(Bloomberg) — Global coronavirus cases topped five million, doubling in the past month, and infections rose at a record pace in Brazil and Indonesia. AstraZeneca received $1.2 billion in U.S. funding to develop a vaccine, while CanSino Biologics signed a deal to test and sell a Canadian vaccine candidate.U.S. President Donald Trump suggested Chinese leader Xi Jinping was behind a “disinformation and propaganda attack,” and is set to tour Ford’s ventilator facility on Thursday. Cases stabilized in Russia and the emergency in Tokyo may soon be lifted.The euro-area economy started to claw its way out of its downturn and U.S. jobless claims will probably continue to trend lower. The U.S. Transportation Security Administration has started making changes to airport screening and EasyJet said it plans to resume flights from some European airports in June.Key Developments:Virus Tracker: Cases reached 5 million; deaths exceed 328,000Why a new cluster in China is triggering alarms: QuickTakeTrump’s push to reopen repels some GOP supportersWHO is caught in a dangerous place between Trump and ChinaTrump gambles on a resurrection, with lives and livelihoodsSubscribe to a daily update on the virus from Bloomberg’s Prognosis team here. Click VRUS on the terminal for news and data on the coronavirus. See this week’s top stories from QuickTake here.Natixis Losses on Equity Derivatives Soar (7:10 a.m. NY)Natixis SA, the French investment bank that embraced complex trades as a key money maker, has lost about 250 million euros ($274 million) so far this year on equity derivatives. About 150 million euros of the losses have occurred since April, according to people familiar with the matter. The results are partly driven by corporations slashing their dividends because of the coronavirus.Turkey Cuts Rates Again (7:02 a.m. NY)Turkey’s central bank delivered a ninth straight interest-rate cut after measures to prop up the lira drove out foreign investors, helping the currency recover from an all-time low. By escalating their defense of the lira, authorities have opened the way for lower borrowing costs, a linchpin of the government’s strategy to keep cheap credit flowing to consumers and businesses as it tries to mitigate the economic fallout from the coronavirus outbreak.Texas Sees Power Demand Rebound (7 a.m. NY)Texas has started seeing a slight increase in power use this week in one of the first signs that electricity demand is bouncing back in the U.S. as lockdowns ease. While power use in the Lone Star state is still depressed, the state’s main grid operator noticed a slight improvement in electricity use during early morning hours, according to a report.TSA Makes Changes to Airport Security Screening (6:47 a.m. NY)Ahead of the Memorial Day holiday weekend in the U.S., the Transportation Security Administration has started making changes to airport screening. “In the interest of TSA frontline workers and traveler health, TSA is committed to making prudent changes to our screening processes to limit physical contact and increase physical distance as much as possible,” TSA Administrator David Pekoske said.The agency said it had seen a steady growth of travelers coming through airport checkpoints over the past couple of weeks.U.K. Home Sales Crater (6:09 a.m. NY)U.K. home sales collapsed last month as the government effectively shut down the market to help slow the coronavirus outbreak. The number of residential property deals plunged by 53.4% compared with April last year, according to provisional data published by the U.K. tax authority on Thursday. About 46,440 home sales were recorded.Insurance giant Aviva Plc expects residential property prices to drop 12% and commercial real estate to decline by 15% because of the impact of the pandemic, it said in an earnings update on Thursday. The company sees long-term growth for house prices after they trough. The insurer also said it expects to pay out around 160 million pounds in coronavirus-related claims.Philippine Apologizes for ‘Second Wave’ Confusion (5:52 p.m. HK)The Philippines’ Health Department corrected a statement made by its top official that the country is already experiencing its second wave of coronavirus infections, apologizing for the confusion it caused.The Southeast Asian nation is still in the first wave, driven by the local community transmission of the virus, Health Director Beverly Ho said in a virtual briefing. Secretary Francisco Duque told lawmakers on Wednesday that the first wave already occurred in January when three Chinese tourists tested positive for the virus.Tokyo Emergency May Be Lifted Soon (5:22 p.m. HK)Japan could lift the state of emergency in Tokyo and surrounding prefectures as soon as Monday, if current trends continue, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said. The measure was lifted Thursday for Osaka and the two adjoining prefectures of Kyoto and Hyogo after the move was endorsed by a government panel of health experts earlier in the day. The emergency declaration will stay in effect for Tokyo and surrounding prefectures, as well as for the northern island of Hokkaido, for the time being, he said.Italian PM Urges Banks to Speed Up Loans (5:18 p.m. HK)Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte ramped up the pressure on Italy’s banking sector, urging lenders to speed up delivery of state-backed loans to businesses paralyzed by a nationwide lockdown to counter the coronavirus.