The daily business briefing: June 26, 2020

1. Jobless claims of 1.48 million exceed expectations

Another 1.48 million Americans filed initial applications for unemployment benefits last week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The weekly total was down 60,000 claims from the week before, but higher than the 1.35 million new jobless claims economists had predicted. The figure came in higher than expected the previous week, too. Last week was the 14th straight with more than 1 million jobless claims as the coronavirus crisis forced many businesses to curtail operations and many customers to stay home. Before the coronavirus pandemic, weekly jobless claims never got close to 1 million. Continuing claims for benefits fell to 19.5 million, though, marking the first time in two months the figure fell below 20 million.

CNBC Bloomberg

2. Fed limits bank stock buybacks, dividend increases

The Federal Reserve on Thursday temporarily barred the nation's largest banks from buying back their own stocks or increasing dividend payments to investors to make sure their finances remain sound enough to keep lending through the coronavirus crisis. The move came after the Fed's latest bank stress tests indicated some could face dire problems in the historic downturn caused by the pandemic, even though financial institutions are healthier than they were in the 2008-2009 financial crisis. "Today's actions by the board to preserve the high levels of capital in the U.S. banking system are an acknowledgment of both the strength of our largest banks as well as the high degree of uncertainty we face," Randal K. Quarles, the Fed's vice chairman of supervision, said in a statement.

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The New York Times

3. GAO: Federal government sent stimulus checks to 1.1 million dead people

The federal government sent nearly $1.4 billion in coronavirus stimulus payments to 1.1 million dead people, the U.S. Government Accountability Office reported Thursday. The GAO, Congress's independent watchdog agency, released the finding in a report on the $3 trillion in coronavirus relief Congress approved in March and April. The news of checks sent to the dead was expected to fuel resistance among some Republican lawmakers to another round of direct relief payments. The GAO said the mistakes occurred as the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service rushed to send out 160.4 million payments totaling $269 billion under the CARES Act to counter economic damage, as the coronavirus crisis shut down much of the economy.

The Washington Post

4. Stock futures mixed after bank stress tests, coronavirus surge

U.S. stock index futures were mixed early Friday coming off solid Thursday gains. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were down by about 0.2 percent several hours before the opening bell after the Federal Reserve's latest bank stress tests indicated some financial institutions could get close to minimum capital levels in bad possible scenarios in the coronavirus crisis. Shares of some banks fell on the news, but futures for the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite inched higher. All three of the main U.S. indexes gained more than 1 percent on Thursday despite rising concerns that a return to record daily increases in coronavirus infections could slow an economic rebound after widespread business shutdowns. Texas paused its reopening as COVID-19 cases surged.

CNBC

5. Report: Amazon to buy self-driving car startup Zoox

Amazon has agreed to buy autonomous-vehicle developer Zoox for more than $1 billion, The Information reported Thursday. The deal was expected to be announced as early as Friday. Acquiring the startup would step up Amazon's investment in self-driving technology, putting it in direct competition with Waymo, the self-driving car company backed by Google-parent Alphabet. The Information did not mention an exact price for the acquisition, but The Wall Street Journal reported last month that the companies were near a deal that could value Zoox under the $3.2 billion it earned in a 2018 funding round. Amazon participated in a $530 million funding round early last year in self-driving car startup Aurora Innovation.

The Information Reuters