Hopes for Speedy Rebound Dim “I Will Be on the Line with Ev- the Money Manager, Ending a Eryone Else,” Mr
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The Black Mirror for the Magazines & Newspapers. ****** TUESDAY, MAY 12, 2020 ~ VOL. CCLXXV NO. 111 WSJ.com HHHH $4.00 DJIA 24221.99 g 109.33 0.4% NASDAQ 9192.34 À 0.8% STOXX 600 339.70 g 0.4% 10-YR. TREAS. g 14/32 , yield 0.724% OIL $24.14 g $0.60 GOLD $1,695.30 g $14.60 EURO $1.0809 YEN 107.66 Fans Return to Disneyland in Shanghai, With Precautions What’s Musk News Reopens Business&Finance Factory, Defying esla CEO Musk said Tthe company is resum- ing production of cars at its lone U.S. assembly fac- Order tory, in defiance of local authorities in California. A1 Tesla chief dares Hopes among executives California officials to and policy makers for a arrest him in standoff quick economic rebound have increasingly given way over health measures to a view that a recovery will be painfully slow. A1 BY TIM HIGGINS China’s factory-gate prices contracted in April, Elon Musk said Tesla Inc. is falling by the steepest resuming production of cars at margin in four years. A16 its lone U.S. assembly factory in Big U.S. home-rental defiance of local authorities in companies are drawing in- what is quickly becoming one vestors amid signs that the of the highest-profile show- firms are weathering the cri- downs between business and sis far better than feared. A1 government about reopening after weeks of sheltering in The New York Fed said place. one of its emergency market- Even by Mr. Musk’s own col- support facilities will begin orful history, the brazen an- buying corporate-bond ex- nouncement Monday on Twit- change-traded funds. B1 ter supercharged a standoff Chesapeake Energy said between the Silicon Valley auto it may not be able to stay in HECTOR RETAMAL/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES maker and local government business as weak oil and gas CLOSE-UP: Shanghai Disneyland reopened on Monday after being closed since January, as China continued to ease the leaders that ordered the plant prices imperil a yearslong economic shutdown caused by the coronavirus. The number of visitors will be capped at 30% of the theme park’s capacity. B3 to remain shut as part of the effort to pay down debt. B1 area’s efforts to slow the spread of Covid-19 even as other parts BlackRock’s largest of California are emerging from shareholder, PNC Financial, their quarantining. said it is selling its stake in Hopes for Speedy Rebound Dim “I will be on the line with ev- the money manager, ending a eryone else,” Mr. Musk wrote lucrative yearslong bet. B10 on Twitter. “If anyone is ar- Twitter said it would start BY PAUL HANNON year—or beyond. pre-coronavirus levels until rested, I ask that it only be me.” adding labels to tweets that AND SAABIRA CHAUDHURI The sobering new view re- 2022 at the earliest. Social THE Tesla stopped production on contain disputed information flects the depth of the contrac- distancing will make it harder March 23 at the Fremont, Calif., about the coronavirus. B4 Many policy makers and tion now being recorded for to go to the movies, eat out or CORONAVIRUS factory, which builds the hot- corporate executives, until re- the spring, as well as more ev- visit beauty salons until a vac- selling Model 3 compact car The Dow industrials fell cently, were hoping for a V- idence that soaring joblessness cine is developed. PANDEMIC and employs more than 10,000 0.4%, while the Nasdaq ad- shaped economic recovery and months or years of social Consumer-goods companies people, after initially balking at vanced 0.8%. The S&P 500 from the coronavirus pan- distancing—particularly in the anticipate that shoppers will Alameda County’s order for was little changed. B11 demic: a short, sharp collapse West—will depress economic switch to cheaper items and Medicaid expansion gains nonessential businesses to momentum, A2 Coty said it is in exclusive followed by a bounce back to activity well into next year. forgo splurges, likely remain- close. talks with KKR on a $3 billion pre-virus levels of activity. “This is not going to be a ing tightfisted long after lock- Gerald F. Seib: China hawk After learning of Tesla’s re- deal that would carve out Now, they expect a quick recovery,” said Mark downs end. Some corporations pushes for U.S. action, A4 opening, the county health de- Coty’s professional-beauty “swoosh” recovery. Schneider, chief executive of have planned fresh layoffs for Texas businesses defy partment said it notified the and hair-care businesses. B6 Named after the Nike logo, Nestlé SA, the world’s biggest the fall, prolonging the job- shutdown, A6 company that it can only main- it predicts a