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Even as Chinese officials tried to reassure their own public that shortages of medical supplies were being addressed, and that food prices were stable, the spillover effects of China’s isolation reverberated through the Chinese stock market, which had been closed since Jan. 23 for the Lunar New Year holiday. Investors confronting the prospect that the world’s No. 2 economy could suffer severe constraints sent stock prices tumbling by 8 percent.
In a note to clients, Tai Hui, J.P. Morgan’s chief market strategist in Asia, wrote that, “As the number of infections is still likely to rise in the weeks ahead, we would expect the Chinese onshore equity market to come under pressure.”
The anxiety also infected global energy markets, where the possibility of falling demand from a hobbled China — the world’s biggest importer of oil — sent prices to the lowest level in more than a year. Ministers from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, as well as Russia, agreed to meet on Tuesday and Wednesday about possible production cuts.
COMMERCE, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) – Texas A&M University-Commerce announced Monday evening classes would be cancelled through Wednesday following the deadly shooting of two women at a residence hall on the southwest corner of the campus around 10:00 a.m.
A 2-year-old was also injured in the shooting and was reported to be in stable condition at the hospital.
“The health and safety of our students is always our top priority at A&M-Commerce. Therefore, all classes, programs and events on our campus will be cancelled on Monday, February 3rd; Tuesday, February 4th; and Wednesday, February 5th. This includes all remote locations and online,” the University said in a statement.
The dorm where the shooting happened is called Pride Rock.
Texas A&M-Commerce residence hall shooting (CBS 11)
The dorms in that area are usually reserved for freshmen.
The University hasn’t confirmed if the two women who died there, lived in the dorms or even if they are students at the university.
As of Monday evening, the area was still a crime scene, but the campus reopened and police said there was no immediate threat to other students.
Messages went out to students soon after the shooting to shelter in place fearing an active shooter on campus.
All entrances and exits were sealed off by authorities.
After two hours, the order to shelter was lifted and students resumed moving around the campus.
The Texas A&M University-Commerce Police Chief Bryan Vaughn read a statement but would not answer questions.
“The health and safety of our students is always our top priority at this time for university has lifted the precautionary shelter in place recommendation due to the ongoing investigation. Pride Rock Residence Hall and the surrounding areas of our campus are still blocked off,” said Chief Vaughn.
No names of victims have been released, there was no explanation from police about what may have happened and no information about whether there’s a search for a suspect.
Texas A&M-Commerce residence hall shooting (CBS 11)
The Texas A&M System tweeted a statement about the shooting, saying, “Texas A&M System & Chancellor (John) Sharp share their condolences to those affected by the tragedy that happened today at @tamuc in Commerce, TX. We thank the A&M-Commerce leadership & authorities for their timely communication and resources offered for their community to heal.”
The Texas A&M System & Chancellor Sharp share their condolences to those affected by the tragedy that happened today at @tamuc in Commerce, TX.
We thank the A&M-Commerce leadership & authorities for their timely communication and resources offered for their community to heal. https://t.co/D0ihOJVHlA
CBS 11 talked to some students who didn’t see or hear the shooting, but received that alert on their phones about police activity.
They later returned to find their dorms taped off and have not been able to get back inside.
“It felt chilling like, this is not supposed to happen here,” said student Esme Galvan who said she saw police outside Pride Rock as the alerts appeared on her phone.
“Shelter in place. Shelter in place. Shelter in place,” she said.
Students explained, it takes a key card to get inside the building and on the elevator and then into a room.
Despite that, some said it’s hard to feel safe now.
“You didn’t have to be there to be traumatized,” said student Jordan Polk. “You could have seen the videos or knew somebody and they told you about it. (Andrea Lucia asks) So you feel traumatized by what happened in Greenville? (Polk answers) Definitely. Definitely. And then having this happens right here? It’s a lot going on.”
Counselors were available in Rayburn Student Center conference rooms on campus for those in need of help coping with the situation.
Texas A&M University-Commerce is about 60 miles northeast of Dallas.
J.D. Miles and Andrea Lucia contributed to this report.
Schiff on Monday made an emotional plea to Republican senators during the closing arguments of the impeachment trial, calling on them to defy their party and vote to convict President Donald Trump.
“Every single vote, even a single vote, by a single member, can change the course of history,” he said. “It is said that a single man or woman of courage makes a majority. Is there one among you who will say, ‘Enough’?”
Schiff’s speech caps off more than two weeks of the impeachment trial, during which House Democrats have presented an overwhelming slate of evidence establishing that Trump withheld US military aid to Ukraine and a White House meeting to coerce the Ukrainian government into announcing political investigations into the Bidens.
In his closing remarks, Schiff said that the greatest risk of not removing Trump is that he’ll keep committing the same offenses. “He has betrayed our national security, and he will do so again. He has compromised our elections, and he will do so again,” he said. “You will not change him. You cannot constrain him. He is who he is.”
Trump’s defense counsel, meanwhile, has argued that a president’s use of a quid pro quo to advance his election prospects is acceptable as long as it can be construed as action taken in the public interest. Plus, they’ve asserted, it simply doesn’t rise to the level of an impeachable offense.
