fortune--2020-03-19--Venues are getting a crash course in postponement clauses thanks to coronavirus

This article is part of a Fortune Special Report: Business in the Coronavirus Economy—a look at the impact of the pandemic on more than 50 industries.
Karen Jiménez, director of events and sales at the Prince George Ballroom, a historic event space in New York City, has rarely had to reschedule weddings booked for her venue. If she ever did, the client typically incurred a change fee for moving the date. But given the current COVID-19 public-health crisis, she’s been rescheduling nonstop for the past two weeks, including having a lawyer adjust the venue’s contract to add “pandemic” along with a rebooking clause.
“We have to be human about it all,” says Jiménez. “The fact of the matter is everyone is bleeding right now, so we have to approach this from the perspective of how we can come together and fix it.”
For the hospitality and events industry, that’s been to rally behind the phrase “postpone, don’t cancel,” so venues have rewritten their legal agreements, drafted new postponement procedures, and waived fees to keep the business on the books.
The Gallery at the Prince George Ballroom is designed for smaller-scale gatherings: Brick, stainless-steel folding panels, and crisp, white walls provide a contemporary setting readily transformed to suit various purposes. Courtesy of Prince George Ballroom
For any event, the venue is one of the most costly line items. That’s especially true for weddings, as the average cost for a venue is $10,500, according to WeddingWire’s 2020 Newlywed Report, just released this week. That’s about one-third of the total cost of the wedding. Venues are not only the shelter for an event, but often provide the catering as well. In addition to a flat fee for use, many venues have a food and beverage minimum based on the guest count. Each venue, then, has a calculation for all these variables to make a profit on an event—or, at the very least, break even.
The current fallout from travel restrictions, caps on social gatherings, and “shelter in place” guidelines have clients, both corporate and social, in the tough position of changing their plans. Most corporate clients have outright canceled their brand launches, conferences, and trade shows, but social events, especially weddings, are a much more emotional affair. Those clients, say venue representatives and event planners, have sought to postpone, and venues are trying to minimize the damage.
“We’ll be lucky to get out of this with less than a million-dollar loss in revenue this year,” says Kate Turner, managing partner of 23 City Blocks Hospitality Group in St. Louis. “I think what people forget when dealing with these situations is that on the other side of a venue are people too.”
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The hospitality group runs popular venues like the Caramel Room, as well as a catering company. Her team has been stressing collaboration and timeliness, working to get new addendums out to clients within 24 hours. It’s a huge lift as half their clients were affected by the recent mandates on social gatherings. They are taking the hit to their bottom line by giving full refunds to cancellations for weddings within a 90-day window and no penalty for date changes in 2020.
Her approach is similar to that of venues across the country and even in Mexico: Be pro-couple in the short term. Beyond that, though, it’s case by case, with some upholding contracts. Gretchen Culver, chief revenue officer of Bellagala, a hospitality company with three venues in Minnesota, says the firm has had to carefully weigh the pros and cons of allowing couples to change their dates. They have waived a lot of fees for spring 2020 weddings, but outside of certain parameters, there may be some financial obligation from the client. “We can’t just take more events in 2021 to make up for lost revenue in 2020,” she says of the supply and demand. “There are only so many Saturdays in the summer.”
“Even though I’m in Mexico, the crisis is the same for everyone,” says the director of Club Industrial in Monterrey. Courtesy of Club Industrial
For Tere González Elizondo, director of Club Industrial in Monterrey, Mexico, it also meant making the hard decision to still charge some fees. Immediate cancellations resulting from the mayor’s declaration of a state of emergency led to refunds for some weddings.
Going forward, though, Elizondo is more than happy to change the dates for upcoming spring events without penalty. But when a client asked about changing the date for a November 2020 event, she had to ask herself, as a venue that hosts 50 weddings a year, at what point do you still waive the fee with all the unknowns?
“We decided to enforce the contract for events from June onward,” she says. “We’re suggesting they wait to decide closer to the day. We just don’t know what will happen the rest of the year.”
The Avon Theater is a historic landmark and venue in Birmingham, Ala. Kelli & Daniel Taylor Photography
Courtney Wolf, a planner who also runs the historic Avon Theater, an event space in Birmingham, Ala., noted that her contracts, like those of many others in the business, have “strong and clear language” regarding cancellations and reschedules. “The venue rental fee is due in full according to the payment schedule, regardless of anything—including acts of God,” she says.
That’s a reference to a force majeure clause, a legal term protecting a venue from not receiving payment owing to unforeseeable circumstances. It’s been unclear whether or not the COVID-19 pandemic falls into that category, preventing clients from reclaiming deposits.
As Jiménez says, it’s about being human and rewriting that clause with the help of an attorney. Wolf is having an attorney rewrite hers. Jiménez admits the Prince George Ballroom team is lucky; as a nonprofit as well, they have other funds to lean on. But some venues simply can’t absorb the cost of waiving fees. For example, Culver says for cancellations, they are sticking to the contracts and aren’t giving refunds.
Some venues have already decided to close altogether because of the mass number of cancellations and postponements. Landmark Hospitality, which owns several venues in New York and New Jersey, closed all 11 spaces and laid off 800 people, according to a former employee. It’s unclear if they will reopen. The director of sales for a group of venues in Charleston, S.C., had a similar story, though noted that he hoped they would reopen and rehire in the coming weeks. And even large organizations are not immune: Marriott International put hundreds of employees on furlough, including some handling their events.
The Ladies’ Tea Room at the Prince George Ballroom is a turn-of-the-century Beaux Arts space. Courtesy of Prince George Ballroom
It’s led many event planners to jump into the conversation. Amy Shey Jacobs of Chandelier Events is negotiating with venues to lower the minimum cost for events with smaller guest counts, and Sarah Drake of Cole Drake Events in the Napa Valley has everyone on text for the most immediate communication. Annie Lee of Daughter of Design is inspiring couples to consider a midweek date and asking venues to offer discounts for rebooking those dates as it’s an off-peak time. “Keeping as many events on the books is critical to keep the cash flow incoming, even if at a discount,” Lee says.
Then, there’s still the sales cycle of new business. Culver adds that she’s usually hosting dozens of venue walk-throughs at this time of year, so she has gotten creative about booking these new clients for 2021: She’s conducting virtual tours of her venues to show off the spaces and offering a “more generous cancellation policy to ease their minds about the uncertain future.”
More coronavirus coverage from Fortune:
—How to prepare your personal finances for a coronavirus recession
—The coronavirus could upend America’s business relationships with China
—10 questions about the 2020 election during the coronavirus pandemic, answered
—3 months before the coronavirus, a war game showed we weren’t ready
—How hackers are exploiting the coronavirus—and how to protect yourself
—The coronavirus pandemic could mark a huge shift for the fitness industry
—Listen to Leadership Next, a Fortune podcast examining the evolving role of CEOs
—WATCH: The race is on to create a coronavirus antiviral drug and vaccine
Subscribe to Fortune’s Outbreak newsletter for a daily roundup of stories on the coronavirus and its impact on global business.


fortune--2020-03-19--Lufthansa cuts 95% of its flights as world airlines near complete shutdown to face coronavirus

Trump outbid governors on coronavirus supplies after telling them to buy their own

Three of the world’s leading airlines laid bare the devastation the coronavirus is inflicting on air travel, with Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Delta Air Lines Inc. parking a total of 1,500 planes and Qantas Airways Ltd. laying off close to 30,000 employees in some of the industry’s deepest cuts to date.
The measures at Lufthansa, Europe’s biggest carrier, go furthest, with Chief Executive Officer Carsten Spohr saying Thursday he’ll eliminate 95% of seats, shrinking the timetable to a level last seen in 1955. Delta is grounding half the fleet to wipe out 70% of capacity, while Qantas, which has been idling planes weeks, is ceasing international operations.
“The coronavirus has placed the entire global economy and our company in an unprecedented state of emergency,” Spohr said. “No one can foresee the consequences. We have to counter this extraordinary situation with drastic and sometimes painful measures.”
The cuts highlight the desperation gripping airlines as they shrink operations amid a collapse in demand and moves to close national borders. For many operators that means mothballing the business and taking draconian steps to stop cash draining away while the virus retains its grip. Even then, the sector may need $200 billion in state support to weather the pandemic, according to the International Air Transport Association.
“The longer this crisis lasts, the more likely it is that the future of aviation cannot be guaranteed without state aid,” Spohr said, after new bookings at Lufthansa for the week through March 15 fell almost 70%.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian said told staff Wednesday that revenue this month will drop by almost $2 billion from a year earlier, with April projected to be even worse. About 10,000 Delta workers have applied for voluntary leave and 5,000 flight attendants have agreed to take early retirement.
“Making swift decisions now to reduce the losses and preserve cash will provide us the resources to rebound from the other side of this crisis,” Bastian said in a memo released by the airline.
Qantas furloughed most of its 30,000-strong workforce. The Australian company and low-cost unit Jetstar will suspend overseas services from late March until at least the end of May, it said Thursday, with domestic operations cut 60%.
CEO Alan Joyce said in a note to employees that demand had evaporated. “We have no work for most of our people,” he said. “We have to make difficult decisions to guarantee the future of the national carrier.”
At Lufthansa only a handful of services will survive, including flights to rescue Germans stuck abroad and help maintain the country’s supply chains.
Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Daniel Roeska praised the carrier for providing more-concrete information than peers, after it said the capacity reductions will eliminate 60% of operating costs, such as fuel, airport fees and passenger-related expenses, and that it aims to cut remaining fixed costs by one third.
Lufthansa shares traded 8.3% higher as of 10:10 a.m. in Frankfurt, paring the drop this year to 46%. Delta was down 26% at Thursday’s close and has lost 60% so far in 2020, while Qantas fell 15% Thursday and has dropped 70% this year.
The German company is expected to seek a loan from the government, which could take a stake as part of a rescue package, Bloomberg News reported Friday. Spohr said talks have been held with a state bank but that no bailout is needed right now.
The group’s Italian arm Air Dolimiti has already halted flights, while the Austrian brand is set to ground operations and a Belgian division will follow suit in two days. The Swiss unit is parking planes at an airport near Zurich.
Lufthansa has cash of about 5 billion euros ($5.4 billion) including credit lines, and says it could raise extra money through the sale and lease back of planes from a near 800-string fleet worth 10 billion euros.
More coronavirus coverage from Fortune:
—How to prepare your personal finances for a coronavirus recession
—The coronavirus could upend America’s business relationships to China
—10 questions about the 2020 election during the coronavirus pandemic, answered
—3 months before the coronavirus, a war game showed we weren’t ready
—How hackers are exploiting the coronavirus—and how to protect yourself
—The coronavirus pandemic could mark a huge shift for the fitness industry
—Listen to Leadership Next, a Fortune podcast examining the evolving role of CEO
—WATCH: The race is on to create a coronavirus antiviral drug and vaccine
Subscribe to Fortune’s Outbreak newsletter for a daily roundup of stories on the coronavirus outbreak and its impact on global business.


