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WSJ

THEWALLSTREETJOURNALWEEKEND

The crashes of the Ethiopian

Airlines flight and the Lion Air

flight five months earlier,

claimed a total of 346 lives.

The protracted grounding con-

tinues as Boeing works on soft-

ware fixes and develops pilot-

training requirements that will

win the approval of regulators.

Boeing halted the aircraft’s

production in January.

Friday’s report details Boe-

ing’s determination at various

levels—years before the MAX

was approved by the Federal

Aviation Administration—to

avoid putting pilots through

costly ground-simulator train-

ing. That single-minded goal

was evident across Boeing’s en-

gineering, marketing and man-

Please turn to page A

ican Samoa, a tiny territory

closer to New Zealand than the

continental U.S.

For Mr. Bloomberg, who

ended his campaign Wednes-

day, it was a Super Tuesday

victory as lonely as a tiny

speck of land in a vast ocean.

Though the billionaire for-

mer mayor of a city 7,200 miles

away was relatively unknown

here just a month ago, he

mopped the floor with Joe Bi-

den and Bernie Sanders, who

between them won all 14 states

that voted on Tuesday but re-

ceived only 68 votes total here.

Please turn to page A

PAGO PAGO, American Sa-

moa—As the 351 votes cast in

the presidential caucus were

pulled from a wooden box and

read aloud inside the old Oasis

bowling alley on Super Tues-

day, it became clear that an up-

set was under way on this lush

tropical archipelago in the

South Pacific.

With 175 votes, Mike

Bloomberg was finally seeing a

payoff from his roughly $

million campaign to persuade

Americans to elect him presi-

dent. He was winning in Amer-

BYZUSHAELINSON

What $620 Million in Campaign

Spending Buys: American Samoa

iii

Bloomberg blanketed the island, as he

did elsewhere, except he actually won

President Surveys Damage in Storm-Ravaged Tennessee

TOM BRENNER/REUTERS

INSPECTION: President Trump visited devastated communities in Putnam County, Tenn., on Friday, and met with federal and

local response officials. Tornadoes tore across the state earlier in the week, leaving at least 24 dead amid a trail of ruin. A

WUHAN—It was on Dec. 10 that Wei

Guixian, a seafood merchant in this city’s

Hua’nan market, first started to feel sick.

Thinking she was getting a cold, she

walked to a small local clinic to get some

treatment and then went back to work.

Eight days later, the 57-year-old was

barely conscious in a hospital bed, one of

the first suspected cases in a coronavirus

epidemic that has paralyzed China and

gripped the global economy. The virus

has spread around the world and sick-

ened more than 101,000.

BYJEREMYPAGE,WENXINFAN

ANDNATASHAKHAN

KITCHEN CHOPS

High-end blades are in

vogue, but mass-

market makers are

raising their game.D

Your Boss Is Tracking

Your Happiness

EXCHANGE

a$ap rocky

WSJ. MAGAZINE

China’s Early Missteps Fed Epidemic

As doctors raised alarms, officials dragged their feet to take action against the coronavirus

Financial markets and eco-

nomic forecasters are warning

of rising risks for the U.S. and

global economy, which were

improving before the novel cor-

onavirus spread from China

around the world.

A buoyant U.S. job market

had fueled strong consumer

spending and cushioned the

economy through choppy wa-

ters created by the trade war

with China, a manufacturing

contraction and weakening mo-

BYERICMORATH

spreading virus, including into

financial markets, caused Ox-

ford Economics economists to

cut their global economic

growth forecast further to 2%

in 2020. “The effects of finan-

cial market weakness and the

disruption to daily life around

the world will trigger lower

consumer spending and invest-

ment on top of the disruptions

to the global supply chain,”

said Ben May, Oxford’s director

of global macro research, in a

note to clients.

The Organization for Eco-

nomic Cooperation and Devel-

Please turn to page A

economy.

“The good news is the U.S.

has a lot of momentum heading

into this,” said Diane Swonk,

chief economist at accounting

and advisory firm Grant Thorn-

ton. She expects the economy

to slow sharply in the first half

of 2020 but avoid a recession.

“The risk is this mutates into a

more vicious cycle.”

Ms. Swonk projects U.S. eco-

nomic growth to cool to a 0.5%

annual pace in the first half—a

marked slowdown from last

year’s 2.3% expansion, which it-

self marked an easing from a

more robust 2018. She expects

layoffs at restaurants, hotels

and airlines, and for the unem-

ployment rate to edge up from

a half-century low.

The widening impact of the

mentum abroad. But markets

flashed warning signals this

past week showing investors

see dangers ahead, particularly

in the bond market, with Trea-

sury yields tumbling to historic

lows, and in commodities, with

crude prices on Friday logging

their worst day since the finan-

cial crisis.

The U.S. labor market re-

mains a bulwark, with employ-

ers adding a robust headcount

of 273,000 last month, the La-

bor Department said Friday.

But that will be tested as the

virus spreads and governments

try to contain it. China and

Japan, the world’s second- and

third-largest economies, are al-

ready flirting with recession

from the coronavirus shock.

The U.S. is the largest world

Virus Darkens Economic Outlook

Monthly U.S. jobs data

again show strength,

but forecasters see

threat of ‘vicious cycle’

 Global outbreaks are likely to

increase, experts say............ A

 Crude prices log worst day

since financial crisis................ B

alerting their peers or the public.

One of the first doctors to alert Chi-

nese authorities was criticized for

“spreading rumors” after sharing with a

former medical-school classmate a test

result showing a patient had a coronavi-

rus. Another doctor had to write a self-

criticism letter saying his warnings “had

a negative impact.”

