Live Stock Market Tracker During Coronavirus Pandemic

March 31, 2020
Business

British supermarkets had their best month on record in March, as panicked shoppers emptied supermarket shelves and hoarded goods, according to the latest report from Kantar, a London-based data and consulting firm.

Sales surged nearly 21 percent compared with the same month a year ago.

“It’s inevitable that shoppers will add extra items to their baskets when faced with restrictions on their movement and possible isolation if one of them becomes unwell,” said head of Kantar’s retail and consumer insight, Fraser McKevitt. “But many families are also adjusting to having more mouths to feed.”

Figures indicate that households spent approximately 63 pounds, or about $78, more throughout the month. Alcohol sales surged 22 percent, driven partly by the forced closure of pubs and restaurants on March 20.

Catch up: Here’s what else is happening.

Huawei, the Chinese technology giant, said its sales worldwide last year came in at $123 billion, an increase of nearly one-fifth over 2018. The solid growth came despite a wide-ranging crackdown on the company by the U.S. government, which says Huawei is a national security menace. Company executives declined to give a specific forecast of how the pandemic might affect this year’s financial results.
American Airlines plans to apply for some of the $50 billion airline bailout included in the federal stimulus that was signed into law last week, its chief executive and president said in a memo to staff. The airline expects to receive $12 billion, some of which will be used to pay employees through September.
Virgin Australia said it would ask for $1.4 billion Australian dollars ($866 million) in bailout money from the government.
Facebook announced on Monday that it would give out $25 million in grants to local news organizations and spend $75 million in marketing that will go to news outlets internationally. Campbell Brown, a Facebook vice president, acknowledged in an interview that the company, whose huge chunk of online ad revenue helped dent media companies’ business models in the first place, felt a “responsibility” to help out.

Reporting was contributed by Carlos Tejada, Michael Corkery, Raymond Zhong, Peter Eavis, Davey Alba, Sheera Frenkel, Geneva Abdul, Kate Conger, Ernesto Londono and Daniel Victor.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/31/business/stock-market-today-coronavirus.html