Under Armour shares drop as coronavirus hits sales

Under Armour’s shares dropped more than 10 percent on Monday after the company said the COVID-19 crisis caused sales of sneakers and other athletic gear to fell more sharply than expected.

Store closures in March stopped Under Armour’s growth this year in its tracks, leading sales to drop 23-percent to $930 million in the quarter ended March 31. On a Monday conference call, exectuves warned that revenues during the current quarter could drop between 50 and 60 percent as stores remain shuttered.

The company reported a $589.7 million loss compared with a $22.5 million profit a year ago. Sales in North America, the company’s largest regions, fell 28 percent to $609 million in the quarter.

“During the first quarter, our results in January and February were tracking well to our plan. Since mid-March, as the pandemic accelerated dramatically in North America and [Europe, Middle East and Africe] and retail store closures ensued, we’ve experienced a significant decline in revenue across all markets,” Chief Executive Patrick Frisk said in a statement.

Shares of the Baltimore-based company were recently off 9.1 percent at $9.07 in early Monday trades.

Sales of athletic wear appears to be one of the few bright spots in retail sales during the pandemic, but Under Armour had been struggling even before the virus hit after a management shake-up last year resulted in founder Kevin Plank stepping down as CEO in October.

US Will Buy $3 Bln Worth Dairy, Meat From Farmers: Trump

The U.S. government will buy $3 billion worth of dairy, meat and produce from farmers.

The “Farmers To Family Food Box” scheme was announced by President Donald Trump on Twitter.

“Starting early next week, at my order, the USA will be purchasing, from our Farmers, Ranchers & Specialty Crop Growers, 3 Billion Dollars worth of Dairy, Meat & Produce for Food Lines & Kitchens,” he tweeted.

Trump explained that this will be implemented as part of a larger aid package called the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program to help the farming industry.

In April, Trump had announced $19 billion for the assistance program.

It is estimated that the U.S. agriculture sector will lose around $20 billion due to the pandemic.

Responding to Trump’s announcement on Twitter, one user commented, “Farmers are having to dump millions of gallons of milk down the sewer, our cattle ranchers are going broke, we must re-open our economy or the nation will suffer vast shortages of things we’ve always had.”

Coronavirus: Pregnant women not at greater risk from COVID-19, study says

Pregnant women are not at greater risk of suffering severe coronavirus symptoms, a study suggests.

However, the majority of expectant mothers who did fall severely ill with COVID-19 between 1 March and 14 April were in the later stages of pregnancy, or the third trimester, according to the data.

This means heavily pregnant women should continue to practise social distancing as much as possible, researchers warn.

Federal Reserve unveils pricing for Municipal Liquidity Facility

WASHINGTON, May 11 (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve on Monday announced pricing for its Municipal Liquidity Facility, the $500 billion borrowing program for states and local governments hurt by the coronavirus outbreak, in an updated term sheet.

The central bank said pricing for federal income tax-exempt notes will be at a fixed interest rate based on the comparable maturity overnight index swap rate, plus a spread based on credit rating.

For non federal income tax-exempt notes, pricing will be determined by the tax-exempt rate divided by 0.65.

For full details, see here:

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Lunch Special: Denver sports live chat with Mark Kiszla – The Denver Post

Got a question about Colorado sports? The Denver Post’s Mark Kiszla is discussing all things Denver sports in a live Lunch Special chat, scheduled to begin at noon on Monday, May 11, 2020.

Mobile users, if you can’t see the chat, tap here.

Disneyland reopens in China amid fears of COVID-19 return

Disneyland reopens in Shanghai even as new coronavirus cases are reported further north in Wuhan

China has reported 17 new coronavirus infections, the most significant increase since April.

But more businesses are resuming, among them Shanghai’s Disneyland which welcomed back crowds for the first time in three months.

Al Jazeera’s Katrina Yu reports from Beijing, China.

Chile surpasses 30,000 cases of coronavirus, braces for winter

SANTIAGO (Reuters) – Chile has surpassed 30,000 cases of coronavirus, the health ministry said on Monday, amid a spike in infections that has seen critical care units fill up quickly, leaving the country teetering on edge ahead of the coming southern hemisphere winter.

The health ministry said total cases since the outbreak began in early March had hit 30,063, while 323 people had died from the disease.

Stock Alert: AMC Entertainment Rises On News Of Buyout Interest From Amazon

Shares of AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. (AMC) are surging more than 40% Monday morning after the E-commerce giant Amazon reportedly expressed interest to buy the movie theatre chain.

AMC shares have lost more than 50% in the last 52 weeks. currently, it is trading at $5.98.

Stock Alert: AutoNation Spikes On Q1 Earnings

Shares of automotive retailer AutoNation, Inc. (AN) are rising more than 5% Monday on the back of upbeat first-quarter earnings.

AutoNation said sales started strengthening in April with same-store new and used retail unit sales down 19% during the final 10 days, compared to 52% drop during the first 10 days.

For the first quarter, net loss from continuing operations for the first quarter was $232 million, or $2.58 per share, compared to net income from continuing operations of $92 million, or $1.02 per share, in the prior-year period. The company had incurred non-cash charges in the first quarter, as the result of COVID-19 related impacts to the business and market valuation.

Excluding items, earnings of $0.91 beat the average estimate of 10 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters at $0.69.

Revenue for the quarter decreased to $4.667 billion from $4.982 billion in the same quarter a year as the Covid-19 pandemic has adversely impacted the company’s operations.

AutoNation stock is currently trading at $40.07. It has traded in the range of $20.59- $53.19 in the last 52 weeks.