Stock Alert: Uptrend Continues At Broadcom

Shares of semiconductor company Broadcom Inc. (AVGO) have been trending higher after touching a 52-week low of $155.67 on March 18. The stock has gained more than 65% since then. It has recorded a 52-week high of $331.58 on January 24, 2020.

During the lock down, many organizations are forced to allow their employees to work from home. As more data need to be stored, this can come to the advantage of Broadcom whose products are used in data center networking and data center servers.

When the company reported its first-quarter results last month, revenue had increased to $5.858 billion from $5.789 billion. Earnings of $5.25 per share, however, missed the average estimate of 25 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters at $5.33 per share.

Looking forward, for the second quarter, the company expects revenue to be $5.7 billion plus or minus $150 million. The consensus estimate is at $5.69 billion.

Thursday, AVGO was up $0.85 or 0.33% before closing at $258.29.

Stock Alert: JD.com Touches New High

One of the leading Chinese online retailers, JD.com, Inc. (JD) is one among very few companies whose shares are rising while the market is sinking during the Covid-19 pandemic. Thursday, the stock touched its new high of $47.84, before closing at $47.50, up 6.5%. It has gained nearly 35% in one month.

As the company is primarily engaged in the direct sales of consumer goods, home appliances and general merchandise, its functioning was not disturbed significantly during the lock down period. And in March when JD.com reported its fourth-quarter results, revenue had increased 26.6% year-over-year to $24.5 billion.

Last month, JD had announced a share buy-back program of up to $2 billion of its shares over a period of 24 months.

Stock Alert: JD.com Touches New High

One of the leading Chinese online retailers, JD.com, Inc. (JD) is one among very few companies whose shares are rising while the market is sinking during the Covid-19 pandemic. Thursday, the stock touched its new high of $47.84, before closing at $47.50, up 6.5%. It has gained nearly 35% in one month.

As the company is primarily engaged in the direct sales of consumer goods, home appliances and general merchandise, its functioning was not disturbed significantly during the lock down period. And in March when JD.com reported its fourth-quarter results, revenue had increased 26.6% year-over-year to $24.5 billion.

Last month, JD had announced a share buy-back program of up to $2 billion of its shares over a period of 24 months.

Oil lobby group asks Trudeau government to suspend environmental, lobbying laws due to COVID-19

Canada’s largest oil and gas lobby group says the federal government should consider suspending dozens of environmental regulations, laws and policies due to the economic and public health crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Donald Trump’s Campaign Team Ripped Over Racist Anti-Joe Biden Ad

Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign team drew stinging backlash on Twitter after it used an image purportedly of MS-13 gang members to attack the presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden:

Critics accused Trump’s campaign team of sending racist dog whistles to the president’s base. Rep. Joaquín Castro (D-Texas) said “this is the kind of shit that led to El Paso,” in reference to the 2019 mass shooting at a Walmart store allegedly by a gunman suspected of holding white supremacist views.

Dutch deaths April 6-12 2,000 higher than normal: statistics agency

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Deaths in the Netherlands in the week of April 6-12 were around 2,000 higher than in an average week, national statistics agency CBS said on Friday.

The National Institute for Public Health (RIVM) attributed 971 deaths to COVID-19 that week.

Around 5,000 people in the Netherlands died that week, the CBS said, up from from 2,900 a year earlier.

US loan programme for small businesses runs out of funds

Emergency loan programme to help small companies hit by coronavirus curbs reaches $349bn limit.

The US government says a $349bn emergency fund set up to keep small businesses afloat has run out of money and is no longer accepting new applications.

And now, Republicans and Democrats are in a fight to inject money into the lending programme.

Democrats say they will only agree if states and hospitals are given billions of dollars as well – a demand Republicans have rejected.

Al Jazeera’s Patty Culhane reports.

Brazil outbreak: Paramedics risk their lives in coronavirus fight

Brazil’s front-line paramedics risk their lives to contain Latin America’s biggest coronavirus outbreak.

Brazil has Latin America’s worst outbreak, with nearly 2,000 reported deaths and more than 30,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19.

As in many other countries, its health workers are putting themselves at risk in the battle against the coronavirus pandemic.

Al Jazeera’s Manuel Rapalo reports.

Pakistan's Swat River fouled by untreated waste, dumping

Rubbish, untreated waste poisons Swat River’s waters and poses health risk to Hindu Kush villagers downstream.

The Swat River is a vital supply of water for Pakistan’s northern region of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

But local authorities, residents and tourists have been dumping raw sewage and rubbish into its waters, affecting the environment and health of residents in the district.

Officials say they lack the funds to stop the problem from getting worse.

Al Jazeera’s Osama Bin Javaid reports from the Swat Valley in Pakistan.

Kenya's coronavirus fight: Factories, tailors make cloth masks

After government order to wear surgical masks in public, textile companies and tailors step up to fill shortage.

Textile factories and tailors in Kenya are scrambling to produce tens of millions of masks after the government made it compulsory to wear them in public earlier this month.

The masks they are producing are made of reusable cloth, which makes more economic sense for Kenyans who cannot afford to buy single-use ones.

Al Jazeera’s Catherine Soi reports from Nairobi, Kenya.