mark manduca. this is bloomberg. ♪ vonnie: live from new york, i'm vonnie quinn, along with guy johnson in london.his is the rp and close on -- this is the european close on "bloomberg markets." let's cut the first word news with ritika gupta. ritika: last week, 11 gunboats from iran's revolutionary guards passed u.s. boats at close range in the persian gulf. president trump's immigration ban isn't as wide-ranging as some had feared. he's ordered a 60 day halt and issuing green cards that allow foreigners to live in the u.s. permanently, but backed away from plans to spend guestworker programs. business groups exploded in anger at that idea. still, the president has hinted there could be further restrictions. the senate has passed a $484 billion relief package that includes money for the tapped out program to aid small businesses. there's also money for coronavirus testing and hospitals swamped by patients. the house could take up the measure as early as tomorrow. in the u.k., finance minister rishi sunak says there are encouraging signs the outbreak is slowing. yesterday's death toll was the slow

mark crumpton. this is bloomberg. ♪ vonnie: this is bloomberg markets. i'm vonnie quinn.he coronavirus has affected more than 2.1 million people around the globe. professor and rolla just spoke to us about the unique nature of this virus. is interesting in that it causes a broad spectrum of diseases. it is true the vast majority of people will suffer mild to moderate diseases, maybe even no symptoms at all. but when you look at the vulnerable portions of the population, the elderly, when you look at people with secondary medical conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, lung disease, even when you look at relatively healthy individuals, there are a significant part of the population that has severe disease requiring, if not a hospital visit, admission into the hospital. so it runs on a huge spectrum in terms of how it presents that infection. enzymes't want to talk rna,friday, certainly not and the other necessities of doing a test, but i would , america, from the top down, does not understand the sophisticated biochemistry of tests. how hard is it to do millions of tes

mark crumpton. this is bloomberg. ♪ vonnie: this is bloomberg markets. i'm vonnie quinn.emocrats and republicans are new and agreement to add funds to the small business program approved by congress last month. kevin cirilli joins us now with a key lawmaker on the subject. kevin: thank you. i'm joined by congressman josh gottheimer of new jersey. you are also the cochair of the problem solvers caucus in the house of representatives. you have unveiled a checklist of sorts for how to reopen the economy. what is in it? >> thanks for having me. part of what everyone wants to focus on of course is what i need to know so that we can reopen society, how we can get back to business, back to work. and of course how we can do it safely. our caucus is 25 republicans and democrats, and we said, what like?hat checklist look we spoke to people in the private sector, small businesses, and health experts. at the top of the list, you will see testing. that is so essential to making sure we can really reopen society and get things moving again. we have to get that testing, make sure we hav

mark crumpton. this is bloomberg. ♪ vonnie: this is bloomberg markets. i'm vonnie quinn. it is time for the latest business flash.eneral motors taking steps to preserve cash at a time when few people are buying cars. the automaker suspending its quarterly dividend payment. they're also putting their share buyback program on hold. they had already cut white-collar salaries and put 6500 employees on leave. production ofing its flagship iphone this year. production of four devices will be pushed back about a month. major retailers are calling on the states to adopt unified reopening plans to trade groups, sending plans to governors, according to bloomberg. the president is expected to make an announcement with retailers this afternoon on testing and reopening. that is the latest bloomberg business flash. our next guest is world-renowned chef daniel boulud. he joins us at a time when knockednts have been out by the coronavirus pandemic. has second round of ppp gotten underway, and restaurants have had to close all over new york city, including chef daniel's empire of restaurants. but he is working to reactivate kitch

mark crumpton. this is bloomberg. ♪ vonnie: this is bloomberg markets. i'm vonnie quinn.he coronavirus pandemic continues to trigger slumps in the oil industry. matt miller earlier exclusively to the head of shell about historic cut to its dividend. of course, it is a difficult day. on the other hand, it is also an inevitable moment. facing twocally problems. one is the poor macroeconomic environment, which is getting worse, but the other problem which is bigger, we have the crisis of uncertainty. uncertainty about demand, prices. thee even uncertainty about viability of some of our assets, given the logistical issues we have. we have taken some strong and early countermeasures to protect the financial resilience of our company. you have seen before we have taken a reduction in capital $9ts, operating costs, billion, but these countermeasures are not enough to deal with the unprecedented uncertainty we are seeing. the board decided that it was prudent to also reduce the dividend. early this morning, we decided to reset the dividend to $.16 going forward, which is still a

