Market Brief: April 1, 2020

Shares of Whiting had traded over $150 as recently as 2015, but they fell below $1 in the past few weeks, as the company’s debt troubles drove many investors away. Its stock closed at 67 cents on Tuesday. Oil has lost more than two-thirds of its value this year.

The London-listed company said capital spend for 2020 would now be around $12 billion, 25% lower than its previous guidance, including a $1 billion reduction in spend on its U.S. shale business BPX Energy.

The U.S. urged Saudi Arabia and Russia to back off plans to increase production. While Russia is reportedly not going to pump more, the kingdom ignored the plea. It plans to raise production to 12.3 million barrels a day, up from 9.7 million a day in February. Oil prices, already down more than 50% in March, were moving lower on Wednesday.

The Institute for Supply Management said its index, based on a survey of manufacturing companies across the country, fell to 49.1 in March from 50.1 in February. The below-50 print represents contraction, though the decline in activity wasn’t as bad as economists feared. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal expected a reading of 44.5 for March.

Instead of ships, tanks, and bombers—products Franklin Delano Roosevelt called for during World War II—America needs ventilators for critically ill patients. Industry has responded and is preparing a huge increase in production in coming weeks.

General Motors, which produced tanks during World War II, will build a Ventec Life Systems ventilator at a plant in Indiana. Ford Motor, which made bombers during the war, wants to build up to 200,000 ventilators in 2020 by partnering with General Electric to build a basic ventilator licensed from Airon.

Mr. Kilar succeeds John Stankey, 57 years old, who last year gained an additional title as AT&T’s chief operating officer, putting him in line to succeed company Chief Executive Randall Stephenson. Mr. Kilar will report to Mr. Stankey.

With the closing of the deal, old T-Mobile’s COO Mike Sievert will become CEO of New T-Mobile, succeeding John Legere. Sievert will oversee the complex process of combining T-Mobile and Sprint’s networks, retail operations, and customer bases. Magenta-wearing Legere had previously said he planned to remain CEO until his contract expired on April 30. He’ll remain on T-Mobile’s board of directors until June 2020.

Payroll provider ADP provided an early glimpse of how current data may not reflect reality on the ground as its survey period, like the Labor Department’s, ends on the 12th of the month. ADP said Wednesday that small businesses eliminated 90,000 jobs in March, a decline that was was offset by hiring last month across larger companies, resulting in an overall drop in private payrolls of 27,000.

General Electric stakeholders probably feel a little more secure Wednesday morning. The company has about $20 billion in fresh cash after closing on the sale of its biopharma division to Danaher, the industrial-health care hybrid conglomerate, on Tuesday evening.

United Technologies also received regulatory approval to merge with Raytheon this week. That deal is slated to close on Friday. The merger catalyzes two other huge transactions which will create three new stocks: an aerospace giant, called Raytheon Technologies, along with a stand-alone elevator maker, called Otis, and an air-conditioning company, to be called Carrier.

The study, conducted by scientists at the Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University and distributed before peer review on Monday, is among the first randomized, double-blind clinical trials of hydroxychloroquine in Covid-19 patients.