US RETAILERS CONTINUE BLEEDING; G7 URGES HELP FOR POOR NATIONS

Retailers are bleeding, with G-III Apparel Group closing all of its Wilsons Leather and G. H. Bass stores as part of a restructuring plan to keep the form afloat,  chairman and CEO Morris Goldfarb said Thursday (Friday, June 5, 2020 in Manila) that the company’s wholesale business, which includes the brands DKNY, Donna Karan, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger and Karl Lagerfeld, will continue to be the primary growth and profit engine for the company. G-III also reported that it moved to a loss in its fiscal first quarter, with sales falling 36.1%.

On the same day, Gap said its first-quarter revenue fell 43% to $2.1 billion. And it reported a quarterly loss of $932 million, or $2.51 per share. The average estimate of nine analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for a loss of 65 cents per share, the Associated Press (AP) reported on June 5.

Occupancy at US hotels fell 43% last week to 36.6%, but it was an improvement from the prior week’s occupancy level of 35.4%. The data, compiled by STR, indicates occupancy levels are slowly increasing week to week as more lockdown restrictions ease. Occupancy at U.S. hotels hit a low of 22% the week ending April 11.

Finance ministers of the Group of Seven major economies vowed support for low-income countries struggling with the coronavirus pandemic. The G7 finance ministers said in a statement that lenders also had responsibility and should “rise to the occasion.” They urged creditors to not lend on terms that involve assets unrelated to the projects the financing is meant for. The gathering, held remotely, also endorsed the suspension of repayments of bilateral debt for the poorest countries until the end of 2020.