Google  and Apple  are teaming up on developing a mobile software that would help track the spread of coronavirus. On Friday, the technology behemoths announced that they are working on an  opt-in tool for Android and iOS, where the tool will tell people if they have been in contact with someone who was had contracted coronavirus. The feature will also allow users report to a public health agency if they have been infected.  The tool is expected to launch within a few months

Gilead Sciences  announced a successful clinical trial of its antiviral drug to treat the coronavirus . “The majority of patients in this international cohort demonstrated clinical improvement and no new safety signals were identified with remdesivir treatment,” Gilead said in a statement.  "We cannot draw definitive conclusions from these data, but the observations from this group of hospitalized patients who received remdesivir are hopeful," Jonathan Grein, director of hospital epidemiology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, and lead author of the NEJM article, mentioned in the company’s statement. The drug hasn’t been yet approved for general use by the Food and Drug Administration.  

Tesla  lowered the starting price for its Model 3 sedans by 16% to 299,050 yuan ($42,919) after government rebates, amid coronavirus pandemic. The subsidy amounts to 24,750 yuan ($3,552) per vehicle. The price in China for imported Model 3s is 439,900 yuan ($63,133) before subsidies. Telsa’s car registrations in China have declined for two straight months, according to Bloomberg. The company started operating at a factory in Shanghai in January, and the facility is the electric carmaker’s  only plant outside the U.S.

The Federal Reserve launched an additional $2.3 trillion in lending program for small and mid-size US businesses as well as local governments, to support the economy amid COVID-19 pandemic. On Thursday, the US central bank announced that it will pump upto $600 billion into small and mid-size companies, as part of its Main Street lending facility.Loans will be directed towards businesses with upto 10,000 employees or less than $2.5 billion in revenue. The Fed will also directly inject up to $500 billion into local governments, by directly buying municipal bonds with up to two year’s duration.

 Gould also slashed his price target on the stock to $1 a share (from $4) – which  represents 68% downside from the stock's Tuesday closing price.  In mid-March, AMC shut 1,000 of its theaters with some 11,000 screens , for six to 12 weeks.It recently told landlords that it will stop paying rent.  In April, The Wall Street Journal,  citing people familiar with the matter, reported that lenders to AMC had sought services of the law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher for advice on expected restructuring discussions. Gould projected negative cash flow of -$285 million in the first half of the year for AMC, and indicated that  the coronavirus crisis could lead to some liquidity issues at the company.

Wells Fargo  got its capital constraints relaxed by the Federal Reserve, so the bank can boost lending to small businesses amid COVID-19 crisis. Last weekend, Wells  had capped its lending to small business to $10 billion under the Paycheck Protection Program.The threshold was set by the bank so it could maintain the asset requirement that the Fed had imposed on it February 2018 after finding it guilty of setting up unauthorized accounts.   “Due to the extraordinary disruptions from the coronavirus,” the Fed said in a statement, “it will temporarily and narrowly modify the growth restriction on Wells Fargo so that it can provide additional support to small businesses.”

Amazon.com is reportedly putting its  delivery service business on hold . According to a Wall Street Journal report, the e-commerce behemoth will not operate its Amazon Shipping  starting in June, in order to focus on online orders amid the coronavirus outbreak. Amazon's foray into the delivery sector had apparently led to FedEx terminating its contract to deliver packages for the online retailer last August. Even with lower rates, Amazon Shipping, since its  launch two years ago, struggled to gain customers beyond its own delivery purposes, J.P. Morgan analyst Brian Ossenbeck mentioned in a note to clients.Ossenbeck arges that Amazon’s halting of its delivery business will give a bigger boost to FedEx than UPS.  

 Everyone else in the company will receive a salary cut of 10%, according to an internal email (as reported by TheStreet). The pay reductions are expected to remain through to the end of June.(as reported by TheStreet). Tesla is running "minimum critical operations" at present, and expects to go back to full operations at U.S. plants in early May  unless there are any significant changes, as indicated in the email.

On Friday, it withdrew its first-quarter and full-year earnings guidance. In January, Dan Ninivaggi, who used to run Icahn Automotive Group and also is a shareholder in Tenneco through his Protean Services firm, demanded that half of Tenneco’s board be replaced.He also suggested that Tenneco should raise cash - to make good on its debt - by selling its aftermarket-parts unit or by selling the entire company.  The next day, Tenneco dropped co-CEO Roger Wood.  

