OT: Coronavirus

DEVELOPING: US oil futures fell below $0 on Monday for the first time in history. https://t.co/cxbtg6Xlfq

— NBC News (@NBCNews) April 20, 2020

@"Vikergirl" said:

this isnt really informative to the virus?  perhaps not the right place for this post?

and the dude in the bottom right photo hardly seems white,  perhaps trying to make a story where there isnt one?

@"JimmyinSD" said:

@"Vikergirl" said:

this isnt really informative to the virus?  perhaps not the right place for this post?

and the dude in the bottom right photo hardly seems white,  perhaps trying to make a story where there isnt one?

Labeling people that protest as white supremacist is beyond stupid.  

People aren’t “working against what the medical professionals are doing”.

Thousands of people staged a peaceful protest outside Colorado’s Capitol on Sunday against the state’s stay-at-home order and its closures of thousands of nonessential businesses as ways to fight the spread of the coronavirus.

It appears the medical professionals were working against the peaceful demonstrations in response to what the government is doing.

Which is protected by the first amendment.

Labeling it as white supremacist is more than disingenuous.  It is divisive and immoral.  

@"RS Express" said:

@"purplefaithful" said:

@"RS Express" said:

@"JimmyinSD" said:

@"RS Express" said:

 Be just great if we get shut down and I lose my job because  a governor too stupid to tell people to stay home dropped their outbreak on us. 

You work in an essential occupation facility,   none of those are getting shut down  until they go to shit in any state. 

Just got the word... JBS closing down Tuesday :o   Don't start a side gig as a fortuneteller.  May the moths flying out of my wallet eat everything in Kristi Noem's closet.

I saw that, sorry to hear it too...

26 workers infected?

I'll bet it's more than that, let alone their peeps @ home. 

Don't know the exact number for the plant, but the latest update is 76 for the county. We're the biggest cluster (f$%k) between Minneapolis and Sioux Falls. 

Actually I'm not really surprised.  I'd told friends over the past few weeks that once corona got to Worthington JBS would go off like a bomb.  Too many people too close together with too much blood and guts around.

Barr being a team player

Sorry, Jimmy.

@"purplefaithful" said:

@"RS Express" said:

@"purplefaithful" said:

@"RS Express" said:

@"JimmyinSD" said:

@"RS Express" said:

 Be just great if we get shut down and I lose my job because  a governor too stupid to tell people to stay home dropped their outbreak on us. 

You work in an essential occupation facility,   none of those are getting shut down  until they go to shit in any state. 

Just got the word... JBS closing down Tuesday :o   Don't start a side gig as a fortuneteller.  May the moths flying out of my wallet eat everything in Kristi Noem's closet.

I saw that, sorry to hear it too...

26 workers infected?

I'll bet it's more than that, let alone their peeps @ home. 

Don't know the exact number for the plant, but the latest update is 76 for the county. We're the biggest cluster (f$%k) between Minneapolis and Sioux Falls. 

Actually I'm not really surprised.  I'd told friends over the past few weeks that once corona got to Worthington JBS would go off like a bomb.  Too many people too close together with too much blood and guts around.

How many undocumented workers too? At the plant? In the area? 

Not to go all political on this, but I'll bet they're over represented and scared as F*&k to get tested, reported etc. 

Oh well beat me to it.

@"Vikergirl" said:

@"JimmyinSD" said:

@"Vikergirl" said:

this isnt really informative to the virus?  perhaps not the right place for this post?

and the dude in the bottom right photo hardly seems white,  perhaps trying to make a story where there isnt one?

Maybe the caption is offputting but it is not conspiracy theories or other stuff that is in this thread. It shows the division. It shows that people are working against what the medical professionals are doing and it is important to acknowledge it. 

@"BarrNone55" said:  Sorry, Jimmy.

if you really were, you wouldnt have.

just delete it an take it where it belongs.   I dont want to and I dont want to move the thread once the shit storm comes which it surely will.

@"BarrNone55" said: Barr being a team player

Sorry, Jimmy.

thank you.

@"Vikergirl" said:

@"purplefaithful" said:

@"RS Express" said:

@"purplefaithful" said:

@"RS Express" said:

@"JimmyinSD" said:

@"RS Express" said:

 Be just great if we get shut down and I lose my job because  a governor too stupid to tell people to stay home dropped their outbreak on us. 

You work in an essential occupation facility,   none of those are getting shut down  until they go to shit in any state. 

Just got the word... JBS closing down Tuesday :o   Don't start a side gig as a fortuneteller.  May the moths flying out of my wallet eat everything in Kristi Noem's closet.

I saw that, sorry to hear it too...

26 workers infected?

I'll bet it's more than that, let alone their peeps @ home. 

