Here’s what you need to know at the end of the day.
(Want to get this newsletter in your inbox? Here’s the sign-up.) Good evening. Here’s the latest at the end of Friday. 1. The U.S. is seeing hints of optimism as the Omicron surge begins to ease. Jeffrey Zients, who heads President Biden’s coronavirus response team, said the nation was “moving toward a time when Covid won’t disrupt our daily lives, where Covid won’t be a constant crisis but something we protect against and treat.” His remarks came with the national coronavirus caseload on a slight downward trajectory, largely because of declines in major cities in the hard-hit Northeast. Still, the coronavirus caseload in the U.S. remains far higher than at any prior point in the pandemic. Hospitalizations have plateaued in some parts of the U.S., while a crisis continues in others. In other virus news: 2. The stock market closed out its worst week since late 2020 and is off to its worst start since 2016. Investors have been concerned that fast-rising interest rates might hurt corporate profits and dampen demand for riskier investments like stocks. A string of disappointing recent earnings reports from companies like Netflix, American Airlines and Goldman Sachs only made matters worse. The Federal Reserve’s withdrawal of support from the economy may also be cooling the markets. In other economic news, Intel will build a $20 billion semiconductor plant in Ohio, ramping up an effort to increase U.S. production of computer chips. President Biden is hoping to use the Intel announcement to build some momentum for a spending package that would invest billions of dollars in the semiconductor industry to rival China. 3. The U.S. and Russia scaled back their confrontational rhetoric over security in Eastern Europe and agreed to extend their negotiations. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, at a meeting in Geneva that the U.S. would provide written responses next week to Russia’s demands that the West unwind its military presence in Eastern Europe. They also left open the possibility of another conversation between President Biden and President Vladimir Putin. The conciliatory tone suggested that both sides were trying to keep tensions in check and give diplomacy time to play out as the U.S. hoped to forestall a Russian invasion of Ukraine. Still, Ukraine said on Friday that Russia was sending mercenaries into rebel-held territories in eastern Ukraine, raising fears of military escalation. 4. Saudi-led airstrikes in Yemen killed at least 70 people at a prison and knocked out the country’s internet, officials said.
