Luxury cruise nears final port after 15 weeks

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 2.3 million
• Global deaths: At least 161,262
• US cases: More than 735,200
• US deaths: At least 39,090

The data above was compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

The coronavirus epidemic has so ravaged travel, live entertainment and physical retail that companies across those industries have frozen their marketing, causing ad prices to plunge.

Meanwhile, online beauty brand Insert Name Here is generating so much business that it’s snapping up ad space at a discount.

Based in Los Angeles, Insert Name Here sells hair extensions and wigs, which are in high demand now that women are unable to visit their hairstylists. To reach all those consumers who are stuck at home, Insert Name Here is working with social media influencers to create do-it-yourself styling videos for Instagram as well as Facebook, Tik Tok, Snapchat and YouTube. 

Kevin Gould, Insert Name Here’s co-founder, said prices for digital ads are currently down by about 35{3c4481f38fc19dde56b7b1f4329b509c88239ba5565146922180ec5012de023f}, and the company has bolstered its spending, which is in the millions of dollars a year, by about 50{3c4481f38fc19dde56b7b1f4329b509c88239ba5565146922180ec5012de023f} to 100{3c4481f38fc19dde56b7b1f4329b509c88239ba5565146922180ec5012de023f}. —Ari Levy, Megan Graham

Passengers on a luxury liner’s around-the-world cruise, begun before the globe was gripped by the coronavirus pandemic, are finally approaching the end of their odyssey after 15 weeks at sea.

The ship, the Costa Deliziosa, was heading Sunday toward a port in Spain before ending its journey in Italy — both countries devastated by the coronavirus outbreak.

Costa Crociere, an Italian cruise company, said that the Deliziosa, which set sail from Venice in early January with 1,831 passengers, had no cases of COVID-19 aboard.

The Deliziosa, a nearly 300-meter (1,000-foot) vessel, will disembark 168 Spanish passengers on Monday at Barcelona’s port. Then the Deliziosa will head to its final destination, Genoa, Italy, where it is expected to let off the remaining passengers, Italians and those of other nationalities, on Wednesday.

A company spokesman said a passenger left the ship earlier in the week in Marsala, Sicily, for health issues and had a COVID-19 test, which was negative.

Being on the liner for weeks during the pandemic “was not surreal, it was incredible,” said passenger Carlos Paya’, who lives in Valencia, Spain, and is sailing with his wife. He added that they have family members in Spain. —Associated Press

The total number of people killed by the coronavirus in Canada rose by just under 12{3c4481f38fc19dde56b7b1f4329b509c88239ba5565146922180ec5012de023f} to 1,506 in a day, official data posted by the public health agency showed on Sunday.

In a statement posted shortly before 11:00 eastern time (1500 GMT), it said the figure for those diagnosed with the coronavirus had climbed to 33,922. The respective figures on Saturday were 1,346 deaths and 32,412 positive diagnoses. —Reuters

The unparalleled decision a month ago to close the state-owned stores that sell nearly all of Pennsylvania’s liquor and much of its wine prompted some people to drive across state lines to stock up, risking a misdemeanor charge.

Although Ohio, West Virginia and Delaware have cracked down, vehicles with Pennsylvania tags continue to crowd liquor store parking lots in New York, New Jersey and Maryland border towns amid continuing restrictions caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf began closing businesses in March, and the Liquor Control Board, after consulting with him, soon shut down its retail outlets. Many liquor cabinets are running low and the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board’s pivot to online sales has been, for most, an exercise in frustration in a state of nearly 13 million people.

“Most people don’t have a large store of liquor in their house. For one thing, it’s expensive,” said alcohol writer Lew Bryson, of Langhorne. “I think people are running out of their daily drink, and that’s putting the pressure on.”

A couple weeks after the outlets closed, the liquor board restarted its meager online sales system, ramping up this past week by bringing back some workers to fill boxes for home delivery. Before the pandemic, the state liquor board did about 180,000 daily transactions, but as workers began returning, it had only been able to fill more than 4,000 online orders a day.

On Saturday, the board announced 175 of the nearly 600 stores will begin taking orders by phone starting Monday for curbside service, with each customer limited to six bottles. —Associated Press

Following a rush for groceries and cleaning supplies, more Americans are looking to crack open a book.

As people remain sheltered in their homes due to the coronavirus outbreak, online shopping has surged as a replacement for an old-fashioned trip to the store. In addition to the overall boom in e-commerce spending, sales data reveals that following an initial stockpiling of goods, many online shoppers have shifted their focus to entertainment products such as books and games as they adjust to the new normal of life in quarantine.

