Coronavirus live updates: 3.8 million homeowners delay mortgage payments, manufacturing tanks in April

Wall Street is closing out a painful week of earnings reports with one bright spot: Clorox reported higher profit off demand for cleaning products. As states struggle to find the balance between keeping their populations safe and allowing workplaces to restart their engines, the market is cheering news about possible Covid-19 vaccines and treatments. Gilead Sciences and Moderna continue to make headlines as drugmakers work furiously to end the pandemic.

This is CNBC’s live blog covering all the latest news on the coronavirus outbreak. All times below are in Eastern time. This blog will be updated throughout the day as the news breaks. 

• Global cases: More than 3.2 million
• Global deaths: At least 233,704
• US cases: More than 1 million
• US deaths: At least 63,019

The data above was compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban told CNBC that small businesses in Texas need more support as the state lifts some coronavirus-related restrictions. 

“There’s all these downstream issues that really haven’t been addressed yet,” he said, such as costs associated with complying with new safety and sanitation standards. “I think it’s more show than go, but we’ll see what happens.” 

The state’s limit on operating capacity also presents challenges for workers who rely on tips, Cuban said. “Unless the employer is going to guarantee them a much higher rate because you’re going to have diminished number of customers, then they’re not going to want to come back to work,” the “Shark Tank” investor and Dallas Mavericks owner said. —Kevin Stankiewicz

People who live or work in San Francisco can access a free coronavirus test if they have symptoms, according to a tweet from Mayor London Breed. Insurance is not needed to get a test and results will be provided within 1 to 3 days.

Los Angeles became the first major U.S city to offer free coronavirus testing, CNBC’s Christina Farr reported Wednesday. Residents can access tests even if they do not have symptoms. —Hannah Miller 

The U.K has quickly ramped up its daily Covid-19 testing this week from 52,000 on Tuesday to 122,347 on Thursday, Health Minister Matt Hancock said.

Earlier this month, Hancock said the government would carry out 100,000 daily tests by the end of April.

The testing target is being described as a “red herring” by National Health Service providers, CNBC’s Sam Meredith and Ryan Browne report.12:43 pm: UK reaches 100,000 daily coronavirus tests. —Chris Eudaily

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the state’s schools and colleges will stay closed for the remainder of the academic year as the state continues to employ distance learning in an effort to curb the spread of coronavirus.

Cuomo said state officials don’t believe schools could develop a plan in time to reopen for the school year that would keep students safe. A decision on summer school will be announced at the end of May, CNBC’s Noah Higgins Dunn and Jasmine Kim report. —Terri Cullen

New research has shown that a second-trimester miscarriage in a Covid-19 patient was attributed to a placental infection of the virus, and some U.S. obstetricians have noticed an uptick in still births since the pandemic hit, CNBC’s Jasmine Kim reported.

Reports suggest that there may be a Covid-19-induced placental infection, according to research published Thursday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

“This case of miscarriage during the second trimester of pregnancy in a woman with Covid-19 appears related to placental infection with SARS-CoV-2, supported by virological findings in the placenta,” the researchers said. —Terri Cullen

The U.S. manufacturing sector came under intense pressure in April, falling to its worst level in 11 years, but economists noted the drop was not as bad as they feared.

The ISM Manufacturing Index dropped to 41.5, compared with Street estimates of 35, but down sharply from March’s 49.1, CNBC’s Jeff Cox reports. A reading below 50 indicates a contraction in the sector. —Terri Cullen

As earnings season kicked into high gear, companies that rely heavily on ad revenue reported a steep drop-off of advertising in March though it wasn’t as dire as analysts expected. 

The second quarter is likely to be a whole different story. CNBC’s Megan Graham reports on what Alphabet, Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, and some of the biggest ad companies are saying about the current-quarter outlook. —Terri Cullen

At least one Apple business expects the coronavirus crisis to add to its bottom line rather than weigh on its near-term prospects. The business is app-developer Claris, which sells the low-code application development software called FileMaker.