fortune--2020-03-20--To fight coronavirus, it’s lockdown time, like it or not

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Good morning. David Meyer here in Berlin, filling in for Alan on this, the first day of spring.
It’s lockdown time. California Governor Gavin Newsom ordered the state’s 40 million residents to stay home unless they’re commuting to essential jobs, visiting the doctor or buying groceries or prescriptions. Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf has ordered all businesses in that state to shut down immediately, unless they are “life-sustaining”—this apparently means grocery stores, gas stations, farms and transit systems.
Looking at these measures from a European perspective, the Californian lockdown seems roughly in line with the orders we’ve seen in France, Austria, Spain and Italy—though Sun Shuopeng, the head of a Chinese Red Cross delegation to Italy, expressed horror this week that he saw people still walking around and using public transportation in Milan. “Right now we need to stop all economic activity and we need to stop the mobility of people,” he said. “All people should be staying at home in quarantine.” Shockingly, given the disparity in country size, the Italian death toll now appears to have overtaken that in China.
(In Berlin, I still see people congregating outdoors, which should not be happening. It is only in the last couple days that the first German town—Mitterteich in Bavaria—instituted a proper lockdown. The federal government says it will see how people behave on Saturday, then introduce a strict lockdown if necessary.)
The Wall Street Journal‘s editorial board wrote yesterday that “America urgently needs a pandemic strategy that is more economically and socially sustainable than the current national lockdown,” if it is to “avoid an economic recession that will dwarf the harm from 2008-2009.” But what they refer to isn’t even a full lockdown—and the experts are now very clear that full lockdowns are necessary, particularly when most infections are undocumented. When hundreds of thousands or even millions of lives are at stake, the health of the economy is simply not the highest priority, vital as it is.
The markets seem to have realized in recent weeks what is coming. Happily, they’re looking healthier so far today, thanks to the U.S. Federal Reserve promising to provide liquidity to central banks in Australia, Brazil, Denmark, South Korea, Mexico, Norway, New Zealand, Singapore and Sweden—a move designed to stop dollar funding markets breaking down. South Korea’s Kospi index jumped 7.4%, the Hang Seng was up 5.1%, and Europe’s Stoxx 600 was up almost 4% at the time of writing. U.S. futures also look strongly positive.
More news below.
David Meyer
@superglaze
david.meyer@fortune.com
TOP NEWS
Musk capitulation
Elon Musk has stopped trying to keep Tesla's U.S. factories open. Musk, who has argued that the intensity of anti-coronavirus measures is "dumb", had resisted official orders to shut down the facilities. But, following heavy criticism, he relented and started tweeting advice about staying safe. Financial Times
Streaming quality
YouTube and Netflix have both agreed to reduce their streaming quality in Europe, so as to help avoid Internet gridlock in the region while many Europeans switch to home working. EU industry chief Thierry Breton had urged them to make the move. Reuters
Brexit negotiators
Remember those heady days when a hard Brexit was supposed to be the big economic threat? Well, now the European Union's lead negotiator, Michel Barnier, has come down with coronavirus—and his lead counterpart, David Frost, is also symptomatic and now in isolation. Bloomberg
Bitcoin bounce
Cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin have soared today—Bitcoin and Ethereum are both up around 20% at the time of writing. However, they still haven't made up for the losses they incurred this month. CNBC
AROUND THE WATER COOLER
Italian GDP
Milan-based think-tank REF has predicated a 3% drop in Italian GDP in Q1, and a 5% drop in Q2. In late February, before the current lockdown decrees, it was thinking more along the lines of 1% and 3% respectively. However, it says, "a rebound is possible from the third quarter." Reuters
Airline warnings
The bosses of easyJet and Lufthansa have become the latest to warn that some airlines may not survive the coronavirus crisis. Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr: "The longer this crisis lasts, the more likely it is that the future of aviation cannot be guaranteed without state aid." India is reportedly preparing to bail out its carriers. In related news, British Airways pilots face the halving of their pay, and Air Canada is to temporarily lay off over 5,100 workers. BBC
"Like a fist"
"2020 has hit us like a fist," said Gavin Thomson, vice chairman for energy in Asia Pacific at consultancy Wood Mackenzie, in Singapore. That's pretty much the consensus among oil traders and analysts around the world, who after the last two weeks are wondering where the bottom is. Fortune
Heroes and villains
Neil Ferguson, the epidemiologist behind the Imperial College report that convinced the U.K. and U.S. authorities to accept the need for harsh suppression of the outbreak, has confirmed that he is infected. Meanwhile, it has emerged that Senate Intelligence Committee chair Richard Burr sold off as much as $1.72 million of his stocks ahead of the stock market crash, back when he was still assuring the public that the government had everything under control—a similar scandal also appears to be hitting Senator Kelly Loeffler, and perhaps also Intelligence Committee members Dianne Feinstein and James Inhofe. Fortune


fortune--2020-03-20--How working parents are navigating childcare during the coronavirus pandemic

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As segments of the economy grind to a halt because of the coronavirus pandemic, Sian Bumsted’s job has only picked up steam. Working in sales for a major consumer packaged goods company in Toronto, Bumsted says she’s under more pressure than ever—with a 3-year-old at home.
“I have to pretend not to be here,” Bumsted says of working from home with her daughter. “My husband will message me to keep my voice down while I’m on a conference call downstairs.”
Bumsted is one of the millions of working parents whose lives have been upended by the coronavirus pandemic, with necessary social isolation closing schools, day care sites, and workplaces. From the economic pressures of job loss, to the lack of accessible childcare for people still going into work, to the mental and physical toll of around-the-clock childcare responsibilities for those working from home—how to care for kids amid a pandemic is a question every parent is now navigating.
For Bumsted, pressure to keep supply chains intact and store shelves stocked makes work busier than ever; her husband—a community college professor whose school is closed—has taken the lead on childcare.
For other families, the division of labor—and whether it’s even possible to work at anything close to their usual level of output with children home long term—isn’t as cut-and-dry.
Cassie Murdoch, a Brooklyn-based editor for the website Mashable, is home all day with twin 4-year-olds; her husband, a freelancer, is also doing much of the childcare right now, with their usual nanny staying at home because of her immunocompromised son. “Our two-bedroom apartment is closing in on us,” she says. “There’s no time to clean the house or take a shower…How am I going to do the taxes? I have no idea.”
Some families have found creative short-term solutions. Miriam Bloom Williams, Berkeley-based cofounder of the maternity apparel brand Superkin, struck a deal with her neighbors: The two families, who each have a 3-year-old, would agree to isolate from all others outside their households. Then, the two boys could spend mornings together at one house and afternoons at the other, giving the only children some company and the four parents time to work. “We always joked that someday our kids would burrow through the back fence, but we never envisioned the potential for this much closeness,” Williams says.
Parents of older children find their kids need a different kind of support and attention during this crisis. Lareina Yee, McKinsey’s chief diversity and inclusion officer, is the mother of a 17-year-old, a 13-year-old, and a 5-year-old. “My high schooler, he’s worried. The SATs are canceled, college visits are canceled, soccer practice is canceled. Not being able to see their friends is a really big deal. And he and my 13-year-old both have subscriptions to news outlets and are reading some really heavy stuff,” Yee says. “With younger kids it’s more obvious what they need.”
While virtual classes, now being offered in some areas for kids all the way from pre-K up through college, can take up a portion of the day, they’re not a complete solution. Murdoch found that her twins are too young to really tune in for their pre-K’s virtual learning without adult assistance; Yee said her middle schooler finished his virtual classes by lunch.
Companies are trying to adapt to their employees’ new realities. At McKinsey, Yee sent out a note to her staff recommending adjusting working hours to account for kids’ late-afternoon stir-craziness and acknowledging that it’s okay if a 5-year-old walks in during an internal call.
Allyson Downey, founder of the Boulder-based startup Stellar, which helps companies secure early customer reviews for new products, has told her nine employees to use schedule send tools to send emails whenever they have time; client calls still need to happen during normal work hours, she says, but nearly everything else is flexible.
On the first day of fully remote work, all of Stellar’s employees brought their children to their morning video check-in to talk about the new reality of the whole family working from home, and what kids should do if they need something from their mom or dad during the workday. “I know my productivity is radically impacted by this, so I’m assuming it’s the same for everyone else,” says Downey, who has a 5-year-old and an 8-year-old at home.
For many parents, it’s important that their employers acknowledge that this isn’t just remote work; it’s remote work during a global pandemic. Employees may be navigating everything from 24/7 childcare to care for elderly parents to concern about spouses and other members of the household working as doctors, grocery store cashiers, and more.
“The kids think we’ve all been through this before,” says Margaret Arakawa, the chief marketing officer of Outreach and mother of a 12-year-old; she lives in Kirkland, Wash., near the original center of the Seattle coronavirus outbreak, and her husband is a first responder who expects to at some point come into contact with the virus. “But this is unprecedented.”
More coronavirus coverage from Fortune:
—This famed economist doesn’t think we’re headed for another Great Recession
—South Korea has the most comprehensive coronavirus data. What it’s taught us so far
—10 questions about the 2020 election during the coronavirus pandemic, answered
—6 steps to sustainably flatten the coronavirus curve
—How hackers are exploiting the coronavirus—and how to protect yourself
—Hong Kong launches surveillance operation to track suspected coronavirus patients
—Listen to Leadership Next, a Fortune podcast examining the evolving role of CEOs
—WATCH: The race is on to create a coronavirus antiviral drug and vaccine
Subscribe to Fortune’s Outbreak newsletter for a daily roundup of stories on the coronavirus and its impact on global business.


