Coronavirus: NY Fed economists find hardest-hit states received fewer PPP loans - as it happened

Asia-Pacific stocks mixed as optimism buoys Wall Street

Asia-Pacific equities were mixed on Wednesday after cautious optimism over countries and US States easing lockdown measures buoyed oil prices and lifted Wall Street.

The Kospi in South Korea was up 1.4 per cent, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 nudged down 0.1 per cent. Futures tip the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong to open 0.3 per cent higher.

Japanese markets are closed for a public holiday.

The moves came after the S&P 500 ended 0.9 per cent higher in the US as healthcare stocks rallied on news of developments for a potential coronavirus vaccine and a potential treatment and as oil prices continued their rise.

S&P 500 futures were up 0.3 per cent.

West Texas Intermediate, the US marker, was up 3.5 per cent at $25 a barrel and on track for a sixth consecutive day of gains with investors expecting demand for fuel to return as economies reopen. That improved sentiment saw Brent crude climb above $30 a barrel on Tuesday.

Video game makers Electronic Arts and Activision Blizzard said they anticipated strong sales this year as consumers search for entertainment amid stay-at-home orders and social distancing.

Gilead is preparing to make the potential Covid-19 drug remdesivir available in developing countries, after a positive trial result for the antiviral was announced last week.

Match Group, the parent of dating app Tinder, said fewer new users signed up in March, before stabilising last month, but added that people were more willing to have virtual dates as social distancing measures took effect in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Disney's quarterly earnings were sliced in half compared with a year ago, as the world's largest media group grappled with coronavirus lockdowns that have left its most profitable businesses at a virtual standstill.

Beyond Meat expects to continue benefiting from consumers staying at home and cooking during coronavirus lockdowns, extending a trend that helped it beat Wall Street's earnings expectations in the first quarter.

China reports 2 new coronavirus cases, no new deaths

Health authorities in China reported two new coronavirus cases to the end of Tuesday, both of which were found in people who had returned from overseas.

The number of new symptomatic cases reported in mainland China has remained in the low single digits this month.

The new cases bring the total in mainland China to 82,883, with 4,633 deaths linked to Covid-19.

There were 20 new cases of people who tested positive for coronavirus but showed no symptoms.

China's holidaymakers turned out in force for the five-day May Day holiday, which ended Tuesday, according to government figures that showed 115m people made domestic tourism trips, contributing Rmb47.56bn ($6.7bn) to tourism revenue.

That marks a surge from the 43m trips made during the three-day Qingming holiday a month earlier, suggesting residents' confidence in the government's epidemic controls has risen.

However the total is much lower than the 195m logged in the same holiday in 2019, which was one day shorter, indicating the tourism industry is far from having made a full recovery.

Spain's leftwing government appears likely to maintain control over the country's lockdown - and the process of phasing it out - after striking a deal with the pro-market Ciudadanos party on Tuesday night.

Rick Bright, the former head of the US government biomedical research agency, has filed a whistleblower complaint alleging that he was removed as retaliation for pushing for robust scientific evidence and a more aggressive response to the Covid-19 crisis.

Goldman Sachs has warned staff that it will "take longer" for employees in London and New York to follow the slow return to the office already underway by colleagues in areas less badly hurt by the coronavirus.

Two East Coast businessmen have been charged with inventing dozens of employees to apply for more than $500,000 in small business rescue loans, in the first case taken against individuals for allegedly attempting to defraud the $610bn US Paycheck Protection Program.

Britain's demand for electricity has dropped by almost a fifth since lockdown measures to control the spread of coronavirus were introduced six weeks ago, according to a new study.

China has lowered the coronavirus risk level at a town bordering Russia, which in early April became the frontline of China's efforts to avoid a second wave outbreak.

Hundreds of cases of Covid-19 were confirmed in Suifenhe last month, leading the Chinese government to close its land border with Russia, build new quarantine hospitals and fly in medical equipment to the remote region of northeastern Heilongjiang province.

The government on Wednesday said that the town would now begin to reopen its economy and gradually return to normal life, after officially declaring the risk level to be low, Chinese state media reported.

Chinese nationals who wish to return from Russia, which is facing a surge in new cases, have become a focus of China's efforts to avoid a resurgence of Covid-19, and China's ambassador to Russia has said the 2,616 mile land border will not reopen until the pandemic is "entirely over".

