Coronavirus: China's retail giant Alibaba sees recovery after virus

Since March, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba said it's seen a "steady recovery" in the region, but cautioned that the road to economic recovery remains unclear.

Despite virus-related restrictions on denting operations, the company's revenues increased 22 per cent in the three months to March 31. The benefit, driven by demand for food, electronics and cloud computing, was stronger than expected. Disruptions in the supply chain and investment losses have weighed overall on its results.

The output of China's economy-in which Alibaba is a major player-is being closely watched as a glimpse of how the rest of the world will fare after sudden economic shutdowns aimed at regulating Covid-19 's spread. The country's government said this week it would not set a target for economic growth. This is the first time since 1990 she has declined to do so.

Many multinational businesses have also scrapped predictions for the year ahead, citing pandemic uncertainty. Alibaba, which operates one of the biggest shopping and digital media websites in the world, also warned of confusion on Friday. Yet it told investors that, compared to 35 percent in the previous year, it projected sales growth of about 27 percent over the next 12 months.

However, in the three months up to March 31 Alibaba 's profits were almost completely wiped out. The company said this was largely due to a loss of return on investment. In the same period , the company reported sales of $16bn (114.3bn yuan, £13.1bn), with revenues on its core shopping websites rising by almost 19 per cent. Sales in the cloud services division of the company jumped 58%.

Yet its foreign businesses experienced substantially slower growth. This branch includes Lazada shopping website in Southeast Asia and accounts for about 7 per cent of the company 's revenue.

Black light experiment video shows how quickly a virus can spread in a restaurant

 
Video of an experiment with black light designed to demonstrate how quickly a virus can spread in a restaurant setting is rapidly viral.

 The video, shot by the public broadcaster NHK in Japan, features 10 people going through a simulation designed to simulate the atmosphere in a pre-pandemic buffet restaurant or cruise ship. One person is designed as the infected patient in the video, and a special black light-ready solution is given for rubbing into his hand.

Without a black light, the solution is invisible, so participants at the demonstration can not see it during the simulation. Everyone in the experiment then does what people usually do at a restaurant buffet — they eat food, talk, and drink. A black light is switched on at the end of the video, and the "virus" can be seen just about anywhere.It appears on utensils, cups, food and even on the faces of some of the participants.

During the coronavirus pandemic, business is booming for those 14 companies

For industry the coronavirus pandemic was, to say the least, bleak. Widespread layoffs and furloughs have caused about 21 per cent of U.S. workers since mid-March to file for unemployment compensation, and analysts believe the U.S. is possibly now in recession. And, even as states start reopening, many of the jobs lost may never return. Yet several businesses have been flourishing during this upheaval due to drastic changes in customer behavior. Restaurants, pubs, offices and gyms are mostly barren, with millions of Americans staying home to avoid the coronavirus spread. That created new opportunities for many businesses.

Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts and Nintendo

Popular video games such as first-person shooters, football and adorable animals were a boon for top gaming firms. Activision Blizzard (ATVI) said "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare," which came out in September, has sold more copies at this point after its release than any other "Call of Duty" title. In the first quarter, revenues were $1.52 billion, up 21 per cent from last year's $1.26 billion.

For Electronic Arts (EA), sales for the fourth quarter went up 12 percent from last year. FIFA, Madden NFL, The Sims 4 boyed it up. Unlike Activision, people sitting at home and looking for escape have benefited from it.


The breakout success of "Animal Crossing: New Horizons," a game set on an island utopia, has powered sales this spring. In its first six weeks the company sold more than 13 million units of the game. The Nintendo Switch console is also still hard to find, with the business shipping over 21 million units in the last fiscal year.

Clorox Company and Reckitt Benckiser

People can not avoid getting their dwellings sanitized, bleached and washed every nook and cranny. Clorox and Reckitt Benckiser, the makers of the world's leading cleaning products, benefit from this.

Clorox (CLX) said last week that the first quarter saw its total sales leap 15 percent. Clorox's cleaning product revenues, including its wipes and beaches, have jumped 32%. There has also been "increased consumer demand" for cat litter and grilling needs, which has fuelled a 2 percent increase in sales in its household segment.

Reckitt Benckiser (RBGLY), the British company which produces Lysol and Dettol, also experiences record sales. Sales of disinfectants rose 13.5 percent in the first quarter due to "solid market demand" (More than just strong demand for its products, the company was also in the spotlight.)

Sales of aerosol disinfectants jumped from this time last year in March and April 230.5 per cent and multipurpose cleaners 109.1 per cent, according to research firm Nielsen.

Peloton

In-home fitness items, including bikes and treadmills, are made by Peloton (PTON). Unsurprisingly, a blowout quarter announced on Wednesday: sales increased by 66 percent and membership rose by 30 percent for its app. The business, which has a loyal following, has also increased its full-year outlook, as it does not expect to decline in demand anytime soon.

