Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 23 March 2020

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Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 23 March 2020

 


 

 


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ü  Japan cherry blossom season wilted by the coronavirus pandemic

ü  Coronavirus: McDonald's to close all UK restaurants

ü  Primark UK stores closing 'until further notice'

ü  Coronavirus: Government to pay up to 80% of workers' wages

ü  Supermarkets Tesco, Asda, Aldi and Lidl go on hiring spree

ü  Indonesia needs a better clean energy policy

ü  Flying on Emirates? No more flights as of Thursday

ü  Facebook Stock Crashes Into Bear Market Territory

ü  Dow Futures Crash 1,000 Points as Fed’s Bullard Cites -50% U.S. GDP

ü  IBM, Amazon, Google and Microsoft partner with White House to provide
compute resources for COVID-19 research

ü  Bitcoin Price Holds Surprisingly Well as S&P 500 Futures Crash 5% in 5
Minutes

ü  U.S. Stock Futures Sink as Washington Struggles Over Rescue Plan: Live
Updates

ü  AT&T CEO addresses major surge in mobile, Wi-Fi usage as more people work
from home

ü  Stock futures drop more than 4%, briefly hit ‘limit down’ as investors
await a stimulus agreement

ü  Cisco commits $225 million in fight against coronavirus as Silicon Valley
initiates investment blitz

ü  As the stock market is in turmoil, here’s what experts are watching for
as the NYSE operates without humans for the first time

 


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Japan cherry blossom season wilted by the coronavirus pandemic

The people of Japan and millions of tourists should now be enjoying the
start of the cherry blossom viewing, or hanami, season.

 

It's an extremely important time of year for the country, both economically
and culturally.

 

Traditionally friends and family get together, and for a new generation it's
a perfect Instagram opportunity.

 

But this year the coronavirus pandemic means events have been cancelled and
foreign visitors are staying away.

 

Katsuhiro Miyamoto from Kansai University highlighted the financial
importance of hanami: "Japan's cherry blossom season has very big economic
effects every year".

 

He estimated that almost 8.5m tourists visited the country during the cherry
blossom season between March and May last year, bringing in some 650 billion
yen ($6bn; £5.2bn).

 

Seijiro Takeshita from the University of Shizuoka underscored why the
gatherings, at which people eat and drink and make merry, are so important
to the Japanese economy.

 

"We use an expression 'the wallet becomes loose', meaning people tend to a
have a very high propensity to spend."

 

"We have so much emotional attachment to this flower and the viewing
season... It has a lot of cultural factors, a lot of historical factors
behind it," Professor Takeshita added as he explained the wider significance
of the cherry blossom season.

 

This year though hanami events are being cancelled across the country as
authorities attempt to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

 

Last week the governor of Tokyo Yuriko Koike urged people to not hold their
traditional parties. At the same time Ms Koike made reference to the
cultural importance of hanami as she said that it was like "taking hugs away
from Italians."

 

Professor Miyamoto expects such measures to tackle the pandemic will hit
tourism numbers hard this season, with revenue falling by more than a third
to less than 400 billion yen.

 

It's not all gloom and doom though. "Once the coronavirus outbreak is over,
I believe that the cherry blossom season in Japan will come to life again,"
he concluded.--BBC

 

 

 


 <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> 

 


 

Coronavirus: McDonald's to close all UK restaurants

McDonald's will close all 1,270 of its restaurants in the UK by the end of
Monday, as fears over the spread of coronavirus escalate.

 

Previously, the fast food giant had closed its seating areas but had
continued to offer takeaway and drive-through services.

 

McDonald's said it wanted to protect the wellbeing of staff and customers.

 

On Friday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said restaurants and cafes must
close, but exempted take-away food places.

 

McDonald's employs around 135,000 people in the UK, the majority of which
are on zero-hours contracts.

 

The chain said staff employed directly by the company would receive full pay
for their scheduled hours until 5 April.

 

By that time it expects the government's financial aid package, announced on
Friday, to have kicked in, with staff paid 80% of their wages.

 

A spokeswoman told the BBC she expected McDonald's franchises, which decide
their own pay policies, to follow suit.

 

McDonald's UK boss, Paul Pomroy, said: "Over the last 24 hours, it has
become clear that maintaining safe social distancing whilst operating busy
takeaway and Drive Thru restaurants is increasingly difficult and therefore
we have taken the decision to close every restaurant in the UK and Ireland
by 7pm on Monday 23 March.

 

"I have been clear throughout this that we would only continue to operate
whilst it was safe for our people and together with our franchisees, we feel
now is the time to make this decision."

 

Last week Mr Pomroy had said the chain would stay open as "for as long as it
is safe to do so".

 

But it reduced its opening hours and cancelled its annual Monopoly
promotion, where prizes included a number of foreign holidays and cruises.

 

The hospitality industry, which was already struggling from slowed consumer
demand, has been put under severe pressure by the coronavirus outbreak.

 

Last week, industry leaders warned of widespread closures of pubs, cafes and
restaurants without state support.

 

On Friday, Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced the government will pay 80% of
wages of furloughed employees, up to a maximum of £2,500 a month.

 

The move will not, however, cover many self-employed and "gig economy"
workers, unless they are paid via their company's PAYE system, as is the
case at McDonald's.

 

On Sunday, an Treasury spokesman said the government had strengthened the
safety-net for the self-employed under universal credit, and was deferring
income tax self-assessment payments.

 

"We have always said we will go further where we can and are actively
considering further steps," the spokesman said.--BBC

 

 

 

Primark UK stores closing 'until further notice'

Primark's 189 UK stores have closed "until further notice", as demand drops
due to social-distancing during the coronavirus pandemic.

 

It has already shut stores elsewhere and said it wanted to protect the
health of employees and customers.

 

The fashion chain's CEO Paul Marchant said it faces "unprecedented, and
frankly unimaginable times".

 

Other High Street retailers, such as John Lewis and Timpson, have already
announced closures amid the pandemic.

 

A Primark spokesperson said that any staff affected by store closures would
receive full pay for their contracted hours for 14 days.

 

Meanwhile the John Lewis department store chain will close all of its 50
shops temporarily from Monday for the first time in its 155-year history.

 

The online site will still be available, while the group's 338 Waitrose
stores will stay open to deal with a spike in demand for groceries. More
than 2,000 John Lewis workers are already working across Waitrose.

 

Other retailers have said that they would shut their shops temporarily
although government has not yet ordered them to close, unlike restaurants,
bars and pubs.

 

The chief executive of the Timpson Group posted on social media that the
shoe repair firm's 2,150 stores would shut from Monday.

 

Branches of WH Smith, Next and B&Q are among retailers to remain open.

 

James Daunt, the boss of Waterstones, said his bookshops provided an
"important social resource" and would stay open until forced to close.

 

As many UK firms warn of the impact of the pandemic, the city watchdog has
asked them not to publish preliminary financial statements that were due in
the next few days.

 

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) asked all listed companies to delay
plans to publish by at least two weeks.

 

Primark stores across the US, France, Spain and Italy have already shut
their doors to try to contain the spread of the virus.

 

In response to falling demand, the firm has now stopped placing any orders
for clothes to be made in the future.

 

It also has a large amount of stock in stores, warehouses and in transit
that has already been paid for.

 

'No option' left

Mr Marchant said that Primark had been left with "no option but to take this
action".

