BuSINESS
THURSDAY,MARCH5,2020:: LATIMES.COM/BUSINESS
C
DOW27,090.86▲1,173.4S&P5003,130.12 126.75▲▲NASDAQ9,018.09 334.00 GOLD$1,641.10 1.00▼ OIL$46.78 0.40▼▼▼EURO$1.1139 .0037 U.S. T-NOTE(10-yr.) .99% 0.02All investments involve risk, including risk of loss. TD Ameritrade, Inc., member FINRA/SIPC. © 2019 TD Ameritrade.Start now attdameritrade.com/rollover
Finally rolling over your old 401k can bring you that same sense of satisfaction,
and our rollover specialists are here to help, every step of the way.
You knowthe feelingwhen you’re
current on current events?
WASHINGTON — Be-
yond short-term economic
disruptions and increased
recession worries, the
spreading coronavirus is
sowing the seeds of a broad
transformation of the global
supply chains that for years
brought low consumer
prices and high corporate
profits on products such as
cellphones, computers and
household goods.
China looks to be the big-
gest loser as U.S. producers
step up plans to reduce their
reliance on the world’s sec-
ond-biggest economy, which
has long enjoyed a central,
dominant role in an interna-
tional manufacturing net-
work that ships parts and
materials back and forth
among different countries
before assembling them into
finished products.
A slow U.S. exodus from
China was already under-
way because of soaring
wages in China and Presi-
dent Trump’s trade and tech
wars, with companies such
as Apple announcing plans
last year to diversify its man-
ufacturing, which was heavi-
ly reliant on China. Trump’s
punitive tariffs on Chinese
imports and the increas-ingly broad bipartisan sup-
port in the U.S. to get tough
with Beijing have added to
the cost and political pres-
sure for companies op-
erating in China.
“If any company was
thinking of moving, they’re
now really exploring it or
working on an executed
plan,” said Ethan Harris,
global economist at Bank of
America Merrill Lynch.
For many American com-
panies, the coronavirus cri-
sis has highlighted the
downside of their dependen-
cy on China.
Supply lines have been
crippled by quarantines, fac-
tory closings, travel restric-
tions and other stringent
measures taken by China
and other countries to con-
tain the outbreak.
Some companies that
previously relocated parts of
their operations to Vietnam
and elsewhere have been
able to offset some of their
lost production capacity.
But the sharp decline in Chi-
na’s globally leading manu-
facturing economy has had
widespread knock-on ef-
fects.
Apple, Microsoft and
Procter & Gamble are
among many corporations
that have warned of weaker-
than-expected profits be-
cause of their exposure to
China. Worries about pro-
longed supply disruptions
were partly behind last
week’s stock market melt-
down.
P&G, for example, said it
has 387 suppliers in ChinaVirus nudges
firms to shift
from China
Disruptions point up a
need to remap supply
chains. South Asia
and Mexico may have
the most to gain.
By Don Lee[SeeSupply,C5]General Motors laid out
an aggressive electric vehi-
cle strategy Wednesday, an
approach it hopes will dra-
matically boost sales in Cali-
fornia.
Chief Executive Mary
Barra said GM would spend
$20 billion on its electric and
automated vehicle pro-
grams over the next five
years, at which point it in-
tends to be selling a million
EVs a year in the U.S. and
China. Key to the strategy is
a joint venture with South
Korea’s LG Chem that aims
to boost driving range to 400
miles or more while reducing
costs.
“We believe climate
change is real,” Barra said.
The company’s aggressive
move into EVs, she said, “willGM will
plunge
deeper
into EV
market
By Russ Mitchell[SeeGM,C5]mortgage industry.
Executives at four of the
nation’s 15 biggest mortgage
lenders, already gearing up
for a busy 2020, anticipate
hiring thousands of employ-
ees this year to keep up with
what they expect to be a
flood of demand for pur-
chase loans and refinanc-
ings.
Lenders are zipping
through mortgage applica-
tions so fast that some ex-A drop in interest rates in
response to the coronavirus
outbreak is adding urgency
to a hiring spree across thepect to blow past origination
records they set just last
year.
