The daily business briefing: April 3, 2020
1.
A record 6.6 million people made initial applications for jobless benefits in the U.S. last week, the federal government reported on Thursday. The figure smashed the previous high mark of 3.3 million set the week before. The nearly 10 million jobs lost in the past two weeks after business shutdowns and slowdowns due to the coronavirus crisis have wiped out nearly all of the job gains of the last five years. Economists believe the Labor Department’s March jobs report being released Friday morning will show the unemployment rate rose from 3.5 percent to about 3.9 percent, although the report is based on surveys before mass layoffs due to the coronavirus. Some economists believe by the end of April the unemployment rate will be 15 percent. [NPR, The Associated Press]
2.
Amazon plans to step up efforts to protect warehouse workers from coronavirus infections, Dave Clark, head of Amazon’s retail operations, said in a blog post Thursday. The online retail giant, which faced protests by workers demanding protections, will take employees’ temperatures when they get to work, and give them face masks to help prevent the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. The temperature checks started at some U.S. sites last Sunday, and will begin at all Amazon operations, including its Whole Foods Stores, in the U.S. and Europe by early next week, Clark said. Any worker found to have a fever above 100.4 degrees will be sent home and allowed to return to work only after three days with no fever. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said the company has ordered millions of face masks, and Clark said workers would get them “as quickly as possible.” [CNBC]
3.
President Trump said Thursday that he was anticipating a deal between Saudi Arabia and Russia to cut oil production sharply to end a dispute that has dragged down prices. Plummeting demand due to the coronavirus crisis, along with an existing oil glut, have driven down energy prices to levels not seen in nearly two decades. Saudi Arabia launched a price war after Russia refused to go along with output cuts. Trump tweeted that he expected the two countries to resolve their differences and reduce production by up to 15 million barrels a day, saying he had spoken with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman after discussing the matter with Russian President Vladimir Putin. A Kremlin spokesman disputed Trump’s account, saying, “No, there wasn’t such a conversation.” [The Associated Press]
4.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 jumped by more than 2 percent on Thursday after President Trump said Russia and Saudi Arabia had agreed to cut oil output to boost tumbling prices. Stocks surged immediately after Trump’s announcement, then faltered before closing with strong gains. Energy stocks rose by 9 percent. Earlier in the day, the Dow plunged after the federal government reported that 6.6 million people filed claims for jobless benefits last week, doubling the record set the previous week as business closures and stay-at-home orders due to the coronavirus pandemic ravaged the economy. Stocks this week ended their worst quarter since the 2008 financial crisis and fell in three of the last five sessions as the coronavirus crisis deepens. Stock futures fell early Friday ahead of the federal jobs report. [The Washington Post, CNBC]
5.
Video conferencing service Zoom is scrambling to address security problems that have emerged as millions of people flock to the app to socialize and work during coronavirus lockdowns. Zoom’s founder and CEO Eric Yuan said in a Wednesday blog post that the company went from 10 million daily users in December to more than 200 million in March. He said the platform was meant for corporate users with their own IT departments. “We did not design the product with the foresight that, in a matter of weeks, every person in the world would suddenly be working, studying, and socializing from home,” he wrote. The company is halting work on features for 90 days to focus on security fixes as hackers crash video chats and harass users, a trolling technique known as Zoombombing. [NPR, USA Today]
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