 

He added: "This is profoundly upsetting for me personally and for all of the
team... We recognise and are deeply saddened that this will have an effect
throughout our entire supply chain."

 

Primark does not have an online sales operation, so it orders and sells vast
quantities of clothing through its network of brick-and-mortar shops.

 

Mr Marchant called for other countries to support businesses "in the same
way that the UK and many European governments are doing."

 

The UK government said this week it will pay the wages of employees unable
to work due to the coronavirus pandemic, in a move aimed at protecting
people's jobs.

 

It will pay 80% of salary for staff who are kept on by their employer,
covering wages of up to £2,500 a month.

 

Many retail and hospitality firms have warned the pandemic could see them
collapse, wiping out thousands of jobs, as life in the UK is put on hold.

 

Tom Ironside, director of business and regulation at the British Retail
Consortium, said that shops continue to follow government advice.

 

"Stores are reviewing Public Health England advice daily to decide what is
best to do for their customers, staff and local communities."

 

He said that although "retailers in non-food areas have seen an unparalleled
drop in footfall", others such as supermarkets have seen continued strong
demand.--BBC

 

 

 

Coronavirus: Government to pay up to 80% of workers' wages

The government will pay the wages of employees unable to work due to the
coronavirus pandemic, in a radical move aimed at protecting people's jobs.

 

It will pay 80% of salary for staff who are kept on by their employer,
covering wages of up to £2,500 a month.

 

The "unprecedented" measures will stop workers being laid off due to the
crisis, chancellor Rishi Sunak said.

 

Firms have warned the virus could see them collapse, wiping out thousands of
jobs, as life in the UK is put on hold.

 

Mr Sunak said closing pubs and restaurants would have a "significant impact"
on businesses.

 

It is understood that the wage subsidy will apply to firms where bosses have
already had to lay off workers due to the coronavirus, as long as they are
brought back into the workforce and instead granted a leave of absence.

 

The chancellor said the move would mean workers should be able to keep their
jobs, even if their employer could not afford to pay them.

 

He said they were "unprecedented measures for unprecedented times."

 

"I know that people are worried about losing their jobs, about not being
able to pay the rent or mortgage, about not having enough set by for food
and bills... to all those at home right now, anxious about the days ahead, I
say this: you will not face this alone," Mr Sunak added

 

The wages cover, which relates to gross pay, will be backdated to the start
of March and last for three months, but Mr Sunak said he would extend the
scheme for longer "if necessary".

 

The scheme, which will be run by HMRC, is expected to make the first grants
to businesses "within weeks", a Treasury spokeswoman said.

 

'Hugely welcome'

Employers' body the CBI said Mr Sunak's announcement was "a landmark
package".

 

"It marks the start of the UK's economic fightback - an unparalleled joint
effort by enterprise and government to help our country emerge from this
crisis with the minimum possible damage," said director general Carolyn
Fairbairn.

 

The Resolution Foundation think tank also said the package was "hugely
welcome", reaching lower-paid workers that were most at risk of job losses.

 

But other lobby groups warned of the potential risk to firms which had to
wait for the money to arrive.

 

Kate Nicholls, the chief executive of trade body UK Hospitality, said many
businesses faced rent payments before the support was due.

 

"Banks and landlords need to do more to help us bridge the gap towards this
generous government support. Damage is being done now, so we need help now."

 

The Federation of Small Businesses also warned the delay in wages help -
potentially until the end of April - meant many small firms would still face
"an immediate, potentially terminal cash flow crunch".

 

'Not alone'

The government has faced huge pressure to intervene to support workers to
prevent mass unemployment as anti-virus measures have seen many firms'
revenues evaporate almost overnight.

 

The wage package is the latest in a series of government moves aimed at
easing the burden on businesses and their employees.

 

However, there was not the same wages guarantee for the self-employed.
Instead, Mr Sunak increased benefits that many will have to fall back on.

 

Other measures to support firms and workers included:

 

·         VAT payments by companies deferred until the end of June

·         Interest free cash grants to small businesses

·         Self-assessment income tax payments for July 2020 deferred for six
months

·         Increase in standard Universal Credit of £20 a week, with the same
rise for those still on the working tax credit scheme

·         Nearly £1bn for those struggling to pay rent, through increases in
housing benefit and Universal Credit

·         Capital Economics said that it expected the unemployment rate to
rise from just under 4% to about 6% due to the crisis. However, without this
latest government intervention, that rate would have risen to the financial
crisis level of 8%, it said.

 

This move is an incredible intervention for any British government, let
alone a Conservative one, but proportionate to the size of the terrible, but
temporary, economic impact that could follow the coronavirus shutdowns.

 

In theory, it should save hundreds of thousands of jobs. Perhaps more.
Employers have to accept that the government is doing something they would
have never imagined a UK government to do.

 

At 80% cent of wages up to £2,500 a month it is a scheme more generous than
some of the high welfare Scandinavian countries. It instantly transforms the
social safety net of this nation.

 

It shows that the Treasury does believe that the very sharp plunge in the
size of the economy can be followed by a bounceback - but not if millions of
people are scarred by unemployment. Economics shows that these can have long
lasting impact.

 

The chancellor was given the room for this partly by the Bank of England's
biggest ever announcement of purchasing government debt.

 

There are risks if this pandemic lasts much longer than three months. But
the risks of not acting were much greater.

 

Now it requires employers to hold their nerve until the payments begin at
the end of next month. And for the banks to help that process.--BBC

 

 

 

 

Supermarkets Tesco, Asda, Aldi and Lidl go on hiring spree

Supermarkets have gone on a hiring spree as demand surges as a result of the
coronavirus crisis.

 

Tesco, Asda, Aldi, and Lidl said they would hire thousands of staff after
hugely increased demand saw shoppers clearing shelves.

 

That move came before the government said it would pay the wages of workers
at firms affected by the pandemic.

 

And Sainsbury's has asked shoppers to stay 1m away from shop staff if
possible, to help keep them safe.

 

Supermarkets have been overwhelmed by a wave of panic-buying as shoppers
rush to stock up amid the coronavirus pandemic.

 

To combat the stockpiling, in recent days the major British supermarkets
imposed limits on how much of each item shoppers can buy.

 

Along with other measures to cope with the increased demand, some of the
chains have embarked on big recruitment drives for a total of more than
30,000 jobs.

 

Tesco, the UK's biggest supermarket, wants to take on 20,000 temporary
workers "to help feed the nation", it said.

 

"The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in an unprecedented increase in demand
for food and household products," the chain said.

 

"At Tesco, we're working around the clock to help ensure families have
access to the shopping items they need.

 

"We launched our recruitment drive online on Wednesday and since then we
have already been overwhelmed by support from the public and thank everyone
who has applied to work with us in stores."

 

It added that "over the coming days thousands of new colleagues will join
us".

 

The chain also announced on Saturday it will give all its workers across
stores, distribution centres and customer engagement centres a 10% bonus on
their hourly rate until 1 May - backdated to 9 March.

 

Frontline salaried managers will receive a 10% bonus on actual hours worked,
it added.

 

Asda said it wanted to recruit more than 5,000 temporary staff from among
people whose jobs have been impacted by the virus.

 

Discounters

Aldi announced it was looking to fill 5,000 new temporary posts and take on
4,000 permanent new workers for jobs in all its stores and distribution
centres.

 

And Lidl said it would create about 2,500 temporary jobs across its 800
stores in the UK.

 

The discounter said it was hiring to "help with an extremely busy time for
stores".

