BlackMask Breaking News

Health officials have contacted hundreds of conference attendees in London, after it emerged one of them was later diagnosed with coronavirus. The person, who has not been identified, was at the UK Bus Summit at the QEII Conference Centre last week.Two Labour MPs who were also at the conference said they were well but cancelling public engagements until 20 February as a precaution. So far, nine people in the UK have tested positive for the virus. MP Lilian Greenwood – a former chair of the transport select committee – spoke at the 6 February conference in Westminster, which was attended by about 250 people from the bus and transport industry. She said on Twitter she was “feeling completely well” but to be “extra-cautious” she was cancelling her public engagements for two weeks from the date of the conference, in line with advice from Public Health England (PHE). Her colleague Alex Sobel, MP for Leeds North West, told BBC News he only found out through a journalist about the positive test and was “concerned” other attendees may still be unaware.Mr Sobel, who said he was not exhibiting any symptoms, called the NHS non-emergency 111 phone line to be “formally assessed” and has been “established as low risk”. He said he spent Friday afternoon in a room in his office away from staff but, after receiving the advice from 111, will not remain in isolation – although he has cancelled public engagements as a precaution. The government’s buses minister Baroness Vere – who was a keynote speaker at the conference – is “following Public Health England advice”, the Department for Transport said. Transport Times, the organiser of the conference, sent an email on Thursday afternoon to attendees informing them that a person confirmed to have coronavirus – which causes an illness now named Covid-19 – had been at the event. The email included advice from PHE urging delegates that no action was needed if they felt well, but if they developed symptoms such as a fever or cough they should stay indoors, avoid contact with others and call NHS 111. The letter told people to follow the advice until 20 February, “even if your symptoms are minor”. Nick Note: I would say this is a warning.Health professional at at conference on the Coronavirus get sick from  the very virus they are suppose to be the experts fighting it . Who says GOD does not have a sense of humor…. I do not think GODS like me hates pompous pricks

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group’s CEO Daniel Zhang characterized the widening coronavirus crisis as a “black swan event” on Thursday, warning that the outbreak has potentially global implications. During a call with analysts discussing the company’s fiscal third-quarter results that beat expectations, Zhang said that the coronavirus presents “near term” challenges to Alibaba’s businesses that will have “significant impact” on China and beyond. As the numbers of those affected continue to rise, economists and businesses have made sobering remarks about the outlook for worldwide growth. On Thursday, Alibaba reported its revenue rose 38% year-over-year during a strong quarter. In the release, Zhang touted the “robust growth” across the lines of business, pointing to a record Single’s Day, increased user engagement, and rapid growth in the cloud computing services.  However, the coronavirus remained at the forefront of the company’s remarks to investors. The crisis has roiled markets with the estimated death toll reaching 1,350 and the number of confirmed cases topping 60,000 — most of them in mainland China. “In response to the coronavirus, we mobilized Alibaba ecosystem’s powerful forces of commerce and technology to fully support the fight against the outbreak, ensure supply of daily necessities for our communities and introduced practical relief measures for our merchants,” Zhang said. With a growing number of multinationals curtailing or shuttering Chinese operations and evacuating employees, Zhang said the company “took every effort to protect the health and safety of employees through flexible work policy and remote office collaboration.”

He added: “No matter past, present or future, we remain true to our mission and we will support our merchants to overcome this challenging time together,” he added.

Shortly after the outbreak, Alibaba began procuring medical supplies from around the world. To date, over 40 million units have been donated to Wuhan and other affected cities, Zhang said.

Zhang emphasized that they are “monitoring the challenge and identifying opportunity as the situation evolves.”

He observed that there’s been a delay in employees returning to work after the Chinese New Year, which is preventing merchants and logistics companies from assuming operations. According to Zhang, this is having a “negative impact” on commerce as merchants’ operations haven’t returned to normal. What’s more, a “significant number of packages are not able to be delivered on time.”

Strong growth amidst a pandemic

Both Alibaba and JD.com have seen a surge in online ordering since the virus forced China to mandate quarantines, keeping many citizens homebound.

The company’s Freshippo supermarket is seeing online order increase “significantly” as a “result of consumer migration to online purchasing” of fresh goods, groceries, and daily necessities, according to Alibaba. However, Zhang added that there are limitations in the delivery capacity that is preventing order volume from fully recovering.

While categories like grocery have increased, restaurant visits and delivery orders have declined because many restaurants haven’t resumed normal operations, Zhang added.

Travel booking also saw “material” numbers of cancellations because of the virus, he said.

Alibaba’s leadership emphasized that they’re committed to supporting their merchants by providing interest-free or low-interest loans through Ant Financial to help normalize merchants’ operations.

CFO Maggie Wu said it’s “too early to quantify the impact” coronavirus will have on the business.

She added that it’s impacting the overall economy in China, especially the retail and services sectors. While the demand for goods and services is there, the “means of production has been tempered” by the delay in openings after the Lunar New Year holiday.

Wu added that Alibaba is “not immune to this imbalance of supply and demand,” but the company sees “an opportunity to provide value and support.” According to Wu, this will help “translate into sustainable, long-term growth,” which is similar to what they saw after the 2003 SARS outbreak.

She said they “remain optimistic about consumption growth” and “remain confident about the long-term.” Wu emphasized that this is a “one-off occurrence” and by “helping customers through difficult times” that will “help drive” sustainable long-term growth.