“There is a massive opportunity for low code to help in the Covid-19 situation,” said Claris CEO Brad Freitag. 

Claris has worked with health-care providers to develop apps in as short as one day, according to a report by CNBC’s Eric Rosenbaum. One app was developed for a hospital in Europe, which became critical to make real-time medical decisions for Covid-19 patients. —Terri Cullen

A growing number of borrowers are delaying monthly mortgage payments as part of the government’s bailout program, as the ranks of the unemployed continued to swell due to the coronavirus outbreak. 

As of Thursday, more than 3.8 million homeowners, or 7.3% of all active mortgages, were in forbearance, according to mortgage data and analytics firm Black Knight.

The federal program allows borrowers to delay up to a year’s worth of payments, though they must be made up later through either repayment plans or mortgage modifications, according to CNBC’s Diana Olick. —Terri Cullen

Companies have been forced to embrace remote working amid stay-at-home orders for all nonessential positions and businesses.

With proof that productivity does not suffer, more major employers, including Mondelez, Nationwide, and Barclays, talk about a permanent shift to work from home and reduced office space.

Read the full report from CNBC’s Adedayo Akala on big employers talking about permanent work-from-home positions here. —Melodie Warner

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban told CNBC the only fair way to operate the federal Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, is through a lottery.

Cuban suggested that all applications for small business relief loans go into a repository at the Treasury Department, and then officials would randomly select a certain quantity of loans for approval, CNBC’s Kevin Stankiewicz reports.

“They see what the total is, and however much money left they have, they go to the next 50,000 until the money is gone,” he said. “That’s the only way to be objective and fair.” Cuban has been critical of the PPP program’s roll out.” —Terri Cullen

Biotech stocks saw the best monthly gain in two decades as investors find hope in coronavirus drug and testing developments that may help mitigate the pandemic.

The S&P 500 health-care sector gained 12% in April and the sector’s top-performing stocks were diagnostic firms at the heart of the Covid-19 testing expansion. For the month, Hologic surged 42%; Quest Diagnostics soared 36%; and Incyte Corp., which is developing a coronavirus treatment, jumped 33%.

Read the full report from CNBC’s Bertha Coombs on biotech stocks here. —Melodie Warner

The coronavirus pandemic could last up to two years, according to a report published Thursday from scientists at the University of Minnesota.

The scientists said that the coronavirus is more contagious than the flu, has a higher rate of asymptomatic transmission, and would continue to circulate after the first wave this spring, according to a report by CNBC’s Chloe Taylor. —Hannah Miller

U.S. biotech company Moderna is aiming to begin manufacturing an unapproved coronavirus vaccine “as early as July,” CEO Stephane Bancel told CNBC.

The company has entered into a 10-year partnership with Swiss drugmaker Lonza to quickly move forward with manufacturing of the experimental vaccine mRNA-1273, which is now in a phase 1 human trial. The potential vaccine became the first candidate to enter a phase 1 trial in March, though the results of the trial have not yet been released, according to a report by CNBC’s Will Feuer. —Hannah Miller

Workers are planning to call out of work today as part of a nationwide employee “sickout” involving companies like Target, Whole Foods, Amazon, Instacart, FedEx, and Walmart.

They are protesting the slashing of hours, unstable schedules, and the need for greater health benefits. They are also asking for greater safety protections from the coronavirus at their jobs.

Read the full report from NBC on workers’ protest plans here. —Hannah Miller 

Teresa Rodriguez said on March 23, she woke up feeling extremely tired, and her health deteriorated quickly from there. It’s now been more than a month and she’s still battling a lingering headache, cough, and fatigue.

Patients diagnosed or suspected to have Covid-19 are posting via online forums and on social media about symptoms that feel endless. Many say it comes in waves. They start feeling better after a few weeks, but it hits them again and persists.