Senate Republicans, by and large, are poised to stay united and acquit Trump, though House impeachment managers have tried their best to make that decision a tough one for moderate GOP members. In addition to criticizing the arguments advanced by Trump’s defense, Schiff emphasized that Republican lawmakers could still distance themselves from the president’s wrongdoing.
“Truth matters to you. Right matters to you. You are decent. He is not who you are,” Schiff said.
These closing arguments were one of the last steps before the Senate votes to convict or acquit the president of two articles of impeachment on Wednesday afternoon. They represented the final opportunity for House impeachment managers to sway any potential Republican converts to their side, though there are only a few who seem like they could even vaguely be contenders at this point.
Among Republicans, Sens. Mitt Romney and Susan Collins have yet to reveal how they will vote, while Sen. Lisa Murkowski indicated Monday night that she would support acquittal. As Sen. Rand Paul predicted prior to the trial even starting, it’s entirely possible that no Republicans will vote to convict the president.
Senate Democrats, though, could potentially see some defections. Sens. Joe Manchin, Kyrsten Sinema, and Doug Jones are the most closely watched swing votes on Democrats’ side of the aisle.
As Schiff has acknowledged repeatedly throughout the trial, it will take a lot of courage for Republicans to break with Trump, given how loyal the GOP base is to the president. It’s unclear if any of them will find it.
“It is not currently rigged. Last time it was rigged,” Weaver, who as served Sanders’s 2016 White House campaign manager, said on MSNBC as the Iowa caucuses got under way.
Weaver added that Trump’s comments are an attempt to paint the primary as a tool of the political establishment — and himself as the only candidate working outside of the machine.
The comments came after the DNC abruptly announced that it was nixing the donor threshold for a primary debate in Las Vegas later this month. The move could present an opening for Bloomberg, a billionaire businessman self-funding his entire campaign, to reach the debate stage.
For the Nevada debate, Bloomberg and the rest of the candidates need to reach 10 percent support in at least four national polls, or 12 percent support in two sanctioned early-state surveys from Nevada and South Carolina, according to the new criteria. They could also participate in the Feb. 19 debate if they earn at least one pledged delegate at the Iowa caucuses or the New Hampshire primary.
Asked about the allegations in Los Angeles on Sunday, Bloomberg said that Trump “lies about everything” and that it shouldn’t come as a surprise that he’d make a statement such as that one.
“This is what happens when someone like me suddenly rises in the polls. All of a sudden, the other candidates get scared, and I think Donald Trump knows that I can beat him,” Bloomberg said.
But the new criteria have sparked opposition from many of Bloomberg’s primary opponents who have worked hard to build up a base of donors. Weaver said last week that the change is the “definition of a rigged system.”
Sanders, who has predicated his 2016 and 2020 presidential bids around progressive policies such as Medicare For All and college debt cancellation, has emerged as a favorite in the primary contest, according to state and national polls. A Real Clear Politics average of polling shows he leads in Iowa by 3.7 percentage points.
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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump was quickly projected to be the winner of the Republican caucuses in Iowa on Monday, defeating several minor candidates who are challenging the president for the GOP nomination.
NBC News projected around 7:20 p.m. CT that Trump won, beating candidates Joe Walsh, a conservative radio host and former congressman, and Bill Weld, who served as governor of Massachusetts from 1991 until 1997.
Earlier in the day, Trump encouraged Iowans to caucus on Monday to support him, tweeting: “Republicans in Iowa, go out and Caucus today. Your great Trade Deals with China, Mexico, Canada, Japan, South Korea and more, are DONE. Great times are coming, after waiting for decades, for our Farmers, Ranchers, Manufacturers and ALL. Nobody else could have pulled this off!”
Republicans in Iowa, go out and Caucus today. Your great Trade Deals with China, Mexico, Canada, Japan, South Korea and more, are DONE. Great times are coming, after waiting for decades, for our Farmers, Ranchers, Manufacturers and ALL. Nobody else could have pulled this off!
He also blasted out a video ad from his 2020 campaign on Twitter. The president was in Des Moines last Thursday, hosting a Keep America Great rally for his supporters. He focused much of his remarks on the candidates running for the Democratic nomination.
“We are having probably the best years that we have ever had in the history of our country. And I just got impeached. Can you believe these people? I got impeached. They impeached Trump,” he said. “No, that’s not gonna work. Watch. Just watch.”
Trump’s campaign had dispatched 80 surrogates to Iowa in the days before the caucuses, including Vice President Mike Pence, Donald Trump Jr. and numerous Cabinet and other White House officials. Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, the former chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, tweeted a photo of him and other surrogates, including former Energy Secretary Rick Perry, in Iowa on Monday.
They were also joined by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., according to the president’s campaign.
Trump’s projected win came as the Senate trial was wrapping up in Washington, as House managers delivered their closing arguments in favor of convicting the president and the Trump legal team, by contrast, urged the GOP-controlled Senate to acquit him.