Don't know the exact number for the plant, but the latest update is 76 for the county. We're the biggest cluster (f$%k) between Minneapolis and Sioux Falls. 

Actually I'm not really surprised.  I'd told friends over the past few weeks that once corona got to Worthington JBS would go off like a bomb.  Too many people too close together with too much blood and guts around.

How many undocumented workers too? At the plant? In the area? 

Not to go all political on this, but I'll bet they're over represented and scared as F*&k to get tested, reported etc. 

Good point. That got me thinking about Hormel in Austin. There are 48 different languages spoken in Austin. I bet a lot of people won't get tested because of fears of ICE. Of course it depends on which state they are in. It has to be incredibly scary to not be able to get tested because of this additional consideration.

Anyone else remember oil @ $100/Barrel?

Oil price goes negative as demand collapses; stocks dip

NEW YORK — Oil futures plunged below zero for the first time on Monday as demand for energy collapses amid the coronavirus pandemic and traders sought to avoid owning crude with nowhere to store it.
Stocks were also slipping on Wall Street in afternoon trading, with the S&P 500 down 1.2%, but the market’s most dramatic action by far was in oil, where benchmark U.S. crude for May delivery plummeted to negative $35.20, as of 2:30 pm. Eastern time. It was nearly $60 at the start of the year, before business-shutdown orders swept the world and idled factories, offices and automobiles.
Much of the drop was chalked up to technical reasons — the May delivery contract is close to expiring so its trading volume was light, which can exacerbate swings. But prices for deliveries even further into the future, which were seeing larger trading volumes, also plunged. Demand for oil has collapsed so much that facilities for storing crude are nearly full.
Tanks could hit their limits within three weeks, according to Chris Midgley, head of analytics at S&P Global Platts. And traders are willing to pay someone else to take that oil for delivery in May and shift the burden of figuring out where to keep it.
Benchmark U.S. crude oil for June delivery, which shows a more ”normal” price, fell 16.5% to $20.90 per barrel. Big oil producers have announced cutbacks in production in hopes of better balancing supplies with demand, but many analysts say it’s not enough.
“Basically, bears are out for blood,” analyst Naeem Aslam of Avatrade said in a report. “The steep fall in the price is because of the lack of sufficient demand and lack of storage place given the fact that the production cut has failed to address the supply glut.”
Halliburton swung between gains and sharp losses, even though it reported stronger results for the first three months of 2020 than analysts expected. The oilfield engineering company said that the pandemic has created so much turmoil in the industry that it “cannot reasonably estimate” how long the hit will last. It expects a further decline in revenue and profitability for the rest of 2020, particularly in North America.
Brent crude, the international standard, was down $2.46 to $25.62 per barrel. .
In the stock market, the mild drops ate into some of the big gains made since late March, driven lately by investors looking ahead to parts of the economy possibly reopening as infections level off in hard-hit areas. Pessimists have called the rally overdone, pointing to the severe economic pain sweeping the world and continued uncertainty about how long it will last.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 444 points, or 1.9%, to 23,797. The Nasdaq was down 0.4%.
Energy stocks took the sharpest losses, with those in the S&P 500 down 3.7%. But the losses were widespread, with all 11 sectors in the index down.
“The government can declare whatever they want in terms of encouraging people to get out and do stuff,” said Willie Delwiche, investment strategist at Baird. “Whether or not broad swaths of society do that remains to be seen. It’s going to take seeing people start to get out and do stuff again. That will be the necessary positive development, not just declaring getting things open.”
More gains from companies that are winners in the new stay-at-home economy helped limit the market’s losses Amazon rose 1.7%, and Netflix jumped 4% as people shut in at home buy staples and look to fill their time. Both were close to setting record highs. .
In Tokyo the Nikkei 225 fell 1.1% after Japan reported that its exports fell nearly 12% in March from a year earlier as the pandemic hammered demand in its two biggest markets, the U.S. and China.
The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong lost 0.2%, and South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.8%.
European markets were modestly higher The German DAX was up 0.5%, the French CAC 40 was up 0.7% and the FTSE 100 in London gained 0.7%.
In a sign of continued caution in the market, Treasury yields remained extremely low. The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 0.62% from 0.65% late Friday. It started the year near 1.90%. Bond yields drop when their prices rise, and investors tend to buy Treasurys when they’re worried about the economy.
Stocks have been on a generally upward swing recently, and the S&P 500 just closed out its first back-to-back weekly gain since the market began selling off in February. Promises of massive aid for the economy and markets by the Federal Reserve and U.S. government ignited the rally, which sent the S&P 500 up as much as 28.5% since a low on March 23.
More recently, countries around the world have tentatively eased up on business-shutdown restrictions put in place to slow the spread of the virus.
But health experts warn the pandemic is far from over and new flareups could ignite if governments rush to allow ”normal” life to return prematurely.
The S&P 500 remains about 15% below its record high in February as millions more U.S. workers file for unemployment every week amid the shutdowns.
Many analysts also warn that a significant part of the recent recovery in stocks is due to the expectation among some investors that the economy will rebound sharply once economic quarantines are lifted. They’re essentially predicting that a line chart of the economy will ultimately resemble the letter “V,” with a wild ride down but then a quick pivot to a vigorous recovery.
That may be to optimistic. “We caution that a U-shaped recovery is also quite likely,” where the economy bottoms out and stays at that low level for a while before recovering, strategists at Barclays warned in a recent report.
Without strong testing programs for COVID-19, businesses likely won’t feel comfortable bringing back their full workforces for a while.
”With risk assets now overbought, the chance for a correction has increased,” Morgan Stanley strategists wrote in a report.

