(Bloomberg) -- U.S. and European stock futures tumbled with Asian shares as investors took in worsening American coronavirus figures and assessed the latest manufacturing data from China. Treasuries climbed.Futures on the S&P 500 Index slid more than 2.5% after President Donald Trump warned of a “painful” two weeks ahead, with the country grappling to get the outbreak under control and New York City’s death toll now topping 1,000. Stocks in Japan hit session lows in the final hour of trading, down about 4%. Hong Kong shares were also lower, with two of the city’s largest lenders, Standard Chartered Plc and HSBC Holdings Plc, suspending dividend payments because of the virus. Chinese shares outperformed as a private reading on the country’s manufacturing sector beat expectations, rebounding in March.“In the U.S., the data remains fairly worrying and the peak may well be a few weeks on,” Bob Parker, an investment committee member at...
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- A whole generation of tech startups was built on the premise that the most lucrative business models aim to connect people or businesses on one side of the marketplace with people or businesses on the other side.Whether Tinder, Uber Technologies Inc. or Airbnb Inc., the platform theory held that acting as a facilitator for someone else’s offering meant you could scrape off commission while maintaining an asset-light business whose low operational costs rewarded you with high profitability. But no one foresaw an event that would shut down a whole side of the marketplace, and the coronavirus pandemic has done just that. For Airbnb, self-isolation means that nobody is travelling. There is plenty of supply with millions of listings still on the site, but the demand has all but evaporated. The same goes for Uber rides.In food delivery, it’s the supply side that has difficulties. On the whole, services like Uber Eats, Grubhub Inc., Deliveroo and Just Eat Takeaway...
(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump said the U.S. would meet with Saudi Arabia and Russia with the goal of staunching an historic plunge in oil prices.Trump, speaking at the White House Tuesday, said he’s raised the issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. “They’re going to get together and we’re all going to get together and we’re going to see what we can do,” he said. “The two countries are discussing it. And I am joining at the appropriate time, if need be.”If it happens, it would be the first meeting between Saudi Arabia and Russia since the collapse of the OPEC+ coalition in early March. Since then, both countries have vowed to flood the market with millions of excess barrels of oil in an acrimonious battle over market share. Despite the president’s remarks, neither nation has backed down from their price war, with Saudi...
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Lakeside shopping center, just outside of London, is a mecca of consumerism. It’s situated in the county of Essex, which loves shopping so much that a reality TV show captures the exploits of its glamorous, bauble-buying residents.But since last week, the mall has been open for only essential purchases, in line with government guidance. Its owner Intu Properties Plc said last Thursday that it had collected just 29% of the rent due from its tenants there and around the country. At the same time last year, it had received 77% of the amount due. Occupants including Associated British Foods Plc’s Primark and Swedish fashion retailer Hennes & Mauritz AB, which has shuttered thousands of stores around the world, are withholding payments or seeking better terms.It’s a scenario that’s being repeated on both sides of the Atlantic. Cheesecake Factory Inc., which has 294 stores throughout the U.S. and Canada, said in a filing last...
(Bloomberg) -- U.S. stock futures declined as investors assessed worsening American coronavirus figures as a new quarter begins. Asian shares traded mixed.Futures on the S&P 500 Index slid more than 1.5% after President Donald Trump warned of a “painful” two weeks ahead, with the country grappling to get the outbreak under control. Cases in New York state surged by 9,000. Stocks in Japan pared losses, while Australia’s outperformed. Hong Kong shares had a modest retreat even as two of the city’s largest lenders, Standard Chartered Plc and HSBC Holdings Plc, both suspended dividend payments because of the virus. In China, a private reading on the country’s manufacturing sector beat expectations, rebounding in March. Treasuries held recent gains.“In the U.S., the data remains fairly worrying and the peak may well be a few weeks on,” Bob Parker, an investment committee member at Quilvest Wealth Management, told Bloomberg TV. “The economic data is...
(Bloomberg) -- Oil is entering a period of unparalleled demand destruction this month that promises to transform the industry for years to come.Daily consumption will plummet by 15 million to 22 million barrels in April from a year earlier, according to estimates from some of the world’s most influential energy analysts. The crash has already led to refiners slashing processing, drillers halting output and storage tanks swelling across the world.“This will likely be a game-changer for the industry,” Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analysts including Jeffrey Currie and Damien Courvalin said in a March 30 note. “It is impossible to shut down that much demand without large and persistent ramifications to supply.”See also: The Global Oil Market Is Broken, Drowning in Crude Nobody NeedsThe demand slump is being exacerbated by former OPEC+ allies Saudi Arabia and Russia pumping as much crude as they can in a battle for market share, heaping additional...
(Bloomberg) -- Plans for a future after oil in Saudi Arabia are increasingly at the mercy of the present.A strategy to transform the Saudi economy, championed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is likely to face deep budget cuts as the coronavirus pandemic and plummeting crude prices batter the economy, according to people familiar with the matter.Dubbed Vision 2030, the wide-ranging initiative unveiled with fanfare in 2016 aims to diversify the oil-dependent economy and attract foreign investment. Economists say the government has fallen behind on some targets, however, and insiders working on the plan have complained of overlapping remits and conflicting priorities.Officials began a broad reassessment of the blueprint before the latest crises, but the Finance Ministry is now specifically looking to pare back its budgets, according to two people familiar with the matter. They said officials hadn’t yet decided how the added pressure of the oil price collapse would affect...
