Your level-headed briefing on how the coronavirus pandemic 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
US private sector employment has fallen by a record 20m in April
Sales of Volkswagen cars in China in April were just 2 per cent below last year
The UK is set to ease outdoor exercise restrictions next week
The dangers of coronavirus nationalism
Coronavirus-linked nationalism is on the rise. Donald Trump has stepped up his accusations that China covered up and failed to prevent the spread of the virus, as a precursor to more aggressive economic measures being weighed up by Washington including curbs on supply chains and investment flows.
The US was conspicuously absent from an EU-led international pledging meeting this week that raised nearly $8bn to accelerate the development and global distribution of diagnostics, drugs and vaccines to tackle the pandemic. So too were populist regimes, including Russia, Brazil and India.
One concern, highlighted in whistleblower claims from Rick Bright, the ousted head of the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, was that the best scientific evidence could be trumped by narrower political and commercial agendas.
While coronavirus is acting globally, it is dividing societies and spurring many leaders to national and local responses that will reduce their collective efforts at a cost to richer and poorer societies alike. As the FT View argues, “finding one or more effective vaccines, and eradicating this pandemic, will only be possible with the kind of global co-operation that, in the coronavirus crisis to date, has too often been in short supply”.
Follow our exiting lockdown tracker to compare government responses to coronavirus around the world.
Markets
Global stocks nudged higher on Wednesday, with investors focused on the gradual reopening of the world’s big economies following weeks of lockdown. Allianz’s Mohamed El-Erian argued that balance sheets are largely dominating income statements in the minds of investors. “Investors should consider the merits of greater portfolio differentiation and better risk management.”
Net inflows to UK equity funds rose to record monthly levels in April, according to Calastone, as investors responded to the global market rally. Volumes into a sample of equity funds it tracked reached £2.6bn, a six-fold increase on the average monthly sales since it began collecting data in 2015.
In the dock Germany’s constitutional court ruling on the legality of European monetary policy was attacked by former policymakers and legal experts. Economists said the ruling might force the ECB to think twice before expanding its monetary stimulus efforts. Its declaration that an ECJ judgment was invalid could undermine the uniform application of EU law.
Business
Airbnb bookings from local customers are on the rise in Denmark and the Netherlands, prompting the chief executive to tell the FT: “The recovery is better than what we had forecast even two weeks ago.” But the company expects 2020 revenues to be halved from $4.8bn last year and said this week it was cutting its workforce by a quarter.
Meat industry workers in the US are worried about high infection rates, producers are struggling to store livestock as mature pigs lose their value and slaughtering slows, and squeezed output is forcing retailers to restrict customers purchases. The result could be a move in the sector to greater automation.
Advertising is slumping, with UK broadcaster ITV reporting a 42 per cent fall in revenues in April and cutting the number of new shows aired. Streaming demand is up but ITV said companies, notably in the travel sector, had cut their budgets.
Global economy
EU output will fall 7.4 per cent this year, the steepest slump in the bloc’s history, the European Commission’s spring forecast said as it renewed calls for a pan-European “recovery plan”. The EU is heading for an €850bn shortfall in investment.
Donald Trump reversed course, saying the White House coronavirus task force would “continue on indefinitely”. He wrote on Twitter: “The task force will continue on indefinitely with its focus on safety and opening up our country again,” after previously indicating it could be disbanded by May 25 despite continued high fatalities.
Britain’s economy will suffer a “significant decline” in the first half of the year, the Office for National Statistics said, using “more judgment than usual” given the difficulties in relying on normal data sources. Information on almost a fifth of normal goods and services, such as air fares and pints of beer in pubs, is not available.
Get in touch
How is your workplace dealing with the pandemic? And what do you think business and markets — and our daily lives — will look like after lockdown? Please tell us by emailing [email protected]. We may publish your contribution in an upcoming newsletter. Thanks
The essentials
Our Covid-19 interactive charts now allow comparisons of countries for infection rates and deaths.
Workplace testing Accountancy firm BDO is considering testing staff every two weeks as part of plans for a return to work, following similar initiatives by ABB, Amazon, BP and Ocado. But others warn about the costs, logistics, privacy and liability issues.
Exam overhaul The FT’s management editor Andrew Hill argues that the disruption of schooling during the coronavirus crisis offers the chance to rethink assessments, which are far removed from developing or testing the skills required in later life. They have become “the justification for the whole educational edifice rather than a way of setting milestones along a broader path to useful and fulfilling adulthood”.
How coronavirus affects the body
FT Digital Dialogues: The Global Boardroom. The FT in partnership with TNW will gather senior global decision makers and leaders in policy, business, tech and finance on May 12-14 for three days of online conversations with FT journalists to analyse the impact of the pandemic and what is required for recovery.
Speakers include Tony Blair, former UK prime minister; Haruhiko Kuroda, governor of the Bank of Japan; and Al Gore, former US vice-president and chairman of The Climate Reality Project. The event is free to join. Register at globalboardroom.ft.com.
Final thought
Planners in Paris are deploying “tactical urbanism”, seizing on a less congested city to close streets near schools, widen pavements and let cafés occupy more space. “Our secret dream is that the temporary becomes permanent,” said Anne Hidalgo, the mayor. But switching from the car to public transport will mean more aggressive social distancing for cramped commuters.
