In a single 24-hour period, the governors of three of the largest states – California, New York and Illinois – ordered residents to stay home, except to buy food and medicine, while the governor of Pennsylvania ordered the closure of nonessential businesses. Across the globe, health officials are struggling to cope with the growing number of patients, with the World Health Organization noting that while it required three months to reach 100,000 cases, it took only 12 days to hit another 100,000.

The resulting economic meltdown, which is sending several million workers streaming into the unemployment line, is outpacing the federal government’s efforts to respond. As the Senate on Friday raced to complete work on a financial rescue package, the White House and key lawmakers were dramatically expanding its scope, pushing the legislation far beyond the original $1 trillion price tag.

With each day, an unprecedented stoppage gathers force, as restaurants, movie theaters, sports arenas, and offices close to shield themselves from the disease. Already, it’s clear that the initial economic decline will be sharper and more painful than during the 2008 financial crisis.

Next week, roughly 3 million Americans will file first-time claims for unemployment assistance, more than four times the record high set in the depths of the 1982 recession, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch. That’s just the start of a surge that could send the jobless rate spiking to 20 percent from today’s 3.5 percent, a JPMorgan Chase economist told clients on a conference call Friday.

Estimates of the pandemic’s overall cost are staggering. Bridgewater Associates, a prominent hedge fund manager, says the economy will shrink over the next three months at an annual rate of 30 percent. Goldman Sachs pegs the drop at 24 percent. JPMorgan Chase says 14 percent.

“We are looking at something quite grave,” said economist Janet Yellen, the former Federal Reserve chair. “If businesses suffer such serious losses and are forced to fire workers and have their firms go into bankruptcy, it may not be easy to pull out of that.”

Little more than seven months before the presidential election, President Donald Trump already is looking past the crisis and promising a swift recovery. “We’re going to be a rocket ship as soon as this thing gets solved . . . We think it’s going to come back really fast.” the president said Thursday.

Most economists expect the economy to begin climbing out of its deep hole in the second half of this year. But those forecasts depend upon the pandemic being brought under control and the U.S. and other governments enacting policies that prevent lasting harm to factories and financial arteries. Even if all that happens, the economy will be smaller at the end of this year than it was at the beginning, according to Bridgewater, Goldman and JPMorgan.

The truth is no one really knows what will happen months from now. No one on Wall Street or in Washington has any experience dealing with the kind of complex threat that has suddenly materialized to upend American life: a global health scare that is strangling the economy and disrupting financial markets.

Individual workers and their families – many only recently recovered from the 2008-09 economic cataclysm – are already feeling the effects. The unexpected economic shock found millions of Americans living on the precipice of ruin. In a Federal Reserve survey last year, 39 percent of Americans said they would be unable to handle an unexpected $400 expense.

Lyndsy Hartmann knew something was wrong last weekend when she went to her job at a spa company in Charlottesville, Virginia. Hartmann, 34, normally handles 150 calls a day from people interested in booking spa treatments and massages. But on Saturday and Sunday, she received a total of six.

Her boss laid off most of the staff Monday morning. Tuesday, it was Hartmann’s turn.

Her husband, who works as a personal chef, also has lost his job. He had a side gig driving for Uber, but the college kids who were his main customers disappeared earlier this month when the virus forced the University of Virginia to close. Now, the couple is worried about paying their $1,300 apartment rent.

“I don’t have savings. My rent is so high that I live paycheck to paycheck,” Hartmann said. “Everyone is talking about how the coronavirus is affecting restaurants, but it’s affecting hotels, spas and hospitality in general. I don’t know how I’m going to pay rent and pay my bills.”

The situation is much the same in Mount Clemens, a suburb of Detroit. Steve Manzo is a cook and bartender at a popular Irish pub who began the week anticipating double pay for St. Patrick’s Day. Instead, he lost his job Monday and spent hours on the state’s unemployment website trying to apply for government aid that will make up less than half of his typical $60,000 annual salary.