According to a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, Trump trails top Democrats in hypothetical general election matchups. The survey found that Joe Biden leads Trump by 6 percentage points and, though that’s down from Biden’s 9-point lead in October. The poll also found that Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., leads Trump by 4 percentage points.
The president, on the other hand, narrowly leads Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg by 1 percentage point.
Forty-six percent of voters said that they approved of Trump’s job as president in the poll while 51 percent said that they disapproved of his performance.
Two women were fatally shot and a toddler was wounded Monday at a Texas A&M University-Commerce residence hall.
The child, who is about 2 years old, was hospitalized in stable condition, campus police Chief Bryan Vaughn confirmed at a news conference Monday afternoon.
Authorities declined to answer questions at the news conference, and they did not release the victims’ names or say whether the women were students.
Police said they found the two women dead and the baby wounded after a student called them at 10:17 a.m.
In a Twitter post at 11:53 a.m., university officials told students, faculty and staff members to remain sheltered in place while the shootings at the Pride Rock residence hall were investigated.
The shelter-in-place request was lifted shortly before 1:30 p.m., and at the news conference Monday afternoon the police chief said there wasn’t a continuing threat on campus. University police had stationed officers throughout campus, including all key gathering points.
All classes, programs and events have been canceled through Wednesday, the university announced. But campus services for students will continue, and the faculty and staff are expected to report to work.
The university said counselors would be available at the Halladay Student Services building for anyone who needed assistance.
A resident is escorted out of the Pride Rock residence hall where two women were fatally shot and a toddler was wounded Monday at Texas A&M University-Commerce on Feb. 3, 2020 in Commerce, Texas.(Juan Figueroa / Staff photographer)
Larry Cooper III, a freshman at the university, lives in Pride Rock, a three-story residence hall for freshmen. He said he left his room, which is on the second floor, just before the shelter-in-place was announced.
“I actually left earlier than I usually leave,” he said. “If I hadn’t left my room a few minutes earlier I would be stuck in my room right now. Anyone still on the second floor can’t leave their room.”
He said he waited in a friend’s room on the first floor of the residence hall during the shelter-in-place with a few other students.
“There’s police blocking the doorways, but other than that we’re all just kind of sitting in and waiting on the news to happen,” said Cooper, the son of a Dallas Morning News employee.
Darius Myers, a freshman studying nursing at A&M-Commerce, said the feeling on campus Monday wasn’t new to him.
Myers and two of his football teammates, Jordan Polk and Uzo Ebinama, left the Pride Rock residence hall Monday afternoon. They said they were told they wouldn’t be allowed to come back for the day while law enforcement worked inside.
Many students already had gone home for the day, they said.
Law enforcement officials had cordoned off the dorm with yellow police line, and the students left through a side door, saying they weren’t allowed to use the main entrance.
Myers, Polk and Ebinama were all sleeping after getting back to the dorms from a football workout when the shooting happened, they said. None of them woke up to the sound of gunfire, though they all live on the second floor, just around the corner from where the shooting was, they said.
Brittney Davis, a junior, and Carrie Banks, a freshman, said they were anxious to learn more information about the shooting.
Davis said they’re worried they could know one of the victims.
“Right now, we don’t have a good feeling,” she said. “But I’m still trying to keep hope and prayers for her family, at least.”
Davis said the campus will need time to grieve.
“We just need to get everybody’s mind right, because right now, we’re all shell-shocked,” she said. “We want information — I know it’s sensitive information — but you have to let us know something so we know what move to make.”
Banks and Davis said they know violence can happen anywhere, but they wished the campus was less accessible to the public so that students would feel safer.
“If it can happen anywhere, why not try to reduce the amount of access people have to us?” Davis said.
“I understand it’s a public school, but there needs to be more safety precautions,” Banks said.
The university allows handguns in campus dorms, and licensed individuals may carry concealed handguns on campus, with some exceptions including the campus counseling and health centers, certain science labs and sporting events.
A student who wants to store a handgun in a dorm must provide a safe that only he or she has access to, according to the university’s policy.
The firearms policies are designed to comply with the state’s Concealed Campus Carry law, which went into effect in 2016.
A safety message is displayed outside the Pride Rock residence hall where two women were fatally shot and a toddler was wounded Monday at Texas A&M University-Commerce on Feb. 3, 2020 in Commerce, Texas.(Juan Figueroa / Staff photographer)
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is now working with state and local health authorities to prepare facilities for quarantine. The Trump administration announced a mandatory 14-day quarantine on Friday for any American who has traveled to Hubei province in the two weeks prior to the announcement.
“The discussions about where those patients will go is a conversation the CDC has been having actively with the state and local health departments,” Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said Monday. “We are working through an operational plan that might be slightly different at each of those locations depending on how much preparation they’ve done.”
There are currently 195 Americans in mandatory quarantine, according to health officials. But that number could grow.
Feb.02 — Jeanne Zaino, a political science professor at Iona College, and Rick Davis, who ran the presidential campaign of John McCain, preview Iowa caucuses, the Democratic candidates’ first presidential nominating contest. The Bloomberg contributors speak with David Westin on “Bloomberg Markets.”
Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg responded to President Donald Trump’s Twitter attacks on Sunday, saying the president is afraid of losing to him the general election.
Trump posted tweets early Sunday tearing into Bloomberg, whom he mocked as “Mini Mike” in reference to Bloomberg’s height.
In one, he slammed the billionaire media mogul for allowing the news organization that bears his name to cover the White House but not his own campaign, or other 2020 Democrats.
“Mini Mike is part of the Fake News,” Trump said. “They are all working together. In fact, Bloomberg isn’t covering himself (too boring to do), or other Dems. Only Trump. That sounds fair! It’s all the Fake News Media, and that’s why nobody believes in them any more.”
In another, he decried the anti-Trump ads Bloomberg is running across the nation.
“Many of the ads you are watching were paid for by Mini Mike Bloomberg. He is going nowhere, just wasting his money,” Trump said.
“Looks like our ads are keeping you up at night. We’ve got one in particular you should watch today,” replied Bloomberg, who is running a campaign ad during Sunday’s Super Bowl.
Trump’s tweets also referred to the Democratic National Committee’s decision to change the threshold for the Feb. 19 debate in Nevada as an attempt to “rig the election” against Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. Several Democratic candidates have also objected to that change, which could make it possible for Bloomberg to make the cut for the debate.
“Mini Mike is now negotiating both to get on the Democrat Primary debate stage, and to have the right to stand on boxes, or a lift, during the debates. This is sometimes done, but really not fair!” Trump tweeted. The president also claimed Bloomberg was demanding a box to stand on during the debate in an excerpt from a Fox News interview that was shared on social media.
Bloomberg spokeswoman Julie Wood slammed the president’s claim.
“The president is lying. He is a pathological liar who lies about everything: his fake hair, his obesity, and his spray-on tan,” Wood said in a statement.
In one tweet, Bloomberg included a video of his response to a reporter’s question about Trump’s attacks.
“The president lies,” Bloomberg said. “He lies about everything. So, it shouldn’t be a surprise that he said things like that.”
“I stand twice as tall as he does on the stage, the stage that matters,” he said.
African-Americans have played a profound role in shaping the U.S. business landscape. Technological innovations like the traffic light, automatic elevator doors and even caller ID all sprung from the minds of creative black luminaries.
To honor their business achievements this Black History Month, Forbes spoke to a number of founders, investors, activists, celebrities and experts on the black diaspora. What emerged from these conversation was a rich, complex portrait of black entrepreneurship, one that highlights the black community’s tremendous creativity, as well as a resilience that was born, in part, out of hardship and necessity.
Historically, black-owned companies, like Madam C.J. Walker’s hair-care line and the businesses that formed Tulsa, Oklahoma’s Black Wall Street, were developed in direct response to racial discrimination. “These segregation patterns then created market opportunities for black entrepreneurs to step in, make money and meet the demands of the black community,” says Mehrsa Baradaran, author of The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap. With few work opportunities and high job instability, many black pioneers took matters into their own hands, building small enterprises that served and employed fellow African-Americans.
The black community’s long history of entrepreneurship is marked by ebbs and flows. The Reconstruction era, the period after the Civil War, saw a sharp rise in the number of black-owned businesses as the country attempted to right some of the inequities of slavery. But in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the resurgence of Jim Crow laws enforcing racial segregation, coupled with the Great Depression, led to the decline of black entrepreneurship. “Black businesses were targeted and we saw a rollback in many of the advancements that were made previously,” says Tiffiany Howard, a small business and entrepreneurship fellow at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation.
The rate of black business creation continued to rise and fall throughout the 20th and 21st century, increasing in the ’90s, dipping during the 2008 recession and rising again post-recession. In recent years, the number of black-owned businesses has risen dramatically, with black women fueling much of that growth. In 2003, Oprah Winfrey, arguably the most notable black female entrepreneur, became the first black American billionaire. And in just the last five years, four other African-Americans have reached the billionaire echelon.
But even with this forward momentum, black entrepreneurs still face a number of challenges: primarily, a lack of access to capital, says Ron Busby, president of the U.S. Black Chambers. “We have the acumen, the creativity, the knowledge and even the manpower. But without access to capital, our ideas come to a standstill, are stolen or are manipulated.”
Many of the black 2020 30 Under 30 listmakers echo a similar sentiment in candid video interviews with Forbes, but they also note the black community’s collective ability to persevere against all odds. And in an effort to level the playing field for entrepreneurs of color, a number of corporations and wealthy black business leaders have created funds to invest in minority-owned companies. Real estate tycoon Don Peebles announced a $500 million fund for emerging minority and female developers in June 2019, and banks like JPMorgan and Citigroup have launched initiatives and investment funds to support underrepresented entrepreneurs.
Still, much remains to be done both in the private and public sectors. “In order for there to be a great America, there must be a great black America,” Busby says. “And in order for there to be a great black America, you must have great black businesses and a great black economy.”
If history is any indication, black entrepreneurship will continue to grow and thrive in the coming years—an economic boon for Americans of all colors.
