Business Highlights

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China’s economy in worst downturn since ’60s in virus battle

BEIJING (AP) — China faces a drawn-out struggle to revive its economy after it suffered its biggest contraction since possibly the mid-1960s while fighting the coronavirus. Official data released Friday showed the world’s second-largest economy shrank by 6.8% from a year earlier in the quarter ending in March after factories, offices and shopping malls were closed to contain the outbreak. Consumer spending, which supplied 80% of last year’s growth, and factory activity were weaker than expected. The pandemic began in China in December and it is the first major economy to start to recover after the ruling Communist Party declared the virus under control last month. Factories have reopened but cinemas and other businesses that employ millions of workers still are closed.

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Hope takes the reins on Wall Street, stocks rally worldwide

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks joined a worldwide rally and closed out their first back-to-back weekly gain since the market began selling off two months ago. The S&P 500 jumped 2.7% Friday, following up on even bigger gains in Europe and Asia, as investors latched onto several strands of hope about progress in the fight against the coronavirus. They included the White House’s release of guidelines for states to reopen their economies and a very early but encouraging report on a possible treatment for COVID-19. The gains came even as scary data piled higher about the economic and human toll of the virus.

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GOP signals possible movement in business virus aid standoff

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans say they are willing to accept Democratic demands for additional federal funding for hospitals to break a stalemate over the Trump administration’s $250 billion request for a small-business coronavirus aid program that’s out of money. House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy told The Associated Press on Friday that he’s also willing to meet a demand by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to set aside some of the requested “paycheque protection” funding for community lenders. The program, which has run out of money, helps small businesses pay employees during the virus outbreak. McCarthy said Republicans would draw the line at Democratic demands for billions of dollars in funding for state and local governments. Talk continue this weekend.

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US restaurants expect big changes when their doors reopen

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. restaurants are thinking ahead to the day when their dining room doors reopen to a changed world. Restaurant owners say there may be physical differences, like masked waiters, disposable menus or fewer tables so patrons can sit further apart. There will be signs explaining cleaning procedures and glass dividers to protect cashiers. Disinfectant wipes might sit next to napkin dispensers. In some places, local regulations will likely dictate how and when restaurants can open. That’s what has happened in Hong Kong and China, which make restaurants take patrons’ temperatures and regulate how far apart tables must be.

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IMF, World Bank pledge help amid calls for more debt relief

WASHINGTON (AP) — The 189-nation International Monetary Fund and its sister lending agency, the World Bank, are pledging to step up their efforts to cushion the blow to global economy from the coronavirus pandemic. The two agencies’ assurance came at the end of their spring meeting where they heard calls for them to provide more debt relief to poorer nations being battered by the health crisis. IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and World Bank President David Malpass both stressed that their agencies are well aware of the rising threat from a health crisis that is expected to plunge the global economy into the deepest recession since the Great Depression.

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Company: 4 Georgia poultry workers dead from coronavirus

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — A major U.S. meat producer says four of its poultry workers in Georgia have died after becoming infected by the coronavirus. Tyson Foods spokesman Gary Mickelson confirmed Friday the deaths of four infected employees in the rural southwest Georgia city of Camilla. He said three of them worked in the company’s chicken processing plant there, while the fourth person was employed outside the plant at one of Tyson’s nearby support operations. Tyson’s senior vice-president for human resources, Hector Gonzalez, said in a statement the company is requiring workers to wear face masks, installing dividers at work stations and giving employees more space in break rooms. Tyson has not said how many employees have tested positive for COVID-19.

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Damage from twister threatens to disrupt Ford supply line

DETROIT (AP) — A tornado strike at a critical Ford manufacturing plant threatens to disrupt the automaker’s supply chain. Ford disclosed in a regulatory filing Friday that the BorgWarner factory in Seneca, South Carolina, which makes a key transmission part for many of Ford’s most profitable vehicles, was severely damaged Monday when a twister rolled through. Seneca produces transfer cases for F-Series pickup trucks, Ford Explorer and Expedition SUVs, Transit vans and the Lincoln Aviator and Navigator

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The S&P 500 rose 75.01 points, or 2. 7%, to 2,874.56. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 704.81, or 3%, to 24,242.49, and the Nasdaq added 117.78, or 1.4%, to 8,650.14. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks finished up 51.01 points, or 4.3%, at 1,229.10.

The Associated Press