The daily business briefing: April 16, 2020

1. Governors in some states aim to reopen economies May 1

Governors of 20 states that have been spared the worst of the coronavirus pandemic are looking at starting to reopen their economies around May 1, a top public health official said Wednesday. "There are a number of states — 19, 20 states — that really have had limited impact from it. So I think we will see some states that are — the governors feel that they're ready — we're poised to assist them with that reopening," Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told ABC's Good Morning America. President Trump said Wednesday that the U.S. had passed the peak for new coronavirus cases, and that on Thursday he would unveil new federal guidelines for reopening the country slowly. Leading federal public health officials have warned that restarting businesses and easing lockdowns too soon could spark more infections.

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2. Retail sales plunged by 8.7 percent in March

The Commerce Department said Wednesday that retail sales dropped by 8.7 percent in March, the biggest decline since the data started being tracked in 1992. In February, retail sales fell a revised 0.4 percent. The March drop was worse than the 8 percent decline economists were expecting due to widespread business closures and slowdowns under "stay-at-home" policies imposed to curb spreading of the COVID-19 coronavirus. Previously, the biggest monthly decline in retail sales was in the fall of 2008, when there was a drop of almost 4 percent. CNN's Julia Chatterley warned that since most non-essential businesses didn't start shutting down until halfway through the month, "as bad as this March number is, April is going to be worse."

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3. Stock futures rebound after losses fueled by weak bank earnings

U.S. stock index futures gained early Thursday, rebounding after dropping on Wednesday as weak bank earnings reinforced fears of economic damage from the coronavirus pandemic. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500, and the Nasdaq all were up by less than 1 percent. On Wednesday, the Dow fell by 1.9 percent. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq lost 2.2 percent and 1.4 percent, respectively. Bank of America shares lost more than 6 percent after it posted disappointing earnings. Citigroup shares fell by more than 5 percent. Plunging retail sales also fueled concerns about the pandemic's fallout at the start of what is expected to be a brutal earnings season. "If this is a precursor to what we can expect throughout the U.S. ... there's no word for it," said Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist at Prudential Financial. "The question is how quickly can the economy come back."

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4. Cinemark aims to start reopening movie theaters in July

Cinemark CFO Sean Gamble in a call with investors on Wednesday said the theater chain, which like AMC and Regal closed its U.S. locations last month amid the coronavirus pandemic, has been "modeling an approximate four month ramp up, anticipating a July 1 reopen." At the same time, Gamble noted that "we would not be in a scenario where we would be inclined to bring back everything day one." Instead, he said, reopening movie theaters would be "more a dip-our-toe type of approach." Theaters could, for example, sell half as many seats to ensure customers would be spaced out. Capacity may be reduced to 50 percent, and openings may need to happen on a "state by state, county by county" basis, Gamble said.

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5. Economists forecast 5 million new unemployment claims

Economists expected data on new unemployment claims to show a fourth week of job losses in the millions due to coronavirus shutdowns. Dow Jones found that economists on average were forecasting 5 million new filings for jobless benefits in the week that ended April 11. The total for the previous three weeks was 16.8 million. Economists said the latest figure would show that job losses were still massive but may be peaking as some states look to start slowly reopening their economies. "That would give us 23 million," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics. "We've got a little more go. We're probably three-quarters of the way there."

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