P2JW363000-6-A00100-17FFFF5178F ****** MONDAY,DECEMBER 28,2020~VOL. CCLXXVI NO.151 WSJ.com HHHH $4.00 Last week: DJIA 30199.87 À 20.82 0.1% NASDAQ 12804.73 À 0.4% STOXX 600 395.98 À 0.02% 10-YR. TREASURY À 4/32 , yield 0.933% OIL $48.23 g $1.01 EURO $1.2187 YEN 103.66 Vaccinations for Covid-19 Begin Across Europe Trump What’s Signs News GES IMA Package ETTY Business&Finance /G AFP ON/ For Virus onsumer-product com- MS SA Cpanies are expanding S factories and revamping THOMA Relief production lines, wagering that work-from-home hab- its will outlast the corona- President calls for virus pandemic. A1 /REUTERS; Congress to increase Chinese regulators moved NIESNER direct payments, cut to rein in fintech giant Ant, telling it to switch itsfocus LISI some spending items back to itsmainstay payments businessand rectifyproblems BY NATALIE ANDREWS in faster-growing areas. A1 AND ANDREW RESTUCCIA China’scentral bank con- RENZINI/REUTERS; cluded itssecond digital-cur- LO WASHINGTON—President rencypilot program, moving Trump signed asweeping pan- closer to aformal rollout JENNIFER demic-aid bill on Sundaynight that would makethe country : ending astandoff with Con- the firstmajor economyto LEFT gress and paving the way for OM introducesuch asystem. A9 FR millions of Americans to get economic relief as the corona- Thepandemic has trig- WISE virus pandemic surges across geredthe largest revision to OCK the country. the value of oil-industryas- CL FIRST DOSE: Clockwise from left, nurse Elena Betti reacts after receiving the vaccine Sunday in Florence; a health-care Mr. Trump objected to the setsinatleast adecade,as worker is vaccinated in Vienna; and a 78-year-old woman gets her shot in Sevran, on the outskirts of Paris. A8 legislation last week,after it companies sour on costly had already passed Congress projectsamid the prospect with overwhelming bipartisan of lowprices foryears. A1 support, saying that lawmak- U.S. retail sales rose 2.4% ersneeded to increase the size between Nov. 1 and Christ- of direct payments to Ameri- mas Eve compared with Consumer-Goods Makers See cans to $2,000, up from $600 the same period last year, per adult and per child forin- with online sales growing dividuals with adjusted gross 47.2%, according to Mas- incomes under $75,000. tercard SpendingPulse. B1 Pandemic Changes as Lasting He signed the legislation un- der pressurefromlawmakers of Theeconomic impact of both parties.Inastatement, the the resurgenceincoronavirus president called on Congressto infections in the West has BY ANNIE GASPARRO continue working remotely upgrading equipment to make forgrocery makers, whose removewhat he called wasteful been far lessthan that of the AND SHARON TERLEP some or all of the time once moreat-home lunch foods. sales surgedwith the onset of spending in the bill and said he firstwave, in part because of the pandemic subsides. General Mills Inc.has added a the pandemic.Those compa- would send lawmakersalist of businesslessons learned. B1 Consumer-product compa- As aresult, manyfood-and- manufacturing line forCinna- nies initially added shifts and provisions he wantselimi- Global IT spending is ex- nies areexpanding factories consumer-productscompanies moN Toast Crunch cereal at a narrowedproduct variety to nated—an effort that Demo- pected to reach just under and revamping production areinvesting in factories, Georgia factory, which the increase capacity,but many cratssaid they would block. $3.7 trillion next year,up lines,wagering that work- equipment and brands to pro- companysaid is one of its resisted making longer-lasting PleaseturntopageA4 4.3% from 2020,according from-home habitslikegrowing vide moreofthose items for most expensivecapital proj- investments that could back- to Gartner estimates. B3 beards and fixing quick years to come, seeking to ac- ectsever. Kimberly-Clark fire if demand waned. lunches will outlast the coro- commodate consumerswho Corp. is converting a plant to Thepandemic has lasted so Facedwith rapid deterio- Mixed Impact navirus pandemic. are making more coffee, buy- maketoilet paper forhomes long that people have formed ration in their finances in Millions of Americans spent ing morecasual clothes and instead of offices,and Procter newhabitsand bought equip- 2020,America’scolleges and In Pocketbook much of the year working tending beards with trimmers &Gamble Co.isadding beard- ment to help them work from universities issued arecord from home.While legions of and balm rather than shaving care productsinaddition to home for years, said Bob No- amount of bonds this year. A6 The pandemic jolted finances employers are planning to re- them off. Gillette razors. lan,Conagra’shead of con- in surprising ways for many open their offices, many have ConagraBrands Inc.and These decisions follow an sumer insightsand data. “This Americans............................... B1 World-Wide said they would let employees KraftHeinz Co.are buying and unparalleled period of growth PleaseturntopageA2 Trump signed sweeping Drilling Down pandemic-aid legislation af- China Acts The oil industry's impairments exceeded everyother sector this ‘Startup City’: terhehad voiced objections, ending astandoff with Con- year,the largestinatleastadecade. gressand paving the way To Limit Oil-and-gas asset Write-downs by industry, formillions of Americans to write-downs,impairmentsof Q1-Q3 2020 Breakneck Growth receiveeconomic relief. A1 oil properties and goodwill, Oil and gas Q1-Q3 of each year Authorities identified An- Ant Group thonyWarner,63, as the man $0billion Financials Strains Austin responsible forthe bombing Consumer Influence discretionary in Nashville, Tenn., saying -25 they believe he acted alone Industrials and died in the explosion. A3 BY XIE YU -50 Communication Arrival of Oracle, Apple, Tesla hampers the Police are struggling to services city’s struggle to stay affordable solvemurdersashomicides Chinese financial regulators -75 Materials rise and the Covid-19 pan- moved to rein in Ant Group Co., demic creates new chal- the financial-technologygiant -100 Health care BY ELIZABETH FINDELL and consulting firm Deloitte lenges to cracking cases. A3 controlled by billionaireJack AND KONRAD PUTZIER and private-equity firm Trit- Ma, telling it to switch itsfocus Consumer staples ium PartnersLLC. Asurge in newly reported -125 Covid-19 infections in the U.S. back to itsmainstay payments Information AUSTIN, Texas—A few The project’s developer, businessand rectifyproblems technology years ago, some blocks of Andrew Joblon, said he saw liftedthe national totalabove in faster-growing areas such as -150 Austin’s South Congress Ave- a need for national luxury 19 million cases,though the -$120 -80-40 0 personal lending,insuranceand 2011 ’15 ’20 billion nue featured a castle-themed brands in a place where number of hospitalizations wealth management. wax museum and comic book more well-paid executives continued to ease over the Note:Companies worth morethan $1 billion in the U.S., Canada and Europe. Oil write-downs China’scentral bank on Sun- shop, a neighborhood bar were coming. To Brad Som- Christmas holiday. A7 excluding refiners and pipelines. Sources: S&P Global Market Intelligence(oil); S&P Capital Market Intelligence(by industry) Doses of monoclonal anti- daycriticized Ant forits be- with $1 taco deals, an auto ers, a manager of the havior toward competitorsand shop and, in season, a Santa Twomey Auto Works that bodies,Covid-19 therapies au- consumers, and what regula- Claus on horseback. was there 28 years before its thorized foremergencyuse, aresitting unused in hospital tors said wasproblematic cor- Oil Company Assets Then, as at so many other lease was terminated, it was pharmacies, even as cases porategovernance. It said the places in Austin, the con- another reminder that some company“despised” complying struction cranes came. longtime Austinites can’t af- surge acrossthe country. A7 with regulations and engaged Those blocks recently re- ford their owN city any TheEUbegan acampaign Get Big Cut in Va lue in regulatoryarbitrage, with- opened with a strip of mod- more. to vaccinate its citizens against Covid-19,with health- outproviding specifics. ern urban buildings with “It pains me to drive by care workers and nursing- Thestatement from the BY COLLIN EATON at least2010,according to a shops offering national it,” he said. People’sBank of China fol- AND SARAH MCFARLANE Wall Street Journal analysis. brands from Lululemon to Le Austin has tried hard to home residentsfirst in line. A8 lowedaSaturday meeting That totalsignificantly sur- Labo perfumes. The $2,000+ hang on to its particular cul- Bipartisan groups of law- among the central bank,repre- Thepandemic has triggered passed write-downs takenover private membership club ture over years of booming makersare pushing forhate- sentatives of Ant, and China’s the largest revision to the the same periods in 2015 and Soho House and an Hermès growth and popularity, crime bills in South Carolina securities,banking and for- value of the oil industry’sas- 2016,during the last oil bust, store are on the way. Office which have attracted money and Arkansas, two of three eign-exchangeregulators. It setsinatleast adecade,as andisequivalent to roughly tenants include accounting PleaseturntopageA10 states without laws that was presented as a Q&A with companies sour on costly proj- 10%ofthe companies’ collec- penalize such offenses. A3 thePBOC’sdeputy governor ectsamid the prospect of low tive market value. A gunman identified as PaN Gongsheng. prices foryears. Companies acrossthe major PleaseturntopageA9 an active-duty soldier killed Oil-and-gas companies in Western economies arewriting INSIDE three and wounded three in North Americaand Europe down moreoftheir assets dur- Chinese city test-drives a wrotedownroughly $145 bil- ing the coronavirus pandemic a Saturday night shooting digital yuan................................. A9 lion combined in the firstthree than they have in years. But at a bowling alley in Rock- Heard on the Street: Alibaba’s quartersof2020,the most for the oil industryhas writteN ford, Ill., police said. A3 CK unwelcome present............. B10 that nine-month period since PleaseturntopageA6 Died: Phil Niekro, 81, TO baseball Hall of Famer.