The world this week - Business

Main Body

In an unprecedented move the Federal Reserve said it would buy corporate bonds, including new issues and the riskiest investment-grade debt, action that it shied away from during the financial crisis a decade ago. The central bank is using a subsidiary of Black-Rock to manage the investments. It is also buying government debt (unlimited quantitative easing), reviving a facility that enables it to absorb securities backed by student, car and credit-card loans, and has pledged to help small businesses.

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$\color{red}{Animal\ spirits}$

Markets had another manic week, as investors swung between despondency and optimism. On March 24th the s&P 500 rose by 9.4%, its biggest one-day gain since October 2008. The NASDAQ was up by 8% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average by 11.4%. The FTSE 100 and German DAX recorded similar leaps.

Easing the pressure on big banks, the Bank of England cancelled its annual stress tests. This came after the central bank cut its benchmark interest rate to 0.1%, the lowest in its 326-year history.

A measure of business activity compiled by IHS Markit fell to record lows for America, Britain and the euro zone. Worse is yet to come. The survey was taken before many of the more stringent lockdowns on companies and personal movement were introduced.

With passenger numbers down by 70% on Britain’s railways the government suspended for at least six months the franchise system through which train companies operate on routes. The Department for Transport is doing this so that it can take on all the revenue and cost risk, in effect nationalising any losses. Train companies will continue to run services for a small fee.

The International Air Transport Association increased its estimate of revenue losses for the airline industry this year to $250bn. Global carriers have asked governments to bail them out, but environmentalists want this linked to swifter action on carbon emissions.

Virgin Australia reportedly asked Australia’s antitrust authority to investigate public comments made by Alan Joyce, the chief executive of Qantas, Virgin’s arch-rival. Mr Joyce has suggested that Virgin should not receive state aid during the crisis, implying that it is “badly managed”, and has said he wants his airline to be the “last man standing”. Reports suggest Virgin is worried that Qantas is using the crisis to reduce competition. Meanwhile, and despite stretched credit markets, Qantas was able to raise A$1.1bn($635m)in bank loans.

Norwegian Air, which was already struggling before covid-19 grounded flights, received its first cash injection from Norway’s government after securing a rescue package for the country’s airlines. Under the deal, commercial lenders provide 10% of loan guarantees and the government the remaining 90%.

Boeing suspended production at its factory near Seattle for two weeks. Washington state has been hit particularly hard by covid-19 and dozens of Boeing’s workers have contracted the disease; one man has died. Airbus reopened its plants in France and Spain after a four-day hiatus, but reduced their output.

Workers at several Amazon warehouses in America tested positive for covid-19, forcing some of them to close while they were cleaned. Amazon is hiring 100,000 more people to cope with a surge in online shopping, but hundreds of employees have signed a petition urging the company to do more to protect them.

A sales update from Target provided a glimpse into the impact of coronavirus on large retailers. Total sales were up by more than 20% in March so far compared with the same month last year, and by 50% for food and household essentials. Clothing sales were down by a fifth, however.

Nike revealed that 80% of the stores that sell its products in China have reopened, after closing in February soon after the start of the virus outbreak.

SoftBank announced a sale of up to ¥4.5trn ($41bn) of assets to fund a share buy-back plan and reduce its debt. The troubled Japanese conglomerate’s share price soared after the announcement. That was not enough to stop Moody’s from cutting its rating for SoftBank’s bonds by two notches.

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$\color{red}{Frozen}$

Just in time for the family lockdown, Disney+ launched in Britain, Germany, Italy, Spain and several other European countries. Being stuck indoors has led to a surge in streaming, which has caused Netflix, Amazon Prime and others to reduce their playback quality in Europe to ensure films don’t stutter.

Words Explanation

bond

1. (n.) something that forms a connection between people or groups, such as a feeling of friendship or shared ideas
2. an agreement by a government or a company to pay you interest on the money you have lent(债券)
3. the ropes or chain keeping somebody prisoner
4. a legal written agreement or promise
5. (v.) to join two things firmly together
6. to develop or create a relationship of trust with somebody

examples:

1. the special bond between mother and child
2. government bonds
3. to release somebody from their bonds
4. We entered into a solemn bond.
5. This new glue bonds a variety of surfaces in seconds.
6. Mothers who are depressed sometimes fail to bond with their children.

precedent

1. (n.) an official action or decision that has happened in the past
2. a similar action or event that happened earlier
3. the way that things have always been done

examples:

1. The ruling set a precedent for future libel cases.
2. historical precedents
3. to break with precedent

Rooted Words

precedented: having or supported by a precedent

unprecedented: without precedent

federal

1. (adj.) having a system of government in which the individual states of a country have control over their own affairs, but are controlled by a central government for national decisions(联邦制的)
2. connected with national government rather than the local government of an individual state

investment

1. (n.) the act of investing money in something
2. the money that you invest, or the thing you invest in
3. the act of giving time or effort to a particular task in order to make it successful

examples:

1. make a profit by careful investment
2. a minimum investment of $10,000
3. The project has demanded considerable investment of time and effort.

subsidiary

1. (adj.) subsidiary to sth. connected with something but less important than it
2. owned or contrlled by another company
3. (n.) a business company that is owned or controlled by another larger company

examples:

1. subsidiary information
2. She is working for an overseas subsidiary of the company.

quantity

1. (n.) an amount or a number of something
2. the measurement of something by saying how much of it there is

examples:

1. a large quantity of something
2. The data is limited in terms of both quality and quantity.

Rooted Words

quantitative: connected with the amount or number of something rather than how good it is Example: quantitative analysis/research

revive

1. (v.) to become, or to make somebody/something become, conscious or healthy and strong again
2. revive something to make something start being used or done again

examples:

1. The flowers soon revived in water.
2. She has been trying to revive the debate over equal pay.
3. The 1930s musical is being revived at the National Theatre.

pledge

1. (n.) a serious/solemn promise
2. a sum of money or something valuable that you leave with somebody to prove that you will do something or pay back money that you owe
3. (v.) to fomally promise to give or do something
4. to make somebody or yourself fomally promise to do something
5. to leave something with somebody as a pledge

examples:

1. You are under pledge of secrecy.
2. put/hold sth. in pledge
3. pledge a donation to a charity
4. The government has pledged itself to send aid to the famine victims.
5. He’s pledged his mother’s wedding ring.

loan

1. (n.) money that an organization such as a bank lends and somebody borrows
2. loan of something the act of lending something, the state of being lent
3. (v.) to lend something to somebody, especially money
4. to lend a valuable object to a museum

examples:

1. bank loans with low interest rates
2. I even gave her the loan of my car
3. The bank is happy to loan money to small businesses.
4. He loaned the museum his entire collection.

manic

(adj.) full of activity, excitement and anxiety; behaving in a busy, excited, anxious way(躁狂的)

swing

despondent

sad, without much hope, having or showing loss of hope

example: There are times when it is hard not to feel despondent.

leap

1. (v.) to jump high or a long way
2. to move or do something suddenly and quickly
3. leap (in sth.)(from…)(to…) to increase suddenly and by a large amount
4. (n.) a long or high jump
5. a sudden large changr or increase in something

examples:

1. We leapt over the stream.
2. He leapt across the room to answer the door.
3. The shares leapt in value from 476p to close at 536p.
4. a leap of six metres
5. a leap in profits

compile

1. (v.) to produce a book, a list, a report by bringing together different items, articles, songs
2. to translate instructions from one computer languages into another so that a particular computer can understand them

example: We are trying to compile a list of suitable people for the job.

stringent

1. (adj.) very strict and that must be obeyed
2. difficult and very strictly controlled because there is not much money

examples:

1. Licences are only granted under the most stringent conditions.
2. the government’s stringent economic policies.

franchise

1. (n.) particular permission given by a company to somebody who wants to sell its goods or services in a particular area
2. the right to vote in a country’s elections
3. (v.) to give or sell a franchise to soomebody

examples:

1. to operate a business under franchise
2. The 1918 Reform Act extended the franchise to women over 30.
3. franchised restaurants

suspend

1. (v.) to hang something from something else
2. to officially stop something for a time; to prevent something from being active, used for a time
3. to officially delay something; to arrange for something to happen later than planned
4. to officially prevent somebody from doing their job, going to school for a time
5. be suspended in sth. to float in liquid or air without moving

examples:

1. a lamp was suspended from the ceiling
2. Production has been suspended while safety checks are carried out.
3. The introduction of the new system has been suspended until next year.
4. She was suspended from school for a week.
5. Small droplets are held suspended in the atmosphere.

revenue

the money that a government receives from taxes or that an organization receives from its business(更偏向于总收入而非个人收入)

example: The company’s annual revenues rose by 30%.

estimate

1. (n.) a judgement that you make without having the exact details or figure about the size, amount, cost of something
2. a statement of how much a piece of work will probably cost
3. (v.) to form an idea of the cost, size, value of something, but without calculating it exactly

examples:

1. I can give you a rough estimate of the amount of wood you will need.
2. We got estimates from three firms and accepted the lowest.
3. We estimated that it would cost about $5,000.