fortune--2020-03-20--The global markets climb even as the coronavirus death rate soars

‘ It ’ s mind blowing ’ : As oil slides on coronavirus and price war , the market looks @ @ @

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Happy Friday. It looks as if we’ll end a brutal week on a positive note. But it could still be a volatile one.
Where are investors putting their money? Let’s take a look.
Markets update
Brace yourself. Today is “quadruple witching” Friday, which comes around every quarter. What does it mean? U.S. stock options, stock index futures and index option contracts are all due to expire today. Usually, it’s not much of a big deal. But investors are on edge as any spike in volume these days has sent shares lower. But Reuters, for one, suggests the quirk of the calendar could actually bring calm to the markets today. We need it.
So far the U.S. futures bear out this hypothesis. The Dow and S&P look set to open up 2% higher on Friday after a modest bounce-back yesterday.
***
As I type, most corners of the global markets are in the green. With the exception of Japan’s Nikkei, the major Asian indices look to close out the week in positive territory.
Europe too is looking good. The bourses in Paris and Frankfurt are up above 6% in the first half-hour of trading as investors view this as a good time to buy battered shares. Just about every industry, including travel and leisure, financials and energy, is trading higher in Europe at the moment.
Elsewhere, the dollar rally is losing steam. The British pound is up 3% against the greenback, rebounding nicely after the Bank of England announced an emergency cut yesterday. The biggest gainers are commodities. Gold is one again on the rise, and Brent Crude has once again risen above $30 a barrel, a gain of 20% in the past two days.
We have more numbers for you, as we do every Friday.
***
By the numbers
10,000. The global death toll for coronavirus is now in five-figure territory, topping 10,000. Italy yesterday overtook China in the number of confirmed deaths with 3,405. Europe is the new epicenter, but it’s on the increase everywhere. If you’re still on the fence about how bad this could get, do yourself a favor—google “Bergamo + Italy +coronavirus.”
What’s so worrying to health officials is the pace of infections. As Bloomberg notes, citing the World Health Organization, “it took three months for the first 100,000 cases, but only 12 days for the next 100,000.” It’s no wonder California is joining the likes of Italy and other European countries in ordering 40 million residents to just chill at home.
9,464. The Dow has fallen that much, points-wise, since its Feb. 12 high of 29,551, a 32% drop. I’m looking for a silver lining here. So how about this? The blue-chip index is down just 3.7% since this time last week. The S&P 500 has fallen by a similar measure in the last seven days despite Monday’s historic sell-off. The Nasdaq is down by about 9.2% in that time. Here’s another look at the Dow’s mighty collapse.
7%. That’s the rise of the U.S. dollar index since March 9. King dollar is on a tear against just about every G7 currency as investors hoard the greenback. That rush into dollar and dollar-denominated assets is more bad news for U.S. multinationals who’ve already seen a coronavirus-driven collapse in international trade. The dollar has strengthened significantly against the euro and British pound since the COVID-19 outbreak caught the world’s attention in January. A jump of 7% is huge in FX circles, and it’s likely to eat into the bottom lines of most multinationals even after the pandemic threat passes.
Postscript
Scene: Our kitchen table. Hour: Dinner time.
My wife: Do you know what’s the most sold-out item in Italian supermarkets since the lockdown?
Me: Dunno, masks? Toilet paper?
My wife: Nope. It’s lievito.
Me: Yeast!? Italians are panic-buying yeast?
My wife: You know the Romans. They can’t live without their pizza and pane, biscotti and torte.
[Note: This is how the typical conversation goes in our house. It starts in one language, hops to another, and finishes somewhere else.]
My wife: If they can’t get it on the street, they’ll make it at home.
Me: hmm.
[Over a glass of fermented Italian grapes, I whip out my phone to fact-check her. And sure enough, Twitter and the Italian media are all over the assolto (assault) of lievito ai supermercati.]
My wife: And you know what Americans are buying? Guns.
Make pizza, not war.
Have a good weekend, and stay safe.
Bernhard Warner
@BernhardWarner
Bernhard.Warner@Fortune.com
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Today's reads
Patience. We’re going through one of the worst market crashes in history. Stocks could fall further, but eventually will recover. And returns following a bear market are pretty good if you can hang on. Average returns after the worst bear markets of the past century have been 52%, 89% and 132%, respectively, over the ensuing one, three, and five years, says Ben Carlson, director of institutional asset management at Ritholtz Wealth Management. That would help your battered portfolio.
Jitters at home. 63% of Americans worry they won’t be able to pay their bills during the coronavirus crisis, a Fortune poll shows. 82% believe a recession is likely in the next year. 64% say the coronavirus outbreak is disrupting their household spending levels, and 69% are worried that they or a relative will be exposed to the virus, according to the poll, which shows the depth of concern over the outbreak.
Will the wifi hold up? Netflix has agreed to reduce its streaming traffic in Europe by about 25% for the next month to ease pressure on networks strained by the coronavirus pandemic. With millions in forced seclusion at home, streaming time spiked by more than 20% worldwide last weekend, leading regulators to press companies to lessen the load on the internet. Netflix will reduce traffic by reducing bit rates in Europe.
Market candy
This day in history
On March 20, 2019, Walt Disney Co closed its $71 billion acquisition of Twenty-First Century Fox’s film and TV assets. A year later, Disney finds itself in the eye of the coronavirus storm, forced to temporarily close its theme parks, suspend cruises and delay movie releases. After the market plunge, its shares are 14% below year-ago levels. But please spare a thought for this guy—his streak of 2,995 consecutive days visiting Disneyland in Anaheim is over.


fortune--2020-03-20--‘It’s mind blowing’: As oil slides on coronavirus and price war, the market looks for the bottom

