In a sign that the Federal Reserve remains concerned about the prospects for American businesses, the central bank said Monday that it will make terms more favorable for its incipient program to extend loans to small and midsize businesses.
U.S. Sets Plan to Expand Sanctions on Tankers, in Bid to Pressure Venezuela
By threatening the marine industry with sanctions, the U.S. is embarking on new steps to stymie the Iranian-Venezuelan relationship while helping the Trump administration steer clear of a possible military confrontation stemming from other types of action at sea, U.S. officials say.
U.S. Frackers to Zero In on Richest Oil Fields After Coronavirus
The Permian Basin is set to return to growth by next year and continue through 2030, consulting firms Rystad Energy and Wood Mackenzie estimate.
Mercedes-Benz Says Brazil Truck Market to Slump 30% This Year
The size of the drop in demand will depend on when activity can start to recover, Mr. Schiemer said. If businesses begin to reopen in June or July, then the truck market might decline only 30% to 40% from 2019. But if the reopening is pushed back past July, then demand could fall even more, he said.
U.S. Movie Theaters See Temporary Closures as Strong Possibility
“If [theaters] have to shut down for a month…it’ll have major impacts for the foreseeable future,” said one studio executive, pointing to many theater operators’ high debt levels and attendant need for steady cash flow.
Movie Theaters Face Their Biggest Summer Thriller Yet
Whether people show up is a whole other question. Michael Pachter of Wedbush notes that because 30% of the moviegoing audience is made up of people 50 and older, “a significant portion of moviegoers are not going to be bold enough to return to theaters.”
Some Economists Question Strength of China’s Labor Market
The reality on the ground appears to be worse. Many people in China have returned to work as the pathogen subsides, but anecdotal evidence and economists’ calculations suggest that China’s labor market is in worse shape than official government data show.
Fastest-Rising Food Prices in Decades Drive Consumers to Hunt for Value
While food companies and supermarkets say they have reopened plants and resolved supply constraints that contributed to higher prices, they also expect prices to remain elevated because of increased costs for labor and transportation.
Calls to Cut Funding for Police Grow in Wake of Protests
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat, said he supports “massive structural and transformational reform” but not a full breakdown of the current department. “Am I for entirely abolishing the police department?
Undervalued Stocks Soared, But Not Because They’re Undervalued
Prof. Eugene Fama, who won an economics Nobel Prize, argued that value stocks outperformed because they were riskier, and the efficient stock market rewards higher risk in the long run. A different view holds that investor behavior is the answer: investors shun bad companies more than they should, leaving them artificially cheap. Those with the gumption to buy will eventually be rewarded when others recognize that their prospects are merely bad, not awful.