Weekend Papers Summary
NEW YORK TIMES
Saturday
• Nearly a dozen states tentatively returned to public life on Friday, the first mass reopening of businesses since the coronavirus pandemic brought America to a standstill six weeks ago, but there were clashes across the country—especially in Illinois and Michigan—over how, when, and whether it should be done.
• Remdesivir, an antiviral drug designed to treat hepatitis and a common respiratory virus, had been consigned to the pharmaceutical scrap heap, all but forgotten by the scientists who once championed it, until the FDA issued an emergency approval for it as a coronavirus treatment.
• Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden denied an allegation of sexual assault by a former Senate aide, Tara Reade, breaking a long silence that had frustrated some Democratic activists—he claimed she had the right to be heard, but that he had not assaulted her.
• Scientists are racing to develop and mass produce reliable antibody tests that public health experts say are a crucial element in ending the coronavirus lockdowns that are causing economic devastation, but a shortage of samples, and extreme price gauging, is hampering the effort.
• Some top Trump administration officials want a more aggressive stance against China on economic, diplomatic, and scientific issues—including blocking government pension funds from investing in Chinese companies—further fraying ties that have reached their lowest point in decades.
• The World Health Organization extended its declaration of a global health emergency on Friday—three months after the organization’s original decision to declare one—amid increasing criticism from the Trump administration about its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
• Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, who faces a torrent of investigations into him and his family, an economy in free-fall, and criticism of his cavalier handling of one of the world’s fastest growing epidemics, is fighting for political survival.
• North Korean leader Kim Jong-un resurfaced in public view on Friday, according to the country’s state news media, controverting three weeks of rumors and reports that he was in grave danger after undergoing heart surgery, and that was possibly dead.
• Facing strong criticism and public protests, the board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which oversees the internet naming system, vetoed the sale of the rights to dot-org to Ethos Capital, which had offered more than $1B.
Sunday
• Governments, companies, and academic labs are accelerating their efforts to discover a coronavirus vaccine amid geopolitical crosscurrents, questions about safety, and the challenges of producing enough doses for billions of people.
• As cities in Asia, Australia and elsewhere get the pandemic under control, they are returning to a world reimagined for the age of coronavirus, where social distancing, hygiene standards, and government-imposed restrictions are infused into nearly every activity.
• The $660B Paycheck Protection Program was meant to help businesses keep employees on the payroll, but heavy restrictions—such as a requirement that the money be spent in eight weeks, and that three-quarters of it be used to pay wages—are making it difficult for some recipients to spend their funds.
• Moderate Republicans in competitive districts are navigating a careful balance in addressing the coronavirus crisis, eager to put some distance between themselves and Trump, whose response to the pandemic has been criticized.
• Former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt has reinvented himself as the prime liaison between Silicon Valley and the military-industrial complex, launching a personal campaign to revamp America’s defense forces with more engineers, more software and more artificial intelligence.
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Weekend
• Front page story reports “The federal government’s $660B aid program for small businesses coping with the coronavirus pandemic threatens to leave hundreds of thousands of companies struggling to survive because of its limits on nonpayroll expenses.”
• Investigative story reports that by early March, “the world’s cruise-ship operators had ample evidence to believe their fleet of luxury liners were incubators for the new coronavirus—yet they continued to fill cruise ships with passengers, endangering those aboard and helping spread Covid-19 to the US and around the globe.”
• US manufacturing contracted at the sharpest rate since the last recession in April as companies pulled back following lockdowns to halt the spread of the coronavirus, according to the Institute for Supply Management, whose manufacturing index fell to 41.5% from 49.1% in March.
• The Education Department has asked the University of Texas System to provide documentation of its dealings with the Chinese laboratory US officials are investigating as a potential source of the coronavirus pandemic.
• President Trump signed an executive order intended to limit the use of foreign-supplied components in the nation’s electric grid, declaring that the practice poses an “extraordinary threat to national security,” a statement that reflects a consensus among senior intelligence officials.
• Trump’s reelection campaign is increasing its efforts to appeal to older voters in America, whom polls show have soured on the president because of his response to the coronavirus, though his advisors say Trump expects to regain their support.
• Contribution reports filed by Republican and Democratic political campaigns during the first quarter showed a surge of donations to Democrats fighting to take over Senate seats currently held by Republicans, though Republican senators still have more money in the bank.
• Consumers are embracing new habits during lockdowns, but it’s unclear how many of them will endure more permanently as the country inches back to something resembling normal life—a question that has implications for food, fashion, travel, technology, and other industries.
• The corporate world had increasingly been embracing sustainability as a key part of business, but with the pandemic shaking up the landscape, many are companies are abandoning such initiatives to focus squarely on survival.
• H.O.T.S.: Investors might believe the healthcare sector to be an appealing choice during the pandemic, but much of the industry is vulnerable to fallout from the coronavirus crisis; With the ISM index at its lowest level since April 2009, conditions for many US manufacturers may get worse before they get better; XOM’s decision to continue its dividend raised eyebrows, but the move is consistent, and makes sense given the falling returns from its business.
FINANCIAL TIMES
Weekend
• “Global stock markets fell Friday as the specter of a new flare-up in US-China relations added to concerns over the corporate and economic impact of the coronavirus crisis.”
• With millions of their customers on lockdown, European food producers are attempting to convince people to increase their consumption of steak, cheese, French fries, and other food that would have been served in restaurants, schools, and other places, and which is growing increasingly difficult to store.
• One of the hottest commodities during the pandemic is a little-known synthetic fabric called melt-blown—used to make the medical masks that protect hospital staff from Covid-19—which has become so valuable that it is called the “golden fleece.”
• Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin called on wealthy private schools in the US to return funds they received by exploiting loopholes under the Paycheck Protection Program, which was designed to help small businesses survive the pandemic.
• Italy is set to join Germany in launching a Covid-19 contact-tracing mobile application that will avoid location tracking and use a centralized database, built on privacy-preservation standards created by AAPL and GOOGL.
• Big Read piece says that “As parts of Europe and the US relax some lockdown restrictions, they are moving into an economic twilight zone of half-full public transportation, different shifts in factories, and restaurants with few guests.”
• Lex Column: Swashbuckling investors who have been driving up equity markets are piled into e-commerce, online entertainment, and even telecoms; As BA navigates the pandemic, its gross debt balance will swell to $62B while its market value—down 70 percent from a 2019 peak—is less than $80B; A client revolt over coronavirus payouts has shone an unflattering light on UK-listed insurer Hiscox in recent weeks.
• Comment: One silver lining in the coronavirus crisis could be that shareholder capitalism becomes more inclusive, says Merryn Somerset Webb, as companies carve out new ways to do business.
NY POST
Saturday
• + UBER: Business for Uber Eats is surging in New York City amid the coronavirus lockdown, with nearly all the growth coming from customers in the outer boroughs and low-income neighborhoods.
• New York governor Andrew Cuomo has quietly begun recruiting grocery stores, where large amounts of people shot, to help an effort to widen the state’s coronavirus testing program.
Sunday
• New York will partner with six Northeast states to buy critical coronavirus supplies, and mandate that hospitals stockpile at least 90 days’ worth of protective gear in preparation for a possible second wave of the contagion, according to governor Andrew Cuomo.
• New York City will have 30,000 city-made 3D-printed coronavirus test kits by Friday, and will pump out 50,000 each week to help contain the pandemic’s spread, mayor Bill de Blasio said Sunday.
• Scientists say that honeybees are dying of something that is freakishly similar to the coronavirus—bee populations around the globe have been decimated by a viral disease that creeps into hives via asymptomatic insects and spreads quickly.