California governor outlines guide to reopening state, US airports see $10 billion in aid – CNBC

The coverage on this live blog has ended but for up-to-the-minute coverage on the coronavirus outbreak, visit the live blog from CNBC's Asia-Pacific team.

The data above was compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

President Donald Trump said that he believes some states will be able to lift the strict social distancing measures that have strained their economies before the end of April.

"The plans to reopen the country are close to being finalized," Trump said at a press briefing on the virus in the Rose Garden.

"I will be speaking to all 50 governors very shortly," Trump said, "And I will then be authorizing each individual governor of each individual state to implement a reopening and a very powerful reopening plan of their state at a time and in a manner as most appropriate."

"The day will be very close because certain states as you know are in a much different condition and are in a much different place than other states. It's going to be very very close. Maybe even before the date of May 1st," he said.Kevin Breuninger

San Francisco is canceling its annual Pride Parade, which celebrates the city's LGBTQ+ communities, for the first time. It typically takes place in June and this year was the event's 50th anniversary.

"It will be incredibly disappointing to not be able to celebrate Pride in person this year but we need to do what is best for the health and safety of everyone involved," Mayor London Breed tweeted Tuesday afternoon.

Event organizers have decided to participate in "Virtual Global Pride" on Saturday, June 27 in its place.Jennifer Elias

President Donald Trump addresses the daily coronavirus task force briefing in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, April 14, 2020.

Leah Millis | Reuters

The Trump administration will halt funding to the World Health Organization as it evaluates the agency's "role in severely mismanaging" the coronavirus pandemic, President Donald Trump announced.

"Today I'm instructing my administration to halt funding of the World Health Organization while a review is conducted to assess the World Health Organization's role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus," Trump said at a press conference.

Trump criticized the international agency's response to the outbreak, saying"one of the most dangerous and costly decisions from the WHO was its disastrous decision to oppose travel restrictions from China and other nations."Berkeley Lovelace Jr., Noah Higgins-Dunn

When the economy shut down, consumers also shut down.

Despite hoarding of groceries, toilet paper and other necessities, the abrupt drop in consumer spending last month at restaurants, stores and gas stations is expected to have resulted in the largest decline ever in monthly retail sales, according to Diane Swonk chief economist at Grant Thornton.

Economists expect a decline of 8% in March retail sales, according to Dow Jones. That compares to a half percent decline in February. If autos are excluded, sales were expected to be down 5.2% in March.

The retail sales data, expected at 8:30 a.m. ET Wednesday, is one of the most important readings of consumer activity. The consumer makes up about 70% of the U.S. economy and since mid-March, many Americans have been at home.

Many have lost their jobs with 17 million workers filing for unemployment over the three weeks ending April 4.

"The risk is to the downside," Swonk said. "We could get worse than we are expecting. As things shut down, people are also pulling in."Patti Domm

Junior's Cheesecakeowner Alan Rosen said that the money the restaurant company has received through the Treasury Department'ssmall business loan program is not enough to immediately bring workers off furlough.

There is too much uncertainty about when the coronavirus pandemic will subside and when people will be comfortable to "sit shoulder to shoulder in our restaurants" again, Rosen said on CNBC's "Power Lunch."

"Until that time it would be, in my opinion, wasted money to start spending it.We have to wait until we have a very clear pathway to success," said Rosen, whose grandfather founded Junior's in Brooklyn, New York, in 1950.

The family owned business has grown now to three restaurants in New York City and a location in Connecticut. It also has a bakery outlet in Burlington, New Jersey, and an e-commerce business.

Rosen said he applied for loans separately for its four restaurant locations. The company furloughed 650 employees across its restaurants, which have been closed since March 16.Kevin Stankiewicz

U.S. airlines and the Treasury Department have reached an agreement in principle on billions in government aid aimed at softening the blow from the coronavirus, sources told CNBC.

The agreement comes as the virus and harsh measures to stop it from spreading, such as stay-at-home orders, have driven air travel demand to the lowest in decades. Carriers have raced to cut costs by grounding hundreds of jetliners and asking thousands of employees to take voluntary unpaid leave.

U.S. airlines including American, Delta, United, Southwest and others applied for portions of $25 billion in payroll grants that require airlines not to furlough or cut the pay rates of any employees through Sept. 30. The grants were part of the more than $2 trillion coronavirus relief package Congress passed last month.Leslie Josephs, Lauren Hirsch

California governor Gavin Newsom

Rich Pedroncelli | Pool | AP

California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday a guide to how California will reopen society and the economy across the state as officials weigh lifting restrictive orders meant to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

Newsom became the first governor to issue a statewide stay-at-home order on March 19. He said Tuesday that the order and similar policies have successfully minimized California's Covid-19 outbreak, which has infected more than 22,348 people across the state and killed at least 687 people in California as of Sunday, according to California Health and Human Services.