 

Lidl GB chief executive Christian Haertnagel said staff were doing an
"incredible job at keeping our shelves stocked, and serving communities
during an extremely challenging period".

 

"Temporarily expanding our teams is one way we can help support our
colleagues and customers, whilst providing work to those that have had their
employment affected by the current situation."

 

Earlier this week, Morrisons announced it was creating 3,500 new jobs to
expand its home delivery service, about 2,500 pickers and drivers, plus
1,000 staff in its distribution centres.

 

It said it would make more slots available and also set up a call centre for
those without access to online shopping.

 

Morrisons said the move would help "at a time of national need".

 

As well as introducing social distancing measures, Sainsbury's CEO Mike
Coupe said the store would prefer customers to pay with a card rather than
cash.

 

He also said Sainsbury's would be expanding its reserved 08:00-09:00 slot
for elderly, disabled and vulnerable customers to NHS and social care
workers.

 

Consultant cardiologist Dr Lisa Anderson told BBC Radio 4's Today programme
this would lead to cross-infection.

 

She said: "It's not just about the risk to ourselves and our family; we're
travelling home on the Tube and on buses, we're cross-infecting everybody at
the moment."

 

Former health secretary Jeremy Hunt told the programme he agreed the move by
supermarkets could pose a risk.

 

He said: "We're going to have to learn as we go along about these unintended
consequences."

 

On Friday, at his daily Downing Street briefing, Prime Minister Boris
Johnson said he would be chairing a meeting with supermarket bosses on
Saturday to discuss the situation.

 

Arcadia closures

In an environment that was already tough for the High Street due to higher
costs and changes in shopping habits, the coronavirus crisis has added a
huge burden for retailers as many people avoid their stores.

 

Sir Philip Green's Arcadia retail group, which includes Topshop, Topman,
Dorothy Perkins, and Miss Selfridge, said on Friday it was closing all its
stores.

 

The company said it would focus on its digital and social platforms. Staff
were to remain employees and receive their full pay for March, but it was
not clear what would happen with staffing beyond then.

 

However, this news came before a massive UK intervention in which Chancellor
Rishi Sunak will pay the wages of employees unable to work due to the
coronavirus pandemic.

 

The radical move is aimed at protecting people's jobs.

 

Lay-off threats

A number of travel operators have outlined measures they have been forced to
bring in, due to the outbreak:

 

Holiday park operator Butlin's said it would have to lay off 10,000 seasonal
workers if it did not get enough state aid to pay their wages. Owner Bourne
Leisure, which owns 50 Butlin's, Haven and Warner parks has approached the
government for help

Hay's Travel, which took over Thomas Cook's shops, has cut 880 jobs out of a
workforce of about 5,000 to reduce costs

The Confederation of Passenger Transport, which represents bus companies
including Arriva, FirstGroup, Go-Ahead, National Express, and Stagecoach,
says "tens of thousands" of jobs could go within weeks

However, all these warnings and job cuts were made before the latest
government announcement - and it is now unclear whether those moves will
still hold.

 

As well as the wage payments, it is understood the government wage subsidy
will apply to firms where bosses have already had to lay off workers due to
the coronavirus, as long as they are brought back into the workforce and
instead granted a leave of absence.--BBC

 

 

 

Indonesia needs a better clean energy policy

While ASEAN member countries race to seize market share amidst the renewable
energy boom in the region, Indonesia - as the biggest energy user - does not
seem to realise what its missing. Vietnam reached 5.5 gigawatt (GW)
installed solar PV capacity in 2019 from only 134 megawatt (MW) in 2018.
Thailand held the record both, for wind and solar capacity growth in 2018
before it was overtaken by Vietnam. Malaysia has conducted three large-scale
solar auctions in the past three years which resulted in 1.3 GW of solar PV
capacity. Philippines has seen stable growth on its non-hydro renewables
capacity with some provinces declaring a commitment to become coal-free. 

 

 

Southeast Asia is an emerging hub for the manufacturing industry. Many of
these corporates have pledged to sustainable goals including RE100 and
Science Based Targets – in which deadlines to sourcing green energy are
assigned to all of the company’s global operations. These commitments
present opportunities and risks to countries, as they would need to provide
enabling markets for corporates to source green energy. Countries with the
easiest environment for renewable energy sourcing would win a competitive
edge in providing a one-stop shop for corporates looking to fulfil their
sustainability commitments.

 

Take the RE100 initiative as an example; where corporates could claim
compliance to the 100 percent renewables pledge by 1) generating renewable
energy on-site such as from rooftop solar PV; 2) buying grid electricity
generated from renewables; 3) covering electricity consumption with energy
attribute certificates or 4) conducting a corporate power purchase agreement
(cPPA) directly with private power generation companies.

 

At the moment, the market and regulations only allow industry consumers in
Indonesia to use electricity from renewable energy through option 1 and 3.
Purchasing green electricity from utility is not possible as Indonesia’s
state electricity company, Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN), does not offer
such a route and – considering its latest Electricity Supply Business Plan
or RUPTL 2019-2028 – is unlikely to be available in the near future.
Conducting a cPPA would not be possible unless the country opens its
transmission and distribution services for private generators and ultimately
allows a wholesale electricity market.

 

The World Economic Forum (WEF), under its Energy Transition Index 2019, has
dubbed Singapore and Malaysia as frontrunners on the path towards renewable
energy-based economies in Southeast Asia, followed by Thailand (3rd),
Vietnam (4th) and the Philippines (5th). Indonesia ranked 6th and scored
poorly in terms of energy transition readiness. Upon analysing the pillar of
these ranks, a strong renewable energy policy appears to be a key component.

 

Vietnam has made a bold move by implementing a Wholesale Electricity Market
pilot in 2017 and is looking to start its cPPA pilot program in 2020. Many
multinationals with manufacturing plants in Vietnam have been eyeing the PPA
scheme and preparing to join the pilot program. Thailand has seen positive
results in its decade long effort to transition to renewables as the
electricity from its solar PV has achieved grid parity in recent years. The
Malaysian Green Technology Master Plan in 2017 has helped the country to
host the biggest solar PV industry workforce in Southeast Asia. Together
with Vietnam and Thailand, the three countries are powerhouses for solar PV
cell manufacturing with more than 15 GW manufacturing capacity. 

 

The Philippines holds the region’s record for biggest wind energy employer.
The country is also finalising two new policies, the first is the Renewable
Portfolio Standards which obliges the distribution of utilities to source a
specific portion of their power from renewables and the second is the Green
Energy Option which empowers consumers to demand their energy is sourced
from renewables.

 

Shared global economic Energy

These precedents have highlighted that boosting private investment and job
creation require unwavering commitment from the government to refine not
only direct trading and workforce legislations, but also policy for the
supporting infrastructure such as in the case of the energy sector. Against
this backdrop, the recently published draft of Omnibus Laws has the
opportunity to harmonise policy and permitting processes to ease corporate
renewables sourcing, and in turn the investment climate, in Indonesia. It is
evident that sustainability concerns should be at the heart of Indonesia’s
new Omnibus Laws, as the WEF revealed that corporates have identified
climate change risks from environmental negligence, which are largely
accommodated under the new Laws draft, as one of the top five threats to
their investments.

