Small-Business Shortfall Leaves Owners in the Lurch: Live Updates

April 16, 2020
Business

“As this pandemic evolves, we’ll continue focusing on the most effective ways to keep misinformation and dangerous hoaxes about Covid-19 off our apps and ensure people have credible information from health experts to stay safe and informed,” Guy Rosen, Facebook’s vice president of integrity, said in a blog post.

As the coronavirus has spread around the world, killing hundreds of thousands of people, so too has online misinformation about it, despite aggressive efforts by social media companies to curb its dissemination. As part of its announcement on Thursday, Facebook said it had removed hundreds of thousands of posts from the social network that “could lead to imminent physical harm,” such as claims that drinking bleach cures the virus and that physical distancing measures are ineffective against its widespread transmission.

Still, conspiracy theories about the coronavirus have abounded on the social network. In March, the company said, it also reduced the reach of about 40 million false posts and applied warning labels showing more context based on thousands of articles by its independent fact-checking partners.

Catch up: Here’s what else is happening.

An updated tally from a trade group for big apartment owners and developers shows that 16 percent of tenants failed to make a full or partial monthly rent payment by April 12, compared with 9 percent in a similar period a month earlier. The report, from the National Multifamily Housing Council, surveyed 11.5 million units. In data through April 5, the nonpayment rate had been 31 percent.
Google said it would grant its employees up to 14 weeks of paid leave to care for family members during the coronavirus shutdown, an increase from the six weeks of paid leave it made available in March. Under the new policy, the leave can be taken in half-day increments, allowing workers to stretch it across more than six months if necessary.
The Transportation Department largely denied requests from JetBlue and Spirit Airlines to stop flying to several destinations, service that is required under the terms of the federal stimulus. The decision suggests that the department may be unlikely to grant the majority of such exemption requests, many of which have been issued by smaller carriers.
Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos, said the company was developing its own coronavirus testing capabilities, including building a lab, and is preparing to start testing a small number of workers soon. In an annual letter to shareholders, Mr. Bezos also advocated “regular testing on a global scale, across all industries,” as a way to reopen the economy.
Morgan Stanley, the smallest of the major Wall Street banks, reported a 30 percent downswing in earnings for the first quarter. Driven by declines in its money management and investment businesses as well as higher costs related to both increased loss cushions and the quarter’s strong trading volumes, Morgan Stanley’s profits fell to $1.7 billion for the quarter, with overall revenues falling 8 percent, to $9.5 billion.

Reporting was contributed by Vindu Goel, Kevin McKenna, Michael M. Grynbaum, Alexandra Stevenson, Davey Alba, Neil Irwin, Nelson D. Schwartz, Liz Alderman, Alan Rappeport, Kate Kelly, Keith Bradsher, Niraj Chokshi, DAvid McCabe, Caitlin Dickerson, Vanessa Friedman, Miriam Jordan, Jason DeParle, Jim Tankersley, Stacey Cowley, Emily Cochrane, Emily Flitter, Reed Abelson, Sapna Maheshwari, Ben Casselman, Noam Scheiber, Geneva Abdul, Mohammed Hadi, Carlos Tejada and Mike Ives.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/16/business/stock-market-live-coronavirus.html