Like many, Manzo lives paycheck to paycheck and is worried he might not even have a restaurant to return to if the pandemic endures.

“I keep looking out my window and everything looks normal, but it doesn’t feel normal,” said Steve Manzo. “I live downtown with bars and restaurants and nobody is here.”

Even Yellen, 73, the former Fed chair, has not escaped the anxiety. She’s hunkered down in her District of Columbia home running economic forecasts that all look grim. Her son, who flew home from London on Saturday and was caught in the mass of people at passport control at Dulles Airport, is self-quarantining in the family’s basement to avoid endangering his mother. Yellen, one of the world’s top economists, leaves plates of food for him at the top of the basement stairs.

Senate consideration of a financial rescue of $1 trillion-plus came amid mounting signs of economic distress. In a joint letter, United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz and union officials warned of imminent layoffs and urged the airline’s nearly 100,000 employees to lobby Congress for help.

“While many in Washington, D.C. now realize the gravity of this situation, time is running out,” the letter said. ” . . . To be specific, if Congress doesn’t act on sufficient government support by the end of March, our company will begin to take the necessary steps to reduce our payroll in line with the 60% schedule reduction we announced for April. May’s schedule is likely to be cut even further.”

Lawmakers’ willingness to countenance massive spending and corporate bailouts in response was one sign that Americans increasingly recognize the battle against the coronavirus involves a stark choice between health and wealth.

U.S. officials are deliberately engineering a sharp recession to blunt the spread of a fatal disease for which there is no cure, definitive treatment or vaccine. Governors in Florida, New Jersey and Nevada on Friday all took, or indicated they’d take, significant action to limit activity outside the home.

The only way to interrupt the viral blitzkrieg is to implement “social distancing.” But keeping friends and co-workers apart is a recipe for crippling the consumer spending that drives 70 percent of the $21 trillion economy.

Alexis Walker, 40, earned about $60,000 last year with a patchwork series of jobs: working part-time job at an after school program in Philadelphia, which ended a week ago; substitute teaching; working as a nanny; DJ’ing at parties; selling homemade special shea butter; and occasionally renting her apartment on Airbnb.

Last weekend, Walker had $500 worth of babysitting and DJ gigs lined up, but all her customers canceled, along with her entire lineup of Airbnb guests this spring. Her landlord is letting her delay her rent payment, but she knows it will eventually come due.

“Those bills still have to be paid. My debts keep accruing,” said Walker, who hopes to establish a virtual after-school program to keep some money coming in. “What will send this country into a depression is all the bills people will have to pay in two months.”

Dean Baker, senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, said a depression would involve a more protracted period of unusually low activity than what seems likely.

“Everything depends on how long we are effectively locked down,” said “If it’s just 2-3 weeks, then it need not be this bad. But if we locked down for most of the quarter, then we are looking at a really bad story.”

The sudden turnaround in U.S. economic fortunes is without historic parallel. As 2020 began, the U.S. had been growing without interruption since the middle of 2009. The jobless rate was near a half-century low and the stock market was headed toward a record high.

Now, the economy is screeching to a halt and the stock market is in free fall. On Thursday, the Big3 automakers said they would close their factories through March 30. Real estate agents have canceled open houses. And Marriott, the largest hotel company in the world, is closing its hotels and furloughing thousands of workers.

In a video message to employees, CEO Arne Sorenson said he would not take any salary for the rest of the year. The pandemic “is like nothing we’ve never seen before,” he said.

The sudden loss of hotel business exceeded the combined effects of the Great Recession and the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. On average, hotel revenue is down 75 percent, which requires draconian retrenchment.

“I can tell you that I have never had a more difficult moment than this one,” said an emotional Sorenson. “There is simply nothing worse than telling highly valued associates, people who are the very heart of this company that their roles are being impacted by events completely out of their control.”

On Wall Street, the bloodletting continued almost without interruption. After a brief respite on Thursday, stocks sank again on Friday. The Dow Jones industrial average closed at 19,173.98, down more than 913 points or 4.6 percent. Since reaching an all-time high on Feb. 12, the Dow lost 35 percent of its value.