 

Therefore, instead of removing Article 40 under Law No. 32/2009 which
obliges businesses to obtain an environmental permit to secure a business
license, the Omnibus Law could bring the much needed improvement to the
country’s renewable energy sourcing policy under the Ministry of Energy and
Mineral Resources Regulation No. 50/2017 by, among others, removing the cap
on the purchase price of green electricity and changing the
build-own-operate-transfer scheme for PPAs with the PLN that debunks a
project’s bankability.

 

Without proper regard to corporate clean energy sourcing, Indonesia will
continue to lose momentum and investment opportunities to its neighbours who
have well-rounded policy support in their respective renewable energy
sectors.https://theaseanpost.com/

 

 

 

Flying on Emirates? No more flights as of Thursday

Emirates Airlines is the lifeline for the Gulf, India, and Africa in
connecting people from every corner of the world. The airline is essential
for many tourism economies. Emirates not flying will be shutting down
tourism economies, specifically in Africa, India, Indian Ocean. Such
economies are already shut down for the most part and this will be effective
enforcement.

 

On March 1 eTurboNews asked if Emirates Airlines is about to shut down?

 

This became reality today, at least for all passenger travel when the Dubai
based airline announced that it will stop all passenger flights due to the
threat of coronavirus infection. Emirates planes will continue to carry out
air cargo flights, as well as charter flights for the removal of people from
the UAE.

 

“From March 25 on, despite the fact that we will continue to carry freight
that remains busy, Emirates will temporarily suspend passenger traffic,”
said CEO and chairman of the Emirates Group, Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al
Maktoum.

 

Emirates is a state-owned airline based in Garhoud, Dubai, United Arab
Emirates. The airline is a subsidiary of The Emirates Group, which is owned
by the government of Dubai’s Investment Corporation of Dubai. It is the
largest airline in the Middle East, operating over 3,600 flights per week
from its hub at Dubai International Airport, to more than 150 cities in 80
countries across six continents. Cargo activities are undertaken by Emirates
SkyCargo.

 

Emirates is the world’s fourth-largest airline by scheduled revenue
passenger-kilometers flown, and the second-largest in terms of freight
ton-kilometers flown.

 

 

The African Tourism Board was the first travel and tourism association to
praise this move. Cuthbert Ncube, the chairman said: “Emirates always has
been a driver and trendsetter. We welcome Emirates move to shut down
passenger travel. It will help our people, and ensure the quick re-bound of
our industry after we all go through this important test. We’re looking
forward to welcoming the Dubai carrier back in full force after we all go
through this nightmare. We also are pleased to understand Emirates will
continue cargo flights, what is now s important to keep Africa
functioning.”--eturbonews.com

 

 

 

 

Facebook Stock Crashes Into Bear Market Territory

Facebook, Inc. (FB) stock set its all-time intraday high of $224.20 on Jan.
29 and then traded as low as $137.10 on March 18. This puts the stock deep
into bear market territory at 33.2% below the high.

 

In the process, Facebook shares cascaded below their annual and quarterly
value levels at $185.93 and $178.64, respectively. Perhaps the closes at the
end of March will give us a monthly value level for April or for the second
quarter of 2020.

 

Facebook beat earnings per share (EPS) estimates in the past two quarters
but missed in the two quarters prior to that. However, earnings may not be
quite as important when the world is worried above the spread of COVID-19.

 

 

Shares of the social media giant are not cheap. Facebook's P/E ratio is
23.78, and the company does not offer a dividend, according to Macrotrends.

 

The daily chart for Facebook

 

Daily chart showing the share price performance of Facebook, Inc. (FB)

Refinitiv XENITH

The daily chart for Facebook shows that the stock had been above a "golden
cross" since April 3, when the 50-day simple moving average (SMA) rose above
the 200-day SMA to indicate that higher prices lay ahead. The stock slipped
to a test of its 200-day SMA at $161.33 on June 3, 2019, as a buying
opportunity. The 200-day SMA was tested again at $175.30 on Oct. 2 as
another buying opportunity.

 

This buy signal ended when the stock closed below its 200-day SMA, which is
the green line on the chart. With the stock below its annual pivot at
$185.93, a "death cross" will form next week. This will happen when the
50-day SMA falls below the 200-day SMA to indicate that lower prices will
follow.

 

 

The weekly chart for Facebook

 

Weekly chart showing the share price performance of Facebook, Inc. (FB)

Refinitv XENITH 

The weekly chart for Facebook is negative, with the stock below its
five-week modified moving average of $186.17. The stock closed last week
below its 200-week SMA, or "reversion to the mean," at $163.95. This average
was tested and held as the stock bottomed at the end of 2018.

 

In the longer term, the high from the fourth quarter of 2018 and the 2020
high could be considered a double top. Facebook stock thus had a bear market
decline in the fourth quarter of 2018, a bull market gain in 2019, and now a
bear market decline in 2020.

 

The 12 x 3 x 3 weekly slow stochastic reading declined to 32.24 last week
but was above 90.00 when the stock traded to its all-time high. This put the
stock in an "inflating parabolic bubble" formation, and bubbles always pop.

 

Trading strategy: Buy Facebook shares on weakness to the 2018 low of $125
and reduce holdings on strength to the annual pivot at $185.93.

 

How to use my value levels and risky levels: Stock closing prices on Dec.
31, 2019, were inputs to my proprietary analytics. Quarterly, semiannual,
and annual levels remain on the charts. Each calculation uses the last nine
closes on these time horizons.

 

Monthly levels for March were established based upon the Feb. 28 closes. New
weekly levels are calculated after the end of each week. New quarterly
levels occur at the end of each quarter. Semiannual levels are updated at
mid-year. Annual levels are in play all year long.

 

My theory is that nine years of volatility between closes are enough to
assume that all possible bullish or bearish events for the stock are
factored in. To capture share price volatility, investors should buy shares
on weakness to a value level and reduce holdings on strength to a risky
level. A pivot is a value level or risky level that was violated within its
time horizon. Pivots act as magnets that have a high probability of being
tested again before their time horizon expires.

 

How to use 12 x 3 x 3 weekly slow stochastic readings: My choice of using 12
x 3 x 3 weekly slow stochastic readings was based upon backtesting many
methods of reading share-price momentum with the objective of finding the
combination that resulted in the fewest false signals. I did this following
the stock market crash of 1987, so I have been happy with the results for
more than 30 years.

 

The stochastic reading covers the last 12 weeks of highs, lows, and closes
for the stock. There is a raw calculation of the differences between the
highest high and lowest low versus the closes. These levels are modified to
a fast reading and a slow reading, and I found that the slow reading worked
the best.

 

The stochastic reading scales between 00.00 and 100.00, with readings above
80.00 considered overbought and readings below 20.00 considered oversold. A
reading above 90.00 is considered an "inflating parabolic bubble" formation,
which is typically followed by a decline of 10% to 20% over the next three
to five months. A reading below 10.00 is considered "too cheap to ignore,"
which is typically followed by gains of 10% to 20% over the next three to
five months.investopedia.com

 

 

 

Dow Futures Crash 1,000 Points as Fed’s Bullard Cites -50% U.S. GDP

Stock market futures crashed limit down across the board on Sunday as the
coronavirus crisis continued.

Fueling the capitulation, Fed President James Bullard cited the possibility
of a -50% GDP reading in Q2 alongside 30% unemployment.

The Dow Jones will face a rocky open unless Congress can somehow pass a
funding bazooka to keep the U.S. economy afloat.

Dow futures crashed limit down at the open of trade on Sunday as Federal
Reserve St. Louis President James Bullard made some dire economic
predictions.