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This is entirely new territory.
That’s the consensus from oil traders and analysts the world over this week, as oil plumbed 18-year lows on Wednesday amid a double hit to prices: the demand-shock of the coronavirus crisis, and the price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia, which has seen the kingdom flood an already oversupplied world with oil it doesn’t need.
“We haven’t seen anything like this,” said Jace Jarboe, a futures and options broker with Daniels Trading in Chicago.
“It’s mind-blowing,” said Bjarne Schieldrop, chief commodities analyst at SEB in Oslo.
“2020 has hit us like a fist,” wrote Gavin Thomson, vice chairman for energy in the Asia Pacific at consultancy Wood Mackenzie, in Singapore.
For the oil sector, the past two weeks have left an already volatile industry wondering where the bottom is, whether normality will ever return—and what comes next.
A tale of two shocks
Since late February of this year, oil prices have dropped by more than 50%, sinking to levels not seen since the early 2000s. On Wednesday, the Brent crude contract closed at $24.88 per barrel, its lowest price since May 2003. Meanwhile, the WTI contract closed at $20.37 per barrel, its lowest price since February 2002.
In the days since, oil has gained back some ground: On Thursday, oil futures rallied with a historic one-day jump, after U.S. President Donald Trump said he could intervene in oil markets, and on Friday, Brent was up 5.4% to $30.31 per barrel, while WTI was up 6.9% to $26.96 per barrel.
But markets remained down by about 50% since their recent highs in late February, and analysts were skeptical that Trump’s intervention could offer the market any long-term relief.
That’s due to a double shock in both supply and demand.
The supply shock began in early March, when, in an effort to punish Russia for its refusal to back OPEC production limits meant to keep prices near $60 a barrel, Saudi Arabia offered massive discounts to its customers, and soon after opened the taps and committed to releasing 13 million barrels a day on global markets. That’s an increase of 1 million barrels per day—equivalent to nearly the entire daily production of Scotland, a major North Sea producer.
“What we are seeing here is essentially the atomic bomb equivalent in the oil markets,” wrote Louise Dickson, an analyst at energy consultancy Rystad in Oslo.
But even as Saudi Arabia set off the supply shock, a demand shock was widening in the form of the coronavirus pandemic, which has kept millions at home across Europe and the U.S. and wiped out large swaths of demand for oil that would normally keep planes, cars, and businesses running.
Adam Rozencwajg, managing partner at G&R Associates, an investment adviser that focuses on the natural resources sector, says the initial price drop from $50 to $30 was “entirely the results of the price war,” but the continued slide earlier this week is due to the massive increase in reported coronavirus cases.
Even a few weeks ago, when coronavirus was already casting a pall over the oil sector’s annual gathering in London, few seemed to have imagined it would get to this point so quickly, says Christopher Haines, an oil analyst at Energy Aspects in London.
“I don’t think anyone imagined that firstly it would be so big, [or] that governments would undertake the kind of draconian shutdowns that they undertook in Italy,” he said. “I think that was a big underestimation by everyone…People are already realizing this year is a write-off.”
Brutal landing
The price plunge was already having a dramatic knock-on effect on oil companies’ spending and business planning, analysts say, and the first to be impacted is the U.S. shale sector—as Saudi Arabia intended, says SEB’s Schieldrop.
“It looks like a war between Russia and Saudi Arabia, yes,” he said. “They are not friends at the moment. But first and foremost this is about taking back market share from the U.S., and offshore producers.”
U.S. shale needs at least $40 per barrel to break even, according to analysts, while the breakeven price for new wells is around $50 per barrel. The price drop also came at a time when the sector was already at risk, with billions in debt coming due just this year, a marked difference from the last major price plunge, beginning in 2014.
“They’re not as vibrant as they were in 2014, and they’re going to decline in a much greater way today,” said Rozencwajg.
The price drop is resulting in nearly instantaneous production and spending cuts: In the hours after Saudi Arabia’s vow to flood oil markets, at least two shale companies announced immediate cuts. The result could be a near wipeout of the output surge that made the U.S. a new oil exporting superpower.
“Over the last 10 years, global oil demand has increased by 13 million barrels a day and 10 million of the 13 million has been from shale,” said Rozencwajg. “That is gone.”
Efforts to bail out the shale sector, warns Carsten Fritsch, a commodities analyst at Commerzbank in Frankfurt, are just as likely to make the price tank further, since the demand for that oil simply isn’t there.
“We are heading to a perfect storm with massive demand destruction, even greater than the crisis of 2009,” he said.
But the price drop is affecting companies worldwide, analysts warned, with real-world consequences for those working in the sector.
On March 13, Bernard Looney, the CEO of British oil major BP, said in a LinkedIn post that the company would reduce capital and operational spending, as it sent all employees other than those in critical roles to work from home.
Other companies that are reviewing or have already cut spending include Norway’s Equinor, Chevron, Exxon Mobil—the world’s largest publicly traded oil company—and even Saudi Arabia’s state-run Saudi Aramco, according to Reuters.
The impact will be felt for some time.
“Investment in exploration and development will be sharply pulled back in both national and private oil companies,” said Valérie Marcel, an associate fellow at London’s Chatham House and an expert in oil companies and development. “Layoffs and bankruptcies are expected.”
Pain today, more tomorrow
As oil prices have slid, few analysts are willing to predict a bottom.
Even estimates of the scale of the demand drop are subject to rapid changes: Norway’s Rystad now forecasts a 2.2 million barrel per day drop this year compared with 2019, a “shocking” (its word) revision to the consultancy’s estimate last week that oil demand would fall 600,000 barrels per day.
Meanwhile, Edinburgh-based Wood Mackenzie estimated on Thursday that the sector’s total spending, from upstream operations to dividends, would have to be cut by 41%—while buybacks will be suspended, and other shareholder distributions will need to be cut, “breaking a few promises to investors.”
Of course, even if the price war rages on, governments worldwide hope the spread of the coronavirus will be brought under control within months—enabling people to return to work, and flights and transport to resume, as is finally happening in China.
But once the world emerges from lockdown, it may look very different. The economic costs of the virus are already plunging the globe into a recession or even a depression, which would have longstanding impacts on oil demand. And new ways of working and living, including remote offices and limiting travel, have suddenly become the standard.
“Many of the changes individuals and organizations are making to the way they function—changes that are designed to adapt to a crisis—will not be reversed once the pandemic ends,” Marcel said.
“There will be some permanent demand destruction.”
More coronavirus coverage from Fortune:
—How to prepare your personal finances for a coronavirus recession
—The coronavirus could upend America’s business relationships with China
—10 questions about the 2020 election during the coronavirus pandemic, answered
—3 months before the coronavirus, a war game showed we weren’t ready
—How hackers are exploiting the coronavirus—and how to protect yourself
—The coronavirus pandemic could mark a huge shift in the fitness industry
—Listen to Leadership Next, a Fortune podcast examining the evolving role of CEOs
—WATCH: The race is on to create a coronavirus antiviral drug and vaccine
Subscribe to Fortune’s Outbreak newsletter for a daily roundup of stories on the coronavirus and its impact on global business.


fortune--2020-03-20--4 U.S. senators sold stock after getting coronavirus threat briefings in January

‘ It ’ s mind blowing ’ : As oil slides on coronavirus and price war , the market looks @ @ @ @

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Four U.S. senators sold stock after receiving sensitive briefings in late January about the emerging threat of the coronavirus, sparking concerns that they put safeguarding their private finances before their duty to protect public health.
Senator Richard Burr, a Republican from North Carolina, and Kelly Loeffler, a Republican from Georgia, both completed their sales at a time when the Trump administration and GOP leaders were downplaying the potential damage the virus might cause in the U.S. and before drastic stock-market plunges set off by the pandemic.
Burr is chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which receives frequent briefings about threats facing the country, and has experience responding to public-health crises. Loeffler – who was appointed to her seat in December after Senator Johnny Isakson announced that he was resigning because of health problems – is married to the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, Jeffrey Sprecher.
Two other members of the Intelligence Committee, Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat from California, and Senator James Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican, also sold stock after the briefings, according to financial records.
Loeffler did not make any sales from Jan. 6 until Jan. 24 — the day the health committee she sits on held a briefing that included presentations from top level U.S. public-health officials including Dr. Anthony Fauci.
She and her husband began selling 27 stocks on Jan. 24, according to her financial disclosure form, including investments in Auto Zone and Ross Stores, worth millions of dollars. Loeffler’s stock sales were first reported by the Daily Beast.
‘Baseless Attack’
Loeffler responded on Twitter by calling criticism of her stock sales “a ridiculous and baseless attack.” The tweet said “I do not make investment decisions for my portfolio. Investment decisions are made by multiple third-party advisors without my or my husband’s knowledge or involvement.”
This is a ridiculous and baseless attack. I do not make investment decisions for my portfolio. Investment decisions are made by multiple third-party advisors without my or my husband's knowledge or involvement. — Senator Kelly Loeffler (@SenatorLoeffler) March 20, 2020
Burr sold 33 stocks on Feb. 13, according to his financial disclosure form, with a total value between $628,00 and $1.7 million. His stock sales were first reported by ProPublica. Three of the assets he sold were in hotel companies, which have seen their value plummet as the coronavirus threat has drastically curtailed travel.
His office said that his sales were unrelated to any information he received by virtue of his position as intelligence committee chairman.
“Senator Burr filed a financial disclosure form for personal transactions made several weeks before the U.S. and financial markets showed signs of volatility due to the growing coronavirus outbreak,” a Burr spokesperson said in a statement. “As the situation continues to evolve daily, he has been deeply concerned by the steep and sudden toll this pandemic is taking on our economy.”
Economy Reeling
With the virus now spreading, its death toll rising and the global economy reeling, news of the stock sales brought angry calls for Burr to resign.
“As Intel chairman,” Burr “got private briefings about coronavirus weeks ago,” Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York tweeted. “Burr knew how bad it would be. He told the truth to his wealthy donors while assuring the public that we were fine.”
“THEN he sold off $1.6 million in stock before the fall. He needs to resign,” she added. According to NPR, Burr told a private group in late February that the virus could present a greater economic danger than had been publicly discussed.
As Intel chairman, @SenatorBurr got private briefings about Coronavirus weeks ago.
Burr knew how bad it would be. He told the truth to his wealthy donors, while assuring the public that we were fine.
THEN he sold off $1.6 million in stock before the fall.
He needs to resign. https://t.co/IAITMbJ3R5 — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 19, 2020
Fox News host Tucker Carlson also called for Burr’s resignation.
Feinstein made transactions on Jan. 31 and Feb. 18, selling between $1.5 million and $6 million worth of shares in Allogene Therapeutics, a biotech company. Inhofe sold $400,000 worth of stock on Jan. 27, including PayPal and the real estate company Brookfield Asset Management.
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—What the world’s biggest economies are doing to fight coronavirus and recession
—There are still more questions than answers about the costs of coronavirus testing
—10 questions about the 2020 election during the coronavirus pandemic, answered
—How swing state economies have performed since the 2016 election
—Listen to Leadership Next, a Fortune podcast examining the evolving role of CEO
—WATCH: What happens to leftover campaign funds once a candidate drops out?
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fortune--2020-03-19--What comes after a bear market? You will like the answer

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Monday saw the S&P 500 have its third worst daily return since 1928, falling 12%. In fact, two of the past three trading sessions for U.S. stocks have given us two of the six worst daily returns ever.
This is not the greatest company to be in considering this list is littered with losses seen during the Great Depression, Great Recession and 1937 recession which was something of an echo-recession following the 1929-1932 debacle.
As coronavirus panic spread, U.S. stocks just experienced the fastest bear market in history, falling 20% in just 16 trading sessions and finishing the day on Monday down close 30%, which happened just two trading sessions later.
By my calculations, there have been just eleven bear markets with losses of 30% or worse over the past 90-plus years:
So the current iteration would be among the worst dozen or so market crashes in U.S. stocks.
Stocks could always go down further. No one knows how bad things will get economically considering the quarantine and stoppage of businesses are basically experiments being run in real-time. Things are going to get worse before they get better.
It may not feel like it now, but eventually we will recover. Financial markets will come back and the economy will mend itself. There will be much pain and suffering between now and then but we are a strong species and we will endure.
Not many investors are thinking this way but returns following a bear market are pretty good if you can hang on. Here are the one, three and five year returns following each of the past bear markets:
Average returns following bear markets have been 52%, 89% and 132% respectively over the ensuing one, three, and five year periods. Of course, these returns come from the depths of the bear markets.
No one knows when stocks will bottom because markets in freefall are mainly driven by a combination of emotion and herd psychology. It’s certainly possible there is another leg down from current levels.
Six out of the eleven bear markets of 30% or worse went down more than 40%. Stocks would have to fall another 15% or so from here to be down 40% in total.
Three of the eleven bear markets of 30% or worse went down more than 50%. Stocks would have to fall another 30% or so from here to be down 50% in total.
In mid-October of 2008, Warren Buffett penned an op-ed for the New York Times entitled, “Buy American. I am.” At that point the S&P 500 was nearly 40% off its highs and in the midst of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
Buffett stated:
The financial world is a mess, both in the United States and abroad. Its problems, moreover, have been leaking into the general economy, and the leaks are now turning into a gusher. In the near term, unemployment will rise, business activity will falter and headlines will continue to be scary. So … I’ve been buying American stocks.
Sound familiar?
Stocks would fall a further 30% or so from the day Buffett said he was buying stocks. Even the world’s greatest investor cannot nail the bottom in a falling market.
But had you purchased a simple S&P 500 index fund on the very same day Buffett said he was buying, you would be up more than 220% right now (and that includes the recent sell-off).
The truth is no one knows how to spot a bottom in real-time. Stocks are down a lot and this has been a painful recalibration for investors. The good news for those who are still saving on a regular basis is that stocks tend to have higher expected returns following a market crash.
If you have a long time horizon, even buying before stocks bottom can lead to positive outcomes.
Ben Carlson, CFA is the Director of Institutional Asset Management at Ritholtz Wealth Management. He may own securities or assets discussed in this piece.
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—How to prepare your personal finances for a coronavirus recession
—The Fed made a bold move to calm shaky markets. But is it enough?
—Why return CEOs are usually bad news for a company’s stock
—Dormant PayPal Credit accounts are coming back to hurt credit scores
—Listen to Leadership Next, a Fortune podcast examining the evolving role of CEO
—WATCH: What’s causing the looming recession
Subscribe to Fortune’s Bull Sheet for no-nonsense finance news and analysis daily.


