4B ❚ FRIDAY, APRIL 3, 2020 ❚ USA TODAY E3 MONEY
MARKET PERFORMANCE BY SECTOR
Sector Close Chg. 4wk^1 YTD^1
COMMODITIES
Commodities Close Prev. Chg. % Chg. % Y TDTOP 10 EXCHANGE TRADED FUNDS
ETF, ranked by volume Ticker Close Chg. % Chg %Y TDFOREIGN CURRENCIES
Currency per dollar Close Prev. 6 mo. ago Yr. agoFOREIGN MARKETS
Countr y Close Prev. Change %Chg. %Y TDConsumer staples 53.55 -0.92 -15.3% -15.0%
H e a l t h c a r e 8 5. 21 -3. 37 -14. 8 % -16. 3 %
Te c h n o l o g y 76. 5 4 -3. 8 3 -18. 4% -16. 5%
Te l e c o m 4 9. 9 0 -1. 9 6 -17. 5% -18 .7 %
Utilities 52 .08 -3.33 -24.2% -19.4%
Consumer discret. 93.70 -4.38 -22.5% -25.3%
Materials 43.01 -2.03 -24.2% -30.0%
Industrials 56.35 -2.66 -26.7% -30.8%
Financials 19.55 -1.27 -29.7% -36.5%
Energy 27.62 -1.44 -40.9% -54.0%
US Oil Fund LP USO 5.11 +0.73 +16.7% -60.1%
Citigp Vel Long Crde UWT 0.16 -0.00 -1.2% -98.8%
ProSh Ultra Crude UCO 2.25 +0.56 +33.1% -89.0%
SPDR S&P500 ETF Tr SPY 251.83 +5.68 +2.3% -21.8%
ProShs UltPro ShtQQQ SQQQ 20.65 -1.30 -5.9% -7.8%
Direx S&P500Bear 3x SPXS 16.84 -1.24 -6.9% +27.1%
SPDR Energy XLE 30.15 +2.53 +9.2% -49.8%
SPDR Financial XLF 20.04 +0.49 +2.5% -34.9%
Alps Alerian MLP AMLP 3.55 +0.16 +4.7% -58.2%
ProShs UltraPro QQQ TQQQ 44.20 +2.47 +5.9% -48.9%Cattle (lb.) .93 .97 -0.04 -4.6% -25.6%
Corn (bushel) 3.34 3.35 -0.01 -0.4% -14.0%
Gold (troy oz.) 1,625.70 1,578.20 +47.50 +3.0% +7.0%
Hogs, lean (lb.) .45 .49 -0.04 -9.2% -37.4%
Natural Gas (Btu.) 1.55 1.59 -0.04 -2.2% -29.1%
Oil, heating (gal.) 1.00 .93 +0.07 +6.7% -50.9%
Oil, lt. swt. crude (bar.) 25.32 20.31 +5.01 +24.7% -58.5%
Silver (troy oz.) 14.60 13.93 +0.67 +4.8% -18.1%
Soybeans (bushel) 8.59 8.63 -0.04 -0.5% -8.9%
Wheat (bushel) 5.42 5.50 -0.08 -1.5% -3.0%British pound .8068 .8083 .8127.
Canadian dollar 1.4191 1.4221 1.3316 1.
C h i n e s e y u a n 7. 0 8 4 2 7.10 0 2 7.14 8 2 6 .7 2 3 4
Euro .9216 .9150 .9125.
Japanese yen 107.84 107.22 107.22 111.
Mexican peso 24.2695 24.3837 19.7975 19.Frankfurt 9,570.82 9,544.75 +26.07 +0.3% -27.8%
Hong Kong 23,280.06 23,085.79 +194.27 +0.8% -17.4%
Japan (Nikkei) 17,818.72 18,065.41 -246.69 -1.4% -24.7%
London 5,480.22 5,454.57 +25.65 +0.5% -27.3%
Mexico City 33,590.62 33,691.88 -101.26 -0.3% -22.9%DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE
SOURCE Morningstar, Dow Jones Indexes, The Associated PressS&P 500’S BIGGEST GAINERS
Company (ticker) Price $ Chg. % Chg. Y TD
Occid Petl (OXY) 12.77 +2.03 +18.9 -69.