Ocado pulls guidance despite sales surge Jonathan Eley in London

Ocado said that sales in its retail joint venture were up by two-fifths so far in the second quarter, but still withdrew its full-year financial forecasts citing uncertainty about consumer behaviour in the later stages of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The online retailer had previously been expecting revenue growth of 10-15 per cent for the year to December 31.

In a trading update ahead of its annual meeting, the group said:

Although we expect the long term shift towards online grocery to accelerate post-crisis, there remain many uncertainties about the length of the crisis, customer reaction immediately post and its long term impact on customers' disposable incomes.

We have suspended our guidance for retail revenue for 2020 until we can accurately forecast likely outcomes.

It added that grocery market conditions, which threatened to overwhelm its relatively fixed capacity earlier in the year, appeared to be reverting to normal.

ITV reported a 42 per cent slide in ad revenues in April - significantly worse than previously anticipated - as the coronavirus pandemic forces companies to cut back on marketing.

The British free-to-air television network had warned in March that ad revenues were likely to drop 10 per cent in April as the travel industry postponed campaigns.

The figure underlines both the speed and scale the of the blow from the virus to companies' marketing spend. Ad revenue had been up 8 per cent in February and flat in March.

ITV has suspended the majority of its productions across the world since mid-March due to the lockdowns and social distancing measures imposed by authorities in many countries.

It said on Wednesday it was cancelling its final dividend for 2019 and was unable to provide guidance for the second quarter of 2020 or the remainder of the year as the outlook remained "uncertain and is changing rapidly".

The group has furloughed 800 members of staff - 15 per cent of its workforce - and said it would double its overhead savings this year to £60m.

Carolyn McCall, ITV chief executive, said:

ITV has taken swift and decisive action to manage and mitigate the impact of Covid-19, by focusing on our people and their safety, and by continuing to reduce costs and tightly manage our cashflow and liquidity.

A rally in global stocks faded on Wednesday, with European and Asian markets struggling to build on overnight gains on Wall Street.

Futures trade pointed to a gain of 0.1 per cent for London's FTSE 100, while major bourses in continental Europe were seen opening lower.

Traders and investors have been cheered by the cautious reopening of economies in recent days, while equities have also been boosted by a recovery in oil prices.

Chinese markets reopened on Wednesday after a five day holiday during which tensions between the US and China over the origins of the pandemic have escalated. The stand-off has stoked fears that the trade war between the world's two largest economies could be reignited, but the CSI 300 index of Shanghai- and Shenzhen-listed stocks was recently 0.6 per cent higher.

UK corporate news round-up

ITV said that revenues fell 7 per cent in the first quarter, despite an uptick in viewership, as the broadcaster warned that advertising revenue dropped 42 per cent in April. A further £30m of cost savings had been identified, while 800 employees have been furloughed, it added.

Coach operator National Express said that it plans to place 19.99 per cent of its share capital to avoid reaching the top end of its debt covenant range by the end of next year. The group has a market capitalisation of £1.22bn.

Ocado, an online grocery delivery company, said that its retail division sales increased by 40.4 per cent in the second quarter to date compared to last year, outpacing the 10.3 per cent growth recorded in the first quarter. However, the group pulled their guidance due to uncertainty about the length of the health crisis and customer reactions in the aftermath.

Greeting cards retailer Card Factory said that it has furloughed 90 per cent of its employees, withdrawn its dividend and deferred tax payments.

Retail bank Virgin Money reported that underlying profit slumped almost 60 per cent to £120m after it recorded a £232m of loan loss charges due to the impact of Covid-19.

JD Sports said that it "fundamentally disagrees" with the Competition and Markets Authority's decision to block its takeover of Footasylum, since its conclusion fails to take proper account of the rapidly evolving competitive landscape and the "likely permanent" impact of coronavirus on sports fashion retailers.

Insurer Direct Line reported that motor insurance claims fell 70 per cent in April, as UK citizens drove less and stayed indoors during the lockdown.

Smith & Nephew, a medical device maker, reported that revenues were down 47 per cent in April since elective surgeries had been suspended in most markets as medical systems geared themselves towards dealing with patients infected with coronavirus.

Cycle and car parts retailer Halfords said sales were 23 per cent below last year in the four weeks to May 1, a better performance than it initially anticipated as British commuters swap public transport for bicycles.

Germany reported 947 new coronavirus cases on Monday, an increase on the day before, and also saw an uptick in recorded deaths from the disease.

According to official data from the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin, the number of people who died from Covid-19 over the past 24 hours rose by 165 to 6,996. The total number of detected infections increased to 164,807, though around 137,400 of them have already made a full recovery.

