ENERGY

Unlike You, Oil Production Gets a Much-Needed Haircut

In what was likely the most consequential videochat in history, Saudi Arabia, Russia, and other oil producers agreed yesterday to cut output of crude oil.

Reflecting the theme of the year, these cuts are “unprecedented.” They’ll remove 9.7 million barrels of oil a day from markets—equivalent to about 10% of the global supply. If producers failed to make a deal, prices were expected to plunge when trading opened. 

How it went down

Saudi Arabia and Russia reached an outline for a supply cut on Thursday. This marked major progress—the two countries had been duking it out in a price war since the beginning of March, when emergency talks to slash production fell apart.

We managed to make it this far before mentioning the coronavirus, which of course is a leading character in this drama.

• The pandemic canceled all of your spring/summer travel plans, which means demand for fuel evaporated. 
• That + no agreement on supply cuts sent oil prices down 40% since early March, jeopardizing the countries and firms that rely on crude to trade above certain prices. OPEC’s secretary-general called the supply/demand fundamentals “horrifying.” 

Last-minute snag

While Russia and the Saudis buried their feud by Thursday, one country was still holding out: Mexico, which thought the production cuts being asked of it were unfair. Following several phone calls with world leaders, President Trump said the U.S. would "pick up some of the slack” for Mexico—a win for president Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

• Trump, an OPEC critic, played a surprisingly active role during negotiations. Perhaps that reflects the existential threat low oil prices present to the booming U.S. shale industry. 

Looking ahead...the question everyone’s asking is, “Are these cuts steep enough to stabilize prices?” The answer you’re most likely to hear is “no.” Goldman Sachs and UBS said not even a 15% output cut would put supply in line with demand.

TECH

Bedfellows Don’t Get Any Stranger Than This

Crosby and Ovechkin play hopscotch. Mozart and Salieri join a kickball team. Katy and Taylor get brunch. 

On Friday, bitter tech rivals Apple and Google said they planned to launch a joint effort to help public health authorities control the spread of the coronavirus. 

The details: The companies will release software tools that enable developers to create apps that turn people’s smartphones into contact tracers using Bluetooth technology. 

• Contact tracing = a virus containment method that catalogs newly infected people and everyone they’ve been in recent contact with. That way, officials can map, and hopefully slow, the virus’s spread. 

The idea raised privacy hackles, natch. Two tech behemoths tracking the world’s movements doesn’t exactly play well. But the companies say the platform they’re developing will protect user privacy. 

• The apps wouldn’t track locations, just devices’ contacts with other devices, anonymously. 
• The ACLU said the plan “appears to mitigate the worst privacy and centralization risks.” 

Looking ahead...the companies hope to release the support software next month. 

PHARMA

Gilead Drug Shows Promise

Remember this word: remdesivir.

Sure, it’s a bit of a mouthful. But the drug is perhaps the leader in the race to treat COVID-19. 

More supporting evidence came in a study released Friday in the New England Journal of Medicine, the Philips Exeter of medical publications. Remdesivir was developed by California-based biotech Gilead Sciences, which funded the study. 

Here’s what was promising:

• 68% of patients critically ill with COVID-19 improved after being treated with remdesivir. 
• Lead author Dr. Jonathan Grein: “We cannot draw definitive conclusions from these data, but the observations from this group of hospitalized patients who received remdesivir are hopeful.”

Why can’t we draw definitive conclusions? This study was very small and also didn’t have the all-important “control group” to compare results against. However, that is happening in large-scale, randomized clinical trials currently underway across the globe. 

Bottom line: Some experts don’t think life can go back to normal (and even then it wouldn’t be normal normal) without an effective coronavirus treatment. 

SPONSORED BY WITHIN

See the Impact of COVID on E-Commerce in Real-Time

We’re in touch with some certified experts who are monitoring the effects of COVID-19 on e-commerce verticals, including revenue, ad spend, and CvR.

Who are said experts? WITHIN, the world’s first performance branding company—and they’re using data from their industry-leading clients to provide insights to help brands beat the benchmark.

They’ve taken their findings and written up a white paper on “digital strategies to get your brand through coronavirus.” But they didn’t stop there.

Starting today, they’re hosting a twice-a-week webinar series called Retail Pulse Live. Here, they’ll be talking tactics for weathering the storm.

Their first show is at noon today, but WITHIN will be broadcasting every Tuesday and Friday until further notice.

For everything from white papers to live shows, check out WITHIN’s COVID-19 Retail Pulse dashboard .

SHIPPING

Trump Sides With Dogs on Postal Service

President Trump reportedly knocked down a proposal to bail out the U.S. Postal Service in last month's $2 trillion coronavirus relief package. 

How we got here: The Postal Service has seen demand dry up during the coronavirus epidemic, with volume in the first week of March down 30%. At the same time, the most lucrative types of mail for the agency—first-class and marketing—are disappearing. It employs around 600,000 workers. 

• Estimates provided to members of Congress projected that without a loan, the Postal Service will be “financially illiquid” by Sept. 30. 
• Last week, Postmaster General Megan Brennan asked for $75 billion in cash, grants, and loans. 

When crafting the stimulus bill, Congress agreed to a $13 billion direct grant...but Treasury Sec. Steve Mnuchin blocked it, according to WaPo sources. President Trump reportedly said he would veto the package if it included funds for the Postal Service. 

• Instead, two Democratic senators reportedly tacked on a $10 billion loan to keep the agency afloat through the spring. 

Bottom line: Your terrier is a bigger fan of the Postal Service than President Trump, who once called it Amazon’s “delivery boy.”

CALENDAR

The Week Ahead

In fresh evidence the world continues to rotate on its axis, we have officially hit earnings season. What's reported might cause it to stop. 

Monday: New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art turns 150 

Tuesday: Earnings (Johnson & Johnson, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo)

Wednesday: Tax Day (federal filing deadline extended to July 15); March retail sales; NBCUniversal’s Peacock service launches for Comcast subscribers; World Art Day; earnings (UnitedHealth Group, Citigroup, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, PNC)

Thursday: Weekly unemployment claims; housing starts; earnings (Abbott Laboratories, BlackRock, Rite Aid)

Friday: WNBA Draft; China Q1 GDP; IMF and World Bank virtual Spring Meetings

COMMUNITY

Are You on Product Hunt?

It’s a great resource to discover new products as they launch.

Well what a crazy coincidence. We know of a great product that just launched: The Essentials, our pop-up newsletter that helps you stay occupied while hunkering down at home. It’s going to be featured on Product Hunt today.

To show off the strength of the Brew community, go on Product Hunt, show your support, and comment what you love about The Essentials.

 Go to The Essentials product page.

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson was discharged from the hospital after being treated in the ICU for COVID-19. 
• Smithfield will indefinitely close a U.S. plant after workers tested positive for the coronavirus. It's the world's largest pork processor. 
• Burning Man organizers canceled this year's festival, but said they’d create a virtual event with the same theme of “the Multiverse.”
• MBA students at top programs like Wharton and Stanford are petitioning for a refund on their tuition.
• Walt Disney World Resort will furlough 43,000 union workers.

BREW'S BETS

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FROM THE CREW

WFH Horror Stories

Lots of things can go wrong while in a meeting, but even more can go wrong while videoconferencing. Case in point, from one Brew reader:

• “My friend's professor didn't realize he was screen sharing during a presentation that was worth half of her course grade. He was sending people emails about adopting a cat named Koala, then he watched a YouTube video about bees.”

Let's commiserate together. Share your bizarre work from home stories and we'll publish the best ones in the newsletter. 

BEYOND CROSSWORD

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BEYOND CROSSWORD ANSWERS