Corona Capital from Breakingviews: While companies around the world slashed payouts, North American dividends held steady. Still, COVID-19’s damage will endure
A 3D printed Zoom logo is placed between small toy people figures and a keyboard in this illustration taken April 12, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/IllustrationDIVIDENDS PEELED. Companies slashed payouts in the second quarter by more than a fifth to $382 billion globally, according to Janus Henderson Investors. Continental Europe accounted for most of the dollars held back, with dividends down 45% from a year earlier, though the UK saw an even steeper percentage slide.
Zoom is a pandemic winner, with rocketing user numbers and a market capitalization that has quadrupled to more than $80 billion since January. Such growth can be painful – Twitter’s frequent early outages, accompanied by error messages featuring a cartoon “fail whale,” became a running joke. In that case, users mostly forgave or forgot.
The big difference is that now, only a quarter of U.S. cinemas are open, and at half capacity. The world’s largest chain AMC Entertainment welcomed moviegoers on Thursday for the first time since Covid-19 hit, celebrating its 100th anniversary by selling tickets at 1920 prices. The next big cinematic tentpole will be Warner Bros’ sci-fi thriller “Tenet” on Sept. 3. The ultra-violent “Unhinged” has set the bar low.
BUY NOW, PAIN LATER. Afterpay is rushing to the checkout. The $17 billion Australian company offering “buy now, pay later” instalment purchase plans to customers of fast-fashion retailers is expanding into Europe with the acquisition of Spanish rival Pagantis for about $57 million. On one level, it looks like a good time to buy: Afterpay stock has been trading at all-time highs as consumers, stuck at home because of lockdown restrictions and virus fears, have turned to online shopping.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
‘Love in the Time of Corona’ Review: An Uneven Time Capsule of Early QuarantineIt only took a few weeks of social distancing to make the world that existed before COVID-19 feel absurdly out of reach. After building new routines of donning face masks and frantically wiping dow…
Read more »
Zoom down in parts of U.S. as video calling tool confirms outages hitting meetings and webinars'We have received reports of users being unable to visit the Zoom website (zoom.us) and unable to start and join Zoom Meetings and Webinars,' the company said, confirming reports of outages.
Read more »
Amandla Stenberg Will Star in the 'Dear Evan Hansen' MovieThe 'Dear Evan Hansen' movie, a big-screen adaptation of the Broadway musical about truth, grief, and loss, has officially found its Alana in Amandla Stenberg ✨
Read more »
Widespread Zoom outage upends remote learning, court proceedings and moreThe video conferencing software Zoom is experiencing widespread outages, upending digital schooling, remote court proceedings and more virtual operations across the country.
Read more »
Zoom's video chat is experiencing outagesZoom reported 'partial outages' for its video service just before 9 a.m. ET on Monday.
Read more »
Zoom says video chat service restored after outageZoom reported 'partial outages' for its video service just before 9 a.m. ET on Monday.
Read more »