BlackMask Financial – Page 677 – BlackMask Breaking News

March 3, 2020 8:20 am

More testing sheds light on how virus is spreading in US

SEATTLE (AP) — An increase in testing for the coronavirus began shedding light Monday on how the illness has spread in the United States, including in Washington state, where four people died at a nursing home and some schools were closed for disinfection. New diagnoses in several states pushed the tally of COVID-19 cases past 100, and New Hampshire reported its first case, raising the total of affected states to 11. Seattle officials announced four more deaths, bringing the total in the U.S. to six. In Seattle, King County Executive Dow Constantine declared an emergency and said the county was buying a hotel to be used as a hospital for patients who need to be isolated. He said the facility should be available by the end of the week. “We have moved to a new stage in the fight,” he said. Vice President Mike Pence met with the nation’s governors and pledged to continue updating them weekly by teleconference. President Donald Trump met with pharmaceutical companies to talk about progress toward a vaccine. The deaths at a nursing home in suburban Kirkland, Washington, were especially troubling to health care experts because of the vulnerability of sick and elderly people to the illness and existing problems in nursing facilities.

“It’s going to be a disaster,” said Charlene Harrington, who studies nursing homes at the University of California, San Francisco. Infection is already a huge problem in U.S. nursing homes because of a lack of nurses and training.

In Texas, tension between U.S. and local officials brewed over the planned release Monday of more than 120 ex-passengers of the Diamond Princess cruise ship in quarantine in San Antonio. Mayor Ron Nirenberg declared a public safety emergency in an attempt to continue the quarantine. He and other officials in San Antonio called for more lab testing of the passengers after one woman tested positive after release. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said its case count includes 45 infections among people who were on the cruise ship, one more than previously reported. The count includes people who tested positive after returning from travel to outbreak areas in other parts of the world, their close contacts and infections that appear to be from community spread — people who did not travel or have known contact with other infected people.

The CDC recently broadened its guidelines for who should be tested for the new virus to include people with symptoms but without a travel history to virus hot zones.

More testing will bring more confirmed cases, experts said, but they cautioned that does not mean the virus is gaining speed. Instead, the testing is likely to reveal a picture of the virus’ spread that was previously invisible. In Seattle, schools and one skyscraper closed, but health experts cautioned that closures can have downsides. On Monday, the F5 technology company said it was closing its 44-story tower in downtown Seattle after learning an employee had been in contact with someone who tested positive for coronavirus. The employee tested negative, but company spokesman Rob Gruening said the tower was closed as a precaution.

More than 10 schools in the Seattle area were closed for deep cleaning over virus concerns, although the city-county public health department said it was not yet recommending longer-term school closures or cancellation of activities.

Closing schools and canceling large gatherings are what’s called social distancing, the idea that distancing people will reduce the spread of the illness. The evidence for those steps is “not as strong as we would like it to be,” Jennifer Nuzzo of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security cautioned Monday during a webinar. Measures such as school closures have been used during flu outbreaks, but the new coronavirus isn’t acting exactly like flu. And such steps are not guaranteed to protect. “Maybe it makes people more likely to stay at home. Maybe it doesn’t if people re-congregate elsewhere,” Nuzzo said. Trump and members of his Cabinet met at the White House with executives of 10 pharmaceutical companies to discuss ways to speed the development of a vaccine for the coronavirus. There are no proven treatments for COVID-19. The University of Nebraska Medical Center also began testing remdesivir in some Americans who were found to have COVID-19 after being evacuated from a cruise ship in Japan. It’s not clear how quickly such studies will answer whether any of the drugs help. Many patients recover without needing any treatment. The biggest concern is how to help the fraction who become severely ill. Nick Note: Your ha ha ha ha leaders are clueless. AND if you do not take matters into your own hands you will be dead meat…..

March 3, 2020 5:07 am

Customers Empty Store Shelves As Coronavirus Spreads

A glimpse of the future. I have been to the pandemic land and its a living HELL!

