Coronavirus continues to spread across Europe and the Middle East and has officially made its first appearance in South America, sending officials scrambling to keep up and pushing businesses that are struggling to adapt to the economic effects of an outbreak showing no signs of pause.
With the uncertainty of a new virus whose vaccine the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said is 12-18 months away, travelers are pausing vacation plans.
Travel website Trivago's CEO Axel Hefer told Cheddar Tuesday the company has seen "quite a significant effect" on its markets across Asia.
But the spread of the infectious disease is hard to predict, as seen in Europe over the past week, where the number of cases ballooned in Italy over a few days.
"In travel, it's all about uncertainty, obviously," Hefer said. "So if there is insecurity, whether you can travel healthy, then it has a big impact on the short term travel and people tend to push out the travel to a later point in time."
To accommodate, Trivago has reduced its marketing spend and shifted it to a later time. Hefer said the company has worked with its marketing partners to alter their schedules even past a point where they can typically pull back spending.
Germany, and the European Union more broadly, are struggling to contain small outbreaks in the economic region known for its open borders.
"Things can change very quickly," he said. "Europe was pretty much isolated until last week. And then it all changed in the last seven days. So it's impossible to quantify [the financial impact on Trivago this quarter] and as a reason why, for the first time ever, we've not given any guidance."
However, the Düsseldorf-based company is treating the virus as a temporary setback, one that is unlikely to last for the next three to four quarters, Hefer said.
Kraft Heinz is splitting into two companies a decade after they joined in a massive merger that created one of the biggest food companies on the planet. One of the companies will include brands such as Heinz, Philadelphia cream cheese and Kraft Mac & Cheese. The other will include brands like Oscar Mayer, Kraft Singles and Lunchables. When the company formed in 2015 it wanted to capitalize on its massive scale, but shifting tastes complicated those plans, with households seeking to introduce healthier options at the table. Kraft Heinz's net revenue has fallen every year since 2020.
About 780,000 pressure washers sold at retailers like Home Depot are being recalled across the U.S. and Canada, due to a projectile hazard that has resulted in fractures and other injuries among some consumers.
President Donald Trump has fired one of two Democratic members of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to break a 2-2 tie ahead of the board considering the largest railroad merger ever proposed.
Ford is recalling more than 355,000 of its pickup trucks across the U.S. because of an instrument panel display failure that’s resulted in critical information, like warning lights and vehicle speed, not showing up on the dashboard.
