7:57 am: Boeing posts quarterly loss of $641 million
Boeing reported a first-quarter loss of $641 million, as the company faces both coronavirus and the more than yearlong grounding of its best-selling plane, the 737 Max.
The company is planning to reduce production of some aircraft, including the 787 Dreamliner.
Boeing is facing a dismal market for new planes as air travel demand plunges as the pandemic and measures to stop it from spreading keep travelers home. —Leslie Josephs
6:55 am: GE reports a revenue hit, expects worse quarter due to pandemic
General Electric reported steep declines in first-quarter revenue and earnings as the industrial giant took a hit amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The company posted a total revenue of $20.524 billion, which represents a year-over-year decline of 8%. GE Industrial profits fell 46% year over year to $1.096 billion from $2.017 billion. On an adjusted per-share basis, the company earned 5 cents. That’s below a Refinitiv estimate of 8 cents per share.
“The impact from COVID-19 materially challenged our first-quarter results, especially in Aviation, where we saw a dramatic decline in commercial aerospace as the virus spread globally in March,” CEO Larry Culp said in a statement.
Culp said the company is eyeing cost cuts of more than $2 billion along with $3 billion in cash preservation to cushion the coronavirus blow. GE’s earnings release also indicated the industrial giant expects this quarter to be worse than the first.
“The second quarter will be the first full quarter with pressure from COVID-19, and GE expects that its financial results will decline sequentially,” GE said. —Fred Imbert
6:18 am: Most of Spain has virus reproduction rate of below 1, health official says
A man wearing a face mask and gloves walks past a mural in the village of Bueu, northwestern Spain, on April 2, 2020 amid a national lockdown to fight the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus.
Miguel Riopa | AFP | Getty Images
Almost all areas of Spain have a coronavirus reproduction rate, known as the “R” number, below one, health emergencies chief Fernando Simon said Wednesday, Reuters reported. The reproduction rate refers to the number of people that an infected individual goes on to infect.
“Right now, almost all areas in the country have a reproduction number below one,” Simon told reporters in an online briefing.
If the reproduction number is not below one on average, he said, Spain cannot consider easing mobility restrictions. —Holly Ellyatt
5:44 am: Russia nears 100,000 cases
A medical worker in a protective suit takes swabs from a patient at a clinic in St. Petersburg, Russia on March 18, 2020.
Peter Kovalev | TASS via Getty Images
Russia’s crisis response center reported 99,939 cases as of Wednesday, up an additional 5,841 cases in the last 24 hours.
The total number of reported fatalities remains relatively low, however, at 972 deaths. Russia says it has carried out 3.3 million tests. On Tuesday, President Vladimir Putin extended the national “nonworking” month through to May 11. He also warned that Russia had not yet seen the peak of the virus. —Holly Ellyatt
5:33 am: Spain’s daily death toll rises again, 325 new fatalities
Mortuary employees wearing face masks transport a coffin of a COVID-19 coronavirus victim at La Almudena cemetery on April 04, 2020 in Madrid, Spain.
Carlos Alvarez | Getty Images
Spain’s daily death toll rose again again with the health ministry reporting 325 deaths Wednesday, up from 301 reported the day before.
The overall death toll from the virus rose by 453 to 24,275, however, as additional data was added from previous days, Reuters reported.
The country now has confirmed 212, 917 cases of the virus, the ministry said, up 2,144 from the previous day. —Holly Ellyatt