 

U.S. stock markets also nervously eyed the parabolic rise in confirmed
coronavirus infections.

 

Dow Futures Limit Down As U.S. Coronavirus Infections Top 30,000

All three of major U.S. stock market indices fell immediately at the open of
trade. The Nasdaq, Dow Jones and S&P 500 all plummeted 5%, triggering the
circuit breaker within just a few minutes.

 

In the commodity sector, crude oil lost 10% as Saudi Arabia continued to
wage its price war against Russia.

 

Despite the risk-off conditions, the price of gold was trading flat. Digital
asset bitcoin dipped below $6,000 after a relatively stable weekend.

 

There was little good news concerning coronavirus, as the number of
confirmed cases in the U.S. soared past 30,000. America is now the
third-most infected country in the world behind China and Italy.

 

 

Stock Market Spooked By Bullard’s Dire Projection

St. Louis Fed President James Bullard epitomized the unprecedented rhetoric
we are seeing, as he claimed that GDP could fall 50% in Q2, with
unemployment at 30%.

 

This exceeds the already dire prediction of Treasury Secretary Stephen
Mnuchin, who warned that the unemployment rate could hit 20%. It’s also far
worse than a recent forecast by Goldman Sachs, which cited a possible 24%
drop in GDP.

 

The Federal Reserve’s shock and awe efforts continue to escalate to new
heights, with seemingly no limits on what it will buy. Given the current
trajectory of the central bank’s balance sheet, it seems very likely that
Congress will give Jerome Powell and the FOMC the green light to purchase
long-term corporate debt.

 

The fiscal bazooka is growing too, as Congress may approve an additional
$450 billion package to throw on top of the ever growing pile.

 

 

Nordea Research economists Martin Enlund and Andreas Steno Larsen believe
that rather than worrying about government intervention, fiscal stimulus is
absolutely required to keep the U.S. economy alive during the pandemic:

 

We continue to believe it makes plenty of sense for policy-makers to bail,
bail and bail! Bail out that is. While we do believe that the public sector
has encouraged excessive risk-taking for 40 years now (if not 50+ years) if
there is any point in time at which you want the Government to intervene in
the economy it’s during a force majeure such as a pandemic.

 

In the near term, the impact of fiscal stimulus on the stock market will
likely be positive, but longer-term prospects may have to be dialed back
given the impact on debt and inflation.

 

Dow Stocks: Boeing Halts Dividend, Cancels Executive Salaries

As the Dow 30 gears up for what’s looking like a very volatile week, one of
the index’s most significant stocks, Boeing (NYSE: BA), has announced some
drastic measures to sure up its balance sheet. The company recently said it
will cancel its dividend and eliminate pay for its top two employees (CEO
and Chairman) this year.

 

 

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), the Dow’s most heavily weighted stock, had a terrible
close to the week and now sits at $229 per share. In a great PR move, CEO
Tim Cook has donated millions of masks to healthcare professionals fighting
the coronavirus.

 

Still, it will be the company’s financial decisions that will impact AAPL’s
future. The longer its stores stay closed, the bigger a hit to earnings will
be expected.ccn.com

 

 

 

 

IBM, Amazon, Google and Microsoft partner with White House to provide
compute resources for COVID-19 research

During today’s White House coronavirus task force press conference,
President Trump announced the launch of a new public/private consortium to
“unleash the power of American supercomputing resources.” The members of
this consortium are the White House, the Department of Energy and IBM .
Other companies, including Google, Amazon and Microsoft, as well as a number
of academic institutions, are also “contributing lots of different things,”
the president said.

 

While Trump’s comments were characteristically unclear, IBM provided more
details, noting that it is working with a number of national labs and other
institutions to offer a total of 330 petaflops of compute to various
projects in epidemiology, bioinformatics and molecular modeling. Amazon,
Google and Microsoft are also part of the consortium, which is being led by
IBM, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and the
Department of Energy.

 

IBM and its partners will coordinate the efforts to evaluate proposals and
provide access to high-performance computing resources to those that are
most likely to have an immediate impact.

 

“How can supercomputers help us fight this virus? These high-performance
computing systems allow researchers to run very large numbers of
calculations in epidemiology, bioinformatics, and molecular modeling. These
experiments would take years to complete if worked by hand, or months if
handled on slower, traditional computing platforms,” writes Dario Gil, IBM’s
Director of Research.

 

AWS has already dedicated $20 million to support COVID-19 research while
Microsoft has already announced a number of different initiatives, though
mostly around helping businesses cope with the fallout of this crisis.
Google has now launched its own coronavirus website (though it’s very
different from the one Trump once promised) and Alphabet’s Verily is helping
Bay Area residents find testing sites if needed.

 

After today’s announcement, the White House shared statements from
Microsoft,  Google and other partners. “We know that high performance
computing can reduce the time it takes to process massive data sets and
perform complex simulations from days to hours,” said Mike Daniels, Vice
President, Global Public Sector at Google  Cloud, in his statement. “We look
forward to participating in this initiative alongside leaders in technology,
academia, and the public sector to make more resources available to COVID-19
researchers and to apply Google Cloud computing capabilities toward the
development of potential treatments and vaccines.”

 

Similarly, Microsoft’s global head for its AI for Health Program, John
Kahan, notes that Microsoft wants to “make sure researchers working to
combat COVID-19 have access to the tools they need” by expanding access to
its Azure cloud and by creating more opportunities for researchers to
collaborate with the company’s data scientists.

 

“Today I’m also announcing the launch of a new public/private consortium
organized by the White House, the Department of Energy and IBM to unleash
the power of American supercomputing resources to fight the Chinese virus,”
Trump, who continues to insist on calling COVID-19 ‘the Chinese virus,’ said
in today’s press briefing.

 

“The following leaders from private industries, academia and government will
be contributing and they are gonna be contributing a lot of different
things, but compute primarily — computing resources to help researchers
discover new treatments and vaccine. They will be working along with NIH and
all of the people working on this. But tremendous help from IBM, Google,
Amazon,  Microsoft, MIT, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the Department of
Energy’s, the National Science Foundation  and NASA. They are all
contributing to this effort.”--techcrunch.com

 

 

Bitcoin Price Holds Surprisingly Well as S&P 500 Futures Crash 5% in 5
Minutes

Bitcoin has held surprisingly well over the past hour, despite global
markets opening dramatically lower (by traditional standards) than they were
during Friday’s close. In fact, the futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow
Jones have all hit their limit down (circuit breaker) of 5%, with the former
reaching 2,174 and the atter falling to 18,085, per data from TradingView. 

 

With this, the S&P 500 is now more than 35% lower than its high above 3,300,
established literally just a month ago. Bitcoin, on the other hand, has
fallen 43% from its February high of $10,500 to $6,000, where it trades at
as of the time of this article’s writing.

 

The stock market’s latest bout of weakness, which may affect Bitcoin, is
seemingly a result of a confluence of news regarding the spread of the
coronavirus-caused illness COVID-19 and the related economic effects of this
outbreak. These include but are not limited to:

 

A 50% increase in U.S. coronavirus cases from Friday to Sunday.

The activation of the National Guard in New York, Washington State, and
California.

The Senate’s coronavirus bill failure to “clear the first procedural
hurdle.”