Apache Corp (APA) 4.69 +.67 +16.7 -81.
Diamondback Energy (FANG) 29.05 +3.98 +15.9 -68.
Helmerich & Payne (HP) 16.35 +2.11 +14.8 -64.
Devon Energy (DVN) 7.79 +1.00 +14.7 -70.
S&P 500’S BIGGEST LOSERS
Company (ticker) Price $ Chg. % Chg. Y TD
Live Nation Entert (LYV) 33.95 -4.93 -12.7 -52.
Norwegian Cruise Ln (NCLH) 8.40 -1.15 -12.0 -85.
Kohls Corp (KSS) 11.71 -1.23 -9.5 -77.
Carnival Corp (CCL) 7.97 -.83 -9.4 -84.
Marriott Intl A (MAR) 63.00 -6.15 -8.9 -58.MARKET NOTEBOOK
Issues NYSE NASDAQ
Advancing 1,
Declining 1,
Unchanged 51
Tot a l 2 ,1,7 09
1, 269
146
3,
Issues at^2
New 52 Week High 1
New 52 Week Low 108132
Share Volume
Advancing 3,883,442,
Declining 2,257,413,
Unchanged 118,561,1,902,891,
1,584,162,
26,835,Tot a l 6, 259, 417, 8 3 6 3,513,890,+469.
Closing: 21,413.
Change: +2.2%
YTD % Chg: -25.0%S&P 500 • STANDARD & POOR’S+56.
Closing: 2,526.
Change: +2.3%
YTD % Chg: -21.8%NASDAQ COMPOSITE+126.
Closing: 7,487.
Change: +1.7%
YTD % Chg: -16.6%RUSSELL 2000+13.
Closing: 1,085.
Change: +1.3%
YTD % Chg: -34.9%AMERICA’S MARKETS
ALL THE MARKET ACTION IN REAL TIME
MARKETS.USATODAY.COMAmazon will institute temperature checks for em-
ployees and offer masks to protect them as they work
during the coronavirus pandemic.
The company said it is checking 100,000 workers
per day for fevers, and plans to roll out checks across
their U.S. and European operations network and
Whole Foods Market stores by early next week.
Amazon also said masks will be available at some
locations by Thursday and at all locations by early next
week.
Any N95 masks, which have filters to better protect
wearers, will be donated to frontline health care work-
ers or made available to health care and government
organizations through Amazon Business.
“Whether it’s fulfilling orders in one of our fulfill-
ment centers, delivering an order to a customer’s door-
step, or one of the many roles in between, I couldn’t be
more proud of the critical role our teams are serving by
enabling people to stay safe at home while receiving
the products they need,” said Dave Clark, Amazon’s
senior vice president of worldwide operations, in a
statement Thursday.
The changes arrive as some Amazon workers ex-pressed concerns over how well the company is work-
ing to keep them safe.
On Monday, workers at an Amazon warehouse in
Staten Island, New York, walked out demanding Ama-
zon address issues with social distancing and properly
sanitized work environments. Workers at Instacart
and Whole Foods, which is owned by Amazon, staged
similar protests.
As Americans remain home to prevent the spread of
coronavirus, they have relied heavily on delivery ser-
vices including Amazon to receive essential goods.
Amazon is among several companies seeking to hire
thousands of new workers to meet demand.
As of Thursday, more than 5,000 people in the U.S.
have died of the coronavirus.Amazon to do fever checks, give masks to workers
Actions come after employees
protest over working conditions
Brett Molina
USA TODAY
WASHINGTON – Facing stiff criticism, the Treasury
Department changed course late Wednesday and an-
nounced that Social Security beneficiaries and other
Americans who haven’t filed income taxes for the past
two years won’t have to take any extra steps to receive
one-time checks of up to $1,200 under a new economic
recovery program.