Beijing's office that oversees Hong Kong branded the city's anti-government protesters as "political viruses" and warned China would not "sit idly by" if violent protests resumed now that coronavirus appeared to be contained.

A bombshell ruling by Germany's constitutional court questioning the legality of European monetary policy impinges on central bank independence and imperils the EU legal system, former policymakers and legal experts have warned.

UK treasury officials are locked in intense discussions as they try to work out how to phase the job furlough scheme out without triggering a wave of redundancies.

A jump in Airbnb bookings in a number of European countries is signalling that housebound citizens are starting to make holiday plans as governments begin to ease lockdowns.

Spain's leftwing government appears likely to maintain control over the country's lockdown - and the process of phasing it out - after striking a deal with the pro-market Ciudadanos party on Tuesday night.

India will begin repatriating hundreds of thousands of its citizens, nearly seven weeks after it banned all incoming passenger flights that left millions of migrant workers, students and holidaymakers stranded overseas.

The owners of hotel buildings across the US failed to make payments on about a quarter of their mortgages that are bundled into debt deals last month, as measures to slow the spread of the virus caused a total collapse in revenues.

The UK statistics office has been forced to halt its house price data, robbing the nation of one of its favourite talking points as coronavirus has largely frozen the market.

The coronavirus crisis risks exacerbating economic and social divisions within the EU and threatening the stability of the euro area, the European Commission has warned, as it predicted a deep collapse in economic output this year.

The commission's spring forecast predicted that under "benign assumptions" EU output will fall 7.4 per cent this year, deeper than during the financial crisis, with a rebound of only 6.1 per cent in 2021. Compared with its autumn forecast, the EU is heading for a €850bn shortfall of investment in 2020 and 2021, the outlook showed.

The commission renewed its call for a pan-European "recovery plan" to complement national action aimed at compensating for diverging fiscal firepower between member states. "The risk otherwise is that the crisis will lead to severe distortions within the Single Market and to entrenched economic, financial and social divergences between euro area Member States that could ultimately threaten the stability of the Economic and Monetary Union," it said.

The forecasts showed that Greece, Italy and Spain are on course for the steepest falls in gross domestic product this year, all tumbling by more than 9 per cent. By contrast, GDP in Poland will fall by 4.3 per cent, before rebounding by 4.1 per cent.

Overall, next year's rebound could leave the European economy about 3 per cent below the level implied by the EU's autumn forecast. But the outcomes could be even worse: for example, another surge in infections could reduce GDP by an additional 3 percentage points.

"The danger of a deeper and more protracted recession is very real," the commission said. "The point forecasts presented in this document should therefore be understood as just one among several possible scenarios."

Avoiding worsening economic divergences among member states will hinge in part on a coordinated response, said Paolo Gentiloni, economy commissioner. The commission is currently seeking to overhaul plans for its upcoming seven-year budget to front-load spending aimed at restoring growth, while raising debt in markets to fund an EU recovery instrument.

Five claims from the US health official behind whistleblower suit

Rick Bright, the former director of the body charged with funding potential drugs and vaccines to tackle coronavirus, filed a whistleblower complaint on Tuesday, accusing the US government of ignoring his warnings in its response to the pandemic and engaging in "cronyism" with its investments.

Read here for the five main claims from Dr Bright's suit, reported by the FT's Hannah Kuchler.

Intercontinental Exchange will delay the launch of its new crude oil futures exchange in Abu Dhabi owing to the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

In a statement to the Financial Times it confirmed the venture, in conjunction with the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, would not begin trading in the first half of this year as originally anticipated.

We continue to make progress including obtaining relevant regulatory approvals and working with our members and trading participants to prepare for launch. We will communicate further on launch timing as we continue through the process.

Crude oil prices based on the biggest global benchmarks, WTI and Brent, have been highly volatile in recent weeks as the pandemic is expected to cut global demand and traders fear there will be few places left to store excess crude.

The project is being supported by nine of the world's largest energy traders, and marks a significant change for the way Abu Dhabi prices the crude it sells. It will use futures contracts traded on an exchange, ending a decades-long policy of retroactive monthly official selling prices for its mainly Asian customer base.

The three Baltic states are creating a common travel zone from next week that will allow Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians to move freely into each other's countries.

The prime ministers of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania said they would open their borders to citizens of the three countries from May 15. People from outside the three Baltic countries would still have to go into quarantine for 14 days on arrival.

Lithuania's prime minister, Saulius Skvernelis, wrote on Facebook:

We agreed that all three Baltic countries have properly contained the spread of coronavirus. We also trust each other's health systems.