fortune--2020-03-19--Tesla will idle plant after days-long duel with authorities

Tesla Inc. will idle production at its lone U.S. assembly plant, choking off the supply of cars to customers as the quarter comes to a close.
The decision announced in a statement Thursday followed several days of public pressure on Tesla by local police, city managers and health officials about the carmaker continuing to run the factory despite a county shelter-in-place order. Tesla said the facility will stop production at the end of March 23.
“Despite taking all known health precautions, continued operations in certain locations has caused challenges for our employees, their families and our suppliers,” Tesla said in the statement.
Tesla shares fell as much as 9.7% in late trading. The stock had rebounded during the regular session after plunging 44% over the course of the prior six trading days.
Last month, Tesla took advantage of its then-soaring stock by raising $2.3 billion in an equity offering. That sum, combined with the $6.3 billion cash that was on the balance sheet at the end of last year, “is sufficient to successfully navigate an extended period of uncertainty,” the company said.
Tesla’s solar plant in Buffalo, New York, also will suspend production. Hourly employees at both factories will receive their normal pay through Monday, and then the company will provide paid leave while operations are suspended, according to an internal email.
“It’s the right thing for Tesla to do. They should have done this sooner,” Gene Munster, managing partner of Loup Ventures, said by phone. “Tesla will survive.”
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—This famed economist doesn’t think we’re headed for another Great Recession
—South Korea has the most comprehensive coronavirus data. What it’s taught us so far
—10 questions about the 2020 election during the coronavirus pandemic, answered
—Here’s where Goldman Sachs predicts the stock market will bottom out
—Listen to Leadership Next, a Fortune podcast examining the evolving role of CEO
—WATCH: The greatest designs of modern times
Subscribe to Fortune’s Outbreak newsletter for a daily roundup of stories on the coronavirus outbreak and its impact on global business.


fortune--2020-03-19--Don’t get cut off by the coronavirus. Here are (mostly) free tech tools for work, education, and fun

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While quarantined or isolated because of COVID-19, it might seem challenging to figure out how to work, learn, stay in touch with family and friends, and, yes, weave some entertainment into an at-home schedule.
And seriously, sitting at home just watching or reading too much coronavirus news isn’t a healthy habit.
For parents, there are the added tasks of teaching kids at home and keeping them from needling one another into full-on meltdowns. Have toddlers? Keeping them entertained is its own kind of challenge.
But technology is here to help. Many companies are offering services for free or at a discount. Fortune has compiled them here to help kids and adults get through their days in isolation—without spending too much extra money.
Get work done
Jamm
Jamm sells voice and video collaboration tools for remote workers. During the coronavirus pandemic, the company is offering the service for free for the next three months.
Loom
Loom, a video-messaging service, is $5 a month through July for at-home workers, a 50% savings. The service is also helpful for teachers offering remote learning. Classroom users can access the service for free.
LinkedIn
LinkedIn is offering 16 professional development videos free of charge. The lessons include tips on working remotely, maximizing productivity, and managing stress.
Keep kids’ education moving ahead
Learn how to doodle
Children’s author Mo Willems is live-streaming a doodle tutorial each weekday during the coronavirus outbreak. You can watch the doodle tutorials live at 1 p.m. ET on the Kennedy Center website.
Virtual story time
Penguin Random House Canada is offering free access to virtual story time and sing-alongs for kids. The sing-alongs are on YouTube while the readings usually take place on Facebook Live and Instagram Live. Most are for young children. Times vary.
ABCMouse
ABCMouse offers a slew of learning tools for children. The company is offering a free 30-day trial to help kids from preschool through eighth grade get ahead on reading, math, science, and art. Click here to learn more.
Adobe at Home
Schools that have Adobe Creative Cloud, which includes everything from Photoshop to Illustrator, can provide their students with the program at home for free through May 31. Learn more here.
Barbara Bush Foundation
The Barbara Bush Foundation is serving up digital classroom and at-home learning tools for free to parents who are teaching their children at home. The tools help kids learn how to read and include tip sheets from the U.S. Department of Education to help parents improve their teaching skills.
Play some games
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
Game developer Ubisoft is offering free access to the open world adventure game Assassin’s Creed Odyssey through March 22. The freebie is available on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PCs. Learn more.
Team Alto mobile games
Team Alto, the developer behind the wildly popular mobile games Alto’s Odyssey and Alto’s Adventure is offering free access to its games for the next week. Learn more.
Epic Games
Epic Games is serving up several of its titles for free, including first-person exploration game The Stanley Parable and Watch Dogs, which centers on a hacker seeking revenge. The company will roll out other freebies soon.
The Sims 4
The Sims 4 lets users create and live a full digital life (and there’s no COVID-19 to speak of). Origin is offering the game for $4.99—an 88% discount.
Apple Arcade
Apple Arcade, the iPhone-maker’s cloud-based game-streaming service, provides access to more than 100 titles across iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV. Apple Arcade costs $5 per month after a one-month free trial.
Google Play Pass
For Android devices, Google Play Pass serves up a deep well of 350 streaming games. The service costs $5 per month after a 10-day free trial.
Exercise both body and mind
Peloton
Peloton is offering a 90-day free trial for its on-demand, at-home training app. Access both live and on-demand classes, no Peloton bike (or any bike) necessary since they also provide yoga and strength-training sessions.
AMC
AMC and its networks have extended their free trials in the wake of COVID-19. Watch content across AMC, AcornTV, Sundance Now, and others for free for 30 days. Just use code Free30.
Audible
Immerse yourself in some fiction or non-coronavirus nonfiction with audiobooks on Audible. The company bumped up their 30-day free trial to include three free titles (membership costs $14.95 per month). Not into subscribing? They’re also offering hundreds of free audiobooks for kids of all ages in seven different languages.
Sling
Streaming service provider Sling has rolled out a new Sling Free Experience that provides access to ABC News Live, as well as thousands of on-demand movies and TV shows for every age.
PBS
Baseball, Ken Burns’ documentary miniseries, offers a welcome dose of America’s favorite pastime to those mourning live sports events (as well as people who just love a good documentary). PBS is offering the series for free; stream it online or on a mobile device.
The Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera may not be able to perform for live audiences right now, but that won’t stop its performers from putting on a show. The Met has launched a free live-stream series with a new opera offered up each night.
Shudder
To watch some non-coronavirus horror, check out Shudder. The horror-movie streaming service has extended its free trial period to 30 days. Use the code SHUTIN. Yes, really.
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—Inside Xerox’s audacious quest to buy much bigger rival HP
—Uber’s CEO to investors: The coronavirus won’t kill our business
—A new iPad—and era, perhaps—arrives via press release
—Hong Kong launches a surveillance operation to track suspected coronavirus patients
—Listen to Leadership Next, a Fortune podcast examining the evolving role of CEOs
—WATCH: Best earbuds in 2020: Apple AirPods Pro vs. the Sony WF-1000XM3
Catch up with Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily digest on the business of tech.


fortune--2020-03-20--Coronavirus pandemic creates big appetite for news apps

These are the workers the U.S. government deems ‘ essential ’ amid the coronavirus pandemic

One upside to the current coronavirus crisis is that more Americans are reading the news.
Daily downloads of the Washington Post app are up 76% compared to January, while those for the New York Times are up 58% and the Wall Street Journal have risen 39%, according to research firm Apptopia.
Year-over-year, the Post‘s daily downloads are up 65% to a record 7,410 daily. The equivalent figure for the Times is 28,210 daily downloads (a 48% annual increase) and 6,460 for the Journal (a 20% gain).
Apps related to working or socializing from home—including Zoom and Rave—have seen similar upticks, said the report’s author, Madeline Lenahan. However, travel-related apps like Uber and Lyft are taking “huge hits.”
In the case of the news apps, Apptopia says it’s too soon to say if the surge in downloads will translate into additional revenue.
News publishers, including Fortune, have long provided large amounts of their reporting free of charge, but have become more assertive in recent years in asking readers to pay for their work. (Fortune’s new app is available here).
While individual publications like the Times have had increased downloads, Apptopia notes that it is news aggregators like SmartNews and News Break that are enjoying the lion’s share of gains. In the case of News Break, users downloaded the app a record 225,000 times on March 17.
Lenahan notes that downloads can be a “vanity metric” for companies since many consumers download an app and only use it once. But she adds that the recent download figures for news apps has been accompanied by a similar surge in daily active users—suggesting users are indeed reading more news during the crisis than ever.
More coronavirus coverage from Fortune:
—Financial crisis looms as corporate America presses for coronavirus bailout
—Tax deadline moved to July 15 due to coronavirus
—Death rate in China’s coronavirus epicenter is lower than previously thought
—How working parents are navigating childcare during the coronavirus pandemic
—As oil slides on coronavirus and price war, the market looks for the new normal
—Funerals in the time of coronavirus: How a pandemic is changing the industry
—Listen to Leadership Next, a Fortune podcast examining the evolving role of CEO
—WATCH: World leaders and health experts on how to stop the spread of COVID-19
Subscribe to Outbreak, a daily newsletter roundup of stories on the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on global business. It’s free to get it in your inbox.


