Your level-headed briefing on how the coronavirus epidemic is affecting the markets, global business, our workplaces and daily lives, with expert input from our reporters and specialists across the globe.
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Latest news
CVS Health, the US drugstore chain, and Dollar General, the discount retailer, will together take on up to 100,000 new workers as demand increases. Pharmacies are one of the few US businesses allowed to remain open in areas otherwise in lockdown
New York calls for more resources as governor says cases have risen by 5,707 in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number to 20,875.
Eurozone consumer confidence hits five-year low
‘Small guys should get the bailouts’
As governments around the world survey the damage inflicted on business by the coronavirus, attention is turning to which sectors are most deserving of bailouts.
During the financial crisis, as Rana Foroohar reminds us, the banks were the obvious beneficiaries. But now the whole economy is collapsing at once, who should be the first in line?
Her answer? Small and midsized businesses — many of which are already running out of cash. Many will be lucky to survive more than three months.
In the UK, where talk of rescues has also centred around larger corporations, the government today moved to take back control of the railway network and is mulling buying stakes in airlines. But a scheme to help small businesses access loans is being introduced this week after criticism they had not been helped swiftly enough.
Grants would be preferable to loans: many of these small and medium-sized businesses — which in the US make up 83 per cent of payrolls — would not be able to survive additional debt burdens, Rana points out. They should be given priority.
Markets
The US Federal Reserve committed to unlimited bond buying to steady markets but by late-morning trading in New York, it looked like the measure had been unsuccessful – in equities markets at least – as stocks surrendered the gains that have come since Donald Trump’s inauguration more than three years ago.
The European Central Bank soothed bond markets last week with its plan to expand asset purchases by €750bn over the next nine months, reducing financing costs of governments. But will the ECB bazooka be big enough to stave off a eurozone crisis? This is not the 2010-12 crisis all over again, says columnist Wolfgang Münchau. It is far worse.
Tobias Adrian, the IMF markets chief, acknowledges the impact of the pandemic on the financial sector but is confident that banking systems are resilient and that any shock should only be temporary. US Finance Editor Robert Armstrong, however, says the outbreak highlights market complacency.
Despite the unknowns surrounding the impact of the coronavirus, one analysis of bear markets since the 1800s suggests the effects could be shortlived.
Business
The FT revealed that the UK government was talking to Amazon and other companies about delivering coronavirus testing kits to critical health and social care workers. They could also be used to deliver a new antibody test that can detect if someone has been infected with the virus in the past.
Online groups of tech, science and medical volunteers are springing up to crowdsource solutions to problems highlighted by the pandemic such as the lack of ventilators. The aim is not to produce high-end products but, rather, devices that can be used with non-acute patients to free up high-grade ventilators for more serious cases.
UK investors are bracing for big dividend cuts. Here’s our summary.
Restaurants, cinemas and retailers across the world are in dire straits; flights are disappearing and energy use is dropping. A vast range of industries is taking a severe toll from the pandemic. Here’s our sector-by-sector round-up.
Global economy
Economists are revising down growth forecasts as the coronavirus crisis hits production, jobs and consumption across the world, writes Valentina Romei. All G7 economies are expected to shrink sharply this year, according to Consensus Economics, a company that averages forecasts of more than 700 economists each month. Italy is the worst-hit. Chinese economic growth — see also our chart above — is revised down to one-third of January’s predictions.
Laurence Boone, chief economist at the OECD, writes for our series on economic cures. If the outbreak lasts more than a few months, the world needs to rethink the short-term, targeted responses that have been designed for a temporary shock.
Just as Iran was adjusting to an economy strained by US sanctions, the coronavirus pandemic has delivered a severe blow. The regional trading relationships it had been relying on have now been throttled.
The essentials
The humanitarian costs of the coronavirus outbreak continue to mount, with more than 358,000 people infected globally. The number of people confirmed to have died as a result of the virus has now surpassed 15,400.
Redundant childminders and nannies could offer vital support to key-worker families and ease the pressure on skeleton schools and nurseries. The UK cannot afford to lose NHS and critical infrastructure workers simply because they lack childcare support, writes Izabella Kaminska.
How much can western countries learn from the rigorous infection control regimes of countries such as Taiwan and Singapore? Across Asia, countries are now gearing up to fight a second wave of infections.
Readers respond
Kelley Mondesiré, a practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine, writes to us from New York.
“I am in a shared space with one of the city’s most prestigious women’s healthcare organisations. We are ‘hands-on’ and unable to treat patients from our homes (obviously). For the past month, we have seen our patient population dwindle down to barely 10 per week because most people are working from home. We still have high overheads (rent, malpractice/trip and fall insurance), payroll, etc we must meet. As we wait for the other shoe to drop and be locked out of our building, I wonder . . . how will I meet my own payroll? Who is going to bail me out? I have survived 9/11, the crash of 2008, Hurricane Sandy and Occupy Wall St here in lower Manhattan, but I fear this virus will be the nail in my professional coffin.”
Get in touch
How is your workplace dealing with the coronavirus? Please tell us what your company is doing by emailing [email protected]. We may publish your contribution in an upcoming newsletter. Thanks.
Final thought
FT Editor Roula Khalaf pens an open letter to readers: “We are keenly aware of our responsibility to those of you who pay to read the FT. But in times like these we feel that we also have a responsibility to inform the wider community. That is why I have taken the step to make a few of our great number of stories on coronavirus free to read. I know I can count on the support of our longtime subscribers for this measure.” Read in full
