U.S. weekly jobless claims drop to four-month low – Reuters, 3/11/2021

• The number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits dropped to a four-month low last week as an improving public health environment allows more segments of the economy to reopen, putting the labor market recovery back on track.
• Still, a full recovery from the deep scars inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic will probably take years, with the weekly unemployment claims report from the Labor Department on Thursday also showing a whopping 20.1 million Americans collecting unemployment checks in late February.
• Initial claims for state unemployment benefits decreased 42,000 to a seasonally adjusted 712,000 for the week ended March 6, the lowest level since early November.
• Including a government-funded program for the self-employed, gig workers and others who do not qualify for the regular state programs, 1.2 million people filed claims last week.
• The claims report also showed the number of people receiving benefits after an initial week of aid declined 193,000 to 4.144 million during the week ended Feb 27.
• The decrease largely reflected people exhausting their eligibility for benefits, limited to 26 weeks in most states.
• About 5.455 million people were on the government-funded extended benefits program during the week ended Feb. 20, up 986,351 from the prior week.
• There number of people on unemployment benefits under all programs during that period increased by 2.087 million.

House Passes $1.9 Trillion Covid-19 Stimulus Bill; Biden to Sign Friday – Wall Street Journal, 3/11/2021

• The House narrowly passed a $1.9 trillion coronavirus-aid bill, after Democrats used their slim majorities to muscle the latest economic stimulus package through Congress, just as the nation begins to emerge from a year of pandemic-related shutdowns.
• Unlike previous rounds of aid, the vote was largely along party lines.
• The vote was 220 to 211, with all GOP lawmakers and one Democrat, Rep. Jared Golden of Maine, voting against the bill.
• The House had earlier passed legislation but had to vote again to reconcile it with the Senate version.
• Mr. Biden plans to give a prime-time speech on Thursday about the pandemic response and sign the bill on Friday.

Top U.S., China Officials to Meet Next Week in Alaska on Range of Issues – Wall Street Journal, 3/11/2021

• Top U.S. and Chinese officials are set to hold talks next week in the first high-level in-person meeting between the two powers since President Biden took office, after months of deteriorating ties.
• The meeting between Secretary of State Antony Blinken, national security adviser Jake Sullivan and their Chinese counterparts will be held in Alaska, is tentatively set for March 18 and 19, and will give each side time to lay out their priorities and cover a range of divisive issues, U.S. officials said Wednesday.
• Topics will include the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change, and issues of disagreement including China’s stance on Hong Kong and pressure on Taiwan, and the “undeclared economic embargoes” China has placed on Australia, a senior administration official said.
• The U.S. will also discuss Chinese practices seen as damaging to American workers and farmers, as well as intellectual property theft, forced technology transfer and human rights, the official said.

Cash-Out Refinancings Hit Highest Level Since Financial Crisis – Wall Street Journal, 3/11/2021

• Americans extracted more cash from their homes through cash-out refinancings in 2020 than in any year since the financial crisis.
• U.S. homeowners cashed out $152.7 billion in home equity last year, a 42% increase from 2019 and the most since 2007, according to mortgage-finance giant Freddie Mac.
• The median existing-home price rose to about $310,000 in December, an increase of almost 13% from December 2019.
• The acceleration in price growth has spread past cities to suburban and rural areas as Americans re-evaluate where they want to live during and after the pandemic.
• Still, borrowers who did major cash-out refis withdrew an average of $50,000 last year, down from $59,000 the year before, according to the New York Fed.

EUROPE & WORLD

China All but Ends Hong Kong Democracy With ‘Patriots Only’ Rule – Wall Street Journal, 3/11/2021

• China drew the curtain on decades of adversarial politics in Hong Kong as the national legislature approved electoral changes that would put pro-Beijing loyalists firmly in charge of the city and squeeze opposition groups from elected office.
• Thursday’s near-unanimous vote by the National People’s Congress paves the way for China’s top lawmaking body to revamp as soon as next month how the former British colony picks its leader and legislators.
• The overhaul will give Beijing much greater control over local elections that were meant to be partly democratic—thanks to an effective veto against candidates deemed unpatriotic.
• Chinese officials say the changes are meant to close legal loopholes that had allowed anti-China forces to impede governance and incite unrest in Hong Kong, which was rocked by mass antigovernment protests in 2019.
• “It’s the biggest regression of the system since the handover,” said Lo Kin-hei, chairman of Hong Kong’s Democratic Party, who is out on bail after his arrest last year for allegedly participating in an unauthorized assembly in late 2019.
• “What we’ve seen over the past year is that authorities will do whatever they want, whenever they want, in a way that was unimaginable before.”

