Nouvelles que vous avez peut-être manquées
Gilead Sciences a déclaré qu'il facturera aux gouvernements 2 340 $ pour un cours de remdesivir, un médicament dont il a été démontré qu'il raccourcit les temps de récupération chez les patients atteints de Covid-19. La société américaine de biotechnologie a déclaré que les programmes de santé du gouvernement dans les marchés développés seraient facturés un montant forfaitaire de 390 $ par flacon pour le médicament. Un traitement de cinq jours utilise six flacons. Aux États-Unis, les assureurs privés seraient facturés 520 $ par flacon, ce qui porterait le coût d'un patient typique à 3 120 $.
La Réserve fédérale des États-Unis a lancé une installation pour acheter une nouvelle dette émise de grandes entreprises, établissant le dernier d'une série de programmes destinés à consolider les marchés financiers pendant la crise des coronavirus. La décision de la Fed intervient malgré la reprise sur les marchés du crédit aux entreprises à la suite du stress qu'ils ont connu au début de la pandémie américaine, ce qui signifie que l'utilisation de la ligne devrait être limitée.
Actions américaines il a fini 1,5 pour cent plus haut lundi, et tous les secteurs se sont terminés en noir. Les industriels ont obtenu les meilleurs résultats, principalement grâce à une hausse de 14,4% du cours des actions de Boeing après que l'avionneur a déclaré qu'il avait reçu l'approbation du régulateur fédéral de l'aviation pour reprendre les vols d'essai de son 737 Max au sol cette semaine.
Jefferies elle dépensera plus d'argent pour acheter ses actions après une augmentation de 90% du revenu d'entreprise du deuxième trimestre, ce qui a aidé la banque d'investissement à publier ses résultats pour le trimestre terminé le 31 mai. Le PDG Rich Handler a déclaré que la société avait obtenu des "résultats remarquables" malgré un "environnement difficile, volatile et triste" et que le conseil d'administration avait autorisé des rachats allant jusqu'à 250 millions de dollars contre une autorisation préalable de rachat jusqu'à 177 millions de dollars.
BP a accepté de vendre son entreprise pétrochimique Ineos pour 5 milliards de dollars, alors que la société d'énergie britannique cherche à renforcer ses résultats et à devenir une entité plus rationalisée sous la direction de son nouveau PDG. BP a annoncé une baisse de 66% de ses bénéfices et une augmentation de sa dette au premier trimestre, la demande de pétrole brut et les prix du pétrole s'étant effondrés.
Entreprise de restauration décontractée britannique Le groupe de restaurants Elle a obtenu l'approbation des créanciers pour réduire considérablement ses opérations. La société a déclaré que 82 pour cent de ses créanciers ont voté en faveur de la restructuration, surmontant l'obstacle de 75 pour cent pour que de telles transactions volontaires avec des sociétés réussissent. Le groupe a annoncé ce mois-ci son intention de fermer 125 de ses restaurants sous-performants, ce qui a principalement affecté la chaîne Frankie & Benny.
européen confiance des entreprises et des consommateurs Il s'est rétabli pour le deuxième mois consécutif en juin, mais reste bien en deçà des creux d'avant la pandémie, selon l'enquête mensuelle de la Commission européenne. L'indicateur du sentiment économique a augmenté de 8,1 points pour s'établir à 74,8 en juin, la plus forte augmentation mensuelle depuis le début de l'enquête en 1961, dans une enquête auprès d'environ 135 000 entreprises et 32 000 consommateurs.
Singapour a commencé à distribuer un un appareil portable pour étendre le suivi des contacts numériques après qu'un nombre insuffisant d'utilisateurs ont téléchargé une application. La cité-État fournit le premier lot d'appareils aux "personnes âgées les plus vulnérables qui ne sont actuellement pas connectées numériquement et qui sont les plus exposées au risque de Covid-19", selon un communiqué du gouvernement. SIngapore espère aider à prévenir de nouvelles flambées après avoir levé progressivement les mesures de fermeture.
La capitale de l'Inde crée une banque pour collecter dons de plasma des patients récupérés de coronavirus, après un petit essai a donné des résultats encourageants. Arvind Kejriwal, ministre en chef du Territoire de la capitale de Delhi, a appelé les survivants du virus à faire un don. "Il est rare que vous puissiez sauver des vies", a-t-il déclaré. Kejriwal a déclaré que la banque de plasma, accessible à tous les hôpitaux de la ville, sera opérationnelle dans deux jours.
Covid-19 prend la direction de la marque de maillots de bain Seafolly
Seafolly, une marque australienne de mode pour les maillots de bain et les vêtements de plage pour les femmes de 45 ans, est tombée sous gestion lundi, dans une autre crise de la vente au détail résultant de la pandémie de coronavirus.
L'administration déclencherait une "vente de processus commerciaux", a déclaré Scott Langdon de KordaMentha, l'administrateur volontaire, dans un communiqué, citant "l'impact financier paralysant de la pandémie de Covid-19".
Il a déclaré que Seafolly continuerait d'exploiter ses 56 magasins en Australie, aux États-Unis, à Singapour et en France. "Compte tenu de la qualité de la marque et de sa réputation, il y aura inévitablement un grand intérêt à acheter l'entreprise", a déclaré Langdon.
Seafolly appartient majoritairement à la société américaine de capital-investissement L Catterton.
Le chef de la Fed affirme que la reprise américaine dépend de la maîtrise de Covid-19
James Politi à Washington
Jay Powell, président de la Réserve fédérale, a déclaré que les États-Unis devront "garder le virus sous contrôle" alors que la plus grande économie du monde commence à se remettre de l'impact de la pandémie de coronavirus.
Dans un témoignage préparé publié avant une audience devant le comité des services financiers de la Chambre mardi, Powell a offert une évaluation plus optimiste de l'état actuel de l'économie qu'il ne l'avait fait auparavant.
"Alors que l'économie rouvre, les données entrantes commencent à refléter une reprise de l'activité économique", a-t-il déclaré. «De nombreuses entreprises ouvrent leurs portes, les recrutements augmentent et les dépenses augmentent. L'emploi a augmenté et les dépenses de consommation ont fortement rebondi en mai. Nous sommes entrés dans une nouvelle phase importante et nous l'avons fait plus tôt que prévu. "
Mais compte tenu des pics inquiétants dans des cas allant de l'Arizona à la Floride en passant par la Californie, il a averti que la maîtrise de l'épidémie devrait rester une priorité. "Si ce rebond de l'activité économique est bienvenu, il présente également de nouveaux défis, notamment la nécessité de garder le virus sous contrôle", a-t-il ajouté.
Malgré la récente amélioration économique, le président de la Fed a toutefois ajouté que la production et l'emploi étaient toujours "bien en deçà de leurs niveaux d'avant la pandémie".
«La voie à suivre pour l'économie est extrêmement incertaine et dépendra largement de notre succès à contenir le virus. Un rétablissement complet est peu probable jusqu'à ce que les gens soient sûrs qu'il est sûr de se réengager dans un large éventail d'activités ", a-t-il déclaré.
Des cas positifs à Los Angeles Covid-19 atteignent un record quotidien
Peter Wells à New York
Les responsables du comté de Los Angeles ont émis un avertissement sérieux après avoir révélé une augmentation record d'une journée du nombre de nouveaux cas de coronavirus dans la région qui a été compté depuis le début de la pandémie à plus de 100 000.
2 903 autres personnes dans le comté ont été testées positives pour Covid-19 au cours de la dernière journée, ont révélé des responsables lundi après-midi.
Le comté a confirmé 100 772 cas de coronavirus depuis la pandémie, plus que tout autre comté des États-Unis.
Aux États-Unis, le taux quotidien de nouveaux cas tombe à nouveau en dessous de 40 000
Peter Wells à New York
Le nombre de nouveaux cas de coronavirus aux États-Unis est tombé en dessous de 40 000 pour la première fois en quatre jours, mais les États de l'ouest et du sud sont restés vigilants et l'Arizona est devenu le dernier à inverser les plans de réouverture.
Selon les données recueillies par le Covid Tracking Project lundi, 36 490 personnes ont été testées positives au cours des dernières 24 heures, contre 42 161 dimanche et un record de près de 44 400 le 26 juin.
La Californie (5 307), la Floride (5 266) et le Texas (4 283) ont connu les augmentations les plus importantes, mais restent en deçà des records établis ces derniers jours, ce qui a incité ces deux derniers à inverser l'état des plans de réouverture économies.
Les chiffres de lundi ont tendance à être inférieurs à ceux des autres jours de la semaine en raison d'un ralentissement des rapports au cours du week-end et augmentent généralement à nouveau mardi.
L'Arizona a signalé 625 nouveaux cas lundi, contre un record de 3 857 dimanche. Le département de la santé de l'État a déclaré que le rapport d'aujourd'hui était incomplet parce qu'un partenaire de laboratoire avait manqué la date limite de soumission des données.
