Virus damage evident in corporate reports

Companies are offering the first look at the damage from the outbreak, though it’s an incomplete picture. Tech is seeing the greatest growth, but the category that includes consumer sales has plunged nearly 50 percent, the worst of any sector.

• Mattel is warning of sales declines larger than the 14 percent tumble it reported Wednesday for the first quarter. The company is counting on a new line of Baby Yoda dolls to goose Christmas sales, but the company’s CEO said production won’t be ramped up unless there is evidence that consumers are spending money again. Rival toy maker Hasbro has also warned of falling sales in the current quarter.

• Pelaton: The coronavirus outbreak has been a back breaker for some fitness companies, while helping pump up others. Exercise bike and treadmill company Peloton Interactive notched a 92 percent increase in subscription revenue for the January-March quarter as more people stuck at home signed up for the company’s virtual exercise classes.

Litigation costs kept Peloton from turning a profit, but its revenue soared 66 percent to about $525 billion. In contrast, health club operators are struggling. Gold’s Gym filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this week. Last month, Planet Fitness furloughed employees at locations it directly controls.

• The New York Times added 587,000 net new digital subscriptions in the first quarter. That’s the highest number of net new subscriptions in a quarter in the company’s history. However, ad revenue fell 15.2 percent, and the company anticipates advertising will decline 50 percent to 55 percent in the second quarter compared with a year earlier.

• Wayfair, an online furniture seller, is seeing a spike in sales as Americans, stuck at home, renovate living spaces. The company’s revenue jumped 20 percent in the first quarter and it said demand continued to rise in April.