Coronavirus concerns are sending shoppers into panic-buying mode across the country. Bare shelves and frayed nerves were on full display over the weekend at Bay Area grocery stores as the coronavirus continued to spread. Shoppers described chaotic scenes, many of which were shared on social media: stacks of rice and toilet paper snatched up within seconds, checkout lines that snaked through entire stores, and jam-packed parking lots reminiscent of Christmas Eve. It’s the latest ripple effect of the outbreak of a still mysterious respiratory illness that in the past two months has caused more than 89,000 people around the world to fall ill. The virus that only a few weeks ago was mostly confined to China now has recorded cases in more than 60 nations.

With numbers climbing and no vaccine available, institutions such as the World Health Organization and the United States’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in recent days have warned that people should be prepared for a pandemic situation, including the possibility of having to stay confined in their homes for one or two weeks.

The results of that warning could be glimpsed in the depleted shelves and long lines in stores this weekend. “You see the videos of people loading water into their cars during hurricanes, stacks and stacks of them. That’s what was going on,” said Jeff Christner of Pacifica, who had an unexpectedly long trip with his wife to Costco in South San Francisco on Friday evening. “We couldn’t even believe it.” “People were panic-buying,” Christner said. The self-proclaimed “preparedness freak” managed to buy some of the small items on his list — batteries, canned chicken and medicine — but found many empty boxes. “I honestly couldn’t believe it. I didn’t expect to see what I saw.” People working at such stores played down the pandemonium, but agreed that it was not a normal weekend. “On a usual Saturday we have 3,000 customers. This Saturday we had 600 come through the first hour,” said a worker at the Costco in Richmond. “They’re buying the essentials — the news is telling us we need to be stocked up for 30 days.” Food products with a long shelf life were in demand, such as pasta or Spam or canned ham. The selection of rice available early Sunday afternoon consisted of several dozen 20-pound bags of basmati rice near the checkout counters: “Usually we’ll have six different varieties, with three to four pallets of each,” said the employee. The scene playing out with food hoarding is a more frenzied case of what has occurred in recent weeks in hardware stores, where face masks are all but impossible to find. Nick Note: do not waste your money on that sodium filled crap called survival food. Use your brain. Pasta, dried beans, Flour, corn meal and canned goods last for years. A freezer filled with meat is cool. Make sure you have 3 ways to keep your freezer going. A big chest freezer burns little power. to keep it working you need: Grid power, solar power and a generator. A year supply of food is cheap and easy. Remember the rule oldest in first out. Rotate rotate rotate your stock. People are dirty stinky animals. Hygiene supplies including soap, shampoo, tooth paste, Shit paper and the like Last for years. SO bulk up!

March 3, 2020 4:23 am

Trump: Progress made in creating COVID-19 vaccine

United States President Donald Trumps met with pharmaceutical companies to discuss “progress” made in finding a treatment for coronavirus, the president stressed on Monday. “I am met with the major pharmaceutical companies today at the White House about progress on a vaccine and cure. Progress being made!” Trump tweeted. On Sunday, he asserted that the country takes the “most aggressive” approach to contain coronavirus, adding that the US is going to increase screenings of the passengers that enter or leave the country. The infection killed two persons in the United States with 88 people tested positive for COVID-19 nationwide. Nick Note: Trump and corporate bullshit spin will not stop the pandemic. But it will fool the fools…… AGAIN!

March 3, 2020 4:10 amMarch 3, 2020 4:13 am

Top central banks primed to act to combat coronavirus risk

Absolutely its anther financial crises. 2008 all over again! AND they are not waiting this time for a Lehman moment. Central banks the world over have agreed to global coordinated Quantium easing on Steroids. It will make the coming depression far far worse. The depression has been put in remission for now!

TOKYO/FRANKFURT/WASHINGTON, March 2 (Reuters) – The world’s top three central banks look set to take steps to limit the economic damage from the fast-spreading coronavirus, with the heads of the European Central Bank and Bank of Japan issuing emergency statements on Monday that echoed one from U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell late last week. The day kicked off with BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda pledging to take actions as needed to stabilize markets jolted by the coronavirus outbreak, and ECB President Christine Lagarde followed suit late in the day with a comparable statement. Powell on Friday promised the Fed would “act as appropriate” to support the U.S. economy.

“We stand ready to take appropriate and targeted measures, as necessary and commensurate with the underlying risks,” Lagarde said in a statement issued shortly after U.S. stock markets closed. “The coronavirus outbreak is a fast developing situation, which creates risks for the economic outlook and the functioning of financial markets.”