“Get out, get out while you can before they shutter the whole darn United States. A stunning reversal of fortune for the best economy in history to the worst economy in history in not even two months. The fastest recession in history. With no one spending a dime, it will stay that way a long, long time,” Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist for MUFG.

For small business owners, there is palpable fear of bankruptcy.

Bryan DeHenau already has filed for bankruptcy once before, when the construction industry crashed amid the Great Recession. In the years since then, he’s built up a roofing business in hopes of developing a more recession-proof income stream.

Six weeks ago, he said, he had work “coming out the ying-yang.” Now business is down 50 percent and he worries about obtaining enough roof shingles for his remaining customers or dealing with a potential lockdown if Michigan follows the lead of other states.

“We’re just trying to manage day-to-day. It’s all you can do,” DeHenau said. “But if everybody is laid off, they aren’t going to be buying a roof.” –

Consumer companies led the slump in the S&P 500 as New York and London announced new restrictions meant to slow the disease’s spread and President Donald Trump said “non-essential” travel will be suspended across the U.S. border with Mexico. Tech stocks performed best as bottom feeders sought bargains. Gains in Asia and Europe cut the weekly drop for stocks worldwide to just under 10%.

The 10-year Treasury yield headed for its lowest closing level since Monday. The dollar weakened after vaulting more than 8% in the previous eight sessions. The pound, Australian dollar and South Korean won all surged as the Federal Reserve coordinated action with global central banks to beef up dollar liquidity swap line arrangements. WTI oil slumped. Gold rose.

“This is not a market that is going to all of a sudden heal itself,” Marvin Loh, senior global macro strategist at State Street Global Markets, said by phone.

Investors are weighing a faster pace of coronavirus infections against flickers of optimism that have followed extraordinary government actions, from plans for stimulus and cash handouts to nationalizing companies. Hedge funds, stock exchanges, banks and even brick-and-mortar businesses in the U.S. are lobbying Washington policymakers not to shut markets.

U.S. stock trading volumes surged to about 60% above the average for the time of day, a phenomenon known as quadruple witching caused by expiring options and futures contracts.

Even with stocks down, the turmoil across assets seems to be easing. Still, the World Health Organization said that the pace of infections is speeding up. Cases doubled to 200,000 in the 12 days through Thursday, but just one day later the tally already was almost halfway to 300,000.

“We are now starting to lean into risk,” Chad Morganlander, senior portfolio manager at Washington Crossing Advisors, told Bloomberg TV. “The tail of this is going to be potentially somewhat more extended than what the overall market thinks, so we’re not going to get back to business as usual for the next three months, but the policy backdrop across the globe will help soften the blow.”

These are the main moves in markets:

Stocks:

– The S&P 500 Index fell 1.4% at 12:19 p.m. New York time; the Nasdaq Composite slid 0.7%.

– The Stoxx Europe 600 Index rose 1.8%.

– The MSCI Asia Pacific Index surged 2.6%.

Currencies:

– The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index dipped 0.4%.

– The euro advanced 0.1% to $1.0698.

– The British pound climbed 2.2% to $1.1734.

– The Japanese yen slipped 0.5% to 111.3 per dollar.

Bonds:

– The yield on 10-year Treasuries dipped 18 basis points to 0.96%.

– Germany’s 10-year yield fell 14 basis points to -0.34%.

– Britain’s 10-year yield decreased 17 basis points to 0.54%.

Commodities:

– Gold gained 0.9% to $1,485.04 an ounce.

– West Texas Intermediate crude fell 8.1% to $23.17 a barrel.

The Bank of Thailand (BOT)’s MPC held a special meeting to assess the impact of the virus outbreak on the economic outlook and domestic financial markets.

The MPC viewed the fallout from the outbreak in the period ahead to be more severe than previously expected and the situation would take some time before returning to normal. This would severely affect the Thai economy. The committee also noted that the outbreak had resulted in concerns among global financial markets, affecting liquidity and the functioning of Thai financial markets despite the overall stability of the financial system.