mark crumpton. this is bloomberg. ♪ vonnie: this is bloomberg markets. i'm vonnie quinn.ew us home construction in the month of march declined by the pandemice 1984 as the takes a toll on housing. we spoke with sheryl palmer about how the industry is adjusting to this new normal. we should beink surprised by the numbers, if you think about what has happened in the last 45 days. marge was really a tale of two halves, we started to meet with some of the strongest activity in years. we just released our q1, sure that our orders were up 35% respectively, so tremendous momentum moving into march. by the end of march, it was a different environment across the country. builders were either closed, or by appointment only, stay-at-home orders different across the u.s. as people disruptive were trying to find out how to operate in that new normal. municipalities were staffed and very degrees by market. the permit process, i heard some permits were even quarantined for days at a time. there are a number of different factors, where we came into the month, and how we will come out, ov

mark crumpton. this is bloomberg., and even len downtown ♪ vonnie: this is bloomberg markets. i'm vonnie quinn.il's meltdown a ring today as the world runs out of places to store crude and grapples with negative pricing. president trump and others weighing in on the crisis. >> nobody has ever heard of negative oil. >> we probably will not see this again in my lifetime but it is a reflection of how oversupplied the market is, how weak demand is, and how tight the term structure has gotten. >> i think your concern to see it come into balance next year. going forward, north american production will be structurally impaired. >> it is a perfect storm for the oil producers out there, and you are seeing that reflected in the prices. >> this is not good for the u.s. economy. >> everyone will be looking at and taking signals from what is happening. june couldecovering, end up following may. vonnie: let's discuss how companies will survive in this time. mayor,joined by regina kpmg global head of energy. paint the picture of houston. we are seeing stories of oklahoma, north dakota absolutely devastated by

mark gandy, incoming ceo of colony capital. new york, this is bloomberg. ♪ vonnie: this is bloomberg markets. i'm vonnie quinn.gail doolittle joins us now. we are halfway into the wednesday trading day. abigail: and it is a risk off day for sure. the tone started yesterday late in the day, when seller started to take control of the s&p 500 and other averages. the weakness is extending into the asian session, european session, and the s&p 500 down 40 has an -- 4%. the 10 year yield is down, we saw haven bonds are rallying, and the dollar is rallying to. stocksrs out of riskier into the haven assets on the uncertainty around the coronavirus. at this point, not just the economic impacts, but also the human tragedy, as it is moving swiftly in the u.s., especially in new york. i was talking about the technicals on the s&p 500. your today, if we take a look at the s&p 500, that steve brown -- deep steve down trend is a matter of levels. you can see the s&p 500 shoot all the way up towards 3000. if at current levels, just below current levels, if the s&p 500 canes down 4.2 percent, you see the s&p 500 put in new lows

mark crumpton. this is bloomberg. in new york, 1:00 6:00 in london, 1:00 a.m. in hong kong. i'm vonnie quinn. welcome to bloomberg markets. here are the top stories we are following from around the world. u.s. stocks are raising gains from what has been a recovery rally. the s&p 500 was up almost 2% but losing ground now on a ft report that gilead, maker of remdesivir, may not be as effective. jobless claims rising by 4.4 million last week but a number coming in slightly less than expected. total job losses now top 26 million in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. in a few minutes, an exclusive conversation with the former national economic council director gary cohn. you don't want to miss that. let's get a quick check on the markets. .8%,&p 500 is up just giving back some ground. there was an immediate downturn after that ft report on gilead's drug being a failure came out. gilead is down 4.75%. so interesting, it was a who report published by mistake that the ft reported on. gilead's response was that there were not enough people enrolled, and the study was ended due to low enrollment an

mark strassmann. >> unfortunately, the severe weather threat is not over. lonnie quinnathercaster at wcbs tv is tracking all the storms today. lonnie, good morning. who is in the crosshairs today? >> okay, right now, tony, we're talking about tornado watches anywhere from the panhandle of florida all up the eastern seaboard to portions of virginia. i wouldn't be surprised if that tornado watch pushed further north as the day went on. what's the culprit here? look at the low-level jet stream. the low-level jet stream, it's flowing at around 120 miles per hour and it's important to talk about the low-level jet because that's air less than 10,000 feet from the surface. all it takes is a little piece to drop down. the worst of it around the carolinas. by the time you get to lunchtime, it's into the chesapeake. 4:00, it's into new york city. we're not talking sustained winds but gusts and even the possibility for more tornadic activity. wind alerts. the red is most serious. those are high wind warnings where it's most likely to find the power outages. all the areas shaded in