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FINANCIAL MARKETS
Stocks claw back some ground a day after historic plunge
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are clawing back some of the ground they lost in Thursday’s historic plunge as investors wait for more steps from governments to contain the new coronavirus and economic damage from the outbreak.
Friday’s gains follow the worst slide for the U.S. market since the Black Monday crash of 1987 and one of the worst drops for Europe on record.
Much of an early surge evaporated in another volatile day of trading, leaving major U.S. indexes up about 3% in early afternoon trading on Wall Street. They had been up as much as 6% earlier. The Dow's 10% drop a day earlier was its worst since October 1987.
The market is still on track for its worst week since October 2008, during a global financial crisis. In just a few weeks, U.S. stocks have wiped out all the gains made during 2019, one of the best years for the market in decades. All the major indexes are in what traders call a bear market.
The historic sell-off on Wall street this week helped to wipe out most of the big U.S. gains since President Trump took office in 2017.
FINANCIAL MARKETS-FEDERAL RESERVE
Fed speeds Treasury buys
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve is accelerating its purchases of Treasury securities to address ongoing disruptions in the Treasury bond market, the largest and one of the most important financial markets in the world.
The Fed said that it will purchase about $33 billion of Treasurys on Friday, out of the $80 billion it plans to buy over the next month. The Fed will purchase a range of maturities, from short-term bills to 7-year notes to 30-year bonds. The New York Fed said the purchases are intended to “address highly unusual disruptions in the market for Treasury securities associated with the coronavirus outbreak."
Typically, when stock prices plummet, as they have this week, Treasury yields fall as investors pile into Treasury bonds, which are considered the safest assets in the world. That raises their price but lowers their yields. But this week Treasury yields have risen, an unusual move that suggests many investors that want to sell large volumes of bonds are having difficulty doing so.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-BUFFETT
Buffett cancels annual shareholders meeting
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Warren Buffett's annual shareholder meeting for Berkshire Hathaway draws professional-sporting-event sized crowds every year to Omaha, Nebraska. But like the NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball, there will be no one in the stands for the big event this year because of the risks from the coronavirus pandemic.
Buffett said Friday that the May 2 event will stream live on Yahoo and there may be a select number of journalists on hand to ask questions.
Buffett wrote in a letter to shareholders that the event has become a high point each year for him and his business partner, Charlie Munger. But he said he won't "expose Omaha to the possibility of becoming a ‘hot spot’' in the current pandemic.”
The event will be attended by Buffett, Munger, and several employees who will deliver proxy votes from shareholders.
PENTAGON-CLOUD CONTRACT
Pentagon reconsiders Microsoft contract after Amazon protest
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon is reconsidering its awarding of a major cloud computing contract to Microsoft after rival tech giant Amazon protested what it called a flawed bidding process.
U.S. government lawyers said in a court filing this week that the Defense Department “wishes to reconsider its award decision” and take another look at how it evaluated technical aspects of the companies' proposals to run the $10 billion computing project.
The filing doesn't address Amazon’s broader argument that the bidding was improperly influenced by President Donald Trump's dislike of Amazon and its CEO, Jeff Bezos. Bezos owns The Washington Post, a news outlet that Trump has often clashed with.
Amazon Web Services is a market leader in providing cloud computing services and had long been considered a leading candidate to run the Pentagon's Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure project, known as JEDI. The project will store and process vast amounts of classified data, allowing the U.S. military to improve communications with soldiers on the battlefield and use artificial intelligence to speed up its war planning and fighting capabilities.
Amazon sued the Pentagon after Microsoft won the contract in October. Work on the project has been halted as the lawsuit proceeds.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-CASINOS
Some casinos drop buffets, live shows as virus spreads in US
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — A Pennsylvania casino shut down temporarily, some Las Vegas casinos closed their buffets and the Hard Rock chain canceled live entertainment at all of its U.S. properties for at least a month as the nation's casinos grappled with the coronavirus outbreak.
The Valley Forge Casino in King Of Prussia, Pennsylvania, closed early Friday, saying it was complying with a directive from the state's governor to close all public schools, entertainment venues and community centers in Montgomery County as a precautionary measure against the spread of the virus. The casino said it will reopen on March 27, and noted there have been no reported cases of the virus at the property.
Hard Rock, whose brand relies on live entertainment, said it is canceling all such entertainment at its U.S. properties for 30 days, including concerts in large and small venues, and nightclub entertainment.
The move came after New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, requested that all gatherings of 250 or more people be canceled.
CENSUS-HIRING
Census faces challenges as it aims to hire up to 500,000
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The U.S. Census Bureau said it has reached its goal of recruiting more than 2.6 million applicants for the once-a-decade head count that launched for most of America this week — but it has been a bumpy road getting there.
The nation's abundance of jobs has complicated the effort, and some rural areas — particularly in New England, Appalachia and some Rocky Mountain states — are falling behind recruitment goals as the agency works to hire up to a half-million temporary workers before May. Falling short could threaten the count in some parts of the country, which in turn could lead to underrepresentation in Congress and less federal funding.
An analysis by The Associated Press shows how low unemployment has affected the bureau's ability to attract workers, with urban counties, especially large ones, more likely to hit recruitment goals than rural areas. The bureau has yet to account for how hiring could be affected by novel coronavirus concerns. The virus may dampen workers' enthusiasm for going door to door, but it could also create a new application pool of workers who have been laid off.
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