US needs to conduct 20 million coronavirus tests per day to fully reopen, Harvard report says https://t.co/uipMUpP9si pic.twitter.com/iXAfZHxrYR

— The Hill (@thehill) April 20, 2020

@"Vikergirl" said:

@"purplefaithful" said:

@"RS Express" said:

@"purplefaithful" said:

@"RS Express" said:

@"JimmyinSD" said:

@"RS Express" said:

 Be just great if we get shut down and I lose my job because  a governor too stupid to tell people to stay home dropped their outbreak on us. 

You work in an essential occupation facility,   none of those are getting shut down  until they go to shit in any state. 

Just got the word... JBS closing down Tuesday :o   Don't start a side gig as a fortuneteller.  May the moths flying out of my wallet eat everything in Kristi Noem's closet.

I saw that, sorry to hear it too...

26 workers infected?

I'll bet it's more than that, let alone their peeps @ home. 

Don't know the exact number for the plant, but the latest update is 76 for the county. We're the biggest cluster (f$%k) between Minneapolis and Sioux Falls. 

Actually I'm not really surprised.  I'd told friends over the past few weeks that once corona got to Worthington JBS would go off like a bomb.  Too many people too close together with too much blood and guts around.

How many undocumented workers too? At the plant? In the area? 

Not to go all political on this, but I'll bet they're over represented and scared as F*&k to get tested, reported etc. 

Good point. That got me thinking about Hormel in Austin. There are 48 different languages spoken in Austin. I bet a lot of people won't get tested because of fears of ICE. Of course it depends on which state they are in. It has to be incredibly scary to not be able to get tested because of this additional consideration.

@"RS Express" said:

Wait a minute... I thought Trump wanted the states to get their own PPE ? https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/04/hospitals-face-a-white-house-blockade-for-coronavirus-ppe.html

Political post.  
Position nuked on my post in the appropriate forum, sensitive topics, where it belongs.  Read it and apologize.  https://vikefans.com/discussion/#/discussion/11369/remember-the-ventilator-shortage-angst

@"purplefaithful" said: Anyone else remember oil @ $100/Barrel?

Oil price goes negative as demand collapses; stocks dip

By STAN CHOE , DAMIAN J. TROISE and ALEX VEIGA Associated PressApril 20, 2020 — 2:16pm

