The music industry was in crisis just a few years ago. Sales were cut in half from their peak as single downloads, YouTube and piracy made the CD album go virtually extinct. But music has found its white knight: streaming. Last year, recorded music revenues in the United States went up by 13% to $11.1…
Business News
Geneva car show canceled as coronavirus spreads in Europe
Next week’s Geneva Motor Show has been canceled because of coronavirus fears, striking a marquee event from the global auto industry’s calendar as it braces for a third year of recession. Switzerland’s Federal Office of Public Health on Friday said that gatherings of more than 1,000 people had been banned through at least March 15…
The coronavirus has grounded Chinese tourists. The global travel industry may not recover for years
Countries around the world have been eager to cash in on the rising spending power of Chinese travelers. Shops advertise Mandarin speaking salespeople, the United States and Japan offer 10-year visas, and hotels and duty-free retailers accept China’s Alipay and WeChat Pay apps. The travel boom has come to a screeching halt since late January,…
Hong Kong pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai arrested for ‘illegal assembly’ over 2019 protest
A Hong Kong tycoon known for his outspoken support of the city’s pro-democracy movement and criticism of China was arrested Friday, along with two other prominent pro-democracy figures. A police spokesman said that three men aged 63 to 72 have been arrested for “illegal assembly” in relation to a protest march on August 31, 2019.…
Tokyo Disney parks closing for two weeks over coronavirus
Disney is closing down its theme parks in Japan as the novel coronavirus outbreak in that country escalates. Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea will shut down on Saturday and stay closed through March 15, the parks’ operator Oriental Land announced on Friday. The closure comes in the wake of a request by Japan’s government to cancel…
How Trump and his Fox News allies are infecting the public trust amid coronavirus concerns
In times of emergency — whether it’s a major hurricane, terror attack, or health crisis — the public relies on the press for much-needed information. In some of these cases, it can be a matter of life and death. And given the current coronavirus outlook, there will soon be a lot of questions the public…
Chicago Tribune shakeup rankles newsroom staffers
Chicago Tribune staffers on Thursday learned about a massive shakeup in its masthead through a series of morning emails. Editor-in-chief Bruce Dold and Managing Editor Peter Kendall were leaving. Colin McMahon, senior vice president and chief content officer at the newspaper’s parent company Tribune Publishing, would take over as editor in chief. The departures of…
Global stocks plummet again in worst week since 2008 financial crisis
Global stock markets plummeted for a seventh consecutive day on Friday as the coronavirus continued to spread, increasing fears that the epidemic will wipe out corporate profits and push some of the world’s biggest economies into recession. China’s Shanghai Composite closed down 3.7%, bringing losses for the week to 5.6%, the index’s worst performance since…
Buy shares of this mask supplier to survive the selloff: analysts
As the deadly coronavirus sweeps the globe and slams businesses across multiple industries, one company could dodge the selloff. Best known as the maker of Scotch tape and Post-It notes, 3M also happens to be one of the largest producers of N95 respirators, the type of mask that more efficiently protects people against the virus…
Fox News hosts accuse Democrats and journalists of ‘weaponizing’ coronavirus to attack Trump
Some of President Donald Trump’s most ardent supporters in media have downplayed concerns about the novel coronavirus this week and misled their audiences by telling them that news organizations and members of the Democratic Party are weaponizing fear in a bid to hurt the President’s re-election efforts. Fox News hosts such as Sean Hannity and…
Bob Iger was more than Steve Jobs’ friend: He was legacy media’s most tech-savvy CEO
Weeks after becoming chief executive of Walt Disney Co. in 2005, Bob Iger sat down with Steve Jobs to tell him about an idea he’d been mulling: The “iTV.” “I’d been thinking about the future of television, and it occurred to me that it was only a matter of time before we would be accessing…
Big European companies ban business travel as coronavirus outbreak escalates
Big European companies have started to ban or restrict business travel for hundreds of thousands of employees as the coronavirus outbreak accelerates. Nestlé, the world’s largest food company, said it has asked all 291,000 of its employees not to travel internationally for business until the middle of March. “Domestic travel should be replaced by alternative…
The prestigious Wharton business school’s new dean will be first woman and person of color in its nearly 140-year history
Erika James has a knack for making history. Five years after she was named the first African-American woman to be named dean of Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, James was named as the new dean at the University of Pennsylvania’s the Wharton School of Business. She’ll be the first woman and person of color to…
Drug companies race to test coronavirus vaccines
Gilead Sciences stock was up slightly on Thursday, even as the Dow plunged into correction status. The reason? The biotech company is moving closer to finding a potential treatment for the deadly coronavirus. It plans to start administering its remdesivir drug to patients next month. Shares of Gilead Sciences have risen more than 10% in…
Anheuser-Busch CEO forgoes bonus as the brewer gets clobbered
It’s been a difficult year for the seller of Corona, Budweiser and Stella Artois — and 2020 doesn’t look much better. The company’s sales grew tepidly last year. Costs are up. And coronavirus has killed demand for alcoholic drinks in China. “Our performance in 2019 was below our expectations, and we are not satisfied with…
Coronavirus could cost Trump the election, Goldman Sachs warns
A market meltdown. Surging recession fears. And a sudden spotlight on America’s health care system. Goldman Sachs is warning Wall Street that the coronavirus could cost President Donald Trump the election. The potential political fallout from the coronavirus adds yet more uncertainty for investors trying to assess the impact of the fast-moving epidemic. “If the…
Shark Tank host loses $400,000 in a scam
“Shark Tank” judge Barbara Corcoran lost nearly $400,000 in an elaborate email scam that tricked her staff. Corcoran said someone acting as her assistant sent an invoice to her bookkeeper earlier this week for a renovation payment. She told People that she had “no reason to be suspicious” about the email because she invests in…
UK-EU trade talks start Monday. Britain is already threatening to walk away
Britain has threatened to walk away from trade negotiations with the European Union if sufficient progress hasn’t been made by June, raising the stakes just days before the country begins crucial talks with its largest export market. Negotiators will sit down Monday for the first round of discussions on a trade deal between the United…
Dow falls 1,191 points — the most in history
US stocks again sold off sharply on Thursday as worries about coronavirus mounted. The S&P 500 posted its worst day since August 18, 2011, and the three main indexes fell into correction territory. Stocks are on track for their worst week since the financial crisis. The Dow dropped 1,191 points, or 4.4% in its worst…
Goldman Sachs: American companies will have zero profit growth this year
This was supposed to be the year that the bottom line of Corporate America rebounded after lackluster profit reports for most of 2019. But the coronavirus outbreak is threatening to end the earnings recovery before it even begins. Goldman Sachs warned in a report Thursday that it now thinks US companies “will generate no earnings…
Headlines
Democratic donors struggle for a solution as Bernie Sanders hurtles toward a potential nomination
Pence’s public health record raises concern as coronavirus spreads
Trump seeks a ‘miracle’ as virus fears mount
Probe of alleged 2018 attempt to hack Georgia voter-registration system turned over to state AG
Yang: ‘Multiple campaigns have reached out’ about his potential support
In 2016, Sanders was blown out in South Carolina. Has he learned how to win over black voters in 2020?
Buttigieg keeps Iowa caucuses lead after partial recount
St. Louis County set to ban domestic violence perpetrators from carrying concealed weapons
Trump stumbles in first efforts to control virus response as fear spreads and markets fall
Federal judge blocks administration from diverting some funds for border wall
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