1) Jerome H. Powell, the Federal Reserve Chair, said the U.S. economy is in an emergency, which is deteriorating with alarming speed. His remark comes after unveiling over $2 trillion dollars in new loans to keep the economy afloat, a result of the coronavirus shutdown. America is moving from the lowest unemployment in fifty years to a very high unemployment in just weeks. Claims for unemployment aid is now up to 17 million and still climbing as more businesses fight to survive. It is expected the U.S. economy may shrink by more than 30% between April and the end of June. The Fed will soon begin purchasing up to $750 billion dollars in corporate loans from big businesses who have a low investment grade, in the hopes of preventing their bankruptcy bringing further damage to the American economy. The Feds are making a wide range of loans to various size businesses which it doesn’t expect to get paid for. No one is making estimates on how extensive this will ultimately be to the American economy.
2) Although Saudi Arabia and Russia have reached an agreement on limiting oil production, it’s not yet known just how large those reductions are going to be, so oil prices had turned negative while awaiting details of OPEC+ cuts in oil production. The general consensus is each nation will cut production by 10 million barrels a day, but with world oil consumption way down because of the pandemic, it’s not certain if the OPEC+ cuts will have much effect, especially for U.S. domestic oil production (shale oil).
3) The Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin considers it may be possible for the U.S. to be open and back to business next month, considering it’s just a matter of medical considerations. The administration is doing everything possible for business to resume as soon as the ‘all clear’ is sounded and they have the necessary liquidity to operate. The president is forming a second taskforce charged with addressing the economic devastation which the virus has wrought and take measure to resume economic activity as soon as possible.
4) Stock market closings for – 9 APR 20:
Dow 23,719.37 up 285.80
Nasdaq 8,153.58 up 62.67
S&P 500 2,789.82 up 39.84
10 Year Yield: down at 0.73%
Oil: down at $23.19