"While Californians have stepped up in a big way to flatten the curve and buy us time to prepare to fight the virus, at some point in the future we will need to modify our stay-at-home order," Newsom said in a statement. "As we contemplate reopening parts of our state, we must be guided by science and data, and we must understand that things will look different than before."Will Feuer

Emergency room and other doctor's visits at hospitals in Seattle, New York and elsewhere across the U.S. have tumbled in recent weeks, reflecting a broader trend across the U.S. as people steer clear of hospitals for sometimes necessary and emergency care, even for mild heart attacks.

At Providence St. Joseph Health in the Seattle-area, the volume of heart attack patients at its 51 hospitals fell by about 50% in March compared with the same month last year, CEO Dr. Rod Hochman said, adding that the notion that people have just stopped having heart attacks is "too good to be true." He and other physicians suspect patients that have mild heart attacks or strokes that would have normally sent them to the emergency room in the past are seeking treatment from family doctors, outpatient clinics or foregoing it altogether as Covid-19 patients inundate hospitals across the country.The consequences could last years, he said.Will Feuer

Kroger, the nation's largest supermarket chain, and United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, its largest food and retail union, have teamed up to call on elected leaders to designate grocery workers as first responders.

In a joint statement, they said federal and state officials must act quickly, so grocery workers can get priority access to masks and gloves. They said the employees need the gear to stay safe as they continue to go to work and try to reduce risk of getting sick with Covid-19. "Thisurgentcall fortemporaryfirst responder or emergency personnel status is not just about protectinggrocerystore workers; it is also about protecting the customers they serve and our nation's food supply in general," they said in the statement.

The labor union, which represents 1.3 million workers at major grocery chains, meatpacking plants and more, isalso urging customers to change how they shopand to wear a cloth masks or face covering during every trip to the store.Melissa Repko

The nation's 3.3 million home health-care workers are the other front-line heroes in the war against thecoronavirus. While hospitals' physicians and nurses tend to the sickest Covid-19 victims, the in-home workforce is caring for millions of the most vulnerable Americans. Demand for their services is growing as more of the elderly leave nursing facilities for fear of infection and hospitals release noncritical patients for home care.

Yet they lack personal protective equipment, too. According to a March survey of 1,200 in-home workers by the Home Care Association of America, 77% don't have enough masks and 57% don't have enough gloves. Many are underpaid and lack health insurance and paid sick leave. The pandemic is putting additional pressure on a workforce already in crisis suffering from shortages, especially in hard-hit states such as New York, New Jersey, Louisiana and Washington.In response, the largest home health-care union, industry providers and advocacy groups are urging Washington to respond to this crisis.

The risks to in-home caregivers extends beyond the scarcity of PPE to screening for coronavirus, said William Dombi, president of the National Association for Home Care and Hospice, a Washington-based industry advocate mostly for nurses, therapists and other medically trained in-home workers. "I can't speak for every location and employer," he said, "but the protocol under way is for screening of every worker before going into the home, so they don't create a risk for their clients, and it's also screening clients to see that there's no risk to the workers."

Even so, according to the HCAOA survey, nearly 90% of respondents reported clients canceling one or more visits, because they fear aides may spread the disease. Despite those worries, however, 80% said that no clients or employees had reported Covid-19 symptoms.Lori Ioannou

Nearly 7.5 million small businesses are at risk of closing their doors permanently over the next several months if the coronavirus pandemic persists, according to a survey.

Around two-thirds of entrepreneurs said they may have to shut forever if business disruption continues at its current rate for up to five months, according to a survey by Main Street America, a network of more than 1,600 commercial districts comprising 300,000 small businesses.

More than 30% are at risk if the status quo persists for two months, according tothe survey, which polled in excess of 5,850 small business owners.

These figures point to 3.5 million small businesses closing permanently in the next two months, and 7.5 million over the next five months, according to Main Street America.Greg Iacurci

Cisco announced a financing program that will let customers defer 95% of their payments for new products until 2021.Ciscois committing $2.5 billion to cover financing for the effort.

The offerings could help customers preserve cash amid reduced economic activity while people stay at home to avoid further spread of the coronavirus. Then, once conditions have improved, they'll be in a better position to pay what they owe.

