Travel firms say quarantine plan must be scrapped

Grocery saw their sales jump at the fastest rate for more than quarter of a century during the lockdown as restaurants shut their doors and shoppers stocked up. Online grocery shopping rocketed by 75% over the past three months, compared with the same period last year. Supermarket spending hit £31.4billion in the 12 weeks to May 17, nearly £4billion more than in the same period last year.

SpaceX is set to launch astronauts into space for the first time in a historic mission for both NASA and Elon Musk’s rocket company. The planned flight from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center to the International Space Station will mark the first time that a commercial spacecraft has carried humans into orbit.

Hong Kong is well-known as an important financial centre. With a free economy and competitive tax regime, it’s attracted many multinationals. This status, is at risk. At the moment, Hong Kong enjoys special trade relations with the US. It operates as a separate customs territory to mainland China. It also has a free port, meaning no tariffs are charged on the import or export of goods.

Nissan’s as a part of global restructuring is to keep its UK factory in Sunderland open while it will close its Barcelona factory. This should lead to a 2,800 job cuts as the firm plunged to a $6.2bn net loss in the last financial year. Nissan is also cutting production and models after sales declined pre & post Covid-19 outbreak. This is company’s first net loss in more than 10 years.

Tuesday Morning have joined the large collection of Dallas based retailers to have filed for bankruptcy since February. CEO, Steve Becker said in a statement that a reorganization in Chapter 11 is required to address the company’s financial position after two months of complete inactivity.

Apple is set to open 100 of its retail stores across US, however, not all re-opened stores will welcome walk-in customers. Twelve of the stores – including one in New York, five in Michigan, and six in California — will offer curbside service only. The stores that will allow customers will provide temperature checks, mandatory facial covering, and will follow strict social distancing rules.

Stocks rose around the world as hopes were raised for an economic recovery. The S&P 500 rose 1.5%. The European Union is approaching agreement on a €750 billion stimulus plan which particularly buoyed bank stocks in Europe and the U.S.

The oil futures declined on Thursday after a surprise rise in US inventory negated hopes of demand recovery even as Covid-19 lockdowns are eased. Post falling on Wednesday, Brent crude futures were down by more than $1 to $33.62 in early trade. US West Texas Intermediate crude futures were down 1.2%, or 38 cents, at $32.43. The US futures earlier slipped as much as 5% to a low of $31.14.

Walmart is teaming up with online resale site ThredUP.com to offer nearly 750,000 items of used women’s and children’s clothing and accessories items on its website. Denise Incandela, head of fashion for Walmart US online business, said that there will be some overlap between the brands Walmart carries and what its www.walmart.com/thredup section is offering. But the used items won’t be in season.

As per the WSJ report, Amazon & Zoox are in advanced talks that would value the startup at less than $3.2bn it was estimated to be worth in a funding round two years ago. Located in Foster City near San Francisco, Zoox was founded in 2014 with a aim to build a ’fleet of fully autonomous, battery electric, zero-emission vehicles that are purpose-built and optimized for ridesharing in cities.

The Justice Department closed investigations into three senators: Kelly Loeffler; Jim Inhofe; and Dianne Feinstein, who had made significant stock transactions ahead of the market crash caused by the spread of coronavirus. A probe into stock transactions did not find sufficient evidence they had broken the law. A separate investigation into the stock sales of Sen Richard Burr remains ongoing.

As per a University of Chicago study, two-thirds (68%) of jobless US workers would bring home more money from their state unemployment insurance and $600 weekly supplement from the federal government than they would on the job. The researchers of the study added that one in every five eligible workers would receive benefits that were at least double their lost earnings.