Wall Street Journal (September 24)
“Finance chiefs and investors are trying to figure out how to account for coronavirus-related expenses as the pandemic transforms how companies operate in ways that may become a permanent cost of doing business.” The effects of COVID-19 are now expected to last for months, if not years, but “some companies continue to treat virus-related costs as special, one-time items, which can give the impression that a business’s costs are lower than they actually are,” boosting, for example, adjusted Ebitda. Some professionals believe it is now time for “treating these items as regular costs of doing business as they close the books for the third quarter and not adjust their non-GAAP earnings.”
Tags: Account, Adjusted Ebitda, Coronavirus-related expenses, COVID-19, Finance, Investors, Non-GAAP earnings, One-time items, Pandemic, Permanent cost, Q3
Bloomberg (September 24)
“As the likelihood of additional federal stimulus fades, U.S. stock investors are returning their focus to the coronavirus pandemic and not liking what they see.” Consumers are again cutting back and “the prospects for a vaccine in the next few months have also waned just as the latest data shows an uptick in cases.” Moves by the Federal Reserve and “$3 trillion of federal stimulus helped fuel a torrid five-month rally that began in March,” but “their limitations have become clear.”
Tags: Consumers, Coronavirus, Cutting back, Fed, Limitations, Pandemic, Rally, Stimulus, Stock investors, U.S., Uptick, Vaccine
Wall Street Journal (September 7)
“The stock market barely faltered in the 1918-20 pandemic,” but history is not repeating itself. The similarities are misleading. “Yes, the markets have bounced back, just as they traded higher in the months after the pandemic’s start 100 years ago. But a careful analysis of the two periods shows that economic uncertainty has been far higher during the current pandemic than it ever was then.”
Tags: 1918-20, Economic uncertainty, Faltered, History, Misleading, Pandemic, Similarities, Stock market
Los Angeles Times (September 4)
The TV season usually begins during the third week in September. “For nearly seven decades, broadcast TV networks have used the season to launch new shows in the hope they become enduring hits—and to bring back fresh episodes of returning programs after the long summer hiatus.” The pandemic, however, closed down scripted production, “making it impossible for broadcast networks to premiere most of their new shows on schedule.” It may no longer matter in a world where streaming reigns. Ultimately, the pandemic may “accelerate change at broadcast networks” where the concept of a season seems increasingly anachronistic.
Tags: Broadcast, Change, Closed, Episodes, Networks, Pandemic, Premiere, Production, Scripted, Season, September, Shows, Streaming, TV
Investments & Pensions Europe (August Issue)
“Credit investors would be wise to reflect upon the growing debt burden weighing on the global economy.” Debt has surged since the pandemic and it was already at high levels. “Global debt rose by $10trn (€8.9trn) in 2019 to $255trn. At the end of last year, global debt stood at 322% of global GDP, or 40% higher than before the 2008 financial crisis.”
Tags: 2008, 2019, Burden, Credit, Debt, Financial Crisis, GDP, Global economy, Investors, Pandemic, Reflect, Surged
Wall Street Journal (August 19)
“Coronavirus infections are surging again across much of Europe and governments are racing to prevent a full-fledged second wave of the pandemic.” Infection levels still “remain far lower in Europe than in much of the U.S. The seven-day average of new daily U.S. cases is running at nearly 150 cases per million people, about five times the number across Germany, France, Spain, Italy and the U.K.”
Tags: Coronavirus, Europe, France, Germany, Governments, Infections, Italy, Pandemic, Prevent, Second wave, Spain, Surging, U.S.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution (August 18)
“Atlanta’s once mighty convention and trade show industry has been shredded by the pandemic.” The Atlanta Market trade show drew just a fifth of normal attendance, but it was “the only major convention or trade show to be held in metro Atlanta since March after dozens of others were canceled. And it’s likely to be the last for the year.”
Tags: Atlanta, Attendance, Canceled, Convention, Pandemic, Trade show
Billboard (August 17)
The UK music scene “may soon be unrecognizable because of the coronavirus pandemic, which has plunged the U.K. economy into its worst recession on record.” While socially-distanced live music has resumed, under a third of venues can meet the requirements and most “would lose too much money on these reduced-capacity shows for it to be economically feasible.” Music Venue Trust, a charity which represents 670 grassroots venues, estimates that “more than 400 across the country are in crisis.”
Tags: Capacity, Coronavirus, Crisis, Feasible, Grassroots, Live music, Pandemic, Recession, Socially-distanced, UK, Unrecognizable, Venues
New York Times (August 7)
“One pretty good forecasting rule for the coronavirus era has been to take whatever Trump administration officials are saying and assume that the opposite will happen. When President Trump declared in February that the number of cases would soon go close to zero, you knew that a huge pandemic was coming.”
Tags: Administration, Cases, Coronavirus, Forecasting, Opposite, Pandemic, Rule, Trump
Institutional Investor (August 6)
“Markets may have bounced back quickly from March’s Covid-19 crash, but the asset management industry will not escape 2020 unscathed.” The pandemic is “expected to shrink” the global asset management industry by almost $2 trillion. “The decline in global assets under management ends more than a decade of growth for money managers.”
Tags: Asset management, AUM, COVID-19, Crash, Decline, Growth, Markets, Money managers, Pandemic, Shrink