Smith, the founder and CEO of Vista Equity Partners, made national headlines in 2019 when he pledged to pay off student loans for the entire graduating class of Morehouse College. He made his Forbes 400 billionaire debut in 2015 with a net worth of $2.5 billion.
Current Net Worth: $5 Billion
David Steward
Steward once watched his car get repossessed from his office parking lot. Today, he’s the billionaire founder and chairman of IT provider World Wide Technology—one of the largest black-owned businesses in America. In 2018, Forbes named him a billionaire with a net worth of $3.4 billion.
Current Net Worth: $3.5 Billion
Vera Anderson/WireImage/Getty Images
Oprah Winfrey
The media maven got her start in the entertainment and news industry, later morphing her hit talk show into a business empire. Forbes first listed her as a billionaire in 2003 with a $1 billion net worth.
Current Net Worth: $2.7 Billion
Omar Vega/AP Images for Jordan Brand
Michael Jordan
Not only is Jordan regarded as one of the NBA’s greatest players, he’s also the highest-paid athlete, thanks to his majority stake in the Charlotte Hornets and a Nike shoe deal. Jordan was first featured as a Forbes billionaire in 2015 with a $1 billion net worth.
Current Net Worth: $1.9 Billion
Kevin Mazur/ Getty Images
Jay-Z
In the words of Jay-Z, “I’m not a businessman. I’m a business, man.” Since hitting the hip-hop scene more than 25 years ago, the rapper has created a $1 billion fortune that encompasses liquor, art and real estate. He made his first showing as a Forbes billionaire in the spring of 2019.
Current Net Worth: $1 Billion
Black In The Day: A Timeline Of Business Firsts
We have Thomas Jennings, the first black patent holder, to thank for the prototype of modern dry cleaning.
Madam C.J. Walker creates a hair-care line that will later gain her recognition as the first self-made female millionaire.
Madam C.J. Walker invented a line of African-American hair products.
Getty Images
H. Naylor Fitzhugh is the first known African-American to graduate from Harvard Business School.
Warren H. Wheeler establishes Wheeler Airlines, the first black-owned and -operated air service in the U.S.
Joan and George Johnson’s hair-care company, Johnson Products, becomes the first black-owned business on the American Stock Exchange.
Reginald F. Lewis, the head of TLC Beatrice International, becomes the first African-American to own a company with $1 billion in sales.
Franklin D. Raines becomes the first black CEO of a Fortune 500 company when he takes over Fannie Mae.
Robert L. Johnson becomes the nation’s first black billionaire after selling the cable network Black Entertainment Television to Viacom.
Robert Johnson (center) is the founder of Black Entertainment Television.
2016 The Washington Post
Ruth Simmons is sworn in as the 18th president of Brown University, where she’s the first African-American president of an Ivy League school.
Don Peebles becomes the first African-American to develop and own a major luxury hotel.
Don Peebles is the CEO of the Peebles Corporation, a real estate company.
The Washington Post via Getty Images
Oprah Winfrey becomes the first black female billionaire, coming in at No. 427 on Forbes list of billionaires.
Ursula Burns is appointed CEO of Xerox, making her the first black female to lead an S&P 500 company.
Words Of Wisdom From Next-Gen Black Entrepreneurs
Members of the 2020 class of 30 Under 30 listmakers discuss black history and what it means to be an entrepreneur of color.
Responses have been edited for clarity and brevity.
And now many of them think that Mr. Sanders, aged 78 and a member of Congress for three decades, is going to win the Iowa caucuses.
In conversations this weekend with 24 of 99 county chairs, 14 said they believed Mr. Sanders would place first in Monday night’s caucuses. Six predicted Mr. Biden would win, while four said they still could not say who would win.
“I suspect that Bernie will end up in first place, as the polling indicates,” said Nathan Thompson, the party chairman in Winneshiek County. “It’s consistent with what I’ve seen in northeast Iowa.”
Several acknowledged that their favorite candidate was not likely to win.
Marjie Foster, the Decatur County chairwoman, said she planned to caucus for Ms. Klobuchar but predicted she would finish behind Mr. Sanders and Mr. Buttigieg.
Terry Kocher, the Humboldt County chairman, said he expected Mr. Biden to win but was hoping that Mr. Buttigieg, for whom he will caucus, did well.
And Rachel Bly, a co-chairwoman in Poweshiek County east of Des Moines, predicted a split decision, with one candidate taking the most delegates and another winning the most raw votes.
“Sanders has pockets of support, but won’t necessarily carry the rural areas or get delegates in as many places as some of the others,” she said. “He may win the numbers game, but not the delegate game.”
Most Asian indices plunged on Monday as worry about economic impact of the coronavirus escalated.
In China, the Shanghai composite dropped by more than 7 percent on its first trading day following the Chinese Lunar New Year, and the Shenzen composite fell by more than 8 percent.
Market observers said it is unlikely that U.S. stocks will record a similar plunge, but added that the recent spate of volatility should serve as a wake-up call to investors lulled into complacency by the market’s recent meteoric rise.