“There is very little central banks can do” when both short- and longer-term rates are near zero, said Mark Spindel, a co-author of a book about the Fed’s relations with Congress. “We are much closer to a fiscal-monetary collaboration. They are out of optimal monetary policy tools.” Speaking in Strasbourg on Tuesday, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde was more explicit than Powell about the limits to central bank power. “Monetary policy cannot, and should not, be the only game in town,” she told European lawmakers. Admitting he was “straying a bit” from his remit, Bank of England Governorr Mark Carney also backed the U.K. government’s new spending program. The Fed is engaged in an in-depth review of its policies and practices that is aimed at finding ways to enhance its recession-fighting abilities. Powell’s comment on Tuesday though suggests he recognizes that there’s just so much the central bank can do in that regard. After three reductions last year, the Fed’s target for short-term interest rates now stands at 1.5% to 1.75%, less than half the 500 basis points in cuts it has made to fight past downturns. Powell said that the Fed would resort to tools it used in the last recession if it’s again forced to lower short-term interest rates to zero. They are quantitative easing — in which the Fed buys Treasury bonds to drive down long-term interest rates — and forward guidance on the future direction of short rates. The Fed chief though made clear that the central bank would not follow the lead of its counterparts in the euro zone and Japan and push rates below zero. “In the U.S. context, that’s not a tool we’re looking at,” he said. He also dismissed a suggestion that the central bank consider directly funding the government so it can cut taxes and boost spending in a recession. “That’s really an untested and not widely supported perspective,” he said. Some economists though think the Fed might have to go that far if the economy turns bad enough. In a paper last year, former Fed Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer and ex-Swiss National Bank chief Philipp Hildebrand said “unprecedented policy coordination” may be needed to deal with the next downturn, including central banks explicitly financing bigger government budget deficits. To make room for future fiscal actions to aid the economy,

Powell urged lawmakers on Tuesday to rein in budget deficits now. “Putting the federal budget on a sustainable path when the economy is strong would help ensure that policy makers have the space to use fiscal policy to assist in stabilizing the economy during a downturn,” he said.

His comment came in the wake of the release on Monday of President Donald Trump’s latest budget plans, which would push the gross federal debt above $30 trillion over the next decade. Some economists argue fiscal policy isn’t a decent substitute for monetary policy when trying to boost economies in the short-term. Harvard University Professor Kenneth Rogoff wrote recently that government stimulus “inevitably involves messy, hard-fought compromises” that limit its effectiveness. There are dangers for the Fed in collaborating too closely with elected officials because it could undermine its political independence. Breaking with recent presidential tradition, Trump has repeatedly attacked the central bank for keeping interest rates too high, including posting a tweet on Tuesday that delivered a dig at Powell for his performance on Capitol Hill. But the president is not alone in seeking favors from the Fed. At Tuesday’s hearing, Democratic Representative Rashida Tlaib from Michigan repeatedly pressed Powell to explain why the central bank hadn’t helped Detroit avoid bankruptcy as it did during the crisis for major U.S. banks. In the end, economists said there may be no alternative for the Fed in the next contraction but to accept some form of disciplined fiscal-monetary cooperation. “They are running low on ammunition,” given that they are unlikely to use negative interest rates, said David Beckworth, a senior research fellow at the Mercator Center at George Mason University. “It does seem like they are going to be in a bind in a next recession.”  Nick Note: The Fed is in a box. At first before the recession interest rates will climb by at least 200 to 300 bases points. And then the fun begins. As interest rates go negative deeper and deeper. its the only way they can keep the system going.

OPEC lowers forecasts for global oil demand as the coronavirus hits fuel use in China, leaving the group facing a renewed glut despite its recent production cuts. The cartel reduced projections for demand growth in the first quarter by 440,000 barrels a day, or about a third, in its monthly report. Oil prices sank to a one-year low on Monday as the infection leaves businesses idle and millions quarantined in the world’s biggest crude importer. Oil’s slump has spurred the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ biggest exporter, Saudi Arabia, to press fellow members and allies to hold an emergency meeting and consider new output cutbacks. Yet the proposal has so far met resistance from Russia, the group’s most important ally, which is able to weather lower prices more easily. The report showed that, even though many OPEC members made a strong start with fresh output curbs that took effect last month, the virus’ impact on consumption will leave them with a new overhang. The group collectively pumped 28.86 million barrels a day in January, and if it maintains that rate there will be a surplus of 570,000 barrels a day during the second quarter, when consumption slows down seasonally. The monthly report is compiled by OPEC’s Vienna-based research department. OPEC doesn’t see the effects of the disease confined to the start of the year, bringing down its growth estimate for global oil demand in 2020 as a whole by about 230,000 barrels a day to just under 1 million a day. Still, the increase remains slightly higher than last year’s. Though crude futures have recovered on speculation the spread of the disease could be nearing its peak, prices of about $55 a barrel in London remain well below the levels most OPEC members need to cover government spending. Since the producer group formed an alliance with non-members such as Russia three years ago, the coalition has restrained supplies to offset a surge of production from the U.S. shale industry, and keep prices supported. They embarked on a new round of cutbacks in January. Last week, a committee of technical experts from the alliance, known as OPEC+, recommended reducing output by a further 600,000 barrels a day to offset the impact of the coronavirus. Russia, however, says it’s “studying” the proposal and its energy minister, Alexander Novak, is consulting with oil companies today. OPEC’s latest outlook may encourage them to give greater consideration to taking additional measures. “Clearly, the ongoing developments in China require continuous monitoring and assessment to gauge the implications,” the report said.