Markets Surge Following Passage of $2 Trillion Economic Relief Package by Congress
Markets continued their rally yesterday, following the passage of a monumental $2 trillion economic stimulus package by Congress.
“Stocks traded sharply higher on Thursday even after the release of record-breaking initial jobless claims sparked by the coronavirus pandemic. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 900 points, or more than 4%. The S&P 500 gained 4.1% while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 3.4%. Those gains put the Dow and S&P 500 on track for a three-day winning streak,” write Fred Imbert, Pippa Stevens and Eustance Huang of CNBC. “Boeing, American Express and Coca-Cola drove the Dow’s gains, rising at least 7.4%. Utilities and financials were the best-performing sectors in the S&P 500 as the both traded more than 4% higher.”
Technology Firms and Manufacturers Step Up to Provide Essential Equipment and Supplies
Technology companies and manufacturers are shifting resources to provide more essential healthcare equipment. GM, for example, is expanding its ability to make ventilators.
“GM said … that work at its Indiana plant, which makes small electronic components for cars, is part of the effort to expand ventilator production,” writes Ben Klayman of Reuters. “Sources said the GM-Ventec project is known internally as ‘Project V.’ As part of the effort to boost ventilator output from Ventec, GM has arranged for the supply of 95% of the parts needed to build the ventilator and is seeking to source the remaining 37 necessary parts, according to an email to suppliers from Shilpan Amin, GM’s vice president of global purchasing.”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk says the company is gearing up to make ventilators at its solar energy equipment factory in upstate New York, according to USA Today. Medtronic, a medical equipment maker, “said it has already started working with Tesla to fast track production of ventilators at a California plant,” writes Joseph Spector of USA Today.
The New York Times reports that fashion and apparel makers are also joining the battle. “Los Angeles Apparel is making surgical masks; it will on Monday begin making hospital gowns as well. Dov Charney, the company’s founder and the former head of American Apparel, hopes his 150,000-square-foot factory can produce 300,000 masks and 50,000 gowns in a week,” write Vanessa Friedman and Jessica Testa of the Times. “Christian Siriano, the fashion designer, has reassigned his 10 seamstresses in New York. They are beginning to make masks and hope to produce a few thousand a week.
Learning Valuable Lessons in Distance Working from China’s Experience
“Remote working at scale is unprecedented and will leave a lasting impression on the way people live and work for many years to come. China, which felt the first impact of the pandemic, was an early mover in this space. As home to some of the world’s largest firms, it offers lessons for those that are just now starting to embrace the shift,” writeRaphael Bick, Michael Chang, Kevin Wei Wang, and Tianwen Yu of McKinsey. “Working from home skyrocketed in China … Around 200 million people were working remotely by the end of the Chinese New Year holiday.”
The article provides advice for structuring remote work, leading from afar, avoiding feelings of isolation, instilling a caring culture and promoting a sense of community amid the crisis. It’s definitely worth reading.
“The benefits of these tools have quickly become obvious. Even in the early 2000s, researchers noted how instant messaging helped to decrease needless, back-and-forth phone calls and alleviate miscommunications. And instant messaging trounces email by offering immediate and clearer resolution to business concerns that may have lingered unnoticed in inboxes,” writes York.
He recommends adopting platforms that your people are already using, such as Slack, Teams and Zoom; setting clear rule for which kinds of communication are okay and which aren’t; and respecting work/life boundary issues.
Astronauts Share Lessons in Coping with Isolation
As we navigate the challenges of living and working in these difficult times, it’s helpful to think of the astronauts circling overhead in orbit.
“Self quarantine can get pretty lonely — especially if you’re used to spending a lot of time around other people on a daily basis,” writes Victor Tangermann of Futurism. “But there’s one group who are real pros when it comes to isolation: astronauts orbiting the Earth with nothing but empty space around them, Space.com reports — in some instances, for an entire year at a time.”
The article recaps interviews with five astronauts who’ve experienced long-endurance missions in space and shared their coping strategies.
