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Your Evening Briefing

Your Evening Briefing

(Bloomberg) --

Four more Americans died in Washington State while a disease expert warned that the coronavirus will likely become a pandemic. Teams from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are trying to track its spread, but medical experts and lawmakers are concerned America remains unprepared. President Donald Trump has painted criticism of his handling of the crisis, including his downplaying of its severity, as a “hoax.” On Monday, he told drug companies to “get it done,” though no vaccine is in sight. There are more than 90,000 cases worldwide and 3,083 people have died, including six Americans.

Here are today’s top stories

The Trump administration is discussing strategies to contain the economic fallout from the virus, including proposing more tax cuts and trying to push the Fed to cut rates again. U.S. stocks rallied on the news, making up some of their losses from last week’s bloodbath.

Rallies aside, the outbreak may drag the global economy into a contraction this quarter. Amazon meanwhile is having trouble keeping up with panic shoppers.

Senator Amy Klobuchar and former mayor Pete Buttigieg both dropped out of the Democratic primaries on the eve of Super Tuesday. They are expected to endorse former Vice President Joe Biden as moderates join forces to slow Senator Bernie Sanders in his pursuit of the nomination.

Despite halting production of its troubled 737 Max, Boeing has gone on a hiring spree.

Jack Welch, the manager who remade General Electric, has died at age 84. In Bloomberg Opinion, Joe Nocera says Welch’s singular focus on company stock price has inflicted great damage on corporate America.

At least 3.8 million U.S. homes lie in floodplains. Together, they may be overvalued by $34 billion.

What’s Joe Weisenthal thinking about? The Bloomberg news director is studying the online prediction market ahead of Super Tuesday. According to PredictIt, Sanders has a 57% chance of winning the nomination while Biden is at 31%. As Vox points out, these markets tend to be pretty bad at predicting who wins. However, Joe says they don’t exist to predict a winner; they are a snapshot of conventional wisdom. And if you have confidence in a view that’s outside the conventional wisdom, then perhaps you can make some money.

What you’ll need to know tomorrow

What you’ll want to read in Bloomberg Wealth

Like everyone across the U.S., the rich are bracing for a deadly coronavirus outbreak. But the rich can afford to prepare for a pandemic with perquisites, like private plane rides out of town, calls with world-leading experts and access to luxurious medical care. One investor may fly to Idaho with or without family. Another may travel to a home in Italy (a country the CDC advises Americans to avoid at the moment). And one New Yorker called up the hospital with his name on it.

Your Evening Briefing

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