The reassurances from the world’s leading finance officials were a main catalyst behind Monday’s global rebound in stock markets, which had suffered breathtaking losses in late February as it became evident the virus would not be contained to its original epicenter in China. Powell, Kuroda and Lagarde will also join finance ministers and other central bankers from the world’s seven largest economies on a call on Tuesday to discuss the widening crisis. The virus has spread to 60 countries, killed more than 3,000 people and has upended global supply chains. What action they will take and how soon remains an open question, especially given that all three are already operating with precious little ammunition in their policy arsenals. Of the three, the Fed is the only one with a policy interest rate above zero, and between them their balance sheets are stuffed with more than $14 trillion of assets.

Economists and investors have taken their statements and the hastily organized G7 call as a strong signal that coordinated policy action is coming sooner rather than later.

“The news of tomorrow’s G-7 finance minister and central banker call to discuss a coordinated response clearly increases the potential that the Fed could move this week,” JPMorgan’s chief U.S. economist Michael Feroli said in a note. “We believe a 25-basis point move would risk disappointing markets and thereby tightening financial conditions.” “Arguably the FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) should do even more than the 50 basis points expected by us and the market.” Pricing in interest rate futures tied to the Fed’s policy support a 100% chance of a half percentage-point rate cut at the Fed’s March 17-18 meeting, and another half a percentage point-cut by July. The Fed’s current overnight borrowing rate is set in a range of 1.50-1.75%. Goldman Sachs’ economists Jan Hatzius and Daan Struyven said the Fed may not wait until its scheduled March meeting, however. “Chair Powell’s statement on Friday suggests to us that global central bankers are intensely focused on the downside risks from the virus,” Hatzius and Struyven said in a note. Lagarde’s hint that the bank would take “targeted” measures suggests it could opt for tools that more directly impact the ailing economy, such as ultra cheap loans tailored for firms or more liquidity operations to bolster the economy. They could also include further corporate debt purchases or an increase in the exemption from the ECB’s punitive charge on commercial banks’ excess reserves. Nick Note: I have been at this a long time. And i know a financial crises when i see one. AND FOR SURE WE ARE IN ONE. For a fact their will be coordinated quantum easing. AND the markets will have a drunken orgy. AND the hang over will be a killer!

March 2, 2020 2:18 pm

First Negative U.S. Yields Get Closer Amid Virus Fallout Fears

(Bloomberg) — The swirl of fresh coronavirus cases and growing risks to the global economy have some seasoned market strategists warning that U.S. growth could come to a halt this year and some Treasury yields may drop below zero for the first time. The warnings come as a rout in equities and climbing expectations for rate cuts as soon as this week drove long-term Treasury yields to unprecedented lows. Over the weekend, a gauge of Chinese manufacturing plunged to historic lows amid a surge in global virus cases and fatalities — including the first in the U.S. Money markets are pricing in a half-point rate cut by the Federal Reserve this month and an additional half-point by the end of July. These bets are building as investors see the U.S. economy slowing and potentially even slipping into recession by year-end. Scott Minerd, chief investment officer of Guggenheim Partners, said such expectations will push Treasury yields below zero for the first time.

“The shorter-term securities are going to be negative,” Minerd, who oversees about $215 billion, said Sunday. He said the 10-year Treasury yield could drop to as low as zero, though it would be hard to drop below that.

“Even if you have the 10-year note yield at 25 basis points, you are going to have the majority of the curve at negative rates,” he said. The yield was still well above those levels Monday, at 1.07%, down about 8 basis points from the end of last week. Before last week, it had never been below 1.32%, a level it touched in 2016. Investors piling into Treasuries for safety have driven the 10-year rate down more than 80 basis points this year. The stock of global negative-yielding investment-grade debt has jumped back above $14 trillion, from just under $11 trillion in mid-January. However, most of that is concentrated in Europe where the European Central Bank’s benchmark rate is below zero. Negative rates have been long seen as an anathema in the U.S. With the economic impact of the outbreak rippling across the globe, a slew of Wall Street economists have turned more pessimistic and penciled in Fed rate cuts.

