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The U.S. government is in active talks with Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), Google (GOOG, GOOGL) and a wide array of tech companies and health experts about how they can use location data gleaned from Americans’ phones to combat the novel coronavirus.
The data could help officials predict the next hotspot or decide where to allocate overstretched health resources, The Washington Post reports.
Privacy concerns? Recent news about Israel’s plans to use location data to help track COVID-19 already sparked intense discussions about legal and ethical implications.
Previously: Big Tech unites on coronavirus response (Mar. 17 2020)
AT&T (T -10.1%) is falling in line with retail store closures, saying it will shutter 40% of company-owned stores nationwide.
As with other reactions to the COVID-19 outbreak, the company will cut hours for the stores that do remain open, and will close all stores on Sunday.
And it will apply social distancing guidelines in the stores that are open.
Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) will stop adding new drivers, effective immediately in New York, San Francisco, Seattle, and other regions hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.
The temporary policy is meant to help protect the earnings of existing drivers.
Lyft and rival Uber have said they will compensate drivers diagnosed with the coronavirus, but the coverage doesn’t cover the fall in demand.
Yesterday, Lyft and Uber paused shared rides to help limit the spread of the virus.
Related: U.S. spending drops on Uber, Lyft.
JPMorgan analyst Doug Anmuth raises his Q1 sales estimate for Amazon (AMZN +0.7%) to $74B, which is $1B higher than the tech giant’s guidance range.
Anmuth: “E-commerce (AMZN, EBAY, (NYSE:CHWY), etc) will benefit as closings of physical stores & fear of public places should accelerate the secular shift of retail online, which we believe will prove sustainable even after the crisis ends.”
The analyst thinks Amazon will “gain incremental share of both total retail & online retail in a downturn, as was the case in 2008-2009.”
Anmuth is also positive on Chewy due to its “high recurring revenue stream, low China supply chain risk, & high exposure to staples-like consumables.”
The analyst also expects strong Netflix (NFLX +1.7%) demand in H1 due to more workers at home and a lack of sports programming. Anmuth raises his 2020 global net adds estimate from 26.9M to 27.8M.
JPMorgan has Overweight ratings on Amazon and Netflix.
U.S. consumers spent 21% less on Uber (UBER -10.1%) rides in the week ending on March 16 compared to the prior week, according to new Edison Trends data via the WSJ.
Rival Lyft (LYFT -7.2%) declined 19% in the same week.
The declines happened before California, the home state of both companies, issued its shelter-in-place order.
Shifting to the eight weeks ending on March 2, the week-over-week average spending on rides grew 3% for Uber and 4% for Lyft.
Related: Earlier this week, Uber and Lyft announced pausing shared rides to help limit the spread of the coronavirus.