“Social Security recipients who are not typically re-
quired to file a tax return need to take no action and
will receive their payment directly to their bank ac-
count,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a
statement.
Most Americans won’t have to do anything to re-
ceive a payment under the $2.2 trillion program de-
signed to help the economy recover from the fallout of
the coronavirus pandemic. The checks will be sent
automatically within the next three weeks to eligible
Americans who filed tax returns in 2018 and 2019.
The Internal Revenue Service posted a notice on its
website this week that people who typically don’t file
taxes would need to file a simple tax return to receive
one of the payments. That would have included low-
income taxpayers, senior citizens, Social Security re-
cipients, some veterans and individuals with disabil-
ities who are otherwise not required to file a tax return.
Wednesday’s announcement reverses that deci-
sion. Mnuchin said the IRS will use Social Security da-
ta to generate payments to recipients who did not file
tax returns in 2018 or 2019. Recipients will receive
these payments as a direct deposit or by paper check,
just as they would normally receive their benefits, he
said.
The Treasury Department has the authority under
the economic recovery program, which President Don-
ald Trump signed into law last week, to ask the Social
Security Administration and other agencies to supply
the data it needs to process the checks.
“One of the reasons Treasury officials may have
wanted to require a simple tax form from those who
haven’t paid taxes in the past two years is to make sure
they are sending checks to the most up-to-date ad-
dress,” said Kyle Pomerleau, an economist at the
American Enterprise Institute, a public policy think
tank.
“Lots of people move, so this is a reasonable way to
deal with it,” he said.
The downside, Pomerleau said, “is that you are
shifting part of the burden on people by requiring
them to do something to get their rebate.”
The filing requirement raised objections from some
lawmakers. Forty-one senators sent a letter Wednes-
day to Mnuchin arguing that the requirement would
place “a significant burden” on retired seniors and
people with disabilities.
“We strongly urge you to ensure that economic
stimulus payments are automatically sent to vulner-
able seniors and individuals who experience disabil-
ities, without these individuals needing to file a tax re-
turn,” the letter said.
The IRS said it is setting up a web-based portal at
IRS.gov/coronavirus to provide more information on
how to file a 2019 tax return and receive a payment.
How your stimulus check is calculatedIf you’ve already filed your 2019 taxes, the IRS will
use those returns to determine your payment. If not,
your 2018 returns will be used to calculate your
check.
Individuals with an adjusted gross income of
$75,000 or less will be eligible for a one-time pay-
ment of up to $1,200 ($2,400 for joint tax returns)
and $500 for each qualifying child.
Those with little or no tax liability also will get
$1,200 ($2,400 for joint returns).
The payments will start to phase out for Ameri-
cans who earn more than $75,000, or $150,000 for a
joint return. The amount you receive will be de-
creased by 5% of the amount your income exceeds
$75,000.
For example, a single person with an $85,000 sal-
ary would get $700 after subtracting 5% of $10,000,
or $500.
The payments will phase out completely for single
filers with incomes exceeding $99,000, $136,500 for
head of household filers with one child and $198,
for joint filers with no children.How will the money be provided?Americans who have provided the IRS with their
bank account information will receive the money as a
direct deposit.
Those who haven’t will receive a check in the mail,
although experts warn the wait for physical checks
could take longer than three weeks. Those who want
a direct deposit but haven’t provided their bank ac-
count information can do so through the IRS’ new on-
line portal.
Though the web portal will make it easier to pro-
vide that information and get answers to other ques-
tions, “lack of web access – or a lack of knowledge
even if one has the internet – is going to be a bigger
challenge for low-income individuals,” said Garrett
Watson, an economist at the Tax Foundation, a
Washington-based think tank. “The IRS should ex-
plore ways to get to those individuals outside of a
digital platform.”
