Business Updates:Starbucks Is Closing Cafes

Starbucks will close its cafes across the United States.

Starbucks had come under pressure from customers and employees to shutter the stores as the pandemic intensified.

Starbucks informed staff that it would close its cafes in the United States in response to the coronavirus crisis, though it will remain open for delivery and drive-through customers, the company said in an emailed statement on Friday.

Some cafes close to hospitals or health care centers will remain open, according to the statement, as part of the company’s “efforts to serve first responders and health care workers.” And Starbucks will continue to pay all employees for the next 30 days, whether they come to work or stay at home.

About 60 percent of Starbucks stores have a drive-through option, and the company offers delivery in markets across 29 states.

The move is the latest in a series of escalating steps that Starbucks has taken in response to the coronavirus crisis. The coffee chain had already eliminated seating at all its company-owned stores in the country and closed some stores in “high-social gathering locations,” like malls and college campuses.

Starbucks had come under pressure from customers and employees to shutter the stores as the pandemic intensified. On Monday, McDonald’s joined other fast-food companies and closed its restaurants except for delivery and drive-through.

Starbucks has been through this before in one of its most important markets — China. As the virus sickened tens of thousands of people in China earlier this year, the company closed more than 2,000 stores. As of last week, 90 percent of those stores had reopened.

Also on Friday, Starbucks announced it would close all its stores in Britain.

Boeing says its chief executive and chairman will forgo their pay.

Boeing announced several measures on Friday intended to help the embattled aerospace giant conserve cash as it tries to weather the coronavirus crisis. Its chief executive, David Calhoun, and its chairman, Larry Kellner, will receive no pay until the end of the year, and the company will suspend its dividend and stop any share buybacks until further notice.

Boeing made the moves as it confronts a prolonged disruption to its core business. Airlines around the world have stopped accepting new planes, and many carriers, facing possible bankruptcy, are unlikely to buy new planes anytime soon.

On Tuesday, Boeing said it supported a $60 billion bailout for aerospace manufacturers like itself, and President Trump said he was in favor of extending government aid to Boeing. In the last five days alone, Boeing stock has fallen by 36 percent.

Boeing was already reeling following the yearlong grounding of the 737 Max, its most popular plane, after two deadly crashes that killed 346 people. Earlier this month, Mr. Calhoun said the company was in worse shape than he imagined when he took over in January.

As the economic crisis mounts, hedge funds look to still make money.

Kenneth C. Griffin is the founder and chief executive officer of the hedge fund Citadel.

Kenneth C. Griffin is the founder and chief executive Hedge fund managers have mostly managed to stem their losses from the market sell-off. Now they’re trying to figure out how to make money again.

Some hedge funds are looking to invest in beaten-down companies poised for a rebound. King Street Capital Management, a $20 billion firm, told investors in a note reviewed by The New York Times that it had begun looking to invest in “high quality companies that have seen their bonds or loans caught up in the sell-off.”

The hedge fund billionaire Kenneth C. Griffin is starting up a new fund at Citadel to take advantage of the volatility and price discrepancies caused by the selling pressure in the bond market.

But with the usual relationships between stocks, bonds and other securities breaking down, there are few safe bets. Already there have been winners and losers.officer of the hedge fund Citadel.

The hedge fund manager Boaz Weinstein said in a note to investors in his $2.7 billion firm, Saba Capital Management, that he had positioned his portfolios to profit from bets on defaults and bankruptcy filings by companies with lots of high-yield, or junk, bonds. According to the note, which was reviewed by The Times, his main fund was up 33 percent this month.

One of the hardest hit is Bridgewater Associates, the $160 billion colossus led by Ray Dalio, which manages money for dozens of pensions and sovereign wealth funds. The firm’s eight main portfolios reported losses for the year ranging from 9 percent to 21 percent.

Cruise ships as hospitals? A Trump collaboration with Carnival draws scrutiny.

A Carnival cruise ship off Miami Beach, Fla. The cruise line had offered to make its ships available as floating hospitals.

President Trump has told reporters that Micky Arison, a former business associate and the chairman of Carnival Corporation, had offered to make the cruise operator’s ships available as floating hospitals during the coronavirus pandemic. They could be used for patients battling illnesses unrelated to the coronavirus, to relieve strain on the health care system.

The idea, which the White House declined to explain, was the latest in a string of seeming improvisations by Mr. Trump as he has come under pressure from states facing the prospect of swarms of new patients.

A spokesman for Carnival said the company would only charge for “essential costs” like food and drink, but that a city or hospital would have to cover costs to transform ships, if needed. And an abrupt transfer of hospital patients would likely mean that outside medical staff would need to contribute to the efforts.

The potential public-private partnership with Carnival has also prompted concerns about how Mr. Trump might be leveraging past business relationships in a public health crisis.

Companies are handing out cash to their workers as the crisis deepens.

With huge chunks of the economy grinding to a halt, many businesses are bracing for a steep drop-off in demand for their services. For many, that has already meant layoffs. But for companies that are keeping employees at home — or keeping their doors open — it means coming up with ways to make their lives easier.

Walmart, the country’s largest retailer, has announced plans to give a cash bonus to all of its hourly workers in the United States. The bonus — $300 for full-time workers and $150 for part-timers — was announced Thursday, along with plans to hire 150,000 workers to serve largely shut-in shoppers who need a steady supply of food and household goods.

On Friday, PepsiCo vowed to increase certain employees’ pay by at least $100 a week for the next month, a change it said would affect around 90,000 people. The drink and snack maker said it would also hire 6,000 workers over the coming months, provide sick leave for quarantined employees and pay employees who are forced to stay home to take care of their children two-thirds of their normal wages for up to 12 weeks.

Amgen, which makes medications for heart disease and migraines, sent some employees home with $250 stipends for equipment they need, a $50-a-month allowance for internet and phone services, and a promise to pay them whatever they normally earn each week — even if their work demands dwindle.

When stocking grocery shelves turns dangerous.

A shopper at Morton Williams Super Market in Manhattan on Wednesday.

They are a new class of emergency medical workers: the more than two million Americans reporting to work each day to sell food and other household staples amid the coronavirus pandemic.

As shoppers swarm stores, snapping up everything from milk to toilet paper, cashiers are there to ring them up. Stockroom employees replenish shelves as soon as shipments arrive. Their presence is a source of calm, signifying that, even as demand has surged, supply chains remain intact and the essentials that people need remain available.

But these same employees are growing tired and, because they constantly interact with customers, fearful of getting sick themselves.

U.S. stocks tumble after a tumultuous week.

Wall Street had its worst week since 2008 as the threat of a severe recession appeared ever more likely in the face of the spreading coronavirus.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 4.5 percent on Friday, ending below where it stood on the day before President Trump was inaugurated, erasing the so-called Trump bump that the president has trumpeted throughout his presidency as evidence of his success. The S&P 500 is not far from that mark as well.

Stocks have collapsed more than 30 percent in a month, wiping out trillions in value and ending an 11-year long bull market. For both the S&P 500 and the Dow, the drop this week was the worst since the financial crisis more than a decade ago.

The S&P 500 fell about 4 percent on Friday, after rising earlier in the day, as the mood grew increasingly dour. Oil prices, which have cratered along with expectations for economic growth this year, fell 10 percent on Friday, dragging shares of energy companies lower.