La Géorgie (2207), le Tennessee (2125), l'Alabama (1734), la Caroline du Nord (1342) et la Caroline du Sud (1324) ont complété le groupe d'États pour signaler des augmentations de 1000 ou plus.
Les actions de l'Asie-Pacifique suivent Wall Street à la hausse
Les actions de la région Asie-Pacifique ont augmenté mardi après un rebond à Wall Street au milieu des signes d'une reprise économique et des attentes de l'arrêt des épidémies de coronavirus aux États-Unis.
Topix au Japon a augmenté de 1,4%, Kospi en Corée du Sud a augmenté de 1,4% et le S & P / ASX 200 a gagné 0,3%. Les contrats à terme font grimper le S&P 500 de 0,2%.
La Chine publiera son indice officiel des directeurs des achats manufacturiers pour juin plus tard dans la matinée, donnant de nouvelles indications sur la reprise économique du pays après la pandémie.
Pendant la nuit aux États-Unis, le S&P 500 a ajouté 1,5% aux attentes de nouvelles mesures de relance et après que Gilead Sciences ait décrit le prix de son remdesivir de médicaments antiviraux qui s'est révélé efficace dans le traitement. des patients avec Covid-19.
Jay Powell, président de la Réserve fédérale, a déclaré que la reprise de l'activité économique aux États-Unis posait également le défi de garder le virus sous contrôle.
La production japonaise diminue lorsque le taux de chômage atteint son plus haut niveau en 3 ans
La production industrielle au Japon a chuté en juin et le taux de chômage a augmenté pour atteindre un maximum de trois ans, le pays étant resté en état d'urgence pour contrôler la propagation du coronavirus.
La production industrielle a baissé de 8,4% en glissement mensuel en mai, selon les chiffres préliminaires du ministère japonais de l'économie, du commerce et de l'industrie. La baisse était plus importante que la baisse de 5,6% prévue par les économistes dans un sondage Reuters.
Le ministère a déclaré que la production industrielle "diminuait rapidement" à mesure que la production, les expéditions et les stocks diminuaient. Les véhicules automobiles, les machines de production et le fer et l'acier ont été les principales industries à l'origine de la chute.
Cependant, le ministère prévoit une amélioration pour juin et juillet avec un retour à la croissance.
Le chômage a atteint 2,9% en mai, contre 2,6% le mois précédent et le taux le plus élevé en trois ans.
"Pour l'avenir, la main-d'œuvre devrait continuer d'augmenter au cours des prochains mois, car de nombreux autres qui ont perdu leur emploi pendant l'état d'urgence recommencent à chercher du travail", a déclaré Tom Learmouth, économiste japonais chez Capital Economics.
"Cela devrait porter le taux de chômage à environ 4% d'ici la fin de l'année".
La production sud-coréenne en baisse de 6% malgré l'assouplissement des restrictions
Edward White à Wellington
La production industrielle de la Corée du Sud a continué de baisser en mai malgré le fait que le pays ait assoupli certaines mesures de distanciation sociale ce mois-ci, tandis que les ventes au détail ont rebondi.
La production industrielle a chuté de 5,6% en glissement annuel en mai, selon Statistics Korea, car les principales industries d'exportation, notamment les automobiles et l'électronique, ont dû faire face à une baisse de la demande mondiale.
Un indice de production manufacturière plus étroit a diminué de 9,8% par rapport à l'année précédente.
Les dépenses intérieures ont montré une image plus optimiste, avec un indice des ventes au détail de 1,7% par rapport à mai 2019, un signe positif pour le gouvernement de Séoul, qui a tenté de stimuler les dépenses avec des paiements en espèces sans précédent après une baisse de 6% de la consommation au premier trimestre.
La Banque de Corée prévoit une contraction de 0,2% de la croissance du produit intérieur brut cette année, après une baisse de 1,3% au premier trimestre. Cependant, la plupart des banques et institutions financières internationales prévoient une baisse plus prononcée malgré un record de 230 milliards de dollars de mesures de relance liées au virus.
Les données économiques mitigées surviennent alors que les responsables de la santé restent au bord de nouveaux groupes d'infections à coronavirus à Séoul.
Broadway annule ses performances pour le reste de 2020
Le théâtre de New York restera suspendu pour le reste de l'année, a annoncé lundi une organisation de producteurs, citant les effets de la pandémie de coronavirus.
La Broadway League a annoncé qu'elle offrirait des remboursements et des échanges de billets achetés pour toutes les représentations jusqu'au 3 janvier 2021.
La ligue a déclaré qu'elle travaillait avec les forces de l'ordre et les syndicats pour redémarrer le calendrier, en incorporant des tests, le nettoyage et la recherche de routes à l'intérieur des théâtres pour le public, ainsi que des tests et d'autres protocoles en coulisses pour les acteurs et l'équipe.
Les billets de concerts pour l'hiver et le printemps prochain devraient être mis en vente dans les prochaines semaines, a annoncé la ligue dans un communiqué.
"L'expérience de Broadway peut être profondément personnelle, mais elle est aussi fondamentalement communautaire", a déclaré le président de la ligue, Thomas Schumacher.
Les performances de Broadway ont été suspendues le 12 mars, clôturant 31 productions en cours. Huit autres spectacles de répétition ont été reportés.
Le conseil de Toronto renonce aux tarifs du café en bordure de rue
La plus grande ville du Canada annulera les frais de permis pour les cafés et restaurants sur le trottoir dans le cadre d'un plan visant à stimuler une industrie hôtelière locale sous le coup de la pandémie de coronavirus.
Le conseil municipal de Toronto a approuvé lundi un plan visant à fournir davantage de salles à manger extérieures pour aider certains restaurants, cafés et bars à créer une distance physique pour les clients pendant les mois d'été.
Le conseil a déclaré qu'il simplifierait les processus de demande et exempterait les propriétaires de cafés d'installer des chaises et des tables dans les zones piétonnes et dans les ruelles les plus proches des trottoirs.
La NZ détecte 2 nouveaux cas dans les arrivées à l'étranger
La Nouvelle-Zélande a annoncé lundi deux nouveaux cas de coronavirus, tous deux des passagers entrants qui avaient été mis en quarantaine, selon le ministère de la Santé.
Un cas était un homme dans la cinquantaine qui est arrivé à Auckland sur un vol d'Air India depuis Mumbai le 24 juin. La seconde était une femme dans la vingtaine qui est arrivée à bord d'un vol Air New Zealand depuis Los Angeles le 18 juin.
"Globalement, la pandémie de Covid-19 continue de s'accélérer et de nouveaux cas sont toujours attendus à notre frontière", a indiqué le ministère dans un communiqué.
L'épidémie de Melbourne n'est pas une deuxième vague, selon une infirmière en chef
L'infirmière australienne a déclaré que l'épidémie était concentrée sur Melbourne, la deuxième ville du pays, sans être traitée comme une deuxième vague.
«Je tiens à assurer à tous les Australiens que, même si nous sommes très préoccupés par ce que nous voyons à Victoria, nous avons une épidémie dans une partie de la ville, dans un État du pays», a déclaré Alison McMillan, infirmière en chef. L'Australie et une sage-femme ont déclaré lundi.
Sur les 85 cas enregistrés en Australie lundi, 75 sont survenus à Victoria, dont Melbourne est la capitale.
"Une deuxième vague n'est pas une chose facile à décrire, mais nous espérons dire où nous pourrions voir une plus grande diffusion de la diffusion communautaire à travers le pays", a déclaré McMillan.
"Le label est moins important que les actions que nous entreprenons, et les actions que nous menons sont vraiment positives pour contenir la plus large diffusion", a-t-il ajouté.
La Chine signale 7 nouveaux cas de coronavirus à Pékin
Les autorités sanitaires ont signalé sept nouveaux cas de coronavirus à Pékin jusqu'à la fin de lundi, alors que la capitale chinoise s'efforce de contrôler une épidémie découverte début juin.
Les nouveaux cas portent à 325 le nombre total d'épidémies liées à un marché alimentaire de gros.
Vingt-sept autres personnes ont été testées positives pour le virus mais ne présentent aucun symptôme de Covid-19. La Chine n'inclut pas les cas asymptomatiques dans son décompte officiel.
Les autorités ont également signalé 11 infections importées et un cas de Covid-19 à Shanghai.
La Chine a signalé 83 531 cas de Covid-19 et 4 634 décès.
Lululemon achète un miroir de démarrage de fitness tech pour 500 millions de dollars
Alistair Gray à Londres et Miles Kruppa à San Francisco
Lululemon, le spécialiste des vêtements de yoga, a accepté de payer 500 millions de dollars pour acheter Mirror, une société d'équipement de formation à domicile soutenue par le gestionnaire de fonds spéculatifs Steve Cohen.
Mirror, qui a été fondée il y a quatre ans par un ancien danseur de ballet professionnel, vend des présentoirs muraux connectés à Internet pour 1 495 $ chacun avant taxes, plus une cotisation mensuelle de 39 $, et est devenu une alternative populaire au gymnase parmi les consommateurs aisés
L'acquisition de la startup basée à New York montre que l'appétit pour faire des affaires persiste dans certaines salles de réunion des entreprises, même si l'inquiétude grandit à propos d'une augmentation des infections à coronavirus aux États-Unis.
