May, 2020

• 10 May

  Political stardom beckons for South Africa’s virus point man

  

  Bloomberg South African Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has won such praise for his handling of the coronavirus crisis that he’s being touted as a possible successor to President Cyril Ramaphosa. Advised by a panel of top scientists, Mkhize has crisscrossed the country assessing the health system’s ability to cope with an anticipated surge in cases. A medical doctor, he’s made ...

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• 10 May

  Global debt funds shun Italy on fears that euro-area is cracking

  

  Bloomberg Italian debt is once again the must-watch bellwether for growing tensions within the euro-area. Global investors have lasered in on the nation’s bonds because, while they feature tempting yields, the government’s relatively weak finances add to the shared risk across the region. UniCredit SpA estimates foreign asset managers and hedge funds’ exposure to Italian government bonds may be around ...

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• 10 May

  Canada lost about 2mn jobs in April amid virus

  

  Bloomberg Canada lost 2 million jobs in April as a result of pandemic-related shutdowns, by far the biggest decline on record but only about half what economists had expected. The drop in employment adds to the 1 million decline in March. The jobless rate jumped to 13% in April, the agency said in Ottawa. Economists were anticipating a loss of ...

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• 10 May

  Musk threatens to pull Tesla facility out of California

  

  Bloomberg Elon Musk lashed out at the California county blocking Tesla Inc. from reopening its only US car plant, threatening to immediately relocate operations to other states and cease manufacturing at the factory. Hours after the chief executive officer tweeted that Tesla would sue Alameda County, which didn’t allow the facility to resume operations, the electric-car maker filed a complaint ...

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• 10 May

  US health-care industry loses 1.4 million jobs in pandemic

  

  Bloomberg The US health-care industry wasn’t immune to the devastating job losses caused by the coronavirus last month. Even as health-care workers battled Covid-19 in emergency rooms and intensive-care units across the country, the industry saw 1.4 million jobs vanish in April, the Labor Department reported on. That equates to about one of every 12 health-care jobs. The largest declines ...

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• 10 May

  Auto suppliers surge on strong results in Q1

  Bloomberg Shares of car-parts suppliers rallied after stronger-than-expected results suggest the companies may be doing better than feared amid the challenges posed by coronavirus. American Axle, Lear and Tenneco were among biggest gainers in the sector after all three reported Q1 results that impressed investors and analysts, though concerns about the second quarter persist. Shares also received a boost on ...

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• 10 May

  America’s missing beef opens door for plant-based burgers

  

  Bloomberg Plant-based protein companies have been trying to sway consumers away from beef for years. Now, meat shortages caused by Covid-19 pandemic are making their job easier. Faux meat producers have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity as supplies of beef tighten in the US. Wendy’s Co. has been running out of hamburgers at some locations, while Kroger Co. and Costco Wholesale Corp. ...

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• 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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