Switzerland and Austria pledged to help Lufthansa with state-backed loans as the German airline pursues talks with Berlin over a 9 billion euro ($9.8 billion) rescue package. The Swiss government said on Wednesday it will ask parliament for 1.275 billion francs in loan guarantees for Lufthansa units Swiss and Edelweiss. Strict travel restrictions to contain the coronavirus pandemic have brought flights to a near-halt across the world and there is no end in sight for when they can restart, leaving many airlines begging governments for rescue packages....
(Bloomberg) -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac face strong headwinds from the mayhem coronavirus has spread through the mortgage market, complicating the Trump administration’s plans to free them from U.S. control anytime soon.The companies, which backstop roughly $5 trillion of mortgages, might have to set aside huge amounts of money to cover the risk of souring home loans. They may also take a hit from the pain being inflicted on nonbank mortgage servicers as millions of borrowers delay making their monthly loan payments. Meanwhile, the outlook for the U.S. housing market -- the engine that powers Fannie and Freddie’s profits -- looks bleak.Wall Street will get its first look at the pandemic’s impact on Fannie and Freddie when they report first quarter results later this week. Weak earnings or discouraging revelations about the extent of the mortgage mess would be a setback for the White House, according to analysts. Administration officials...
Tesla is set to report first-quarter earnings results Wednesday after market close, giving investors a look at the automaker’s financial performance in the three-month period that included the start of Tesla’s Fremont factory closure and weakened auto demand for consumers at large as the coronavirus outbreak spread....
The equity market had consistently outperformed bitcoin since the stock market sell-off in mid-March, but that trend has been reversed on Wednesday. The digital asset's return since February 20 bounced back to around -13.85% today, compared to S&P 500's -14.01%. BTC price also surged above $8,000 in the morning for the first time since March […]The post Bitcoin now outperforming S&P 500 for the first time since equity sell-off appeared first on The Block....
(Bloomberg) -- John Tyson, the billionaire whose family business reigns as the largest meat processor in the U.S., took out ads in national newspapers to complain about a “breaking” food supply chain.No one would argue that supplies aren’t an issue right now. Even Donald Trump is invoking the Defense Production Act to secure meat production. But the roots of this problem go back to decades of consolidation that Tyson’s own company helped lead. Tyson Foods Inc. and its top two rivals -- JBS SA and Cargill Inc. -- control today about two-thirds of America’s beef, and the large bulk of it gets processed in a few dozen giant plants. Pork and chicken are similarly dominated.While Tyson pointed out that the pandemic has affected businesses of all sizes, the producers, which also include Smithfield Foods Inc., have such a stranglehold on output that it leaves the supply chain with few remedies when...
