Monday’s late rally on Wall Street has sent global markets on the rise Tuesday.  Asian markets sustained losses at the start of the day’s trading session after remarks by White House trade adviser Peter Navarro suggested the recent trade deal between the United States and China was finished.  But the region rebounded after Navarro later said his comments were taken out of context, followed by a tweet from President Donald Trump that the deal was “fully intact.” The Nikkei index in Tokyo finished the day’s trading 0.5% higher, while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong is up 1.3% in late afternoon trading, and Shanghai’s Composite index is 0.1% higher.   Elsewhere in Asia, Sydney’s S&P/ASX index is up 0.1%; the Senxex in Mumbai has gained 0.9%; Seoul’s KOSPI index is up 0.2%; and Taiwan’s TSEC index is 0.3% higher.   Over in Europe, London’s FTSE index is up 0.9% in early morning trading, the CAC-40 in Paris has risen 1.4%, and Frankfurt’s DAX index is just over 2%.   In futures trading, U.S. crude is selling at $41.05 per barrel, up 0.7%, and Brent crude is trading at $43.42 per barrel, also up 0.7%.   Also in futures trading, the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq are all trending positively.  
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U.S. Major League Baseball announced Monday that it will proceed with a coronavirus-shortened season this year after the players’ union rejected a negotiated deal over a similar abbreviated season. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said team owners have approved a plan that includes a 60-game season that will begin in late July under the terms of an agreement reached with the MLB Players Association back on March 26. Manfred said the players’ union must inform by Tuesday afternoon that its members can report to their home ballparks by July 1 for at least three weeks of pre-season training, and whether they agree on an operating manual setting out a set of health and safety protocols. All games will be played without fans present in the stadium.  The deal rejected by the MLB Players Association included expanding the number of playoff teams from 10 to 16, establishing a $25 million postseason players pool, forgiving $33 million in salary advances and the chance to 104 percent of their prorated salaries.   Baseball’s traditional pre-season spring training period was abruptly cut short in mid-March as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in the United States, and eventually shut down all professional, collegiate and secondary school athletic events. But the virus continues to impact all sports, including baseball, with five members of the Philadelphia Phillies franchise recently testing positive for the virus.   
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Police in Washington forcefully pushed back a group of protesters late Monday who were trying to take down a statue of former President Andrew Jackson in a park across from the White House. The protesters had thrown ropes over the statue and were pulling from two sides as a crowd surrounding the site chanted against Jackson and in support of justice for victims of police violence. Police carrying shields confronted the protesters and used batons, pepper spray and pepper bullets to push the crowd away from the statue in Lafayette Square. The site is the same area where earlier this month police forcefully cleared out protesters a short time before President Donald Trump walked through the area for a photo opportunity at a nearby church. 
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Tech executives said Monday they were disappointed in the Trump administration’s decision to temporarily ban an array of work visas, including those used by the technology industry. Some vowed to open up or expand their operations overseas.  “Banning all H1B visas means CEOs like me have to open offices and hire more people in countries like Canada that allow immigration,” tweeted Anshu Sharma, chief executive of a data privacy firm in Silicon Valley.Banning all H1B visas means CEOs like me have to open offices and hire more people in countries like Canada that allow immigration. This visa ban is morally wrong, and economically stupid. What happened to being “for legal immigration”? https://t.co/R9O9Q1Ts0j— H1B immigrant Anshu Sharma 🌶 (@anshublog) June 22, 2020“Immigration has contributed immensely to America’s economic success, making it a global leader in tech, and also Google the company it is today,” Sundar Pichai, the chief executive of Google, said on Twitter. “Disappointed by today’s proclamation.”Immigration has contributed immensely to America’s economic success, making it a global leader in tech, and also Google the company it is today. Disappointed by today’s proclamation – we’ll continue to stand with immigrants and work to expand opportunity for all.— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) June 22, 2020The executive order expanded on restrictions the White House rolled out in April. In its statement, the White House cited the current economic hardship in the U.S. where the unemployment rate is more than 13 percent.   “President Trump’s efforts will ensure businesses look to American workers first when hiring,” the White House said in a statement. “Many workers have been hurt through no fault of their own due to coronavirus and they should not remain on the sidelines while being replaced by new foreign labor.” Reliance on foreign workers  During periods of high growth, the technology industry has relied on the H-1B, a temporary work visa that brings as many as 85,000 skilled workers to the U.S. each year.  