fortune--2020-03-20--These are the workers the U.S. government deems ‘essential’ amid the coronavirus pandemic

What to watch on Netflix while social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic

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As more states like California, New York and Ohio are ordering its millions of residents to stay home because of the coronavirus, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has listed which industries and workers are “essential” to fighting the pandemic.
The list of essential employees—which is advisory, not a federal directive—was made as the U.S. has more than 16,000 confirmed cases of the virus, according to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus tracker on Friday.
“If you work in a critical infrastructure industry, as defined by the Department of Homeland Security, such as health care services and pharmaceutical and food supply, you have a special responsibility to maintain your normal work schedule,” President Donald Trump said Monday.
And, according to the DHS Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), there are 14 employment categories that the agency identifies as Essential Critical Infrastructure Workers. These include:
1. Health care and public health workers
Hospital and laboratory personnel, caregivers, mental health workers, doctors, nurses, researchers, pharmacists, dentists, social workers, technicians, as well as funeral home and cemetery workers.
2. Law enforcement, public safety, and first responders
Emergency management personnel, including police officers, firefighters, paramedics, and emergency medical technicians. The list also includes 911 call center workers and those who oversee emergency service operations.
3. Food and agriculture workers
Food and agriculture workers include those who work in grocery stores, pharmacies, restaurants (including delivery drivers), company cafeterias, animal agriculture workers, and the food and beverage industries. Farmers, food processing workers, warehouse workers, and food truck delivery drivers are also on the list.
4. Energy employees
This category includes utilities, telecommunications staffers, natural gas/propane workers, the electricity industry, engineers, cybersecurity/risk management staff, and environmental remediation.
5. Water and wastewater
Employees needed to operate and maintain drinking water and wastewater/drainage infrastructure.
6. Transportation and logistics
This includes mass transit workers, auto repair and maintenance workers, trash collectors, postal and shipping workers, air traffic controllers, air transportation employees, dispatchers, maintenance and repair technicians, warehouse workers, truck stop and rest area workers, and workers who maintain and inspect infrastructure.
7. Public works
Public works employees who operate, inspect and maintain dams, locks, levees, and bridges. This also includes workers who oversee sewer main breaks, traffic signals and buried/underground utilities.
8. Communications and information technology
Technicians, operators, call centers, wireline and wireless providers, cable service providers, satellite operations, and manufacturers and distributors of communications equipment. Workers who support radio, television, and media service, including news reporters, studio, and technicians for news gathering and reporting, are also included in this category, as well as data center operators, HVAC and electrical engineers, security personnel, IT managers, software and hardware engineers, and database administrators.
9. Other community-based government operations and essential functions
Elections personnel, building employees, security staff, trade officials, weather forecasters, customs workers, and educators.
10. Critical manufacturing
Workers necessary for the manufacturing of materials and products needed for medical supply chains, transportation, energy, communications, food and agriculture, chemical manufacturing, nuclear facilities, the operation of dams, water and wastewater treatment, emergency services, and the defense industrial base.
11. Hazardous materials
Workers at nuclear facilities, workers managing medical waste, workers managing waste from pharmaceuticals and medical material production, and workers at laboratories processing test kits.
12. Financial services
Bank employees and other financial/lending institutions, as well as those needed to keep ATM services available to consumers.
13. Chemical workers
Workers supporting the chemical and industrial gas supply chains, including workers at chemical manufacturing plants, workers in laboratories, workers at distribution facilities, workers who transport basic raw chemical materials to the producers of industrial and consumer goods, including hand sanitizers, food and food additives, pharmaceuticals, textiles, and paper products.
14. Defense industrial base
Workers who support the essential services required to meet national security commitments to the federal government and U.S. military. These individuals, include but are not limited to aerospace; mechanical and software engineers, manufacturing/production workers; IT support; security staff; security personnel; intelligence support, aircraft and weapon systems mechanics and maintainers.
Personnel working for companies, and their subcontractors, who perform under contract to the Department of Defense providing materials and services to the Department of Defense, as well as government-owned/contractor-operated and government-owned/government-operated facilities.
More coronavirus coverage from Fortune:
—Why the extraordinary dollar surge spells more trouble for the global economy
—Japan finally admits coronavirus might disrupt Tokyo 2020 Olympics
—Which stores are open—and closed—during the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S.?
—What medical experts say about Everlywell’s home coronavirus testing kits
—How to defer your mortgage payment due to coronavirus
—How Emmy season is proceeding, with caution, amid the coronavirus crisis
—Listen to Leadership Next, a Fortune podcast examining the evolving role of CEO
—WATCH: World leaders and health experts on how to stop the spread of COVID-19
Subscribe to Outbreak, a daily newsletter roundup of stories on the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on global business. It’s free to get it in your inbox.


fortune--2020-03-20--Dow sees worst week since 2008 crisis, falls more than 900 points

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Stocks sank to their worst week since the financial crisis of 2008 as traders went into full retreat out of fear that the coronavirus will plunge the U.S. and other major economies into deep recessions. The Dow industrials dropped more than 900 points, extending their weekly loss to 17.3%. The price of U.S. crude oil also took another nosedive as investors anticipate a sharp drop in demand for energy as manufacturing, travel and commerce grind nearly to a halt. New York became the latest state to extend a mandate to nearly all workers stay home to limit the spread of the virus.
The latest sell-off wiped out the market’s gains from a day earlier and capped the market’s worst week since the financial crisis of 2008.
The action taken by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, coming just a day after California announced similar measures, is another sign that large swaths of the U.S. economy are coming to a standstill as restaurants, retailers and other businesses dependent on consumer traffic are forced to close doors and furlough or lay off workers.
The measures mean less demand for oil. U.S. crude dropped about 21% and moved below $20 a barrel for first time since February 2002.
Investors are weighing the likelihood that the global economy is entering a recession because of the massive shutdowns and layoffs caused by the outbreak against steps by central banks and governments to ease the economic pain.
Ultimately, investors say they need to see the number of new infections stop accelerating for the market’s volatile skid to ease.
“We just don’t know what the next two weeks will bring,” said Paul Christopher, global market strategist at the Wells Fargo Investment Institute. “Are we going to follow the same infection curve as other countries and the number infections will drastically accelerate? That’s when the storm is going to come.”
The S&P 500, the benchmark for many index funds held in retirement accounts and the measure preferred by professional investors, was down 4.3% after being up 1.8% earlier. The index is down 31.9% since reaching a record high a month ago and is on track for its biggest weekly loss since October 2008 during the global financial crisis.
Investors continued to seek safety in U.S. government bonds, driving their yields broadly lower. The 10-year Treasury yield, which influences interest rates on mortgages and other consumer loans, slid to 0.88% from 1.12% late Thursday.
Oil has been plunging recent weeks as investors anticipate a sharp drop in demand for energy as manufacturing, travel and commerce grind nearly to a halt. It’s down by nearly half from $45 a barrel earlier this month. A price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia has also pushed oil lower.
European and Asian markets closed broadly higher.
Despite the latest bout of selling, hopes remain that there will be progress in finding virus treatments and that “a boatload of stimulus by both central banks and governments will put the global economy in position for a U-shaped recovery,” said Edward Moya of Oanda in a report.
Members of President Donald Trump’s economic team were convening Friday on Capitol Hill to launch negotiations with Senate Republicans and Democrats racing to draft a $1 trillion-plus economic rescue package amid the coronavirus outbreak.
“We hope to see the Congress act on that early next week,” Vice President Mike Pence said during an afternoon press conference.
The rescue package is the biggest effort yet to shore up households and the U.S. economy as the pandemic and its nationwide shutdown hurtles the country toward a likely recession.
Even with the market’s broad slide, airlines, hotels and cruise line operators climbed as Congress worked on the economic stimulus bill that would include billions to bail out those industries. United Airlines surged 15.1% and MGM Resorts International jumped 18.3%. Carnival rose 20%. Despite the big gains, the stocks are still down sharply for the year.
On Thursday, the European Central Bank launched a program to inject money into credit markets by purchasing up to 750 billion euros ($820 billion) in bonds. The Bank of England cut its key interest rate to a record low of 0.1% and restarted its own program of money injections into the financial system. Australia’s central bank cut its benchmark lending rate to 0.25%. Central banks in Taiwan, Indonesia and the Philippines also cut rates.
They are trying to reduce the impact of a global recession that forecasters say looks increasingly likely as the United States and other governments tighten travel controls, close businesses and tell consumers and travelers to stay home.
The U.S. Federal Reserve unveiled measures Thursday to support money-market funds and the borrowing of dollars as investors in markets worldwide hurry to build up cash as insurance against falling asset prices.
Investors are jumpy due to uncertainty about the size and duration of the impact of the coronavirus outbreak and the spreading wave of business shutdowns meant to help contain it.
More than 10,000 people have died. There are more than 246,000 cases worldwide, including nearly 85,000 people who have recovered.
For most people, the coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, and those with mild illness recover in about two weeks. Severe illness including pneumonia can occur, especially in the elderly and people with existing health problems, and recovery could take six weeks in such cases.
More coronavirus coverage from Fortune:
—Financial crisis looms as corporate America presses for coronavirus bailout
—Tax deadline moved to July 15 due to coronavirus
—Death rate in China’s coronavirus epicenter is lower than previously thought
—How working parents are navigating childcare during the coronavirus pandemic
—As oil slides on coronavirus and price war, the market looks for the new normal
—Funerals in the time of coronavirus: How a pandemic is changing the industry
—Listen to Leadership Next, a Fortune podcast examining the evolving role of CEO
—WATCH: World leaders and health experts on how to stop the spread of COVID-19
Subscribe to Fortune’s Outbreak newsletter for a daily roundup of stories on the coronavirus outbreak and its impact on global business.


