(Bloomberg) — France slammed Sanofi’s talk of providing any successful coronavirus vaccine to Americans first, with President Emmanuel Macron indicating he intends to meet company officials next week.
Stocks slumped as U.S. President Donald Trump continued to target China and the number filing for U.S. unemployment benefits remained in the millions for the eighth straight week. Germany projected a plunge in tax revenue this year, raising questions about how much debt it may be willing to take on to revive Europe’s largest economy.
Trump said more than 100,000 could die in the U.S., even as he disagreed with Anthony Fauci over the doctor’s warnings about reopening the country too quickly. The military is “now being mobilized” to administer a vaccine if it becomes available, the president said.
Key Developments:
Virus Tracker: Cases top 4.3 million; deaths exceed 298,000Mnuchin seeks to reassure investors after Powell’s warningGoldman sees 25% jobless at peak; Trump’s projectionSecond waves that are hard to trace plague Asia’s recoveryGilead’s remdesivir is a rare example of foresight in pandemicBritain’s plan to get working again doesn’t seem to be working
Subscribe 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.
Amazon Drone Unit to Make Masks (10:45 a.m. NY)
Amazon.com Inc. is mass-producing face shields for health-care workers using engineering tools and expertise borrowed from its drone-delivery unit. Brad Porter, a vice president with the robotics group, said in a blog post Thursday he expects to list, on the website, the reusable shields at a significantly lower price than models currently available.
Amazon’s drone engineering facilities in Washington state are making the coverings. At one location, a machine that normally cuts carbon fiber for drone parts is being used to slice screens for the face shields.
Trump Backs Tesla Reopening (9:30 a.m. NY)
U.S. President Donald Trump said Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk is “doing the right thing” by restarting work at the carmaker’s Fremont, California, factory in defiance of local stay-at-home rules. “I’m all for him,” Trump said on the Fox Business Channel. A police lieutenant visited the plant late Wednesday to view employee screening and physical-distancing measures, and the findings will be presented to the Alameda County health office, which will determine Tesla’s compliance, a police spokeswoman said.
France’s Restaurant King Says Industry Needs Rescue (9:47 a.m. NY)
Olivier Bertrand — owner of more than 850 eateries, from the Burger King chain in France to famed Parisian brasseries — wants a rescue plan for the country’s restaurant sector, one of the most-hit from the coronavirus pandemic.
“We are very worried about the current situation and about what the future holds,” Bertrand told the French TV channel BFM Business in an interview on Thursday, commenting on a letter sent to Macron’s government requesting an aid package.
Biggest Ultramarathon Canceled, First Time Since War (9:29 a.m. NY)
The organizers of the world’s biggest ultramarathon have canceled the event for the first time since World War II. The Comrades Marathon, due to take place on June 14 in South Africa, has been added to the list of sporting events around the globe scrapped due to the pandemic.
Germany’s Tax Income to Tumble $106 Billion on Virus Fallout (9 a.m. NY)
With factories, restaurants and shops forced to shut to contain the disease, Germany’s overall tax income for 2020 is expected to be 98.6 billion euros ($106 billion) lower than an estimate six months ago, the Finance Ministry said on Thursday. The federal government’s shortfall is projected at 44 billion euros, with states and municipalities also taking a hit.
“Thanks to the good budgetary policy of recent years, the corona crisis can be managed financially,” Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said. “The next step is to take targeted measures to get the economy going again.”
EU Justice Chief Backs Apple-Google Tracing System (8:08 a.m. NY)
The European Union’s justice chief threw his weight behind a Covid-19 contact tracing system that would be supported by a tool jointly developed by Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google.
EU nations are using apps based on different methods. Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders told the European Parliament that he preferred a “decentralized approach” that stores less data on back-end servers.
Sberbank Recruits Employees for Russian Vaccine Trial (8:08 a.m. NY)
Russia’s state-owned Sberbank PJSC appealed to employees for help in a Covid-19 vaccine trial scheduled to start next month.
Sberbank asked for volunteers who meet certain criteria to take part in testing of a vaccine developed by Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, according to a copy of an email sent from the bank’s human resources department and confirmed by several employees.
Trump Targets China (7:45 a.m. NY)
President Trump told Fox Business that China will try to steal intellectual property and get a Covid-19 vaccine first, but the U.S. can prevent it. “We can stop them. They’re going to try doing it. I mean you can also stop doing business with them, that’s one thing,” Trump said.
“They’ve always been doing it, and they were never called. Now they’re being called out all the time with me,” he said about China and IP theft.