Cisco customers won't have to pay for software, hardware or services they buy for 90 days, so long as orders are placed between Tuesday and July 25. After the 90-day period, they pay 1% in the total contract value per month until the end of 2020, according to the company's website. They'll have to make monthly payments in line with the terms of their agreements after that. Pre-owned Cisco products are also available for payment deferrals through 2021.Jordan Novet

U.S. President Donald Trump will hold a video teleconference with G7 leaders on Thursday to coordinate national responses to the coronavirus pandemic, the White House said.

Trump, who is head of the G7 this year, had to cancel the group's annual summit, which he had planned to hold at the presidential retreat of Camp David, Maryland, in June.

The Group of Seven nations include the United States, France, Britain, Italy, Canada, Japan and Germany, and all seven of them have been hit hard by the virus. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was released from a London hospital this week after treatment for the virus, which left him in the intensive care unit for several days.

"Working together, the G7 is taking a whole-of-society approach to tackle the crisis across multiple areas, including health, finance, humanitarian assistance, and science and technology," said White House spokesman Judd Deere.

The Thursday session is a followup to their March 16 video conference, the first time G7 leaders had met in that format, to go over efforts to defeat the coronavirus. In addition to the meeting this week, another session is expected in May to lay the groundwork for the June video conference.Reuters

California has signed up more than 58,000 people for health coverage on the state's Affordable Care Act exchanges during the first three weeks of the special enrollment period launched in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The enrollment window began on March 20, and the state is allowing previously uninsured residents to sign up for Obamacare plans through June 30.

California, New York, Washington state and the District of Columbia are among nearly a dozen state-run exchanges that have opened up special enrollment periods for the uninsured.

The Trump administration has resisted opening up a special enrollment period on the federally run exchanges and has proposed using money from the $100 billion hospital relief funding to reimburse health systems for treating Covid-19 patients who are uninsured.Bertha Coombs

Jamie Dimonsaid that American companies will start bringing back employees who are working remotely by June at the earliest.

TheJPMorgan ChaseCEO said that the business world's return to normalcy will occur in phases and be determined by the conditions in regions and at specific companies. Many businesses have sent employees home or furloughed them amid shutdowns tied to the coronavirus pandemic.

"A rational plan to get back to work is a good thing to do, and hopefully it will be sooner rather than later," Dimon said in a conference call with analysts. "But it won't be May. We're talking about June, July, August, something like that."Hugh Son

The coronavirus has now infected more than 200,000 people across New York state as the Covid-19 outbreak begins to slow and the country continues to ramp up its testing capacity.

New cases across the state rose by 7,177 on Monday, bringing the total number of confirmed infections to 202,208, according to New York State Department of Health data gathered as of midnight. Some 10,834 people have died so far, including one child under 10 years old and six kids between 10 and 19, according to the data. One of the kids had diabetes, but the rest didn't have any underlying medical conditions, the data shows.Will Feuer

A worker walks through a baggage claim area at a nearly-empty O'Hare International Airport on April 2, 2020 in Chicago, Illinois.

Scott Olson | Getty Images

The Department of Transportation says $10 billion in grants are now available for airports as they struggle with the coronavirus pandemic, which as driven down the number of air travelers in the U.S. to levels not seen in decades after states issued shelter-in-place orders and other restrictions.

Airports can use the funds, outlined in the $2 trillion CARES Act, for capital expenditures, payroll, utilities and other operating costs and debt payments. Airports make money from airline fees, parking, retail and other revenue streams.Leslie Josephs

Here's one reason for self-employed people to start their 2019 tax return: The bank might want it when you apply for the Paycheck Protection Program.

The federal government's $349 billion forgivable loan program opened to independent contractors and self-employed people on April 10, a week after the bumpy April 3 roll out to small businesses.

Just because the loan window is open to entrepreneurs doesn't mean that they can easily tap the funds.

Currently, banks are asking small businesses to submit payroll expense documents, including payroll tax reports, plus health insurance premium and retirement plan funding data.

Lenders have also limited their PPP applicants to entrepreneurs who already have existing business accounts or loans with them.

This doesn't sync with the way independent contractors operate and it's why some accountants are talking about pushing through tax returns for 2019.Darla Mercado

New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo during a press conference.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he will not engage in a fight with President Donald Trump as tension escalated between the two this week over who has authority to reopen the U.S. economy. Trump said he has "total" authority over the states.

"This is not time for politics and it is no time to fight. I put my hand out in total partnership and cooperation with the president. If he wants a fight he's not going to get it from me. Period," Cuomo said at a press conference in Albany, adding that Trump is "wrong on the law."