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Les enseignants et les étudiants de Singapour sont négatifs
Le ministère singapourien de la Santé a déclaré lundi que les enseignants et les étudiants d'un lycée où un étudiant avait enregistré un test positif pour Covid-19 étaient exempts du virus.
Dimanche, le ministère a déclaré qu'un étudiant de 15 ans de l'East Spring Secondary School, une école secondaire du gouvernement dans le quartier de Tampines, avait été testé positif pour Covid-19.
Par mesure de précaution, 39 étudiants et 11 contacts avec le personnel ont été évalués et tous les résultats étaient négatifs.
Le secteur manufacturier chinois se développe en juin
Le secteur manufacturier chinois s'est développé en juin à un rythme plus rapide que prévu, grâce à une production accrue et à de nouvelles commandes alors que l'économie se remet de la pandémie de coronavirus.
L'indice officiel des directeurs des achats des fabricants est passé à 50,9, contre 50,6 en mai, selon le Bureau national des statistiques. Le niveau de 50 points sépare l'expansion de la contraction.
Les économistes interrogés par Reuters avaient prévu une lecture de 50,4.
Le PMI manufacturier de la Chine est tombé à un creux record de 35,7 en février en raison de mesures strictes pour contrôler l'épidémie.
Le PMI non manufacturier a augmenté à 54,4, le secteur des services affichant une image améliorée avec une lecture de 53,4 contre 52,3 en mai.
Les actions mondiales augmentent alors que les investisseurs secouent les inquiétudes américaines face aux flambées.
Hudson Lockett à Hong Kong
Les stocks mondiaux ont augmenté, car les investisseurs ont exprimé leur inquiétude face aux nouvelles flambées de coronavirus aux États-Unis, alors même que l'Arizona est devenu le dernier État à inverser sa réouverture économique dans un contexte de forte augmentation des nouveaux stocks. cas.
L'indice de référence japonais Topix a augmenté de 1,2%, tandis que l'Australie S & P / ASX 200 a augmenté de 1,3%. L'indice chinois CSI 300 des actions cotées à Shanghai et Shenzhen a augmenté de 0,8%, tandis que le Hang Seng de Hong Kong a augmenté de 0,9%.
Ces gains sont survenus juste après une journée solide pour les actions américaines, le S&P 500 clôturant à 1,5% à Wall Street, alors que les acteurs du marché pariaient que la vague d'épidémies dans les premiers États pour inverser la tendance. des mesures de blocage pourraient être contenues.
Le nombre de nouveaux cas aux États-Unis est tombé en dessous de 40 000 pour la première fois en quatre jours lundi, mais les États de l'ouest et du sud des États-Unis sont restés en état d'alerte lorsque l'Arizona a rejoint le Texas et La Floride cesse de rouvrir ses plans.
Les actions chinoises ont également été dopées par une reprise de l'activité dans les usines du pays, l'indice officiel des directeurs des achats manufacturiers de juin dépassant les attentes de la plupart des économistes.
L'Ethiopie remercie le programme d'approvisionnement en eau pour atténuer la propagation de Covid-19
Le programme quinquennal éthiopien de construction d'infrastructures hydrauliques rurales a porté ses fruits en améliorant l'hygiène personnelle pendant la pandémie de Covid-19, a déclaré lundi un responsable.
Le programme, connu sous le nom de One WASH, "n'a pas prévu la pandémie de Covid-19, mais nous a préparés à mieux lutter contre la pandémie … en particulier dans les communautés rurales mal desservies", a déclaré Beshah Mogesse, chef de la Commission pour le développement de la Eau d'Ethiopie. .
De plus en plus d'Éthiopiens sont désormais en mesure d'observer des mesures préventives pour le lavage des mains et l'hygiène générale, a déclaré M. Mogesse dans un article de blog sur le site Web de la Banque africaine de développement, qui cofinance le programme.
Le projet de 178 millions de dollars a financé la construction de nouvelles infrastructures et la réparation d'équipements désaffectés, tels que des stations de pompage et des pipelines, et a également fourni une formation technique au personnel de maintenance.
Le pays a lancé la première phase quinquennale de One WASH en 2014 et avait bénéficié à environ 4,3 millions de personnes à la fin de celui-ci en 2019, ont indiqué les autorités.
Mogesse a déclaré que le projet était devenu un outil clé dans les efforts du pays pour lutter contre la pandémie de coronavirus.
La Nouvelle-Zélande transfère la réunion d'Apec sur une plateforme numérique
Le gouvernement néo-zélandais a annoncé mardi que le forum de coopération économique Asie-Pacifique prévu pour Auckland en 2021 se déplacera en ligne en raison de la pandémie de coronavirus.
Alors que les dirigeants du forum Apec, composé de 21 membres, ne devaient pas se réunir avant novembre 2021, de nombreux autres événements avaient été planifiés auparavant.
Le Premier ministre néo-zélandais Jacinda Ardern a déclaré qu'il y avait "trop d'incertitude quant à la possibilité de rencontres en face à face".
Mme Ardern, photographiée en visite dans une station de ski qui a rouvert vendredi, a déclaré qu'il y aurait également des économies importantes grâce à une conférence numérique.
"Nous allons planifier la réunion virtuelle", a-t-il déclaré. "Nous n'avons pas le coût supplémentaire et l'incertitude supplémentaire que Covid-19 apporte."
Under Armour se retire des offres sportives des collèges américains
Sara Germano à New York
Under Armour a souligné les défis que la pandémie de coronavirus a posés aux sports universitaires américains, alors que la société de vêtements de sport a décidé de finaliser des accords d'équipement avec deux centaines de millions de dollars de programmes universitaires.
Les accords avec l'Université de Californie à Los Angeles et l'Université de Californie à Berkeley ont fait partie d'une campagne de marketing Under Armour au cours des dernières années pour fournir aux universités un mélange d'argent et de produits en échange du droit d'équiper votre sport. équipes
Cependant, l'épidémie de Covid-19 a détruit le sport à l'échelle mondiale et a stoppé le secteur collégial américain de 8 milliards de dollars. Les deux universités ont déclaré qu'elles contesteraient la décision d'Under Armour de mettre fin aux accords.
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L'Inde donne le feu vert aux essais sur l'homme d'un vaccin fait maison
Benjamin Parkin à New Delhi
Les autorités indiennes ont donné leur feu vert pour tester un vaccin candidat Covid-19 développé localement chez l'homme, le premier du pays.
Bharat Biotech, basée à Hyderabad, a déclaré que le régulateur indien des médicaments avait approuvé son candidat vaccin, Covaxin, pour des essais humains qui devraient commencer le mois prochain.
Le vaccin a été développé avec le Conseil indien pour la recherche médicale, administré par le gouvernement.
La première injection de l'Inde dans son propre vaccin intervient alors que la charge de coronavirus du pays augmente, avec le nombre d'infections confirmées traversant un demi-million et les patients malades écrasant les hôpitaux dans les grandes villes comme Delhi et Mumbai.
Uber en pourparlers pour acheter la livraison de nourriture
James Fontanella-Khan à New York et Miles Kruppa et Dave Lee à San Francisco
Uber prépare une offre d'achat de Postmates, une nouvelle entreprise de livraison de nourriture, des semaines après sa défaite dans une course pour acquérir un plus grand rival, Grubhub, selon des personnes informées à ce sujet.
Un lien entre Uber et Postmates accélérerait la consolidation tant attendue du marché américain de la livraison de nourriture, causant de lourdes pertes. La demande a augmenté car les blocs de coronavirus ont amené les gens à se tourner vers des applications de nourriture et de livraison en ligne.
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Le gestionnaire de fonds de couverture américain derrière le traitement à long terme
David Crow à New York
Un médicament expérimental développé par une petite société de biotechnologie basée à Miami offre un aperçu d'espoir en temps de crise.
La pilule biquotidienne pourrait être prescrite à quelqu'un dès qu'il est positif pour le coronavirus, attaquant la maladie avant de tomber gravement malade.
Comme tous les médicaments à un stade précoce, c'est loin, mais si le médicament, nommé EIDD-2801, fonctionne, ce serait une grande réussite pour Wayne et Wendy Holman, l'équipe de mari et femme derrière Ridgeback Biotherapeutics. .
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L'Écosse approuve un essai de thérapie par coronavirus à cellules T
Mure Dickie à Édimbourg
Une société de biotechnologie écossaise a été approuvée pour commencer les essais d'une thérapie innovante à base de cellules T qui pourrait transformer le traitement des coronavirus en stimulant le système immunitaire avant que des soins intensifs ne soient nécessaires.
Les essais d'Edimbourg mettent en évidence un intérêt international croissant pour le rôle dans la lutte contre les infections virales par les cellules T, un élément clé des défenses de l'organisme qui ciblent les cellules infectées ou cancéreuses.