large drop fol- packaged-foods maker, re- lessness surge that has tain “minimum basic opera- Charities struggle as lowed by a painfully slow re- cently. “This is going to be a left more than 30 million peo- revenue dries up, A10 tions” until it receives approval World-Wide covery, with many Western several-quarter, if not several- ple unemployed. of a plan to reopen. Tesla is ex- economies, including the U.S. year kind of process.” Among the reasons for the Twitter to label disputed pected to submit a site-specific and Europe, not back to 2019 Airlines don’t expect pas- darker outlook is that lock- virus posts, B4 plan, the county said. The White House directed levels of output until late next senger numbers to return to PleaseturntopageA2 PleaseturntopageA6 officials to wear masks at all times inside the building ex- cept when sitting at their own desks, administration offi- Virus Alters White House Rules cials said, but they said Bill Gates Regrets the World Trump and Pence aren’t ex- pected to start doing so. A4 The U.S. death toll from Didn’t Prepare for Covid-19 the coronavirus pandemic surpassed 80,000 as state governors from New York to California took steps toward ‘I wish I had done more to call attention to the danger,’ he says reopening businesses. A6 Mnuchin said the gov- BY BETSY MCKAY to forestall. ernment would look to “I feel terrible,” he said in an interview. make fixes to help restau- Five years ago, Bill Gates warned that the “The whole point of talking about it was that rants and others participate biggest potential killer the world faced we could take action and minimize the dam- in the $660 billion small- wasn’t war, but a pandemic. The billionaire age.” business aid program. A4 spent hundreds of millions of dollars to find In his second career as philanthropist and House Democrats put the faster ways to develop vaccines and create co-chair of one of the wealthiest foundations final touches on a new stimu- DREW ANGERER/GETTY IMAGES disease-tracking systems. He urged world dedicated to global health and American ed- Trump adviser Jared Kushner and others donned face masks at a lus bill even as they remained leaders to build national defenses against ucation, Mr. Gates, 64 years old, has put press briefing in the Rose Garden on Monday, as White House at odds with Senate Repub- new infectious diseases. himself at the center of the Covid-19 pan- officials were directed to wear masks. President Trump and Vice licans and Trump on the Looking back, Mr. Gates said, “I wish I demic that has killed more than 283,000 President Mike Pence aren’t expected to start doing so. A4 had done more to call attention to the dan- people and crashed the world economy. main points of a package. A4 ger.” The Microsoft Corp. co-founder is now The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation pays Trump’s top intelligence squaring off against the scenario he sought PleaseturntopageA9 adviser has declassified and might release the names of Obama administration offi- cials who requested the Oil Buyers House-Rental Stocks “unmasking” of Flynn. A3 Try Out Crude The Supreme Court sig- Are Wall Street Stars naled that it was struggling over how much freedom to Storage Ideas give religious institutions iii BY RYAN DEZEMBER These companies and several Introducing from laws barring employ- closely held rivals were created ment discrimination. A3 Giant pools, mines Investors are flocking to the during the nation’s last great An Iranian warship U.S.’s mega landlords, drawn by episode of economic despair. In struck another of the coun- attract interest for signs the companies that 2012, at the depths of the hous- THE FUTURE try’s naval vessels with a emerged from last decade’s ing crash, financers, including missile during an exercise stashing the glut foreclosure crisis owning huge Blackstone Group LP and hote- near a strategic waterway, pools of rental houses are lier Barry Sternlicht, dispatched OF STORAGE. killing at least 19 sailors. A16 BY REBECCA ELLIOTT weathering the economic shut- PleaseturntopageA8 Georgia’s attorney gen- down far better than feared. Meet PowerStore. Rhett Kenagy and a high- Rental-home share-price eral named a new prosecutor Wall Street believes the cor- school pal recently came up and index performance to handle the case against a onavirus pandemic is making It’s smart. with a plan to rent hundreds since March 23 father and son charged with suburban single-family homes a of school-bus-size metal tanks more appealing alternative to It’s adaptable. killing Ahmaud Arbery. A3 60% and fill them with some apartments because of the con- It’s here. 270,000 barrels of oil. tamination risks associated 50 CONTENTS Markets....................