The daily business briefing: March 2, 2020

1. U.S. stocks fight to bounce back from last week's plunge

U.S. stock index futures rose sharply early Monday, putting Wall Street on track to rebound from last week's rout despite ongoing concerns about economic fallout from the coronavirus outbreak. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500, and the Nasdaq were all up by as much as 1 percent several hours before the start of the week's trading on hopes that central banks would take steps to boost world economies facing fallout from the rapidly spreading virus. All three of the main U.S. indexes fell by more than 10 percent last week in the worst week for the U.S. market since October 2008. The declines officially put Wall Street in a correction in the same month that the indexes set record highs. The drop "shows the extent to which an outbreak can hit an economy," said economist Ed Hyman, Evercore ISI chairman, in a note to clients. "All this is quite uncertain, and we may be overreacting. But we also don't want to underreact."

CNBC

2. American waives change fees as demand drops due to coronavirus

American Airlines announced Sunday that it would waive change fees on new tickets as demand for airline seats falls due to the global coronavirus outbreak. American, the largest U.S. carrier, said the policy applies up to 14 days before travel on tickets purchased through March 16. JetBlue Airways last week suspended change and cancellation fees on tickets purchased through March 11. United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz warned employees that the airline was cutting some flights to Asia in addition to suspending service to mainland China and Hong Kong for two months. American's stock has dropped by 37 percent in the last two weeks.

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Reuters

3. Fed expected to join other central banks with rate cuts

The Federal Reserve probably will join other top central banks in a coordinated effort to cut interest rates to counter economic damage from the coronavirus outbreak, economists said Sunday. Goldman Sachs economists said they expected the Fed to cut its benchmark short-term rate target by 50 basis points at its March meeting, and a full 100 basis points this year. Bill Nelson, chief economist at the Bank Policy Institute, said a "coordinated global interest rate cut" will resemble "the one executed at the height of the crisis in October 2008 by the Fed and five other central banks. They will possibly include in this action the People's Bank of China and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the two banks whose economies have so far suffered most from the outbreak."

CNBC Reuters

4. AT&T launches its new streaming service, AT&T TV

AT&T is launching its new streaming video service, AT&T TV, on Monday. The company is introducing its new subscription live-TV service five years after acquiring satellite-delivered DirecTV, which made it the largest pay-TV provider in the country with 26 million subscribers. But DirecTV lost more than three million subscribers last year, and AT&T was down to 20.4 million pay-TV subscribers by the end of last year. It's aiming to pick up new customers with an internet-provided alternative to a cable-TV experience, complete with an Android TV set-top box and remote control. The subscription service will start at $49.99 a month for the base "entertainment" package, which includes local broadcast channels, ESPN, AMC, HGTV, FX, USA, and a selection of other cable networks.

Chicago Tribune The Verge

5. The Invisible Man leads the domestic box office

The Invisible Man led the weekend box office with $29 million in ticket sales in the United States and Canada, bumping Sonic the Hedgehog out of the top spot it held for two weeks. The Invisible Man, a revival of a classic H.G. Wells horror concept, cost just $8 million to make. The film stars Elisabeth Moss as a woman who runs away from her abusive ex, who terrorizes her after apparently faking his suicide. The film, produced by Universal-affiliated horror studio Blumhouse, got a boost from strong reviews, with Rotten Tomatoes saying 90 percent of its appraisals were positive. The Invisible Man also took in $20.2 million in 47 foreign markets over the weekend, according to Universal.

The New York Times Yahoo Entertainment