The daily business briefing: May 19, 2020

1. Potential coronavirus vaccine shows early promise

Massachusetts biotechnology company Moderna announced Monday that its potential COVID-19 vaccine showed promising early results in clinical trials. Eight patients developed antibodies at levels similar to those of people who recovered from the coronavirus, the company said. Critics caution that Moderna did not publish all the data, and say the announcement was too vague to draw any conclusions. "These are partial findings from a small, early-stage study," Boston Globe reports. "It's not known whether the dozens of other people in the study will have the same results." But Moderna described the interim data as "positive," with Chief Medical Officer Tal Zaks saying that the findings, though early, "substantiate our belief that mRNA-1273 has the potential to prevent COVID-19 disease." Moderna is moving into phase two of its clinical trials, having received approval from the Food and Drug Administration, and it says the third phase is expected to begin in the summer.

The Washington Post Stat News

2. Uber cutting another 3,000 jobs

Uber announced that it would cut another 3,000 jobs as the coronavirus crisis reduces demand for its ride-hailing service, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi told employees in an email Monday. Uber had already said earlier this month that it was slashing 3,700 jobs, so it has now moved to lay off 25 percent of its workforce. Uber said global trip requests had fallen by 80 percent in April, although the numbers are slowly rising again. Uber also is in talks with GrubHub in a possible acquisition to boost its food delivery business. Khosrowshahi said he made the "hard decision" not because he wanted to protect Uber's stock price or to please its board of directors, but "because our very future as an essential service for the cities of the world — our being there for millions of people and businesses who rely on us — demands it."

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Reuters TechCrunch

3. Report: Treasury has released little from $500 billion relief fund

The Treasury Department has spent very little of the $500 billion fund created under the Cares Act in March to help businesses and local governments struggling to get through the coronavirus crisis, the new Congressional Oversight Commission said in a report released Monday. Senators are expected to question Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell about the matter on Tuesday. Many business owners have requested immediate relief as they have had to shut down or sharply reduce operations under stay-at-home policies intended to slow the spread of the coronavirus. "If it doesn't get out in a timely fashion, it's not going to achieve the goal behind its creation," said commission member Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.).

The Washington Post

4. California loosens requirements for reopening

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Monday announced a change in the requirements a county must meet before its businesses can enter California's second reopening phase. They'll no longer have to report no COVID-19 deaths for 14 days, a rule that meant all but five California counties were eligible for the next phase. Under the new requirements, most counties must prove they have stable hospitalization rates and that their number of coronavirus patients haven't grown by more than five percent over a seven-day period. Newsom also suggested professional sports, hair salons, and churches could reopen within weeks. California has seen a 7.5 percent decrease in hospitalizations statewide over the last two weeks, and an 8.7 percent decrease in ICU patients over the same time.

San Francisco Chronicle

5. J.C. Penney to close 30 percent of its stores

J.C. Penney said Monday that it would close 242 of its nearly 850 stores under its restructuring plan. The 118-year-old retailer, which filed for bankruptcy protection on Friday, said it would try to close 192 of the stores this year, and close and sell the other 50 in 2021. The company said it was holding onto "the highest sales-generating, most profitable, and most productive stores in the network." J.C. Penney also said it would work on shifting sales online, aiming to boost e-commerce to account for more than 25 percent of its revenue over the next few years, up from 14 percent in 2019, according to a filing. The retailer said it would reduce expenses by cutting staff, ad spending, and administrative costs.

The New York Times