The Fed, the Bank of Japan and the Bank of England have promised to act as needed to stabilize markets rattled by the coronavirus, as the OECD warned the world economy faces its “greatest danger” since the financial crisis.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s economists on Sunday bumped up how much they expect the Fed to ease in 2020, after adjusting their forecast just last week. They now expect the central bank to cut by 50 basis points this month, followed by another 50 basis points in the second quarter. On Friday, they predicted a 25 basis point cut at the March meeting followed by 50 additional basis points through June. The 2-year Treasury yield on Monday fell to a level unseen since 2016. Traders see the Fed acting at least by their March 17-18 policy meeting. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said in rare unscheduled remarks Friday that the bank would act if needed. Since then, the U.S. reported its first fatality and Washington state’s governor declared a state of emergency. “It’s hard to imagine that the global recession of 2020 hasn’t already commenced,” said Jack Malvey, a debt veteran and former chief global fixed-income strategist at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. “A decent part of the U.S. yield curve should end up in negative territory. The question really is only how far out the curve,” said Malvey, now counselor at the Center for Financial Stability Inc. He predicted negative rates are likely at least in the 3-year maturity. The news about the virus’s spread is destabilizing for markets, said Shaun Osborne, chief foreign-exchange strategist at Bank of Nova Scotia. “There is probably a bit more of a shake-out to come overall,” he said. “Yields should fall further and the haven currencies to keep appreciating.” Nick Note: Remember me i am the asshole that told you US rates would go DOUBLE DIGIT negative… Remember when your Ftrade no dick was laughing… well now they all want to jump on the negative rate band wagon… and it is not going to go like these ASSHOLES think. why? Because they don’t think they just spoon feed you the bullshit they are instructed to…. DAH!

March 2, 2020 2:08 pm

North Korea fires two “short-range ballistic missiles,” South Korea says

North Korea has launched two unidentified projectiles, South Korea’s military says, in its first apparent weapons test of the year. The projectiles were launched from the North’s east coast towards the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said they were “believed to be short-range ballistic missiles”.

Last May saw the first missile tests after an 18-month freeze. As the year progressed, many more followed. North Korea, which has historically stepped up missile testing in the spring, carried out its last test in November. Monday’s test comes just days after South Korea and the US announced they were postponing the annual joint drills that anger the North, amid concern over the coronavirus. Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, said the tests seemed to be “less provocative than North Korea is capable of”. But the country is still “making it clear it will continue to improve military capabilities and make outsized demands”. Prof Easley added: “The US and South Korea postponing their drills and offering humanitarian assistance has earned no goodwill from a Kim regime that sees little benefit in restarting diplomacy.” At the start of the year, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said he was ending the suspension of nuclear and long-range missile tests, as talks between the US and North Korea ground to a halt. The North Korean leader threatened that the world would “witness a new strategic weapon… in the near future”. The last time North Korea conducted a missile test was in November 2019 – when it said it was testing a “super-large multiple-rocket launcher”. But Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe accused the North of launching ballistic missiles, earning him scorn from North Korean state media who called him an “imbecile”. North Korea is banned from firing ballistic missiles under UN Security Council resolutions. It has in the past fired missiles that it claims are capable of reaching the US mainland. Talks between the US and North Korea about its nuclear programme remain stalled. In 2018, US President Donald Trump and Mr Kim held historic talks in Singapore aimed at denuclearisation – though the definition of this is contested. In February 2019, Mr Kim met Mr Trump again in Vietnam but the talks broke down and ended early without agreement. Nick Note: mankind will deeply regret Trump’s kissing this maniac’s ass.

Media captionThe nuclear word Trump and Kim can’t agree on

They met again in June at the demilitarised zone that separates North and South Korea. But relations quickly deteriorated. in the following months.

The North conducted several smaller weapons tests late in 2019, in what was seen as an attempt to pressure the US into making concessions.

But Washington refused to lift sanctions, insisting that North Korea must first fully abandon its nuclear programme.