They believed the rate cut would mitigate the impact on the economy and also reinforce fiscal measures already implemented and forthcoming.

The MPC viewed the policy rate cuts in the previous and Friday’s meetings would benefit the economy if financial institutions took active roles in addressing liquidity problems of borrowers, especially small and medium-sized enterprises and households, as well as accelerating debt restructuring to have noticeable and meaningful impact.

The committee urged the BOT to closely monitor each financial institution’s assistance to borrowers. Moreover, the BOT should ensure sufficient liquidity, as well as the proper functioning and stability of the financial markets.

The MPC is scheduled to have its regular meeting on March 25.

An exchange-traded fund that tracks the Nasdaq 100 Index, the Invesco QQQ Trust Series 1, ticker QQQ, has taken in $4.5 billion so far in March, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s most since 2001. The $78 billion fund rose as much as 2.8% Friday, though it remained lower by more than 12% this month.

Amid the fastest sell-off in history, bets on the FAANG stocks — Facebook, Amazon.com, Apple, Netflix and Google parent Alphabet Inc. — have resumed. The quintet has among the strongest balance sheets in corporate America, an attribute that has demarcated the sell-off’s relative winners from losers. Investors also anticipate the cohort will be able to benefit as consumers turn to its services for work or entertainment during heightened demands for people to stay at home.

The tech giants are also coveted because of their liquidity, growth prospects and outsize influence on the broader market. The five made up a record 30% of the Nasdaq 100 by weighting on Monday. Add Microsoft Corp. and the share tops 40%.

Nancy Tengler, chief investment officer of Laffer Tengler Investments, said she’s been buying tech stocks like Google and Facebook as she increasingly sees the market nearing its bottom.

“I’m cautiously optimistic that a few months from now we will see economic activity resume,” she said. “That’s why we’re starting to buy now. You don’t want to buy after the good news is out. We’re picking away.”

Short interest as a percentage of shares outstanding on QQQ — a rough indicator of bearish bets on the ETF — is currently 3.5%, according to data from IHS Markit Ltd. That’s down from a two-year high of 5.5% on March 2.

“I think tech stocks are a good place to dip your toes back into the water, that makes total sense to me,” said Bob Phillips, managing member of Spectrum Management Group. “It’s their ability to access cash at very favorable borrowing levels and their growth prospects because our economy is going to grow again, and tech will be key component of where that growth will come from.”

The S&P 500 headed for its first two-day advance since mid-February as the Federal Reserve coordinated action with global central banks to beef up dollar liquidity swap line arrangements. Trading was almost double the 30-day average for the time of day. Tech stocks rose as bottom feeders bet on a rebound. Markets gained in Asia and Europe, cutting the weekly drop for stocks worldwide to just under 10%.

The 10-year Treasury yield headed for its lowest closing level since Monday. The dollar weakened against its major peers after vaulting more than 8% in the previous eight sessions. The pound, Australian dollar and South Korean won all leaped versus the greenback. WTI oil slumped after Thursday’s surge.

Investors are weighing a faster pace of coronavirus infections against flickers of optimism that have followed extraordinary government actions, from plans for stimulus and cash handouts to nationalizing companies. Hedge funds, stock exchanges, banks and even brick-and-mortar businesses in the U.S. are lobbying Washington policy makers not to shut markets.

The turmoil across assets does seem to be easing, even after the World Health Organization said that the pace of infections is speeding up. Cases doubled to 200,000 in the 12 days through Thursday, but just one day later the tally already was almost halfway to 300,000.

“We are now starting to lean into risk,” Chad Morganlander, senior portfolio manager at Washington Crossing Advisors, told Bloomberg TV. “The tail of this is going to be potentially somewhat more extended than what the overall market thinks, so we’re not going to get back to business as usual for the next three months, but the policy backdrop across the globe will help soften the blow.”