“The banking system is making a contribution, but it can and must do more to accelerate procedures to deliver state-backed loans,” Conte said in a speech to the lower house of parliament. “The liquidity decree allows for guaranteed loans to be delivered in 24 hours, especially for requests under 25,000 euros ($27,400).”Conte’s government and banks have been blaming each other for delays in guaranteeing liquidity to companies, as more than two months of containment measures weigh on the economy. The European Commission forecasts Italy’s output will shrink 9.5% this year, while Bloomberg Economics expects a 13% contraction.Indonesia Cases Top 20,000 After Record Surge (4:56 p.m. HK)Indonesia recorded a record surge in new coronavirus cases, adding 973 infections to take the total in the country to 20,162. The increase was driven by 502 infections reported in East Java. Earlier this week, President Joko Widodo ruled out an immediate easing of social distancing rules and ordered officials to strictly enforce a ban on travel during the busy holiday season to prevent a spike in new coronavirus cases.The spike in infections in recent weeks may delay plans to reopen Southeast Asia’s largest economy as early as next month as an overwhelmed healthcare system fails to ramp up testing of those with even explicit Covid-19 symptoms. With reports of a large number of people traveling to their hometowns to celebrate the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr later this month in defiance of the ban on such travel, known as mudik, fears have increased of a fresh wave of infections.China Vaccine Maker Agrees to Canada Deal (4:37 p.m. HK)Leading Chinese vaccine developer CanSino Biologics Inc.. has agreed to a deal to test and sell a separate Canadian vaccine candidate. In addition to developing its own vaccine with the Chinese military, CanSino will partner with Vancouver-based Precision NanoSystems Inc. to co-develop another potential vaccine.The company will conduct testing of Precision’s experimental vaccine and has the right to commercialize it in Asia excluding Japan. Widely viewed as one of the front-runners in the race for successful vaccine, the deal adds to CanSino’s chances of being among the first to deliver.CanSino’s own vaccine is currently in the second of three phases of human testing and is among five Chinese candidates to have reached that advanced stage — more than the U.S. and Europe combined. The stock surged in Hong Kong on Thursday morning before abruptly reversing gains in the afternoon.Euro-Area Economy Reaches Trough (4 p.m. HK)The euro-area economy started to claw its way out of its deepest downturn ever as the relaxing of coronavirus lockdowns allows thousands of businesses to reopen. The big question is how long it stumbles along at the bottom before a meaningful recovery starts to take shape. While a report from IHS Markit on Thursday offered some hope, it also suggested that improvement will be slow.“Demand is likely to remain extremely weak for a prolonged period, putting further pressure on companies to make more aggressive job cuts as government retention schemes expire,” said Chris Williamson, chief business economist at IHS Markit. Growth could slump by almost 9% in 2020, and a full recovery could “take several years,” he said.Cases Stabilize in Russia (3:40 p.m. HK)The number of confirmed new infections rose by 8,849 over the past day in Russia, to 317,554. The country reported 127 more fatalities, taking the total to 3,099.Infections in the country have nearly tripled from the end of April, but new cases have since started to level off. Thursday’s 2.9% increase in cases is in line with Wednesday, and below the five-day average.Human Development Set for First Decline Since 1990 (3:30 p.m. HK)Global human development — a measure that combines education, health and living standards — will decline for the first time in at least three decades, the United Nations Development Programme warned.Global income per person is expected to fall 4% this year, and, when adjusted for those who don’t have Internet access, the percentage of primary school-age children who are getting an education is at the lowest level since the 1980s. The death toll from the virus has exceeded 300,000 so far.“The world has seen many crises over the past 30 years,” UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner said in a statement. “Each has hit human development hard but, overall, development gains accrued globally year-on-year. Covid-19 –- with its triple hit to health, education and income — may change this trend.”Lufthansa Nears Rescue (3:23 p.m. HK)Deutsche Lufthansa AG said it’s close to a multibillion euro bailout deal that would see the state become its biggest shareholder after the coronavirus punctured a decades-long boom in air travel. Lufthansa shares gained as much as 5.8% Thursday after Europe’s largest carrier confirmed it’s in advanced talks with Germany’s WSF Economic Stabilization Fund for aid of as much as 9 billion euros ($9.9 billion).The package would include a 3 billion-euro loan, a so-called silent participation and the WSF obtaining a 20% stake through a capital issuance, Lufthansa said.EasyJet Plans to Restart Flights (3:20 p.m. HK)EasyJet Plc will resume flights from 22 European airports on June 15, becoming one of the first airlines in the region to begin building up services as coronavirus lockdowns ease. Britain’s biggest discount carrier will start with mainly internal flights in the U.K. and France