TC BioPharm, une société de biotechnologie privée, a déclaré qu'elle avait développé une méthode pour cultiver de grandes quantités de cellules T à partir de donneurs sains et qu'elle serait donnée aux patients atteints de coronavirus, qui avaient souvent de faibles niveaux de cellules T.
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Une épidémie à Melbourne attribuée à une violation de quarantaine dans un hôtel
Les échecs d'un régime de quarantaine hôtelière ont contribué à une épidémie de coronavirus dans le deuxième État le plus peuplé d'Australie, a annoncé mardi le gouvernement.
"Victoria connaît une importante émission communautaire", a déclaré le Premier ministre, Daniel Andrews, dans un communiqué.
Il a déclaré que plusieurs cas détectés en mai et juin pouvaient être attribués à une violation du contrôle des infections dans le système de quarantaine des hôtels de l'État.
Sur les 85 cas enregistrés en Australie lundi, 75 sont survenus à Victoria, dont Melbourne est la capitale.
Andrews a déclaré qu'il avait ordonné une enquête sur le viol, menée par un juge à la retraite.
Pendant ce temps, a-t-il dit, les gens seraient détournés vers d'autres villes, ajoutant que 10 banlieues de Melbourne seraient soumises à des restrictions plus strictes.
D'autres États évitent Victoria en rouvrant les frontières.
Le Premier ministre du Queensland, Annastacia Palaszczuk, a déclaré que quiconque ayant voyagé depuis Victoria, y compris les résidents du Queensland, ne pourra pas entrer dans l'État lors de la réouverture des frontières le 10 juillet.
"Nous ne pouvons pas risquer de supprimer nos restrictions frontalières pour les personnes venant des régions de Victoria en ce moment", a-t-il déclaré mardi.
Covid-19 retarde le lancement de la blockchain ASX
Jamie Smyth à Sydney
La plus grande bourse d'Australie a retardé son ambitieux plan d'utilisation de la technologie blockchain pour liquider et liquider les opérations sur actions jusqu'en avril 2022 en raison de Covid-19 et des inquiétudes de certains utilisateurs concernant les implications du lancement.
La nueva fecha objetivo de ASX para lanzarse es 12 meses después de lo programado anteriormente, lo que según el intercambio proporcionaría tiempo adicional para que los usuarios se adapten a la luz de la pandemia y le permita acomodar los cambios de funcionalidad solicitados por los usuarios.
"Hemos escuchado las diversas opiniones de las partes interesadas y hemos recibido comentarios sobre el tiempo, la preparación del usuario y los cambios en la funcionalidad", dijo Peter Hiom, director ejecutivo adjunto de ASX.
Dijo que ASX seguía comprometido con el proyecto, y señaló cómo los volúmenes comerciales récord en marzo durante el brote inicial de Covid-19 en Australia tensaron el sistema de compensación y liquidación de ajedrez existente.
"El reciente período de actividad comercial y volatilidad récord, y la prevalencia de procesos manuales y en papel en muchas oficinas administrativas de la industria, han subrayado por qué la implementación de la próxima generación de tecnología para apoyar la digitalización del mercado de valores de Australia es un prioridad."
Varios usuarios del sistema de compensación y liquidación han expresado su preocupación a ASX sobre su plan para reemplazar su sistema de ajedrez existente con la llamada tecnología de contabilidad distribuida, que sustenta Bitcoin y otras monedas digitales.
Dijeron que no se les había dado la información técnica, operativa y reglamentaria necesaria sobre cómo funcionaría el nuevo sistema o las tarifas que cobraría el ASX por los servicios existentes y nuevos.
Computershare, que mantiene un registro de propiedad legal de acciones y distribuye dividendos corporativos para inversores, dijo al FT que le preocupaba que ASX pudiera usar la revisión tecnológica para extender su dominio en la compensación y liquidación en otros mercados, incluidos los servicios de registro de acciones.
Dijo que se requería un retraso hasta abril de 2023 para abordar los riesgos del proyecto, particularmente a la luz de las complicaciones introducidas por la pandemia de Covid-19.
El PIB del Reino Unido se contrae un 2,2% en el primer trimestre
Valentina Romei en Londres
La economía del Reino Unido registró su mayor caída en el primer trimestre desde 1979, disminuyendo en más de las estimaciones anteriores a medida que la crisis de coronavirus asfixió la actividad en marzo.
La producción en el Reino Unido cayó un 2,2 por ciento en los primeros tres meses del año en comparación con el trimestre anterior, dijo la Oficina de Estadísticas Nacionales. Esta es una contracción más aguda que las estimaciones iniciales del 2 por ciento. La caída es ahora la mayor caída conjunta del producto interno bruto del Reino Unido desde 1979.
"Nuestra imagen más detallada de la economía en el primer trimestre mostró que el PIB se redujo un poco más de lo estimado", dijo Jonathan Athow, estadístico nacional adjunto de la ONS. "Todos los principales sectores de la economía se redujeron significativamente en marzo a medida que los efectos de la pandemia golpearon … La fuerte caída en el gasto del consumidor a fines de marzo condujo a un notable aumento en los ahorros de los hogares".
La revisión fue impulsada en gran medida por el consumo de los hogares, que disminuyó un 2,9 por ciento en el primer trimestre, 1,2 puntos porcentuales menos que las estimaciones para ese período de tiempo.
Con el gasto limitado por las restricciones a medida que la economía comenzó a bloquearse para frenar la propagación de la pandemia, la tasa de ahorro de los hogares aumentó al 8,6 por ciento en el primer trimestre, frente al 6,6 por ciento en el trimestre anterior.
El ONS ha publicado las primeras estimaciones del PIB mensual en abril, que mostró una caída del 20,4 por ciento, la mayor contracción desde que comenzaron los registros mensuales en 1997 y sigue a una contracción del 5,8 por ciento en marzo, la caída récord anterior.
Desde entonces, el sentimiento económico y los datos de ventas minoristas mostraron una mejora que refleja la reapertura gradual de la economía.
La pandemia ha dificultado la producción de datos económicos estándar y las estimaciones del PIB han sido objeto de grandes revisiones en todas las principales economías.
Shell advierte sobre el impacto de hasta $ 22 mil millones en activos por caída del precio del petróleo
Anjli Raval, corresponsal senior de energía
Royal Dutch Shell recortará hasta $ 22 mil millones del valor de sus activos, ya que el principal petrolero advirtió que el coronavirus dará un golpe duradero a la demanda de productos energéticos y la economía global.
El grupo angloholandés recortó el martes las perspectivas de los precios del petróleo y el gas, ya que prometió "adaptarse para garantizar que el negocio siga siendo resistente".
La compañía dijo que, como resultado, pronostica cargos por deterioro después de impuestos, no monetarios, en el rango de $ 15 mil millones a $ 22 mil millones en el segundo trimestre. Esto aumentará el engranaje del grupo en un 3 por ciento.
La medida de Shell sigue a un anuncio similar de BP este mes, lo que indica una creciente conciencia entre las compañías más grandes de la industria de que decenas de miles de millones de dólares en activos podrían volverse poco rentables.
Resumen de noticias corporativas del Reino Unido
Constructor Redrow planea reducir las operaciones en Londres para enfocarse en negocios regionales más rentables en las expectativas de que los compradores de casas post-pandemia quieran más espacio interior y exterior, parques cercanos y una buena oficina en casa. It will provide impairment charges associated with the scaling back of its London business in its accounts for June.
Royal Dutch Shell will wipe off up to $22bn from the value of its assets as the energy major cuts its oil and gas price outlook, predicting the coronavirus pandemic will have a lasting impact on demand for energy products and the global economy.
Cineworld expects to reopen its cinemas in the UK and the US on July 31 to align with recent adjustments to the schedule of movies to be released. It is more than two weeks later than the date from which the UK government allows cinemas to reopen. Cineworld had planned to reopen in England by July 10.
InterContinental Hotels Group, which owns the Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn brands, reported that revenue per average room was down 70 per cent in June, an improvement from the 82 per cent decline in April. Only 10 per cent of its hotels remain shut, IHG added.
Engineering conglomerate Smiths Group, which makes ventilators for the UK government, will restructure its business at a cash cost of £65m until the end of the next financial year for an annualised gain of £70m each year from 2022. Underlying revenue for the group was up 1 per cent in the period from February to May, helped by the pandemic driving increased critical care demand. The tailing off of non-coronavirus procedures held back revenues as the year progressed.
Package holiday provider On the Beach reported a £34.1m loss in the first half, after revenue dropped 66 per cent due to cancellations and a steep drop in demand for travel as the pandemic hit Europe.
Standard Life Aberdeen has appointed Stephen Bird to take over as chief executive from Keith Skeoch, who oversaw a 2017 merger that created the UK’s largest asset manager, valued at more than £11bn. The company has a current market capitalisation of £6.3bn.
