March, 2020

• 24 March

  Neiman Marcus considering bankruptcy to ease debt load

  

  Bloomberg Neiman Marcus Group Inc, the luxury retailer that’s been struggling to ease its $4.3 billion debt load, is talking with lenders about filing for bankruptcy, according to people with knowledge of the matter. No formal decisions have been made, but Neiman Marcus has held initial talks with lenders about a potential bankruptcy loan that would keep the company running ...

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• 24 March

  Boeing temporarily halts work at Seattle-area factories

  

  Bloomberg Boeing Co is shutting down its Seattle-area manufacturing hub for two weeks after a worker died of coronavirus complications, adding to a wave of plant closings sweeping the globe as the aviation industry navigates the biggest disruption in decades. Activity at the factories will start winding down and come to a halt on March 25, Boeing said in a ...

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• 24 March

  US airlines are planning for passenger flights shutdown

  Bloomberg US airlines are drafting plans for a potential voluntary shutdown of virtually all passenger flights as government agencies also consider ordering a similar move, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing unidentified industry and federal officials. No final decisions have been made by the airlines or White House, but airlines would generally favour a government order, WSJ cites an industry ...

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• 24 March

  Modell’s Sporting Goods halts liquidation

  Bloomberg Modell’s Sporting Goods halted its going-out-of-business sales as customers shelter at home and states order most merchants to close. The bankrupt retailer stopped liquidation sales and closed all stores as of March 21, CEO Mitchell Modell said. It plans to resume once the bans are lifted, he said. Retailers are pausing store-closing sales as a growing number of states and ...

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• 24 March

  Covid-19 crisis is for real

  

  Few words are more overused in our debates than “crisis”. We have many — the education crisis, the inequality crisis and the environmental crisis, to name just a few. The word suggests an impending calamity unless we take instant action. The reality is that most crises are not calamities. They’re stubborn problems that, for one reason or another, defy a ...

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• 24 March

  Can SoftBank erode Alibaba stake?

  

  Just six weeks ago, Chairman Masayoshi Son was crowing about the value of SoftBank Group Corp and brushing off the notion that he should sell his prized stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd after a terrible quarter and massive asset writedowns. Things change. In a surprise announcement on March 23, the Japanese conglomerate said it plans to peddle or monetise ...

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• 24 March

  Metals buckle under virus double whammy

  Lockdowns imposed to control the coronavirus have battered China’s appetite for everything from coal to copper, pushing stockpiles of raw materials higher and global prices lower. The next crunch could come from supply. The risk of an outbreak is growing in ill-prepared producer countries, with mandatory quarantines and border shutdowns threatening to choke off production. Prices of bulk commodities are ...

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• 24 March

  Unshackle the banks to prevent deep recession

  Unlike in 2008, when the banking sector brought about the financial crisis, today it can help keep the economy from suffering a deep recession — but only if reforms enacted by regulators in the last decade are relaxed. Central banks around the world have quickly sprung to action cutting interest rates and reactivating various financial crisis era programs. Although these ...

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• 24 March

  The lessons from Italy’s coronavirus mistakes

  

  Italy is doubling down on its lockdown strategy to stop the spread of the new coronavirus, halting all non-essential economic activities for two weeks. There are early signs that these draconian steps are paying off, but the human and economic costs will be steep. The government made mistakes, ones that the rest of the Western world should have learned from ...

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• 24 March

  Refusing free money is telltale sign of fear

  

  Fear is when you want to pick up the shiny nickel lying in the road, but freeze at the sound of the approaching steamroller. The currency market equivalent of this is a widening basis swap — free money that banks are too scared to pocket. For the fourth time in the past decade, the fear gauge is starting to go ...

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