E-commerce spending in the U.S. is up more than 30{3c4481f38fc19dde56b7b1f4329b509c88239ba5565146922180ec5012de023f} from the beginning of March through mid-April compared with the same period last year, according to market research firm Rakuten Intelligence. That is significantly more growth — about 50{3c4481f38fc19dde56b7b1f4329b509c88239ba5565146922180ec5012de023f} more — than the annual 20{3c4481f38fc19dde56b7b1f4329b509c88239ba5565146922180ec5012de023f} growth in online shopping the firm has become accustomed to seeing in recent years.

This snapshot of the economy paints a picture of both what Americans are buying and how shopper priorities have shifted over the course of the extended quarantine period. —Nate Rattner

Sports may no longer be blaring on television screens across the country, but that’s not deterring some gamblers from placing bets on anything that they can get odds on — table tennis, comments made during presidential debates, even video game sports competitions. 

This year was supposed to be a huge growth opportunity for sites like FanDuel and DraftKings, who are pushing to get licensed in more states across the country. Seventeen states have legalized sports betting, and many others have proposed state bills that would make them legal in coming years. DraftKings is pushing forward with a plan to become a publicly traded entity through a reverse merger with Diamond Eagle Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company. 

But that was before the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic shut down nearly every major sporting event.

Gamblers have nowhere else to turn, as U.S. casinos are closed, so online sports books are searching for new and creative wagers to keep customers engaged.

This month’s NFL Draft will provide a boost.

Sportsbooks have come up with about 150 different proposition bets around the NFL Draft — about three times more than ever before, said Chad Milmann, The Action Network’s chief content officer. —Alex Sherman, Jabari Young

Politicians in German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition government signaled further support for struggling businesses and consumers in the coronavirus crisis, focusing on hotels, restaurants and pay for short-time workers.

Dehoga, an industry association that includes a large share of often small family-owned operations, told Bild am Sonntag that some 70,000 restaurant and hotel operators, which employ 223,000 people, could face insolvency as they stood to lose up to 10 billion euros of sales by the end of April.

Economy Minister Peter Altmaier of Merkel’s conservative party said in an interview with the same newspaper he agreed the sector needed support to get up on its feet again.

“It is clear that we will need additional help to prevent a large part of these companies giving up and disappearing from the market,” he said. —Reuters

New York’s daily toll of coronavirus deaths has hit its lowest point in more than two weeks, but officials still warn that New York City and the rest of the state aren’t ready to ease up on shutdowns of schools, businesses and gatherings.

As of Saturday, the number of coronavirus deaths in New York state dropped under 550 for the first time in over two weeks as hospitalizations continue to decline.

But the crisis is far from over: Hospitals are still reporting nearly 2,000 new COVID-19 patients per day, and nursing homes remain a “feeding frenzy for this virus,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.

While the crush of patients has eased somewhat in emergency rooms, “that doesn’t mean happy days are here again,” Cuomo said at a news briefing. “We are not at a point when we are going to be reopening anything immediately.”

The state logged 540 deaths Friday from COVID-19, the lowest number since April 1.

Nearly 13,000 New Yorkers have died since the state’s first coronavirus case was reported March 1, the governor said. The state total doesn’t include more than 4,000 New York City deaths that were blamed on the virus on death certificates but weren’t confirmed by a lab test. —Associated Press

The federal government has flexed its muscle to blunt the economic damage from the coronavirus pandemic, and most voters back the intervention. 

As Congress looks to build on the largest emergency spending plan in U.S. history, 63{3c4481f38fc19dde56b7b1f4329b509c88239ba5565146922180ec5012de023f} of registered voters said they approve of the expansion of the government’s role in the economy in response to the outbreak, an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released Sunday found. Another 30{3c4481f38fc19dde56b7b1f4329b509c88239ba5565146922180ec5012de023f} of respondents said they disapproved. 

The survey reflects comfort with federal influence on the economy during crises usually unseen during calmer periods, when more voters sound the alarm about budget deficits or overreach. Even so, those concerns have not fully evaporated during the current economic freefall. 

Nearly half, or 48{3c4481f38fc19dde56b7b1f4329b509c88239ba5565146922180ec5012de023f} of respondents, said they worry more about the government spending too much money to buoy the economy and driving up budget deficits, the poll found. Another 40{3c4481f38fc19dde56b7b1f4329b509c88239ba5565146922180ec5012de023f} of voters said they were concerned the U.S. would disburse too little money and extend an economic recession. —Jacob Pramuk

If Amazon dominated the retail market before the coronavirus pandemic began, there’s good reason to believe it’ll emerge from the crisis even stronger. 

Under orders to stay home, millions of Americans have turned to online marketplaces like Amazon to order much-needed essentials like toilet paper, food, hand sanitizer and cold medicine.

In lieu of neighborhood supermarkets, consumers are relying on online grocery delivery services like Amazon Fresh, resulting in a cascade of delays and out-of-stock notices amid the unexpected rise in demand. Amazon has hired more than 100,000 new warehouse and delivery workers since March to help manage the surge in orders, and it’s planning to bring on 75,000 more workers.