Stocks mixed as traders assess upbeat China factory data
Global equities wavered on Tuesday as investors weighed upbeat data on China’s vast manufacturing sector.
European bourses hovered in a tight range leaving the continent-wide Stoxx 600 up 0.1 per cent in early dealings. London’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.3 per cent, with Wall Street’s S&P 500 futures off by a similar margin.
Royal Dutch Shell shares slipped about 2 per cent in London trading after the oil major said it would cut $22bn from the value of its assets, blaming the likely long-term impact of the pandemic on energy demand.
But investor sentiment overall was buoyed by a pick-up in activity at China’s factories, with the official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index beating economists’ predictions in June. Asian stocks were broadly higher following the news.
“The increase in PMI is consistent with a further expansion in industrial production in June in contrast with other countries in Asia,” said Mitul Kotecha, an emerging market strategist at TD Securities.
Traders cited an easing in the increase in US cases as a factor that bolstered market confidence, particularly on Wall Street, where the S&P 500 rallied 1.5 per cent on Monday.
French consumers splash out again on cars, shoes and furniture
Martin Arnold in Frankfurt
French people opened their wallets again in May, prompting consumer spending on goods to rise by 36.6 per cent as the country eased its coronavirus restrictions and shoppers returned to shoe shops, car showrooms and furniture outlets.
Household spending on transport equipment, such as cars, bicycles and trailers, more than trebled month-on-month, as did purchases of leather goods such as shoes and handbags, while sales of household durables such as furniture more than doubled.
The rebound in French household spending on goods in May followed two months of sharp declines as the strict lockdown imposed in March dragged the economy into a record postwar recession.
Overall household spending on goods remains 7.2 per cent below the pre-pandemic level of February, France’s national statistics office said on Tuesday, indicating that the economy still has some way to go before it returns to a normal level of consumer activity.
Falling prices of manufactured goods contributed to sharp drop in French inflation, which fell from 0.4 per cent in May to 0.1 per cent in June. Price growth slowed for services and food, while the fall in energy prices was slower in June and tobacco prices kept rising sharply.
High-frequency data indicators such as footfall and consumer spending suggest that the economic improvement across Europe is patchy and limited by social-distancing measures.
Visits to home furnishings and motor websites in June were running above last year’s levels across France, Germany and the UK, suggesting that consumers have become more interested in spending again.
But all major European shopping centres are still seeing footfall levels which are well under the norm, according to Financial Times analysis of Google Maps data. Cinemas are only just starting to reopen across Europe, while airline travel and hotel bookings are up slightly but remain far below pre-pandemic levels.
German restaurant visits approach pre-pandemic levels
German diners are showing a healthy appetite for eating out again as about a month into restaurants reopening in Europe's largest economy visits have almost returned to pre-coronavirus crisis levels.
On average over the past seven days, the number of diners was 2 per cent lower than a year ago, an analysis from Commerzbank of OpenTable figures shows, indicating that Germany will probably recover from the pandemic halt on its economy swifter than the rest of Europe.
The number of shoppers declined 10 per cent compared with the start of the year, Google data show, although public transport looks likely to take longer to recover to pre-pandemic levels.
Among countries in which OpenTable operates at scale, Australia is the only other one to stage a recovery in restaurant bookings and visits, while activity in the UK, the US, Mexico, Canada and Ireland remains subdued.
Start-up launches Japan's first clinical vaccine trials
Kana Inagaki in Tokyo
Biotech start-up AnGes has launched Japan’s first clinical trial in a government-backed effort to develop a homegrown coronavirus vaccine.
In a statement on Tuesday, AnGes said 30 people would be given the vaccine, which was developed jointly with Osaka University. The trial is expected to be completed by the end of July before being expanded later in the year.
The biotech group is developing a vaccine using DNA technology, a method that could yield quicker results and is said to be easier to mass produce than traditional vaccines. But DNA vaccines have yet to be approved for use in humans.
More than 100 coronavirus vaccines are in development worldwide as countries aim to reactivate their economies while preparing for the next wave of infections.
Deaths in England and Wales fall below 5-year average
Chris Giles and Naomi Rovnick in London
The number of deaths in England and Wales has fallen below the five-year average for the first time since March, the national statistics authority has said.
In the week to June 19, there were 9,339 deaths in the two UK nations, according to the Office for National Statistics.
This was 0.7 per cent below the five-year average, which is the first time this has happened since the week to March 13, just days before the government implemented strict lockdown measures, the ONS said.
The number of deaths in care homes and hospitals was also lower than the five-year average, although deaths at home were slightly higher.
The figures could provide a welcome boost for policymakers ahead of pubs, hotels and hairdressers being permitted to reopen on July 4.
But England's coronavirus transmission rate, measured by the R number that tracks how many people one person with the virus infects, remains at 0.7 to 0.9, according to the latest official figures. The government has also shown willingness to reinstate lockdowns in areas of high transmission, having just done so in the east Midlands city of Leicester.
The total level of excess deaths in the pandemic period across the whole of the UK stands at 65,243, just under one in every thousand people.
This number of excess death registrations is likely to be a modest underestimate of the number of excess deaths that occurred because there have been delays in registering deaths, especially when they have needed to go to coroners before registration.
But figures on death occurrences will not be complete until much later in 2020.
Eurozone inflation rebounds from 4-year low as energy prices rise
Martin Arnold in Frankfurt
Inflation in the eurozone accelerated more than most economists expected to a 0.3 per cent rate in June, as energy prices rebounded from recent lows and the price of food and industrial goods fell.
While price growth has rebounded from the four-year low of 0.1 per cent in May, it remains well below the European Central Bank’s core target of below but close to 2 per cent, indicating that its monetary stimulus is unlikely to end anytime soon.
Most economists believe prices are more likely to fall than to rise in the coming months even as the eurozone starts to recover from the record postwar recession caused by coronavirus lockdowns while central banks have flooded the economy with cheap money.
“Currently, inflation is influenced by two opposing factors,” said Christoph Weil, economist at Commerzbank. “On the one hand, supply bottlenecks caused by broken supply chains are driving up the prices of individual goods. On the other hand, weak demand is reducing companies' scope for pricing. Overall, the latter effect is currently dominating.”
Rebounding energy prices were the main reason for the rise in the inflation rate from 0.1 per cent in May to 0.3 per cent in June. Excluding energy, food, alcohol and tobacco, core inflation dipped from 0.9 per cent to 0.8 per cent. Analysts polled by Reuters had on average expected inflation in June of 0.2 per cent and core inflation of 0.8 per cent.
Germany’s plan to cut value added tax rates temporarily this year are expected to put further downward pressure on eurozone price growth in the second half of this year.
Isabel Schnabel, an ECB executive director, said in a speech at the weekend: “Inflation could remain at close to 0 per cent well into the next year, and even negative inflation rates are possible.”
Statistics authorities have warned that there is more uncertainty than usual over inflation data because of sharp falls in spending in certain areas, such as holidays, travel and entertainment and the difficulty of doing face-to-face surveys to collect price data during lockdowns.
Johnson outlines plan to 'build back better' from pandemic
The UK prime minister has unveiled plans to accelerate billions of pounds of infrastructure projects in the UK, saying that the coronavirus pandemic offers an opportunity “to be radical”.
The crisis is the moment to “build back better and to build back bolder”, Boris Johnson said in his first major speech to chart a course for recovery from the Covid-19 crisis.
“We cannot continue simply to be prisoners of this crisis,” he said. Mr Johnson was speaking in Dudley, a little over 40 miles from Leicester, which was put into the UK's first local lockdown this week to control a flare-up in coronavirus infections.
Among the projects mentioned, the prime minister said the government would invest in roads and rail projects, new homes, a school building programme and invest in towns “that felt left behind” including green buses and broadband.
But the FT has reported that the announcements will not mean a new stimulus for the economy, as they represent part of the money set aside for capital projects in this year’s Budget. Rishi Sunak, chancellor, will make a summer statement next week that will consider targeted measures for a stimulus.
The prime minister rooted his speech in the government’s plan to “level up” the economy and helping “neglected” and “unloved” parts of the country.
If we are to recover fully, if we are to deal with the coming economic aftershock then this Covid crisis is also the moment to address the problems in our country that we have failed to tackle for decades.
Jon Hart, an infrastructure partner at law firm Pinsent Masons, said:
These are big commitments with, on the face of it, some eye-catching procurement opportunities. There simply aren’t enough ‘shovel ready’ projects out there and it remains to be seen what this announcement will mean in practice.
You can read more on how Mr Johnson's big relaunch was overshadowed by events in Leicester here.
Lockdown easing reversed or postponed for 40% of US population
Lockdowns are tightening or their easing is on hold for about 40 per cent of the US population, as the world’s largest economy experiences a surge in virus cases after loosening restrictions.
More than a quarter of states in terms of population have begun tightening lockdown restrictions — which is likely to be higher after Arizona became the latest state on Monday to put its economy reopening in reverse — analysis by Goldman Sachs shows. Florida, Texas and California have also wound back restrictions on activity based on the investment bank’s standard.
