Business Highlights

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Questions swirl as Fed meets amid deepening economic crisis

WASHINGTON (AP) — As it prepares for this week’s policy meeting, the Federal Reserve has largely calmed turbulent financial markets. Yet a far tougher task remains: Helping rescue an economy and job market that appear to be free-falling into the worst catastrophe since the Great Depression. Fed policymakers will meet against a backdrop of dismal data: More than 26 million Americans have applied for unemployment benefits since the coronavirus forced widespread business closures. Chairman Jerome Powell isn’t expected to announce any major new initiatives when the Fed’s meeting ends. The central bank may provide more details on its new lending programs.

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Digital-ad downturn may complicate life for Google, Facebook

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Demand for digital advertising is shriveling after a decade of explosive growth amid the pandemic-fueled downturn. That could complicate things for Google and Facebook, who for the first time may have to contend with revenues that are actually shrinking. With consumers at home and unemployment soaring, advertisers are slashing promotional spending — in some cases, all the way to zero. For Google and Facebook, who together account for 70% of the U.S. market for digital ads, that so far has translated into tighter restraints on spending without the layoffs, pay cuts and furloughs that publishers and other industries have already imposed.

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Mexico continues tug of war with firms over virus outbreak

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s government continued its tug of war with businesses on Monday, pledging to reopen factories vital to the U.S. economy while shaming others that refuse to close under lockdown measures decreed to fight the spread of the coronavirus. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador also said he didn’t like businessmen going out to seek loans from international lending agencies, further angering the business sector. Under U.S. pressure, Mexico pledged Friday to reopen automotive plants in a “gradual and cautious” process. On Monday, Labor Secretary Luisa Maria Alcalde praised some automakers for reducing or stopping nonessential parts of their operations. But Alcalde publicly shamed some textile and footwear firms, as well as a department store chain, for not obeying closure orders for nonessential businesses.

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Virus is expected to reduce meat selection and raise prices

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Meat isn’t going to disappear from supermarkets because of outbreaks of the coronavirus among workers at U.S. slaughterhouses. But as the meat plants struggle to remain open, consumers could face less selection and slightly higher prices. Industry leaders acknowledge that the U.S. food chain has rarely been so stressed and that no one is sure about the future, even as they try to dispel concerns about shortages. On Sunday, the meat processing giant Tyson Foods ran a full-page advertisement in the New York Times and other newspapers outlining the difficulty of producing meat while keeping more than 100,000 workers safe and shutting some plants.

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Small business loan program restarts, runs into snags

NEW YORK (AP) — The second round of loan applications for the government’s program to aid small businesses hit by the coronavirus has been slowed by computer issues at the Small Business Administration. Bankers are complaining that they can’t get their applications into the SBA system that processes and approves loans. The agency says it notified lenders Sunday it was limiting the number of applications any lender could submit at once, but the head of a banking trade group says the change was too last-minute. The first round of loan applications was also slowed by computer issues at the SBA.

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As fewer people fly, rate of guns found in bags by TSA jumps

DALLAS (AP) — With air travel down 95%, it’s not surprising that airport security screeners are finding fewer guns in carry-on bags. What is perplexing, however, is that the ratio of guns to passengers has jumped sharply. The Transportation Security Administration said Monday that it found 58 guns at checkpoints from March 22 to April 22, compared with 346 guns over the same stretch last year. Adjusting for the 95% drop in travelers, however, TSA screeners found one gun for every 80,000 people screened — or 2.7 times the rate of a year ago, when they found one gun for every 216,200 people.

Stocks up worldwide as governments eye reopening economies

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks rallied worldwide Monday as governments prepare to gradually lift restrictions they imposed on businesses to slow the sweep of the coronavirus pandemic. The S&P 500 rose 1.5% at the start of a week that’s packed with market-moving events. Several major central banks are meeting, including the Bank of Japan, which announced its latest stimulus measures to prop up markets. A slew of the biggest U.S. companies, including Apple and Microsoft, are also scheduled to report how much they made in the first three months of 2020. Bond yields rose and the price of oil fell.

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The S&P 500 rose 41.74 points, or 1.5%, to 2,878.48. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 358.51, or 1.5%, to 24,133.78, and the Nasdaq climbed 95.64, or 1.1%, to 8,730.16. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks rose 48.82 points, or 4%, to end at 1,281.88.