Publix and Kroger

Some of the country's largest grocers also gained from the need for household essentials and food, which stayed open as critical businesses. Publix recently said revenues soared 10 per cent to $1 billion for the first three months of the year. Sales in open shops rose by 14.4 percent at least a year.

The pandemic had also benefited Kroger (KR). Recently, the grocery store said sales in open stores rose by 30 per cent in March for at least a year. The bestselling pieces were packaged meals and paper and cleaning products. As a result, Kroger said its first-quarter results are projected to be better than anticipated.

Beyond Meat

Beyond Meat (BYND)'s revenue more than doubled in the first quarter, the company reported Tuesday. Sales hit $97.1 million in the first three months of the year, up 141 per cent from $40.2 million in the same time last year.

The results "rose above our expectations," CEO Ethan Brown said. Retail sales in the United States rose 157 per cent compared to last year's same time. The meat business based on plants is in a good position as it expands into the Chinese market and faces a regional meat shortage in the USA.

3M

3M (MMM) said that the virus spurred "solid development" for its personal safety products, including gowns and the medical professionals' N95 respirator masks required. Revenue in the first quarter rose by almost 3 per cent to $8.08 billion. This was accompanied by an rise of 21 per cent in its healthcare segment and 4.6 per cent in consumer products, such as Scotch-Brite sponges

Wayfair and Overstock

With much of the country working from home it leaves plenty of time to refresh the room. For its most recent quarter, Wayfair (W)'s sales increased by 20 percent compared to the same period last year. The online retailer said it is seeing "strong growth in new and recurring customer orders," with the number of orders rising to 9.9 million by 21 per cent.

Rival Overstock (OSTK) also said its April retail sales were up 120 percent compared to last year's same month, with growth occurring in its "core categories of home furnishings."

Slack and Zoom

Slack and Zoom have become standard networking devices for people who can operate remotely.

Slack (WORK) Technologies said it added 9,000 new paid customers between February 1 and March 25, an 80 percent increase compared to the previous quarter. Not only do they add more people, users are becoming more chatty: "The number of messages sent per user per day has increased globally by an average of 20 per cent," Slack said in a press release.

Zoom (ZM), a platform for video conferencing, was obviously the biggest brand to break out. According to CEO Eric Yuan the organization hosts 300 million meeting participants a day. Zoom previously said in March it passed 200 million members in the regular meetings. Its stock for the year is up 120 per cent.

Source: CNN Business

Roche wins U.S. nod research for COVID-19 antibody

Roche wins U.S. nod research for COVID-19 antibody, aimed at improving performance

Roche (ROG.S) has earned U.S. approval for the emergency. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for an antibody check to determine if the coronavirus has ever affected people, the Swiss drugmaker said on Sunday. Thomas Schinecker, Head of Diagnostics at Roche, said the company is aiming at more than doubling test volume from around 50 million a month to significantly more than 100 million a month by year-end.

Governments, companies, and people are searching for blood testing of this type to discover who may have had the disease, who may have some immunity, and hopefully to build plans to help end national lockdowns. Roche, based in Basel, which also carries out molecular tests to recognize active COVID-19 infections, said that its antibody test has a specificity rate of over 99.8 percent and 100 percent sensitivity, indicating that tests will produce very few false positives and no false negatives.

A false-positive outcome could lead to the incorrect inference that somebody has immunity. Roche said their research is based on intravenous blood samples, with greater precision than finger-prick tests.

Companies including U.S .- based Abbott Laboratories (ABT.N), Becton Dickinson (BDX.N), and Italy's DiaSorin (DIAS.MI) have also developed similar antibody tests. Abbott said his test's accuracy and sensitivity were 99.5 percent, and 100 percent, respectively. Diasorin said their Liason XL test has sensitivity of 97.4 percent and specificity of 98.5 per cent.

When demand for antibody tests escalates, an number of distributors with no history or proven testing expertise have also entered the seasoned companies in an all but unregulated marketplace in the United States. Roche has not disclosed a price for its research, but has said it will be the same worldwide.

8 big cats test positive for coronavirus

Eight big cats at the Bronx Zoo have tested COVID-19 positive after they were accidentally bitten by a zookeeper at the Bronx Zoo.

Staff at the Bronx Zoo, which has been closed since March 16, first announced that on April 5 a four-year-old Malayan tiger named Nadia had tested COVID-19 positively and that three other tigers and three African lions had similar symptoms as well, but had yet to be checked. Nonetheless, after Nadia's test samples were obtained from her nose, mouth, and respiratory tract while under anesthesia, the zoo reported that the three tigers and three African lions exhibiting coughing symptoms all tested COVID-19 positive.

Another tiger who showed no signs for coronavirus was also screened afterwards as having tested positive for the disease taking the total number of ill cats in the zoo, five tigers and three lions to eight.

The world faces worst recession since 1930's Depression

When countries around the world decline at the fastest rate in decades, the International Monetary Fund reports, the global economy will contract by 3 percent this year.

