| Need to Know |
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| Unemployment Shatters Records |
Editor's note: We typically run three top stories but the breadth of the coronavirus impact has overwhelmed the news. Below is our summary of the key events.
More than 6.6 million Americans made initial unemployment claims last week, the US Labor Department estimated yesterday. The figure doubles last week's record-shattering 3.3 million claims and brings the two-week total to a whopping 10 million people.
California led the country in new claims (879,000), followed by Pennsylvania (405,000), New York (366,000), and Michigan (311,000); see the full release here. Adjusting for the size of each state's workforce, Hawaii, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky saw the biggest declines. The March jobs report is due out today, but will likely only capture a fraction of the damage.
The numbers reflect the suddenness with which the impact of the coronavirus has ripped through the economy. Analysts project the number of jobs lost to pass the peak of the 2008-09 recession, when unemployment rose to 10% between late 2007 and 2009 (see data). Current job losses have been compacted into a few weeks, as businesses shut down and stay-at-home orders were issued across the country (see guide) in an effort to stem the virus.
Despite the news, US markets rose, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbing 470 points (2.2%), followed by the S&P 500 (2.3%) and the Nasdaq (1.7%). A rally in oil prices drove the gains.
The Democratic National Committee rescheduled its Milwaukee convention from July 13-16 to Aug. 17-20. The event, now scheduled one week before the Republican convention in Charlotte, NC, will also be scaled back. Separately, the White House is expected to recommend all Americans wear facemasks while in public.
The world passed 1 million publicly confirmed cases yesterday, with more than 53,000 deaths. The US has reported 245,573 cases with 6,058 deaths (real-time map).
Projections on total US deaths have varied widely; see some best- and worst-case scenarios posted on our coronavirus resource page. You can also read why the outbreak is so hard to model, learn why soap is so effective at eliminating the virus, and review all of the current vaccines under development.
The resource page has all of the most-clicked coronavirus content from the newsletter, and we are continuously adding new content. Check it out here. |
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| Art expected to grow $900 Billion. |
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| In the Know |
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| Sports, Entertainment, & Culture |
| > New England Patriots transport more than 1 million masks from China to donate for relief efforts (More) | North American film box office sees 25% yearly decline from 2019 (More) | Amazon Prime Video to stream films from canceled South by Southwest film festival (More) |
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| > Kobe Bryant's book "The Wizenard Series: Season One" released posthumously, tops Amazon bestseller list (More) |
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| > WWE's WrestleMania to be held as planned this weekend; former NFL star Rob Gronkowski will host the two-night event which won't have fans due to COVID-19 (More) |
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| Science & Technology |
| > Videoconferencing platform Zoom freezes new features for 90 days amid reports of security vulnerabilities; use of the platform skyrocketed from 10 million to 200 million daily users amid work-from-home surge (More) |
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| > Engineers develop new noninvasive lung cancer detection test that screens for early-stage tumors; patients ingest nanoparticle mixture which interacts with cancer cells, and is then screened for in the patient's urine (More) |
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| > Scientists capture most comprehensive imaging to date of how dopamine, known as the feel-good neurotransmitter, affects different regions of the brain (More) |
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| Business & Markets |
| > Oil surges more than 20% as Saudi Arabia calls for meeting with OPEC, Russia, and others to bring certainty to markets (More) |
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| > Luckin Coffee, the “Starbucks of China” and fastest-growing coffee company in the world, investigated for inflating revenues; shares fall 70% (More) |
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| > Tesla delivers more cars than expected in Q1, but less than last quarter, shares up more than 10% in after-hours trading (More) |
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| Politics & World Affairs |
| > Google will phase out its ban on coronavirus-related ads after Democratic groups argued it protected the Trump administration from criticism over its response to the outbreak (More) |
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| > Weather researchers forecast above-average Atlantic hurricane season, projecting eight hurricanes compared to an average of six; model gives a 70% chance at least one category three system makes US landfall (More) |
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| > Pakistan rearrests four men, including Omar Saeed Sheikh, involved in the 2002 murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl one day after a court vacated their sentence (More) |
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| Weekend Reads |
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| A Razor's Edge |
| The Guardian | Samanth Subramanian. A look at the race to find a COVID-19 vaccine with Dr. Jonathan Heeney, who paused his work on a universal flu vaccine to tackle the coronavirus. (Read) |
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| Shipworm Forest |
| NYT | JoAnna Klein. How an underwater cypress grove, submerged 60,000 years ago off the Alabama coast, could hold secrets that may one day save lives. (Read, $$) |
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| From Field to Street |
| Vice | Toby Muse. Follow a kilogram of cocaine from harvesting and production in Colombia to the streets of US cities. (Read) |
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| Where Do Viruses Come From? |
| Demystifying Science | Anastasia Bendebury. Despite their importance and ever-present nature, scientists don't really know where the first viruses originated, or how they came to be. (Read) |
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