China factory activity dives to worst on record as coronavirus paralyses economy – PMI

* Caxin Feb factory activity contracts at sharpest pace on record

* Output, new orders collapse to historic lows as virus jolts

* Exports and employment also in sharp contraction

* Economy paralysed by outbreak, sharp contraction seen in Q1

BEIJING, March 2 (Reuters) – China’s factories were dealt a devastating blow in February as the coronavirus epidemic triggered the sharpest contraction in activity on record, a private survey showed on Monday, with the health crisis paralysing large parts of the economy.

The Caixin/Markit Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) tumbled to 40.3 last month, the lowest level since the survey began in 2004, and down sharply from the 51.1 reading in January as well as the 50-mark that separates growth from contraction.

The headline number was well off a Reuters poll forecast at 45.7 and even worse than the depths of the financial crisis in 2008-09, underlining the crippling effects of the virus across the country where authorities have imposed tough travel curbs and public health measures to contain the outbreak. The findings, which focus mostly on small and export-oriented businesses, were backed by an equally grim official survey released on Saturday, which showed the steepest contraction on record. Both the official and private surveys provide the first official snapshot of the state of China’s economy since the outbreak of the coronavirus epidemic which has killed almost 3,000 people in mainland China and infected about 80,000. The virus has also spread rapidly to dozens of countries. “China’s manufacturing economy was impacted by the epidemic last month. The supply and demand sides both weakened, supply chains became stagnant, and there was a big backlog of previous orders,” Zhengsheng Zhong, director of macroeconomic analysis at CEBM Group, said in comments on the survey. The survey showed factory production and new orders collapsing to the worst levels on record, while employment also took a heavy blow. There was no respite for exporters either, with new export orders sinking at one of the sharpest rates in the series history. The results underlined fears among global health authorities, policymakers and investors of a potential pandemic and its debilitating impact on the global economy. The anxiety sent financial markets into a tailspin last week with trillions of dollars wiped out of stocks. In response to signs of the deepening economic damage, Beijing has rolled out a steady stream of support measures to help businesses stay afloat, especially small enterprises which are facing a severe cash crunch but are a key source of employment. China’s central bank cut the benchmark lending rate last month to help lower financing costs and has said it would ensure ample liquidity through targeted reductions in banks’ reserve requirement ratios. Those support measures have buoyed business confidence, the private survey found, with the degree of optimism reaching a five year high. But in the short run, analysts expect the epidemic to deal a sharp blow to growth with many forecasting a severe downturn in the first quarter.

Travel restrictions also affected the supply of labour, with firms struggling to fill roles in February, the survey showed, with factories shedding jobs at the quickest rate in the series history.

Economic growth in China slowed markedly to 6.1% last year, the weakest pace in nearly three decades, amid a bruising trade war with the U.S and despite Beijing’s stimulus to boost sluggish investment and demand. Nick Note: The GDP of China will be negative by the end of the year. And the world which is already in a recession will be in an officially recognized depression!

March 2, 2020 7:34 am

Coronavirus may have spread undetected for weeks in U.S.

WASHINGTON — The coronavirus has been circulating undetected and has possibly infected scores of people over the past six weeks in Washington state, according to a genetic analysis of virus samples that has sobering implications for the entire country amid heightening anxiety about the likely spread of the disease. The researchers conducted genetic sequencing of two virus samples. One is from a patient who traveled from China to Snohomish County in mid-January and was the first person diagnosed with the disease in the United States. The other came from a recently diagnosed patient in the same county, a high school student with no travel-related or other known exposure to the coronavirus. The two samples look almost identical genetically, said Trevor Bedford, a computational biologist at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle who announced the results of the research on Twitter late Saturday night.

“This strongly suggests that there has been cryptic transmission in Washington State for the past 6 weeks,” Bedford wrote. “I believe we’re facing an already substantial outbreak in Washington State that was not detected until now due to narrow case definition requiring direct travel to China.”

Officials in Seattle and King County on Sunday announced that two more people have tested positive for the coronavirus, which causes the disease named covid-19. Both patients are men in their 60s and are in critical condition. That brings the outbreak in Washington state to eight cases, six of them in King County, including the first coronavirus death in the United States, which was announced Saturday. Health officials in Washington state and across the nation said they expect numbers will continue to rise in the wake of the decision by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week to widen testing guidelines. Over the weekend, new cases were reported in Americans who had recently traveled to South Korea and Italy, including one person in Rhode Island, the state’s first case. The health department in Santa Clara County, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley, announced three new coronavirus cases Sunday evening, bringing to seven the total number of cases there. The announcement gave few details about the cases.

