Coronavirus live updates: Labor market data show continued collapse, US hot spots span the East Coast

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 2.6 million
• Global deaths: At least 183,820
• US cases: More than 842,600
• US deaths: At least 46,785

The data above was compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Sales of new U.S. single-family homes dropped by the most in more than 6.5 years in March and further declines are likely as the novel coronavirus outbreak batters the economy and throws millions of Americans out of work.

The Commerce Department said on Thursday new home sales fell 15.4% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 627,000 units last month. The percentage decline was the largest since July 2013. February’s sales pace was revised down to 741,000 units from the previously reported 765,000 units.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast new home sales, which account for about 10% of housing market sales, plunging 15% to a pace of 645,000 units in March. —Reuters

As human telehealth visits are forecast to surge past 1 billion this year, the veterinary industry is following suit, at least for now, in order to reduce the spread of coronavirus.

On March 24 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced it would temporarily suspend a requirement for veterinarians to examine animals in person before beginning telemedicine in order to “limit human-to-human interaction and potential spread of Covid-19.”

The decision came at a good time: On Wednesday the first cases of positive coronavirus tests in U.S. domestic pets, in two New York area cats, were confirmed, along with four more tigers and three lions at the Bronx Zoo. On April 6 the first tiger to test positive for the virus, at that same zoo, tested positive.

The measure, along with an April 30 extension of federal social distancing guidelines, has resulted in a widespread migration to virtual animal care. —Sully Barrett

Stocks rose slightly as oil prices recovered even more ground after a historic plunge while Wall Street digested the latest U.S. unemployment and earnings data.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 83 points, or 0.4%. The S&P 500 gained 0.4% while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.3%.

West Texas Intermediate futures for June delivery jumped 21% to $16.63 per barrel as traders increased bets on U.S. production cuts. WTI also rallied on Wednesday. —Fred Imbert, Thomas Franck 

Billionaire investor Leon Cooperman said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that the coronavirus crisis will “likely” change capitalism forever and that taxes will need to be raised soon.

“When the government is called upon to protect you on the downside, they have every right to regulate you on the upside,” Cooperman said. “So capitalism is changed.”

The chairman and CEO of Omega Family Office said the country is shifting to the left and that taxes will have to go up regardless of who wins the presidential election in November. 

“Quickly if Biden wins, slowly if Trump wins, but taxes have to go up. So things like carried interest, capital gains taxes, the ability to roll over real estate sales tax-free, all that stuff is going to have to be eliminated. For the good, by the way,” Cooperman said. —Jesse Pound

Expedia is raising $3.2 billion in new capital as the coronavirus pandemic has stalled travel around the world.

The company is raising $1.2 billion in a private placement of perpetual preferred stock and $2 billion in new debt financing. Funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management and Silver Lake will provide the equity investment and will each get a spot on the company’s board, according to Expedia. The funding is expected to close May 5.

Expedia said it expects the new funds to strengthen its financial flexibility and liquidity position. —Lauren Feiner

Gap said its existing cash and the cash it expects to bring in might not be enough to sufficiently fund its operations, as its stores remain temporarily shut because of the coronavirus pandemic. 

The apparel company said in a securities filing that it must take further actions to find liquidity over the next 12 months, such as additional job cuts and new debt financing. 

It added that beginning this month, it stopped paying rent on its temporarily shuttered stores, which amounts to roughly $115 million in monthly expenses in North America. —Lauren Thomas

Oil jumped more than 20%, accelerating Wednesday’s rally, as the Street eyed continued production cuts and rising U.S.-Iranian tensions.

West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, rose 21.4%, or $2.95, to trade at $16.73 per barrel. Brent crude, the international benchmark, traded 9.4% higher at $22.29 per barrel.

Thursday’s move higher comes after WTI jumped 19.1% a day earlier for one of its best days on record. —Pippa Stevens 

Indonesia will temporarily ban domestic air and sea travel starting Friday, barring a few exceptions, to prevent further spread of coronavirus, Transport Ministry officials said.

The ban on air travel will be in place until June 1, said Novie Riyanto Rahardjo, the ministry’s director general of aviation. The ban on travel by sea will be in place until June 8, sea transportation director general Agus Purnomo said.

Cargo transportation is exempted from the ban, the officials said.

The government is banning Indonesia’s traditional annual exodus for Muslim holidays. —Reuters

Target has seen a sharp increase in online sales, as shoppers try to limit time inside stores or avoid the trips altogether during the coronavirus pandemic, CEO Brian Cornell said.

Since its fiscal first quarter began Feb. 2, Target’s same-store sales have risen more than 7%. The gain, which compares with an increase of 1.5% in the fiscal fourth quarter, is the result of a doubling of its online sales, partially offset by declines inside its nearly 1,900 brick-and-mortar stores. 

In an interview with “Squawk Box,” Cornell said Target is trying to figure out if customers’ new shopping patterns are here to stay.

“We are spending a lot of time trying to understand how the pandemic is going to change the future of how American consumers shop, how they live, how they work, the things that they value,” he said. “But it’s been really hard to predict week by week.” —Melissa Repko

Tyson Foods is shuttering two pork processing plants, including its largest in the United States, after employees tested positive for Covid-19, further tightening meat supplies after other major slaughterhouse shutdowns.

The closures are limiting the amount of meat the U.S. can produce during the outbreak and adding stress on farmers who are losing markets for their pigs.

Lockdowns that aim to stop the spread of the virus have also prevented farmers around the globe from delivering food products to consumers. Millions of laborers cannot get to fields for harvesting and planting, and there are too few truckers to keep goods moving.

Tyson Foods, the largest U.S. meat supplier, said it will indefinitely suspend operations at its largest pork plant in Waterloo, Iowa, after operating at reduced capacity. —Reuters

South Korea’s ruling party and the government on Thursday agreed to provide cash handouts to every household, not just to families below the top 30 percentile of income as previously announced, the finance ministry said.

The ministry separately said the government will issue additional bonds to fund the cash handout. —Reuters

Australia will push for an international investigation into the coronavirus pandemic at next month’s annual meeting of the World Health Assembly, the decision-making body of the World Health Organization, its prime minister said, according to Reuters.

Australia wants a review into the WHO’s response to the pandemic and would like to see the organization strengthened. —Holly Ellyatt

Spain has reported that 440 people have died from in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of deaths to 22,157, its health ministry said.

The death toll has risen slightly from Wednesday, when 435 deaths were reported. The total number of cases has reached 213,024, up 4,635 from the previous day. —Holly Ellyatt

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the end of the pandemic is not yet in sight and people will have to live with the virus “for a long time.”

Speaking to Germany’s Parliament, the Bundestag, Merkel said, “We are not living in the final phase of the pandemic, but still at the beginning.”

“We have won time,” Merkel said, according to a Reuters translation, adding that this had been used to bolster Germany’s health-care system. —Holly Ellyatt

Euro zone business activity hit another record low during April in a new sign that the coronavirus pandemic is causing severe economic damage across the region.

The IHS Markit Purchasing Managers’ Index, which measures the services industry and manufacturing, dropped to 13.5 in April, according to preliminary data. In March, the same index had already recorded its biggest ever single monthly drop to 29.7. A contraction in PMI numbers — a figure below 50 — indicates a likely fall in economic growth overall. 

“April saw unprecedented damage to the euro zone economy amid virus lockdown measures coupled with slumping global demand and shortages of both staff and inputs,” Chris Williamson, chief business economist at IHS Markit, said in a statement. —Silvia Amaro

Read CNBC’s coverage from CNBC’s Asia-Pacific and Europe teams overnight here: China will give WHO more money; Spain’s daily death toll steady