before announcing more routes in coming weeks as travel restrictions are lifted and demand picks up.Passengers, cabin crew and ground staff will be required to wear face masks, in line with guidance this week by the European Aviation Safety Agency and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. No food will be served on the first flights and customers will be asked to sit apart from others not in their party, though only where spare seats are available.German Infection Rate Under Key Threshold (2:44 p.m. HK)Germany’s new coronavirus cases dropped below 1,000 and the number of new fatalities remained under 100, as the country’s infection rate stayed below the key threshold of 1.0. There were 695 new cases in the 24 hours through Thursday morning, bringing the total to 178,473, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. That’s down from 1,227 on Wednesday.AstraZeneca Gets $1 Billion From U.S. to Make Vaccine (2:18 p.m. HK)AstraZeneca Plc received more than $1 billion in U.S. government funding to develop a Covid-19 vaccine from the University of Oxford, and said it has supply agreements for 400 million doses. The investment accelerates a race to secure vaccine supplies, seen as a key step toward getting global economies moving again after a lockdown-induced slump.Drugmakers around the world are looking for manufacturing capacity to ramp up output. The Oxford vaccine is one of the world’s fastest-moving, and AstraZeneca has said it expects to have doses ready as soon as September. BARDA has also provided funding for French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi, including $30 million for its Covid vaccine and a $226 million award in December to increase production capacity for its pandemic influenza vaccine.Coronavirus Cases Reach 5 Million (2 p.m. HK)It’s the latest milestone for the worst pandemic in a century that has upended every aspect of modern life and hammered the global economy. The number of infections worldwide has doubled over the past month. The U.S. accounts for almost a third of the cases, five times the number seen by Russia, the No. 2 country on the list. Brazil, one of the latest hot spots, has the third largest number of cases.Milestones in the pandemic have become commonplace and only amount to an approximate guidepost. Health experts widely believe the actual count is higher than the official numbers, as Covid-19 has proved difficult to detect and track. The official death toll is at more than 328,000, with the U.S. fatalities exceeding 93,000.Thai Panel to Propose Extending Emergency (12:17 p.m. HK)Thailand’s National Security Council will propose an extension of a state of emergency through June 30, the panel’s Secretary-General Somsak Rungsita told reporters. The NSC will propose the extension at the Covid-19 meeting chaired by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha on Friday.Diamond Princess’s Cases Reveal Pattern of Disease (12:03 p.m. HK)Months after the coronavirus infected more than 700 people on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan, scientists are still gleaning insights into the patterns of illness it causes.Women Job Losses Could Shave $1 Trillion Off GDP (8:47 a.m. HK)Of 44 million workers in vulnerable sectors, about 31 million female workers face potential job cuts compared to 13 million men, underscoring that women globally are more vulnerable to losing their jobs during the crisis, according to Citigroup Inc. The assessment excludes China, with the figure likely to be higher if the world’s second-largest economy was included.Virus-Ravaged USS Theodore Roosevelt Returns to Sea (8:38 a.m. HK)The USS Theodore Roosevelt “left Naval Base Guam and entered the Philippine Sea May 21 to conduct carrier qualification flights for the embarked Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 11,” the U.S. 7th Fleet Commander said in a statement. The ship moored in Guam after crew members tested positive for Covid-19.China Reports 2 New Cases, Including 1 in Shanghai (8:33 a.m. HK)One local coronavirus infection is reported in Shanghai and one imported case is in Guangdong province, National Health Commission said in a statement. 31 asymptomatic cases are reported; three of them are from overseas.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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Yahoo Finance’s Alexis Christoforous, Brian Sozzi, and Anjalee Khemlani discuss the latest coronavirus news.Today we'll take a closer look at Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) from a dividend investor's perspective. Owning a…
Expedia Group reported their first quarter earnings after the bell on Wednesday, showing a revenue drop of 15% year over year at $2.21B. Jared Blikre joins The Final Round to go over the numbers.UK-based pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca Plc (AZN) on Thursday disclosed that it has the capacity to produce 1 billion doses of its coronavirus vaccine should it prove to be successful. The stock rose 3.5% to $55.65 in pre-market U.S. trading.The drugmaker said it has signed first agreements for at least 400 million doses and has secured total manufacturing capacity for one billion doses of the potential vaccine, which it is developing with Oxford University. Start of deliveries are planned for September 2020, the company said in a statement.AstraZeneca is also working on entering into additional agreements supported by several parallel supply chains, which is aimed at expanding capacity further over the next months to ensure the delivery of a globally accessible vaccine, the company said.All of this though will be dependent on getting data results from the vaccine candidate’s Phase I/II clinical trial, which the drugmaker expects shortly and if positive, would lead to late-stage trials in a number of countries.