 

As the futures are at their limit down, there is no telling how far they
could fall during Monday’s trading session, but many think that Bitcoin and
the rest of the crypto market should follow suit. Prominent cryptocurrency
trader CryptoGainz remarked that the movement of futures is “super relevant”
as there is “no reason to believe crypto markets are decoupled and won’t
follow.”

 

 

Indeed, crypto market analyst Josh Rager noted that per data from
CoinMetrics, Bitcoin’s correlation with the stock market (namely the S&P
500) has “sustained between 0.5 to 0.6 since the price drop on March 12th,”
suggesting any further sell-off in equities will result in a crunch in BTC
prices.

 

14 BTC & 30,000 Free Spins for every player, only in mBitcasino’s Crypto
Spring Journey! Play Now!

Cantering Clark echoed this, explaining that considering the macro backdrop
of weak equities, he is “pretty confident we see low $4,000s again.”

 

 

Pretty confident we see low 4s again. $BTC $ES $SPX--newsbtc.com

 

 

 

U.S. Stock Futures Sink as Washington Struggles Over Rescue Plan: Live
Updates

U.S. stock futures fell 5 percent on Sunday evening, their limit outside of
regular market hours, suggesting that investors were in for a difficult
start to the week, as lawmakers in Washington struggled to come to together
on a nearly $2 trillion economic stabilization package.

 

Last-minute fighting over the details of legislation to aid families and
businesses devastated by the coronavirus pandemic left the sweeping
legislation teetering on the brink on Sunday. After days of bipartisan
negotiations, the Senate failed to muster enough votes to move forward on
the $1.8 trillion package.

 

Wall Street is coming off its worst week since 2008 as the threat of a
severe recession appeared ever more likely in the face of the spreading
coronavirus. The S&P 500 fell 15 percent last week, and the Dow Jones
industrial average ended trading on Friday below where it stood on the day
before President Trump was inaugurated, erasing the so-called Trump bump
that the president has played up throughout his presidency as evidence of
his success.

 

Over the past month, stocks have collapsed more than 30 percent, wiping out
trillions in value and ending an 11-year bull market. Oil prices, which have
collapsed this year, also fell on Sunday evening.

 

YOUR MONEYA hub for help during the coronavirus crisis.

 

New York City has slowed to nearly a halt as the coronavirus
spreads.Credit...Jeenah Moon for The New York Times

A recession looms as the economic outlook darkens daily.

The American economy is facing a plunge into uncharted waters.

 

Economists say there is little doubt that the nation is headed into a
recession. But it is harder to foresee the bottom, or predict how long it
will take to climb back. The abruptness of the descent — and the
near-lockdown of major cities — is unheard-of in advanced economies, more
akin to wartime privation than to the downturn that accompanied the
financial crisis more than a decade ago, or even the Great Depression.

 

Smaller companies will be hit harder than large ones because they have
limited access to credit and less cash in the bank; a wide swath will be
unable to survive. And unemployment could hit 10 percent in April, a level
unseen since the nadir of the last recession, with the possibility of even
higher jobless rates in the following months

 

A strong rebound — what economists call a V-shaped recovery, as opposed to a
U-shaped one, with an extended low — would require a profound resurgence in
confidence. But few see that on the horizon.

 

“There is a risk that the psychology has changed,” said Torsten Slok, chief
economist at Deutsche Bank Securities. “People will be very reluctant to do
a lot of travel and spending and may want to save for another day. There
will be more caution.”

 

Computing power is made available to researchers.

A coalition of tech companies and outside laboratories will work to provide
computing resources to researchers trying to treat the coronavirus, the
White House announced on Sunday night. Researchers will apply for access to
the computing power of private companies like IBM, Google and Amazon, along
with several national laboratories and academic institutions. President
Trump said at a news conference that the consortium would help “researchers
discover new treatments and vaccines.”

 

“These high-performance computing systems allow researchers to run very
large numbers of calculations in epidemiology, bioinformatics and molecular
modeling,” Dario Gil, the director of IBM research, said in a blog post. He
said the same calculations would take months on slower systems.

 

In total, the technical systems mobilized as part of the effort announced
Sunday include more than 775,000 CPU cores, a central processing component
of a computer, according to IBM; the most powerful MacBook Pro laptop has
eight.

 

Shipping workers are worried about the health of their workplaces.

Hour after hour, day after day, the packages keep arriving: food, medicine,
clothes, toys and a million other items brought to the doorsteps and
building lobbies of Americans who are hunkering down as the coronavirus
spreads and shuts down certain stores.

 

An increasing number of the workers sorting, loading and transporting those
boxes have fallen sick, suffering from coughs, sore throats, aches and
fevers consistent with the coronavirus. Yet they are still reporting for
their shifts in crowded shipping facilities and warehouses and truck depots,
fearful of what will happen if they don’t. More than 30 employees of UPS,
FedEx and XPO Logistics said in interviews and emails that they were worried
that their warehouses and trucks had become breeding grounds for the virus.

 

The shipping companies say they have urged employees to take any illnesses
seriously and provided information and supplies to help them manage health
risks.

 

This is not a normal crisis. A normal rescue won’t be enough.

This crisis is different from almost any economic shock before it — and the
government rescue must also break the mold.

 

Concerns that have guided economists in the past, like whether emergency
policies discourage people from working, do not apply in the same way now:
It is hard to discourage work in sectors that the government has ordered to
shut down.

 

Joseph S. Vavra, an economist at the University of Chicago Booth School of
Business, said that policymakers typically try to stimulate consumer demand
during a recession and start a recovery as quickly as possible. Right now,
the goal is almost the opposite.

 

“I don’t think what we’re trying to do is to get people to go out and shop,”
he said. “What we’re trying to do is provide some assistance to households
so they can sit at home and don’t have to go out and shop.”----nytimes.com

 

 

 

AT&T CEO addresses major surge in mobile, Wi-Fi usage as more people work
from home

AT&T’s networks have seen a surge of usage since companies around the United
States have asked employees to work from home and schools have moved online
following the COVID-19 outbreak.

 

CEO Randall Stephenson told CNN’s Brian Stelter on today’s Reliable Sources
that “mobile volumes are up 40 percent,” and “Wi-Fi calling volumes are up
100 percent.” Stephenson added the network infrastructures are “performing
quite well,” but noted the company is seeing some stress as more people work
from home.

 

AT&T itself currently has approximately 90,000 employees working from home,
according to Stephenson. Stephenson added that considering how many people
are working from home, and how this will change the future of work once the
crisis is over, AT&T will “come out of this crisis [and] continue investing
in 5G and new technology.”

 

“I think it’s going to cause every business to evaluate how we do business,”
Stephenson told CNN when asked about what happens when things start to
return to normal. “I think when we come out of this, this is exactly what
we’re going to see.”

 

Ensuring that everyone can remain connected at a time when people are
physically isolated around the country is of the utmost importance to AT&T,
Stephenson told CNN. He pointed to AT&T’s earlier decision to suspend data
caps for broadband internet customers. Customers of AT&T’s home internet
broadband service, which is not to be confused with customers who have an
AT&T mobile data plan, pay for plans that cap the amount of monthly data
they can use. This affects devices like laptops, game consoles, smart TVs,
and more.

 

A day after AT&T announced it would suspend data caps, the FCC introduced a
broadband and telecom industry measure called the Keep Americans Connected
Pledge to prevent telecom companies like AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile among
others from abusing the current work-from-home situation.