Meanwhile, nine states including Nevada and Arkansas have postponed or put their lockdown on hold indefinitely, said Blake Taylor, an economist at Goldman. Some states moved to pause their reopening preemptively on Monday: New Jersey halted plans to allow indoor dining in restaurants and New York is weighing a similar pause.
None of South Carolina, Mississippi, and Georgia is meeting any of the federal criteria for reopening, such as the absence of crisis care at hospitals and a 14-day downward trajectory of symptoms and cases, Mr Taylor added.
Johnson pledges 8-year £12bn housebuilding plans
Jim Pickard in London
Boris Johnson has promised the most radical planning changes since the second world war but the property world will have to wait until later in July for the full details.
The UK prime minister outlined – in a press release – an eight-year £12bn affordable homes programme, pledged yet another review of government land and promised new regulations to allow the change of use of buildings without planning permission.
However he did not mention any of this in the speech he gave this morning in Dudley, about 40 miles from Leicester, which prompted the UK's first local lockdown after its coronavirus case count sparked a fresh outbreak .
In the written statement he vowed to give “total flexibility” for buildings to change use – for example from shops to homes – through reform of the “Use Classes Order” by September. Builders would no longer need a normal planning application to demolish and rebuild vacant buildings and turn them into homes.
In reality, however, the government has already made it easier to turn offices and shops into housing without full-scale planning permission through another device called a “permitted development right”.
The prime minister said his new “policy paper” sets out his strategy for “comprehensive” reform of England’s planning system.
More than 1m British businesses borrow £43bn via government schemes
Daniel Thomas in London
More than a million businesses have now been supported through the three government-backed coronavirus lending schemes, according to Treasury figures that show the scale of the problems caused by the pandemic for companies in the UK.
In just over three months, British businesses have borrowed almost £43bn from banks using bailout schemes that are mostly or entirely guaranteed by the government. The majority of this — at £29.5bn — has been lent under through the 'bounce back’ scheme, which offers loans with only light touch credit checks on borrowers among the UK’s smallest firms.
The latest figures suggest that one in six of the UK’s 5.9m private sector businesses have used one of the coronavirus lending schemes, according to UK Finance, which represents the banking industry.
The huge debts being taken by British businesses during the lockdown have sparked worries about whether these loans will be paid back as the economy gradually recovers from the pandemic.
The number of facilities approved solely under the three schemes is about 14 times higher than the average quarterly total of loans and overdrafts provided to SMEs in previous years.
UK museums and galleries outline plans for reopening next month
James Pickford in London
Museums and galleries across the UK on Tuesday unveiled their plans to reopen their doors to visitors as parts of Britain’s cultural sector emerge from lockdown.
Among the first to reopen are the National Gallery and the Royal Academy of Arts on July 8 and 9. The Whitechapel Gallery will open its doors on July 14, while Turner Contemporary in Margate will welcome visitors on July 22. Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Tate St Ives and Tate Liverpool will open on July 27.
Institutions will open under tightly controlled conditions, with most requiring timed entry booked online ahead of a visit, one-way systems with staff monitoring the flow of visitors, free masks and hand sanitizer, and transparent screens to protect front of house staff. Face coverings will be compulsory at the RA and recommended at the National Gallery.
Museums have had to adjust their exhibition programmes, which are typically arranged years in advance, postponing many shows until 2021 to manage the constraints of post-lockdown reopening.
Tate Modern, which had displayed Fons Americanus by Kara Walker, the “counter-memorial” to slavery, in its Turbine Hall as pictured above, was to have demolished and recycled the 13m tall sculpture in April. It will reopen with the monumental work.
Some big regional institutions, such as the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, the Ashmolean in Oxford and Manchester’s Whitworth gallery, will reopen in mid-August.
India extends emergency food support for hundreds of millions
Amy Kazmin in New Delhi
New Delhi will spend $12bn to provide free food grains to an estimated 800m Indians for another five months, as it seeks to avert the spectre of mass hunger as its economy languishes due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The move marks the extension of a three-month free-food support scheme that the government unveiled just days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi imposed one of the world’s most draconian coronavirus lockdowns, which resulted in an estimated 140m people losing their jobs overnight.
India’s lockdown has since eased. But with the coronavirus still spreading rapidly through the population, India’s economy is unlikely to rebound quickly, with many economists forecasting a contraction of about 5 percent this year.
Activists have raised the spectre of mass hunger among vulnerable families who have lost virtually all sources of income as a result of the lockdown, and have little prospect of finding new jobs amid the downturn.
However, New Delhi will continue to provide 5 kgs of free wheat or rice each month to 800m people through November, which will see many families though the peak festival season. Vulnerable families will also be given 1 kg of chickpeas each month as a source of protein.
India’s coronavirus caseload has surged to almost 570,000 confirmed cases, with the detection of almost 19,000 new case a day. Of those known to have been infected, almost 17,000 have died.
Leicester mayor sends out plea for help from government
The mayor of Leicester has urged fellow residents to stay at home and demanded government help as the city comes under "special restrictions" due to a revived coronavirus outbreak.
Peter Soulsby, mayor of the East Midlands city that has become the first local area to have a reinforced lockdown in the UK, said that local authorities, with help from the government, will need to discover where the virus is concentrated in the city and take measures to stop the spread of the virus.
The government has promised more testing, which in the past has been "patchy" and "certainly not systematic", Sir Peter said.
Leicester, about 100 miles north of London, was put under lockdown again last night after reports of a fresh outbreak of coronavirus. England is gradually reopening its economy, with the promise of restaurants, pubs, bars and hair salons being open for business on Saturday.
“With these new measures we can get on top of whatever it is out there very quickly," Sir Peter said in a briefing in Leicester on Tuesday." We hope that this is something we will now be able to ensure to put behind us as a city."
The city needed some "dramatic intervention" rather than continuing the status quo, he said. He added that he had received more detailed analysis that he wishes he had had "a long time ago".
He said: "I am very very concerned obviously about the impact of the wellbeing of the city, and the health of the city, but also about the economy of the city."
If Leicester is to be locked down and "in limbo" longer, he said, "we will need some support" from the government.
Chief BoE economist signals inflation fears as he hails rapid recovery
Chris Giles in London
The UK economy is recovering much faster than the Bank of England had expected, the central bank's chief economist said, casting doubt on the need for further stimulus.
The recovery is “so far, so-V (shaped)”, Andy Haldane said on Tuesday, explaining that he voted against pumping another £100bn of newly created money into the economy because the “upside news on demand had outweighed the other negative news on the outlook”.
Mr Haldane’s speech laid bare the tensions within the BoE between a desire to help the government in its drive to support the economy and protect jobs and its mandate to keep inflation under control.
In a minority of one on the nine-strong Monetary Policy Committee in its June meeting, Mr Haldane said the emerging data showing the deepest recession in many hundreds of years was “ancient history”.
He was concentrating on indicators that showed the recovery was significantly faster than the BoE had expected in its most recent forecast from May.
Women most affected by pandemic’s economic impact and care burden
Delphine Strauss in London
The coronavirus pandemic and its economic consequences threaten to wipe out progress on gender equality at work as women are at greater risk of losing their job, more likely to be exposed to infection and take on more of the burden of unpaid care, the International Labour Organization has said.
The UN agency on Tuesday increased its estimate of global working hours lost to the pandemic, largely due to the worsening health situation and economic conditions in the Americas.
Global working hours were 14 per cent lower in the second quarter than in the last quarter of 2019, the ILO said on Tuesday, which is equivalent to a loss of 400m full-time jobs. Workers in developing countries with high levels of informal employment were being hit much harder than in previous crises, the agency said.
Women faced a disproportionate impact: the decline in female employment in April and May was steeper than it was for men in countries where data were available, it said.
“We fear that the progress, modest as it has been, in gender equality . . . runs the risk of being reversed,” said Guy Ryder, the ILO’s director-general.
EU to exempt up to 15 countries from travel ban but not US
Michael Peel in Brussels
The US and almost 150 other countries have failed to make it on to the EU’s first batch of exemptions from a blanket pandemic ban on travel from outside the bloc.
EU member states agreed on Tuesday that they should start to lift the prohibition from July 1 for a maximum of 15 nations, including China, Japan, South Korea, Canada and Australia.
The other 10 countries on the list are Algeria, Georgia, Montenegro, Morocco, New Zealand, Rwanda, Serbia, Thailand, Tunisia and Uruguay. The exemptions will cover the EU and the largely overlapping Schengen common travel area.
The 15 have been chosen because they are deemed to qualify under a range of criteria, including trends in published pandemic infection rates and whether these are currently higher or lower than those in the EU’s 27 countries. China will be granted an exemption only if it lifts its ban on travellers from the EU.
The list is not legally binding and it is up to individual member states to implement it. It will be reviewed every two weeks.
