“At @realDonaldTrump ’s direction, we are moving Tax Day from April 15 to July 15,” Mnuchin said. “All taxpayers and businesses will have this additional time to file and make payments without interest or penalties.”
The Treasury Department had previously announced $300 billion in delays to tax deadline payments. It had been reluctant to postpone the deadline for filing as well, in part because doing so may result in fewer Americans getting their tax refunds at a weak moment for the American economy.
Meanwhile on Wall Street, U.S. stocks opened positive Friday, then gave up gains to cap off one of the most volatile weeks in Wall Street history, as the torrent of support from governments and central banks around the globe offered investors some hope of relief from the economic stranglehold of the coronavirus.
The Dow Jones industrial average popped 150 points after the opening bell. But within 15 minutes, the blue-chip index was down 80 points, or 0.4 percent, at 20,015. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index declined 1.1 percent to 2,382. The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell flat, even though optimistic futures had risen 5 percent and engaged the New York Stock Exchange’s “limit up” trigger, which guards against emotional and chaotic trading.
The markets have been wracked by brutal sell-offs that have catapulted the three major U.S. indexes into a bear market, with the S&P 500 index down more than 30 percent from its February high.
“People feel like a battered boxer, unsure of how to respond to a flurry economic punches,” said Sam Stovall of CFRA Research. “The good news out of this bad news is the volatility looks like it is coming to a crescendo. Only two other periods in the past half-century have seen a high level of volatility. History tells us the worst may be behind us.”
The Federal Reserve has rolled out eight emergency actions this week, establishing a special backstop for money market mutual funds (typically a risk-free place for investors to store cash), slashing interest rates to zero, and restarting the crisis-era bond-buying program known as “quantitative easing.” The central bank has also announced plans to buy short-term business loans known as commercial paper, ramped up “swap lines” with foreign central banks to ensure other nations have enough dollars, allowed banks to borrow money from the Fed at a 0.25 percent interest rate and announced loans for primary dealers of U.S. Treasury bonds.
Other signs of progress in the war against covid-19 stoked positive feelings on Wall Street. The U.S. dollar, which had skyrocketed as worried investors rushed to secure greenbacks, weakened against other currencies. Oil, which sank to a 20-year low earlier in the week amid cratering demand, also rebounded. Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was up 2.7 percent in early trading at $29 a barrel.
Investors also found hope increasingly stringent measures to combat the coronavirus pandemic, as California initiated a lockdown for its 40 million residents, while Italy expanded its own large-scale lockdown. As of Friday, more than 240,000 coronavirus cases have been confirmed across the globe. The World Health Organization noted that it took more than three months to reach 100,000 cases worldwide — but only 12 days to log the next 100,000.
March 20, 2020 at 10:06 AM EDT
JPMorgan Chase offering ‘front line’ employees up to $1,000 bonus
JPMorgan Chase, the nation’s largest bank, said Friday that it would give employees who continue to work in offices or bank branches during the coronavirus outbreak a much as a $1,000 bonus.
The bank didn’t say how many of its more than 250,000 employees would be eligible for the payments, which would be distributed in two batches in April and May. Full and part-time employees who make less than $60,000 a year are eligible, the bank said in a note to employees. The size of payment will depend on the employees’ salary.
“Many of our front line employees in our branches, operations and call centers, and other key sites who continue to go into their office or branch each day face particular challenges related to issues like childcare and transportation,” the note said.
It also giving all employees an extra five days of vacation to help manage childcare and other issues during the coronavirus outbreak.
By Renae Merle
March 20, 2020 at 9:13 AM EDT
As economic tsunami grows, Senate coronavirus plan under fire from all sides
An enormous economic stimulus bill released by the Senate GOP leadership is coming under attack from all sides with negotiations set to begin with Democrats on Friday.
The trillion-dollar legislation, aimed at stemming the economic carnage caused by the coronavirus, would send direct payments to many Americans and extend large loans to airlines and other industries. It would also create a $300 billion relief program tasked with halting a wave of layoffs at small businesses.
But it would limit payments to poorer Americans and include few restrictions on some corporate bailout funds, infuriating some lawmakers who believe the bill’s targets are misguided.
Trump administration officials and Senate GOP leaders hope to have the package enacted by early next week, but the widespread and bipartisan opposition raised questions about whether it could happen that quickly.
By Erica Werner and Jeff Stein
March 20, 2020 at 9:05 AM EDT
Mnuchin backs big oil purchases to prop up companies and fill strategic reserve
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Thursday backed a plan to spend as much as $20 billion on crude to prop up U.S. oil companies and fill the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
But filling the emergency storage caverns would cost only about $1.85 billion, a fraction of what the treasury secretary estimated.
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve, held in salt caverns in four locations near the Gulf of Mexico, can store as much as 727 million barrels. The Energy Department said filling it would require the purchase of 77 million barrels. At today’s price of roughly $24 a barrel, that works out to $1.85 billion.
The purchases would help U.S. firms indirectly by driving up oil prices, if only modestly. Scott Sheffield, chief executive of Pioneer Natural Resources, said in an email last week that buying crude for the reserve “is a short-term fix. Keeps oil from going into the $20s for a few weeks.”
By Steven Mufson
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiXGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9idXNpbmVzcy8yMDIwLzAzLzIwL21hcmtldHMtZWNvbm9teS1saXZlLXVwZGF0ZXMtY29yb25hdmlydXMv0gFraHR0cHM6Ly93d3cud2FzaGluZ3RvbnBvc3QuY29tL2J1c2luZXNzLzIwMjAvMDMvMjAvbWFya2V0cy1lY29ub215LWxpdmUtdXBkYXRlcy1jb3JvbmF2aXJ1cy8_b3V0cHV0VHlwZT1hbXA?oc=5
2020-03-20 14:25:00Z
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