bail

1. (n.) money that somebody agrees to pay if a person accused of a crim does not appear at their trail. When bail has been arranged, the accused person is allowes to go free until the trail.
2. (v.) to release somebody on bail
3. to leave a place, especially quickly
4. to remove water from a boat using a container

examples:

1. Can anyone put up bail for you?
2. He was bailed on a minor drugs charge.
3. The boat is sinking!Start bailing quickly!

antitrust

(adj.) preventing companies or groups of companies from controlling prices unfairly(反垄断法)

authority

1. (n.) the power to give orders to people
2. authority (to do something) the power or right to do something
3. official permission to do something
4. the people or an organization who have the power to make decisions or who have a particular area of respnsibility in a country or region
5. the power to influence people because they respect your knowledge or official position
6. authority (on something) a person with special knowledge(权威)

examples:

1. She now has authority over the people who used to be her bosses.
2. Only the Board has the authority to approve the budget.
3. It was done without the principal’s authority.
4. The health authorities are investigating(调查) the problem.
5. He spoke with authority on the topic.
6. She’s an authority on criminal law.

investigate

1. (v.) to carefully examine the facts of a situation, an event, a crime to find out the truth about it or how it happened
2. investigate sb. for sth. to try to find out information about somebody’s character
3. to find out information and facts about a subject or problem by study or research

examples:

1. The FBI has been called to investigate.
2. This is not the first time he has been investigated by the policce for fraud.
3. Scientists are investigating the effects of diet on fighting cancer.

rescue

1. (v.) to save somebody/something from a dangerous or harmful situation
2. (n.) the act of saving somebody/something from a dangerous or difficult situation; the fact of being saved
3. an occasion when somebody/soomething is saved from a dangerous or difficult situation

examples:

1. You rescued me from an embarrassing situation.
2. We had given up hope of rescue.
3. Ten fishermen were saved in a daring sea rescue.

secure

1. (adj.) feeling happy and confident about yourself or something
2. likely to safe/certain/firm
3. guarded or made strong so that it is difficult for people to enter or leave
4. (v.) to attach or fasten something firmly
5. to protect something so that it is safe and difficult to attack or damage
6. to obtain or achieve something, especially when this means using a lot of effort

examples:

1. At last they were able to feel secure about the future.
2. a secure job/income
3. Check that all windows and doors have been made as secure as possible.
4. She secured the rope firmly to the back of the car.
5. The windows were secured with locks and bars.
6. The team managed to secure a place in the finals.

contract

1. (n.) an official written agreement(合同)
2. an agreement to kill somebody for money
3. (v.) to become less or smaller; to make something become less or smaller
4. contract sth. to get an illness
5. contract (sb.) to do sth. to make a legal agreement with somebody for them to work for you or provide you with service
6. contract a marriage/an alliance (with sb.) to formally agree to marry somoebody/form an alliance(结合，结盟) with somebody

examples:

1. a contract of employment
2. Glass contracts as it cools.
3. to contract AIDS/a virus/a disease
4. The player is contracted to play until August.
5. She has contracted to work 20 hours a week.

cope

1. (v.) cope with sth. to deal successfully with something difficult
2. (n.) a long loose piece of clothing worn by priests on special occasions(斗篷式长袍)

example: He wasn’t able to cope with stresses and strains of the job.

surge

1. (vi.) to move quickly and with force in a particular direction
2. to fill somebody with a strong feeling
3. to suddenly increase in value
4. (n.) a sudden increase of a strong feeling/in the amount or number of something
5. a sudden, strong forward or upward movement

examples:

1. The gates opened and the crowd surged forward.
2. Relief surged through her.
3. Share prices surged.
4. She felt a surge of anger.
5. A surge of people poured through the gates.

petition

1. (n.) a written document signed by a large number of people that asks somebody in a position of authority to do or change something(请愿书)
2. an official document asking a court to take a particular course of action
3. a formal prayer to God or request to somebody in authority
4. (vi./vt.) to make a formal request to somebody in authority, especially by sending them a petition
5. to formally ask for something in court

examples:

1. a petition against experiments on animals
2. Her hasband has already filed a petition for divorce.
3. Local residents have successfully petitioned against the siting of a prison in their area.
4. to petition for divorce

urge

1. (v.) to advise or try hard to persuade somebody to do something
2. to recommend something strongly
3. to make a person or an animal move more quickly and in a particular direction, especially by pushing or forcing them
4. (n.) a strong desire to do something

examples:

1. Police are urging anyone who saw the accident to contact them immediately.
2. The situation is dangerous and the UN is urging caution.
3. He urged his horse forward.
4. I had a sudden urge to hit him.

