challenge to life insurers through markets rather than mortality; Off-price retailers such as TJX and ROST usually do well in economic downturns, but this one is different—and their shares may not be a bargain.
FINANCIAL TIMES
Weekend
• US secretary of state Mike Pompeo criticized China’s decision to impose national security law on Hong Kong, saying it would be the “death knell” for autonomy in the global financial hub.
• Australia gained an injection of A$60B to its budget after it emerged that a “reporting error” had almost doubled the estimated cost of its Covid-19 Jobkeeper scheme.
• The IMF reached an agreement with Ukraine for a $5B loan—in an 18-month standby arrangement—to shore up the country’s public finances, which have taken a hit because of the pandemic.
• Big Read piece says “Politicians are working on the assumption that there will be a Covid-19 vaccine in 12 to 18 months, but many of the scientists in the field are much less certain and some fear there might never be one.”
• Lex Column: If Burberry can build on its China sales, which are higher than the sector average, its turnaround will be delayed, not derailed; If employees move out of expensive cities to work at home, staff costs will fall further; Hong Kong stocks—including locally listed shares of BABA—are down, but the Chinese e-commerce giant has a number of factors working in its favor.
• Comment: Some investors fear Covid-19 may herald a Japanese-style future for the US and European economies, says John Plander—but the data point not to Japanification, but to a resumption of inflation.
NEW YORK POST
Saturday
• Despite the coronavirus pandemic, the combined fortunes of the country’s 600-plus billionaires—including Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and Mike Bloomberg—saw a 15 percent increase between March 18 and May 19.
• The 2020 New York Auto Show, originally postponed until August from early April, has now been cancelled because of ongoing concerns about the coronavirus pandemic.
• White House economists say they believe the third quarter of 2020 will be the best in US history, with senior Trump advisor Kevin Hassett expecting US gross domestic product to spring back from a 40 percent drop in Q2.
Sunday
• New York state on Saturday reported its lowest one-day Covid-19 death toll in nearly two months, a sign it is making real progress in the battle against the disease, according to governor Andrew Cuomo.