May, 2020

• 10 May

  S&P rally reaches escape speed as earnings slide

  

  Bloomberg In their latest feat of levitation, US stocks are about to pull off their biggest earnings-season rally in six years. Impressive — or ridiculous, depending on your view — considering it happened as American companies were reporting a 16% profit drop that was the worst since the financial crisis. Since firms started disclosing results, the S&P 500 has jumped …

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• 10 May

  SNB’s US stock hoard slips to $94b amid market rout

  

  Bloomberg The Swiss National Bank’s (SNB) US equity portfolio declined in value for the first time in more than a year, reflecting the market rout caused by the coronavirus outbreak. The central bank, which has amassed vast holdings of foreign currency due to interventions to weaken the franc, had $94 billion invested in US stocks at the end of March, …

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• 10 May

  Canada Inc. reports cloudy outlook, stocks still surge

  Bloomberg After weeks of wondering how corporate Canada fared in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, investors finally got a proper look under the hood. Senior executives spoke about the impact. Some described the future as too hard to predict. Others tried to identify parallels and differences with the financial crisis. By withdrawing their 2020 forecasts, many Canadian companies …

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• 9 May

  Oil posts second weekly gain on deepening production cuts

  

  Bloomberg Oil notched its first back-to-back weekly gain since February amid optimism around production cuts beginning to eat into a massive supply glut. Futures in New York climbed 25% this week. Explorers are cutting production in response to crude oil trading in the $20-a-barrel range. EOG Resources Inc. is cutting about a quarter of its oil production for May in …

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• 9 May

  DFAc highlights distance learning strategy of UAE

  

  Dubai / Emirates Business In the era of distance learning capability brought in by the Covid-19 pandemic, a line-up of ministers and decision makers in the education sector highlighted why it is critical to develop a sound implementation strategy to ensure the continuity of higher education and learning, during a session titled, ‘Life After Covid-19: Higher Education’. The virtual session …

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• 9 May

  Crazy dream of $45 oil may become reality in Argentina

  

  Bloomberg West Texas Intermediate has been gaining since its history-making crash in the US last month, trading at around $25. Brent crude has been practically soaring, touching $30 in London. They can’t match the criollo barrel in Argentina, though — $45 guaranteed, no matter what. That dream price doesn’t actually exist, but it could soon. The administration of President Alberto …

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• 9 May

  US drilling sinks to record low with oil in retreat

  

  Bloomberg Oil and natural gas exploration plunged to an all-time low as the economic and industrial dislocations from the Covid-19 pandemic snuffed out the remnants of the American shale boom. Drilling in US oil and gas fields retreated by 34 rigs this week to 374, led by a precipitous drop in crude exploration that sank to levels not seen since …

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• 9 May

  Italy leads power demand recovery

  Bloomberg Italy’s electricity demand jumped as lockdown restrictions were loosened, signaling that an economic recovery may be on its way. While consumption rose in France and Britain and held steady in Germany and Spain from the previous week, it’s not clear how quickly demand will recover or if it’ll ever reach pre-crisis levels as the threat of a deep recession …

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• 9 May

  The fate of business travel could hang on Covid-19 tracing apps

  

  Bloomberg Mobile phone applications that trace the new coronavirus could help decide whether business travellers and vacation-goers get to meet clients or visit their favourite beaches this summer. But politics and disagreement over what system to use threatens to thwart that solution. Governments in Europe and elsewhere are turning to voluntary mobile apps to help trace possible infections of the …

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• 9 May

  ‘UK virus app has privacy loopholes’

  

  Bloomberg The UK’s contact-tracing mobile phone app includes code that could allow authorities access to a user’s detailed location data and to send information to Microsoft Corp. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google, according to an initial technical analysis carried out by Privacy International. Like governments around the world, the UK is developing a voluntary mobile app that uses Bluetooth technology to …

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