While tech companies have had layoffs during the pandemic, the labor market is still tight, said Russell Hancock, the chief executive and president of Joint Venture Silicon Valley, a nonprofit organization that studies the region.  “Tech is pretty much working at full employment,” he said. “The pandemic hasn’t hurt tech as it has hurt other sectors.” Silicon Valley’s foreign-born workers mostly hail from India and China. More than 60 percent of those working in computer, mathematics and engineering fields in Silicon Valley are foreign born, according to the 2020 Silicon Valley Index, produced by Joint Venture. Tech companies have argued that they need foreign-born workers – and an expansion of the temporary work visa program — because there are not enough U.S.-born workers with the skills for key roles. Opponents of the temporary visa say that the industry and large tech consultants turn to foreign workers to keep wages down.   Cutting off the ability of skilled workers to come to the U.S. will hurt the industry’s ability to stay competitive, Hancock said.  “If you talk to anyone, they will tell you we need talent and it’s not coming through our own pipelines,” he said.  It’s a point echoed by tech leaders.  “In the digital economy, you hire where the talent is,” tweeted Aaron Levie, the chief executive at Box, a tech firm. “When you restrict immigration, the jobs still get created, just somewhere else. And later down the road, when those individuals create the next Google, it won’t be here.” In the digital economy, you hire where the talent is. When you restrict immigration, the jobs still get created, just somewhere else. And later down the road, when those individuals create the next Google, it won’t be here.— Aaron Levie (@levie) June 22, 2020
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American honeybee colonies have bounced back after a bad year, the annual beekeeping survey finds. Beekeepers lost only 22.2% of their colonies this past winter, from Oct. 1 to March 31, which is lower than the average of 28.6%, according to the Bee Informed Partnership’s annual survey of thousands of beekeepers. It was the second smallest winter loss in the 14 years of surveying done by several different U.S. universities. Last winter’s loss was considerably less than the previous winter of 2018-2019 when a record 37.7% of colonies died off, the scientists found. After that bad winter, the losses continued through the summer of 2019, when beekeepers reported a 32% loss rate. That’s much higher than the average of 21.6% for summer losses. Those summer losses were driven more by hives of commercial beekeepers than backyard hobbyists, said bee partnership scientific coordinator Nathalie Steinhauer. While the summer losses are bad, winter deaths are “really the test of colony health,” so the results overall are good news, Steinhauer said. “It turned out to be a very good year.” Populations tend to be cyclical with good years following bad ones, she said. The scientists surveyed 3,377 commercial beekeepers and backyard enthusiasts in the United States. “One would hope that a lower winter loss means a better 2020 assuming that the weather cooperates and beekeepers don’t end up skimping on colony management,” said University of Montana bee expert Jerry Bromenshenk, who wasn’t part of the study. Beekeepers in the U.S. also may be taking more of their colonies indoors in the winter, helping them survive, said University of Georgia entomologist Keith Delaplane. New U.S. Department of Agriculture research suggests  putting bees in “cold storage” helps them survive the winter. For decades scientists have been watching the population of pollinators — crucial to the world’s food supply — shrink. Honeybees, the most easily tracked, are threatened by mites, diseases, pesticides and loss of food.  Loss rates now being seen “are part of the new normal,” Steinhauer said.   
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The United States has designated four more Chinese state-run outlets as “foreign missions,” a move that U.S. officials said will “not prevent them from reporting legitimate news” but to “increase transparency” relating to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and what Washington called Beijing government’s “propaganda activities” in the U.S.  This comes as CCP is said to assert “even more direct control” over China’s state-controlled outlets.  On Monday, the State Department announced the U.S. operations of China Central Television, China News Service, the People’s Daily and the Global Times are designated as foreign missions.   The new designation follows the February 18 designations of Xinhua News Agency, China Global Television Network, China Radio International, China Daily Distribution Corporation and Hai Tian Development USA. Those entities are required to report on personnel rosters and real estate holdings on U.S. soil, similar to certain administrative requirements that are applied to all foreign embassies and consulates in the U.S. China has not immediately responded to the additional designation.   “This is housekeeping. We’re just cleaning up some broken glass and stuff that we hadn’t paid a lot of attention to in the past,” David Stilwell, assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific Affairs, said in a telephone briefing.   Stilwell said he did not know the number of Chinese personnel who would be affected under Monday’s designation. “What this is going to identify is that these folks — we’ve allowed them to come into the country as journalists — now acknowledging that they are not,” he said. A State Department statement said the CCP has reorganized China’s state propaganda outlets disguised as news agencies and asserted even more direct control over them over the past decade.