On Monday, Cuomo announced a formal working group with several other Northeastern governors to coordinate the region's Covid-19 mitigation efforts as well as any plans to reopen the states for business. Trump, later in the day, told reporters that only he had that power: "When somebody's the president of the United States, the authority is total, and that's the way it's got to be," which prompted a sharp rebuke from Cuomo.Noah Higgins-Dunn

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government's top infectious disease expert, saidthe U.S. does not yet have the critical testing and tracing procedures needed to begin reopening the nation's economy, adding a dose of caution to increasingly optimistic projections from the White House.

"We have to have something in place that is efficient and that we can rely on, and we're not there yet," Fauci said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Fauci's comments come as President Donald Trump and others in the administration weigh how quickly businesses can reopen and Americans can get back to work weeks after thefast-spreading coronavirusessentially halted the U.S. economy.Trump has floated the possibilityof reopening some areas by May 1 and said he could announce recommendations as soon as this week.

Fauci said a May 1 target is "a bit overly optimistic" for many areas of the country. Any easing off the strict social-distancing rules in place in much of the country would have to occur on a "rolling" basis, not all at once, he said, reflecting the ways Covid-19 struck different parts of the country at different times.Associated Press

There's a reason you can't get a refund from Ticketmaster for a postponed concert the online ticket seller doesn't have your money. The venue does.

"I think there's a lot of misperception about Ticketmaster," Joe Berchtold, the president of Live Nation, the company that owns Ticketmaster, said on CNBC's "Squawk Alley." "Ticketmaster doesn't sell these tickets and sit on a mountain of cash. Ticketmaster sells tickets and gives the cash over to the venues where the events are held."

Over the last week, Ticketmaster has faced backlash from consumers seeking refunds for postponed live events.

Berchtold explained that in order for Ticketmaster to issue refunds it needs to work with the event venues, but those venues are closed due to the coronavirus outbreak.Sarah Whitten

Unilever, the London-based consumer products giant, is not benefiting overall from the coronavirus crisis even though many of its soap and hand-washing brands are seeing increased demand, CEO Alan Jope told CNBC.

"Coronavirus is not good news for Unilever. We're seeing shift in demand for sure," he said in a "Squawk on the Street" interview. "We're seeing a big reduction in out-of-home food consumption of ice cream and restaurant products."

Unilever makes Breyers and Ben and Jerry's ice cream as well as Hellmann's mayonnaise and Lipton and Pure Leaf teas. The conglomerate also makes consumer staples such as Dove and Lifebuoy antibacterial soaps.

"Yes, we're seeing increases in demand in some of the hygiene products," Jope said. However, the net effect of the outbreak for the company at large is "certainly not good news for us on a commercial basis," he added.

Jope said panic buying and hoarding of supplies is largely an American phenomenon. "Only in the U.S. are we seeing this kind of dramatic pantry loading. I think the U.S. consumer has typically a bigger house and more appetite for credit card debt than elsewhere in the world."Matthew J. Belvedere

As the impact of the coronavirus pandemic hits businesses and their ad spend, advertising holding companies are preparing for a drop in demand, and some are telling their employees to expect staff cuts and furloughs.

The advertising industry is bracing for a wider impact of any economic fallout on client spending, since marketing is often one of the first items that businesses cut during a financial downturn.Some brand advertisers have said they've alreadydramatically reduced spending.

In an internal weekly email to employees that was viewed by CNBC, Omnicom Group CEO John Wren wrote that the pandemic has had an impact on the economy, clients' businesses, "and in turn, on ours." He wrote that the company has solidified internal measures to meet the changing needs of its clients. The holding company operates agencies across the advertising world, including BBDO, DDB and TBWA.

"Regrettably, this will include furloughs and staff reductions across many of our agencies," Wren wrote. "We are doing everything we can to limit staff reductions, and to take care of those who are affected."Meg Graham

Apple shipped roughly 2.5 million iPhones in China in March, a slight rebound after one of its worst months in the country ever, according to government data published on Friday.

Smartphone companies are hoping for a strong recovery in demand in China, where the deadly coronavirus is subsiding, just as it spreads overseas and looks set to trigger a global recession.

Mobile phone shipments in China in March totaled 21 million units, according to data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), a government think tank.

That was a more than three-fold increase from February, yet still down roughly 20% compared with March 2019.Reuters

A French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) researcher holds a test tube rack containing cells to be infected with Covid-19 during coronavirus vaccine research work inside the Pasteur Institute laboratories in Lille, France, March 9, 2020.

Adrienne Surprenant | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Link:

California governor outlines guide to reopening state, US airports see $10 billion in aid - CNBC