The U.S. reported more new coronavirus cases on Wednesday than on any single day before, according to a tally by NBC News, as the virus spreads to new communities and sparks outbreaks mostly across the American South and West. Almost half of all new cases came from Florida, Texas and California, where the outbreaks appear to be expanding.
This is CNBC’s live blog covering all the latest news on the coronavirus outbreak. This blog will be updated throughout the day as the news breaks.
- Global cases: More than 9.44 million
- Global deaths: At least 482,923
- U.S. cases: More than 2.38 million
- U.S. deaths: At least 121,979
The data above was compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Macy’s to cut 3,900 corporate jobs in restructuring
A view outside Macy’s Herald Square during the coronavirus pandemic on May 13, 2020 in New York City.
Noam Galai | Getty Images
9:32 a.m. ET — Macy’s announced it is cutting 3,900 corporate jobs — or 3% of its total workforce — to reduce costs as it struggles with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
The department store chain said it expects to save about $365 million through the layoffs in fiscal 2020. It said it will save roughly $630 million on an annualized basis.
“We know that we will be a smaller company for the foreseeable future, and our cost base will continue to reflect that moving forward,” CEO Jeff Gennette said in a statement. Macy’s is set to report its final first-quarter earnings on July 1, having already released preliminary figures. —Lauren Thomas
Target adds fresh, frozen foods to same-day services as more customers shop online
A Target store employee collects shopping carts to bring back into the store on August 21, 2019 in Pembroke Pines, Florida.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images
9:20 a.m. ET — Target customers can soon buy fresh and frozen groceries online and pick them up the same day at a nearby store.
The national retailer already has same-day services that allow customers to pick up online purchases like paper towels and canned goods in stores or through curbside pickup. Now, it’s adding hundreds of items like milk, bread and frozen vegetables to the offering.
It will have an expanded assortment at over 400 stores by the end of the month and more than 1,500 stores by the holidays. That’s roughly 80% of its 1,871 stores nationwide.
Target already planned to add the items, but that’s taken on new urgency as more Americans — and more of its customers — look for safer ways to shop during the pandemic.
In the retailer’s fiscal first quarter, use of its same-day services, including its home grocery delivery service Shipt, grew by 278%. —Melissa Repko
Initial jobless claims disappoint at 1.48 million, but total claims improve
8:51 a.m. ET — The Labor Department’s jobless report came in worst than expected as 1.48 million Americans filed for state unemployment benefits during the week ended June 20, marking the 14th straight week that filings remained above 1 million.
Economists polled by Dow Jones had expected first-time applications to total 1.35 million.
Though the weekly number did disappoint, the total number of those receiving benefits continued to fall. Total recipients of unemployment benefits, or continuing claims, fell by 767,000 to 19.52 million. —Thomas Franck, Jeff Cox
Olive Garden parent’s sales fall 43% in its latest quarter
8:44 a.m. ET — Darden Restaurants, which owns Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse and The Capital Grille, said that its fiscal fourth quarter revenue fell 43% as the pandemic weighed on sales.
The company’s same-store sales fell 47.7% across all of its brands in the quarter ended May 31.
But Darden expects business to pick up during its fiscal first quarter as dining rooms reopen. The company is projecting that its total sales will be about 70% of year-ago totals.
Shares of the company were up about 2% in premarket trading. —Amelia Lucas
Chuck E. Cheese’s parent company files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
A sign is posted in front of a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant in Newark, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
8:39 a.m. ET — CEC Entertainment, the parent company of Chuck E. Cheese and Peter Piper Pizza, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after pandemic-induced closures upended its business.
In the quarter ended March 29, which is typically its busiest time of the year, same-store sales fell 21.9%.
The company, which is owned by private equity firm Apollo Global Management, will continue reopening locations throughout the bankruptcy process. Nearly half of its company-owned locations have reopened as of Wednesday.
CEC Entertainment said that it expects to use the bankruptcy process to continue talking with its financial stakeholders and landlords to restructure its balance sheet. —Amelia Lucas
More consumers are ordering breakfast online
A delivery man wears a protective face mask while riding a bicycle in Kips Bay during the coronavirus pandemic on May 5, 2020 in New York City.
