March, 2020

• 18 March

  Three-state win gives Biden edge over Sanders

  

  Bloomberg Joe Biden’s decisive victories in Florida, Illinois and Arizona effectively put the Democratic nomination out of reach for Bernie Sanders. The former vice president won all three states by wide enough margins that he now has a majority of all delegates pledged so far, and more than half of the almost 2,000 he needs to secure the nomination at ...

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• 18 March

  Johnson’s Brexit faces delay amid virus risk

  

  Bloomberg Remember Brexit? Hundreds of trade negotiators from the UK and European Union were due to meet in London on Wednesday to hammer out a trade deal. With those discussions now delayed because of the coronavirus, it’s increasingly likely Prime Minister Boris Johnson will have to postpone Britain’s final break with the bloc at the end of this year, something ...

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• 18 March

  Trump loyalists take lead in intelligence community

  

  At a moment when Americans have new appreciation for the government professionals who protect against global threats, the Trump administration is weighing cuts in funding and staff for the National Counter Terrorism Center (NCTC), created after September 11, 2001, to shield the homeland from attack. The debate about trimming the NCTC, as it’s known, is part of a broader examination ...

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• 18 March

  PM reverses UK’s virus response

  

  Flanked by his chief medical officer and chief scientific adviser, Boris Johnson didn’t so much announce an escalation in the government’s response to the coronavirus crisis as signal a sharp course correction. Exactly why the government has changed direction was confirmed later, when the Imperial College Covid-19 Response Team, whose epidemiological modelling helps inform UK policy-making, published a bombshell report ...

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• 18 March

  Apple’s conspiracy fine of $1.2bn is fair enough

  The temptation with antitrust cases — especially involving a company as high-profile as Apple Inc – is to identify an ulterior motive. Why have the authorities attacked this particular target? Why is the fine so big? Surely there’s a hidden agenda at work, with broader implications. Sometimes, though, it’s as simple as a firm breaking the rules and getting caught. ...

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• 18 March

  Stocks, not a bargain yet

  When it comes to the US stock market, this is not yet the historic buying opportunity some investors have been waiting for. Contrary to their reputation for weak stomachs, ordinary investors appear to be hanging on to their stocks, judging by the chatter online and continuing net positive flows to exchange-traded funds favoured by long-term stock investors. But after a ...

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• 18 March

  Macron, Merkel’s ‘war’ on Covid-19 will bite

  

  Europe is increasingly determined to pull out all stops to fight the coronavirus crisis. French President Emmanuel Macron declared “war” on Covid-19 with a raft of measures to keep citizens in lock-down mode, including a ban on non-essential travel, just a few days after ordering business closures and shutting schools. Germany’s Angela Merkel rolled out similar “drastic” moves to shut ...

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• 18 March

  Coronavirus crisis means grocers must think out of the box

  

  Images of queues to get into supermarkets, and shelves stripped bare, are stoking fear. Worries about the supply of food and staples do not end there. A shortage of online delivery slots is causing concern too, with people now expected to stay at home for lengthy periods. Grocers also have to address the likelihood that their staff will contract the ...

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• 18 March

  Coronavirus could very well slow by summer

  

  One great unknown about the coronavirus pandemic currently circling the globe is how it will respond as the weather gets warmer. The virus will “go away in April,” President Donald Trump told a meeting of governors last month, “as the heat comes in.” That over-confident assertion has attracted criticism from virologists and fact-checkers. Most respiratory diseases — such as influenza ...

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• 18 March

  US futures pinned to lower limit; oil drops to 17-year low

  

  Bloomberg US equity futures declined along with European stocks on Wednesday, retracing moves from a day earlier while bonds slumped as traders weigh the impact of fiscal and monetary stimulus to counter the effect of the coronavirus. Oil dropped to a 17-year low. Contracts for the S&P 500 once again hit their lower trading curbs after the gauge jumped 6% ...

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