The Saudi sovereign investment fund has 8.2% stake in Carnival Corp. The cruise line now has Saudi Public Investment Fund as its third largest stakeholder. The investment fund's stake in the company is valued at nearly $370 million. The fund did not own any Carnival share as of its fourth-quarter SEC filing. Recently, Carnival increased its dollar-bond offering to $4 billion from $3 billion, while reducing  its interest rate for the bonds to about 12% from 12.5%.This corresponds to the company’s decision to drop a euro-denominated tranche (according to Bloomberg citing sources familiar with the matter).

Walt Disney Co.   is holding off releases of several upcoming movies, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Release dates of the entertainment behemoth’s  movies will be moved to later dates this year and into 2021 and 2022 as well (according to a Variety report).  “Black Widow,” “Jungle Cruise,” “Bob’s Burger," “The Eternals,” “Mulan,” “The New Mutants,” “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness”, "Thor: Love and Thunder", and “Captain Marvel 2” are among the movies that got postponed for release. The coronavirus situation has compelled  movie theaters to shut down and film companies to halt production until the virus get contained.  

The figure represents the largest monthly job losses since March 2009.  leisure and hospitality accounted for almost two-thirds of the job losses, concentrated in food services and drinking places.Other industries that shed jobs significantly included healthcare and social assistance, professional and business services, retail trade, and construction The full-month unemployment rate could be even worse, since the recent data reflects developments up to March 21 - before states began implementing non-essential shutdowns of business . On Thursday, it was revealed that the initial jobless claims in the US was 6.6 million in the week ended March 28, which is almost double the new claims made just a week earlier.

FedEx  is slashing the pay of founder and CEO Fred Smith. Smith will get a pay cut of - 91% for the six months that began April 1, as mentioned in the company ‘s regulatory filing. Also, to increase its cash position amid current coronavirus-induced disruption to commercial paper markets and financial markets, the delivery company is drawing down $1.5 billion from its credit line.  FedEx indicted that it expects to benefit from the government’s $2 trillion fiscal stimulus package.

Zoom Video CEO and founder Eric Yuan dumped $38 million of the company's stock.  Ahead of an investigation into security breaches at the video conferencing company, Yuan and several other senior executives sold millions of dollars worth of their shares. Yuan made $10.5 million in sales on Jan. 14, followed by another $12.5 million on Feb. 12, and $15.5 million on March 16. Chief Marketing Officer Janine Pelosi has made close to $14 million in trades since February, according to the Daily Mail. Sales have been declared to the SEC.

Bank of America  is the first of US big four banks to have opened the online portal for small-business support program as part of government’s stimulus package amid COVID-19 crisis. The government asked banks to support it in disbursing the $350 billion meant for giving loans to small businesses as part of the $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill.  On Thursday, several banks told CNBC that they were not ready due to lack of adequate  guidance from the Small Business Administration and the U.S. Treasury on administering the program.

Bob Chapek, the company's chief executive last month, will take a 50% pay cut . Iger will forgo his salary starting in April, as the entertainment company deals with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. According to a company email obtained by the Hollywood Reporter, Chapek's base salary as CEO is $2.5 million.Chapek was previously chairman of Disney’s parks, experiences and products segment. Disney mentioned in its March 19 SEC filing, "There are certain limitations on our ability to mitigate the adverse financial impact of these items, including the fixed costs of our theme park business".  

They would also demand  coronavirus testing for all employees, along with hazard compensation of double the current hourly wage for employees who come to work. Whole Worker is the national worker group organizing the sick out.The organization stated, “We cannot wait for politicians, institutions, or our own management to step in to protect us.” In recent times, Whole Foods temporarily raised worker's hourly pay by $2 an hour.

ViacomCBS  has withdrawn its quarterly and full-year guidance amid COVID-19 crisis. ViacomCBS said that production delays and cancellations of events have led it to hold off  its previous 2020 guidance. The media giant cited the postponement of theatrical releases domestically and internationally, cancellation or rescheduling of sports events, and production delays in television and filmed entertainment programming  as factors that could have substantial effect on the company’s operating results, cash flows and financial position.

General Motors  said salaried staff will have 20% of their pay deferred, amid coronavirus crisis. According to an internal memo described to Bloomberg, the auto behemoth said that beginning next week through the fourth quarter or first quarter of 2021, GM's senior management team will take pay cuts of as much as 10% and defer 20% of their cash compensation.GM's board will experience total compensation cut by 20%. General Motors would be freezing work on new-vehicle programs, Bloomberg reported.   

Congress and the White House reached a historic, $2 trillion stimulus bill aimed to revive the US  economy from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The economic relief package, will include $250 billion for direct payments to individuals and families, $350 billion in small business loans, $250 billion in unemployment insurance benefits and $500 billion in loans for distressed companies. The package has set aside $50 billion of loans to U.S. airlines, and $150 billion for hospitals.