At Quicken Loans Inc.,
the nation’s largest mort-
gage lender, Monday was the
busiest day for mortgage ap-
plications in the company’s
35-year history, Chief Execu-
tive Jay Farner said.
Michigan-based United
Wholesale Mortgage, mean-
while, approved $2.5 billionMORTGAGElenders expect to hire thousands of workers this year to meet soar-
ing demand. JPMorgan Chase is redeploying employees to its mortgage business.Robyn BeckAFP via Getty ImagesRates fall; hiring jumps
Mortgage companies
are adding workers as
loan demand soars.
By Shahien Nasiripour
and Prashant Gopal[SeeMortgages,C4]In the literary world, they
are known as the Big Five —
the handful of companies
that dominate book publish-
ing.
Soon, there might be only
four. On Wednesday, Via-
comCBS announced that it
was looking to sell legendary
book publisher Simon &
Schuster.
The move comes just
three months after the
merger of Viacom and CBS.
The company’s new leader-
ship has concluded that the
New York publishing house,
known for the works of such
authors as Stephen King,
Susan Orlean, Bob Wood-
ward and Hillary Clinton, no
longer is a core part of the
company.
ViacomCBS Chief Execu-
tive Bob Bakish said during
an appearance at the Mor-
gan Stanley Technology,
Media & Telcom Conference
that he’s fielded several un-
solicited inquiries about
whether the company would
divest the iconic publisher.
And the answer is “yes.”
“It is not video-based,”
Bakish said. “It does not
have a significant connec-
tion to our broader busi-
ness.”
It is unclear how much Vi-
acomCBS, which has owned
the publishing house for
more than 25 years, might
fetch from the sale. Book
publishing is no longer a
growth business, but its rev-
enue has been relatively sta-
ble in recent years and a
bestseller still can be quite
lucrative.
Simon & Schuster has
some of the world’s most
recognizable authors, in-
cluding Mary Higgins Clark,
Doris Kearns Goodwin and
David McCullough. It ranksPublisher Simon
& Schuster goes
on auction block
The book giant isn’t a
core business to newly
merged ViacomCBS,
which seeks to shed
assets to pay debt.
By Meg James
[SeePublisher,C3]Terrified about the coronavirus out-
break, airline worker Barbara Gomez
refused her supervisor’s order to clean
the interior of an American Airlines
plane when it arrived from China at Los
Angeles International Airport.
Gomez, a cabin attendant for Jet-
Stream Ground Services, said she was
given no gloves or mask before being
told to help wipe down the interior of
the plane.
“Everybody is concerned about the
virus,” she said of the incident in late
January. “We don’t have anything to
protect us.”
With the outbreak claiming more
than 3,000 lives around the globe, the
risk of being infected is on everybody’s
mind, especially airline and airport
workers such as Gomez and her col-
leagues, who say they have been forced
to choose between their jobs and pos-
sibly being exposed to the virus.
Over the weekend, an American Air-
lines flight from New York’s John F.
Kennedy International Airport to Mi-
lan, Italy, was canceled because the
flight crew refused to fly to the region
that had recently reported an outbreakof the virus.
After the cancellation, American
Airlines suspended its two daily flights
to Milan from New York and Miami un-
til April 25.
An LAX screener of incoming flights
from China and surrounding countries
tested positive for the COVID-19 virus
March 3. The screener so far has a mild
case and is isolated at home.
The plight of the LAX workers was
raised during a discussion of the co-
ronavirus outbreak at a meeting of the
Los Angeles City Council on Wednes-
day. Airport executives told the council
that they wereA CABINattendant said she was given no gloves or mask before being told to help clean the interior of a plane
that arrived at Los Angeles International Airport from China. Above, a China Eastern plane at LAX in 2018.
Daniel SlimAFP via Getty ImagesPlane cleaners at risk?
LAX workers say they lack training, protections from virus
By Hugo Martín
[SeeJetliners,C5]