(Bloomberg) -- Global central banks remain under pressure to do more to support their economies through the coronavirus recession even after driving interest rates to record lows and pledging to spend trillions of dollars on asset purchases.The U.S. Federal Reserve, Bank of Japan and European Central Bank, which together cover almost half of global output, will all convene meetings of policy makers this week after the pandemic-driven freezing of economies and turmoil in financial markets propelled them into action.With governments this week set to confirm multi-year expansions ended in the U.S. and euro area in the first quarter, monetary policy makers may have to do more to limit the recession and speed the recovery. Among the options: extending the quantitative easing, helping ease credit to troubled businesses and committing to rock-bottom rates for longer.“The extremity of the virus crisis is forcing central banks to push the limits of the possible,” said...
(Bloomberg) -- U.S. cases rose 4.5%, more than the average of the past week, as the global death toll from the coronavirus passed 200,000. Governor Andrew Cuomo said New York is on a steady retreat from the deadly peaks that pushed the state to 10% of the world’s infections.Fatalities slowed in Europe’s biggest nations as leaders plan to relax economy-crushing lockdown measures. Spain is ready to take further steps to ease its measures next week.The U.S. is helping livestock and poultry producers hurt by the closure of meatpacking plants during outbreak.Key DevelopmentsVirus Tracker: Cases top 2.8 million; deaths exceed 202,000Meat shortages in U.S. may be near as processors shutU.S. retailers may be running out of time to surviveWHO says ‘no evidence’ people recovered from disease are safeU.S. military gets new supply chain missionThe world’s highest death rate is in Europe’s capitalSubscribe to a daily update on the virus from Bloomberg’s Prognosis...
The coronavirus pandemic has led to a major decrease in air travel, but the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA) wants to take it a step further....
Facebook, Inc (NASDAQ: FB) shares are up 24.9% over the past month. But at least one large option trader is betting next week's earnings report will be a reality check for the stock.The Facebook Trade On Friday, Benzinga Pro subscribers received an option alert related to an unusually large Facebook trade. * At 12:01 p.m., a trader bought 529 Facebook put options with a $160 strike price expiring on May 15 at the ask price of $1.90. The trade represented a $100,510 bearish bet.Why It's Important For Facebook Investors Even traders who stick exclusively to stocks often monitor option market activity closely for unusually large trades. Given the relative complexity of the options market, large options traders are typically considered to be more sophisticated than the average stock trader.Many of these large options traders are wealthy individuals or institutions who may have unique information or theses related to the underlying stock.Unfortunately,...