Tax preparation services – both commercial and
nonprofit – should be able to help individuals update
their information if they don’t have web access, he
said.
Online payment services such as Venmo have
been in discussions with Treasury officials about
helping to distribute the checks to consumers.
Justin Higgs, spokesman for Venmo owner Pay-
Pal, confirmed that talks are underway but declined
to provide more information.
Jodie Kelley, chief executive officer of the Elec-
tronic Transactions Association, said the industry
offered its assistance to Treasury “to quickly and se-
curely deliver stimulus money to American consum-
ers.”
“Electronic payments can deliver these funds far
more quickly than the time it takes to print, mail and
cash a check,” she said. “It’s also an important deliv-
ery method for the over 14 million Americans who do
not have bank accounts, and thus do not have a ready
way to cash a check.”
Watson said the IRS and Treasury will need to take
steps to ensure taxpayer privacy is preserved in any
partnership with online payment services.Treasury streamlines
stimulus check process
Department now skips paperwork
for Social Security beneficiaries
Michael Collins
USA TODAY
Energy stocks propelled the broader stock market
higher Thursday, as hopes that Saudi Arabia and
Russia could step back from their price war offset lin-
gering worries about a faltering jobs market.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 469.
points to close at 21,413.44, a day after the blue-chip
index shed nearly 1,000 points at the start of a new
quarter. The Standard & Poor’s 500 jumped 2.3% to
finish at 2,526.90, led by gains in the energy sector as
the price of crude surged. Shares of Exxon Mobil and
Chevron gained 7.6% and 11%, respectively.
Crude, which is coming off its worst quarter in his-
tory, soared 24% to settle at $25.32 per barrel, its best
one-day percentage gain ever. Oil prices jumped af-
ter President Donald Trump said he was confident
that Saudi Arabia and Russia would resolve their dis-
pute over oil output and prices in the coming days.
Trump told CNBC Thursday that he expects both
countries to cut production by about 10 million bar-
rels.
“Energy is a beaten down sector that’s been rally-
ing on hope,” says Tim Bray, senior portfolio manager
at GuideStone Capital Management. “The recent de-
cline in oil prices came after Saudia Arabia started a
price war. But it’s only a matter of time before they
come together with Russia and agree to some type of
production cut because most OPEC countries aren’t
going to be satisfied with oil hovering around $20.”
The gains come despite more people applying for
unemployment insurance as segments of the econo-
my shut down in the wake of the outbreak.
The number of Americans who filed claims for un-
employment surged to a record 6.6 million last week,
the Labor Department reported Thursday, as the
pandemic caused layoffs and furloughs. That was
double the previous week’s total of nearly 3.3 million.
Investors will monitor monthly jobs data, due Fri-
day, for further indications on how the pandemic has
affected the U.S. economy.
“This is eye-watering, and we are still only at the
beginning of the layoffs spurred by the lockdowns
throughout the country,” James McCann, senior
global economist at Aberdeen Standard Invest-
ments, said in a note. “When we look at all the jobs at
direct risk from social distancing policies, and those
which could be affected indirectly, the numbers start
to get pretty scary. Unemployment could well rocket
in coming months to more than 10%.”
The S&P 500 index is coming off its worst quarter
since the financial crisis in 2008, with a 20% loss.
Traders said markets will be turbulent until the num-
ber of new coronavirus cases declines.
Bank of America Global Research revised its eco-
nomic projections for the year. Analysts at the firm
forecast three consecutive quarters of contraction:
The U.S. economy is likely to shrink 7% in the first
quarter, 30% in the second quarter and 1% in the third
quarter. The bank projects growth will recover in the
final three months of the year.
Contributing: The Associated PressStocks jump
as crude oil
price soars
Energy sector hopes for easing of
tensions between Saudis, Russia
Jessica Menton
USA TODAY