ECB to Speed Up Bond Purchases to Prop Up Sluggish Economy – Wall Street Journal, 3/11/2021

• The European Central Bank said it would accelerate its purchases of eurozone debt after a recent rise in borrowing costs, a surprise decision that diverges from the Federal Reserve as it seeks to shore up the region’s flagging economy.
• In a statement after its policy meeting Thursday, the ECB said it expects to conduct purchases under a €1.85 trillion bond-buying program, equivalent to $2.2 trillion, at a significantly higher pace over the next three months than earlier this year.
• It also left its key interest rates unchanged.
• At a news conference Thursday, President Christine Lagarde said the ECB was acting to counter an undesirable increase in bond yields, part of which was due to higher growth expectations in the U.S.
• “We are moving into action as early as tomorrow,” she said of the ECB’s accelerated bond purchases.

China’s JD.com cashes in on steady online demand, beats market expectations – US News & World Report, 3/11/2021

• JD.com’s fourth-quarter revenue beat expectations on Thursday as more shoppers flocked to its website on the back of a broader shift to online shopping triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The company’s net revenue rose 31.4% to 224.3 billion yuan in the quarter ended Dec. 31, beating analysts’ estimate of 219.73 billion yuan, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
• The Beijing-based company posted revenue of 745.8 billion yuan ($114.97 billion) for the year, beating analysts’ estimate of 740.81 billion yuan.
• JD.com raked in 110 million new active customer accounts during the year. Meanwhile, Jack Ma’s Alibaba added about 68 million active buyers in the same period.

‘As long as it lasts’ – Rolls-Royce says can weather crisis despite record loss – Reuters, 3/11/2021

• Rolls-Royce has enough funding to weather the crisis in the aviation industry caused by the pandemic, its chief executive said on Thursday, after the engine maker plunged to a record 4 billion pound ($5.6 billion) underlying loss for 2020.
• The British company said its cash burn should halve this year, and turn positive in the second half as vaccinations kick in and travelers return to the skies.
• Last year’s cash burn of 4.2 billion pounds was in line with analysts’ expectations, and Rolls guided that would reduce this year to 2 billion pounds.
• The company axed 15% of staff in 2020, and earmarked 2 billion pounds of assets for sale to repair its balance sheet.

BMW says wind is at its back after pandemic dents 2020 profit – Reuters, 3/11/2021

• BMW said on Thursday that it was back on a profitable track in 2021 after recovering from shutdowns and a serious dent to sales due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the first half of last year.
• The premium carmaker posted a full-year 2020 pre-tax profit of 5.2 billion euros ($6.22 billion), down nearly 27% from 7.2 billion euros in the prior year.
• BMW sales in China rose 7.4% in 2020 versus 2019, mostly offsetting declines in other regions.
• BMW ended the year with free cash flow of 3.4 billion euros, up from 2.6 billion euros in 2019 despite widespread lockdowns.
• Investments in electrification, self-driving technology and connectivity meant that research and development costs remained high at 5.7 billion euros ($6.8 billion), though more than 4% below the nearly 6 billion euros the company spent in 2019.

Factmonster – TODAY in HISTORY

• The Confederate States of America adopted its constitution. (186)
• A torrential rainstorm hit the East Coast. The rain turned to snow the next day and it became the Blizzard of 1888, the most famous snowstorm in American history. It caused more than 400 deaths. (1888)
• William Howard Taft became the first U.S. president to be buried in the National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. (1930)
• President Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Bill. (1941)
• Mikhail Gorbachev became head of the Soviet Union following the death of Konstantin Chernenko. At 54, he was the youngest member of the ruling Politburo. (1985)
• A newly elected parliament in Lithuania declared its independence from the Soviet Union. (1990)
• Janet Reno won unanimous Senate confirmation to be the first female U.S. Attorney General. (1993)
• Japan is hit by an enormous earthquake that triggers a deadly 23-foot tsunami in the country’s north, about 230 miles northeast of Tokyo. Cooling systems in one of the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station fail shortly after the earthquake, causing a nuclear crisis. (2011)