“Their market is just catching up to the rest of the world because they’ve been closed for a week,” Mitchell Goldberg, president of ClientFirst Strategy, said of the Chinese selloff. “It’s just that it’s all happening in one day.”
China’s economy already was on the ropes as a result of its trade war with the U.S. Profits fell in its industrial sector in 2019 for the first time in four years, and economists warn that the virus likely could push the country’s GDP growth below 6 percent.
“The expectation is that most of the global economic hit will be reflected in China. For 2020, China is expected to show only a 5.7 percent growth in GDP,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research.
While experts say a broad-based selloff is unlikely in the U.S. market, certain sectors are struggling as the coronavirus — which has sickened more than 17,000 people — continues to gain traction: Airlines, which have curtailed flights to China and lost that business, are the most visible casualties. Energy stocks are sagging on the expectation that the travel and work stoppages virtually sealing off China from the rest of the world will crimp demand, and expectations for a key profit metric for financial companies have slipped.
“The thought is, with energy, if we have reduced economic growth for 2020, that would drive down demand for energy,” Stovall said. “With interest rates coming down so dramatically, that would reduce net interest income banks can receive,” he said.
Investing experts say the biggest variable is one that still is, and likely will remain, an unknown for some time to come: How far and for how long the virus ultimately will spread.
National and global health organizations have expressed concern that containment measures put into place by countries, including the U.S., will have limited effectiveness if the illness can be transmitted before people start showing symptoms, as scientists suspect is the case.
“If this doesn’t last for a long time, then I think investors expect a rebound in demand and the stock market,” Goldberg said. “If this goes on for a few more weeks, you can basically kiss the entire first quarter good-bye and then earnings estimates and global GDP would be on the chopping block. If you expect that to happen, then a selloff is justified,” he said.
China’s position at the epicenter of global trade raises the complicating factor, and the stakes, for U.S. businesses, said Jacob Kirkegaard, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
“Normally, you’d say that the spillover would come from a slowdown in Chinese growth but this time the bigger and more immediate impact is to supply chains,” he said. “China is the biggest trading nation in the world, the assembly line of the global economy.”
While countries might be able to source products or components from other countries, China’s dominance in sectors like electronics and inputs containing rare-earth could leave manufacturers outside of China scrambling.
“This is a very interdependent global economy,” Kirkegaard said. “The clock is ticking.”
Trump was impeached in December on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress for pressuring the Ukrainian government to investigate his political rivals, including former Vice President Joe Biden, and withholding almost $400 million in aid to the country.
Former President Bill Clinton also delivered a State of the Union address during the midst of his 1999 impeachment trial and famously didn’t bring up his ongoing trial. Richard Nixon, in his 1974 State of the Union address, asked Congress to end the Watergate investigations, saying “one year of Watergate is enough.” Nixon resigned months later after it became clear he’d be impeached and removed from office.
Senate Republicans advised Trump on Monday to focus his attention on other topics, like lowering the cost of prescription drugs, the economy, or even climate change, as well as outline his vision for a second term.
“We’ve got a great strong economy, our military is finally being rebuilt under this administration,” said Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), a member of GOP leadership. “There are a lot of really great things he should talk about — and stay away from maybe what the proceedings are. We’re not voting until Wednesday.”
But Senate Democrats aren’t holding their breath for a unifying message from the president and expect to get an earful about impeachment.
“I am almost certain he will” bring it up, said Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) “Have you met the man … One of the core arguments is that he is utterly unrepentant, unlike President Nixon and President Clinton, who after their impeachments delivered formal apologies to the country and to the Congress.”
“Predicting what Donald Trump will say is a little bit like buying a lottery ticket,” added Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.). “But I suspect he will talk about impeachment.”
Trump’s previous State of the Union addresses have made appeals to national unity and bipartisanship. But he’s also angered Democrats with his rhetoric. Last year’s speech left Democrats fuming after he asked for their help to build a border wall and called for a late-term abortion ban. He also urged House Democrats who had just taken the majority to skip “ridiculous partisan investigations.”
White House officials say Trump is viewing his state of the union speech as an official relaunch for his reelection bid. Last week, they said they did not expect Trump to mention impeachment and that he would instead focus on other issues like the economy or the trade agreement with Mexico and Canada, which the senate approved last month just before the start of the trial.
White House officials told reporters in a background briefing Friday that the speech would present “a vision of relentless optimism.”
Still, even Trump’s strongest Capitol Hill allies say that it’s impossible to predict what the president’s message will be until he actually delivers his speech.
“Everyone should just know that Trump will be Trump and that means we don’t know what he’s going to say,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.). “I don’t think that he needs to be pressured to be anything other than who he is. I’m not writing his speech. Whoever is knows that there’s a 50-50 chance he’ll read it as written.”
Burgess Everett and Gabby Orr contributed to this report.
This article will be updated when more information is available.
Two women were fatally shot and a toddler was wounded Monday at a Texas A&M University-Commerce residence hall.
The child, who is about 2 years old, was hospitalized in stable condition, campus police Chief Bryan Vaughn confirmed at a news conference Monday afternoon.