The unprecedented demand has propelled shares of Amazon to fresh highs. The stock hit an all-time high on April 16 and is up more than 28{3c4481f38fc19dde56b7b1f4329b509c88239ba5565146922180ec5012de023f} for the year, compared with an 11{3c4481f38fc19dde56b7b1f4329b509c88239ba5565146922180ec5012de023f} decline for the S&P 500. Investors have flocked to Amazon and other stay-at-home stocks like  Netflix and Zoom in recent months, as consumers have come to depend on their services amid the lockdown.

The outlook is brighter than ever for Amazon. But its ascent is occurring against a worrying backdrop of financial turmoil in the retail industry and the broader economy. —Annie Palmer

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Sunday said the White House and Congress could reach a deal today on supplemental funding for the Paycheck Protection Program for small businesses. 

The $349 billion rescue loan program ran out of money on Thursday, just two weeks after it was launched. Republican and Democratic leaders have been struggling to agree on how to restore its funds as a slew of small American businesses are at risk of shutting down from the financial hit of the coronavirus pandemic. 

Mnuchin said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that he’s hopeful the deal on another $300 billion in small business funding will be passed in the Senate on Monday and in the House on Tuesday. 

The new deal will include $50 billion for disaster loans, $75 billion for hospitals and $25 billion for a federal testing program. Money for state and local governments will not be included in the package, Mnchunin said.

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in an interview with ABC’s “This Week” she believed lawmakers are very close to a deal on approving extra money to help small businesses hurt by the coronavirus pandemic.

“We’re close,” Pelosi said. “I think we’re very close to an agreement.

Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer say they favor more money for small businesses but also want more coronavirus response funds for state and local governments and hospitals, as well as food assistance for the poor. —Emma Newburger

Britain is not considering lifting the lockdown imposed almost four weeks ago to control the coronavirus outbreak given “deeply worrying” increases in the death toll, a senior minister said.

Britain is at or near the peak of a health crisis in which more than 15,000 people have died — the fifth highest national death toll of a pandemic linked to at least 150,000 deaths worldwide.

Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove said a Buzzfeed report that the government was considering lifting the lockdown in phases over the coming months was not correct.

“The facts and the advice are clear at the moment that we should not be thinking of lifting of these restrictions yet,” Gove told Sky News. —Reuters

President Vladimir Putin said that Russian authorities had the coronavirus crisis under full control and that everything would work out with God’s help, even as the country on Sunday registered a record daily rise in cases of the new virus.

Russia on Sunday reported 6,060 new cases in the previous 24 hours, bringing its nationwide tally to 42,853, though the official death toll of 361 remains relatively low compared with other countries with a similar number of cases.

In a video message to congratulate Christians on the Orthodox Easter, Putin said the religious festival would strengthen Russians’ hope and faith because the resurrection of Christ was a powerful symbol of rebirth and a reminder that life goes on.

The Russian leader, who looked relaxed as he sat in front of a fireplace at his out of town Moscow residence, said his country had all the necessary resources to do what was needed for people’s health and the economy.

“All levels of power are working in an organized, responsible and timely way,” said Putin, who was flanked by painted Easter eggs, a traditional Orthodox Kulich sweet bread, and a big pot of tea.

“The situation is under full control. All of our society is united in front of the common threat.” —Reuters

Australia on Sunday added to growing pressure on China over its handling of the novel coronavirus, questioning its transparency and demanding an international investigation into the origins of the virus and how it spread.

The coronavirus is believed to have emerged in a market selling wildlife in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year. It has spread around the world infecting some 2.3 million people and killing nearly 160,000 of them, according to Reuters calculations.

Australia’s foreign minister, Marise Payne, said her concern about China’s transparency was at “a very high point”.

“The issues around the coronavirus are issues for independent review, and I think that it is important that we do that,” Payne told ABC television. —Reuters

South Korea extended its social distancing policy for another 16 days on Sunday but offered some relief for churches and sporting fixtures, as it reported just eight new coronavirus infections, the lowest in two months.

The slightly relaxed guidelines mean high-risk facilities like churches will no longer have to close, while sports matches such as soccer can resume without an audience. “It is safest to maintain the intensive social distancing, but it isn’t easy realistically. We need to find a middle ground,” Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun told a televised meeting of government officials.

“If we can maintain a stable management at the current level, we will shift to ‘routine social distancing’ from May 6,” Chung said.

Health authorities have said this would allow a reopening of the economy while maintaining guidelines on disinfection and preventing the spread of the virus in people’s daily lives.

It was the first time since Feb. 18 that South Korea reported a single-digit daily rise in new infections. The figure brings its total cases to 10,661. —Reuters

Read CNBC’s coverage from CNBC’s Asia-Pacific and Europe teams overnight here: Spain sees lowest death count rise in a month, global death toll tops 160,000