Please turn to page A

Report Faults Boeing,

FAA Over Troubled Jet

Boeing Co.’s engineering

mistakes and “culture of con-

cealment,” coupled with insuf-

ficient federal safety oversight,

led to two fatal crashes of the

plane maker’s 737 MAX air-

craft, House investigators said

in a report released Friday.

The preliminary findings, is-

sued by Democrats on the

House Transportation Commit-

tee, describe in stark terms the

engineering and regulatory

lapses revealed in five public

hearings over the past year

into the design and certifica-

tion of the MAX, which was

grounded around the world last

March following a second crash

of the passenger jet.

BYANDYPASZTOR

For almost three weeks, doctors strug-

gled to connect the dots between Ms. Wei

and other early cases, many of them

Hua’nan vendors. Patient after patient re-

ported similar symptoms, but many, like

her, visited small, poorly resourced clinics

and hospitals. Some patients balked at

paying for chest scans; others, including

Ms. Wei, refused to be transferred to big-

ger facilities that were better-equipped to

identify infectious diseases.

When doctors did finally establish the

Hua’nan link in late December, they quar-

antined Ms. Wei and others like her and

raised the alarm to their superiors. But

they were prevented by authorities from

OFF DUTY

 Coronavirus test-kit supply falls short of

demand in the U.S............................................ A

 The number of confirmed cases tops

100,000 world-wide......................................... A

 Review: Lessons from a 1918 pandemic.. C

Yields on U.S. government

bonds fell to new lows and

stocks dropped Friday after a

better-than-expected jobs re-

port failed to assuage growing

investor fear over the global

coronavirus.

The yield on the benchmark

10-year Treasury note, a key

reference rate for borrowing

costs throughout the economy,

fell for a 12th consecutive ses-

sion to close at an all-time low

of 0.709%. This was fueled not

only by investors rushing to

safer assets but by commercial

banks hedging against balance-

sheet risks in anticipation that

more consumers will look to re-

finance mortgages in a low-rate

environment.

The yield regained some

ground as stocks pared losses

late in the session.

That move upward wasn’t

enough to push the Dow Jones

Industrial Average into positive

territory for the day. But the in-

dex did post a slight gain for

the week, a period marked by

violent swings as investors

gauged the progression of the

coronavirus and a surprise rate

cut of a half-percentage point

by the Federal Reserve.

The Dow ended Friday down

1%, at 25864.78, paring what at

one point earlier in the day had

been a drop of more than 800

points. The blue-chip index has

still fallen around 9% since the

start of the year. A sharp drop

in the price of oil hit energy

Please turn to page A

BYJULIA-AMBRAVERLAINE

Yields

Plumb

New Low

As Risks

Spread

Investors flock to buy

Treasurys as stocks

pare big declines late;

banks’ needs add fuel

Trump Taps

New Chief

Rep. Mark Meadows, shown

above, was named White

House chief of staff, replacing

acting chief Mick Mulvaney. A

PATRICK SEMANSKY/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Financial marketsand
economic forecasters are
warning of rising risks for
the U.S. and global econ-
omy, which were improving
before the coronavirus
spread around the world.A
Yields onU.S. govern-
ment bonds fell to new
lows and stocks dropped
after a better-than-ex-
pected jobs report failed to
assuage growing investor
fear over the epidemic.A
Crude prices logged
their worst day since the fi-
nancial crisis after Saudi
Arabia and Russia failed to
agree on production cuts.B

Boeing’s engineering
mistakes and “culture of
concealment,” coupled with
insufficient federal safety
oversight, led to two 737
MAX crashes, House inves-
tigators said in a report.A

AT&T is workingwith
the Justice Department as
the government considers
whether to bring an anti-
trust case against Google.B

U.K. investigatorsare ex-
amining visits by Barclays
CEO Staley to Epstein’s pri-
vate Caribbean island.B

Chipotle founder Ellsis
leaving the company. CEO
Niccol will take on the addi-
tional title of chairman.B

What’s

News

CONTENTS
Books..................... C7-
Food......................... D6-
Heard on Street...B
Markets..................... B
Obituaries............... A
Opinion.............. A13-

Sports........................ A

Style & Fashion D2-

Travel...................... D4-

U.S. News............. A2-

Weather................... A

Wknd Investor....... B

World News... A10-

s2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

All Rights Reserved

>

T

he number ofconfirmed
coronavirus cases glob-
ally topped 100,000, as in-
fections spread to new
parts of the U.S. where of-
ficials struggled to get the
epidemic under control.A
U.S. states onthe front
lines of the virus battle are
complaining about the
availability of test kits.A

Trump is replacing
Mick Mulvaney, his acting
chief of staff of 14 months,
with Rep. Mark Meadows,
a longtime ally.A

Saudi Arabia detained
two of its most prominent
figures over an alleged
coup attempt, further con-
solidating the power of the
kingdom’s crown prince.A

The Justice Department
rejected a federal judge’s
criticism of Barr’s handling
of the Mueller report.A

The administration
plans to take DNA samples
from migrants for use in a
federal criminal database.A

Gunmen opened fireon
a political gathering in Af-
ghanistan’s capital, killing
more than 30 people.A

A shaky cease-firetook
hold in northwestern Syria
following an agreement by
Turkey and Russia.A

World-Wide

Business&Finance

NOONAN

Jim Clyburn Saves

The DemocratsA

CLOCKS GO FORWARD

Most of the U.S. and

Canada switch to daylight-

saving time at 2 a.m.

Sunday. Clocks move ahead

by one hour. Standard time

returns Nov. 1.