Anticipated House passage later today of the $2 trillion COVID-19 stimulus bill helped swing markets back to a
bull run (though let’s
keep that bubbly corked, shall we?). The news was enough for Wall Street to shrug off a staggeringly big unemployment report, at least for a day, and we’ll be watching carefully to see how the reality of those growing claims affects already jumpy markets –
NYTimes and
WSJ and
Bloomberg and
MarketWatch and
Law360
More on that massive surge in unemployment claims—all 3.3 million of them in the past week alone, by far the worst week in the 50-year history of such tracking (blowing out of the water October 1982’s record of 695,000 initial claims in a week) – NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg and MarketWatch and Marketplace
More, too, on how the lessons from the Great Recession’s TARP effort informed the $2 trillion bill likely on the way to the White House for signature by day’s end – WSJ
Speaking of trillions in relief, the G-20 nations have committed to spending “more than $5 trillion trying to insulate the global economy from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and help[ing] speed a recovery.” The promise of coordinated stimulus is the largest G-20 effort since 2008-09 – WSJ
Fed Chair Jay Powell made a rare network TV appearance on NBC’s Today show on Thursday to assure Americans that—recession or not—the country must “get the spread of the virus under control” before turning its attention to resuming economic activity – NYTimes and MarketWatch
And while we’re talking Fed, enjoy this look at how the central bank can take $454 billion from Congress and help spin it into a “$4 trillion booster shot for the United States economy.” How? It’s all about leverage, my friends – NYTimes
For the record, European austerity is DONEZO – NYTimes
ViacomCBS’s precipitous stock fall in recent weeks (thanks to the shuttering of key revenue drivers like movie theaters, film releases, and live-sports broadcasts) has forced its parent National Amusements to restructure its credit facilities with Wells Fargo after “the value of the ViacomCBS shares pledged as collateral for credit fell below Wells Fargo’s minimum threshold” – WSJ
The SEC has laid out “detailed guidance on how companies should assess and communicate COVID-19 risks, encouraging firms to be proactive and revise their filings accordingly.” The road map came with a “second extension of filing deadlines” – Law360
SDNY Judge Edgardo Ramos has “released several American banks and affiliates of some of the world’s largest financial institutions, including Barclays PLC, Citigroup Inc. and TD Securities, from a proposed class action by investors accusing them of rigging the market for bonds issued by foreign governments,” finding that plaintiffs “failed to plausibly demonstrate how they were affected by the domestic dealers’ alleged bond-rigging” – Law360
A couple of early COVID-19-crash winners: Peloton, Slack, and potentially Nike – MarketWatch
Oh yeah, and both Zooms – Law360
That sweatsuit blazer you’ve been dying to pull out? Yeah, now’s the perfect time for it. Get crazy – Bloomberg
Have a good weekend, and stay safe.