The common travel zone is the first within the EU since the coronavirus pandemic began and comes after many countries within the supposedly free-movement Schengen zone shut their borders to non-citizens. It also comes after Australia and New Zealand agreed a "travel bubble" between the two countries after all but eliminating the spread of coronavirus.

Estonia has had 55 deaths from coronavirus, Latvia 17, and Lithuania 49.

CVS Health results topped expectations as consumers stocked up on prescription medications, general health items and other household goods amid the pandemic.

Revenues at the drugstore chain climbed 8.3 per cent from a year ago to $66.8bn, eclipsing Wall Street expectations of $64.1bn, according to a Refinitiv survey. Within that revenues at its pharmacy services segment climbed 4.2 per cent to $34.98bn, while revenues in its retail/long-term care segment climbed nearly 8 per cent to $22.75bn.

Sales were boosted by higher prices for branded drugs and a rise in claims, including "greater use of 90-day supply of prescriptions and early refills of maintenance medications as consumers prepared for the Covid-19 pandemic". Consumers stocking up on general health and merchandise because of the pandemic also helped boost sales, the company said.

CVS also noted its insurance benefit costs slipped as people deferred elective procedures.

Net income jumped to $2bn or $1.53 a share, up from $1.4bn or $1.09 a share in the same quarter a year ago. Adjusted earnings of $1.91 a share topped analyst estimates of $1.63.

CVS maintained its full-year outlook for adjusted earnings of between $7.04 and $7.17 a share, on sales of between $10.5bn and $11bn. Shares rose 4 per cent pre-market to $63.50.

General Motors will join Fiat Chrysler in reopening plants in the US and Canada on May 18, the American carmaker said on Wednesday as it revealed a near-90 per cent tumble in its quarterly earnings.

The announcement means Ford is likely to begin that date as well, given that the carmakers all work with the United Auto Workers union. UAW president Rory Gamble said on Tuesday: "The companies contractually make that decision, and we all knew this day would come."

GM announced the restart date as it reported first-quarter earnings, which were hit by the pandemic. While the company's net income fell 87 per cent to $300m, the results nevertheless bested Ford, which posted a $2bn loss.

GM's sales fell 6 per cent to $32.7bn.

The company beat Wall Street's profit expectations: analysts polled by FactSet expected an adjusted profit, which excludes certain items, of 40 cents per share, but the carmaker eked out earnings of 62 cents.

The US private sector shed a record 20m jobs in April as coronavirus lockdowns and the resulting closure of non-essential businesses led to historic unemployment.

Non-farm private employers cut 20.2m jobs last month, according to payroll processor ADP. That compared with economists' expectations for 20m and easily surpassed the previous record of about 835,000 in February 2009 during the financial crisis.

Large companies with 500 or more employees were hardest hit with employment down by 8.96m, while small companies, those with under 50 employees, resulted in about 6m dismissals.

The report also showed the bulk of job losses stemmed from the services sector, which cut 16.7m jobs.

United Airlines is using a private debt offering to repay a loan it secured in early March, as the pandemic was taking hold outside of China.

The two tranches of notes, one set due in 2023 and the other in 2025, will be backed by jets from a designated pool of 360 aircraft.

The Chicago airline borrowed $2bn from lenders led by JPMorgan Chase on March 9. United's interest rate was either the London Interbank Offering Rate plus up to 2.5 per cent, or another rate selected by the airline plus up to 1.5 per cent.

Delta Air Lines raised $3.5bn through a private offering announced April 22. The Atlanta airline will pay interest at 7 per cent.

United said any funds left over after paying off the loan will be used for general corporate purposes. The airline had $23.4bn in debt at the end of the first quarter, a 14 per cent increase from the end of 2019. Last month it raised more than $1bn through selling shares.

US stocks followed global markets higher on Wednesday morning, with investors focused on the gradual reopening of the world's big economies following weeks of lockdown.

The S&P 500 advanced 0.7 per cent after the opening bell. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite jumped 1.1 per cent.

Donald Trump said in Arizona on Tuesday that the US could not be "closed for the next five years". He continued: "The governors, it's in their hands, but our country wants to open."

Data from payroll processor ADP offered another glimpse at the economic toll in the US. The private sector lost 20.2m jobs in April as businesses were forced to close in response to the pandemic.

Uber is to cut 3,700 jobs, roughly 14 per cent of its corporate workforce, blaming the blow to business caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

In a staff memo seen by the Financial Times, chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi warned additional cuts would be announced in due course as the company made "difficult adjustments" to match "the reality of our business".