Read the full report from CNBC’s Christina Farr on coronavirus patients’ symptoms here. —Melodie Warner

Exxon Mobil lost $610 million in the first quarter due to write-downs tied to falling oil prices. West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. oil benchmark, has dropped more than 70% this year.

“Covid-19 has significantly impacted near-term demand, resulting in oversupplied markets and unprecedented pressure on commodity prices and margins,” CEO Darren Woods said in a statement.

Read the full report from CNBC’s Pippa Stevens on Exxon’s first-quarter results here. —Melodie Warner

Amazon employees who can perform their jobs from home will be allowed to continue to work from home until at least Oct. 2. The company said the new timeline applies to workers around the globe, Reuters reported.

Amazon did not provide details about how much of its overall workforce works remotely or which roles are included. On Thursday, Amazon said it will spend all of its profit for the second quarter of 2020, at least $4 billion, on its response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Read the full report from Reuters on Amazon’s extended work from home order here. —Elisabeth Butler Cordova 

Germany’s approach to employment in the coronavirus crisis is an example of how the world can deal with the economic fallout of the pandemic, the head of the United Nation’s labor agency said. 

Guy Ryder, the director-general of the International Labour Organization (ILO), told CNBC that under Germany’s “Kurzarbeit,” or “short-time work,” program workers are sent home or see their hours slashed but are paid around two-thirds of their salary by the state. 

Read the full report from CNBC’s Vicky McKeever on ILO Director-General Guy Ryder’s comments here. —Melodie Warner

Clorox announced results for its fiscal third quarter, reporting a 15% jump in sales as demand for its cleaning products skyrocketed. 

Net income and earnings per share also rose year over year, coming in at $241 million, or $1.89 per share. 

Read the full report from CNBC’s Amelia Lucas on Clorox earnings here. —Sara Salinas

China’s central province of Hubei, where the coronavirus was first detected in late 2019, is reportedly poised to ease lockdown restrictions.

Hubei’s health commission posted on its official WeChat account on Friday that it will move to lower its emergency response level to the second-highest grade on Saturday, according to Reuters.

It marks a major milestone in China’s fight against the coronavirus outbreak. Theories about the origins of the outbreak include that it emerged from a seafood market in Wuhan, Hubei’s provincial capital, in December.

To date, more than 3.27 million people have contracted Covid-19 worldwide, with 233,704 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. —Sam Meredith

Iran reported the number of cases reached 95,646, the health ministry said, according to Reuters. 

The ministry also confirmed 63 new deaths over the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of Covid-19 deaths in the country up to 6,091. 

The Islamic Republic is one of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic in the Middle East. —Sam Meredith

Spain reported 281 new fatalities over the last 24 hours, the health ministry said, taking the nationwide death toll up to 24,824. The previous day’s death toll was 268.

The number of cases rose to 215,216, up from 213,435 the day before. Spain has reported the second-highest number of Covid-19 infections worldwide. 

The U.S. has recorded the most coronavirus cases, accounting for roughly one-third the global total after surpassing the 1 million milestone earlier this week. —Sam Meredith

Studies and clinical trials underway at Massachusetts General Hospital aim to find out whether inhaled nitric oxide could help treat patients with the coronavirus.

Nitric oxide is a colorless, tasteless and short-acting gas that widens blood vessels in the lungs when inhaled. 

Preliminary data has suggested that inhaled nitric oxide could have a virus-killing effect on the coronavirus, Massachusetts General said in an online statement. It is due to the genomic similarities between Covid-19 and those that caused the SARS and MERS outbreaks. Studies during the SARS outbreak in 2004 to 2005 demonstrated that nitric oxide was effective in killing that virus.

To be sure, the effectiveness of nitric oxide in treating the new coronavirus has not been studied before. There are no known vaccines or specific antiviral medicines against Covid-19. 

In the ’90s, nitric oxide played a central role in the development of the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra. — Sam Meredith

Read CNBC’s coverage from CNBC’s Asia-Pacific and Europe teams overnight here: EU chief backs investigation into virus origin; Russia reports record spike in cases