Authorities declined to answer questions at the news conference, and they did not release the victims’ names or say whether the women were students.
Police said they found the two women dead and the baby wounded after a student called them at 10:17 a.m.
In a Twitter post at 11:53 a.m., university officials told students, faculty and staff members to remain sheltered in place while the shootings at the Pride Rock residence hall were investigated.
The shelter-in-place request was lifted shortly before 1:30 p.m., and at the news conference Monday afternoon the police chief said there was not a continuing threat on campus. University police had stationed officers throughout campus, including all key gathering points.
Classes were canceled for the remainder of the day, the university said.
A resident is escorted out of the Pride Rock residence hall where two women were fatally shot and a toddler was wounded Monday at Texas A&M University-Commerce on Feb. 3, 2020 in Commerce, Texas.(Juan Figueroa / Staff photographer)
Larry Cooper III, a freshman at the university, lives in Pride Rock, a three-story residence hall for freshmen. He said he left his room, which is on the second floor, just before the shelter-in-place was announced.
“I actually left earlier than I usually leave,” he said. “If I hadn’t left my room a few minutes earlier I would be stuck in my room right now. Anyone still on the second floor can’t leave their room.”
He said he waited in a friend’s room on the first floor of the residence hall during the shelter-in-place with a few other students.
“There’s police blocking the doorways, but other than that we’re all just kind of sitting in and waiting on the news to happen,” Cooper said.
The university said that the Rayburn Student Center was available for displaced students and that counselors were available there for anyone who needed assistance.
Darius Myers, a freshman studying nursing at A&M-Commerce, said the feeling on campus Monday wasn’t new to him.
Myers and two of his football teammates, Jordan Polk and Uzo Ebinama, left the Pride Rock residence hall Monday afternoon. They said they were told they wouldn’t be allowed to come back for the day while law enforcement worked inside.
Many students already gone home for the day, they said.
Law enforcement officials had cordoned off the dorm with yellow police line, and the students left through a side door, saying they weren’t allowed to use the main entrance.
Myers, Polk and Ebinama were all sleeping after getting back to the dorms from a football workout when the shooting happened, they said. None of them woke up to the sound of gunfire, though they all live on the second floor, just around the corner from where the shooting was, they said.
The university allows handguns in campus dorms, and licensed individuals may carry concealed handguns on campus, with some exceptions including the campus counseling and health centers, certain science labs and sporting events.
A student who wants to store a handgun in a dorm must provide a safe that only he or she has access to, according to the university’s policy.
The firearms policies are designed to comply with the state’s Concealed Campus Carry law, which went into effect in 2016.
A safety message is displayed outside the Pride Rock residence hall where two women were fatally shot and a toddler was wounded Monday at Texas A&M University-Commerce on Feb. 3, 2020 in Commerce, Texas.(Juan Figueroa / Staff photographer)
Several Utah school districts took the rare step of canceling classes.
In Denver, Monday’s temps were in the 20s as the snow fell, a day after a sunny high of 74 degrees.
In the South, heavy rainfall, localized flooding and severe thunderstorms are forecast.
A potent winter storm that dumped heavy snow on the Rockies Monday will crawl toward the central and eastern U.S. throughout the rest of the week, forecasters say.
On Monday, the storm forced the closure of schools and roads in Wyoming, Idaho and Utah, and it caused hourslong flight delays at Salt Lake City’s airport. Many locations in Utah recorded more than a foot of snow Monday, the National Weather Service reported.
Several Utah school districts took the rare step of canceling classes. It was only the second snow day for the Salt Lake City School District in nearly 20 years.
In Denver, temperatures Monday afternoon were in the 20s as it snowed, a day after a sunny high of 74 degrees, AccuWeather said.
After moving away from the Rockies on Tuesday, the storm will produce a band of snow and ice from the southern Plains to the interior Northeast over the next few days, the National Weather Service said.
Tuesday night and into Wednesday, “several inches of snow is possible in a swath from northern Texas to southwestern Missouri,” said AccuWeather Meteorologist Adam Sadvary.
The wintry weather will spread toward the southern Great Lakes, Pennsylvania, New York and parts of New England on Wednesday night and into Thursday, Weather.com said.
In the South, heavy rainfall, localized flooding and severe thunderstorms are forecast Tuesday through Thursday.
“Rainfall amounts of 1 to 3 inches are forecast in a swath through Arkansas, the boot heel of Missouri, and into Kentucky and the Tennessee Valley through Wednesday evening,” the weather service said. “There is some potential for flash flooding where heavy rainfall occurs in these areas.”
Because of the wet start to the year, rainfall rates will not need to be exceptionally high to produce a flash flood risk, AccuWeather warned.
There is also a small risk of severe thunderstorms across portions of the lower Mississippi River valley on Tuesday, the Storm Prediction Center said, and along the Gulf Coast on Wednesday.
In the South and East on Monday, unusual warmth was the main weather story: According to BAM weather meteorologist Ryan Maue, nearly 50 million Americans saw temperatures of at least 70 degrees Monday afternoon.