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Americans’ outlook on the national economy has improved somewhat from its lowest points during the early weeks of the coronavirus pandemic, but a new poll suggests Democrats and Republicans are living in alternate economic realities amid the sharpest recession in the nation’s history. Eighty-five percent of Democrats call economic conditions “poor,” while 65% of Republicans describe them as “good” in a new survey conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. This divide reflects the deep polarization ahead of the 2020 presidential election, as well as a series of indicators that point toward a weakened but recovering U.S. economy. “The economy is in terrible shape and improving rapidly,” said Harvard University professor Jason Furman, formerly the top economist in the Obama White House. “Depending on which of the two halves you’re looking at, you’re going to have a very different interpretation of where we are.” FILE – Diners are seated in an outdoor dining area on a sidewalk at Limey’s Pub, in Norwood, Mass., June 18, 2020.Americans can see reasons for hope as well as doubt. They face a host of uncertainties about the path of COVID-19, the fate of small businesses with fewer customers and the status of additional government aid. Overall, 63% of the country says the economy is in poor shape, down somewhat from the 70% who felt that way in May. The change was driven by increasingly optimistic Republicans, only 43% of whom described the economy as good a month ago. Two-thirds of Republicans, but just 29% of Democrats, expect improvement over the next year. Thelma Ross, 78, of Granby, Missouri, believes the economy will recover if President Donald Trump can defeat Democratic challenger Joe Biden, the former vice president. “I think it’s going to come back, stronger than ever, if we get the right president in,” Ross said. “President Trump is a businessman.” Yet she is concerned by the protests after George Floyd, an African American, died in police custody in Minneapolis and the calls to remove statues that celebrate the Confederacy and Christopher Columbus. Ross views division as harmful for any economic recovery. Ross said of Trump: “I pray for divine revelation and divine guidance for that man because he needs that right now.” Job lossThe survey finds that African Americans and Hispanics are more likely than white Americans to say someone in their household has lost a job or other income. That inequality has added to the broader reckoning with structural racism amid nationwide protests over police brutality following Floyd’s death. Overall, 66% of Hispanic Americans and 53% of black Americans say they’ve experienced some form of household income loss, including layoffs, unpaid time off and cuts in hours or pay. Forty-two percent of white Americans say the same. Thirty-four percent of Hispanics, 29% of African Americans and 20% of white Americans said someone in their household has been laid off. The poll finds signs that some of those layoffs are becoming permanent. Among all those who experienced a layoff in their household, 55% say the job definitely or probably will return — and 8% say it already has. Still, 36% said the job will most likely not come back, which is significantly higher than the 20% who said that in April. The economy cratered in March and April as people sheltered in place in hopes of stopping the pandemic, and the unemployment rate spiked to at least 14.7%. Responses to government surveys suggested the true jobless rate may have been even higher. But it showed signs of reviving in May. Retail sales surged 17.7%, and 2.5 million jobs were added. The unemployment rate improved to 13.3%, a number that is still the second highest reading in records going back to 1948. Leah Avery, 54, lost her job driving a school bus in suburban Dallas. She said she checks her email daily to find out how schools will reopen. She applied for unemployment benefits a month ago, but the request has been under review. “It’s a struggle day by day for us to pay our bills, and I know others are going through the same thing,” she said. The job loss has only added to her stress. Her aunt died from COVID-19, and she needs to take care of her elderly mother and her husband, who has dialysis appointments three days a week. It’s a full-time job with no pay, she said. “I just have these moments where it makes me cry,” she said. “You don’t know this day from the next day what is going to happen.” Federal aidThe nearly $3 trillion in approved federal aid has shielded many people from the pain of the downturn. About two-thirds of Americans still call their personal financial situations good. A bipartisan group of economists proposed an additional $1 trillion to $2 trillion of aid to sustain any recovery, including targeted funds for state and local governments, subsidized loans for small businesses, more generous unemployment benefits and aid for low-wage workers. “It should be thought of as an investment in the economy,” said Melissa Kearney, a University of Maryland economics professor who helped lead the effort. The proposals are based on ideas shown to boost growth and provide traction for a recovery that is still in its early and fragile stages. 
 
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The Golden Globes on Monday postponed its 2021 ceremony for film and television, after a two-month delay to the Oscars, in Hollywood’s latest awards calendar shuffle caused by the coronavirus epidemic. The Golden Globes ceremony, which kicks off Hollywood’s awards season, will take place on Feb. 28 instead of its usual slot on the first Sunday in January, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), which hands out the trophies, said in a statement. Last week the Oscars, the highest honors in the film industry, were postponed to April 25 from Feb 28. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said the delay would allow filmmakers more time to finish their movies after production was shut down worldwide in mid-March and movie theaters were closed. The HFPA said it would give details on a new date for Golden Globe nominations and eligibility criteria in the coming weeks. The Golden Globes, handed out at a boozy dinner in Beverly Hills, will be hosted by comedians Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. Other award shows, including Britain’s BAFTA event, have also shifted their dates for 2021 to fall closer to the Oscars. Hollywood movies and TV shows were given the green light two weeks ago to resume production in the Los Angeles area with detailed guidelines on social distancing and frequent testing. The three main movie theater chains have said they plan to reopen in the United States from July 10 with strict social distancing rules and with movie-goers required to wear masks. 
 
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