fortune--2020-03-20--U.K. pledges to help pay employees in order to avoid mass coronavirus layoffs

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The U.K. government unveiled a vast economic backstop on Friday evening, telling British businesses of all sizes that it would cover the majority of furloughed workers’ wages, in order to prevent wide-scale layoffs as a result of efforts to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme will cover 80% of workers’ wages, up to 2,500 pounds ($2,903), for at least three months, backdating to March 1, in an unprecedented effort to get companies to keep workers on their payrolls, rather than laying them off en masse.
The scheme covers businesses of all sizes and comes alongside a range of other measures, including 1 billion pounds ($1.16 billion) in support for renters, unlimited interest-free loans for the next 12 months, and deferring VAT payments for businesses, a “direct injection” equivalent to 30 billion pounds ($35 billion) or 1.3% of the country’s GDP, said U.K. chancellor Rishi Sunak.
“We want to look back on this moment and remember the many small acts of kindness done by us and [for] us. We want to look back on this time and remember how we thought first of others and acted with decency,” said Sunak. “We want to look back on this time and remember how in the face of a generation-defining moment, we undertook a collective national effort, and we stood together.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson also announced that the government would officially order the closure of social venues of all kinds—cafés, restaurants, gyms, and pubs—after previously only “advising” people not to use them earlier this week.
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fortune--2020-03-20--What to watch on Netflix while social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic

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Sorting through Netflix’s back catalog can feel a bit like shopping at a superstore with only the broadest of overhead signs to guide you: disorienting, increasingly frustrating, and perhaps more trouble than it’s worth when all you’re really after are chips and salsa.
But in the time of the coronavirus, folks are wisely staying home and self-isolating in droves, leaving plenty of time to peer through streaming services’ myriad offerings in search of the perfect mid-pandemic entertainment. Fortune’s here to make that quest a little easier, breaking down the major services’ offerings into a few distinct recommendations based on whatever mood our current global crisis might have you in (all of which are completely valid).
For a badly needed laugh:
“I Think You Should Leave With Tim Robinson” is a surreal sketch comedy that’s hard to describe. Courtesy of Netflix
Derry Girls A gaggle of northern Irish teenagers brave the daily indignities and unusual intensities of life in the 1990s, as the Troubles draw to a tumultuous close, in this achingly funny and beautifully lived-in comedy series from showrunner Lisa McGee, which will dramatically expand your knowledge of Irish slang when it doesn’t have you in stitches. Haven’t seen it yet? Catch yourself on, pipe down, and change that.
The Other Guys Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg top-line this irreverent action-comedy, still writer-director Adam McKay’s best film. Come for the high-octane antics as the duo’s outmatched New York City detectives take on corrupt cops and lethal hit men while unraveling a wide-reaching conspiracy. Stay for the belly laughs, as peacocks, bushes, and Gator the Pimp all factor into one of the most punchline-laden scripts this side of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.
I Think You Should Leave With Tim Robinson Accurately describing this surreal sketch-comedy series is a nigh impossible feat, given how scrupulously it defies definition. Suffice it to say no other series on Netflix is as bizarrely excellent (and excellently bizarre) at delivering memorable, highly meme-able sketch comedy characters, from an absurd game-show mascot named Chunky to that car focus-group guy (“Who’s popular now, Paul?”) with all the good car ideas.
Additional picks
Seth Meyers: Lobby Baby
Billy on the Street
Hot Rod
Oh, Hello! On Broadway
The Inbetweeners
For the best stuff you missed last year:
“Russian Doll” follows a woman named Nadia (Natasha Lyonne) on her journey as the guest of honor at a seemingly inescapable party one night in New York City. Courtesy of Netflix
Russian Doll (one season) Natasha Lyonne is spectacular in in this unexpectedly delightful riff on Groundhog Day, about a smart-mouthed New Yorker who finds herself inexplicably dying each night and resetting to the same moment at her 36th birthday party. It walks a tricky tonal tightrope, balancing melancholy with hard-hitting laughs, and manages the feat with remarkable skill.
I Lost My Body This French animated gem follows a severed hand that comes to life and, surreptitiously, makes its way across Paris and back to its owner. Beautifully rendered in service of a story that’s as strange as it is ultimately soul-affirming, I Lost My Body pushes the boundaries of both animated and philosophical storytelling.
The Umbrella Academy (one season) Who knew the best fix for superhero fatigue could emerge from the genre itself? My Chemical Romance’s Gerard Way is the driving force behind this hyper-stylized adaptation of his punchy, peculiar comic about a dysfunctional family of superpowered individuals born suddenly, in the same moment, to women who’d previously shown no signs of being pregnant. In adulthood, the siblings (played by the likes of Ellen Page, Tom Hopper, and Robert Sheehan) drift to different corners of the world, but when they reconvene for the funeral of the eccentric billionaire who adopted and raised them, a time-traveler from the future alerts them that they have a few days to prevent the apocalypse.
Additional picks
Beyoncé: Homecoming
Sex Education
Triple Frontier
When They See Us
Daybreak
To find your next binge-watch:
Breaking Bad What better time than a quarantine to go back to the beginning of one of TV’s greatest all-time triumphs? If you’ve already witnessed the rise and fall of Walter White, everyone’s favorite high school teacher turned meth kingpin, few series were as elegantly, ingeniously crafted—from beginning to end—in such a way as to reward repeat viewings. And if you’re new to Breaking Bad, fasten your seat belts. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.
I Am Not Okay With This Toss most of the recent Netflix originals you love (Stranger Things, The End of the F—ing World, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and Sex Education) into a blender with Stephen King’s Carrie, and you’re somewhere close to this supernaturally tinged coming-of-age tale starring two of the It kids: Sophia Lillis and Wyatt Oleff.
The Vampire Diaries Eight seasons of one of the CW’s trademark supernatural soaps might honestly be just what the doctor ordered. And you couldn’t do better than this surprisingly sprawling, always-engrossing saga of grief-stricken teenager Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev) and the two bloodsucking brothers (Paul Wesley and Ian Somerhalder) she grew to love and hate as they joined forces against all manner of otherworldly evils plaguing the perfectly named town of Mystic Falls.
Additional picks
Cheer
Schitt’s Creek
Mad Men
New Girl
On My Block
Elite
Riverdale
Love Is Blind
For the whole family:
“The Good Place,” offers afterlife comedy, philosophical theory, and much needed warmth. NBC
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Thrilling, funny, soul-nourishing, and visually astounding, this animated caper is the wall-crawler’s finest outing, bar none. Half its brilliance is structural, with over 100 animators working to pull off its groundbreaking, computer-meets-hand-drawn look, and the other half comes from a story that innately gets the balance of heart and humor that’s always made Spider-Man so super.
The Good Place We need a show like The Good Place. Warm and thoughtful and effervescently optimistic about human nature, this critically adored comedy from Mike Schur started in a very funny place, as a group of strangers in the afterlife contemplated their new reality. But over its four-season run, the show became something far richer and more vital: a rousing, existential defense of the individual’s capacity for change, and a thoroughly timely look at how we humans can better ourselves, each other, and the world—just so long as we make the effort.
John Mulaney & the Sack Lunch Bunch An endearingly off-kilter next move for the millennial-fave comedian after his trio of eminently quotable stand-up sets (New in Town, The Comeback Kid, and Kid Gorgeous—all also on Netflix), this children’s musical comedy special riffs on ’70s staples like Sesame Street by pairing Mulaney with 15 kids between the ages of 8 to 13. But straight-up parody this is not. Through all manner of insane musical numbers (“I Saw a White Lady Standing on the Street Just Sobbing [and I Think About It Once a Week]”), ridiculous guest appearances (Jake Gyllenhaal as a deranged Music Man), and impressively abstract thought-trains (about everything from death to parenting to death again), Sack Lunch Bunch keeps its tongue firmly in cheek without sacrificing its earnest tenor.
Additional picks
The Chef Show
The Princess and the Frog
The Great British Bake Off
Space Jam
Hook
National Treasure
For thrills and chills:
Good Time Before bringing Adam Sandler the best reviews of his career in their superlative Uncut Gems, Josh and Benny Safdie perform similar career resuscitation on then-Twilight alum Robert Pattinson. This scuzzy, neon-soaked odyssey through New York City’s criminal underbelly is one of the most stressful thrillers of recent years—and Pattinson, as a truly detestable thief out to spring his mentally handicapped brother from prison after a botched bank robbery, is unnervingly great as its immoral center.
Black Mirror You’ve likely seen a few installments of this anthology series, a chilling and very occasionally hopeful collection of techno-paranoiac parables. But what better time to fill in the blanks by catching early episodes (like “The Entire History of You,” starring Toby Kebbell and Jodie Whittaker as a couple replaying their memories thanks to a brain implant that records everything) and making time for the less universally acclaimed outings (like “Metalhead,” a robo-pocalypse romp with a timely through line about how far we’ll go for small joys in super-dark times).
The Blackcoat’s Daughter A holy trinity of young actresses—Emma Roberts, Kiernan Shipka, and Lucy Boynton—star in this chilly, hair-raising psychological horror gem from writer-director Oz Perkins (Gretel & Hansel), about two Catholic schoolgirls left behind at school over a holiday break, only for a demonic presence to make itself known.
Additional picks
Pan’s Labyrinth
The Invitation
The Witch
Ex Machina
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—Filmmakers must make a choice as the coronavirus forces festivals online
—How Harvey Weinstein’s sentencing could change the entertainment industry
—As the coronavirus spreads, is this weekend’s historically low box office Hollywood’s new normal?
—Don Cheadle on Black Monday, Wall Street in the Trump era, and hope about the climate change fight
—How Netflix’s Lost Girls upends the conventions of serial killer movies
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fortune--2020-03-20--Coronavirus economic relief proposals are overlooking the 57 million Americans who are self-employed