glimpse

1. (n.) a look at somebody for a very short time, when you do not see the person or thing completely
2. a short experience of something that helps you to understand it
3. (v) glimpse sb./sth. to see somebody for a moment but not clearly
4. glimpse sth. to start to understand something

examples:

1. He caught a glimpse of her in the crowd.
2. The programme gives us a rare glimpse of a great artist at work.
3. Suddenly she glimpsed the truth about her sister.

retail

1. (adv.) by or to the public, usually through shops/stores
2. (n.) the selling of goods to the public, usually through shops(零售)
3. (vt.) to sell goods to the public, usually through shops
4. (vi.) to be sold at a particular price
5. retail something to tell people about something, especially about a person’s behaviour or private life

asset

1. (n.) a person or thing that is valuable or useful to somebody/something
2. a thing of value, especially property, that a person or company owns, which can be used or sold to pay debts

examples:

1. In his job, patience is an invaluable asset.
2. the net asset value of the company

Added Words Explanation

solemn

1. (adj.) not happy or smiling
2. done, said in a very serious and formal way

examples:

1. a solemn face/voice
2. a solemn and binding promise
3. ‘I have some distressing news for you’, he began solemnly.

grant

1. (v.) to agree to give somebody what they ask for, especially formal or legal permission to do something
2. to admit that something is true, although you may not like to agree with it
3. (n.) grant (to do sth.) a sum of money that is given by the government or by another organization to be used for a particular purpose(政府拨款)

examples:

1. My request was granted.
2. She’s a smart woman, I grant you, but she’s no genius.
3. He has been awarded a research grant.

droplet

a small drop of a liquid(液滴)

accuse

accuse sb. (of sth.) to say that somebody has done womething wrong or is guilty of something

example: She accused him of lying.

swift

1. (adj.) happening or done quickly and immediately; doing something quickly
2. moving very quickly; able to move very quickly
3. (n.) a small bird with long narrow wings, similar to a swallow(swallow燕子)(swift雨燕)

examples:

1. The White House was swift to deny the rumours.
2. a swift runner/current

rumour

1. (n.) a piece of information, or a story, that people talk about, but that may not be true
2. (v.) be rumoured to be reported as a rumour and possibly not true

examples:

1. I thought she was leaving the company, but perhaps it may be just a rumour.
2. It’s widely rumoured that she’s getting promoted.

caution

1. (n.) care that you take in order to avoid danger or mistikes; not taking any risks
2. a warning
3. (vi./vt.) to warn somebody about the possible dangers or problems of something/that anything they say may be used as evidence against them in court/that they will be punished if they do something wrong or illegal again.

examples:

1. Statistics should be treated with caution
2. Some cautions must be kept in mind when interpreting these results.
3. Suspects must be cautioned before any questions are asked.

soar

1. (vi.) if the value, amount or level of something soars, it rises very quickly
2. to rise quickly and smoothly up into the air
3. to fly very high in the air or remain high in the air
4. when music soars, it becomes higher or louder

examples:

1. soaring costs/prices/temperatures
2. The rocket soared up into the air.
3. soaring mountains
4. soaring strings

notch

1. (n.) a level on a scale, often marking quality or achievement
2. a V-shape or a circle cut in an edge or a surface, sometimes used to keep a record od something
3. (v.) notch (up) sth. to achieve something such as a win or a high score
4. to make a small V-shapped cut

examples:

1. Acting and directions are several notches up on the standards we are used to.
2. cut/make a notch in a stick
3. With this performance, she has notched up her third championship.

stutter

1. (v.) to have difficulty speaking because you cannot stop yourself from repeating the first sound of some words several times
2. to move or start with difficulty, making short sharp noises or movements
3. (n.) a speech problem in which a person finds it difficult to say the first sound of a word and repeats it several times

examples:

1. ‘W-w-what?’he stuttered.
2. The car stuttered along in first gear.
3. He had a terrible stutter.

some extra meanings

interest: the extra money that you pay back when you borrow money or that you receive when you invest money(利息)

facility: ability to learn or do things easily Example: have a great facility for languages

facility: a special feature of a machine or service that makes it possible to do something extra(机制) Example: a facility of checking spelling

share: (n.) a part of something that has been divided between several people, which belongs to, is owed to or has to be done by a particular person Example: The total bill comes to $80, so our share is $20.

share: (n.) 股份 Example: She buys and sells stocks and shares.

Phrases

shy away: to avoid doing something because you are nervous or frightened Example: Hugh never shied away from his responsibilities.