By Gina Lee, Peter Nurse and Kim Khan
Investing.com - President Donald Trump will unveil his guidelines for restarting the U.S. economy Thursday evening, and those guidelines will be recommendations for states.
"The president's new guidelines are in fact that. They are recommendations. They are flexible. They are data-driven," a White House official told Reuters.
Trump will hold a press conference at 6:00 PM ET (22:00 GMT).
Initial jobless claims rose by 5.25 million last week, brining total job losses in the last four weeks to nearly 22 million. Housing starts in March plunged more than 20% and the Philly Fed manufacturing index fell to -56.6.
In New York state, Governor Andrew Cuomo said the net change in hospitalizations is down “more significantly” than before and intensive care unit admissions are down. But the stay-at-home insructions were extended to May 15.
New York had 2,000 new cases yesterday and saw 606 deaths from the virus.
Europe:
Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel announced plans to slowly ease restrictions brought in to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.
While social distancing rules will stay in place until at least May 3, as of next week shops under a certain size could open their doors and schools will gradually start to reopen from May 4.
Large public gatherings including religious services will remain banned until August 31. Bars, cafes, restaurants, cinemas and music venues will all remain closed.
The country's confirmed coronavirus cases have risen by 2,866 to 130,450, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Thursday, meaning the number of new infections rose for a second consecutive day.
Switzerland’s government is due to unveil on Thursday a three-stage plan to relax the country's shutdown, according to the Swiss media.
Under Health Minister Alain Berset’s plan, companies which provide personal services like hairdressers and physiotherapists will be allowed to return to work from April 27. Following a gap of two or three weeks for monitoring, schools could reopen on May 11. Bars and restaurants would remain closed until at least June 8, before reopening in the third phase.
The U.K.’s government announced a three-week extension to the coronavirus lockdown. That's despite signs that the virus may have peaked in the country, with hospital admissions having fallen for a week.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab will lead cabinet meetings about the continuation of social distancing measures in the continued absence of Prime Minister Boris Johnson as he recovers from the virus.
Germany announced a 30 billion euro ($33 billion) backstop for export credit insurers
Italy announced the lowest number of new cases in nearly a month.
Asia:
The International Monetary Fund forecast that growth in Asia will stall completely in 2020.
“This is the worst growth performance in almost 60 years, including during the Global Financial Crisis (4.7%) and the Asian Financial Crisis (1.3%),” Chang Yong Rhee, director of the IMF’s Asia and Pacific department, said in a blog post.
But he added that Asia is still expected to do better than other regions in terms of economic activity.
Japan is to declare a nationwide state of emergency, having already announced the same at state levels, according to local media reports.
Australia’s bureau of statistics announced an unemployment rate of 5.2%, better than the 5.5% rate forecast prepared by Investing.com. But the rate was calculated after lockdown measures to prevent the spread of the virus came into effect.
The country will keep in place restrictions implemented to curb the spread of the coronavirus for at least four more weeks, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Thursday.
South Korea unveiled Thursday a second extra budget worth 7.6 trillion won ($6.2 billion) to pay for emergency cash handouts to people as the coronavirus pandemic threatens jobs and wages.
The ruling Democratic Party got a big boost in Wednesday’s National Assembly elections, winning 163 seats out of the 300 seats up for grabs with almost all votes counted.
Vietnam eased social distancing measures for most rural areas, but extended a two-week period of social distancing for 12 provinces, including Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
VietJet Air and Vietnam Airlines will resume some domestic flights from Thursday.
Philippines cut its benchmark interest rate in an unscheduled move, by 50 basis points to 2.75%, seeking to keep the economy afloat amid the coronavirus outbreak.