Virus outbreak pressures company profits and sales

Spain’s economy shrinks, oil looms large with oversupply

NEW YORK, May 4, (AP): The busiest week of the earnings season continues, with companies making gains in some areas of their business but struggling in others.

American Airlines reported a staggering loss of $2.24 billion for the first quarter, when the coronavirus pandemic triggered a sharp drop in air travel.

Most McDonald’s restaurants in the U.S. and China are now open for drivethru and delivery, but global lockdown orders still took a bite out of the company’s first-quarter sales. The chain’s sales fell 6% to $4.71 billion in the JanuaryMarch period. Declines have persisted in April.

Comcast’s net income slid in the first three months of the year as the pandemic forced it to shut down theme parks and its movies were kept out of closed theaters. Comcast lost 409,000 cable TV customers, the biggest source of the company’s profits, but added 477,000 internet customers, which it said was its best quarterly number in more than a decade.

Twitter reported Thursday that average daily users grew 24% year over year, the highest ever growth rate in the company’s history. The company said growth was driven by seasonal strength, product improvements and interest in coronavirus.

Facebook reported its slowest quarterly growth as a public company, pressured by the coronavirus pandemic and a resulting global slowdown in digital advertising.

Tesla eked out a first-quarter net profit and suspended its near-term profit outlook.

Ongoing demand for Microsoft’ s cloud computing services helped soften the blow of the pandemic on the software giant’s other products during the first three months of the year.

Two of corporate America’s most well-known CEOs expressed vastly different opinions about the lockdowns that have people hunkered down at home and forced the closure of businesses and factories.

Central Government & Banks: Nations are continuing attempts to reopen businesses. But evidence of the economic damage from the virus is widespread.

Spain’s economy shrunk by 5.2% in the first three months of the year. That breaks with 25 consecutive periods of positive economic activity going back to 2013.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced plans this week to ease lockdown restrictions over two months, starting May 4. Greece is widely expected to follow other European countries into recession in 2020.

Ukrainian authorities have opened all 872 food markets in the country as the government prepares to gradually lift a lockdown enacted on March 12.

Energy: Countries are currently grappling with an overabundance of oil supply. Some oil contract holders were forced to pay people to take crude off their hands last week. The price of U.S. crude has plunged 80% this year.

President Donald Trump expects to announce a plan soon to aid the U.S. oil industry.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin says that administration officials are studying multiple options to assist the sector, including potentially stockpiling another several hundred millions of barrels of oil in the strategic reserves.

Norway will reduce its off-shore oil production. Energy minister Tina Bru said Thursday that Norwegian production will be cut by 250,000 barrels per day in June and by 134,000 barrels per day in the second half of 2020.