The World
Retail sales fell a seasonally adjusted 16.4% in April from a month earlier, eclipsing March’s 8.3% drop and marking the steepest month-over-month decline in records dating to 1992. The Federal Reserve separately said industrial production dropped 11.2% in April, its steepest monthly fall on records dating back more than a century. (Wall Street Journal)
House Democrats are poised to advance the biggest economic relief package in history, over objections Republicans and moderates in their own ranks over the $3 trillion price tag. Some macroeconomists say the package could prove too small. (Finance 202)
The employment shock hit women harder than men, as sectors with more women have been most affected. April unemployment among women rose to 16.2%, compared with 13.5% for men. In February, the rates were similar at close to 3.5%. The shock also hit lower-income households first, as 39% of former workers living in a household earning $40,000 or less lost work, compared with 13% in those making more than $100,000. (Wall Street Journal, New York Times)
Nearly 27 million people may have lost employer-sponsored insurance due to job losses, according to Kaiser Family Foundation analysis. (HealthcareDive)
Michigan closed its capitol in Lansing on Thursday and canceled its legislative session rather than face the possibility of an armed protest and death threats against Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. In LA, hate crimes and incidents directed at Asian Americans have surged. (Bloomberg, Los Angeles Times)
President Donald Trump threatened to cut China ties, saying he has no interest in speaking to President Xi Jinping because of China's "failure" to contain the disease. Trump said a pall was cast over their January trade deal. (The Telegraph)
China unveiled a plan to facilitate cross-border transactions and investments between Hong Kong, Macau and cities in southern China to transform the coastal region into a high-tech megalopolis to rival California’s Silicon Valley. (Bloomberg)
Germany’s economy slumped in the first quarter at its steepest rate since 2009 with worse expected by mid-year. Italy will allow free movement within the country starting June 3. (Reuters, Bloomberg)
Disney’s “Frozen” will not reopen on Broadway, making the musical the first to close permanently because of the crisis. (New York Times)
88% of colleges expect declines in international student enrollments this fall. Meanwhile, many universities are pushing to bring students back to campus in the fall, pledging an all-out effort to overcome the extraordinary housing and teaching challenges. (Inside Higher Ed, Washington Post)
Finance
OpenTable projects that 25% of U.S. restaurants will go out of business, as nationwide reservations still down 95% from a year ago. (Bloomberg)
U.S. employers remain wary of 'immunity' tests as they move to reopen. Mercer surveyed more than 700 U.S. employers and found only 8% of companies said they would include antibody tests in plans to screen employees. (Reuters)
Democratic senators signed on to a bill to require major airlines and third-party ticket sellers to offer full cash refunds for all canceled tickets — regardless of whether the airline canceled the overall flight or the passenger canceled their individual ticket. (Washington Post)
J.C. Penney made the approximately $17 million interest payment that was due and payable on May 7, potentially one form of J.C. Penney negotiating with its lenders as it explores bankruptcy. (CNBC)
Technology
Facebook is buying the popular GIF-making and sharing website Giphy for a reported price of $400 million, with plans to integrate the massive GIF library into Instagram and other Facebook apps. (The Verge)
The U.S. moved to block shipments of semiconductors to Huawei Technologies from global chipmakers. Meanwhile, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, the world’s largest contract chip manufacturer, said it would spend $12 billion to build a chip factory in Arizona. (Reuters, Wall Street Journal)
Call centers have long been a frontier of workplace automation, but the pandemic has accelerated the process. Firms like IBM and Google are sweetening the incentives, as advances in natural-language processing have dramatically improved. (MIT Technology Review)
NASA is negotiating a series of bilateral agreements with space agencies in other countries, where partner nations would agree to 10 basic norms as part of their space activities. (ArsTechnica)
Smart Links
20 books to read in quarantine this summer. (The Atlantic)
With no games, what’s the future of sports journalism? (Washington Post)
Many of us now dream of bugs, masks, and natural disasters. (Harvard Gazette)
London streets to go car-free. (Reuters)
NYC apartment rentals fell 71% in April compared to last year. (Bloomberg)
The coronavirus is killing the middle class. (New Yorker)