Wall St. Caps a Turbulent Week With a Decline: Live Updates

The announcement came as pressure has increased on retail chains deemed essential enough to remain open to provide additional protections for their employees, who are working in some of the few places where Americans are still able to congregate.

Masks, in particular, have become a point of contention, with some employees complaining that they are not allowed to wear masks even if they brought their own. Walmart and Target have said in recent days that they will begin providing face coverings to their staffs.

What we know about how the Fed plans to spend its new pot of money.

Congress has earmarked $454 billion for Federal Reserve programs that are meant to keep credit flowing to businesses, states and local governments — funding that could help it to fend off a worst-case scenario for the United States economy.

During troubled times, the Fed can lend more or less directly to companies and governments using its emergency authorities. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin must sign off on the programs, and the Treasury Department backstops the programs with a layer of funding meant to absorb losses.

The central bank’s actions so far, taken when the Treasury had far less money to provide backup, offer a rough outline of how it might use the new appropriation.

For individuals: The Fed is rolling out one lending program that gives eligible companies cheap loans in exchange for asset-backed securities — basically, bundles of debt — built on newly issued credit card debt, student loans, auto loans and the like. By creating a big incentive, the program should make loans available and cheaper for consumers.

For small businesses: The main support for small business is coming from the Small Business Administration, but the Fed is also taking bundles of business-related loans as collateral for loans, which could help smaller companies gain access to financing.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/03/business/stock-market-today-coronavirus.html