These are the main moves in markets:

Stocks:

– The S&P 500 Index rose 1.3% at 10:34 a.m. New York time; the Nasdaq Composite added 2.3%.

– The Stoxx Europe 600 Index rose 3%.

– The MSCI Asia Pacific Index surged 3.1%.

Currencies:

– The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index dipped 1%.

– The euro advanced 0.4% to $1.0732.

– The British pound climbed 3.4% to $1.1877.

– The Japanese yen slipped 0.1% to 110.8 per dollar.

Bonds:

– The yield on 10-year Treasuries dipped 13 basis points to 1.01%.

– Germany’s 10-year yield fell 10 basis points to -0.31%.

– Britain’s 10-year yield decreased 17 basis points to 0.54%.

Commodities:

– Gold gained 1.7% to $1,496.28 an ounce.

– West Texas Intermediate crude fell 5.6% to $23.82 a barrel.

Those battles amid a unique pandemic this week forced political leaders and central bankers into action at a pace that puts even that of the 2008 financial crisis in the shade. Their economies are on course to post historic slumps in output over the coming weeks, a prospect that is panicking investors.

After a week of turbulence, markets showed flickers of optimism Friday. It’s a positive sign, but if investors, executives and the general public can’t be persuaded that there’s light at the end of the tunnel for the U.S. and Europe in the second half of this year, then they risk turning darker scenarios into self-fulfilling prophecies – and pushing the world into a deeper downturn and perhaps even a Depression.

Among monetary policy makers, the state of red-alert began on Sunday night with Jerome Powell chairing an unscheduled Federal Reserve meeting – the first of several that officials would have to convene and sign off in a hurry on new emergency moves.”Monetary policy decisions at midnight,” said Torsten Slok, Deutsche Bank AG’s chief economist, “tells you how serious they are about trying to stabilize things.”

Then on Monday, with stocks still sliding and volatility elevated despite the Fed cutting interest rates, Group of Seven chiefs leapt into the fray — concluding a rare teleconference with a pledge to do “whatever is necessary.”

Exactly what that may be, the world still can’t say for sure.As the week draws to an end, an unprecedented 31 central banks have slashed interest rates — and many of them have gone further and activated the crisis playbook, buying bonds, intervening in currency markets and setting up emergency loan programs for banks and companies. The aim: keep markets functioning and facilitate a recovery when life returns a normal.

—

What Bloomberg’s Economists Say:

“The rush to downgrade forecasts for the first half of the year makes sense. Optimism about the second half is more open to question. Getting to recovery will require swift delivery of a massive stimulus program, and – more important – an outbreak that comes obediently under control. Neither are even close to guaranteed.”

— Tom Orlik, Chief Economist

—

In under a week, the Fed has cut its key interest rate by 100 basis points to near zero, resurrected an emergency financing facility and set up a string of programs that make it a player in the markets for government bonds, mortgage-backed securities, commercial paper and mutual funds. That’s as well as its attempt to supply dollars.

For European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and colleagues, priorities were a bit different – including a spike in government-bond yields for countries like Italy, where budget deficits are about to explode. Meeting into the Frankfurt night on Thursday, they unveiled a 750 billion euro bond-buying program and declared there are “no limits” on what they would do to protect the euro.

Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda doubled a program of asset purchases and the Reserve Bank of Australia said it would join the QE club for the first time and begin targeting a yield of 0.25% for the three-year bond. It also cut its benchmark interest rate to that level.

Counterparts from South Korea and Poland to Ghana and Canada all cut rates, leaving Morgan Stanley’s measure of the world’s average interest rate close to zero — and less than half of its level of December.

The politicians in charge of budgets – earlier criticized for being slow to realize that their nations were as vulnerable to the pandemic as China – were finally hitting the accelerator too.

They needed to given central banks lack room to do much more and fiscal policy can move faster and be better targeted, helping to fill the widening hole in economic output. They can also afford to too given low borrowing costs and the theory it will save money later if it helps avoid a long recession.