“AstraZeneca recognises that the vaccine may not work but is committed to progressing the clinical program with speed and scaling up manufacturing at risk,” the company said in the statement.Moreover, AstraZeneca announced that it has received more than $1 billion from the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) for the development, production and delivery of the vaccine, starting in the fall. The development programme includes a Phase III clinical trial with 30,000 participants and a paediatric trial.The drugmaker informed investors that Thursday’s announcement is not expected to have any significant impact on its financial guidance for 2020.“Expenses to progress the vaccine are anticipated to be offset by funding by governments,” the company said.Shares in AstraZeneca have ballooned 42% in the past two months as the drugmaker joined the list of companies engaged in the development of a coronavirus vaccine.TipRanks data shows that Wall Street analysts have a bullish outlook on the stock boasting only Buy ratings. Following the recent share rally, the $57.50 average price target puts the upside potential at 6.9% in the coming 12 months. (See AstraZeneca stock analysis on TipRanks).Related News: Gilead and Galapagos Score Positive Topline Results For Ulcerative Colitis Trial Moderna Spikes 21% Amid “Positive” Early-Stage Covid-19 Vaccine Data AstraZeneca-Merck Lynparza Prostate Cancer Treatment Gets FDA Approval More recent articles from Smarter Analyst: * Akorn Plummets 27% In Pre-Market On Bankruptcy Filing * Google, Apple Roll Out Coronavirus Contact Tracing Technology * Visa Makes Analytical Play With GoodData Investment * Expedia Q1 Gross Bookings Plunge 39%, And Worse To Come
Shares in Boston Scientific (BSX) pulled back 2% in after-hours trading on Wednesday after the company announced concurrent offerings of $750 million of shares of its common stock and $750 million of shares of its Series A Mandatory Convertible Preferred Stock.The medical device manufacturer also expects to grant the underwriters separate 30-day options to purchase up to an additional $112.5 million of common stock and up to an additional $112.5 million of preferred stock.According to the statement, Boston Scientific will use part of the proceeds from to repay in full the remaining $750 million outstanding under its $1.25 billion term loan credit facility maturing on April 2021 and to pay the related fees, expenses and premiums.The remaining proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes, says BSX, which may include refinancing or repayment of other outstanding indebtedness and funding potential future acquisitions and investments.The closing of each offering is not contingent upon the closing of the other offering.J.P. Morgan and BofA Securities are acting as joint book-running managers for the offerings.On May 15, Boston announced the pricing of a public offering of $1.7 billion senior notes with $500 million in aggregate 1.9% notes due 2025 and $1.2 billion in aggregate 2.65% notes due 2030.BSX has plunged 18% year-to-date, but analysts are retaining an optimistic outlook on the stock’s potential. The Street has a Strong Buy consensus on Boston Scientific, with an average analyst price target of $43 (16% upside potential). (See BSX stock analysis on TipRanks)“Despite short-term delays and disruption to current launches and the product pipeline, we continue to like BSX’s innovation and growth profile” explains BTIG’s Marie Thibault. She reiterated her Buy with a $44 PT, but ‘meaningfully’ reduced her revenue forecast for 2020 as global revenue is expected to decline 45-50% y/y in April.Related News: Bluebird Prices New Shares At $55, Seeks To Raise $500 Million Gilead and Galapagos Score Positive Topline Results For Ulcerative Colitis Trial AstraZeneca-Merck Lynparza Prostate Cancer Treatment Gets FDA ApprovalPopular in the Community More recent articles from Smarter Analyst: * Akorn Plummets 27% In Pre-Market On Bankruptcy Filing * AstraZeneca Can Make Up To 1B Covid-19 Vaccine Doses, Signs First Supply Pacts * Google, Apple Roll Out Coronavirus Contact Tracing Technology * Visa Makes Analytical Play With GoodData Investment
If you are near retirement and recently unemployed, you have a lot of company. Roughly 600,000 Americans between the ages of 55 and 64 left the workforce in April, according to the New School’s Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis … Continue reading ->The post Why Retiring Early Is a Bad Idea Now appeared first on SmartAsset Blog.
Jerry Bill is worried the novel coronavirus could hurt business at the Des Moines auto dealership he runs, but not because of a shortage of buyers for the big Ram pickups on his lot. “Our biggest issue will be if we don’t get more inventory,” said Bill, general sales manager of Stew Hansen Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram, which sells around 2,700 new vehicles a year in Urbandale, a suburb of Iowa’s capital Des Moines. After a drop in sales in April when consumers stayed home, Bill expects pickup truck sales to end May similar to where they were a year earlier.