“Can’t beat that in early February, especially into St. Louis and Atlanta,” Maue tweeted.
Image caption
The move follows a knife attack in Streatham, south London, by Sudesh Amman
Emergency legislation will be introduced to end the automatic early release from prison of terror offenders, the government has said.
Justice Secretary Robert Buckland told MPs the change would apply to both current and future offenders.
Terror offenders will only be considered for release once they have served two-thirds of their sentence and with the approval of the Parole Board.
It follows two attacks by men convicted of terror offences in recent months.
On Sunday, Sudesh Amman, 20, was shot dead by police in Streatham, south London, after stabbing two people. And in November two people were killed near London Bridge by Usman Khan.
Amman was released from prison towards the end of January, while Khan was out on licence from prison when he launched his attack in central London.
Mr Buckland said the latest attack made the case “for immediate action”.
“We cannot have the situation, as we saw tragically in yesterday’s case, where an offender – a known risk to innocent members of the public – is released early by automatic process of law without any oversight by the Parole Board,” he said.
He said the new legislation would mean people convicted of terrorism offences will no longer be released automatically after they have served half of their sentence.
Because we face “an unprecedented situation of severe gravity”, the legislation will also apply to serving prisoners, Mr Buckland said.
The Ministry of Justice said the legislation would be introduced “when parliamentary time allows”.
The government will also consider making new legislation to ensure that extremists are more closely monitored on release and will review whether the current maximum sentences for terrorist offences are sufficient.
Media captionJustice Secretary Robert Buckland: “We face an unprecedented situation of severe gravity”
The Parole Board for England and Wales has welcomed the plans.
In a statement, it said it would not “direct the release of an offender unless [it is] satisfied, taking account of all the evidence, that detention is no longer necessary for the protection of the public”.
“The board’s focus is rightly on those who have committed the most serious criminal offences and it is vital that the most serious offenders are subject to a proper assessment before their release,” it added.
However, human rights group Liberty described the government’s actions after recent terror attacks as a “cause of increasing concern for our civil liberties”.
‘System is in chaos’
Clare Collier, an advocacy director for the campaign group, said: “From last month’s knee-jerk lie detector proposal, to today’s threat to break the law by changing people’s sentences retrospectively, continuing to introduce measures without review or evidence is dangerous and will create more problems than it solves.
“It’s clear the UK’s counter-terror system is in chaos and desperately needs proper scrutiny and review.”
Responding to the government announcement in the Commons, shadow justice secretary Richard Burgon said the justice system was in “crisis” due to funding cuts.
“The government cannot use sentencing as a way of distracting from their record of bringing the criminal justice system to breaking point,” he said.
Former government counter-terrorism adviser Professor Ian Acheson argued that there might be instances where offenders should stay in prison.
He told BBC News: “There will be some people for whom their ideology is bulletproof and there is no way we can get inside that.
“If there are people who are absolutely determined not to accept any intervention that will change that toxic mind-set, yes they should be in prison and if necessary, indefinitely.”
Although plans for the Parole Board to decide if people convicted of terrorism offences should be released after serving two thirds of their sentence were in the Queen’s Speech, there were no proposals at that stage for the measures to apply retrospectively.
All that changed after the Streatham attack – the third incident involving convicted Islamist extremists in two months.
Ministers are clearly concerned about the risks posed by other prisoners serving sentences for terrorism who are due to be let out: there’s about one release, on average, every week.
But the measures, if approved by Parliament, will almost certainly be the subject of a challenge in the courts. Is it fair that a prisoner who’s been convicted and sentenced under one set of rules suddenly finds themselves locked up for longer under a different set of rules?
The government is likely to justify its approach on the grounds of national security, so prepare for an epic legal battle that may well end up at the Supreme Court.
Amman was shot dead on Streatham High Road on Sunday afternoon after stabbing two people in what police called an Islamist-related terrorist incident. He wore an imitation suicide belt.
He had been released from prison about a week ago after serving half of a sentence for terror offences, and was under police surveillance.
Armed officers were following Amman on foot as part of a “proactive counter-terrorism surveillance operation”, Scotland Yard said.
He was seen entering a shop in Streatham High Road shortly before 14:00 GMT, where he is believed to have stolen a knife. Once outside the shop he attacked two people.
In a statement on Monday, the Metropolitan Police said its officers responded within 60 seconds of Amman’s attack, fatally shooting him.
The force did not reveal more details about its surveillance operation on the terror convict.
Media captionDave Chawner said he “used a blanket to stem the bleeding” of one of the victims
Three people were taken to hospitals, including the two stabbing victims.
One victim, a man in his 40s, is now said to be recovering after sustaining injuries that were initially thought to be life-threatening. Another, a woman in her 50s, has been discharged from hospital.
A third woman in her 20s suffered minor injuries, thought to have been caused by broken glass from the gunfire.
The so-called Counter-Terrorism Bill would also ensure people convicted of serious offences, such as preparing acts of terrorism or directing a terrorist organisation, spend a minimum of 14 years in prison.
There are currently at least 74 people who were jailed for terror offences and subsequently freed on licence.
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