Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin believes the U.S. economy will need more help to pull out of the recession, but said the next round of support should be more targeted to the hardest hit parts of the economy. Congress has already approved close to $3 trillion in support to deal with the impact of the coronavirus, which has resulted in millions of layoffs and has pushed the country into recession. “There is no question that small businesses in many industries will need more help,” Mnuchin said.

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DoubleLine Capital CEO and billionaire bond investor Jeffrey Gundlach sees a potential “wave of more higher-end unemployment’ hitting white-collar workers. Yahoo Finance’s On The Move panel weighs in.

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(Bloomberg) — The coronavirus has wreaked havoc on commercial aviation, but Alexey Isaykin’s cargo carrier has been fully loaded.Volga-Dnepr Group has flown more than 3,000 breeding pigs to China from France this year. The animals — transported 6,450 miles (10,400 kilometers) in wooden crates in the hold of a Boeing 747 cargo plane — are being used to restore local livestock levels to help mitigate shortages in the world’s largest pork market after an outbreak of African swine fever decimated China’s hog herds.Measures to stem the spread of the coronavirus amplified those swine shortages and accelerated attempts to boost the population of domestic herds. China imported a total 254,533 tons of pork in the first four months of the year from the U.S., which overtook Europe to become China’s largest pork supplier. That’s already more than the 245,000 tons China bought for the whole of 2019.The cargo is a sign of the shifting demand that Isaykin’s company — known for transporting everything from satellites to emergency bridges — is experiencing as the pandemic reshapes his industry.The company is also shipping masks, hazmat suits, medical equipment and even street-disinfecting vehicles to countries like Russia, France and Germany as they battle to contain the virus. Volga-Dnepr’s sales rose 32% to $630 million this year through April compared with the same period in 2019.“Global aviation is going through its most challenging time ever, but for cargo carriers like us it’s a chance,” Isaykin said in a Zoom interview from Moscow. “Previously, more than half of all aviation cargoes were carried in the luggage compartments of passenger planes. With this supply vanishing from the market, demand for cargo airlines surged and prices more than doubled.”While demand for air freight dropped 28% in April compared with a year earlier, capacity fell by 42%, according to the International Air Transport Association. Isaykin’s stake in closely held Volga-Dnepr is estimated to be worth around $700 million, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The Russian company’s revenue may increase by a third this year to $2 billion, Isaykin predicts.Expanding GeographyThe overall rise in sales has come even as some revenue streams shrink. Shipments for the aerospace industry have fallen by about a third compared with last year, Isaykin said.Medical goods now account for more than half of global air freight, with e-commerce cargo for firms like Amazon.com Inc. and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. another growing category.Volga-Dnepr’s footprint is also shifting, Isaykin said.“The geography of our shipments is expanding, following the spread of coronavirus,” Isaykin said. “We just started shipping Chinese medical goods to Africa and are getting first inquiries from Latin America. I think India will be next.”Some of this demand may prove to be short-lived. Freight rates have started to decline, and the market for shipping health-related cargo may drop in the second half of the year, Isaykin said. Still, he expects volumes and prices to stay above the “pre-virus” level with fewer passenger planes expected to be flying.Some new business may herald lasting changes to the world economy. While his carrier is shipping pigs to China, it’s also ferrying assets the other way. The company recently transported a production line for making masks to Russia’s Tatarstan region from China.“An interesting trend is gaining traction now — we call it the medieval period of the 21st century — when strategically important production facilities are being relocated to reduce dependence on China,” Isaykin said. “I am expecting this trend to accelerate toward year-end.”(Updates with air freight data in seventh paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

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Boeing Co is aiming to conduct a key certification test flight on its grounded 737 MAX in late June, two people briefed on the matter said. The 737 MAX has been grounded since March 2019 after two fatal crashes killed 346 people. Boeing told airlines it hopes to conduct the flight in late June and also notified them of a fix to address safety concerns about the placement of wiring bundles, the sources said.