Federal face mask mandate could prevent 5% hit to US GDP, Goldman says
A national face mask mandate could act as a substitute to renewed lockdowns that would otherwise deduct about 5 per cent from gross domestic product, Goldman Sachs analysts argue as a number of states in the US have paused or reversed easing measures in response to growth in coronavirus cases.
"We find that face masks are associated with significantly better coronavirus outcomes," according to Jan Hatzius, economist at Goldman Sachs. "Our baseline estimate is that a national mandate could raise the percentage of people who wear masks by 15 percentage points and cut the daily growth rate of confirmed cases by 1.0pp to 0.6 per cent."
Goldman said it analysed the impact of face mask mandates in 20 American states and the District of Columbia between April 8 and June 24, and data on mask usage from YouGov, and found that they raised the percentage of people who "always" or "frequently" wear masks by about 25pp in the 30 days after the order was signed. They estimate that a national mask mandate would increase usage by "statistically significant and economically large amounts" in states that currently do not require it.
Despite the rise in coronavirus cases, mask usage remains a political issue in the US and is voluntary in a number of states. Goldman found that mask usage is highest in the north-east, which was particularly hard hit by the pandemic, but where conditions have now improved, while the numbers are far lower in the south.
Arizona, Texas and Florida, which were among the first states to reopen and have seen a jump in coronavirus cases in recent weeks, have all reversed easing measures. Indeed, Goldman Sachs analysis found that reopenings have been delayed or reversed for about 40 per cent of the US population, which has raised fears about fresh lockdowns.
"Our analysis suggests that the economy could benefit significantly from such moves, especially when compared with the alternative of a return to broader lockdowns," Mr Hatzius said.
NY Fed president says 'sustained containment' of virus key to recovery
James Politi in Washington
John Williams, the president of the New York Fed, has warned that the US recovery was showing signs of slowing in parts of the country that were experiencing coronavirus surges, adding that “effective and sustained containment” of the disease was key to a strong rebound.
Speaking to the Institute of International Finance by video-link on Tuesday, Mr Williams said there were “signs that we may be past the worst of the extreme economic distress” caused by the virus and “early indications of a recovery have started to emerge” across the world’s largest economy.
But he said that the “recent surge in cases in some states”, which include California, Arizona, Texas and Florida, showed that “much is still unknown about how the pandemic will play out in the months ahead”.
“We are seeing some indications of a slowing in the pace of recovery in states that are currently experiencing large-scale outbreaks,” Mr Williams said. “This is a valuable reminder that the economy’s fate is inextricably linked to the path of the virus. A strong economic recovery depends on effective and sustained containment of Covid-19,” he added.
Mr Williams’s comments came as Jay Powell, the Fed chair, prepared to address the House financial services committee along with Steven Mnuchin, the US Treasury secretary, on the economic response to the crisis. In his prepared remarks, Mr Powell had also noted that the economic rebound had begun earlier than the Fed had anticipated, but said that it was crucial to “keep the virus in check” as one of the main challenges during this phase.
Although the Fed is anticipating a long and painful recovery from the pandemic, Mr Williams suggested that it remained possible for the US economy to avoid major structural damage – and conditions could eventually still return to where they were at the beginning of the year.
“One measure of success is a return to the sustained growth and historically low unemployment that we had attained before the pandemic. I know this seems a long way from where we are today and may seem unreachable during these darkest days of the recession. But history teaches us that the economy can get back to full strength, even after deep downturns,” he said.
CDC director urges Americans to wear masks as US cases mount
Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington
Robert Redfield, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, called on Americans to wear face masks as states from Florida to Arizona record surges in Covid-19 cases that have heightened concerns about the pandemic.
“It is critical that we all take the personal responsibility to slow the transmission of Covid-19 and embrace the universal use of face coverings,” Mr Redfield told lawmakers on Tuesday at a Senate health committee hearing.
The call for Americans, and particularly younger people, to wear masks and follow social distancing guidelines comes as some states in the south and southwest have been forced to reverse course on easing their lockdowns.
Mr Redfield was testifying as the US coronavirus death toll nears 130,000, according to Johns Hopkins University. His comments also come as a number of states, particularly in the south and southwest, have reversed course on easing lockdowns after a surge in cases renewed concerns that the US is struggling to tackle the pandemic.
The Republican governor of Arizona on Monday ordered the closure of bars, gyms and cinemas for at least one month after the state saw one of the worst outbreaks of the virus in the US. That reversal followed similar moves in Florida and Texas, which were spared the worst of the virus earlier this year, but have recently become hotspots.
New York and New Jersey, the two states that were hit hardest when the pandemic struck in March, are also re-examining their response in the wake of rising cases across much of the US.
Lamar Alexander, the Republican chair of the Senate health committee, urged Americans to wear masks. The call for people to wear protective masks comes as critics have assailed President Donald Trump for refusing to wear one, which some claim has reduced the pressure on some of his supporters to follow the guideline.
Africa Cup of Nations delayed to 2022
The biennial football tournament between Africa’s top national teams has been delayed by a year to January 2022 in a sign of the spillover of event cancellations and postponements into next year due to the pandemic.
The 24-team Africa Cup of Nations was scheduled to take place in Cameroon at the beginning of 2021 but the Confederation of African Football decided to delay it a year as a result of coronavirus.
The African football governing body did not announce whether the subsequent edition of the tournament planned for 2023 in Ivory Coast will go ahead, be postponed or cancelled. The women’s edition of the tournament has been cancelled but a new continental club competition for women’s football will be launched next year, it said.
It is not the first time that the competition has been disrupted by the outbreak of a disease after Equatorial Guinea hosted the 2015 finals in place of Morocco, who had asked for it to be pushed back because of fears about Ebola.
Fauci and CDC director Redfield question American Airlines seat policy
Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington
Anthony Fauci and Robert Redfield questioned the recent decision by American Airlines to stop keeping the middle seat of flights empty, as the carrier tries to increase passenger loads.
“That is something that is of concern,” Mr Fauci, the head of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said, in response to Vermont senator Bernie Sanders who asked why the administration had not tried to stop the move.
Mr Redfield, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the issue was not “under critical review”, but said his agency was disappointed with the airline.
“When they announced that … obviously there was substantial disappointment with American Airlines,” Mr Redfield said. “We don't think it's the right message.”
Swedish PM launches inquiry to probe pandemic response
Ben Hall, Europe editor
The Swedish government has appointed a commission to investigate the country’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic amid mounting criticism of its liberal approach and higher death rate compared to its Nordic neighbours.
Stefan Lofven, Sweden’s centre-left prime minister, launched the inquiry on Tuesday following pressure from opposition politicians. Public opinion has begun to turn against Sweden’s light-touch restrictions in recent weeks as its death toll climbed well beyond that of its neighbours and they in turn kept their borders with Sweden shut while opening up to visitors from elsewhere.
Sweden adopted a markedly different approach to the rest of Europe by maintaining as much economic and social activity as possible and relying on voluntary social distancing and home-working rather than strict lockdown measures to contain the virus.
But by June 29 its death toll had reach 5,310, compared with 604 in Denmark, 328 in Finland and 249 in Norway. Its rolling seven-day average of new cases stands at more than 1200 a day. Denmark’s is 32.
The commission of inquiry will be composed of medical experts, ethicists and economists and will be led by Mats Melin, a former president of Sweden’s supreme administrative court. The government had wanted it to include politicians although that proposal was dropped.
It will issue a first report later this year focusing on the spread of the virus in care homes, an interim study next year and a final full report in early 2022, before the next general election.
Easyjet to cut up to 727 pilot jobs
Tanya Powley in London
EasyJet has outlined plans to cut as many as 727 pilot jobs in the UK as well as potentially closing its aircraft bases at Stansted, Southend and Newcastle airports.
It comes as the low-cost airline on Tuesday started a formal consultation with its unions, Unite and Balpa, over plans to cut up to 1,900 jobs in the UK. Last month, it became the latest carrier to announce job reductions, which could see it axe up to 4,500 jobs across its 15,000-strong workforce.
Balpa, the UK pilot union, hit out at easyJet’s plan to cut almost a third of its 2,300 British pilots.
Brian Strutton, Balpa general secretary, said:
We know that aviation is in the midst of the COVID crisis and we had been expecting easyJet to make an announcement of temporary measures to help the airline through to recovery.
But this seems an excessive over-reaction and easyJet won’t find a supply of pilots waiting to come back when the recovery takes place over the next two years.”
Johan Lundgren, chief executive at easyJet, said:
Unfortunately the lower demand environment means we need fewer aircraft and have less opportunity for work for our people – we are committed to working constructively with our employee representatives across the network with the aim of minimising job losses as far as possible.
Arizona's new case count jumps above 4,600 after including delayed data
Arizona reported its biggest one-day jump in new coronavirus cases after including a batch of delayed tests, and in the wake of governor Doug Ducey's decision to reverse his state's reopening process.
A further 4,682 people tested positive for Covid-19 over the past 24 hours, the state's health department reported on Tuesday, a record one-day leap, with a record 23,471 tests conducted.
