The Trump administration has held talks with Intel Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the newspaper reported, citing sources and a correspondence viewed by the Journal. TSMC has been talking with the U.S. Commerce and Defense departments and with Apple Inc, one of its largest customers, about building a chip factory in the United States, the report added....
(Bloomberg) -- With the economy in freefall, bond investors are clinging to just two certainties right now: that the Treasury is flooding the market with debt, and the Federal Reserve is fully mobilized.The government is about to raise a record $96 billion in its refunding auctions for stimulus in the wake of the pandemic. Traders will absorb this and any guidance from Fed Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday, with the market already starting to hedge the risk of negative rates. These fiscal and monetary forces are driving yields at either end of the curve wider apart. The two-year is near a record low barely above zero, while the imminent reintroduction of 20-year bonds is helping drive up long-end rates.Many investors see the curve steepening further. Indeed, it’s been billed the new consensus trade. One key reason: Supply pressures are only expected to build as the deficit heads toward $4 trillion. And...
Disney (DIS) has revealed how its Shanghai Disneyland Park will implement the new Covid-19 restrictions when it reopens on May 11. The park has been shut since late January.Visitors will have their temperature checked before entering, go through a security screening, and wear masks at all times.“We will have cast members, throughout the park, doing continuous wiping down, sanitizing and disinfecting all the high-touch surfaces,” Andrew Bolstein, senior VP of operations for the Shanghai park, said. “We will have cast members at the entrance of every attraction reminding our guests to maintain social distancing.”On the rides “we have put markers on all the rows, all the benches, to indicate where your seat is. And if they don’t have markers, that’s not a place to sit. So, it’s greatly reducing capacity of the ride, but allowing for social distancing which is most important at this stage” he added.Under government restrictions the park will...
Southwest Airlines (LUV) has entered into sale-leaseback transactions for 10 of its Boeing (BA) 737-800 aircraft, as well as 10 of the company’s Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft, a filing has revealed.From the transactions, Southwest expects to receive gross proceeds of approximately $815 million. The company intends to use this money for ‘general corporate purposes.’The filing does not reveal who is buying the planes, or how long the leaseback agreement will last.According to the company website, LUV could restart flights to Cancun, Los Cabos, Havana and Montego Bay as soon as June 7.“I think we’ve seen the bottom in April. Each week after the first week of April has gotten successively better. I think May will be better than April was,” Southwest CEO Gary Kelly said in an interview on CBS News, adding ““I don’t think June will be a good month, but hopefully it will be a bit better than...
Asia – Pacific shares firm as news of top trade representatives of China and the United States holding phone talks calmed investors worried about simmering Sino-U.S. tensions...
Quidel (QDEL) has now received Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the US FDA for its Sofia 2 SARS Antigen FIA, a rapid point-of-care test for suspected COVID-19 infection.According to the FDA, this is a new category of tests that will now be available for use in the ongoing pandemic. “The antigen diagnostic tests quickly detect fragments of proteins found on or within the virus by testing samples collected from the nasal cavity using swabs” the FDA says.One of the main advantages of an antigen test is the speed of the test, which can provide results in minutes. However, antigen tests may not detect all active infections, as they are less sensitive than molecular PCR tests.This means that negative results from an antigen test may need to be confirmed with a PCR test prior to making treatment decisions or to prevent the possible spread of the virus due to a false negative,...