The research is evidence that the highly contagious virus has eluded efforts to contain it through travel bans, quarantines and other interventions. The virus may have been spreading in parts of Washington state among people who didn’t realize they were infected by it

On Saturday, state and King County health officials reported a possible coronavirus outbreak at the Life Care Center in Kirkland, Washington, a long-term residential facility where more than 50 residents and staff are reportedly ill with symptoms associated with the novel virus. At least two of King County’s six confirmed cases are connected to the Life Care facility: a health-care worker in her 40s and a resident in her 70s.

Until a few days ago, the CDC had specific, narrow criteria for who should be tested for possible coronavirus infection — and most tests had to be sent to Atlanta due to faulty tests sent out to state labs. The focus was on people who had been to China or been in contact with someone who had traveled there. As a result, people with respiratory infections and fevers were not being widely tested for coronavirus. Last week, the CDC altered the criteria to expand testing.

“It’s almost impossible to get a damn test,” she said. The woman, a consultant who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of online harassment, said she normally commutes by train to downtown Washington to work but has self-quarantined since returning from Italy. Had she not chosen to do so, she said, “I could have been passing this all over D.C.”

A 30-year-old man who flew from virus-stricken Japan into Newark, New Jersey’s airport on Tuesday said he checked into NYU Langone’s emergency department in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, with a 102-degree fever and cough. But because he did not meet the criteria as set at that time by the CDC — he lacked chest pains or shortness of breath — he was not tested for covid-19.

The man, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he did not want to be associated with the outbreak, told The Washington Post he would be self-quarantined in his Brooklyn apartment for the next two weeks.

“My thought process was: Whatever I had, now it’s starting to get worse, so I better go to the hospital.” He wrote about his experience on the social media site Reddit.

After he arrived at the hospital, he was tested for flu strains and dozens of other microbes, all of which came back negative. A chest X-ray also returned negative. On Thursday he was informed that the CDC had not approved his case for testing because his symptoms were too mild.

He was sharing his story because he “wanted people to realize that there are probably more people like me.” His flight from Japan into Newark on Tuesday was full, he said.

“At no point am I saying ‘I have coronavirus.’ I’m just saying I have symptoms that are like it, and no one is testing me,” he said. “All NYU Langone Health facilities follow the testing guidelines and infection prevention protocols issued by the CDC and state and city Departments of Health,” Lisa Greiner, a spokeswoman for NYU Langone, said in a statement. “As the situation concerning COVID-19 remains fluid, we are continually aligning our testing protocols to ensure the safety and welfare of our patients and staff.” Although the World Health Organization has declined to describe covid-19 as pandemic, the illness has spread to every continent but Antarctica, and there is widespread agreement among infectious disease experts that a significant fraction of the human population could become exposed to it in the coming year or two. Nick Note: Is it not about time for you to realize YOUR leadership is non existent AND AND AND they are making colossal mistakes that are putting not only the entire country but the entire world at risk!