The pandemic said the world was thrown into a "crisis like no other." The Fund has added that a prolonged outbreak would challenge governments and central banks' ability to contain the crisis. Gita Gopinath, the chief economist at the IMF, said the recession could knock off global GDP by $9 trillion (£7.2 trillion) over the next two years.

Although the new World Economic Outlook from the Fund praised the "swift and significant" response in countries like the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, and the US, it said no country will avoid the downturn. If the pandemic disappears in the second half of 2020, it expects global growth to recover to 5.8 per cent next year.

The IMF forecasts that the UK economy will shrink by 6.5 per cent in 2020 compared to the January estimate for GDP growth of 1.4 per cent. A decrease of this magnitude will be greater than the drop in production of 4.2 per cent seen in the aftermath of the financial crisis.

It would also mark the largest annual fall since 1921, according to restored Bank of England data from the 18th century. That, however, is half the OBR's projected annual rate, which expects GDP to fall by 35 percent in the three months up to June.

UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak has promised billions of pounds in pay subsidies and loan guarantees to assist employees and businesses during the shutdown. Also the Bank of England has cut interest rates to a new low and opened up billions of pounds for lending to commercial banks.

Ms Gopinath said it was expected that both developed and emerging economies would collapse into recession for the first time since the Great Depression.

The IMF cautioned that advanced-economy growth would not return to its pre-virus peak until at least 2022. This year, the US economy is forecast to contract by 5.9 per cent, marking the biggest annual downturn since 1946. This is also predicted that unemployment in the US will rise to 10.4 per cent this year. A partial recovery with estimated US growth of 4.7 percent is anticipated in 2021.

It is estimated that the Chinese economy would develop this year by just 1.2 per cent, which would be the slowest growth since 1976. Australia will be facing its first recession since 1991.

It said this would knock an extra 8 percentage points off global GDP if the pandemic took longer to contain and a second wave occurred in 2021.This scenario could cause a downward spiral in heavily indebted economies, the Fund said. It said creditors will not be able to lend to any of those nations, driving up borrowing costs.

Although longer lockdowns would limit economic activity, the IMF said quarantines and measures of social distancing were vital. It called for more funding for healthcare services, financial support for staff and companies, continued support from central bank and a consistent recovery exit strategy. It urged the world to collaborate in discovering and providing drugs and a vaccine.The Fund added that in the coming months and years a number of developed nations will need debt relief.

SAP reduces earnings guidance by 2020, as consumers delay business

Business software supplier SAP cut its full-year earnings outlook after the coronavirus pandemic forced customers to shut down orders, saying it now expects a one-digit decline following a 10 per cent growth estimate earlier

The German corporation said it now sees net income, adjusted for special products, ranging from € 8.1 billion ($8.8 billion) to € 8.7 billion, a 1 per cent -6 per cent decrease in constant currencies.Most listed firms have given up advice due to coronavirus but SAP, the most popular technology firm in Europe, has more exposure than most as it makes reliable much of the sales from subscriptions and software support.

SAP stood by its mid-term growth estimates that expect an increase of its profit margins from one percentage point per annum to 2023 as it focuses on changing its business model to cloud subscriptions and away from software licences.

“Our multi-year emphasis on building a strong base of more predictable revenue has made SAP more resilient than ever,” said CFO Luka Mucic in a statement. 

“We will weather the COVID-19 crisis and emerge stronger than before as we have done in past downturns. Our updated guidance demonstrates that even in this challenging environment SAP remains healthy and stable.”

Shares of the company were reported to open up 1.3 percent, having declined by 13 percent to date in the current year. Prompted by German stock exchange rules requiring listed companies to announce significant divergences in performance or adjustments in guidance, SAP said its adjusted operating income in the first quarter amounted to 1 per cent higher than EUR 1,48 billion.

This said a large amount of new business was delayed, as the effects of the COVID-19 crisis quickly escalated towards the end of the first quarter. It was expressed in a 31 per cent decrease in revenue from software licenses — the cash cow company of SAP that produces most of its income but is 'lumpy' because revenue is recognized up front.

In comparison, cloud sales increased at constant currencies in 29 per cent on an adjusted basis. Overall, the share of predictable sales rose to 76 per cent, up year on year by 4 per cent.

UN: 85% of new infections, deaths coming from Europe and US

The World Health Organization says the current coronavirus is likely to "considerably" increase infections and deaths globally and warns that the pandemic is still in its early stages. According to the WHO, about 85 per cent of new infections came from Europe and the United States, with Spain reporting a daily rise of 6,584 new infections and a 500 death toll leap to 2,696.

A Japanese TV network reported that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would propose postponing the upcoming Tokyo Olympics by a year because of the pandemic

According to Johns Hopkins University, more than 387,000 people worldwide have
been diagnosed with the new coronavirus, and more than 16,700 died. .

The coronavirus only causes mild to moderate symptoms for most people, such as fever to coughing. But it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, for some older adults and people with chronic health issues. More than 101,000 people, including more than 60,000 in China have recovered.