Stocks close in the red despite Fed's rescue efforts: March 23, 2020

The CEO of toy giant Hasbro said things are slowly starting to get back to normal in China following the novel coronavirus outbreak. That's obviously good news since Hasbro makes a fair amount of its products in China.

Brian Goldner told CNBC Monday morning that it expects to be back at full production capacity in China by the end of this week. What's more, he said demand in China -- as well as the rest of the world -- is strong. That's especially the case for Play-Doh and other toys for young kids who have been largely stuck inside during the coronavirus pandemic.

Shares of Hasbro (HAS) surged more than 15% Monday on Goldner's comments, as investors bet that the company will report solid first-quarter sales in April.

But with so many people losing paychecks as a result of businesses around the nation shutting down, will parents really be able to spend money on toys right now?

For what it's worth, shares of Hasbro rival Mattel (MAT) and smaller toy maker Funko (FNKO) both plunged Monday.

The US economy is expected to contract and unemployment is expected to jump in the second quarter of the year.

"This is a planned temporary shutdown of the US economy. This is going to be, throttle back the US economy from what it usually is," said James Bullard, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, on CNN's "First Move."

The US will be missing around $2.5 trillion worth of second-quarter income because of that "throttling back" -- roughly half normal output.

“So that is what Congress is trying to bridge. That is the revenue that isn't there for businesses. That's the income that isn't there for households,” Bullard told CNN’s Julia Chatterley.

Unemployment insurance programs will help keep Americans whole during this period, Bullard added. He earlier told Bloomberg that the unemployment rate could jump to as high as 30%.

The point of the various stimulus programs -- which would better be called "insurance programs," said Bullard -- is to have the economy completely intact when we emerge from the coronavirus crisis.

The central banker also believes a strong upswing will happen following this crisis.

"If you assume we have to shelter in place during the second quarter, the third quarter would be a transition period [...] then the fourth quarter of this year could be the boom quarter and the first quarter of 2021 would be the boom time when everybody is up and running and you're rocking and rolling again," Bullard said.

Watch the interview here:

General Electric announced plans Monday to lay off about 2,600 employees in its jet engine division as the coronavirus crisis deals a crushing blow to the aerospace industry.

GE Aviation said it will reduce its total US workforce by about 10%.

The division, GE's largest by revenue, employed about 52,000 people around the world at the end of 2019. GE confirmed that about half of those employees are based in the United States.

GE (GE) signaled that overseas aviation jobs may also be cut.

The aviation industry is getting slammed by the pandemic, which has caused global air travel to ground to a near-halt. Airlines have suspended routes and grounded planes. 

GE Aviation added that there will be a temporary lack of work impacting about half of its US maintenance, repair and overhaul employees for 90 days.

The moves are part of GE's efforts to save about $500 million to $1 billion in the aviation division, which was once the company's strongest. GE Aviation had previously instituted a hiring freeze, canceled merit salary increase and slashed non-essential spending.

David Joyce, GE's vice chairman and CEO of GE Aviation, will forgo half his 2020 salary. GE CEO Larry Culp also announced plans to forgo his full 2020 salary.

Winnebago is temporarily suspending production of its famous RVs because of the coronavirus pandemic.

For now, the suspension will last until April 12. Winnebago said in a release it will pay its employees for the first two weeks of the shutdown.

Winnebago (WGO) shares fell 6% in early trading. The stock is down 60% for the year.

US stocks kicked off in the red on Monday, despite the Federal Reserve’s new significant new stimulus measures aimed at keeping the US economy functioning.

The Fed action had turned stock futures green in premarket trading.

The indexes bounced back from their initial lows in the first minutes of trading and the Nasdaq even briefly flipped back into positive territory.

The Federal Reserve's new slew of monetary stimulus measures has pushed stock futures higher -- and analysts are getting excited for a Fed that is willing to do whatever it takes.

The package of measures should help to ease financial conditions in the corporate bond market and provide a backstop to the assistance and loans that are expected to come out of Washington's stimulus package, said Michael Pearce, senior US economist at Capital Economics.

Boeing (BA) is suspending its dividend for the first time nearly 80 years.

The company, which paid $4.6 billion in dividends last year even as it dealt with mounting costs from the 737 Max crisis, said it has suspended the dividend as it tries to preserve cash. The company said paid a dividend on common stock every year since 1942.

Boeing is seeking a $60 billion in government loan guarantees for aerospace makers such as it self as it tries to weather the plunge in air traffic that is likely to force airlines to delay or cancel orders for new planes.

The company also said that it would continue to refrain from share repurchases. It suspended buybacks in April because of the grounding of the 737 Max and the halt in deliveries. And it said that CEO Dave Calhoun and Chairman Larry Kellner will forgo all pay until the end of the year. Calhoun, who began the job in January, was due to receive base pay of $1.4 million and bonuses that could have taken his total compensation package up to $28 million.

US stock futures were down by so much that they couldn't fall any further -- literally. They were at their maximum "limit down" just a few moments ago.

Then the Fed injected a boatload of stimulus into the US economy, and stock futures are bouncing higher.

The Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq are now all pointing at a modestly higher open. The Dow, which is now set to gain about 300 points this morning, had been pointing at another 1,000-point drop at the open.

Oil also reversed its course and is now trading 4% higher.

Papa John's (PZZA) is the latest US company looking for help fast. The pizza chain wants to hire 20,000 new employees for its restaurants for a variety of roles, including delivery.

The company said that in "most cases" applicants can be interviewed and start the same day.

Domino's (DPZ) announced last week it was hiring 10,000 employees as people shift their eating habits to takeout or delivery amid restrictions surrounding the growing coronavirus pandemic.