Some of this was catch-up from Monday, when officials reported 625 new cases. This low number was a result of one lab partner missing the daily deadline to submit results, the health department said yesterday, and those figures would be added to Tuesday's count.
Including the latest data, Arizona has averaged about 3,000 new cases a day for the past week.
Florida reported 6,012 new cases over the past day, up from 5,404 on Monday, the state health department said on Tuesday morning, and below a record of almost 9,600 on June 27.
Late on Monday, Mr Ducey ordered bars, gyms, cinemas and water parks across the state to close and pushed back the planned start date for schools, effectively throwing Arizona's reopening plans into reverse. He did not make the wearing of face coverings mandatory, and again strongly encouraged the practice.
Arizona joined a growing list of states across the south and west of the US to either reverse or pause reopening plans. On Monday, Tennessee and Georgia both extended their state of emergency orders to August 29 and August 11, respectively. Last week, Texas and Florida reversed their reopenings and ordered bars to close, while North Carolina and Louisiana hit the pause button and said they would not move to their next phases.
Chances of default by US oil and gas producers surges
Myles McCormick in London
The likelihood of US oil and gas producers defaulting on their debt has jumped 30 per cent over the past year as the industry continues to reel in the wake of the oil price crash.
A new report by Credit Benchmark suggests credit quality in the sector has slumped 19.3 per cent over the past two months and 29.6 per cent over the past year as producers struggle to turn a profit in the weaker price environment.
The coronavirus pandemic coupled with a price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia sent US benchmark oil prices plunging into negative territory in April. They have now recovered to about $40 a barrel, but remain down by about a third since the beginning of the year and below levels required by most producers to drill new wells.
“Credit quality for large US oil & gas firms continues to tank,” the report found. “Once again, this sector is seeing one of the most significant declines of all those tracked by Credit Benchmark, with deterioration picking up significantly in the last two months.”
The oil price crash has led to a spate of bankruptcies among producers, with shale pioneer Chesapeake Energy last weekend becoming the biggest casualty.
Daily case rates for 16 US states more than doubled in June
The rate of daily coronavirus cases has at least doubled during June for nearly one-third of all US states, highlighting the renewed spread of the virus through the west and south that has prompted some governors to reverse or pause their economic reopening plans.
Among the 37 states where the seven-day average of new cases was above 100 as of June 29, 16 have case rates that are at least double what they were on May 31, according to Financial Times analysis of Covid Tracking Project data.
Florida experienced the biggest increase and is now averaging about 6,600 new cases a day, compared with about 760 a month ago.
That daily rate also beats other populous states like Texas and California, which are averaging nearly 5,500 new cases a day and have had their case rates go up by 327 per cent and 115 per cent, respectively, since May 31.
Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina are the only other states averaging more than 1,000 cases a day, but with North Carolina the only one of those where the average case rate has not doubled in June.
Some states like Idaho, Oklahoma and Oregon have experienced very large increases in daily rates, albeit from low bases, and have yet to report a single day increase of 1,000 or more at any time during the pandemic. States like Nevada and Tennessee have started to report four-digit daily increases in recent days, despite their average still remaining below the milestone.
Among states with an average daily rate of new cases above 100, 12 have experienced declines over the past month.
New Jersey has had the biggest decline over the past month, with its average new case down by 70 per cent over the period. New York, which was the early hot spot for the virus in the US, has seen its daily case rate more than halve.
US stocks nab best quarter since 1998
Adam Samson and Bryce Elder in London
Wall Street recorded the best quarter in more than two decades amid a broad rally in global markets ignited by a barrage of central bank stimulus and hopes of a forceful economic recovery.
The S&P 500 rose 1.5 per cent on Tuesday, the final trading day of the quarter and has soared more than 20 per cent over the past three months, leaving it on track to notch the largest rise since the final quarter of 1998.
Stimulus measures announced by central banks around the world, including a series of interventions by the US Federal Reserve to soothe unsteady markets, helped lift stocks in April, said Max Kettner, strategist at HSBC. Rising hopes for a rapid recovery in major economies helped keep the momentum going later in the quarter, he said.
“Equities rebounded significantly in the second quarter with more than three-quarters of the losses in (the) first quarter already recovered,” he said.
Still, many investors remain cautious given the uncertain trajectory of the coronavirus pandemic and questions over how quickly major economies will recover from the acute shock. The US, the world’s biggest developed market, has remained a source of particular concern given the severe Covid-19 outbreaks in several states.
FedEx results top view boosted by home deliveries
Parcel delivery company FedEx reported better than expected results in a quarter that was "severely affected" by the coronavirus pandemic helped by a surge in ecommerce deliveries as people worked from home during lockdowns.
FedEx, which is typically regarded as a bellwether for global economic activity, said revenues slid 2 per cent from a year ago to $17.4bn in the fourth quarter. However, that exceeded analysts' expectations for $16.4bn.
Fedex shares rose 9 per cent in after-hours trade to $153.37.
"Virtually all revenue and expense line items were affected by the Covid-19 pandemic during the quarter," said chief executive Frederick Smith. "While commercial volumes were down significantly due to business closures across the globe, there were surges in residential deliveries at FedEx Ground and in transpacific and charter flights at FedEx Express, which required incremental costs to serve."
The Memphis, Tennessee-based company reported a loss of $334m, compared with a loss of $1.97bn in the year ago quarter, which included a large accounting charge. Adjusting for one-time items, the company reported earnings of $663m or $2.53 a share, down from $1.32bn or $5.01 a share in the year ago quarter. That topped expectations for $1.52.
FedEx said its operating costs climbed by about $125m as it spent on personal protective equipment and medical and safety supplies.
The company did not provide an outlook for fiscal 2021 as it said the near term outlook is "unclear" but added that it expects to "benefit from the global recovery". FedEx also said it would lower its capital expenditures by $1bn to $4.9bn.
FedEx shares were down 7 per cent year-to-date as of Tuesday's close.
Greece re-opens airports, ferry routes and road borders for tourists
Kerin Hope in Athens
Greece re-opens its 27 airports to direct international flights on Wednesday as the Mediterranean tourist season gets underway three months later than usual because of coronavirus lockdowns across the region.
Tourists from EU member-states plus 15 other countries, including Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea, will all be welcome, a government spokesman said on Tuesday.
But visitors from Sweden, the UK and Turkey will be excluded at least until July 15, he added.
Greece will also remain closed to tourists from the US, Russia and China, the highest per capita spenders among visitors to the country.
Passenger ferries will resume operating between Italy and the Greek ports of Patras and Igoumenitsa, but only one border crossing – with Bulgaria – will be open to tourists travelling by road from central Europe.
Greece’s success to date at containing coronavirus is expected to help rescue the tourism sector this season, but it has also sparked fears of visitors importing infections.
There are no quarantine regulations, but visitors must fill out an online “passenger locator form” 48 hours before they travel to Greece, giving details of their planned destination and where they intend to stay.
Greek health authorities plan to carry out up to 8,000 random tests daily at entry points to the country. Visitors diagnosed with Covid-19 will be isolated for 14 days at one of more than 50 “quarantine” hotels around the country.
Around 200 extra doctors will be on call at tourist resorts, while the civil protection agency has set up a network of coastguard speedboats and helicopters to ferry Covid-19 patients to an intensive care unit from anywhere in the country within three hours.
Record increase for Texas propels daily US case count above 44,000
The US reported a near-record number of new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, marking the fourth time in five days the increase has topped 42,000.
A further 44,358 people in the US tested positive over the past 24 hours, according to data compiled by the Covid Tracking Project, up from almost 36,500 on Monday.
That level is just 15 cases shy of a record one-day increase on June 26, but also means the daily case rate in the US has more than doubled since May 31, when 21,672 people tested positive.
The data come in the wake of a warning today from Anthony Fauci, a member of the White House's coronavirus task force, that the US could see new cases soar to 100,000 a day.
Texas reported a record daily increase of 6,975 new cases, just days after governor Greg Abbott reversed the state's reopening and ordered bars to close.
California, where only some bars in certain counties have been ordered to close, reported a further 6,367 cases.
Florida's tally rose by 6,093. Bars across the latter state were ordered on Friday to close owing to the surge in new cases, which have risen more than 800 per cent since the end of May.
A handful of other states variously responded to their rising case numbers. Virginia is set to move into the third phase of its reopening on Wednesday, but governor Ralph Northam announced this afternoon that bar areas inside restaurants and taverns would not be part of that next step.
This followed a similar move by Delaware governor John Carney who today said that bars at its popular beaches must be closed from July 3 and that the state would not move ahead with any additional reopening.
Arizona's increase of 4,682 was a one-day record for the state, but was boosted by a batch of data that was too late for Monday's count. Georgia (1,874), South Carolina (1,755, a record), Tennessee (1,212), North Carolina (1,186) and Louisiana (1,014) were the other states that reported increases of more than 1,000.
Rounding out the six states to report record increases were Oklahoma (585), Idaho (433) and Alaska (36), according to Financial Times analysis of Covid Tracking Project data.
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