Business Highlights
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Bond yields sink, stocks fall as investors demand safety
NEW YORK (AP) — A dizzying, brutal week of trading dropped one last round of harrowing swings on investors Friday. After skidding sharply through the day as fear pounded markets, steep drops for stocks and bond yields suddenly eased up in the last hour. By the end of trading, the S&P 500 had more than halved its loss for the day to 1.7% and even locked in a gain for the week. It's the latest lurch in a wild ride that has sent stocks flipping between huge gains and losses — mostly losses the last two weeks. Investors are trying to guess how much economic damage the coronavirus will ultimately inflict, and they're shifting by the minute as the number of new infections piles up on on end and central banks and governments offer stimulus on the other.
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Plunging yields force investors and Fed to rethink strategy
WASHINGTON (AP) — The response in stock markets to the growing risk from the coronavirus has been swift and fierce. But a better gauge of fear on Wall Street may be the bond market, where the moves over the past few weeks have been even more breathtaking. Interest rates on a variety of U.S. government bonds have plunged to all-time lows as investors seeking relative safety from stocks have furiously snapped them up . (As the price of a bond goes up, its interest rate, or yield, declines.) The yield on the 10-year Treasury — a benchmark for mortgages and other consumer debt — was 1.9% as recently as Dec.
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With spreading virus comes fears -- and lots of stockpiling
NEW YORK (AP) — As an Arizonan, Gregory Cohen has never had to stock up ahead of a hurricane or other natural disaster. But fear of the new coronavirus has led the 51-year-old attorney to run up a hefty bill at the local grocery store last week on emergency supplies. That included 12 cans of diced tomatoes, 12 cans of chili beans, soap and six boxes of pasta that he says should last him and his family four weeks. "My biggest concern is that we will all be asked to stay at home," said Cohen, who stored the supplies in tubs in his garage for his wife and teenage son.
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US job market looked robust before virus outbreak escalated
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hiring in the United States jumped in February as employers added 273,000 positions, evidence that the job market was in strong shape before the coronavirus began to sweep through the nation. The Labor Department said Friday that the unemployment rate fell to 3.5% last month, matching a 50-year low, down from 3.6% in January. The monthly job gain comes from a survey of payrolls done in the second week of February, predating the viral outbreak. Still, many economists were encouraged by the message that the jobs report sent about the economy’s health before the disease. “The U.S. economy clearly approached the COVID-19 shock with a head of steam, which is good news,” said Neil Dutta, an economist at investment strategy firm Renaissance Macro Research.
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Oil price dives as OPEC, Russia fail to agree on output cut
VIENNA (AP) — OPEC and key ally Russia failed to agree Friday on a cut to oil production that would have contained the plunge in the price of crude caused by the new coronavirus outbreak's massive disruption to world business. The price of oil fell sharply in international markets as a result, with the international benchmark plunging 9.4%, down by a third since the start of the year. While cheaper oil will translate into more affordable energy for consumers and businesses, it hurts producing countries and companies. Thousands of workers have already been laid off in the U.S. oil patch. The unraveling of the talks in Vienna also underscores the limited power of the cartel to influence world energy markets, unlike its heyday in the 1970s.
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Congressional panel says Boeing has 'culture of concealment'
WASHINGTON (AP) — A congressional committee investigating Boeing said Friday that a “culture of concealment” at the company and poor oversight by federal regulators contributed to two deadly crashes involving the grounded 737 Max. The committee's Democrats said multiple factors led to the crashes, but it homed in on a new flight-control system that pushed the nose of each plane down based on faulty sensor readings. Boeing Co. failed to classify the system as critical to safety, part of a strategy designed to avoid closer scrutiny by regulators as the company developed the plane, the House Transportation Committee said. The report said Boeing had undue influence over the Federal Aviation Administration, and FAA managers rejected safety concerns raised by their own technical experts.
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The S&P 500 index fell 51.57, or 1.7%, to 2,972.37. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 256.50, or 1%, to 25,864.78. The Nasdaq fell 162.98, or 1.9%, to 8,575.62. The Russell 2000 of smaller-company stocks ended down 29.60, or 2%, at 1,449.22.