Noam Galai | Getty Images
8:35 a.m. ET — Consumers nearly doubled their spending on fast-food breakfast items ordered through third-party delivery services between the weeks of March 16 and April 13, Edison Trends found.
Delivery services have provided an alternative for at-home breakfast amid the coronavirus pandemic, even as fast-food chains see overall decreases in segment sales.
Edison Trends found consumers have spent more on McDonald’s for breakfast than any other fast-food chain. Starbucks and Dunkin’ have also seen upticks in breakfast sales since the pandemic began. Read more about order-in breakfast from CNBC’s Amelia Lucas. —Alex Harring
Sotheby’s auction will test art market during coronavirus
8:27 a.m. ET — The global art market will be tested for the first time amid the Covid-19 pandemic on Monday as Sotheby’s auctions off more than $300 million worth of art, including a single work for $60 million, CNBC’s Robert Frank reports.
Bidders will not be able to see the artwork in person, given visitor rules at Sotheby’s New York headquarters, but they will participate in a virtual live auction with telephone and online bidding and an auctioneer in London.
“We’ve been incredibly impressed over the last three months, despite all of the contextual backdrop, just how resilient the market has been,” said Sotheby’s CEO Charles Stewart. “I would say that in many ways, we’re seeing actually increased engagement from our collectors.”
Since March, Sotheby’s has successfully held more than 100 online sales, compared with 40 sales in the same period in 2019. New features to Sotheby’s mobile app include an augmented reality tool so users can virtually place a painting on their wall. —Suzanne Blake
LabCorp launches new antibody test
Adam Schechter, president and CEO of LabCorp, speaks about the coronavirus in the Rose Garden of the White House, Monday, April 27, 2020, in Washington, as President Donald Trump and Stephen Rusckowski, CEO of Quest Diagnostics. listen.
Alex Brandon | AP
7:35 a.m. ET — LabCorp announced a new test that can be used to assess the capacity of antibodies in patients’ plasma to combat the coronavirus.
The plasma from recovered patients is being explored as a potential treatment for the disease. Information from the new test could be used in the development of Covid-19 vaccines, the diagnostics manufacturer said. LabCorp said the antibody test will be available to bio-pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, blood banks and other plasma-screening facilities.
“By leveraging our drug development and diagnostic capabilities, we are working tirelessly to find solutions to prevent and treat Covid-19,” Paul Kirchgraber, head of LabCorp’s drug development business, said in a statement Thursday. “The launch of this neutralizing antibody assay is the latest effort in our company’s commitment to accelerate the evaluation of vaccine candidates so that a successful candidate may reach patients sooner.” —Holly Ellyatt
WHO has ‘all the support we need,’ chief says
Director-General of the WHO Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, attends a news conference on the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in Geneva, Switzerland February 11, 2020.
Denis Balibouse | Reuters
7:12 a.m. ET — The World Health Organization said it is getting all the political and financial support it needs. The comments came at a news conference in Geneva, where France and Germany expressed support for the United Nations agency and Germany announced more than €250 million ($280 million) in new funding for the agency.
Germany also said it would donate medical equipment to the WHO for distribution to countries with shortages, Germany’s minister of health Jens Spahn said, though the new funding and donations are still contingent on Parliamentary approval.
“Including this medical equipment, the German Ministry of Health will be providing more than 500 million, more than half a billion euros, to WHO this year,” Spahn said. “This is the highest amount ever we have contributed to the WHO in one year.”
The announcement comes nearly a month after U.S. President Donald Trump announced the U.S., the WHO’s biggest funder, would cut ties with the WHO out of discontent with its response to the coronavirus pandemic.
“We’re getting today all the support we need, political and financial, as has been said,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. —Will Feuer
Read CNBC’s previous coronavirus live coverage here: Eiffel Tower reopens to tourists; Disney delays reopening for California parks
Source: Business - cnbc.com