Governments have now lined up a dizzying run of fiscal stimulus measures, already worth more than $3 trillion and rising fast, from tax cuts to new welfare programs and loan guarantees.

President Donald Trump acknowledged the need to “go big,” and is pushing a $1.3 trillion package that will include checks in the mail and bailouts in industries like airlines, where business has ground to a halt.

The details varied, but substantial programs were being rolled out in Paris and London – where Trump’s counterparts, Emmanuel Macron and Boris Johnson, were joining the U.S. president in adopting the language of wartime. German Chancellor Angela Merkel even abandoned a balanced-budget commitment.

The numbers say they’re right to.

“This is likely to be the biggest public sector mobilization in a single week — as a percentage of gross domestic product — since World War II,” said David Mann, chief economist for Standard Chartered Plc. “At least for the U.S. and Europe.”

And if the scale of policy plans evokes such historic comparisons, so does the juddering halt in commerce. JPMorgan Chase & Co. is telling clients to brace for a 40% slump in Chinese output in the first quarter, followed by 14% drop in the U.S. over the subsequent three months – figures not seen for at least a half-century.The full-year estimates don’t look as alarming, because the epidemic is expected to peak and then ebb. Still, JPMorgan’s economists expect world output to shrink 1.1% in 2020, worse than the 0.8% drop posted during the recession year of 2009, though their Wall Street counterparts are a bit more optimistic.

In Australia, which rode out the last crisis without slipping into recession, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now forecast the sharpest annual GDP contraction since the great depression of the 1920s.

Much will depend on the acquiescence of markets that repeatedly questioned or worked against rescue efforts.

As if economies hitting a wall wasn’t bad enough, traders were beset with other risks. A recently erupted oil-price war drove energy prices down. Work-from-home regimes were sapping liquidity, and giant price swings were forcing liquidations — creating the conditions for a vicious downward spiral.

The week’s first day on equity markets began badly – and ended worse, as Trump’s afternoon warning that virus disruption could last into summer sent the S&P 500 careening into a 12% decline, the worst since 1987. And the whipsaw effect has dominated every day since.

Bonds were scarcely less volatile. They tumbled when governments unveiled plans to spend vast amounts of cash – and rallied when central banks pledged to buy swaths of the resulting debt.

Credit markets were pricing in higher default risks, even as officials were trying to prevent a funding crunch by freeing up space on dealers’ balance sheets. The oil war ensured commodities kept sliding.The situation found ways to get worse. Foreign exchange markets came under strain amid an inexorable rise in demand for the dollar. Some central banks were forced to intervene – and the most powerful among them, the Fed, worked across borders to ensure flows of the world’s reserve currency.

If there’s doubt whether such a broad-based policy salvo will succeed, that’s because none of its components – chiefly, more spending and lower interest rates – amount to a vaccine against a deadly epidemic. Market stress will likely persist until the global rates of infection stabilize.

As the week wore on, there was a few encouraging signs. China, where 80,000 people have been infected, on Thursday reported no new domestic cases for the first time since the start of the crisis. Still, its markets sank.

There’s no parallel for this frenzied pace even in the crisis of 2008 –the benchmark for end-of-the-world sentiment among most people on the markets today. Several months separated that year’s Fed action and the launch of a rescue program for troubled assets. G-20 leaders didn’t really show common resolve until April 2009.

“The only real policy that can win the day against the virus is something that makes it safe for people to return to work,” said Wall Street strategist David Zervos. “Short of this, the virus will just keep winning and the policies will only work to minimize the bloodletting.”

Rosenberg discovered just what when he stepped into his daughter’s college dorm and saw her roommates on their beds, typing away on laptops. They barely used their desks because they said they were uncomfortable. An idea was born, and after crowdfunding about $500,000, Rosenberg in 2016 launched the Edge Desk, an adjustable pop-up workspace with cushioned seats that now sells for $400.Almost overnight, the pandemic has created a booming work-from-home economy, and Rosenberg’s business jumped eight-fold in the past few weeks.”It’s been crazy,” said Rosenberg, who has just one full-time employee besides himself. “We’re managing the best we can.”

