Tag: jun 16 2020

OECD WARNS OF SECOND LOCKDOWN’S DANGERS. Mirroring what we have long forecast, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) warned of a second worldwide economic shutdown if the COVID virus resurges would do severe damage to a global economy already reeling. The world’s GDP will contract by 6 percent this year if no new...

DEFLATION STRIKES CHINA’S INDUSTRIES. China’s factories slashed prices for their goods in May by an average of 3.7 percent compared to prices a year earlier, a steeper drop than analysts had expected following April’s 3.1-percent cut. The discounts marked the fastest deflation in the country’s industrial prices in more than four years and were sparked...

APRIL’S ECONOMY PAINTS GRIM PORTRAIT OF GLOBAL COLLAPSE. Great Britain’s economy was more than 25 percent smaller in May than it was in February. The nation’s GPD contracted 5.8 percent in March and 20.4 percent in April, totaling a 26.2-percent shrinkage over two months of the shutdowns now easing there. The U.K.’s Office for National...

24-Hour Fitness, the fourth-largest U.S. gym chain with more than 400 workout centers, emailed an undisclosed number of fitness instructors, personal trainers, and salespersons on 8 June, asking them to join a 10 June phone conference to learn of “important company updates.” On the call, workers learned they all were being laid off immediately. The...

Simon Property Group, the U.S.’s largest mall owner with more than 200 retail properties, has walked away from its planned $3.6-billion purchase, announced in February, of Taubman Centers, which owns 26 shopping centers in the U.S. and Asia. Simon has seen hundreds of its tenant stores stop paying rent and has filed suit against Gap...

As they reopen dining rooms, restaurants face costs, rules, and changes that may make being open as expensive as staying closed. Eateries are putting up Plexiglass partitions between tables. Many are budgeting hundreds of dollars a week to buy masks for staff and customers and extra cleaning supplies; others are having to add staff to...

The Disneyland resort in Anaheim, CA, will begin to reopen on 9 July, the same date as Walt Disney World in Orlando will begin welcoming visitors again, the Disney Co. announced on 10 June. The Downtown Disney shopping area will open first, followed on 17 July by the Disneyland and California Adventure theme parks. Walt...

Ulta Beauty Inc., whose more than 1,200 stores dot malls and shopping centers around the U.S., has announced a “clean sheet” review to decide whether to keep stores open, remodel them, move some, or shift more operations online. The review had been planned but the economic shutdown made it a priority, said Scott Settersten, Ulta’s...

AMC Entertainment Holdings, the world’s largest movie theater chain with more than 1,000 theaters around the world, lost a net $2.2 billion in its most recently ended quarter as the global economic shutdown darkened the company’s 11,000 movie screens. In the first two months, AMC’s revenue of this year was 10 percent above that of...

The world’s largest chain of coffee cafés lost as much as $3.2 billion in revenue during its most recent fiscal quarter, the company reported. Starbucks also expects combined sales in its two biggest markets to drop between 10 and 20 percent during its current fiscal year, with sales essentially flat in China and remaining negative...