March 2, 2020 7:10 amMarch 2, 2020 7:10 am

Nike closes European HQ as employee contracts COVID-19

Major corporations around the world are putting in place extraordinary measures to try and limit the spread of novel coronavirus. Travel bans and remote working policies have been introduced in recent days and offices have been closed, as companies to try and protect employees from COVID-19. Twitter (TWTR), Amazon (AMZN), Google (GOOG), Goldman Sachs (GS), and Nike (NKE) are among the global businesses that have introduced extra measures. The precautions come as infection numbers continue to rise and some staff members at the likes of Amazon, Google, and Nike have tested positive for COVID-19. Twitter said in a blog on Sunday it was “suspending all non-critical business travel and events” as part of efforts to ensure “the health and safety of our employees and partners is not compromised”. Amazon has told staff not to travel domestically or internationally until further notice, according to the New York Times. Job interviews are also being changed from face-to-face to video conferences. A spokesperson declined to comment on the measures. Separately, the tech giant announced that two employees in Italy had tested positive for COVID-19. “We’re supporting the affected employees who were in Milan and are now in quarantine,” a spokesperson for Amazon told Yahoo Finance UK. Google is restricting staff from travelling to Iran, parts of Italy, South Korea, and Japan over concerns about coronavirus outbreaks in these regions, according to Business Inside. It comes after a staffer at the tech giant reportedly tested positive for the COVID-19 disease in Google’s Zurich office. Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Nike has closed its Oregon headquarters and its European headquarters in Amsterdam for deep cleaning, according to reports, after a US-based employee who had visited the Netherlands tested positive for the virus. Nike didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Fastly (FSLY), a Nasdaq-listed cloud computing business, said in a blog on Sunday it was closing all offices in favour of remote working, banning all non-essential travel, cancelling Fastly-sponsored events, and discouraging staff from attending any other industry events. “Given that the situation related to COVID-19 is rapidly evolving, we believe an abundance of caution is prudent,” Fastly chief executive Joshua Bixbey wrote. Banks are also scrambling to ensure traders can work from home or at back-up trading floors, according to the Financial Times. Open trading floors, which can house thousands of workers, are seen as high-risk for the spread of coronavirus but regulators must approve any traders that work outside of bank’s authorised premises. Yahoo Finance UK understands that staff at JP Morgan are being encouraged to test their laptops to ensure they can remotely access company systems in case of emergency. A spokesperson declined to comment. Goldman Sachs told staff on Saturday it was banning all “non-essential” travel and putting in place specific restrictions on travel to China, South Korea, Italy, and Iran, according to a memo seen by Yahoo Finance UK. Staff who have recently visited China and South Korea have also been told to self-isolate away from the office for two weeks. “We are closely monitoring new developments regarding COVID-19 and calibrating the firm’s global response on a daily basis,” the bank wrote in the memo to staff. Goldman Sachs declined to comment. The extra precautions come as the deadly coronavirus continues to spread globally. The number of new cases rose by 2,358 on Sunday, almost double the average recorded over the previous five days. There have now been just over 89,000 cases worldwide and over 3,000 people have died from COVID-19.

The first two deaths in the US were recorded over the weekend. The World Health Organisation (WHO) raised its coronavirus threat assessment level to “very high” on Friday.

Last week US oil giant Chevron, advertising agency OMD, and law firm Baker McKenzie all sent home London staff as a precaution after employees reported flu-like symptoms. The epidemic has also led to the cancellation of major industry events such as Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the Geneva Motor Show, and Facebook’s (FB) F8 developer conference. Nick Note: You thought the China shut down was bad… How about the entire planet… Think about it and prepare!

March 1, 2020 10:34 pm

Coronavirus: Nasa images show China pollution clear amid shutdown

Satellite images have shown a dramatic decline in pollution levels over China, which due to an economic slowdown prompted by the coronavirus, US space agency Nasa says. Nasa maps show falling levels of nitrogen dioxide this year. It comes amid record declines in China’s factory activity as manufacturers stop work in a bid to contain the coronavirus. China has recorded nearly 80,000 cases of the virus since the outbreak began. It has spread to more than 50 countries but the vast majority of infections and deaths are in China, where the virus originated late last year. Nasa scientists said the reduction in levels of nitrogen dioxide – a noxious gas emitted by motor vehicles and industrial facilities – was first apparent near the source of the outbreak in Wuhan city but then spread across the country. Nasa compared the first two months of 2019 with the same period this year.

The space agency noted that the decline in air pollution levels coincided with restriction imposed on transportation and business activities, and as millions of people went into quarantine. “This is the first time I have seen such a dramatic drop-off over such a wide area for a specific event,” Fei Liu, an air quality researcher at Nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said in a statement. She added that she had observed a decline in nitrogen dioxide levels during the economic recession in 2008, but said that decrease was more gradual. Nasa noted that China’s Lunar New Year celebrations in late January and early February have been linked to decreases in pollution levels in the past. But it said they normally increase once the celebrations are over. “This year, the reduction rate is more significant than in past years and it has lasted longer,” Ms Liu said. “I am not surprised because many cities nationwide have taken measures to minimise spread of the virus.” Nick Note: Its called sucked shut…. And they are NO TNOT starting back up anytime soon

Author: BlackMask Financial