“This is going to be a seismic shift.”

As the U.S., and much of Europe, settles into weeks, if not months, of remote work, capitalism is adapting. Rosenberg said he’s not just selling a lot more desks, but he’s received interest from dozens of potential overseas distributors in Asia and the Middle East. ABC’s “Shark Tank,” a reality-TV contest for entrepreneurs, even reached out, he said, and asked him to apply to be a contestant. The 55-year-old is passing because he wants to focus on his next goal: building a sales team.

“This is going to be a seismic shift,” said Rosenberg, who was quick to point out that his desk comes assembled and can be collapsed for storage under a bed. It’s easy to move around, he continued, and on many days he works from the backyard of his Deerfield, Illinois, home. “So many people are demanding that they want to work where they want to work.”According to Kate Lister, who has been analyzing and consulting companies on remote work for more than a decade, the current, forced work-from-home shift shouldn’t be underestimated. In the U.S., the evolution of telecommuting has been too slow and elitist, she says. It’s often only been a perk for executives and other high-value employees. The Great Recession did push firms to expand remote work to cut costs (think call centers). And over the past few years, more firms have rolled it out to recruit and retain talent in one of the tightest job markets on record, although unemployment is about to swell.

“This is going to be a seismic shift.”

Even with those incentives, only 7% of U.S. firms offer telecommuting and just 3.6% of American workers (5 million employees) spend at least half their labor hours at home, according to recent government data analyzed by Global Workplace Analytics, the consultancy Lister founded and runs. The growth of remote work has been plodding along at about 10% a year-until now when tens of millions of Americans are thrust into setting up home offices on the fly.

“This is the perfect storm,” Lister said. “And once the genie is out of the bottle, it’s not going back in.”

That’s precisely the bet Rousseau Kazi is making as co-founder and chief executive officer of Threads, a collaboration tool that employs topic forums like those found on Reddit to speed project work for remote workforces.

The Facebook Inc. veteran reckons that the pandemic has sped up the move home by as much as a decade. Threads, founded about three years ago and counting Silicon Valley stalwart Sequoia Capital as an investor, had been adding users slowly, but as its waitlist ballooned and demand surged, it decided to scrap a broader launch later this year and instead this week offered up a version to anyone for free through July 1.

“We decided we needed to help this,” said Kazi, who managed teams at Facebook working on projects ranging from mobile applications to search functions. “Our bet is the world is going to become more distributed.”

And the 28-year-old makes a compelling case for why that will happen. Shocks to the system like the virus often cause society to leapfrog. The sharing economy, spearheaded by the likes of Uber and Airbnb, was just getting started when the financial crisis hit. A few years later, society’s view about vacationing in a stranger’s home dramatically shifted. It’s now seen to many as a cheaper-and more fun-way to travel.

“This has taken a trend that’s already happening, just like the sharing economy, and bent the curve,” Kazi said.

What was once just the domain of tech firms is likely to become one of the next in-demand skill sets. Don’t be surprised if “distributed management” – a way to work together through online collaboration – starts popping up on many more LinkedIn bios. Expect an increasing number of companies to describe themselves as “fully distributed,” meaning everyone works remotely most of the time.

Global demand for collaboration tools will increase “exponentially” because of the outbreak, according to Wayne Kurtzman, research director for social, community and collaboration at research firm IDC. A big reason is that so many workers already use similar tools in their personal lives, so once they get the corporate version of video chat, instant messaging or forums, adoption will be quick and relatively seamless. Plus, there’s research showing that distributed teams are more productive, and happier. Kazi said one of his customers cut email traffic in half.

“A lot of the friction and time wasted is gone,” said Kurtzman, who has been involved in collaboration software for more than two decades. “That’s what a lot of companies will start learning.”

To make sure the information being shared remotely is safe, companies will have to spend more on data protection, according to Appsian. The cybersecurity firm expects hackers to be readying attacks because of the increased vulnerabilities created by so many more remote workers.

