Australia Likely To See ‘Very Material’ Contraction: RBA Minutes
Amazon piloting disinfectant fog at New York warehouse after protests
Amazon closes some warehouses as coronavirus cases among workers increases
FOX Business’ Susan Li on how Amazon is responding to rising coronavirus cases among warehouse employees.
Amazon.com Inc told Reuters it is piloting the use of disinfectant fog starting on Tuesday at a warehouse in Staten Island, New York, within days of protests at the worksite over health concerns during the coronavirus pandemic.
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AMAZON: ACCUSATIONS OF NOT PRACTICING CORONAVIRUS SAFETY PROTOCOLS 'UNFOUNDED'
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AMZN | AMAZON.COM INC. | 2,011.60 | +14.01 | +0.70% |
The world's largest online retailer said it is testing the practice commonly used by airlines and hospitals to clean facilities further, on top of introducing temperature checks and masks for staff.
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Last week, 15 workers at the New York warehouse known internally as JFK8 protested to demand the building's closure following a case of the coronavirus that was reported among staff. An additional demonstration took place Monday.
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Oil producers grapple with demand collapse
New York (CNN Business)US stock futures were down after-hours Tuesday, following a day when US stocks lost steam into the close and finished lower after a hot start to the trading day.
Dow (INDU) futures dropped 33 points, or around 0.2%. S&P 500 (SPX) futures were down about 0.2% and Nasdaq Composite (COMP) futures were down 0.07%.
Earlier, the Dow finished 0.1%, or 26 points, lower. At its highest point, the index was up 937 points. The S&P closed down 0.2%. The Nasdaq Composite finished 0.3% lower.
US crude rose 2.7% on Tuesday to trade around $24.26 a barrel. Brent crude — the global benchmark — was up about 1.8%.
The rise in US oil prices arrives days ahead of an OPEC meeting with Russia on Thursday to discuss oil production cuts in response to plummeting demand and to deescalate a price war.
– Anneken Tappe contributed to this report
Need Oil Storage? One Firm Suggests Bagging It Like Boxed Wine
With oil storage tanks stuffed from Savannah to San Francisco, one company is proposing a novel solution for stowing your excess barrels of bitumen, asphalt and grease: Stick it in a bag.
“Think of wine in a box, and that’s basically it,” said Lynn Stacy III, managing director of OEC Group Liquid Logistics Solutions.
The company this week began advertising storage in 147-barrel polyethylene bags that are then tucked into 20-foot shipping containers, a combination known as flexitanks. While straight crude and gasoline can’t be stored in the bags, industrial oils used for producing motor oils and grease can be.
Stacy said demand for the bags is up because base oils that once were shipped to Germany now need homes until the market turns again. Usually, the flexitanks store wine, food oils and ingredients for rubber tires.
Boris Johnson’s ‘high temperature has fallen’ as he spends another night in hospital
Daily Mirror Political Editor Pippa Crerar tweeted: “New fact: Boris Johnson’s persistently high temperature has fallen. Good news.”
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Amazon to suspend delivery service competing with UPS, FedEx
Amazon workers to strike over coronavirus fears
Amazon and Instacart employees plan to walk out over coronavirus safety concerns. FOX Business’ Cheryl Casone with more.
Amazon.com Inc has put on hold a new delivery service that competes with UPS and FedEx, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
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Amazon is suspending the service because it needs people and capacity to handle a surge in its own customers’ orders, the Journal reported, citing sources.
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The company said here in March it would hire 100,000 warehouse and delivery workers in the United States to deal with a surge in online orders.
Amazon told shippers the service, known as Amazon Shipping, will be paused starting in June, the report added.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AMZN | AMAZON.COM INC. | 2,011.60 | +14.01 | +0.70% |
The service was rolled out to deliver non-Amazon and Amazon marketplace packages.
UPS and FedEx shares rose 2% in extended trading on the news.
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Australia Likely To See ‘Very Material’ Contraction: RBA Minutes
Australia is set to undergo a very material contraction over the first half of the year, the minutes of the monetary policy meeting of Reserve Bank of Australia showed on Wednesday.
At the emergency meeting held on March 18, policymakers had reduced the key interest rate by 25 basis points to 0.25 percent and launched asset purchase programme.
Policymakers also decided to start a term funding facility to support credit flow to small and medium-sized businesses.
The central bank convened an out-of-cycle meeting to consider policy responses to mitigate the economic effects of the novel coronavirus disease, or covid-19.
Members strongly supported the proposed policy response as a comprehensive package to complement the fiscal response announced by governments in Australia in the preceding week or so.
Policymakers ruled out negative interest rate. “Members had no appetite for negative interest rates in Australia,” the minutes said.
“While it was not possible to provide an updated set of forecasts for the economy given the fluidity of the situation, it was likely that Australia would experience a very material contraction in economic activity, which would spread across the March and June quarters and potentially longer,” the bank said.
However, policymakers viewed that following containment of covid-19, the economy is expected to recover, but the timing of this was uncertain.