 

The pledge asks that companies not terminate service for residential or
small business customers, waive any late fees incurred due to the economic
effects of the virus, and open access to public Wi-Fi hotspots. The pledge
will cover the next 60 days, and asks that other companies follow in AT&T’s
footsteps and suspend data caps.

 

“We’re looking at this as a time of war,” Stephenson said. “This is like
World War II. Everyone needs to step up and do their part in how we help the
general population.”

 

Update (March 22nd, 2:20pm ET): An AT&T spokesperson added that AT&T is
waiving domestic wireless voice and data overage fees for customers
nationwide. The spokesperson noted that these fees will be retroactively
waived, dating back to March 13th.--theverge.com

 

 

 

Stock futures drop more than 4%, briefly hit ‘limit down’ as investors await
a stimulus agreement

Traders, some in medical masks, work on the floor of the New York Stock
Exchange (NYSE) on March 20, 2020 in New York City. Trading on the floor
will temporarily become fully electronic starting on Monday to protect
employees from spreading the coronavirus. The Dow fell over 500 points on
Friday as investors continue to show concerns over COVID-19.

 

U.S. stock futures plunged again on Sunday night as Wall Street waits on
Washington to agree to an economic stimulus and rescue plan to combat the
giant economic blow from the coronavirus outbreak.

 

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell more than 800 points, or 4.3%,
along with S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures. Earlier in the session, futures
hit their “limit down” levels, falling 5%. Downside limits to futures
contracts are implemented to ensure orderly market behavior once trading
hits a certain threshold. No trades below that level are allowed.

 

A fiscal stimulus bill failed a key procedural Senate vote Sunday as
Democrats warned the measure did not do enough to help workers and too much
to bail out companies. Earlier, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had signaled she
was not on board with the Republican-version of the stimulus plan, saying:
“From my standpoint, we’re apart.” 

 

However, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, said disagreements over
the bill could be overcome in the next 24 hours. 

 

National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow said Saturday an economic
stimulus package will total more than $2 trillion, noting it will be equal
to roughly 10% of U.S. economic output. Last week, President Donald Trump
signed a $100 billion bill that expanded paid leave in the U.S.

 

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Sunday that financing programs to
stimulate the economy could be worth $4 trillion, noting these efforts will
include coordination with the Federal Reserve to provide businesses with
necessary liquidity.

 

“When this started, this was a bit unique to the airline industry since we
had shut down most of airline travel,” Mnuchin said. “This liquidity
facility is a broad-based liquidity facility working with the Fed.”

 

David Kostin, chief U.S. equity strategist at Goldman Sachs, said the
difference between a fast or a prolonged recovery in the stock market will
come down to three factors: How quickly the virus is contained, whether
businesses will have ” access to enough capital and liquidity to last the 90
to 180 days,” and whether fiscal stimulus can stabilize growth forecasts.

 

“If short-term shutdowns lead to business defaults, closures, and permanent
layoffs, the damage to corporate earnings growth could persist well after
the virus is contained,” Kostin said in a note. 

 

Wall Street has been clamoring for fiscal economic relief as the number of
coronavirus cases keep surging. The number of confirmed global cases
surpassed 300,000 over the weekend as deaths now total over 13,000,
according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

 

20200320 close SP500 bear market

In the U.S., more than 30,000 cases have now been confirmed. New York Gov.
Andrew Cuomo said Sunday cases in the state soared to 15,168 over the
weekend. That’s more than in France or South Korea. 

 

The outbreak has led the New York Stock Exchange to close its trading floor
and temporarily move to all-electronic trading beginning Monday. NYSE
expects trading to proceed as normal. 

 

Trump announced Sunday he activated the National Guard in California, New
York and Washington state — the three states with the highest reported
coroavirus deaths — to curtail the virus’ outbreak. 

 

“Things will get worse before they get better and the markets will continue
to reflect that reality,” said Marc Chaikin, CEO of Chaikin Analytics, in a
note. “This means that a bottoming process will take more time and probably
inflict more damage to equities.”

 

Stocks suffered their biggest one-week decline since the financial crisis in
2008, with the S&P 500 dropping more than 13%. Those losses put the broad
market average more than 32% below its record set on Feb. 19.

 

Morning consult consumer confidence mar 22 2020

Last week ended with all 11 S&P 500 sectors closing more than 20% below
their respective 52-week highs. The S&P 500 was also on pace for its worst
monthly performance since 1940.

 

Expectations for the U.S. economy have also quickly deteriorated. Economists
at Goldman Sachs wrote Friday they expect a 24% contraction for the second
quarter after a 6% drop in the first quarter. Morgan Stanley economist Ellen
Zentner said in a note Sunday she expects a historic 30% contraction in the
second quarter. 

 

“Suffice to say that the economy entered a unique, sudden-stop recession in
March,” wrote Prajakta Bhide, strategist at MRB Partners. “If there is no
concrete evidence of meaningful progress toward controlling the epidemic in
the next eight weeks, there will be no basis for people and businesses to
feel safe to begin to normalize economic activity.”

 

Investors have also been rattled by a sharp decline in crude prices. West
Texas Intermediate futures fell 29.3% last week, their biggest weekly fall
since January 1991. U.S. crude is also more than 66% below its most-recent
52-week high.

 

The steep losses in crude are forcing investors to sell other assets such as
stocks or bonds to to cover the losses in their energy positions. Crude
futures briefly fell more than 8% Sunday night before clawing back most of
those losses.cnbc.com

 

 

 

Cisco commits $225 million in fight against coronavirus as Silicon Valley
initiates investment blitz

The $225 million is "in cash, in-kind, and planned-giving to support both
the global and local response to COVID-19," Cicsco's CEO said. 

This new effort by Cisco comes as Silicon Valley has started to invest into
a variety of groups that are looking to take on the coronavirus.

Chuck Robbins, CEO, Cisco Systems, speaking at the World Economic Forum,
Davos, Switzerland, January 21, 2020.

 

A technology giant is committing $225 million to assist in efforts aimed at
combating the coronavirus while the rest of Silicon Valley initiates an
investment blitz to help in the fight. 

 

Cisco, a company that focuses on crafting telecommunications equipment and
networking hardware, among other items, is putting up the massive
investment, according to a blog post that was written by its CEO, Chuck
Robbins Sunday night.

 

The $225 million is "in cash, in-kind, and planned-giving to support both
the global and local response to COVID-19," Robbins says in the post. 

 

"As part of our commitment, we are allocating $8 million in cash and $210
million in product to the global coronavirus response. We are focusing these
resources on supporting healthcare and education, government response and
critical technology," he said in the post.  "Part of this will go to the
United Nations Foundation's COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund, supporting
the World Health Organization's (WHO) worldwide efforts to help prevent,
detect, and manage the spread of COVID-19."

 

This new effort by Cisco comes as Silicon Valley has started to invest into
a variety of groups that are looking to fight the coronavirus, which has
impacted all 50 states and Washington D.C. in the United States.  There are
at least 26,000 cases in the U.S. and over 340 deaths. 

 

Robbins recently hosted a call with tech and other Silicon Valley business
leaders to discuss ways they can use their money and vast resources to help
fend off COVID-19. 

 

CEOs and executives from Facebook, Apple, the San Francisco 49ers, Twitter,
Netflix, Alphabet and Salesforce were invited to take part.

 

Since then, Facebook has announced it will offer $100 million in cash grants
and ad credits for up to 30,000 eligible small businesses. The social media
giant is also giving $1,000 bonuses to each of their employees as they work
remotely. 

