The intricate schedule of cargo ships carrying everything from apples to auto parts between the U.S. and Southeast Asia has been undone by the coronavirus. Loaded ships are backed up at Chinese ports, where workers have been furloughed to keep from spreading the illness, and businesses that would receive the goods have either remained closed or have no customers to...
VIRUS HALTS PLANES, TRAINS, SHIPS
The virus panic has crushed airline travel, with passengers canceling reservations in droves and airlines canceling thousands of flights, including lucrative transatlantic hops. In late February, the industry estimated it had lost $30 billion in canceled flights to and from China alone, which by some estimates totaled 25,000 flights a day. Virgin Atlantic has reported a 40-percent drop in bookings...
BANKS TAKE ANTI-VIRUS EMERGENCY STEPS
British and U.S. banks are testing the hardiness of their emergency operating and back-up systems, installing trading screens in employees’ homes, and pressing regulators to ease banking rules so banks can continue to operate without interruption if the coronavirus becomes a health pandemic. “You don’t want to wake up and find that the U.S. has half a million [virus] cases...
VIRUS INTERRUPTS PHARMA SUPPLY CHAIN
About 40 percent of generic drugs are made in India from ingredients that come from China. With Chinese industry only now beginning to revive, and India seeing its coronavirus outbreak growing, India has restricted exports of 26 drugs and drug ingredients, including several common antibiotics as well as acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration...
VIRUS PANIC HIKES RISK OF CORPORATE DEFAULTS
The coronavirus economic panic has raised the risk that more corporations will default on their debts, already at record levels, especially in the junk bond market. At the same time, the global economy is slowing and the credit market is tightening. That makes it more difficult for corporations to roll over debt. Also, as conditions worsen and corporate sales and...
VIRUS BENEFITS FOOD PROCESSORS AND LOBSTER LOVERS
The Campbell Soup Co., maker of SpagettiOs and other iconic food staples, reports that its products are flying off supermarket shelves as shoppers hoard canned goods and other long-lived basic items to guard against the effects of quarantines and other extreme measures if the coronavirus epidemic worsens. Retailers also report running low on Swanson canned chicken, Jif peanut butter, and...
U.S. HOUSE BUDGETS $8.3 BILLION TO BATTLE VIRUS
The U.S. House of Representatives rushed through an $8.3 billion spending measure to fight the coronavirus outbreak and passed the measure to the Senate, which is expected to approve it immediately. The president has said he will sign it. The measure allots $2.2 billion to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention to contain the outbreak and $3 billion to...
ITALY: BAD DAYS WORSE
Before the coronavirus hit Italy, its economy barely rebounded from the Panic of ’08. Now, following the government’s decision to lock down the entire nation, it risks diving deep into recession. Tourism, which accounts for 13 percent of its GDP, is dead. Italian manufacturers are flooded with canceled orders – perhaps not entirely a bad thing because parts shipments from...
MACHINE LEARNING SLASHES EV BATTERY DEVELOPMENT TIME
By Bennett Davis Machine learning software created by researchers at MIT, Stanford University, and the Toyota Research Institute can cut design and development time for new batteries by as much as 98 percent, the developers say. The program also can be used to slash development times in areas such as drug research and laser design. The scientists focused on batteries...
YOUR GENOME HAS BEEN MARKED DOWN
By Bennett Davis Veritas Genetics, a Boston-area gene sequencing company, has reduced the price for sequencing and interpreting an entire human genome from $999 to $599. For the price, Veritas will not only apply the power of artificial intelligence to sequence your genome but also give you an expert reading, highlighting genetic propensities for 200 specific diseases as well as...