“Without a doubt, there are a lot of really happy bad guys,” said Greg Wendt, Appsian’s executive director of security.

Slack Technologies Inc., which offers a web-based chat platform, has seen a surge of interest and a massive outpouring of questions from new and existing users, said CEO Stewart Butterfield. Demand for Zoom Video Communications Inc. conferencing software has also jumped, with downloads doubling last week, according to data from Sensor Tower.

Research firm Needham said this week said Zoom is “an exceptional business poised to benefit from the accelerated shift towards work from home,” after initiating coverage with a buy rating on the shares and price target 30% above the stock’s most recent close. Coronavirus “will accelerate the pace of change.”

Meanwhile, back in Deerfield, about 30 miles north of Chicago, Rosenberg was up at 2 a.m. talking to his manufacturing partner in Vietnam. His mind is racing with ideas for where to expand next and new products, like a paintbrush holder that artists can clip onto the desk.

“We are prepared to grow exponentially,” Rosenberg said. “We’re really just getting started.”

As of 3.44pm, buying price of a gold bar stood at Bt23,100 per baht weight and selling price Bt23,200, while gold ornament was Bt22,679.36 per baht weight to buy with selling price at Bt23,700.

Prices increased from morning trade where a gold bar cost Bt22,700 to buy and Bt22,800 to sell, gold ornaments cost Bt22,285.20 to buy and Bt23,300 to sell.

As of 5.10pm, Gold contracts in COMEX futures to be delivered in April rose by US$30.70 or 2.08 per cent to $1,510 per ounce.

Cheered further by the rebounding crude oil price, the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) index closed at 1,127.24 for an increase of 83.05 points or 7.95 per cent from Thursday’s end of trading.

Transactions amounted to Bt93.035 billion, with an index high of 1,133.56 and a low of 1,070.05.

Analysts expected the index to rise on Friday to between 1,060 and 1,065 points before falling again because the number of Covid-19 infections and deaths are still rising, especially in Europe and the United States, suppressing the global economy.

But central banks and governments in the US, Europe and elsewhere have announced monetary and fiscal measures to relieve the virus’ impact, which is expected to relax short-term investment.

The price of crude oil price rose after Washington said it would purchase a sizeable amount for the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve, lending positive sentiment to energy stocks and the markets.

As of 5.10pm on Friday, global stocks were trending upward.

The crude price rose by US$1.95 per barrel or 7.73 per cent to $27.17, while gold climbed $30.70 or 2.08 per cent to $1,510 per ounce.

The stocks trading highest on the SET were CPALL, BAM, PTT, GULF, ADVANC, AOT, GPSC, PTTEP, SCC and CPF.

Elsewhere in Asia:

China’s Shanghai SE Composite Index closed at 2,745.62, up 43.49 points or 1.61 per cent.

Shenzhen’s SE Component Index closed at 10,150.12, up 130.27 or 1.3 per cent.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index closed at 22,805.07, up 1,095.94 or 5.05 per cent.

South Korea’s KOSPI Index closed at 1,566.15, up 108.51 or 7.44 per cent.

Taiwan’s TAIEX Index closed at 9,234.09, up 552.75 or 6.37 per cent.

Its merchant partners have also elevated safety guidelines in food preparation and packaging. Customers are advised to make payments via GrabPay to reduce the transmission risk.

“Grab has been closely monitoring the covid-19 situation and is prepared to enact necessary measures to promote safety standards for everyone involved,” said Tarin Thaniyavarn of Grab Thailand.

Contactless delivery is starting on Friday (March 20), and drivers will be wearing hygienic masks as they follow the customer’s directions via an in-app chat as to where to place their order. They’ll let the customer know when they arrive, place the food order where it’s wanted and wait for the customer to pick it up.

Both parties should maintain a two-metre distance.

If cashless payment isn’t possible, the customer should place the cash in an envelope and put it where the food order was placed.

Customers can be assured that every step of food preparation in all partner restaurants is safe and clean.