NEW YORK — Oil futures plunged below zero for the first time on Monday as demand for energy collapses amid the coronavirus pandemic and traders sought to avoid owning crude with nowhere to store it.
Stocks were also slipping on Wall Street in afternoon trading, with the S&P 500 down 1.2%, but the market’s most dramatic action by far was in oil, where benchmark U.S. crude for May delivery plummeted to negative $35.20, as of 2:30 pm. Eastern time. It was nearly $60 at the start of the year, before business-shutdown orders swept the world and idled factories, offices and automobiles.
Much of the drop was chalked up to technical reasons — the May delivery contract is close to expiring so its trading volume was light, which can exacerbate swings. But prices for deliveries even further into the future, which were seeing larger trading volumes, also plunged. Demand for oil has collapsed so much that facilities for storing crude are nearly full.
Tanks could hit their limits within three weeks, according to Chris Midgley, head of analytics at S&P Global Platts. And traders are willing to pay someone else to take that oil for delivery in May and shift the burden of figuring out where to keep it.
Benchmark U.S. crude oil for June delivery, which shows a more ”normal” price, fell 16.5% to $20.90 per barrel. Big oil producers have announced cutbacks in production in hopes of better balancing supplies with demand, but many analysts say it’s not enough.
“Basically, bears are out for blood,” analyst Naeem Aslam of Avatrade said in a report. “The steep fall in the price is because of the lack of sufficient demand and lack of storage place given the fact that the production cut has failed to address the supply glut.”
Halliburton swung between gains and sharp losses, even though it reported stronger results for the first three months of 2020 than analysts expected. The oilfield engineering company said that the pandemic has created so much turmoil in the industry that it “cannot reasonably estimate” how long the hit will last. It expects a further decline in revenue and profitability for the rest of 2020, particularly in North America.
Brent crude, the international standard, was down $2.46 to $25.62 per barrel. .
In the stock market, the mild drops ate into some of the big gains made since late March, driven lately by investors looking ahead to parts of the economy possibly reopening as infections level off in hard-hit areas. Pessimists have called the rally overdone, pointing to the severe economic pain sweeping the world and continued uncertainty about how long it will last.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 444 points, or 1.9%, to 23,797. The Nasdaq was down 0.4%.
Energy stocks took the sharpest losses, with those in the S&P 500 down 3.7%. But the losses were widespread, with all 11 sectors in the index down.
“The government can declare whatever they want in terms of encouraging people to get out and do stuff,” said Willie Delwiche, investment strategist at Baird. “Whether or not broad swaths of society do that remains to be seen. It’s going to take seeing people start to get out and do stuff again. That will be the necessary positive development, not just declaring getting things open.”
More gains from companies that are winners in the new stay-at-home economy helped limit the market’s losses Amazon rose 1.7%, and Netflix jumped 4% as people shut in at home buy staples and look to fill their time. Both were close to setting record highs. .
In Tokyo the Nikkei 225 fell 1.1% after Japan reported that its exports fell nearly 12% in March from a year earlier as the pandemic hammered demand in its two biggest markets, the U.S. and China.
The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong lost 0.2%, and South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.8%.
European markets were modestly higher The German DAX was up 0.5%, the French CAC 40 was up 0.7% and the FTSE 100 in London gained 0.7%.
In a sign of continued caution in the market, Treasury yields remained extremely low. The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 0.62% from 0.65% late Friday. It started the year near 1.90%. Bond yields drop when their prices rise, and investors tend to buy Treasurys when they’re worried about the economy.
Stocks have been on a generally upward swing recently, and the S&P 500 just closed out its first back-to-back weekly gain since the market began selling off in February. Promises of massive aid for the economy and markets by the Federal Reserve and U.S. government ignited the rally, which sent the S&P 500 up as much as 28.5% since a low on March 23.
More recently, countries around the world have tentatively eased up on business-shutdown restrictions put in place to slow the spread of the virus.
But health experts warn the pandemic is far from over and new flareups could ignite if governments rush to allow ”normal” life to return prematurely.
The S&P 500 remains about 15% below its record high in February as millions more U.S. workers file for unemployment every week amid the shutdowns.
Many analysts also warn that a significant part of the recent recovery in stocks is due to the expectation among some investors that the economy will rebound sharply once economic quarantines are lifted. They’re essentially predicting that a line chart of the economy will ultimately resemble the letter “V,” with a wild ride down but then a quick pivot to a vigorous recovery.
That may be to optimistic. “We caution that a U-shaped recovery is also quite likely,” where the economy bottoms out and stays at that low level for a while before recovering, strategists at Barclays warned in a recent report.
Without strong testing programs for COVID-19, businesses likely won’t feel comfortable bringing back their full workforces for a while.
”With risk assets now overbought, the chance for a correction has increased,” Morgan Stanley strategists wrote in a report.

BAAAD news for investing/401k's.....as most have some tie-in to the energy sector/oil companies.  

Can you be surprised?   You shut down small businesses (80% of US economy) with the "lock-down", you'll get a commensurate decrease in energy demand.  
Which was decreasing, already.  

I'm a "small-business"...and might get a govt. 'stimulus'....but I sure as hell aint splurging on 'gas'.  

BUT, you might want folks spending gas money, to travel to me.  Jus sayin.  

Or.... continue with the lock-down.  Whatevs.  

BREAKING: Governor Kemp has announced that businesses such as gyms, barbershops and bowling alleys can reopen for operations on Friday, April 24th.

Theaters, social clubs, and restaurants will be allowed to reopen on Monday, April 27th. pic.twitter.com/IcPifKymi9

— Everything Georgia (@GAFollowers) April 20, 2020

*deleted*  commentary/ political

Update on the update on the... you get the idea.

First I was told that we'd be closing Tuesday. Walk into work and see schedules up on the wall for Wednesday.  Then I'm told we're working until Thursday.  Wish these guys would get their story straight.  Looks like they've shut down the kill line and are just processing what's already been slaughtered. 

But hey, at least we're famous! (facepalm)

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/minnesota-pork-plant-shuts-down-after-outbreak-among-workers/ar-BB12VZpe?ocid=spartandhp  

Interesting here is the possibility that Smithfield and JBS could now be passing the virus back and forth because of the large number of family members working at both plants :#