June 25 coronavirus news

At least 29 states are seeing new coronavirus cases increase compared with the prior week. That includes the nation's three most populous states: California, Texas and Florida.

Among those states, at least 13 are reporting a 50% increase or higher. Another 16 are reporting an increase of between 10% and 50% compared to the previous week.

There is only one state in the US right now that is reporting at least 50% decrease in new coronavirus cases: Connecticut.

Here's the full breakdown of where cases are trending across US states:

Now is the time to normalize the use of masks and practice social distancing to get us prepared for a possible second wave of Covid-19, said Dr. William Schaffner, professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University and a longtime adviser to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Schaffner added that all sectors of society should model this behavior: politicians, religious leaders and businesses.

"You have to make wearing masks a social norm. Every business has to have a sign outside their door that says, 'If you wish to patronize us, please come in with a mask. If you haven't got one, we'll give you one.' And then everybody who works in the business has to wear it. Religious leaders have to preach that to all faiths, all the time. We need chambers of commerce coming out; local political leaders; all harmonizing with that message to normalize that behavior in our society. And on occasion, you may indeed have to mandate it," Schaffner said.

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The International Monetary Fund has slashed its global economic forecasts for 2020, saying the coronavirus pandemic is causing a much steeper recession and a slower recovery than initially expected.

The organization said Wednesday that it thinks global GDP will contract by 4.9% this year, downgrading its estimate from April, when output was forecast to shrink by 3%.

That was already due to be the deepest slump since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The pandemic is causing an "unprecedented decline in global activity," according to the IMF. It said the global labor market has taken a "catastrophic" hit, movement outside the home remains depressed, companies have cut back on investment and consumer spending has dropped significantly.

Here is the IMF's world economic forecast by country for June:

Some key forecasts:

The outlook is slightly rosier than those provided by the World Bank and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which have recently forecast that global GDP would shrink by 5.2% and 6%, respectively, before rebounding in 2021.

But the IMF warned of a "higher-than-usual degree of uncertainty" around its forecast, which it said was based on a number of assumptions, including stable financial conditions.

White House Economic adviser Larry Kudlow, when asked about the increase in coronavirus cases across the country and its economic impact, said Thursday that “there will be some shutdowns in individual places or certain stores,” but that he believes the country as a whole will not shutdown again.

He said that while the US has seen an increase in cases nationally of “just a little bit,” multiple states have seen a decrease in cases. 

However, data shows, coronavirus cases continue to surge in the U.S. as some states are reporting record numbers, including the country's three most populous states.

Kudlow was also pleased the new jobless claims were down for the 12th straight week, and said he still believes the economy will have a strong V shaped recovery. 

Conditions in the US labor market are undoubtedly improving, but as CNN's business team noted this morning the road to recovery is long and littered with obstacles. 

Last week's new jobless claims brought the total claims filed since the mid-March to 47.3 million.

Kudlow said he believes the unemployment rate could fall below 10% by year end.

US stocks kicked off in the red on Thursday, adding onto losses from the prior session.

Wednesday had been the worst day for stocks in nearly two weeks following worries of rising Covid-19 infections, quarantine requirements for intra-US travel and proposed tariffs on European imports. 

Data from the Labor Department showed Friday that more people than expected – 1.5 million – filed for first-time jobless benefits last week. The weekly claims have declined for three months now but are still higher than they have ever been before the pandemic.

Here's how the markets opened today:

Macy’s announced a restructuring plan Thursday that will eliminate 3,900 corporate and management jobs as the coronavirus pandemic continues to hurt sales. 

The department store chain says it expects the layoffs will save the company about $630 million per year. The company is trying to cut costs as “the business recovers from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.”

Macy's will also reduce staffing across its stores, supply chain and customer support network. In February, Macy’s said it was cutting 2,000 jobs and planned to close 125 underperforming stores over the next 3 years.

Macy’s reports its first quarter earnings on July 1.

A new forecast from the American Automobile Association says Americans will take 700 million trips this summer, but that number is down nearly 15%, the first decline in more than a decade as the Covid-19 pandemic continues.

AAA booking trends show Americans are making travel plans, though cautiously and more spur of the moment, the forecast says.

With air and rail travel off much more significantly, travel by car is the favored alternative, accounting for 97% of the favored mode of transportation, the forecast shows.

AAA expects more long weekend trips than extended vacations.

Car trips will also see the smallest decrease in travel volume of just 3% year-over-year.  Without the pandemic, AAA would have been predicting more than 850 million trips, up from last year.

Gas prices are also expected to be about 15% lower than last year — $2.25/gallon.

 Here is a breakdown of the forecast by type of travel:

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo also said the state has now reached the lowest hospitalization rate since the pandemic started. 

Cuomo said he would announce the state's full coronavirus numbers later today, but told CNN’s Alisyn Camerota that there were 996 hospitalizations and 17 deaths across the state as of today.  

The governor also said that travelers will be fined if they violate the travel advisory issued by his state — along with New Jersey and Connecticut — that requires people arriving from states with high coronavirus rates to quarantine for 14 days.

“People, at the end of the day, they get it now. It took them too long to get it, but this country gets it now,” he added. 

Cuomo responded to criticism from political leaders such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who had mandated a 14-day quarantine for travelers from the New York area back in March.

“The people who played politics now are causing this nation great havoc. You're seeing it all across the country. You're seeing the deaths numbers going up. We'll lose tens of thousands more Americans. It's a real American tragedy that we're living through right now,” he said. 

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First-time claims for unemployment benefits have fallen in every report for the past 12 weeks. Still, the American jobs crisis is far from over: Another 1.5 million Americans filed initial jobless claims last week.

That's emblematic of how contradictory the current pandemic recession is. Conditions in the US labor market are undoubtedly improving, but the road to recovery is long and littered with obstacles.

Last week's new jobless claims brought the total claims filed since the mid-March to 47.3 million.

And that massive number doesn't include claims filed under the pandemic program that Congress created to provide benefits to more workers who typically aren't eligible for unemployment benefits, including the self-employed.

At least 728,000 people claimed first-time pandemic unemployment assistance, the Department of Labor said Thursday.

Continued regular jobless claims, which count people who have filed for unemployment benefits for at least two weeks in a row, stood at 19.5 million.