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COVID-19 has upended life for many of us, creating uncertainty for our families, our businesses, and the broader economy. In the U.S., politicians on both sides of the aisle are racing to align on relief packages that would provide in excess of $1 trillion in aid to various industries, programs, and households. While these packages rightly include support for small businesses, there is a large swath of independent workers—57 million, according to a 2019 study—whose businesses are too small to even qualify as a “small business.”
These are the microbusiness owners, the independent contractors, and the self-employed individuals who make up the emerging gig economy, and are about one-third of the total employable workforce in the U.S. They embody the spirit of entrepreneurism and drive a vital part of the economy. For example, U.S. Etsy sellers alone drove around $6.2 billion in economic output and created 1.7 million jobs in 2019. They join millions of others, from the freelance writers and designers who work behind the scenes, to the independent handymen, photographers, and fitness instructors who are always on call.
They are also among the most vulnerable to the current crisis. If they get sick, they must take time off to care for a family member, or simply experience a decline in sales as customers tighten their budgets—they can’t call on a colleague to cover for them or rely on a steady paycheck. Yet, as microbusiness owners, they don’t qualify for employment-based benefits, like unemployment insurance or paid leave. Nor are current small business supports, like Small Business Association (SBA) loans, helpful for one-person businesses who operate more informal businesses funded by their own personal savings and business revenue. They are truly going it alone, and they are falling through the cracks when it comes to COVID-19 relief efforts.
Both Congress and the Trump administration must ensure that microbusinesses and the self-employed are a key part of any economic recovery package. Earlier this week, on behalf of Etsy sellers, I shared the following reform suggestions directly with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker Nancy Pelosi. These reforms would not only provide critical relief to microbusiness owners, but also protect a vital part of our nation’s economy:
Direct assistance
While the $1,200 checks Congress is currently considering would certainly help the self-employed, it will not cover many of the costs they will face as customers cancel orders, shipping becomes less reliable, and their bills come due. In addition to those direct payments currently under discussion for all Americans, Congress should create a supplementary direct assistance program for the self-employed and microbusinesses to help cover the cost of lost business, paid sick leave, individual health care costs, and fixed expenses.
Unemployment protection
The self-employed are typically ineligible for unemployment protection, because they don’t have an employer paying into the system on their behalf. The federal government should immediately establish an unemployment protection fund for all self-employed Americans and gig workers, which would allow them to receive benefits in the event of declining income owing to decreased demand for their goods or services.
Business-critical services
Self-employed Americans, including Etsy sellers, depend on critical e-commerce infrastructure, including financial services, shipping, and Internet connectivity. The federal government should ensure that these essential services remain fully operational, even as the public and private sectors take greater measures to contain the spread of the virus.
Tax and debt deferral
In addition to deferring the April 15 deadline for federal tax returns, that deferral should also include the subsequent two quarterly tax payment deadlines, which place a significant financial burden on the self-employed by putting a short-term strain on cash flow. Congress should also negotiate deferred mortgage and credit card payments for self-employed microbusiness owners, who often operate out of their homes and use personal credit cards to fund their business.
Earned Income Tax Credit
The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is an important source of income protection that already works equally well for gig workers and traditional employees because it is not administered through a payroll, like most other social safety net benefits. Congress should expand EITC by increasing the income threshold (which is dependent on a number of factors), including younger and childless workers, and eliminating the marriage penalty. Lawmakers should also allow it to be calculated and administered on a quarterly basis instead of annually, which would better support individuals struggling to manage short-term income volatility.
Disaster relief
Many of the government’s disaster relief programs, such as FEMA’s Other Needs Assistance program or SBA’s Disaster Relief Loans program, simply do not work for the self-employed. They often fail to cover the specific losses they incur, or require them to jump through too many administrative hoops to access funds. For example, FEMA’s Other Needs Assistance program requires applicants to first apply and then be denied for a SBA Disaster Home Loan to qualify.
Certainly, all government programs come with some level of bureaucracy, but for a sole proprietor, any hour they spend navigating this complexity is an hour they are not making their goods or marketing their services. They simply can’t afford the investment. Congress should appropriate funds for a self-employment assistance fund within the Economic Development Administration’s Economic Adjustment Assistance and the SBA’s Disaster Relief Loan programs, and require these agencies to quickly issue guidelines to help the self-employed understand and access these programs.
Taken together, these reforms would dramatically ease the burdens faced by the millions of independent contractors, self-employed individuals, and microbusiness owners who are driving the broader gig economy. At a time of so much uncertainty, let’s not leave the most vulnerable entrepreneurs behind.
Josh Silverman is CEO of Etsy.
More opinion in Fortune:
—The next Great Recession has already begun
—Combating the coronavirus starts with keeping health workers well
—6 steps to sustainably flatten the coronavirus curve
—Vague remote work policies won’t cut it during the coronavirus pandemic
—Listen to Leadership Next, a Fortune podcast examining the evolving role of CEOs
—WATCH: CEO of Canada’s biggest bank on the keys to leading through the coronavirus
Listen to our audio briefing, Fortune 500 Daily


fortune--2020-03-20--Netflix: $100 million in coronavirus relief for creative ranks

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Netflix said Friday it is establishing a $100 million relief fund for workers in the worldwide creative community affected by the corona-virus caused halt of most film and television production.
“This community has supported Netflix through the good times, and we want to help them through these hard times, especially while governments are still figuring out what economic support they will provide,” Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s chief creative officer, said in a statement.
The majority of the fund will support the hardest-hit workers on Netflix’s own productions around the world, Sarandos said, and will supplement the two weeks of pay the company already agreed to pay the cast and crew on suspended productions.
In an effort to support the broader film and television industry, $15 million of the fund will be distributed to “third parties and nonprofits providing emergency relief to out-of-work crew and cast in the countries where we have a large production base,” according to the statement.
In the U.S. and Canada, Netflix said it will donate $1 million each to the SAG-AFTRA Covid-19 Disaster Fund, the Motion Picture and Television Fund and the Actors Fund Emergency Assistance in the United States, and $1 million between the AFC and Fondation des Artistes.
Elsewhere, including Europe, Latin America and Asia, Netflix is coordinating with industry organizations to create similar relief efforts, Sarandos said, with announcements planned next week on funding those efforts.
“What’s happening is unprecedented,” he said. “We are only as strong as the people we work with and Netflix is fortunate to be able to help those hardest hit in our industry through this challenging time.”
Efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus have left the entertainment industry reeling, with the suspension of most productions and the closures of movie theaters, Broadway plays and concert postponements.
The vast majority of people recover from the new virus. According to the World Health Organization, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three to six weeks to recover.
More coronavirus coverage from Fortune:
—Financial crisis looms as corporate America presses for coronavirus bailout
—Tax deadline moved to July 15 due to coronavirus
—Death rate in China’s coronavirus epicenter is lower than previously thought
—How working parents are navigating childcare during the coronavirus pandemic
—As oil slides on coronavirus and price war, the market looks for the new normal
—Funerals in the time of coronavirus: How a pandemic is changing the industry
—Listen to Leadership Next, a Fortune podcast examining the evolving role of CEO
—WATCH: World leaders and health experts on how to stop the spread of COVID-19
Subscribe to Fortune’s Outbreak newsletter for a daily roundup of stories on the coronavirus outbreak and its impact on global business.


fortune--2020-03-20--The company that found a cure for Ebola is working on a treatment for coronavirus

At its best, business can solve very big problems. Arguably the biggest problem today, worldwide, is the onset and rapid spread of COVID-19. Some executives see an opportunity for innovation to lead the way amid these precarious times.
George Yancopoulos, president and chief scientific officer of biotech company Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, is one such leader. His company announced this week it has developed a promising drug to fight coronavirus, and will begin human trials by early summer. Regeneron has an excellent track record: It created a treatment that drastically reduced the mortality rate in the Ebola virus outbreak that scared the world just a few short years ago.
Yancopoulos joins the latest episode of Fortune’s new podcast Leadership Next to detail the innovative approach Regeneron is using to create a potential coronavirus treatment. Alan Murray, host of the podcast and Fortune’s president and CEO, calls this “the most encouraging conversation I’ve had in quite awhile.”
Leadership Next focuses on the evolving role of today’s CEO and what that means for the future of business. New episodes are typically released every Tuesday, but a topic this pressing calls for a special edition.
At around the 22-minute mark Yancopoulos speaks passionately about the collective need across business, industry, health care, and politics to work together for a cure: “We need to encourage the brightest minds to devote their greatest efforts to innovate and invent the solutions to the existential threats facing humanity. … We are fighting for our very survival. Innovation has saved us before, and that’s what we’ve got to focus on again.”
Yancopolous typifies the type of CEOs Leadership Next finds so fascinating. He leads his company toward social good without losing sight of his responsibility to corporate enterprise, noting, “It turns out if you deliver important new drugs to people, the money takes care of itself.”
Listen and subscribe to ‘Leadership Next’ now:
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—This famed economist doesn’t think we’re headed for another Great Recession
—South Korea has the most comprehensive coronavirus data. What it’s taught us so far
—10 questions about the 2020 election during the coronavirus pandemic, answered
—Here’s where Goldman Sachs predicts the stock market will bottom out
—Listen to Leadership Next, a Fortune podcast examining the evolving role of CEO
—WATCH: The greatest designs of modern times
Subscribe to Fortune’s Outbreak newsletter for a daily roundup of stories on the coronavirus outbreak and its impact on global business.