"We are looking at many scenarios and at each and every cost, both variable and fixed, across the company," said Mr Khosrowshahi, who has waived his salary for the remainder of the year.

You can expect we will have a further, final update for you within the next two weeks.

The ride-sharing company joins a string of major Silicon Valley names making deep cuts. Last week, rival group Lyft said it would cut 17 per cent of its workforce. On Tuesday, home-sharing site Airbnb said it planned to lay off 25 per cent of its staff.

Delphi Technologies, a car engine components manufacturer, agreed to a lower takeover offer from BorgWarner after its rival claimed that it breached the terms of the $3.3bn deal when it tapped out a credit revolver in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Under the terms of the new deal, Delphi shareholders will receive 0.4307 shares of BorgWarner common stock for each of theirs, a 5 per cent discount compared to the agreement announced in late January. BorgWarner shareholders would end up owning about 85 per cent of the combined company, while the rest would be held by Delphi's stockholders.

The resolution of the dispute comes at a time when several other deals - struck before the coronavirus outbreak was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organisation in March - are at risk of falling apart or being terminated.

Victoria's Secret's owner L Brands and Sycamore Partners have called off their $525m deal after the private equity group said that the troubled lingerie retailer had breached the terms of its deal when it shut stores and furloughed staff in response to the pandemic.

Meanwhile, Bed Bath & Beyond is suing 1800flowers.com to force the gift company to complete a $250m asset purchase announced in February that was set to close in late March. 1800flowers has said that it cannot currently close the transaction due the pandemic's fallout.

BorgWarner sent a breach of contract notice to Delphi in March after the London-headquartered company decided to draw its entire $500m revolving credit facility, an action taken by several companies who were rushing to secure cash to mitigate the impact of the Covid-19 outbreak. After Wednesday's agreement, BorgWarner has consented to Delphi's use of the revolver.

We're not all in this together: FT Health, a monthly newsletter on the issues of health and finance. Darren Dodd and Andrew Jack report on the inequalities the pandemic lays bare, news on vaccines and a setback for the fight against malaria.

Eric Schmidt, the former Google chief executive, will chair a 15-member panel to "re-imagine New York" that was unveiled today by Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Mr Schmidt said the panel would focus on areas including tele-medicine, remote learning and broadband.

"We can take this terrible disaster and accelerate all those in ways that will make things much, much better," he said.

The confirmed coronavirus death total in Britain has topped 30,000, Robert Jenrick, communities secretary, has announced.

Mr Jenrick, speaking at the daily Downing Street briefing on the pandemic, said the number of fatalities has risen by 649 to 30,076, as of Tuesday at 5pm.

The UK's daily coronavirus test rate dropped to 69,463 yesterday, the fourth day on which testing was below the government's daily target of 100,000. During prime minister's questions on Wednesday, Boris Johnson said the UK's goal for daily testing capacity is 200,000 by the end of May.

On Tuesday Britain's official death toll overtook that of Italy; only the US has recorded more Covid-19 deaths.

Official data showed that health department figures underestimated the deadly impact of the virus. The Office for National Statistics on Tuesday said 42,000 more people than normal had died in the UK since the virus outbreak began in mid-March.

Vladimir Putin has backed calls to begin easing a national lockdown despite a steady growth in Covid-19 cases, as a poll showed the pandemic has driven the Russian president's approval ratings to the lowest level in two decades.

Mr Putin, in a televised meeting with ministers and regional governors on Wednesday, endorsed a proposal for industrial companies and construction projects in Moscow to restart work on May 12 while warning against a return to normality beyond the Russian capital.

US retailer Gap announced it will reopen up to 800 of its stores by the end of this month as states nationwide gradually begin to ease lockdowns.

The company behind brands such as Old Navy, Banana Republic and Athleta said a handful of locations in Texas will open their doors to the public as soon as this weekend. Gap joins other retailers and department stores like Macy's, Kohl's and Abercrombie & Fitch that are working to get their stores up and running.

Gap furloughed most of its store workers in the US and Canada and last month halted rent payments on closed North American stores, which total about $115m a month, as it attempted to preserve cash.

The San Francisco-based retailer will begin with reduced hours, implement a rigorous cleaning routine, close fitting rooms and provide hand sanitiser stations by the entrance while also maintaining social distancing as it seeks to ensure the safety of both customers and employees. The retailer also said it will provide all of its employees with reusable face masks, encourage customers to cover their faces and will quarantine returns for 24 hours before putting products back on shelves.

