How Coronavirus Is Threatening More Than Just Supply and Demand

PALM BEACH, Florida, March 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Despite all the frantic worldwide research efforts, costing billions of dollars, to find a vaccine or some other effective treatment for the coronavirus, the answer still remains elusive. The virus is not only hurting people… but it is threatening business as well! A recent article in the Wall Street Journal described the situation this way: “Companies have endured financial meltdowns, civil wars and natural disasters. Now they are confronting a different kind of menace: a fast-spreading virus that has abruptly dented demand and supply across industries and continents. The novel coronavirus, which has infected more than 85,000 people, has swept through Asia and Europe, disrupted global travel and hobbled supply chains that churn out everything from smartphones to pharmaceuticals. In days, it went from pockets of woe to the top concern of chief executives world-wide.”. It IS rapidly hitting the supply chain.  Active companies in the markets this week include Vuzix® Corporation (NASDAQ: VUZI), Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ: FB), Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F), Walmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT).

The Washington Post reports that airlines, travel and cruise industries hurt by the coronavirus could get tax relief from the government. In the article, Economic adviser Larry Kudlow confirms the administration is considering “timely and targeted” intervention. It said: “The travel and tourism industries are facing their worst crisis since the 2001 terrorist attacks, prompting White House officials to consider deferring taxes for the cruise, travel and airline industries”. Other supply giants will probably also be on that list. It continued: “The tax deferrals for the travel industry are being considered as airlines cut back on routes and warn about declining ticket sales. Hotel chains are struggling with vacancies in Asia and are bracing for similar waves in the United States. Business travel is falling, and trade shows, music festivals and conventions are being canceled from San Francisco to Chicago to Austin to Miami. Families and college students are reconsidering spring break excursions and distant summer plans… Other countries have already enacted tax relief for their hardest-hit industries.  It concluded: “White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow confirmed that the administration is considering “timely and targeted” federal interventions to help workers, businesses and industries most vulnerable economically to the outbreak.”

Vuzix® Corporation (NASDAQ: VUZI) BREAKING NEWS:  Vuzix to Provide Hands-Free Remote Support Incentives for Organizations Seeking to Implement Technology Solutions to Help Reduce Public Health Concerns – Vuzix® Corporation, (“Vuzix” or, the “Company”), a leading supplier of Smart Glasses and Augmented Reality (AR) technology and products, today announced that due to the current environment of travel restrictions due to global public health events and concerns, the Company has experienced a spike in inbound interest regarding remote support solutions coming from Japan and elsewhere around the world. To support companies that are responding to and operating in this crisis, Vuzix is pleased to offer a free one year smart glasses connector application for Zoom and Skype for Business to any customer that purchases a Vuzix smart glasses (M-Series or Blade Smart Glasses) during the month of March 2020. 

Many major corporations have enacted internal travel restriction policies. This is coming from the executive offices at some of the biggest corporations in America including Amazon, Google, Ford Motor Company and many others:

U.S. News reported “Some companies are moving to limit employees’ travel, hoping to lessen the possibility of the coronavirus spreading through an office.” Read more here: https://www.usnews.com/news/economy/articles/2020-03-03/twitter-amazon-google-among-businesses-guarding-against-coronavirus

In education:

According to the United Nations, as of Tuesday (March 3, 2020), 22 countries on three continents have closed schools because of the virus. As cases of coronavirus disease continue to be identified in countries around the world, the effort to stem its spread has kept some 290 million students home from school. Read more here: https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/03/05/812557984/as-schools-close-due-to-coronavirus-nearly-300-million-kids-arent-in-class

“Many of our global enterprise customers are faced with challenging and important decisions on the business continuity front as to how to effectively support their global operations and customers with minimal interruptions and are adopting our product’s basic ‘see what I see’ video conferencing functionality. It can reduce the cost and risk of business travel while providing quality technical support to customers worldwide. Also to facilitate “remote teaching”, teachers can stream in full HD what the teacher is seeing, from hands on lab experiments to cooking, while students are safely connected remotely over the internet,” said Paul Travers, Vuzix President and Chief Executive Officer. “We have experienced a recent uptick in inbound interest in our remote support packages and smart glasses products, most notably with several new clients in Asia and more are seeking to implement. We have chosen to offer a full year of free smart glasses licenses for two of the most widely used business video calling applications to provide our customers with a simple plug and play solution for education to enterprise around the globe.”  Read this entire release and more news for Vuzix® at:  https://www.financialnewsmedia.com/news-vuzi  

Additional recent developments include:

It was reported by NPR.org that Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) and Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) are telling employees in the Seattle area to work from home as the business world tries to reduce risks from the spreading coronavirus.  Facebook said a contractor in one of its Seattle offices had been diagnosed with the disease caused by the virus. The worker was last in the office on Feb. 21, and Facebook has closed the office until March 9. The company is encouraging all employees in Seattle to work from home through the end of the month.

