….AND NOW IT’S TIME FOR THE ‘BUSINESS MINUTE’ REPORT…BROUGHT YOU BY MINUTEMAN PRESS:

Stocks are falling in midday trading on Wall Street after Amazon and other big companies laid out how the coronavirus pandemic is hitting their bottom lines. The S&P 500 was down 2.9% Friday. Amazon sank after its profits fell because of a sharp increase in costs related to providing deliveries safely during the pandemic, despite a big increase in revenue. Bond yields held steady and the price of oil rose slightly. Many world markets were closed for the May Day holiday. The S&P 500 is still on pace for its second-straight weekly loss.

PHOENIX (AP) — Jason W. Still has been waiting six weeks for his first unemployment check since  losing his job as a cook at an upscale restaurant in Spokane, Washington. Out-of-work bartender Luke Blaine in Phoenix says he’s holding steady since getting his first unemployment check three weeks ago. But things are growing tighter as the rent comes due again for more than 30 million people around the U.S. who have sought unemployment benefits amid shutdowns caused by the coronavirus outbreak. Eli Oderberg in Denver is among those in a later wave of layoffs affecting additional sectors like his, the oil industry.

 

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — As the coronavirus pandemic continues to force the closure of meatpacking plants across the country, hog farmers have had to respond quickly to a rapidly growing backlog of animals in their barns by killing and disposing of pigs. Many large-scale hog farmers have little choice once barns reach full capacity. Officials estimate about 700,000 pigs across the nation can’t be processed each week and will be euthanized if plants don’t resume operations. To help farmers, the USDA has set up a center that can supply the tools needed to euthanize hogs. That includes captive bolt guns and cartridges that can be shot into the heads of larger animals as well as chutes, trailers and personal protective equipment.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Essential workers will strike nationwide on May Day to demand safer conditions during the coronavirus outbreak, while other groups plan rallies against tight stay-at-home orders they say are crippling the U.S. economy. Organizers say employees of Amazon, Whole Foods, Target and FedEx have become the unexpected frontline workers of the pandemic. Workers will walk off the job or call out sick to demand unpaid time off work, hazard pay, sick leave, protective gear and cleaning supplies. Meanwhile protesters will take to the streets in cities nationwide to demand states loosen shelter-in-place rules and “reopen.”

….AND THAT’S THE ‘BUSINESS MINUTE’ REPORT…BROUGHT YOU BY MINUTEMAN PRESS.