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Learn to Fly
Prices for raw materials including oil and copper are surging as the world economy reopens for business, a signal to many investors that global growth is returning more quickly than anticipated. The recent gains come after coronavirus lockdowns dented commodity prices earlier in the year and are a boon for battered producers—many of which have cut supply in response to industry turmoil. Investors closely watch commodities because their prices fluctuate based on real-time changes to supply and demand and momentum in the global manufacturing sector. That means commodity prices tend to climb when factories are buzzing with activity, ships laden with goods are moving around the world and consumers are traveling, Amrith Ramkumar reports.
WHAT TO WATCH TODAY
The European Commission’s flash consumer confidence index for June is out at 10 a.m. ET.
U.S. existing-home sales for May are expected to fall to an annual pace of 3.95 million from 4.33 million a month earlier. (10 a.m. ET)
Bank of Canada Gov. Tiff Macklem speaks via videoconference at 11 a.m. ET.
Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari speaks at 6:30 p.m. ET.
Japan’s Jibun Bank surveys of manufacturers and service providers for early June are out at 8:30 p.m. ET.
TOP STORIES
Chicken Dance
Chinese authorities suspended chicken imports from a Tyson Foods facility due to what Chinese officials said were Covid-19 infections among the plant’s employees. Tyson on Friday said that since early June, 481 employees across its northwest Arkansas operations had tested positive for Covid-19, representing about 13% of the workers tested at those sites. Chinese officials have been testing imported meat and seafood products for traces of the virus in the past week after the new outbreak was linked to a market where imported meat and fish are sold, Jacob Bunge and Lucy Craymer report.
Unequal Opportunity
Women have lost jobs at a faster rate than men during the coronavirus pandemic, a factor that is likely to hold back the economic recovery. Female workers account for the majority of service-sector jobs, including food service and personal care, which are more vulnerable to social-distancing measures and have suffered the brunt of losses during the current economic crisis, Sarah Chaney reports.
The coronavirus pandemic is forcing employers across the U.S. to rethink how they hire, with tactics including remote onboarding and curbside job fairs. While unemployment remains historically high, job openings are starting to increase, causing employers to take unusual steps to find employees during a pandemic, James T. Areddy reports.
Companies are husbanding cash, cutting costs and tapping debt, all moves that bolster their resilience amid persistent uncertainty wrought by the new coronavirus. Companies stockpile cash in a crisis for much the same reason households do: It provides flexibility in an uncertain environment, protecting against further crises or suddenly parsimonious capital markets. It also serves as ready fuel once sustainable growth resumes and new investment makes sense, Thomas Gryta and Theo Francis report.
Yeah, but that TruCoat…
The coronavirus pandemic pushed car buying online. The auto industry rushed to embrace the internet as a way to sell more vehicles during the lockdowns. Auto makers expanded at-home delivery programs, and dealers built out their websites to help customers tour showrooms virtually and complete more of the car-buying process online. Now, as dealerships reopen across the country, many are rethinking how they staff locations, including cutting traditional sales roles and shifting more employees into digital operations. The disruption shows how some business changes made hastily in response to the health crisis could outlast efforts across the country to reopen the economy, Nora Naughton reports.
Start Spreading the News
New York City will allow companies to reopen their offices today after a three-month lockdown from the pandemic. Few employees seem ready or willing to go back and most companies are taking a cautious approach. New York real-estate brokers and landlords say they anticipate only 10% to 20% of Manhattan’s office workers will return on Monday, though they expect that figure to increase gradually over the summer, Konrad Putzier reports.
One big obstacle to returning to the office: the commute. About three quarters of Manhattan office workers take the bus or subway to work. Crowded subway cars raise the risk of infection, but keeping a distance between commuters could make it much harder to get to work on time. If more people switch to cars, traffic jams could worsen significantly.
Don’t Call it a Comeback
North American sports are trying to stage a comeback. The coronavirus is still winning. The increasing cases and skyrocketing percentages of positive tests over the past week in populous states have made it clear that a microscopic pathogen that paralyzed American life is not under control in the U.S.—and the return of sports might have to wait until the virus is contained. The leagues are bleeding money and, with a nudge from the White House, scrambling to resume their seasons. But even as they have inched back to restarting, the pandemic keeps reminding them why play stopped, Ben Cohen, Joshua Robinson and Laine Higgins report.
WHAT ELSE WE’RE READING
Federal measures to counter the coronavirus pandemic could help keep poverty in check. “In the absence of the Cares Act, we project that poverty rates would rise to 16.3% given the composition of April 2020. With the Cares Act, however, we project that poverty rates may return to pre-crisis levels if access to the benefits is adequate. However, the Cares Act also features many shortcomings that threaten to weaken its poverty reduction potential. First, many eligible families have struggled to actually receive their Cares Act benefits. … Second, key components of the Cares Act are scheduled to expire after July 2020, leaving many families with little to no income support in the second half of the year. Third, many families, such as those with undocumented immigrants, are explicitly left out of the Cares Act,” Zachary Parolin, Megan Curran and Christopher Wimer write for the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University.
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