“We’ve notified our employees and are following the advice of public health officials to prioritize everyone’s health and safety,” a Facebook spokesperson said.  An Amazon employee at the company’s Seattle headquarters has also contracted the virus, the company said.  “We are recommending that employees in Seattle/Bellevue who are able to work from home do so through the end of the month,” an Amazon spokesperson said.

In an article found on Bloomberg.com Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) as of March 4, the Company will restrict air travel for most of this month after two employees in China contracted the coronavirus.  The employees were quarantined after being diagnosed with the virus, officially named Covid-19, and they’re recovering, Anderson Chan, a Ford spokesman, said in an email. He declined to reveal the employees’ location, gender, ages or whether they were factory or office workers.

Effective Tuesday, Ford curbed non-essential business travel — both international and domestic — until March 27. The U.S. automaker joins multinational companies including Nestle SA and L’Oreal SA in limiting business trips in hopes of guarding employees against exposure to the virus that is slowing economies and sending markets into a tailspin.

And on YahooFINANCE it was reported Walmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT) recent warnings from Walmart, and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), two of Corporate America’s biggest giants regarding coronavirus. The iPhone maker said on Monday that the virus’ impact on demand — which forced it to shutter its stores in China — would undermine its revenue guidance for the first quarter.

Meanwhile, the retail giant, Walmart, also suggested the coronavirus could be a drag on the current quarter, after weak holiday sales caused the company to miss earnings forecasts.   The disease remains largely contained to the mainland and its immediate region, but China has yet to stem the rising tide of infections, with the domestic death toll rising to over 1,800 over the weekend

Meanwhile, a wide range of industries — including technology, retail, food and travel/leisure — are warning that the disease is hampering their ability to operate in the world’s largest economy, which only recently brought its factories back online this week after the Lunar New Year break.

DISCLAIMER:  FN Media Group LLC (FNM), which owns and operates Financialnewsmedia.com and MarketNewsUpdates.com, is a third party publisher and news dissemination service provider, which disseminates electronic information through multiple online media channels.  FNM is NOT affiliated in any manner with any company mentioned herein.  FNM and its affiliated companies are a news dissemination solutions provider and are NOT a registered broker/dealer/analyst/adviser, holds no investment licenses and may NOT sell, offer to sell or offer to buy any security.  FNM’s market updates, news alerts and corporate profiles are NOT a solicitation or recommendation to buy, sell or hold securities.  The material in this release is intended to be strictly informational and is NEVER to be construed or interpreted as research material.  All readers are strongly urged to perform research and due diligence on their own and consult a licensed financial professional before considering any level of investing in stocks.  All material included herein is republished content and details which were previously disseminated by the companies mentioned in this release.  FNM is not liable for any investment decisions by its readers or subscribers.  Investors are cautioned that they may lose all or a portion of their investment when investing in stocks.  For current services performed FNM expects to be compensated forty six hundred dollars for news coverage of the current press releases issued by Vuzix® Corporation by the company.  FNM HOLDS NO SHARES OF ANY COMPANY NAMED IN THIS RELEASE.

This release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended and such forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. “Forward-looking statements” describe future expectations, plans, results, or strategies and are generally preceded by words such as “may”, “future”, “plan” or “planned”, “will” or “should”, “expected,” “anticipates”, “draft”, “eventually” or “projected”. You are cautioned that such statements are subject to a multitude of risks and uncertainties that could cause future circumstances, events, or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements, including the risks that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, and other risks identified in a company’s annual report on Form 10-K or 10-KSB and other filings made by such company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You should consider these factors in evaluating the forward-looking statements included herein, and not place undue reliance on such statements. The forward-looking statements in this release are made as of the date hereof and FNM undertakes no obligation to update such statements.

Contact Information:

Media Contact email: editor@financialnewsmedia.com, +1(561)325-8757

View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/how-coronavirus-is-threatening-more-than-just-supply-and-demand-301020794.html

SOURCE Financialnewsmedia.com