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Investors who owned stocks in the 2010s generally experienced some big gains. In fact, the SPDR S&P 500's (NYSE: SPY) total return for the decade was 250.5%. But there's no question some big-name stocks did much better than others along the way.Marathon's Difficult Decade: One underperformer of the last decade was U.S. oil exploration & production company Marathon Oil Corporation (NYSE: MRO).Marathon's past 10 years were dominated by a major restructuring, a surge in U.S. shale oil production and an unprecedented collapse in oil prices due to COVID-19.Marathon shares started the 2010s trading at around $19.25 but hit their decade-high above $37.99 in mid-2014 just prior to the first collapse in oil prices. That first downturn was driven by a supply glut credited in large part to a booming U.S. shale oil industry.In 2011, during the shale oil boom, Marathon restructured its company, spinning off its refining business into its own entity. The E&P business continued trading as Marathon under the ticker "MRO," and the refining company began trading as Marathon Petroleum Corp (NYSE: MPC).The spinoff was structured so that Marathon Oil shareholders received one share of MPC stock for every two shares of MRO they held.2020 And Beyond: Marathon Oil shares have drifted steadily lower over the past six years since the oil market peaked in 2014. Marathon shares are down 71.7% overall in the past five years, dipping to all-time lows of $3.02 earlier this year when oil prices plunged briefly into negative territory. Yet Marathon Petroleum has held up relatively well, preserving value for investors.At Marathon's $19.25 opening price for the decade, an investor would have been able to buy about 52 shares of Marathon stock for $1,000. Those shares would have entitled investors to 26 shares of MPC stock following the spin-off.Therefore, $1,000 worth of Marathon Oil stock in 2010 would now be worth about $492, assuming reinvested dividends.The 26 shares of MPC initially worth about $546 have generated a total return of about 142.3% since the spin-off and would now be worth about $1,322. So overall, $1,000 worth of Marathon Oil stock in 2010 would be worth around $1,814 today, assuming reinvested dividends.Looking ahead, analysts expect even more difficulties for Marathon in 2020. The average price target among the 26 analysts covering the stock is $6, suggesting 22.5% downside. Related Links:Here's How Much Investing ,000 In The 2014 GrubHub IPO Would Be Worth Today Here's How Much Investing ,000 In The 2011 Spirit Airlines IPO Would Be Worth TodaySee more from Benzinga * GasBuddy Analyst Talks Battered Oil Industry, Why Gasoline Prices Aren't Lower * 'An Outlier Event': Experts React To Oil Prices Dropping Below 'An Outlier Event': Experts React To Oil Prices Dropping Below $0 * 9 Worst-Performing Stocks Of 2020: Buy, Sell Or Hold?(C) 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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(Bloomberg Opinion) — Investors appear to be getting more upbeat about the post-pandemic fates of major clothing retailers. Shares of companies from Gap Inc. to Urban Outfitters Inc. and Kohl’s Corp. have shot up from April lows as shopping centers start to reopen after Covid-19-related closures. Some chains have trumpeted eye-popping numbers about their re-openings, including T.J. Maxx’s parent, which said sales at reopened stores were higher than they were last year. Abercrombie & Fitch Co. has said sales productivity at reopened U.S. locations was at 80% of 2019 levels, while Guess Inc. said on Wednesday that reopened U.S. locations were at 75% productivity compared to last year. Those kinds of tidbits, along with a better-than-expected May jobs report and consumer surveys showing a willingness to spend, offer fresh hope that something close to normal shopping patterns might return sooner than anticipated. Not so fast. Optimism about the clothing business seems misplaced, at least for now. This retailing category will likely end up more scarred by the pandemic and recession than any other, and the bankruptcies and store closures announced so far are just the beginning of the devastation.In part, this is because many players in the segment didn’t enter this tumult in a position of strength. A long list of clothiers, including Victoria’s Secret, Banana Republic, Chico’s and Express have endured years of lackluster sales as they failed to deliver enticing fashions. And the likes of Macy’s Inc. and Nordstrom Inc. have been trying to reimagine the tired department store format with only limited success. If they were already straining to attract shoppers before the Covid-19 crisis, good luck doing so when many are approaching store visits with caution. It also could prove tough for clothing stores to renegotiate with landlords for more favorable lease terms right now if they weren’t a powerful driver of traffic to shopping centers in the first place.Apparel chains have other