Trump said he doesn’t want to talk to Chinese President Xi Jinping right now and mused about eliminating the largest trading relationship in the world. Asked whether he had spoken to Xi recently, Trump said that they have “a very good relationship” but “right now, I don’t want to speak to him. I don’t want to speak to him.”
Xi Calls for Stronger Virus Control in Northeast (7:28 a.m. NY)
Chinese President Xi Jinping called for stronger virus control measures in the northeastern provinces of Jilin and Heilongjiang, which recently saw an increase in cases and announced a partial lockdown of some cities, state broadcaster CCTV reported. The Chinese capital Beijing should also strengthen virus control measures during the annual National People’s Congress sessions, Xi said.
British Airways Owner Won’t Delay 12,000 Job Cuts (7:13 a.m. NY)
British Airways owner IAG SA said it intends to go ahead with plans to cut up to 12,000 jobs, while Chief Executive Officer Willie Walsh castigated the government’s handling of the crisis. The decision to quarantine travelers, along with Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s statement that “big, lavish international holidays” likely won’t be possible this summer “have seriously set back recovery plans for our industry,” Walsh said in a letter to the chairman of the U.K.’s transport committee.
IAG remains committed to its restructuring, Walsh said in the letter dated Wednesday. He had faced a grilling from lawmakers on Monday over plans to permanently slash British Airways’ workforce rather than take advantage of the government furlough scheme.
BOE Not Considering Negative Rates Right Now (7:12 a.m. NY)
The Bank of England isn’t currently considering using negative interest rates, Governor Andrew Bailey said, a day after the U.S. central bank chief also pushed back against the idea. The pandemic has plunged the U.K. economy into what may be its deepest recession in more than three centuries, and BOE policy makers have indicated that more quantitative easing is likely.
“It is not something that we are currently planning for or contemplating,” Bailey said at an FT web conference Thursday. Such a move would be a major communications challenge and would prove difficult for banks, he said. Still, “it’s always wise, and particularly in these circumstances, not to rule anything out forever.”
U.K. government borrowing looks on course to exceed 300 billion pounds ($366 billion) in the current fiscal year, according to the latest forecasts from the nation’s fiscal watchdog. The Office for Budget Responsibility said the budget deficit for 2020-21 could total 298.4 billion pounds, a post-war high of 15.2% of GDP.
Trump Expects More Than 100,000 U.S. Virus Deaths (6:13 a.m. NY)
“We’re going to lose over 100,000 perhaps in this country,” President Trump said about coronavirus deaths in an interview on Fox Business. Trump on Wednesday accused the nation’s top infectious disease official, Anthony Fauci, of wanting to “play all sides of the equation” with congressional testimony Tuesday that warned reopening the country too quickly could lead to coronavirus case flare ups.
So far, more than 84,000 people have died from the coronavirus in the U.S., making it the worst-hit country in the world. The military is now being mobilized to administer a vaccine, if one is available, “rapidly” by end of year, Trump said in the interview. “I think we’re going to have a vaccine by the end of the year,” he said, adding he expects to focus on giving vaccine to nursing home residents, other vulnerable people first.
The President also said said he is “very disappointed” in China amid the coronavirus pandemic. The relationship between the two countries has soured after they signed a phase-one trade agreement, with Trump accusing China of hiding information on how the outbreak started.
Tokyo to Stay Under Emergency Even as Japan Eases (6:12 a.m. NY)
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will maintain a state of emergency for Tokyo and Osaka due to the coronavirus while lifting it for 39 of the country’s 47 prefectures earlier than scheduled, as infection cases have waned. Abe said the government will immediately start work on a second extra budget to aid people and businesses reeling from the effects of the pandemic. The plan will include subsidies for rents and raise the maximum subsidy for furloughed workers to 15,000 yen ($140) a day, he said.
The government will evaluate next week if it can release the remaining areas before the declaration ends on May 31, which could help Japan re-activate more of its virus-battered economy.
Hungary May Lift Emergency by June (6 a.m. NY)
Hungary may be in a position to lift a controversial state of emergency near the end of June if the spread of the coronavirus continues to ease, cabinet minister Gergely Gulyas said. The country has started lifting restrictions outside of Budapest, with restaurants and hotels returning to full operations next week.
Parliament had in March handed Prime Minister Viktor Orban the right to rule by decree indefinitely, effectively putting the European Union democracy under his sole command for as long as he sees fit. Orban’s decision, ostensibly to fight the virus, has raised alarm in the EU about whether governments may use the pandemic as a pretext to undermine democracy. The European Union’s executive arm has said member states should start phasing out emergency powers in line with steps being taken to ease restrictions.
<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm" type="text" content="For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com” data-reactid=”64″>For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com
<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm" type="text" content="Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.” data-reactid=”65″>Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
Add Comment