Gap shares were down nearly 4 per cent at $7.19 in afternoon trade in New York.

A new study by economists at the New York Federal Reserve adds to evidence that emergency small business loans have not gone to areas hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, they have been concentrated with companies that have pre-existing relationships with banks that process loan applications.

New York, New Jersey, Michigan and Pennsylvania, which were some of the hardest hit by the pandemic, received fewer loans from the Paycheck Protection Program - or PPP, designed to keep small businesses afloat during the coronavirus crisis - than some Mountain and Midwest states, economists at the New York Fed said.

Using coronavirus cases as a proxy for the economic impact from the outbreak, they said:

In New York, the epicenter of the coronavirus in the United States, less than 20 per cent of small businesses have been approved to receive PPP loans. In contrast, more than 55 per cent of small businesses in Nebraska are expecting PPP funding.

Instead, they found, "that lenders' preference for borrowers with an existing relationship and the market share of community banks are the main factors explaining the geographical variation in PPP funding". Despite the first-come, first-served nature of PPP, it is quicker for banks to accept loan applications from existing customers as they already have relevant information and can screen them faster.

The study is likely to further fan complaints that communities that have been less affected by the disease have been among the biggest recipients of the emergency loans. The first $350bn tranche of PPP funding was exhausted on April 16 and the programme was relaunched with $310bn in additional funding late last month.

US stocks dipped into the red on Wednesday as investors weighed the weakness of oil prices against the gradual reopening of the world's big economies following weeks of lockdown.

The S&P 500 fell 0.7 per cent, as shares across the utility and energy sectors dragged down the benchmark index. Demand for technology stocks was stronger and the Nasdaq Composite was up 0.5 per cent, leaving it roughly 1 per cent shy of a return to positive territory for the year to date.

Oil prices, which had been buoyed this week by optimism that production cuts and recovering demand could ease the supply glut, retreated again on Wednesday.

Brent crude, the international benchmark, which climbed above $30 on Tuesday for the first time in six weeks, settled 4 per cent lower at $29.72 on Wednesday, ending a six-day run of gains. West Texas Intermediate, the US marker, was down 2.3 per cent at $23.99 a barrel, having rallied 20 per cent in the previous session.

In government bonds, US 10-year Treasury yields rose 0.05 percentage points to 0.71 per cent. The Treasury department on Wednesday laid out plans to boost the proportion of borrowing through longer-term debt to help finance $3tn-plus in economic stimulus.

The dollar index, which measures the currency against global peers, rose 0.4 per cent.

Rideshare company Lyft delivered strong results in its first quarter, but declined to offer investors much insight into the exten tthat coronavirus has hurt its business in April, or what might lie further ahead.

Lyft comfortably beat Wall Street's revenue expectations, taking in $956m during the first three months of 2020, up 23 per cent from a year ago.

Net losses for the period - $398m - were in line with analyst expectations, and a sharp improvement on the same period last year when the company lost $1.1bn. It said it had $2.7bn of cash, cash equivalents or short-term investments on hand at the end of the period.

Having already withdrawn its guidance for 2020, Lyft did not offer any projections for its second quarter, where lockdown measures have been in full effect in the US and Canada, the two markets in which Lyft operates.

"While the Covid-19 pandemic poses a formidable challenge to our business, we are prepared to whether this crisis," said Logan Green, the company's chief executive and co-founder.

Last week, Lyft announced it planned to dismiss 982 employees - 17 per cent of its workforce - and had furloughed 288 more. Non-furloughed employees are, for the next 12 weeks, taking a pay cut of 10 per cent, while vice-presidents will have a 20 per cent reduction in their salaries. The company's executive leadership is taking a 30 per cent cut.

Nearly 2,000 people died in the US over the past day, taking the total number of fatalities in country above 67,000.

The daily increase of 1,949 was a moderation from Tuesday's rise of 2,527, according to data compiled by the Covid Tracking Project on Wednesday.

New Jersey saw the biggest increase, with a further 305 deaths over the past 24 hours. That took the total in the second hardest hit state to 8,549 since the pandemic began.

New York, the hardest hit state, recorded 232 deaths, although levels in the past few days are down from recent weeks. Massachusetts had the third-largest daily increase, with 208 deaths.

Pennsylvania, which on Tuesday saw a state record increase on Tuesday of 554, moderated to 94 deaths over the past 24 hours.

Since the outbreak began, 67,256 people have died in the US, according to CTP.