unique vulnerabilities in the current moment. Social distancing, of course, has turbocharged the shift toward online shopping. Plenty of clothing retailers have invested heavily in their digital experience and infrastructure in recent years and thus are decently positioned to handle the surge in orders. But return rates for online purchases of clothing are estimated to be far higher than for other types of items, and all that return shipping and restocking could crimp profits. Meanwhile, stores are revamping their procedures around trying on clothes. Nordstrom is opening only a small number of fitting rooms and cleaning them between customers. Kohl’s is keeping them closed altogether. They are right to make adaptations in the interest of public health. But “try before you buy” is crucial to the brick-and-mortar clothing model, and these set-ups just make it that much harder to score a sale.    Plus, as Moody’s analyst Raya Sokolyanska pointed out to me, even if shoppers generally get more comfortable going to stores in a post-lockdown world, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll have the patience for crowd-control measures. Just because someone is willing to wait in line to buy groceries doesn’t mean they’ll do so for swimsuits or sneakers.  Then there’s the merchandise itself. Instead of dressing up for vacations, weddings, church services and board meetings, many shoppers are going to spend the rest of 2020 in sweatpants or their comfy, sartorial cousins. Yes, retailers have spent years making their supply chains speedier and more flexible to react more nimbly to trends. But this situation requires a change in assortment far more profound than adding more off-the-shoulder tops or animal prints, and I fear many of them will end up with piles of blazers, dresses and glittery high heels that they can’t sell.   That’s all before you consider another particularly cruel reality that the entire retail industry is facing. For about a decade, stores have been obsessively focused on adapting themselves for the so-called “experience economy,” adding nail salons, personal styling services, coding classes, wine bars, Instagram-worthy photo-ops, or anything else that will convince people to linger and socialize. Those investments feel painfully useless at a moment when shopping safely means doing it in a solo, task-oriented way. So forgive me for not feeling much assurance from the lines seen at T.J. Maxx re-openings or from comments from Macy’s that demand its reopened stores was “moderately” better than their expectations. Those store visits came when shoppers might have had stimulus checks in hand and were itching to get out of the house as states had just begun lifting lockdowns. But after that burst of activity, the unemployment rate will remain high and Covid-19 fears and precautions will remain in place; that will make for extremely tough circumstances for selling clothes. Moody’s estimates that Ebitda will decline by at least 50% for most apparel retailers this year, and that even by 2021, earnings will be 15% to 35% below what they were in 2019. It seems inevitable that some chains won’t survive those conditions. Last month, J. Crew Group Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection, becoming the first major coronavirus casualty, and was followed soon after by Neiman Marcus Group Inc. and J.C. Penney Co. In the past week, Bloomberg News has reported that both Ascena Retail Group Inc., the corporate parent of Ann Taylor and other stores, and Tailored Brands Inc., parent of Men’s Wearhouse, are also considering bankruptcy. The clothing business is just beginning to unravel. It may be nearly unrecognizable by the time this crisis fully takes its toll. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Sarah Halzack is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering the consumer and retail industries. She was previously a national retail reporter for the Washington Post.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

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Diamond Hill Capital recently released its Q1 2020 Investor Letter, a copy of which you can download below. The Diamond Hill Small Cap Fund posted a return of -36.17% for the quarter, underperforming its benchmark, the Russell 2000 Index which returned -30.61% in the same quarter. You should check out Diamond Hill Capital's top 5 […]

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Yahoo Finance’s Brian Sozzi, Alexis Christoforous, and Ines Ferre discuss the latest news on coronavirus testing.

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Diamond Hill Capital recently released its Q1 2020 Investor Letter, a copy of which you can download below. The Diamond Hill Small Cap Fund posted a return of -36.17% for the quarter, underperforming its benchmark, the Russell 2000 Index which returned -30.61% in the same quarter. You should check out Diamond Hill Capital's top 5 […]

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