 

"We heard directly from them that they were in need, very nervous, and not
able to pay a lot of their employees, and worried their doors would shut,"
Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's chief operating officer,  told CNBC in a recent
interview. "We're trying to help businesses pay their employees but also
shift their businesses online."--cnbc.com

 

 

 

 

As the stock market is in turmoil, here’s what experts are watching for as
the NYSE operates without humans for the first time

The New York Stock Exchange is going all-electronic on Monday, marking the
first time that the centuries-old exchange will operate in regular hours
without its legion of trusted flesh-and-blood floor traders.

 

“It’s unprecedented, it’s never happened before,” said one NYSE official who
declined to be identified because they weren’t authorized to publicly talk
about the exchange’s operations. “Our markets have never been open while our
trading floor’s not open.”

 

James Angel, professor at Georgetown University and an expert in market
structure, told MarketWatch on Sunday that the stakes for the NYSE are “very
high.”

 

To put things into perspective, the NYSE traces its origins back to May 16,
1792, and in 1817 the New York Stock Exchange Board was formed. And over
those past 228 years, the NYSE has never operated without a group of traders
functioning as the anchor to the U.S.’s biggest trading platform by market
share. The NYSE has shut on a number of other occasions, most recently in
2012 during superstorm Sandy.

 

“In previous closures, the entire market was closed,” said Angel. “This will
be the first time the NYSE classic will be operating purely electronic,” he
said. 

 

“The stakes are very high because the NYSE has always been in the crosshairs
of the media and the slightest misstep they make will be seen by millions of
people,” the Georgetown professor explained.

 

The NYSE’s parent company, Intercontinental Exchange Inc. ICE, -0.93%, on
Wednesday said it was temporarily closing the floor and shifting to
all-electronic trading after a trader and an employee tested positive for
COVID-19, the infectious disease that has claimed more than 14,000 lives
globally and has caused near national lockdown, with a number of state and
city governments implementing severe restrictions to attempt to limit the
spread of the deadly pandemic.

 

Wednesday’s announcement of the temporary floor closure also came after
MarketWatch wrote an article in which market participants raised questions
about the possible public-health hazard to employees and traders involved in
keeping the trading floor open.

 

The exchange touts its ability to provide a “human touch” in its operations,
and that is a point that the NYSE employs to differentiate itself from its
all-electronic rivals, including the Nasdaq Inc. NDAQ, -8.52%, for example.

 

“We do believe that the market quality that investors and issuers enjoy from
that human interaction is unparalleled,” said NYSE Group chief operating
officer Michael Blaugrund in an ICE podcast on March 20, after the
floor-closure announcement.

 

To be sure, operating electronically should be uneventful for the NYSE in
theory because the exchange operator has frequently tested the capacity of
its all-electronic operation. As recently as the first week of March and
again over the past several days, including this weekend ahead of its Monday
open, according to people familiar with the tests.

 

“We, as a practical matter, are always ready, any day for a potential
disaster,” said Blaugrund during the podcast. “So we regularly test on
weekends both with the exchange alone as well as with the industry broadly,”
he explained, noting that those doomsday scenarios include being unable to
access 11 Wall St., the NYSE’s headquarters in lower Manhattan, and its
Mahwah, N.J., data hub coming offline.

 

However, the transition to all-electronic in an exchange platform that
represents more than 20% total average market volume comes at a historically
turbulent time for markets, partly fostered by the COVID-19 outbreak, which
is roiling markets due to cessation of business activity across the globe.

 

Concerns about an abrupt recession forming domestically and elsewhere due to
the halt of businesses and personal activity also is forcing investors to
rapidly reprice assets that were trading at all-time highs a little over a
month ago.

 

In fact, mechanisms to decelerate vicious market downturns kicked in four
times from March 9 to March 19. Those so-called circuit breakers, which take
effect when the S&P 500 SPX, -4.33% falls by 7%, were created after the 2010
flash crash and had never been triggered before this month.

 

The downturn has propelled the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -4.54%,
the S&P 500 SPX, -4.33% and the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, -3.79% into a
bear market, commonly defined as a drop of at least 20% from a recent peak.
On Friday, the Dow, S&P 500 and the Nasdaq all put in their worst weekly
declines since the 2008 financial crisis.

 

See: As Dow wipes out over 3 years of stock-market gains, here’s a warning
about calling the bottom

 

Angel said that against that backdrop, he will be looking for how the
markets open and close on Monday — areas in which the NYSE may see the most
amount of friction because it is those periods in which its human brokers or
designated market makers shine.

 

The designated market makers, or DMMs, essentially oversee the closing
auctions. The close on the NYSE is by far the biggest liquidity event, with
volume more than doubling since 2010.

 

All-electronic exchanges such as Nasdaq can conduct the closing auction
nearly instantly, but DMMs at the NYSE can choose to close each stock
manually or electronically and they use special quotes known as D-orders, or
D-quotes, to smooth out trading imbalances. That order is only available to
the NYSE’s floor brokers.

 

Another market-structure expert, Larry Tabb, told MarketWatch that the thing
to watch for on the NYSE on Monday is possible price dislocations at the
open. Regular trading hours for U.S. equity markets are from 9:30 a.m. to 4
p.m. Eastern Time.

 

“The DMMs on the floor are some of the most sophisticated trading firms in
the world,” he Tabb said.

 

“That said, what you should watch out for would be dislocations between the
opening price and what happens in the next few minutes once continuous
trading starts,” he said.

 

He said, however, that if “dislocations are few and de minimis then all is
good.” He cautioned though that “if they can’t either open the stock or if
there is a big swing between the open and the first continuous trades then
that would signal a problem.”

 

Georgetown’s Angel said that exchange operators have been preparing for this
for a while now but the reality of it could be the real challenge.

 

The NYSE has “been doing dress rehearsal for years; this will be their first
performance before a live virtual audience,” Angel said. “We’ll see how the
audience reacts,” he said.

 

The professor said that the NYSE’s floor is an important part of market
structure but also said that the exchange has been largely a media center,
with news organizations like CNBC and others on the floor.

 

“The NYSE floor’s major value is to be a media focus to the market,” he
said. The NYSE understands that markets are about marketing,” he offered,
adding that “when people want to understand what’s going on in the markets,
they want to a see a visual presence.”--markeytwatch.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 


 

INVESTORS DIARY 2020

 


Company

Event

Venue

Date & Time

 


 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 


Companies under Cautionary

 

 

 


 

 

 

 


Bindura Nickel Corporation

 

 

 


Padenga Holdings

 

 

 


Delta Corporation

 

 

 


Meikles Limited

 

 

 


 <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> 

 


 

 


DISCLAIMER: This report has been prepared by Bulls ‘n Bears, a division of
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been compiled from sources believed to be reliable, but no representation or
warranty is made or guarantee given as to its accuracy or completeness. All
opinions expressed and recommendations made are subject to change without
notice. Securities or financial instruments mentioned herein may not be
suitable for all investors. Securities of emerging and mid-size growth
companies typically involve a higher degree of risk and more volatility than
the securities of more established companies. Neither Faith Capital nor any
other member of Bulls ‘n Bears nor any other person, accepts any liability
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investigation into the business, financial condition and future prospects of
any companies referred to in this report. Other  Indices quoted herein are
for guideline purposes only and sourced from third parties.

 


 

 


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